After finding Hatred, Nick retreated.
If he dealt with Hatred right now, it would be too suspicious.
He hadn't even needed a day to find Hatred, and if Aegis or Death found out about it, they would be too shocked.
So, for the next five years, Nick went back to the underground city and continued transcribing knowledge.
From time to time, he returned to the surface to give the Champion an update.
After the five years, Nick decided that it was time.
The first thing he did was go towards Aegis headquarters to talk to the Technician.
They had much more advanced technology, and Nick decided to invent a little thing with the Technician that would help in coordinating the attack.
Every time a Corruptor was destroyed, the world would enter a huge battle.
They didn't want to give any of the Trio a chance to strike humanity.
Sometime later, the Specters noticed something.
The strongholds were all traveling to Aegis' headquarters.
The buildings themselves couldn't be transported, but the Specters and people could.
Naturally, the Specters knew that something was up.
Something big was about to happen.
But they didn't know what.
Attacking Aegis' headquarters was impossible right now since literally every single Shield and Peak Protector was there.
If they entered a battle, they would be decimated.
Instead, they took this opportunity and struck the strongholds, destroying all of them.
Sadly, the only things they could destroy were the electronics and buildings.
No one died, and no Specters were freed.
However, this would give the Specters some safety in the affected areas since the strongholds couldn't connect to the cities anymore.
And then, the Specters waited.
Something was about to go down, but they didn't know what.
Tense hours passed.
Eventually, Nick became active.
He kept track of the beam leading to Hatred, and he directly went to it.
At this moment, Hatred was near the western coast of the Great Triangle.
If anything attacked it, it could retreat into the ocean.
No human could possibly strike it inside the ocean due to the Salt Trident.
Nick found Hatred relatively quickly.
He also kept track of the other Specters.
He didn't know which beam belonged to which Specter, but he could tell that most of them were gathered in the ocean east of Aegis' headquarters.
Nick looked at Hatred from a distance.
"Hello, Hatred," he transmitted.
Hatred immediately looked around and contacted War.
However, War didn't move.
This could be a ploy.
What if they made it seem like they were attacking Hatred just to lure War to it and kill it with the combined power of Aegis?
"You can't see me," Nick transmitted. "I am very good at hiding, and my perception is greater than yours."
Hatred immediately shot into the ocean.
Naturally, Nick just followed.
"Do you think the ocean is safe?" Nick transmitted. "I am a Specter like you. The Salt Trident doesn't care."
Hatred kept shooting towards the west with all of its speed.
Nick was following it while staying below the ocean floor.
His ability was still active, which meant that he could keep up with Hatred's speed.
"Why are you even attempting to escape?" Nick transmitted. "I can follow you."
Hatred just kept fleeing.
"Oh, you are going towards one of your little friends," Nick transmitted. "Sure, you can stay there for a while. But as soon as you are alone again, I will return."
Hatred kept running while Nick stopped.
He didn't know which kind of Specter Hatred was running towards, but it was probably either War or Pestilence.
The senses of an Adversary were terrifying, and Nick didn't want to take any risks.
Instead, he just watched the beam move for a while before stopping.
By now, the beam almost overlapped with another beam.
The next moment, Nick retrieved the new gadget he had created with the Technician.
This gadget used a tiny amount of Star Energy to transmit a little bit of information.
Something like this couldn't be felt or intercepted by the Specters.
He told the Technician that Hatred and one of the Duo of Destruction were in the Grand Continent.
Nick kept following the two beams from a distance.
Some minutes later, the Technician, the Inferno, and the Icestorm flew out of Aegis' headquarters and immediately charged toward the west.
Death noticed and gave its orders.
Nick saw the two beams moving further towards the west.
'Death ordered for them to retreat.'
Nick followed the two beams.
They traversed all of the Grand Continent in less than a minute.
Then, they gathered with all of the other members.
At this moment, everyone was gathered.
The three Shields also arrived and stopped east of the congregation.
Meanwhile, the other Shields also left Aegis' headquarters and stopped west of the congregation.
A thousand kilometers was between them and the Specters.
Right now, all of the Specters were rounded up deep beneath the ocean.
They were safe from the humans since they couldn't enter the ocean, but they also couldn't properly fight back.
The humans just needed to retreat a little.
Death realized that overextending was a major danger.
If they all moved together towards one of the two sides, that side would retreat while the other would advance.
If they split up, they wouldn't be able to accomplish anything since the humans had superior power right now.
So, the best way forward was to wait here.
They could outlast the humans.
When nothing happened for several minutes, the Shields knew that their plans had worked.
Moments later, all of the Protectors gathered at Aegis' headquarters shot out and spread across the world.
All of them carried Space Bags, and several strongholds had already been built.
Naturally, one Space Bag couldn't hold an entire stronghold, but it could hold big parts of it.
The old strongholds, which had been destroyed, were obsolete anyway.
Humanity's technology had advanced leaps and bounds, and it was time to modernize the strongholds anyway.
The Protectors started to construct twelve strongholds at once.
If they succeeded, humanity would regain its hold over the Grand Continent and the War Continent.
Death realized what the humans were planning.
This was bad.
They might not have killed a Corruptor, but they were re-establishing their control.
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