Chapter Text
The sprawling archway leading to the entrance of liyue harbor happily greets every traveler and liyuen to its bustling city. Two guards stand on each side of the entryway and boredly chit chat as they stand guard. A child plays with a dog as she waits for her parents to finish preparing for their journey. Some people walking to and from the city take a quick glance at two travelers, one flying and the other very oddly dressed.
“Quick question Traveler,” Paimon drawled as she and the traveler re-entered Liyue “what do you think would happen if Mister Zhongli broke a contract?”
Lumine pauses her quick stride and stares down at the wooden boards of the bridge in contemplation. Paimon continued to float towards the harbor until she realized that her companion had stopped. Turning back around, Paimon flies back to Lumine and waits patiently for a response. Remembering the last time she interrupted Lumine while she was thinking and had nearly been cooked alive. Paimon really thought the emergency food joke was getting old and tired. After a while, Paimon notices that Lumine seems to be mostly done thinking.
“Honestly? I don’t know,” Lumine's face creased in extreme thought “Zhongli didn’t even break the contract he has about khaenri'ah to help me find my brother so I doubt that it’s even possible for him to break one.”
“Paimon bets that it is possible since he broke the contract with Wanyan and Kliment.”
“Well no, technically he didn’t. Kliment broke that contract and then Wanyan broke it. He only punished the two and didn’t actually break the terms of the contract.”
Paimon crossed her arms while also staring at the ground. Thoughts were swirling so much in the floating being’s head that Lumine could swear she saw steam rising from Paimon’s head. Before Paimon’s head could explode from using too many brain cells, Lumine spoke up.
“Well how about this? We make a contract that Zhongli has to break and see what happens from there.” Lumine says as she tries to distract Paimon.
Paimon visibly brightens in excitement at the idea, “Let’s make this a competition then too! If Paimon makes the contract that master Zhongli breaks then you have to… have tooooo” Paimon glances around and suddenly appears to have an epiphany “Have to stop calling Paimon emergency food!”
Lumine groans and rolls her eyes at the childish request “well fine, but if I win you have to stop begging for food every time we enter a new region… and pay for your first meal in each new region we visit.”
The two have a staring contest that speaks more words than they could possibly ever communicate. Passersby glance warily at the strange pair before rushing to reach past the two. Finally, after much mental back and forth, Lumine and Paimon reach an agreement with their victory terms. The two quickly head towards the harbor, not knowing what they might unleash.
—
“Is something wrong Xiansheng? You look as if I just placed a bowl of my world-famous Calla Lilly soup in front of you.” Childe asks while he attempts to grab a piece of pork with his chopsticks.
“I just had an unpleasant feeling that someone is about to ruin my plans of retirement and pester me more than Miss Hu Tao does,” Zhongli mutters while sipping his tea.
The two were enjoying a nice meal at Wanmin restaurant. Xiangling rushes from table to table with each customer's order. Guoba carrying utensils and napkins to help ease the burden for Xiangling. Zhongli and Childe had finally arranged a chance to eat together after not having the opportunity to for weeks. They had made up just a few months ago and happily resumed their relationship.
“Oh it can’t possibly be that bad, you can’t just waste away your retirement in boredom forever.” Childe angrily fumbles with his chopsticks “how can you possibly use these cursed things? Not even fatui training was as hard as learning these.”
Laughing Zhongli reaches over and corrects Childe’s improper technique in holding the twin sticks of wood. After the correction, Childe is able to grasp a jade parcel successfully and smiles in triumph.
“It’s not a matter of excitement in my life, this seems to be a tad more sinister… though moving on from that subject, I saw the most extraordinary carving of Rex lapis made from the highest quality of cor lapis.”
“And let me guess you had no mora on you so you’re asking me to cough up the mora for such a thing.” Childe sighs and reaches towards his pocket to check how much mora he was currently carrying on him.
