Genshin Impact : Sorry can't be there till the end

"…What."

Almost mumbling.

Almost whispering.

What.

Unable to understand.

La Signora paused, subconsciously lowering her gaze and looking at Seino Fugin.

The boy was passing away right before La Signora's eyes, the yellowed sunlight covering his body like a veil of mist. He was still smiling, the corners of his mouth still holding that smile.

But those eyes would never open again. The clear sea breeze swept past his body.

It blew the sand and carried away the boy's body. He slowly dispersed into tiny specks of light, like a dandelion puff being carried away by the wind—first his hair, then his cheeks, and finally his entire torso.

Just in an instant, in a single moment, he vanished into the spring light and wind.

Just like Rostam, who dissipated five hundred years ago.

Identical.

Dissipating in the wind, leaving with the wind, no one could hold onto him.

—"…He is Rostam."

"You killed him again."

"Rosalyne, you killed him again!"

The words of Mondstadt's Anemo Archon still echoed in La Signora's ears. She still couldn't understand, couldn't comprehend every word.

Impossible.

Impossible.

Rostam had been dead long ago.

This was a lie.

Mondstadt's Anemo Archon was cunning and loved to play clever tricks. This was a fabricated lie.

But Venti's gaze was so earnest, so sorrowful, so angry. She stared fiercely at her, her silver teeth clenched. La Signora could even hear the scraping sound—the hatred she felt toward herself.

La Signora could sense this emotion. Mondstadt's Anemo Archon despised her, but it wasn't because she took his heart.

That hatred came from somewhere else.

"You killed him again."

A sting.

La Signora felt the sting.

But that nearly exhausted heart inexplicably emitted waves of pain. Could a dead heart still hurt?

The cold waves crashed against the rocks. The tide had risen, and the cold and dim seawater crawled up the shore. La Signora averted her gaze:

"…Lies."

She said, her mask concealing her expression, eyes hidden under the dim shadows: "Lies."

La Signora said this.

"Lies!"

The Gnosis was already in her hands. The mission in Mondstadt was complete. All she needed to do was leave, and everything would be over. Everything would return to normal… she just needed to leave.

But so many things she had deliberately ignored… uncontrollably surfaced before her eyes.

Or rather, it wasn't deliberate ignorance, but things she didn't want to believe.

La Signora had watched the young wolf's sword dance countless times. The light swords cut through the city's rain gracefully. Once the skill reached its peak, it became an unreplicable art. That sword dance was buried with the young wolf in the grave, forever vanished… but Seino Fugin perfectly recreated that sword dance.

That song—"A Rainy Night at Cider Lake" had been lost for many years, but he could still sing it, and… that song was so long overdue.

La Signora still remembered how he sang for the first time. The dazzling dusk fell over the lonely square, the dandelion puffs shattered into little snowflakes. Seino Fugin leaned against the sacred pillar, singing that song alone.

She watched him, not wanting to kill him, just wanting to talk to him.

Impossible.

He wasn't Rostam.

Rostam was already dead.

La Signora coldly stared at Venti. She sternly said, "Rostam has been dead for five hundred years. He couldn't still be alive!"

…

—"Aren't you Rostam's lover?"

"Don't you love Rostam?"

"Rosalyne."

Venti spoke, her voice not loud, but deep and resonant.

"Why, upon hearing he's alive, upon hearing he didn't die, are you so 'disappointed' and 'angry'?"

"You don't want to believe what I'm saying."

Her jade-green eyes stared at La Signora without any emotional fluctuation. Venti slowly said:

"Or perhaps, you don't actually wish for him to be alive?"

The girl's voice was gentle,

But sharp like a dagger.

"Compared to Rostam who is alive, you actually love Rostam who is dead more."

La Signora was stunned.

Why.

Why was she disappointed and angry? Why was she thinking this way?

Why didn't she want to believe that Rostam had fortunately survived that disaster,

Why didn't she want to believe what Venti was saying, why didn't she want to admit that Seino Fugin was Rostam?

The reason was actually simple; she knew it very well inside.

Because she killed him.

Because she killed Seino Fugin, he couldn't be Rostam!

Chaos.

Countless illusions flooded her mind, countless scenes flashed like a revolving lantern. She felt the scorching flames again, as if she returned to that scorching land, barefoot on the desolate earth. Flames engulfed everything she passed and also consumed her heart.

Ice melted in the flames.

Burning would begin again.

Out of control.

Chaos, chaos, and hatred.

Hatred.

Everything was a lie.

Engulf.

Burn.

