A network of roots traveled through the underground.
The network was almost two kilometers wide, and it stretched some of its roots forward while pulling the others behind it.
In the middle of the root network was a black skull made of roots and decayed flesh.
The skull was long and had two horns coming out of its back.
This was the Bringer of Decay.
The Bringer of Decay used to be Sloth's most powerful servant, but after Sloth got killed, it found itself beneath a new master.
Pestilence.
It was a Mid Fallen, and its duty was to bring decay to the cities.
Over the past years, the Trio of Destruction had become less subtle.
Instead of trying to take over cities in secret, they were now openly attacking them.
Within the last ten years, over 20 cities had been destroyed.
However, Aegis had also killed or captured over 50 Demons and nine Fallen.
The Bringer of Decay was waiting for its master's orders.
Soon, it would bring death and decay over another city.
It slowly moved forward with no set direction in mind.
It was just waiting.
Its connection with Pestilence was ever-present.
BANG!
Suddenly, a metallic figure appeared in front of it.
The metallic figure was a round orb, which was about five meters wide, and there were eight long, metallic legs coming out from the orb.
In the middle of the orb was a red crystal, and for just a moment, the Bringer of Decay could see its own reflection in it.
"I am under attack!" the Bringer of Decay transmitted to Pestilence.
Yet, just the next moment, it felt its transmission being reflected right back, its own voice appearing in its head.
For just an instant, a distortion around it lit up before vanishing.
It couldn't contact Pestilence!
Its transmission had been intercepted!
It knew that it had to attack!
Its roots rapidly-
BANG!
Then, its skull detached from the root network.
It hadn't seen the attack at all!
The legs of the metallic figure in front of it spun, and eight lasers came out.
The lasers skillfully cut off parts of the skull within milliseconds.
When the Specter Core was unveiled, the orb shot towards it.
The crystal moved to the side, opening a hole.
The metallic figure's body engulfed the Specter Core, and the crystal moved back to its place.
Inside the figure, several waves of Star Energy destroyed any parts of the Specter Core that wanted to attack the machine.
An instant later, all the Prephyx was sucked out of the inside, and the Specter Core had no other option but to become dormant.
Meanwhile, the network of roots was rapidly turning into black dust.
"Suppression complete," the Prime Drone transmitted.
Nick appeared right in front of it.
He had been the one who had beheaded the Bringer of Decay.
"Immediately travel to checkpoint alpha," Nick ordered.
"Affirmative," the Prime Drone answered.
It turned into a long and thick metallic rod and shot into the distance.
As it traveled, it started to vanish.
Its body was no longer visible, and the ground showed no signs of its movement.
Nick turned into mist and also retreated.
The connection to Pestilence might have been severed, but there was a high chance that Pestilence took note of that disconnection.
Luckily, Pestilence was over 10,000 kilometers away from this place right now.
Although, that couldn't really be attributed to luck.
Nick had chosen this moment precisely due to Pestilence's absence.
Some seconds later, Pestilence appeared at the place where the Bringer of Decay had just been.
Yet, there was no one here.
The only thing Pestilence could see was the remainder of the roots turning back into Prephyx.
Pestilence knew that its servant had been suppressed, but it didn't know how Aegis had accomplished that.
Suppressing a Mid Fallen was not easy.
Even more, this was the first time Aegis managed to capture a Fallen without the Fallen being able to warn its master.
Had Aegis become that strong?
Did they manage to suppress the Fallen so quickly that it didn't even have the time to formulate a single thought?
That seemed almost unbelievable.
If the Champion of Light unleashed a surprise attack and instantly killed the Fallen with his light, this would be possible.
However, killing something was different from suppressing something.
A Specter of this size couldn't just be enveloped by a Specter Cage due to its size.
Aegis would first need to isolate its Specter Core, and that would give the Bringer of Decay enough time to send a transmission.
But there had never been one.
Instead, Pestilence's connection with its servant had simply vanished.
One moment, it had been there, and the next moment, it was gone.
It was instantaneous.
Pestilence knew that its Specter had been suppressed, not killed.
Otherwise, there would be traces of dispersed Zephyx.
Pestilence didn't think that anyone in Aegis was this strong.
That only left one possibility.
Aegis had developed some new technology that could isolate Specters from other Specters without having to envelop them in a Specter Cage.
It had to be some kind of forcefield.
This was troublesome.
It needed to talk to Death about this.
The possibility that it was Julian Winter who had captured the Bringer of Decay didn't even enter Pestilence's mind.
First of all, Julian Winter was only a Fallen himself.
Second, why would he even capture Specters?
Just like any Specter, Julian fed on humans.
Maybe he had a reason to kill certain Specters, but he definitely didn't have a reason to contain them.
It had to have been Aegis.
The loss of the Bringer of Decay was a heavy one for Pestilence.
This had been its second-strongest servant.
After some seconds, Pestilence left again.
Meanwhile, Nick met up with the Prime Drone near the underground city.
He retrieved the Specter Core and suppressed it with his own Zephyx Suppressors.
Finally, he put it into a Containment Unit inside the city and sent the Prime Drone back to Rising Star Base.
'That's dealt with.'
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