It's almost midnight. None of the residents of Li Yue can sleep a wink. Civilians, except for the volunteers who defended the city, were evacuated to Inazuma. Soldiers in groups stood up to defend the city. Each of them contains the owner of the Visions. The only ones missing are Bei Dou, Kazuha, Bai Zhu, Mei Mei and Hu Tao. The first two command a small fleet, a man with a snake - in case someone gets sick, a dendro girl is with them because of her age, and a ritualist due to her inability to remove the severe shock, tears and tremors in her body due to the horror experienced a few hours earlier. But how could this happen?..

Time 9:22. A typical day in Li Yue. The city lives a measured life. Trade, agreements, deals, contracts. People were able to successfully settle down without the tutelage of the Geo Archon. Speaking of him.

Even living the life of an ordinary person, he still sometimes visits Aotsang Mountain. Bringing tea with a divine treat, he, as in the good old days, puts everything in its place and becomes nostalgic, relaxing, sometimes sipping a little of the drink. But the introduction of a guest into the territory of a neighboring region disturbed his inner peace.

Sensing danger in himself, he subconsciously experienced genuine fear, which is why he immediately jumped away from his place to the side, dropping the cup from his hands, and instantly found himself in a fighting stance with a spear and under a geo-shield, although Morax understood that the danger is very and very far.

- W-what are you?...

An unnatural trembling came from the lips of the centenarian. He understood that something terrible was coming. And even if his people cannot cope with the threat themselves, then Chun Li will go against his principles and break the contract in order to stop This, and what is behind him and is much worse than the upcoming threat. Realizing that there was no time to hesitate, the geo-patron of the region rushed as fast as he could into the city, namely to his funeral parlour, knowing that in addition to him there would be two other personalities there

Just like the heroes of the still living Mondstat, the Visions reacted to the introduction of an alien. But this time, no one noticed it, since everyone was much more immersed in their own affairs than the people of the neighboring region. Ye Lan was resolving the issue of investigating the case of bandits looting the Quarry, Chi-Chi and Bai Zhu were preparing medicinal mixtures. Unless Chen Sheng felt something was wrong, she pushed this feeling down to "it seemed." Hu Tao was addressing the issue of effectively selling coffins and funeral services. Bei Dou, along with Kazuha, docked with cargo from Inazuma to the city of contracts. Ning Guang and Ke Qing were fiddling with papers and discussing how to increase profits from sales. And while almost all the characters were busy with work, Xiao and Shen He were sparring on the Dragon Ridge, near the mouth of the defeated monster. And since they used their eyes, they immediately stopped the fight when the clone of the warrior simply dissipated upon her appearance. After exchanging glances, they silently rushed to the city to Morax, to resolve the threat that had arisen, which spearmen are definitely not able to cope with.

Although the three of them had outstanding stamina, it took them about half an hour of continuous sprinting to gather together. And with this action they additionally attracted attention from the outside. After all, before this, people only saw them walking calmly, at most with a moderately accelerated step, and here they are doing a marathon race, weaving between the residents so as not to knock them off their feet. This provided the people of the city with a topic of discussion about what could happen to require such speed from such persons. The seed of panic has been planted.

And so, three individuals, one of whom is an archon, the second a demon and the third a person, ended up in the same building.

- You felt it too, didn't you? - Morax asked, closing the door behind him, and sitting on a chair, putting his elbows on his legs, then clasping his hands, and supporting his chin with his thumbs, while looking somewhere into emptiness

- No, we saw it... visions became temporarily, how can I say... inactive - Xiao answered briefly - I've never seen anything like this

- This is what it means.. - this information alarmed Chun Li even more. The enemy, or whoever stands behind him, influences the elemental energy. ALL the elemental energy of the world

- Could this be the tricks of the Abyss?

- IT is many times worse than the Abyss! - The Archon could not maintain his calm character in this situation, and raised his voice to Shen He - ...we are not strong enough to cope with the order, how did such a force appear here..

Everyone fell silent. Tension was in the air. Nobody knew what to do right. On the one hand, there is a contract, breaking which will cause the archon to deviate from his principles. And having changed them, he will betray himself. On the other hand, the lives of people not only of Li Yue, but of all of Teyvat. The patron was lost in thought.

- From which side did you feel the appearance of... This? - Shen He asked in an emotionless voice.

- From the Mondstadt side. And I'm afraid they can't be saved. They are doomed. And we must not let their sacrifice fall in vain.

Getting up from his seat, Morax glanced at his interlocutors.

