“Boy, tell me. Why do you fight?” asked the ancient Toltec king.
“Why?” Rodrigo asked, already standing, though still staggering.
“I fight for my friends,” he said.
Tezcatlipoca began to laugh.
“You do not believe in friendship, King of Tula?” Rodrigo asked, now standing with a smile.
“Of course I believe in friendship,” the god replied. “But that also tells me you are nothing more than a directionless turkey, following those girls, 'your friends', everywhere they go.”
Rodrigo’s expression grew irritated.
“What do you mean?” the young tannin asked.
“That you believe in nothing. You merely go along with the current of others,” Tezcatlipoca said. “If your friends one day decided to join Lel again, you would follow them without a word.”
Rodrigo fell silent and did not know how to respond.
“You are only a cynic,” added the ancient king of Tula.
“Someone without belief or faith is not worthy of bearing my brother’s teotonli!” the Toltec god shouted, and immediately threw himself at Rodrigo with his staff covered in dark energy.
Tezcatlipoca jumped backward when he saw the young man’s power increase, his gaze filled with rage.
"OPEN, FIFTH CHAKRA!"
Rodrigo shouted as he clenched his fists and his body began to glow gloriously. A powerful earthquake was felt throughout Teoiztacuauhco.
The dimensional barrier shook violently, and the majestic planet radiated a sacred light as pure as that of a young star.
“I, who have lost everything, can only trust my friends!” Rodrigo shouted, and with his fist burning with pure energy, he struck Tezcatlipoca’s face with tremendous force, making him spit out two teeth from the impact.
“And do not tell me I have no faith!” Rodrigo continued shouting furiously.
“I have it, and I know that one day I will discover what true faith is! Even if they call God Tawa, I have always believed in Him!” he kept shouting.
The young tannin quickly began striking the Toltec god with a barrage of blows. Tezcatlipoca could not defend himself from his attacks. The dying god only spat blood under a sweep of punches that looked like comets when they struck.
Rodrigo joined both hands together and struck Tezcatlipoca’s skull. The god fell into a lake, which evaporated completely from the impact, creating a gigantic crater.
Immediately, the young man flew at full speed toward the god, who had fallen face up, and began striking him with several punches that emanated rays of sacred light. The attacks were especially harmful to Tezcatlipoca because of his dark element. Each punch Rodrigo delivered made the hole where the Toltec god lay grow larger.
Then Rodrigo filled his right hand with sacred energy and struck the bloodied god’s chest with it.
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“Esfera de Venus (Sphere of Venus)!”
Rodrigo shouted, and a sacred explosion erupted like a gigantic bomb. The sacred light of the attack traveled through the planet’s core and emerged on the other side.
Rodrigo stood, confident that with that he had defeated Tezcatlipoca. But the Toltec god was still conscious and smiling, even though his body was covered in blood and his bones had been pulverized. Even so, his ichor began restoring his wounds.
“Are you hesitating, child?” Tezcatlipoca asked cynically.
The Toltec king stood, despite no longer having his staff and possessing only one leg.
“What do you know? You do not have friends!” Rodrigo shouted furiously. “You are a king. You have everything: luxuries, money. You will never understand what I have suffered!”
“And what does that have to do with your beliefs?” Tezcatlipoca asked. “What do you believe in, Rodrigo? Why do you desire my brother’s garments? Tell me!”
“I want to become stronger so I can protect my friends,” Rodrigo answered.
“And so you will steal one of the weapons my people have to defend themselves, because of your selfishness?” Tezcatlipoca asked.
Rodrigo did not know how to answer, but he remained angry.
Then Tezcatlipoca invoked:
“Ixquimilli (The one who is blindfolded).”
The god closed his eyes and relaxed his body.
Rodrigo tried to strike the Toltec god, but he avoided the attack, just as he took his curved sword and cut Rodrigo’s abdomen.
The young man stepped back as he felt Tezcatlipoca’s damage. However, he could not understand how, with his eyes closed, the god could avoid his attacks.
“Your doubts and uncertainty do not allow you to fight seriously… do you fear killing me?” asked the Toltec king.
Rodrigo launched a barrage of sacred shots, but Tezcatlipoca avoided all the attacks simply by walking.
Then the young man invoked his incandescent wind, shouting:
“Ejekauakki (Dry Wind)!”
A whirlwind of burning wind began blowing across all of Teoiztacuauhco, quickly drying the magnificent planet’s beautiful forests and lakes. The sky began turning brown as the temperature rose.
But Tezcatlipoca avoided the incandescent tornado Rodrigo had invoked. With ease, the Toltec god jumped and cut Rodrigo’s throat.
Rodrigo fell to the ground, covering the blood from his throat, though his ichor healed the damage. But Tezcatlipoca appeared behind Rodrigo again and cut his back. The young man tried to escape, but the god kept pursuing him with almost perfect slashes.
Then Rodrigo brought both hands together and shouted with great force:
“Tlapopolistli Ejekamalakatl (Destructive Tornado)!”
This generated a powerful tornado that swept away an enormous portion of the planet. But Tezcatlipoca elegantly avoided Rodrigo’s attack, and with his sword, cut the young man’s skull and brought the blade down to his groin. Rodrigo was split in half.
However, Rodrigo joined himself back together without trouble. The damage he had suffered had been too small for his ichor. Even so, the young tannin was bewildered by Tezcatlipoca’s abilities.
“Indeed, even with this ability of mine, with which I improve all my senses by sacrificing my sight, I still cannot surpass you in strength,” Tezcatlipoca said as he threw his sword to the ground.
And it was true. Rodrigo did not feel threatened by the King of Tula’s power, but he was not able to hit him. It was a desperate situation.
“As long as you continue to carry doubts in your heart, you will never defeat me,” Tezcatlipoca added. “However, I am already in a hurry to end this battle, so I will fight with all my power.”
Tezcatlipoca opened his eyes and began making an enormous effort. His body grew to three times its size, and his physiology took the form of an anthropomorphic jaguar. When Rodrigo saw him, he identified the creature he had seen in his dreams. If a jaguar and a serpent had truly led this empire, then the jaguar was Tezcatlipoca, and he was the serpent.
But the Toltec god’s power was overwhelming. Rodrigo had never felt anything like it. He vaguely remembered Ares’s power, but although he could not remember it well, without a doubt, it was inferior to this gigantic power.
The entire planet trembled, the sky darkened, the seas boiled, the clouds dispersed, and the mountains collapsed. It was as if the end of the world had come to Teoiztacuauhco.
Rodrigo looked on, both surprised and frightened. If he had not been able to defeat him when he looked normal, now it would be impossible.
“A warning, foreigner,” Tezcatlipoca said in a deeper and more ominous voice. “I am not so kind in this transformation. My assimilation with Tepeyóllotl.”
Rodrigo intended to defend himself, when Tezcatlipoca, with tremendous speed, struck Rodrigo’s chest with his hand, now a jaguar claw, at the same moment the planet split apart.
Rodrigo felt his consciousness fading as he vomited blood.