It Continues...
Hans woke up warmer than usual.
Thankfully, the itch coming from his disfigured eye ceased and he thanked the winds for this anticipated relief.
He tore the rough woollen blanket off his bare body and sat at the edge of the feather-filled mattress.
He breathed a great big yawn before blinking the heaviness away from his normal right eye. He noticed that bright light was coming from the curtains that hung from his window... but there was one detail that shook the sleep out of him. The spear... it was gone! He darted onto his feet and walked over to the window, thinking that it must have just fallen. But, the item in question was nowhere to be seen... and so were his clothes. He scampered over to his wooden chest where he had kept a variety of miscellaneous items, which included clothing, in hopes to find something that would allow him to practice common decency.
Hans violently lifted the lid open and found nothing.
His once overflowing inventory was now but an empty space within a desolate box.
"Oh no..." Had he been robbed?
In a panic, Hans abandon all sense of shame and charged through his door to check on his siblings. But, upon swinging the wooden slab open, he came face to face with an aimless white void. Hans heart threaten to jump out of his throat and his lower jaw could do nothing but hang far below his skull. His undefiled right eye drunk in the sight of which he came face to face with. There was some ground beyond the door. Unfortunately, not much. He took three steps to peer down at the bottomless edge, seeing nothing but a pale abyss.
"...What in the name of The Seven?" He whispered in fear and decided to explore the available territory, finding that he was on some sort of floating island that surrounded the wooden walls of his room.
He found himself looking from the outside of his window, peering into his room after parting the curtains. The stone island was roughly uniform in direction, it less floated and more simply failed to fall. It did not bob about are move from side to side, it simply existed at a still point. The fixed land on which Hans nakedly stood was not the only thing he noticed. In his fear and shock, he failed to realize that his body was... different. When the thought finally clicked into place he looked at his hands and found that they were not of flesh and blood.
They were of harsh glass.
"WHAT!?" He screamed. Every digit was comprised of a translucent cyan material, where his joints were to be were but empty spaces that separated the segments of his crystal fingers.
He then rapidly moved to his hand and traced his vision to his arms and eventually to the rest of his body. He was entirely made of a strange cyan glass.
"Wh-Wha-What!?" He even noticed his own voice had an odd echo to it as if he spoke within the depths of a deep cave. "What's going on!? Where am I!? ROMEL! IDA! ANYONE!" He ran about the island in circles in a futile attempt to find anything that could possibly explain his situation. "No no no no No No NO!" His hands crashed against the top of his head and found nothing but a jagged field of spikes. "Huh!?" His fingers explored the top of his head before fidgeting down to meet his face. "What in the world..." His face was but a somewhat flat yet rough surface. There was one more thing that shook him to his core. His disfigured eye was gone, leaving nothing but a vacant crater on the left side of his "face".
Thankfully he still had a jaw. It bared no skin or flesh, but at least the familiar movement of the crystal construct gave him some familiarity to his situation.
"Ok. Ok. Breath..." Even though there were no orifices he could feel on his features, nor did he have a neck, the sensation of breathing and filling his lungs with air still came. "Ok... *Inahles*... *Exhales*... Calm..." He attempted to feel this new form. It was strange he could still feel flesh upon his bones yet what he could see was anything but. His neck, stomach, and all his joints were gone. Like his fingers, nothing but an empty space existed between the segments of his body yet it still felt like something was there keeping everything together. "Oh sweet Barbatos this freaking WIERD! Where's all my junk!?"
He checked if his translucent digits can pass through the empty spaces between his neck, chest, and hips. He found that there was indeed nothing that acted as articulations for the fixed proportions.
"Woah!" His head floated above his glass torso, the same thing applied with the torso floating above the glass hip, and that even applied to all the joints of his limbs. Nothing but some invisible force kept everything together. "I wonder..." Since there was nothing physical keeping his head and torso connected, he wondered if he could get it to perform a full spin. "Alright... alright..." He placed grasped either side of his skull firmly and began to count. "Ok... three... two... one!" He threw his head counterclockwise leaving it spinning multiple rotations in less than a second!
"WhoawoahWoahwoahWoahwoahWoah!" In order to stop the spinning, Hans crashed both his hands onto his head, resulting in the cease of the spinning. " Woo! Woo-hoo-hoo! AHAHAHAHAHHHH!"
Hans has somehow found a way to lighten up his odd circumstance by playing around with the nature of his new crystal body.
He then had the idea of if the rest of his body can spin without boundaries like his head could.
