Eons in the past, Ōmeteōtl rested under a tree in a viridescent plain, humming a tuneless tune in anticipation of a present. Ōmeteōtl's children were secretly making the dual god a gift for creating them, a home universe for their pantheon. Despite attempts at keeping it a surprise, Ōmeteōtl had overheard their planning one day and so they were now happily waiting for their new home.

The god's song slowly faded out as they began dozing off. The breeze was like a blanket and the humming of harmless insects became relaxing white noise. The pull of sleep became stronger until the moment things changed.

There was an impact sound and Ōmeteōtl felt his body leave the ground before hitting it again. The dual god's eyes were open wide as they looked upon their children that had crashed into the ground in front of him, all four of them bloody and beaten. Huītzilōpōchtli and Xipe Totec were unconscious on the back of the Quetzalcoatl, who was half-conscious himself.

The only one of the sons still lucid was Tezcatlipoca, though he kinda wished he wasn't because it meant he could feel the full agony of his lost leg, blood leaking from the remaining stump.

Ōmeteōtl ran to their children, materializing a jar of magic salve that he rubbed all over the quartet's wounds, slowly repairing them.

"What happened?"

"W-W-W-We thought that we'd make a universe for you as a g-gift, but we don't have creation powers like you do, so we needed to find something to use as materials."

"Okay and what happened then?"

"We remembered that Cipactli was still going around, eating anything that it found and making problems for everybody, so we thought we'd kill it and use its body as material-"

"You tried to fight Cipactli? How could you possibly think you could fight it?"

"I dunno, we thought we could. You trained us and stuff and you're one of the strongest gods so we thought we'd be fine."

"This is-whatever, what's Cipactli doing now?"

"He's going around nonstop eating universes by the centillions. I think we agitated him or something."

Ōmeteōtl covered their face with their hand. "Cipctli never slows down their pace, it only increases. It's just gonna keep binging like that." the dual god began to mumble. "This is a threat to existence, but I doubt Yahweh'll do anything, since it's no threat to her. She's one of the only beings who can kill Cipctli permanently because of how strong its regeneration is. This isn't a big enough threat that Brahman'd step in, and Ādi-Buddha definitely won't do anything. The only way to stop them would be for somebody to fight them constantly to keep them occupied, but that'd mean someone would be doing that for eternity."

The dual god looked upon their wounded children, and the image of Cipactli brutalizing the Four Tezcatlipocas, killing them if left unchecked popped in Ōmeteōtl's mind. Untold numbers of innocents were dying as they spoke, entire realms swallowed whole by the crocodilian monster's legion of mouths that were all across its form so endlessly large it dwarfed Typhon, and Ōmeteōtl understood that a sacrifice had to be made.

"Tezca, you and your brothers should be fine, just don't move much. I know this is sudden, but I'm gonna be gone for a long time, you'll need to take care of yourselves from now on."

"What're you talking about?"

"Make sure to take care of each other. You're siblings, so even if you fight, or think you hate each other, you need to stay by each other when nobody else will."

"You're scaring me."

"I said before that I'm leaving. Cipactli needs to be dealt with."

"But, you can't, we need you!"

"This is important, Tezca."

"You can't!"

"Somebody has to keep Cipactli at bay."

"But, you'll be stuck fighting it forever, and that's if you don't die! We tried everything and Cipactli wouldn't stay down! What'd be the point of living for you if you're stuck fighting forever!"

"My life has meaning as long as you four are alive and well. I'm protecting not only you four, but everyone, how could I not feel full of meaning."

"But, but, you shouldn't have to clear up our mistake! This is all our fault! We're so sorry! We've ruined your life, what is wrong with us!"

"You made a mistake, everyone does, and I'm your parent, so it's my job to help you when you mess up. Don't you or your brothers dare waste your time regretting what you did, I'm sure you've already learned from what you did wrong, so just look to the future."

Ōmeteōtl swung their arm and a portal opened up.

"Please, don't go!"

"Goodbye. I love you four, never doubt that." Ōmeteōtl stepped through.

Ōmeteōtl and Cipactli battled for many googolplex years, Ōmeteōtl's will never breaking as they fought off the crocodilian monstrosity without even the briefest moment's rest. Ōmeteōtl was stuck fighting Cipactli until Yahweh appeared without warning and erased Cipactli with a thought. It was time for Revelations, and Yahweh wanted Ōmeteōtl on the roster.

Ōmeteōtl found themself above a sea that was at the bottom of a dark expanse. The god couldn't move anything but their head, and there was a disturbing stillness to everything. No air moving, the waters were static in a way that made them resemble a mirror, yet there was nothing reflecting in it.

The waters rippled, once, twice, then the waters raged, tidal waves rising higher than mountains. There was a mighty splash and Cipactli appeared. Ōmeteōtl didn't know how the monster was alive, but they feared for their safety considering their immobility, even their powers failing to initiate.

