vrcanaries Chapter 163 The Teyvat Chronicles (2)
Chapter 163 The Teyvat Chronicles (2)
Hundreds of years have passed since Kiana moved with Morax to live in the palace of the moon goddess, and Morax has now grown from a little boy into a young man.
Recalling how he had been teased by those three goddesses every day for the past few centuries, and how he had played dress-up games with them, Morax felt a chill wind blowing around him.
Fortunately, today is the day he officially graduates. With the three goddesses as witnesses, Morax finally passed Kiana's test, and now he can finally return to the continent of Teyvat, far away from the three moon goddesses.
However, completing her apprenticeship also means parting ways with her friend and teacher, Herakti. After all, according to Luna, Herakti still has responsibilities to bear. Once Morax has fully completed her apprenticeship, it means she can confidently do what she needs to do.
What Morax didn't expect was that when he saw her again, he was already a god of Liyue, and she no longer called herself Hel'akti, but instead changed back to her real name.
Yes, during a conversation with Luna, Luna accidentally revealed Kiana's real name—Kiana Kaslana—because she wasn't used to calling Kiana Heracles.
He never mentioned this to anyone, not even after countless years when he became Zhongli.
While Morax was still thinking about his carefree life ahead, Kiana had already secretly met with Nidhogg and was preparing to head to the next point in time.
Driven by personal motives, she chose to travel to the end of the war between the First and Second Thrones, where Nidhogg had become brutal due to the influence of the Abyss's power. Unlike the mature and composed Nidhogg that Kiana had previously seen, the current Nidhogg had become irritable and insane.
When it was defeated by Fanes and fled beyond the world, attempting to gain greater power to make a comeback, Fanes, after a brief rest, used the ley lines established by Kiana as a model to modify the environment of Teyvat.
In order to completely control the World Tree, Fanes first seriously injured Apep, who was in charge of managing the World Tree. Then, he seized the management authority of the World Tree from Apep and used it as a basis to create an incarnation of the World Tree, which he named Buyer.
At this point, except for the territory of Prometheus, the dragon king, which was still under the control of the dragon race, all other places were taken over by Phanes.
Moreover, after being modified by Fanes, Teyvat is no longer suitable for pure elemental life forms to survive. Due to the lack of wild elemental energy in the air, a large number of high-level elemental life forms have degenerated into slimes and crystal butterflies.
The elemental dragon kings, being at the pinnacle of elemental life, were able to adapt to environmental changes, while their subordinates evolved from pure elemental life into beings capable of wielding elemental power in order to adapt to the environment.
Then a completely new species—humans—appeared on the continent of Teyvat. Perhaps because humans were created by Phanes, Phanes showed a clear preference for them. He not only modified the environment to suit human needs beforehand but also sent numerous messengers to establish communication with humans.
Humans, who were based on Sky Isle, gradually replaced the dragons and became the undisputed pinnacle of life on the continent of Teyvat.
Although dragons still ruled Prometheus's territory, they treated humans, who were created by Phanes, surprisingly well.
Perhaps it's because humans not only resemble Fanes but also Kiana in appearance. While the Elemental Dragon Kings hate Fanes, they are incapable of hating humans.
Of course, the inability to hate doesn't mean humans live comfortably in dragon territory. Ultimately, dragon rule is still a dog-eat-dog world. Although humans have a natural advantage in intelligence, this advantage is hardly enough to bridge the power gap between humans and dragons.
If it weren't for the envoys sent from Sky Island also existing in this region, humans would have long been slaves of the dragons instead of commoners.
However, all of that is in the past. Now, Nidhogg has returned from beyond the world with the power of the abyss, and the territory later known as Nata is instantly engulfed in war.
Numerous Sky Island emissaries were slaughtered, and Nidhogg's immense power even shattered the ley lines completely.
To ensure that this area would not become a forbidden zone for life, the remaining three messengers decided to sacrifice two of their own power for the last messenger, who would then integrate the shattered ley lines into another ley line system independent of other places—the Kingdom of the Night God. That last messenger was the being later known as the Night God by the Nata people.
