"Where... am I?"
Victor Wang's head throbbed with unbearable pain—but perhaps, having built some resistance, he didn't pass out this time.
Thump! Thump!
He slammed his head against the wall again and again, trying to crush the mental agony beneath raw physical pain. Instead, he earned double the pain.
"Do you think banging on the wall in the middle of the night is fun?!" a groggy voice grumbled from next door.
Victor didn't stop—not until blood blurred his vision. He smeared it aside with his hand.
Silence fell on the other side of the wall.
His phone kept ringing.
Victor raised it, ready to smash it—but saw his sister's avatar.
He couldn't.
"Even if it's an illusion... let me see her again, just a bit longer."
He answered.
The familiar bathroom background. Wang Momo's face was full of anxiety, and the moment she saw him, her worst fears were confirmed.
"Bro, what happened?! Don't scare me!" Her eyes, bright as stars and moon, welled with tears.
"Go to the hospital now! Why are you just standing there?! I—I'll call an ambulance, just stop the bleeding!"
She fumbled to dial emergency services.
"...Are you really my sister?"
"You're still joking now?! If you died, I... I'd be devastated!"
"Die?"
Bang! Bang!
A knock—loud and commanding. "Open up! XXXX! XXXX!"
"Silvia... thank you."
"Bro! Bro—" beep!
"I'm dead! HAHAHA! I died! I'm dead, I'm dead!"
Victor opened the door joyfully—only to scare the towering, scar-faced neighbor into stumbling backward.
"Hey now, bro, let's talk this out—what's going on? Good thing I came! Save a life, gain virtue! Hahaha..." He retreated nervously.
"Did you know I died? I'm already dead! Ahahaha!"
"L-look, I gotta go—I can't help you! I-I'm out!" The man bolted and locked his door behind him, dialing frantically:
"Hello?! There's a madman self-harming—maybe even murdered someone! Blood all over his face! My address is... Yes, yes, please come quickly! I'm terrified... sob sob sob..."
Victor's memories of collapsing at work resurfaced—his mind spiraled. Wearing only slippers, he charged out the door, howling like a madman down the street, terrifying every passerby.
The pain crescendoed—losing one slipper as he ran—until it shattered everything: his mind, the sky, the world. Cracks spread across the heavens, and blocks of night fell away, revealing a true sky behind.
In it, a scene played in slow motion: the cursed black sword piercing his chest in the rain.
Victor understood.
This wasn't his first time in this illusion. The first was when he surprised the Chief Instructor, only to be impaled through the foot by the black sword. From that moment, his chance of winning dropped from 0.6% to 0.
Just one touch from that sword, and your spirit would be drawn into your deepest desire. Fail to realize the truth, and you'd stay trapped forever. Last time, his hand had been cut off—yet he'd felt nothing.
And time… outside, one second stretched into a day in the illusion.
One outside day? 236.71 years.
Staring at the unreachable firmament, Victor realized that even if he saw through the illusion, he had no way to affect the world outside.
"Chief Instructor... how did you do it? How long were you trapped here? I don't even know your name..."
In the sky, the spiral guard of the black sword slowly began to turn.
Victor knew. His body... was already dead.
Sirens from police and ambulance grew nearer.
He kicked off his remaining slipper, letting the sharp cobblestones bite into his bloodied feet. At a nearby fountain, he washed his face clean and slumped onto a bench.
Just waiting for death.
His phone was muted, but still buzzing. When he checked it—99+ messages from Silvia. The early ones were full of worry; the rest? All calling him an idiot.
"Haha… finally showing your true colors, huh."
Even at death's door, he couldn't help teasing her.
["Bro! What the hell is going on?!"]
["Take care of yourself. Don't let some jerk hurt you."]
["I'm smart and beautiful. No one can trick me."]
Victor could picture her tear-streaked face, defiantly firing back even through sobs.
["Take care of Mom and Dad with big bro."]
["Then what are you gonna do?"]
["All men must die—some heavy as mountains, others light as feathers."]
["What nonsense…"]
["I don't want to die. But if I must… let it mean something."]
He said no more. Just tapped on his big brother Gavin Wang's profile.
Five rings.
A stern face appeared.
"Hello?"
"Bro."
"What's wrong?"
"It's... good to talk again."
"...Is something bothering you?"
