Two weeks had passed since Venti, the Anemo Archon, had happened upon the Earth and brought it back to his own world at the size of a marble, reducing it and its billions of inhabitants to his mere playthings for him to do with as he pleased. By now the germ-sized mortals had long since lost track of how many times the boyish god had destroyed their planet and ended their lives, only to bring them back and do it all over again, but it was definitely more than a hundred, and probably closer to a thousand by now.
It seemed their puny planet had already been reduced to dust at least once on every inch of the god's body, including in some rather embarrassing places that they'd rather not think about. Still, Venti's divine feet remained his favorite tool of torment, together being responsible for at least half of the microscopic humans' deaths. Even now, as he slept, his feet still tormented them as their planet lay cradled in the arch of Venti's toes. Half the planet's surface had been wiped out simply by coming into contact with them, while everyone who still survived was made victim to constant earthquakes that rocked the world, earthquakes caused by such minor things as an imperceptible twitch of a toe, or even by the pulse of blood through the titan's veins, not to speak anything of the cataclysmic effect that anything greater than that had on the planet. If that weren't enough, the smell of Venti's foot had long since replaced their entire atmosphere, its powerful aroma, made a hundred times stronger by their size, being the only thing anyone could smell. No wonder, then, that none of the planet's surviving inhabitants could find any sleep that night.
Most of the couple billion who yet lived huddled in their homes, trembling as their world trembled, hoping that they might be spared another death this morning. Some, however—a few thousand at most—traveled towards the place where the titanic toes touched on the planet's surface, hoping to scale the digits and escape this doomed world. They didn't think life on those toes would be much of an improvement, but at least there they might escape the endless torment the god inflicted on the Earth every minute of every day.
They moved in a hurry, knowing that the god wouldn't be long in awakening now that the crepuscular light of dawn was starting to enter his bedroom, one after another climbing onto the skin of his toe and pulling themselves higher and higher up until they no longer felt the pull of their home planet, their puny bodies instead being drawn to the surface of Venti's toe by its own gravity. Then they could stand and begin exploring its endless expanse with all the mountains and valleys of the slumbering titan's toe print. Yet they wouldn't have long to get used to their new home before a curl of Venti's toes shook their world, sending them all scrambling to try and hold on to something so they wouldn't be tossed around.
Meanwhile, on the planet they had left behind, the crust cracked and hot magma seeped to the surface for miles and miles around Venti's toes, the planet trembling fearfully under the pressure and coming so very close to breaking altogether. It seemed death was upon the microbe humans, but Venti's toes stopped just shy of ending the planet. Yet, they weren't even given enough time to be relieved before Venti's laughter rang through the world like a peal of thunder, letting them all know that their god and tormentor had awakened.
“Good morning, little mortals,” Venti's all-encompassing voice greeted his minute subjects as his toes curled against the planet once more, caressing the tiny marble with an apocalyptic touch. Screams arose all over the world as everyone understood what they were in for now, many of them begging for mercy from their god, even knowing he hadn't shown them any yet, simply because it was the only thing they could do.
Venti, meanwhile, simply reveled in the sheer terror that the mere curl of his toes had sparked in the hearts of these billions of humans, listening with his divine hearing to their panicked screams and useless begging. He didn't think he would ever get tired of hearing their pathetic voices wailing in despair.
Uncurling his toes just before the planet was destroyed, Venti gave the mortals a moment of peace before splaying his toes a tad, letting their planet roll down between two of them until it had nestled in their grip, each planet-sized toe dominating an entire hemisphere. Then he took to wiggling his toes, slowly rolling the Earth between them, each roll wearing down its surface and bringing death over huge swathes of land, until at last only a tiny fraction of the population remained alive. Then he held the planet in place, taking in the terror of the survivors, before finally pressing his toes together until the whole thing popped, instantly ending the lives of everyone who still remained down there.
Laughing softly, Venti wiggled his toes together again, enjoying the feeling of an entire planet being reduced to dust between them. That was when he noticed that the sense of terror hadn't entirely vanished from his perception and, bringing his awareness towards another part of his foot, he noticed some thousands of humans clinging fearfully to his toe. They must have left the planet before he'd woken up, he thought; no way any of them could have survived everything he'd put the planet through. It brought him great amusement to note that even in trying to escape his wrath, the only place they could run to was onto him, to live as germs on his toe, and he gave his toe a wiggle to tease them all.
