Grand pillars of blazing sunlight fried our Harbinger like a barbeque, his Hydro element proving to be useless against the infernal might of mother nature. The rich boy was forced into recovery shortly after taking the savage beating from the Yaksha. Xiao demonstrated the ruthless power of the Adepti, leaving Childe's mind cowering from the thought of unadulterated Anemo winged-spears throwing him around.
Our boy had been through real shit to fix his broken relationship with the elusive and enraged Zhongli. Barely any drive left in him to move, Childe dragged each of his feet against the earth– the boy's undying will to find the man he loved was all that's left. The reason why he hasn't given up is that there is a distinct difference between surrender and defeat. You might catch Childe defeated, but never surrendering.
This little squabble meant nothing in the face of Tartaglia, the man with balls of unbreakable steel. Despite having to resort to flight when the great Yaksha hunted him like a furious assassin, years of dwelling in the abyss hardened his spirit just to keep pressing forth. Becoming the greatest is no easy task after all.
To protect those he valued most, absolute strength was the only way to do exactly that.
The Harbinger walked on for long hours, momentarily wondering to himself, "What the hell am I doing?", "Am I a fucking idiot?" and "Is this why I'm single?"
Suddenly, the ground caved in beneath him and he fell straight down; the light growing darker and darker. With an immediate response from his body, he landed on his feet perfectly but the long fall jacked his knees a little.
The darkness surrounding him reacted to his presence as amber-tinted lights began lighting up the cavern.
"Fuck sakes...can't catch a break now can I, eh?"
When the lights finally brightened the rock walls, a dominant presence filled every part of the cave– Childe suddenly immobilised at the unexpected appearance of the man in the coat.
"Persistent, aren't you?"
"More than that, actually."
He tried laughing off the sudden seriousness of the current circumstance that he's in, though the sinking feeling that clawed away at his chest grew more intense, along with the piercing gaze of the amber-eyed man.
"I've evaded you for long enough. Deciding not to finish you off the moment I read the note was a mercy I didn't think I had in me. I've put all the slaughter I've done in the past behind me. Yet, my skin itches at the sight of you taking another breath."
At this point, both of them were already circling each other, the deafening scraping sound of Zhongli's glowing polearm encapsulated his festering rage within. Tartaglia already noticed him expressing his pent up aggression, but retaliation would be undesirable when the end goal was to settle the problem, not feed more into the conflict.
"You won't be itching any longer. It'd be foolish to pretend that I came here to further my mission to claim the Gnosis. I'm here to claim something more important."
"Your death, preferably?"
The scraping sound grew even louder.
"Of course not, I won't taste death before I become the strongest in all of Teyvat!"
"Then what could be more desirable than that?"
"You."
The scraping stopped. So did both of their footsteps.
"After all this time. You're resilient in your trickery. It almost makes me sick."
"I wouldn't call it trickery if I'm being genuine."
The bottom of the polearm's handle slammed to the ground– a thunderous clang echoed through the cave and Childe's ears. Zhongli's eyelids were sealed, containing the rage he wished to unleash.
Trivial matters wouldn't enrage a man with such stature, with regards to the world and its history. But matters of the heart appeared to have revived a slumbering wrath, comparable to the catastrophic anger of a dragon.
"I can't bear to hear another word come out from you. We'll settle this right here. Right now."
"With what?"
"A contract."
Thoughts thrashed around his head as he tried to calculate the potential outcome of this. But knowing that Childe's heart sincerely yearned for the taste of battle, rational thought didn't quite exist at the moment. Also, no fucks were given when it came to consequences. It all came down to what Childe truly desires.
"When you lose, I'll be your escort to bring you off the world of the living. But if you win, you-"
"If I win...If I win..."
The deathly stare of Zhongli was demanding the Harbinger to quickly blurt out his answer.
"If I win..."
A pair of fists clenched as hard as they could, outbreaks of confidence gaining control over them.
"If I win, you'll have to hold my hand."
The two nodded their heads in agreement.
"I will show you the greatness of the Vortex Vanquisher, your first and last experience."
The echo of a droplet of water reverberated through the silence...followed by the violent clashing of powerful weaponry.
The Vortex Vanquisher easily snapped Tartaglia's daggers in half– rifts in the air formed with each mighty swing. Tartaglia fished out his bow and showered Zhongli with Hydro arrows.
The wielder of the Vanquisher's deadpan face displayed the crippling ineffectiveness of Tartaglia's attacks– spinning his polearm at such blinding speed sent gusts towards the Harbinger.
He then immediately lunged forward, flinging the Vanquisher at Tartaglia's feet and kicking its handle; causing it to spin and barrel towards Tartaglia.
