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Hector hesitated. “But what if... what if it gives me, like, a crazy vision or something when I touch it?”

‘Why would it do that?’

“I don’t know. Why did it fuse with the rock?”

‘Fair point.’ Garovel allowed a beat to pass. ‘Eh, but I’m sure it’ll be fine! Go on! Touch it! See if it does anything!’

“Garovel...”

‘What? Don’t chicken out on me now. Where are those massive iron balls of yours, all of a sudden?’

Hector sighed and chuckled at the same time. “You’re such an idiot, sometimes...”

‘Like reaper, like servant, my friend.’

“Fuuuck you...” Hector did lift his hand, though, readying himself to grab the edge of the mirror. It was probably safe enough, he figured.

He touched the golden paneling.

Nothing happened.

He gave it a second, just in case, but still nothing. So he grasped the edge of the mirror more firmly and gave it a tug.

It didn’t budge. Not even a little.

‘Put some elbow grease into it.’

“What if I break it?”

‘Eh, I’m sure it’ll be fine.’

“The more you say that, the less convinced I become.”

‘Alright, I’m mostly kidding this time. Don’t break it yet.’

“‘Yet?’”

‘Let’s just have a little look-see here...’ The reaper hovered nearer to it, looking at it from directly above now, straight into the reflection. ‘Hmm. Y’know what would’ve been a cool power for this thing to have? If it let me see myself in it.’

“Cool and useless.”

‘C’mon. Being cool is its own use.’

Hector decided to raise his iron platform a bit higher in order to join the reaper in looking into it. As one might’ve expected, he could indeed see himself in it.

Huh. So that was what his helmet and pauldrons looked like from the outside. Despite how much effort he’d put into making it, he hadn’t actually bothered to check what this new dark armor looked like in a mirror yet.

Pauline had mentioned that it looked scary, and... now he could see why she thought that. He hadn’t bothered to add any ornamentation to the helmet, because the material had simply been too difficult to work with, but it had still ended up with a T-shaped eye slit, thanks to the faceguard, and a smooth overall profile that fully concealed his neck, thanks to the way it interlocked seamlessly with the gorget.

And because of how dark it was, it made him look less like a person and more like a shadow.