Chapter 16
The Curse of Delusional Hope
Three months after the end of the Stormterror Crisis
"General… they're… they're here… the Fa…" he started to say, his balance becoming upset, and his eyes flickering. Before Will or Gorou could ask the samurai any questions, he suddenly fell to the ground, unconscious. Numerous marks of various elements dotted the back of his uniform, from charred spots no doubt caused by the element of Pryo, to festering clots that could've only been created by the combined elements of Dendro, Hydro, and Electro, and more. Will gasped in shock at the devastating wounds, realizing the man had endured tremendous pain only to find them before collapsing from his injuries.
"Quickly, let's get him to the first aid building in Bourou village," Gorou said, stringing his bow around his back and lifting the man up onto his shoulders. "Keep us safe, whoever did this might still be nearby," he said, and Will nodded, materializing both of his twin blades and walking ahead of Gorou and the samurai. His katana pointed in opposite directions as he constantly shifted around Gorou, watching over them from all sides with narrowed eyes focused on one thing: making sure this man got the treatment he needed. Clearly, there was a dangerous threat on Watatsumi island, and this man might be the only person who knew anything about it.
But though no attacks had come by the time they'd reached the first aid building, both Will and Gorou had felt the unnerving feeling that they were being watched the entire time, and it left Will feeling very, very worried. There was no way the Shuumatsuban would turn against them, not unless the Shogun herself had ordered them personally, and he knew of only one other sect of spies that could go undetected so well. If it was who he was thinking of, then the resistance was in grave danger.
Yorinki parted the flaps of the tent just in time to see the duo holding up the man, who's hair had, in the time it took for them to get from the shore to the village, gone from an almost wooden colored brown, to dark gray with patches of silver hair running down his bangs. "Not another one…" she bemoaned, running from the tent as soon as they got close and helped the wounded resistance samurai to a cot, where she quickly began enveloping the man in a flowing aura of regenerative Hydro energy. But her brow was creased with concentration as Will and Gorou watched. Eventually, she stopped, sinking to the ground in exhaustion.
Will reached out a hand to help her up, but suddenly stopped as he saw something shiny glinting from the man's robes. "It can't be…" he muttered, reaching for it and pulling it away. A seam in the man's shirt tore as he ripped it away, recognizing it immediately. His face sank in shock and disbelief, and Gorou shook his shoulder to snap him out of it. Meanwhile, Yorinki pushed herself up, gasping a few times for air before continuing her efforts. "Gorou, I need your help here. Go get some fresh water, these elemental burns are making him very dehydrated, and just applying Hydro to them isn't going to help that. Will, get my sister," she said. "The worst of these wounds are mostly internal, and my strength alone isn't going to be enough." When neither seemed to hear her, too frozen with shock at the sudden appearance of what appeared to be a Snezhnayan Vision, and what Will knew to be something much worse, Yorinki turned to look at them. "Hurry, he's fading!"
Will nodded, rushing out of the tent and blasting himself through the air with a powerful explosion of Anemo at his feet. Unfurling his now repaired glider, he soared towards the shrine at the center of the island. A circulating current of air under his wings kept him moving as fast as he could, yet he still worried it wouldn't be fast enough. And when he finally landed on the spire of rock and coral, his face was stricken with panic.
"Will? What's wrong? And where's Gorou?" Kokomi asked upon feeling the massive wave of air hit her from the entrance of the shrine. The tassels and ribbons of her outfit rippled violently in the wind as Will shook his head.
"There's no time, Yorinki needs your help, right now. It's urgent," he said, running up to her and whispering in her ear. "I think the resistance is in great danger. The Fatui might be here," he added under his breath, and she quickly nodded.
"Very well, where is my sister?" she replied, and Will heaved a sigh of relief.
"Just hold on tight, if what's happening is what I think it is, we won't have time for the conventional route," he replied, channeling more Anemo power into his feet. When Kokomi seemed to understand what he was about to do, her arms wrapped around his neck, he gripped her wrists tight and jumped, flying high into the air and spreading out his glider wings again, nosediving towards the first aid tent, and unfurling the wings out at the last second, kicking down with a powerful blast of air that slowed their descent enough to land safely.
Without a second thought, both of them ran inside the tent, where Kokomi stood next to her sister and began trying to counter the man's now obviously accelerated aging, which was, to their despair, only speeding up at a fast rate. In minutes, the man's chest fell still, and Kokomi had wrapped her sister in a tight hug as Yorinki began to cry.
Gorou turned to Will, his eyes dark with both confusion and sadness. "What was that thing you pulled from his shirt?" he asked. "Do you have any idea?"
Will looked at the all too familiar device in his hand, an insignia he had grown to hate emblazoned on a dark, crystal orb. The crystal itself was the color of coal, and it was embedded in a dull silver frame with six points. Aside from the color of the orb, and the symbol imprinted on it, it looked identical to the same device he wore around his neck.
"How it got here, and how this man found it, I have no idea. But I'm all but positive that he didn't know what it was. If he did, he'd have never used it," he said, handing the device to Gorou very cautiously. "Don't let it activate. Handle it with care at all costs, because that… that's a Fatui Delusion."
Gorou gasped. "The Fatui? But how?" he asked, and Will shook his head.
"I've got no idea. But if there's even a chance that more of these things have been circulating the resistance's troops, we need to get as many of them as we can. If you can handle that, I'll start digging around to see if we can find where they're coming from," Will replied grimly, his fists clenched tight with anger as he left, muttering something about how in Celestia's name the Fatui got to Watatsumi Island as he left.
