Luckily Buio had already visited the Elite Force headquarters, or he would have had to travel there by normal means after asking another member for directions. But since he already knew it's location he simply dropped his self imposed limitations and used his dark portal to transport himself just outside the hideout.
It would not bode well for anyone who popped up directly inside the Elite force headquarters unannounced. As a matter of fact even tho Buio arrived outside the building the guards seemed poised to attack at any given moment.
However having apparently recognized him by his Coat, one of them cleared his throat then asked: "Purple Coat, welcome. What is your business here?"
'Blasted delays' he thought to himself. "Red alert, tell the Supreme magi i'm here immediately." All four guards paled in an instant and one of them instantly raced off inside to inform Tamashi.
Mere moments later a humanoid figure formed infront of him floating in a ghost like manner and beckoned him to follow. It was a wind clone of the Supreme magi himself. As it led the way it asked without turning: "What is the magnitude of this emergency exactly?"
Buio grimaced behind his mask and replied: "Huge, very huge. Hive has infiltrated the kingdom." Tamashi's wind clone came to an abrupt halt: "That is grave news indeed."
After that it didn't make any further attempts to continue the conversation. Instead they picked up pace, arriving at the meeting room not too long afterwards.
The real body of the Supreme magi was now facing him, shaking his hand. "It was a wise decision to inform me about the situation as soon as possible." Buio bowed his head slightly as a show of respect.
"Where did you meet her and please provide me with any crucial details you can recall. I have sent my wife to summon the guild masters, the faster one's should be here shortly."
Tamashi offered him a seat and lowered himself into his chair behind the desk as Buio started from the beginning.
.....
When he was finished describing the nature of the sequence of events the Supreme magi sighed. "That is indeed troubling, i assume you've heard a lot about Hive before. She's the greatest threat among the ranks of her organization, as she is notoriously difficult to capture or kill. You just witnessed a few of her abilities for yourself, that should give you an idea why."
Buio could hear the rustling of papers as Tamashi sorted through documents. "For the past month or so we've been recieving reports of people going missing without a trace. Most of the victims were males, the adult males they never returned. The boy's however, would return completely subservient to their female relatives."
The atmospheric mana was distorted in a way which told Buio that the Supreme magi had brought his hand up and was holding his forehead.
"In most cases this wasn't a bad thing, except for the lack of free will part... things would go rather smoothly based on the information i received. When the victims of the mind alteration were from abusive households however, to say things got really bad would be a gross understatement."
Buio was appalled by this revelation. 'So she had already began her so called moulding,' he sighed inwardly as Tamashi continued.
"This mind altering ability does not belong to Hive, it is the ability of one of her highest ranking subbordinates... this woman goes by the alias Kenbosho."
Buio came to a realization. 'Over a month, her plan had already been set in motion for at least over a month!' His gears started turning, Monae and Moriah Pochi, his adoptive sister and mother.
They were at a similar level to regular civilians in mana manipulation and fighting ability. What if they had been affected by this memory manipulator woman? What if Hive herself had messed with their soul's? Bukiko probably wouldn't have been able to tell, not when the tyrants soul manipulating ability could share the victims memories and experiences with her.
His adoptive father was powerful enough to fend for himself and protect them against physical harm of the highest degree, especially depending on the affinity of the opponent. But when it came unto the two both unexpected and insidious attacks, that was a totally different matter.
He became extremely furious and sent out a telepathic prompt. 'Abyss, get a few of your other brethren. Go protect my family at all costs!' The permaclone didn't need to reply, it simply paused from it's training and disappeared from the dark dimension.
Hive might not know anyone he was closely associated with aside from Tanoshi but he couldn't be too careful. Buio had carefully crafted his alter ego to shield his family from any possible fall out which could happen due to his actions afterall.
But despite that fact they could still be endangered due to the fact that Hive's organization seemed fully intent on being very thorough in carrying out their plan.
When he took that into consideration they may very well end up in the line of danger regardless. Now that his paranoia was quelled he returned his undivided attention to the present.
Just then there was a tremendous surge of mana as several humanoid beings arrived in the room. One of them was Dominaire, Buio could tell by his mana signature.
