Souls in Teyvat

A misunderstanding?

No place to run?

Solving everything peacefully?

None of those questions gave Keith any reason not to escape.

"Look over there!!"

"They aren't here!"

"Hey you, check over there!"

"I can't, I'm allergic to flowers!"

"....."

A maelstrom of activity unlike anything Belobog had seen before was unfurling in the Overworld, while 2 people hid very carefully.

"Hey Keith"

"Don't talk now" said Keith in a whisper, submerged in the purest of darkness.

As the lid of the trash can he was hiding in blocked all light.

"There is a rat in my lair."

"Good for you, you have finally found someone who won't mind your habits" replied Keith, slightly lifting the lid to look at the outside. "It seems that diaper scarred their mind, they fear looking here."

"Psshh, Keith"

"What do you want now?" asked Keith, thinking about their next move."

"The rat has 3 eyes, and one is bright green in the centre of its forehead."

"....."

"And 2 rows of teeth."

"That is not a rat at all" muttered Keith, not wanting to be in Stelle's place.

"What the-.. Keith, this thing has a scorpion's-!"

"....."

"Fuck this!!"

Keith felt the bright light of the early morning blinding him as the lid got lifted, but everything was drowned in darkness once again.

"Agh!"

At the same time he felt his nose creaking after Stelle jumped on his hiding place head first.

"Stop complaining, do you understand how I felt looking at that abomination?" asked Stelle, a shiver passing through her body upon remembering such an abject horror. "What the hell, this place is too clean."

"They must have changed a few trash cans in precaution" replied Keith, nursing his hurt nose.

And silence fell into the small trash can, while they both heard the guards outside shouting.

'This city is smaller than a bear's cave, why are they screaming so much?' wondered Keith, thinking about how stupid were the Fragmentum attacking this city, not having been able to beat these guards.

"Hey Keit-"

"No Stelle, I'm not feeling lucky to be in this position with a 'beautiful girl', nor will I blush to feel our bodies in close contact" interrupted Keith, knowing Stelle all too well. "This isn't one of March's books."

"I was about to ask you if you could move a little" said Stelle in a calm voice. "You might not be able to realize it due to the lack of light, but I jumped head first. After a few twists and turns, I got stuck in my current position."

"If you are uncomfortable, deal with it" replied Keith without hesitation.

"Well, I am a bit uncomfortable" admitted Stelle. "Your face is just above my private parts, and due to having turned around and my current position head-down, my skirt has rolled up."

"...."

"So, Keith, can you move?" asked Stelle, who despite being a generally shameless person, couldn't help but sport a small blush she hoped Keith would never notice.

"TELL ME THAT SOONER!!" screamed Keith.

------------------

clank

A trash can fell sideway, and the whole corps of the Silvermane Guards looked at the man and the woman inside it, who looked back at the guards with surprise.

All Keith could do was carefully roll Stelle's skirt, avoiding looking down.

tap tap tap

But seeing Guepard's blank expression, he could only show a nervous smile.

"Hey, it is your fault to be deceived, isn't it?" asked Keith, but Guepard's face didn't even twitch.

Under the guard's watchful gaze, Keith and Stelle untangled themselves, and stood in the middle of a circle of people looking at them with naked animosity.

"We surrender" said Stelle, raising her arms.

"Why I don't believe you?" asked Guepard blankly.

"Well, don't worry, this time is for good" said Keith with a defeated sigh, falling to a kneel on the ground.

"Cuff them" instructed Guepard with a cold gaze.

But Stelle immediately jumped on Keith's back, with the purple-haired man immediately jumping over the line of guards.

And Guepard's eye twitched seeing Keith winking at him.

----------------------------

"Chase them!!"

"In the end, you are carrying me" pointed out Stelle, looking around for another place to hide.

"I can put you down" offered Keith, his mind racing through the possibilities in front of them.

The guards trained in battle chased them, but Keith was simply too fast even while carrying Stelle, who found the sensation of wind on her face quite relaxing.

"Can't you keep running in circles for hours?" asked Stelle, seeing the guards fall further behind. "They won't be able to ever catch us."

"You must be really sleep-deprived, don't you remember that March and Dan Heng are still around?" asked Keith, making Stelle remember that indeed, they weren't alone. "Fortunately for you, while you were watching that abomination in your hiding place, I heard the guards shouting that the 'fugitives' had run towards the Underworld."

"So that's our next destination" mumbled Stelle, who then extended her arm forward with an extended finger. "Go, my horse on steroids!"

Keith only sighed, but ran in the direction Stelle was pointing, much to the woman's amusement.