“Ah no actually,” the statue is swiftly placed upon the table. “I saved up the mora to buy it. I had been eyeing it for a while and was finally able to make the purchase today.”
The cor lapis statue shines brilliantly in the light of the sun. Its highly detailed chisling showing off the mastery of its maker. The statue seemed to be in the middle of weaving its way through clouds made of slightly off color cor lapis. The scales of the red lapis statue individually carved seemed to almost look real and soft to the touch. Some curious restaurant customers peek in surprise and envy at the statue.
“Now I feel a horrible feeling. The Zhongli able to buy such a fancy statue? You also had mora saved up?” Childe scoffs, inspecting the small statue “the world must truly be ending soon for such an event to occur”
“I may be bad at remembering to bring mora on my person but I do in fact have a sizable savings account. The audacity to even assume that I have no more to my name,” Zhongli huffs and then pauses “you don’t think… does everyone in liyue harbor assume I’m broke when I’m not with you?”
Childe leans back in his chair and crosses his arms “I’ve seen people get disappointed when I pass by their stalls and I’m not with you, so I assume so.”
“I will have to remember bringing my wallet with me more often then. It unnerves me to be known as someone without a single mora to their name.” Zhongli swiftly puts the statue away again.
“Well don’t count on me to pay for every purchase now that I know you can actually manage your finances well enough to buy something like this. Where are you even going to put it?”
“I can make room for i-“ Zhongli turns towards the high-pitched voice that suddenly cuts across their conversation.
“Mister Zhongli!” Paimon waved from a distance.
“Paimon it’s rude to shout in such a public space” Lumine hissed as the two approached their table.
“We were wondering if you cou-, ” Paimon glared at the harbinger in the midst of his dinner. “ CHILDE ! What are you still doing in Liyue??”
“Eating dinner with my dear friend Zhongli but of course!” Childe smiled and leaned forward “But, you know I’m always game for a fight traveler.” His smile turned just a bit more strained as his grip on the table tightened.
Lumine quickly assumes a defensive stance and gets her hand ready to summon her sword. Paimon nervously looks between the two and makes a pointed look at Zhongli. Zhongli sees the look for what it is and stops his calm chewing to try and intervene.
“Perhaps not here Childe?” Zhongli questioned as he wiped his mouth with a napkin “Paimon obviously has something important on her mind. So why don’t you go pay the bill while I have a talk with them?” Childe startled and looked at Zhongli before stomping off to go pay the bill. Not before calling out a quick “this will be the last time I pay!” as he leaves.
“Now that he’s gone we can discuss without the threat of violence.”
“Well, we wanted to uhh… make a contract with you!” Paimon stuttered, not looking directly at Zhongli.
“A contract? Will this be for consulting purposes?” Zhongli tilted his head in question. Looking between the two as this would be a strange request to be nervous about.
“Yes, consulting!” Lumine tried saving Paimon from further embarrassment. “We needed consulting on the best places to find cor lapis.”
“Well that’s hardly worthy of a contract as I can simply tell y-“
“A constantly updating list of places to find cor lapis.” Lumine interrupted
“Ah,” Zhongli said, thinking of his newly acquired statue, “that would be slightly more challenging. I suppose a contract would be necessary for a list such as that.”
“Yep! So let’s get to writing up this contract!” Paimon smiled.
——
Several months later Paimon and the traveler mined just about every spot that contained cor lapis. With heavy arms, they dropped yet another pile of cor lapis into their overfull storage room in the teapot.
“I can’t believe we couldn’t get Zhongli with that contract! He gave us a new list of locations every day! Even when you went back to Inazuma.” Paimon whined and flopped on the couch the traveler kept in the house.
“You have to admit it’s impressive that all the locations he listed had ample supply of cor lapis for us to mine every day. I think we might crash the cor lapis economy if we were to sell all of this now…” Lumine said while surveying the amount of cor lapis they acquired.
