Chapter 594 – Consumption

Chapter 594 – Consumption

Nick walked into a big room.

A couple of people were already in the room.

The Aductress stood in the middle and looked at Nick with a serious expression.

Beside her stood an older man with grey hair.

Nick actually knew this person. This was Marvin, a Protector working under the Technician.

Marvin had been one of the four inspectors who had looked at Crimson City.

The last person was a middle-aged man who carried an expensive console.

Based on the man's uniform, he was a Governor, which almost made Nick raise an eyebrow.

"This is Protector Marvin Marvel," the Aductress said, gesturing to the older man. "You already know each other."

"We do," Marvin said with a smile.

Nick nodded.

Then, the Aductress gestured to the other person. "This is a Scribe."

Nick nodded.

He knew what a Scribe was. He just hadn't known that this was a Scribe.

A Scribe was someone who belonged to Aegis and whose task was to administrate the central database.

While Governors and Agents were allowed to add things to the database, they were only allowed to do so by commissioning a Scribe.

The only ones that could add things to the database without supervision were Protectors and stronger.

Naturally, to make things official, the Aductress commissioned a Scribe to record everything that happened.

It was important that Aegis had a paper trail when Nick inevitably died after consuming the Peak Elder.

The Scribe stepped forward, and his Barrier activated a moment later.

Nick's Barrier activated in response and blinked a couple of times.

"Nick Dusk," the Scribe said. "Identity confirmed."

Next, the Scribe took out a couple of documents and handed them over to Nick. "Read these and sign them."

Nick grabbed the documents and read through them.

It was a whole bunch of legal bullshit that essentially said that Aegis was not killing him and that he was the one that asked them to consume a Peak Elder.

Nick signed everything without complaint.

Finally, he handed the documents back, and the Scribe moved all of them through his Barrier, scanning them. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

The Scribe looked at the Aductress and nodded. "You can proceed."

The Aductress looked at Nick. "You requested the core of the Dark Cloud," she said.

Nick nodded.

Naturally, the choice of the Specter was also important.

Choosing the right Specter wouldn't make the Consumption easier or harder, but it would shape one's future talent in Zephyx Manipulation.

The Specter Core that would become one's subservient processor naturally had its own things it was good and bad at. It wasn't some kind of new and untouched Core with no prior history.

The Specter Core was already shaped, and the Extractor wouldn't be able to reshape it.

The Dark Cloud, the Specter Nick had chosen, was a Peak Elder, and just as the name suggested, it looked like a black cloud.

It was a Force Specter that consumed all the light around it, encasing its victims in darkness and allowing the Nightmare to torture them.

It was one of several Specters that used the Nightmare as a form of inflicting suffering on humanity.

Naturally, Force Specters were extremely good at being elusive and escaping, which was exactly what Nick wanted to specialize in.

He didn't want to be found by an enemy, and if he were found, he wanted to escape as quickly as possible.

The Dark Cloud was perfect for that.

The Aductress turned around and walked to a corner of the room, to a big black cube.

A Specter Cage.

Her Barrier blinked for a moment, and the door of the cube opened.

WHOOOM!

Immediately, a thick cloud of darkness shot past the opening.

SHING! SHING! SHING!

They both kept pushing.

More time passed.

They kept pushing.

It was more difficult for Nick to keep his focus.

More time passed.

Nick had the urge to lose consciousness.

More time passed.

Nick felt like he could only keep himself conscious by forcing himself.

Yet, when he looked at the copy in front of him, he saw no difference.

There was no exhaustion.

There was no panic.

There was no struggle.

It was dead.

It was just as dead as when it had appeared.

Nick kept pushing.

More time passed.

Pain was coursing through Nick's body.

He felt like something inside of his head was breaking.

His head was killing him, and he felt like his eyes were moving back into his head without his control.

He kept forcing his eyes forward, but he was fighting a losing battle.

On the other side, his copy just kept pushing.

Crk.

Nick stabilized himself immediately after his hands were pushed back a slight bit.

Just now, he had lost his focus for just one millisecond, and in that millisecond, his hands had been pushed back just the slightest bit.

The distance they had been pushed back was almost unnoticeable.

And yet, it was different from before.

The frontlines had moved.

Nick continued holding against the Specter in his new position.

However, no matter what he did, his new position would forever be behind the starting position.

Under normal circumstances, in these kinds of battles, one only needed to keep pushing and wait for the enemy to make a mistake.

But that was exactly what wouldn't happen here.

The Specters were perfect.

They did not make mistakes.

They never made mistakes.

They never relented.

They never gave up.

The two of them kept pushing.

Meanwhile, the Scribe was looking at an unconscious Nick.

Four weeks had already passed.

Nick had been in a battle with the Dark Cloud for four weeks.

That was already more than the Scribe had anticipated.

Most Consumptions ended within a day or a couple of days.

When someone was consuming a Mid Elder, the fight might drag on for over a week.

Reports about a Consumption of a Late Elder stated that the fighting could continue for up to four weeks.

The fact that Nick was fighting a Peak Elder after four weeks meant that he would have definitely succeeded against a Late Elder.

This was somebody who had the talent to become a Peak Protector or maybe even a Shield.

Sadly, Nick was too ambitious to continue living.