After exiting the void, Jim brushed off his shoulder. He had erged in one of the less frequented cities of Desbar, aning that the population was largely demons. Given the ti of day, this further ant that many of them were sleeping, as demons were a nocturnal race. This heavily limited the amount of foot traffic that he had to deal with as he walked down the street, towards a nearby office building.
There was a demoness inside with silver hair, smiling at Jim as he approached. “Welco to Pierceton and Pierceton. How can I help you?”
Jim simply pulled his collar to the side, showing off a pin on the inside of his collar. It looked like an X with a vertical line through it, or two mirrored K’s. The receptionist kept that sa smile, nodding her head. “They’re waiting for you in the second basent floor, room two. Have a nice day.”
Jim simply gave a small grunt of acknowledgent, moving into the elevator and descending two floors. The doors opened to a dimly lit hallway, lined with nurous doors. He walked to the second door, opening it and stepping inside. In the room was a semicircular table, at which five people were seated. Each of these five people were covered by an obfuscation spell, causing them to look like hazy shadows.
“Was Mister Wainwright agreeable to our plan?” The figure on the right asked, their voice sounding like an almost ghastly echo after being modified by the spell.
“He was. Three hundred tons of Dinsium, six thousand units of Mage Heart, and a decommissioned Reset Protocol. Said they’ll be sent over by the end of the day.”
“Excellent.” The figure in the middle nodded with a clear smile in their altered tone. “In that case, we can begin planning the next stage. Is there any news on that regard, Number Four?”
The figure second to the right shook their head. “Nothing solid. We recorded a trip to Site One, however. There is confird activity.”
“Twenty years of silence, but he’s acting now? It would seem that karma is smiling on us, after all.” The central figure spoke up. “Jaeger. When the materials arrive, send them to the first basent floor for processing. We don’t know when he will make a move, so we’ll need to be ready.”
Jim gave a deep nod. “Understood. I’ll have everything set on my end.”
“You’re doing good work, Jaeger. Soon, we will be able to topple the false throne.” The central figure said, and Jim could tell that they were all choosing their words very carefully. Throughout the ti that they worked together, they always avoided ntioning key terms or nas that would draw unwanted attention.
“Anything else for , then?” He asked, needing to know if he had any other assignnts while he waited for the shipnt.
“No, you can wait in the lobby upstairs. We will send word if we need sothing.” At that, Jim nodded, turning and leaving the room. As he did, his eyes swept through the hall, noticing two caras watching him.
When he entered the elevator, he saw that there was still another cara trained on his position, and could faintly sense an energy field surrounding the entire building. They’ve beefed up security since the last ti. It was impossible to tell what the exact nature of the energy field was, while still wearing the face of Jim Jaeger. At the sa ti, the constant surveillance ant that it was difficult to find ti to change to a different face.
Too bad, the idiots are ignorant of sothing. Lena thought to herself, stepping out into the lobby and finding a chair to sit in. There was one anti-surveillance trick that ninjas were taught, but it was only to be used in critical situations. Communication with the mbers of the Greater Pantheon could not be monitored.
Hey, Aurivy~! Need you to pass on a ssage for ~! This wasn’t her first ti calling Aurivy, and thankfully the halfling goddess had gotten used to checking the history of her callers in such situations.
Golden… wait, you’ve got a na now? Lena, is it? Aurivy sounded surprised to know that the Golden Shadow now had a proper identity within the system.
Yup! The Keeper nad personally, and I’m on my first mission!
There was a long sigh transmitted over the communication. Alright, what do you want to send them this ti? An evacuation request?
Nope, not this ti! I need a body double, and for everyone in basent level two of my current location to disappear.
Aurivy paused for a mont, as if to process that request. You don’t usually have pass on attack orders. What’s going on?
Oh, nothing much. There are so idiots that want to use the Reset Protocol on the Keeper. Even ordering a tric shit-ton of Dinsium and Mage Heart to make a custom card to hold him!
Aurivy paused again, and this ti there was thinly disguised anger in her tone. And you just… happened to find out about that?
Well, yes and no. I knew this group was up to sothing because of the last ti that I infiltrated them. That was about a month back, now? Back then, they were still brainstorming and theory-crafting, without anything actionable, so they were left alone. But after joining Olympus, I had Tsubaki send back in to check on them! Turns out, a Reset Protocol in Deckan was recently decommissioned due to an energy surge, so they wanted to grab it before it was recycled.
Right… passing on the ssage. Are you sure you don’t just want a royal smiting?
Nah, that’s no fun! Lena giggled in her mind. Besides, the guys here aren’t at the top of the food chain. You could probably dig into all of them at once if you used your system, but having everyone involved with this plan suddenly disappear would be quite the scare tactic~. Besides, this is the ninja way.
…Fine. Aurivy agreed reluctantly. I’ve passed your ssage along. I was told to let you know that Faceless and Black Shadow will be at your position shortly.
Oh, wow, they’re sending Black? I asked for one floor to be cleared, not the entire building!
Lena… please explain before the smiter starts smiting? Aurivy’s tone was much shorter now, her patience running thin.
Oh, uh… well, Black Shadow is like I was. He’s infiltration, but of a different sort. I take people’s faces, he leaves no witnesses. Specializes in void scripting. Probably responsible for about a tenth of the tic alarms in the last five years?
