The Almighty Garbage Collector: Reclaiming My Throne

Race Against the Shadow

The phone screen turned into black static. My sister was in danger. Every second I wasted here felt like a sharp needle piercing my chest. I did not care about Elder Balogun’s aging body or the fact that he was crawling on the floor like a dying insect. He was a distraction.

"Ms. Alabi!" I turned to her, my voice hard as stone. "Get your helicopters in the air. We are leaving for Apex Hospital right now."

Ms. Alabi’s calm mask slipped for a moment. She looked at her own communication tablet, which was also flickering with warnings. "Tunde, something is wrong. The entire hospital network has been locked from the inside. This is not just a standard hack. Someone is using a high-level system override to shield that room from our tracking sensors. If we go there, we might walk straight into a trap."

"I do not care about a trap," I said, already moving toward the exit. "Ife is the only thing that matters. If they want a war, they can have it."

I ran out of the broken dealership, my feet hitting the wet pavement with enough power to crack the concrete. Commander Okoro and his men didn't wait for orders. They scrambled into their vans, their fear of me instantly turning into a desperate need to stay by my side. They knew that if I lived, their lives would be protected. If I died, they would be hunted down by the shadow council.

We raced through the rainy streets of Lagos, the motorcade of black vans and luxury SUVs moving like a dark wave through the traffic. Inside the lead vehicle, I checked my bank balance again.

[Account Balance: ₦160,000,000,012.43]

I didn't need money. I needed to know how to save Ife. I pulled up the system menu, searching for anything that could help me fight a high-level enemy.

[System Alert: The First Seal of the Dragon Bloodline has been reclaimed. You are currently at Level 2.]

[New Ability Unlocked: Dragon Sense.]

[Dragon Sense: You can now track any life force connected to your own bloodline within a five-mile radius.]

I closed my eyes and focused. The world around me seemed to slow down. I could feel the life force of the drivers around me, the energy of the city lights, and then—I felt it. A cold, dark, and hollow feeling, like a hole in the fabric of the world. It was coming from Apex Hospital. It was sitting right in Ife’s room, and it was getting stronger every second.

"Drive faster!" I ordered, my voice cutting through the vehicle.

We reached the hospital gates in record time. The security guards at the front were gone. The entire parking lot was empty, save for a single, long black limousine parked directly in front of the main entrance. The windows were tinted dark, but I could feel a presence inside that made my skin crawl. It was the same hollow energy I felt in Ife’s room, only a hundred times larger.

I jumped out of the car before it even came to a complete stop. Ms. Alabi stepped out behind me, flanked by her best security team, but I didn't wait for them. I sprinted toward the entrance, my lungs burning, the Dragon Bloodline coursing through my veins like liquid fire.

The automatic doors were shattered. Inside, the lobby was silent, too silent. There were no nurses, no patients, no security. It was as if everyone had vanished into thin air.

I reached the private elevator and smashed the button. When it didn't move, I grabbed the metal doors with both hands and ripped them open. I leaped into the elevator shaft, climbing the cables with superhuman speed, jumping from floor to floor until I reached the top level.

I burst through the emergency stairs and ran down the hallway toward Ife’s room. The door was open.

My heart dropped. The room was empty.

The advanced medical equipment Ms. Alabi had installed was smashed into pieces. The monitors were gone. The bed was stripped. In the middle of the room, standing near the window, was a man wearing an expensive charcoal suit. He had his back to me, but I could feel his gaze, cold, calculating, and patient.

"You are exactly on time, Tunde," the man said. His voice sounded like grinding stones. He turned around, and I saw his face. He looked exactly like me, but older, with eyes that held no light. He was holding a small, glowing jade pendant in his right hand.

It was the exact same pendant Ife always wore around her neck.

"Where is she?" I asked, my voice shaking with a rage so intense it threatened to burn the room down.

The man smiled. It was a cruel, thin line on his face. "Your sister is a very special resource. Her body has a unique capacity to store the life force of your entire bloodline. We didn't want to kill her, Tunde. We just needed her to be the vessel for our new leader."

He raised his left hand, and a screen appeared in the air. It showed Ife strapped into a cold, metallic chair in a hidden underground facility, her eyes closed, while a machine above her head hummed with a violent, violet light.

"If you want her back," the man said, "you have to walk into the center of the Lagos bridge tonight. Bring the Scavenger System with you. You will surrender it to me, or I will initiate the final transfer of her soul into my master’s body."

Before I could lunge at him, he waved his hand, and a wall of dark energy exploded outward, throwing me back into the hallway. The wall of the room began to fold inward like a piece of paper, and he vanished into the empty air, leaving behind only the cold scent of ozone.

I stood up, my fists bleeding from the impact. I was alone in the empty, silent hospital. I had no target, no direction, and my sister’s time was running out.

Suddenly, my phone started ringing. It was an unknown number. I answered it, and a voice I hadn't heard in years whispered one word: "Run."