Previously...

Ifunanya, Aisha and Tomisin had a massive battle which Ifunanya was victorious and ended up leaving in order to battle Ikeoku. Chiamaka already made up her mind and met with Oge to leave. Oge and Ife had a short battle where Oge severely wounded Ife however ID later found Ife and with Nelo’s help, is taking her to get her wounds healed.

In a world of supernaturally powered beings, what fate awaits humanity?

***

“Whew!! What a long night,” ID says looking up at the night sky as he, Nelo and Rume who is carrying Ife, arrive at the house of Nelo's suggested healer. They stand at the gate of the apartment as Nelo rings the doorbell. The apartment is located at the top floor of a very tall building in the area known as Ikoyi, Lagos.

“Quite the affluent person I guess,” Rume comments.

The door opens and a slim ebony lady with full afro hairstyle, dressed in a Jade colored silky night dress, wearing a pair of glasses with red frames and having a stick of cigarette in her mouth, is seen standing, holding the door to one side. She has a mild frown on her face.

“Wow! Quite the hottie too,” Rume whispers, smiling at the lady, trying to look at her in a seductive manner.

The lady turns and looks at Rume, still frowning, she says, “Huh? What’s wrong with your eyes? Are you tired of living?”

Rume smiles and responds, “And fierce too.”

“Ugh,” Yewande expresses and shakes her head.

Nelo proceeds to lightly slap Rume's back and giggles.

“Shut up!!!” she yells, as the giggles ends abruptly. She turns and faces the lady and greets her, “Hey Yewande. Been a while.”

The lady, Yewande, returns her gaze to Nelo. “Chinelo, what’s the big deal?” she asks.

“Well… long story short, we need your healing expertise in saving someone; I’ve done the little I can with my healing ability. You know for me it’s not so easy healing others,” Nelo replies gesturing her hand at Ife who is being carried by Rume.

Yewande blows a puff of smoke and let’s out a sigh. “I can see that. What I mean is why’d you come to my man’s house with a half dead lady and two… men. How did you even get this address?” she says.

Nelo giggles, placing her right hand at the back of her head. “Well… sorry about that. Sesan gave me this address. Plus you’re the only one I could really go to at the moment. I know Wemimo also has healing ability but you know how she can be.”

Yewande sighs again. “No need arguing this with you, come in,” she says. “Luckily, my man isn’t around. Just curious though, how’d you make it past security?”

Nelo smiles and responds, “We have our ways.”

“Pfft!!!” Yewande exclaims. “Probably Phasic Dome ish,” she says.

“By the way, this is ID, Rume and the half dead lady is Ife” Nelo says.

“ID seems familiar, I think we’ve met before if I can remember. Rume I know, cause he’s kinda like a celeb anyway. I’m not sure I know this Ife lady,” Yewande replies.

“Anyway, let’s get this over with,” she adds.

ID stays outside and says, “Umm, I have to go and meet up with Tobi. Seems something happened with Aisha, Tomisin and Ifunanya.”

“I see. No wahala (No worries). I’ll update you on how it goes,” Nelo replies.

“Rume, Nelo, thank you guys so much. Catch you later,” ID says and takes his leave.

***

At Aisha's house…

ID has arrived and is in the sitting room with Tobi and Aisha. Tomisin is in the bathroom taking a shower.

“I see, so that’s what happened. Typical Ifunanya, never wanting to trouble others but always ready to give it her all for her loved ones,” ID says after Aisha narrates to him and Tobi about their encounter with Ifunanya.

“So what are we going to do now? Chiamaka and Ifunanya are both going into the lion’s den,” Tobi asks.

“That’s obvious,” ID answers. “We’ll go after them and provide our assistance,” he adds.

Aisha sighs and lays back more on the couch. “You guys can do whatever you want, I’m done. She made it clear she doesn’t want our interference, I’m not bothered.”

ID smiles a bit and replies, “Is that really your thought or you’re just sulking cause you lost against her?”

