Silence and darkness.
The majority of Anatomy's building was completely dark.
The only sounds inside the building were the slow footsteps of patrolling coral people.
Mundus and Zarren were currently outside, leaving Anatomy in a vulnerable position.
Because of that, all the coral people had been activated.
180 coral people were standing and walking around in the hallways.
Anatomy's building was huge, but such a big number of people still made it so that nearly every part of the building was under constant surveillance.
The Sea King was making sure that nobody was trying anything.
It was paying attention to every part of the building through the eyes and ears of its servants.
One of the coral people stepped into one of the staircases and slowly crept up the stairs.
Yet, without them noticing, two eyes opened up in the darkness below the stairs.
'Time to start,' Nick thought.
When Vernon entered Anatomy, Nick had escaped through an opening in the briefcase while Vernon was traveling up the stairs.
But wait, hadn't a coral person been with them during that time?
Wouldn't they have noticed?
Yes, they would have if it weren't for Nick's new ability.
The eyes in the darkness looked up, looking at the feet of the coral person ascending the staircase.
Nick fully materialized and crouched down.
Then, he released a huge amount of Zephyx.
The coral person didn't notice any of that.
Nick jumped.
His feet lightly tapped the wall behind him, and he shot at the coral person.
His right hand quickly but carefully moved towards one of the pockets in the coral person's uniform.
Pling!
And placed a round object in them.
The round object seemed to weigh a couple of kilos, but strangely, the coral person didn't react.
Anyone would notice if a dense object weighing about five kilos was placed in their pocket.
But shockingly, the coral person didn't.
In a fluid motion, Nick jumped up and reached the next floor.
SHING!
Nick cut through the floor and cut out a thin piece, around 30 centimeters long and five centimeters wide.
The metallic piece Nick had cut out fell down, but he just caught it with some kind of black sack made of a strange material.
The piece of debris vanished, and the sack didn't even seem to grow in any way.
Ssshhh!
Nick turned into mist and entered the crack.
However, he didn't go out the other end.
He just stayed inside the crack.
Finally, the dense Zephyx in the surroundings vanished.
The coral person just continued walking up the stairs as if nothing had happened.
Anyone watching this would be shocked.
How had the coral person not noticed this?!
Nick's emotions slowly calmed down as he stayed in the crack.
'That was only a Veteran, but it still consumed 20% of my Zephyx to pull this off,' he thought.
But as he felt his Zephyx rapidly recovering thanks to his Shell, he regained his confidence.
'15 seconds and I will be full again,' Nick thought.
In his mist form, Nick watched as the coral person ascended the stairs and walked across the floor in which Nick was currently located.
He had already deactivated his new ability, but the coral person still didn't notice anything amiss.
But this time, it was because of something else.
The place where Nick had cut through the ground was at the edge of the corridor, and even more, Nick's mist made it seem like the floor was still there.
He looked just like a floor tile.
As for the object in the coral person's uniform, the coral person didn't notice it due to their power.
The coral person was a Veteran, someone over a hundred times stronger than a normal human.
Five kilograms for a Veteran was less than 50 grams for a normal human.
Would someone notice an additional object weighing 50 grams inside their pocket without putting their hand in it?
No, the only way they would notice would be if the object were quite big.
The strength of the coral person was the very thing Nick took advantage of.
So, even without his new ability, the coral person wouldn't notice the object as long as they didn't put their hand in their pocket.
And what point did pockets have for a coral person?
The only reason why they were wearing clothing, to begin with, was that it would look strange if everyone walked around naked inside the building.
Yes, the coral people were minions of a Specter, but they still looked like humans.
Having them walking around naked in the city would just bring unnecessary attention to them.
Now, with all of this said, what did Nick's new ability actually do?
It was the ability of an Eternal, so it had to be amazing, right?
Yes, it was amazing.
In fact, it had three effects.
The first effect was that Nick became immune to the Nightmare's influence, allowing him to move around freely in the darkness.
The second effect was that Nick's mist turned black while surrounded by darkness.
But the most useful effect was the third one.
It could be activated whenever someone didn't perceive him consciously.
"Consciously" was important since a person could technically see him in their peripheral vision but not take note of him.
While a bird was searching for food high in the sky, there were probably tens of insects in its vision, but it could only see a few since the others were camouflaged.
The insects were in the bird's vision, but the bird wasn't perceiving them.
While Nick was not being consciously perceived, he could subtly influence someone's perception, just like the Nightmare.
Of course, using that ability cost a lot of Zephyx, and the more powerful the target, the more Zephyx it cost.
When Nick had used that on Aria after returning from the Nightmare's domain, he had used almost all of his Zephyx just create a short-lived illusion of a bit of darkness.
The blink of an eye was faster than the time the illusion had persisted.
Additionally, the illusion had been extremely subtle, almost unnoticeable.
Yet, due to Aria's power, Nick still used up almost all of his Zephyx.
As for the Veteran coral person just now, Nick had simply made it seem like nothing out of the ordinary was happening.
None of the sounds Nick made by cutting through the floor registered for it.
As for the object being placed in the coral person's pocket, it was just a gust of wind blowing on its clothing for a short moment.
Of course, the more aspects of a person's senses Nick manipulated, the more Zephyx he needed to use as well.
Nick had created a subtle sensation of feeling and suppressed some sound.
He had not hidden his body from view.
If he hadn't been careful, the coral person would have seen him.
Luckily, one of the strengths of the coral people was also one of their weaknesses.
Their shared senses.
180 bodies.
One mind.
The mind was extremely powerful, but viewing 180 different images and listening to 180 different microphones was a lot, even for such a powerful mind.
If a human had to look at 20 different videos for something, there were only two ways to effectively do that.
Focus on one at a time while flipping through them.
Unfocus the eyes and look at all of them for changes.
Naturally, the Sea King used the second method.
It just unfocused its metaphorical eyes and only took note of sensations it didn't expect to feel.
If Nick had entered the coral person's peripheral vision, the Sea King would have noticed some movement and put its focus on the coral person.
Because of that, it was important that Nick stayed out of the coral person's peripheral vision.
Creating or hiding images cost much more Zephyx than influencing sound.
Humans had amazing eyes and were visual creatures.
A huge part of their perception revolved around their eyes.
A deaf person could still live a relatively normal life, but a blind person was almost helpless.
When it came to using this ability, it was important to not manipulate too much or too little.
Yet, one thing was clear.
This ability was perfect for Nick.
His ability to create blinding light helped him escape into obscurity, while his newest ability helped him stay obscure.
Sadly, this one also became useless when someone was perceiving him.
'I don't want to be an Assassin, but the abilities I get force me down this path,' Nick thought as he watched the coral person pass by his crack.
'I guess I should just accept my path.'
From the floor below, Nick heard the sound of a door opening.
'Just like always,' Nick thought as he looked at the new coral person entering the staircase below him.
The coral people patrolled the entire building with machine-like precision.
'And exactly that will be their undoing,' Nick thought.
If a system was perfect, it was predictable.
If something always acted perfectly, one just had to know what the perfect action would be, and one would be able to predict it perfectly.
The coral person reached the spot below Nick, and a lot of Zephyx came out of the crack Nick was in.
And a moment later, the black mist rushed out of the crack.