Twisted

Chapter 2

To say that Aether was surprised would have been a gross understatement. However, Paimon was even more shocked. She dropped her pita pocket- or well, more precisely, she tossed it over her shoulder when Zhongli appeared before them out of nowhere.

"Z-Zhongli?" Paimon groused, "What the- where did you come from? What the heck are you doing in Sumeru's desert?"

"Greetings, my friends. I'm afraid I don't have much time for pleasantries today. I- was wondering if I could enlist your aid today…"

"You need our help?" Paimon's expression was owlish. "Aren't you retired from everything these days? After all, you didn't come and hang around the Chasm and stuff with us, right?"

"Be nice, Paimon. Of course we'll help. " Aether asked, ignoring his companion's moodiness. "So, what's up?"

"Xiao is gone- err more specifically, the Abyss has taken him from me."

"The Abyss?" Paimon gasped. "But why? Wait- how? Xiao is really strong! How could they?"

"He was lured into a trap. They had a hostage so they knew he wouldn't fight them…"

"A hostage? Those mean old jerks…" Paimon hissed. She pulled another odd looking round sandwich out of the traveler's pack and snapped a big bite out of it.

"So, who was the hostage?" Aether asked. "Would you like to join us? These are pita pockets."

"Thank you, but I'm not hungry. I think they used the image of someone he knew to distract him and make him drop his guard. Because the hostage he wanted to protect was actually part of the trap. It was a young woman disguised as a child."

Paimon paused in the middle of a bite. "Really? That's a really nasty trick to pull on someone who is trying to help you!"

"Wait- did you say she was a young woman?"

"Well, before they vanished at the portal, the footprints were no longer those of a child but they are still quite small. This mystery woman stepped into the portal with the monsters casually and you have told me that your sister has protected the Abyss in the past. I believe you and I are thinking the same thing- that this may have been your sister."

"L-Lumine? You're serious?"

"As Paimon said, I did come all the way to Sumeru to find you, did I not?"

"Okay," Aether nodded. "So, what haven't you told us?" Aether asked.

Zhongli hesitated. "It seems that the Abyss knows we are together. They must know that Xiao is… my mate."

"Wait- what?" Paimon almost tossed her dinner again but clutched it to her chest at the last moment instead. "Xiao is your boyfriend? Have you two always been together?"

"I- no- that's complicated. But I have to get him back. Thousands of years ago, Xiao was forced to kill innocent people for the power and amusement of an evil god. I killed that god, freeing him. But the Abyss is actively trying to corrupt him. If Xiao were to fall under their spell and take another innocent life, it would destroy him completely. I have to find him…"

"Don't worry," Aether said. "Xiao is our friend too. Let's go."

"Thank you," Zhongli said softly. "It's only been a few months. He didn't want me to tell anyone yet. But circumstances being what they are…"

"That's understandable. Come on, Paimon. We'll eat on the way," Aether said. "So, can we go to where they took him?"

"Yes," Zhongli said. No sooner had he spoken than they were on the cliff where Zhongli had just been searching for clues.

"Woah, that was fast," Aether grinned as he looked around. "Hey, is that Qingce Village down there?"

"Yes, is that important?"

"Well, yeah. Because there's an Abyss hideout over there," Aether said, pointing into the distance. "It's across the water, near the border. Here! Look at the map with me. We were drawn to that area once before. On the outside it's just a small cave. But inside there's a labyrinth where a corrupted Statue of the Seven is hanging upside down. But it's not Venti's anemo energy that it's holding- its abyssal power. And it's a horrible place. And I bet that's where they took him."

Zhongli gaped at him. "You knew of an Abyssal lair in Liyue and you didn't tell me?"

"Sorry," Aether blushed. "After we found it, we actually went back inside because we were going to help our friend Dainslief destroy the place and that creepy statue. But we got separated from him and he's been busy. So, as far as we know, the place is probably still there."

