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Chapter Text

            Ei Raiden had lost count for how long she had been locked in this duel. A few decades surely must have passed, years upon years of nothing but fighting against her own creation, the Raiden Shogun. The puppet was relentless in her pursuit of eternity, battling without ever getting tired, much like the machines of Khaenri’ah. The duel was testing her limits as a warrior and Ei could not be more pleased with the result. The only problem was that she was being tested too. She needed to prove her resolve to change the fate of Inazuma by matching the Shogun’s to maintain the nation’s stasis. Otherwise, she would be cut down without a second thought, like the rot off a tree.

            As if the situation was not difficult enough, the puppet had just strengthened her will and achieved a new form that almost proved too much for Ei. The woman was already getting tired and perhaps even a little afraid. After all, she had never seen lightning as deadly as the Shogun’s ever since her mother passed away. Still, she could not give up. She had a duty to Inazuma, to its people, to her sister Makoto, her parents and even the woman who raised her. Clutching her blade, Musou Isshin, and gritting her teeth, she charged at the puppet, who was preparing to meet her with a sword twice Ei’s size. She briefly wondered if she could even budge it if it blocked her strike, but as she was swinging to find out, her weapon slammed in an invisible wall before it could reach the Shogun’s.

            Confused, she straightened and noticed that the puppet’s blade was hovering above her, unmoving. Frowning, she lowered her gaze and finally discovered the figure that had somehow materialised between them. It appeared to be a woman, slightly shorter than her, dressed in black and white and with hair like the freshest snow. Ei’s eyes widened.

            No…It cannot be… she thought, her heart skipping a beat, a chill spreading up her spine.

            The white-haired woman had her hands up, a few centimeters away from her and the Shogun’s weapons. She turned her head towards the puppet and as soon as she heard her speak, Ei knew for certain her identity.

            “You insolent plastic container. How dare you imitate her look?” the voice growled.

            Kiana!

            The Herrscher of the End, Kiana Kaslana, blasted away the Shogun and with a mere wave of her hand, multiple lances descended upon the construct, pinning her in a kneeling position and causing her to revert to her original form. Then, she shifted her attention to Ei. Her eyes were the colour of Cor Lapis.

            “And you. What do you think you’re doing?” Kiana asked with a tone that sounded displeased, but not hateful, unlike when she addressed the puppet.

            “Aunt Kiana…I…”

            Ei was at a loss for words. She did not understand how the woman who had once taken care of her together with her mother could be here, in Makoto’s consciousness space. She could not imagine why she had come either and why now of all times.

            “Well?” Kiana went on. You were supposed to protect the Herrscher Core. Is this your idea of protecting?”

            “But…the Herrscher Core is fine! There’s nothing wrong with it!”

            The white-haired woman scoffed.

            “The Core cannot be fine if you aren’t fine! You are the only host it accepts, remember? So, why are you here, fighting, putting yourself in danger? Do you realise you can die? What would I do if that happened?! It’s bad enough that your physical body is gone. I should never have consented to your stupid plan.”

            “I…”

            As Ei was struggling to gather her thoughts, to find an excuse for herself, a thundering voice suddenly split the realm and briefly froze both her and Kiana.

            “You don’t know anything!”

            Kiana turned around. Her face was a grimace, as if she was in the presence of an insect.

            “You don’t know anything!” the Shogun repeated. “You demand Ei explain herself, but you refuse to do so yourself! Who are you?! Who are you to tell Ei what to do?! Who are you to intervene in our business?!”

            Ei was stunned. She had never seen the Shogun this emotional before; or protective, for that matter, for anything besides eternity.

            Kiana extended her right arm in front of her and her hand glowed golden. Immediately, the Mark of the End, a four-pointed star, appeared on the puppet’s forehead, shining with the same light. She screamed as if she was being pierced by a thousand blades.

            “It’s not really your business who I am,” she replied. “But if you must know, I am the Sustainer of the Heavenly Principles. I govern the laws of Teyvat. Nothing in this world happens without my say-so, understand, fake?”

            There was a lot of venom behind the last word.

            “Even if what you said is true,” the Shogun managed to say through grunts and gasps, “it all…amounts to nothing…because at the end of the day…you’re nothing but…a…monster. Look…look…at what you’re doing…to this place…to Makoto’s…consciousness…”

            Ei looked around and she saw a big four-pointed star behind her. Its edges seemed to be eating away at the very fabric of space. Multiple smaller stars were forming to the right and left. She could not comprehend what she was seeing.

