Not in a hundred lifetimes could Fischl have imagined this. A kaleidoscope of lives played out on scales beyond any human measure of time. Lifetimes concluded in seconds, and branches repeated endlessly with differences so minute, they weaved back into each other. Wherever Fischl looked, she saw a hundred more Fischls living out their lives.
There was no constant, every fact of life was thrown in flux. There was no 'present,' not when past and future existed in tandem; there were no bonds, everyone served as friend, foe, stranger or nemesis in another timeline.
Being a spectator to all these lives that could've been began to split Fischl's mind. She was observing herself, and how was that possible if Fischl wasn't herself but someone else?
Man was never supposed to glimpse into infinity, and Fischl clutched her mind as it began to unravel…
Fischl blinked. Clouds stretched on above her in a black carpet. Every breath stung her throat, and the not-sand she laid on seeped into her dress. The fact she laid on solid land came as ragged relief. Fischl shoved herself up, and she was seized by the first inklings of suspicion upon realizing she laid not on sand, but ash.
She glanced around her, and saw a world in flames.
Fischl's heart stopped, since nothing could prepare her to see Springvale in cinders, while the city was being consumed by flames. Fischl went ill, not just from physical nausea. This was real, yet not real. These warring ideas produced a kind of dreamy, disconnected disbelief that jarred Fischl apart from this world.
With halting steps, she stumbled into this hell.
While disasters usually had their fair share of survivors, Fischl found none here. No matter how far she walked, searched and hoped to find anybody, those hopes were met by silence. Wherever land wasn't carved up by angelfire - that recollection stuck Fischl cold all over again - was incinerated by proximity. Teyvat's landscape had been defiled, and the lack of survivors ate away at Fischl.
Even the Cataclysm felt survivable, for all its tales of woe surrounding that blackest night. But whatever this was, was the death of all that was and could ever be.
Fischl tensed as the ground darkened around her. Like the HEV Immernachtreich, the blackness of this umbra fell upon Fischl like a tangible curtain. Daring to glance up, Fischl gazed upon an island which floated above the land as though afraid of being contaminated. Atop its tower sat a sphere, and for all its appearance of neverland, the sight chilled Fischl to the bone.
A dome beneath the island began to gather energy. A primal part of Fischl's mind warred with her awe to either run or stay, and indecision left her frozen.
It fired.
The heat felt… impossible.
Wherever it touched down upon Teyvat it incinerated, thankfully too far to kill Fischl immediately. That was cold comfort when an oncoming blast wave crashed over Springvale like a hand over a chessboard. Fischl threw herself behind an outcropping, and her world became fire.
The earth roared. The skies burned.
Only when chaos died down did Fischl dare to look up again. Even then, it took Fischl time to understand what she was looking at. A mushroom-shaped cloud rose before her, whose stalk grew from where the City used to be. Its cap grew and extended its shade over Fischl.
Her heart sank at the sight. This was the death of…
Man. Life. Hope. Everything.
Something within Fischl died having everything taken from her. No, not taken, just burned so thoroughly to bedrock so only ashes remained. Her covered eye began to throb, and Fischl let it hurt. Anything to distract Fischl from this numbness. Fractals of light expanded from her eyepatch, and whatever it did, she didn't protest. So long as it got Fischl out of this hell…
Fischl blinked at Xinyan getting in her face. She barely deflected the musician's claymore, and ducked under her next swing.
"Wait!" Fischl tried to calm Xinyan down, only to find her hands sheathed in gloves. Her uniform felt rugged around her, and Fischl found herself in a familiar outfit.
She was the Oberstabsfeldwebel Fischl. An adult version of herself who seemed to be fighting an aged up Xinyan. Around her, gray outcrops encircled the region. Where they met in the middle, it'd collapsed over a path which would lead out of this stone encirclement.
"Getting distracted, 'Princess'? We're in the middle of a battle, here!" Xinyan's sneer was something Fischl never wanted to see again. When it felt like a different person wearing a familiar face.
It was a different person, Fischl reminded herself as she evaded Xinyan's claymore. Their shared past held no sway here, and right now, Xinyan was gunning for her life.
"Let's light it up!" Xinyan tossed her guitar over a shoulder, then summoned and immolated herself in fire. Fischl's fear won out over her worry as Xinyan wore these flames upon her skin. She wielded her guitar like a hammer, and an interplay of red and white filled in the contours of Xinyan's scowl.
A demon, aflame.
#
6th Seat Junior Lieutenant Xinyan
The Flaming Death
#
Jean yelled in her ear, "Get the fuck out of there!"
Water.
Even when stricken by terror, Fischl knew the solution while she ran. Apparently, so did Xinyan since she stayed away from the central pond, content to hurl fireballs. Fischl slid into cover, her mind racing. The pond bisected the two shoals, and while Fischl had the entire region to herself, Xinyan had to circle the pond.
She had to bring Xinyan to water.
