Nick looked at the city for a while.
He just watched the children enter and exit the Containment Unit.
Apparently, they only needed to work in there for a couple of minutes before leaving.
They seemed barely any different after leaving.
In fact, they didn't even look injured or distraught.
They just seemed… normal.
That was until Nick saw a teenage boy enter and leave.
'Did he grow a beard?' Nick thought as he looked at the teenage boy.
Earlier, the boy had seemed too young to grow a beard, but when he came out, he seemed just the right age to have the first hairs above his lips.
After that, Nick looked a bit closer.
'Sure enough, they all seem to age a bit after entering and exiting,' he thought as he looked at them.
'So, does this Specter make them age? Is that why the children are working with the Specter?'
'Is that also why the old people are that young?'
A bit later, Nick also saw an adult queuing up.
'Strange. Until now, I've only seen children in the queue. I wonder what happens if an adult enters.'
Nick waited to see what would happen to the adult.
When the adult came back out…
He looked like he was five years older!
He aged by a lot more than the children!
'Is this based on perceived aging instead of static aging?' Nick thought. 'When a ten-year-old ages by a year, it probably feels just as long to them as when a 25-year-old ages by five years.'
'So, that's what the Specter is about, huh? It grows more powerful by stealing life from people.'
Nick observed a couple more conversations.
There was someone who looked 30 and was actually 18.
A 16-year-old who was eight.
A 40-year-old who was 20.
However, there was also a 20-year-old that looked to be about 20.
Not everyone was unnaturally old.
'The closer people live to the middle of the city, the more their appearance resembles their actual age. The buildings are also made of better materials and are taller.'
'Makes sense. Living near the outside of the city means being at the mercy of more Specters. Naturally, people with power would gravitate towards living in the middle of the city, while the poor are stuck on the outside.'
'Additionally, the poor rely on the easy money from the age Specter, which makes them appear older.'
Nick's eyes narrowed.
'This is actually worse than it looks. Young people lack the maturity to confront Specters. Finding an Extractor who is 16 years old or younger is extremely difficult since their minds lack the experience and stability of an adult. This often makes them commit mistakes when confronted with fear and danger.'
'The people near the outside of the city are mismatched with their true age. When their minds reach their peak at about 20 years of age, their bodies will already start to degrade as they hit their 30s.'
'This makes it very difficult to become an Extractor.'
Nick stayed in his mist form and entered the city.
There were barely any sensors or walls anywhere.
This was one of the worst-defended cities Nick had ever seen.
'They don't need impressive defenses,' Nick thought as he looked at the sea of people he had already passed. 'Their defenses are masses of meat and lives.'
'By the looks of it, this city probably has over 40,000 inhabitants.'
'That's actually crazy.'
'In the hundred or so cities I've visited in the Great Triangle, I only saw about three cities with so many inhabitants.'
As Nick continued towards the east, he finally found out why the city was called Abyss City.
At the east side of the city was a huge body of water. Nick couldn't be sure if it was a big lake or an ocean.
However, at its shore, there was a huge body of swirling black water.
It was impossible to see the bottom.
Not even Nick could look at the bottom.
And that was everything Nick needed to know.
To him, darkness was just as bright as light, and Nick's vision was not reduced by darkness.
The fact that he couldn't see the bottom meant that this was not darkness.
'It's the body of a gigantic Specter,' Nick thought.
The humongous whirlpool was one Specter, and it was almost three kilometers wide.
'This has to be a Force Specter,' Nick thought.
Obviously, approaching the Specter was extremely dangerous.
'This Specter isn't even really contained,' Nick thought as he looked at it.
He saw a couple of big obelisks near the shore.
By now, Nick was pretty good at Zephology, and he could tell what these obelisks were for.
'They redirect and absorb Zephyx. Most likely, when the Abyss produces Zephyx, the obelisks absorb a good amount of it.'
