The very beginning

After the world crumpled and collapsed, two meteorites fell from the sky and struck it. One of the twins that fell to the world, one just awoke from his slumber. He awoke from the bitter cold with the expression of a brave new world. However, the horror brought to his drowsy eyes was that his sister, chained and impaled. A foreign god descends from the skies and took away his only kin. Try as he might, the god wouldn't let him wake and threw him into a slumber full of nightmares. When he finally opened his eyes, the world around him wasn't as he remembered it to be; it was completely different from his memories.

How long has he been asleep? Hours? Days? Years?

He has been walking endlessly searching for a while to reach the presence of moving beings. He was so alone and so in despair.

"Hey! Wake up! Helloooo!" a small floating creature came close to him, trying to wake him up. "You said we were gonna watch the sunrise together, how are you still asleep?" she titled her head and looked at the sun, blinking. "The sun is already out so you better rise and shine! If you wanna find your sister, we're gonna have to get you up and at 'em."

Aether put a hand over his eyes as it was hard for him to adjust to the bright sunlight. He moved to a sitting position and watched the floating creature go ahead. "Once you're ready, gimme a shout."

She flew ahead and he had to follow. He had told her about his goal of finding his sister but he didn't tell her the rest. As she stayed with him for quite some time, he found it unfair she didn't know anything, especially after what happened. She didn't know if she was even in danger or somewhat. He didn't know either.

"So what you are trying to say is that you fell here from another world…" he nodded at her recapitulation. "But when you wanted to leave and go on to the next world, your path was blocked by some unknown God…"

Aether remembered how he was with his sister in the main gate the connected other worlds trying to leave to another one. They were ready to leave when a portal in the shape of a cross emerged from nowhere.

"Outlanders, your journey ends here." Her voice was firm and determined, resembling one of a higher being. The siblings sensed the call of danger and prepared for battle.

She was a fairly tall young woman with a slender body. She was shown to be a white-haired woman with yellow eyes that possessed crosses-shaped pupils. Her hair seemed to be floating as if they were alive and moving by themselves.

"Who are you?" Lumine, Aether's sibling, said while stepping forward.

"The sustainer of the heavenly principles. The arrogation of mankind ends now." She moved her hand and with a swift movement, a small red cube materialized then turned bigger.

Under their feet, the cube that appeared in the Unknown God hand materialized beneath their feet. Sensing the danger, the jumped each in the opposite direction of the other and took out their wings to float and their unique swords. They dashed towards the stranger that stopped them on their path.

Seeing their approaches, the Unknown God stretched her hand forward summoning connected cubes aiming at the siblings. They had to fly around and dodge them countlessly to not be touched by one of those things. They succeeded in approached the being and ready to strike, the Unknown God looked at Aether. As if he sensed some kind of attack, he flew back then realized the Unknown god was going for the sister. The cubes enveloped her and her body transformed into small cubes absorbed by the main cube in the being's hand.

"Lumine."

Fueled by rage, he sneak-attacked behind her causing an explosion but because of her big power, the cubes protected her and from his hand, they engulfed him whole giving him the same fate as his sister.

"Wait, don't go! Give my sister back." And then, everything faded to oblivion.

"And just like that, the god took away my sister. Some kind of seal was cast upon me and I lost my power. So while we used to travel from world to world, we are now trapped here."

His voice showed the hurt in his heart and the agony from ignoring the fate of his sister. What happened to her? Where was she? The Unknown god has torn them apart and now she was nowhere to be found. He looked at his clenched fists and turned to Paimon, the floating creature.

"How many years ago was it? I don't know… But I intend to find out. I was completely alone from the time I woke until I met you two months ago…" his voice turned soft and grateful. He was happy for meeting a companion when loneliness had made a hole in his heart.

"Yeah, Paimon really owes you for that otherwise, Paimon likely would have drowned. So Paimon will do her best to be a great guide."

Paimon rubbed her cheek, thinking how embarrassed she was because Aether fished her out of the ocean when he was fishing for food then her embarrassment turned to gratefulness. Paimon cannot swim, she always floated.

Paimon has a petite body, giving her the look of a fairy. She has thick white hair cropped just above her shoulders, dark purple eyes, and light skin. She wears a long-sleeved white jumper and a night-blue cape flecked with stars, and white stockings with white boots. Rose-gold embroidery and shapes are attached to her jumper, boots, and sleeves. Paimon's accessories are a dark blue hairpin, almost black, and a rose-gold crown that levitates above her head as though it was a halo.

"We should head off. Let's get going!" She signalled to him to follow to keep travelling in Teyvat, the world he was trapped in until he found his sister.