Ethan: "So let me get this straight."He says as he stares at Barry.
Ethan: "You are telling me this Spectre called Dyne, who is in command of the army of the ghosts, might be stronger than you."
Barry: "Yeah."
Ethan: "And you are saying you know him too?"
He asks while turning towards Sneha. She nods and says,
Sneha: "Yes, and I have seen his powers to a certain extent. From what I have seen of him, it wouldn"t have been enough to defeat me or Barry, but I know he was holding back a lot."
Ethan: "Hmm."
Ro: "What"s wrong? You seem quite bothered by it. Does your plan collapse because of this?"
Hearing Ro ask the question with a smile, Ethan answers with a smile.
Ethan: "No … no, my plan can never collapse."
Ro: "Aren"t you being a little overconfident?"
Ethan: "No, I"m not. It"s literally impossible for my plan to fail."
Barry: "Oh? And why is that?"
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It"s because there is no plan. Ethan answers honestly in his mind, only in his mind.
Ethan: "Well, why would I tell you?"
He never had any plans. All he had was a goal – to involve Kais in the war that"s about to begin between The Dragon Alliance and The Vampire Kingdom. He never spent his time thinking how he would do it, because at the end of the day, it"s not realistically possible for him to come up with a foolproof plan, especially when the information he has is so limited.
It"s also impossible to come up with a plan for every situation because there can be thousands upon thousands of things that can happen that he wouldn"t have been able to predict. Which is why, he wouldn"t even bother with making plans beforehand.
After a brief stare down, Barry sighs signaling he is not planning to try to probe any further at the moment.
Ethan: "Well, I didn"t expect a tactical retreat."
Deciding to not keep asking the same question again and again when you know the answer would not come – is the only logical way to go about this – is what Barry thinks as he dismisses Ethan"s lines with,
Barry: "What tactical retreat? It"s only tactical if I gain something by not retreating too."
Sneha: "Can"t deny that."
Ethan: "Yeah, yeah."
He says while getting up from the rock he was sitting on,
Ethan: "Well, I think we were talking about how some of the best of every field are here. One of the best psychics is here, one of the best Aurals is, one of the best spirit-users is, etc. What do you think?"
Barry: "I think it"s too much of a coincidence."
Sneha: "Well, duh."
She says in an exhausted tone. This exhaustion is probably due to the complexity of the situation rather than physical exhaustion, thinks Ethan.
Barry: "No need to start mocking me, you know."
He sighs while saying so, and then continues,
Barry: "Well first of all, I didn"t bring up Dyne without a reason you know."
Ethan becomes curious on hearing that. Dyne is someone Ethan knows nothing about. So, he needs to.
Ethan: "And what is that reason you speak of?"
Barry: "Well, since we are from opposing factions, we have fought each other before. And when I fought him was when I first found out, the secrets of the ghosts."
Ro: "Secrets?"
Barry: "Just to be clear, I am referring to the faction of Ghost Nation, not all ghosts in general. And I am talking about the reason why they have been able to hold their own against the vampires for so long."
Sneha: "You are talking about their army?"
Barry nods. Ethan raises his hands and says,
Ethan: "A little clarification, please?"
With a short sigh, Sneha says,
Sneha: "Well, due to political problems, the Ghost Nation has become the weakest faction of all when it comes to numbers. Yet they are capable of warding off any threats. You know why that is?"
Ethan: "From what you guys have been saying, it"s because of their army."
Sneha: "Yeah, they are low on numbers; and not just by a hundred or so, the number of soldiers in their army amounts to only a quarter of Vermillion"s."
Ro: "It"s that low?"
Barry nods.
Ethan: "I am so glad I am not the only ignorant one here."
Ro feels discomfort on being in the same position as Ethan but he doesn"t say anything.
Barry: "Anyway, the leader of that army is Dyne. He is someone I may lose to when it comes to sheer power and he is no slob in the strategy department either."
Ethan: "So basically, they have got a very strong army with a very impressive leader for them to follow."
Sneha: "Yeah, that"s the short version of it."