            “It seems…” the Shogun continued, “that your very existence…is nothing but poison…Celestia filth!”

            Something snapped inside Kiana. She closed her hand and golden veins started spreading all over the puppet’s body.

            “Destroy me if you must…but I know Ei won’t let you do what you want…One day, you’ll find yourself where I am now.”

            The construct’s words shook Ei out of her bewilderment. She turned back and, seeing the state the Shogun was in, she walked up to Kiana and grabbed her arm. Her grip was like iron.

            “Please stop, Aunt Kiana! You’re hurting Makoto and you’re hurting my vessel.”

            “This is what you both brought upon yourselves! I’ve come too far to let you ruin my plans! I will kill you both if I have to.”

            “Do that and you’ll never get my mother…you’ll never get Mei back!”

            Tears had started streaming down Ei’s face, but she did not care. She did not want the Shogun to die. Part of it was because she wanted to prove herself to her, but she could also not allow it when the Shogun stood up for her. The puppet may not know all of the details of her past—about Mei and Kevin, who were born on Teyvat, and about Mei and Kiana, who came from a place called Earth—but she nonetheless defended and reminded her that she needed to take charge of her own life. Just like she had chosen to go against the Shogun’s programming, she had to now face this woman, who once had shown her so much love and kindness. Kiana had strayed from her path, much like Ei herself had after losing Makoto, and it was time to finally bring her back.

            Kiana glared at her.

            “You have the audacity to say that to me?”

            Ei just shook her head.

            “You used to have such beautiful eyes, Aunt Kiana. They shone brighter than the purest Lazurite. Now they just burn with hatred and pain.”

            Kiana frowned.

            “What are you saying?”

            Ei’s eyes lit up with Electro.

            “I’m saying you have no right to speak to me about the future when you’re still stuck in the past.”

            Ei summoned Musou Isshin and slashed at Kiana. Normally, she would have blocked it with her Void shield, but for some reason, Ei moved faster than she was supposed to. Kiana was forced to stop the Shogun’s destruction and jumped backwards. Ei immediately chased after her, connecting strike after strike, not giving the Herrscher any room to breathe. Her movement and attacks were the very embodiment of lightning—short, precise and deadly. The white-haired woman thought she was starting to resemble her mother and the notion pierced her heart like a needle. In a way, she was happy, or perhaps relieved, to see a harmony being formed between Ei and the Herrscher Core. However, the phenomenon brought back memories of a time when Mei used to be alive. The memories in turn made her chest ache.

            Ei’s assault was so fast that Kiana could not see where she was coming from. She had enveloped herself in a Void shield and was watching for a pattern from the blue-haired woman, but there did not seem to be any. No pattern meant no opening for her to strike back. She could feel the sweat accumulating on her back and chest. She needed to break the stalemate. Otherwise, she had a feeling, Ei could win a battle of attrition. After all, her and the Shogun had been doing the same thing. She would not have engaged in something like that if she hadn’t thought that she could match the puppet.

            A strategy had formed in Kiana’s mind. She waited for Ei’s blade to make contact with her shield and then teleported in the air. The blue-haired woman was able to launch herself at her.

            Damn, so she can reach me even here. Can’t say I’m surprised at all, the Herrscher thought.

            She blocked the incoming attack and teleported again. She kept going through this motion and noticed Ei’s strikes had got slower. She had expected this. Due to Kiana’s erratic displacement, Ei had to constantly reorient herself, which took more time than when the Herrscher had been standing still. Jumping all the way to her further spaced out the assault. Kiana used this to her advantage. She reduced the Void shield and summoned her greatsword. She intended to use it to deflect some of the attacks while charging it. Thanks to the Herrscher of the End’s nearly unlimited Honkai energy reserves, it did not take long for the blade to blaze like a sun. As soon as it did, Kiana teleported for the last time. She summoned Void Lances all around her, turning herself into a spiky ball for a second, then launched them in volleys. Ei was forced to deflect some of them and did not see the Flamescion blast heading straight for her. Stuck in the air, she could not maneuver in any way. The flames hit her like a mountain and slammed her into the arena below. Though intact, her whole body felt shattered. She tried to move, but could not.

            Kiana descended next to her. Farther away, the Shogun’s eye were wide and shaking. She grabbed, clawed and pulled at the Void Lances around her, but they would not budge. On the ground, Ei was shedding tears, but holding in the sobs. The Herrscher of the End regarded her with a mix of emotions that she herself was unable to make sense of.

