Just on a base level, Daniel's body was ten times stronger than Nick's body.
On top of that, he had abilities that increased his power even more.
While Nick's attacks seemed almost instantaneous, they were not truly instantaneous.
Daniel would be able to react to Nick's attacks.
Then, he would launch his own attacks, and Nick would be in trouble.
He could probably flee, but that was everything he would be able to do.
At the same time, the technological achievements also broke through the roof.
The powerful researchers had long since digested all the information inside the Archive, and they were researching new things.
They had far eclipsed the technological level of the Enlightened Ones and started to approach the level of the Ancient Ones.
All these mythical weapons Nick had heard about were being reverse-engineered.
Within a couple of centuries, they could probably even create an antimatter laser.
The same kind of weapon that was currently aimed at the Earth.
Sadly, they couldn't use it.
All of this was theoretical, and without actually testing it, they couldn't be sure if it worked.
The issue was that they couldn't test it.
If they fired it, Starbreaker Base would be turned into nothingness, killing everyone inside.
Another 300 years passed.
More Nightmen in the Ninth Realm were born.
Daniel reached the Early Ninth Realm.
At this point, Nick wasn't even sure if he could escape from him during a battle.
Daniel was just that much more powerful.
The researchers were creating weapons and technologies that not even the Ancient Ones had access to.
After all, they knew more about Pure Energy and Zephyx than the Ancient Ones, and their minds were many, many times stronger than the minds of the Ancient Ones due to their power.
A thousand years passed.
Due to the abundance of Zephyx and Pure Energy, Daniel reached the Late Ninth Realm.
He was the undisputed strongest existence on Earth.
He could annihilate Nick like a bug.
He could disperse the Null like a small cloud of smoke.
He could kill the Sun with one strike.
There were also several more Nightmen at different Stages in the Ninth Realm.
Nick wasn't even in the top ten anymore.
He was no longer the true leader.
Daniel was the leader.
Nick was just an advisor to him at this point.
Luckily, Kiran and Nick chose the right person.
Sure, as a Nightman, Daniel desired more power and status, but he was also intelligent enough to realize his own power.
He needed to deal with the true enemy first.
Otherwise, they would forever remain inside a cage.
Meanwhile, on the surface, a war broke out.
Several Protectors were fighting against the four Fallen and the first Adversary.
The era was progressing as expected, and the Amorphous Race was harvesting a good amount of Zephyx.
Everything seemed to go according to plan.
They didn't even need to introduce a Champion of Light this time since Nick was managing everything.
Another 500 years passed.
There were over 50 Nightmen in the Ninth Realm.
Meanwhile, Daniel reached the Peak Ninth Realm.
At this point, it was up to him to advance.
Nick had shared his ideas for the Tenth Realm, but Daniel said that it wasn't good enough.
He wanted something else.
Another 500 years passed.
He had done it.
Daniel reached the Tenth Realm.
The way he had advanced was different from what Nick had envisioned, but it wasn't worse.
However, it also wasn't better.
It was just different and was more tailor-made for Daniel's method of fighting.
2,000 years passed.
Ten more Nightmen reached the Tenth Realm.
Sadly, that would be it.
They were running out of Zephyx.
Hundreds of Saviors were working with Nick at all moments, and they could only produce so much Zephyx.
Zephyx production had reached its limit.
They could not support any more existences in the Tenth Realm.
'This is as far as it goes,' Nick thought. 'This is the maximum.'
'Humanity can't grow any stronger while being under the Sun.'
'This is the end of the preparatory phase.'
'The Nightmen have already perfected their battle-styles.'
'There are over 300 Nightmen alive that are more powerful than me.'
'The Enlightened Ones haven't even reached a fraction of this power.'
Everyone was in agreement.
It was now or never.
It was impossible to make humanity even stronger.
If they didn't succeed now, they would never succeed.
400 years passed.
In these 400 years, everyone readied for battle.
The secret was essentially out.
Everyone knew about the enemy.
Even the normal people knew about them.
Humanity had advanced so much that they could even isolate the transmission of information.
Inside Starbreaker Base, they could openly talk about all the secrets without fear of being found out.
Nick had shared all his knowledge.
The Nightmen knew what they were going to face in space.
They knew how their enemies looked.
They knew what they could do.
According to their calculations, the battle could go either way.
But all of that wouldn't matter if Nick couldn't deal with the antimatter laser.
Yes, Nick's power was pathetic in front of his creation, the Nightmen, but he was still the only being with the skillset to achieve the impossible.
Infiltrate the Amorphous Race's base and deal with the antimatter laser.
Nick was no longer a secret existence.
The Nightmen knew about him, and they knew about his purpose.
They knew that he had created them, and they knew that he had created Starbreaker Base.
It didn't matter that they knew about him.
Nick's pathetic increase in strength due to his ability wouldn't make a difference anyway.
Also, they didn't know about his abilities, which meant his power increase wasn't significantly weakened.
"Today is the day," Daniel said with a relaxed smile. "You've been waiting for this day for how long?"
"I'm over ten thousand years old by now," Nick answered.
"Ten-thousand years. That's a long time," Daniel said casually. "Are you excited?"
"I feel pressured, but that's fine. I'm used to this feeling," Nick answered.
Daniel nodded, and his smile vanished, replaced with a serious expression.
"Everything depends on you. If you fail, all of this will have been for nothing. We will just exchange a cage for annihilation."
Nick nodded.
"You know the plan?" Daniel asked.
"I was the one who came up with it," Nick said.
"Good," Daniel answered.
Kiran also looked at Nick.
Nick threw one last glance at the hundreds of Nightmen gathered in front of him.
All of them were looking at him with hope in their eyes.
They all knew that their survival depended on him.
"Farewell," Nick said.
"Wish you the best," Daniel said.
"Thank you for everything," Kiran said.
Then, Nick vanished.
The final assault was about to begin.
tg://resolv?domain=Kill_the_Sun_fastes
The author's patreon. If he gets more than 1000€ per month, he will increase the number of words in the chapter.