Chapter Text
《 The Horizon 》
“This is pointless.”
The abyss muttered under his breath from a corner in the starry corridor.
Around him were shelves upon shelves of hardcover books, each transcribing the details of every forbidden knowledge, every unknown text that was recovered from the interstellar nomads.
Recorded down either by those they interacted with, or even themselves.
The ink used to transcribe them stank of the blood of sacrifice.
Many died to protect such information from being destroyed or falling into the wrong hands.
The Abyss, whose true name was: Tartarus, had made it his mission to preserve these data for what he knew would be crucial intelligence against the parasites that infested his homeworld.
It would be too scandalous to have this plethora of contraband in his own domain, considering Celestia’s constant visits to the hellscape to ensure his continued obedience and to check for any signs of treachery. And so he opted to keep his secret stash in a location where the God’s gaze could not reach.
An artifact domain.
One that housed the sacred jewelries and remains of yet another of the nightrealm’s ancient enemies: Phanes, The Primeordial One. The Creator of Humanity and The Self Proclaimed First Throne of The Heavens.
Celestia, even after defeating Phanes and taking his place was still unable to locate all of his temples and destroy them. A sign that their battle was hard fought and his victory was a narrow one, perhaps?
Tartarus confessed that he too would not have been able to find this sanctified domain. That is without the help of his sister, the lightrealm, who went by the name: Elysium.
After all, she once worked hand in hand with Phanes when he first arrived in Teyvat. It was only natural she knew some of his hidden bases or places of worship.
The abyss could hear her irritating humming as she went through the volumes he painstakingly tracked down as if she were an excited child, the shine from her glowing body annoying him greatly as he squinted to find the item he desired.
“Will you stop that and focus on the task at hand?”
The Void grumbled from a distance, shying away from the annoying luminescence that was his sibling.
“Hmm?”
The glowing hearth turned her head to her older brother, who expressed his concerns.
She always felt that he was a little too serious.
Interestingly enough, The Lightrealm never once thought her quarrel with the abyss to be one as devastating or hateful enough to want the death of the other, but her brother clearly saw this conflict as a war of ideals that could only be resolved by the dissolving of his counterpart.
They would wrestle each other for the ownership of Teyvat. For the right to spread their vision for the world assigned to them by their Aeon, IX The NIHILITY.
One would temporarily gain the upper hand.
The other would pry back control.
They would take turns wrenching the planet from the other’s grasp, sometimes winning one of endless battles and sometimes almost winning others.
It was a cycle of creation and nothingness.
The lightrealm believed that it was precisely because the world was meaningless do sentient beings have the responsibility to find and create meaning for their existence.
The Abyss understood that in the grand scheme of things, all came from chaos and to chaos must all return to. Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust.
Masterless stardust.
That’s what everything and everyone is.
Specs of carbon. A miracle of fusion and entropy.
Molecules of pure thought and thoughtlessness bound together by love and hate- held into physical form for a moment.
The abyss was content with the stalemate shared by him and his sister. For as mentioned, a status quo was what he desired for the universe and beyond.
But the lightrealm was ambitious unlike her sibling.
A stasis lock never satisfied her.
And so she defied the natural order. Struggled to rise above her station. Fought to be victorious and even gained an element of Nihility thought lost to the endless black hole that was The Aeon IX.
She learned to create.
Elemental beings born from her DNA. Split from her ultraviolet rays and sharing her love for life and state of being.
Anemo, Geo, Electro, Dendro, Hydro, Pyro and Cryo.
And with a new army by her side, she pushed her brother to the the very edge of the earths, banishing him where he could no longer interfere with her children’s survival and reintroduce the dark side of The Nihility’s presence.
She never wanted his end. Just his confinement. He was still family.
And so she allowed him to live,
That is, until Phanes arrived.
An alien traveler from beyond the firmament had been attracted to the light that permeated from Teyvat after the burning world’s victory over the spiral.
Her terraforming of Teyvat to fit her ideals sparked a beacon for others to follow towards through the endless sea of quanta of the multiverse.
Those rays acted as a lighthouse which led travelers to Teyvat seeking refuge… But for others? It only meant one thing: A new world to conquer now that Teyvat had evolved to be ready for a higher form of war.
Phanes was an androgynous being with angelic features, emerging from an egg-shaped meteor that crashed into the planet of Nihility.
Quickly determining that the environment was unfit for the progeny he planned to produce, he attempted to reformat the structure of Teyvat himself, making it habitable enough to welcome the human plague.
Elysium had enlisted the assistance of her champions: The Dragon Sovereigns, to quell the primeoridal one’s incursion, only to be repelled by his power.
Out of desperation, she even requested her exiled sibling, the abyss, to aid in her quest.
Alas, the combined forces of both were still unable to overcome such incomprehensible sorceries of the first throne.
They were defeated.
Falling to the feet of the First Human and a hair’s inch from execution, Elysium The Lightream seized a moment and made a proposal: She would serve The Prime of Mankind and teach him the rules of this universe so as to establish his empire undying. So that his reign would last forever with the impossible support of one as dispassionate as The Nihility IX.
In exchange, she, her brother and her creations would be allowed to live.
The idea of enslaving such a powerful, ingenuous and beautiful goddess of goddesses pleased the primeordial one greatly. She could be the key to helping his race prosper for all eternity.
That, and there was only one thing that boasted of one’s strength more than the death of Nihility.
It was the alliance with it.
After all, Nihility could erase all threats as if they were non-existent. Void all attacks, be it physical or arcane.
While Phanes might be one of few that could withstand such meaningless prowess, there could be rivals that exceeded him but could still be felled by the universal weakness to Nihility.
However… His creations were the type to require a certain ORDER to survive.
And so chaos- The ideal of Nihility represented by the abyss, had no place in his kingdom. As a show of loyalty, the light realm must once again betray her brother when she was the one who reintroduced him into conflict.
Raising arms against the abyss, the ungrateful spark stole his nemesis pearl and presented it to her new master with her own genesisis pearl- The Sun and Moon of Teyvat respectively. Now the first human wielded the laws of nature as his weapons, and the only thing limiting him was the retribution of the Nihility itself. One that imposed the fundamental basics of existence: The bare minimum to ensure the survival of its colony.
The self-sufficient ability of the planet to Create, Destroy, Sustain and Protect.
In other words, a representation of Life, Death, Time and Space.
By blocking out the genesis pearl with the nemesis pearl, he managed to hyperfocus the nexus of energies released from their collision and overlap to sear a carbon imprint onto a blank star, copying his very image and formulating a shade of his being onto the living canvas.
Thus were born the four shining shades of Teyvat that answered only to Phanes, born from a combination of primeordial, light realm and abyssal might.
To match their parent’s image, two of the shades were male, and the other two female. They would then spread the word of God to the first generation of humans, upholding the rules of existence created by The Nihility IX and satisfying it just enough that action would not be taken upon their unwelcome parasitism.
Each of these shades would then govern their own civilization. The shade of life would be the progenitor of oceanids, The shade of death (represented by the spiral, crimson and terrestrial moon sisters) would lead the Seelie, The Shade of Space would lead the enslaved interstellar rivals that dared intrude into Teyvat, And The Shade of Time led the loremasters and storytellers that would retain their memories even with each samsara cycle.
But who could have thought that such beautiful peace would be torn into shreds as quickly as it was fabricated?
Emerging from the heavens in a ball of astral fire was the dastardly second who came. He who felled Phanes with an even greater power and rewrote the rules of Teyvat to fit his conceptions of perfection.
Bringing with him an army of aliens invaders, he laid waste to the forces of the primeordial one, seduced one of the moons of the shade of death into betraying her sisters and Phanes, and cast a web of lies across the faces of naive humans.
He was far more brutal than Phanes could have been.
He knew to shackle all sides upon his arrival. No mercy not clemency was given.
The four shades? Slain, sealed or reformatted to serve his purpose. Humans then had their wishes and ambitions stored and captured to fuel the Omnipotence of the new deity supreme, feeding him with worship and empowering them with loyalty unquestionable.
The light realm? Harvested for her unique connections to the ley lines and the memories of all teyvatians- Be it those from the world or otherwise. The elemental life forms soon lost their intelligence and organization to fight back, now serving as pets and Pestillence. But… They could yet be used to grant those with the ambition to discover the truth a drop of magic power, satisfying them enough to return to being meek and starry eyed. Thus the visions were born- A God’s eye not only meant to quell the innate ambition in oneself, but also to spy on those who have the potential to rise above their places and raise banners against Celestia.
Tha abyss? Stomped unto the ground once more and forced to be the divine’s attack dog against other aliens. It was more of a political choice to keep him around. For what better way to motivate lost lambs to follow you than to lead them against a common enemy? That, and also Celestia knew that the light realm and the abyss were intrinsically linked. Two halves of the same whole. And to rule only one, was to never truly rule either. The added bonus? The abyss was so much of an outsider to the affairs of men and the elements that he was almost equal to the unlimited space that Teyvat floated around aimlessly in. The constellations under its jurisdiction could equally act as a means to control the destinies of those in the physical plane… And even Celestia’s own.
How ironic… that at the end of all things, The Light, Night and Humans will have to put aside their differences and fight against a common threat. Only that their crusade was marred in secret plans of betrayal.
“Our paths have always been entwined. That of the Nihility and Elation. Both destined to fly too close to each other and risk one devouring the other. That much is true.”
The Abyss expressed to his sister The Lightream.
“But The Khaenrian Joker attempts to deceive us. For I know Phanes is NOT an emanator of The Elation. Pierro only boasts of that power to scare us into submission. He wants us to fear the possibility of a final battle with the prime of humanity that will result in the complete deaths of either one of our paths.”
“And you have proof of your claim, my brother?”
The Sun questioned the moon with feminine gentleness, with voice smooth like honey. Like a mother to her son.
“I do.”
The abyss answered gravely.
“Phanes has already bested both of us since the beginning of time,”
The light realm manifestation chortled, ridiculing her older brother for his paranoia.
“Pierro could simply threaten us with Phanes’s true power rather than The Elation’s. Why would he lie?”
“Because Phanes never truly could destroy us. If he could, we would not exist. Further, why would pierro reveal the true nature of humanity when it could open new doors for us to identify a weakness?”
The Tartarus pointed out.
The Solar-Lady breathed slightly heavier at the question, now under fire from her brother’s accusation.
“I… Had my suspicions.”
She assured.
“All humans we have come across seem to have an innate power sealed within them. Yet pierro possesses the power of elation on top of that natural, mysterious ability, of which we still have no confirmed knowledge of.”
“Perhaps the books I have amassed, along with the runes, lore and artifacts in this artifact domain will grant some mutual clarity, sister.”
The nightrealm hummed.
“You may use what I have gathered as you see fit. I haven’t had much time to explore this sanatorium due to my responsibilities as leader of my domain. But I trust you have not manipulated the contents on your end of wisdom for your own benefit… Again. ”
“I did not divulge them earlier not because I wished harm upon you. But because I know we still need him. Your mischief could hinder our plans.”
Came the reply.
The Lunar-Lord’s black flame burned darker at the reveal, hatred and disappointment and betrayal begging to be let into his heart.
“Mischief?”
He demanded, rays of shadow bellowing like a ravenous maelstrom.
“Have you forgotten who pieced your form back together from the scraps Celestia left behind? Who forgave you in spite of your betrayal and selfishness?! Who gave his all to go against his nature, ignored his destiny to-”
“Your minions seem to understand that as well. I feel they do not take kindly to your contradiction. That is why they take matters into their own hands. You exist in all your servants. Does that not translate to your own penchant for chaos? To stir up trouble and still never be satisfied with victory in adversity?”
The Lightrealm interrupted.
“There is no contradiction.”
The Endless Spiral quickly corrected, dismissing everything else mentioned in the conversation.
“Once Celestia falls, once humanity falls, once all the aliens are chased from our skin, we shall once again be at war.”
The Lady Light, only looked upon her brother with crestfallen eyes.
“We are born from the same parent. Does that not mean anything to you?”
“You know my feelings on that, sister.”
The abyss rebutted.
“It is my nature. I have tried. Am still trying. But you know as well as I that it is impossible.”
“But you could win! Be like me! I managed to see past our differences!”
Exclaimed to great glow, desperate to see the good in her sibling.
“Enough!”
The all-black instantly exploded, lunging at the solar one with a lash of rash outrage.
Readying the raging rainbows at her disposal, the lightrealm prepped herself for combat as the abyss’s darkness tickled the lines of aggression.
