Normal text.
Italic text = Inner thoughts/past events.
Bold text = Abyss Lumine speaking.
Chapter 4
"Brother..."
"Brother..."
"Don't..."
"Don't leave... me..."
Everything is pitch black around her, she didn't feel like she's Stepping on a solid ground, but instead, it feels like she's floating amidst this void of complete darkness that she finds herself in.
In the darkness, nothing exist there at all, nothing excepts for her, and her brother.
He's the only thing she could see in this void, the one and only source of light and warmth, a shield that could protect her from this eerie place, from it's dark and freezing cold temperature.
And yet, her brother walked away from her, that source of light and warmth is getting away, away from her, abandoning her!
And she couldn't move an inch to prevent him from fading, her legs cannot be moved to bring her closer to the one person that she cared about the most, her twin older brother, her own flesh and blood, her one last family, the only one she has left.
The least she could do, is to reach out and cry out his name, as loud as she could, hoping that he would listen and stop walking away from her.
"Aether... Please... Don't leave me..."
She tries to plead with him for one last time, and this time, a different reaction occurs.
The form of her brother paused for a moment, before he titls his head back towards her slightly, enough for her to see half of his face, to see his lips and nose, but not enough to see his eyes, his golden bright eyes that is perfectly identical to her own. And then he mutters out something in response...
"You're too late... Sister..."
She opens her mouth, ready to say something, anything, in response to what he said, but before her throat could produce a sound, she got whisked back violently, and pulled away out of that void and into the light.
~o~0~o~
"Traveler... Traveler... Lumi... Lumi!"
A hurried voice came from her ear, and Lumine woke up from her sleep. Opening her eyes, she saw the small figure of a girl with white colored hair flying in front of her, along with her pouty-mouthed expression.
"You finally woke up, did you have a nightmare just now?" Paimon tilted her head as she asked her, her mouth frowning and her eyebrows are furrowed, looking very concerned..
"Ah, Paimon..." Lumine looked a little dazed, she lightly stroked her golden hair with her hand, rubbing her forehead as if to brush the memory of that nightmare away that's still fresh inside her mind. "It's morning already, huh?" She asked her newfound companion as she sat up, stretching her sore arms upwards.
"It's still early in the morning, Paimon heard you were crying in your sleep, and Paimon felt like you dreamed of something scary and decided to wake you." Paimon put her hands on her hips and made a mature and reliable expression.
A ray of light from the sky shone on Lumine's golden hair, exuding beautiful soft colours of light. Rubbing her eyes lightly with her hands, Lumine sat up from the simple grass bed she used for her sleep, groaning as she stretched her waist, creating an audible popping sound.
"Ah, you're finally awake. Tch, seriously, I might actually die out of boredom if we have to spend anymore time on this place."
A voice spoke up, but only Lumine is able to hear it, for it appears not in the world around her, but inside her own head. Just simply hearing provoked a heavy sigh to slip from between the blonde girl's lips, and she found herself putting her face on her palm.
"Do you seriously need to bother me first thing first in the morning?" Traveler Lumine mentally groaned, rolling her eyes in annoyance. "I'm telling you already, we'll be heading Mondstadt today, alright? Just give me some time to rest and sleep would you?"
"Hmph, it's easy for you to say when you can rest and sleep for however long you want. But as you probably already know by now, I can't sleep. I stayed conscious all the time, helplessly waiting as the clock ticking while you're having fun in the dreamland." Abyss Lumine protested back, sounding really annoyed and impatient.
Traveler Lumine twitched her eye at her other self's words, particularly the part about her having "fun."
"Whoops, my bad, I guess I should've said "despair" instead, huh?" There she goes, reading her mind again.
"Stop it! I don't wanna hear it!" Traveler Lumine mentally screamed, earning a chuckle from her deceased counterpart. "This is why I hate sleeping no matter how comfortable it is. These nightmares just keeps getting back again and again" The blonde haired girl sighed heavily, shaking her head lightly.
"Oh believe me, you'll get used to it in time. I know because I have experienced a similar thing back in my past life, and for thousand of years straight no less." Abyss Lumine replied, saying it with such a relaxed tone like she was saying a completely normal thing.
"I can't believe you haven't gone insane yet after all of that." Traveler Lumine replied, deadpanned.
"If you're calling someone's responsible for the millions of death of innocent civilians sane, even I doubt you're in your right mind right now."
"True..."
"Hey Traveler! Paimon to Lumi, are you alright?" Paimon waved her tiny hands in front of Lumine's face, who is zoning out again.