The execution of this makeshift plan was all thanks to this body's experiences, these stealth maneuvers drilled into the body to be used at the mind's behest. Lurk in the shadows, stay out of Xinyan's vision, and plant bombs under the outcrop she'd lure Xinyan towards.
That was the easy part.
Next was drawing Xinyan's wrath, an act Fischl could never have cajoled herself into doing were she in her native body. She strafed, sprinted, even rolled away as Xinyan lunged at Fischl with a fiery guitar smash. Fear sharpened details in every instant yet blurred the flow of time. Before Fischl knew it, she was in the pond, frozen by the sight of Xinyan preparing her fireball. But at the cost of catching her dead to rights, Xinyan had to stand on an outcrop.
Fischl's thumb shoved down the detonator.
The explosion and ensuing rockslide cast Xinyan down into the pool, and she thrashed about from having her fiery armor doused. And despite Fischl arming herself with the OSF's rifle, she could never bring herself to shoot her friend.
The Vision on Xinyan's back, though…
Intent guided experience, and Fischl's shot flew true.
Xinyan went still amidst billowing smoke, and only after the danger had passed did Fischl allow herself to catch her breath. Was this what the OSF had to deal with? She now understood the whiplash felt by the veteran, to see relationships be flipped on their head. Xinyan had glared at her with the vitriol one reserved for those whose continued existence they couldn't accept, like in war.
The thought weighed on her. How could she ever look Xinyan in the eye again, after having turned the OSF's weapon on her?
Her eye began to hurt, and again, Fischl was powerless to stop herself from being pulled out of this world. This time she welcomed it, no matter how much the rest of Fischl's mind was dragged out of this world, kicking and screaming.
Fischl froze up at the barrage of lights, and she shut her eyes in reflex. The last thing she expected was an epileptic barrage of white flashes, and it took her time to dare to crack open her eyelids. And there, she found…
A firing squad of clicking cameras. Men and women swarmed Fischl's spot on the carpet, and their questions formed an incomprehensible tapestry of noise. In their hands were strange wands, and others hefted boxes with big lenses. Fischl glanced down at herself, and again, she was an adult decked out in a fancy purple dress.
She only noticed the man beside her, having held out that same wand towards her while studying Fischl's expression.
"What?" That word tumbled out of Fischl, and for reasons she knew not why, the entire room erupted in polite laughter.
The man smirked and took her comment in stride. "As I was asking, how excited are you to inherit the role of 'Princess Fischl' on the big screen?"
Role? Was she an actress? And did she inherit it from someone else?
"I - Of course the Prinzessin delights in showing her brilliance off to the world." That was an acceptable answer, it seemed. Though a shot of unease passed through the crowd for reasons she couldn't place.
"Ah, in-character even when off-camera. All to better live up to your predecessors, yes?" The confusion must've been written on Fischl's face, since the man gestured around him. "Your predecessors? The five other actresses who played 'Fischl' before you?"
Fischl glanced at these posters. Specters of the Shattered Rainbow. Evanescence of Walpurga. Celestial Revengers.
The Prinzessin in those posters were clearly different people, but even at a glance, they embodied the Prinzessin's spirit in ways Fischl could respect. Strength, grace and beauty, with the strength to hold her head high.
Something within her finally clicked, and she reached for where her Vision would be.
It wasn't there.
"You lost your wallet?"
"W - Where's my Vision?"
"Your what? That's a prop, my dear."
Fischl froze, unable to process the fact that a world out there lacked Visions. Like how the sky was blue, so did mankind possess Visions. The Kaiserin likely never had one, Fischl never found out. Yet now, Fischl being struck in a Visionless world threw another fact into the flux. And she began to notice how this divergence marked this world as alien to Teyvat. Technology, not just advanced but also a mundane luxury. An alien fashion that evolved along differing sensibilities. Even Fischl's job in this world, to grant a performative slant to the fantastic, was as though such fantasies were not expected to exist except on the 'big screen.'
Panic arrested her limbs and quickened her breaths into a gasping fit. Her body was no longer her own, and lost itself in a spiraling reaction that sent Fischl crashing into the ground. Panic seized her, and the world slurred into a mess of colors and figures.
By that point, the pang in her eye came as a relief.
Fischl awoke, and it was the strangest thing to burn with suspicion upon recognizing her own room. Recognizing her own ceiling should be a relief, but Fischl had grown cynical enough to find the catch. There was always a -
"That was quite the night we had, hm, Amy?"
Her jaw dropped.
In her room, on the same bed Fischl laid on, was Mona. Fischl's blanket was shared between them. It almost slipped off Mona's figure while she stretched, and made it clear she wasn't wearing anything underneath. Fischl yanked her blanket off herself to take a peek. Then slammed the blanket back down over her own chest while her face burned up.
She was n-n-n-n-na-
"What's wrong?"
