Okay, after a long ass time, we've got to the penultimate chapter of the women aether loves in Liyue. It took a long time to get here, but I'm glad many have enjoyed the series. After college took my life, I couldn't play Genshin for months, and since I play the game, and then write the story, it led me to being dry creatively for months. Anyway, here we go, the second to last chapter of the story.
We descended for, what felt like, hours, and I could hardly see anything. Light escaped us as we fell into the abyss, and I tried to adjust to the lack of light.
"Use your elemental sight!" Yelan yelled as she fell with us, and I looked toward the sound of the voice. "It'll be a rough landing, otherwise!" I could almost hear her chuckle, as we all fell together.
I closed my eyes, thinking about what I could see with my other senses: my elemental sense. Then, I reached clarity, within darkness.
"We're going to land in about 5, so get your wind glider's out!" I yelled to everyone else, and through my elemental sight, I could see them nod to me, as well as them slowing down, as the descent to the ground slowed. We reached the ground in a couple of seconds, and none of us were injured. However, besides my elemental sight, we were all still blind.
"It's a little dim here, don't you think we need some lighting?" Yelan, in her classic style, flaunted her bow and arrow as she shot to a point in the cave, and then, light surrounded us, and we were able to finally see. I opened my eyes, with my normal sight, and after a bit, we could all see.
"Thanks for your tricks, Ningguang." I heard Yelan mutter under her breath, and we saw what we had descended into. It looked like we were in the cave of a Pyro Regisvine, with the flaming flowers and burnt tree smell in the air.
'Wait, the only Pyro Regisvine is in Cuijue slope. How the hell did we get here?' I looked up, and surely enough, the same sky that we descended from, still was there.
"This is where a secret Revisvine lives. I know, because I've fought it before." Yelan spoke, interrupting my thoughts.
"You've been here? You're usually exploring the Chasm, aren't you?" Keqing looked at Yelan, to which she retorted,
"I've explored a lot of places." She snorted, as she looked back at us with her signature grin. "More than you know."
I ignored the implications, and then just went up to her.
"You said the person who might have caused the attack on Liyue descended here? Are you sure?" She turned behind me, not holding that grin anymore. She was dead serious, and that was her answer to me. Yelan ran wordlessly towards where one of her arrows had hit, and we all followed her to it.
"They're here?" Keqing almost unsheathed her sword as we reached the arrow, but it was just buried in rock.
"Blocked off." Hu Tao spitefully spoke. "They probably had prepared for us to go after them."
"Aether. You know what to do." Yelan looked over at me, and I closed my eyes again and looked at the elements. Now, my vision was almost inverted, with me seeing mere halos of the girls around me and their elemental powers. However, I could see a young boy, far away, who showed something unnatural. It was a hole in my Elemental sight; the only way I could see it was the absence of what I could detect.
"Did you see them behind this?" Yelan asked, and I looked back at her and nodded. She sighed as she reached back into her jacket. "Fortunately, I've got a few more tricks up my jacket." She held her left arm out in front as if she commanded us with something in her hand. "Step back, now."
She, along with us, stepped back, and she pulled out an arrow, with a small fruit that smelled like gunpowder on the sharp end of the arrow. She notched it back, and let it fly towards her old arrow, and it let a huge explosion.
"What the fuck?!" I heard Keqing curse, which surprised me more than the explosion we had just seen. I looked over at her with my elemental sight, as I heard her with my ears. "How long have you-"
"Not long enough, Keqing!" Yelan yelled, and with the air clearing, we saw her run towards the opening made by her explosion, and we all ran after her with haste.
The opening was illuminated by something crystal-like like we were walking down caves of magical crystal chunks. It illuminated blue light throughout our vision, which made me feel uneasy, as did Yelan, who had her bow already out as she ran from the opening. Everyone else also had their weapons out in preparation. She walked fast in front of us before she got to the end, where it led to another, almost identical place to what we just left. Almost. The boy who held a blade and a black void that surrounded him was what made it truly different. His eyes were a cold black, but I recognized him.
"You're the kid who I saved!" I yelled out as he looked at me with a disturbing smile. It horrified me as he held his arms out, and turned towards me slowly.
"This… is who you saved, Hero. The person who tried to destroy everything."
"What?" I said confused, but Yelan already had notched back an arrow to shoot at the child and looked at him with angry eyes.
"Wait, what are you doing, he's a kid!" I held my hand on Yelan's shoulder, but she didn't budge, let alone look back at me.
"This kid is the one who tried to attack all of Liyue. He was plotting to kill Ningguang and others at that event Ningguang talked to you about."