"Kokomi! We're back!" Paimon called out as she and Aether reached the top of the coral spire. Since arriving at Watatsumi Island more than three weeks prior, they'd been working non-stop with one of Kokomi's most elite platoons, the Swordfish II. Now, they'd finally had a chance to return after one last mission to investigate a small set of ruins where supplies bound for Watatsumi Island had gone missing. Though they couldn't find the reason why the supplies had gone missing, they'd managed to clear out a massive Thunderhelm Lawachurl that had made it's camp nearby, which would hopefully help the resistance get supplies through that area more easily.
"Hey, looks like Gorou's back. Guess Will is going to be back now too," Aether said, seeing the canine general talking with Kokomi in a worried tone, an equally worried look on both of their faces.
Paimon looked at the pair, and then over at Aether. "Wait a minute, did something happen? They look so serious…" she wondered, and Aether shook his head. The pair walked up to Kokomi and Gorou, confused concern written all over their faces.
"Well, what did you find?" Kokomi asked Gorou, who sighed dejectedly.
"I haven't had a chance to do a full count, but from what I've seen, almost every member of the resistance who has been openly vehement against the Vision Hunt have been using them. Worse, few of them were willing to listen to me when I said they were dangerous, thinking them to just be stronger Visions. Has there been any word from Will yet?"
Kokomi shook her head. "No, nothing as of now," she replied.
"Kokomi… Gorou… what's happened? You both look so worried…" Paimon then asked, her voice laced with fear.
Gorou reached into a small pocket on his belt and pulled something out. "Recently, some of our soldiers have started developing symptoms of accelerated aging. I called as many as I could in for questioning, but didn't get much answers. All I could gather was that they had received weapons from our secret sponsor," he explained. "These soldiers are all vehemently opposed to the Vision Hunt decree, and are also highly ambitious. Most also had Visions of their own that were taken at the start of the decree, and were among some of our earliest recruits. And they've been using these weapons in secret ever since getting them."
Aether narrowed his eyes as a dark look came over his face. "What are these weapons? Do you know?" he asked, and Gorou nodded. Before he could open his palm, however, there was a loud thud behind them, and Aether whipped around to see Will approaching, his eyes bright with anger.
"They're using Fatui Delusions," he answered flatly, but his tone was a stark and clear betrayal of his true emotional state, which was burned onto his face like a brand. "I'm sorry, Kokomi and Gorou. I couldn't find out much about where they're getting them from. All I could find were a couple of Fatui on the outskirts of the island that I defeated and interrogated for information. Either they don't know the exact location at all, or they're really good at withholding intel. All I was able to get out of them was that it's somewhere on Yashiori Island."
Aether and Paimon looked back and forth from Will, Gorou and Kokomi, and each other. Suddenly, Aether gasped in fear. "Wait a minute… Gorou, did you say accelerated aging?" he asked, his eyes wide. The canine general nodded, and Aether gnashed his teeth. "Teppei…" he then muttered.
"No… surely he can't have- Wait, Aether! Wait up!" Paimon worried, before spinning around in the air and flying after Aether in an attempt to catch up with the fleeing Traveler, who was heading straight for Bourou village.
Will looked from Aether's rapidly shrinking form as he flew away, with Paimon flying right behind him, back to Gorou and Kokomi. "Come on, let's get after him," he said, running in the direction of the cliff and blasting off with a similar current of wind. Before long, all three of them had glided down to the village, but after losing sight of Aether in the air, they had no choice but to split up to look.
As Will searched around the training grounds, he let out a yell of exasperation and worry that split the quiet, midnight air. Right after he did so, everything fell quiet again, and then there was the sound of a loud, hacking cough coming from the equipment hall. Will walked around a pile of boxes and saw Teppei sitting against the wall with Aether and Paimon kneeling in front of him worriedly.
"It wasn't long… after you were made captain of Swordfish II," Teppei said. Will kept his distance from the clearly next to death man, not out of fear, for he knew well by now how the Delusions worked, but out of reverence, and respect for Teppei's devotion, and Aether's obvious despair. "They… the people who said they were our supporters. They gave it to me… said that as long as I had the will to become stronger, that it would answer my call."
Teppei tried to laugh, only to cut himself off moments later with a long string of violent coughs. Splatters of blood flew from his mouth mixed in with his spit, along with a small, hard object that plinked against the wooden boards before falling into a nearby bush. "It's just like a Vision, isn't it?"
Eyes beginning to water, Will shook his head. "No… I'm afraid it's not. Teppei, what they gave you is a Delusion," he said.
"A… Delusion?" Teppei echoed slowly. "Oh gods… That doesn't sound very good," he said, and Will, Aether, and Paimon all nodded sadly. "So… what's the difference between them? A Vision and a Delusion, I mean…" Teppei asked.
Will looked Teppei in the eyes. "It's a device engineered to mimic the powers of a Vision, but it can't power itself. Instead, it… it saps the life energy of its user…" Will asked, before shaking his head. "But it's okay… You couldn't have known."
Teppei nodded faintly, the light in his eyes growing dimmer by the second. "Of course, I've never used a Vision, so it's not like I would know the difference," he agreed. "I suppose it's not too surprising that a mysterious weapon of unknown origins would come with it's risks. I've been getting more-" he started, only to cut himself off with another hacking cough that sent more blood onto the boards. "More and more tired over the past few days. And I constantly had this… strange sense of dread."
Will nodded glumly. "All signs of use of a Delusion… and all very hard to combat, if they're even possible at all…" he thought to himself, slowly checking off a horrible list of boxes in his heart. There was no denying it. Teppei, the first friend he, Aether, and Paimon had made in the resistance, was dying. And worst of all, there was a very good chance that there was nothing anyone could do about it, not even Kokomi.
