Chapter Text
CRACK—
The world violently shifted. The ground beneath them vanished, and suddenly, Venti and Oliver were hurling down a blinding, swirling dimensional warp.
"Ahhh! WHAT THE HELL?!" Oliver screamed, flailing in the chaotic vortex.
Venti desperately reached out, fighting against the immense gravity of their fall into the dimensional tunnel. His fingers grazed his boyfriend's before he finally managed to snatch his hand. "Got you! Hold on!"
"Venti, what is happening?!" Oliver yelled over the roaring vortex.
"I don't know! Just hold on to me!"
Suddenly, a booming, mechanical voice echoed through the tunnel of light. It sounded distorted, skipping like a broken record.
"Entering Five—[glitch]—hts at Fre—[glitch]—Sub-9000."
"What?! What was that!?" Oliver yelled.
Venti tried to pull Oliver closer to his chest, but the swirling void around them abruptly collapsed. Directly beneath them, the floor rushed up to meet them.
Venti gasped. Before he could even summon a cushion of wind, the two of them slammed into the solid ground, tumbling harshly over the floor before finally skidding to a halt.
"Owww..." Oliver groaned, his face pressed against the cold, dirty concrete floor.
Venti was the first to scramble to his feet, immediately dropping to his knees beside his boyfriend. "Got you, baby," he soothed, gently gripping Oliver's arms and hoisting him upward. Oliver clung to him, his legs shaking.
"That..." Oliver blinked, trying to clear his spinning vision. "That was worse than a roller coaster." He shook his head. "Hell, that was worse than your warps."
Venti chuckled softly, rubbing soothing circles into Oliver's back. "I don't know what a roller coaster is, but yeah... even I'd say that was worse than my wind currents." His smile faded as he scanned their surroundings. "Where is that monster?"
They took a good look at the new world they had been thrown into.
It was pitch black. The only illumination came from a few grimy, flickering fluorescent lights buzzing weakly overhead. They were standing in a wide, cavernous building. A long, dirty hallway stretched out in front of them, disappearing into a wall of absolute darkness. Whatever was at the end of that hallway, they couldn't see it.
"Where the hell are we?" Oliver whispered.
"I dunno," Venti admitted, keeping his voice low.
Suddenly, a soft clattering sound broke the silence. Something small rolled across the tiled floor from behind them, slowly coming to a stop near their feet.
Oliver looked down. It was a small, white spherical pendant attached to a delicate chain. "Venti? What's that? It looks like it's glowing."
Venti knelt and carefully picked it up.
"Be careful, Venti..." Oliver warned.
Venti opened his palm, examining the strange object. "Looks like a necklace of some sort," he noted, gently poking the glass-like ball. "There's some kind of white mist swirling inside of it. It's pretty."
BANG.
A loud, heavy sound echoed from the depths of the darkened hallway.
Oliver snapped his head toward the pitch-black corridor, his heart jumping into his throat.
Venti immediately moved forward, an arm outstretched. "Stay behind me."
As the two crept cautiously down the dim hall, Oliver nervously eyed the walls. Slumped against the dirty walls were heavy, lifeless mascot costumes. There weren't many, just a scattered few, but their dead, staring eyes sent a chill down his spine.
"What is this place..." Oliver murmured. "Are we... in another realm?"
"I think we are. Nerraw must have done something. He caused us to warp here I think," Venti said.
"How are we supposed to get out then?" Oliver asked, panic edging into his voice. "Maybe you can break out? Do what you did when you came to my realm?"
"I can't, babe," Venti replied softly. "I used your avatar to leave, remember? You're not piloting it anymore."
"Oh..." Oliver deflated, shaking his head. "Right."
"And besides, even if you were, why would I leave my boyfriend behind?" Venti slowed his pace, falling into step beside Oliver. He firmly grasped the boy's hand, lacing their fingers together. "We do this together. Just like when we were in that Dimension Node place."
