Kael's eyes sharpened. He shifted his weight just enough to slip past the boy's reaching hand.
"Oh? You dare dodge me? Brothers, get him!"
Several of the biggest, meanest children in the group charged toward him.
Kael, even in a child's body, was still an adult on the inside. He didn't have any combat-related talents right now, but dealing with a handful of kids was nothing difficult.
The real problem was the baby in his arms.
He couldn't lift a hand to fight without risking Chenxi's safety.
Watching the kids close in, Kael braced himself.
No matter what happened, he wouldn't let anyone touch his sister.
Suddenly, warmth surged through his chest, racing through his limbs.
His whole body glowed faintly. Pale blue light pulsed from his heart, gathering in his hand like a living current. When the glow faded, a beautiful crystalline object rested in his palm.
A Vision, gleaming with the cold shine of ice.
Kael had awakened a Cryo Vision.
[Congratulations, Host. You have obtained an item: one Cryo Vision.]
Every child in the room froze.
In Teyvat, awakening a Vision was so rare it bordered on miraculous. Among the orphans of the House of the Hearth, the number of Vision holders could be counted on one hand.
Most of the Fatui relied entirely on technology, not innate Elemental Power.
Jealousy twisted across their faces.
That foreign boy actually awakened a Vision?
A Cryo Vision at that… Had he been blessed by the Tsaritsa herself?
The largest boy shouted, "He just got it, he can't use it yet! Don't be scared!"
He rushed forward.
Yes, this Kael had just received his Cryo Vision.
But the real Kael outside the simulation had mastered three different Visions long ago. He'd used Elemental Skills more times than he could count.
For him, activating a Vision was as natural as breathing.
Kael focused his mind.
"Absolute Zero."
Frost burst from beneath his feet, sweeping forward like a living tide. Wherever the cold touched the ground, ice blossomed upward.
The air turned razor sharp, filled with killing intent.
Everyone felt it.
A chill so deep it crawled up their spine and sank into their bones.
They trembled uncontrollably, terror spreading through their limbs.
In the blink of an eye, the advancing children were swallowed by ice.
One after another, they froze in place like sculpted statues.
Through the clear ice, their faces remained twisted in fear.
These children trained every day, but they had never seen real killing intent.
They had never been close to death before.
They understood instantly.
He was going to kill them.
They wanted to beg for mercy, but frozen solid, they couldn't move. They could only feel their warmth draining away, little by little…
"Enough!"
A Fatui operative, who had been watching from the side, finally stepped forward, frowning.
He had been assigned by the Knave to oversee the children of the House of the Hearth. When the fight first broke out, he had no intention of intervening.
The Fatui embraced survival of the fittest.
If the children bullied each other, competed, fought, that was encouraged. Only the strongest deserved to serve a Harbinger.
And the Knave had personally instructed him to pay special attention to this foreign child.
He wanted to see what made the boy special.
He never expected Kael to awaken a Vision.
Nor did he expect the sheer force of Elemental Power that erupted from such a young boy.
In mere seconds, the entire room was coated in ice.
Realizing the danger, the Fatui operative rushed forward.
"Stop your Elemental Skill right now!"
He didn't care whether the children lived or died. They were property, assets belonging to a Harbinger. If they were damaged, he would be blamed.
He shuddered at the thought of the punishment waiting for him.
Kael looked up with wide, innocent eyes.
"But… I just awakened my Vision. I don't really know how to use it yet. I don't know how to stop it…"
With his Deceiver talent active, no one in this world could detect his lies.
The operative saw only a lost, confused child and believed him immediately.
It was true, after all. How could a nine-year-old instantly control a brand-new Vision?
"Well then… what do we do?"
Panic twisted the man's face. He looked like he could already see his own execution.
Kael shifted his sister in his arms and walked toward the fireplace.
The fire had been extinguished completely, leaving only a thin trail of black smoke.
He picked up a torch, lit it with a flint striker, and walked back to the frozen boys.
"Can't we just use fire?"
Without hesitation, he brought the torch toward the face of the boy who had bullied him the most.
"Wait, stop!!!"
The operative was too late.
Every Fatui soldier knew the basics of elemental reactions. Even without a Vision, their tech weaponry required understanding the fundamentals.
Cryo and Pyro created the melt reaction.
The moment the torch touched the ice, warm steam rushed outward.
The ice trapping the boy cracked and began to give way.
When the boy fell free, he rolled on the ground, screaming.
"Ahhhh!!! My face!!! It burns, it burns!!!"
Kael let his eyes water, blinking up at the operative with a trembling voice.
"What… what happened to him? Did I do something wrong?"
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Next Target 700PS :)