Episode 31: Siege Pt 2
Within one of the floors, Ningguang sees all her soldiers dead on the ground. "More these damn shadow creatures," Ningguang said as she almost reaches the lift getting to the vaults.
Suddenly a wall of darkness blocks her way as she turns around to see an armored man wielding a weird red sword. "Ah Ningguang in the flesh, you are beautiful as you are greedy," Nazo said with a smug look on his face.
"Who are you?" Ningguang summons her Memory of Dust and her Star Jades but Nazo instantly appears behind her and kicks her with enough force to send her flying across the vast room. She begins to get off the ground to spit blood onto the floor.
"Take a big guess," Nazo said in a teasing tone as he is wielding his two blades with dark lightning cloaking the weapons.
"Due to your accent and your name, you are from Inazuma. And the way you carry yourself, the samurai is in your stance," Ningguang said as Nazo shrugs his shoulders.
"What if it is, I abandoned that life a long time ago," Nazo said to humor her a bit before she fights her.
"Why join with Void and evoke her wraith on my kingdom?" she asked.
"Because I got sick of the Shogun and her shortsightedness. She lacks vision and Void has something different for these lands and beyond. I want to help her make it a reality," Nazo said.
"I will not let you ruin this nation," Ningguang said as she is focusing her weapon and let out pillars of stone go through the floor.
"I think you did a good job of doing that already. The people hate you out there," Nazo said as he is dodging incoming stone pillars coming at him. He leaps off the incoming rock stabs to cast bolts of lightning with her creating geo shields to block them.
"I manage the order in Liyue and those Red Legion thugs are just a nuisance," Ningguang said as Nazo laughs to be surprised by her naivete.
"You can't be this dense. Due to your rulings, you created the situation for the problem to grow and spread," Nazo said as Ningguang sports a face of shock.
"No, I am in control of this Liyue. I did my best to make it grow and thrive," Ningguang said to fire several gemstones with Nero easily blocking them with his twin blades.
"Yeah, for the rich and powerful like you. While the common folk suffers from your greed, that is why the Red Legion is made. Formed by a bunch of zealous idealists wanting to make a better future for this nation," Nazo said.
"You are the ones who gave them the means to raise against me," Ningguang said as she scatters chunks of crystals out of the floor ripping in up in the process. Her stone pillars are firing off waves of gemstones to home in his energy signal.
"Eat this," he powers up his fist with dark lightning to slam down onto the floor. he emits a powerful wave of black electricity which destroys all Ningguang's pillars breaking them into piles of rubble.
"We are playing a game; you clearly don't understand. You have been played from the start, you never had control of this," Nazo said as he swiftly breaks defenses and smashes his foot into her stomach. She spits blood onto Nazo's combat suit as she fumbles onto the floor.
"Nonsense, I am in control here," Ningguang fires a rapid-fire barrage of gemstones with Nazo evading them the attacks to be getting closer to her again. "Stay away," she said with fear in her eyes.
He deflects one of the gemstones back and aims it into her thigh making her flinch from the bleeding wound. He grabs her throat and bashes her into a wall seeing blood smear it.
"No, you never had control. You are a pawn within my mistress's grand game for this nation and you will play your part as well," Nazo bashes her into the wall several times with each hit getting more violent than the last. Blood is seeping from her cracked skull as it runs down her ruined dress.
"Damn it," Ningguang said as she looks like a bloody mess with Nazo laughing at this.
"You know, you lot look down upon my people in Inazuma and treat us like savages," Nazo said.
"You are a bunch of brutes; your traditions are beyond crude and brutal. Headhunting is one of the Samurais' fortes to prove their worth in your backward 'civilization'," Ningguang said as Nazo is not surprised by her bigoted views of his homeland as a lot of Liyue people hold those same beliefs. He doesn't look fazed and keeps going forward with his rant with her.
"You are considered a big brother to my nation of origin but I don't see why. These lands here are nothing but heaps of people only looking out for themselves and Mora is the ultimate master here," Nazo said as he kicks Ningguang into a wall harming her further.
Ningguang warps away to be on the other side of the room as she is summoning pillars of stone emitting Geo energy. Nazo stops playing around and emits a powerful bolt of dark lightning to destroy all her defenses with ease. He delivers a slash across her chest to send her flying onto the floor with blood scattered all over the place.
He walks over to emit a Shade from his palm. He slams his hand onto her forehead as it enters into her head beginning to latch onto her soul.
"What is happening to me?" Ningguang wondered as her body is acting on its own.
"Be part of the collective and serve our purpose," Nazo said as he backs away for Ningguang is being taken over by the Shade. Nazo can feel Keqing and Aether coming this way. "Oh, our guests are inside. Things are going to get interesting," he said as he goes deeper within the Golden House leaving Ningguang behind to deal with the two.