- You must gather all the owners of the Vision. I intend to inform Ning Guang about the immediate evacuation of the population of Li Yue. We must save as many people as possible and try to destroy the threat! Let's move out now!

Now, all three scattered in different directions and began to carry out their assignments. Rushing into the jade palace, Jun Li explained the situation. Afterwards, Ke Qing went to the mines to stop work followed by evacuation. Ning Guang instructed the Milletites to inform citizens about the upcoming evacuation and ensure its success. She herself headed to the port, where the Bei Dou ship stood at the pier, checking lists of provisions and goods for return transportation. The mistress called the woman away, calling her for a conversation. After minutes of discussion, the captain reluctantly agreed to transport citizens, but on the condition that she would be given additional provisions and ships with crew, one ship is unlikely to be enough to save all the people in the region.

After several hours of packing, the port was crowded with people, each of whom took with them a bunch of extra things, due to which the ship would be overweight and there would be an additional lack of space. For this reason, indignation arose. Absolutely every resident wanted to take as much of their property as possible and place their families. The merchants who especially stood out were those who rolled up their boxes with goods that were "much more important than everything taken together from others." It came to a scuffle and subsequent injuries, despite the control from milletites, which significantly increased the time for evacuation. Here she is

human greed.

While the chaos was happening, which Ye Lan, together with the Melletites, was trying to calm down, it was slowly getting dark, and there was less and less time left. And at the moment when all the owners of the Visions were already in Li Yue and were waiting for the next instructions, only one funeral parlor owner was missing. She was looking for her companion spirit, who did not respond to her call after finishing work on advertising her services. At first, she thought it was a game of hide and seek, but when the ghost did not respond to accepting the loss after half an hour of searching, it made her feel uneasy. Therefore, it was decided to go to the Uvan Slope to get to the "Fringe" - the only supposed place where the spirit could still live. The girl left the building minutes before the trio described above visited it. Upon arrival at the destination, the clock showed 18:46

Standing opposite the entrance to the "usual place", she was already entering it

- Sooooo, this is the only place where you can be... Well, I'll find you, you prankster!

Walking along the entire path, the girl looked from side to side, hoping to see the scoundrel who was detaining her before protecting her from "some threat." And now, a turn, after which there will be a small corridor and behind it a space illuminated in yellow, like the sun, with a glow that, although it was visible from time to time, it was still pleasant to be in it. But instead of the expected sight at the end there were... Metal walls. Usually what was previously visible has been replaced by a small room that appears before the start of any level of the game, with a descent downwards, and in front of the stairs into the darkness there was a stand with a burning torch. Torch from the V1 universe. Looking at it warily, especially at the "strange" flame, and at the limited space around her, Hu Tao made up her mind and took the light in her hand, and holding the angular figure, began to go down the steps. But just in case, kept her spear ready to fight. Her heart just wanted to jump out of her chest from the stressful situation.

- What kind of place is this... Did something happen to the transition from home to the afterlife? Has he changed? Buu Tao, where are you?...

Meanwhile, the stairs kept going down and down, down and down, down and down until the girl got tired of it

- HOW MUCH IS IT POSSIBLE?! WHEN DOES IT EVEN END, WHAT KIND OF JOKE IS THIS...

Turning around, the owner of the funeral home discovered that she had not gone down less than half a meter from the first step. This caused her to panic a little. She walked for about seven minutes straight, but still remained in place

- H-h-haaa-hah... What a joke, Buu! I don't know how you did it, but the pop scarecrow was great, I agree... But m-maybe you'll finish this already, ahah

But then she felt a presence behind her, after which the weight of hands on her shoulders, and heard a voice that seemed to be in her head. He was not alone. Hundreds, maybe thousands of different low voices sounded at once. It was the voice of Hell

Y

Hu Tao dropped the torch and made a smashing blow through her left side to protect herself from those standing behind her. But after the attack was completed, there was no one behind him. But she found herself in a completely different place. She was in an empty cylindrical room where Sisyphus had previously been imprisoned, and around her the disfigured souls of people killed by V1 were writhing and screaming in pain. The cry of suffering was the only sound of this place, reverberating from the walls. Some were missing arms, legs, and most of their torso. Timmy held on to the rest of his severed head and did not know how to relieve the pain, the gate guards writhed, clinging to their lethal wounds, Klee lay and trembled, rolling her eyes back in pain, as did Rosaria, whose upper half grabbed the floor with her hands and screamed with all her might, tearing her voice, while Kirara from for the vocal cords that were torn before death, all that was left was to groan.

