Crystalized Changeling (A HSR x Genshin Impact Crossover)

Chapter 4

Alhaitham is typing on his computer, decoding the corruption magic with his power. He's been trying for four hours to decipher it yet, leads to no result. He rumpled his hair, frustrated with the result each time.

"This is harder than I thought." He muttered quietly as he leaned on his chair.

Usually the corrupted magic he had to deal with are low class type of corruption to him, he could decipher them in a breeze.

He lend out his hand as he summoned his decoding magic. Numbers and ancient words appeared on top of his palm, floating. CKLEK! The door swung opened, revealing a muscular man wearing an alabastous head, he wore a suit made with the finest material indicating his high position. Alhaitham turned around, he squinted his eyes.

"Your home early." Alhaitham said as he rise from his place, the man opened his alabastous head, revealing a beautiful man with purple wavy hair, and dazzling magenta eyes. The man seemed tired as he ruffled his hair.

"My students are surprisingly easier to handle than the previous encounters, it seemed that my teaching has been quite effective as of recently." He stated, his British accent showing through his voice.
The man named was Ratio, well.. Dr Ratio if you go by his educational title.

He's Alhaitham adopted brother who is a teacher in a famous university and an advisor for the Intelligentsia guild, a guild made to tarnish crimes and spread knowledge. He noticed the video on Alhaitham laptop, he could feel the corruption magic that is strong behind it.

"Ah, an evidence for your job perhaps?" He guessed, pointing at the video. Alhaitham nodded. Ratio walks towards the laptop, taking a closer look.

"This seemed like a level sklirá type of corruption." He muttered to himself, analyzing the corrupted video frames by frame.

In the Intelligentsia Guild archives, corruption magics are divided into different ranks based on the difficulty to decipher it. Aneta being the lowest level of corruption and eidikòs being the highest level of corruption. Sklirà is the hard level of corruption. As Ratio analyzed the corruption carefully, he enhanced the screen.

"How long have you been trying to decipher it for?" Ratio asked, turning to him. Alhaitham sighed.

"Four hours." Alhaitham responded, darting his eyes away. Ratio only hummed as he put his fingers on his chin.

"I see." He muttered quietly, painting a quiet sly smirk as if he figured it all out.

"If you want to decipher it dear brother, I suggest you do it like this." He moved his hand effortlessly pressing the buttons on the floating keyboard.

In mere seconds, the corruption was resolved. He gave the screen to Alhaitham. Alhaitham eyes widened before sighing.

"You've never failed to impress me."
Alhaitham said with an aloof tone, his brother always exceed him in some ways in terms of sorcery, knowledge and philosophy thinking. Ratio only chuckled in arrogance as if he's proud of himself.

"As usual, though If you want to practice your neutralizing skills, I suggest you practice with other people and stepped out of your comfort zone. You can't keep handling things on your own after all." Ratio advised as he Pat him on the back, Alhaitham didn't respond and only stare at the video.

Seeing how Alhaitham didn't respond, Ratio only smiled sadly as he ruffled Alhaitham's hair before leaving. Alhaitham was shocked and confuses as he watch Ratio leave.

"The heck..." He tidied up his hair again and glance at the video.

There's some time where he couldn't understand what his brother was thinking and this is one of them, emotions is not really something he could understand. He decided to brush it off and played the video, watching it carefully. The figure was there running but they stopped, turning to the surveillance camera.

He could see a strand of a long brown wavy hair, the shined from her eyes peek through the shadows. The figure grinned and spoke.

"The game is about to begin." Is what she seemed to say before the video distruptly end.

Alhaitham slammed his hands on his desk, shocked with what they said, he looked down trying to process it.

"What do they mean by that?"