Brahma, startled into action by something he obviously never expected, dropped to a knee and rolled Vishnu’s collapsed form onto its back. Black motes of disassociating subatomic particles and white radiants of unassociated Aura drifted from his obtunded body. Something was very wrong with Vishnu’s physical and spiritual ties to the iteration. A shocked expression of admiration overcame Huitzilopochtli’s undead avian features. Somehow, in an absolutely pure demonstration of power, Shiva had completely severed Vishnu's connections to both matter and spirit. The eldest Hindi, credited with the greatest defensive capabilities of any Star Child house, had been neutralized, essentially erased from existence by an off-hand gesture brought on by barely registered annoyance.

  Brahma, the dolt, completely dumbfounded that his eldest brother had been expunged in such a way tried several times to support Vishnu’s eroding existence. Heroically he pulled substrates directly from the neo zoi’s mantle to reinforce Vishnu’s eroding life. Failing at this like one trying to hold the rising sea back with a broom, Brahma had then instinctively wrapped his muscular arms around his brother’s scattering motes.

  Shiva for his part had completely turned away from the scene and smiled as if embarrassed by the family drama. He gestured for Huitzilopochtli to come before him, announcing to the dumbfounded servants around them, “Huitzilopochtli has been called for a private audience with me. Please see that we are not disturbed.”

  The massive force that had slain Vishnu was nowhere to be seen, But faced with a display that Huitzilopochtli had to assume was for his benefit, the Aztec’s pledge of loyalty and service had come shortly after. Without question he needed what Shiva was offering. But beyond this, Huitzilopochtli was certain that there was an unspoken promise he would be next should Shiva’s offer be refused. It was not a great logical leap that if Shiva was willing to eliminate his eldest brother for nothing more than to make a point to a potential vassal, everyone was expendable.

  So in Shiva’s service Huitzilopochtli now acted. The Aztec wasn’t fool enough to believe that he was anything more than a means to an end for the surprising Hindi. That was the Adharmic way. But for now their paths aligned. They both desired destruction of the Olympians and control of the Creaturix. That was enough for the time being. Huitzilopochtli was also certain that before too long passed Shiva would call on him to rid him of the rest of his far too righteous pantheon. Consuming Brahma while he screamed in horror and betrayal would be a treat worth Huitzilopochtli’s continued service.

  For now, Shiva had instructed him to be ‘subtle’ while eliminating the two mortals Gaia had recently added to her ligate team. Subtlety was not the Aztec god of war’s favored approach when exercising his appetites. What really was the point? If he couldn’t feel the last struggles of the sacrifice pressed against him and the cooling of their organs on his skin as he consumed them, why go through the trouble in the first place? Huitzilopochtli’s preferred method was to take victims while transmogrified into his undead avian form. Shredding what he planned on consuming into pieces while reveling in their last gasping breaths. Just as he had taken the two Titan weaklings… A dark light flashed through the calcified lenses staring from his rotting bird’s face while he remembered the last pathetic cries of Gaia’s golden children…The fools had expected me to fear Gaia’s retribution!

  I fear nothing…nothing but Shiva.

  Presently Huitzilopochtli’s main concern was to continue earning his master’s trust. To do so he needed to eliminate the two mortals without drawing attention back to Shiva and alerting the remainder of the Star Children that there would soon be a civil war. Huitzilopochtli wasn’t surprised that Shiva wanted the two mortals eliminated. They had gone very far to embarrass the other ligate teams in the Tafl match– Including my Aztecs. For that affront alone, he would make sure that they met a tremendously painful fate.

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

  Along these lines Huitzilopochtli had already stalked the mortals from afar through the neo zoi’s corona transmogrified in a winged form. Blending with the other flocks that the Olympians let loiter on the star’s surface. From there Huitzilopochtli had observed Gaia take her leave of them when the two had followed the path of destruction created by the plated fusion parasites nesting in the area. Clearly Gaia believed the mortals could remove the troublesome pests for her. The confidence she showed in them was high. Even to the point of leaving them unguarded. Gaia’s unwise actions also said that she had not yet learned to fear him…I will change that…but for now her carelessness with the mortals made Shiva’s command much easier to accomplish.

  Adopting a humanoid form he made a blunt forceful movement with a calloused hand opening a dimensional space before him. It had been several Ka Nexus rotations since the things hidden in this space had been needed, but he would have no trouble bringing the objects to their old uses. One could never forget the proper way to wield the tools used to dismember your own mother, could you?

  Taking a needle-like obsidian blade he pierced it through his forked tongue and used it as a handle to pull several meters of its thick dark length from his mouth. Through the pain and freely flowing blood, he continued to puncture his tongue’s black belly at half-meter intervals. When he judged the life Aura sufficient he coiled the sopping length before his face and eyed the spacing of the holes. The inky foulness of his blood dribbling into runnels down his jaw, soaking his fury chest and puddling in a congealing pool at his feet. As clouds of acrid grey billowed up and around him from the solar ground boiling the pool of his life force into vapors, Huitzilopochtli reached back into the dimensional space and grabbed a bloodletter stained from previous use. A devious device, with a razor sharp point spreading into a serrate triangular edge at its base, he pushed it through the needle holes in his stretched tongue to increase the blood flow.

  Huitzilopochtli was a novice with Star Child magi-physics creation acts. He needed ample life force to achieve what other elders could do with the neo zoi’s matrix alone. But with sheets of the blood now poured from his mutilated tongue he was sure he had enough to bring forth what he desired.

  Huitzilopochtli left the bloodletter wedged through the last puncture in his tongue and quickly used both of his hands to tie a sheaf of braided human skin to its end. The several meters of taught weaving had been sanctified for his mother’s creation purposes and had been woven from the flayed facial skin of several hundred mortal females during their labors of childbirth. Braid now attached, he used the bloodletter to needle its entire span through the oozing holes in his tongue. It came out the other end coated with his stygian blood and began to twist in his hand on its own.

  Now is the time!

  On the edge of creation, he simultaneously channelled Life Aura from his meridians and thrust the bloodletter deep into the coronal matrix of the neo zoi under his feet. His Intent guided the genesis of the rising organism below him. Gaining mass rapicly, the beast unearthed itself from the star’s material like a hatching from an egg and to form before his eyes. Slowly at first, then with an increased pace, the new life coalesced into being before. Made with his own blood and Aura, it was part and parcel of him. As such, the new beast felt no threat when Huitzilopochtli patted its irradiant black exoskeleton with a heavy hand. The fusion parasite vibrated with exuberance at its maker’s pleased attention and its eight thick limbs flexed rhythmically in joy. Sinuously they rolled like waves of the sea from their base at the solar insect’s hourglass abdomen to the tapered spear points of its feet.

  Yes, you will serve excellently. Huitzilopochtli commended the beast through an exhausted breath and healing tongue still reeling back into his mouth. Ready for the next step, the Aztec sent commands instructing the parasite to invade the local nest, overcome the existing brood mother, and await two mortals who were soon to attack the nest. The beast was to slaughter them without mercy.

  With its mandate received, the fusion insect burrowed through the solar mantle on its way to perform its master will.

  Prodigy cultivators or not, there was no chance the two mortals could survive the encounter they were headed for. A triple weave cultivation could overcome the monster he had just Created and unleashed.

  Huitzilopochtli's maw twisted into a dark smile. I will be feasting on them soon!