Corrupted Love| XIAOVEN

Prologue: dreams and nightmares (2/2)

 Something was not right. It wasn't the people or the beautiful surroundings. It all seemed so familiar to him.

So old.

So past.

It was just a memory.

Old times that were so far in the past that he could barely remember. Usually, he had locked those memories so deep behind the walls of his heart that not even he would try to recall them.

The confused Xiao looked over at Bosacius, but now he was as cold as he had ever been. He saw another memory.

He had spent days and months looking for Bosacius. Long sleepless nights after the latter had disappeared. Panic-stricken, he had searched until exhaustion and barrenness had overtaken his desperate worry.

Fear as strong as poison spread creeping through his body as he looked at his dead brother who was looking at him worriedly,

"Are you alright Alatus?" He asked and lowered Xiao.

The latter pushed the electro Yaksha away from him and held his hand over his mouth as he suddenly felt the need to vomit.

Zhongli and Guizhang came running toward him, frightened.

When he looked at the young woman, he saw only a tombstone in front of which Zhongli knelt and remained silent. In the picture, Liyue was on fire. Soldiers were fighting everywhere and corpses with blood lay on the ground.

The coming ARCHON WAR.

Zhongli was also covered in blood. His blood and that of the gods he had to defeat to protect the people.

Xiao fell to his knees and breathed so fast that it could probably be called hyperventilation.

Zhongli knelt beside him and put a hand on his shoulder. As affectionately as a father would. But Xiao only pushed the hand away and retreated several steps.

As he did so, he looked into Bonanus' eyes and saw an image here as well. The pretty girl overrun by Karma as she brutally murdered Menogias.

The two had fought for a long time and later Xiao had heard the whole story when he had carried the two bodies to Zhongli.

Indarias had been burned alive by her karma.

A long and painful death.

Her body had never been found again. Only a pile of ashes and her half-burned mask.

All of them had been buried and honored afterwards. But Xiao had been present at their funerals. At the very funerals of four of the five people who were now standing in front of him, looking at him anxiously.

"Stop it!"

He shouted at them and backed away even more. It was now dead silent, for the others did not know what Xiao saw in them.

Tense, he pressed his feet into the ground to attack or disappear at any moment. Zhongli slowly came closer and stretched out his arm as if he wanted to talk to a shy animal.

Xiao did not comply with Zhongli's gesture, but did not move any further away. The young man signaled the others not to come any closer.

He had very slowly stepped meter by meter closer to the tense Xiao. And carefully put his hand on his shoulder.

Xiao awoke.

He was drenched in sweat and breathing heavily.

Another nightmare.

But this time so damn realistic.

His chest was rising and falling rapidly. A drop of sweat slowly flowed down his neck, across his chest, down to his stomach. The darkness was suffocating.

He wiped his wet hair from his face. He breathed out heavily. Over and over, trying to calm himself. He groaned with exhaustion. Another night of sleeping so poorly.

He had had so many of these dreams lately. He pulled his shirt over his head and walked around the room looking for a clean one. He put his head back and slowly stared up at the dark ceiling.

A glass of water was on a table and he drank it completely. He bit his tongue hard to check one last time if he was really awake now. Wangshu-Inn lay peacefully surrounded by a warm summer night.

Xiao stood at the railing and regarded the land for which so many people had died. Zhongli had once said to him:

"Listen, if not for death, why are we even living? One might say its the time spend between birth and the moment your heart stops beating, which is the life, that's worth to strive for. But trust me, as someone, who has experienced a lot, life is only the art we try to perform before diying.

Thus life and death are not as different as we might think. We need one, to experience the other. Don't mourn the dead, who shall never experience a truly long lived life, for they gave theirs in order to make this one a bit better. "

Xiao found this a strange way of looking at things, but he never asked himself the question of why he was doing all this, because again, he didn't need to, because he obeyed Zhongli.

He was the weapon to help Zhongli in every field. Nothing more than an object. At least that was how he saw it. The fresh night air cooled his sweaty body and he took a deep breath. Still on the terrace, he sat down and fell asleep again.

For him it was no problem to sleep in the nature or on hard ground. He didn't really need a bed, but Zhongli had insisted that he stay at the inn.

So he did. And afterall, this building was mainly to support Xiao in his duties as a yaksha.