CH925

Letting Thera stop to sleep and eat for just a few hours before the sun rose, it wasn’t long until they were on their way again, once more speeding through the clouds, only dropping back down when Abel spoke up.

“You’re coming to another site. Maybe four hours behind?”

Four hours isn’t bad.

Slowly but surely they were gaining on him, the shifter fast but all of them faster thanks to Thera covering the transport, with her carrying them down closer to the ground but without stopping, the lower altitude solely to run a minor investigation of what Abel had seen fit to point out.

With it being a town that time, marking their fourth settlement which by all accounts had seemed empty to her when she’d raced through it using her creations but still demanded at least a cursory look for survivors, even if they had to do what they could to make it quick. Every delay meant that someone else could die somewhere farther ahead but any intel there might have been to gain from anyone who hadn’t been killed would have been invaluable, even if Ben quickly found that once more, it wasn’t meant to be.

Flying above the rooftops, he stretched out his soul as far as it would go, hoping to find someone, anyone, yet once more the place was left empty and barren, same as the rest and a result that left him clenching his jaw before speaking up.

“Nothing, let’s move on. If Foast was here only a few hours ago then that means we’re close, so Thera, do you think you can go any faster?”

“It will make it hard for me to react and put more strain on my mana, but yeah, I can if you help me out.”

“Got it.”

He sped up her thoughts to compensate for the increase in speed and felt the instant acceleration as he started dumping his mana into her pool, with his regeneration rate creating enough leeway to help top up what she was losing as they went, helping them make more and more progress as the time ticked down until eventually something appeared in the distance, leaving a sinking pit in his stomach.

Somewhere he’d been to briefly before, ahead was a city. Not one he’d ever seen from that angle but his mind was perfect and easily able to rearrange the buildings he’d seen from within its limits to tell him he’d been within its bounds in the past and let him know exactly what he’d left there. A gate, the network utilized by people the world over and the very thing that would give the shifter access to the planet as a whole.

Would he use it or just kill his way across the place like he did the last? Ben wondered. If he’s being actively controlled then there has to be some sort of range between him and whatever’s controlling him which would mean it wouldn’t make sense to let him through when that would either break the effect or create room for the effect to wear off but what if it’s more passive? What if his mind’s been restructured somehow to make him an obedient slave instead of leaving whatever did this to him needing to constantly supply new commands? If that’s the case, then he could go anywhere to fulfill the role he’d been given and from everything we’ve seen, he’s being made to kill. Fuck.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“Abel, how far from him would you say we are?”