God of Salt

After buying the rings, I decided to go straight to Sal Terrae. Since she's a god just like Guizhong and Venti, I should be able to find her energy with no problem at all. Well, it will be a problem if she is behind a locked room or something. That's because the only thing that I actually saw through was the ambers at Mt. Hulao. I wonder if this is the case with all crystals… I'll just try to figure it out later.

While flying around, I noticed two individuals staring at 3 Glaze Lilies near a body of water. By the way, I was flying. Anyways, I landed just a few ways away from them so they wouldn't notice me and then I warped to a tree near them and listened in.

"Oh come on! Do I really need to?!" said the man with choppy orange hair. Looking closely, he has dull blue eyes and fair skin. He wore a grey jacket and grey pants. His grey jacket had light grey and dark red details and he's also wearing black boots and gloves. His jacket isn't buttoned at the bottom where the reveal belt is. I was wondering why, but then I saw a Hydro Vision attached to his belt and thought that may be the reason. The unbuttoned end is held by buttons and decorated by a black symbol on the outer edge.

His gloves were short, revealing his wrist. He was wearing a beaded earring with a black crystal on his left ear. Then I noticed something that made my eyes widen. It was a red mask that pulled off to one side of his head. It wasn't just any mask though… It was a Fatui mask. Based on his mask as well, he seems to be just like Signora.

'A Harbinger…'

Being wary, I activated my eyes and looked at him. He had two overlapping energies. The blue one was from his Vision, but the other one… was a fake Vision energy. Although it's fake, it can still be utilized. Based on the purple color, this fake Vision is an Electro one.

I looked to his side to see if the man beside him was another Harbinger, but… he was something else entirely. The same energy as Venti… Godly energy. Not just that, I could also see the Geo Gnosis energy…

'Morax…'

His appearance is that of a tall and slender young man with fair skin. He had bright and sharp eyes that are amber in color and had glowing yellow pupils that are shaped like diamonds. He wears a red eyeliner on the lower lid of his eyes.

He had dark brown hair that is styled in a windswept fashion that has a longer fringe that hangs from the right side of his face. His hair fades to amber brown at the tips and pulled back in a long ponytail that falls beyond his waist.

He wore a beige dress shirt, a brown and amber waistcoat, slim black trousers, black dress boots, and black gloves with twin silver archer rings on the thumbs. He wears a jewelled tassel earring on his left ear and a white tie that is pinned by an amber gemstone.

"Yes, that is the way to make the flower more fragrant." said Morax.

Oh, do they mean the thing that Guizhong did? If so, I hope that Harbinger has a good singing voice. However, as soon as he started humming, I already got a bad feeling about this. He was pretty good, but when he finished, I could hear the ground moving and three Whopperflowers appeared soon after. I heard from Amy that these things are pretty annoying.

I could just stay in hiding and watch them fight these things, but I want to ask Morax a few questions so I can't really do that.

"Haah, I'll just finish this quickly."

I dashed at the Whopperflowers at great speed and used a blade that was made from my flames to cut them all clean in two. I looked back at the Whopperflowers and saw their Elemental Energy dwindle as they got consumed by the flames instead of just turning to dust. I've seen this before with the Geovishap Hatchling. It seems like my sword and its flames consumes life. So that's why it gets stronger each time I use it to kill enemies. Well, I do get stronger along with it though.

"Who are you?" The voice that I heard was coming from Morax.

I looked at him and smiled.

"Hello there, I'm Aether. I was just looking for someone and someone told me that you might know her." I was talking about Havria here. I'll ask him about Lumine before that though. I need information about her whereabouts.

"Hm? Who might this person you're looking for be?"

"I'd rather discuss this in private…"

"Very well then."

We then went to a nearby tree so that the Harbinger couldn't hear us. I've got the feeling that he's hiding his identity from the Harbinger. That was the reason why I did this. Well, one of the reasons. The other one was just because I didn't trust the Harbinger.

"What is it then?"

"Why did you fake your death, Morax?"

"...Haah, I should have known just by the tone in your voice. Tell me, how did you figure it out?"

"You see, these eyes of mine are special…"

I then explained to him how I could see a lot of different types of energy. He looked rather intrigued by this. Also, I decided to just keep my eyes like this for now. Just so that I can get more used to it.

"Interesting… Well, as for your question, I'm afraid I cannot answer that."

"Is it a contract?"

"Yes."

"Haah… well, I can't do anything about that."

I guess it wouldn't be that easy. Although, at least I confirmed that Morax isn't actually dead. Anyways, I asked him about Lumine first. No luck though. Haah, just where are you Lumine? Then, I asked him about Havria.

"...Is she the one you were looking for?"