My head went reeling; how this kid could have done that? He was just a kid, and yet, here he was, having us ready to kill him. For him being responsible for bringing the evil to Liyue? How could he have done that? Why was he the one responsible? I couldn't say anything, other than the small words I managed to get out.
"She… already told you all? About her announcement." I looked at her.
"It was a part of her plan." She looked at me for a second, with a moment of sympathy, before keeping her vision on that boy.
"Ningguang, always ahead of the curve. Prompting a special announcement for her offspring and her suitor, to light a fire under me.." He held the blade close to his heart, and I saw it cut through the thin clothes that the boy had, but not cutting through the boy.
"Well, it won't matter. My plan is merely to capture you, Aether, and immobilize your concubines." He said with such malice, I thought he'd be a Lawernce family member.
"Regardless of Ningguang's plans, that wouldn't change." He chuckled, as he held his arms, and started laughing like he found something funny in what situation he was in.
"This is not even my full power, and I will have been stronger than any of the hundreds of ruin guards you have fought here!" He looked at all of us, hungering.
"But your children, your harem members, they will not leave here alone with you." I felt unsettled, seeing such spiteful words out of the child I had saved.
"Enough!" Yelan shot an arrow, another gunpowder arrow, only for the kid to catch it, and snap it in half inches from his head. It exploded in his face, but once the air cleared, his face was slightly scuffed. He didn't seem bothered, more excited, with Yelan already notching another arrow before he even caught it.
The boy looked down at his hand, burnt, and felt his face. "Even with Aether's power…" He chuckled. In milliseconds, I saw him inches from Yelan, and looking at her from above. I could see him, despite how fast he was going, but Yelan was dumbfounded.
"You're still so weak." He swung at her neck, but even she could use her bow quick enough to get it from going any further. A cut on her cheek was all he managed to do. However, she was on the ground, and the boy was standing above her ready to swing again.
"Hey! Leave her alone!" My anger overwhelmed any of my sympathies. I stopped time, only for moments, and ran towards him. However, even he disappeared, and I could only hear him laughing, as he went.
"You're holding back, Aether. I didn't see you hold back when you were fighting those Ruin Guards. Or when you saved my mom."
That made me halt.
"Oh, you're thinking I'm just someone possessing this boy? No." He looked at me and knocked the air out of my lungs. He nearly tried to disembowl me, with a cut towards my stomach, but I had dodged his attack despite his monologue.
"Those ruin guards are attracted by evil. It's like gravity to these monsters and guards." He disappeared from my line of sight, and Hu Tao, Yelan, and Keqing were equally confused as they looked for him.
"And I am that evil, as I was the evil in the woman who hurt your wives. What was her name, Mona?"
That made any ideas of sparing this child vanish. He looked with a grin that would suit an evil man but was instead reserved for a child of evil. "And that attracted you here, as it did in Mondstadt, didn't it?"
He eventually settled right into the center, and we all looked at him, ready to fight. He pounded around, and we all readied our attacks. He was a bullet speed, however, and we couldn't see him clearly, with our eyes opened. Yelan, Hu Tao, and Keqing were all knocked to the floor, and despite my attempts to stop him, they were cut up as well.
'None of you will die… not here, not now.' I looked back at Hu Tao, enraged, but pained by her injuries. It was a similar look for Yelan and Keqing, though it was a matter of pride for both of them.
'I need to focus. If I hesitate… my family will die.' I closed my eyes, unintuitively, and I could see him clearer. He was a black hole, taking light slowly away from us, and I could feel how much he pulled us to him. He was slashing at me, over and over, and trying to go from behind.
"You can't defend what's yours forever. Tragedy will repeat itself when you leave for Inazuma, Sumeru, and Fountaine, you will face that. You will face that evil everywhere."
'He's constantly running away… and if he's in a kid, even if he's ridiculously strong, he can't have that much stamina, can he?'
I remembered as I ran to where the kid was, Ningguang's statements. 'An exponential growth in power, but not stamina.' As I stepped forward and stopped time, I looked at him, furious, as I stopped time, and saw him, a blade over the people I love. I turned towards him, and without hesitating, stabbed through his chest. Blood, human blood, covered my sword for the first time. I ran through him and put him through the wall of the cave.
"See you in hell… brat." I resumed time, and there he was, dead. He coughed blood on my face, malice on his lips and in his eyes.
"We will fight to destroy everything you love, Aether… Everything."
"Aether, move out of the way." I heard from Hu Tao. I removed my blade from him, leaving the kid to just lay on his back, laughing like crazy. Hu Tao activated her power and set him ablaze with her spear, and he laughed even as he died. His body disappeared into ashes, and all she did was pray, as she looked down at the child's ashes. I looked down at her, and despite her sadness, she seemed… at peace.
