The Power of Revelation: The Truth Shall Set You Free

Chapter 5: Let's not waste time

The lights in the room flickered back on, but everyone was still frozen in place, stunned by what they had just seen.

They didn't know where the boy had fallen into; heck, this was just supposed to be some memory recorded in the Ley Lines.

But everyone instinctively knew that this was one place that no one should ever go to, somewhere no one should ever hope to survive.

Zhongli snarled internally, unconsciously baring his fangs; so his precious Tartaglia had fallen in the the Abyss. At the mere age of fourteen as well; it was a miracle that the boy had lived to the current day, especially considering the fact he jumped at the opportunity to fight everything and anything.

Eyeing Tartaglia out of the corner of his eye, Zhongli could tell that the Harbinger was definitely not enjoying having his past experiences being shown to everyone, watching as Qiqi turned to pat the man on the arm comfortingly.

The boy was usually good at hiding his emotions, though Zhongli could see through him rather easily, but right now, Tartaglia clearly looked uneasy and distressed.

Even Qiqi was able to pick up on his feelings, even if she couldn't exactly figure out what was wrong.

"Wha... what... is that..." Thoma stammered, clearly shaken up, "Where was that?"

Zhongli instinctively opened his mouth to answer, but Venti screeched vehemently in his head.

"Shut it, Morax, unless you want everyone in Liyue to know your true identity."

The ex-archon slammed his mouth shut and glared at Venti, grateful for the reminder yet also annoyed for telling him to shut up so rudely. Venti glanced back at him, shaking his head, and it was times like this that reminded Zhongli that Venti was also an ex-archon, and while he was appeared to be carefree and relaxed, he saw and heard everything, being the embodiment of wind itself; he knew a lot more than he let on.

"The Abyss. A place that never gives, only takes." Ei was the one to reply, though there was a certain stiffness in her voice that indicated that she too was shaken up. Yae gently patted her on the back reassuringly.

The only one who seemed barely phased was Ayato, "Hmm... I have read about this "Abyss" in some ancient texts... though admittedly they did not contain much content..."

"An old, evil, all-encompassing darkness filled with a wicked, unworldly power, being able to corrupt even the most ancient of elemental beings." Xiao clenched his fists tighter, "A place where no illuminated beast could ever hope to survive, let alone a mortal."

But one had survived; Childe has fallen into this hellhole and had somehow escaped. It was testament to just how unique and special this mortal was.

Jean cleared her throat, "Let's continue watching. Clearly this is important. Maybe we're here to figure out a way to help him."

"About that... Paimon doesn't think we can can do that." Paimon winced, watching as Albedo stood up from his armchair to inspect the now dull crystal and conversing with Aether quietly. After some more poking and prodding, Albedo spoke up, "I believe the crystal needs to recharge before we can continue watching anymore memories."

"Can we just get Master Childe to... you know... poke it again?" Hutao offered, "Since it appeared after he did and we got the thing to work after he touched it."

"The crystal was already fully charged; Childe only activated it." Albedo explained, "I'm not sure what energy source this crystal runs on, but if it is showing memories stored in the Ley Lines, logically, giving it some time to passively absorb Irminsul Energetics, or Ley Line energy, would, in theory, revitalize the crystal."