Chapter 76

I looked from Walter to the younger couple a couple of times before sighing. "Where is your son?" I asked Walter curiously. I had no desire to get involved in a family issue, but I also didn't want to deal with a twisted with a mana storm bearing down on us.

"He should be on his way." Walter's wife replied. Though she seemed worried as she said it.

My mind raced for a moment before I came up with an idea. "Can you call him?" I asked hopefully.

"I can." she agreed and pulled out her cell phone as the back door opened. The man and woman came storming out of the house with Marshal following behind them. The three kids had disappeared from sight.

"You can't stop us from taking my children." the woman said angrily while glaring at Walter. She looked to be in her late thirties or early forties. A bit plump in the middle with brown hair in a pixie cut. I didn't think it looked all that good on her, but I personally preferred long hair on my girls. Though I admitted there were a few like Halle Berry who could pull it off. This woman on the other hand could not.

"Did you not see the warning? You can't go anywhere right now." I told them in an attempt to head off an argument.

"You believe all that garbage?" the man retorted. He also had a bit of a stomach, a clean shaven head, and a neatly groomed six inch black beard.

I just pointed up into the sky towards the rapidly approaching storm. "Yep." I replied as I looked over Walter's wife.

"Jeffery!" the older woman called out sounding relieved. "Where are you? Kate and her husband are here for the kids." she spoke into the phone rapidly.

I quickly reached out and grabbed the phone from here. "Jeffery are you driving?" I asked.

"What, who the hell are you.." a male voice replied from the other side.

"Answer the question, are you driving?" I asked sternly.

"No, I am at the grocery store, but there are…." he said but I stopped paying attention to him. I pulled the phone away from my ear and looked at it as I tried to remember what I had done earlier.

"Master, it is best if you create the portal inside. The mana storm won't cause any issue with it once it has formed, but we won't be able to create any new ones once the storm reaches us." Delilah said from my shadow.

I nodded then looked up at the approaching storm then back to Bill. We didn't have a lot of time. "Where is the closest empty house?" I asked him.

Bill frowned then pointed to the house behind Walter's. "That is the closest one." he replied quickly.

I glanced in that direction then took another glance through the sliding glass door. Once I was familiar with the layout I was ready to go. I quickly teleported to the top of the fence between the houses so I could see into the backyard then teleported to the back door. I tried the door then cursed as I found that it was locked. Like Walter's house it had a sliding glass door in the back. As I could see inside I teleported inside then focused on the wall of the dining room and created a portal and linked it to Walter's house placing it inside the house in front of the glass door that didn't slide.

Once that portal was in place I smirked to myself then took a few steps to the side and created another portal that linked to the dining room in Bill's house.

"Daryl?" Karen called out when she saw me on the other side of the portal. I gave her a quick wink then moved to the living room of the empty house. Once there I looked at the phone I had brought with me. I could still hear Jeffery through it, which was a plus for me. Using the phone I tracked Jeffery's position then created a portal to where he was. I still wasn't completely sure how I did that, but I didn't see any reason to question the how of it right now.

As soon as the portal was open I found myself looking at a younger fitter version of old Walter, with a beard. Seemed the ex wife had a type. The man stared back at me dumbfounded. However before I could say anything to him I heard a familiar roar. Jeffery and a small group of people who had gathered with him all cringed at the sound.

"I need some recon." I stated aloud.

Aura and Elmera appeared beside me then flew through the portal and disappeared again.

"Daryl?" Bill asked as he appeared from the dining room.

"Hey, I linked your place and Old Walter's to this place. This portal here leads to the grocery store where Jeffrey is." I said without looking at him. I gestured for those in the grocery store to come through the portal. After a moment of hesitation they hurried through.

"Grocery store?" Bill asked.

I nodded. "Yeah, once he said that I thought we could deal with two birds at once. It sounds like there are some twisted on the other side. I have a pair of my elementals doing some recon." I explained.

Bill nodded. "That's some quick thinking. I'll go grab Micheal and a few others." he said. "Thanks for the save, they all calmed down real quick once they saw you start using your powers."

"Couldn't you have used yours?" I asked curiously.

"Mine aren't as flashy as yours." Bill replied with a chuckle.

I nodded. "Jeffery, there is another portal to your dad's house in the dining room." I said pointing in the same direction Bill was heading in." I told the man then looked at the others that had come through with him. There were six people, a group of four that I guessed to be parents and their preteen kids, the two others who seemed on their own, one an older woman and the other a younger man. Given the fear that they were showing none of them seemed to have awakened.

As a precaution I activated my mana sight and took a look at their mana cores. Each had the unawakened white core I had seen before when I awakened Rosa. Having confirmed that I relaxed a bit. "You are all safe here. There isn't much here, but you can find a place to sit if you want." I told them.

They didn't seem to understand what was going on but another roar from the other side of the portal got them moving towards the dining room. I didn't stop them, Bill and the other's could handle them. They wanted to recruit so those six could be the first.

As I waited for my elementals to finish their search I heard rain start to fall outside. As the sound of rain reached me I felt the mana in the air around me become electrified.

"Master, it would be best if you used as little mana during the storm as you can." Delilah said from my shadow.

"Why?" I asked curiously.

"The mana is unstable right now, once you use an ability it will interact with the ambient mana. In its current state it will interact with the spell in unusual ways." she explained.

"Like what?" I asked.

"It could cancel it out, make it bigger, or even change it into something else entirely." Delilah replied.

I shivered at the thought and remained silent. I wasn't sure how we would deal with twisted if we couldn't use mana. "What about my portals?" I asked. She had said they would be fine earlier, but why?

"The unstable mana interacts with your ability as you use it. As an example, if you tried to make a fireball, the mana will interact with it as the fireball forms, once the fireball is formed there won't be any issues. As these portals are already formed the mana will just flow through without messing with their structure." she told me.

I considered that for a few moments then nodded. "Got it, but how about internal abilities?" I asked. "If my regeneration kicks in, will it mess with that too?" I asked.

"Daryl!" Karen said as she appeared from the dining room with Megan close behind her.

"No, internal abilities like regeneration or superior strength should be unaffected as it is all internal and can't interact with the unstable mana." Delilah answered as Karen and Megan reached me. I grabbed each girl and pulled them into a quick hug. Bill and Micheal appeared with a few others a moment later. Just in time for Aura and Elmera to come back through the portal.

"How is it?" I asked the elementals.

"Bad." Aura replied.

Elmera rolled her eyes. "There are a few other groups of normal humans hiding in the store. We might be able to help them, but there are at least seven of those multi-colored twisted, a pack of scaled wolves from another world, and a bunch of oversized animals of this world. The oversized animals seem to be split into three groups led by different beasts which is what prevents them from wiping out the others and claiming the whole place for themselves." Elmera said, giving me a more detailed report.

"What kind of animals?" I asked.

"I heard them called coyotes, and tarantulas. Though I have no idea what those are. The leaders are a huge snake with a rattle on its tail, an enormous fox, and a really big spider."

"What is leading what?" I asked, confused.

The snake is on its own, the fox seems to be in charge of the coyotes, and the spiders are together." Elmera replied.

I frowned then looked towards the others hoping someone had an idea how to handle this.