Nick took a while to come to terms with what he was seeing.
There was quite a sizable free space in front of him with the chaotic machine at the bottom.
It was like the floor of the wide space was made of moving insect parts.
Meanwhile, in the middle of the open space was a ten-meter-wide, white plate. It was difficult for Nick to see what kind of material the plate was made out of.
The most surprising part was that the big plate was illuminated by a brightly-shining white beam of light, which came from the middle of the ceiling.
And on the ceiling…
'The Sun?!' Nick thought in shock as he looked at the ceiling.
Nick could see the Sun!
But how?!
Additionally, why was the light white and not dark orange?
Even more, the Sun itself also looked different from usual.
This Sun looked smaller.
Additionally, it wasn't directly above Nick but above the hole. Usually, the Sun was always above the person perceiving it, which would mean that Nick would not be able to see it since he was not directly below the opening in the ceiling.
Lastly, the Sun was white instead of dark orange!
And it was so bright!
As Nick looked at the Sun, he felt like he was looking at the Blinding Light again.
This light seemed to be bright enough to damage a normal person's vision if they looked at it for long enough!
At that moment, Nick felt like something inside his mind had cracked, and parts of his body started to turn into black dust.
Nick immediately turned around and charged back into the dark depths of the machine.
After a while, the black dust vanished, and Nick's body started to recover.
'What was that?' Nick thought. 'I have so many questions!'
'Why was the Sun so different?'
'Why was my body turning into Prephyx?'
'What was that light?'
'Why was the Sun not above me?'
'What is going on?!'
The only time Nick had seen any change in the Sun had been when the new Champion of Light had appeared.
Every other time, the Sun had always been consistently the same.
But now, the Sun had seemed very different.
It felt so different.
In Nick's mind, the feeling of the normal Sun was calm, somber, and constant.
Yet, the feeling of this bright Sun had been aggressive, dominating, and chaotic.
It felt almost like the Sun hated Nick and wanted to kill him.
However, that couldn't be true.
If the Sun actually wanted to kill Nick, he would already be dead.
He couldn't possibly resist something as powerful as the Sun.
'Is it the light?' Nick thought. 'Is the light the thing that attacked my body?'
'I don't think so,' Nick thought. 'I've already felt uncomfortable and weak before I saw the light. The degenerative effect did not occur when I saw the light. It was only augmented.'
'However, the light is most likely related to my condition.'
'There has to be a secondary force that causes damage to my body around the light.'
'This is not a place for Specters.'
The filters had Force Specter traps.
The machine used a liquid that turned Specters into white dust as soon as it came into contact with them.
The top of the machine was covered in some kind of force that turned Specters into Prephyx.
Yet, except for the Specter Trap, all these other things didn't seem to be specifically designed to destroy Specters. Otherwise, Nick would already be dead.
These things just existed, and that was the truly terrifying part.
Just by existing, these things were endangering Nick's life.
It was like Nick was a paper bird in a burning house.
'Is this force the fuel for the Prephyx?' Nick thought. 'I don't think there's another place in the machine through which fuel for the conversion to Prephyx could be supplied. The white light seems to be the thing that will eventually be turned into Prephyx by the machine.'
'Maybe the white light is just a visible indicator of the force. After all, I felt weak even before seeing the light, which means that the force had already been present.'
'It has to be the Sun,' Nick thought.
'The Sun is the one delivering this mysterious force to the machine, which produces the Prephyx.'
Nick's mind was going wild.
'The Sun is not just the strongest Specter.'
'The Sun might be the actual reason why Specters exist to begin with!'
'The Sun supplies the machine with the fuel to produce Prephyx.'
'If the Sun gets destroyed, the machine will no longer receive fuel, which means the endless production of Specters will stop!'
'Is this how the Sun causes suffering to humanity?'
'The Sun is a Specter, and Specters grow more powerful by causing suffering to humanity.'
'So, if the Sun creates Specters that grow more powerful by causing suffering to humanity, the Sun would be the one that causes suffering to humanity.'
'Every Specter covers an aspect of humanity's suffering, but none of them, except for me, grow more powerful by just causing suffering.'
'What if the Sun is like me?'
'What if the Sun grows more powerful by causing suffering in general, and it is using the Specters to cause suffering.'
Nick got an idea.
'Doesn't that mean that every Specter is technically the Sun's minion?'
'But then, is the Sun really a Specter?'
'What if the Sun is something else?'
Nick thought about it for a while.
'I don't have enough information,' Nick thought with furrowed brows. 'It's possible, but it's also possible that I'm wrong. This could also just be some kind of Meta-Specter or just a very powerful Specter.'
Nick remained silent for a while as he thought about everything he had seen in this machine.
The liquid acted normal but turned Nick into white dust.
The strange architecture.
The fact that the Prephyx was made here.
The Sun looked different.
The force that damaged Nick just by touching him.
There were many clues, but Nick couldn't combine them.
At that moment, an image from the distant past reached Nick's mind.
About 50 years ago, Nick saw something that he didn't understand back then.
In Crimson City, Nick had found a ruin from the Ancient Ones, and in there, he had seen diagrams on different monitors in some kind of control room.
He had almost forgotten that image.
A sphere which was surrounded by a circle.
A second, smaller ball beside the round circle.
Some text that kept flashing on the screen.
Nick knew the language of the Ancient Ones now, but he didn't remember what the text looked like.
In fact, that was everything Nick remembered about the displays.
It seemed like the majority of Nick's memories regarding that ruin had fallen victim to the memory purge during his Consumption.
Nick grabbed his head with his right arm while grimacing in frustration.
'Why did I have to lose that part of my memory?!'
If there were anyone who could tell where the Specters came from, it would be the Ancient Ones.
'Fuck!' Nick thought in frustration as he shook his head. 'No use! I feel like there's something important there, but everything's too blurry!'
By now, Nick had arrived at the filter through which he had entered, and he looked back at the machine for a while.
It just continued working.
Nothing had changed.
Nick looked at the membrane from which he had taken the liquid.
It had healed.
'That sure is a benefit of organic machines,' Nick thought. 'They can repair themselves.'
Then, he looked at the liquid on the ground.
It was dull.
'It seems like it has used up all of its power.'
Nick slowly approached the liquid and bent down.
Then, he very carefully touched it.
…
Nothing…
Nick looked at the liquid as he moved it around between two of his fingers.
It was quite viscous, but that was the only thing of note.
It just looked and felt like more viscous water.
'I can touch it now without any issues.That proves that it wasn't the liquid itself that damaged my body but the energy stored in the liquid.'
'The energy vanishes within a couple of minutes, and I can't tell where it is going. I saw the illumination, but I didn't feel any energy entering the air around it.'
'It's like the energy is just vanishing.'
Nick looked back at the machine.
This machine threw up so many questions while giving almost no answers.
However, Nick was sure of one thing.
This machine was an important clue to the most important secret of this world.
The existence of Specters.
The origin of Prephyx.
The purpose of all of this.
Why did the Sun create Prephyx?
Who made the machine?
Why did Prephyx turn into Specters?
What was this weird force?
'I can't learn anything more in here,' Nick thought.
Then, he looked at the filter.
'I have to get back to Aegis and report to the Technician.'
Nick furrowed his brows.
'I just hope that the Robe died to one of the Force Specter Traps.'