Nick had contacted Aegis a couple of weeks before the new Specter had started to influence the leaders of Vertigo Box and Swirling Abyss.
Naturally, due to the way Nick used to contact Aegis, he didn't exactly know how they react to the news that he now was a Specter.
After all, he just left them a message.
As soon as the Governor from that city got Nick's request, the message was basically already delivered to Aegis.
If he just handed over the letter to the tax collectors, Aegis would get it, and nothing would happen to the Governor.
However, if the Governor decided to be a bit less cooperative and opened the letter, Aegis would still get the message, but the Governor would have some explaining to do.
Nick knew that the database entry regarding the Nightmare's location was of the highest level of security.
Access to the entry could only be given manually by a Shield, and there was no way to find it in the database.
One could only access it by writing out the address directly.
Naturally, as an entry with the highest level of clearance and security, any kind of access would be logged, and a Shield would be informed immediately if anyone tried to access it.
Back when Aria had looked at the entry after Nick had become the Liaison, the Left Arm had also received a notification, but she dismissed it since it came from Crimson City's console.
She knew that Nick was in Crimson City and saw no issue with that since the access was denied anyway.
However, a random attempt to access this hidden entry in the middle of the Grand Continent in a random city after years of no one trying to access the entry was extremely strange and unusual.
Nick knew that this would happen.
Even if the Governor destroyed all the evidence for some reason, Aegis would still want an explanation as to how he found out about the entry.
Nick just hoped that Aegis wouldn't treat him like any other Specter.
Sadly, that was still a risk.
The best thing Nick could do was to keep improving the cities and gathering intel.
Then, after ten to twenty years, he would go to Aegis and unveil all the information he had gathered.
At that point, several cities controlled by Wrath would become unveiled, dealing a devastating strike to it.
Of course, Wrath would see Nick as an enemy after that. It wouldn't be difficult to find out that he was the common denominator.
But all of this was in the future.
For now, Nick needed to focus on his immediate goals.
First, he wanted to use the time to become stronger.
Nick produced Zephyx and became more powerful by causing suffering to people.
Luckily for him, doing good didn't counteract the suffering he inflicted.
While Nick had helped thousands of people in Black Mine City, he was also causing suffering to the elite.
All the people he had judged to be executed had families who suffered immensely under the deaths of their loved ones.
Additionally, while the new Specter harvested the vast majority of Zephyx of the conflict between the two big Manufacturers, Nick was still partially responsible, which meant he got a bit of the suffering as well.
That increased the Zephyx he produced by about 40%.
Wait, only 40%?
Yes, only 40%.
One had to remember that Nick was still harvesting an immense amount of suffering from things he had done before he had become a Specter.
The survivors of Anatomy were still being punished by Aegis, and he was one of the biggest factors in their current suffering.
However, the biggest source of suffering that Nick harvested was Markus Julius, the old Governor of Crimson City.
Nick was almost solely responsible that he had to guard some Aegis stronghold somewhere in humiliation.
Nick was essentially working with a Mid Hero constantly.
The suffering Nick felt coming from Markus Julius improved his mood whenever he focused on it.
The most important factor in all of this was that Nick didn't seem to be gated by time but by volume when it came to producing Zephyx.
This meant that the more people suffered, the faster he improved.
In fact, in just two years, Nick had advanced to become an Early Specialist or Early Fanatic, depending on the viewpoint.
That was insanely fast.
Another thing Nick focused on was his ability to conjure objects and create manipulation lines.
With a Specter Core, both of these skills were incredibly useful.
Their potential was unmeasurable.
After just two years of training, Nick had managed to create two useful abilities.
Sadly, while useful, the two abilities were not nearly strong enough to be useful during a battle.
One of the abilities was his method of transmitting his voice.
The other one was telekinesis.
Nick could move stuff with his mind.
He could lift up to two objects at once with a collective weight of one ton.
Unfortunately, the ability was not very efficient yet.
However, this was just what Nick had been able to create after only two years.
Nick's last goal was to improve more cities and to learn more about the Corruptors.
Maybe he would even be able to find out where Wrath was.
The Corruptors kept their locations extremely secret.
The only one that wasn't hidden was Envy.
These were Nick's goals, and he would focus on them for the next couple of decades.
'It's about time to leave this city,' Nick thought as he looked at Black Mine City.
The city had changed incredibly within the last two years, and it would continue to change.
Even if it changed for the worse, it wouldn't get as bad as it had been when Nick arrived.
Yesterday, the two CZEs of Swirling Abyss and Vertigo Box had been changed by the Specter as well.
Everything from now on would be easy to do.
The Governor had also learned from Nick over the last two years, and while she definitely wasn't as good as Aria, she should have the skill to run the city halfway decently on her own.
'That was about another 4,000 people,' Nick thought. 'Together with Crimson City, that makes about 15,000 people whose lives I have improved significantly.'
Nick's body imitated sighing.
'About 1.5% of my goal.'
Nick thought back to the melting people in the Dregs of Crimson City.
He had forgotten many things in his fight against the Dark Mist, but he still remembered that day with clarity.
'It's far from enough, but it's a step forward.'
'I thought I would never be able to redeem myself, but I'm making progress.'
'It doesn't seem impossible anymore.'
Nick looked at the city's exit.
'And I will continue making progress over the coming decades.'
For a couple of minutes, Nick just looked at the city.
Then, he silently turned around and entered his cave.
Naturally, after staying here for two years, Nick had gotten himself a temporary residence.
As far as anyone was concerned, this cave was empty and owned by the government.
Nick walked deep into his cave, turned into mist, and flowed through a tiny hole.
Behind ten meters of stone, Nick had created an isolated space, which he used for his Greater Relay.
A moment later, he activated the Greater Relay, and Wrath manifested again.
"What do you want?" Wrath asked in, unsurprisingly, anger.
"I'm done with the city. Where do I go next?" Nick asked.
Specters didn't really feel surprised when something surprising happened, but they took note of a moment in which something didn't go according to predictions.
This was one of these moments.
Almost all of Wrath's servants were "lazy".
The word did not perfectly fit, though.
It was just that Specters were only interested in themselves, and they constantly tried to skirt the border between being useful and not being useful.
As long as their usefulness slightly outweighed the cost associated with killing them, they would survive.
Because of that, after a successful mission, servants often didn't contact their Lord for months or years.
There was no point in going above and beyond for their Lord.
They wouldn't be rewarded anyway.
Yet, Nick contacted Wrath for his next task almost immediately.
Was Nick not interested in growing more powerful without having to risk his life?
He was in a city that he controlled.
He could feed as much as he wanted without having to hide from Aegis or the local Manufacturers.
Every Specter would take advantage of that.
Even though all of this went against Wrath's predictions, he didn't complain.
Sometimes, Specters also acted without rhyme or reason.
Over the next minutes, Wrath told Nick about his next target.
Once more, Nick's target was a city controlled by Gluttony.
After Nick got all the details, he destroyed the Greater Relay.
Transporting this stone circle was more hassle than just making a new one.
Then, Nick left Black Mine City.
He did not say goodbye to anyone.
Just as abruptly as he appeared, he disappeared.