The oppressive flames began to boil again, endless hellfire rising. La Signora trembled. Her half-unfolded crimson mask was rapidly shattering, the flame patterns flowing with terrifying fire. She raised her eyes, fire butterflies fluttered up, and the lead-colored sky seemed about to collapse.

Those dancing fire butterflies seemed ready to burn everything, including La Signora herself.

"Lies."

Her light green eyes coldly looked down at Venti, deep inside her eyes only hollow murderous intent remained. The fire witch reached out to grab Venti, the fire butterflies danced along her slender wrists.

Never before had such horrifying flames existed.

Heavy fire butterflies enveloped Venti. They circled around her, stirring the flowing flames into a vast blaze licking the sky. Venti was trapped deep within the flames, her gaze calm and cold.

"Rosalyne… You lost control."

La Signora snapped her fingers, and the fire butterflies stopped circling. They dragged long tails of smoke, converging towards the center!

Roar——

Wind and fire destroyed each other, the pale blue light and blood-red flames clashing with each other, causing a massive explosion. Large areas of seawater were vaporized by the high temperature, turning into steaming gas, continuously pouring out, filling her vision.

After the white vapor dissipated, the poet stood intact in place.

Stormterror lowered its neck, the dark blue wings covering Venti's front. It let out a gentle hiss, invisible winds wandering around it. The dragon's eyes stared fiercely at La Signora, the clear eyes reflecting her shadow.

Hatred.

Only hatred in the dragon's eyes.

Venti extended her long, fair hands, lightly plucking the strings of the Holy Lyre der Himmel. The clear harp sound echoed over the desolate sea, and the thousand winds responded to her call.

"Roar——"

The storm was about to descend.

The clear sky quickly darkened, the daylight slowly withdrawing, the lead-colored sky hung low as if about to collapse. Waves rose from nowhere, the sea helplessly and hurriedly crashing against the rocks.

Mountain winds, valley winds, slightly fishy sea breezes, rustling light winds, fresh forest winds between the trees, howling hurricanes between the cliffs… countless winds converged here, the thousand winds entwined around Dvalin's back, wrapped around its wings.

Roar.

Dvalin's figure disappeared from the spot. Its six wings unfolded in an instant. It soared up, so fast that heavy afterimages dragged behind it, passing through countless fire butterflies. The flames scorched its pale blue scales but were quickly blown away by the wind.

Flowing flames covered its slender body.

Dvalin's tail wings swung, throwing out the storms entwined around it. The entire beach seemed about to be swept away, endless wind disasters destroying everything they passed. Fire butterflies quickly withered, struggling pitifully and helplessly in the wind disaster, ultimately losing their lives, falling lifelessly to the ground, and the flames extinguished.

Layer upon layer of flames were extinguished, and the thousand winds had already pressed against La Signora's front.

Demon Dragon...

Demon Dragon.

In La Signora's nearly maddened eyes, filled with Stormterror's shadow, under the scorching hellfire, the boundary between reality and illusion had blurred. She seemed to see that demon dragon from five hundred years ago again—the demon dragon that took everything from her!

Burn you.

As long as I burn you.

She could avenge Rostam.

The wind pierced through La Signora's body, sharp wind blades carving scars, blood splattering into the air, but La Signora didn't feel the pain. Fire butterflies were reborn from the depths of her heart, swarming out.

Torrential flames struck the demon dragon's abdomen, fire butterflies delved into its scales, intending to ignite it.

"Seino Fugin is Rostam. He lost all his memories."

Venti played the Holy Lyre der Himmel, softly recounting the past: "Five hundred years ago, when I found him, he died at the bottom of the valley, his blood completely drained, but he was still smiling."

"Three thousand years ago, he was my friend."

The wind blew the fire butterflies away, and the demon dragon leapt up.

"Lies." La Signora said.

"Lies."

Seino Fugin could never be Rostam.

This was fake, just a ploy fabricated by Anemo Archon Barbatos. She deliberately said things to shake her inner heart. She just wanted to reclaim the Gnosis. Seino Fugin could never be Rostam.

The fire butterflies slowly died, and the flames gradually extinguished.

"I sent him to Inazuma, and five hundred years later, he returned." Venti said softly, lowering her gaze, playing the Skyward Harp, pausing, "Just yesterday, I even said to him, 'Friend, hello.'"

"I thought..." Her voice was very low. She lowered her head, her shoulders trembling slightly, "I could become friends with him again."

"I wanted to be friends with him. I didn't expect him to remember me. My request wasn't high. I just wanted to be friends with him again, to start over. I just wanted to have a drink with him again."

