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Xiao knows even as he forces his power into the artifact that it won’t be enough. He pushes himself further, dons his mask, but it still isn’t even close to filling the void left in the Fantastic Compass. He knows Yelan feels it too as he watches the corners of her mouth slowly fall from a hopeful smile to a stony expression. Still she tries, channeling her limited energy even as she strikes down the distressed spirits of those poor souls trapped in the rift of space-time.

The final yaksha knows a lost cause when he sees one. As his mask shatters he resolutely ignores the fragments of clay digging into his face and pulls together all the energy left in his body. His eyes slip shut for a moment as he collects himself, and when he opens them again his companions are enclosed in pillars of glowing, jade green light. He feels a ghost of a smile curl across his face involuntarily, even as his body struggles to keep itself upright with so little energy left in it.

Yelan realizes what he’s done a mere second too late, and Xiao can see her eyes widen in a mixture of emotions he can’t quite put a name to. She reaches out for him, but her hand just barely brushes his shoulder when it vanishes along with the rest of her. Xiao is left alone on the platform as it splinters and shatters without the sustaining energy of a yaksha and human in sync.

As the floor drops out from under him, Xiao feels a brief flash of fear. The darkness around him is absolute and unbroken, and he finds that terror of the unknown quickly fades into something more akin to peace, then acceptance. Against his will, the boy’s eyes slide shut as his consciousness leaves him for what is most likely the last time.

Already half gone, Xiao misses the golden streams of pure geo that reach for his limp body. The tendrils of elemental energy grab for the small form, but as he falls further into the quickly closing rift they are forced to retreat. The boy adeptus loses himself in the pictures flashing across his closed eyelids as the unchanging darkness pulls him further and further down.

At the very beginning of his life, Alatus is happy. The young spirit knows nothing of war or peace, and his only concern is that the crystal clear streams have begun to freeze over with the coming of winter. He stretches his wings and soars through endless blue skies, not a care in the world. Then the war begins.

Alatus sees nothing but the blood and death and carnage surrounding him. The god who will become his master extends a hand to him and asks him gently what his name is. When the foolish little spirit answers, the god’s kind smile twists with cruelty. Chains encircle the child as he cries out in fear and his master watches on silently.

The centuries pass in a blur of pain and regret. Alatus is his master’s favorite weapon, and she calls upon him often. He kills quickly and easily, and he rips sweet dreams from the mortals scattered across the plains. His master is not satisfied. She is never satisfied with him. She tells him that her enemies must suffer. He complies. Even as the screams and pleas for mercy make his stomach churn, he offers not a look of pity to his victims.

As time goes on, his novelty fades. His master finds more toys. Alatus is left alone for longer and longer, and he must fend for himself if he wants to survive. Sometimes the boy feeds on the dreams of the people below. They dream of nothing but war and fear. Their dreams are bitter and hard to swallow.

More often, there are no people. Alatus’s master is feared, and few mortals are brave enough to live in her realm. When there are no people, the boy eats whatever he can find. Most days he lives off of the snow that collects in the highest parts of the territory. Occasionally, when the hot months come and melt the snow, he stretches his bloodied wings that ache from disuse and devours the clouds that cover the land in a thick grey smog.

His master calls him to fight once more and Alatus obliges, just as he always has. He raises the gnarled claws that stretch from his hands and leaps into battle with an unmatched fervor. His adrenaline fades quickly. The fight drags out and he begins to slow. In the end, his master is the one to deal the finishing blow. She turns to the spirit who shrinks back in fear, and smiles a gentle smile at him.

The kind smile is one Alatus has seen only when he was first tricked into serving the god. Just as it did that fateful day, the turn of the woman’s lips changes to signal cruelty rather than calm as she beckons her servant forward. He has no choice, and so he approaches her. She stares down at him and her cold smile falls into a frown.

She tells the boy that he has grown drunk on the freedom she’s given him. She says a servant who refuses to serve is of no use to her. She says she has no reason to keep him. She approaches. As she cradles his face in her hands, he fears. She is smiling the kind smile again.

She moves behind him and grabs one of his wings, pinned to his back. She pulls on it, stretches it out. Alatus cranes his neck in an attempt to see behind him, but his effort is in vain. Her hands brush gently over the neglected feathers, bedraggled and permanently stained a rusty red. She grabs one suddenly, and the spirit barely stops himself from pulling his wings back in. She hums in satisfaction. She pulls the feather out.

She pulls every feather out, one by one. Alatus can do nothing but wait for his punishment to end. He can do nothing but tell himself that at least he is not dead. He can’t help but feel that death would be preferable to this. Hours or days or years later, when the final feather is pulled from the naked protrusions on the boy’s back, Alatus allows himself to relax slightly.

He is unprepared for the agony of his master’s claws slicing through the muscles holding his wings to the rest of his body. He bites down on his tongue to stop himself from screaming and tastes blood. She rests her bloodied hand on his head as he falls to the ground and runs her fingers through his knotted hair. She tells him that he should have done better. She leaves. Alatus loses consciousness.

When he wakes, he is in a room of a mortal style shelter. He shoots off the oddly soft ground and is on his feet in a fighting stance before the white haired woman in flowing blue clothing who sits at the other end of the room can react. He eyes her warily, but decides that he can defeat her easily. Her blue eyes are calm and gentle, and they comfort him as much as they put him on edge.

She smiles at him, but her smile doesn’t twist and distort the way his master’s does. She beckons him to sit down on the soft spot of ground, tells him that he’ll reopen his wounds by moving too much. Alatus doesn’t trust her, but he sees no other option. He sits and waits as she tells him of things he doesn’t care about. He waits until he hears footsteps approach and sees the woman, who introduced herself as Guizhong, turn to greet whoever is nearing him. When she’s distracted he jumps up and runs.

He makes it about two steps before his body protests and his back burns with a searing hot pain that knocks his breath out of him. He collapses to the ground and feels too many hands on him to be just Guizhong, who he only tentatively trusts since she didn’t stab him while he slept. Alatus tries his best to throw off the hands, but his struggles cease quickly as he succumbs to exhaustion once again.

When he opens his eyes, there are two people watching him. Guizhong has been joined by a man with long brown hair and amber eyes that glow in the light of the sun. The man is definitely a god, and his aura suggests that his power is stronger than even his master’s. Alatus decides not to let the man out of his sight.

He soon finds out that the man is known as Morax, God of War and Contracts. As Alatus recovers, he discovers that the god is much kinder than he first appears. He is careful to remain in the wounded spirit’s line of sight to help him feel safe, and he often pours his own divine power into the boy to speed up his healing. The god also protects a group of humans who he rules alongside Guizhong. As his back slowly begins to heal, Alatus gradually allows himself to relax into the monotony of daily life in the Guili Plains.

When he is nearly healed the immortal is approached by Morax, without Guizhong by his side for once. The god has a serious and slightly regretful look on his face, and Alatus is immediately on guard. He watches the man warily as he seems to struggle to find words. When he finally speaks, the spirit listens to his proposal silently.

Morax offers him a contract. He says the boy should serve the God of War as one of his yaksha and swear to protect the mortals for as long as he lives. In return, the god offers him a new name and a new beginning away from the fear associated with the title of Alatus. He asks if he can consider it for a while. Morax agrees.

