Chapter Text
Two birds soared above the burning forest below, gold-coloured swallows, siblings fleeing the destruction of their home. They flapped their wings as hard as they could to escape the smoke choking them but as one began to flag, they knew they would not succeed.
“Kong!” one of the golden swallows called out when she saw the swallow behind her lost control and began to fall.
“Ying!” the falling swallow cried out, desperately flapping his wings to no avail. He was falling too fast, choking on the smoke as he disappeared into the sea of fire below. Ying circled around the spot that he disappeared, calling her brother’s name, but Kong never reappeared. She could feel the heat from the fire despite being a considerable distance away, and logically, she should flee before she fell as well, but Ying could never abandon her own brother. As soon as she realised Kong would not be able to return by himself, she tucked her wings in and dove headfirst into the blaze below.
She found Kong unconscious on top of a pile of ashes. The flames around her were hot and the smoke was suffocating, but Ying could not abandon her brother. She shifted from her bird form to one that was more suited to carrying her sibling. Even when her feet burned as she ran through the burning forest, unable to take flight with her wings not able to find lift, she carried her brother in her arms, desperately protecting him with her own body as she tried to find a way out.
Ying coughed, her vision darkening with every faltering breath. She was stumbling, her feet numbed with pain, but she succeeded in escaping the deadly fire. She continued to run, hoping to get far enough that she and her brother would not get caught by the fire when they rested. Bloodied footsteps trailed in her wake, but she refused to stop. It was only when she tripped over an uneven patch of ground and fell to her side, cradling her brother to protect him, that she finally stopped.
“Kong, wake up! Please wake up!” Ying pleaded with her brother who remained unmoving in her hands.
As she continued to beg her brother to wake up, she failed to notice a presence approaching her until shadowy tendrils engulfed her from behind, grabbing both siblings.
When Kong woke up, it was to the sight of his sister covered in partially-healed burns, sitting in a dark, wet cave. “Ying?” he called out to his sister before shifting into a human form. “You’re hurt. What happened?”
“Kong! You’re awake!” she said, reaching out to hug her brother.
Kong did not stop her. He returned the hug, carefully wrapping his hands around his sister while avoiding the injuries. “We need to leave. We need to treat your injuries,” he said but Ying shook her head.
“We are trapped. The lord of this place captured us while I was bringing you to safety. I’m sorry, Kong. I shouldn’t have let down my guard.”
“No, don’t apologise, Ying. If you hadn’t tried to save me, you wouldn’t be stuck here.”
Ying pulled away, looking tearfully at him. “You ask for me to leave you behind? My own blood? Kong, didn’t we promise that we would never abandon each other?”
Kong turned away and remained silent. Ying was right, if it was her who fell, he would not have left her behind. “We still need to treat your wounds.”
He stood up and looked around the cave, but there was nothing he could use to help his sister. The metal bars blocked their way out, and inscribed talismans covered them, a way to stop either of them escaping in their beast form. Kong turned around once he realised that Ying had not said anything, and found her lying unconscious on the ground.
“Ying!” He quickly made his way towards his sister and knelt down beside her. She was breathing hard, her cheeks flushed. Fever had gripped her and Kong had no idea when it started. He felt guilty. She was taking care of him despite being sick, and he had not noticed at all how bad her condition was. “Someone help!” he turned his head to the direction of the metal bars and cried out.
Yet, no one came and Kong could do nothing for his sister.
It was hours before someone finally entered their prison. Ying had taken a turn for the worst in that time. She was still alive but she was barely breathing and her fever had risen to dangerous levels. Kong was fretting about, pacing around to burn off the excess energy. His slight powers over wind could not help her, and he was desperately wishing many times over that he had tried to learn medicinal arts.
“Well now, it would seem one of you might not make it after all,” the stranger said, drawing Kong’s eyes to them.
“Please save her,” he begged the stranger, making them laugh.
“And what will you offer, little swallow?”
“Anything! I will give you anything!”
“Anything you say… Very well, shall we sign a contract?”
Perhaps he should have considered those words carefully. Perhaps he should have noticed the vile way they spoke. But Ying was important to him, more important than anything. So he did not hesitate when he said, “Yes.”
