Nick used the last year of his free time to refill the stocks of the underground city.
He captured over a thousand Specters and retrieved several tons of Zephyx.
It wasn't certain when he would get the time to help the underground civilization again.
Finally, after everything was done, Nick returned to the world.
The first thing he did was to check the beams.
Had anything changed?
Well, there were far fewer beams than before.
In fact, they had probably dropped by nearly 80%.
The reason was that 50 years had passed.
Almost every normal person who knew about him had died.
Only Extractors and Specters were left.
The number of beams had become quite easy to keep track of.
There were not more than 300.
When it came to the colors, basically nothing had changed.
After checking through the beams, Nick went back to Aegis' headquarters.
While 50 years was a long time for normal people, it wasn't that much for Protectors and Shields.
"This is Julian Winter. I have returned," Nick spoke in an isolated location inside Aegis' headquarters.
Naturally, he was disguised.
"Your advancement is ready," the Champion answered. "Deal with it as quickly as possible. The Shields want to strike the Corruptors."
"Aegis has recovered, and we have more Protectors than ever before. The Left Arm, the Technician, and the Wall have also become Early Shields by working with Greed."
"Understood," Nick answered.
'Most likely, more of the Shields will advance soon. All of the Shields are incomparable geniuses, and they can advance rapidly.'
'As of this moment, Aegis has the Champion, three Early Shields, and three Initial Shields. Aegis hadn't been this powerful before.'
'Meanwhile, several Corruptors and Famine have died.'
'Additionally, I would assume the Champion has also become more familiar with his power.'
'Also…' Nick thought as he looked at Aegis' headquarters.
In the last 50 years, it had undergone quite a transformation.
While the shape of the building hadn't changed, the insides had transformed dramatically.
There were so many new machines everywhere.
Nick hadn't designed these machines, but he had mastered the engineering knowledge of the Enlightened Ones.
So, despite not designing the machines, Nick could easily tell how they functioned and how they were built.
'Crude and primitive,' Nick thought. 'That's good. The bigger the difference in technological achievements, the better.'
After looking at Aegis' headquarters, Nick went to a Containment Unit and took the guise of a random Specter.
The Champion had already prepared Nick's advancement.
Shortly after arriving, the first person arrived.
When Nick saw the person, he raised a metaphorical eyebrow.
It was the new Right Arm.
The Right Arm walked in with a peaceful smile and sat down.
'The Champion really wants me to advance quickly.'
The Containment Unit activated, and all the Prephyx was sucked out.
Nick could already feel the incredible amount of suffering coming from the Right Arm.
And yet, the Right Arm just smiled peacefully despite his tremendous suffering.
Usually, something like this would be suspicious and peculiar, but Nick wasn't surprised.
Many of Aegis' leadership were zealots.
They were willing to sacrifice themselves for humanity, and the new Right Arm wasn't any different.
In his mind, all the suffering and pain he endured was worth it as long as it benefitted humanity.
He was willing to set himself on fire just to warm the person beside him.
The suffering the Right Arm produced was immense.
It was the greatest amount of suffering Nick had ever harvested from a single person.
It only took seven years for Nick to advance.
Once a year, the Containment Unit paused the suppression of Prephyx so that Nick could convert the suffering into Zephyx.
When the seven years were up, Nick became a Mid Fallen.
The Right Arm left, a peaceful smile on his face.
The Left Arm and the Champion had told him that this Specter was important, and he was happy that he could contribute to humanity.
Naturally, the Right Arm's duties had been put on hold for the duration of the advancement.
But that didn't mean that all the work vanished.
The Right Arm knew that a mountain of work would wait for him.
After the Right Arm left, Nick contacted the Champion.
"I have advanced. I can return to work," he said.
"Good!" the Champion answered. "We want to deal with Hatred and Envy."
"I haven't heard of Hatred before," Nick said.
"Hatred is one of War's new servants. It is running rampant in the Great Triangle, and we can't stop it on our own."
"On top of that, we believe that Envy has become an Adversary."
"I want you to deal with both of them. How you are going to do that is up to you," the Champion said.
"Affirmative," Nick answered. "I'll keep you up to date."
Then, Nick left Aegis' headquarters and planned his approach.
'Envy, huh?' he thought, remembering the time he had met it.
Back then, it had been impossibly powerful.
But now, Nick was a Mid Fallen.
While Envy was most likely still more powerful than Nick, it was still killable.
The right circumstances just had to line up.
'I'm not sure infiltration will work. I've done that too many times, and the Corruptors have probably become even more careful.'
Then, Nick looked at his beams.
'But there are things I can do.'
Thanks to Nick's increased intelligence, he managed to come up with a plan relatively quickly.
'I am no longer the old Nick. I have become a Mid Fallen, and I don't need to fear regular Fallen anymore.'
'I am free to move to wherever I want, and as long as somebody knows about me, I will know where they are.'
Nick focused on the beam leading to Death.
He took note of the color of the beam.
Light red.
However, there were many different shades of light red.
'Information is a weapon,' Nick thought. 'However, for the Specters, information is not a weapon but a disease.'
Nick focused on the beams with an identical shade of red as Death's beam.
'And Death spread it across his forces.'
'Be careful of this Specter. It works with the humans and has killed several of our Specters. If you see it, report it to me immediately or kill it.'
Nick's eyes narrowed.
'You've exposed all your forces to me.'
'You don't know where I am, but I know where all of you are.'
'I believe it's time I start to act a bit more like the Null.'
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