1 Same Old Teyvat
As light turned to darkness and darkness to light a young man fell dead, victim to the sins of a random mugger. The man in question had been quite merciless, not giving him chance at all to react. As soon as the mugger realized his new victim was in a state of absolute shock, he simply decided to shoot him.
The pain passed as soon as it came, not lasting for even a full second. And it was just as fast as life was snuffed from the young man, his consciousness fading away nigh instantly. His sight rendered inexistent by the dark blanket of death.
In spite of such circumstances, those precious milliseconds of consciousness he had before nothingness were enough for a thought to be born. A thought that, little did he know, would be the basis for everything that would ensue.
'Sinners...' He thought. 'Why... why are such people allowed to exist?'
*
When he opened his eyes, he was no longer himself. He was still who he was, but there was a new element to his being; something far greater than who he had ever been now laid inside of him. He was calm. Far too calm, in fact, for someone who had just died. And said calmness came from this new element he now had in him.
Getting up from the hard floor of the cave he woke up in, he immediately realized he was now taller than before, standing at 1.90 meters tall. The first thing he did though was to inspect himself. No injuries, no sign of the shot that had killed him. All he saw was a different body, one that felt stronger than his previous one by quite a measure. He could also see some patches of dark teal-ish hair hanging near his shoulders, which was quite the novelty considering his hair had always been brown. Yet, considering the fact that he was alive when he was certain he had died, having a different body didn't seem like such a weird thing.
Only after pondering on that for a short while did he focus on the other, far more noticeable changes. It was note-worthy, before all else, that he felt no strangeness from the body he now had, not from the fact he was alive, and not from the strange power that resided now in him.
As soon as he focused on it, a rush of information came to him, yet it didn't bother him. It was more like he was remembering something that he had forgotten than acquiring new knowledge. And then it hit him. He was in a world he knew quite well from his previous life, though by no extent to its full depth. After all, how could he know everything about a world that had never been fully explored to begin with?
'So this is Teyvat, huh?' he though, not feeling at all bothered by the fact he now was in a world that had been once fictional to him. As for the reason why that was... well, he was now a part of said world, yet it wasn't as simple as that. He not only was part of that world, but the world itself had recognized him, his regret, his being. He no longer was the young man that had died in a mugging. He was no longer someone who lived on earth. He was no longer just a human. He had never been any of those.
As if answering his sudden realization, the power within him stirred, the shadows in the cave turned several shades darker, as if intent on swallowing all light. And yet, if there had been anyone there to witness the scene, they would have felt nothing but safe. For that was who he was.
Andromalius, Umbra Archon and God of Punishment. He was the one who protects from the shadows, he who brings sinners to the depths of the darkest pit. He was back.
The sudden realization of his identity brought forth a shift in the energy of all Teyvat, the world itself recognizing an entity that had always been yet seemed to have been missing for very long. This change was not missed, many a figure looking in the direction of the cave Andromalius was currently inside of.
*
A drunkard bard, too pretty for the eye of any man, seemed to escape the effects of the cheap wine he was drinking, an odd seriousness present in his face. Alas, he hadn't even thought about it before he continued drinking his thoughts away, not even caring to consider the energy of a fellow Archon.
*
A man of much knowledge and deep pockets, yet infinitely inadequate for the current times, looked with interest at a seemingly random direction before being once again distracted by the tales told by Iron Tongue Tian. His long and thin ponytail flowing in the breeze, he reminisced about times of yore.
*
Many others felt the change. Some couldn't be bothered to care; some just couldn't do much even if they wished to. And yet there seemed to be something they all tacitly agreed in. The entirety of Teyvat as they knew it was about to be turned upside down. For the shadow-clad blade had now returned.
*
Andromalius had been thinking about his course of action for the foreseeable future, and yet he had come up with several ideas. One consisted of travelling to the Land of Eternity to teach a lesson to a kid who was throwing a tantrum. Another one was to punish a certain clan in the Land of Freedom and Wine. There was also the possibility to visit an old friend and help him finish his job of defending the Land of Contracts. He could even go to the land of Wisdom to free the youngest Archon –he had totally forgotten he himself, was technically the youngest.
Andromalius himself was quite surprised with his own sense of familiarity with the world and certain figures in it. It somehow felt as if he had always been a part of it, and he had just come back home. Even the part of him that used to exist before his death felt at ease. And the reason for that was quite simple. Andromalius had always been a part of Teyvat.
Millennia ago, Andromalius had already existed. He had taken part in the major events of Teyvat since its first light. He had witnessed the Archon War, the Fall of Khaenri'ah and even taken part in them. He was the one to claim the lives of those who went against the principles of life: freedom and death. He wasn't particularly against Khaenri'ahns, but they did partake in many things he himself considered taboo. Unfortunately, he had suffered many an injury during the fight and, through means he couldn't even begin to comprehend, ended up on Earth, his memories sealed. All it took for his soul –which for too long had been longing to go back home– to come back to Teyvat, had been for him to die.
'That is that and this is this.' He thought while getting back in contact with the Umbra element. It had been far too long since he last used his powers. Five hundred years, to be exact.
"I guess you missed me..." He said out loud to the shadows, hearing his real voice –this one being a few octaves deeper than his earthling one– for the first time in centuries.
As if he had never left, his natural element answered his call. Whatever he asked of it, it did. Feeling invigorated, Andromalius expanded his shadows outside of the cave, using them to check his surroundings, as if everything inside the shadows was his domain.
"Hm... judging from the geographical landscape... this must be Mondstadt." He concluded. And right he was. He was currently in a cave deep inside the territory of Andrius. "I wonder what the old wolf will think when he sees me..."
Without putting much thought into his actions, Andromalius decided to visit an old friend of his. He was, after all, in no hurry. He had been away from his home for five full centuries already. His thirst to cleanse sinners from the land could wait a bit more while he caught up with his old acquaintances. Or even better, he could cleanse sinners while catching up.