A single piece of cor lapis tumbles towards the bottom of one of the many piles of the gem. Sending the whole pile scattering into the other piles of cor lapis. Paimon and Lumine both cringe as the sound of stone scraping on stone continues. Finally, after it all stops they look up to see the carefully stored room in disarray. Lumine closes the door with an air of “that’s tomorrow me’s problem now”. Paimon twirls around and pretends it never happened.
“Well let’s think of another contract for Zhongli!” Paimon beamed as she quickly floated around and grabbed paper and pens.
“Alright, I mean there isn’t a downside to us losing this round of contracts” Lumine shrugged and grabbed a pen from Paimon’s waiting hand.
———
After several more attempts at getting Zhongli to break his contract, the two discuss how to do so in the travelers teapot. Paimon flies around in circles for a bit, thinking after their last attempt failed and just had them digging in dirt for a while. She suddenly stops and exclaims in excitement.
“Paimon has an idea!”
“What’s your idea today?” Lumine crosses her arms in a huff. The dirt from the last contract was still stuck in her fingernails and sleeves.
“Zhongli can’t talk about anything from Liyue for… 4 hours!” Paimon declares with joy.
“And how do you expect to get him to agree to that?” Lumine raises an eyebrow in suspicion “He’s a consultant for all things Liyue.”
“We could phrase it as a challenge?” Paimon shrugs “Either way this contract will do it!”
“Fine, but you’re going to be the one to show Zhongli this contract.” Lumine says while walking towards the exit of the teapot to head to the funeral parlor.
“Wait for Paimon!” The pixie darts to catch up with the blond.
The two greet the ferry lady outside the parlor and walk inside the slightly macabre lobby. Traditional funeral bouquets sprawl across the area leading towards a coffin viewing room and a long hallway. Lumine and Paimon quickly walk down the hallway, trying to avoid hu tao currently advertising one of their coffins to a grieving mother. Paimon lightly knocks on the ornate door with Zhongli’s name carved into a golden plaque. The sound of a chair quickly being moved, rushed and heavy footsteps rapidly approaching answer the small knock. Paimon worriedly glances at Lumine before the door slams open.
“For the LAST time hu tao I will not put on that silly costu-“ Zhongli finally looks at the two at his door. Realizing that’s probably the maddest they’ve ever seen him.
“Ah…. You’re… not hu tao. You wouldn’t have been sent by her to get me in a costume?” Zhongli narrows his eyes at the idea. A shudder running through him. “I know the business is a bit desperate for customers but surely we’re not THAT desperate.”
“Uhhh no…” Lumine looks at Zhongli and then Paimon with a question in her eyes. “We came to tell you we no longer need the previous contract and to also propose a new one to you. What costume are you even talking about?”
Zhongli’s eyes widen then red flushes across his face before he answers. “Since you don’t seem to realize what I’m talking about. You really don’t need to know.” His face screams to not ask any more questions.
“Allllright…” Paimon says “well it’s not much of a contract as it is a challenge for you mister Zhongli!”
“A challenge?”
“Yep! Paimon wrote it down on this paper!” She hands the page over to Zhongli.
“Do not speak of anything from or pertaining to Liyue for 4 hours?” Zhongli reads, casting a suspicious look at Paimon.
“See the traveler said that she thinks you can’t do it! So Paimon decided to make this challenge for you to prove the traveler wrong!” Paimon says playfully glaring at Lumine, not so subtly trying to hint at her to play along.
“Yeah, honestly Zhongli you always ramble on and on about Liyue that I think this will be impossible.” Lumine challenges “but I can see why you wouldn’t agree to this. It’s clearly too difficult.”
“You both realize that my job requires me to ‘ramble on about Liyue’,” Zhongli air quotes “right?”
“Yeah but just for 4 hours! You can avoid hu tao during that time since you will be on a consulting job technically!” Paimon flutters her eyes
“I can’t po-“ Zhongli starts.
“OOoooooh zhonnngliii!!!” Hu tao calls from down the hallway. “I had some modifications done to the costume for you~! It’s floppy-eared now!”