At first, Alatus wants to refuse. Never again does he want to be tethered to a god after what his master had done. But the more he considers it, the more he wants to accept. He’s already noticed how differently the mortals treated him as opposed to Guizhong. They whisper about him in the streets and usher their young inside when he passes by. His fearsome reputation is perfect for the battlefield, but does him no good outside of it.

On the day Guizhong declares him fully healed, Alatus kneels before Morax and pledges his loyalty. The god gives him the name Xiao and smiles fondly down at him. Xiao finds the will somewhere deep within himself to smile back.

As the years go by in a blur of battles and peacetimes, Xiao finds that his new role is much better than he’d dared to hope for. His fellow yaksha are kind and cheerful, quick to include him in all their activities but understanding when he declines. Whenever he isn’t fighting, Xiao finds himself with Guizhong, and by extension, Morax. At first he bows to the warrior god out of fear, but the gesture quickly turns to one of respect. Even as the war ravages the lands around the Plains, Xiao often finds himself more content than he can ever recall being.

Of course, all things must come to an end. as more and more rival gods are felled, the competition between those who remain becomes even fiercer. A few of these surviving opponents set their sights on the Guili Plains and the two deities who defend them. As the battles in the surrounding area become less and less frequent, the inhabitants of the land gradually let their guards down. When the attack comes, they are woefully unprepared.

The yaksha are well within the walls bordering the land when the first wave of attackers appears. They arm themselves and make their way to the fight quickly, but those few precious minutes they lose are costly. By the time they’ve made a noticeable difference in the opposing forces, the wall is beginning to crumble in multiple places. Even with Morax on their side, there are too many weak points for the enemy to exploit.

They breach the wall and flood the streets, uncaring of the humans they crush below them. Guizhong holds them back, buys the mortals precious time to escape. The Goddess of Dust has always been more of a thinker than a fighter, but she makes an admirable effort. Still, by the time Morax and Xiao make to to her side, her eyes are as empty as the vacated streets. As Morax mourns Xiao dives into the battle with a vengeance, decimating the fools who dared to end the first being to show him kindness.

When Morax, newly crowned Geo Archon, leads the survivors of the war to the edge of the ocean, he leaves his yaksha to defend the rest of the new land of Liyue. Although they’re still reeling from the loss of Guizhong, they know that their duty has to come first. And if Xiao happens to come back at the end of a mission with injuries from a monster he should be able to defeat easily, one of the others will patch him up without asking questions. They’ve all had days like that recently.

Even after the archon war ends, the yaksha still have just as many responsibilities. Their work changes from defeating living gods to dealing with their deaths and the karma unleashed by them. Outside of the harbor the land of Liyue is inhospitable, covered in ghost villages and dead zones no mortal can enter.

Over time, the work starts to wear on them. Evenings full of cheer and laughter become rarer and rarer, and the five of them are so busy that it’s nearly impossible to catch them in the same place. The old gods never truly die, and their influence lingers for millennia. But despite their increased workload and fraying nerves, the yaksha are nothing but kind to one another. Each of them know what the others are going through, and when they do get to relax together it’s always a breath of fresh air.

On one mission that Xiao can barely remember, he meets a bard clad in green. The boy follows him all day despite the yaksha’s attempts to shake him off, and by the time the annoyance pops up in front of his campfire in the dead of night Xiao has given up. The boy proceeds to sit down right next to the fire and pull an entire bottle of wine out of nowhere as Xiao stares in confusion. The bard ignores the yaksha completely as he downs the entire bottle of wine, pulls out a second bottle, and then downs that one too. The adeptus has just decided to ignore the boy when he suddenly speaks.

“What do you fight for?”

The yaksha turns back to the bard, who now has a serious expression on the face still slightly rounded with baby fat. Xiao waits for clarification, but none is forthcoming. When he doesn’t answer immediately the bard pulls a third bottle out of his hat and takes a long drink, seemingly content with ignoring the spirit again. As they sit in silence, Xiao considers. What does he fight for? The obvious answer is for his master, for Liyue, but that doesn’t feel right.

He thinks for a while longer, but still has no idea what to say. When Xiao turns to tell the bard as much, he’s gone. In his place is a light green gemstone pulsing softly in time with his heartbeat. In time Xiao forgets the bard, the mission, and the day that it happened, but he never forgets the question. No matter how hard he thinks, he never finds a satisfactory answer.

The centuries pass with little fanfare. The gods do not vanish over time as Xiao had hoped, and soon he is away from the home he shares with the other yaksha for weeks, then months, at a time. They are all so focused on their job that they pay no mind to their growing fatigue and fading memory. Some of them are even thankful for the latter. They have lived too long, and they all have things they would rather forget.

In time, rumors of the great civilization of humans reach even the isolated adepti. The mortal worshippers who used to flock to the edges of Jueyun Karst have thinned in number, and the few who still come whisper of an end to the time of the divine. They speak in hushed tones of the nation of Khaenri’ah, where there are no gods and no person wants for food or shelter. Xiao listens silently as the winds carry the quiet words to him. He already knows how these things end.

The divine beings of Liyue begin to prepare for a war. As Khaenri’ah’s power and influence grow, it’s only a matter of time before Celestia takes notice. When Celestia sees humans who dare to reach for the stars, they will call on the divine to extinguish their light. They reach for their weapons with a grim acceptance, a kind of apathy that comes only from experience. It’s not as if they care about what the humans do, but they have a contract with Morax and Morax has a contract with Celestia. So they know, as surely as the sun will rise the next day, that they will be called to stamp out those who have dared to want for more.

But the sun does not rise the next day. The sky itself is blotted out by beasts of flesh and metal alike, raining down upon the seven nations like a warped version of divine judgement from those who fancy themselves gods. Khaenri’ah has launched the first attack. This is an unexpected, but obviously desperate move. For all their posturing, they know they cannot stand up to the Archons and win. This invasion is only meant to stall the gods and allow the people to prepare.

Unfortunately for the now doomed nation, their plan has the opposite effect. Morax and the other members of the Seven set off for Khaenri’ah immediately in an attempt to put an end to the attack. Xiao and the other adepti join forces with the mortal Millelith to defend Liyue Harbour from the encroaching army, and for a time it feels like a second coming of the archon war. The Khaenri’ahns commanding the metallic monsters draw on the old gods for power, even going so far as to release them from their seals. The battlefield is pure chaos, and Alatus can no longer distinguish friend from foe.

He loses himself in his bloodlust, and when he resurfaces it’s already over. The Khaenri’ahns make a hasty retreat and the people of Liyue regroup. Head still spinning from the battle, Alatus makes for the one place he feels truly safe, although he can no longer recall exactly where that is.

He finds himself in a field of ruins seething with the ancient energies of countless fallen gods. Alatus’ head whips from side to side as he searches desperately for the reason he’s come to an unmarked mass grave, the reason his weary feet moved in this direction when he didn’t know where to go.

He sees them then. The four silhouettes are barely visible, far on the other end of the plains, but Xiao would recognize his family anywhere. Even with his vision flickering and his legs close to giving out, he makes his way towards the four adepti he loves most. He arrives just in time to see Bonanus drive her hand through Menogias’s chest.

