Chapter Text
The weapons of war were lined up on the hills along the Guili Shore and Yaoguang Shoal, a grand fortress the gods of Guili Plains made for the greatest war that was about to be engraved into the bloodiest history of Teyvat. Morax had mustered up all of his adepti, assigning them into their respective positions so they may execute his strategies well.
Guizhong was also there, standing by his side because all of the magical, gigantic ballistae still needed her power to operate before being amplified by the adepti operating them. Even if they didn’t, the Lord of Dust would still remain on the same spot, she didn’t want to sit back and watch her friends fighting on the front lines. As she observed the whirling sea vortexes that touched even the high skies above and stirred a malicious storm, the Goddess acknowledged her powerlessness; that was why she was the brain, and the two of them were…
Morax threw her a glance, noticing those slender, gentle hands suddenly grew stiff and hard as they gripped the Memory of Dust tighter. He looked into the eyes that were facing straight forward to the vortexes, there was a resolve burning bright behind her eyes...he knew what Guizhong was determined to do, strangely…
Because, he too, was here for the same exact purpose.
Osial…, The Lord of Geo uttered the name in his heart, casting his spear from the thin air, and took three steps forward. As if the ocean beast heeded his calling, hundreds of humongous serpentine heads rose from the raging waters, crying out in unison so loud that it sent several waves of tsunamis towards its circumference. Morax raised his hand, calling forth tall rock mountains, he stopped the tsunami from hitting Guili Plains. He had thwarted the first wave of Osial’s attack successfully.
MORAX… MORAAAAX!!! The beast returned his summoning by screaming his name. AH… SO, YOU ALL HAVE COME TO DELIVER YOUR SOULS FOR ME TO FEAST ON! The beast roared out its ominous, evil laughter for the world to hear, but as Morax listened carefully, he could hear it, and perhaps, Guizhong too…
Osial was _________.
The gentle goddess steeled her soft heart. “Ready the ballista!” Guizhong displayed the seriousness she never showed off before, her billowed sleeve rattled hard against the wind as she swung her right hand. On the cue of her orders, the ballistae came to life, the machines whirling out loud like the beat of war drums, signaling the beginning of the upcoming battle. The adepti channeled their powers into the weapons, and Osial watched as various colors shone bright along the shore. The ballista shot their first wave, almost of the arrows hitting the monster’s bodies and heads. The serpent heads howled in response to the damage done to them; to think that the weapons he perfected with his own input would be the ones used to injure him! The second wave of arrows was hurled, this time their powers significantly increased due to Guizhong’s further blessings.
“Guizhong-”
“I’m okay! This is nothing compared to the suffering our friend went through!” she still found the chance to grin cheekily. “I am the Lord of Dust, Guizhong! And we have been standing side by side for more than a millennia, Morax! We are equals!”
He could hear it even from afar.
The sea raged more violently in tandem with his broken heart.
...Did he still possess one after all of this?
The third wave chased after their targets, hitting each head with high proficiency. Some of the water serpents began to fall back, merging with the ocean. Did they do it? Did they manage to make Osial weaker?
Guizhong was panting, her pale face was covered in sweat and dust, these were clear signs that fatigue from overusing her powers to a hundred ballistae at once had caught up with her stamina. Any more than this and Guizhong would suffer from immense spirit deficiency.
Osial wouldn’t let her rest.
Struggle all you want… FOR YOUR DEATHS ARE NIGH!
The remaining hydra lifted their head to the high sky, glowing blue orbs crawled up the serpents’ throat and coughed out to the air. All the adepti’s eyes were following as the orbs united into one massive power and burst into an elemental pillar that connected the ocean floor and dark space above, signifying the amplitude of Osial’s limitless power.
Was it due to their people’s prayer over the hundreds of years?
Or had Osial always been so strong since birth?
The pillar turned into a gigantic elemental explosion, by the time the dazzling blue light vanished, water comets rained down the earth just like winter’s shower. The adepti begin to panic, if they hit, even something as sturdy as the Guizhong Ballista wouldn’t be able to-
“Come forth!” Morax commanded the earth and cast his strongest shields and mountains of rocks to protect their arsenals, the adepti and his people who could only cower in fear. The water comets hit its targets, crushing the trees, shattering the mountains, bringing forth catastrophe to the surface of the earth. The retaliation ended, what Osial sought to destroy still stood tall in their positions. Guili evaded a sure death, though some of the ballistae were destroyed as Morax couldn’t protect all of it with his current power, and he still had to reserve some for a battle he predicted he couldn’t avoid.
