Mira carried out the boxes of the weapon sets and introduced their contents to the owners. After the introductions Mira said “My master couldn’t make armor that could bridge the gap between a Rank 6 and a Rank 7 but these are his newest products. They’re quite good”.

Anita was stumped when she heard that, she was the one that told Jola to request for weapons that could enable them to defeat a Rank 7. She thought ‘But the weapons are as good. If these can’t defeat Rank 7s then just how powerful are Rank 7 monsters’. She could only sigh and continue to listen.

Mira brought out the two cubes and explained their uses and then handed them to Deji. Mira said “When you have the information that my master wants. Give the blue cube a ‘Done’ mental command and leave the cube in an empty and unmonitored place and my master will get it. If you have any requests or trades, you can also put them in the cube to pass it on to my master. Don’t try to open up and research the blue cube or it will explode and you won’t be able to trade with my master. My master doesn’t trade for en-code, my master trades, knowledge for knowledge”.

Funmi said while excitedly looking at her armor “Is your master some sort of ghost, how will he take the cube if we put it in a room that is surrounded?” Mira answered “That’s his business”.

Actually, the blue cube had an energy crystal that had a spell grafted into it to sent it to Jade’s portal storage some minutes after it received the ‘Done’ mental command. So if they observed it, waiting for Jade to appear, it would disappear right before their eyes.

Funmi said “Your armor looks like something that should not exist. Is it an actual bubble?” Mira smiled and said “Yes, that’s actually its name”. Funmi said “I look forward to seeing it in action”. Mira’s smile softened as she said “I won’t be staying after this trade off. That’s why the blue cube exists; it’s not just for easy communication”.

The entire room went silent at the reveal. Funmi softly smiled, hugged Mira and said “I’ll miss you”. Mira softly smiled and said “I’ll miss you too”. The other Overcomer’s said their goodbyes.

Mira left the trolley in the sanctuary and headed toward the no-man’s land as she reminisced about her time in the sanctuary. She was surprised that Funmi didn’t cry but even more surprised that she didn’t cry. She had matured; she knew some things were necessary so there was no point feeling sad about them. She thought ‘I can come back when I’m strong enough to not worry about my own safety’.

Mira returned to where the Light Gate brought her to and saw Jade waiting for her. Jade said “That was quicker than I thought. Are you sure you don’t want to spend a few days with them?” Mira said “That would just make it harder to leave”.

Jade open a tiny portal to his portal storage, put his finger inside the portal and sent an energy signal to a device inside it. On sensing Jade’s signal the device activated the Light Gate and opened a portal back to the Jade’s lab.

A circle of space rippled and the images of the inside of Jade’s lab randomly flickered in the circle in front of Jade and Mira. Jade said “Distance Disregarding Communication System. I had the idea for it some minutes ago, I really wonder why I didn’t think of it since the concept is so simple” Jade scratched his head and said “I guess I was really swamped with my own things. I didn’t properly think of a way for you to contact me if you were in extreme danger”.

Mira smiled, said “You don’t have to bother yourself with my own issues. As you said, Freedom comes at a price, the price is that I take care of myself” and walked through the Gate. Jade sighed and followed after Mira.

…

In the Venuri Kingdom, the settlement with the highest population and with the cruelest leader, Jimoh was sitting on his bed listening to a song with his eyes closed.

He had removed the restriction on the citizens and let them hunt undead and monsters freely, he had also reduced the gate fee for every return. He did this when he came back from the Lagos meeting. He was sure that with this the people would have the power to forcefully remove him from his throne soon. They would kill him and his gang in the process too. His only saving was the monster attacks that were on their way.

But he didn’t care. When he heard the sanctuary’s number of people above Rank 2 he knew his suppressive style of ruling was a mistake, he was smart enough to accept that.

He remembered the party in Terrania, when he went to seduce Mira, when he refused to leave even though his ‘pet’ was disturbing one of their representatives. Many people just assumed that he was a crazy and cruel person so such stupid acts were not far from him.

All of them except Lara; she saw through him, she knew why he was doing it. He knew she saw through him when he looked into her eyes that night. All he felt was compassion and understanding from her. He knew that he would probably be like a sanctuary representative if he had such a person as a mentor when he was young. But life had not been so kind to him.

The reason why he provoked the sanctuary, why he made a human pet, why he suppressed his people so much, was because he was trying to corner himself. He was forcing himself to be strong enough to handle the consequences.

But when he heard that the monsters, Rank 7 monsters, would be attacking. He knew he had made a mistake, so he didn’t hesitate to undo all the wrong he had done. He thought ‘At least the hate these people have for me will force them to risk their lives for power. I’m a great motivation’. He laughed at his own thought.

He knew that this last minute struggle wasn’t going to amount to much, he was going to lose a lot of his population and with that his standing and his life. The song he was playing ended and he replayed it again like he always did. He could barely remember when he played another song.

The song played:

T'oba foh, o ti fuck up (t'oba foh, o ti fuck up) [If you mess up then you’ve fucked up]

T'oba fuck up, o ti sh'aye (t'oba fuck up, o ti sh'aye) [If you fuck up then you’ve wronged the streets]

Kilo kan aye ('kan aye) [Why should the streets care?]

O j'oju aye, o tun fe j'aye (o tun fe j'aye) [You disappointed the streets but you still want to be happy]

O lon fuck pelu street (o lon fuck pelu street) [You fuck with the streets]

Shori street, lo ma fuck e up ('o ma fuck e up) [The streets fuck you up]

Awon girls lo ma set e up (won ma set e up) [The girls will set you up]

Awon boys lo ma fuck e up (won ma fuck e up) [The boys will fuck you up]

.

.

.

Fuck, fuck that shit, like that shit

Fuck that shit, me, I like that shit

How many boys don die for the street? [How many boys have died on the streets?]

In Jimoh’s mind a vivid image showed. Deep into the night, 15 teenage boys lay on the road and side walk of a pothole filled street, each of them between 15-17 years old. 14 of them dead only one alive, tears filled the eyes of the last one alive as he stood up and limped away from the corpses while clutching a bullet wound on his shoulder. 2 of the corpses had identical faces to the one that was limping away.

How many boys don blow for the street? [How many street boys have made it?]

Koleyewon [They’ll never understand]… {Author note: The song is Koleyewon by Naira Marley}

Jimoh opened his eyes and smiled, he exuded a cold rage that materialized as his aura and corroded, melted and or burned the bed he was sitting on and the items that were close to him including the phone he was playing the music from without the room’s temperature increasing as if a Jimoh had become a cold fire. He thought ‘They’ll never understand’.

…