The scent of damp earth and the crackling of torches filled the air as Nianlong tightened his grip on his worn-out blade. His breathing was ragged, his body bruised from the skirmish he barely survived. He was no warriorâat least, not yet. He was just a young man, thrown into a world he once admired from behind a screen, now forced to navigate the bloodstained history of Teyvat firsthand.
The battlefield stretched as far as his weary eyes could see. Jagged cliffs loomed in the distance, scarred from endless battles, while rivers ran red with the remnants of a forgotten age. Above him, the skies crackled with elemental chaosâbeams of light and dark clashing as gods waged war upon one another. The Archon War was an era of ceaseless bloodshed, where divinity was earned only through the annihilation of rivals. It was not a mere skirmish of mortals but an extinction event for lesser gods.
"Damn itâŚ" He staggered forward, dragging himself along the ruins of a once-great temple, now reduced to rubble. Corpses of fallen warriorsâboth mortal and divineâlittered the ground, a grim testament to the war's cruelty. Some had once been revered as protectors of their people, only to fall as forgotten relics of an age unwilling to let them exist.
His opponent lay mere feet awayâa wounded god, its fractured golden mask revealing pained, hollow eyes. This deity, once a ruler of a small region, had challenged a mightier force and lost. Nianlong had not slain them, but he had foughtâalongside desperate mortals who had no choice but to resist their conqueror.
He had always dreamed of being in Teyvat, but not like this. Not without the comfort of a reset button. Not without the certainty that a mistake wouldn't cost him his life.
Still, he had something no one else did. Knowledge. The mechanics of a world that had once been a game to him. The seven elements at his fingertips, waiting to be wielded. He just had to survive long enough to grasp them.
And so, he fought. Not for glory, nor power, but simply because it was the only way forward.
---
The sky burned with golden light as the heavens raged, rejecting the rise of an unordained god. Nianlong stood at the edge of a great precipice, his body battered, yet his spirit unbroken. The culmination of countless battles had led him here. He had slain, he had saved, he had bargained, and he had defied. And now, he would rise.
Power surged through his veins, raw and untamed. Pyro ignited at his fingertips, Cryo misted his breath, Electro crackled along his arms. Anemo swirled around him, lifting his hair in unseen currents, while Dendro vines sprouted from the cracks forming on the ground beneath his feet. Hydro coursed through his veins like a river in flood, and Geo encased his limbs in an unyielding strength. Each element responded to his call, as if the world itself acknowledged his will. But his mortal body strained under the surge. His muscles ached, his bones trembled, and for a fleeting moment, he thought he might shatter from the sheer force of divinity trying to root itself within him.
Then came the pain.
An overwhelming agony tore through him as the remnants of mortality burned away. His heartbeat thundered in his ears, each pulse echoing with the voices of the elements. His flesh cracked like parched earth, revealing streams of radiant energy beneath. His bones, once fragile, solidified into something unbreakable, suffused with the resilience of Geo. His breath carried the whisper of the winds, his veins coursed with liquid flame. He was no longer a mere manâhis mortal shell had become the vessel of the seven forces of the world.
He let out a ragged breath. "So this is what it means⌠to be a god."
A voice echoed through the skies, ancient and resentful. "You are no god. You are a mistake."
The heavens rejected him. Divine judgment rained downâbolts of smiting lightning, the wrath of the old order, trying to erase him before his existence was fully cemented. But Nianlong did not falter. He raised his hand, and the seven elements converged in a blinding storm of power, forming a radiant barrier that repelled the fury of the gods themselves.
He was no mere mortal anymore.
He was the first Archon born from humanity.
---
Spears of jade and arcs of lightning clashed as the battlefield trembled beneath their might. Nianlong moved alongside Zhongli, his hands weaving elements in perfect synchronization with the Geo Archon's unshakable strikes.
A titan of obsidian surged forward, a forgotten god of the war, unwilling to accept the fate of the old era. Its stone-carved body fractured with every strike from Zhongli's polearm, yet it did not fall.
Nianlong dodged a crushing fist that shattered the land where he once stood. He retaliated by summoning a vortex of Anemo, lifting debris into the air before launching shards of frozen Cryo-laced spears into the titan's exposed joints. The creature roared in frustration, swiping at him with an arm reinforced by jagged Geo constructs.
Landing nimbly atop a fallen statue, Nianlong conjured Dendro vines from the ruins, wrapping around the titan's limbs to slow its movements. Seizing the opening, he propelled himself forward with an Anemo-infused leap, slamming his blade into the weakened joint. Hydro surged from his weapon, drenching the cracks, before an explosive burst of Pyro ignited into a devastating vaporized detonation.
"This one is stubborn," Zhongli muttered, his voice calm despite the destruction around them. He raised his hand, summoning a meteorite infused with golden Geo energy, sending it crashing onto the titan's skull. The impact sent tremors across the battlefield, yet still, the creature stood.
Nianlong scoffed, wiping blood from his mouth. "Aren't they all?"
The titan let out a final, desperate roar, raising its fists for a last stand. Nianlong responded with ruthless precision. A sweeping gust of Anemo scattered the dust, blinding the enemy, before a torrent of Hydro encased its core. As Pyro energy surged into the water-logged fissures, an eruption of superheated steam tore through the titan's chest.
With a final command, Zhongli drove his spear into the ground, summoning towering Geo pillars that speared through the titan's remaining form. The creature let out a hollow, shuddering cry before its body crumbled into nothingness.
As the dust settled, Zhongli turned to him, his amber gaze unreadable. "You do not fight like a god."
Nianlong chuckled, stretching his sore limbs. "That's because I wasn't born one."
---
Nianlong glared at the glowing artifact before him. A plume, freshly retrieved from the domain's rewards. His heart pounded as he infused his energy into it, forcing its latent power to reveal itself.
Crit Rate⌠good.
Elemental Mastery⌠not bad.
Flat Defense.
His eye twitched.
The next roll.
Flat Defense again.
He clenched his fists. "No. No, don't do this to me."
Another roll. Defense. Again.
The artifact's glow dimmed, its fate sealed.
Nianlong fell to his knees. "I have conquered gods, survived calamities, and altered the fate of this world... but I am still cursed by RNG."
Zhongli, standing nearby, raised an eyebrow. "Perhaps you should lower your expectations."
Nianlong shot him a glare. "Says the guy with a perfect set."
The silence stretched between them before Zhongli let out a small, knowing chuckle.
Nianlong groaned, falling onto his back. "I swear⌠This is the true suffering of a god."