"Are you going to visit Khaenri'ah this time?"
"Yeah, a festival that grand would be interesting to see, are you coming with?"
Such conversations were the norm for a couple of weeks now, Alexander thought as he moved about the busy evening streets.
Considerable time had passed since gaining Ei as a personal instructor. Although her methods were quite brutish and not at all comparable to Xianyun's ways, he still felt himself grow considerably under her tutelage.
The only problem was that he didn't really enjoy using magic, at least the [Destruction] side of it, perhaps [Illusion] or [Alteration] would turn around his opinion.
Shuffle
'The city is noticeably growing' Alexander took note of the ever-increasing populace as he weaved through the dense crowds while on his way to the Shogunate.
Clank
The guards were quick to recognise him at the gates and wasted no time letting him through.
Step, step, step
Alexander felt a slight trepidation as the reason for the visit churned inside his head. 'I truly hope I am wrong.'
For the past couple of months, besides racking his brain trying to understand why Morax was going around seemingly evaluating him, he had been trying to complete the puzzle of the greatest catastrophe to have ever struck this world.
The Khaenri'ah Cataclysm, whoever truly caused it, is the vital point that brings around the main story of the game he had played long ago.
The very same game that had become his new reality.
Unfortunately, Alexander had only completed the Inazuma chapter before arriving here. Whatever deeper explanations existed in later parts of that story remained unknown to him.
Regardless…
After his last encounter with the Abyss on the glass beach, the young man had reached a conclusion he couldn't argue himself out of: the creatures of that dimension didn't simply appear. They were either summoned or the boundary between realms was weakened enough for them to break through on their own. Either option required deliberate outside intervention.
As far as he knew, there was no Abyss Order at this point in history. The only faction openly engaged with that forbidden art was Khaenri'ah.
After confirming with Xianyun that Abyss summoning operated through ritual sacrifice, with the more powerful variants requiring an equal amount of blood, Alexander felt more and more apprehensive towards the Khaenri'ah Grand Festival.
Knock, knock
"Let him enter."
Thud
"What brings you here, child?" Makoto glanced up from the stacks of papers before her.
"This Khaenri'ah Festival, it's not annual, is it?"
"No. What of it? Perhaps those cave dwellers finally wish to leave their isolationist ways behind and embrace the wider world." A faint smile, not unkind.
"I think it's a sacrificial ritual on a massive scale. Enough to cause a permanent rupture…"
Makoto raised an eyebrow.
"... summon enough Abyss creatures to fundamentally alter the world."
Silence
"Nonesense."
Alexander wanted to speak up, but Makoto put her hand up, cutting him off.
"Besides, if it truly were as you say, Celestia would never permit such a thing to occur. Do not look down on the Divine, child. We know how ambitious mortals are." Her tone carried a sharpness he had never heard from her before.
Alexander furrowed his brows, having never experienced such haughtiness from Makoto, not expecting such words from her.
"But–"
"The Celestia above can see all things below. A matter of this scale would not escape their notice. Go home."
Alexander truly couldn't find any words, he truly had believed that with his words, Makoto, Ei and Morax could prevent the Cataclysm from occurring.
He was sure of his guess…
Seeing as he refused to move or acknowledge her words, Makoto released her authority, "Go home and prepare for tomorrow's training. And consider carefully," she added, her voice softening only slightly, "that even at the smallest chance you are correct, you are nowhere near the level required to affect the outcome. This does not concern you."
Step, step, step
Thud
She was alone in her office again, returning to her papers. Outside, Alexander was already moving toward the guest quarters where Morax was staying. Not all was lost yet.
If he couldn't move Makoto, speaking to Ei was pointless. But Morax was something else. The God of Contracts operated by his own reasoning, so it was worth trying.
.
.
.
"And?" The middle-aged looking man, calm and bespoken, tilted his head at Alexander's declaration and suspicions.
"Huh?" The young man couldn't help but question the situation in turn.
"So what if they do?" Morax's expression was patient, unhurried, the face of someone explaining something to a child who would understand in time. "Khaenri'ah is their territory. They have no Archon and refuse to bow to Celestia. I will not risk the lives of my people in a matter that is neither my jurisdiction nor my burden. Just as Makoto has ultimately chosen not to involve herself."
