Aztec Eternals

The Leman River comes from the eastern plateau and winds its way to the west. The rainy season makes the river turbulent. This is a natural crossing of the river, and the river is only two to three hundred meters wide here.

Groups of Tarasco and Mexica canoes docked on either side of the river. At this time, the boat armies of both sides were watching the pre-war sacrifices of the Tarascos together with one hundred thousand soldiers.

Xiulot looked at Tarasco's colleagues with great interest, watching how they held a morale-boosting performance.

The crests of feathers on the heads of these priests spread like a fan, preferring the indigo blue feathers. They all wear a string of necklaces around their necks, and in the middle of the necklaces are one or several pottery round containers shaped somewhat like gourds. The boy was very curious about what these "pottery gourds" were used for.

Priests placed sacrificial utensils one after another on the newly built altar.

The first altar symbolizes the main sun god of Tarasco, Kuri Kaveri, who controls the sky of the universe and is the most important god. The priests placed a golden sun with a diameter of several meters on his altar, reflecting the dazzling golden light under the sun.

The second altar symbolizes Tarasco's Mother Earth, Kvelava Peri, who holds the earth of the universe and is also the god of harvest and minerals. The priests carried a huge copper ore and placed it on His altar. The surface of the spotted copper ore flowed like water waves in the sun.

"This group of strange Tarascos, where did their beliefs come from?" Xiulot was a little curious. "Neither believe in the god of war nor in the feathered snake god, which is completely different from other Mexican tribes."

"Their beliefs should come from the Baggio and Mikencho people who were conquered by them hundreds of years ago. It is the original belief in the Patzcuaro Lake area. They believe that the Patzcuaro Basin is the center of the universe and provides the power for the world to run. .And the universe is made up of three parts: the sky, the earth, and the kingdom of the dead below," Arvitt explained.

"So the Tarascos have a completely different language, culture, and beliefs, and they are alien races isolated from the rest of the world?"

"Yes! That's why the Tarascos don't have any allies in the world." Avita nodded.

"But we Mexica don't have any allies either," Sholot responded.

"The strongest don't need allies." The two laughed and continued to look at the priest on the other side.

The last altar symbolizes Tarasco's goddess of the moon, Haratana, daughter of the sun god and mother earth, who holds the underworld of the universe, the kingdom of the dead. The Tarasco people especially admire the god of death, and invented the "Day of the Dead" for "Haratanna".

After a while, dozens of priests brought an unusually huge clay pot, and there were many yellow lumps in the pot. This is the symbol of the moon goddess.

"What's in that pot?" Shulot asked curiously.

"That's the Stone of the Dead collected from the rift in the world. It comes from the underground world of the dead, and it can communicate with the world of the dead." Avit spoke seriously about the information he had learned.

"???" The boy's head was a little dazed. He knew that the gap in the world should refer to the crater in the west. The underground world definitely refers to the underground. But what is the Stone of the Dead, which communicates life and death? Is this a fantasy plane?

With 70% curiosity and 30% bewilderment, Shulot continued to watch.

The priests of Tarasco quickly finished placing the symbol. Then, in front of the three altars, the peasants brought in a large amount of firewood and thatch and piled them into a huge firewood pile.

Afterwards, an extremely majestic old man, with a gorgeous feather crown, held a torch high, lit the pyre, and bestowed "the flame of the gods".

Immediately, the priests used wooden sticks to borrow the "divine flame" from the pyre, lightly poured a little into the pottery gourd, then held the pottery gourd to their noses, and ecstatically inhaled the smoke from it.

"Is this magic smoke?" Shulot asked in surprise.

"Yes, unlike our war priests, Tarasco's priests carry magic smoke with them. They add a lot of strange plant minerals to it, which is said to make it easier for them to communicate with the gods."

The boy was speechless for a while. Soon, the smoking priests fell into a fantasy world. They began to dance violently on the altar, using various strange postures to create a mysterious atmosphere.

