Aztec Civilization: Destiny to Conquer America!

"Holy Mother! Are they all dead? All dead!..."

"Damn! This one, this one... it looks like Captain Sancho’s head! And the Holy War veterans!"

"!!..."

Four large ships of the Castilian expeditionary army, carrying two hundred sailors and soldiers, anchored at the fjord’s entrance, guarding against possible enemies. A swift caravel, carrying the officers and noble captains, reached the deepest part of the fjord.

Then, they climbed the prominent hillside and saw the blood-stained, horrifying altar. Dark red pooled on the altar and slowly seeped out, staining the small hilltop. And those rotting, open-eyed heads were the demons of evil and fear manifested in this world!

"Ah!! This!... This must be a demon’s ritual! A ritual of desecrating souls!"

"It’s evil demons! Almighty protect us! Almighty protect us! Begone, demons!..."

In the past few months, the officers and captains of the Castilians had killed many of the Taino tribes but never felt any unease. They would only laugh heartily, not taking it to heart at all. After all, these powerless, non-threatening natives could hardly be considered human!

However, at this moment, seeing the death of their own kind’s dregs, witnessing this demonstration warning in the form of a head tower, they instantly felt hairs stand on end! For the first time, they felt fear in their hearts, the fear of being killed by the natives! They argued anxiously, unable to comprehend how this could happen at all?

"Carajo! How is this possible?! Three tribute-collecting large ships, over one hundred twenty people, half of them elite breastplate soldiers! What kind of native tribe could wipe them out in one go, without even a chance to escape?"

"Yeah! What about their Caravel? No matter what they encountered, even if enemies on land numbered thousands, they could always escape by boat, right? The natives’ small boats couldn’t possibly catch up to their sailboat!..."

"Holy Mother bless! Damn it, I don’t understand! Why would they appear in this narrow bay? Such damn terrain, logically they shouldn’t have come in!..."

"I figured it out! Demons, it must be demons, demons worshipped by the natives! They must have fallen under a demon’s spell! There’s a demon who can sing the Siren (Sirena) sea demon’s song, luring them here, then devouring them all, leaving only the heads!..."

"..."

Captain De La Cosa remained silent, unbearable memories from three years ago once again surged in his heart. He carefully watched the hummingbird emblem on the altar and murmured.

"Tribes worshipping demon birds... could it be the Cipangu Native Kingdom again?"

On the other side, Bartolomeo had walked onto the muddy ground beside the altar. He squinted his eyes, frowned, as if staring at some incomprehensible pattern. After a while, he called out to De La Cosa.

"De La Cosa, come here and have a look! The natives left us a... um... a red painting! Seems like it was drawn with blood?"

Hearing this, De La Cosa immediately walked over. But after looking for a few moments, his brows also furrowed.

"A painting by the natives? Such abstract lines, what does this depict? A hairy cockroach? Several slugs next to it? Are they dancing?"

"No! De La Cosa, this should depict ’people’! Look, these few bald people are dividing this hairy person into segments... then they dig out his heart and throw it into the fire. And they cut off his hairy head, throwing it among many hairy heads... huh?!"

Bartolomeo attempted to interpret for a while. But as he spoke, he suddenly stopped, a flash of insight in his mind, looking towards the pile of heads on the altar.

"Almighty! Throwing heads together? Ah! Could this be?!"

"Exactly! Barto, this is a warning from the demon natives! The hairy heads refer to us! And the natives here, oddly hairless with no beards, are those slugs... So this is a group of natives sacrificing the captives they killed, the depiction of us!"

Captain De La Cosa’s expression was grave, as smart as he was, he had already guessed the answer. Furthermore, he thought of more, capturing common elements in his memories.

"Merciful Lord! Such barbaric and bloody conduct... must be those barbaric Cipangu natives! Vicente and Sancho’s tribute fleet must have been ambushed here by the Cipangu natives’ oar-sail ships! Just like last time, when they ambushed me and Captain Columbus’s exploration fleet... Only the Cipangu Kingdom’s oar-sail fleet could devour their medium-sized Caravel!"

"Those Cipangu natives, extremely savage and fierce! They fear not death, shout with zeal, ramming their longships over, then engage in brutal board fights! They have metal weapons, decent armor, many elite soldier-like warriors, and morale terrifyingly high!... Yes, it must be them! Only they wouldn’t fear firearms, capable of killing Holy War veterans!"

"Quick! Call all the officers and captains over! Let them also see this painting left by the natives!"

Soon, all the officers gathered together, looking at the simple blood-drawn sacrificial painting left by the Red-haired Chabo. The painting’s finale depicted an island, piled with hairy heads, and a sailboat fleeing eastward away from the island...

Thus, the meaning of this painting became very clear: "Either escape, or die! Just like here, just like the crew beheaded and sacrificed!"