Corrections
Evil dashed at Shenhe, throwing hands against the woman with the polearm. Shenhe was able to keep up well enough with Evil, her speed superhuman compared to most of the people surrounding them in Liyue Harbor. Ganyu gave supporting fire to Shenhe, her arrows flying at Evil and distracting him slightly.
Despite how the situation was a 2-v-1, Evil was keeping up far too well with both of the women.
"He's strong," Shenhe managed to say to Ganyu as Evil sent Shenhe back with a small jab.
"Terrifyingly," Ganyu added as Shenhe lunged at the demon once more.
Evil laughed excitedly as he dodged and parried Shenhe's strikes, dodging around her attacks whilst also catching Ganyu's arrows and throwing them either at her, Shenhe, or the Millelith who were rather bad at their job.
"Not often I come across women who are fighters," Evil remarked as he caught Shenhe's polearm by the blade. "Color me impressed!" Evil was then clocked in the face by Shenhe, whose punch had enough force to actually send him into a building, though he did not go through the wall.
"Shut up," Shenhe said to Evil with a glare.
"Make me," Evil said as he lunged at her, his hand engulfed in Ki and forming a blade that clashed with her polearm, causing sparks to fly. His attacks were aggressive and forward, which Shenhe eventually matched as she too grew aggressive with her attacks.
Shenhe charged at Evil, with trails of frost coming from her and her polearm. Evil was hit by her lunge, but also saw a glimpse of a frosty spirit behind her with talismans across its body. Evil also was shot several times by Ganyu, before getting hit with another arrow of frost.
"Okay, this ice is really getting annoying," Evil remarked as he shook off the ice whilst dodging more of Shenhe's attacks. "Seriously, what's with the ice?"
"You're not seriously asking that, are you?" Ganyu questioned as she fired more arrows at Evil.
"Yes, I am," Evil replied as he caught the arrows and tossed them back at Ganyu. Shenhe leapt in front of Ganyu and slashed at the arrows with her polearm, destroying the arrows.
"Where did you come from, hellspawn?" Shenhe questioned, giving Evil an icy glare.
"Another world, timeline, dimension, whatever you want to call it," Evil replied. "Although I am a demon, hellspawn seems a little far off from demon."
Ganyu and Shenhe seemed surprised by that information, and got more serious. Shenhe tensed up, her muscles flexing as she prepared to lunge at Evil. "I'mma kill 'im," Shenhe said.
"Calm down," Ganyu said to Shenhe. "We don't need you going on a rampage because you got too worked up!" Shenhe loosened up a bit, with the red ropes adorning her outfit glowing slightly as a result.
"You're welcome to try to kill me," Evil replied with a smile. "After all, I-"
Evil was suddenly tackled by a burst of wind, and was sent out of Liyue Harbor and into the surrounding mountains. As Evil was slammed through a mountain, Evil caught himself midair once he was through and looked up, seeing a man wearing a black demon mask wielding a polearm.
"So you're a demon causing trouble for the people of Liyue," the demon mask wearing man said, an ominous black and faded green aura around him.
"You are?" Evil questioned as he glared at the newcomer.
"I am the Vigilant Yaksha, Conqueror of Demons," the Vigilant Yaksha said. "You dare mock Rex Lapis, demon, and so boldly claim to fight him. For your nature as a demon, and the harm you'll cause the people, I will put you down!"
Evil seemed intrigued and hummed. "Very well. But first, timeout."
"Ti-Timeout?" The Conqueror of Demons questioned. "What do you mean timeout?!"
"I was fighting those girls first," Evil said. "And to be quite honest, I wasn't done fighting them. So if you could just wait right here-" Evil was then shot in the back by an arrow. Turning around in annoyance, he saw Shenhe and Ganyu had somehow managed to arrive at their current location.
"Well now you can fight all of us," Ganyu remarked.
Evil paused and crossed his arms, still hovering midair. "...fair enough," Evil said, satisfied with that as he gave a pleased smile.
Back in Fontaine with the rest of the misfits, Lego, Acheron, Zhu Yuan, and Izuku were walking around Fontaine at night.
"All's well that ends well," Lego said with a sigh as they walked. He had his arms crossed and seemed a bit tired.
"It was a nice dinner, all things considered," Izuku commented, giving a gentle hum as he thought back to the meal.
Acheron had her hand on the hilt of her sword as they walked, and she thought back to the meal. Or tried to. "...what did we have again?" Acheron asked.
