genshin oneshots (requests open)

as stone crumbles, the wind wanes (and i am torn apart)

{ part 2 of cursed winds of stone }

{ notes: what happened before kazuha arrived }

[TW: graphic blood, injury and death, vomiting, torture ]

Venti couldn't see.

He shivered, cold as strange winds blew around him. They didn't seem like the winds he knew, the gentle breezes of Mondstadt that he was once a part of.

Cold, hard floor came up to meet him as he was dumped from the fabric carrying him into the room. A dull light was just enough for him to see what was in front of him- a Statue of the Seven. One in his image.

A person, their face and body hidden by dark clothes, held him down as another took a heavy weapon to the stone. They beat at it until it cracked, until it crumbled, leaving jagged edges behind sharp enough to cut skin. The rest of it, the part that fell off, it was crushed under the weapon until dust skittered about the air.

He would've said something if he could. Cried out, begged for help, but the hand of the person covered his mouth and prevented him from speaking.

They lifted him up, off the floor, his hat slipping off his head. His clothes were torn, the cape ripped to shreds and his shoes thrown about. Stone scraped his shoulder and he felt a sting, then warm blood seeping from the cut.

He fought against them.

Kicking his legs, bruising them against stone and person, trying anything to get away from these strange attackers. A blade sliced through his leg, a hand tore the fabric of his tights and he was thrown to the floor.

He was up on his feet quickly, turning to run, but the shadowy figures were faster. They picked him up again, kicking and thrashing, a cut made to his torso, through his shirt. Fabric ripped and was thrown to the floor, cold air drifting over his skin. They held his limbs down and he couldn't move.

The ruined statue came closer and then pain, white-hot pain rushed through him. A horrible scream rang through the air- it couldn't be him. There was no way he sounded like that.

Stone pierced his flesh and ripped through him, the sharp edges of the ruined statue skewering his insides. Blood dripped out around him- when the pain wasn't ruining his vision he could see red, crimson red staining the stone below him. They were trying to force his body down, further onto the stone, to tear him in half.

"No-"

He begged them, tears streaming down his face, eyes squeezed shut as if that would make everything go away. He begged them, screaming and crying, to stop.

It felt like an eternity later when they finally lifted him off. He tried, tried his hardest to fight them off this time, to get out. Blood was still coming from the huge wound on his stomach, staining the shredded remains of his shirt and his skin crimson.

They lifted him up- he was going to leave now, right?

His whole body was thrown into the stone, sharp edges scraping him and gouging into his skin. He howled, his vision blurring around the edges, breathing too fast to even think of anything else.

They lifted him up again and he gave up, resigning himself to letting the statue ruin him. He watched, waiting to be impaled again.

Crimson blood on stone held his gaze and got farther away, and he tried not to hope, but-

His head hit more stone, hard, leaving him dizzy and too fuzzy to try and move. The world spun slightly and the figures retreated, invisible under their hoods.

Blood spilled from his stomach too fast, just like the tears filling his eyes. He was too tired and the world was spinning too fast for him to move. It took everything left in him to move his hand, to try and cover the wound-

all it did was cover him in more crimson red.

His eyes didn't want to stay open. Half closed already, the dark was starting to pull him, why not.. why not go with it?

Footsteps sounded in the distance. The figures must be back, but his vision was too blurred with tears and confusion to see what was happening.

Someone vomited. He could hear it hit the floor. He could hear their scream, echoing through the room, but couldn't make out the words.

Fabric touched him, touched him over the hole in his stomach and he whined desperately.

Something pulled him to his feet, up on his legs that refused to work, dragging him like a puppet. Someone else's voice reached his ears.

"Venti, can you hear me?" it asked, fading in and out again. He was being picked up off the floor, held close to something warm. Some kind of sound came from his mouth, but he could barely understand himself.

Every time the thing carrying him moved, more pain stabbed through him, as though they were continuing to torture him. They must be torturing him, why else would someone come? Every time it stabbed him he whined into whatever was carrying him, crying silently because sobbing out loud would hurt even more.

The darkness pushed and pulled at him, dragging him down no matter how much the rest of him fought. He didn't want to be here anymore. There wasn't any reason to be here anymore.

Tired, so tired, he could barely breathe..

His eyes closed and all of him gave up at once.