By now the first rays of sunlight were shining on the white curtains, illuminating the room with their soft glow. As good a time as any to get up, Venti thought, and so he rolled over in bed and sat up, bringing his foot closer so he could personally greet the would-be escapees. Then his hands seized on his foot, under his gaze the toe where all the microbe humans were. “Well, well, what do we have here? A bunch of little germs trying to find somewhere to settle? Tell me, who exactly gave you all permission to step on my divine body?”
The humans all looked up at the god whose eyes shone down on them like the sun and moon, all quailing under his gaze. Those who could still speak tried to explain themselves, to say that they had meant no insult by it and beg for mercy. Venti let them exhaust themselves pleading before laughing at them. “Oh, I'm just messing with you! I don't mind at all! If you want to spend the rest of your puny, pathetic lives living on my toe, you're more than welcome to it. In fact, you should have told me that's what you wanted so I could have moved you over myself! Oh, and let's not leave your friends out either; I figure I'll give all of you the chance to live on me and see how you like it.”
Putting his foot back down, arranging his feet so that their soles were facing each other two inches apart, Venti willed the Earth and all the humans he had killed back into existence, the puny people reeling after yet another death at his toes. As they looked around, trying to get some sense of what was going on now, each of them saw at least one of Venti's soles in their sky, scrunching and unscrunching to taunt them.
“Welcome back, little specks!” Venti said to them all, looking on their little world with great amusement. “I hope you had a good rest tonight; today is going to be a big day for all of you! See, some of you tiny mortals thought to climb onto my toes while I slept to try living on them, and I have to say, I love their idea! So, I've decided I'm going to let you all spend the day on my feet so you can decide for yourselves whether or not you prefer it to life on that dinky little planet of yours. Now hold on tight while I transfer you over!”
The people of Earth stood in place, waiting for thee youthful god to teleport them over to his soles, but a few seconds passed without any such change in their surroundings. Instead they noticed that the giant's soles took up an ever greater portion of their sky, and they realized that they were about to come crashing into the Earth.
In just a few seconds Venti's soles touched down softly on the Earth's surface—softly as something of that size and mass could, anyways, which meant that instead of being instantly destroyed it only had a big portion of its surface razed on contact. Venti then started rolling the planet around between his soles, making it pass over every last inch of his soles until it was cracked and crumbling. Finally, pressing his soles together, he crushed the tiny world, then moved his soles apart and blew away the pile of dust that had been the planet Earth.
Throughout all this the people of Earth thought themselves about to die once more, dashed against Venti's soles, but to they surprise they all found they remained alive through all of it. Alive and unharmed, yet still able to feel pain, suffering under the incalculable pressure of Venti's feet. Then, once it was all over, they looked around to find themselves, not on the ruined surface of their planet as they had thought, but on Venti's soles. Half or were on one foot and half on the other. Looking to the sky, the other foot's sole was just about the only thing anyone could see, while out on the horizon Venti's godly face peered down on them with a mocking grin.
“So, how do you all like being on my foot? Are you all comfortable down there?” Saying this, Venti scrunched his soles, and the vast land on which the microbe humans now found themselves was violently deformed, giving rise to mountains thousands of miles tall or valleys as many miles deep, while at the same time millions and millions of humans became trapped in the folds of his skin, screaming in pain from the crushing pressure until Venti unscrunched his sole and released them. “Good!” Venti said as though he hadn't heard all their shouts of pain and terror. “Of course, it would be really dangerous for all of you if I just put you all on my feet and left it at that, so I went ahead and made it so you won't be killed by me stepping on you! That way you can be free to enjoy being at my feet all day long. Oh, and I also made it so you can't fall off, so don't worry about that. That means you can't run away either—not that any of you would think of doing something so ungrateful, isn't that right?” Again he scrunched his sole, laughing at their misery. “Anyway, I figure I'll get going now. See you all later!”
Blowing them a kiss good-bye, Venti then swung his legs down and jumped out of bed, his feet coming down on the floorboards with a great THUMP that rattled all his tiny subjects. As he stood, billions of humans groaned under his weight, the only ones spared the crushing pressure being those that had ended up under the arch of his toes, or far at the edges of his footprint. He took a brief moment to enjoy their suffering, then went about his day as normal, putting on his clothes, smiling as he pulled on his pristine white stockings and his shoes. Then, once he was all suited up, he left his room at the inn and made his way across the city of Mondstadt to his favorite tavern, the Angel's Share.