As expected of the Lord of Geo... The serpent heads calmly hovered on the air. You’re always so strong...always so durable… It makes me WANT TO RUIN YOU EVEN MORE!
“Prepare the fourth-!”
“I will handle this, Guizhong.” Morax took another five steps forward, his legendary spear in his right hand.
“Morax, I can still-!”
“Reserve your energy. Wait for the moment. Speed is the essence of victory, so does patience.”
“...Yes, My Lord.”
Morax gave her a nod and went into the frontlines, directly challenging Osial himself.
FINALLY! YOU CHOSE TO SHOW YOURSELF, MORAX!
The bearer of the name merely stood on the high rocky mountain that he summoned from the ocean floor, staring at his enemy (they were...enemies now, were they not?) with an indifferent, stone-cold expression. Osial couldn’t see it, the usual warmth painted on his face, the fondness and the tranquility as the man told him stories and useless trivia of bygone pasts.
For why should spare any form of kindness towards the enemy?
Wasn’t this what Osial wanted centuries ago?
In the midst of rolling thunders and blaring rain, he could hear voices traveling from the past.
Enemies aren’t supposed to praise each other!
Morax, I’m here for your life!
Yes, he was staying true to his purpose of being here. He’s not some vagrant living rent-free in their ocean, he had always been the enemy god lurking in the ocean beneath, slithering around while trying to seize an opportunity to end this blockhead’s life.
“Osial…”
There was...a hint of benign grief as if the god was mourning someone's death.
The beast growled at the calling.
I suppose I never saw you as an enemy to begin with, that’s all.
Where did they go wrong?
I want you to bring home a good impression about Guili when you left, Osial.
It...relieves me when someone I know is carrying a piece of Guili’s history with them outside our territory.
A friend… Yes, a friend.
As he stared deep into those red eyes, Morax harked back to the bygone days.
But, I did worry about you.
Those red eyes shone with...loneliness (he couldn't understand, but he couldn't deny that he felt that he's standing alone on the top of the world, and it was uncomfortable, his head felt heavy and his chest suffocated, it made him suffer, and he asked himself: is this what humans call loneliness?; and no, he didn't want to experience this kind of hurtful feelings). The Lord of Geo brooded whether those eyes were reflecting this intense pain clutching his being... or were they feeling the same (he didn't want him to suffer from this nauseating feeling).
Morax spoke nothing else. He summoned giant stone spears from the sky, raining them down at Osial’s watery body. As the elemental spears pierced through the columns of water, Osial continued to roar in agony and Morax was relentless in his attacks. One of the heads whipped itself towards him, the Lord of Geo easily moved out of its way by jumping high into the air, the mountain was crushed and it crumbled back into the sea. It didn’t stop Morax as he summoned another round of spears, hurling them at great speed. The beast retaliated by shooting globs of saltwater at him, Morax defended himself with the Jade Shield, the sharp ting echoed in the air at each hit it received in the place of its master. Morax landed on the high ground he summoned, he changed his tactics by calling forth the spears from below the sea and impaled them at Osial. Some of the heads fell back into the waters, Osial was weakening. His frontal attacks worked better than crafted weapons of war, but he would never be able to achieve such a feat without Guizhong’s vanguard attacks.
“Morax! We’re ready!”
The Lord of Geo distracted the ocean beast’s attention by shooting it with countless amounts of spears again, Osial’s hydra heads began its pursuit of him. Good, everything went well as planned. He’s the God of War, his strategies were flawless in front of a mindless beast as-
He miscalculated. A hydra was slithering under the ocean waves, gliding so smoothly towards a certain destination he knew all too well. Morax extended his hand, trying to reach her.
It was too late.
A sharp water spike sprouted from the sea and it went straight through the unguarded goddess’s chest.
“Gui-”
His jaw dropped, his mouth opened wide, so wide that his cheeks might have ripped apart.
“GUIZHOOOONG!!!”
He blasted himself towards the fallen goddess, catching her in time before her frail body touched the drenched ground. The ballistae stopped their once lively whirling, that was one sound less in the stormy battlefield. The adepti didn’t leave their positions; they wanted to be there for her, but they couldn’t… Neglecting the post was one of the worst war crimes and their Lord would never forgive them for it. The serpent retreated back to its colony, guffawed at its accomplishment. Unable to use the ballistae anymore, the adepti descended down from their positions and went to the battlefield, fighting off the Overlord with all their might per Morax's backup plan.
