'What the hell was that?!' You thought, breathing heavily as your heart began to slow down while you fell to your knees from sheer fatigue, both physical and mental. The confrontation with that unholy monstrosity had been pretty nerve-wracking but at least it was all over now. You felt that you weren't as baffled at having unleashed literal thunder than you should be.
"That was my power, the turquoise serpent Xiuhcóatl, the lightning bolt. The most powerful weapon among the Aztec gods" The rougher voice in your mind responded.
"Of course, a mortal would need to perform a spell just to summon a fraction of its power but I must say your weapon is a remarkable vessel to channel it"
"It's still not over yet, my child" The kinder, more motherly voice then spoke, also in your mind "Keep fear away from your heart and we shall continue to guide you to victory"
You looked up and noticed that the clouds seemed to be getting thicker, blocking almost all of the sunlight. The clouds themselves looked dark but they didn't look heavy in the same way that rainclouds full of water did, there was definitely something unnatural to these ones that only blocked the sun's light. The sudden shift in weather was already odd but now that the supernatural was on the table it actually made sense.
Huitzilopochtli, the patron goddess of the Aztecs was both the goddess of the Sun and War, arguably the mightiest among the entire pantheon though there was some room for debating as Quetzalcóatl and Tezcatlipoca were also extremely powerful primordial deities. In any case, the sun was supposed to represent Huitzilopochtli's might and as long as its light shone on the sky, the Aztecs believed they were protected from the terrible monsters from the dark like the perverse goddess Itzpapálotl and her swarms of Tzitzimimeh. It was believed that the night and eclipses were the times when they could roam free and wreak havoc so, taking that into account, it perfectly explained why the sun was being blocked now.
'Thank you goddesses for saving me. I know I don't even really deserve it since I don't even follow your religion but if you don't mind me asking, why was that thing trying to kill me?' You asked in your mind after you put your thoughts back together to be able to think straight.
"Might as well tell you, my child. Itzpapálotl is furious that your grandfather slew one of her minions and has been wanting revenge" The softer, more mature-sounding voice responded.
"But in this day and age it's very difficult for any gods from largely deceased religions to interfere with the world... in fact, it's very suspicious, as if someone were performing rituals to empower her to be able to cause something like this. By blocking the Sun's light, my protection is weakened further and she is able to exert more of her power. It's been so long since I've had a human heart!"
"We've already discussed this, Huitzilopochtli, you can't keep eating human hearts!"
"Argh! It's a shame those things have no hearts, you could sacrifice them to me and then I'd be able to come down myself and teach that pesky butterfly a lesson!"
"Anyway... the Tzitzimimeh are ferocious but not very intelligent, I believe they're chasing after you because you're holding your grandfather's machete" The calmer voice spoke and just then, you saw a woman appear before your eyes in ethereal form.
She was pretty tall, actually about as tall as you were, with long, flowing blonde hair and heterochromia, one of her eyes being emerald green and the other sapphire blue. However, she was extremely scantily clad, wearing golden bracelets and what looked like a jaguar skin bikini that was a bunch of sizes far too small, plus she had a pretty curvy figure with large boobs comparable to Jen's, a pudgier belly than, say, your mom's or Lillian's and massive thighs and hips that hinted at an even bigger behind, once again like that of Lillian's. Her giggling confirmed that the calm, motherly-sounding voice was hers.
She looked partially transparent like a ghost, yet her aura or whatever sort of energy she gave off didn't frighten you. She patted your head but it felt as if the wind itself caressed your hair, after which she smiled at you and winked before disappearing with the wind.
"You're not alone. You have both Huitzilopochtli and myself on your side. Now, you better get ready because this fight isn't over. Stand up and be strong, my child for I, Quetzalcóatl, shall not allow you to die today" She spoke into your mind once more and right before you heard the wind howling menacingly, feeling the cold breeze blowing against the surface of your skin, giving you chills but making you clutch the machete more firmly.
As the goddess predicted, the shadows around you thickened and from them more Tzitzimimeh emerged, this time two of them. You stood up and got into a fighting position, there was no running away and well, apparently you had the 2 top Aztec deities on your side, even if it was some madness hallucination from sheer panic you still had to give it a shot. Recalling your grandfather's story, you could feel that your determination anchored your soul, just like him, you weren't going to allow yourself to die right there and then, you still had things to live for and you were going to make sure of that at any cost.
