On top of a pile of corpses…I have climbed.

Those words echoed in the back of the doll’s cranium. As his biological mother now looked at him with a gaze filled with true contempt. Coming to Inazuma, the son, thought that he might be able to see the Electro Archon for who she is. In fact, even though he never voiced it, the Wanderer thought that he might have been able to build a positive relationship with Ei going forward. Making something of the blank slate after owning up to his transgressions. Alas, Nahida and he had never accounted for this phenomenon to be occurring in the lands of Inazuma. 

His adoptive mother, in growing anguish, watched this past event from afar. The Dendro Archon wondered what she would tell Paimon who had stayed behind in Sumeru due to being sick. But now her thoughts turned to the Wanderer’s safety. As the furious fire that at one point seemed to burn infinitely, had dissipated. The son’s ego deflated as his self-efficacy diminished.  In its place self-doubt, that had festered since the Wanderer threw away his identity, took its place. 

Maybe…this is what I deserve. For harming so many humans after being led astray by Dottore.

No!!

Nahida tried to yell into the Wanderer’s mind, but she had forgotten that her mind was merely trapped within a second of real time. That she was watching a memory of the world that had since passed. Thus, the caring mother couldn’t assuage her son’s self-derision during his time of need. To prevent his regression to a self-injurious demeanor that led him to erasing the memories of everyone in Teyvat. A foolish attempt to try to prevent the crimes he committed at the source. Of erasing himself. 

“SUCH A FOOLISH LIE. IF I WERE TO HAVE A SON THEN HE WOULDN’T HAVE BEEN AN INDIVIDUAL WHO HAD GIVEN UP AS EASILY AS YOU.”

Ei’s voice shook her son’s body physically and emotionally. They were words spoken from a woman willing to fight a creation of her body for nearly an eternity. The mother was an existence that had, through her resolve and efforts, brought so much more positive change to this world. 

You’re right…

Ei’s nostrils flared and shot a puff of the bitter air. The subtle scrunch of her nose would have been cute in a different situation. However, it only served to convey that the mother had lost her patience and was no longer delaying this play. She had found delight in the gustatory experience of the shrunken human, of Aether who was cooked a little by the Electro Archon’s electricity and would have another.

Glurslosh

Ei moved her hand out of the Wanderer’s sight to appreciate the vibrations that percolated through her digestive tract. The Raiden Shogun’s stomach was secreting a wealth of enzymatic chyme to attend to the charred tiny. Her gastric organ was pleasantly filled with the meaty mass as evidenced by the way her gastric nerves stretched. A nervous stimulation that led her stomach to clench down on the still solid food. Thus, fresh waves of electric alimentary pleasure would cause Ei’s toes to curl. For the stomach’s rippled folds squeezed down on the firm mass of the tiny’s body to the point that he had begun to dissolve.

I guess that I was never able to apologize to the people of Inazuma. Well…at least this may serve as my penance.

The Wanderer knew that his time was running short. However, instead of a resurgence of anger, there was an odd calm that pervaded the doll’s mind. Perhaps it was due to his acknowledgment of how life is doomed to atrophy. Regardless, the son’s better sensibilities found little comfort in the quiet peace that suffused through his mind. Especially as the hot air from his mother’s mouth wafted over him. The Wanderer was already forced to blink from the sour and bitter miasma that rolled over him. Moments before Ei’s thick pink tongue rolled underneath his body. The doll decided that he wasn’t just going to roll over in front of the most imposing figure in his life.

“You know what! The last place I needed to be was here! It was a mistake to come back and—”

The mother didn’t pay attention as she unwrapped her fingers and let her shrunken son fall from her grasp and land on her tongue. After an inaudible splat she reoriented her digits and pushed the doll’s face and body against the outstretched organ. Unlike Aether, the Wanderer struggled against the invasive force. Alas, it was a futile endeavor as the purple-nailed fingers pressed down and around the doll’s body with an immovable pressure. Ei’s glossy lips refracted the light of the room and momentarily blinded the doll. Giving the woman an easy time to smear the young man against her tongue and past her jaws. It was then that the mother retracted her tongue and carried her son’s body into with it. The gustatory organ undulated like a rolling carpet and pressed the Wanderer’s back against the upper palate of the Raiden Shogun’s mouth. Her teeth and lips pressed down around the Wanderer’s hips and clamped down like a vice. The sharp pain caused the doll to widen his mouth involuntarily. An opportunity for a flood of thick drool to bathe his much smaller mouth. The mother’s pungent saliva overwhelmed her son’s tastebuds. Disorienting the young man before she began to suck him for his flavor. 

