Chapter Text
Paimon crashed into a tree during landing, while Furina and Lumine landed gracefully on the ground.
Paimon rubbed her head sadly and stomped the air while she yelled at Furina for something.
The guards of the Golden House had been wounded— not seriously, though.
“Looks like a blunt hit on the head,” Lumine observed. “We should call a medic.”
“Not now,” Furina strode past them and blasted the door open. “We still have business that takes priority, you know.”
Paimon floated in cautiously as Furina’s eyes slowly adjusted to the dimmer light level.
That’s— a lot of Mora.
“That’s a lot of Mora!” Paimon cheered, diving in and rolling around in the freshly minted Mora. “Ahhhh! Oh, the smell of money!”
Lumine came in after them and shut the door.
Furina turned around to meet with Lumine, who already had her sword drawn and scanning the area for danger.
There.
A Hydro construct— perhaps a blade, by the shape of it— flew towards them, clearly aimed for the head.
Furina pulled together her will, whipping around and slashing her right arm to the side.
She heard a satisfying splash as the blade landed, formless on the Mora below.
“I can’t say I wasn’t expecting you guys here,” Childe clapped, standing beside the body of Rex Lapis. “But too little, too late. You’ve fulfilled your jobs as guides, have you not?”
He tapped the body a few times, the scales rattling a bit.
“If you were Fatui, I’d expect you’d be entitled to a feast and a generous reward from the Tsaritsa herself. But now? Archon or not, all you’re doing is standing in my way like worthless dross.”
“You Harbingers really are all the same,” Furina snarled, drawing her sword and walking forwards. “With your treatment of others, can you even call yourselves devotees of the Tsaritsa?”
Childe stiffened. “Her Majesty the Tsaritsa’s dream is the purest thing in this world. We simply follow through to see it happen.”
“Your Tsaritsa, who rules with an iron fist? If the master is anything like the mutts, she’s a far cry from the ‘purest thing,’ don’t you think?”
“...mm.”
Childe reached forward, his hand stabbing through the chest of the body, glowing with white light.
Furina could feel the waves of Cryo spilling out, with just a faint bit of Geo leaking out from the body.
Is this— the Tsaritsa’s power…?
It doesn’t matter. She has no right to treat her fellow gods this way, no matter how much power she has!
He withdrew his hand; it was empty.
Childe whipped around, fury in his eyes, before it softened into manic amusement.
“I see, then,” he chuckled. “The gnosis isn’t there. You guys had the map— you must’ve gotten to it before I did.”
“This guy is off his rocker,” Lumine whispered.
“And even if it’s not, I’ll settle for one gnosis. And the thrill of battle is something I simply cannot pass up.”
Wait—
He lifted his bow and fired two shots of Hydro, which Lumine deflected by quickly setting up a shield.
Paimon, luckily, had enough sense to fly away from danger, and not towards it.
The Geo cracked under the force of four repetitive shots, before shattering completely with the fifth.
Furina ran towards him, lifting her sword and throwing it up, using her right hand to throw down three amorphous blobs, pulsating and spewing bubbles at him.
Childe stumbled in the middle of another shot and seemingly snapped his bow in half in favor of dual knives; the blades Furina had felt coming towards them.
He slashed apart two bubbles and deflected Furina’s blow, turning around and throwing a blade at Lumine, who was jumping at him with her blade elongated with Geo energy.
Furina panicked, dropping her sword and spreading her arms, causing the blades to fall into formless water, but the momentum still struck Lumine in the chest, causing her to fall to the ground.
Paimon flew over, yelling something in Lumine’s ear and trying to lug her out of danger as Furina sent her three blobs crashing towards Childe.
He stumbled, and Furina took the chance to run towards Lumine.
Lumine staggered a bit but stood up, dusting her dress off.
Childe was up too, his bow aimed at the ceil—
“What the—!”
A massive whale sprouted out of his bow, poised to flood the entire area if nothing stopped it.
Furina thrust her hands up, kicking her dropped sword up and pointing it at the whale.
