Kill the Sun

?At this moment, the shock Nick felt after realizing that Julian was a Specter outweighed the rage he felt for what Wyntor had done.

Nick had always looked forward to talking to Julian, and he had definitely enjoyed their talks.

And he was a Specter?

Nick immediately stopped considering Julian as a friend and narrowed his eyes.

"Why are you not just killing me?" he asked.

"I can't," Julian said. "I will lose quite a lot of Zephyx if I kill you. What worth is a bargain if you end up dying either way?"

The mouths all started to smile.

"But just because I'm not killing you right now doesn't mean that it's impossible for me."

"I just don't want to lose that much Zephyx."

"So, be careful about what you do."

"This is my city, and if you try to change that, you will no longer be part of it."

Nick just watched the mouths talk for a while.

At the same time, he thought about what it meant for Julian to be a Specter.

Julian had many friends, and he walked freely through the Inner City.

On top of that, he could even enter Kugelblitz and walk through their building.

Julian was a Specter who could do whatever he wanted.

This might truly be his city.

Of course, that was only true if one ignored the Crimson Sea.

With the Crimson Sea here, things seemed very different.

However, Nick was not about to provoke a powerful Specter.

"Why are you telling me all of this?" Nick asked with furrowed brows. "Why would you unveil your status as a Specter to me? What do you have to gain from this?"

"Nothing," the mouths on Julian's face spoke. "I just don't have the ability to keep my identity a secret from people who won a wager against me."

"As long as you don't try to unveil my identity, nothing will happen to you. I will leave you alone, and you will leave me alone."

Nick didn't know how much Zephyx Julian would lose if he killed Nick, but it seemed to be quite a significant sum if he was willing to take such a risk by leaving him alive.

Of course, one also had to remember that Julian was the one in control.

If Nick didn't cooperate, Julian would still kill him.

"You're a Fanatic, right?" Nick asked.

"Stop wasting my time," the mouths said with a bit of annoyance. "Tell me your wish."

Nick looked at Julian for some time before turning around to look at the red wall again.

There was no reason for Nick to keep watch over Julian or be careful around him.

Julian was much more powerful than Nick, and if he wanted to, he could kill Nick easily.

Being prepared for an attack or not being prepared made no difference.

"You have to fulfill the wish?" Nick asked.

"Technically, yes," Julian said. "But if it's more expensive than the Zephyx I would lose by killing you, I might not fulfill it."

Nick's brows furrowed, and his heart rate increased.

With the shock of Julian's revelation having passed, Nick's rage and hatred towards Wyntor returned.

Just earlier, he had wished to have a way to kill Wyntor.

And now…

A way had presented itself.

He could do it now if he so chose to.

No one would be able to link Wyntor's death to Nick.

The mouths on Julian's face had crafty smiles on them.

Naturally, it wasn't a coincidence that Julian just so happened to show up now.

Ever since the Crimson Sea had broken free, Julian knew that he would lose the bet as soon as he talked to Nick again.

So, he had avoided Nick ever since then.

However, he knew that he would need to pay his debts at some point.

Because of that, Julian kept a close watch over Nick from afar.

He had to choose the right moment to appear.

Naturally, when Julian had seen Nick charging out of Dark Dream, exploding with anger and hatred, he knew that the perfect time had come.

There was only one thing that could make Nick this angry.

Another human.

If Julian approached Nick while he was calm, he might ask to work with Julian several times, which would increase his power by quite a lot.

However, Zephyx couldn't just appear out of nowhere, and Julian would need to put a lot of effort into the sessions.

Or what if Nick asked for an Adult Specter?

That would be quite expensive since Julian would either need to find a wild one, which was almost impossible with the city's current state, or spend tens of millions of credits to buy one.

Sure, as a Specter, Julian didn't need credits, but since he lived amongst humans, the credits were still extremely useful.

Of course, if Nick asked for something like an Elder, Julian would just kill him.

That was way too much and also basically impossible for Julian to get.

After all, since Julian was just acting like a Zephyx Extractor, he wasn't really working with Specters, which meant that he wasn't actively producing Zephyx.

That meant he actually had fewer credits than one would think.

Buying an Adult would already strain his pockets quite a lot.

An Elder would be impossible for him to buy.

Luckily, humans were very emotional creatures.

Since Nick was so angry right now, chances were that he only had revenge on his mind.

Killing a random human was way easier than working with Nick or getting him an Adult.

And right now, Nick was evaluating just that.

'I could ask him to kill Wyntor,' Nick thought.

'But what then?'

'With Wyntor dead, Dark Dream will collapse, and I will lose everything that I've built.'

'I want to kill Wyntor, but I also need him.'

'I can't have it both ways.'

Nick was lost in thought for several minutes.

He had such a great opportunity, but he just didn't know how to make use of it.

Eventually, Nick made a choice and looked at Julian.