Ren
It had been around 2 hours since the Alcor left Liyue Harbor.
The city had long since disappeared below the horizon, swallowed by distance and the gentle curve of the sea.
Now there was nothing but open water in every direction, an endless blue stretching to meet endless sky.
Ren stood at the railing, letting the wind wash over him.
The air smelled clean. Salt and brine, but without the underlying chemical tang he'd grown up with back home. No factory smoke. No oil slicks rainbowing the water's surface.
Just pure, untouched ocean.
'Teyvat really is beautiful,' he thought, watching sunlight glitter across the waves. A part of him made a mental note to take some time and explore more.
His mind drifted back home.
To his family.
His dad would've loved this. He would've dragged Ren out on another bonding trip without his mom knowing, and they would've spent hours fishing or exploring.
'Dad always invited Auntie too.' They would've been just as bad. Always pulling him into the wilderness, into forests and mountains, insisting that he needed to appreciate nature instead of staying cooped up inside.
Ren had complained every single time.
Now, standing on the deck of a ship in another world entirely, he kind of wished he could go on one more trip with them.
'They would've loved Teyvat's scenery…' he thought quietly.
The ache in his chest wasn't new. He'd learned to live with it. The homesickness, wondering if they were okay, if they thought he was dead, if they were still looking for him.
He pushed the thoughts aside. Thinking like that now would only dampen his mood, and he wanted to enjoy this little "trip".
"Hey! Delivery guy!"
"Hmm?"
A woman approached—one of the crew members he'd seen earlier. Huixing, he thought her name was.
"My name's Ren, you know," he corrected.
"Right, right. Ren." Huixing leaned against the railing beside him. "So. I gotta ask. People in the harbor keep talking about your 'shadow dogs.' That true? You really summon dogs made of shadows?"
Ren blinked. "Uh. Yeah. That's true."
"No way!" Huixing's grin widened. She turned and called over her shoulder. "Hey! He says it's real!"
Several crew members who'd been lingering nearby—bored out of their minds and clearly eavesdropping—perked up immediately.
"Seriously?" one of them asked, wandering over. "I thought that was just a rumor."
"Merchants exaggerate everything," another muttered. "Figured it was just trained dogs or something."
Ren felt his face heat slightly as more crew members drifted closer, curiosity written across their faces.
Great. Now he had an audience.
"So how's it work? You just... summon them? Like, poof, shadow dogs appear?" Huixing asked, eyes bright with genuine interest.
"It's a little more complicated than that," Ren said slowly. "But... yeah, basically. I can summon shikigami from my shadows. Think of it like... summoning a spirit to fight for you, I guess? That's the simplest way to explain it."
"Shikigami?" one of the crew members repeated, testing the word. "Never heard of that before."
"It's just a term from where I'm from," Ren said vaguely.
"And you can just do this? Without a Vision?"
"Yup," Ren confirmed.
The crew members exchanged impressed looks.
"That's wild," Huixing said. "I've seen a lot of weird stuff sailing with the Captain, but summoning spirits? That's new."
"Summoning spirits isn't that unusual," a new voice cut in.
Ren looked up.
Captain Beidou strode across the deck toward them, hands casually tucked into her coat pockets, that ever-present grin on her face.
"There are plenty of people who can call on elemental constructs or familiars," Beidou continued. "But I'll admit, I'm curious about these 'shadow dogs' as well."
She stopped in front of Ren, tilting her head slightly. "Mind giving us a demonstration? No pressure if you don't want to."
Ren hesitated.
On one hand, he didn't like showing off his abilities. As a sorcerer, getting too much attention is never good, especially in Teyvat.
On the other hand... Beidou was helping him get to Guyun Stone Forest. The crew had been nothing but friendly. And honestly, the Divine Dogs were probably the least threatening thing he could summon.
Not like he was going to pull out Orochi or something.
"Sure, why not," Ren said after a moment.
Huixing looked genuinely excited. Several other crew members leaned in.
Ren took a breath and stepped back slightly, giving himself space.
He brought his hands together, fingers forming the familiar sign.
The shadows beneath his feet rippled.
Then expanded.
Darkness spread across the deck, pooling and writhing. The crew members nearest to him took an instinctive step back.
And then two shapes burst upward from the shadow.
Black and white canine forms solidified in seconds, shaking themselves as if emerging from water.
Vader immediately sat down and yawned. While Yoda padded over to Ren and pressed against his leg, tail wagging lazily.
For a moment, there was silence.
Then Huixing gasped. "Oh my god, they're adorable!"
The tension broke immediately.
"Wait, seriously?" one of the crew members laughed. "I was expecting something scary!"
"They're just dogs!"
"Really big dogs," someone else corrected. "But still!"