“…I cannot, sister. I am not like you. You learn to accept and create new ideas while I only remain the same. You share hopeless optimism that your family would ignore your past treachery and treat you like it always has.”
The abyss retracted its tendrils, as if realizing that he had gone too far.
“Please. Do not force me,”
The Burning World looked away from the Void, both embarrassed at her mistake and pained for ever causing distress on such a level to her otherwise otherwise stoic older kin.
It tugged at her heart. Gnawed at her conscience.
That all-consuming, all-burning self-hatred.
That agonizing certainty. That feeling of dread.
When she would betray him a third time.
Tartarus glanced at his sister who remained uncharacteristically quiet. As if her silent response was all he needed… For whatever interpretation or hypothesis he already had about their future together.
Flinching slightly at the surprising insight displayed by one as empty as the abyss, Elysium composed herself almost too quickly, clearing her throat and putting back her smile.
“Is it possible that the clown serves the second who came? Misleading us all and leading us to our doom? Could it be that the true Emanator of Elation is Celestia himself?”
The Lightrealm questioned further, changing the subject.
“You share my belief that it is actually Celestia who is a member of The Elation instead of Phanes, considering his chaotic pride in rewriting the rules of this world to suit him and Pierro’s association with the masked fools. But you misunderstand my stance on Pierro’s allegiance. It is more likely that he still follows Phanes but stooped to using Celestia’s power. For what reason I cannot say…”
The abyss replied, manifesting in the form of a young teenager boy, with a black spiral mark on his forehead, and a similar golden symbol on his luxurious looking obsidian suit.
He appeared elegant and aristocratic. Armed with gold plates lining one side of his body, he highlighted the sheen of the stars in the emptiness of space. And on the other, the silver armor that represented the ley lines that rooted themselves all over Teyvat.
As he waltzed toward the shining phosphorous, indigo constellation marks wafted beside him like attendants, sparkling with each splash his foot made in the horizon of which night and day met.
“You have yet to regain physical form, sister. I beg you to not pursue this matter until I reclaim it from Celestia’s hands or forge another for you entirely.”
The abyss besieged, raising a hand to caress the warmth of the fireplace, letting himself show but an ounce of melancholy before stopping himself and shying away.
“Just, don’t trust Pierro.”
He finished.
“Like I said, I have the documents to back my claims… But as you have mentioned, now is not the time. For now, be on guard whenever he reaches a hand out to you under the pretense of strengthening you against me. Remember who your true family is. Who our true enemy is.”
The Lightrealm snickered playfully.
“What is this I see, my sibling? Fear of me gaining an ally that could defeat you once our shared opponent in Celestia is gone? Or that you truly cared about me?”
She locked eyes with the hollowed socket’s of her brother, who only turned his back on her.
“Well?”
She asked again, expectant.
“I don’t.”
He said in return, head turning to look at the flare.
“You know that I represent the dark side of nihilism. The universe is meaningless to me and so all things should be wiped away because they are but unnecessary imitations and charades clouding the beautiful silence of existence.”
“And I represent the opposite.”
The Lightrealm hummed.
“I see the value in making existence meaningful because it is meaningless if left untouched. But I allow myself the indulgence of seeing from your point of view once in a while, because I love you and because there is always darkness in light and light in darkness. Will you do the same? Admit that you are doing the same if you did?”
The boy’s eyes darted back and forth, as if pondering the same question himself.
He had been asked the same question by many others and he had dismissed them all the same.
But perhaps now it was time to come clean, since it came straight from the horse’s mouth.
“…Of course not, Elysium.”
Tartarus, The Embodiment of The Nightrealm snorted, amused at both the question and the answer.
Yet, he found his grin painful to maintain.
“You overestimate yourself. And you underestimate me.
He emphasized.
“I do not love you.”
《 Snezhnaya: Cathedral Insanicus, Haerysys 》
“I trust your meeting with the sun and moon has yielded favorable outcomes,”
The professor rumbled, as he typed on one of the consoles littered across his office.
“I have pacified The Tartarus for now. He will withdraw his support from Lumine. However, that specifies only to not retaliating upon her defeat. We must still subdue her ourselves.”
Pierro answered, fingers training across the snow globes on his shelves.
“Incidentallly, friend Doctor: I would like to assign you a task I would normally reserve for myself,”
The omega build paused, looking up from his screen, before returning to his work, not missing a beat:
“You should know that I am no match for him even at this moment of his weakness. Now that he has teamed up with Lumine, my chances of survival are all the more inconsequential.”
“You misunderstand.”
The clown corrected.
“I do not intend for you to get involved with Guhua’s petty squabble with Rex Lapis. Our time will come to eliminate him, but not yet.”
Omega build raised his hand to stop the melodious chime that sang from a nearby grand piano: an instrument masterfully played by one of his own clones.
He then gestured for his attendants (all of them) to vacate the room.
All seven cyborgs responded instantaneously, as if having monitored the conversation between Grand and Third Harbinger in secret from the corner since the beginning.
Dottore Prime made a mental note to examine every optic fiber in the machined brains he installed into his segments for any hint of betrayal from the very first time he opted to create his uncanny copies.
But… If he had the foresight to predict their impending insurrection, so could they.
He must ascend to something greater than himself to outmaneuver his clones. Calculate his own unpredictability and genius. Constantly improve.
Not only to reassure himself of his superiority… But because the clown will not hesitate to replace him with another Dottore if he fell short of expectations.
As the door creaked shut to indicate the last of his minions departing, The Prime sighed at his superior.
“Pierro. You of all should be aware that words are deadly traps.”
He expressed.
“My prostheses are ungrateful traitors that bite the hand which feeds them. You would do well not to slip your tongue in front of their nosy eyes and ears in the future.”
He knew full well the joker had done what he did on purpose. And that his concern fell on deaf ears. But perhaps something in him still wished the comedian honored their long friendship, their long conspiracy enough to spare him but the tiniest hint of unconditional care.
If he was useful. Important enough.
Would he feel regret at sacrificing him even though he would do it without hesitation? Melancholy?
Dottore has been abandoned by all for the early parts of his 400 year long existence.
If he could feel just a little bit of love, a semblance of recognition, he would give anything to have it.
“Apologies, friend Zandik.”
Pierro chuckled.
“I should have been more sensitive.”
The Groom of Winter invited himself over to the grand piano, flexing his fingers and preparing to play his own song as he conversed with his ally.
The first note signified just how different his approach. His mentality. Was, compared to the previous player: an insignificant copy of The Third Harbinger.
In contrast to the classy melody mattered out by one so desperate to enter high society, who revels in luxury and status and self-admiration, Pedrolino of Khaenriah produced a theme of sombre yet epic proportions.
Heavy and nostalgic.
Pain and beauty.
A song of regret.
“I have recently discovered a terrible truth. One hoarded by the abyss. It could be a devastating weapon if used against us.”
Began the clown.
“I presume you are familiar with the extraterrestrial origins of Phanes and the existence of a higher power that controls even him?”
“I am familiar with the information you choose to share,”
Dottore Prime answered with slight annoyance, the dream solvent in his earring mixed with primeordial seawater bubbled and boiled with the sentiment.
“You claim that Phanes is an emanator of The Elation: Aha. A god of gods which creates chaos in worlds at balance.”
Dottore continued.
“You also spoke of a war between similar otherworldly factions. Namely: Propagation, Abundance, Remembrance, Nihility and Destruction, apart from the Elation you spoke of.”
“Good. Very good.”
Pierro snickered, his score reaching a crescendo.
“You have always been my greatest supporter. That is why you are the only one I have entrusted this secret with… At least, on this world.”
“…This world?”
Dottore Prime questioned.
Suddenly, a section in the cathedral buzzed and glitched, as if space itself was ravaged being static.
It crackled and hissed, finally opening up into some sort of gateway. One that pulsed with alien purple.
“Indeed, Doctor. This… Marvelous planet of sloth and action,”
A feminine yet powerful voice surged through the room with electricity, puncturing the hearts and minds of every organism, every technological piece.
The stark clipping of high heels followed a handsome woman with magenta hair and cold violet eyes.
Behind her followed 3 others.
A silver haired petite girl dressed like a futuristic rock star. By her side trailed cosmic cubes that reeked of digital miracles unimagined by even the crazed professor of Teyvat.
A dark haired man with clothes and armor clearly outgrown but enunciated his muscular and dashing physique and features nonetheless. He owned a long crimson sword that bloomed scarlet funerary flowers wherever it hovered above.
A hulking armor with a light blue visor. Pulsing with flames eternal that matched even the hottest of delusions. The raspy metallic breathing from within haunted the dreams of man and monster alike.
“These are my benefactors, friend Zandik. My partners from beyond the stars.”
Pierro introduced, standing up from his seat and giving a bow to the four who appeared before him.
“The pleasure is all ours, masked fool. Or should I say… mourning actor?”
The lilac haired woman laughed softly, as if she were meeting an old friend.
Dottore blinked several times behind his bird beak mask, clearly surprised that Pierro had a different group to do his bidding other than the Fatui.
Yet, just as the thought came to mind, he was subjected to kneel.
His joints locked in place, mind in flames.
“Kafka and The Stellaron Hunters,”
Pierro emphasized.
“Are my equals. You will treat them as such,”
Dottore’s ruby optic flared red at the insult.
He was an idiot to consider himself Pierro’s partner.
Allowed himself to be spoiled by his words for a moment and forgot his place.
Another piece on the clown’s board.
A bishop.
But nonetheless a piece.
“My dear comedian,”
The one called Kafka scolded, raising her fingers slowly, telepathically lifting the Joker’s silver speech spell and telekinetically pulling the scientist supreme to his feet.
“There is no need for such pleasantries.”
Dottore gasped, feeling the spell take hold.
It was similar to Pierro’s command.
A derivation of his persuasion communication.
“Your Velvet Voice ability is to be admired, Kafka. I’d say, they are about a match for my own Silver Speech.”
Pierro dipped his head slightly again to show his recognition.
“Now that we have gotten the formalities out of the way, shall we proceed?”
The royal haired agent of destiny’s slave known as Kafka smirked, gesturing to her associate.
The short one with the silver hair.
This girl blew a bubble with her chewing gum till it popped, disrupting the sobre environment crassly. Furthermore, she gazed upon the professor with lazy eyes akin to disinterest.
That only fanned the fires of Dottore’s fury and insecurities further.
“My colleague, Codename: Silver Wolf, shall provide you with the details.”
Kafka reassured.
“By the way… You may breathe now.”
Dottore coughed and hacked, the tightening grip on his techno-organic throat finally subsided.
He didn’t even realize he was being choked on his own terror even after Pierro’s Silver Speech had been dispelled until now.
He almost flinched as the petite girl with silver hair called Silver Wolf waddled over with a holographic image produced from her gauntlet.
“The images you see are supposed sightings of the first domain of Phanes. The very first temple created to honor him.”
Silver wolf explained.
“Within contains instructions to create a super weapon utilized by the primordial one back in ancient days.”
Dottore looked at her in disbelief, and then to pierro.
So this was the mission he was assigned.
The rage he experienced at the earlier outrage was quickly extinguished by stupendous curiosity and interest.
“A reward for your service.”
Pierro interrupted his thoughts.
“You must be celebrating at the thought of adding that lethal technology to your collection.”
Dottore admired the images, cross referencing them with his own memories of previous research regarding the creator of mankind.
Runes and symbols and art.
All seemed to click in place perfectly.
The first temple of Phanes would be the final part of his puzzle to uncover the truth behind the primeordial one’s power.
Huge metallic thumps drew the professor’s attention away again.
This time the metallic armor by Kafka’s side marched toward him, carrying a massive briefcase.
“Your mission will be dangerous. And precisely because Lord Pierro insists that no clone may accompany you as per his respect for your wishes… You will require additional support.”
Kafka reassured, nodding to the towering suit of metal.
Returning the sentiment, the humongous robot, opened the luggage and revealed a plethora of tools and weapons that could only be described as otherworldly and futuristic.
“My associate, S.A.M, shall provide you with the latest we have to offer in prosthetics. With our gadgets, we are confident you will be able to succeed in your task and retrieve the data we seek.”
Kafka finished.
“In addition…”
With a snap of her fingers, the dark haired male by Kafka’s side walked over to Dottore with a scowl on his face.
“My apprentice, Blade, shall accompany you and provide you with the backup you need,”
Kafka smiled.
Pierro placed a hand on Dottore’s shoulder, sending comforting surges through his fingers.
“Deal with this for me, Zandik.”
