[part one completed]
being the 12th harbinger of the fatui was easy, you were just doing things the tsarista ordered you to do with your electro vision.
you didnt complain, the tasks were easy. it varied from simply cooking to taking care of certai...
you all approached the place where the snow was slightly glowing, a soft red light emitted from below it.
after walking to the red glowing area, you all stood around the domain that was below the snow. you folded your arms in front of your chest while furrowing your brows.
"the domain looks rather deep under the snow." diluc said as he approached you from behind, he stood there silently while looking over your shoulder to the same place you were looking at.
you got one of your arms up and held your chin with your hand, in a thinking position "that goes in contradiction with the light it emits though." you said while thinking about it more.
"if it really was deep then we shouldnt see much light." you said as you let go of your chin and let both your arms fall to your side.
diluc besides you nodded to your argument, "that is true but otherwise the snow would have already melted, since it emits light which is a form of warmth." he explained to you as he shifted his gaze to look at you.
he was being very thoughtful and you didnt expect it, especially since you still had your doubts because of the recent incident when the cicin mages almost revealed your identity. you expected him to be more cold and distant to you, but he wasnt.
as the sun was slowly rising, it peaked right above the mountain. the sunlight lit up the area slowly, making your vision more clear and seeing multiple shadows looking over the area.
you tilted your head upwards to see what caused the shadows and saw several blocks of pavement just randomly placed in mid air.
what really caught your eye was the huge pillar in the middle off the blocks, it was almost as if they were surrounding the pillar.
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"now what the fuck is that." you breathed out as you looked in disbelief at the pillar, your eyebrows furrowed and your hand above your eyes to shield your vision from the sun.
diluc heard your choice of words and snapped his head at you, wondering why you cursed all of a sudden. his eyes followed yours and landed on the pillar in the sky, "... what even?" he said with confusion laced in his voice.
paimon bounced up and down in the air as she saw your questioning gazes, "oh paimon knows this one." she said as she floated closer to diluc and you.
aether followed close behind, the two of them both seemed unbothered by the fact that there was a pillar in mid air floating above them.
"we did that!" paimon exclaimed excitingly, her eyes sparkling with joy as she got her hands behind her back while showing an innocent smile.
that caught both yours and dilucs attention, you two simultaneously snapped your head back at paimon, "why?!" you both said in unison. dilucs voice was moreover laced with sheer confusion as your voice showed more disbelief.
aether put both his hands on his hips as he looked sideways to the domain under the snow, "we tried unlocking it and figured it had something to do with the pillar." he said in his usual calm voice.
"but now were stuck, we cant get past this point." he said as he looked up at the pillar, observing it with care to see if he missed any clues.
diluc was quick to think, he started looking around, his head whipping left and then right. he saw something that caught his eye and approached it while speaking up, "come with me."
he walked up to a rocky wall which wasnt too far from the domain. the stones were standing on top of each other in a very fragile way. "can you use your elemetal vision, aether?" he simply asked while looking back at the said boy.
aether nodded and he furrowed his brows immediately, focusing hard with alot of concentration. after a while his eyes widened at what he saw and his mouth slightly parted. "there is something underneath it." he told you all while keeping his eyes on the rocks.
diluc breathed out, "just like i thought." he said to no one in particular. without wasting any more time, he summoned his claymore in his hands and raised it over his shoulder. he was about to destroy the wall to see what was behind it.
since your guard was still up high, you were quick to respond to the situation. both your arms made its way to aether and paimon as you wanted to push them back.
paimon held your right upper arm in reflex and aether took a step back as your left arm made contact with his chest. you took one big step back while pushing them along with you to make sure there was enough safe distance.
and right in time, just as you managed to put enough safe distance between you and diluc, you already saw him swaying his claymore to the rocks and breaking them into smaller particles in just one hit.
you covered your eyes with your arm that was defending aether to prevent any dust from blocking your vision. paimon slowly let go of your arm and floated towards the pile of rocks.
"wow look at this!" she immediately said even before all the dust cleared up. there was a small fire totem behind the rocks, which was a key factor in unlocking the domain.
aether was at a loss if words, "i cant believe i missed that." he spoke up almost in a whisper, but loud enough for you all to hear.
diluc infused his weapon with his pyro vision and set the totem ablaze, the totem started showing the same color as the domain.
"do you hear that?" you spoke up immediately, you heard a strange sound which you didnt hear in dragonspine so far.
you heard a soft rumbling sound that slowly became louder, you turned around to see where it was coming from, which was the unlocked domain.
suddenly the floor beneath your feet started shaking slightly. you scanned the area in search of a safe place but couldnt find any. aether started losing his balance as the shaking became heavier and fell to his knees.
"what is happening?!" paimon exclaimed as she saw you all trying hard to not fall over from the shaking, she didnt had any problems since she was floating after all.
you looked down at the ground and saw the snow melting, revealing a transparent icy floor beneath you. you could see the domain clearly too, it was in a hollow space.
the shaking and rumbling slowly became less and you thought it was finally over, diluc who was still next to you spoke up, "i think its safe n-" he wanted to say but was interrupted by a cracking sound.
all eyes landed on the small crack in the ice which gradually became bigger. aether guessed the worst and spoke up, "oh no."
in the blink of an eye, the crack became bigger and bigger, stretching from the end of the floor to the other end. and then the floor beneath you fell in.
you closed your eyes and braced for the impact, the sound of shattering ice was evident around you as you started to fall backwards. but then you felt something grab your waist.
