A silent travel to the North
(ONCE AGAIN SKIP THIS IF YOU DON'T WANT DRAMA, THIS CHAPTER IS EVEN WORSE, BUT IT WILL BE THE LAST ONE YOU NEED TO SKIP)
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The atmosphere in Inazuma was not one of festivity.
A month had passed since Elea, the child of the once again Shogun, had been born, but no one was happy about it.
"Ei, are you going?" muttered Yae, who was writing a book with an absent expression.
"Yes" replied Ei, her expression now returning to what she had been during the last 500 years. "I will be back in a week at most, take care of her in the meantime."
Yae only nodded, not looking at her friend leaving the Shrine.
"It's still not good" was all she said before she tore up the page that she had been writing for the last hour. "To think your death would also take away my ability to write...."
Ei strode forward, choosing to ignore Yae's sobs behind her.
She was not in a position to console others, her own mind was held together only by the existence of her sister and daughter.
She calmly left the Shrine, her cold face not expressing absolutely anything, and went to Ritou.
A lonely boat sailed towards Liyue, where another man joined her in her travel.
They went to Sumeru, but just before leaving Liyue, a boy joined the 2.
The 3 beings crossed Sumeru, crossed Fontaine, crossed Natlan, until they arrived at the cold nation that was Snezhnaya.
These 3 existences didn't tire, it wasn't in their nature to be exhausted by mere walking.
They walked day and night, until they reached the distant nation in mere days.
Some people wanted to stop them, but they simply weren't able to.
2 of the 3 beings could be considered merciful so all those who opposed them were neutralized but alive. The other one wasn't, and anything that impeded its path, be it a wall, a mountain or a whole battalion of soldiers was instantly bisected in a time so short it isn't worth naming.
They continued their travel to the north, not minding the gradually decreasing temperature or the increasing resistance they found, such things wouldn't make the 3 beings stop.
At some point, maybe realizing the futility of stepping between these 3 beings and their destination, obstacles stopped appearing in front of them.
Not that it mattered, the pace at which they progressed in their journey was unchanged.
And finally, on the eve of the fourth day, they arrived at their destination.
Ei looked coldly, an expression that hadn't changed in the last month and only broke into a small smile when her daughter looked at her and giggled, at the palace before her.
Morax and Barbatos stood beside her, wearing cold gazes themselves.
Ei took out her sword, now that she wasn't carrying a child she could afford to unleash all her power.
An extremely dense of Electro Energy was accumulated in her sword, and the amount didn't stop growing.
Maybe sensing the dense energy, some people came out of the building.
11 people, following a single one wearing a white dress.
"Stop" the woman in front said with a frosty tone. "Leave my nation."
But Ei didn't hear her.
The Harbingers behind the Tsarista stood in guard knowing that a battle was inevitable.
A certain woman with 'X' shaped pupils, who at first glance didn't seem to have changed in the last months, took out her polearm, and flames started to erupt from the little red marble Kenshin had called a beautiful soul.
A marble that now had so many cracks that it was a miracle it hadn't broken yet.
A huge pillar of Electro energy dispersed the eternal canopy of clouds that covered the sky, letting the unfortunate citizens who couldn't leave this accursed nation see for the first time in their lives the blue sky.
Ei slowly condensed the energy inside her sword, ignoring the warning the beings in front of her were issuing.
And she brought down her sword.
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There was no sound, no destruction, no visual effect.
The Harbingers jumped to the side just in time to avoid the slash that severed everything in its path.
The dozen-meter-wide shield of frost the Cryo Archon formed didn't even slow down the attack.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM
With a sound akin to that of an explosion, a huge ravine was formed on the ground, the whole Zapolyarny Palace was cut in half, and the mountain range a few kilometres away was bisected.
The Harbingers, without exceptions, looked in dismay at the trail of destruction left behind by the attack.
But..there was an exception.
A head fell to the floor, blood spurting from the neck of the now headless corpse belonguing to a man whose mask hid everything except for the mouth.
"Have you had enough?" asked the Tsaritsa with a cold voice.