Although the power of the Abyss was indeed immense, Fanes was no pushover. After a long war, Fanes successfully learned some of the nature of the Abyss, and thus she created the Heavenly Nails, capable of suppressing and purifying it.
They then officially deployed the Sky Spikes into the war, and the long years of war also allowed Nidhogg to learn the true nature of the Abyss.
Driven by a deep-seated desire not to destroy the world Kiana created, Nidhogg also began searching for a way to purify the Abyss during the later stages of the war.
However, while acquiring it is easy, getting rid of it is very difficult. After so many years of use, the Abyss has long since deeply corrupted Nidhogg, and Nidhogg has thus lost its qualification to purify the Abyss.
Forced by circumstances, it had no choice but to personally go to those areas polluted by the abyss and absorb all the remnants of the abyss into its own body.
While this solved part of the problem of the Abyss's corruption, Nidhogg himself was not doing so well. Under the long-term erosion of the Abyss, Nidhogg's rationality was gradually collapsing, and he eventually transformed into a mindless beast in the final battle with Fanes.
The battle was earth-shattering, with neither side holding back. The result was that the aftershocks of the clash between two world-class powerhouses were enough to shatter the world. If Kiana hadn't intervened in the shadows to stabilize Teyvat, it would have been destroyed by the aftershocks of their battle long ago.
The final battle ended with Farnes severely wounded and Nidhogg dead. Looking at the ravaged world, Farnes realized that a version of himself, no weaker than himself in his prime, still lurked in the shadows; otherwise, Teyvat would have been destroyed long ago given the intensity of the battle.
Seeing that the battle had been decided, Kiana decided to stop hiding and came to stand in front of Fanes.
"you are?"
"Herakti".
"So you are the creator god the dragons speak of. Since you've been lurking in the shadows all along, why did you just stand by and watch me defeat the minions you created?"
This is what Fanes is wondering about. She is very curious that the previous environment of Teyvat was created by the woman in front of her, and that even the ley lines and the World Tree itself are just changes made based on her.
Such a being is undoubtedly stronger than myself. If that's the case, why didn't it step in to help expel me when I first arrived?
"First of all, dragons are not my servants; they are merely beings born from the planet itself when I created Teyvat. Secondly, it's not that I don't want to help, but that I can't. No matter how hard I try, the final outcome will be Nidhogg's death. Therefore, whether or not I banish you is no longer important to me."
Upon hearing this, Fanes realized just how vast the gap was between himself and Kiana. Although Fanes could also interfere with time to some extent, according to Kiana, it was probably not as simple as just interfering with time.
Kiana could probably rewind or travel through time to change history, while I could only rewind for a few seconds at most, and time travel would require the power of the ley lines. But when I first arrived, the ley lines hadn't been modified by me, so I could only travel through the modified ley lines.
This is why Fanes didn't choose to travel back in time and kill Nidhogg directly; she simply couldn't do it!
Kiana, however, could. As for whether Fanes ever doubted whether Kiana's time travel was the same as his own, well, she created the ley lines and the World Tree from scratch, so time travel was nothing to her.
"In that case, Herakti may seem shameless to you, but I hope you can help me resolve the collapse of Teyvat. After all, you wouldn't want to see the world you created destroyed, would you?"
Kiana glanced at Fanes without emotion, then said calmly, "Teyvat's destruction is inevitable, at least for now. My goal has always been to change that damn future. But you, Fanes, for personal reasons, I won't help you solve this. As for how to save Teyvat, I think you know what to do."
After speaking, Kiana reached out and placed her hand on Nidhogg's corpse, a soft light faintly emanating from her palm.
Kiana then retrieved a fragment of Nidhogg's soul, the last uncorrupted fragment within his soul.
Kiana can use this soul fragment to find a way to revive Nidhogg, but after revival, he will lose all his previous memories and be reborn as a completely new life.
Since that's the case, then I'll fulfill its original wish! With that thought, Kiana merged this soul fragment into her own body. In the future, through the captain's hands, Nidhogg might become Kiana's true offspring.