He leaned close to his face affectionately and whispered into the cyborg’s ear.
“And leave Guhua to me.”
The clown’s eyes flashed white and glowed even in the brightness of the room.
The meshing cogs and pumping oil in the third harbinger filled with adrenaline and temptation.
The way the clown put it.
They were truly in this together.
A kindred spirit.
He could only respond by kneeling down in reverence.
“Good.”
Pierro affirmed, sparing a glance at Kafka who returned her knowing gaze.
“Rise, my new Second Harbinger. At the end of this day, you and I will have truly become friends.”
《 Eight Directional, Nine Pillared, Deity Devouring Array: Hall of Amethyst Ailment 》
Pantalone awaited impatiently for his adeptal rivals to arrive, sitting on his throne and tapping the armrests impatiently.
Capitano forewarned him of Rex Lapis’s counterattack.
And the immortals had clearly arrived, according to his own senses.
So…
Where exactly were they?
Suddenly, he felt something amiss.
A familiar presence.
Not a god or demigod. Not even abyssal.
“You!!!”
Pantalone screamed, unleashing a torrent of lightning above him, forcing his assailant to escape her hiding spot.
The invisible attacker dodged the beam of lightning and somersaulted over the ninth harbinger, revealing herself to be none other than the Liyuean High Inquisitress, Yelan.
“Yes, me!”
She declared, pulling on the metallic wires that she had laid around The Regrator, causing them to slice inward toward him.
Pantalone, with his quick thinking, utilized his elemental vision to see all of the hidden strings and did a flip to avoid being sliced by them.
He then punched the ground, using his art of khemia to turn an entire column of the floor into smelted gold.
The wave of shiny aureate splashed over Yelan, almost engulfing her, only for it to be repelled by a wave of the next Tianquan of Liyue, Ningguang, who walked out from the shadows.
Pantalone growled, transforming into a streak of electro that swam through the conducting molten liquid of gold, rapidly bolting toward the pair.
Yet, before he could emerge from the river of melted mora to attack Yelan and Ningguang, he found his energy form locked in place, and then forcibly transformed back into human form.
As he screamed from the pain of the boiling gold searing his skin and flesh, more of the vile richness flowed into his mouth and nose.
He caught a glimpse of the future Tianheng of Liyue, Keqing above the surface of the gold river staring down at him.
She must have used her electro mastery to forcibly convert him back into physical form!
Well, far be it from her being able to override his delusion with her meager elemental mastery, she caught him off guard and introduced him into a world of pain.
Blood began mixing with yellow and his meat and tissue dissolved with the burning viscousness of melted gold.
He desperately swam to the surface, only for Ningguang to use her geo mastery to seal off the surface and harden the gold into solid, trapping him in the agony of a pool of cursed metal.
Such teamwork.
But it would take more than that to defeat him.
He steadily absorbed the molten money through his skin, focusing on its warmth and power rather than the excruciating he suffered.
The primary purpose of gold was always meant to be a catalyst for magic.
Using every ounce of willpower, he used his pain as a means to empower his own healing factor, closing his wounds faster than they even formed.
Then, with the gauntlets he forged from the golden Wolflord’s paws, he punched through the surface of the amber, spewing corrosion laced black aureate everywhere.
The three women had to take cover behind Ningguang’s shield which they learnt did little to defend them from abyssal powers.
A stray fractal struck yelan’s thigh and immediately began infecting the gash with black bile as she screeched.
Fixing his black robes and regrowing his body, Pantalone vomited out the excess boiling liquid in his stomach as his insides and outsides both smoked and sizzled with red and white burns, with gold rocks already solidifying on them.
“You… You were captured by Capitano’s formation. How did you manage to crack it?!”
He demanded, upon recovery.
“Wouldn’t you like to know, you evil economist!”
Keqing shot back, sending thunder stars that Pantalone deflected with his abyssal gauntlets.
“…Fine! Keep your secrets! And let them die with you!”
Pantalone roared, slashing out a chunk of reality with his powers of corrosion and unleashing packs of riftwolves from their tear.
Directing the beasts to attack the trio, the ninth harbinger also took it upon himself to get personally involved in the fray by whipping his lightning chain at his enemies.
Meeting the weapon with her own steel strings, Yelan entangled the electro chain and yanked before her opponent could react, pulling his arm away from her direction and pulling his shoulder backwards in an awkward position.
Ningguang was the next to retaliate, pummeling the riftwolves with giant stones conjured from her vision and creating another opening for Keqing to dart through the swarm in her energy form and re-emerge in front of Pantalone to slice his neck.
“Foolish children!”
Rebuked the Regrator, opening his third eye on his forehead and unleashing a beam of lightning at Keqing that she conducted away with her sword, but not before it shattered completely.
With his spare arm, Pantalone grabbed hold onto Keqing’s shoulder, using his Midas touch to rapidly convert her body into solid gold through the art of khemia.
Now that both her hands were tied holding onto the iron wire, Yelan opted to use her feet to draw her bowstring, letting fly a hydro arrow that broke Pantalone’s focus and halted the spell.
Noticing this, the liyuean swordswoman Keqing delivered a backwards kick to the harbinger, throwing him off balance and using the opportunity to warp herself elsewhere.
But before she could get far in her electro form, Pantalone used his control over lightning to throw her into Yelan, releasing his own thunder whip from her steel strings in the process.
“You have gotten stronger,”
Pantalone noticed, noting how Yelan’s weapons could handle the punishment of delusion grade arms.
“A result of training? Or something else all together?”
“No, I’ve just realized something since the last time we met, Regrator.”
Yelan answered, throwing a pair of explosive hydro dice that Pantalone blocked with his magic umbrella.
“Oh? And what would that be? That it was a mistake to steal from me? Well you should have thought of that before you swiped the gift that would have earned me The Tsaritsa’s favor!”
Pantalone answered from behind his shield.
He then summoned numerous spell books that expelled razor sharp pieces of gold plated paper that flew toward Yelan.
Ningguang, having dispatched most of the riftwolves, warped toward Yelan in a flash of yellow to deflect each page of the grimoires with her bare hands alone.
Redirecting the slashing papers toward the last few abyssal canines, Ningguang conjured a jade screen beside Pantalone and swiped it into him to knock him down.
However, the Regrator, with his abyssal gloves, punched through the barrier as if it were nothing.
Meanwhile, the other pieces of enchanted paper around him began to blast out shimmering letters and musical notes that Keqing had to step in and defend against while Ningguang used her geo power to defend against the sheets of paper herself.
The future tianheng Keqing swung her saber left and right, splitting incantation after incantation, feeling the brunt of each mantra backfiring upon her with every strike.
Pantalone’s magics held vicious bite to them.
Channeling his sorcery from both the abyss and his delusions, he imbued curse after curse into his blast of the arcane.
“These catalyst familiars were captured and enslaved by yours truly from the void. Even the energies liberated from these books have sentience!”
Pantalone boasted, watching the living lasers swarm around the swordswoman and harass her with stinging blows.
With Ningguang parrying the sharpened papers and Keqing swatting the glowing words away, Pantalone now had Yelan all to herself yet again.
“But you would know, wouldn’t you, Yelan?”
Pantalone smirked, unleashing his lightning whip again that Yelan somersaulted over and returned with several hydro arrows.
Blocking the elemental reactions with an abyssal barrier, he opened a portal above him from which emerged a giant wolf claw that surged toward the liyuean secret agent.
Yelan barely blocked the strike from the claw of the golden wolflord with her newly learnt abyssal arts from Ganyu, using elongated arrows as swords to stop their descent.
She then sidestepped and summoned a modified hydro railgun to fire a concussive beam of water at her opponent.
But just while the projectile did hit its mark, the cunning Regrator only smiled.
“When you were my handmaiden, I was but a collector of old trinkets. I only had the Wolflord’s heart and his claws as my weapons,”
He laughed, removing flaps from his all black leather trenchcoat to reveal the wound inflicted by his former student.
It oozed with indigo pus. Galaxy patterned blood.
Lesions and boils and holes were found all over his chest to accompany the large gash Yelan managed to score, evoking nausea at the grotesque sight.
Spiral marks were evident as each laceration, each scar.
The brands of the abyss.
He was cursed.
“And you are proud of it?!”
Yelan demanded.
“No. All my life I’ve been outside the aristocracy, I served no one and lived and died a lonely man with nothing to his name.”
Pantalone answered, digging his fingers into the wound with a grunt.
“Then I learnt that I could only live as a king by answering to deities.”
A flash in his eyes highlighted the spirals in his pupils.
“None shall escape the flames. Wealthy or poor. Royalty or peasant. I choose to make the only possible real choice,”
With a sickening rip, Pantalone tore up his human form by the seams of his gash, unleashing a wave of dark power that shook the arena.
The living spellbook familiars and the incantations liberated from them instantly ceased and returned to what remained of their summoner, with pages and words now fading into black and fashioning a cloak for what appeared to be a human sized abyssal gateway.
Yelan, Ningguang and Keqing had little time to react before hordes of riftcanines swarmed out of the portal like wasps, hounding after everything in sight.
Ningguang did her best to slow their movements by deploying her gadgets to aid her in entrapping the beasts, sealing them in adeptal subspace cages that she had purchased from the black market. She then summoned an astral projection of the jade chamber using her unfinished blueprints of her Flying Fortress, forging a war machine that could be used to rain fire upon the savage beasts.
Keqing on the other hand scattered her lightning stilettos everywhere, darting from riftwolf to riftwolf, gutting everyone of them with a swift slice of her sword.
Using the conducting powers of Ningguang’s littered geo crystals, Keqing managed to release a ray of electro that instantaneously bounced in all directions, killing a many abyssal canine.
But it was no use.
There were just too many.
There was no end to these monsters.
Pantalone’s abyss portal form suddenly warped behind Ningguang, transforming into an onyx scythe that came tumbling down upon her jade shields, breaking them effortlessly with the might of corrosion.
Keqing needed to rescue her ally by carving an abyssal repelling rune in the air with her sword and sending it straight at the regrator’s new fluid body.
“Gahhh!!!”
He grunted, turning around and shooting out rows of giant mora coins from his abyssal gateway that threatened to roll both women over.
Keqing, with her superior agility, threw Ningguang over the incoming steamrollers and transformed into an orb of electricity to safely pass through the golden disks.
Ningguang then grasped onto the giant coins with her geokinesis and flung them all back at the abyssal Pantalone, crushing him under his own weapons.
But the harbinger could not be so easily defeated.
He took the form of a monstrous ink dragon, arising from the rubble with wings raised and fangs barred.
“Remember your training,”
Keqing pointed out to Ningguang.
“I can’t be the only one casting abyss repelling magics. And you’re supposed to be the charmcaster here.”
The golden haired woman nodded her head and raised even more rocks and launched them at her rival, coating each of the boulders with sigils of promise that were said to have an effect on the void.
“Rex Lapis has no power here, worm!”
The Golden Master, now The Bejewelled Black, hollered.
Using the gravity of the blackness of space, the enchanted stones struck an invisible shield, falling off by the sides and inflicting no damage.
The abyss dragon, a perversion of Morax’s Draconis form then released a breath of boiling tar toward all three women.
“Morax is in all his temples!”
Ningguang answered.
“And his lordship’s dominion is absolute so long as faith is with us!”
While the vile drake’s toxic vomit ate through the combined shields put up by Yelan, Keqing and Ningguang, the jade chamber’s astral projection wafted above the monster.
Upon the geo construct, one could see its pointed tip wrapped in Sigils of Promise.
With a powerful yell, Ningguang dropped the replica of the flying island upon Pantalone, stabbing through his chest with its pointed tip.
After a resounding scream of pain, the shadowy silhouette imploded upon itself, reacting violently with the power of the Prime Adeptus, banishing every trace of abyssal might and casting it back into the valley of the mockery of death.
The stone sorceress and electrical assassin huffed and puffed, regrouping with their senior sister, Yelan, as the smoke cleared.
“Is it over?”
Keqing questioned.
“It isn’t. Not until we collapse this array around the ninth harbinger.”
Ningguang answered, still on her guard.
Ningguang’s jade chamber projection which once hovered menacingly above her with canons smoking and sails torn after having destroyed so many abyss riftwolves, was not the true physical jade chamber. But rather a product of her enhanced powers by the liyuean women’s mysterious benefactor.
He who approached the Guhua headquarters and eliminated the prison spell with a light tap of his finger.
That golden haired man wore a mask that had one side of a laughing smile and one side of a crying wail. His identity was impossible to discern.
But his charm and charisma was unmistakeable.