"It will never be enough" replied Ei with a blank look. "We never cared about you or your war, we never hindered you or retaliated against you after your subordinates made a mess out of Inazuma, even in my foolishness I allowed them to do so. K-Kenshin gave you a Gnosis, and yet he got his now devastated parents kidnapped."
The Cryo Archon looked coldly at the expressionless Ei with eyes that had long lost the ability to express any emotion.
"The only reason all of you are alive is because I can't risk my life fighting against all of you, my daughter is waiting for me at home" Ei turned around, and left.
But not without sending a withering look towards Arlecchino, who stood still with a blank expression.
"What do you 2 want" the Tsaritsa asked towards the other 2 frigid Archons.
"You allowed your subordinate to play with the Forbidden Knowledge" Barbatos spoke in a cold voice he hadn't used since the time he acted against the Lawrence family centuries ago. Even the normally calm and happy wind spirit was seething now.
"I wasn-"
"You were" Barbatos cut the Cryo Archon's words. "We all knew it. We respected you and your choices out of the pain the Cataclysm brought you and the comradery we once had. We hoped you would act in time before disaster struck, and yet you allowed your direct subordinate to play with it. Only in this past month I learned how rotten you are, your subordinate has been using children for his experiments, kidnapping people, breaking families, artificially inducing the illness known as Eleazar, and finally, something I was extremely displeased to know, taking people from my city to experiment with."
The Tsaritsa looked inexpressively at Barbatos, her gaze never changing.
"And you allowed your subordinate to target my friend, and someone that held no hostility against you that wasn't earned" Barbatos said, and his eyes started shining. "As the grieving mother said, nothing we can do to you will make our pain go away, but that doesn't mean we can't act. I will take away your sky, letting people know that there is a better tomorrow waiting for them, even if it's outside this land".
A hurricane suddenly appeared, and all the clouds covering the sky were swiftly blown away, letting the sunlight illuminate the nation of Snezhnaya for the first time in 500 years.
Having said his piece, Barbatos left, walking and not flying away.
The Cryo Archon looked towards the last person here, who hadn't moved since he arrived.
"You broke our Contract" Rex Lapis, who after seeing his son's face couldn't bring himself to return to his position as Liyue's Protector, coldly said.
"I didn't harm his family" the Tsaritsa spoke in a frigid tone, knowing that if she fought back, the former Electro Archon and former Anemo Archon would come back and destroy everything she worked for the last 500 years.
"Can you say that after looking at that woman's face?" inquired Rex Lapis, making the Cryo Archon fall into silence. "You broke our Contract, and as it was stipulated, you will now face the Wrath of the Rock."
A portal covering the sky above the now-destroyed Zapolyarny Palace appeared and a meteor slowly came out.
"I will take away your palace, the symbol of what you once were, just like you took away our friend, and put the whole Teyvat in danger when you allowed your subordinate to play with the Forbidden Knowledge that so much pain caused brought into the world" Rex Lapis declared with an unforgiving look.
The Tsaritsa's expression didn't change, but her nails dug into her palms.
The Palace was all she had that reminded her of happier times, her link to the past and the reminder that pushed her forward in her weak moments.
But she didn't dare to say anything, after all, they were outclassed here.
BOOOOOM
The meteorite impacted, and the Palace disappeared, only a crater standing where the majestic Palace once stood.
The Harbingers were looking at all this with different expressions. Some were angry, others pensive, others scared, and others...were in too much pain to care.
"Is that all?" asked the Tsaritsa showing some emotion in her face for the first time since she had read a book that spoke about a certain Being.
"With this, the Wrath of the Rock has been fulfilled" Rex Lapis spoke with a blank voice. "You lost what you valued the most, just like Kenshin's family and friends did."
"Then leave" the Tsaritsa was trembling in anger after she was reminded that the only thing she had besides her vengeance was now destroyed.
"I didn't say I was finished" Rex Lapis voice now held a tinge of fury, rivalling that of the Cryo Archon.
A huge portal, way bigger than the one that destroyed the remains of the palace opened again, making the Harbingers open their eyes in dismay.
"What are you trying to do" the Tsaritsa spoke, looking upwards only to see a gigantic meteor coming down.
