Talents Activate Chapter 9

Elsewhere, in the South Eastern part of the country known as Nigeria, a fierce battle rages on.

In a vast area of land filled with trees, shrubs and grasses, birds of the night humming, flapping their wings as they soar in the air. Creeping creatures crawl about while the leaves dance to the rhythm of the wind. Close to this captivating forest, is a small settlement, seemingly developed, having electricity and tarred roads yet a few houses can be seen made of mud and thatched roofs. In this little town, all movements of humans have stopped as if time itself has paused, indicating the activation of phasic dome. Back at the large forest, in an empty space deep within the forest, the reason for this is clear.

A tall dark muscular man with braids and circle goatee beards, clad in golden armor, arm guards and boots; wearing an earring and having a commanding countenance is floating in the air looking down at some people. Next to him, is a lady with long silky hair, glowing purple eyes, dressed in Ankara-made sleeveless jumpsuit, having patterns with the colors, wine red and black. She is putting on some accessories, one of which is a necklace with a glistering purple crystal as its pendant.

“My, my, you just won’t give up, thinking you could escape from us by fleeing to this forest?” the muscular man, in his deep voice, says to the people below him.

“We won’t go without a fight,” the two people below, reply.

“How courageous. It’s so adorable,” the lady with radiant purple eyes says and begins to laugh out loud as the cool breeze blows making her hair to flow like a gentle stream.

“However, in the end, we are Crests and you are not. That makes you inferior,” she adds, grinning at them.

“That’s right and inferior beings like you either bow or get blown away,” the muscular says, swaying his right hand to his right. Instantly, multiple circles filled with bright yellow light appear and from each of these circles, emerge weapons such as swords, spears, axes, all enveloped with yellow lightning and they all point at the two people below.

“Well I guess the tier one of my arsenal will suffice,” the tall dark muscular man, Balogun, says.

“What a joke. Even your advanced talents are inferior. You just possess what, the ability to manipulate paper? Sure as a trader that you are, I’m sure it comes in handy for you. You can even create fake currency with such ability. However, among us, the chosen gods, that’s just demeaning. Now, you eastern fools, I am the crest of Ogun, the god of war and iron. I come in search of a special something but before that, pledge your allegiance to me and spare yourself the folly of death. Kneel before me and swear by the name, Ogun,” Balogun commands, floating in the air, looking down at the people.

“I believe we have already made our stance clear,” the two reply, audaciously.

“Well, that’s too bad. Die,” he responds and moves his right fingers a bit. Immediately, all the weapons spring from the multiple circles and swoop in to blast away the two people below. Suddenly, a huge bolt of lightning shoots from the sky and shields the two people from the attack, causing a loud explosion to occur when the weapons hit it.

BOOM!!!

“Sorry but this is the East and I believe, if by any chance they were to make any such swearing, they would rather go with Amadioha,” a voice says, as the lightning fades out and a man is seen standing in front of the two people with his arms folded.

“Ha ha, what a pleasure this is. Long time, Charles Amadi, crest of Amadioha, the Igbo deity of thunder and lightning,” Balogun says, with a smirk, folding his arms.

“Wouldn’t say I’m pleased to meet you,” Charles replies, looking at Balogun.

Charles is tall, fair, muscular and handsome. He is carrying an afro hairstyle, has a bit of moustache and beard at his chin. He is dressed in a white African native short sleeved shirt, a pair of white trousers and black shoes. He has some wristbands around his right wrist.

Bisoye, the purple eyed lady, descends back to ground and smiles at Charles saying, “Oh my!! What a hottie. It’s been a while, Ace.”

“Nice nice, you still remember my nickname too. You still look as hot as ever too, Bisoye,” Charles replies.

“Thank you!! However,” Bisoye continues.

“You know you can’t take on both of us and expect to survive, right?” she adds, glaring into Charles’ eyes.

“Huh? Who said I’m alone?” Charles responds.

Without delay, in front of Bisoye, a petite lady pops out from the ground, reaching to grab Bisoye’s neck.

“Got you, you hag!!!” the lady screams as she moves to take hold of Bisoye’s neck. Bisoye is surprised by this sudden attack but quickly snaps back and dodges the lady when she is an inch away.

