Smaller chapter than usual.
This chapter... Fought me every step of the way, so apologize for that.
Might be a little rougher than I would have liked.
More than likely, I will turn and work on Infinite next.
Been on the mind recently...
Spoilers inbound.
Enjoy!
Gently lowering a single body into the dirt, a lone man tirelessly filled the pit. Several others had been dug and filled. But he would not rest. Not until they were all put to rest…
For now, after five hundred years, they could finally be given that peace.
He smiled at that.
"After all these years, the curse is finally coming to an end… It's hard to fathom, but I think I know why."
With one last shovel, the previous grave was filled as he swept the sweat from his brow. Gazing upon the sky above, he scowled as he looked at a particular place in the sky and shook his head. "I will never forgive them, but it does not matter…For if I am correct…"
"A new Descender has taken the throne."
"Shenhe?"
"Yes?"
Why did she have to be so…
Clueless?
Socially awkward?
Emotionally dulled…
Violent…
It made this so challenging to confront. She wanted to be tactful. But with her…
It was not an option. Blunt it was.
Her eyes stared deeply into Shenhe's inquisitive gaze, puzzled by this conversation. She knew she had upset Lumine but was not sure why. "If I had done something to offend you, I apologize…"
"Do you have feelings for my brother?"
Shenhe's gaze shifted ever so slightly. Her head lowered, breaking away from their locked gaze while reaching over and caressing her other bicep, rubbing it softly.
Lumine frowned. She expected a response, but to see her react in such a manner. And to think about it…
"Shenhe, I…"
"I don't know." Her gaze lifted and returned to meet Lumine's, looking stoic and impassive. "I barely feel anything, but I do feel something. What it is, I do not understand. I do not understand most emotions, so I do not understand how to deal with them, but I do feel some strange sensation… Toward your brother."
Softening her expression, glancing at the red ropes tied around her body, Lumine repressed a growl. She understood they were a limiter to contain her malicious intent but to have caused so much emotional dampening that she didn't even know her feelings…
Deep exhaling, Lumine shared a smile and tilted her head. There was only one way to get to the bottom of this and help her companion out…
Even if it meant helping to set her brother up.
"I could help you." Lumine's smile brightened as Shenhe shared a curious expression. "I might be able to help you solve what you feel if you shared a little with me about it. But under a few conditions…"
"What are the conditions?" Shenhe responded, still curious, and frowned at Lumine's chirp.
"We'll get to those later, for now…" Lumine grinned, wanting to hear exactly what it was Shenhe felt.
If she indeed had feelings for her brother, this situation would be gold for her! Her plan was swiftly falling into motion!
Vengeance would be unstoppable!
"I fear I must decline." Lumine's world shattered upon those words.
"What, why?" Lumine all but shouted, incensed at the crane as she crossed her arms over her chest.
"I sense malicious intent, and I do not wish to cause him harm." Shenhe turned away, sitting in the lotus position, preparing to meditate and focus on her training again.
Letting her temper subside after a moment, letting her gaze wander to Shenhe as she practiced. Lumine let out a soft chuckle. "So that's why you came with us… You wanted to protect him… What the… What is this?!"
Suddenly, without warning, her hands began to glow a soft, luminescent green she had never seen before. She felt a warm sensation within her like the many times she had come into contact with Statues of Seven before…
"It can't be…" Lumine's eyes widened, recognizing what had occurred as Shenhe had leapt to her feet and summoned Calamity Queller in her hands.
But she lowered her weapon as the plants around them grew exceptionally due to the pulse of Lumine's aura. And then, without a second hesitation, her free hand reached out toward her and snatched something off her back.
A golden leaf.
"What? When did that…"
"So that is what she did…" Shenhe muttered, gazing at the object in her hand with a frown. "I knew I should have followed and tracked her down, but that woman already seemed to be on the case…"
"Shenhe! Explain!" Lumine scowled hearing what Shenhe said, recognizing they had been planted with something and their companion hadn't said anything about it.
And now she was sprinting off back to the hotel! "Shenhe! Wait… Oh no!"
Her eyes widened. And she, too, followed after her.
"Aether!"
"What is this… What are you doing? No! This can't be!"