Fischl's gaze snapped over to Mona. "W-W-What is thy order of business in the Prinzessin's chambers?! Hath thou given thyself over to shameless lust, Megistus?!"
Mona sighed, though it held no malice. She propped her cheek on a fist. "Call me Mona when alone, remember? You invited me to your room last night, drunk. 'A consultation between a sovereign and her mage,' you said."
Mona smirked, then leaned in with puckered lips. Fischl was too frozen to oppose the peck on her cheek. The kind not even close friends would give each other.
Fischl's heart pounded, faster than the rapid-fire of the OSF's firearm. Her face had gotten so hot, Fischl thought she'd spontaneously combust. Death, teleportation, anything to get her out of here, for it tortured her with discomforting revelations about herself unlike any of the other scenarios.
Though, as her eye began to hurt again, Fischl was struck by a chord of regret over discarding this timeline out of hand. The thought of a life with Mona stuck with Fischl while fractals of light overwhelmed her.
Fischl awoke, and suspicion kicked in again when her dress crinkled in a way unlike anything she'd worn before. It was plastic to the touch, and what made it worse was the accompanying sterile room straight out of a hospital. That explained the medical gown. Fischl got off her bed, a stiff and unpleasant thing to lie on despite being well-made, and headed for the door.
It was locked. Fischl blinked. Why was she locked in, Fischl thought while she jiggled the handle. Why -
"Amy! I brought you some leftovers today."
Fischl's heart leapt at the voice. "Barbara! What - um, what is the Prinzessin's state of affairs, to be admitted into this sanctuary of medical intervention and, um, care?" Her mind was no longer functioning, and urgency undercut attempts at eloquence.
"Oh, may the Anemo Archon bless your journey of healing. May he aid in your conquest over these delusions, which you never asked for, and help you live above them."
Fischl's heart stopped.
"You," she swallowed, "you think I'm insane?"
"I, um," Barbara's silence was her answer, "the other patients need me!" She heard more than saw Barbara's cringe at how weak her excuse sounded. Her footsteps pittered down the corridor and left Fischl alone.
They thought she was insane.
It hurt Fischl in a way she'd never known. It was familiar, having been bullied by others over the veracity of her destiny. But this drove the knife in deeper: 'delusion' implied she'd divorced herself from reality, a fate Fischl hadn't yet seen.
Was this her fate, were she to fully abandon being 'Amy' and fully embody 'Fischl'?
Again, panic struck Fischl like a strike of lightning. Her heart pounded in her ears while a hyperventilating fit stole the air from her lungs. Reality began to blur and the walls closed in, since this reality became oppressive in its existence. It trapped her not just physically, but with its hostility towards everything 'Fischl' as something to be cured.
"Get me out," she heaved in something akin to a beg. "GET ME OUT OF HERE!"
Lifetimes played out all around Fischl, and formed something akin to compound eyes; seeing all these doppelgangers' lives cast her further from her own timeline.
"Please! Stop!" She pleaded, to no avail. And it didn't happen all at once, but with every alternate life she glimpsed, something within her frayed. The cost of opening her mind was the erosion of everything Fischl knew about her own timeline. About herself.
With erosion came a breaking point. A promise of true madness Fischl fought to stave off, for to cross such a point was to truly lose herself.
But the multiverse's infinitude pressed upon her straining mind. The multiverse was, and Fischl's mortal mind was too feeble to comprehend its vastness. Eventually, she knew, it would break Fischl and leave her…
Broken. Empty. Alone.
Fischl began to scream.
Something was wrong with Fischl, Aether knew.
It wasn't something Aether could explain to anyone, not even himself. But he'd been shooting the Prinzessin glances every time the oddities in her behavior caught his eye. Should he cut Fischl some slack? She'd been through a lot, and that was enough to shift someone's behavior, for better or worse.
He glanced over at Mona. Neither of them had proof, but Aether saw his suspicions reflected in Megistus. But Fischl had been pushed enough that Aether had caught her 'Fischl' personality slipping, even before the Kaiserin battle. It was just how a familiar face was worn by what felt like a stranger that jarred Aether so.
Right now, their trip home had encountered yet another obstacle.
Hilichurls.
"The Prinzessin shall remove all obstacles, for it is folly to stand between a returning regiment and their hallowed land of genesis." She summoned Oz while Aether joined in with his summoned sword.
Paimon contributed her commentary, "Urgh! These Hilichurls aren't getting in the way of Paimon and her Moon Pie! We're going straight through them, Traveler!"
It was here where Aether's suspicions grew. More than Fischl's altered firing stance was the sheer efficiency with which she dispatched their foes. Her arrows struck the Hilichurls in their masks.
Secondly, the simplifying logic in battle called forth something genuine within them. Right now, Fischl simply stared through the target in her sights. As though she didn't even register the Hilichurls' existence, something most did when fighting what were sentient creatures. Fischl just bulled through them all with a ferocity Aether knew was unlike her, trauma or no trauma.
