“He doesn’t look at all like what you’re describing,” Qin Sa muttered under her breath to her ghostly companion. After breaking away from Ting Ren (and making doubly sure that he wasn’t pursuing them), the girl was currently crouched behind a wall and peeking from around the corner at her supposed enemy – an unparalleled, immortal, reality hopper that had apparently hopped to her reality, specifically so that he could murder her and rip out a fragment of his power from her cold, lifeless body.

She scrutinized the male student a couple of feet from her hiding spot, scanning him from head to toe. Average build, average height, all-too-common hair colour; and as he’d just explained to her, not even his skill at magic was out of the ordinary. Sure, he could have been lying about the rumour of his prevailing over the forbidden magic user being false… but he didn’t even know who she was before she approached him – why lie about something so pointless?

“Are you absolutely sure it’s him, guardian spirit?”

She had to ask; as other than a bunch of unverifiable string of achievements and accomplishments conveyed to her through the imaginative lens of what was essentially a small hyper-active child, there was no indication that Ting Ren – or Zach, as her spirit (who strangely also shared the same name) had named him – was anything other than an ordinary Orth student like herself.

Certainly not anything as fanciful as an intruder from another world.

oh, its him alright

The spirit’s tone was one devoid of doubt, utterly convinced that Ting Ren was Zach. In the short time spent with the child, Qin Sa had never heard him sound so serious, speaking with words of unshakeable confidence. With a demeanour of begrudging respect, hints of awe and fear present as he gave his account of this Zach.

its like… a smell- no, a sort of tingly feeling when i look at him

like coming home

Right, that sure cleared things up – it was just a feeling the spirit had when looking at him. What truly irrefutable logic that was, getting a twinge of dread when meeting a new person for the first time. Well, she felt the constant dread of not being able to live up to her parents’ expectations of her all the time – was that a sign that she was about to be attacked by an interdimensional intruder?

also you can stop calling me guardian spirit now just call me zach

Just to be safe, she pulled out of sight, her back pressed against the white brick wall. “It’s a bit too late for me to change the way I address you at this juncture. I’ll just keep treating you as my guardian spirit. On that note, I’ve been meaning to ask you about something you said. What exactly do you mean by, “Mask”? I can kind of wrap my head around you being a form of energy; like a core formed from mana… but you belong to him? Like a pet, or a magical artifact?”

ooh… thats… complicated. lets talk more back at dorm

She poked her head back around the corner to sneak another peek at the supposed reality hopper. As expected, Ting Ren was still casually reclining on a cafeteria bench, enjoying a sandwich while he sat there alone.

Oh, he’d just finished the sandwich. Now he was leisurely cracking open a manual and flipping through the pages. And now he was practicing multi-casting, forming and dispersing a couple of Class Threes at a time. Rather innocent actions to be taking if he was supposedly on the hunt for her and the spirit she had unknowingly stolen.

There wasn’t any chance he could be that big a threat, right?

“… I’m still not convinced,” Qin Sa said. “But yeah, let’s discuss this further back in my room. If he really is as dangerous as you say he is, it wouldn’t help us any if he spotted us spying on him like this. Let’s go.”

~

so Masks are lives lived by him and he gets to swap between a whole bunch of them to use cool powers from all of them and beat up people he doesn’t like

Qin Sa frowned. As soon as they’d completed the uneventful journey back to their room, the spirit had launched into a lengthy regurgitation which mostly made no sense. All the hurried explanations of reincarnation and powers and Masks managed was to make her even more confused.

These Masks were supposed to be… lives? Lives as in, lifetimes spent as different humans; yet while he himself remained the same? Was that even possible? She had never heard of life extension magic, let alone immortality magic, and the oldest person she had heard of was the Headmaster of Orth who was something like sixty five.

“Could you elaborate on that? It still sounds rather unclear to me. You’re saying that he… lives these lives? Then he what, swaps with them?”

The spirit seemed to hesitate, wracking his brain to come up with a suitable analogy for the convoluted power set Zach held.

its liiiike knitting a bunch of sweaters and picking one to wear when you feel like it. something like that. except those sweaters also give you a bunch of fun powers

Ah, it sort of made a little more sense to her now. It was similar to what she shared with her spirit – abilities that she could tap into when she allowed him to take over her body. And what had been crudely described as Masks – or sweaters, for that matter – were entire lives that this immortal had experienced, whole tapestries of triumphs and losses hung up in a metaphorical wardrobe for him to pick through and select for whatever the situation called for.

