[ Zhongli cradles whatever he has guarded between his palms tighter, so tight the leather of his gloves creaking is audible even in the din of this chamber. Hopeless? Desolate? Is that how Zenith looked from the outside? Is that what Diluc felt when he looked at Kaeya and Rosaria who swore oaths to a Lady who believed that Mondstadt was no more. Did the weight and hope of an entire nation rest on his shoulders, the whispered echoes of the people heard by only his ears?

Is that desolation also what Childe felt like in his last moments before Rosaria struck him down?

(No, no. Childe had been under the influence of the Meridian and he had been ill, physically so when Zhongli had encountered him. Then Childe's thoughts must have been much like Zhongli's own had been - are right now. Full of hope and yearning and longing and the warm memories of those that they will probably not see ever again. Did he hear his family? His friends? Did he think of Liyue fondly before he was cast out by plans designed by Zhongli's own hand? )

Ah, perhaps Master Diluc was correct--- ]

I do not know if I would call them hopeless or desolate. But perhaps---

If it is true that the Tree is dead and those Shard Bearers we have lost will not return, perhaps... perhaps I would agree with you that it all feels so very hopeless.