The temple to which the three gods headed was the largest of those found on the esplanade. It was a four-tiered pyramidal structure with striking red and white colors. Skull ornaments adorned the precinct, together with red-and-green columns.
The soldiers protecting the structure allowed the gods to enter without any trouble. Inside the precinct, there was a bed made of palm where a blond woman was sleeping. Beside her, Freyja recognized the god Xochipilli and his sister Xochiquétzal, who were caring for the woman.
“You… are the foreign gods, are you not?” Xochipilli asked the group from Orniskem.
“Forgive us for not introducing ourselves earlier,” Menrva replied, then gestured toward her companions. “My name is Menrva, and these are Freyja and Anpiel.”
The Toltec sibling gods stood and made a slight bow.
“We are Xochipilli and Xochiquétzal. A pleasure,” they said in unison.
“I… met y’all in the Trial of the Thirteen Heavens,” Freyja replied while looking at the beautiful Toltec god with seductive eyes.
“You took that suicidal trial and survived?” Xochiquétzal asked, confused.
Then both gods began speaking to each other. They assumed they were speaking quietly, but everyone could hear their conversation.
“They are very strong, elder brother,” the goddess said.
“Yes, younger sister. Such power is terrifying,” the god replied.
Menrva looked confused and indicated to them that she could hear them clearly.
“She has mind-reading abilities, elder brother,” the goddess said.
“We will have to speak more softly, younger sister,” the god replied.
“Without a doubt, peculiar people exist everywhere,” Anpiel said with a smile.
Menrva coughed to interrupt the conversation.
“In truth, we have come to see this girl sleeping in this precinct,” the Etruscan goddess said.
“Do you know her?” Xochipilli asked in surprise. “She was found unconscious on a beach in Xicallanca, but because of the communication problems caused by the Chichimeca attack, they had not been able to bring her here until now.”
“She seems to be a goddess like us, but she is still asleep, so we do not know how or why she came here,” Xochiquétzal added. “We are here to prevent her from doing anything wrong if she wakes up.”
“Do not worry. She is harmless,” Menrva replied.
“What surprises me is how she was able to enter our territory with our protective barrier. She would have drowned after losing her energy,” the Toltec god said, confused.
“It is possible she nearly drowned, and that is why she remains unconscious,” Anpiel said, touching her neck. “She still has vital signs, but I can tell she is extremely weak.”
“Well, as long as she does not wake up, we will not know what she came here to do,” Xochiquétzal said with an indifferent gesture.
“No,” Freyja replied. “One of our companions can wake her.”
“That is true. Loki woke the giant on that occasion,” Anpiel added in surprise, and Freyja nodded.
The Norse goddess then spoke telepathically to her companion. After a short while, Loki teleported to where everyone was. The god’s clothes were put on carelessly, and he wore a tired expression.
“This better be important, waking me up like this,” the Norse god said in a foul mood.
“Only you could sleep at a time like this,” Menrva added.
“Yes, it is important,” Freyja interrupted and pointed at the girl.
“Do you want me to sleep with her?” Loki asked with a lewd gaze.
“Elder brother, that one seems like a pervert,” the Toltec goddess said, trying to speak quietly.
“I know, younger sister. The people from the other side seem depraved,” the Toltec god replied.
“I can hear what you’re saying, you idiots,” Loki interrupted.
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Freyja, with her hand on her face in frustration, scolded Loki and informed him that he had to wake the girl, since she was Ninshubur, Ishtar’s servant.
Loki sighed and, reluctantly, prayed:
“Hugur sprengja (Mind Blast).”
After a moment of silence, the goddess opened her eyes.
“Where… where am I?” the woman asked, not recognizing the place where she was.
“Nin, it is me, Menrva. Do you remember me?” the Etruscan goddess asked Ishtar’s subordinate.
Ninshubur saw Menrva, and at that moment, she began crying uncontrollably.
“I thought I would die!” the Sumerian goddess cried out. “I cannot believe I was able to find you… I thought I would die!”
The goddess tried to rise, but she was very weak. Without hesitation, Menrva knelt beside the goddess and embraced her with all her strength.
“My lady… Lady Ishtar… those monsters from Olympus…” Ninshubur began saying through her tears while Menrva continued embracing her.
“We are here with you. You no longer have to fear,” Menrva said.
Anpiel and Freyja also approached the Sumerian goddess.
After about five minutes, Ninshubur finally began to feel calmer.
“Pallas no longer exists. We were attacked by Olympus under Lel’s orders,” Ninshubur said in a faint voice.
Menrva had suspected for some time that this had happened, but now she finally had the confirmation she had feared so much. Although the goddess had been prepared for this moment, internally, she had wished never to hear such words. She wanted to lie to herself and believe that everything was still fine.
