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Silence...so quiet yet so loud at the same time. The streets of Mondstadt had been eerily quiet that morning, minus the sound of heavy rain hitting roof tops and the sound of the wind blowing.
The silence had followed into Jean’s office, as the blonde woman chipped away at paperwork, only the sound of her pen hitting paper could be heard. Yet, the silence would very quickly come to an end when an out of breath, soaked knight rushed in. “Grand Acting Master- Hurry- there’s no time to explain!” The panic in Lawrence’s voice caught Jean’s attention.
“Wait Lawrence, slow down for a minute- what happened?” The blonde woman stood up, dropping her pen onto her desk.
“T-the bridge! It’s covered in monsters! Hilichurls in the hundreds! Abyss mages. We need all the knights out there!” The knight explained as shortly as he could, not that his short breath would allow for a longer explanation anyway.
Jean’s brow furrowed and she sighed. “Head back as quick as possible, I’ll gather all the knights here.” She instructed before rushing out of her tidy office, abandoning the paperwork on her desk to be done another time.
The click of her shoes were loud as she rushed to the library, seeing Lisa slacking off, not like she didn’t expect that. “Lisa! This is an emergency, head to the front gate immediately. Gather any knights on guard on your way there!” Jean shouted, so Lisa could hear her from the distance between the door and her desk.
Jean left in such a hurry, leaving Lisa confused; but she assumed it must be important if Jean was in such a rush.
The next place Jean headed to was Kaeya’s office. Without even a knock, she pulled open the door to see Kaeya reading a book. “Kaeya, there is an emergency. The Abyss Order is attacking the front gate. You are needed. Immediately.” Jean demanded. Kaeya closed his book, standing up.
“Oh this may be quite the hassle. Such a shame, today was the perfect day to read.” Kaeya sighed, grabbing his sword and following the rushed blonde.
“Kaeya now is not the time! Just hurry up. Mondstadt is in danger.” Jean shook her head and grabbed Kaeya’s hand hastily, dragging the blue haired man along.
Their rushed walk was quiet. Kaeya could feel the heavy rain soak his hair, making it stick uncomfortably to his face. Now wasn’t exactly the time to complain though. Not when the safety of the mondstadt citizens were at risk.
Upon arriving at the scene, Kaeya realised that this was a much bigger problem than anticipated. There were hundreds of them, and the knights already there seemed to be struggling. Understandably so. Jean rushed in to help, pulling out her sword and going for a few Hilichurls first.
Kaeya sighed for a moment. It always hurt to fight Hilichurls, they were his people after all. He cared about the safety of Mondstadt though, so he had to do everything in his power to protect it, even if he ended up betraying his own. One day he would help build up Khaenri’ah again, but till that day, he had to be on Mondstadts side. With swift movement, Kaeya pulled out his sword and stabbed a Hilichurl that had come running at him.
The rain was the best time for him to fight, after all he could simply freeze them. The Khaenri’ahan male ran towards a group of Hilichurls, freezing them before swinging his sword at all of them at one. The heavy rain made it harder to see, and harder to keep a grip on his sword. Such minor inconveniences could not distract him though. If they were to win, they’d have to put their all into it.
Kaeya ran towards another Hilichurl, kicking it down before stabbing his sword through its chest. Blood oozed out, a disgusting site to say the least but quickly washed away by the rain.
As more Hilichurls approached, Kaeya froze them and cut them all in half. Their blood appeared frozen. A sight Kaeya had never actually noticed before. Perhaps he should mention it to Albedo sometime. The alchemist had been studying Hilichurls afterall.
The crowd of Hilichurls seemed everlasting, they hadn’t even gotten to the Abyss Mages yet, who seemed to linger at the back of the crowd, almost as a last resort.
Even with the rain on his side, it appeared they were losing. There was a smidgen of hope left though, as Kaeya managed to see over the crowd of hilichurls, it appeared there were 20 or so left.
Things took a swift turn when a Hilichurl, armed, managed to get a really bad hit on Jean, who stumbled backwards, a pained gasp leaving her lips.
“JEAN!” Kaeya shouted, freezing the Hilichurls in front of her before swiftly grabbing her and pulling her away from the crowd.
