Chapter 71 - LXXI. | Thine unassailable walls... (1/2)

'Wow, Hector. And here I thought you were getting better at talking to people.'

'Shut up, Garovel!'

'Seriously, what the f.u.c.k was that about?'

'Nothing!'

'Remarkably, I remain unconvinced of that.'

'Shut up!'

'Well, stop running already.'

'Is she behind me?!'

'Lynn? No.'

Hector slowed to a walk, looking over his shoulder as he arrived at the palace's east entrance. When he saw people were staring at him, he pulled down on the brim of his hat and tried to settle his heartbeat.

'Really?' said Garovel. 'You're not going to tell me what that was?'

'...Where's my bike?' said Hector.

The reaper was gracious enough to point him in the right direction. 'C'mon, Hector. You know you can tell me anything.'

'I... I know I can. But that doesn't mean I want to.'

'Oh, it's like THAT, is it? Well, damn. What'd she do? Touch your arm unexpectedly? Accidentally breathe within three meters of your face?'

'Hey, Garovel, I've got an idea. How about you go f.u.c.k yourself?'

'So hostile. You know you're just making me more curious now, right?'

'Ugh...'

He found his way to the parking garage and decided to wait there for his mother to catch up. It took a while, but when she arrived, she had a small escort of two with her. There was an elderly woman in a faded rainbow dress and a rather tall black man in a white-and-blue guardsman's uniform.

His mother stopped in front of him and stared. ”I'm not even going to ask what that was about back there. Lynnette is upset with you, though. She asked me to tell you that.”

”Ah... oh...” He figured it best to just take his mother at her word and move on. ”W-who are these two?”

The old woman stepped forward to introduce herself first. ”Amelia Carthrace,” she said, offering Hector a wrinkly handshake, which he eventually took. ”At the Queen's behest, I am here to help you manage your affairs from now on. Pleased to make your acquaintance, young man.”

The guardsman took his turn next. ”I am Jamal Easton. A call went out looking for people to work for the Darksteel Soldier. Seems I was the only one who answered.”

Hector looked between the two of them. ”Um... I don't, ah...”

”Hector, just go with it,” his mother said. ”I'm sure we could use the help right now. From the sounds of it, the Queen has gifted you quite the white elephant.”

He glanced at Garovel, who just shrugged. ”O-okay. Do you guys know the way to this Warrenhold place?”

”Yes, sir,” said Jamal. By the look of him, he was in his late twenties and quite solidly built. Rather than a sword like Lynnette, however, the man wore a holstered gun on his hip. ”I would be happy to lead the way for you.”

It struck Hector as more than a little odd to be called sir by this person. Still, he nodded gratefully. ”Th-thank you. Please do.”

The three of them piled into the adjacent SUV and pulled out of the palace's garage while Hector followed on his motorcycle. Ms. Carthrace asked him if he would not prefer to simply ride with them so that they could discuss various things along the way, but Hector politely refused. There would be plenty of time for discussion after they arrived.

Slashes of pink and orange painted the evening sky as he rode out into the city. It would be a rather long trip to Gray Rock, he knew, which of course meant that Garovel would have plenty of time to keep bothering him. Even so, Hector recalled a particular something that he wanted to ask the reaper about.

'So, um... I've got a question...'

'Oh, imagine that.'

'What did you call it? The thing that Harper did?'

'Pan-rozum.'

'Yeah. Could you explain that more, maybe?'

'I could, maybe. If you tell me what made you run away from Lynnette, that is.'

Hector thought about it. '...I don't wanna know that badly.'

'Oh, come on! I have to tell you about pan-rozum!'

'Oh well... I guess I'll just be unprepared in the future. No big deal.'

'Y'know, you can be a real d.i.c.k sometimes.'

'Ah... sorry.'

'Tch.' Garovel paused, perhaps gathering his thoughts. 'Pan-rozum is a hyper state. It is achieved when the reaper and servant merge their souls together via a very high synchronization.'

'Ah... so it's not something that you and I can do.'

'Of course not. It's not even something that Harper should really be doing, and he has to be at least twenty-five years old as a servant by now.'

'So what does pan-rozum actually do?' said Hector. 'Just make the servant faster and stronger?'