Oliver blushed, a small smile breaking through his fear. He squeezed Venti's hand. "Right. Together."
As they continued walking, Oliver couldn't help but stare at the dormant, bulky suits. "Why are there so many of these creepy things?"
Venti smiled softly, unbothered. "Those are scary to you?" He giggled. "They look no different than the mascots they use at the resort in Natlan!"
Oliver blinked, stopping in his tracks to look at his boyfriend in pure confusion. "There's a resort in Natlan?"
"Of course! I thought you said you 'played' my life in a video game? Surely you'd have come across that."
Oliver blinked again. "If... if it's something that was added after 2023, I wouldn't know," he said, rubbing the back of his neck. "I hate that I missed four entire years of Genshin Impact lore."
Venti let out a bright, musical giggle, pulling Oliver along. "That's all you're worried about right now? You sound like a total nerd whining about missing the latest volume of a novel!"
"Hmm~ maybe I am a nerd," Oliver smiled back.
Venti giggled again. "A cute one, though!"
As they walked, Oliver's eyes caught something painted on the wall ahead. He stopped abruptly, forcing Venti to halt as well.
"Look at that—"
Painted in large, faded block letters across the decaying wall was a logo:
MCM
Murray's Costume Manor
"Well, that would explain the furry costumes lying around," Venti noted, placing a hand on his hip. "Easybreeze could order some mascots from here!" he joked. "That is, if Teyvat ever decides to dabble in multiverse travel. Which will never happen, mind you."
Oliver studied the text, his brow furrowing. "Strange. Seeing a sign usually helps things click, but this world still doesn't make any sense to me. That name doesn't ring any bells." He shivered slightly. "This place feels... scary."
Venti nudged him playfully. "Oh, come on, Ollie. Can't handle a little darkness?"
"N-No! It's not that... it's just..." Oliver gestured vaguely to the lifeless suits. One was a bee. Another was some weird purple creature. Sitting in a corner was a slumped elephant. "Darkness... creepy mascots... It feels like something else I know. But the details are wrong." He looked back at the faded logo. "I've never heard of Murray's Costume Manor."
They reached the end of the hallway and stepped through a set of double doors into a massive, cavernous room. It looked like a giant storage warehouse. Towering metal racks filled with dusty boxes and spare parts stretched into the gloom. To their left, a small set of stairs led down to an unknown area. To their right sat a small, enclosed room with its door wide open.
"A building inside of a building," Venti said, blinking. "Huh."
Oliver stared at the looming shadows of the warehouse, then pointed toward the enclosed room. "Let's check that out."
"Okay," Venti agreed, but he quickly stepped in front. "Stay behind me. You're not in that avatar anymore, so you don't have your powers,"
As they approached the small, square room, Oliver looked up. Printed on a dirty plaque above the doorframe was a single word: SECURITY.
"Huh," Oliver breathed, freezing in his tracks.
Oliver narrowed his eyes at the letters above him. "No way this is what I'm thinking about, right?" He looked to the left, at a lifeless furry mascot standing nearby.
Venti stopped and looked back over his shoulder. "Something wrong, babe?"
"I dunno. But if this is what I'm thinking it is, we need to be on high alert," Oliver warned, cautiously stepping into the open doorway. "At least you do. You're the only one here who can actually fight."
Stepping into the cramped space, they found themselves in a dilapidated security office.
"Wow..." Venti murmured, looking at the monitor and messy desk. He shook his head in amusement. "You know... jumping across dimensions? Not something Venti, or even Barbatos, is used to!" He giggled lightly. "I definitely never saw myself doing something like this. Which is strange, because after giving up my Gnosis, I should have seen a mortal like you coming into my life. Oh well! It makes it all the more fun being with you."
Oliver blushed at the sweet sentiment, though his hands were already busy fiddling with the dusty keyboard hooked up to the main monitor. "This has to be Five Nights at Freddy's," he muttered, his eyes scanning the desk. "Everything is screaming FNAF. Creepy animal mascots? A dingy security room? Unless this is some weird knock-off. Because what the hell is Murray's Costume Manor?"
