Inazuma City was not at peace.
With the Sakoku Decree fully enforced, thunder and storms blanketed the nation.
Its sky wore a constant dim, leaden hue; ragged winds worried the empty streets; dust-caked koinobori hissed; between ranks of houses, a few late-blooming cherries had mostly withered.
Yae Miko's fox ears drooped. She lifted her gaze to the pagoda beneath the leaden sky.
The tower called Tenshukaku stood at Inazuma's highest point. She twitched her nose, as if catching the damp, old scent of its wood.
Ei was still there.
Still fighting—against herself, against the past, against endless time.
No one could help her in this battle.
The sky sank darker still.
Miko lowered her eyes to the letter in her hands, brows faintly knit, lost in thought.
It was from distant Liyue.
Signed: Ganyu.
Because of the Sakoku Decree, mail had been delayed; a full month had passed since it was sent.
Since Seino Raimei's death, Miko had scarcely exchanged letters with Ganyu.
The contents today furrowed her brow more deeply.
Pressing her lips, she read the words again and again.
"Miss Miko, are you well…?"
…
Ganyu did not recount everything that had happened in Liyue. At Rex Lapis's request, she omitted Seino Yaku's name and the upheaval at The Chasm, writing only Bosacius's story—the true history.
Bosacius… Yae Miko knew the name.
Even in Inazuma, he was well-known: the Oath-Breaking Adeptus.
He was also Ganyu's eldest senior.
In past letters, Ganyu had made her hatred for that "traitor" plain.
But today's letter overturned the historical verdict entirely.
"Bosacius never betrayed…"
It would utterly change Liyue's history.
Miko traced the line; the fine script was visibly tremulous—revealing the writer's heart. Miko understood.
For some reason, a strange feeling touched her own heart, stirring other associations.
With no clear cause, she sensed some trick at work in this matter.
Ever since Seino Raimei died, everything seemed to hide a trick.
She'd chased the old man's past—his close tie to a boy named "Seino Fugin," an intimate tie… but before she could dig further, Seino Fugin was dead.
Dead in Mondstadt—slain by the Fatui Harbinger La Signora.
And now—an upheaval in Liyue Harbor.
From Inazuma, to Mondstadt, then to Liyue—perhaps there was a pattern.
She didn't know what it was—only that she brushed a certain truth—though perhaps it was just her refusal to accept an old man's death.
Either way, it bore watching.
Speaking of La Signora, today was the day that Harbinger arrived.
Resolved, she set down the letter and walked outside the shrine.
From the shrine, one could see the grand boughs of the Sacred Sakura, netted across the leaden sky. Blush-tinted petals glowed like scattered dusk. Midsummer had come. Yae Miko bowed her head.
"Old man," she murmured, "I want kitsune udon."
…
Fatui Harbinger La Signora arrived at Inazuma's port that day.
For Snezhnaya, she returned from Mondstadt with a lauded feat—seizing the Anemo Archon's Gnosis—and was commended by the Tsaritsa.
After reporting home, with the Inazuman Delusion factory stalled, she was dispatched to Inazuma City.
A lauded feat… La Signora smiled at herself.
Another old memory surfaced—like a nightmare.
Her eyes lowered, her gaze clouded.
Truly… worthy of praise.
Colleagues praised her—worthy indeed!
Though the wound in her heart had scabbed, the lightest touch brought a faint pain—as if the scab was wound itself, splitting into layers until blood seeped through.
At such times she would clutch the brilliant crystal hidden in her sleeve. Faint light seeped into her skin; warmth flowed through her veins to limb and bone, and the wound would knit again—scabbing over anew.
"Please give this heart to Kunikuzushi."
She gripped that heart, refusing to let go. The shadow in her eyes deepened.
The ship made berth. She put the heart away and disembarked.
Kunikuzushi waited at the docks. Cool sea breeze lifted the white haori on his slight frame. Stepping on osmanthus petals, he lifted his eyes to meet La Signora's.
"Hello," he said.
—
A month had passed since The Chasm.
A month since Seino Yaku's departure.
Liyue seemed to have returned to calm.
The karma, The Chasm, Bosacius's tale—finally, truly ended.
With the massed karma beneath The Chasm pierced and purged by Rex Lapis's spear, the fate that had entangled millennia dropped its curtain. Cleansed of ancient filth, Liyue's road would be smoother.
Clear skies and tranquil moon.
The Chasm was quiet again. Dusk, once more.
As the sun gathered itself, twilight pooled.
After burning a whole day, The Chasm eased at last—but the slanting light cast stark fire across layer upon layer of rock; stacked reflections made a lonely, uncanny glow.
As dusk thinned and night spread, at the end of the barren plain…
A heartless boy bowed his head, watching a small campfire rise.
His aura had faded so thin he was hard to sense at all.
He didn't know where to go. Before him stretched a rolling green plain; beyond it, a blue line of sea glittered.
Men without hearts die—but the boy had not, or not completely.
His body had been tainted—and remade—by twenty-four centuries of karma.
The filth settled in his limbs; when the karma died, it dispersed into his strength. On a physical level he could hardly be called mortal anymore—but that was not why he lived still.
