Demons in Teyvat?!

🌸 ℂ𝕙𝕒𝕡𝕥𝕖𝕣 𝟙𝟞 🌊

Liyue City. Lumine Viatrix

Lumine was never one to be surprised. After all, she had travelled many worlds, seen many very strange, strange things. After traveling all over Teyvat, she had thought that once her journey was finished, the oddity in her life would finally fade away. Right? Wrong. Especially because she had decided to keep that ginger head in her life, who seemed to keep getting into trouble even after the abyssal war. Yes. He was the reason for the never ending headache that throbbed in her skull. 

She felt that, every day, her patience was being tested to a new level. After finding Aether, she had felt that the other half of her rationality that she had lost had finally returned. But after being apart for so long, it was times that he was not at her side that she felt she really felt lost. Like last night, watching Bennet and that demon- Y/N- go up in violet flames.

Lumine remembered how the flames had rose so high into the sky, so high it had seemed that the tips of the tendrils of fire touched the stars above them. How she had wanted to rush forward, to help, or do something, but found herself frozen. She had reached forward, towards the scorching heat, and she remembered sparks flying onto her finger tips; but they were not scorching hot, but rather, warm and comforting. 

In the end it was Childe who had reached into the flames and pulled Y/N out. Because of course it was Childe. He was impulsive, but perhaps that part of him- the part that thought fast and acted faster- was why he had survived for so long. She had envied him, in that moment. She was always too slow to react to surprise.

Which was why Lumine wasn't sure how she felt with this new revelation, and she couldn't help the thoughts that arose as she looked down at Bennet, who was sleeping peacefully. You wouldn't be able to tell that he was on the brink of death less than 12 hours ago by his current state. Y/N's ability- power, magic, she didn't know- truly was remarkable. But it was foreign, and being left in the dark was never a good feeling.

Lumine closed her eyes and thought, hard. What worlds had she been to, that had demons in them? There was one, that had been infested with man eating monsters, so horrendous and disfigured she had almost vomited the first time she had seen one, and the stench- like a corpse had somehow risen from the ground and come to life. Or perhaps, this other world, whose primordial god relied on draining the life sources of human sacrifices, to survive? In those worlds, that was what was considered a demon. A monster. But what exactly, was a demon?

She did not know. Y/N sure did not look like a monster. She did not have horns, or wings on her back. She had teeth, and claws, yes, but so did cats and tigers- did that make them monsters too? She sighed, slowly sitting down on a chair beside Bennett's bed (she promised Razor she would tell him when he awoke) and closed her eyes. An image of the little she-demon came to mind, a close eyed smile on her fair skinned face. When was this? Right- it was the day after she had woke up, after the attack. She had looked so happy, like nothing had happened to her before. 

She had not looked like a demon then. But... Lumine had seen it. The look on her face, inside the flames. Perhaps it was just the flames, disorienting Y/N's lovable features... but Lumine could have sworn that she looked... what was the word...

"Lumi! I heard what happened, are you alright? Turn around, let me check, no cuts, scratches, or bruises-" Lumine sighed and stood as her twin flitted around her, clucking like a mother hen.

...hungry.

~🌸🌊~

"Today, you learn how to detect demons." They were at the edge of the Chasm today. Y/N had borrowed Scaramouche's Kasa hat (Which he very, very reluctantly gave up for the day) so she could come out an hour before nightfall. She looked rather happy with it on, even though she wasn't accustomed to the weight so it sat lopsided on her head.

"...Okay?" Childe spun on his heel, digging a hole into the soft mud. Y/N looked over, then began spinning pirouettes on the spot, working a deep indent into the ground. "Normally, you can detect demons by their scent. However, the strongest vision bearers should be able to detect demons- and their aura, strengths, and weaknesses- even if they are across the region. Even the weakest-" Xiao gave him a look. "will be able to detect such a pungent scent of death with their sixth sense." He continued. "Down there," Xiao gestured to the bottom of the chasm with with the tip of his spear. "There is one. Just one. Find it, kill it, and come back. That is all." Childe blinked.

"Hey, hey-" Xiao had already turned around. "Wait, what exactly am I supposed to do? Sixth sense? Do I just find something that looks like a demon and kill it?" Xiao paused, before giving him a deadpan look over his shoulder. "I can't tell you how, mortal," He bit out. "You have to figure it out for yourself." And then he turned back around. Why, that insufferable- no. Childe groaned, before turning back to the chasm. Don't lose your temper, Childe, he told himself. You are much better than some century old emo adeptus who just happens to be very bad at teaching. You can do this. 

Childe jumped.

The wind rushed through his ears, and out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a stray hillichurl camp. He grinned, launching himself off of the cliff edge towards it, then plunging down onto the head of an unsuspecting mitachurl. The monster fell, the ground shaking as its body hit the ground. A hillichurl holding a pyro slime turned towards him, but he cut it down before it had the chance to throw it. He kicks the slime into the air, sprinting off and shooting it with a hydro arrow as it falls down onto the tottering samachurl. It explodes, sending the samachurl hurling into the rocks. He grinned. He had missed this. But he couldn't get side tracked. 

Childe quickly slashed his way through the hillichurl camp, collected the drops, and then made his way into a dark cave. If a demon could hide anywhere, it would probably be somewhere dark, right? ...Right? That was what he thought, at least. He whistled as he headed deeper in the cave, spotting a cor lapis sticking out from the white iron but deciding to ignore it. It would take him too long, and it would only hinder him in a fight. With a demon, he would need all the speed he could get. 

He reached the end of the cave and stopped to glance around. The air smelled stale. But it didn't seem like anything out of the question. Just dry, and humid, like the rest of Liyue. But... Childe fell to to his knees, squinting as he examined a small track dug into the dirt. Large swoops of shallow trenches swirled around the ground. Like something had been dragged around, until- his eyes followed the tracks to the shallow pool in front of him. The Noctilucous peppering the wall behind it glimmered, but their colour was- off. They seemed dull, and didn't have their usual blue shine. The water bubbled. Childe stepped closer. He grinned, summoning his hydro blades. This was it. "I've got you now," He whispered. With that, he summoned his hydro blades and leapt eagerly into the swirling water.

~🌸🌊~