Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

The night streets of Liyue are a very lovely sight.

Especially at this time of year when the whole nation celebrated the yearly festival known as the lantern rite. A big event where people from all over the world would certainly not wanting to miss out.

The way the lanterns illuminate the pathways, people from middle aged couples to children still roaming around the streets despite in this time of night, and the sounds of them talking and laughing filling the air, dispelling what supposed to be silence is what made the night of this huge event's special.

It is the history behind it, the celebration eve that differs from one another between years, and just simply the bustling lively atmosphere, is what made this event lives rent free within each and every one of the people of Liyue's heart. What makes them always hoping to continue to live on to see another Lantern Rite next year.

However, in the heart of a certain Traveler, one that hails from an entirely different world. Such event has a different meaning for her.

Her name is Lumine, and she is the world's famous Traveler, known for the huge impact she'd left behind across the four nations. The Honorary Knight of Mondstadt, the Hero of Liyue, abolisher of the Vision Hunt Decreee, and the redeemer of the Sumeru Akedimiya, were amongst the many titles she had gained throughout her adventures.

But, putting all of that aside, Lumine is just an ordinary traveler, she does not belong to this world, nor does she have any desire to be part of it, all that she desired are one thing, to find and reunite with her long lost brother, who is somewhere out there, waiting for her to come.

Or at least that's what she used to think of herself.

It's been three years since she first started her journey, and a lot of things she have witnessed throughout the time, and the more she witness and learned, the more she began to understand the driving force behind the reason why her dear brother chose to stray away from the path that the twins used to always walk together, hand in hand, never letting go.

There are simply some things that cannot be left alone in this world.

That was her conclusion. Supported with the fact that some of those things can only be solved by an Outlander like her, a being whose fates were not bound by the laws of this world, but rather, it was the laws of Tevyat that works around her. That was what a certain friend of her have said before.

Being able to control multiple elements at once without the need of a Vision is one thing. But to be able to calm down the Dragon of the East, resealing back the Overlord of the Storm, and best the Raiden Shogun in a duel, it was those achievements that made her special, what made her look like something that this world might need the most.

And even if those above doesn't matter to her, then perhaps it's the people of this world that she have met in this world is what matters to her. All of her friends and companions, from the little pixie Paimon who has been with her since the very beginning, to the people of both low and high status across the nations, and even the ruling gods of those nations. Their companionship are one of important things she come across to during her travels, it was all thanks to them that she could get this far. And the more closer she gets with them, the more temptations start to plague her heart. Perhaps staying in this world wouldn't be so bad after all. Maybe after found Aether and finish things up, the twins can finally settle down and mark this one as their new home, a replacement for the one they've lost many many years ago.

But if she were to said that those were her only reasons however, then Lumine would be lying. Because the truth is... There is another reason for why she grew attached to this world.

Lumine... Had fallen in love, with someone from this world.

It is an entirely new experience for her, and thus one that she definitely wouldn't pass on no matter what the kind of circumstances that she suffers from being stranded in the world where her brother had chosen to abandon her in favour for it.

Throughout her long lifespan, the concept of love has always been a great interest for Lumine. For Lumine, as long as she could remember, Aether her brother is her number one necessity, the one person who could've given her all the warmth and love she needed, who she needs most for her moments of hardship, who would comfort her in her sorrows, who could fill her with happiness by just... Being there for her. Because that is what it means to be family,

Back when she was young and her world is so small, Lumine had thought that Aether was all she needs, and no one else shall be there to even compare the bonds they had as siblings, the love they shared for each other, and the closeness of their relationship that none shall separate them apart. But that is until she matured and learned more about what the world has to offer to it's inhabitants.

She was already fascinated by it the moment she learned of the concept, just the mere thought of her having someone else aside from Aether who is her family to make her happy, someone who isn't related to her by blood, yet she could have a bond with that went deeper up until as close as she was with Aether. Someone that could make her happy, someone who she could be together with, someone who can laugh with her in happiness, and comfort her in sadness.

Ever since that day she learnt of the the knowledge, Lumine had been longing for the day to come, a day where she would meet her fated lover, someone who are destined to be with her. It is too much of a wishful thinking, she knows that, but what can she say? Desires are one of the most important aspect of being human after all, and it is their goal as an immortals born through sacred means to blend in with and became humans, with finding love and be loved are the necessary means to achieve it.

And just how ironic it was that the same world who is responsible for taking her only kin away, would also be the one that give her what she wanted the most.

Her realized dream comes in the form of a certain consultant of a funeral parlor in Liyue. An extremely knowledgeable man, a walking encyclopedia some might say, named Zhongli. Who is also happens to be the retired ruling god of the nation itself, Rex Lapis, but that kind information only lives in the minds of those who were either close to him or those who oppose him, such as her, the Fatui, or his circle of acquaintances of illuminated beasts that has served him for more than a millennia.

And for the question of how could this one man managed to capture the heart of the star-born maiden who hailed from a different world far far away: The answer to it is something that even Lumine herself couldn't understand fully, nor she is able to describe it words.

Simple enough, it all started with a small feeling, or perhaps maybe a crush as they call it.

The first time Lumine had met with the man who she fell for was all the way back during her first year in staying in Tevyat, while being conscious anyway. Just a few days after arriving in Liyue for the first time and getting herself labeled as a wanted criminal thanks to a misunderstanding that the goverment has regarding the supposed "death" of their god. Lumine was introduced to the funeral parlor's consultant on the behest that he would accompanied her in gathering the necessary materials required for the rite of parting. A task that she thoroughly enjoyed as it helps her in understanding Liyue's landscape more as she searches for glaze lilies, and also some sense of fulfillment as she managed to done some good deeds in doing so.

The moment Lumine laid her eyes on him, she could see the figure of a dignified and respectable man in him. The way he acts so politely to everyone around him, no matter what kind of person they are, adults, children, merchants, Fatui, or a zombie, he is a perfect picture of a gentleman, which apparently, are the kind of men she is attracted to based on experience.

Not to forget about his voice as well. That deep and gruff of his, he may sound like an old man (Granted that his vessel of choice is one.) But every word he spoke are a gentle one, one that can soothes the mind of anyone who hears it, almost like behind every word he spoke, lies a chant that demands anyone's attention, to stood still and listen to him carefuly, and Lumine did just that, standing there and listening to his every words, while keeping her eyes on him, with a glint of mirth hiding behind her golden orbs, as if saying to any careful observer that she enjoys every moment she spent with him on that occasion.

And her feelings for him would continue to grow from that point onwards.

It may have started from his outside appereance alone, but, the longer Lumine stayed in Liyue, finding clues regarding her brother, giving a helping hand to some people to make their acquaintances and eventualy adds them to her ever growing circle of friends, or even simply enjoys whatever the nation of contracts has to offer, the more she learned about the man that used to hold the title God of Contracts.

She learned of the reason why almighty Geo Archon had chosen to step down from his throne, that as the passage of time continues to flow, the dazzling diamond of a city that is Liyue Harbor is no longer needing his divine protection anymore, now that people has lived in an era of peace, a far cry from the ancient times of the Archon War where bloodsheds and destruction rampages throughout the land. She learned of his everyday life as a consultant, being task to walk around the city and finding those who needs his help, it certainly are the kind of joy that only he could understand, to walk around the street amongst the people of the nation that he had worked so hard for to built and protect for thousands of years. She learned about the deep sorrows and inner conflict that he had suffered throughout his lifetime. The deep wounds he received during his life, the friends he lost during and after the Archon war, the conflicting emotions raging inside his head as his life was torn apart by the memories of past and the events on the present, or even the heart wrenching regrets that consumed him from the inside caused the unspeakable "sins" he committed, namely the role he played during the disaster 500 years ago, that caused the once great nation to be swallowed up by the ground.

It was all of these aspects about him that made Lumine falling for him even more. Zhongli has been living for so long, and as an immortal god, there be even more that awaits him in the future.

It just pains Lumine whenever he shared the story of his past to her. He was a good story teller, able to tell a tale to its utmost detailed description, which is why Lumine loves to hear his stories so much. Every tales that comes out of his mouth, it felt like she's instantly able understand and comprehend it, the hidden meanings behind them, the emotions present inside it, and even the picture of the events that she easily could imagine in her head. So it's no wonder why it bothers her so much whenever he talks about something that is anything but happy.

The tale of the Yakshas, and how he is responsible for sentencing them to their doom by their duties. The tale of Azhdaha, the once close friend of Morax, who went insane and is now lay buried inside his eternal coffin, made by the lord of Geo himself as the only way to stop him. And there's also the tale of Havria, the gentle goddess of salt whose her own weakness responsible for her death at the hands of her people that she tried so hard to protect, a harsh lesson to be learned for the God of contracts during that time of the war.

She did shed a few tears every time she listened to them, and her heart would clench uncontrollably due to the various emotions she's feeling when she heard it. However, amidst the rainstorm that raging inside her heart, Lumine did realized something: Even though he chose to wear a firm and relatively unchanging expression, Lumine could clearly see the glint of emotions present inside Zhongli's eyes as he tells her his story. Those sense of longing in his eyes, the well hidden sorrow, the guilt, everything. Even he too feels sad whenever he spoke.

And the moment she realized that, Lumine had decided that she doesn't like it, she doesn't like it at all. She didn't want to see him sad, she didn't want to see him keep bottling up his pain like this. Lumine wished that she could be by his side, to be the one that would take all his sorrows away, to cheer him up, to make him happy, to make him smile without any pain hidden behind them. She wished that they could be together. They're both immortals, their lifespan far surpasses those of humans. So that means no matter how much time will pass, their love would continue on forever, until they meet the end of their life, whenever that is.

How sweet would that be... If it could come true. But unfortunately, none of those would happen to either him or her. For he is already taken.

That's right. Zhongli is engaged... Or rather, was engaged, to someone else.

Lumine finds this out during a certain night in Liyue, when the two of them were seated around the table of the Third-Round Knockout tavern. Enjoying some late night dinner with warm cups of tea, whilst enjoying the chill night air, and enjoying to his stories as usual. At it was during that time, when something piqued Lumine's interest.

"Hey, Zhongli, there's something I've been curious about recently."

"Hmm? And what is it that has been bothering you, Traveler?"

Lumine's golden eyes glanced towards the brown haired man's hand. They were covered in black gloves, which he seems to wear almost all of the times. But what piqued Lumine's interest are the accessories he wears above them. Two pair brass rings that he wore on separate hands, each was worn on his thumbs, but their sizes are different, one was big and thick, while the other was small and thin.

"What are those rings you're wearing?" Lumine asked curiously, tilting her head a little. "They do look fine for an accessory, but you always wear them around and rarely take them off even in your home. Is there any reason? Are those rings... Special to you?"

He blinked, once, then twice. Before looking down at his hands to take a look at the subject of this conversation, as of feeling confused for a second, and then regained his composure in another. He hummed as he listen to her question, before nodding his head once.

"Ah yes, these rings... I do wonder of when will they be the center of attention of your ever watchful eye, Lumine. But I suppose... It's time for me to finally tell you about it." Zhongli answered, crossing his arms in front of him as he leaned against the table, he close his eyes as he began. "These were, in fact, engagement rings."

Immediately after he said that, the whole world seemed to came to stop around Lumine. She could no longer hear the chatter of other customers in the tavern, nor all voices of the nightly food seller on the streets, or the pedestrian walking nearby. Only the sounds of her own breathing that became unsteady all of a sudden, and the tired sigh that escapes Zhongli's lips is all she could heard. Everything around her went all blurry too, only Zhongli that exists in her line of sight right now.

"W-What... Did you say?" Her lips were trembling, and it takes everything for her to speak. She didn't know why she suddenly feel like this, just what is this uncomfortable feeling she's having? What is this... Pang that she felt all of a sudden. "Zhongli... Are you... Married?"

The man who sits across her opens his eyes, his amber eyes looked at her, the way he sees her tells Lumine that he is carefully inspecting her, as if contemplating whether he should continue or not.

"No. I do not. However... Perhaps if the... Circumstances were a little bit different, then perhaps I am." Zhongli answered, putting a hand on his chin while he gaze down to the empty cup of tea before him.

"What do you mean?" Lumine managed to croak out a question.

The man lets out another sigh, far heavier than even from the one before. He then suddenly stood up, surprising Lumine with the sudden movement.

"Perhaps we could discuss it in somewhere else private. Don't worry, I have my wallet, so wait for me as I pay for the bills."

She did what he asked. Waiting for him to pay for the food they ordered, before he returned and guides her to a building that is none other than his home. Once they get there, the two sit down comfortable on the sofa, as the former Geo Archon begins his explanation. Bringing out the ancient looking artifact that he stored in his storage and made her take a look at it. A stone dumbbell, with a complex looking design and also mechanism stored on the inside.

"Perhaps it's time for me to tell you about this. You've already heard about my relations to those who have unfortunately lost their lives, and some who have suffered from my actions. So perhaps now, it's time for you to learn... About someone who had lost their lives due to my incapability to save her."

She only nods her head. Gesturing him to continue, while she listened closely. And he begins his tale, with a simple question.

"Have you ever heard about Guizhong?"

Yes. She have heard of her. The late goddess of dust. A close associate of Cloud Retainer, one the Adepti that had helped her in battling the ressurected Overlord of the Storm Osial. Lumine doesn't know much about the goddess, but she does know bits and pieces of information about her. How she, Cloud Retainer, and Rex Lapis would sit around a round table to have a feast of each of their own cooking. How she is the brilliant thinker who creates the Guizhong Ballista, of which did an important role in the aforementioned battle against the god. And how her interest in it led her collect various ancient artifacts that she eventually sealed in a domain that Lumine had cleared some time ago.

But is there really some more of her? To be perfectly honest, Lumine wasn't curious enough about any other details of the late goddess. Her name and her accomplishments would sit out on the back of Lumine's head for the days to come after she learnt about her existence, waiting to be forgotten. But now however, now that Zhongli suddenly brings her up, and it was related to the engagement rings he's wearing. Lumine couldn't help herself but to immediately get curious. Even though, somewhere, on the back of her mind, there's some lingering thoughts that didn't want Lumine to ever find out. And that's when she realized the feeling as fear. For some reason, Lumine fears for what she was about to hear. What was Zhongli about to say.

"Guizhong is... One of the many gods that roams the land of Liyue during the time of the Archon war. At that time, people known her as "The goddess of dust." However... Despite her title of being a god. She is unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, not particularly powerful. And all she could rely on is her knowledge for creating mechanisms."

"A God who is not powerful... So she's like Havria?" Lumine asked.

Zhongli paused a little to think, before eventually nodding his head. "Yes, I guess you could make a comparison between them."

He then continues to explain about her more. Such as her gentle and caring nature, her appearance, and even the way she talks and presented herself. Somehow... He's able to describe them all.

"...and then, it was on that faithful day, under the setting sun, amidst the sea of glaze lilies, that a pact was made between us. A pledge of her loyalty to my people, and my loyalty to her people. That stone dumbbell you're holding, it is the mark of her pledge to me. And also a challenge, "All my wisdom is hidden within this stone dumbbell." She said, and yet many years passed, and I was never able to unlock that dumbbell."

"I see... So it's some kind of a puzzle."

He continues on explaining, as if in a trance, there is no pause between words, each of them spoken with an unshakable firmness that can only be stopped everytime his conversation partner has something to say. But there is no doubt about it that the way Zhongli told this story, it was akin to someone who reminisces about one's past, it's not like how a story teller told a story to his audiences. But instead it was like someone who willingly shared the pain one felt on their past. Like telling someone trustworthy of the burden he's been shouldering for years, maybe even thousands of them.

"...and so, with our pledge made, together, the two of us, Me and Guizhong, we established our great civilization, the combination of our forces, a prosperous and flourishing land, that are later known as the Guili Assembly. Our combined dream together, our pride."

It was the first time Lumine had heard such name. Up until now, the only history she knows are that of Liyue harbor which were established 3700 years ago.

"...with her brain and my brawn. Guizhong and I worked together in seeing our dreams of an ideal civilization fulfilled. I were to be the one that guard and protect our people, while she'll be the one to make plans for the future, the improvements to be made to further our defenses, our battle strategies when an opposing god dare to challenge our rule of the land, or even some mundane things like what kinds of dish she should make in our next meeting with Zhenjun. It is unavoidable that our work conveniently requires us to work in close quarters. But..."

He paused for bit to look down upon his hands, specifically at the rings worn over his fingers, both the big one, and the little one.

"I was not as... Expressive, and having a much deeper understanding of emotions as I was back then. But even so, I do feel that some feelings did sparked between us, her and I." He said with something weighing down his voice, perhaps uncertainties, unsure of how he should say it.

"You... You have feelings for her?" Lumine guessed, to which Zhongli nodded after a relatively long pause.

"Yes... Perhaps it's better to word it that way." He said while giving Lumine a solemn nod. "Guizhong felt the same too, perhaps even more so than I. Although Guizhong was a... Bright and cheerful person by nature. I do see that sometimes she could be a lot happier and brighter while particularly around me. Some even say that out of all the close associates she made during our time together, then I'll definitely be the closest one to be a lover to her."

"I see..." Lumine muttered, glancing at the rings on Zhongli's hands, and mentally sighing. "So I take it that's when your love story began."

"Well... After hearing such comments from both Zhenjun and Ping, I dismissed them as simply one of the many teasings they had in mind. However, in a surprising twist of turns, Guizhong came to me at that very moment, before boldly proclaimed her love to me. And that, is how our relationship as... Lovers, began."

Zhongli finished. Releasing a sigh as he closes his eyes. Lumine looks at him, finding him going silent after he explained to her all of that. It seems as if a huge burden has been removed from his shoulders by telling her this story, and even though he did a pretty good job at hiding it, Lumine could see the smallest hint of sadness and regret in him, one that comes out as he retells the story. And what's more... The end of it.

Lumine may have not known about Guizhong personally until now. However, she did get to know about the vital part of the goddess' story. Particularly... Her status as of now.

Though many of the Adepti has spoken tales and accomplishments of her. There's only one god that rule over Liyue Harbor, and the civilization that were known as the Guili Assembly, are nonexistent in the minds of ordinary people of this age. Only those who live long enough could remember the existence of that once flourishing civilization, and the kind hearted gentle figure of the goddess of dust that once stood by the lord of Geo side. "Once."

"Zhongli... I might know of how this story ended. And I won't force you to tell me about it if it brings you pain. But please, just tell me one more thing." Lumine paused a little, sorting out the words in her brain that she's about to say. "With those rings... Are the two of officially wedded? Did you two become... A husband and wife?"

Zhongli sighs again heavily, and now, he put a hand on his face as if trying to hide his face. Or perhaps, all of this thing he's telling her are starting to take mental toll on him, and he is on the verge of getting overwhelmed by this emotions.

"No." Zhongli replied after a while. Once again, causing time to seemingly came to a stop. "Though we've both made our engagement rings, and promised each other to be officially be together as caring husband and wife. That dream would never come true, because... Guizhong would ultimately met her demise... At the hands of our enemy, just a day before marriage."

It was immediately after that delivery line that Lumine felt that she couldn't take it anymore. Quietly, she would excuse herself a while after Zhongli finally finished his story. Getting herself out of there as fast as she could, before returning back to the rented room in Wangshu Inn to lock herself inside for the rest of the night. Which unintentionally causes everyone to get worried as she was faced with a concerned Paimon and Xiao later on in the morning regarding her swollen red eyes caused by crying.

It was like her whole dream of finally finding out someone that she could love up until then was crushed at that very instant.

The story of Guizhong is nothing but tragic. Two souls who compliment each other, finding comfort on each presence, fitting to be together, only to get slapped in the face by the cruel destiny that split them apart just one day before they could finally be together.

Just how cruel this world can be? Is it too much for two loving individuals be together? Is the Archon War even necessary to begin with? Why can't everyone just lived in peace? Why must blood be spilled just for seven gods to be chosen for the thrones in the sky?

Lumine doesn't know. She's already fed up with how this world is responsible for separating her with Aether, and also turn him into the person he is now, one who abandon his own flesh and blood in favor of fighting his own war against the impossible. And now this! There's no way that Lumine will see Zhongli the same way again after that. Guizhong may have been long dead, and her engagement with Zhongli are technically never happened due to that. But still, what kind of a cruel person Lumine would be if she ever try to steal the man away from the supposed love of his life. After all, there is saying that says love transcends all, even death. So even through she had long passed away, the love that Guizhong had for the man of her life still lingers on, even within Zhongli, as evidenced with their engagement rings that he still wore up until now. His ring, which is the thick big one. And Guizhong's ring which is the small thin one.

And with that in mind, Lumine made up her mind and decided to abandon the dream that she had long been pursued, putting as much distance as she can with Zhongli, a wish that comes fulfilled once her journey takes her to the far away islands of Inazuma. Where she could finally takes her mind away from all those thoughts. Perhaps maybe her dream would come true in another form, another person, maybe she'll find it here, or the next nations, or in a different world entirely.

But of course, things are easier said than done.

Put as much distance as she wants from him, and a new kind of pain starts to rise from the bottom of her heart. And just like before, she couldn't completely understand it either.

Was it jealousy that she's feeling? Is she feeling jealous after finding out that the man she had crush on had already taken? No matter the fact that his fiance is long dead, it's obvious of just how much love Zhongli has for his late partner. And for her to step in between their love just for her selfish desire just feels... Wrong.

If it's not jealousy then... Is it pity and sadness that she's feeling? Maybe... Maybe it is. She pitied Zhongli for the cruel fate that this world had given him. To rob him from the love of his life right in front of his eyes, just one step away from his great moment of happiness. And that was what makes Lumine sad. She is sad to hear such a tragic love story, she is sad to see the man that her heart has fallen for were being put into that kind of cruel situation. She is sad because... Zhongli is sad. That is the answer behind her sadness. Lumine couldn't bear to see Zhongli sad, he couldn't get that image of him clutching his face as if holding back his tears from falling out of her head. She kept thinking about it, to the point that she had a dream of it, over and over again.

This overwhelming sadness she's feeling would then eventually transform into temptations. A temptation to make the man she loves happy, a desire to change the cruel fate that had been bestowed upon him.

That's right... changing his fate. That is something that Lumine totally capable of.

It is a great secret shared only between her and her brother, and known only to those related to them by blood, who are unfortunately no longer walk amongst the living anymore. This great power Lumine possess to manipulate fate, is her power to travel through time.

It may sound unbelievable, granted that no one else knew about it except for her brother and their late families. Lumine was born with this ability, yet she only discover it sometimes ago not long after the twins began their journey of traversing the celestial atlas in search for a new home. Lumine herself did not understand the reason to why she even possess such incredible ability, as despite the fact that they were twins, Aether did not have it.

The discovery of this power comes of as a surprise too. As Lumine felt that should she chooses to ignore the conditions of her surroundings, and focus on only to the state of her mind, and she'll find it that as if time moves faster than it usually was. The first time such thing happen was when she get bored as she have to wait for Aether who has gone off without her and not coming back after more than an hour. She closed her eyes and try to ignore the annoyance she felt and choose to patiently waited for her brother to come back instead, vaguely imagining how time should move faster so that he would hurry up and come back. And how surprising she was to find that not even ten seconds later, he was already there standing in front of her, assuming that she fell asleep. He looked at her worryingly, claiming that he had trying to wake her up but she was unresponsive and remains in that position of waiting, and what's more, the pocket watch she had showed her that more than two hours have passed since the moment she closed her eyes, despite of how it felt to be only five seconds for her.

After that day when she discovered her unusual power, Lumine had become so scared of it. She had became paranoid of what her power can do to her or the people of surroundings. She was even afraid to go to sleep, since the stillness of her body is a major factor of it.

However, thanks to some words of encouragement from Aether. Lumine would eventually come into terms with this power of hers, and even began to training with it, finding out the full scope of it's powers as well as her limits in using it. Just like the typical power of a time traveler in those novel books she reads, by using her power, Lumine is able to choose whether she travel to the past or the future, each having it's own limits and drawbacks.

Lumine can use her power to accelerate the time, making the world spins in a matter of second while she stood still in place. However, this power are only limited to two days only, and once Lumine had skipped two days worth of hours while standing still, she'll need a full 24 hour time to recover before she could accelerate the time once more. This ability is especially useful when she makes plan with someone on the next day after the present, while having not enough patient to wait a day for it. But of course, since she needs to keep this power of hers a secret with anyone, she also need to make out a clever excuse to be away from anyone she knows, especially her close companion, Paimon.

Meanwhile on the other hand, her abilities to travel to the past in comparison are a lot... Different, to say the least. The only limits of this power is that Lumine is unable to travel to a time prior to her birth, meaning that the only time that she could travel to are those that exists during the long lifetime, from the moment she was born up until now. She doesn't need to stand still in order to do it like when she accelerates the time, but still, it doesn't mean that there is no drawbacks. As any attempt she had in trying to go back in time would always resulted in her suffering from a severe headache and dizziness, enough to knock her out into a coma.

This abilities of hers are a lot useful than she could give it credit for. With it, not only did Lumine be able to pass the boredom of waiting by accelerating the flows of time, but she is also able to go back in time to change the outcomes that she deemed bad in the present, and turned it into a good one. Going back in time to prevent the destruction of an entire city, exposing the real culprit of a case after discovered it in the present, and even... Prevent a child from getting killed by moving truck.

There's so much things that she could do with this power, and it's not just so she could do some small changes only, but it is her power to manipulate destiny itself. Her power... To change someone's fate.

And with that in mind, it has became the source of temptation that Lumine is suffering from. As she lays in her bed, trying to catch a sleep, her mind drifted to that day, when she had a conversation with Zhongli about his late lover. The growing sadness and longing in his eyes, his deep heavy sighs that each was being weighed down by his burdens, his attempt in keeping his facade of composure when she could clearly see the way it crumbles down by the tears that he holds back. Lumine didn't want to see that, she didn't want to see him being sad like that, she wanted to see Zhongli happy, truly happy. And if she cannot make him, then perhaps Guizhong can.

But still though... Is it even worth it? Is it worth the risk of her to go back in time to the era of bloodshed and destruction that is known as the Archon war, just to save one single person?

"Your heart is that of a soft and gentle one Lumi, even more so than mine. And while I am glad and happy to know that I have such a wonderful sister like you. Sometimes, I could not help but to get worried about you. I knew you cared a lot about the lives of the people around you, especially with that power of yours. But please... Be careful, do not put someone else's importance above yours."

Her brother's words echoes in her mind as she thought about it. Aether is right, she is definitely one with a gentle heart, too gentle in fact, which is the reason why this temptations appears to begin with. But still, even now, Lumine's heart still can't decide on whether she should follow her emotions or to completely forget about it, two tides that crashed together to form the unsteady mess that is her mind right now. A state that remains unchanged until a certain day finally come, a day when she finally get a push that moves her heart to follow one of the two directions.

It was during the third Lantern Rite that she partakes on that the topic about Guizhong was finally being brought up again after almost two years of not hearing anything about it.

Their search for the Adeptus responsible for saving the Fontaine musician's life led her to meet the familiar avian Adeptus that she hasn't met for quite some time. Cloud Retainer, or should she say, Zhenjun, explains to them about the story of a certain Adeptus maiden known as Streetward Rambler or better known these days as the gentle and kind old woman, Madame Ping. And within that story, comes also the name of the late love of Zhongli's life, Guizhong.

The talkative and boastful illuminated beasts proceeded to tell them the story about her close relationship with the late goddess of dust. About how she and Cloud Retainer were rivals when comes to mechanisms and the favor of their lord Rex Lapis. How she and Ping were two opposites when it comes to the discussion of music, their different of views in it, and how it's responsible for their occasional debate that sometimes require Cloud Retainer's assistance in separating the two.

And then of course, the unavoidable topic, about the intimate closeness she had with Rex Lapis. As both Cloud Retainer and Streetward Rambler would stoof there and watch the two getting all lovey dovey, or, as one might calls them, third wheeling. They were a perfect match for each other, even from the moment they were nothing both two gods working together under the same goal with no intimate feelings between them. So of course, naturally it comes out of a total shock to everyone that the two would ended up like this, not being able to be together like they dreamed of. Their beloved friend tragically died in the ensuing chaos of that day, causing almost everyone to despair and mourn over her death, but, as Cloud Retainer says it:

"None out of any of us that day despaired as much as Rex Lapis despaired. While he may wore the face of an immovable rock that day, inside, he's nothing but a stone that's been shattered into pieces"

Cloud Retainer's tale were the last push Lumine needed for her heart to finally stop it's denial. She has been trying to close her heart for this for so long, ignoring all the voices in her head telling her to listen to her own desire, burying all of her swirling emotions deep down to the deepest parts of her heart. But ever since that day, Lumine finally fully opens her heart, allowing all of the abandoned mess to enters her being.

"None out of any of us that day despaired as much as Rex Lapis despaired."

Those words continue to ring inside her head as she makes up her mind.

She'll be waiting for the peak festivities of the Lantern Rite to end, which is the concert that Xinyan and Hu Tao partake in. And then, after the bustling night is over, and silence took over the night air, she'll be making her move. But just before that, there is one last thing that needed to be done, just for her to be sure.

As the hype of the festive night starts to die down, and the lanterns are being released into the sky, just like before. Lumine and Zhongli found themselves standing on the Yujing Terrace, overlooking the sight of the glimmering Liyue harbor below. This great city built by him, founded in memories of all the hardships he went through before, the true physical manifestation of the realized dream that he shared with his dear beloved.

If only Guizhong was here to see this...

"Zhongli... May I ask you something?"

"Hmm?"

He raised his eyebrow as he looked down at her. Lumine's eyes didn't move the slightest from the sight of Liyue Harbor before her, however, as of currently, her mind is placed somewhere else.

"If... If there is a chance, no matter how slim it is... How far are you willing to go to be able to be with Guizhong again?"

Her question comes all of sudden for him it seems, as she sees the tiny glint of surprise in his face in the corner of her eyes. And after that, he doesn't say anything for a little while, placing a hand on his chin as he immersed deep in his thoughts, and Lumine let's him, waiting patiently for his response.

"If we're speaking logically, I see no purpose in trying to do anything. Guizhong passed away a long time ago, and that is a fact that I have fully accepted." Zhongli answered, crossing his arms on his chest while nodding his head a little.

Despite of finally getting an answer, Lumine felt there's still some words left unspoken.

"However..." Zhongli began, closing his eyes as he spoke. "If we're speaking theoretically... If there really is such way for me to just... Simply spend a little longer with her by my side, then I would gladly endure that pain of losing her again and again, if only it were to mean I could just... See her face once more."

Zhongli answered with his voice still being the usual one that he uses normally. But Lumine knew better than anyone of what lies behind his every word, and the kind of burden that hangs from it.

"I see... So that's your answer." Lumine muttered, closing her eyes and releases a sigh.

"Lumine?" Zhongli asked as Lumine turns her body around and began walking away from him.

"Thank you for answering my questions, Zhongli. Your words have made me finally see what I need to do now." Lumine answers him while having her back turned on him, she couldn't bear to see his face again at this moment. "You have my utmost sympathies for the two of you, both you and Guizhong. If there exists a different world out there that is similar to this one, I'll pray that the two of you will be together, and none shall be getting in the way of your union."

And with those words spoken, Lumine walks away without another word.

The time has finally come.

She stood atop the highest peak in Guyun Stone forest, the cold night winds brushed against her exposed skin, the rays of moonlight graced her appearance, and the rhythmical sounds of the ocean waves below filled her ears like a calming music.

Lumine took a deep breath, looking down at the vast ocean in front of her.

Now that the Lantern Rite is officially over, everyone has gone back to all of their home, including Paimon who had left to Wangshu Inn for the night, expecting for the blonde haired Traveler to join her in bed soon, not knowing that the said Traveler had planned to go on a long journey, one that is a one way trip without a way to come back.

Once Lumine arrived in the past, she won't be able to come back to this present day, she'll be stuck in that time she's heading. Forced to see firsthand the brutality and cruelty of the Archon War, to live in an era where the gods dominated all different parts of the land while the mortals were being squished between them like ants. An era long before she and Aether had set foot on this world.

Someone's else happiness in exchange of her own happiness. Heh, she guesses this is one way love can messed up someone. Now she'll have to wait for thousands of years to be reunited with Aether once she did this.

"Strong focus on what I want." Closing her eyes, the blonde haired Traveler's mind drifted to the events on this day. Cloud Retainer's story about Guizhong and the close relationship she has with everyone, What Zhongli said to her during their talk hours ago in Yujing Terrace, and then lastly... That conversation she had with him, about her, about Guizhong.

"All I want... Is Zhongli's happiness." Steeling her resolve, Lumine took a deep breath as the clouds gathered, covered the full moon on the sky, plunging the world around her in darkness. The moment she's been waiting for.

"Goodbye everyone." Lumine muttered softly, wiping the tears that fell from the corner of her eye.

With a burst of Anemo energy, Lumine leaped high into the air, taking a long deep breath while she was mid air, then holds her breath as she dived down into the deep ocean below, letting go of all of her senses in favor of focusing single mindedly into the goal she had in mind: "To the Archon War."

While having her eyes closed and her mind not functioning as normally as it should be, Lumine vaguely felt how the ocean water around her suddenly turned from a calm gentle wave into violent waves that swirl and crash around her, as if she was a lone stone standing in the midst of a flowing river, withstanding the waves of waters that crashed into it. The brightness of her surroundings that enters through a small gap between her two eyelids flickers on and off uncontrollably, as if the moon above was a simple reading lamp that can be switched on and off. There was a sound wind howling loudly despite the fact that she's supposed to be underwater, but from the way they sound so loudly in her ears, she felt like there was a hurricane before her, with its incredible speed that was enough to rip Lumine into shreds.

All kinds of craziness was experienced by Lumine in such a short amount of time. But despite the odds, she insist to keep going, no matter what. She endured all the sensations her body felt and keep going, focusing, her destination is near.

After what it felt like an eternity, the madness around her suddenly disappeared. And Lumine felt like she was falling from a high place. She doesn't have time to open her eyes, but her body immediately sensed the danger, and flails around the air trying to unfold the wind glider she has before she falls to her death. Easier said than done with how disastrous her state of mind right now.

But luckily, in a stroke of luck, Lumine finds herself landed on water, judging from the sensation of how her body becomes wet again. Now finally in a condition that was at least a lot safer in comparison to before, she opens her eyes to look around to see if she could find the nearest land, and once she spots it, she wastes no time swimming ashore, coughing heavily as she does that.

The drawbacks of having to time travel to the past has starting to take effect on her. The great nauseous headache caused her to feel as if everything was rotating, she wasn't even able to stand properly in this state, so she chose to lay flat on top of sandy the ground she found herself in instead. Facing upwards, with her eyes directly staring into the bright shining sun above.

The skies of Liyue still looked the same. Lumine didn't know if her time travel even work or not, but she supposed she could find out later.

For now, she needs to rest for a bit.

"Oh my! Miss, are you alright?"

Vaguely, Lumine heard a voice of a woman in the distance, but she already closed her eyes by then, the only thing she managed to catch is the feeling that someone approached her and cradled her into their arms, saying some words she's unable to hear as she fell into the embrace of unconsciousness.

"She's still alive." A grey haired woman in a white dress with billowing sleeves sighed in relief when she feel a pulse from the unconscious girl's wrist.

She was taking a stroll around the plains in search of herbs for medicine, accompanied by her close associate and fellow god, but she hadn't expected to find a person just lying around here unconscious.

"She doesn't appear to be injured, though her breathing looks is a little unsteady." The aforementioned associate of the woman, a tall dark-brown haired man in a white coat with a hood over his head, said as he crossed his arms while looking down at the unconscious girl in his companion's arms.

The grey haired woman's brows furrowed in concern, before she turned her head to look at her tall companion. "Morax, we need to take her with us." She said, with seriousness.

"Guizhong, you can't seriously think of bringing her to the assembly." The man, the lord of Geo himself, Morax, said with his usual stony voice. There's no change on his expression whatsoever, aside from his amber eyes looking down at his close friend and ally with an unimpressed gaze. A typical look on the god of contract's face.

