Life Within Truth

Clash of Truth

"Raiden Ei," Chronos announces in his stern voice while kneeling within the Plane of Euthymia, "May I ask a question regarding my past?"

Flowing gentle waves of sand and clouds coloured a soft light-blue with a central "sun" hanging in the sky, illuminating the area.

"Chronos, ask away," Ei replies quickly and gently.

"When and how did I receive my Vision? They are not gifted by archons."

A heavy sigh rings out of Ei's mouth, resonating across the insides of the building.

"When I first found you, I decided to duel the Shogun against you to judge your combat prowess."

"The result of that duel?"

"You defeated the Shogun after half an hour of grueling combat by smashing Divinity into her Musou Isshin, deflecting the blast and redirecting its force into her. You are truly the first soul who has ever survived the Musou no Hitotachi, the Traveller being the first publicly known."

"After you rested your weapon and whatever debris cleared, in the dust emerged a gleaming Electro Vision, presented to you."

"I knew of my ancient arts even then?"

"Yes. I was shocked to see the art still live within you, which is why I had you modified."

"You detained my memories?" Chronos seethes, stepping towards Ei.

"Partially," Ei hastily replies, taking a pace backwards, "I thought you were a pure machine, like the Ruin Graders. So I thought to modify you to no longer be a threat towards eternity and instead to serve it," she quietly explains.

"My will is not my own..." he whispers, then suddenly thrusts his right arm towards his side, exploding with a blinding glow of golden energy, "My will was never my own..."

Divinity, a shattered spear formed from ancient energies, rapidly forms in his arms with its surrounding fragmented golden blades and bright amber speartip.

"How many other lies have I been told by you for the sake of your eternity?!" he roars thrusting his spear towards her without even touching it.

"Have you forgotten what we discussed a few weeks ago?!" screams Ei, bounding back and brandishing Engulfing Lighting with a surge of Electro energies.

"No. I had time to think about everything that had happened. Cruelty. What are you? You truly do not care about what I am. You think of me as a machine. An entity designed to kill solely for your bidding. A dead thing made by a dead nation in the shape of a dead man. All I ever do will kill. I do not belong here in Inazuma; a place of life. That is what you think of me."

"Chronos, please stand down, I beg of you," Ei proposes, ever so slightly lowering her polearm.

"Then beg."

A split second later, Chronos rockets into the air, and throws down a gigantic Starfall spear the size of a thousand polearms, shattering the Plane's ground. An unholy shrieking shreds the air apart as the spear strikes the ground, like chisel through stone. Ei manages to blink away just in the nick of time, teleporting behind Chronos.

Innumerable slashes of Electro cascade upon the Sentinel like a lightning storm of blades, yet he stands firm, coalescing his ancient energies and Electro within his chest before thrusting his arms outwards with a crackling blast of golden light. A shimmering barrier of violet light covers his entire body, and as the barrage of blades strike against his armour, he stands as still as stone, absorbing each and every blow.

He then catapults himself at Ei at the speed of light, only to be batted away with an uppercut of Electro energy, and flung into the air. A mere second later however, Chronos forges a portal beneath him and vanishes like a fleeting memory, only to reappear right over Ei, plunging with his spear. With reflexes of lightning, Ei blinks to the side and sweeps the ground with a wide slash of Electro. The wave slams into Chronos's legs like a tidal wave against a building, almost knocking him off balance as his shield shatters apart into a storm of violet fragments.

"What is the point of this?" Chronos roars, charging right back at Ei before blinking side to side through his portals, "What is the point of life when every moment of your life is dictated by someone who sees you as an object?"

Divinity clashes upon Engulfing Lighting as Electro blends with gold, shredding each energy apart with typhons upon tornadoes of sparks. Ei's eyes focus down to a furrow as Chronos's golden eye glows with blinding fury.

"Can you return what you have taken from me? Any of it at all?"

"No-"

A heartbeat later, Chronos slams Divinity into the ground with the force of a falling Nail, jolting Ei downwards, and following up with an unrelenting flurry of spear strikes from all directions. He thrusts his arms in the directions the spear strikes, slamming against Ei's weapon like hail upon a roof, as the spear materializes from a new location for every assault.

"Perish!" Ei suddenly roars, blinking backwards with a puff of Electro energy, before summoning down a titanic storm of Electro bolts from the heavens. Chronos stares at the sky, lifts Divinity, and allows it to be decimated by the storm. An explosion unparalleled by anything and anyone in Teyvat bursts from it, glaring so brightly as to outshine a thousand suns, blasting both archon and sentinel meters away with their bodies slammed into the ground, shredded against the Plane.

A short pause feels like an eternity to them both as pain surges through both their minds, followed by clouds of thought and doubt.

"For what purpose will any of this accomplish?" Chronos hisses to himself, pushing off the ground and rising back to his feet.

"Nothing, Sentinel, nothing," Ei groans, teleporting herself back to face him.

"Torn to oblivion!" she screams, tearing her Musou Isshin out from her chest, and cleaving the Plane with enough force to sunder an island. Chronos immediately reforges Divinity with his mind, just milliseconds before the slash comes through, ripping the air apart with demonic screeches of crying, shredding metal. But instead of performing a stiff counterattack, Chronos hangs his head and lowers his spear.

"I do not deserve your benevolence anymore..." he trails off, "This is all futile. What is done is done. Those that live in the past have no future. Execute me. Return me to my soldiers."

Ei's eyes quickly shift from unwavering determination to a wash of skepticism before overcoming with understanding.

"I won't grant the death you wish," she replies, dispersing her blade in a swift flick of Electro mist.

"Burn this memory for me. I cannot erase the time of sleep. I cannot be loved. I cannot deliver your orders. I cannot embrace anything you give. I cannot find solace in your words, or this world."

"What do you think of my actions I've done against you?"

"I was correct the first time. You are remorseful for the actions you have done. Whatever has been done is done. There's no future for those who linger in the past."

"I apologize I cannot reverse what has been done."

An eerie silence fills the air between them as the Plane of Euthymia slowly begins to settle peacefully once more.

"Every conflict doesn't have to be solved with blades..." she suggests.

"It is the quickest and easiest... but I will consider the possibility."

The Sentinel prepares to leave the plane, but hesitates and looks back towards the Shogun, his eye now returned to the soft violet glow.

"Thank you. For your mercy."

He quickly leaps through a portal of soft Electro energies and vanishes as if no duel occurred, as if no anger was burned, as if no resentment was torn.

. . .

The portal carries him far from his home, and far from his previous home, across oceans and plains before tearing open the sky just above Mount Tianheng. The sun is beginning to set as it casts its gorgeous amber rays down upon Liyue, sky clear as diamond, and coloured like a warm flame. The Warden stares across the mountaintops, recalling the last time he was here to scatter the ashes of the last soldiers he commanded.

His eyes turn to the stars, drifting across the expanse of fire until settling upon a small sect of islands hanging over Teyvat like a celestial body.

"Not a matter of if. But when..." he murmurs to himself, then stares back to the mountain peaks.

"What a day for rain."

But the skies are clear today.