The dance is accelerating, the flames are rising, and the smoke rises into the sky, transforming into strange shapes. The priests on and off the stage chanted loudly at the same time. The desolate and simple mantra resounded through the sky, praying for the coming of the gods.

Avitt simply translated the prayers beside him, first praying to the Lord God of the Sun, and then thanking the Goddess of the Earth. Finally, the moon god, who communicates with the underworld, begged him to resurrect all the war dead and enjoy wealth and peace forever underground.

Under the awe-inspiring eyes of the soldiers on both sides of the strait, the sacrifice at the altar finally reached its climax. The dancing priests took out obsidian daggers and cut their cheeks without hesitation, letting the blood draw mysterious patterns. Then, high-pitched prayers spread across both sides of the river, shouting the divine name "Haratana".

The unusually majestic old man reappeared. He commanded dozens of priests to lift up the huge pottery pot on the Luna platform and throw it into the burning pyre. The clay pot shattered in an instant, and yellow lumps scattered, and then quickly burned in the flames.

Immediately afterwards, an unusually gorgeous blue flame rose from the pyre, like a ghostly fire coming from the ghost, with a strangeness and magnificence that does not belong to this world, and crazily imprinted into the eyes of every bystander.

At the moment when the blue fire rose, all the Tarascos fell into a frenzy of selflessness. Whether warriors or militiamen, a total of 80,000 fighters knelt on the ground and chanted "Hara Tanna" together.

This time, the shouts were like thunder in the rainy season, splitting the clouds in the sky, bursting the fields on the ground, and shaking the Mexica warriors on the other side of the river. Many warriors bowed down to the blue flame in panic. Even the fierce and proud jaguar warriors turned pale, showing fear of the pagan gods.

At this moment, Avet stood up abruptly, staring at the opposite command flag. There was the only Tarasco there who did not kneel. Avit couldn't see that person's face clearly, but he wanted to keep him firmly in his heart.

The moment he saw the blue flame, Shulot also stood up in shock: "God! The Stone of the Dead, it turns out to be sulfur!"

The boy estimated the volume of the huge clay pot just now, with a thoughtful expression on his face.

The Tarascos of the early Bronze Age could easily produce thousands of catties of sulfur. This proves that within their control area, there must be huge reserves of natural sulfur mines. On the western coast and on the islands of Lower California, struvite is abundant as a source of saltpeter. Plus the ubiquitous wood used to make charcoal. The manufacture of gunpowder is unique in Mesoamerica.

The young man was fascinated by the gorgeous blue fire. The crystal clear beauty seemed to be a blessing from heaven: "As long as the development bottleneck of the Iron Age is overcome, the Gunpowder Age will follow. The future is always full of hope!"

Xiulot couldn't help smiling, but unexpectedly, his teacher and friend pinched the boy's cheek.

Avette asked with some seriousness: "Sholot, looking at the blue flame, do you believe that the Tarasco just summoned Death?"

Xiulot was amused by his friend's seriousness: "That's just the color of special minerals after burning. If there is sulfur, we can also burn blue fire."

Avit also breathed a sigh of relief. Although he didn't believe it, he was also a little nervous just now.

"You need to take the war priests to do a sacrifice to pray to the god of war as soon as possible to restore the morale of the Mexica warriors."

After hearing this, Shulot carefully observed the warriors behind him, and found that they were really shaken and their faces were ashen. These brave men who have experienced many battles and are not afraid of death will be frightened by the myth and the blue fire, and their morale will drop.

The young man couldn't help but shook his head: "These pagans pretending to be gods and ghosts!" Then he quickly commanded the priests accompanying the army, and began to pretend to be gods and ghosts.

The pre-war sacrifices on the other side of the river came to an end soon. The priests yelled words that the young man couldn't understand, it should be some kind of promise in the name of God. Afterwards, thousands of soldiers cheered loudly, and their morale was like a rainbow.

Inspired by the high morale, five thousand Tarasco's pikemen were the first to board the canoes and drove towards the north bank with high spirits.

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