"Yes. I know that the place where she was killed was sealed on Sal Terrae, but I don't really know how that place looks on the inside. I might have trouble looking for her."

"Hm, I don't exactly know what you're gonna do, but I'll help you. Also, call me Zhongli."

"Thank you, Zhongli."

That's a relief. I'm really lucky that I found them here… wait, I think I forgot about someone. Ah, right, the Harbinger. I looked towards him and saw him looking at the body of water that was in front of him. I dashed and appeared behind him in a blink of an eye and tapped his shoulder.

"Sup!"

"Gah!"

"Oh, sorry about that."

"Oh no it's fine. I gotta say, you hide your presence pretty well."

"Of course, I am an adventurer after all."

After that I asked him his name.

"No.11 of the Fatui Harbingers, codenamed Childe, but I also go by Tartaglia. You seem strong, wanna spar sometime?"

Hm, seems like he isn't really that hostile. Signora wasn't actually even hostile towards me. She was just a bit cold. Well, she's charming in her own way.

"Sure! I still need to get stronger as well after all!"

"Ahahaha! We'll get along quite splendidly!"

Haah, it seems like I've gained two more friends. I don't mind it though. After that, we walked all the way to Sal Terrae. While on our way, I found out that Childe actually doesn't know who Zhongli actually was. So I was right, he was really hiding his identity.

After about half an hour of walking, we finally arrived at Sal Terrae. I looked at the large seal on the ground. Should I use 25%? I mean, my 25% now is much stronger than before. It might have even been my 50% at some point. Yeah, let's try that.

I walked forward and was now in the middle of the seal. I crouched down and placed my palm on the seal. Before doing anything else, I made small Anemo platforms under my feet so I won't fall when the seal breaks. I took a deep breath…

"What are you doing?" asked Childe.

"Breaking the seal."

"Wait, what? You know-"

Before Zhongli could finish, I applied pressure to the seal using 25% of my strength. A shockwave formed and the seal cracked then broke. Well, that was pretty easy. I couldn't see it clearly earlier, but this was a pretty steep fall. Good thing I made this platform beforehand. I made the platforms disappear and just floated instead.

I looked at the two and they just had dumbfounded expressions on their faces.

"You broke a seal…" said Zhongli.

"...Just like that…" continued by Childe.

I was trying so hard to hold in my laughter just by how funny their faces were. After a few moments, I calmed down and they went back to normal. They walked down on a spiral path while I just floated down. When I looked inside, it was like a cave with mossy stone and some plant life. There's also a bit of water here. However, Zhongli kept on walking until he reached a pathway that leads to a hole in the wall. Me and Childe followed him and went in through the hole.

The other side was like a Domain. However, it felt more eerie. There was salt. Like a lot of salt. Hell, there were even salt pillars. However, when I looked around more closely, that's when I found where the eerie feeling was coming from.

"Salt people…"

"You figured it out?" asked Zhongli.

"Huh? Figured out?" said Childe.

"Well, Ganyu did tell me that Havria's power exploded uncontrollably and that those who couldn't escape turned into salt."

"Oh? You know her?" said Zhongli.

"Yup, for quite some time now as well. She's also one of my lovers."

"Hoh? You have multiple lovers?" said Childe.

"Yup!"

After that, we continued on exploring the ruins. While exploring, we saw an increasing amount of salt. The amount of salt people increased as well. The eerie feeling is now gone though. For me at least.

We then went through a room with a chalice that was half full. Zhongli said that this chalice is half full, and will stay half full. That is to say, it's bottomless. That was pretty interesting, but that wasn't what I came here for so we just ignored it. The same can be said for the room with a ruler-like thing that can turn the surrounding area into salt. That… is a horrifying artifact…

After that, we finally arrived at the room where Havria was killed and right in the middle was the flower in which Havria's body turned into. The Sal Flore. I walked closer to it and grabbed it. I grabbed it gently of course. I looked at it, trying to look for a sign of Life Energy. I was so happy when I found out that there was still Life Energy. Although, it was very small.

"Hm… Ah, let me try this."

"Hm? Try what?"asked both Childe and Zhongli.

I ignored them and proceeded to do my plan. I made the flower float in front of me using Anemo and contained it within an orb using Geo. I really hope this works. Before doing anything else, I used my flames and instead of its normal effect of taking away life, I tried reversing it and instead making the effect give life. Well, at least something akin to healing. To make sure it works, I made a small cut on my hand using a small wind blade.

The wound healed, good. After I made sure of it, I surrounded the Sal Flore with my flames. The reason why I contained it was so that I can focus my flames more. After a few minutes, I saw a white light and immediately made the orb containing the flower disappear. The flower floated up in the air and the light started to take the form of a woman.

"Wow, that actually worked." I said as I looked at the light that was taking form.