[166] Schemes in a Foreign Land; Jaguar and the Tiger

Chapter 166: Schemes in a Foreign Land; Jaguar and the Tiger

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We were greeted by the stellar spirits that served this realm as servants, and it was no less than a royal treatment. Just standing beside Serafall, I could feel her jealousy at the devils never getting to greet me in the same manner, or anything close.

As guests of the realm's ruler, the eyes of the stellar spirits looked at us with respect and awe. 

The Ninth Heaven was called the abode of the White God and Stellar Spirits; with the former being Quetzalcoatl herself, and the latter being the entities that greeted us.

While they were called stellar spirits, they certainly were not some creatures made out of photons. They were angels but with a more colorful pair of wings than the bland white ones that the Biblical Angels adorned. 

Among those who greeted us, there were a few humans too. Since this was heaven, human worshipers of Quetzalcoatl ended up here. The few that were present before us, however, must have been particularly incredible during their living period since they were allowed to stand with the angels.

I felt a few of them sending me odd looks, although they tried to hide them. That was a little confusing to me; they didn't give the same look to Serafall, who was a devil, but why me? 

"Let your eyes wander, my friends," the proud Dragon Goddess led us through the red carpet that had been spread for us, as petals of flowers were showered at us by the servants standing on the sideway. "We shall enjoy a feast, first and foremost!"

"Sure thing," I was curious about Aztec cuisine, myself.

Serafall and I followed behind the dragon till she came to a stop at the end of the red carpet. A man who wore a similar outfit to her stood, although his one was brown and generally of a darker shade. His hair was an odd mix of blue and green, while he held a stone tablet in his hand, as if an iPad. 

I saw a lot of resemblance from him that matched Quetzalcoatl.

"It has been a while, my lady," the young, muscular man bowed to her. 

"Yaxkin, my favorite prince," the dragon woman smiled and looked back at us. "He is my current Avatar and assistant and has been so for centuries. Yaxkin, you already know who these two are."

The young-looking man raised his head and nodded, "It is a pleasure to meet you, Satan Leviathan, and White Tiger Sage. If you need anything while you're staying in Ilhuicatl-Teoiztac, I'll be happy to fulfill all your requests."

"Heya~! Nice to meet you too!" Serafall did her bright greeting, while I just shook hands with the man. I guess that wasn't the most culturally appropriate thing to do, but who knew what worked as a handshake's equivalent to them?

"I'll lead you to the main chambers," the Avatar said, and we followed after him. He took us to the edge of the stone pyramid we had landed above, and at the edge, there were large stone tiles. We could see the lush forest below, although a few patches of clouds obscured some parts.

"Step in any," Yaxkin said, stepping into one of the tiles to demonstrate. Serafall followed after, as Quetzalcoatl and I did the same.

"We could have just flown there," Serafall said while Quetzalcoatl scoffed.

"Of course, you'd say that since your place can never offer such luxury," she said just as the tiles shot forward at a breakneck speed.

Within a few seconds, we appeared atop a majestic pyramid-like castle. How tall was it? It was mind-boggling as we stepped to the top of the pyramid, with Serafall's eyes looking around in awe.

Then we were led inside through a literal elevator. I don't know what I expected, but a modern elevator in this building was not it. The elevator opened to a hallway where we walked, heading towards the dining, as my eyes flickered by the paintings on the wall.

"A lot of painting,"

"Some are pictures," Quetzalcoatl said.

"Aha. What's up with this one?" I stopped beside a frame and pointed. It was quite a suggestive photo, of a curvy girl wearing a bikini and a cap, showing off her tattoos.

It looked like a photo, not a painting.

Wasn't it a bit too slutty?

[Image Here]

"Ah…" Quetzalcoatl stopped and showed me an awkward grin. "That's uh Kukulan."

I frowned, "I thought you're Kukulan?"

The girl in the frame certainly had similar features, but not enough to be the same as Quetzalcoatl. She didn't have blonde hair, for starters, it was more similar to Yaxkin. She also had tattoos covering much of her body, none of which I saw on the clear skin of Quetzalcoatl.

She rubbed the back of her head while her Avatar, Yaxkin sighed. "Kukulan is indeed her, but it's an alter ego. That version of her is a lot more childish and does things on the spur of the moment."

"So a dumber version of her?" Hopefully, I never have to meet her—if she's dumber than the already dumb Quetzalcoatl, I don't want to ever see her face. 

"...." Quetzalcoatl shot me a short glare but said nothing, and her Avatar observed the exchange in silence.

"...Somewhat," if Yaxkin found my blunt words offensive, he didn't show it. Perhaps seeing that his Patron Goddess didn't mind my little insult, he deemed us close enough to joke in that manner.

Still, it took me another second to accept that Quetzalcoatl had multiple personality disorder. That's so cute. 

The four of us continued walking while I kept asking her more about the paintings. It was mostly fun stories, short and unique. But when we reached one particular frame, I paused hard. It was a stunning picture. 

It looked like a gloomy piece, with some interesting story behind it. It depicted the usually cheerful Quetzalcoatl that I knew in a depressed manner, with golden tears flowing down her cheek, her expression a stone, while a blonde-haired and blue-eyed man grinned from behind her, his fingers wiping over her golden tears.

[Image Here]

"Ah, that one," Quetzalcoatl stopped and looked at it. Her expression went cold. "It's an old work. It depicts the bad times of my life…. That guy behind me is Tezcatlipoca, the Jaguar God, I'm sure you've met his Avatar before. This painting is from the era when he ruled the Pantheon, rather than I." 