“Humph!!! If I wanted, I could have gone a step further but I chose not to. After seeing her determination in wanting to go alone, I gave up on her,” Aisha responds.

ID walks to Aisha’s side, pulls her left cheek and says, “And you know what could have happened if you went a step further that right? You can’t use that mode except it’s a life and death situation.”

“Yen yen yen, tch!!!” Aisha expresses with a frown while her left cheek is being pulled.

Tobi stands, yawns and says, “Anyway, looks like most of us are beat, so we’ll continue this tomorrow. Let’s try and get some rest.”

“Good idea,” ID replies.

Elsewhere, still in Lagos City, Professor Lenz is in a vehicle, sitting at the back as a driver is taking him to a location. Just ahead of them are a set of police officers with guns. They flag down the car of the Professor and ask the driver to step down to answer some questions. it is very dark and late like around 2:00 AM, the Professor is just sitting at the back with a cigarette in his mouth, reading an article from his tablet device, seeming unconcerned. The windows of the car’s doors have black tint making it difficult for the police officers to tell who is sitting inside the vehicle.

After some exchange of words between the driver and the police officers, the driver walks to the back seat of the car and knocks on the window, he tells the Professor that the officers have decided to move them to their office for further questioning.

The Professor, without looking at the driver, replies, “They want to delay me? Call them, I have a question for them.”

The driver goes to relay the message to the police officers who start yelling at him that they do not have much time to waste. Hearing all the noise, Professor Lenz steps out of the car, the police are surprised to see he is a caucasian and not a usual nigerian. They all begin to salute him and apologize saying, “Sir, Please we are very sorry for the inconvenience. We’re just carrying out routine security checks. You can be on your way.”

Some even whisper, “Omo, why this driver no tell us say na oyibo him carry?!” (English - “Man why didn’t this driver tell us he’s carrying a Caucasian man?”).

Professor Lenz pays no attention to them. He takes out the cigarette stick in his mouth, blows a puff and calmly says, “Do you… all want to die?”

“What?” The police officers reply, looking confused.

Suddenly, one of the police officers points a gun at another.

“What are you doing Officer Lekan?” one of the officers asks and points his gun back at him.

There are five police officers in total. Soon, they all point their guns at each other; they are now viewing each other dressed in the attire of an armed robber. They begin firing at themselves, killing each other. Abruptly, a big truck zooms from behind Professor Lenz’s car, screeches, makes a drift and in the process, loses control, tumbles and sweeps off all the bodies of the police officers to the side of the road.

Professor Lenz, makes another puff from his cigarette and in his usual calm manner, says to his driver, “Let’s go.” He gets back into the car and shuts the door.

The driver is very perplexed as to what just occurred. Unable to utter a word, he just swallows his spit, rushes to the car and zooms off with the Professor. The driver of the truck comes out of the tumbled vehicle, bewildered, in a state of ‘what just happened’ and ‘thank God I survived’.

Somewhere else, at an apartment on the mainland of Lagos City, Uche steps in and closes the door as he enters. After resting a while, he moves closer to the artwork he purchased (Chapter 8). Staring at it for a while, he notices he can hear a faint strong voice like a male’s voice. He reaches for the artwork and places his left palm on it. Instantly, he feels a zap like an electric shock and hears clearly, a deep male voice saying, “Kid, you seem quite capable, get me out of here.”

Uche quickly activates his gift “Activate: Mind Invasion” and enters into a different realm. In the new realm, the entire place is dark and empty, a tall muscular being, with lightning sparking from his eyes, levitating in front of him.

Uche is amazed. “Interesting, you’ve been in this artwork all this while?”

The being is a bit surprised that Uche is amazed rather than shocked in fear.

“Kid, you do not seem like you’re afraid so you must have expected this somehow,” the being states.

“Indeed I did expect this but I’m still in awe. I only heard a few things about how the great artist and advanced talent, Benjamin Awili sealed off some of the most powerful crests who rebelled against humanity, wanting to rule over the humans as their gods,” Uche replies.

