Over an entire year passed.
During this year, Meat Cube City did not change.
Everything was as it always was.
Today, Nick looked at the city with a determined expression.
'Finally. Took long enough,' he thought.
Nick looked at his right hand and clenched it for a moment.
He felt powerful.
'I think I should be something like 59 or 60 years old by now,' Nick thought. 'Becoming a Mid Specialist at such an age should be considered very young.'
Nick wanted to release a breath.
'Or a Mid Fanatic, I guess. The fact that I'm a Specter is also the very reason why I am advancing so fast.'
'If I still were a human, even with consuming a Late Elder, I would need around five to ten years to advance a level.'
'Meanwhile, I advanced two levels in five years.'
'My speed of advancement is even faster than the speed I had when I became an Expert.'
'Usually, advancement slows down with power growth, but that wasn't the case for me.'
Nick furrowed his brows.
'Although, it is slowing down. The first level took me two years, and the second level took me three.'
Naturally, the way Nick advanced seemed amazing. After all, he only needed to cause some suffering somewhere, and he would keep advancing without doing anything else.
However, this didn't work forever.
While Nick was still receiving suffering from Markus Julius, the rich people and leaders of Crimson City were no longer suffering.
They had all gotten used to their new lives, and the grieving families had mostly overcome their grief by now.
Nick was barely gaining any suffering from Crimson City anymore.
The suffering he was collecting from Black Mine City was also starting to shrink.
Water Pillar City was still in the middle of a transformation, and it gave the most suffering to Nick.
Nick knew that the suffering from Black Mine City would almost completely vanish within the next ten years, and Water Pillar City would also significantly reduce.
Nick was advancing quickly right now, but he also caused a lot of suffering.
'The Zephyx I require will only grow as I become more powerful, and I need to keep at it.'
'However, I still have to keep in mind that I live to help humanity, not benefit from its suffering.'
'If I prioritize my own power, I won't be better than all the rich people I hate.'
'I have to be careful.'
Eventually, Nick focused on the city again.
'As a Mid Fanatic, I should be powerful enough.'
The next moment, Nick seemingly vanished.
In truth, Nick had partially transformed into mist.
All the years of focusing on manipulating Zephyx weren't for nothing.
Nick had enough control over his power to change the color of his mist and to partially transform his body.
This gave him a method to travel through the air without needing to become a Demon or having his primary ability active.
By partially transforming the tip of his extremities into mist, he could expand the "area of his palms and feet".
His misty hands could take up a much bigger area in the air, and Nick could use the power of his physical body to push himself off the air.
In short, Nick was traveling across the air, similar to how a lizard or a spider ran across the water.
The comparison was not perfectly accurate, but it was accurate enough.
Nick could now technically use any part of the atmosphere, like a road.
Nick partially transformed into mist and entered Meat Cube City.
He rapidly moved through the streets until he arrived in front of a huge skyscraper.
This was the most powerful Manufacturer in the city.
Geometry.
Nick easily passed the guards and entered the building without any issues.
Barely anyone paid attention while walking through the building.
After all, why would they?
They were the undisputed most powerful Manufacturer in the entire city.
No human would dare to attack them, and Specters tended to avoid big congregations of powerful Extractors.
Nick entered the Extractor shaft and left at one of the higher floors.
Nobody was on this floor, and the only thing of note was a big door at the end of a long hallway.
This was the floor with the Meat Cube.
Over the past couple of weeks, Nick had kept watch over this floor.
The meat deliveries happened once per day, during the evening hours.
Right now, it was afternoon.
Nick waited in the hallway for a couple of hours, and eventually, someone came out of the Extractor shaft.
It was one of the two Heroes of Geometry.
Every day, a different Hero would transport the meat to the Meat Cube. Naturally, they were splitting the Zephyx from the Meat Cube relatively equally.
Per week, the two Heroes from Geometry got two days of meat delivery each, while the Governor got three.