"At first, I'd find I was a little more beat after a battle. But I could've just overexerted myself, so I didn't think anything of it," he said, his voice beginning to tremble. "But today… Today I got back and my vision was going blurry. Quite a shame…"
Will nodded. "You're going…" he stated to say, only to cut himself off to suppress a tear. "We're going to be alright, Teppei… you did really good. A Delusion's effects are hard to stave off, but you held out longer than anyone I've ever seen before… It's just a shame this happened now… when we were so close to the end," he finished, amending his words. He wouldn't lie to a friend. All of them knew that Teppei was going to die, and it was likely even Teppei himself knew it too. There was simply no use trying to convince anyone otherwise. Not anymore.
Teppei then shook his head. "No… the real shame… is that I thought I was finally catching up to you, Aether. And you as well, Will…" he croaked, his voice breaking in the end. "Guess I… I didn't receive the favor of the gods, after all…"
Aether was silent while all of this happened, and Teppei saw this. So in the moments he knew to be his last, he decided to do one last good thing for someone, one last thing to make them happy. He'd do that, or he'd die trying, and either one was going to happen very soon. As Kokomi and Gorou rounded the corner and stood behind Will, Teppei looked at Aether. "Hey, Aether… Would you do something for me?"
His eyes full of tears, Aether nodded. "Yeah, anything…" he said, his voice cracking with sadness.
Teppei smiled. "When our uniforms are ready… Take mine with you. Keep it, so that I can help keep you safe… would you… would you do that for me?"
As Aether nodded, Teppei's voice fell, and so did his head, one last smile on his face. His ragged, haggard breathing drew shallow, his eyes closed, and then his chest fell still. "The Fatui…" Aether muttered under his breath. Suddenly, he rounded on Will, slamming him against the wall. Will grunted from the impact, shocked by his friend's sudden attack. "This is all your fault! You led the Fatui to Watatsumi, didn't you? You've been working with them this whole time!"
Will struggled against his friend's angry grip as the blonde landed a powerful hit to his eye with his fist. Aether's golden brown eyes shone with fury and betrayal. "Aether, the Fatui want me dead just as much as they do you! Not only am I a deserter, but I stole the first Delusion on my way out, and that's a priceless relic to them!" Will replied, trying to force the hurt anger at his friend's accusation out of his voice. "What would I gain by leading them to the resistance? Landing myself my own spot on their execution table?"
"Aether, Will has a point! Besides, he was with Gorou just about the entire time he's been here, so Paimon can't think of any time when he could've snuck away anyway!" Paimon exclaimed as Kokomi gasped in confusion, while Gorou tried to pull them apart.
Before he could, however, Aether moved first. With angry, narrowed eyes, and a betrayed huff, he grabbed Will by his shirt and threw him towards Gorou, who caught him in his arms. "Lock him up, he's at least partially responsible for everything that's happened with these Delusions. I'll go find his buddies and beat a cure out of them myself. Come on, Paimon."
With that, the traveler spun around and ran towards the exit of the camp with Paimon hot on his heels, Kokomi calling out for him to wait, and Gorou shaking his head and looking at Will, who was just watching with shocked eyes as his friend abandoned him, thinking he had just betrayed him as he left him behind.
"Aether, wait! How do you know where to go?" Kokomi called out after him, but to no avail. Meanwhile, Will had sunk to the ground in disbelief. How could Aether think, after everything they'd been through, that he'd betray them all like this? He'd been there when they attacked the Fatui camp at the foot of Mt. Yougou, that would've been as good of a time as any to betray the blonde and Paimon.
"Will, what's going on?" Gorou asked, kneeling down next to the boy as he fought back tears in his now swollen left eye. They'd just started feeling like things were about to start going better for them, how could everything have fallen apart so quickly? "Come on, talk to me. We all know you used to be part of the Fatui, but you left! So why is Aether saying this is all because of you? You're not part of the Fatui anymore!"
After a moment to take a deep breath, Will nodded. "But he thinks I am, and that's all that matters to him," he said, pushing himself off of the ground and walking over to kneel in front of Teppei. "But for right now, we need to take care of Teppei and the others..."
Gorou, Kokomi, and the other resistance soldiers left as the moon hung high in the starry sky, their eyes all stained with tears. The boats carrying Teppei and the other members of the resistance who had lost their lives to the effects of the Delusions burned as they ferried their deceased crews out into the Dark Sea, letting their embers carry the souls of the dead up into the heavens. Like many things on Watatsumi, as Will had learned in his time on the island, tradition was sacred, and would always be followed to the letter with no exceptions.
Although Aether's last words before departing for Yashiori Island had been to lock Will up, seize his Vision, Delusion, and swords, and to let him rot in jail, Kokomi and Gorou had done none of those. Though because of his friends words, Will still felt like he was at fault for the death of so many of the resistance, whose bodies now sank with the burned ships and flaming arrows into the depths of the Dark Sea, literally going out in a blaze of glory. The only consolation he had was that Kokomi and Gorou knew that was not the case. As they left him there to come to terms with what had happened, to hopefully accept that he'd done everything he could, they hoped they were doing the right thing.
Will sank to the ground in despair. "It's not fair…" he sighed, resting his hand on the sand where they'd pushed Teppei's boat out to sea, where they'd stood as they fired the fire arrows at the boats to light them aflame into the heavens. "How many times must I make a new friend, only to lose them soon after? First, my family… Then Emily… Tartaglia… Yoimiya… and now Teppei and Aether…" He raised his head to look at the starry night sky. Sadness had now become anger, and though the Fatui had played their part, and he his, after everything he'd learned about them, there was still one group who, if everything he knew about them was true, must've had the power to intervene, yet chose not to. After all, they had five hundred years ago, had they not?