“Well of course, if Charles is here, it makes sense you’d be here too or one of your other group friends. Right, Ada, crest of Ala?” Balogun says, descending to the ground, staring at the petite lady.

“Humph!!! You forgot the title ‘Queen’, besides who gave you the right to call my name, Balogun, you bastard traitor,” Ada replies, looking fiercely at Balogun.

Ada is petite, beautiful and fair ebony skinned. She has claret red hair, claret eyes and a nice physique. She is clothed in a long sleeve knee length dress, having a slit from the waist down on both sides, a pair of black leggings and a pair of brown medium heel ankle boots. The dress is red in color with darker shades of red flowery designs.

“Good to see you’re in good shape, Bisoye. You’re not the crest of Oya for nothing,” she says, turning to Bisoye.

“Humph!! Complimenting me now, are you? Seems you’ve changed over the course of the years save for your height,” Bisoye responds.

That last part of the sentence talking about height gets Ada angry.

“You hag!!! I was only happy you’re in good shape so that I can rip you apart without any regret,” Ada proclaims.

“Enough of this chit chat,” Bisoye says as a whip made solely of rapidly rotating visible air, forms at her palm.

“Ijó (Yoruba word meaning dance), twirling typhoon,” she adds, swings the whip around her and strikes it on the ground. Immediately, a great wind of monstrous atmospheric pressure, gathers in front of her, creating a large column of rapidly rotating violent air, like a tornado, which begins moving towards Ada, viciously.

As Ada sees the mighty tornado heading for her, she smiles a little and stomps her right foot on the ground, saying, “Nnukwu mgbidi!!! (Igbo – great wall).” At once, a huge and thick barricade made of earth, emerges from the ground to block the fierce spiraling column of air.

Simultaneously, Balogun launches an attack against Charles.

“For you, I shall start with the second tier. Ìmọ (Yoruba – open) Gates of Calamity: War god’s arsenal,” Balogun says to Charles. Suddenly, glowing circles filled with light appear in vast numbers, like floodlights, behind Balogun and protruding out of this circles, are dangerous artilleries and warheads having yellow sparks around them.

“Shoot!!!” He commands and swiftly, the warheads and artilleries head for Charles.

“Interesting,” Charles says, seeing the incoming attack.

“Battle mode,” he adds and straightway, his black afro hair transmutes to lightning, still maintaining the shape of the hair; both his eyes turn white with blue luster around them and tiny sparks of lightning emitting from them. He sets his left arm like a hunter ready to shoot from an arrow and instantly, a bow made purely of lightning, develops in the left arm. Using his right hand, he draws a string of lightning from the bow, like an Olympic archer ready to hit the target. As he draws the string, three arrows of lightning appear along the line. Once he fully pulls the string, gently but swiftly, he lets go of it and with full force, unleashes the three arrows of lightning against the multitude of ballistic missiles heading for him.

“Arrows of Justice!!!” He says, releasing the arrows.

Each of the lightning arrows suddenly burst into multiple arrows of lightning and they all strike the horde of weapons causing a massive explosion.

BOOM!!! BOOM!!! BOOOOMMM!!!

The battle is far from over, as Charles jumps backwards, releasing accurate shots of lightning arrows against Balogun who dodges some and counters some with his warheads as he pursues Charles around.

Meanwhile, the clash of the huge earth wall and the violent tornado generates a powerful effect, shattering the wall and dissipating the wind. Quickly, Ada dashes forward to attack Bisoye head-on who notices and with haste, spits a large amount of fire from her mouth. Immediately, Bisoye uses the whip to create an enormous whirling horizontal column of fierce wind and mixes it with the fire, creating a sort of flaming tornado, facing Ada’s direction.

“Fire dancing in the wind: Blazing typhoon!!!” She says, doing this.

Ada sees this and quickly stomps her right foot on the ground, creating boulders of earth which burst high into the air. Ada uses these boulders as platforms and begins moving high into the air in order to avoid Bisoye’s flaming tornado attack. However, the attack follows Ada like a guided missile, blasting away the earth boulders in its path. The flaming tornado is close to Ada and is about to hit her when Ada utters, “Umu ala: Bia!!! (Igbo – Children of the earth: come!!!)”

