It was done.
Julian Winter was dead.
While Nick had not been present, there had been several meetings between the Shields over the past decades.
Julian Winter was not part of Aegis.
That was a fact, and that had always been true.
The Champion and all the other Shields knew about that.
He was a Specter, and Specters were only interested in their own gain.
In the past, they had a common enemy.
Death and its forces.
Sure, Julian would keep working with Aegis to help it.
With Julian's help, they could also deal with the Trio of Destruction and several other Adversaries.
Humanity would rise.
But then what?
At that point, Julian would already be an Adversary.
If Julian managed to become an Adversary, he would be more dangerous than Death.
As a mere Demon, he already managed to lead several Corruptors to their death.
He only had limited powers during that time, but his terrifying ability to outwit his opponents allowed him to doom Specters that were several times stronger than him.
He was playing the Specters for fools and used Aegis' power to kill them.
What if Julian Winter became so strong that he no longer needed outside forces to kill his opponents?
If Julian Winter became an Adversary and decided that he no longer wanted to work with humanity, Aegis would need to contend with an Adversary with unimaginable scheming capabilities.
During one of these meetings, the Politician had said one sentence that really drove this point home.
"I believe Julian Winter is better at scheming than me, and he might even be better than the old Left Arm."
When the Politician said that, Nick had only been an Early Fallen.
Ever since then, he had become a Mid Fallen, and after the latest battle, he would become a Peak Fallen.
His newest plan led to the death of three Corruptors without any significant losses to Aegis.
It wouldn't be long until he could play the Trio of Destruction.
Could Aegis play the Trio of Destruction?
With the old Left Arm, they had been able to gain a couple of advantages, but that couldn't be considered playing the Trio.
Julian had already reached that stage, as evidenced by his latest scheme.
It had been so meticulous, and everything perfectly went according to his predictions.
It was terrifying seeing the Trio doing exactly what Julian wanted.
They were like sheep.
What if he decided to point his gaze at Aegis?
They knew that Julian could disguise himself.
Most likely, his disguise abilities were on a similar level to Greed.
They would never be able to find him.
Even more, Julian knew Aegis inside out.
He knew where it hurt the most.
His perception abilities were incomparable to anyone else on his level.
What he could do was to hunt down one team of Agents after the other.
Any Protector who came to help would also be killed, which meant Aegis would need to send their Shields.
But he would know how the Shields would move, and he would already be gone when they arrived.
Meanwhile, Death would strike back during the chaos.
The Shields went through many such simulations during their meetings, and they all led to the same conclusion.
Aegis would gain an enemy just as terrifying as Death, and with time, that enemy might become even stronger.
It was bad.
Real bad.
The danger was just too high.
They had to do something before it reached that point.
So, it was decided that Julian would be executed.
Keeping him alive, even inside a Containment Unit, was far too risky.
There was a chance that he could convince someone to free him.
Even more, Julian knew a terrifying amount about technology.
What if he could change Containment Units?
There were too many unknowns.
He had to die.
His danger to humanity was too high.
If he were a human, they would feel so happy to have him.
He could become Aegis' leader.
He could be humanity's leader.
But he wasn't.
After looking at the Containment Unit for a while, the Politician walked away.
Right now, Nick was behind the Containment Unit, disguised as a tiny cloud of mist.
'I knew there was a good chance that they would do it today, but I didn't expect that they would actually go through with it.'
'But that's what I would have done.'
'If I were in their shoes, I would have also killed me.'
What did Nick feel about this betrayal?
Nothing, really.
It was expected.
Sure, Nick saw himself as a human, but in truth, he was a Specter.
Everyone believed him to be a Specter.
Being a Specter was his identity.
And with this identity came certain dynamics in relationships.
His deceit led to this betrayal.
Nick wouldn't go out and suddenly go on a vendetta against Aegis.
They still fought the same enemy.
His primary objective was to free humanity, and Aegis shared that objective.
Sadly, due to Nick's deceit, he couldn't have a relationship with Aegis anymore.
From now on, they needed to work together in secret.
In fact, this alliance would be so secret that not even Aegis would know of it.
However, it was important to note that Aegis wouldn't benefit from this alliance.
Aegis would be delivering the resources to free humanity, but it would not receive any.
Nick waited for a while behind the Containment Unit.
He wanted to make sure that nobody was paying attention.
Right now, Nick's ability was active, but that didn't mean that the Champion wasn't paying attention to the Containment Unit.
If Nick's ability deactivated, it would already be too late.
He needed to escape without being seen.
But that wouldn't be easy.
The Champion's light was everywhere, and if the Champion saw some random cloud of smoke, he would realize that something was going on.
After a couple of hours, Nick retrieved something from his Space Bag.
It was the transmitter that worked with Star Energy.
Then, he sent a signal to the Technician.
The Technician would give his life for humanity's true freedom.
He was the last true ally Nick had left in Aegis.
If necessary, he would give his life to Nick.
Nick just hoped that it wouldn't be necessary.
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