Chapter 40: Strength (Part 1)

It has been hours since Dyne and Walter entered the forest and since Kais, Sona and the dragon ambushed Barry and Ro.

Sneha: "The sun's on our heads now. Are we still going to keep standing here?"

The Aural asks the human beside her. However, instead of answering, that human just smiles.

Sneha: "Stop acting cool and answer already."

Ethan took a long breath and looked at her.

Ethan: "Three days are left for the dragon, as well as this island."

Sneha: "Yeah, that's true."

Ethan: "Unfortunately for the dragon, the upcoming two days are going to be much shorter than he would want them too."

Sneha furrowed her eyebrows.

Sneha: "What exactly do you mean?"

Ethan: "Just that time will start to pass faster than it usually does."

Sneha: "Which, if happens, doesn't make any sense."

Ethan: "Yeah, I am not sure why it would happen either."

Sneha: "But you know that it's going to happen?"

Ethan: "Yeah."

She sighs.

Sneha: "So, I am assuming you know that because you can see something from your Eyes of Truth?"

Ethan: "Right on the money."

He turns to the forest as he says that.

Ethan: "I can see energy variations in the atmosphere. They seem to be triggered by fluctuations on time and space axis."

Sneha: "Isn't that really bad though?"

Ethan: "They are minor fluctuations and won't cause too much problem directly but you can expect some trouble."

While sighing, she says in sarcastic tone,

Sneha: "Just what we needed!"

Sneha also turns to look at the forest.

Sneha: "So, what's the plan?"

Ethan: "We should go in."

Sneha: "You sure about that?"

She says with folded arms as if to ask – "you don't want to spend one or two more days standing here?"

Ethan: "Yeah okay, so I have been taking up a lot of time trying to think things over but you don't need to start shooting me with sarcasm."

Sneha: "So you say."

She says while looking at the forest.

Sneha: "But anyway, now that we are going in after all, we should be ready for anything that might come our way."

Ethan nods.

Ethan: "Yeah, chances are high we will come across some rather troublesome things in the forest."

He takes a glance at her. Her face shows her resolve. He doesn't even need to ask to know that she is completely ready to fight anyone at any time no matter how difficult that fight may be.

Ethan: "Okay then,"

He turns back to look at the forest.

Ethan: "Time to go in."

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Dragon: "So what now?"

The dragon asks while looking at me. Right now, I, the dragon and Sona are standing at one side a little distance away from each other. We are facing the direction that will lead us to the tomb. Barry and Ro are standing about 10 meters away and opposite to us. They are facing the direction that leads to the pond.

Kais: "Well,"

I sigh.

Kais: "What is your current goal, Barry?"

I ask while looking at him. Nothing will come out of trying to stay silent like we have been for a while.

Barry: "Are you calm enough to be asking that?"

Kais: "Why?"

Barry: "Nothing, I just thought you'd be more shocked after hearing all that."

To be honest, I too am surprised that I am able to accept it just like that. Then again, my mind does seem to be working very rationally ever since I came to this island. But I don't care right now.

Kais: "Well, let's just say I knew deep down something like that was your reason for doing what you did."

That's not a lie, not completely anyway.

Barry: "Did you really knew it? Or did you just wanted to believe that?"

Kais: "Who knows? It doesn't matter how it was anyway."

He looks down.

Barry: "I suppose you are not wrong."

Ro: "Before you answer his question Barry, I just want to tell you that I now understand why you were trying to believe in Ethan. All the things that I immediately assumed Ethan would be responsible of, in truth, can be doings of Ozyllus or Abyss's ghosts. There is, to be honest, no definite reason to suspect him so much if I move my personal feeling about having been killed by him aside."

Barry looks at him in unexpected surprise and then looks at the other three.

Barry: "That brings a question to my mind. What do you all think about Ethan Kales?"

Sona: "I don't know much about him but I do know that he is cunning. I would rather not be friend or foe with someone like him."

Dragon: "As for me, I am curious about how this island would get destroyed when I die and how he would have been able to predict that something like that would happen. But yes, I would also prefer not to associate with him much."

Having heard the two's answers, I can't help but wonder what his goal is.

Kais: "There's just so much I don't know about him that I can't say what my opinion on him is."

Barry: "Well, in case you didn't know, his goal, or at least what he says to be his goal, is to bring you into this war."

That's strange. Bringing me into this war – is a goal that does make sense in certain situations, but isn't it pretty unclear? Bring me into this war from which side exactly?

Barry: "I am assuming you are wondering which side he wants you to join."

So he's still able to predict my thoughts, is he?

Kais: "Yeah."