He had granted all in the Guhua Clan additional power with a wave of his hand, infusing them with vitality and strength that could almost be described as intoxicating. Damning.
It was this mysterious masked performer that had given them instruction to come her to break an array that Morax himself had trouble cracking.
Could he be an emissary of the geo archon?
As more of the debris dissipated, the spawning and crackling abyssal gate began to spawn three pairs of eyes. Piercing and ruby in nature.
“How… How are you still… Alive?!”
He cursed, pupils flaring with confusion and rage.
“Who… Who helped you?!”
He stood up with a strained growl and charged at his enemies one last time, desperation and humiliation spurring him into action.
And just as the cloaked abyss portal rushed the three humans, he just as quickly stopped himself.
A horrified shriek boomed from the abyss portal, howling in sheer exasperation, shaking the very foundations of the array that surrounded them.
Tumbling back down onto the floor, the void gate glitched and sparked, a humanoid face materializing from the black ooze that made up the dark entrance.
It was writhing in agony.
Keqing thought that Pantalone body had finally given up on itself, but upon closer inspection, it looked more like the banker was shocked and terrified of them, desperately clawing his way backward after skidding to a halt right in front of their feet.
“Y-You…?! But why…?!”
Whispered the ninth harbinger, all three eyes enlarged with horror and surprise.
“Why… Are you here…?! WHY HELP THEM?!”
Keqing felt her mouth curl into an unnaturally large grin and her eyes roll back into her skull.
Her facial bones cracking and clicking into place, as the world went white.
《 Eight Directional, Nine Pillared, Deity Devouring Array: Hall of Shattered Stonehearts 》
Azdaha unleashed a group of shadow imps charged with the power of erosion, claws sharpened with the venom necessary to drive an immortal mad.
All of them shared a resemblance to Jiu’er, who acted as the vessel of the Uncrowned King of Vishaps.
Repelling an incoming wave of the infant monstrosities with his thunder hooves that quaked the ground, Mooncarver retaliated with a powerful geo beam that was absorbed by Azdaha’s summoning of a crystal shield.
Mountain shaper seized the opportunity to swoop down and pick Jiu’er up from the ground and throw her into air, sending sigils of promise to ensnare her and hold her in suspension.
Azdaha roared with outrage, struggling against the restraints from within the child.
“You think you can hold me?! I was Morax’s brother in arms!”
Black smoke puffed out from within the child’s body, manifesting as scythes and arrows that shot toward the geo crane, aiming to strike him down.
Mooncarver, looking how his ally was hounded by the blasphemous powers of the abyss, used his adeptal subspace magic to create portals that sent the abyssal weapons elsewhere.
He understood that if corrosion could eat through shields, redirection was the better alternative.
Azdaha struggled and writhed under the spell of the sigils of promise, summoning the very gravity itself to close in around both of his enemies’ bodies, crushing them painfully under his telekinetic grasp.
“Release me from this vile charm, dogs of Morax! Or I kill either of you as recompense!”
The uncrowned king of Geovishaps demanded, sharp thorns starting to sprout from the girl’s back as her cries mixed with pain and insane laughter shook the halls.
“Don’t give in, brother! We must subdue Azdaha to bring down this section of the array!”
Mooncarver yelled to mountain shaper, who only cawed in agony and agreement.
“Grrr… Then both of you and the girl… WILL PERISH!”
Azdaha roared, furious that his threat held no threat and that his possession of the girl and control over his opponents’ lives meant naught.
A wisp of black and gold smoke bellowed from jiu’er’s body, manifesting as Azdaha’s hulking human form, equipped with shiny armor and dark skin.
He maintained his handsome features, if only cracked and scarred with poisoned veins polluted with the spiral.
The girl, however, while free of Azdaha’s possession, still heeded his call.
She continued choking the life from her two adversaries as she cried tears of black blood and vomited hellish bile.
“Hold them, my pet.”
Azdaha drew his massive great sword, pulling it behind him and ready to deliver a killing slash to both Adepti.
“And you shall be relieved of your burden once and for all.”
The burning talismans hissed at the supple human skin they are into, slowly and painfully devouring the girl.
However, just as Azdaha swung his blade, he was swept to the side by an wave of telekinesis almost on par with his own.
The colossal man tumbled to the ground in pain, adjusting his helmet and glaring upward at the intruder.
A woman.
And yet…
Azdaha felt all his anger dissipate for a small moment as he laid eyes upon her.
Her eyes.
Her hair.
A presence that spoke of utmost mental strength. Psychic powers that baffled the hardest of hearts and impenetrable minds.
While obviously outfitted with mechanical parts and techno-organic replacements, her image was unmistakably identical to Azdaha’s senior sister, Guizhong.
Azdaha’s mouth almost curled into a soft smile, memories and lullabies flooding him in an instant.
“No… IMPOSSIBLE!”
He suddenly snapped out from his trance, bloodjade crystals emerging from his body as his emotions flared.
As the woman inched closer and closer, Mooncarver and Mountain Shaper could only look on in awe.
She was as beautiful as the day she died.
“…Guizhong…”
Azdaha whispered, his claymore’s hilt almost cracking from how hard his was gripping it.
“How are you still alive…?!”
The goddess gave a small cheeky smile.
And then, she swept a gust of golden dust toward the gargantuan stone drake, blasting him to the ground once again.
“Stay down, my dear Luotuo.”
She instructed.
“I would hate to hurt you even more.”
“Grrr… LIES! DECEPTION!”
Azdaha roared, standing up with unmatched resolve.
“ANOTHER TRICK BY THE HOUSE OF MORAX!”
Suddenly, cubes of pure geo energy began to steadily rise everywhere around the uncrowned king of vishaps.
It took Azdaha seconds to recognize the contraption.
The memory of dust.
“What…?! N-NO!!!”
He screamed, as the pieces locked into place, seizing him within the catalyst.
The puzzle was used to maintain the prison spells that captured the physical bodies of the archon nemeses in the oceans of Guyun Stone Forest.
How is it possible that another one was made?!
Unless…
This was no illusion.
Azdaha smashed against the walls of the enigma as hard as he could, drawing upon his stored magics of pyro, electro, hydro and cryo.
“No… NO!!! I will not be… VANQUISHED!”
He screamed, extending black diamonds all across his form to forcefully push the barriers open from the inside.
His control over corrosion was perfectly capable of slithering out from the shields of the giant prison, snaking their way toward Guizhong and attacking her violently.
As the dust goddess repelled the tendrils with her geo abilities, the giant black stalagmites from Azdaha pierced through the memory of dust, creating an opening from which he could burst out from.
“RAAARGH!!! You are an insult to Guizhong’s memory!”
The geo drake bellowed, sending out steel plates that shimmered gold with the element of geo.
Upon coming into contact with the goddess of dust, the iron projectiles exploded, launching her away.
While shaken by her opponent’s unconventional use of metal rather than stone, Guizhong was undaunted, summoning beautiful glaze lillies that steadily sucked up the abyssal corruption that kept Azdaha one step ahead of her superior geo mastery.
All the while the mercury shrapnels in her artificial flesh failed to poison their target due to her robotic constitution.
“You may be able to overwhelm me outside of this array, you dastardly mimic… But this formation serves to grant me strength beyond this world!”
Azdaha declared, creating a chain with a huge metal ball at the end and flinging it toward the dust goddess.
As she tried to use her geokinesis to deflect it, she found that the weapon was forged from Khaenrian Ore, marked with abyssal runes. It was thus immune to her control over geo.
Unable to save herself from the impact, Guizhong rotated the ground below azdaha by 180 degrees, throwing off his trajectory and causing him to throw the chained mace at empty air.
Afterward, mountain shaper and moon carver both dove in to attack the hulking human form of Azdaha, hammering him with repeated geo blasts.
“Do not give him the opening to attack her, my brother!”
Mountain Shaper cawed, aiming his talons for his opponent’s eyes.
“…ENOUGH!”
Azdaha unleashed a wave of hydro that both waterclogged Mountain Shaper’s wings in the air, and mixed with the stone surrounding to form quicksand which buried Mooncarver to knee length.
Afterward, he released a bolt of lightning that Guizhong had to use the conductive properties of the metal minerals in her dust to conduct the electricity away.
He did not stop there.
He jumped on top of Guizhong and transformed into a mountain, quite literally crushing her underneath.
“NO!”
Mountain shaper yelped, witnessing as his goddess was ground into paste before his eyes.
“Your charade is wearing, you feeble clone! I can taste the forbidden arts used to fashion you a body. Your powers and appearance may be reminiscent of Guizhong… But you are not her!”
Azdaha growled, raising his feet and stomping repeatedly on the supposed corpse of his rival.
Azdaha made sure to empower each step with a vile elemental reaction, the crystal nails in each foot infused with pyro or electro, causing overload reactions sure to eviscerate even the most hardy of geo elementals.
And yet, even as he did, he began to feel a wetness in his mouth.
Gold began seeping from the side of his lips at the height of his euphoria, jolting him from his ecstasy.
Blood. Spirit ectoplasm was pouring from his insides.
Suddenly, he began coughing and hacking painfully, throwing up copious amounts of Glaze Lilies.
Further more, fauna began sprouting everywhere on his stone hide, roots shattering and breaking his otherwise impregnable carapace.
“W…WHAT?!”
Azdaha felt his insides churn and rupture and split, as accursed toxin ravaged through every vein in his body.
Black dust that carried the seeds of glaze lilies perforated out from his pours, filling him with poison which once sanitized an island.
“You who are land itself,”
Guizhong’s voice echoed from within the gargantuan.
“Have no more power over humans with technology at their disposable. Now nature itself obeys their whims.”
Golden tractors and drills materialized around the weakened Geo Sage of The Council of Black Earth, instantly getting to work to chipping him down.
“Cowards!!!! Vermin!!!!”
Azdaha thrashed around, wildly smashing the geo constructs with his hand that morphed in back and forth between that of his human form and dragon form.
But Guizhong’s designs were as advanced as they were plenty.
And with Khaenrian technomancy to aid her in partnership with her own knowledge of the digital , she demonstrated absolute control over machine and mayhem.
“You merely adopted the darkness, Azdaha. Yet you do not understand it.”
Guizhong smiled, deploying more and more Khaenran runes that encircled around her like fish.
“I study the art of the abyss. Work to control it. And was reborn in its crucible of blood and fire and tar.”
Azdaha was slowly but surely being worn down by the repeated attacks of drones and robotics powered by none other than the abyss he held so dear as his new power.
“This feeble array… An adorable imitation of my genius.”
Guizhong remarked.
“The mathematical formula of this array is already in my grasp. I can bring down this chamber down on you if I so desire!”
Azdaha’s crazed eyes gleamed scarlet at the threat.
“You wouldn’t dare…!”
He mixed electro and geo to enhance gravity and magnetism to levels beyond that of Morax to forcefully yank Mountain Shaper and Moon Carver toward him.
Then, with a massive stomp, he stepped on both in his enormous wingless dragon form, foaming at the mouth and ready to bite off their heads.
“I will end these two unless you surrender. And reveal your origin!”
Azdaha suddenly threw up copious amounts of black dust, as if Guizhong finally relented.
He immediately felt his body relax from the purging of the toxic particles.
It surprised him that even his newly gained abyssal physiology was no match against Guizhong’s internal rupturing of his organs.
The black sand began to conjure itself into the form of the goddess of dust, now armed with a golden hammer.
Her war forge.
That which was used to create weapons and equipment for the adepti.
“Oh no,”
She pouted.
“Don’t kill them off just yet. I still require them. It would be such a waste of raw material.”
Azdaha was taken aback.
And so was Mountain Shaper and Moon Carver.
She spoke as if the Adepti were mere pawns to her.
“…As I had predicted. A pale imitation…!”
Azdaha growled.
“STATE YOUR IDENTITY!”
Guizhong smirked, only swinging her golden forge at Azdaha’s face and producing a massive gleam of light.
And as the shine went down, Azdaha found himself face to face with a fusion cannon’s barrel.
A shimmering beam shot through the funnel and flung the beast away from the two Adepti he pinned, in awe at the contraption constructed by Guizhong.
“The devices built into my person by the mad doctor proves to be inconsequential indeed.”
Guizhong smiled.
“It appears that if I am to be the greatest creator, then a greatest creation I must be as well!”
“W-What did you… Do…?!”
Azdaha crawled to his feet, head abuzz with static and pain.