"She was unconscious, in the middle of nowhere, without anyone accompanying her." The goddess of dust retorted back, looking back at the man behind her with a firm yet soft and gentle gaze. "It's clear as day that she might be another victim of the Archon War. Our goal is to provide home and safety for the people who needs it, remember?"

"What if she's faking it?" Morax questioned with a raised eyebrow, causing the goddess to stiffen. "What if she's an underling to an opposing god, waiting for the opportunity to infiltrate the assembly, and destroy it from the inside. Or worse..."

Morax's amber eyes stared into the distance, specifically into the direction of where the territory of a certain overlord of the vortex and his faithful followers reside.

"What if she's another followers of him? He's been quiet for a while now, who knows what kind of hideous scheme he's planning." Morax said with a heavy sigh, remembering an unpleasant memory where his virtue to take pity on the weak and helpless had cost him with the lives of his people.

Guizhong contemplate what Morax just said. It's true, they did a similar thing before, finding a seemingly helpless person in the wilderness, taking them back to the assembly to take care of them, only to realize that it was a ploy for their enemy to infiltrate their base, weakening their defense long enough for their adversaries to strike in their moments of weakness.

The miscalculation on her part for that day will always haunt her. And she had sworn upon herself that such a mistake shall not be repeated again, that she'll be more careful and considerate onwards. But still... no matter how many times the goddess tried to refrain herself from helping a stranger on the streets, she can't. Her heart is too soft and gentle for her to abandon the weak and helpless humans, that is her duty as a god after all. Maybe it was a weakness on the eyes of the others, but maybe it was a strength of her own right, to compliment her genius talent and architecture and mechanism, as well as her cleverness in making battle strategies.

But now, staring down at this lone girl, every fiber of her being screamed at her to help this helpless child. The expression on her face looked sad, despite of being out cold, her eyebrows are furrowed, eyes closed and mouth slightly agape, and then her skin and her hair are drenched in water, making it seem like she just washed up ashore from the rivers nearby. That fact alone is an intriguing one, let's say that the reason of her current condition now is because she went to bathe in the river, why was she unconscious then? That question alone hwve strengthened the goddess' belief that the girl was possibly yet another of the many victims of the war. Perhaps a survivor from a clash between two factions.

There's a sound of footsteps behind her, and Morax came to stand beside Guizhong as he materialize his spear and points the tip to the unconscious girl's face.

"Step aside Guizhong, let me end her here before she becomes a further threat." The tall man bellowed, cold and heartless.

Guizhong stared in horror at him who was about to plunge the spear into the blonde haired girl's face. However, instead stepping away as he said, she did the opposite instead, shifting the person in her arms and shields her with her own body, halting Morax before he could really harm anybody.

"Wait, Morax! Don't you think you're being too heartless right now? A helpless person needs our help and the first thing you're trying to do is to kill them?!" Guizhong snarled angrily, glaring up at him sharply. "I thought I have taught you to never treat a human like they were nobodies, that no matter of who it was, be it if they're one of our people or not, they deserve the equal respect like with anyone else."

"I can't let it happen again, Guizhong!" Morax shouted, unintentionally raising his voice which made the grey haired girl shook. He seem to realize what he just did, so he quickly calms himself down and toned down his voice back to normal. "I can't take any chances... We have suffered great casualties with what happened before already. I can't let history repeats itself."

Morax finally lowered his spear, letting the tip to rest against the ground, earning a relieved sigh out of Guizhong now that she manages to calm down her brute of a friend.

"I will watch over her." Guizhong answered after a brief paused, causing Morax behind her to widen his eyes slightly as he look at her in shock.

"Guizhong, you can't-"

"You said it yourself..." Slipping her hands under the unconscious girl's legs and her bare back. The goddess of dust picked her up from the ground. Her weight is surprisingly lighter than she initialy thought. "There's no guarantee whether this girl is innocent or a spy sent by our enemies to infiltrate our civilization. Somebody should keep an eye on her, no?" Turning around, she asked her companion with a raised eyebrow.

"But your life will be in danger." Morax said with his eyes narrowed and his gaze sharpened, looking down at the girl resting on Guizhong's arms. He may be speak with such an animosity towards her, but Guizhong knows better than anyone that he is simply worried about her. He just spoke it with a language of his own, that's all.

"So dramatic..." The grey haired woman rolled her eyes before starts walking away. "If she turned out to be an enemy, there will be me by her side that can tell everyone to run away should this be true. And even if I die by her hands, there's still you and the Adepti to defend our people. My death should not be a great deal for their survival." It is amazing of how lightly she could speak of herself like that, like her existence is close to nothing to importance of her within the assembly, when it was actualy the opposite of that. "And besides..."

Guizhong stopped in her tracks when she just walked pass Morax who stood still in his position. Her grey colored eyes looked at her companion's amber ones softly, and her lips curved into a gentle smile.

"As long as I have you, you will come to protect me, right Morax?" The girl muttered softly.

Morax didn't say anything for a few moments. And after some seconds of silence, he finally replied with a solemn nod.

A sigh escaped the girl's lips, giving her friend a softened gaze before redirecting it into the girl in her arms.

"I promise, I won't let it happen again." She whispered quietly, but loud enough for Morax to hear it.

They don't know whether this girl is a potential danger or not, but as long as they don't have a clear confirmation of her yet, it's not harmful to bring her back. And now with her in tow, the two headed back to the assembly in silence, only having some small chat between the two while on the way, mainly about why did the mysterious girl lowkey resembled Guizhong in appereance.

A pair of closed eyes twitched before slowly open. Everything was all blurry at first so she squints her eyes in order to adjust with the brightness of her surroundings. That awful headache that came from her time traveling drawbacks are vaguely still fresh in her mind, but mostly it was gone during her sleep, just as she had hoped for.

It's always been like this. Reversing the time cost her a lot of energy in contrast to when she accelerates it. The toll it took on her body is more than enough to cause her to go into a coma, one that could take more than a day to recover. And it was during those times that she have Aether to take care of her comatose body until she recover her energy back. But now that he is no longer here with her, added with now that they are thousands years apart... She has no idea what happened to her body during the entire time she was out.

Her vision starts returning to her, and what she saw immediately upon her consciousness returning back a flat surface of the ceiling of a building instead of the clear blue skies of Liyue like she remembered before passing out.

Well this is a little unexpected. It looks like someone had found her unconscious body and brought her with them, to wherever this is.

Quickly, she sat up, only now realizing that she wasn't laying on the ground no more, instead, she was currently on top of a comfy bed, with warm blankets covering her body. And after looking down to see the current state of her own body, she finds out that someone had changed her clothes from the one she usually worn to a more simple white nightgown.

"I wonder how long I was out..."

It seems like some time have passed, but no matter how long she spent on sleeping, it seems like she has reached her destination. Judging from looking closely to the architecture of the building she's found herself in, which highly resembles the many ruins she have come across to in Liyue back when it was in a more greater shape. No buildings in the present Liyue look like this anymore, so this confirms that she had successfully landed in the past, but as for which period she's currently in right now during the war is uncertain. She did set her destination to the time the goddess of dust I'd still alive, but has she met with the lord of Geo in this time around? Is the Guili Assembly had been formed yet?

"Ah, You're finally awake!" A voice spoke up not far away from the blonde haired girl, it sounded young and full of energy.

Slowly turning her head to the direction where the voice came from, she saw a girl standing not far from the bed she's resting on, holding an urn on her hands. The woman has a short grey hair with long sideburns and rat-tail, beautiful ash grey eyes, and a white dress with detached extra long sleeves that hid her arms completely, a hair pin could be seen on the back of her head as well as a hair accessory on the left side, and now by looking at it, the traveler could see the dress she's wearing is an ancient and traditional one by the current Liyue standards, that's what Zhongli had told her in the past. But enough about the dress. Lumine widened her eyes as she continued to stare at the girl.

This girl is overflowing with divine energy, just like Venti, Zhongli, Ei, and Nahida, but not quite as powerful as they are, not even close to Nahida who is not a fighter. No doubt that this girl is a god, and based on her appearance and Zhongli's description of his former lover, this girl is unmistakably Guizhong, the goddess of dust of ancient Liyue.

"Welp, guess this will save me some time on finding her. Heh, what are the odds?"

"Is there something on my face? You're staring at me." The goddess asked a bit nervously, hiding a part of her face behind the object she's holding, no doubt feeling awkward from being stared at.

"Guizhong..." Lumine's surprise for finding her target this quick makes her unintentionally mumbled something out without thinking. And she only realized it a little too late when she saw the other woman widened her eyes slightly in surprise.

"Eh? Y-You know me?" The goddess asked, her eyes widened and her mouth agape, looking at Lumine in shock.

Mentally cursing herself for sputtering out words without thinking, the blonde girl calmed herself down before deciding to answer the goddess' question. "Yes. I've heard a lot of stories about you. A brilliant goddess with the mind of a thinker capable of producing wonderful mechanisms." Lumine replied, giving the grey haired girl a nod before continuing further. "I just... never expect to meet the goddess of dust in person. It surprised me, that's all."

There was a brief moment of silence between them, but eventually, Guizhong relaxed a little, approaching her and taking a seat on the side of the bed Lumine is sitting on.

"I never thought that I was so popular outside of the assembly. If anything, I thought Rex Lapis would've been a more well known figure compared to me." The grey haired girl muttered, she took an empty glass from the top of the bed drawer bedside the bed, filling it with water from the urn she's carrying before handling it to Lumine.

"Oh, thank you." Lumine said with a nod. Her throat is dry from the time she spent on sleeping, and a glass of water is all she needs to relive the fatigue of time traveling.

"I believe I've never seen you before in this part of the region." While having her eyes fixed on the mysterious girl before her, Guizhong gently asked her. "If I may ask, who are you? And how did you end up collapsed by the side of the river that we found you?"

Alright, now this is a difficult question to answer. Lumine couldn't possibly tell her about the fact that she is an Outlander from another world. Cause that will caused quite a shock to her and everyone else here. Perhaps she could come up with some stories, maybe based on her story, but slightly altered and fabricated. Yep, she can do that.

"I am a traveler who comes from another land far from here. I came to Liyue to search for someone, as well as... Another reason. I didn't expect it however, that the land would be crawling with so many nasty and dangerous monsters. I got attacked by them, and I jumped into the river to avoid them, I must've lost my consciousness after that." The blonde girl explained, shaking her head gently as she spoke. Will Guizhong believes her?

"I see, that's very unfortunate for you. Now I understand why it took you five days to wake up." Guizhong nodded in understanding, putting her hand on her chin.

"F-Five days?!" Lumine exclaimed loudly, startling the goddess. No way she's been asleep for that long!

"Y-Yes. We found you five days ago, you're not waking up despite of how many times I tried to wake you. Perhaps the monster that attacked you is one of those kind that put a sleep spell on you, which could kill you from the lack of nutritions entering your body while you were asleep. But not worry, while you were unconscious, I've been taking care of you, and even... Feed you the medicines you need."

Lumine listened to the goddess' explanation. So the energy consumption are even higher than she thinks, to the point of her needing a whole five days to recover. She guess that is completely expected from having to travel more than two thousand years back in time.

However, the time she spent unconscious is obviously still nothing compared to the 500 years hibernation she went through after getting captured by that Unknown God. And as an immortal, Lumine doesn't necessarily need nutritions in order to keep alive, but Guizhong obviously didn't know that, which is why she had been taking care of her. And speaking of that...

Lumine's mind thought of what Guizhong said last. About feeding her some medicine. Obviously a sleeping person wouldn't be able to eat or drink normally. So in order for Guizhong to feed her the medicine, is either by injecting her with a syringe (if it even exists during this era,) or...

Lumine's hand instinctively reaches up to her lips, rubbing it a little, and the second she saw that, Guizhong couldn't help but get her cheeks reddened up a little, confirming Lumine's thoughts.

Well, guess that's one way to experience after waking up from a coma. But on the other hand however, it's good for her to see this kind of reaction coming out from the goddess of dust before her. She have heard multiple times from Zhongli and the Adepti about what was Guizhong like including her personality and mannerisms. But it's a whole different thing to see it for herself firsthand.

"What's your name?"

"Huh?"

"Your name. Can you tell me your name? You already know of me, so it's only fair that I got to know about you as well, right?" Guizhong asked, breaking the awkward silence between them. Returning back to her usual self it seems.

That's right, her name. Lumine contemplates whether or not she should tell her her real name. Though giving out her name would not be hurt, the fact that she's from a future, and anything she'll do here will change many outcomes for all the years to come will really pose a problem is she's not careful. And after thinking about it, she decided that giving out a false name should do.

Now, for Her new name, it should be something simple, a name that was common amongst the people of Liyue, both past and future. By remembering her time learning the language of ancient Liyue from Zhongli, the girl finally decided the alias she's going to use. A certain word that the man used to describe her appearance.

"Ying. My name is Ying." The blonde girl, answered, putting her hand on her chest.

From now on, she shall be known as Ying. And she has to admit that she kinda likes it to have it as her name.

"Ying... What a nice name." Guizhong muttered with a small smile appearing on her face.. "I know you already know of me, but let me introduce myself. I am the goddess Guizhong, one of the overseers of the Guili Assembly, the place that you are in right now. Nice to meet you, Ying." The goddess explained, reaching out her hand towards Ying.

"Likewise, lady Guizhong." Reaching out her own hand, Ying took Guizhong's palm into hers and gently shook it. Her lips curved into a smile as she said it.

They stayed like that for a second before Ying release her holds and clears her throat to ask Guizhong a question.

"By the way, Lady Guizhong. Where are my clothes? Did you keep the clothes I'm wearing when you found me?" Ying asked as she glanced around the house trying to find it, she gets out from under the blanket and moved to the side of the bed. Her bare feet touched the smooth polished granite floor. It felt cold to the touch, making her slightly shiver, it seems like it was Spring on this time around.

"Oh, I put it in the closet, let me grab it for quick." The grey haired girl stood up and goes to the said closet and pulls out the complete set of Ying's traveling clothes that the goddess had preveously taken off when she inpected the blonde girl's body for any injuries. She went as far as to wash and dried it too, much to Ying's surprise. "I've never seen clothes with such a unique design like this one. Where did you get it?"

"Ah, it is because it was custom made." Taking the clothes from Guizhong's hand and muttered a simple thanks, Ying quickly puts it on, along with her boots and stockings. "A master craftsman from a... Really far away land had specifically made it for me for the sake of traveling far distances. It's a special gift from him, as thanks for helping him beforehand. And I treasure it very much."

"I see. I know that feeling. I too would always treasure anything that my friends had given me." The goddess of dust nodding in agreement, watching as Ying finished changing. "So what are you going to do now, Ying? Are you going to continue your journey?" The goddess asked in curiosity.

Ying paused for a bit to rethink of how should she word a response, before shaking her head. "No, I don't think so. I think I'm gonna to stay, if not forever, then maybe for a little while. That is after all the main reason why I came to Liyue on the first place. There's something I need to do here." Ying explained, closing her eyes. She can't just blurted out that her mission here is to protect the goddess before her and prevent her incoming demise. She hoped that Guizhong will let her stay. "Will that be alright with you, lady Guizhong?"

"Oh, absolutely!" Guizhong answered so quickly that it surprised Ying with how fast she just accepted that easily. "I've been telling everyone about you to ask for their agreement whether they would allow you, a stranger, to stay. And most of them have agreed! Well maybe except for Morax. He's still so adamant about his suspicions on you. Tch, seriously that man..." Guizhong quipped under her breath for the last one, causing Ying to sweat drop a little.

"Morax... The lord of Geo..." Ying muttered softly upon being informed.

"That's right. He is the back bone and the great protector of our great civilization. So you've heard of him?" Guizhong asked, tilting her head a little.

"Yeah... I've heard many stories... About him." Ying said with a nod.

That's right... Morax... This person is what Zhongli used to be. The Prime of the Adepti, the god of contracts. Even if Ying were to run into him here, he'll be a very much different person to the Zhongli she know. There will be no gentleness on him that she knew, nor the charm of what made him be... Zhongli.

There's a reason why he's called the god of rock after all, for how dense he is.

This place simply looks amazing!

Ying's mouth went agape as she looks around at her surroundings.

"So this is what ancient Liyue looks like."

She have heard of it from Zhongli and the other Adepti, who each described this era in details that makes one could easily imagined what it looks like, and there's also a Collection of illustrations made by various artists that depict the scenery as well as the important historical events that took place during this time. But after seeing it for herself like this, her amazement just got amplified by tenfold.

Surrounding her now is the great ancient civilization known as the Guili Assembly, brought back to life before all thanks to her arrival to the past. People come and go all around doing every day mundane things for livehood, with the majority of them works as either farmers or miners. If Ying remembers correctly, it is said that the goddess Guizhong was the one who taught the humans in agriculture, to plough the soil, plant their seeds, and cultivate the crops. Meanwhile on the other hand, Morax is the one responsible for lowering the tides of sea to make more land for settlements, and raised the mountains from the depths of the ocean for his people to mine the minerals from. Quite a shame that those events were already happened prior to this time period she had traveled to.

As she walks around streets to continue admiring the view, Ying notices that some People have given her some odd looks, with each people giving her a different kind of stares. Some of them looks at her cautiously, other look at her curiously, and there's also those who either doesn't care or at the very least, tolerate her presence to not be bothered about it at all.

"Look! Isn't that the girl that Rex Lapis and Lady Guizhong brought five days ago?"

"Yes, she is! I wonder why I've only see her now, has she only woke up today or..."

"They say that she's like that due to monster attacks. How awful, I hope Rex Lapis will make sure such monsters won't approach the assembly."

"What are those clothes she's wearing? It looks so weird."

"I heard that she came from a distant land. Perhaps from another landmass?"

"Why does she looks kinda like lady Guizhong? If it weren't for her hair color, I'd say they're twins."

People whispers and murmurs all around her, and Ying is trying her best to ignore them and focus on her sightseeing instead. There's no doubt that these people are still being wary of her for being an outsider, added with her strange looks that is very unusual to all the people here. And somewhere in the back of her mind, Ying mentally face palmed herself for not thinking this through. Perhaps if she didn't rush things up and think a little, then she would've make sure to wear that hanfu dress Madame Ping had given her as a gift for her birthday before going back in time. That would at least clear up the people's suspiciona for a little.

Oh well, it's too late for regrets now. The people's trust in her would certainly be an issue, but it's not that much of a big deal, so perhaps she could think about it later. Right now, the most important thing to do is: how do she wish to proceed with her mission?

She has successfully traveled to the past, back when Guizhong is still alive and well, but what can she do in order to make sure that the god of dust would survive up until the modern times and her engagement to Zhongli- ah, no, that's not right. Morax, goes as planned?

Ying was extremely lucky to have Guizhong found her after she collapsed, that saves her a lot of time in finding the Assembly and introducing herself to their leaders. Not to mention that it was also her who has been taking care of her comatose body for almost a week, and they have quickly formed a bond of friendship that made Guizhong trusted her and sees her as no threat, that made things a lot easier to Ying's end, and now she has the goddess at arm's length, so trying to protect her should pose no problem to Ying.

But the question still remains, how is she gonna do it? Or more importantly, for how long?

Zhongli and the Adepti did explain to her the details of their beloved friend's death. How her death is caused by an opposing god's attack. And that her death also happens in conjunction with the destruction of the Guili Assembly itself. But none of them ever tell her about what date it is, what day it is, or even how many years has it been since then.

The Liyue Harbor was found 3700 years ago from her present day, that much she knows. But even then, Zhongli did said that he spent a whole lot time to gather all of his scattered people across the land to built it, after the Assembly is destroyed. An info that makes Ying even more confused than before rather than being helpful.

"Please don't tell me that I actually need to wait hundreds of years before their engagement..."

Ying mentally grumbled, face palming herself as she releases a sigh.

Oh well, it's better to take actions as soon as possible instead of hurting herself mentally like this. There is no turning back now after all, and she had already prepared herself to live the next thousands of years until she finally back to the present time, this time with multiple of changes that she could potentially made now that she has the ability to alter the already existing history of the previous timeline. Hopefully, it'll be one where the almighty Rex Lapis would live a life of happiness alongside his dear beloved wife, the goddess of dust Guizhong. That'll be very sweet to see, so who cares if she has to wait hundreds of years for them to finally proclaim their love for each other, right?

BUMP

"Eek!"

"Bleehh!"

Out of nowhere, without any warning, someone or something just bump into her roughly on the back. The thing that just ran into her is seemingly small, as she only feel the collision on her waist down. But the real problem is not the thing, but what was the thing carrying.

"Oww!" Whatever the thing that that thing's carrying, it just spilled all over Ying's back. And it burns her skin because of how hot it is.

"Bleh!"

"Ack, what is this? Hey, be sure to look where you're going while holding such a hot... Stuff..." Rubbing her back that is now drenched with some sticky hot liquid. Ying quickly turn around to face her assailant, only to be shocked upon finding that there's no one stood at her height of vision. But something did stood there, but it was small and chubby.

"Blehh!"

A bipedal creature, with orange and white colored fur on it's belly, there's a symbol of infinite on it's chest, two tiny ears on its head, and dark circles on it's face surrounded it's white eyes.

It stared at her with it's eyes wide open, as if in a complete shock to see her. And now that Ying takes a better look at it, the creature stood before her, with a large cooking pot lying on the ground upside down, leaving all of it's contents spilled all over the dirt, leaving almost nothing behind but all the tarnished dishes. So this is what just got spilled all over Ying's back, it's carrying a soup of sort.

"Gouba?! Is that you?" Ying asked, surprised and confused.

"Bleeh?" The creature that she recognized as Gouba tilted his head in wonder, making a confused noise as he does so.

"Ah, apologies, I've mistaken you for someone else. I believe you're called... Marchosius. Right?" Ying questioned once more.

"Bleehh~" This time, the creature nods his head, confirming her question.

Now Ying remembers. This little panda-like creature is what Gouba used to be in the past, before he met and becomes Xiangling's loyal partner in the kitchen and in the wild. He is the god of stove named Marchosius, an old friend of Zhongli and the Adepti, also one of the three gods who resided in the Guili Assembly.

Marchosius is one of the main interest during Moonlight Merriment festival in Liyue in the previous year of the present day. At that time, the Qixing founded the statue of the god of stove who had been locked inside a giant boulder since long ago, waiting to be cracked open as the festival continues. The boulder did cracked open at the heat of the festival, and it has been a total shock to all of them to see that it was a statue of Guoba of all people. Which only makes sense after Madame Ping explains everything about what he truly is, and what led him to be in his current predicament.

After the Guili Assembly was destroyed, and Liyue Harbor is later established, Marchosius would sacrifice himself in order to vitalize the land to make it not only safe for the people of Liyue, but to make sure that they would prosper too in the coming thousands of years. Losing all of his divine powers and intelligence, turning him into the adorable cute little panda that is always there to help Xiangling cooks in the Wanmin Restaurant.

"If I remember correctly, Madame Ping said that he had the ability to split himself into hundreds of tiny clones. This is just one of the many of the stove god's clones."

"bleehhh..." Now that introductions are out of the way, it's time for her to face obvious problem in the room, the ruined dish that the panda just spilled all over the ground after bumping into her.

"Ugh, I've just woken up and I've caused a trouble already. I'm so sorry for this, it's all my fault." Ying sighed defeatedly, bowing down her head for forgiveness.

"bleh." But the little panda shook his head to her, before pointing at himself.

"No, it's not your fault. It was I who gets in your way, so it's only right that I'm the one to blame here." Ying replied, to which the panda responded by shaking his head again, more fiercely this time, making her sigh once more. "Alright, we're both at fault here, okay?" The creature was silent for a moment, putting his paw on his chin, before he nods in agreement.

With that out of the way, Ying crouch down to the ground and inspect the damage she had made. The Gouba clone stood beside her, watching sadly with tears in his eyes at the waste of a perfectly good food before him, just seeing him makes Ying overwhelmed with guilt, she needs to fix this situation somehow. Taking the cooking pot off the ground, she closely observed all the spilled stuff on the dirt. And she was quite surprised to see a few familiar ingredients that made the soup: Mushrooms, shrimps, slices of ham, and crabs. Especially crabs.

"Hold on... Is this... Adeptus Temptation?" Ying muttered out loud.

"Bleh!" And in response, the Gouba clone beside her gave her another wide shocked eyes.

"I'm assuming that I was correct." She gave the panda a questioning look, how could Xiangling understood him completely? "So, you were supposed to deliver this dish to someone, and now you're sad because you just ruin it?"

"Blehh..." The panda wailed sadly, dropping his head and looking to the ground.

Looking at him being so saddened like this, Ying come up with an idea to cheer him up.

"Hey, how about if I show you a little magic trick?" Ying asked softly, successfully gaining his attention.

"Blehh?" He gave her a questioning look.

"Let me show you." Ying grabbed the cooking pot and placed it on the ground before him, now that the food has been spilled, there's nothing inside the pot now. She made the Gouba clone check the inside to confirm that there's nothing there, before she covered it with her hands. "Now tt's empty, but now it's... filled!"

Ying took off her hand from the pot after three seconds passed since she covered it. And once her hands is out the way, Gouba look inside the pot again to see that somehow the used to be empty cooking pot is now filled with, you guessed it, Adeptus Temptation, the very same kind.

"Bleehh!" He once again gives her that wide eyed look of utter shock, amazed even.

"Hehe, what do you think about my "special abilities?"" Ying asked a bit proudly.

"Bleh~" Gouba smiled while clapping his paws to applaud her.

"Thank you. It's nothing special really." It really is, all that she did is simply using her magic to bring out the content of an Adeptus Temptation dish that she kept inside her storage, and drop it inside the cooking pot while her hands are covering the top. It would've been lame if she didn't do it otherwise, so at least she's successful in cheering up the saddened Gouba. "It's a little bit cold, so reheating should do the job, you can do that, can you?"

"Bleeh!" The Gouba clone nodded, before taking the now filled cooking pot by his paws and carry it atop of his head, which glows a bright orange color, and Ying could feel some heat coming off from him. Huh, she guess that's probably why they call him the god of stove, the thing is straight up a portable heater.

"Heheh, alright then, be careful on the way there, don't bump into someone else again okay?" Standing up, Ying dusted herself off before preparing to walk away. "Welp, see you around."

"Bleh!"

"Hmm?"

She had turned around and prepared to part ways from him, but the little creature stopped her before she even walking, urging her to look back at him and see what he wants to say.

"Bleeh bleeh!"

"You want me to follow you?" Ying tilted her head.

"Bleh." And he nods his head.

"Sure, I don't mind. But where are we going though?" She asked him again.

"Bleh." Gouba waved his hand, gesturing her to follow him as he begin to walk while Ying tailing him from behind, unsure of where the god of stove is taking her.

Meanwhile inside a conference room somewhere else.

The two gods of the Guili Assembly are having a serious discussion regarding some recent events that have piqued their concerns. The god of Geo, Morax, is still having his usual serious, collected, and stony expression that he wore normally throughout their conversation. Meanwhile Guizhong, the god of dust, in contrast are having some varying expression on her face raging from concern to suspense, but still nonetheless keeping her composure.

"I see... That is very concerning." Guizhong muttered with a small nod.

"Indeed, many reports have been received concerning the unsual rise of the tides around Yaoyuang Shoal. A few settlements around the area were severely damaged by the flood it brings, causing crops to fail and most of the mined minerals to get lost. Should this events continue, no doubt the Assembly will be targeted next." With his hands crossed across his chest and his eyes closed, Morax solemnly explain the situation. There's not even a hint of worry on his face.

"Morax, have you went there to confirm our suspicion?" Guizhong asked, looking up towards his pair of closed eyes.

"I did sent Moon Carver and Alatus to scout around the area to see if it really is because of him. however..." Morax opens his eyes to look directly at his conversation partner. "...They found nothing positive."

Suddenly, there's a sound of knocking on the door that leads to the room, gaining their attention as they turn their heads to look at it.

The door slowly slides open before any of the two could ask who was knocking on the other side. And when they see no one stood there at their level, they instead look down to see an orange furred Panda poking his head from behind the door, smiling as the little creature waved his paw at them cheerfuly.

"Oh, Marchosius! Hello! Did you need something?" The moment they saw their friend stepped into the room, it was as if all the tension in the air just now got cleansed in an instant. Allowing them to breathe easily as the suffocating atmosphere has been gone.

"Blehh!" Marchosius then walks in, revealing the cooking pot he's holding above his head.

"Ooh, what is that? A dish?" Guizhong asked, clapping her hand and looking at the pot in wonder.

"Bleh bleh~" The god of stove nodded his head.

"From Streetward Rambler? Heh, that woman... She certainly wouldn't want to miss a chance to get to you even when I am around huh?" The goddess of dust chuckled, giving Morax a side eye glance.

"I am not hungry." Morax declared, straight and upfront.

"Come now Rex, at least show your appreciation for her who made it for you. You've been busy dealing with all of this, a good meal could help you relax a little." Guizhong reprimanded him, causing the god to sigh, perhaps accepting her advice.

"Bleehh!" Marchosius points his paw towards the door behind him.

"Hmm? Someone's outside?" Guizhong tilted her head.

"Yeah, I can sense them too." Morax amber eyes glowed, as he glared sharply into the still open door. "You outside! Show yourself now before I make you."

There seems to nothing there at first. But after a while, footsteps could be heard and then a familiar figure of a blonde haired girl in white dress come into view. Waving her hand at them awkwardly.

"H-Hi..." The blonde haired girl greeted nervously.

"You...!" Morax instantly widen his eyes the moment he sees her. Recognizing her as the stranger that Guizhong had brought into the assembly five days ago. The one that he-

"Ah, Ying! Hello. Not that I don't like to see you, but why are you here?" Guizhong asked, smiling brightly upon seeing the newest friend that she made just a couple of hours ago back in the morning. She waste no time to approach her.

"Well uh... It's a little complicated, but Gouba- I-I mean... The god of stove here, he wanted me to follow him, so I did. B-But I didn't expect to see you two here." Ying explained, scratching the back of her head as she sneak a glance towards the other god in the room.

It's him!

It's Morax, it's Zhongli! In all of his glory as the geo Archon. Him, and the woman that he would come to love. Just seeing the two here in the same room makes Ying felt so happy, happy to see them being together. But at the same time... Sad. She doesn't know why, but she feels... Sad.

"I'm sorry. I'm sure the two of you have so much important things to discuss. I'll be leaving now." Giving both god a small nod, Ying excused herself and prepared to leave, but Guizhong grabbed her arm and stopped her from leaving.

"Wait, Ying! All the important discussion is over actually." Guizhong said, causing Ying to look at her. "Look, full pot of an Adeptus Temptation is not something that even two people could finish up easily. Why won't you join us instead? You haven't ate anything for the past few days after all." The goddess offered, giving the girl a smile.

"Guizhong..." Morax called her out.

"It's okay Morax, there's nothing to worry about." The grey haired girl rolled her eyes, hard. Before looking back at Ying with a much softer gaze. "So, would you?"

Ying was about to decline, decline because she doesn't want to be in this room and partly because she doesn't need to eat. But then an unladylike growl was emitted from the depths of her empty stomach, which was heard by everyone in the room, causing her to blush.

"Fine... I guess I could take a few bites."

Their lunch together turned out to be even more awkward than Ying had imagined, and the blonde girl wished for nothing but to get out of there as soon as possible.

They sits around a round table, each taking a different position which gives them some distance from one another. Ying naturally chooses to sit herself as far as she could from the two gods, but Guizhong surprisingly chooses to sit down where the distance between her and Morax is more than an arm length away to Ying's somewhat relief, she'd thought that the two of them would sit side by side instead of in a distance like this, so perhaps maybe their status as of now are still close friends?

She wonders what would happen if their relationship remain like this instead of advancing into that of lovers... Maybe then would Zhongli finally look at her the same way he would eventually look at Guizhong... That would be heavenly.

Ah, no! Snap out of it! She can't succumb into her own temptation like this!

Ying mentally slapped herself to wash those thoughts away, shaking her head to clear her head. She had already made up her mind about this! The reason why she went all the way here is to protect Guizhong and prevent her fated demise, to make Zhongli happy, and let him finally get the happiness he deserves. Not to steal him away when she got the chance.

"What's the matter, Ying? You're dropping your food."

"Ah..."

It was caused by the crashing trains of thoughts inside her mind, but halfway through eating her share of the food on her plate, Ying couldn't focus enough to properly grasp the food with her chopsticks, causing her to continuously pick it up only to drop it back to the plate with a wet "plop" over and over again, causing the others to look at her in concern, and by that she means only Guizhong, because Morax neither has the care to be concerned of her or the food she's playing instead of eating. Only sitting there and staring straight at her in silence, which is exactly what he's been doing since the three of them had started eating.

Damnit, she can't just sit still and not cause any trouble around here can she?

"Apologies for my manner... I guess I'm just feeling really nervous. I-I mean... No ordinary person can ever have this opportunity to eat on the same table with the gods, right?" Ying asked, giving them a reason to believe. The true reason is a lot more complicated than that!

"I see, why yes you are correct. But please, there's no reason to be so nervous. You are our honoured guest here, I wouldn't have invited you to have a seat with us if you weren't." Guizhong reassured her, gentle and kind as ever.

"Ah yes, I'm very honoured to be regarded as such lady Guizhong." Ying nods her head at the goddess before resuming to eat her food, trying to ignore the obvious daggers that being thrown at her by Morax's gaze.

The god of dust then turned her head to look at the other god in the room, throwing him a look.

"Morax, you too. Quit acting like a cat and eat your food already, it's getting cold." Guizhong reprimanded him, while huffing in annoyance. The way she did it is akin to a wife who scolded her husband, now Ying can see why these two were to be married.

Morax shots her a glance, looking at her who glared at him in annoyance. And it was only after that did the lord of Geo finally pick his chopstick and starts eating his food, finally breaking away his gaze at Ying at long last, making the blonde girl sighed in relief. Guizhong then turn her head head towards her, looking at Ying apologetically on her friend's behalf, to which Ying only returned with an uncertain smile.

"Is it just me, or is Ping's dish somehow taste a little different than usual?" Morax asked after a couple of minutes into his food.

"Blegh!" Hearing his sudden statement, Ying made a choked sound in shock. Thankfully though her mouth is empty at that moment, sparing her from being chocked for real.

Zhongli had always been an expert in tasting food. He could easily tell the ingredients of the dish he eat from the different taste alone. How much salt put into it, the amount of water being used in the process, or even the conditions of the said ingredients when it's added.

"You're right, it does taste a little different than usual, maybe Ping wanted to try something new?" Guizhong guessed, adding even more tension to the atmosphere.

"But she wasn't the type to stray away from the path she's already chosen. Should she the most suitable way of doing things for she would stick into it. This is very unusual." Morax mumbled out loud, scratching his chin.

"Bleeeh." Suddenly, Marchosius who has mostly been away from them, joined in the conversation, waving his paw at the two gods.

"Huh? What did you say?" Guizhong asked, sounding surprised.

"Bleehh!" The panda points his paw towards Ying.

"What? Ying made this?" Guizhong exclaimed in shock.

"Bleh bleeh!" The god of stove nods his head in response.

"How did that happen?"

To explain to them of what happened outside some time ago. The later-to-be Gouba god climbed up into the table, and starts to recount his experience in meeting the mysterious blonde haired Traveler, explaining things using his own... Language. And by also using his body to recreate the motion of that encounter: him running with a cooking pot above his head, bumping into Ying and spilled the original dish all over the ground, and Ying's magic trick to summon a new replacement of the dish out of thin air. While both gods watch in closely in wonder and confusion.

"I see. So you accidentally ruined the dish Ping had cooked for us. And as replacement, Ying made another one out of thin air. Is that correct?" The stove god's clone nods his head to the goddess as answer. "Interesting... How did you do that Yi-"

Guizhong was about to ask Ying, but when she turned her head she found the girl is nowhere to be seen and her seat is empty.

"Uh... Where did she go?" Guizhong question, blinking her eyes owlishly.

"Bleh." Marchosius pointed at the door, which they're quite sure wasn't left open just seconds ago.

"Tch, that little- I'll go deal with her." Morax stood up, pushing himself up from his seat.

"Wait Morax! wait!" But before the lord of geo could go do anything too drastic, Guizhong quickly stood up as well to stood before him, extending her arms to the side to block him from getting past through her. Despite knowing just how futile it is. "What are you going to do?"

