Ad Infinitum

A/N:

This story contains violence, profanity, and strong sexual content. You have been warned.

You should consider this story to be a spoiler if you haven't finished all of the game's quests, including certain character quests.

This story has opening and ending themes for almost every chapter (some have none purposefully). Feel free to look them up and listen to them at your leisure.

Now, enough introductions, let us begin.

Episode 1: Genesis

The darkness just before midnight was thick. It was an immersive blackness, one that seemed to wrap up anyone within it like a blanket. A small crescent moon was hanging low in the sky, vainly attempting to pierce the darkness, but it only succeeded in highlighting the depth of the night. Darting amongst the deeper shadows, a lone figure traversed this ink-dyed landscape, on high alert.

This type of night was nothing out of the ordinary for that man. He couldn't count the times he had patrolled the wilds around Mondstadt in the dead of night, fending off threats to the peace of his homeland. It was a thankless job, one that very few even knew existed. However, this volunteer work was full of meaning for the young man. After all, this was his one remaining method of atonement.

The young man's name was Diluc Ragnvindr: the wealthiest gentleman in Mondstadt, and the last person most would expect to see at a time and place like this.

"Seems like I may be able to wrap this up early tonight," he muttered to himself.

Diluc stood alone on a ridge overlooking the small hamlet of Springvale. His nightly route had taken him here, the last destination before he would return home. Only the roar of a nearby waterfall and the rustling of the breeze in the pines could be heard in the stillness. On the distant skyline, a few lights from the city of Mond could be glimpsed. It was a peaceful, serene scene.

Diluc made his way down from his high perch, and began to make his way back towards his famous home: Dawn Winery. His boots had just hit the dust of the back road leading from Springvale to Dawn Winery when something piqued his interest: a muffled knocking sound. It came from behind him, in the direction of Springvale.

The hell was that? he thought to himself, turning back towards the unlit town.

Soon, another bang reached his ears, then a cracking sound… He was rushing down the path now, growing more uneasy by the second. As he passed the pond on his right, his eyes were drawn to the lone house sitting on top of the ridge above Springvale… and immediately he noticed something odd.

The house was dark, but the front door was wide open, hanging haphazardly on its one remaining hinge.

"Shit," Diluc cursed himself for not noticing anything before now.

He sprinted towards the house, and as he drew nearer, he noticed several shadows looming around the entrance. He slithered behind a nearby tree, and silently took stock of the situation. It was then that he heard a sound that made his blood run cold.

From within the house came muffled screams.

Diluc strained his ears to pick up every sound he possibly could. The screams continued, sounding more feral and unhinged the closer he listened, but that wasn't all. A rhythmic, wet, blunt sound repeated over and over, like someone was striking a bag of tomatoes with a bat. He quickly realized that he might have to make his move sooner than he had wished.

Just as he decided to jump from behind his cover, though, several figures appeared in the doorway of the house. Diluc immediately identified 3 tall men, with one carrying some sort of sack. It was from this large, dubious bag that the screams were emanating. Several other figures joined the 3 men, adding up to more than half a dozen at the least. In the dark, it was hard to identify any specific details, but all it took was a few words from one of the men for Diluc to grasp who they were. They spoke the native language of Snezhnaya; they were almost certainly Fatui.

Diluc didn't want to know what was in that sack. It looked stained, and it moved lethargically from time to time as the large man threw it over his shoulder to carry it away.

The red-haired young man was torn on what to do next. He knew that something horrific had just happened here, but he also knew that facing off against this large group of Fatui alone was unwise. They had become a menace in recent times, and even 3 vs 1 would be an unfavorable matchup for him. Rushing into battle now might be suicide.

Before he could finish making up his mind, the group of men tore down the nearby path. Diluc waited a few seconds, then stealthily followed the crew.

They took the lesser-traveled paths, winding through a small canyon before coming out in the valley that Dawn Winery occupied. Diluc couldn't believe how fearless this group was. They showed few signs of stealth, but instead made their way towards the border of Mondstadt with incredible haste. As the men entered the canyon leading to the nation of Liyue, Diluc ground his teeth in frustration, before making a split-second decision.

"STOP!" he yelled.

Nearly instantly, seven different shadows whirled around to face him. In the dim moonlight, the face of the man holding the bag could just be made out… And it was twisted into an awful glare.

"Who are you?!" the man growled.

He advanced closer to Diluc, threatening violence by his mere stance. The other Fatui spread out behind him, as if they wanted to surround this new enemy.

"What the hell did you just do?!" Diluc answered the man's question with a question of his own.

