Chapter 1: A Peculiar Old Tree
Location: Apam Woods, Sumeru Region of Teyvat
In a forest of massive trees, one would normally assume that there would be nothing odd about a large tree simply existing among others like itself. However, in this case, you'd be more wrong than you'd possibly assume.
One tree in specific has caught the attention of a group known as the Fatui. A Schneznayan military group working in service of their region's archon, the Tsaritsa. They're spread across the entirety of Teyvat, each working to complete small parts of a big whole of the Tsaritsa's plan.
A group has been sent by the second of the eleven Fatui Harbingers, the Doctor, in a quest to find a way to combine nature and humans in an attempt to make their main elemental magic source, Delusions, safer for their troops to use.
The Doctor used some tools from the tech division to examine the region for significant sources of energy. Elemental, Ley Line, even Abyssal, if it comes to it. If there are any noticeable surges of energy in the jungle region, then the device would detect them.
That is what has led to a group of Fatui members being sent to investigate the area and to bring back any samples they can find regarding the energy source.
Let it be known that the Fatui isn't a very nice group of people. They have to be to stomach the things that they're ordered to do on a regular basis.
"DAMN IT ALL!" A Pyro Agent screams as he trips off another edge.
"For fuck's sake Val, this is the third time you've fallen off a damn ledge. You're supposed to be a Fatui member, not some bumbling tourist!" The aforementioned Val's teammate, an Anemoboxer groans out in response to his comrade's clumsiness.
"Just hurry and grab him, we don't wanna risk pissing off the Doctor by making him wait." An electro-Cicin mage tries to make sure that everyone hasn't forgotten what's at risk if they're too slow.
However, it works a little too well, as a chill shoots down everyone's spine, and a few of the other members of the team start to breathe slightly heavier.
After managing to get the Pyro Agent that fell back up, they continue with their exploration of the tree. To be frank, nothing remarkable happens for a while, as they trek deeper and deeper into the earth. The farther they go, the more their bodies start to lock up out of discomfort, out of the understanding that they're farther in the ground than any rational person would want to be.
Yet, they continue.
What tips them off to the fact that they've finally found something, is the fact that the same Pryo Agent from before, falls off an edge right in front of them. Nobody saw it, but it was there, leading to a completely black void, with no bottom in sight.
Before he's too far gone, Val shoots his hand out, digging his gloved fingers into the ledge, and managing to save himself from plunging into the unknown.
"FUCK, NOT THIS TIME! NOT HAPPENING AGAIN! NO WAY!" His shouts let the group know that he's ok.
Pulling himself up, he takes a glance at the crowd and sees the group leaders pull out a pane of glass with some bulky tech around it. A tap on a button makes the screen glow. After a few minutes, the man holding it grunts, nods, and puts it away.
"What we're after is down there. Scans indicate that there's an anomalous source of energy being given off from something at the bottom of the pit." A Geochanter Bracer states in a monotone voice.
Everyone's eyes glance into the dark of the unknown, unsure of what to do. After a moment, they glance at each other. Val takes a moment to decide what to do, before he grabs a rock from the ground, dropping it over the edge.
With bated breath, they wait.
And wait.
And wait some more.
Until finally, they get a response.
"KERSPLUNK"
Water!
Perking up, they converse on their findings.
"Ok, first off, that was a good idea, so well done. Second, there is water at the bottom, and it has to be somewhat deep since the rock didn't sound like it broke on impact." The Anemoboxer lays out what they have to go off of to start.
"But that still leaves the question of what to do if and when we get down there." The Electro Cicin Mage comments.
Before they can continue, a scuttling sound comes up from behind, getting everyone's attention. They call on their weapon's elemental resonance, giving the area around them a sizable glow of energy. The tension leaves their body when they see what it is.
A single medium-sized Dendro Slime.
Its plantlike bulb on its head gives it away completely, even as the main body is buried underground. The Cicin mage groans in frustration at being spooked, marching right up to the slime, yanking it out of the ground. For a creature that lacks a definitive face, it's rather deadpan at her actions. After a second to ponder, she grins suddenly.
"I've got an idea!" She cheerily announces.
They make way as she marches forward, swinging the slime as she goes until she's standing at the edge of the abyss.
"Grab that scanner, and we'll be able to follow it as it goes down!" Her idea has some merit, as it convinces the man to do it.
When he's given his ok, she charges electro through her arm, straight into the slime's body. It twitches and rumbles as the energy courses through it. And finally, when it's got a visible layer of electro covering its body, she drops it. As it falls into the pit, the glow of energy lights its path, like a torch in the night.
