Barbatos, the Anemo Archon

"Eeeehhhhh, this is amazing!" said a surprised Venti, looking around in amazement. "And you had this inside of you all this time?"

Kenshin didn't reply, his face a mask of seriousness.

BOOM

A huge stone spear collided with the ground in the place Venti had been just a moment ago.

"Mooh, what are you doing?" asked a frowning Venti.

"The moment you entered this Plane was the moment you accepted the duel" Kenshin raised his hand, and a dozen spears more appeared.

Venti didn't reply this time, but his eyes narrowed and took out his bow.

Kenshin lowered his arm, and the spears shot forward so fast they were almost invisible.

Venti rose to the sky using a stream of wind, and shot an arrow towards Kenshin.

Kenshin, opting for not covering from an arrow shot by an Archon, shot a spear at the arrow.

FWWOOOOOOSSHHH

The arrow exploded in the air, creating a vacuum that sucked absolutely everything in a hundred-meter radius.

Grass, dirt, air, everything.

Kenshin made a shield in front of him that fixed him to the ground while reducing the effect of the vacuum.

"Ehehehe" Venti had a smug smile on his face. "Amazing right?".

But he had to throw himself to one side when a huge transparent blade appeared behind him, cleaving the air and creating a huge ravine with the sheer strength it carried.

Kenshin looked calmly at the frowning Venti, who didn't have any time to contemplate what happened, as the floor was split wide open and huge maws chomped everything between them.

"If you don't get serious" said Kenshin with a calm face, his purple eyes with golden particles shining. "Venti, the God of Anemo, will know defeat today".

Venti's figure appeared again on the ground, but he was not smiling anymore. The maws should have killed any normal human, and the only way he had to avoid them was by dematerializing his body and returning to the wind.

He knew Kenshin was strong, but as they agreed that Kenshin wouldn't be allowed to directly manipulate his soul, he thought it would be an easy fight.

But in a few moves, he had been forced to 'cheat'.

Venti wore a frown and readied his bow.

3 arrows shot at Kenshin, twisting in the air and describing erratic trajectories.

Kenshin froze the space around them, and they exploded in the air, creating 3 vacuums, but Kenshin's hair wasn't even ruffled.

Venti started running sideways, throwing a salvo of arrows towards him but had to float in the air when the ground disappeared again.

Kenshin froze all arrows, and learning how the Anemo power activated, destroyed the arrows in the exact place so they wouldn't detonate.

Venti frowned seeing this, as arrows were his main way of attacking but collided with something in the air face first.

"You are still not taking this seriously" murmured Kenshin with a frown. "I am freezing the space around you. You have no chance of getting free unless you turn into wind and break my block".

Venti frowned and tried to break free, but as Kenshin said, he just wasn't able to.

With a frustrated grunt, he turned into the wind and broke free from the immobilized space with sheer strength.

"What are you playing at" said Kenshin with a dark face, seeing Venti materialize again. "If you wanted to play around, we could have done it outside. I invited you here because you accepted my request for a serious fight".

Venti frowned and looked at the ground.

He accepted because he wanted to see how strong Kenshin was, and if he could rely on him in the approaching war that would engulf the world.

Snezhnaya is preparing for the war against the divine, and everything will be involved in this war.

And he isn't sure he will be able to protect Mondstadt alone, and knowing how Kenshin is, he was the perfect candidate.

But now, he is being forced to fight seriously, and he doesn't like that.

'Venti' is the form of a dear friend who fought with a small wind spirit 2600 years ago against Decarabian. A simple human whose soul thirsted for freedom.

After a gruelling fight, they finally won. The Tyrant was no more, and the small wind spirit found himself as the winner of a fight he didn't even expect to survive.

All thanks to their allies, comrades and friends.

The Lawrence clan, a group of chivalrous people whose fighting style, akin to a dance, tore through the winds of the Tyrant, letting the rest attack the Tyrant relatively unscathed. Their symbol being the Glacial Seal, the seal they are ready to undo should the need to defend Mondstadt arise.

The Imunlaukr clan, a clan of warrior that raised their young teaching them to fight and die for their ideals. A now extinguished family only recorded in some books and Barbatos' memory.