Even Paimon chimed in, "Uh, you're going at them a little harder than usual. Are you trying to blow off some steam, Fischl?" Even in battle, it struck Aether that Fischl was acting so uncharacteristically that freaking Paimon had picked up on it.
That wasn't even the end of it, even after the battle died down.
"The Prinzessin," Oz stuttered, "is great." All eyes snapped to the familiar.
Paimon echoed everyone's sentiments with, "Huh?"
Oz lowered his head. "The advent of her Immernachtreich," he paused as though parsing his own words, "is now. And hers is the magnificence that shalt eclipse - "
"That's enough, Ozvaldo." Fischl cut him off and dismissed him.
Paimon asked, "Uh, Fischl? Are you feeling alright?" By now, the entire team was aware of the commotion, and Fischl stood apart from everyone else. Aether wasn't going to force her to say anything, but as a friend, even if all this was just her acting up, he still cared for her to give her the attention she needed.
Attention now diverted as a pained grunt cut through the air. Aether turned to find Eula on one knee, and the cry was one of pain reaching intolerable levels. Eula likely wanted to bottle up all this pain, and Aether winced at the thought.
Paimon joined the healers around the Knight. "Eula! You shouldn't be moving around so recklessly after eating all that lightning!"
Eula groaned, "A trifling price to pay for exacting my vengeance upon the Kaiserin."
Aether risked a glance at Fischl.
She didn't even blink. Aether shivered at the sight. At how this 'Fischl' stared at Eula with the icy glare of one who well and truly couldn't care less. Aether turned to Mona and was greeted by her mask of shock. To be traumatized was one thing, but such callousness was surreal. Even if it was a disguised doppelganger, wasn't the point of a disguise to blend in?
Who was this stranger wearing Fischl's face?
Paimon threw Fischl a bone. "Uh, Fischl, you're rather quiet over there. You doing alright?"
Fischl' snapped back to reality, and gestured with the flair people would expect from her. "Oh, the Prinzessin hath exerted her mind's eye to glimpse the myriad ways we may alleviate our subject's excruciation. Mayhaps dishes to restore thy constitution?"
Aether tired of this farce, and he stepped up.
"Fischl…" he stuttered, " … can we stop pretending?"
"Whatever does thou intend, Traveler?" Fischl turned back to meet his gaze, and in her eye was some strange mix of wariness and calculation. He didn't relent.
"Oz's been behaving weirdly. You've been violent in fending off hilichurls, and worst of all, you didn't even react to Eula's pain. Fischl would never have been so callous."
Mona cut in, "Do you take us for fools?! Who're you, and what have you done with Fischl?!" Her venom gave Aether pause. This was the angriest he'd seen her, a given since anything could've happened to their Fischl.
He jumped at the bark of a gunshot.
All eyes snapped to the OSF's smoking pistol.
She fired again. And again.
"Stop!" Mona cried, and Aether winced at the flip of Mona's rage into concern. That was still 'Fischl' getting shot, and Aether raised his sword towards the OSF.
Aether gawked at 'Fischl' shattering apart. There was no mirror, but cracks in the air webbed from the bullet holes and tore the visage of 'Fischl' apart.
An illusion?
"How'd you find out?" 'Fischl' asked the OSF.
OSF revealed a black box in her hand. "This is a radio. Two-way, long-range communication device that lets me talk - "
"To me," the Raikou Shogun said. Aether blinked, since she'd emerged from behind a tree like an actor in a play instead of the Archon she was. "I heard you, imposter, a voice from beyond observing our tribulations. I got in touch with the veteran. A lure with the original, we decided, would be prepared in the blind spots of your immanent gaze."
Paimon connected the dots. "You mean our Fischl was a bait on the hook? If you knew this imposter was coming, couldn't you have stopped her?"
Aether asked Raikou, "Was that why you showed up at the battle with the Fatui?"
She nodded.
Once the disguise before them shattered, Aether gazed upon 'Fischl' in all her glory. She was what their Fischl would look like as an adult: blonde mane, regal dress, the authority of one who'd steeled herself with purpose. Such purpose came with a price, since her dull glare cast 'Fischl' in a harsh, almost unhinged light.
Oz was summoned. "Mein Fräulein, it seems there are specks that stand in your way. Shall I remove them?" It clicked in Aether's mind at what he was looking at. Though Oz was Fischl's familiar, he was her minder and voice of reason. It felt wrong to see Oz's head lowered and him turned into a yes-man.
"No need," and 'Fischl' turned to regard them. "Do you wish to know why I did this?"
It jarred Aether to hear 'Fischl' speak normally. But he nodded, since this one seemed to be the mastermind who was now offering an explanation.
"I died."
Those words came as a slap to the face, and Aether's gut coiled at the thought. But before he could react, the world itself warped around the gang. Though he raised his sword, he could only watch reality shift in ways perilous to the mortal mind. Strands of lifetimes flew past Aether in streams of light. These fractals weaved and formed a shape beyond all shape, a sight the eye saw but the mind rejected.