Elsewhere on the upper levels of the Golden House, Aether, Paimon, and Keqing can see the carnage that took place there. Multiple soldiers were killed off by the Shade as they see Grunts and Troopers approaching them. "Gee here too, this is a nightmare," Keqing said as she summons her Jade Cutter to begin fighting the Shade forces.
"Yeah, let's clear the place out," Aether said as he takes out his Sword of Descension to fight off a Trooper. The disfigured humanoid creature swings its sword with Aether blocking its strikes but gets shoved into a wall by the Shade Trooper. He ducks to barely miss the sword slash aiming for his neck.
He rapidly stabs into the Trooper's chest and split it in half with a potent Anemo powered beam. He gets tackled by a Grunt as a swarm of them trying to grab onto him. He is using his Wind Blade to gather all of them into an air vortex while ripping them with sharp winds. He channels large wind explosions to blow lumps of black goo all over the place.
Keqing powers her blade with electro energy to crave her way through the Grunts. One of the Grunts slashes her back as she felt the sting of her wound shedding blood. She moves in to cut down the small monsters with her sword as she flips over a lunge from the Grunt. She stomps down and stabs into the back of the Shade.
They cleared the way to get into a lift as Keqing sets up the lever to get them to the most bottom floor. "Once, we hit the last floor. We will get close to the vault room, all the secrets of the Qixing will be stored there," Keqing said as they go down into the Golden House to see through the window all the passing floors.
"Seems like the Golden House is back in producing Mora. How did you pull it off?" Paimon asked.
"Well without Zhongli's powers. We needed to be creative, Huang gathered some blueprints from the ruins of the Ether nation to make a machine that can print the Mora for us," Keqing said as Aether and Paimon look impressed by this.
"Interesting, the power of machines is quite amazing," Aether said.
"And dangerous, Huang is lusting after technologies of the old world. A world which makes our nation look primitive compare to their own," Keqing said as Aether can smell the fumes of the boiling metal being converted into Mora coins.
"I remember fighting Childe here," Aether said as this fight was several months ago with the fierce battle still fresh within his mind.
"Oh yeah, the Fatui tried to take down Liyue Harbor before but what they did was child's play compared to this. A full machine invasion and the Golden House crawling with Shade along with fanatics dotting the countryside. This is the worst-case situation and we can't do anything about it," Keqing said feeling so powerless as her people are getting killed in the hundreds of thousands.
"Zhongli and the others are there, they can handle it," Aether said as Keqing doubts this.
"They are not invincible and those machines are coming in the thousands per hour. Almost endless, at this rate the city will be lost," Keqing said.
"Well, I think Zhongli and the others can find a way to stop this," Aether trying to cheer her up as she shows a sad smile to her boyfriend.
"Yeah, you are right. Everything has a weakness, hopefully, this can be found before any more damage can be done," Keqing said as they go to the last floor to see more Shades like Grunts, Troopers, Seekers, and Golems blocking their path.
"Seems like the welcoming party came to greet us Keqing," Aether said.
"Yeah, let's not disappoint them," Keqing said as the duo on the offensive. The monster gang up on them with Aether summons a boulder to crash on top of a group of Grunts as he ducks under a swing of a Golem. He impales several gemstones into the monster's chest as the gems explode with Geo energy blasting the Golem apart.
He slams his fist onto the floor as a wave of Geo crystals erupt out and stab into Troopers and Grunts. The Geo crystals explode to take even more Shade with him getting cut by a passing Seeker. He conjures a twister to collect multiple Seekers within its maelstrom. Smaller Shade gets suck into the vortex as Keqing uses her Starward Sword to go at lightning speed cutting down all the Shade within the whirlwind.
"Nice moves," Aether said as they go through the doors to see Ningguang standing beside Nazo with a devilish smile on his face.
"We saw that guy at the Chasm," Paimon said as the armored man laughs at them.
"Oh yes we did meet at the Chasm but we are here now at the Golden House. The biggest mint of the landmass and seed of all the greed within the land," Nazo said as they see molten rivers of metal around them. These hot streams pouring into machines going deeper within the vast complex.
"You are part of the Shade and Void. You had something to do with this," Keqing said to point her blade at him.
"Oh no, the Red Legion and the corrupt of the Qixing were all your making. And these machines, that is your fault for this happening," Nazo said as they look confused by his words.
"What do you mean?" Keqing demanded as Nazo goes deeper into the Golden House. Aether follows after him as Ningguang's eyes begin to glow and summons a Geo barrier behind her sealing off Aether from Keqing.
"Aether," she said as he can't break the shield.
"I will go after him, seems like Ningguang is taken over by a Shade," Aether said.
"Alright, I will deal with Ningguang. Be careful my love," she said to blow a kiss to him as good luck.
"Thanks," Aether and Paimon go forward with Ningguang sporting a wicked smile.
"So naive and softhearted like your father," Ningguang said as she conjures her Memory of Dust to prepare to fight Keqing.
"You are wrong, the Qixing was wrong. These cutthroat business tactics are not Liyue's future, using our power to help the people is the right way to go," Keqing said as Ningguang laughs at this.
