Finally, Nick decided to leave the big hall with the machine.
So many additional questions appeared, but there were almost no answers.
Nick transformed back into his mist form and went through one of the tiny holes.
This time, he traveled very carefully. He already knew what was waiting for him, and he also had to exhibit special care.
After about 30 seconds, he reached the bigger hole and traveled towards the left.
On this occasion, it was much easier to find his way since he paid special attention to the Prephyx in his surroundings.
As long as he carefully followed the trail of Prephyx, he would find his way out.
Just 20 seconds later, Nick's perception expanded, and he knew that he approached the exit of the filter.
Sure enough, he very quickly spotted the exit.
His ability didn't deactivate, which meant that the Robe wasn't here.
However, Nick still couldn't be sure about the Robe's current state.
What if it was waiting for him deeper down the cave.
In total, Nick had spent between 10 and 20 minutes in the holes and the machine, which wasn't a very long time.
It was possible that the Robe was still stuck in the trap, but it was also possible that it had either already escaped or never entered.
'Conjuring a Major Relay takes a lot of time and Zephyx. I'm certain that the Robe didn't have the time to conjure one to come into contact with Pride in just a couple of minutes,' Nick thought.
'There is a Major Relay in the cave, but the cave is several kilometers away, and the Robe can't operate the Major Relay there while paying attention to the surroundings here.'
'Most likely, in case it is not stuck in the trap, it's waiting someplace here to keep watch over the area.'
'If that is the case, it will find me eventually.'
'If that's not the case, it doesn't matter what I do since it won't find me regardless.'
'There's no point in delaying the inevitable.'
Nick looked at one of the walls and put one of his mist tentacles in.'
His ability deactivated!
'It's here!' Nick thought as he immediately turned around to charge back into one of the holes.
When Nick's mist tendril stopped touching the wall, his ability reactivated, but it almost immediately deactivated again.
The Robe very quickly reached the cave, and it saw Nick entering one of the holes.
Naturally, the Robe transformed into a long tendril and shot into the same hole, never losing sight of Nick.
While the Robe obviously couldn't enter or manipulate the special walls of the hole, that also didn't matter since the hole was straight, and there was nowhere for Nick to hide.
Within less than a second, the Robe reached Nick.
Due to the immense difference in speed, Nick barely managed to move a couple of meters into the hole.
As the Robe approached Nick, its long tentacle split and slithered towards him while touching the walls of the hole.
The Robe would consume him in an instant!
And then, something thin and shiny appeared in the mist before being flung at the Robe.
It looked like an impossibly thin needle.
The needle was so thin and unstable that it immediately broke into pieces after one of its ends lightly touched the walls of the hole.
BANG!
The Robe ignored the object, plowing through it in an instant.
WHOOOOOM!
Immediately, the Robe's body turned into white dust.
There was a tiny bit of liquid in that thin needle, and when it exploded, it covered almost all of the Robe's body.
This was not actually a needle but an extremely thin vial of glass.
Naturally, the Robe noticed what was going on, but this situation was very different from when Nick had come into contact with this liquid.
First, Nick's ability had been active back then, which made him about as fast as the Robe.
Second, Nick could easily sever parts of his body since he could turn into a Force Specter.
Third,Nick had been prepared for any kind of accident since he knew that he was about to touch an unknown liquid with unknown powers.
Fourth, Nick had only touched the liquid with the tip of one of his fingers.
And despite all of that, Nick had still barely managed to split his body in time.
Naturally, the Robe didn't have all of these luxuries.
If Nick were in the Robe's place, he would also not be able to save himself.
Just as expected, the Robe was very quickly replaced by white dust, which kept flying towards Nick for a bit.
In reaction, Nick dumped the last 10% of his body, which also turned into white dust.
However, this part of his body had done exactly what it was supposed to and lowered the speed of the white dust.
Finally, since Nick's ability reactivated again, he could outrun the burst of white dust until it eventually slowed down and vanished.
Before Nick reached the tiny hole leading into the machine, he stopped moving and looked back.
It was over.
The Robe was dead.
'Finally,' Nick thought as he slowly calmed down. 'This was either a fast Peak Demon or a slow Initial Fallen. Based on its ability to morph into a small and agile shape, I would say it was probably a Peak Demon.'
'I might be powerful, but I'm not powerful enough to kill something an entire level above me.'
Nick wanted to sigh.
'Luckily, I had access to that liquid.'
While the liquid was too short-lived to survive for more than five minutes, it still lived for long enough that Nick could make use of it.
Before Nick had left, he had conjured an extremely thin vial and got a bit more of the liquid.
Putting the liquid into this tiny vial was quite difficult and dangerous.
One had to remember that the walls of this vial had to be less than half a millimeter in width to fit through the tiny filter.
Additionally, it also needed to be hard enough to survive a good amount of inertia while traveling through the tiny hole.
While Nick couldn't turn the vial into mist, he could still carry it with his body.
As long as his Zephyx didn't interact with the contents of the vial, he wouldn't get damaged by the liquid.
Nevertheless, traveling through the tiny hole still caused Nick quite a bit of anxiety.
If he accidentally tapped the walls, the entire thing would explode, and Nick would undoubtedly die.
In order to get a bit of wiggle room, Nick had made the entire vial barely 0.7 millimeters wide.
While the vial was wider than a hair, its walls were just a slight bit wider than an average human hair.
Such a thin vial could break so easily.
However, all the risk and effort had been worth it!
Nick had killed a Peak Demon!
He had caused tremendous damage to Pride!
'But I'm not done yet,' Nick thought. 'I should tell the Technician about the machine, but I should also finish this mission first.'
'I have to follow the plan.'
Nick waited until the white dust completely dispersed before traveling out of the filter.
After coming out, Nick touched the walls again, and this time, his ability didn't deactivate.
'I assume that the Robe was probably stuck in the trap for a bit, but not as long as I was,' Nick thought as he touched the wall.
'It probably reached the end of the hole and had to find a way out. Luckily for it, it's not a Force Specter but a Physical Specter.'
'While my body was cut off from my mind after expanding, the same thing shouldn't be true for a Physical Specter.'
'The Robe probably just expanded its body to fill out the entire trap until it found the exit.'
'But that's to be expected. This is a trap for Force Specters, not for Physical Specters.'
'While some very small Physical Specters can enter the filter, I'm not sure if there are Physical Specters that can become so small that they can actually fit into the true entrance to the machine.'
'There's a big difference between a centimeter and a millimeter. Additionally,they would also need to find that tiny hole first.'
'Most likely, the Robe was stuck for a maximum of five minutes before exiting the filter.'
'Then, it waited for me.'
After checking his surroundings, Nick turned into his physical form.
A moment later, he activated his black Barrier to send a message, which barely took two seconds to send.
Finally, Nick turned into mist again and flew towards the exit of the long cave system.
Some seconds later, Nick was outside again, but he didn't really pay any attention to the outside before flying towards the Major Relay.
When he arrived, Nick immediately activated the Major Relay.
He just hoped that Pride would accept the call and connect.