Teyvat was a beautiful world filled with endless wonder in all manners of description, from its rolling plains controlled by the free city of Mondstadt, which worshipped the concept of freedom in their desire to spread their literal fake wings to glide the powerful winds that sweep through the lands.
Then there are the lands of Liyue and their mountains stood tall proud immortal monuments alongside the stone forest, that, together with the open plains and lively rivers, make up Liyue's bountiful landscape alongside the economic center of the world with its great port.
Last, of the countries that I knew of was the mysterious land of Inazuma, an isolated archipelago far east of Teyvat, that was overcome with endless thunderstorms and as you set foot on the islands of red maple and cherry blossoms the winding shores and towering cliffs, and in forests and mountains full of secrets, laid a god who was obsessed with immortality and controlling her domain strictly to the point of killing or ripping away the powers of anyone on her island chain.
I was violently yanked out of the surf and began coughing as not only was my assailant attempting to strangle me via my coat, but I also got a mouthful of salt water that made me gag at its strong 'flavor' having never been to the ocean before.
"Paimon thinks he may need mouth-to-mouth resuscitation... Or you can let him drown on the water I guess." I heard a slightly squeaky voice speak out.
I had no interest in some dude trying to shove his air into my lungs so with my eyes still closed from the sea water stinging my eyes I pushed away the dainty hands that hesitatingly wrapped around my jaw.
I rolled over away from the source of the voice, I punched my sternum and I gagged as a spray of water no more than a couple tablespoons was shot out of my lungs and I was finally able to breathe albeit heavily.
Finally, being able to breathe I heard the same squeaky voice call out and I almost threw a hand full of sand at the direction of the voice. "Holy moly he is alive!" then a small pause rang out as I could feel the voice companion deadpan from the awkward silence as I rubbed my eyes clear of the stinging salt. " Then Paimon thinks we should leave lest he asks for more help."
"I thank you for the help... But where are..." I asked as I finally opened my eyes and drawled off as I recognized the sight in front of me.
The most memorable of the sights in front of me was the sight of Paimon a floating toddler-sized humanoid being with white hair and clothes anointed with stars. Then there was Lumine a woman wearing an ornate primarily white outfit with a number of ornaments that covered up her body's shape but still left her smooth legs bare.
Lumine cocked her head noticing me drawl off and she tilted her head slightly in concern. "Are... You alright?" She asked quietly and I nodded as my head was bursting at the seams seeing all the little details in the characters showing this wasn't a joke as disregarding Paimon's flying around just Lumine's clothes with glowing gems showed this was certainly not my world.
Not to mention I lived in the Mid-West of America basically as far as I could be from the ocean as possible.
I for a moment considered breaking into hysterics and just telling Lumine all the bullshit that was in her way... But I took a deep breath and stowed my thoughts away as I shakily stood up. "I seem to have met a mishap as I was asleep... if you don't mind, I would like to get back to Mondstadt," I said as I stood up and took in my clothes and froze as I realized I had no such clothes in my life.
I was wearing a mix of suit and military uniform colored primarily white with blue highlights and more importantly was the large saber hanging off my waist.
Not to mention as I glanced into the water beside me, I could see that my once blond hair had turned a snow white that matched my clothes.
I didn't whip out the blade like an idiot as Lumine and Paimon didn't know me and a stranger whipping out a blade to inspect it would be a major red flag... I just hoped that this saber was treated so the salt water wouldn't rust it to slag before I could treat it.
"Woah you know where we are? Wait how did you wash up here then?' Paimon questioned me who seeing my shrug spoke. "Well in any case could you please guide us to Mondstadt."
"I thought you were supposed to be my guide..." Lumine muttered, and I could already see her mental value of Paimon dropping from the trusted guide and firmly lying in the emergency food section.
"Sure. Most of Teyvat's major cities have roads or paths straight to them." I said pointing at the blatantly large path breaking the tree line surrounding the beach we were at. "If we use this smaller game trail it will lead to the major road that leads straight to Mondstadt after we cross a couple of hills.
Lumine nodded and sent a look at the sheepish form of Paimon who just flew ahead of us crying out. "Well let's go! I can already smell the food waiting for us!"
Me and Lumine followed Paimon who slowed down seeing as Lumine didn't scold her, though I felt Lumine was going to be a rather quiet figure so it was highly unlikely she would break out into a spew of abuse at the floating midget.
"So how long have you been to Mondstadt?" Paimon asked me excitedly and I could only shake my head as I have never physically been there in my life.
"I am a bit of a scholar and although I haven't physically been to Mondstadt, I do know a good deal about Teyvat in general." I was speaking the truth as although I beat Inazuma's section of the game and did all the side story stuff, I knew little of the lands not explicitly shown in the game. Plus saying I was a scholar would give me the perfect excuse for knowing bits of trivia that I could dispense at times.
