This Tzitzimimeh in particular seemed more intelligent or at the very least acted less recklessly, swinging at you with her sickle-like claws but also keeping some distance and it looked like her gaze was focused on the machete in your hand. You could hear her snarling ominously, definitely sounding like a monstrous beast that hungered for your flesh and blood.
The black-boned skeleton slashed at you a few more times, forcing you to block and parry most of those hits because she moved too fast for you to keep up with. Her bones proved sturdier too as they heated up and sparks got chipped off of them but your blade didn't cut through them as easily. To make matters worse, this Tzitzimimeh was able to grow two additional arms, making for a total of four and with these newly acquired limbs she slashed at you more ferociously, forcing you to to get away.
Sensing an impending sense of doom you dashed in brief bursts so as to not take your eyes off her for too long, sensing that if you turned your back on her she'd instantly leap and kill you. Several trees were cut down as she tried to get you as you both headed deeper within the jungle-like garden.
Your heart was beating so fast that it felt as if it could burst out of your chest any minute and you briefly wondered if the goddesses had forsaken you, as you could no longer feel their influence but then remembered that Quetzalcóatl specifically mentioned that you needed to "toss aside your fear". Maybe becoming fearful for your life was preventing their help, in which case you were royally screwed over right now because who wouldn't be afraid in a situation like this?
'Well, if I die here at least nothing of value will be lost. Better me than my grandparents' You then thought while still trying to keep away from the Tzitzimimeh and her murderous rage. How many times you'd been running around the garden? You were running out of trees to hide behind and your legs' muscles ached, though the intense adrenaline rush still powered them for now.
You took a deep breath and gulped hard, trying to steady yourself. The effort felt as if you shoved your hand into your own chest and squeezed your own heart, trying to force it to stop it from beating so fast. However, you soon realized that this wasn't even the real problem: You needed your heart to keep beating fast so you could keep doing all this strenuous effort or you would've collapsed long ago, the problem was not your heartbeat going into overdrive, the problem was that your mind had become clouded because of it, because you felt like you were about to die, turning this into a self-fulfilling prophecy.
You kept taking deep breaths to try and regain your focus, all while dodging the Tzitzimimeh's rampaging swings, each with the full intent to slice you to bits. Escaping was never an option but at least before you stood a chance to make it out of here alive. You took another deep breath and gripped the machete's handle with both hands.
'Better to die standing than to live on your knees' You thought, that being the iconic phrase of Mexican Revolutionary Emiliano Zapata and at this point, if you weren't going to make it you decided you'd go down hurting this beast as much as possible, in hopes it wouldn't get your grandparents. Using both arms, you took a swing at the bony monster, which somewhat parried it with one of its arms but it did get a nasty, bleeding cut on the forearm.
'Good, bleeding out will eventually weaken this thing' You thought but right at that moment, another of its arms hit you back in retaliation. Fortunately it was with the back of its palms, away from the deadly sickle-like claws but the blow still had superhuman strength put into it, sending you flying several meters back until you smacked against the remains of a cut down tree.
"I've already won, I don't care" You said in between heavy breaths as you struggled to stand up while the Tzitzimimeh menacingly approached you. It then began a relentless assault, striking you with all 4 of its arms and you were forced to block and parry every single hit with your grandpa's machete, relying on sheer reflex alone but also being painfully aware that the moment you misjudged an incoming attack that would be your end. As long as you kept making the correct guess you'd live but you were only prolonging the inevitable, the strength granted by the adrenaline pumping through your veins was already fading...
Without even realizing it, during one of these attacks you managed to cut off one of the Tzitzimimeh's hands right at the wrist, making it reel back in pain as more blood gushed out of the arm bones. The sight was bizarre, even though you knew that in real life bones did make blood, but the amount coming out was much greater than what it should be. However, in spite of having one less arm, the ferocious monster attacked you even faster than before, adding a thirst for revenge to its already murderous intent.
You could feel it, in spite of blocking and parrying more hits from those deadly claws you had gotten some cuts on your shoulder, abdomen and legs, you could feel your own blood leaking out and with it, your own strength was getting sapped away. Your heart pumped even faster, as if it were a car engine going into its absolute maximum speed and with a brief surge of raw power, electricity flowed through your arms and into your machete, imbuing it with its essence, making it so that when the monster's claw touched it, all that electricity rushed at it at once, instantly vaporizing the arm it traveled through and heavily electrocuting its body, letting out a frightening scream that in spite of sounding so thoroughly inhuman, it undeniably carried the sense of it being a dying cry.
