For soone who has lost everything, even their own past, what is the cruelest thing?
To make them rember everything they once were?
That might be cruel. But sothing even crueler is to place before their eyes everything they once lost.
"What... happened?"
Camazotz knew very well that his attack had not killed the target. The Unity God was still alive.
The problem was that, at the exact mont his Noble Phantasm, 'The Scythe that Beheads Those Who Do Not Worship the Sun,' struck, Shiomi and Morgan had countered with 'The Earth Mother's Feast.'
Which Noble Phantasm had prevailed, Camazotz could not tell.
His thoughts began to dull, unable to comprehend the scene unfolding before him.
He stood within the fourth underworld, Yayauhqui, a land steeped in death.
Yet what he saw now was a sight that did not belong in this place.
By forgetting everything about himself, by denying himself all desires, Camazotz had managed to survive until now.
Because otherwise, he would not have been able to live.
As long as he rembered, as long as he wished for anything, he would endlessly recall that hell.
The hell where ORT awakened. The hell where Ka'an was destroyed.
Yet sothing even crueler remained.
He had already forgotten the people who, over one hundred thousand years, evolved from mammals into humans and built the Kingdom of Ka'an. The people who once lived happy lives in that prosperous nation, beneath the rule of their king.
The world they had shared.
And now, in this very mont, those people long forgotten stood upon a sunlit land of spring, looking at their king with warm and reverent eyes.
The final king of Ka'an.
Camazotz.
"No... no... this is all an illusion."
Camazotz, now returned to human form, clutched his head in agony.
"That guy Tezcatlipoca said it himself... the 'Court of Despair' of the Fairy Queen Morgan..."
"There's no such thing."
Shiomi spoke slowly, denying Camazotz's assumption.
Having released the form of the Unity God, Shiomi walked up from behind and stopped beside him. Together, they gazed upon the Underworld, now bathed in light and transford into sothing like a dreamlike paradise.
"You were far too careless. Even if you're a god, coming this close without attacking ans only one thing awaits you. Death."
Camazotz clenched his fists.
If he wished, his claws could tear Shiomi's body apart.
"If you want to fight, I'm ready at any ti. But... are you really going to end this miracle, one that exists only in this single mont?"
Shiomi asked.
"Why did you accept Tezcatlipoca's conditions? Why did you seize my authority? And why, ignoring the truth, did you try to resurrect the warriors of Ka'an with that power?"
"..."
The claws Camazotz was about to swing stopped midair.
Shiomi's questions froze him in place.
"What you forgot. What you've been searching for all along. Again and again. Over and over."
Shiomi continued looking at what Camazotz refused to face.
"For six million years..."
"I told you not to act like you understand—"
"I don't."
Shiomi slowly stepped aside.
"So things can only be understood by those who lived through them. Everything I said just now was nothing but empty speculation. If you feel no attachnt to this, then go ahead. Destroy everything in front of you."
"Don't think I can't. It's nothing more than an illusion..."
Camazotz was about to transform once more into the colossal bat-beast.
But a single, careless glance at the people who had died six million years ago bound him in hesitation once again.
Things that should have been forgotten resurfaced.
Things that should have been forgotten resurfaced.
Millions facing extinction.
Tears of grief.
Tears of relief.
Wails. Blank stares.
Parents and children crying "I don't want you to die," as they threw themselves into the furnace.
Warriors smiling as they stepped into the flas, saying, "Please save us."
At the bottom of that furnace, as a limbless mass of flesh, Camazotz had witnessed it all.
Back then, his heart had felt nothing.
Only a faint thought.
Ah. So they died.
That was all.
It was not that Camazotz lacked blood or tears.
It was not that he was cruel.
But when Ka'an reached the mont where all its people had to be sacrificed, the mont he saw the first person jump into the flas...
He had already gone mad.
Only that madness allowed him to endure such sacrifice.
Only that madness allowed him to carry the power offered by all his people.
Only that madness allowed him to defeat ORT and repay the sacrifice of his entire nation.
And yet, even after defeating ORT, what aning remained?
The people who should have cheered the king's triumphant return were gone.
The people to whom the king could declare that he had followed their will and defeated the catastrophe threatening to destroy them were gone.
Everything had been sacrificed.
So to whom could he speak of that victory?
"Please do not say such things... my king."
"You defeated that monster. You tore out its organs and cast its body into the deepest layers of the earth."
"Our deaths were aningful."
"We have never regretted it."
Those standing in the light, the forr people of Ka'an, had gathered around Camazotz before he even realized it.
They seed to be speaking.
And yet it also seed as though they said nothing at all.
Because the answer had long been carved into Camazotz's heart.
He had simply forgotten even that.
He wandered for six million years.
He searched for six million years.
Through Mictlan, again and again, searching for the Kingdom of Ka'an and the people who no longer existed.
Now even the refuge of forgetting had been stripped away, forcing him to rember everything.
Camazotz spoke quietly.
"Warriors. Citizens. Was I truly a king worthy of your lives? Was this truly a nation worthy of your sacrifice?"
His voice trembled.
"If that's true... if it really is true!!!"
A vast surge of Mana erupted from Camazotz.
He still had more than enough strength left to fight.
Camazotz slowly stood.
Instinctively, he restrained the spreading Mana so it would not destroy everything before him.
Across the sea of people, Tenkei Shiomi stood.
Not as the Unity God.
Just himself.
Standing there alone, facing him.
That was enough.
Whether Unity God or his true self, it made no difference.
From the beginning to the end, Camazotz had only been interested in this man.
An enemy who also sought ORT.
An enemy who also wished to defeat ORT.
"You want to reach where ORT is? You want to defeat it?"
Camazotz grinned.
"Then show what you can do, God of Proper Human History!"
He did not transform into the bat-beast again.
He did not even spread his wings.
Step by step, he walked through the sea of people, carefully avoiding destroying this miracle born from his forgotten mories, awakened by the authority of the Unity God for this single fleeting mont.
At less than ten ters apart, Camazotz bared his teeth, his eyes blazing.
"As you wish, final hero. King of Ka'an."
Shiomi answered.
And the two warriors charged toward each other.
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