Zhongli’s face pales before he pushes Lumine and Paimon towards the back exit. Trying in vain to avoid them seeing the costume.
“Floppy what now?” Lumine turned her head over her shoulder to try and catch a glimpse of the costume hu tao is holding.
“Floppy eared! It’s a bunny costume!” Hu tao answers with a grin on her face “I heard that this celebration involving rabbits was all the rage and so what better way to advertise than to have our esteemed consultant wear a bunny consulting to celebrate!”
“A WHAT?” Paimon screeches escaping Zhongli’s shoving and his attempts to stop her from flying to hu tao “Paimon HAS to see!”
Hu tao reaches to show the costume to the pair before Zhongli grabs the two, covering their eyes, and runs out the back door. He releases the two before glancing back nervously.
“Alright alright! I’ll accept this challenge! Please just don’t ask any more about the costume!” Zhongli pleads with the two, eyes darting back and forth between them and the imminent doom of hu tao.
“Well, not exactly how we wanted this to go down but alright!” Paimon smiles and tilts her head.
Zhongli sighs before opening the door to a slightly amused hu tao.
“The esteemed Zhongli running from lil’ ol me?” Hu tao blinks innocently, placing her hand on her chest in a mock form of offense “I’m so deeply offended!”
“I’m so sorry to say this,” Zhongli looks not the least bit apologetic “but I have a contract to uphold. So I will take my leave. Let’s go, traveler, Paimon”
The three leave while hu tao looks at the bunny costume. “Well what am I going to do with this now?”
——
“So I’m not allowed to say anything about… ah… I doubt I’ll be able to even say its name.” Zhongli sighs
“That was pretty close Zhongli! But you can’t say a single word about Liyue!” Paimon reminds the ex god
“Hmmm, what’s a topic I can talk about…” Zhongli ponders before brightening “ Childe is a safe topic. Is he not?”
“Well I guess since he’s not from Liyue…” Lumine shrugs as they walk to their commission.
“Perfect! I finally have the chance to share how lovely he is. Did you know that he can’t go to sleep without something to cuddle? It’s really the most adorable thing. I have to be careful around a sleepy Childe because he’ll latch onto the closest thing radiating heat.”
“Huh,” Lumine blinked “a harbinger needs to cuddle to go to sleep… what happens when he doesn’t cuddle with something?”
“Oh, he becomes the most grumpiest thing I’ve ever seen.” Zhongli says with a soft smile “And he becomes so clingy to the point where I can’t even leave the house without him latching onto me in some way. Oh, and did you know that he hums when he cooks?”
“It brightens my mornings when Childe decides to cook breakfast. His voice is always so melodic as it floats through the air. Somehow it sounds just as soothing as the rain after a long dry spell.” Zhongli further rambles as they walk “and when he really focuses on cooking he starts to do this dance where-“
“He … sure has a lot to say about Childe doesn’t he?” Lumine whispers in Paimon’s ear as Zhongli continues to walk ahead and ramble.
“Yeah, but he has to eventually switch to another topic right?” Paimon warily looks at Zhongli. Oh how wrong she would be as two hours later Zhongli is still rambling about the harbinger.
“And because of his excellent hair routine, Childe’s hair is always so luxurious and tangle-free. Your fingers can just glide through as his hair shimmers in different shades of reds and oranges. Sometimes I get lost in the hues while I pet his hair for hours on en-“
“Shut up shut up shut up!” Lumine shouts while
covering her ears “you’ve been rambling about Childe for the past two HOURS! I know more about Childe and his habits than he does at this point!”
“Oh but I haven’t even gotten to his devotion to his family! Speaking of, did you know that he has 3 younger siblings he adores? You’ve met Teucer I’m sure as he constantly asks about you! But the other two are really jealous that Teucer got to meet the famous traveler and her flying companion.” Zhongli continues to ramble on and on as they head back to Liyue
“Traveler! Make him stop! Please!” Paimon wails as she also tries to block his voice.
