Nahua smiled with sickly sweet innocence under the combined, deadpan stares of the gathering. “You can try to tickle it out of me all you want, but I am not telling what awaits.” Her sing-song tone only made it more aggravating. “The Glory Road is a sacred path through the first sky and into the temple where the first touched the second. I have told you all you deserve to know. From here, show me merit.”

Sighing, John sorted what he did know. It wasn’t a lot. ‘The Glory Road cannot be crossed in a single day, that’s about it,’ he thought. ‘The great temple of Huitzilopochtli lies at the end.’ “Will you be accompanying us at least?”

“Of course. I have my own questions for my father.”

‘Then I can at least squeeze context clues out of you,’ the Gamer thought. “By her request, Hailey will be coming along with the main force,” he then continued the discussion. “Scarlett also wants to test the thing she shouldn’t have built in the first place.”

“I only shouldn’t have built it if it goes wrong,” the redhead immediately shot back.

“Which it totally won’t,” John teased her. “Delicia and Lee will remain here. Metra, Beatrice, and Claire will remain as guards, as will the Creator Puppet. That means our expeditionary party consists of me, Aclysia, Ehtra, Nahua, the elementals, Hailey, Scarlett, and Jane. Nia is around.”

“You keep mentioning this Nia and yet all I ever sensed of her was a distant, horrifying thrum,” Nahua commented.

“Yeah, that’s our Nia,” Rave answered plainly. “Ya get it when ya get it. Try not to be totally disgusted when ya see her, she’s actually really cute.”

“Okay?” Nahua was confused, but that really was all they could say on the matter. What Nia was and what she could do, the demigoddess had already been told.

“Do we really need that much security?” Delicia questioned. “I mean, I get it, I’m the most precious thing around, but Metra, Beatrice AND Claire feels a little bit overkill to guard anything.”

“Since Hailey and Scarlett will be out with us, yes,” the Gamer answered. With all of his non-combatants in one spot, he had been happy enough to leave the majority of people that may have managed to get through Lee’s defences to them. They had enough Stats to overpower anyone of equal level, as four, just by the power of numbers.

Two removed meant one true combatant had to replace them. That was Beatrice in this mix. Metra would have stayed either way because she was the most effective countermeasure against the kind of dimensional magic that could easiest cut through Lee’s ability to lock down the base. Claire was best here because they would be moving through the day. Considering the local weather was still well in the category of ‘scorching hot sun rays’, the vampire for once agreed readily not to accompany the true body of her Master.

“In an emergency, I’ll have them teleport to me, as per usual,” John assured.

With that, their preparations were wrapped up. Everyone knew where they were supposed to be and thus they entered the Glory Road.

‘Mhm, so this isn’t a part of the Eternal Sanctum?’ John thought and dismissed the window to inspect the actual place in front of them.

What had been a flat stretch of jungle had been replaced with an overgrown set of temple structures. The 500 years of isolation had not been kind to many of the Aztec structures. Massive tree roots slithered between blocks of cut stone. For the most part, however, the sheer weight of the buildings meant that the trees only grew around them. Only smaller plants survived on top of the ziggurats.

The layout and style of the buildings hinted towards purely ceremonial purposes. There was nothing John would have titled as living space and all was built around a singular road created by that interwoven carpet of crimson stakes.

“This isn’t right!” Nahua hissed and walked ahead. “Where is the first seal?!”

John raised an eyebrow and followed her. The demigoddess broke out into a sprint. At her Agility, even he could follow her at the equivalent of a casual jogging pace. They advanced rapidly, crossing the easily thousand metres of the barrier at superhuman speed. Then, something strange happened.

Nahua vanished. John did not stop, following the demigoddess immediately. He felt that typical resistance related to clashing with the border of an Illusion Barrier. What usually needed to be shattered to be overcome instead was like a thin but stretchy membrane that he had to push through. His field of view was distorted and colourful, as if he was looking through a bubble of soap. The bubble popped and John found himself behind Nahua once again.

They stood once more on the road. Before them was a similar, yet different sight. The buildings were taller, the road narrower, and the sky possessed a slight crimson hue. John managed to make out a circle of red, crossed by eight lines.

‘I do not like that,’ he thought. ‘I do not like that whatsoever.’

From all that John had come across, the circle crossed by seven lines was the most efficient way for mana to flow. It was a shape that occurred in the cores of Metracanas, in the eyes of human gods, and in the magical matrixes of incredibly potent, enchanted items. A circle crossed by eight lines was likely less efficient. It was still close to perfection and, more importantly, it was hovering faintly above them in the sky.

