When Shiomi and the others returned to the Storm Border's holding area, a torrential downpour was hammering the ground.
Scars of battle were everywhere.
More importantly, the Storm Border was currently facing off against a group of enemies.
A female Servant wielding a long, thin whip was breathing hard.
Behind her stood a man in a jaguar mask, leading a pack of jaguar-masked bandits.
And at the very back of their formation was a blond man in modern clothes with brown-tinted sunglasses, watching the fight with clear interest as if he were enjoying a show.
Shiomi recognized him at once.
Tezcatlipoca.
He had actually come looking for them himself.
"Finally back... no, I suppose you were pretty quick," Scáthach said. "We could feel the tremors from the First Netherworld over here. I thought we were about to get hit by a flood."
Nemo had even been ready to launch the warship into the air.
If the flood were big enough to drown all of Mictlan, the Storm Border could still switch to submersible mode.
But that would make fighting the still-unknown ORT far more inconvenient.
Even if it meant they could wipe out the enemies in front of them, it was hardly good news.
"She tried to forcibly fuse my husband's authority, then use a rampage to defeat me," Aesc sighed. "Luckily, we were prepared. [Ragnarok Gungnir] did what it was supposed to."
"I see." Scáthach nodded, understanding immediately.
"And what about here? What happened?" Skadi asked, gripping her wand and moving toward the Storm Border while shielding the battle-worn Aesc behind her.
Cradling Shiomi, Aesc freed one hand and patted Skadi on the shoulder.
"It's fine. I can still fight. My husband can too."
"No," Shiomi said, reaching out to catch the rain in his palm. "This rain is wrong. Just touching it limits our movements."
"More precisely, it's 'selection,'" Skadi said, glancing toward the Storm Border. "Servants with insufficient Spiritual Rank, and humans, will end up unable to move at all..."
Hinako Akuta and the Fairy Knights were guarding the warship to prevent any jaguar-masked bandits who slipped through from hitting their rear.
Everyone else was waiting inside.
On the other hand, Scáthach, Artoria, and even Koyanskaya as a Beast candidate could still fight relatively freely.
That was why the situation had settled into a stalemate.
"Looks like two more... no, three more divine pillars have arrived to support you," the female Servant leading the enemies said, her gaze shifting to Shiomi and the others.
Aesc felt a flicker of surprise.
Shiomi and Skadi being counted as gods was one thing, but why was she included too?
Was it the authority she carried, giving this unknown goddess the wrong impression?
"State your name, goddess," Shiomi said. "Or do you intend to hide your True Name as a Servant?"
"Silence!" the man in the black jaguar mask barked, furious. "Do not lump our noble gods together with those vulgar Servants!"
Tezcatlipoca, however, did not care in the slightest. If anything, he laughed as though he found it amusing.
"Calm down, Izcalli. Don't let appearances fool you. That man might be getting held in a woman's arms right now, but he's a genuine god."
"Tlaloc," the female Divine Spirit Servant said, giving her name. "The Rain God Tlaloc."
"Tlaloc?" Shiomi could not hide his surprise.
Tlaloc, the rain god of Aztec mythology, one of the pillars of the creation myths.
No wonder Scáthach and the others had been held in place.
Setting aside Tezcatlipoca, who clearly did not look like he had any intention of seriously fighting, the jaguar-masked bandits and that black-masked man alone should not have been able to tie them down this much, even with this strange rain.
But with Tlaloc involved, it all made sense.
Tlaloc was the rain god in Aztec myth, said to have ruled the third world in creation, and in legend that world was destroyed by a rain of fire.
No matter how one looked at it, he was a god whose strength could not be underestimated.
A high-ranking Divine Spirit manifesting as a Servant was already an absurdly overpowered kind of summoning, and on top of that, he had created terrain advantage that prevented Scáthach's god-slaying power from being used effectively.
"Seeing the three of you here, along with that disturbance in the First Netherworld... it looks like that witch was taken care of by you."
A trace of bloodthirsty excitement appeared in Tezcatlipoca's smile.
"I can feel it. One third of the separated authority has returned here."
"That's thanks to you, Smoking Mirror," Shiomi said. "And now you're taking advantage of my absence to target our headquarters. The God of War really does live up to his reputation."
"Of course." Tezcatlipoca curled his lips slightly. "In this world, there are only warriors... and useless people who can't become warriors."
"Personally, I don't care much about Nüwa's plan. Whether you save humanity or save the universe, do whatever you want. But only if the chosen one actually has the qualifications."
"What?" Shiomi frowned. Tezcatlipoca's wording sounded strange.
"Nothing much. Just a trial." Tezcatlipoca grinned with clear amusement. "Even after having his authority taken, he managed to escape alive. And in just two days, he's already recovered a third of it."
"Brother-sama, what should we do next?" Tlaloc asked. She had already noticed Tezcatlipoca's unusual attitude and understood that acting rashly would be unwise.
"The gentle blessings of rain are enough," Tezcatlipoca said, his tone rising with excitement. "Now comes war, Huitzilopochtli. You know what to do."
"Understood."
Tlaloc's expression grew serious.
"Then we'll use this Spirit Origin as your opponent. You all seem quite skilled in battle."
As she spoke, her Spirit Origin changed.
Not only her class shifted, but even her divinity changed with it.
"A war god?" Shiomi was surprised again. "She's not just a rain god? She also carries the divinity of another god?"
"A composite divinity? Alter Ego?" Aesc said in confusion.
Chaldea's observations had identified her class as Pretender, the same as Oberon.
Was that just a disguise?
"That doesn't matter," Shiomi said, raising his voice. "Master, have everyone fall back. Leave this to us."
Then he held Aesc's face in both hands.
Before she could react, he kissed her.
Doing something like that in front of everyone still felt a little awkward.
Especially when the gazes from Scáthach and the others suddenly turned rather complicated.
"Flirting on a sacred battlefield?" Tlaloc snapped, clearly angered. She swung the long whip in her hand as mana surged around her.
"[Lament of Coyolxauhqui]!"
A massive undead entity manifested within the rain that was slowly beginning to subside.
It moved together with Huitzilopochtli as they launched their attack toward the two of them.