“There are so many,” Jean said, her voice quiet compared to the loud rain. Her Injury wasn’t fatal, just a nasty slash to the arm.
A few of the knights were knocked down as well. It was quite obvious that they weren’t going to win this.
That’s when a dark figure with fiery red hair jumped down from seemingly nowhere, taking out 5 Hilichurls at once.
The red flames, seemingly unaffected by the rain, took at a lot of Hilichurls at once, burning them seemingly to a crisp. A sad way to go, truly. Luck seemed to be on Diluc’s side, as the 2 or so Abyss Mages were both Cryo, making murdering them an easy task for Diluc.
As he stabbed the last Abyss Mage, Kaeya approached him, clapping. He stood in front of Diluc, back now faced to the bridge where enemies once cascaded from, which was now stained with their blood.
“Oh my Diluc, quite the performance I must say. I am impressed. In Fact, I must thank you. We would’ve been in the same state of those hilichurls if you hadn’t of stepped in.” Kaeya grinned, menacingly.
“You knights have always been so inefficient. How pathetic. You couldn’t even take out a few Hilichurls-“ Diluc cut himself off. With a concerned look on his face, he appeared to be looking over Kaeya’s shoulder.
“What’s wrong? Cat got your-“ Kaeya’s sentence was cut off by Diluc harshly shoving him to the side. He could hear many gasp. It took the Cryo vision wielding man to adjust himself and look over.
A horrified look painted Kaeya’s face, like a mother discovering her child missing without a trace.
There, pierced through Diluc’s chest, was an arrow. Blood started to pool under Diluc, so bright that it competed with his hair.
Kaeya felt himself tear up.
“D..diluc?” The usual confidence in his voice dissipated, instead replaced with a soft, delicate voice. Like the voice of a lost child.
Kaeya couldn’t believe the sight in front of his eyes. It had to be an illusion.. Right? Just a nightmare. So why did the rain on his face feel so real.
Kaeya looked up from the horrifying site to see the one Hilichurl they missed. An Electro, crossbow user.
Without a second though, Kaeya ran towards it. With no sense of humanity left, Kaeya stabbed it into the chest. He could only see red as he began to repeatedly stab it in the head and chest with his sword, until it was horribly disfigured and it’s wine red blood stained the stone of the bridge, so much so that not even the rain could wash it away.
The tears, which had been held back by Kaeya’s anger, began to flow. It was hard to tell the difference between them and the hard hitting rain.
Kaeya turned and rushed towards his brother, kneeling by his side. Jean was already by his side, seeing what she could do to stop the bleeding, but she had discovered it would be a lost cause with her skill set. When Kaeya joined Diluc’s side, she stood up, backing away a little before running off to find Barbara.
Diluc barely seemed to be awake, his eyes barely open.
“Diluc… Diluc please don't go. i’m so sorry.” Kaeya began to sob into the uninjured part of his chest. Blood spilled from the red head’s mouth, spilling onto Kaeya’s fur jacket but he dared not care. “I’m so sorry diluc. I’m so sorry we couldn’t help him. I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. I’m sorry I kept working with the knights. Oh my Archon this is all my fault I'm so sorry.” Kaeya sobbed harder.
Diluc was barely clinging on. With the last of his strength he whispered. “I never truly hated you Kaeya. Lies could never change who you were. They could never change the Kaeya I grew up with. So Remember, I love you, brother.” Diluc managed to get out before he felt the life start slipping away from him. As he felt his eyes get heavier, he started to remember their childhood. Growing up with Kaeya. The times they would go steal a few grapes from their fathers garden. Their times as knights together. It was a shame their relationship had been tainted. Even if Kaeya was a traitor, he would always care for his brother dearly. Even if it was the death of him.
Diluc’s eyes finally closed, likely for the last time in his life. “Diluc?” Kaeya whispered, shaking his brother slightly. He started to sob harder as he got no response. The once confident man was reduced to sobs and sniffles.
Kaeya let out a pained sob, loud enough that the whole of Teyvat could hear, carried by the winds that seemed just as pained as he.