As Jack had expected, there were actually several of us intently watching this first interaction between our people and the Hajit. To be honest, we didn’t immediately take notice of anything unusual. However, when Jack himself started acting strange, as if wanting to cut the conversation short so that they could leave, we began scanning things a bit more closely.
Naturally, we came to the same conclusion that Jack had, which led to us checking the rest of the Hajit. We did a wide-area scan for any Hajit that were possessed by these ‘thought bugs’, and compiled them into a list. There were a little over five thousand in total, with the vast majority being the ministers and president.
Aside from them, there were a few random civilians that were hiding from the authorities, and people in the upper echelon of their military. On a grand scale, it would be pretty easy to simply wipe these individuals out. However, doing so delicately so as not to create a diplomatic issue with the Hajit was a different matter.
Watching this with me were Terra, Aurivy, Accalia, Dana, and Tsubaki. “Why don’t we just abduct them?” Aurivy asked, tilting her head. “If nobody knows where they’ve gone, nobody can just blame it on us, right?”
Accalia shook her head at that. “News will quickly spread that newcomers just came from another realm. If the leading figures all disappeared immediately after that, everyone would point fingers at us, whether it was true or not.”
“I could replace them with shadow people, maybe?” Dana suggested, though this time it was Terra that denied her plan.
“The Hajit are an entirely different culture. I don’t doubt your ability to impersonate people, but doing so with an unfamiliar culture would likely be noticed.”
I nodded my head, agreeing with Terra’s words. “Right… there’s really only one thing we can do from our end, if we don’t want this to lead into a major diplomatic dispute. And honestly? With everything that’s been going on lately, I would prefer we go a few weeks without something that could threaten the fabric of reality.”
As I said that, I turned to look at Tsubaki. “Do you think that you can do it?”
Tsubaki’s ears stood up straight as soon as I turned to address her. “Please speak clearly, my Keeper. What is it that you wish me to accomplish?”
“It’s simple… I want you to invade the sixty-third floor, hunt down each and every infected individual on our list, and erase the entity invading their mind. Do your best to keep the individuals alive, and have them act as though everything was normal. You’ll need to break into incredibly secure facilities to get some of these targets, and one wrong move will cause an all-out war.”
“Although the Hajit are isolated at the sixty-third floor, the same can’t be said of the creatures possessing them. It’s possible that they could find ways to get to us through other floors, so this mission has both the utmost danger and importance.”
“Which part of that was simple!?” Dana retorted with wide eyes, before noticing that Tsubaki’s tail was wagging rapidly. The more that I emphasized the dangers and potential consequences of failure, the more eager she seemed to take it on.
“If my Keeper were to entrust me with this task, I would surely accomplish it!” Tsubaki declared with a firm nod.
I gave a smile at that. “Let’s descend so that we can get everything taken care of.”
Six hours after the initial meeting between the representatives of Fyor and the Hajit, Tsubaki stood before the gate of the sixty-third floor. Her maid uniform was replaced with a black bodysuit, blue lines running along her frame. She focused briefly, altering her body to more closely resemble an elf, removing her tails and causing her eyes to glow white.
“I create this covenant with myself, as Servant to the Keeper.” Tsubaki spoke under her breath, a silvery light wrapping around her body. “My mission is thus, find the deceivers within the foreign race and weed them out. Until such time, I may not return to my Keeper’s side. I may not spare my attention elsewhere. I will become my Keeper’s hidden blade. In payment, I forgo access to all classes that relate to crafting. I forego all classes that relate to gathering. I forgo the classes of Noble, Leader, and Gambler. May these restrictions hold until my task is complete.”
As she finished, she felt the covenant settling, boosting all of her capabilities. Once that was done, she cut open a tear in space, walking through. Although she had brought herself to the gate directly, she couldn’t pass through. Being present at the gate was more of a symbolic gesture for her covenant than anything else. After all, she was far too high level for Fyor… and according to Accalia’s estimates, she would be until the final floor was achieved and the level limit removed.
When Tsubaki arrived at the sixty-third floor, she found herself falling through the air, having appeared more than a kilometer above the ground. Such was rather normal, as she had received the coordinates from Lifre as opposed to visiting the place herself.
Nonetheless, she activated her Stealth domain, her figure fading from view. She simply allowed her body to continue falling towards the ground. Once she was mere meters from the surface, she rapidly decelerated, flipping to land on her feet. Closing her eyes, she recalled the list of individuals that she needed to investigate, walking down the street.
Every now and then, she felt a perception sweep across her area, the army on regular patrol, but none of them appeared capable of seeing through her stealth. For now, the problem was that Tsubaki didn’t know where her targets were. This city was an incredibly large place, its circumference more than three light years of densely packed, urban territory. Furthermore, there were three layers of this city, each roughly as large as the others.