"A-Ah, sorry there Paimon, I got myself lost in thoughts there for a second." Lumine apologies after snapping back to reality.
"Geez, you just woke and you've been zoning out already. Paimon starting to get confused whether she should be concerned or not about this." The white haired pixie reprimanded, crossing her arms across her chest.
"Hehe, there's nothing to be worried about Paimon, I'm perfectly fine." The blonde girl reassured her, chuckling as she scratch the back of her head. "It's simply because I feel a little uncomfortable to sleep on the grass, I feel a little back pain."
They're still camping on that same spot where Lumine had first found Paimon. And in contrast with the floating girl who could sleep comfortably in the confines of her own pocket dimension, Lumine is not as lucky as her companion, sleeping on the sand is definitely a bad idea considering of the awful feeling of having sand sticking all over her dress or for small sea creatures to crawl over her body while she slept, so in order for her to sleep, Lumine had made a makeshift bed with branches and weeds on the nearby dry ground. It's not much, but at least she could avoid some of the troubles of sleeping in the wild.
"Don't worry, we should be able to reach Mondstadt City in just a few hours from now if we make haste." Paimon said with a nod confidently. "So, do you want to leave now, or should you rest for a while?"
"Let's get going. Just let me prepare some things for a little while before we go." Lumine answered, giving Paimon a nod to which the pixie reply with her own before retreating back to her pocket dimension.
Now, about this journey... Lumine had discussed it with her Abyss counterpart before.
"So what exactly do we need to do now? Now that I know that he's probably the leader of this... Abyss Order, not that I believe in it, what can I do to confirm it?" Traveler Lumine asked the spirit of her deceased self from another world.
It's in the middle of the night right now, Paimon has already went to sleep, and thus giving her free room to talk with her other self.
"Well, it's obvious isn't it? We just need to find Aether. If he truly is fulfilling the role of the Abyss Order's supreme leader after it's previous leader went missing, like I did. Then there's no doubt that he'll be located in the Abyss right now, that will be our ultimate destination for this journey." Abyss Lumine answered, saying it as a matter of factly.
"Quick question, what even is the Abyss?" Traveler Lumine asked curiously, mentally raising her hand. "You keep on saying that, but what truly is it? Is that a place or some kind of secret organization? I don't understand." Traveler Lumine asked again, earning a loud groan coming out from the depth of her mind.
"The Abyss is the Abyss, got it? It was a separate realm, one that still exists within the scope of the world of Tevyat, but it's definitely a separate realm from the one you are in right now, which is called the surface realm." Abyss Lumine began her explanation, sounding rather annoyed for having to explain this to her own self. "While the surface realm is the place where civilizations trives with lives of human inhabitants and led by the gods. The Abyssal Realm is a world where monsters: savages, bloodthirsty, and human devouring beasts nested. Just the kind that Celestia wanted out of the picture."
"The Heavenly Principles..." Traveler Lumine muttered.
"That's correct." Abyss Lumine replied. "That is where Khaenri'ah located, or at least used to. After the great nations were destroyed by the gods. An organization would then be formed not long after, an organization that would become the Abyss Order. Created for the reason of bringing down the Celestial Thrones as well as the seven nations that is ruled by the gods, the order is led by a single man known as the apostle of the great sinner, a man named Clothar Alberich."
"Clothar Alberich... I believe I never heard that name before." Traveler Lumine muttered, scratching her chin.
"Well of course you don't. All that you do is sleep throughout the entire time." Abyss Lumine said, somewhat sarcastically, a mental of her giving her living counterpart a pout appears on Traveler Lumine's mind.
"You know you don't have to bring that up." Traveler Lumine deadpanned in reply.
"Anyway, back to our main point. I've met with Clothar Alberich myself back in my lifetime. He's already starting to lose himself even back then, and his mental conditions continue to worsen with each passing year, it only takes roughly a hundred year for him to losing it completely, he went missing afterwards, and it was only much later on did I learned of his demise. Something that he achieved mysteriously, despite of the curse of immortality that were placed upon him were still intact during the last time I've seen him. I would be the one who personally buried his remains in the same ground he buried his wife."
Traveler Lumine nods her head in understanding, listening closely to her other self's explanation.
"Now, if your Aether went through the same history as I did. Then he'll also do the things that I did, by enforcing the Abyss Order's cause by causing chaos throughout the seven nations. Now, I cannot personally deduce everything of what will he be doing in the future or what he did in the past. But my best guess is that just like me, he'll be waiting in the Abyss, ruling the order from his throne." Abyss Lumine informed, to which Traveler Lumine's nods her head for.
