Tlálocan was trembling under the impact of the battle between Tania and Tláloc. Meanwhile, Chalchiuhtlicue watched the fight from afar, still hiding beneath the electric shield Menrva had created.
The light rain that fell from Tlálocan’s skies had ceased. Now all the bodies of water were boiling, while the bushes and trees of the region were beginning to dry out.
“No, do not fight with so much power, or you will destroy this paradise,” Chalchiuhtlicue said worriedly, but there was nothing she could do about it.
However, despite Tania’s powerful strength and overwhelming heat, Tláloc had not received a single wound from the goddess. On the contrary, Tania had received several electric bolts from the Toltec god. She was not badly wounded either, but she was certainly worried.
Tania’s attacks had not worked against Tláloc’s body. His enormous power over water nullified the goddess’s attacks, no matter how powerful she made them. It was obvious that without the anti-divinity bracelet, she would have ended the fight easily. But with it, her fire simply did not burn hot enough to cancel out the Toltec god’s aquatic power.
Tláloc, still floating in the sky, pointed his staff at the earth while praying:
“Niquin notsa: Tlalohkeh (I summon you: Tlaloques).”
Then, from the earth, he summoned four dwarf creatures with faces similar to his horrible mask. They were blue, with bulging eyes, and their mouths seemed to have cleft lips, with fangs protruding from them. All of them carried vessels in their hands.
The small monsters then took their vessels and smashed them against the ground. The sound was so loud and powerful that a sonic shockwave spread across the entire planet.
Tania pressed her hands against her ears because of that infernal noise, when she saw electricity emanating from the places where the creatures had destroyed the vessels.
The thunder took the form of a gigantic square net that covered the entire planet, like an electric circuit, trapping Tania in the act.
The goddess suffered electric shocks as she tried to break free from the electrical net. However, at that moment, she saw Tláloc raise his staff to the sky and recite:
“Ojtlatekuinalotl (Lightning Path).”
A powerful downpour began to fall over Tlálocan, causing the electricity from the gigantic net to short-circuit with it. Tania felt an overwhelmingly powerful electric discharge and screamed in agony under the terrible attack.
“The combination of Water and Thunder: Conduction,” Chalchiuhtlicue said. “That is the greatest terror of mighty Tláloc.”
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The net disappeared, and a completely charred Tania fell to the ground, almost unconscious, while Tláloc and the grotesque creatures merely watched.
However, Tania had not yet surrendered. She attacked the creatures in front of her with her flaming claws while shouting:
“Tsemp Dalaq (Burning Claws)!”
However, her attacks, just like those she had attempted against Tláloc, were useless, as the tiny monsters took no damage. It was as if their skin were made of water.
Tláloc then raised his staff before him, and a gigantic marine cyclone rose from the marshes while the deity said:
“Ejekanamiktilistli (Hurricane).”
Tania did not even have time to react when the powerful atmospheric phenomenon struck her head-on and hurled her thousands of kilometers away from the now ruined city.
Tania crashed into the wall of the dimensional shield in the exosphere and split her head open, covering her face in blood. With no energy left, the goddess fell toward the ground like a meteorite and sank into the waters of Tlálocan.
“It was a pity,” Chalchiuhtlicue said, “but she had no hope of winning.”
Tania, half unconscious, began to remember that Epona had urged her to use water with her fire attacks to generate steam.
Would it be a good idea to use it? But my water power is far too weak, the goddess thought as she continued sinking deeper and deeper into the eternal ocean of the First Heaven.
Are you a Moon? Tania began to hear in her mind. The goddess remembered one of her encounters with Sekhmet in the Land of Manu.
In front of an enormous body of water, Sekhmet stood beside a teenage Tania, looking at the vast ocean before them. The two goddesses were on one of the docks of the Egyptian paradise.
The city behind them was so white that it seemed made of pearls. Among its thousands of buildings, there were several silver pyramids and golden obelisks.
The sunlight illuminating the place made the city shine, while instead of walls, the city was surrounded by thousands upon thousands of trees forming a forest around it.
Tania moved her hand, lifting drops of water from the sea and hurling them like bullets toward one of the nearby islands. When the bullets struck the islet, they exploded like water bombs, making its palm trees shake violently.
“That was really strong, right?” the Phoenician goddess asked with a smile.
However, Sekhmet only gave a quiet laugh.
“Water powers are not useful for fighting, Tania,” the goddess said with a dismissive gesture.
Then Sekhmet raised her left hand and fired a ball of fire at the island. Upon impact, a gigantic explosion completely destroyed the islet, and a powerful surge emerged from the destructive wave.
The water reached the dock and soaked both goddesses. Neither of them moved, though Tania remained still because she was absorbed by Sekhmet’s enormous power.
“That is the power of fire,” the Egyptian goddess said. “As a Sun, I am destined to be a warrior. But you, as a Moon, are destined to be a healer or a support.”
“No!” Tania replied furiously. “I want to be a warrior too!”
“Did you not say you dislike fighting and only want to cook and heal people?” Sekhmet asked Tania.
“Yes, I do,” the Punic goddess replied. “But I also want to be respected for being strong. I want to make explosions as beautiful as yours.”
“Then train hard to emanate fire, because with water you will never earn respect in this world,” Sekhmet said with a laugh, and Tania nodded.
That bitch, Tania thought in the present, still sinking slowly. She planted those ideas of water’s inferiority to fire in me because of her narrow view of the world.
Tania opened her eyes and saw the water into which she was sinking.
It is so pure, so crystalline… she told herself. I must reconcile with my element. I must accept who I am before anything else, if I want to win.