Nick's mind went wild as soon as he realized what was going on.
One of the Seven Corruptors, Wrath, would kill him!
However, Nick only believed that for an instant before his mind regained rationality.
And the more he thought about it, the more answers he found.
'They did not sense me while in there since my ability didn't activate earlier. Yet, they knew that I was out here without sensing me.'
Nick remembered the door that had so suddenly closed behind the CZE.
He had felt that was strange, and sure enough, it was strange.
Which door would close with such force and violence shortly after someone's foot just barely entered?
'It has some sort of automatic reaction to Specter Zephyx,' Nick realized. 'As soon as I closed in on the door, it slammed shut since it senses my Zephyx. The CZE did not see me, but as soon as the door slammed shut, she knew that there had to be a Specter here.'
'If she were human, she would have immediately run out of the building and would have called the Governor for help. After all, while she wouldn't know how strong I was, she would know that I had to be confident in taking her down since I was following her this closely.'
'However, she obviously isn't a human,' Nick thought. 'No human would dare to interact with one of the Seven Corruptors.'
Nick slowly moved down from the ceiling, and the CZE's eyes immediately locked onto him.
Compared to how she had seemed during her big speech earlier, she seemed almost dead.
There were no emotions on her face. It was almost like a corpse was looking at Nick.
A second later, Nick turned into his human form again and looked at the statue representing Wrath.
His eyes were just as dead as the CZE's.
"A Force Specter that can turn into a human," Wrath said with gritted teeth.
If Nick didn't know that Wrath was a Specter, he would think that Wrath was frustrated and angry at him.
"Why did you follow my servant?" Wrath asked, sounding like he was trying his best not to explode on Nick.
Nick did not immediately answer.
The more he analyzed the situation, the better it actually seemed.
Back when Nick had seen Envy, he had been at Envy's mercy.
Envy would have sucked Nick's power out of him, and there would have been nothing that Nick could have done.
But things were different now.
This wasn't Wrath's true body.
This was just a portion of its power, manifested by the Greater Relay.
A John would be helpless, but Nick was a Specialist or Fanatic.
While Wrath had tremendous power, there was no way to use its power at this moment.
The only threat was the CZE, but Nick could flee from her without any issues.
At worst, he would just need to flee from the city and search for another one.
Lastly, Wrath believed that Nick was a Specter.
That meant that Nick wasn't allied with humanity, which was the only thing that would make him dangerous.
In short, Nick was not the enemy.
At least in their minds.
'This might actually be a good opportunity.'
"Food," Nick answered evenly, leisurely crossing his arms. "I didn't know you were a Specter as well."
The CZE looked at Nick evenly while Wrath narrowed its eyes in hatred.
"Speak the truth or die! You are an Initial Fanatic. My servant is a Peak Fanatic. Attacking my servant is too risky!" Wrath boomed with a deep voice.
"It's the truth," Nick answered casually. "I assassinate people. Killing your servant is not difficult to me."
"How?" Wrath asked, infuriated.
Specters had many special abilities, but Nick was claiming that he could jump almost an entire level, which was crazy.
"I'm not telling," Nick answered evenly. "You're not really here. You're just a Greater Relay."
"I am not here, but my servants span the globe," Wrath spoke in a threatening voice. "I know who you are. I know where you are. Serve me or be hunted down by my servants."
Nick's expression didn't change. "I can just join one of the other six. Their powers will protect me from your powers."
"Pointless!" Wrath shouted. "Servitude is servitude. Serving me or others makes no difference to you!"
"But serving no one makes a difference," Nick answered. "Neutrality does not equate enmity."
"Incorrect!" Wrath shouted. "Servitude demands decisiveness! You are either for me or against me!"
"Serve me or die!"
Nick looked at Wrath neutrally for a while.
"Fine, I will serve you," he said.
"Good!" Wrath said with a malicious grin.
Did Wrath believe that Nick would wholeheartedly serve him now?