            “You’re still the same crybaby…Ei, you stupid girl,” she commented, her own eyes feeling wet.

            She bent down and extended her right hand. Ei was frozen by the gesture for a moment. Even her tears stopped flowing. Her heart was booming inside her chest. Grunting, she eventually reached out with her own right hand and grabbed Kiana’s. Kiana pulled her to her feet and stabilised her by the shoulders. Ei’s face looked as if a tanuki had grown wings right before her eyes.

            “C’mon, you’re fine. Shake your legs and follow me.”

            The Herrscher took her hand and lightly pulled her in the direction of the Shogun. To Ei, her touch felt like a blanket—soft, but smothering. She did as Kiana asked. They stopped before the puppet. Kiana waved her hand and the Void Lances pulled themselves back, then disappeared.

            “I’m not gonna help you up, so do it yourself,” she told the Shogun.

            The construct clicked her tongue, but did as instructed.

            Kiana let go of Ei’s hand and walked past her. She stopped a few paces away and turned halfway.

            “You two are free to solve your differences as you wish. It was wrong of me to interfere this time. Still, remember: if anything ever threatens the Herrscher Core, I won’t stay idly by. And one more thing: you cannot escape the Heavenly Principles.”

            “No one can,” she then added in a softer voice.

            Having said this, Kiana vanished, and the four-pointed stars plaguing Makoto’s realm of consciousness together with her. Ei and the Shogun exchanged a look before shifting their gazes to where the Herrscher of the End had stood moments ago, both of them already thinking about when they would see her again. Kiana represented Celestia, so the Shogun was naturally wary of the danger she could pose to Inazuma, sensing that another clash was inevitable. Ei shared her sentiment, but for a different reason. She knew Kiana was trying to resurrect her mother, Mei Raiden, the Herrscher of Thunder, and that she would go to any lengths to succeed. She could not help but wonder, however, about when the price would become too high for Teyvat.

Chapter Text

            In the makeshift throne room of Celestia, Kiana Kaslana dropped to the ground. She had just returned from Makoto Raiden’s realm of consciousness, having attempted to stop the duel between Ei Raiden and her puppet vessel, the Raiden Shogun. She had thought she could intimidate them both into submission, bend them to the will of The Sustainer of the Heavenly Principles, but the women had proven more resilient than she had expected. Kiana figured it had made sense in the case of the Shogun, since her sole mission was to endure eternally and serve as an example for the whole of Inazuma. Even so, she had thought that she could overwhelm the puppet with enough force to trigger some kind of self-preservation instinct or mechanism. It seemed like she had underestimated the Shogun’s fortitude.

            While this had been a miscalculation on her part, ultimately nothing more than a mere annoyance, Ei’s resolve had shaken her to her core. The image of the blue-haired woman’s purple eyes sparkling with the very essence of lightning was still burning in Kiana’s mind. She had looked so similar to her mother and the woman the Herrscher had been striving to bring back to life, too similar. The resemblance had hit her harder than the direct blow of an Assaka, almost completely shattering her heart and frying her brain. It had taken her all of her mental strength to maintain her composure and keep up with the pace of the fight. Although she was now able to process it better, Kiana’s nerves felt as if she had been drugged. She tried to avoid thinking about Ei and Mei by shifting her thoughts to the reason behind Ei’s ability to defy her as easily as she had done.

            She assumed part of it was Makoto’s ideology regarding eternity, but if her sister’s death continued to ache with the same intensity Mei’s did for Kiana, Ei should not have been able to be so resolute. It was possible that the Herrscher misunderstood her once again, but she sensed there was more to it than that. Ei had seemed different from even before the fall of Khaenri’ah.

            It must’ve been that Traveler! Kiana concluded in her head, clenching her fists.

            Across a forgotten number of cycles, the white-haired woman had grown used to the Traveler’s involvement, but her blood still boiled from time to time because of it. She had her own designs for the twins, but they always refused to fully act according to her wishes and she did not understand why. Sometimes, she did not even understand the particularities of their influences. The current situation with Ei was one of those.

            “What could you have done or said this time, you pathetic fucking creature?! Ugh, you always have to ruin everything…What am I even keeping you alive for?! I should just fucking kill you and be done with—!”

            Kiana!

