Chapter 81: First In A Thousand Years
This place… is really giving me bad vibes. I know that whatever the danger may be, I'll be able to overcome it. I know that fully well, but I feel like this isn't a physical danger. Rather, a danger to my emotional and mental state…
"Are you okay?" Shenhe asked worryingly. I'm glad that this feeling can break through her binding red rope.
I smiled at her and gave her a pat on the head. I saw the faintest flush on her face and I couldn't help but chuckle. This is going to be interesting.
"Could you two stop flirting?"
"We aren't even flirting…"
"Is that considered flirting?" asked Shenhe, tilting her head to the side a little.
"No, it isn't."
She just silently nodded as I sighed and we continued on our venture into this place. It was quite spacey, much like the whole city under Sal Terrae. I still wonder to this day why hasn't the land above the city collapsed yet. It could be just because the rocks are that strong. Actually, yeah… I think that is the reason.
Haah… with my mind wandering off this much, you could really tell that I'm feeling really bored with the lack of anything but just walking… I mean, I'm still wary of my surroundings, but I'm still bored. So bored that all I could do was just take out my old scarf, put it on, and just play with it. However, even that wasn't enough. That's why I strike up another conversation with Shenhe.
"Hey-"
However, I felt something as soon as we entered a large room while I was about to speak. It was a creeping feeling, even more than before. I looked at where it was coming from and saw it. The defiled statue of The Seven. An upside down statue of Barbatos. The hands of the statue were holding a black sphere while the spikes that sprouted from the ground surrounding it pointed towards the statue.
While I stared at the statue with a spiral of emotions, a portal opened up in front of the statue. What came out was the bastard Abyss Herald. I could hear and feel the cracks near my left eye get longer. In fact, I even felt it reaching all the way down to my cheek.
The Abyss Herald looked towards us and clicked it's tongue.
"A god and a traitor, just great."
—
Shenhe felt a sudden change in Aether's aura. He no longer had that smile he wore earlier. Not just that, the cracks on his left eye got longer and even started glowing a bright yellow. She saw Aether reach a point like this earlier, but this was worse. Earlier, he still somewhat had his normal personality. She knew that was the case because of the glow of kindness in his eyes. His eyes made her feel comfortable, but now, all it did was fill her with this feeling of uneasiness.
His eyes were dull and yet filled with hatred at the same time. She internally dubbed this as 'Aether's Wrathful State'.
"Let's just do this." Aether(?) spoke. Shenhe wasn't really sure if this was him anymore to be honest.
Aether snapped his fingers and the other three people in the room saw a crack appear behind him, quickly swallowing them all afterwards. The next thing they saw after that was a desolate land. There were ruins scattered about and the sky was a golden hue. 'Just what is this place?' wondered Shenhe.
Without a warning, Aether dashed towards the Abyss Herald, already having his sword in hand. Weirdly enough, Shenhe saw the sword glowing dark purple. As soon as he reached the Abyss Herald, he swung his sword. Unfortunately, the Herald blocked his strike with Hydro Blades on both arms. However, you could still see just how much power he had put on that single strike, proven by the large crater they created.
"Tch, usel-"
"Shut up."
Aether backed off a bit, only to twist and kick the Herald on its side. This caused the Herald to fly off quite a bit. He didn't let the Herald regain balance as he appeared beside it and punched it's stomach with his free hand. The Herald stepped back a bit while holding its stomach in pain. Shenhe could hear Aether's breathing change and he went into a stance.
In a single second, Aether just went from being in front of the Herald to being behind it. Shenhe didn't what the point of that is, it was like he just phased through the Herald without-
"Gahh!"
Only then did Shenhe notice, and Dainsleif too, that Aether actually did something. Black lines that represented Aether's slashes appeared out of nowhere and hit the Herald. One even managed to cut one of its arms off. However, something unexpected happened. Something that had left both onlookers shocked.
"So you can do that too." Aether said as he turned and faced the Abyss Herald. 'What does he mean by that? Has he faced an Abyss Herald before?' Shenhe questioned. Dainsleif knew Aether went to something unknown with a few others, but he didn't know what happened after he entered that crack. Could it be that he fought an Abyss Herald on the other side of that crack?
The Abyss Herald, now having a new Hydro arm, pointed its blades at Aether angrily.
"You!"
