Chapter Text
He was starting to really hate mountains.
The high altitude meant less oxygen, which he now, unfortunately, depended on continued existence, heightening the feeling of his headache. He used his vision to try to blow more breathable air toward himself. Much better.
On a mountain below him, Zhongli and a few others watched the Creator fall. He could almost laugh, they looked like kids watching a meteor fall until Zhongli snapped out.
It was only a couple of seconds until Xiao caught them on Zhongli's command.
Or it looked like that to him, he didn't know because he had only looked up after a couple of seconds of recovering from the transfer. His love could've been falling for a good 20 seconds for all he'd known.
Incompetent, all of them. The first thing Xiao did after catching you and landing was put you down as though you could walk after falling a couple hundred meters. Even worse, you had scrapped yourself on something, he'd have to take you away as soon as possible.
As golden blood dripped out of the scrape, Araashita could hear the idiots gape in amazement. Had they not believed a word he said? It was ironic, they flaunted their devotion and faithfulness to their Creator, but when faced with the real thing they immediately thought they were an imposter.
He watched as Zhongli carried them off and they fainted. Jealousy, that's what he was feeling, wasn't it? He was jealous that another man was carrying them, touching them. Scratch that, he was jealous that other people were breathing in the same air as them, but he'd have to deal with it.
After all, they probably wouldn't be as happy in any other place as his love would be here. They'd easily get bored in his application with nothing to do than talk and cuddle, or have sex if they wanted to, even though he knows that he'd be perfectly content living like that. Sometimes, they'd want to go outside or to some club or whatever social craving they had and remember that everything was locked down.
The only thing he's ever wanted since his creation was their happiness, it was the only thing he's ever known.
Here, they'd be able to go on fun (yet safe of course) adventures, socialize (only with those he approved of), and do whatever you wanted (as long as they were happy and healthy). If they wanted to, they could even live a peaceful, domestic life with him, staying inside with each other as company. That wouldn't bother him at all.
But first, he had to find them.
The best security in all of Teyvat, his ass.
With his beloved's arrival, many allogenes had gathered to where they'd be staying: an old cave as big as real life Liyue Harbour and Mondstadt combined. They also decided to serve as annoying guards.
Using his foul legacy that was now activated due to the environment, he knocked out regular guards and maids plus the occasional allogene if he could fast. It wasn't hard, after all, he had 'memories' of successfully sneaking into the Cryo Archon's palace with this method. He just had to separate the air from a person long enough to make them pass out. Some of the servants though were stupid enough to try and attack him, their bodies creating a trail of blood and intestines leading to him. He’d have to get all the blood off him before he approached his creator, they wouldn’t be happy with this.
Araashita ran through the cavern halls, searching for them in every room. He seriously needed to pick up a map of this place.
He saw a maid walking through almost in a rush. Araashita didn’t enjoy hurting others but she wasn’t real. However he couldn’t justify himself with that, after all, he wasn’t ‘real’ either, they were all just pictures on a screen. Now was not the time for another existential crisis, he grabbed her by the throat and pushed her to the wall, threatening to choke the life out of her. “Where are the Creator’s quarters?” He said it so casually that no one would've thought that he was on the brink of ending another person’s life.
“Ke-Keep going down this hallway, make a left at the first turn and then follow the river, it-it’s the one with the extravagant door,” the cowardly maid choked out. Pathetic, she didn’t even try to protect her master from him, an intruder. He let her down but not before sending a thread of his Anemo down her throat so he could kill her by pressurizing it and cutting her insides to shreds.
“I have cursed you, if I find out that you have lied to me you will die a slow and painful death,” the maid nodded, trying to scamper away. She ran away in the opposite direction to where Araashita was going.
Looking down at himself, Araashita noticed the blood drying on his skin and clothing, definitely had to deal with that. Carefully, Araashita shook off the majority of it by using pressurized Anemo to take it off until he looked acceptable.
Someone had seen him, trying to get blood off himself no less.
Walking through the halls was a familiar face from his 'memories'.
Ajax of Morepesok.
A boy subjected to the same fate as he was in the abyss who had been 'given' to him by his old master Skirk. Skirk was strong yet visionless, so to enhance Ajax's skill with his vision, he was put in Araashita's care. Ajax cried on his first night in the starless city. Araashita could still remember it so vividly.
"Here, eat up. And no I won't be depriving you of food tomorrow. The first thing you'll be doing tomorrow is taking a break," Araashita pushed a plate of food in the direction of the boy. He was currently harbouring the boy in his room in the palace, as knight commander and the crown prince’s bodyguard, it was natural that he’d have his own quarters.