And the Gunnhildr clan. The clan of Knights whose tenet was 'For Mondstadt, as always'. An incorruptible family that kept defending Mondstadt for as long as Barbatos himself did.

Later, the Ragnvindr family joined these illustrious families, but only one member remained alive.

And finally, the nameless bard, whose name remained only in Barbatos' head, the one he dedicated to the central place of the city he was so proud of. The simple human that recruited all those magnificent knights and heroes, the one that made the foundation of new Mondstadt possible.

Barbatos took his form every moment he was able to. His memory was all that remained in this world of the gentle bard who enjoyed playing the harp on clear nights under the moon.

And as a wind spirit, he never liked fighting. That's why he proposed to be friends with The Hexenzirkel, the group of powerful witches and wizards.

"Barbatos" Kenshin's voice snapped Venti out of his reverie. "I don't know why you accepted the duel, but seeing your soul in turmoil, I can get an idea. Unwillingness, nostalgia, doubts, and worry. Tell me 'Venti'"

Kenshin approached Barbatos with his purple eyes fixed on the bard's smaller form.

"When was wind burdened by anything?".

Venti's eyes widened.

He, the one who defended freedom above anything, he, who was wind itself, was being burdened.

He could remember his friend with nostalgia, worry about the future or be unwilling to fight.

But being burdened by them was unacceptable.

"Ehehe" Barbatos laughed softly, and the wind started picking up.

Not the arrows charged with Anemo power, not those ascending streams, and not those wind blades that triturated everything approaching the vacuum.

A gentle breeze that made the grass sway, for the first time since it appeared in Kenshin's soul. 

A gentle breeze that made all your worries and burdens fly away. 

A soft current that made you feel safe, knowing that someone was with you, pushing you on the back when you couldn't move forward.

The Wind of Freedom.

"Well" Barbatos said, looking at Kenshin with a smile. "I feel better now than what I've been in centuries. Maybe millennia".

Kenshin didn't reply, looking at Barbatos' soul. His soul had always been wind, but he could sense his emotions, just as he had done right now.

But now, there was nothing in his soul, no worries, no doubts, no happiness. Just wind.

"I guess that's what Freedom is" Kenshin slightly smiled.

"Of course" Barbatos replied with a smile, and his form started to dematerialize, this time for good. "Kenshin".

"Hmmm?" Kenshin hummed, preparing for the hard fight ahead.

"I want you to help Mondstadt" Barbatos' voice sounded, coming from everywhere at once.

"Of course" Kenshin unhesitantly nodded. "That's what friends are for".

"Then I can be reassured" Barbatos said, and even if Kenshin couldn't see his soul, he sensed relief and gratefulness.

Wind started picking up, and Kenshin's clothes were violently dragged off to all places at the same time.

"Then I will fight. Not as Venti, but as Barbatos" Barbatos' voice didn't lose its gentleness, but the landscape started changing as everything was being sucked into an enormous tornado, making the invisible wind gain a brown and green colour from all the dirt and grass.

"Barbatos, the one who felled Decarabian and founded new Mondstadt. The God of Freedom".

A bright green figure in the center of the tornado, shone through all the dirt. It didn't seem to be any bigger than a normal human, but its shine didn't allow Kenshin to discern its figure.

"This will be the last fight of Barbatos, the Anemo Archon".

2 huge eyes opened inside the now colossal twister, each eye being 100 meters high.

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Kenshin had to force the space around him to freeze just to avoid getting sucked into the vortex, but he didn't face any troubles.

Barbatos was unbelievably strong, but so was he. He was the best soul 'master' in Teuvat, of that he was sure. 

And this was his soul, the place he was at his maximum strength.

Stone spears were thrown at the colossal tornado, but upon reaching the edge of the wind they were grinded by the twister. By the time the tip of the spear should have impaled the glowing spot in the center of the tornado, nothing remained of them. Nothing could pass through the wind.

But Kenshin wasn't disappointed. 

If those spears didn't work, he would use others.

Barbed spears of pure metal shot to Barbatos, now even bigger than the previous ones. 50 spears of 20 meters each whistled through the air while being shot at breakneck speed.

This time they passed through the windstorm, but the green figure shone with more intensity for a second, and they were pulverized at the same time.