He mixed geo and pyro to splash a tide of lava toward Guizhong, only for the steaming red to be be absorbed by the dastardly cyborg’s hammer and its energy flowing back out from the rope to create a giant crossbow just like the Guizhong ballista.
With a flick of her wrist, a flaming pike was shot right into Azdaha’s stomach, eliciting a scream of agony from him.
“More… MORE!”
Guizhong cackled, demanding the kinetic force necessary for her to win the day.
Azdaha buried his tail in the ground, enchanting the ground into permafrost, creating massive ice shards that barreled toward the pretender sorceress.
Striking the translucent glaciers with her forge, she accumulated more and more kinetic charges, which she unleashed back at Azdaha.
But the Geo Sage of The Council of The Black Earth had anticipated this.
Igniting the fossil fuels that lay preserved within the ice and snow once consisting of the unfortunate illuminated beasts of Chenyu Vale that wandered into the array, a giant firewall was constructed.
The beam of adeptal imitation unleashed by the Guizhong aberration was not only swallowed by the sea of flames, but the combusted adeptal energies were steadily consumed by the ley line plants that Azdaha himself learned to spawn on his body.
“Whatever you can do, I can do better!”
Azdaha laughed maniacally.
“Have you forgotten that Vishaps are known to adapt to survive?! Your moves are now my own! Just as you draw power from my attacks, I too can now do the same!”
His tail began continuously gorging itself on the spirits of deceased Adepti killed in his array, growing larger and larger.
The already humongous beast was now dwarfing even the majesty of Osial of the vortex.
Guizhong snarled, throwing explosive seeds at the monstrosity so her glaze lilies could take root on his armor and crack it.
But it came to a point where Morax’s right hand man had become near invulnerable to such petty attacks.
Before she could react, Guizhong found herself surrounded by the runes of five different elements.
They converged and crushed her between each other without hesitation, bombarding her completely with pyro, cryo, hydro, electro and geo.
“Not quite like the element of pure light…”
Azdaha smiled, as the abyssal power in him boiled from his stomach to his throat.
“But enough to install a pseudo annihilation reaction on you! Machine!”
Combining the elements of the light realm and the night realm, she who masqueraded as Guizhong was struck with primeordial judgement.
Her circuits unresponsive.
Her gears frozen.
Her processors fried.
Who knew the spiral and the ray could work together so well? Cooperate to deal a blow even to otherworldly technology?
Azdaha summoned a giant blood jade tree to rise up from the ground and coil itself around the disabled mech.
It was still active, if only void of all motor functions.
A rallying cry behind azdaha caused him to swipe his tail absentmindedly at his attackers, effortlessly whipping Mooncarver and Mountain shaper into submission.
The stone drake imprisoned both within black pillars eerily similar to the ones Morax used to trap his physical form.
He would deal with them later.
But first…
“You will answer.”
Azdaha stomped toward the barely responsive Guizhong, whose metal features peeled open to reveal torn wires and sparkling bolts underneath.
“What are you?”
“I am what remains of your beloved goddess Guizhong. Perhaps even her reincarnation. Your senses and feelings do not deceive you.”
Answered the prosthesis with a black, oily grin.
“I am here because you threaten the ecosystem in Teyvat with your alliance with Capitano and The other Archon Nemeses. Is that so difficult to believe?”
“No. I smell it on you. I smell everything on you.”
Azdaha demanded.
“I’ve worked enough with Capitano to know a delusion when I see one. To decipher the Khaenrian runes that you display on your inner platings. The iron tang of abyssal iron used to build you a new body. You are in league with the Fatui.”
“How insightful.”
The Guizhong cyborg praised.
“Yes, you could call me one of several of the fatui’s attempts to beat the abyss at its own game of creating a mechanized god. Though, as you can see, there is much that can be improved on me. I hold Guizhong’s essence in the delusion that acts as my battery and heart, but I am still far from being a true god.”
“Capitano’s Claymore… The one that was left behind in the night hunt of the illuminated beasts those years ago… Guizhong’s ashes.”
Azdaha understood.
He crafted his own weapon and brandished it at the vile impersonator.
“I should break that accursed glass orb and free her soul right now!”
“Are you not going to ask why I am here? Impeding your mission? Even as Fatui Leadership like Capitano and Pantalone is involved?”
Interrupted the innocent looking girl.
Azdaha’s eyes squinted at the supposed confession.
“Treachery? From the harbingers in our ranks…?!”
He looked around the corridor with confusion.
Anger.
Fear.
A feeling that he had a trap close around him of some sort.
Capitano was known to drain souls.
Was he after his power?
No.
If he wanted that, he would have done so already. He swallowed his essence before, back in Fengshui Palace, and had regurgitated him here.
And even if he did not, majority of his cultivation lay within his dormant physical form, which was still buried under layers upon layers of sanctified earth.
Capitano had no reason to betray him.
Or did he?
A hearty laugh returned him to reality.
“This formation was designed to keep the abyss in, was it not? What a wondrous way of phrasing it! I wonder who else here wields the power of the abyss…? Surely it couldn’t be you, right? Surely, they didn’t plan on keeping your conciousness here while they went after the real motherload of cultivation you stored in your physical form, yes?”
The clone of Guizhong chuckled.
“No. Of course Capitano and Pantalone were most genuine in their offer of partnership with you and your godly allies. They couldn’t have possibly known about your secret dealings with the spiral?”
Azdaha’s pupils darted around anxiously.
He reached out his hand to touch the outer field of the array he was tasked to protect, just to test her theory.
True enough, he was met with a painful repulsion, throwing him backwards.
“Gkh…!!! NO!!!”
Azdaha hissed.
“Awww… My dear Luotuo is going to die here… What a shame… Bzzzt!”
The Guizhong prosthesis heckled, glitching as her laugh mixed a loose wire with some leaking oil.
“WITCH!”
Azdaha thundered, enlarging his paw and pulling it above his shoulder to squish the insult to his senior sister once and for all.
“Ah-Ah… Are you really going to destroy your only way out?”
She scolded.
Azdaha stopped mid stomp, fog snorting out from his nostril as the tech sorceress continued.
“I am part organic. And you now have the ley lines acting as a portable lie detector. Look into my heart. The delusion that houses the real Guizhong’s essence,”
Claimed the charlatan Guizhong.
“Tell me I’m lying if I said the Fatui wish to destroy this formation… Regardless of whether Capitano or Pantalone survive the outcome.”
The armored ankylosaurus that was azdaha tilted his head.
“Explain.”
He ordered.
“We have our reasons. But what I said earlier wasn’t completely false. The environment is indeed suffering because of Capitano’s actions… And as those who reside in said environment, the Fatui would very much value their own self preservation. It appears that translates to your survival too.”
The Guizhong clone elaborated.
“Perhaps we could work together, now that you know the truth.”
Azdaha paused, dragon form fidgeting under the expectant gaze of the disgusting perversion of one he once respected.
Could this be another trick?
Azdaha’s leyline mastery allowed him to sift through the memories of any living being.
Apparently there was enough organic material in her to scan.
He took a step back upon the realization.
She was not lying.
He transformed back into human form, waving his fingers to retract the bloodjade branches that entangled around the half-robot, allowing her to slump to the floor.
“Now that’s the spirit.”
The aberration of the dust goddess coughed as she chortled under her breath.
“You have yet to tell me how to you plan on making yourself useful.”
Azdaha growled.
“If even I am unable to break this corridor and escape, what chance do you, a mere copy of the great queen mother Guizhong, have?”
“As mentioned earlier,”
The cyborg tutted, helping herself to her feet.
Her beautiful liyuean robes were ripped and torn in battle, showing off her mangled iron legs.
“I have Guizhong’s knowledge. Her brilliance. Perhaps even more, now that it has been augmented with the latest in computing and artificial intelligence,”
She pointed to her head.
“Capitano was once Guizhong’s closest junior brother. Most of his adeptal spells came from her teachings. And as such, even this formation contains similarities with the house of dust’s arcane arts. Decrypting its code should be an easy fix… But the energy investment on the other hand…”
She looked to the beast of legend, who stood with his arms akimbo.
“You want my mana to back up your dispelment rites.”
Azdaha answered for her.
Reluctance was clear in his voice.
“Everything comes at a cost, Luotuo.”
The clone of Guizhong invited.
“It is unlike you to think that magic does not come with a price. There is always an equilibrium to be maintained. Take Capitano’s soul-devouring powers for instance and compare it with my namesake’s talent for creating weapons from the carcasses of defeated enemies.”
Azdaha flinched at the grotesque reminder.
“Hmph. Is it only monstrous and an abomination when it is done to you?”
She poked further.
“I think you and the Adepti of the house of Rex lapis will find many like minded hypocrites in the comedia dellarte.”
Suddenly a massive tree trunk erupted from the ground and stabbed into the delusion heart of the Guizhong Clone, pumping it with the nectar of leyline energy.
“Haaa… How generous…!”
The prosthesis moaned at the influx of immortal ichor.
“I knew we would make fast friends…!”
“Waste no more of my time, you soulless android,”
Azdaha reminded sternly.
“And fulfil your end of the bargain.”
“Oh I will do more than that, my new ally,”
She answered, wrapping the hand of her astral projection around one of the stellar fortuna of the constellation that powered the array, tugging at it gently to dislodge it from the star maps.
A tactic once used by Rex Lapis to destroy Capitano’s previous formation.
Except this time, it was not the power of Celestia that allowed her such authority to touch fate and destiny.
The abyssal runes on her metal bones pulsated with recognition, granting her access into the sea of quanta.
“Once this is all over, I will show you your salvation. The one thing you want most.”
Azdaha glared at his self proclaimed savior, sarcasm ever thick in his words.
“Oh? Surely you don’t mean you’ll help me end the all powerful scourge that is Morax? How delightful!”
“No,”
The Fatui Experiment corrected.
“You who implicitly allowed The Tartarus into your heart. Who allowed erosion and corrosion into your conciousness seek release from the chains of the abyss.”
She produced a holographic image in her palm.
It displayed none other than the familiar saber of The Raiden Shogun.
The Musou No Hittotachi.
“We can cut the piece of you away like we would a cancer. Split you down the middle to save you.”
Guizhong’s metallic incarnation smirked.
“HA! And you think you could convince the electro archon to help me?!”
Azdaha rumbled the section of the array he was in.
“Morax would have a better chance at doing that!”
“Incorrect again.”
The clone pointed out, the holographic image now shifting into that of the sillouhette of a young boy.
The Inazuman Prince.
Scaramouche.
Sixth of The Fatui Harbingers.
“I have harvested enough of his essence to recreate his flesh. To reforge into our own version of the Shogun’s blade,”
The Guizhong Apparition assured.
“As you know, it is capable of dividing all things. From space time to even the very being of personality.”
Azdaha grumbled under his breath, marching back and forth under the black light of the array.
“So one half of me will suffer endlessly… While the other half walks free?”
“No… One half suffers until the other half finds salvation. As an implicit partner of the abyss, your every move is watched. You are biologically and mentally required to be incapable of rebellion or escape from the influence of the void. But with a segment of yourself free, you may now find a way to relieve yourself of those chains. Know that a new name must be created for your other self to complete the ritual. Have you one in mind?”
Questioned the steel maiden.
“…Kun Jun.”
Azdaha pondered, after a moment.
“And that my friend, judging by how quick you are to accept, would be a cry for help.”
Laughed the titanium goddess.
“How intriguing how bits of individuality and desperation still slip through the Tartarus’s many eyes. How it inspires creativity and ingenuity.”
She sheathed herself further on the oily bloodjade branch, soaking in all its precious energy currents.
“Perhaps it is true what they say… A candle of hope lights up an ocean of despair. And you, a member of the light realm, cannot help but bring yourself to fight the darkness, even when that light has been tainted black,”
《 Eight Directional, Nine Pillared, Deity Devouring Array: Hall of Incendiary Incitation 》
Ganyu transformed into her kirin form and rammed straight into the boiling hot body of Chi of Guyun, the heated dragon scales burning her skin.
“You have spirit, Adeptus!”
Chi commended as he used his greater strength to push against the smaller beast, right before shooting out pyro lasers from his eyes to launch her away.
“But whatever power that freed you from Capitano’s trap, it will do you no good here!”
Blue flames erupted from the exhaust vents in his long draconic neck, and he unleashed a stronger, more potent azure torrent of pyro energy at the cryo qilin.
Ganyu’s ice shield cracked under the massive pressure, shattering and allowing the scorch to engulf her completely.
Though, as soon as she cowered in the face of the inferno, she felt the heat dissipate almost instantly.