Even without needing to recognize the mana signature of the usually eccentric, jovial man, Buio could tell his Guild Master was there. The mana was crackling from the presence of his lightning affinity.
There were 4 other people present he assumed, now that he recognized two of them as Guild Masters. "This young man has brought a very troubling issue to my attention," the Supreme magi said addressing the Guild masters.
"Oh i almost forgot you didn't get a chance to meet the other guild masters, let me introduce you to them." Tamashi said now addressing him.
Buio sensed as two of the people present seperated from the other four and went to stand next to their superior.
Meanwhile the other three moved to stand side by side with another. Buio turned to face them then walked towards the first one in line. The Supreme magi had moved to join him by this point in time.
As he arrived at the first person and outstretched his hand innitiating a handshake, Tamashi announced: "this is Omoi, she is the Guild Master of the Order of Sekhmet." The woman grasped his hand firmly and shook it. "Nice to meet you up close Purple Coat," she said in a tantalizing voice with a strong hint of a spanish accent.
One of Buio's beast bonds giggled then said in a thick italian voice which sounded like something he'd heard somewhere in a movie: "hola mami." Then began to mimick smooching noises shortly afterwards.
Buio rolled his eyes mentally, unsure if doing so physically might end up being noticed by the guild master. 'What she's absolutely beautiful?' The culprit replied in defense. 'We're lucky she can't hear you, i might have gotten smacked for your inappropriate behavior.' Buio retorted.
During that mental exchange they had moved on and reached the next person in line. "This is Kaminari, Guild master of the Crimson Queens." This time there was a chorus of whistles upon her introduction.
Then a voice broke out into singing. 'Lady in Red....' Despite how funny the behavior of his Beast Bonds was Buio was becoming irritated. 'Would you guys shut up, i'm handling serious matters here. Please.'
"Nice to finally meet you face to face, well face to mask. Say, is there a way i could arrange to see what's going on behind that mask of yours by any chance?" She asked with sincere curiosity. Tamashi chuckled beside him. Then began to interject: "Kami i believe....
But before he could finish Buio simply replied: "my sincerest apologies miss Kaminari, i don't think i can do that." Tamashi laughed. "Good choice young man, best to stay away from this woman she can literally suck you dry."
There was a chorus of uncomfortable forced coughs from several directions at the same time. Then there was a snicker from behind him as master Fukutsuno whispered in an almost inaudible tone: "unless that's what you like if course, most men wouldn't object!"
The woman in question meanwhile, burst out laughing. Not offended or embarrassed in the least. Several of Buio's beast bonds muttered in unison, 'what a waste.' Buio could feel their disappointment through the telepathic connection.
He ignored them and walked over to the next person. "This is Osoi Abajo, Guild Master of Artemis' Bow." This time the outburst didn't come from inside his head but from some distance behind him.
"That woman's the prettiest, if i do say so myself. If you don't want her I'll take her!" It was his master Fukutsuno. Buio couldn't help but chuckle audibly. 'He's worse than you guys, maybe you should be bonded with him instead.'
One of his bonds muttered 'i would, at least he knows a good thing when he...' it stopped mid sentence. A moment later it continued: 'you're of legal age now, you should live a little... there's more to life than demon hunting you know.'
This time there was sorrow in it's voice. Buio couldn't help but think on it's advice, however he would have to do that later the entire kingdom was in imminent danger he couldn't do so, not right now.
He hadn't even heard whatever the woman might have said due to the distractions plus his own thoughts. Meanwhile they had finally arrived at the last person.
Tamashi lay a hand on his shoulder and said: "Don't let anyone give you any advice about this one, she's not a Guild master but she's quite powerful in her own right and an invaluable asset to this kingdom."
Buio was caught off guard because the woman in question gave off a very similar mana signature to that of the Guild masters. So he knew for a fact that she was quite powerful indeed.
After a brief pause Tamashi added... "This is my wife." Buio couldn't see her mask and none of his beast bond's described it, however the last woman was wearing a red mask with a bird beak like design on it. Her eye's gleamed as she took his hand and a charming smile appeared on her face.