Ren
The oil lamp on Ren's desk flickered, casting his shadow across the walls of his apartment.
It was well past midnight, and Ren was getting ready for war.
Spread out before him was his battered notebook, a map of Liyue, and a cup of tea that had gone cold hours ago.
"This isn't enough," Ren muttered, rubbing his temples. "If I walk into Wangshu Inn with just these guys, I'm practically asking to be turned into fertilizer."
He looked down at the page in front of him. It was a report of his current arsenal, written using a mix of English and Japanese.
Though the extra protection using a different language seemed excessive, especially when he was just going to put the book in his Shadow Storage anyway.
- [Divine Dogs (Vader & Yoda):Fast. Good for scouting. High damage when fused, but fragile individually.]
- [Toad (Gama):Utility king. Great for grappling and mobility. Combat power? Minimal. A glorified meat shield at best. (Sorry buddy)]
And that was all he had.
Against a Hilichurl camp? Plenty. Against a Vision holder like Chongyun? Doable.
But against a Yaksha? Against stronger monsters or even elite warriors? It was a joke.
"Ughhh, what a pain in the ass," Ren sighed out loud and leaned back in his chair. His mind drifted back to Bubu Pharmacy.
"Your body isn't rejecting the energy. It's adapting to become a perfect vessel for it."
Baizhu had looked at him like he was a walking enigma, which, to be fair, he kind of was, or maybe it was more accurate to say that he was a ticking time bomb that had miraculously not exploded yet.
He talked about "Filth" and "Karma" like a poison that should have driven Ren mad long ago, but somehow hadn't.
Ren stared at his palm and channeled Cursed Energy into it, watching purple wisps of Cursed Energy erupt from his hand.
"But I don't feel any different," he whispered, a puzzled look on his face, "If anything, I just feel… full?"
It was hard for him to describe what it felt like.
This was the difference between him and the locals of Liyue.
Unlike them, he didn't worry about "Karma" consuming his mind. To a sorcerer, negative energy was basically fuel. He felt perfectly fine—better than fine, actually.
'But the rate of growth is concerning,'
Since arriving in Teyvat, his CE reserves had doubled and were still growing.
It was as if the atmosphere of Teyvat itself was feeding him, or perhaps his body was reacting to Elemental Energy by generating more CE? It didn't make sense, but he literally had nothing to go off.
Whatever was going on, something was causing his reserves to increase.
"If I keep growing at this rate, it could get dangerous," Ren mused, "I'm going to become a walking beacon. Baizhu noticed it. Hu Tao noticed it. Eventually, something worse than a Yaksha is going to notice."
Something like an Archon. Specifically, Rex Lapis.
Ren does NOT want to explain to a god why he smells like said god's dead peers. He was 99% sure he would get obliterated before he could even say a word.
'I really need to refine my Cursed Energy suppression…'
He grabbed his pen and circled three names he had written on the next page.
Target 1: Great Serpent (Orochi).
"I need a tank," Ren mused, tapping the paper. "Orochi can take a hit for me, and it's fast enough to fight on its own. If I add in Divine Dogs to the mix, then things should be easy."
In his world, the Great Serpent was a massive beast capable of burrowing and striking from below.
In Teyvat, Ren suspected Orochi would be even stronger if Divine Dog and Toads increase in strength were anything to look at.
But he needed something that could control the battlefield, so Orochi is his best bet.
Target 2: Nue.
Nue would give him much more mobility and an aerial advantage. It was fast and could summon lightning, what more could he ask for?
But the problem was he had no idea how strong it could be now.
'Which is why I need to be extra careful.'
Target 3: Round Deer?
"Reverse Cursed Technique…"
Most sorcerers weren't known for their durability, especially with the sheer variety in Cursed Techniques, you were almost 100% likely to be injured in any battle.
Round Deer could output positive energy. Which meant other than the addition to RCE in his arsenal, he'd have access to healing.
And obtaining the deer would also let him test out more theories. Is Reverse Cursed Technique similar to Chongyun's yang energy? How would it react to Teyvat's other energies?
"But the cost..." Ren frowned. "Summoning it takes a massive amount of energy. And if I fail the ritual... well, getting trampled by a deer isn't a great way to go."
