"Kill!"
Xiao roared, his voice distorted by the Yaksha mask. He was a blur of turquoise light, tearing through the dark, red shadows of the Abyss ghosts.
These were not ordinary spirits. They were the remnants of the ancient war, saturated with filth. Ordinary elemental attacks passed right through them, consumed by the void.
"My element… it's being eaten!" Yelan gasped, her Hydro arrow dissolving into mist.
"They feed on elemental energy," Rosalyne said, her voice cold. She stepped forward, her staff glowing not with fire, but with a strange, spiritual pressure. "Use Haki. Physical force and will are the only things that can touch them."
Shenhe moved like a phantom. Her Calamity Queller didn't glow with Cryo; it hummed with invisible Haki.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Each thrust of her spear shattered a ghost, dispersing it into harmless smoke.
"So that's the trick," Yelan murmured. She switched her stance, imbuing her arrows with the invisible armor of Haki.
Twang.
The ghost shrieked and vanished.
In minutes, the room was cleared. But the air grew heavier.
"We are close," Xiao said, his voice tight. "The heart of the Compass is ahead."
They passed through a distorting tunnel of time and space, emerging into a vast, underground arena suspended in a void.
In the center sat a massive figure.
He was enormous, far larger than a human. Four muscular arms rested on his knees. He wore the tattered, ancient armor of Liyue, stained black by centuries of Abyssal corrosion. Purple lightning crackled erratically around his body, not controlled, but leaking like blood from a wound.
Xiao stopped. His mask dissolved into particles of light, revealing a face pale with shock and disbelief.
"Brother..." Xiao whispered, his voice breaking. "Bosacius?"
The four-armed giant twitched.
Slowly, painfully, he lifted his head. There was no recognition in his eyes. Only a swirling, chaotic purple light, filled with confusion and a murderous instinct honed over five hundred years of endless fighting in the dark.
"Kill..." Bosacius rasped, his voice like grinding stones. "Die... monsters... die..."
He didn't see Xiao. He didn't see humans. In his madness, he only saw the endless hordes of Khaenri'ah.
BOOM!
Bosacius moved. The ground shattered as he launched himself forward, all four arms wreathed in destructive Electro energy.
"Brother! It's me! Alatus!" Xiao shouted, raising his Jade Spear to block.
CLANG!
The impact sent a shockwave through the cavern. Xiao was driven back ten meters, his feet carving deep furrows in the stone.
"He doesn't know you anymore," Yelan said urgently. "He's completely consumed!"
"Don't hurt him!" Xiao yelled, deflecting another lightning-charged punch. He was holding back, refusing to strike his brother, but Bosacius had no such reservations. The Electro Yaksha was fighting to kill.
"Get back," Su Han commanded.
He stepped between the two Yakshas.
Bosacius roared and brought two fists down, intending to crush this new insect.
Su Han didn't dodge. He raised the Tessusaiga.
CLANG!
The blade blocked the massive fists. Su Han didn't budge an inch.
"You are a hero of Liyue," Su Han said, his voice calm but thundering with Haki. "I will not let you die a monster."
"ROAR!"
Bosacius went berserk. Lightning exploded from his body, turning him into a giant of thunder.
"Thunder: Berserk!"
Countless lightning orbs formed in the air, raining down like a meteor shower.
"Gravity Blade: Sever!"
Su Han swung his sword. A wave of purple gravity crushed the lightning orbs into nothingness.
"He's too strong!" Xiao panted, landing beside Su Han. "His madness has unlocked all his limits. I... I can't stop him without killing him."
"Then let me do it."
Su Han's eyes narrowed. The Tessusaiga transformed, scales of fire erupting along its blade. Qilin Form.
"Qilin: Wind Scar!"
A massive wave of fire and wind slammed into Bosacius, knocking the giant back.
Bosacius roared, raising a shield of lightning. "You cannot defeat me! Pagoda Shield!"
BOOM!
Su Han's attack shattered the shield instantly.
Seizing the opening, Xiao flashed forward, his spear tip stopping just inches from Bosacius's throat.
"Brother... please... stop."
Tears welled in Xiao's eyes.
But Bosacius didn't stop. He vanished, teleporting away with the power of the Compass.
"He ran?" Shenhe asked.
"No," Su Han said, looking at the spinning Compass in the sky. "The artifact moved him. We have to chase him."
They ran through the shifting corridors, fighting through wave after wave of stronger ghosts.
Finally, Su Han realized something.
"These ghosts... some of them are Millelith soldiers. When I hit them with Purification Power, they don't dissipate. They become clear."
He grabbed Xiao's arm.
"Xiao. Listen to me. When we find him... don't kill him. Restrain him."
"Why?" Xiao asked, his voice hopeless. "He is gone, Su Han. That is just a husk of resentment."
"No," Su Han said, his eyes burning with intensity. "I don't think he's dead. His soul is trapped in the madness, preserved by this artifact."
He took out a small, exquisitely carved wooden box.
The Thousand-Year Locust Tree Soul-Box.
"This treasure can house and nourish a soul," Su Han said. "If I can purify the Abyssal filth corrupting him... I can pull his soul into this box."
Xiao froze. His heart skipped a beat.
"You mean..."
"I mean I can save him," Su Han said. "I can bring your brother home."