Venti hopped casually up onto the desk, leaning back on his hands beside the glowing monitor. "I honestly have no idea what any of those words meant," he snorted. "I only caught the 'Murray' part because of the wall outside of here."
"Five Nights at Freddy's..." Oliver repeated absentmindedly. "It's another video game from my world. A famous one."
"Hehe." Venti reached out and gave Oliver's shoulder a playful shove as the boy typed. "These video games are seriously just like the books in my world, aren't they?"
Oliver smiled, not taking his eyes off the screen. "Well, we have books too. We just have other, more interactive forms of entertainment." He tapped the enter key. "Huh... the screen did something."
"Oh? That's a... I forgot what they're called. I've seen something similar in Nod-Krai!" Venti beamed.
Oliver blinked, slowly turning his head to look at Venti in pure confusion. "Nod-Krai? What the heck is Nod-Krai?"
"A nation!" Venti smiled brightly. "Back home in my realm!"
Oliver tilted his head, his mind racing. He had been trapped in stasis for years. The Fictional Universe grid contained billions of Sub-Dimensions, There's billions of realms connected to one dimension. That's what the subs are. Sub-3921 was the sub he got sent into for Genshin Impact. That sub must have been a sub with some elements of Genshin Impact from this year... 2026, or an earlier year. It just couldn't have been any earlier than 2023.
"I must have... missed that update," Oliver said. "Just like when you mentioned Snezhnaya,"
"Hmm. So you mean, because you were trapped in that lab, the 'game' I'm from continued to develop and grow?" Venti asked, his eyes sparkling with curiosity.
Oliver nodded. "I think so."
"Fascinating!" Venti clapped his hands together. "So these video games... whatever they truly are, they evolve? They grow beyond what they originally were? They shapeshift!" He grinned widely. "And you always say your world is boring. That doesn't sound boring at all!"
Oliver chuckled softly. "Well, of course it doesn't sound boring to you. This is all entirely new territory."
"To be completely honest, all of this machinery seems incredibly advanced... which Celestia would absolutely hate, I'll tell you that straight up." Venti leaned in closer to Oliver, a mischievous glint in his teal eyes. "And since Celestia has no power in this realm to hear what I'm about to say: Screw them! Your world seems to be completely free of tyrannical gods and their restrictive rules! If they have God's, they're very laid back about advancing! So you're allowed to just invent and advance! You mortals here are free to literally be free! And coming from the God of Freedom, that is a beautiful way to live!"
Oliver looked at his boyfriend, his heart swelling at the sheer earnestness in Venti's voice. He smiled gently. "You know, you have a really good point."
"The best bard in Mondstadt always has a point!" Venti beamed proudly.
Oliver playfully rolled his eyes. He desperately wanted to just sit down and talk to Venti about all of this—about his world, about freedom, about the chaos of his realm. It felt so incredibly liberating to just talk to him. But they had a literal monster to deal with.
"Hold that thought, babe," Oliver said gently. "Let me focus on this for a second, okay?" He tapped a few more keys. "Because if this really is a FNAF dimension... we're going to have to deal with... well, I have no idea what we're going to deal with, since I don't recognize this specific place. But Five Nights At Freddy's is a horror game with threats."
"Horror?" Venti tilted his head. "Like, scary? Ooh! Like one of those thrilling suspense dramas they play out in Fontaine?"
"Something like that," Oliver muttered, his eyes scanning the text scrolling across the monitor.
"This is strange... why is the system log showing—" Oliver took a step back, his brow furrowing. "Huh?"
At the very top of the screen, the log header read: DIMENSION NODE
Oliver blinked in disbelief. "That doesn't make any sense. This... this dingy security office can't be the Dimension Node for this entire realm, can it?" He looked around the cramped, dirty space.
Venti hopped off the desk, coming to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with him.
