Bright as Night [adopted book from 12ashlea]

Chapter 4 - I Swear I'm Not An Albedo Simp

'Thought'
"Speak"

TW: GORE UNDER THE LINE
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An armoured hand outstretched towards you. A scorching heat radiated from it. You could feel your scales melting off, a painful process and the heated scaled also burn your skin. The skin is charred black, almost as black as the scales itself. There is no escape, you are surrounded by dirt walls the close in on you. The black melted scaled drip to the floor, and the hand grabs your face roughly. The sharp armour of the hand digs into your skin the charred skin beneath the scales that fall off. Its painful as the fingers dig so deep into your skin, it bleeds as the hand pulls you out of the hole in the ground, tearing harshly as your skin is ripped apart and bloody and gory flesh is revealed. The metal is hot against your face and its painful. Are you shaking? Are you trying to run away? Or are you frozen in fear? You have no time to think as your skin melts as well. Its on fire, the deep red spreading across your skin and the melted skin falling to the floor. You're crying, you're crying blood. A cool liquid swirl that consists of the galaxy and sky falls from your eyes, quickly evaporating from the heat. You look up and hot metal chains that are a bright orange from being heated wrap around you. It melts into your skin and steam rises from it as your body is destroyed, Your body is turning to ashes and the last thing you see is the armoured face of a pyro abyss lector.

~~~~~
-Gore ends here-

You wake up, slowly and carefully. Your mind is dizzy and there is an underlying sense of fear. Just what were you dreaming? A pyro abyss lector burning you alive, but what could that mean? You remember the dream in terrifyingly accurate detail. You clawed nub touches your face. Its cool, nothing like the burning and scorching heat in your dreams. Your scales are sturdy and intact, unlike the liquid and melted state you felt them in. You feel no chains or hand restraining you, no armoured fingers tearing your head apart. Your eyes look up to the exit of the hole in the ground. You aren't safe here. The once comforting enclosed walls of the hole in the ground now feel claustrophobic, as if there is no escape. You shuddered.

You wiggle out of the small exit and notice its dark outside. You look up, and there are no more stars. The only thing left is a dark void, empty and vast. You shuddered at the strange sight, and moved on. As you pressed on and continue to wander, you feel a presence walking beside you. You turned your head to look around, but there is no one there. The forest is empty yet you feel someone with you. However, there presence is nothing like the searing heat of the lector in your dreams. Its warm and comforting, like when you go to sleep beneath thick blankets in a cold room. You leaned into the presence, but there was nothing physical beside you, just the warm and welcoming air that soon disappeared. You were slightly disappointed, and confused, but you continued onward anyways.

~~~~~

Lumine followed Razor as he led her through the forest. The night was calm and the air was breezy and cool. Paimon floated over Razor as he stopped by a tree. "Hey look, there's a hole beneath the tree!" Paimon said as Lumine kneeled down to look at it. "Star lizard smell is strong here. Stayed for a while, but the scent continues." Razor explained. "So the star lizard stayed here for a while? Where is it now?" Paimon asked. Razor opened his mouth to speak, but his eyes widened and jumped towards Lumine as he pushed her out of the way of a fireball. The ball of fire hit the roots of the tree that Lumine kneeled by, setting it ablaze as the fir burned and charred the wood until the rest of the upper tree fell over. The trio looked to the side to see a tall and armoured humanoid creature, two halves of a golden circle with red jewels imbedded into it floating behind. It's masked face looked down at them.

"Run! Big danger!" Razor said as he held up his claymore, sparks of electro forming it. "W-what is that thing?!" Paimon asked as Lumine stood up to summon her sword. "No time to fight! Run!" Razor said as he dragged Lumine with him. The thing followed them, hovering above the ground as floating pyro balls formed at its side and shot out at them. "Quick, follow!" Razor said holding Lumine's wrist as they weaved through the forest and dodged the blasts. "Paimon knew we should have reported this to the knights!" Paimon yelped as she just barely dodged a blast. "Shut up Paimon!"

