Gallus kicked a piece of rock down the hill, then another, out of boredom. Below him was a huge archeological site, about the size of a football field. Even if the time zone here is about 5 PM, the temperature is unchanging, especially for a griffon, his feathers were unfriendly to him for the first time. The other members of the group weren't much better than him' Silverstreak had her water bottle over her beak, Sandbar was panting, Yona ducked into the tent where she was surrounded by ten fans on their maximum wind power, Ocellus sat on a boulder under the cover of the shadow, Smolder on the other claw, was very casual about it.
As for why they're risking being cooked alive to be here led back to 2 weeks ago.
After the announcement of an Ancient Alicorn Tomb that has been hidden for 7,000 Moons finally reaches the surface after 3 Moons of digging and uncovering the surface obstacles, Principal Starlight gained permission from the newly crowned Princess Twilight Sparkle to take the Young Six to a history field trip, their destination is the Ancient Alicorn Tomb.
Professor Applejack led this field trip, and with the guide of this tour, a changeling archaeologist professor, Arty Drill. At first, the students were excited, and on the train ride from Ponyville to the Badlands, Ocellus became the most chatty one, even Smolder and Gallus, the two that weren't fans of history were rather active on this topic. And everything they were looking up to shattered the moment the train exit gate opened. The intense heat wave nearly mummified them on their way to the archaeological site. Of course, Smolder was unaffected, the Volcanic eruptions of several volcanos back in Dragon Lands were just daily for her.
Gallus took a glance at the blazing sun near the end of the horizon, even if the sun's angle was low, the heat wasn't going away just yet, he stuffed his water bottle onto his beak, but then realized that the last drip of water was gone a while ago. He groaned as he walked toward the boulder in the shadow, "How long are we gonna stay here?"
"Mr. Drill said they still need time to prepare the safety setting of the tomb before we can go in," Ocellus said, trying to calm the frustrated Griffon down, although herself weren't any better.
"Fellas!" The students' ears perked up at the similar accent, "We're ready! Com' on y'all! Let's get in!" Gallus went first dashing down the hill, followed by the others who were desperately happy to get away from the blazing sun.
The tomb entrance was rather small for a final resting place that belonged to a royal advisor according to Mr. Drill and his team. And the width of the entrance can only allow two creatures to walk through side-by-side. Mr. Drill took out a box of helmets and headlights and handed them to the students, "Remember," he said, "what you kids are about to see, is one of the greatest discoveries of the history of Equis. So be mindful of what not to touch and be safe."
He then headed into the tomb entrance with Applejack by his side, and the students, divided into groups of three, followed closely behind them.
As they walked deeper into the legacy hall, their light sources became their eyes as the students had their attentions fully on the beautifully painted wall paintings; it was the life story of this royal advisor whose name was Star Seeker, she was a close friend to Empress Nebula during her time. Star Seeker lived a long life, but since she's not an Alicorn, instead a pegasus, she passed away due to old age and was offered a royal-style burial ceremony held by Empress Nebula herself.
This tomb was hidden so well that it was not looted by any tomb raiders for the past 7,000 Moons.
"And this." Mr. Drill stopped in front of a three-way chamber, "leading to the main burial chamber of Star Seeker herself, the one of the left was her son's burial chamber, and the right way led to her artifact chamber. My team has already gone into these chambers and preserved any important items, so you kids are free to explore the chambers, be careful not to touch anything, we covered the painting with a preservation spell, but it's not strong enough to withstand even the slightest touch."
Gallus sided with Silverstream, Smolder with Ocellus, and Sandbar with Yona; the Griffon and the Hippogriff headed into the main burial chamber.
Star Seeker's Burial Chamber is huge, paintings of her life story were all over the chamber, the platform in the middle had a rectangular whole, that's where the coffin was originally placed, but it's moved out by the archaeologists, leaving two guarding statues; however the two statues are rather strange looking, it's not like any form of creatures they'd seen before; instead of standing in four legs, they're bipedal, the statue on the left has a short mane, it wore some sort of armor and weld a spear; the statue on the right has a long mane, and it held some sort of catalyst tool in her hands.
