The divine, beautiful, and hopeful star that was Ren hung in the sky for a long, breathtaking moment, its gentle, violet light a soothing balm upon the battered, terrified city. The raging storm in the heavens had ceased, the dark, angry clouds replaced by a calm, peaceful twilight.
But the newborn star could not shine forever. The immense, divine flood of the Gnosis's energy, having found a new, stable, and welcoming home, finally settled. The brilliant, violet light that wreathed Ren's body slowly, gently, faded. And his small, unconscious form, its brief, divine ascension complete, began to fall.
He was not falling for long.
A flash of violet lightning, as silent and as instantaneous as a thought, and the Raiden Shogun was there, in the air, her movements a blur of divine, impossible grace. She caught his small, limp form with a gentleness that was completely at odds with her cold, warrior-like persona.
She held him in her arms, a princess carry, a fragile, precious treasure rescued from the heavens. She looked down at his unconscious face, at the peaceful, serene expression on his features. She saw that the small cut on his forehead, the bruises and scrapes from his crash in the forest, they were all gone. His skin was as flawless and as perfect as it had been the day he had arrived in Inazuma. The Gnosis, in its brief, powerful union with him, had not just lent him its power; it had healed him, its pure, divine energy mending his mortal wounds.
She could feel it, a gentle, familiar thrumming from within him. It was not just the residual energy of the Gnosis; it was a deeper, more fundamental resonance. It was the soft, warm, and gentle will of her beloved sister, Makoto, a will that now seemed to have found a faint, permanent echo in the soul of this impossible, wonderful child.
With another, silent flash of lightning, she teleported. Appearing at the very heart of the city, the center of the grand plaza, where her people, her children, were now slowly, tentatively, emerging from their shelters.
She stood there, the divine, all-powerful Raiden Shogun, the god of thunder and lightning, holding the small, sleeping form of Liyue's Azure Savior in her arms, a surreal, powerful, and utterly baffling tableau of divine mercy and mortal heroism.
She gently, carefully, took the Electro Gnosis from his still-clenched hand. The beautiful, intricate chess piece felt warm, alive, pulsing with a familiar, comforting energy.
"Thank you," she whispered, her voice a soft, unheard murmur, meant not just for the sleeping boy, but also for the echo of her sister's will that now resided within him. "I am glad… that you have recovered." She knew he was not listening, that his body was simply in a state of deep, healing slumber, adapting to the immense, divine power it had just so briefly, and so completely, embraced.
A crowd began to gather, their faces a mixture of awe, of fear, of profound, dazed relief. They saw their god, who had just waged a war in the heavens. And they saw the small, heroic boy she held so gently, so protectively, in her arms.
The Shogun looked at the faces of her people, at the damage to her city, at the new, uncertain dawn that was breaking over her eternal nation.
"The threat has been dealt with," her divine, clear voice announced, echoing through the silent plaza, a proclamation of victory and a promise of peace. "The city can now rest and recover. There is much to rebuild, much to analyse. There are… changes... to be made."
And with that final, cryptic, and deeply, profoundly, hopeful, promise, she, and her precious, sleeping cargo, vanished in a final, gentle flash of violet lightning, leaving the people of Inazuma to stand in the quiet, peaceful aftermath of the storm, and to wonder at the new, strange, and miraculous chapter that was about to begin in the history of their eternal nation.