Chapter Text
“So you’ll help?”
“Sure! We were thinking about heading back to Mondstadt for a bit anyway.” Paimon put her hands on her hips and gave a confident smile. The sumerian scholar let out a disbelieving laugh.
“Really!? Okay. Okay. Fantastic! Here’s what I need you to do…”
“‘Please bring three of Mondstadt’s strongest fighters and clear this domain.’ And that’s kinda how it went down,” Paimon said. The three Mondstadters seemed unsure in their body language. Jean shifted her weight on the other leg, biting her lip. Diluc crossed his arms, clearly unsatisfied with the legitimacy of the absent scholar (and still somewhat miffed that the traveler left out the detail that they would be clearing the domain with Jean and Kaeya). Kaeya rubbed his chin and hummed.
“I’m flattered you consider me to be one of Mondstadt’s strongest, but I don’t know about this. I think I’d feel better if I had a chance to meet him. What do you think, traveler? Do you think this is some sort of trap?”
“Of course it’s a trap. ‘Three of Mondstadt’s strongest’? The fatui probably hired him to make Mondstadt vulnerable to attack tonight,” Diluc complained and turned toward the direction of the city. They were too far away at a remote part of Falcon’s coast.
“I don’t think we have to worry about that. Besides, we’ll be able to see any flares from here, and with the traveler we’d be able to teleport immediately back. It’s safe to assume that this scholar—Naveed, was it? He probably doesn’t know of the traveler’s ability.” Jean, as keen ever, calmed the others but only just.
“That’s right. He doesn’t know that we can teleport. The moment anything looks dicey, I can get us out of there,” Lumine supplemented.
“Yep yep!” The others warily eyed the domain and each other. Kaeya was the first to relent.
“Well I trust you. Knowing those akademiya scholars, he’s probably just crazy about whatever info we dig up from inside.”
“Yeah, probably…” Jean didn’t sound convinced, but she moved closer to the door and Kaeya. All eyes were on Diluc. The redhead shook his head before dropping his arms.
“Let’s get this over with.”
****
“Underwhelming” was one way to put it. Not even any enemies entertained their journey. Aside from a few puzzles, the four made their way through the domain at rapid speed. It was a beautiful area, but there was little to note other than that. That was until they came to the final room.
The expansive room was decorated in marbled swirling designs, coalescing at a small, perfectly circular pool in the center. Its water sparkled like crystal, and light from within the domain bounced off of its reflective surface around the room, making the almost empty area come alive.
“Ah, you made it!” A man’s voice echoed. The group turned on their heels and summoned their weapons. “Whoa! Wait a second! It’s just me!”
“Naveed? What are you doing here?” Lumine asked. The scholar scratched the back of his head.
“I came here to research.” Lumine sent her weapon away and relaxed a bit. She eyed two giant men standing behind Naveed.
“Who are they?”
“Research assistants. Just like you! They help me do the heavy lifting. That’s how I brought in my materials.” He motioned to a few crates.
“You’re the scholar?” Jean asked.
“Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. My apologies. I’m Naveed, a scholar at the akademiya. These two behind me are Roal and Doal, my helpers. And you might be?”
Before they even had a chance to respond, the room suddenly flooded with hilichurls and mitachurls from behind them. Jean, Diluc, Kaeya, and the traveler leapt into action without any hesitation. There were so many that they didn’t bother paying attention to Naveed. If they had, they might have noticed the smug grin on his face.
“Let’s pay attention, shall we?” Naveed whispered gleefully. The twins didn’t respond. “We want the one who is the physically strongest and likely to survive the ritual.” Naveed studied the traveler’s use of elemental power. “Interesting…she has no vision and yet…” The scholar muttered. “No, no…too many unknowns with that. She won't do. Neither will the other blonde. She’s tough but exhibited signs of exhaustion before the hilichurls even came in.”
Naveed observed Kaeya and Diluc.
“Both of the young men are good candidates, but in the end…” Naveed smiled.
“Yes, we’ll go with that one.”
Diluc knew something was wrong before one of the giant thugs hurled a boulder at the traveler, but he didn’t think things would go south so quickly. The sheer number of hilichurls overwhelmed them. That’s why Lumine had no time or room to dodge the surprise attack. The boulder struck her back and head, sending her flying and straight into unconsciousness.
“Lumine!” Jean shouted. She turned toward her and knocked a group of hilichurls back with her anemo.
“Jean, look out!” Kaeya yelled. Diluc glanced at what was going on as he fought a mitachurl. One of the twins grabbed Jean from behind and snatched her vision, tossing it far enough so that she couldn’t use it. Kaeya cursed loudly as two mitachurls blocked him from getting any closer to her. Diluc found himself in the same predicament. He tried to get closer to her and Kaeya, but they had been separated in the battle almost instantly. It was too difficult to traverse the battlefield with so many enemies.
“What do you think you’re doing!?” Jean shouted. Diluc blocked a hit from a giant shield, eyeing the situation once more. The other twin had done the same to Kaeya. Diluc saw nothing but red and flared his flames as if he were dousing gasoline on his enemies.
He sliced through the hilichurls like they were paper until Naveed’s voice once more echoed in the room.
“STOP!” Diluc didn’t listen at first, but he quickly became aware of how eerily still and passive the hilichurls had become.
