Seishin was furious with herself but the situation couldn't be helped. As for now, things had to be rearranged. "Vergamont do not make contact with any of our rank, leave us now." The demon hesitated slightly. 'Go immediately before one of those abominable beings associated with Purple Coat decides to pay us a visit.' She snapped at him via the soul fragment in his body.
To Hive's immense relief, Vergamont finally did as he was told and teleported before another disastrous event could unfold. Then she turned her attention to Chiru's injuries. Her right hand woman was bleeding profusely from several grevious wounds. Luckily none of them would be fatal, if treated soon that is. Seishin activated the spell Soul Rebirth via her dormant soul fragment which resides in Chiru's body.
Almost instantaneously all the wounds across the young woman's body began to heal at a rapid rate. Chiru began writhing in pain for a brief time, then calmed down as the worst of her injuries disappeared. Then she opened her eyes and stared off into the distance as if reminiscing about something.
"This is such a rare occurrence that i sometimes forget how painful it is to be so severely wounded... it makes me wonder how the poor souls ripped to shreds by my ability feel before they die." She winced as one of her arms was set back into place, then continued: "Do they feel terrifying agony, or is it a swift and less painful experience? Due to the shorter duration, you know?" She asked to no one in particular.
Seishin cocked an eyebrow at her and shrugged. "Well i wouldn't know, my preferred method is a significantly less painful way to go. As a matter of fact it's quite merciful to be honest, kind of like dying in your sleep." She finished with a smirk. Chiru slowly sat up then shook her head. "People like us boss, you know we're all going to hell right...?" She replied with much sincerity in her voice.
Seishin looked her over genuinely surprised. "Sure we are, very soon as a matter of fact. I know what you mean. But maybe we'll be going there twice."
In the duration of time which it had taken Chiru to heal, she had checked to ensure neither of them had been marked as well. Luckily they hadn't been, for some reason. Maybe only Purple Coat and Shadow Spawn were capable of marking people, seeing as Vergamont was the one who had interacted with the abominable inky black being the longest and was subsequently the only member of their party who had been marked.
When Seishin thought about it thoroughly, Purple Coat and his companions were beyond unusual. Only twins and triplets or siblings of that particular ilk had such similar soul resonance, so as to be almost indistinguishable. However, she was almost certain Purple Coat was no triplet.
Didn't triplets and twins normally share the same affinity? Yet Purple Coat and Shadow Spawn used somewhat related but completely different affinities and styles of fighting. But that last sibling, the female, had used something completely unrelated. Her first attack seemed to be just raw mana manipulation or perhaps, intricate mana manipulation and some beast bonds innate ability which could somehow create shockwaves.
The second ability she had used was something Seishin had witnessed before, what was it again? A dragon scale utilized as a projectile? So maybe she had utilized intricate mana manipulation and the innate abilities of some dragon beast bond. However she hadn't utilized fire, not from what Seishin had witnessed. Plus none of Chiru's injuries alluded to there being any usage of such an attack.
Putting that aside she had not utilized any shadow or darkness related type abilities, only the teleportation type ability which they used to arrive at Float's location. Which could have been achieved with Shadow Spawn's assistance, even if the fact that she had arrived later than him was taken into account. So when Seishin connected all the dots, that didn't fit into the way twins or triplets operated as a whole ability wise. Not even one bit.
Were Purple Coat and Shadow Spawn twins but the unnamed sibling or what Seishin assumed to be a sibling, just another sibling born at another point in time? Yet with such a similar soul resonance to that of the others, even tho the other two siblings were a set of twins? All of this simply did not add up, what on earth was going on here?
Then again the female seemingly hadn't used an innate ability of her own, unless that speed of hers was somehow related. If it wasn't, then it was still possible that her innate ability was still shadow and or darkness related. This was simply weird and irrelevant at the moment, well compared to the rest of Hive's more prudent matters she had to deal with. Unless she or one of her subbordinates were to encounter the eerie young woman sometime soon that is. 'Better warn them all then i guess.' She thought... and so she did. Which was easy seeing as her dormant soul fragments were like an internal telephone. 'Soul telephone!' Seishin thought, then chuckled to herself.
It was time to meet up with Shinae, it was great to have several means of transportation lying around. Besides the very handy vessel and Irene had already carried out their task, they were now free to join in on the fun. It was time to go finish breaking the Guild Master's soul. Dominaire's abilities were going to come in handy in the very near future.
Soon there was a flash of light as a teleportation device appeared on the ground some distance away from where Seishin and Chiru were now standing. Irene stepped out of the slowly fading light, then the teleportation device began changing shape. Soon it coalesced into the form of a breath taking young woman. Depending on the size and intricacy of the object, it took Shinae some time to change back to her true form.