He tried getting his torso to spin independently from his hips. He succeeded by violent twisting the weight of his shoulders counterclockwise, causing him to spin about like a Ruin Guard. He got the idea from his brother who told him tales of Ruin Guards fighting off foes in his books by spinning their entire upper bodies, allowing their arms to wreak havoc all around them. Although Hans was no ancient mechanical titan, but he still had a lot of fun channelling his inner tornado. He eventually stopped after beginning to feel a bit of dizziness from his stationary spinning, laughing and giggling to himself from the experience.
He couldn't say he hated his new form, but it was still very odd to him.
"Aw, that was fun!" He would have liked to experiment with how the rest of his body worked, but he was pressed for time and needed to find out the meaning behind all this. At least he was able to relieve some of the earlier stress. "Oh! Yeah. Right. Gotta find out what's goin' on... Yeah..." He had absolutely no idea what to do so he started thinking. "Ok... sooooo. I was helping mom make dad his dinner... Rommel and Ida were already asleep... I went to bed aaaand... Uhhhhhhhh..." That was all Hans could remember, jogging his memory seemed to have not done much in regards to his situation and left him even more confused.
So he decided to wander about the available land and hoped of finding some clues.
He had many questions. Where was his left eye? What even is this place? Why was he some sort of cyan glass monster? So many questions of which he had the utmost intent of finding the answers to.
He walked about the stone island, crept around his room for possible oddities and clambered up to the top of the roof of his place of rest.
Unfortunately, Hans wouldn't find much of interest. So, he lied at the top of his roof and felt defeated. He simply lied, breathing and thinking about his life and how it led up to this moment. Was this place just a nightmare and that he'll wake up soon? Or... was it an eternal prison created by some higher being beyond his comprehension? He greatly hoped it was the former. He wasn't ready to give up just yet... but he was mentally exhausted. So, he decided to simply stare out to the endless expanse of colourless void and... saw... something...
"Is that...?" He sat up to get a better sight of it, it was but a dot out in the desolate space beyond. He focused his right eye on it, a certain familiarity washed upon him and his heart raced.
It was his spear!
"Oh Yeah, IT IS!" It was his spear floating above another stone smaller island quite a distance away. It hovered vertically in its location, the sheen of the steel point beckoning him to retrieve it.
"YES!" He jumped from the roof of his room and crashed his glass food against the stone ground. "YESYESYESYES! YES!" Finally, something he could work with! But, there was a problem. It was on a separate island and there was no way he was going to be able to jump as far as the distance between him and the weapon. "OK. Now how am I gonna get all the way over there?" He toyed with the thought of perhaps tearing his room down and using the materials available to make a bridge, but he did not have the tools for such an endeavour. He walked up to the edge of his island and was surprised when a small stone step rose upon his presence. "Huh? Ok? That's new... Maybe I can-."
He stepped on the new stone step and more rose before him, creating an incomplete path that seemed to be leading him towards the spear.
"Nice."
He grinned as he, one by one, took a step over to the island. The path continued to grow as he closed the distance, giving Hans an idea. He ran.
The rate of the construction of the path was even to the rate at which he rapidly covered ground between him and the spear. Hans grinned and laughed the way, feeling how his solid form performed under more intense tasks such as running. His glass feet would clank and clink against the rocks beneath, but never cracked, let alone threatened to shatter. He could feel air filling his nonexistent lungs as the spear grew closer and closer. Eventually, he would reach his destination and slow down to walking a pace. He marched up to the edge of the second platform and grabbed the weapon with a heavy sigh of relief.
And then another path of stone rose for him, leading to another island a bit farther away. This place seemed to be trying to lead him somewhere and Hans had practically no choice but to comply.
"Ok... I think I get what's going on here. I'll play along."
[|]
"Wow. This is getting really creepy."
When Hans eventually reached the Third Island, he came to realize that it was much MUCH bigger than the last two. It also bared peculiar landmarks.
Upon the entrance were the gates of his village, the same ones he help Ida build a year ago. It was a structure compiled of stone and barbed wood. The gate was wide open and bared no door like it should. Within, he was met with two options. To his left was Rommel's school. He and Ida came to their brother's aid when he somehow convinced them that if everyone in the village could read and write, it would make not only make trade easier, but also everyday life. It was a small and simple structure made primarily of stone and thatch. To his right was a familiar open field where he, his siblings, and his mother would train with the sword.
Those were only the landmarks he could recognize. Fixed within the sky of the land were shredded pieces of homes and random rubble. He even saw a COW of all things up there as if it was frozen in time!
