The world was in an uproar.
While all of this was happening, the Knife's body was pulling back together and regrowing.
When Pride died, her servant didn't move at all.
The Fallen knew that it couldn't possibly flee from someone this powerful.
The only thing it could do was to hope that this human didn't kill it.
Three seconds after Pride's death, the Knife's body had fully recovered, and she looked at the Fallen with a cold expression.
"I won't resist," the Fallen transmitted to the Knife.
In less than a second, the Knife threw a metallic rope at the Fallen, which slung itself around it.
This was one of the strongest Zephyx Suppressors that Aegis owned.
Naturally, if the Fallen had resisted, it would've been able to easily get rid of the Zephyx Suppressor, but since it didn't, it was completely suppressed.
And now, it wouldn't matter whether or not it resisted.
As soon as the Zephyx Suppressor was placed on its body, it was over.
Meanwhile, Nick just looked at the Knife while being in his mist form.
The Knife turned to Nick and summoned a big Specter Cage.
Immediately, Nick felt an irresistible force pushing him into the Specter Cage, and he entered.
BANG!
The door of the Specter Cage closed, and Nick was trapped inside.
He was captured just like any other Specter.
That was because the Knife thought Nick was just a normal Specter.
Well, kind of.
The Knife did not know that the mist cloud was Nick, but she did know that the mist cloud was related to their unique Specter ally.
The only people who knew about Nick's abilities were Ghosty and the Technician. Not even the Left Arm knew about all of Nick's abilities.
The Left Arm knew that Nick could turn into a cloud of mist, but she didn't know about Nick's primary ability.
The Knife, the Wall, the Right Arm, the Politician, and the Champion of Light didn't know about any of Nick's abilities.
The Left Arm had sent Nick on his mission to infiltrate Pride's forces,but she hadn't really made any plans for the mission.
She knew that Nick was competent and left the planning up to him.
From time to time, Nick sent her updates to keep her informed.
When Nick had killed the Robe, he had sent a last message to the Left Arm.
"I killed a very important servant. I am confident a Fallen will appear very soon. There is a small chance that Pride will appear. Be prepared to strike." R
The Left Arm did not send any answer since it was always risky to send a message to an undercover agent.
So, Nick couldn't be sure whom Aegis had sent.
The stronghold had contained over 100 Specters, including seven Demons.
The silver lining was that Gluttony consumed everything, including the Specters.
The Left Arm positioned the Technician in the north of the Grand Continent, believing that Sloth might strike there.
She also positioned another powerful team of Protectors in the east of the Grand Continent to combat Lust.
The stronghold on the islands in the southeast of the Grand Continent was defenseless.
The Left Arm could have sent three more Protectors there, but that might not have been enough to resist Lust in case it attacked there.
In that case, sending three Protectors there would be akin to sacrificing them on top of the stronghold.
So, the stronghold was essentially left naked.
The last two strongholds in the Grand Continent were where the biggest confrontation would take place.
Controlling the middle of the Grand Continent would give the Specters a solid foothold to control the entire Grand Continent, which was why they would probably gather there.
However, that was actually not the true reason.
This entire planning and scheming around territories was only relevant as long as no side could strike the true key pieces in the conflict.
The Shields and Adversaries.
Death had lost one of its most important servants, Pride.
Pride could be seen as a small key piece.
And Death wanted to take that opportunity to get rid of a key piece of humanity.
It assumed that humanity would defend those two Strongholds with one or two Shields each.
Because of that, Death decided to send two Adversaries to go to the space between the two strongholds,look at both of them, and attack the weaker one together.
This would get rid of one or two Shields.
Yet, the Left Arm had planned something similar, and she planned to counter Death's counter.
She knew that Death would try to kill one of humanity's Shields there, which was why she and two other Shields went to the same place.
In case the enemy split up, they would do the very thing that Death had planned and gang up on one Adversary.
They would lose one or two strongholds, but they might take out one of the Trio of Destruction.
In case the enemy didn't split up, they would be strong enough to survive for long enough to regroup.
If the Left Arm hadn't been able to predict her enemies' thoughts to such a degree, Aegis would have lost much more than just a single stronghold.
Without the Left Arm, humanity would have lost half or more of its strongholds.
And while she had been planning all of that, she had also kept Nick's identity secret.
When she had sent the Knife, she had only said one thing.
"Julian Winter has taken a Force Specter as a servant and is using it to lure out Pride. It's a cloud of mist. Capture it and bring it back to headquarters. Do not kill it."
Right now, the Knife did not know that she had just captured Nick.