“How about we talk about something else Zhongli??” Lumine begs “uhhh how about something from Inazuma?”
“Hmm well I do not know much about Inazuma I’m afraid to admit. Though didn’t you meet Childe there while he was on a mission? He never did tell me about what happened other than the fact that he met you.” Zhongli tilts his head “It pained me greatly to watch him leave for a foreign land far away. Especially one so hostile to the fatui at the time. I feared that with Childe’s bloodlust he might have challenged the Raiden shogun to a duel and end with a similar fate as signora. Though-“
“How much LONGER??” Paimon whines, dropping her head on Lumine’s shoulder, “somehow he’s talking about both Childe AND Inazuma”
“Just… two more hours….” Lumine struggles to pick up her feet. The endless ramblings about Childe slowly weighing her down. Finally, they reach Liyue harbor and the contract's time has ended.
Zhongli interrupts his monologue about Childe’s cleaning habits as he looks towards the sun’s positioning. “Ah, I believe that marks the end of the contract.” He sighs. “I never realized how much I’ve been bottling these feelings of adoration for Childe. I feel so much lighter.”
Lumine and Paimon on the other hand feel more exhausted than ever. Both silently agreeing to always have a time limit on their contracts, lest something worse than what happened today lasts for longer than they ever would want it to.
—
After several, and several more failed contracts, the pair had just about to give up when Paimon had a small stroke of genius.
“What a simple little contract Paimon. I will gladly accept your terms,” Zhongli smiles and chuckles a bit as he continued “May this contract be binding and set in stone”
“Paimon thinks that this contract will be more difficult than you realize!” The tiny morsel of emergency food declares with a huff. Crossing her arms and turning her head slightly.
“Paimon, he’s the god of contracts . At this point we should just give up.” Lumine mutters while rolling her eyes.
“Ah! Paimon will have you know that she’s not done trying to make a contract that can fool Zhongli!” Paimon aggressively whispers. Floating in front of Lumine while stomping her little feet.
Zhongli ponders what the traveler and Paimon could be discussing so angrily. He watches with slight amusement as the tiny being seems to be getting more and more upset with every response the traveler gives. Gazing upon the scenery around them, he breathes in the fresh scent of sweet flowers, campfire, and freshly cut sandbearer wood. Zhongli closes his eyes and sighs before abruptly looking up. Campfire? Scanning the area, Zhongli continues to question the sudden smell of a campfire.
Why would the smell of a campfire be near here? There are no fires nearby to produce the smell. Unless…it was the scent of a pyro user. Zhongli noticed the slight distortion rapidly approaching the still bickering traveler and Paimon.
“Traveler! Paimon! Look out!” Zhongli exclaims while summoning his polearm. Readying himself for combat, quickly summoning a jade shield to protect the Traveler and Paimon. The traveler summons her sword. Scanning for the threat that Zhongli saw. Paimon bursts into a shower of stars and sparkles. Successfully hiding in the traveler's shadow.
The pyro agent finally shows himself with a brandishing of his daggers. Rings of fire appear and circle around the agent. Clearly upset about being spotted before his successful attack, he throws a knife imbued with pyro towards Zhongli while rushing the traveler.
Zhongli ducks under the knife as it whisks by. Glaring at the pyro agent, Zhongli throws his polearm. It lands in the agent’s arm with a sickening crunch and a quick shout of agony. Though not before the traveler also attempts a strike but lands nothing but air. The agent clutching his bleeding arm quickly creates distance while still remaining a threat. Suddenly a red copy of the agent appears.
“Shoot not this trick.” Lumine groans while swiveling her head for a glimpse of the agent.
Zhongli, confused about this tactic, is too focused on why Lumine isn’t facing the enemy any longer to realize that the agent was right behind him. Swiftly bringing down his dagger, the agent almost lands a hit on the ex-god only to have his arm rebound painfully off of a jade shield.