As she was explaining, the door opened, and two figures walked in. The first was a felyn male with short, blue hair and… a completely empty face, without eyes or mouth. The second was a lycan male with black hair and wearing a heavy, black robe.
Jim lowered his head, avoiding eye contact as the receptionist addressed the two. “Welco to Pierceton and Pierceton. How can I help you?” She asked, though she seed to be moving closer to the counter.
“Begone.” The figure in black said, lifting his right hand to reveal the back of it. On the back of his hand was the image of an eye, which opened up and stared at the woman. Imdiately, her body seed to fly back, becoming a still painting on the wall behind her.
“You called for a body double?” The faceless entity asked, his voice simply appearing in the air around him. When Jim nodded his head, an identical copy of him appeared in the seat next to him, allowing him to stand and roll his shoulders. Jim’s body shrank down, once again returning to Lena’s.
“Sending Black’s a bit overkill for this, don’t you think?” Lena asked with a smirk, keeping her eyes down to avoid looking at any piece of Black’s clothing. “Or are they wanting to get rid of too, now that I’ve made my position clear?”
Though she seed calm on the surface, Lena had already selected what she believed to be the perfect persona to deal with Black, should it co to a fight. Black, however, simply chuckled, talking in a sarcastic tone. “Nothing like that, Goldie. You work for the top brass, now. So they’ve gotta take your requests extra serious. Think the old term is ‘scorched earth’.”
Lena clicked her tongue at that, turning to walk towards the door. “Just make sure that this one isn’t contagious. And I have a na now. It’s Lena. Faceless, you shut down the block?”
“Of course.” Faceless nodded his head, though Lena wasn’t about to turn around to look, as that would put Black in her line of sight. She knew Faceless’s typical way of doing things. Shut down all forms of surveillance that could detect his presence, walk in, plant the double, and then walk out. He had trained in a powerful energy that allowed him to mask his appearance from others, so witnesses weren’t a concern.
“Then I’ll be going. Keep Black under control.” She said, walking out the door to Black’s laughter.
“Oh, Goldie, you should know by now that that’s not happening.” When Lena heard that, her brow twitched. Black was too arrogant, too unbridled. Even the elders didn’t dare to boss him around lightly, because he had killed one during his training. Unlike most agents, he took pleasure in the tis he was allowed to go out and kill, always wanting to test a new killing script.
“I said…” Lena growled under her breath, her hair turning black. “I have a na. Faceless… tell the elders that if they send him to again, it’ll cost more than his arms.” Lena spoke up, now appearing as a young, elven girl with black hair, holding a sword in one hand. Even then, she never turned to face him.
“What, you want to fight, Goldie?” Black called out, before two dense thuds hit the ground. “What…”
Lena smirked to herself as she let her sword dissolve. “Didn’t you know? Dana Jafer is a master of Absurdity of Fate. Why would I need to face you to cut off your arms? I’ve also applied a little trick to stop them from growing back for a week. I’m sure you can carry out your mission here, regardless of that.”
After saying that, Lena returned to her normal appearance, her body disappearing. Aurivy’s voice spoke up into her mind again, chuckling. Okay, that was kind of cool. Are you sure that he doesn’t need smiting, though?
Don’t tempt . Lena huffed ntally. That guy never learns unless he takes so damage. Still, this should stop the elders from trying to use him as a demonstration again.
And if they don’t listen? Aurivy asked, sowhat interested now.
Then they’re forgetting that I can just as easily turn into him, and beco their worst nightmare. He runs a dozen tic scripts in his mind, and has to apply the anti-s at regular intervals, all as a precaution against . But if I turn into him, I get the anti-s, too. I don’t think any of them realize the utility of nine focused domains.
When she appeared again, she was in an alley, hundreds of ters from the office building. She let out a long sigh, closing her eyes and crossing her arms. “You still stalking , Collector?”
“Of course~.” The voice from when she impersonated Jim spoke up around her again. “Does this an that I can keep him?”
“Yeah, yeah, Jim’s all yours. He won’t be needed anymore, and it’s best he was kept out of sight.”
The disembodied voice simply chuckled. “That suits fine. It’s a sha, though. I thought for sure you would let add Black, as well.”
Lena’s brow twitched, but she let out a long sigh. “You don’t want that one. His body is covered with tic powers that would spoil your collection. Now, you’ve got better things to do than stalk , now that I’m back to normal.”
The voice let out a sigh. “Fine, fine. I’ll be seeing you around, Lena.”
So… what’s the deal with that guy? Aurivy asked, having never had a reason to keep the conversation open while she was talking with the Collector.
Codena: Collector. He’s a three-domain expert that specializes in making targets disappear for a while. I thought he’d be the one that the top brass sent, though… he’s eccentric in his own way. He wants to add anyone he can to his collection. The more special they are, the more he wants them. Being the first official nine-domain god… he’s always keeping an eye out for a chance to add to his collection.
Aurivy paused when she heard that. None of the new generation of ninjas are normal, are they?
Hey! I resemble that remark! Lena pouted inwardly, Aurivy laughing.
Yes. Yes you do.
Reviews
All reviews (0)