"On the cusp, I began to see a tree. Branching time, an assumption of continuity that shatters in the face of the infinitude. Before I knew it, I was back in my bedroom. As though that black spot in my life had never been." The world settled into a recreation of Fischl's bedroom. Aether shook his head to ward off the mother of all headaches, the specifics of what he'd seen already being forgotten like a nightmare.
"I soon found out this Teyvat differed from mine. Each little change was bearable, but it altogether formed a discordant undertone. Having to second-guess relationships, every memory cast into doubt in a world so alike yet so different. And my sin, I could not forget." Fischl lowered her gaze, her scowl soured by genuine guilt.
The world warped again. "During the Apokalypse, on that island on the boundary of dreams and reality, I faced my Shadow." Here, most of the gang's faces were painted by confusion but got the gist.
"And I killed her."
Aether, Paimon and Mona shared a worried glance.
Madness darkened Fischl's scowl. "I couldn't stand being 'Amy' anymore. All these relationships were thrown into flux in other worlds, all I could rely on was 'Fischl.' An unchanging, eternal constant. Along with that Shadow I killed 'Amy,' and I became 'Fischl.' Unfortunately, I had to leave you behind then: Mona, Traveler, Paimon. But I'm back now, aren't I?"
She smiled, and to Aether it was the most terrible sight.
It was the smile of a woman who devoted herself to something beyond the pale, for she'd taken the plunge to blacken her soul. All in a gamble to embody the darkness that was the Prinzessin der Verurteilung.
The Princess of Condemnation, even if she had to condemn her soul.
"Upon my Shadow's death, I gained the ability to traverse the multiverse. I tried to find a world where 'Flowers for Princess Fischl' was real. Millions, billions of timelines, and so much more. I couldn't find it. Wherever I looked, 'Princess Fischl' was but a fiction. Were I still human, I would've accepted this. But all this power to traverse worlds incomprehensible to us, yet all I could settle for was fiction?
"I can't take it anymore." Aether recoiled from the madness that poisoned her glare. "I will be the Prinzessin, at any cost. The Immernachtreich is a tomb for those who cannot face reality. But if I can't find the reality I desire, I'll create my own."
There 'Fischl' stood, wholly devoted to her purpose. Flesh was not enough to hold in this terrific essence, for 'Fischl' exuded an aura which bent reality to her will.
Her reality.
Paimon hid behind Aether. "She's… she's a total psycho! A Psycho Fischl!"
But as though something within Psycho Fischl flipped, all the madness was purged from her visage. Aether would've missed the instant had he blinked, and found his sword raised towards Psycho Fischl. Not at the angelic smile she wore, but at the darkness behind it.
"Yes, summoning doppelgangers to this world was part of my plan. By replacing this world's Fischl after her victory in Sumeru, I'll banish the doppelgangers that threaten my vision, then ride this momentum and build my Immernachtreich in Teyvat.
"But the Prinzessin needs subjects to aid my vision. In exchange for pledging your allegiance to me, I can find you timelines where your desires are fulfilled. Traveler. I can unite you with Lumine in your shoes. Oberstabsfeldwebel, imagine a Mondstadt who won the War? Mona, never running short of Mora and having your divinations be appreciated by me instead of ungrateful plebeians?
"Paimon, even you can have all the food and Mora in the world. All you have to do is pledge yourselves to me," and the sincerity in her voice struck Aether most.
She really would reunite him with Lumine?
Aether's heart danced at the thought, but the thought of Fischl nagged him. Psycho Fischl had replaced their Fischl, and buying their loyalty was part of the plan. Would Lumine forgive him if he accepted this deal, this false happiness?
No, Aether knew. It wasn't really about Lumine not forgiving him.
He'd never forgive himself.
Aether glanced around, and his spirit was bolstered by the shine in everyone's eyes. He turned back to Psycho Fischl, and they answered as one.
"NO!"
Their unanimous refusal sent Psycho Fischl reeling. It almost hurt to see how she'd expected them to accept, and her pained disappointment almost hurt Aether. How on some level, this 'Fischl' genuinely wanted to build her future with them by her side.
This really was Fischl, just one who'd taken the darkest path of them all.
Paimon chimed, "Hm, Paimon loves the thought of a world with nothing but food and Mora. But food tastes best when you share it with others, right? But, urgh, owning all that Mora really is tempting…" Aether saw Paimon's hesitation, since this deal was too morally bankrupt for her to accept, so she had to argue herself out of accepting it.
Aether turned to her. "You know that's going to devalue Mora if you own it all, right?"
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"People would find something else to use as currency…" he stuttered, " … you'd be sitting on a mountain of worthless coins."