"Why? Answer me, Celestia, you sick, twisted cowards! Why must this be their fate?! To die in some war that should never have happened?! To finally fall not even on the battlefield, but where they thought they were safe? To be slain not by a sword, but by a poison of your own design, fueled by the power and remains of the gods you had slain in the Archon War! Is it all just because we tried to take matters into our own hands, to solve our own problems when it became clear you would not?!" he shouted in anguish. "If trying to build a life of our own so we might survive this cruel world is the reason you slaughtered Khaenri'ah five hundred years ago, as that Princess said, then go ahead! Strike me down for renouncing you now! Do it, you monsters! You're no better than the Abyss!"
Tears fell from his face and down to the grass beneath him as he cried for his fallen friends. The stars above him shined bright in the night sky, and then there was a glistening ray of light as a shooting star passed by overhead. And then, there was a voice, one that Will thought he'd have to go much longer without hearing, if he ever heard it again. And now, as the battle lines were drawn, and them being on opposite sides of it, he'd been sure he'd never hear it again when it wasn't cursing him for leaving him behind, as Aether had done to him.
"Get up, buddy. You still remember the first thing I taught you, right?"
Will looked up in shock at the familiar voice and gasped as none other than his former mentor, the eleventh Fatui Harbinger Tartaglia, stood in front of him on the beach. He pushed himself up from the ground and stood up to face his mentor.
"You're right… I do. Don't give up, no matter how many times you're beaten down or defeated. A true warrior will rise again every time he's pushed to the ground," Will replied, a small smile appearing on his face. He knew it wasn't really his mentor standing behind him, rather a figment of his imagination, but he didn't care. Not anymore.
Other figures then appeared beside Tartaglia, and Will's eyes began to well up with tears once again as he saw his parents, Yoimiya, Teppei, and then a face he'd begun to feel scared to ever see again, yet still more scared he'd never see ever again.
"E- Emily…" he muttered, his hand reaching out to hold hers as they had so many times before he'd abandoned Snezhnaya, only to stop and fall back to his side as he steeled himself. The imaginary form of Emily nodded, and then Teppei spoke.
"Don't be saddened by my passing, Will. I'm still with you, in here," he said, placing a hand on his chest. "I died for a cause I believed in, and to me, there exists no higher honor. But you're still alive, and there are those who still need you."
"He's right. You always told me it's better to look at the good in life, than the bad. Well, losing my Vision is a horrible thing, but it allowed me to realize just how truly grateful I am to have met you," Yoimiya's shade agreed, before giggling. "Even if you were never much good at making fireworks."
"Son, we are so very, very proud of you. We never once blamed you for what happened that night, so stop feeling guilty," said his father, and his mother nodded in agreement.
"Your father is right, Will. I know you miss us more than anything, but you can't give up now. There are still people counting on you."
Emily stepped forward, placing a hand on Will's shoulder, and then falling into him, embracing her long time friend in a hug, just like she used to after they'd gotten back from a long day of training. "This strife, this war… it's not over. We'll see each other again, I promise. But not yet. Because you and Aether are the only hope Inazuma has for peace, and whether he admits it or not, he needs your help, now more than ever before. So go. Give it to him, whether he says he wants it or not, because both of you need to work together to end this nightmare."
Tears fell down from Will's face once more, and it felt like the childhood friend he'd joined the Fatui with was right there with him, reminding him of all the things he still had to do, and all the reasons he couldn't stop fighting for.
After a few minutes, he let go of her and they looked each other in the eyes. "Thank you…" he said, his voice still breaking slightly. He then looked around at all the others around him. "All of you. I promise I won't give up. I will honor all that you've taught me, everything you've given me, and each memory I have of you, until the last breath leaves my body."
With that, he pulled his swords to his hands with a pair of Anemo gusts, the blades vanishing in clouds of golden embers only to reappear behind his back, as the shades themselves disappeared like mist in the wind. Walking back towards the side of the coast that pointed at the next island in the archipelagic chain that made up Inazuma, Will knew exactly what he was going to do.
"Will?" a voice called out from behind him, and he turned around, his long, black cloak whipping around in the air as he saw Gorou staring at him from underneath the archway that led to Bourou village with questioning eyes. But they weren't questions asking if he was still on their side.
They were asking what he was going to do, if he was willing to keep fighting, and he knew exactly what his answer was.
"General, rally the resistance. Our true enemy awaits beneath Yashiori Island. Aether and I will go in first, but we'll need backup to come in and finally bring whatever place the Fatui are using to make Delusions down for good."
With that, he pointed at Yashiori Island with one of his blades, and then he jabbed the sword into the ground. Long tendrils of ice spread out from the blade, and his body took on the appearance of his Foul Legacy as this happened, before the armor vanished once again. There'd be a time to undergo the full transformation again, but it was not now. Before him, a long, icy bridge that spanned the entire distance between himself and Yashiori Island had formed, and he turned and walked over the ocean separating him from the only place the Delusions could be coming from: the skeleton of the fallen god Orobashi.
"I won't allow what happened to Teppei and the others to happen to anyone ever again," Will promised himself as he reached the shore of Yashiori Island. His blades quivered with anticipation behind him, as if they'd suddenly become aware of what was about to happen. "If it comes down to it, I'll smash every Delusion they've made here with my own hands. And the best place to start… is at the source."
He knew that in order to make true Delusions, and not the cheap counterfeit Visions he'd created the designs for, the Fatui would need two things. A gem created from the remains of a dead or dying god, and a place where the wrath and anger of a dead god festered. And on Yashiori Island, there was only one place where both of those requirements were met.
