The Final Chapter

Something On The Sea

Chapter 5

Their fleet finally arrived. Ganyu could see smoke emerging in the distance but the continuing rain made it hard to see. The blow of a horn signaled their arrival to the other troups. She looked up to the Jade Chamber which floated high above the leading ship, the Alcor. Ningguang gave Beidou command over the ships, while she stayed in the sky with the Adepti. Most of them were here even the Conquerer of Demons came all the way here to help. With their help they built strong weapons to shoot from the Jade Chamber.
"Load the canons!", a harsh voice commanded. Keqing walked around the ship to give commands and check on the crew. The Yuheng looked up to her for a target. Ganyu was standing on the highest point to have the best aim. She could see the coast line where a large group of enemies had gathered. She pointed Keqings attention to it and she nodded. "Everyone, aim northwest towards the coast line. On Ganyu's signal" The Yuheng nodded. She understood it immideatly and charged her shot. As the smoke cleared, she fired. Canon balls cut through the air hitting the enemy hard. But then she stopped to give the canons the signal to pause. As she took a closer look she spotted soldiers among the enemies. Thankfully nobody seemed injured but they waved and yelled to get the attention of the fleet.
"What's up?", the Yuheng yelled up to her. "There are soldiers at the coast line signaling us to stop! We have to send landtroups!", she answered and looked at Keqing, who turned around immideatly and gathered a troup to go on land. "Allright", she said, "it's the Secretary's command now!" Then they left the boat. Ganyu noticed Geo projectiles raining from the skies hitting the comming reinforcements of the enemies. A bit ahead Beidous ship also send out boats to go on land. If it continued to go as smoothly as this they would be able to easily hold the line until Mondstadt's arrival. On their voyage she had worried that their forces were too small but they seemed to be enough for now.
In the corner of her eye she saw spikes rising and diving under in the sea. "There are sea creatures right in front of us!", she yelled down, "Load the canons!" But then a big wave hit the ship causing everyone to stumble. Just before another wave hit them a giant Cryo force froze it. Shenhe joined the battle. "Ok. New try. Load the canons! Aim at the ice!", she commanded again. Then she took aim. "Wait!" She breathed deeply. In and out. "Wait!" They could hear something massive banging against the frozen wall. The ice began to crack slowly. Ganyu counted in her mind. Three, two, one... "Fire!" Right as the ice cracked and a giant sea monster broke through, they fired their shots. As she examined it closer she saw it was a machine with two large glowing eyes and a giants mouths with spikey metal teeth. She charged again. "Eye or mouth!", she shouted cryptically before firing hoping somebody would understand what she meant. And they did. Canon balls smashed into eyes and mouth, damaging the machine quite hard. But this seemingly interfered with Shenhe's attempt to freeze the enemy and shattered the ice that just formed leading the machine to loose balance. As it fell back into the water it smashed into Captain Beidou's ship. "Get ready to rescue men from up ahead!", the Secretary commanded. She took a rope and swung down to the soldiers helping them with the rescue.

"Was that all of them?", she asked as they pulled out another man. "Yes that's all...", she got as an answer. She turned around to Captain Beidou: "Is everyone allright?" Beidou looked around, while mumblimg names while her expression changed from relieved to more and more grimm. "We lost 18", she answered with a wodden voice. "Oh I'm so sorry...", Ganyu said. That weren't any ordinary men, that was Beidous crew. The Crux. And now she lost 18 of them and her ship. That was a great loss. "Any sign of the machine?", the Secretary asked, but she only received a shaken head as answer.

Finally Keqing struck down the last hilichurl. She looked around. Her troup seemed to be okay. But a look a the sea told that wasn't case for all. She saw the wreck of the Alcor swimming in the water. This wasn't a party. This was harsh reality. Something serious threatened the peace in Teyvat and it was ready to kill each and everyone standing in it's way. She turned her back on the sea to check on her troup and the inazuman soldiers that were already fighting here. All of them gad crowded around a tall purple haired woman supporting a very familiar man. The Raiden Shougun and Mister Zhongli from the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor. Why was he here? At the Front? With the Shougun? She stepped closer towards the archon bowing slightly and greeting her properly: "It's a honor to meet you, Allmighty Shougun" "It is a pleasure to meet you to honorable Yuheng of Liyue. I would have preferred more ideal circumstances though...", she let Mister Zhongli down carefully in the arms of her soldiers, "Bring my friend to the temporary hospital in Inazuma, he got hit hard..." Her soldiers nodded and brought the man carefully to the city. "I would like to gage the situation here...", Keqing requested kindly. The Shougun nodded and signaled the Yuheng to follow her. The troup moved across the battlefield, towards some tents. That's when true horror overcame Keqing. Everywhere she saw the bodies of dead soldiers. Most of the blood had faded die to the rain and most of the fires that had been here were just ash and smoke. Nothing here was left intact, just death, chaos and destruction. Fear hit her and she wished for the protection of Rex Lapis for the first time in her life. This wasn't war just war, this was a nightmare.