Speech = ``...´´
Thoughts = [... ]
ºº
``Made it out, did you? Hmm...you are stronger than I expected...´´
The voice of the Knave seemed cold, yet they denoted a playful, sadistic ounce of enjoyment to see the target of her attacks still standing. The blonde traveler still pushing through where her children had failed.
Children who by now could only lift their wary gazes from where their bodies were stuck or unable to further comply to their desires and wishes to fight furthermore.
Brave had been their stance….but no less foolish.
Her gaze then switched away from them, eyes carved with those red Blazing X staring down at the golden glint of defiance of the young traveler, a girl who could not be older than the boy she wanted as "King" refused even now to give up. Refused to yield before her might.
Was it out of friendship..?
For those that were cowering in fear behind them?
Or…..something else?
..
..
It was…..interesting.
And so, silently nodding at herself... a decision was taken as those unnatural eyes glimmered with murderous intent..and when they blinked, everything changed.
The air around them grew thicker and heavier to breath, weighing everything down with it as the world turned into dark, sharp shades of arterial red and the black obsidian.
The aura of endless murder and the apprehension of the end staining reality like a stain of ink over a small sheet of paper.
And at the center of it all, a crimson moon that glowered with a light not its own, drawing it in like a hungering void.
A monster that threatened to collapse the minds of any unwilling witnesses of said diabolical beauty. Yet, it only paled in comparison with the one that had brought such hideous sight into the waking world.
And then….things turned for the worse.
The knave making the gesture to start walking, only to deny reality as she glitched out from it, reappearing just a breath away from the blond traveler.
A gasp for breath slipping through the girls lips, yet only one that doubled in intensity when they realized something terrible was at play.
Surprise, shock, and horror running one by one or simultaneously inside Lumines head as threads of light climbed and wrapped themselves all over the stranger to this crimson world body.
Bounding her…..to the ground.
Forever.
``I cant...move..?´´
The blond traveler muttered with apprehension at the way her limbs refused to bulge an inch under this trap she had fallen , said realization came to late to actually do something about it as the Fourth of the Harbingers stared dead-on her eyes with only the warmth and kindness of a crematory furnace could offer to a corpse.
Death itself slowly raising and then extending a blacken hand forward. Crimson, razor sharp nails that glowed with an untold promise of violence and pain growing closer.
Closer…
CLOSER….
..
..
``Still…...not strong enough to beat me...´´
º
º
``Jesus, what a way to finish a story arc….´´
Sarah sighed to herself more than anything, the brunette leaning against the back of her seat while she started to stretch her arms behind her back now that the main event was well and truly over and she had returned to the main menu.
Enjoying this momentary moment of respite after a well and lengthy play through. Smiling satisfied at the way muscles that had been stiff and tense for a while started to slowly loosen up and relax.
Like many she had been waiting for the chance to tattle the new content update that was going to pop up in Genshin in one of these interested to see what the side story about the illusive Knave would be about.
To be honest, it seemed that those sketchy leaks from those guys on the internet had been on point this time. A surprise to be sure, but not an unwelcome one.
Now if only they had been when Signora was around…
A fleeting frown appeared on her face at the memory of the dismay of that day when "best looking yazz queen step on me character" was offed with the swiftness a mother sees their child place a candle in theChristmas tree.
A terrible loss for the world….alas, life continued on.
``I guess that we cant have everything we want...´´
She muttered, shaking her head from such bitter thoughts before standing up from her chair. Walking away from her room as she made her way towards the kitchen, or in this case...skating around using the smoothness of the polished floor with her socks.
At least, as much as one could taking into consideration the boxes and bags spilled all over the ground.
It didn't took long before a pair of blue eyes closed to a half lid, investigating a rather poorly maintained and filled fridge. Huffing with resignation at the poor selection awaiting for her before she pulled out a children's apple juice brick and a half eaten and surely now cold box of cereals.
She really would need to buy something after this because she doubted she would be happy dining today a quarter of a half eaten frozen pizza. Looking at the clock on her wristband with a fleeting glance told her that she had four hours before the shop down the street where she made her purchases closes for the day.
Lets see if she doesn't forget this time….a sprint was never good before any meal or whatsoever.
With that done Sarah returned to her room, lazily slouching down on her chair and resting her legs over the table where the computer still waited for input. The delicate sound of the main menu coming from her headphones butchered a bit by the muffled sound of chewed cereal and uncivilized drinking of apple-juice.
What? It was not weird when she had nothing better than that..especially with how expensive was to pay a rent these days...
Still, it had been quite something the story.
