Chapter 58 – Blood on the Hunt
The chamber shook.
Not from magic—Makandal didn't need that.
The massive table at the center of the Zobop war hall split clean down the middle as his fist came down. Stone cracked. Symbols carved by ancestors screamed and fractured. The echo rolled through the mountain halls like thunder trapped underground.
Makandal Zobop stood over the ruined table, chest rising slowly, deliberately. His breathing was controlled, but the fury behind his eyes was not.
"Afre," he said quietly.
That single name carried enough weight to make the remaining generals freeze where they stood.
"He didn't just fail," Makandal continued, pacing slowly across the chamber. His boots crushed fragments of stone beneath them. "He betrayed the order. He acted without permission. He interfered with forces he does not understand."
No one spoke.
Makandal stopped at the edge of the platform and looked down at them.
"And Ravena," he added.
A few heads lowered.
"She was assigned with him. She returned with nothing. No medallion. No proof. No bodies." His lip curled. "Which tells me one of two things—either she is dead… or she is running."
His gaze hardened.
"And I do not tolerate runners."
One of the generals dared to speak. "If Ravena was involved, she may have believed Afre's plan had merit—"
Makandal's eyes snapped to him.
The general stopped breathing.
Makandal raised one hand slowly, palm open. "Do not excuse failure. Do not excuse betrayal. And do not insult my intelligence."
He turned away and looked toward the obsidian wall, where veined light pulsed faintly like a heartbeat.
"Ravena is on the run," Makandal said. "Afre is acting independently. And the medallion—my medallion—is still out there."
He turned back.
"Bring them to me."
The order landed heavy.
"Dead or alive," he continued. "If they resist—kill them. If they beg—kill them slower. If they have the medallion—bring it untouched."
Silence.
Then Makandal added, voice colder than stone,
"And if Ravena truly sided with Afre… I want her alive."
A pause.
"So she can explain herself."
The remaining generals bowed deeply.
Makandal lifted his hand again. "Send word to Foufina. Release the Galipots."
Deep in the forest, the leader of the Galipots listened without expression as the command reached her.
Her pack knelt around her, shadows shifting unnaturally against their forms.
"The Zobop hunt their own now," she said calmly. "That means blood will be spilled."
Her eyes narrowed.
"Spread out. Track Afre. Track Ravena. Track the medallion's scent."
One of the Galipots growled. "And if we find the boy?"
She shook her head once. "Not yet. The king wants answers first."
The hunt began.
Ravena didn't stop running.
Her ribs screamed every time she inhaled, but she ignored it. Pain was familiar. Fear was not—but she felt it now, crawling up her spine.
Makandal would never forgive this.
She knew that the moment Afre vanished through that red portal.
"He planned it," she muttered to herself as she stumbled through dense brush. "He planned to leave me behind."
Her hand tightened around her staff.
She replayed the moment again and again. The punch. The betrayal. The portal closing.
Afre didn't just abandon her.
He framed her.
If Makandal believed she worked with him… she was already dead.
Ravena forced herself to slow down, pressing her back against a tree thick enough to block her aura. She wiped blood from her mouth, breathing shallow.
"Think," she whispered. "Don't panic. Think."
She knew the Zobop would come. She knew the Galipots would follow.
And worst of all—
She knew Afre was still alive.
Somewhere.
Smiling.
Far from the chaos, Lili Zaka stood on the edge of a rooftop, the city stretching beneath her in restless noise.
She hadn't felt Peterson's presence in days.
Not even a whisper.
"That's not normal," she muttered.
After her last encounter with Roi Minuit, she had returned home expecting to sense something—anything. Instead, there was only silence.
And silence meant danger.
She turned and looked at the small group gathered behind her.
Peterson's friends.
His sisters.
All of them exhausted. All of them hiding.
Wilkens sat with his back against the wall, hands clenched tightly. "It's gone," he said quietly. "I can't feel my shadows anymore."
Jean-Daniel nodded, jaw tight. "Same. Whatever power we had—it's gone. Like it was ripped out."
Amanda hugged her knees. "So now what?"
Lili exhaled slowly.
"Now," she said, "I stay with you."
They all looked at her.
"I don't know where Peterson is," Lili continued honestly. "And that scares me more than I want to admit. But I know this—if he's gone, the people who took his power won't stop here."
She placed her hand over her chest and let her aura ripple outward—not threatening, but protective.
"So I bind myself to you," she said. "If danger comes, I'll feel it. If they find you, they'll have to go through me."
Wilkens swallowed. "Even without powers…?"
She met his eyes. "Especially without powers."
Amanda nodded slowly. "Then we stick together."
Lili allowed herself a small smile. "Good. Because this world just got a lot uglier."
Elsewhere—
Deep in the Loa's World, beneath skies that never fully slept, Peterson stood barefoot on stone.
The ground beneath him was cracked, ancient, and soaked with presence.
Papa Legba stood a short distance away, staff resting against his shoulder, eyes calm but sharp.
"You feel it now, don't you?" Papa Legba asked.
Peterson nodded.
His body felt heavy. Weak. Empty in a way he hadn't felt since before everything began.
"I'm back at the bottom," Peterson said quietly.
Papa Legba smiled—not kindly, not cruelly. Truthfully.
"No," he corrected. "You are back at the beginning."
He stepped closer.
"You relied on borrowed strength. On shortcuts. On power you didn't yet understand." He tapped his staff against the ground once. "That path ends here."
Peterson clenched his fists. "Then teach me."
Papa Legba studied him for a long moment.
Then he nodded.
"Good."
The air shifted.
A familiar sensation crawled up Peterson's spine.
A blue glow flickered before his eyes.
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION]
New Quest Unlocked:
Survive Your First Training Under Papa Legba
Objective: Endure 3 hours of foundational training
Reward: Instant Level Up
Peterson swallowed hard.
"…Survive?" he repeated.
Papa Legba's smile widened just a little.
"Yes," he said. "Survive."
The staff slammed into the ground.
The world twisted.
Pain followed.
[DAILY QUEST ACTIVATED]
Complete Daily training : +10 EXP
Condition: Do not quit. Do not faint. Do not beg.
Peterson grit his teeth.
"Alright," he whispered. "Let's do it."
And far away, unseen by either hunter or hunted, the world held its breath.