A contract signed with a god could not be broken easily, not unless one was willing to suffer the consequences. Kong signed away his freedom, his morals, and became a weapon to save his sister. He knew what the consequence was for breaking the contract, and he could not risk his sister’s life. He never regretted his actions even if the evil god’s way of saving his sister meant that Ying remained too weak to be able to leave. She was healed enough that she could wake up, enough that she could sit. Yet, the god had taken away her wings and her ability to walk. The burns left scars, a reminder of what he had done to his sister.
“Kong, leave me, please. Run away. Fly far away,” she begged when he came back to the prison covered in the blood of slain adepti.
“No. I can’t, Ying. We promised that we would never abandon each other.”
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry,” she apologised, over and over as she wept.
Kong remained silent, his head bowed, only turning away to leave when her tears finally ran out. “I’m sorry,” he said, before disappearing into the darkness.
Every day that Ying begged him to leave, the more guilty Kong felt. It weighed on him heavily, more than the guilt of killing. Every day that weight became heavier, and Kong wondered for how long could he keep this up. Years of endless killing and bloodshed had left him numb, apathetic to the death and suffering of the world, and yet, his heart would shatter each time he saw Ying’s crying face. He wished he could take her and flee, to use his bloodstained wings and take her far away from the evil god who bound his sister in chains to make him obey, but all he could offer to her was an apology for the tears she shed, for all the pain he caused her.
It took aeons before Kong finally became free to fly away into the vast blue sky, aeons before he knew what it felt to finally feel his heart shatter into pieces, unable to be placed together again.
It took thousands of years for ‘Kong’ to die.
Kong returned to his master’s abode, covered head to toe in blood. When he returned, he felt something amiss. The air felt stifling, the place far too quiet. A chill went down his spine as he ran towards the dungeon where Ying was imprisoned.
“Ying!” He called his sister’s name loudly, but there was no answer. “Ying!” he shouted again, but there was still no answer. The silence was scaring him but Kong pushed that feeling down.
When he finally reached the bottom of the stairs where the prison lay, his eyes widened at what he found.
“Ying?” he said, hand reaching out towards the body laying behind the metal bars. However, Ying remained motionless. Kong fell to his knees, his hand falling back to his side as he tried to comprehend the sight he was seeing. He called out to his sister again, saying her name over and over, but she remained unresponsive.
“Aw, little swallow, are you sad? Are you angry?” his master asked as they appeared from the shadows behind him. “You disappointed me in the last battle. This is the consequence of disappointing me.”
The last battle? All he did was allow a human child to flee the battlefield. All he did was show mercy to a child. And now, Ying was…
“You killed her,” Kong said, his voice barely a whisper. He could not tear himself away from Ying’s body. The pool of blood surrounding his sister was still fresh, not even an hour old. If he killed the enemies quicker, if he ran home faster, could he have saved her? Even if he came back sooner, he would have bore witness to her death instead. “You killed her,” he repeated his words.
“So I did.”
“You killed her…”
“Is that all you can say, little swallow? How boring. It seems I would need to get a new toy again. How fortunate that there are so many souls above who wished for salvation from anyone.”
“You killed her!” Kong shouted, summoning his twin swords to attack his sister’s murderer.
The evil god laughed as they easily dodged the reckless attack. Yet, Kong persisted. He took a step forward again, and the world still for a moment. A thousand slashes delivered unto the body of the murderer, and time moved forward in the next blink, but the evil god laughed as their form crumbled into mud. Kong panted and let out a roar of rage. He was angry; angry at his failed assault, angry at his failure in protecting his sister.
“Ah such a pity, I would miss that look of despair, little swallow,” the evil god said, their voice echoing with their laughter. Silence finally fell and Kong could no longer feel the suffocating presence.
He let go of his swords, letting his weapons clatter to the ground, not caring if the blades became damaged in the fall. He turned around and stumbled towards where his sister lay on the ground. Kong fell to his knees and wept. Apologies fell out of his lips but the person they were meant for could no longer hear them.
It took hours before Kong finally pulled himself together, just enough that he could take his sister out of the prison that held her for aeons. He did not know for how long he walked with his sister’s body cold in his arms, but when he finally stumbled and fell, he gazed up at the orange-tainted sky. He remembered how Ying loved to play in the clouds, how she loved to watch the sunset from the sky.
“Ying, can you see it now? The sunset you dearly loved? I’m sorry it took so long but you don’t have to fear the shadows anymore. You don’t have to be scared anymore. You don’t have to worry about me anymore.”