Suddenly a huge being made of rocks, sprouts out of the ground with immense speed, takes flight and shields the flaming tornado from touching Ada. The collision brings about an explosion as the flaming tornado blows up, breaking the rocky being into earth boulders.

“Crush,” Ada says, sending the earth boulders from the air, at full speed, against Bisoye as she herself that is Ada, levitates in the air. Bisoye rapidly uses her whip to smash the boulders as she moves around, smiling, like one enjoying a dance.

Abruptly, a gigantic staff of about forty five feet (45ft), looking like a huge pillar, drops from the sky, halting Balogun in his pursuit for Charles. The landing of the staff on the ground compels the entire area to shake heavily. At the top of this mighty staff, stands a man, tall, muscular, with full beards and a fierce looking face and beside him is a lady, petite, just like Ada. This catches the attention of everyone on the battlefield: Charles, Ada, Balogun and Bisoye.

Balogun shifts back and ascends higher in the air to have a good look at the intruder.

“As I thought, my my, what a problem. Now they’re four,” he says.

The man at the top of the staff turns and looks down at Charles.

“I was wondering what the whole ruckus was about,” he says, grabs the lady beside him and makes a jump.

“Rewind,” he utters and instantly the gigantic staff shrinks to a smaller size of about six feet (6ft) as he lands close to Charles on the ground, carrying the lady in one of his arms.

“Hey!!! At least give a warning before you do stuff like that!!!” the lady yells.

Balogun angrily releases more ballistic missiles against them but a layer of pink energy materializes and shields them causing the missiles to explode without harming them.

“Tch!!!” Balogun hisses.

“Humph! Interesting. Good to have you here, little giant, Nelo,” Charles says referring to the lady that just arrived with the muscular man.

“And you too, Nedu. It’s been a bit of a while, hasn’t it?” Charles utters, greeting the muscular that just arrived.

“That’s right and this is how we all get to spend our first meeting after a long time,” Nedu replies.

“Big head, you forgot to add pretty,” Nelo says to Charles, smiling.

Nelo is petite, fair skinned, having short full black hair and brown eyes which glow pink when her abilities are in use. She is wearing a white short-sleeve shirt, a pair of brown three-quarter trousers and a pair of black medium heel sandals, along with some accessories on her. While Nedu is tall, muscular, fair skinned, having an afro fade haircut, dark brown eyes which turn red when his abilities are in use. He is dressed in a black polo shirt, a pair of grey trousers and a pair of brown ankle boots.

After the two make their appearance, Ada, who is levitating in the air, does a back flip and dives into the ground, like one diving into a swimming pool from a high platform. She plunges into the ground as if it is water and makes her way to Charles’ side while in the ground, like a fish swimming in the ocean. Balogun retreats backwards more to Bisoye’s position.

“Four against two, I think we should call it quits for now, seeing as they’re all troublesome opponents,” Bisoye suggests to Balogun.

All of a sudden, there is a glimmer of light high up in the sky like a shining star. This startles everyone as they all feel a vast amount of overwhelming power and they all turn their attention to the light. In the blink of an eye, the light descends to their level and a mysterious man, looking like someone in his early fifties (50s) appears.

“Been a while, little brats,” the man says, in his deep raspy voice.

“Mba mba (Igbo – no, no). This is bad,” Charles utters.

“Ikeoku!!!” Ada calmly screams.

The man, Ikeoku, is quite muscular, fair ebony skinned, having amber eyes, circle goatee beard style, and the look of a ferocious lion. He is wearing a maroon long sleeve knee length African shirt with golden embroideries and designs, a pair of maroon trousers made of the same linen material as the shirt, a pair of black shoes, a grey scarf around his neck and a black African Igbo style fila hat having the feather of a peacock on it.

“Tch!!! This is bad, however, don’t think we’ll run away. We outnumber you this time old man and we’ve even gotten stronger,” Charles boldly speaks.

“Old man?! I see you really want me to obliterate you, Charles. It’s a pity that Ifunanya is not here. She’s the one I’m interested in after all. Nevertheless, a friend has asked that I take care of you all for a particular purpose which will benefit myself and himself in the end,” Ikeoku replies.