After her devout on the previous Fontaine story line and that gorgeousdesign and personality that had glowed so bright during Signoras "funeral" how could she miss an opportunity to get her hands on such an interesting individual now that she was gonna be fully fleshed out...and clearly not because of how what an absolute meta monster she was gonna become as a DPS during what remained of the game.
The way she spoke with such smoothing calmness yet one that always seemed to be drenched in a passive aggressive demeanor left one always on their toes whether or not she was truly honest, was actually threatening you with fancy words or just joking around.
The way her character design had been weaved and written, chefs kiss….
Having a character that did not act the spoiled rotten kid like Scara or like Childe went towards the character raising a hand and sporting the "bro meet bro" moment of friendliness found in matching how well your fist lands in the face of the other was a welcomed change
Also, been the second best design character of the game helped a lot...
Having that aura of mystery that wrapped every single second of attention around her, making people question and wonder her intentions and origins. The way the characters acted so spooked, weary or just totally blindsided...
Did she say her design was gorgeous? Yes? Oh well….
So….yes, she had been looking forward to see where Genshin was thinking on taking such an interesting character.
And they had…...delivered...a date with the Knave?
Well, perhaps that was…..a bit of a crude over exaggeration of what had "actually" taken place but walking alongside her from place to place, listening to her worries, chat with her about several topics that could be considered mundane were the text book rules of going out with someone.
Yeah, yeah...it was to keep her away from the children and their makeshift plan to send Clervie away, but that WAS a date.
She would die on that hill.
However, about the rest of that story line….
..
..
..
``Urgh, what a BULLSHIT way to brush on my face that the main character is still not ready to face bigger challenges. ´´
She groaned as she lazily slumped against the back of her seat, ignoring the way it creaked under her weight, closing her eyes while she pinched the bridge of her nose.
It was not that it was unbelievable that the Traveler was weaker than other characters, there had been a ton of scenes where they had been knock out, pushed, captured and so on and so on. In a way...it was like the common gist at this point for a mere npc to kick the main character once before you were allowed to do your own thing.
Like genocide in the name of grinding materials...
But what on earth happened to all of the other powers that they had? Five elemental powers and its not shown even once in the entire fight the use of those elements? Just swing your trusty old dull blade..?
It was so strange and immersion breaking that she could not help but laugh a little at that. Strained as it was..
I guess that sometimes one sticks to what is known and reliable..but urgh, its just hurts my brain trying to find a reason for that which does not consist in a plot hole..
She muttered while she dropped the empty box of cereal over the garbage bin, only for it to fall flat on the floor when it failed to enter into the overfilled trash can. Making her roll her eyes as she went to pick up and shove the thing this time deep into the trash can so that it would not fall out again.
``I mean, I get it, sometimes its necessary to write a line on the sand of where things stand and create dread or importance to the growth of the characters instead of making them appear like untouchable...but really? A scripted loss!?
That scene really irked her in the wrong way.
``I was literally cleaning house with her on that fight! She did not even hit me once...!
She whined childishly, raising and wailing both of her arms over her head while comical tears slid down her face.
``Come on! Was it so hard for the developers to leave a small bonus for effort? Like a partially different cinematic or just a little tiny achievement...!?´´
She was not asking much, not really, not at all..right? Right..!? A-after all, if you could get achievements just by stupidly getting killed by npcs...surely the other way around should work too, no?
For the screen to turn black and then show her character barely muster such a weak effort after all the dodging and attacking kinda hurt her pride.
There was also a different thing that nagged her about the entire update and story arc. Especially on the way that even though it was about the Knave, it had felt more a story about anyone else but the Knave. And lets not forget that the video that had been updated onto the web a week before the release of the arc had kinda spoiled most of the story itself...
The fight had been cool yes, but….that was a given with who was the one been challenged and how they had tried to hype it up
After a few seconds..., she closed her eyes, sighing loudly. Rubbing the back of her head with one hand while allowing the other to rest over her lap.
Kinda stupid of hers to get so overworked over nothing, really…, it wasn't like she had any right to nick pick at the things she didn't like like a bloody child. She was an adult for gods sake!
An adult that was still in touch with her inner child, but an adult alright…
..
..
Still, it would have been nice to get to know Arlecchino….a little more than the superficial view she got.
To know who were her parents and whether they loved her….or not.
To see how she got to the House.
To see her grow…
To watch her become closer to the people around her and develop her emotions one step at a time.
To hear her thoughts and opinions of the House of the Hearth, of Clervie….and "Mother"
It certainly would have been-
Her thoughts however were interrupted when a chiming sound reached her ears. Slowly, turning her head towards the origin of the sound, her eyes landed on her computer.
