Aegis was rapidly making progress.
'I think it will only take a century for them to capture another two Adversaries, and it will be a maximum of two centuries until they can deal with Death.'
'It will maybe be three or four centuries until the first level nine Extractor appears.'
'While the era won't reset when the first level nine Extractor arrives, a reset will not be far away.'
'I have to prepare everything by then.'
After scouting out Aegis' headquarters, Nick wrapped up his argument with the guards and left again.
"Oh, Sun," Nick said in an isolated location. "Humanity is focusing on making use of Star Energy. Progress on Pure Energy is slow, and Star Energy production is also progressing slowly. Humanity wants to use Star Energy to fight the Specters."
"There are many more humans in the world, and many cities now have automatic defenses against weaker Specters. More powerful Extractors are appearing, and I believe that is in your interest."
Nick wrapped up his report and left.
For the foreseeable future, he would be reachable by the Sun since he would remain on the surface most of the time.
After dealing with his report, Nick scouted the wilderness for Specters.
He found thousands upon thousands of Hatchlings and a couple of Adolescents.
However, the number of powerful Specters had been reduced by quite a bit.
There were more Agents than ever patrolling the wild, and they very often caught Demons.
Luckily, Nick's perception was beyond powerful, and he could find Specters rapidly.
There was also one more thing that made it easier for him.
Death was no longer near Aegis' headquarters.
Aegis had become so powerful that it was dangerous to stay near their headquarters.
Instead of putting pressure on Aegis, Death decided to hide its location and strike from the shadows.
It had destroyed many strongholds over the past decades, but its absence also allowed more Shields to travel through the world.
In fact, even if Death were near Aegis' headquarters, Aegis only needed the Champion of Light.
The Champion had been the strongest human for centuries now, and he had worked on his power quite a bit.
Together with the increased belief of humanity, his power had progressed a lot.
He could now fight Death equally.
If the two of them fought, there was a possibility that the Champion might win and kill Death.
Death's absence made it far easier for Nick to capture Specters in the Great Triangle since he didn't have to fear its perception anymore.
Nick captured five Demons within a single day, but it became much more difficult afterward.
These Demons had been easy to find, but there were only so many of them.
After a while, Nick decided to go to the Long Continent and hunt there.
He very quickly found three Demons and brought them to the underground city.
Nick suddenly stopped moving.
Right now, he was in the underground of the Long Continent.
This was just a seemingly random location.
And yet, his ability had just deactivated.
Someone was perceiving him.
Luckily, Nick could tell from where they were perceiving him.
It was quite a bit to the south of here, and just like Nick, the thing looking at him was underground.
'Has to be a Specter,' Nick thought.
This had caught Nick off-guard.
He had not intended to enter any Specter's perception, and he had also made sure that he didn't approach any of the dangerous beams.
After a while, Nick continued moving, acting like he hadn't noticed anything.
Luckily, he was always traveling in disguise.
Right now, Nick looked like a pale and gaunt man with red eyes.
Nick randomly moved around, and it looked like he was searching for a city to attack.
Yet, he actually tried to find whatever was perceiving him.
None of the beams had moved.
However, Nick had traveled towards the north quite a bit, and he was still being perceived.
'The origin has not moved from its spot,' Nick thought. 'I entered its perception range, and since it hasn't moved, I should have exited its perception range as well.'
'But I didn't.'
'They can sense me, but they are not moving.'
'That leaves two possibilities.'
'One, their perception range is much bigger, and they just randomly paid attention to me.'
'Two, their perception range is changeable.'
'I can't be sure which is true.'
'I need to test something.'
The next moment, Nick sped up to his full speed, excluding the speed boost of his primary ability.
He was moving just a bit faster than a Peak Fallen could move.
A second later, Nick's primary ability activated again.
He was no longer being perceived.
Nick stopped right below the closest city and waited.
About a second later, his ability deactivated again.
'That eliminates possibility one,' Nick thought. 'If it is an Eternal, my ability wouldn't reactivate if I just move a bit faster.'
'The fact that it reactivated for a bit means that I outran their perception.'
Nick looked back at the beams.
'No one has moved.'
By now, Nick already had an idea about who was spying on him.
'This might be an opportunity.'
He kept acting like he was scouting the city from below the ground.
Then, he just walked away.
This was quite a fortified city, and it was relatively close to one of the new strongholds.
"Do you wish to feed?"
A voice suddenly appeared in Nick's head, and he stopped moving.
He looked around but couldn't see anyone.
"What do you want?" Nick asked out loud.
"I can help you feed," the voice said. "You just need to become my servant."
"Not interested," Nick answered before he continued flying.
"You do not have a choice."
"No, you do not have a choice," Nick answered. "I'm stronger than you think. Even if you are an Initial Adversary, I would much rather take the fight than serve you."
"What strength," the voice spoke with bitterness.
"But I am also quite strong."
The next moment, someone appeared in front of him.
It was a starving child with a greedy and bitter expression.
One could say the child was envious.
Naturally, this was Envy.
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