"All right, where are you…" Will muttered under his breath, looking around for even the slightest trace of movement. "Kokomi said before the memorial that she thinks the place it's being made is the cliffs near the ocean at the southwest side of Yashiori Island. Well, those cliffs are straight ahead, and so is Orobashi's skeleton. Now, I suppose I just wait for a patrol to follow, and pray I beat Aether there."
Settling down inside a bush, however, it wasn't long before he heard a disturbance coming from the cliffside. With a sigh, he pushed himself up and ran over to see what was happening, keeping himself low to the ground just in case he ran into Fatui.
Sure enough, as he got to the base of the cliff, there were Fatui skirmishers, but what was more interesting was what they were doing. Or rather, trying, and failing to do. One of them had set aside their hammer and was trying to grab a small, white object flying in the sky. Whenever it tried to fly away, another one, a pyroslinger, would fire off a shot that just barely missed it, and made it change course back into the ring of Fatui. Then, the white object let out a scream for help as one of the Skirmishers grabbed hold of a limb, and Will gasped, recognizing the sound all too well.
"Paimon?" he exclaimed, materializing both blades in his hands. With a shout, he blasted himself high into the air and rained down a barrage of spears made of pure, Cryo energy, which embedded themselves in the nigh unprotected heads of the Fatui Skirmishers below.
Paimon let out a yelp of surprise as Will landed in front of her, his twin blades flashing with the light of a nearby lightning bolt as he cut cleanly through an electrohammer wielding vanguard that had avoided his first onslaught of icy spikes. Another skirmisher, an Anemoboxer, pulled his fist back to attack, but as he threw the punch, Will swiped upward with one of his blades as he spun to the side. The Fatuus' hand flew into the air, and before he even had a chance to cry out in pain, Will's second blade had found it's way through his throat, silencing him for good.
Paimon's eyes were wide with shock for a moment, but she soon had her tiny arms wrapped around Will's neck. "Will! Oh, Paimon's never been happier to see you!" she exclaimed, and Will gasped in surprise.
"Woah, easy there, Paimon. You're okay now. But where's Aether? I've never seen the two of you apart from each other," Will asked, and Paimon looked at a small crack in the stone wall worriedly. Wind was flowing out of it like a spectral wisp, and it looked entirely too ominous to not be an evil lair. "He went in there, huh?"
Paimon nodded. "We saw some Fatui walking out when we got here, and they were carrying a large crate. When Paimon saw a Delusion fall out of a crack in the wood, Aether told her to wait here while he went in to investigate!" she explained frantically. Will sighed.
"Guess I should've expected Aether to want to keep Paimon out of harm's way…" he thought to himself, looking down at the disappearing bodies at his feet. "Something tells me someone's gonna come looking for these guys pretty quick. No sense hanging around here for that."
Will turned to Paimon. "Well, if Aether went in there, so am I. You coming with?" he asked the small pixie, who quickly and vigorously shook her head up and down. "All right, stick behind me. Who knows what kinds of traps the Fatui have got lined up in there…"
Walking inside, it was immediately clear that the ominous appearance outside the crevice was not just for show. Paimon audibly shuddered as they saw the dark, murky rooms permeated with a menacing purple mist along the floors, and Will felt a cold sensation creeping up his spine. Large, pale yellow screens obstructed their view of the corridor in front of them, and every step felt like the floor was going to fall away underneath them, the wooden creaks from every motion only adding to the unnaturally tense atmosphere around them. In fact, a quick glance ahead revealed a massive plate made of wood lying on the floor, with long metal spikes underneath it embedded into the wooden planks on the ground.
"This air… it's like the feeling of being in that castle again… it's like the Abyss…" Will muttered under his breath, and Paimon looked at him, a curious expression on her face like she was wondering what he'd just said. "It's nothing. A while back, before I met you and Aether, Yoimiya and I went on an excursion to a nearby island with an uncharted domain. This place just feels oddly similar to what we both felt in there… And it looks like we were right. This place is definitely booby trapped."
Paimon gulped, flying down low to the ground and peering between the spikes. She then sighed, clearly relieved. "Okay! Good, Aether wasn't hit by this thing…" she trailed off, only to then look ahead at the screens in front of them. "Or at least not this one…"
Will shook his head, a faint smile on his face. "I doubt it. He's pretty quick on his feet, and it'd take quite the distraction for him to fall for a trap like this," he reassured the pixie, hoping he was right. At this point, knowing as well as he did how devious the Fatui could be, he knew that taking anything like this for granted was a bad idea. And not only were they sure to find traps, but with every step he took, Will was always on edge, his eyes darting back and forth for even a hint of motion that might betray the hidden presence of the Fatui.
Yet as he and Paimon wormed their way ever further into the building, what they found was even more disturbing. Instead of undamaged halls, there were dozens of broken floorboards strewn every which way in the next room, and the room after that. In addition to that, all of the traps had either been already tripped, or disarmed, and for those that had been tripped, it appeared that it had not been entirely the traveler's doing. While most traps, particularly the falling boards covered in spikes, hit nothing but the floorboards, every now and then Paimon and Will would catch sight of a stray limb decorated in Fatui armor poking out. And throughout the entire incursion, they were never once stopped by even a single skirmisher, private, lieutenant, or captain. No Cicin mages attempted to ambush them with their magic, and no Agents appeared out of the shadows like fiery grim reapers. The halls were eerily quiet.
As Will and Paimon rode a side elevator down, as there appeared to be no other path they could find in the first room, they found the next room to be filled to the brim with numerous chunks of an ore that Will couldn't quite place. Paimon, however, knew immediately what it was.
"Woah… So this is where Delusions are made?" she asked, and Will shook his head.
