Celestia watches over all. And it seems the Abyss Princess had found out the hard way.
Ever since the transgressions Lumine had committed in obtaining forbidden knowledge about the gods above, she and the abyss were punished harshly, and found out t...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Paimon's not sure how long it's been since it all happened.
It's been a while since the fall. Since the abyss went to war with the archons. With each individual nation. The day where all hell broke loose.
The day that the archons were utterly defeated.
Prior to the events, it seemed as though the Tsaritsa was ambushed by the Abyss Order before Aether and I arrived in the nation of ice, and took all of the gnoses from the Tsaritsa, sacrificing members of the Abyss Order to the Tsaritsa and her harbringers in turn for the gnoses. They had formed a plan, remained in the dark for a while, which would explain why we hadn't seen the abyss order since the Chasm...
On top of that, it was later found out that the Abyss Princess, Lumine, had retrieved the book forbidden to ordinary eyes: Before Sun and Moon. It was there that she would find out that Celestia truly was watching over Teyvat, at every waking moment. And opening that book spelled her fate out.
It was there that her plan fell apart, because she never expected to be confronted directly. What many assume to have happened was the defeat of the Abyss Princess, and a greater curse to fall onto her people, turning most into awful, horrible amalgamations. The Abyss Princess herself would now suffer too, as she was given the very curse Dainsleif had been punished with.
Knowing the Abyss, though, it was later utilized in a different plan. If she couldn't punish those from above, who had destroyed the nation she grew to love, she would take down those who didn't help stop it.
And so, a war broke out. A few of the seven archons died during that fateful day, with the remaining survivors being that tone-deaf bard, Murata, Kusanali, and the Tsaritsa. And while Ei herself survived, the puppet didn't, leaving her consciousness in her blade. Nobody had expected the attack, and nobody had expected for the outcome that would mark the fall of most current era archons.
Nobody expected for the traveler, everyone's hero, to go missing on that very day. Especially me...
As it turns out, amidst all the violence and war, had the Abyss Princess, Lumine, kidnapped Aether. The Traveler tried to resist, tried to fight off his sister and convince her that this wasn't the way, that they should go back to how things used to be, but.. she had nearly killed them in the struggle. She claimed it was for his own good, that this was how things had to be. How they should have always been.
During all of this, many nations suffered a great calamity from the New Abyss Order.
In Mondstadt did the tone-deaf bard finally come out from his drifting to defend the people of his nation, cutting down the Abyss Order with slicing winds and tornados that swallowed groups of Abyss members. Amalgamations of animal-like abyss creatures invaded the area too, and the ground wasn't the only thing that was unsafe. The skies were infested soon enough, the aerial creatures of the abyss shrouded over Mondstadt, plenty of never-before seen monsters from the depths of the Abyss. Despite how easy they were taken down, their numbers were what gave them an advantage. Despite this all, the anemo archon defended his nation, suffering a handful of casualties in the process, but saving most in the end.
In Liyue, did their archon remain under the radar, but would personally help out the Liyue Qixing from the attacks, fending off creatures commanded by the Abyss, and the Abyss Order themselves. Vishaps destroyed and smashed buildings, injured and even took lives, Lawachurls and the like made work of the millelith, and the adepti were kept busy by lectors, heralds and abyss mages. Liyue, though.. they weren't fortunate enough, as they hadn't expected for the fallen couple of the depths to resurface with a newfound vengeance. And it seemed like the Jade Chamber wasn't going to be rising again...
Inazuma suffered a great surge of ghastly ghouls of fog and smoke that resurfaced from Tsurumi island, which used to be dormant. The abyssal ghouls and it's fog consumed those who touched it, and left not a trace of the people who inhabited the nation. The Puppet herself wasn't safe from the fog, and was consumed easily by it. Ei's consciousness remained in the sword she once weld. Fortunately enough for her, Yae Miko took it upon herself to take the sword with her, before it too was consumed by the subsuming fog.