Nick watched the Hero opening the Containment Unit.
Nick's perception entered the Containment Unit, and he saw the Meat Cube.
The Meat Cube was about two-by-two-by-two meters in dimension, and it looked surprisingly solid.
One would think that a literal cube of meat would be bloody, but that wasn't the case.
The meat was not bloody at all, and it almost seemed like it had a crust.
When the door opened, the Meat Cube didn't move at all.
In fact, none of the two Heroes of Geometry even knew that it was a Physical Specter.
They were under the impression that the Meat Cube was an Early Demon Possession Specter.
The Governor was the only one who knew about the Meat Cube's true identity.
The Meat Cube was actually a Mid Physical Demon.
Luckily for the Governor, the two Heroes would never find out the truth.
At some point, they would become Mid Heroes, after which they would come into contact with Aegis. Aegis would then assign them to be Governors of a different city.
Nick quietly entered the Containment Unit after the Hero.
The Containment Unit was quite dirty. Blood and individual pieces of meat were everywhere.
If the Hero paid attention, he might have noticed Nick.
Sadly, he didn't.
After all, he went to this place twice a week and had been doing so for decades.
Being vigilant here was akin to being highly vigilant while going toward the toilet.
As for the Meat Cube, it got the orders to act like a Possession Specter.
So, it did just that.
Specters didn't grow bored or infuriated, usually. The only times these emotions appeared were when the Specter was insane.
Because of that, the Meat Cube essentially existed in a dormant state, barely thinking.
Doing that was the smartest choice. After all, it had been doing that for decades, and it was receiving plenty of meat while doing exactly that.
So, it was just there, waiting for further orders.
The Hero took out his next delivery of meat and dumped it into the Meat Cube.
A moment later, the meat started to get absorbed by the Meat Cube, and a ton of Zephyx was released.
For the next hour, the Hero focused on absorbing the Zephyx produced by the Meat Cube.
Then, he left.
Meanwhile, Nick just waited.
He was waiting for something specific.
Nick waited in this Containment Unit for over two weeks.
Every day, someone would arrive to deliver the meat.
And then, two weeks after arriving here, the thing Nick was waiting for happened.
This time, two people entered.
One was a middle-aged man with a casual expression, while the other was a young woman, who was barely wearing anything.
The middle-aged man looked well-groomed and wore the spotless uniform of a Governor.
Naturally, he was the Governor.
The young woman had impressive breasts, which were covered by a thin strip of fabric, and she wore red heels that seemed almost impossible to walk in.
This was a very unusual outfit for a woman in these parts.
However, she wasn't really a woman.
She was a Specter.
In fact, she was Lust's emissary.
She was the one who could order the Meat Cube around.
When Nick saw them, he knew that the time had come.
This was what he had been waiting for.
About once a month, the Governor secretly took Lust's emissary with him to the Meat Cube.
This was the order of Lust's emissary.
She was only an Early Fanatic, and she knew that she wouldn't be able to win in a fight against the Governor.
The Governor was human, and the emissary knew that humans tended to act illogically sometimes.
Because of that, she had given a failsafe order to the Meat Cube.
If the Meat Cube didn't get to meet the emissary once every two months at least, it was supposed to kill the Governor and the city.
Therefore, the Governor brought the Specter to the Meat Cube once every month.
This meeting was supposed to remind the Governor about who was truly in charge.
As the Specter entered, the Meat Cube's consciousness stirred, and it communicated with the Specter.
"Show me your Specter Core," the emissary ordered.
Naturally, this order was Nick's doing.
The Meat Cube was trained to follow orders without questioning them.
So, it complied.
Its Specter Core was slowly pushed out of its shell.
The emissary and the Governor looked at the Specter Core with confusion.
Why was it showing its Specter Core?
BANG!
Suddenly, a spear hit the Specter Core, and an instant later, the Specter Core broke into pieces.
The Meat Cube was dead.