"Man, this place is weird!" Weird does not even come close to describing this strange place.
Wherever or whatever this place even was.
"What the winds is Romel's building even doing here?" He scratched the jagged top of his head where his hair would be. "Hmmmmmm." Curious, Hans decided that he wanted to check out Rommel's school before heading off to the field. Perhaps he could find some clues on what's going on with this place. "Hello? Romel? Anyone?" He yelled as he knocked at the door to the small building, guessing that maybe someone might have been in there. "Hello? Hey, if no one's gonna open the door I'm gonna force it open or just jump through the window. C'mon is anyone there!?" Frustrated at the lack of replies, Hans decided it was time to take matters into his own hands.
"Ok. Time for a Hans Special."
He placed the spear beside the door and took a few paces back. He hopped on his toes for a couple of seconds before abruptly charging towards the door and bracing his shoulder.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH- OOF!" He crashed against solid stone instead.
While Hans charging at the door, said door swung open at the last second before Hans could come into contact with it. This resulted in Hans flying into the building and straight towards one of its stone walls. Such an unfortunate event would leave one clutching themselves in agony, even Hans. But, Hans just bounced off the wall and fell to the floor with virtually no injuries or exhibiting any form of pain. Not questioning what had just happened, the crystal golem jumped back onto his feet and proceeded to drink in the environment around him. What surprised him was how empty the room was.
Usually, Romel's school would be filled to the brim with desks and chairs, along with literal piles of books that weighed more than multiple men.
There were many types of books that Romel kept. He had books about mathematics, history, alchemy, architecture, and his favourite; Fiction. Sure, there were shelves, but those shelves weren't enough to hold all the books within Romel's possession. It got to the point where he had acquired so many books that he had to keep almost half of them in his room. He and Ida would hang out with him whenever they had free time to learn something new. Ida always had a preference for things such as mathematics and architecture while Hans didn't have a favourite, he simply read things because his mother told him to.
"..." Hans did not dare say a word due to how haunting the room was. The space was stripped clean of all familiarity, so he decided to leave.
But, before he could do that, the door slammed shut on him and locked itself.
"Uh-oh."
Hans immediately assumed a stance, one that he knows well after finding himself in a variety of fights with other villagers. Said fights were mostly the result of copious amounts of heavy alcohol. His fight-or-flight response kicked in and since there was no place to run or hide, his instincts chose to prepare for a direct confrontation. He placed his feet wide apart at an angle, dipped his core closer to the floor, curled his back, lifted his fists before him, and tucked his chin. His eyes were peeled for any form of movement, his ears prepared to pick up a creak of sound, and his breathing shallowed as his heart raced with adrenaline. In his mind, he prayed to Barbatos to grant him strength.
...
..
.
Nothing happened.
Hans stood there for almost an entire minute and nothing happened.
He slowly placed his arms down and anticipated anything that could occur. But, a few seconds later, it was clear that he needn't prepare for a fight.
"Auuughh..." His groans of relief and exhaustion echoed throughout the stone building. "I swear... This place is gonna give me a HEART ATTACK! Ugh. Right. Gotta find a way out." Still trying to get the spook out of his system, Hans would go to try prying the door open. When that didn't work he decided to try going through the windows despite his broad frame most likely being unable to fit through. "What?" He couldn't even get his hand through. "Huh!?" It wasn't that his hand couldn't fit, it was more like as if an invisible wall placed itself within the window. "What the... Right! Hurgh!" He yelled, attempting to punch through the invisible force with his right fist.
It didn't work. He tried again and again and again, each strike far harder than the last, but he just couldn't get through. Hans discovered that punching his way through that barrier was probably impossible.
"Aww, C'MON! Are you JOKING!?"
Han's yells of frustration would fall upon deaf ears. If he can't even reach a hand beyond a window, he was very unlikely to bust his way through the door. He was stuck... again...
"Barbatos... BARBATOOOOS! Please... help me out of here, man." Feeling defeated again, Hans resorted to asking the god of winds for help, for freedom. "C'mon... Welp... I'm gonna stuck in here for a while aren't I? Darn." Instead of wallowing in despair, Hans decided that wandering around the small school would be a better use of his time. The place was built similarly to a small chapel. It was a long building with a big desk on one of the ends of the length where Romel would teach. Curiosity got better of him again as he walked to his brother's desk to see if he could find anything. "There better be something good here, else I'm gonna go nuts."
He walked around the wooden piece of furniture and found something peculiar.
