"Splash!"
The August rainy season came pouring down in torrents, and the divine domain of the Rain God ruled over the world of the Mexica. In such heavy rain, large-scale military operations were all severely affected. The storage and transport of grain had become a major problem; food removed from granary storage was extremely prone to damp, then spoiled with terrifying speed in the hot climate. And so, the campaigns across the whole world temporarily fell quiet. Countless warriors and farmers waited in silence for the harvest after the rainy season, and for the killing and sacrifice after the harvest.
"Whoosh!"
From highlands to lowlands, from the Oaxaca Valley to the seashore, howling winds swept and rolled. The banners of the Alliance and the Main God snapped in the wind, planted atop the walls of every city-state. After attacking into the Oaxaca Valley, the Alliance's southern expedition army had in practice split into three parts, continually adding troops from the rear while continually dispersing into garrisons.
The northern branch army numbered more than ten thousand men, with Chiltototl the Flower Carving as legion commander. Its main force was a Royal Legion of six or seven thousand men, joined by four or five thousand from the City-State Legion. After campaigning for so long, no legion could possibly have avoided casualties. Even the Royal Legion had likewise paid with many dead and wounded, falling far short of its full complement of eight thousand. At present, this legion had just captured Mitla, the easternmost God Tomb City of the Oaxaca Zapotec. Most of the Zapotec nobles of God Tomb City had turned to ash and smoke, while only a small number of God-descendants fled east with their trusted followers. They escaped into the eastern extension of the Oaxaca Valley, into the northern mountains