After Estrelia left, her grandmother raised Navalli alone.

During this period, there was a heavy rain and the lake was high, so my grandmother moved to another part of the village because her home was built close to the lake.

Fortunately, most of the money that Estrela left behind in the past has not been spent, and since she has been away from home from time to time, she has returned from overseas mailing bills from time to time, so the money she has saved is still more than enough to move to a new home.

In addition, with the passage of time, the population of the village has increased, and many urban residents have chosen to reverse urbanization in order to avoid dying under the stray bullets of poisonous shellfish because of the increasingly chaotic urban environment, and settle in barren rural areas where they can only grow crops and cannot cultivate special crops on a large scale, which is looked down upon by many criminal groups in Mexico.

As a result, the spiritual demand for rituals such as prayers and supplications was rekindled in the villages, the sorcerers were once again brought to the fore, and the lives of grandmother and Navali became more and more prosperous.

Until ten years later.

……

The day Estrela returned to the village, Navalli did not know that the woman was his mother.

The woman's figure was thin, her cheekbones were thin, one eye was always filled with a gloomy light, and she walked with a slight limp.

Despite this, there are still traces of beauty in the shape of the skeletal appearance, and under the long dark curls, there is still an impressive face, even if it has been worn away by the years, but it is light.

The tall woman stood in front of Navalli, who was on her way home, her brown eyes glowing with condensation.

"Hey, little kid, do you know where the Turnberta family has moved to now?"

Navali looked at the woman, raised his head, and showed his habitually expressionless face, but in fact, he was a little stunned in his heart:

“…… Turnberta, are you looking for my grandmother? ”

"Grandmother?"

This time it was the woman's turn to be stunned.

She looked at Navalry's face in detail, for a long time, muttering something like "not at all", walked straight over, grabbed Navalry's shoulder, and did not feel any strangeness, and firmly wrapped her right hand around him.

"Let's go, take me to your house."

Navalry's body flicked, but he didn't move for the first time, staring at the woman's face:

"Who are you?"

The woman smiled.

She grinned, revealing some yellowish front teeth, with a distinct notch in the upper and lower rows of teeth that looked like they had been crushed from them.

"Who am I? I am your mother!

"—go, take me to your grandmother, my mother, Turnberta."

This is the first meeting between Navalli and Estrea, both of whom are clearly conscious, and it is also a reunion after a ten-year absence.

……

After stiffening and taking Estrea to his house, Navalli watched as the woman entered the room and wanted to go in with her, but the grandmother knew what was going on the first time she saw Estrea.

She turned the boy away with Navaly's rare seriousness and said to him:

"Navali, you go outside for a while."

Then the grandmother slammed the door shut.

Navaly, who was left alone, was left alone.

He thought about what he had just seen, thinking about what the woman had said, and although there was no expression on his face, his heart was on the verge of turmoil.

The woman said......

"I am your mother" ......

Mom......

She's Estrea......

Really......

Navalli hugged his arm, his mood on the verge of turmoil and division. He had also heard of his mother, whom he had never seen since he was born, and the occasional rumor in the village would come to his ears.

As a child, Navalli sometimes looked forward to moments of meeting her mother, who, like the ubiquitous background of the union of the subconscious and dreams, had no clear outline, but merged with the shadows everywhere, so that she could breathe in her presence at all times.

…… However, Navali never imagined that the first meeting with his mother would be in this situation.

Moreover, she looked completely different from the woman she had imagined - although Navali did not know what her mother was supposed to look like.

What's more, Navalli didn't experience a bit of motherly feeling from her.

When she grabbed Navalli's shoulder with her hand, at that moment, Navalli tensed, not because of what Estrelia said, but because of the touch of her hand on her shoulder.

- It was a cold, oppressive, yet slippery, viper-like touch.

In that, there is no element of love, only a cold and sticky desire to control.

The moment he was caught by Estrea, Navalli felt physiological disgust and boredom.

Navalli stood outside the room, anxiously waiting for his grandmother to talk to the woman, he didn't know what they were talking about, he didn't know how long they were going to talk, and he didn't know what it had to do with him. He didn't know anything about it, all he had in his heart was fear, fear of the woman.

To combat the fear in his heart, he turned his head to the sky.

But just then, he suddenly noticed that a small dot seemed to appear in the sky.

…… Is that......

Navalli's mouth widened slightly.

The dot—the dot, which in an instant became infinite, as if covering the entire sky, but it seemed infinitesimally small, just condensed in front of him.

It seems to exist and yet it doesn't exist.

However, in the gap between its existence and non-existence, slowly, the phantom was unfolded, and information that did not belong to this era flowed out of it.

Fissure......

Nothingness......

God......

God......

Until finally, a man, a man's figure, suddenly appeared in front of Navalry.

“…… Oh, boy. ”

The man's skin and hair color were also dark, but he looked completely different from the other Mexicans Navalli had seen.

He smiled heartily and playfully, and beckoned lightly to Navalry.

The man's face was very good-looking, but—very strangely, Navali couldn't give an accurate description of what the man looked like, because although the man was right in front of him, almost every time he blinked, he forgot what the man looked like, and only when he opened his eyes, and actually looked at him, Navalli realized that he really saw the man's appearance.

It was a feeling of great contradiction.

also made Navali understand the identity of the other party almost instantly-

"You...... Are you a god? Are you – Tezcatripoca? ”

(End of chapter)