"B- but the Abyss will expand into all your territories…" Alexander didn't exclaim or question, he felt incredulous that these people were ignoring what's going to happen so his words grew silent by the end of the sentence.
"It will not reach that point." Morax shook his head. "Do not underestimate Celestia and its forces. The Ruler alone could ensure Khaenri'ah ceases to exist entirely. It is only through their magnanimity that the nation still stands at all."
How many centuries had this man lived? How many civilisations rose and fell beneath his watch?
From where he stood, Alexander's concern must have looked like a sparrow warning an oak tree about the weather…
"You should heed Baal's counsel and rest," Morax said, patting his shoulder once and gesturing toward the door. "Focus on what is within your reach. Grow stronger under Beelzebul's instruction. That is the most useful thing you can do."
Thud
Alexander stood outside the room. Motionlessly and lost.
'Maybe they are right?' he thought.
It truly had nothing to do with him. He wasn't an Archon, wasn't a divine being, wasn't even a citizen of any nation in this world. He was a young man from another reality entirely, standing in a corridor, holding a theory that two of the most powerful beings on the continent had just dismissed without blinking.
"There you are, you should have waited for me!." Miko turned the corner and commented upon seeing him, letting her displeasure known.
"Saiguu told us to forget it…" She began grumbling but was met with silence that wiped away her displeasure as she cast a glance towards his lost expression.
"Alexander."
"They don't care."
Silence
"I gathered." She fell into step beside him as he began moving, not toward his room but toward the outer gate. "Makoto and Morax too?"
"Both."
Yae was quiet for a moment. Outside, the city noise swelled around them as they passed through the gates.
"And are you certain? About the ritual." she asked.
"I don't know… the pieces fit well enough that I can't ignore them and sleep properly, which is its own kind of answer, I suppose."
Yae considered this, "The Abyss fractures have been increasing in frequency." she mentioned, aware of the situation as one of the Shrine Maidens capable of closing them.
Step, step, step
"Are you… going to go there?"The question was rather rhetorical. She had known the answer before she asked it, but she was hoping to hear something different.
He stopped walking. Turned to look at her in the lantern light, trying to read her expression and finding it unusually unguarded.
…
They regarded each other for a long moment, the time spent together allowing for each to read the others' surface thoughts.
"I would never ask of you–" Alexander began, but he was immediately interrupted.
"No," Yae Miko agreed pleasantly. "You haven't. And yet here we are, and I find myself already considering what to pack."
"You shouldn't... it's dangerous."
"Say something like that one more time," she said, her expression perfectly level, "and I will beat you up." She raised a fist with complete composure.
Alexander chuckled nervously and scratched the back of his head.
Sigh
"We should find Teacher…"
"That's true. Xianyun would never let you go alone."
"I wonder…"
She shook her head. The oddball genuinely didn't understand either of their feelings. "Come then."
"Miko."
"Mm."
"Why?"
She didn't answer immediately. The lantern light caught the silver pin in her hair, his very first romantic gift to her, as she walked
"Because someone should be there, if you're right about this too. Someone who can have your back."
He had no answer to that, and she didn't seem to require one.
They walked the rest of the way in silence, through the evening city as the lanterns burned and the ordinary world went about its ordinary business, unaware that soon it would be turned inside out.
.
.
.
They found Xianyun on the high terrace overlooking the city, which she occasionally used in the evenings to observe what she called "population movement patterns" and what anyone else would have called watching the city lights come on.
Her eyes moved between their faces and arrived at a conclusion before either of them spoke.
"You've been to the Shogunate," she said.
"Makoto dismissed it. Morax as well." Alexander came to stand beside her at the railing. Below, the city spread out in warm amber light, ordinary and unhurried. "They trust Celestia to handle it."
"And you do not."
If anybody else had made the statement, it would be in a gesture of mocking. But how could Alexander explain that there is absolutely something wrong with the festival and that soon Khaenri'ah will definitely erupt in an age-turning catastrophe…
'Should I say I am capable of divination? Like future-sight?' he genuinely weighed the idea in his head a few times.
