The dust settled. Luena was slumped over the old medium. Nyatui's muscles were atrophied, his skin dry and his hair gray. His Ofó had given him great power, but it was consuming his life. He no longer had the strength to stand up or escape. She would die there, at the mercy of her enemy.

Luena, convulsed, clenched her fist and aimed a punch at the man's face. Before her left arm came down on the ex-saboteur's face, she collapsed in pain. She tried to contain the pain emanating from her right arm, which had been mutilated by the spearman's Transvaluation: Breaking of Values.

This Ofó imbued the blade of the spear with a strong, condensed layer of Axé. In this way, it broke the atom in half. It was not possible to heal the affected part once it had been hit. If anyone survived, a fact unknown at the time, the victim would suffer acute pain for the rest of their life.

Knowing this, the master of suspicion let out a dry laugh interspersed with coughs. Luena stood up, irritated, staggered backwards and fell to her knees on the ground.

"What are you laughing at, you old vulture?"

"At your fall! All that technology for nothing."

"At least I beat you."

"Don't get so excited, girl… It hurts, doesn't it? They say it's like having hot coals rubbed on your bones."

"It doesn't matter. One down, two to go. Stay there and die under the rubble."

"Keep clinging to this pathetic life you have, General Luena. Live painfully knowing that I'm the one who left you like this."

"Unf! Ridiculous old man."

Luena activated her wings, and with the pain in her right arm throbbing, flew towards the exit of the crater. From high above, she released an electromagnetic pulse to trigger another landslide and bury it.

A veritable mountain of rubble and sedimented earth collapsed on Nyatui. The certainty of death didn't worry him. He smiled and welcomed the end of the cycle of his life.

Lady Dalji appeared beside him. She looked at him tenderly, like a mother. It was the first time she had acted like this.

"Don't patronize me right now, don't spoil my death."

"I've never understood how someone can be as detached from life as you are."

“Our elders always said that life and death were the same, so why fear something that is just another face of life? A man must accept living, and he must accept dying."

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

"Of all the mediums I've guided, you've been the most reckless and hard-headed of them all, Nyatui."

"Now, was that supposed to be an offense? I'm even feeling complimented. Thank you for being my Ori Guardian, you've been a good companion on this journey."

"I thank you too, now join your ancestors…"

Nyatui closed her eyes. The old body, the clay house, was empty. The spirit in it had already gone to the spirit world where Fante Obataiye harvests and sows souls.

The crater had closed, it had become Nyatui's anonymous tomb.

⸎

"NO, NYATUI!"

Akachi saw a second bang coming from the crater. Everything came crashing down. He screamed as he realized that the old medium had disembodied. Adsa's son struggled in vain. The hitman would never put his life at risk. Even though he felt sick, Nyatui had chosen to stay behind and delay General Luena.

"We need to move on, Akachi."

"No, Fadala, we need to go back. We can't abandon him, he's…"

"He's dead, accept it."

"How can you be so cold? You're a murderer, don't demand that I be like you."

"Akachi, Nyatui sacrificed his life for yours. Honor his death by surviving."

Fadala carried Akachi on his shoulders. No matter how hard he struggled, he would never be able to free himself from the hands of the man from Ilê Apanyan.

The trio of sages were on his tail. The chase continued through the streets and avenues. To avoid attracting less attention from the authorities, Fadala climbed up some fire escapes and jumped from rooftop to rooftop, reaching the highest buildings. He didn't know how much he could take in these circumstances; he hadn't fully recovered from his previous struggles.

Azekel's grandson bowed his head. Fenyang floated up beside him. The two looked at each other and nodded.

"Fadala…"

"What is it?"

"I'm tired of running away."

Fadala jumped over a railing from the roof of a building with a ledge and arrived at a helipad. He put Akachi on the ground. He turned to his pursuers. The three sage men stood in profile.

Jabir slammed his small fist into the other. The veins stiffened in his face. He didn't seem to be willing to pass up the opportunity to take the Spiritual Key of Faith.

"What's the matter, tired? It's like they say, you can run, but you can't hide."

Akachi clenched his fists and pulled out his tungsten sticks. He concentrated a large amount of Axé in them, increasing their mass many times over. The concentration of Axé was so strong that Fadala had to move away from him.

"Fenyang, these guys just want the spiritual keys. They don't care about anything except the power and prestige they've lost. I'm beginning to think they're no different from Ojwang and his gang."

"I agree with you brou."

"Then let's go! Firm Spirit."

Jabir punched the air. He was very angry at the comparison. He decided to give that cheeky young medium a corrective.

"You're not worthy of carrying a Spirit Key, you little brat. You bind spirits while using it. Amateur! I'll show you how a true sage does it."

"Get inside, old man!"

Akachi didn't see the punch hit his stomach. He was thrown so hard that the only reason he didn't fall off the roof was because he was supported by Fadala.

"Come on, boy. Didn't you say you were going to teach them a lesson?"

"That was only the first round."

The assassin spun Akachi around three times and threw him back towards Jabir. The sage spread Axé around his body, his muscles jerking. A layer of repulsive energy dispersed around the aura, increasing his defense.

When the two repulsive forces collided, two electromagnetic barriers formed around the fighters. They intensified, expanded, but in the end, Akachi's repulsive force pierced Jabir's propagated field. An explosion of Axé particles occurred, projecting him into the building opposite.

All the glass panes in the building burst at the same time. A shower of shards of glass fell onto the street. Passers-by and people in the buildings near the fight rushed to the windows with their cell phones in hand. Surveillance drones monitoring the city flew towards the top of the building where the two forces were fighting.