The murky seawater churned with Abyssal Black Miasma, resembling a writhing, ink-black python. Beisht's once iridescent blue scales were stained dark and dull by the miasma, with black slime oozing from the gaps between them.
A pair of vertical pupils glowed with an eerie red light, fixed intently on Lumine, Zhongli, and Venti. A low growl rumbled from its throat, each breath accompanied by a grating sound like rocks scraping together, echoing across the sea like poisoned thunder.
Yunqin floated beneath the Blood Moon. She slowly turned to face Beisht, her gaze no longer icy as it was with others, but filled with a strange intimacy—a twisted dependence born of the Abyss, like a lost child finally finding its "kin."
"Mother, you've come," she said, her voice soft yet piercing through the roar of the waves.
"My dear daughter," Beisht's voice remained hoarse and rough, but as it reached Yunqin, the final syllable softened almost unconsciously.
Its head, wreathed in black miasma, lowered slightly. Its massive pupils reflected Yunqin's figure, as if confirming her well-being.
"Mother was late, leaving you to suffer so much in this world full of hypocrisy."
A cold smile touched Yunqin's lips as her fingertips gently plucked the Moonlight Strings; a faint blue light pattern spread along the Blood Moon's edge, instantly resonating with the dark energy surrounding Beisht.
The two dark forces intertwined and ascended, weaving a dense net beside the Blood Moon that tightened its grip over Liyue Harbor.
"You're not late." Her gaze swept over the slumbering citizens, devoid of any pity. "I've already put them all to 'sleep' and made this 'good friend' witness everything I went through."
She turned to Lumine, a flicker of mockery in her crimson eyes. "Now, it's time to settle the final score with these 'enemies.'"
Beisht's vertical pupils snapped toward Lumine, Zhongli, and Venti, its killing intent surging instantly. The Hydro Element around it churned wildly, its fury whipping the sea into towering waves that crashed against the dikes with thunderous roars.
"Are these the ones?" Its voice was laced with a teeth-grinding ferocity as its massive head slowly drew closer, the foul sea breeze carrying the acrid stench of venom. "The ones who let people point at you and call you a 'monster,' who pierced your heart with a spear, who were betrayed by the person you trusted most?"
"Precisely." Yunqin's gaze, like a blade tempered in ice, swept over the three before locking onto Zhongli.
Zhongli stood with his hands behind his back, his dark robes whipping in the fierce wind, the Geo patterns on the hem glowing with an ancient luster.
His eyes, deep as millennia-old stone, grew heavier with the pressure of the Geo element, so much so that even the churning waves around them instinctively slowed.
Yet he offered no immediate defense, his gaze fixed on Yunqin with a complex mix of tenderness, regret, and a subtle, almost imperceptible self-reproach, as if gazing at a piece of uncut jade shrouded in darkness but still holding a faint inner light.
Venti clutched his lyre, his divine attire glowing faintly under the Blood Moon's light.
His brow was tightly furrowed, Anemo energy quietly gathering around him, ready to deflect any impending attack.
Still, he spoke first, his tone tinged with a subtle regret, as if trying to reason with a lost friend: "Yunqin, that wasn't the real old man. The Abyss excels at amplifying your pain and twisting the truth in your memories."
"Think about it, if the old man truly wanted to kill you, he wouldn't have brought you back to his side on Mt. Aocang all those years ago!"
"Lies! You're all lying to me!" Yunqin suddenly burst into laughter, yet tears streamed uncontrollably from her eyes, splashing onto the Moonlight Strings and scattering into tiny motes of light.
"Was the pain I personally endured fake? Was the pain of the stones the common folk threw at me fake?"
She pointed at her chest, her voice suddenly dropping, filled with a broken despair. "Venti, you high-and-mighty gods never understand what it's like to be abandoned!
Never understand what it's like to try with all your might to belong somewhere, only to be treated like a monster!"
"Enough with the nonsense!" Beisht suddenly let out a deafening roar.
With a vicious flick of its serpentine tail, a massive water blade, wreathed in thick dark energy, surged toward the three like a black city wall.
The water blade hissed as it sliced through the air, the very atmosphere around it corroding and twisting. "Anyone who harms my daughter must die!"
Lumine's Anemo energy instantly surged, her Wind Glider unfurling behind her.
She sidestepped the whistling water blade, which grazed past her Wind Glider and split a reef behind her in two.
The Festering Desire materialized in her palm, its black blade glowing with a faint red light, creating an eerie balance with the Anemo energy swirling around her.
She turned to Beisht, her voice urgent and pleading, her eyes reddened with emotion. "Beisht, you've been corrupted by the Abyss too! Wake up! Yunqin has only been bewitched! We're here to save her, not to harm her!"
"Save her?"
Beisht's slit pupils filled with mockery as its massive head slowly drew near, almost pressing against Lumine's face.
The foul, salty sea breeze washed over her, making Lumine instinctively hold her breath.
"Drag her out of the sweet dream of 'being worshipped and needed,' only to force her back into being that pathetic wretch afraid of being stoned? Is that what you call 'saving' her?"
Its gaze swept over the sleeping citizens of Liyue Harbor, their faces still showing pious devotion to Yunqin, their lips curved in satisfied smiles.
Beisht's voice suddenly rose, laced with a bewitching tone, as if speaking to the three, but more so emphasizing to Yunqin: "All my daughter wants is a home where she won't be abandoned!"
"A world that will accept her, that won't call her a 'monster'! You can't give her that, so I will!"
"Today, I will use this Abyssal Moon Power to completely purify Liyue's 'hypocrisy' and make my daughter the one true god here!"
Yunqin raised her hand, and the Moonlight Strings resonated with a piercing shriek. The Blood Moon's light instantly flared, its crimson halo spreading like a tide, enveloping Liyue Harbor even more tightly.
The madness in her eyes intensified as silver threads, swirling with dark energy, shot from her fingertips, weaving a massive net in mid-air aimed at the three of them. "Since you refuse to accept me, since the people of Liyue only trust 'Rex Lapis,' then I'll destroy everything you protect!"
"I will use my own methods to create a Liyue that belongs to me—a Liyue where no one will abandon me!"
"Yunqin, do you realize that the 'homeland' you speak of is nothing but an illusion created by Abyssal erosion?" Zhongli finally spoke, his voice like deep thunder rolling across the sea, steadily overpowering the roar of the waves and the resonance of the Blood Moon.
He slowly raised his hand, the Geo element condensing in his palm into a tiny, shimmering particle of light. Within the particle, a scene from Mt. Aocang years ago appeared.
Little Yunqin clutched a piece of Rock Jade as Zhongli knelt beside her, dipping his fingertip in rock powder to teach her how to draw Geo sigils.