"I have the unique advantage of being a Specter with human education and training," Nick answered calmly. "All the other Specters have to learn everything on their own and don't undergo formal
combat training."
"In my first couple of years of existence, I have focused on learning. I learned how to fight with a weapon, how to stay hidden, how to assassinate people, and how different technologies work."
"My status as a Specter gives me unique advantages in this regard," Nick explained.
"Enough advantages to assassinate someone several levels above you?" the Knife asked with suspicion.
Nick nodded. "As long as my attack is strong enough to use up nearly all of a human's Zephyx, their power doesn't matter anymore. Without Zephyx, a human can't even move anymore."
"A Barrier is an ingenious invention that gives an advantage in 99 out of 100 fights. Sadly, Barriers are also prone to exploitation as long as the enemy knows how they work. Others don't know
how Barriers work. I do."
"If I may be so free as to demonstrate," Nick said as he looked at the Champion of Light, covertly asking for permission via gesture.
The Shields looked at him with furrowed brows.
The next moment, a light appeared in the Champion's eyes.
"Its voice bypassed my Barrier and was directly transmitted into my ear," the Champion spoke.
When the other Shields heard that, they were quite surprised.
This specific way of transmitting one's voice required intricate knowledge of how the Barriers of Aegis worked.
After a bit, some of the Shields looked with annoyance at the Technician.
It was more than clear who would be so careless as to teach a Specter how to bypass Aegis' Barriers.
The Technician just pulled his hands to the side in a gesture that symbolized that he didn't do anything. "What? I've been watching him, and it's just the open ports. Everyone who knows a bit about the Barriers can access those. They have open in their name for a reason."
"Okay," the Knife said after a bit, her brows still furrowed, "but how do you get enough power to destroy someone's Barrier in an instant?"
"I'm sorry," Nick said politely, "but I am not comfortable in sharing my abilities."
"Abilities?" the Politician repeated, putting special emphasis on the end of the word.
Nick nodded. "Yes, I have a primary ability, but since I own a Spector Core instead of a Zephyx Synchronizer, I also have a unique advantage in Zephyx Manipulation. I have created a couple of secondary abilities that might not be very powerful but give me the perfect skillset for assassinations."
"My skill set is very specific. If any enemy can sense me before I strike them, my power is barely higher than an average Specter's," Nick spoke. "I'm good at fighting, but I'm amazing at assassinations."
The Knife didn't answer, and she just kept looking at Nick with suspicion and interest.
"Can you confirm its power?" the Champion asked the Left Arm.
"Yes, I can confirm its power," the Left Arm answered.
The Champion nodded before looking at Nick for a while without saying anything.
"Why should we accept your help?" he asked.
"I believe," Nick answered, "that my powers can be of great service to Aegis. As a Specter, I have several unique attributes that can't be emulated by humans. With my help, Aegis will receive several new options for how to deal with the other Specters."
"While I can see how you could view me as a threat, the accepting of which would be the tradeoff in this deal, I have to add that the threat is only truly real if humans of similar power to mine oversee my work."
"I might be able to fool and secretly damage Aegis if only a Specialist or a Hero kept watch over me, but I am now known by all seven of the Shields. I believe that with seven Shields knowing about me and being suspicious of me, I wouldn't be able to deal any significant damage to Aegis before I would promptly vanish from this world."
The Shields looked at Nick for a while.
One thing was clear.
He was good at selling himself.
"That might be true for now," the Wall spoke with a friendly tone, "but what about the future?"
"Could you specify?" Nick asked.
"What if you become powerful enough to fool us," the Wall asked. "Hypothetically, of course."
"That is a possibility," Nick answered. "However, if you allow me to attain such power, our partnership would have already become interlinked so thoroughly that severing said partnership would be a far bigger loss than gain."
"I am here because I believe that I can achieve more by working together with humanity than fighting it."
"If I wanted to rule everything, I would need to kill off every powerful human, which would mean getting rid of the very thing that would allow me to grow even more."
"I once read the phrase, killing a chicken that lays golden eggs for its meat. I am not quite certain whether or not that was the exact phrasing, but it conveys the message well enough."
"Getting rid of humanity or enslaving it would be a short-sighted goal. I am a Specter. If I want to be powerful, I need a powerful human. Weakening humanity represents destabilizing my path to power," Nick said.
"Why would you care?" the Politician asked. "You're a Specter."
"You mean the path to power thing?" Nick asked.
The Politician didn't answer, but it was clear that he referred to that.
"That's because I don't want my existence to be meaningless," Nick said. "As a Specter, I am not bound by things like longevity. The only way I will die is if something violently ends my existence."
"After death, everyone is the same. There are no more feelings, which means you can't even feel anything regarding the life you have lived up until then."
"You can't enjoy the happiness of looking at an immortal empire you created, and you can't regret dying alone and nobody knowing your name. As soon as you're dead,none of that matters since you will feel no consequences."
"What is a finite time of light in front of an infinity of darkness?"
"One and one billion are equally far away from the concept of infinity."
"So, it doesn't matter how I live my life. It will be meaningless anyway."
"That is unless I can achieve eternity, and that is what I am trying to achieve."
The Shields looked at Nick with interest.
Despite being a Specter, it sounded surprisingly human.
Naturally, they talked so much with Nick, mainly to investigate his personality.
If he were a normal Specter, he wouldn't have a personality, or he would just be crazy.
However, the way Nick argued was very human and showed different values and opinions.
There was significant complexity in him.
"You want to become an Eternal," the Champion stated.
"No," Nick answered. "That's not enough. The chances of dying are never truly gone until there is nothing left that can kill me. Becoming an Eternal means still having an equal."
The Champion narrowed his eyes as he looked at Nick. "You want to be stronger than the Sun?"
Nick nodded. "That's my goal."
"If you had the power, what would you do to the Sun?" the Champion asked.
This was the trickiest question up until now.
Nick knew that the Champion of Light was different, but he didn't know in which case.
Was it smarter to say that he wanted to kill the Sun or let it be?
"That is not my decision to make," Nick answered. "I will be working together with humanity. My goal is to achieve eternity. The Sun's existence has no relevance to that goal. I can go either way."
"However, I need humanity as an ally to come anywhere close to that goal, and humanity might have an opinion on the Sun's fate. In order to uphold our partnership, I would leave the judgment up to humanity."
The Champion looked at Nick for a while.
"Very well," he said after a while. "You made your case, and I can see your value. For now, I am willing to permit your cooperation with Aegis."
Nick bowed politely. "Thank you, Champion."
The Champion turned to the Left Arm. "You may continue with the experiment. Make use of the Specter in the best way you can think of."
The Left Arm nodded without answering.
"But," the Champion added with an inflection, "it is not human. Not even humans can be trusted to be allies of humanity. A Specter can be trusted even less."
"Of course," the Left Arm answered. "I will never let my guard down."
The Champion nodded solemnly. "Keep me up to date with this project."
The Left Arm nodded.
Then, the Champion looked at Nick for a couple of seconds without saying anything.
"For now, we are willing to help you. Make sure that we don't change our mind," he spoke heavily.
Nick bowed. "I will do my best."
"Leave."
Nick turned around and slowly walked out of the room.