Xiao watches on in horror as Menogias spits a pitch black liquid glowing with hints of toxic green, the same substance flowing from his chest where there should be blood. Bonanus doesn’t even pause to question what’s happened to the man she once loved as a brother, instead charging in for the kill with her gnarled, blood stained claws. Her four eyed mask lies in pieces at their feet, dripping with that same corrupted liquid.

Menogias moves with the same grace as always, even with a gaping hole in his chest, and unleashes a ball of condensed geo energy at the hydro yaksha’s head. Bonanus doesn’t even get the chance to react before dissolving into sooty black dust. The death of Liyue’s guardian releases a wave of malignant energy across the already wrecked plains, and its only then that Xiao realizes. The karma of the fallen gods the yaksha have fought for centuries is finally catching up to them.

He’s pulled from his thoughts by yet another pulse of bad karma so strong it makes him gag. The anemo yaksha looks up just in time to see his geo counterpart crumble into that same toxic green and pitch black corruption. Xiao can feel himself struggling to breathe, and he’s not sure if it’s the shock of watching his closest friends killing each other or the karmic debt finally taking him out. He doesn’t think he would mind the second. Forgetting it all becomes a more appealing option by the minute.

Not even the thought of his rapidly approaching demise dulls Xiao’s instincts enough that he can’t sense a blow approaching him. He spins and blocks the attack with his spear, only to find himself face to face with Indarias. His breath hitches as he takes in the scope of the karma affecting his sister in all but blood. Pure black veins with an eerie green glow cover her face, and the wounds where shards of her mask have cut into her face leak a nauseating liquid corruption.

Indarias let’s put a garbled hiss that no truly sentient being could create and pushes against his spear, nearly snapping the polearm with her warped strength. Xiao pleads with her, begging her to stop, even though he knows it’s useless. This thing has stopped being the Indarias he loved long ago. It would be kinder, both to the Indarias he knew and this twisted shell, to end it quickly and mercifully, but he can’t bring himself to do it. Whenever he raises the jade-winged spear to attack rather than defend, he finds himself hesitating.

It is only when it becomes clear that this husk of his friend will kill him that Xiao manages to wound her. Still, when the beast in a yaksha’s skin cowers from his blade, he very nearly gives in and lets it take him out. Only his contract with Morax stops him. Personal feelings aside, he is obligated to protect Liyue. If he lets a crazed adeptus ravage the lands then he has failed both his lord and his friends. He looks away. The blade comes down.

Bosacius is gone. Alatus isn’t sure if he was ever truly there to begin with. He stares out over the rubble covered grasslands, taking in the view yet seeing nothing. In the back of his mind he knows that he should leave this place before any more malignant energy seeps into him, but his limbs are too heavy to move. He’s dealt with the threat to Liyue. Is his duty complete yet?

Rex Lapis finds his last yaksha sprawled out in a valley of rubble and dying grass. He picks the boy up and carries him to the nearest settlement. He treats the adeptus’s wounds. He waits for the spirit to wake. He prays to anyone who will listen that he’ll never have to see this little one in such a sorry state again.

No one is listening.

The boy wakes to amber eyes meeting his and a sudden feeling of deja vu. The man on the other end of the room rushes to his bedside as the boy struggles to sit up, his body protesting even the smallest movement. For a single terrifying moment, he can’t recall who he is or how he got here. Then his lord whispers his name, barely a breath, and Xiao remembers.

The memories of the battle’s aftermath hit the yaksha all at once with the force of one of Khaenri’ah’s metal monstrosities. His lord can only stand with his hands just above the adeptus’s shoulders, afraid to touch him in case it makes things worse. When the boy pushes himself into his god’s arms, the whole story comes spilling out. Rex Lapis listens with a stony expression as Xiao tells him of the other yaksha and their descent into madness. His face only softens as the spirit struggles to tell his master that he’d slain one of his family, who he’d promised to fight to the death to protect. Morax promises the still too small adeptus that he did the right thing, and that it will all be alright. Xiao already knows that he’s lying, but it’s a lie he’s happy to believe.

The recovery is long and hard. The wounds the yaksha had sustained during the battle were tainted with lingering karma and refused to close properly, not to mention the fact that the burden he bore had doubled in a single day. Xiao was forced to take new medicines to keep the karma and its symptoms at bay, and he desperately wanted to return to his duties. This made for a difficult challenge of keeping him in bed. Still, in time, his injuries vanished.

Despite his full physical recovery, it was obvious to those few who knew him that the yaksha was damaged irreparably. The loss of his friends coupled with taking on their responsibilities was almost sure to destroy him. And yet, the adeptus adjusts. He takes on the role of protecting all of Liyue from its divine ancestors, and he succeeds. The thrill of battle keeps at bay the voices that have started to whisper poisonous thoughts into the darkest recesses of his brain, and the exhaustion of a fight stops him from involuntarily acting on those inescapable thoughts.

Even as the decades begin to blur together again and the burdens weigh him down further, even as the voices get louder, even as that disgusting black shot through with green begins to encroach on the edges of his vision, Xiao stands resolute. He fulfills his duty, and on the nights where the whispers grow to a deafening roar he takes comfort in the clear sound of the Dihua Flute that ring out across the marsh.

When the Traveler comes bearing news of Rex Lapis’ death, Xiao doesn’t believe them. The common people may have fallen for this ploy, but yaksha know what happens when a god dies. He plays along only because he doesn’t yet know what the goal of this trick is.

As Osial rears his watery heads and sets his sights on Liyue Harbour, Xiao waits for his lord to appear. Even though he’s gone along with this pretend death so far, there’s no way the Geo Archon would leave the people he’s raised from nothing to fend for themselves. When one of the heads lashes out and threatens to tear the docks from the shores, Xiao realizes that no one is coming. His lord is truly gone, and he is Liyue’s last line of defense. His duty will never end. He faces yet another ancient god with a heavy heart.

After the battle for the harbor is won, Xiao retreats back to Wangshu Inn. He stares up at the stars and tries to spot the other yakshas’ constellations. He can’t find them no matter how hard he looks. As his eyes sweep across the cloudless sky, the adeptus’s thoughts begin to drift. He wonders what became of Bosacius. The electro yaksha is the only one he didn’t watch perish, and he’s heard rumors of a nameless yaksha who defended the soldiers in the battle for the Chasm. If there’s the slightest chance that one of his family still lives, he needs to know.

He doesn’t realize the man is there until they’re shoulder to shoulder on the inn’s balcony. When he looks to the side and his golden eyes meet amber, Xiao wonders for a brief moment if he’s already dead. Then, the god beside him remarks on the types of water plants in the inn’s pots and the yaksha knows that this is real. Why would he need to know about indigenous species of Dihua Marsh? Before he realizes what he’s done, Xiao finds himself in his lord’s arms.

Rex Lapis Zhongli’s profuse apologies aren’t nearly enough to sway the yaksha towards forgiveness after the man explains his fake death. It takes two orders of almond tofu and a week before Xiao is willing to speak to his lord again. The only reason he gives in so easily is because of the idea that’s been stuck in the adeptus’s head since the fateful night that he discovered what an idiot his lord truly was. When Zhongli stops by to drop off more of Xiao’s medicine, he finally makes his request.

“My lord, may I go to the Chasm and make an attempt to find out what became of Bosacius?”

His lord looks surprised by the question,  frowning slightly.

“The trip will be dangerous.”