Every part of the Wanderer’s body that was trapped within his mother’s maw was in agony. Ears pounded and his eyes felt like they were tearing up with blood. Meanwhile, the viscous drool laced over his body seeped through his clothes. As a result, the thick saliva dragged his kimono off his body. The continuous onslaught weakened the doll’s struggles as he pathetically arced his legs against the plump pillows of Ei’s lips.

MMMMHHHH~

The mother’s taunting moan burst the Wanderer’s eardrums. The doll’s sense of hearing interrupted by bouts of ringing as his sensorium began to dull. He did not see Ei’s fleshy uvula slap against his face as she pushed him further in. The mother’s fingers assisted in slurping the squirming meal down into the cloying depths of her esophagus.

Hm…. So much sweeter and saltier than the other tiny. Just get in there.

Gluck

GLUCK

Yes. Right down my esophagus.

Ei’s esophagus wrapped around the Wanderer in the same manner that it caressed the Traveler. The lumen wrapped tightly enough that it threatened to suffocate the doll as he slithered down the mature woman’s throat. But the organic binds were loose enough that he was unable to stop his descent. 

Perhaps there may have been some hope for the Wanderer if he had taken more breaks and didn’t fly so fast. But that was a moot point by now as he sunk down into his mother’s depths. Besides, that would have given more opportunities for other giant Inazuma citizens to pick Aether and him off. At the very least, the Wanderer would return to the center of his mother. Even though she didn’t even recall his existence, the doll would be dissolved in the boiling vat of Ei’s stomach acid and his essence will become something intangible once more. Indistinguishable from the essence that flowed through the Raiden Shogun’s body which had experienced a greater wealth of history. Just like at the time of conception, when he was just a mere thought that was played with in his mother’s head. Until she decided to make him. 

It was most appropriate that she would be the one to deconstruct him.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This…This can’t be happening.

Nahida thought as she hoped the scene that played out was just a twisted dream. But she knew better. The subtle shiver that coursed through the Electro Archon after she swallowed her son was unmistakably reality. A true event that happened in the past. It left the adoptive mother watching from afar in a mix of sheer disgust and terror. Nahida blamed herself for what she allowed to happen to the misunderstood and wronged young man she brought into her home.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ei stretched her back and flexed her toes before she continued walking. Her gaze directed towards the direction that she was walking. But occasionally she would cast a glance down her chest and towards her slightly distended middle. The mother’s stomach was stuffed with two chunks of meat. One squirming much more harshly than the other. It almost felt like she had butterflies in her stomach.

“Haah~ I must say that you are poor excuses for Fatui operatives much less my child and his friend, but you two make a wonderful meal. Perhaps this was always to be your eternal fate.” 

Suruglosh

Ei vocalized her thoughts. Unsure if the pair of digesting individuals could hear them from the barrier of her own skin and muscle, and the pleased moaning of her digestive system. The Raiden Shogun’s placid countenance veiled her exuberance at this successfully euphoric indulgence. Just moments ago, there were two individuals who were thinking and moving autonomously. Possibly frightened while traversing a world that was much too large for them. Only to have their freedom snatched away by her will. Now their individuality was melting up like butter under a hot sun. For their bodies were now bubbling up within the pool of bitter chyme within her. Ei’s stomach now served as an eternal chamber for the remainder of their existences. Until the lipids and proteins that composed their complex structures are broken down into succulent base components. Millions of minute cells that would do little but add a thin layer of pudge and muscle to Ei’s figure.

Did they look upon my form with awe the spare moments before I brought my judgement down upon them?

“Maybe the one pretending to be my son can pretend he is back in my womb. Would that be of some comfort for you?”

The Raiden shogun focused on any nascent feelings she could derive from her belly. She thought that she could feel a weak sloshing within her gastric organ. Either due to a thin pool of acid and enzymes melting down her prey, or due to the large volume of acidic substances being too thick to heavily slosh. It was the latter. As the first thing that the Wanderer noticed after plummeting into the thick pool of chyme was that it wasn’t a comfortable impact. The doll’s body impacted into the dense pool. His left side especially ached in supplication to the burning pain that the acids brought to him. As the Wanderer had fallen on top of Aether. The doll was unable to see in the dark space, but the Traveler’s body had several wounds already opened. Thick clumps of blood flowed out of his body as a wealth of enzymes invaded through these gashes. The pernicious substance methodically drilled through each of Aether’s individual cells that made up his muscle tissue. He was well underway to being digested from the inside-out and the outside-in. 

