It was a bit disappointing, but Nick had already seen it coming.
If he could store his self-created body that worked with Pure Energy somewhere, he would be able to switch between them.
But that was not how things worked.
As a Specter, Nick's center of existence was his Specter Core, which was made up of Zephyx.
If he truly wanted a new body, he would need to create a brain, implant his brainwaves, and destroy his Specter Core.
But that would also just be another him.
He would still end up dying.
'I also don't think that will become possible when I become an Eternal. I am based on Zephyx, and that won't change.'
'Even if I could somehow transport my conscience into another body, I would still need my Specter Core. My Specter Core is essentially my brain.'
'With my knowledge about anatomy, I could theoretically swap the brains of two bodies.'
'Sadly, a Specter Core is not a brain. The new body won't have my ability, and I won't have access to my most important abilities.'
'Seems like my transformation back into a human has to wait.'
'The aliens have to die first.'
'Then, I will have time to transform and start again.'
'For now, I should focus on my primary ability.'
'I need to increase the multiplier of my power.'
After advancing, Nick traveled to the underground city.
When he arrived, he looked at one of the Containment Units.
This Containment Unit held the Fallen with all of the tentacles.
Together with Aria, this was the being that knew the most about him.
Nick entered the Containment Unit without issues.
While he couldn't read the mind of the Specter, he could still delete part of its memories.
"Do you remember when you were captured by me?" Nick asked.
"Captured?" the Fallen answered in confusion.
"You are inside a Containment Unit," Nick said. "Don't you remember how the blonde woman fought you?"
With blonde woman, Nick referred to Aria.
"She used all sorts of attacks based on light. You tried to pull her into the ocean, but she lured you out and burned all the ocean around you. You couldn't escape anymore, and she contained you," Nick said.
"I remember," the Fallen answered. "Is there something you need?"
The Specter didn't know why Nick was asking about that.
Of course it remembered its fight with Aria.
Naturally, Aria wouldn't have been powerful enough to suppress the Specter back then, but that didn't matter.
Aria was strong enough to do that now, and Protectors lived for a long time.
"She has the ability to disguise her level," Nick said. "She looked like a Hero for a long time, but she was actually already a Protector."
"I suspected as much," the Fallen answered. "She wouldn't have been able to suppress me otherwise."
"Don't try to escape," Nick said. "We don't want a situation to occur."
"I won't," the Fallen answered.
"Do you remember me?" Nick asked out loud as he created a real human body. "We met each other recently for the first time."
"Yes, are you here for work?" the Fallen asked via voice transmission that worked with humans.
Earlier, they had communicated via the unique way Specters communicated with each other.
"No, I have other things to do," Nick said before leaving the Containment Unit.
The Fallen didn't think much about its encounter with the human anymore.
Nick looked at his beams.
The beam leading to the Fallen had become light blue.
The blue was so light that it was almost white.
The Specter only knew the appearance of one of Nick's disguises.
That was it.
It didn't know where he was.
It didn't know his name.
It didn't know his abilities.
Nick was just a random face in an endless crowd of unimportant humans.
After dealing with the Specter, Nick took a deep breath.
Then, he told Aria to make some time and to meet him.
Aria dealt with all of her work and met Nick in one of the most secure locations inside the Containment Unit.
"Have you become an Adversary?" she asked.
"Yes," Nick answered with a nod. "My abilities have advanced quite a lot."
"Is there anything I need to know?" she asked.
"There is something," Nick said.
Aria could tell that something was weighing on Nick's mind.
"I trust you," Nick said. "If the entire world weren't weighing on my shoulders, I would even trust you with my life."
"Sadly, that's not reality. Trusting anybody would be betraying all the sacrifices I have forced others to make."
Nick took a deep breath.
Yet, before he could continue, Aria spoke up.
"I know," Aria said almost casually. "I sacrificed my life for humanity willingly. I believe in you. I wouldn't want you to trust anybody, including me. You are too important."
"If my life ends right here, then so be it," she said.
"No," Nick said. "You are not going to die."
Aria raised a brow.
Then, what was this entire thing about?
"I do not want to do this, but for humanity, I have to," Nick said.
"My primary ability comes from the Null," Nick said.
Aria's eyes widened.
Why did Nick tell her?!
At the same time, Aria also realized why that was so important.
She somewhat knew how the Null worked.
The Null wanted to be as unknowable as possible, and that was most likely related to its power.
Logically, this meant that Nick also had an incentive to be as unknowable as possible.
"When I am not perceived, my power increases fivefold," Nick explained. "But now that I am an Adversary, my power can increase even more."
"And the increase is based on the being that knows the most about me, which is you, currently."
"I have also gained the power to delete memories."
"No matter what happens, for humanity, I have to delete part of your memories today."
"I will not input false memories. I will just delete the ones related to any of my abilities."
"I know it's difficult, but I hope that's fine with you," Nick said.
Nick looked at Aria, who seemed very casual.
"That's it?" she asked.
Nick nodded.
Then, Aria started to laugh a bit.
"Sorry, it's just…"
"I thought this would be a much bigger deal since you were so serious… I mean, more than usual."
"To think that you were actually worried about something like that."
"Nick, I dedicated my entire life to humanity. If the deletion of some unimportant memories can help humanity, I would do it voluntarily."
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