Balogun, who is some distance behind Ikeoku, alongside Bisoye, smiles and says, “Right timing Sir Ikeoku. With you here now, we can be rest assured this battle is ours.”

“Well Mr. Balogun, Miss Bisoye, you’ll both need to step aside and let him handle this,” a deep voice says as a man with a young lady beside him, appears from thin air.

“Humph!!! So you had to come yourself, Doctor Ezeogu,” Balogun sighs and he with Bisoye, levitate further away from Ikeoku.

“Hahaha, I’m merely here to witness the spectacle,” Ezeogu, the man that recently appeared, responds.

“Seems I won the race this time, Helen,” Ikeoku says.

“Humph!!! I wasn’t in the mood. Look at how you both disturbed my beauty sleep, saying I should teleport Doctor Ezeogu, yen yen yen,” Helen, the young lady beside Dr. Ezeogu, grumbles with a grumpy face.

Ezeogu is of male average height (5 ft 11 in), fair ebony skinned, having short afro hair and hazel eyes with goatee beard, looking like the same age group with Ikeoku but a bit younger. He is dressed in the same style as Ikeoku except the color of his attire is black with ash embroidery and he has neither scarf nor hat on but is wearing a pair of eyeglasses. He standing with both his arms at his back. Helen, also of female average height (5 ft 6 in), dark ebony skinned, having brown eyes and her hair packed like a bun at the top with a braided strand at each side of her face. She is dressed in a short orange jumpsuit with navy blue star patterns and a pair of black medium heel ankle boots, also with some accessories on her.

“Nelo, shield!!!” Charles shouts as Ikeoku moves to attack.

A layer of pink vigor, looking like flames, swiftly covers the four of them, Ada, Charles, Nelo and Nedu, like a dome and Ikeoku’s fist strikes the shield. The force of the punch causes the shield to vibrate immensely and this also affects Nelo, as her body vibrates along with the shield.

“Ugh!!!” she screams, trying to contain the pain.

“Hold on,” Charles says and readies his bow with a powerful lightning arrow, set for release.

“Now!!!” Charles instructs for Nelo to remove the shield but the instance the shield is removed, before Charles can take his shot, Ikeoku instantly appears in his front and throws a mighty blow which blasts Charles some distance away, smashing into some trees.

“Solar wave: Scorching Fist,” Ikeoku says, as he does this.

The rest are surprised, Ada tries to quickly attack but in an instance, Ikeoku is at her side and grabs her by the neck, slamming her into the ground with a great force such that the entire ground quivers mightily. Nedu rushes to fight, makes a huge leap from his position, heading for Ikeoku and when he is some distance away, swings his staff and says, “Fast forward.”

At the once, the staff expands back to the thick and long forty five feet size as it goes for Ikeoku to land a hit on him and ram him away. However, Ikeoku uses his right hand to stop the movement of the staff.

“Nedu, crest of Ikenga, alusi of time, success and achievement. One can put it as the deity of time and strength. Also gifted with this divine staff whose material is not metallic in nature yet stronger than most metals if not all. Sadly, even with your staff and super strength, you cannot possibly think this will be enough. You do know the human skin when in contact with the sun, synthesizes vitamin D which is good for stronger bones and strength if I may say. I am an embodiment of the sun, the core of the sun, the eye of the sun, the indisputable crest of Anyanwu. Say, do you know how powerful the sun is?” Ikeoku boasts. He quickly draws the staff towards him the more until Nedu is close enough to him and pummels Nedu with a heavy blow, blasting him away like Charles. Nelo is left and Ikeoku moves to deal with her but before the assault is made, Charles appears before Ikeoku and launches a punch at him, with his fist wrapped in lightning. Ikeoku blocks the attack and is pushed back by the weight of the blow. Nedu immediately appears above him, about to land a vertical kick on him. Ikeoku tries to evade but is however, unable to move as his legs have been trapped in the ground by Ada whose hands are placed on the ground. Nedu’s kick makes a crushing hit, causing a large crater, shattering a ground area of about 1018.008 square feet, six feet deep. The shockwave effected, demolishes nearby trees and consequently, making the entire area tremble vigorously. Once the dust settles, shockingly, Ikeoku is standing in the same position, unaffected and without damage, holding Nedu’s foot. He increases his grip on the foot, spins and tosses Nedu towards Charles’ location. They all stand gazing at Ikeoku who looks back at them. He then flicks his hand a bit, trying to stretch it.