Tartaglia dashed forth with a newly forged Hydro polearm and delivered a horizontal swing, only for it to completely burst into water by the Vanquisher's spin. His hands flew back from the force of his polearm shattering, jumping back from shock. Zhongli pulled the Vanquisher out of the ground and continued spinning it manually with his two hands.
How did he...
The spinning polearm grew closer as Zhongli paced slowly towards Tartaglia. With nothing but a swift blur, Tartaglia was flung back by a foot diving to his torso. As he was flying through the air, a pillar birthed from Geo erected itself from the ceiling and knocked Tartaglia in the face with its precise timing.
Despite the insanely fast beatdown he was getting, his instincts moved his arms to summon a Hydro whale to cushion his fall. However, the whale did more than cushion his fall and exploded the ceiling of the cave wide open, pushing both himself and Zhongli out of the cave and into the open landscape; flying in mid-air.
Daylight slowly vanished from the world as the burning star faded from the edge of the horizon. Childe looked to the sky momentarily as his fall grew faster, before a murderous pair of beautiful topaz pearls obstructed his view of the orange sunset. As his brown coat was blown by the wind in his fall, the amber tip of his ponytail glowed in tandem with his yellow pupils.
"I am the law of everything. All will bow before me."
Cosmic quantities of elemental energy gathered into him, the elemental aura intensifying substantially.
"When I order, the world will obey."
His feet graced the hard ground as he folded his arms with closed eyes. The rocks above the ground began to rise into the air and the ground shook with obedience— tremendous elemental energy emanating from his body.
"When I act, all will follow."
When his pupils unveiled themselves from his eyelids, ruinous shockwaves of energy were discharged from within him. Deep fractures formed at the titanic release of strength and with that, he yelled in all his grandeur.
"Tiān dòng wàn xiàng!"
Tartaglia thought he saw the sun falling from the sky; the meteor merely fooling his eyes. It took him seconds before realising that a cascade of gargantuan meteorites was headed straight for him. As he frantically dodged the terrifying fissures, it seemed like there was no hope in escaping his eventual collision with the cosmic boulders that hurtled towards him.
But he had no intent on escaping anyways.
Frenzies of familiar Electro bolts surrounded the Harbinger, which could only signify the beginning of a calamity that's soon to come— the awakening of the ominous Delusion.
"Shouting Chengyu at me won't do you any good right now."
The innumerable volts of lightning that erupted from his body bolted towards the terrain around him; bursting the meteors that exploded like fireworks. The erratic Electro element surged to his hand and materialised into a menacingly long polearm. The red Foul Legacy mask hugged his face and the cyclops-like eye bulged from the centre of it. Two devilishly sharp horns stretched out from the top corners of the mask; lengthened and dishevelled locks of light brown hair resting behind.
Instantly, his claw-like hand shielded his head from the furious swing of the Vanquisher. Blood leaked out from the cracks in his armour-encased palm— the damage of the spear made it through his armour out of its horrifying impact.
"You shouldn't bother tapping into cursed strength. This corrupted armour will not secure you from your downfall."
"I know."
Tartaglia swept the air with his polearm, sending Zhongli back slightly. Zhongli eluded the explosions of Hydro that chased after him— a series of minimal sidestepping and hopping brought him further from the attacks and closer to his target.
With such meticulous manoeuvring, he was narrowly dodging the waves of Hydro and Electro; still unscathed.
The battle went on, the two combatants going back and forth. In the midst of it all, Tartaglia knew already that he would run out of stamina and eventually rendered vulnerable. Repetitive thrusts, swings and sweeps could only get him so far, but definitely close enough to his inevitable victory.
Zhongli was no emotional fighter, although he lets loose on occasion. Each calculated strike would either serve to snatch away his enemy's vigour, or uncover all of his opponent's techniques. But this wouldn't be necessary, since the two were once intimate. Victory was only a stone-throw away, yet something within him led him to prolong their great brawl.
Toppling yellow trees and the orange waves that turned the meadows into ashes— those were the sights that the two battlers were surrounded in. Streams of fire drove away the shadows of the night; the full moon observed the irregular dance of Hydro, Geo and Electro from the heavens.
"You ought to quit pulling your punches, Harbinger."
Tartaglia shot a spiralling arrow upwards, splitting off into multiple shards of Hydro that fell back upon the world.
"Solidify."
Stones diagonally orbited Zhongli's torso, brimming with Geo elemental energy. The shards harmlessly splashed on the Geo barrier that encased him but drenched the dirt beneath completely.
"You will break eventually, like every rock that exists in this world."
