The sun's blinding sheen glared down on his sweating forehead, as he suddenly faced a heat akin to a midsummer afternoon. During those times, when popsicles weren't enough and Xingqiu was absent, he would walk right off the boardwalk. Fully clothed. On purpose. Feigning ignorance when the Millelith enforced their strict no diving policy. The water always seemed to dry too fast, and now was no different.

It just felt worse locked in combat. Landlocked and melting, he was forced to sustain himself.

Lumine screamed something incomprehensible in the distance; how they got separated was beyond him.

Now he was alone too.

He could barely see, and his heart slammed in his forehead like a frantic gong. Even the vision on his hip collected condensation along its glassy surface, like it was sweating too.

Noelle laid behind him unconscious. Xiao's energy flung them together, and of course he needed to get her somewhere safe. Even though he couldn't see the horizon through the driving monster hoardes, and the slimes crowded them like famished dogs.

He didn't think as he hoisted her into a rescue carry, and he deeply regretted that because she weighed far more than she looked. He persisted, because the alternative was death for them both. After this, I'll get some ice cream at Wanmin. I'll get ice cold water. Scratch that, I'll just jump into the nearest lake. Gods, just what happened to his stamina?

Noelle lurched to the side as he narrowly dodged the charge of an oncoming mitachurl. He couldn't summon his weapon in this state, so he lost his foothold and they both toppled. Thorns akin to barbed wire sprouted from the grassless earth, and they sliced into his knees. Loose gravel scraped along his palms and he leapt. He forced a spirit blade through the vines' origin, and the melodious cry of a samachurl accompanied the withering of thistles.

Where was Noelle? He cast his blade outward and spun a full circle, almost like he was throwing a fishing net. Several hilichurls flung from his back, his muscles protesting. This wasn't sustainable and he knew this. But if there was anyone who could traverse Liyue's landscape and fight in an apparent swamp of hellfire, it was him.

A few feet away Noelle began to stir. Flaming arrows arched over her, while blissful ice clung to the dripping fabric against Chongyun's skin. He tugged her to a standing position, and he stomped the nearest hydro slime like a balloon. It popped and launched mist across their faces, and in that moment of clarity he glimpsed covered ground.

A near ancient deck of some kind, raised a few feet from the ground like a decrepit front porch. He yanked Noelle foreword, and they sprinted through the driving crowds like a human battering ram. They dodged what they could, and Chongyun toppled the rest.

"Hide!" She didn't argue, and she slid beneath the wooden shell like a hermit crab. Gone in an instant. He dashed forward and exchanged parries with a torch-wielding hilichurl and it toppled. He needed to find Lumine. The electric howl of an abyss mage tickled his ears, and it teleported before him.

Monsters continued to close in on all sides. A flaming arrow shot over him, and the burning stench of hair assaulted his nostrils. He concentrated on the fight in front of him, but within him he knew. He didn't have much time.


Xingqiu didn't think at all. The shattered teacup lay forgotten on the ground between them, and he darted after Zhongli through halls he never walked himself. The Acting Grandmaster caught on to their plight and shouted for those ahead to yield. Hundreds of people stood amongst the cathedral's pews, and the nuns quickly scattered. The colorful stain glass strobed past, and they tore through the front entrance.

"The Traveler," Zhongli panted as they sprinted through pristine hedges and greenery.

"I'm coming!" Chongyun was with her. If they faced another ley disruption they needed as many blades as possible. Zhongli didn't argue; he ducked behind the decorative tree line. Before he could even ask about the plan, it shot into action as an enormous updraft hurled them skyward. Without a glider Xingqiu felt oddly naked, yet the air lifted him smoothly.

The moment the clouds obscured them, the dragon he had only read of in myths, only seen in illustrations and hallucinations, caught him before the ground could reclaim him. He swallowed amongst the throbbing pain and tearing winds, and he clung to the actually living exuvia.


Meanwhile, Chongyun quickly lost his remaining stamina. The weight of his blade caught up with him, the stinging of his cuts lanced across his skin with every new swipe of his claymore. He was nearly overwhelmed by the crowds at his back, but Xingqiu saw. The field was clearly visible from an aerial perspective, and an entire plain separated him from Lumine's thinning crowds.

In mid-air, Zhongli shifted back to his human form. Only to equip Xingqiu with a glider before he transformed back; presumably he headed for the Traveler. They parted without speaking, and Xingqiu allowed himself to freefall for many invigorating seconds. If the adrenaline wasn't active before, it surely coursed through him now.

"Behind you!" He screamed as he stuck a broken landing, and he sprinted as fast as his body would allow. Maybe a bit more. His leg wound ripped open like paper as he skidded to a halt by his side, and he flipped in the Guhua style. The ice of his friend's cryo vision eagerly clung to the steel of his blade and it dug into his bleeding flesh. The steel halted the charging lawachurl just long enough for Chongyun to catch up, while Xingqiu's leg faded. Numb enough to ignore.