"Aha," I looked at him, at his nasty grin, with a thoughtful look. What is this now?

"What a coincidence," Serafall said as if reflecting on my thoughts. Her fingers gently brushed over the painting. "He has similar features to you, Aqua. Long blonde hair and blue eyes, and basically the same powerset too, as the Jaguar of the North."

"Yeah," I hummed.

The Mayan and Aztec legends shared a lot of similarities with the Chinese myths. No, they had similarities with many of the Earth's cultures—such as the pyramids.

Like the Azure Dragon of the East in the Chinese myths, the Aztecs believed in the Feathered Serpent of the West. In the same manner, the White Tiger of the West had a counter here called the Black Jaguar of the North.

Coincidentally, I had a similar appearance to this Jaguar. Now it made sense why the mortals who greeted us at the gate looked at me weirdly—since as the Sage of White Tigers, I let out sparks of feline divinity as well. Perhaps they thought I was his son?

Not that it mattered to me. From what I've heard, hundreds of years ago Quetzalcoatl defeated the Jaguar God, and since then the man has been spending his time having isolated himself in his own heaven, the 6th Heaven. Quetzalcoatl basically owned all of his possessions; I'm assuming the black jaguars that dragged the golden canoe were also his familiar, but here was Quetzalcoatl openly using them for herself.

For a defeated warrior in this culture, he was just Quetzalcoatl's belonging now. He was harmless now.

"...Anyway, let us continue." Quetzalcoatl didn't seem to want to stay near this for too long. So we continued, although this time there was an awkward silence in the air.

We reached the dining room, with a table as tall as a bus waiting for us.

****

[Third Person Point of View]

God-in-Spirit Tezcatlipoca, God of Night and Sorcery, Patron of Kings and Warriors, sat on a broken throne with his expression as empty as a clear night sky.

His throne room was broken, not having experienced maintenance for centuries, yet he sat on the throne with the regal pride of a Chief God. Some would call him a fool for having such pride after his defeat, but it was the exact thing that made his loyal subordinates stay loyal.

His current Avatar, kneeling before him, was one such person. She's the strongest Avatar he had ever had, and it made sense why, as she was a Demigod before she was his avatar. His own daughter was born from a human woman. 

Tezcatlipoca turned that human side of her into his Avatar, effectively raising her into a full God. It was a complex process, having made Tezcatlipoca push his sorcery to its limits, so few Gods could imitate it. It was why she was as strong and majestic as most Gods of this foolish pantheon; and she didn't fail to look the part too, with her black modern outfit and staff weapon.

[Image Here]

"So you say, Yohualteuctli," he called her after she was done with her report. "This… young human has such a strong scent that he reminded you of me?"

"Indeed, Father…" she kept her head low, her ginger hair and jaguar ears eerily still in his presence. "I even thought he may be one of my brothers whom I didn't know the existence of, because of the similarity in your human appearance as well."

"Hmm."

"However, it turned out to be the young human who's been famous recently. It's he who turned into a Demi-God by himself, the boy going by the name White Tiger Sage," she paused for a moment before continuing. "I've also heard the news, though I'm uncertain about the source, that he has defeated the current wielder of the White Tiger Sacred Beast in Japan with minimum ease."

"....Is that so," Tezcatlipoca slowly rested his elbow on his throne's arms, and his chin on his palm. "Befriend him. Do not be hasty with anything, just try to stay on his amicable side. This can't be a coincidence, I sense a destiny in this—perhaps he will be my trump card in throwing off that rude woman's tyranny."

The Aztec calendar was rolling towards that date when the other part of Quetzalcoatl would awaken. It was an opportunistic time.

"Understood, Father," Yohualteuctli said in affirmation, nodding at him while she looked up at him with her red eyes.

She was curious about what type of person this young boy was.

****

"Cheers!" Serafall was grinning brightly as she slammed her mug of alcohol against Aqua's and poured it down her throat.

The jealousy from earlier about how cool Quetzalcoatl's heaven was compared to the underworld seemed to vanish as alcohol drowsed her senses. She giggled like a schoolgirl and slammed back the mug on the table.

"Th-this is-" she hicced, "Good stuff. I'd like to have some for home!"

"Yes, of course!" Quku declared from the other side of the table with a drunk blush on her face. But she didn't act drunk, her tolerance seemed quite high.

"You ladies need to chill with the alcohol," Aqua rested his chin on his hand and looked at the two of them with a soft smile. His face too had a hue of red, and his speech pattern had a tint of flirt in it that he didn't usually have. "It's dangerous to get drunk with a young man in his teens when you two are alone."

"He's drunk,"

"He sure is~"

The two ladies giggled as they looked at him, and he shrugged. He was a little drunk, that's why he felt like switching, but it was far from enough to turn him into an idiot.

"We'll be fine," Quetzalcoatl said, pointing outside the massive gap in the wall that acted as its window. "Look, those outside are getting ready for celebrations too. This is the 10th month in the Aztec calendar, the month of fruit and harvest. People are all loud and celebrating around this time in heaven. So no, we're not alone with you~"

That was true. It was heaven, those people had no other thing to do but enjoy themselves. So while the three of them were alone in this pyramid, enjoying this drinking party after having eaten food of heaven's grade earlier, they didn't exactly feel alone.

Still, if these two ladies thought that the celebration outside would keep them safe from him, they were mistaken. Because fuck the booze was good, and he got all horny out of it.

He's going to hit at least one of them today for sure, and he was looking forward to who it would be.

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