Secret Nemesis | Aether x Reader

II

“Ad Astra Abyssosque. Welcome to the Adventurer’s Guild,” Katheryne smiled as she stated the Adventurer Guild’s motto from heart.

“Hello Katheryne,” Paimon smiled and waved at the receptionist in front of you. “We’d like a commission please.”

“The currently available commissions are food requests, Ruin Guard defeating, and Abyss mage hunting. Which commission would you like?”

“We’d like the Abyss mage one,” Aether informed her to your demise. “It’s best to cut off the roots of the Abyss Order as soon as possible.”

“Very well,” Katheryne nodded in agreement before handing Aether a paper with the commission information. “Good luck and take care.”

The three of you started on your way to the area of the commission. Three abyss mages had been sighted in the Sea of Clouds island and you were being sent to defeat them with Aether and Paimon. Going towards a waypoint, Aether held out his hand imagining the picture that he had seen on the map. Soon enough, you felt yourself getting pulled into a portal and in quick succession, you were now in the area where the mages had been seen.

Senses heightened, you placed your guard in preparation for any sudden attacks. You had to play this smart and make sure that Aether didn’t know that you were connected to the Abyss as you had heard that the traveler hated the Abyss. His trust was something that you most definitely needed to keep him safe.

All you hoped as of right now was that the Abyss mages that you had once worked with would be able to read the room and they wouldn’t expose you. After all, having Aether suspicious of you would be a detriment to you completing the mission you were given.

Widening your instinctual radius that you had trained for years, you recognized the aura of abyss mages not too far from where you were. Immediately noticing the sudden disappearance of the abyss mage, you prepared yourself for the moment your enemy would reappear.

Feeling the familiar aura of an abyss mage activating its magic, you looked towards Aether waiting to see what would happen since it would most likely target your companion. 

“Watch out!” You shouted as you pushed Aether out of the way from an icicle that shot at him.

Eyes turning cold and glaring at the ice abyss mage, you quickly stood up and ran towards it with your claymore in hand. Enshrouding your sword with pyro energy you swung your heavy blade at the mage’s shield. Crackling in fear, it tried to back away but you had predicted its movements.

“Don’t try anything,” you whispered in its ear. “Tell the same thing to your kin.”

Right after breaking its shield, you cut it and threw it towards the mountain on the side. Looking towards Aether, you noticed him facing two mages - a hydro and pyro - together. Running to his side, you changed the element that you had enveloped your claymore to anemo and slashed them down. 

With the elemental reaction of vaporize that was created from Aether’s and your swirl, the shields broke. Aether attacked right after you and jumped up to summon a large tornado. The powerful wind blasting all around sucked the two enemies in it and defeated them causing them to disappear into little shining particles.

“Why,” you whispered under your breath.

Lumine had sent you to protect her brother yet the ones that were attacking him were none other than the beings under her. Why did they attack the beloved sibling of your master?

However, even with all the contriding matters that plagued your mind, you had to focus on your one job, your one duty and that was to protect Aether. 

“How did you do that y/n”? Paimon questioned, cutting your train of thoughts, as she looked at your claymore which was glowing a blue-green from the anemo energy that enveloped it. “You don’t have a vision.”

“You don’t need a vision to be able to use an element,” you mysteriously smiled as you released the elemental energy on your sword. 

“But I thought that only Aether was able to do that,” Paimon wondered, her fingers on her chin, thinking about why both you and Aether could use the elements without a vision.

“How do you activate the element?” Aether asked you, changing the questions angle. “For me, its natural. I feel an energy flow through me and I use it and it ends up the element I want it to be.”

“Ah,” you hummed as you brough out your claymore and let the blade tip rest on the ground. “I use it through this claymore. I can’t actually use the energy by myself and instead, it is the sword that I activate to use an element.”

“So basically that sword of yours is like a makeshift vision?” Paimon looked at your sword.

“I guess you can put it that way,” you laughed.

You lifted the heavy blade and let it gradually disappear into a white light as the weight that you were accustomed to disappeared from your hands. Aether watched the claymore disappear as he wondered how the sword worked and where you had gotten it. 

“Someone I look up to gave it to me,” you gave a neutral answer to satiate his growing curiosity. “Even I don’t really know how it works.”

“We can figure that out next time,” Paimon flew in front of you. “We should go back to Liyue to tell Katheryne that we completed the commission and get our reward.”

“Sure,” you agreed as you followed the flying fairy.

Aether followed the two of you as Paimon led you to the closest waypoint in the area to teleport back to Liyue. Sun shining right above the three of you, you felt a warmth of happiness bloom in your heart. This was the first time you had ever felt this way. 

You wanted to protect and cherish it forever. 

It was a feeling of belonging.