Itzpapálotl, maintaining his regal and haughty posture, rested his head on his hand while amusedly watching the gods' reaction of horror.
“Do you know these beasts?” the Chichimeca goddess asked Ixchel.
“We call ’em Ttzinacan, and this one’s an envoy of the night sent to kill y’all,” she added.
While the gods stared at the grotesque face taking shape in the darkness, Tajín bent down to listen to Cuerauáperi’s heart.
“It is still beating, but very weakly,” the Totonac god said. “If we do not take her to an infirmary, she will die.”
“The choice is y’all’s. Decide whether to stay here as our guests, or the queen of that shithole people dies,” Itzpapálotl said.
“Your plan was always to kidnap us, was it not?” Ixchel asked furiously, then turned to look at the monstrous creature.
“However,” the lunar goddess added, “if you believe a beast like that can defeat us, you are mistaken.”
At that, Ixchel placed her hand like a blade to attack the terrible beast. But at that very moment, the monster’s eyes disappeared, and its presence vanished once again.
“I forgot to tell y’all that all these beasts lost their minds after bein’ dead for so long. Now the only thing feedin’ ’em is their thirst for blood,” the Chichimeca goddess continued explaining while still seated on her throne.
At that moment, the goddess’s servants began falling dead, their heads decapitated. Many of them wanted to flee, but they could not.
“Enough!” Ixchel shouted furiously at the sight of such a massacre.
Itzpapálotl began to laugh.
“Did y’all see the murals in this palace?” she asked cynically. “Then y’all understand that more of these beasts could be reachin’ your cities right now and destroyin’ ’em in an instant.”
“Please, Lady Itzpapálotl,” Otontecutli said as he knelt before the goddess.
“Stop this senseless slaughter and let us treat our companion,” he pleaded.
“IDIOT!” Tlatlauhaqui shouted. “DO YOU NOT REALIZE THEY WILL KEEP US HERE AS PRISONERS, WITH OUR KINGDOMS AS HOSTAGES?!”
“The choice is in y’all’s hands,” Itzpapálotl replied. “Like I told ya, those drawings were only suggestions.”
“It is good advice,” Tajín said.
“However,” Mixcóatl added.
“We have decided not to listen to it,” Ixchel concluded.
“WE ARE GOING TO FINISH OFF THAT BEAST OF YOURS!” Tlatlauhaqui shouted.
“Interestin’,” Itzpapálotl said, still watching the gods as they tried to locate the presence of the monstrous being.
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“Hey, Otontecutli!” the Maya goddess shouted to the Otomí god.
“What is it, Ixchel?” the deity asked nervously.
“Take Cuerauáperi and escape from Tula,” Ixchel added. “I could treat her, but I am certain this beast will not let me do so.”
“Oh? So y’all are gonna try to run?” the Chichimeca queen asked with a smile.
At that moment, claws appeared behind Otontecutli’s neck, but just then, explosions struck the monstrous being’s body.
The creature let out a muffled shriek and disappeared again into the darkness, while Tlatlauhaqui held both hands raised.
“WITHOUT CONSCIOUSNESS, ITS ATTACKS ARE EASY TO PREDICT!” the Zapotec god shouted.
The Otomí god took Cuerauáperi’s body, but the beast tried to attack him again. This time, a lightning bolt shaped like a beam of light pierced what seemed to be the monster’s wing, making it vanish once more into the darkness.
Tajín stood with one hand raised, forming a cone of thunder like a cannon.
“Because of these bastards, I will not be able to see my wives soon,” said the Totonac thunder god.
“Interestin’. The advanced level of thunder. The combination of light and electricity,” the Chichimeca goddess said, intrigued.
The monster tried once again to attack Otontecutli. But this time, a serpent made of smoke bit into the creature’s lower body and tore it away. Mixcóatl had summoned that phenomenon with his power over smoke.
Immediately, Ixchel pointed at it with her bare palm.
“Creature of the night, disappear,” the goddess said as a moon appeared behind her.
Then the moon disintegrated as the goddess fired an immensely powerful beam of white light that pulverized the beast, causing the darkness to recede. When everything cleared, the roof of the enormous palace had disappeared completely.
Otontecutli managed to run from the palace carrying Cuerauáperi’s body, while the other four gods turned to look at Itzpapálotl seated on her throne. Although they had demonstrated their enormous power, the goddess showed no sign of concern.
“No wonder all of y’all are legendary gods in these lands,” the goddess said.
“The combination of fire with gas, the advanced level of the lightning element combin’ light and electricity, the combination of gas with darkness to create monsters in a gaseous state, and the union of the water element with the sacred element,” she said.
At that moment, decomposing undead began emerging from the floor. The beings looked like zombies, with their clothing torn to shreds. Only skulls remained of their faces, though their teeth and nails had turned into fangs dripping with blood.
The gods recognized the corpses and their garments. They were the same men who had worked in their embassies. The Chichimeca queen had turned them into undead.
The frustration in the four gods’ eyes was obvious, while Itzpapálotl laughed cynically.
“Y’all wanted to see your people? Looks like they’ve become tzitzimitl,” the Chichimeca goddess mocked. “Their spirits and minds were wiped clean when they died. Now their souls are controlled by my will, and in what’s left of their minds, there’s only the need to feed on human or divine blood.”
Meanwhile, on Tollan’s main esplanade, Otontecutli looked in horror at the undead that had appeared before him. Then the god remembered the rumors he had heard in Tula about people being found dead at dawn, drained of blood during the night.
“My people… my own people were murdered and turned into these abominations,” the god said furiously, feeling ashamed for having sought a diplomatic way out with Itzpapálotl.
The tzitzimitl threw themselves at the god to attack him, but he avoided them without much trouble.
“Zi dada, Great Old Father, allow these people to find eternal rest upon your altars,” the god said with a determined look.
Otontecutli then struck the ground of Tollan, causing a gigantic tremor. The floor cracked immediately with a deafening sound.
“T’öhö tsibi ntho (Volcanic explosion)!” the Otomí god shouted furiously, and from the crack caused by his attack, a powerful volcanic exhalation erupted. It incinerated the undead while others fell into the sea of magma that appeared beneath the great fissure.
When the powerful volcano finished off all the enemies, the crack closed, and everything returned to normal as if nothing had happened.
“I swear I will return for all of you,” Otontecutli said as he continued running out of Tollan, since the city was protected by a dimensional shield and escaping by flight was impossible.