"Not all of them. In fact, for such a seemingly large scale operation, this place is surprisingly small, compared to some other factories I've seen in Snezhnaya," he replied, causing the pixie to grumble in an irritated way.
"There's so much Crystal Marrow… Paimon's sure she's seen it before, somewhere in Inazuma…" she said, her eyes narrowed in thought. Suddenly, she opened them wide, pointing her finger up into the air. "That's it! Aether and Paimon saw the Kanjou commission using it as a tax instead of Mora…" she explained, groaning in annoyance. "So that must mean…"
Will sighed and nodded, walking over to a large case that presumably had held a key to the wide open door in the room. "The Kanjou commission is probably in on this Fatui plot too. So only the Yashiro commission hasn't been compromised," he said, before a small scroll off to the side caught his eye. Bending down to pick it up, he opened it. "Hey, Paimon, check this out," he said, and he began reading.
"The situation of the Inazuman civil war is presently uncertain. The longer this conflict drags on, the more advantageous our position will be. To deepen the resistance's reliance on Delusions, fan the flames of war, and steel the resolve of the leadership on both sides to continue fighting, I call upon all available comrades to assist the work of second naval lieutenant Nathan in the resistance in dashing Sangonomiya's hopes for a quick victory," he read out loud, his face growing grimmer and grimmer. "If there are any accidents, assist in second lieutenant Nathan's escape, and silence all who might reveal our infiltration into their ranks! This mission is of vital importance to securing our supply of Delusions, not a single detail may be overlooked!"
With that, he rolled the scroll up and slid it inside one of the small pockets hidden on the inside of his padded chest robes, a scowl on his face. "Looks like the Tri-Commission isn't the only one with moles they need to weed out. The resistance has got its own traitors to look out for…" he said, pursing his lips. "I never knew of any second lieutenants by the name of Nathan, though… maybe Kokomi already found him out." Although it was possible, with how efficient the Fatui were, Will knew it was hardly a likely scenario. Even so, it helped to hear that there was a chance, however slim, that their side was clear of spies. "Well, we'll need to try and get this back to Kokomi before it's too late, and even if Gorou is planning on following us to clear this place out, I don't want to chance them missing this, or it getting swept up by the Fatui if they clean house before the resistance gets here. For now, let's just focus on getting to Aether… wherever in here he is."
Weaving through a corridor armed with rows of hidden arrow traps, the pair stumbled upon another vertical corridor filled with alternating elevators that moved in tandem on large, circulating iron chains. But as the pair stepped off of the last elevator, slowly making their way through another hallway of electrified arrow traps, they found themselves merely back in the first room they'd found. The bodies of the Fatui Skirmishers were right where they'd last seen them, and they quickly realized they'd simply gone in a large circle.
"Ugh, this place is just like one big maze!" Paimon exclaimed as she and Will looked around for another path, finding none. "Could they have really captured Aether and moved him away already? But Paimon never saw anyone else come out, and we haven't found another exit besides the one we came in through…"
His anxiety rising the longer they were inside the ominous factory, Will looked around the room again, knowing he had to be missing something. And that was when he suddenly realized that there was still one thing he hadn't tried. Aether, although not a Vision bearer like he was, was still able to use elemental abilities. Abilities that, when looked at with the right lens, would leave behind unmistakable traces that they could easily follow back to him.
Focusing on his Anemo Vision, Will closed his eyes for a moment, reopening them a second later as they glowed the same color as his teal Vision. Sure enough, the pile of debris lying near the back wall, which they'd passed off as merely the remains of Aether's assault on the factory, lit up like one of Yoimiya's multicolored fireworks, radiating traces of Anemo, Geo, and Electro in every direction.
"Bingo," he muttered, channeling Anemo energy into his hands and thrusting them both out towards the pile of wooden and metal debris. A powerful blast of wind decimated the obstruction, revealing a long corridor that led to one final room. Long trails of dark purple smoke floated in the air with a murky haze, almost entirely obstructing a chained up figure at the end of the room. One that both Will and Paimon immediately recognized.
"Aether!" Paimon exclaimed, rushing forward through the air towards the blonde traveler, who struggled to lift his head. With Will right behind her, the duo ran into the room only to be sent flying by a sudden blast of powerful electricity. With a snarl on his face, Will glared in the direction the blast came from, only to gasp in surprise at what he saw.
"Well well… I would say I'm surprised to see you of all people here, but I'm not."
Will curled his lip. "Scaramouche," he said, pushing himself to his feet and manifesting both of his blades in a defensive stance. "So you're the one creating the Delusions in Inazuma."
Scaramouche let a faint grin slip onto his face. "Wow… And I thought the mighty traveler was angry as soon as he saw me. But you really look like you want me dead… I wonder why?" he mused from the balcony, ignoring what Will said about the Delusions. With Aether, there was nothing better that he could use to toy with him. But with Will, the Harbinger knew of a great many things to get under his skin, and it truly delighted him.
Will swiped a sword through the air. "Don't play dumb, Balladeer. As a Harbinger, you of all people should know the answer to that question."
The Balladeer, however, merely shrugged. "I had no involvement with what occurred that night. In fact, by now you should have realized the truth," he answered.
For a brief moment, Will's stance faltered. "The truth?" he asked, before raising his blades back up and circling around the room towards Aether, who by now had been shaken awake by Paimon's futile attempts to break the chains holding him up. "What truth is there? That witch killed my parents! Tell me, Scaramouche, why wouldn't I, or anyone else for that matter, be angry with the Fatui after that?"
