Nick felt his Zephyx increasing as he walked out of the Containment Unit.
Two more years had passed since the Sun had looked at him, and Nick had finally become a Peak Demon.
Peak Demon.
Nick was finally on the level of the most powerful Agents.
He had always fought people above his level, but now, his actual level was the same as the strong Agents.
Nick still remembered how powerful the Governor and Aria had been back then.
But now, he completely dwarfed them.
Aria was most likely still alive and still somewhere out there, but she definitely hadn't become a Protector yet.
While she had the talent to become a Protector, not enough time had passed for her to become one.
This meant that Nick had caught up with her.
And if one included his actual power, he had surpassed her by quite a bit.
Nick was no longer weak.
He could fight Fallen and Protectors now.
While he couldn't fight any of the Corruptors, he also wasn't completely helpless in front of them.
If a Corruptor found him, there was a chance that Nick might be able to run away.
'I'm a Peak Demon now, which means the time to attack the Envious Researcher has arrived,' he thought.
'I still don't know if this will actually work. Everything depends on the Champion.'
'If he actually tries, we might succeed. If he doesn't, there's no hope.'
"I've advanced," Nick told the Left Arm with his Barrier.
"Good. I'm going to tell the Protectors that they don't need to come anymore," the Left Arm answered. "Come to my office. We need to talk about the mission." ȑå𐌽𝘖ＢĚ𝘚
The Left Arm cut the connection again, and Nick made his way upward.
As he stepped into the Hall of Remembrance in front of the Left Arm's office, he was lost in memories for a bit.
Back when he arrived here for the first time, he looked at the statues with reverence.
He always wanted to be part of it.
'Most likely, I've earned my place here, but my monument won't be built until I am dead.'
Nick looked at the newest statue.
It depicted a heroic man piercing a shadowy figure with his sword.
This was the Right Arm's monument.
It depicted his triumph over Lust.
'I'm glad that I got to contribute to Lust's defeat,' Nick thought.
Nick entered the Left Arm's office.
She stood up without saying a word and opened the door leading to the Champion of Light.
Just like last time, the Champion was looking out of his new window.
"You have advanced?" the Champion asked without turning around.
"Yes, Champion," Nick answered.
"How accurate will you be in your prediction of the Envious Researcher's position?" he asked.
"I have been in the presence of the Envious Researcher before, but I was only an Initial Demon back then," Nick said. "Back then, I was roughly able to feel its location. As long as it didn't move, I could pinpoint its location to an area of around ten meters of accuracy."
"With my newfound power, I should be able to predict its position accurately."
The Champion nodded without turning around.
"Is your method of voice transmission able to pinpoint a location?" the Champion asked. "Words won't be fast enough."
"I can use the Barrier's function," Nick said. "It worked with Lust."
"The Envious Researcher is not Lust," the Champion said. "No Specter knows more about technology than the Envious Researcher. There is a real possibility that it can intercept the Barrier's signals and make sense of it, giving it enough time to evade."
Nick was quite surprised.
'He's actually right. I didn't think about that,' he thought. 'Does he actually want to succeed?'
"I didn't consider that. You're right," Nick said. "I have some achievements in Zephyx Manipulation. I will work on a way to refine my ability to transmit information."
The Champion nodded without turning around. "Tell the Left Arm when you're ready."
"I will," Nick said before leaving the office again.
As Nick walked towards the research and development department, he furrowed his brows.
'This would have been a good excuse to make the mission fail,' he thought. 'The Champion could have just said that the Barrier's function would be fine, and the mission might have failed naturally.'
'But he actually mentioned it.'
'Is he really intending to kill the Envious Researcher?'
Nick went to an empty office in the research and development department to practice his Zephyx Manipulation.
It had been a while since he created his method of voice transmission, and he had made incredible strides since then.
'I can transmit my words into the ears of a person. My voice transforms into signals, which travel at speeds close to lightspeed. When they come into contact with the ears of my target, they transform back into sound waves. It's a good method to talk in secret and over great distances, but it is limited by a couple of things.'
'If I only want to talk to somebody, it works well enough, but that's not enough anymore.'
'Accessing somebody's brain is almost impossible. Their will stops foreign Zephyx from interacting with it.'
'I can only interact with visible parts of their body. Other powerful Extractors induce vibrations in their target's eardrums via telekinesis, which is almost the same thing as what I do.'
'I need to be able to transmit vast amounts of information within milliseconds, and that method can't do that.'
Nick closed his eyes and thought about it.
Luckily, he found a way within a couple of minutes.
He had to think a bit outside the box, but it would work.
However, the Champion of Light needed to agree to this method since this would be a bit more intrusive than just transmitting a voice.
'It's the best way. If he actually wants this mission to succeed, he will accept,' Nick thought.
Then, he started to work on actualizing this method.
As always, he needed to go through the three stages of creating an ability.
Creation,Refinement, and Actualization.
The Creation took a couple of days, but that was the easiest part.
Refinement wasn't difficult since the energy required to transmit information wasn't a lot to begin with, and Nick had plenty of Zephyx to spare.
The real issue was Actualization.
He had to make the technique real.
He needed to be able to go through the complex transformations and calculations without losing focus.
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