Chapter 53: Resolve (Part 2)

Sagax: "Well, go on, my successor. Ask your questions."

The ghost of Sagax says while seating himself over the edges of the empty coffin.

Ethan: "Hah!"

He takes a deep breath, and then lets it go. He has gathered all his thoughts and finally knows what the best question to ask is.

Ethan: "Tell me, how do we defeat Ozyllus?"

Taken aback by the unexpected question, Sagax widens his eyes, the eyes that were hollow.

Sagax: "You expect me to have an answer to that?"

Sagax's whole body, or its ghostly form at least, starts shaking, with anger.

Sagax: "If I knew how to do it, he would have already been stopped."

He sits back up as the anger keeps rising within his mind.

Sagax: "What the hell even is the meaning of such a question!?"

His voice, having grown coarse, and anger boiled further than the turning-point, he asks while his body shakes as if he'd kill someone.

Ethan: "The meaning of that question? It's simple."

Ethan, however, continues without so much as a tinge of worry,

Ethan: "It's to tell you how powerless you are."

Sagax: "Ha!?"

Sagax is left unable to understand those words by himself, and so Ethan continues,

Ethan: "It's to let you know … that the fact that you can't stop Ozyllus means nothing."

Ethan had heard what Sona had talked to Sagax about. He could tell from that conversation what Sagax really thought of the four of them taking 'the third side' in this war.

Ethan: "It's so I can say it to your face that your incompetence, doesn't mean we'll fail too."

And so Ethan needed to break that belief of his predecessor. He needs to break the belief that his friend can't be defeated.

Ethan: "Ozyllus will lose, alright? And we'll make it happen."

As he hears all this, Sagax is left bereft of words. How wouldn't he be? This man who is completely ordinary aside from the eyes that Sagax too had, says that he'll be able to stop Ozyllus, something Sagax tried too, but never could?

Sagax: "You … don't mock me!"

He was angry before, he is furious now.

Sagax: "YOU THINK IT'LL BE THAT EASY!? YOU THINK I DIDN'T TRY TO DO THE SAME!? YOU THINK YOU'LL BE ABLE TO PULL OFF SOMETHING LIKE THAT, SOMETHING THAT I SPENT HALF MY LIFE AT AND COULDN'T ACCOMPLISH!?"

Ethan: "No."

His answer is clear though. He never said he'll be able to stop Ozyllus.

Ethan: "I can't stop him."

He's powerless too. How can he stop him?

Ethan: "WE will stop him."

Sagax: "What!?"

Baffled by the response, Sagax can only frown.

Ethan: "Kais, Sona, Sneha and me. We are four people. We can cover for each other's weaknesses, and we can stop him."

Ethan says in a voice that had no room for uncertainty, seeing which,

Sagax: "How can you of all people, the one who has Eyes of Truth, be so foolishly optimistic?"

Sagax just can't wrap his head around it. How can this man be so certain that they'll win at the end?

Ethan: "Hmm!"

What comes as a response though, is first a smile, and then,

Ethan: "Because I'm a human being."

The answer.

Ethan: "Ask yourself an important question."

He says as he stares at the empty coffin.

Ethan: "Why is Ozyllus god? Why is Abyss devil?"

There's just one simple reason for it.

Ethan: "It's because we, humans, believe it."

And so,

Ethan: "If we stop believing it, their empires will fall."

Sagax just stares at the man in pure … horror.

Ethan: "We humans are the only reason 'god' or 'devil' even have a place in this universe. We are the ones who gave them that place."

The horror that Sagax feels is justified, after seeing the despair-filled eyes of the man known as Ethan Kales.

Ethan: "And since we gave them that place, we can take it away too."

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Jin, the mole-spirit, manipulates the vines so they wrap around Dyne's legs and immediately use the opportunity created by that surprise to tie up his hands too.

Sona: "Now!"

Sona says as the Aural beside her, who had used these few seconds to charge up aura in her hands, dashes forth and releases it all in a punch to Dyne's gut, sending him flying at the trees that surround the clearing.

Dyne: "GAAHHH!!!"

Ghosts can still feel pain, which is a great advantage because it will slow him down. However, Spectre Dyne is not our main target.

Walter: "That was a slick move."

He says, not wary at all of the obvious fact that he is our next target.

Sona: "Oh, it was just a warm-up to be honest."