That fear fell to the farthest wayside when Ōmeteōtl saw that within the creature's teeth were the bodies of the Four Tezcatlipocas.

Desperation to move had never filled Ōmeteōtl so deeply before, but their body refused to respond, as if they were an inanimate object with consciousness.

Cipactli's mouths ground up the quartet of gods' bodies, but the Tezcatlipocas kept regenerating, their suffering made indefinite as the crocodilian monstrosity never swallowed them, having no interest in anything other than making them suffer.

The four cried out for Ōmeteōtl to end their pain, to help them. They asked Ōmeteōtl why they just watched, asking if they never really loved them and that this was supposed to be their penance for their crime of agitating Cipactli.

Ōmeteōtl wanted to tell their sons they were wrong, that they were trying to help them with all their might, but when the dual god's mouth opened, what came out was, "That's right," affirming all the fears of the Four Tezcatlipocas. Ōmeteōtl couldn't control their voice as they continued to berate and sling hate at the quartet.

It was a moment of despair for both the Four Tezcatlipocas and Ōmeteōtl.

Ōmeteōtl couldn't even cry, no release for the emotions welling up inside them.

It was Hell.

And it was a Hell Ivan crafted.

This was a divine ability Ivan possessed, the capability to create personalized Hells that trap the mind and soul of the target.

This left Ōmeteōtl's body vulnerable, but Ivan was still poisoned and barely able to move himself, not helped by the immobile body of Ōmeteōtl laying on top of him.

Ivan had the perfect opportunity to kill Ōmeteōtl, but he was struggling to just squirm. The sniper began pushing off the ground to turn his body, Ōmeteōtl sliding off him and landing at his side. Ivan hit the ground, his arm feeling as if it were on fire. Just that one action was an endeavor of the highest caliber.

Struggling to even breath, Ivan gathered his strength to reach his hand over to his relic's trigger. He needed only to pull the trigger and his bullet would be able to obliterate Ōmeteōtl's body, who couldn't regenerate since their powers were nullified while trapped in their Hell.

Ivan's finger touched the trigger, ready to pull it and end the round, but he suddenly couldn't move even just a single digit anymore. The last of the energy he could muster was used up getting his finger on the trigger. Part of why he was so drained was that Ōmeteōtl, realizing something was happening right before they got pulled into their Hell, tried to stab Ivan and ended up lightly piercing the sniper's back, injecting more toxin into him.

Victory was so tantalizingly, frustratingly close, a twitch of a finger away. Ivan wanted to gnash his teeth, but even that simple freedom was no longer possible.

"This is a real weird turn for the fight, everybody. It's just Ōmeteōtl and Ivan laying on the ground, not really moving."

"There must be grand tactical maneuvers playing out that are beyond our comprehension right now!"

"I don't think you're wrong, but that doesn't change the fact that this is less than scintillating to spectate."

Tezcatlipoca felt his brow rise so high it pained him while his lip wobbled. He had finally gotten his parent back, but now they were seemingly lifeless on the ground. He and his brothers all felt a deep fear for what was happening and what was to come.

Inside the internal Hell Ōmeteōtl was confined in, they struggled to figure out why they couldn't move or how they and their children got into the dark expanse they were in, or at least how Cipactli was back despite being destroyed by Yahweh, which was the most unbelievable aspect of the situation.

The dual god tried to remember what they were doing before they ended up watching their children get tormented, but the memories that would answer that question were unable to be reached, hidden behind innumerable layers of mental walls.

But, Ōmeteōtl understood that it made no sense that Cipactli was alive, so they knew that the place they were wasn't in reality or unreality, it was not a place that followed the laws of Yahweh, which meant that either this was caused by a being stronger than Yahweh, which Ōmeteōtl knew was unlikely, or that the beast before them was a replication of the original, but Ōmeteōtl knew Cipactli well enough to know that the one in front of them was too exact on all levels to be a clone or the like, or the reality they were in was an illusion, which was what the only reasonable explanation.

Knowing that, Ōmeteōtl let themself be free of the pain of what they were watching, understanding it to be falsehood, though it wasn't easy due to the image of their children suffering still being a harrowing sight for the dual god.

Ōmeteōtl let themself feel distant from the false reality they were surrounded by, and that reality began to fizzle to nothing.

The eyelids of the dual god twitched before opening, the arena for the tournament named Revelations and a snow storm that hid the area in blackness being what first caught their eye, followed by the paralyzed Ivan prone next to them, gun in hand.

Ōmeteōtl grabbed their spear and got on their feet before thrusting the weapon's tip towards Ivan's head.