"If that food is made by the hands of that outsider, there's some high probability that it's been poisoned." He said stoicly, as if saying it's a matter of fact.

"Are you listening to yourself right now? There's no way she would dare to try poison us. She ate a portion of that food too." Guizhong retorted. She glanced to the side to look at the plate Ying was eating, and for a girl who's in a hurry to run away from them, she sure knows to be proper and did not leave even a single leftover on her plate. That is commendable. "And besides, since Marchosius is the one who holds it, surely he would notice immediately if there's something wrong with the dish, no?"

"Bleh!" Marchosius nods his head in agreement, putting both of his paws on his side as he looks up at Morax, as if staring down at him in disapproval.

"You may have a point. But still..." Finally letting go of the tension, he looks at the door where Ying had run off. "Why would she run away then if she meant no harm?" He asked in slight curiosity.

Guizhong shook her head. "I don't know. Maybe she's feeling embarassed for being the topic of conversation?"

Morax look down at her, and blinked. Which Guizhong replied with a blink of her own, that he returned with another blink.

"Seriously though mister, we gotta work on your understanding of emotions a little better." The goddess placed her hand on her face.

"Uhh... Now way I'm gonna explain that to them." Ying muttered to herself as she walks down the street with no destination in mind.

She is aware that leaving them all of a sudden like that is extremely rude, and not to mention can potentially resulted in their suspicion on her to get increased instead of earning their trust. Especially to Morax who is definitely only one step away from slitting her throat if it wasn't for Guizhong to convince him to trust her, seriously though, she owed so much to that woman already.

But still though, running away from them seem to be the best option she takes instead of answering their question. After all, if she were about to tell them her otherworldly power... There's no guarantee that they'll look at her the same way again. This is the age of gods and monster, displaying her abilities that were never to be seen before might cause them to assume that she was a god, not that it's not far from the truth, but they will think that she's an opposing god, coming to infiltrate the assembly and destroying it from the inside, and with most of her former powers were sealed by the Unknown God, she's like a lamb for slaughter if faced against the might of the lord of Geo at his prime. Yikes.

Anyway, now that she just screwded up her first impression to the lord of Geo himself, who no doubt will probably by now thinks that she poisoned his food or something, Ying thought that's it's probably the best to avoid any contact with the Geo Archon from now on, she wishes to not further damaging the already thin line that connects two, or to sweat buckets from nervousness from the daggers being thrown at her by his extremely intimidating gaze that made her feel weak on her knees.

...or for her to simply sees him.

Ying stopped walking as her thoughts came to a pause. She doesn't want to him? Why? Why would such a thought could possibly crossed her mind?

Is it because of her fear of him, the great God who could raise a mountain from the depths of the sea and summons a meteor to rain down from the heavens like they were easy feats? Is it awkwardness because she is aware that he is the same man she knows as Zhongli, yet also different at the same time? Or is it... Because of her own feelings for him?

Ying placed her hand on her chest, above her beating heart, finding it beating rapidly than usual. And it hurts... It really hurts.

"Zhongli..." Ying muttered... The kind and gentle man that she knows is no longer here, nor will he be anywhere for that matter.

Now that she had traveled back to the past, she will never be able to see him again as the same person. This fate was sealed for her the moment she decided to reverse the time back to this era. And now that Ying was here, changing the history from what it used to be, even though the person that would become "Zhongli" could potentially happen in the far future, it will not be the same as him. Not when he gets his deserved happiness, to be together with the woman that would one day become his wife.

So it's her jealousy that is at play here, it's always like this. Ying thought that she had felt jealous enough that the man that her heart has fell for is already engaged, to a long dead woman, and couldn't move on. She thought that she had been angry enough that she absolutely has no chance in winning Zhongli over when the god is thoroughly in love with his late fiance, that stealing him over from the mutual love they shared is just wrong. But now... Now however, Ying won't be just hearing things about them. But she's gonna see them.

She's going to witness the moment they would proclaimed their love for each other, she'll be seeing how their relationship brought them happiness and changed the stoic and emotionally limited man slowly turned into the reminisce of the Zhongli she knows, she'll be the witness of when they presented their rings to each other, promising to take their relationship from what they are now, into a husband and wife. She'll be there to see as they get married and be a happy couple, while all she could do is watch, as the love of her life get together with someone else, someone who isn't her.

With a vague feeling of something wet on her cheek, Ying reaches up and rub her eyes to confirm that she is indeed crying. Why does she need to embarrass herself, crying while standing in the middle of the busy streets like this?

"No more tears." She muttered to herself, steeling her resolve and using her will power to stop herself from shedding tears any further. "It doesn't matter now..."

She'd never had any chance with Zhongli to begin with, so why bother herself insisting that she still love him? To someone who could never return her love?

Protect Guizhong, make Zhongli happy. That is her one and only goal, the reason why she came all the way here, and she will absolutely not gonna let anything gets in her way, even if it was her own personal feelings.

It's been a few weeks since Ying's arrival to the past.

Throughout the days of her stay in the assembly, she had spent the majority of the time to stay out of it instead. Ying is aware that Guizhong would forever remain safe as long as she had stayed inside the settlements, meaning that she doesn't have to worry about her for now. What she do need worry however, is the fact that the goddess of dust would occasionally went out on her own, either to go see her people outside of the man village, or go to gather some herbs for medicines. It was on moments like those that Ying would secretly follow her wherever she's heading, acting like her secret guardian of sorts, making sure that no harm comes to her until she make it back to town safely.

Meanwhile for the rest of the weeks, when she didn't find Guizhong went out of town, Ying would spent her time exploring the surrounding areas of the past Liyue, finding the landscape greatly differs from the one in the present day, if there's one word to describe the Liyue she's seeing now, then it would be "Wild," ten times wilder than the Liyue she knows of. There are no Hilichurl's of any variations of it's kind, since they've only appeared after Cataclysm which haven't happened yet. So instead of them, what's the most threathening on the Liyue's wilderness are the form of primal monsters with a varrying different kinds of forms that are certainly a huge threat to the normal civilians, but not to her though.

In all those weeks, Ying had opted live outside of the assembly, finding a small cave on the side of the mountain that she found comfy enough for her to turn it into a small living space.

And as for the reason why she went through such lenghts instead of choosing to live comfortably amongst the people in town, well, it's becase she feels uncomfortable in doing so. You see, even during that first day since she woke up, the people in town are all giving her a look that tells her that they're being wary of her, due to her unusual appereance, and the fact that she's an outsider. To begin with, Ying did not have anywhere to go in town for her to sleep comfortably during the night, and the only option availabe is she either have to sleep on the streets, or she could ask someone for permission to live in their houses for a while, options that Ying outright declined, both because it would be a major blow to her dignity for the former, and her not wanting to bother the people more than she already did.

But she do still make frequent visits to the assembly, mostly doing so to check up on Guizhong to see any progress in her relationship with Morax, but as she watch over them from the distance or behind the shadows, she doesn't see any significant changes as much as she hoped for. The lord of Geo is still as stoic and stony as ever, even with how bright and cheerful his partner in ruling was as they walked the streets and having a conversations, with the goddess do most of the talking, just as expected.

Anothing thing she did during her visits is to seek out the god of stove. Through their encounter on the first day since Ying woken up, the two has become close enough for Gouba- ah, no, Marchosius, to put his trust on her without a single doubt at all. Ying still finds it really hard to truly understand what the panda shaped creature is saying most of the times, but she was successful in convincing him enough to never tell Morax or Guizhong about her presence in town. And thus making them oblivious to where she is now or where does she live.

Guizhong would most likely be concerned of her whereabouts, and as for Morax... Well, he's either going to be questioning her disappearance in order to add it to his list of reasons for not trusting her. Or, he'll just simply dismissed it and pays it no attention.

At least that's gonna make her chance in encountering him becoming less and less likely. Just as she wished for.

Anyways... Now that those thoughts are out of her head, today is another day for her to do her daily exploration. Taking her sword with her and donning a white cloak with a hood that covers almost the entirety of her body, the Traveler sets out towards north, which in the present day would be the direction towards Wuwang Hill and Qingce Village. She haven't check out those area during the last few weeks, so she decided to do it now.

She went there on foot, since she's still unfamiliar with the world of her surroundings, and using her teleportation magic will only cause trouble if she were not to careful.

Ying continues to walk towards the direction she has in her memories, looking around the scenery to compare the two together, and see how much things have changed in over three thousand years from now. And it was unsurprising to say that she was utterly amazed by it. There's an area that she remembers to be a vast plains of grass and flowers, but in this era, it was a part of the seas instead, and opposite also happens to the bodies of water she remembers being there is now replaced with a dry lands of rocks and sand. If Ying could manage to make it out alive through the Archon War, perhaps she would live to see the slow changes of the geological formations of these lands into what she has accustomed to seeing on the present day.

Ying stopped her tracks for a moment to take a look around. There's a natural flower garden before her, with Silk Flowers being the majority of the plants that grows there. To her right, she could see a giant streams of River that flows directly into the sea. And then to her right, a familiar giant lake can be seen, along with its familiar looking shores that Ying knows so well.

"Is this Dihua Marsh?" Ying questioned herself, putting a hand on her chin.

This place is the one where the luxurious Wangshu Inn would someday be built on the center of it. The place where Ying knows very well because it is her place to stay whenever she's in Liyue. And it's also the outpost where the Vigilant Yaksha lived, one the closest friend of Ying in the present time. And now that she think about it, Ying wonders where had the green haired Adeptus go. Maybe he's on a long term mission outside the assembly. Or maybe he's somewhere hanging with his friends, since the Archon War hasn't over yet, that means the other four general of the Yakhas are still alive, somewhere, if only she could also prevents their death to make Xiao happy, but unfortunately, things like Karmic debt is something beyond her understanding.

"Okay, now that we're in Dihua Marsh, Wuwang Hill shouldn't be that far-"

"Graaawwrr!"

"Huh?"

A loud roar rings through the air, interrupting the peaceful atmosphere she was enjoying. The roar sounds like a beastly cry, coming from something that sounds big and strong. Concerned of what she just heard, Ying look around at her surrounding, tracing the direction of where the roar comes from. And after determining where it is, she heads over there which leads to her going into the lake of Dihua Marsh, where the source of the sound is located.

Once she got there, What Ying find is a twelve feet high dragon, with dark brown hard scales for skin, a pair of giant wings on it's back, and four long black horns protruding from it's skull, standing on it's two feet with its arms spread to the sides, barring its sharp claws. Well this is quite surprising, to see such creature also exist in Tevyat.

But it's even more surprising to find that someone is currently battling the creature. Shooting the beast down with shots of arrows, to which the dragon easily deflected using its large hands, trying to strike its much tinier opponent with its sharp claws. But the little one is much agile than the dragon, using their small stature to their advantage, dodging all of its attacks successfully.

Ying's eyes went to observe the person who's single handedly fending off the dragon, and the more she carefully observes them, the more she could make out some indistinguishable features of their body: Long beatiful light blue hair, purple eyes that's pretty as gem, and lastly, those two black and red horns coming out of her skull.

"Ganyu?!" Ying concluded. And upon finally realizing that this person is her horned friend from the present time, she waste no time to come to her aid.

Out of nowhere, three giant boulder suddenly falling out of the sky and rained down upon the dragon, who growled in pain after being hit by them without the chance to protect itself. The half Qilin Adeptus realizes that what just happened is not natural to happen, so she turn her body around and look up to see a blonde haired girl in a white dress is standing on top of a hill, looking down at her directly, smiling.

"You look rather down lately. For someone who is as lively and cheerful as you, what could possibly happened that brings about this change of pace?"

Inside an abode where laws of physics can be altered, and lands floats above the sea of clouds. Three people had gathered around a stone round table. One person was a man with dark brown hair, who wore an elegant dark brown robes with gold linings. While the other two meanwhile is one a woman with long black hair and red framed glasses on her eyes, while the other is a girl with grey hair and white dress. Placed before them is a dish that is different from one another, with each one are the makings of the one that sits behinds it.

The grey haired girl sighed upon being addressed. Gently taking her cup from the table, and sips at the warm tea they've been preparing, finishing it with a satisfied sigh.

"It's no big deal really. It's just..." Guizhong trailed off, a look of worry and concern on her face. "I'm really worried about, Ying." She answered after a brief pause, eyes looking down.

"Ying? Were you perhaps referring to the outsider that you and Morax brought a few weeks ago?" The black haired woman asked, gaining a nod of confirmation from the grey haired girl.

"Have you asked around the town to see if anyone have seen her yet?" Morax asked, looking at his friend awaiting her answer.

"I did, but there's no luck. No one's haven't seen ser in the last few days. Although there is few people who have seen her several days ago, nobody seems to know where she is most of the times, let alone where she lived." Guizhong answered with a small nod, looking distressed with the info.

"Hmm, perhaps I should ask Xiao to track her down given the chance that we would meet again. There are plenty of questions I need her answer me. And I will not let her get away again this time." Morax muttered, crossing his arms and closing his eyes.

"Are you still not trusting her, Morax? Even after she cook us that delicious dish that day?" Guizhong asked, pouting at him, she really don't like how dense this man is.

"Well, the matter of that day is one of the things that I would like to ask, but, what I do wanted to know more about her however, is whether or not if she's a god."

Silence overtake the room the moment he said those words.

"Morax, are you serious right now?" Guizhong asked, looking at him questionably.

"I am." The lord of Geo nods his head. "Though the lands of Tevyat are vast with all kinds of different creatures and person. That girl possess both unnatural appearance and powers that made me suspect that she's anything but human. I am curious to what she truly are and what's her motivation in coming to Liyue." He further explained.

"But I've been taking care of her for five days straight. I didn't sense any Celestial energy inside her, she couldn't possibly be a god." Guizhong shook her head.

The two continued their talk about Ying until the third person in the room suddenly stood up from her seat when she felt something coming. And the three occupants of the room turned their heads to look when a child with flowing long light blue hair with a pair of horns on her head come approaching the table the three are sitting on.

"Cloud Retainer, I'm back." The blue haired child announced, before she realized the other two people on the table. "Oh, Rex Lapis and Lady Guizhong. It's a surprise to see you here."

"Greetings Ganyu." Guizhong waved her hand at her while giving a smile. Meanwhile Morax simply nod his head in agreement.

"Cloud Retainer, I did what you asked for. Here's all the Qixings and Violet Grass that I've managed to gather, is this enough?" Approaching the table, Ganyu sets down the package she's carrying in her arms in front of Cloud Retainer, who look inside and sees all the ingredients.

"It's more than enough. That aside, you took quite a while to get back here, longer than one expected. Had something happened?" The black haired Adeptus asked, who came to notice the stratches that are barely visible but still evident on Ganyu's cheek.

"Yeah... I'm sorry for that. I got ambushed by a group of dragons while I was picking up the Violet Grasses on the side of the hills. Though I did managed to fend them all off, it took me quite some time." The blue haired girl explained, wincing at the memory.

"Oh no, are you alright? Would you like me to see at your injuries?" Guizhong asked in worry, standing up to walk closer to Ganyu.

"There's no need to trouble yourself Lady Guizhong, it's alright. I can take care of it myself, okay? And besides, someone had already treated me back when my wounds are much severe than now." Ganyu shook her head while waving her arms, which pulled back the sleeve of her dress a little, enough for everyone to see that her arms are wrapped up with bandages.

"Someone had helped you treating your wounds?" Cloud Retainer asked curiously, usually, her desciple is the type of someone who gets wary with any people that she wasn't acquainted with, remembering the first time the half Qilin encountering the first human she met, where she would then run away in fear and hides behind boxes so that the humans won't find her.

"Yes. And she also helps me in taking care of the final dragon that chased me. Just when I'm almost out of energy too. Oh and also, there are some Qixings and Violet Greass in that package that are given to me by her. She said that she picked them up days before and saw no use in them, so she she give it away instead." Ganyu explained.

"Interesting. Did this person tells you anything about themself? Perhaps if one had the chance, one would like to meet her and extend one's gratitude." Cloud Retainer asked her disciple, giving her a curious look.

"Uh, well... She doesn't say that much about herself. But she did say that her name was Ying, and she's a traveler passing by."

Morax and Guizhong was startled upon hearing that, while Cloud Retainer still keeps her composure despite of how surprised she was like the other two.

"Did you just said Ying?! Does that person has blonde hair and a white outfit?" Guizhong questioned, looking at Ganyu curiously.

"Um, she is. Lady Guizhong, did you know that lady?" Ganyu asked back in curiousity.

"She is. In fact, she's the one who brought that girl into the assembly after finding her passing out in the wilderness, as well as the one who nurses her back to health." Morax explained in Guizhong's stead. Looking at Ganyu curiously, he asked. "What else did she say to you?"

"Uh, well... She said things like "You are so much cuter than I expected!" And "Hehe, she wasn't lying when she said you're such chubby ball of fluff." But other than that... It's nothing noteworthy." The blue haired girl explained, blushing with her face red.

"I see. So at least now we know that she's still alive somewhere out there." Morax nodded his head.

"You said before that she helped you in fighting off one of the dragons that attack you. So she could fight? How well can she do it?" Guizhong asked with great curiousity.

"Oh, she's just so extraordinary with it, Lady Guizhong." Ganyu replied with a nod, smiling. "I've never seen anyone that is so exceptionally good with a sword like her. Every swing and movements she made are very elegant and great to look at. Not to mention that she also has that power to control the Geo energy to form crystals that traps the dragon in place, which is a curious one because no ordinary human should've able to done that. And she is neither an Adepti or a pure elemental being. So what is she then?"

As they listened to Ganyu's explanation. Morax and Guizhong shared a look, they glanced at each other, giving each a knowing look.

Ying is standing on top of a mountain when she sees a familiar figure walking out of the town's border during the morning. A basket in hand, swinging back and forth as the girl clad in white dress and billowing sleeves walked with a little skipping on her movements.

It's one of those days when Guizhong went out of the assembly, possibly to gather some herbs to turn it into medicines for the people affected by the Archon War. Despite of her major importance in the assembly as the brain of operations, she's quite confident to stride all alone into the wild without any protection. Perhaps it's because of her knowing that the destination she has in mind is still under the assembly's radar, making it relatively a safe zone for the people to walk around alone. And should anything happen, the town is near enough to notice any anomalies and send help to those who need it.

But still though, Ying won't take any chances to take a break even after knowing the nonexistent danger lurking near the goddess. So, just like she did many times before, she follows Guizhong quietly from the shadows. Acting like her secret guardian.

She remembers of the story Cloud Retainer once told her about Guizhong's death. It said that during a brutal struggle between the assembly and the enemy. The assembly was destroyed as it was ravaged by flood, Rex Lapis and his Adepti were busy fighting off the enemy responsible for destroying their prided civilization. They're so busy that they were distracted to forget about Guizhong's safety. And as the result, once the battle is over and Rex Lapis finally remembered his soon-to-be-wife, realizing that she was in danger, he quickly rushed out to her side, only arriving too late as Guizhong had already turned into a husk of lifeless body. Dead and ready to crumble into nothing but dust.

That was Ying's conclusion her incoming demise. That Guizhong must have been outside of the assembly when it gets destroyed, and as everyone is busy fending off the attackers. She is left helpless and vulnerable for anyone to kill her.

But now that Ying's here to follow her everywhere she goes while she was outside of the town. Ying will make sure to give those responsible for killing the goddess in the near future a kick on their butt for ruining someone's marriage and happiness. That is something that Ying will never ever forgive.

Anyways, they reached the first of the their destinations. The cliff sides of the mountains in Jueyun Karst, where the Qixing flowers would grown on top.

Guizhong seem to doesn't have the skills to climb the side of the cliffs. And because of that, she opted to choose an alternate path that leads her to the top by using a stead pathway. Ying also notice that due to this weakness, the goddess would forgo the Qixings that are situated way above the ground and cannot be accessed normally without climbing, and thus she only picked up the ones that her small body can reach, even though as Ying remember that most of the mountain flowers grew on the very top.

Just seeing it made Ying itching to help her a little. So she do the goddess a favor and plucked all the Qixings that grew beyond her reach. Placing it down on the ground for her to find. Which made the god of dust confused as to why someone or something would left a perfectly good flower out in the open for anyone to take. At first she hesitated to take it, reasoning that someone must've left it there to take it later, and for her to grab it would mean that she would be stealing. But thankfully though, she is convinced enough to eventually take it after realizing that it's better for her to use it instead of letting the flower there to rot.

Once she get what she needs, the goddess then heads back down to the ground level using the stead path she uses to get up before, with Ying secretly using her Geo powers to control the ground beneath her feet so that Guizhong won't accidentally slip and fall.

Once that is over, the goddess then heads towards the northeast direction. Which supposed to be Dihua Marsh if Ying remembers correctly.

There's no way to get there if she walks on a straight line because the two land are separated by the sea. So in order to do that, Guizhong needs to make a detour by circling the lower parts to get around. Knowing that the road there is safe thanks to her exterminating the monsters that usually lurks there a day prior, Ying decided to take the shortcut instead and crossed the sea by swimming just like usual. Once she arrived on the other side of the sea, she patiently waits there, and sure enough, Guizhong came stroding in a while later. Finally arrived on the second destination, the Dihua Marsh.

The materials she gathered here are the Horsetail and Lotuses Heads, which could be found on the shallow bodies of water around the area. After putting down her basket on the shore and taking off her sleeves, the goddess stepped into the water, feeling the slight cold on her already bare feet, before getting to work on harvesting the materials she came here for.

With no cliffs or rocks to hide. Ying could only watch over her from the distance as the goddess drenched herself in water. There seems to be no threat here, but Ying won't let her guard down. So she took out her sword and hid behind a tree that is big enough to hide her figure.

Ying wishes she could help Guizhong in gathering the Horsetails and Lotus Heads, but she knew better to not reveal herself to her to not startle her. They haven't seen each other for almost a month now, and Ying didn't know what to say to her. So for now, she'll just gonna stay there and keep watching her, until the goddess gets back into the assembly.

"Who are you?"

A voice suddenly spoke up from behind Ying, and the moment she heard it, she quickly turns around to face the person who are right behind her, sword in her hand.

But before she could even say anything, let alone swing her sword to defend herself. A hand covered by ancient marks lunges at her, catching her by the throat and pin her against the tree bark. It took her by a complete surprise, and her sword fell out of her hand and into the ground, leaving her completely defenseless against the tight hold the hand has on her throat, choking the breath out of her, and all she could do is to weakly trying to release the hold the assailant has on her life.

"Speak, or die." The voice of the man who choke her spoke up, and Ying's eyes slightly widened upon hearing it. It was a familiar voice, it's the voice of him! "Are you an assassin? Are you here assassinate the goddess of dust? Who sent you?" He questioned, shaking her and push her against the tree harshly.

No way this is how her life end. In the hands of the man she had fallen for. She came here to make his future a happy one, only for him to kill her, what a cruel and forgiving world she found herself in.

"Zhong...li..." She whispers quietly, imagining the face of that man for one last time before this... God, take her life away.

That whisper seem to be heard by him, as the grip of his hand on her neck slightly loosen up, enabling her to breath even just a tiny bit of air. His other hand reaches up to her, and he grab the hood of her cloak and pull it down. Revealing her face to him, causing him to widen his eyes a little as amber meets gold.

"Ying..."

Morax spoke up her name, the name of the girl that Guizhong told him. The girl that the goddess put her entire trust on without a shred of doubt, the girl that she said was so radiant to look at, like a fireflies shining in the darkness of night.

"What are you doing here? Where have you been all this time? And why are following Guizhong?" He questioned, quickly getting over his surprise and return back to his dead serious state, glaring daggers at her straight into her eyes.

Ying wanted to answer his questions, to prove to him that she hasn't done anything wrong, she was only wanted to protect his future wife, to ensure his happiness, that's all. But she find herself couldn't, she wanted to speak but she couldn't, she only gritted her teeth, while staring back at him with blurry visions. This is the man that she loved so much, and yet, the one that stood before her is completely different. He's so cold and emotionless, he's so different that it pains Ying to see him, seeing him being so different, it made her realized that this isn't Zhongli, he's not the gentle god that she met and love. This is a god... Who is trying to kill her.

"Why are you crying?" He asked another question, one that made Ying surprised, as she realized it by now of how wet her cheeks are from the tears that she unknowingly shed for Archon knows how long. "You gave the same look before, on that day. Why?"

What does he mean? Did she stare at him with a weird look without her realizing it?

"Morax? What are you doing here? And..." A third voice spoke up, and both Ying and Morax glanced to the side to see Guizhong standing there, looking at them. At first, she was looking at Morax only, but then, her eyes glanced towards Ying, and see the position she was in. Her mouth gasped in horror, and she dropped her basket in shock. "What do you think you're doing?! Unhand her now!"

Morax instantly did as she said, releasing his chokehold on Ying's throat, letting the girl to fall to the ground coughing as she tried to regain her breath. Guizhong then quickly rushed to her side as Morax stepped back, letting the two have some words.

"Are you okay? He didn't hurt you anymore than that did he?" The goddess asked her, grabbing her shoulders to pull her up to take a look at her face. And she noticed the tear stains that runs down on both sides of her heads, and it causes her to frown. "Just what do you think you're doing?! You're attacking her when I told you she's innocent! You-"

Before Guizhong could go yell at him any further, Ying grabbed her arm and gave it a firm squeeze, telling her to stop, cutting off her sentence. The goddess look back at the blonde haired girl who finally could breathe back normally.

"I-It's okay, Lady Guizhong... It's okay." Ying whispered, using her other hand to wipe away the remaining tears in her eyes, looking up to look at two gods in front of her. "This is just a big misunderstanding, that's all."

"What do you mean?" Guizhong asked in confusion.

"I... I was taking a stroll in the area between Jueyun Karst and Dihua Marsh to see the area for myself, since this is the first time I came to Liyue. But then, as I take a walk around here, I saw you, Lady Guizhong." Ying explained, she lied to them of the reason why she's here, because explaining the truth will only cause them to think that she's a stalker or something. "I saw you picking up some Horsetail and Lotus Heads over there, I wanted to say hi, but I don't know how should I greet you. And it was that moment while I was contemplating whether I should go there and help you, Rex Lapis saw me and mistaken me for someone else, because of the hood I'm wearing over my face."

"Is that really what happened, Morax?" Guizhong asked her fellow god, asking for his confirmation directly.

Ying stared at the lord of Geo a distance away from them. With how little trust he has in her, Morax could've outright deny the statement that Ying just made to Guizhong. She still didn't know how he could even find them here. Has he been followed her since the very beginning? Or is their meeting here is just pure coincidence? Former seems to be more likely than the latter. Since Guizhong is going out to collect herbs alone, being one of the most important person in the assembly, it's only normal that he would follow her to protect her. Maybe Ying just being too focused on Guizhong to the point that she couldn't sense Morax the whole time. And if that is really the case, then Ying is officially screwed.

"It is." Morax said with a nod.

"Eh?"

In a surprising twist, the god didn't object her statement like Ying imagined. He instead agreed with her explanation.

"When I saw you in the distance, I couldn't see your face at all. And when I saw you hiding behind a tree, with Guizhong nearby, I had thought that you are an assassin sent to kill her. But I was mistaken." Morax explained, he threw a quick glance towards Ying and, before closing his eyes afterwards.

"I see. So it is just some misunderstanding then." Guizhong nods her head, looking back at Ying and then to Morax, before smiling and clap her hands together. "Well then, since now things are made clear, you better apologize to Ying now, Morax." The goddess of dust said, causing Morax to open his eyes to look at his companion. "Not only did you choke her so harshly against a tree, and almost kills her, but you also made such a pretty girl cry. Now, apologize to her this instant." The grey haired girl ordered, putting both of her hands on her sides with her lips turning into a pout.

Seeing her act like that is akin to a wife who demands her husband to do a favor for her, one that cannot be objected. She just looks adorable. But that aside though, there's no need to go that far! Ying opens her mouth to say something, but someone beat her to it.

"I... I apologize for my mistake, miss Ying." Morax said after a while of silence, slightly stunning Ying who didn't expect him to give her an apology so easily. "It was my mistake for lashing out so carelessly. Any rationality had left me the moment I thought Guizhong was in danger. I was too wary. I should have been more calm and assessed the situation better by asking you properly." The god explained, before bowing down his body in apology, while Ying could only watch with slight widen eyes.

This manner of speaking as he apologizes to her, the genuine sorry in his voice despite of his tone, and even the way he bows down to her. It's all like... Him.

Maybe some things didn't change after all. Or maybe it's just her imaginations getting wild.

"It's okay lord Morax. There's no need to apologize." Ying shook her head as she stood up, looking at the god before her softly, kindly, just like when she looks at him. "This is all my fault for being too shy to approach lady Guizhong and offered her my help. Perhaps, if I go to her and greet her properly instead of spying on her, this whole ordeal wouldn't have happened. So please, no need to feel bad about it, okay?" Putting a hand on her chest, Ying closes her eyes as he gave him a smile, her brightest smile.

Unbeknownst to anyone there, Morax was stunned by her reply. She did not only dismiss his apology, but she blames herself instead for an event that would likely take her life in a normal situation. Even after the rough treatment she got from him, she's still able to give such a radiant and bright smile to him. Without any malice or hidden motives, just pure kindness. And on that split second of silence from him, Morax finds himself being rid of all the suspicions he has for the blonde haired traveler, coming to see her as a kind and lovely maiden of her own right. Maybe a bit similar or comparable to Guizhong.

"Ah, and speaking of that... Lady Guizhong, I see you collecting Horsetails and Lotuses. Is it for medicine? I happen to pick some of them during my traveling some days before." Moving on from the topic, and turning her body away from the (eerily) silent Morax. Ying walked to Guizhong and talk to her.

"Whoa! They look so fresh and on a perfectly good conditions! Where did you get them?" Guizhong asked when Ying handed her the items, the goddess' eyes sparks with wonder.

While the two girls are busy talking to each other. Morax observed from the sidelines, noting of how similar the two are, not only in appearance, but in personality too.

"So you've been living outside for the last three weeks?!" Guizhong asked, slightly shocked.

"Yes. I slept in this cave I find comfortable enough to turn it into my temporary living space." Ying answered with a nod of her head.

After she collected the materials she's looking for, Guizhong and Morax returned to the assembly with Ying followed. And now, the three of them find themselves sitting around the table once more, chatting over cups of tea and some treats. So apparently candies already exists during this time around.

"Why didn't you want stay here? The outside is a lot more dangerous than one could've imagine, you could have gotten yourself killed!" Guizhong berated, her tone is the mix of curiosity, confusion, and anger.

"Well, three reasons: One, I don't know where to live here. Two, I don't think anyone would let an outsider like me to live in their house. And three, I'm not sure if Rex Lapis would allow me to either." Ying shrugged, sighing a little.

Guizhong turn her head towards Morax. "Morax, please tell me that it's not true."

"Well, I would've been more than happy to chat and speak of the terms that would allow you to stay, if it weren't for you who run off so suddenly that day." Morax responded, causing Ying to sweat drop.

"That's right. We were having such a great time enjoying the meal that day, so why did you run off? We have so much things to say to you." Guizhong said with a nod, turning her head to look at Ying now, causing the blonde girl to get even more nervous than she was before.

Feeling that there's no way out of this situation. Ying decided to just surrender to her fate and explains everything.

"Do I really need to explain this?" The traveler mumbled, scratching the back of her head. "Well, the two of you heard from Gouba- I-I mean, the god of stove of what happened to the dish we ate that day, the real dish, that got ruined during the transportation. That Adeptus Temptation was made by the hands of your dear friend, who made it tenderly with her heart to appease the two of you. But it was because of me, I ruined her precious cooking, and to save faces, I even dare to replace it with a cheap imitation of my own. No way I could show my face to the two of you after ruining such a precious dish given to you from your beloved friend like that. I should've stayed to receive my punishment for my insolence... but driven by fear... I ran away instead." Ying explained, looking downcast while placing a hand on her chest.

"Ying..." Guizhong softly muttered, looking at the blonde haired girl across the table.

"I may have overthink it, or maybe I'm not. But there is another reason why I avoided the two of you..." Ying raises her hand, which she kept her palm closed, and once everyone's eyes are fixed on it, she opens her palm, and the instant she does so, a burst of stars and constellations appears, making Guizhong gasped while Morax gawked in surprise and wonder. "This is a special power I posessed, one that I inherited from my mother." She closes her palm again, absorbing the all of the sparks back. "Though this power is said to be blessing that my family had inherited from one to another, my abilities are nothing but normal. People have been trying kill me or exile me from town to town, fearing me for the unknown, and that is why I have taken much lengths to conceal my secret." Ying looks up to give the two gods a look on each one. "And I've heard of... how much a battlefield the Archon War is here in Liyue. And if the two of you were to see me using my secret powers... You may have thought of me as a threat, more than what you alreasy suspects me now." Closing her eyes, Ying sighed before looking down again. "And those... were my reasons."

The room went silent for a while, and Ying silently gulped down the lump on her throat. She's still having her face down so she couldn't tell how the two gods reacted to her long explanations. They are made up by her, but some parts of it are based on true story, such as the fact that she had visited a world before that tried to stake her alive after being accused for a witch. Mentally, she's screaming and begging for this to work, otherwise, she didn't know how to proceed with her plan after this.

There's a sound of chair moving as somebody stood up. Guizhong got up and quickly made her way over to Ying... Before pulling her into a hug, surprising Ying as her eyes went wide.

"Oh, Ying... I-I have no idea..." Guizhong mumbled to the completely confused Ying. "I didn't know you're having such a rough time in your life, if only I knew, I would've come searching you much earlier." She continued as she gave the blonde girl a pat on her head.

Wait a minute, hold on... This isn't the reaction she's expecting to see.

"Y-you're not mad at me?" Ying asked, a bit hesitantly, looking up towards Guizhong.

"Of course I'm not, why would I?" The goddess of dusk questioned. "No way I'm gonna be mad at you after cooking us such a delicious meal like that. I know that you're feeling all guilty about the spilled food that Ping made for us, but the fact that you're trying to fix your mistake is more than enough proof to show us just how much of a kind person you are. And besides, that isn't even your fault to begin with, so please stop blaming yourself for that." The goddess said while continue rubbing her head, which Ying found to be very comfortable.

"While I do have some... Still lingering thoughts about you. I do agree with what Guizhong said." Still sitting on his chair, Morax nods his head with his arms crossed. "I do not mind that you changed the contents of that dish that Streetward Rambler made, as us gods do not necessarily needs to eat to begin with. In fact, I was rather curious about how you've cook it, the one we ate that day taste different from the one she usually made, in a sense that your cooking is... More superior than her." The lord of Geo explained as he stared at her.

"Hehe, oh Morax... You said that now, but back then, once you were told that Ying made the food, you immediately stood up and accusing her of trying to poisoning you." Guizhong throws a smirk at him, to which the Geo Archon replied with only his usual blank look. Making Ying winced a little. "But yeah, what Morax said is true. Your food taste ABSOLUTELY delicious! Celestia above, it feels like with every bite I take I received some sort of boost on energy that makes me strong for the next five minutes straight! How could you even create such a delicious dish? Ping needs to learn a lot from you."

"That's oddly specific..." Ying chuckled wryly at the grey haired girl statement of gaining strength from her cooking. "So... You're not gonna kick me out? Even with my unknown powers?" Ying asked, looking at Morax who stared at her in return.

"No." Morax replied simply, shaking his head. "While I do not know the full details of the powers you possess, or the many troubles it causes you, it's the kind of person you are that truly matters to me. I'm sure that is what Guizhong here have in mind too." The god of contracts, closed his eyes as he continue. "And besides, the Guili Assembly isn't short on that kind of people either. I'm sure that you've met and know of one of them, Ganyu, the little girl you saved a few days ago. You may have noticed the horns on her head, while that girl is a human, she got illuminated beast's blood flowing through her veins. Adding you to our list shouldn't pose no problem at all. And I'll allow you to stay here, for as long as possible."

Ying went silent after hearing that. Everything she heard they said is not what she was expecting them to say. She thought that she would've need to tell them even more, maybe tell them about her search for Aether to gain their sympathies more, so they would allow her to get close to the assembly, not necessarily inside, but close, as long as she still can be there to protect Guizhong when that day comes.

