Of course, the Champion didn't just stand there and watch.
He charged to the closest Shield he could see.
His light exploded around him, and he illuminated the underground as he reached the Shield in an instant.
BANG!
The Champion destroyed the Shield's Barrier with a controlled strike, grabbed the unconscious body, and charged to the next Shield.
The Champion was so fast that he managed to retrieve a second Shield.
Sadly, he was too late for the other six.
The other six could have gone anywhere by now.
Several other Shields gathered around the Champion, asking him what had happened.
"The Trickster struck again," the Champion spoke.
The next moment, the Champion activated his secret ability to sense the special Zephyx.
He could feel the presence of all the other Shields.
The Champion gritted his teeth.
But he couldn't sense the presence of the missing ones or the ones he carried with him!
The Champion's mind went wild as he thought about the meaning of all of this.
He had kept watch over the Shields, and he was certain that he would have noticed if any of them had been attacked.
He was certain that the Trickster couldn't attack them in secret.
That meant the Trickster also couldn't read their memories, manipulate them, or manipulate their abilities.
This only left one explanation.
The Shields had forgotten the ability.
Or, more precisely, they had eradicated the ability themselves.
They got rid of it!
But how?!
And why?!
The Champion pulled the two unconscious Shields to Aegis.
The other Shields followed since the Trickster had shown in the past that he very often struck a second time shortly after the first assault.
For now, all the Shields had to stay in the Champion's vicinity.
The Champion entered one of the Containment Units with the unconscious Shields and three other Shields.
As soon as they were inside, the Champion woke the unconscious Shields.
"What? Where am I?" one of them asked.
The other Shield seemed just as confused.
"You are in a Containment Unit at headquarters," the Champion spoke coldly. "You have been manipulated by a Specter."
"A Specter?" one of them asked in shock.
Then, his brows furrowed.
Usually, a human would immediately deny that they had been manipulated.
After all, they had memories. They knew that they hadn't done anything.
Yet, these were Shields, and they knew how Specter manipulation worked.
If they had been manipulated, their memories were most likely fabricated.
"What did I do?" one of them asked.
"You tried to flee into the ground," the Champion spoke.
"The Trickster?" the other Shield asked.
The Champion nodded.
"I… tried to flee into the ground?" the first Shield asked.
"You were not the only ones," one of the accompanying Shields said. "Six others did the same thing. We didn't manage to retrieve them in time."
The two Shields took deep breaths in shock.
At that moment, the Champion's eyes subtly narrowed.
The Champion's perception was incredibly powerful, and he had always had a very good intuition when it came to spotting lies.
Due to their control over their bodies, Shields were extremely good liars.
However, they were not actors.
A powerful person could unleash a devastatingly powerful punch, but if they didn't know how to punch properly, their punch wouldn't be nearly as strong as it could be.
The same thing was true for these Shields.
Their baseline for telling a good lie was very high, but they were not very experienced in lying.
Meanwhile, the Champion's baseline was even higher, and he was lying almost every day.
So, when he saw the two Shields taking deep breaths in shock, his instincts alarmed him.
His instincts told him that this was not genuine.
They were not shocked.
They just acted like they were shocked.
"Do you remember anything?" the Champion asked.
"No," the first Shield said, looking at the other Shield in confusion.
"No," the other Shield said, glancing back.
The Champion looked at the two of them.
'This explanation has been preplanned,' he thought. 'They are looking at each other to reassure each other and to make sure that the other one is following the script.'
"What is your opinion of the Trickster?" the Champion asked.
"He is our enemy," the first Shield immediately answered, while the second one nodded.
It was a normal and expected phrase. If a normal human said that, nobody would bat an eye.
However, these were Shields.
Shields very rarely worded themselves inaccurately.
Their minds could construct thousands of sentences in the time it took to speak one, which was why they essentially had an entire metaphorical hour to construct one sentence just right.
'Our enemy,' the Champion thought. 'Not humanity's enemy.'
"Do you believe the Trickster is humanity's enemy?" the Champion asked.
"Of course!" one of the Shields shouted. "He causes immense suffering all over the world and keeps abducting our comrades!"
'Slight increase in volume and tension. Imperceptible to normal humans, but very noticeable to me,' the Champion thought.
"What happened to the tracer ability?" the Champion asked.
"The tracer ability?" one of the Shields asked.
The next moment, the eyes of the two of them widened in shock.
"It's gone!" the second one shouted. "How did it vanish?"
'Another lie,' the Champion thought. 'Is it truly gone?'
At that point, the Champion thought back to the last couple of years.
He didn't pay attention to all of the conversations that the Shields had, but sometimes, he listened in.
The Champion's memory was astoundingly vast and accurate, and he tried to find the differences between these Shields and the ones who were still sane.
After some seconds, the Champion found a common pattern.
There were a couple of Protectors who had talked to all of them in the past years.
The Champion searched for the Protectors and found them all…
Except one.
One of them couldn't be found anywhere.
He had been on his way to a different stronghold when all of this happened.
And while the Champion had been looking at the Shields and the stronghold, the Protector had just vanished.
Exactly at the moment the Champion hadn't been paying attention.
Then, the Champion tried to remember what that Protector had said to the Shields.
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