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Chapter 20 : Chains of the Abyss
🕑 Added 2024-08-17 14:03:52 +0000 UTCDiluc led the way, his voice level and introspective. "So far, we know this underground cave was created recently. Xiao here was the first to sense it."
Xiao nodded, his voice calmly urgent. "This place wasn't until recently here. It's the work of the Abyss. Its energy feels like crawling, all through these tunnels."
At first, I suspected the Fatui might be responsible for digging this place out, but without their Tsaritsa in control, I doubt they have a hand in this. Snezhnaya has suffered worse than any of the seven nations combined," Diluc continued.
Orion raised his hand, cutting in with a confused look. "Whoa, whoa, slow down. Speak in human tongue, Diluc—I have no idea what any of that means."
Diluc couldn't help but laugh at that, and the atmosphere lightened a little. "Sorry, Orion. I forget sometimes you still suffer from amnesia" Diluc's expression turned grim once more. "At any rate, this place is what powers that seal. We must proceed deeper into the cavern and find the heart of all of this."
Xiao held onto his polearm as his face became deadly serious. "Wait here. I'll scout ahead."
With that, Xiao put on his mask. The surroundings crackled for a while with the bursting of power. In a second, he turned into a blur, dashing forward as fast as possible. His movements resembled those of a ghost—fast and without noise—as he rushed through the cavern, with only a thin light tail from him. He moved full-speed, churning the power of the Yaksha in every step, every movement precise. His form a flicker, he phased in and out of sight as he moved quicker than an eye could follow. a deadly wraith in dim light down below ground.
The others followed Xiao into darkness, their footsteps light. Orion watched Xiao's movements with a strange sense of familiarity, as if he had seen something like this before, yet slipped away from his mind. It was one of those emotions that bothered him but was out of grasp.
Breaking the silence, Diluc spoke, his voice low and thoughtful. "The Conqueror of Demons. I surely didn't expect such a fellow to share the same goal with us."
Orion, lost in thought at the name, turned to Diluc out of curiosity. "The Conqueror of Demons. That's some title there. But what about the Anemo Archon? Is there a connection between the two, or something about Xiao which I should know?"
He glanced at Orion, a hint of a smile on his lips as he turned over the question. "The Anemo Archon. Barbatos is the one who governs Mondstadt. But Xiao's association with the Archons is a muddled one. He's a Yaksha, Liyue's guardian, not Mondstadt's. He serves not out of duty to the Archons but as a Guardian against evil. His bond with the Anemo Archon is not one of service but perhaps. of shared burden. Both protectors, though in very different ways."
Nodding, Orion's interest was piqued even further. "A shared burden, huh? There's more to him than meets the eye."
Eula crossed her arms and watched Xiao disappear into the shadows. "What a formidable adeptus," she said in admiration. "He is so fast I can't even sense him now."
Intrigued, Orion responded, "I've got to go to Liyue in the future. Sounds like people who might know a thing or two about my past."
Eula raised an eyebrow, her voice tinged with mild annoyance. "Tired of Mondstadt and its 'ordinary' people already?"
Orion shook hands in defense right away, realizing her intent. "That's not what I meant!"
Amused by their banter, Diluc chuckled. Before long, however, the pathway came to an end, where Xiao stood waiting with his eyes looking down.
Orion followed Xiao's gaze and felt an icy chill crawl up his spine. The narrow pathway opened into some immense, cavernous space that stretched out endlessly into darkness. The roof stretched high above them, rough and jagged, with stalactites suspended from it, like teeth, as if ready to devour anything that came too close. The whole of the chamber was bathed in an eerie light, unsettling and everywhere yet seeming to emanate from nowhere in particular at once. Deep shadows danced along the rocky walls.
A vast chamber opened below them, dominated by a grotesque upside-down statue of the Seven at its heart. The statue was enormous, tall even upside down, its once holy form now desecrated by heavy black chains that wrapped about it like living serpents. The chains pulsed, living almost, with dark, rhythmical energy, as though feeding on the divine essence of the statue. Twisted and bound, the statue seemed to seep a sense of dread into the air, as though some solid core of place had been corrupted to its soul.
The door stood next to this statue, somehow defiant of natural laws existing around it. It was old, hewn from a material that was neither stone nor metal, its surface etched with symbols that writhed and shifted as if trying to escape the door's surface. Four towering pillars surrounded the door, each one pulsing with a strange, purple glow that cast a sickly light across the area. That light was so dark and foreshadowing, it cast long, twisted shadows as if reaching to grasp the edges of the chamber.
The whole scene seemed off, as if they had strayed into somewhere that shouldn't be—a space where the fabric of the worlds peeled off its edges to spew in some ancient and malevolent force. The air reeked with death to come in every breath they took, and it tasted bitter with corruption.
The scene was stomach-churning; the air was heavy with ill winds. Orion's voice was barely a murmur as he glared at the ominous scene. "What the hell is this place.?"
The response from Xiao was cold, his voice laced with ancient, tired disdain. "Evil."
Diluc's eyes were narrowed at the view before him, then he added, "That statue of the Seven is undeniable proof that this is the work of the Abyss. But it's strange. even for them."