Tartaglia gave no attention to the seeds of hopelessness that Zhongli attempted to plant. His abundance of confidence lifted him off the ground and he raised his Electro polearm high above.
In one masterful throw, the polearm zeroed in on Zhongli at breakneck rapidity. It tore open the Geo shield and flew millimetres right past Zhongli's head.
An odd sensation was suddenly felt on his face. He swiped his cheek with a finger and inspected the liquid on his gloved hand. A touch of blood stained the black fabric, barely visible in the night.
"I see."
Tartaglia was noticeably panting under his mask—the toll of their battle that had gone on for hours made itself present. But the frown on Zhongli was an indication that heightened aggression was bound to come.
One merciless slam of the Vanquisher ripped apart the Electro polearm— the additional force behind its swing resulted in fragments flying in all directions.
Next, he sheathed the Vanquisher and walked close to the Harbinger. A critical fist to his face broke a part of the cyclops-looking mask— his mouth slightly visible.
Tartaglia dropped to his knees as he felt the agonizing pain from the punch. His muscles couldn't withstand the strain of the Delusion any longer and his body gradually caved in. Surviving that long was a miracle in itself, seeing that the Delusion hadn't backfired on its user.
Every attack on a Titan like Zhongli was fruitless and meaningless. The Harbinger's greatest combat techniques had barely any effect on the Titan when he could simply become an armoured Titan; with the assistance of his Geo capabilities. Each swing of the Vanquisher looked as smooth as butter yet infused with the celestial might of a Warhammer.
The Titan delivered another punch to the jaw of the Harbinger, resulting in further cracks of the mask. That state of vulnerability was a moment for him to understand how helpless he truly was throughout their duel. He barely survived the colossal explosion of the meteors due to the convenient discharge of Electro from the transformation.
The Geo Titan even broke apart his weapons countlessly with the Vanquisher, emanating the vigour of a beast, but the execution of each move was nothing less than graceful. He now understood that the founder of the Vortex Vanquisher was someone with powers that far exceeded that of the Harbinger.
One punch hit him dead on the face and the mask finally crumbled into nothingness. His armour fell apart and the amethyst tint in his eyes faded back into his usual blue. But Zhongli wasn't done. He delivered a serious series of punches into his gut and Tartaglia grunted in excruciating pain as he choked from the blows.
Faint blue-black bruises messed his face and drips of blood oozed from his mouth. But even with defeat staring him down, he stumbled to his two shaking feet and weakly held up a fresh Hydro dragger.
"You never know when to give up, do you?"
The spotless Geo spear-wielder almost pitied the battered and bruised Harbinger. But his roots of endless warfare in the past slowly took hold of his actions and before he knew it, he quickly flicked a kick across the Harbingers face and he fell onto the floor. Tartaglia winced as he coughed from the impact.
What...is...he?
He turned over and stretched his arm out ahead of him, dragging his chest across the stone floor, away from the obliterated terrain behind him. Scarlet stained his outfit, ruining his perfect grey jacket. Unfortunately, it seemed that his luck was dying out fast.
Fingers wrapped around his neck from behind and his body left the ground as he was yanked up in the air. A pair of deathly cold eyes met him and for the first time in a long time, fear encroached itself into his furiously beating heart. He coughed up crimson onto the ground, so much so that it'd hurt to take another gulp of saliva.
"S-Shit...hit a little harder now will you?"
Uttering that was a literal death wish that just might come true. The grip around his neck tightened and the glaring eyes before him watched him wince defencelessly in sheer pain.
Instantly, he was sent flying across multiple yards and spun helplessly in the air, then an excruciating burst of pain spread throughout his back as he crashed into a rock wall at a dangerously high velocity.
His vision grew weaker, his breathing grew coarser, his movement grew slower. Every part of himself ached unbearably and his fatigue drove him to the edge of unconsciousness. Coughing up blood signified his deteriorating stamina–exhaustion trampling on his lungs and limbs. He sluggishly lifted his head to witness the hulking figure headed towards him. Although his body and mind were battered, a steadfast flare of hope burned bright within.
Only a little longer to victory...
I promise you, Zhongli.
Before the Vanquisher separated his neck from his body, a spear clashed with the Vanquisher; intervening with the execution of the Harbinger.
"I knew you'd come. Finally...you...came..."
xx
Note: Tiān dòng wàn xiàng is the 4-word proverb that Zhongli says in his Chinese voice line when using his Ulti or E. I find its meaning way cooler than his English voice lines; hence I'm using it instead. If you're wondering what it means, what Zhongli said before he used the Chinese proverb were the loose translations of it.