But oh well, this works too, even better than she planned, and she is more than happy to accept it.

"Thank you." She muttered out with a smile.

Which was returned by Guizhong with a smile of her own. While Morax still retains the blank look on his face. But inwardly thinks to himself as to why he is starting to like the smile that Ying radiates. "Better than that sad look in her eyes" Morax mentally thought to himself.

A couple of more weeks had gone by since then.

After she was officially accepted into the assembly as one of it's people, Ying have been making the best out of the situation. The people are still being wary of her, which she did not mind and choose to give as little distance she could with them to give them some space. In order to not bother the still anxious people, Morax had instructed Ying to stay in Cloud Retainer's abode for the time being, living there until she eventually gained the peole's trust. But Ying knows it better that it was merely a pretext for the avian Adeptus to keep an eye on her in case if she did something stupid again like sneaking out of town without notice.

Cloud Retainer is still as loud as ever, being very talkative when it comes to talking about her young half-Adeptus disciple, or being boastful of her creations and intellect in mechanical engineering, which TOTALLY not inferior to Guizhong's, at least according to herself. Though the Adeptus now preferred to take on her human form more often than she never was back in the present time, it's still nice for Ying to see some familiarity around her, which makes her stay a little bit nicer than the roughness of the outside world filled with chaos.

Her mission still continues on throughout the days. Ying would regularly check up on Guizhong to see if she were safe and didn't stroll out of the city without any protection. Though the goddess would mostly stayed inside the assembly to do her work of maintaining the stability of the civilization that she and her partner/future husband create, or doing research in her personal workshop and having some tea time with her two close Adeptus associates, Cloud Retainer and Streetward Rambler. Guizhong would still occasionally went out of the assembly to do things outside, like collecting materials such as herbs or mechanical parts to bring back for research. And just like a personal bodyguard of her, Ying would always insisted on accompanying just like before, only this time, she is actually there taking a stroll by her side instead of acting like a stalker without a crush.

When Ying asked Guizhong of it for the first time, the goddess had told her to not bother herself in doing so, that she could take care of herself just fine. But Ying had reasoned with her that she would like to explore the Liyue outside of the safe haven that the gods had created, that as a traveler, it is in her nature to know the outside world better, and seeing the outside world together is better than alone.

And with enough convincing, Guizhong found no reason to deny her request, or any other after that. And they will always went outside together since then. Finding each others company to be a pleasant one.

But protecting Guizhong is not something that she did every day. So during the days when she has nothing to do, Ying would spend her time doing things like patrolling in the surrounding area outside of the assembly to check for any threatening monsters that gets too close to the border. And if not that, then she'll do other mundane things like introducing herself to the rest of the Adepti she haven't met and have met before in the present time.

Like the other four Yakhas, the closest thing that Xiao has to a family, they are dear to him, as he was very dear to them. And it was their deaths in the near future that caused Xiao a great deal of suffering that consume him for every breath he takes.

It wasn't easy for her though, none the easier than when she tries to get close to Xiao. Perhaps it's even harder, since now she has to deal with five people with similar cases. But with persistence and patience, she managed to pull through, and become close enough to the Yakhas that she was allowed to come with them to do their job in exterminate the demonic manifestation of deceased gods. Though they still wouldn't allow her in taking part in the cleansing of the curse and plagues, she can still prove her worth by helping them kill all the monsters.

She was having such a good time with them, for having to know Xiao's found family, after hearing so much about them from the green haired boy himself. But at the same time, she also feels immensely sad, as she knows full well of the fates that awaits them in the future. One that she... Unfortunately unable to change, even if she travels back in time to change every outcome. So that's why she has to make sure to cherish every moment she has with them, even if it means that she has to deal with Xiao's tsundereness (still the same as ever,) Bosacius who asks her to a spar in every occasion, Menogias who treats her like a child due to her physical appearance (and not to mention asking her to be a model for some of his clothes designs,) and then both Indarias and Bonanus constant teasing for her "cute" appearance and apparent closeness to Xiao.

And with everything that she did in those days, It didn't take long before rumors about her spread quickly amongst the people. From rumours going around about her being an Adeptus that just got recently descended from Celestia or a straight up god, possibly from another part of Liyue, that chooses to support and joins the Guili Assembly. Either way, some of them are greatly exaggerated.

Ah, and speaking of gods... There was a certain god in town that had his eyes on her.

It's only natural that Ying would've noticed sooner, but everything she did in the past few weeks has always been under the watchful eye of Rex Lapis. It seems like the way of her doing things has caught the interest of the god of contracts enough for him to choose to do nothing but to observe her in some day, which Ying doesn't mind, since having him to watch what she did is the good opportunity for him to trust her even more. And to be honestly speaking, that is a second reason for her to do what she did.

Through Cloud Retainer and Ganyu, they tell of him what kind of a person she is in her spare time. She was a great friend and babysitter for Ganyu who becomes very close to her, and she's also a clever puzzle solver, able to indulge Cloud Retainer's interest when she solve all the mechanisms she lend her.

Through the Yakhas, they reported of how skilled and powerful she is as a fighter, able to stand on equal grounds with them during battle, with Bosacius particularly praise her for being able to satisfy his desire for a worthy and challenging opponent. Oh, and they also speak of the certain charm she possess that makes even slaughterers like them to take her as their friend, just like how she saw them her friends.

And lastly, through Guizhong, Morax will begin to trust her in accompanying and protecting his future wife against all danger while the two are out. Ying knew of just how important Guizhong is to him, that as the brain of his brawn, no matter what she said, the lord of Geo would always takes her word into consideration, so to make Guizhong to speak of Ying more and more often to the god of rock, it's only in a matter of time that he'll begin to trust her fully, and that'll be the perfect opportunity for Ying to launch her plan, to change the cruel fate that will befall these two, into a better one.

"But how strange it is that I haven't seen them doing anything much lately... I had expect to see them hug, kiss, of more... And yet they haven't done any of yet, have I miscalculated on something?"

That's true, Ying haven't seen any significant progress of their relationship yet. Does she really have to wait for dozens of years until they finally became an item? But she thought her wish to make Zhongli happy would've made her travel to some time prior to the events surrounding Guizhong's death. So surely there's gotta be a mistake that made them not being in a relationship yet, right?

"Come to think of it... I think he spent more time watching me rather than spending time with Guizhong... I hope my actions didn't cause any trouble for them..."

Ying mentally grumbled to herself, she would hate herself if her coming to this era ends up ruining Zhongli's happiness instead of granting them.

"So... What other powers do you have, miss Ying?"

"Huh?"

Ying opens her eyes to see a pair of violet eyes staring up at her expectantly. She was sitting on the floor with various things scattered around her, which are items she took out from her inventory. And then, sitting right in front of her, a small girl with light blue hair and a pair of red horns on her head sits before her on the floor as well.

During this particular day, Ying had nothing do do at the moment, so she spent her time just sitting in her room inside Cloud Retainer's abode, thinking things through of what happened before and after this. But just a couple of hours ago though, Cloud Retainer comes here and said that she had business to take care of on the outside, and so she entrusted Ganyu in the care of her while she's gone. It's a little difficult though, since Ying only knows of the Ganyu she met when she was around 3700 years old of age. And the one she sees now is nothing like that, she is but a child who are forced to live in a violent environment that is the Archon war, that had robbed her for any chances of a happy and peaceful childhood.

"Ganyu's mother is that of an illuminated beast from the race called Qilin, gentle creatures with fur soft as clouds. While her mortal father was a herb gatherer. Though as sweet as the love between them maybe for them to eventually bears a child, the Archon War is an unmerciful place that not even children would be spared from the pain that the war brought. Star Chaser eventually perished in battle, leaving only her child behind for her beloved husband raise singlehandedly without the presence of a mother. But that too would come to end when the herb gatherer passed away from an illness some time later. And that is how Ganyu ended up in the care of Zhenjun as of now. It was a promise she made with the Qilin prior to her demise."

Ying remembers the story Guizhong told her before about Ganyu. It must've been really hard for the girl to suffer such major loses like that back before she couldn't even understand anything. And even though Cloud Retainer did a pretty good job in taking care of the girl as a mother figure, having to grow up without knowing about your parents on a personal level is still sad. Thank goodness that at least she'll eventually grew into the Ganyu Ying knows in the future, one that would become one of the closest friends she made in Liyue.

But she didn't know about Ganyu when she was younger than what she already heard from Cloud Retainer numerous times though, so it's a little difficult for her to find anything she could do with the young half-breed to pass the time, so that's when she resorted to ask the girl to play some games instead, while also to telling her all kinds of stories that did not have anything with the future avoid changing the course of history more than she already did.

Ganyu seems to having not that much interest in mechanisms despite of having to live with Cloud Retainer for years. So in this opportunity, Ying borrowed some of the Adeptus' creation to showcase it to the child in hopes of sparking some curiousities and amazement to it, showing her just how fun it was to solve a puzzle. At least that's what Ying hoped for, if it turns out it's not working... Well, at least she could keep her entertained.

Cloud Retainer's creations are is that of a small mechanisms that could fit into Ying's hand. And by doing things the right way, such as flipping some small switches, turning and rotate some parts around, the once simple looking three dimensional builds would opens up like an egg that's been cracked, transforming into a new form.

After giving Ganyu some demonstration, the blue haired girl is piqued enough to try some of them too. Though Ying could tell that she was having some difficulties in just solving one of the puzzle, she lets her to continue meddling around with it without lending any help.

"I said, do you have any other powers?" Ganyu asked, looking up at her with curiousity filled those violet eyes of hers. "I-I heard from Cloud Retainer that you've been helping Conqueror of Demons and his friends lately. I know that you are strong but... To work alongside them like that... Isn't it dangerous?"

"Ah... Yes, it is." Ying nods her head. She does have to admit, battling against wraiths and other demonic manifestations of the deceased gods is not an easy task for her. Ying doubted that she could do it alone if it wasn't for the five Yakhas there to help. "But... It's fine really, I can take care of myself just fine. I still have a lot of cards to play when the situation calls for it."

"Really?" Ganyu tilts her head to the side. "I saw you using elemental powers that day when we first met... And as far as I know, only Rex Lapis and the other Adeptus can do that... Miss Ying, you're not secretly an Adeptus, are you? I heard everyone say that you are."

"No Ganyu, I'm not." Ying shook her head, sighing. Those people outside really need to keep their mouth shut before any other bizarre stories about her starting to sprout. "I'm just some girl who are born with a special talents, that's all."

"Someone who's born with special talents... Are you immortal?" Ganyu asked again.

"Uh... It's complicated." Ying laughed wryly, scratching her cheek.

"So then... What other things you can do aside from controling elemental powers? Can you turned invisible? Can you fly? Or... Maybe you can transform into an animal?"

"Well um... I do can fly, once. Before someone rips my wings off of my back, forcing me to walk on land." Ying sighed, a hand reaches behind to rub her back.

"Aww, that's awful... It must have been hard for you, huh?" Ganyu cooed, eyes narrowed and a look of sadness appear on her face.

"Ah, it is." Ying nods her head, before clearing her throat. "Welp, aside from that ability that has lost. I possess the ability to create my own pocket dimension, where times did not exist. I can store everything there as long as it didn't reach the size and weight limits, and I can freely bring them out whenever I want too." To demonstrate it, Ying took one of the puzzle on the floor, and made it disappear in a spark of light, before making it reappear again in her other hand. Making Ganyu to stare at her with her eyes shining in amazement.

"Wow! That is amazing!" The blue haired girl gawked, making Ying smiled.

"But that's not all. As the one who fully controls the pocket dimension, I too has the authority to grant anyone I deem worthy to have access to it as well." Ying's golden eyes then drifted to the puzzle in Ganyu's hands. "Let's see... How about I'll show you? From now on, I allow you to access my pocket dimension, wanna give it a try?"

"Can I really do it? But if I really can... Then sure, I wanna try it." Ganyu said with a nod.

"Good, now, let me show you how to do it." Ying slides closer to the girl and put her hands above the girl's smaller ones, covering the puzzle that's still haven't finished yet. "Okay, now that I have permitted you borrow a fraction of my power, simply wish this puzzle in your hand... To disappear, simple enough?"

"I'll try."

Ganyu nodded as Ying moved away from her. The half-Adeptus concentrated, glaring at the object in her hand intensely, which made Ying remembers that she forgot to tell her that it's not that complicated to accomplish. Five seconds later, and with a wish to make the object disappear, the puzzle in Ganyu's hand dematerialize into nothing, shocking the little girl.

"M-Miss Ying! I-It's gone! It's really gone!" Ganyu exclaimed, eyes wide open and jaw dropped.

"I know. And now all you need to do, is to wish for it back. As easy as sending it off." Ying instructed, and after calming down, Ganyu did as she was instructed.

Three seconds later, the puzzle reappears back into her palm, earning yet again another shocked response from the young girl.

"Wow! This really is amazing. What else can you store in them?" Ganyu asked as she inspect the puzzle in her hand closely, even more amazed upon finding it having no significant changes whatsoever.

"Plenty." Ying answered quickly. She couldn't possibly list out all of the weapons, artifacts, materials, food, books, and many other things that she stored in there.

Click

"Ah!"

"Oh? You've finally done it."

The puzzle opens up with a click after a certain switch has been flipped, the cubic shaped box then configured into the shape of a stone flower.

"I... I did it.I really did it!" Ganyu cheered, a big smile appeared on her face.

"Very good. Now, give it to me for a sec." Ying reached out her hand, to which the smaller girl handed over the finished puzzle into her. Once she took a hold of it, Ying stood up and walked over to Ganyu. The blue haired girl tilts her head in confusion, which Ying uses as the opportunity to pin the stone flower on her head." There we go, now you look even prettier." Ying nods to herself, a small smile appeared on her face.

"Miss Ying..." Ganyu softly mutters, reaching up to rub the flower on her head, before looking up at Ying." Thank yo- "

Suddenly, the ground shook without warning, and Ying stumbled on her feet and fell to the ground. Ganyu quickly approaches her and asks her if she was okay, but that is the least of their concerns right now. They realizes that it's not just the ground that shook, but the entire realm that made up this abode is shaking violently to the point that things become disorderly within mere seconds, even the islands that floats above the clouds uncharacteristically went plunging down into the void below.

Sensing the danger of staying here any more time than this, Ying quickly grabs a hold on Ganyu's hand and prepares to get out.

"Ganyu! Hang on me tight and don't let go!" She warned before golden lights appears around the two and covered them before both girls disappears as Ying teleported them all out of there.

When the two arrived in the outside world, they were shocked to see the world was crying.

The skies turn unnaturally dark, despite the time pointing out that it's still one clock in afternoon. Heavy storm clouds formed to cover up the blue skies, replacing the bright sea of blue into ominous grey. Countless droplets of water raining down upon the once dry land with such intensity that is nothing but normal, causing it to overload until the land is no longer able to absorb the rainwater and causing flood to happen, covering the ground up until ankles deep, for now.

"What is happening?" Ying asked, everything about this rain made her think of a certain event that happened before, back during her early days adventuring in Liyue.

"Surely it's not gonna be Him, right?"

"I-I don't know!" Ganyu violently shook her head, an expression of what seems to be fear, worry, and discomfort mixed up on her face. "Whatever it is that is happening, this is not normal."

"Yeah, I know that much already." Ying gritted her teeth.

Right now the two of them are standing atop Mount Aocang, and the Guili Assembly is many miles away from them. But if the weather here is already this bad, Ying can't imagine how bad it was back in town. She needs to immediately inform both Guizhong and Rex Lapis before things went downhill. She grabbed Ganyu's hand to once again cast the teleportation magic so they could immediately be there. When suddenly...

"Ganyu! Ying!"

A voice spoke up from behind them, and both girls turn around immediately to see a familiar face. Cloud Retainer, in her crane form, comes out from the domain entrance, and though her faces hardly shows any emotions (since she's a crane, of course.) Ying could sense her worries for their safety, especially Ganyu here.

"Cloud Retainer! You're finally back!" Ganyu exclaimed happily, good to see her at least have something to feel happy at despite of the tense situation they found themselves in.

"What happened?" Ying of course went immediately straight to the point. Asking the Adeptus in seriousness. "Have you went to the assembly? What's the condition there?"

"It's bad. The assembly is under attack!" Cloud Retainer flaps her wings as she stared at Ying, dead in the eyes.

"Under... Attack...?" Ying muttered out, eyes widened and the tone of her voice dropping down.

"Yes. A God and his devout follower just launched a full frontal assault just a few minutes ago. Osial, the Overlord of the Vortex, Rex Lapis' archenemy." The crane illuminated beast answered.

The moment she heard that name, Ying's heart skipped a beat. Her eyes blown wide open, and her mouth parted yet no sound is coming out of them. Ganyu throws her a look of concern upon seeing that.

Osial... That's one name that Ying would never forget. He's an ancient god of whom Morax had a bitter rivalry with. It is him the reason why the Guyun Stone forest are created, the eternal prison for the five headed sea monster to remain for all eternity, if it wasn't for the 11th Fatui Harbinger, Childe, to unseal him and let him wreck havoc that nearly caused the entire Liyue Harbor to be erased from the map.

They had to use everything they got to take down that God, even sacrificing Ningguang's beloved Jade Chamber. But now... In this era, in this Archon War, Osial, at the height of his power, versus everyone in Liyue without Rex Lapis... It would be nothing but impossible!

"One comes hsre to see if both of you are alright. And it seems like you two are doing just fine." Cloud Retainer's voice brought Ying back to reality, the Adeptus glanced to the two of them respectively before speaking again. "We must return to the assembly, the people need to be evacuated before the casualties piles up."

"Wait! What of Rex Lapis and Lady Guizhong?" Ying raise her hand before the crane could say anything more, asking her the most important question in her mind first.

"Most unfortunate timing, but Rex Lapis is currently outside of the assembly and haven't returned since. And as for Guizhong... She's busy in helping out the people even as we speak now." The illuminated beast replied.

All the blood in Ying's veins turned to ice.

Rex Lapis... Outside of the assembly? Guizhong... Alone?!

Ying's mind recalled another memory, a memory of her conversation with Cloud Retainer back in the present day, regarding of what happened surrounding Guizhong's death.

"...And as the Guili Assembly were ravaged by flood of which that destroys everything. Guizhong perished in the unsuing battle, with no one by her side, not even her soon-to-be husband."

If this is the battle that Zhenjun were talking about... If this the day where the massive floof destroys the Assembly, and Osial is the cause of all that, then Ying got to be there! Now!

"Ganyu, Ying, hop on into one's back, one shall carry you there." Cloud Retainer flaps her wing to gesture them to climb up.

"U-Understood! Miss Ying, you-"

"Tch!"

Before Ganyu could finish her sentence, or Cloud Retainer can done anything. The blonde haired girl raise her arm up in the air, and in an instant, bright gold light surround the three and covering their bodies.

"W-Wait this is...!" Ganyu look down at herself, feeling the familiar sensation of her body feeling lighter.

"What are you doing?" Cloud Retainer bellowed.

"A shortcut."

With a snap of a finger, the three vanish into thin air.

Blinding bright light suddenly appears inside a room with big table and numerous chairs. And from within the light, three figure emerges, one was a little girl with horns on her head, one was a gigantic crane that emits a glowing aura, and the last one was a blonde haired girl in white dress that shines as brightly as the full moon in the night sky.

The three opens their eyes, and immediately they recognize the room they found themselves in.

"This is... The conference room! How did we get here?!" Cloud Retainer questioned, looking around her surroundings to confirm that it's real.

"Indeed it it. I had the opportunity to dine with Rex Lapis her once. But that's a story for another time. Ying replied, before dashing out towards the exit suddenly, prompting the two other to follow her.

"Just how exactly did you do to get us here in mere seconds? How did you end up having the opportunity to dine with him?" Cloud Retainer continued to ask her as they headed towards the exit. Seems like Guizhong never tells her about that day. "Just... Who are you?"

"Hmph, it's a simple teleportation magic that allows me to get to anywhere I want as long it's reachable. I've marked this place before, just in case if I get the need to bow down and apologize to Rex Lapis for ruining his meal. But now, I can finally use it for something far more important and useful." Ying explained, which made the Adeptus confused even more, especially at the "ruining his meal" Part.

They reached the exit and Ying kicked the door open, causing water to splash all over them and made them even more wet than they already have.

The scene that laid before them is nothing but chaos. If the rainstorm that they saw back in mount Aochang is a heavy one, then this one is five times even more heavier. The sky is completely dark with no light to shine down on the land below, if you could still even calls it a land because right now, it's nothing but a sea of shallow water that drowns everything from knee down. And lost within the darkness of this day, people of the assembly from children to elderly, they ran around in panic and fright, for not only did the darkness and the rainstorm that pose as a threat, but there's also the horde of monsters that roams around area, hunting for preys relentless. And then last but not least, there's Osial, Overlord of the Vortex, standing with all of his might so many distance away, but close enough for his five head to be visible as he watch the havoc he created.

"So that's him... Rex Lapis biggest archenemy, the god of the sea monsters, in all it's might." Ying muttered, she could feel her hands are shaking, just as much as that day when she sees his form for the first time. How can they hope to win now with Rex Lapis is away and no Jade Chamber to sacrifice? How?!

"Yes, that is him." Cloud Retainer replied standing beside Ying, her eyes wanders to the sight of the panicked crowd that was being chased by the monsters. "As of now, we are in a condition where victory is impossible without the aid of Rex Lapis. The best thing we could do is survive. The Yakhas as of now are trying their best in slaying the monster hordes as well as slowing down the Overlord of the Vortex advances. With so many people are here, we the rest of the Adeptus must evacuate everyone out of here. Bring them as far as possible from the battlefield, a high ground is preferable for the flood."

"Understood. Then..." Ganyu closed her eyes as her bodies began to shine.

In one moment, Ganyu was a little girl, and in the next, she transform into a gigantic beast with fur that almost covered all of her bodies, standing there on her four legs and her horns displayed. The Qilin bleated as it transformations is complete.

"Very good. Ganyu will carry everyone to safety on her back." Cloud Retainer then glanced at Ying. "As for you, Ying, you-"

"I'll go help the people." Ying cuts her off before running off once more without anymore words.

"Ah, Ying! Wait!" Ying heard Ganyu in her Qilin form called out to her, her transformation made her voice deep and echoing in her brain, but that's still didn't stop Ying from running.

She brandishes her sword as she heads straight into the chaos before her. Ying knows that she couldn't save everyone, a single girl like her couldn't possibly slay all the roaming monsters and sent the people away without anyone left behind, added with the fact that some of these people might have their fate sealed at this day, she made it her priority to find Guizhong, and protect her from any harm. Only slaying the monsters that gets on her way, and the people nearby that she come across to as she searches.

"Come on! This might be the day, this might be the day I could finally change her fate! The day I could change HIS fate. I can't be too late!"

She searches and searches, yet she hasn't found any girl with the appearance of the goddess of dust, just where is she?! She can't be die just yet, when a god dies there will always be a consequence that their deaths may bring, just like Havria who exploded into a wave of petrifying salt that turns everyone around into one, if Guizhong already died here, then a big impact should've exist somewhere, but they're not.

"Grrroooaaah!"

A very loud girl was heard just in front of her, and Ying dashed forward to see what it is. When she finally got there, she saw a ten feet tall monster standing in front of a house. The monsters has tentacles for hair and gigantic crab claws for hands, if it was at any moment aside from this one, Ying would've wondered if she could chop off those crab claws hands and see if she could eat it and it taste the same as a regular crab, except of course that it's obviously going to be a lot bigger.

Anyway, the monster holds a gigantic stone machete in one hand, and after putting much of it's strength in it, the sea monster swings its weapon down on the house horizontally, destroying the house entirely and exposing the inside. Ying covers her eyes when the debris gets every where, even to where she was standing. But her eyes were blown open the moment the dust clears and the inside of the destroyed house becomes visible to her.

In that house, crouching down on the ground, is Guizhong, the goddess is cradling a little child in her arms protectively, using her own body as a shield to the monster before her, she is a powerless god, and she knows it, and that's why she's willing to sacrifice her life for the humans she meant to protect, because she knows that her death won't be the end of this civilization she established alongside the lord of Geo. And as long as he's still alive, the Guili Assembly can simply be rebuilt again, even without her.

The tentacle haired monster sees it's target, the god of dust is down on the grown powerless before it, and with her death, the Overlord of the Vortex shall take one step closer to his goal, to destroy Morax. The sea monster raise it's giant stone machete up in the air and then bring it down towards the goddess, ready to cleave her in two.

"Wall!"

But... Before the weapon could even get as far as one centimeter away from the goddess, it was stopped mid track, by a formation of rocks and crystals that holds in in place, to which even the monster had difficulty in removing the weapon from its grasp and remains stuck there in place.

The god of dust must've heard her yell, or maybe it's because of the sounds of the ground burst open for the crystals to be sprouted and stopped the monster from killing her. But either way, Guizhong slowly looks up, to see a familiar figure standing before her, with her back facing the goddess.

Guizhong's eyes widened, as she sees the form of Ying who is completely drenched in the rain water, causing her blonde hair to droop down, and for her white dress to stick to her curves.

"Are you alright, lady Guizhong?" Ying asked, looking back towards the goddess who stared at her.

"I-I'm fine." The grey haired girl nods her head, a bit frantically. But then, she smiled, a bright and happy one. "But Ying... It's really good to see you again."

"Yeah, you too." Ying agrees with a nod.

Turning back her attention to the monster before her, the thing has forsake the weapon it carries and resorts to using its crab claws for hands instead, which Ying admittedly look quite dangerous, it's better for her to avoid getting hit by them because there's no way she would let herself die at the hands of her favourite dish.

The monster made the move first, striking Ying with it's claws. But due to it's size, Ying could easily outplay it by slipping between the gap on its legs, rolling to the side when an attack comes down to her, or just straight up block it with her sword. She cast another geo elemental abilities to sprout some crystals to form around the monster's feet, causing it to not be able to move. And for extra, she sprouted some Dendro vines to the ground that binds the monster's bodies from head to toe, and as the monster is trying to break free from it's hold, Ying made the final move. My launched herself high up in the air by using a gust of wind, and then using her control over the Electro elements to rain down thunderbolts upon the monster, charring the beast until it turns into crisp.

With the beast no longer squirming or breathing, which signifies it's death. Ying landed safely on the ground, exhaling a relieved sigh as she turn around to face Guizhong, who is now standing on her feet, the child that she was protecting as well, clutching the goddess' hands tightly for comfort during this difficult times.

"Thank goodness you're alright. I don't think I can forgive myself if I show up too late than I already did." Ying said, inspecting the goddess closely from top to bottom.

"Oh it's great to see that you are fine as well, Ying. I was very worried when I couldn't find you anywhere." Guizhong replied, placing a hand on her cehst, which made Ying's eyes twitched. Perhaps taking a day off in Cloud Retainer's abode might've been a mistake after all. But anyway...

Ying grabbed the sides of Guizhong's arms to look at her straight in the eyes.

"Listen. Cloud Retainer ordered us to evacuate the people to safety, getting them as far as possible from this place. I'm gonna assume she meant Jueyun Karst, a place far away from here and for people who seek to avoid the flood by climbing out the mountain. You need to go there."

"What? Ying, I can't just leave. These are my People, my responsibilities, I need to help them get in there, not just myself!" Guizhong retorted, surprised with what Ying just said.

"I know lady Guizhong, I know. But your life is far more important than some of the rest of them. You needed to be safe." Ying replied, her eyebrows furrowed and her lips turned into a pout.

"No. No I will not go there, until everyone is save." The goddess shook her head, firm and persistence.

"Agh! Just listen to me! Your life is important, lady Guizhong, for me, for all of us, and more importantly to Rex Lapis." Ying was beginning to get annoyed, so she made one last attempt to persuade her. "Can you just imagine it for a sec? What do you think Rex Lapis would feel when he lost you? He'll grief, he'll be sad, he'll be so sad that his guilt for not being able to protect you will consume him from the inside, he'll be nothing but a sadened man, think of it!"

Guizhong's eyes went wide at Ying's words. She does have a point, she and Rex Lapis were close, they were what others could refer to as best friends. Guizhong care a great deal about him, and maybe he as well cares a lot about her. And now that he's away, not being here with her, if she were to die here then that will just cause him to suffer, to grief just like what Ying said.

"Ying... How did you...?" Guizhong was about to ask something, when suddenly, bright golden light appears and coverihg her body.

"I'm sorry lady Guizhong. But I won't let you sacrifice yourself like that." Ying said, as she releases the goddess, and it was at that moment did the God of dust realize what she's doing. "Just leave the safety of the people to me, okay?"

Before she could say anything more, Guizhong vanishes in a spark of light, also with the child that she was protecting, leaving Ying alone in there. The blonde girl lets out a relieved sigh, being able to save the goddess from sacrificing her life and ruining the happiness between her and Rex Lapis. And now that she's out of the way, it's time to deal with the bigger issue.

Ying look up to the distance, towards Osial, whose form is getting closer and closer to where she's standing. At this rate, it's only a matter of minutes before the god arrived here and destroy everything that still wasn't destroyed yet.

"Ying!" A voice spoke up from behind her.

Ying turned her body around to see Ganyu, still in her Qilin form, as well as the other Adepti heading towards her. All of the people that has been rescued is also there, sitting on Ganyu's back hanging tightly to her fur.

"Everyone." Ying greeted, her golden eyes glanced around to the humans amongs the groupm "Is that all of them?"

"Yes. We've managed to round up everyone who survived the monster attacks." Mountain shaper answered her, nodding his crane head.

"But still, we're unable to find Guizhong, and also Jin, a little kid who is the son of Xin." Moon Carver said, his yellow eyes stared at Ying.

"Miss Ying, were you also unable to find them?" Ganyu asked, through her eyes appears to be closed, Ying knows she is staring at her.

"Actually, I just ran into them just a few seconds ago. And I send them off to safety." Ying answered lightly, causing the Adeptus to all stare at her.

"What do you mean "send them off?"" Mountain Shaper questioned suspiciously.

"You used that magic again, are you?" Cloud Retainer asked, already guessing what she was saying.

"Exactly, and now I intends to bring everyone there too." Ying nods her head before reaching out one arm towards them, once again creating a bright golden light that coated everyone there. And as they become confused at what's happening, as their bodies becomes lighter and the light becomes a blinding one, Ying groaned as she activate the magic, causing everyone except for the Adepti to vanish out of existence. Successfully teleporting them out to safety.

She would've felt happy when she did that, but when a painful sensation instantly attacked her body, Ying is left grunted as she fell to her knees and breathing heavily.

The Adepti were surprised to find all the humans have vanished so suddenly, but Cloud Retainer and Ganyu knows of what happened to them and they were fine. But they're even more surprised however, when Ying unexpectedly fell to the ground when she was fine just moments ago. Ganyu in particular, hurriedly changed back into her human form and approaches Ying to hold her asked her if she were okay, to which Ying simply replied with a weakened smile.

Looks like she's been casting her teleportation magic a little too much for this day, and not to mention doing that to dozens of people at once too. Usually, four people including herself are the best she could do without any setback. And transporting people more than that amount would resulted in a large energy consumption that would sometime even straight up hurting her body just like now, judging from the bitter taste in her mouth.

"An ability to transport people? How is that possible?" Mountain Shaper asked after hearing some explanation from Cloud Retainer.

"If you were indeed sending them off to safety, then where? Where did you sent them?" Moon Carver asked, looking at the still downed Ying.

"Jueyun Karst. I sent them to Jueyun Karst, Guizhong is there as well." Ying answered, slowly standing up back to her feet despite of them are shaking. "Now that everyone has been escorted to safety, now all we need to do, is to defeat Osia-"

A loud roar interrups their talk, and everyone turned their heads to look at the Overlord of the Vortex in the distance. Osial roared with his five heads, all of their mouths opened as a large amount of hydro energy are building up in them. Ying who see it could only get reminded of that moment during the battle between him and the Liyue Qixing. And from the way it seems now, it looks like something is about to happen, or even worse.

"I-Is he going to...?!"

"Everyone, run!"

Without any further words, the Adepti quickly took off from the ground and flies up to the air. Ying is still paralyzed and couldn't move much, but thankfully, Moon Carver picks her up and placed her to sit on his back before he took off, Cloud Retainer also did the same thing with Ganyu.

As the fly through the air, Ying look back to see why everyone choose to run, and what she sees is something straight up from a horror novel.

Osial release the built up energy and fired the accumulated Hydro energy he gathered. And just in a matter of seconds, a giant tsunami with the height of a mountain is formed, and it's heading straight towards them. There's no way they could escape it with their current flying speed in comparison to the giant wave.

If only she could cast another teleportation magic to get them out of this seemingly hopeless situation... But her body almost didn't have any energy left. So all that could save them now, is a miracle...

"RISE!"

A voice of a man bellowed, it echoes through her mind and it sounds clear as day, ignoring the sound of the heavy rain around them. And Ying looked in shock and relief to see Rex Lapis in all his might floats there in the air, as he raise both of his arms up in the air.

In the next moment, a large wall of rocks and crystals erects from the ground, standing up high even talker then the mountains or the incoming tsunami. The newly erected wall block off the giant wave from advancing further, saving everyone and Ying from their demise.

"Rex Lapis! You finally arrived."

"Yes. Apologies for being away for so long. I was heading here as fast as I could." The lord of Geo bowed his head slightly. His amber eyes then glanced towards the five headed sea monsters in the distance. "You can leave everything to me now."

Materializing his spear, the Vortex Vanquisher. Morax headed straight towards towards the enemy. But for a split second as he flew passed them, Ying's golden eyes met with his amber ones briefly, staring down at each other, with no emotions shared between the two.

"Zhong... li..." She whispers softly, before he flew passed her and gone towards the battlefield. Everything else from there on is a blur to Ying as she lost her consciousness due to fatigue afterwards.

She squirmed on the bed she found herself lying on. The bed creaked from her movements the sound of which enters her ears and pulls her out from her sleep. She squints her closed eyes before slowly opening them, revealing the blurry world around her.

She blink her eyes several times, and then rubbed them with her hands. Once her vision becomes clear, she saw an unfamiliar looking sky above her, which made her wonder how she could see the sky above her while also lying down on the bed. So maybe she's in a bedroom without walls and roofs? But why in the world would anyone would build a house like that?

There's some small noise coming from beside her, and the blonde haired girl who lies on the bed slowly turned her head to the side to see a figure, sitting on a chair in front of a desk, one hand holding a brush while the other is holding down an empty scroll that he's currently being written down. His hair is dark brown in colour, short with a thin long rat tail trailing behind him. It's him!

"Zhongli...?" The girl on the bed croaked out, feeling the dryness in her throat like she just swallowed a desert while she was asleep.

The man's hands stopped their movements as his focus are shattered, and his attention are led elsewhere. He turned his head back, looking towards the girl rested on his bed. Their eyes locked, and gold meets with amber.

Oh.

Ying thought, slightly disappointed. She sees his eyes, yet she found no warmth nor gentleness that he possess. It may have caused by her mind that's still lingers in the realm of dreams. But she has briefly mistaken this... God, with the man that she loves. Though they technically the same person, the barriers of time and experience are responsible for separating the two from one another.

"You're finally awake." The gruff and deep voice of the god spoke up. "You've been asleep for quite some time now, everyone was getting worried." He crossed his arms, a glint of well hidden interest and curiosity are present in her eyes, no doubt it was caused by what her mouth slipped out earlier.

"Lord Morax." She nods her head in a greeting matter. "May I ask you where am I now and how long have I been asleep? Also... How did the battle between you and Overlord of the Vortex goes? Is everyone alright? Is lady Guizhong safe?" She just woke up, and she already bombarded him with lots of question, asked for the sake of curiosity, while also wanting him to be distracted enough that he would forget about asking her whatever questions he had in mind.

The god stared at her for a while in silence. Before he lets out a sigh and close his eyes before he answered her questions.

"This is my abode you're resting in. The Guili Assembly has suffered quite the damage from Osial's assault, especially from the giant wave he used in an attempt to flatten everything with the ground. There's not many safe place to rest left, which is why I let you rest here. And as for the matter of how long... You've been asleep for a whole day since the attack, and that was three days ago." Morax explained.

