"Huh?" Nick uttered as he looked at Julian. "No, I didn't know about that."
Julian kept looking at Nick.
"I'm in contact with many different people within the city, and I also help out here and there," Julian said.
"But most of the time, I am walking around with the guards."
"About seven months ago, a Veteran vanished. Something like that isn't that unusual. A Veteran in the city vanishes about once every couple of years. Most of the time, they die to a Specter that surprised them."
"Because of that, nobody really cared."
"But then, a month later, another Veteran vanished."
"Sure, that was more than normal, but that could just be a coincidence."
"And then, another one vanished a month later."
Nick looked at Julian with worry. "That doesn't sound like a coincidence."
Julian chuckled. "I can assure you, it's not."
"Everyone became much more careful, and we also realized that there was a pattern."
"First, all the Veterans who vanished worked for the city guards."
"Second, a couple of days before they vanished, they acted very strangely."
"They didn't want to go to work, and they constantly talked about feeling like someone was following them."
"They started to stay away from anyone who knew them until they finally vanished."
Nick's heart rate increased.
That sounded quite scary.
"Eventually, an Expert vanished," Julian said. "Just like the others, he worked for the city guards. He was a captain, and he was responsible for interrogating prisoners."
Nick felt like a cold shiver ran down his back.
The image of the captain who had interrogated Nick shot through his mind.
"And just two days ago," Julian continued, "another captain vanished. He was someone that I knew very well and someone who was very valuable to me."
After that, Julian described the captain's appearance.
The appearance perfectly matched the image Nick had of the captain that had interrogated him back then.
Obviously, they were talking about the same person.
"Do you two know each other?" Julian asked.
Nick nodded. "Yes, he was the one that interrogated me back then."
A quick light of realization shot through Julian's eyes.
"Why did he interrogate you?" Julian asked. "Just tell me everything surrounding the incident."
"Oh, sure," Nick said absentmindedly. "A while ago, I was investigating the Riker Strikers because I suspected that their leader was a Specter…"
Nick told everything that had happened to Julian.
The Money Sink.
The dark room.
The greater relay.
His meeting with Aria and the Governor.
His meeting with Simon.
Everything he knew about Aegis.
The foreign force of Zephyx in his body that allowed him to blow himself up.
Everything.
The more Julian heard, the more his smile turned sinister.
All of this made a lot of sense now.
A foreign Specter had come to the city, and it tried to find out who Nick was and where to find him.
Julian had already known that something like that had happened.
As a powerful Specter himself, he knew very well what it took to become powerful and how these Specters acted.
Julian knew almost all the Specters within the city, and he didn't know of any Specter that could make Veterans and Experts vanish just like this without leaving any trace.
However, Julian hadn't been sure why such a Specter had shown up or what they were searching for.
Usually, such powerful Specters had it much more difficult when entering a city than a weak one.
The reason was that they displaced a lot of Zephyx while moving.
Every city had innumerable advanced devices that scanned everyone and everything that entered the city.
A higher density of Zephyx would be picked up much more clearly by these devices.
Because of that, Specters didn't want to leave the cities in which they had become powerful.
Even more, very powerful Specters needed very powerful food, and when they fed, the entire city would notice and become wary.
This made it extremely difficult to feed more than once unless the Specter knew exactly how and where to hide inside the city.
When the Veterans had vanished, the city had started looking for Adults and Elders.
When the Experts had vanished, the city had started looking for Elders and Fanatics.
After all, since feeding was so difficult, a Specter wouldn't waste their feeding opportunity on weak food.
However, that was true only under normal circumstances.
What if the Specter's goal wasn't actually becoming more powerful?
What if it was information gathering?
A series of events shot through Julian's mind.
A servant of Envy was tasked to find Nick within Crimson Fungus City.
Not knowing who he was, the servant started to abduct city guards. After all, the city guards should have some kind of central registry for people, and they probably also saw many people.
Eventually, the Specter found out that a huge incident had happened, which should be the incident the servant had heard about when Envy had seen Nick.
After that, the Specter found out that a captain must have interrogated the target.
So, the Specter abducted a captain but found out that it had been the wrong one.
However, the captured captain knew who the right captain was.
And just two days ago, the Specter had gotten that captain.
And now…
Julian looked at Nick.
The Specter knew who Nick was.
If everything continued happening the same way, Nick would vanish in something like 28 days.
Even more, Julian was quite certain that Nick wasn't the target of an Adult, Elder, or Fanatic.
No, Nick was most likely the target of a Demon.
A level six Specter.
Julian grinned maliciously as he looked at Nick, while Nick realized that his time was approaching.
Envy's servant was here!
Within a month, Nick would vanish!
When Julian saw the terror in Nick's eyes, he grew annoyed.
"Nick, all of this is unimportant. You can just forget about all of this," Julian said.
Nick looked with confusion at Julian.
"Huh?" he uttered.
"What were you talking about?" Julian asked.
"What?" Nick asked back. "I was talking about something?"
Julian nodded with a chuckle. "You seem to be quite scatterbrained recently. You were just telling me about your plans for the next big meeting."
"Oh?" Nick asked. "Oh, yeah, right!"
"Actually, I don't really have a plan for that meeting," Nick said.
Julian chuckled a bit. "Then why did you bring it up?"
"I don't know," Nick said with a laugh.
After a bit of small talk, Julian left Dark Dream.
He finally knew which Specter kept stealing his food.
One of the Veterans and one of the Experts who vanished had had running wagers with Julian, which would have soon paid out.
Someone had dared to grab Julian's food not once but twice!
And now, it wanted to grab a third piece!
This was Julian's city!
Even the Parasite had to follow his rules!
If this unknown Specter had just asked Julian for Nick, Julian would have most likely handed him over, but that fucker ate a Veteran and even an Expert!
Those were valuable pieces of food!
Julian narrowed his eyes.
Even though he was only a Fanatic, Julian had his ways of dealing with intruders.