Nick followed Wyntor up the staircase and into his office.
When Wyntor opened the door to look into his office, he sighed.
Everything was messed up.
He walked forward and lifted something out of the rubble.
The coffee machine.
He turned it on and sighed in relief when he saw that it was mostly undamaged.
For the next minute, Nick watched Wyntor making coffee.
This was amongst the longest minutes Nick had ever experienced.
Wyntor walked over to the place where his chair usually was out of habit but stopped when he saw that it wasn't there.
In the end, Wyntor gave Nick a coffee and sat down in one of the corners.
Usually, Wyntor would never do something like this since his image was important to him, but right now, he just didn't care anymore.
He was just too exhausted.
Wyntor took a deep breath, and Nick became more nervous.
"No, you're not going to die," Wyntor said, "and no, you're not being fired."
It was like a humongous pressure had vanished from Nick's heart, and his shoulders relaxed.
The next moment, Nick sat down in another corner of Wyntor's office, exhausted.
It was like Nick had lost all of his energy at that point.
"We were lucky," Wyntor said. "For several reasons."
"After the Crimson Sea broke out, father immediately came over here, asking if this was your doing," Wyntor said. "He had heard that a black figure was responsible for this incident."
"Naturally, he was worried that he would be implicated. If anyone saw you using the Shadow Shroud, things would become extremely troublesome for him."
"Lucky for us, you came back before he arrived, and as soon as you put the Shadow Shroud back, I put it back into the briefcase."
"Father immediately demanded the briefcase back, and when he saw the Shadow Shroud inside and you sitting on a random roof, he finally relaxed."
"After that, he quickly left again," Wyntor said.
"He doesn't know you're responsible for all of this."
Nick released a sigh.
Vernon had been the biggest danger to Nick.
While Wyntor had a connection with Nick, Vernon didn't have one.
He would have no issues throwing Nick to the people just to spare himself a bit of trouble.
Additionally, Vernon was probably furious.
The Dregs had been the very reason why Kugelblitz could produce so much Zephyx, and now, the Dregs were gone.
If they wanted blood in the future, a completely new system would need to be implemented, and most likely, Kugelblitz wouldn't get even nearly as much blood as before.
By freeing the Crimson Sea, Nick had caused immense damage to Kugelblitz's revenue.
Of course, while one could blame Nick for freeing the Crimson Sea, one couldn't really blame him for the extreme level of damage it had caused.
No one could have predicted that something like this would happen.
But that didn't matter.
The people wanted someone to blame, and Nick would fit that bill.
If they found out that Nick had been the one who freed the Crimson Sea, death would be certain, but only after a life worse than death.
With Vernon out of the picture, only three people were left who knew that Nick was the responsible one.
Nick, Wyntor, and the Parasite.
"What about the Parasite?" Nick asked.
Wyntor took a sip of his coffee.
"At least one positive thing came out of all this," Wyntor said.
"The Parasite's rats have used the sewers as their home and way of traversing the city, but with the Crimson Sea now taking up the entire underside of the city, the rats can't traverse the city anymore."
"Since his rats are just minions, he needs to use Zephyx to give them the ability to resist a Specter's influence."
"Resisting the Nightmare isn't very difficult for him since it only affects mentality."
"But things are very different with the Crimson Sea."
"A bit of red mist instantly turns a rat into soup."
"On top of that, all the paths to the outside world have been cut off. That means the rats can't transport any of the corpses out of the city."
"Staying in the city equates to losing Zephyx for the Parasite."
Wyntor took another sip.
"No rats have been spotted since the incident."
"We can say with high confidence that the Parasite is gone."
When Nick heard that, he released a sigh of relief.
The Parasite might be angry at him and want something in return.
If the Parasite were a human, it would most likely immediately tell on Nick to take revenge, but Specters weren't like that.
The Parasite would probably blackmail Nick and Wyntor for a very long time.
Luckily for them, the Parasite couldn't operate in the city anymore.
"At least one good thing came out of this," Nick said.
Wyntor nodded. "In fact, while things seem disastrous now, there are actually several good things about the current situation."
Nick perked up and looked at Wyntor in surprise.
"Which are?" he asked.
"The Parasite was a huge issue," Wyntor said. "Naturally, the Crimson Sea is also a huge issue, but there is a fundamental difference between the two."
"We can't deal with the Parasite, but we can deal with the Crimson Sea."
"We can?" Nick asked in shock.
Wyntor nodded. "We've already come up with a long-term plan."
"First, we make the underside of the city traversable."
"Second, we create more support for the city."
"Third, we create a bridge to the outside world."
"And finally, we completely cover the Crimson Sea."
Nick's eyebrows rose.
"Cover it?" he asked.
Wyntor nodded.
"We completely encase it in steel. If there is no way to see the Crimson Sea, and if there is no way for its mist to enter the city, it might as well not exist."
"Additionally, the Crimson Sea's presence is a huge deterrent to Specters."
"As far as we know, the Crimson Sea's hypnotic powers also work on Specters."
"This means that the Specters can't use the underground of the city to hide from us anymore."
"We expect the number of new Specters popping up in the city to be reduced by over 50%."
