[And just like that, y'all managed to make this the most popular book on my profile, exceeding my other top book by 3k views. That is insane. However I guess I'll take this time, now that I have your attention, to tell you guys something; Once I complete this book I'll be starting another that'll be based off of Hololive! Specifically Holo-Myth/Council. If that's not something you're into or looking for then don't worry! There's a few other single chapter books unpublished that I could release for you guys, regarding Genshin.]

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The day of Lantern Rite was upon them. The children were out showing off their kites and the streets were lit with yellow and orange blazing lights.

There was a festive warmth among the winds as the people of Liyue Harbor stepped out into the city. The night sky was no match for the bright excitement and decorations displayed.

In the midst of it all, a lone figure of sophistication and beauty walked the streets. Her attire was primed and fixed of any damages or creases that may have appeared after her travels.

Her long raven hair swung like a pendulum as she moved with the occasional kite and lanterns, the sparkles of the night sky followed in the ocean of her eyes.

Despite the wonderful festivities and the expression of joy all around, she was not reciprocating the same feelings.

After all, in this bustling time of awaiting a new year where people would share such a moment with their loved ones in a joyous bond together, she was walking alone.

She was holding onto the promise that her man made to him and hoped he'd return in time, but the hour of this meeting was at hand and she couldn't keep the host waiting.

"Welcome, Miss Ei." A lady bowed as the doors behind her opened "Mr. Zhongli will be meeting you in our private booth."

Ei nodded and walked in swiftly, in her hands was a small red box that was held by a white string, hooked in her fingers.

She gingerly guided herself towards the familiar aura she felt once before and came across the room.

Escorted inside by a waitress, Ei thanked her and watched the doors seal shut behind her, there was no turning back from now on.

"Ah, welcome, Miss Ei." His gentle voice called.

"I would like to thank you for having me over, but I must apologize for Hadeki's abse-"

Her jaw was left dropped and her amethyst eyes widened.

"And so the swift winds bring us the guest of the hour. You grace us with your presence, Beelzebul~"

"It's so nice to finally meet you in person! Although I have been watching you for centuries, it's not the same as I'm perceiving it now."

"....Barbatos...Buer...?"

She was truly surprised, though not entirely disoriented, she was rather tipped from always having things take an unexpected turn.

She sighed and calmed herself. Walking to her supposed reserved seat, she placed her hands on it's back and viewed the table before her in full.
So far, only drinks had been served.

"When you said you and your guests...I did not think your invitation was this ambiguous." She muttered.

Zhongli smirked a laugh.

"There is no exaggeration or formal arrangements among friends. I merely sent them a letter and they responded." He answered.

"Besides!" Venti piped. "Most of us are no longer the celebrities we used to be so we can move freely."

"I could tell by the reek of alcohol from you." Ei grumbled. "But I was already aware of your unspoken release from your duties." She sat down, trying her best to pay no mind to the dense feeling of Nahida's gaze drilling into her.

"I had no duties to tend do." The bard's smile softened. "Just like this old brute here, they have no need for me anymore. Monstandt lives up to it's prideful name as the land of freedom."

"And I hear this sort of situation has been quite the dilemma for you." Nahida giggled.

"We did not intend this meeting to be about our journey and confusion of Godhood, but you are always welcome to share your thoughts with those that can relate to you understanding of things." Zhongli smiled as he lifted his cup.

"Still, this is a night of celebration, and I shall share it with friends both new and old."

Ei was quietly talking in his words. She looked around the table and only saw smiles beaming back at her, it was here that her mind could finally frolic. Here she couldn't feel detached or different from others around her, she knew that they meant much more than the words they spoke and that she should not worry about anything that could go wrong, only sit and understand the world through their eyes.

"Then...let us appreciate the time we have together." Ei smiled.

Liyue Harbor, Outskirts

"The night is young." Childe said, clearly restless.

"Stay put. We know what to expect."

As the loud waves crashed against land, the people of Liyue remained joyful and unaware of the potential threat looming over them.

Ningguang and her people held it in their best interest to keep the people clueless of the matter, in hopes that Hadeki may find a solution to this sudden bombshell of information he left upon her.

Children came running to the dock side, sharing their findings throughout the festival from vendors and offered gifts alike.

"Check this out! I got gold bird, it's actually a container and it already has candy inside!" One of them yelled.

"My mom gave me this silver bag to go scavenger hunting at the beach side. She said that around lantern rite, there's glowing star fish that wash up ashore."

"Wait...like that?" One of them pointed at the water.

The group went and knelt down at the dockside to see a small hint of light blinking from the water, it was growing.

"Nah it can't be; starfish don't just float like...."

