Nick didn't show it, but he was filled with relief.
He had bet correctly.
He had been betting on the aliens' greed, and the bet had paid off.
The aliens wanted as much Zephyx as possible, and he was using their desires to his advantage.
"What do you want me to do?" Nick asked.
"For now, nothing," the Sun's avatar answered after a short time. "This cycle is progressing as expected. Do not cause unnecessary damage to the era, and do not advance another level. The only thing you have to do is wait. When the next cycle begins, we will tell you what to do."
"Then, I will be vanishing from the world until the cycle ends. How will I know when it ends?" Nick asked.
"We are going to tell you a century in advance," the Sun's avatar spoke.
Nick nodded. "Then, I hope for a profitable partnership."
"We expect you to live up to your promises," the Sun's avatar said.
Then, the Sun's avatar vanished.
Nick wanted to take a deep breath, but that was still too suspicious.
His ability hadn't reactivated yet.
Then, for several minutes, Nick just kept sitting in the isolated room.
Finally, he felt the familiar draw of the advancement space.
'It's finally time,' Nick thought.
Nick watched his surroundings warp, and when they were done warping, he saw an endless sea of suffering humans.
There were millions upon millions.
Nick had already thought of an ability he wanted over the past thousand years, and he searched for it.
This would be the last new ability he would receive from the Sun.
What was it that Nick needed?
Nick's perception was already as high as it needed to be.
The Null's ability and the Maw's ability took care of that.
Nick's escape abilities had already been pushed to a level that nothing on Earth could capture him, except for the Null, maybe.
Additionally, escaping was no longer important.
If he got found out by the aliens, escape wouldn't be an option.
What about offensive capabilities?
Yes, those could be increased, but there was an issue.
How was he going to explain to the Sun why he chose greater attacking power?
He was supposed to be the first Eternal to get suppressed.
Increasing his offensive capabilities would make it much harder to suppress him.
Intelligence?
That couldn't be increased any further.
Defense?
Nick could already turn into a Physical Specter, a Force Specter, and a human. That gave him all the defense he would ever need. Additionally, he could retreat by using several other abilities.
Physical power?
Again, Nick couldn't explain that to the aliens.
Zephyx regeneration?
Maybe, but that was not that useful.
Nick's choices were limited.
As he walked to the end of his very complex path, creating a very specific ability, he stopped.
"Why have you chosen this ability?" Nick heard in his mind.
"I need to learn more about humanity. The more I know about them, the better my decisions will be," Nick answered.
Nick didn't receive an answer.
Instead, the Sun started to become brighter in the advancement space.
The next moment, Nick was transported to his Specter Core.
By now, the diagrams were no longer as complicated.
He understood what most of them did.
A new diagram came down from the Sun and integrated into Nick's Specter Core.
He watched as the diagram grew in his Specter Core, and Nick could see how it was created.
Most of the time, the diagram was being created faster than Nick could understand it, but with time, he would be able to understand the entire thing.
When the diagram was integrated, Nick's other diagrams started to expand.
Of course, his self-created diagrams didn't get touched in any way.
For several minutes, Nick saw the sizes of his diagrams increasing dramatically.
The diagrams representing the Maw and the Nightmare didn't increase as much, but the others increased drastically.
All the other diagrams started to split into two and expanded even more.
By the end, all diagrams were of equal complexity and size.
Every diagram now had two branches.
'As expected,' Nick thought.
'The Maw and the Nightmare gave me two abilities each since they were Eternals.'
'The Null never gave me two abilities since my Zephyx Synchronizer synchronized with it. I only got the base level, and it advanced like all the other abilities.'
'Now, there is no more differentiation between powers.'
'Everything has reached the power of an Eternal, which means everything, besides the Nightmare and Maw's abilities, has gained a completely new ability while also improving the base ability.
As an Adversary, Nick should have had eight abilities, but since he had worked with two Eternals as a human, he had had ten.
Now, as an Eternal, Nick's abilities had increased dramatically.
It went from 10 to 18.
Yes, Nick had 18 total abilities now.
A new ability relating to the Null had appeared.
The abilities from the Fog and the Blinding Light each received another ability.
Finally, the abilities Nick had chosen for himself had received another ability.
Naturally, Nick's newest ability also came as two abilities.
18 abilities.
'This is as far as I can go,' Nick thought. 'My power has increased exceptionally, but that is where my growth mostly ends. I can create some more abilities, but I won't be able to add a lot of new abilities with this level of power.'
Nick closed his eyes and inspected his new abilities.
There was a lot to learn, and he had to test them out for a bit.
Nick decided to go from old to new.
First, he checked the two abilities from the Null.
By now, Nick's primary ability should be on the same level as the Null's primary ability.
The way Nick saw the world was how the Null saw the world.
'This is a terrifying level of perception,' Nick thought.
The beams were still leading out of Nick, but that was not all.
If Nick focused on one of the beams, he could see an image.
As he focused on the Champion's beam, Nick could see the Champion sitting on his throne.
Even more, Nick intrinsically knew what the Champion knew about him.
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