Dyne: "Is that so!?"
He tilts his head with curiosity.
Dyne: "You are telling me that powerless person who holds the Eyes of Truth is the one who inspired you two to go down this foolish path?"
His words were not for the sake of mocking the dragon, Barry, their intentions or Ethan. They were just words of plain surprise.
Dragon: "Yeah, even if it sounds stupid or hypocritical that people like us who had searched for more and more power to oppose Ozyllus were inspired to take our first steps by someone with no real fighting prowess, it is the truth."
The dragon affirmed to his claim. He knew full well that Ethan Kales was responsible for the changes that had happened within him as well as with Barry. He would not withhold from giving him the credit he deserves.
Ro: "I … just can't stand that bastard."
Ro admitted his annoyance at Ethan.
Ro: "True enough he's sharp and has done some rather beneficial things for us even if indirectly, but I doubt he really meant to help anyone."
Ro looked at the ground as he recalled the moment of his death.
Dragon: "And why is that?"
Ro: "Tch!"
The reason for that was simply because he was unable to accept his killer as someone that noble. Or, what will he, the person who was killed by him, be?
Ro: "I can't say."
If his killer was a noble person, then doesn't that make him someone truly corrupt?
Dyne: "Well, that's understandable."
Dyne agreed with Ro even though he had no personal reason to do so. His instincts just told him that Ethan Kales is someone he should not trust.
Dyne: "He looks to me like a conniving meddler in the affairs of this war."
That was his judgment of Ethan's character, and truth be told, he was not too far off.
Dragon: "I won't deny that."
Therefore, the dragon accepted that evaluation. But, he continued,
Dragon: "However, he is someone whose meddling might as well bring something good out of this war."
The dragon had seen a war about a thousand years ago. He knew full well how much tragedy something like that brings. So, looking at this rapidly approaching war, he could do nothing but feel despair for those who would be involved in it. However, the existence of this conniving meddler might as well turn things around. Obviously, a lot of blood will still be spilled but maybe not as much as the last time. That is his hope. And he assured himself that Barry too had this hope. Whether he really did or not, the dragon wouldn't really know.
Walter: "His meddling will bring something good out of this war, huh?"
Walter repeated the dragon's words with a curious gaze and folded arms.
Walter: "I don't know if that will be the case or not, but I can definitely see some change coming about because of him."
Dyne: "That so?"
Walter: "What about you?"
Seeing the rather unimpressed-at-Ethan face Dyne was making, Walter turned to him to ask.
Walter: "You did offer him to join us in this war. Why did you do that? Don't you have any expectations of him as well?"
Dyne sighed and leaned against a tree.
Dyne: "I do have some expectations of him. That said though, it's only natural to have some expectations of a man who has Eyes of Truth."
Dyne's words were, in no way, wrong.
Dyne: "But there was someone with those eyes in the last war too, wasn't there? He couldn't do all that much to be honest even though he was a genius."
The person he was talking about had been the one who had created as well as mastered the use of the Eyes of Truth. His genius was undisputed throughout history.
Dyne: "If someone like him couldn't do it, how can an ordinary person like Ethan make a difference?"
He had raised his point and although there were many things to say to argue him over his point, they didn't do it. It was because they knew full well that there's no way to really prove any point here, and even if there was, it would bear no real fruit. The results of this war are what will truly answer this question and till then, no argument has much credibility.
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Sagax: "So you know?"
Sona: "Yeah, I do."
In the darkness she was swallowed in, she could see two other people unconscious. They were, the nameless little girl and Kais. However, a few moments earlier, the girl had disappeared. Sona didn't know what exactly happened, but she understood that the silhouette in front of her is somehow responsible.
Sagax: "So then, do you also know who I am?"
Sona: "Based on your eyes and you being in this black hole that was formed in the tomb, I have a guess."
Her guess was right and Sagax just nodded to say that. He didn't even need to ask her about her guess as it was pretty obvious for someone who actually knows somewhat about Sagax's story that this silhouette is him.
Sona: "That all, however, gives me no clue as to what exactly is happening here."
Sagax: "It's simple. You have been sucked in a dimension that was created for my soul to reside in. The gates to this dimension could be opened from inside the tomb and I assume one of you must have opened it."
Sona: "That's all fine and all but what I want to know is what exactly happened to the girl?"
Hearing that, Sagax narrowed his hollow eyes and said,
Sagax: "Well, in simple terms, I gave her a choice."
Sona: "A choice?"
Sona looked at him doubtfully as he continued.
Sagax: "Yes, a choice between death alongside the dragon or a longer life without him?"
As soon as she heard that, she knew the answer.
Sona: "She chose the former?"
Sagax: "She did."
To that girl whose whole world was this island, the dragon was her only family. So, dying alongside him was a no-brainer in her book. Sona, having spent some time with her, had come to understand that.