What kept him alive was the seventh Covenant.
[Covenant VII: Please proceed to The Chasm]
[Reward: Bosacius's Heart]
Just as Seino Yaku had foreseen, the seventh was a pact with himself—with his true self. The heart inherited from Bosacius had passed to a Dendro boy then; twenty-four hundred years later, it passed to Seino Yaku.
But that heart could not truly keep him alive.
It was only a temporary heart; in time, it would disperse.
"So that was your plan," Seino Yaku said softly—to no one in particular.
"Honestly," he added with a helpless smile.
The ember-red fire lit the night; another figure stepped from the glow.
Mr. Zhongli.
And in Zhongli's hand… something coursed with golden light, shimmering with molten gleam—a heart.
Or rather: a coalescence of Geo.
This was Morax's… Gnosis.
"Give that to me," the boy said, voice low and weak. He forced his eyes open to the man beyond the fire. "Can you bear it?"
Seino Yaku could feel the authority within the Gnosis—the recognition of Celestia's throne; a god's authority, a god's heart—borne only by a god. A mortal body could not accept it.
But Seino Yaku was no longer the same.
Karma had reshaped him; he had touched the life-tier of a ruling Archon. He had the right to receive the gift.
The qualification to ascend.
"Liyue no longer needs Rex Lapis," Zhongli said with an easy smile. "Liyue is the land of men. The old god should shed his mantle. I should retire."
"Letting karma reshape my body, then purge the karma—and give me your Gnosis," Seino Yaku murmured. "You mean to free me from mortal samsara—sever the past—and grant me the chance to advance?"
"That is only one aim," Zhongli shook his head. "Not only you—Liyue must be freed from that past as well; the karma must be removed."
"History written in error must be corrected. A nation based on false history has no future."
"And," Zhongli said, "Xiao, Ganyu, all those touched by karma—they must face the truth and bring it to a close. However painful, without breaking, there can be no standing anew."
"They must move forward," he said, eyes steady on Seino Yaku. "Liyue must move forward."
"Seino Yaku—you must move forward."
The sun sank upon the world.
Seino Yaku spoke softly, as if many things had become clear.
"The karma at The Chasm… you allowed Ganyu's heart-demon to break loose, didn't you?"
He'd sensed it long ago. For a seal of such weight, Rex Lapis should have been vigilant. How could it be so easily undone?
"You trusted me that much…?" Seino Yaku asked. "Trusted I would step forward—absorb the karma? If I didn't, your plan would fail."
"And you knew—if it failed," he said, staring at Rex Lapis, "it would be a catastrophe for Liyue."
Letting a heart-demon release karma… it was like allowing the Fatui to free a sealed god. That took vast resolve.
"It was also a test," Zhongli replied softly. "To see if you were still Bosacius; to see if you were worthy of this authority. And you proved it."
Seino Yaku did not run. He was still himself—two thousand four hundred years ago; two thousand four hundred years after—he had always been himself.
"And if I had run?"
"Then the karma could never be wholly purged. But I would not let it taint Liyue. I would seal it—together with The Chasm."
Zhongli had held back—prepared a second plan. If it failed, he would still close it out.
Alone, his authority would be hard-pressed. But over twenty-four centuries he had remade The Chasm—burying countless seals around it, lest the karma breach and foul all Liyue.
He had never expected failure. He trusted his friend.
For Liyue to move forward; to purge the stain of two millennia; to set the record right; to fulfill old Covenants; to free a friend from fate's wheel, and grant him a single chance—this was worth staking The Chasm.
"You truly are the god of Contracts," Seino Yaku said, pressing a hand to his empty chest. "You kept the last Covenant, too."
"You really did kill me." He gave a rueful laugh.
"…Forgive me."
Zhongli looked at him—truly apologizing—bowed his head deeply. "Forgive me…"
Forgive me.
Sunset draped his back in a pale glow. Head bowed, he did not lift it for a long time.
So Rex Lapis could apologize, after all.
Honestly…
But Seino Yaku could not blame him.
As Bosacius, he had owed Zhongli too. Now they were even.
"Your acting was superb," Seino Yaku said lightly. "I nearly thought it was over. Zhongli, you owe me a drink. The best osmanthus."
You owe me a drink.
That was all.
Seino Yaku took the Geo Archon's heart. The rock around them cheered; golden light embraced him; he heard a deep thrum in his chest.
After being speared through, he had lain a full month before slowly recovering. Now, he was ready to bear the heart.
The sun drifted down. At the meeting of dusk and night, Seino Yaku set the Gnosis into his empty chest. Bosacius's heart unraveled into shining filaments, merging slowly with it; the body shaped by karmic taint wrapped around the heart.
At the hinge of dusk and night, Seino Yaku set foot on the Long Stair of Apotheosis.
All things broke apart and re-formed; a new starting point. At the stair's summit—freedom beyond mortals.
[Seino Yaku]
Level: 1
Talents: Gnosis, Bosacius's Heart, Body of Karma
These began to melt away—until only one remained:
[Talent: Long Stair to Godhood (Archon-tier)]
"My friend—take my heart," Zhongli laughed, bright and free. "And ascend!"