Paimon gasped, "No way! It's one thing to not have enough Mora, but too much of it is also bad?! Traveler, we need to take down that Psycho for trying to trick Paimon!" Her horror transmuted into rage, and though it didn't contribute much, seeing the last of them get behind their cause affirmed Aether's rejection.
But reality began to shift all around them. Scenes of forests and fields warped into mockeries of themselves in order to entrap the gang. Psycho Fischl stood at the center of this phenomenon, self-absorbed in her own depressive spiral.
"I," she muttered, "all I wanted was to rule. with you all by my side. Even if you reject me, I forgive you. But I can't have you interfering. Please, stay here." Reality writhed around Psycho Fischl. Aether saw her face: magnanimity tried to push past betrayal, colored by a dash of disappointment. But the madness of conviction overpowered all other emotions and moved Psycho Fischl to entrap them.
"Are you finished?"
Aether's gaze snapped to the Raikou Shogun, who stepped up. "You are not the only one who can paint your will upon the fabric of reality." She removed her eyepatch, while her other hand lifted before her.
"Shinzui Bodaishō: Kanryō Jōdo."
(心髄 菩提咲 : 觀領 淨土, ' Enlightened Bloom: Envisaged Pure Land')
She crossed her fingers.
A crash of reality, like water, surged forth and overpowered Psycho Fischl's reality. Twin impossibilities warred with each other with Aether and gang caught in its midst. Aether could only stew in this fear he hadn't felt since he fought the Raiden Shogun: his numb admission of powerlessness in the face of godlike technique.
Reality was but a canvas, and with every blink of Aether's eyes it changed.
A beaked mountain and shining summit, around which an assembly of monks chanted.
An unfurling lotus flower, who rpse and bloomed above mud like a star amidst the night sky.
An endless valley, its slopes formed by an assembly of giant statues in close-eyed meditation.
These, Aether guessed, were not what he really saw, but what his mind conjured in failing to interpret Raikou's technique. Walls upon walls rushed past Aether and gang, each wall crafted out of gems or gold, and around them, sacred trees sprouted in accelerated growth. A variegation of lotuses filled this Pure World, immaculate and free from sin, calamity and death.
Before them, Psycho Fischl struggled against a flood of existence that muscled out her own. No words could describe it, but her 'reality' began to shrink and press in around her, like a bubble growing too small for her, and Psycho Fischl's hand seemed forced.
She folded in on herself, some kind of dimensional trick to slip through the crack of reality and vanish before their eyes.
Raikou's world dematerialized, having muscled out Psycho Fischl, and only when Aether was back in Teyvat did he dare to breathe again.
Paimon clutched her head, "Yeesh, can people stop teleporting us to places without our consent?! Paimon's having the mother of all headaches here trying to understand what we saw, and what that nice-looking place was…"
"I see," a voice boomed around them, "Summoning the Raikou Shogun here was my greatest mistake. Still, even if you all should reject me, I still have my cards to play. I'll see you at Liyue Harbor, the party's about to start everywhere."
Aether and the gang tensed up. But Psycho Fischl's disembodied voice was projected from from everywhere, likely due to her reality-warping powers.
Mona stepped up, "You're still trying to build the Immernachtreich, aren't you? You could leave whenever you wish, but if you're as prepared as you claim, it stands to reason you've another card up your sleeve?"
"That's right, my dear Mona ~ " Psycho Fischl hung onto that sentence as though she liked the taste of that name in her mouth.
Silence fell, and Aether knew Psycho Fischl was gone.
Mona turned to them, "We can't possibly leave Fischl behind." Her urgency was unlike her, but Aether reasoned there'd never been a scenario where Fischl had been spirited away by an insane doppelganger. Mona had every right.
The OSF glanced at the Raikou Shogun, who nodded. She held her hand out towards thin air, and the air crackled in answer. These sparks flowed in a stream from beyond, and tore open a portal.
"While I fought with the Harbingers, I implanted a spell in Fischl's Vision. Activating it now, I can anchor her to this dimension and retrieve her." Once the portal grew big enough, Aether reached in without thinking, joined by Mona and Paimon. Everyone else grabbed him from behind. Together, they pulled out Fischl.
The last thing Aether expected was his eardrums being pierced by a maniac wail, and he ate a fist for his troubles. Did they pull out the wrong Fischl? But spotted her Vision which sparked and reacted to the Raikou Shogun's presence, akin to a leash.
Paimon called out, "Fischl! It's us, Paimon and friends! We're not going to hurt you!"
Aether fought Fischl's thrashes and kicks, but what hurt most was her wail. A cry from the bottom of one's lungs, having utterly lost oneself to despair that almost infected those unfortunate enough to hear it.
Seeing the OSF throw her palm across Fischl's cheek stopped Aether dead. His shock morphed into rage at the veteran for slapping Fischl. Too bad the OSF was immune to the gang's glares as she wrestled Fischl away from them.
"Get a hold of yourself, soldier. You're back to reality and we need you now."
