Buio had learned a lot in the meeting, despite the fact that everyone there. Well, almost everyone... had agreed not to discuss any information about their plans to combat Bane. It was because of that decision that they ended up mainly discussing information regarding Bane itself.
He had learned quite a few new things. Of course Buio knew about Hive herself, who didn't? The woman was the most well known terrifying being aside from the demons themselves. For a human to be seen in that way, that was saying something.
Hive was plenty fearsome on her own. However when her most renown and deadly subordinates were added into the mix that was a whole other matter.
Kenbosho's ability to interfer with the memories of her victims was very useful in it's own way and could have great utility in combat. A good battle strategist would be down right deadly with it, especially if the innate ability was paired with a Beast Bond which had a lethal innate ability.
However there were way more lethal straight forward combatants in the tyrants organization. Chiru Kudake for example had a particularly deadly ability. Her affinity was simply known as dissassemble. It might sound normal like taking apart something to learn reverse engineering but Chiru's ability was anything but normal.
Hive's subbordinate could disassemble any and everything. If she happened to place her hand on a hi-res building she could bring the entire structure down, it would be divided into tiny cubes along with anything existing inside it. This walking natural disaster was Hive's right hand man, well woman.
The fact that her real name was known yet she had not been captured should have been a dead give away. That unholy thing could not be captured, there was no prison that could hold her. One of the Guild masters had an ability which could nullify the innate ability of any being but it's effects were only temporary.
So to put it simply, the only way to deal with Chiru was to kill her. Alas she was difficult to catch , as she was a master at disguise and operated like a spy. Multiple wigs, languages, identities, fake passports and all.
If she was already in Xaymaca... things could get very ugly very fast.
Another member of Bane could create illusions. Her name was unknown, people ended up giving her the nickname Enchantress. Buio found that name way too unassuming as her ability was the stuff of nightmares, literally.
Enchantress could create illusions which were basically like a mirage but there was another facet to it. Her illusions could also become real. If she happened to conjure a clown but her victim was deathly afraid of clowns, then the illusion would become more real and be able to affect reality.
In certain cases this could make her ability seem almost harmless. If a person was afraid of dying in a particular way however. Then their own mind could cause them to die in a car crash with no vehicle in sight or drown without coming in contact with even a drop of water.
Then there was Nightshade. This member of Bane was another of the most lethal among their ranks. She had the ability to manipulate plants, similar to Hanabira and Splinter to a lesser extent. While Splinter could use poison plants and both living and dead plants, Nightshade could only use living plants.
In that regard she was more akin to Hanabira. Hive's underling favored utlizing her revealed beast bond ability of some form of moth or butterfly to spread her poisonous flower pollen. Once airborne it was extremely troublesome to deal with, if it wasn't swiftly contained people would die slow painful deaths.
That was just the tip of the ice berg that was Hive's organization.
There were many magi with deadly abilities but usually the greater majority of them didn't tend to be criminals or just plain evil. But when they were things became extremely complicated. If the Supreme magi was evil for example, the devastation he could wreak on the kingdom or on a world wide stage for that matter, with his wind manipulation would make him more terrifying than Hive herself.
One wide range spell from Tamashi could wipe out thousands without the man needing to even move. People tended to throw the word breathless around when professing feelings of affection, Buio believed they didn't understand what they were wishing upon themselves.
The poor fools.
They really should come up with a better expression. Turning his thoughts to what needed to be done, Buio decided to continue one of the precautions which he had already put in place. Opening his dark dimension partially, Buio accessed his vast mana reserves and spawned a gigantic shadow beneath his feet.
That shadow then split into countless pieces which scattered in all directions, attached themselves to every human within a 3 kilometre radius and completely masked their mana signatures.
These shadow clones didn't hold the power of their master but every single one of them could act as a portal for him or his permaclones.
Ever since that oaf of a Guild master had allowed himself to get worked up by Purple Coat and caused the huge mana spike, Seishin had began to feel an increasing sense of uneasiness.
Seishin didn't know what exactly had happened but immediately after that moment she felt like something had become attached to her.
The vessel she had present in that meeting still retained extensive knowledge about the abilities of every person present, except for the young power house who went by Purple Coat of course.