Three days ago?! Well, at the very least it's not as long as her awakening from reversing the time months ago.

"The battle with Osial ultimately ended with our victory, thanks to the help of the Adepti who helps in evacuation of the people and extermination of the invading monsters while I personally dealt with the Overlord of the Vortex myself. Though it is unfortunate that I couldn't deal the killing blow before he retreated, with the casualties that we've suffered already, I personally think it's better that we've put our focus to rebuild instead of chasing him down to the rabbit hole." He further explained.

Ying hummed in response, it's true that it's unfortunate that the god of the sea monsters had managed to escape, but knowing of what would happen should a god be slain, a great example of it is what happened to the god of salt Havria, Ying thinks it's better to deal with that five headed god later, she already knew of the fate that woulf befell him after all.

"And as for your last question... Guizhong and the others are safe. We found them taking shelter in Jueyun Karst hours after the battle is over." Morax then opens his eyes to look at Ying's golden ones, and she is mentally surprised to see them having softened up a little unlike the usual dead serious stare. "And I... Have you to thank for that."

Ying widened her eyes for that last sentence. Is he refering to the fact she's the one who gets everyone to safety in no time? She knows that it means a lot to him and all, but still, it's ultimately him and the Adepti that are responsible for gathering up everyone together for her to cast her enhanced teleportation magic.

In the end, her one and only goal at that time is to save Guizhong... Anyone else is just an extra. So for him to thank her for that just felt... Wrong.

"Lord Morax, I... I am in no position to receive any of your thanks." Ying sat up from her sleeping position, placing a hand on her chest and shake her head. "It was all thanks to the work of everyone on the Adepti that we managed to accomplish what we did. They're the one who gathered the people together amidst the chaos, they're the one who holds back Osial and his army of sea monsters long enough for you to come. They're heroes worthy to be praised, and as for me... Well, I was late to the scene, it was Cloud Retainer who told me of what happened, minutes after things were already downhill. So please, save me of all your thanks."

Morax only stared at her in silence as she dismissed his thanks effortlessly. Normally in this kind of situation, Morax would always be very persistent, keep pushing through until his subject gives up and have no choice but to accept. But to this girl however, Morax found himself speechless, unable to come up with anything to say.

How can someone be so strong yet so humble and kindhearted as she is?

After many seconds of silence, he clears his throat as Morax finally knows what to say.

"You could say that to yourself as much as you want, but I believe everyone including me will have to disagree." Morax shook his head as he closed his eyes.

As if in cue to what he said, before Ying can say anything, Ying felt a presence appearing a distance away from the bed she's resting. And by looking at the direction where she felt the presence, Ying saw the form of the familiar grey haired girl with billowing sleeves. A tray filled with a pot and cups of tea being carried by her sleeve covered hands. Her ash colored eyes are wide open in shock, as well as her mouth as the two girls stare at each other.

"Y-Ying?" The Guizhong, the god of dust called out her name softly, the shock in her voice are clear for everyone in the room to hear.

"Hi Lady Guizhong." Ying waved her hand at her, a little awkwardly, she didn't expect the goddess would come here. "How've you been?"

"Ngh." The grey haired goddess walks up to a nearby table to place the tray down, before she approaches Ying at a quickened pace, standing before her, before pulling her into a hug. Something that is a little expected coming from her. "That's my line, dummy."

Ying only smiled back at her before returning the hug. "Yeah, I'm good lady Guizhong. This Ying is now fully charged." She joked a little, which cause the other girl to lets out a giggle.

"You don't know how worried and mad I was at you when you suddenly sent me Jueyun Karst without warning. I even considered if I should hurry back to the assembly on my feet just to give that head of yours a little flick of my fingers. Lucky for you, I was stopped when everyone in the assembly suddenly appears out of nowhere, saving you from my wrath." Guizhong said with a cheerful smile, but Ying could see the barely hidden twitch of her eyes and at the corner of her mouth, making Ying sweat dropped. But nevertheless, she gotta take responsibility.

"I am... Really sorry for what I did lady Guizhong. I just think that your survival is vital for everyone, and I cannot risk you getting hurt." Sighing, Ying closed her eyes and leaned forward towards Guizhong. "Then, by all means, punish me as how like it."

There was a while of awkward silence between them, but Ying chose to ignore it and kept her posture, intending to hold it for no matter how long it's gonna take.

Eventually, she felt a smooth slender hand touched her face and brush her hair away to expose her forehead, and then...

Chu

"Eh?" Ying opens her eyes to see Guizhong pressing her lips against her forehead.

"There, that's your punishment for leaving me alone. Don't do it again, okay?" The goddess whispered as she smiled sweetly at her.

"U-U-Understood!" Ying nods her head, unknowingly letting out a squeal which made the goddess giggled. Morax on the other hand, he merely sighed and shake his head at the two's antics.

It was only in the next day that Ying is allowed to go back to the outside world and back to the Guili Assembly to help out the people to rebuild all the damage Osial have caused. And as for the reason why she's only only came out now... Well, let's just say that Guizhong isn't the only one who came to visit.

"It's good to see you're okay. You gave everyone quite the fright." Xiao said as he stood there with his arms crossed and eyes looking down at her.

"Aww, Alatus is very worried for you that all he wanted to see you the first thing after the battle is over." Bosacius cooed, one of his four hands reached down to ruffle the younger looking boy's head much to his displeasure.

"...I never said nor have any intention to do that." Xiao deadpanned, clearly unamused.

"Come on Alatus, be a little open to the cutie, alright? You'll never get her if you keep that attitude." Indarias teased, nudging at Xiao's shoulder while Bonanus on her other side merely giggles in agreement.

"You guys know that I'm here, right?" Ying asked, also unamused, can't say that she was already used to all their teasings however.

"E-Either way, we're very worried about you. Back when we regrouped, only you are the one who looked the most out of energy comparing to everyone else." Menogias said while wiping a tear from the corner of his eye.

First, there was the Yakhas, who came to visit their downed new comrade in protecting the assembly from the monsters. As usual, they're varying personalities ended up giving her more of a headache instead of a needed rest. But, just like she said before, she doesn't mind their antics at all, and to be perfectly honest, she enjoys hanging around them despite of their constant teasings.

And as for the next batch, it was Ganyu as well as the other Adepti. Ganyu in particular has been very worried about her, from the start of when she lost all of her energy, to when she fainted out of exhaustion, and then the full day recovery she's having.

"Just what in the world the kind of technique is that? The ability to sent anything and anyone to a far away place as simple as a flick of a finger? How ridiculous!" Mountain Shaper bellowed, making Ying winced at the volume of his voice.

"It is indeed as you said. But one can only believes when one experienced it for oneself." Cloud Retainer replied, looking at her fellow Adeptus and then towards Ying. "You never told us that that technique have such drawback. Care to tell us why you hide it from us?"

"It's not like I'm trying to hide it, I just saw no point in telling you that." Ying said with a shrug of her shoulders. "And besides, the reason why I fainted in the first place is due to me using it on so many people at once, and not to mention using it several times before as well, in one single day. I never did such a thing before, and as a result, it shaves away my stored energy, little by little, and then all at once, resulting in my body having a shut down which placed me on the condition I was now." Ying explained, sighing heavily, she couldn't remember the last time a similar thing happened to her, maybe it's about... One or two thousand years ago? Ah, but that would be incorrect, since she had traveled back in time.

"Well, be that as it may. The next time you were to do such a drastic action, be sure to tell us everything from what it does, and what consequences it brings. Surely you don't want everyone to be worried, right?" Moon Carver warned her, gesturing to Ganyu who is currently hugging her tightly.

"I understand. I'll be sure to keep that in mind." Ying nods her head.

Their visits are very pleasant to her, and it does gives her a bit of energy to recover. And so, after another day spent bedridden just to be sure she recover all of her energy, Ying finally returned to the assembly, only to be immediately greeted by numerous thanks and words of gratitude from people she saved that day, either the ones she saved by slaying the monsters that were about to kill them, or the people in general that she saved by teleporting them out of harm's way.

Ying would have been crowded by the people for the next few hours if it wasn't for the help of a few Adepti nearby to get her out of the situation. She came there to help the people rebuild after all, not to be praised continuously.

Her job for that day was to give support to everyone who's busy working. Especially when it comes to giving them all the materials they required, or give them food she stored in her inventory, made easier thanks to the help Marchosius who split himself into hundreds of small clones that helps her reheating the dishes and distributed it to anyone who needs it.

Seconds turn into minutes, and minutes turn into hours, eventually, it's starting to get dark, and everyone went to their respective homes to rest their tired bodies. Ying too would've like to return home, but that's when she realizes that she doesn't even have one here. She considers of going into Cloud Retainer's abode and stays there like before, but... Morax didn't entrust her in watching over Ying like he did before, which left Ying confused whether she should go or not.

But thankfully, Guizhong comes in and save the day, or should she say, night.

"Good evening, Ying." The god of dust waved at her, standing on the border of the town, where Ying is headed as she ponders on where she should spend the night.

"Good evening lady Guizhong." Ying nods her head to greet her. Why is the grey haired girl here? "Can I help you with something?" The blonde haired traveler raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, I do need help that only you can do it. I have a request for you." Guizhong nods her head, smiling.

"A request?" Ying tilts her head in confusion. "Sure, what would you like me to do?"

"Would you like to sleep with me?" Guizhong asked.

"Eh?"

Wait wait wait, HOLD UP!

What the heck is this?!

Guizhong, the god of dust herself, is asking her to do... THAT?! NO, no, no, there's no way this can be real! No freaking way!

"I-I uh... Um... I don't think I understand..." Ying feigned confusion, though it's hardly possible with her burning face right now.

"Well... From the looks of it, you're wondering where you should sleep for the night, right? Well, why don't you just sleep in my house? It's very cozy and you don't need to go far out of the assembly like before." Guizhong explained, still smiling, and looking at Ying in wonder as to why the girl is suddenly becomes red as a tomato.

Ooooh! So she meant it like that! Of course she would! Stupid Ying.

"A-Ah! I see! So you mean it's a sleepover! Right, I get it! Hahaha." Ying laughed dryily, but it's more like she's laughing at herself for having such indecent thoughts.

"Hmm? What else do you think it would be?"

"I'd rather not talk about it."

Despite of the chaos that befell the assembly a few days ago, Guizhong's house only suffered minimal damage that can be fixed by the goddess herself despite of everyone's insistence to help her. As such, it can still be used normally without any defects.

And with the moon is already high in the sky, the sleepover can begun.

After washing themselves, the two changed into their sleeping garments. Guizhong's choice for the night is a grey nightie, one with frills and see through cloth. A surprising choice for a goddess to sleep, by Ying's standard. And by the way, since Ying didn't bring any other clothes aside from the one she's wearing, Guizhong lends her one, and the one that Ying picked is a sleeveless white nightie with long hem, one of the many from Guizhong's closet.

Ying was ready to jump into bed enters the dream land, but Guizhong told her that they needed to brush their hair first. Something that Ying accepted immediately and requested that she should brush Guizhong's hair first, since this is her speciality, as she had done it with the hair of her brother, the one who always tied them into braids too, until they got separated that is.

Ying undid ties behind her first, and straightened it out so she would have an easier time brushing the goddess hair. The volume of her hair is not comparable to Aether's, but still, Ying knows that simply brushing someone's hair is a lot easier than to tied it into braids afterward, so she makes sure to put her all into it, and use the comb with a precise yet gentle movements.

"I have a feeling this isn't first time you combed someone's hair, are you?" Guizhong asked while still having her hair brushed.

"It's not." Ying answered, shaking her head softly. "I have a twin brother you see, and in contrast to mine, his hair is a lot longer, reaching down to his waist."

"Oh? You never tell me that you have a brother." Guizhong raised an eyebrow at her.

"Well, you never asked." Ying smirked causing Guizhong to lets out a silent huff. "Anyway, my brother treasured his hair so much, he never trim it or cut it, even once. And although I respected his decision to keep it that way. His hair tends to pose some troubles during our adventure together." Ying began to recount the story of her beloved older brother. "Leaves and tree branches often got stuck on them, I tends to step on them when we were crouched down together, and there's even this one time when birds mistaking it as their nests and hatched eggs on them."

"I guess that is pretty troublesome." Guizhong agrees, a laugh is threatening to spill out of her mouth, but she holds it back, covering her lips with her fingers.

"Indeed it was. And that's when I come up with a plan to stop all of that from happening again. Instead of letting them loose freely, I tied them into braids, and he comes to like it only moments later. And ever since that day, it is my responsibility to brush his hair and tied them into braids, every time we go to sleep, and every time we start the morning." Ying muttered with a gentle smile, a sense of a deep longing and sadness are clear in her voice.

"I see. That sounds very fun." Guizhong whispered, she didn't miss the somber tone in Ying's voice, and although she's not the type of person who likes to peer on other people's problems, she couldn't help but to get curious. "Then... What happened to your brother? He didn't come here with you?" The goddess asked, and for a moment, Ying's hand that holds the brush stopped moving.

"My brother, he... We were separated." Ying answered after a moment of silence. Bringing herself back together, she continues on with the task at hand. "It happened... A long time ago. We were facing an enemy that even we could vnot defeated together. My brother, Aether, he and I was separated by that enemy, and I've been spending so long in trying to find him. Though I do indeed reunited with him at last, the moment we met again, I found out that he already taken a path that is different from mine, a path that I... Cannot follow." She explained, ending her words with a heavy sigh.

"I'm very sorry to hear that." Guizhong muttered, she couldn't help but to feel sad by listening to Ying's story alone.

"It's fine. Though we were separated again once more, I've made it my mission to seek him out once again, to learn the reason behind why he chose to leave me, why he became the person that he is now. And I believe... That one day, we will definitely be reunited, and be together again." The blonde haired girl said, sounding confident and determined.

"I see. I'll pray with all my heart that the two of you will definitely meet again. No matter which path you and your brother have taken, I'm sure that you'll cross paths with him again someday, multiple times maybe." Guizhong nods her head, smiling at Ying brightly.

"Thank you lady Guizhong. You're so kind." Ying smiled back at her, she's done with brushing Guizhong's hair, so she puts the comb down.

"Heheh, I could say the same thing to you. Oh and please, just call me Guizhong." The goddess said while she turned around to face her.

"Hmm, I could. But I much prefer your stunning title. It really does suit you, Madame Goddess." Ying teased, and the two giggled together.

With Guizhong's hair been brushed, it's time for the goddess to brush Ying's hair. And although the blonde haired girl initially decline her offer since her hair is not even that long for it to be brushed, the goddess insisted on doing it as it's only right that she returns the favor after Ying had brushed her hair nice and tidy.

Once they finished brushing each others hair, it's time for the most important part. Girls' talk.

"So what exactly are we supposed to be doing on a girls talk?" Ying asked, curious and confused.

"Oh, you know, things that us girls need to discuss between us without a presence of a male ears to hear." Guizhong smiles cheerfully, clapping her hands together. "Have you never been into one before?"

"I'm afraid I've never heard nor participated on this kind of thing." Ying shakes her head, putting her hand on her chin. "Come to think of it, when was the last one I've been into a sleepover before..."

"Hehe, oh well, then let us use this opportunity to teach you all about it."

And so, before the two tucked themselves into the mattress and get some sleep, they get into a long but enjoyable talk between the two. Exchanging various information like what's their favourite food, what's their hobbies, and then their plans for the future, and what will they do next.

But throughout the time of them chatting with each other, Ying couldn't help but feel like something is in Guizhong's mind, and she's been wanting to ask the blonde girl something, but purposely stalling the time, for reasons unknown.

"Tell me, Ying. Do you have someone you like?" Guizhong abruptly asked after a brief moment of pause from their earlier talk, cashing Ying to jerk.

"W-What?!" The blonde haired traveler stuttered, her cheeks heating up. "Where is this question coming from all of a sudden?"

"Oh you know, just being curious." The grey haired goddess shrugged. "But you know, judging from your reaction, I'm pretty sure that's a "yes."" Guizhong giggled when Ying's cheeks become even redder. "So... Do you?"

Ying stayed silent for a while, pondering over whether she should lie to Guizhong that she doesn't have any, or tells her the story about her crush on Zhongli, without going into the details of course. But even so, if she tells her about her crush on Zhongli, surely she wouldn't put two and two together, right? After all, Zhongli and Morax are a different person. One is still and dense as a rock, while the other are a kind and gentle man, with a strong will of a rock.

"Y-Yes... I did actually have a crush on someone." Ying answered after moments of only silence, nodding her head.

"You... Did?" Guizhong asked, noting the tense Ying used on her words.

Hearing her question, Ying lets out a heavy sigh, eyes closed and eyebrows furrowed. She looks like she's having fun just moments ago, but now, she looks completely sad, very much so.

"Lady Guizhong... Can I tell you something? And please don't tell anyone about this." Ying began, looking at Guizhong with a serious stare.

"Sure... What do you want to tell me?" Guizhong asked, surprised with how serious Ying suddenly become.

Ying stays silent again for a moment, as if contemplating of what she have to say. And after much needed thinking, she finally spoke up.

"There's... There's actually a reason why I came here. The true reason, that's not about just to travel to this land." Ying's eyes look down, eyes half lidded as she said. "I actually came here because I ran away."

Guizhong's eyes widened slightly, not expecting that kind of answer.

"Ran away? What do you mean?"

"It's still connected to the question you just asked me." The blonde haired girl closed her eyes as she explained. "The truth is, I have fallen in love with someone. Someone that I like not only because of his charming physical look alone, but also because of his everything. From his big amount of knowledge stored in his memory, the interesting stories that he would always like to share with me at any given time, his kind and gentle nature, his wisdom, and his usual way of settling things through any given peaceful means."

Ying's tone are filled with fondness, joy. She's like describing the description of a handsome prince in shining armour that has taken her heart whole, which might be the case at this rate.

"Lady Guizhong, he really is the man of my dream. I've since been long to find myself the destined love of my love, someone that I could spend my time together with, loving each other, comforting one another in each others arms, and to stand together with our hands joined through joy and woe. But..."

"But...?" Guizhong asked with a raised eyebrow.

"...I learned later that he was already taken. That he was already engaged, to another woman, someone from his past who had long been passed away." Ying answered, the tone of her voice instantly lowers down.

"Oh..." Guizhong replied, not quite expecting that outcome. "Then... Have you confessed your love to him yet?" The goddess asked, curiosity filled her voice.

"No, I haven't." Ying shook her head, sighing. "Lady Guizhong, when I heard his story about his late lover, it pains me just by listening to it. He and his lovers are two people who were perfect for one another, they matched in not only their appearance, but in their personalities too." Ying gripped the hem of her skirt tightly, as if holding back the bubbling emotions inside her mind. "Their love for one another so much that they were soon to be married. Only for tragedies to struck, and the women he loves to fell victim to it, just mere one day before they could wed."

Guizhong silently gasped at that, shocked at the revelation at the last part. So they're just about to be married, be officially together, and bound to happiness from one another. Only for the world to rob them out of that happiness by taking away the life of the woman... Just how cruel this world can be?!

"I know that it's been years since that happened, and he has every right to move on, but after hearing his story, and how much pain he was after losing her. I could imagine just how badly he missed her, how he wanted nothing more but to see his lover one more time. I love him so much Lady Guizhong, but, for me to go there and proclaim my love to him, while he's still deeply hurt with the passing of his lover, is just wrong." Ying's voice further dropped down, she sounds like she's on the verge of crying right now.

"Ying..."

"And that's why I ran. I ran here to Liyue, in hopes that I would never have to see him again. Because I couldn't bear to see him sad, while unable to do anything to comfort him. Maybe it's just me fuelled by my jealousy, or maybe I'm just being selfish and wanting to put as much distance as possible from him, so that I wouldn't fall into temptations and try to steal him away from the love of his life. But in the end... I'm just a coward, am I?"

Guizhong didn't answer her question with a reply. Instead, the goddess Scoots closer to her before embracing her into another hug, which surprised Ying a little, judging from the samll gasp she produced.

"I don't think you're a selfish person, Ying, nor a coward." Guizhong whispered, pulling the girl into an even tighter embrace. "Love is a very complicated matter, I know. And it's not just about black and white. You are still new on these things, so you still have plenty of time to think of it, and I'm sure that man who you loves also needs some time as well."

Guizhong pushed Ying a little so that she could smile at her. And Ying barely could hide her emotions when she saw her kind and gentle smile. The god of dust has been comforting and cheer her up all this night. It brought Ying to tears for seeing the girl who lost her life in her story, the girl who is none other than Guizhong herself, to sit before her, comforting her like this, when it was supposed to be Ying who is here to protect her.

"All that the two of you need, is some time, courage, and persistence. And with those, you may have finally won him over, and help him pass on from his sadness, I believe in it." Guizhong said with a determined nod.

"Heh, I don't think I'll be ever manage to do that but... Thank you for all of your kind words, lady Guizhong." Ying forced out a smile to appear on her lips, while using her hand to wipe her tears away.

The girls talk ended shortly after that. And once that is over, the two head to bed and enter the world of dream as they sleep peacefully.

It took only a few months later for the Guili Assembly to be rebuilt back to its top shape after Osial had destroyed a little more than half of it. But thanks to the conjoined effort of some of the Adepti, Ying, and Guizhong. The town are nevertheless restored back to what it previously was, or maybe even better than that, since Ying had proposed to make some modifications to certain buildings that served as reinforcements to the structure and made it even more resistant to damages.

With their workload are reduced back to normal amount with the assembly's back to normal. Ying's work is back to her lending a helping hand to whoever needs it. She's still accompanies Guizhong to take a stroll outside once in a while, and also helps the Yakhas in dealing with the dangers lurking in the dark, but now that the people in the assembly have trusted her fully, the blonde girl is now also takes extra work in helping the people mine and farm, using her powers to make their livehood much easier.

After seeing of how much hardwork that Ying went through. Guizhong had proposed them to take a day off to relax, which Ying quickly accept since it means she got to spend a day together with the goddess so that she could watch over her.

Ying has been living with Guizhong in her house since they had that sleepover. Ying was against the idea right away since she didn't want to disturb the god from her everyday lives, but the goddess are the one who insisted that she should live with her since Ying doesn't have any other place to live in. And in a more surprising twist of turns. Morax even allowed her to, making it like an official permission for her to live there with the god of dust. And as a result of that, their bonds have strengthen, exactly what Ying wanted to.

Anyway, during this day of a day off, Guizhong invited Ying to come with her to a certain place, located outside of the Guili Assembly, and also on top of a mountain, where someone is waiting for them.

Ying didn't know why would someone wants to wait for then atop of a towering mountain before them. But judging from the long set of stone carved stairs that led to the top of the said mountain, Ying could guess this place are often visited by people, humans or Adepti alike. Which also conveniently perfect for Guizhong as she easily climbs up the said of stairs like it was the back of her hand.

Few minutes later, after the two climbed up the stairs to the very top, Ying could see the someone that Guizhong said is waiting for them. Two of them in fact, one was a woman with grey hair, standing tall towering over the two. And as for the second person, it's none other than the lord of Geo himself, wearing a different clothes than before Ying noted, instead of the white hooded cloak, he's wearing a dark black coat that covers all of his body aside from his head. Just seeing it made Ying see the reminisce of the clothes that Zhongli wore on the present day. But who is this woman, and what is Rex Lapis doing here?

"Oh look, she's finally here. And she brought a guess as well." The woman spoke up, glancing at them, Morax's eyes turned to look at them too.

"Morax? What are you doing here?" Guizhong question with a hint of surprise on her voice. So the lord of Geo is an unexpected guess here? "Ping asked you to come here is she? What are you two doing?" The goddess of dust pouted, placing both of her hands on her sides.

"Nothing. We were just talking about-"

"We've just talked about interesting stuff actually." Before Morax could finish her sentence, the woman, Ping, cut off his sentence with her own. And then latched herself into one of his arms, squeezing herself against his side. "You know, this and that. Ohoho, Rex Lapis, I didn't know you were that kind of man." The grey haired woman uses one hand to cover her mouth, giggling mischievously.

This is the woman that will become Madame Ping?!

"I have not a single idea what you're talking about." Morax said deadpanned.

"Gah! What do you think you're doing you lecherous woman! Unhand Morax now!" Guizhong demanded, pointing a finger at Ping. Is there something between these two that Ying supposed to know here?

"Now why would I do that? Is it because you want to hug him too?" Ping opens her eyes to look at the shorter grey haired girl. Giving her a wide smirk. "You know, his other side is free, I won't mind sharing him~"

Guizhong spluttered, her face turns bright red, as if she had consumed a full plate Jueyun Chili in one sitting.

"O-o-of course not!" she argued, her voice stuttering and she threw her hands downwards. "I'm just saying you're being disrespectful to Rex Lapis right now. Respect your own god, Ping!" She yelled, why is she turning into such a childish temper all of a sudden.

"Ping, Guizhong is correct, could you please let go of me?" Morax sighed, looking down at the woman that's still latching to his arm.

"Hmm, but aren't you enjoying it when I'm being so close like this?" Ping asked, leaning even closer to him.

"No." Morax simply replied, deadpanned as usual.

"Boo, you're no fun."

Ping wailed, and finally released him from her clutches. An act that make Guizhong release a sigh of relief.

"Okay, all of that aside, so what of our little guest here?" The grey haired woman addressed Ying, finally. Looking at the blonde haired girl with interest and curiosity. "Why, aren't you a cute one. You almost look like Guizhong here if she got sprayed by honey." Ping stated with a giggle, while Guizhong pouted after being addressed as such.

"Yeah, I get that a lot." Ying scratched the back of her head. Leaning close to Guizhong, she whispered. "So this is the Adeptus you said to be your rival? The one who made that dish I ruined?"

"Yep, that's her." Guizhong whispered back, covering her mouth with her palm. "Please be patient with her, that woman is really a piece of work to be around."

"Uh-huh, dully noted." Ying nods her head.

She introduced herself properly to Ping then, or as she was known on her Adeptus name, Streetward Rambler. It turns out the reason behind why Guizhong invited Ying to this top of the mountain is because these two have set up an appointment to meet here for their occasional music battle, as Ping had been away for the last couple of months and have only returned recently. So what's the best way for them to reunite if it wasn't to settle their different views in music. Again.

"Hmm, too bad that I've been busy training in the mountains for the last few months. If I knew that there was such a cutie in town. I would've made sure to not let that no chested woman snatch you away." Ping said with a chuckle, earning a twitched eye from Guizhong.

"Who the heck do you call a no chested, lecherous woman!" Guizhong protested, pouting at the taller woman as she put one hand over her chest. "I've got one right here!"

"Well, now I can see why you are so fond of simplicity. You're so simple that a "common chest" is good enough for you." Ping replied with a smirk, purposely crossing her arms below her chest to prove her point.

"You!"

"Are they... Always like this?" Ying asked, sweat dropping. She knew that the two are rivals in some way, based on the story Cloud Retainer told her, but she never expect the two would be like this.

"Hmm, they are." Morax answered with a solemn nod. "Though I couldn't say if I fully understand the reason behind their constant debate, I personally think that behind their occasional banter, there lies a close bond that the two shared for each other, and I'm just simply glad that the two went along pretty well." The lord of Geo explained, crossing his arms across his chest.

At his explanation, Ying couldn't help but to let out a giggle, catching Morax's interest as he look at her.

"Oh don't worry about it, my lord. I'm sure that one day, you will come to understand why they're doing it. I'm sure of it." Ying said with a little smile.

"How can you be sure of it?" Morax narrowed his eyes at her.

"I have a feeling that will." Ying nods her head, before letting out a little sigh. "After all, you already had someone that you care about the most. With her by your side, even the toughest and densest of all rock will surely melt into a soft and gentle one."

Morax stared at the blonde haired traveler by his side. He is confused and curious by what she means behind her words. Someone that he cared about the most? Who will that be? And "she?" Is there woman whom he cared about? If he were to pick one, then that would be-

"By the way lord Morax, what were you doing here?"

Before Morax could finish his train of thoughts, Ying already asked him another question, cutting off his mental thoughts.

"From the sound of it, Guizhong didn't expect you to be here. So what were you chatting with Ping?" Ying asked, curiously tilting her head to the side.

"Nothing serious." Morax replied with a shake of his head. "I've heard of her return some day ago. And I happen to have nothing to do for today, so I thought that I should come and greet her, that's all."

"Oh, I see." Ying nods her head in understandment. "Yeah, I thought as much. I mean, there's no way that you would cheat on lady Guizhong, are you?"

Cheat on... Guizhong?

"What exactly do you mean?" Morax asked, confused.

"Well I mean, the two of you are close and all, but-"

"Hey Ying! Come here for a sec!" Before Ying could finish her sentence, Guizhong suddenly appear in front of her before taking a hold of her hand and pulled into the center of the area, cutting off the rest of her sentence before Morax could comprehend what she's saying.

Guizhong brought Ying to the center and made her stood in front of Ping who eyed her curiously.

"Here Ping, Ying said to me that she's not only pretty good with playing multiple instrument. But also a good singer too. Why don't we make her play for us and see whether she's truly good or not to join us?" Guizhong asked, stoomiling at the other woman.

"Wait what?" Ying asked in confusion.

"Hmm, Interesting... Okay, let's see what you can do." Ping nods in agreement. Just what are these two are talking when Ying is having a conversation with Morax? "And maybe, she could finally tell who's the better one between the two of us."

"Hah, I've been spending much time with Ying that I know she'll definitely vote for me." Guizhong huffed confidently. "Come on Ying, play for me, okay? I wanna hear you play."

"Umm..."

"I wanna hear it too cutie, it's okay if it turns out not to be okay. We won't let you down." Ping reassured her.

Ying turned her head to look at Morax in the distance, who gave her a blank stare like usual. Knowing there's no way of getting out of here, much else with his help, she sigh in surrender, deciding to humor the two.

"Okay... I guess I'll show what I got." Ying nods her head.

An instrument materialize on Ying's hand, a wooden lyre, the one she acquired from her adventure in Sumeru. The one instrument she use throughout the rainforest as she saved the day by helping the Aranaras defeating their mortal enemy, the corruptive Marana of the withering.

Taking a deep breath, Ying began to strum her fingers on the strings of the wooden lyre. Creating a long melody she composed by combining all the seven Rhythms into one, placing each of them in what she believes to be the right place, and play them in that order. And as for extra, she also hums along with the Rhythms, with each sounds that she produced flowing out smoothly like honey.

Guizhong's eyes sparkled in amazement and surprise, while Ping's mouth parted with a "woah," amazed and in awe. It seems like these two have already decided that she is more than good.

Meanwhile for Morax, though his face didn't show anything, deep down, he too is in awe with the beauty that he's seeing right now.

"Phew, they sure does have one heck of a rivalry there." Ying breathed out, stretching her arms upwards.

"I must say so myself." Morax agrees with a nod.

After Ying is done with her part of playing her lyre and sings to them. Guizhong and Ping starts to bombarded her with praises for how good she is. The two then starting to argue of which one of them should Ying have a duet with since Ying seem to be compatible with either of them. And when Ying suggested that they should have a triplet instead, her suggestion sparked another heated debate of which of their views on music is the better one out of the two.

Morax seems unamused by this, and she spots him quietly exiting the scene before things get dire. And Ying chose to follow him, successfully sneaking out of their grasp. Which led to now where the two are peacefully climbing down the set of stairs leading down the mountain while having a nice little chat.

"By the way lord Morax, do you know how to play an instrument?" Ying asked out of curiosity, as she look at the tall man beside her.

Ying knows that Zhongli knows how to play, the two even had an opportunity to play together once. Not long after she gets the ancient zither that she received from Kazuha, Ying somehow had a knack that Zhongli would know how to play a music or two, and how surprised she was after he confirmed it himself that he indeed know how to play. He specifically are pretty good at playing a lyre.

"Ah, I do know how to play." Morax nodded, causing Ying to widen her eyes a little.

"You do?" Ying asked, a little surprised.

"Yes. Though it's mostly because Guizhong forced me to learn how. To find myself something else to do when there's nothing, she says." Morax explained, mentally sighing at the memory. "She was so insistent on teaching me how to play, and even scolds me too for being "too boring."" He further said.

"Heh, that's what she would definitely said alright." Ying nods her head, smiling a little.

"I've been telling her that wish not to indulge in such... Trivial affairs like learning how to play music. But... Who am I to deny her request after she practically begging me to do so." Morax sighed once again, and although he didn't show it with his expression, Ying knows of the amusement in his mind, the fondness of that memory.

"Yeah... She's someone who's hard to resist isn't she?" Ying asked, closing her eyes as she started to put her feelings into words. "I can see now why the two of you are perfect for each other."

"Perfect for each other?" Morax asked, raising an eyebrow at her. "If you were referring to the pact we made that gave birth to the Guili Assembly, I don't think that factor of her as a person has nothing to do with that." Morax said, receiving a sigh from Ying.

"It's okay if you don't understand it now, but someday, you will." Ying muttered softly, still with her eyes closed, she skipped some steps so that she was standing ahead of the god. "I think I need to go now, there's something urgent I need to do. Good day, lord Morax." The blonde haired girl bowed her head to the god, before turning her back on him and is ready to cast another teleportation spell.

That was of course just an excuse. Ying wants to be away because she's starting to feel emotional again.

After all these months she spent on spending her time with Guizhong and the others, it made Ying realize just how amazing of a person Guizhong is. Her mind that was initially thought otherwise because she have only heard her from stories the others told Ying is proven to be wrong. Now Ying can finally see and be sure of the reason why Zhongli would fall in love with a person like her. Guizhong is so radiant and kind at a whole different level, there's no way that Ying would ever match her, no way that Ying had any chance to make him to look at her.

Holding back the urge to sob, Ying casted the spell as golden light starts to appear around her.

"You're making that face again." Morax spoke up just before she could done teleporting herself.

"Huh?"

Ying heard what Morax said, and she cancelled her spell to look back at him. Finding the lord of Geo's eyes fixated solely on her, specifically her face. She reached up to her own face, but she found there's nothing wrong in there, so what does he mean by that?

"I don't mean to say that you have anything on your face. What I'm saying is..." Morax stepped down the set of stairs, approaching her slowly, until he eventually stood before her. "...The way you look at me, it's always been that same expression."

The same expression... Has Ying unknowingly have been staring at Morax with a weird look? How can she didn't know about that? Or more importantly, how could he tell?

"What kind of expression am I wearing right now?" Ying asked back, she was curious about it herself, and also very confused.

"I may don't have much knowledge about human emotions. But, I could tell from a single glance, the way that you look at me, it speaks of... Pain." Morax stated, his eyes unmoving from hers.

The wind blows gently on them, playing with her hair as it sways to the side where the wind is heading. Ying narrow her eyes as she slowly looks down, a sense of realization slowly rise from the bottom of her heart.

"Pain..." She whispered, putting her hand on her chest, where her heart is beating loudly and rapidly. "Is that so..."

"I can see it in you, Ying. I've seen a similar expression on Guizhong's face many times." Ying raised her head to look at him at that statement. "I've seen her making it whenever she watches her people suffer, when someone is mourning for the dead, or when she's saddened by any awful memories she has." Morax explained, closing his eyes and crossing his arms as he recalled the memories. "The two of you are different, yet there are some things that you shared with her. And the way you look at me right now, it's the same as when Guizhong was in immense pain and sadness."

"Lord Morax, I..." Ying tried to say something, but she was stopped.

Morax approached her even further, and Ying found herself stepping back until she was backed into the side of the mountain, with him towering over her, preventing any way of escape. So she close her eyes in order to prevent him from seeing her expression again.

"Why are you always looking at me with such an immense Sadness filled your eyes? Does the very sight of me brings you pain? Do you feel sad because of me?" Morax questioned her, and then, another thoughts entered his mind as he recalled something. "Also... Why do keep always calling that name, "Zhongli," who is it that his name you always called whenever I was in your presence?" The question made Ying flinched, opening her eyes to look at his amber ones. "He's the one who causes you pain, is he?"

Ying didn't answer his question, but as if her body responded without the need of her mouth, a tear fell down from her eye, which didn't go unnoticed by Morax, who reached down to wipe it away, slightly surprising Ying.