The entirety of the water entered the tip of the blade, she raised her sword, scanning the area for Childe—
Lumine jumped in just in time, knocking Childe off course right before his outstretched hand met it’s mark.
“What the fuck?” Furina cursed, slashing her sword and sending the wave of Hydro back at him. “Did you just try to steal my gnosis? Did your Tsaritsa teach you any manners??”
“If it worked for Signora, it might’ve worked for me too,” he said apologetically. “You can’t fault me for trying.”
I absolutely can!
Furina directed her sword at Childe, and torrents of water streamed out. He tried to run to one side, but Lumine set up a Geo wall and he got blasted into a pile of Mora, the coins shooting up into the sky as he landed.
“ That can’t feel good,” Furina winced.
Childe stood up, lifting his reformed bow and trying to shoot, but Furina controlled his Hydro as soon as it came out, pummeling him into the Mora pile again.
“Alright, then,” he smiled, but it was strained. “Be like that. I can see why Signora was so wary of you two, even before knowing your true identity.”
A layer of Hydro surrounded him, but Furina swept her hand, peeling it away— a mask was on his face and he was crackling with Electro.
“Another Vision?” Furina cursed. “ Where the fuck did you get this one?”
“The Tsaritsa,” he said, a bit TOO smug. “It’s called a Delusion; and let me prove to you just how powerful the Tsaritsa’s gifts are.”
A crackle and Furina’s hairs stood up on end; she pushed Lumine out of the way and barely managed to dodge a thunderbolt, falling as she did.
Fuuuuuu—
Lumine engaged Childe in combat, but she started faltering too, focusing on her Anemo to keep his spear trapped, using Geo for some ineffective offensives.
Furina stood and started running at Childe, but at the last moment had to redirect her attention to another bolt of lightning.
She misjudged— the bolt did not come from the front, and instead came from the left.
Her Hydro shield managed to block some of the attack, but most of it hit her square in the chest, and she fell over, some of her own Electro-charged Hydro falling on her— the remnants of her shield.
She screamed, a shrill sound that caused both Lumine and Childe to be momentarily distracted, giving Paimon time to bravely throw a couple of Mora at Childd. He was adequately surprised when several heavy Mora clunked into his head and turned around, which led to Lumine getting the jump on him and knocked his sword away.
Owww. Ow. Owwwwwwwwwwww.
It felt like thousands upon thousands of needles, pricking her over and over and over, with nothing but her divinity to shield her.
Focalors was trying her best, leaning into the advantage of a godly body, using the immense healing power of Hydro to patch Furina up.
For a god who spent half an eternity cooped up in the Oratrice, you sure know a lot about healing.
The splendor of the court cannot continue on forever. I had to find some way to pass the time, you know.
It was only after the battle that Furina realized Focalors had talked for the first time since she’d— traveled back? Reincarnated? She did not know.
But in the moment, after a disgruntled Lumine blasted away most of the water, ruining Furina’s hairdo (though it puffed back into shape, having been like that for so long), but the charged water was gone and the damage had been healed.
Furina stood back up, picking up her dropped sword, and they faced Childe, who was throwing Electro at poor Paimon, who sought solace behind the Exuvia, and the lingering Geo energy shielded her well enough.
With Paimon gone, he turned back towards the two of them.
“You can’t hide Rex Lapis’ Gnosis from me forever, can you? Just give it up, and I’ll save Focalors’ for another day.”
“We don’t even know where it is,” Furina sighed mockingly, twirling her sword around. “If only you had the mental aptitude to realize— but I cannot expect someone as brawn-over-brain as you to think past the dopamine rush of battle.”
A vein twitched in his forehead.
“You lie.”
“And you jest,” Furina countered. “Even you couldn’t have actually thought we had the gnosis?”
“Honestly, man,” Lumine sighed, doing an excellent job of hiding her tiredness. “Just give it up. You’re not beating both of us, we have nothing you want, so why stay?”
“...”
For one hopeful moment, Furina believed.
She was a fool to do so.
A blast of purple light exploded out of Childe.
Dvalin’s Abyssal energy!
No. Not that.
But similar.
!!!