He decided to table the Deer for now. It would be a game-time decision. If Orochi and Nue went smoothly, he might risk it.
"Okay. Targets acquired," Ren said, turning his attention to the map. "Now, where do I do this?"
Now this was the tricky part. The taming ritual was anything but quiet. He needed to summon a large shikigami and beat it into submission. It would no doubt make a shit ton of noise and destroy anything in the immediate vicinity.
"Guili Plains is out," Ren decided, crossing out the large central area of Liyue. "Too many adventurers. Too many Millelith patrols. If someone sees a giant snake bursting out of the ground, I'll be arrested for inciting panic."
He moved his finger west.
"Qingce Village? Too populated. The Chasm? Definitely not."
He remembered Keqing's icy voice from the other day. 'If I find a single divot in the terrain when I return tomorrow, I will bill both of you.'
Ren shuddered. He could fight monsters. He could not fight the Liyue legal system.
"I need somewhere abandoned," Ren muttered. "Somewhere rugged. Somewhere normal people don't go."
His finger drifted north-west, landing on the vertical peaks of Minlin. Specifically, the area surrounding Mt. Aocang.
"Jueyun Karst…."
From a glance, the area should be perfect. The terrain was mostly stone and water, which meant he didn't need to worry about anything burning when fighting Nue.
It was notoriously difficult to navigate, which would mitigate the risk of any travelers or merchants stumbling on him.
The rumors of Adepti living there acted as a natural "Keep Out" sign for the superstitious citizens of Liyue.
He also doubted that actual adepti were staying near the area. If a lot of people talk about it, he is willing to bet that it's not true.
If it were, there would be a lot more incidents in that area.
"It's isolated," Ren nodded, circling a small basin at the base of the mountain. "And if I break a few rocks... well, who's going to sue me? A bird?"
"Minlin it is," Ren decided, closing the notebook with a snap.
He stood up and began to pack his bag. Bandages. Food. He checked his sword, ensuring the edge was sharp.
"Two new shadows," Ren muttered, blowing out the lamp. "And maybe a healer if I'm lucky."
/ — /
???
The dawn broke over Liyue Harbor in a wash of pale gold and grey mist.
Even as most of the people were waking up, there were already street vendors shouting, and the clatter of carriages echoed through the streets.
Ren quietly moved through the crowd, wearing his standard courier uniform as he headed for Liyue's gates.
He tried to act as normal as he could, giving the Millelith guards at the gate a polite nod.
Honestly, he didn't know why he was so nervous. No one knew what he was actually going to do. They had no reason to suspect he was doing anything other than actual courier work.
But that didn't stop him from looking like a tense, nervous wreck.
High above the street, perched on the shadowed balcony of the Yanshang Teahouse, a woman was watching him.
Yelan swirled her cup of tea, staring down at the sea of people. Her presence was completely invisible to the world around her, if any civilian looked upward, they would find the balcony empty.
"What do we have here?" she murmured, her voice a low hum that vanished into the wind.
She set the cup down and picked up a hydro die from the table, rolling it across her knuckles.
"Ren Roman. The 'Shadow Courier.'"
She had been watching him for weeks. Ever since she had a break from the Chasm, she heard rumors about a delivery boy of all things who could command shadows and traverse the entirety of Liyue in a day.
The intelligence reports she received were messy, as they had no information to work on at all. There was no trace of Ren Roman anywhere in Liyue, and the boy just so happened to suddenly pop up.
She had sent an agent to query people who were most often seen with Ren, which led her to Chongyun. Unfortunately, the report had come back frustratingly wholesome
"He is a good person," Chongyun had insisted, "His energy is... unique. Unsettling, yes. But he has no malice. He even goes with me exorcising sometimes."
Yelan scoffed softly. "Chongyun is a sweet boy. But he thinks everyone who doesn't actively try to eat him is a friend."
She watched Ren pass the city gates and turn north-west. She was immediately able to hone in on the fact that he wasn't heading for a delivery route, but instead towards the mountains.
"Hmmm," she racked her brain, trying to remember what lay in that direction. "Jueyun Karst? Going for a pilgrimage, are we? Or are we looking for something buried in the Adepti's backyard?"
