𝐓𝐎 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐒 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐀𝐁𝐘𝐒𝐒. genshin impact

CHPT. 44 Blood and Scars

"私の血、私の傷跡"
━━━━━━━━

Aether once again lead sword fish II, his soldiers ready to valiantly jumped into the battlefield and point their spears at the samuria once again, causing trouble in the borders of Watatsumi.

He was exhausted, noticing how he had done more work than half of the soldiers. Seperated from the group, he walked further up the front, seeming to put an exterior of a lonely yet brave leader. Thus, it caused for his soldiers to look up to him, and respect his decisions of staying away from them.

In reality, the outlander was deep in thought. His gaze often went to the unusual crow flying around him. It looked odd in such a colorful place. A pitch black bird flying over them seemed like a bad omen. Aether assumed that Corvus was under some sort of invisibility to others, not including him of course.

Aether shook his head, training his eyes on the horizon before turning to the direction of various Kairagi gathered. They looked ready to attack, and he silently gestured for the soldiers to ambush. They yelled, pride swelling in them as they fought against the rogue Samurais.

Blood and water mixed, as bodies fell in defeat and the defeated were tied and bound. Aether summoned forth lightning, bursting it towards the Samurai against him and plunging his sword towards his opponent.

Paimon did her best to help, tugging at vines to trip the Samurai and shooting rocks in their direction.

"C-Captain!"

Someone had yelled amongst the crowd, Swordfish II won, but none of them expected dozens of Ruin mechanisms to appear. Some gasped, some trembled in fear, and some jumped right back into battle.

Aether lead them all, sword raised in the air before hw mercilessly began to attack. Thunder roared, slamming against a ruin-defender and he pushed against one of the clumsy soldiers that had come close to being attacked.

His eyes grew wide as missiles rained down on him, eyes closed as he braced for the pain to come. But once his eyes opened, he saw a stygian field of nothing around him. It was silent for a moment, before he could hear the faint sounds of destruction and explosions.

A minute passed, and the abyssal field vanished, leaving Aether on the ruined battlefield with shocked and fearful soldiers. Right in front of him was a group of three, standing on the destroyed automatons, looking as if it meant nothing.

"Who are you?!" Someone had demanded, and his soldiers began to point their weapons at them. The majority greatly wary as they had personally witnessed them massacre automatons that had killed the resistance, the Shogunate and even the fatui.

None answered, but one removed their hood and smiled at Aether.

Golden optics wide, Aether dropped his weapon and ran towards Noir's embrace. Paimon squealed in joy, zooming towards Nyx and hugging her tightly, as the serpentine woman planted a kiss to her cheek.

"Y-You're really here!" Aether yelled, surprised that he wasn't delusional. "Its been so long..."

Noir chuckled, caressing the back of his head. "I did promise you we'd meet again."

The Reisender's eyes softened at the exhaustion in his expression. Faint dark circles under the bags of Aether's eyes, he felt murderous for those that dragged him into this situation.

Aether wasn't naïve. The problem was that he had a tendency to help others after being asked, and he was easily whisked into situations that he was not supposed to be in. People manipulated and used him, and Astaroth wasn't surprised that someone from Inazuma wanted the hero of Mond and Liyue to save them as well.