"Whoaaaa this is amazing!" Silverstream chirped, "They must've got some serious group to work this design out!"
"Why didn't they move these two out?" Gallus asked, looking up at the eyes of the bipedal statue, for some reason it gave him a menacing feeling as if the state was glaring at him, ready to unleash a death blow, "Kinda creepy ya know."
"Oh Gallus, we all know you've been reading that Daring Do novel for the past several weeks." Silverstream giggled, you should appreciate the craftsmanship of these arts." She then flew to his side, inspecting the two bipedal statues, "I wonder what the thing in her... uh, claws is."
"Her?" gallus raised an eyebrow,
"I don't know I just feel like it's a 'her'." Silverstream shrugged,
"Meh, maybe it's just a crystal ball like a fortune teller or somethin'," Gallus suggested, however, his eyes cannot be taken off of the 'crystal ball'. Silverstream walked off to the corner of the chamber, looking at the painting. Gallus on the other claw, was staring into the catalyst. That strange feeling is becoming more and more attractive as if something was whispering in his ears to touch the catalyst. His talon unknowingly reached toward the catalyst.
"Whoa, Gallus what are you-" Silverstream gasped as she rushed forward trying to pat Gallus's talon off, but it was too late.
The moment Gallus's talon touched the surface of the catalyst, the arms of the statue suddenly retracted, making the two creatures jump back in fright, then together with the other statue, they raised their arms into the air and turned toward each other. They bent their back and formed a bowing position, the rectangular hole at the center began to morph. A stone pillar rose from the hole and a ray of light exploded from the tip, it was revealed to be a crystal shining in seven colors.
"What in tarnation?!" Applejack's voice rang behind them, "What did we tell ya'll about not messin' around with-" She stopped as she saw the bright crystal, "Oh mah Celestia..." The group also ran inside, watching in shock as the crystal grew brighter, then, it went up.
A huge pillar of light suddenly shot up from the crystal, it penetrated the ceiling, over the rocks, into the sky, further out the atmosphere, and finally deep into the cosmos.
Gallus gulped, "Uh... Guys."
Sandbar took over, "We have a problem."
Inazuma City, Inazuma Island, Teyvat.
Aether suddenly sneezed, he wiped his nose as he couldn't help but feel a weird feeling in his mind. He shook his head as he got up, got dressed, and went into the bathroom. Aether knew he could not be late, Ei asked him out yesterday.
It has been a year after the Battle of Celestia, Aether looked back into the past; He uncovered Barnabas's plan of collecting seven gnosis into the completion of a God-slaying Superweapon, found out Asmoday's true motive of keeping him and Lumine out, and with the help of his friends, successfully defeated the attack of the Honkai, a destructive force that roams outside of Teyvat's World Barrier.
After Asmoday retired and left her post, Lumine, took over Celestia. Paimon on the other hand, revealed herself as Istaroth, the Goddess of Time. She would always make fun of Aether for the face he made when he first heard about her identity. Currently, Paimon is out patrolling the borders of Teyvat in case of any Honkai breach.
Things changed rapidly in a year, Ayaka became the head of the Kamisato Clan, Noelle officially became a Favonius Knight, Nahida led the newly formed Teyvat Technological Research Organization, Tartaglia retired from Fatui; in fact, the Fatui was dismissed after the Battle of Celestia, the surviving harbingers all went into their new private lives, Neuvillette retired his role as the supreme judge and handpicked the first human supreme judge to handle future court cases. However, some things remained the same, Klee never stopped fish-bombing, Itto's Arataki gang still hung out, Zhongli was still broke, Venti was still the drunkard he is, Yae Miko was busy with her Shrine, and Dehya was the same old happy merc she was.
Aether received perhaps the greatest gift of his long life; He and Ei began dating.
