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There were four spheres. Each one represented a different, complex ability of the Gate. To learn more, he needed only to grab a sphere with the conscious intent to understand it. The reason his hand had phased through was because he had done so unthinkingly, without intent.

Alright. Hector grabbed the leftmost one.

It reacted to his touch and expanded greatly, filling his vision.

Hector’s eyes widened as he bore witness to an avalanche of information.

Souls. Everywhere. People and lives. Crowds in all direction. And yet, they were still somehow individually discernible. Easy to pick out from the rest with only a look.

The Core began pulsing yet again, explaining further.

This was the Gate’s functionality as a so-called “soul compass.” It could locate just about anyone in the world, so long as he had a clear memory of that person’s soul signature. And even if not, it might still be possible to find them if he had spent a long time with the person and developed a strong enough connection.

All these floating lights in front of him were souls represented in an illusory medium. And any one of them could be focused on and located, if he wished. All he had to do was touch the monument and concentrate on what he wanted.

Traditional soul compasses were not nearly this flexible and powerful, but admittedly, they were also much more compact and therefore usable as tracking devices over long distances. The fact that the Gate was completely immobile meant that this function had been largely ignored and even forgotten over the Ages.

Hector released the sphere, and the world of lights around him snapped back to normal, leaving him to reel back a step as he tried to process everything he’d just learned. Hell, for that matter, he wasn’t even sure how he’d “released” the sphere just now. Had his hands actually been gripping anything?

When he looked around again, everyone was just staring at him.

Before opening his mouth and potentially saying something dumb, he decided to consult Garovel. ‘...Uh, did you see any of that just now?’

‘I did, yeah,’ said the reaper privately.

Hector blinked again. ‘Wha? Then why didn’t you react at all?’

‘Knowing you, I figured you had it handled. I was paying more attention to everyone else. They definitely didn’t see shit, by the way.’

‘Really? How can you be sure?’

‘Because despite practically being flashbanged, they didn’t even flinch.’

‘Huh...’