Sona: "Tch!"
She was, regardless, irritated to hear that.
Sona: "So, has she already died?"
Sagax: "Hmm … I don't know."
Sona: "You don't."
Her eyes saw him as someone suspicious and so she wouldn't just readily believe him if he said he doesn't know but,
Sagax: "I put a condition on her that she would die when she finds fulfillment in her life. I imagined that would be when the dragon had died, but I don't exactly know."
He told her the truth without any deceptions and she, well versed in contracts and conditions, could certainly not deny that what he said made sense.
Sona: "What if she doesn't find fulfillment even after his death? Wouldn't that be very bad for her?"
Sagax: "All that means is that there was something else she desired that she didn't understand when she agreed to dying. She would just have to find that something else."
Sona was about as sure as she could be that the girl would die when the dragon dies, maybe even before that, but she had learned to be skeptical and so couldn't deny the possibility that there could be something else that may stop her from dying.
That, however, was and was not the case.
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The girl offered her gratitude to Sneha. Sneha did not understand why. The girl told her she was glad to have met her. Sneha didn't know why. And to that confused woman,
Girl: "If there is any regret that I have, it's that I probably won't be remembered by anyone."
She scratched her cheek as a slight blush came to her cheeks.
Sneha: "What are you saying? Why wouldn't we remember you?"
Girl: "Tell me, would you be able to remember a little girl you don't know the name of?"
Sneha flinched as she saw her point.
Girl: "I don't have a name and so there's no real way to remember me."
Sneha: "But,"
Girl: "I had, deep down, understood the value of names ever since I have had feelings. The proof is that I named all the animals on the island."
She smiled in self-reflection, something a girl of the age her appearance shows, shouldn't be very good at.
Girl: "But, because the dragon didn't give me one, I didn't understand the importance of my own name, at least not consciously."
Now that she had come to accept all her humanity that Ozyllus had given her, she knows the importance of her own name, the one thing she doesn't have.
Girl: "I wish I had one name people could remember me by."
The dragon himself is not someone who ever understood the value of names. He didn't mind others having one but never bothered to remember a name that people gave him. So it is only natural that she didn't really understand their importance. But Ozyllus, someone who did understand it, made her realize their importance. So now she feels regret.
Sneha: "I … I see."
Sneha understood her regret and knew, to some extent, what it feels like. Sneha herself had always had a name but there had come a time when, after everyone at the shrine died in the disaster caused by Barry, she had lost any place to belong. She had lost a part of her identity and so she understands, to an extent, the pain of someone who had no identity and felt a sense of loss for it.
Sneha: "In that case,"
Therefore, the one thing that Sneha could do, other than feeling bad for her, would be …
Sneha: "I will remember you as Lilly."
… giving her a name. And the name she gave the girl was the name of her friend, the one this girl reminded her most of.
Lilly: "Huh!?"
She was flabbergasted at what Sneha had just said.
Sneha: "That will be the name that I would make sure everyone who knows you remembers you by. And so,"
She said as the memories of her friend, Lilly, flashed before her eyes,
Sneha: "You can rest in peace knowing that you would be remembered."
Hearing that, a teardrop fell off from Lilly's eyes only to be multiplied very soon.
Lilly: "Ms. Sneha, thank you!"
It was said from the bottom of her heart and Sneha well understood that. Her eyes had started to tear up as well.
After a few moments, having her one and only regret diminished before her eyes, the girl would die and the energy she had been made of will disperse. As Ethan had planned, her believing that the island would get destroyed would, after the remaining time has passed, destroy the island.
And that will be the end of her story.
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Sona: "So what now?"
She looked at the silhouette in front of her with suspicious eyes as she asked,
Sona: "Now that you are here, it should mean that you have some business with me."
Sagax: "To be completely honest, I would have to come to you even if I had nothing to say to you. After all, you did enter this place and I am the only one who knows how to send you back."
Sona: "Hmm."
She was skeptical but not unnecessarily suspicious. She did keep in mind the possibility that he might be lying, but decided to go along with it.
Sagax: "But that being said and done, yes, I do have something to talk to you about."
Sagax's voice showed a rather plain tone, almost as if he was trying to suppress all the emotions he had.
Sona: "So what is it?"
Understanding that well, Sona decided that it would be best to focus on the conversation and not get distracted.
Sagax: "Well, simply put, I was curious about what exactly you are going to do."
Sona: "Huh?"
According to Sona, her intentions are pretty simple and it shouldn't be hard for anyone to figure out what she is planning to do. But since he had asked, it was only natural to state it clearly.
Sona: "I am going to do all in my power to bring doom upon Ozyllus and his plans."
Sagax's hollow emptiness in place of eyes allowed him to hide all the emotions swirling up inside him as he said,
Sagax: "I am afraid … you didn't understand my question."
