Chapter 25: The Continuing Deceptions (Part 1)

Sneha: "If the dragon is trying to do something like that, we need to stop wasting time."

She says as she looks at Ethan with a face of panic, but sees him only smiling like usual.

Ethan: "Well, don't worry. I knew he wasn't really here since the start. If there was a need to go after him, I would have told you as soon as you woke up."

He says in a casual manner. Barry looks at him with narrowed, suspicious eyes.

Ethan: "What?"

Barry: "I don't understand how this is not a cause of concern for you."

Ethan: "Well, do I have any need to tell you? I don't think I do."

Barry sighs.

Barry: "Yeah, that's fair."

Sneha: "But what exactly do you mean?"

Ethan: "Hey now, don't get violent, I'll tell you, okay?"

He says as he sees Sneha glaring at him with hostile intent while clenching her fists. A punch from an Aural could potentially knock him unconscious and that's a thing he can't be okay with at this moment.

Ethan: "The dragon is trying to deceive us and also has sent that little girl watch us so he could safely get a head start in catching up to Kais."

Sneha: "Do you have some proof of this exactly being his reason?"

Ethan: "Yeah, I do."

Sneha: "And what is it?"

Ethan: "The fact that the girl is spying on us right now."

Sneha: "Huh!?"

Barry: "Huh!?"

Sneha and Barry remain speechless for a moment before the both of them sigh.

Barry: "So she is hearing all of this, right?"

Ethan: "Yeah."

Sneha: "So now he knows his bluff is up. What will he do next?"

She says turning her attention to Ethan as he tries to think for a moment.

Ethan: "Well, for whatever reason, he wants to get to Kais before any of us do so I assume he'd be doing just that, maybe with a little faster pace."

He looks at Barry asking for confirmation on his reasoning.

Barry: "I can't really think of any reason why he'd need to get to Kais. In fact, he'd probably need to send you to him."

There is a job he is bound to that Barry knows about. And in order to do that job, he'd need to break Kais' mind. He'd need to stay true to Ozyllus' orders and let the man with Eyes of Truth clash with him. But for some reason, he's not doing that.

Ethan: "Whatever the case maybe be,"

He sighs.

Ethan: "he only has four days left to live. Actually, since it's almost night-time; three and a half days left to live."

Barry: "Yeah, about that – there was a prophecy or something you did that the island would be destroyed when he dies. What is that?"

Barry asks with his hands folded. Ethan has no reason to not answer the question – other than that he would be giving valuable information to an enemy.

Ethan: "Well, let's see. I wouldn't really call it a prophecy, but a cold calculation."

Ethan says in a serious tone which is rare for him, to say the least.

Sneha: "Oh?"

Sneha asks as she narrows his eyes.

Ethan: "Something wrong?"

Sneha: "You say it is a cold calculation, but is that all it is?"

Both men look at her curiously.

Sneha: "If it is a cold calculation, then just how did you 'calculate' it?"

Ethan smiles as he sees the suspicious look on her face.

Ethan: "Well, I would say gathering the information needed to 'calculate' it was very hard. But I guess 'calculating' it wasn't."

Sneha: "And that's your answer?"

Ethan: "Yeah, it is."

Barry: "Okay, I'm lost."

Ethan: "Aren't you someone I shouldn't give any detrimental information to?"

Ethan says as his eyes turn towards Barry. Barry smiles as he asks,

Barry: "So you are telling me this information is detrimental to you? Well, that's something."

Ethan bursts out laughing as he hears that.

Barry: "What's wrong now?"

Ethan: "Nothing, nothing at all. I was just … thinking … you guys are really fun to talk to."

Sneha and Barry glance at each other both asking the same question, "what twisted sort of fun is that?"

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Dragon: "Well, he called my bluff, huh? But I would expect at least that much from that Ethan Kales. "

The dragon says as he leans by a tree to rest his body. He had sent out the little girl controlling her to spy on them as soon as he got a little away from the beach. Now he is almost at the half-way-point between the tomb and the beach.

Dragon: "Since Sona left that place a while ago and didn't pass through here till now, that probably means she turned to a different direction for whatever reason."

And due to her taking a different direction, the dragon has no idea that she met Kais and that the both of them had actually known each other from their childhood.

Dragon: "Either way, I think she should be able to summon any spirit she wants right now. But I doubt she would have made another contract with anything as powerful as Death."

Having two of those ridiculously powerful spirits would be to her detriment. They would only try to compete with each other rather than trying to fulfill the role she gives them.

