So, this was it.
Nick was finally leaving Crimson City.
The place he had called home for his entire life.
In a certain way, Nick felt a bit bad about leaving Crimson City, but he also looked forward to contributing more to humanity.
With the help of Aegis, he finally had the power to fully redeem himself.
Yet, it would still be a long way until then.
Additionally, Nick wasn't sure if he could continue redeeming himself at this very moment.
After all, the next cities he would be going to were not Crimson City, and there was a very important difference.
Nick wouldn't have any allies.
In Crimson City, when he started being its Liaison, Nick had Sky Dream and Aria backing him.
On top of that, he had decades of planning and experience in the city.
Doing the same thing in another city would be difficult since there was no real leverage for Aegis' power.
That meant that there was no physical power helping Nick enforce Aegis' political power.
In short, Nick was too weak.
Nick could deal with assassinations from Specialists, but he wouldn't be able to survive an assassination attempt from a Hero.
Even more, the cities had Specters that Nick wasn't familiar with, and there was a high likelihood that some of these Specters could be used to kill him.
While Nick was planning his future, the group stopped above a huge city.
The city was filled with gigantic buildings, and it was several times bigger than Crimson City.
However, this city didn't have a megastructure.
Another interesting thing about the city was the seemingly endless ruins surrounding it.
The ruins stretched as far as the eye could see, and it was obvious that a huge metropolis had once been here.
'It probably has three to six times as many citizens as Crimson City,' Nick thought as he looked at the city.
Even though Nick had been planning his future, he had still paid attention to the direction they had been going.
They had been going west for a while.
"An enjoyable outing, as always," Mentos spoke politely to the others. "Sadly, we were not of the same opinion this time."
Marvin just nodded. "Until we meet again, Mentos."
The others also said their goodbyes, and Mentos flew into the city.
'This must be Sky Water City,' Nick thought as he watched Mentos go into the city.
"This is Sky Water City," Simon said from Nick's side, confirming his guess. "We are currently on the southernmost edge of the Grand Continent, the biggest continent in the world."
Simon pointed towards the south, and Nick could just barely make out something that wasn't water or ruins. "To the south is an island of similar size to the island Crimson City is on, along with a couple more but smaller islands. To the east, you will find many islands, both big and small."
"A couple hundred kilometers to the southeast is the local stronghold of Aegis. It's on the northwestern corner of a medium-sized island. This stronghold is responsible for all of the cities in the scattered islands. The island group is around 3,000 to 4,000 kilometers wide."
"Crimson City is on the eastern edge of this group of islands."
Simon's explanation finally gave Nick an image of where he had lived his entire life.
He knew that the Desolate Continent was south or southwest of Crimson City's island, but he hadn't known that Crimson City was part of a group of islands.
Nick also hadn't known about the Grand Continent to the north.
"I'll also leave," Leopold said.
"I'll come with you," Simon said. "I need to go that direction anyway."
Leopold just nodded before looking at Marvin. "Thank you for the opportunity to expand my horizon."
Marvin just waved his hand dismissively. "I'll add the contribution points to your account."
Then, Leopold looked at Nick. "I sincerely hope you can prove that Crimson City wasn't just luck."
"I'll do my best," Nick said with a nod.
"Nick," Simon said. "I'm sure we'll meet again at some point."
"Most likely," Nick answered.
"You did well," Simon added. "The things you told me last time proved to be true, and I'm glad that's the case. You even captured the Prison for us."
"Thank you," Nick answered in a respectful tone.
Simon nodded with a smile, and some seconds later, he and Leopold shot towards the south.
Now, it was just Nick and Marvin.
"What's the plan now?" Nick asked.
"We're going to the headquarters," Marvin said. "The Technician wants to hear my report, and I presume that he would also want to talk to you after that. He will decide what you will be doing next."
Nick nodded. "Okay."
Then, the two of them shot toward the east.
The only reason why they had come here was to escort Mentos and partially Leopold.
Only Protectors were truly safe while traveling such large distances.
After flying over a big island, Nick saw nothing but ocean.
He had traveled over this ocean once before when he had told Aegis about the Nightmare.
According to Simon, this was the biggest ocean in the entire world, and just like the first time, Nick simply couldn't comprehend how big it was.
The water was absolutely endless!
Marvin was traveling almost 50 kilometers a second, and it still took them over four entire minutes to reach the western border of the Great Triangle.
That was insane!
Nevertheless, even such a big ocean wasn't endless, and the two of them arrived at the western edge of the Great Triangle.
After they reached the continent, they continued flying east.
The Great Triangle was a pretty big continent, and they needed to cross its entire width.
Yet, the Great Triangle couldn't compare to this endless ocean in size.
Eventually, the two of them reached the eastern edge of the Great Triangle.
Everything below Nick was covered in ruins, and in those ruins was the gigantic building that represented Aegis.
A five-kilometer tall white pyramid.
Nick also remembered the name of these ruins.
'New York,' Nick repeated in his mind. 'What a strange name. Was there an Old York?'
Marvin and Nick approached the building and landed on a platform about halfway up the pyramid.
Nick saw two Heroes guarding the door, and they quickly approached and bowed in front of Marvin. "Welcome back, Protector."
Marvin ignored them and just walked past.
Nick did the same thing.
After all, these Heroes were here as a punishment.
No matter how nice or pitiful they appeared, they had caused great amounts of suffering for humanity to end up here.
Due to their power, it was possible that they had killed even more innocent people than Nick.
"Do you know of their crimes?" Nick asked Marvin as they approached the building.
"No, I never bothered to find out," he said.
Nick just nodded and didn't continue the conversation.
The two of them quickly reached a wide Extractor Shaft and went down.
Right now, they were in the middle layer of the gigantic structure, which was reserved for the most dangerous Specters that Aegis had contained.
The top layer was for administrators, Shields, the Hall of Remembrance, and the Champion of Light.
The bottom layer was for all the people living here, which mostly consisted of families and friends of powerful Aegis members.
The underground was for valuable storage and research.
The Technician was the chief researcher of Aegis. He was the most powerful and most intelligent scientist in the entire world, and almost all of Aegis' technologies came from him and his team.
Because of that, the Technician always stayed in the underground layer of Aegis' headquarters.
He was too busy researching.
Marvin was part of the Technician's team, which meant that he also lived there.
The two of them reached the underground layer after a while, and Marvin stopped in front of a metallic door.
"Wait here," Marvin said.
Nick just nodded, and Marvin entered the room.
Silence.
As Nick waited, he just looked around the hallway.
The light coming from the ceiling felt incredibly warm, and the white walls seemed so clean and pure.
'Aegis,' Nick thought as he looked around the silent hallway. 'My home.'
'My people.'
'My redemption.'
'My power.'
Nick took a deep breath.
This was where he was supposed to be.
Just being here ignited his desire to help humanity.
'But I need to be realistic,' Nick thought. 'I need the power to change cities first.'
'In Crimson City, I had Aria to rely on. In the next city, I won't have anybody.'
'In fact, even the Governor will be my enemy, most likely.'
'I don't have to be powerful enough to kill all the Heroes, but I need to be powerful enough to flee with my life intact.'
Nick sighed.
'And I'm not powerful enough currently.'
'I finally have a shot at redeeming myself, and I can't risk wasting it.'
'I should-'
The door opened, and a younger man with white hair looked at Nick with a smile.
"Good job," the Researcher said.
Nick bowed politely. "Thank you, sir."
The Researcher nodded and gestured inside. "Come in."