And all these souls, in addition to torment, were united by one more thing: their wounds bled endlessly, which is why everyone was covered in each other's blood, and the floor was filled with liquid tissue to the level of their completely submerged feet.

What he saw paralyzed Hu Tao. She is no longer in the Border. She's in the place not related to her. What's happened? Why are all these people suffering? WHO could leave SUCH wounds that were imprinted on souls? Why do souls seem to be in a human body? Will it be the same with others? A ringing began in her ears, drowning out the screams and leaving her thoughts alone. The ritualist felt this pressure and stress, and how it was eating into her head. She hadn't felt this way since she attended her grandfather's funeral. The questions asked before faded into the background, and only one stood out: "Where is the Border now?"

R, R

The pupils constricted, the trembling intensified, the breath caught even more, the perception of time slowed down. The Border and the underworld are no more, and so is Buu Tao. Now there is something that speaks to her. This superorganism is on the level or even stronger than the Gods. Now it is forbidden to die, otherwise everyone will meet the fate of these souls.

Her thoughts were stopped by a completely black, burnt soul that fell on the ritualist, with her writhing movements and screams, she joined the chorus of sufferers. It was Amber who died because of her plan to destroy V1, which, unfortunately for her, failed. Looking at her closely, at the charred, stretched and fused skin that blocked her eyes, nose and mouth, Hu Tao felt like vomiting, which were blocked by the horror that bound the body. And this is just the face. The body was no less disfigured. The epithelium, like one crust, covered the body, literally eating into the ribs and baked muscles, until it and the whole body turned into dust during life. And four more souls were subjected to a similar description, two of which were additionally with fractures of all bones. You can also note Kaya with a hole in her chest, and Razor, now constantly vomiting blood due to extensive internal bleeding. These were all victims of the explosion in Mondstatt. Unable to stand it, Hu Tao began to tremble and silently roar, having previously thrown Amber off of her, hoping that it was just a nightmare. Simply the worst nightmare of her entire life.

And so, sitting on the bloody floor, holding her head and being on the verge of madness from being in Hell, she, with her trembling peripheral vision, noticed how one of the souls was pierced by chains at the hip and shoulder joints, after which they wrapped themselves around the limbs and slowly began to lift the burnt victim to the level of the Panopticon. It was Venti. The girl's tear-filled eyes were directed at him. He was face down, and in order for him to suffer even more, the baked eyelids were cut and forcibly fixed in the open state with hooks, coming from the forehead of a drinker. Drops of blood dripped from the chain links and fell onto Hu Tao's face.

L, I S N ' T I T, - ?

By mockingly asking, Hell took it out on him for his irresponsibility before the people. He should have tried to prevent the danger even when he sensed something different, but chose to blame it all on alcohol and continue having fun. And now, the former archon sees what his decision led to, adding to the physical torment also the torment of conscience, which eats into his thoughts and soul more painfully than chains.

I ' U, N, )

Once again a moment and she is in a room with a torch, sitting in front of a counter. But even without being present in Hell, he was imprinted in her head, her consciousness, and she continued to mentally observe the suffering of people, some of whom she once had the opportunity to communicate and deal with. But also realizing that now there was a chance to escape, she threw her spear, all the time clenched in her hands, and rushed back, bumping and stumbling at every turn, until she found herself in front of the exit from the former Border, quickly using it.

Hu Tao found herself in her own world. It was already dark, the crickets began to shout over each other, tall trees covered the sky and the moon was visible in the distance. And in front of the entrance to Hell, on her knees and with her hands down, sat a girl, mostly covered in blood, roaring and wanting only one thing - to cease to exist, because this is the only way out where she will not experience suffering. She was trembling and completely defenseless against any danger that might arise now. But she was lucky Instead of an enemy, Xiao found himself in front of her, who had heard such a cry of despair for the first time, and moving towards him, he was shocked by the form in which the girl appeared in front of him. But quickly emerging from a state of mild shock, he picked up the broken one and, using gusts of wind, rushed to Li Yue, where they were already ready to try to stop the danger looming in front of them. And Hu Tao tried to tell him about what she saw and warn him, but the only thing she could do now was make sobbing sounds, mixed with sighs, instead of articulate speech.

Somehow I look at the coverage, and I don't see progress, and because of this, I'll be ready to post it in this way: if there are reactions and good visitation numbers, it'll be posted right away. Well, if not... well, you'll wait 1-1.5 months. Although, you are not particularly interested in it. Well, never mind