            She did not realise she was yelling out loud until the voice intervened. It spoke in her head, the voice of her technically older sister, Sirin, the previous Herrscher of the Void.

            Kiana, stop! This isn’t you! You’re not this hateful!

            Kiana’s mind had been like a black waterspout on a churning sea, but the moment she heard Sirin, the tornado turned into a steady rain over a watery mirror that nevertheless continued to reflect the dark clouds that permanently loomed above. She took a few deep breaths and felt some of the pressure leave her body.

            “Sirin…I’m sorry…” she apologised; not just for the words she had spoken, but for the fact that such outbursts had happened many times before too.

            Tears welled up in her eyes. Kiana tried to hold them in, but this time they were like a river during a storm, utterly demolishing the dam of her will and flooding every corner of her heart.

            “I’m so sorry…It’s just…nothing ever works the way I want and…I’m so fucking tired…”

            Kiana…

            “How many ages has it been, Sirin? I keep trying and trying, but…I just want Mei back…Is that so bad? Why can’t I just have her back?!”

            As the pain spilled through her eyes and mouth, the Herrscher’s body and mind felt like they were fizzling out. There was a buzz underneath her skin; her muscles were twisting; her heart was contracting; her head was being invaded by fire and ice; the air she was breathing suddenly turned into poison, her lungs choking as they struggled to keep working. It was as if she was being assaulted by some invisible force from the inside and the outside at the same time. Her vision grew blurry until nothing but darkness surrounded her. She screamed, but no sound reached her ears.

            A pure white light manifested before her, scattering the blackness in a small area around her. Kiana watched with wide eyes, tears temporarily paused, as the light grew in size until it took the shape of a young girl with loose purple hair and golden eyes. She was dressed in black jeans and a white V-neck top with black stripes above her left breast. The outfit contrasted with her physical appearance, making her look like a woman in a girl’s body. She knelt in front of Kiana and brushed her hair behind her right ear, exposing a four-pointed orange star dangling from the lobe. Her eyelids were lowered halfway and the inner corners of her eyebrows were angled up. Sirin was regarding Kiana as if the woman were a dying animal. She sat on her sister’s knees and wrapped her in her arms.

            Kiana was like a statue, her body only twitching every now and then. Her breathing was ragged and her mind was racing. Eventually, something rose to her throat and blocked it. At the same time, new tears rose to her eyes, burning them in the process. She hugged Sirin back and began to sob.

            “I don’t know what to do, Sirin…Please tell me what to do! Please, I…”

            It was difficult for her to speak, but she recognised that her thoughts were like weights that had only got heavier as time passed by. She was at a point where she simply could not move anymore. The solution was obvious: she needed to drop them, to finally free herself of the burdens of the past. With Sirin there with her, she could not not do so even if she tried.

            “Ei…She said…She said I’m stuck in the past…But what else can I do? I can’t move on…I don’t want to move on! Mei is everything to me, I just…”

            The former Herrscher of the Void stroke her hair and started slowly rocking their bodies left and right.

            “And…the Shogun…She said I’m a monster…I’m not a monster…Am I? I don’t know…I don’t know anything…I don’t mean…”

            By now, Sirin had silently joined Kiana in crying, her heart crumbling little by little with each sob that escaped her sister’s lips. She wanted to do so much for her, but she was powerless. The way things were going, it seemed like not even Kiana herself could help alleviate her own suffering. All that Sirin could do was hold onto the Herrscher as if to prevent her from disappearing.

            “For how long have I been doing this, Sirin…? How many outcomes…have I seen? How much…have I tried to…fix? I lost count…how many times I…restarted this world…And…And Mei…Mei is still gone! And now…now I’m hurting the people of this world…But…I’ve always been hurting them…haven’t I…? Over and over again…I kept…killing them and…letting them be born again…and then killing them…once more…But…But what other choice…What other choice do I have?! I can’t abandon Mei…I can’t…I can’t live without her, please! Please…I’m sorry…Please…Please…”

            There was nothing more Kiana could say. Her weights had been lifted, but now she felt naked in the face of her own judgment and the judgment of the people of Teyvat. If they ever learned the crimes she had committed, they would surely curse her. Perhaps Mei would as well. The idea stabbed her straight through the gut. If Kiana brought Mei back and she hated her for treating human life like toys on a chessboard, she would not know what to do with herself anymore. At the same time, the thought of accepting Mei’s death as permanent felt as if she would have to swallow lava. Kiana was stuck and it was this feeling, coupled with her countless failures and Ei’s and the Shogun’s words, that clawed at her like a starved beast. It was as if her very soul was exploding and reconstructing itself, only to explode again; an unbreakable loop of death and rebirth, much like she had been subjecting the world of Teyvat, along with all of its inhabitants.