The terminal text updated, flashing brightly:
ERROR
That was all it said. The word cascaded down the screen in an endless loop. Oliver reached for the computer mouse, but before he could click anything, a robotic, synthesized voice spoke from the monitor's speakers.
"Error. The Holder has been killed."
Oliver froze. He narrowed his eyes at the screen. "What?"
He and Venti shared a deeply concerned look. "The Holder?" Oliver whispered. He looked back at the monitor. "The Holder is the entity that keeps the sub-dimension stable. If the Holder of this world is dead... how is the world still together?"
Suddenly, a mechanical clanking noise echoed from the right side of the office. Oliver jumped, backing away from the desk. "What's that?"
"Careful babe," Venti called out.
Built into the wall was a strange, bulky machine covered by a segmented metal door—like a miniature garage door. Oliver noticed a heavy lever on the far right side of the console. Hesitantly, he reached out and yanked it down. The metal door rattled and slid upward.
Oliver peered inside the dark compartment. Resting on a sliding tray was a strange object. He reached in and carefully pulled it out. "What is this?"
It was a massive, heavy plastic cartridge, resembling a floppy disk blown up to three times its normal size. Printed boldly across the front label were the words: MEMORY CHIP.
Frowning, Oliver flipped the heavy cartridge over to read the faded sharpie text scrawled on the back.
Billy Anderson
Oliver's eyes went wide as saucers. "Holy shit..." He spun around to face Venti. "Ba—"
Oliver gasped, nearly dropping the massive chip as he jumped in surprise. Venti had been standing right over his shoulder, practically breathing down his neck to keep an eye on him.
"Oh!" Venti snorted, taking a step back. "Sorry, did I scare you?"
"A little, yeah!" Oliver breathed out, quickly holding up the cartridge. "Look! It says Billy Anderson on the back. The kid! The kid from the missing persons document who got sucked into the FNAF dimension!" He looked frantically between the cartridge and his boyfriend. "Two things. First, this proves we are definitely in the FNAF sub-dimension. Second..." He stared down at the plastic casing. "I don't know what this means. Is Billy's consciousness trapped inside this chip? Is he even still alive?"
Venti reached out, gently taking the heavy cartridge from Oliver's shaking hands. "If Billy's soul is trapped inside this machinery, how do we get him out?"
"That... I have absolutely no idea," Oliver blinked.
Venti handed the cartridge back. "Hold onto that tightly. When we find a way out of here, you can give it to August. He seems to know more about this science stuff. Maybe he'll know what to do."
Oliver nodded, tucking the heavy chip securely under his arm. "I hope the others are okay up in the lab. What if Nerraw went back for them?"
"I don't know," Venti sighed, his shoulders dropping slightly. "If only I could read the wind in these places. It feels like I can, but when I try to cast my senses out, I get nothing but static." He shook his head, offering Oliver a reassuring smile as he rubbed his back. "But we'll never get out of here if we start spiraling into negativity. Let's stay positive, okay?"
Oliver nodded, taking a deep breath.
"Come here." Venti leaned in on his toes, pressing a soft, lingering kiss to Oliver's lips. When he pulled away, he grinned. "Feel better now~?"
Oliver couldn't help but giggle. "Yeah."
"Good~" Venti teased, his eyes darting downward. "I'd let you play with my belly button to calm your nerves, but—"
Oliver's face instantly went beet red. "BABE, NO!" he hissed, glancing around the empty room in sheer embarrassment. "We—come on, no teasing right now! We have to save the multiverse!"
Venti snorted, covering his mouth to stifle a laugh. "Yeah, yeah~!"
Oliver shook his head, fighting a smile as he walked back over to the monitor. "Alright... what to do..." he muttered to himself.
"That 'monitor' thing really does look just like the tech I saw in Nod-Krai," Venti mused, looking at the glowing screen.
Oliver scoffed lightly. "Of course. Teyvat somehow invents advanced supercomputers before they invent the microwave. Makes perfect sense."