Zhongli sighed, "That was unfair of me to say. You have already helped me and Liyue very much and I am deeply grateful for all of it."

"I am still sorry though," Aether said. "Because you're right, I should have told someone…. If I had, maybe they wouldn't have taken Xiao away."

"No. You are not to blame for any of this. I must apologize - because at least this way we have a place to start looking… Xiao is only one person who has a lot of ground to cover and the Abyss is very good at staying in the shadows. With Menogias gone, I alone have power over stone. I should have kept watch over the dark corners of this land with him. It seems I have become lazier than I realized in my old age."

"You can't be everywhere at once any easier than Xiao can."

"Actually, for a very long time, I was. Jealously guarding every grain of sand and blade of grass that was mine. I would like to think I have matured since then. But now that Xiao is missing I feel that possessive anger stirring again."

"Well, Xiao is strong. I'm sure he knows you are looking for him."

"If he knows I am looking for him, he may not wish to be found. Especially if they succeed at corrupting him."

"You mean because of what happened to him before?"

"Yes, to fall under the sway of evil and hurt innocent people again is what he fears the most."

Aether shook his head. "I guess I haven't known him as long as you have. But I think what he fears the most is losing you. Since the day we met he's always been so protective of you. And in lighter moments when he speaks of you, anyone can tell he's happy just thinking about you."

"Really?"

"Yes," Aether said. "I hope you know how lucky you are. Anyway, he won't be easily broken, but you're right that we can't take any chances."

"Are you ready to go now?"

Aether nodded, having stuffed the last bite of his pita pocket into his mouth as he wiped his fingers on his pant legs. "Xiao has saved us twice. I'm happy to have a chance to return the favor."

"Wait- Paimon's still hungry- and tired from being out in that hot sand all day!"

"Paimon, we're going- unless you'd rather stay here… Hey, you can go search for ghosts on Wuwang Hill if you get bored while we're gone."

"Alright, alright!" Paimon groaned. "But can we at least tele- oh. Thank you, Zhongli."

"You're welcome," Zhongli said as they appeared at the spot Aether had marked on the map. "So, where is this cave entrance?"

Aether looked around at the rock faces and paused. "I don't get it… it should be right…" He walked down the narrow strips of land along the waterfall cliffs for the fourth time, and he stopped in the same spot, "Here."

The lovely area was as quiet and unassuming as Aether remembered, But he couldn't find the door- the cave opening was just gone… "It should be right over here, right, Paimon?"

"Oh, man! Paimon can't believe we're really going back in there! But yeah. This should be about where the opening is. Do you think they moved just the door or the whole domain?"

Zhongli shook his head. "I don't know if something has been moved or just cloaked with magic. But there is definitely still something beyond this wall. Let me just rearrange the rocks a little."

True to his word, Zhongli was indeed rearranging the wall of stone in front of them. Great hunks of stone crunched, grinding against each other. They shifted and tumbled around inside of the cliff face like primitive bricks. It took a few minutes, but when the former Geo Archon opened his eyes again, the small cave that Aether remembered was suddenly back again! Did that mean that they would find Xiao in there? Or was this place a trap meant to distract them?

"So, I'll go first, Paimon and I have been here before. I think I remember the way to the statue."

"Alright. I will watch your back," Zhongli said. "Stay close and be careful."

They stepped inside the cave and immediately Aether could tell that things had changed. The atmosphere was the same and the stonework and collapsing pathways were still there. But the order in which the rooms were connected was different.

And then, they reached a room they hadn't seen in their previous visits.

It was a large space, with only one exit, a massive door blocked by great beams of stone with a big cube shaped lock. The lock was barred by a ring of energy around it. Luckily, there didn't seem to be any enemies nearby. But there were four elemental pillars arranged in a large square around it.

The pillars were Anemo, Geo, Electro and Dendro. But there was no way to tell what order they needed to be activated in.