"I see. So in order for me to reunite with Aether again, all I need to do is to enter the Abyss and find him, right?" Traveler Lumine asked, narrowing her eyes a little. "How did we get there?"
Another sigh resounded in her head as Abyss Lumine face palmed herself from the question.
"Girl, please, the Abyss is not just some theme park where you can freely enter and go to have fun. It is a place beyond dangerous. And entering it is no easy task as well." Abyss Lumine said sternly, each word that she said has high level of seriousness in it. "In fact, I would even outright say that it is impossible for us to enter the Abyss right now, EVEN if you did manage to find a way in."
"Geez, just exactly how hard is it to get there?" Traveler Lumine questioned, putting both of her hands on her sides.
"Unless if you somehow able to use space time magic that could enable us to travel through realms, the chances are for us to get there is next to impossible, that's for sure." Abyss Lumine answered with a small huff.
"But aren't you supposed to be their leader? How did you travel between the two worlds?" Traveler Lumine asked curiously and confusedly.
"Simple, by using the portal network." The voice inside her head replied, before beginning her explanation. "You see, the higher ups in the Abyss Order all possess the space time magic that allows them to travel far distances only in short periods of time. Through using this ability, we create the portal network allows everyone to travel all across the world simply with a flick of hand. I too have this ability as well, it was taught to me by the lectors, but even if I were to tell you now how to use that ability, it won't be possible with how weak and powerless you are."
"I see... So our only way to get into the Abyss is by somehow enters the portal network huh?" Traveler Lumine puts a hand on her chin as she thought.
"Yes, but not exactly." Abyss Lumine shakes her head, not that her living counterpart could see herself doing it. "You see, while it is possible for a normal human to enter and use the network, without having the necessary power to control the network, a person would just be randomly teleported to some random locations instead of the destination they had in mind." The former princess explained. "In other words, while it is possible for you to enter the Abyss by using the network, the chances are about one in millions. And you'll likely just end up somewhere else unknown."
"Guh, why do things have to be this difficult?" Traveler Lumine groaned loudly, putting a hand on her face as she grits her teeth. "So there's really no other way for us to get there aside from somehow harnessing the power of the Abyss?"
"That is the correct answer." Abyss Lumine said before pausing for a little while. "Well, one of the two anyway..."
"What do you mean?"
"What I mean is... While it is true that using the portal network is the most efficient way to enter the Abyss, there's actually an alternative way for one to enter, without using the network."
"And you're telling me this now?!" Traveler Lumine yelled to herself, annoyance clearly present in her voice, angry with her deceased counterpart for talking things in riddles. "What's the alternative way then?"
"The Spiral Abyss."
Traveler Lumine went silent for a little while, her head went to process the info she just got, making sure to carve it to her brain and never forget it.
"Spiral Abyss? What is that? Is that another location?" Traveler Lumine asked, curious and serious, the fact that it has the "Abyss" on its name surely says that it's no good.
"That's right. The Spiral Abyss is a chaotic space that exists as a bridge that connects the surface realm and the abyssal realm. A dungeon made from the ruins of the ancient underground civilization." Abyss Lumine explained, sounding like she knows a lot about the place of their discussion. But it's only natural since she was the leader of the most notorious faction that exists in Tevyat. In her world anyway. "The place is very special you see, because, while any other access to the Abyss has been closed off after the Cataclysm has ended, the Spiral Abyss remains open to this day, as any attempt in closing it has proven to be impossible."
"Really? So even the the order is unable to close it?" Traveler Lumine asked, receiving a hum of confirmation from the deceased princess' spirit. "So that should be our goal then, in order for us to enter the Abyss, we need to get through that place."
"Yes, but only if you have what it takes that is." Abyss Lumine replied, gaining a raised eyebrow from her living self.
"What it takes for what?" The living Lumine asked.
"To survive."
Once again, silence fell over her surroundings. Traveler Lumine went silent and didn't say anything in response. But there's no denying of the hidden shock and confusion that swirls inside her. Much less with how her current conversation partner is able to easily reads her mind and there is no hiding place for any of her thoughts.
"Just like I said before... The spiral Abyss are the only constant open passageways between the surface and the Abyss. While the order had to make sure that no entrance to the realm opens freely for anyone to enter, especially for a certain blonde guy with an eyepatch, that place is beyond our control. And for that reason, the order then made use of it by turning into a dungeon, filled with bloodthirsty and savages horrors from the depths that longs for the light on the surface."