But all of that is another story. After doing all this, Kiana took one last look at the determined Fanes, and left this place of trouble, feeling the four shadows getting closer and closer.
What Fanes said to his four shadows afterward was not of interest to Kiana. She simply watched as Fanes chose to sacrifice himself, becoming a branch connecting the Imaginary Tree to Teyvat, and his body turned into starlight fragments scattered throughout Teyvat.
In the future, these fragments will combine with various concepts on Teyvat, giving birth to daemons of various forms. Driven by Phanes's instinct to love, the daemons who inherit this instinct will love in their own way according to their own concepts.
However, none of this concerns Kiana. After witnessing the fall of Fanes, Kiana sets off once again.
This time, she arrived in an era before the war between demons and gods began, and this time she chose to descend upon Sumeru.
Today, Mount Sumeru is covered by desert, and only the area governed by Buyer still retains the original appearance of the rainforest.
The reason is simple: after witnessing the power of the abyss, Apep inevitably began to dabble in its power.
She hoped to gain enough power to avenge Nidhogg and overthrow the rule of the Sky Isles, allowing the dragons to rise again. However, she miscalculated. Having experienced that war and knowing the dangers of the Abyss, the Sky Isles would not ignore the Abyss's invasion of Teyvat.
Not to mention that the one who dabbled in the abyss was an elemental dragon king. So when they discovered that Apep was secretly guiding the power of the abyss to invade Teyvat, the Sky Isles reacted quickly and threw a Sky Spike at Apep's location.
The immense power of the Heavenly Nail not only suppressed the abyss in that area, but also severely injured Apep and caused a drastic change in the Sumeru environment.
The once lush rainforest gradually turned into desert under the influence of the Sky Spikes. In order to adapt to the desertified environment, Apep itself underwent a series of evolutions, eventually becoming the dragon-like body it is today.
Its retinue has degenerated into insect form and possesses an extremely strong sense of territory, killing any creature that enters its territory.
Kiana immediately found Apep, who was still recovering from his injuries, after arriving. Apep originally wanted to question Kiana about why she hadn't come to help the dragons, but then he remembered what Chaos had told him and the soul aura of Nidhogg that he sensed from Kiana's body, so he temporarily put aside his anger.
"Herakti, I don't think we have anything to talk about. You should leave before I change my mind. Otherwise, even if I can't beat you, I will follow my own will and teach you a lesson."
Kiana knew she was in the wrong, and she didn't intend to explain much to Appepp this time; she came with orders.
"Listen, Apep, I'm not here to beg for your forgiveness, nor to ask for anything. I'm ordering you to preserve the dragon race's flame. From now on, you'd better keep your tail between your legs and live a good life. Don't even think about touching the abyss again, or if I find out, I'll wipe you out the moment you're done!"
"...You seem to have changed a lot."
This was the first time Appepp had felt such a tough attitude from Kiana. Could it be...? Thinking this, Appepp's throat moved, and he swallowed hard.
"Can I interpret your current attitude as a sign that you've made up your mind?"
"You can understand it this way: Teyvat's fate shouldn't be destruction. I will personally change that fate, so becoming Tenryu is necessary."
“I understand. I will restrain myself a bit until that prophecy comes true. Remember, my restraint will only last until that prophecy comes true. Before that, my will will not change.”
After Apep disappeared, Kiana breathed a sigh of relief. Recalling the injuries she had sensed on Apep earlier, Kiana was genuinely worried that if it continued to be so stubborn, it would truly face judgment from Sky Island.
To prevent any major changes to his plans, Kiana would certainly not appear easily, and he would probably lose another familiar junior at that time.
The long years have bound Kiana and Teyvat together. Now she regards Teyvat as her second home. Kiana really doesn't want to lose the few familiar people in this world anymore.
But it's going to be a long time before that prophecy comes true!
However, this gave her enough time to continue carrying out her plan. And so, Kiana disappeared into the vast desert after conjuring up the clothes of Heraclitus from her memories.