The Power of Revelation: The Truth Shall Set You Free

Chapter 25: Don't leave me here like this

"That's... a very heavy burden." Keqing admitted, eyes softening as she gazed at the Harbinger, as Qiqi stood up to do her stretches to counter her rigor mortis, resulting in the projection to be paused; no one minded the small interruption, and it gave them a small opportunity to ponder about the events that had transpired.

"Could this... darkness even spread like that?" Xingqiu wondered, "Like... Childe is still human, even if... you know... that happened..."

"Not sure, and we aren't eager to find out." Venti shook his head, "Let's not play around with Abyssal energy, okay?"

"It's a valid concern... especially considering where we are. And how we supposedly ended up in here." Ningguang stated.

"Enjou did say that our Visions should protect us, though?" Barbara protested weakly.

"Who?" Tartaglia asked, confused.

"Oh yeah... you weren't here." Aether sighed, giving them a brief rundown about the dango-liking Abyss Lector's appearance, "And no, Childe, you cannot fight him."

"I didn't say I wanted to."

"Please, Childe. You could pick a fight with a pair of chopsticks." Aether snorted.

"Actually, Childe had originally thought that-" Zhongli was abruptly cut off as Tartaglia covered his mouth, his face red with embarrassment, "No! We aren't talking about this!"

"Ohhh, tea!" Hutao vibrated in her seat excitedly, "Spill!"

"No!"

"Aiya, you're no fun."

Ignoring the pouting Hutao, Ei crossed her arms, "I think that we should be alright, especially since this environment doesn't seem to be hostile, so the Visions should be sufficient. However, there is hardly any research done on the Abyss, so whether the "darkness" could infect and harm others is unknown. It would be much safer for older mortals with Visions... but for children..."

"No hugs. Got it." Tartaglia sighed.

"Well, if there's no direct contact, it should be alright?" Gorou offered uncertainly.

"Qiqi is done with stretches." The zombie announced, sitting down, and everyone immediately quietened as the projection continued.

Ajax sighed, as he trudged back home, robotically pulling his coat around his body despite not feeling cold, having just dropped his younger siblings off at school.

It wasn't the best school out there, being just a huge, cold building with barely any heating, and it was pretty much just some Fatui soldiers trying their best to teach a bunch of rowdy kids some basic life skills like reading and writing in their free time. But at the very least, these soldiers actually lived in Morepesok originally, so Ajax didn't really doubt their intentions; it wasn't like they were trying to brainwash the kids into joining the Fatui or some crap like that.

"Actually, I take that back. Knowing Dottore..." Tartaglia hissed grumpily.

"I'm going to kill him." Diluc grumbled, and Kaeya rolled his eyes, knowing full well that Diluc wouldn't act on his words; as much as they despised that stupid Harbinger for all his human experimentations (poor, poor Collei, they just hoped she was doing well with Cyno in Sumeru), they couldn't kill him in fear of retaliation by the Tsaritsa.

They just couldn't understand why an Archon would want a psychotic man like that as a Harbinger. Surely, she should know of all the vile, twisted, inhumane things he had done, for example, injecting Archon Residue into a sick child, or turning one of his subordinates into a cyborg hybrid.