Scaramouche shook his head and sighed. "You still don't get it, do you? Just like your moron of a teacher, you still can't see the bigger picture. You act like you want revenge on her, but you're wasting your time by coming here," he said, chuckling. "And here I thought you had even a chance of being more sensible than Childe… How pathetic… What's more, you actually convinced yourself you came here to exact your revenge, but that's not why at all, is it?"
Will narrowed his eyes. "What are you talking about…" he muttered, and Scaramouche laughed.
"It's pointless, trying to get closure by avenging their deaths. Being apprenticed to a Harbinger, I had expected you to have at least grasped that much," he explained. "You know as well as I do that the resistance has no chance against the Shogunate. And yet they, like the insignificant little creatures they are, still struggle against their fate." At this point, Scaramouche clenched his fist, and the chains holding Aether up shattered into thin air, and he fell to the ground.
"It's rather like you, isn't it? After all, you actually think you can escape the fact that you were part of the Fatui! It's truly laughable…" the Harbinger went on, and Will narrowed his eyes, standing between Aether and Scaramouche. "You think you can just run from your past? How pathetic… The past is a web of pain and torment, and it will always catch up to you. Admit it or not, like it or not, you can't deny that you were once a Fatui Harbinger, and you will always end up serving us again, and again, regardless of whether you intend to or not."
Will clenched his fists around his swords. "Shut… your… mouth…" he muttered, and Scaramouche laughed.
"It seems I've struck a nerve. But you know I'm right. So far, you've managed to slip past our defenses in this factory, and you even managed to pry the location of it out of my soldiers in the first place… but did you ever once stop to consider that maybe I meant for that to happen?" the Harbinger asked, an evil grin stretched across his face. "You know better than most that I don't bluff, unlike your weak mentor, who seems to be so blind, he can't even see the real reason the Rooster stays so close to his family, much less that it's a fool's errand to try and trust me. The rules of this world mean so little to me. Strike me down now, and neither of you will escape this place."
Aether pushed himself to his feet and looked from Will to Scaramouche, and back again. With Scaramouche's words, he knew he had made a mistake in accusing Will of causing the deaths of Teppei and the other Resistance members. But that didn't mean he hadn't unknowingly helped them along, and that made him a very risky person. Could he still ally with someone who could unknowingly be so dangerous?
After a moment, he closed his eyes, and stepped closer to Will, manifesting his sword into his hand. The boy looked up at him, and Aether saw no fear in his eyes, only acceptance.
"That's where you're wrong, Scaramouche," he said. Will's eyes widened, and he paused in surprise. He'd been sure Aether was going to kill them both and be done with it. But for better or worse, it appeared he'd misjudged the traveler's intentions.
"Be that as it may, the fact still remains that I'm not who you should be concerned with. Aren't you both supposed to be smart? If so, you should realize that I'm not the mastermind behind this operation," Scaramouche said, folding his arms. "In fact, the one in charge is one you both know quite well…" he added, before glancing at Will, an evil grin on his face. "And her Apprentice is here too…"
Will took a step back, his heart pounding in his chest as the mist around them became thicker and thicker. "Two Harbingers, and one of their apprentices, in Inazuma? How? You say you don't bluff, but what you're talking about is impossible!"
In response, Scaramouche simply laughed. "We're practically in control of this whole nation by now. Sure, from the outside Inazuma looks difficult to penetrate… but on the inside? It's a land of opportunity, and we were able to break down the Tri-Commission with ease," he explained, shaking his head. "After all, Eternity…" he trailed off, his words dripping with venom and disdain. "Eternity stretches everything out over an impossibly long time. But each moment becomes all the more fragile, like your friend in the resistance…"
Aether narrowed his eyes, raising his sword as Scaramouche continued. "He's gone, like a bubble on the water. Beautiful for a moment, but it always ends in total destruction," he said, holding out a hand as a pair of Delusions just like the one Will had found on the first resistance soldier floated above it. "The more it takes from them, the tighter they hold on to it. And the more incompetent they are, the more they think they can actually fight it!" he exclaimed, doubling over with laughter as Aether snarled at the Harbinger.
"Don't you dare mock Teppei! He gave his life for those he wanted to protect, and because of you, now he's gone!" Aether shouted, balling his fists up in rage.
But Scaramouche simply continued to laugh. "It's such a farce! How can you not see the funny side?" he asked, before an air of deathly seriousness fell over him. "Oh, that's right… you think caring about the fates of others, especially those weaker than you, is worth anything. But weren't you the one who wanted nothing to do with this war in the first place? And yet all it took were a measly three people who had to suffer without their Visions to make you feel responsible for all of Inazuma."
Aether's sword flashed with Electro as long tendrils of lightning shot up and down the blade. Will's head flicked to him, and he grabbed his shoulder. "Aether, you need to calm down before-" he started, only for the Balladeer to interrupt him.
"That's it, mighty traveler! Embrace the anger! Embrace it! Strike me down and take revenge for those needless deaths!" he shouted, walking towards Aether. Suddenly, the mist began swirling around Aether's feet and into his body. The was a pulse of dark purple energy as Aether threw his head back, his hands tight over his ears as something wormed it's way into his mind while Will and Paimon tried desperately to calm him down as Scaramouche continued to cackle. "The wrath of the gods fills this factory, and it feeds on your anger!"
Aether gripped his heart through his chest, feeling like it was being poisoned and was on the brink of exploding with pain as he collapsed, his eyelids suddenly feeling heavy. "What's happening? Get up!" Paimon screamed in terror, furiously trying to keep him awake, but to no avail. And to make the already bad matters worse, as if the seemingly sentient anger could sense her fear, it leaped from Aether's arm and into her body, instantly knocking her out cold. In seconds, Will stood alone, the only thing between Aether and Paimon, and the Balladeer's wrath.
