Elliot followed the sound to its source. The deepest part of The Chasm was where it was loudest.
He placed his hand on the rock and channeled elemental power to send a message.
Soon, faint tremors rippled through the ground. The vibrations grew stronger and stronger until nearly the entire Chasm shook.
The people of Liyue thought a god had come to kill them, and terror spread among them one by one.
"Don't panic! Stay calm!" The captain of the mining team barked out his command.
"We have the Geo Emperor behind us. He will protect us!"
"For all these years we've mined here, not once has anyone suffered an accident. Rest assured—we won't be the exception!"
"The Geo Emperor is with us!!!"
His words, powerful and stirring, steadied the miners' hearts at once.
Indeed, mining in the middle of the month had always been safe. It had been so for years—never once had anyone come to harm.
But on their journeys to and from the mines, they had seen with their own eyes the Geo Emperor fighting other gods.
So, whenever the miners returned to Liyue, they would gather together and recount the majesty of the Geo Emperor's battles to those who had stayed behind.
Whenever destitute refugees arrived in Liyue, the locals' reverence for Morax only grew.
They could not imagine what their lives would be without the Geo Emperor—whether their families would be scattered, their homes destroyed, and they themselves left to wander.
Thus, Morax was not only their supreme god. He was their faith, their symbol.
No matter how perilous the situation, the simple belief that "the Geo Emperor stands behind us" always calmed them.
Just like now—even with the Chasm shaking violently, their panic lasted only a moment. The instant they remembered the Geo Emperor's presence, their fear was gone.
...
"Who are you? What business do you have here?"
From deep within the Chasm, a colossal ancient dragon burst through the earth and stood before Elliot.
"I am the Dark God, called Elliot Yuan." He introduced himself.
"The Dark God… Elliot?"
"Correct."
"Did you seek me for something?" asked the ancient dragon Azhdaha.
"Nothing serious. Only that I sensed something strange. Your aura isn't like that of a god, and so I grew curious," Elliot explained.
"I am the ancient dragon Azhdaha. I have lived underground since ancient times. Naturally, I am no god."
"ancient dragon Azhdaha…? You live underground?" Elliot feigned surprise.
"Yes. And since you have no business with me, I shall take my leave." With that, the ancient dragon Azhdaha began to sink back into the earth.
"Wait." Elliot, of course, would not let him slip away so easily.
"What is it?" The dragon paused.
"You said you've lived underground since ancient times. Then how do you move in such pitch darkness? Isn't it impossible to see?"
"Underground, there is no need to 'see.' 'Hearing' alone is enough."
"So that means—you truly can't see? You don't even have eyes?"
"Of course not. Living underground requires no eyes. Even if I had them, they would be useless."
Azhdaha ancient dragon's tone carried an air of absolute certainty. To him, lacking eyes was no misfortune, nor did he care whether he could see.
It was natural enough. He had never known a world where eyes were needed.
Like someone who had never seen light—in his world, darkness was the natural order. He felt no envy for the light, no yearning for it.
Hearing this, Elliot ignored his indifference and, using divine power as ink, painted an eye onto the dragon's forehead.
"You intend to—"
The ancient dragon froze before he could finish his words.
It happened so quickly he had no chance to react. The eye was already in place.
For the first time in thousands of years, the ancient dragon Azhdaha saw the world—and went utterly still.
For millennia, his world had been nothing but endless black. No forms, no colors, only pure darkness.
It was like a blind man suddenly regaining his sight.
The first glimpse of the real world brought nothing but stunned silence.
Ordinary flowers, trees, rocks, and walls appeared to him as things of supreme beauty.
For the ancient dragon Azhdaha, blind for thousands of years, this was his first glimpse of the world's true form.
As he stood frozen, Elliot circled to his other side and drew on his second eye.
"This world… is beautiful, isn't it?"
Elliot stood beside the ancient dragon Azhdaha, smiling faintly.