He had no other place to go after all.

The bright and clean surroundings gradually gave way to a dirty street surrounded by ruined buildings, clearly contrasting with what they had seen until now.

And it didn't stop worsening, until the point Stelle and Keith found it hard to understand how their actual surroundings belonged to the same planet at all.

Keith kept running, until he reached the end of the path they were travelling by.

A giant hole filled with yellow crystals appeared in front of them, deep enough for Stelle to barely be able to see the end of it.

"I guess this is the mine of Geomarrow" muttered Keith.

"We should keep going" replied Stelle.

"True" nodded Keith, walking again. "Wait, why am I still carrying you?"

"Ouch!" Stelle glared vengefully at Keith after he let her fall to the ground, but she only stood up and cleaned the dust in her clothes.

"Shut up and keep walking" said Keith, unable to hold back a sigh. "Why is everything so complicated.... We were supposed to arrive, take the Stellaron, and go. Why are we even here?"

"That Supreme Guardian fucked us over" replied Stelle with a shrug.

"I will leave finding the reason to Dan Heng, I'm not going to bother" affirmed Keith. "In fact, we shouldn't have even stopped in Belobog, we should have set towards the Stellaron and be done with it. Why did we even bother?"

"Himeko had the location from her train, right?" asked Stelle, to which Keith nodded. "Well, I don't regret it."

"You got the box and a hobby out of all this, obviously you wouldn't regret it" replied Keith, looking around. "Looks like there are people down there..."

Stelle squinted her eyes, and looked towards a road to their left, and a dozen meters below.

"Oh, that's right" muttered Stelle. "What are they doing? I can't see from here."

"They are fighting" replied Keith with a calm voice. "A few robots."

"What will we do?" asked Stelle.

"Whatever you want" replied Keith, still looking at the fight below them. "You are the leader now."

"Y-"

"Yes, I'm your minion now" interrupted Keith with a shake of his head. "I learned that whatever I do, I end up making things even more complicated."

"Carry me then, my minion" said Stelle with a mocking voice, but her eyes opened wide when Keith obeyed her. "I honestly didn't expect it."

But Keith only shrugged.

"Well, let's help those people" said Stelle after a brief moment of thinking.

"Are you sure?" asked Keith, already leaning towards the same decision. "They might be the evil ones harming innocent robots."

"Let's help the robots then"

"You just want to beef with someone" sighed Keith, but flexed his legs.

"Wait a moment" said Stelle with alarm. "You aren't thinking of-"

"Should have specified it" interrupted Keith with a smirk.

And he directly jumped to the road a few dozen meters below him.

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The group of dirty and exhausted humans looked blankly at the 2 people who had arrived from the sky, raising a cloud of dust under them, and had directly kicked out the robots they had been sweating to fight against.

"Who are you?" asked a man with blonde hair in a ponytail, with naked wariness in his eyes.

"Fugitives from the Overworld" replied Stelle, not seeing the need to hide it.

"You come from the Overworld?" asked another man with anger in his voice.

"Matt, shut up" replied the man with a ponytail. "They kicked those robots we couldn't deal with, think a bit."

"But-"

"And they are escaping the Overworld, do you really want to put them in the same sack as those assholes?" asked the blonde man, making the man called Matt sigh. "Sorry about that, the Overworld is a sensitive topic here. I'm Eric, the one in charge of this place."

"And it's pretty obvious why" commented Keith after looking around.

"Why were those robots attacking you?" asked Stelle curiously.

"They were supposed to be our help in mining the Geomarrow, but they went haywire" explained Eric, a haunted look flashing through his eyes. "And no, we can't remotely disconnect them, there are other robots who seem to have their own network we don't have access to."

"That sounds hard" admitted Keith, glancing at Stelle. "Sorry, as much as I would like to talk for a while longer, we had a long day, and my friend here will fall asleep while standing. We are new here, do you have a place we could stay for a day while we look for your companions?"

"Well, you saved us, a bed is the least we could give you" said Eric with a small nod.

"Hey, I'm not that tired" complained Stelle, with as much energy as she had. "We still need to look for Pan Deng and Farch."

Which wasn't that much.

"You are even slurring" sighed Keith. "They will be fine, they are strong in their own ways. Just sleep, we might need to navigate through the Underworld carefully."

"St-"

But Stelle's words were cut short when Keith picked her up again.

"Don't be stubborn" said Keith, following. "I'm obstinate enough for the both of us."

And Stelle, feeling Keith's steps echoing through her body, quickly fell asleep.