Chapter 9: Chapter 9 – Null
Nick just looked with shock at Wyntor.
Kill The Sun?
How?!
How could a human destroy something as powerful as the sun?!
What would even happen after it was destroyed?!
"Of course," Wyntor added, "all of that is far in the future, and we might not witness it in our lifetime."
Nick looked at the hole in the ceiling again.
In the last couple of minutes, the world had become much bigger to him.
Until now, Nick had just wanted to get a good job to live a better life, but now he had heard about so many grand things.
Humanity was several times weaker than the collective Specters.
Nick only sighed.
Nick had seen horrible things in the Dregs, and he wanted to change the world.
Surprisingly, Nick's issue wasn't with the gangs or the robbers but with the system.
The people simply did what they could to survive.
If there were enough to go around, people might not kill each other as much.
Sure, greed would always be present, but it wouldn't be so overwhelming.
Sadly, Nick knew that he was just one man.
He couldn't change anything.
So, the next best thing was to live a good life without having to compromise his moral compass.
If he had the power to change things, he would, but he didn't, and he most likely never will.
After a couple of seconds of silence, Nick sighed. "What about the other two?"
"The fourth one is The Maw," Wyntor explained. "The Maw is not something that the majority of people will ever come into contact with since it exclusively interacts with Zephyx Extractors."
"From time to time, it grabs a group of Extractors and forces them to fight each other until only a single one survives, who is then allowed to leave."
Nick sighed. "And there's nothing we can do?"
Wyntor just shook his head.
"What about the last one?" Nick asked.
Wyntor looked a bit troubled and furrowed his brows. "The last one is difficult to talk about since it is rather special."
"No one knows what it looks like, and no one knows where it is, but the effects of its existence are indisputable."
Wyntor looked up at The Sun through the hole. "In a way, it's the opposite of The Sun."
"Everyone's attention is fixed on The Sun, almost like it is afraid of not being seen by everyone in the world. The fifth level nine Specter is the opposite."
"It's like it doesn't dare to show itself."
"No one is allowed to know what it looks, sounds, tastes, smells, or feels like. There have been cases in which some powerful Extractors analyzed all the scattered clues of its existence."
Wyntor looked at the ground with a troubled expression. "One day, that group died, and all their findings were destroyed along with them."
Then, Wyntor looked at Nick. "But interestingly enough, nothing else was damaged. Only the things relevant to it had been destroyed."
"Due to the manner of its existence, we call it Null."
"Null…" Nick repeated with a shocked voice.
Wyntor just raised an eyebrow. "Why are you so surprised? Specters have strange abilities."
Nick looked at the ground.
After a bit, he looked at his hands with an unsure expression.
"I think I understand now," he said. "That's why Albert was so interested in me."
Wyntor looked with quite some interest at Nick. "Do tell."
Nick looked at Wyntor.
"I think I've seen Null before."
For just an instant, Wyntor was taken aback, but he quickly became skeptical. "If you did, you would be dead."
Nick slowly shook his head. "I think I have seen it before, but I do not know what it looks, smells, tastes, sounds, or feels like."
Wyntor blinked several times. "What?" he asked in confusion.
"I have amnesia," Nick said. "I don't remember anything from before I was ten. My earliest memory is waking up in a room in a random house in the Dregs. I lived in the house for a couple of days, but some people came in and threw me onto the streets."
Wyntor looked with intensity at Nick. "And what makes you believe that you have seen Null?"
"My attuned Zephyx Synchronizer," Nick said. "It has been attuned ever since I remember."
"Speaking of," Wyntor said. "I need to know what kind of ability you have. Can you show me?"
Nick laughed helplessly. "That's the thing."
"It's impossible."
"I can't show you my ability."
Wyntor's expression became skeptical. "Then, how am I supposed to believe that you even have one?"
"I have one, but I can't show you," Nick said.
"Explain," Wyntor said.
"I can only use my ability when no one can see me," Nick explained. "When no one can see me, I can move about five times faster, and my body is several times stronger."
Wyntor rubbed his chin in thought. "That is a very substantial increase in power. Can you prove your ability in some way?"
Nick remembered the time he had fixed the hole in the ground by breaking part of a house and nodded.
"Follow me," Nick said as he walked out of the house.
Wyntor followed Nick, and the two of them stopped beside a ruin of a house.
After a bit of testing, Nick found an iron plate that had been bolted onto two stable beams.
No normal human could get the iron plate off the beams without tools.
"Wait on this side," Nick said as he walked to the other side.
Wyntor waited with raised eyebrows.
BOOOM!
Wyntor's eyes shot open in shock as he saw a big dent appear on the iron plate!
BOOOM!
Another huge dent appeared after an explosive sound!
"That enough?" Nick asked as he walked out from behind the plate.
Wyntor still had difficulties believing Nick.
What if Nick had prepared some kind of contraption that he could quickly hide after using it?
Wyntor wanted to test Nick some more, but after several minutes of different kinds of tests, Wyntor could only accept that what Nick was claiming was the truth.
As they returned to the house, Wyntor thought about Nick's ability, and when they sat down again, Wyntor had only one question.
"How can you use that ability against an opponent? As soon as you enter a fight with anyone, you effectively lose all your power."
Nick smiled uncomfortably.
"I have no idea."
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