Zhu Yuan and Izuku looked at her, surprised she asked that. "We just left the hotel not even 10 minutes ago," Zhu Yuan said, her eyes wide in disbelief.
"I suffer from memory loss," Acheron said. "But… the meal was decent." The grip on her sword hilt tightened. "...yeah, it was good."
"Our group is full of crazy people," Izuku commented. "I am certain of that now more than anything."
Lego chuckled. "I'm just glad everything worked out the way it did," Lego said, sounding… oddly pleased with himself, making the three fictional characters look at him with varying levels of suspicion.
"What is that meant to mean?" Zhu Yuan asked.
"It just means that we should hopefully not have to deal with anyone's bullshit, nor get involved in the story any more than we need to because everything is thankfully back on track," Lego said.
Izuku's eyes widened. "Something major just happened," Izuku realized.
"Yep," Lego said with a nod. "And thank god I got some bit of magic thanks to the body of my jackass OC, otherwise, things could've been a bit… damp."
"Lots of questions," Zhu Yuan began. "What the hell does that first bit mean?"
"I don't wanna explain," Lego admitted.
"Alright," Zhu Yuan said. "Second-"
"That wasn't Fonta that Navia and the Traveler had, was it?" Izuku suddenly asked, piecing everything together.
"Well, technically that Paimon and the Traveler had, but correct, it wasn't," Lego said with a hum, seemingly not bothered.
The other three's eyes widened, realizing the implications. "Holy shit, someone tried to poison Navia!" Izuku said. "SHIT, THE TRAVELER AND PAIMON GOT POISONED!"
"I think drugged is more accurate, or their drinks got spiked would be even more accurate, but pretty much," Lego remarked, before Izuku slapped Lego and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt.
"Don't give me that shit, Navia was nearly killed!" Izuku shouted.
"Wait, what?" Acheron questioned.
"The drinks were salty for the Traveler and Paimon," Izuku began. "And the Fonta I had was like a sweet soda! And Lego's word choice using the word 'damp'...!" Izuku looked at Lego. "She was nearly drugged with the Water from the Primordial Sea!"
Zhu Yuan pulled out her pistol. "Quickly, we head back right now and try to apprehend the suspect!"
"You're not law enforcement here," Lego said to Zhu Yuan. "You'd be breaking the law."
"Damn it, my weakness as an officer!" Zhu Yuan swore as she lowered her handgun.
"And besides, I'm not getting involved," Lego repeated. "We got the story back on track, and that's all that matters. Now we can go back to the ship, use unconventional means to revive everyone who got killed on the ship in the previous chapter without using the Dragon Balls, and then repair the ship and get the fuck out of this timeline."
"We have the Dragon Balls on the ship?" Izuku questioned, surprised.
"Duh," Lego said. "Why wouldn't I?"
"Why don't we use them to revive the people who've dissolved?" Acheron suggested.
"NO!" Lego shouted. "NO, I'M PUTTING MY FOOT DOWN!"
"Oh great, now you're being conservative," Izuku remarked, glaring at Lego.
"I would've accepted it if it was just the people on the ship, but I am not using them to bring back the people who have died from dissolving!" Lego said. "And I stand by that decision!"
"You can't be serious about this!" Zhu Yuan said. "People are dead! Hell, we could have a chance to apprehend the man behind all this!"
"We don't need to do anything to get that asshole because Navia and the Spina di Rosula are already heading in the right direction!" Lego stated. "They're not idiots! They too have likely already pieced together that something was wrong at the hotel!"
"And the people who died?" Acheron asked. "What about them?"
"Look, if there wasn't a timeline of events that'll occur, maybe I'd consider it," Lego said. "But unfortunately, we have to overlook that good we could do."
"Of course, you're going back to this timeline bullshit," Izuku remarked. "Why does it matter?!"
"BECAUSE WE'D RISK MORE DEATHS AND PREVENT A LOT OF THINGS FROM HAPPENING!" Lego shouted. "AND I MEAN THAT!"
"Like what?!" Izuku questioned.
"THE HEAVENLY FUCKING PRINCIPALS AWAKENING AND DOING MORE THAN SUBMERGE THIS FUCKING NATION!" Lego shouted as he slammed his foot into the ground and caused cracks in it. "And if that doesn't happen, several characters' stories will play out and end much, MUCH differently!"
"I'm sorry, this nation is going to what?!" Zhu Yuan questioned, her eyes widening in surprise.
