Morgan was paying very close attention. The curiosity he had felt about whatever Xol seemed to be hiding had been completely crushed by this new story, the one that apparently would answer everything he wanted to know.
"A serpent? A jaguar? What does that have to do with what I was ask—"
He tried to ask, but Xol cut him off immediately.
"Silence, brat. Be quiet and listen."
(Xol raised one finger to his lips.)
Morgan opened his mouth to respond. Xol repeated the gesture, this time more firmly. Morgan thought about it for a second, then closed his mouth and stayed still.
"A long time ago. A very, very long time ago. In the infinite void of existence, where there seemed to be nothing but darkness and stars, the two gods of duality, the progenitors of all things, gave birth to their first children: the Jaguar, the Feathered Serpent, the Crimson Bird, and the Hummingbird. With them began creation, the slow process of populating that endless void.
But there was a problem.
The gods discovered that something else already existed within that infinity. A being so colossal that it seemed to have stars carved into its skin, devouring the very infinite expanse as it moved forward. Everything the gods tried to create, that creature consumed. Relentlessly. Without limit.
Tired of its existence, the gods of duality sent two of their children to destroy it: the Jaguar and the Serpent, the first among their siblings to fully define and shape their own existence.
The two brothers departed. Both wished to earn the love and admiration of their parents.
The battle they fought was unlike any other. Stars went dark. The void was torn apart. The roars of the beast and the roars of the brothers filled that silence which had never known sound before. The blood spilled by all three gradually formed what you would later come to know as galaxies.
And at the most crucial moment, after the three had been fighting for a span of time that had no name, the beast opened its jaws and nearly devoured the Serpent.
The Jaguar stepped in front of him.
(He took the blow. The damage. Everything.)
The Serpent stared at what his brother had just done. He looked at him lying there, wounded, holding onto life with what little strength remained. Then, without saying a word, he stood up, walked toward the beast's maw, and entered it.
The Jaguar thought he had gone mad. That fear had driven him to end his own life rather than continue fighting.
The beast thought the same. It turned toward the Jaguar, ready to finish him off.
Then the creature's stomach began to shine.
The Serpent was swallowing every star the beast had devoured throughout its existence. One by one. All of them. The light released in that instant was so overwhelming that, for the first time in the history of that void, not a single corner remained in darkness.
The Serpent tore through the beast's stomach and emerged from the other side.
He was white. He was golden. He was immense.
He opened his jaws and split the creature in two.
The beast's body was used to form a new creation. One filled with life, filled with light. The void no longer existed.
The gods of duality applauded the feat.
And they gave all the credit to the Serpent.
The Jaguar listened in silence as his parents celebrated his brother. He listened as they ignored the fact that without him, without his decision to stand in the way, none of it would have been possible. He listened and said nothing.
But something grew inside him that day.
Something dark. Something that would never leave.
The Jaguar began to envy his brother. He began to hate the love he believed was being taken from him. And he swore to himself that one day he would take everything away from him, just as he felt everything had been taken away from him.
From that resentment, from that envy, from that pain that no one saw growing, a god was born.
The God of Darkness.
And that jaguar did not know it yet, but the promise he made that night—dark and hungry—would eventually destroy not only his brother.
But himself as well.
End of Chapter.
Next Chapter: The God of Darkness.He procurado mantener el tono mítico y narrativo, con un estilo que suena natural en inglés y conserva la atmósfera épica del original.