Nick decided to stay true to his title as Trickster and smirked deviously.
"I will help you suppress Death."
"I know where it is."
"I can tell you where to strike."
"With your combined powers, you won't fail."
"As long as you don't want to kill Death, you will be able to suppress it."
The Champion took a deep breath.
Death.
Finding Death had become extremely difficult since it never showed itself anymore.
Nobody knew where Death was.
Death was a Peak Adversary.
If they could contain it…
They could create the first level nine Extractor.
That would give them a chance against the Maw and Nurse Alice.
Even more, after getting the first level nine Extractor, they could also create the second one a couple of centuries later.
The Champion remembered the Trickster's terrifying perception abilities.
It managed to find the Envious Researcher while still being a Demon.
Right now, it was an Adversary.
The Champion believed that the Trickster could pinpoint Death's location.
"When will your side of the trade be considered as fulfilled?" the Champion asked. "Will it be when you tell us where Death is?"
"No, it will be considered fulfilled when Death is inside one of your Containment Units. However, don't try to fool me. I don't want some political word games in which you say that it is suppressed but not in a Containment Unit, and therefore, I haven't fulfilled my side of the deal."
"When it is suppressed, it is suppressed."
The Champion remained silent for a while.
"There will be no tricks?" he asked.
"There will be no tricks. I will also not free, kill, or take Death after you suppress it. It will be yours. I will not touch Death or its Containment Unit or anything like that in at least a thousand years."
The Champion didn't answer for a while.
This was a tempting offer.
"What do you want in exchange?" the Champion asked.
"The Right Arm and the Inferno," Nick answered.
The Champion narrowed his eyes. "What do you intend to do with them?"
"Grow more powerful," Nick said. "As long as they stay alive for a thousand years, I will not do anything to Death or anything related to it."
"I don't want them to suddenly say the Sentence after coming into my possession."
"You get Death. I get the Right Arm and the Inferno. As long as they stay alive, I won't do anything to Aegis."
"Of course, if you decide to trigger the Maw to become the first level nine Extractor, that is also okay with me, but that will take a couple of centuries."
"That's plenty of time for me to grow more powerful."
The Champion remained silent.
This was difficult.
Handing the Trickster two Shields meant that Aegis would only have five Shields for a while.
After all, if a new Shield appeared, the Maw would take all of the living Shields.
But Death opened the path to the ninth level…
If the Champion could become a level nine Extractor, the number of Shields wouldn't matter.
When a mortal got their hands on a gun, it didn't matter whether they had seven knives or five.
The gun would be much more useful.
"I have to talk to the others," the Champion said.
"I will come back in a week," Nick said.
Then, Nick calmly flew away.
The Champion narrowed his eyes.
Nick flew out of the Champion's perception.
Then, he smirked.
"Do you intend to follow me?" he transmitted to the Icestorm, who was around 2,000 kilometers away, looking at him.
The Icestorm gritted her teeth.
Yes, she wanted to secretly follow Nick.
"No," she answered.
Then, she flew to Aegis' headquarters.
When Nick's ability reactivated, he vanished.
For the next week, the Shields talked amongst each other.
They were in disagreement about what to do.
They would be able to suppress Death on their own with time.
"But what if we can't?" another one asked. "It hasn't shown itself. It might be hundreds of kilometers underground and never show itself again. We would need to feed War enough that it advances, and that will take forever."
It was not easy to work with War.
It fed on strife, rage, and hatred.
Working with it represented introducing a conflict between the Shields or Protectors.
Meanwhile, with Death, they would just need to sacrifice a couple of traitorous Heroes.
Working with Death was so much easier.
A week later, Nick appeared again.
"Your decision?" Nick asked.
"We made our decision," the Champion answered.
In the end, the Shields came to an agreement.
It didn't boil down to War or Death.
It was about the Trickster.
Giving him two Shields would keep him away.
The Trickster had an unprecedented power to damage Aegis.
Handing it two Shields would cause far less damage.
"We agree," the Champion said.
Nick smirked. "Good. Then, we have an agreement."
"We can start whenever you want. I do not need any time for preparations."
A moment later, all seven of the Shields came out of Aegis' headquarters.
"We start right now," the Champion said.
Nick looked at the Shields.
He knew all of them.
The Champion, the Right Arm, the Icestorm, and the Inferno were Shields with whom Nick had worked in the past.
The Tinkerer came after Aegis betrayed Nick.
In the next years, the Politician, the Left Arm, and the Wall died, and they had been replaced by two new Shields.
As Nick looked at the peaceful Right Arm and the stalwart Inferno, he only saw resolute acceptance in their eyes.
Just like everybody else, they were willing to sacrifice their lives for Aegis.
They were willing to live a life worse than death for a thousand years if it helped humanity.
"Then, we start right now," Nick said.
The next moment, Nick transmitted the location of Death to them.
At this moment, Death was 200 kilometers beneath the eastern border of the Grand Continent.
The eight of them traveled there.
During their travels, some of them urged the Champion to attack Nick.
They were all there.
This was the best opportunity to stop the Trickster!
But the Champion refused.
"The Trickster is too dangerous."
"We have to treat it like an Eternal."
"It can't become an Eternal, but we can become level nine Extractors."
"Eventually, it can't keep up with our power anymore."
"That's when we kill it."
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