The splash comes, and with it, silence.
They wait.
...
...
...
"Got anything yet?" Her annoyed voice asks.
"No, nothing yet. The slime touched down, clearly, and the energy is still there, but nothing is really-" Whatever he's going to say next is cut off by a rumble.
They glance back the way they came to see if any wild beasts followed them down, only to see nothing.
Again, the rumbling noise comes, even louder this time.
The device starts to beep rapidly, prompting everyone's attention.
"What the hell is going on?!" The Pyro Agent yells.
"I don't know, there's just been an insane spike in energy, and it's coming from down there!" The Geobracer's voice finally gains a hint of emotion, and it's full of panic now.
The rumbling won't stop.
The darkness of the pit disappears.
Replaced by a ball shaped layer of rising yellow light.
What the scanner didn't pick up, is that at the bottom of the pit, in the depths of the water, a creature, more ancient than the gods of Teyvat, slumbers in peace. Waiting for someone to come along. In the hopes of gaining a new host, and new life!
And at long last, it's been thrown a bone.
Slithering through the waters, a strange worm coils around the electro-amped slime, with a blue hue of its own going down its body. As thin tendrils start to latch onto any patches of the slime that it can, it digs throughout itself. Looking for a previous host's genetic sequence, so that it can bring forth someone that knows what to do with the power it will give.
When the last tendril connects to the slime, the genetic code has been manifested, and the fusion of the creatures begins. With it, comes forth a person of history, one who shaped the state of the world once.
"RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!" The Geobracer decides for everyone else.
They scramble back the way they came, rumbling over each other in an effort to make their exit, even as the glowing light from the pit has started jutting out in spikes of lighting.
With one misstep, the Anemoboxer slips and falls backward, taking everyone behind him with him. As his comrades shout at him to get up, their voices are drowned out by the audible crackling of the energy being given off.
A brief moment of silence falls upon them, as the ball of light reels into itself, giving them hope that this was all it would be able to do. Unfortunately, their hopes are dashed rather quickly, as the light shoots outwards in an explosion of pure energy.
The last thing they see is the silhouette of a massive skull atomizing into existence.
Location: Gandharva Ville, Tighnari's shed.
In the forests of Sumeru, a man man with black and green ears watches as some robe wearing fellows make their leave, in a visibly foul mood. Approaching them is a pair of travelers. One is a white haired child that's floating, the other is a blond haired girl with clothes that glow in certain areas of the body.
"Uh Tighnari, what was that all about?" The floating one in named Paimon.
"It's nothing. Some people from the Akademiya wanted me to go to Sumeru City to assist them with a project, but I had to refuse on account of all my responsibilities here. But all that can wait, how did things go with Haypasia?" Tighnari changes the subject with little effort.
"It was quite an eventful trip! But the main thing is that she's safe and sound. She answered a bunch of questions for us, too." Paimon cheers, Lumine chuckles.
"Very good. Now that Lumine has made a full recovery, there shouldn't be any reason for you to tarry here any longer. I assume you will be heading to Sumeru City, correct?" Tighnari asks.
"That's right! We want to meet Lesser Lord Kusanali and ask her for advice." Sadly, Tighnari has nothing to give to them regarding how to meet the Sumeru Archon, but gives them directions and an invitation to return if Lumine's condition changes. The traveling pair take their leave, and he returns to what he was doing before the Akademiya scholars came around. However, his peace does not last.
The Akademiya of Sumeru is known for many things, including research projects, education, and studies of all manners of things. They've even got a section on the study of animals and their unique understanding of the earth, on a scale above humans. This even extends to the abilities of people who have inherited animal traits from their parents.
These inherited traits are what cause Tighnari to straighten up in an almost electrified fashion. Breaking out into a sprint, he scales the tree that his main watch post is stationed at, and jerks his head around to search for any clue to what's happening. He's not the only one to notice these tremors, as a pyro-wielding mercenary with cat ears chokes on her drink for a moment, snapping into focus when she starts to hear more than she can see. Making swift strides out of the tavern and towards a vantage point on a rooftop, she glares in the direction of her gut feeling's distress.