Venti giggled. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Oh I dunno, just that Teyvat has its own laws or something of the sort~," Oliver smirked at Venti.
Thump.
A heavy sound echoed from the warehouse outside.
Oliver and Venti's head swiftly turned to the doorway, which was still open, as none of them had closed it.
Oliver immediately noticed a glowing electronic panel mounted on the wall next to the doorframe. He slammed his hand against it, hoping to trigger the security door, but the panel just did nothing. "Huh? Why won't it close—"
"Babe," Venti interrupted, pointing to a yellow sticky note taped above the panel. "I think you need a specific key. Some kind of mechanism."
Oliver leaned in to read the hastily scribbled note. 'Requires Data Diver to operate lockdown.' Below the text was a crude drawing of a strange device.
"What the hell is a Data Diver?" Oliver blinked. "And why does the drawing look like the Omnitool from SOMA?" He blinked again. "It even opens doors just like it too!"
"I think we need that to lock the door? Open it? Heck, to do anything at all with the door," Venti said.
Oliver expression twisted to slight anger. "Well, fuck us sideways if Freddy Fazbear comes stomping down that hallway yelling 'hor hor hor-hor hor-hor' and then just hors all over the fucking room then!" Oliver yelled in frustration.
Venti froze, staring blankly at Oliver for two whole seconds.
Then, the Archon burst into absolutely uncontrollable laughter.
"WHAT THE HECK?!" Venti screeched, doubling over.
"Wait!" Oliver panicked, his eyes going wide as he frantically waved his hands. "Shh! Keep your voice down! What if—"
It was too late. Venti was absolutely dying.
"BHAHAHAHAAH! WHAT WAS ALL OF THAT!? PIFFFFRRTTTFFFFTTT!" Venti wheezed, stumbling backward until he slammed into the wall beside the doorway, clutching his stomach as he laughed at the top of his lungs.
From the pitch-black hallway outside, Oliver heard a distinct, heavy scraping sound.
Oliver scrambled away from the doorway, slamming the memory chip down onto the desk in a panic.
Venti was slowly sliding down the wall, tears streaming from his eyes. "Hors all over the room!? PufffIFFTT!!!" he shrieked, erupting into another fit of giggles.
Suddenly, a rapid, heavy squeaking sound echoed from the dark.
A massive, decaying Elephant mascot was charging full speed down the hallway, sprinting straight for the open doorway.
"AAHH! Venti! MASCOT! SCARY MASCOT IS COMING!" Oliver shrieked.
Venti, still collapsed on the floor in a fit of giggles, looked up with a teary smile. "Whahahahat?"
The massive elephant blindly barreled into the room, but its bulky cody caught hard on the narrow doorframe. With a loud CRACK, the mascot violently bounced backward, falling flat on its massive, fuzzy ass in the hallway.
Venti, who was still recovering from Oliver's joke, watched the pathetic display. "Haha—WOAH!?" He jumped up, spinning around to peer out the doorway. He looked down at the goofy mascot sprawled on the floor.
"Oh." Venti blinked. He slowly turned to look at Oliver, his lips quivering. "Was that Freddy? And did it hor all over the ground? PIFFFFTTTTT!!!!" Venti wheezed so hard he couldn't breathe, clutching his ribs.
"Venti! Stop it! Now is the time to be serious!!!" Oliver yelled.
Suddenly, the mascot twitched. It began to slowly, mechanically rise from the floor.
"Oh FUCK MY GIBLETS—" Oliver squeaked, diving under the desk.
Venti was wheezing like a deflating tire, slowly collapsing back onto the dirty floor in amusement.
"V-VENTI!!!" Oliver screamed.
"Ugh, I got it, I got it! This is nothing to me. What even is this? Just some heavy furry thing?" Still giggling, Venti summoned his bow in a flash of teal light. "Piece of cake!"
