Scattered rain fell through the night. Firelight flickered bright and dim, while screams rose sharply and vanished. Black Wolf Toltec stood tall and proud at the highest point of the city wall. The surrendered general Pap bowed slightly, his bearing respectful and obedient, one step behind him. And so the two stood one before the other atop the high wall, watching the fierce cries of slaughter spread all the way onward, watching the wavering flames flash in the drizzle, until they covered the entire city-state!
"Main God protect us! He is watching us!... Kill! Kill these so-called god-descendants who obey false gods! Exterminate every Hidden Snake tribe of the rebel Alliance!..."
The night deepened, yet the killing boiled to its peak. The Kingdom Warriors swept forward like a storm, surging over every city gate. The Hidden Snake Warriors were struck without warning and had no time to organize; they could not even find their tribal leaders. That night, their faint, dying resistance was like summer blossoms beaten down by a downpour, trampled beneath straw sandals, seeping red juice. Then blossom after blossom of fresh crimson began to circle inward from the outer city on all sides, slowly spiraling toward the very heart of the ancient city. At last, that flowing blood-red gathered in one place, as if running against the current, all the way up onto that towering pyramid!
"Praise the Main God! We fight for the Main God and seize this last false-god holy shrine!"
The slaughter came surging like a tide, drowning everything in the city, and at last gathered before the central pyramid. The fanatical Kingdom Warriors shouted the Main God's slogans, swung their sharp battle axes, and cut down the last stubbornly resisting Temple Guard. Then, treading over slick rainwater and blood, treading over dying Hidden