Resting as a pile beneath the bottom of the table, were pieces of stained paper that reached a height of up to one's knee.
Seeing this, Hans carefully pinched one of them and brought them up to his face.
"Well, hello~" This reaction was well warranted, the contents of the paper were not of the typical sort. Instead, it bared drawings of human figures performing actions of which were accompanied by lengthy texts that went into detail about said action. "Woah!" Hans' eye twinkled with wonder as he grabbed more of the treatises, drinking in as much information as he can. "Full Thrust? Half Thrust? Negative Grip? Positive Grip?" He cycled through more of them and found more unfamiliar yet interesting concepts. "Slide Thrust? Reverse Thrust? Hard Grip? Light Grip?" If you bared a tainted mind, you would think that Hans was looking at a piece of pornography. But, he definitely was not.
What he held in his crystalized hands were instructions for combat under the utilization of a particular weapon; The Spear.
"Full Step... Half Step... Triangle Step!? What!?" The concepts he found were strange, but captivating nevertheless. "Dash Thrust. Dash Swing? Dash Bonk!? What in the Winds of Teyvat is a Dash Bonk!?" He chuckled at such a stupid-sounding concept and continued to look at more material. "Parry... Step Parry... Dash Parry..." It seems he has found himself reading more defensive instructions. "Deflect... Bind... Disengagement..." The next couple of papers he found involved the use of a shield. "Overhand Grip... Underhand Grip... Throw?" The instructions then detailed the use of the shield itself. "Full Way... Half Way... Close..."
It was incredible. Hans has never seen such detailed examples on the use of what is essentially just a pointy stick. The fact that a shield could be paired was extraordinarily interesting to him.
For a good long while, he forgot that he was trapped within an endless void. A prisoner within a bastardization of his brother's palace of ambitions.
He spent a while reading as much as he could and absorbing as much knowledge as he can. He didn't know why, but he felt so passionate about the topics he discovered.
Absorbed in his studies, Hans didn't notice the door unlocking itself and creaking open. He was too busy understanding some more fundamental methods in a way that would allow the information to stick better. He spent potential hours sitting on the stone floor and doing nothing but reading and imagining, wondering if such techniques could actually be applied. His cyan glass fingers picked up paper after paper, but he soon grew intellectually exhausted and allowed his hands to rest on his thighs. He craned his crystal head upwards and closed his eyes.
He took a few good breaths before deciding to go back to reading, but imagine his shock when he found that the papers were gone and had seemed to vanish out of thin air.
He was about to panic at the loss of such a great wealth of knowledge but...
Hans noticed that the locked door was now open.
"So... I'm free to go now?" This question was not aimed at a particular person. Hans came to the conclusion that this realm seemed to have a mind of its own because of all the crazy things that have happened. "No tricks? You're not gonna slam the door in my face at the last second?" No reply. "Ok..." He whispered. "I'm gonna take that as a yes, but... Do you think you can give me back those papers? I wasn't done reading something about Deflects and Parries. Like, what's the difference?" Only the silence of the mostly empty building met his words. Huffing, he left through the door and finally found himself back outside.
His spear was the first to greet him and was quickly retrieved as Hans decided that he would explore the other and only possible area of the island.
He couldn't see the spear the same anymore. Freshly armed with the knowledge of what he learned from those manuals, he was eager to apply them in a more physical environment. Maybe the training field he, his mother, and his siblings spent would allow him to take a gander at developing the skills he had mentally acquired. There was a pattern he picked up on. The Gate was an entrance, The School was a place of learning, and The Field was most likely going to be a place of sparring if his logic serves him right. So, he marched onto the plain and his solid cyan "toes" met the dull grass-padded earth of the area.
He wondered what this void would do next. First, it makes him run all the way to get his spear, then it locks him in some empty copy of his brother's pseudo library, and now it's most likely going to kick his butt.
And he would be right.
In the blink of an eye, the path that led to the school was utterly filled with giant thorny plants and a human-like figure suddenly flashed into the centre of the field. This was the part where Hans was going to get his butt kicked.
The figure looked almost exactly like Hans' current form, but red. It, like Hans, was some sort of crystalline golem that was kept together by an invisible force that allowed its limbs and segments to move around without them having to be connected by anything physical. Its floating head twitched violently before abruptly stopping and resting its attention on Hans. It wasn't as stocky as Hans, but it was somewhat taller. From thin air, it summoned a long object that seemed to be made of the same glass-like material. It stood taller than the figure itself and bared a sharpened tip, it dipped down and took a stance that Hans recognized from the sheets in Romel's school.