"I understand that we should try to help some of these people," Lego began. "But this is about hundreds of other goddamn people who are closer to death than they realize, and that's without mentioning the fucked up physics that occur later on."
"And we can't do anything?" Izuku asked, clearly not enjoying the fact that he's being told to do nothing.
"I won't let any of you do anything," Lego said as he stared down Izuku. "I want things to proceed smoothly… and I've made some choices that didn't age well, so I'd rather not let any of you schmucks do something stupid and make matters worse. I already sent Evil to go beat the shit out of Venti, so I'm risking a lot as is, no matter how much I just simply dislike that alcoholic."
"I wonder what Evil's doing right now," Acheron commented.
"This is a challenge!" Evil shouted with a twisted grin on his face as he fought the Vigilant Yaksha, Shenhe, and Ganyu at the same time. The Vigilant Yaksha and Shenhe were both attacking him at once with their polearms, having a surprising amount of synergy as they relentlessly attacked Evil. "Even if you're mediocre, I could use a warm up! Doing nothing is going to make me lose my touch for when I try to kill Lego!"
Evil caught the blades of Shenhe and the Vigilant Yaksha's polearms, before breaking the spears and delivering a powerful kick to the Conqueror of Demon's gut, sending him back.
"Xiao!" Ganyu shouted as she watched the Vigilant Yaksha get sent into a mountain side.
"Don't worry about me!" Xiao hissed as he got out of the mountain.
Whilst this was happening, Shenhe was running the hands against Evil. Evil blocked several of her punches, but let out a hum of acknowledgement. "You're human, and yet your punches would break a normal person easily," Evil said. "What's up with that?"
"I am a disciple of the adepti," Shenhe growled as she continued throwing wild punches at Evil. "I have trained in the adepti arts for longer than I can remember. That's why killing you will be a piece of cake once you stop blocking!"
Evil sidestepped another of Shenhe's wild punches. "Then why don't you hit me?" Evil questioned as he taunted the tall woman. Shenhe then lunged and threw a jab at Evil's face. The demon stood still, but his skin suddenly turned metallic and shone like steel.
Shenhe clutched her hand for a moment, before throwing another punch out of spite. "You think you're funny?!" Shenhe growled, getting rather angry for a reason unbeknownst to her. Even she realized she was getting angrier than usual.
"I let you hit me," Evil replied with a shit eating grin on his face. "And besides, don't see much of a reason for these ropes." Evil then twirled Shenhe's red ropes around his finger teasingly, alarming Ganyu and Xiao that Shenhe no longer had her red ropes.
"How did he do that?!" Ganyu shouted, baffled.
Xiao growled as his demon mask faded from his face. "Doesn't matter. We'll kill him all the same, and then subdue Shenhe!"
Evil, upon hearing this, grabbed Shenhe by the neck and held her up. "I'm sorry, is there a problem?" Evil questioned while Shenhe hammered his arms with punches.
Ganyu then aimed her bow, but hesitated to let go. "Why does that matter to you?"
"She's your ally," Evil replied. "There shouldn't be any subduing. You treat her like a wild beast."
"That's cuz I'm going to rip your arteries out and use them as a noose for when I hang you!" Shenhe shouted as she gave Evil a death glare and lashed out at him.
"The red ropes she wore suppressed her homicidal instincts!" Xiao said as a new polearm materialized in his hands. "The last thing we need is her to go on a rampage again!"
Evil looked at the red ropes in his hand. "Huh, that explains a bit," Evil replied. "And you can't just… calm her down normally?"
"Ganyu, take the shot already and shut him up," Xiao said.
"But he'll use Shenhe as a shield," Ganyu replied, worried for her fellow disciple's safety.
"Why use her as a shield when I can make a shield!" Evil shouted, before a shield appeared in his free hand. "Ha ha! Outsmarted!" Evil was then socked in the face once more, but this time by a new arrival. The shock of the sudden punch made him drop the shield, the red ropes, and Shenhe.
Gripping his jaw that actually hurt, Evil looked up at the newcomer and took in their appearance. Being of a similar height to Shenhe, the woman was unusually pale. Her hair was dark brown and curly, going all the way down to her waist. She wore dark brown armor from the waist down, with it being unclear if she wore armor underneath the poncho she wore over her torso, though her arms were free from the armor. Her eyes were golden, although there was a diamond shaped symbol in one of the woman's eyes that Evil didn't recognize.
A hint of recognition passed through Evil and the stranger as their gazes met as they stood at each other for a long moment.