“Does he have super strength also?” Balogun inquires.

“Being the crest of Anyanwu, the sun deity, he can manipulate the gravitational force of the sun and make himself dense to a good extent,” Helen explains.

“That’s enough stretching for today,” he says and directs his left palm at their location since they are all gathered around the same side though with some distance between them.

Charles sharply jumps back, looks at Nelo, then at Ada and Nedu. They all respond with a nod and he creates another big lightning arrow on his bow with this one having sparks of red lightning fused with the already blue lightning. Nedu tightens his right fist and black aura shrouded in green radiance, starts flowing out of it while Ada materializes a red whip from her right hand.

“This is bad,” Helen says and taps Ezeogu on the shoulder, vanishing and appearing high up in the sky.

“Why the sudden movement?” Ezeogu inquires.

“What Ikeoku is about to release is powerful enough to affect the entire country,” Helen responds.

“Amazing. Such power,” Ezeogu says, looking with full concentration.

“It’s a pity that this will be ending sooner than I expected,” Ikeoku says.

Out of the blue, a dark violet vortex spiraling in the air makes an appearance and out of it comes a lady, beautiful with long silky hair, fair skinned and a thick physique with an hourglass figure, having lustrous purple eyes. She is dressed in a sleeveless long black gown, with elbow length gloves, a pair of black high heel boots and some jewelries on herself, having a pink furry scarf around her neck.

“Just remember not to kill them Ikeoku,” the lady, with a strong voice, says.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Ada says.

“It’s not a joke and no, you’re not imagining things. That is an Unknown and a powerful one at that, based on the phasic energy I’m sensing from her,” Nedu responds.

“The unholy union of an advanced talent and dark arts practitioner, Ezeogu, an amplified crest, Ikeoku and an Unknown along with two other crests, Balogun and Bisoye. Now this is real bad news. Crap!!!” Charles utters.

“Humph!! You finally show yourself, Shade. No need to worry, this will just put them to sleep,” Ikeoku replies and the lady, Shade, replies.

“Violent Sun,” he adds. Instantly, particles of light gather, swirling at his palm and a blistering ball of fire radiating brilliantly is produced and quickly discharged against Ada, Charles, Nedu and Nelo.

Instantaneously, Ada taps her right foot on the ground which triggers the ground beneath Nelo to quickly absorb her and also Nedu’s staff which has shrunk back to a length of about six (6) feet. Inside the ground, the staff moves with high speed, reaching Nelo and serves as a surf board inside the ground through which Nelo makes an escape.

BOOOOOMMMM!!!

Instantly, Ikeoku’s attack creates a mighty explosion so vast, it spans over 923,768 square kilometer, which is the size of the country, Nigeria. Though this battle occurs in the phasic dome, the effect of Ikeoku’s technique is so immense, it creates a strong heat wave in the ordinary human realm such that some bushes catch fire and some petrol tankers explode on their own.

Balogun spots Nelo escaping and attempts to stop her but he is brought to halt by Ezeogu.

“No need to go after her, Balogun,” Ezeogu says.

“And who made you the boss over me?” Balogun replies.

“It’s alright Balogun, she has her role to play in passing the message,” Ikeoku says while the dust of the explosion clears up.

“Humph!! Suit yourselves,” he says and decides not to go after Nelo again.

Before the dust settles, Ikeoku transmutes into a ray of light and beams away. He suddenly appears at a far distance, about forty six (46) kilometers from the battle area and lands a powerful punch into the ground, breaking it apart, cracking it to a depth of about fifteen (15) feet. He stands inside the hole and surprisingly, another hole is formed in the ground depth in front of him as Nelo standing on top of Nedu’s staff, comes riding out. Ikeoku immediately intercepts her and uses his left foot to stamp the front tip of the staff into the ground. The staff is actually very heavy so the stomp creates a strong impact and like a seesaw losing balance, Nelo is thrown forward towards Ikeoku. He reaches to take hold of her by the neck. Her now brown eyes glow pink and somehow she foresees it and dodges his hand by bending down and rolls behind him. Without hesitation, she rapidly makes a jump out of the hole and back to the ground surface.