Sensing an opportunity that couldn't be missed, you lunged at the beast and tackled it, then stabbing it in the skull with the machete, sinking it as much as possible, watching the whole thing rapidly start glowing red. You then plunged the blade even deeper into it, causing it to burn up into thin ashes that scattered to the wind and once the head was gone, the rest of the body crumbled down to a fine dust that was carried away by the wind as well.
"Finally" You tiredly allowed yourself to fall on your back, feeling completely demolished, like you went into red numbers with your strength and stamina, somehow using more than what you had available and now everything ached to hell.
"Well, I've got to give it to you. You fought with a bravery worthy of any of my warriors!" Huitzilopochtli's voice was heard in your mind once more.
"I don't like that you were essentially throwing your life away! What do you mean nothing of value would be lost?! Can you even begin to imagine the pain your birth mother would've gone through?" Quetzalcóatl said, scolding you in a more mom-like way than your own mother ever did but then you heard her sigh and practically felt her mood soften.
"But you did admirably, my child... even with fear gripping your heart like that, you still managed to fight and defend your own right to live"
'Thank you...' You replied to both deities' praise. No one would ever believe you but that was fine, at least, as far as you knew, you had lived up to the worthiness of your ancestors. How many of them even heard the voices of the gods once in their lifetimes?
But then, you noticed that the blood seeping from your wounds somehow got set ablaze, although the fire didn't burn you or even emit any heat, though the flames glowed with a very dark red.
"Huh? What the-?"
'Crap!' Huitzilopochtli growled.
'Oh no' Quetzalcóatl said worriedly.
'What's going on?!' You asked in your mind.
'I can't reclaim the blood!' Huitzilopochtli growled more, deep frustration evident in her voice.
'Of course you can't, he didn't bleed himself. That blood was spilled by the Tzitzimimeh, it was an offering to her...' Quetzalcóatl explained.
The wind then howled in a way that reminded you of the bony monster's own dying cries, it was as if the air itself was crying in pain. The temperature somehow lowered to the point of it being actually chilling while the pressure increased out of nowhere, suddenly feeling as if you were in the depths of the ocean. The ground began to shake and there was a massively loud noise, akin to that of tearing fabric but with ominous, booming reverberations and before your very eyes, you saw that a portal was getting crudely opened before you. Something... or someone was clawing their way through, cutting through time and space itself to force an opening.
The sight was so bizarre that you felt as if humans would've been forbidden to lay eyes on such a thing because you practically saw a gaping wound being torn into reality itself, even bleeding some form of ethereal lifeblood as what looked like drops of the very same air splashed down on the ground, only then vanishing for good. And from this most crudely made portal emerged the figure of a woman, although not a skeletal one like the previous ones.
It was a woman of medium to average height with rather dark skin, similar to Sheila's, a more chocolatey brown compared to the more bronze-like color of your own, your mom's or Dolores' even. She had black hair arranged in a simplistic ponytail, but you noticed that there was a golden headpiece on her forehead with the shape of a butterfly. It looked like a symbol of royalty, like something an Empress would wear. To go with that, she also wore 2 large sun-shaped earrings made of gold as well.
Her eyes were crimson and glowed ominously, specially in the increased darkness you were in. Her hair was thoroughly black like your own or your mom's. A second look at her made you realize that two insect-looking antennae sprouted from her head and those had a feathery look, like a moth's.
Her clothes were simplistic but definitely looked like they were from ancient times. She wore a sort of wide multicolored collar that covered down to her chest, similar to what you'd seen in many depictions of the ancient Aztecs but also the Egyptians. Right on the middle there was another disc made of gold with the insignia of a butterfly surrounded by obsidian blades.
Her body was rather slender with only moderate curves, giving her a look of a lean fighter or perhaps a dexterous ballerina. On her waist there was a multicolored short skirt that surprisingly didn't have any gold ornaments on. Looking at her again, you noticed that while her skin was dark brown, her hands and feet specifically were deathly pale and each was fitted with large, deadly claws. The hands and feet had black circles dotting their middle section. You then felt a gust of cold wind, prompting you to look at her once more, seeing that she sported two massive black butterfly wings. Your heart sank, there was no doubt in it, you knew who this was...
'Itzpapálotl!' The 2 goddesses and your own inner voice exclaimed at the same time...