Beidou crouched down slightly, studying the Divine Dogs with clear interest. "Huh. They look solid. A lot different from elemental constructs."
"They are. Even if they have to listen to what I say, they still have their own personalities." Ren said as he patted Yoda on the head.
"Incredible," Beidou murmured. She glanced up at Ren. "Can I—?"
"Yeah, go ahead."
Beidou reached out carefully and scratched Vader behind the ears.
The black dog leaned into the touch immediately, tail thumping against the deck.
Huixing didn't even wait for permission. She dropped to her knees and started petting Yoda enthusiastically. "Oh, you're such a good boy! Yes you are! Yes you are!"
Yoda's tail wagged harder. The dog was clearly enjoying the attention. Several other crew members edged closer.
"Can we—?"
"Yeah, go ahead," Ren said, unable to suppress a small smile.
Within seconds, both dogs were surrounded by crew members giving them attention.
Vader accepted the pets with regal indifference, like it was his due.
Yoda rolled onto his back, demanding belly rubs.
Ren watched the scene with a mix of amusement and embarrassment.
'So much for intimidating shikigami.'
Beidou straightened, still grinning. "Well, that's not what I expected, but I'm not complaining. This is one of the more interesting things I've seen."
She turned her attention to her crew, who were thoroughly distracted. "They'll be talking about this for weeks."
"Sorry," Ren said. "Didn't mean to distract everyone."
"Don't apologize. Morale's important on long voyages. A little entertainment never hurts."
Ren nodded.
Above them, high in the rigging, a lone figure stood on the platform near the mast. With white hair and a single streak of red.
They watched the scene below with a thoughtful expression, red eyes lingering on Ren and the shadow dogs.
The wind around them shifted slightly as if responding to their emotions. Yet they stayed silent and merely observed.
Yet the peace didn't last long.
"LEVIATHANS! PORT SIDE!"
The shout came from the lookout in the crow's nest.
Ren felt the playful atmosphere shattered instantly.
Beidou's head snapped toward the port side, her grin vanishing. "BATTLE STATIONS! RANGED WEAPONS, NOW!"
The crew didn't need to be told twice. Those who'd been petting the Divine Dogs scrambled to their feet and rushed to their positions.
Archers sprinted to the rigging while others hauled heavy wooden barrels from below deck, rolling them across the deck with immense speed.
Ren dismissed the dogs with a quick gesture and moved to the railing, searching the water.
At first, he saw nothing.
But narrowing his eyes, he was able to spot movement.
Shadows beneath the surface. At least a few dozen dark shapes were circling the ship.
'That's a lot of enemies.'
The shapes drew closer, briefly breaking the surface. Their sleek, serpentine forms cut through the waves.
Ren lost his breath for a split second.
They were huge. Easily six meters long or even more. Their bodies were scaled in multiple shades of blue with deep cobalt fading to pale azure along their underbellies.
Their heads were that of a reptilian, somewhere between snake and lizard, with rows of needle-sharp teeth visible even from this distance.
And their eyes were pure white. No pupils. No irises. Just a constant blank expression.
'Creepy.'
One of them breached fully, arcing through the air before crashing back into the water with a spray of foam.
Ren felt a faint pulse of energy.
'Hydro energy!'
"Stay back!" Huixing called to him as she rushed past, bow in hand. "Let us handle this! We've fought these things before!"
Ren wanted to ask how they were supposed to handle dozens of six-meter sea serpents, but he doubted they would stop to even hear him.
Beidou stood at the bow, claymore drawn, and eyes locked on the approaching horde.
"THROW THE BARRELS!" she roared.
Several crew members hefted the barrels and hurled them overboard. The barrels hit the water and floated, bobbing in the waves.
Ren frowned. He could sense some lingering Electro Energy, but it wouldn't do anything in the vast expanse of the ocean. The Leviathans could probably sense the Elemental Energy and avoid it.
But his thoughts were cut short when the Leviathans surged forward.
A dozen of them broke the surface at once, rising up like a wall of scaled muscle. Their mouths opened wide, and Hydro energy gathered in their throats, glowing blue-white.
Ren's eyes widened.
The Leviathans released their attacks in unison.
Pressurized blasts of water shot toward the ship like cannonballs. Ren's hands quickly went into the hand sign for Orochi, but before he could, he saw a blur jump off the ship.
It was Beidou.
She launched herself off the bow, Electro energy crackling around her claymore, and met the Hydro blasts mid-air.
She twisted her body, and her blade met the barrage in a loud explosion. The sound was deafening, like thunder hitting the earth.
Beidou's slash collided with the dozen Hydro blasts simultaneously, and the sheer force of the parry sent water exploding in every direction. The blasts deflected harmlessly into the ocean, spraying harmlessly to the sides.
