Nick thought back to the last time he had seen Nurse Alice.
It was a bit more than two months ago.
The people had gathered in the marketplace to pay their Blood Tax, and a man had just stolen all the credits of a frail young woman.
It had been quite obvious that she had already paid with her blood for the last or even the last two times.
After she had lost her credits, she just looked at the ground with a dead expression.
And then, she had uttered The Sentence.
"I wish I were dead."
At that moment, the marketplace fell silent.
Everyone knew what it meant to say The Sentence.
A minute later, a girl with a bright and kind smile walked into the marketplace. She looked like she was in her late teens, and she wore a clean pink nurse's outfit.
No one dared to stand in her way, and even though the marketplace was filled to the brim, the people still managed to make a wide road for the kindly smiling nurse.
The nurse walked over to the woman, who was still kneeling in the middle of the marketplace.
The woman looked up when the nurse stopped in front of her.
The nurse just kindly smiled at her. "I'm Nurse Alice, and I'm here because you called me," she said with a kind and empathetic tone. "Just calm down. It will be over soon, and you won't feel any pain or discomfort."
The woman looked at the ground again.
A moment later, Nurse Alice kneeled down beside her and slowly moved her right palm over the woman's eyes, like someone that was closing the opened eyes of a corpse.
When she had closed her eyes, the woman had already died.
Nurse Alice gently laid the corpse on the ground and stood up with a kind smile.
A moment later, she vanished from the marketplace.
If anyone in the world uttered something akin to "I wish I were dead," "I want to die," "Just kill me," "I don't want to live anymore," or anything similar to that, Nurse Alice would appear and grant that wish.
It didn't matter whether the person wanted it or not. After uttering The Sentence, Nurse Alice would kill them.
Even if The Sentence were said as a joke, it didn't matter.
If anyone, for any reason, uttered something akin to The Sentence, Nurse Alice would arrive and end their life.
Have you ever said anything like that in your life?
Maybe when a loved one died.
Maybe when your head was hanging in the toilet after too much drinking.
Maybe when something really embarrassing happened.
The occasion didn't matter.
As long as anyone said it, Nurse Alice would arrive.
"And she's only one of the five level nine Specters?" Nick asked.
Wyntor nodded. "Three of the level nine Specters are unmissable. I can guarantee you that almost everyone has seen the three of them in their life before. Do you know the other two?"
Nick quickly nodded. "I know one of them. It's the one that resides in the darkness."
"Correct," Wyntor said. "The Nightmare is one of the five level nine Specters, and it is omnipresent in all the dark places in the world. The darker the place, the stronger its influence."
Nick remembered one of the many times he had encountered The Nightmare.
Nick had once been searching for food, which was why he had walked into the sewers. Luckily, the ceiling of the sewers was mostly made of grates, which meant that the omnipresent sun could also illuminate them.
However, there had been some dark corridors in the sewers as well, and whenever Nick walked through them, he heard the whispers.
Human voices appeared in the darkness, telling Nick that everyone was trying to kill him and that nobody cared whether he lived or died.
The whispers were trying to fill Nick's mind with paranoia, depression, self-doubt, hatred, anger, and every other kind of negative emotion.
They wanted to warp Nick into a different person.
Luckily, the dark corridors hadn't been that dark and long, which made it possible for him to quickly get through them and find a rat to eat.
The existence of The Nightmare was also the reason why many newly built "houses" in the Dregs purposefully created several holes in the ceiling and walls.
Being in the darkness was extremely dangerous, which was why everyone avoided being in dark places.
The Nightmare and Nurse Alice were so powerful that it didn't matter where someone was.
Their influence extended across the entire world.
"Do you also know of the third one?" Wyntor asked.
Nick thought about the question for a while, but eventually, he just shook his head.
"Surprisingly," Wyntor said, "the third one is the most conspicuous of all."
Then, Wyntor pointed up.
Nick looked up and saw that Wyntor was pointing at a hole in the ceiling, and Nick could see the Sun through that hole.
"It's The Sun," Wyntor said.
Wait, the Sun is a Specter?!
"Surprising, right?" Wyntor commented.
"We have managed to somewhat calculate and understand the powers of the other four level nine Specters, but when it comes to The Sun, we are essentially still blind."
"It is everywhere all the time. Anyone that flies above a certain height immediately ceases to exist. Everyone sees The Sun exactly above them at all times. It doesn't matter on which side of the planet you are. The Sun is always at the same spot for everyone individually."
"And most shocking of all, its light is real. The entire world is illuminated by its light. It has the power to illuminate the entire world at the same time without having to take a break."
"The sheer amount of energy that requires is incomprehensible."
"All of humanity agrees that The Sun is the most powerful Specter that exists in the world, and it is the biggest obstacle standing between humanity and freedom."
"If humanity ever wants to achieve freedom, there's only a single thing we need to do."