"That is none of your concern. Though you will soon find out if you live past this meeting."

"What's that supposed to mean?!"

"Once dawn breaks over this nation, every single inhabitant will know what it means."

With this ominous line, the Fatui leader turned to his men.

"Come, we have no time to waste. Leave this pesky insect behind us, our rendezvous point is just ahead."

The rest of the Skirmishers responded with a cry in their native tongue, then bolted away. Only one remained, and it soon became obvious why. The Fatui agent created a large Anemo barrier, then cast it directly at Diluc. He desperately tried to avoid it, but it caught him, throwing him backwards with force. His body slammed into the bare rock face of the cliffs, knocking the breath from his lungs. His vision blurred, and by the time he collected his wits, the Fatui Skirmishers were no longer in sight.

Diluc trudged back towards Springvale, holding his side in pain. He estimated that he had at least a few broken ribs, and he couldn't raise his left arm much at all. However, there was something more important than his injuries right now.

He stepped through the door frame of the now-silent house on the edge of Springvale. Immediately he was hit with the stench of blood. He looked around for a lantern, and finding one on a nearby shelf, he lit it. What he saw next sickened him.

Two mangled bodies were lying on the floor. The couple was in exceptionally bad shape. Their limbs were bent at unnatural angles, and the woman's face was replaced by a large, blood-caked dent. The man's head was no longer attached to his body, but was sitting a few feet away from it in a pool of blood and shredded sinews.

By now, a horrible feeling of foreboding was beginning to overtake Diluc. His arms began to go numb as his breathing became heavier and heavier. He had seen horrible scenes like this before, but this one felt different… more malicious. He stumbled back towards the door, slamming against the door frame on the way out.

He made his way down towards the lazily-turning windmill of Springvale, desperately hoping his instincts were wrong. But fate can be incredibly cruel, and the inescapable truth awaited him below.

House after house was filled with absolute carnage. Each time he entered one, he prayed for a different outcome, but each time the outcome was the same: death and destruction. Allan… Myweiss… even Hopkins… they were all dead. The entire town was dead. Panic began to interfere with Diluc's thoughts as he desperately tried to calm himself. Suddenly, a familiar face flashed through his mind.

"Diona…"

A wave of nausea struck him as he began to put the pieces together. He rushed towards Draff's house, shoving the door open with full force. Inside, more chaos awaited him. It seemed that Draff had tried to fight off the invaders, but shared the fate of all the other villagers. His body was draped across a sofa, in a state not fit to be described. Diluc scanned the room, his head on a swivel. He ransacked the entire house, but a small, pink-haired body was nowhere to be found. He fell to his knees.

"They fucking took her…" he muttered in a low voice.

A horrible feeling of despair was creeping over Diluc. He was crushed by the heavy weight of his failure to protect the villagers. It was a feeling he had felt several times before. And one of those times was something he never wanted to remember again.

Finally regaining some rational thought, he turned his back on that scene straight out of hell, and rushed towards the towering windmills of Mondstadt City.

A day later, two striking figures approached the doors of a bedroom inside a large stone building. They conversed in hushed voices as they neared their destination.

"I hope he's doing a little better now, at least…" a young blond-haired woman breathed out with a sigh.

"Someone as stubborn as him will bounce back quickly, I'm sure," an exotic, flashy man replied flippantly.

These two individuals were the acting Grand Master and the Cavalry Captain of the Knights of Favonius: Jean Gunnhildr and Kaeya Alberich.

As the Fatui had predicted so eloquently, the entire nation of Mondstadt was in an uproar by the time the sun peeked over the horizon. Putting aside old grudges, Diluc had alerted the Knights of Favonius about the Springvale incident with haste. They had rushed to the scene before dawn, but only despair awaited them there. All told, over a dozen people had died in the cruel attack the night before. The village of Springvale was now left without a single living inhabitant.

Diluc had been immediately escorted to a private room within the Knights' headquarters in Mond, and was forced to rest until the extent of his injuries could be determined. However, "rest" did not come easy to his tortured conscience.

He had known the girl named Diona Kätzlein for quite a while. Their rivalry was even fairly well-known within Mondstadt. She strongly disliked him due to his association with the wine industry, but he had never once hated her. Instead, he thought of her more like an annoying little kid than any sort of rival. She had no understanding of the true ways of the world, and naively condemned his logical actions without a shred of remorse. Still, he felt that deep down, she had a pure heart.

Now that girl was gone, and he was the one who had failed to save her.

Suddenly interrupting his thoughts, the door to the room creaked open.