That young man was a mysterious existence. No one seemed to know the full extent of his abilities, so seeing as he was the only outlier in the room she suspected he was the source of whatever was causing the weird sensation which had come over her.
Seishin didn't know what was attached to her but she knew one thing, she was being watched. Whatever the source of surveillance was, it gave off a similar resonance to that of her soul fragments. Albeit to a much smaller degree. It was quite possible that she could easily dispatch it, despite that possibility she was weary.
Seishin could feel when one of her soul fragments was destroyed afterall. So chances were, the most likely culprit could also sense if whatever this thing happened to be was destroyed as well.
This meant that if she were to destroy it, her vessel would immediately become a suspect. One of her plans would be totally foiled and she had used way too much time on this plan to allow it to fall apart.
That was why she had decided not to do anything about the irritating presence. Seeing as it gave off a similar sensation to that of her soul fragments, others probably couldn't sense it. This was a major problem, she had to find a way to prevent Dominaire from communicating any information which would give away their secret.
Seishin could feel the feint presence of it emanating from the others as well, so how was she supposed to alert Dominaire to the situation without giving themselves away? Shit, just one mistake and this is what she had to deal with.
She should have tried to kill him right then and there when they met earlier via the other vessel. That would have been a risky move but this one act by Purple Coat could ruin her whole operation.
Seishin had heard that Buio could not see, despite that fact she got the impression that however he percieved the world was probably better than eyesight. For that reason, sign language was out of the question.
When they were finally able to leave the meeting and were out of everyone's line of sight, she immediately pulled Dominaire aside and slapped him. Completely caught off guard the guild master's mana momentarily flared. That was just long enough for her to pass a very tiny sliver of a soul fragment onto him.
Before he could say anything out loud she immediately spoke above him in a tone which oozed of disappointment. "How could you do that, attempting to attack an inexperienced kid? You made a complete fool of yourself, his suggestion was more than justified!"
She didn't dare to say anything that might end up blowing their cover, however she had another thought and followed up. "Be careful not to interract with anyone who wasn't inside that meeting, our enemies are quite clever!" She finished.
Seishin hoped that Dominaire got the message. He nodded shortly afterwards and simply replied: "Understood." By this time her soul fragment had settled inside the guild masters body, so she began relaying the rest of the message through it.
'No, seriously do not communicate with any of my subbordinates. Everyone in the meeting has been tagged with something. Every word and action we take from here on out will be monitored. We know most of the abilities of every person who participated in that meeting, except one. I think this is his doing.'
When her soul fragment finished conveying the details of the matter to him Dominaire stiffened. 'Calm down this instant, he might pick up on that unusual reaction,' she snapped.
The man's body relaxed as swiftly as it had tensed. As they walked off in opposite directions, the soul fragment continued to communicte with the guild master internally.
'This vessel of mine is now out of commission and so are you. Return to your regular duties and the training of your son. Act normal, i'm gonna have to continue keeping up appearances as Tamashi's wife. My other vessels and subbordinates will proceed as planned.'
Arriving at the Gold Badgers head quarters, Buio attached shadow clones to Hanabira and Gomu, then headed to his room. He then locked the door and spawned another shadow clone, left it on the floor beside his bed and opened the portal leading to his dark dimension.
Most of his previously created permaclones were active members of a Guild as well as the Elite Force. After coming to the realization that things could get really bad, he had urgently requested that Abyss took three of the available ones and go protect his family.
Buio was now down to only two of the sentient beings, aside from his purple coat. He had instructed Kagaya and Shadow Spawn to begin discretely distributing more shadow clones throughout the kingdom.
Saying that Bane was a force to be reckoned with would be an understatement. As many capable combatants as Xaymaca currently had, they were going to need significantly more.
So Buio had arrived at the conclusion that he was going to need to create some more permaclones. That was the first order of business he intended to attend to. So he sent out a mental prompt to two of his Beast Bonds in particular: 'Planarian, Oxie... your assistance will be required. I'm going to do something.'
Their replies came almost simultaneously: 'masochistic behaviour i assume.' Buio let out a genuine giggle. "Yeah masochistic behavior." Then they replied one after the other: 'okay boss, ready.'
Buio dismissed his purple coat and the layer of reinforced spider silk covering his body up to the elbow of his left hand. Then summoned a dark portal severing it just below the elbow and caught the falling appendage with his right hand.