Corrupted Love| XIAOVEN

Chapter 14: Speak my name

The night was quiet. Cold, dark, and sad. Like a pitch-black lake in the deepest forest, it lay there where one could hardly look down into the deep-water masses. 

It was that one night that always appeared over and over again in nightmares. From the beginning, horror stories had warned us of the dangerous monsters lurking there for us.

 The ones which would tear apart our trembling cold bodies, until only blood stuck to the ground would remain. But there were no such monsters in reality. 

Not on that night, not here.

 The only monster there, both more dangerous and frightening was the black-haired young man sitting in the gloomy room once again. 

 Monsters are those who physically or psychologically deviate from the norms of society. This man however had only one of those characteristics, but all the more rotten. 

He was a handsome man, just like the moon. Cold, but beautiful. Though behind this pretty facade lurked this inhuman monster, his mind. 

Astonishingly, such people do not appear in the horror stories we consume so often.

 No, there are only strange-looking monsters, who unnecessarily wait hours for their victim and make abnormal efforts to disturb them as much as possible beforehand. 

Ridiculous.

 Oh, if only these creatures had spent a day inside the young man's twisted head, they would put their laughable actions to shame. Yes, children, a monster can hide behind even the prettiest faces, which are always the most dangerous. 

Why? Because they are created, slowly over months and years. 

Once the mind is so rotten, eaten away by thoughts, only then is there a real reason to fear it.

However, to be honest, he was not the only monster in the room. The other, though, was still weaker. Like a newborn baby, power- and helpless. 

This evil lived in Venti's mind. 

Funny, the mind can be a powerful tool, both for healing and self-destruction but the latter was the case here. What little remained of his sanity was hidden away in his broken mind and had been locked in a cold gray room. 

Square walls and no door. There was absolutely no escape from this cell. No matter how hard the Archon tried, his mind was lost. 

He knew that and so did the black-haired man. With loving tenderness, he put his hand on Venti's cheek. Just them and no one else.

None of them knew what the other was thinking, but it didn't matter. "Follow me," the man said sweetly, yet as sharp as glass and Venti obeyed. Like a worshipper, he followed his god. Without much strength, the male figure pulled him by the arm.

 First out of the city, over the stone bridge, and then for a long time across the meadows of Mondstadt. His head ached terribly, and cold sweat ran down his body. 

Venti was so far from sanity that he was not even aware of how he had just been voluntarily kidnapped. He could have disappeared at any time, but he didn't want to. 

After several hours of wandering through the night, the two stood before the ruins of Stormterrors Lair. 

The open stone tower lay there still in the deep night, the blue light of the Seal illuminating it like a spotlight. There were no stars, only dark clouds. 

The two followed the long stone bridge that led directly to the heart of the ruins and the tower. They now stood in the middle of it, surrounded by darkness and blue light.

 The stranger turned slowly to Venti, who looked down petrified with a dead stare at the place where he had lost his most loved one millennia ago. But neither grief nor anger arose in him, only absolute numbness. 

The black-haired man looked at him for a long time and chuckled joyfully. "Now that we are here, just the two of us, I shall be honest with you. I hadn't even told you my name, right?" He laughed softly,

 "How unkind of me. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Pantalone and as you have probably guessed, I belong to the Harbingers of the mighty Tsaritsa. My lady wishes for me to make sure that you do not harm your inhabitants. Unfortunately, your actions also affect her.

 Well, that's the reputation you understandably have. Understood? All right, so what are we doing here? The less you know, the better, but I will assure you at least one thing." 

His cold eyes looked dangerously down at the smaller boy, 

"You won't leave here for quite a while."

 At that moment the glass cage broke. Only for a few seconds, Venti could think clearly again. He had no time to think the situation through, he only realized one thing very quickly: 

he was in danger. 

That was all that was important. He would probably not be able to fight, because even if he could do a little damage, he would only change back to his corrupted state, and then all was lost. Within these few seconds, he had hardly any time to think about how he could save his life.

 He decided on the only possible action he could think of:

 "XIAAAAOOOO!!!" 

Venti screamed as loud as he could.