After exiting the void, Jim brushed off his shoulder. He had emerged in one of the less frequented cities of Desbar, meaning that the population was largely demons. Given the time of day, this further meant 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. “Welcome 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 same smile, nodding her head. “They’re waiting for you in the second basement floor, room two. Have a nice day.”
Jim simply gave a small grunt of acknowledgement, moving into the elevator and descending two floors. The doors opened to a dimly lit hallway, lined with numerous 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 Dimensium, 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 confirmed 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 basement 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 time that they worked together, they always avoided mentioning key terms or names that would draw unwanted attention.
“Anything else for me, then?” He asked, needing to know if he had any other assignments while he waited for the shipment.
“No, you can wait in the lobby upstairs. We will send word if we need something.” At that, Jim nodded, turning and leaving the room. As he did, his eyes swept through the hall, noticing two cameras watching him.
When he entered the elevator, he saw that there was still another camera trained on his position, and could faintly sense an energy field surrounding the entire building. They’ve beefed up security since the last time. It was impossible to tell what the exact nature of the energy field was, while still wearing the face of Jim Jaeger. At the same time, the constant surveillance meant that it was difficult to find time to change to a different face.
Too bad, the idiots are ignorant of something. 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 members of the Greater Pantheon could not be monitored.
Hey, Aurivy~! Need you to pass on a message for me~! This wasn’t her first time 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 name now? Lena, is it? Aurivy sounded surprised to know that the Golden Shadow now had a proper identity within the system.
Yup! The Keeper named me personally, and I’m on my first mission!
There was a long sigh transmitted over the communication. Alright, what do you want me to send them this time? An evacuation request?
Nope, not this time! I need a body double, and for everyone in basement level two of my current location to disappear.
Aurivy paused for a moment, as if to process that request. You don’t usually have me pass on attack orders. What’s going on?
Oh, nothing much. There are some idiots that want to use the Reset Protocol on the Keeper. Even ordering a metric shit-ton of Dimensium and Mage Heart to make a custom card to hold him!
Aurivy paused again, and this time 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 something because of the last time 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 me 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 message. Are you sure you don’t just want a royal smiting?
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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 message 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 memetic 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. “Welcome to Pierceton and Pierceton. How can I help you?” She asked, though she seemed 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. Immediately, her body seemed 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 me too, now that I’ve made my position clear?”
Though she seemed calm on the surface, Lena had already selected what she believed to be the perfect persona to deal with Black, should it come 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 name 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 times 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 name. Faceless… tell the elders that if they send him to me 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 me. Lena huffed mentally. That guy never learns unless he takes some damage. Still, this should stop the elders from trying to use him as a demonstration again.
And if they don’t listen? Aurivy asked, somewhat interested now.
Then they’re forgetting that I can just as easily turn into him, and become their worst nightmare. He runs a dozen memetic scripts in his mind, and has to apply the anti-memes at regular intervals, all as a precaution against me. But if I turn into him, I get the anti-memes, 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 meters from the office building. She let out a long sigh, closing her eyes and crossing her arms. “You still stalking me, Collector?”
“Of course~.” The voice from when she impersonated Jim spoke up around her again. “Does this mean 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 me fine. It’s a shame, though. I thought for sure you would let me 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 memetic powers that would spoil your collection. Now, you’ve got better things to do than stalk me, 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.
Codename: 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 me 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.