Barry: "Unfortunately, I don't know that."

Sona: "Then fortunately, I have a guess."

Sona unexpectedly says so.

Kais: "You do? And what is that guess?"

Sona: "The third side."

Sona gives a pretty confusing answer.

Dragon: "Huh!?"

Ro: "What?!"

Which obviously leads to confused expressions, but somehow,

Barry: "Did you meant …?"

Barry seems to have understood what she meant.

Sona: "I meant exactly what I said."

Barry tries to ask to clarify but Sona cuts in.

Sona: "He acts like he is okay with you joining either side but in truth; I think he wants you to join neither one."

None of us interrupt her.

Sona: "He wants you to bring a stop to this war. That has been his goal from the start."

I can't help but feel like she's right with her guess.

Sona: "At least, that's what my guess is."

Ro: "Could you explain the reasoning behind that guess?"

He asks in a rather serious manner. Sona seems to notice that and seems to be answering him sincerely.

Sona: "Well,"

She takes a glance at all four of us.

Sona: "He told me too that his goal is to bring Kais in this war."

I thought so. It didn't seem to surprise her when Barry said that to be his goal.

Sona: "On the beach, Sneha and he were awake before I regained consciousness. And at that time, everyone else was unconscious too. If his goal was to just bring you into the war, they could have just gone in the forest after you."

Kais: "But how would that help him?"

Sona: "He could have tried to convince you to join one side or the other. He could have acted like the bad guy and claimed to be from one of the two sides so you gain motivation to join the other. He could have also used the fact that Barry and Ro want you to join the war and tried to push you into that direction. But he just waited there."

Barry: "That is strange. But still, there's the possibility he just wanted to see if I and Ro can convince him and he would not have to work at all."

That would be a pretty lazy approach but it's not out of question when I think about it.

Sona: "Logically possible but I just can't see someone who would we willing to go up against people like us with no offensive abilities of his own to be someone who would adopt a lazy and risky approach like that."

That's true. Things may not go his way if he leaves everything to others and I am sure he is well aware of it. Also, an energy-saving strategy just doesn't suit him to be honest.

Sona: "That's why I think his goal is not as vague as he makes it sound."

That's a fair point. But how did she come to the guess 'me joining the third side'?

Sona: "After that, when I reached the pond, I met a fish, who has psychic abilities, and has an archive of past records stored into her brain."

Ro: "Did you just say the fish is a psychic?"

Barry sighs.

Barry: "Is that a result of Ozyllus' experiments?"

He asks while looking at the dragon and the dragon nods. Seeing that, Sona continued

Sona: "So, that fish told me that the archive in her brain can only be accessed by spiritual energy. While we didn't get to access it, I am pretty sure she was telling the truth."

Dragon: "Yeah, I can confirm that part is completely true."

I can confirm it too. She wasn't lying about that.

Sona: "So, that got me thinking – what relation do the two energies have with each other?"

Barry: "The connection between different forms of energies, huh?"

Kais: "You know something about it too?"

And were you hiding that from us too?

Barry: "I didn't know back then. In fact, only when I fought a really powerful ghost did I realize some connection between two forms can exist."

I see. I suppose this is something that most people wouldn't know if he didn't know it for so long.

Dragon: "So what did you realize?"

Sona: "I realized that the two energies are, in a way, opposites."

Wait, they are opposites. I don't get how she would come on that conclusion.

Sona: "It's when the fish mentioned that they needed a particular concentration of spiritual energy to even out the psychic energy that I started thinking of this possibility."

She did say that.

Sona: "The term 'even out' meant that the characteristics of psychic energy would be neutralized by the spiritual energy. It only makes sense in case they oppose each other."

Okay, that makes sense.

Sona: "This relation probably exists with other forms of energies as well."

Barry: "It does."

He nods as he says that.

Sona: "Ethan's Eyes of Truth allows him to easily see these relations. So he would find out any relations like these after seeing them in action once. So he should know about how these relations work in the upcoming war as well."

Kais: "By that, I suppose you mean how the various sides affect each other in theory?"

She nods. Seeing that, Barry puts a hand on his chin as he says,

Barry: "Well, from what I know, the ghost and vampiric energies oppose each other. Psychic is also opposed by ghost energy but not as much as it is by spirit energy. Dragons use a mix of various energies so it depends on which ability they use."

Sona: "I suspected it would be something like that. All the three energies, psychic, ghost and dragons, naturally oppose vampires. Think what would happen if this war does happen?"

Barry: "At this point, it's more like when it happens rather than if it happens, but anyway, I think the vampires will get wiped out."

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