Dragon: "Yeah, two spirits on that level is not something ordinary humans can control."

By ordinary humans, he means all humans. There is no one in the world that is so powerful that the dragon would consider them special. Maybe this is because he ends up comparing all of them to Ozyllus and they all end up lacking in one way or another in that comparison. But regardless, there is no one who would be able to handle two high-class spirits like Death at the same time.

Dragon: "So now the only thing that's left for me to do is to see that she is not able to escape."

If she escapes from the island, she will be able to form a contract with another spirit. And seeing how she wants to kill him within the short time he has left to live, she might end up doing the same thing she did last time. It's not that any spirit would be capable of killing the dragon but it will be an annoyance if she keeps bringing spirits to attack him.

Dragon: "Well, if I am correct, because she is a spirit-user, she should be capable of leaving the island by a means no other type of person would be able to use."

In which case, since the dragon also knows what that means is,

Dragon: "What I need to do is to first of all; block that path before she gets a chance to use it."

And so, deciding on how he would proceed, this dragon whose actions don't make sense to anyone else on the island takes his next step.

Dragon: "And I also need to let that kid come to know about everything I've been hiding so far."

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Kais: "I … see. So when you said the man who ruled over this island, you meant –"

Fish: "Yeah, I meant Ozyllus"

She says with an annoyed voice asking as is asking, 'wasn't that obvious?'

Kais: "I-I see. If that's case, then this pond in itself wouldn't just be a mere pond either."

Supernatural energies work much like air. They need to be constantly recycled by a process similar to respiration. So, in order for the fish to keep harnessing psychic energy, the pond needed to keep recycling that energy. This is necessary because while there's a lot of psychic energy on the island, this fish won't be able to consume it from air. She will need it to be present within water.

Fish: "Well, duh."

I sigh. She is being a little irritating to be honest but I need to put up with it.

Kais: "So, exactly how does this pond keep recycling the psychic energy?"

The golden fish stays silent for a while making me anxious over what she may say next. And then, as if to mock all my worries,

Fish: "I don't know."

Kais: "Huh?"

Fish: "I said I don't know. I can't know every single thing you know."

Kais: "You are telling me you have been here for a thousand years and you still don't know how your pond works."

Fish: "Yeah, so what? I am not some genius in how these things work."

Kais: "Right, sorry, forgive me."

I forgot you are just a fish after all.

Fish: "Hey, I don't like the expression you are making right now. Stop pitying me."

It says in a violent tone.

Kais: "Yeah well, all that aside,"

Fish: "What do you mean 'aside'? Do you know how much older I am to you? You need to start respecting me, kid."

I try to act like I didn't hear any of that, partly to annoy her back for earlier and partly because there is a more important question in my mind right now.

Kais: "You said you are an archive, right?"

The fish didn't respond immediately. She really is pissed that I didn't pay her words any mind, isn't she? But finally,

Fish: "Listen – just because I am an archive doesn't mean I know everything that is stored in my brain."

She seems to have understood what I was getting at, but

Kais: "That kinda sounds illogical."

Fish: "What? There's nothing illogical about that. Does a librarian have all the books in the library in his mind?"

Kais: "Some really good ones do actually."

Fish: "Tch!"

Actually, I have no idea if that's the case or not, but I just wanted to annoy her a little more.

Kais: "Anyway, so you are telling me that the knowledge stored in your brain can be accessed to find things out but you yourself don't know all of it."

Fish: "Exactly!"

She is sounding really annoyed. I shouldn't tread any further on this path or 'negotiations' may break down.

Kais: "Well, so can you tell me how I can access that information."

-Because that is exactly why I came here in the first place.

I figured that if Barry wants me to not remember about my demonic side coming out on the island and Ozyllus also tried to not let me remember that he invaded my consciousness, then there is surely something in my own memory that can cause them harm.

That being the case, why exactly would they be so worried about me learning/remembering something about the demonic side, it should be beneficial to them. Anybody should be able to understand that I would want to keep that side at bay myself and so it would only benefit them if I were to learn about it. After all, none of them want my demonic side to take over so why would they try to not push me in the direction where they have better chances of their wishes being granted.

The only explanation I can think of is that after learning something about that demon, I may become inclined to let it out. And regardless of whether I do so or not, I need to know what that piece of information is.

Since going in the tomb once again would be leaving things to chance as there's no guarantee if I'll learn anything or not, the only other place I could try to check was this inconsistency in the story – the pond. And that brought me here.

Fish: "Well, if you want to access that information, you will need to access it using spiritual energy."

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