Episode 18: Underground Hijinks
Within her house, she is within her office to be working on her paperwork for her head maid comes into her room to hand her a letter. "Oh Mistress, this is a letter from a client who wants you to do a request," Mei said.
"Oh okay, Thank you, I will read it," Keqing said as she opens the letter to see it about her client wanted her to clear out a cave filled with Treasure Hoarders for they hold something very special they were stolen. "Well, it's a basic killing all enemies in the area and grab the loot back type of quest. This will be simple," she said as Keqing gets out of her chair to head for Aether's room to see him reading an action Manhua.
"Got a new request to do?" he asked.
"Yeah, we need to go to the target location to deal with Treasure Hoarders," Keqing said.
"What are those guys getting up to this time," Paimon questioned as they get into their travel gear and weapons to prepare to go on the road to the cavernous base of a Treasure Hoarder group.
"Who knows but our client is paying top Mora to wipe out the base and take back their prize that was stolen from him," she said.
"I see, so how is work going lately?" Aether asked.
"Slow but steady. I was overseeing a military outpost on the side of the road. Things are heating up with all the stuff happening as well as that terrorist group Red Legion. Ningguang is getting on edge over all this," Keqing said.
"Indeed, we were picking berries for a request to see outposts popping up on the countryside. People are getting anxious," Paimon said.
"Yes, I heard Ganyu quit the Qixing and working with the Adepti full time," Keqing said as the duo look on with surprise.
"Oh really, guess she made her choice. I can't blame her for that," Aether said.
"Yes, she was loyal to the Qixing out of trust from her master Rex Lapis but now with the Qixing doing whatever it takes to survive against this current situation. Ethics are thrown out the window to safeguard the powerful elite's grip on the nation. Make me sick," Keqing said.
"Pretty ironic, miss nobility," Paimon said as Keqing shows a cute pout.
"Well, I use my noble status to help people like my father taught me how to do it. I deeply care about Liyue and I will help the people in any way I can. Unless the others, I don't want to rip them off," Keqing said.
"You truly are a romantic huh?" Aether asked for he loves her idealism and her deep empathy for others.
"Well, I may be a skeptic, that doesn't mean I can't hope for the future and I will make sure of it," Keqing said sounding sure of herself.
"I know you will," Aether said to see her blushing from his sweet comment.
"It's nothing really, just following my heart. That is all," Keqing said as they got onto the road to see a sign with a skull on it saying. "This is our base, don't fuck with us or we will fuck you," it reads as Paimon brushes it off.
"We can take these punks out easy," Paimon said sounding cocky as Aether and Keqing sigh at this.
"We do all the fighting here," both of them said at the same time.
"Well, Paimon will be helping with your fighting spirit by cheering you on from the sidelines," Paimon said.
"Sure Paimon, you do that," Keqing said to see the entrance of the gang's hideout to see a bunch of guards blocking the entrance. "I will handle this," Keqing said as she swiftly goes into the bushes to pop out and slice off their heads. Blood shoots onto the rocky wall with Keqing seeing that the coast is cleared.
"Clean as always," Aether said as they go inside the caverns to see several crates filled with various goods.
"Must be their latest haul. Better find this thing called the Abyss Stone before they do something weird with it," Keqing said as they go further into the cavern to see several thugs wielding crossbows and swords.
"Hey; we got trouble, get those guys," the thug said as they launch their attack with the duo going on the offensive.
Keqing is leaping off the walls while shooting spikes of lightning to nail them in the head. She is slashing apart several guards with her sword.
Aether is deflecting flaming crossbow bolts and physical strikes with his rock shield as he releases multiple gemstone missiles to blast away enemy grunts. Aether is using his blade to thrust into his enemies to slice the air to conjure wind sickle to chop down a group of grunts.
Keqing is moving around with lightning speed looking like a blur to shed blood across the ground with heads and limbs surrounding her. Her blade is stained with blood from her fallen foes.
"Well, these guys are quite the losers," Paimon said as this is too easy.
"Oh well, we take the stone and go home for lunch," Keqing said as a grunt looks overlook to aim his crossbow to fire at them with explosive bolts.
The bolts head for Keqing as Aether goes up to her to hold her tight. "Hold on Princess," Aether said as he summons a rock barrier for it easily took the hit but the large blast destroys a section of the floor dropping both through the hole.
"Aether, Keqing," Paimon shouted as the hole closes in for the duo are falling towards the ground.
Aether takes his blade to carve it into the side to slow down the descent until they hit the dirt. Aether lands onto a bath of dirt with Keqing clinging to his back. "Oh, good thinking on that one, my mind was ablaze from that confusion," Keqing said to get onto her feet.
"Don't worry I got your back," Aether said.
"Always, gee where are we?" Keqing asked for she focused on their current mission.
"We have fallen deep within the hole," Paimon said for they see more Treasure Hoarders.