"I think I know where this is going... and I do NOT like it!"
[|]
The red golem held a linear stance, Its feet in line and knees bent low. It bared a straight back and held its spear from the hip and lifted the tip at eye level, pointing it directly towards Hans.
But, it did not attack... yet.
Hans stared at the only other entity aside from himself. This place wanted him to fight here, it was unmistakable. Hans, seeing that his soon-to-be opponent appeared to be waiting, took his time analyzing the situation. It stood at the very centre of the field and was very ready for a fight. So, Hans obliged. He kicked up the wooden frame of the spear and pointed its shining steel tip towards his foe, mimicking said foes stance with help from what he discovered in the school. He slowly marched over to the figure and hesitantly entered a bind.
As quick as lightning, Hans' head shattered. The stocky cyan body fell to the floor and followed suit, shattering into a thousand pieces and vaporizing into a cubicle mist.
A point of light appeared in front of the wall of thorns and Hans reappeared in a flash, his feet landing back on the grass.
"..." He was not going to question what just happened.
Hans got back into his stance and slowly approached his killer and this time his mind was sharper than steel. He intently watched his murderer for the smallest of movements, the red golem stood steadily in place. Hans was alot more hesitant as to get within ten feet of the thing, his mind processing what had happened. His logic tells him that his opponent probably threw a thrust at him. In the manuals he read, it stated that a thrust aimed to face was extraordinarily quick and almost impossible to react to. So, he kept his distance after coming to the conclusion that his opponent would not move from his spot. Perhaps if he struck from a distance, he could avoid getting killed again.
The opponent would dodge the thrust to his head and retaliate by sending its own straight to Hans'. Death; number two.
After Hans dropped in again and this time he was getting very angry, he had possibly just died twice. Again, he approached his stationary foe with vengeful intent. Perhaps he could maybe bait his opponent into thrusting and dodge out of the way. He had a plan. Quickly get into the bind, immediately leave it and then dodge to the side. "Red" would thrust and miss, while Hans will have the opportunity to get a strike in. It was genius! With a malevolent grin... or at least as best a grin a crystal skull devoid of skin can show, Hans lept into his plan. He got into the bind, immediately left, dodged to the right, aaaaaaaaand-
He got stabbed in the face, gain. Death; number three.
Turns out that didn't work since Red didn't actually throw a thrust yet when Hans left the bind and was still ready to give him a two-metre pseudo lobotomy.
Things would only snowball from there.
As Hans attempted everything in his power to finally land a strike on his opponent, it would only result in him getting "killed" over and over and over again. Hans' irritation and building frustration would only lead to the further degradation of his performance. Nothing he could do seemed to work. He attempted everything he could remember in the papers about how to use the spear. He tried a variety of swings and thrusts, dashes and dodges, parries and deflects. He tried everything! Yet, nothing seemed to WORK! He has DIED over TWENTY TIMES against an opponent that DOESN'T EVEN MOVE FROM HIS SPOT!"
Trying to throw an attack? Stabbed.
Trying to take more defensive measures? Stabbed!
Trying to be more evasive by dashing and dodging about? STABBED!
It got so bad that Hans resorted to just throwing himself at his opponent in an attempt to get lucky. He thought that the situation was so hopeless that he presumed mere luck can be his salvation. Unfortunately, that would prove to not be the case after somewhere around his fiftieth death. At some point, he even attempted to integrate his mother's teachings and attempted to basically dance about with a massive pointy pole taller than he was. Obviously, that failed horrendously and merely ended up in him getting him stabbed in the back of the head by Red, again.
It was looking hopeless.
He had died almost a hundred times by now.
He tried everything... Absolutely EVERYTHING, yet still nothing worked!
...Or did he? Hans sat crossed-legged on the grass, watching the mass murder before him with contempt. What was he doing wrong...? He spent an ungodly amount of time trying to hit Red just once. He aimed for every possible target, thinking that he had a better chance at them. Head, torso, arms, hands, legs, feet, and in one cheeky instance, crotch. It was as if the opponent knew exactly what Hans was going to do even before he actually did it. He forced the wheels of his exhausted mind to turn and scratched the vacant cavity of his left socket.
He decided that perhaps it was best to get his mind off his current obstacle and enjoy the environment. The grass brushed against his jagged legs and the air smelt beyond fresh. Despite the lack of nostrils or skin, Hans could still use his senses to take in the world around him. He hinged open his bare, fleshless crystal jaw and yawned. He inhaled air into his lungs or wherever it was going to. It was quite visually clear he didn't have lungs anymore since getting this odd body. He enjoyed that the air was neither too hot nor too cold, the temperature seemed to be locked in a perfect sweet spot.