And so, by using that empty darkness, he decided to ask his question.
Sagax: "I know what you intend to do. I want to know how you'll do it. What exactly will you do to fulfill that goal of yours?"
It was a pretty understandable question. Even Sona herself had no real plan for going about this goal. One reason for that can be said to be the fact that she hadn't gotten much time to think about it, but even if she had, she wasn't confident that she would really come up with a very good answer.
Sagax: "Surely you must know what you are going to do is exponentially difficult."
Sona: "Yeah, I know that very well."
She had prepared for over a decade to get her revenge on the dragon. The amount of effort it took her to form a contract with a spirit like Death and many other spirits she had was nothing to laugh about, not to mention giving them enough experience with battles and tactics, among other things.
And even after all that, she lost to the dragon. The game turned around so suddenly that she couldn't even deploy any other spirit to assist Death. As a result, the spirits who may have been able to detect the special ability of the dragon and henceforth stopped Death in due time remained uninvolved in the battle as the main attack unit got wiped out in a second.
That was the result of a decade worth of training against the dragon. Needless to say, in order to destroy a plan Ozyllus of all people had worked for about 1000 years would prove to be impossible.
Sagax: "So, how exactly are you going to go about it? And don't worry; I won't sell your plans to Ozyllus."
Sona: "Actually, even if you do sell me out, it wouldn't really matter."
Sagax: "Oh?"
Sona: "I mean, think about it. In these 1000 years of time, there is no way he could not have considered every angle in which his plan could be interrupted."
Sagax: "Yeah, I expect him to have done that at the very least."
Sona: "So anything someone like me cooks up isn't going to be enough."
Sagax stared at her with curiosity, among other countless emotions inside him.
Sona: "That's right; it just won't be possible for me to outwit him, not alone anyway."
Her plan was simple, and perhaps the most feasible.
Sona: "Trying to think of some ingenious counter-plan will only backfire at me. So, all I can do is relying on others for help."
Her approach was mature, to say the least. Needless to say, the chances of winning were still very slim even if all the people she had in mind would be willing to help.
Sagax: "I see."
Sagax nodded. At the very least, the silhouette looked to be nodding. Sona couldn't be sure of it until his next words.
Sagax: "That's a good move, possibly the best move you can make at this point."
Even Sagax, the man named as the wisest in the kingdom of Ozyllus could not have outwitted someone like Ozyllus when he has so much experience and knowledge on his side. So, at the end, even he would have gone with the same approach.
Sona: "We need to collect information that we don't know and simultaneously get stronger. That, I guess, is the long and short of it."
Sagax: "Yes, that's fine. But you seem to already be assuming that people will join you on this quest."
Sona: "That they will."
She wasn't bluffing. She knew people would join her. She knew there are many who would be willing to give their life to bring Ozyllus down. And there's of course the confirmed support from Kais.
Sona: "I am not an idiot. I know he has created many tragedies like mine, maybe even worse than mine. And I can bet those whose lives he destroyed will be willing to take revenge."
Sagax: "Revenge, huh?
Sagax knew the weight of those words all too well. And so, he could only frown on hearing them.
Sagax: "I suppose that is what's driving you. So the first thing you'd use to motivate others like you is 'revenge' as well."
Sona: "And?"
She sensed a fleeting rejection in his voice that he had tried to hide throughout their conversation.
Sona: "Do you have any objections to that?"
Despite her words, her tone gave no threatening vibes. If Sagax had eyes, he would have closed them and then sighed.
Sagax: "No, I do not."
But that would still be the answer he had given. There was nothing else he could say and nothing else he deserved to say.
Sagax: "Whatever drives a person, it's their choice. Whether it is revenge or hope; it's not my place to judge."
He gave his honest opinion.
Sagax: "Now that the question I had is out of the way, do you have any questions for me?"
Sona: "I do."
Seeing the former owner of Eyes of Truth willing to answer questions, she just had to ask him.
Sona: "Do you know where the psychic library is?"
Sagax: "You don't know where it is!?"
Seeing the location of one of the most popular places of his time being unknown to the Spirit-user in front of him, he could only frown.
Sona: "As far as common knowledge among us goes – nobody knows where it is."
Sagax was surprised. That surprise could only mean that he hadn't met anyone of the current time before who could tell him about these things. It would also mean that he has not talked to Ozyllus or Abyss. While keeping the possibility of him lying in the back of her mind, she derived this conclusion – Sagax's soul has been in this place for a time long enough that nothing related to developments in the current world is known to him.
Sagax: "I see."
After a pause because of the surprise, he regained composure and said,
Sagax: "Then, I suppose I can tell you where it was in the past. Hopefully, that would help."
Sona: "Why would you tell me this?"
Sagax: "It's simply because I too want to stop Ozyllus."
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