Sona says as a particular unnamed rabbit-like spirit dashes forth with full-speed at the psychic clad in black. However,

Walter: "Too slow!"

He calls the spirit running at half the speed of sound slow as he easily punches it away, which, wasn't unexpected.

Kais: "You are the one who's slow."

I say as I make the ground beneath Walter's feet shake. The fact that he stayed in one place so he could get a good hit on the rabbit-like spirit made him late to react to this advanced application of psychokinesis, called geokinesis.

Walter: "Oh shit!"

He says with a face that has finally shown a bit of anxiety, not to the fact that the ground is falling apart, but to the fact that his feet are unstable and so, he is unable to move away from the attack of the vampire-child-spirit, Sagzear, that was coming from behind him.

The blow lands on Walter's face and he is thrown towards the tomb barely avoiding crashing into the structure.

On the other hand, our Aural friend seems to be a good match-up for leader of the Spectres. According to her own estimation that she gave us when we were in the tomb, she is probably weaker than Dyne but, not by much. She said if we gave her an opening to land a hit first, she will gain enough high-ground to be able to take him down.

Well, we're betting on her doing that as we can't offer any support aside from Jin, the mole-spirit. It really would take both me and Sona to take care of the opponent in front of us, who after getting hit by a punch that would blow a person's head off, stands up and casually rubs on the dirt that his clothes have gotten on them.

Sona: "Tsk!"

She clicks her tongue. I know how she feels. This guy is clearly mocking both of us.

Sona: "Well, it'd be your undoing, Walter."

Walter: "Somehow, I really doubt that."

Walter says without even looking at us.

Walter: "I mean, seriously you had the element of surprise and this was all you could do. Maybe bringing you people on our side isn't even worth it."

Hah! Now you are going overboard, asshole!

The part of the tomb that was behind Walter then heats up and blasts off, because of a little something we call pyrokinesis.

Walter: "What!?"

Kais: "Who said our attack was over?"

I say mockingly as Walter finds it difficult to maintain his footing when everything behind him keeps hitting him again and again with the essence of an extremely hot pile of magma.

Sona: "We don't care if you are the strongest in the world or not, we are not planning on losing."

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Sagax stands in shock and horror as he looks at Ethan for many seconds, before finally gulping and saying, in a much calmer voice than he had moments ago,

Sagax: "You think I never tried to convince people that he's not god? You think I never tried to tell them that Abyss isn't the devil?"

He says with eyes that show his despair at the complete loss he is at.

Sagax: "I did. Hear me? I did."

If he had a physical body, maybe tears would be welling up in his eyes right now.

Sagax: "But even I, someone who was renowned as the wisest man on the planet, was completely ignored."

He tightens his grips.

Sagax: "No one. Absolutely no one listened to me."

Seeing and hearing the despair in Sagax, Ethan gives no reaction. He had already seen this coming.

Ethan: "Here's the thing, Sagax. The reason why they didn't listen to you isn't because you failed in convincing them, it's because you never truly tried to begin with."

Sagax: "What!?"

He says in disbelief.

Ethan: "Somewhere deep inside, you had the sentiment of wanting your friend, Ozyllus, to win and his enemy, Abyss, to not. That sentiment held you back."

Ethan had once made a vow to never look away from reality. No matter how cruel that reality maybe, he made a vow that he'll face it head-on. Sagax wasn't completely the same.

Ethan: "You convinced yourself that you tried everything in your power to stop the war and so you kept mourning those who died in that war as if you had any right to."

And Ethan, needed, to, make, that, known.

Ethan: "But you didn't. You had no right to act as if you are a tragic hero, when you never truly tried to stop that bloodshed in the first place."

He needed to make that known, to the one who knew it the best.

Ethan: "You never were and never will be a hero."

As the words that struck Sagax's heart came out like they were the most obvious things in the world, Ethan gives no reaction … at all.

Ethan: "You are just an ordinary man, whose sentiments make him even weaker than me."

Ethan finally gives a reaction. He closes his eyes, opens them again and turns back saying,

Ethan: "And since you are weaker than me, you are allowed to leave your burdens to those who are stronger. They may be able to do what you couldn't."

Ethan Kales walks away without waiting for any reply, leaving his predecessor with the words that could fill in the gap, the gap that was remaining for him to be fulfilled … and rest in peace, at last.

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