"But he's dead now."

"He is Rostam. He is my friend. He is Seino Fugin, but you killed him."

Venti paused, sorrowfully and painfully saying, "He volunteered to be killed by you."

Barbatos is a very clever god.

She easily guessed Seino Fugin's intentions.

Or rather, Barbatos understood her friend's inner feelings very well.

"He didn't want to reveal his true identity until he died—because he didn't want to hurt you."

"But he still had to fight you, because he didn't agree with you."

Lies.

La Signora stared fiercely at Venti, biting out the words from deep within her throat: "Lies."

Just lies.

Rostam agreed with her ideals.

Rostam must support her.

Rostam couldn't possibly fight her.

Seino Fugin wasn't Rostam.

From beginning to end, she only killed a Favonius Knight, just a clumsy and lowly mortal. She only killed an imposter. That's the fact.

Seino Fugin wasn't Rostam.

"I could have saved him." Venti lowered her head, gently plucking the strings of the Skyward Harp. She repeated, "I could have saved him."

"But you ruined him. Rosalyne."

Until now, Venti's voice had been very calm, calm like still water, calm like a wind that no longer flows.

A weary calm.

"Everything is over, Rosalyne."

Almost a sigh.

The wind crushed everything, flames were swept into the storm. Dvalin perched high in the sky, its six wings sweeping through the clouds, the sky winds entwining its body. It let out a long howl, the sorrowful and angry dragon roar echoing across the vast plains.

Flames… had dried up.

Rosalyne stood on the scorched earth, the flames in her heart extinguished, leaving only ashes.

She looked up, staring at the storm that destroyed everything.

"Impossible." She still said, La Signora repeated, "This is your lie."

The wind pressed down, as if the entire sky was collapsing.

The brown clouds shattered first, dim daylight poured through the gaps in the clouds, also being shattered in the wind. The wind pressed against La Signora's flames, the remaining flames slowly extinguishing.

One fire butterfly after another died in the wind.

La Signora was like a flickering candle in the wind.

Magical power exhausted, flames spent, she still stared at the sky. The entire world seemed to be left with only her, cold and lonely, terrifyingly so.

When Rostam died, did he see such a scene?

The entire world was left with only him, no one to help him, no one to save him, not even his loved ones by his side. He could only die desperately and lonely.

Cold.

She finally understood this loneliness.

Five hundred years ago, La Signora couldn't save him. La Signora couldn't do anything.

Five hundred years later, she would leave in the same way.

The last fire butterfly died, the last bit of magical power exhausted. She couldn't hold on anymore.

The wind crushed all barriers.

The wind was blocked.

La Signora was stunned.

Something was flickering with light.

Warmly supplying vitality.

Such warmth.

That long-missed and familiar warmth.

Warm enough… to make her want to cry.

In her embrace.

Seino Fugin's heart felt light, flowing with a rose-like color, beating slowly.

More like a gemstone than a heart.

There was no gemstone more beautiful in the world. It was pure and transparent.

The heart had no consciousness, no memories, nor good or evil, hence no sense of direction. The heart was the purest, representing the most simple, sincere, and pure emotions.

And now, Seino Fugin's heart, Rostam's heart, the boy's heart, was guarding her.

Even though she had killed him.

In La Signora, in Rosalyne, in that girl, during her most lonely moments.

"If you have worries, you can confide in me. It is the knight's duty to ease Lady's worries."

"The knight's promise is sacred and inviolable."

La Signora stared blankly at that beautiful heart, that transparent heart. At the moment she saw this heart, emotions seemed to stop, and her thoughts also seemed to halt.

"…Is it you?"

He kept his promise.

That fool, who kept his promise until death.

He did what she couldn't do.

Venti stopped playing, the storm ceased.

All the flames were extinguished.

Stormterror stopped hissing, the world was calm.

The thousand winds quickly faded, the hazy clouds dispersed, vast amounts of light poured down, scattering over the scorched earth, the seawater shimmering, reflecting the clear blue sky.

The world was quiet.

Only that heart, gently beating, emitting a warm glow.

Rosalyne gently touched that heart. She paused, softly saying, "No, no."

Her soul seemed to collapse.

Everything was collapsing.

Her tears had clearly dried up.

Why… was she still crying?

"I'm sorry..." La Signora stared at that heart. She seemed unsteady, swaying slightly, she lowered her head.

"I'm sorry."

Tears.

"I'm sorry." She trembled, crystalline tears dripping onto that heart, "I'm sorry..."