Chapter Text
The Sandrone’s world-formula stopped ahead of schedule, just as he had predicted it would. It would no longer function, and his opponents would have no choice but to fall at his feet in surrender.
Everything was unfolding exactly as he had calculated, and Dottore couldn’t help but smile.
“Sandrone’s death spells the end of the formula that was running inside her body.”
Lumine simply watched, shattered by the loss of a good companion.
“Now, it is time for you to take your place by my side.”
He reiterated his offer to the Traveler, more out of courtesy than necessity. This would be the last opportunity he would offer her, but even so, he didn’t expect an immediate answer; all he received was the furious silence that followed Sandrone’s death.
“By now, I’m sure you have gained a greater appreciation for the power and authority I wield. What is stopping you from embracing a new world of endless possibilities?” Dottore added calmly, needing to push the Traveler just enough to secure her cooperation.
Of course, the Descender tried to refute him, throwing his own words back at him and denying any future collaboration.
«Hmm. Just as I expected.» he thought simply.
Dottore chose to ignore her. Not because she was wrong, but because it no longer mattered.
Then, the world-formula advanced.
That shouldn’t have happened.
The false sky tensed, and the Frost Moon emerged, forcing its way from outside to merge into Teyvat.
For a moment, Dottore felt nothing but irritation; he had already lost count of how many times the Descender and her friends had ruined his plans.
Frowning beneath his feathered mask, he used the Trilunar power to stop the moon’s descent and seal Teyvat’s false sky.
Even so, the force pressing from beyond managed to break through and shatter the dome of the false sky.
It was then that the lunar goddess, Columbina, finally reclaimed her authority.
Dottore watched as she spread her wings, descending onto the battlefield for the first time, and for the first time, he understood that he was no longer directing the experiment. He was only part of it.
The Traveler and Columbina pressed him together, with an irritating and efficient synchronization that managed to tear the Iridescent Marrow from his power and free their friend.
To his misfortune, there were now five variables he could no longer control. Two of them possessed power equal to — or greater than his own.
“This battle was never about fate...” Columbina said. “It’s about friends… family… And the home you stole from them.”
Dottore rolled his eyes in annoyance, his jaw tense with the urge to spit out biting remarks. He refused to let the power of friendship defeat him.
“Ha, so dull. Only the weak rely on each other for comfort.” he replied as he rose into the air and pillars materialized in the space behind him. “You shall see. Once I transcend fate, you will be nothing but fodder for my grand experiment!”
The Trilunar power vibrated violently under his control as the pillars crashed onto the battlefield.
To his frustration, the environment no longer responded to the rules he had established. An unnecessary convergence.
Dottore clicked his tongue.
He had studied gods, replicated authorities, and raised a god.
And even so, this scenario was slipping from his grasp.
Not due to a lack of power, but because of excessive, unwanted interference in the testing environment.
The authority Columbina carried sought to impose itself over his, to correct the heresy.
“Today, the moon lights up this world once more” The lunar goddess channeled all her power into the sky and brought it down upon the heretic.
The artificial Moon Marrow responded too late. Cracks spread rapidly through its core as it forced itself to maintain a constant rhythm and energy flow to withstand the Trilunar authority’s attack.
But as quickly as it had manifested, his artificial Marrow lacked the capacity to counter that overwhelming power.
Dottore staggered back briefly. He needed to recalibrate the Marrow and survive the attack.
He summoned the power.
But it no longer existed.
The artificial Moon Marrow fragmented and shattered shortly after receiving Columbina’s lunar strike.
The impact pulverized his body with almost insulting efficiency, disintegrating the Marrow, flesh, and mask alike.
The ground vanished beneath his feet as the hand-shaped platform gave way, breaking into fragments of light and lunar matter. For an instant, the entire world seemed to tilt, as if Teyvat itself rejected his presence.
He did not think of it as an end, but as a violent interruption. His consciousness fractured before it could reconstruct itself, dragged away by a force that belonged to no plane known to his experiments.
There was darkness and silence. He almost wondered if he had truly died. Either way, if he did die, some segment would handle the problem.
But soon after, he felt air against his battered body, his wavy hair shifting as he fell toward who-knows-where.
Dottore opened his eyes.
The sky that received him was not Teyvat’s.
And he fell.