Dyne: "Hah!"
Dyne relaxes his muscles for a moment as he breathes a sigh before stiffening up again, but this time with a goal.
Dyne: "You are right, Ethan, I really can't understand you and your resolve. Still, if my duty commands it, I am willing to support as well as to oppose anyone."
Ethan: "And … what does that mean in the current context?"
Dyne: "Ha! I thought figuring out things like that was your speciality."
In a straight voice unfitting for the sarcastic words, Dyne says so.
Dyne: "I have a friend, you know."
And then, he begins his short tale - a tale he wishes for the man in front of him to understand.
Dyne: "I have a friend who is unafraid of the God and the Devil, but he was afraid of your benefactor."
Ethan's eyes widen with astonishment.
Dyne: "Yes, I checked. Your benefactor, the one who prolonged your life years ago, I checked and found out who that man was."
Dyne says those words without any drama in his voice but the black smoke starts churning on the other side.
Ethan: "Benefactor? Oh, please! The only reason he did anything for me was to turn me into a weapon for him."
Dyne: "Well, it seems to me that it worked."
Ethan: "What!?"
A grim mockery of Ethan makes him lose his cool - something Gabriel and Abgere are not used to seeing.
Dyne: "You are doing what he wants to do - oppose The Dragon Alliance."
Mentions the Spectre with the same mocking tone.
Ethan: "I am also opposing HIM and his side."
Ethan says, trying to keep himself from bursting in anger.
Dyne: "Really? When exactly have any of your actions caused any harm to them?"
Ethan: "..."
Dyne: "You may say that you are opposing both sides but truth be told, you have only ever done things that ended up weakening The Dragon Alliance, making his job easier."
Gabriel: "..."
Abgere: "..."
Dyne: "So, Ethan Kales, are you sure your actions are your own and not his? Are you sure you are making your own decisions?"
The fire ignites but the black smoke it leaves only makes the world dimmer.
Dyne: "How much of you is he? How little of him are you?"
And this dimmer world grows uglier and uglier with each passing moment.
Dyne: "Can you really save the world?"
Ethan: "No."
A word leaves his mouth, denying everything and yet nothing.
Ethan: "I can't save the world. I am not the one who has what it takes to save the world. I can't even save one little kid, much less the entire world."
And he admits it right then and there.
Whether it was the oath to never lie to himself or the obligation to answer Dyne's words or something else, it makes him answer his words.
Ethan: "But, you know who can."
And it makes him go a step further, the black smoke getting even darker with those words.
Dyne: "No, I don't."
Yet, it does not change anything.
Dyne: "I am told he is special and can change the course of the war but I have no idea what or how or why. So, no, I don't know if he can or not either."
Ethan understands why an artificial Ghost like him will not understand, he knows why someone like him will never understand.
But, even so,
Ethan: "If you want to question it, then question it. But, when the time comes, you'll see for yourself."
The smoke has engulfed the world in its grasp. Nothing is visible anymore. No one is visible anymore. Humanity has been lost.
Dyne: "... I see."
But, even in this world, the haunting face of the devil shines its malice upon those trapped in the smoke.
Dyne: "Then, let's get back to business, shall we?"
Dyne suggests, asking for the devil's child to come back to the topic.
Dyne: "I no longer care why Abgere was following us but I want to make a deal with him."
Abgere steps back as the Spectre casually looks in his direction.
Dyne: "We have business with the Phoenix so, give up on trying to kill him."
He suggests with cold eyes, a still stature and an unnerving calmness. But, even in the face of that, there's something Abgere would never accept.
Abgere: "There's no way I'd agree to that. No way in hell!"
Dyne: "..."
Gabriel: "Hah!"
Sighs the Hellfire who has only majorly listened so far.
Gabriel: "I never thought I'd say this but I am with Abgere on this one."
Surprising everyone but Ethan, Gabriel says so.
Gabriel: "I can't let that bastard live much longer either, and certainly not for the 'business' you people have with him."
The black smoke shows faces within itself. These faces long for the past.
And, seeing them come up, seeing them rushing to their past, to the world long gone and which they don't even fully comprehend, the silence starts to break.
Ethan: "You were right, Spectre Dyne. He might be controlling my every action. But, I definitely am not the only one he is controlling."
Dyne: "..."
Ethan: "You said your friend met him? When that friend told you about it, did your thoughts and actions not significantly start to change from before?"
Dyne: "Ah …"
Ethan: "But, in any case, the point is that you coming here might be something he wanted to happen, or it could just as easily not be anything of that magnitude."
Dyne: "Y-you mean-"
Ethan: "I mean that everything could be going just as he wanted, or maybe nothing could be going the way he wanted."
So, if it's uncertain which ringmaster controls the ring how much, there's nothing one can accomplish by fretting over it.
Ethan: "Therefore, I will continue to do what I think is right without worrying about him and his actions, for the time being."
Backing away a few steps, bringing back the smirk Dyne has known him for, Ethan says,
Ethan: "And what I think is right is stopping you from meeting the Phoenix, effectively halting The Dragon Alliance's progress and giving the Vampire Kingdom the chance to show up and attack you when you are this distracted, giving us the chance to weaken them as well in return."
Dyne: "You little-"
Ethan: "Yes, that is what I would do. I would let these allies of mine that generally never listen to me do what they want - which currently seems to be stopping you. And I will wait, wait for the rest of the world to show up - so I can take them down."