The previously silent typhoon started rotating even more fast, and suddenly the deafening sound of wind tearing through absolutely everything made Kenshin unable to focus. He was to block his ears to not get his eardrums torn to shreds.

"I am Wind"

Barbatos' voice sounded clear, not affected by the typhoon or Kenshin's blockage on his ears.

"Wind is not restricted, not controlled, not commanded".

The tornado started approaching Kenshin slowly, but inexorably.

Kenshin decided to burst the typhoon from the inside.

A huge explosion akin to that of the huge firework explosion he made with Sara and Yoimiya years ago made the green figure's shine flicker.

10 more explosions occurred inside the tornado, and Barbatos' figure flickered for a moment.

Kenshin interrupted the flow of wind itself using his domain over his soul, and he could see Barbatos' figure, weakened by the sudden explosions.

A small being, maybe a bit bigger than Paimon, stood there.

The 2 of them looked at each other for a moment.

It was the first time Kenshin saw the Anemo Archon without his disguise of a bard, and Barbatos looked at Kenshin with his true body and eyes for the first time.

"And Wind" said the being and the calm breeze turned violent in a second. "Can't be stopped".

The shining silhouette disappeared as Barbatos decided to dematerialize, and a white sphere appeared in the sky. it was a hundred times bigger than the Jade Chamber, made of compressed wind.

And it was sucking everything.

Kenshin felt pain inside of him, what Barbatos was destroying with this orb was his soul after all.

He sensed the space around him being split open due to the sheer force of suction, but he froze space again.

Only for it to break again when Barbatos willed it.

So all Kenshin could do was to freeze space over and over again to avoid flying to that orb, but as Barbatos unmade that, he was little by little approaching the sphere.

Kenshin sensed the suction force stopping, and looked at the white orb of wind.

It only stopped sucking to do the opposite.

White blades the size of the Mondstadt's statue shot at him from the sphere, and Kenshin wasn't eager to taste them.

As he learned from his combats with Ei, he started shooting back hitting the blades in the extremes.

He knew that those blades were way stronger than anything he could shoot that fast, and would slice through absolutely anything he threw at them. So his plan was to send them of course.

And it worked.

For the first 10 until the Anemo Archon decided to control them personally. He was the one who controlled Wind after all.

Kenshin disrupted the space inside them and made a shield of pure soul energy to stop the remnants of those blades from cutting him. But the big blades were effectively neutralized.

The sphere started sucking air again, but only from the area that didn't affect Kenshin. That allowed Barbatos to shoot blades at Kenshin while sucking air to replenish ammo.

But the blades were being shot at a slower pace and were weaker.

Kenshin started thinking of a way he could use to target Barbatos. He could see Barbatos' soul everywhere, but he couldn't target it without directly attacking his soul, and based on the strength of Barbatos' soul, he may die.

Kenshin couldn't just make Barbatos' soul 'sleep', he was too strong for that. So his only option was to destroy it, as sealing it also wouldn't work for the same reason.

But when 10 more spheres of pure wind appeared, he had to focus on the hundreds of wind blades aiming at his frail body.

"Dammit!" Kenshin gritted his teeth, as he couldn't detect all wind blades at the same time, he only had 2 eyes. ".....".

Wasn't this place Kenshin's soul? Why would he need to use his eyes?

He was the best soul manipulator in the world, and he was inside a soul. Everything that happened here was under his domain.

He closed his eyes and focused on what he felt rather than saw.

A picture started appearing in his mind. Every blade, every sphere, every stalk of grass, and the entire soul of Barbatos. Everything was depicted in this painting.

In this painting, he only had to focus on the center of every blade and focus on the little spot of the orb.

He only had to desire for a vacuum to appear in the center of every sphere for it to dissipate.

"Ehehe" Barbatos laughed, not angry about this at all. He wouldn't let his frustration or disappointment affect his actions.

He was free.

A dozen, a hundred, a thousand.

White spheres of pure wind started appearing at a breakneck pace, and Kenshin destroyed almost all of them at the same pace.

But Barbatos had the advantage.

Kenshin had to, even if it was a single fraction of a second, in them to make them disappear.

But Barbatos was Wind itself. One order and the spheres will appear by themselves all over Kenshin's plane.

"..." Kenshin gritted his teeth under the enormous pressure he was in, as the spheres were increasing in size and number.

