Amber and Keqing surrounded me their expression full of worry, as they both watched Barbara heal the wounds I have received from the commission I did a few hours ago, they were speaking but none of their voices reached me as I had my gaze solely focused on a figure sitting in the corner of the room.
The figure was surrounded by Kaeya, Diluc, and Xiao the trio interrogating him. Aether.
My brother, the prince of the abyss, or in a more correct way of explaining his presence, the other half of the abyss prince.
A few hours ago.
I stared at the Hilichurls that surrounded me and Paimon, I should have never shown them mercy, Dain already told me that they were just a nuisance and it was better to just eliminate them.
Now here I am surrounded by hilichurls who looked 'excited' and were ready to defile me. My weapon broke when I blocked a Mitachulrs strike and running away would only result in getting killed due to the staggering number that surrounded both of us.
I could have told Paimon to escape but I'm scared of what might happen to her if she went off on her own surrounded by these monsters.
They approached.
Help me...
Some untied their cloths that hid their 'clubs'
Help me, please...
They grabbed me, I resisted which resulted in a club to the head.
I don't want this...
They began tearing my clothes away exposing my body.
PLEASE HELP ME!
A second pass and then the surrounding area was filled with light.
I blocked my eyes from the flash when it cleared the monsters that surrounded me vaporized. And in front of my eyes stood two figures. One was extremely tall, the other one was the reason I was on this journey from the very beginning.
Tears started to go down my eyes as the person that saved me was the one I would give my life too.
"AETHER!"
He didn't look back he just kept walking toward the Monsters. he spoke but it wasn't directed at me
"Fidelius keep my sister safe"
"Very well my liege"
The herald stood in front of me but I focused all my attention on my brother, he summoned a knife and ran toward the horde, the sky darkened and arrows came down ready to pierce us all. The herald lifted its hand and the arrows that headed toward us bounced away like they hit metal.
BUT WHAT ABOUT MY BROTHER!?
I tried to stand up but an invisible force slammed me back down, the Abyss herald had its hand in my direction with a finger pointing to the ground.
"LET ME GO MY BROTHER NEEDS HELP!"
The Abyss herald let out a sound that I could interpret as a snort. "Calm yourself, Traveler, the prince won't get hurt by the primitive arrows the hilichurls use" I turned to where my brother was and saw him holding a Lawachurl his hand buried in its stomach, the other side of the Lawachurls body was covered in arrows.
He used it as a meat shield.
Aether then did something that he has never done in our long, long travel.
He buried his hand deeper in the Lawachurls stomach and then he yanked out its spine.
BLECH
I turned to the side and saw Paimon vomiting out the food she had eaten, even though I was disturbed by what Aether did he is still my lovable caring brother... Right?
"DIE YOU WORTHLESS WORM!" I flinched at Aether's shout, he grabbed a churl and ripped its head off of its shoulder I lay there mortified as I saw what my Aether is doing.
He ended each Hilichurl in the goriest way possible.
He ripped arms off.
Buried a head down to its shoulder.
Punched a hole in the center of a chest.
Cut open a stomach and left its intestine to hang.
Pull out a heart and crush it.
Crushed a head with his hands.
These actions repeat themselves again, again, and again until there were no hilichurls left in the area.
Aether at the end of the slaughter was holding a head of hilichurl that he ripped from its body, he looked at the sky and was breathing rapidly.
Bringing the head in front of him he let out a growl and crushed it to a bloody liquid, turning his gaze back to the sky his breathing began to grow faster than it was before.
The herald snapped its fingers and a barrier surrounded us, not a second later when the barrier was erected Aether's body began to glow red, from my distance I felt the fury and wrath that Aether was producing. And with a shout, a pillar of pure energy erupted from his body the shockwave from the expelled energy destroyed the surrounding area without the barrier we would have been thrown away or killed by the huge debris that was being thrown around.
The pillar that used to be my brother lasted for a minute until it suddenly died leaving him standing in the center of destruction, when the barrier that protected me died I realized something.
This isn't my brother.
My sweet brother would never be that brutal, he would never let his anger get the best of him, this isn't my brother.
An extremely wrong conclusion my terrified mind came up with during that time.
He walked towards us almost robotically, the herald bowed its head and took to his side once more. Aether looked at me and reached out his hand, I flinched as I thought that the hand that was reaching towards me would wrap around my neck and crush it.
What A mistake that was thinking he would hurt me.
Instead of any pressure or pain, I felt something land on my cheek it was wet. Then after that, something soft was rubbing my head.
Hesitantly I opened my eyes and felt guilt make itself known in my chest. Aether was shedding tears as he rubbed my head staining my hair with blood, but it didn't matter, just by looking at his eye I figured out that he knew that I was terrified of him.
"Idiot" I hear him speak but this time it was directed at me.
"I will never hurt you" Tears spilled down from my eyes
"Even if you hurt me, even if you betray me, even if you kill me. I will always love you" This is what I recognize, this warmth, this gentleness, this sense of protection.