"This is new," Paimon said looking around. "What do you suppose that door leads to? And why haven't we seen any hint of the hilichurls or their abyss mage masters? This place is way too quiet."

Aether nodded. "Yeah. But we have to keep going."

"I know," Paimon groused. "But doesn't it feel like we've been walking in circles for ages?"

Zhongli nodded. "It does seem that way. And yet we've only walked through each room once. This space is manipulating time around us. We're being magically slowed. They know we are here and they want to wear us down."

"We'll be careful," Aether said. "I think we should try Geo first. After all, we're in Liyue."

"Are you sure that isn't too obvious?" Paimon wondered.

"We may as well try it." Zhongli said.

Aether nodded. "I'll do it, since I'm the only one who can trigger the others too."

Paimon smiled as the pillar hummed to life as it lit up. "Great! Just three more to go!"

"Yes," Zhongli nodded. "Let's hope there is no specific order to the puzzle."

Aether channeled anemo next, focusing on the wind pillar it too lit up with a windblade. Electro was next, but the dendro pillar was just as tempting. Aether sighed as he summoned a lightning blade. This pillar lit up as well.

But now the test would be dendro. Would all the pillars simply shut down again or would the door open?

When Aether cast scatter, the Dendro pillar flared, but just as quickly, the monuments all shut down. And before they could catch their breath, sinister laughter echoed behind them.

"Look out!" Paimon cried as she winked out of existence. "We're surrounded!"

"Nothing to fear," Zhongli said, summoning jade shields around each of them. "But we don't have time for this."

Aether nodded, calling forth his sword. "We'll try again as soon as we get rid of these bastards."

They were surrounded by a trio of hilichurl ice archers, two fire ax mitachurls, and a large shield bearer and a hydro samachurl. And worse, there was a giggling electro abyss mage leading them.

While the hydro samachurl tried to get everyone wet, Zhongli hammered the three mitachurls with the Memory of Dust, but they wouldn't stay petrified for long.

Aether summoned a blast of dendro at the abyss mage to keep it busy. But he didn't want to get separated from Zhongli. The former archon also seemed wary. They had to stick together or risk being cornered alone.

"You are doing fine. I will keep you covered with my shield, try to concentrate on the abyss mage first. Then deal with the ice archers with elemental reactions. Leave the big ones and the samachurl to me."

"Thanks," Aether said. He cast his dendro elemental burst and placed it as close to the abyss mage and the cryo archers as close as he could get it and then quickly shifted to electro before firing off an anemo blasts at the abyss mage, enjoying the way the monster tried to dart out of the dendro field. He didn't succeed though because Aether summoned a cyclone to carry it right back into the field.

Sparks of electro and dendro all mingled together with the anemo. The unhappy abyss mage attacked with its own electro energy and when it hit the field of energy bouncing around in it, the mage nearly fried itself. And one of its crossbow wielding underlings got caught in it too. The creature fell dead and Aether hit them with another blast of dendro. This time the Abyss mage fell out of its protective shield and fell to the ground dizzy.

Next to him, Zhongli created a pillar that refreshed their shields and hit the petrified monsters with wave after wave of geo. His onslaught was brutal. Aether was glad he'd never been on the receiving end of such blows. The golden spear whistled through the air at the tiny dancing samachurl. It fell in a choking heap and Zhongli summoned the weapon back to his hand.

But the Mitachurls were now free and their fire attacks lashed out immediately, The pyro met another pillar and created additional shields. Aether picked one up but the other two cryo archers were backing out of range again along the wall in different directions. The next arrow and the remaining water on the floor summoned by the samachurl nearly froze him. Angry now, Aether leaped forward to block the path with one of his own geo constructs.

Zhongli moved with him, keeping him protected and slamming the Memory of Dust into the shield bearing mitachurl.

The monster didn't even get to roar before he petrified and fell to the ground, dead. The ax wielders weren't close enough to suffer the same fate. One started to close in on Aether, as he approached the last archer.