"Diluc… how are you feeling?" the comforting, yet strong voice of Jean greeted him.

"Been better. But never mind that, what's the news? Any leads?" he replied curtly.

"Nothing new. All we know is that they are somewhere in Liyue," Kaeya spoke up, using a rarely-heard serious tone.

"Dammit. We have to find them. They can't get away with this shit," Diluc spat with a deadly serious face.

"Let us handle that, you need to rest for now. You're pushing yourself too much lately…" Jean trailed off at the end, clearly concerned about the murderous vibe that Diluc was giving off.

He had always been taking matters into his own hands, and Jean had always been on the sidelines, watching and worrying for his safety. This was the relationship that the two had shared for years now, a familiar yet detached friendship of mutual respect. It was at times like these that Jean wished for that distance to shrink, even if just a little.

Diluc sighed in response to Jean's motherly admonitions. He deeply respected her, but she also troubled him greatly. Her incredibly earnest disposition clashed strongly with his secretive, two-faced existence, and he could never quite let down his guard around such a brightly-shining soul. He somehow felt that if he did, even for a second, her light would illuminate all of the dark corners of his heart that should never see the light of day.

"Don't worry, Jean. I'm at least going to let my body heal. I can't go off and die this soon… not with so much left undone."

Jean gave a small, conflicted smile in response, before Kaeya's boisterous voice interrupted their little moment.

"Of course, of course! You can't die when you have someone this lovely to come home to! Ahh, for the first time I'm almost jealous of you…"

Jean blushed all the way up to her ears. This too was another aspect of her, one that Diluc was certain he'd never get used to: her incredible weakness to anything lewd or romantic.

"Shut it, asshole. And while you're at it, get the hell out of here. I need my rest," Diluc responded to the jester with hostility.

"O-Oh, I apologize, we stayed too long…" Jean said hesitantly.

"Uh, no, I meant him… Ah…"

Diluc struggled to find his words, lowering his head in irritation. This was how they'd always been, and probably always would be. Awkwardly dancing around each other's feelings, never arriving at the nucleus of them, almost certainly by design. After all, the two of them should have been "enemies", nothing more.

Kaeya choked back a snicker, then turned his back, holding a hand up in farewell.

"Well then, I'm out of here. Make sure you get plenty of rest, now, darling," Kaeya sneered, taking one more shot before making his exit.

"U-Um, goodbye Diluc. I'll be back this evening!" Jean blushed and stuttered, then beat a hasty retreat.

The large wooden door slammed, and Diluc was once again left alone with his thoughts.

After the events of the Springvale massacre, Diluc was sidelined for several weeks. Despite the constant watch of Jean and the other Knights, he would still get out of bed and wander around Mondstadt from time to time, planning his next move. He already knew his destination: the neighboring country of Liyue. The murderous bastards were somewhere within its borders, hiding, and probably planning even more carnage. Diluc had no plans of letting that happen, though. In fact, his only goal now was to wipe the perpetrators from the face of Teyvat.

One such night, as the full moon illuminated the stone streets of Mond, a certain pair met in a dingy back alley. Low voices drifted through the silence that enveloped the city.

"The arrangements are done. Your appointment is seven days from tomorrow. Your hotel in Liyue Harbor is already booked for the day before that, all you have to do is show up on time. Think you can handle that much?"

"Don't patronize me. I won't let this chance go to waste."

"Right then, I hope you're thankful for this. I had to pull some mighty thin strings to get this done."

"Ha, you have so many strings attached that I'm sure this was nothing."

"Come on now, your words hurt, brother."

"Enough. I'm leaving."

"Your meeting with her is the day after your check-in. Make sure your manners are in order before then… I hear she's quite the handful."

"Don't worry, I know all about dealing with troublesome women like her."

With that final jab, the two shadows parted, their respective paths diverging once again into the pale Mondstadt night.

The day before that promised meeting, a young man stood outside the doors of Dawn Winery, his red hair blazing almost as much as the distant sunrise. He breathed in the fresh, crisp morning air; it invigorated him, fortifying him for what was to come. His preparations were complete, his wounds healed, and his journey was about to begin. On his back was the legendary sword of the Wolf Knight. With it, he would bring justice to those who had dared attack his beloved homeland. Filled with righteous anger and a burning desire for vengeance, the young man of that day knew nothing of the web he had already become irreversibly entangled in.

Right then, as the slightly-chilly breeze blew through his long hair, he muttered an oath under his breath.

"I'll find you… Diona. I'll bring this farce to an end."

Ending Theme: FELT - START

Next:

Episode 2: His Oath / Her Duty