Once back inside, I waited until Coron had gone to find his siblings and then went and refitted myself, adding most of my body weight back on, but not all of it. I created a skeleton frame of my body and then created a core inside of it. It wouldn't activate while I was in my main body, but I was able to move my consciousness over into it. The hope was that if something terrible happened, I could destroy my main body and switch back to this one.
Part of me wanted to just take a thin frame, but I was planning for indirect and direct confrontation with the Order of Salvation. More importantly, I wanted to fight with that son of a bitch from the warehouse, but I still had very little experience with magic. Tonight was going to be a test more than anything, but what was bothersome was the condition of Deaths Grove.
From the surveillance reports from Zarek and the visuals I was getting from the drones Kilna was still using to patrol the area, I could see the state of the place. From what I had seen in the city, this was by far the most rundown and packed in an area of the city. Most of the area's had a single main road running through it, but the rest was small alleys that were barely big enough for two people to walk side by side. There were also many overhangs in these alleys, making it hard to track this visually, but that was the reason for the paint tracking.
I headed to my office as the sun went down, reflecting on my silver body as I passed a window, but I stopped and turned to look at the rays of light in the west that were slowly being turned out of sight. Something about the sun here hit differently than in my past life, but I don't think it had anything to do with this world or its sun.
It was me, the power that I had now, and the battles before me. This world was pure chaos that begged for order that no one seemed to be able to give. I was even host to god-like beings that called themselves gods, Magic, and supposedly monstrous creatures, but I had yet to see any of these monsters.
The only monsters I saw were ones that I was all too familiar with. The ones wearing human skin.
Miles must have heard me walking as I turned to start moving because he came out of his office to greet me, his black knight behind him. He looked to be in a much better mood, or what was a good mood for him.
"Razor, I have reports that Kaido might have hired some mercenaries to the Order," He said in a dark voice, and I nodded, waving for him to follow.
"Come to the office. Do we have the names of the men hired out?" I asked, but Miles shook his head.
"Second-hand information. The other thing is that they were ordered to go in plain clothes, and if Kaido is sending mercs, they will be the Mindless," Miles said as we reached my office, which was busy with talking and activity.
"Caleb! Kilna has painted two of Kaido's Mindless in Deaths Grove! These ones are troublesome!" Fawna said from her desk, where she was typing furiously as I walked in. I almost had to look at her twice because I had to speed my perception slightly to even follow her fingers.
"How are you typing so fast?" I asked curiously and then noticed that Kyla was typing just as fast. Rax and Zarek helped them by holding up pages for them to copy while Coron was filling out a report by hand.
"Magic. Kilna used a few spells to increase how fast we can move our fingers dramatically but also enhanced a few other things to ensure we don't hurt our hands. Give me a moment, and then I will submit this to the Reverent Golden Core!" Fawna said, and I frowned, but Kilna started to giggle, and I turned to her, perplexed.
"What is the Reverent Golden Core?" I asked, and Kilna snorted and waved me over, still wearing her headset.
I leaned down, and she lifted the headset to lean to where my ears should have been, but I had microphones everywhere, so it didn't really matter.
"I figured out how to create and rename folders, and I have been dividing up all the information into more folders inside of it. As a joke, I change the name to this, and now everyone talks about it like it is an ascendancy of Numera herself!" Kilna giggled but then took the headset off with a more severe look. "The Mindless are some of Kaido's deadliest members. They are almost like his personal guard, but there are almost 100 of them. They are completely loyal to him and have had all their emotions removed. I compiled a report as soon as I sighted the first one and painted him and the other, but they are extremely dangerous."
"I can see why Kaido might hire them out. Is there any way to get to the source of these mercenaries?" I asked, and Fawna frowned as she looked up from her computer.
"No, they have changed their style too much. The only thing we know is a few names from contacts," Zarek said in his low voice, and then the room fell silent for a moment.
"I placed the information in the Core, but they always work in 5-person cells, so we still have to find the other three," Fawna said, and then let out a sigh as she leaned back in her chair, shaking her hands. "The main reason I think they are going to be dangerous is that I can't even predict them from the map on the screen. I have never been able to see them in the future in person; they just vanish when I try. Not only that, but they never interact with anything. This means they never talk, touch, or bump into things. I want to call them to mind controlled, but that isn't it; They have just had everything taken from them to turn them into..."
"...Machines. Like mindless robots that are given a task, and that is the only thing that they know. I have the report; thank you for this," I said as I ran through everything in a fraction of a second, and I was instantly put on edge. This has been done to entire families of people that Kaido had problems with, kids included.