"Vent my anger" Rex Lapis spoke, his eyes showing slitted pupils and shining with a golden hue. "If I were to call a meteor as big as my fury, nothing would remain of your nation, out of respect for the life of those innocents I will avoid doing so. I can't avenge my friend, but I can at least release my anger here."
A crackling meteor of pure gold, the most resistant material Rex Lapis could use, appeared from the portal.
"As Rex Lapis, Kenshin's friend, and the person who owes him everything he now has" Rex Lapis spoke, not minding the horrified face of the Tsaritsa, who knew the destruction this meteor would cause. "I will take away your chance to ever rebuild your Palace, as a building outside this plains holds no meaning to you. You won't be able to recover what you once had, just like Kenshin's family won't be able to get him back."
"NO!" the Tsaritsa shouted, but Rex Lapis had already left.
'Should I even try to escape' wondered Arlecchino, who felt that his revenge against the regime that killed and tortured her companions and innocent children had all but collapsed.
But...there was a new target for her to hunt.
'Dottore...' her eyes, hands, legs and face started getting hot when the fire within her threatened to escape.
She knew Dottore wouldn't die that easily, and she still had a grudge.
Dottore was now one of the most important person in the Harbingers, as whatever he had seen during his altercation with Kenshin allowed him to understand some truth only he was aware of, and combined with his intellect, the plan of fusing the Gnosis together now passed through him.
Things would be hard for her, as Dottore was way stronger and more resourceful than her, but she wasn't in a hurry.
She had more than enough time, and nothing better to do.
Not now that the one who she could write to had left.
.
.
.
That day, Teyvat trembled.
The whole world shook when the enormous meteorite of pure gold fortified by Geo Energy in an amount that only Rex Lapis could manipulate impacted the ground in Snezhnaya.
On the plain where the majestic castle stood only a bottomless pit could be found.
Only a barrier around said plain prevented the destruction from spilling out of the area, but the people in Snezhnaya couldn't care less.
They had long forgotten about the love they once held for the Cryo Archon, so when they got a sunny sky in exchange for the God of Cryo losing her palace, they could only cheer.
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Ei walked slightly faster on her way back, her cold face unchanging. She had promised Yae that she would be back in a week, and she took 4 days to travel to Snezhnaya.
Nobody interrupted her, as those intending to rob her were on the ground separated in various parts before they could utter a word.
After a brief talk with Guizhong and seeing her son, Ken, she took a boat to Inazuma.
She could have just jumped, but she felt that doing this trip she expected to be the last one out of Inazuma was to be experienced until the end.
Everyone made way for her when she arrived at Inazuma, and she walked back to the Tenshukaku, the place where she had been trapped for the last 500 years.
The only thing that took her out of this place was Yae's insistence and her sister's push.
The guards, now a mix of people from Narukami and Watatsumi after the different populations started mingling, saluted to her and respectfully made way for her to pass.
She walked through the lonely corridors and halls, until she arrived at the room Kenshin had been using during his time as the Shogun.
It was not the biggest room, as he always said that cleaning the big one was a pain, and he wouldn't be able to sleep in the big one anyway.
This was now her room, but Ei and Makoto realised that staying in this room and treating it as theirs would just make the wounds bigger.
No, this was Elea's room, as this was one of the few things that could make the child share something with her now-absent father.
Sara, who looked way thinner than what she had been a month ago, respectfully nodded and left the room, knowing that the reinstated Shogun would need some space.
"Hello" Ei had a small smile and approached her finger to the baby.
"Aann..." Elea mumbled something looking at Ei, and as she always did, she grabbed the finger approaching her.
"I'm back" Ei said, and her eyes finally started trembling.
Makoto cried a lot, but Ei had her own way of processing her emotions.
Only after 'avenging' Kenshin did she allow her pain and sadness to escape her body.
"Aaahhhh...mmmnn" Elea pulled from the finger she had grabbed with her 2 tiny hands, and Ei's eyes blurred with tears.
"Sob....it's....sob....so hard" the woman finally crumbled down after a month of stoicism, and her desperate cries drowned everything.
Such was the fate of those left behind.
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