“I know. But I need to be sure-“ He can’t bring himself to finish that sentence, but they both know how it ends. He needs to be sure that Bosacius is dead, that Xiao is truly the final yaksha.

At last Zhongli acquiesces with a sigh. Despite the dangers it poses, he too can understand just how important closure is. Xiao will never be able to sleep easy as long as his brother’s fate remains uncertain. Of course, his lord requires his yaksha to return quickly. As Liyue’s final line of defense, he needs to be available immediately when he is called upon.

Xiao makes for the Chasm as soon as he is able. The pathetic barriers and mortal Millelith are no hindrance to the adeptus, and he soon discovers that someone has dispelled the seven-star array meant to protect the people from whatever malicious energies infected the mines years ago. Xiao sighs to himself at the thought of the work this will cause him and drops to the bottom of the hole.

He discovers the areas below the surface to be remarkably clean of both monsters and lingering karma. The rocky walls and wooden platforms are also noticeably bare of treasure chests. The Traveler’s work then. Their strength is admirable, even if Paimon’s greed and temper are often a source of annoyance for the yaksha. As he descends further into the depths, he secretly hopes to run into them.

Xiao’s wish is granted, even if the circumstances are not ideal. When he discovers a hole in the ground below one of Celestia’s pillars that radiates dark energy, his sense of duty compels him to investigate the potential threat to his nation’s safety.

He drops in and lands in a small space carved out of rock, complete with a domain entrance on one wall. In front of him is an odd group, consisting of the Traveler and Paimon, Yanfei, one of the mortals who works for Liyue’s leader, and two foreigners. The six of them are considering whether to enter the domain, but Xiao can feel the danger emanating from it. He warns them against it before he catches a hint of yet another energy, one he has not felt in the centuries since he became the sole bearer of the title of yaksha. Following that tantalizing feeling of Bosacius’ presence, he vanishes deeper into the darkness.

After a thorough investigation of the area he finds himself in, Xiao decides that the sense of power he’d felt was only a coincidence. The empty space is full of monsters, but none are so powerful or plentiful as to suggest a dead yaksha’s influence may be affecting them. Logically Xiao knows that this most likely means Bosacius was never here at all, but the one spark of hope that has never fully vanished despite his best efforts whispers to him that it could mean his brother still lives. Against his better judgment, he continues on.

The voices of the bygone gods are curiously silent in this space, but their taunts and insults have instead been replaced with the barely decipherable cries of the electro yaksha. Xiao runs deeper and further into the accursed domain, but the sounds never seem to get louder or softer. He calls desperately for his lost brother, but no one answers.

Xiao isn’t sure how long he searches the sub space before he hears it. His goal has changed from finding Bosacius to finding an exit as the walls warp around him and he can no longer retrace his steps. As he wanders the stone paths with an increasing sense of dread, he hears the faintest whisper of his true name in a voice he thought lost to time.

“Alatus?”

Xiao’s head whips around as he scans the open area around him, but he is alone save for the corpses of hilichurls at his feet.

“Bosacius? Where are you? It’s me, Alatus! I came for you! I’m here!” His calls become even more frantic as he cries out for the last remnant of his broken family, and the volume of the responses grow as he runs even deeper in.

Finally he reaches a stone room, one like all the others save for the fact that it’s the source of Bosacius’s voice. Alatus collapses against a wall in exhaustion as his eyes sweep across the four walls in an attempt to spot his comrade. Instead, a series of glowing portals appear and release purple fists shaped of electro energy, eerily reminiscent of the ones Bosacius used to call upon during battle. Alatus knows his brother yaksha is likely out of his mind from the dark karma, but he calls out anyways from that same pointless hope.

“Bosacius, is that you?”

The fists launch at the adeptus who barely leaps out of their way with a burst of anemo. As he looks up, Alatus sees a set of glowing purple eyes watching him from the one portal that hasn’t yet closed. He knows, even if he can’t see his face, that this is the electro yaksha.

“No, don’t do this, look at me! Don’t make me fight you!”

The eyes flicker out and another fist emerges in their place, hitting Alatus square in the chest. He gags and nearly falls to the ground as the fist dissipates, but forces himself back up. He runs towards the portal, only for it to vanish in front of him. It reappears further away, taunting him. Although he was fond of pranks, Bosacius had never acted like this before. When the other yaksha were affected by karma their minds had been filled with primal rage, not cold cruelty.

“But if you’re still alive, why have you become like this?”

His only answer is yet another barrage of electro energy. Xiao refuses to rise to what he now sees is bait.

“No, I won’t attack you.”

Whatever this thing is, it can’t be Bosacius. Although it seems to know of his fighting style, it only seems capable of replicating a scant few moves. Despite this however, it still makes for a tough opponent. In his attempts to dodge, he receives numerous scrapes and bruises.

Although they would normally be of no concern to him, the malicious energy infecting the entire domain seeps into his wounds. They weep a nauseating dark green energy, and Xiao is nearly doubled over in agony by the time

the remaining portals and traces of electro energy vanish all at once.

In their place is a glowing green void. Xiao can hear faint voices emanating from it, but he backs away for fear of it being dangerous. When he listens more closely however, these voices are familiar.

“…Isn’t resp… t’s going… here?”

Despite the barely decipherable question, Xiao would recognize Paimon’s annoyingly high pitched voice anywhere.

“You…”

Although there are many voices he’d rather be hearing, if Paimon is here then that means the Traveler is too, most likely with the same group as before. Xiao knows that at least two of them are capable, but they really should leave. As he goes to tell them so, Paimon’s garbled voice breaks through the rift once more.

“We… voice an… here. Bu… s kind o… nge, w… ouch you… id yo… me an illusion?”

This is definitely news to him.

“An illusion?”

Another voice cuts in then, saying something about the sounds of his fighting and what a lucky coincidence it was that they found him. Something about this seems odd to Xiao.

“A coincidence? Wait… something’s not right. Something’s wrong with this domain!” His words are interrupted by a hacking cough, his injuries still affecting him. He forces the most important part of his message out anyways. “Leave, now! Get out of here!”

The foolish mortals discuss regrouping and ‘saving him’ as if they can handle something even the final yaksha cannot. He sets them straight immediately.

“No, your safety is the top priority. It seems this space can-“

The fissure closes in the middle of his sentence, spewing green sparks that reek of malice in the adeptus’ face. He curses and turns away, deciding to focus on finding an exit for now.

As he walks onwards, his surroundings start to change. The smooth yet weathered and cracked stone walls gradually fade into the uncut rock of a cave, riddled with familiar scratches and blade marks that tell of battles long past. The greenery that slowly covers the ground is familiar, and makes Xiao pause.

“This is the Chasm… what did Bosacius go through here? And if he truly died in battle hundreds of years ago, what is he doing here? The one I saw, is it really him? The unnamed yaksha…”

Suddenly, another rift opens in front of him. As Xiao stares at it in confusion, Yanfei’s voice emanates from its depths.

“Conqueror of Demons, can you hear me? It’s Yanfei, the Traveler and I are trying to find you.” Sure enough, the blonde’s surprisingly even tone comes through soon after. “Xiao, are you there?”

He calls out to them in surprise despite the persistent ache in his throat from his cries to Bosacius. “…Traveler? Yanfei?”

After a pause, the younger adeptus’ voice comes through again. “Are you okay?”

