Chapter 169

Teyvat.

A relatively peaceful world for the most part. Their civilization is still around the level of the medieval era and instead of relying on scientific technology, they have magic or more known by the locals as the Elements.

It was a peaceful morning like any other day.

Some are still enjoying their morning breakfast with a cup of tea or coffee.

The common folks rise up early and get ready for their daily routine.

Adventurers get ready to set off outside their settlement to perform commission or simply explore the wild.

However, a deeply unsettling phenomena suddenly engulfed the world!

The morning sky suddenly turned pitch black.

The stars, moon and sun snuffed out from their position.

The animals and other wildlife were the first to react. They all fled into their burrows or nest in terror.

Then, the sky suddenly cracked and fractured with visible spatial rift connected to another dimension seen by everyone who gazed at the sky in terror. A powerful rumble in the sky followed suit by apocalyptic thunderstorm sundering the heaven and shook the continent, sending a powerful shockwave that caused an intense earthquake

Many kneel down to the ground and pray, thinking something had incurred Celestia's wrath like the myth of old. However, those enlightened few didn't think this was the case. But those conjectures are also not far from the truth.

Few of these enlightened people in particular could feel the intensity of the unseen battle through their connection to Celestia.

An invisible battle that had been raging on in another dimension all together which overlapped the world of Teyvat itself.

The mighty and feared Sustainer of The Heavenly Principle is fighting against an unknown entity and actually feels troubled!

Never had the Sustainer ever encountered any trouble removing any threat to the stability of Teyvat and Celestia's dominance. Whenever she appeared, she would sweep all trouble away with sheer power that left many who once attempted to rebel against her to feel exasperation.

However, for the first time it's the Sustainer's turn to feel exasperation.

A particular future funeral parlour consultant gazed at the sky with his eyes showing a rare uncertainty as he spoke.

"The water of Teyvat is getting murkier of late. A turbulent future awaits everyone and I could only prepare my people for that future."

He turned around and looked at the bustling and thriving port city of Liyue before marching into the crowd with newfound determination and disappeared amongst the people.

———

High above the sky, in the realm called Celestia.

The once beauty and magnificent place had been reduced into ruins.

Broken spires and towers filled the scene.

The once bright cloud below had turned dark with flashes of rumbling thunders.

Standing on one of the stone bridges was Ray, looking worse than he was before. His body was filled with injuries and also missing a large chunk of his flesh. Basically running on fume at this point.

His adversary also shares a similar situation.

The Sustainer of The Heavenly Principle no longer looks regal and instead disheveled and littered with various injuries ranging from gash, burn, bleeding wound to rotten corrupted flesh.

"It's your defeat, abomination." She uttered with great difficulty, taking a hitched breath in between gasps.

Ray looked at her expression that shows neither joy nor displeasure. She did not find amusement in defeating him, merely performing her task to defend her world.

If he is still himself prior to his downfall, Ray probably wouldn't care about such minor details and crushed her with his might.

But, now? He learns to empathize with others.

She is merely fulfilling her duty and he is trying to survive. Neither side could come to a peaceful compromise. So, he had no choice but to be victorious.

"Indeed, I am defeated." Ray reverted into his human form while grimacing at the large bloody hole on his left chest along with the affected organs.

Seeing that Ray had put down his attempt to resist. She lowered her hand slightly but not fully, still guarding against a potential trick he might employ.

"Are you begging for mercy?" She asked with a frown of shock or surprise.

"Would you spare me if I do?" He chuckled but that only caused him to hack out a mouthful of blood from his disintegrated left lung.

"Your mere existence in this world is both but a plague. There is no compromise that I can afford for you, abomination." She said and lifted her hand higher before conjuring another attack in preparation.

"I thought so." He sighed with his head lowered and looked at the state of his body.

"I assume that is your last words. Begone, abomination." She said before a four pointed blade shaped reddish brown star sailed across the air with a gesture of her palm aiming to behead Ray.

Ray lifted his head, sensing the attack and merely stared at it and offered no resistance.

But, just as she thought she was victorious. She noticed it a little too late that the shadow beneath him was spreading on the ground.

Ray smirked as the attack was merely a few meters away from him when Freya burst out from his shadow and slammed her dark shield forward and sent the attack flying to another direction into the clouds.

"My apology, Master. Stabilizing Mistress Asia took much longer than expected." Freya said while maintaining fierce eye contact with the Sustainer.

"No worries, you still arrived in time." Ray dismissed it and took note to get a few capable healers on standby in his Shadow Space when he had the opportunity.

The reason Freya took so long to stabilize Asia's condition is because she had no ability to heal and had to improvise with whatever alternatives she could which is extremely inefficient especially considering Asia's state or she would have done with it long ago.

With the addition of Freya, the Sustainer didn't look worried at all because what would Freya really amount to when she is just cannon fodder in terms of strength?

"Is this your final struggle? It matters not, I will exterminate you both regardless."

The Sustainer moved both her arms, creating several tendrils of overlapping cubes to attack them both.

However, little that she expected. Freya suddenly unleashed her real power that she hid away to trick the Sustainer and enter her Valkyrie form with a pair of dark raven-like wings appearing on her back before she took to the air and blocked all incoming attacks with some difficulty.

Ray oddly stayed still and silent as he observed the battle.

While Ray had difficulty fighting the Sustainer despite initially holding the upper hand with his various abilities at his disposal. Freya able to hold off the Sustainer with her shield and spear alone which fully displays her full capability as a Goddess of War.

Sustainer widened her eyes when she was briefly pushed back by Freya's relentless and borderline frenzied attack at her with her rage on full display.

"My failure to perform my duty as his blade and shield, I shall wash away this shame with your blood and head!" Freya pursues the Sustainer like a guided missile locked on to a target.

The Sustainer found it ridiculous when she gleaned into Freya's true origin.

A major divine being of an unknown origin but her ties to a pantheon is unmistakable as her Divinity which allows the Sustainer to make an educated guess that Freya was a major deity of a certain pantheon who pledged her allegiance to an Outer God. It was like seeing a deer willing to die protecting a tiger that would eat her if he's hungry.

But, the Sustainer's mind distracted momentarily from the battle. She blinked her eyes and saw both of her targets had vanished. Her eyes swiftly scanned her surroundings and caught a glimpse at the cloud below, a black sphere enveloping itself and vanishing into a streak of dark light plummeting down below the bridges, into the crack below the clouds.

Ray now in his feline form held firmly in Freya's arm as he looked up and crossed eyes with the Sustainer for one last time. He lifted his right paw on his forehead to perform a mock salute.

"Adios! Hope we won't ever meet again." He said before the barrier enclosed itself shut and accelerated rapidly before turning into a dark streak that vanished below into the spatial rift between the clouds.

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