"regained." [xiaoven]

✧

The sky was an endless blue, stretching out far and wide as the sun slowly rose higher and higher towards the heavens. The grass, green and lush, sprouted from the rich soil of the earth. The calm waters of the ocean lapped lazily at the shoreline. It was such a perfect scenery.

That is, if you could ignore the hundreds of thousands of corpses on the ground.

Buer trudged through the battlefield, her eyes searching through the bodies of the deceased, their blood still fresh and seeping into the dirt. She knew she wouldn't make it for much longer, she was currently clutching her side as her own wound was stubbornly staining her dress crimson.

She couldn't stop the bleeding.

But Buer knew that she had to keep going. She had to look for the other archons, if they survived.

She had already found Beelzebub, her body stained vermillion by both the blood of others and herself, her spear snapped in half, and her hands still clutching the broken body of the pink kitsune.

She had found Morax, his body crumpled in the ground next to a ginger harbinger, who's limbs had been twisted in unnatural angles. The shattered shield of the geo archon was left in pieces by their bodies.

The others, she had found, Pyro and Cryo, both were dead aswell.

Buer gasped as stumbled, her vision blurring, the world seemed to be spinning.

Tears fell from her eyes as she thought of the boy that she couldn't protect, the lone puppet that was shattered to pieces by a brutal attack.

Buer gritted her teeth 'pull yourself together Kusanali!' she chided herself, 'there may be still hope, he may be still alive!"

She trudged along the path, carefully stepping between the unmoving bodies of the people of Teyvat.

Buer hasn't found Barbatos yet.

At last, she found two bodies, a god with brilliant white wings, stained red with blood, and the broken figure of a yaksha, both their limbs entangled with each other.

A strangled cry escaped from Buer's lips, she collapsed to her knees, ignoring the searing pain from the cuts all over her small body.

Buer slowly sank to the floor, her body admitting defeat to her wounds.

Suddenly, a weak voice trailed out from one of the bodies laying together.

"...Buer.."

"Barbatos!" Buer launched herself upwards, she sprinted towards the winged god, despite the screaming protest from her battered limbs. "Oh, thank the heavens! You're alive!"

"Not for long," Barbatos replied, his voice ragged and torn, "Too much blood lost...I already feel like I'm losing myself.."

"But-" Buer stopped, her eyes widening, "oh... how- your wing.."

One of the Anemo Archon's glimmering wings was severed from his bare back.

Barbatos grimaced, "Did any of the others survive? Did Morax..." he trailed off, seeing the absolutely devastated look on the small goddess' face.

"Well... I guess we're the only ones left huh...?" Barbatos laughed, his eyes darkening from the realization that his best friend did not survive.

"Not for a while..." Buer sighed, judging from your wounds, and my own, we will die quite soon.."

"Ah..." Barbatos lowered his head, "yes... but at least we are together, hm..?"

"I am quite glad that I don't have to die alone.." a weak smile stretched on the bard's lips.

"It appears that you aren't alone," Buer said softly, "may I ask who this gentleman... was..?"

Barbatos cradled the unmoving body in his arms, his one remaining wing attempting to wrap itself around the man's back, "this is Xiao."

Buer noticed the absence of use for the past tense for the corpse, her brows furrowed as she realized the importance of this person to Barbatos.

"I'm sorry for..." Buer couldn't bring herself to say the words 'your loss," as her vision clouded with pain as she thought of all the people that were lost to this disaster.

"It's alright," Barbatos whispered, "I'm glad I was with his in his final moments, I'm glad that I got to kiss him goodbye."

Buer sank to the ground once more as she felt her body losing it's strength, she knew the god facing her felt the same.

"It seems like it's time, Barbatos."

"It seems so, Buer."

As Nahida's vision blurred and her body slowly shut down, she heard Barbatos whisper something once more to his beloved.

"In another life, Alatus."

thus marks the end of the second cataclysm.

--

im so sorry im sobbing while writing this rn

<3