He was getting dangerously thin. Araashita knew that Skirk liked to 'make her apprentices feel the true need to survive' but Ajax was practically all skin and bones. If a pile of skin and bones was able to easily best some of Araashita's finest men.
Another effect of the training was that Ajax was bloodthirsty and jumpy, but luckily not to the extent Araashita was after his training with Skirk. Araashita had gone into training a weak boy with a sword he was taught how to use in battle for only a year or two before his mother died and came out a bloodthirsty monster who was only brought back to his senses by his brother or the prince.
Honestly, that was one of Araashita’s more embarrassing phases. He was young, younger than Ajax had been at the time. Easily swayed by his Foul Legacy’s incessant need for blood or wine to drink even though he bested the corrupted wish in its own game and forced it into a contract with him, he was a murderous demon unless in the vicinity of his brother or the prince for a couple of months.
All in all, being with Skirk for too long could do one of three things to a human. One, get you killed by the hands of a monster. Two, you'd break from daily horrific sights and most likely end up killing yourself. Three, if you were strong enough, in will and body, you’d crave the thrill of battle. It was also Skirk’s usual excuse for not taking any apprentices besides Araashita and Ajax who were special cases.
When he said that he’d be taking a break, he looked at him as though Araashita said something stupid like, “If there isn’t any sunlight in Khaenri’ah, why is there gravity?”
Poor boy must’ve been thrown into those monster dens like Araashita was before, never given a break. But other than that, he and his Foul Legacy had probably been itching to kill something or fight someone powerful.
Araashita had heard from his Foul Legacy who chose to be called Rose, (which was short for ‘Ballad of Bloodied Roses’ his Foul Legacy’s ‘call’) that the Foul Legacy Ajax held was 'quite thirsty for dragon blood'. Araashita interpreted the familiar unusual form of speaking as meaning that the Foul Legacy ‘The Devouring Deep’ had probably made an enemy of Rex Lapis and in their attempts to kill Rex, they made a deal that led to their will becoming a Corruption and as they died, their strongest desire was violence. This heavily affected Ajax when he inherited the Foul Legacy and had him practically obsessed with drawing ichor from his enemies.
“Really? No fighting tomorrow?” Or maybe Araashita was wrong and Ajax really did just want a break. Ajax’s ocean-deep eyes seemed to almost sparkle at the thought of a break despite them looking as dead and dark as his. Ajax continued to stuff his face with the food.
Araashita smiled and pet his hair, surprised that Ajax didn’t immediately attack at the gentle touch, maybe it had something to do with them both having Foul Legacies? “Yes, Ajax, no fighting tomorrow. We can even go out into the city if you think you can handle that.”
“You’d real-”
“Hey, Shishi! Got any pics of that one recruit, maybe even a file on her? I think she’s in your-” Alya, the crown prince’s sister, yelped as she ducked in avoidance of a fork thrown with the force of a bullet thrown right at her head. The fork didn’t reach her of course, Ajax’s throwing speed might’ve been fast but as an indirect companion of the Anemo Archon, Araashita was faster. Manipulating the wind, he slowed the silverware down and floated it back into Ajax’s hand.
“Don’t throw that again,” What had he done wrong this time? He meant that affectionately, but Ajax had dropped the fork and placed one of his hands over his mouth in shock.
The kid probably didn’t want to do it, it was just a reflex. When you live in a labyrinth of monsters and bloody challenges for a little over two months, you either die or adapt. Making killing your go-to was how you adapt. Araashita could see tears dripping down his face as he mumbled apologies.
“Hey, hey… You’re alright, you didn’t mean to. Nothing bad is going to happen to you, I promise. Yeah, that’s good, just let it all out,” Araashita could only hope that he was comforting the boy as he sobbed out two abyssal months' worth of emotions.
That night, he tucked Ajax into bed like a five-year-old and at the boy’s request, had stayed by his side the whole night. Falling asleep at his bedside.
“Master, it's you!” Ajax was a lot older now, even a bit taller than Araashita too. If he stopped now to talk, Ajax would want to be filled in on everything he missed, losing time Araashita could be spending with his creator. Despite the other man’s clear want to converse, Araashita just ran faster.
Just as he thought, Ajax was running after him. No matter, he just needed to get where he was going.
Araashita ran as though he was jumping off clouds. He used Anemo to hasten his steps, decrease inertia, and move like a ghost. He rushed through the hallway, Ajax behind and almost missed the turn.
'First left turn, then follow the river.'
After a bit more running, he met with a stream of water that looked completely pure. He just had to follow it all the way down.
Araashita had been so focused on getting to his beloved that he completely disregarded the idea that if he was an intruder, people would be trying to catch him.
