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The two men were perched atop a cliff, sitting on a metal bench with a domed cover against the wind. The night air was brisk on Hector’s face, but his riding jacket was fairly warm. Roman didn’t look bothered by the temperature, but of course, the man could also generate heat with his alteration power, so perhaps he was cheating.

Voreese and Garovel were both off scouting, so Hector and Roman took turns meditating while one kept watch over the road below, but after a few hours, Roman seemed to grow bored of it and struck up a conversation instead.

“So I guess your power has grown quite a bit since I last saw you.”

“Ah... y-yeah, I suppose,” said Hector. “What about you? Lynn said you achieved emergence.”

“Lynn? Oh, you mean Lynnette? You call her Lynn, huh?”

“I, uh... well, that’s what she said her name was, so...”

“Mm. Yeah, I’m a lot stronger now, too. I can do all sorts of fun stuff. Like flying.”

Hector turned his head curiously. “Really?”

“Little difficult, though. Haven’t quite mastered it. I can fly even faster than reapers can, but I haven’t worked out how to prevent my body from getting pummeled by g-forces.” Roman rolled his neck. “Broke my spine a few times.”

“I know the feeling.”

“Heh. What’s the worst injury you’ve had so far?”

“Oh, um. Hmm.” He scratched his head and took a deep breath. “I think that time I got blown up in Sescoria is still the worst. Y’know, when... uh... back when you saved me and Garovel?”

“Oh yeah. Okay, then what’s the worst you’ve had that didn’t kill you?”

“Hmm... I’m not sure, uh... There was one time in Klein where the cops pumped about a hundred bullets into me. There was the time my whole mouth got shot off--oh, but the time I had my, uh... my chest cavity ripped open... with like, surgical clamps... that was pretty bad. Though, I guess I was technically dead when it happened...”

“Impressive. Worst for me was probably the plane crash. Had to shield Lynnette or she would’ve been toast, so I didn’t have time to protect myself from this huge metal beam--came straight for me, basically cut me in two.”