The goddess turned her head slowly, Morax caught her trembling left hand.
“Guizhong, stay with me! We-”
“Morax…”
The goddess’s body started to turn into dust, she was lighter than she was before. Death was welcoming her...so, in the end, not even immortals could escape It.
No… No… His chest twisted with indescribable pain, thousand of alien emotions swirled in his heart. His face was wet from the rain, yet he realized that there were new water streaks flowing down his cheeks.
Guizhong chirped at the sight, smiling weakly. The beautiful glaze lilies around them began to turn grey and wither away to accompany her in death. She raised her other hand, carrying her prized weapon, a stone dumbbell that shone brightly in contrast to her dying light, and placed it in his hand.
“Morax...listen well…” she weakly said, her friend wanted to stop her, but he remained silent instead. “This is the mark of our pledge, and it is also my challenge to you. All my wisdom is hidden within this stone dumbbell."
“Those little people are as small and fragile as dust... Because they are so small, they know not when they will...lose their lives to disaster or strife, and so they are afraid."
She wondered how her people were doing at this very moment, she could imagine them trembling in their hiding, praying for a miracle to save them from their death.
"Because they are afraid, they try so...hard to become more intelligent. This I... understand..."
Ah...how fragile, yet they were beautiful beings.
"So I thought that since there is such a gulf... between us in strength, I should use technique and-... wisdom instead. With your brawn and my brains... this city would surely become a great one."
Guizhong weakly grinned at the man above her, the grey Heaven kissed her cheeks with its tears...and some of them belonged to him. There was wailing from afar. Ah... some of these were... his as well...weren't they?
Guizhong reminisced the first fight she watched, the first dinner they shared, and the very first toast of the osmanthus wine they enjoyed under the full moon on that fateful day. Her lips quivered, her sight became blurry from the tears pooling in her eyes, streaming down her face and falling down to the earth. She wanted to walk on this earth for a longer time with the two lovable blockheads by her side, she wanted to share more meals and drinks with them, to witness their grand duels, to laugh and joke and bicker, and to fight alongside them against the evil and protecting the people.
Alas, she had to say her farewells now.
“It seems that our journey... together has come to an end...”
Her final smile was a lonely one, even as her form dissolved into the finest dust. Morax was silent as well.
With the last of the strength she had, the Lord of the Dust went back to the past in her mind. The ocean's beast's roar pierced through the passage of Time, and she could see the faces the Overlord made when he was with her Lord, all the expressions she recorded as they spoke to each other, bickered and fought against each other. When her Lord tightened his grip, she saw the little flicker in his amber eyes when they crossed their weapons, the fondness painted all over his face when he praised Osial's signs of progress and the delight as he listened patiently to his long stories he shared during their walks and their drinks. Ah, she understood their wraths and sadness at last.
“You two...are really blockheads," she chortled, shaking her head weakly. "You have...someone you...wanted to save…” her eyes began to flutter shut slowly. “Save him, Morax… He...is important to you, no…?”
Morax bit down his lips.
“Save whom you can save… As for me, I’m...fine, Morax. I’ll be doing just...fine…”
The lower part of her body had gone as clouds of dust carried by the wind.
“As for the stone dumbbell… If... you don't want to forget about it... you two can unlock it-”
Time was cruel even to immortals. She didn’t even get the chance to finish her parting words. Morax still kneeled on the ground, his hands remained frozen at the same position, the stone dumbbell glows faintly in his possession as the last speck of dust was swept far away.
There was an animalistic roar vibrating in the air, piercing Heaven and Hell, it was very near. Only when his throat felt a sharp sting, Morax acknowledged it. It was him that was screaming his lungs out, cracking his throat dry. Something snapped so loudly in the back of his head; a desire for carnage.
THAT BITCH HAS DIED! FINALLY! SUCH WEAKLING DOESN’T DESERVE A PLACE ON THIS EARTH, MORAX! AND NOR DO YOU! YOU TOO, ARE A WEAKLING!
He was a weakling, Osial was right. He couldn’t even protect two of the most important figures in his life. Did his title as the Lord of Geo worth nothing? Was the strength bestowed to him meant nothing? Was he that powerless?
Something soft and weak touched his fallen hand, he turned towards the source, hoping he could find Guizhong there. There was a single dying glaze lily, weakly waving along with the wind, tapping the back of his hand repeatedly as if it was trying to remind him of his true purpose here...and Guizhong’s last words.
