Nick returned to Aegis' headquarters and waited for the fallout to finish.
Another Corruptor had died.
The second one ever.
The Specters had received the biggest hit of the era, and for Aegis, it symbolized a big change.
The Great Triangle was no longer besieged by Pride, and now, the south of the Grand Continent was also basically free.
Lust's servants would realize that they couldn't contact Lust anymore, and they would start to become disorganized.
Most likely, Sloth would take over the majority of the cities, while Wrath would push into the Grand Continent.
However, that was a good thing for Aegis.
They had a plan for dealing with Sloth, thanks to Nick's idea.
They wanted Sloth to conquer more cities before completely wrecking its strategy.
'My speed of leveling up will also increase significantly,' he thought. 'I was the reason why Lust died, and the cities will undergo drastic changes. While the change will be for the better in the long term, in the short term, the humans will suffer.'
'Times of big change are always stressful for humans, and since I am at fault for that, I will harvest a lot of suffering.'
'My speed of advancement will shoot through the roof.'
'Although, I also need much more Zephyx to advance.'
'Most Demons and Fallen had centuries, if not millennia, to grow as powerful as they are now.'
'Meanwhile, I am barely 87 years old.'
Nick's speed of advancement was insane.
Having an 87-year-old Specialist would already be insane, but Nick was the equivalent of an Early Hero.
When Nick returned to Aegis' headquarters, he met up with the Left Arm.
"You have done a great service to humanity," the Left Arm spoke. "Thanks to you, humanity is closer to defeating the menace than ever."
Of course, the Left Arm knew that the Enlightened Ones had come closer, but the Champion of Light was watching.
"Thank you, Left Arm," Nick said respectfully.
"Your help has proven to be invaluable. For now, I want you to focus on your own power. Investing in you has proven to be lucrative, and the more powerful you become, the more you will be able to contribute."
"However," she spoke with a serious tone, "You must keep the Champion's words in mind. While we are willing to reward you, as a Specter, you still need to contribute significantly."
"I will give you 15 years of freedom for your accomplishment. You are allowed to work on your power during that time, but you have to keep in mind that you must only cause suffering in a reasonable manner. We cannot free humanity by sacrificing our humanity. As a Specter, you might not understand, but that is what makes us human."
"Of course, Left Arm," Nick said respectfully.
Then, Nick left the Left Arm's office.
The next day, a grand burial was held for the Right Arm.
All the cities of the world were ordered to create a bonfire on that day to remember the Right Arm's light.
The Right Arm had sacrificed himself for the good of humanity, and such a sacrifice was worthy of remembrance.
Naturally, a statue of the Right Arm was also put into the Hall of Remembrance.
He joined the many other martyrs who had sacrificed themselves for humanity.
Humanity had to survive!
Humanity had to become even stronger!
Nick attended the grand funeral, and when it was finished, he vanished from the world.
Naturally, he went to the contained Adversary to learn more about Zephology.
'Contributing to humanity by killing Lust is important, but the primary reason for killing Lust is so that I can make advances in Zephology. Our goal is not to kill the Corruptors or even the Death. Our goal is to kill the Sun and destroy the aliens controlling it.'
'All the individual cities pale in comparison to the importance of this mission.'
Back when Nick had still been younger, he had been angry that so many cities were basically ignored by Aegis.
But now, he truly understood.
There were things that were so much more important than the happiness of thousands of individual humans.
This was about survival!
This was about long-term, sustainable survival.
This was about humanity's future.
'It is the Governors' duty to make the cities livable. It is Aegis' duty to make the world livable.'
'My job is no longer to care for individual cities. My job is to care for the world.'
'Humanity must attain true freedom!'
'And the first step to achieve that goal is to learn about Star Energy.'
For five years, Nick focused on learning from the Adversary.
During these five years, Nick noticed his Zephyx advancing rapidly.
The Grand Continent was in upheaval, and Nick had been the reason.
When Nick reached the age of 92, he soon advanced to the Mid Demon level.
After advancing, Nick wrote his findings down and went to pay the isolated team of researchers a visit.
In the past five years, the team managed to increase the production of Star Energy a hundredfold, and they also managed to create a kind of storage that could keep Star Energy stable for several days.
Sadly, despite the insane advancement, there still wasn't enough Star Energy to properly use it.
Additionally, the researchers hadn't found a way yet to manipulate it.
None of the researchers had ever interacted with Star Energy before.
Humans controlled Zephyx and a bit of Prephyx instinctively, thanks to their Zephyx Synchronizers.
However, they didn't have anything that allowed them to control Star Energy.
On top of that, there was another thing that concerned them.
They had been prepared for that situation, but it was still quite surprising.
Star Energy really wasn't all that great.
Its energy density was several times lower than that of Zephyx, and it was much costlier to produce.
They had already thought about creating some kind of synthetic organ that allowed them to control Star Energy.
Something like a Star Energy Synchronizer.
But there were several problems with that.
First of all, storing Star Energy and Zephyx in a body simultaneously was extremely dangerous.
While Star Energy only deteriorated when it came into contact with Prephyx, it actually destroyed Zephyx when it touched it.
If the Star Energy went anywhere near a human's Zephyx Synchronizer, the Shell around the Zephyx Synchronizer could potentially turn into pure Star Energy.
While a Shell was important to become an Expert, it was still important later.
The additions Extractors added to their bodies as they became more powerful didn't replace old additions.
They added more.
A Shell increased Zephyx regeneration a lot, and the sub-Synchronizer that was added to the body after consuming a Specter added even more.
It was like multiplying a multiplier.
If the Shell was destroyed, it would be similar to destroying the sub-Synchronizer, which would represent lowering Zephyx generation to be lower than Zephyx usage.
In short, the Extractor would essentially starve of energy loss and die.
The thought of replacing a Zephyx Synchronizer with a Star Energy Synchronizer before one even became an Extractor was also something the team of researchers had considered.
But that was when the issue of Star Energy's low energy density came into play.
A human would need much, much more Star Energy than they would need Zephyx to advance, and producing Star Energy was costly and inefficient.
Additionally, nobody even knew how to manipulate Star Energy, which meant that the person wouldn't have any abilities.
Their body would improve, but that would be it.
The more the researchers learned about Star Energy, the clearer one specific image came.
Star Energy would not be able to replace Zephyx.
Zephyx was just superior in every way.
The only real use of Star Energy was its ability to destroy Zephyx and its ability to access the Seeds.
That was basically it.
They had all expected something like that, but it was still a hard hit.
Sadly, there was no denying that possibility, and there was also some good proof that backed up that claim.
If Star Energy could replace Zephyx, why did the Enlightened Ones still need Specters to advance?
The Adversary that Nick had found was there to turn the Peak Shield into a level nine Extractor.
If the Peak Shield could advance without it, the Adversary wouldn't be there.
The mood of the researchers had taken a drastic hit.
But then, when they read the new book Nick had delivered, they realized that it actually wasn't hopeless.
Sure, Star Energy couldn't replace Zephyx, but what about Pure Energy?
The Adversary had only mentioned Pure Energy during Nick's first conversation with it.
Back then, it had said that Star Energy was necessary to create Pure Energy.
And while Star Energy couldn't replace Zephyx, maybe Pure Energy could?
Most likely, Star Energy could somehow combine with Zephyx, which might create Pure Energy.
Maybe Pure Energy would have much more power.
After checking up with the researchers, Nick left to talk with the Adversary some more.
He still had ten years of uninterrupted time, and he would use it to study.
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