‘This is the connection to the second sky, where the gods are reborn,’ John thought. He glanced over his shoulder. ‘How does this work anyway? A set of overlapping barriers that are progressively smaller?’ He looked ahead and found the same pattern that was on the sky prominently displayed on the invisible wall opposite of their current location. “I suppose this is our second seal?”

“Yes,” Nahua answered, her tone still darkened. “Now, what cur is sniffing around the place?”

“I knew I sensed something!”

An explosion of radiant light accompanied the appearance of Glory and War. The two Horsemen manifested left and right of a glorious, golden banner, which had appeared on top of the tallest ziggurat framing this segment of the street.

“Another worthwhile contestant has arrived!” Zelos shouted. “Let us do battle, group of the Gamer!”

“Don’t we have a truce?” John shouted back.

“We have mutual hostages!” War bellowed. “Which means we are still in conflict! Unless you threaten to execute Famine over this plot of land, we will fight!”

“And if you do execute Famine over this plot of land, do remember what we have,” the white rider added. “It would be a shame to force our Lord’s hand! He has taken a liking to your seer, you know? Don’t introduce the need to cut her down.”

John grit his teeth at the suggestion of Lorelei’s death, but stayed silent. Famine was sitting on a shelf back in the plane. For his cooperation, he got to watch whatever he wanted on Netflix and was given the occasional mild blood infusion so he wouldn’t cough every waking second.

The two riders were right, he wouldn’t threaten the hostage over this current affair. “What do you mean ‘another worthwhile contestant’?”

“Exactly what he said!” Liakan shouted.

John inhaled deeply and turned his gaze over to the three members of the Azure Tribe. “Everyone is out for dramatic effects today, huh?” he shouted, trying to mask his frustration with sass. Liakan, Karia, and Singed stood on top of another ziggurat. “Can we speak in a way that doesn’t require me shouting?”

“We would rather not get stuck between four rocks,” Karia answered.

“Four?” John muttered.

“Four!” Rave squeaked.

“Stop getting excited about this, Jane.”

“Ya stop getting excited about butts and I stop getting excited about cool fights!” Rave stated.

“You people again?! Urgh!” On top of a third ziggurat, Malady appeared in an electric flash. The mechanically enhanced human woman rolled her neck. “Can we go a week without running into each other? Didn’t we agree you should get your own dig-sites?”

“Didn’t I beat ya down?” Rave shouted back.

“That was a draw and you know it!” Malady ran a hand through her white hair. “You are not invited into our camp, just so you know it!”

“None of you were invited here!” The fourth faction appeared through red portals on top of the fourth and final ziggurat that surrounded this segment of the street. The speaker was a man black of body, his head covered by a mask equal parts object and alive, depicting the head of a great cat. Next to him was the flayed, bleeding form of the god-warrior John had inadvertently freed when releasing the seal on Nahua.

Last was an unknown contributor, a colourful lamia with feathered wings and a long snake tail for her legs. Her long, green hair was interwoven with feathers and frills, giving her a chaotic look. Pointy ears poked out of the sidelocks that framed her heterochromatic eyes, one blue, the other green. Her skin was like Nahua’s, tan but covered in white lines mimicking the Aztec art style. The same kind of lines decorated the scales of her lower body, blue on green. On her wings, there was no dominant colour. They were equal parts red, green, blue, and white.

Tezcatlipoca, the Lord of Darkness; Xipe-Totec, the Flayer Lord; and Quetzalcoatl, the Feathered Serpent; the three god-warriors were all present.

“WARRIORS OF MY FATHER’S REALM!” Nahua shouted in her home tongue. “THESE FOREIGNERS ARE HERE UNDER MY INVITATION! THEY WILL TAKE THE TRIALS LEGITIMATELY!”

Xipe-Totec laughed. “The lord of the second heaven has decreed that the trials shall be violent! All of these outsiders shall struggle for his favour by clearing the trials in competition! Those that break the most seals will enter the palace first.”

“As the Flayed One says.” Quetzalcotl giggled behind a raised hand, causing her rather enormous tits to quake distractingly. “We have been tasked not with ending these trials, merely with assuring that blood flows on the sacred grounds.”

“Sacrifices will have to be made,” Tezcatlipoca growled. “No seal shall be lowered. If ever there is peace between the factions competing to see the god of sacrifice, they shall stand for eternity!”

“Will my father see me?” she asked.

Xipe-Totec answered while the younger two exchanged an uncertain glance, “You too shall face the trials, Nahua! No exceptions have ever been made! You are on the Glory Road! Earn glory or I will have your skin!” He stopped for a moment, then grinned as well as his bandaged, skinless face allowed. “Not that your new form is worth it, bloodless one!”

