“First of all, we have to get Loki out of its stomach,” Ana said as the three goddesses flew to attack Coyote.
“What for? Leave him in there,” Tania replied indignantly.
“So what, is he your new boyfriend now, Ana?” Epona added with a mischievous smile.
Ana shook her head.
“Are you really going to let him die that easily without paying for his sins against the people of Denmark?” the Irish goddess asked, throwing Tania a defiant look.
Tania turned toward Coyote and said nothing, though she made an irritated gesture.
The three goddesses struck the grotesque creature. Ana used Excalibur to cut across part of the monster’s chest; Epona slashed at its neck with her sickle; and Tania tore at its jaw with her claws. The monster took a few steps backward, but suffered no significant damage. The three goddesses landed upon the endless dunes of Samalayucan.
The wounds they had inflicted on Coyote were tiny. The evil god healed almost immediately.
“We didn’t even scratch it,” Epona said anxiously.
“No, but we haven’t used all our power yet,” Ana replied.
Tania took a deep breath and turned to Ana.
“All right. Let’s make rescuing Loki from that thing’s stomach our priority,” she said.
“Thank you, Tania,” Ana answered, just as Excalibur began to shine with an intensity like that of the sun itself.
Two wings appeared on the Irish goddess’s back, one white and the other dark, as she prepared to attack again.
At that moment, three cords rose from the dunes and lashed around the necks of the three goddesses, but as fast as lightning, Epona cut through the bindings with her scythe.
“You won’t be trapping us inside one of your dreams while I’m here, Coyote!” Epona shouted, pointing her weapon at the grotesque god.
Immediately, a shrill and terrible sound began ringing through the surrounding desert. Tania and Ana dropped to their knees, feeling as though their brains were about to burst apart, but at once two spherical shields of yellowish energy enclosed them.
“It’s trying to use a mental power to destroy our brains,” Epona said. “It’s lucky for us that I can now use mental powers too, just like Loki.”
The equine goddess held her left hand raised toward Coyote, while she herself was also surrounded by that same energy. Tania and Ana got back to their feet at once, astonished by their friend’s new power.
“You just saved our hides, Epona,” Tania said in surprise.
“Thanks, mare,” Ana added.
“You can thank me later if we survive this fight, girls,” Epona replied, raising her scythe.
“With me, it won’t be able to use mental powers now, so let’s hit it with everything we’ve got!” she shouted.
The others nodded and launched themselves again at the monstrous abomination.
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Halfway through her leap, Ana cut through the air with the enormous Excalibur and cried:
“Slais naofa (Holy Slash)!”
A beam of pure energy burst from her sword and struck Coyote in the mouth set upon its belly.
At the same time, Epona made her great scythe blaze and slashed Coyote across the left side of that belly-mouth as she cried:
“Bíthu’éithra servath (Infernal Scythe)!”
Will-o’-the-wisps ignited along the edge of her weapon, leaving a trail of ghostly light across the creature’s stomach.
Both goddesses withdrew as Tania hurled herself at full speed toward Coyote’s belly, shouting:
“Rahafu Sharshi (Flying Creature)!”
The goddess struck the gigantic creature’s stomach-mouth like a living saw. A muffled explosion burst from the impact, and Tania leapt back, watching as once again Coyote staggered a few steps from the force.
“We didn’t hurt it again,” Ana said in alarm.
“No,” Tania replied. “When I hit it with my body, it felt as though it were made of something very tough, but flexible.”
“It felt... like bread dough,” Tania added. “We hit it, but it just takes that shape again... like rubber.”
Coyote grinned his hideous face as he raised his arms. A malevolent aura enveloped his body, an energy that horrified the three goddesses.
“Neeznáá ooljééi adáátłizh (Fall of the Ten Moons),” Coyote said in its dreadful voice, raising its grotesque claws to the sky. At that moment, ten gigantic moons with mocking faces appeared overhead and rapidly began descending toward the earth.
“Is this some kind of joke?” Tania asked in disbelief as she watched the satellites coming down toward them.
“If even one of those moons struck the Earth, it would leave it uninhabitable.”
Epona and Ana leapt upward to attack the giant satellites, but the damage they dealt was so minuscule it could not even be seen. Had the goddesses been outside the barrier, they could have destroyed the moons without difficulty, but the difference in power here was utterly overwhelming.
Ana and Epona fell back down onto the dunes, staring in despair at their unavoidable end.
“It’s over,” Ana said, dropping into a defensive stance. The other goddesses did the same just as the first moon crashed into the Earth, followed by the rest.
A deafening atomic explosion tore across the whole desert of Samalayucan as the sand turned to glass and the sky burned red.
When the immense blast ended, nothing remained but a gigantic crater filled with magma in the middle of the great desert. An enormous cloud of smoke blotted out the moonlight and the stars. The cabin where the others had been resting had been completely vaporized by the attack, while the three goddesses lay face down at the bottom of the massive crater created by the satellites.
“The gap... is too great,” Ana said, barely conscious, as she struggled to rise with Excalibur as support. Her whole face was burned and bloodied, and she could only open her left eye because of the damage she had suffered.
Tania, who had lost her manticore transformation from the impact, pushed up her torso with both hands braced against the ground. The Punic goddess too was covered in blood, her face burned, and she was breathing heavily.
“It burned through almost all our ichor in a single attack,” she said.
Epona could barely move her hands and still lay face down in the gigantic crater.
“When we were in the Haida kingdom,” Ana continued, “I saw how their Raven God used a combination of fire and water, and that made his attacks far stronger than if he had used them separately.”
“An antipodal power made from opposing elements?” Tania asked.
“Yes. If I can use my sacred element together with the Death element Epona is using, I might be able to deal heavier damage with my sword,” Ana added as she forced herself to stand, leaning on Excalibur.
“Ana, I don’t think Epona can even stand after that,” Tania said.
“Yes... I can... just give me a few minutes,” Epona said, her voice barely audible.
“Though when I attacked the King of Tula, I combined Light and Darkness,” Ana said. “I think that might count as an antipode too.”
“Tania, can’t you use water together with fire?” Epona asked, forcing herself upright as well.
“I’ve never... tried,” the Punic goddess admitted, bewildered.
“You said you were only imitating that Sekhmet goddess to use fire. Don’t you think it’s about time you surpassed her and started acting like a Moon goddess too?” Ana asked, finally managing to stand, though her legs were still trembling.
“But I’ve lost most of the strength of my water element,” Tania said. “At most, I can summon a few little drops.”
She kept speaking while forcing herself up, though bent over.
“I have a few very basic healing abilities that only work on humans and animals... if this Death element combines with that... could I make even more devastating attacks?” Epona asked, using her scythe to pull herself back to her feet.
“Let’s bet our lives on it,” Ana replied.