vitriolic

trenchant

warnings: blood, vomit, gore, arrow wounds

when you woke up, you were, once again, in a different place than where you fell asleep. except this time, you were chained up and face to face with an exact copy of yourself.

"well, it appears the impostor has finally woken up." the copy spoke, as soon as you had opened your eyes. "what shall we do with her?"

as she spoke, you lifted up your head and took in your surroundings for the second time today. you were about to ask where you are, but once you got a good look at your kidnappers you were stunned into silence, for they looked exactly like characters from genshin. you quickly shook that thought out of your mind, there's no way. no. way. you aren't in a video game, and it's getting pretty concerning that you have to keep reminding yourself of that.

"i'm feeling merciful, so i think we should let her try to escape us as punishment for impersonating me. if she manages to not be found in 6 months, then we will let her live." you immediately tuned back in once you heard that come out of her mouth.

"you want to hunt me?" you exclaimed, finding the whole situation concerning and unreasonable. "what did i even do?"

"you are impersonating our god!" came a shout, by someone you could only assume was eula.

"what do you mean? what god? and how am i impersonating someone i don't even know exists?" you were growing increasingly more frustrated with every word that came out of their mouths, and they seemed intent on not telling you anything about what's going on.

"don't play dumb, you know very well who our creator is!" that time it was venti who shouted at you.

as soon as you tried to respond, you felt an arrow pierce your leg. while you screamed from the overwhelming pain, you felt another set of hands twist the arrow so deep into your muscle you felt it hit bone.

"unchain her. i'll even be nice and let her have a head start." you looked up through the tears in your eyes, and could make out the blurry form of your own face staring back at you, with a sick, manic form of glee written all over her face. "i've always enjoyed hunting."

they had dropped you off right outside of the city's gates, and gave you half an hour to get as far away from them as you could. you were scared, confused, and hurt as you ran as far away from them as you could with your wounded leg, you were surprised you had even managed to stand up with the arrow still embedded deep into your leg. every step was agony, and it took everything in you not to just fall over and let them kill you.

once it set in that you're actually in some horrible, hellish version of genshin, you decided to try and see if the waypoints you had unlocked still work for you. as soon as you had that thought, you heard a small voice whispering things in the back of your mind. if you listened closely, you could make out words, directions it seemed.

deciding you didn't have any better options, you followed all of the voices commands to a tee, and ended up right next to the anemo hypostasis. rationally, you know you should be terrified, but you couldn't help but feel drawn to it, like you know deep inside it wouldn't dream of hurting you.

you thought it was your best bet so far, only the knights would be hunting you in mondstat, and you know they aren't strong enough to kill beth.

you slowly walked up to it, so as not to cause it any alarm, and reached up to gently touch one of the cubes guarding it. as soon as your hand made contact with it, it let out a soft, purr like noise, you let out a light noise of surprise, "i didn't know you could make noise."

in response, it purred again, before creating a bubble of wind, which it then gestured for you to get in. when you sat in the bubble, you felt the arrow in your leg get removed, and then the wound was healed. surprisingly, the whole process was painless.

as you sat in the bubble, you were blissfully unaware of the battle that was raging just outside. you thought about everything that had happened in such a short amount of time, and couldn't help but feel betrayed. the characters you had put so much time and effort into, were hunting you for a reason they won't even explain.

when you had that thought, you heard the voice again, except this time it was slightly louder. it said to think about the character screen, and then you'd be able to switch out everyone's builds. you were doubtful, but when you looked down at the bright crimson that was still coating you, you decided you'd do anything to stop them, even if you weren't sure it would work.

to your surprise, you could clearly see everything like you were still just looking at a game. your mood just seemed to drop as you looked at the weapons and artifacts that you had spent weeks farming for, just for them to be used against you. reeling in your emotions, you decided you'd never let them see you cry again, while you switched out everyone's weapons to the basics, and removed all of their artifacts.

not even five minutes later, you felt the bubble be slowly moved down to the ground, and then pop. you expected to be met with the same scene that had been there when you were put in it, but instead the arena was covered in blood and various organs. it was a horrifying sight, and you felt the remains of the small bit of soup you ate make its way up to join the gore all around you.

you were horrified, so you looked at the only familiar part of this disturbing scene, beth. when it realized your eyes were on it, it moved to nuzzle into your body, you were still frozen to your spot on the floor.