After flying all day over the great desert that continued spreading across the territory, where various peoples like the Rarámuri lived, a little more green finally began to appear in the mountains. The simple bushes were gradually replaced by pines and large trees, which slowly came to dominate the scenery.
Wolves, coyotes, deer, turkeys, and even pumas—animals with which Rodrigo felt a certain familiarity because of the feline he had seen in his dreams—roamed the mountainous landscapes of this region.
Tul said this region was good for gathering medicinal ingredients. Thanks to her, the members of Orniskem learned the names of the diverse flora that extended throughout the area. Peyote and maguey were among the plants from which the goddess took the most samples.
Vast grasslands stretched toward the horizon when, finally, they seemed to leave behind the eternal desert they had visited long ago, even before entering the city of Chaco. And though the grasslands still felt like part of that arid climate, they were proof that new, highly fertile areas filled with forests and lakes lay nearby, similar to the regions they had seen around the Great Lakes or in Haida territory.
The sky was reddish because dusk was falling, giving that land of tall grasses its characteristic ocher hue. The gods had decided to advance a little farther before nightfall. However, they began detecting human movement around them, and unlike the Rarámuri, these seemed to be warriors.
“If I’m not wrong, these must be Zacatecos,” Tul said. “They’re one of the seven Chichimeca kingdoms north of the Toltec Empire.”
“Mina-san, would you desire that I should activate my stealth ability?” Susanoo asked.
“That would be most convenient,” Menrva replied. “If it is true that these people are natural-born warriors, it is most likely that they will not allow us to pass peacefully.”
Susanoo then raised his katana and invoked his ability, Mayonaka no Walking (Night walking). All the members of Orniskem were covered by a ghostly trail that prevented them from making noise or being seen by the human eye.
“Well, ain’t that just precious. What a primitive little trick for hiding divine presences,” Loki said mockingly.
“Hast thou a better ability, Loki-san?” the eastern god asked, somewhat irritated, while the rest of the members of Orniskem looked at the dark god with contempt.
Loki moved his hands and recited:
“Sjónhverfing fjölkyngi (Magic of illusion).”
In that way, the gods became completely invisible, not only to human eyes, but also to divine ones.
“Looks like I’ve gotten stronger in this region too, so I can use this ability without any trouble now,” the Norse god said.
All the gods could still see one another, though a kind of ghostly aura emanated from their backs.
“Okay, let’s fly and get out of here,” Ana said as she used her matter-construction power to create a kind of giant bronze shield, tied with a pair of chains.
All the members of Orniskem jumped onto the giant shield, while Ana, flying, carried them using the chain. In this way, they could take turns flying and move faster.
From the sky, the gods could see several archers hiding in the grasslands and behind the trees in the region’s forests. The men were completely naked, their faces painted red, with a set of red and yellow feathers on their backs.
“I get the impression they had already detected us and are now looking for us,” Anpiel said, watching the way the men moved.
“Well, at least we avoided a problem,” Ana said cheerfully as she continued flying south, crossing the region’s vast grasslands.
At that moment, the bronze shield began to feel extremely hot, so the gods reacted with confusion.
Ana, who was looking toward the setting sun, began to feel her eyes drying out from the immense heat she was feeling.
“What is happening?” Tania asked. “This heat feels very similar to when I fought the king of Cahokia inside that sun,” she recalled.
Then Ana screamed in agony as the chain with which she carried the gods glowed red-hot and melted completely, as did the gigantic bronze shield. The gods jumped away from the boiling metal as quickly as they could, but Ana’s left shoulder had been burned.
The enormous piece of metal fell to the ground, where it dissolved into dark energy. Ana, badly wounded by the burn, lost her balance and fell from the sky, but Loki rescued her before she could crash into the ground.
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All the other gods landed as well, but there they realized that the heat emanation had already ceased.
“What was that?” Menrva asked, puzzled, looking at the completely normal sky.
“It was as if there were a heat barrier above us, possibly to prevent gods from flying over this place,” Anpiel said.
Ana’s wounds healed immediately, and the goddess rose from Loki’s arms, thanking the dark god for his help.
“We’ll have to walk carefully,” she said.
“The result shall be… cough, cough… the same… cough,” a weak and tired voice was heard in the distance. The voice sounded like that of an old man over eighty.
“Someone is here and can see us,” Tania said irritably, looking at Loki with contempt, since he had claimed his ability was extremely high-level.
“But it should be impossible for anyone to see us,” the dark god said.
“Indeed, I cannot… cough, cough… see you or sense you. But the thermal waves of this place tell me there are unwanted visitors… cough, cough,” the exhausted voice said again.
“We have not come here seeking battle,” Anpiel said in a conciliatory tone. “We only wish to cross this land to reach Tula.”
