Tartaglia was enveloped in purple lightning, the Polar Star erupting with a blinding light in his palm.
He burst from the waves, the Hydro Element condensing into a massive dragon with distinct scales and claws. The lightning on its scales crackled, illuminating his pale yet stubborn face.
The silver hair at his temples was the price of overusing the Delusion, standing out starkly against the lightning.
"Yunqin! You said we would spend the next Lantern Rite together, you can't break your promise!" Tartaglia roared, his voice piercing through the wind and waves, hoarse yet filled with desperate determination.
The Hydro Blade Dragon roared as it coiled around the deep blue crescent moon, its claws scattering the surrounding dark energy.
Yunqin's entire body shuddered. The broken string emitted another crisp "twang," and a faint glimmer of clarity flashed in her crimson eyes.
The image of her laughing and eating Almond Tofu with Lumine and Paimon, the memory of Tartaglia keeping her company by the sea until sunset, the patient guidance of Mr. Zhongli teaching her to carve rock... these moments flashed through her mind in an instant...
But the moment this warmth surfaced, it was instantly enveloped by the dense black mist, as if an ice-cold hand had gripped her heart, and those memories blurred in an instant.
"Don't be fooled! Once you're no longer useful, they will still abandon you!" The Abyss's whispers echoed again, and the dark energy thickened once more.
Yunqin raised her hand and plucked the last remaining string. A silver line shot toward Tartaglia, but it veered slightly just before impact, grazing his arm and leaving a shallow bloody gash.
Zhongli watched this scene, his gaze softening slightly, the Geo element flowing steadily from his fingertips.
He slowly raised his hand, "Planet Befall" condensing at his fingertips as ancient runes glowed with a dazzling golden light. The moment was almost here.
Lumine gripped the Festering Desire sword, its blade burning slightly as it resonated with the Abyssal aura. Sweat trickled down her cheek and dripped onto the sword.
The Anemo element surged around her, and her Wind Glider unfurled. Even with its tips already damaged, it still transformed into a streak of light crossing the sky and sea, its blade pointed directly at that usurping moon.
The dark energy on the blade collided with the moonlight, creating a sizzling sound as sparks formed a faint band of light.
"With this contract as witness, with the thousand-year rise and fall of Liyue as witness, in the name of Morax."
Zhongli's voice carried an unquestionable majesty, like an oath spanning millennia.
The Stone Spear pointed not at Yunqin on the crescent moon, but at the Abyss rift silently expanding behind the moon.
"If this is the final chapter of your being coerced by the Abyss, then let all of Liyue close this blood-stained musical score for you."
Before his voice even faded, all forces collided violently in the same instant.
Tidal waves crashed against the moon wheel, Tartaglia's Hydro Blade Dragon struck the dark energy, and Zhongli's Stone Spear pierced the Abyss rift; Cloud Retainer's Anemo blade, Ganyu's Frost Arrow, Shenhe's spear tip, Jean's Anemo element, Diluc's fire bird...
All forces intertwined, causing all of Liyue to tremble slightly; even distant Qingyun Peak echoed with faint tremors.
The waves in Liyue Harbor rose higher and higher, like a falling sky, carrying a world-destroying momentum.
That eerie blue moon was no longer "hanging" but "pressing down."
It was unnervingly large, as if a hole had torn through the sky, enveloping all of Liyue Harbor in its shadow.
Yunqin sat on the tip of the moon blade, the broken string pressed against her collarbone, the remaining silver line still trembling slightly.
She lowered her eyes, her long eyelashes casting fragmented shadows over her crimson pupils. With each unconscious hand movement, a silent melody dissipated from her fingertips.
That melody had once been the gentleness she felt while carving the Rex Lapis figurine, the joy of sharing spicy noodles with Xiangling, and the earnestness of listening to Zhongli recount Liyue's history...
But now, only a bone-chilling cold remained. It first froze the wind, then the clouds, and finally the faint lights within the breaking waves.
The interlaced elemental light below expanded relentlessly. The silver lines and tidal waves she had strained to summon were shattered one by one, like fragile glaze.
The crisp snap of the breaking silver lines exploded in her ears. For the first time, her crimson eyes were stained with clear sorrow. Her nose ached, and her breath caught in a trembling stutter: "Why? I clearly... to all of you..."
"Stop thinking. They are ignorant subjects, only needing to acknowledge you as their New God." The Abyss's whisper coiled around her consciousness like a venomous snake, alluringly poisonous.
Yunqin snapped back to her senses. The sorrow in her crimson eyes was replaced, and she slowly breathed out four words: "Ignorant and foolish."
The instant her words fell, the broken Moonlight Strings reconnected under the dark energy's shroud, glowing with an even deeper cerulean light than before.
The Abyssal Tentacles entwined around the strings writhed slightly, absorbing the surrounding darkness like living creatures.
She raised her hand to pluck the strings, and the tune abruptly shifted.
It was no longer the desperate elegy from before, but a melody brimming with fervor and majesty, beating against everyone's heart like war drums. It seemed to be a funeral dirge for Liyue's "Old Era," and more so a celebratory anthem for her imminent ascension to the Divine Throne.
Eerily, as this melody reached everyone's ears, all the gathering Elemental Power instantly turned to dust.
Everyone froze in place, their bodies bound by invisible shackles, their sight holding only the figure descending from the moon blade high above.
Yunqin was shrouded in black energy, yet her steps were as light as if she were walking on clouds, advancing toward the crowd one step at a time.
Her fingertips first brushed over Lumine's broken wind-wing, pausing slightly as she touched its cracks. Then, she gently caressed the silver hair at Tartaglia's temple, the strand turned white by the Delusion and glowing with a cold light at her touch...
Finally, she stopped before Zhongli.
The sight of a familiar face sent a sharp pang through her heart, and her fingertips instinctively curled, but the power of the Abyss quickly smoothed away this anomaly, as if forcibly erasing a trace that should not exist.
"Sleep, sleep." Her voice was as gentle as a lullaby soothing a child to sleep, carrying a faint, imperceptible tremor. "Seek answers in your dreams, and when you awaken, you will find that the Abyssal Moon is the destination where you must bow in submission."
As her words fell, the anxiety in Lumine's eyes gradually faded, replaced by a blank stare, and the Festering Desire slipped from her palm.
The resolve in Tartaglia's eyes slowly dissipated, leaving only emptiness. The lightning of his Foul Legacy completely extinguished, revealing the still-bleeding wound on his abdomen and the dried blood at the corner of his mouth...
The warmth in Zhongli's pupils was replaced by chaos, his hand raised halfway in the air. The Rex Lapis figurine in his sleeve silently slipped out, falling to the ground with a soft thud, like a sigh heard by no one.
Thud... Thud...
The Millelith's spears fell to the ground one after another.
The soldiers collapsed weakly, the Adepti slowly fell from the sky, and Ganyu's frost arrow melted into water between her frozen fingers, like a silent tear.
The entire Liyue Harbor fell into a deathly silence, with only Yunqin's zither music still continuing.
The deep blue moonlight enveloped the sleeping crowd, the waves on the sea gradually subsided, and the deep blue crescent moon in the sky grew more brilliant, as if announcing the arrival of the era of the New God.