Seishin had already checked to make sure that there were none of Purple Coat's soul fragments lying around. After all they were tied to shadows or so she had come to assume. So no shadow was safe, every shadow was a possible emissary of Purple Coat.
Dominaire was already marked. Now that she had accidentally let slip in the presence of Purple Coat's associate's that she knew of his surveillance, one proverbial cat was out of the bag. He now knew that she could sense his soul fragments for sure. So by now the young prodigy had probably started changing his strategy. They were probably going to be in for a tough fight the next time they came within range of another marked individual.
That's why Seishin had chosen to assemble a group instead of the usual two man cell. Three hadn't been enough the last time and they barely escaped with their lives intact. Seeing as the soul fragments used for surveillance didn't seem to correlate to an individual, as she had suspected at first. Things might be more predictable this time around. At least where it came onto how many of the young man's accomplices might appear.
If as she surmised the soul fragment portals could only transport Purple Coat or those eerie beings which were associated to him. Then there might be two to three enemies to deal with the next time around, maybe there would be more. Seishin hoped there wouldn't be more, Shadow Spawn, Purple Coat and that unnamed female would be more than an handful. If Purple Coat himself turned up that is, so she really hoped they wouldn't experience another unexpected variable.
Shinae and Irene were now standing before her and Chiru. It was weird looking at yourself from two different bodies... or more. Shinae and Fade studied each other, Seishin was considering something. 'Hmm, i wonder...?' Chiru and Irene looked at them with growing suspicion. "Boss what on earth are you thinking?" Both of Seishin's vessels turned to face Chiru then smiled, an unnervingly creepy smile. Luckily their masks were both still equiped.
Regardless of that fact Chiru seemed to be creeped out anyways. "You know what, I think i'd rather not know?" She said waving both of her hands in an urgent manner. "Mission aborted." Seishin's vessels chuckled. Then Shinae summoned two objects into the palm of her hand.
One was a locket with a picture of a handsome young man inside it. The other was a diamond ring. There was a massive mana surge and the objects began to change shape while levitating in midair.
Soon there was an unconscious young woman lying on the ground, beside her the handsome young man depicted in the picture from the locket stood at ease. Moments later Hive's soul fragment took over the young woman's body, healing her in the process, then she righted herself and stood up.
Now there were three vessels, one memory warped accomplice and two willing subbordinates. It was time for them to move out. Shinae signalled for the three of the others to come closer, then turned all of them into inanimate objects and gave them to Nai. The former Gold Badgers guild member took them all, then activated his storage device, an unassuming tattoo on his hand and put them inside.
Shinae then turned herself into a teleportation device once more. Which the young man walked up to and was immediately transfered inside the Guild masters fortress. Before heading anywhere near Purple Coat's soul fragment, Shinae changed into a simple bracelet and affixed herself to Nai's hand.
Just like that, there was only one unmarked accomplice which no one knew was an at least temporary member of Bane and as so, were likely to trust unconditionally.
One very useful facet of Shinae's ability was that when she turned any living thing into an inanimate object, it would mask their mana signature to be that of an inanimate object as well. So now no one would be able to detect the presence of anyone but Nai. That too, was by the young mans choice. His mana manipulation was so refined that if he so desired, he could completely hide his mana signature altogether instead of masking it.
Now all six of them headed towards Dominaire masked as a single sentient being. Arriving within range of Dominaire, Nai's facial expression became sincerely sorrowful. Dominaire stared at him with a look of worry quickly forming on his face. "What is it Kangae Nai?" He asked with sincere concern. "My condolences Guild master Dominaire, i'm sorry to be the one to bring you this very bad news but.... your son is dead."
The finality of those words echoed in the silence of the Dominant Force headquarters. "Dead, but how she prom...?" Dominaire stopped himself not wishing to reveal his betrayal of the kingdom. "He shouldn't be dead, how did he die?" He finished. Tears forming in his eyes.
"He attacked me relentlessly Sir Dominaire, i had no choice." The guild master immediately looked at Nai with a deadly glare. "You had to kill my son, you with your intricate level of mana manipulation?" He yelled in disbelief. "Why couldn't you restrain him, knock him out, anything but kill him?" He wailed tears now streaming down his face.
"I'm sincerely sorry sir, there wasn't much i could do." Nai replied with utter sincerity in his voice. Hive couldn't help but smile even in her soul fragment form. Memory manipulation was a thing of beauty. Nai believed every single word coming from his own mouth. Having no idea that what he believed to be true, were simply deeply implanted memories forced upon him over a duration of time.
Nai's work here was done. Dominaire was now in the depths of despair. In the next moment Hive's soul fragment within his body wrestled control of his soul away from him. Finally... she had the abilities of one of the guild masters at her disposal.