Of course that’s what they’re worried about.

“I’m fine.”

The Traveler speaks up again despite their usual distaste for conversation. “We heard the sound of you fighting… what happened?”

Yanfei quickly cuts in, saving Xiao the effort of an explanation.

“Listen to me. It’s chaotic here. We may not be in the same space, but sometimes the sound can get through, which means these separate spaces intersect from time to time.”

It’s nothing he hasn’t already guessed, though confirmation is helpful. It takes a moment to realize that they’re probably awaiting a verbal response, so he settles for a simple agreement.

“…Everything is chaotic here.”

“Find a way to get to us,” the Traveler calls, as if it’s that simple.

“No. The darkness that sullies my soul is harmful to mortals.” He refuses to put innocents at risk for his own sake. Not again.

Yanfei barges in once again.

“We have more dangerous things to worry about than that. This space is using our urge to find you to lure us into traps. Without you here with us, our search for you could very well lead us into danger.”

“Please come.” the Traveler interjects. The desperation in their voice is surprising. Are they in more immediate trouble than it seems?

“So you’re in danger too?” If he can protect them, then maybe it is okay. As long as the good he does outweighs the harm of his presence it will be alright.

A pause. Xiao isn’t sure what he’s said wrong, but he feels the need to fill the silence.

“…There was no need for you to search for me.” He mustn’t forget what his presence does to people.

“But we’re worried about you!” Yanfei cries, “And earlier, the Traveler was tricked into entering a dangerous place…”

“It’s true,” comes the entirely too cheerful agreement.

He can’t. If his karmic debt drives them mad… he won’t bury another friend. But if they’re already in danger, his help could be the only way to prevent a death. It seems he has no choice.

“…How do we meet?” It’s a reluctant agreement, but an agreement nonetheless. It’s obviously enough for Yanfei, who is more than happy to explain her idea. Said idea is frustratingly vauge, but Xiao will make do.

He searches out the place where ‘their voices are clearest’ and lets his adeptal energy well up from within him. With a jab of his spear and a burst of anemo energy, he finds himself suspended in midair above the two not-quite-mortals of the traveling group. He drops to the ground immediately as a wave of pain runs through him, and the other occupants of the cave quickly move to support him.

They practically drag him back to their camp, but Xiao can’t find the energy to complain. His wounds are screaming and his head is throbbing, but at least the mortals won’t be killed searching for him. He tunes out Yanfei’s worries about his injuries and calmly reassures her.

“It’s just a flesh wound. I am fine. I shouldn’t let myself be a burden to you.”

Once again Yanfei’s stern lecture is ignored, this time in favor of taking stock of his various aches and pains. He hurts there, there, there, and… there too. Excellent. The blue haired mortal’s declaration that he should get some rest would be seen as disrespect at any other time, but now Xiao simply complies. His dreams are full of misty rooms and glowing eyes.

When he wakes, Yanfei is standing over him. She calls the Traveler over, and they ask how he feels. The yaksha tells them he’s fine, and it’s surprised to realize that he means it. His injuries have healed quickly thanks to his adeptal energy, and the rest was surprisingly rejuvenating. Although he’s certainly felt better, he can’t recall when.

He looks up to realize that they’re still crowded around him, and warns them off. Yanfei tries to use her adeptal blood as an excuse, but Xiao has seen fully divine beasts fall to this curse before. Luckily, Paimon cuts in and demands to know when Xiao got here, which effectively ends the conversation. After a brief explanation, Yanfei brings the discussion back to more relevant topics.

“Conqueror of Demons, could you tell us what happened before you joined us?” Her constant use of his full title has worn his patience thin, and so Xiao gives her permission to refer to him by name. He quickly returns to the topic at hand, and considers where to start.

“It was a senseless battle. I came here looking for someone, but when I found them… they weren’t anything like how I expected.”

Yanfei considers this, and responds with another question.

“Madame Ping says that you usually base yourself at Wangshu Inn to guard the main road through Dihua Marsh. It’s unusual for you to go looking for someone yourself… are they an adeptus?”

Clearly she’s more interested in this than she lets on. Xiao considers his response, then settles on the truth. “I’m looking for a yaksha called Bosacius.”

Yanfei practically lights up with interest at the mention of the word yaksha. “Bosacius… is that one of the Five Yaksha like you? I thought you were the only one left. Aren’t the other four… gone from the world?”

Xiao hums in agreement. “You could say that. But Bosacius’s body is the only one that was never found. Yaksha deal with god’s remains all the time, and we become tainted by karma. Over time, it inevitably drives us to madness… the last time I saw Bosacius, it was the day he lost his mind. He left. No one knew where he went and I never heard from him again. But Bosacius was the eldest of us. He once told us, as yaksha we will experience countless wars. Whether we live or die, we must promise to take care of each other and know each others’ fate, to the very end.”

Yanfei frowns slightly. “Did he forget his promise because he lost his sanity…”

“It’s possible. But I did not. I am the sole survivor. So it is my duty to find out the fates of the others.”

As she tends to do, Paimon butts into the conversation. “What made you come to the Chasm? Did you hear something about Bosacius being here?”

Xiao turns to the Traveler, since he doesn’t expect Paimon to be able to answer his next question. “Did you know that five hundred years ago, the beasts of Khaenri’ah invaded the Chasm?”

Even saying the name of that accursed place brings back flashes of blood and screaming and festering corruption. Xiao shoves the memories away just in time to hear the Traveler’s assent.

If they already know of the war that engulfed Teyvat, then at least he doesn’t have to explain.

“That war lasted a long time. It is said that in the midst of the battle, a brave yaksha was seen putting up a heroic fight. But no one knew the yaksha’s name.”

“But… there were many more than five yaksha in total, So there’s no guarantee it was Bosacius” Yanfei interjects. Xiao sighs at the interruption and opens his mouth to continue when Paimon decides to contribute as well.

“Wow… but you must think it was probably him if you came to investigate, right?”

Xiao shoots her an annoyed look, which promptly shuts the little fairy up.

“I am by no means certain. And I didn’t have any other clues except for this one. But Bosacius was proud. If he had taken part in this war, he would have announced his name. So at first… I thought the Nameless Yaksha couldn’t be him.”

The Traveler, ever quick on the uptake, is the first to make the connection. “…You found Bosacius?”

At this, Yanfei’s eyes widen and she nearly cries, “Wait, so it was Bosacius you were fighting with? Did he injure you?”

Although he hesitates, Xiao decides to continue being honest with the little group.

“…Yes.”

Amidst the Traveler’s intake of breath and Paimon’s shocked exclamations, Yanfei frowns slightly and proposes an idea.

“The invasion of monsters from Khaenri'ah, the battle in The Chasm, and Yelan's ancestor... I have a feeling that somehow, these are all connected. Life is full of coincidences, but this is too much of a coincidence. Could this all be related to the Fantastic Compass mentioned in the will, too?”

The idea is solid. However, one detail in the final sentence makes Xiao pause.

“What will?”

At this, Yanfei seems to perk up. “Oh right, I came here because of a will. Maybe it’s not something you’ve come across much before? But both mortals and adepti sometimes write out their final wishes so somebody else will carry them out after they’ve passed. It’s known as a last will and testament.”

Xiao considers this for a moment. A written record containing instructions to be carried out once he’s been killed? That sounds… surprisingly useful. Perhaps it would be beneficial to create one. “And this… can be done at any time?”

