Azhdaha

When I opened my eyes again, I saw that we were in a large cavern filled with crystals that emitted huge amounts of elemental energy. There's also this large seal in the middle of the flat ground we were standing on. The seal consisted of multiple pillars that resembled Zhongli's pillar, only being a lot larger.

In the middle of the sealed area was none other than the blue-haired girl. Although, as soon as all of us stood up, the little girl spoke in a bellowing voice.

???: "Morax…you arrive at my doorstep of your own volition. Excellent… taking revenge for sealing me away will be all the easier!"

Zhongli: "So… the little girl is your power incarnate. But if you recall, Azhdaha, this is not how we intended for events to transpire.

Azhdaha: "Waste not your words, your life is mine!"

The girl suddenly got covered in black smoke and the smoke expanded until finally, it stopped. When the smoke dissipated, a large wingless dragon was inside the seal instead of the little girl. Its eyes were burning red with rage as it roared and broke the seal.

The whole cavern shook as Geo constructs in the shapes of sharp rocks fell from the roof of the cavern. One was falling directly at us so I stopped time and teleported us away from that spot. Azhdaha looked at us, confused. To him, it must have looked like we just disappeared after a short blink.

He quickly recovered and gathered multiple elements at once. Pyro, Cryo, Hydro, and Electro. What the hell is with this chonke dragon!? He quickly burrowed into the ground and multiple sigils appeared. It was Cryo and Hydro.

"Split!" I yelled and all of us went in different directions. Huge orbs of Hydro came out of the sigils while having rings around them. Not only that, the Cryo sigils were something like a target signal. Why? Because the Cryo crystals that shot out of Azhdaha's tail fell on the sigils.

The orbs cycled around while the targets appeared everywhere. We tried our best to dodge them until I decided that I had enough.

I sent out Sora and told him to pull Azhdaha out of the ground. While he flew up and held Azhdaha's tail, I took out my sword and lit it up with Gluttony, turning the black into a dark purple. Sora pulled Azhdaha out of the ground, earning us another hate-filled roar.

This time, an Electro sigil formed under him while a spherical Geo field surrounded him. He was charging an attack. Bad thing was, Sora was outside the field and by the looks of it, this is going to be hard to break. I can't even try using Gluttony to absorb it since it's being constantly replenished.

Zhongli: "Order guide you!"

I heard Zhongli yell. Large brown clouds appeared above the cavern and out of it came a huge meteor. The meteor hit the spherical field and made a large crack in it. It was being repaired quickly so Sora went towards it. Shenhe also sent a Cryo incarnate towards the crack and both spiritual beings punched the crack.

A shockwave was produced due to the force of the punch and the field shattered completely. At the same time though, I sensed the incoming attack that it charged.

"Shit, Zhongli! Shield Shenhe and Kun Jun!" I yelled and made a similar field to the one Azhdaha had earlier. I was far from the others so I hope Zhongli's shield holds through.

Zhongli nodded and went to them just in time as the barrage of thunderbolts rained down. I couldn't exactly move because the thunderbolts won't stop raining down and we all know how random these things are, so Sora had to punch Azhdaha straight on the face to make the attack stop.

Something weird happened though. Azhdaha glared at Sora and spat out the same black energy attack that it almost did on Zhongli. Thinking that it wasn't going to affect him, Sora didn't move. However, that was a grave mistake.

When the attack made contact with Sora, it sent him flying. I was still in place, but I spat out huge amounts of blood and felt incredible pain in my chest.

Shenhe: "Aether!" she yelled out in concern.

'Shit, he has an attack that can affect a Stand!?'

Knowing that having my Stand out is more dangerous now since there are two ways to injure me, I recalled Sora and started using Gluttony to heal myself. While I was healing, Azhdaha started to attack using Pyro this time. Pyro sigils appeared on the ground with similar sigils mirroring them above in the air. Some of them appeared beneath me and the others so we jumped out of the way.

It was supposed to be warm because of the Pyro being gathered, but not. It was quite the opposite. The whole cavern was freezing as Shenhe glared at Azhdaha. She's pissed. She made a Cryo talisman as her eyes glowed cyan. The coldness was numbing me a bit so I spread Gluttony all over my body while healing. Note to self, damage done to a Stand is harder to heal than the damage done to me directly.

Shenhe finally decided to attack Azhdaha and holy shit she just froze him. That wasn't enough though as Azhdaha broke the ice with a bit of struggle. He roared and the Pyro sigils erupted in flames and started appearing randomly. One of them appeared beneath me so I had an idea.

I flew up a bit and braced myself for the attack. Why wasn't I flying this whole time? The Electro attack was unpredictable as I said earlier and Anemo would Swirl either Hydro or Cryo. If it Swirled either of those two and I got hit with the other, I would get frozen in place.

Anyways, when the attack came, I performed Third Form: Instant Counter. The two balls of Pyro combined into one and were sent towards Azhdaha. He was still partially affected by Cryo so when the Pyro ball hit him, it dealt way more damage. Not to mention it was his attack meant to kill us.

