Kill the Sun

A couple of days passed, and Nick eventually called for the government to bring the three Specters that Dark Dream had been promised.

There was no issue during the transport, and the three Specters arrived in Dark Dream within just a couple of minutes.

'Alright, one Possession Specter and two Physical Specters,' Nick thought after the guards left. 'A bit sad that the Adult is the Possession Specter since it can't grow anymore. Although, that might be good for the future. After all, at some point, we need ways to strengthen several Veterans.'

Nick nodded to himself and walked to the fourth floor, the floor housing the Possession Specters.

Adult Possession Specters were quite rare, and not every Manufacturer had one.

For example, Gemini didn't have an Adult Possession Specter.

Possession Specters were about as numerous as Physical Specters, while Force Specters were the rarest.

However, the higher one went in the level, the rarer Possession Specters became.

This was due to Possession Specters not being able to grow more powerful.

But then, how did Adult Possession Specters come to be?

Well, when they started existing, they were already Adults.

No one in Crimson City had seen a Specter forming, but the researchers had been able to extrapolate how something like this probably happened.

Physical Specters and Force Specters just appeared out of nowhere. At least, that was the assumption.

At most, a bunch of Prephyx probably gathered in the air, compressed, and eventually created a Specter.

However, Possession Specters were different.

Just based on their name, one could infer that Possession Specters possessed something that already existed.

Crimson City had done a lot of research on how Possession Specters appeared. After all, if they could learn how to make Possession Specters, they could create their own Specters.

They wouldn't even need to hunt and suppress them.

Sadly, they didn't know how that happened yet, but there were a couple of theories.

Ghosty's theory was the most probable one.

Ghosty had already come up with the theory that the Specters' reason for existence was to bring suffering to humanity, and he had used that theory to also come up with a theory for how Possession Specters were created.

He believed that objects surrounded by negative emotions were more likely to become Specters.

For example, a hammer that had broken the arms of 20 people had a far higher chance of becoming a Specter than a hammer that was used for construction.

If an object had caused a great amount of suffering, the negative emotions would act as a form of pull for Prephyx.

Sadly, while this theory seemed to make sense, it didn't explain how strong a Possession Specter became.

The durability of the object was of no consequence. After all, the Screaming Coffin, which was a big and hard coffin made of wood, was far weaker than the Glasses, which were just glasses.

The only thing one could say for certain was that Possession Specters had to be born at their power level since they couldn't gain power any other way.

Of course, the more powerful the Possession Specter, the rarer it was.

As for how much rarer, it was basically always an increase of five.

On average, for every five Hatchling Possession Specters, one Adolescent Possession Specter existed, and for every five Adolescent Possession Specters, one Adult Possession Specter existed.

Dark Dream only had four Possession Specters in total, and one of them was an Adult, while two others were Adolescents.

This showed the quality of Dark Dream's Possession Specters.

However, Dark Dream didn't have many.

For example, Solace had over 15, and Ghosty's Lab had over 70!

Just to put this into perspective, Solace had about as many Possession Specters as Dark Dream had in total.

Getting more Possession Specters could definitely increase the number of Extractors Dark Dream could employ and train.

'But that's for the future,' Nick thought. 'For now, I should check our newest addition.'

After Nick arrived at the fourth floor, he looked at one of the Containment Units in the east of the building.

Nick approached the door and walked in without hesitation.

After he closed the door behind him, he looked at the object in the middle of the room.

There was a big metal stick standing in the middle of the room. Its base was wide, and it was obviously designed to stand.

Two metal bars came out of the edges of the base and spiraled around the central stick like twin helixes, making it look quite ornate.

Eventually, the two helixes bent inward and combined with the stick in the center.

At a height of about 150 centimeters, they combined into one and extended for another 20 centimeters.

Yet, these 20 centimeters were completely engulfed in crimson fire.

Nick could already feel the heat from where he stood.

This was the Blaze.

Nick took a deep breath and approached the Blaze.

Then, he gritted his teeth and extended his hand into the fire.

Nick tightly grabbed the fiery metal in the middle.

SSSSSS!

The fire became more violent, and Nick felt his arm burning.

Nick took violent breaths as he fought against his instincts telling him to pull his arm out.

It hurt like hell!

'Eight, nine, ten!'

Then, Nick pulled his arm out and looked at it.

Surprisingly, his uniform looked just like always. It was almost like it hadn't been inside fire just now.

Nick's hand, on the other hand, looked red, black, and sinewy.

It looked just like it had been on fire for a while, unsurprisingly.

And it hurt about as much as it looked.

If Nick hadn't been confronted with the Nightmare's torture so many times, he would be screaming right now.

This pain was far worse than what the Can caused someone.

Nick walked to the side of the room and pressed a button on it.

The next moment, a drop of green liquid came out of a faucet and landed on Nick's burned hand.

The green liquid vanished immediately, and the hand regained a bit of its strength.

It no longer looked as bad, but it hadn't fully recovered.

'But it doesn't hurt as much anymore, which is the most important,' Nick thought as he looked at his hand. 'With my recovery, it should fully recover within a couple of hours.'

Nick glanced at the faucet.

'One drop costs about 10,000 credits. Let's see how much the Blaze produced.'