Chapter 33: Negotiations (Part 2)

Dyne states his objective. Hearing that, Ethan and Sneha stand half-surprised and also half-surprised.

Ethan: "Well now, that's something."

Firstly, surprised that he actually wants to kill Barry, and then surprised that he would just say it out loud.

Sneha: "You sure you want us to know about it."

Dyne: "Well, it depends."

He says as he looks at the two with a tone indicating he is smiling beneath his mask.

Dyne: "Now that you do know about it, what do you plan to do? Will you get in our way?"

Ethan: "If we do?"

He asks with a smirk, needless to say, a fake smirk.

Dyne: "Well, that would be quite a bit of problem and I don't want any nuisances in my way, so …"

He purposefully trails off as his intentions become clear by the formation of a huge mass of energy on his hands.

Dyne: "Of course, if you have no intentions of getting in our way, then we don't have any reasons to hide the truth from you when you ask for it. We aren't like those vampires after all."

He says while keeping his hands still with the mass of energy in his hands turning into a ball of energy with black shades.

Dyne: "So then, which one is it?"

Ethan, as someone whose eyes could look clearly at the aura surrounding people, knows that Dyne is serious about his threat, which is why …

Ethan: "Well, neither."

Dyne: "Huh?"

Dyne makes a stupid expression as he doesn't understand what Ethan meant by his denial of both options. Fortunately for him, that stupid expression won't be visible to anyone from underneath that helm.

Ethan: "Barry is doing something that may end up fulfilling my goal. I need you to wait till he's done. Kill him after that."

Staying silent as he looks at Ethan with suspicious eyes, Dyne feels a presence at his shoulder.

Dyne: "Um … something wrong, Walter?"

Dyne asks while glancing at the man in black garments standing beside him.

Walter: "First of all, I guess I should introduce myself to you two."

He says as he steps forward while looking Ethan and Sneha in the eyes with a calm and serious expression. He says in a soft but audibly loud and pleasant voice,

Walter: "My name is Walter Schmidt. I am an ally of the Ghost Nation and have come here to assist Spectre Dyne on his mission."

Taken aback by the formal introduction, the two glance at each other.

Ethan: "Right, nice to meet you."

He says while trying to compose himself.

Sneha: "Yeah, same thing here."

She says as she notices the uncomfortable smile on Ethan's face.

Walter: "Right, so about what you were previously saying,"

He dismisses all the uneasiness by bringing them back to the topic.

Walter: "Can I ask how much time it would take for Barry to do whatever he is doing that you will be benefitted by?"

As he says that, Ethan sees a hint of smile on his face. This is no surprise to him. Because he had been seeing his aura, he knows Walter is only acting formal, but it still makes him uneasy.

Ethan: "Well, I don't know how long it will take him."

Dyne: "That will be a problem."

Dyne says while staring at Ethan. However,

Walter: "Yes, it might inconvenience us but there's a way to avoid conflict between our groups despite of that,"

Ethan senses malicious intent in Walter's aura, which he had been sensing ever since he started speaking, grow heavier.

Sneha: "What's that?"

Walter: "Why don't you tell us what your goal is?"

He says while spreading his arms wide as if to say doing so would not harm them in any way.

Dyne: "Wait, what?"

Dyne looks at him in surprise. Walter turns his head to look back while smiling a little as if to say 'it's okay, leave this to me'. The Spectre sighs.

Dyne: "… I guess we can listen to what it is. It may not be something that inconveniences us."

A smile comes on Ethan's face as he hears that.

So if I say I won't tell you; that would mean it is something that inconveniences you, huh? That wasn't half bad, he thinks as he prepares his answer.

Ethan: "My goal here is to bring Kais into this war."

Dyne and Walter flinch in surprise.

Dyne: "And what would that gain you?"

Ethan: "That's not something you need to know, do you?"

Dyne looks at Ethan suspiciously while Ethan looks back at him with a smirk. Walter stays calm and composed and Sneha keeps her guard up for anything that might happen. But, after a brief stare-down, Dyne says,

Dyne: "I suppose it's not. Anyway, what was your proposal?"

He asks while turning towards Walter.

Walter: "Well, I thought it will be a good idea to help him reach his goal in exchange for not interfering with us."

Dyne: "Huh. That … isn't a bad idea, but I don't know if it will work. I don't personally know Kais. All I have is other people's impressions of him."

