Winter Moon | Xiao x Fem Reader

As the day dilutes into night

The moment you stepped out from the portal, you were forced down on your knees. You weren't bound but perhaps that was even worse because it meant he didn't even see you as a threat.

But you guess you weren't really a threat. You could barely move, your whole body hurt from over-exertion but what hurt more was the immense regret you felt at your own decision to give your all to that one strike. You should've played smarter, been stronger. But you'd relied on everyone else a little bit too much and they paid the price. Your body ached some more.

"Your beloved Archon is dead, my dear Moon Goddess," the white-clothed man cackled.

You shook your head in denial. There was no way the ever so strong, persistent Geo Archon was dead at the hands of your tormentor. It wasn't possible. He'd been through wars, fought gods and won. There was no way one single strike by the hands of the masked man would kill him,

"Your secretary too, it seems," he taunted and your body froze. Yin? There was no way she was dead. You'd known her for millennia and even when she disappeared and everyone thought she was dead, you knew there was no deity strong enough to bring her down.

"No, no, no!" You yelled out. "I don't believe you. You're lying to me!" There was a new fire in your eyes as you finally looked up to where he was sitting on a throne. A throne that looked-

You hadn't noticed your surroundings in your shock but when you looked around, the place looked both familiar and not. You had never been here before but the decorations, the architecture, it was so similar to Celestia. The high ceilings with the pale but glorious murals, the ethereal architecture, the whole building created from unbreakable marble.

Were you on Celestia? Then who was this masked man that had the permission to reside here? There were so many residents on Celestia, both gods and minor deities that worked here so that they could win the favour of the Celestial Gods and ascend.

You looked at the way he sat on the throne, on the decorations on it, on his hands, his hair - it was like his identity was on the tip of your tongue but it always slipped your mind by an invincible mist.

"Do you not believe me?" He got up and you'll forever deny the way you flinched. "Here, you can see for yourself." And then that same portal he used to bring you here, opened up in front of you but instead of a portal, it looked like a mirror.

That same mirror showed you your yaksha, laying somewhere on the ground on the city square, covered in blood. By this point, you already knew she wasn't just unconscious. Her olive skin was pale and her usually bright fire-red hair was dull. She looked lifeless.

Your friend that you spent millennia looking for, who you'd finally found was now dead.

And so was Zhongli.

Just as you thought that, the image on the mirror-portal changed to Childe and Zhongli. A badly wounded Childe was carrying an unconscious Zhongli through woods unfamiliar to you. He looked so pale and his legs shook.

Your soul surged at the fact that at least he was alive and your hand shot out as if to reach through the portal but instead, it went right through it.

But then just as hope had bloomed in your chest, it died as you watched Childe fall down on his knees, dropping Zhongli's body in the process.

He wheezed as he looked down onto the Archon's unmoving body and you couldn't breathe. "I-I'm so sorry. I couldn't save you, Xiangsheng." He wheezed some more and struggled to take in breaths as he fell over Zhongli's torso and peacefully closed his eyes. The mirror zoomed into Zhongli's face as if to accentuate his own unmoving state, to make you hurt more.