As Chongyun turned to face the mess behind him, the shock on his face inspired a surge of pride before the reality sank back in.

"Xingqiu?"

"Same battle!" he heaved in a feeble attempt to catch his breath, and he stumbled while they resumed their familiar fighting stance. Everything happened in a blur. His torso hardly balanced over his shaking knees, yet he pushed himself more. Even amongst the chaos Chongyun must have recognized that weakness, because he took the offensive while Xingqiu flung watery swords from behind.

They were going to be okay. They had to be.

"Hang on! Just a bit longer!" The exorcist turned to quickly check on him, and he nodded, stepping forward.

Why did swordsmanship require so much leg work? His voice shattered against his throat,

"CHONGYUN!" He fell after a heavy bludgeon to the side. Before an overhead strike could bash his skull in, Xingqiu dove over him. His leg screamed in the process, blood gushing everywhere. A vortex the size of a building threatened to strip them both from the ground, and Chongyun dug his heels in. He desperately clutched Xingqiu to his chest; he squeezed so hard that he saw dark comets streak across the plains.

An enormous force collided behind them, the entire chasm shook with a cacophonous, high pitch shrill. The wind tore at their hair and clothes, their muscles screaming as they held on. Impossibly tighter. Xingqiu knew their strength was nearly spent.

"Chongyun!"

"What!?"

"I'm sorry I used to prank you so much!"

"That's just your personality," his voice croaked.

"I shouldn't have lied to you about the ghosts on Wuwang Hill! I just wanted to spend time with you!"

"That-what?" The ringing in both their ears reached a crescendo, and he could only read the other's lips. He was certain they were going to die, and now he was terrified for another reason.

The field fell deathly silent. Barbatos flew over them between blinks, vanishing into the Chasm. The remaining monsters fled.

He shouldn't have opened his mouth. Maybe Chongyun didn't hear him.

"That was a lie?"

"I'm sorry!" Xingqiu braced himself for a shout, but he didn't even raise his voice. Maybe that was worse.

"How many times? How many trips-"

"Not all of them!"

"A lot of them?"

"Yes!"

"Ugh." He released him and his head flopped back. Both of their fronts were slathered in blood, and it peeled from between them as Xingqiu pulled away. Like they were some terrible, grimy sandwich.

"Is it over?"

"I think so."

"Wait-really? Are you upset?" Chongyun lifted his head up, with a confused expression knit between his eyebrows.

"About your lies?" Xingqiu couldn't bring himself to reply. "I don't care. I mean-I do! This is just a really weird time to bring that up!"

"I don't know, I thought we were going to die!"

"We are actually soaked in blood right now, Xingqiu."

"...yeah?" Chongyun sighed, bringing himself up on his elbows.

"That is very low on my list of concerns."

"Oh."

For some reason, he laughed. Finally, he was reunited with his closest friend. Finally. After the wildest half-week of his life, he really just confessed some benign sin in a fit of adrenaline induced guilt. He was going crazy. "I'm sorry I just," his voice croaked, "I can't lose you. I-I thought..."

Neither of them moved. "Xingqiu?"

"What?" Chongyun opened his arms, his face unreadable. He trembled as Xingqiu reluctantly sank into his arms.

"You won't. Let's just…let's just stay here for a minute."


No. This wasn't happening.

"I don't know what to do." Lumine's face was caked with dirt and blood, and Morax wasn't far behind them.

"Stay here."

"Wait-" He dove in head first, the darkness rising to meet him like a writhing snake. He couldn't see Xiao. He couldn't see anything, and his body fell weaker by the second. An afterlife in the Chasm, regardless of whatever it did to one's soul, was not about to be a peaceful one.

Yet Xiao subjected himself to it like the terrible martyr he was.

"Xiao!" His body felt lifeless, and Venti flung his wings around it. As if he could simply ignore gravity. He couldn't feel anymore; he only felt a thin strip of muscle that bound his wings to his frail, mortal form. With Xiao in his arms he could barely tread water, and the light seemed to be fading fast.

The magic holding this place open was about to shut them in for good, like two birds in a cage.

He couldn't fly any further; gravity only increased as the Chasm fought to keep them. This entire time he only wanted to die, and now at the moment his death was closest he fought against it. The irony only made this worse.

"Venti?" Xiao lethargically returned to consciousness, like he had interrupted an afternoon nap and not his dying moments. His voice, small as his namesake, was that of the helpless child he first met. A single plea on the wind for the freedom of death, and all Celestia did was toss a vision his way. Like a bandage could fix a bullet wound.

"I'm not letting you die! Not again!" Like he was wading through honey he couldn't accomplish a thing. His mind fogged like he dipped it in a slurry of dandelion wine, and his body simply shut down. A gust of wind, like the rising of smoke escaped the Chasm's burning wick. Leaving the past smothered in darkness.