"For you are my sister"
"Oni-chan" is all I managed to let out before the dam broke and I began to cry
Aether said nothing and he continued to rub my head ever so softly.
I don't know how long we lasted in our need to comfort one another but when he let go I seized his hand determined to not let him go, not without me at least.
"Lumine let go."
"Never!"
"Lumine I will not allow you to fall, I've fallen once before so allow me to fall again so let me go!"
"Never I have you in my arms again Oni-chan I will never let go! You've done so much for me so if you're going to go then let me come with you, so we can fall together!"
Aether looked like he was thinking. While the herald looked ready to take me off all it was waiting for is my brother's orders.
"Would you let go if I was there by your side"
I nodded.
"Even if it's not the full me?"
"What?"
"Even if the me that is with you is broken. Shattered and on the verge of going insane?"
"That's more of a reason for you to come with me or vice versa!"
"Yes or no Lumine?"
"Yes!"
Aether looked at me and let out a sigh.
"Very well then" he grabbed my hand and gently took it off, I squeezed his hand that was holding mine and he squeezed back, the warmth traveled all over my body.
For a second I thought he would join me on my journey the feeling I felt at that moment was absolute bliss. He was back at my side, I am back at home.
Well, I was half correct, at that time.
As I reached out to wrap my hands around him for a hug, he gently flicked my head and I found my body frozen in place, no matter what I did my body wouldn't budge.
Oni-chan gave me a smile he then plunged his hand into his chest and let out a scream. I was mortified at what I was seeing and I would have screamed if my body allowed me to do so. A second later he ripped out an orb. It glowed with power Aether threw the Orb directly next to me.
The orb undulated and began to contort and pulse for moments then it stopped and began to float. All of our eyes were glued to the floating orb and little by little 5 tendrils began to extend and slowly began to form limbs and a head.
Bones began to appear out of nowhere forming a skeleton and muscles began to generate themselves. The muscle began to move which freaked me out.
The skinless figure looked at its arms and then It turned its gaze on Oni-Chan who nodded his head at the skinless figure, seeing him nod the being snapped its hand and it was swallowed by darkness, a second later where once stood a skinless pile of muscles that stood on its feet is now a direct replica of Oni-Chan.
"What?" Is the only thing that I thought during that time as I stared at two identical copies of one person.
"Couldn't you have changed a couple of things to make us not look identical?"
"Sorry self I tried but It didn't work"
Oni-chan the one who froze me introduced himself. "I will refer to myself as Prince when we are together in the vicinity. You will be called Inheritor is that acceptable?"
The Inheritor nodded. Oni-chan looked at the herald who was looking at both Oni-chan's with confusion.
"Fidelius! I order you to spread the word in the Abyss Order about my copy that will join my sister in search for the truth of the world."
"At once my liege" A second later a portal appeared behind the herald and it ran inside the portal.
Oni-chan or the one who titled himself Prince smiled at me, he walked towards Inheritor and placed both of his hands to the side of Inheritor's face.
Inheritor's face contorted to an uneased expression when Prince let go of his head, Inheritor asked what I wanted to ask.
"What did you do, Prince?"
"Nothing just removed a few memories, I don't need you to attack any archon or anything that involves Celestia because it might ruin our plans" Inheritor closed his eyes probably checking the memories that he had when he reopened them he let out a frustrated sigh.
"So what do you know?"
"All I know is that the gods destroyed Khaenri'ah and Celestia must fall other than that nothing really... I hate you already Prince"
"And I love you too Inheritor" Prince turned his back towards us and walked towards a portal that appeared behind him, turning to me, he gave a sad smile.
"I love you my dear sister" He also turned to Inheritor and spoke "ª˘˘" 梴 ϐ°ϐı˘´ ϐӘ┍˘" Inheritor let out a sigh and gave Prince a salute. With that, the Prince walked into the portal and disappeared.
After that Oni-chan brang me to my teapot and woke up Paimon, who passed out in the middle of his slaughter, she quickly left when Oni-chan told her to "Get a friend of Lumine who is a healer" Which is why we are here in this situation.
Paimon came back with Barbara along with Amber.
Keqing, Xiao, Kaeya, and Diluc all came to visit me for different reasons. But when they saw Aether staring at me in the corner they knew something happened.
I told them what happened twisting a few events here and there but Aether opened his mouth and told them what really happened.
This is why we are here the 3 men who came to visit me were interrogating my brother because they labeled me as "Unreliable with information" as Oni-chan called me when he told them my lie. And Barbara, Amber, and Keqing were fretting over me thinking that I was traumatized by what happened. Which isn't wrong I am traumatized but not at what happened.
I was traumatized the moment I got separated from Oni-chan and now that he is here I am content and fine with anything now that we are reunited once more
Yo, I'm not really sure if I want to continue writing this the reason why I wrote this is because my friend dared me to read that particular doujin for a free welkin and well. A free welkin is a free welkin. But the end was just sad so I wrote this out of spite. And I'm fine with continuing to write this but only if you guys want to so tell me if I should continue writing this alternate ending of a very messed up situation.