"Hmm... Well, Paimon will be the judge of that!" She said haughtily as she planned to break out a series of trivial questions but before she could do that a weird thrumming noise rang out as we entered the forest.
"Oh no Slimes!" Paimon cried out and we were surrounded by a solid dozen of wind-based slimes.
Lumine's sword flashed into her hand, and I likewise drew my saber though I was much more careful than her flashy teleporting sword motion. I briefly stared at my sword and other than its silver-toned steel and a small ornament I couldn't make out the instant I inspected the sword I held it in my dominant hand thankfully for all the years of living in the woods and having siblings and cousins to beat the crap out of each other with the sticks that littered the ground.
Seriously spend more than ten years smashing sticks at one another. Wearing only gloves and a football helmet to protect your head you quickly learned how to be a decent swordsman to not be hurt by your family members that treated it as if it was the damn National Pastime.
Thankfully a saber was probably the easiest type of sword there was as it had one function in its duties. Slash a target and if that doesn't work, slash again harder.
I slashed my saber through the slimes that launched themselves at me and Lumine like suicidal lemmings and thankfully the few times they hit my chest with their rams, it was only as painful as a football being kicked into you so with my suit and the undershirt blocked off any deep bruising's the slimes could have caused.
Finally, the battle ended when I punted a slime that was attempting to gnaw at my legs past Lumine who sliced it easily in pieces with a swift motion that looked like she took lessons from Sasaki Kojirō with how a few sword lights tore apart the slime with a single swing of her straight sword.
"Hmm... Well, this guy isn't helpless at least." Paimon said as she floated down the tree branches, she was hiding within.
"Hmm... At least I'm not useless." I snorted making Paimon stomp her stubby legs in the air.
"Hey, that is sooo rude!" Paimon said angrily with her already higher pitch going to a whine.
Lumine meanwhile just rolled her eyes and began picking up the remains of the slimes as the slimes seemed to condense into weird semi-solid droplets after they 'died'.
I noticed she also seemed to have a literal pocket dimension as everything she picked up just disappeared and I honestly didn't want to push her away by questioning things too eagerly.
We had a couple more slimes attack us as we walked through the forest, but we easily dealt with them seeing as they were only wind slimes.
I could already see the burgeoning kleptomania blooming within Lumine as she took every single fucking apple, pinecone, exposed ore, or any other form of resource within sight, just chucking it into her storage as we walked up the game trail towards Mondstadt.
"Paimon is scared that Lumine is going to steal all of Teyvat's water someday..." Paimon muttered drawing a bit away from Lumine who was nonchalantly kicking an apple tree so hard that a dozen or so apples dropped to the ground.
Before I could reply and confirm that Lumine likely wouldn't steal the salt water as she couldn't drink or do anything with it, a large maelstrom of wind engulfed us as something ahead landed heavily on the ground.
"Let's go check it out!" Paimon said excitedly and we all nodded jogging ahead up the game path as we walked around a corner even if I knew it was coming, the sight still boggled my mind.
A large, beautiful dragon was crouched upon the ground huffing heavily and I just noticed the short figure standing next to the large dragon wearing white tights under his green shorts and a shirt that was primarily brown on the bottom half and white on top with a number of ornaments.
The figure's voice only slightly reached out as he spoke gently to the dragon. "Don't worry... I am here now." But before we could gather any more information or just allow Venti to calm down Devalin. Just like in a cannon, Lumine's gems inlaid into her clothes glowed bright green and made a loud ring noise which startled the dragon.
The dragon roared and sent a vicious swipe with its claws at the figure who jumped back and shouted out. "Who is there!' But the dragon was done with any entreaties and with another roar at Venti who tsked and turned into a ray of light disappearing into the ether, the dragon threw itself into the air and flew away with the violent winds threatening to knock me to the ground.
"Wahhh!" Paimon screamed as the wind blew at us and I saw the small figure desperately holding onto Lumine's hair I almost snorted at the mental thought of Lumine just slapping Paimon making the midget get carried off into the sky from the violent winds for pulling on her hair so much.
A few moments later the winds died down and Paimon let go of Lumine's hair. "Woah... That was crazy. Hehe, sorry for pulling on your hair Lumine." Paimon said awkwardly and it was amazing how she could have so much body language as she was flying when she was apologizing, she kinda did some foot curling where she would be rubbing her feet in the dirt if she wasn't flying.
Lumine brushed her hands through her hair and after not seeing a clump of her hair being pulled out just shrugged speaking lightly with a deadpan. "It's alright... You didn't pull out my hair so you won't be made into emergency food."
