Page 4115

'What the hell is this?' thought Hector as more boxes kept appearing, shunting off chunks of the city in the distance. He hadn't necessarily expected Garovel to have an answer for him, but after a few lingering moments of silence, the reaper did.

'...The Crystal Titan,' said Garovel.

Hector was both surprised and somehow not. That briefest flash of an aura that he'd sensed. While he hadn't recognized it as belonging to Sermung, it did have that kind of overwhelming punch to it. Greater than anything he'd ever sensed before.

But where was it now? Hector couldn't tell. But apparently, Garovel could? 'You can sense him?'

'Not anymore. But for a split second, he was definitely there. About a hundred meters north of us. I'm sure of it.'

So close. Hector hadn't sensed anything that specific, but it had all happened so fast. Honestly, he was kind of impressed with Garovel. 'How are you so certain? There was so much going on.' Unconsciously, he started hovering toward the spot that the reaper had specified, though he didn't actually expect to find the strongest servant in the whole world just chilling there.

'This is the heart of Vanguardian territory. I've been hoping to recognize his soul signature from the moment we first arrived.'

'Huh. Wow, that's, uh... impressive. In a stalker-y sort of way.'

'Oh, don't start.'

'You only met him the one time, didn't you?'

'That's all we reapers need.'

'...You're not gonna, like, freak out if we do actually meet him, are you?'

'I might.'

Hector couldn't help snickering under his breath. It didn't take long to close the rest of the distance, and sure enough, no one was here. 'This the spot?'

'Roughly, yeah.'

'So, what? He just blipped in and out of existence or something?'

'Or something, most likely.'

'Hmm. You wouldn't happen to know how he did that, would you?'

'If I did, I would've taught it to you months ago. Anyway, what about your weird new senses? What are they telling you?'

'Uh...' He looked up and down at the mountainous black box that was only a few meters away now. 'It's kinda hard to sense anything with these behemoths all over the place now. They're like black holes when it comes to auras. Just sucking in everything around them.'

'Oof. Don't like hearing that. Doesn't make me feel safe at all.'