Chapter 43: Fire (Part 1)

No matter where he looks, there is fire. There is only fire. No, fire would be too mild of a description of it. A more accurate description would be inferno.

Dyne: "No way. This isn't true."

The Spectre, Dyne, falls as he sees this scenery, as he sees all the other Spectres slaughtered.

Dyne: "This is … just impossible."

He says as he looks at the inferno around him in disbelief.

Dyne: "This is … an illusion. It has to be. There's just no way, something like this just isn't possible in reality."

He denies what he sees. He has to.

Dyne: "After all, we are the strongest army in the entire world."

This is not wrong.

Dyne: "We could defeat any army in the world. We can even defeat the whole The Dragon Alliance by ourselves."

This is not wrong either.

Dyne: "We could even … even defeat Walter … "

He notices something that catches his eyes.

Dyne: "if we …"

He lowers his gaze to look at it.

Dyne: "fight together …"

He says as he gets a good look at what had caught his sight.

Dyne: "This … is just plain absurd!"

He denies it. He can never believe it. The psychic hailed as 'the strongest man in the world' lies dead in front of his eyes.

Dyne: "It's unreal!"

He drags himself back from that scene, that unbelievable scene.

Dyne: "This just doesn't make any sense."

He says as he tries to look away but is unable to.

Dyne: "Who could possibly do something like this?"

He asks when there was no one to answer.

Dyne: "That's right. There's no one."

He smiles, no, frowns. He frowns to convince himself.

Dyne: "There just is no one who can create this disaster. No one in the world has the power to do this."

He keeps crawling backwards and frowning in disbelief unable to look away from the sight of Walter Schmidt's corpse.

Dyne: "That's just it. There's no one. This is not a reality. This is just an illusion."

He does not remember that he was set ablaze and is being shown these illusions by Barry. Those memories have been temporarily sealed away. But if he believes, if he believes enough that this is an illusion, then he will realize that it really is.

Dyne: "This is an illusion. It has to be. It can only be an illusion."

And fortunately for him, ghosts don't have dreams. They can't have dreams. So, the only possibility for denying this reality he can think of is it being an illusion.

Dyne: "This is an illusion. This is an illusion. This is an illusion. Huh …"

His words stop coming out as he feels a presence behind him. He feels that there's someone standing behind him.

Dyne: "No, it's just an illusion. Even that presence is an illusion."

That presence even overtakes his inability to look away from Walter's corpse. He tries to convince himself to not do it yet he can't stop his head from turning to look back. His curiosity seems to be getting the better of him.

Dyne: "Huh!"

And it doesn't turn out very good for him.

Dyne: "No, no, no, no, no, no,"

He keeps saying the word of denial as he looks at the sight behind him.

Dyne: "no, no, no, no,"

He keeps repeating the same word as many times as he could. That was just how unbelievable the sight in front of his eyes was.

One man … among all the fallen, there is one man standing.

His hands are soaked in blood.

His clothes are soaked in blood.

His face is soaked in blood.

And he has tears flowing from his eyes.

Dyne: "no, no, no, not possible. There is no one alive … who can do this."

Walter Schmidt is supposed to be the most powerful person in the world. And even he couldn't slaughter all the Spectres in the world by himself.

Dyne: "There is just no way!"

He crawls away as he denies that scene.

It just doesn't make any sense for someone to exist who can do this. If there really is someone who can do this, he would truly be … the devil.

And yet,

Dyne: "No, stay away!"

He crawls away as he sees the figure soaked in blood from head to toe coming towards him.

Dyne: "Don't come any closer! Stay away from me!"

But even as the Spectre says so, the figure doesn't stop. He keeps walking towards Dyne.

Dyne: "Damn it! Don't underestimate me!"

He shouts at that figure but it doesn't faze him. Instead, a reply comes back.

Figure: "I am not underestimating you. I know how powerful you are."

He says as he walks towards the horrified Spectre.

Figure: "Which is why, I became more powerful than you."

Dyne: "What!?"

Figure: "I saw you people destroying the world as if it's your plaything. And I saw myself being able to do nothing as you took everything from me."

He says to the Spectre whom he stares with bloodshot eyes.

Figure: "That is why; I became more powerful than you. I did so to destroy you all. I did so to stop your carnage."

He says as he steps right in front of the Spectre.

Figure: "And I ended up losing everything again."

He says as he kicks Dyne's head.

Figure: "I couldn't stop you."

He says as tears flow from his eyes and he pounces on the Spectre.

Figure: "In the end, all of you ended up destroying everything again."

He says as he bends down.

Figure: "So I, in return, stopped abiding by the rules too …"

He says as he punched the Spectre.

Figure: "and destroyed all of you."

He punched the Spectre again and again.

Figure: "And in the end, I am left alone."

He says as he kept punching with his bloodied hands. His words ringing in Dyne's ears as the Spectre's existence started to come to an end.

Figure: "I gained nothing …"

The blood on his hands couldn't come from ghosts like the Spectres but it was still there. And that couldn't all be Walter's blood. But then where did all that blood came from? The Spectre wondered that question as his existence kept fading away little-by-little.

Figure: "but lost everything."

And the answer came to him very soon. As his vision faded away, the last thing he caught in his eyes was the sight of the vampires.

Dyne: "Ah!"

He realized then. The war was over. It became the end of Spectres. It became the end of vampires. And it probably didn't end on just that. This figure, this man, the only survivor is left all alone after this war.

Dyne: "Who … are you?"

Figure: "Just someone who wanted to save those dear to him … and couldn't. My name is not important."

Dyne, hearing that, gives up and surrenders his existence. But the figure, devoid of any reason to live, keeps hitting his head.

The voices of those bloody hands hitting the Spectre's helm keep ringing and the inferno keeps burning. Surely, there will come a moment when the inferno will extinguish, and so will the sound of those hands.

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