"Gee more of these guys," Keqing asked as she is avoiding enemy attacks to stab a grunt into his head with blood getting onto the ground. She slashes the air to conjure a big blast of lightning to knock out several enemies at once.
Aether takes out a group of thieves with a large rock exploding like a bomb clearing out the room. "Come on, let's explore the base and find that stone," he said as the duo go deeper into the cavernous base.
They soon come across a chasm with some platforms that they need to jump over. They were cautious as they continue forward to jump to head further.
The duo effortlessly hops from rock to rock while Keqing steps onto a platform to slip off to begin falling. Aether grabs onto her hand to pull her back up. "I got you, Princess," he said for his heart was rushing almost seeing his precious girlfriend almost turned into a bloody pancake.
"Good thing, you got crazy reflexes," Keqing said.
"Thanks to my training," Aether said lightly as they go deeper within the base to see a huge area to see someone surrounded by his followers.
"Seems like the leader of this group," Keqing said as they get behind some rocks to hear him giving a speech with the leader holding up the stone in his left hand. "That is our target," she said to draw out her blade ready to pounce.
Aether pulls out his sword to let out multiple spears of stone to pierce into several targets. Keqing swiftly comes in slicing up groups of grunts with blood soaking the ground with her tossing the blade to tear through hordes of enemies.
Keqing grabs the hilt the impaled blade on the ground to swing her flat part of her sword into a grunt's head to launch him into a bunch of thugs.
"What the hell is going on?" the TH leader questioned with Keqing coming in and severing his head with her sword. Keqing sees the stone fall out of his dead hands to roll away within the chaos of the fight.
"Good work Keqing, that was easier than I thought," Aether said to unleash a fierce gust of wind to knock them into a pit falling to their deaths.
"Yes, but the stone was lost in the crowd. We got to find it," Keqing said to search for it to slash nearby enemies with Keqing leashing out with lightning orbs to seek her targets to unleash big blasts.
Aether is firing gemstones to blow off the heads of thugs with Keqing behind Aether to slash down an enemy. Keqing kicking a thug into a wall hearing his back-breaking killing him instantly.
"We need the stone," Keqing said as she spots one of the henchmen trying to escape with the stone in hand. "Hey, come back here," she shouted to run for the thug with the two finishing off the criminals.
Aether lets out a ball of wind to take out the last enemies clearing out the base. Keqing is going up ahead to catch up with the henchman.
Keqing is chasing the evasive henchmen holding onto the treasure for dear life with him dodging her energy crescents from Keqing. "Slick bastard, are you," she said as the henchman got close to the exit with Keqing taking aim and tosses his energy changed hairpin.
She warps above the henchman to drop on top of him to thrust her sword in the chest to kill him instantly. She manages to grab the item in question for their mission is completed. Aether and Paimon reach her to see she has a weird looking stone.
"Mission completed," Paimon said as Aether looks at the stone for it emits very unusual energy.
"I wonder what this is for?" Aether wondered as Keqing has a notebook filled with details about the item in question.
"The details we were given are very little. Need to know basics but we can learn more by reading these notes," she said as they begin to walk out of the TH base. They begin reading about the origins of this item and what it is.
"What does it say?" Paimon asked being very curious about this.
"Oh, it's called an Abyss Stone. It's connected to the nation of Ether, something to do with weapon development for their robots," Keqing said.
"Why does the client want something like that?" Paimon asked.
"Oh, it's simple, we need these for research so we can be prepared to fight these machines and we need this type of intel more than ever now," Keqing said.
"Well, that makes sense but the Qixing are trying to make weapons by reverse-engineering the old technology from Ether for their purposes," Aether pointed out as Keqing feels disappointed by this.
"Yeah I know but what can we do now. I hope Ningguang can come to her senses but money over logic is the fall of many ambitious people," Keqing said for she noticed before checking her blade to see it was damaged during the battle. "Oh no, my Lion's Roar was damaged in the battle," Keqing said.
"I see, it looks pretty beat up," Aether said as Keqing utters a big sigh.
"It was a sword my father got from one of his business trips. Gave it to me as a gift but it has long last its use, it was a good run. I need to go to Kendo's shop and get a brand new sword. I hope he got some good ones," Keqing said to magically put it away.
"Seems like a plan, thankfully my two swords don't get worn down like that," Aether said with him summoning his two blades, the Sword of Descension and the Festering Desire to show off.
"Yeah, those swords are as weird as you are," Keqing joked.
"I guess so," Aether said to magically put them away.
"Well, let's go collect that bounty and spend the day together," Keqing said as they head back to the city for a lone shadow watches them from a distance.
"So, they got the stone. Those Treasure Hoarders taking that stone was good luck, after all. Liyue's leaders would want to exploit the deadly secrets of the past but it will be their downfall. It's all in the Mistress's design," Abi said sitting on top of her Phoenix Blaze to fly away to further Void's plans.