The two unholy skeletal abominations lashed out at you at once, like wolves from a pack attacking their prey together but you kept your cool, dodging their initial charge as you noticed that one of them was only making a bluff attack to trick you into dodging hastily, blocking its slashing claws with your machete's blade. The attack had been strong enough that the bony claw sank a little into the metal blade, as if trying to strike it with a bar of butter. The claw rapidly began to glow a bright red and it erupted into flames, making the Tzitzimimeh back away and howl in pain.
You leaped towards it and took a swing at its neck as if you yourself were possessed by primordial fighting instinct: to kill before you were killed yourself. Or perhaps it was Huitzilopochtli's war-like tendencies flowing through you. However, your attack was halted by the other Tzitzimimeh, which blocked your strike at the cost of her own arm. Your machete's sturdy metal blade made a loud clanking noise but it still sliced through the bony appendage without any apparent damage and blood came gushing out from the newly created wound.
"Yuck! Their blood is as disgusting as ever" You heard Huitzilopochtli complain shortly after the monster's blood splashed on the ground. Just then, the two monsters charged at you once more but you felt an electrical surge come out of the blue, starting at your shoulder and supercharging your nerves, making your arm move with uncanny speed. Bolts of electricity coiled around your arm as you took another swing and this time that electricity flowed through your arm, around your machete and into a lightning bolt that struck the monstrous duo head-on, thoroughly electrocuting them.
At that moment, it was as if time slowed down, they both left a wide opening as they were stunned by the electricity that shocked their bodies and your grip on the machete tightened, slicing across one of their necks and cleanly beheading them right there. Not wanting to lose your momentum, you followed that attack with another swing but this one went a bit below the skeleton's neck and instead your blade smashed its ribcage, breaking its body into two crude halves.
The one whose head had been cut off rapidly burned up into ashes that scattered to the wind but the other one remained alive, but with only her upper body still working as the rest burned up similarly. Just as you'd done with the first one's snake appendage, you stabbed this one in the head to finish it off, shuddering a little at its inhuman shrieking that somehow conveyed unbelievable amounts of frustrated hatred towards you and your entire species.
'No one will ever believe this' You then thought with a quiet chuckle, feeling your own control of your body begin to return to you because so far it had been overtaken either by the goddesses or your most primal instincts.
'Besides, I'm not as strong as my grandpa, he didn't need help' You sighed.
"And who's to say our hand didn't guide his back then? He was just about your age. True, he was more hardened by his life in the jungle but he was still a mortal. There's no shame in needing help when something is clearly beyond your own capacity alone" Quetzalcóatl spoke into your mind with a tone that was completely in line with what you'd expect from your own mom, grandma or someone like Dolores.
"Do not drop your guard yet, my child" She then warned you and it sounded like she was clenching her teeth, making you wonder why she suddenly sounded so tense.
You then looked and saw something even more unbelievable than everything you'd faced so far: The ashes of the monsters you'd just slain didn't just vanish into the wind, they'd been still floating and flowing around you, carried by the unnatural breezes that swirled around your grandparents' field-like garden. These ashes began gathering and then a dark whirlwind formed right before you, spinning increasingly quickly. You then heard crude noises as if a bunch of bones were hitting each other and to your horror, the ashes from your defeated foes gathered and seemingly melted down, shaping themselves into the form of black bones as yet another Tzitzimimeh formed right before your very eyes, but this one was made of these black bones instead.
"She's summoning one of those?! Crap, who in the damn Mictlán is powering this bitch up?!" Huitzilopochtli growled. Definitely not a good sign.
"This... this might be beyond your capacity, my child. Even with our help... just try to survive! We... we're going to try something" Quetzalcóatl said, trying not to appear worried but it was crystal clear to you that she was.
"We're going to need at least a blood sacrifice! He's half Aztec, that should be good enough!" Huitzilopochtli spoke "Kid, if you want to survive you're going to have to draw some of your blood, it's the only way we'll get enough power to manifest, even if only for a few minutes!"
"No, we're not consuming human blood anymore! And we're not going to make one of MY children bleed themselves when there's a monster that wants to devour them!"
This black-boned Tzitzimimeh then let out a booming shriek that sounded much more like that of an unnatural murderer, as if screaming with the voices of countless slain innocent souls and yet a dark rage could be sensed from them. It took a swing at you with its massive bony claws just like the others but this one was much faster and you only dodged it by what must've been sheer reflex. You could feel that this one was a hell of a lot stronger than you were so you tried to keep your distance but this was no better than someone trying to fight a tiger or a bear, even with a weapon you felt outmatched...