Of course, she could ask Aurivy to take her directly to her targets. Doing so would be quick and efficient. However, there was also the risk of it getting caught, with how advanced this layer’s civilization was. There was every chance that they had a way to detect power on that scale. Which is why Tsubaki wanted to appear away from prying eyes.
Accalia, may your wind guide my hunt. She whispered internally, a faint breeze kicking up. If anyone was around that could see her, they would see Tsubaki’s body disappearing into smoke, blown away with the breeze.
Using her Light domain, she followed the breeze to its destination, briefly surprised when she found what looked like a large tube planted in the ground. Lady Accalia…?
Hey, don’t look at me. Light speed is fast on a small scale, but we’re talking light years here! If you don’t want to use any type of special teleport, you’ve got to go with what’s available locally. They have billions of these teleport pods scattered all over the city. Just enter it and punch in the eleven digit code for your destination, and it will take you right there.
Tsubaki clenched her jaw briefly, but nodded. Very well… in that case, the code for the pod closest to my first target…
Thankfully, this alien race operated with a base ten numeral system. Tsubaki quickly typed in the number that Accalia recited, and her vision briefly flickered. Once it had settled, she was already in a new area, the traffic around her pod sprawling.
At this layer of Fyor, time was… somewhat harder to track. The daylight radiating from the central pillar spread out at the speed of light, as did the darkness that followed it. With how large this floor was, that meant that there were roughly five hundred different regions of the layer that were in ‘day’ mode, and five hundred that were in ‘night’ mode, the light moving in an almost rippling pattern. The area that Tsubaki had appeared now was one of the ‘day’ regions.
Let us try this again… Lady Accalia, may your wind guide my hunt. She repeated, once more vanishing with the breeze that appeared. This time, she came to a large building, closing her eyes and scanning through it with her World Sight. It didn’t take her long to find the figure from the list, the same entity that had previously met with Lifre.
At the moment, this man was alone in his office, pacing back and forth. She could sense him communicating with a small entity resting on the desk in front of him. A simple scan was all it took for her to identify this creature as a thought bug.
Tsubaki’s body dissolved into faint light, passing through the windows of the building and appearing behind the man. She never removed her stealth, her energy merged with the surroundings. As she watched, hidden in the corner of the room, she began to decipher the communication between the two entities using her World Sight.
“Are you sure that we weren’t being observed?” The minister asked the thought bug, speaking in a tone that could be taken as respectful.
“For the tenth time, I sensed no presence observing from outside the room. That is not to say it is impossible, but I have no reason to believe that it was anything more than a bluff. They did not say that someone was surely watching, merely that they would not be surprised if that was the case.”
Hearing that, the minister let out a long sigh. “Very well. Should we change our plans, if they are truly capable of watching anything?”
“Doing so is pointless.” The thought bug said in a tone similar to a scoff. “To change our plans to avoid the detection of a potentially omniscient entity, we would need all of our members to retreat to the thought world.”
“That may have been a good idea.” Tsubaki’s voice spoke up, her divinity isolating this room from the outside world. While they were speaking, Tsubaki had analyzed the structure of the thought worm. Although they had the ability to transmit information over a distance, they were not in constant contact. In fact, Tsubaki believed that such constant contact would make them easier to discover, so it was natural that they only contacted one another as needed.
Sure enough, as soon as she appeared, she could feel both entities before her trying to send a distress call. She tilted her head slightly, the power she released capturing these distress signals and snuffing them out. She lifted one hand, flicking a finger towards the bug-like entity on the desk. A white energy flashed out, erasing the bug as she turned towards the minister.
“If there is some semblance of your old self that remains within that body, grit your teeth. This is going to hurt.” She said, before flashing forward and placing a hand on the man’s face. A bright light surged from her hand, filling the man’s body as she sought out and eradicated every trace of the foreign creature within his body, scorching it with holy light.
The minister’s scream rang out, filling the office. Thankfully, Tsubaki’s power prevented that from leaking out as well.
After roughly five minutes, Tsubaki brought her hand away from the minister’s face, staring down at him. She was certain that she had eradicated every trace of the thought bug that had infected his body. However, she did not know if that was enough. If the creature was able to brainwash its host over a long period of time, he might still try to serve its agenda even after being freed. If that was the case, then Tsubaki would have to take her time re-educating each minister that she freed.
The minister seemed to feel a chill as Tsubaki thought about that, looking up to meet her glowing gaze. “Who… who are you?” He asked in a shaky tone.
“Not somebody you want to lie to. Now… we’re going to have a talk.”