I didn't notice it until now, but with me having Gluttony surrounding me, it was passively absorbing all the elemental energy from the crystals in the cavern. Hell, it almost absorbed the attack earlier if I didn't unconsciously stop it since I was planning to use that attack.

This meant I was growing stronger by the second. It was both good and bad since my body's adaptability is starting to lag. And so, I decided to turn off the Gluttony surrounding my body. I didn't need it anymore anyway since I was fully healed.

Still, my body was aching as hell so I needed to finish this already. Not to mention Shenhe was quite tired from that large-scale attack earlier and Zhongli needed time to gather more Geo energy since Azhdaha was hoarding it all. I raised my hand and pointed a finger towards the sky. Oh how long I wanted to do this. From my pointed finger formed a miniature sun that was formed from Pride. It kept growing and growing until I decided that it was enough to not kill him, but weaken him enough. I could still see the remnants of the seal after all.

Since Pride held more divinity than my Gluttony due to it being partly divine energy in the first place, Zhongli turned his head towards me with widened eyes and Azhdaha backed off a bit. In Zhongli's case, I think he was just shocked that I was starting to use more divinity than I ever had.

Azhdaha: "Another god!?"

I smirked and moved my finger forward, sending the small sun towards Azhdaha. It hit Azhdaha and a huge explosion happened that shook the cavern. Luckily, Zhongli shielded the others and I could also see Kun Jun using that white energy to protect all three of them. As for me, well Pride doesn't hurt me.

"Dang, that sure is bright."

After a few seconds, the light subsided and all that was left was a crater. In the middle of the crater was Azhdaha. I quickly landed down and poured elemental energy to where the seal was. The seal reactivated and the pillars rose once more.

Azhdaha: "Morax! A thousand years after you sealed me underground… you return…"

Zhongli: "You should call it by its name Azhdaha… fate." He said as he stood beside me, looking at the now sealed dragon.

Azhdaha: "Fate? Hahaha! So here lies the wisdom of the gods?" He looked at Zhongli and then me. "Destroy all that is deemed redundant and enlist tyrants to ravage the wilderness!"

???: "No, you have forgotten."

I only chuckled when I heard the familiar voice come from behind us. Kun Jun stood on Zhongli's side as the familiar white energy surrounded him. His presence had more confidence than it had before.

Zhongli: "Azhdaha…"

Kun Jun?: "Morax, it's been a while."

"Heh, I certainly wouldn't have expected this. For you to be Azhdaha as well."

Kun Jun, or should I say Azhdaha, laughed wholeheartedly.

Kun Jun: "As expected from the Traveler. Yes, I am the very same Azhdaha. I was supposed to imbue you all with my power, but the Traveler here just dominated the whole battle." I was the one to chuckle this time. "I am not Azhdaha as a whole, but only a fragment. You can consider me as an opposing force against the other Azhdaha. Much like Yin and Yang."

"Two sides of the same coin huh…"

Shenhe: "That seems to be the case." She said as she stood beside me. "I felt the opposing energies that they had."

As expected from a student of the adepti. Although, for them to split, is there another problem? Why was the other part evil while the other was the complete opposite?

Kun Jun: "'We' are the polarities, a schism of will… the will of Azhdaha. When the seal loosened, your power manifested in this world in the shape of a child. With this new identity, you were able to vent about the forces that suppressed you… but would anyone listen…would they even care?"

There was a small pause as Kun Jun sighed.

Kun Jun: "That's when it occurred to you. The loosening of the seal meant that you would be able to strike back, but you could not break it on your own. That's why you kidnapped the miners. You planned to launch an attack on the seal from both sides. Destroying it from outside…and within."

The dragon within the seal roared in anger.

Azhdaha: "The audacity! Are you insane?! Why would you side with the betrayer!?"

Kun Jun: "I was another power that was awakened when the seal loosened. Too weak to reincarnate, but strong enough to possess a human body."

This was just turning into an exposition of his purpose now, huh? Even though I'm interested in this discussion, I think I need a breather first. After all, that attack from this dragon was still hurting like hell. I walked away from the group and mage an Anemo cushion.

I plopped down and closed my eyes. I wasn't able to sleep and so, I just sighed and took out my phone. I scrolled around a bit until I finally decided on what to do. It was about time to meet Beidou after all.

*Ring ring*

//Aether? Why call so suddenly?// Ningguang said as soon as she picked up.

//Sorry for that, do you have any way of contact with Beidou?//

//Yes, in fact, she's here with me right now. We were just about finishing our discussion on the event she wants to uphold.//

//Oh, that's great then. What's the event about?//

//A battle event and the winners gets an unknown prize. You might be also able to get her to hitch you a ride to Inazuma if you win.//

//There goes me requesting for a free ride then…When's it gonna happen?//

//In a few days time. Be sure to be there~//

//Alright thanks, Ningguang.//

I put my phone down and looked back at the three. Surprise, surprise, they were still talking. Guh…