Without even taking a proper stance, Venti lazily drew back the string and fired. A howling gale erupted from the bowstring. The Anemo arrow slammed into the elephant's chest, blasting it backward with the force of a hurricane. The heavy suit crashed into the floor and skidded wildly into the darkness.
"See? I told you! Just a goofy mascot! Nothing for me!" Venti brushed his hands off, strolling confidently out into the hallway.
A few yards away, the "scary" mascot was slowly rising to its feet once again. Venti sighed, dropping into a proper combat stance. He extended his left arm, planting his back foot firmly against the floor, and drew the bowstring taut. He released the arrow with a sharp twang. "Got ya!"
Once again, the mascot was blown violently backward by a blast of wind.
"Is it dead yet?!" Oliver called out weakly, peeking from the edge of the doorway.
"No! But it doesn't seem very smart!" Venti smirked, getting another glowing arrow.
His confident smirk faltered when he saw what the mascot did next. Its bulky head twitched and glitched violently. Then, the elephant mimicked Venti's exact pose. It dropped its back foot, extended its arm, And held onto... well, it looked as if it was holding onto the bow. But it had no bow.
It then "fired" arrows at Venti, but because it did not have a bow, there was no arrows coming to hit the bard.
"Uhhh..." Venti blinked, lowering his bow slightly. "Hey, uhhh, Ollie? I think your scary mascot is broken."
Oliver, still hiding safely inside the office, refused to look. "Yeah! Is it doing that weird, fast head-twitching thing?! It's tweaking out, I bet! YEAH, BECAUSE IT'S POSSESSED!"
"What? Nohoho!" Venti giggled, utterly delighted. "It's mimicking me... and completely failing at it!" Venti shook his head with a laugh. "Just look at it!"
Oliver nervously peeked around the doorframe. He watched in utter bewilderment and saw the mascot shooting nonexistent arrows from a nonexistent bow.
"The hell?" Oliver muttered.
Venti snorted. "There's your scary guy, babe."
Suddenly, a terrifying, dark voice erupted from inside the foam suit.
"OH, SCREW THIS!"
The sheer volume and malice in the voice made both Oliver and Venti jump.
"This is what I get for taking control of an abomination programmed to mimic actions!" the voice roared.
With a sickening sound of tearing fabric and snapping foam, the mascot suit ripped open from the inside out. A towering, rusted metal endoskeleton violently clawed its way out of the costume. Thick, suffocating black mist swirled aggressively around its steel joints.
Oliver and Venti's eyes widened in sheer horror.
It was the dark creature. Nerraw.
He had hijacked a body in this world.
Venti's playful demeanor vanished instantly, replaced by the deadly serious focus of a god of war. "Babe. Stay in the office," he commanded, his voice cold and sharp. "Nerraw is doing exactly what he did with your avatar. He's weak, so he's possessing things to shield him."
Oliver didn't need to be told twice. He threw himself back behind the wall. "Just be careful, please!"
"The bard is always careful," Venti replied quietly, raising his bow. The dark entity was now inhabiting a bare, lanky robotic skeleton, but the sheer amount of dark energy radiating off it made the air heavy. "I can take this."
Venti drew the string back and fired a high-speed wind arrow.
The heavy endoskeleton sidestepped with terrifying, unnatural speed. The Anemo arrow tore past its metallic head, slamming into a distant storage rack. The explosive burst of wind shattered the shelving, sending metal poles and empty mascot heads flying across the warehouse floor.
The robotic skeleton charged straight at Venti.
Venti dove to the side, rolling gracefully across the floor. Unable to stop its momentum, the massive robot violently crashed into the security office's doorframe.
Oliver screamed in terror as the metal beast slammed against the wall inches from where he was hiding. The endoskeleton blindly reached its long, metal claws into the doorway, swiping wildly at the space, but its bulky metallic shoulders were too wide to fit through the narrow opening.
"Ah! Get away from me!" Oliver yelled, scrambling backward against the desk. "You're a bare endo! You shouldn't even be freaking attacking!"