"I'll take that as a yes." Morax muttered, finally releasing her and turned his back on her. "I don't know of the pain that you went through. But... I'll be free if you wish to talk about it some day."

"Lord Morax...?" Ying asked, slightly surprised by his sudden kindness.

"You have... A beautiful face, Ying. And it would be shame for you to waste that beauty by making that making that saddened expression because of me." Morax stated, through his face is not visible, Ying could somehow imagine him having a look on his face that speaks worry and concern. "I don't like seeing you sad, so please, don't be sad, and smile for me."

Ying stared at the man in silence for a good while. And for a moment, the image of Morax in front of her are replaced with the familiar form of the Consultant of Wangsheng Funeral parlor. His kind and gentle eyes, the soft smile on his lips, the gentleness of his voice as he calls her name...

Wordlessly, as if in a trance, Ying walked up behind him, and then threw herself into Morax's back, wrapping her arms around his midsection, while burying her face against his back. Morax was very shocked at this of course, but he was stunned to move, he has no desire to push her away or say anything, only stood there stare at the girl who hug him. Just a few months ago, she was a complete stranger to him, someone that he was so wary of. But as of now... Ying has somehow become someone that he trust, someone that he admittedly came to care about. He was feeling confused whenever he sees her sad back then, but recently, that feeling of confusion has turned into concern and worry. And before long, Morax also felt pain whenever he sees the girl staring at him with sadness radiating from her. He is hates it when she's sad, he wants her to be happy.

"Thank you lord Morax... Truly." Ying mutters out, releasing him as she backs away, taking a deep breath. "I'll try it, okay? I promise I shall be sad no longer, you are the source of my happiness after all." Ying said with a smile, cheerful and radiant.

Morax stared at her who is now smiling at him. He noted that this is the first time the traveler ever done so. She has only smiled to those whom she formed a close bond with, Guizhong, Marchosius, the Yakhas, and both the Adepti and the rest of the people in the assembly, but never him. And it made this moment more special, for the first time Morax found himself on the receiving end of this girl's bright smile. And it almost tempted him to smile on his own.

But their moment of peace was interrupted when they heard the shouts of Guizhong and Ping who searches for them. A cue for them to get out of there.

"Lord Morax, let's go. I don't think I want to see them for the rest of the day." Ying turned to look at him, to which he nods his head in agreement.

Ying take a hold of his hand, which are much bigger than her own. Gold light surround the two and covered their bodies, and soon the two are teleported out of that place in no time. And throughout that time, Ying never let his hand go, but Morax didn't mind the slightest, finding the sensation of her touch to be... A very pleasant one.

Eventually, the times passed quickly without Ying having to count it.

Days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months, and months turned into years, and then... Years turned into a decade.

It has been at least ten years since Ying had arrived to the past. Ten years she's been living in the Guili Assembly, living amongst the people and the Adepti, watching as the civilization formed from the pact between Morax and Guizhong continue to prosper and become a thriving one, one that is unrivaled to any other thing in Liyue.

Throughout that entire time, Ying has come to be known as one of the most respected and important figure in the assembly. Her good deeds come to be spoken by the people, told from parents to their child, children from one to another, until her fame reached into that of the same level as the Adepti or even the gods, since it's has become a usual sight to see Ying hanging out with Guizhong or Morax, further fueling the people's believe that she has become their equals, ally, and close friend.

As for Ying on her part, the ten years that has passed has become something of an object of confusion for her.

Throughout that time, Ying has been spending her time with Guizhong and the Adepti, indulging in all of their various activities. From helping the Yakhas protecting the surrounding areas, helping Cloud Retainer testing out the mechanisms she creates, training and playing with Ganyu, cooking with Marchosius who then distribute it to the people, and plays music with Ping. And more often than not that whenever she did those things, a pair of amber eyes would usually follows her in doing what she did.

Ying didn't felt any malice coming from him, nor the sense of suspicion that he gives her during her early days in the assembly, so Ying is unable to determine the reason why Morax has following her, but whatever the reason might be, one thing that is clear is that the god of contracts simply likes to watch her as she Interacts with everyone, and Ying doesn't mind that.

But what Ying does mind however, is the lack of progress she haven't seen between him and Guizhong. Is ten years are not long enough for these two to fall in love already? Ying have observed Guizhong and Morax during their daily Interaction, and she couldn't see any sign of the two of them to develop any romantic relationship. Their interactions are still the same as ever, like two close friends instead of lovers. Even the engagement rings that she have seen in Zhongli's hands aren't visible anywhere, making her even confused.

"It seems like I do need to wait a hundred of years for this..."

Ying mentally sighed. At this point she's considering whether she should intervene with their still nonexistent love affairs or not, because admittedly, she's staring to get a little impatient. The sooner she made Zhongli happy, the better.

"Hey Ying, would you like to accompany me to somewhere outside the assembly again?" Guizhong asked, looking at Ying from her side of the table.

"Hmm?"

Ying is now having her occasional afternoon tea with both Guizhong and Morax, a little activity that she comes to enjoy as it gives her the opportunity to observe both the main characters of this love triangle story, one that Ying is trying avoid as to make the other two finally be together without any intervention, not even from the cruel destiny that awaits them.

"You want to gather some herbs again, lady Guizhong?" Ying asked back, putting down the cup of tea she just took a sip from.

"Yes. But I also wanted to go visit this certain place I got in mind." Guizhong nodded, her eyes eyed Ying warmly, fondly. "It's pretty far from here, and I've never had the opportunity to go there because I feared of the danger that lurks along the way. But with you by my side, surely you are able to protect me, right?" The goddess asked, the tone of her voice is a bit unreadable, which made Ying a little confused.

"Uh... Sure, I guess." Ying shrugged her shoulders. "If I may ask, what is the place that you wanted to see, lady Guizhong?" Ying asked curiously.

"You'll see it when we get there tomorrow. I'll show you." The grey haired goddess giggled, before she turned her head to look at Morax beside her. "Is that alright with you, Morax?"

Ying's golden eyes drifted to Morax, whom she noted to be a lot quieter than usual. The lord of Geo barely haven't spoke anything since the start of their afternoon tea, as he only sits there silently with his eyes fixated on Ying only. Ying is unable to decipher what he was thinking based from his unreadable expression. But if she has to guess, then Ying thinks that he was drowning in his thoughts, and as for what kind of thoughts that is running through his mind right now, that, she didn't know.

"Sure..." Morax nods his head in agreement. "I couldn't pick anyone more trustworthy to protect you, other than Ying." He said with his eyes closed as he took a sip from his tea.

"Hehe, alright then." Guizhong nods cheerfully, before turning her head to look at Ying. "We'll go there tomorrow morning, alright Ying?"

"Of course." Ying nodded, returning the goddess' smile with a smile of her own.

Morax's mind has been constantly occupied by something in recent years. Something that he... Never thought of before.

He never had any intention for it, nor does he wanted to, yet the feeling naturally appears in his mind, like a light sparked into life when two stones are being rubbed together.

When or how did he get the feeling is still a little unclear to him, but he knew that the origin of it comes from the very first moment he laid his eyes on the form of the maiden with bright golden hair that he and Guizhong found unconscious by the side of the river.

From her appearance alone, he could already tell that she's a stranger to not only him or his people, but to the continent of Liyue as a while. She's not a native of this land, not the natives of any other land, she hails from somewhere else unknown, which up until now still remains to be a mystery to him and any other curious people.

However, despite of being an alien to this civilization that he together with his friends built, she has shown a kind and gentle side that goes unexpected by him. The way she acts around other people, so generous that she offers anyone her help to those who needs it, the way her kindhearted nature managed to sway everyone to her side, even the cruelest of all the slaughterers in the Yakhas have come to accept her as their friend because of her excessive kindness, Guizhong too has formed a very close bond to her, to the point that watching them interact is like watching how two sisters interact, and with how everyone else is also feeling the same, it's only natural for Morax to fall for her charm as well.

Only this time, Morax could feel how his feelings are a little different than usual.

Every time he sees Ying smiles, sees her laugh and giggles, or just simply by seeing her, Morax felt a surge of emotions rising in his chest, it's a little similar to the ones he felt when he's around Guizhong, Zhenjun, Ping, and the others. But still, it's different somehow.

It's a feeling that could barely described with words. So all he could do is to take a guess on what he's feeling, and console them to the one person he could think of, Guizhong.

He went to visit her house one night, fortunately finding the goddess is still awake in contrast to her roommate, Ying, who has already fallen asleep soundly. He wanted to talk to his old friend personally, without the object of their conversation included, as he felt like it is only appropriate to do so. Under the watchful eye of the full moon, the lord of Geo confessed his true feelings as best as he could, knowing full well that the true details of it still lies within his heart, unable to describe fully with words only, but also with actions.

"lately, I've been having a complex and contradictory feelings when I'm around Ying."

The lord of Geo began, going straight to the point, the one thing he wanted to talk about with his fellow god, the reason why he visited her in the middle of the night like this.

"Hmm..." He detected a hint of amusement in her voice, even though her expression shows her being curious of what she just heard him said. "What kinds of feelings? Could you describe it for me?"

Morax was silent for a little while, as if he was hesitating, attempting to put the way he felt around Ying into words. "I feel anxious, which I don't understand, because I know full well like the rest of us that she is not a threat to me or anyone else. But I also feel happy, and..." He fell silent once more, putting a hand on his chin as he immersed himself in thoughts. "What is it that it's called... Is it, excitement?" Morax asked to no one in particular, pondering over his thoughts loudly.

"Excitement?" Guizhong tilted her head in confusion, looking at her friend carefully. "Do you feel excited when you're around her?"

"Hmm... Yes, I suppose so. I feel excited, like something good is going to happen. But I am also feeling down. When she and I are together, I only feel excited if she's going to do something, as I watched, and I only feel anxious if I know what she's going to do will be dangerous, like when she requested to accompany the Yakhas in their slaughters. I did not even know one could be happy and sad at the same time." Morax said with a sigh, he clearly are struggling just to say all of these.

"I see." This time, there was a hint of a smile on Guizhong's face. She was definitely amused. "What do you feel anxious about, Morax?" The goddess asked, putting both of her hands on her sides.

"I'm happy to see and being there with Ying. But I also worry that maybe she's not as happy to be with me. Or that I might do something to displease her, such as whenever I stare at her for too long, more than I hoped for, yet my eyes refused to move away." Morax answered to which Guizhong nods in agreement, she too has taken notes of that strange behaviour of his, finding it borderline creepy if it wasn't for the fact that she knows the man long enough that he would not think of such indecent thoughts like that. "And when I see her smiles... When I see her laughs..." He hesitated. It was something hard for him to admit, but he said it anyway. "I wish she'd never let go of that smile. It was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen, and I don't want her to look sad again."

"Ah, Let me guess this one." Guizhong clapped her hands together, smiling. "When it's time to say goodbye, you wish she could stay longer, am I right?"

Morax raised an eyebrow at her, how could she possibly know what he's thinking? Unless...

"Yes. When we parted ways, I don't feel sad because I know I will see her again, be it on the same day, or maybe the next day after that. But even though I know I'll see Ying again, it makes me sad to see her go." Morax sighed heavily as he close his eyes. "I don't know why I'm feeling like that, but perhaps it's because of the fact that she's a traveler. And travelers, they... They tend to not stay in one place for too long." The image of the blonde haired girl with her radiant smile appears on Morax's mind, giggling happily at him. "So is it fear that I'm feeling? I fear for the day that she'd leave the assembly, the day she leave us, leave me."

Guizhong was silent, but her lips are spread into a smile, a big one. She hummed as she nods her head in understandment, walking closely to Morax.

"Oh Morax... I never thought I would see the day you would grow this much emotionally, you're so different from the day we first met in that sea of Glaze Lilies." Guizhong muttered softly, the way she spoke sounds like she was feeling proud and happy, happy for her dear friend.

"Guizhong?" Morax asked confusingly, be didn't understand what she is talking about. But from the sounds of it, she might already knew the answer to his question. "So you know what's wrong with me?"

"I think I do." When Morax didn't change expression, she said sternly. "Morax. You've got a little crush."

"A "Crush?"" He repeated, Morax believes he had not heard of this word before.

"Yes, a crush." Guizhong nod her head. "It means that You come to like Ying. In a special way. It's different from the way you like someone as your friend or associate. But it's more like you have feelings for her, romantically."

Morax widened his eyes upon that statement. A romantic feeling? Like the ones shared between a husband and wife she means? Never in his life Morax would thought that's he's capable of feeling that.

"Very few people go through their life without having these feelings from time to time. A crush is sort of... the first step to falling in love with someone. Although you might not fall in love with her; it doesn't always happen." Guizhong further explained, crossing her arms on her chest.

"Falling in love..." Morax mumbled, his lips turn into a frown. "But isn't falling in love supposed to make you happy?" He asked, remembering the expression of pure joy and happiness on Star Chaser's face, as she and her herb gatherer husband are together, as well as when she holds their half-Adeptus child in her arms.

"It's a little complicated than that, Morax." Guizhong lightly shook her head. "Love can bring out all kinds of different feelings. When you really care about someone, you're happy when they're happy, and you're sad when they're sad. Sometimes, they might not feel the same way you do, and that can hurt. Or even if you end up together, sometimes you might feel angry or sad that they're spending more time with someone else than they are with you. You might even be afraid that they'll leave you for someone else."

Morax listened to Guizhong's words closely, and he found himself agreeing with everything she said. When Ying is happy, Morax felt glad that she's happy. When Ying wore that sad and pained expression when she looks at him, Morax felt immense displeasure to her sadness, because he wanted her to be happy. Ying can be happy or sad, while he's having a different emotions entirely, or not at all, depending on the situation.

And then when she's with someone else... Whenever Morax sees Ying spending time with other people, be it the Yakhas or the other Adeptus, he felt... Longing for her. It was as if he wanted her to spend even more time with him, more than she already does. He wanted to meet her more than when they having some tea time together, more than when she reports to him after a day of work alongside the other Adeptus, more than when she greets him as she takes a stroll around town. He wishes that he could have more moments with Ying. As much as the moment she spent with Guizhong and the others.

Morax cared about Guizhong a lot, and it made him always worries about her safety and well being. But as for Ying, though he came to care about her too, his feelings for her stems from a different thing entirely. So this is what it meant to love someone platonically and romantically. Morax's love for Guizhong is a platonic love, she was like a sister to him, one that he wanted to protect at all cost. And as for Ying... He loves her, romantically, he loves her in a sense that he wanted to he by her side, to stand there with her as they went through the passage of time, experiencing joy and woe. He wanted to be the one to be there to comfort her when she's sad, to smile along with her when she's happy, and to protect her from all harm, like a shield to her sword. Morax has fallen in love... With the traveler.

"Guizhong..." Morax turned his head to look at the god of dust. His eyes speak of desire to know, desire to do something. "What should I do?" He asked, practically begging for her advice, as a look of confusion and uncertainties filled his face.

"That'll be your choice, Morax." She answered, smiling gently at him as she looked at the confused god tenderly. "Some people are content to just appreciate the feeling they have for what it is. If that's what you want, then you don't need to do anything. But other people like to confess their feelings to the other person, and see if they feel the same. Either way, there's a possibility that Ying will turn you down, and that will probably make you sad, so you need to be prepared for that."

Guizhong's mind recalled the memory of the little girl talk she had with Ying. Remembering fully of the girl's tale, the sadness she felt, the pain she endured, not only for her brother who had left her to walk on a different path that she's unable to follow, but also the pain of how the love of her life being unable to reciprocate the feeling she had for him. It even saddens her so much that she would shed some tears every time she thought about the sad fate that had befallen the friend that she had come to view like her own sister. With Ying still have some feelings for the man that she loves... Will she accept the love that Morax has for her now?

"To confess my love to her..." Morax muttered, putting a hand on his chin, thinking thoroughly. "I... I'm afraid I don't know how..." Morax shook his head after some minutes he spent on thinking. "When you said that there's a possibility that Ying would turn me down... There's this very uncomfortable feeling in my chest... Is it fear or my anxiety again? Am I afraid that Ying would not love me back?"

Morax didn't know why he was so afraid before he even try. But he think of a reason why, his mind would point out to one name, "Zhongli," that name Ying have spoke of from time to time, a name that she said with such a sad, pained, and regretful tone. Why is that bothers him so much? Just who is that person Ying have always said his name? Why did it bring her so much pain? And why does she only say that every time she's with him?

"Morax..." Guizhong softly called out his name, her face turned into a one look of concern as she saw the difficulty her friend is having. And that's when she offered him a choice. "Let me ask you this Morax... Even if you're so afraid, even if you feel anxious of it, do you still want to confess your feelings to Ying?"

Morax's eyes looked at Guizhong's ash colored one, a look of determination appear on her face, seriously asking him that question.

"I... I do." Morax nods his head. "Even if she ends up not returning my feelings for her. At the very least, I wanted to get this feeling out of my chest... I just wanted to know how she feel about me. I need to know."

"Good." Guizhong nods her head in approval. "Then... Let me help you with it. You'll go and sort out your feelings for her, no matter how long it takes, and as for me, I'll go tell her directly of how you feel, I'll give you the clue when that day comes. Okay?"

At the end of it, Morax agreed to her proposal, and he patiently waits for Guizhong cues, while he sorted out his feelings.

And that was three days ago. And now Morax realize that today is the day when Guizhong is going to take actions, and he should be prepared too.

Guizhong had taken Ying outside of the assembly for another herb gathering, but little did the blonde haired traveler know, the goddess also intended to take her to somewhere else, a place where she should be telling her the truth behind Morax's unusual actions when he is around Ying recently. That the god of contracts has fallen in love with her. And whether Ying would accept or reject him, the god of dust will come back and bring him the news.

And now, a few hours have passed since their departure this morning, and Morax is currently waiting patiently for their return.

"I hope there's nothing wrong in their journey."

Morax already know the full capabilities of Ying as a warrior. She is strong like a lion, and graceful like an eagle. The way she could swept the battlefield clean and bask in the bloodshed, while still looking graceful and dignified, it is truly a sight to behold, now he understands why the Yakhas are very fond of her. She is truly embodies the spirit of a strong willed warrior.

And that's why he could at least have a peace of mind, confident that Ying would definitely be more than capable enough to bring Guizhong to that place. The special place that Guizhong plans to bring her, the place where the god of Geo and the goddess of dust first met, the place where they formed a pledge, a pledge that comes in the form of the stone dumbbell that he's still unable to crack until now, and the birth of their great civilization, the Guili Assembly.

"Ying..." Morax muttered to himself, an image of the blonde girl smiling at him appears in his mind, making him smiling on his own. "I hope you're ready... To hear my confession."

Suddenly, the door to the room slammed open with such force that it leaves a sound that echoes throughout the room. Making Morax flinched a little in surprise, as his amber eyes drifted to look at the now open door.

"Rex Lapis!" A man called out his name, he is breathing heavily, sweats raining down from his forehead, a look of terror and urgency on his face.

"Speak." Morax demanded, standing up from his sitting position, eyeing the man carefully.

"We're under attack!" The man revealed, causing Morax to widen his eyes in shock. "It's the Overlord of the Vortex! He's back!"

"Tch!" Without wasting anymore time, Morax quickly sprinted towards the exit, passing through the man in no time and already arrived to the exit in one second.

He pushed open the doors to reveal the outside world. Ravaged by thunderstorms as the skies turn dark and water rained down upon the land with great intensity that a flood already formed below, drowning the ground in a sea of shallow water, that kept rising with every seconds.

It's just like ten years ago, the people are panicking below, running around in attempt to escape not only the flood water that kept rising, but also the sea monsters that ran rampant across the area, hunting for prey they see in sight. Osial, the Overlord of the Vortex stood in all his might many miles away, with his five heads all pointed at a single direction, towards him.

"Morax..." The god of sea monsters bellowed loudly, so loud that Morax is able to hear it clearly without the sound of the rain hindering it, and the ground to shake from his voice alone.

"That sea slug... He doesn't know how to quit is he?" By his command, Vortex Vanquisher the almighty spear appears in his hand, ready to strike down this menace of a god that has been disturbing the peace Morax create for a long time. "No matter, I shall bring an end to him here and now. Once and for all-"

Before Morax could act, the ground beginning to shake once more, even more violently than before. And before anyone could register what is happening, yet another giant figure appears in the distance. A three headed dragon emerges from the water, roaring loudly as it rings through the air, passing through the barricades of sound created by the rain. The new figure stood almost as tall as Osial, and it's strength is also almost comparable to him.

"Beisht..." Morax muttered, full of disdain and spite.

Avenger of the Vortex, the wife of Osial. Though she's not strong enough to be considered a god, she's nevertheless pose as much threat as her husband. So the sea slug has decided to take out his dear wife to a date huh? Great, just great.

"Rex Lapis!"

Morax turned his head to the side to see a few of the Adepti approaching him. Among them are Ganyu, Moon Carver, and Streetward Rambler. They all look at him in worry and panic.

"This is an emergency! Osial and his wife are attacking us simultaneously! What should we do?" Ganyu asked, panicked and fearful of what is happening.

"The people is being attacked! We can't afford to rescue them without holding back the Overlord of the Vortex from invading." Moon Carver added, and despite having barely any changes on the tone of his voice, Morax can hear just how much panicked he was like any other.

"Is there any news of Ying and Guizhong's return yet?" Morax questioned them.

He really wished for Ying to be here right now so that she could help in evacuating the people to safety like she did before. He knew he would feel terrible for using her like that, much less that he knows the consequences if she were to do that. But still, even without his orders, Morax know that Ying would do it anyway as long it means that she's able to save the people from certain fates.

"Negative. We haven't seen or heard of both their return yet." Ping shook her head, looking distressful because of their absence. "At this rate, only luck can bring those two back here to help us. But as for now, we need to hold back on our own."

Morax tch'd at that, gritting his teeth in displeasure. This is really a bad timing for those two to be outside. But on the bright side, Morax is at least grateful that the two would be safe as they are far away from here as of currently.

"Everyone. Get down there and evacuate the people, get them away as much distance as possible. I shall take care of Osial and his spouse myself." He commanded, to which the Adepti bows at him in acceptance.

"Understood. Take care of yourself too, my lord." Ping said, just before Morax took off into the air to face the two monsters all by himself.

He flew across the crying skies with a speed of sound, appearing before Osial in only a matter of seconds, surprising even the five headed god who expect that the lord of Geo would've took at least a few more minutes before jumping into the battlefield. But it seems like Morax is in no mood of waiting and wanted to get things done quickly.

"Morax... You finally came." The colossal five headed sea monster bellowed, all of his five heads glaring towards the rather miniscule form of Morax in comparison to him. Hovering above with his amber eyes glowing brightly amidst the darkness, giving Osial a dead serious stare.

"I see that you haven't learnt your lesson after what happened ten years ago." Morax gripped the spear in his hand tightly, narrowing his eyes to a dangerous level. "You still have a death wish to fulfill? You and your wife?"

"Hah, You're one to talk." The five heads of Osial opens their mouth, roaring loudly. "It's time to end this Morax, I'll bury you here, you and your prided civilization!"

Behind him, Beisht's three dragon heads emerge from the water, each pointing towards Morax, now alone, outnumbered by their eight heads.

"You know, it doesn't matter how many heads you got. It's all useless when you have nothing in them." Morax said with a little smirk appear on his face. Both Osial and Beisht have started to charge hydro energy to accumulate on their mouths, so Morax twirls the spear on his hand and prepare for the attack.

The sea monsters release their charged up Hydro energy, firing them all at once towards Morax who just floats there, anticipating their attacks calmly. The fires up projectile attacks hit their target, colliding together to make an explosion of water with a loud "boom."

It may seem like they were successful in landing their first attack at the moment, but the water and fog clears up, they were proven that they're wrong, because Morax is still standing, completely unscathed, his body is covered in golden glow as a transparent shield had been formed around him, the almighty jade shield capable of tanking even the most deadly of their attacks. An ability that made him a foe that cannot be defeated easily, in fact, Osial doubted if he could defeat his archenemy while on this state...

"Is that all?" Morax asked, giving them a raised eyebrow.

The lord of Geo took off from his current position, heading even higher up into the level of the clouds above. As he heads there, Osial and Beisht relentlessly firing him with streams of water beams with an adjusted pressure to make the attack deadly, as it can cut through even the hardest of rocks like butter. And knowing of how deadly this attack was, Morax swiftly moves around through the air to dodge their attacks, continue in doing so until he reaches the target location.

Once he reaches to the level just below the clouds, Morax twirls his spear above his head, a giant summoning circles appeared above and around him. And from them, countless of energy spears came raining down from the skies which fall down to both Osial and Beisht as the spears struck their humongous body and explodes upon impact, causing both to roars out in pain.

They retaliate by opening ther mouths wide, but instead of firing water cannons, what came out of their mouths instead are water tentacles, hundreds of them, and they all headed towards Morax. These tentacles they're throwing at him are not simply one used to grab and restrain their targets, but they are also coated with the digestive fluids from their stomachs, practically acting like tongues for them to feed. The levels of acid on these tentacles are enough to melt a stone.

"Here they come." The water tentacles surrounded Morax from all possible directions, seemingly leaving no room for escape, but he has been dealing with these two for a long time, and he has adapted to all their tricks to develop a counter attack.

As the tentacles closing in on him, Morax took a deep breath, closing his eyes, and then spread his arms wide to the side.

"Quake!"

Vortex Vanquisher disappear from his hand, replaced with dozens of spears appearing out of thin air. Each spears that he creates pierce through all the tentacles around him, which still isn't enough to stop their assault, but it creates a small opening between them for Morax to squeeze through and escape their clutches.

"Oh no you don't!" Beisht bellowed, recovering from the minor damage, her tentacles give chase to the fleeting god, unwilling to let him go.

Morax saw this coming, turned around and coated his spear with geo energy, once the tentacles are getting close, he thrust his spears forward, creating multiple projections of the spear attack, pushing and slicing off the tentacles.

"Got you!"

"Ngh!"

Suddenly without warning, tentacles wrapped around him from behind, coming from Osial that Morax had just ignored for a few seconds, managing to catch him off guard.

"Now you have nowhere to run." Osial stated, as he begin to crush Morax by strangling him with the tentacles.

"Hmph!" But before he could do that, Morax's body turn hard, unnaturally so, making it feel like he's strangling a rock instead of a person.

To Osial's surprise, Morax body became motionless, and then glowing cracks start to appear all over his body. Before the sea monster could comprehend what's happening, Morax's body shatters like that of a glass being broken, a blinding bright light appears in place of his body moments ago, and from within the light, emerges a giant beast of the skies and mountain, it's long and brown body are dripping with divine energy, and it's pair of eyes shines bright and ominously, staring down upon the form of it's archenemy below.

"The Exuvia... It's here." Now he wouldn't need to worry about him running away, it's time for the two giants to duke it out with a fair duel.

"What shall we do now, dear?" The voice of Beisht echoes through the storm, appearing beside her partner.

"Take care of the little eyesores for me, would you?" Osial replied, one of his head turn to look at Beisht, and then glanced towards the people and the Adepti nearby, who desperately trying to run away from the rampaging chaos, as the Adepti tried their best in fending off the invading monsters, giving the people enough time to escape and ran. "While I will take care of this mountain lizzard myself!"

"Understood. As long as our plan works." There was a hint of amusement in Beisht's voice that Morax couldn't understand, but that's besides the point.

Beisht dives down underwater, and heads towards the already half drowned Guili Assembly, planning to take out all the remaining survivors in there and also kills the Adepti guarding them. Seeing this, Morax waste no time to chase her, his dragon form blitz through the air to catch up to her before she could go there. But unfortunately, he was stopped by Osial.

Before Morax could stop his wife, the Overlord of the Vortex came out from the water below him, catching Morax off-guard as the sea monster entangles the Mountain Dragon with his five heads, forcing him to watch powerlessly as the Avenger of The Vortex got away.

"I am your enemy, Old Lizzard." Osial declared, despite his best effort, Morax managed to wiggle out of his way from Osial's clutch, flying to the sky as he stared down at his enemy.

"Osial!" Morax knows the only way he could get back to the assembly is by getting pass through him. So before he could finally deal with his long term enemy, he hoped that his Adepti would do their best in holding out on their own.

Without wasting anymore time, the dragon lunges towards the sea monster, engaging into a brutal fight between two giants of the mountain and the sea.

Meanwhile, sometime before that...

Walking across the wilderness of the continents of Liyue, two girls who both wear pristine white dresses but with different hair colors could be seen. The grey haired girl who walks barefeet is talking to the other girl who has short blonde hair, her hand never let go of her sword as she listened to her friend's explanation.

"Have you ever went through here, Ying? This place is well known for the Violet Grass that grows on the cliff sides, I would've visit place more often to pick them if it wasn't for the dangerous monsters that lurks around the area." Guizhong asked her friend, the two are currently walking to the north of Guili Plains, passing through Dihua Marsh and currently they're heading towards Wuwang Hill.

"Aah, I did." Ying nods her head.

She haven't visited the area yet in this era, but on the present day, this is where she met Hu Tao and spending time with Chongyun, so technically she's telling the truth.

"I've been here before when someone in the assembly asked me slay a certain monster that attacked them when they're here to pick Violet Grass." Ying lied, she was actually talking about the bounty commissions she takes occasionally from Ms. Yu in Liyue. Usually she receives a quest to hunt down a Stonehide Lawachurl there.

"Someone asked you to take revenge on the monster who hurts them?" Guizhong asked, a frown appeared on her face shortly. "They didn't intentionally hurt you, did they?"

"No, I don't think so." Ying said with a shrug of her shoulders. "And besides, even if they did, that monster is a peace of cake, I took care of it just fine."

"Hmm, sometimes your excessive kindness greatly worries me, you know that?" The grey haired girl with a little sigh.

"Heard that many times before." Ying smirked, earning a little smile from Guizhong in return. "So anyway, what would you like to do there Lady Guizhong? You wanted to pick the Violet Grass while I deal with the monsters?" The blonde girl asked, they're gathered quite many of the materials they're looking for, so perhaps they come here to pick up some more?

"Actually we've just gonna pass through here." Guizhong shook her head. "Remember when I told you that I wanted to visit a certain place today? That place lies behind the Wuwang Hill, across the river, and up on the high ground. Normally, it's very difficult for one to get there, another reason why I haven't went there again for a very long time, but now that I have you, it shouldn't be a problem, right?"

"Sure, I guess." Ying chuckled wryly, she doesn't know the obstacles that awaits them on this road they're taking, but she'll try her best for it.

The two continue headed straight towards Wuwang Hill. And as expected, there are plenty of monsters there, but Ying make sure to quickly take care of it before they could do as much as to lay a finger on her or Guizhong, securing the rest of their passageways.

After the monsters are killed, their only obstacles are the geography of the land. They climbed up the hill, made easier thanks to Ying's power to create geo structures that acts like a staircase for them to easily reach the top. Once they reached the top of the mountain, the two took a few moments to bask in the beautiful view around them, while breathing in the fresh air. Ying in particular are immersed in thoughts while sightseeing. She looked at a particular direction where a vast field of grass and trees could be seen, with a river flows in the middle of it. She recognize the area immediately as where Qingce Village stood, a place that she often visited while in Liyue, seems like the village are built much later on after the Archon War is over, but right now, it's just a plain filled with wild grass and flowers.

After they regained their breath from fighting the monsters, they continued on, climbing down the hill on the other side, with Ying carefully guiding Guizhong down as she already knows pretty much every way to get down from her experience while traveling here in the present day. After they're down the mountain, they walked again to cross the river that separates the two land. Ying effortlessly use her Geo powers to create a small bridge for them to cross without wetting themselves. And once they made it across, they must climb another mountain to finally arrived at the location they're heading. And as usual, Ying made it ten times easier for them to do that, lifting them up to the higher ground in no time.

"So... Are you still not gonna tell me what place is this we're heading?" Ying asked, the two are now walking to the direction where Guizhong said the place is, and the more closer they get the more curious Ying become.

"Oh, would you please hold your curiosity just for a little? We're getting closer now, you'll have your answer in no time." Guizhong rolls her eyes on her, feeling slightly annoyed by Ying's constant questioning for the last few hours.

"I'm sorry, okay? The way you kept keeping it as secret just made me all the more curious. What even is that place anyway? Is there something really important to you there?" Ying asked again, looking around to see if there's anything special here, but so far she found nothing.

"Yes... That place is where the most important event of my life take place." Guizhong said with a nod of her head, closing her eyes and putting a hand on her chest.

"The most important event in your life?" Ying asked, curious and confused. She wonders what could that be, but if she were to bet, then her best guess would be the place where she met him.

"...We're here."

"Oh?"

They walked up a small hill, and once they gazed down, Ying's eyes went wide with shock and also a little amazement.

Lies beyond them are a sea of flowers, and not just any ordinary flowers, these are glaze lilies, the original ones, not the artificially planted like the ones that could be found around Yujing Terrace or Qingce Village. To see a large field made out of one of Liyue's iconic specialities are nothing but a sight to behold, much less to Ying who could never see something like this in the present day.

"Lady Guizhong, this is..." Ying whispered with a little stutter, her brain is still processing the info she sees right now.

"It's beautiful isn't it?" Guizhong asked, a smile adorned her face. "Come on let's go there." The goddess took Ying's hand and brought her down there, with Ying finding no reason to resist.

The two went there to the field, walking amongst the sea of flowers, careful to not trample any, admiring the view while also plucking some while they're doing it. Ying also pluck one and inspect it carefully, she didn't notice anything different in appearance to the present day Glaze Lilies, but, according to what Zhongli and Madame Ping said, the flowers would listen carefully to people's singing, and blooms from the melody it heads. Curious to try this, Ying sing a song to the flower in her hand, and moments later, it and every flower in her surroundings starting to bloom, opening up their petals to expose their hidden beauty.

"They really like your singing." Guizhong giggled, smiling warmly at Ying when the blonde girl showed an amazed expression at the blooming flowers around her. "I guess it's only natural that the Glaze Lilies liked your voice, when even gods like me loves to hear you sing."

Ying, glanced towards Guizhong who also pluck one of the lilies and hold it in her hand, humming softly at it and watches it bloom. As she saw this, Ying remembers Zhongli's story about how he met the God of Dust, first meeting her on the field of Glaze Lilies one day, and then meeting her again for the second time on the same place, which is the day when they swore their loyalties to each other, and formed the relationship that give birth to the Guili Assembly that exists now. If this was indeed the place he talked about, then...

"Lady Guizhong. You said that you first met lord Morax on a field of Glaze Lilies, right?" Ying asked, breaking Guizhong's concentration at what she was doing, the grey haired goddess turn her head to look at Ying. "Is this the palace?"

Guizhong was silent for a moment, as if she was thinking of something, but then she nods her head in confirmation after several seconds have passed.

"Yes... This was indeed the place." Guizhong answered, putting away the Glaze Lily she just plucked into the pocket dimension she shared with Ying. "This is where I met with Morax for the first time, and also where we formed our pledge by giving him the stone dumbbell. The place where the Guili Assembly was formed."

So this is really the place... Ying couldn't believe that she would really be here herself, after hearing so much story about it, about thinking of how great looking and beautiful it would seem if the place was reachable by her hands. But now that she's here, she's nothing but captivated by it, the scenic beauty is one of the most unmatched in Tevyat as far as she knows. And now to ask her the questions...

"How did you two first met here?" Ying asked, her voice is full of curiosity as she look at Guizhong. "Did you two met here by coincidence? Or have you made an arrangements? Or... Did your civilization had a past conflict with each other that made you two met?"

Guizhong shook her head at that. "No, as long as I could tell, my people were never get into conflict with the other civilization unless for the ones who attacked us first. And Morax's people were never in that list." Guizhong smiled, seemingly fond of the memories she's recalling, of course she does. "The people in the assembly only knew about our meeting here when we each represented our respective establishments, the day we made our pledge to unite and work together under the single dream of making the perfect civilization in the continent of Liyue. A pledge that are physically formed with the existence of the stone dumbbell I gave him that day. And so far as the people knew, that was our first meeting with each other. But..."

"But...?" Ying asked curiously, while she hear her explanation closely.