"I saw it. The future."
Just as he was about to gamble it all and create a story that he himself had no idea how exactly had come to pass, Xianyun pulled on his ear, her face marred in displeasure.
"Don't lie to this One, Alexander. All seers are taken to Celestia, however rare they are."
'Huh? What about Mona then? And her teacher or whatever?' he had his ears pulled so many times, he had already gotten long used to the punishment.
"I am an except–" he wanted to try once again, but Xianyun let go of his ear and began pulling on his cheeks with a lot of force.
"Enough."
While this was happening, Miko was staring at the suffering idiot like he had deserved it.
After a moment of silence and enjoying teasing the boy in front of her, Xianyun once again settled into her serious persona.
"You intend to go to Khaenri'ah."
"Yes."
"With Yae."
"She invited herself."
"Obviously," Yae said, from where she had settled against the terrace wall, examining her nails.
"You understand what Khaenri'ah is," she said. Not a question. "Not what you've heard secondhand or inferred from fragments. The actual nature of what you would be walking into."
"Underground nation. No Archon. Deep investment in Abyss research and technology that Celestia tolerates out of either strategy or indifference. A ruling class that believes the conventional rules of this world do not apply to them." He paused. "And if my theory is correct, the site of the largest deliberate Abyss rupture in recorded history."
"It would be best if it was wrong… but if it is right, you will have walked into the centre of a catastrophic ritual event with whatever capability you currently possess."
He said nothing. He had already had this argument with himself.
"This One will join you. Such a foolish disciple… always looking for trouble…"
Alexander wisely said nothing. His cheeks were still recovering
Yae Miko, from her position against the wall, finally lowered her hand from her mouth where it had been performing the function of concealing a smile.
"Then it's settled," she said, with the serenity of someone who had never doubted the outcome.
Xianyun cast her a look.
"We'd need to move soon. Travel through Liyue first, then south toward the border–"
"This One is aware of the geography. Since the Festival is open to all visitors, the mountain gates will have personnel that escort them underground." Xianyun said, which was her way of saying she had already begun calculating the route.
"You both understand that I could be completely right about this," he said, because it seemed important to say once more.
"Yes," said Xianyun.
"Obviously," said Yae.
"And you're coming anyway, towards the Abyss."
"Obviously," said Yae again, with precisely the same intonation.
Xianyun simply turned back to the city view, which was answer enough.
Alexander exhaled slowly and leaned against the railing beside her, looking out at the amber light from the lanterns spread throughout the city below.
He thought about Makoto's voice when she dismissed him. The particular quality of Morax's patience. The way two of the most powerful beings he had ever encountered had looked at his concern and found it beneath serious consideration.
"Alexander." Xianyun called in an even and quiet voice beside him.
"Yeah?"
"Whatever we find there…" she paused, choosing the next words with the care she applied to everything. "You will not act alone. You will not make unilateral decisions inside those borders without consulting this One first. And if the situation requires retreat, you will retreat without argument." She looked at him directly. "These are not suggestions."
"Understood."
She held his gaze a moment longer, then nodded once and returned to the view.
.
.
.
They left before the city was fully awake, in the grey hour before dawn when the shrine paths were empty and the only sound was the distant rhythm of the sea. Xianyun moved in her usual silence. Yae walked close to Alexander, her sleeve occasionally brushing his.
Nobody saw them go.
"You know," Yae said, after they had been walking long enough for the shrine lights to disappear behind the treeline, "if this turns out to be nothing but a bit of wine and dancing, and absolutely no world-ending ritual then I intend to be insufferable about it."
"I'd expect nothing less."
"I will bring it up at the worst possible moments."
"Very thoughtful."
"I am nothing if not thorough." She glanced at him sideways, and in the early morning half-light her expression was something that sat between the teasing and the genuine without quite being either. "Are you frightened?"
He thought about it honestly.
"Yeah," he said. "A bit."
"Good," Yae said simply. "It means you're reading the situation correctly."