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Chapter 48 Souls

Deception is everything.

The art of lying, of cheating, of manipulating others into your plans.

If there is one person in this world that can be named the master of such malicious talent, then that person would be no other than the Black Reaper himself.

Scheming to consider all of the possible outcomes in any of his reality layout, Hei's emotionless face is the perfect tool for hiding his true intentions.

Always living for himself, always doing things for his own benefit, always ignoring the requests of others, Hei survived the unthinkable through his art of treachery.

If that is, in fact, the Black Reaper we know, then what can possible explain his preceding agreement with Schion, and more importantly, his actions toward Bai?

Is this the Hei we know?

…

"…"

Observing his surroundings, the Black Reaper decides to remain silent at this sudden turn of situation.

It is, using the vocabulary of Hei, very irrational.

People cannot just disappear.

"Electron manipulation, Type Delta."

Stretching his senses along with the expanding radius of his supernatural radar, Hei involuntarily activates his contractor power. Zanku, in Hei's eyes, has completely evaporated upon the shining green light.

"Molecule vibration normal, atmosphere composition unchanged, data analysis orderly."

Narrowing his pair of dark eyes, the Black Reaper quickly discovers himself behind the eight ball. It is not that Hei has not seen supernatural abilities that alternate the regular axioms of physics and chemistry – many years of survival experience from his original body has brought him enough information to employ such things. Sure, teleportation is actually the first hypothesis on Hei's mind when the executioner dissolved right in front of him, but successful teleportation would require metamorphosis on nothing other than space itself, which would leave behind a vast quantity of unstable particles.

But type-delta electron manipulation could not find any indications of abnormal molecular compositions.

Strange indeed.

"If particles are not distorted, then the disappearance should not be classified as the result of teleportation." Fixing his glasses on his nose, Hei continues to let his brain do the logical work, "In the end, the physical world is not altered, so –"

He pauses.

"Deception."

Not even ten seconds into the effects of Illusion Sight, Hei has already seen through the nature of this unorthodox assault.

When you are fighting under the cover of another's tricks, the successful line of action should prevail in eliminating the source of the sorcery as soon as possible.

That is very clear to the Black Reaper.

Debating internally on whether he should publicly discharge his high-voltage electrical currents to trace the movements of all of the conductors on the battlefield, Hei carefully places his hand into his side pocket once again.

Silence follows through his battle preparation as Hei carefully controls every infinitesimal bit of his body muscle, feeling surge and surge of contractor energy congregating inside his body.

"Electron manipulation, Type Gamma."

A magnetic force field bursts out from where Hei is standing to the end of the street at an incomparable rate of expansion, searching desperately for any sign of metal in the area.

…

Nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

"Contractor power still premature. High-quantity conductor manipulation unresponsive."

Concluding his reason for the failure of his second attempt in solving this puzzle, Hei abstractly shakes his head at his current state.

Illusion Sight can create an image of the most previous being in front of its victim from the result of searching into the victim's mind, and normal humans do contain these essential thoughts. Hei, on the other hand, has created a very unnatural scenario for the Teigu.

If the entire process of tricking its victim can be described as the Spector's computing process, then the course of searching for its victim's precious person would correspond to the decoding stage. If it cannot find a target for itself to execute the program, then it is stuck.

Hei is stuck.

Lingering inside this primitive stage of the attack, Hei has tried to use his contractor powers to outclass the Teigu's effects, but unfortunately for the Black Reaper, his premature control of molecule manipulation could not carry him out of this mind prison.

However, these is a solution to this problem.

In order to generate more power –

"Original host memory should be accessed."

…

Being the imperfect clone of the original Black Reaper, Hei contains, deep in his subconsciousness, Li's memories. Since his creation, he has only accessed the outer most layer. Knowing the existence of Bai, Shion, and Yin are only the results of that incomplete connection. In addition, Hei learns of Li's technique in controlling his powers through this primitive information.

But that is only the basics.

In order to control more of his powers, he needs to receive more of Li's insights.

In order to receive more insights, he needs to dive into Li's memories again.

This time, more deeply.

…

Finally making his decision, Hei closes his eyes and carefully leads his consciousness into that unassessed section of his mind once again.

SPLASH!

Before he can control this information, the forgotten memories rush into Hei's mind like a roaring river, breaking down every barrier of his mental defense.

Before he can comprehend anything regarding the usage of molecule manipulation –

"Hei."

Silver hair.

Violet eyes.

…

Somewhere in the western side of the capital, a hooded girl suddenly catches a shiver through her spine.

Aimlessly raising her head, she intuitively locks onto the sight of the silver moon with her crimson eyes.

"Hei?"

…