Ethan: "Hmm …"
Ethan sighs and looks up at the sky, which had turned dark with no stars being visible. He looks at it while he thinks about the things he has just heard. Apparently, Barry does the same and then Sneha and Ro as well.
Ethan: "Have you ever heard the saying "all humans are equal"."
The other three look at Ethan in surprise. Something they didn"t expect him to say had come out of his mouth. Barry tries to ask why"s he is mentioning that when,
Ethan: "What a cheesy bunch of nonsense, right?"
Barry: "Uh!?"
Ethan: "What?"
He turns to Barry as he continues,
Ethan: "Don"t tell me you think this saying makes any sense?"
Barry: "No, that"s not the case."
Ethan narrows his eyes as he notices a hint of a smile on Barry"s lips.
Ethan: "Well, anyway,"
He turns his gaze towards the forest,
Ethan: "That girl isn"t watching us anymore. That dragon probably called her back when he came to know I had noticed him."
Sneha: "You mean when you basically announced that to everyone, right?"
Ethan: "Right."
Sneha had asked in a sarcastic tone but Ethan didn"t seem to care.
Ethan: "That aside, I think I have an idea of what Barry was trying to say earlier."
Barry: "You do, huh?"
Barry looks at Ethan with a calm and calculating gaze while Ethan continues to look at the forest.
Ethan: "Yeah, when you said that you didn"t bring up Dyne without a reason, the reason you were talking about is this – since he is so powerful, the ghosts would want to utilize his prowess in the most dangerous of situations."
Barry nods, so Ethan continues,
Ethan: "Being that this island is such an important piece of history and all, when an event as big as this island getting destroyed happens, the Ghost Nation would want to make sure the disturbance in the power balance this event causes does not affect them too much."
Ro: "So are you telling me they would send someone here from their side to make sure of that?"
Barry: "Yeah, that"s what I think."
Ethan: "And since they may need to fight you when they come here, the person who will be sent here will probably be Dyne."
Barry nods.
Sneha: "a.s.suming they know that this island is going to be destroyed, that can happen. But does that answer the question this whole conversation started with?"
Ethan: "No, it doesn"t."
The question still remains – why is every person on the island of a different origin of power?
Ro: "If I am remembering correctly, Barry didn"t say what the secrets of the ghosts that he found out were."
Barry: "Yeah, that."
Ethan: "Well, there"s just so many things that keep distracting us, aren"t there? Well, what were those secrets?"
Barry stays silent for a while as he ponders on how to answer while the other three eagerly await his next words. After having thought it over in his mind once, he finally speaks,
Barry: "Well, let"s put it like this – the same type of energy composition that makes up a ghost"s body makes up a demon"s body."
Ethan: "Now demons are involved?"
Sneha: "Believe it or not, demons are always involved."
She says half-sarcastically while looking at Ethan.
Barry: "Yeah, but I am talking about a real demon here."
Sneha: "Yeah, I know. And I know that they have the same structure as well. There are lots of theories floating around over how demons and ghosts can be the same."
Barry: "Yeah, well, it seems like that"s actually not untrue."
A grim look starts surfacing on his face as he says so.
Ro: "I am little lost here."
Barry: "To put it simply, do you know what the highest form of a ghost is called?"
Ro: "Highest form?"
Barry nods and continues,
Barry: "On reaching the highest stage of power, if the ghost is, for the lack of a better term, good, then they become an angel. If the ghost is evil, they become a demon."
Ro looks at Barry in surprise for a moment but immediately regains composure.
Ro: "I see."
He gulps while he thinks of the theories in his head. He then says,
Ro: "I was planning on asking you later, but what is a Spectre?"
Barry: "Uh? Oh yeah, you wouldn"t know. You only recently found out about ghosts in the first place."
Barry stands up as he says,
Barry: "Spectres are artificially created ghosts made to kill vampires. They are weapons designed specifically for the current war."
Ro: "I … see. If that"s case, then they are creating ghosts who can …"
He goes silent. So,
Ethan: "become demons while still being under their control."
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