'No. That was a byproduct of Harper's ability being what it is. Pan-rozum allows the user to assimilate attributes of different ability types. For a brief period of time, that is.'

'Eh... I'm still not sure what you mean...'

'Well, for instance, Harper was able to meld the properties of his alteration ability with that of both the transfiguration and the integration types. He took the bodily attribute of transfiguration, as well as the conversion attribute of integration.'

'Uh...'

'In other words, pan-rozum allows a servant to break down the barriers between the different types of abilities and merge them together. That's how Harper's ability could change from just manipulating light to... actually BEING light.'

'Wait, what? You're saying Harper converted his body into... light particles or something?'

'Basically, yes. And not just that, either. Thanks to the integration attribute, he was also able to restore his body back to its original state afterwards, and that's not easy. In fact, nothing about that is. The whole thing is a ridiculous accomplishment. I'm still a bit awestruck, I guess. The amount of training that the two of them must have done... If Harper's really only a servant of his twenties, then that is absolute madness.'

'Couldn't he have joined the Vanguard later, like after being a servant for a while?'

'Possibly. It's uncommon for servants to wait so long to pick a side, but yeah. He does seem to have a special arrangement with his rank, too, so maybe you're right.'

'Hmm.'

'Honestly, with pan-rozum activated, Harper's ability is one of the strongest I've ever witnessed.'

Hector blinked at the long stretch of road ahead of him. 'Really? Three thousand years, and Harper's one of the strongest EVER?'

'That I've personally seen,' Garovel reiterated. 'But yes. I'm not sure you understand the caliber of warrior you've just met and fought alongside. He may be the fastest human being who has ever lived. The speed of light is pretty much the top of the mountain on that one.'

'It kinda seemed like Harper was just teleporting around,' said Hector.

'Well, yeah. As far as human perception is concerned, there would be no difference.'

'That power is pretty crazy... I mean, how could anyone ever defeat something like that?'

'I don't know. You did pretty well against it, though.'

'Yeah, because he was holding back. If he'd wanted to kill me instantly, he could've at any time.'

'True. At least for now, Harper's pan-rozum is far from perfect. I think Darsihm is still unconscious from the exertion.'

'Why'd it affect Darsihm so much more than Harper?'

'The reaper is the focal point of pan-rozum's merge. It tends to demand more from the reaper, mostly because it's just such a complex amalgamation of powers. It's up to the reaper to make all the chosen attributes fit properly into place so that the newly realized power works as desired. The servant's job, on the other hand, is more to just accept the power without exploding and killing them both. Which, y'know, is also kinda important.'

'Eesh...'

'Also, I should probably mention that pan-rozum isn't necessarily for everyone.'

'Meaning?'

'Meaning, depending on what a servant's ability is, pan-rozum might not even be that useful. Harper's ability just happens to work ridiculously well with it, so don't go thinking it's always as powerful as that.'

'Mm.'

'But there are other hyper states which might suit different people better. For instance, there's pan-forma, which--'

'Eh--uh--sorry to interrupt, but, uh, why don't you save that for another time? I barely even understand what you just said about this pan-rozum shit, so... m-maybe just hold off on lecturing me on all this other stuff that isn't, uh... I mean, it's not immediately relevant, right? So...'

'Well, fine. I didn't wanna explain it to you, anyway.'

'Yes, you did.'

'Yes, I did.'

'You love explaining things.'

'Hell yeah, I do.'

Hector laughed.

'And why shouldn't I love it, huh? You get to learn things. I get to sound smart. Nobody gets murdered. Everybody wins, really--I mean, when you think about it, it's pretty awesome.'

'Were you, like, a professor or something way back when you were alive?' said Hector.

'Not quite.'

'What was it like, living back then?'

'It was shit.'

'Aww, why?'

'Medicine was shit. Technology was shit. Society was shit. Everything was shit wrapped in more shit with an extra shit sandwich in case you were still hungry for more shit.'

'...So wait. Was it shit?'

'Eh, it was okay.'

He chuckled inside his riding helmet. 'I can't tell if you're joking. You've never really told me anything about your past.'

Garovel paused. 'Yeah. Well. Maybe I'll tell you some other time.'

'Why not now? It's gonna take a while to reach Gray Rock.'

'My time spent alive did not make for a pleasant story.'