“So I did a bit of research and decided I will find these artworks, undo the seal and with the ancient crests by my side, lead the advanced talents into a new age of dominion,” he adds.

The being descends, stands on the same level as Uche and smiles, bursting into laughter. “Hahaha, Imagine the blessing. To think that I’d be so lucky to meet you, an advanced talent with telepathic abilities who also has the same goals as us.”

He goes on to say, “You see, young man, we with our abilities were made to rule. That fool Benjamin Awili did not understand this and that was why he could only seal us and not entirely defeat us. I have been watching from this seal, how humanity has advanced without knowledge of the other realm. They lift themselves up as if they have power whereas true power lies with us. Young man, release me from this seal and I shall grant you this entire world. My name is Kalu Ike-Ifufe Okafor and I have spoken.”

Uche looks into the eyes of the being, Kalu and smiles. “I was going to unseal you anyway, however, I’m not sure I have the capabilities of such at the moment, so you might have to wait a bit.”

Kalu laughs out loud. “Hahaha!!! It seems you really do not know the full extent of your abilities. You must think you’re only a telepathic but I can sense telekinetic abilities also.”

Uche is shocked. “What do you mean telekinetic abilities? Do you also have the power to tell people’s talents? I, however, only possess the advanced talent of a telepath.”

Kalu laughs out loud again while folding his arms. “This is why you’ll need me. Allow me to show you a glimpse. Luckily, Benjamin Awili did not predict that one with your abilities will locate this artifact and reach out to me. With your powers, I will now undo the seal.” He says this, moves closer to Uche and places his palms on each of Uche’s shoulders.

“Activate: Supercharge!!!” he says and instantly, a powerful surge of lightning flows through him into Uche. Uche’s eyes immediately shine brighter and a powerful burst of psychic force is released from Uche’s body.

Suddenly, in the normal realm, Lagos city, there is a very loud roar of thunder which causes glasses on some buildings to shatter. While at Uche’s house, the artwork defragments into pieces as Kalu materializes into the physical world.

“My my, it’s been a very long time,” Kalu says, looking at his hand, flexing his fingers and feeling the warmth of a human body. Uche’s mind invasion has already deactivated and he is back to normal reality, staring at Kalu, the tall muscular being.

Uche takes a deep breath and says, “Well, if you could do that all the while, why did you have to wait for me?”

Kalu picks up a hoodie from Uche’s wardrobe, checking it out as he replies, “It’s simple. All I did was supercharge your mind to tap into your massive telekinetic force. Since your mind is already linked to your body on the outside on the outside, I triggered a kinetic blast powerful enough to destroy the seal. This is all thanks to you having both telepathy and telekinesis. Also, because Benjamin Awili was in a hurry to seal me, my seal had more weak points compared to that of my comrades. Like I said kid, you have telekinetic ability, an enormous one at that.”

Uche smiles and says “Interesting. So what next now? You do know the world has changed a lot since your sealing right?”

Kalu responds, “I told you before, didn’t I? I have been watching how humanity has advanced. I was sealed however I had access to view what was going on worldwide. My knowledge of the world is current. Now, as to what to do next, first, we have to shop. I need me some good clothes then, we’ll locate each of the artworks that my comrades were sealed in and undo their seal. Adaaku, Jindu, Yemisi, Eloise and others, we shall free them all and conquer this earth once more.”

Uche seems pleased with what he heard from Kalu. “Good, good. I too have some comrades and recruitments of my own. Though, it’s quite late, so we’ll do the shopping once the sun is up. We may have obstacles by the way, possibly some Crests and advanced talents.”

“Not a problem,” Kalu says as he sits on a chair close to Uche’s bed and takes a relaxing position. “We’ll obliterate every opposition,” he adds.

***

At the Eastern part of Nigeria however, Oge, Ifunanya and Chiamaka make their arrival at the location of Ikeoku, Ezeogu and the Unknown going by Shade.

A tremendous battle is about to begin…

To be continued...