The atmosphere in the room changed drastically, and the Champion glared at the Left Arm.
"Are you suggesting I am working with the Specters?" he asked with his dark voice.
"Of course not," the Left Arm answered calmly. "You are Aegis. If you were working with the Specters, Aegis wouldn't be making any progress. You could kill Julian right this instant, and we would be without a proper weapon again."
The intensity of the Champion's aura lessened significantly.
"What I am saying is that this approach is too complacent. I understand that the backlash has been quite strong, but if Death is breaking the agreement, why can't you?"
"You said neither you nor Death want to provoke a final battle. That is still the case. If Death wanted a final battle, it wouldn't have attacked the Protectors but Aegis' headquarters directly."
"The only thing that happened is that Death has become desperate enough to push the envelope a little bit, knowing that this action won't provoke an immediate retaliation."
"Yet, if we just accept this, it will have the advantage. If we don't strike back now, Death will just do it again, pushing us into a sunk-cost situation. Us grinding our teeth and enduring will feel meaningless if we retaliate when it happens again, forcing us to keep grinding our teeth."
"Before we know it, we will be at a severe disadvantage. Death will keep taking advantage of our weakness while we watch Aegis becoming weaker and weaker."
The Champion calmly looked at the Left Arm.
"Your words have merit to them," he spoke, "but I do not see a way to make them applicable to our situation."
"If I leave to deal with the Specters, Death will destroy our headquarters, and compared to the Specters, humans have a base of operations."
"Our Protectors have to come here since over half of our Fallen are here,and if we disperse them across the strongholds, this will give the Specters a greater incentive to attack them."
"If the Fallen regularly ventured to this place, I could do the same thing as Death, but that's not what's happening."
"There is no reason for the Fallen or Adversaries to come to this place, and since I can't leave, I can't deal with them."
"Entering such a battle will end with many dead Protectors and no dead Specters," the Champion explained.
"That is true," the Left Arm answered, "but what if we had a way? Would you be open to helping humanity?"
The Champion's brows furrowed.
The way the Left Arm worded this made it sound like he wasn't contributing anything.
"Do we have a way?" the Champion asked.
"This is just a hypothetical," the Left Arm said. "If we had a way, would you be willing to battle a powerful Specter?"
The Champion seemed a bit annoyed.
Hypotheticals were a waste of time since they were not based on reality.
"Of course," he said. "I am surprised you are even asking that question. I am the Champion of Light. I am humanity's Champion. If I could, I would put my life down for humanity." 𝐫ÄƝóꞖЕş
'Sure enough, the Left Arm is shrewd and experienced,' Nick realized. 'She knows that the Champion is desperate to keep his disguise. If he is uncovered as a traitor, the aliens will have to get rid of all of the Shields, him included. That means a lot less Zephyx for the aliens, and they will blame him for not doing his job correctly.'
'He's supposed to be the aliens' undercover agent, and if he's unmasked, he will die.'
'Because of that, he is desperately afraid of being found out, which means he will do anything to prove that he's on our side.'
'She cornered him.'
"I am glad to hear that, and that's also the answer I expected," the Left Arm said. "We are humanity's peak, and it is our job to do the things the weak humans can't do."
"Correct," the Champion said. "It is our duty."
"While it has only been a hypothetical,I believe we can find a way to put it into practice," the Left Arm said.
"We need two parts to make the plan work."
"One, we need to be able to lure a Specter here."
"Two, we need to be able to capture or kill them."
"Both of these things are possible, but none of the Specters fulfill both criteria."
"The Specters that we can suppress will not come here, and the only three Specters that are willing to come here can't be suppressed."
"We can only lure Nurse Alice, the Maw, and the Envious Researcher to this place."
"Sadly, Nurse Alice and the Maw are far too powerful, and the Envious Researcher is impossible to sense. While it is probably not very powerful in combat, it is unbeaten in stealth."
The Left Arm frowned as she fell into thought.
"If only we had a way to sense the Envious Researcher," she muttered.
Nick's eyes narrowed slightly.
'She doesn't know of my ability, but she obviously indicates that I should say that I have one.'
'But how can she be sure that I have one?'
'Unless!'
'She actually knows of my ability!'
'Or, more precisely, she knows where my ability comes from!'
The old Champion of Light had made some comments on Nick's ability, and with the Left Arm's intelligence, there was a chance that she deduced what Nick could do.
To a certain extent.
Additionally, Nick managed to lure out two Corruptors and was even able to tell the Right Arm where one of them was, despite it still hiding.
'She knows that I can sense things, and she probably knows where my ability comes from.'
'Since the Null can sense anyone who knows anything about it, she most likely believes that I can also sense something like that.'
'Maybe she believes that I can sense that she knows my ability.'
'Sadly, or luckily, that's not how it works.'
'Nevertheless, she is right that I can sense the Envious Researcher.'
'She also knows that the Envious Researcher is a gigantic problem for our underground researchers.'
'She's planning on using the Champion to deal with it.'
'I thought that was impossible, but she drove the Champion into a corner.'
'But that's not enough!'
'He can attack the Envious Researcher half-heartedly and then make it seem like the Envious Researcher is just too strong.'
'We can force him to act, but we can't force him to be serious!'
Nick took a deep breath, and the two looked over.
It was clear that Nick was about to say something.
'But I trust the Left Arm. She isn't somebody who just does something without a plan.'
'If she thinks she can make the Champion of Light act, there's a high likelihood that he will do just that!'
"There might be a way," Nick said.
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