"But... Our first meeting actually happens long before that. And just as you guessed, it is Just a coincidence." Guizhong muttered, she lowers herself down to sit down on the ground amongst the blooming Glaze Lilies, her form naturally blends in perfectly with the

"Really? Tell me about it." Ying also sat down next to her.

"It's a funny story actually." Guizhong begin, a small smile appear on her face. "Back then, at that point of time, I was still the ruler of my own independent civilization, not protected by the mighty strength of a god, but with the intelegence I shared with my people, together using our combined knowledge to solve and overcome problems, a passive civilization where our aim is simply to survive the brutality of this war without the need of trying to surpass the others. But of course, before long, I realized that wasn't enough..." Guizhong shook her head as she continues her story. "In order to survive the harsh reality of this world, it requires more than just knowledge, we also need strength, power to better defend my people from harm, power to protect the gentle creatures known as humans, and it was starting from the day I realized that was when I began to pray, I pray for this world to have mercy on my people, to give us the strength we require to survive this war, it didn't take long before the stars answered my prayer..."

"You met with Morax, that's the answer?" Ying asked to which Guizhong nods her head.

"It might've been just pure coincidence, but one may also say that it's fate for us to meet here." Guizhong reached to a Glaze Lily before her, softly caressing the petals of the flower while looking at it tenderly. "On that day, I was just sitting here, harvesting some of the Glaze Lilies to be brought to my people so we could turn them into medicines and for other purposes, but then, just when things gone peacefully, this gigantic brown scaled dragon came out of nowhere and walked pass by my side, right here."

Guizhong pointed out to the spot right in front of her, and Ying gulped just from imagining how it would be for one who had such a peaceful day harvesting some flowers when suddenly a gigantic beast like the Exuvia shows up right in front of you, that would've been terrifying.

"I was shocked and scared when that gigantic beast suddenly came out, but most importantly than that, I was incredibly annoyed by him, because he was trampling all over the prescious Glaze Lilies without a single care in the world, and what's more, he straight up ignored me when I protested about it." Guizhong huffed as she explained, while Ying lightly smiled at her. "I decided that I had enough of him, and throw myself right in front the dragon, staring down at him as I explained thoroughly of the value of proper social interaction between thinking beings of any kind, the wrongdoing he just commited by not only damaging one of the most valuable resources in the land, but also to intentionally ignores me when I called out to him. And by extension, I also explain the said value of Glaze Lilies since he appears to not know about it."

"Wait, you're telling me that you're giving a lecture to him, In his dragon form?!" Ying asked, a hand came to rest over her mouth as she tried hard to hold back a laugh from spilling out.

"Yep, I gave him some good hours of lecturing alright. And quite surprisingly, he patiently listened to everything I said without any complaints." Guizhong puffed her chest proudly, like it was the biggest achievement she had in her life. "And all of my words didn't go over his head too fortunately, and I found him apologizing to me for his mistakes once my lecture is over. I forgive him for it, since he was giving me his heartfelt apology, and he introduced himself properly, the lord of Geo, Morax, he's a god well known throughout Liyue, the warrior god who is the leader of the illuminated beasts known as the Adepti, known for his incredible might and resilience. And while he introduced himself as a god, I introduced myself as nothing but an ordinary maiden to which he comes to believe me, confirming my thoughts of his obliviousness to my status as another god. A reasonable thought for me, after all, what kind of God who couldn't even lift a sword to protect her own people?" Guizhong asked, but it's more like she's questioning herself, to which Ying only nods her head a little.

"So then... What happened afterwards?" Ying asked curiously.

"We parted ways not long after. However, I did said to him that there is a certain god that would like to meet him, and told him that he should prepare himself for the day when this god went to met him. He took my word seriously, not realizing that I was pretty much talking about myself that day." Guizhong giggled at the memory, she seems to treasure it very much. "I remember how happy I am just when he said that he look forward to it. And as he left, I returned back to my people, with a little jump in my steps and a big smile on my lips. It's like I'm just being asked out by my first crush."

Guizhong lets out a small laugh, covering her lips with her fingers, as Ying merely smiles tenderly at her. Just seeing the happiness radiating from Guizhong's form... It makes Ying happy, happy amidst her aching heart.

"And so, when that day comes, when I told him to meet the god at this very spot, I presented myself fully to him, with all of my people behind me to bear witness, as I pledge myself to him, to unite both of our protectorate, combining the two to form our united civilization of the manifestation of our dreams, that's when the Guili Assembly was born, the moment went he and officially become the partner and friends we are now." Guizhong smiled, a bit wider than before this time, a look of calmness and joy appears in her eyes. "Even now, I still remember the face he made when he learnt of my true identity, it was truly priceless."

"I can imagine that." Ying nods her head. "The two of you have come a long way, it's not hard to imagine what makes the two of you become so close, not just as friends and fellow gods, but partners in ruling and other things... You really are the perfect woman for him, lady Guizhong." Ying muttered softly, eyes closed and her mouth releasing a sigh.

"Ying..." Guizhong softly mutters out the other girl's name. She eyed her conversation partner closely, she felt there's been something that has been bothering the blonde haired girl recently, but she couldn't exactly tell what is wrong with her.

Maybe it's time for her to finally tell her.

"Hey, Ying... There's actually another reason why I wanted to brought you here." Guizhong said, the blonde haired girl turned her head to look at the goddess, listening to her closely. "I wanted to came here because I wanted to tell you something, it's about Morax."

"About Morax?! Is she talking about their engagement?!"

Ying's eyes blown wide open immediately, her mind screams that this might actually be the moment. Now she understands why Guizhong wanted to visit this place, so it's because she is already engaged to Morax without Ying knowing it! Which means, their wedding would take place tomorrow, and today would be...!

"Ying, Morax has fallen in love... With-"

"Oh my, I didn't expect that you would be here, god of dust."

A voice spoke up from behind them, and Ying's already alerted brain quickly sends her body spring in action. Standing up and turning around to face the newcomer. Her golden eyes widened upon looking at the person who is standing not far away from them.

A tall lean built man stood there, with a long messy ocean blue hair that reaches down to his waist. He wore a long dark blue robe with a lighter blue motifs of an ocean waves. The left sleeve of his robe is white in color while the right sleeve is black. The robe were open in the middle, exposing his muscular build and the blue gem attached to his chest. His pants and shoes are dark blue colored and so does his eyes, which glows ominously for extra.

The mysterious man wore a sly wide smile on his face, one hand placed on his waist while the other hang beside him. His blue eyes stared directly to the girl behind Ying, Guizhong, as if his only interest lies to her and not Ying whom her presence he did not acknowledge.

"W-Who are you, and how did you know who am I?" Guizhong asked, standing up and quickly taking refuge behind Ying who immediately shields her with her arm.

"Oh I know more than just the tilte that the humans bestowed upon you, Guizhong. Or should I say..." The man's eyes narrowed dangerously, looking at Guizhong with mirth. "Haagentus.""

Guizhong gasped loudly upon hearing herself being referred as such, her ash grey eyes went wide, and her mouth gawked in shock.

"Lady Guizhong?" Ying asked the goddess worriedly.

"That's... That's my name. My true name! But how did he...?" Guizhong stuttered in shock, and Ying take it as her cue.

Ying narrowed her eyes at the mysterious man, her sight enters through the level that no human can reach, her gaze penetrates through the outside appearance of him, looking through his insides, finding the abnormal flow of elemental energy that no vision wielders nor basic elemental beings possess, it filled with divine energy, one possessed by a god! And what's more than that, it's a god that Ying have seen before, one she have fought before! Back in the present... When Liyue harbor is threatened from being erased entirely off the map...

"Osial..." Ying muttered out loud, causing not only Guizhong to widen her eyes, but also the man who is now identified as the Overlord of the Vortex himself.

"Ying... Are you...!?" Guizhong stuttered with even more shock.

"Lady Guizhong, it's him! It's him! It's Osial!" Ying exclaimed while pointing a finger at the blue haired man. "The very same from the one who attacked the assembly ten years ago. It's him!"

"Well... This is very unexpected." Osial smirked, placing a hand on his chin, his blue eyes finally moved from Guizhong to look at Ying, giving her an interested look. "I wouldn't have expect that someone could tell my true identity while taking up this form. Tell me little girl, how did you know?" The god of sea monsters asked her, finally acknowledging her presence beside the god of dust.

"You may have tried to hide you true appearance and suppress your powers to look mortal, but inside, your biology remains the same." Ying shook her head, glaring daggers at the malevolent god. "There's no way to hide that divine energy which flows through your veins, I can see them all."

"Interesting... So you're saying that you could see the flows of elemental energy inside me. Heh, I'll be sure to keep that in mind." The god said, his lips quirk up into a smirk again.

"I-If he's truly Osial, then..." Guizhong gripped the side of Ying's dress, prompting the blonde girl to look at her. "We gotta head back to the assembly! We need to inform Morax about this! Osial is back and he's-"

"Morax? The assembly?" Osial suddenly laughs out loud, covering his face with one hand as he does so, making Guizhong and Ying to look at him in surprise and confusion, as to why the evil god is suddenly laughing right now. "There's no such thing as the Guili Assembly right now! That treasured civilization of yours is now all under the water, goddess! And as for Morax? Morax already knew about me hours ago, though he won't be coming here knowing just how busy he is right now."

Ying narrowed her eyes at him, a feeling of great displeasure and worry churning in her stomach.

"What are you talking about?" Ying asked, demanded to know.

"Right now, at this very moment as we speak... Me and my sweet Beisht are laying waste to that prized civilization of yours. Submerging anything and everything in chaos. Do you get it, god of dust?"

Osial chuckled darkly, his eyes are covered by the shades of his hair, and his lips spread to make a big, wide, maniacal grin.

"The Guili Assembly... Is no more."

The great battle has finally over.

The rain has finally stopped, and the dark clouds are gone along with it, though the entire land is now submerged in water that had drowned everything, from the fields where the farmers plant their seed, to the houses that the people lived, and all of the other buildings in the assembly, the water will soon be absorbed by the soil, returning the land back to its original state, and even though this terrible day may mark the end of the great Guili Assembly, as Guizhong the goddess of dust has said before, the hearts of the assembly lies within the people, not the city that they have worked so hard to built.

They may suffered a great deal of casualties in this, but Adepti are successful in saving as many people as they could, ensuring the future that people still has the chance to rebuilt, not just their home, but their lives as well, in a new location or not, that depends on the fates that awaits them after this.

Amidst the drenched battlefield, two giants were interlocked to the surface of the flood water. One giant was the five headed sea monster Osial, who laid down on the surface of the water, defeated, four of his five heads are decapitated, leaving only one for him to barely hang on to the silver thread of life before it can be taken away by the other giant above him.

The other giant in question is a dragon with rock hard brown scales covering it's entire body. Though the dragon's body is marred with multiple scars and wounds from the battle it had with the other giant that it pinned below it, the dragon by extension is in a much mor far better condition than the sea monster, making him ultimately the winner of this battle.

"It's over Osial... It's. Over." The brown dragon bellowed, it's shining amber eyes stares directly into the sea monster's defenseless shining blue ones.

"It seems so..." Osial croaked out weakly, looks like he's merely one step away from death, a little stroke should do the job in finally killing him.

"Rex Lapis, report. We couldn't find any other survivors in the area. Seems like we are successful in recovering everyone to safety." A giant crane with glowing white and blue feathers flied around them nearby, perching herself on top of a mountain summit that has now been submerged in water up to half the height of it.

"What of the Avenger of the Vortex? What happened to her?" Morax asked the crane sternly.

"We couldn't find her again since a while ago." Another voice spoke up, this time a deer like creature came to floats near him, his glowing eyes stare at the form of the defeated Osial who is being pinned down by Morax. "It looks she had run away, there's no sight of her reported by the Yakhas who guards the people too."

"Good." Morax made a little gesture akin to a nod. He then turned his head towards his archenemy below him, staring at his eyes directly. "It seems like your dear beloved wife had abandoned you Osial. I would expect as much coming from what happened when you "married" someone not out of love and affection, but out of fear and subjection subjection."

"You're right, Morax... It is within my expectations that she woul abandon me..." Osial took a deep breath, and then he hummed, making a noise similar to as when one is smirking or grinning. "However... I am sure as hell knows that she would never abandon him!"

Morax paused a little, several trains of thoughts entered his mind the moment he heard what Osial just said. Eventually, his curiosity and confusion took over him, and he asked the nearly dead god below him.

"What are you talking about?"

"Heheh, you may have this win Morax... But you won't have another one after this." Osial boasted, the confidence in his voice only made Morax even more confused. How could this god still be this arrogant when his life is near to it's end? "After all... Just like you said before: Even if you had the strength and head, it will be useless without the existence of the "brain.""

Morax listened to what Osial said carefully, and trying to decipher what he means, especially the part when he repeated what Morax said about the brain.

And then that's when his mind arrived to a horrifying conclusion.

"Guizhong?!" Morax exclaimed, full of shock and fear.

"Bingo. Hehe..." Osial chuckled evily. "You think this attack is my final desperate attempt to crush you Morax? Wrong. This is simply but a big distraction for you. Back before our battle even started, I have sent a fragment of my soul to find and kill the goddess of dust whom I knew is going out of the assembly for today. It may took a while for him to track her down, but to ensure that you and your Adepti to not ruin my plan, I decided to launch a full front assault, making you busy enough to dealt with me, while my other self is busy in assassinating that precious partner of yours. Killing two birds with one stone, don't you think? I destroyed the Guili Assembly, while also simultaneously killing off the brain that made it as powerful as it was now."

"OSIAL!" Morax roared, raising his claw, ready to finish off Osial.

"It's no use in killing me now, Morax." Osial taunted. "Even if you kill "me" now, the other me will regain his power in no time, eventually become whole and become the new "Me." You can't win."

"Aaaaaah!" Morax brings down his claw, decapitating the last of "Osial's" head. Blood splatter to all directions, and eventually, the five headed body of the god below him explodes into a burst of water, leaving nothing behind.

"Rex Lapis! What should we-"

"Ngh! Guizhong!"

Without waiting for another second, Morax darted out of the water and straight towards the clouds, flying across the skyline and head straight towards one direction he knew to be the place where his partner and friend is located.

"Come on! Please, I can't be too late"

Morax mentally curse himself, blaming himself for being too stupid, for being too dense, and for being too fearful. If it wasn't for him who is too afraid to confess his feelings for Ying, Guizhong wouldn't have went out of the assembly and put herself in danger. If it wasn't for him, the Guili Assembly wouldn't suffer as much casualties as it was now, if Ying was here to help them bring the people to safety. It's all his fault!

"Let me help you with it. You'll go and sort out your feelings for her, no matter how long it takes, and as for me, I'll go tell her directly of how you feel, I'll give you the clue when that day comes. Okay?"

"I'll be taking Ying to that special place where the Glaze Lilies grows. The place that gave birth to the assembly as we know now... The place where we first met."

"After all... If that place is special to me, then it should be special to her too."

"Guizhong... Ying... Please stay safe."

Morax gritted his teeth, the fangs of of his dragon form laid bare for anyone to see, dripping with wrath.

"I'll be there!"

"The Guili Assembly...is no more?" Guizhong asked, her eyes are wide open with shock and fear.

"That's right." The man with long blue hair, Osial, said with a nod of his head. "Don't you see anything wrong with me right now, little girl?" Osial raised an eyebrow to Ying, spreading his arms to the sided. "I am nothing but a small fragment of my soul right now, given form by "Me" and tasked to find and kill you, goddess. And as for the "Me" who possess the rest of my soul... He and Beisht are launching a full assault on the assembly, intending to destroy everything that stood there."

After hearing Osial's explanation, both Ying and Guizhong are overwhelmed with shock. Guizhong in particular dropped to her knees and near to start crying at her loss. And as for Ying, she was pissed beyond belief, clenching her fist so tightly that blood is threatening to spill from her fingernails that dug to her skin. She is mad, she is furious! She wants nothing but to kill this god before her, but Ying knows there's an even more important thing for her to do.

"No need to look so shocked like that, Haagentus." Osial said as he smiled wickedly. "You don't need to worry of your people, because you're about to join them soon!"

"Lady Guizhong! Let's run!"

Sensing the incoming danger, Ying quickly took hold of Guizhong's hand, pulling her up to stand before dragging her away to run. Ying doesn't know where she needs to run, since the Guili Assembly as they know it is already gone thanks to Osial and his wife. But the plan for now, is to keep Guizhong alive as long as she can, knowing that Morax will definitely come.

"Hah! Nowhere to run!" Osial reached both of his hands towards the running girls, and from his hands, a large stream of water being fired at them with high speed.

"Tch!" Ying glanced at the incoming attack and raise a hand to the air. "Starfall!" A shard of Geo energy was created which then fell into the ground and erupted into a wall of stone that shields them from the stream of water being shot at them.

"Able to control and create Geo structure... Huh, you are far more interesting than I imagined, child." Osial rubbed his chin as he saw what Ying is capable of. "But... It's gonna take more than that to beat me!"

Osial was behind them in one second, and in the next, he suddenly appears right beside Ying, running alongside her.

"Hello." Osial waved at them, as Ying and Guizhong's eyes widened in surprise at his sudden appearance. He deliver a swift punch aiming towards them, but fearing for Guizhong's safety, Ying quickly turn the goddess around so that she use her own body to shield her. Osial's punch landed on Ying's cheek, sending the girl flying from the force applied to the punch, taking Guizhong with her since the goddess is cradled in her arms.

"Ying!" Guizhong called out her name after they landed on the ground. Ying's back is flat to the ground while Guizhong is lying on top of her. "Are you alright?!" The grey haired girl asked worriedly.

"Ugh!" Clutching her head, Ying slowly sat up, a hand went to wipe the corner of her mouth where blood drips down from it. "I see... So he's able to teleport himself through the water he creates, such a sneaky ability, this one's gonna be tough."

Standing up, Ying spat out the blood in her mouth, summoning her sword to prepare for battle, as Osial menacingly approaching them with each step he took caused water to rise, slowly drenching the field with water and makes everything wet.

"You have an incredible courage for being a mortal, I give you that." Osial said, that annoying smirk on his face didn't waver in the slightest. "But even though what you're seeing right now is not even half of the strength I normally possess, I am still a god nonetheless, and I have enough power to kill both of you, a pathetic weakling of a god, and a certain foolish mortal who thought that she could even come close to defeat me."

The god in human form turn his eyes to look at Guizhong, and then back to Ying.

"You know, girl, I'm already tired enough to split myself into two like this, and I would like it more to spend my time slowly recovering all of the energy I sacrificed for this plan to work. So I'll be nice with you." He raise his hand and point a finger towards Guizhong. "How about if you just put down your sword and leave that weakling goddess to me, hmm? If you do that, I'll let go and then you can live out the rest of your pathetic life doing whatever you want, a sweet deal don't you think?"

Ying flinched at his words. The blonde girl knew of what Osial is, how the tale of him spreads among the people of Liyue, about a ruthless, evil, and merciless sea monsters with five heads that has been terrorize the people of Liyue for centuries. She have fought him hand in hand with her friends back in the present time, emerging victorious afterwards. So far, she only knew of him as a senseless monster driven by lust for revenge against the one man responsible for sealing it down in the depths of Guyun stone forest. So this is all knew to her, to see the monster with this human form, to see him talk, to see firsthand of his mannerisms and personality. It's overwhelming.

"Tch, you think I would just walk away because you would spare my life?" Ying spat out, her grip on her sword gets even tighter, using both of her hands to hold it. "A monster like you would never understand anything about companionship! I swore to myself to protect lady Guizhong at all cost and I-"

"He is right, Ying."

Ying felt a tug on her hand, and she turned her head to look at Guizhong who has her eyes looking down as she took hold of Ying's hand, interlocking their fingers together and giving them a squeeze, telling her to stop talking.

"Lady Guizhong, what are you...?" The one who's going to kill her is now in front of them, what more does she want to say.

"Ying... He is right. Please ran away." Guizhong whispered to her, her ash grey eyes stared directly into Ying's golden ones, as if staring directly into her soul.

"What are you talking about?! That man is here to kill you, we need to run!" Ying asked desperately, just what is she thinking right now?!

"No, you go, I'll stay." Guizhong said with a shake of her head, looking at Ying gently. "Ying... Osial desires only to kill me, as much as he cares, you are insignificant to him. If I surrender myself here, he'll let you go, and you can go back to the assembly, back to Morax, back to all your friends who are waiting for you there."

"No! I won't leave you behind!" Ying protested, violently shaking her head in disagreement. "Even if you chain me up to a mountain I'll always find my way to you, I'm not gonna let you be killed Lady Guizhong, I won't!" The blonde haired girl stated loudly.

"Ying, it's alright." Even at this moment, the goddess still has time to smile at her. Her smile is gentle, warm, reassuring her that it's okay, and she has resigned to her fate. "It's true what he said, I am nothing but a weak god who couldn't even protect myself or my people. I have been born to always need protection, I need Morax's protection to keep my people safe, I need his Adeptus protection to fend off dangerous monsters, and even now, I still need you to protect me from this. I'm tired of being the one who needs protection all the time, Ying. So just for this moment, please allow me to protect you."

Guizhong leans closer, and pulled Ying into a hug, which surprises the blonde girl who gasped a little at the contact.

"Even if I were to be killed, it would not negatively affect the assembly whatsoever." Guizhong tightened her hug, pulling Ying even closer. "Morax and the others have grown a lot throughout the years since the first time I met them. Morax... Though he's still a bit as dense as a rock like before, he has grew to become a great leader, he has gain an even better understanding of emotions than before, and he has come to view humans with respect and not merely as livestock like he used to. If I die, I could rest in peace knowing that our people are left in the capable hands of his. I'm sure with his guidance, he'll lead the people to leave behind the nightmares of the past, and heads towards an even better future. I'm sure of it."

"Lady Guizhong... You can't..." Ying didn't know what to say or what to do, her entire body is filled with uncertainty, and the only thing she could do is to slowly raises her hands towards Guizhong's back.

"Ying... My death will affect nothing, in this world. But you... You're not. You've got a life to go back to. Your family, your brother, and the man that you loved... You still have your youth, don't waste it." Guizhong lightly smiled, but it's not like Ying would be able to see it. "Go, now. I'll stay here and buy you some time."

Ying's trembling hands came to floats behind Guizhong's back, seemingly wanting to return her hug, before the two part ways with Guizhong let herself be killed by Osial as Ying ran back to the assembly and go meet with Morax and the others... But no, that is not happening.

Instead, Ying's hands came to rest on Guizhong's shoulders, on her arms, and gripping it tightly, before roughly pull it down to let go of Guizhong's embrace on her. Guizhong is shocked by her sudden rough act, and eyed Ying with widened eyes, and that is the chance for Ying to act.

"Forgive me lady Guizhong..." Before Guizhong could say anything, Ying roughly pushed the goddess away until she fell down to the ground with a loud thud. Letting out a yelp, the grey haired girl looks up, only to see Ying raising an arm. "Starfall!"

A geo shard was fromed in the air and dropped down near to where Guizhong is lying, and in an instant, a geo structure erupted from the ground and surrounding Guizhong, a giant dome made out of rocks and crystals, very hard and sturdy, and Guizhong was trapped in it, acting like a shield that protect her from any attack.

"No! Ying! What are you doing?!" Guizhong yelled, the geo dome acted like a prison to her, and there's only a small window that allows her to see outside, see Ying standing outside of the dome, looking back at the goddess.

"This dome will keep you safe. I will try my best to hold it in place until help arrives." Ying said sternly, turning her back on Guizhong and prepared to face Osial alone.

"Ying, please don't do this!" It was like the position just got reversed. Ying was begging Guizhong to not sacrifice herself just seconds ago, and now, it's Guizhong's turn to beg Ying to not throw her life away. "Didn't you said that you have a brother you need to find?! Don't you said that there's a man who you loved the most?!"

At Guizhong's questions, Ying paused from taking her first step towards her doom. Turning her head slightly to look at Guizhong.

"Even if the two of you have taken different path that contradicts one another, he's still your brother, and right now he's somewhere out there, waiting for you, how do you think he would feel if he finds out that you've died?!" Guizhong asked while glaring daggers towards Ying through the small window, Ying's only reaction is to lower her gaze at that. "And then... I know that it's hard to accept, I know it must've been hurt to know that someone who you're seeing is seeing someone else that is not you. But deep down, you still love him, right? You still love that man right?"

Ying's heard perk up upon hearing that, now she's fully turning her head to look at Guizhong.

"Love is a very complicated matter, Ying, I know." Guizhong nods her head as she said that. "You said that you wanted to be with him, wanting to be the one that made him happy, the one who comforts him in his sorrows, and celebrate in his joy. Even if it slim, there's still a chance that you'll be with him, Ying. And if you were to die, then no one else would be there to replace you, no one!" The goddess shook her head as tears slowly descent from her eyes. "Please... Don't do this..."

Ying only stared at Guizhong who cried in silence. But after a few moments, the blonde haired girl smiled, gently, tenderly, at her, while her eyebrows furrowed as if showing her the pain she's been enduring in her heart all this time. The blonde girl once again turned her back on Guizhong, showing that she has not changed her mind.

"You know lady Guizhong... There's something I need to tell you."

Ying began, the tone of her voice is something that is hard to read, making Guizhong unable to tell what the blonde girl is truly feeling right now.

"The truth is... I've been lying to you when I told you about why I came here to Liyue." Ying revealed, causing Guizhong's eyes to went wide. "The truth is... I still love that man, and I love him so much that I couldn't let go. No matter how much distance I made between me and him, no matter how many times I told myself to give up, I couldn't, I love him, and that's all that matters to me. I didn't care if couldn't be by his side, I didn't care if he would never return my feelings back, the only thing I care about is that I hate to see him sad, I couldn't bear to see him suffer, suffer from the pain of lost he's been enduring. And that's why I determined to fix that, I wanted to make him happy, I wanted replace his sadness with the happiness he deserved. And I realized that there's only one thing I could do to make that happen."

Ying turned her head to look at Guizhong once more, smiling at the goddess somberly. Her eyes are soft and gentle, yet it holds so much pain and sadness that Guizhong couldn't help but to feel her heart ache for the blonde haired girl.

"In order to make Zhongli happy... I need to protect the one person that mattered to him the most. And that's why... I need to protect you, lady Guizhong."

Guizhong's eyes stared at Ying in shock. There's so many things that she wanted to ask her, but Guizhong's mouth went limp, she couldn't say a single word at all.

"Goodbye." Ying smiled at her for one last time, before finally walks away from her.

"Ying!" Guizhong was left only to scream the blonde girl's name, she's helpless to do anything now while she's inside this dome. And as she screams, the dome was covered by yet another layer of crystals, adding more protection to the goddess inside.

Ying chose to ignore the desperate scream of Guizhong, begging her to not go. Sighing heavily, the blonde haired girl took a deep breath as she looks up, looking at Osial who stood not too far from her, standing menacingly with his arms crossed across his chest. Eyes narrowed and lips smirking a little, giving the impression that he's beyond amused, but now, he's in complete disbelief, to think that there's a mortal who dares to challenge him.

And with her resolve remain strong, Ying took step upon step towards the god in human disguise.

"Oh? you're approaching me? Instead of running away, you're coming right to me?" Osial asked, amusement and disbelief mixed together in his voice, full of mirth at the unbelievable sight. "Even after I do kindly offer you the chance to live, you're still want to die?"

"I can't protect lady Guizhong without beating you, that is my decision." Ying answered, her sword appears on her palm, using both of her hands to hold it tight.

"Hoho, then come as close as you like." Osial replied back, he uncrossed his arms, and spreads it to his side. Hydro energy flows through his body and then to his arms, coating it with water, which then turns long and flexible, both of Osial's hand transformed into a whip made of water. "If you can, that is."

Osial started by swinging his elongated arms in a horizontal slash, aiming to split Ying's body into two at the waist. The blonde haired girl see this coming, and quickly jumped back before his arms could hit her.

The elongated arms hit the rocks nearby, and immediately after getting hit, they shatters upon impact, turning into tiny pieces. Confirming Ying's thoughts that despite of being made out of water, Osial's arms is as hard as any solid material, it's just like the blades that Childe summoned in combat, except that it's a lot more stronger.

"If you think it's easy to dodge these, then you better think again, girl." Osial taunted, his lips turned into a smirk. "These are still my arms after all."

Passing through the realm of expectations, the whip like arms of Osial moved back to where it swings from, bending the arms in ways that normally would be impossible, catching Ying off guard as the whips that she thought had been dodged suddenly comes back towards her direction, once again aiming to split her in half.

Swing as dodging is useless, Ying relied on her sword instead, coating it with geo energy to form a strong barrier around the blade, and as Osial's whips came closer, she twirls her sword and hit both of the incoming attacks, pushing them away from her.

"Hmm..." Though Osial barely show any reaction, he admit that he was surprised to Ying possessing enough strength to knock his arm whips away, normally a puny attack like that would only resulted with the sword she's holding to break off in two, so for Ying's sword and arm to stay intact after hitting him could only means she has poured her own power into the blade to reinforce it greatly.

Osial change tactics, and elongate his arms even further, instead of swinging it around in hopes to hit her, Osial made his arm whips to surround Ying instead, creating a circle that traps the blonde girl in the middle, and unless she has a trick up in her sleeve to get out of the situation, then Osial expect to catch the girl and strangle her with his arms.

But it turns out Ying is more clever than he thought, just when Osial's arms closing in on her, she jumped high into the air, dematerializing her sword as she did a flip. And while being upside down in the air, the blonde girl reached out her hand, and Anemo energy starts to build up in her palm.

"Windblade!" The Anemo energy she gathered on her palm creates a small fracture in space that caused the air an everything around it to get sucked into the small area in her palm. Osial's arms are no exception, the long whips made of water got sucked into the mini black hole, like noddles that being slurped into one's mouth very quickly. And since these whips are Osial's own arms, he too gets dragged into the hole. His eyes widened and teeth gritted, Osial had no choice but to detach his own arms, saving it from getting sucked along with them, but thats not gonna save from Ying.

Seeing the opportunity after the god let go of his own arms, Ying stopped the Anemo attack she's using, resummoning her blade back, before blitzing through the air and into the ground, landing right behind Osial. The Overlord of the Vortex is shocked to see her suddenly appearing behind him when she was still up there in the air just a second ago. But before his brain could comprehend the shock, his mind was taken over by the sensation of pain he felt on his side. He look down and widen his eyes upon seeing a cut was made to his left waist, tearing through the robe he's wearing and leaving a long gash with blood flowing out.

"Lighting Slash!" But there's no time to be stunned in shock however, because Ying is still on the strike. Before the god could further comprehend what happened. Ying deliver a rotating kick to his back, launching him a distance away from her, and at the same time, threw three Abundance Amulet to his back side, which digs through his clothes and skin, electrocuting him as he flown off.

Ying breathed out a sigh, twirling her sword to a more comfortable position, and watch as Osial slowly stood up from the ground. His skin creates a membrane that covers his entire body, like shedding a skin, the membrane took off the Abundance Amulet that electrocutes him, before turning to water and splash to the ground, leaving Osial back to his perfect condition, without any wound visible.

"Interesting... How very interesting..." The Overlord of the Vortex in human form chuckled, he tilts his head to the side, making a popping sound as he does so, his glowing blue eyes stared at Ying, full of interest and curiosity. "So not only can you use elemental powers despite not being a god... But you also can use multiple of them at the same time... Even a god is incapable of doing such thing." Osial's eyes narrowed, very dangerous so. "Tell me girl, what are you?"

"Hmph, as if I'm going to tell you even if you asked me nicely." Ying shook her head, her hands once again taking a hold of her sword tightly. "I'm the person who's gonna kick your slimy butt, that's all you have to know."

"Heh, start talking dirty are we? Well, it doesn't matter... At least now I know of your little secret. Which means..." Osial shakes his head as he chuckled darkly. "I can go all out while in this form."

Saying this, Osial disrobes himself, exposing his entire upper body, filled with ancient marks and runes that looks like some tattoos that glows bright blue. He grunted as he closed his eyes, a huge amount of Hydro energy gathered around him, the water that has been spilled all around turning into bubbles that flew up to the air for a few seconds before popping out of existence. Osial's arms suddenly grew back after he detached them earlier, and now they transform once again into elongated whips made out of water. But that's not all... As Osial growled, his back burst open, and four long tentacles made out of water erupted from behind him, and by looking closely at them, Ying spotted how these tentacles are like the miniature version of Osial's usually large five heads, meaning that they have their own pair of eyes and mouths. Things are just getting better and better...

"I can't wait to tore you up into pieces." Osial's voice echoed through the air, he's appearing less and less human, not with his now fully bright blue eyes without a pupil, and a pair of dark blue horns that grew on his head.

Ying's response is only to grip her sword even tighter, eyes narrowed to strengthen her focus, and inhales a lot of air to refresh her mind before the battle begin, silently using her power to coat her legs with Anemo energy to boost her movement's speed and precision.

Osial attack first, immediately using his six tentacles to form a cage that circles around Ying. Ying ran up to the side of the wall his tentacles created, finding out that there's some subtle differences between Osial's back-tentacles and his arm-whips, namely in color and sizes. The arm-whips are thick and dark blue colored, while the back-tentacles are thinner and lighter in color. But what about their densities, is it different?

Determined to know, Ying flipped her sword to held it in reverse, and using her Electro power to speed up her movements, she deliver multiple slashes in one seconds to the wall of tentacles she's closing into. And is genuinely surprised to find it being cut into pieces after her attack. Confirming her thoughts.

"She's a quick learner!"

Osial mentally gasped at Ying's quick thinking. They've only been battled for several minutes, yet Ying has already figured out yet another one of his weakness. Compared to his arm-whips, Osial's back-tentacles are much softer that even a normal sharp blade without any mystical power is able to cut through it, which only normal since they're mostly used to grab and strangle things and not for cutting and slicing like his arm-whips does.

But it's still not a huge matter to him since his tentacles regenerates themselves only moments later, continuing their advances towards Ying.

"You are quick girl, but not too strong!"

Osial swings his elongated arms wildly, the long thick whip zigzagged through the battlefield trying to hit Ying who athletically zips around the field to avoid it. Since this battle took place on the highland, bumps and lumps of earth are everywhere near them, which Ying took advantage of help her to leap from one place to another, giving her some high chance to dodge any of the incoming attacks. But Ying is aware however, that she can't just dodge forever, she need to think of a plan of counterattack quick before her stamina runs out or the whips to finally catch up to her.

Ying leaps into the air to avoid an incoming whip attack, she somersaulted in the air and prepared to land, but Osial saw through her, smirking, he strike at the ground where Ying is about to land, shattering the surface just as Ying's foot touched it, causing her to slip and fall to her back. The tentacles from Osial's back surrounded her soon after, entangling her arms and legs, pinning her to stay on the ground. Ying struggled to break free from the holds, but becomes horrified upon seeing Osial's arm-whips dangling above her, with both ends of the whip reshaped into a pointy sharp needles, ready to stab her right in the face.

It may seem to be the end for Ying, with her sword dropped out of her reach, her arms and legs are bound by tentacles, and she is about to be turned into pincushion by Osial's hands. But Osial has failed to notice one thing, he made Ying touch the grass. An advantage for the blonde haired girl that he doesn't know yet.

Thorny vines emerges from the ground around Ying, and wrapped itsef around the water tentacles that entangles Ying's limbs. The vines were as sharp as knives, so it easily tore off all the four tentacles, freeing Ying who immediately rolls to the side in a split second before Osial's whips came down and stabbed through the ground. Osial only realizes this a little too late when he felt that his hands are burried in the ground instead of Ying's body. By the time this happens, Ying has already leaped to the air to attack, three dendro cores appeared in her palms as a result of the reaction between Hydro and Dendro, and Ying used her Electro energy to charge them up.

"Take this!" Ying threw the charged up Dendro cores, which launced towards Osial with the speed of sound. Both three hit their target successfully, with one in particular scratched the side of Osial's cheek, leaving a long line of cut that bleeds afterward.

"You little pest!" Osial gritted his teeth in anger, this is perhaps the first time Ying sees him showing emotions other than that arrogance of his.