“What happened?” Freyja asked, confused. “Asgard still ain’t given me much information about it.”
Ninshubur looked at the blond woman in confusion, not knowing exactly who she was.
“Do not worry, Ninshubur. She is Freyja, an ally from Asgard,” Anpiel said.
“You are… the malak Lord Ares crucified,” the Sumerian goddess said. “I am glad to see that you recovered completely.”
Then Ninshubur looked toward the floor and began telling them what had happened.
“It happened a few days after you departed from Pallas,” Ishtar’s subordinate said. “The human armies of Olympus broke through Pallas’s defenses, commanded by Hermes, the psychopomp.”
Menrva turned pale. That deity’s name was widely known as one of the most powerful gods of Olympus. If anyone had a chance of breaking through Pallas’s defenses, it was him.
“The male human squadrons were commanded by a soldier named Theseus, and the female ones by a warrior named Hippolyta,” the goddess continued narrating. “Despite being humans, their powers surpassed those of most malakim, and even several gods who lived in Pallas. Especially those two…”
Then Ninshubur covered her eyes, filled with frustration.
“Lady Ishtar was no match for that woman called Hippolyta,” she said, sobbing. “But before she was defeated, she threw me out of Pallas through the dimensional hole the Olympians had made.”
“Do you know… what happened to her, or to my master Athena?” Menrva asked nervously.
Ninshubur shook her head.
“I think Horus was trying to stop Hermes, but without much success,” the Sumerian goddess replied. “I do not know anything else that happened.”
Then Ninshubur looked toward the ceiling while tears continued flowing from her green eyes.
“I saw… Pallas explode in the distance… I was the only one who survived that massacre,” the goddess said.
Menrva embraced Ninshubur again, since she felt the goddess might faint from that story.
“I wandered… through space for several months until I miraculously managed to find Earth,” the goddess continued explaining. “All I could think about was finding you, so I tried to enter this continent, but a barrier stopped me from the atmosphere.”
“Indeed, the barrier protecting this continent cannot be crossed from the celestial side,” Xochipilli said, as he and his sister also listened to the conversation.
“I then tried to enter by sea, but a group of malakim destroyed my vessel, and I ended up underwater,” the goddess explained. “From one moment to the next, I lost my strength and began drowning.”
Then Ninshubur stared at Menrva with tired eyes full of concern.
“That is all I remember… I thought I would die drowned, but now I am here with you,” the goddess said.
“It was when you entered the barrier that you lost your strength,” Anpiel explained. “The same thing happened to us.”
Then Ninshubur pulled away from Menrva’s arms and lay back down on the bed.
“Please, save my lady… I beg you,” she said, crying, and at that moment, she fell asleep again. She had lost a great deal of ichor, so her energy was at its minimum.
Menrva stroked the goddess’s head and stood, then looked at the two Toltec siblings.
“I know this is an abuse of your trust, but… could she stay here in Tula?” the Etruscan goddess asked the Toltec gods.
“Now that we see she is not a threat, I do not think there will be any problem with her staying with us,” Xochiquétzal replied.
Menrva thanked them and told her companions to return to their rooms.
Freyja winked at Xochipilli and signaled to him that tomorrow she was going to be alone. The god was left perplexed and did not know how to answer her.
“Ah, are y’all done?” Loki asked, still half-asleep.
The gods said goodbye to the Toltec siblings and disappeared from the temple, returning to their quarters in Tollan.
At that moment, Menrva collapsed to the floor. The goddess had literally heard that Pallas had been destroyed, and that could involve her master Athena as well. The mere idea that Athena might be dead and not a prisoner terrified her.
Freyja lifted the Etruscan goddess and tried to calm her.
Logically speaking, it was not convenient for Lel to kill Athena just like that. They would have to exhibit her as a spoil of war and then kill her, turning it into a spectacle. But they had already been in the New World for more than three months, and many things could have happened by then.
“I am fine, Freyja. Thank you,” the Etruscan goddess replied, rejecting the Norse goddess’s hand, and stood.
Menrva regained her composure and looked at her companions.
“Tomorrow, early in the morning, we will speak with the others about what we saw, and we will depart immediately for Ibiza,” she ordered.
Freyja felt sad because she would not be able to see the beautiful god Xochipilli, but she understood her friend’s frustration and accepted it.
“Will we see the people who helped us on this journey, as Epona requested?” Anpiel inquired.
Menrva nodded.
Then Menrva looked at all of them with eyes full of determination.
“Starting tomorrow, our vacation in this world is over. It is time to face the trial my master foretold,” she said.