Of course not!
No Specter would believe that.
Amongst Specters, there were no true loyalties.
The only way one could have a Specter as a servant was by being the biggest danger to one's life.
As soon as a bigger danger came along, they would immediately betray you and help the bigger danger.
If there were a stronger Specter than Wrath that was willing to take a Specter, the Specter would immediately follow them, and everyone knew that.
If there were a way to flee outside from Wrath's… wrath, the Specter would do just that.
There was no loyalty.
Of course, the Seven Corruptors knew that, which was why they reached an agreement.
Stealing servants was forbidden.
Because if they started stealing servants, none of them would have any of them.
After all, a servant was valuable, and if any servant encountered a stronger servant from another Corruptor, they would just jump ship immediately.
At that point, it wouldn't matter who would serve whom. None of the Specters would die anyway. They would just work for the latest stronger servant they had met before meeting another servant that was stronger than them.
They also wouldn't even need to do a lot of work. They just needed to be more valuable than their metaphorical cost of administration.
Because of that, despite their hate for each other, the Trio of Destruction and the Seven Corruptors agreed that servitude was for life.
They were allowed to kill the servants of others, but they were not allowed to poach them for exactly this reason.
They all wanted to have servants.
Nick hadn't known about that before he had "accepted" to become Wrath's servant, but Wrath very quickly explained it to him, albeit in a much more direct and shorter manner.
"If anyone finds out you are my servants, they will kill you. There is no way to survive. You are bound to me forever!"
That was basically all he said.
However, Nick wasn't really afraid or nervous.
In fact, he was a bit excited.
'This might prove to be amazing for humanity and Aegis!' Nick thought as he looked at Wrath's sculpture with boredom. 'There is no way for any human to enter the ranks of the Specters to gain inside knowledge. Communication between both sides is impossible since it's not possible that anyone from either side would help the other side. Additionally, it's extremely easy to find out which side someone belongs to.'
'I am the only person… or being… who can enter both sides. Naturally, I am still on humanity's side, but no Specter can possibly know that. Even more, they wouldn't even suspect me of being a servant from another Specter since, logically, the immediate danger in front of me is more dangerous than a distant danger.'
'And since Specters only follow logic, there's no way that I would purposefully choose to put myself in more danger than necessary.'
'I have a unique opportunity to learn about the enemies of humanity from the inside!'
"What can you do?" Wrath asked with narrowed eyes.
"I'm good at assassination and staying hidden," Nick said.
Naturally, Wrath wanted to know more about Nick's abilities, but it knew that Nick wouldn't tell him.
The more Wrath pushed, the more likely it was that Nick would estimate his survival chances after escaping to be higher than staying here.
Having a servant as a Specter was like holding a live eel in one's hands. As long as the eel believed that it wouldn't be killed, it wouldn't go too crazy, but if one pressed too hard and put it in too much danger, it would slide out of the hands and take its chances with flopping on the ground to escape.
There was this unbreakable calculation of risk.
The chance of an assassination attempt occurring times the chance of it succeeding.
If both numbers were too high, the servant would try to escape.
If trying to escape lowered the total chance of death, the servant would do it.
By learning more about the servant, the chances of succeeding in killing the servant increased.
However, that meant that the leader couldn't push the servant as much anymore with threats.
Trying to escape would always increase the chance of an attempt occurring to 100% but would lower the chance of the attempt succeeding by a lot.
If that was a worthwhile trade, the Specter would take it.
So, in the end, Wrath didn't ask about Nick's specific ability.
Asking him meant that it couldn't make use of Nick as much.
"Can you hide amongst humans?" Wrath asked.
"Don't need to," Nick answered. "I just take what I want."
Wrath remained silent for a bit.
"I don't need you in this city."
"I need you someplace else."
"But first…"
"You need to know how to contact me for orders."
"My servant will teach you how to make a Greater Relay."
Nick immediately became interested, but he didn't let it show.
"Okay."