The four leaders of the Heat Death Research Institute were outwardly polite, saying they were willing to hear the Mist Sage's guidance.
But all four had already used their powers to seal the Mist Sage's soul inside an area under their control.
At the same time, they sent their loyal subordinates to carry out the next phase of their plan and raised the alert level across the entire area to its highest setting.
While speaking with the Mist Sage, the four had communicated through their minds about his sudden appearance.
They unanimously concluded that he had appeared here as bait to draw their attention.
But they still could not determine his true purpose.
Was he trying to solve the problem in the Wolong Star Sector? Or had someone else slipped into their base unnoticed while the Mist Sage distracted them?
Or was he trying to do something they knew nothing about?
They had plenty of suspicions, but apart from some private surprise, none of them let the Mist Sage's arrival throw them off balance.
With the full Boon of Nightmare's power, they could easily split their minds and wills into hundreds or thousands of parts.
Without a sound, the four of them cut away the few memories and aspects of their personalities tied to homesickness, nostalgia, and the compassion they had once felt.
Those fragments stayed with the Mist Sage, listening to his guidance and hoping the familiar atmosphere would coax useful information out of him.
Meanwhile, the four doctors' true selves, stripped of unnecessary emotion, returned to their stations and continued executing the next phase of their plan with precision and efficiency.
As the four watched, the Heat Death Research Institute's specialized transport units finished deploying key facilities and energy sources amid the turbulence of space-time.
All sixteen core