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"Place the squirrel on the back of the round-eared cat, and the devout little dog will pull open the door ring for you."
After everyone dispersed, Victor Wang returned alone to the cliff beneath the tea party islet.
Long ago, it was here that he had received Alice's assistance, and only then did everything begin. How could he not feel emotional about it?
On the tea party table, that 'lantern of utmost joy' was still there.
Now that he thought back on it, the biggest flaw in the "Call Alice Plan" he had devised when he first arrived in Teyvat was not the difficulty of finding an Anemo Slime, but this very lantern.
The tea party islet and the tea table did indeed seem to be Alice's property, and judging from her words, the location of this island did not appear to change easily.
However, the lantern capable of contacting Alice had actually been entrusted to Venti for safekeeping.
Whether that lantern had always been placed here by Venti, or whether it was only temporarily set here for this "prophecy incident," was hard to say.
This also meant that if Alice had not proactively revealed herself back then, there was a chance that he would have only managed to reach the island, yet failed to find the lantern—leaving him with no way to contact Alice at all… Perhaps he would have ended up catching the attention of Mona's master instead, and walked down an entirely different path?
Fortunately, all of that was already in the past.
However, the plans concerning Fontaine that lay ahead—once a mistake was made, it would involve the life and death of countless people of Fontaine. He could not afford to be careless. He had to think, and think more.
There were two versions of Fontaine's prophecy.
One was the prophecy passed down orally among the people of Fontaine: from the moment they are born, Fontainians carry a certain kind of "sin." One day, Fontaine's sea level will rise, the people of Fontaine will be submerged and dissolved by the waters, leaving only the Hydro Archon, alone on the divine throne, weeping.
The other was a set of four stone tablets left behind by someone who claimed to be "recording Fontaine's future history in the past." The first tablet depicted Egeria creating humans. The second showed Egeria kneeling before Celestia to confess her sins. The third showed Furina/Focalors being put on trial. The fourth showed Fontaine submerged by water, with Furina/Focalors sitting alone on her seat, crying.
The common ground between these two prophecies was that both mentioned Fontaine being flooded, and the contemporary Hydro Archon weeping alone on her seat.
Their differences lay in the details: the orally transmitted prophecy did not mention the contemporary Hydro Archon being judged, while the stone tablet prophecy did not depict the people of Fontaine being dissolved.
From the perspective of someone who had already lived through it, the direct cause of the "flooding of Fontaine" in the prophecy was a whale known as the All-Devouring Narwhal, which was consuming the energy of Teyvat's planetary primordial sea—namely, the Primordial Seawater.
The people of Fontaine happened to have an inseparable connection to the Primordial Seawater.
The first Hydro Archon, Egeria's familiars—the Oceanids—developed the desire to become human and go to the surface after coming into contact with humans. To fulfill their wish, Egeria stole the power of the Primordial Sea and used it to create human forms for them. Thus, the people of Fontaine came into being.
As a result, Egeria and the people of Fontaine bore the "sin" of "stealing the power of the Primordial Sea." In addition, perhaps there was also the crime of daring to create humans without authorization from the Primordial One. In any case, this angered Celestia, and thus the "prophecy" of punishment was born.
The All-Devouring Narwhal merely happened to become the executor of the prophecy—but indeed, there could hardly have been a more suitable executor than it.
If it were not stopped, after drinking up the waters of the Primordial Sea, it would, in pursuit of more Primordial Seawater, continue to prey upon the people of Fontaine whose bodies contained that power. Fontaine would be finished.
If they fought it, then with even a slight loss of control, the surging power would cause Primordial Seawater to spill onto Fontaine's surface. Due to their special nature, once the people of Fontaine came into contact with Primordial Seawater, their forms would collapse and revert to the essence of Oceanids. Fontaine would still be finished.
It was a deadlock—almost unsolvable.
To deal with the prophecy, the Hydro Archon of Fontaine, Focalors, devised a plan: to hide within the Oratrice Mecanique d'Analyse Cardinale to accumulate power, then destroy the Hydro Archon's divine throne, thereby returning the complete ancient authority of Hydro to the contemporary Hydro Dragon, Neuvillette.
The authority of the ancient dragons was originally the dominion of the elemental dragons. Even though Celestia had taken much of it away, as long as the elemental dragons still existed, it could never be fully stripped from them.
The Seven Archons, on the other hand, were not elemental dragons by nature. No matter how much they resonated with their divine thrones through their Gnoses, they could never fully grasp the authority of the ancient dragons.
Thus, to obtain complete ancient authority, it could only be entrusted to an elemental dragon.
If Focalors' plan succeeded, and the Hydro Archon's throne collapsed, Neuvillette would gain complete ancient authority, and would then have the ability to help the people of Fontaine become true humans—forever freeing them from the fate of dissolving upon contact with Primordial Seawater.
This would erase the "sin" of the people of Fontaine at its root. Let alone a whale—no fish would be worth fearing anymore.
But from this perspective, Focalors was doomed to die.
Was there really no other way to respond?
Victor Wang had been thinking about this all along. He had been thinking about it since gaining Anemo, and after obtaining Dendro, he had spent almost all of his time thinking about this problem.
In the end, he could only come up with a rather immature plan.
What did Focalors' plan rely on to succeed?
It exploited a loophole—by fulfilling all the scenes described in the prophecy: "the people judging the Hydro Archon," "Fontaine being flooded," and "the Hydro Archon weeping alone on her seat," while uniquely avoiding the scene of "the people of Fontaine being dissolved," yet still counting as the prophecy being fulfilled.
If the prophecy had to occur, and "dissolution" was also a part explicitly designated by Celestia, then no amount of exploiting loopholes would allow Focalors to avoid the fate of the people of Fontaine dissolving.
Who says true humans can't dissolve?
That would be underestimating Celestia.
It could only be said that Celestia's resolve to have the people of Fontaine "dissolve" was not firm enough.
Thus, Celestia's prophecy had loopholes. Anything not explicitly stated could be maneuvered around—and from this angle, the stone tablet prophecy seemed more reliable.
In that case, since neither the stone tablets nor the orally transmitted prophecy explicitly stated that the waters flooding Fontaine must be Primordial Seawater, could this loophole also be exploited?
If it was all about exploiting loopholes to fulfill a prophecy, there shouldn't be any hierarchy to it.
But just like that "lantern of utmost joy" on the tea table—no, even if the lantern did not exist, there was still some room for error. However, for the people of Fontaine, the question of "whether ordinary seawater could be used to flood Fontaine in place of Primordial Seawater to fulfill the prophecy" had no margin for error. If it failed, it would mean Fontaine suffering an additional flood for nothing.
Therefore, the steps of this immature "Fontaine Salvation Plan" would have to be as follows:
First, determine whether ordinary seawater could be used to flood Fontaine in place of Primordial Seawater to fulfill the prophecy.
Second, deal with the All-Devouring Narwhal. And since there would be no intention of eliminating the "sin" of the people of Fontaine, it would be necessary to avoid stirring up the Primordial Seawater—ideally, to remove the All-Devouring Narwhal in a peaceful manner.
Third, flood Fontaine with ordinary seawater, taking the place of the All-Devouring Narwhal as the executor of the prophecy.
The entire process would be extraordinarily difficult, but Focalors could be spared from self-destruction.
To save Focalors.
Victor Wang, of course, wanted to save Focalors. Even setting aside personal feelings, he still needed Focalors to help cleanse his elements.
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