Judge Heiner flew through the sky, carrying a big black cube.
After a while, he landed in front of a humongous building.
Aegis' headquarters.
The biggest building in the world.
Although, it was important to mention that it was the biggest intact building in the world.
Based on the many ruins scattered around the building, there had been hundreds of buildings even bigger than this one.
Compared to the glory days of the Ancient Ones, Aegis' headquarters barely counted as a normal house.
The Ancient Ones had achieved incomprehensible things.
For example, in the big space of water between the Long Continent and the Great Triangle was a ruin of unimaginable proportions.
Steel bars that were hundreds of meters wide and many kilometers long.
All of them had collapsed onto each other, creating a huge mountain range of metal in the middle of the ocean.
Based on the composition and manufacture of these gigantic bars of steel, this must have once been a long construct that had been over 150 kilometers long.
A building that was about one kilometer wide and 150 kilometers long.
Why would anyone build something this tall?
Some people believed that it had to be some kind of fancy tunnel or elevator, but the same people couldn't answer where this tunnel or elevator was supposed to lead.
Yet, no matter what this was for, it was clear that today's technology couldn't possibly compare to the technological achievements of the Ancient Ones.
As Judge Heiner landed on the big terrace halfway up Aegis' headquarters, he glanced at the two Heroes standing in front of him.
"Welcome back, Judge Heiner," they spoke with respect.
Judge Heiner nodded at them halfheartedly before walking past them.
The door of the headquarters opened, and orange light came out of the hallway.
The walls and ceiling were still white, but the light was very different from how it had been 20 years ago.
In the past, the light in here had been bright and filled with life.
Now, the light felt just like the light coming from the Sun.
Orange.
Dull.
Neutral.
Things had changed.
Judge Heiner kept carrying the huge metal cube down the hallway.
Eventually, he reached the Extractor shafts and walked to the side.
There were two Extractor shafts that were much wider than the other ones.
Naturally, these were for transporting cargo through the building.
Judge Heiner went down to the lowest level of the Extractor shaft and left.
After walking through a wide and long hallway, he stopped in front of a big gate.
His Barrier activated for a moment, and a couple of seconds later, four people stepped out of a door at the side.
"Greetings, Judge," they said politely. "As per standard protocol, we need to know what you are transporting."
"A Late Fanatic. ID: 005117986," Judge Heiner answered.
One of the three Bailiffs typed on a console for a bit before nodding. "Thank you. Please, sign with your Barrier code."
Heiner's Barrier activated for a moment.
"Thank you, Judge," the Bailiff said.
The four Bailiffs typed away on their own consoles before looking at each other and nodding.
DING!
Finally, the big door opened, and Judge Heiner stepped through.
Security was very tight in this location since the research and development area was behind the gate.
Anything extraordinary that wanted to enter the area had to be checked thoroughly.
After walking through a short hallway, Judge Heiner stopped moving.
BANG!
The floor and ceiling began to shake after a loud slam and started to move.
It was an elevator, but it wasn't just any elevator.
This was probably the heaviest and most secure elevator in the entire world.
Usually, elevators were a small solid chamber that was moved through a long and almost empty shaft.
This was the opposite.
This was an open space in one spot of a gigantic, solid wheel.
The wheel was made of the hardest materials and had a diameter of almost two kilometers.
It was millions of tons heavy.
Whenever the elevator was used, this gigantic wheel was spinning slowly.
Using this elevator cost over a hundred grams of Zephyx every time.
The elevator moved slowly, and about five minutes later, it stopped.
A door appeared at the back of the elevator, and Judge Heiner stepped through.
The hallway was still illuminated by the Sun's light, but the hallway seemed to be quite a bit darker.
Judge Heiner reached the end of the hallway after half a minute of walking and stopped in front of a big and dirty door.
Then, he pressed a small button at the side of the door and waited.
Silence.
Finally, almost a full minute later, the big gates opened, revealing an older man with white hair who was wearing the uniform of an Agent.
"Good evening, Judge," the man spoke with a polite smile.
However, compared to the Bailiffs, he didn't appear overly respectful.
He was just polite and friendly.
"Good evening," Judge Heiner answered as he put the cube down beside him.
Despite talking to someone of an inferior rank, Judge Heiner was also quite polite.
While the person in front of Judge Heiner only had the rank of Agent, this was not a normal Agent.