Kong buried Ying beneath a ginkgo tree, far from the dungeon where she was murdered. She slept in the ground beneath the clouds she loved so much. She was finally at peace, but all Kong could think of was how much she deserved to be here instead of him. It was her who should be looking at the sunset, it was her who deserved to be able to touch the sky again.
“I’m sorry Ying,” he said as he leaned back against the ginkgo tree. He looked down at the pile of rocks, the only thing that marked his sister’s grave. “I don’t deserve this life you save. I am too broken, too tainted to stand by your side. I’m going to hunt them down, your murderer, and I will not rest until my blades have tasted their blood. I will not rest until I deliver justice.”
He sighed, closing his eyes and letting the tears fall again. “I know you wouldn’t want me to do this, but it’s impossible, Ying. I no longer know what it means to be at peace. I am a monster, Ying. For too long I have tasted death, and now I do not know how to stop. One day, when we meet again, I will give you a proper apology. Goodbye Ying, I love you.”
Kong pushed himself up and forced his legs to carry him away from his sister’s grave. He turned back to take one last look before turning into a swallow and flying away.
The first thing Kong did was seek out a human settlement. He needed a new pair of swords and he was unwilling to return to the prison to retrieve his old blades. It was difficult with the Archon War still persisting despite thousands of years, but Kong knew where the largest settlement lay. He had to be careful though, he was still considered an enemy under Rex Lapis’ eyes. It did not help that he clashed with the god’s generals before, even slain a few of them.
Kong turned back into his human form and disguised himself before setting foot into the town. There were adepti walking about despite it being a human town, and Kong found himself mystified at the sight. The evil god he was enslaved to hated humans despite craving for the Archon’s seat. They always spoke at length about how they would wipe out the humans and turn Liyue into a nation of adepti. Kong did not care about what his previous master thought of humans, but he admired their tenacity and resilience.
It took a long time before Kong found a blacksmith willing to sell him a weapon in-exchange for trinkets he collected on the battlefield. Broken armour, shattered weapons, merely things he collected as trophies for his previous master who discarded them as soon as Kong handed them over. Yet, the evil god insisted Kong returned with proof of his victory, as though they were not watching the slaughter high above their throne.
Kong kept each and every single one of them. Even when the evil god laughed as they watched him pick up the broken helmet that they threw to the ground, Kong kept every single one of those broken armour and weapons. Aeons of gathering them and leaving them to collect dust in his subspace, Kong could finally make use of them.
The blacksmith said nothing to Kong as he set down the pile of broken armour and weapons, only gesturing to the table where several blades were displayed. Kong walked towards the weapons, picking up a simple dao and inspecting the blade. It was a fine sword, albeit plain when compared to his previous weapons. A plain blade held in a blank scabbard, it was fitting for one who held no future and served no master.
“I’ll take this one,” Kong said to the blacksmith who nodded his head.
Kong quickly left the town, not willing to risk the chance of his true identity being discovered any longer. He had a blade to kill the evil god, even if it was crafted by a mortal human, he could enchant it — make it durable to withstand the force of a mountain, make it sharp enough to cut through wind. It was just a pity that he could only afford one sword. A part of him wanted to return to his old master’s domain where his twin swords lay, but he quickly squashed that thought. He would never return to that place. Never.
How does one slay a god? Kong did not know. The Archon War had been going on for a long time and a clear winner had yet to be determined. Kong had seen the rise and fall of many gods. He had taken part in battles where a god perished. However, even with the countless battles he fought in, he never fell a god before.
Was it even possible for a lowly illuminated beast to slay a god? Kong did not know, nor did he care. He would try. The moment he found where his old master had disappeared to, he would fly there and cut them down. It did not matter if he lived or died in that battle, as long as he got the justice he craved for.
Yet, centuries endlessly searching for a single god, centuries preparing to strike down a god, centuries of apologising to his dead sister for what he must do, centuries dreaming of the god dying by his old hands, centuries of living in the memories of his own failures, and Kong never found the god. He was never able to kill them. A different god had struck them down first, and in a battle that Kong never bore witness to.
