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Even now, however, the metal was reluctant to listen to him. It melted back down, but only very slowly. Painfully slowly.

It was as if it had gotten too comfortable with its solid form and resented being made gooey again.

How weird. He had a sneaking suspicion that in the real world, it wouldn't listen to him at all. Maybe it was only malleable in this place.

Hmm. If that was the case, then he needed to make his time here count.

Which was a strange thing to think, he knew. He still had no real plan for escaping, other than causing a big ruckus.

But that was beside the point. He focused.

If he wanted it to become armor, then he needed to reshape it.

To reforge it.

Because that was what this process was starting to feel like. Difficult and slow, requiring full concentration. Thankfully, he could sense the full shape and volume of the goo in his mind now, giving him a clear, three-dimensional picture of it to work with. But actually making it do what he wanted was still so hard.

After a while, he managed to find a kind of rhythm. A grinding rhythm, but a rhythm, nonetheless.

He had to strain his mind, at max intensity, in short and sharp bursts. Not unlike hitting it with a hammer. With each pass, the goop barely budged at all, but that was enough. Because each time, it stayed. It didn't settle back into itself.

It seemed to be growing even more difficult over time, though. More rigid and unwilling to bend. Hector couldn't tell if that was because the metal itself was becoming more resistant to him or if he was just getting tired.

Ugh. This wasn't a normal exhaustion, either. He'd felt it before, many times. This was an almost purely mental exhaustion. His numb body still felt fine, even though it most certainly wasn't.

But he couldn't stop. Not yet. If he allowed himself to fall asleep in this realm, he had no idea if he would be able to wake up again. There was a better-than-fair chance that his body would just dissolve into nothingness, he felt.

And now he was being reminded of all the shit he'd been through before arriving here, too. That fight with Banda hadn't exactly been a relaxing experience, either.

He stayed determined. He had to finish this armor, no matter how difficult it became. He knew beyond doubt that he would have great need of it if he ever managed to get out of here.