"Take care of Mom and Dad."
Victor tossed the phone into the fountain.
He stared at the sky. His body turned to ash. His soul was ripped from the illusion—into utter blackness.
His eyes were open, but he saw only darkness. His ears heard a stream's trickle. No scent. No warmth. No feeling. He floated in nothingness.
This was his second time here.
If he had to guess: not the mythic afterlife of Earth, like the Yellow Springs or Styx—but perhaps Teyvat's ley lines.
The Aranara had said: "Even if we part, we shall meet again in Sahav." That Sahav... might just be the ley lines.
But in-game, ley lines were barely explained—described as flows of energy, but never in detail.
"Energy flow, hence the stream sound? But how did my spirit enter?"
"Spirits are energy… Normal bodies stay, spirit fades. Elemental creatures—both vanish. But both their spirits fade!"
"Then maybe…"
Victor pondered in his void-like form. But found no further answers.
He tried counting seconds—but quickly realized he'd lost all sense of time. His mouth repeated "one-two-three-four," but he couldn't tell if it took seconds or centuries.
After endless repetition, he was hit by pain. Sharp and all-consuming, like a piece of him was missing.
He screamed.
And saw—someone in green.
He clenched his teeth, forcing the scream back.
Looking around—he was back at the crime scene. The wild downpour had been absorbed by the earth. Gentle moonlight filtered through the trees.
Tyndall effect, he thought. And with it, memories came flooding back—and the headache of remembering.
He bared his teeth in pain as he croaked, distorted by effort: "You are…?"
"Oh my~ You forgot even me? That hurts." The green figure wore a genuinely wounded expression.
"So, who are you?"
Victor didn't trust him. Under his cloak, his hand gripped the hilt of Wentian Sword.
"I'm Venti."
"How did you know I'd 'wake up' here?"
"That energy was too loud. Gave me a real fright."
"Don't get it."
"Sigh~ What do you remember? I'm here to help. Does your body ache? Memory a little fuzzy?"
"My memory's fine."
"Teyvat has seven elements. Aside from Geo, Electro, Dendro, Hydro, Pyro, and Cryo… do you remember the last one?"
Victor froze.
There were seven. But he only remembered six.
"Is it… Earth?"
Earth?! Venti nearly choked.
"No, silly. Anemo."
He conjured a glowing sphere of Anemo energy. "If you won't cooperate, you might lose that memory forever."
"Trust me."
Victor stayed silent.
"Just lost memory—not the ability to learn. Surely you can't ignore a missing element, right?"
"...Fine. What do you want me to do?"
"Stand still."
Venti carefully guided the Anemo particles into Victor's body. As the light merged with him, memories returned.
Two minutes later, the sphere vanished—and Victor remembered everything.
"What happened? Why did I forget?"
"When a normal person dies, body stays, spirit fades. Elemental life—both disappear. Hilichurls? Their spirit gets trapped in the body—neither dissipates."
"You're now something between elemental life and a Hilichurl. The elemental part of you was absorbed by… 'the world.' The Hilichurl part was reconstructed."
"So, your body hurts. Your memory's missing. Because both were incomplete."
"If I hadn't retrieved those Anemo particles, I could've patched your body—but your memories? Gone for good."
Venti's expression turned serious.
"That… doesn't sound great. I hate the idea of undeath, but traveling to find the Archons is dangerous..."
"Glad you understand. Try not to die again. Still... this wasn't your fault. Your killer has already fled Mondstadt. I don't know why it targeted you, but it won't come back anytime soon. Rest easy."
"It killed the Chief Instructor too!" Victor's fists clenched. The nameless sword filled his mind. "Do you know anything about it?!"
"...Letting it in was my failure. But I won't tell you about it. Nor help you face it. Let it be your whetstone."
"I'll cut it down." Victor said slowly, each word etched in hate. For the first time in two lives, he truly hated someone.
Venti nodded solemnly. "Then… good luck."
"Wait!" Victor reached into his cloak, pulling out a copied map from Mondstadt's forbidden section. "Do you recognize this place?"
Venti studied it, then shook his head. "Never seen this terrain."
"..." Victor's heart sank.
Even the Anemo Archon doesn't recognize it… I'll have to ask the Geo Archon next. And if he hasn't seen it either…
Venti stepped past him, vanishing into the night.