This was a researcher.
This was someone who directly worked beneath the Technician to further humanity's technology.
This was not someone who was sent on different missions.
No, these researchers basically lived in the underground labs and spent their entire existence researching things.
They were essentially the brains enabling humanity's brawns.
Researchers had many special privileges, and messing with a researcher was one of the stupidest things a human could do.
"I brought Specter 005117986," Judge Heiner said.
The Barrier of the researcher activated for a moment, and Judge Heiner could see vast quantities of windows popping up on the Barrier.
He could tell that this Barrier was at least ten times as expensive as his.
"Everything looks to be alright," the researcher said with a smile.
Then, Heiner's Barrier activated and showed a message that he received a coupon to take a mobile Specter Cage from the equipment storage.
Obviously, the researchers were going to keep the big cube.
They wouldn't just let a Specter walk freely in the research and development area.
"Thank you," the researcher said as he lifted the cube.
Judge Heiner nodded and walked over to another small door that led to the normal hallway outside the research and development area.
They wouldn't move the gigantic wheel again just for him.
Meanwhile, the researcher brought the big black cube into the research and development area as the gate closed.
The area was filled with complex and gigantic machinery, and there were over 20 people experimenting with different things.
This was only the storage and entrance of the research area, and this was where big but mobile machinery was tested.
This hall was about 100 meters wide but only represented about 10% of the research department.
The researcher walked through the big hall and went into a hallway.
After walking for a couple more seconds, he stopped in front of a huge gate.
His Barrier activated, and countless windows appeared and disappeared.
DING!
The Barrier on the door deactivated, and it slowly opened.
Behind the door was a disorderly office.
Papers, machines, and different objects were just randomly strewn around the room without any rhyme or reason.
"Ah, George," a man said as his head popped up from behind a big machine. "Is that number 005117986?"
"Yes," George answered, placing the big cube down.
"Perfect," the man said with an excited smile. "I've been waiting for this!"
Naturally, this man was the Technician.
George nodded and walked to the door again to leave.
"Wait a second," the Technician said.
"Yes?" George asked, stopping to turn around.
"Your specialty is Spectology, right?" the Technician asked.
"Yes," George answered.
"You want to see what's inside?" the Technician asked with a grin.
George was quite interested.
After all, this was something that even the Technician was interested in.
"If I am allowed to," George answered.
The Technician nodded. "Your thesis on the Overarching Theorem of Specter Zephyx Generation is basically already accepted as true in the department, and even though you are pretty new, I think you might be able to bring in new perspectives."
"Do you want to be my assistant in this project?" the Technician asked.
George's eyes widened in surprise.
An assistant in one of the Technician's projects?!
That was crazy!
Then, a genuine smile appeared on George's face. "Gladly!"
The Technician smiled again.
The next moment, a long contract appeared on George's Barrier.
George read through the contract and took a deep breath.
This was very restrictive.
However, that was to be expected.
The things they were researching were top secret.
If anything managed to get out, people would die to the Envious Researcher.
George signed it.
"005117986 is a Specter that feeds on purely suffering. It does not matter how it is inflicted," the Technician said.
Already, George was interested.
"It feeds on pure suffering?" he asked.
The Technician nodded. "Yep. As long as someone suffers, it grows stronger."
At that point, George frowned.
Then, he remained silent for a while.
"It seems like my thesis was not completely correct," he said.
"Oh? How come?" the Technician asked, knowing fully well what George was talking about.
"My theory was that every Specter causes suffering in an individual way. Based on my math and the way Zephyx works, it doesn't feel like it should be possible for a naturally occurring Specter to directly generate Zephyx via the base model. It's like the number zero. It technically exists, but it also doesn't," George said.
The Technician's smile widened.
"And you're right," he said. "You said naturally occurring."
"This is not a natural Specter."
Now, George was taken aback again.
"This is not a natural Specter?" he asked.
"I'll show you," the Technician said.
Then, the Technician opened the cube.
The door of the cube opened, and Nick stepped out.
However, as Nick stepped out, he immediately looked at George.
Naturally, George also looked at Nick, and both of them had surprised expressions on their faces.
The Technician looked at the two of them and noticed their expressions.
"What? You two know each other?" he asked.
"Nick?" George asked.
"Ghosty?" Nick asked back.