“Interesting. Your precognitive ability is splendid as always, crest of Agwu Nsi, alusi of divination,” Ikeoku compliments while stepping on the inclined staff having one of its tips stuck into the ground.

“Shall we see then, your precognition and my light speed, which is faster?” Ikeoku taunts, turning to Nelo and instantly appearing in her front.

Nelo, unfazed responds, “Humph!!! What do you want? What is your aim? If you want to kill us, just do it already.”

“Hahaha. I am in no way interested in you lot for the time being. My highest priority and interest is Ifunanya and of course since I’m helping out my friend, Ezeogu, then a certain girl by the name Chiamaka, of which I heard is friends with Ifunanya, is also a person of interest. The rest of you are just collateral and insurance. Your role is that of the messenger that’s why I’m letting you off. Pass this message to Ifunanya; tell her to bring the girl that is Chiamaka. When she has made up her mind, she should meet with an acquaintance of mine whom she’s a bit familiar with, Oge. She will bring both of them to us,” Ikeoku replies with a stern look on his face.

“What?!! Do you actually think—-,” before Nelo completes her sentence, Ikeoku interrupts.

“Better hurry up, the lives of your friends are at stake. It’s three lives for the price of one, Ifunanya, on my part at least. Think carefully about what decision to make. Should three die because of one? You’re a smart first class young graduate, having graduated how many years ago, as the best in your department at the age of eighteen (18), I’m sure you can figure it out,” he says and shrugs.

“What does this Ezeogu want with this Chiamaka?” Nelo questions.

“Hmmm? I guess a father just wants to meet his daughter,” Ikeoku answers.

“Why don’t you just go yourself and get Ifunanya and her?” Nelo inquires.

“Well, there’s that option but… where’s the fun in that? Don’t you just love the drama?” Ikeoku replies, proceeds back into the hole and easily picks up the staff.

“Huh?! He easily picked up that enormously heavy staff of Nedu. This man is truly a monster,” Nelo says within herself, staring at him.

“Now now, I’ll be taking this. I’m sure you can find your way. Bye now,” he says and converts into a ray of light, heading back to his previous spot, the battle area.

Back at the battle area, the now devastated forest.

The dust from the previous attack has settled, Charles is standing in front of Ada though he is battered and seemingly unconscious, having a gesture of one who is shielding something. Ada is lying down behind him, quite beat up and knocked out while Nedu is some distance away horizontally, cataleptic, injured and on his knees.

Suddenly, Charles’ body begins emanating tremendous amount of lightning as coruscation start ensuing in the clouds above and multiple roars of thunder resound throughout the entire area. Ikeoku swiftly arrives and notices this occurrence.

“Astonishing, you still some strength left in you, I see,” he says, looking at Charles who is regaining consciousness and struggling to stand straight.

“Your love for Ada is quite heartwarming seeing as you made sure to protect you, however the possibility of this leading to your death one day should not be overlooked, as you’re always ready to jump into danger forgetting you have yourself to worry about. Nevertheless, your strength is commendable,” he adds.

“You restrained your technique too much. You could have done much more damage had you not done so,” Helen says from her position, levitating in the air, speaking to Ikeoku.

“Maybe however, he also was able to create a lightning shield during the attack though it already had an effect before the shield was able to completely come up,” Ikeoku replies.

“Still…the shield…was…was…not….enough,” Charles says, swiping blood away from his mouth and turning his glare to Ikeoku. He then lets out a loud shout, “Ahhhhhhh!!!”

After this, he deeply exhales and looks at Ikeoku one more time. Swiftly, he goes for Ikeoku and starts throwing powerful and fast punches at Ikeoku rapidly.

“Haha, the exuberance of the youth, interesting. Come!!! Little brat,” Ikeoku laughs while dodging and blocking the lightning infused attacks from Charles.

Meanwhile, black phasic energy having green radiance begin to develop from Nedu and all his wounds start repairing themselves, as if time is being reversed.

“Huh? Is that time regeneration? Quite astounding,” Shade, the Unknown present in the battlefield remarks.