Sumeru nearly suffered a raging wildfire on the nation's tree-looking base itself. Lots of homes were burned down, and plenty of pyro whopperflowers had invaded in weirdly large amounts... Pyro abyss mages and heralds were sent out to the dendro nation. The Abyss Order even called on a Pyro Regisvine to emerge and cause more damage. Thankfully, while the young archon, Kusalani, was their archon, she had the help of her Courtier fend them off. She and her Courtier fought off the vicious, blazing flower. The flames were snuffed out after the chaos of the pyro flora, as were the Abyss Order members themselves for attacking their nation, being executed out of the public's eye.
Fontaine wasn't as lucky. With the time the Abyss Order had, they had brought back an ancient war behemoth, labeled the RGL-3 Pyr. It was thick in it's armor, and powerful in it's firepower, shooting volatile bursts of flames out. Despite being a nation known for it's tech, the ancient war machine overpowered the nation's tech. Though, it has been said by Jean that apparently, it's attacks are much similar to the "Black Fire Incident", and that archon residue was empowering it, along with the New Abyss Order's energy. In turn, it made the Pyr capable of taking down it's nation's archon, and would end up being the nation with the most casualties in all of Teyvat.
Natlan was one to suffer the least amount of casualties and damage, and fought off the New Abyss order with ease. Despite the new surge of power in the Abyss, it seemed no match for the pyro archon and her fierce people. Abyss Heralds and the hydro mages hadn't stood much of a chance, and neither did the abyssal creatures that emerged and began to invade the nation of fire. Despite being partially of volcanic rock and pyro energy, it didn't last long against the nation's powerful lineage. Even as a Brumal Serpent had invaded and assisted the Abyss Order did it fall to the hands of the nation's archon. It did inflict the most damage to the nation of fire, but it wasn't the worst of most the damages each nation took.
While those nations whose archon had fallen were thrown into chaos and were slowly infested by the abyssal creatures, those whose archon had survived still rule their nation. Most of the standing nations serve as camps now, or safe zones in the chaotic outskirts of the corresponding nations. Those that didn't survive had their nations infested with all sorts of abyssal creatures and monsters.
Many nations who had their archon fall suffered a great amount of casualties, and only a few managed to escape, to flee to the remaining nations that were open to those who survived. Many of the remaining archons looked over their nation more thoroughly too, and actively protected threats that came their way too.
It became the norm, to see abyssal creatures attempt to attack a nation, to enter it and try to hurt innocent people. But the remaining archons refuse to let that happen.
After the attacks, the remaining nations recollected themselves, and continued to fight over the years. Some people in these nations had lost their lives. Some Knights of Favonius, some from Liyue that came to Mondstadt for shelter, and some who had been sent out for supplies that just never came back. Spies who we had sent out to catch any plans under the New Abyss Order were either caught and held hostage, or were mercilessly murdered upon being caught.
Some of the survivors with visions however, have been going missing, Albedo was nowhere to be seen or found, and Kaeya doesn't had never came back from one of his scouting trips.
Even the equipment that was still in Albedo's cave went missing! Where on Teyvat could they be? One second, he was right here, and the next, gone!
That'll have to wait for now. Lately, the surviving spies seem to have overheard a plan of the Abyss Princess's from an Abyss Lector, when they were relaying it to another member of the abyss. I really wish I knew, but.. Jean refused to tell me anything. She knows Paimon's been worried about Aether...
And as of recently, it seems that the scouts that were regularly sent out had found a camp on the Chasm's surface, and the face there was said to have been never before seen. Though, they were also described as.. ethereal.
Paimon doesn't know what we might find, but.. Paimon has a good feeling about this wanderer. Maybe she knows something we don't? I guess we'll have to see when we get there...
▰▰▰▰▰▰▰|Notes|▰▰▰▰▰▰▰
Wow, this has me feeling both content and nervous that it's a little iffy. Though that may be because I started this prologue sort of chapter off as Paimon reciting the events that had happened before all of this chaotic BS, aha. I can assure you that the story isn't going to written like this. This is probably the only time you'll ever see one of these chapters written like this (unless I write some epilogue by the end.) For now, though, let me know what you think! This isn't the first time I've put something out, but I am more confident about this story compared to my last. Aside from that, thank you for reading this if you've made it this far! I will try to keep a consistent schedule. Maybe one chapter a week? Who knows. Anyways, other than this being up on Ao3 soon, that's pretty much all I have to say. Until then! (PS - Don't forget to read the warnings in the description!)
