"So it really was you—Barbatos!"
La Signora held a gnosis in her hand, looking down on the collapsed Venti with undisguised contempt.
The God of Mondstadt… so feeble that he needed humans to save his people?
After Su Ran tipped her off about the Anemo Archon, she had kept a close eye on Mondstadt's taverns.
Sure enough, she found someone matching the description—Venti, the so-called bard who appeared out of nowhere one day.
And with the Knights spread thin and the city's defenses lax, she didn't even bother hiding herself.
One clean ambush was all it took.
And now, the gnosis was in her hand.
"…You had people tailing me since I set foot in Mondstadt?" Venti clutched his chest, slowly getting back to his feet.
"Just when did you see through my disguise?"
Even stripped of his gnosis, his body remained intact.
The gnosis was never vital.
In fact, he had half-intended to let her take it and deliver it to the Tsaritsa anyway.
But what baffled him—how had she discovered him so early?
No matter how sharp the Fatui were, his act as a wandering bard should have been flawless.
"Your identity? It was the genius who told me."
La Signora slipped the gnosis away.
With the god powerless, she indulged in a few words.
"The genius… that new Harbinger?"
Venti had noticed the pair when they entered Mondstadt.
One of them had abruptly departed for Inazuma, leaving the other.
She didn't intend to linger.
Her hatred for Barbatos was not the kind that demanded his death.
It was disappointment—rage at his weakness.
Why had he been absent when Mondstadt was in peril?
But now that she had the gnosis, she had no reason to look upon this irritating god any longer.
"…Strange. I've never once revealed myself. How did that Harbinger know?" Venti rubbed his chin, bewildered.
The Tsaritsa had no reason to reveal it herself; the gnosis would reach her hand in due time regardless.
"That 'descender' is unusual indeed. I wonder if he'll bring Snezhnaya more chances against fate…"
The Tsaritsa's ambitions Venti already knew.
But he himself would never drag Mondstadt into defying Celestia.
If they failed, Mondstadt might share the ruin of the ancient nations.
Still… that descender bore watching.
"La Signora, the thunderstorm over Inazuma has cleared!"
She had just returned to a Fatui outpost to secure the Anemo gnosis when the report came.
"And?"
Could it be that puppet of the Shogun had finally grown a brain?
Why else would the lockdown vanish without cause?
"The Shogun was defeated by an outsider. Her condition is unknown. The storm likely dissipated as a result."
Even the Fatui agent speaking it looked incredulous.
The Shogun's power was beyond doubt—one who had carved her way through the Archon War.
And now, defeated so easily, left between life and death?
Absurd.
Even La Signora's eyes widened.
On all of Teyvat, she knew of no being who could crush an Archon so decisively— save perhaps those of Celestia itself.
Which meant the culprit could only be… Su Ran.
Yes, he had slain Dottore, proof of strength.
But to match the Raiden Shogun? A victor of the Archon War?
Even as a puppet, she was leagues above common gods.
Unless…
Unless the "genius" had already surpassed most Archons, perhaps even rivaling the Tsaritsa herself.
But if that were true—why would he ever lower himself to serve as a Harbinger?
"…Whatever the case, if he defeats the Shogun, then the gnosis must already be in hand."
How Su Ran managed it, she no longer cared.
Results mattered.
The gnosis of the Raiden Shogun was not like Venti's, which could be taken with trickery.
Nor like Morax's, yielded by contract.
To claim it, one had to face her head-on.
And if Su Ran truly achieved that—then his desertion no longer mattered.
Even if he hadn't been assigned to the Inazuma mission, the deed made him a hero of Snezhnaya.
Outside Tenshukaku, Kamisato Ayato finally met the sister he had longed to see.
But before he could even speak, Ayaka pulled him straight toward the Komore Teahouse.
Some things could not be spoken in the open.
Only after they secured a private room, even sending Thoma away, did she allow herself to relax.
There, she recounted everything she had learned within the castle walls.
Ayato, still basking in the relief of her safe return, nearly staggered when the truth sank in.
"You're telling me… that Harbinger intends to plunge all of Inazuma into a dream?"
His fists clenched.
The Sakoku and Vision Hunt Decrees had already brought hardship— but compared to this "dream," they were mild.
Hardship could be endured.
But an eternal dream that ensnared every soul— that was obliteration of the self.
And the Kamisato clan would be no exception.
"We must stop this. We cannot allow the Shogun to fall further under the Fatui's way!"
Ayato pressed his fingers to his brow.
Even as a faithful subject of the Shogun, even as a believer in her divinity— in this moment, he found her rule unbearably wanting.
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