Genshin Horror Oneshots || Genshin Impact

3.

It was just a day not unlike any other. I had spent most of the day following up on leads of a potential haunting at Qingyun village. 

It was at the behest of the village elders that I visit; in the end I only performed a cleansing ritual to put their worries to rest. Older people can get quite jumpy sometimes, especially now during the seventh lunar month. It's not as if I expected anything more to happen, though I was hopeful that maybe something would. But these things tend to elude me; I've yet to encounter even a single spirit, despite my long stint of being Liyue's "best" exorcist. 

I could not complain, so long as people found respite in my work, I was mostly satisfied. But all of that would change late that night, when I was summoned for the emergency case.

Their servant led me through the entrance arch, and into the living hall. The parents were there waiting anxiously for me. They had paid large sums of money to hire the best physicians in Liyue, and sourced for the most expensive supplements they could lay their hands on. Despite their efforts, the condition of their son had continued to deteriorate over the past 6 days. Slowly, they began to accept the probability that it was not a physical ailment that plagued their son, and had called for me at the recommendation of a former client of mine. 

They described how it had started with fatigue, and then a lost of appetite followed soon after. By the third day the boy had so little strength he became bed-ridden. On the fourth day the boy inexplicably turned aggressive, turning on the servants and his parents that tried to feed him. He would be easily agitated, lashing out and hurling rude remarks at anyone that came near. 

On the fifth day, despite being frailer and skinnier than ever before, the boy turned physically violent. He started scratching and clawing at himself, digging into his own skin with his fingernails. He would throw objects and assault the servants when they tried to restrain him, biting on their arms, and faces, as one unfortunate servant had found out. After much difficulty they had managed to bind his hands to prevent further self-inflicted injuries.

On the sixth day his room and its immediate area had begun to reek with a foul stench that had no discernable source. It seemed to be coming from everywhere, in all directions at once, and it attracted hosts of vermins and pests to its surrounding area of effect. His body had turned alarmingly pale, and his cuts and injury oozed with pus that crusted on his skin. Fearing for the worst, it was then the parents had sought me.

At this point, it was only natural for me to believe that the boy had been possessed, and I had relayed my suspicion to the parents. They could not find any reason to disagree, considering the unexplainable change in their son's behaviour. They lead me to the room where the boy was being housed,  and immediately the odour they mentioned aforehand hit my nostrils. Cockroaches and rats scurried quickly out of the corner of my sight as I approached the door and pushed it open.

I was told that because of my Yang abundance, my sheer presence would repel any and all spirits, but there the boy sat bound to a sturdy pine chair, heaving audibly as if the air was poison. His face scarred by a mix of fresh and days-old wounds. Condensed air spewed from his breath, the room was several degrees colder than its exterior. He flexed his fingers rhythmically, restlessly carving into the wood of the armrest with no regard for his bleeding fingertips. His sights were fixed to the ceiling, as if searching for something in or beyond it. To be able to resist dissipation in my vicinity, this must not be a normal spirit. 

The parents left the room as per my advice, and after I gave them some glutinous rice to circle the entrance of the room with. I approached the boy, with a guilty excitement for the opportunity to perform an exorcism at long last. The years of preparation I had devoted myself to, was just for a moment such as this. I summoned six seals to impede his movement, they floated and latched unto his body. The magic swirled around him, gaining his attention and he set his gaze to me. Its eyes were dark and empty, and it spoke to me in a low rusty tremble.

"Exorcist."

I paid it no heed. I anticipated to make quick work of any spirit with a single strike of my spirit blade.

"From whence you came!" 

The blade manifested and dashed forward at the boy, only for it to stop a hair's breadth away from its forehead. The blade shook and cracked and shattered into pieces between us, along with it so did my confidence and assessment of the situation. I doubled the seal around the spirit, only to be met with a slow cackling laughter. 

"Speak your name, demon."

"Name. Name is long erased. Only hatred in its place now." 

"What has this boy done to wrong you, demon?"

"None are born without sin. I only seek to kill."

I invoked the names of the earth, the sky and Rex Lapis, and ordered the demon to depart, and it took great displeasure at the name of the geo Archon. It thrashed violently against the seals, rocking the chair left and right and shoving its fingers deeper into the armrests. It's neck turned and twisted sideways until its chin was pointed upwards, its body folded and writhed with the sounds of its joints and bones cracking. It snarled and growled as a cornered beast would, white foam frothed at one edge of its mouth, dribbling down into its hollow eyes. 

Fearing for the child's life, I spoke the Archon's name once more, and demanded that it revealed its name and fulfill any outstanding contract if it had any. It boomed with an ancient fury that only a restless spirit could muster, thousands of years of agony poured forward in its words.

"I am Menogias. Yaksha of the Adepti. Protector of Liyue. Abandoned by Rex Lapis. Left to fester and die. When he casts all aside as he has casted me, I will rape all that he holds dear."

It broke the bindings and leap out of the chair in a frenzied bloodlust, but the seals had activated and held the thin feral boy in the air. I beseech the earth and sky once more, summoning three spirit blades that fell and pierced the demon. It roared, long and maddening. Every decibel curdled my blood and raised my hairs on its ends. Its cries resounded in the room, and its suffering echoed out to the night, until it fell silent. The seals faded and I went to pick the boy up as he thudded on the ground.  

The boy miraculously survived after a long period of recovery, although I doubt his phantom wounds would ever completely and properly heal. As for me, I had my fill of practical exorcisms, but I had never stopped preparing for the time I would face the demon again.