“Woah woah,” Paimon yelps, “you wanna write a will now!?”

He tilts his head slightly in confusion. Should he not? It seems obvious to him considering what he will have to do, but now that he considers it further the mortals may not understand.

“It was no accident that you saw my illusion that day. This place used your desire to find me to create a trap that you would willingly walk into. Pure deception is easy to spot, but the truth laced with lies can be a fatal combination. What you heard were really things that I said. It made sure you heard my real voice to create panic. This one-way communication was the bait. If we hadn't managed to get in touch through the spatial rift, we may well have lost someone by now. Rather than murdering in cold blood, this space seems more intent on consuming souls.”

At the last sentence, Paimon wails in fear and drapes herself over a nervous-looking Traveler’s shoulders and head.

“How is this even possible…” she whines from her spot nestled atop the teen’s soft blonde hair.

“Our opponent is very clever. It is not safe to stay here. Everyone, whether I accomplish what I came here to do or not, I must find a way to get you out safely.” His duty will come before his feelings, just as it always has.

“I rejoined you to warn you that it’s extremely dangerous here. If you stay here too long… this space may well devour you.”

“But how do you know?” Paimon cries, still seated atop the Traveler. They chime in with a much calmer “What happens if we get devoured?”

“You might become a shadow of yourself, wandering the underground like a lost soul.”

“Sounds like you saw them too…” comes a voice that Xiao only vaguely remembers. He turns to see the blue haired mortal who wears the furs of a long-gone race of beasts, who easily meets his piercing gaze. Neither of them seems willing to break eye contact first, and the air feels electrified from the intensity of their stares.

“Yelan, you’re back!” says Yanfei cheerfully, apparently unaware of the tension between human and yaksha. At the intrusion, the mortal, who is apparently called Yelan, turns to the pink haired half adeptus with her lips half lifted in a fake smile.

“I’ve been back for a while. I was listening to the conversation. I’ve seen some strange things here, too. Objects that shouldn’t be here, strange figures appearing then vanishing… I don’t think any of it’s real.”

“So they’re just illusions?” Yanfei questions.

“At first, I had the same thought,” Xiao interjects. “But it’s not that simple. There may come a day when these illusions become real and attack you.”

Yelan is the one to keep them on track.

“From what you were saying just now, it seems like you know a way out of here?”

“I can’t say for sure… It’s just a guess. As Yanfei said, this space is chaotic and unstable, but it has its weaknesses. By attacking the point where both spaces connect, I was able to create a rift and move from one to the other. So… if I use all the energy I have, I may be able to tear a passage out of this chaotic space.”

“Really…” Yelan murmurs to herself. “So powerful attacks can affect the space itself. I’d wondered if that was a possibility.”

“Woah woah woah,” Yanfei suddenly exclaims, “what do you mean by all the energy you have?”

Really, Xiao has no idea why that needs clarifying. “…I mean it will take everything I’ve got.”

“Wait a minute,” Paimon chimes in, seeming uncharacteristically worried, “when you said you were gonna get us out safely, you mean… you’re gonna stay here?”

“You can’t be serious…” Yelan frowns.

Clearly, weight of the situation these mortals are in hasn’t truly sunken in yet. There is no other option. Xiao needs to tell them as much.

“I saw Bosacius underground. That’s when I realized the horror of this place. A single blast can only create a very small opening. To send you back to the outside world, I may need to continuously channel power in order to keep the tunnel open.

…I know how to fight to the bitter end. I can do this.”

“But if this takes all the energy you have, you’ll…!” the Traveler trails off, their usual calm façade finally beginning to crack.

“No. No way.” Yanfei agrees firmly. “Even if what you’re saying is true, I can’t agree to this.”

“Paimon neither! It’s not much of an escape plan if we’ve gotta leave someone behind!”

“We should leave together,” the Traveler adds.

“It’s only a good or bad plan if there are other options to compare it to. But that’s not the situation we’re in right now. I doubt you’d still be stuck here if anyone had a better idea.”

This is his duty as Liyue’s protector. The people of his nation are more than worth his pitiful excuse of a life.

“But can you be certain if your plan will work?” Yanfei inquires. It’s a fair question, although Xiao knows she won’t like the answer.

“I cannot.”

“What is wrong with you!” Paimon cries. “You can’t bet your life on something if you don’t even know that’s it’s gonna work. It’s not worth it!”

“To conclude,” Yanfei says, “I’m not agreeing to this plan.”

Xiao considers his options for a moment and settles on the one that he thinks is most likely to appeal to Yanfei’s love of contracts.

“What if I told you… this is my last will?”

“You…” Yanfei pauses. It seems she can’t argue, and the yaksha feels a bit guilty for cornering her.

“That’s your strategy, huh?” Yelan chuckles. “No offense, but we have no guarantee this plan of yours will succeed, or even that it's safe. You said it yourself, yakshas pose a danger to humans. You really expect us to accept your self-righteous plan just because you say so?”

“The battlefield is a treacherous place,” Xiao says matter-of-factly. “Every opportunity you take, you put everything on the line for. If you fear sacrifice and failure, you can never be victorious.”

“I’ve been in my fair share of treacherous battles” Yelan counters, “so I know full well that you never bring up extreme measures like this until the very, very end.”

Why is it so hard for these mortals to understand that this is the very end they speak of? If even the adepti can find no solution, then they have no hope.

“You say these things in the hope that we will understand and accept them,” Yelan continues, “but if you don’t even know that your self-sacrifice is going to pay off, all that you’re doing is hurting morale. Besides, if you were really so determined to end it all, you wouldn’t have given us the opportunity to share our opinions. You think you’re oh-so cold and ruthless, but I’m not buying it. And anyway, losing one of us so the rest can escape? Some victory that is.”

“Yelan… don’t be so harsh,” Yanfei whispers, afraid Xiao will overhear her. But she needn’t worry, because the yaksha is still trying to process the Qixing member’s words. Self-sacrifice? Cold and ruthless? Is this really what’s become of him? How much has he changed from the Xiao who listened to Guizhong’s lessons on the mortal marketplace with rapt attention? How much more will he change before he loses himself entirely to the karma he carries? Is it already too late for him?

“Point is,” Yelan cuts into his thoughts with a gentler tone, “Its not time for drastic measures yet. It’s possible there’s a hidden passage leading to the exit that we just haven’t discovered.”

“What if there isn’t?” Xiao says. “Or if we don’t find it? And in the end, I’m so weak that I don’t have the strength left to sacrifice myself… what do you propose we do then?” He needs them to understand that this is the best option. If they wait too long, they risk losing themselves to the rift.

“As things stand,” Yelan says, staring him down, “there’s no difference between sacrificing you and trying to find another way out in terms of the likelihood of success. If we can’t say that one strategy is better than the other, we certainly shouldn’t be rushing into a risky course of action.”

Xiao thinks that Yelan would make an excellent adeptus. He also hopes that she’s the first to succumb to his karma when they inevitably remain trapped here. Her stubbornness and way with words is equally impressive and annoying. She’s clearly preparing herself for yet another verbal attack when the too-happy voice of the resident oni cuts through the tension like a blade.