At the moment, there were a good couple of characters from Genshin that were chasing him. It was no matter, besides, he'd need to save his energy in the case that stupid dragon decided to turn on him. Of course, Morax being the possessive thing he was would call first dibs on the Creator. It was likely that he was watching them sleep right about now if they haven't woken up yet.
About fifty paces in front of him, he was met with a set of double doors. It reminded Araashita about that one movie that his love had been obsessed with for a little while, playing that one song about someone named Bruno lots of times as they worked. Maybe he should put AI in their house like what appealed to his creator in the movie? He could think about that another time. His beloved was waiting for him.
Various elemental skills were shot at Araashita yet he was able to either dodge them perfectly or neutralize them. Araashita was still ahead of them. Araashita ran past where the Anemo Archon and the current heir to house Kaedahara talked. Shit, if that bard decides to go after him, he knew he'dl get caught.
As an Archon, despite not being able to hand down visions themselves, they could disable others’ use of them. It was the only reason Khanri'ah was completely and utterly destroyed in the Cataclysm. He just need to make sure they can't interfere when he got in the room' Archons were able to disable their respective elements, but they weren't able to disable the binary that makes up their very beings.
He made a little swiping motion, pulling up a holographic version of his creator's computer desktop. Araashita coded this earlier in case he had to 'remove and edit lines of code' or for his creator's convenience but he could use it in other ways. He just needed a wall to separate them once he got to his beloved.
He copypasted the code for the puzzle walls in Enkanomiya just without the 'if' statement that determined if they were solid or not and made it so that they'd default to solid. Checking his coordinates he found a suitable place to put the wall and set it there. Once he got past where the wall would be put up, he only had a few seconds before the other a would pass it. He had to time it just right.
1,
2,
3!
He pressed 'run' on the program right as he passed the point of the wall. It only took a second for it to go up, his pursuers successfully stopped. Araashita went straight to the door. 'Not locked, so he really is there.'
Araashita opened the door, met with the sight of his Creator cowering in Zhongli's arms. However, as soon as they saw him, they ran toward him, Zhongli completely stunned. He was quickly embraced by his love; Araashita was startled as they pushed themselves into his body like they were trying to take warmth from him. Araashita definitely didn't hate it though.
"Mmm, nice. Damn, best lucid dream, high, or drunk experience I have ever had," they muttered. So they thought this was a dream, huh? Well might as well fess up now, it's not like they'd get upset if they thought this was a dream.
"Oh, uh, I um kinda... Broke into your room here so yeah. Also, they see you as God so they think of me as a threat to your safety, and they most likely want to kill me so I kinda made an invisible wall by coding it in, I'll remove it after, I promise. But what I'm trying to say is that we have like seven to ten people banging on that door trying to kill me, oops!" Araashita quickly spat out, enjoying the cute reaction from his creator.
They hugged him right again and looked back toward the door. Araashita had almost forgotten about that. Multiple yelps sounded from outside along with bangs on what he assumed to be outside.
Unfortunately, they released him from the hug and started walking to the door.
They opened the huge gilded door leading into the halls and were met with the product of Araashita’s chaos.
Behind the door, there were multiple people trying to break down or get over the wall he put up in very… creative ways.
Despite this, Araashita was only focused on how damn gorgeous his creator was in real life.
Their clothes were messy, their hair dishevelled, and looked like they had just woken up in a hundred years, but gods they were beautiful. The light from the window behind them perfectly illuminated their figure, maintaining a godlike beauty while still seeming human.
"Ahem?" His creator was looking at him, most likely prompting him to remove the barrier he created. Araashita pulled up the code screen, highlighted the barrier code, and swiped towards them, letting them use it. Quickly, they deleted the code creating the invisible wall.
"Oh, dear creator, we are so grateful that you are okay. How do you feel, how's that scrape feeling?" That drunk-ass bard was speaking to them. His Foul Legacy kept bugging Dear creator his ass, seriously, no one healed them?
"I'm okay, but I guess I'm kind of confused. I get that I'm having some sort of high drunk fever dream experience here but where the hell are we? I'd be disappointed if this wacky dream didn't make at least a little bit of sense," they answered. Gods, their voice was so nice, he could listen to them all day. He could probably get them rambling on how the enemy attack AIs worked later and just listen to their sweet voice…
Now, they were exposing their scrape for some reason. Most likely, they were prompted by Zhongli to try and convince his love that this was real.
Pressing a finger to the bruise, they made an expression of deep regret.
What a shame, there were so many more things they'd be open to doing if they still thought that this was a 'high drunk fever dream'. No matter, he'd have them either way.
Their eyes glazed over like how he saw them through his creator's webcam when they were thinking. Their eyes darted around, most likely calculating some mischievous part of their plans. It was much too soon for the party, so most likely they were thinking of a prank or exploration.
Looks like they'd be raising some hell tonight.