Suddenly the body of water splashed as a ice blue claw emerged from the water.

The children screamed and quickly made a run for it back into the city. As they left the claw latched onto the wooden beam of the dock and climbed up until the host came back up to the surface.

The claw reduced back to a small hand, a hand that belonged to a cryo abyss mage. This should already spell distress, only if it weren't apparent that the monster was injured.

"Gaahh...! Accursed mechanisms! Those God remains are too potent for the likes of me to get close to the source.."

It used it's staff to stand back up and try to regain it's strength, but it froze in place after hearing a nearby creak.

The feeling of danger ran up the creature's spine as a broad dark figure seemingly stood behind it from out of nowhere. Still shaking violently, it turned to face his attacker and was met with the unamused face of Hadeki.

"I wasted my time scouting the surface when I didn't know you vermin can swim... interesting."

"Who are-?! H-how did you find me?! Were you expecting our arrival- AAAAGHH!!"

The man didn't waste a second and plunged his fist into the mage's stomach until it popped out from the other side. He then lifted it up to meet his eye level.

"'Our', hm?" He turned to look at the sea. "So there are more of you~"

As he scanned the water, he saw another emission of the same light and smirked. Electro began coursing through his veins and traveled through the body of the mage before he used that power to throw the creature at flashing speed.

It flew across the ocean until it reached the light source where Hadeki suddenly appeared above and kicked the mage down into the water.

His strike was final. As he found himself in the water, the mage perished and reduced to nothingness. He immediately began looking around for the source and saw that he needed to go deeper.

As he swam, the pressure around him began getting denser as the light got closer, there was a highly concentrated feeling of dread and suffocation around him that wasn't the sea water. When he got closer a sudden fist swung at him, a lack of reaction time underwater caused him to be hit. The strike was powerful enough to punch him out of the water.

Ignoring the pain in his jaw, the warrior quickly assessed his surroundings and looked for a spot to land. And so he did.

With his luck; he was nearby a small island, if you could even call it that, as it was merely 20 ft wide. He landed swiftly and awaited his attacker that surely appeared out of the water and landed before him.

"An obstructor of the end. You will regret your meddling..."

It's voice was spewing violence and rasp. The hydro element seemed to flow within it and do it's biding as it flowed around it's being with order.

"So the abyss does have more ugly faces for me to endure." Hadeki remarked. He quickly assumed his stance and burned the vegetation beneath his feet by releasing a charge of electro. "Now what were the likes of you doing under the oceans of the sleeping Gods?"

"Hehehe...No need to play the fool, human. By now you must be well aware of our plans with your constant interventions..."

"So word does infact get around with you lot." Hadeki struck.

The two beings clash with a strong clang that knocked back even the waves. Locking themselves in battle, they shake the small earth beneath them as a fraction of it cracks.

Liuli Pavilion

Zhongli's smile weavers for a moment. He had sensed the disruption but said nothing.

He slipped his hand down to the underside of the table and pressed his palm on it. The radiant energy of Geo poured out and now the entire room was encased, no sound can leave or enter, nor vibrations.

"Now what's with that look, Zhongli?" The enthusiastic bard waved his cup.

The tall man shook his head and rebuilt his smile as he took another sip of his drink.

"... Zhongli hm?" Ei shrugged.

"Of course we cannot use our usual titles to meld with the common folk. Our aim is to reside with them after all." He answered.

"Yup! I go by Venti the esteemed and gracefully talented bard of Monstandt!"

"We all have many names when you think about it." Nahida smiles. "I may not share the same path as these two but I'd rather have you call me by my more favored name, Nahida!"

Ei nodded with a returning smile but immediately turned back to the others.

"But what is this path...why is this a path you've taken?"

"Every nation channels differently. In Liyue, the era of the adepti has come to an end. Tho I still exist amongst them and will stand forth when the situation calls for it, I will no longer be the pillar that holds and guides humanity into the future, that is a decision that they alone will and can make." His smile was seen wavering. "But to say it personally, I have wandered this world for six thousand years...and saw the foundation of Liyue for three thousand and seven hundreds..."

He then looked up at Ei, straight into her eyes as his golden pearls dug through her thoughts.

"As time flowed...the very thing you had built your resolve on had caught up to even the greatest of mountains...was beginning to erode."

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Hadeki was growing tired. This was his first opponent after Ei that lasted longer than a few hits. It wasn't that his opponent was stronger, but rather he was waiting it out.

He needed the right time, more information and if need be...strike the heart of the problem, and to him, this creature of the abyss wasn't it.

"Need to take a break...Human?" It laughed.

His hydro infused claws and bladed arms swirl at his direction, Hadeki deflects them in an instant but was slightly cut by the cheek.