It was still running on the main menu like before….however there was something on it that drew her attention.
A window had pop out.
At first she had shrugged it off as some connection error and that her computer was asking for her to click on it to load out of the game. It was not unusual, sometimes the scammer of the second floor cut the connection of the line of wifi for shits and giggles and screw everyone over for a few hours.
However that line of thought changed when another window popped out.
Bigger...
Way more bigger and a lot more stranger than the previous one if the tittle that was been shown in full display on the screen was anything to go by.
"The Sins of the Hearth"
Alright, that's…..something´´
She mused out loud as she eyed the entire thing. Her curiosity winning her over as she pulled her legs down from the table and pulled her chair closer. Who could blame her, she had always been down bad for ominous titles, especially with the blood splatters and grim looking building that appeared shrouded behind the Tittle.
Still, cool or not.., she had never heard about such a feature implemented into a Gacha game anywhere before, let alone just after a new story arc. Was it a bug..?
She quickly dismissed the idea, there was no way in hell a bug would look like this, too much effort for a mere error of data poorly adjusted.
However, instead of ignoring the entire thing as just some strange glitch or leaked out demo for some sort of project or something and just restarting the system or turning the thing off…...she clicked it.
Perhaps that was her first mistake.
The blackness of the screen and the blood splatters grew in size in an instant, covering now the entire screen as now an animation of lightning and crimson lights that tried to emulate blinking eyes appeared on the corners of the screen.
Glaring at her..
A soft and definitely not creepy childish tune starting to echo softly from the speakers of the computer, glitching out at times.
``Spooky….hmm, I like that´´
She said, morbid interest peaking upas she navigated through the screen, stopping only when the word gallery of characters appeared and clicked it. Immediately, the image of the screen switched to a set of portraits of several characters she had already grown used to….
And others that she didn't.
There was Arlecchino….stuck in a cold and bitter expression of resignation behind those Red X eyes, red like ropes tangled around the future Knaves body…..like a puppets.
Clervie was a must for a story like this.., the young girl smiling behind the grayish and broken portrait she stood..though her expression seemed strained and pained.
Crucabena stood there as-well…proud and arrogant, sitting on a broken throne on a desolated room.
And to the far left was even Freminet, the timid boy looking even more younger than what she remembered him, hiding...on what seemed a corner.
The way the characters were presented behind that shade of blacks and whites and the sheer emotions they denoted was a far cry from the stoic like expressions the rest of the characters had on the main character selection menu.
It felt...more real. Too real in fact.
However she ignored it again, considering it nothing more than just a aesthetic choice of the designers.
That was her second mistake.
Strangely, there were other characters as-well that led her confused, not the npc ones, but rather...why was Furina, Neuvillete and Wriothesley included on the character roster?
True, they were characters that were part of Fontaine for so long…., but what kind of relation did they have with the House of the Hearth? She did not know…, though she doubted that there was a more intricate reason to their presence there than just convenience.
It would be strange for the two most charismatic and known characters of Fontaine to not be present in a story of the nation of Hydro, if only in presence of the Duke of the fortress of Meropide however was something that she did not know..though she doubted that she would lose sleep because of it.
She shook her head after a few moments...preferring to focus more on the glowing option that looked more like broken glass tainted with something slimy and red dripping from it.
"Select your character."
That rose an eyebrow from Sarah, prompting her to take a double take on the explicit words glowing on the screen. Did that mean that she was going to be able to play as one of them? That was definitely new...and more interesting than what she had expected.
However there were only three characters that interested her. Looking at Crucabena, she wondered what possible contributions could playing as her would grant her during the game.
True, it was not like she was thinking on starting with her….with all the ways the mental conditioning and degradation the other characters would go through would be far more interesting.
But..oh well. If she didn't like it, surely she could just start over, right..? She thought to herself as she pressed the former Knaves portrait.
..
..
..
..
That was her last mistake.
ºº
A/N
Hi, here comes another chapter, forgive me for any grammar mistakes you may find and I hope you may like it.
Mobzil: I am happy to hear that, I will try to keep up to your expectations….though to be honest there is a lot of things to plan for the entire overall of the story. I have events on my mind already, but how to weave them smoothly with one another is still a work in progress.
Guest: I am glad you liked it and hope to see you stick around. I must say that you are right that there are not that many Genshin Isekai stories out there.
Excite22: I hope I can keep the story as interesting as you would like it to be, don't fret to share your mind about it though, having different views and opinions can help a lot.
I cant fully promise a steady upload of chapters, I just ask for a bit of patience. With that said, have a good day :)and feel free to comment to give some feedback. Any commentary will be appreciated.