The die in her hand stopped spinning. She leaned forward, narrowing her eyes.
Yelan's vision was sharper than a hawk's. She spotted the edge of a white parchment tucked securely in his inner breast pocket.
The paper itself was irrelevant, what caught her attention was the faint pulse of elemental energy coating it.
Yelan froze. She knew that signature.
"Ganyu…" she breathed, her calculated demeanor slipping for a second.
She sat back, trying to piece together what was going on in front of her.
'Now why would the General Secretary vouch for a rogue element like him?' She had no doubts about Ganyu's loyalty, so something else must be at play here.
Especially with the significance of the item she gave the courier.
It wasn't just a simple letter, but instead a seal of protection. Specifically, protection from other Adepti.
"Interesting," Yelan mused, "Very interesting. Making friends in high places, aren't we?"
A newcomer to Liyue was walking into Jueyun Karst carrying a pass from the Qixing's secretary?
'I'd be a fool not to investigate.'
"I really hate unknown variables," Yelan sighed and stood up.
She grabbed her coat and stepped onto the railing of the balcony. Ren was already a speck on the road, disappearing into the morning mist.
"Chongyun thinks you're nice. Ganyu thinks you're useful," Yelan said, watching his retreating back. "Let's see what you really are."
She flipped the die into the air. It dissolved into a burst of hydro mist before it hit the floor.
Yelan vanished from the balcony, vanishing into the sea of people to begin the hunt. She wouldn't intercept him.
Not yet. She would follow him into the mountains, watch him from the dark, and see exactly what kind of game he was playing.
And if he stepped out of line... well, the mountains were full of places where people could simply disappear.
/ — /
Ren
"I will never get used to the nature here," Ren muttered with a smile as he crossed the invisible border that led to the wilds of Minlin.
The moment he walked deeper into the area, he felt the sounds in his vicinity become dead silent.
There were no more sounds of birds or rustling wind through the grass. It was kind of unsettling, but peaceful at the same time.
Walking deeper into the mountains, he saw the trees change from their green hue to the amber maples of Jueyun Karst.
Ren stopped to catch his breath, wiping sweat from his brow.
"I really should take vacations more often,"
He rarely went on trips to the mountains unless it was for work. Being able to slow down and enjoy the scenery was nice.
As he navigated the winding paths cut into the cliffside, his mind drifted back to the stories his father told him.
But unlike most parents, his dad didn't tell Ren fables or stories of heroes. Instead, it was of the grim battles of the world of Jujutsu.
His dad was a man of few words, but Ren remembered his favorite story was of the "Battle of Shinjiku," where the strongest of that era went against the strongest in history.
"The city trembled at the might of the two Strongest," his father had said, "The city was nearly erased. And the land was forever tainted."
From his memory, he was pretty sure there was an actual recording of the battle online. But his father forbade him from watching it for some unknown reason.
…Not that it did anything to stop Ren from watching it.
Ren looked at the way the mountains seemed to have been sliced apart by a blade the size of a skyscraper.
"This is the same thing," Ren realized, shuddering from the cold.
Of the few times Ganyu had spoken of the Archon war, she spoke as if it were a tragedy. But looking at the physical scars on the land, he realized she was being modest.
Even if the war had happened so long ago, traces of the battles fought are still imprinted on the earth.
"Rex Lapis... the God of Geo," Ren mused, stepping over a fissure in the rock. "People say he created mountains and killed other gods with ease. If the Archons can do this... then they really are on the level of Special Grade Sorcerers."
That was why he was always cautious of anything he did in Liyue. A Special Grade could destroy a country if left unchecked. Actual gods? Ren didn't even want to think of what it would be like to be a normal person in that era.
He paused at a fork in the road, checking his map. The path led deeper into the peaks, toward an area marked simply as "Adeptal Abode."
"Adeptal Abode," he scoffed, shaking his head. "Right. And the sewers are haunted by a hydro dragon."
Of course, he had heard of the warnings in the city.
Practically every merchant and their grandmother talked about Jueyun Karst like stepping foot in the place would get them cursed.
Ren didn't buy it.
There were similar stories about Wuwang Hill, and it turned out to be just another spooky forest. This mountain had demons, or that mountain was home to Mountain Shaper.