The recoil hurled Beidou backward by the force of her own counter, flipping through the air before landing hard on the deck, boots skidding across the wood.
She slid to a stop, grinning wildly, Electro still sparking along her blade.
"NOW!" she bellowed. "FIRE!"
Arrows flew immediately.
Ren's eyes caught them just as they left the bow. His senses quickly noted that those weren't normal arrows. The tips glowed faintly orange.
'Pyro slime condensate,' Ren realized.
The arrows arced through the air and struck the floating barrels dead center.
The barrels exploded.
Massive Overload reactions erupted across the water's surface, each one engulfing several leviathans at once.
BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.
The ocean lit up like a battlefield.
Pyro and Electro roared across the waves. Leviathans shrieked as fire consumed them. The water itself seemed to boil for a moment, steam rising in thick clouds.
The Alcor rocked violently from the shockwave, the deck tilting beneath Ren's feet. He grabbed the railing to steady himself, staring in awe at the destruction.
When the smoke cleared, the water was littered with charred, floating corpses.
At least twenty leviathans. Dead. In seconds.
The crew cheered.
"YEAH!"
"Got 'em!"
"That's what you get for messing with the Crux!"
Beidou raised her claymore triumphantly, grinning at her crew. "Not bad! But it's not over yet!"
"...Oh, come on," someone muttered.
The second wave of leviathans surfaced, circling the ship slowly.
There had to be at least forty of them now.
This was going to be a problem.
/ — /
Beidou cursed under her breath, eyes locked on the circling horde.
"Captain," Juza called from the helm. "Orders?"
"Same as before!" Beidou shouted back. "Get more barrels ready! We'll blow these bastards to smithereens."
The crew cheered and quickly obeyed her commands, but before she could leave, Ren stopped her.
"Will this be enough?" Ren asked.
"What?"
"There's at least forty of them. Maybe more. If they all attack at once—"
"Ah, you're worried. But rest easy, the small fry aren't a problem," Beidou interrupted, though her tone wasn't dismissive. "Annoying, sure. And they could damage the ship if we're not careful. But we should be fine."
She grimaced, glancing at the sun's position in the sky.
"The real issue is time. At this rate, it could take up to an hour to clear them out." She looked back at Ren, apologetic. "Sorry. Looks like your trip's gonna get delayed."
Ren's entire body went rigid.
'I'm going to be… late?'
One hundred and fifty thousand Mora. All gone.
His jaw tightened.
No.
He wasn't going to let that happen.
This job was a quick way to make Mora and give him more time to train. There's no way he could mess it up!
And honestly... this could be a good opportunity to test his fusion. The one he'd been working on for a while, but never used in combat before. There were also many capable fighters ready to protect him if he used too much CE.
"Captain," Ren asked, "Is it all right if I help out?"
Beidou blinked. "Help? I appreciate the thought, but no offence, I don't see what you can do here, even if you could summon shadow dogs."
"I have other summons than just the dogs. And I think I have one that could deal with this quickly, maybe scare them off too."
Beidou studied him for a long moment. She knew better than to let civilians—much less a delivery guy—into any sort of combat.
But something about the way Ren was standing now made her reconsider. Her instincts, honed through years of battle, never lied.
While Ren may look like an unassuming person, her eyes knew that what stood before her was no ordinary person. That was one of the reasons she took this job in the first place, other than it being a favor for a friend.
"...Alright," Beidou said slowly. "But if you're gonna do something, my crew needs to know what to expect. I don't want anyone accidentally shooting at your... whatever you're planning to summon."
"Fair enough. This summon is going to be pretty big, so just tell them not to shoot it." Ren took a breath.
"Will do."
Ren nodded, he stepped toward the center of the main deck, and the crew instinctively gave him space.
Beidou raised a hand, "Get those barrels ready, but hold the arrows!"
A chorus of "Yes, Captain!" echoed in response.
Ren crouched low, pressing the top of his hands together as Cursed Energy stirred within him.
'Well's Unknown Abyss,' he thought, recalling the technique's nature. It wasn't a difficult technique to use at all, but that was entirely because the technique depended on what the user wanted to achieve.
The technique was a canvas, and how beautiful or intricate the painting depended entirely on the artist.
A simple fusion of a shikigami's traits would be easy. But the more complex the fusion, the more thought, imagination, and Cursed Energy it required.
But there was a workaround. There always is in the world of Jujutsu.
Using a full chant and proper visualisation of the shikigami before bringing it into reality significantly reduced CE costs, but the downside was the time required to prepare.
He closed his eyes, and his fingers moved slowly into an intricate shape. The shadows cast by his hands resembled those of a dragon's head.
Images flashed through Ren's consciousness as he immersed himself in the inspiration he used for this fusion.
