Gahiji was stunned by the number of enemies that sprang up from the ground. Almost a hundred Mashal advanced against him with raised fists. Their movements were swift and coordinated. Their tautly muscled bodies were covered in an aura of Axé.

  The general put his arms in an 'X' shape at chest height in self-defense. He was trapped, and the Axé aura was causing interference in his systems. Even with his Alteration of Quantity, it wouldn't be so easy to use the quantum entanglement of matter. Gahiji hadn't anchored any part of his by being attacked by surprise.

  The soldier was hit in the back. To his amazement, the fist sank into his emerald armor. Another hit him in the head with a knee. His body fell backwards. Another opponent hit him with a kick, his heavy body lifted off the ground.

  His attributes have been honed to the limit. How long will he continue in this form?

  “What do you think of that, bellipotent general? Weren't you the pride of the nation?”

  Gahiji didn't have time to respond to the provocation. The various Mashal hit his opponent with a flurry of punches, knees and kicks. They rose through the air like a swarm. Finally, one of the Mashal threw a powerful punch with Axé energy concentrated in his fist.

  The giant cyborg was thrown hard into a building. The building collapsed. The dust and debris formed an immense wave. It was the first time anyone had overpowered his Alteration of Quantity. Densifying the area around him with Axé particles was the key to preventing him from splitting his body and escaping.

  To move his mass between two different points in space, and maintain the integral cohesion of the atoms, he lowered the energy density. Doing this through a dense field of Axé particles could slow down or even stop the entanglement.

  Gahiji raised his left hand. He considered cutting off the fingers and throwing them at different points on the battlefield. However, he opted for the whole hand, because the larger the body part, the greater the anchoring power. The attraction was too great and didn't depend on energy density. He severed his left hand with his right. He threw the limb away.

  His system was struggling to recover from the physical and internal damage. The Axé-Core had doubled its capacity to attract Axé into the environment to compensate for the damage.

  The various Mashal would not let him recover his energy. They made a circle around him, simultaneously raising his right arm with an open hand, fingers outstretched. They drew in the Axé from the surrounding space and concentrated it all into a sphere in the palm of their hand.

  “What is it, General? I thought the pride of the Cyber Troops had more to show me.”

  The Axé Guardian, standing on the true Mashal, shook his head.

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  Don't underestimate the enemy. We don't know what he's capable of.

  Funny, since the beginning of this battle, you haven't yawned for a minute, Ewansiha.

  I'm trying to keep you alive, you idiot.

  Gahiji, trying to buy time, tried to strike up a conversation.

  “How did you manage to produce so many copies? I thought your Ofó limit was ten clones.”

  “That's the Spiritual Reserve Army. With them, I can produce a hundred copies, each holding 1/100th of my power. And each one attracts a charge of one percent of nature's Axé. When one of the clones is destroyed, 2% of the power returns to me. When they're all destroyed, I'm left with 200% strength.”

  The mediums fell on Gahiji with a point-blank attack. It was like a bombardment.

  “Rebellion Of The Masses!”

  The Mashal fell and exploded on Ilu Nla's general. The impact resulted in a huge, deep crater in the ground. The explosion erased from existence an area corresponding to an entire city block.

  The real Mashal landed next to his comrades-in-arms. They congratulated him and celebrated Gahiji's defeat. The ex-sage's face remained as rigid as a stony mask.

  “He may have been hit, but he won't die. I need to destroy his Axé-Core.”

  Ekundayo stepped forward and put a hand on the old man's shoulder and said:

  “Don't play games with us. There's no way he could have survived that.”

  “To defeat this kind of enemy, he must be put in a trap. Sage Hakim, what is it, what is it, the further you get from the point, the more it revolves around it?”

  The Sage of the Law's eyes widened. But he let his face fall to his chest. He clenched his fists and gritted his teeth. If the result of his next move had the same result as the previous attack, they would lose another master of suspicion.

  “Are you sure you want to do this?”

  “No sacrifice, no revolution.”

  “Don't be silly!”

  Mashal turned his back and walked towards the smoke screen, which was diminishing in intensity. Gahiji appeared in front of him, imposing like a destructive god. His armor showed scratches and cracks, but maintained its integrity. A dark soot was oozing from his joints, indicating the pressure his operating system was under to keep him upright.

  I should have calculated the distance of the blast radius better. I ended up being hit by it.

  “You thought you could kill me with a kamikaze bombardment? Don't make me laugh.”

  “Your fate was sealed when we exchanged the first blows.”

  “Now that the real Mashal is here, I'll put an end to this charade. You're just buying time. You're avoiding your tragic end, you're desperate.”

  Mashal raised both hands upwards and drew all his Axé between his palms. An enormous sphere of Axé formed. Its glow was silvery-blue. It emitted a friendly warmth. A high-pitched sound reverberated in the air.

  “You won't be able to hit me with that.”

  “You bet I will? Revolution.”

  Gahiji narrowed his eyes. Quickly and almost imperceptibly, something changed in the room.

  What is this strange sensation?

  “Think fast!”

  Mashal threw the Axé sphere in Gahiji's direction. The soldier used his quantum entanglement. However, his body appeared a few steps away. He did it again, and the same thing happened again. In desperation, the general ran off in the opposite direction.

  No matter how hard he tried to change the direction of his flight, he kept going in the same direction, as if strange forces were guiding his path. The general gathered Axé projectiles in his hands and attacked the sphere, but the sphere launched by Mashal absorbed the Axé particles projected by Gahiji.

  The soldier stopped running. A bead of sweat ran down his face. He had understood the trap he had fallen into. Smiling, Mashal's Revolution hit the general full on. The energy enveloped him and shattered his entire atomic structure.