The huge Sakura Tree's leaves shone brightly with purple and golden colour as Kenshin used every bit of energy available in the plane to disrupt Barbatos' attack.

Barbatos got distracted for a second by the tree's glow but focused on the fight immediately.

Because he sensed his strength decreasing, reducing the number of attacks he could send.

Kenshin decided to use everything he had to win or at least tie. And that everything was the Plane itself.

The Plane was slowly but surely eroding Barbatos' soul, and it was a matter of time before he lost all his strength.

'What a merciless attack' thought Barbatos, but redoubled his efforts.

Kenshin also felt Barbatos' efforts and decided to erect a shield around himself to fend off the small blades and focus on the bigger ones and the spheres.

Kenshin's shield held strong, even if he had to remake it a few times. 

When he sensed wind start to appear even inside his shield, he opted to make a new shield, this one skin-tight.

But that made his body recoil from every single blade that impacted him.

He had no way of doing everything at once, so he decided to ignore his body at focus on the more pressing matters, the spheres.

With eyes closed and ignoring the hits his body was receiving due to his shield being impacted by the smaller blades, quickly erased as many spheres as he could without disregarding the bigger blades, the ones that would bisect him. He only needed to wait for a few minutes and Barbatos would lose his strength.

He couldn't use the Plane at the start of the fight as he didn't have any information on Barbatos' attacks and mechanisms of defence, but now that he knew what to expect, he could manage.

Barbatos realized that he wouldn't be able to defeat Kenshin in time, so he used his last move. After this, he would have lost.

Hundreds of white orbs instantly joined with each other and formed an even bigger one.

Kenshin opened his eyes and looked upwards, only to see that the calm blue sky was covered by a giant sphere of pure wind. It looked like the moon was falling.

"Good luck" was all Barbatos said. And the moon fell on top of Kenshin.

"FUCK!!" Kenshin shouted and created as many shields as he could.

Hundreds of layers were created in an instant to defend against the colossal mass of Wind.

But only a few dozen remained after the initial hit. Kenshin closed his eyes to concentrate and focus on the core of this planet-size sphere, but it was useless.

This sphere had no core like the others, it was made of wind erratically moving all around.

Kenshin was now immersed in the giant sphere of white, madly creating shields around him only to be destroyed a second later.

Wind came from his back, his front, his back again, the right side, from above.....

It was a never-ending rush of attacks that Kenshin had no way of predicting. 

The front area was 'calm' one second, and the next it was charging at him with the sharpness of a knife.

He created a hundred shields, and a hundred and then were destroyed at the same time. His body started getting cut by some of them, but only the smallest ones he couldn't waste his time destroying in time.

Barbaots watched from the outside calmly. He could see how the sphere was diminishing at a breakneck pace, proof of how the wind stored in it was being used relentlessly.

And the Plane was still attacking Barbatos, but as he had already thrown his attack, it was not a concern anymore.

He had no strength left, in a way he had already lost. Now it depended on if Kenshin would win, or lose like him.

.

.

.

When the white sphere dissipated, Kenshin lay on the floor, blood all over his body, but alive.

Barbatos approached, materializing again as a wind spirit, and saw that Kenshin was unconscious.

But when he looked up, his own existence felt surprised.

Because the Sakura Tree was unharmed.

Even after being engulfed in the sphere that was told to attack anything inside, the sturdy bark didn't have a single cut.

"How many more secrets does your soul hold?" mused Barbatos, looking at Kenshin on the floor.

"I'm....not...done" Kenshin recovered consciousness, feeling his body in pain, but there was something more he needed to do.

Barbatos felt the space under him freeze and knew that he couldn't break it any more, the Plane's attack on him had left it with little to no strength left.

And Kenshin, just after doing this, fainted.

"So I lost....." thought Barbatos, stunned by that fact.

But if a spirit had a face, he would be sporting a huge and radiant smile.

Because he, the Anemo Archon, had lost.

Kenshin will help Mondstadt in his stead. And that meant...

That he was free.

Free like the Wind.

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Kenshin obviously didn't notice, and Barbatos was too tired to realize.

But in Kenshin's Plane, the grass was gently swaying in the breeze.

When there had been no Wind before the fight.