"You look like someone I know," the woman said after a moment.
Evil rubbed his jaw a bit. "Funny… I can say the same about you."
"Whatever it is, I have a contract to uphold," the woman said as she resumed a fighting stance.
"A contract?" Evil asked. "What do you mean by-" Evil was cut off by the woman lunging at him. Her attacks had the same level of skill as the adepti disciples and the Conqueror of Demons, but she had a level of strength just surpassing them.
Evil smiled a bit as the fight continued. This was getting interesting…
Lego grumbled to himself as he looked down at the Fountain of Lucine, right outside of the Opera Epiclise, the sun having set more and it now getting rather late.
Below him, Aether was passed out with Paimon by his side, panicking as a small army of Gardemeks began marching towards them slowly. As this happened, Navia, Melus, and Silver of the Spina di Rosula were defending them both.
Lego looked down, a bit pleased by how things were going. "Seems everything is-" He was cut off by Silver being knocked off balance by a Gardemek and pushed back. "...Seems everything is going-" He was again cut off by Melus falling to the ground, still alive and not hurt, but knocked down. "...well-" Lego watched as Navia was getting pushed back, being the only Vision user present and active. "...motherfuckers…"
As the self-insert watched the Spina di Rosula slowly get overwhelmed, Lego looked over to the otherside of the army of Gardemeks. "...come on Clorinde, you're supposed to show up!" Lego growled as he tried to see if he could spot her. Looking down at Navia and then at the army of Gardemeks, Lego scoffed. "I hate getting involved."
Navia pulled out her umbrella which was also partially a shotgun and shot a Gardemek, destroying it as it was torn apart from the Geo-infused pellets. As she rechambered it, a couple of Gardemeks tried lunging at her, but Lego jumped in front of her holding two shotguns. As he slammed the muzzle of the shotguns to the Gardemeks' neck areas, he pinned them both to the ground and pulled the trigger, blowing their heads clean off.
"It's Lego!" Paimon exclaimed.
Lego looked back at the group. "Alright, y'all underprepared," Lego stated. "That, or the dibshit behind all this got scared."
Navia panted from overexertion, but looked up at Lego with confusion on her face. "What?"
"On your feet," Lego replied. "Either that, or go." Lego looked at the Gardemeks. "...cuz I really don't feel like fighting all this…" As several of the Gardemeks got close, Lego shot at them with his shotguns, the pellets tearing through the Gardemeks surprisingly easily.
"You know something is up," Navia commented as she got up, while Melus and Silver decided to get the Traveler to his feet.
"I've known since the moment I stepped into Fontaine," Lego answered. "Quite frankly… fuck this." Lego placed his shotguns on his back and pulled out two pistols, before beginning to fire them into the army of Gardemeks. To everyone's surprise, the bullets caused the Gardemeks to burst into magenta flames.
"I have a million questions," Navia began. "And… none of them are going to be answered, are they?"
"Nope," Lego replied, before Navia rushed forward and began taking on more of the Gardemeks with her battle axe. "Hey!"
As Navia began charging into the army of Gardemeks, Lego caught a glimpse of a purple light, followed by several gunshots and several flashes. Lego hummed as he saw Clorinde show up finally and began to dismantle the robots with Navia. It wasn't long before everything proceeded like normal.
"Thank god," Lego mumbled as he holstered his pistols and they disappeared into a pocket dimension. As Clorinde and Navia had a conversation to the side, Lego looked over at Aether and Paimon. He walked over to them and helped Aether onto his feet. "On your feet soldier, your job ain't done yet."
"Th-Thanks…" Aether replied, confused and disorientated.
"How did you know we needed help?" Paimon asked Lego.
"Same reason Navia knew," Lego replied. "Fonta is only sweet and sugary. Thank you Paimon for having a lack of a brain and just speaking your thoughts out loud."
Paimon looked confused as she hovered, crossing her arms. "Paimon's not sure whether to take it as a compliment or not."
"It was definitely an insult," Lego remarked dryly as he looked at Navia and Clorinde, who were having a one sided argument coming from Navia's side. "And she is piiiiissed." Lego smiled to himself though. "Thankfully… everything is going to be back on track…"
Unfortunately, I was wrong.
Very wrong.
Natlan is also out, but I want to take this arc in a different direction instead of fucking around with the whole 'protect the timeline bullshit'. By the way, pacing felt like shit for this. I'mma hope to improve it.
You'll see NEXT TIME if I do! Peace.