The day was still early once he got there so there weren't enough people inside for a proper performance, but that was fine by him; it meant he had plenty of time for a few drinks of his own,which was what he'd really come here for anyways. He had some money still in his pouch from yesterday, just enough for a bottle of dandelion wine, and he didn't hesitate one second before spending it all. Licking his lips as he received the bottle, Venti popped the cork and started drinking, not taking the bottle from his lips until he had downed a good half of its contents. It was every bit as great as always, and he licked his lips with a satisfied sigh to make sure he got all of it. Shame that he only had enough for this one bottle.
Venti tried to ration out the rest of the wine until some more patrons arrived, but he found it impossible to resist its delectable aroma, and in less than ten minutes he had finished off the rest of the bottle and was rolling it wistfully around the table, lamenting that he didn't have enough for even one more drink.
“I thought I'd find you here!”
Venti looked over his shoulder to see a young woman clad almost entirely in white walking up to him. Smiling amicably, she pulled up a chair and seated herself next to him, resting her head in her hand.
“Lumine! What brings you to this fine establishment so early in the morning? Come for a drink, or perhaps for a performance?”
“Actually, I came looking for you. Some powerful monsters have appeared in Mondstadt recently and I was tasked with dealing with them, but I could really use some help. I was going to bring Jean along, but she's sick right now, so now I'm looking for someone else.”
“And you thought you'd try asking me, is that right? Well, I'd be happy to help you... for just a teensy little price.”
“I thought you'd say that. Bartender! Some more wine, if you please!” Lumine called, drawing some coins from her pouch while Venti laughed joyously.
Venti drank and drank and drank, not until he was satisfied but until Lumine, seeing that he was starting to get tipsy, told him she'd only buy him more after the monsters were dealt with. Then the two of them left the city in search for the monsters' base.
It was a beautiful summer day, the sun beaming down from the clear blue sky, shining its light on all of Mondstadt, while a pleasant breeze ruffled leaves and made the grass dance. It was as pleasant a day as Venti could have wished for, yet for the humans in his shoes whom no breeze reached, it was torture. It had been bad enough being stepped on by Venti time and time again, or thrown into the air with the cataclysmic impact of his every step, but now they were also dealing with the oppressive heat and humidity as the temperature inside his shoes went higher and higher.
Soon Venti's sweat started pooling in various parts of his sole, being especially drawn to those nooks and crannies to which some had escaped so they wouldn't be caught under the god's weight. Sweat flooded their hiding places, leaving them floating in huge lakes of the stuff. Even in places where his sweat was less of an issue, a thin layer of it still covered all of Venti's foot, as much as waist-high to the microbe humans if not taller—not that any of them could stand in it, or stand at all, except whenever Venti stopped walking. Instead most people either floated on the surface or were swallowed up by his sweat, constantly drowning but unable to die from it. His sweat also filled the air, making it feel as if they were all trapped in a sauna, and also making the smell of Venti's feet ten times worse.
The sweat, the humidity, the heat, the smell—all of it overwhelmed the poor human's senses as much as being stepped on. Their puny minds were filled with the sensations given to them by Venti's godly feet, and they could no more resist it than they could resist the god's steps. It didn't help that they had been awake all day either, and though they wanted badly to sleep, the sheer intensity of the experience wouldn't let them slumber. Had they been able to speak they would no doubt have said that they'd rather be killed again than be forced to put up with all this for the rest of the day, but of course they couldn't speak. They couldn't even think. All they could do was suffer.
Venti paid the humans no mind while walking with Lumine, but once the two of them had dealt with all the monsters and sat down to rest, he decided to check up on them and was very much amused to see what condition they were in. Still, he figured he should give them a little break, and so he took off his shoes and stockings and kicked out his feet to let the wind cool them off.
As the sweat evaporated from his feet, it was as if fresh life had been breathed into the microbe humans. Slowly they came to and were able to take stock of their surroundings. They tried to stand also, but found themselves stuck, plastered to Venti's sole by his dried-up sweat. No matter how they struggled, not even the strongest among them were able to tear themselves away, and in seeing this Venti let out a laugh, teasing his tiny subjects by wiggling his toes and scrunching his soles.
“What's so funny?” Lumine asked, coming to sit by Venti.