Eula gazed through it all, her face troubled. "A place like this. should not have existed."
Orion bunched his fists, with every instinct in his body screaming to run. He knew, however, they couldn't turn their backs on this now. "Every bone of me says, Leave this place, but I know what we must do."
Without words, Xiao stepped up, his decision already made. "We'll dive down there."
Before anybody else had a chance to move, Xiao leaped into the chasm to drop to the bottom of the statue. Others watched with gaping jaws as he landed deftly on his feet, standing tall besides the dark, chained figure.
Diluc sighed and shrugged. "Aight, here goes nothing," he said and readied his greatsword before jumping into the chasm himself.
Eula turned toward Orion with a subtly amused expression on her face. "What do you think, Orion? Are we really doing this?"
Orion exhaled wearily, but then gave up. He cast her a look of annoyance and, on the next second, swept Eula off her feet to assume the dramatic princess-carry, her eyes blowing wide with shock as a faint blush crept across her face.
Eula tried to stammer a protest. "Orion, what are you—"
Orion flashed her a grin full of roguish charm as he jumped right into the hole. "Well, it's either this or we wait around and hide here. At least this way, we make an entrance."
As they tumbled down, Eula's already deep blush deepened. "I don't think this is what I had in mind!"
Orion chuckled just as carefree as he sounded without having left the precipice. "What? It's more fun this way. Just think of it as a dramatic rescue."
Eula huffed out something indignant, a reply that was taken away on the wind, before they touched down next to Diluc and Xiao. She released herself from Orion's tight arms with haste, face still flushed.
He laughed as he rubbed the back of his neck. "I thought you'd appreciate a bit of flair, man. Diluc raised an eyebrow when the scene unfolded. "Well, that was certainly an entrance.
Eula rolled her head to the side, trying to suppress a smile. "Just… keep your dramatic flair to a minimum next time, at least not in front of them.."
This easy banter cut for a second through the tension and gave them a light-hearted moment before returning their regards to the ominous surroundings.
Orion stared at the statue, its sinister presence even more imposing up close. "Well, it's even more creepy up close," he remarked, trying to lighten the mood despite the eerie surroundings.
Xiao landed lithely near the statue and began to look at it in detail. Every strand of dark chain entwined about the statue showed up perfectly in his keen eyes, the eerie gleaming of which reflected off his mask. He then turned to the others and pointed at a large, foreboding crystal that loomed partly hidden behind the statue.
"These chains are connected to that crystal," Xiao said, his voice steady and grave.
Eula squinted at the crystal and the chains. "But how do you know they're connected? I don't see any direct link between them.
Orion, standing nearby, shifted his gaze from the statue to the crystal. His bright yellow eyes began to glow faintly, a sharp contrast to the dim surroundings. He focused intently, his vision honing in on the crystal. As he concentrated, the dark energy of the cavern seemed to swirl around him, revealing an invisible thread connecting the chains to the crystal—a connection only he and Xiao could see.
He drew in his breath sharply at the sight of the thread, a thin, barely perceptible line of dark energy, binding between the chains to the crystal. The conclusion was plain. The chains were not vacuous decoration but an anchor to the crystal and so, an indication of the crystal's centrality in the dark enchantment.
"He is right," Orion said, cutting through the tension with a note of finality in his deep voice. "The chains are linked to the crystal. We need to shatter it to break whatever dark magic is holding this thing."
Xiao approached the ominous crystal with measured steps, his presence a calm contrast to the eerie surroundings. The strange light cast by the crystal flickered ominously as he extended his hand towards it. As soon as his fingers made contact with the cool surface, a surge of dark energy seemed to pulse through the cavern, causing the air to crackle with tension.
But the sudden scream, so piercing, so laden with raw pain, which left Xiao's throat then would merely have broken the heart of whoever managed to survive till now. He staggered back, then, wide-eyed, full of shock and pain, one hand clawing at his head—shivering away from torture that knew no end, an anguish only he could feel. The ground before him trembled, and the statue shook in its chains' hold, the dark glow lighting up with an even brighter intensity.
Orion and Eula rushed to Xiao’s side, their faces etched with concern. Eula reached out to steady him, her eyes scanning the crystal for any signs of a trap or hidden magic. Orion’s eyes were locked onto the crystal, his bright yellow gaze reflecting the chaotic energy emanating from it.
“What’s wrong with him, and why he is the only one affected!” Eula shouted over the cacophony of noise and light.
Xiao, reality tearing him asunder, forced something out past lips that had sealed tightly together and begun to chatter. "The crystal… it's amplifying the abyssal energy… it's overwhelming!"
His voice was taut, each word a testimony of the intensity of cruel pain coursing through him. The crystal seemed to pulse with the rhythm of Xiao's pain, the dark threads of energy binding it into place with the chains and statue gaining clarity around the base of the monument.
Out of the darkness and deep within the cavern, two figures began to form. It was as though the two figures had been conjured straight out of the tumultuous energy by the sheer will around them, unnecessarily graceful, their forms blended into being from dark with unnatural velvet. Their very presence disrupted the air, basically making it thick with oppression.