“That’s a mighty shame… cough, cough… ’cause foreign gods don’t always set foot on our lands so willin’ to be sacrificed,” the mysterious voice said.
“Willing?” Tania asked in surprise, when suddenly an unbearable heat began to spread around them. Though the sensation affected the gods, the ground itself did not seem to suffer any effect.
“Impossible! This heat is incredibly intense!” Menrva shouted.
“We’ll have to fight!” Tania shouted, since she was the one who could endure intense heat the best.
The goddess stood and began trying to sense where the voice—possibly belonging to an old man—was coming from.
“Tania, he’s to your left, on one of those mountains,” Loki said, down on all fours on the ground, since, being of ice, the heat affected him far more. The god’s ability to keep them invisible had also disappeared.
Tania then donned her totema, transforming into a manticore as she launched a fireball toward the place Loki had indicated. An explosion destroyed the upper part of the mountain.
The Punic goddess began absorbing the heat from the energy surrounding them. When she could see it in greater detail, it was a kind of translucent sphere of fire. With her energy, the goddess finally made it disappear.
However, where the explosion had occurred, only smoke remained. Then, floating out of that column of smoke, a man surrounded by that heat energy in the shape of a sphere was levitating in the air.
“Well now, looks like you’re stronger than yer friends… cough, cough,” the man said. When Tania saw him in greater detail, he filled her with revulsion.
The god’s yellowish skin was covered in sores with pus oozing from them. The deity had a hunched, almost skeletal figure, which was why the goddess had believed he was an old man. Yet his hair did not look gray, but rather greenish-black, though damaged and disheveled. The deity’s face was covered by a horrible jade mask.
It was not only the marks of what was possibly syphilis; there were also several cuts on his skin, as if made by knives. Worst of all, he also had bite marks. Some of his fingers were missing, as though they had been torn off. Beyond that, the deity wore a headdress of red feathers, a jaguar cape, and a loincloth, all filthy and ragged.
The deity then took an obsidian knife and cut part of his arm in a kind of religious ecstasy.
“Sacrifice is the only way to meet the Lord,” the man said as he floated in front of the Punic goddess. The other gods of Orniskem stood, donned their totemas, and stared fixedly at him.
The man looked at Rodrigo’s totema and merely gave a mocking grimace.
“I reckon… cough, cough… you ain’t Ehécatl, but you bear his same teotonli,” the repulsive god said.
“Do you know the person who owns this totema?” Rodrigo asked.
“That’s one more reason I gotta kill you right here… cough, cough… before my lord lays eyes on you,” the god said, raising his hand. His few fingers, covered in sores and long nails, pointed at Rodrigo, just as the young man began to feel his heart suffering cardiac arrest.
“What is happening to you, Rodrigo?!” Epona shouted in fear, while Ana also ran toward him, seeing the boy’s agonized expression.
“It’s cardiac arrest!” Epona shouted, then proceeded to try to stimulate his heart, but nothing happened. The young man seemed to be suffocating.
“Rui, hang on!” Ana cried while also massaging the young man’s heart. His face had already turned pale.
Tul ran over with medicinal herbs, but Menrva passed beside him and, with her spear, launched an electric discharge at the boy, making his heart beat again.
“What did you do to Rodrigo?” Menrva asked furiously.
With his bony fingers, the horrific god pointed at Menrva, who at that moment began losing her sight and hearing.
“I can bring forth any disease I want upon my victims,” the man said.
While Freyja and Susanoo attended to Menrva, Tul managed to make Rodrigo regain consciousness using strongly scented medicinal herbs. The young man watched Tul run toward Menrva to treat her, then stared fixedly at the terrible god.
“What is that thing on his body?” Rodrigo asked in disgust.
“It’s nanahua, a disease that causes those horrible sores,” Tul said, also with a surprised expression, while applying drops to the Etruscan goddess’s eyes.
“Indeed. In fact, I am known as Nanahuatzin, the Little Syphilitic One,” the man said.
“This venereal disease brings me great pains that draw me closer and closer to the Lord,” he continued, once again taking a knife and cutting himself.
Drops of blood fell toward the ground, which the gods avoided, assuming his disease might spread by contact.
Menrva stood after recovering her sight thanks to Tul’s care. She thanked the rabbit goddess, then looked at the god with a worried expression.
“How are we supposed to fight someone like that?” she wondered to herself.
“This guy's lost his damn mind,” Epona said, puzzled, watching as the god entered ecstasy every time he made another cut on his body.
“But even so, we have to get him out of the way if we want to pass,” Tania said. “Honestly, he does not seem reasonable.”
“The only reason for life is sufferin’,” the god said as he continued cutting himself, his blood falling to the ground. “And y’all shall know the same blessed pleasure of self-sacrifice.”