And so, Ethan Kales turns around and starts walking away like nothing happening there matters.
Gabriel and Abgere look at him, they look at each other and then they look at the Spectres. Even knowing that they are being used though, they can't just suddenly decide to let the Spectres go to the Phoenix.
Both the men know far too well that the only way they even stand a chance against Reid Vezalius Rosevelt is if they don't let him get any support. And, unaware that he already has gotten some support from the leader of the Ghost Nation himself, it seems to them that stopping the Spectres is the most important thing to do at the moment.
So,
Dyne: "You fools!���
Another battle begins.
*******************************
Laurie: "U … ugh … ugh!"
Dragging her body towards a tree so she can pull herself up with its help, Laurie Brown continues to make inaudible but very angry threats at Sneha.
Sneha: "..."
Sneha, in turn, just merely stands at some distance waiting for her opponent to get back on her feet.
It's not overconfidence though, and it certainly isn't mockery either.
The reason why she doesn't attack while her opponent is vulnerable is simply that that goes against the code of Aurals, at least the code of the school of Aurals she belonged to.
Laurie: "U … aah … ugh!"
Blood spews from the Hellfire's mouth and all the broken parts of her body burn. Trying to endure all of it though, she continues to drag herself towards the tree.
But,
Laurie: "he … ugh!"
As soon as she grasps the tree with her misplaced fingers, the tree starts to fall.
It turns out the thing she had hoped would help her up was itself just holding on by sheer luck and now that it has gotten a little push, the balance of this broken tree is gone.
Sneha: "How unfortunate for you!"
The Aural comments, still waiting and doing nothing about her opponent.
Her opponent though takes it as a mockery of her.
She takes it to mean that the Aural thinks defeating her would be so easy that she doesn't even need to capitalize the chance she has.
So,
Laurie: "Ugh … due!"
She tries to scream as she makes the ground shake just like she had done before the battle in the hopes that the Aural would lose her balance because of the overly uncaring stature she seems to have taken.
However, it doesn't work.
Not only does the Aural not lose balance and stay where she is without a problem, but the Hellfire herself starts finding it difficult to hold on to her place.
Sneha: "At least heal yourself first."
Suggests her opponents, which she takes as even more mockery.
So, she drags herself to the next tree she could see. She drags herself just like before but this time faster, or rather, more rushed, with her wounds getting worse and worse.
And then, as soon as she reaches the tree, she holds onto it to pull herself up, only to find that this tree is the same as before.
Laurie: "Aagh!"
Irritation and a desperate need for vendetta take over her as she sees the tree falling and she holds onto the broken trunk, not caring that her hands are being ripped apart by the sharper edges, and pulls herself up as much as she could.
Unfortunately for her, all she manages to do is put her back to the trunk and no more than that.
Laurie: "..."
Sneha: "..."
The Aural has clearly done some heavy damage on her.
And, for every single moment that the Aural kept standing there as an onlooker, the damage could have been more.
So, it's obvious that the Hellfire is only still alive because the Aural has allowed her to live.
Laurie: "Aaaagh!"
And it's humiliating, to say the least.
To the Hellfire who has been favoured in every aspect of her life but never to the extent that she is spoiled, to the Hellfire who has been genuinely good at everything she tried to do but did earn most of her achievements by her work and not just the talent, to the Hellfire who worked as hard as she could to become as powerful as she is, this is humiliating as hell.
Sneha: "Seriously?"
The Aural asks as she sees her opponent trying to throw a fireball with her Pyrokinesis at her.
The fireball is big enough to destroy her leg but,
Sneha: "If you really want to fight,"
The Aural extinguishes the fire with the impact on air from a flick of her finger, making the attack null.
Sneha: "heal yourself first."
And she says so casually.
The Hellfire realizes that she is right, she realizes that she needs healing, but she won't do it.
She won't do it because it'd be humiliating to follow the opponent's advice.
Why would she do what someone else says, especially what her opponent says, when all her life she had gotten results all by herself?
She won't.
She will fight without healing, without listening to her opponent.
*******************************
Sona: "Well … that's … I don't know what to say."
I don't blame you, Sona, I don't know what to say either, though, I may be impressed by just the results and you by more than that.
Sona: "When did you learn to heal so well anyway? As far as I know, your healing abilities weren't this good back on the island."
She asks as she rubs her one hand over the other, probably to try and feel it as the other was not attached to her body till a moment ago,
Kais: "I guess I have been practising."
That's a lie.
The truth is, what I performed on myself to heal my broken legs as well as reattach her arm - it wasn't healing - it was something else, something more sinister.
And I realized how to do it when a particular 'God' tried to mess with a particular system back on the island.
Sona: "And well …"
She trails off as her eyes fall on the mess on the ground. The word 'mess' might be too cute to describe it though.
It's a bloody sight that would make a normal person puke just by looking at it. I and Sona obviously are not normal people.
But, even so, it still makes both of us pretty uncomfortable because - I made this sight.
Brutally killing Ross Green would have been one thing but to have created this sight of guts and intestines and bones and bile - there is something wrong with me.
I have suspected it before but seeing this sight confirms the fact that I have a screw loose. And it's really, really loose.
Sona: "Ha … oh well, I guess it just happened."
No, Sona, it did not 'just happen' and you know it better than I do. But still, if you think we should side-step the issue for now and meet back up with the others, I am fine with that.
But, I know now without a shred a doubt - I am an inhumane monster.
*******************************
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