“A simple attack like that isn’t going to do much,” Zhongli says turning around “my shield is quite unbreakable”
Growling in frustration, the agent disappears again, leaving another red copy behind. The two quickly go back to back to prevent any more surprise attacks. Not realizing this was making it easier on the pyro agent.
The pyro agent darts from his hidden position towards Lumine. She quickly dodges by jumping to the side, leaving the pyro agent to strike Zhongli’s shield again. Zhongli turns around to swing his polearm at the pyro agent and misses the agent by a hair. The pyro agent darts backwards and summons another copy and disappears yet again.
This song and dance continues for a while, with Lumine dodging so the pyro agent hits Zhongli’s shield and neither one of them landing a successful blow on the agent before he disappears. All three eventually start getting tired of how dragged out this fight is becoming. The pyro agent however starts chuckling as he returns to being invisible after his last attack.
Panting from exhaustion the traveler notes that there are six copies of the pyro agent. Before she can warn Zhongli about the upcoming attack, the pyro agent moves into action. The clones quickly start attacking the two while the real agent charges forward with his downward slash attack. Lumine cries out as the attack gashes her arm and falls to the ground in pain. Now knowing where the agent is, Zhongli finally subdues the agent. Making him turn invisible and run away to lick his wounds. Finally sure the area is secure, Zhongli turns his attention to Lumine. Summoning some gauze from his pocket, he starts dressing Lumine's wounds.
“I am deeply sorry that I couldn’t prevent harm to you,” Zhongli says while wrapping Lumine’s arm.
“I-it’s fine,” Lumine hisses. “ I’m a bit surprised that a pyro agent was even out here. Thought the fatui wouldn’t leave agents in the middle of nowhere”
Zhongli squints and pauses. That is odd how the pyro agent was this close to Azdaha's resting place. The area couldn’t be of much use to the fatui and it isn’t in between any trade routes. “Zhongli?” So what could be the possible reason for the fatui agent to have been here? He fled towards the east but that’s directly into jueyun karst. “Zhonnglii?” That area isn’t safe at all for any fatui after what happened with Osial. The adepti surely would maim the agent before he got close to any saf-.
“Zhongli!” He snaps his head up from the traveler's arm.
“You’ll have to excuse me. I was just thinking over why the fatui would even be out here.” Zhongli sheepishly responds. “It’s practically the middle of nowhere and yet there’s a fatui presence out here? It’s very curious.”
“I guess,” Lumine shrugs “I’ll just have to have a ‘talk’ with Childe about this”
That brings a smile to Zhongli’s face “There’s no need. I’ll have that talk”
Paimon blinks into existence with a shower of stars. “Is the agent gone? No one is hurt, right? Your arm!” She floats down towards Lumine's injured arm and gently places her small hands near it. “Does it hurt too bad?”
“No, thanks to Zhongli it barely hurts!“ Lumine proudly raises her arm in a show of good health.
“Whew, that's a relief” Paimon sighs.
“Yes, it is a relief. Shall we head back to Liyue harbor?” Zhongli helps Lumine stand.
“We have some business with Ningguang that needs to be taken care of so do you mind if we go to the jade palace on our way back?” Lumine asks while swinging her arm around to test its motion.
“That is agreeable,” Zhongli smiles, not knowing that those three simple words would lead to his doom.
——
“Ah, traveler. Paimon. And mister Zhongli?” Ninguang rises from her chair to greet the three, a hint of unease on her face. “While I have matters with the traveler and Paimon I do not know why you are here mister Zhongli…”
“I was just accompanying the two while they went on their task” Zhongli answers while backing off. Knowing that his presence disturbs the woman. No one likes anything associated with death after all.
Zhongli waits off to the side while Lumine and Paimon discuss business with Ningguang. They go back and forth for a while but eventually end on a mutual agreement. Well mutual is a strong term. More like Ningguang used her expert manipulation tactics to get exactly what she wanted from the two and have them think they wanted the same thing.
