DOES THE UNIVERSE BLEED ?

# 𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐀𝐊𝐈𝐔𝐌 : A  selective  and  low  activity multimuse  RP  blog  currently  featuring  characters  from  Genshin  Impact  and  Honkai:  Star  Rail.  Run  by  Vênus  (30+,  any  pronouns)  and  affiliated  with  vvaeritas. Having tremendous fun since 05 / July / 25.

  𝐑𝐔𝐋𝐄𝐒 ▰ 𝐑𝐎𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐑 ▰ 𝐌𝐀𝐈𝐍𝐒 & 𝐀𝐅𝐅𝐈𝐋𝐈𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐒 ▰ 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐓 𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐊𝐄𝐑

This time is no different. Incandescent fire flows through his veins to the steadying rhythm of his new heartbeat; he is reforged in the site of his slaughter, overseen by the Huitzilopochtli — his Sweeping Skyfire — with its many solar arrays peppered over obsidian both ancient and new, and cradled by the titanic pillars his corpse's ribcage form around him.

For the centuries following his reawakening, this is his home, where everything is a blueprint for his intellect, authority and ambitions. It's where he can put back the pieces of who he was, and, as importantly, who he has to be in this new era.

In it, in this new age of new kings, neither Tollan is what it once was: its quietness still sacred amidst the humming of the surviving sentinels, yet hollow and bereft; its glory remembered, but no longer seen. A fear taken form. What remains of Tonatiuh, of Ixlel's sundered heart, and of the purpose of the sustaining primal flame are heresies unto themselves, enough to summon silver rivulets of tears that last until pride calls them back into its sovereign's core. And where anger bubbles promptly at the brutality of it all, of the betrayal of his own brother welcoming the felling of dragonkind, hope rears its head only after countless days of mourning.

When the sun rises again for its king, he marches out of the Sacred City bearing only his crown, one worn with pride for a fallen kingdom of slain sovereigns. As he ventures forth, the peace taken away from his kin by the usurpers leaves a bitter bile upon his tongue.

And the absence of his equals...

How could it have turned out like this?

There are traces of them everywhere; carried in the air he breathes, rooted in the grass beneath his feet, coursing through the water that shapes the hills. There should be more, Xiuhcoatl feels the emptiness of their absence like a bruise over his chest. Names, voices and faces, all lost to time and tragedies. All but two. Apep...

...and Leviathan.

His, the only name that feels like longing, an emotion too tender amidst all reason and the precise, calculated reign the Flamelord's kept. His counterpart, a match as logical as it's visceral.

It steers Xiuhcoatl onward by instinct toward the one thing which may not yet be completely lost, like a compass fixed on the life they once shared before the havoc of war set them apart. Yet, it draws him to no place he can accept, taking him where the footprints in the paths the two sovereigns once crossed together have long been swept away. Unjustly swallowed by the tides of time, but not beyond being found again beneath the sand along the shore.

So the search is carried on until most of the world's map is etched into the mind and soul, until the sea returns the Flamelord back where it matters: to him.

The newly chosen trails are, at last, a beacon to the other dragon's presence within a foreign city. Between its walls lie towering buildings that shut out most of the sunlight; it's pavemented and set upon raised ground as if fearing the water it should worship. A contradiction, he notes, and a disrespect. It fails him to understand why it would be the willing residence of the one who brought lives into the world through the primordial essence of the sea. Alas, there's much in this era the Flamelord has yet to fully grasp and accept.

Xiuhcoatl ascends with obvious haste, cutting through bustling streets and incessant chattering to chase this city's summit where its defiance is most clearly declared. Each step feels like a glimpse into the future, while also stretching through all the years fate had sentenced them to be apart. Despite the uncertain consequences of an encounter, a figure stands at the threshold, and the imposing weight it carries so effortlessly proves to the sovereign that his years long search ends here.

Unexpectedly, though, his stride hiccups, halted at the first step carved toward the palace in betrayal against all that unwavering purpose. Had it been fear, Xiuhcoatl would have found it simpler to confront, but it's something else entirely. Something delicate, fragile enough to slip away under the first sign of carelessness, yet immense enough to seize the moment whole and keep it suspended in an unyielding grasp.

It drags on silently but, before it can sift through his fingers, he closes in and exposes the rawness of the vast, quiet ache that had driven him here.

❝ It's been far too long. ❞ The form of the man across from him may have been altered, whether by will or time, but, right now, it matters little. After all, Xiuhcoatl would have known him in any guise, in any corner of the world, and sought him all the same. ❝ I've looked everywhere for you... Leviathan. ❞