The Knife left pretty quickly, and Nick and the Technician continued planning a couple of things.
Ghosty also appeared after a while, but he could only partially be involved in these matters. The only thing Nick could tell him about was the suppressed Adversary and the energies.
After they were done planning, they put things in motion.
The first order of business was to confiscate the Fiend of Darkness and send it to the stronghold on the Long Continent, which was just south of the Great Triangle.
They didn't want to have the Fiend of Darkness in Aegis' headquarters due to the Champion of Light. Additionally, they didn't want the Fiend of Darkness to look too valuable.
The second thing they did was to advance Nick's Barrier, giving it the ability to convert Specter Zephyx into human Zephyx.
Like this, Nick could use human Zephyx, allowing him to use plenty of human machines.
The only bad part was that Nick basically had no real control over this kind of Zephyx since it wasn't his own, which meant that he could only do the most basic things.
Next, they simplified the mechanism with which Space Bags worked.
Usually, Space Bags were incredibly secure, requiring a sophisticated method to access them.
Every Space Bag needed to be operated in a certain way. Otherwise, it would remain inaccessible.
In Nick's case, this security feature was basically not there at all, allowing everyone to use it.
Luckily, Nick's belongings always transformed into mist as well when he transformed himself, which meant that he could also carry his new Space Bag with him.
Now that Nick no longer needed to carry all of his belongings on his body, Ghosty created several useful trinkets and machines for Nick.
Zephyx suppressors, Specter Cages, and a couple more things.
Some months passed while these things were going on, and Nick was slowly preparing to become a Demon.
By his calculations, he would become a Demon within less than a year.
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The Technician and Ghosty were very interested in studying Nick during his advancement.
Having the opportunity to measure a Specter's advancement in detail was rare.
Naturally, Specters and humans were very different, and they also advanced in different ways.
In order for a Specialist to become a Hero, they needed to have mastered a certain level of control over their Zephyx.
When it was time to advance, the Peak Specialist needed to alter the Zephyx inside their body.
Over a period of many days, they needed to compress more and more of their Zephyx into their Zephyx Synchronizer.
Usually, a human's Zephyx Synchronizer only held about 50% of a human's Zephyx. The remainder was scattered all throughout the body.
By compressing all the Zephyx inside one's Zephyx Synchronizer, one would gain several benefits.
First of all, one recovered Zephyx even faster. The relation between Zephyx and Zephyx recovery was like the relation between mass and gravity. The more Zephyx there was and the denser it was, the higher the recovery.
The second advantage was the ability to fly.
Flying required a complicated use of Zephyx, but there also needed to be less volume of Zephyx.
While a Peak Specialist could technically learn flying already, it would be incredibly slow. They would be several times faster if they just jumped or ran.
With a smaller volume of Zephyx, they could actually move faster in the air than on the ground.
The Prephyx in the atmosphere interfered with the movement of Zephyx, which was the reason for the big difference in speed.
Lastly, the heightened density of Zephyx would lead to a bigger explosion when it was released.
In this part, one could imagine Zephyx as water.
When some water was at one point, and one required more water from somewhere else, one either had to create a vacuum to pull water in or manually push the water to the needed place.
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With the increased density,it was like the water was packed into a high-pressure vessel which, when opened, released the Zephyx at a much greater speed.
While the normal way of storing Zephyx led to quicker usage of a bit of Zephyx, its concentration allowed for a higher speed of using large amounts of Zephyx.
During battle, Extractors used their abilities, which all required significant amounts of Zephyx.
The advancement to becoming a Hero was not easy.
First of all, one had to learn a lot about Zephyx Manipulation.
Most people needed to dedicate at least two decades to learning Zephyx Manipulation before they could attempt the advancement.
This required a lot of dedicated studying, which wasn't easy for everyone.
Some people were more talented in Zephyx Manipulation; Some people were less talented in Zephyx Manipulation.
Even more, Zephyx Manipulation required two parts.
First was theoretical knowledge, which could be rather complex, while the other part was a certain feeling to control, which was like being able to perform complicated movements with one's body parts with a high amount of accuracy.