“Paimon noticed you got new floors! They look lovely!” Paimon exclaims in awe while admiring the floors.
“Yes, they truly are. I visited Mondstat and just had to get tile flooring. It seemed elegant yet simple.” Ningguang answers looking at her floors lovingly “it’s a shame captain Beidou can be reckless at times”
“Reckle-“ Paimon cuts herself off as she spots something. Pulling the traveler's ear close so that no one may hear “Paimon is going to win~”
Lumine takes one confused look at her, wondering how Zhongli could possibly break a contract while in the jade chamber. Through action or inaction, it was proven time and time again that Zhongli was physically incapable of breaking contracts. So what could have Paimon smiling like the cat that finally had a hold of the mouse it’s been chasing?
“Well, we best get going,” Lumine says while looking at Paimon with suspicion “we have things to do in the harbor that require attending.”
“Ah yes and do be careful on your way out,” Ningguang waves with a smile “there’s a small cra-”
The crunch of tile resonates loudly in everyone’s ear. Paimon just smiles even more like the sound is as pleasing to her as a fresh meal. Zhongli is as still as the very statues in his image that dot the land. Lumine looks down to see a spider web of cracks just near the exit of the room. One of the fracture lines leading all the way to where Zhongli stands.
“Paimon wins! Paimon wins!” She shouts with delight and while dancing in the air “Paimon’s no longer emergency food!”
“Win what?” Ningguang asks, her curiosity peaked.
Twirling around Paimon answers with even more joy “Paimon won the bet between her and the traveler!”
“And winning this bet means you’re no longer… emergency food?” Ningguang further questions looking towards the still frozen Zhongli and a concerned Lumine.
“Zhongli?” Lumine waves her arm in front of his face “…Zhongliii? You there?”
“Paimon’s a winner! Paimon’s a winner!” Paimon cheers while dancing around the two.
“Quit it Paimon I think something is wrong with Zhongli” Lumine gets closer to see that Zhongli's eyes even seem to be still as a statue. She slowly reaches a hand to touch Zhongli's ar-
A growl shakes the building to its very core. Everyone in the room grabs onto the nearest stable object in the room. Lumine makes the further mistake of gripping Zhongli's arm even tighter. Scales start appearing on Zhongli's form with the building shaking even more violently.
“Zhongli? Is something wrong?” Lumine shouts above the increasing noise and destruction. Pieces of ceiling crumbling around the two.
“Zhongli, Paimon knows you don’t like breaking contracts,” Paimon yelps as a piece of wood falls particularly close “but Paimon doesn’t like this!”
Zhongli is more dragon than human at this point as fangs and a pair of molten mora horns appear as well. The cracks in the floor multiply from all the shaking and the growling increases even further in volume. As the seconds pass Zhongli’s form begins changing more and more to that of a dragon. A particularly large crack from a nearby chunk of ceiling falling and cracking the floor more is just the final push Zhongli needed to fully transform into a dragon. The roar that bellows from the dragon causes those closest to it to cover their ears. The roar angry and pained, as if the very act of roaring brings great agony to its owner.
“Zhongli!” Lumine tries to shout above the noise “ you need to calm down!”
The dragon ceases its roar and starts to wildly thrash about the room. A tail smacking Ningguang into a wall before she could even think to summon her jade screen. Her limp body falling to the ground. Paimon narrowly dodges a flailing horn as Zhongli thrashes around even more. Lumine looks up and notices a small hole leading to the sky. Using anemo, she opens the hole more in an attempt to get Zhongli into a more open area. Zhongli’s constant thrashing eventually has his head hit the newly made hole and he squirms the rest of the way through. A resounding roar of pain is the only thing Lumine and Paimon are left with.
“What did you do?” Lumine murderously turns towards Paimon.
“Pa- Paimon has made a huge mistake…” she answers slowly.