He raised his blades up, and Scaramouche scoffed. "How unfortunate… and here I thought you'd be as easy to fool as your friend, and your mentor. It seems I underestimated your knowledge of this place," he admitted, and Will scowled. The air crackled with intensity as Scaramouche stared Will down. "No matter. I'll just have to take you out myself!"
With that, the room erupted into a flurry of chaos as Scaramouche channeled the power of Electro into his hands and blasted it at Will, who blocked it with his katanas. The lightning arced from the blades down to the ground, pushing Will back as his feet slid against the wooden floorboards. The translucent fabric hanging from Scaramouche's hat whipped in the air, and Will was slowly pushed back closer and closer Aether and Paimon's prone forms.
Will grunted as the lightning flashed before him, until he slashed both swords through the air, the metal in the blades attracting the attack away from him and off to the sides. Empowered by his Vision, he bounded forward in barely a second towards the raised platform and slashed at the Harbinger, who manifested a blade of black and purple Electro to block the attack. All three weapons clashed, sending sparks of Electro, Cryo, and Anemo through the air as the almost demonic mist swirled around the room, as if the spirit of Orobashi himself had been brought back from death to rejoice in the battle that raged beneath his skull.
Breaking off the blade lock, Will attacked with a flurry of rapid attacks, knowing that keeping Scaramouche on the defensive was his only chance of defeating the Harbinger. And he knew he'd have to be quick. Although he'd never before experienced the concentrated effects of the now agitated Tatarigami, he could feel it trying to overpower his senses as he fought the Balladeer, who was either unfazed by it's effects, or only empowered. Not only that, but the mist had completely covered both Aether and Paimon, and he had no idea how that might affect them.
As their blades clashed again, Scaramouche grinned, and began to push Will back, who backpedaled while trying to stop his push. As they both spun away from each other, the platform was demolished as blasts of Electro, Cryo, and Anemo met, sending both combatants flying away. But while Scaramouche leapt back up to his feet with ease, Will had been thrown into a pile of Crystal Marrow, and submersed in the vile mist as he was, he suddenly felt much weaker than he had moments before. Scaramouche flew at him, his Electro blade disappearing in an instant as the energy spiraled up his body, and he ripped his blades away from Will before grabbing him by the neck and throwing him to the ground behind him. Will groaned with pain, and he tried to pull his blades to him, only for them to be blasted away in an instant by a pair of purple beams from Scaramouche, a third arc of lightning heading straight for Will from the Harbinger's chest.
As the beam subsided, small wisps of steam rose off of Will's body as more arcs of Electro jumped from one part of his skin to another. "Come on… Your mentor said he taught you how to fight, didn't he? Or did your weak parents raise such a pathetic child that you can't even fight without your swords, when you have the power of two entire elements at your disposal?" Scaramouche taunted the boy, who grunted in pain as he pushed himself to his feet.
"Two elements, huh… guess I've got no choice," he mentally realized, closing his eyes and centering his mind. Ice cold wind whipped up around him as the jet black armor appeared over his arms and legs. "You want me to fight without my blades? I can give you a fight…" he said, his voice suddenly much lower in pitch as the midnight colored mask formed over his face, and for just a moment, Scaramouche seemed taken aback, until he grinned, shooting out an arm that glowed with malevolent light.
Suddenly, Will felt his arms and legs be pulled tight, breaking his concentration and abruptly ending his transformation as dark, abyssal chains held him in place. The jet black armor, which had nearly finished covering his body, suddenly disappeared, and four identical Delusions floated around Scaramouche, who grinned in an evil way before whipping his arm out to the side. A second later, a massive bolt of Electro appeared out of nowhere and sent him flying down onto the floor, his entire body spasming in pain as Scaramouche continued the assault. With his swords knocked away by the throw and the pain preventing him from focusing on the power of his Vision or Delusion, Will was utterly helpless as the lightning ripped through his body. His muscles felt like fire, his veins like lightning, and he thrashed violently on the ground. And all the while, his tormentor simply cackled.
As the room around him began to fade, the pain suddenly stopped. The last thing he saw was Scaramouche's face turn instantly from one of evil delight, to that of rare nervousness, and the flash of a distinct red and white shrine maiden outfit, and then everything went dark.
A/N: WOW that was a long chapter. I tried to cut it off in the middle before Will goes into the factory after Aether, but I just couldn't make it work, so here you go!
Alright, some changes to the story. First of all, I'm a huge fan of Viking Funerals, so I couldn't resist the chance to give Teppei and the other Resistance soldiers one. They deserve it, or at least Teppei does. Next, we've got another brief Foul Legacy transformation, but not entirely. Think of it like how in the Childe boss fight, he first transforms from his normal attire to his Delusion Unleashed state, and THEN to the Foul Legacy. What Will did to get to Yashiori is basically somewhere between the Delusion Unleashed and the Foul Legacy. I like to think he doesn't actually have a Delusion Unleashed state, and can instead just briefly go into the Foul Legacy for a smaller powerup that's not as dangerous to him.
Now for the elephant in the room. The Scaramouche boss fight. I know, I know, Scaramouche doesn't fight you here in the game, but this was just too good of an opportunity to pass up. The key thing to take home here, however, is this: The only time Will even had a chance was when he was fighting up close and personal. Every other moment of that battle, Scaramouche was in control, so I'm not even sure I can call it a battle in the first place. In fact, you could say that during that brief time Will was on the offensive, that was just Scaramouche toying with him. Honestly, I don't even know, so I'll leave it up to individual opinion.
Well, it's been fun, but we are fast approaching the end of this story. But don't you worry, it's not over yet, and even when it is, it still won't be. What do I mean? Well, you'll just have to wait and see.