Fischl's gaze focused, though it was a precarious grasp on reality. It hurt Aether to see how she was a trembling and fragile thing in the OSF's arms. Even the veteran picked up on it and relaxed her grip.
Fischl mumbled, "Am I… is this…?" Her gaze shifted to the Raikou Shogun. "Uh…" Aether saw doubt take hold in Fischl's mind.
The OSF snapped her fingers before Fischl. "It's complicated, but she's on our side. You're back. Remember our talk? About the Endbringer, and how I didn't want you to be a 'legend' like me." Aether had no idea what the OSF was on about, but he saw doubt evaporate from Fischl's eye. Whatever it was, it was working, and that was almost enough to overwrite the act of slapping Fischl.
Almost.
Mona knelt down by Fischl's side. "You're back, and that's what matters. But that doppelganger of yours, she's," Mona came up short on words to describe all that. "She's a menace, and you might still be reeling, but she's about to - "
Aether whipped around at the sound of an explosion, Venti having heard it before anyone else. Aether turned back saw Fischl clinging to Mona like a security blanket. Terror colored Fischl's face, and while Aether wanted to reassure her…
Had Fischl been so touchy-feely with Mona?
The OSF stepped up, "We'll fill you in en route. Can you stand?"
Fischl failed to shove herself off the ground. "I can… I… I will. Just…" Aether offered her hand, and Fischl accepted. All while Mona propped Fischl up and staggered along with her.
"It's fine to lean on your Megistus every once in a while."
Paimon floated in front of them, her childish fists raised in a fighting pose. "Yeah! We'll kick Psycho Fischl's butt before she scams anyone else! She's got something going on in Liyue, but she said it's going to happen everywhere too?"
Aether shrugged. "We'll find out when we get there."
Aether gave Fischl a piggyback ride so they could conserve her strength while Paimon explained everything to her. Liyue Harbor's buildings crested over the horizon, and he picked up the slack. If Psycho Fischl was responsible, he thought it best to conserve Fischl's strength. He took the lead, since nobody knew Liyue Harbor like he did.
It was a mess. Citizens ran about, gripped by terror, and he shoved through them to find the source of such panic.
Paimon cried, "Get away from Yun Jin, you psycho!" Yun Jin fought off a stranger in vain, for the intruder's strikes sought to draw blood.
Aether set Fischl down, summoned his sword and swung. His blade crashed against a purple construct. It formed a soldier with his bladed rifle, who shoved Aether aside.
Paimon exclaimed, "Huh? Keqing?"
Aether blinked. Indeed, it was 'Keqing' as the aggressor. This Keqing wore a dull gray suit and sported an unassuming haircut, the kind that blended into a crowd. All this contrasted the inhuman drive behind her scowl: not just a violent sneer at Liyue's existence as it was, but the shine in her eyes that saw how things should be.
'Keqing' brandished her sword at Yun Jin, "More un-revolutionaries. The ledgers shall run red from all the purges that must be done in this world." She glared around her. "That dead hand of history shall be severed by the blade if need be!" The heat in her glare was enough to incinerate half the Harbor from vitriol alone.
What happened in that universe that turned 'Keqing' so venomous?
"Traveler!" His gaze snapped to Keqing, who bore the bruises of battle. "You're here, let's finish this quickly." Her figure crackled, "With sword comes shadow!"
"Destroy the old world; Forge the new world!" Psycho Keqing's constructs crowded out Keqing's teleporting slice. They tackled a landing Keqing and sent her crashing to the ground. Aether threw out a Windblade at the constructs in vain, for they formed an impassable wall.
Psycho Keqing sneered, "See? All your old ways, and you can't stop progress' march! Don't think because you share my face, that I won't denounce you before a crowd clamoring for your head." Was this really who Keqing could've been? Her enthusiasm in being exclusive and discriminating demanded the same fervor from everyone else, all to better step on those who did not share in such spirits.
That included this world's Keqing, who'd picked herself off the floor.
Before Aether could cut in, something - someone crashed through a wall between them. Blinking away dust, Aether recognized Xiao on the floor. A hunched figure emerged from the collapsed wall, Psycho Xiao.
The adeptus had been through a lot, but Aether never knew Xiao could become… this.
Smoke plumed from the black of his tattered outfit and wild mane. Psycho Xiao's tattoos had formed a growth across his snarl, his extremities having been reduced into claws. It was the totality of Psycho Xiao's depravity that struck Aether most, rooted in a surrender to that specter that hung over Xiao.
Psycho Xiao had succumbed, and that made him feral. Unhinged. Murderous.
Paimon called out, "Xiao! That's the crazy version of you from another world, he's here to kill you!"
"Noted. Lament!" and Xiao summoned his mask. Aether failed to cut in again since Xiao wrestled the feral adeptus, a tightrope act Aether assisted by guiding civilians away.