Neither have to wait long before their legs start to tremble. Not from fear or their own volition. No, the ground itself has started shaking, knocking over wares at local food stalls, spilling drinks at restaurants, and even shaking books out of their shelves in the library. A wave of panic rushes over everyone. In the direction of the Apam Woods, a massive bolt of yellow lighting shoots down from the heavens with a sharp ring, not fading away for an astonishing twelve seconds. When the bolt disappears at last, the tremors don't follow. As everyone waits with bated breath for any report of what just happened to come to their Akasha Terminals, they're left in crippling suspense.
Then the insanity continues its show.
The tree that the lightning struck starts to uproot itself, tumbling to the side like a domino. Smoke and steam billow skyward. And finally, the source of the unknown energy that the Fatui wanted for themselves, and the source of the tremors and lighting rises.
And what stood there defied logic.
It defied reason.
It was an anomaly.
Nothing that big could possibly be real.
Rising from the billowing plume of smoke and steam, a giant with jutted-out ribs and bare abs, long black hair, hollow eye sockets, a jaw with no cheeks and jagged teeth, and a pair of pointed ears emerges. No, giant doesn't begin to describe its size. 'Titan' is more accurate.
As its chest rises and shrinks with each heaving breath it takes, it finally makes a move that ensures everyone that hasn't noticed it is made well aware of it. Its head droops for a second as its body leans forward to balance itself, and when it rises back up, its jaw drop.
And it roars.
It roars so loud that the tremors from earlier seem tame in comparison. It roars so loud that just about every window, every mirror, and every glass in a few miles shatter. It roars so loud that the birds in every tree even remotely close to it collapse after a few seconds.
Tighnari and the cat-lady clutch onto their ears in the hopes of blocking the noise out, to little avail. After it expends all the air in its lungs, its body sags forward, collapsing onto all fours, out of the view of anyone from Sumeru City and Gandharva Ville.
After a few minutes of complete panic and disarray in any populated area near the Apam Woods, steam starts to billow from the body of the Titan as a thin burst of more steam pops out from the nape of its neck, unable to be seen by anyone. A figure pops out of the mound of flesh and muscle, and upon disconnecting from it, the entire body goes limp and begins to evaporate. Rolling down the side of the massive neck, a naked man with long, dark brown hair tumbles down into a river. He doesn't get up.
An hour passes before any leeway can be given to damage surveyors, and by that time, most of the body has disappeared. People in black pants and green coats lead by Tighnari rush in to observe the fallout, only to see the significant lack of a Titan in the area. After they inspect the damages and recover the bodies of the Fatui members, they finally come across the naked man on their way back to camp.
Tighnari starts to inspect him, immediately noticing that there were strange marks on his cheeks. After trying and failing to wake him up, he finally orders some of the forest rangers to grab him and bring him back to the camp. If he'd known about who the man really was, then he may have made a different decision.
But he didn't. So Tighnari took the man back to his camp to simply treat him for any illness or injury. He didn't wake for several days, but eventually did. And finally, after countless centuries, by pure chance, Eren Yeager has returned to the land of the living.
To be continued in Chapter 2: Rude Awakenings
A.N: Praise be to the glory of the region of Sumeru. I'm an avid Genshin player, so the whole region has been a blast to play. When I got to explore the giant forest, my mind just played connect the dots, and now I wanna do this as well. Same deal with my other stories, I'll update when I want, and I'll try and make them good. So the deal with this one is slightly complicated, and I'll try to break it down as best as possible. In this story, the worlds of AOT and Genshin are going to be connected, because if a Hallucigenia can get a genetic anomaly, allowing it to be able to turn people into giants, and become able to host its own dimension outside of time and space, then a genetic anomaly can come along where people can be part animal, can be able to manipulate the elements, and even allow non-humans to gain sentience. This is my story, and this is the mechanics behind it. That'll be why Archons seem divine, they just got lucky in the genetic lottery. Next up, SPOILERS, but I know that at the end of AOT, paradis got bombed to death, but K'hanreiah met a similar fate, so it'll go like this. Paradis and the whole titan era came first, then an anomaly occurs allowing a person to use elemental powers, then they made Celestia, K'hanreiah came next, Celestia and the Archons destroy it, and now modern time, Eren was reborn when a dendro slime had an electric charge and fused with the Hallucigenia. This is how it went in my mind, deal with it. Idk when the next chapter of this will come out, but hey, it's coming. Also, Eren will have all his memories, the power of all the titans, will be able to use them separately, like the colossal, the jaw, the cart, he can use them all since he's the only Eldian now. There's no Eldians anywhere else, so he can't pull a Zeke and poison someone with his spinal fluid.
Until next time, PLEASE REVIEW! :)