“Ezeogu, use your binding ability to stop him and the sleeping queen over there,” she says to Ezeogu, referring to Nedu and Ada respectively.

“Alright then. Activate: Restraining order!!!” Ezeogu replies and directs his palms at Ada and Nedu.

Ada, still lying on the ground, has her eyes faintly opened. She can barely see what is going on.

“No…Char…les. Don’t…use…don’t use that technique…please,” she indistinctly mutters.

Unexpectedly, chains spring up out of the ground beneath Ada and Nedu, binding them on different parts of their body. The chains make them both unable to move and greatly reduces the speed of the regeneration going on with Nedu.

“Now, fall into slumber,” Shade says and blows into the air. A dark mist emerges and sips into the nostrils of Ada and Nedu putting them to sleep, as Nedu falls face flat to the ground.

In the meantime, Ikeoku and Charles are battling it out as they now both appear high up in the sky. Ikeoku swiftly dashes above Charles and launches a might scorching punch. With an immense and booming outburst of blistering shockwave, it sends Charles rapidly crashing into the ground creating a mighty crater of about twenty (20) feet deep and a very large diameter. The attack causes Charles’ body to bounce after the crash and in a flash, Ikeoku lands at the spot and strikes another heavy blow on Charles, pounding him into the ground again.

“Argh!!!” Charles screams as Ikeoku jumps backwards leaving some space between him and Charles.

“I must say, you’re quite the talented one, Charles. Your potential looks very vast and promising. Why don’t you join me?” Ikeoku suggests.

Charles staggers to stand, spews out some blood and responds, shouting, “And why on earth would I do such?!”

“I guess I have no choice but to use that,” he thinks to himself.

“Handsome and persistent, totally my type,” Shade says and instantly a projection of her appears in front of Charles.

The projection looks Charles in the eyes and immediately he is paralyzed.

“What?!” Charles says within himself.

The projection then proceeds to kiss him and as their lips intersect, all Charles’ powers begin to fizzle off. His lightning hair fades away, returning his hair to the normal black afro hair. His eyes turn back to the normal brown eyes and the lightning sparks around his body cease so also the sparks in the clouds and the thunders. It also renders Charles completely drained as his eyes gradually close and he is forced into a deep sleep, helplessly falling to the ground.

“Sleep, young warrior,” Shade says as this happens while Ikeoku stares at her.

“What? If this had gone on, you may have just ended up killing him,” she proclaims and shrugs.

“May?” Ikeoku replies, turns and goes to pick up Nedu’s staff.

“That’s right. I sensed a strange power rising from him, who knows what the outcome may have been,” Shade responds.

“Hmmm, Shade, an Unknown with the ability of corruption, capable of using lust, anger, greed and the desires of one, to her advantage. At least that’s what I know,” Balogun says within himself.

“One needs to be wary of her type. Her power level is nothing to sneeze at,” he adds.

“Alright Ezeogu, let’s pack up. We have some work to do,” Shade instructs.

“As for us, we’ll be taking a different path. There’s something we have to search for,” Balogun speaks.

“That’s right,” Bisoye concurs.

“Alright. Just remember our plans,” Shade replies.

A gigantic circle of light with brimming with yellow luminosity, appears above Balogun and out of it, comes a jet. The doors for the jet open, Balogun advances to enter and instantly his attire changes from the armor he was previously on to a black suit and blue tie outfit. Bisoye follows him into the jet and they make their exit from the battle area.

Meanwhile, back at Chiamaka and others, they are all resting and carrying out normal activities after the battle with Ife and her team, some several days back.

“Hmm…a lot has happened. My entire life is rapidly changing. I still wish this was all a dream. Who am I kidding? That battle against Ife sure was intense but thankfully no one died. With all this, the existence of a higher power surely exists, right? That’s true I never really knew what happened to Tomiwa in the end. Why am I even thinking of that when there are more things to worry about? Well, anyway, Aisha suggested we should go out later this night and chill to cool off. Not a bad idea, however the issue now is… how am I going to pass this paper when I haven’t even had time to read?!” Chiamaka thinks to herself, sighing at intervals as she is sitting, having two small booklets and a pen in front of her on a desk, in a classroom where a test is about to be conducted.