Legereculus | Genshin Impact

Requiem | Xiao

(Final Part to Retrocognition)

R e q u i e m

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Death... no one can escape it save for a select few who are oppressed by father time. 

To these few, it is a blessing to even be at death's face for it is the closest thing to the peace they seek but can never reach—its fleeting touch is disappointing but welcomed regardless of its ephemeral presence.

Xiao isn't adventitious from this feeling—this longing for peace. How can he not, when the very person he valued as his last purpose in this godforsaken place is nowhere to be found no matter the aging of time?

She, who was once within his fingertips' reach has distanced herself further, leaving him with the remorse of not having cherished her when she still roamed Teyvat.

When she was still with him, and not one with peace.

Not knowing how to properly make do with penitence other than to reflect and express his rue for this damned fate he's been subjected to and the guilt that has been destroying him from the inside out, the Yaksha can only approach death's door. 

So, so close to the peace his lost love has entered, but he will forever be unable to go into.

He feels like crying, but he no longer can manifest the tears, having dried them up.

His whole body ached for the touch of healing but he does not move as he lays breathing unsteadily, relishing in the wound from his previous battle as it is the only way to divert his attention from the pain in his heart.

So close...

His eyesight phases from black and back onto the canvas of a setting sun, the warm colors laying over the red that blemished him whole, kissing over each and every single open wound like a timid flame. 

He can almost feel the lingering touch of pyro that has blazed the wind a while ago, the livid cry of the enemy he had slain everlasting in this world.

So, so close...

He swears that every time his vision turns black, he sees her—he sees the one he loves and the one he has neglected and oh, how he wished to reach into that illusory image. 

To once again be able to be near her, to correct himself and hold her as much as she wished to when she was with him.

Because of this, he refused to find mitigation for his pain.

How can he? When she's so close to him now more than ever.

Please,

Xiao finds himself raising his gauntleted hand, the material coated with adeptal blood—his blood, that he'd rather not wash away for now. Not when she's right there.

A dying whisper of her name leaves his bleeding lips, and he swears his vision of her turned to smile, albeit a messy black stroke of paint wiped away half of her expression, she is still beautiful.

He hears her greet him in return and oh, the life it has given him.

Won't you show me mercy?

The black fades and his cursed immortality grounds him back in place, and he is once again staring in the sky of hellfire. Cursing it will do him no good, not when he is -figuratively- on his knees, wishing for an end of his misery and a beginning of his reunion with her.