"You just figured out what I've done? Heh, it's too late now! I've been in these situations before! I know exactly how to deal with the likes of you!"
"Stop! You don't know what you are doing! This world is…"
"Fine without you! Look at all of this! You've caused too much pain and suffering throughout it, and I'm gonna make sure you don't interfere with it again! This ends here and now!"
"No! Stop! You fool! You think I wished to be the sustainer! This role was my curse! But now… It is yours to bear!"
"Hold on, what… Oh, son of a…!"
Her world had been shattered.
After all these years, her greatest wish had come true.
He had returned to her. But just like the story she wrote, he was not left without scars from the battle, which is why he didn't return after the event or as soon as he could.
Yae gazed upon the novel she had written, lying briskly on the table before him.
How eerie she wrote something similar to what had happened to him. It was almost unnerving how she mirrored the events, and she almost felt he, in turn, played with her to an extent.
Making his return so similar to what she had written.
Hidden in the shadows since he made his return…
Helping an entire country and their Goddess in need before making his grand entrance…
Well, he hadn't technically revealed himself. Only making moves to make his presence known while he…
Miko scowled as the sound of a whistling kettle echoed. Naruto gently removed it from the fixture and made three cups of tea. As he prepared them, her eyes glimmered at the thought ruminating and lingering on her mind.
"You're already enacting a plan, aren't you?" Her scowl deepened watching the tea be set on the table before her, the flavorful aroma wafting, attempting to dull her senses. "You didn't return here to come home… You left a trail for me to find, so I would search you out because you need my assistance."
"I did want to see everyone again, ya know?" Naruto's expression faltered, and his head and shoulders slumped, sitting back before Miko while weakly stirring the tea in his cup. "I can't say you are wrong…"
Her eyes blistered, and he recoiled at the vicious glare. A deep sigh left his lips after a moment of silence, and he looked upon her flickering eyes. The hurt within deeply pained him.
Yet…
"Sometimes there are things more important than what we desire and want." Naruto tempered his emotions and steadily kept his eyes locked with Miko's. "I made that sacrifice all those years ago because it is what I had to do to make a difference. To start the healing for this world after all the damages that the Principles had inflicted."
Miko blanched and gazed down and away. His words rang true. It was something Saguu also mentored her for many years, and many times, she had to put aside her wants and needs for what needed to be done.
All for Inazuma. In this case, however, the cost was far more significant.
What Naruto had to give up and for as long as he had. To return only to return home now…
"Now that I'm back," His words drew her back, and the swell of his endless blues enraptured her sight once more. "I see things still need to be taken care of due to the mess left in her wake. No, it's wake. …It just happens I came home as that mess led me home…"
"I need you, Miko." Yae's eyes glimmered upon hearing those words before fading, seeing him look upon his own hands. "I need every bit of help I can get. After what took place in Sumeru, I've come to learn…"
"I can never relax. For if I do, the rule of the Heavenly Principles will be released upon this world once more."
"You are telling me…"
"Yes, you and your sister are the fourth and fifth Descenders upon Teyvat. And that your opposition is attempting to wash this world clean of the wrongs of both the first and second Descenders. What they did here in Sumeru… To go to such extreme lengths… I fear they are doing the same in Inazuma and across Teyvat, and I cannot sit idly by. I must act if I wish to preserve and protect my people."
"Wrongs of the first and second… What? Wait? You can't mean…"
"It is the unfortunate truth of what they are trying to accomplish. I've seen firsthand what they are causing, and I know you have seen just how far they are willing to go. The Teyvat you are coming to know through your journeys is in peril, not just from them. They and the remnants of the Khaenrei'ah are foolishly awakening something they cannot prepare for."
"...You're right. I have seen how remarkably far they are willing to go. If others are like him and her, I fear what they can do. But what does the Abyss Order have to do with this as well? Are they working together?"
"Not intentionally. Their goals are independent, but they will result in the same outcome… Are you aware of what a Gnosis is?"
"What? No. We asked but were never explained outside a few details. We know it functions like a Vision to some extent for the Archons…"
"You're not wrong, but it is far more than that… I've only learned this recently, but a Vision is only a fragment of the energy of a Gnosis. A Gnosis is so far greater, but before I tell you that, I need you to promise me something."
"What?"