Suddenly, a wave of acids splashed against the Wanderer. He may have been unable to view the horrors that the Traveler’s body was experiencing from his mother’s stomach, but the violent tide would make sure that the doll would soon be in a similar strait. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Earlier, Aether’s sensorium was bombarded with a tormenting stimulus after stimulus. His skin sloughed off to expose his muscle and sensitive nerves. A process that evoked the first of many violent struggles that he should have exhibited earlier to escape Ei’s maw. Rather the involuntary convulsion of the Traveler’s body, as the mother taunted her son on the outside, served to spread the acid that was densely packed with toxic substances. Aether’s mind was figuratively lit ablaze as the endings of his nerves were frayed and sores became wide gashes. The bubbling enzymes doing their job to reduce him into a pulpy paste that would be shuttled down to the rest of Ei’s digestive system. During the spare moments that Aether was able to concern himself with more than the hellish purgatory he found himself in, he was able to cast his gaze into the grainy darkness. It was a sight that reminded him of the Plane of Euthymia. A ghastly dimension devoid of life. All life except for Ei’s existence. The Traveler’s vision of the grainy darkness melted away as the acid ate away at his eye sockets. Now Aether would be adding to that life and immense history of the divinity of the Electro Archon. As nothing more than a footnote, a thin layer of cells, to pad out Ei’s figure. Then the Wanderer’s body impacted against his own and he felt something break. Aether’s sense of self began to spread in the fiery pool as he felt a rush of violently frothing acids into a newly opened hole in his body. Eternity would welcome him soon.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Presently in the past memory that Nahida was viewing, the Wanderer tried to pick up Aether’s body. But he physically paled as he felt the muscles of the Traveler’s frame unwound from his attempts to hold him. 

No…this…this can’t be happening to you. Not after all the times that I brought you to the brink of life and death. You’re just going to go quietly into the night. Slushed into unthinking matter that won’t even add an inch to my bitch of a mother’s backside.

These were the thoughts going through the doll’s head as his mother stopped walking. The strong acid tide that battered the Wanderer, sweeping away any covering he had on his now nubile body, was due to Ei stopping. She had reached the comfort of her room. An area that wasn’t much different from the corridors and hallways that led here. But the brown tatami mats and ominously designed walls were supplanted by the floral scent of Sakura Blooms.

Were they still possessed by a proclivity to venerate me out of fear as I had them in my powerful grasp?

A complete contrast to the frothing caustic pool that Scaramouche had found himself in. His orifices stung from the contact of enzymatic elements that were already well underway to breaking the doll down. The organic materials of the Wanderer’s form sloughed off like peeling paint on a porcelain doll thrown away by a little girl. The craftsmanship of the doll’s body, that his mother meticulously created only to be discarded, was steadily being repurposed as the dense acid bubbled down into the funnel created by Ei’s pyloric sphincter. The mother intestines drained the essence of both the Traveler and the Wanderer.

Are they still able to perceive themselves in the same realm as me, despite being trapped within the nebulous black void of my stomach?

Ei sat down before picking up a book. One of the Light Novels that she picked up from Yae Miko’s bookstore. 

The Good Thing About Being Reincarnated as a Hilichurl is that I Only Need to Eat Sunsettias to Become Stronger!

It took the Raiden Shogun a moment after she pages through the novel before the Electro Archon chuckled mirthfully to herself.

“Perhaps I’m going to grow stronger from eating the two of you…although I don’t think that you are as nutritious as a Sunsettia.”

The unknowing mother lightly patted her stomach.

Sglorlosh

An action that reverberated through the Electro Archon’s abdominal muscles and the layers that wrapped over her meal. The electric activity evoked by this action painted a colorful image within Ei’s mind. She felt how tightly the muscular folds of her stomach wrapped around the pair of sodden meat snacks. The young man, if still whole, were pushed up against one another with barely any room to breathe. Resulting in a heat that radiated from the woman’s core in a smooth, pulsatile waveform. A benign change in the Raiden Shogun’s state that she readily accepted. The gentle warmth was one that made the woman feel cozy as she looked through the unique jargon and idiosyncrasies of the characters in her novel. All Ei would need is a blanket to fully relax and nearly drift off into a nice nap. Alas, as the Raiden Shogun, such opportunistic physical tranquility was not something that she could spontaneously indulge in. As an attendant or even Yae Miko could burst through the front door with a after of great importance. Regardless, it was a little inconvenience.

