Kill the Sun

?"Here it is," Hera said after stopping in front of a huge door.

Surprisingly, the two of them had descended the stairs instead of ascending them.

Apparently, Solace was keeping the Blinding Light in their basement instead of their attic.

Of course, since Solace was in the middle layer of the Inner City, the basement was still over a kilometer above the actual ground.

The door Nick stood in front of was absolutely massive.

It was ten meters high and ten meters wide, which was insane for the door of a Containment Unit.

But it actually made sense if one thought about how much Solace had paid for the Blinding Light.

If someone paid billions of credits for a Specter, saving a couple of million on the Containment Unit didn't make a lot of sense.

Nick didn't know how strong the Containment Unit was, but he assumed that not even Elders would be able to break out of this one.

Maybe not even Fanatics.

On the walls of the Containment Unit, Nick could also see a ton of white lines and empty pipes.

He assumed that Solace hadn't yet managed to find a way to make the Blinding Light's power usable by the general public.

They were probably still experimenting with it.

The next moment, Hera walked to the side of the Containment Unit and greeted two people standing in front of it.

They were both level two Extractors.

It seemed like Solace valued the Blinding Light so much that they even stationed two Johns in front of its Containment Unit just to be safe.

The two Extractors respectfully greeted Hera and opened the door.

They didn't ask why someone not belonging to Solace was allowed to enter the most secure Containment Unit in the entire building.

After all, their boss' boss was escorting him.

Surprisingly, Nick didn't see any light when the employee entrance to the Containment Unit opened.

He had expected that the Blinding Light's light would immediately start frying him.

Instead, Nick found himself in a small room.

"You have a room inside a Containment Unit?" Nick asked in surprise.

"Yes, we built this room as a buffer. We don't want the light to burn anyone that walks past the entrance whenever the door is open," Hera explained.

Nick had never seen a Containment Unit that had a small room inside of it.

The door behind Nick had closed again, and the door in front of him had not yet opened.

The only source of light was a small white line on the room's ceiling.

Since Solace provided the light to Crimson City, they didn't need to pay for their own light.

Even though their building had access to sunlight, they preferred using their own light over the sunlight due to security concerns.

"Have you worked with the Blinding Light before?" Hera asked.

Nick shook his head.

"Alright," Hera said. "The Blinding Light creates Zephyx whenever it blinds people, and it only blinds people whenever they look at it. Looking away from it will protect your eyes, but your body will start burning. Sadly, that process doesn't produce any Zephyx."

"That means that you have to become blind. Can you do that?" Hera asked.

Naturally, Hera asked that since not every person had the willpower to look into a bright light until their eyes were destroyed.

This process involved a lot of suffering and panic.

Of course, even Nick wouldn't have it easy.

Yes, Nick had worked with many scary and powerful Specters, but becoming blind was still terrifying in his mind.

"Yes," Nick answered.

Nevertheless, despite not liking it, he had to do it.

Hera nodded and went to a small cupboard on the room's wall.

She took out a small green bottle and showed it to Nick. "Do you have Recovery Liquid?" she asked.

Nick's hand went to his toolbelt and retrieved a small green bottle, showing it to Hera.

Hera nodded and put the green bottle back.

Next, she went to a wardrobe and opened it.

Inside the wardrobe were many big harnesses made of some kind of leathery material.

"You have to put this on," Hera said as she approached Nick with one of the harnesses.

Nick didn't resist and allowed Hera to put the harness around him.

That was when Nick noticed that the leathery harness also included hand, foot, neck, and head cuffs.

"Human instinct is to protect your eyes," Hera said. "Because of that, we have to restrain you."

"The harness is made of materials that can even hold me for quite a while. You don't have to be scared of accidentally breaking something," she said as she finished putting the harness on Nick.

Nick took a deep breath but didn't answer.

Then, Hera led Nick to the outer wall of the room, which had several tiny platforms hanging from a railing.

"Stand here," Hera said as she pointed to the platform closest to the door.

Nick did just that.

Next, Hera connected the footcuffs to the platform.

Then, she connected Nick's handcuffs to the part hanging from the railing.

After that, Nick's torso was connected.

Lastly, Hera grabbed a metal thing from the railing, which she then put around Nick's chin and forehead.

Nick's heart was racing since he couldn't move anymore.

The panic of being powerless made being here almost unbearable.

"Almost done," Hera said. "One last thing."

That's when Hera retrieved two clamps.

Nick's heart rate increased even more as he saw Hera's finger come closer and closer to his eyes.

He did his best to remain stationary.

A minute later, Nick's eyes were forced open by the two clamps.

Even though his body was insanely powerful, Nick couldn't damage any of the things restraining him.

Hera nodded once. "That's everything. Are you ready?"

Nick took a deep breath and tried to nod.

Of course, he couldn't nod due to the thing holding his head in place.

"Yes," he answered after a bit.

"Alright," Hera said as she approached a button near the door.

"One session takes 15 minutes. When the time is up, you will automatically be returned to this room. I will be waiting here."

"Have fun!" she said with a grin.

Then, she pressed the button, and the door shot open.