It started with rumours of Rex Lapis’ latest victory against an evil god. The rumours Kong desperately wanted to be wrong, became the truth when he found the place where the evil god was sealed, an unmarked spot where Rex Lapis’ signature stone spear lay impaled into the ground. He could barely feel the presence of his old master laying deep within the earth, a chill that settled unnervingly upon his shoulder. Kong shook off the unnatural cold and forced himself to walk away.
Kong felt lost. What was he to do now that all meaning of his life was gone? What was the use of a weapon without an enemy? What was the point of everything he had done? It was all meaningless, everything was meaningless.
He returned to his sister’s grave, apologising for his failures — the past and the present. He wanted to leave his sword behind to accompany his sister. After all, what was a nameless weapon intended for revenge use for when the enemy whose life the blade was meant to take was gone? However, Kong could not subject his sister’s memory to something as cruel as revenge. She deserved the peace of rest, not the reminder of what this nameless blade would bring. Thus, after bidding his farewell to his sister, he set off on his aimless wanderings with the nameless sword in his hand.
As the Archon War drew to a close with Rex Lapis as the clear winner, Kong found himself wondering about his purpose. Should he turn his objective of revenge upon the god who slew his old master? Should he wander the world of Teyvat until the day his legs give out and his wings no longer able to take him to the skies? Kong did not know.
He found himself returning to his sister’s grave, paying his respects, apologising for his failures, then finally asking what he should do. Yet, there was no answer but the silence.
“Ying, tell me, what should I do?” he asked, over and over, despite knowing that he would never get an answer.
(And he would leave and return, doing the same thing over and over, cruelly subjecting himself to this endless cycle.)
A year before the Archon War finally ended, Kong was in one of his aimless wanders when he heard a cry for help. He rushed over without hesitation and found a small group of humans under attack by shades. He stepped in, his blade appearing in his hand, and the world stilled. In the next blink, the shades’ forms scattered like ashes, leaving no traces behind. Kong flicked his blade, yet he kept a hold on his weapon, remaining alert just in case there were more enemies lurking nearby. It was not the first time he saw a shade, but it was the first time he saw shades lurking near human settlements. It was also his third sighting of evil spirits that day. Were Rex Lapis’ seals falling apart?
“Thank you lord adeptus!” an elderly man said, drawing Kong’s attention to him. The other humans mirrored his thanks and Kong felt out-of-place, as though he did not deserve it.
“You shouldn’t be out here at night. It’s dangerous. Go back,” Kong said, turning around with the intention to leave, only to be stopped when a brave soul grabbed his arm.
“Wait lord adeptus!” the young man said and Kong snatched his hand back, making the man stumble backwards. He was only saved from falling to the ground by his comrades. “Ah, forgive me for the insolence lord adeptus, but we require your assistance.”
Kong should decline. After all, he owed these humans nothing and he would rather not have more humans ask him for ‘favours’ that he could not give. He was not a god or a deity who could offer blessings. And there was nothing that the humans could give him. He should decline and leave immediately but… he found himself hesitating.
“Lord adeptus, we require safe passage,” a woman begged. “Demons have attacked our village and we are the only survivors. Please lord adeptus, please help us, please save us.”
The group of humans began to beg desperate for Kong’s help, even going as far as kneeling down on the ground. The elderly, adults, children, all of them were begging for Kong to save them.
“Only to the next town…” Kong allowed and he bit his lip, shuddering when the group of humans profusely thanked him. “Let us go before more evil spirits show up. Stay close and keep your lanterns lit,” he quickly said, turning around and walking away before he could hear anymore thanks.
The journey was treacherous. Shades lurked in the shadows everywhere, and they would attack the moment they found a weak spot in the tight group. Although Kong managed to defeat every shade they came across, there were far too many close-shaves for his liking. The group managed to reach the town without a single life loss. A few had sustained injuries when a shade had snuck up from behind while Kong was fighting off a group of enemies.
“Thank you lord adeptus for your help!” an elderly woman thanked him the moment they set foot into the settlement.
“But I was not able to protect everyone… Even though I gave my word, I still failed.”
“You did not fail, lord adeptus. All of us still live and we have you to thank for.”
Did he not? He agreed to protect them, and yet, even with his best efforts, he still failed.
“You are too harsh on yourself, lord adeptus,” the elderly woman said when she noticed the look of conflict on his face. “Please forgive my insolence but may this one learn your name?”
His name? It had been a long time since someone asked for his name. However, when Kong opened his mouth to answer the woman’s question, he found himself unable to speak.