Liyue's legends of mighty warriors.
The ethereal Adepti that watch over the land and its people.
The remnants of dead gods from wars long past, their power still lingering in the earth, tainting the very soil.
And above them all—Rex Lapis.
The Lord of Geo. The God of Contracts. He who had bound other deities and buried them beneath the planet's crust.
Ren had never seen Rex Lapis in person. Only drawings, statues, and descriptions from people who spoke of him with reverence.
But that was enough.
He didn't need perfection. All he needed was a concept.
Divine and overwhelming, mixed with malice and corruption.
Power wrapped in stone and lightning.
With an image in mind, his Cursed Energy surged.
From the side, Beidou stiffened. She could feel a pressure building in the air, one that bore terrifying similarities to the Abyss.
"What the—" someone muttered.
The shadows beneath Ren's hands rippled.
Darkness poured across the deck, crawling outward in all directions. It didn't stop at the edges—it flowed over the railings, dripping down the sides of the ship, pooling across the surface of the water itself.
And Ren's voice cut through the silence, terrifyingly calm yet echoed through the ship instantly.
"From pillars that bind gods—"
The crew froze.
"From graves that birth monsters—"
The Leviathans stopped circling. Their white eyes turned toward the ship, sensing something wrong.
"—Emerge, Karmic Arbiter: Yǔnjié!"
The shadows erupted.
A massive shape burst upward from the darkness, rising into the sky with a shriek that split the air.
It climbed higher.
And higher.
Twenty meters of a serpentine body uncoiled in a single, fluid motion, twisting through the air with impossible grace.
The crew stared, mouths open.
The fusion hung suspended for a moment, silhouetted against the sun.
The body was draconic and serpentine, covered in overlapping crystalline Geo that gleamed like polished amber and gold.
Each scale caught the light, refracting it into sharp, geometric patterns. The armor plating was thickest along the spine and underbelly, tapering into jagged edges along the flanks.
The fusion's head was long with a pronounced snout. Four golden eyes burned along its skull, two large primary eyes and two smaller ones beneath.
And then there were the wings. Five pairs made not from flesh or stone, but pure Electro energy.
Ten wings made of crackling thunder, arcing and snapping with barely-contained power. Their mere existence radiated Electro in all directions.
The fusion looked like something divine.
Like one of the Adepti.
Like Rex Lapis himself.
Yet twisted and corrupted. A blasphemous imitation of Liyue's divine protector.
Yǔnjié's four eyes locked onto the leviathans below, and it shrieked. The sound vibrated through the ship's hull, rattling the rigging, shaking the very air.
The Leviathans panicked at the sight. Several dove beneath the surface. Others hastily prepared another attack, uncertain whether to flee or fight.
But Yǔnjié didn't give them a chance.
Its wings lashed outward.
Ten trails of lightning arced downward, connecting with the ocean's surface in simultaneous strikes.
The water lit up.
Electricity spread through the seawater like branching veins straight into the Hydro-charged bodies of the leviathans.
CRACK. CRACK. CRACK.
A dozen creatures seized mid-swim, their bodies convulsing violently as the current tore through them. The smell of burnt flesh and boiling seawater filled the air.
Yǔnjié whipped its massive tail downwards, slamming into the ocean with enough force to create a shockwave.
And from below the surface, Geo constructs burst as if alive.
Massive stone spikes burst upward. They punched through the water like Rex Lapis's stone spears, impaling several leviathans in an instant.
Blood turned the water dark.
The remaining creatures, those that weren't dead or dying quickly, fled. They scattered in every direction, serpentine bodies thrashing desperately as they dove deep, trying to escape the divine predator that had appeared above them.
The ocean was littered with floating corpses. Torn apart by overwhelming force. Yǔnjiéhovered in the air for a moment longer, wings still crackling, eyes still glowing.
Then it slowly dissolved. The massive draconic form unraveled, breaking apart into shadows that disappeared into the wind.
And Ren collapsed to one knee, gasping.
'Fuuuckk that took a LOT of CE!'
That one fusion took nearly half of his entire reserves, not even including the elemental attacks that it unleashed.
But looking at the result of the attack, he couldn't find it in himself to regret the decision.
'Worth it,'
He forced himself to breathe slowly. To steady his trembling limbs.
Then he looked up.
The entire crew was staring at him with wide eyes.
Even Beidou looked stunned, her claymore still raised halfway, frozen mid-motion as if she'd forgotten what she was doing.
High in the rigging, the white-haired figure leaned forward slightly, red eyes locked onto Ren with intense focus.
No one spoke. The only sound was the gentle lapping of waves against the Alcor's hull and the distant cry of a bird.
Ren swallowed hard and managed a weak smile.
"Sooo… We should still make it to Guyun on time, right? Haha…"