But before it could reach him, Zhongli attacked with his spear, forcing the monster to engage him again. The last archer was still a bit out of reach, forcing Aether to block his path with geo as well.

But that cost him precious time and the archer struck first. Fortunately the jade shield deflected it, and Aether was free to attack again. But the other ax wielder took a mighty swing at both of them. Aether braced for impact, but the attack never got close.

Zhongli's pillar held it back and the former Archon's spear gored it, sending the monster to the ground. The lone cryo archer was surrounded now and he took a shot at Zhongli, but again, the arrow couldn't get through his shield. Another blast of electro and Aether managed to kill it.

"Wow," Paimon said, surveying the dead monsters. "We should bring you along more often, Zhongli."

"Aether has more than held his own, and I remembered from Sal Terrae and fighting Azhdaha that we would make a very good team," Zhongli said. "But now we must try these pillars again and hope that the trap will not unleash more monsters if we get it wrong again."

"You think it will?" Paimon asked.

"Yes. Because I think this heavily guarded blockade is proof that Xiao is indeed in here, somewhere."

"Yeah, we'll find him for sure," Aether nodded. "Let's try the anemo pillar this time. We'll light them in the order of when we encountered them in our journey so far."

The first thing Xiao felt as he awoke was the sensation of being unable to breathe. The air in the room was stifling and overwhelmingly hot- or maybe that was just the dark energy pouring over him constantly. He couldn't move. Every part of his body hurt.

His arms were chained behind his back, he was kneeling on the floor and the chain around his neck was tighter than ever.

He couldn't really remember the last time he'd been locked up and unable to move like this. It had been a long time. But he was not going to complain. He had endured worse. Much worse.

Before him was a statue of the Anemo Archon- err the former Archon, Barbatos. But instead of the familiar anemo energy he was used to, there was nothing in the whirling purple and black tempest except for darkness and decay.

Xiao could feel the karma inside him rising up inside him, almost in tune with the abyssal energy. They were fighting him together. The pain was overwhelming. But he was not going to let these bastards beat him.

Xiao knew that he served a worthy god- or he used to. Until that god fell in love with him and convinced him that it was okay for him to want to be happy. To want something for himself. He was grateful for that kindness- so much so that he couldn't find a way to put it into words for his mate.

But, if he ever got out of this, he was going to try. Unfortunately, he had no idea how long he'd been trapped here. Has it been five days? Or five minutes? There was no way to judge. He was alone and his body ached from not being able to move. But he knew very well that the mind could trick the body into anything when it was bored or in pain.

He was so tired. Tired of kneeling, tired of being in pain and tired of wondering how he was going to get out of this. It frightened him a little to think that he was going to give in eventually.

After all, the blonde haired girl was right. He was a monster. Xiao had committed acts- crimes against life and the humans that no one else among the adepti had ever imagined.

And if he wasn't so pretty, Xiao knew he would have been killed for it. At the time, Xiao didn't have the power to end his own life. So he had begged Zhongli to kill him. But the god had refused him. At the time, Morax had claimed that Xiao had been forced to commit these acts under torture and starvation. So he didn't deserve the same fate as the bastard who forced him to commit such awful murders.

But now, had Zhongli noticed he was gone?

In his heart, he knew that his mate knew something was wrong. Zhongli was looking for him. He knew that. His mate would not rest until he found him- dead or alive. But what would be left of him when he did? All he could do was hold out and hope that he could hold out.

But he could feel the pain and the corruption seeping into the very marrow of his bones and he didn't know how much longer he could hold on…

Xiao forced himself into a meditative state and prayed that he would be left alone to endure it. The constant feeling of drowning was inescapable. He felt like his lungs were burning because of the effort of breathing in the poisoned air in this room.

But he wasn't giving up. He had a mate and he had to see him again. They were going to do so many things together… Xiao was not going to die before Zhongli's erosion finally took him. He had made a promise. And he would die to keep it.