Abyss Lumine explained in detail. Though Traveler Lumine did not spot any oddities in her voice other than the entirety of what she's saying, she found what it sounds to be a hint of annoyance in her other self's voice, especially in the part where he mentions "a blonde guy with an eyepatch." Who could she be referring?
"The Spiral Abyss might be the only way for us to enter the Abyss, but going there now is equal to suicide. I highly doubt that you could even go as far as to reach the end of the corridors."
"Tch, so what you're saying is that it's not possible?" Traveler Lumine clicks her tongue, crossing her arms across her chest.
"No no no, I did not say that it's impossible, but highly unlikely." Abyss Lumine replied, the spirit hummed a little, and a small smile appears on her face. "But even so, even after hearing such warnings of the dangers that lurk there won't tear away your determination, right?" The deceased Lumine asked, causing the living Lumine to think about her words.
"Yeah... That's true." Traveler Lumine narrows her eyes a little, her mind thought about her brother Aether, remembering the constant nightmares that plagues her dream, her brother's words of saying how she is late before leaving her behind.
After listening to all of her other self's story, about all the possible futures that could happen to this world that should be no different aside from their places being switched, about how it might be possible that the fate of this world could end the same way with the other world... That the world will fall, and she and her brother would end up fighting to the death with one twin eventually emerges victorious and Alive, while the other is defeated and dead. Lumine didn't want that, she didn't want any of that to happen!
Now that she has knowledge of the future in her mind, she would make sure to correct any mistakes and missteps that leads up to that bad ending. She and Aether, they will definitely be reunited again, and they shall be together again, as siblings, as family, just like they always do.
"If by slaughtering all of those monsters is really what it takes for me to get to Aether, then I'll be willing to risk my life for it. For my brother, for our reunion." Traveler Lumine declared, tightly gripping her fist, determination burns in her eyes as she steel her resolve.
"That's the spirit." Abyss Lumine hummed with what it sounds to be amusement. "Then you know exactly what this means: it means that you have to get stronger. Find a way to break that seal that prevents you from using your former power, train yourself to become even stronger than even before you lose your power. Only after that will you finally have what it takes to challenge the Abyss."
"Break away the seal... How can I do that?" Traveler Lumine asked, only now remembering the fact that she had been left powerless ever since the day she woke up from her slumber. Now that most of her powers are sealed away, she could only do some simple magic that isn't made for battle. "I don't have my wings nor my powers to control the light anymore... I am as powerless as a mere mortal now."
"Hmm... Yes, that is indeed a problem. Aether has suffered the same conditions as well back in my world." Abyss Lumine hums in agreement, nodding her head slowly. "But no worries. He did eventually regain his former powers at the end through means that I do not know. Perhaps you will eventually recover your sealed away powers as well. But before that, we'll have to make due."
"Could I really survive in the wilderness with no powers like this?" Traveler Lumine questioned, putting her hand on her chest.
"No you can't." The former Abyss Princess answered, simple and straightforward. It makes the corner of Traveler Lumine's eye twitch. "But, I have a solution however."
"What solution?"
"That is why we really should get going to Mondstadt already and not wasting anymore time here." Abyss Lumine huffed, a mental image of her frowning and putting her hands on her sides appeared on Traveler Lumine's mind. "I'll tell you what it is when we get there."
She wanted to protest to her other self for delaying information from her again instead of telling her heads on. But the Traveler had already known her deceased counterpart enough that no matter how many times she asked, the deceased princess' spirit simply won't budge.
Lumine sighs heavily at the memory. It's time for her to kiss goodbye to this beach, just when she's starting to get comfortable around it.
Tucking the Intevyat flower in her hair, tying up the scarf around her neck, and twirling in place to check up on her dress. Everything's ready.
"So, ready to go now Traveler?" Paimon asked her, floating not too far from where she was standing.
"Yes. Let's go Paimon." Lumine nods towards her companion. To the white haired pixie and to bodiless voice that lives inside her body.
It's time for them to head off, taking the first step towards this long and difficult journey. Lumine didn't know what could happen in the future, whether she could change it to be different from the one in her other self's world or not. But one thing she knows for sure, no matter if it's against fate and destinies, Lumine wished to keep going forward against the tides. Until she finds herself back standing on the side of her beloved brother, Aether.
To be Continued...
Hello, it's been a while!
This chapter is short because I simply wanted it to serve as a confirmation that I'm still alive and kicking. My heart surgery is a success and now I could finally sleep peacefuly for once without having throbbing on my chest that keeps me awake at night. (Feels like it's been forever since the last time I feel that.)
I'm still haven't fully recover yet from the surgery though, so the next update should around next month depending on my conditions. Thanks for reading, love you all!