Nick waited.
Minutes passed.
Hours passed.
Nick didn't do anything.
He just remained hovering in the middle of the cave.
Days passed.
Nick was quite bored, but this was part of the job.
He could deal with it.
Eventually, Nick's ability deactivated.
Yet, he still didn't move.
After a couple of seconds, a loose violet robe floated into the cave.
It was just floating in the air as it slowly approached Nick.
Naturally, Nick noticed the Robe as soon as it appeared at the entrance of the cave.
'I can't tell how powerful this Specter is,' Nick thought. 'It's like it doesn't exhibit any Zephyx whatsoever.'
There was only one thing Nick could be sure of.
This Specter was powerful.
The fact that it hid while watching Nick for a while before autonomously and calmly floating in meant that this Specter had intelligence, which meant that it was neither a Force Specter nor a Possession Specter.
This was a Physical Specter.
A Physical Specter that could hide from Nick's perception had to be extremely powerful since his perception had been strengthened by his contact with the Maw.
'Went about as expected,' Nick thought.
The reason why Nick hadn't left was because of an incredibly powerful shield.
Incompetence.
Stupidity.
As soon as Nick saw the coat, he sent a vague feeling of inquisitiveness.
Are you the servant of that powerful Specter?
Nick quickly got an answer.
"What happened to the other servant?" the Robe transmitted to Nick.
"What other servant?"
Nick wasn't directly sending words. A dumb Force Specter that could transmit generic feelings was already quite smart.
The Robe described the "human" who had appeared a couple of days ago.
Nick just answered.
"Human. Food."
"No, that was a Specter," the Robe answered.
"But it human."
"It was a Specter that looked like a human."
"But it human."
"It exhibited Specter Zephyx!"
"Some humans do that."
Silence.
"Did you get any Zephyx by killing it?" the Robe asked.
"No. Weird human."
"How can you not get any Zephyx if it was a human?" the Robe asked.
Silence.
Nick didn't answer for several seconds.
"No Zephyx… no human?" Nick answered with chaotic feelings.
It was like he was trying his absolute best to understand what was going on.
"No human…" Nick repeated.
"Object! Moving object! Look like human!"
"No, it's a Specter," the Robe answered calmly. It was like it had infinite patience.
"Specter…" Nick transmitted. "No human. Specter. But Specter why human?"
"To hide in human society," the Robe answered. "Not everyone is as good in hiding as you."
"Human… Specter… Specter look like human… human look like Specter?"
"What Specter?"
"What human?"
"What attack?"
"What not attack?"
"What food?"
"What food?"
"What food?"
Silence.
The Robe let Nick figure this out on his own.
"Everything food," Nick answered.
"Everything is food?" the Robe asked.
"Human eat, food. Specter eat, no food."
"Human not eat, no food. Specter not eat, no food."
"Eat food. Not eat not food."
"Everything food."
The Robe looked at Nick for a while.
After some seconds, it floated over to the Major Relay that the shadowy Specter had left behind and activated it.
A bit later, Pride manifested again, and her gaze immediately fell on Nick with disgust before turning to the Robe.
"Report," she demanded.
"It thought the Specter was a human and ate it," the Robe answered.
"Why?" Pride asked.
"Because it looked like a human," the Robe answered.
It was so simple.
But it was so dumb.
Pride immediately understood how a dumb Force Specter could come to that conclusion.
Despite being filled with top-tier arrogance, Pride knew that incompetence was a more likely explanation than malice in most cases.
However, there was still something that concerned her."I sent an Early Demon," Pride said.
The Robe analyzed Nick more closely.
A Peak Fanatic.
That was a big jump.
Even more, after just the first attack, the old servant should have been able to contact Nick with a transmission, after which he should have noticed that the human he was attacking was actually a Specter.
The only reason how Nick could have killed the Specter was if he was so powerful that the Specter didn't even have a chance to react.
Something didn't make sense.
Was this Force Specter truly so powerful?
"Test it," Pride ordered.