When Furina felt the wave wash over her, she felt significantly more tired, but Lumine seemed fine, and Childe—
Childe was now clad in armor, a flowing cape of Abyssal energy behind him. Constant pulses of that horrible energy, the one that ate away at her soul, the one which had killed her predecessor, Egeria—
“I can’t get too close to him or I’ll be completely useless,” Furina warned. “I’ll stay back as backup; I’m sorry, Lumine.”
“It’s fine,” Lumine nodded, determined. “Stay safe, Furina.”
And she leapt into battle.
Furina used her sword to direct Hydro energy at Childe whenever she could, saving Lumine from a nasty gash on her leg and collecting a bunch of Mora to create a whip of both Hydro and cold, hard Mora.
That caught his ankle and he twisted, almost falling, using his spear at the last second to stab the ground, which cracked ominously.
The ground crumbled beneath them, Paimon hurrying out from behind her Exuvia shelter to watch as Furina turned both Lumine and herself into water right before hitting the ground, solidifying with no damage done.
“That’s a neat trick,” Childe commented, his voice distorted and weird. “You must teach me it someday, when we’re somewhere more— cordial.”
“What Sinthe have you been drinking?” Furina demanded. “You’re clearly aiming to kill, and wondering if I’ll teach you?”
He contemplated for a moment. “You’re right. I’ll teach myself, then.”
Lumine stabbed towards him, getting a clean shot on the arm, and he recoiled, hissing.
Furina felt the Abyssal energy weaken and she charged forwards, swinging her sword in an arc and releasing torrents of Hydro energy, assisted by both Focalors and her gnosis— for she felt this was an adequate time to use it (and if it was given to her, she had the right to do so as an Archon! ) — and Childe was blasted, again, into the Mora piles, this time fizzling out entirely.
All the Abyssal energy left the vicinity, and Furina breathed a sigh of relief.
“Look!” Paimon fluttered over. “Childe is back to normal!”
Furina peered down at him.
“It appears so,” Lumine observed. “What do we do with him now?”
He sat up, groaning, his body clearly shaken from the energy he had released.
“You have no idea how to use that transformation,” Furina realized. “You fool. Why would you harness something you can’t even control?”
I can’t control the gnosis either…
Shut up, inner Furina! That was necessary!
Childe sighed. “Still needs some work, I guess. Now that my head is clearer… there really was no chance you beat me to the gnosis.”
“No shit,” Lumine gasped. “But if it’s not here, where is it?”
Childe shrugged. “But if it’s not here… a real head scratcher indeed. But I believe a logical conclusion would be that Morax still lives.”
Furina’s head snapped up. “What?”
“And if he’s alive, I’ll have to draw him out somehow, right?”
A smile grew on his face. “And I think I have just the way to do it.” He sighed. “I must admit, I find it quite distasteful— but knowing it’ll draw the power of two Archons and the Anomaly out…”
He stood up, Sigils of Permission orbiting around him.
Dozens of them must be here…
How— how does he have all of these?!!
“I knew you lied,” Furina hissed. “But only halfway. What are these, artificial?”
“I’m surprised you found out,” he clapped. “But yes. The Fatui have technology surpassing even Fontaine. We studied and learned to reproduce those Sigils— the one you had was a byproduct.”
“If it didn’t work, we would have died?” Lumine stepped forwards, raising her sword into a battle stance. “You were willing to risk that?”
Childe shifted. “You probably wouldn’t have died. But at the time, I didn’t know that you were an Archon, so yes, I was prepared to sacrifice you three.”
“All that power contained in Sigils…” Furina realized. “You’re going to blast away the prisons of the old gods.”
“Just one for now,” he lifted his hand and all the Sigils started ripping. “If Morax still isn’t drawn out… we’ll see about another.”
He shifted into Hydro, copying Furina and flying upwards—
“That’s my ability!” she stomped her foot, causing his bubble to pop and him to start tumbling back down.
The Sigils were almost fully ripped by now.
“You—!”
Childe turned around, turned into Electro, and zipped away.
Lumine and Paimon gathered around Furina and the three of them sped upwards together.
“The Jade Chamber!!”