“-wait, he lives these lives?!” She hopped up off the bed at this sudden revelation, hands raised warily in front of her. All this time she’d been talking carefreely to her guardian spirit, treating him as if he were a blessing from unknown deities; when in actuality he was nothing but a poison pill, concealed within an unassuming gift! “In other words, you’re just a spy for him, aren’t you?!”

The spirit replied to this outrageous accusation in the most offended of tones.

if i were, why would i warn you about all this?!

Qin Sa continued to keep her hands up, poised to strike. “Maybe he has a sick and twisted personality, and enjoys watching his prey squirm as they learn of his existence- how would I know?! If what you’ve told me is true, then this… lunatic has gone through innumerable lives with the same soul; that much time spent without anyone that could possibly relate to you would drive anyone insane!”

The spirit sighed in exasperation, as if he was fed up with having to convince his host of his benign intentions. Well, Qin Sa didn’t buy this act for one second; he’d just revealed to her that he was on the enemy’s team, whatever he could say now would be meaningless, empty lies, meant to lull her into a sense of-

look you have to trust me i don’t want to go back to him either

He was… begging?

Qin Sa slowly dropped her hands back down to her sides, confused. The pleading seemed so desperate that it couldn’t be anything but genuine. “I’m sorry… what? You don’t? But from what I’m hearing from you; aren’t you the exact same person as him? Why would you not want to return?”

you think about it; i’m one life in a couple hundred. im not even that strong compared to the others! when would he call on me to do anything that wouldn’t be done faster by another cooler Mask?!

“Oh,” Qin Sa mumbled apologetically at the frustrated outburst. True, if this immortal had that many Masks to choose from, there were bound to be some that would be neglected. The only real strengths she could see the spirit being used for were Physical Boost and Charge Fist – and from personal experience, one of the two led to egregious injury for a paltry result. In other words, to sum it up, he was an illusory existence trapped within the coffin which was an immortal’s toybox, unable to move a muscle or even scream in horror.

“Sorry about that," She gave a small nod of sympathy to the empty space in front of her. "I was being insensitive. Of course you have your reasons for helping me.”

also you’re a girl and im a guy and ive not actually gotten to-

“Ok, please stop right there. I sympathize with your predicament, but even my sympathy has its limits.” She said curtly, cutting off the half-blurted confession of ill intent. Qin Sa sat back down on the bed, cupping her chin in contemplation. “I generally understand the situation now. Could you tell me about what kinds of Masks he has? Knowing that could help us come up with a plan to counter him; or defeat him.”

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

ooh… alright, but you probably don’t want to hear about this.

Qin Sa tilted her head in puzzlement. It was unusual that her guardian spirit would be so unsure at this time; from what she’d been hearing about this Zach, his main strengths lied in his ability to come back to life and being able to travel from world to world. Yes, there had been some mention of Masks and powers and past lives, but it all seemed to her to be quite vague.

After all, she could only extrapolate what Masks were from the one she was currently in possession of. And from what she could gather, the only things her guardian spirit could do was give you a momentary increase in physical ability, and throw a punch so hard it would break every finger in your hand.

How bad could those other Masks be?

~

ok um its not completely hopeless lets think of something

Understandably, Qin Sa wasn’t quite convinced by her guardian spirit’s feeble optimism.

“No, it’s not ok!” she cried out, burying her head in her hands in utter despair. “A Mask that can create plentiful metal contraptions capable of moving by themselves; each the equivalent of a master sorcerer?! A Mask that can talk people into killing themselves?! A Mask that can literally wish for someone to disintegrate?! How am I supposed to beat someone like that?! I couldn’t even defeat a King Wolf!”

its not all that bad; some Masks are weak - like me!

Qin Sa began to weep silently into her hands.

It was hopeless. There was no way she could beat him! At his fingertips were the equivalent of twenty armies, each possessing a wide and varied skillset that could and would constantly shift at his whims, rendering any of her attempts to capture or neutralise him ineffectual. And if by some unlikely miracle she did manage to kill him, he would simply come back to life as if he were some ethereal mana construct, and quickly return to tormenting her with his power.

A complete nightmare scenario – and she was trapped within it!

-hold on… yeah, youre on to something

Qin Sa noted the hopeful voice her guardian spirit was speaking with. As if there was anything positive that could be derived from this situation

“What, spirit? What could you possibly say now that would cheer me up?” she moaned, words muffled through the palms of her hands. “You just told me that I’m marked for death by some being so far beyond my imagination, he might as well be the God of this world! Even now I still can’t think of any means of escaping – he would simply raze the lands, burn every city with his countless powers, and smoke me out through sheer force!”