Then, fear gripped me as I remembered Mondstadt. The fires that engulfed it, and engulfed Liyue
"We've got to get back! They're going to stage another attack on Liyue!"
However, as all the girls came to, and stood up, they all pointed to something that was falling and glowed like Mora under the moonlight. A gnosis. I looked at it, as did everyone else, and it fell into my hands.
"If we're going to need to be prepared… we need to have more power."
I held the Gnosis and pushed it into my chest, feeling that stinging sensation that burned for several seconds, before returning to normal. I breathed out and felt the strength of Geo at my fingertips, and immediately reached out to all of them.
"We need to go."
Immediately, all of us held our hands together, Hu Tao on my left, and Yelan on my right and we set our sights on the Teleport waypoint on Mount Tianheng. We materialize in front of another sight of chaos. More ruin guards, Hillichurls, Samachurls, and so many other monsters inside Liyue harbor once again.
However, as we descended, we quickly realized Liyue wasn't taking the attack lying down. As we saw, many knights fighting the monsters in the streets, as we passed inside Liyue, and fought alongside them. My blade had cut through all of them, and we continued to fly past the fighters.
"Hu Tao! Keqing! Take care of the civilians!" I looked back at them, with their weapons out. "I'll be with Yelan, to meet back up with Ningguang and Beidou!"
"Yes, Aether!" They pulled their weapons, and I could see another level of strength from them, that I hadn't seen before, even from the cave.
Ningguang and Beidou's strength and power were also on full display, as we saw them surrounded by corpses of Ruin Guards and disappearing Hillichurls.
"Is it just me, or did you become stronger or something?!" Beidou yelled, as she took the power of the monster's attacks and reflected them. She sent them all flying, as did Ningguang with her Starshatter that truly lived up to that name, mowing through monsters.
"Perhaps the man of the hour will be able to tell us later," Ningguang looked back at me, as both Yelan and I came close to her.
"I'm guessing the plan worked." She said as she looked at my unease. "I announced that a special announcement would occur… I didn't fully anticipate the scale of this battle, though…" She grunted as she sent a Sparkling scatter to the monsters right behind us.
"Well, it's all the more fun for us, because we get to play with these monsters!" She laughed, as she swung her Wolf's Gravestone, a blade I hadn't seen her have before, towards another set of monsters, and deflecting their attacks right back at them.
"Everyone's safe, right?" I looked at them, and they turned back to me and nodded.
"They were certainly more prepared than they were for the first attack." Ningguang chuckled, as she looked at the knights fighting off the monsters. Hans, or Stanley, was among the ones fighting, and they mowed their way to me, as did many of the knights.
"We await your orders, Knight Aether." Every single man and woman knight saluted at me and awaited my instructions. It was intimidating at first, but Ningguang whispered in my ear.
"You are a Qixing of Liyue and a Knight of Mondstadt. Wield the power you've obtained." She stepped away, as I breathed in.
"How many monsters are left? How many casualties?"
"We were prepared for this, so we had many people already either prepared to move back into the Jade Chamber, and we've got some people on the ocean as well. If any monsters tried to approach them, we'd blindsight them." A woman knight told me. "In total, we've seen no deaths on our side!"
After the loss of life over these past few days, having zero deaths gave me strength.
"Knights! Let's make sure we keep it that way! Get the civilians food and water, and ensure they'll be prepared! We'll have a feast for many lifetimes afterward!"
"YES SIR!" They all saluted, and I saluted back as they broke formation and ran across Liyue.
"A Traveler, truly worthy to act as a Qixing." Ningguang spun her smoking pipe, one I hadn't seen her use before other than for her to spin around.
"Ha! I'd not want him doing the stuffy work of a Qixing every day!" Beidou wrapped her arms around me, and I could feel her arm, folding over my neck as she held onto me tight. "But it's his choice, after all. He's got a year here."
"I wanted to talk to you about that. Later, though."
Beidou looked strangely at me, but then relaxed her muscles, as she looked back at Ningguang.
"How many monsters are left here?" I asked the two of them.
"Besides the one right next to you?" She looked towards me, with a slight chuckle. "Less than ten. They will be all gone before noon."
I looked up at the sun, how it was almost above us, and Noon was approaching us sooner than we thought.
"Knight Aether! All of the monsters have been slain!" They saluted in front of me, as the sun lit their heads.
"Then call for the people. We've got an announcement and a feast." They raised their weapons, and I looked back at them with pride.
Took me a long time to get back and finish this chapter. Anyway, thank you for your patience, and I will finish the series before the year's end with the final chapter.