"That's odd. If both were once supreme deities who ruled a Sun Age, why does she seem so much weaker than Kukulkan? The difference is hundreds of times!"
Ishtar grew serious, but after focusing her senses for a moment, she was still puzzled.
"Didn't we say before that these two main gods fought a great war during the Second Sun Cycle, which ended up destroying the Mayan world?"
"Judging by the outcome, Kukulkan must've won, and the defeated 'Smoking Mirror,' Tezcatlipoca, became her vassal."
"So this time, Kukulkan took the lead in the Spiritual Descent, and this puppet is probably a downgraded subordinate god."
Samael patiently explained. He showed no concern about the puppet tiger scavenging corpses.
In the Mayan creation myth, Tezcatlipoca, the Smoking Mirror, and Kukulkan, the Feathered Serpent, ruled over the First and Second Sun Ages, respectively.
The first Sun Age was destroyed because Tezcatlipoca became the sun and indulged in human sacrifices—something that deeply angered Kukulkan.
Eventually, Kukulkan struck her sister down with a weapon, casting her into the sea, extinguishing the sun.
With no sun, the world fell into darkness. Enraged, the "Smoking Mirror" transformed into a jaguar and devoured all her people.
The end of the Second Sun Age also came at the hands of the Smoking Mirror's jaguar incarnation, who unleashed violent winds in retaliation.
So the grudge between the two deities had deep roots—they had backstabbed each other so many times it painted a twisted picture of divine family "harmony."
The three listened to Samael's account and nodded in thought. Their gazes shifted toward the absurdly dressed god in the tiger suit, a mix of pity and suppressed laughter in their eyes.
To think a main god who once ruled over an age had not only been demoted and stripped of her divinity but also reduced to this level of servitude—it was downright insane!
After all, before she was defeated and bound by Kukulkan, the first Sun Age's Maya god wasn't some comic relief act.
She loved human sacrifices and embodied disaster, chaos, and terror.
Just seeing how she devoured her own people when the sun was extinguished was enough to reveal how brutal this tiger-clad being used to be.
"Honestly, all Kukulkan knows how to do is order jaguars around!"
At that moment, the puppet-goddess tossed the final corpse into the basket behind her and grumbled under her breath.
Though originally depicted as a jaguar, the demoted Tezcatlipoca now manifested by possessing a certain human using a jaguar Spirit Origin, appearing in the world in divided form.
Her self-identification as a jaguar clearly confirmed everything Samael had said.
"I suggest you stop this unauthorized human trafficking."
After sorting through his thoughts, the ancient serpent stepped forward and said quietly, eyes dark as he stared at the clownish puppet.
But the jaguar warrior, despite the absurd costume, immediately froze. Her eyes went blank and soulless, and an eerie resolve filled his face.
"I won't unload the cargo! Not even if I die!"
"Reality's just that cruel, meow. If I don't finish the job, Kuku's gonna beat me without holding back!"
To think that after her defeat, this so-called God of Destruction was turned into an obedient pet—what kind of life had she been living under Kukulkan?
Samael, for some reason, found it hard to meet the jaguar's lifeless eyes.
He even began to suspect that Kukulkan had brought this jaguar along just to have someone to vent on, giving him a beating whenever she felt stressed.
Thinking back on what happened to Tiamat, and his own hostility toward Kingu, the ancient serpent once again felt a strange warmth toward the domestic chaos of the Age of Gods.
Throughout the mythic era, fatherly love, filial devotion, and brotherly bonds seemed to bloom endlessly.
If you hadn't taken out a few of your own kin with your own hands, could you even call yourself part of that divine age?
Just as Samael fell deep into thought, Ishtar—still sore after her run-in with the feathered serpent god Kukulkan—cracked her knuckles and approached with a cold smile.
"Hah! You couldn't beat that pervert, and now you think you can handle a downgraded reject like me?"
"If you want to defile the corpses of Uruk's warriors, you'll have to get through me first!"
The Jaguar Warrior calmly raised her right hand in a halting gesture, her tone dark and eerie.
"Heh, trying to stop me? How naive! This is Kukul's trophy!"
"And with such an important mission, do you really think that cold-hearted Quetzalcoatl wouldn't assign me some guards?"
Samael rolled his eyes and gestured to the empty surroundings.
"Look around—Kukulkan already took off. You think she'd bother assigning you protection?"
"Grab her! We'll use her to negotiate with the Feathered Serpent!"
At his words, the two most furious goddesses, Ana and Ishtar, closed in from both sides.
Merlin also drew his wand and began chanting.
He wasn't just a master at slipping away in a crisis—he was just as skilled at joining a beatdown when things were going smoothly!
Surrounded by three converging presences, the previously smug Jaguar Warrior froze, cold sweat pouring down her face as she muttered in panic.
"Crap, meow! If I get caught, Kuku will definitely twist my head off and stick it in the ground!"
The clown in the tiger costume immediately backed away and blew a whistle.
"No choice! I've gotta rely on my little ones in the forest to protect me!"
"Come forth, mighty Jaguar Warriors! Meow!"
With that feline flourish in her call, dozens of pillars of light rose behind her. From the Magecraft array stepped a group of jaguar-headed minions clad in animal-skin skirts and wielding stone weapons, howling as they gathered around their Divine Spirit leader.
"Enjoy the hospitality of the forest warriors, folks—time for me to scram!"
Without a shred of shame, the Jaguar Warrior abandoned her summoned minions, vanished in a flurry of afterimages, and took off with a series of sonic booms.
"That idiot in the ridiculous hood—next time we meet, I'm cutting her down!"
Ana swung her scythe, cleaving through the last of the jaguar-headed minions, letting it dissolve into Ether particles.
The purple-haired girl stared at the empty ground, memories of the Uruk soldiers who greeted her every day flashing through her mind. She glanced toward the collapsed breach in the city wall and let out a frustrated snort.
"Don't worry. In the Mayan world, Kukulkan is a benevolent god who opposes live sacrifice. The people she took aren't dead. She's protecting them—just in her own way."
Samael spoke quietly, offering an explanation.
Ana's expression softened slightly, as if a heavy stone had been lifted from her chest. She exhaled deeply.
Ishtar, idly tossing her gems, looked puzzled.
"Then why not just say that from the start? Why make it so complicated?"
"Say it clearly? Is there even a point?"
"Whether gods protect humanity or wipe it out, their lofty will doesn't bother explaining itself to mortals."
Samael glanced at Ishtar, then turned his gaze toward the gap leading outside the city.
"Let's go..."
"Go where?"
"To the depths of the forest—Eridu. We're going to find the temple of the Feathered Serpent."
The ancient serpent paused, a slight crease forming between his brows.
"Someone has to make the first move in any negotiation. If she won't come to us, then we'll go to her."
Everyone, already planning to head to Eridu soon, nodded in agreement.
Meanwhile, Samael quietly reached for the spirit cage at his waist, his gaze falling on Ishtar's back.
But before that, it'd be safer to leave this easily-exposed item at the embassy.