Nick's body healed within a couple of seconds, and he stood up to look around.
He found himself in a fleshy room that was about three meters wide and long.
The walls were filled with miniature versions of the hole that had swallowed Nick.
The rims of the holes were filled with teeth and seemed to lead into another hole filled with teeth.
In a way, the smaller maws looked a bit like mouths, which reminded Nick of his old boss, Julian.
Nick was the only one inside the room.
After looking around the room, Nick quickly found his weapons lying around him.
His two blades had been torn off his body by the tongues, and they lay in front of him while all of his spears lay around the room.
While Nick rarely used his spears nowadays, he still carried ten around with him.
He quickly grabbed his two blades and put them back onto his arms.
This immediately alleviated Nick's distress.
Then, Nick looked at his scattered spears.
After looking at them for a while, he decided against picking them up.
Why?
Well, Nick was naked.
Where was he going to store them?
For the next several seconds, Nick just sat in the middle of the room.
The things that had happened to him went through his mind again and again.
He was used to many kinds of tortures, but this was a new one.
He had felt completely powerless, and he had not chosen to feel this way.
It was inevitable to feel powerless while working with some of the Specters, but before it happened, the Extractors had decided to go through with this.
Here, Nick hadn't had that luxury.
He had been forced to go through this experience.
Even more, Extractors generally knew that they would survive working with a Specter, while this hadn't been the case here.
The Maw could have killed him.
In fact, the Maw had come dangerously close to killing him.
If Nick's Specter Core had broken in a more unfortunate way, Nick would have become completely helpless for a long time.
Luckily, only a small crack appeared along one of the manipulation lines.
As long as Nick focused on fixing that manipulation line, his power wouldn't be impacted.
For the next couple of minutes, Nick focused on repairing his Specter Core and re-created the damaged manipulation line.
Within ten minutes, Nick's power had returned.
And then, Nick waited.
There was nothing else he could do.
He couldn't possibly break through any of the walls, and there were no openings except for the tiny maws.
Well, Nick could turn into mist and go through them, but that would be suicide.
The Maw would probably just kill him.
Despite having the power to resist, resisting was often not the most intelligent thing to do.
'I guess I have to wait for it to gather everyone,' Nick thought as he looked at one of the maws on the wall.
'This should be what the Technician told me about, a battle between people that have the Maw's power.'
Nick moved his hand over one of his blades.
'Luckily, that shouldn't be much of an issue.'
'The other Extractors will most likely also not have Barriers, which means that escape abilities are much more valuable than normal.'
'Humans can take a lot of punishment with their Barriers, but without Barriers, we die easily.'
'On top of that, my body is as good as it gets, and I have extensive fighting experience.'
Nick took a deep breath as he remembered the tongues again.
'The most dangerous part has already passed. The Maw has accepted me as a participant in its so-called duel.'
'Maybe this is actually a good thing.'
Yet, when Nick thought that, several things shot through his mind.
His Barrier was destroyed.
His Space Bag was destroyed.
He had lost all of his identification.
Returning to Aegis might not be as easy as expected.
'However, I should receive an ability mutation with one of the Eternals. That would make me the only person who ever had access to the abilities of three Eternals.'
The only person Nick knew who had had access to an Eternal was the Champion of Light since he had the Sun's ability.
Maybe the Champion of Light had also been in contact with the Maw before, at which point he would have two.
Yet, the Champion of Light couldn't possibly have had access to the Null or the Nightmare.
As for Nurse Alice… Nick doubted it.
In front of Eternals, like Nurse Alice, the Champion of Light wasn't any more significant than an Extractor from a random city.
Nick didn't think that Nurse Alice would grant her abilities to him.
Nick's feelings regarding his current situation were mixed.
Logically, this was definitely a positive thing.
Yet, the memories of what the tongues had done to him popped into his mind again and again.
After a while, Nick shook his head and forced the memories into the back of his mind.
This wasn't the first time he had done something like that.
Nick knew that he had done the same thing after he had released the Crimson Sea.
He also felt like this had happened another time before that, but Nick couldn't remember why or when exactly.
'That's probably part of the memories I've lost.'
Over the past years, Nick had learned to deal with his memory loss, but it still felt alien.
Nick remembered times when he had remembered something else, but he didn't remember the specific thing that he remembered.
He only knew what kind of feelings he had been roughly feeling back then, but he didn't know why he had felt them.
When he tried to remember what had happened, he only felt terror, dissociation, and guilt.
But he didn't know why.
The number of memories he had lost felt staggering.
It only felt like he had forgotten 10% or something like that, but these 10% were randomly scattered, making it feel like he forgot so many things.
It was not easy.
Nick just pushed the memories of the tongues to the back of his mind and focused on the future.
He could deal with these things another time.
Sadly, it wasn't so easy.
If Nick could occupy himself, this would have been much easier.
But he couldn't.
He was forced to wait in silence for an unknown period of time.
He couldn't learn.
He couldn't work.
Even more, he couldn't advance right now.
Yes, he was essentially surrounded by a Specter, but there was absolutely no Zephyx coming from the Specter.
So, Nick waited, and while he waited, he kept focusing on the future.
Time passed.
More time passed.
Even more time passed.
Nick had no idea how much time had passed, but he was certain that it had to have been at least several days.
However, he wasn't sure if it had already been weeks or even months.
Time kept passing.
And passing.
And passing.
Nick had entered a form of trance in which he had only looked forward without thinking about anything.
There was nothing to think about.
He didn't need food, water, air, sleep, or anything similar.
He was just… there.
Finally, Nick felt something change.
He didn't know how much time had passed, but he knew that his wait was over.
Zephyx!
The small maws all over the room gave off Zephyx, filling the room!
'It wants me to advance!' Nick thought as a gleam appeared in his eyes.
Nick focused on the Zephyx and willed his Zephyx Synchronizer to attune to it.
But then…
Nothing.
Nick's Zephyx Synchronizer didn't attune to the Maw!
He could feel the Zephyx from the Maw, but whenever he "took a gulp", he felt like it just went through him.
He felt like a skeleton that was trying to drink.
'My Specter Core!' Nick realized in horror.
'My Specter Core is isolating my Zephyx Synchronizer from any Zephyx!'
'I can't advance!'
Nick's mind was going wild.
They wanted to experiment with ability advancement before he had been taken by the Maw!
They didn't know yet how Nick could advance his abilities!
'But I have to!' Nick thought with gritted teeth.
If Nick didn't advance, the Maw would most likely directly kill him!
He needed to get the Maw's ability somehow!
At that moment, the memories with the tongues shot through his mind again, but this time, he was actually glad that it happened.
Nick gritted his teeth, unsheathed his blade, and put it to his neck.
Then, he pressed it into his neck.
When Nick's blade felt his Specter Core, an immense pain shot throughout his body.
A moment later, Nick pushed his blade even further into his neck.
Crksh!
A tiny hole appeared in his Specter Core, but it wasn't deep enough yet.
He pushed further.
Nick felt like he was dying.
CRK!
Then, Nick felt some external Zephyx entering his Zephyx Synchronizer.
The next moment, he felt his Zephyx Synchronizer shake.
His ability was advancing!