Final Judgment: Fallen Sky

A black hurricane swept across the entire ruined square, carrying blades of wind.

The storms seemed alive. They scented the Sin Stacks that had steadily accumulated on everyone during the battle and pounced like bloodthirsty wolves, tearing deadly, churning vortexes into the ground.

"Wind isn't for wailing!"

A wild shout split the black storm.

Varka, the Grand Master who had returned to his peak under the laws of the mire, crossed his twin swords, and a raging cyan tornado soared into the sky.

"I am the north wind!"

The power of the north wind erupted with a thunderous roar, pure to the utmost.

Varka drove his twin swords forward like a chariot, plowing across the ground. The raging cyan tornado became a drill that ground everything to pieces, forcibly tearing a passage through the gale.

Then he burst upward, propelled by the wind.

In midair, dozens of spear-like bony quills suddenly shot from the Heavenly Demon's wingtips. Varka swung the greatsword in his left hand, blocking and deflecting every one of them amid a piercing metallic clamor.

Then, carried by the momentum of his spin, the greatsword in his right hand thrust straight at the Heavenly Demon's head.

"You did protect Mondstadt once, Dvalin. But if that protection has become a shackle crushing you... then I'll cut it apart!"

His twin swords came down wreathed in bitter frost, striking the Heavenly Demon's pale judgment mask with tremendous force.

A muffled crack rang out as Varka forcibly sliced off the bizarre bone horn on the mask's left side, the one representing the "balance beam."

The Grand Master did not pause for an instant. He planted a foot hard on the broken, falling horn, forced himself into another burst of motion in midair, and crossed his swords, stabbing them viciously into the eerie violet hollow at the center of the mask.

"...They... forgot... me... I too... will... 'judge'... them..."

The Heavenly Demon, grievously wounded by the successive blows, let out a harrowing shriek. A visible ring of energy burst from the punctured crack in the mask.

With nothing to push off in midair, Varka could only raise his crossed swords and withstand the tangible mental shock head-on. He was blasted away, falling toward the ground like a kite with its string cut.

At that moment, the enormous scales on the Heavenly Demon's chest shook violently, and its thick tail, an execution noose made of countless bones, locked precisely onto Varka with a howl that tore through space.

It even split into several chains in midair like venomous snakes, sealing off every escape route, intending to drag him into the Abyss and clear and strangle him.

Just as the noose was about to touch Varka, a blinding scarlet slash cut across the field of vision.

At some unknown point, Vergilius had appeared in midair like a ghost.

He did not even draw his blade. Instead, he raised a dress shoe and stomped precisely and violently on the tip of the bone noose.

The noose, powerful enough to smash a city wall, was forcibly halted in midair for an instant.

He slowly drew the orange-red short blade, which gave off a chilling hum.

"A broken scale can measure nothing but delusional arrogance."

A red light flashed.

Using the recoil from his stomp, Vergilius turned sideways, evading the noose's frenzied constriction.

"I will forge a path."

One drop, then two.

Crimson blood suddenly welled from the corners of his eyes and slowly ran down his indifferent, languid face.

Hum.

With a hum, a laurel crown woven from dark golden light and thorns appeared out of thin air, then settled firmly on his short gray-white hair.

Whoosh.

A cloak fashioned from thick blood, tangible killing intent, and karmic fire billowed and stretched wildly behind Vergilius, like a sea of asura blood burning fiercely.

At that moment, the City's Color Fixer, the Vermilion Gaze, fully bared to this other world his absolute fangs, capable of tearing the Abyss apart.

He turned his wrist slightly, and scarlet light gathered to its utmost at the tip of his blade.

An impossibly fine red line, too fast for the naked eye to catch, swept effortlessly across the enormous bone noose, carrying the absolute concept of severance.

The indestructible execution noose was instantly cut in two.

The severed, enormous bone spikes fell like a torrential rain, about to strike Varka, who had lost his balance below.

Vergilius swayed slightly and moved through the falling bone fragments as though strolling at leisure. His short blade became a blur, and with a few crisp, dazzling clinks, he easily flicked aside and chopped apart several deadly, enormous shards of bone, clearing Varka's deadly predicament.

Then the Color Fixer pushed hard off a falling length of broken chain, becoming a bolt of blood-red lightning that slammed straight into the Heavenly Demon's enormous abdomen, exposed from the side when its tail was severed.

"I have resolved to follow this torrent..."

The instant Vergilius made contact, his short blade traced dozens of dense, blood-red grids in rapid succession, driving its edge deep into the creature's flesh. Following the downward path of his fall, he forcibly carved out a terrifying gash tens of meters long.

Scalding poisonous blood gushed out like a waterfall bursting through a dam. Under that unrivaled, precise attack, the mountain-sized Heavenly Demon staggered sharply to one side and crashed heavily onto the ruins, completely losing its balance.

Before landing, Vergilius flipped lightly to dissipate the force and planted his feet firmly on a stone slab.

He flicked nonexistent blood from his short blade and, without so much as glancing at the poisonous blood falling like rain, merely looked down coldly at the wailing beast:

"Your judgment is worthless."

The thoroughly enraged Heavenly Demon let out a desperate wail.

"...The scales... have never... lied... they... are only... waiting... for... your... fall..."

"...Mondstadt... Mondstadt... I will make... the people of Mondstadt... all... weep in pain... under... the Final Judgment..."

"...I... am... the guardian... of the sky... and... your... executioner..."

The Heavenly Demon's enormous body rushed high into the sky. The scales on its chest fully materialized, becoming a gigantic judgment array that blotted out the sky and held Wei Zhenzu, Varka, and Vergilius firmly in place.

A gigantic sphere of energy formed from poisonous blood and corrosive energy came crashing down like a true falling star, bearing deadly pressure.

[Final Judgment: Fallen Sky]