Fadala swung like a human pendulum. Cold blood ran down his face, around his cheeks and dripped onto the floor. His eyes opened with difficulty. It was as if he had been struck by lightning… twice in a row. He had been caught off guard by General Gahiji.

  Seeing his enemy captured by Ofó of Ekundayo, he thought that the fight was about to end. Then it wouldn't even be up to Mashal. He was wrong. He had underestimated his opponent's strength and now he was there, like vulnerable prey. It was humiliating for an Ilê Apanyan agent.

  Gahiji felt proud. Not even he would have thought it would be so easy to subdue a lethal hitman. The military man raised his opponent high enough so that the medium could see him.

  “Hand over your key and join me. I'll spare your life if you swear allegiance to President Ojwang.”

  Ekundayo took two steps back. The enemy had escaped and had still captured Fadala.

  “And if I don't accept?”

  “I'll slaughter this murderer in front of you. Don't take it personally.”

  “Do what you want, this man is just a last-minute ally.”

  Fadala activated the mechanism of his pistols and dropped the magazine. He took an ammunition clip from his suit pocket, reloaded the pistols and pointed it at General Gahiji's head.

  “How considerate, Ekundayo. I'm going to have to get out of this one on my own.”

  “What do you intend to do, mortician? Your bullets won't be able to pierce my armor.”

  “It doesn't hurt to try.”

  Blam! A static noise burst through the air. Unlike armor-piercing ammunition, Fadala used electrocuting projectiles. The electrical discharge was enough to shake the giant's frame. He fell backwards and remained motionless. His hands loosened, which allowed the assassin to escape his clutches. Gaihiji's arms, legs and head spasmed.

  Fadala and the medium regrouped. Although the enemy had been hit in the face, they weren't so optimistic about how much damage they had done. It was like trying to knock out a tyrannosaurus rex with a tranquilizer dart.

  Little by little, Gahiji's body began to twitch. Muscles contracted, metal sagged under its own weight. His eyes rolled back in their sockets.

  “What's he doing?”

  “Your Axé-Core is forcing your system to reboot, Fadala. You'd better have more of those projectiles with you.”

  Gahiji clenched his fists. He bent his knees and arched his body forward. He emitted a pulse of Axé that raised a curtain of dust around him.

  “Damn, what did he do, medium?”

  Stolen story; please report.

  “It spread the bodily damage to the surrounding environment, it was like a Discharge Session.”

  “That thing is a monster!”

  “No wonder he's the strongest general in the Phalanx.”

  Gahiji moved towards his opponents. With every step he took, Fadala and the Sage of Justice fell back two.

  “There's nowhere left to run. Nothing you've done has worked so far. Give up and die with honor.”

  “Statute of Minor Force.”

  Slim! It was a clean cut. Gahiji's head was thrown meters away from his body. The decapitated body tumbled slowly to the ground. Behind the general stood Hakim with a huge smile on his face. His tunic was torn and riddled with bullet holes. Bruises and abrasions could be seen all over his arms and abdomen.

  “What a triumphal entry! You should have come earlier.”

  “Don't complain, Ekundayo, you don't know what I did to get here with my head on my neck. Excuse the pun, General Gahiji.”

  The Sage of the Law kicked the fallen body a few times.

  Fadala couldn't believe his eyes. Physical attacks, a rain of bullets from his pistols couldn't even scratch the enemy's armor. With a single blow, the medium had decapitated the soldier. The assassin thought that the battle had already gone beyond the limits of what an Ilê Apanyan agent could do.

  The gunman fell to the ground on his buttocks. He stretched out his legs and stuffed the pistols into his holster. He rolled a herbal cigarette and lit the end with a lighter.

  Hakim looked at him and walked towards Ekundayo. He shook his head as he smelled the cigarette.

  “You're addicted to this stuff. You should stop, it can cause cancer.”

  “And you should exercise once in a while.”

  “I hurt! Don't talk about other people's bodies, they might cancel you out in cyberspace.”

  “I don't even use social networks.”

  “Hohohohoho, I thought mediums didn't attack from behind.”

  Everyone turned to the voice. It was Gahiji's head. Although they didn't know how, his head was still alive. It floated up into the air and stood next to the body. The decapitated body began to rise on its own.

  Fadala got up from the ground and drew his two pistols. Ekundayo and Hakim joined him.

  “Holy shit, bro! Look at that… a talking head.”

  Fadala felt irritated. All that resistance confused him. He knew that the generals of the Phalanx were not just any enemies.

  “Even decapitated, he's still alive, Hakim, how do you explain that?”

  “Don't ask difficult questions.”

  Gahiji laughed. He was amused by the sense of despair on his opponents' faces when they saw him survive.

  “That's not difficult for me to accomplish. With my Alteration of Quantity: Quantum Entanglement of Matter, my body, divided or fragmented to infinitesimal fractions, keeps its parts connected. That makes me unreachable.”

  Hakim took a step forward. He drew in vast Axé energy and concentrated it in his two hands.

  “To keep two atomic particles together already requires an abundance of energy. How long could you maintain this condition without failing with the entanglement?”

  The Sage of the Law seems to be a comical man, but his reasoning is very shrewd. Enemies like this must be a priority when it comes to elimination.

  Hakim leapt towards him quickly. The blow was aimed at his floating head. Gahiji clenched his jaw, concentrated a mass of Axé energy in his mouth, and fired a laser beam. Still in mid-air, Hakim shouted:

  “Gravity Constitution.”

  The Sage of the Law doubled the space between him and his opponent. The laser beam was launched high into the air. Throughout Ilu Nla, a huge reddish, incandescent beam was seen coming out from near the walls and piercing the clouds. The authorities told people not to worry, the Armed Forces were carrying out weapons tests within the city limits and posed no risk.

  Hakim undid the space-time warp. In front of him was Gahiji's head. But his body was no longer on the ground. Before he could think, his opponent's body slammed into the sage's, and they were both thrown a distance by the shock. Hakim was undeterred.

  He applied another blow to cut off his opponent's arm, but he used his Alteration of Greatness once again and detached his right arm. The upper limb acted autonomously and punched the medium in the stomach.

  Hakim tried to defend himself, but Gahiji's left leg also detached from his body and hit the medium's back with a knee. Hakim fell to the ground and his head was kicked. The sage spat blood onto the sand. The attacks continued unabated. Legs and arms, detached from his abdomen, made it difficult for the medium to defend himself.

  Gahiji's body came together a second time. The general looked down at him.

  Hakim wiped the blood from his mouth and got up from the floor. He concentrated Axé in his right hand and declared his Ofó:

  “Resolution of the Force Major.”