Before her was Adeptus marsochius in his giant grizzly bear form, redirecting the fire away from the young Kirin.
He had been summoned from his hiatus in the mortal realm, abandoning his ward: Chef Mao, for one last fight for the house of Deus Auri.
He was certain that after this battle, every memory and cultivation he had left as an Adeptus will have truly been exhausted, never to be recovered again.
But it was worth it.
Marsochius unsheathed his claws and jumped onto the fire dragon overlord, burying the skewers into his neck again and again, distracting him long enough for Madame Ping to unleash a powerful blast of anemo into the wounds inflicted by her ally.
Expanding the air in the gashes, the injuries sustained by Chi exploded, causing him to retreat in pain and fury.
“Filthy insects… Not even Morax could defeat me with his gnosis in my prime…!”
Chi summoned a ring of black flames around himself that rapidly expanded, surging toward Madame Ping, Ganyu and Marsochius.
The plush Adeptus used all his pyro mastery to block the rush of hellfire, with his two compatriots behind him. But this time, the onyx blaze wrapped around him and surrounded his and the other two’s body.
Before anyone could react, the searing hoops constricted around them, incinerating their flesh and bone while choking them with physical, tangible inferno.
Hoisting all three up with his pyropathy, Chi mustered a terrible, earth shaking laugh.
“Do you really think having a mere fire wielder on your side will save you from me?! I am the embodiment of the burning world! Of the ten suns merged into one! I AM THE LIGHTREALM’S CHAMPION!!!!”
He unfurled his ten wings, with five on each side, and unleashed a beam of fire from each.
Madame Ping immediately began destroying all the air particles around them with her mind, spontaneously erupting them around Chi and fuelling the continued explosions with the remaining oxygen in the room.
By concentrating the blasts into a pathway back to the fire dragon, Streetward rambler managed to return the orange lights of cinder back to its source, attacking the pyro god with his own magic.
“Gah…! You are full of tricks, Streetward rambler.”
Chi hissed, sucking in the torches that licked even his fireproof skin.
“Pity Morax never did love you the way he loved Guizhong,”
His ten wings began sprouting wings of their own, flying off his back like arrows and each transforming into a pheonix and zooming toward the trio, who had dropped back onto the floor after Madame ping’s strategic counterattack.
“Shoot down those flarepheonixes! Each of them is a miniature sun and can vaporize one with a single touch!”
Madame Ping yelled, using an anemo shockwave to keep two of the flaming birds at bay.
Ganyu released several clustershot arrows that sprinkled the blessing of cryo on the beasts, making them recoil in irritance, while marsochius use his pyro abilities to telekinetically push them back and smash them against each other.
“You cannot subdue the forever flame!”
Chi roared, enraged that his incendiary birds were being kept from their explosive objectives.
“Witness the helium flash of the novadeath of a thousand stars!”
The ten flare ravens converged to form a ring above him, creating a black hole from which a spirit bomb emerged from, descending upon the field and atomizing everything in site.
Madame Ping, Marsochius and Ganyu combined their magics to create a force field to withstand the world-ending explosion, but even their shared powers were incapable of defending against the ancient fire dragon who once tasted the position of sovereignty.
All three of them were burned to the point that they could maintain their humanoid forms no longer, reverting to their original animal bodies, too weak to ever fight back again.
“Still alive? Even after absolute bombardment from the solar?”
Chi frowned, annoyed.
“I must confess, Morax taught you well,”
All three of his opponents however, were too exhausted to respond.
The Pyro Sage of The Council of The Black Earth, reached out his hands to control the internal body temperatures of his weakened adversaries, boiling their blood till smoke escaped through their skin and they vomited magma and liquified insides.
“Fuel for the ever-burning flame of the light realm… Be returned to the source of the warmth of life!”
He smiled, watching the three Adepti writhe in their final moments.
But even as Ganyu coughed up smoke and ash, she still dared a small grin.
“Heh… I… Didn’t come… Alone…!”
The kirin expressed, with her white fur stained with oxidized blood.
Just as she finished, the formation around them buzzed and glitched, depriving Chi from the full power he would have received otherwise at its full vitality.
“Someone tampers with this section of the Deity Devouring Formation…? Who dares?! Who has such power?! Such knowledge?!”
Chi shrieked, outraged.
His heat detection identified three more silhouettes hiding in a corner of the hall he was placed in charge of defending.
They were located right outside the door of life, and were as such shielded from the passive effects of incineration by the stratagem.
Chi took a whiff of their unique bio-signatures.
They were human.
Children of Phanes.
Usurpers.
“INTERLOPERS!”
He bellowed, teleporting vast distances to the far end of his domain to confront the sabotagers.
Manifesting as a cloud of molten fog that descended from the ceiling of the pocket space, he tore through the very fabric of Eonothem and poked his head through the sky of his array to see none other than the three heirs of the Feiyun Commerce Guild conducting some form of ritual.
Xingqiu with his hydro.
Xingxia with his pyro.
Xingchen with his dendro.
Three brothers working in unison, drawing upon their understanding of the arts of the House of Guhua to calculate a solution to the mathematical equation of the magical trap all of them were kept in.
Chi saw a circle drawn in blood, with the three humans sat around it. It appeared like the infamous triquetra symbol, judging by the additional patterns on it.
A sacrifice shared by family.
Dangerously potent.
Chi echoed his bloodcurdling cry from the heavens, causing all three brothers to look up at him in horror.
A geyser of flame erupted from the floor to meet the sky, teleporting the fire dragon to the ground to meet them.
Transforming into human form with flaming hair and golden armor, chi of Guyun spread his dragon wings behind his back as a show of dominance.
“Do you really think your plan could go unnoticed by me?!”
He swept an arc of blue fire toward the three, who ducked to dodge the attack, before scattering into different directions.
“Xingqiu! Get back to the door of life and continue cracking the formation! Leave him to me and Xingxia!”
Xingchun barked, immediately issuing orders as the oldest sibling.
As Xingqiu hurried back to execute his mission, Xingchun raised massive tree branches to hinder the approach of the fire dragon.
But the aura of heat around him made it simply impossible for the fauna to get close without bursting into an inferno.
Xingxia who could certainly not compete with Chi’s mastery, instead used blood magic from the House of Guhua to impede him.
Xingchun began seeing the wisdom in his second brother’s actions, carving a small wound on his hand and flinging the red liquid at the beast.
Wincing as the enchanted blood sprayed upon him, burning his his fireproof skin, he combusted the air around Xingchun and raised Xingcia into the air, sucking out his life’s flame steadily.
“Brother!”
Xingchun shouted, witnessing his sibling’s internal qi being consumed by the fire dragon.
Xingxia who struggled against the invisible grasp around him shot blasts of fire at his opponent, who only absorbed the heat and redirected it at Xingchun who attempted to break Chi’s ritual.
Xingqiu, watching his two brother’s one sided battle with an enemy that clearly overwhelmed them could bear the sight no longer.
“Stay away from them!”
The youngest heir of the Feiyuj commerce guild placed his hand on the floor to summon an enchantment field below Chi, spamming hydro swords that shot out from the ground and pricking his armored body.
“HAHAHAHA!!! How pathetic!”
Claimed the volcanic drake, who instead summoned a pile of molten rocks around Xingqiu, entrapping him within. Afterwards, a torrent of lava erupted in his face, scalding him until not even his mother could recognize him.
“XINGQIUUU!!!!”
Xingxia wailed, using all his leftover cultivation to break from Chi’s grip and summon his Chakrams.
Throwing the razor disks at Chi caused massive spiritflare implosions from the wounds they managed to score, forcing the pyro dragon on the retreat.
Xingchun on the other hand, rushed to their near-dead younger brother.
His skin was charred and crispy, with once childlike suppleness now reduced to black and mangled flesh.
“B-B-Brother…”
Xingqiu began to speak, spewing more blood from his broken lips and roasted viicebox.
“Shhh… Don’t speak.”
Xingchun comforted, holding his brother’s limp hand and desperately transferring healing waves of Dendro power into him.
“You’re going to be ok… I’ll fix this. I’ll take good care of you…!”
Tears rolling down his face stung as they landed on Xingqiu’s wounded body, making him gasp in discomfort.
“N…No…!”
Xingqiu tried to do his own comforting, wheezing as every breath he took grew weaker.
“Blood… Array… Complete…”
He pointed to the fully constructed rune that combined the life force and magic of all three Feiyun Commerce Brothers into a blood arrow that could pierce the veil of this stratagem that somehow resonated outstandingly with magics from the house of Guhua.
“Nonono… I don’t care! Dammit! Just… You’re going to be alright! I… I promise…!”
Xingchun almost sobbed.
No older brother should ever be allowed to bury their younger sibling.
How was he going to explain this to their parents?
“Brother… Kill… Me…!”
Xingqiu suddenly said, jolting Xingchun from his misery.
“What?”
He raised his head from where he previously hung it low in despair.
“What are you saying?! You’re not going to die!!!”
Xingqiu said nothing, only lifting his shaky finger toward the blood rune that was drawn on the ground.
Xingchun knew precisely what his youngest brother meant.
He wanted him to be sacrificed on the blood rune to increase its potency.
There was no greater magic than the true love between family.
And if that bond was the petrol for the enchantment that already used the blood from all three siblings, almost no power in the world could stand in its way. It could very well pierce the veil of this immortal-devouring trap.
But… Could Xingchun really bear to kill his own brother and have his dying breath be the salvation of liyue?
Meanwhile, Chi of Guyun, frustrated at being on the receiving end of Xingxia’s blessed immortal blades rings, had cut through every spiritburst blast inflicted upon him.
“Your little toys cannot harm me…!”
Chi growled, creating a hand made of magma and clenching it around Xingxia’s body.
It would have surely cooked him to death had it not been of Xingxia hadn’t used his pyro mastery to create a pyro shield around himself that held greater resistance to attacks of the same element.
But he could not maintain the barrier for long.
“BWAHAHAA!!!”
Chi cackled, grabbing hold of the stars that littered the sky of his domain.
The very same that made up the constellation that powered his section of the formation.
“Burn… BURN!!!”
He roared, aiming the sparkling stellar fortuna at Xingchun and Xingqiu, shooting down orbital lasers from above.
Xingchun held his dying sibling in his arms, hoping to shield him from the killing blow, only for the pyro beams to be blocked by a cryo shield.
“Wha-?”
Chi questioned, blowing away the smoke that followed with his single puff, realizing that Ganyu was placing herself between him and the humans.
The kirin could not stop his attacks before.
How is it possible that she now had the strength?
The cryo shield around the two brothers of the feiyun commerce guild dissipated and reconverted on Ganyu’s hand.
“HA! You truly are desperate! Using your own cultivation core to protect them?! I’d praise you if you weren’t so stupid!”
Chi laughed, creating a massive fire claw and swiping it at Ganyu.
However, he was stopped by another cultivation core- Madame Ping’s.
The anemo pearl shimmered as it fought bravely against the flames, pushing back against the pyro projection valiantly.
Chi suddenly felt a bout of nausea.
Like he felt like throwing up bile and stomach acid.
He quickly realized that it was Marsochius, using his own golden core to resonate with his, interfering with his concentration in dealing with Madame Ping.
Chi allowed a stream of pyro to gather from his belly to his throat, ready to spray it at the three Adepti, only for Marscochius to control the flame in his gullet and combust it, scorching Chi’s windpipe and blowing a hole in his neck.
“Graaagh! Meddlesome dogs of Rex Lapis!”
He cursed, regenerating from his wounds and releasing a chilling screech.
Pyro hypostases began emerging from around him, virtualizing from what appeared to be thin air.
“If you will not accept the gift of light… Then true death is what awaits you!”
He smacked the ruby hypostases toward his enemies with his backhand and encased Marsochius and Ganyu within.
He then gathered the remaining hypostases cubes into a giant saber that he caught in midair and used to strike at Ganyu.
Using her bow to block the slash, the Kirin spawned ice crystals around Chi’s body to keep him restrained.
All the while Madame Ping, who even as trapped within the boiling squares of the pyro hypostases she was trapped in, could use her anemo powers to project herself astrally, tackling Chi of Guyun and quite literally, pushing his spirit from his body.
The body of the fire dragon immediately slumped as his soul was kicked out from his vessel, giving Ganyu the opening to inflict as many attacks as she could on his empty shell as Madame Ping wrestled with the spirit avatar of her adversary.
“Streetward Rambler… You dare expel me?!”
He demanded.
“Souls are the fire of all sentient beings. The sparks of independent existence! You doom yourself by challenging me!”