Out in the warehouse outside of the office, Venti aimed a glowing arrow straight up at the high warehouse ceiling and fired. "Get away from my boyfriend," he snarled.
A swirling, violent black hole of Anemo energy—his burst—ripped open mid-air just above the robot. Venti thrust his hands out, carefully manipulating the vortex's gravity so it wouldn't tear the entire building down. "Oliver is not a threat to you. I am."
The vortex violently sucked the heavy endoskeleton upward, tearing it away from the doorway. With a flick of Venti's wrists, the Anemo singularity forcefully ejected the robot, hurling it dozens of feet across the room where it smashed violently into a distant wall.
Venti summoned another arrow, his eyes locked in the direction the robot landed in. "Stay in the office, babe. I'll handle this." Without waiting for a response, Venti bolted past the office, sprinting into the maze of warehouse shelving after the machine.
Oliver stayed frozen in the office, his heart hammering against his ribs. He slowly crept forward and peeked out of the doorway, but Venti had already disappeared into the gloom.
Deep in the warehouse, Venti navigated through the towering aisles of storage racks until he spotted the endoskeleton lying in a mangled heap. It had crushed several heavy shelves during its crash landing.
Slowly, unnaturally, the metal skeleton rose from the rubble, its joints sparking and groaning.
Venti stood his ground, drawing his bowstring tight.
The robot suddenly raised its heavy metal fists and slammed them brutally into the concrete floor. A jagged wave of pitch-black energy erupted from the impact point, tearing a deep trench through the solid floor as it violently snaked toward Venti.
The Archon leaped high into the air, using a burst of wind to propel himself over the shockwave. The dark energy missed him completely, slamming into a towering storage rack behind him and blowing it clean through the warehouse wall.
Venti landed lightly on his feet, snapping his gaze back to the machine. "Whoo! Getting stronger? Or is that just a new trick?" He fired another arrow.
The endoskeleton tried to dodge, but Venti had anticipated the movement. The arrow bypassed the robot entirely and lodged deep into the wall right beside it. Instantly, the arrow generated a violent, sucking vortex of wind.
The endoskeleton was caught in the localized gale, its metal feet scraping loudly against the concrete as it tried to resist the pull. It was no use. The sheer force of the wind sucked the heavy machine backward, slamming it brutally against the wall with enough force to shatter it.
"So different than the Ruin Guards back home," Venti observed quietly, watching the dust settle. "Thinner, lighter... but it packs a serious punch. Too bad I'm stronger."
With a deafening mechanical screech, the robot surged out of the rubble, charging through the scattered debris with terrifying speed.
Venti gasped. The machine closed the distance instantly, throwing a devastating punch aimed right at his head. Venti twisted out of the way, the metal fist grazing his cheek. The robot immediately followed up with a vicious punch with his other fist, but Venti leaned back, letting the heavy arm swing harmlessly past his chest. Using its momentum, the endo spun entirely around, launching a devastating backhand.
Venti leaped gracefully backward, floating out of range. The robot's fist connected with the solid concrete wall instead, punching a massive, spiderwebbed crater into the stone.
"Getting weaker?" Venti taunted, maintaining his distance to maximize his archery range. "When your enemy starts fighting with such frantic, drastic movements, it's a sure sign they're throwing everything they have left!"
The bard aimed his bow, his eyes glowing with teal light, and unleashed a rapid-fire volley of Anemo arrows. One, two, three shots grazed the machine, throwing it off balance. The fourth shot struck true, piercing the very center of the endoskeleton's chest.
The arrow erupted into a downward, crushing pillar of wind pressure. The immense weight of the gale slammed the robot flat against the concrete. The floor beneath the machine cracked and buckled under the localized atmospheric pressure.
The endoskeleton strained and sparked, but it was completely pinned. It couldn't move an inch.
Breathing heavily, Venti glanced upward toward the distant security office. He couldn't see Oliver inside. He knew his boyfriend was probably just hiding out of sight, but he desperately needed to make sure he was safe while the creature was incapacitated.