He remembered Ida telling him of a concept known as "meditating". She got it from reading one of Romel's books and that it was about clearing one's mind of chaotic thoughts and keeping it from latching onto one particular idea. It was means of calming oneself through the means of rhythmic breathing. Hans decided to give it a go at this moment, breathing evenly and allowing thoughts to fly by instead of latching on to them. It was working. Hans found himself exploring his apparently perfect memory, he could remember so much... He decided to think about the spear instructions and mulled over a variety of advanced concepts.
If only there was anything about anticipating one's actions before they even happened.
Oooooh, he internally chuckled at the thought. If only Red had a tell that told him when he... was... going to... strike...
...
"SON OF A BBIIIIiiiii-No! No cursing!" Hans angrily got up from the ground as he came to a mind-burning realization. He had a tell, that was how Red was always getting the upper hand. "I WAS TELEGRAPHING!" Hans screamed. "I WAS FREAKING TELEGRAPHIIIIIIIIIIIII-HI-HI-HIIINnggg... AAAAAAH!" Hans devolved into screaming after figuring out that the solution to his lasting problem was so simple and brutally obvious. "AAARGH! I'm so STUPID! How didn't figure it out!? What's wrong with my brain!?" Hans cruelly grabbed his spear and got into his stance, ready for revenge.
It turns out Hans had been telegraphing the entire time. Telegraphing refers to any action that could indicate an incoming strike.
During the first Deaths, he thought that his foe would be clear-cut and simple. It was, but he had an incomplete solution. So he kept failing and failing, and his sense of care and reasoning degraded due to rage and frustration. His telegraphing was bad, but as the deaths racked up, it got worse. Red would always spot the slightest reel of Hans' spear and would figure that that was the time to strike. Hans finally understood and now he was going to apply his simple solution to this simple, yet frustrating, problem.
He slowly crept forward... Red did nothing... He carefully entered the bind, the shaft of their spears coming into contact as they pointed their blades... Red did nothing... And finally, without any wasted effort, Hans thrusted forth.
And, Red's head shattered into a thousand beautiful pieces. The very sight itself left Hans in a trance. He had killed Red.
He had won.
As the body of his murderer flopped onto the ground and shattered. Hans stood there, simply awestruck at finally beating his enemy. For a few seconds, he couldn't fathom what he had just done... He could feel a great smile curling upon his featureless cyan face and his heart raced at a pace one could simply describe as lethal. Hans had finally done it, he had avenged himself, had won against something that seemed all but possible to defeat. Hans silently revelled in this moment, he breathed heavy breaths that foretold of a great reaction. His shallow hitches threatened the coming of tears...
But, that did not happen.
"eeeeEEEEYYYYYES!" He threw his hands in the air. "YES! That's right! Booyah!" His declarations of victory were accompanied by hopping about the empty field and busting down some sick dance moves. "Uh-huh! That's right! I won! I did it! Go, Hans! Go, Hans! WOOP WOOP! Go, Hans! Uh!" Hans busted moves left and right despite the lack of music or any form of sound, simply enjoying his hard-fought victory by throwing himself a one-man party. "Yeah! I'M THE BEST! You can't keep me down! Yeah!" Got down to the floor and started spinning about with the help of his arms. He called it "The Breakdancing" due to his habit of breaking things while doing it.
Unfortunately, his celebration would be cut short.
"Huh?" Hans ceased his spinning for he felt the ground shake.
The shaking was enough to throw him into a cautious state of mind, he stood up from the grass and felt that the shaking was intensifying.
"Oh no!" Hans watched as the once floating objects around him were finally claimed by the forces of gravity, crashing down around him. "Ah! AH! AAAAAAAAH!" The splinters and rubble blasted from the impact while Hans scampered about trying to avoid getting crushed. But, that was not all that was falling. "OH C'MON! GIVE ME A BREAK!" The ground beneath him opened up to reveal the endless white void beneath. Chunks of the ground fell apart and Hans ran and jumped over to whatever available ground was left as he broke into desperate prayer. "SWEET WINDS OF MONDSTADT! PLEASE WATCH UPON ME AND GRANT ME SALVATION UPON ARDUOUS CIRCUMSTANCES AND-!" He slipped.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhh!" The screams of the Speermann were echoed fruitlessly throughout the eternal void.
...
Hans awoke in his bed covered in sweat.
...