Morax took the dumbbell and the spear, the glaze lily broke apart into petals and flew somewhere else after serving its purpose. He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly.
“Osial…”
A ball of light appeared in front of him out of the thin air, it gathered sparkles from the surrounding ground, stones, hills, and mountains into it.
“Per the very first contract of the Guili Assembly,” the light dissipated and a chess-like piece with a glowing yellow center floated peacefully in the air. “I, Morax, Archon of Geo-” the stone dumbbell vanished, his hand took the gnosis, “shall fulfill my duty as the God of Contracts.”
A surge of immeasurable power was blasted out of his body, his amber eyes were glowing so dazzlingly in the middle of the darkness of the storm. Morax floated into the air and launched himself forward, appearing in front of one of Osial’s heads in an instant, causing the Ocean God to flinch. The Geo Archon balled up his fist and slammed it hard against the head, it splashed into nothing, and the rest of the body sunk into the sea.
THAT’S IT, MORAX! GIVE IT YOUR ALL!
“As you wish.”
They kept on battling for days and weeks, with the adepti all stationed around Guili Plains could only sit back and watch what can be remembered as the most destructive duel in Teyvat's history. Stone spears against crashing waves, meteors against tsunamis, pillars against vortexes. The earth trembled, the Heavens quivered, Hell shook at the magnitude of their monstrous raw strength. If this continued, Teyvat might be as well destroyed, yet as if they cared not of the possibility, they kept on going with their duel.
In the midst of the heat of their bloody battle, Osial felt it again...the enjoyable thrill of the battle that he had almost forgotten, one he could only share with the Geo Archon over the long course of their friendly rivalry. His lips curved into a grin.
And for a moment, he snapped back from the evil that had conquered him, and Morax who went past the thick bodies of fluid had the heavenly spear found its way to him, piercing through his body and soul. When he opened his eyes, he saw the newly coronated Geo Archon, the soft expression was back on his face. The hydra’s water body melted down, returning to where they once belonged with a loud splash, high waves surging in their fall.
And yet, unlike the water, he couldn’t return to where he once belonged, Osial knew he couldn’t go back to his past self if he were to be spared here and now. The corruption was too great, there was no way for him to be cleansed completely even with the power of the Gnosis Morax possessed. The man grabbed the Archon’s collars, grinning weakly neither in defeat nor in victory.
There was no victor in this war; each lost something that was precious to them. War had always been like that, taking away everything. His grip tightened, Osial wanted to at least, be able to keep just the one he held so dear if he could. Was it too much for him to ask? Was he so undeserving for just one gift?
“Kill me, Morax… You knew it better than anyone else.”
If he could say it...he...he wanted to-...
Morax didn’t reply. Osial was about to bark at him and force him to do his binding, but a soft press from a familiar pair of lips silenced him for good. His eyes widened, his tired brain was trying to process what was happening.
The Archon, the God of Contracts, the God of War, or whatever his titles were; Morax, was kissing him this time. It was slow and forbearing, the Archon was pouring every one of his emotions and feelings into him. He could feel it as well; the sorrow from losing Guizhong, the happiness that he managed to 'save' him to a degree, the pain of knowing that he would remain separated from the wounded Overlord, the regret that he was the cause of all these chaos, breakups and deaths. Osial placed a hand on the back of his head, pressing their lips closer, replying with a silent apology and atonement. Morax pulled back slowly, he kept his eyes on Osial whose face was mere inches away.
The spear was gone, and a hand was pressed onto his gaping chest, yet there was no pressure, there was no pain at all. It was the hand of the man who just kissed him, and there was a warmth warmer than the comforting summer sun. It didn't cast away the darkness, but the sensation got rid of its chilling bite.
A seal was being placed upon him, it felt like a blessing instead of a curse.
"Form a contract with me, Osial."
Morax's voice was as commanding and absolute ever. The Archon was the very embodiment of the Rules and Laws.
Osial merely let out a pathetic laugh, yet he's actually happy to hear that. Without Morax having to go down to the details, he knew what kind of contract the Geo Archon was offering and so, he went into a deep slumber. Morax let him go, he wordlessly watched as the Overlord of the Vortex drifted further and further away, swallowed by the black gloom of the watery abyss. The look on the sinking man’s face could only be described as peaceful and assured.
Osial would again reemerge as the evil Overlord of the Vortex every Liyuen knew to destroy the land his beloved rival ruled, until that promised day they agreed in their contract arrived, he would keep on continuing to play his role as evil.
This, was the second contract in Liyue.
- The End(?)