Chapter 80

There were so many people at the stadium that it reminded me of how despite the world of Teyvat being so dangerous outside of its walled cities, there was still a sizable population within this world that was willing to travel a bit to see grand events like this. Because no matter what country you were from, seeing a god in action was a pretty rare thing.

And frankly, Morax was by far the best god I knew of, if you just forgot the constant forgetting of his money but that wasn't anything special when all the other Archons had that same issue.

"Oooh! Ningguang is starting it!" Paimon called out excitedly as we all watched the Tianquan, leader of the Liyue's government calmly strut out into the center of the stadium towards a large stove or incense-burner that looked like it belonged from an alchemy-focused cultivation book that took centerpiece in the large table filled with offerings to Liyue's Rex Lapis.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, today is the day-" Ningguang began to speak and I noticed how she had a little earpiece with a mic going down to her face with the mic piece being some kind of crystal, but it was too far for me to get any real details but I could tell the thing was magical in someway and allowed Ningguang to speak to the whole stadium like she had a speaker in my old world.

"So you are still looking nervous Jake. Anything to say for yourself?" I heard a velvety smooth voice from behind me and likewise, I felt a couple of thin magical strands encircle my form for a minute before disappearing as the woman teased me.

"Ahhh! It's Yelan!" Paimon said as Ningguang started the ritual in which to summon Rex Lapis by using her Geo powers to fill the large furnace thing with several Geo gems and make it light up with Adepti magical sigils.

Both Eula and Lumine looked back at Yelan but I just blandly spoke as I kept an eye on the proceedings as a large pillar of golden light erupted from the cauldron and shot into the sky to herald the descent of the god Morax.

"Back home we had a saying... To be cursed to live within interesting times." I said dully and these girls weren't stupid and Lumine's face twitched as she realized literally everything we did went completely off the script as it were. Doing a delivery resulted in a pitched war within the city of Mondstadt, going to Innazuma on basically a door dash turned out to me be being adopted as a gods disciple, etc.

And I was right in all the fucking worst ways.

I blinked as Morax came out of the great geo-energy-filled atmosphere roaring with vitality in his massive Chinese dragon Adepti form and then he began to speak with his voice being regality personified.

"In one year much has changed and yet nothing has changed still. The theme of this year is a preparation for coming hard times." Rex Lapis spoke clearly as he flew above us with his power over Geo filling the entire air so much that it felt like I was surrounded by a shroud of his power.

"Foes from old within the heartland stir and new rivals from afar are and will be pressuring Liyue for various reasons. Our great nation must remain strong and united in the face of such enemies so people of Liyue stay together!" Morax spoke and then he obviously seemed to be about to ascend back into the massive cloud of Geo energy filling the sky but then a cascade of massive balls of all elements except for Geo slammed into a shield around Morax.

"Sheild lid on the stadium!" I roared as I raised my hands up with Lumine and Eula as we combined our Geo and Cryo magic to create a thick lid atop the stadium. That although it crush the top couple feet of the stadium and partially exhausted us for a bit, the lid was truly necessary as the lid instantly almost shattered like glass as all those massive elemental balls that collided with Morax's shield created a cascade of elemental effects that fed off of one another creating a powerful explosion.

"Evacuate the stadium's occupants into the bunker!" I heard Yelan yell from behind me as she leaped across the stadium using her wires to pull herself across like Spiderman.

But before I could further react to the bullshit happening I felt another elemental signature appear... It was weird, like a mix of Geo and Animo combined but as I felt the energy signature I could feel Morax's geo-energy flood the world as the dragon roared and it wasn't filled with anger or wrath.

No, it was a terrible roar of pain, of fury, and denial. "How dare you! How dare you taint her and my friend's memory so!" I heard Morax roar and we flew up on an Animo elemental to see what in the world was happening and I gapped at the sight before us and Lumine gasped loudly at what faced us in the northern portion of Liyue.

Floating on a large cloud of what looked to be metal dust or something was a small army of Fatui that were being dropped from the cloud into Liyue's city and on another large cloud this one made out of what looked to be black clouds of pure darkness was a woman with long blonde hair standing atop the clearly corrupted form of Azhdaha.

"Uhmmm Lumine did you hit your head when you were sleeping and got a brother and sister mixed up?" Paimon asked as I looked at the abyssal princess who cooly looked at us from across the large distance separating our armies.

That wasn't Aether... I had no idea what the hell was going on at this point and as the ocean behind us roiled with a dozen massive watery-like heads sprouting from it announcing the arrival of the god of Vortex's Osial, I seriously considered having my Animo elemental fly us faster than the speed of sound the fuck out of Liyue.

But Morax's dragon form changed taking on his human form and although his voice was the ever-present roar of pain before I could clearly hear him speaking and I cringed as I realized somehow the Fatui had brought back to life and had the God of Dust and best friend of Zhongli, Guizhong under some kind of control as I could see her eyes glowing with a dull light as she wore a sort of collar around her neck as well as a circlet around her forehead.

"I promised to give you the Gnosis! Why are you doing this!?:" He snarled as he started creating sky-scraper-sized spears as Geo constructed and the sight reminded me of how far I could take the power of Geo.

Then from out of the throngs of the Fatui came my least favorite Harbinger Childe, "Yo Morax! I just wanted to say fuck you!" The orange-haired Fatui Harbinger yelled. "We came here to honestly trade for the gnosis but you treated us like a money bank after kicking all our businesses out of Liyue. Most importantly the Tsraritsa says she won't be made a fool of and told us to send a message to Teyvat. By making an example against the strongest god!" He roared andAzhdaha himself roared but it was tinged with mad laughter.

"Rex Lapis you coward! Why didn't you tell me I only had to accept abyssal power to save myself from Erosion?! I am free of Celestia's shackles and once I step on your corpse I will be free of yours as well!" He roared and sent a massive pillar of Electro lightning at Zhongli and as Zhongli dived down to avoid the pillar of lightning I heard the sounds of war as the Jade Chamber's many magical ballistas engaged the Vortex God Osial while Lumine grabbed my arm.

"Jake, I need to speak to my brother, I know that's him." Lumine said softly and I bit my lips at the sight of the floating cloud filled with many abyssal monsters as the blond-haired woman wearing a black and red dress that was a mirror opposite of Lumine's outfit matched out gaze impassively.

"Fine... just be ready to jump off the cloud as there are too many monsters for us." I said frowning as I took in what looked to be thousands of Hillichurl's abyssal mages and Ruin machines including some ones I hadn't fought yet like some dragon-shaped ones and a massive snake-like one.

Eula showed her solidarity by holding our hands as Paimon herself said that we should be running but we ignored her as we flew over to meet Lumine's sibling for the first time.