Kong was a brother who loved his sister dearly. He was a golden swallow who loved to soar freely in the vast blue skies. He was a swordsman who trained with two daos, wielding them like they were a part of himself. He was happy and content with what he had. However, at present, Kong was nothing like his past self. His sister was dead. The golden feathers he was once proud of were tinted black at the edges by the blood of all the people he killed. His original swords were lost forever, left behind to rot away in the place where his sister was murdered. He was not Kong, not anymore.
“I am no one,” Kong finally answered. “Merely a nameless beast in search of a purpose.”
The woman looked at him with a face full of pity and Kong had to force himself not to look away. “I see. Then I pray that you will find what you are looking for, lord adeptus,” she said, bowing down with her hands in a prayer, before turning around and ambling back to her family’s side.
Kong watched her walk away, watching until she and her family disappeared into the crowd before he turned around and left the town. He found a spot overlooking the town, and he sat down to watch the people go about their day. As he watched, he began thinking about his own words, of how he was nothing but a nameless beast searching for his purpose. Aether Weaver, it was his title. Before the Archon War, it represented the speed he was proud of. He would take to the skies, twisting through the clouds and diving at sharp angles with his wings tucked in to feel the exhilarating wind in his face. In a single flap, he would disappear from sight. On the battlefield, it stood for how he looked as though he was standing still when he attacked. To move as swiftly as the wind as though he stood firm like a mountain. But now, he was a nameless wanderer, a nobody with nothing to call his own. He could only laugh at how fitting it was.
When the Archon War ended, Kong was there to witness the final battle. Instead of hiding away or surrendering to the clear victor, the last god standing in Rex Lapis’ way had led an attack on Rex Lapis on his home ground. The entire army was completely crushed by Rex Lapis’ formidable adepti army. An entire war ended, finally bringing peace to the whole country, and it only took the lives of countless humans and adepti.
Kong had mixed feelings about the end of the Archon War. On one hand, he was glad that it finally ended. Perhaps the world could finally rest and recover from the devastation that the war brought. But at the same time, Kong wished that the war could have ended sooner. Perhaps if it had, his sister would have survived.
(And if he had the ability to turn back time, would he go back to end the war early or would he go back just so he could see his sister and apologise one last time?)
With the end of the war, came the rise of demon attacks. Disgruntled gods that lay sealed beneath the ground, every single one cursing the god who sealed them away, their desire for freedom and life gave rise to corrupted and tainted beasts preying upon any living soul unlucky enough to enter their sight.
Kong met shades before, mere shadows left behind by demons. He could kill one and ten more would show up. He started fighting demons when they started drawing close to human settlements. It was an endless army of monsters born from hatred, yet Kong never stopped fighting them even when he had no way of depleting their numbers. He learned ways to exorcise the demons and shades from both humans and adepti, cleansing lands to stop them from spreading their corruption.
He heard the call to arms from Rex Lapis, calling upon yakshas to help fight back against the endless army of demons. Kong wanted to answer the call at first. After all, it would be easier to fight off an army if he was not alone. However, even if it was unreasonable, he still could not forgive Rex Lapis for taking his right of revenge away from him. He was also not a yaksha, merely an illuminated beast who could never match up to the might of a yaksha. He had fought against them before, even drawing a few battles into a tie, but he was never able to win against one.
In the end, he turned his back on Rex Lapis and the yakshas, returning to the bloodstained battlefield where an endless undying army of monsters awaited him.
Aeons of fighting in a war, aeons drowning in the blood of both the enemies and the innocent, and it took a few years of constant fighting against the tide of corruption to finally take Kong down. The hatred had seeped into him, corrupting him from within until the weight of its burden was too heavy for him to carry anymore. A normal adeptus would have succumbed much earlier, but Kong was too stubborn, all too desperately clinging to life even when he threw himself into death’s embrace. Yet, there was only so much he could endure.
A man like Kong did not break. He shattered.
He felt himself being torn up from the inside, chains sinking into his flesh and pulling him down into the abyss. He screamed, both from the pain and the madness, as his hands covered his ears in his desperate attempts to block out the demonic laughter in his mind. He did not know how long he spent curled up on the forest floor, how long he spent screaming until his voice gave out on him, how long he spent numbed because the pain sapped all of his strength away. He did not know how long he spent suffering alone, but he remembered when he heard the sound of a flute cutting through the pain and madness. He remembered how long he spent staring at the full moon, listening to the flute playing a melody he recognised. He remembered how long he stayed on the ground until he finally found the strength to stand up again.