“Oh, nothing. I guess I'm just in a good mood today.” The two of them fell silent, enjoying the breeze together until Venti grabbed one of his feet and started massaging it, his gigantic thumb kneading the pathetic humans into his soft, warm skin, freeing them from their salty prison and rolling them back and forth as he rubbed his sole.
“Are your feet tired? Here, let me help you with them, then you can help me with mine,” Lumine said, crawling over to sit in front of Venti, who gladly accepted her offer and stretched out his legs towards her. And so Lumine took one of Venti's feet in hand, holding it up near her face and peering down at the silky smooth sole, never once suspecting that down on its surface were billions and billions of humans gawking back at her. To the Lumine was nothing short of another god, yet any hopes that she would prove a more merciful one were dashed once her thumbs sank into Venti's sole, kneading the insignificant humans into it, reinforcing their status as mere germs in this world.
Once she'd finished rubbing Venti's feet it was his turn to return the favor, so he knelt in front of her and grabbed one of her feet. As he started massaging it, he got a fun idea and transferred a few million humans over to her feet, making it so that they would stick to her body from now on, to live on her for the rest of their miserable lives with Lumine being none the wiser to it.
Venti had himself some fun pressing them into and rolling them around on Lumine's soles during the foot rub, then once it was done they both headed back to Mondstadt where Lumine got him another couple bottles of wine and left him performing in the tavern. By the time he left and went back to the inn, he was super tipsy and in the mood to have some more fun with his subjects.
“Ah, what a great day!” he announced as he was taking off his shoes and stockings back in his room. “I hope you little germs had as much fun as I did. Oh, but I'm sure you must have loved it! It must have been great not spending half the day dead.” He saw on the bed, his feet resting sideways in front of him where he could peer down at his soles and the humans covering them.
In truth the human had hated it even more than having their planet destroyed over and over again. At least spending so much time dead meant they didn't have to bear through so much suffering, and during the quiet moments they could go about their day with some semblance of normalcy in their own homes. Here on Venti's foot there was none of that. Even when things were quiet they were stills tuck on the alien landscape of the titan's sole, where everything was a reminder of their own insignificance.
“Well, good news for you!” Venti continued. “I've decided that I'm going to keep you all on my feet from now on! Say good-bye to that boring old planet of yours; you'll be living on my body for the rest of your lives! Aren't you all so happy?” They weren't happy at all, but there was nothing they could do about it. They were totally at his mercy, as he reminded with a scrunch of his soles.
“Anyway, I'm tired, so I'll be going to sleep soon, but first I have a little gift for you all; some wine I saved up. Here, let me pour you a drink.” He rolled out of bed, falling drunkenly to the floor and giggling as he landed on his butt, then crawled over to his bag where he still had one half-empty bottle of wine. This he grabbed and uncorked, setting his feet down in front of himself and wiggling his toes eagerly before taking a swig. “Well, get ready because here it comes!” he laughed, slowly tipping the bottle over towards his feet. Closer and closer its opening came, until a big spurt of wine came out and splashed onto Venti's feet, flooding the tiny humans' world.
“Oops! That was a bit more than I meant to give you,” Venti laughed. “That's way too much for you all to drink. Guess I'll have to help you out so it doesn't go to waste.”
Down on his sole, the humans were still swimming in the wine that covered his foot when their world was suddenly rocked as he grabbed his foot and brought it up to his face. Looking to the sky, they saw his mouth open wide, his vast, endless pink tongue sticking out and coming ever closer to them until it touched down somewhere around the god's heel, flattening millions of them. Those nearer his toes then watched in dread as the giant's tongue swept across the landscape at millions of miles per hour, barreling over everything and everyone in its path as it slurped up the traces of wine left on Venti's sole and replaced with with great pools of his saliva. When it was finished, half the people on that foot lay on his tongue while the other half were stuck to Venti's sole under a thick layer of his spit. The same thing then happened to those on his other foot, then Venti swished the wine around his mouth for a bit before swallowing, sending a billion humans down his throat. “Ah!” he sighed afterwards. “Well, that's enough for today! Good night, germs; I'll see you all tomorrow morning.” Then he climbed into bed and made him self comfortable, briefly dwelling on the microbe humans' plight on his feet and in his mouth and stomach before closing his eyes and falling asleep, leaving them all to come to terms on their own with their new existence on his body.