Okay, this will be released shortly after I finish with The Women Aether loves for Mondstadt. I hope this is going to be good.
"That's easy for you to say, given that you're travelers. Will you two continue to stay at the Akademiya? When you leave, tragedy will repeat itself."
'Why am I remembering those words now… from Shirai?'
I remember clasping onto my chest, pained, as I looked at Sumeru city for the last time, seeing what would be the last of it.
'It's already been a month…' I remembered all the women I had met there, but also the women I hadn't seen for over a year, who I still loved.
'At least Amber, Eula, Barbara, and Mona are alright.' I blushed, thinking about them, naked, and their stomachs grown. I looked down at my hand and saw the ring. The three elemental powers had become four on the ring on my ring finger.
'How they managed to ship this ring all over to Sumeru is beyond me. I guess Jean filled them in.' I remembered her, probably struggling. But she was alright.
'Jean… stay strong. I'm going to come back… I promise.' The anemo part was glowing on the ring. I tightened my fist as it filled with strength.
"I have to go," I told myself. I took the map out and hovered over Liyue, knowing where I'd go. "I'll be back… in 2 months," I promised myself and the girls I was leaving behind.
"Let's go. Paimon?" I looked at her as she quietly followed me.
"Yeah?"
"Do… you want to be here with me? Instead of you hiding again?"
"...I'll hide." She went off somewhere, leaving me in my thoughts once again.
I looked at the map again, at the teleporter, and plotted it for just outside Liyue harbor. It didn't work.
"Again? That's the first time since then it's not worked…" I sighed to no one, but a sense of worry gobbled at me.
Regardless, I ran again. I ran back to Liyue after almost two years. The power of anemo, I had slowly begun to master as I glided up above the Avidya Forest, the chasm, and then, eventually, passed Lisha. I settled my eyes on the teleporter parallel to Mt. Tianheng.
I came to the teleporter and saw no monsters on my way to it. It was an empty place. Too empty. Too quiet.
The teleporter looked even stranger.
"The teleporter… looks turned off." It was dark, not like the blue that illuminated the teleporter before. Then, I heard a cry and saw what was happening.
Those burning flames were yet to escape my sight as I locked eyes on Liyue Harbor. The harbor was in ruin, on fire, with people crying for their lives, yelling, and running away from the ruin guards.
"What…" I slid down the mountain with anemo, not even taking the time to take my wind glider out. "No, no, no!" I ran faster and faster, with the Gnosis making me accelerate with anemo blasts.
I stood over the building overlooking Yuehai Pavilion and saw Ganyu. She was fighting off Ruin Guards approaching her and many others and taking them down one by one. However, she was cornered, which got clearer the closer I got to her.
"Ganyu! I'm here!" I yelled, from the top of the building, which got her to look around, confused.
"Huh? Is that… Aether?" I slammed to the ground, not caring about the damage from the fall. With the downward strike, the Ruin Guards didn't all die, but it did make me at least get their attention.
"Hey, Ruin Guards! You wanted me, right?"
All the Ruin Guards suddenly lost interest in Ganyu and the people she defended and spoke, "Ae-ther."
"Well, I'll take you down." I grinned, as I commanded the power of anemo on another blade. I sliced through several Ruin Guards, one with an Anemo blade and one with my normal blade, and it blended through all of the Ruin guards like a scrap heap.
They all fell, in front of my eyes. All that was left was some terrified civilians behind a confused Ganyu. I then saw her releasing strength from her bow.
I ran, knowing what would happen next, and prevented her from falling from exhaustion. I saw her limp body in my arms, glad she and many others were alive.
"How long has she been fighting for?" I looked at them, and they all looked off.
"... 72 hours. Ganyu was fighting for us for so long, so we could retreat here." One man said.
"We were supposed to go to the Jade Chamber, but they were too numerous. So Ganyu was trapped trying to defend all of us and found some of us attacked by Guards. They were countless…"
"72 hours? How long has this gone for?"
"We've been hiding from the various Ruin Guards for that long, and Ganyu has tried to take them down, but they seem to pop up out of nowhere… like they're constantly being made or replaced. We've lost so many people…"
The men and women both cried together. I blinked any tears of my own, knowing who might have died.
"Okay, retreat to the safe house. Make sure Ganyu rests, alright? She needs it."
"I… have to save everyone…" I heard her murmur, and her eyes fluttered open.
I swallowed.
"It'll be alright, Ganyu. I'll figure it out." I tried to smile at her fluttering eyes, and she smiled back before closing them once more.
I handed them to one of the women and then looked around. The area around me smelt of burnt bodies, corpses lit aflame. It was disgusting. But I had to ignore it. Because I saw the Ruin guards approaching people alive at the port, being pursued to death.
"I'll save you!" I ran towards the group of Ruin Guards, cornering the people to the edge of the port. But by then, someone else had shown up, and before I could blink, I saw the Ruin guards were in pieces.
"You need to evacuate! Get away from here!" The Ruin Guard killer had spoken.
"Wait… Jiangxue? What are you doing here?" I spoke as I approached him. "I thought you were at the inn! Did that get overrun?"
