The sky over Tollan lit up with red and white lights when Xólotl’s and Cihuacóatl’s techniques clashed in unison. The walls were swept away by the enormous impact, while several buildings disappeared into a cloud of debris.
“Not bad for a disfigured bastard,” the Chichimeca goddess said cynically.
“I would say that, without your monsters, you are nothing,” Xólotl replied.
Both gods began fighting in the sky in a devastating battle. Their fists clashed, and shockwaves swept through the city of Tula, which had also been trapped inside Ana’s pocket dimension.
Red and dark lightning fell upon the city, tearing it apart while magma began to erupt from the earth’s surface. The volcanoes trapped inside the alternate dimension began to activate, and the sky darkened beneath an enormous layer of smoke and ash.
“Will it be all right to leave this fight to that guy?” Tláloc asked as he watched the two Chichimeca gods fighting.
“Xólotl is not the worst evil at this moment,” Xipe Tótec stated.
The two Toltec gods prepared to advance into the interior of Tollan, now turned into nothing but debris and ruins. However, two Chichimeca gods were also flying in that same direction.
“They are two of Huitzilopochtli’s generals,” Tláloc said in surprise, preparing himself for a fight that was now impossible to avoid.
Xipe Tótec likewise prepared his staff and entered a combat stance as the two Chichimeca generals descended to meet both gods.
“Great. That idiot Cihuacóatl could not defeat these two pieces of trash,” Camaxtli said, waving his gigantic spear and pointing it toward Xipe Tótec.
“Wait! We did not come for this!” Uichilat said. “We have to warn the commander that Tonatiuh was defeated and the prisoners are escaping!”
“If they escape, we will defeat them again,” Camaxtli replied while spinning his spear threateningly.
“Tonatiuh? The Fifth Sun?” Tláloc asked, confused.
“That does not concern you, scum!” Camaxtli interrupted furiously.
“Those people really are very strong. I never expected them to defeat Tonatiuh so quickly,” Xipe Tótec said.
Tláloc then slapped himself across the face.
“No. We cannot fall behind them,” he said.
“You can see that Cihuacóatl is distracted with an opponent,” Camaxtli said to Uichilat. “Let Chantico handle the prisoners. We will finish off these weaklings.”
“Do not underestimate us in that manner,” Xipe Tótec replied, pointing his staff toward Camaxtli.
“Since you had the courtesy to present your disgusting faces before us, the least we can do is kill you,” Tláloc said while electrifying his staff.
However, at that moment, everyone felt that Mayáhuel’s presence had also disappeared. The goddess had said that her cloning ability alone would be enough to finish off all their enemies. On the other hand, Chantico had descended into the underground caves to face the three gods who had escaped the Fifth Sun’s watch.
“Damn it, Mayáhuel too,” Camaxtli said furiously, pointing his spear toward Xipe Tótec in anger.
“You are doomed to lose, Chichimeca barbarians,” Tláloc said mockingly, pointing at Uichilat with his electrified staff.
The four gods looked at one another for a moment when, without warning, Tláloc and Xipe Tótec attacked Uichilat and Camaxtli before they could defend themselves. The two Chichimeca gods were hurled into the debris of what remained of the front part of the great divine city.
“I can feel that we are going to win,” Xipe Tótec said, encouraged.
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“Yes. I had no hope whatsoever, but those kids really are very strong,” Tláloc said with a smile.
Meanwhile, Xólotl continued fighting Cihuacóatl, when the Chichimeca goddess felt that Mayáhuel’s energy had disappeared. Moreover, she could not sense Tonatiuh’s energy either, so she assumed he had been defeated.
“It seems you have lost another ally,” the god of the Zacatecos said mockingly while continuing to float in the sky.
At that moment, a rain of arrows attacked the goddess, who avoided them all using two dark serpents.
“Who is there?” the Chichimeca goddess asked furiously.
But then she realized that, due to the heat of battle, she had not noticed an entire squadron of soldiers had entered Tula. They were Otomí warriors, possibly more than a hundred of them.
“Impossible,” Cihuacóatl said in surprise upon seeing the Otomí soldiers aiming their bows at her. “They should not be able to move in this alternate dimension.”
“These soldiers were injected with divine power, witch of the north,” a voice was heard among the soldiers.