Aether first noticed Raiden Ei's feelings for him after the entire Inazuma drama all those years ago, at first he thought Ei was still anxious about her new 'Eternity', and then everything changed when Ei first kissed him at the Summer Festival. The past 20 dates went on rather funny, but all had happy endings, this time will have no difference as well.
Just as Aether finished fixing his hair, he heard a knock on his door, he had a big smile as he rushed to the door.
Upon opening, he was happy to have his beautiful girlfriend Ei.
"Wow," Aether scratched his head, "You look-"
"Oh stop with the words let's get going," Ei said as he pulled him into her chest, nuzzled, and said, "We don't want to miss the 40% discount on the 'dango milk special edition sale' event."
"But I thought you just had dango milk last night," Aether said.
Ei didn't say anything, she just looked at her boyfriend. Aether suddenly remembered what Yae told him about not letting Ei have her dango milk.
"Well, we better hurry then!"
Ei had a big smile, works every time.
By the time the couple got to the dango milk sales, the numerous empty crates were all left. A familiar stall owner emerged from behind the crates, wiping the sweat off of his forehead, his expression went from joyfulness to horror when he saw the supreme figure.
"Shogun-sama! Uh, there's too many people-"
"Glad to see your business went well," Ei interrupted, looking towards the back of the workplace.
"Oh, I've got some reserves, thank goodness," Tomoki sighed in relief as he went back, "General Kujou came by yesterday and left me a note of the receipt of the Shogun's special dish, so I made it before time."
After they left the stall, the two continued their date throughout Inazuma, Aether was planning to take Ei to Watsumi Island, but then he remembered the awkward past between Kokomi and Ei, "Say, where should we go next? Sumeru? Natlan? Liyue? I've got all the waypoints active."
"I'll go wherever you go." Such a sudden flirt nearly vaporized the blonde traveler.
"Well then, uh, let's go-" Suddenly, Aether felt his right ear tingle, and then a leaf-shaped device appeared wrapped around his ear, it was the modified Akasha Terminal given by Nahida and the other Archons in case of an emergency and ONLY in an emergency. Raiden felt the same as she tapped her terminal.
"Nahida? What's the matter-" Ei was soon cut off by the Dendro Archon.
"Beelzebul, Aether, I need you two to Celestia, now." Nahida's startled voice rang, "I've already called the others, they're on their way."
"Alright copy that," Aether answered, "Mind telling us the rush?"
"I'll explain once you're all there." Then the Akasha Terminal went silent.
"What was that about?" Ei murmured, a little unhappy that their date was ruined.
"I have a weird feeling that this will not be anything we'd faced before." Aether said as he held her hand, "Hold on tight, I'm activating the waypoint."
The two figures then disappeared in a flash of blue light, ascending straight above.
The Celestia, once the center control of The Heavenly Principle used to monitor Teyvat; After the Battle of Celestia, Asmoday retired and passed her power down to Lumine, who turned this place from a portable warship into a Central Hall, for emergency Archon meetings. Despite Lumine's title of the Heavenly Principle, she usually leaves her duty to Nahida while she handles the leftovers by the Abyss. Until Lumine finishes with her business, Nahida is in charge.
The gate of the meeting hall opened as Aether and Ei entered, as the gate shut behind them, they were greeted by the other Archons.
"Hey, I was just finishing up my 55th glass of Dandelion Wine~" Venti whined as he burped.
Zhongli stood there with his arms crossed, looking at his old friend in dismay.
Neuvillette sat on the meeting chair with a blank face, but from his glowing horns, it's clear to conclude that the hydro dragon wasn't as calm as he seemed; Furina stepped down from her Archon seat after Focalors executed herself, and wished to stay that way for the rest of her life, therefore Neuvillette replaced her seat.
Mavuika laid back on her chair with her legs crossed, although with her iconic sunglasses on it's clear that the Pyro Archon wasn't too much interested.
As for the Cyro Archon, Snezhnaya became the center of chaos during and after the Battle of Celestia, and the Cyro Archon herself was already busy enough to deal with her problems.
Nahida emerged from the data lab with a chip, despite her small size and age, the following Archons had their attention now turned onto Nahida.
