The Trickster.
This was Nick's official Specter name.
He had played the Corruptors several times.
He had used tricks and false intelligence to get them killed.
Then, according to Aegis, he had manipulated the Technician and controlled his mind.
After that, he tricked Aegis and successfully escaped from their headquarters.
No Specter had ever managed to escape from Aegis' headquarters.
Lastly, he had traded a simple note for hundreds of Demons without breaking the agreement.
It was a fitting name.
It was possible to make a deal with the Trickster, but catching it was almost impossible.
It just knew too many tricks.
Luckily, the Trickster didn't seem to attack humans.
For now.
In the future, things might change.
Nick had received 1,000 Demons during the deal, which was a brutally high number.
Aegis had considered messing with Nick during the trade, but they decided against it.
The Trickster seemed to keep its word, and it still helped humanity with its deals.
Just as promised, Envy had been killed, and they had also received a Mid Adversary that was easy to work with.
Just as Nick had said, the Salt Trident did not attack the humans when they entered the ocean.
The Salt Trident had been willing to capitulate earlier, but it had no idea how to come into contact with the humans.
Its domain was the water, and any servant would be safe from it as soon as they exited the water.
The Salt Trident did not entrust its future and survival to a servant that wasn't loyal.
But when Nick had reappeared, the Salt Trident saw its chance.
Nick had kept to his words in the past, and he didn't seem overly antagonistic to any side.
Naturally, Nick had gladly accepted the Salt Trident's offer, and he didn't even ask for much in return.
He just wanted the Salt Trident's protection for the deal.
Eventually, the Shields carefully entered the ocean, and sure enough, the Salt Trident didn't attack them.
They slowly made their way to the Salt Trident, which was in the middle of the biggest ocean.
As soon as they arrived, the Salt Trident's body dissolved on its own, revealing its Specter Core.
Aegis quickly took hold of the Specter Core and brought it to their headquarters.
They had already prepared a Containment Unit filled with water.
The Salt Trident grew more powerful by absorbing all the water inside a human's body.
A human would lose their mind and swim to it.
Then, they would eat from its body until they died.
Death was not a necessity but a side effect.
Extractors could simply eat from the Salt Trident, suffer strong effects of dehydration, and leave again.
Sure enough, it was easy to work with.
Even more, it was a Mid Adversary, which meant Aegis now had the capability to make Late Shields.
This was a huge milestone.
After all, the Champion was a Mid Shield.
The Champion could finally grow stronger.
This deal had been worth it!
Meanwhile, on the other side of the deal…
After receiving the 1,000 Demons, Nick killed 600 of them.
It was difficult to track how much Zephyx was being dispersed over the world. As long as a lot of Zephyx was dispersed, everyone would think that Nick stayed true to his word and killed all of the Demons.
The 600 dead Demons would birth countless Hatchlings and Possession Specters of different levels all over the world.
Meanwhile, the 400 surviving Demons would be integrated into the underground city.
Aria wanted 100 Demons, and Nick gave her over 400, including the ones he had already captured.
By now, the underground city had over 600 Demons.
That was enough to constantly employ over 2,000 Heroes.
Of course, it wasn't enough for the tens of thousands of Heroes they were expecting, but it was still good enough.
Due to how much Zephyx every Hero could absorb every day, everyone would still gain enough Zephyx to theoretically become Protectors.
After dealing with the Demons,Nick returned to his laboratory.
Creating a new kind of human had the highest priority right now.
Nick continued researching.
After another 20 years passed, Nick had made some progress.
Some of the fetuses survived for quite a long while, but the survival rate was at a measly 3%.
And survival rate, in this context, referred to getting past the very early stage. All of them died later or simply stopped growing.
'The more I experiment, the more impossible everything seems,' Nick thought as he looked at the countless tubes of fetuses in front of him.
'I can make fetuses that are immune to the darkness.'
'I can make fetuses that can work with Pure Energy.'
'But I can't make fetuses with both things.'
'They need an artificial attunement with the Nightmare if they want to survive in the darkness.'
'But for that, they need a Zephyx Synchronizer or a similar organ.'
'Yet, if I create a similar organ, I would just be copying the Enlightened Ones, and the aliens are prepared for that.'
'I need to create a human without a natural Zephyx storage, but that makes attuning them to the Nightmare impossible.'
'It seems to be an unsolvable problem.'
'These two things are just not compatible.'
'Sure, I could plan an artificial implant later, but that can't be the solution.'
'The more implants and technology are in somebody, the more weaknesses there are.'
'It needs to be a closed system.'
'How can I solve this?'
Nick kept thinking for a while.
'Why do they need to be immune to the darkness?'
'Because the Nightmare will kill them otherwise.'
'The darkness is not the issue. It's the Nightmare.'
'Specters are immune to the Nightmare, but Specters are not humans.'
Nick kept trying to come up with a solution.
And then, he got an idea.
'It's not what I had envisioned, but it seems to be possible.'
Nick furrowed his brows.
'But this is tough.'
'This would change humans too much.'
Nick tried to think of another solution,but this one seemed to be the only feasible one.
'I should try it. If it doesn't work, I can still search for another one.'
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