"Don't speak nonsense to me, Liyue is nothing more than a piggybank to me. A place where I can gain more money to give me what I want," Ningguang said as she moves to the wall to create a circle Geo barrier to protect herself and the exit.
Keqing sees Ningguang gave into the Shade and revealing her darker feelings about the nation. "I knew you were quite vain but this is," Keqing said as she summons her Jade Cutter to see Geo energy orbs moving around the barrier to begin shooting beams of Geo energy. She dodges the incoming energy beams as she releases an electro-crescent. Her attack strikes the barrier but nothing happens.
"Don't bother, my barrier is too strong for such an attack," Ningguang said as Keqing gets hit by one of the beams knocking her onto the floor. She took a big hit as she spits blood onto the floor.
"That doesn't work," she thought to get back here as she rushes at the barrier trying to hit it with her sword. Ningguang is making stone pillars pop out of the floor with Keqing evading them as she is getting closer to the barrier. She leaps on top of a pillar as spikes appear around the ever-growing pillars. She is hopping from one pillar to another as the Geo structures emit energy pulses trying to push her into the spikes.
She jumps to another pillar but it fires off a pulse to knock her out of the air. She is falling towards the spike as she swiftly tosses her hairpin onto the ceiling. She warps up there and falls towards the barrier. She slams her sword on the glowing yellow barrier but it does no damage and making her bounce off it.
She regains her balance to avoid incoming gemstones and spikes from nearby pillars. She noticed three Geo spheres moving around the shield as a thought pops into her head. "I wonder," she said as she slashes the air to make an electro crescent to strike the orb destroying it.
Ningguang looks on with fear as two orbs remain on the shield. "Damn it," Ningguang changes her moves to clear out the pillars and spikes. She fires gemstones and shockwaves towards Keqing with her leaping around the threats. She is warping towards the barrier with her trying to go for the second Geo orb.
Ningguang summons a pillar trying to smash her but Keqing leaps on it and using the attack to launch to the orb. She cuts it down as there is only one orb left. The defenses are greatly weakened as Keqing is dodging incoming spells.
"That did the trick, one more left," Keqing said as she tosses her hairpin to avoid a wave of Geo energy via teleporting. She is above the shield and strikes down the last orb to break the barrier to leave Ningguang vulnerable.
The barrier causes an explosion to knock both the women onto the floor as Geo energy dives into the pools of molten metal. A burst of the hot liquid metal bubble to the surface and landing on the clean floor leaving burn marks in their path.
"Keqing, you are a pain in my ass," Ningguang said as she prepares to fight again. Keqing can see the Shade has taken full control and using her like a puppet pushing to fight Keqing further.
"Save face and stop this madness," Keqing said as Ningguang laughs at the young woman.
"You don't get it, you never got it. You will be dead like your father every soon," Ningguang said as Keqing looks on with confusion.
"What do you mean by that," Keqing said as Ningguang has a twisted smile ad laughs at her confused expression.
"Oh, poor girl, your father didn't die from some illness. He was poisoned by the Qixing for getting in our way," Ningguang drops a heavyweight onto Keqing as her face explodes with rage and confusion.
"What!" she screamed as she is dodging her gemstones and rock spikes with Ningguang shrieks at her.
"Oh yes, we made it look like he died from an illness. He was getting in our way of making some deals that would greatly enrich us and he needed to be dealt with," Ningguang said as Keqing's eyes widen with tears bursting from them and her lips quivering from this. her heart took a massive spike through it as her father was murdered by the Qixing due to their greed and lust for power.
"You…you," Keqing is shaking with anger and sadness with her holding the Jade Cutter tightly empowered with Electro energy. She looks at Ningguang with fury in her purple eyes as her heart bleeds with pain and sadness of the deadly truth.
She looks at the once great leader's face driven by madness due to the stress and the Shade warping her true thoughts. She then rushes at the madwoman with rage and sorrow within her heart.
"You Bitch!" Keqing runs at full speed with Ningguang trying to shoot her down with her gemstones. She deflects every single gemstone in her path as Ningguang is getting desperate trying to push Keqing back but nothing worked.
Keqing manages to get within range to deflect the gemstones and then sever Ningguang's head. After the head falls onto the ground, a flash appeared behind Keqing but she is too angry to notice. "Father, I didn't know you were poisoned by these people. I am so sick of this," Keqing collapses onto the ground bawling her eyes out with tears.
"How interesting," Alice said as she disappears from view.
Elsewhere the city is in a dire fight for its survival as the robot hordes never seem to stop. The military is on the sheer edge of defeat and certain sections of the city are in ruins. Huang is heading for the warehouses to find the orb which is key to ending the siege.
He looks down at the letter to be confused why someone gave it to him at this certain time. "Ending this huh, I hope so. I will come out the hero in this situation," Huang said with a devilish smile as he moves to the warehouses with the city falling deeper into conflict.