Chapter 91: On to Ibadan
The sun had barely risen when Philip stood alone in what remained of their front yard. Around him, construction workers moved with haste called in before dawn already clearing rubble and beginning repairs. The wards he had laid shimmered faintly, unseen to mortal eyes, shielding the entire block.
Inside the house, Amaka and Nathaniel were gathering clothes and supplies to take to their grandparents' home. They knew better than to argue when Philip's mind was set.
He stared into the air before him, eyes narrowing. In his mind's eye, the memory burned bright the Maw beneath Ibadan that shifting void of teeth and shadow he had glimpsed in the dying Gutterborn's soul.
That image had been more than a vision. It was a fragment of connection a faint thread that now pulsed within him. If he focused, if he willed it, he could follow it. His Thread of Rule resonated with the cursed echo, allowing him to trace its source across space.
He inhaled deeply.
Then his right hand rose.
Mana surged through his body thick, potent, laced with the fury of lightning and the calm of mastery. His fingers danced through the air, weaving invisible sigils born of instinct and newfound power.
The space before him began to twist.
It groaned and shimmered, a tear slowly forming as if the air itself were fabric being ripped apart. A line of pure blackness spread in the empty air, stretching wider, the rift vibrating with unstable force.
He poured more of his power into the breach, guiding it, forcing it to respond to the memory-link. The tear in space yawned open, revealing not emptiness, but a swirling tunnel of dark purple mist laced with threads of lightning unstable, imperfect.
Philip's eyes gleamed.
"Not perfect… but close enough."
Without hesitation, he stepped through.
The sensation was disorienting like falling while standing still. Space bent, stretched, folded around him, the rift pulling him through dimensions. Time seemed to flicker moments felt like hours, hours like seconds.
Then with a sudden crack, he was hurled out of the tear.
The smell of dense forest filled his nostrils. The sound of birds and rushing water greeted his ears. Around him, thick trees rose like ancient sentinels, their trunks wrapped in moss and vines.
He frowned.
This was not Ibadan.
As he stabilized himself, rising into the air, he reached out with his senses eyes narrowing.
Osun State.
His memory-link hadn't been strong enough to pinpoint the Maw exactly. The instability of the rift had scattered his trajectory, pulling him several hundred kilometers off target.
He could sense the pull of the Maw, distant but unmistakable still west of here.
No matter.
With a single thought, lightning surged beneath his feet. His aura expanded in a flash of silver and violet as he rocketed into the sky, streaking across the horizon at impossible speeds.
The winds screamed past him. Birds scattered. Animals fled. Every awakened being for miles felt his passing a demigod in flight, rage burning in his soul.
He was done waiting. The hunt had begun.