The spirit repeated his optimistic assessment to the despondent girl once more, trying patiently to bring her around to what he had guessed.

i mean youre right, he is so powerful and strong and cool (hes me so of course he is); but why isnt he using any of those powers to find you?

“I’unno- maybe it’s a challenge for him. Like a game or something. To pass the time. He is an immortal, isn’t he?” Qin Sa muttered. She’d already given up. Maybe if she surrendered herself to him, he’d be merciful and kill her quickly. She hadn’t given the idea of death much thought before this, but if at all possible, she would have liked it to be swift and painless. They had been taught in class that what one perceived as pain were signals sent from your extremities back to your brain, so if you simply chopped off a person’s head, they would die without suffering. That wouldn’t be all that bad, would it?

Oh; and if it was at all possible, she would have liked to let her parents know that she had perished. The news would undoubtedly break their hearts, but the alternative – letting them pointlessly wait for her return from Orth – was worse in some ways. The two would grieve over her demise, weep for the loss of their child, but they would move on – and time would heal their wounds.

hes not like that

The spirit stated firmly, confidence backed by lifetimes of knowledge concerning his owner’s personality. There was no doubt in his mind that Zachary would never do this.

he would rather hold on to his Masks than give them away like this

Even if he wanted to toy with his prey, he’d do so without handing them his own powers as a means for them to fight back.

There were a couple of reasons for this; for one, the last time zach had checked, Zachary had not figured out how to transfer his own abilities to others, nor was he likely to ever learn how to do so. They were his Masks. (which was also why zach was certain the transmigrator was here to take him away from his new host)

Two, he valued new experience above all else. If his opponent was able to create black holes or could control the passage of time with their mind – well, he wasn’t about to stop them from doing that! He’d encourage them to give their all, pull out any tricks they could think of to kill him. Then he would simply trample over all of their efforts with an avalanche of abilities that far outclassed theirs. If they were handed a superior set of powers to use, there wouldn’t be even a tiny chance that they’d stick to using their original abilities, and he would have been robbed of a fresh new experience.

And chief of all, perhaps the most important reason for this-

-it would be boring facing a person with powers you knew everything about.

The girl limply brought her head up from the snug nest formed from her palms it had been resting in, snot still dripping from runny nostrils and pooling in small wet puddles below her chin. “…so what? Let’s say you’re right, and he doesn’t have any of those Masks you mentioned – which yes, is abundantly clear to me only a flimsy assumption with no real evidence backing it up – he’s still a threat simply as Ting Ren. We’re talking about an unkillable monster that revives over and over again; never ceasing, never stopping; I would need to find some way to, to… stop him from coming back to life, from clawing his way out from a grave, and-”

Wait.

Stop him from… coming back to life?

Qin Sa stopped mid-sentence, inspiration striking. She was going about it the wrong way – instead of worrying about him coming back to life… she should have flipped the problem on its head and went at it from a different angle.

It… could work, couldn’t it? It was rather rough as an outline, and ran completely counter from her skillset as a magic wielder, but the idea itself was possible. On the other hand, the right time, the right place, luck; all those factors needed to be present for what she was thinking of to succeed. And she had to bank on the slim chance that he didn’t have a Danger Sense Skill like her own to warn him of schemes aiming at his life.

oh? you thought of something?

She bit her lip anxiously at the hopeful question posed to her. “Maybe. But… it would only work if you’re right in your guess – that he really has lost all those Masks of his; and if we’re only dealing with an above average magic student studying at Orth. You mentioned that he needs to speak to switch between his Masks?”

yeah, he needs to say “Profile Swap!” then he swaps with the Mask hes thinking of

Oh! In that case… it might even be possible to seal off his greatest asset! If he loses the ability to change forms at will, he’ll be stuck with this one – a competent spell caster compared to me, but when compared to the alternatives… I’ll take it.

-I can’t believe it… but there’s still a way I can beat him!

Re-energized, Qin Sa brushed her dishevelled hair back with her fingers and rubbed the snot from her nose. Despite the plentiful and despair-inducing embellishments helpfully offered to her by her guardian spirit, the threat of Zach suddenly didn’t seem so perilous. There were still limitations to the activation of his powers; limitations that could be exploited, tiny gaps within the impenetrable armor he had constructed through which his downfall could be plotted.

“Alright, guardian spirit.” Qin Sa declared, motivated by the small glimmer of hope shining through the darkness. “Let’s bet on ourselves for a change. It’s going to be difficult – way more demanding a task than improving our spell casting – but it’s certainly doable.”

woo! so what are we going to do

“First,” she began.

“Let’s go get ourselves a dagger to kill a God.”