"Yeah, yeah." Aether snapped, burning the severed arm with the flames that were attached to it. He even started to burn the Herald with the black flames that his slashes left earlier. The flames started to absorb the Hydro arm too.
"Tsk…" The Herald tried to create a portal, but it couldn't. This Realm prevents that.
"There's no use, you won't be able to escape this place." Aether pointed his blade at the Herald. "Unless you defeat me, of course."
Hearing this, the Herald dashed towards Aether. When it reached Aether, it tried slicing Aether's head off. Aether just blocked the strike using Geo and swung his sword with the intent to slice the other arm of the Herald off. However, a burst of Hydro made him fly back a bit. It didn't do any damage, it seems it was just to make some distance.
The Herald wrapped itself in Hydro, but this was a grave mistake. Seeing her chance to help Aether, Shenhe summoned her Cryo incarnate once more, freezing the Herald in place. She then tried killing the Herald by shattering the ice, but she was thrown back when the Herald broke free.
Shenhe flipped midair, landing gracefully on the ground. Just before the Herald could move, a dark blue energy wrapped itself around the Herald's neck, holding it high up in the air. Shenhe nodded at Dainsleif, knowing he was the one who did it since his hands were raised, and jumped towards the Herald with the intent to kill.
However, a crack appeared at where the Herald stood earlier. When the crack shattered and made a hole in the Realm, someone Aether's been looking for appeared. She jumped to block Shenhe's attack by giving her own attack.
Not expecting this, Shenhe wouldn't have enough time to block. Aether knew this, that's why he jumped and blocked Lumine's attack. Her attack carried along Abyssal Corruption, in which Aether's Gluttony absorbed. In all of this, Aether removed the Gluttony flames on the Herald and made it absorb the Abyssal Corruption instead. The flames disappeared right after that.
Aether made a bubble out of Anemo to safely place Shenhe back on the ground while he and Lumine stayed up in the air.
"Hello, brother."
"Sup, Lumine." Silence was all that followed. Shenhe couldn't help but worry for Aether's safety. The amount of pressure these two were emitting was scary.
Lumine didn't seem all that bothered about her brother facing her at the moment, but her brother… was conflicted. Of course he was. His beloved sister, the one who's always been more social and the people person, was now part of a group that's sole existence is to defy the gods.
"Why…" Aether's eyes had a glint of sadness. "Why did you do this?"
"You don't understand… but soon, when you've finished your journey, you'll see the truth about this world… You'll see the reason for my war with destiny. I'll join you once more when my war with destiny has ended."
At those words, something within Aether snapped.
"Did you seriously just do all of this… for a war?"
"Correct."
"ALL OF THE INNOCENT LIVES LOST, ALL OF THE FAMILIES YOU TOOK FROM, ALL OF IT WAS JUST FOR SOME DUMB WAR WITH DESTINY!?"
"..."
"TELL ME LUMINE!"
"..."
"...You really ignore everything huh… All the suffering that your 'people' caused. All the pain…"
Aether clenched his scarf and it looked like tears were about to erupt from his eyes. Why did his sister turn out like this?
"You've grown way attached to this world, dear brother. Perhaps removing any-"
"Shut up!"
Aether's face returned to one of anger as his eyes glowed furiously. Not only that, the tips of his braided hair started to fade into black. The longer Shenhe and Dainsleif look at the blonde's, the more they start to suddenly question who's the evil one here. Aether, with his hair now fading into black, looked more evil. The only sign of 'light' on his clothing was his white scarf. Hell, even his sword looked corrupted.
Lumine on the other hand looked angelic, with her beautiful wings and her white themed dress. Her sword even emitted divinity. However, looks can be deceiving. After all, Aether was the one fighting for Teyvat here.
"You say I had no mercy on killing people, but weren't you doing the same?"
"...What?"
"Those Abyss creatures you've killed before, they were originally human. And don't act like you haven't been merciless as well. You've been to countless wars and killed millions upon millions of people."
Hearing the truth about the Abyssal creatures shocked Aether, but when Lumine mentioned just how much he's killed, that didn't really matter anymore.
"That's right, I did kill countless people so I don't have much of a say in this, but what you're doing still isn't right. In those times, the ones I've killed… no, the ones we've killed were soldiers of our enemies. The ones your 'people' killed are innocent bystanders, all of them just trying to live their lives. Don't even get me started with Adventurer's, they're just trying to make a living."
