Chapter Text
summoning skyward blade, venti twisted it, prepared to knock zhongli out with a blow to his head using the blunt of the blade, yet finding himself hesitating as his old friend shut his eyes in resignation.
a moment was all zhongli needed to gather his focus. jerking upwards with a sudden motion, he leapt upwards, letting his cloak rip apart as he flipped upright, kicking venti into the ground with one smooth move instead. venti’s head thudded hard against the stone, dazed.
yanking vortex vanquisher from where it stood, he went straight for the bard’s guts, and while venti rolled over as quickly as he could, it still pierced open his sides.
around them, the winds began to howl, angrier than before. for a moment, zhongli swore he heard the screams of long past again.
before either of them could strike again, the ghoulish energy surfaced from beneath the cover, coalescing into the weakened form of a long gleaming snake. two glowering gaze turned towards it.
it was a foolish endeavour to attempt to slither away. at once, the geo archon had dashed forward to grab it, but the anemo archon was faster still. she had barely moved when three arrows were shot straight through her form, pinning her onto the stone.
zhongli turned his focus to gamigin, determined to construct a temporary seal strong enough to contain her essence through the duration needed to investigate the cause of the seal breaking beneath mt lingmeng. she made it sound like ganyu had been investigating too, so perhaps it was also prudent to involve her. it was about time the qixing started to understand how to handle such matters as well.
a deafening blast of wind caused him to turn his head as the huge surge of energy venti sent at the stone eroded the cover away without his explicit focus to keep it intact.