Somewhere along the way, he'd lost the gang. Despite his body threatening to freeze up at how exposed he was, alone, this granted Aether the freedom to chase down a stone meteor he knew to be Zhongli's.
Paimon called out to the ex-Archon, "Zhongli! That's another world's you up there, and… Wow, is he wearing gold? Paimon loves gold, but wearing all that seems gaudy." Paimon was right, Psycho Zhongli's flowing gold robes may seem regal, but stuck out too much to be in good taste. He sat on a floating throne of gold, cheek propped up with a fist so 'Zhongli' could cast his apathetic gaze down at the chaos.
Psycho Zhongli's dark glare rested on Zhongli. "Yet another sin committed, imposter. You imitate not only this lonesome one's likeness, but also his Elemental Burst? The punishment: ten thousand deaths," and he cast his finger down at them. "So sayeth Emperor Zhongli."
Aether gawked at the summoned mountain. It blotted out the sky and cast a shadow upon Liyue. All of Liyue ground to a halt, and their gazes rose towards the umbra. The mountain's tip plunged towards the ground.
Towards them.
Aether's own panic was punctuated by Paimon's shriel, but hands curled around him, and the world blurred. Zhongli had yanked them away, and Aether caught a sound of thunder. Zhongli had summoned a forest of stone pillars to catch the falling mountain caused. For every shattered pillar, more pillars buffeted it from behind, so even dregs and rubble could grind together and slow the mountain.
A chthonic groan rumbled from the crash of earth on earth. Only when the mountain had truly stopped did the battle dare to resume. He glanced at Zhongli, who'd lowered head in the rarest show of shame.
"It seems in another world, I forgot myself and thought myself an Emperor to-be. Was this perhaps due to Erosion?"
Psycho Zhongli's throne floated down. "Foolishness. I am an Emperor, and you did well enough to stop the first mountain." His eyes began to glow, "Now, how will you deal with a second one, imposter?"
A second mountain parted the clouds as it fell.
Aether was shoved away, and he could only drag Paimon with him before pillars shot up all around Zhongli. The ex-Archon's intentions were clear: Aether wouldn't survive in a clash of Archons, and all he could do was watch as -
"Like the show?" Aether didn't even think as he swung at Psycho Fischl's voice. The power Psycho Fischl possessed tricked Aether with how far away she was, since his sword cleaved only air.
Psycho Fischl stood at a safe distance, having projected her voice into his ear.
Paimon cried, "Fisch - I mean, Psycho Fischl! What's going on here?"
Psycho Fischl tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, unfazed. "Traversing the multiverse meant I saw many versions of everyone. All across Teyvat, Vision wielders are fighting the strongest, meanest, deadliest versions of themselves. They will fall, clearing the way for me to build a new Immernachtreich atop the rubble."
"But, Paimon doesn't understand! If you beat us, these doppelgangers from other worlds will still be around! How're you going to beat them all?"
"Did you forget? I can send them back to their worlds at will. I can't do the same for the Raikou Shogun, since she's a master of dimensional manipulation, but I'll deal with her once she's weakened by her Psycho self, and there are no more Vision wielders left in this world."
Aether cut in, "Fischl. If there's any good left in you…" he stuttered, " … please, stop this madness."
Paimon asked, "You'd screw over so many people to build your empire? That's not very Prinzessin of you!"
"I must," Psycho Fischl muttered almost to herself, "I must. All so I may transcend my own weakness, and become the Prinzessin der Verurteilung!" She caught herself before she spiraled down another rabbit hole of self-absorption, and raised her hand towards Aether. "Of course, I've prepared your doppelgangers too, Traveler, Paimon. Wouldn't want you two to feel left out of history in the making."
A portal formed, and Aether braced himself for whoever would emerge. So it came as a slap to Sether's face when he gazed upon his exact doppelganger, sans Paimon.
Aether's doppelganger glared at him. "You. You met Lumine, who allied herself with the Abyss Order, right?" He nodded, and his doppelganger shrugged. "That makes things easy. Kill you, and reunite with the Lumine of this world."
His other self had allied with the Abyss Order?!
On some level, he'd expected it. He could've been taken instead of Lumine and ended up in her position. Now, such wayward thoughts were fulfilled in the form of Psycho Aether, who summoned his sword to hand.
Aether met his doppelganger's charge. Their swords clashed on the edge of hearing, and he had to give his all into shoving his doppelganger back.
Psycho Aether asked, "You need to visit the statues to change your Element, right? Too bad for you," he leaned in, "I don't have such weaknesses." Aether eat Psycho Aether's fistful of fire. Hitting the ground, Aether barely got off a Windblade whilst scrambling to his feet.
Psycho Aether cycled through all the Elements as they swirled around him.
Psycho Aether sneered. "Did Lumine tell you to visit all seven nations, like I did to my Lumine? I still hold to that, but I admit to getting a bit impatient. So before I unite with this world's Lumine, I'm going to take my frustrations out on you."