“Drop your claymore and toss your pyro vision over here right now.” Diluc finally halted and really took stock of the situation. Lumine was still unconscious (and received a nasty head wound if the blood was anything to go by). Naveed’s “helpers” held Jean and Kaeya down tight. They were so large that they dwarfed the incapacitated knights. They held a knee on the back of their respective captives, holding both of their arms behind their backs with one hand and a knife to their throats with the other.
If looks could kill, the men would be dead.
Seeing no way out of it, Diluc did as he was told—dropping the claymore and tossing his vision away. Feeling it leave the threshold of its usability, the domain became much colder than before.
“Good. Glad we could come to an understanding,” Naveed smirked. Diluc muttered a string of expletives toward the scholar, but it didn’t phase the man. “Now go over to that pool and get in it.”
“What? Why?”
“Don’t ask questions and just do as you’re told,” Naveed hissed. He looked to one of the twins, Roal, who pulled harshly at Jean’s arm, eliciting a curt cry from her.
“Alright, stop! You don’t need to do that.” Diluc made eye-contact with Kaeya and Jean. The knives were being held so tightly to their throats that they didn’t dare speak, but they didn’t need to for him to understand. Whatever Naveed was planning, they didn’t want him to go through with it. Diluc didn’t either, but there really wasn’t a choice here, was there? Naveed somehow had control over the hilichurls. However he did it, it allowed him to create such a meticulous and well thought out plan.
“Hurry up,” Naveed barked. Diluc took one last look at Jean and Kaeya before he turned around and reluctantly walked toward the pool. It didn’t look toxic or poisonous, but one could never know in domains. Naveed followed behind him at a safe distance. It didn’t take long before Diluc was looking down at his own reflection in the water.
Light reflected from the water cascaded across his features in what would have been a beautiful moment if not for the circumstances.
“What is this?” Diluc asked.
“Don’t worry about it. Get in.” Diluc yanked his jacket off and tossed it to the side. His gloves and boots quickly followed after. He apprehensively sat down and put his legs in the cold water. He glanced at Naveed once more before jumping in the rest of the way.
When his head surfaced he gasped at the sudden temperature change. The water chilled him to the bones. He looked around, half expecting some sort of beast to come out and gobble him up.
“Now wha—” he was cut off as a light shined on him from above. He squinted and tried to see its source, but it was too bright. He had to turn away. That’s when he realized that not only had the water started to bubble around him, but two gates started to close from opposite sides of the pool.
He desperately gripped the edge and started to pull himself up before Naveed barked at him.
“I’ll have the twins kill him!” Diluc whipped his head around to see one of the thugs bear-hugging Kaeya, holding the man off the ground and clearly crushing him.
“D-on’t lis-ten!” the cavalry captain choked out.
The gates closed in on him quickly.
Diluc looked Naveed in the eyes and pleaded with him.
“Please, don’t hurt them.”
“Do as I say, and I won’t.” Diluc didn’t have time to respond. He inhaled as much air as possible before he submerged himself.
The gates closed above him, leaving him no way out and no air to breathe.
*****
Kaeya felt his vision return nearby. Without asking any questions, Kaeya called upon cryo and summoned it all around him in the form of a spiky shell. The thug had let go, crying out in pain. As soon as Kaeya fell to the ground, he used his cryo once more on the other thug, pushing him off of Jean. It was then he saw Lumine take out the twin that had been holding him down previously. Despite the blood running down her face, she seemed alert enough to fight.
It was then the hilichurls around them came back to life and wasted no time in resuming their onslaught. There was no time to talk about what just transpired or how the domain's marbled designs were now glowing. Instead, he, along with Jean and the traveler, focused on finishing them off.
He didn’t know how long it took, but it felt like ages, because in the back of Kaeya’s mind, he knew every second was a second Diluc didn’t have air.
As he rammed his sword through the torso of one of the unfortunate snipers, Kaeya finally realized they had killed them all.
“They got away…” Lumine sighed.
“That doesn’t matter right now!” Jean cried out. The traveler looked confused.
“Huh? Where’s Master Diluc? I have his vision but…” Kaeya ignored her and ran to the pool now covered by the gate. The design on it glowed, but he didn’t care. He pulled out his sword and slid it in the tiny crack where the gate split. He tried to pry it open but stopped when he felt his sword start to give way.
“It’s been too long. Master Diluc can’t hold his breath this long!” Jean whispered in anguish. She and Lumine joined in Kaeya’s endeavor, but their hard work amounted to nothing.
“What do we do!?” Lumine asked. Kaeya cursed and fell to his knees and pounded on the gate.
“What if—?” Jean stopped as the light disappeared. They watched in anticipation to see if the gate would reopen.
It did.
As soon as it started opening, the three peered into the now murky water (and scrambled off of the moving structure). Kaeya stuck his head in once it could fit and opened his eyes, but he could barely see anything. He pulled his head out and shook off his cape. No one argued with him as he threw himself into the water immediately.
He swam down and down. The pool wasn’t very large in diameter, so he would definitely find Diluc by just going deeper.
Kaeya first vaguely spotted Diluc’s shape. It was too dark to see clearly so he held his vision out to light his way. As he got closer, Kaeya choked at what he saw and froze.
Diluc’s hair remained in his usual ponytail, and his arms floated aimlessly as the man was unconscious. Surprisingly, that wasn’t the issue here.
Saving his brother from potentially drowning no longer concerned him.
Because instead of legs, Diluc now had a tail.