The trio continued to run, they could hear the sizzling of burning foliage behind them. Razor led them to the edge of the forest where there were less trees. Paimon panted from above. "Did we outrun it?" She said as she turned around. "Outrun what?" The three turned their heads to look at the new voice. "Whoah! You guys look really tired. Are you okay?" Amber asked as Paimon slowly floated down as she heaved. "Of course we are! We just ran into this... thing while following some sort of star lizard scent trail." Paimon said, here voice sounding squeakier than usual. "Hold on, wait wait wait. Calm down and explain everything to me." She said as Lumine began to explain the recent events. "So what you're trying to tell me is that you saw a bunch of broken tree, ran into Razor who helped you follow this 'star lizard' and ran into the thing chasing you?" Lumine nodded her head.

"Thing did not smell like star lizard. Smelled like the black wolves that attack spring vale. And very burnt." Amber nodded her head at this. "I advise you to be more careful around wolvendom. This certainly seems like something big. First stormterror, and now this..." Amber said as she crossed her arms. "I'll report this to the knights after finishing my patrol. I was out here to clear out some hilichurl camps. Lately, the abyss order has been appearing more and more often in wolvendom for some reason." Amber explain as she gestured to the nearby hilichurl camp. A large number of hilichurls were stationed there, as well as a several abyss mages. "Yikes, thats a lot of hilichurls." Paimon said. "Could it be because of the star lizard?" Lumine asked. "Possibly. Perhaps you could go to mondstadt to report this in my stead? I am quite busy." Amber explained. " Sure! We don't mind. Although Razor probably wants to check on his wolf family." Paimon said as Razor nodded. "Great! Thanks in advance!" Amber said as she waved them goodbye to clear out the camp. "I will go as well. Need to check on other wolves." Razor said as Lumine nodded in understanding.

~~~~~

Lumine knocked on the door to Jean's office. "You may come in." She heard Jean say from behind the door. She opened it to see the acting grandmaster sitting on her chair behind her desk listening to someone unknown to Lumine. He stood in front of the desk as he watched her enter. "Ah, Lumine. Do you need anything?" She asked. "Lumine? Oh, so this is the honorary knight that everyone is talking about." He said as he looked at her. "Woah, hold on a minute. Who's this?" Paimon asked as she looked at the stranger. "This is Albedo, chief alchemist of the knights of favonious. We were just discussing some things regarding the defences against the constant waves of hilichurls that have suddenly begun coming out." Jean said as she gestured to him. "Correct. If we thought that the previous amount that we were facing agains was a lot, we were certainly proved wrong with the new hilichurl camps appearing everywhere, especially wolvendom."

"What? Is the star lizard really this big of a deal?!" Paimon said. "Star lizard? Please do tell." Paimon proceeded to explain everything as Lumine stood there. "How curious..." Albedo mumbled as Jean sighed. "It seems like problems upon problems just continue to appear. We would send someone to investigate, but most of the knights are currently busy with other matters." Jean explained. "Really? So I'm the one doing it now?" Lumine asked. "I deeply apologize. Stormterror has just caused a lot of trouble recently." Jean explained. "I could investigate it as well." Albedo suggested. "Really? Aren't you going to conduct a long term research on dragonspine?" Jean asked. "Yes, but that can go on hold for now. This 'star lizard' has piqued my interest, and seems much more interesting." Albedo explain. "Yay! So Paimon and Lumine aren't doing everything alone again!" Paimon cheered. "Need I remind you that you barely do anything either?" Lumine said as she side eyed Paimon. "Uhhhh, Paimon's... emotional support?"

"Now that thats out of the way, you said the star lizard was seen in wolvendom?" Albedo asked. "Yes, they seemed to have crashed into some trees there." Lumined explained as Albedo hummed in thought. "Interesting. The lizard must be large in size if it crashed into the trees. Could you take me to this area?" Albedo asked as Lumine nodded. The three exited the room on their way to wolvendom.

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my brain needs to stop thinking of ideas for wandering paws and start writing for bright as night istg