"As you wish," the Robe answered.
Then, the Robe turned to Nick and told him to attack it.
"I don't want to die" was essentially what Nick's answer boiled down to.
"Attack me with your full power, or I will kill you," the Robe transmitted calmly.
WHOOM!
After the order, Nick immediately shot forward.
He reached the Robe.
BANG!
Nick unloaded 90% of his Zephyx in a blinding blast.
Then, Nick used about half of his physical power to attack the Robe.
Naturally, he didn't want to show his full power since his full power was ridiculous.
However, half of his power also wasn't anything to scoff at.
The Robe received a couple of mundane and superficial cuts, but it didn't break anywhere.
Nick could tell that the Robe wasn't resisting the attacks.
It was literally letting itself get hit.
Yet, it barely got damaged.
Sure enough, this Robe was extremely powerful.
It was at least a Late Demon.
There was even a chance that it was a Peak Demon or a Fallen.
After unleashing his attacks, Nick deliberately pushed all of his remaining Zephyx into his light.
BANG!
The mist exploded, revealing a black crystal.
The crystal fell to the ground and shook a bit.
This was Nick's Specter Core.
In his mist state, he acted like a true Force Specter.
When he had still been human, his mist state had been one of his biggest weaknesses.If anyone had hit him with an attack while he was in his mist state, he would have most likely died.
But as soon as he became a Specter, things were very different.
A human couldn't survive if only their brain or only their heart remained.
A human needed a whole interconnected system to operate.
Meanwhile, a Specter only needed a Specter Core.
When Nick had received attacks in his mist state, it was like someone was blowing up parts of his body.
As a human, he would quickly die.
As a Specter, he wouldn't.
Because of that, Nick's Specter Core was not attackable while he was in his mist form unless he ran out of Zephyx or a Suppressor somehow forced the Specter Core out.
When the Robe saw the vibrating Specter Core on the ground, it knew what happened.
"It used all of its Zephyx in an instant," the Robe told Pride.
"I can see that," Pride answered, disgusted that someone would dare to suggest that she wasn't intelligent enough to realize such things herself. "How strong was its attack?"
"Strong," the Robe answered.
"Strong enough to kill an Early Demon in an instant?" she asked.
"If it went all-out against it, just like how it did against me, yes, it's possible," the Robe answered. "I couldn't sense how it attacked exactly, but its attacks were scattered all over my body. If the attack was similar, it had most likely hit the Specter Core of the other Specter."
Pride looked with interest at the Specter Core on the ground.
This Specter was surprisingly powerful.
Even more, as a Force Specter, it could traverse difficult areas much more easily.
The skillset of this Specter was quite useful.
"You will wait here," Pride transmitted to Nick, who just answered with an affirmative feeling.
Then, she focused on the Robe. "I will send another servant. Make sure that it doesn't kill this one as well."
"Affirmative," the Robe answered.
Then, the Major Relay deactivated again.
Nick was left alone with the Robe inside the cave.After a couple of seconds, he had regained enough Zephyx to return to his misty state.
A couple of minutes of silence passed.
Eventually, another "human" appeared inside the cave.
Nick wanted to attack the human, but the Robe forbade him.
"This is an ally," the Robe told Nick. "You will follow its orders. Its orders are akin to the orders of Pride."
Nick looked at the human. "You Pride," it transmitted.
The human furrowed his brows, but the Robe stopped it.
It was easier to let Nick believe that this Specter was the powerful Specter from just now.
There was a high likelihood that explaining to Nick what a representative was would end up confusing him, which might lead to Nick trying to kill this one as well.
As long as Nick believed that this was Pride, he wouldn't dare to attack it.
There weren't many Specters in this world that were more intimidating than Pride.
"Will you attack it?" the Robe asked Nick.
"No," Nick answered. "I don't want to die."
"Good," the Robe answered.
Then, the Robe floated out of the cave and vanished, leaving the human and Nick alone.
"Follow me," the human said.
Nick mentally nodded and floated after the "human".