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‘Those powers are the result of a marriage between something real and something imaginary. It’s the same for Geoffrey’s shield.’

‘I think I get it... maybe...’

‘So, in order to fight it, you have to add a mental--or imaginary--side to your attacks.’

‘And how do I do that?’

‘Oh, it’s not that difficult. Because your body has already had its soul “hollowed” out, so to speak, you’ll be able to gain a stronger sense of your own presence and even begin to manipulate your soul in different ways. You’ll be able to get the basics down fairly quickly. It’s only when you want to become genuinely proficient that things go less smoothly, but we won’t be worrying about that too much yet. For now, we’ll mainly focus on trying to grow your materialization ability. I expect that’ll be more immediately useful.’

‘Hmm.’

‘By the way, in the interest of full disclosure, there are actually two ways that your metal power can grow.’

‘Oh?’

‘The first is meditative training, just like you’ve already been doing. It takes a while, but it's the more reliable of the two.’

‘The other way is faster?’

‘Very much so, yeah. The second method is to throw yourself into an incredibly dangerous situation, almost get us both killed, and hope that the desperation and rush of adrenaline are enough to force a breakthrough.’

‘What the fuck? That sounds...’

‘Reckless and stupid? Yeah. We won’t be attempting that one. The almost-getting-killed part is a dealbreaker for me.’

‘Huh. Okay... But, um... about this soul power or whatever. When should I, uh... start working on that?’

‘We’ll get to--’

“Hector? You okay?”

Finally reaching his locker, he turned and saw Micah standing there. “Uh... hi. I’m--I’m fine. Why?”

“Well, it’s just, you’re walking like you’re half-dead or something.”

“Ha... that’s, um... yeah...”

“Did something happen to you?”

‘Shit, what do I say?’

‘Uh... You fell down the stairs!’

‘That’s stupid!’

‘Just say it!’

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‘You do realize that you are the servant in this relationship, right? I don’t have to listen to you. I could put you to sleep and fly to the other side of the planet, if I wanted.’

Hector just glared at him.

‘Ugh. Fine. I won’t wander off, for the time being. But I will need to venture out on my own again sooner or later. You’re going to have to trust that I know what I’m doing, eventually.’

The bus squealed to a stop in front of the school, and Hector exited.

‘Tell me how to kill Geoffrey,’ he said as he walked. ‘You said we weren’t prepared for that fight before. So... prepare me.’

The reaper floated ahead of him. ‘You’re already resolved to kill him?’

‘It’s him or you, isn’t it? That’s not a hard choice. I... I would’ve done it before, if I could’ve...’

‘Him or US, Hector.’

‘R-right...’

‘Well. In order to hurt Geoffrey, you have to be able to break the red shadow that protects him.’

‘Okay...’

‘The reason it seemed like an impervious shield was because your attacks were only physical, whereas the shadow was both physical and mental. That shadow is something real and imaginary at the same time, which is why it seemed to constantly disappear and reappear.’

‘Imaginary? But if it’s imaginary... then...’

‘How can it exist? Because reality is relative. Take me, for instance. I’m imaginary. All reapers are. Relative to our servants, and apparently Geoffrey, we exist. But relative to the rest of the world, we don’t.’

‘But... the powers you grant me are definitely real...’

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‘Pure evil doesn’t exist,’ said Garovel. ‘People can only be evil insofar as making evil decisions--possessing an intent to harm or cause suffering. Evil actions. Even people who do evil things purely for the sake of amusement are still human. They’re twisted, sure. They have evil tendencies, but they still aren’t MADE of evil. But... Geoffrey’s aura... I can’t think of any other way to describe it. It was like an evil consciousness.’

Hector raised an eyebrow. ‘So... you’re saying Geoffrey is pure evil?’

‘No! I’m saying he’s NOT! Because there’s no such thing!’

‘So why’d you bring it up then?! You’re making it confusing!’

‘Because it IS confusing! I don’t know what he is yet! And seeing the way he acted, it’s easy to feel like he’s evil incarnate or some shit!’

Hector sighed. ‘Whatever... You’re not making any sense...’

‘Tch. I need to find out more.’

Hector looked at the reaper heavily. ‘You’re not going anywhere without me. It’s way too dangerous with him out there.’

‘Oh, please. The odds of me randomly encountering Geoffrey are ridiculously low. And even if I did, I’d just outrun him.’

‘You don’t know that,’ said Hector. ‘If you don’t even know what Geoffrey is, then you definitely don’t know what he’s capable of... I mean, he could still have abilities we didn’t see before...’

‘Hector, I’ve been doing this a long time. I can handle myself.’

‘You’re not going anywhere without me,’ he repeated.

Garovel lowered his brow. ‘You’re being very unreasonable today.’

‘I don’t care... You’re not gonna go out and get killed while I’m sitting through a fucking biology lesson...’