They were stopped when their upper body, and their spear, were bitten off the rest of their body by the suddenly materialized Cipactli. Ivan could not only send those touched into their personal Hell, but also make replications of entities from those Hells into reality.

"Is that Cipactli? How the fuck is Cipactli here? Wait, my divine senses are tingling, they're telling me that this is just a fake, but it's just as strong as the original!"

Ōmeteōtl's upper body regenerated and the dual god jumped away from Ivan to avoid another snap of the jaws of Cipactli. The god created an atlatl, a shaft with a cup at the end, along with multiple arrow-like spears. Ōmeteōtl held the atlatl's cup-less end and put the butt of one of the spears into the cup. A swing of the arm, and the spear was launched from the shaft, the dart flying nearly as fast as Shaka's swiftest spear throws.

The spear bored right through Cipactli, making a hole that healed so quickly that the flesh closed as soon as it was opened and the spear was no longer an obstruction. Ōmeteōtl launched more spears, each harming the crocodilian monster, but never for meaningfully long.

Ōmeteōtl tried firing spears at Ivan occasionally, but Cipactli always got in the way, using its body as a shield, flexing the muscles in its body to make itself tough enough that the spears didn't burrow all the way through the beast and hit its master.

"You're just as annoying to fight as the original!"

Ōmeteōtl wished that their poison affected Cipactli, but sadly the monster was immune to all toxins.

The monster's collection of mouths exhaled deluges of salt water. Ōmeteōtl ran at full speed, getting out of the way of the floods, occasionally having to stop and change direction suddenly as Cipactli shifted its body's position and the direction the floods were outpouring as consequence.

The dual god dived into the snow and began digging underground, heading towards Ivan from below. Cipactli regurgitated more saltwater, firing it into the hole left by Ōmeteōtl. The water funneled down the tunnel created by the dual god and raced after Ōmeteōtl.

Failing to outrun the water, Ōmeteōtl felt the liquid crash into them hard enough to rip off their limbs. Ōmeteōtl regrew the lost limbs and continued to dig as the water pounded their form and eroded away their skin.

Ōmeteōtl persevered and reached his destination, bursting from the ground beneath Ivan, breaking the platform to pieces and stabbing the sniper with their spear. Because they stabbed before fully emerging from below, Ōmeteōtl didn't have a way to properly aim their striker, the spear thrusting through Ivan's right shoulder rather than a vital area.

Before Ōmeteōtl could even pull the spear out, a mouth, smaller than the others on the beast's body formed on Cipactli that blasted a thinner, more focused beam of water that blew Ōmeteōtl away from Ivan and flayed the dual god.

The lost skin regenerated and Ōmeteōtl landed on their feet and got to running again as more water blasts were fired en masse. Whilst Ōmeteōtl went back to dodging, Cipactli scooped up Ivan, breaking the portions of the spear jutting out from the sniper's body while leaving the shaft that was inside where it was to stop the bleeding. Ivan was dropped into one of Cipactli's mouths, the human taking refuge in the beast's body so as to not be left unguarded again.

Ōmeteōtl slung more spears, Cipactli tensing its muscles even more than before to stop the spears before their full length could enter the crocodilian's frame. The beast could not let the spear potentially reach Ivan while inside itself.

Due to stiffening its muscles so much, Cipactli was rigid and slower in movement than normal, letting Ōmeteōtl dodge more easily and get close to the monster.

One of the dual god's feet tripped over a tree root when they were right in front of Cipactli, who dived at the deity, fangs first. This was intended, Ōmeteōtl splitting in two again, the female jumping into Cipactli's mouth, bypassing the creature's teeth and going right down the throat, meanwhile the male body leapt back and stayed outside the monster.

The Ōmeteōtl inside Cipactli felt the fluids inside the crocodilian melt their body, but they powered forward as they searched for Ivan.

An oncoming wave of water coming up the beast's throat made Ōmeteōtl summon an obsidian dagger to cut a hole in the side of the fleshy tunnel to climb through. The water continued to flow and follow the deity, crashing into the god while they continued to cut through Cipactli's body in search of Ivan.

Cipactli's insides were turning to mincemeat as Ōmeteōtl kept shredding any organs, muscle, or tissue in their way with more knife slashes, the obsidian blade against the beast's flesh as good as a meat grinder on fresh meat.

The salt water literally rubbed salt in the god's wounds as it tore away skin and melted what was below thanks to the water being mixed with Cipactli's internal acids.

Through a tiny cut in the monster's insides, Ōmeteōtl spotted Ivan, but in that moment the knife in the god's hand melted away, unable to withstand the acids anymore. Ōmeteōtl didn't waste a second, jabbing their fingers in the opening as it was healing and ripping the gape larger with their bare hands, creating a clear path to Ivan.

Ōmeteōtl punched at Ivan, a punch that would kill Ivan if it hit, but one more time, the sniper was saved at the last moment.