“If it makes the situation you are in any more bearable, you made a woman such as me quite happy.”

The mother’s fingers danced over her clothes tummy. The drumming of her fingers was like a distant cannon to the softening Wanderer.

“I might have spared you some mercy and listened to you and your lies longer. But you two were my first sumptuous meal of this kind. So don’t expect any mercy from me or my digestive tract.”

Ei tittered as she waited for a response.

Burglorsh

Oh~ How exquisite.

Ei’s toes curled and she unconsciously bit her lips in response to the spike of pleasure she felt. 

Even the gastric groans of my stomach now elicit a subtle euphoria that I have never chanced upon before.

A deeply true statement. As Ei might ever had experienced such a delicious and intangible taste if she just resided in the Plane of Euthymia for all eternity. Her shift in perspective owed partly due to the Traveler who was about to breath his last. His inspirations had become clogged with protein-rich acids and his own blood. Heated sanguineous bubbles would pop and tear at the linings of both Aether’s esophagus and larynx.

Shit…So much pain. I…I…can’t let myself drift off or…

…

…

…

BURGLURSLOSH

The stomach squeezed down tighter as the mother’s focus shifted fully to the novel in her hands. She had reached in interesting portion of the story. When the main cast had to weather a dangerous storm. Thus, Ei didn’t immediately notice that her stomach had shrunk in size. The rippled rugae pressed and squeezed down further upon the Wanderer. He felt something give, but it wasn’t the stomach walls. A wave of despair filled his body as he felt bones and lumps of meat surround his body. The frayed and jagged edges of what felt like Aether’s pulled up body was pressed down over him. 

Is this where my path led me? Has the hill of corpses that I laid out behind me caught up to me?

The Wanderer thought as the Traveler’s corpse, converted into a pulpy paste, coated his body. They were now abrasive chunk of sodden acid that pressed down on the doll’s body. Aether’s blunted bones piercing through the son’s sores and wounds. Hastening the process of digestion.

Perhaps I was always destined to a path of ruination. To be brought down and folded, literally, and figuratively, by the might of the mother that created me.

The Wanderer tried to breath. To extend his life for even a moment further. As the efforts of his adoptive mother, Nahida, was in the back of his despairing mind. Efforts that he didn’t want to disappoint. However, the Wanderer was unable to tell his surroundings apart. Aside from the frequent moments when his face was forced against the rippled walls, he was either drinking in enzyme filled stomach atmosphere or gastric chyme. Both were so thick that the doll was unable to tell which was which with his failing body. It was only when it was too late, his body breaking down a step further that he knew that he took a breath at the wrong time. 

The weight of meat that was once Aether and the acidic liquid that the doll swallowed left his torso feeling like it was going to burst. It would only take moments for the Wanderer’s life to end like Aether’s life. For a wide enough gash to let in a deluge of low-pH liquid that would break up the necessary connections of his individual existence. Leaving nothing behind but the components that would be dependent on Ei’s body for purpose. As a son should be.

SGLOSHLOSH

The gastric chamber heated up. A perfidious miasma rippled through the Wanderer’s nostrils and cleared his nostrils of their ability to smell. A blankness within the darkness, loss of sight and smell, of his mother’s stomach would be followed by a concomitant numbing of taste, touch, and hearing. The frothing storm of acids slowly drowning the doll who had been looking for a purpose for far too long. A purpose he had found in the comfort of the mother that he had not seen since conception. 

It really was a shame. The one that I didn’t smush under my foot was a bit cute. His expression a bit willful and intelligent. He also seemed to possess a bit of determination.

The mother turned to the next page of her book.

Just perfect for the first tiny to be melted down like butter, flow through my enteral tract like a dense rolling paste, before jiggling as a small layer of cells along my body.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nahida’s head pounded. The anguish she felt was both mental and emotional. To the point that they had manifested physically. Every attempt that the Dendro Archon made to investigate the present of Inazuma was met with an unexpected backlash.

Is it psychological? What if it’s a reality that I don’t want to be true?

Nahida’s heart sunk. She trembled and tears filled her eyes, but she couldn’t let herself weep yet. Her body felt tired, and her head spun. Physical weakness, an unexplained asthenia, began to set in. Should I contact someone in case I faint…maybe Faruzan.

No…that can wait. There is still someone else that I can contact if I can’t send my projection to the Electro Archon in the present.