            In truth, Kiana had never been solely responsible for the misery she had brought to this bubble universe and she knew it. She had been different ever since becoming the Herrscher of the End, even more so after learning the Herrscher’s origins. There was an impatience inside her and a thirst for destruction. Whenever she had shattered a planet, she had felt a rush that had spread from the tips of her fingers and toes to the top of her head. Her whole body would tingle, as if basked in the spring sun. In contrast, the spectacle before her would always be the gold of her Honkai reaction, the bloody fires following in its wake and the charcoaled earth left behind. A part of her would find this image beautiful. After all, the Will of Honkai had intended for the Herrscher of the End to be as such.

            From the torrent of memories that had been assaulting her dreams, Kiana had learned that every single inheritor of the Herrscher of the End had had their personality rewritten to suit the destructive purpose of Honkai. Sirin herself had been subjected to this process too, during the Second Eruption, but her defeat had cut it short. It had been no surprise, then, when Kiana had grown more violent and, like Sirin had said earlier, more hateful. The white-haired woman knew there was an influence coming from the Herrscher of the End and the Will of Honkai that she could never block out, but despite this fact, she could not blame only them. Sirin might argue otherwise, but a part of the hate was Kiana’s resentment towards the Sky People, Honkai, the Aeons—the entire universe, or all universes, really. It felt like everything and everyone was just another obstacle for her to remove. She was aware her friends and family back on Earth, as well as Ei and Himeko here in Teyvat, were, in fact, the opposite, exceptions, but everything else still seemed like sea currents that she always needed to swim against.

            Kiana’s tears had run dry and her sobs had become whimpers. Sirin grabbed her sister’s shoulders and pulled back. Her face and eyes were red; her lip was trembling; strands of hair were plastered to her cheeks. She tightened her grip on the woman’s shoulders.

            “Listen, Kiana…” she said as if something was stuck in her throat. “I don’t know what you should do. I don’t even know what I should do. Maybe what we’ve been doing is wrong…Maybe both of us have become monsters. But—”

            The girl bit her lip. New tears were forming in the corners of her eyes.

            “We can’t stop now! We need to see this cycle through, just like we have all the others. And maybe we’ll have to start over again. And maybe even greater destruction will follow. And maybe we’ll be the cause of it. But we need to keep going! Good or bad, it doesn’t matter. We have to bring Mei back…because…”

            Sirin’s body was shaking.

            “Because…because it’s the only way you can be happy again!”

            The words were coming out as if she was being chocked.

            “I hate seeing you like this, Kiana! You’re in so much pain every day and there’s nothing I can do to help…except by here for you for moments like this…That’s all I can do…I hate it, but…I will do anything to see you smile again, no matter how little it may be…I love you and I just want you to be happy! So, please…please don’t give up…I’m begging you…”

            The girl’s sobs filled the void around them, piercing the silence like a knife through butter. Kiana’s breath had caught in her throat. Her eyes were wide, her face petrified. For a moment, she was unable to form any cohesive thought, every word and concept vanishing before they could be put together, until, from somewhere deep within her mind, she received an instruction: Comfort Sirin. It was a simple command that she gave herself, but it felt like something she must absolutely not fail to do. She pulled her sister in against her chest and placed a hand on the girl’s head. The former Herrscher’s cries were being muffled by the fabric of Kiana’s outfit.

            That’s right, the woman thought. Sirin has been with me since the beginning. Despite the atrocities I have committed, she’s always been here. I cannot disappoint her, I owe her that much. I need to keep moving forward. I need to resurrect Mei. This whole thing has to be worthwhile. And if this makes me a monster, then so be it.

            Kiana Kaslana’s eyes burned with a conviction that could, once again, engulf the entirety of Teyvat.

            A few meters away, shrouded by darkness, the Herrscher of the End was watching Kiana and Sirin embrace as if they were in the middle of a collapsing world, with no chance of escape. Arms folded across her chest, she was surprised to learn that her eyes had begun to sting. She closed and rubbed them. Her hand came out wet. She almost gasped, betraying her presence.

            She stared at her hand as if it was alien, then clenched it into a fist, turned around and, with a click of her tongue, walked away.