The new Right Arm worked with Greed and became a Shield.
Now that the position of Right Arm was filled again, Nick could return to what he actually wanted to do.
For capturing Greed, Nick received 50 years of free time and an advancement to become a Mid Fallen, which would take place after his break was over.
Contributions had to be rewarded, and Nick's status as a Specter helped in that regard.
For humans, it was expected for them to contribute to humanity, but Nick had established a partnership with Aegis.
The Shields did not consider him an official member of Aegis.
He was more of a temp worker.
Yet, this temp worker had uncovered one more Corruptor and had even given them an Adversary.
They needed to reward him accordingly, or his contributions would lessen.
If they didn't reward him appropriately, his contributions might lessen, and he would search for an alternative method to grow stronger.
The Shields didn't like it, but they had to admit that this Specter was integral to Aegis' success.
They needed it.
In fact, they needed it more than it needed them.
They all knew how good Julian was at mind games, subterfuge, and staying out of sight.
If such a Specter decided to cut ties with Aegis, it would be almost impossible to find it again.
Then, it would just slowly take out one Protector at a time and torture them.
Julian Winter would be a terrifying enemy.
Working together with humanity had to be more profitable to it than exploiting humanity.
That was the only way to guarantee humanity's prosperity.
Naturally, the Champion believed the same thing.
The Champion didn't know that Nick used to be human.
He believed that Nick had been a project from the old Left Arm and the Technician.
The Technician was the only Shield who truly trusted Nick.
When Nick's break officially started, he immediately paid a visit to the underground lab.
He hadn't been there in almost 30 years.
When he saw everything progressing smoothly, he sighed in relief.
If something happened to the underground base, he wouldn't know about it until he arrived.
By now, Samar had officially assumed leadership over the entire base.
The researchers were much calmer, and there were almost no issues.
Almost.
There was one thing that Nick noticed.
There were six missing researchers.
What had happened?
There was no way they could just die.
They were Extractors, and they could live for hundreds of years.
There were also no enemy Specters, and there was no reason to kill any of them.
"I'm back," Nick transmitted to Aria, who was listening to someone explain something.
When Aria heard Nick's voice, her eyes opened wide in shock.
A moment later, she excused herself and entered an isolated corridor.
Nick appeared in front of her.
And then, Aria almost collapsed.
Her face was opened widely in horror as she looked down at the ground.
"Finally," she spoke weakly.
Nick felt bad when he saw Aria this stressed.
"Sorry, but I had something to do," he said. "We dealt with Greed, and Aegis has an Adversary now."
Aria just nodded absentmindedly.
Then, she remained silent for a while.
"Did something happen?" Nick asked.
Aria wordlessly nodded.
"Give me a second, please," she said.
Nick just nodded and waited.
Around 30 seconds later, Aria stood up again and took a deep breath.
"Something happened about 18 years ago," she said.
"Is it related to the missing researchers?" Nick asked.
"Dead researchers, yes," she said.
"How did they die?"
Aria took a deep breath.
"It's… scary," she said.
"Scary?" Nick asked with a raised brow.
Aria was a Protector who could work with the most brutal Specters.
If she called something scary, it had to mean something.
"We established a Specter research team," she said. "If we want to make use of Pure Energy and Star Energy, we need to know more about Specters."
"The team researched Specters and came up with concepts for Specters that could prove difficult for humanity to deal with. We were planning on creating weapons to counter these specific Specters. Humanity needs to be prepared for such enemies."
Nick nodded.
"And then…" Aria spoke, hesitating.
Nick could even see fear in her eyes.
"They all started screaming," she said. "They were just researching and suddenly just started screaming."
"I've never heard such screams before. It was like they were being eaten alive or something."
"We all ran over and looked, but we couldn't see anything."
"There was just nothing."
"I tried to find the enemy, but I couldn't."
"There was no Zephyx, no kind of force, nothing. There was absolutely nothing."
"We tried to calm them down and tell us what was going on, but they just kept screaming in horror."
"Then, their Zephyx started to drop."
"Next, their bodies shriveled up."
"In the end, they turned into dried husks and died."
"We all just watched in horror."
"There was nothing we could do."
"Everyone fell into a panic, believing that they would be next."
"We were in terror for weeks."
"Eventually, everyone calmed down."
Aria gulped.
"Then, we decided to salvage whatever the team was researching."
"James read through their notes, and then…"
"He started screaming."
"The same thing happened again. James also turned into a husk."
"At that moment, I knew what we were dealing with."
"I burned all the research notes immediately."
"No incident has taken place since then."
Aria fell silent.
Nick's mind was going wild.
He also knew what they were dealing with.
There was only one Specter who could do something like this.
Something so utterly terrifying that even the strongest humans cowered in fear.
"The research team accidentally discovered the Null," Nick said.
Aria's body shook, and her eyes widened. "Don't say its name!"
"I'm not discussing details," Nick said."Everyone refers to the Null as the Null. Just speaking its name is not a danger."
Aria looked down.
"You're right," she said. "Sorry."
"It's ok," Nick answered.
The Null.
The only thing that couldn't be researched, even in secret.
Nick looked at the beams of light.
This was most likely how the Null tracked the people who knew about it.
There was no way of escaping it.
Knowing about it meant dying to it.
It knew if you knew.
Nick was reminded of his past in the Dregs.
He remembered waking up in front of a burning building in the Outer City.
Was this what had happened to his family?
To his parents?