'I think I've seen enough of the city. I'm not here to sightsee. I'm here to find a way back to Aegis.'
Nick quickly looked for some powerful people.
He found a couple of Experts and even a Specialist, but they were not really talking to each other.
Nick's plan had been to overhear their conversations to learn about where he was in the world, but they probably wouldn't randomly start talking about geography while walking around outside.
'Should I ask someone?' Nick thought.
He shook his head. 'No, I'm not able to hide my Zephyx, and they will just start shouting as soon as they see me.'
'I don't know how many Heroes this city has, and I don't want to find out.'
'I have to find these things out on my own.'
Nick looked for someone he could "question".
After a while, he saw the Expert from earlier arriving in the city with the survivors.
Then, he saw her meeting another Expert, who then left the city.
Nick decided to follow that Expert.
Nobody had noticed him yet, but that wasn't very surprising.
The city's defenses were horrible, and Nick was incredible at staying hidden.
As long as there wasn't a Hero actively searching for him, Nick wouldn't be found.
As Nick followed after the Expert, he couldn't help his thoughts wandering to some dark places.
'It's actually scary that I could effectively take down this entire city on my own.'
'I just have to find the Governor, assassinate them in secret, find the next Hero, assassinate them, and so on. I could even free a couple of Specters in some Containment Units by simply attacking them. After all, I have two extremely powerful blades, and I have the physical power of a Hero. I could break most Containment Units designed to house Fanatics.'
'Then, the Fanatics would break out and deal with the remaining inhabitants.'
At that moment, Nick took a deep breath.
He didn't like that he was thinking about these things.
He felt scared of what he could potentially do.
He had so much power now.
'Yet, I've had this power for a long while. Why is it suddenly a problem now?' Nick thought.
Sadly, Nick already knew the answer.
He just didn't like it.
He was a Specter, and that made him scared of himself.
He had the capability to do evil, and he had the power.
He even was part of a group that was supposed to do nothing but commit evil.
Nick still saw himself as a human, but he knew that he was just running away.
In truth, he was a Specter, and he knew it.
Would he one day forget what it meant to be a human and start becoming a Specter?
Would he start to ignore the suffering of the people and use his power to benefit no one but himself?
Nick became scared.
He became scared of himself.
He became scared of what he might turn into.
He didn't want to turn into a true Specter, but what if he had no choice?
What if he started seeing hurting people as just another bit of training?
What if, like every other Specter, he was just trying to attain more and more power?
Nick noticed that the Expert was traveling alone now, and Nick grew nervous.
This was nothing special.
He had done things like this many, many times in the past.
It was a standard take-down.
And yet…
Nick hadn't been this scared of a take-down in forever.
In the end, he gritted his teeth.
BANG!
The Barrier of the man appeared and broke an instant later.
His expression turned shocked.
But then, he vanished.
Nick had grabbed his leg and had pulled him into the sand below him.
Naturally, the man was covered in darkness in an instant, and Nick used his newly upgraded ability from the Nightmare.
The man felt like he couldn't breathe anymore since he had run out of Zephyx, and his Zephosis had been interrupted.
Obviously, Nick wouldn't kill the guy.
However, as sorry as Nick was, he still needed the man to become delirious enough so that his mind would drop its guard.
Many seconds passed as the man struggled many meters below the sand.
He was dying.
And then, Nick injected feelings and visions into the man's mind, and the man's mind started to associate these things with other things.
A couple seconds later, Nick knew the general area of where he was, but he still didn't know exactly where he was.
BANG!
Nick knocked the guy out before infusing him with some Zephyx.
Luckily, humans could also absorb Specter Zephyx.
The man's Zephosis activated again, and a couple of seconds later, he woke up.
Immediately, he was assaulted by the Nightmare's influence.
BOOOOOOOM!
Sand exploded, and the man jumped up into the light of day.
People around him immediately turned to look at him.
And they looked at him with frowns.
Why was he naked?