As Ethan thinks that he needs to remember what Dyne just said, Sneha suddenly says,

Sneha: "I'm against letting you guys do the job."

Dyne and Spectre turn to her in surprise while Ethan clears his throat.

Ethan: "You guys may have misunderstood something here. We are working together but it is because our goals can be achieved with each other's help and not because we have the same goal."

Hearing that, Walter regains composure and asks,

Walter: "I see. So then, Ms. Sneha Stone, what's your goal?"

Sneha: "I am afraid I can't tell you. That said, it's not something that's against yours but just something that you guys will be no help in because of being ghosts. Only someone who's is at least half-psychic like Barry can help me reach it."

Widening their eyes in surprise, the three men on the beach look at Sneha.

However, the reason for their surprise is completely different from the other.

Ethan is surprised because he didn't know her goal would have that kind of condition.

Dyne is surprised because he had started to get the impression that she might turn into an enemy but she doesn't seem to be doing so.

Walter is surprised because her remark didn't make sense.

Walter: "Well, in case you don't know, I am not a ghost."

While being surprised at what she just heard, she immediately regains composure and asks him,

Sneha: "Oh, then who are you?"

She says as she looks at him with a suspicious expression as if to evaluate him. Ethan had known that he isn't a ghost from the start because of the aura Walter had around him, but apparently Sneha didn't.

Walter: "I am a psychic."

He says.

Dyne: "Or to be more precise, he is Walter Schmidt, the psychic hailed as the strongest man in the world."

Ethan and Sneha widen their eyes in surprise by the contents of the addition Dyne made in Walter's introduction.

Walter: "Oh, don't be so surprised by that. I might not be the strongest anymore. After all, it's been a long time since I was given that title. Someone we don't know about may have already surpassed me."

Ethan: "No, your title's not all that surprising."

Walter: "Huh?"

He asks as he looks at Ethan with a smile,

Walter: "Then why are you surprised?"

It's because of your disturbingly evil aura. He answers in his head.

Ethan: "Well …"

Walter: "My aura, huh?"

Eyes widen in shock, and fear, for once, goes out of hand in Ethan's mind as he listens to Walter's menacingly calm tone.

Walter: "Now now, you don't need to be that shocked. All I did was read your mind. I already told you I am a psychic so it should have been obvious I could do that."

Yeah, of course … except I should have known when you did that; my eyes should have picked up on something. Ethan says in his head.

Walter: "Come now, surely you know your eyes aren't omnipotent."

He continues in his calm tone as he answers Ethan's thoughts.

Walter: "All I did was put more power in hiding the ability than your eyes can see through."

Sneha: "Wait! Is what this looks like really happened just now?"

Ethan gulped.

Ethan: "Yeah, he read my mind … without me noticing anything."

Sneha understands how much of a bad news that could be. Spectre Dyne is already supposed to be on par with, if not better than Barry. And this man is supposedly even more powerful than him. Even the Eyes of Truth can be deceived by him.

Sneha: "But that doesn't make any sense. Aren't those eyes something that can never be deceived?"

Dyne: "He isn't considered the strongest for no reason you know. The fact that he has that title means that he has left any rivals far behind. Simple rules like that can be easily bent by this man."

Dyne makes it very clear what the title of 'strongest man in the world' means with that sentence and Ethan and Sneha both fall silent.

Dyne: "Well, it's unfortunate but we need to go now. We have already lost a lot of time."

Dyne says as he starts walking.

Sneha: "Wait-"

Dyne: "I'm afraid you'll have to look for another way to fulfill whatever objective you have since the negotiations seem to have broken down."

As he says this, Jack and Jill come to stop him from entering the forest.

Dyne: "What a bothersome mission this is going to be!"

He says while lifting his finger. He points his finger at Jack and moves it around, which causes Jack to be flung around in the same way.

Ethan: "Ah!"

Sneha: "What was that?"

Walter: "Come on, you didn't need to do that."

Walter says as he follows Dyne with a little smile on his face. He turns to glance at the dog that had been flung around only to land on the tree and have his back broken.

Dyne: "Well, we don't have time to handle this peacefully."

Dyne points his finger at Jill but the dog runs away before he does anything.

Dyne: "That certainly saves some trouble."

He says as resumes walking and heads into the forest. Before going in himself, Walter stops and looks at the other two with a smile.

Walter: "Well, we couldn't start off on a very good footing, but I hope it doesn't get any worse."

He says the word that sound to Ethan like a threat - 'Don't make this any worse.'

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