“Yes… But Ganyu remains open to dealing enough damage to your mortal form until it can no longer be of use! You have lost!”
Madame Ping answered with pride, revealing the frostbitten body of the human shell once inhabited by Chi, now reduced to smithereens with a simple touch.
“Surrender, monster! Your anchor to the mortal plane has been destroyed! Cease your actions on the physical realm or face the wrath of the heavenly principles!”
The cryo vision wielder of the Qixin ordered.
Chi only shrugged, snapping his fingers and immolating the astral form of the old woman before rising up into the heights of his section of the array in his dragon form.
“Morax knew to separate my body, heart, mind, soul and eyes precisely because alone, each was already enough to bring upon apocalypse!”
He summoned a torrent of lava and poured it upon Ganyu, drowning her in the lethal substance.
Her cries were drowned out as she sank into the smelting liquid, which quickly hardened and petrified her into amber.
“The heavenly principles has no jurisdiction here. Only the light realm rules supreme!”
Chi laughed, as he descended onto ground level once more, reveling in his ultimate victory.
That was, until a crippling sensation pierced his body.
He whipped his head around to see Xingchun releasing his shaky hands around a dagger that was now embedded in the charred body of Xingqiu.
“Y-y-you… made him… Do this…!!!”
Xingchun murmured.
“Y-you did this to him!!! It didn’t- Didn’t have to be this way…!”
Chi started throwing up spiritual ectoplasm, as he witnessed the blood rune on the ground created by the three humans radiate with golden light.
It appeared a sacrifice was made after all.
A ghostly hand tore its way through chi of guyun’s mouth, grabbing onto his head and squeezing it until it exploded, raining uncorporeal essence everywhere.
This protection spell…
No… it was as curse…!
Chi of Guyun opened his eyeless sockets from deep within his underwater prison, isolated and alone in the seas of Guyun Stone Forest.
He was cast back into his physical form, far away from the battle.
But… Why?!
He looked around his dungeon, noticing how Osial slumbered beside him, undisturbed from his stasis sleep, none the wiser to the fight that took place in Chenyu vale that would determine the fate of Liyue for the best Millenia.
“Guhua. Are you there?! What is this?! I demand an explanation!”
He smashed his cage’s bars to gain attention to no avail.
He hissed through his jaws.
“CAPITANO! I know you can hear me! What did you do?!?!”
Upon his summon, a shining dragonhorse manifested before him outside the confines of the jail cell, comprised entirely of the luminescence conferred to Guhua by Chi himself.
“I have repeatedly told you lot that my disciples are not to be harmed,”
Guhua narrowed his eyes through his avatar.
“An example needs to be made here. Even to one I am indebted to,”
“INGRATE!”
Chi reached through the adeptal field but stopped as the pulverizing magics of the prison electrocuted him to compliance.
He quivered at the pain coursing through him, speechless at the betrayal.
“Without me… Who else will maintain the hall of fire in the deity-devouring array?! You set yourself up for failure!”
The pyro dragon protested.
“Ahh… But you forget. Our trump card lies in Beidou. She holds the true anchors to this array, remember? You are simply a placeholder to throw our enemies off,”
Guhua chuckled.
Chi’s eyes widened.
Of course.
How could he forget?
“The initial investment of power to build the array was indeed too much for me to muster alone. I needed to gain your trust, as well as the others’ to have you pour the maximum mana you could offer into my formation to create it.”
Guhua explained.
“That’s why I chose not to devour the soul fragments of the council of the black earth that I managed to salvage from the Adepti, and instead used them to communicate with you all and unite you under my banner. I maintained this stance even back when my Fengshui fortress was destroyed by Beidou and you and your compatriots dared attempt a mutiny. After all, even if I wanted to punish you, why should I go after but a morsel of your conciousness and directly destroy the false bond we have prematurely? When I could have it in its entirety?”
Chi gasped, noticing the lack of Adepti patrolling the surface as well as the seas.
“It seems you have noticed this as well,”
Capitano smirked.
“By luring the house of Morax here, nothing can stop my harvest of your physical bodies… Where your true wellspring of power comes from.”
“TREACHERY! I should have expected nothing less from the son of Rex Lapis!”
Chi bludgeoned the bars of his confinement chamber with his fists until they turned bloody.
“I had long anticipated your betrayal. However… The tsaritsa taught me to always strike first. After all, love and friendship is a lie. There is only give and take. And I will give no more. Did you really think that I didn’t know your true intention for giving me such power? To emotionally manipulate me to become your dog? ”
Capitano questioned with pride, clearly excited at having outsmarted his dastardly benefactor.
“Riding on the back of Osial’s genuine kindness to me, you attempted to mask your true intent. But the Fatui are masters of lies… And your tactics are child’s play to what the Cryo Goddess imparted to me.”
“Grrrr… COWARD! HYPOCRITE! You claim to be grateful for Osial… Yet you torture his descendants! Desecrate them after! Even with Beisht’s tacit approval, you have betrayed him!”
Chi pointed toward the bibernating Osial, bubbles escaping his mouth in the surrounding waters, quiet and at peace.
“And worst of all… You were the one to poison him into such a deep catatonic state…! Just so he would be none the wiser to your actions!”
Capitano snarled at the accusation, but quickly smiled again.
“We will be sure to revisit that again… But don’t forget: the only reason I haven’t dealt with you is because I have bigger fish to fry. Had you restrained yourself from attacking my students and KILLING them, you could have at least seen Morax perish before your own demise. But rest assured… Once my plan concludes and Morax and the Adepti are finished, I shall return the soul fragments of the other archon nemeses back into their real physical bodies as well. You can then expect to be reunited in my belly, full and true.”
《 Eight Directional, Nine Pillared, Deity Devouring Array: Door of Death, Grave of the Submerged Moon 》
Capitano knew Morax would come.
It was an open challenge to his rule to set up such a blasphemous array.
It was an invitation that had the name Guhua spelt all over it.
Capitano also knew Morax would invade the door of death directly.
His ego. His pride. His shame that he was so eager to wipe away by himself to spare himself of the guilt he felt.
He absentmindedly blocked Morax’s meteor shower with a tidal wave of black water gifted by the sixth of the seven rings of the abyss- Lumine.
“Is that seriously the first thing you do upon seeing my face? Throw a rock at it?”
Capitano raised an eyebrow, amused.
“I’m hurt.”
Rex Lapis’s rage could be felt in the way the second harbinger’s blood vibrated in his veins, with metallic minerals shuddering in protest.
Morax was clad in his signature war armor. The very same Guizhong forged for him in the height of the archon war.
And following him was the impending loom of celestial planets plucked from the starry skies of the array itself.
His will could shake even the foundations of the deity devouring array. After all, the abyss, with all its rebellion, still feared celestial punishment.
And yet… Even as he carried the weight of an immortality twisted and wrought by the vile manipulations of the self-proclaimed holiness, the prime Adeptus chose no longer to fight like a slave to the terrestrial.
“You violate the treaty between me and the Tsaritsa.”
The God of Contracts said curtly.
“Is a war what you truly desire?”
“The Tsaritsa has no part in this. She will be displeased to know I have disobeyed her…”
Capitano hummed.
“But it will be better on myself to beg for forgiveness than to go another minute without that which you stole.”
Rex Lapis’s chest pulsed with the heartbeat of a singular foreign gemstone amongst the multitude of dragon scales that guarded his ribcage.
Guhua’s Stellar Fortuna.
Wrenched from his constellation, depriving him of his destiny.
Morax extracted the crimson diamond that belonged to his old student, which moaned with karmic debt and the haunting of slain demigods.
“You do not want this.”
He forewarned.
“There is a reason why I am keeping you from your fate. Should this star return to you, you will hurtle without certainty to the end of your story.”
The fallen Adeptus’s turquoise eyes burned into the crystal in his old mentor’s grip with want, lust and obsession.
“And while I’d rather cease to be than subject myself to what fates impose… I may as well surrender myself to the ordained will of the divine...”
Capitano hissed.
“If only to make myself the author of Deus Auri’s misery,”
“HRAAAARGH!!!”
A feminine voice from above cause Rex Lapis to lunge above the conceptual drowning sensation imposed by the abyss to turn around with his polearm at the ready, blocking a starfall slash from a saber of legend- The Silenced Starlight.
The golden edge of the chaos sword was accompanied by a curved hilt that resembled a crescent moon, and its wielder boasted the colors of pure white and amber to compliment the deadly steel.
“…You?!”
Rex Lapis demanded, recognizing the young woman that lashed out at him.
“Such informality, Morax.”
The Sixth of The Seven Rings of The Spiral: Lumine, smiled.
“Unlike you, I earned my title. The name is ‘Princess’.”
The geo god deflected another sword which was held by The Abyss Princess’s spare hand.
This particular weapon was a twin of her first weapon, with an angular handguard bent at ninety degrees at the side.
Previously owned by her counterpart.
The fourth descender. The one who resisted the rules of this world with his will alone. The one who had not yet awakened.
This sword was known as the Golden Wish’s Invocation.
Forged from the same template.
Cooled with the same blood.
Equal in might.
Yet opposite in nature.
These weapons were known to harm even the sustainer of heavenly principles.
If they were to land a clear blow on Rex Lapis, even he would most certainly die.
Of course, the god of contracts knew this all too well.
He traced the scars from the wounds he received from her back in the days of the Khaenrian Apocalypse, still filled with quantum venom and still pumping dread into his heart with every reminiscence of the horrors he had to commit in the name of his celestial masters… As the one called Lumine watched, groveled and later, fought.
“Your blood debt will now be repaid, Dog of The Heavens!”
Lumine proclaimed, grabbing onto the many stars around her with telekinetic control and throwing them toward the Geo God.
Morax relied upon his celestial power to block the cosmic blast, feeling the flame of quanta phasing through him and taking his strength with their passing.
“I heard rumors of the Abyss Order now being led astray by the Khaenrian’s ill-made wish. I had thought that was a metaphor until you revealed yourself to me,”
He sucked in a breath and dispersed the death scorch.
“So you survived the cataclysm after all. And it seemed you and your Khaenrian allies learned little from your previous encounter with the divine.”
Miniature models of Astral Galaxies wafted around Lumine like a halo, briefly transforming into images of vile beasts of the unknown deepspace to showcase their aggression.
“So you have allied with the abyss, my former pupil?”
Morax turned to Capitano with a smug expression.
“So much for the pride of light realm beings. How the mighty glow has bowed to the shaded ones.”
The second harbinger gnashed his teeth, producing an obsidian greatsword.
“The only reason Teyvat lost to Phanes was due to lack of unity between the bright and the night,”
He elaborated.
“As we challenge one who ousted even said primordial one, is it not logical that we team up against a larger threat?”
“I assure you…”
From Rex Lapis’s hair emerged four golden horns and his skin turned deathly black.
“No amount of power can defeat the enemy before you. Much less the one he serves.”
“You’ll have to be more specific, Rex Lapis,”
Capitano answered with greater glee.
“You have served many masters in your long life. Do you refer to Celestia? Or perhaps the one Celestia freed you from?”
The geo archon paused.
What exactly did his old disciple mean?
He couldn’t possibly mean to imply that he knew of the archon of contract’s backstory.
That which predated his arrival into terrestrial soil.
“You were once taken from your rightful homeworld by an organization that scourged the galaxies with its gluttony… And you were forced to breathe gold into its greed. It was Celestia who saved you from that hell, only to make you its own slave.”
Capitano grinned.
“Your magics intrigue my lord, The Spiral.”
Lumine chimed in.
“Sorceries that not only speak of Celestia’s biology and state of being… But also the lore of other universes.”
Morax was chilled.
Frozen.
Impossible.
How could both of them know the full extent of his history?
“Oh? It appears your sources were correct, after all!”
Capitano praised his comrade.
Lumine’s stellar presence only grew bolder at the confirmation upon seeing the geo God’s reaction to her revelation.
“The nightrealm learns from its mistakes. We have already enthralled several of Celestia’s disillusioned enforcers to join our struggle against the second who came. Even recruited other invaders that have stumbled upon Teyvat and suffered from Celestia’s arrogance. We would have extended that same courtesy to you…”
She pointed her two sabers toward the immortal king vulgarly.
“…That is, if you hadn’t so cruelly massacred my kin and took an active role in preventing my reunification with my brother. I’m afraid you die regardless of my master’s pardon for your cooperation.”
This woman was wholly aware of Rex Lapis’s true identity… And by extension the origin of all dragons in Teyvat.