Some people were amazing at studying and learned things quickly but had mediocre control over their own Zephyx.
Some people were amazing at controlling their Zephyx but had huge issues in quickly making the calculations necessary for complex Zephyx movements.
Another reason why advancement was so difficult was the immense pain the Extractor would feel during the process.
It was essentially like pulling body parts off to put them into a jar.
The process wasn't actually dangerous, as long as someone didn't completely lose control, but the pain could cause an instinctual reaction in which the Extractor lost grip over their Zephyx.
In that case, the Zephyx would just return to its original position, and the Extractor needed to start again.
Some people didn't have any issue with the pain,while others failed again and again and started to fear the pain of the advancement, lessening their focus even more.
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Luckily, most Specialists who managed to reach that level didn't have issues with the pain.
The number of people with the issues was only about one in ten.
As soon as one managed to push their Zephyx into their Zephyx Synchronizer, they were essentially ready to become a Hero.
At that point, they just needed to work with a fitting Specter to gain their new ability.
That was how it worked for humans.
When it came to Specters, Aegis didn't know a lot.
Science wasn't advanced enough to look into a Specter's mind and could only analyze things from the outside.
For the few Specters that could talk and were willing to share their experiences, they all said something else.
Some said that they were in something like a dream.
Some said that they felt like they were walking down a predetermined, lit path.
Others said that they could just pick whatever path they wanted.
Sadly, the words of Specters could only be trusted so much, and Aegis couldn't be completely sure what happened when a Specter advanced.
However, one thing was clear.
Compared to humans, Specters didn't need to work with a human to advance.
They just advanced after fulfilling some unknown requirement.
The best guess Aegis could make about that requirement was that the Specter needed to have fulfilled a certain amount of quantity and quality when it came to inflicting suffering on humans.
Quantity meant the number of total humans they made suffer, while quality referred to the power of the humans.
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Even more, the requirements seemed to be completely different between Specters.
Naturally, Nick had caused an immense amount of suffering, both in quantity and quality.
Because of that, there was no doubt that he had already fulfilled both requirements.
In a bit less than a year, Nick would advance.
For now,Nick wouldn't leave the headquarters since his advancement took priority.
He could still learn from the contained Adversary later.
While the months passed by and Nick's advancement took place, three things of note happened.
First, the stronghold in the west of the Grand Continent was rebuilt.
The stronghold had been destroyed by Gluttony previously.
Second, the Great Triangle was essentially freed of the Corruptors' influence.
Previously, Pride had controlled all of the Great Triangle, but with her death, her covert empire crumbled rapidly.
The Great Triangle was now the only continent without a Corruptor's influence.
The stronghold in the northwest of the Great Triangle did wonders in repelling Sloth's creeping advance from the north of the Grand Continent.
But then, a couple of days before Nick was ready to advance, something horrible happened.
Envy broke out.
Every person guarding Envy died, including Simon Francium.
Nick still remembered Simon.
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He was the first person to show Nick that not everyone was just interested in their own gain.
Simon had also saved Nick's life before.
In total, five Protectors died, including a Peak Protector.
Envy was free now, and the Long Continent became significantly more dangerous since that was where Envy's presence was the strongest.
Even more, without Pride, Envy could now advance towards the Great Triangle.
Aegis' best investigators traveled to the Desolate Continent to find out what happened.
There were several ways through which the Protectors could contact Aegis, but all contact had suddenly stopped.
Aegis only learned about Envy's escape after the fights had finished.
After a long investigation, the investigators were pretty sure that they had found the reason how Envy had managed to escape.
Greed.
The hidden Corruptor who didn't work for any of the Trio of Destruction.
For some reason, Greed had arrived, blocked all communication, and killed the Protectors with Envy's help.
This was a tragedy for humanity.
They had gotten rid of one Corruptor just to have another one break free.
Sadly, Nick wasn't powerful enough to influence these things yet.
This was something for the future when he was far more powerful.
For now, he prepared for his advancement, and just a couple of weeks later…
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It was time.