Venti bolted toward the office, effortlessly vaulting over the pinned robot as he ran.
But the bard had severely miscalculated how long his wind trap would hold.
Just as Venti was halfway to the office door, the Anemo pressure violently snapped. The robot's hand shot out with terrifying speed, its metal claws clamping viciously around Venti's ankle.
"AHH!" Venti screamed in shock, and fell forward.
Before he could react, the machine violently whipped its arm forward, hurling the Archon through the air like a ragdoll. Venti flew straight into the office door and smashed head-first through the large window overlooking the desk.
Inside, Oliver had been huddled against the wall just left of the door. "Ah?!" he shrieked, throwing his hands over his head as the window exploded outward, showering the desk and floor in shards of glass. He barely had enough time to process what just flew into the door.
"Venti?! What happened!? Babe?!" Oliver scrambled up, ignoring the glass crunching under his shoes, and ran to the desk. He frantically peered through the shattered window frame. Beyond the glass was a massive drop-off leading into an entirely different, deeper section of the warehouse filled with massive shipping crates.
"VENTI!!!" Oliver screamed down into the darkness, straining to see over the edge of the desk. "Was that you?!"
Stomp
Oliver gasped, his blood running cold. He spun around.
The hulking metal endoskeleton was standing right outside the narrow office doorway, its glowing yellow eyes locked directly onto him.
"Ah!" Oliver yelled in pure terror. He frantically scanned the room for a weapon. He looked at the heavy CRT monitor—too heavy to lift. His eyes fell on an old, bulky radio receiver sitting near the keyboard.
Without thinking, Oliver snatched the receiver, violently yanking the thick cables out of the wall, and hurled it with all his might at the doorway.
"Get away from me, you FNAF 2 endo reject!"
The heavy metal radio sailed through the air and smashed dead-center into the robot's exposed chest. The sudden impact knocked the machine entirely off balance. It stumbled backward and collapsed onto the hallway floor with a loud, metallic crash, tangled in the receiver's thick wires.
"Babe."
Oliver gasped. He spun back toward the shattered window.
Rising slowly out of the darkness of the lower warehouse, buoyed by a swirling cushion of gentle wind, was Venti.
"Venti! You're okay!" Oliver cried out in overwhelming relief.
Venti nodded, his expression deadly serious. "Now let's make sure that you're going to be." He stretched both of his arms out toward the broken window.
Oliver didn't hesitate. He climbed onto the desk and stepped carefully through the jagged window frame. Venti wrapped his arms securely around Oliver's waist, pulling him tightly against his chest. Holding his boyfriend securely, Venti turned mid-air and rapidly descended into the massive, cavernous lower warehouse, landing softly on the floor next to of a cluster of giant wooden shipping crates.
"Oh shit..." Oliver blinked, looking around at the sheer scale of the room. "How big does one costume warehouse need to be?"
Venti didn't answer. He was glaring up at the shattered office window high above them.
Oliver followed his gaze.
The metallic endoskeleton was leaning menacingly out of the broken glass, its yellow eyes glowing in the gloom as it stared down at them.
Without a moment of hesitation, the heavy machine vaulted out of the window. It plummeted through the air and slammed into the concrete floor below with a devastating supervillian like landing. The shockwave rattled the massive crates that were nearby, and a one stack of boxes tumbled over with a deafening crash.
"What the?!" Oliver yelled in disbelief. "Bro, is this even FNAF anymore?! What is this Ironman shit?!"
"Whatever you remember this world as," Venti started. "Remember, that physical shell is being piloted by Nerraw. I can assure you that whatever dark magic it's using to fight us is absolutely not part of your video game's story."
Oliver nodded quickly, his fists clenching. "Right."
Venti let out a slow, steadying breath, dropping into a protective stance. "Stay behind me, Ollie. Seriously. I will not let it touch you."