POV: Iyanu_
The desert was not supposed to have flying men.
But there they were.
12 of them. Hovering 20 meters above our dune.
Red robes. Swords under their feet. Long hair tied with jade.
And in the center: an old man with a white beard, holding a fan.
Old Taju stood in the sand with his stick. Looking up like they were late to a meeting.
"Hello boys," Old Taju called. "You're on my lawn."
The old cultivator's fan snapped open. Qi pressure hit us even through the base walls.
"Heretic settlement detected," he said. Voice like a temple bell. "Surrender the anomalies. We claim this territory for the Crimson Sky Sect."
Inside, Zainab swore. "Crimson Sky Sect. Tier 3 sect from the Tianxu Realm. They're mid-level cultivators. Foundation to Core Formation."
"Translation?" Dele asked.
"They can fly and blow up buildings," I said.
Kwesi leaned on the console. "Can we blow up _them_ back?"
"Working on it," Kunle said. Gauntlet charging.
*OUTSIDE*
"Claim?" Old Taju said. He scratched his ear. "This earth has been here 2 million years. You just got here 5 minutes ago. Who's claiming who?"
The elder frowned. "Elder speaks to you. Show respect."
Old Taju tapped his stick. The sand around his feet turned into glass.
"Respect is earned. You flew into my house without knocking. That's rude."
One of the younger cultivators dropped 10 meters. Sword out.
"Kneel, mortal!"
He swung.
Old Taju didn't move.
The sword stopped 1cm from his neck.
And bent.
Into a flower.
Everyone froze.
"See," Old Taju said. "That's disrespectful. To the sword. Swords have feelings too."
*INSIDE THE TOME*
"Did he just—" Amina started.
"Yeah," Zainab whispered. "He didn't use Qi. He used... rules."
"Old man's built different," Chike said.
On screen, the elder cultivator's eyes narrowed.
"You are not mortal. State your cultivation realm."
Old Taju yawned. "Realm? I'm on the 'tired and hungry' realm. You got jollof?"
The elder's face twitched. "Last warning. Surrender the 7 anomalies or we destroy this desert."
Kwesi muted the mic. "Destroy the desert? Bro we just built this. That's like... interior design violence."
Kunle looked at me. "Plan?"
I took a breath. Wind was already outside, feeling them. "We don't fight 12 cultivators on day 1. We talk. Then we fight if talking fails."
"And if they attack?" Fatima asked, small voice.
"Then we remind them why 7 demigods beat a god-machine," Dele said. Lightning in his smile.
*THE NEGOTIATION*
Old Taju gestured. A table appeared. Sand table. With tea.
"Sit," he said. "Talk."
The elder landed. The other 11 stayed in the air.
"I am Elder Bai Chen of Crimson Sky Sect," he said. "You interfere with our expedition."
"Expedition?" Old Taju poured tea. "You mean the hole in the sky? Yeah, that's ugly. We're working on it."
Bai Chen's fan stopped. "You know of the Yorùbá Gate?"
The base went silent.
Old Taju sipped tea. "I know a lot of things. Like you're Foundation Realm 9. Like the kid behind you is hiding a knife. Like you're scared."
The knife-wielding cultivator was instantly webbed by a spider-drone.
"Ah!" Kwesi said over the comms. "Sorry! Pet did that."
Bai Chen stood. "Enough games—"
"Sit," Old Taju said. Not loud.
Bai Chen sat.
"Here's the deal," Old Taju said. "You don't touch my kids. We don't touch your sect. Yet. And you tell me who sent you through the Gate."
Bai Chen laughed. "You think we came alone? The Gate was opened by—"
The sky screamed.
A second portal tore open above the first. Bigger.
And from it: Pandora's dropships. With Crimson Sky banners painted on them.
Bai Chen went pale. "They lied to us."
*THE AMBUSH*
"They told us this was an uninhabited world," Bai Chen said. "That the 'anomalies' were beasts."
Pandora's corps voice came from the dropships.
"Thank you for softening them up, Elder Bai. Pandora will take it from here."
Dele slammed the table. "They're using them."
Kunle was already moving. "Everyone out. Now."
We burst from the base.
Kwesi didn't wait. He ran straight at a dropship.
"Hey! Pandora bastard's! I have a business proposition!"
He threw a bag. It exploded into glitter and 1000 tiny spider-drones.
Every Pandora's soldier spent the next 30 seconds trying to get glitter out of their armor.
"Business proposition complete," Kwesi said.
I hit the sky. Wind under my feet. I met 3 cultivators mid-air.
"Sorry," I said. "Wrong address."
We didn't fight them. We fought _around_ them.
Zainab put illusions in their heads: their sect leader telling them to retreat.
Amina made water whips to disarm them.
Chike released a mist that made Pandora's guns jam.
Fatima called a sandstorm.
And Kunle?
Kunle walked through Pandora's heavy fire like it was rain.
He touched a dropship. It remembered it was scrap. It fell.
In the middle of it, Bai Chen grabbed Old Taju's arm.
"You! What are you?"
Old Taju smiled. Too many teeth.
"Me? I'm just an old man who delivers messages."
He tapped Bai Chen's fan.
The fan turned into a chicken.
Bai Chen screamed.
Old Taju leaned in. "Tell your Sect Master this: The roads between worlds are closed. Tell him Èṣù says so."
Bai Chen's eyes went wide. "Èṣù? The Trickster God? That's a myth—"
Old Taju winked. And vanished.
The Pandora's commander saw him disappear and panicked. "Retreat! Retreat!"
They left. Fast. Leaving 2 damaged dropships and 12 very confused cultivators.
Silence.
Sand.
12 cultivators.
7 demigods.
And glitter. Everywhere.
Bai Chen looked at us. At the base. At Kwesi who was now trying to sell a drone to one of the elders disciples.
"You... you are not beasts," he said.
"No," I said. "We're the Tome of Ascendant."
Kwesi popped up. "Membership includes free snacks and anti-pandora insurance. You interested?"
One of the younger cultivators whispered: "Elder, they beat pandora and us without killing anyone."
Bai Chen sighed. Long. "We will report that this territory is... contested. And dangerous."
He looked at where Old Taju had been.
"Èṣù. Here. The old stories were true."
He bowed to me. "We will not return. Not unless the Sect Master orders it."
Then they flew away. Through their portal.
Leaving us with 2 Pandora's dropships, a pile of glitter, and questions.
Back inside, we found Old Taju in the kitchen. Making tea.
"That was smooth," Dele said. "The Èṣù thing."
Old Taju shrugged. "What? I'm just an old man."
Kunle stared at him. "You lied to a Core Formation cultivator. And he believed you."
"People believe what they want," Old Taju said. He poured me tea. "Drink. You look stressed."
I took it. "Are you Èṣù?"
He didn't answer.
He just smiled.
On the monitor, the first portal was closing.
But the second one, the Wosam one, was still 71% open.
And deep in it, something moved.
Kwesi broke the silence. "So! First contact: success. Casualties: zero. Glitter used: all of it. 10/10 mission."
Zainab looked at the map. "We have 5 pods left. And now we have cultivators who know we exist."
"And Pandora's knows we have allies," Amina added.
Kunle stood. "Then we move faster. Next stop: Nairobi. Pod 04."
Everyone nodded.
Old Taju sipped his tea. "Nairobi, huh. Tell the lion I said hi."
We all looked at him.
"What lion?" Fatima asked.
Old Taju just laughed.
Outside, the desert was quiet again.
But the sky had 2 scars now.
And one of them was still bleeding.