The first dragons were not original creations of the lightrealm. But rather nomads from another realm come to take refuge in the luminescence.
The Scions of Long, The Aeon of PERMANANCE, had sworn a sacred oath to protect Teyvat in exchange for asylum from the great devourer of universes. And to realize that mission, they fully integrated themselves into the realm and even surrendered their genetic makeup to the rules of this world even before Phanes arrived to terraform it.
One could even say that The Dragon King Nibelung (An Emanator of Permance), was the mate of the Lightrealm (An Emanator of Nihility), producing the dragons of today.
Except… Morax never was part of the original cohort that submitted to the Genesis from Nihility.
He was a scion of PERMANANCE, yes, but he was always a slave under the banner of a corrupt interstellar black market juggernaut known as the Interastral Peace Corporation.
Tapping onto his unique ability to generate gold coins as scales and breathe liquid amber, Morax was a prized possession of The Aeon of PRESERVATION, QILIPOTH.
And as the former holder of the Golden Stone held by the Ten Stonehearts, he was both wielder of nigh unlimited powers of protection and an equally unbreakable bond to his old masters.
That is… Until Celestia arrived and freed him from his hell.
Offered him a place on his table.
Morax knew little of his benefactor.
Only that he boasted abilities similar to the chaos magics of The ELATION.
And yet…
There was a sense of clear direction to his plans.
He did not appear as uncontrollable or unpredictable as the followers of the Aeon of ELATION, AHA. Only that he had his feats of tearing down the established systems and rebuilding them in his image.
Celestia was a mighty overhauler that ousted Phanes: An Emmanator of The Aeon ENA THE ORDER.
And that meant that his mastery over the arcane, technological and cosmic were far beyond that of any conventional being.
Regardless, it was his sacred mission to silence all who knew any semblance of truth to his master. And so?
“So… You know of my covenant. Or more accurately, The Tartarus.”
The Prime Adeptus scowled, unclipping his cloak and allowing all his upper clothes and torso armor to clang uselessly to the floor.
“Then there is no point hiding my true nature from you.”
His pale skin darkened into charcoal.
Black gold.
His naked muscles dripped with the luxury of a thousand Gods’ treasures and his veins pumped with alien blood that survived through samsara after samsara without losing vitality.
The ivories under his skin were peeled open and reconstructed bone fiber by bone fiber everytime he underwent molting rebirth, with new memories and a new name everytime he awoke from the temporal concept of death.
And unlike the archon of eternity, The PERMANANCE always survives.
“This sanctuary is but a vision… Here will be your tomb.”
Morax explained.
“You are aware that I can no longer allow either of you to live, yes?”
“You promised to kill me the last time, my dear God Emperor… You were unable to swing the axe then and you still can’t!”
Capitano roared from the side with a smile.
“Not this time.”
Rex lapis said.
A low rumble shook the very planet at his call.
“If I cannot break your array, then I will simply send the entirety of Chenyu Vale into the throes of oblivion. No longer will it exist on the map of Teyvat.”
Morax answered, using his mastery over the landscape to begin uprooting the entire region, disconnecting it from the foundations of liyue.
“Hahaha!!!”
Capitano smirked.
“You truly believe brute force can save you as always? This formation was made just for you!”
Black chains shot out from the waters and began anchoring Chenyu Vale back onto the terrestrial, fighting the gravity that heeded the geo god.
Similarly, the same black chains materialized within the array and wrapped them around Morax like leeches.
“The blackness of the nightrealm is all-encroaching… And the light of the burning world is all-enveloping.”
Capitano declared.
“Do you really think you can escape?!”
A giant pillar of white energy came crashing down on Morax, subjecting him to the full wrath of the lightrealm while abyssal roots entrapped him in their labyrinth.
“Gkh…! It took primeordial power to vanquish both light and night,”
Morax growled.
“And I hailed from the celestial realm which defeated the primeordial… You didn’t think this through did you?”
“Hardly!”
Lumine added.
“All this time Capitano has been wisely considering the ones he should select to make up his Council of The Black Earth. Or did you think their identities were coincidence, as well?”
Morax currently held three sources of power within him. That of Celestia’s, The Permanence, as well as The Preservation.
And yet, he found himself bombarded with not merely the abyss and lightrealm, but also the powers of The Remembrance and The Propagation.
“…So both of you are also aware of Nuli, Baqiu, Bingyuan and Mengpo’s true identities as aliens…!”
Morax hissed.
“Pantalone… And Chi of Guyun only acted as fuel to power the array’s side of the human realm and the lightrealm respectively!”
“The Khaenrian Jester’s knowledge is greater than I imagined,”
Lumine confessed, glancing at Capitano.
“Even I didn’t expect their induction to be purposeful. Only thought of it as a happy bonus until you revealed to me the full nature of your plan. Perhaps I underestimated the Fatui after all.”
The dragonhorse only shrugged at the compliment, allowing the lightrealm beam to die down and letting a weakened Morax drop to the floor.
Rex Lapis’s power over permanence could be countered with propagation. One can live forever but it does not guarantee one’s eternal health. To endure an eternity of rot and decay and decomposition is hell in itself.
His mastery over preservation can also be overcome with the remembrance. For psychic attacks can effortlessly pass through the shields of the physical.
The Prime Adeptus shuddered and convulsed.
Insects crawled under his skin and secreted acidic drool that stung his blood. Memories of past suffering barged through the gates of the geo God’s mind.
Poisoned with the propagation and the remembrance, the archon of transaction was now vulnerable.
“Our victory is near.”
Lumine hummed.
A spiral mark began carving itself across the floor, overflowing with black bile and tar.
“My master is ready to receive him.”
The geo god gasped as he saw the all too familiar sight of the maw of hell opening up below him.
“…No! I… Will not…!”
He struggled against the black chains, ripping and tearing through the shackles but only causing more of them to take their place.
Rex Lapis’s eyes shone black as his onyx skin began to showcase amethyst veins.
His pupils liquidated to form a spiral shape and his bones clicked painfully into place, forcing him to march into the shadowy pit.
It seemed like something or someone was pulling him telekinetically through the portal.
No. Telepathically.
He was not merely being controlled by body. But in mind!
“What… What is in there…?!”
Morax demanded, his body fading away to reveal his true dragon form, as he was dragged further down the spiral.
“Oh? Don’t you remember?”
Lumine snickered.
“Most of the dragon sovereigns surrendered to Phanes. Yet some retreated to the dark sea and allied with the abyss to continue the war. You as a dragon yourself are biologically bound to heed when an alpha dragon calls upon you!”
Morax looked down the wormhole with horror, noticing three skeletal dragon heads looking up at him hungrily.
There was no flesh, only bone and tendon lining what appeared to be bloody gold armor.
Emerald flames licked the side of the undead drake’s jaws and obsidian ice dripped from its venomous tongue.
This presence…
Capitano instantly fell on one knee upon sensing the creature.
This beast wasn’t merely a sovereign.
He was royalty.
A king.
He was so shaken that he couldn’t even take the time to revel in Morax’s defeat.
“Oh, Morax. If only you knew,”
Lumine chuckled.
“After you killed Guizhong, you went on a murderous rampage, accusing any and everyone who questioned you.”
She prowled the field with cat-like caution.
“Your confused rage was yours, yes… But your continued delusion was always a product of your true master guiding you to this path you find yourself on! He was the one who repressed your memories long after they should have resurfaced. He was the one who whispered into your ear and assured you that you did no wrong! All so he could position a fellow dragon at the ear of Celestia!”
Lumine screamed with euphoria.
“Now the time has come to return home! Rejoice for you have served him well! Bow your head to your Dragonheir! And reveal us the secret of Celestia’s weakness!!!!”
Morax’s eyes widened.
“No…!”
He examined the features of the monstrous zombified dragon waiting patiently on the other side of the abyss portal.
“It can’t be…!”
Capitano himself trembled at the name that was to be uttered by Rex Lapis next.
“Nibelung…!!!”
《 The Horizon 》
“Did you not promise to withdraw your support from the Deity Devouring Array? Why do I sense my child’s presence in it? The one who I entrusted to you.”
The lightrealm asked her brother curiously, as she trailed her hand across an entire row of books before accidentally cutting herself on one of its metallic edges.
Wincing, the lightrealm recoiled her finger, sucking on her bleeding thumb and glaring at the culprit.
A book that pulsated slightly with each passing second, oozing with alien knowledge.
Not that the other books in this hidden library weren’t forbidden in nature as well, but this one seemed truly special.
It looked different from the others, considering how it was not made of paper or cloth or parchment. Rather, it was some kind of hard, shiny material that shone in the shared glow of sun and moonlight.
This metal… This mineral…
Every shard, every sequin of it that decorated the book pumped with life, shifting position every now and then and rearranging themselves to change the patterns on the surface of the cover.
She pulled the deck out of the shelf gingerly, careful not to scratch herself again as she attempted to examine it. Yet, she almost dropped it when the book squealed and produced a low, living heat at her touch.
It was almost as if it was made of still breathing organic material!
The lightrealm flipped the book upside down and noticed it was locked shut.
An indentation on the cover that was shaped like a diamond told her that she probably needed a key of the same configuration to unlock it.
She could ask her brother for help.
But…
She retrieved a vial of primeordial essence from her clothes and poured it on the book.
This potion was formulated using a molten form of primogems that was liberated from Phanes’s body upon his death after his fight with the second who came.
Perhaps the book would recognize its energies and…
c l i c k
The lock came right off, falling to the ground with a loud clang, making her flinch.
Her brother, who had heard the commotion, looked up from his own documents and walked toward his sister at a blistering pace.
“What have you got there, sweet sibling?”
The Tartarus questioned, raising a brow as he noticed his sister quickly shove the book behind her back to hide it.
“Nothing,”
The lightrealm answered, concealing her find away and freeing up her hidden hand to show her injury.
“Simply a stray shelf separator that nicked my finger, that’s all.”
The Tartarus huffed at the clumsiness of his younger kin, instead reaching out to it and bandaging the wound shut with his void powers.
“You ought to be more careful. You’ve been distracting me while I’ve been researching what we need for all this time and now this?”
The Burning World muttered an apology before ushering her brother back to his pile of papers.
While still not trusting her to her own devices, The Nightrealm finally relented, burying himself once again into his work.
Once she was certain his attention was redirected away, Elysium recomputed the mystery book to behold it for herself.
The book itself had no title, only boasting a triquestra symbol as its cover.
Flipping it open and scanning the chapters, she realized that it was an instruction manual for the creation of something… Powerful.
It contained content regarding old magic.
The primal essence of alchemy.
And of the most banal forms of power in the cosmos.
She traced the words inscribed on the pages and gave a soft breath of surprise, recognizing the handwriting and scent of the unique energy signature of its author.
No…
That’s impossible…
This book was written by Phanes himself?!
《 Eight Directional, Nine Pillared, Deity Devouring Array: Door of Death, Grave of the Submerged Moon 》
“Nibelung?”
Lumine burst out laughing.
Morax could only rumble with fear and rage at Lumine’s ridicule.
“Nibelung was vanquished eons ago thanks to Phanes. He then attempted to learn abyss magic to use in tandem with his light to fight Phanes in a winner take all rematch, only to find out by surprise that Celestia has taken over.”
The sixth of the seven abyssal rings asked rhetorically.
“You were there when Celestia destroyed Nibelung and split his body into gnoses with the help of Phanes’s shining shades who betrayed him. How could the Dragon King, The Third Descender, still live?”
She danced across the puddle of black water atop the pond of void liquid that readily devoured the geo god.
She grabbed his hair and shoved his face under the surface of the damning aqua.
“Don’t tell me you can’t see the resemblance?”
Lumine laughed.
“You were half right when you guessed it to be Nibelung. Come on, I don’t need to give you a hint, do I…?”
Rex Lapis’s heart sank when he understood the meaning of the Princess of the abyss order’s words.
Nibelung possessed an heir.
The three headed zombified dragon glared at him intently with soulless eye sockets, with jagged moon-madness fangs ready to sink into the traitor of dragons that was Rex Lapis.
“Who… Who are you…?!”
Morax questioned.
The golden demise, the dragonheir of the depths simply gnashed its teeth together as if he were smiling.
Then, a thunderous echo shook the formation, as a deafening roar blasted from the abyss itself into the physical world, invading Rex Lapis’s mind with the words of the alpha-call, subjecting him to obedience.
“I am Technar Dionosis. Son of Nibelung. Emperor of The Dragons and The Lightrealm… As well as first of The Abyssal Rings of The Inner Circle of The Spiral.”