Kong forced himself to get up, stumbling out of the bamboo forest, and walking until he was past the land of Geo and wandering into the land of Anemo. He kept walking until he stood in front of the Anemo Archon. The Archon was still playing his flute, letting the familiar melody wash over the empty grove they were in. Kong moved to sit on the grass, leaning against the wooden stump that the Archon was sitting on. He closed his eyes and allowed himself to relax, far too tired to continue his fight, and far too tired to question how the Anemo Archon knew the melody of the lullaby his sister would hum to him when he was too scared to sleep after a nightmare.
When Kong woke up hours after dawn, the Anemo Archon was still there. He rubbed his eyes but the Anemo Archon remained there, smiling at him and definitely not a hallucination.
“Are you well, little swallow?” the Anemo Archon asked and Kong had to stop himself from bristling at the nickname. But despite his efforts, the Archon noticed and immediately apologised. “Ah, perhaps I’m being too friendly. May I know your name? Otherwise, I might have to give you an ugly nickname like ‘fluffy feather’.”
Kong let out a huff of amusement, a small smile on his face. “I am no one. Just a nameless beast,” he answered but the Anemo Archon looked saddened at his answer.
“But you must have been called by a name or title? Will you not indulge my curiosity?”
Kong bit his tongue. He should say no but could he deny a request from an Archon? Was he allowed to? He was tempted to use his title but the original meaning had changed so much that it felt strange to use it. However, other than his title and the name he discarded, he had nothing.
“Aether,” he answered after a long silence. It was a word torn from his title, the only thing he could offer to the god in front of him.
“Aether…” the god said, the name sounding alien in Kong’s ears. “It’s a good name. It is my honour to meet you, Aether. I am Barbatos, the Anemo Archon, but I suppose you already know that. I much prefer if you called me Venti though. I hope you’re well now. My songs can only do so much to ease your suffering.”
At the mention of songs, Kong remembered the familiar melody he heard and how it cut through the pain, easing the torment that still weighed down heavily on his soul. “The song you played, where did you learn it from?”
“There is not a single song in Teyvat I do not know. The song your sister came up with has a very beautiful melody. She put a lot of love into composing it for you. It’s one of my favourites.”
Kong teared up, immediately reaching up to wipe away the tears before they fell. Yet, the tears kept coming and when he failed to stop the sob falling out of his mouth, he hunched into himself and wept. Venti listened to the sobs in silence, waiting until Kong could finally speak. “Thank you. If… If it is no trouble, can you play it again?”
He could not see Venti’s face from where he sat on the ground but when he heard the shrill sound of the flute being played, he smiled and closed his eyes. He leaned back, resting against the stump and relaxing as he let the melody wash over him. When the song ended, far too soon for Kong’s liking, the adeptus forced himself to stand up, dusting off the dirt that stuck to him, before turning around and bowing low to the Anemo Archon.
“Thank you, lord Venti. You have given me a gift that can never be repaid.”
Venti waved him off. “Please, don’t call me lord! I may be an Archon but I am a bard first!”
Kong let out a huff of amusement. “If that is what you wish, Venti.”
“And I have given you nothing, it is you who must be given credit. Your choices are your own, and I only share what I am able to. Stand tall, Aether. You are strong. Take care and live for yourself. May we meet again soon.”
“Likewise. Thank you again, Venti,” Kong said before turning into a swallow and flying away. He glanced back, watching the Archon waving goodbye, before turning back to focus on the journey ahead of him. His heart felt much lighter now, and he could no longer feel the weight of his sins drowning him. Perhaps he would not have to live as a nameless beast any longer; perhaps he could live as ‘Aether’.
As though the world had heard his thoughts, he saw a bright flash at the corner of his eye and he had to quickly stop himself, hovering in place as he tried to make out the source of the light. He stared at the object in front of him and he had to stamp down the urge to laugh hysterically. It was a Vision, an Anemo Vision. Of all the times to give him a Vision, it was during his moment of acceptance to completely discard ‘Kong’ and embrace ‘Aether’.
Truly, the gods of Teyvat have the cruellest sense of humour.