“Did someone say a strong enough strike could break us out of this place? Yeah, that’s right, I heard ya. No one’s staying behind to let anyone else out, alright! Enough talk, it’s time… for action! C’mon, whatever you are, let’s see how long you manage to keep us trapped in here after i’m finished with you!”

“Easy now…” Yelan calls, though her warning falls on deaf ears. The oni smashes his way through a wall and promptly collapses into his subordinate’s arms. As Yelan rushes to stabilize the new opening, Yanfei and the green haired Inzauman whisper to each other. Xiao ignores their conversation, both because they clearly want privacy and he doesn’t particularly care.

Finally, they make their decision. Xiao, Yelan, the Traveler, Paimon, and Yanfei will enter the domain beyond the newly formed hole in the wall while the two Inazumans stay behind.

When he steps into the domain, the boy adeptus sees no enemies. Although the red sky and looming mechanism in the distance give the area a sense of unease, there seems to be no immediate danger. As he walks through the very limited space, he realizes that the exit has vanished.

The barest hints of a foreign presence begin to leak through the fabric of the domain as Xiao paces the room, and the malicious energy sets the yaksha on edge even before he recognizes it. However, this spark of power isn’t as vibrant as he remembers. A frown tugs at his face.

“…Bosacius, I can’t believe someone like you would end up as a lost soul underground.”

“Xiao!” comes the Traveler’s yell from behind him. But the energy is growing, a presence beginning to form. He cannot allow them to put themselves in danger.

“Stay back! This is my fight… do not come near me.”

“Filthy monsters,” a new voice whispers, simultaneously familiar and yet distorted beyond recognition, “so many people have died at your hands. I lured you here to this underground space because I found your weakness.”

“Hiding and ambushing from the dark is Bosacius’s signature tactic.” And yet, Xiao can’t be sure that this ambush is meant for them at all. Bosacius’s words don’t match the situation. Many have fallen at Xiao’s feet, but the other members of this little group have clean hands. ‘Filthy monsters’ could just as well be referring to actual monsters, such as those faced down during the war five centuries prior. Could it be that the illusion is parroting the fallen yaksha’s words back to those who seek him?

“Die here with me!” the illusion cries, but Xiao no longer cares to hear it steal his friend’s voice. He rushes forward with a burst of anemo, tearing through the portal before it can unleash any of the shadowy fists Bosacius was so fond of. More portals form even as Xiao drops to the ground, and he’s thrown back by a blast of electro energy. He pushes himself up on his polearm and runs for the one portal that holds two glowing eyes. More waves of electro energy slam into him, but each is weaker than the last. As he tears through the portal that quickly reforms in yet another place, Xiao realizes that the patterns this thing creates are quite predictable.

“…Hah… How did a valiant warrior like you die here…”

“Uh-oh,” he hears Paimon whisper to the Traveler, “this is not going well for Xiao…”

“No matter, I know how this ends.”

The illusion is already struggling to keep up with the might of a yaksha, the fists it summons flickering out halfway to their target.

“Look!” Yanfei cries, “Bosacius is showing signs of fatigue!”

“Bosacius, Marshal Vitras… even your strength is finite.” Xiao proclaims solemnly. “But your illusion is not as mighty as you. This is not you in all your glory. I wonder what Rex Lapis would think… if he saw what had become of the First Yaksha.”

“Leave!” the voice yells suddenly, “I’ll deal with the rest. We can’t let the monsters get to the surface. Everyone, remember, we must hold the line sixty miles outside The Chasm at all costs!”

So it is reusing lines that he once spoke. Xiao will not allow this pale imitation to sully his name any longer.

“Enough… phantom, be gone!” With a swipe of the jade-winged spear, the final portal collapses in on itself and does not reappear.

“Xiao, are you okay?” Paimon says, hovering nervously around the adeptus. “You haven’t recovered from your injuries yet…” the Traveler chimes in with a nervous look at his slightly shaking hands.

“This is my purpose. Don’t worry about me.”

“So,” Yelan interjects, “your invisible opponent was the legendary Bosacius, Marshal Vitras?”

“Yes. So excuse my stubbornness. Bosacius has been missing for centuries… this may have been the last time I will ever see him.”

“He was saying something about holding the line at all costs…” Paimon questions, surprisingly solemn.

“He fought here. The Nameless Yaksha from the legends… it was him.”

“But didn’t you say he’d always announce his name? How could his name be lost to time? …What happened?”

“I don’t know. Maybe he forgot who he was.” Karma can twist you into someone so different you can’t even recall who you used to be.

“Because the karma you spoke of drove him to madness?” Yanfei interjects.

“Bosacius had already gone mad before he disappeared.” There was no question about that. To just stand back as your family slaughtered each other… “There was no way of knowing if his memories were intact.”

“He still took part in the battle of The Chasm,” Yelan says in surprise, “despite having gone mad?”

As much as Xiao would like to believe that Bosacius’s sense of duty persisted even beyond his memories, the likely reason behind his final stand is far less honorable.

“We yaksha are not a race that thrive in peacetime. It’s likely that he was drawn in by the scent of bloody war. Slaughter is what we do best… maybe it’s the only thing we know.”

Xiao can no longer recall a time when blood and death did not consume his life.

“This battle confirmed my suspicions. As we had speculated, this space reflects information from people’s minds. In other words, despite going mad, Bosacius came here. The illusion we saw just now is the impression he left behind. This space recreated him as he was during the battle. The way he fought was so self-destructive... He couldn't possibly have survived.”

“He fought the monsters…” the Traveler whispers, more to themselves than the group.

“Bosacius's illusion said he'd discovered the monsters' weakness and lured them underground.” Yelan says suddenly, shattering the silence.

“What kind of place could this be? Defeating Khaenri'ah's monsters is no small feat, that's for sure.”

“Guys,” Yanfei starts to speak before a yawn cuts her off, “it could just be me, but… I think I’m suddenly feeling more tired than I was.

“This space is really starting to affect us,” Yelan murmurs worriedly.

Though he wants nothing more than to close his eyes and tune out the world for a few precious hours, Xiao needs to remind his group that time is of the essence.

“I believe Bosacius stayed here, underground. But now he is gone, and only his illusion remains. If we don't leave, we may meet the same fate.”

“Let’s go,” the Traveler agrees.

As they make their way towards the portal that opened upon defeating the illusion, Xiao pauses and looks back. “Time to move on. You fought well, Bosacius. Goodbye.”

As they move through the next room in the series of portals, the group discovers that the Millelith, including Yelan’s ancestor, who were trapped below the Chasm with Bosacius never managed to escape. They step into another portal and end up somewhere unlike any place Xiao has ever seen.

The empty space seems to stretch out forever. When he turns back to look, the boy adeptus sees that the entrance has been replaced by more of that empty sky speckled with stars. Suddenly, the Traveler speaks up.

“I think this is my memory.”

“Your memory? Paimon asks, “Of what?”

“Of emptiness. That’s the power of the Abyss.”

“The Abyss? So… this place is created purely based on your memory?”

“I’m afraid so,” the Traveler barely whispers, “because I will always remember… that the Abyss took my twin away.”

They step forwards, further into the void, and the rest of the group follows suit. They wear an expression on their face that Xiao has seen before, resigned yet determined. The face of someone walking into a battle they know they’ll lose.

