"Yeah, I made some progress with Zephyx Manipulation recently," a blue-haired man said with a proud smile.
"Oh?" the Shield in front of him said.
The man nodded and remained silent for a bit.
After that, the blue-haired man, a Peak Protector, went into details relating to Zephyx Manipulation.
The Shield listened with interest.
"Huh?" he asked suddenly.
"The third triangular lines," the Protector said. "You know which ones I mean."
"Yes, of course," the Shield answered.
As the Protector continued explaining, the Shield interjected with confused sounds from time to time.
These sounds were not out of the ordinary since they always happened during very complex parts of the explanation.
However, as the Champion remembered these conversations, he realized that something was suspicious.
'They are not asking about anything specific,' he thought. 'If they didn't understand parts of the explanation, they would ask more pointed questions.'
'Instead, they just give off confused sounds.'
The Champion immediately realized what was going on.
'There are two conversations at the same time. One of them is held verbally, while the other one is held via voice transmission.'
The Champion overlooked the entire world at all given times, but his focus was limited.
He had the power to listen in on voice transmissions with his power, but there were so many of them happening at any given moment.
He had been overlooking the world for centuries, and he had to prioritize what he paid attention to.
A random conversation about Zephyx Manipulation between a Shield and a Peak Protector was not on the priority list.
After some time, the conversation became more animated.
The Shield started to ask more pointed questions and showed genuine interest in the topic.
'By that point, the manipulation has already taken place,' the Champion thought.
'The long explanation in the beginning took up about three minutes, and that's all the Trickster needed to manipulate the Shields.'
'What a terrifying ability.'
'With just a short conversation, the Trickster can turn Shields into loyal servants.'
'But how did he know about the tracer ability?'
'The tracer ability also works as a perceptive ability on their end. The Shields can trace basic Zephyx with that ability. They do not know that it also gives off a special kind of Zephyx that makes them traceable.'
'The Zephyx Manipulation Lines are as complex as I can make them, and I'm certain none of the Shields can decipher the true purpose of this ability.'
'This means the Trickster couldn't have found out the true purpose just by talking to them. After all, they also don't know about it.'
'Additionally, the fact that he opened with a conversation about Zephyx Manipulation is also suspicious.'
'I don't know how, but he found out about the tracer ability before he talked to any of them.'
At that point, a long-dead Specter appeared in the Champion's mind.
'Envy also had the ability to decipher the abilities of Extractors, but Envy needed to physically look at the Extractor's Zephyx Synchronizer to do so.'
'Can the Trickster decipher abilities just by looking at an Extractor?'
'But how would that even be possible?'
'There's no doubt that the Trickster is very knowledgeable about Zephyx Manipulation, but deciphering someone's abilities just by looking at them is like trying to understand how a sewage treatment plant works just by looking at the water that comes out at the end.'
'There are multiple ways to achieve an effect, and just looking at the result isn't enough to find out which way was used.'
But then, the Champion thought about Nurse Alice.
'Nurse Alice somehow knows all of my abilities as well. I've kept several abilities secret so that I can suppress her, but she was always prepared for them.'
'Did Nurse Alice teach the Trickster that ability?'
'The Trickster is beyond intelligent, but I don't think he has the capabilities to create such an advanced ability. In the future, he might be able to, but it's just too soon.'
'But why would Nurse Alice help him?'
The Champion thought about that question for a while, but he couldn't come up with an answer.
Nurse Alice was a Specter, and there was nothing the Trickster could do that Nurse Alice couldn't.
Specters didn't just share such important knowledge for free.
'The only thing that would make that possible is if the Trickster can threaten Nurse Alice's life, but that's impossible.'
'I can kill the Trickster if I just get a chance.'
'I can't kill Nurse Alice since she is too fast.'
'Nurse Alice is stronger and faster than the Trickster. There is no way that he can threaten her life.'
'Does the Sun want to make the Trickster an Eternal?'
'But then, wouldn't it be the Sun who gave him this ability?'
'It doesn't make any sense.'
'Humanity already overcame almost all of our shackles.'
'This era is a success.'
'Technology is progressing at an acceptable pace. The Sun said so itself.'
'Humans are growing stronger.'
'We finally have a shot at breaking out and stopping the alien invasion that the Sun is preparing us for.'
'Why would the Sun need another Eternal?'
'I also suspected that the Sun gave its blessing for the Trickster to kill the Maw. Otherwise, the Trickster wouldn't exist anymore.'
That was when the Champion remembered the questions the former Right Arm and the Inferno had asked him.
He hadn't been able to answer most of them, but that was to be expected.
After all, they asked questions with unknowable answers.
'The two of them also acted very differently from other servants, and their show of obedience at the end seems almost forcefully fake.'
The questions the two Shields had asked the Champion appeared in his head again and again.
Why did the old Champion want to kill the Sun?
Could a Demon manipulate a Shield?
Why did the Null exist?
"What happens now?" one of the two Shields in front of the Champion asked.
The Champion didn't listen.
He had just remembered something.
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The author's . If he gets more than 1000€ per month, he will increase the number of words in the chapter.