Lumine sighed. She was getting tired of this. Their plans were already foiled as soon as a god got involved, so there wasn't really any reason to continue this plan. She just wanted to leave already. And oh boy did Aether want to leave too. Why did he want to leave though? Wasn't this the sister he's been looking for? The answer's easy… He didn't want to see her like this.
The Realm slowly disappeared as both of the blonde's descended. Both of them turned away from each other as Lumine walked to the other side of the room with the Herald. The Herald made a portal and entered. Lumine was about to follow suite until she turned around and looked at Aether once more.
"Soon, brother. You'll see what I'm really fighting for and what the truth of this world is. Until then, I must bid farewell."
With that, she left. Dainsleif chased after them, leaving Aether and Shenhe alone.
"Aether…?" Shenhe walked towards Aether. He wasn't moving at all, as if he was just a statue. However, upon closer inspection, Shenhe could see that he was shaking. Just as Shenhe was about to get close to Aether, he fell on his knees while holding his hands up to his face. "Aether!" Shenhe doesn't know why she's that worried for a man she's just met, but none of that matters right now.
She crouched down and embraced Aether tightly. He was quite shocked at the gesture, but quickly accepted it. He cried his heart out, his sobs echoing in the room. No one's ever heard him cry like this before, not even his wives. This might even be the first time that he's cried like this for the past thousands of years.
"Why is everything so cruel to us…?" He was shaking and his voice hitched. Shenhe didn't know what to do at times like these. Of course she didn't, she wasn't used to human interactions after all. However, it just felt right to just listen and be there for him.
"It's okay, just let it all out." Shenhe whispered to his ear. All that followed was more of Aether's sobs.
After what felt like an eternity, Aether finally calmed down. "You okay now?" the beautiful woman that was embracing him asked. Aether couldn't help but be embarrassed. Why wouldn't he be? This was the first time someone else, other than his sister, has seen him this vulnerable.
"Y-yeah…"
"Do you want to stay like this for a bit?"
"Mhm…"
—
Welp, I might get cushioned by boobs tonight. Why? Well, I decided to bring Shenhe home and when the girls asked her questions, she also mentioned what happened earlier. The girls that were present, which was actually all of them, looked at me worryingly.
"Are you okay now?" asked Ganyu while she cupped my cheek. Havria asked the same question as she cupped my other cheek.
I held their hands that were on my cheeks and smiled. "Don't worry, I'm okay now. Sorry to make you worry like that."
Ganyu and Havria shook their heads. "No need to apologize. It's only normal for us to worry about you." said Ganyu, slowly embracing me.
"Mhm, we're just glad you're okay." added Havria as she did the same.
All the other girls did the same too. Well, all of them except Shenhe. She just looked at us. When she noticed that I was looking at her, she smiled. 'She smiled!' It was quite the surprise really, since I know her situation and all. There is one thing I want to say about her smile though… dear archons it was gorgeous.
I would have signaled for her to join us, but I was already being crushed by cushions. Which was heavenly by the way. Haah, this was comforting with what I experienced earlier.
"Oh? Your hair color changed a bit." Amy said as she lifted up my braid. True enough, my hair faded into black. Well shit, these are permanent now, aren't they? I just hope that the cracks shorten. I'm fine with the slit pupils, but I'd be better if those shorten too.
"That looks really cool!" Barbara and Mona said as they admired my new hair color. I think that it was really cute that Bob was on top of Barbara's head.
"Ara, cutie's eyes are interesting too~" said Lisa as she held up a mirror so that I could see too. "What do you think, cutie?"
"It's actually better than I thought." The cracks, which were now just three lines, were now only 3 cm long. My slit pupils got considerably shorter as well. I'm starting to look like a different person… I mean, that really isn't a bad thing. Change is good after all.
It was still early in the day, around 1 in the afternoon. I should have plenty of time to do something else, but frankly, I'm tired. I haven't even eaten yet.
"I'm hungry, let's eat lunch. Shenhe, join us too."
She nodded and we all went to the dining room.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Ayato_Suzuki
Ayato_Suzuki F the schedule. I suddenly had a speedrun feeling and now I finished "We Will Be Reunited" in just two chapters. I don't really know if that's bad or not. Is it bad?
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone