Escape Our Fate (Xiao x Lumine)

Chapter 6: End of a Journey

"My curse of immortality will never give me peace," Lumine revealed.

Xiao, who was an illuminated beast, had an extremely long life ahead of him, but he was in no means immortal or indestructible.

Lumine sighed, "I should've revealed that earlier, I bet that scene of me is going to give you nightmares now."

Xiao shook his head, he had grown stronger mentally while he was with her, and though her listless body had made him nearly give up, Xiao now had the strength of moving forward without her.

Still, he'd rather be by her side.

"We should continue moving," Xiao lifted Lumine up and made sure she was standing right.

"That ancient sword that you're finding..." Xiao thought about it, but no sword popped into his mind, "We should hurry to get it, the Chasm is full of dangers, the sooner we get out- the better."

Lumine smiled knowing that Xiao was alright, "You're right, follow me, let's go."

She guided him to multiple different tunnels, but turned away at all of them after saying that the sword just wasn't there.

The final tunnel, which was quite large compared to the others, seemed to perk Lumine's interest.

"Yes!" She squealed, "This is the one, c'mon Xiao!"

Xiao hurriedly followed behind Lumine, who was walking along the walls of the tunnel. Little glowing fairies began to appear, they lit up the cave with blue light and seemed to be talking to Xiao, but he couldn't make out what they were saying.

"Xiao, I feel like now is a good time to explain why I need to find that sword," Lumine suddenly said and Xiao snapped out of his daze.

He awaited Lumine's answer, "It's a key."

"A key?" He curiously asked, how could a sword be a key?

"Yes, a key," She slightly chuckled but had a sad expression on her face, "It's the key to saving me from my fate of endless wandering and forever setting a flame on my homes."

Xiao hadn't ever heard of such a thing- as he always thought that curses were permanent. Only the castor could redo the curse, but even he didn't know how.

"Lumine," He called, and she turned around, "Just like you saved me from my fate of serving an evil god that day, I'll also help you escape yours."

She smiled, the warm smile Xiao wished to preserve, "Thank you, truly."

Finally, a light emerged from the end of the tunnel.

It was an uneasy purple glow emitting from strange goo growing from the floor.

"Xiao, be careful, you don't want to step on those," Lumine warned and Xiao cautiously avoided the strange slime.

Then, he saw something truly strange.

A town- no, a city?

It's upside down.

Xiao noticed the huge city that hanged from the ceiling, he'd never heard of such a place before.

Lumine seemed unfazed, but then laughed at Xiao's bewildered expression.

"What's so funny?" He asked, confused on Lumine's sudden burst of laughter.

She could only laugh harder, "Haha- sorry, seeing your face so shocked like that, it made me feel better from my sour mood earlier."

"Do what you want," Xiao stoically said, secretly quite embarrassed.

Lumine lead him to a staircase, silently, they ascended up and up.

When Xiao met a dead end, he looked at Lumine for an answer.

"WAIT!" She yelled at him, who was in front of her, "THERE'S A-"

Before Lumine could warn him, he'd fallen upwards.

Xiao fell face flat onto a weird platform.

"Ow..." He groaned.

Lumine skilfully jumped down, definitely better at that than mountain climbing.

His eyes widened at the sight in front of him, the before upside down city- was now right side up, while the ground they were standing before was now the opposite.

Xiao realized that they were now in the hanging city. He looked closely at the other buildings, most of them were wrecked into ruins, but he could still imagine a full of life city like the ones back in Liyue.

Lumine rested her hand on Xiao's shoulder, catching his attention.

She pointed behind him, to a sword that was embedded onto the stone platform.

That must be the ancient sword.

The journey is over now.

Xiao couldn't help but feel a bit of nostalgia while thinking of the happy and sad times he had with Lumine. The times when she'd comfort him when he woke up from nightmares, the times when she'd tried to teach Xiao to cook, the only ones he ever successfully made were Almond Tofu, although it looked like a complete mess.

Lumine walked towards the sword. It was emitting more light wisps and strings as she got closer, the sword glowed like a shining star.

She finally picked the sword by the handle, and easily emerged it from the ground.

Xiao felt like something was a bit- wrong.

He felt something slipping away from him.

A rush of sudden shock went through his body.

"I'm sorry, Xiao."

She aimed the sword to her chest.

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