Paimon stamped her feet yelling about how she wasn't emergency food but I was more focused on the large blood-colored crystal droplet floating in the air where Devalin had previously to his tantrum.
"Hey Lumine, wanna take that with you," I said pointing out the crystal Devalin left behind.
Lumine nodded excitedly and threw an appreciative look towards me for not calling dibs basically, but for one I knew the thing was harmful to humans and I didn't even have a Vision that could protect me.
"Thanks... By the way, what is your name." Lumine said as she took the crystal and even Paimon staggered in the air as she realized that we had spent the last twenty-odd minutes walking together and they never even bothered to learn my name.
"Ah, my name is Jake Barris.' I said shortly and Paimon went on saying how my name was similar to the ones used here in Mondstadt which was true as this city's culture and naming was quite similar to medieval English whereas Liyue was Chinese, and Inazuma was Japanese.
After a bit more of a trek, we finally made our way to the one thing I had been dreading for the last half an hour. We all stood in front of the Statue of the Seven silently and as Lumine walked forward and laid her hand upon it. The statue glowed with a powerful green light and Lumine likewise glowed the same light green color.
"Woah you prayed to the Seven and the Anemo god instantly answered your prayers with a blessing," Paimon said excitedly as Lumine clenched her hands making a ghetto Rasengan appear within her hands for a few moments and explode into powerful wind blades.
"I didn't need power... I just want answers." Lumine muttered sighing sitting beside the statue tiredly.
I still didn't want to be a Gary Stu just jumping out to give all the answers out, not only as for one it would be hella suspicions, as I didn't have any real connection to Lumine, and even if I told her that her brother is chugging that dark side juice, it wouldn't do her any good as Aether could just teleport whenever he damn well pleased leaving Lumine behind should she manage to track him down to a certain location.
"Well, gods of Teyvat here I am..." I muttered placing my palm atop the statue I felt a heavy breeze surrounding me and like Lumine, I was surrounded by a light green light but unlike her who just swallowed the blessing my sword's hilt grew a green gem at the bottom and I felt an intrinsic connection to it.
Not only that but a sort of light green barrier formed a cocoon around me for all of a couple of seconds and I could feel the blessing coming through the statue the energy was almost carrying an emotion I could only describe as someone going 'what the fuck' and just throwing up their lands and leaving. The feeling matched with how the statue blessing faded leaving the glowing barrier to just sink into me but just as it met my skin it flashed silver and I felt a tinge as the foreign energy merged into my body and I had no better way to describe it better than the energy igniting my soul into a comforting flame within myself.
I like Lumine flexed my hands but I didn't send a Rasengan off the little ledge we were on towards the forest below, no I liked the idea of almost invisible wind blades carving through my targets, so I clumsily moved the energy through my chest as Lumine watched me closely. Finally, after a full ten or so seconds my hand was glowing with a green light and as I chopped with my hand a large blade of wind similar to Ichigo's Getsuga Tensho was shot out into the forest below, though obviously much smaller and colored grin instead of blue.
"Never seen two people get a vision before at the same time basically..." Paimon muttered, and I saw how awestruck she looked at how we mugged the Anemo God of wind powers without going through any form of trial or proving we had some divine ambition like all the other vision holders had.
But then again, supposedly the god system rewards any foreigners to the world with the powers as a sort of welcoming gift without the approval of the element's patron god. I knew for a damn fact that Baal the electro Archon wouldn't allow foreigners invading her land to get a blessing randomly just by walking up to one of her statues.
I took the time to examine my sword with how it literally had a glowing gem added to it and I finally got a chance to study the little ornament on the cross guard of the sword and I instantly recognized the snowflake emblem engraved.
'I was made into a fucking Schnee...' I realized remembering my snow-white hair and the emblem on the weapon, not to mention as I was moving around, I could feel a stiff stitching in the back of my jacket as I was swinging my sword. So, no bets on whether there was another snowflake design on it.
I mentally froze as I realized with a mental groan that running around with a bunch of snow motifs could mark me as native to Snezhnaya, the homeland of the Fatui who was obsessed with fucking over every country in Teyvat and frankly Mondstadt weren't all too appreciative to those people for good reason.
Lumine cut me out of my musing as Paimon went onto a deluge about the Seven Archons and the elements they controlled asking if they could help her find someone. "Hmm... Well, supposedly the Anemo God Barbatos the god of Mondstadt knows every secret carried on the wind so he is both the closest and most helpful person to find.
Lumine nodded and sent me a look plainly saying she was ready to move on to Mondstadt to search for said God.
"Alright let's go to Mondstadt," I said and with a thought, my saber disappeared into the ether, but I could feel a sort of mental trigger that would instantly summon it back into my hand.