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“Hand over the gnosis. Now.” The Harbinger growled.
With a flick of his wrist, he assailed her with another whirl of electro blades. Lumine barely dodged, a strand of her hair burnt. She blindly summoned a couple of meteorites, hoping they would provide hindrance to the attacks.
She jumped onto one of the geo constructs and sent a vortex towards him, but he shrugged it off. The transformed Harbinger slashed and shattered all of the constructs as if they were simply sand dunes. Lumine had to hop off and roll away from her shelter before it too was blasted by his elemental spear.
“Let her go, Childe!” Paimon cried in an unseen corner. “She didn’t take it — she didn’t know anything!”
Lumine smiled bitterly. As if her enemy was not already insane. As if she could still turn him back - did she not foolishly believe so once?
Another lightening stroke from above, activating spikes that pierced her body. No doubt, it resulted in a riptide marked on her back. Enduring the shock, Lumine dragged herself towards the peripheral of the chamber, and slammed herself against the heated wall. The marking burned, but she had no other choice. She knew those who got riptide on themselves never had a chance to escape. She had witnessed it so many times: one second he was busy teasing her, the next second he plunged off the cliff, just for some interesting preys down below. And now she, too, had become the prey.
The monstrous figure loomed over her. Lumine saw an opening and raised her blade, but she was too exhausted to do a swift blow. He dodged with ease, and replied with a series of rapid shots. Her crystal-infused wind barely held against it.
"Die here." The Harbinger chuckled darkly. Then his phantoms were everywhere, and she had no choice but to dash away again, again, and again, before the spot she was standing at being either flooded with hydro or charged with electro.
She couldn't hold on much longer. Not that she had a chance to strike him down while he's still in that armor though...
Suddenly, as if she's looking out through another pair of eyes, it's no longer the Golden House's chamber she saw, but a strange, devastated land. Her heart was beating wildly and her legs were heavy as she staggered across the ruins, while dark smoke and cries of people were bleeding into the crimson sky. Nowhere to escape, nowhere to hide. The kindred spirit filled her own mind with despair, so intense it almost knocked her over ---
Aether?
The illusion only faded when she heard a low whistle, but it was too late. The narwhal already emerged from the tip of the hydro arrow, its colossal body almost reaching the ceiling ---
If she turned around and raced towards 10 o'clock direction now, she might still have a chance. But what's the point of evading, if she's just postponing her ultimate defeat? What's the point of survival, if her only kin was already lost to this world?
So instead, Lumine stood still and gazed at the whale, right before it plunged and submerged her in oblivion.
"As you wish, Childe, I die here..."
------
Everything hurts. Her viscera and bones must have been shredded and fried for a thousand times.
Might as well get away from this chaos of senses. Her body felt so light, and her wings somehow grew back. She fluttered her wings and ascended, her pain fading away. Now Paimon isn't the only one who can fly. She approached the celestia in the air, where it's all quiet and peaceful ---
But a distinct sensation seized her and penetrated her like an icicle, forcing her to fall back into her wrecked form. The sensation diffused like small droplets cold as snowflakes, freezing whatever they traveled to.
Let me go, she struggled. Nothing left here for me...
As if answering to her protest, another warmth wrapped itself around her body and cradled her. Something hot and salty was pressed against her lips, demanding her to reckon its existence. She responded instinctively, sucking the heat all in.
But if it's really good for her, why would it be that the more she took it, the more sadness she felt?
She was too tired to fathom the reason. For all she knew, she would rather sleep in this cradle than going back to reality...
Lumine went blackout again.
------
"Wake up and fight me! Don't you dare give up!"
He watched in horror as she was struck by the narwhal without any resistance. Next thing he knew he was beside her body, which was lifeless as a fallen leaf. What have I done?
Ignoring the warning signs, Tartaglia forced himself outside of the foul legacy armor prematurely. Grabbing the needle deep in his pocket, he injected its content into her arms. The only thing that can undo evil is evil itself…
-------------
He wrapped the fragile girl in his dark cape and held her tight. How pathetic, the only time he could hold her was in a condition like this.
Tartaglia searched in the scattered rubble in the chamber. “Come out, emergency food!” he called.
The little fairy finally came out from corner. “Childe, what are you —“
“Drop the faked surprises,” he cut her off impatiently. “I will have the Geo Archeon’s gnosis regardless. But she's not supposed to get involved in this right from the start. Take her away. Now.”
“Paimon” blinked, and with a twirl she transformed into a white goddess tripled his size. “You are indeed the most interesting Harbinger of the Tsaritsa, Tartaglia.”
“Would it be too narcissistic of me to take that as a compliment?” He laughed wryly, coughing up a bit blood. “What the Tsaritsa desires will be achieved, whether you agree with my method or not. Although, I’m not in the mood for another battle. Yet.” Tartaglia looked down at the girl in his arms, his voice tightened, “The foul-legacy antitoxin would stabilize her vitals and cancel the majority of elemental damage. The Archeon’s power should be able to do the rest of the healing, if you take her to a Rex Lapis’s statue, the further away from the sea, the better. This…I request you.”
The Paimon-transformed goddess only nodded. With a lift of her finger, Lumine’s body floated in the air, following her direction. Before she exited the Golden House, however, she looked back again. “Why, Tartaglia?”
The Harbinger stood alone at the center of the chamber, his Fatui mask up, a dozen of sigils of permission in his hand. “Because, after everything…”
“I still don’t want her to see me like this.”