Aztec Civilization: Destiny to Conquer America!

The pale Knights roamed the Great Island of Puerto Rico, spreading invisible death, bringing clustered, swollen pox, and reaping the lives of countless Taino Tribes. And a more venomous, more terrifying danger was still brewing, soon to be loosed by the Evil Demon’s own hand.

"We once struck jade against the Ancestor Spirit’s ear Bone, yet there was no reply.

The flowers and birds before the Shrine have withered dry, and the Priest’s hands have had their voice bitten off by red rashes.

Grandmother’s eyes closed last night; her breathing was like bamboo leaves torn by the wind,

softly, drifting away~~"

As the first indigenous Tribes to encounter the smallpox Plague, the Taino People wept and sang in such despair beside the countless fallen kin, telling of a death whose origin they did not know, whose coming they did not know how to meet.

"One by one the infants turned into silence beneath a turtle shell; the mothers buried them in banana leaves, not daring to cry aloud,

afraid that Plague‑fire would hear, and come lick away the last scraps of flesh and Bone.

We split open coconut shells and found no medicine, we burned sea conches on the fire heap,

but even the moon in the sky began to grow spots, sick just like us."

The colonizers brought smallpox from the Old Continent and spread it deliberately. When this invisible, colorless smallpox Plague fell upon the American Natives who were touching it for the first time, it became far more vicious, far more cruel than in the Old Continent! In present‑day Europe, after a thousand years of rampage, smallpox’s death rate had already fallen to thirty to forty percent. But when it came to the New Continent, its power simply doubled at once, bringing sixty to eighty percent mortality!

"Those white men riding wooden beasts did not bring Gold, did not bring salt; they brought an unnamable God of Death!

It hides in the wind, hides in sweat, faster than any poison arrow, deeper than the sea.

If the Ancestor Spirit sleeps, then we will sing for the dead Brothers, sing for the fathers who fell into Fire,

sing for the feather crowns of white egrets that will never return~~"

If infected Natives received no care, and were still cruelly exploited, plundered, and enslaved by the colonizers, then this monstrous death rate would climb to one hundred percent. Thereafter, in the Caribbean Sea, millions and more of Taino Tribes and Caribbean Tribes would, under the twin cruelties of disease and colonial exploitation, be driven into absolute racial extinction! They would become ash upon their Ancestors’ land, become shadows burned to nothing, leaving only their final song!

"Sing, sing, even if the voice breaks into fish Bones, you must still sing!

Until the whole island turns into a beach of Bone, until even our shadows are burned away.

Turn to ash and vanish~~"

When Red-haired Mique led the people to retreat into the Mountain Forests of the central Highlands, he smelled that familiar, unforgettable, fearsome scent of death. The Mountain Forest was very quiet; he saw no one come out to welcome them, no Tribal Huntsman hunting in the hills. He walked silently toward the depths of the Forest, reading the marks left by the local Taino Tribes, stepping over thick, rotten fallen leaves until at last he reached a natural cave hollow in the mountain.

Then Mique raised his torch, went in to take a look, and only after that did he smile and say to his close men.

"Hoo! Chief Divine’s protection—finally we’re back at a resupply point! Drink Water, cook food, count heads! See how many Taino Mazi managed to follow us up?..."

"Yes, Mique‑chief!"

The Red-haired Dog Descendants were used to eating in the wind and sleeping in the dew, and they were used to death and parting. Even though this strike had cost them around twenty Archers, the fifty left still joked and laughed, bringing a lively breath back into the camp. Tai Giant Eagle sat with reddened eyes, Big Axe on his shoulder, squatting on a Stone by the riverbank without a word; the ten remaining Kingdom’s Warriors were the same.

"Hey! Ah Yin, don’t sit there with a funeral face! Eat well, drink well, take care of your body! After all, maybe in a couple of days, you’ll go down with the Plague just like Apu did!"

Red-haired Mique stepped up, first letting out a sigh, then smiling as he offered comfort. But his comforting words, falling into Tai Giant Eagle’s ears, could not draw even the faintest smile. He only stared suddenly wide‑eyed and asked in shock.

"Chief Divine! Mique, what do you mean? We only went into battle this once, and we’ll still catch the Plague?"

"Of course! This time we killed so many Evil Demons and saved so many imprisoned Taino strong men. Among them were quite a few infected, badly sick ones, whom we freed by Archery... With a battle this fierce, there’s no way to hold the Plague back! Who knows how many will catch it? I reckon you, your Warriors, me, my Archers—at least half of us will go down, don’t you think?..."

Red-haired Mique shrugged, his face very calm. He could not really say he feared death. By now he’d lived almost thirty years—already more than enough, longer than most of the strong men of the Wilderness. Only, he had promised his Brother Chabo that he would try his best to stay alive...

"Chief! We’ve counted! There are twenty palm-counts of Taino Mazi, twenty palm-counts... four times twenty palm-counts!"

"Any leftover palms?"

"None! There were when we set out; a few ran off in the middle, and now they’re gone."

"Mm, then that’s eighty Taino strong men and women who have survived the Plague! The Owl Priest said that once you’ve had this Plague, you won’t get it again. When the Warriors and Archers fall sick later, we’ll have to rely on them for care!..."

Red-haired Mique thought for a moment and judged that eighty people should be enough to tend the sick, and the food was sufficient as well. There was food and drink; there were hands to care for them—after that, it would all come down to fate, to the Chief Divine and the Earth Mother’s protection! Thinking this, he smiled again and said to Tai Giant Eagle.

"Come on! Let’s take a few Taino Natives and go have a look at the village where Huitu and those infected Warriors are holed up... He’s always been stubborn and thick‑skinned; let’s hope he’s still alive now!"