They quickly began opening a path for their king, who was none other than Otontecutli, the Hñahñú king.
The Otomí king remembered what the members of Orniskem had told him about the use of human warriors awakening their divine power. Anpiel had spent that entire night explaining to him how he could maximize that power, so he could have a squadron of humans strong enough to fight deities.
“I used all my power to awaken them, but I am certain these soldiers will make the difference in this fight,” Otontecutli thought to himself.
“Well, if it isn’t the coward Otontecutli,” Xólotl said sarcastically. “I hope you do not believe you have come here to claim this city as yours, when you know it belongs to me.”
“This city belongs neither to you nor to the barbarians of the north,” Otontecutli said. “I have come here simply to fulfill my duty as an ally of Tula, as well as to rescue my other allies.”
The Otomí king then raised his arm.
“Shoot that witch of the north and do not let her escape!” he shouted with all his might.
The soldiers launched another barrage of arrows, which the goddess avoided using her dark serpents. However, she knew she was at a disadvantage there. Besides, if an army attacked them, they would also have to use their own men, the Caxcan warriors.
The goddess then released her two dark serpents onto the ground, and they grew to a gigantic size, taking on a greenish color, red eyes, and horns on their heads. Both serpents formed a single body from end to end.
“This beast is called Maquizcoatl,” the goddess said. “You are not worthy of facing me, so you may entertain yourselves with another of the monsters our lord Huitzilopochtli rescued from Mictlán.”
The serpent lunged toward the Otomí soldiers, who avoided the gigantic beast’s jaws while launching a barrage of arrows at it.
“Do not think you will be able to escape,” Xólotl said as he created two balls of energy in both hands, one of fire and one of electricity.
“This fight will have to wait, deformed one,” the goddess said as she flew toward the ground to enter Tollan’s underground world.
Xólotl, however, launched an extremely powerful red lightning bolt to strike the goddess, but a volcanic explosion erupted from the ground, and the enormous blast stopped the Zacatec king’s attack. The Chichimeca goddess had disappeared.
Then magma began emanating from the gigantic fissure, forcing the soldiers to search for a place to take refuge. Since they had only recently begun using their divine powers, they still did not know how to fly, so they would be easy prey for the volcanic lava.
“This is… the goddess of volcanoes,” Xólotl said, worried.
Like a star of fire, the goddess Chantico emerged from the red-hot earth and remained floating in the firmament, which was dark and filled with smoke from the volcanic eruptions.
“Well, well. What do we have here?” the volcanic goddess said to Xólotl, Otontecutli, and the Otomí army.
The goddess then opened her arms, and a rain of fireballs bathed in magma began falling from the sky, causing countless explosions throughout the city of Tula, which now remained only as ruins beneath a sea of lava.
However, despite having parts of their bodies submerged in magma, the Otomí soldiers could withstand it with effort. The soldiers then launched another charge of arrows toward Chantico.
The Chichimeca goddess surrounded her body with a red sphere, which repelled the attacks. Those bolts, more than arrows, looked like red lightning.
“I understand. This is part of Otontecutli’s power, a magmatic power similar to mine,” she said upon seeing the soldiers’ resistance to the magma.
“Then let us make this party bigger!” the Chichimeca goddess said, raising her arms toward the sky.
The firmament, covered in smoke and ash, opened, revealing a kind of fire star, like a meteorite about to fall upon Tula.
“You, no matter how much strength you have obtained, are nothing more than something similar to a Nahua. You are no rivals for us,” the goddess said as she made the gigantic meteor fall toward the ground.
The men, without hesitation, fired hundreds of barrages at the gigantic cataclysm.
But to the goddess’s surprise, the humans completely destroyed her meteor, making it explode into thousands of pieces. Xólotl, who was there, used his fire lightning to finish off the fragments that could harm the humans.
“You are no match for all of us, Chantico,” Xólotl said calmly. “Surrender and get out of here.”
Then Chantico began laughing.
“My mission was only to buy time. I knew perfectly well that I could not defeat two gods at the same time,” the goddess said, still laughing.
At that moment, a gigantic army of hundreds of Caxcan soldiers began emerging from the ruins of Tollan. All of them had their spears and bows ready to fight.
“Cihuacóatl has awakened the divine power of these soldiers,” Chantico said triumphantly. “The war has begun.”