All complete myths that were debunked.
He knew that one of the thousands of peaks in Liyue had to house an Adepti somewhere. But it was unlikely that the mountain he picked would be the one.
"People just say that stuff to keep the tourists out," Ren reasoned, adjusting his grip on his sword. "Or to save money on Millelith patrols. If there were actually demi-gods living here, they wouldn't be this quiet."
To him, the "heavy" atmosphere wasn't divine pressure. It was just a high concentration of elemental energy. Dangerous? Yes. Mystical surveillance system? Unlikely.
He hasn't sensed anything remotely similar to Xiao, Ganyu, or even Yanfei. So he was pretty sure that he would be ok.
Finally, after another hour of climbing, the path leveled out.
Ren found himself at the base of Mt. Aocang and in front of a large cave
There were stone cliffs around him that would prevent too much sound from getting out, and the waterfalls would drown out even explosions.
"This place should do," Ren said, dropping his heavy bag onto a flat rock.
"Let's see what I'm working with," He stretched while looking around the cave. Calculating anything he could use to his advantage, and if necessary, escape routes.
"Plenty of soft earth for Orochi," he noted, kicking the ground. "And an enclosed space is good for trapping Nue."
He walked to the edge of a nearby pool and splashed some freezing water on his face. The shock cleared the fatigue from the hike.
He looked at his reflection in the water. He looked tired. There were dark circles under his eyes—stress, lack of sleep, and the constant fear of never getting home.
"One way or another," Ren told his reflection, "this ends today. Either I get stronger, or I die."
He turned away from the water and walked to the center of the cave. He reached into his shadow, feeling the familiar presence of his Shikigami waiting in the depths.
"Time to go to work."
He clasped his hands together, "Divine Dog!"
Two pools of ink expanded from his shadow. From the left rose the white hound, Yoda. From the right rose the black hound, Vader.
Ren knelt, scratching Vader behind the ears. The Shikigami leaned into the touch.
"Listen up guys," Ren told them. "Today isn't a normal mission. We're hunting big game. I need you guys at full power."
He stood up and stepped back, clasping his hands together.
DIVINE DOG: TOTALITY
The dogs barked in unison. Their forms began to liquefy, swirling together into a vortex of black shadow.
Technically, what he was doing wasn't the actual "Totality." In the strict terminology of the Ten Shadows, "Totality" was a state achieved only when one Shikigami died, and its power was inherited by another.
But what he was doing was combining two living Shikigami into a boosted form, this technique was known as "The Well's Unknown Abyss."
'The Well's Unknown Abyss,' Ren thought with a mental grimace. 'Try saying that three times fast while a Ruin Guard is spinning at your face. It's a mouthful. Besides, "Totality" sounds way cooler.'
The swirling ink solidified. A werewolf-like creature with black and white fur emerged from the shadows.
"Good," Ren nodded. The fused wolf let out a howl that echoed off the cave walls.
"If Teyvat already buffs Divine Dog by a lot," Ren muttered, "Orochi is going to come out looking like a tank. I need something that can take a hit, pin an enemy down, and act as a shield."\
He walked to the center of the cave as the sun began to dip, creating long shadows that connected Ren to the darkness of the cave walls.
"Let's get this started,"
He took a deep breath, centering himself. He pushed the fear of failure—the fear of the "filth," the fear of the Adepti, the fear of death—into a small box in the back of his mind.
Right now, he fights as a Sorcerer.
He focused entirely on the Cursed Energy welling up in his stomach. He guided it through his veins, down his arms, and into his fingertips.
He raised his hand in the hand sign for Orochi.
"From the shadows, rise," Ren chanted, his voice echoing with a power that wasn't entirely human.
His shadow boiled and surged forward, darker than the surrounding gloom, seeping into the cracks of the earth.
"Great Serpent!"
For a second, there was silence.
Then, a grinding rumble vibrated through the soles of Ren's boots. Dust fell from the ceiling. The ground beneath the sandy patch bulged upward, cracking the stone foundation.
Something massive was moving beneath the earth.
Ren took a deep breath and prepared himself next to Divine Dog.
"Come on out," Ren whispered. "Let's see whose bite is worse."