"I need you and your sister's help. Teyvat is in such peril that we can't do this alone and need all the assistance we can muster to protect it. They are aware that the Third Descender still did not perish and that just as before with the Primordial One and the Second Who Came, they weren't purged from this world in the incident in Khaenre'iah…"
"There is a new sustainer to the Heavenly Principles."
"That's what they're trying to accomplish?" Lumine fumed, her eyes glistening with fury, attempting to contain the fury building now that she knew what their actions were
"That is what Lesser Lord Kusanali informed me of, yes." Aether bit his lip, looking away and clenching his fist as the memories of losing the Anemo and Geo Gnoses to her left a bitter taste in his mouth.
A bitter grumble from Lumine echoed the sentiment, his sister plopping on the other bed in their room while placing her temples in the palms of her hands. "Ugh! What was Zhongli thinking? Why would he have made a contract with them if he knew that was the price being paid?"
"He did say there was nothing of equal value to a Gnosis, so I have to wonder. What was it that he gained in the contract he made for giving it up…" Aether scowled, pondering the former Geo Archon's deal with the Fatui and La Signora. "What Lesser Lord Kusanali told me did, however, makes sense. If he had made a contract with them… How could they fleece him? The God of Contracts?"
Turning her gaze back to her brother, it took a moment for Lumine to absorb and ponder this thought. She had always wondered what offer could be worth it for a Gnosis. The source of their full power. He was powerful without it, but there were certain things he could no longer do, and he admitted that.
When they came before Azhdaha with him, they knew he was no longer considered the Geo Archon. That he no longer possessed the power capable of retaining that title…
That he retired and wanted to live peacefully amongst his people.
Her eyes snapped open. "Do you think that the deal he made, while to us it wouldn't make sense… But to him, it was an equal trade? That he obtained exactly what he desired from it?"
"I came to that conclusion, yes." Aether agreed, biting back his lip, a sliver of worry crossing his expression. "But that worries me further now that I know what a Gnosis truly is… And it horrifies me after our encounter with Osial and Beisht."
Lumine's attention was immediately drawn.
Of everything Aether explained about his meeting with the Dendro Archon in his sleep, she couldn't help but worry.
There was still more? What else did he learn? She recalled Venti was reluctant to talk about what the Gnosis was, only calling Visions primitive compared to them. As if they were inferior…
"Lumine, what if I were to tell you," Her brother's voice quivered, catching her by surprise as she stared into his eyes. "That the Archon's power… The power that was drawn from the Gnosis… Is only a fragment of the power of the seven beings that they originated from. Seven beings ruled this world far before Teyvat was ever in existence when a being called the Primordial One first came and took this world from them."
Nearly falling off the bed, Lumine choked on her spit. Even Shenhe, who had silently stood in the corner listening and observing the conversation, tensed, and her muscles became rigid.
The Archons' power was… Borrowed?
However, his next word shook them.
"Whatsmore is that we have faced only shells of the former sovereigns that reigned over this world. Dvalin and Azhdaha were indeed two of those sovereigns. Their powers dramatically eroded, and most of the power taken from them… And given to humanity in the form of Visions." Aether relayed the information.
The stunned silence was more than enough of a reaction. He still could hardly believe it himself.
Having seen just a fragment of what Venti and Zhongli could do without their Gnosis. Or seeing relics of what they had done with them in the past. Guyun Stone Forest was an account of Zhongli's power, not to mention there was an island in Inazuma he wanted to visit.
One that was severed in half by Electro by one of the Raiden Shogun during the Archon War and is still Electro-radiated to this day.
And displays like that were only a fragment of the Sovereigns' power?
He shivered. That made the final portion of what he was told all the more horrifying…
"There is something else." Aether grimaced, and it only worried Lumine and Shenhe, not that he could blame him. "She asked for our help for another reason. It isn't just because the Fatui caused trouble in Sumeru, and she wished to help… Their goal has attracted the attention of something else."
"The Dragon King is attempting to return and reduce this world to ashes."
Appreciate all the love and reception this story has received so far.
Don't like schilling, but if you have a moment, every review, follow, and favorite matter and easier to write!
And with views and a lot of the site still broken everything means so much more.
Anyways, have a lovely rest of your day!
Peace Out!