"Apologies for the sudden interruption of everyone's doings," Nahida said, "I only call an Archon Meeting only when it's necessary, which in this case, it is." She then inserted the chip into the conference table, then a large hologram appeared; It showed the rough descriptive image of Teyvat's world barrier and the Honkai armies outside, however, instead of grouping up against the world barrier, they all turned away from Teyvat and seemingly 'retreated' towards another direction.
"Going straight to the point," Nahida cleared her throat, "the Honkai army made a sudden withdrawal of all their forces from Teyvat."
"Isn't that a good thing?" Mavuika asked.
"I would thought so if I hadn't detected this." Nahida then swiped her hand across the hologram, switching to a map of the vast Multiverse beyond Teyvat, the Honkai army shrined into a red dot, however, a dashed line led them to another universe, which guided the Honkai army by a bright white line. Zhongli looked deadly serious, Venti wiped off his playful expression, and the others looked bad as well.
"Phanes's power," Zhongli grunted, "Why is it active on the other side of the Multiverse?"
"The Staff of Genisis." Neuvillette suddenly blurted out, "I will never forget that menacing sense."
"To be specific, the other half of the Staff," Nahida said, "Phanes broke the Staff of Genisis into two after the Khaenri'ah Incident, banishing them far into the Multiverse since its power can be catastrophic if used in the wrong hands. It's possible that the Honkai may have found the first part of the Staff, and that they've locked onto the other one."
"That explains everything." A familiar voice rang behind them, the Archons turned to see Istaroth walking towards them with a menacing aura, "Those bastards are known for their ruthless and aggressiveness if their desire isn't obtained; they wanted Teyvat so very bad for the past thousands of years, and a sudden withdrawal goes against their desire."
"It seems that whatever inhabits the source of the signal may have accidentally activated the tracking device placed onto the staff's fragment just in case Phanes needed them back, however, this attracts not only the Archons. Not only was the Staff exposed, but their entire universe became a big lighthouse. We all know what those inhabitants would go through if the Honkai army found their way there." Nahida explained, revealing her plan, "We need to get the remaining fragment of the Staff of Genisis and destroy it for good."
They then looked to Aether.
"I don't know guys," Aether sighed, "I can travel between worlds, but between universes? Especially to the edge of the Multiverse which I've never been to. It's a very risky move there Nahida."
"I don't see any other options," Nahida said, feeling bad for risking her dear friend's life, "Aether, it wasn't the first idea I came up with."
"Whoa, I never said it's impossible!" Aether stood straight, "If they merge the two fragments into the Staff of Genisis, their targeted universe will perish, and then it'd be ours. I cannot bear such catastrophic consequences, therefore I'll be the vanguard."
"Then I'm going with you," Ei said immediately.
"If they need protection, count me in," Zhongli said, he then shot a look at Venti, who raised his hands.
"Alright, alright, I'm coming."
"Neuvillette and Mavuika will stay behind as back-ups, and Istaroth will create a wormhole just enough for four to pass through, also," Nahida then grabbed a crystal-like device and handed to Aether, "This is an emergency teleportation stone, use it when something goes wrong, remember, it's a disposable item and can only be used once. I usually won't lend out any experimental objects, but this is another story. Lastly,"
Without any alarm, Nahida quickly kissed Aether on his cheek, then smiled, "Stay safe, that goes for you all."
"Uh, yeah, we will!" Aether awkwardly moved to Ei's side, who gave Nahida a look, which the Dendro Archon made a silly face in return. Behind them, Istaroth rolled her eyes with a small smile as she ripped open a wormhole. The Archons and the traveler walked in, Aether looked back at the others and nodded.
"Good luck, Aether," Istraoth said, suddenly switching to her Paimon voice, "Don't forget to grab some delicious food there for Paimon!"
Then the wormhole closed, turning into a blue ray of light, launching itself off Celestia, Teyvat, the world barrier, and to the depth of the Multiverse...
Towards the Universe of Equis.
