Gazing upon the blood-soaked land, where crimson flesh and bone fragments mingled into a grotesque mass, Morax felt a suffocating anguish.
Once, he had been a hot-blooded, carefree youth, the kind who would throw fists at the slightest indecision.
Now, this cruel world had forced him to slaughter innocent humans.
When he stopped showing mercy to the gods and his hands were stained with blood, a shadow crept over his once-innocent eyes.
After this massacre, the coldness in his gaze seemed to ascend to another level.
Fights in the past had been about testing skill.
Now, every fight was about killing the other.
Though his strength had grown countless times greater than before, Morax could find no joy in it. He still preferred those days when he only knew a few clumsy tricks, but at least hadn't been forced to commit such acts.
"Brother… I don't want to do this anymore."
Morax's voice was heavy with sorrow. His kind nature already found the slaughter of fellow gods—strangers though they were—the height of cruelty. But now he was forced to kill their subjects as well. The pain was unbearable.
It was like storming a city: beheading its lord, cutting down its guards—that much he could stomach.
But then the heavens demanded he destroy the city entirely.
To slaughter every innocent, impoverished soul within its walls.
This inhuman cruelty felt to Morax like having his very bones scraped raw.
The solitary gods of before had been like empty fortresses: conquer them, and it was done. But gods with subjects were like moving cities.
"I know this hurts, Morax. I know. But you must go through it—unless you want Liyue to end up like the wasteland beneath your feet."
Elliot knew his words were cruel, especially to Morax, who was writhing in such pain.
But it was unavoidable. This ordeal had to be faced—sooner or later.
"There must be another way…"
"Brother, why don't we resist instead?" Morax seemed to glimpse a sliver of hope.
"Resist? You mean attack Celestia?" Elliot immediately understood.
"Yes! If we unite, we can succeed! And with your strength, Brother, it's possible!"
Morax realized then that he had never seen Elliot fight at full strength. Even the little he had shown was already beyond comprehension.
Planet Befall, created by Elliot long ago, was still a mystery to him—he hadn't even grasped a thousandth of its essence.
Morax believed Elliot's power far exceeded what he had witnessed. After all, Elliot was a master of three elements.
"It's useless," Elliot shook his head.
"How could it be useless!? With so many gods, can't we take down that tiny Celestia?"
Morax's voice was impatient, desperate even. He was already longing for the end of this cursed war.
"I've seen their strength with my own eyes. With my current power, I could at most handle two.
"As for the other three, with the strength of most gods now, it would take at least eighty percent of them fighting together just to barely stand a chance."
"Even if we put aside the matter of strength—suppose we could gather half the gods to destroy this war—how would you convince them? How would you make them willingly follow you to overthrow Celestia?"
"Yes, every god was forced into this war. But imagine this: if some stranger appeared and asked you to follow him to overthrow Celestia, would you agree?
"Wouldn't you fear it was a trap? That the moment you left, Liyue would be seized by another god? Or that the stranger himself was bait, leading you to certain death?"
"Morax, we have no way out. We can't take such risks. We can't even place another god's people in Liyue, let alone attempt something like this."
"The only thing we can do is hold the protection of Liyue above everything else."
"Morax, this is war—not a child's game."
"War has no right or wrong, no good or evil. If you want to live, you must kill every enemy that stands before you."
"You have no mercy left to spare for others."
"Protecting your people—that is the only thing you can do."
Morax lowered his head once again—in shame this time.
He understood these truths, he understood them all too well. But when faced with innocent humans, he still found it impossible to strike. That was why he longed for another path, any path, so long as it spared them.
But Elliot's words crushed that hope completely, dragging him out of his fragile dream.
Who would ever wish for war, unless forced into it?
From gods to commoners, all were its victims.
"Come. Let's go back."
Seeing Morax stand silently in place, Elliot spoke softly.
"…Mm."