The civilians looked confused at both of us.
"Go! Now!" Jiangxue barked, to which all of the guys ran off toward the Jade Chamber.
He didn't sheath his sword as he spoke to me.
"The inn is fine. They didn't come from there." He sighed as he lowered his blade to the port. "I could sense that monsters were coming here, however. I couldn't stand and wait as Liyue Harbor got taken down… I'd have too many regrets." I heard him swallow as he picked the weapon up.
"I've killed many too." He muttered. "And I can't avenge those mistakes. No matter what I do."
I didn't have any response to that at first.
"Well, at least, let's save them. Then it'll be worth it in the end." I touched his shoulder, maybe breaking his personal space. But he didn't seem to mind.
"Yeah… it will." He looked up, almost inspired.
"Where are the guards? Shouldn't they be fighting?" I looked around, seeing how empty this place was.
"All of them were injured or killed when I got here. I couldn't even talk to anyone: they were so terrified. They said they mentioned your name though…"
An idea popped into my head.
"... Then let's lead them to me. I'll take them out."
"Wait, you're still a hero of Liyue. I don't know if you should be putting yourself as bait."
"My life… I'd give it up. To protect the people I care about here." I looked unscathed, almost.
He scoffed, but he admitted where it was. "Out of the 250, yeah I counted, that were here, there's about 200 left inside the harbor. More than half of them concentrated in this area, where we are." He sighed, thinking. "I guess I didn't carry this vision for nothing." He brought out a hydro vision and held it in his hand as he clasped it onto his shirt.
"I'll lead them to you; take care of the rest." He gripped the Hydro vision in his hand as I held his other hand, and we saw an approach of the Ruin Guards toward us.
"Don't worry about me!" He gave a crazy smile as he ran and looked back. "Any guys that go for me, I'll take all of them down!"
I was unsettled but also motivated by his words. "Same here!"
With me being able to test the powers of an Anemo archon, I ran through and pierced through every ruin guard, using anemo, floating in the air, then pulverizing the Ruin guard from a downward blast.
"Kill! Kill!" I had killed the ruin guards, reducing them to scrap, as I used anemo to tear through every one of them. Every ruin guard fell, and I looked around to destroy each ruin guard. I sliced, slashed, and blew through all of them. So many had fallen, and so many were still alive.
"Let's try this again…"
I reformed my Gust surge, being able to use it, lift the remaining 60 ruin guards in my way, and make them into a scrap heap.
178 down.
"Yes, let's kill them all…" Jiangxue spoke, as he was disabling and killing the Ruin Guards with unnerving efficiency, with anemo as his vision. Then, I noticed something strange. The ruin guards weren't traveling toward me anymore. I saw another 10 Ruin guards far away from Jiangxue, and he was too crazed about killing the twelve Ruin Guards around him to take notice.
'Wait… are they going towards them?' I looked at the Ruin Guards, approaching the civilians, who were running to the Jade Chamber.
"NO!" I screamed out as I ran to the remaining ten Ruin Guards, as they were looking down. They set their sights on the civilians and launched the missiles.
Time stopped for me again. I ran as fast as I could in front of the blasts of the Ruin Guards. I was cutting through each missile and sending them into the ground or the air.
"GO! UP TO THE JADE CHAMBER!" I yelled to the civilians running away, and they made haste, as the machines didn't seem interested in the civilians.
"Aether…" The machines spoke again.
Quickly, I sliced through the remaining machines, seeing their destruction and destroying even that. But then, I lost focus and dropped to my knees, breathing heavily.
"Damn… I just made it."
I heard silence, just my breathing. It was broken by the sound of footsteps, with Jiangxue approaching me at my knees. He sadly chuckled, seeing me in my state.
"I guess you are the hero of Liyue for a reason, Traveler."
I looked up as I was on my knees. I saw people looking over the edge of the chamber. In particular, Keqing, Yelan, Ningguang, Beidou, Yanfei, and Hu Tao. They looked in awe at me as I was on my knees. I then noticed the Jade Chamber was bigger than I remembered, stretching far over Liyue; it might as well have been a city.
"Here's your hero! Aether!" Jiangxue lifted me, holding my hand in the air. Even given the distance, they seemed to be cheering and clapping.
"What? You've," I breathed out. "You've been fighting them off for longer than I was. You led them here."
"One," he looked at me as I did for him. "You took down far more ruin guards than I had. Two…"
He looked down, holding his vision in his other hand and gripping that power.
"I think… I remember why I didn't use this power for so long."
He handed his vision to me as he lowered my hand. He looked me in my eyes with a sense of relief.
"You asked my real name quite a while ago. My real name is Zhànshì. It means warrior."
He stepped away, leaving me to hold his hydro Vision. He stood, his back toward me, as he spoke.
"Give that to someone else… I think this has just reminded me. I'm not a true warrior. I'm still… a monster." He stepped away as the crowd descended from me, and he faded into the darkness.
Quite the opening, huh? Anyways, I'm working on the second chapter, and I hope you enjoyed it.