"Man, these guys have been lurking under Mt. Yougou for centuries, huh?" Reisen Riou muttered.
By the time he reached the battlefield, Raiden Ei and the rogue gods were long gone, fighting who-knows-where.
This conspiracy was a mess of factions: Khaenri'ahn remnants who'd somehow ended up in Inazuma, Abyss agents, and failed gods from the Dark Sea.
The curse's power came from the Abyss, targets were picked by Khaenri'ahns, and the Dark Sea gods supplied intel and hideouts.
Some sentient malevolent spirits, catching wind of the plot, joined in.
What a chaotic stew.
Their decoys were a few spirits, a clever plan—since they wouldn't face Ei directly, the spirits couldn't die permanently. Worst case, they'd revive them via ley lines.
But they didn't count on a wildcard.
Alice, the Hexenzirkel's luck-blessed adventurer, smashed their decoys and grabbed the real target's tail.
Things escalated fast. Great youkai and Vision-holders clashed with spirits in a chaotic brawl.
When the sentient spirits and Dark Sea gods tried to grab their people and flee, Ei struck, slicing the spirits to bits and leaving the gods squealing in pain.
No idea where they'd fought to now.
Reisen didn't care about that. He directed elite forces, ensuring none of the bastards escaped.
"Mt. Yougou's getting trashed," Yae Miko whined, draped over Reisen's shoulder.
"Who knows what those Dark Sea weirdos were thinking," Reisen shook his head, baffled.
"Shrine maidens, rotate shifts! Keep the barrier strong!" he ordered.
"Yes, sir!"
"Gotta say, Yanya's a top-tier tool," Reisen grinned. "Ex-shrine maiden, perfect for commanding them."
"I could do it too," Miko huffed, messing up his hair.
Her eyes glinted. Gotcha.
Crack—a barrier snapped over Reisen's head.
"Heh, little Miko, you're still green," Reisen chuckled. "Enough playing. Sense Ei. Is she back?"
Miko focused, then shook her head. "Ei's too far. Can't feel her."
A distant thunderstorm lit the sky, its Electro so strong it reached Mt. Yougou.
Reisen smacked his lips. "No need to sense her now. Ei's going all out."
"The General's won! Everyone, push harder!" he shouted to the youkai, samurai, and maidens.
"Eternal glory, Narukami forever!" their cries grew feverish.
"Sir, Miss Alice requests an audience," a samurai reported.
"Bring her in," Reisen said, eyeing a fuming Alice.
"Thanks for this, Miss Alice. Without you, it'd have taken ages to track these creeps," Reisen said. "For your reward, I'll add extra Mora and let you pick one item from my private treasury."
"Or, if you prefer, solidified Thunder Elixirs."
"They don't have a fixed value, but last black market sale was 30 million Mora. With the state of the nations, prices are probably spiking."
Reisen, flush with funds, hadn't sold elixirs on the black market in ages.
Other elixir-makers, also Mora-rich, didn't bother either, driving prices sky-high. Inazuma's last black market elixir went for 70 million Mora.
Inazuma's elixirs were Teyvat's cheapest, thanks to low wealth and high supply.
In Liyue, one fetched 320 million Mora at auction.
Fontaine was wilder. Elixirs had bizarre uses there, spiking prices. The last black market deal was a flat 1 billion Mora, and demand still outstripped supply—Fontaine's inventors spent like it was nothing.
Alice had every right to be pissed. She'd been roped into facing multiple god-level foes, not just one great youkai.
Good thing Reisen and Ei weren't total jerks. When things escalated, they jumped in, saving Alice from disaster.
At full strength, she could match a god, but that battlefield was beyond any normal god-tier fighter. Even Ei, without her Gnosis, struggled.
Alice was easy to appease. After Reisen's suspiciously generous compensation, she let it slide.
She picked three solidified Thunder Elixirs and some solid ley line crystals as her reward.
Those were hard currency across the seven nations.
The sky-piercing thunderstorm Reisen saw was Ei wielding her Gnosis.
Gods, with eternal laws, world-class martial skill, and Celestia's authority, wielded apocalyptic power when combined.
…
Ei returned at dusk.
She'd clashed with the gods at Inazuma's border. She didn't lose, but it wasn't a clean win—too many enemies. She'd borrowed the Gnosis's power to make them pay.
"We wrapped it up perfectly, but we didn't catch the Abyss's shadow. All we got from the Khaenri'ahns is that the curses came from them," Ei said.
"These disgusting things never end," she sighed.