He seems to finally lost his temper and is now raging for being wounded by a mere mortal. He swings all of his six tentacles around wildly, striking the ground causing craters to form and water to splash everywhere. Though it is hard to see with all of the water that sprayed into her or all of the six elongated limbs that moves messily around her in general, Ying managed to keep herself safe as long as she cuts through the tentacles that swung at her and dodging the whips.

And it was also during this brief moment of rage, when Osial lowered his focus, that Ying finally decided to close in on him after being kept at bay for a long time by his tentacles. She darts through the battlefield, pushing through the inconsistent swings of the tentacles, and eventually managed to close up the distance between them. And by the time Osial regain his composure and put his focus on the battle again, Ying is already right in front of him, with her blade only inches away from his neck.

"If he can regenerates his limbs, then what about his head?"

The blade of Ying's sword inching closer and closer, until centimeters turn into millimetres, and then her sword brushes against his hair and-

Clang

Ying's sword couldn't touch his neck. Her blade was blocked by something hard and solid, something that aren't supposed to be hard enough to block a sword.

"You're too naive, foolish girl!" Osial exclaimed.

Ying suddenly felt a gut wrenching pain in her stomach. And she gets blown away into the distance, crashing against a nearby mountain wall and leaves a large crater upon impact. Her mouth spits out blood as she made a chocked sound, her eyes rolled back in pain, as her body went limp and fell into the ground below, breathing heavily and grunting from the pain she felt.

Once she regained some strength after the aftershock slowly fades away, she slowly bring herself up, using her sword as support to make her sat up. With a hand placed on her stomach, the place where he hit her hard, Ying carefully observed Osial, and gritted her teeth in depression.

In that split second when Ying's sword is about to slice his neck, Osial's hair has somewhat grew. His hair that used to be only waist length has now grew long enough to reach his foot, but that's not the problem here. The real problem is that his hair is also tentacles. When being put together, the strands of Osial's hair would formed into slithering tentacles that has eyes and mouths at the end of the length, making them look like snakes that comes out of his skull. But these tentacles are not for decorations to scare his enemies only. Ying look back at the place Osial hit her and she quickly understands. The snakes in his hair are capable of firing blast of water that is strong enough to feel like being punched when it hits her, and there's probably more functions to it too.

And with this, Osial has ten tentacles protruding from his body: Two arm-whips that can slice human limbs like knife on a butter, four back-tentacles that can restrain and strangle enemies to put them in place, and four hair-blasters that can shoot out water blast that feels as good as being punched. Great. One man with three multitasking tentacles versus a girl with four different elements, wonder who would come out the winner...

"So... You can even control the grass elements too. And knowing the good use of it's reactions as well..." Osial loudly muttered, through the expression on his face is blank, Ying could detect the hint of amazement in his voice, as if praising her. "I changed my mind... You are not a foolish mortal who did not know death. You are..."

Osial swings all of his elongated limbs up except for the ones in his hair, bringing them down and rained them down upon Ying who's still on her knees.

"...An insect that needs to be drowned!"

"Ngh! Shake!" Ying brought her sword up, and then plunge it into the ground before her. In an instant, rocks formation and geo crystals erupted from the ground and raised up to above her, stopping catching Osial's tentacles and stopping their advances, except for his arm-whips whose strength crushed the geo structures into pieces which only capable of slowing it down, enough for Ying to dodge the attack and came out safely.

"How long do you intend to delay the inevitable, girl?" Osial taunted, now with all of his tentacles in display, he swings them around the area to make himself a propeller, a spinning blade of a blender, with Ying inside.

Just like before, Ying's best strategy is to continue dodging, slicing off the back-tentacles that tries to entangles her, avoided getting hit by his arm-whips, and now she also needs to shield herself from the projectiles Osial fired from his hair-blasters.

"I can't dodge forever. At this rate I'll be out of stamina, and it will all be over!"

Ying knew that she couldn't possibly hope to kill Osial here. However, she knew of one thing, one person, who could best and kill this god of the Vortex for good. And that person is Morax, the lord of Geo who is now miles away from this place, back at where the assembly, or rather what is left of it, stood. If Ying took what Osial said into account, then Morax and the Adepti should be fighting with the "other" Osial, one who has the majority of his soul, like a starfish that tore off its limbs to fend off predators, this is the detached limb that Ying is fighting, while Morax and the others are chasing after the body, likely to throw off their concern and not knowing what Ying went through here, but still...

"Guizhong was overpowered by the enemy, and fell in battle. When Streetward Rambler and I arrived at the scene at long last, all that remained among the ruins... Was her lifeless body..."

Just like Cloud Retainer said... The reason why Guizhong died, was because no one is there to protect her in time. And they arrived only too late, with the only thing that present was Guizhong's body, dead and petrified to dust. But now however, that has changed, now that Ying's here, Guizhong finally has someone to protect her, someone who fight for her. And no matter of how long it would take, Ying would continue to hold out, Ying will continue to protect the god, for the better future, for everyone in the Guili Assembly, and for Zhongli's happiness. She will continue to fight!

"G-Gah!" Osial's whips hits her on the neck, likely would've cut off her neck if it wasn't for Ying who barely block it wit her sword. But still, the blunt impact is still too much, and it sends her flying across the battle field, crashing into the ground and forcing out a cough out of her, a batch of blood made its way out of her throat.

"You are getting tired, girl. Your movements gets even duller." Osial noted, he stops his movements just for a bit as he slowly walks towards the downed Ying who coughs violently on the ground. "Don't waste your energy for struggling in vain. Just die like good little sheep, would you?"

Osial swing a single arm, aiming his whip arm to decapitate Ying's neck.

But the attack never lands, nor did it hit anything for that matter. Ying simply vanish into thin air, gone was the girl who is on all four just a moment ago, she was gone, she literally is gone, leaving only the batch of blood that dyes the grass red.

Splat

"Ghh?!"

Suddenly without warning, Osial felt a tremendous pain coming from his arm, or rather, what is left of it in the stump of his torso. He realize it then when he tried to raise his arms that he doesn't feel anything, both of his arm-whips are detached from his body, leaving him armless and having trouble to stabilise his body.

He sense some movements behind him, and he quickly turns his body aroun, just to see the form of Ying who lunges herself at him very quickly.

"Y-You!" Having not enough time to regenerate his two main offensive limbs, Osial launches his back-tentacles to Ying, hoping to catch her with it, but Ying has a countermeasures.

"Thunder Clap!" With a gesture as simple as raising her hand, Ying calls down thunder to strike, hitting all of Osial's tentacles and cutting them all up into pieces.

With all his six main limbs destroyed, Osial resorted to form his hair into blasters again to shoot Ying down, but his movements are slower than Ying who gets right in front of him in no time, eventually making his attempt fruitless. Ying got in front of Osial, and she place her palm flat against the god's chest. Her golden eyes glares directly into his blue ones, with nothing but pure anger filled her eyes at that moment.

"Be gone." A large amount of Anemo energy build up in Ying's palm, and mere seconds only after everything is gathered, Ying release it with a push.

"Aghhhhhhh!" A violent burst of wind shoots out from under Ying's palm. The intensity of it is enough to send Osial flying through the air a few miles away from her, before eventually crashing against the side of a mountain, causing the earth to shake a little as a giant crater was made from his landing, debris fall down and piling up on him, burying him under.

Ying panted heavily, sweat raining down her forehead, blood trickling down her nose and the corner of her mouth. She just used some of her best attacks just now and she's already feeling the toll it has on her body. She needs to stay strong, force her body to reach and surpass it's own limit, only will then she is able to finally finish this off.

Osial bursts out of the rubble shortly after, screaming to the heavens as he lets out a beastly roar, enough to make the ground shook. His glowing blue eyes turned to look at Ying, his teeth grinding together and saliva drips down from the corner of his mouth, mixed with blood. A large bruises is visible on the surface of his chest, gained from Ying's earlier attack. At least she's successful in damaging him, even if just a little.

"Why? How? What the hell just happened?! She was there on the ground moments ago! How in the world did she gets behind me so quickly?!"

Osial mentally screaming at himself. With his sight set on Ying and Ying alone, without breaking contact, Osial regenerates his lost limbs once more, giving himself a pair of arms that he turns into a long whip made of water, and four long flexible tentacles from behind his back, returning him to his previous state before he's getting attacked, ready for battle once more.

"I don't know what in the world you just did to do that, girl, but it sure as hell PISSED ME OFF!" Osial whips the ground in anger, causing it to shook and multiple large craters to be made. He gritted his teeth and bare his fangs towards her, like a shark ready to devour. "This would be the end, and I'll make sure of it!"

"Yeah..." Ying merely nods her head at that, holding her sword with both hands, as she's ready for the final round. "One of us will fall, and I'm ready to see either outcome."

Osial quickly closing in on her without waiting for another second. He swung down six of his tentacles and keep them circled around Ying, with his whips in particular are aiming to slice Ying's legs off. But the blonde girl is already acquainted with his movements, able to read the patterns of where his limbs are moving, despite of how quick they are when they moved. She slice off the tentacles that tried to grab her, and jump to the air to avoid the arm-whips that targets her legs, flipping in the are and creates two geo structures that she sent below, crushing the two whips under its weight, though it's only in a matter of seconds before Osial set his arms free.

"She's adapting very quickly! I hate to say this, but right now, even hitting her will take a lot of effort!"

Ying heads straight towards Osial once more despite knowing of the danger. The god retracts his tentacles and starts to swirls it in front of him to make a defensive-offensive wall, which would only hurt Ying if she ever tried to come any closer, the four snakes in his hair also opens their mouth, ready to shoot blasts of water to the girl in case if she tried to do anything foolish. Ying's only response is to sigh and took a deep breath as her resolve remain unshaken, continue to charge towards the swirling blades in front of her.

"Razorgrass Blade!"

Ying send a single quick slash with her sword, and from that slash, a spray of leaves shoots out from her blade and into the swirling mass of tentacles. The leaves where as sharp as razors, and it cuts through some of the back-tentacles, cutting them into pieces, but it's gonna take more than that to stop him! Osial's hair-blasters opens their mouth and ready to fire-

"Lighting Blade!" Ying did a flip as she delivers a vertical slash, thunder came out from the slash she made.

The Electro energy made contact with the Dendro cores created from the collision between the earlier attack and Osial's water tentacles, and as a result, the charged Dendro cores went flying towards Osial, this forces him to protect himself from it, but since his back-tentacles haven't regenerated fully yet in that split second, he was forced to use his arm-whips instead, exactly as Ying planned. With Osial shielding himself and his earlier planning ranged attack cancelled, Ying went in to dealt the blow.

"Crescent Slash!" Ying made a half circular slash as she jumped over Osial and did a flip above him, attacking him at his moment of distraction.

"Ngh?!" Osial felt an eerily familiar feeling on his body and look down, finding that not only did the snakes on his hair has been chopped off, but both of his arms has been cut off as well!

"How did she?!"

He sensed her behind him, trying to deliver another attack, but luckily for him, Osial's tentacles on his back has regenerated at that moment, and they slapped Ying away from him, sending the blonde girl flying high into the air. Gritting his teeth, Osial send his tentacles to intercept Ying before she landed on the ground, but the blonde girl simply retorted by calling forth thunder to strike, rendering his attacks useless.

Osial tch'd, realizing his only chance to attack her is by using the whip of his arms. So he focused his energy on regenerating his arms and-

Swish

"Ngh?!"

It happened again! Ying is still up there one second ago, and on the next, she's already down here, kneeling behind Osial, her hands gripped her sword tightly, as Osial's arms fell from it's rightful places and splat to the ground exploding into water, leaving the God of sea monster completely stunned in shock.

"T-This brat! How is she doing that?!"

It's not just about how she moves as quickly as a blink of an eye, seemingly like she's warping all around the battlefield, but it's also about how she suddenly receives a huge boost of strength that makes her feel two times as strong as before. No... Not twice, maybe thrice, or... Ten more times!

"How is she able to cut through my arms?! It shouldn't be possible with an ordinary sword! Except if her sword is actually..."

Osial watched as Ying expertly dodge the water bullets and blast that his hair fired upon her, the blast of water he fired has been altered by him so that it fires at such a high pressure that it's enough to cut through even the toughest of all boulder, yet this blonde haired girl easily dodges them without getting hit at all. And even attempted to block it once, which normally results with the sword she's holding to broke in half, yet it's not. Instead, it was the water jet that gets intercepted by her sword making Osial getting even more confused. His eyes carefully inspects Ying's sword, and he finally catches on the mysterious soft golden glow that coated it.

"Is that sword has always been like that before? No, I don't think so. No matter the way I look at it, it's just an ordinary sword. Which means..."

"Prepare to be blown away!" Ying gripped her sword in a reverse grip, and spins in place while holding it to the side, large gust of wind gathered, creating an air suction that sucks all.

"Ngh!" Osial felt the pull of Ying's moves, he tried to recast his tentacles to help him in getting away, only to found that both the tentacles that comes from his back and both of his arms are once again been chopped off, rendering him defenseless.

In a split second Osial saw something blinked, and following his instinct, he ducked down just in time as Ying suddenly appears before him and swung her sword to the place where his neck supposed to be, luckily he managed to dodge, only resulting with Ying's sword cutting off more than half the amount of strands in his hair.

"...Which means it was HER who's getting strong! She's becoming ten times stronger than before!"

Before Ying could deliver another attack to Osial who is yet to regenerate his lost limbs, he disappears from her sight and reappears a good distance away, teleporting himself away using the spilled water around the field as his medium. The god is panting heavily, sweat rains down his forehead and a look of exhaustion plastered his face, a sight that should've been impossible to appear on his face.

"Impossible...! I... The mighty Osial, is bested by a mortal!"

It's not something that he tells to just about anyone, but in the condition he is now, with less than half of his full strength, despite of the seemingly unlimited regeneration powers he possesses to grow back all of the missing limbs he suffered throughout the battle, with every tentacles that Osial loses, also loses the elemental energy stored within the huge supply inside his body.

Normally, it shouldn't pose a problem if he just lose a few dozens of them, but as of now, after how long they fight, after all the careful observation that he did, Osial has lose HUNDREDS of his limbs. And to think he would lose this much to a mere mortal girl!

Ying disappears again from his sight, and Osial gasped when the girl suddenly vanished.

"Stop moving around!" Osial once again regenerates all of his lost limbs, and wildly swings all of his tentacles around without a thought in mind. Striking the ground all around him to make craters formed everywhere and the earth shook because of hit.

He gritted his teeth as he look around, finding the blonde girl is nowhere to be seen, fear and anxiety strucks him as he anticipates for an attack, yet he's still couldn't find her. He tried to think hard, deducing where her location could be. If she's not in front, behind, besides, or above him, it means she should be...

"Shake!"

Osial gasped when he felt a sensation on his legs. Geo crystals erupted from the ground and encased his legs, petrifying them in rocks. And during that moment of distraction, Ying finally appears, right in front of him, slicing both of his sides, once again slicing off both of his arms, his tentacles, and his hair. Leaving him completely defenseless once more.

He tries to teleport away once more, but before he could, his cheek met with Ying's foot. Causing him to make a gagged sound as he was sent flying away by Ying's kick, crashing to the ground and coughing heavily, spitting out blood in the process, his hand grasped at the dirt tightly, punching the ground in frustration, making it crack.

"How... How is she so strong?!"

The god is almost at his limit right now, he's running out of stamina caused by the depletion of his energy that he spent on regenerating his lost limbs throughout the entire fight. He thought that he's starting to get the upper hand once he reveals all of his trump card, but the girl just get better and better at handling him the more he uses the full power he has while on this state. At this rate, he's really going to lose!

Osial staggeringly pushed himself up, forcing his head to look towards Ying, his eyes widened upon looking at her, it's not because of fear that he's about to get defeated, but it's more of he's surprised to see her form.

"Wait... Those wounds... Did I do that?"

Ying's body is marred by dozens of cut and bruises, including the place that Osial never remembers hitting her. Blood is pouring out from the multiple cuts that appears throughout her body, and also in some places that doesn't even look damaged too, such as from her mouth, shoulders, foreheads, and even eyes. Just what is happening to her all of a sudden.

"Tch... I couldn't afford to spend any more time doing this meaningless battle! More importantly... I better finish up what I came here for..."

Osial glanced towards the geo dome not far away from him, the place where the god of dust is being held by that blonde haired girl to keep her safe. Osial smirked lightly, it seems like Ying haven't noticed her mistake yet, because she just sent Osial flying to the spot he needed the most. Now, the geo dome that held Guizhong is only within his tentacle reach, while Ying stood far away from it, and better yet, with the condition she's in, there's no way she could reach it in time!

Grinning, Osial regrew one of his arms and turned it into a whip, he knew that despite its protection, Ying's geo structures won't be strong enough to hold his immense strength. And so, Osial got up and ran towards the geo dome, swinging his arm aiming to cleave the dome in half, hoping that he could also split the god of dust inside in two in the process.

Ying gasped as she realized what Osial is aiming for in favor of her. And knowing that in mind, Ying readied her sword and then...

Splash

Osial widened his eyes in shock, his attack has yet again failed. His arms got cut off from his torso, rendering his attack useless. Ying appears in front of him, sword in hand, and then...

"Huuooooh!"

The blade of the traveler pierce him, right on his abdomen. With a shout, Ying gathered Anemo energy to gather around her legs, and Electro energy to course throughout her body. The Anemo energy exploded into burst of wind that launces her forward, driving her sword even further into Osial's stomach, the god screamed as the blade stabbed through his body and appear on the other side. They crashed against the side of a mountain, creating a giant crater upon impact. The sword that penetrates Osial's body pinned him in place, and the god finds himself struggling to move: Not just because of the pain he's feeling, but also from the lack of energy as he feel how his elemental energy is somehow being drained out of his body.

"I-Impossible...! I... Lose, to a mor... tal..." Osial croaked out, his strength is slowly fading, and his transformation gradually receded, his snake hair turn back into normal and becoming shorter, the glowing ancient marks around his body vanishes, and both of his tentacles from his back and his arms are gone, becoming normal looking hands once more.

Seeing as how the god has now rendered weakened, Ying staggered back, releasing the hold on her sword.

Ying feels like she's knocking on death's door right now, her body really couldn't take it anymore. Anymore than this then she'll surely be dead. Her visions is all blurry, she couldn't see anything anymore and has to rely on her instincts. Her ears as ringing and feels damp as it overflows with blood. Her heart feels like it's about to explode with how rapidly and loudly it bangs on her chest. But there is still one more thing she has to do...

There's a secret to why Ying suddenly are able to overpower Osial, and that lies behin the space time magic she possess, or what is left of it anyway.

This is the same power that she and Aether used to enable them to travel between different worlds, the secret behind their power to store anything inside a pocket dimension where time doesn't exist, the secret behind how she is able to teleport to different places far away. As her battle against Osial gets heated and Osial starting to get the upper hand, Ying must rely on this power to help her. Now with every slash she made with her sword, she's able to creat a small fracture in space that allows her to cut through anything, even to something that normally impossible to cut with her sword, like Osial's arm-whips. But thanks to it, she's now about to cut them like butter, eventually overpower Osial by reducing his stamina bit by bit, but it doesn't mean Ying is also save from it.

Just like what happened ten years ago, using this magic highly cost Ying her own energy and life, the more she uses it the more damages it does to her body, eventually causing both external and internal damage until she either passed out from exhaustion or straight up dead from the severe damages. Before the battle with Osial takes turn for the worse, Ying had contemplate whether it's worth it for her to use this in battle or not, but after seeing what it's done to Osial, and Morax hadn't yet to come to save his fiance, Ying says it is really worth it.

Now, with Osial being pinned down, it's time to her to deliver the final strike, just a quick slash to his neck and he should be-

Slash

Ying's sword feel from her hand, her eyes went wide, and a sensation of pain rises from her abdomen, even greater than everything else she felt. She slowly looks down to herself, and shocked to see a giant tentacle has pierce her from the back and out of her stomach. The tentacles that pierced through her is glittered by blood, her blood, and soon after, a huge amount of it rises to her throat and she spits it out, coughing heavily. Another tentacle came and wrapped itself around her mid section bringing her up to the air.

"Apologies for the late arrival, my dear husband." A sly sinister voice appears from below her, and through her blurry eyes Ying saw a new figure emerges from the ground.

"Heheh... Took you long enough, indolent wife." Though it seems Osial is very pleased by its appearance.

It was a woman, with dark cyan hair like the ocean waves in the morning. A long dark blue dress wrapped around her body, with slits on the sides to expose her long white legs and also open shoulders that bares her neck. Her eyes are bright blue and glows, almost identical to Osial. And now that Ying took a better look at her, the two giant tentacles that has stabbed her is coming from behind her dress, confirming her thoughts on who is this new person was.

"Darn it... I knew I have forgotten about someone..." Ying mentally grumbled to herself, but in this situation, there is no hope left.

"I see you found yourself in a pinch. What's wrong? Underestimating your enemies, again?" The woman asked with a raised eyebrow. This is none other than the Avenger of the Vortex, Osial's "wife." The one Ying fought with the Qixings prior to the second Lantern Rite festival she's participate in. Even back in the present day, she is still alive and everyone failed to kill her after successfully luring her out. And now that's she's here to help her husband, everything is over for Ying.

"Shut up and help me you fool." Osial complained, to which Beisht obeys him and took out the sword that stuck in his abdomen, freeing him from being pinned to the mountain, as his fatal wound slowly heals itself. "I would've absolutely destroy her if I have my full strength, you know full well of how weak I am now compared to my normal self."

"Yes yes, you are weak, very weak, which is the more reason to get mad at this brat right here." The tentacles that wraps around Ying tightened, and the blonde girl lightly screams as it crushes her already battered body. "You dare to put a scratch on my dear husband in his weakened state, I'll never forgive you!" Beisht used her tentacles to slam Ying's body to the ground, forcing out blood to be coughed out from her mouth.

Ying felt all of her bones are crushed, she barely able to move her body, even lifting a single finger feels hurt. She tries to breath, but her mouth is filled by her own blood, she's no longer able to to feel anything from the waist down, her entire body hurts as heel, especially from the stab wound on her stomach that leave a gaping hole in there. It won't be long until she eventually dies from blood loss. And to add more salt to injuries, as Ying rotates her body so she could lay on her stomach on the ground, her blurry eyes witness a horrifying sight...

With Ying only a few steps away from death, her power slowly fades away. The geo dome that she created, the cage that she made to keep Guizhong safe, slowly crumbles away. The geo crystals shatters into nothing, the rock formations fell apart before turning to dust. And then, amidst the crumbling structures, there's Guizhong. Sitting on her knees on the ground. The moment the walls that confines her from the outside world is gone, the grey haired goddess quickly looks around the area to find it devastated.

And then, her ash grey eyes turned to the side, and came into contact with Ying. The girl is battered with wounds from head to toe, bathed in the red of her own blood, which pools under her coming from the gaping hole in her stomach. And then, standing behind the nearly dead girl, are two people, Osial and his wife, Beisht. They ganged up on Ying and made her like this.

"YING!" The moment she saw the state of her friend, Guizhong didn't even think and hurriedly stood up and run towards her, ignoring the fact that there's two gods right in front her that thirst for her blood.

"No!"

Ying wanted to scream, she wanted to yell, but she couldn't do it with the batch of blood that choked her on her throat.

"Don't come here! Run! Lady Guizhong, run! Do not come here!"

Osial turn his hand into tentacles once more, and lightly swat at Guizhong's feet as she ran, making her trip and fall to the ground before she could even get near Ying. The grey haired girl groaned in pain when she feel a cut on her leg, it bleeds quickly and gives her trouble in standing up, so she used both of her hands for support, pushing herself up to sit on the ground. However, the moment she raises her head, Guizhong met with the sight of Osial standing tall before her, making the goddess gasped in shock and fell backwards, fearing for her life.

"After all the drastic measures I take... Splitting myself in two, sacrificing the majority of my power, and even endangering myself in fighting that brat. FINALLY, it led down to this." Osial raise his arm, reforming it into a long sharp blade, ready to take Guizhong's life with it. "For all the trouble I went through, I shall reward you with a nice, slow, and painful death. And you can blame that girl for putting me in such a bad mood, goddess."

No... She can't let this happen! Not after all she's been through...

"Lady... Guizhong..." Ying managed to croak out some words, reaching a hand out towards them, trying to do anything that could stop Osial from succeeding in his goal, but Ying couldn't do anything, her body already gives up since long ago. "Please... Run-"

A small tentacle stabbed through Ying's stretched out hand, making her screams in pain as it creates a hole through her palm.

"You really care a lot about her, huh?" Beisht maliciously whispers to Ying's ear, the sea monster's wife grabbed Ying by her hair and pulls her up, forcing her to watch through her barely open eyes as Osial is about to murder Guizhong. "Then you better watch closely as Osial is about to reap the life of that girl. Watch carefully with your pretty eyes as she has her final moments, watch before I reunited you two in the afterlife soon after."

Ying is mentally having a breakdown. Is this it? Is this how it's finally over? With her not only losing her life but also failed to save Guizhong? After everything that she did... After traveling all the way to the past, abandoning the present, abandoning her desire to reunite with Aether, abandoning Paimon and all of her friends in the present... After all of that she's still failed.

In the end, she's unable to change the fate. In the end she's unable to give Zhongli the happiness he deserves. And in the end... She'll never be able to confess her love... For Zhongli...

Osial brings down his arm, and Guizhong shuts her eyes to wait for the pain to come.

"OSIAL!"

A loud angry roar came down from the heavens, and everyone looks up to see countless of spears raining down for the sky. Osial widens his eyes, the arm that he's about to use to kill Guizhong got struck by one of the spear, cutting it off and cancelling his attack, Guizhong is saved from her death. The same also applied to Beisht, the spears that that comes from the skies stabbed through her in multiple different areas, including her hands and tentacles that got severed from her body. Freeing Ying from her grasp.

Just a few seconds after this, something massive landed on the field. The impact sends debris and anyone standing there to get launched everywhere. Osial and his wife were launched far away, colliding with the ground and made them groaned in pain. Guizhong and Ying on the other hand, they're lucky as whatever the thing that just crashed to the ground is quite far away from them. They only get launched a few distance away from their nearby position, Guizhong landed safely on the ground which only resulted to some sores all around her body, and meanwhile as for Ying, her limp body is tumbling on the ground, until she eventually stops and lays amidst the bed of Glaze Lilies, the beautiful flowers around her are painted red with her blood.

As the dust and smoke clears, Guizhong opens her eyes while coughing a little to see what it was that causes them to get blown away. And how surprised she was upon laying her eyes on the familiar form of a giant beast with dark brown scales covering it's body. The king of the illuminated beast stood before her, protectively shielding her behind him, as his glowing amber eyes glares towards the other people on the side of the field.

"Morax..." Guizhong whispered, completely baffled. "Is that really you?"

In response to her question, the body of the mountain dragon slowly changed, shrinking down to the size of a human, taking the form of a tall lean built man with long white robes and exposed arms filled with glowing ancient marks and runes. The sight of the brown haired man solely focuses on the form of the two figure in front of him. His glare are sharp as daggers, piercing, and deadly.

"Guizhong..." Morax bellowed, there's not a hint of emotion in his voice. He is dead serious. "Go and take care of Ying." He commanded, without taking his eyes off of his target, knowing that Guizhong would do what he said without question.

And the goddess did just that. Nodding her and slowly stood up. "Thank you for finally came." She meekly muttered, before running away.

And now with Guizhong is safe, Morax slowly approaches his opponent.

"Damn... Damn it!" While kneeling on all four, Osial hits the ground with his fist in frustration, gritting his teeth, veins pops out on his head. "Damn it! Damn it all to hell!"

He pushes himself up despite of how painful it feels. His eyes glares back towards Morax, full of hatred and enmity. And for him to see Morax's blank face only resulted in him getting more angrier.

"I was so close! SO CLOSE! I should've killed that weakling goddess by now, and YOU always gets to interfere!"

Osial summons back the whip from his arms, and swing them towards Morax, yet his attacks in this state are nothing to compare to the lord of Geo's full strength. Completely unfazed, Morax merely twirls the spear he summoned and butchered the whip before it could even come close to him. Morax is a lot faster and stronger than Osial right now.

"Because of her, no matter how many times I tried to destroy your precious protectorate, they'll always somehow finds a way to come back! Why? Because of her!"

Once again, Osial tries to attack Morax, and like before, the god of contracts merely bats them away like nothing. Angering Osial even more. His anger and frustration has consumed him, blinding his thoughts, rendering him unable to think straight.

"I should be the one... I should be the one to win this war! Not You!"

Finally having enough, Morax lunge himself towards Osial and thrust his spear forward. Osial knew that this would be the end, so he simply braced for it.

"Osial!"

But before the pain comes in, before Morax dealt the killing blow to the Overlord of The Vortex, another voice spoke up. And in a split second before Morax could kill Osial, something gets in the way and Morax's spear has thrusted another body.

Both Osial's eyes and Morax's eyes widened at the sudden turn of events. Before Morax's spear could thrust into Osial's body. Beisht shows up and gets in the way between the two gods. And as the result, she has become a meat shield for the god of the Vortex. The blade at the end of the spear punctured her stomach and came out of her back, barely hitting Osial behind her, saving his life.

"Beisht!" Osial screamed, wrapping his hands around his wife's body, before vanishing into thin air.

Morax widen his eyes when both of his enemies are gone. He turned around and look at his surroundings. Finding the two appearing a good distance away from him. Osial is shaking Beisht's body, and screaming at her, but she seem to be unresponsive to his words. After a while of doing that, Osial turned his head to look at Morax, glaring at him with an intense amount of hatred.

"MORAX!" The god of sea monster roared, his voice echoes through the air. "Just you wait, I'll be back! And I will have my revenge!"

After he screamed those words, Osial once again vanishes, taking Beisht's unresponsive body with him. Morax gasped, and he quickly picks up his spear and flies to the air, looking at his surroundings in order to find the fleeting god. Even after screaming out his name and raining down his spears everywhere, Osial didn't show up. The Overlord of the Vortex and his wife had escaped, and that's something that Morax need to accept.

Morax panted after he screams Osial's name repeatedly. He finally calms down after a while. And he looks down, his eyes fixated upon the form of the two girls who sits amidst the bed of Glaze Lilies, with flowers of their surroundings have turned red from the blood that spills into them. Seeing this, Morax slowly descent down to the ground. His eyes and Guizhong's met, with the goddess looking at him with a disturbed and worried look.

"Guizhong... Are you alright?" Morax asked, his voice... Though it's still sounding the same as ever, a clear hint of worry existed in his voice as he addressed his dear friend.

"I'm completely fine, Morax. But Ying... Ying, she's..." Guizhong nods her head at his question, but then turned her head to look at the other girl. Ying is cradled on Guizhong's arms, one of her hands are circling around her back to support her, while the other are holding Ying's hand tightly, intertwining their fingers.

"Lord... Morax..." Ying barely spoke up, her eyes only halfway open.

Morax take a better look at her body, horrified by the state she's in. Her once pure white skin is now battered with all kinds of bruises, from head to toe, he spotted cuts everywhere, that bleeds and stained her once pristine white dress in red. But still, nothing compares to the massive wound she had on her stomach, a gaping hole from the front to her back, the place where blood continues to pour out, draining her from all her life very quickly.

"Ying?! Ying!" Filled with worry and fear, Morax placed himself on the other side of Ying, cupping her other hand inside his much bigger ones. "It's gonna be alright, Ying. It's... The others are on their way here... You're gonna be fine, you will be."

There's some movements within his palms, and Ying gently return the holds on her head. The blonde haired girl slowly turns her head to look at Morax in the eye, and smiled, softly, gently, kindly. How could she smile in moments like this?!

"It's okay... My lord. It's okay." Ying gulped the lump in her throat, finding it's hard for her to speak at this point. "Even if the others arrived here now... It's too late. I can feel myself... Slipping away..." She wanted to laugh, she wanted giggle, but even smiling is hard for Ying. Her strength is fading and it won't be long before she's gone. "But at the very least... Even if I died... I could rest in peace knowing lady Guizhong is-"

"Don't you dare saying stuff like that!" Guizhong unexpectedly yelled, making Ying grimaced at the loudness of her voice.

She turned her head to look up again, towards the face of the goddess who holds her. Her cheeks are smudged with tears that flows from her eye, dripping down from her chin and into Ying's face. Oh how strange fate works... Ying has been shedding tears because of this girl, and now, that very same girl is shedding tears because of her... How the tables have switched.

"What makes you think your life is less worthy than mine?! What makes you think it's okay to save my life at the cost of your own?! Why?! Just... Why?" Guizhong bombarded her with lots of questions, but in the end, her words became incomprehensive and she start to sobs uncontrollably. Tears raining down to Ying's face, and it makes her sad to see her breaking down like this.

"You... You are my friend lady Guizhong... I would be willing to die a thousand times if it meant that I could save you..." Ying whispered softly, her lips are still held into a smile.

"Ying... I'm sorry... I'm so sorry..." On her other side, Morax apologize to her, and Ying turned her head to the side to see an unexpected sight.

Morax is also crying, he didn't sobs nor he has a sadened look on his face. But it's real! He's crying, tears trailing down his cheek, creating two waterfalls. Ying who saw this widen her eyes. Despite the fact that is not the Zhongli she knew, despite of being the stony and blank Rex Lapis that everyone knew, he sheds tears upon seeing her on the verge of dying. And somehow... It makes Ying a little happy, happy to know that he has finally expressed some emotions she knew from the Zhongli she met back in the present, the sadness and concerns from his face, it's like it's being copied and paste on Morax's face.

"How strange... Years ago I hated that sad look on his face. I hated it so much that it makes me sick and unable to sleep. But now... I felt... Happy... Why is this happening? How could I... Happy to see him sad? Why...?"

"I should've come earlier... I should've been here to protect you... I should've... I should've..." Morax's grip on Ying's hand tightened. Her hand has become cold as ice, signalling her fast approach death. "I should've confess... I should've said that I love-"

"Zhongli..."

Morax's widen his eyes, he looks down at Ying. The blonde haired girl has her darkened golden eyes staring straight towards his amber ones. Ying raise her other hand that Guizhong held towards him. She gently cupped his cheek and wipe away the tears that falling from his eyes. Her touch is cold, so cold, yet that warmness is still there, slowly fading away but it's still there!

"Thank you... For being there with me... For the last ten years... Even if you only stood there and watching me... I always like the way you look at me... Even if it creeps me..."

After wiping his tears, Ying guides her hand to took hold of Guizhong's palm once more, giving it a gentle squeeze, allowing her to feel her last remaining warmth as well.

"Lady Guizhong... Thank you, for being such a wonderful friend to me as well... You are so kind, so beautiful, so gentle... Our time maybe short for your standards... But it's a lot of fun... I'm happy to listen to all of your stories... I'm enjoy the tea time we have together with Zhenjun... I enjoy walking around the plains with you while we're holding hands... I enjoyed it all."

Using all of her remaining strength. Ying raise both of her hands, taking Guizhong's and Morax's hand with her. She then pull them together to the center, uniting the two hands of Morax and Guizhong, making them hold each others hands instead of hers.

"Thank you... Thank you both. For our wonderful times together, for the moments we shared in happiness and sorrow. I'm happy... I'm so happy for the two of you. And..."

Ying took her one last breath, knowing that she won't be taking another after this one. And she spent it to form a big smile on her face, tears of happiness appear on her eyes, as close them and smiled brightly.

"...I approve you... For your marriage..."

With those last words said. Ying exhaled her last breath, her eyes closed and would forever be shut. As Guizhong's and Morax's eyes looking at her in shock. And it didn't take long before sadness slowly takes over their being. The body of their friend turns ice cold, and it gradually becomes lighter, lighter and lighter, until they didn't feel the weight of her body in their arms anymore.

Ying's body starts to emit a soft golden glow which covered her entire body, and seconds later, her body disappears into particles of light, leaving only Morax and Guizhong to stare as sparks of golden lights flew out of their arms and into the sky.

Ying is gone, she truly is gone.

And for the remainder of that day, all that is left in that sea of Glaze Lilies, are Morax and Guizhong, who mourned over their friend's death. With the Glaze Lilies around them wilted as it heard their sorrows.

The end..?