"Hell Personified."

Ivan wasn't just sitting inside Cipactli helplessly, he was slowly absorbing the Hell created for Ōmeteōtl, becoming one with the concept of all the fears Ōmeteōtl had and all the dual god could suffer from. Unlike with the illusory Hell itself or the replica Cipactli, due to Ivan being a concrete being, the sniper really was all that Ōmeteōtl dreaded.

The fist of Ōmeteōtl was grabbed, Ivan no longer paralyzed. The human had scales and sharp toothed mouths of every single joint and point where distinct bodyparts met.

The female Ōmeteōtl immediately created two more knives and started burrowing the other way to get out of Cipactli, sensing that they needed to get away from Ivan. Through the water that still pounded the god, Ivan's hand snatched Ōmeteōtl's leg.

An obsidian knife immediately cut the captured leg off. As soon as Ōmeteōtl escaped Cipactli's insides, they regrew their leg and lost skin and dashed over to their male counterpart.

Ivan burst out of Cipactli right afterward, the transformed Russian holding his gun, ready to fire.

"What is this transmogrification? Ivan is a new being! Is this part of his holy relic's power?"

This wasn't the case, it was actually due to the deeper identity of Ivan. The man named Ivan Mikhailovich Sidorenko was actually a reincarnation. When humans die, they sometimes enter an afterlife, and they sometimes reincarnate without memories. There are also cases where some beings are able to maintain their memories between incarnations. Ivan being one of them.

The other important factor was who Ivan Mikhailovich Sidorenko was a reincarnation of. In a previous life, he was Ivan IV Vasilyevich, also known as Ivan the Terrible, Tsar and Grand Prince of Russia known for his brutality in the name of acting as the hand of God, dedicated to enacting merciless divine justice.

Ivan the Terrible was specially created by Yahweh to have divine powers to make people suffer, all because Yahweh happened to be in a bad mood at the time she created the Tsar to be.

Said Tsar had figured out Ōmeteōtl's secret.

"You were able to be in two places at once to stop my bullets thanks to being a god of dualism. It lets you be in two contradictory states. Like being in two different positions, or surviving being turned to liquid by being both alive and dead simultaneously, so even if you're killed, you're also still alive." The Ōmeteōtls failed to hide their surprise and fear. "But, now I am all that can make you suffer, and that includes that which can kill you, by possessing the same dual existence you do."

Ivan fired a storm of bullets, the two Ōmeteōtls running in different directions, half the projectiles following each of them.

Ivan kept firing more bullets while at the same time chasing the male Ōmeteōtl, Cipactli chasing the female.

Both Ōmeteōtls summoned spears to break the bullets by making their spears be in two places at once, but they were still getting overwhelmed by having to stop bullets and avoid their respective pursuers.

The male god felt their ankle get hit and they stumbled, Ivan jumping on and mounting atop the Ōmeteōtl, unloading round after round into the deity.

The female was more successful in maneuvering around the bullets as well as the water blasts and bites from Cipactli, but still found themself getting riddled with wounds.

The male body ended up as a puddle again, but this time, they couldn't regenerate. They had been killed by a fellow dualistic entity, meaning that Ōmeteōtl's states of being alive and dead were both 'killed.' The female could feel their counterpart perish and it made their blood turn as cold as absolute zero. They realized they were right to fear Ivan.

That fear deepened as Ivan began pursuing the female Ōmeteōtl along with Cipactli. All the bullets were also able to all target just the single remaining dual god. It was overwhelming.

Ōmeteōtl also noticed that the wounds they were getting from Ivan's shots weren't healing, even their regeneration in general, based around the dual state of being both wounded and healthy, was nullified by the sniper's new dualistic existence.

One arm was blown off, then a second, then a leg, then a second leg. Limbless, Ōmeteōtl, felt themself get caught in the teeth of Cipactli, who held the god in place so Ivan's bullets could finish things even faster.

The bullets were like a swarm of singing insects, with each hole they made a little more of Ōmeteōtl's existence wiped away.

The four Tezcatlipocas were screaming for their parent to keep fighting, to find a way to live. They had just gotten Ōmeteōtl back, back from fixing their mistake. They needed Ōmeteōtl to live.

Ōmeteōtl heard their children's cries, and they needed to answer them. Ōmeteōtl lived for their children, and would sacrifice anything for them, so the god readied themself for using a technique that they more than hesitated to activate previously. But, it was a necessary sacrifice, a blood sacrifice, a type of technique the Aztec pantheon was familiar with, but none were as powerful as the one Ōmeteōtl was about to use.

"Huītzilōpōchtli, Xipe Totec, Quetzalcoatl, Tezcatlipoca, there's no need to cry, because I'll always be here for you."