When they spot the retreating back of the Traveler’s sibling, nobody dares to say a word. The blonde’s expression shifts to desperation as they run after the quickly vanishing figure and the others trail behind, not wanting to shatter the illusion. Still, when the other twin disappears and does not appear again, they leave the Fantastic Compass behind. As the others discuss the compass, Xiao approaches the silent blonde. He isn’t sure how to offer comfort, but pulls them into a hug anyways. It’s stiff and unpracticed, but the teen appreciates it nonetheless.

When they leave the domain and arrive back in the ‘main area’ of the subspace, no one is surprised. As Yelan tries to figure the Compass out, the Traveler makes conversation with the other members of the ill-fated expedition into The Chasm’s depths. When they ask about Bosacius, Xiao is more than happy to take their still wandering mind off their sibling.

“Bosacius was the leader of the Five Yaksha  under Rex Lapis’s command. He could control Electro energy. Unlike me, he was both a formidable warrior and a talented commander.”

This seems to satiate their thirst for knowledge, and their step is lighter as they walk over to Yanfei to ask her about the Fantastic Compass.

Soon enough, Yelan calls everyone together.  She tells them that the records inside the Compass were left by Boyang, one of her ancestors. Apparently, her other relative who fought in the war went insane when he returned after the battle.

“…Karma.”

“Correct,” Yelan affirms. “One possibility is that when they fought alongside Bosacius, they were tainted by his karma. Neither of them had Visions, so they wouldn’t have been able to resist its effects for very long.”

“From reading through this,” Yanfei says hesitantly, “it sounds like Boyang… ended up staying here for good too.”

“Ugh, well this is just wonderful!” Yelan groans. “So that’s it, there’s no way out?“

Xiao almost wants to say ‘told you so,’ but restrains himself for the sake of both their pride. Unfortunately, Paimon doesn’t take the news nearly as well as the adeptus.

“What do we do? Are we going to die here? But Paimon doesn’t wanna die!” The little pixie shrieks and ducks behind the Traveler, knocking down the Compass in the process. As it hits the ground, a spark of oddly familiar energy is forced out. The beginnings of an idea form in Xiao’s mind.

Luckily, Yanfei connects the dots as well. She tells the group of an old tale about an adeptus and human combining their might, and attempts to recreate the combined energy. Although for only a few short seconds, she succeeds. An unfamiliar voice pierces the tension that’s been gathering in the air.

“By heaven's might and the gods of the five regions, yaksha and mortal together take this contraption in hand...”

“That’s their voices from when they made the seal. Bosacius and my ancestor… they sealed off this space at the top together.”

Yelan’s declaration is met with silent consideration apart from Yanfei’s murmured “…I see. It makes sense now.”

They unanimously agree to return to the Inazumans and fill them in on the situation before reaching any more decisions. Xiao walks back in silence even as conversation springs up around him. No one tries to engage him.

When they arrive in the main cavern, the Inazumans are waiting for them. Yanfei quickly fills the two of them in and turns to where Xiao, Yelan, and the Traveler wait for them.

“Xiao and Yelan need to cooperate?” the Traveler questions with a slight frown. Xiao isn’t sure why they look so worried. He’s perfectly capable of cooperation.

“…Your idea seems reasonable.” he agrees.

The mortals collapse onto the ground to take a rest immediately. They’re all out like a light within the minute, drained from the last few… however long they’ve been down here. Someone needs to keep watch, so Xiao settles himself on a rock with a sigh and pulls out his spear, which has begun to dull from the constant combat. He sharpens it with expert precision, though his hands still shake slightly.

As the mortals begin to wake, nervous energy fills the cave. This plan could get them out or it could kill them. The other members of his group seem to expect the best, but Xiao knows that reckless confidence can be fatal. Finally, Yanfei calls them over to regroup.

“Yelan, Xiao, how are we looking?”

“I’m all set” Yelan affirms, and Xiao chimes in with an “I’m ready . ”

Just when it seems they can finally get moving, Yelan pulls Yanfei and the Traveler into a meaningless conversation about the domain’s origins and how it affects objects trapped inside it. Xiao tries not to push the mortals to move and even contributes a sentence or two, but he’s itching to get going. Inactivity will be the death of him.

At last, Yelan lays her hand atop the Fantastic Compass, Xiao following suit. The member of the Qixing closes her eyes and begins to chant.

“Stars align, bestow your light

Evil purged by thunder's might

Spirit curbed, pneuma surge

By dictum divine, heed these words

Do as I command!”

The energy pouring into the Compass isn’t enough, but it’s too late to turn back now. He pours everything he has into their desperate plan and prays that it succeeds.

As Xiao’s eyes slide closed from the exertion, the burden suddenly vanishes. His eyes shoot open in surprise, and the boy adeptus realizes that the rag-tag group he’s begun to grow fond of is gone. In their place, four familiar silhouettes, ones the yaksha never thought he’d see again.

His hand lifts from the Compass as he reaches out to Bosacius, but the platform doesn’t collapse at the sudden loss of energy. Alatus looks down in shock, only to realize that rather than a platform, he’s standing on a web of golden light stretching out to infinity. Bonanus laughs at the dumbfounded look on his face and beckons for the spirit to come closer. When he obliges, she wraps him in a hug.

Her arms are warm and strong, and Alatus has never felt lighter. Menogias and Indarias cling to his left and right sides as Bosacius’s four massive arms encase them all and the youngest of the yaksha nearly chokes on a barely repressed sob. Menogias’s gentle smile only grows as he rubs Alatus’s shoulder, and the geo adeptus whispers softly to the distraught boy.

“It’s alright Alatus. We’re here. We’re all here.”

“Finally!” Indarias chimes in with a grin. “Can’t believe you’d make us wait so long for you. Way to show us up, huh?”

“Don’t complain about that, Dari!” Bonanus interjects. “If any one of us deserved a long life, it was definitely Alatus. I only wish it was happier.”

Menogias, ever the responsible one, clears his throat just before Indarias manages to get herself into yet another argument with the hydro yaksha. All heads turn to him as he tries and fails to extricate himself from the group hug.

“Don’t forget that there’s someone else waiting to say hello too. She’s been a lot more patient than you lot.” Though he tries to act annoyed, the grin that refuses to vanish gives him away.

“Right! She’s been working herself into a frenzy with your recent behavior,” Bosacius agrees, as if he wasn’t even worse while he was alive.

“C’mon! Lets not keep her waiting any longer!” Indarias calls, already rushing off.

Bonanus grabs onto Alatus’s hand and guides him in the same direction Indarias has vanished in, offering him a small but genuine smile. Though he’s always been the quietest of the group, Bonanus has been a close second for as long as he can remember. It doesn’t matter to him. Her smiles are worth much more than empty platitudes.

As they walk, a lone house begins to appear in the distance. It’s situated beside a small pond and a grove of bamboo, and various half-built pieces of bamboo furniture are scattered haphazardly around the area. The house itself is in the old style of Liyuen architecture, reminiscent of the houses found in the glory days of the Guili Plains.

A lone woman sits in front of the pond, her back to the approaching yaksha. Her soft white hair gradually fades to gray at the bottom, and her fine blue robes have long, flowing sleeves that fall onto the ground. When she turns, Alatus is greeted by bright blue eyes and a kind smile that he hasn’t seen in far too many centuries.

“…Guizhong?”

“Hello Xiao.”