Nahua grit her teeth so intensely John could hear it. He could only assume that a lack of blood was an intense insult in a culture that valued human sacrifice so intensely. That they stood on a carpet created from stakes meant to extract souls only doubled that impression. “Be careful who you insult, Flayer Lord,” the demigoddess spoke in a flat voice. The rage roiled under the surface, audible for all.

“Oh, I am so threatened!” Xipe-Totec curled a singular finger. “Face me, then.”

Purple fog rose from Nahua, as she crouched down. Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca readied themselves for a retreat. Before the situation could escalate, John grabbed Nahua on the shoulder. ‘You cannot defeat him,’ he told her flatly.

‘How would you know?!’ Nahua hissed back.

Visual data was easily shared, comparing her Stats to his level. It was not perfect, as Xipe-Totec was a monster in Gaia’s eyes. Still, the gulf between their powers was immediately apparent to the demigoddess. She still had the relative Stats of herself at level 487. Xipe-Totec was level 806. To fight him on her own, even with her new Perks, was doomed to fail.

“Afraid?” the Flayer Lord mocked, when he saw that Nahua was absorbing the disease back into her. “Think I won’t succumb to the Giant’s Puss?”

‘Let him think what he wants,’ John advised. ‘Don’t give your new powers away.’

“You mean nothing to me, soulless one,” Nahua stated, before turning away harshly from the display. Despite her best efforts, she did take another glance over her shoulder. Xipe-Totec was still grinning, clearly untouched by her insult. “I hate this thing,” she hissed at John.

“Have your fun! Remember, war is all you are good for!” Xipe-Totec cackled, before disappearing, alongside his fellow god-warriors, into one of Huitzilopochtli’s portals.

Despite what the Flayer Lord had said, no one went into an offensive. Instead, the Azure Tribe and the Horsemen disappeared elsewhere into the forest behind the ziggurats. ‘Siena?’ the Gamer reached out to the shadow spirit.

While all of this excitement had been happening, the midnight elemental had separated from the group and scouted out the area. ‘Seems like each of our enemies has claimed a quadrant of the barrier. The south-east is still available,’ she reported. ‘The Illuminati are to the north-east, the undead to the south-west, and the Azure Tribe to the north-west.’

Since the glory road went south to north, the order suggested that either the Illuminati or the Azure Tribe had arrived first. It was ultimately inconsequential. Fact was that John had to contend with them now. “Is this the part where you tell us a little more about how this works?” the Gamer asked.

Nahua was hesitant, then sighed and answered in a serious voice, “Alright, you should have found it in the first segment, but we were robbed of that limitation.” She gestured at the distance seal. “There are seven segments on the Glory Road. The first segment is the segment of the separation, where the worthy are explained the rules and take a final rest before embarking on the journey. Segments two to six are the segments of the Blood Games.”

“Spooky name… sorry,” Rave joked, then apologized when she got a warning glare.

“The warriors that wish to stand before my father compete for the honour. They sacrifice their own blood and the lives of one another, fighting with the crimson stakes wherever they come across one another. Those that survive until the end are then elevated and allowed a life in the inner realm upon reaching the seventh segment, where the temple is located.”

“How do we break the seal?” John asked.

Nahua shrugged reluctantly. “There are trials. Sometimes they are obvious, sometimes they are not, sometimes there just has to be conflict, but in all cases only one seal can be broken in a day. Seals are replaced after the trials are over.”

“That sounds exploit’ble,” Hailey drawled.

“In the age past, we would flay those that try to cheat and keep them alive with magic long enough so we could hang them by a rope made from their entrails,” Nahua stated simply. “It did not happen often. This type of control is obviously not available today.”

“No… and I think we are now heading for the first big confrontation,” John stated.

“Took you long enough!” Malady shouted at the sole figure advancing down the road.

The woman did not react. She walked with ritualistic slowness. The tips of her feet drew semi-circles with every deliberately swaying step. She wore oriental sandals and a white kimono that was reinforced with metal armour in areas that would not hinder mobility. Long, black hair was bound into a high ponytail.

The woman was short, by John’s standards, barely, if even, reaching 1,65 metres. Her figure was apparent, courtesy of the sash wrapped tightly around her waist, showing a balanced hourglass with decently large breasts and shapely hips.

John recognized her face. It was the face of the woman he had fought in Prague, yet this was not the same woman. A prominent scar ran from forehead to the top of her lip, parting her dark eyebrow, but leaving her blue eye untouched. A pair of swords hung from her hips. Neither was Sahtu.

“I request a duel,” the woman said plainly.

“Don’t have to ask me twice!” Rave charged in immediately.

‘…I don’t know what I expected,’ John thought.