"What do you hope to achieve once you've weaponized Osial?" He demanded an answer.

"What do you think would happen when an old enemy of Liyue is resurrected again? In our hands he will achieve his goal of destroying these lands, and this time without fail..."

The herald stopped and fixed it's stance, he raised his hand and watched it glow.

"Despite your interference, you still couldn't stop us..." The waves grew bigger, it began to rain heavily and the water around them started to bubble. "I must admit that you are no ordinary vision bearer...but you successfully wasted your time on me...our goal is at hand."

The water behind the herald began rising in the shape of a small hill, growing and growing until it was blackening the area around them in it's shadow. The mass finally began revealing itself as water fell from it's body like countless waterfalls.

A blue shining head with radiant eyes presented itself in all it's glory as Hadeki stared back at it. A being that was bizarrely familiar, he had seen it before but not this up close.

"Osial has risen...and now you will fall at his feet."

"And what about you?" Hadeki released his arm into a chain and slashed the herald. The electro infused gears of his arm seared and stuck to the supposed flesh of the creature.

Hadeki dashed around the small island, wrapping his chain arm more and more around it until it was completely traped from arms to knees.

Hadeki grunted with anger as he poured in more electro until his whole arm was charging with blinding energy which began burning the herald as it wailed in agony, it's voice lost in the crashing of the sea.

The amount of energy the man was release caused even his eyes to flow with electro and once he felt it right, he tugged his arm which caused the Abyss herald to explode into bits and pieces of it's former self before those remains began disintegrating.

A second tug, the arm reformed itself and attached back to it's normal size. Hadeki had no time to even recover from all this use of resonance as the very island he stood on was destroyed.

The small piece of land exploded into nothingness as another head emerged from the waters. More followed suit.

Still in the air, Hadeki sighed as if he was expecting this.

"Guess it's time then." He suddenly blasted another strong charge but this time up into the sky.

At the shore, it was visible to the next group. A signal that they were waiting for.

"That was the plan?! Ughhhh!!" Childe yelled in annoyance and quickly jumped off at the sea, using his electro delusion.

Two destructive lights of purple were now off shore and both men combined their strength to combat the awakened God.

Their first attempt was to send the beast's heads back into the waters and so they persisted, the battle was very far from the Harbor and so it was not yet given any attention by bystanders who were busy enjoying the life of a new year promised.

"Hurry! Hurry mom it was just there!"

"Kids...there's no way Osial is back, the Qixing put him back to sleep, your father and I saw it ourselves."

The three children kept on whining and dragging their mother back to the docks where they saw that sudden light in the water.

"No! We saw it here....we...."

The four stare out at the empty and calm waters. There was nothing there. The children knelt down at the edge of the docks and stared intently but saw nothing.

"See? You three must have been playing so vigorously that you thought you saw something."

"B-but..! We heard a loud bang just now!" The girl whimpered.

"It must have been the sea storm. Look." Their mother pointed farther down the ocean where large black clouds loomed with flashes of thunder. "It may not be raining here but the sea of clouds isn't just a cool little name they gave this sea. There's all kinds of loud lightning storms that happen out there, even the waves can sound deadening."

"Mmmmphh..." The children, still unsure and shaken up, return to their mother and hold her hand.

"Come on now. The main event is about to begin. I heard the Director of the Funeral Parlor will be performing a poetic song!"

"I don't like the sound of that..."

Under the waves, a feirce battle was underway. Two powerful men faced off a being far more powerful than they could handle and yet here they were to put and end do it.

Childe was on the struggling end of the battle as his delusion would eat away at his own energy. Hadeki shared the same challenge of holding his breath underwater and trying to move around with the intense pressure weighing them both down.

Osial struck and shot destructive beams that caused an uproar of the waves at the surface level.

The waves were becoming dangerously big that could reach land but any contact of such waves were disrupted by the fire of a canon and a large ship crashing through it.

"Starboard! The fight has begun!" Beidou yelled from atop the mast of her proud ship. "Yan'er!"

"On it." The leader of the treasure horders yelled back as she jumped off the ship with more groups of her gang following suit.

They land on smaller life boats and quickly make their way to the small pieces of land scowering the stone forest.

They take control of the unattended and abandoned ballistas used by the Mileleth to fight Osial and take position.

"Show time boys!" She yelled. "Anything that comes out of the water that doesn't look human, you shoot it down! Are we clear?!"

The weapons shine with threatening auras as they aim at the disturbed ocean waves.

The Crux made sure that none of the chaos reached the ears of Liyue Harbor by overlapping the waves. They were in certain luck that they were further away from the main lands otherwise keeping a dispute against a God would be something unimaginable to keep