TRAILING SHADOWS

"Hah!" Niniola heaved, jumping from building to building.

With each step she took, the buildings thinned, first from large structures of mansion to as little as huts and small chalets inns along the way, the land taking a distinct hue of multi colored trees and vegetations.

The sky had changed a lot since the tent area. The change was not as a result of the shift in time but rather because of another thing entirely. The sky bleached from the clear skies of before, now taking on a darker hue, its outline riddled by tiny streaks of lightning bolts, bolts that became larger even as Niniola drew closer to them.

Seeing this, she knew that it would be only a matter of meters for her to get across to the Land of Lightning due to the change in the atmosphere. In Orun Rere, the heaven lands of the Iurnmoles, the messenger of the Orisha, the scenery changed from realm to realm in accordance to the nature of the Orisha in charge of that realm of Orun Obatala, the King of Gods and the King of the white clothes as his eulogy depicted was the Orisha in charge of the Ilu Obatala and as a result, the realm was the brightest of all realms. However, now, going towards the Land of Thunder, the atmosphere was constantly blazed by random thunder storms and lighting streaks here and there because the nature of the God over this realm was the God of Lightning and retribution, Sango.

She took a brief look behind, spotting Sunday, Tayo and Ibiyemi battling amongst themselves, from shove to punch to jump as they tried to get closer.

"Ugh! Do these people not know that I am also playing the game too?" She sighed as she passed through the briefness of black, which was the Void on which all realities was laid upon. To cross from realm to realm, one needed to pass through, only for a fraction of nano second, through the Void that acted as borders between both realms.

And once a person passed the void border, all of the structures of the previous realms and its outline vanished from shape, replaced by a sheath of never ending horizon with the nature of the new realm.

She stopped, after crossing over, looking in around. She had been here before, not once not twice and so, the several styled buildings, all of which had lightning rods' on their dome shaped roofs. Just as she did that, Tayo burst through, heaving as he swirled around and launched a punch straight into the border of the horizon. As he did, Ibiyemi slid through on her knees, clearly evading his attack while Sunday threw a barrel roll up, overhead, landing after them all in front.

"We... We need to rest." Tayo said, sniffing in the vegetation and the static charged airs. He looked forward, taking on the sights.

They were in a street, or so it appeared except that the road they stood was not paved and outlined by sand here and there alongside with greenery and small trees. It seemed like a border forest or something. However, as the road led on, it started to get filled up with stones neatly stacked into each other to create a paved street way, the buildings beginning to cl.u.s.ter around and with them, civilisation and thunder Irunmoles.

"Rest?" Niniola frowned slightly. "Rest when we are only just only few meters from sneaking into the Deployment Zone here. The sooner we get done with it, the more time we have on our hands. Plus, fighting through demons in Orun Apaadi, might just take a lot of time. Time that we don't have."

"What? You are high level and you can tank all of this but what about them? With the way you are pushing things, what you will be deploying to Orun Apaadi would be a broken husk of Sunday." Tayo snarled, pointing a finger at Sunday sideways while he looked on to Niniola by his left.

To him, he had to strike out any time now to be alone so as to activate the sensor and call out to the Asoju Lekan. If he failed to do so at this very moment, what would be left would be that of Sunday getting deployed meaning his mission would be failed.

At least, assuming they did not run into a Primes, or even Primes. With that in mind, he had to make his move ow, and be done with this mission all at once. It was already becoming so much of a drag already.

"Hey!" Sunday growled on his part but he was promptly ignored by them.

"Look, you have been acting real strange, honestly. And last time I checked, you are a bounty hunter. How am I sure you don't want us to stop so that your bounty hunter fellows wouldn't catch up with us?" Niniola countered, gesticulating.

"Uh... You guys should take it easy. I do not think Tayo is wrong though. I hate to be extra baggage but you got to consider the rest of us who are not as powerful as you are." Ibiyemi shrugged, stretching her hands to both sides as she rose to her feet.

The run here had been good. Really good to be honest. She had been able to push her soul up I the charts when she had to fight her way around Sunday and Tayo. It was only normal. She was the weakest of them all and for her to have amounted to anything, she had had to push in deeper. #

True, her eye helped out but she also kicked up some levels in the Illusion. Olukoni Mayowa and her father would be so proud. However, she was damn tired and exhausted. All those moves had taken quite a toll on her and the least she could ask for was a chance to replenish her energy.

"Fine!" Niniola sighed, giving up. "We rest here. It is pretty secluded. But I will be keeping my eyes on you, Tayo. Something about you does not feel very right to me."

"Will you all keep it down? Do not make noise at the border. You may be thought of to be a nuisance that should be eliminated in a second." A thick voice boomed off from the street ahead.

Startled, they looked up ahead, seeing a thick figure with a seemingly elderly look, standing a height of 7.9ft, his c.h.e.s.t b.a.r.e while a three quarter pants covered his lower body, his feet covered up in wooden pattens. His hair was spiky and white, face edgy with a pointed but yet broad nose and eyes as blue as the skies while a tiny scar of lightning streak was just above his left b.r.e.a.s.t, his right arm holding the nozzle of large white sack over his shoulders.