The last song of the ancestors

Popo flew over the Axé dome that covered Akachi. With her electromagnetic sonar, she identified the power of a spiritual key. She charged at Mashal and struck him. The former sage was thrown a distance. With a slight flutter of her wings, she hovered in the air. Crossing her arms, in a tone of mockery, she ironized:

"Wow, Grandpa, you fell like a rotten jackfruit. I expected more from an ex-sage."

Mashal rose from the ground. A trickle of blood ran down the corner of his mouth. His woolly white beard took on a red tinge.

"Young people always make fun of their elders. I should teach you a lesson, young lady."

"You have nothing to teach me, Grandpa."

Popo ascended into the clouds. He pulled out two submachine guns and fell on Mashal. He fired several shots at the former sage. The old medium tapped the ground to dodge the bullets. His opponent considered his performance pathetic. He prepared for a second attack.

"Ewansiha! Isn't it about time you came over here and gave me a hand?"

Popo came down once again with his attack, Mashal threw himself into the river to avoid the projectiles. The soldier flew away. The medium put his head out. He looked in all directions, but didn't see his Ori Guardian. He became angry and felt that he should have chosen his spiritual companion better.

"Ewansiha, come and help me once in a while..."

A brown-skinned man appeared floating above him. He was dressed like an English aristocrat from the Victorian era, with a top hat and gold brush. He wore a cane with an amber orb on the pommel. His hair was straight but unkempt. His long beard was spiky like dry straw.

He had a friendly face, vivid eyes, but surrounded by huge dark circles. He was lying in the air, his head supported by one hand. His top hat was about to fall off his head. A trickle of drool ran from the corner of his mouth. He had a languor that irritated Mashal deeply. He yawned every five minutes.

"By Fante Obataiye, man, wake up to spit!"

"Uooooh... is it time for five o'clock tea yet?"

"No, but it's time you woke up to life. For someone who's lived in London, you've learned nothing about punctuality."

"I went there to graduate from Oxford, not to be a clockmaker... wooooh."

"Stop yawning, you're embarrassing me! We're in trouble, Ewansiha. Adisa's son is in that Discharge Barrier. A Phalangeta is here, if we don't take care of them, they'll take another Spiritual Key."

"What an imbroglio, my friend Mashal. It's a pity we didn't prepare for such an undertaking, I'll have to improvise."

"So be it! Ewansiha, the observer of plenitude. He who sought knowledge for the realization of Evolution, may your power shake the structures of the earth on which I stand. Make your enemy know the truth. Firm Spirit.

After embodying his Ori Guardian, Mashal rested one knee on the ground. He placed both hands flat on the ground and spread his Axé. He attracted the Axé particles from the environment and used them to alter the molecular structures of the rocks.

"Infrastructure Revolution!"

Little by little, the rocks came together and took on an amorphous humanoid shape. Eventually, the ten dolls became an exact copy of Mashal. Each one emitting an Axé vibration similar to the original. The medium joined them, and they ran towards Popo, who was taking off for another artillery run.

The eleven Mashal ran towards the enemy. They formed a horizontal attack line, shuffling their places along the way. It was a strategy to confuse their opponent. Popo reflected on the situation. He had memorized where everyone was. With her electromagnetic sonar, she deduced that the real Mashal was the one with the highest Axé vibration. He was on the left, in third position.

He fired a burst of shots at him. However, the original wasn't hit. The clone crumbled into a pile of bullet-riddled stones. The remaining ten declared Ofó at the same time:

"Axé plus-value."

All the Mashal put their hands on the ground. The Axé deposited in the shattered clone dispersed into the ground and was absorbed by the others. Their vibration doubled in size. They formed a protective circle, one of them standing in the middle as bait. Popo analyzed it with his sonar; the protected Mashal had the highest vibration of the ten.

"That trap won't work, old man. Better give up while you're ahead."

He uses the soil to propagate his Axé, and to attract the Axé of nature. A typical PACR. From there he models his Axé, no! He restructures matter to generate clones. They emit the same vibration as a person, and have the same appearance and mobility as the original. Ingenious, but I'm going to sabotage his strategy...

Popo flew around and fired shots at the protective circle. However, the ammunition ran out before he could hit anyone. The clones formed a human pyramid. The real Mashal jumped on top and gained momentum to reach his opponent. She tried to run away, but having someone hanging on her legs caused her to become overweight, and she collapsed.

Near the ground, Mashal let go of Popo's heels and let her fall to the stony ground on her own. The clones supported the medium's fall. The soldier wasn't as lucky. She smashed into the stones. One of her wings was fractured and she struggled in constant spasms. The phalangeal limb rose from the ground. He wiped his cheek with the back of his hand.

"Too bad, your flight plan was canceled, girl."

"Hahaha, very funny, old man. I get your fake Ofó."

Woooh... Mashal, looks like we've been caught red-handed!

Stop yawning, you lazy Ori Guardian. I need your power right now.

You should have used Superstructure Projection, then you'd have more...

"You created ten clones using a combination of Propagation and Attraction. Propagators aren't very good at controlling Axé, so they're bad at modeling. They prefer to alter the structure of matter within their reach, which is why they need to put their hands in the ground every time they make an Ofó. I got that right, didn't I?"

"For someone who isn't a medium, you seem to be quite capable."

"I believe that for each clone of yours, you should distribute a tenth of your Axé to each one. This increases your numerical strength, but you lose out on total strength."

Popo grabbed his broken wing and tore it off with his bare hand. Blood oozed from the wound. Mashal and his clones were horrified; he made no sign of pain.

"However, when you lose a clone, the Axé returns to you and the rest of the clones, but at twice the rate. You're just buying time."

The military woman concentrated her Axé in her hands and formed huge semi-transparent claws. She applied repulsive force to increase her cutting power. In one swift movement, she leapt towards Mashal.