After that, since Mona had already divined Herloxia's existence, Ji An saw no need to hide it anymore.
He called Herloxia over through their mental connection.
When Mona first saw Herloxia, she made quite a fuss.
Although she had divined that there was a special presence connected to Ji An's fate line, she never expected it to be a Ruin Guard.
It left Mona in shock for quite some time.
Of course, as a researcher, this kind of rare occurrence only stimulated her curiosity further.
Hence the later scene where she tried to get close to Herloxia.
---
Aboard Herloxia.
"Gurgle, gurgle..."
Hearing the sound, Ji An glanced over at Mona.
Mona's face reddened. "W-what? I didn't eat enough earlier. It's perfectly normal to be hungry."
"So, disciple, hurry up and find your master something to eat!"
Ji An rolled his eyes. "Can't you find it yourself?"
Mona said with complete confidence: "A disciple needs to act like a disciple. No talking back to your master!"
She was really getting into this. Fine, let her enjoy it for now.
Ji An shook his head and jumped down from Herloxia.
A short while later, he climbed back up with food in his arms.
Mona took one look and complained immediately. "Sunsettias? Disciple, couldn't you find anything else?"
"Maybe you should go find something yourself. You're being picky when there's perfectly good food in front of you. Are you eating or not?"
Ji An settled back onto Herloxia and looked at her with a smirk.
What was wrong with Sunsettias?
When he first arrived in Teyvat, he had survived on them. These little fruits had been his saving grace.
"Hmph. Who said I'm not eating?"
Mona, mouth stubborn but hands cooperative, took one and started crunching away, juice escaping the corners of her mouth.
After eating, she sidled closer again. "Disciple, shall we start practicing being master and disciple? We should get it down before we arrive."
Ji An looked thoroughly uninterested and replied half-heartedly: "I want to nap. Go practice with Herloxia."
Mona shook her head rapidly. "Disciple, you need to take this seriously. What if we slip up in front of that successor?"
A knowing look crossed her face. "By my estimation, she'll be sharp, same as me. Very formidable. We can't afford to be careless."
She had managed to compliment herself in the same breath.
Unable to withstand her relentless pestering, Ji An gave in and played along with her charade, calling her "master" repeatedly, which she received with unconcealed delight.
---
They continued toward their destination.
It took roughly half a day.
"We're finally in Mondstadt. Ugh, I'm exhausted."
"Exhausted from what? All you did the whole way was sleep and stare into space."
"Chirp."
"See? Even Herloxia agrees."
"Disciple, you simply don't understand. As an astrologer, your master's mind is in constant motion, processing knowledge, working through calculations. I'm always using brainpower!"
Mona turned over lazily on Herloxia's back.
She seemed entirely unaware of how conspicuous she looked, lying there in her high-cut bodysuit and black stockings.
It was fortunate Ji An wasn't the leering sort, or she would have been in a very difficult position a long time ago.
Ji An: "Ha. Some master. What kind of master dresses like that? Are you trying to make your disciple lose focus?"
These two had been bickering the entire journey, mostly out of boredom.
Mona was well past the point of being bothered by his jibes. Instead, she tilted her head and said provokingly: "That's right, that's right. Disciple, if you want to do something to your master, as long as you have enough Mora, this master can accommodate just about anything."
"Anything?"
Ji An: "Then I want you to grab the Heavenly Principles and have them bring me tea."
Mona: "..."
Rumble!
Thunder cracked across the sky. The clouds rolled in and the heavens opened.
Mona: "This is your fault, disciple! You and your big mouth!"
Ji An: "Storms are unpredictable. What does that have to do with me? Mondstadt's weather is just fickle. Speaking of which, aren't you an astrologer? Couldn't you have seen rain coming?"
Faced with his pointed look, Mona was entirely unruffled. "It is still your fault, disciple. If I weren't with you, I absolutely would have divined it."
Ji An: ?
Ji An: "You're blaming me for the rain now?"
Mona was perfectly serious. "I'm not placing blame. I'm stating a fact."
She explained: "In the face of astrology, fate and truth are laid bare in the starry sky. Broad trends can be perceived at a glance, though specifics require more time."
Ji An: "And yet you couldn't foresee rain."
"That is precisely because exceptions exist. And the source of the interference is someone like you."
Mona shook her head. "Teyvat's starry sky only reflects the fate and truth of this world. Who could have anticipated that someone as thoroughly unreasonable as you would appear in it? When I first detected your existence, I thought I had made an error."
---
It was a sudden downpour, and they had no umbrella. Fortunately, Herloxia was airborne.
The two took shelter beneath her, waiting out the rain before pressing on.
Passing through a low valley, Mona pointed to a manor below.
"Disciple, look, that's Dawn Winery. The owner is a man named Diluc. Mondstadt is known as the city of freedom and wine, with a wine industry famous throughout the continent. This Diluc reportedly controls roughly half of Mondstadt's wine trade. When I came through before, people were calling him the uncrowned king of Mondstadt."
Mona's tone went a little sour. "Rich people and their money. What does he need that much for? He could at least spare some to fund research..."
Under normal circumstances, Ji An would have teased her about being jealous of the wealthy right about now.
He didn't.
Mona waited, then turned around in surprise.
Ji An was standing on Herloxia's back, gazing into the distance toward the southeast.
Mona stepped into the air, a blue flash, and she was beside him, following his gaze.
"That's your real reason for coming to Mondstadt, isn't it, disciple."
Ji An hummed softly. "Is that Dragonspine? I want to take a look."
"That place... well." Mona hesitated. "Looking is fine."
She left it there.
At his signal, Herloxia climbed swiftly and flew toward the snowy mountain.
Before long, they arrived at its foot.
Biting cold wind cut against their faces.
"So cold..."
Mona shivered.
The clothes Ji An wore had been made with Arcane Transmutation, thick and layered, with a scarf. Under normal circumstances, they were more than enough to keep out the cold. Back when the weather anomaly had struck Liyue and heavy snow fell without warning, he had walked out of the Nine Pillars underground palace in these same clothes and felt nothing.
But the moment he entered the range of Dragonspine, he felt a chill that seemed to seep straight into the bone.
This was not ordinary cold. And it was getting worse the further they went.
Through his mental link with Herloxia, Ji An could also feel that her mood had dulled considerably since they had entered the mountain's reach.
Dragonspine, where the ancient kingdom of Sal Vindagnyr lay buried beneath ice and snow, was indeed something entirely different.
Ji An looked at Mona. Her expression earlier had suggested she knew more than she had said.
"Disciple, even if what you're searching for is somewhere in that mountain, your master advises you not to go in right now. Prepare properly first."
For once, Mona put on the air of a genuine master, her expression serious. "Dragonspine is unlike anywhere else on the continent."
"Why do you say that?"
"You can feel that chill, can't you? The kind that deepens the further you go, that no ordinary warmth seems to touch. Have you felt anything like it anywhere else?"
Ji An shook his head.
Mona crouched and pressed her palm to the ground, then looked back at him. "My master told me about this. This phenomenon exists because Dragonspine is not protected by the power of the leylines."
"You mean the leylines here were severed? Or that there were never any to begin with?"
Ji An's mind stirred. The images came back to him unbidden: the people gathered in reverence before the silver-white tree, the thriving ancient city, and then the nail falling from the sky, sealing that emerald mountain in ice forever.
He understood more about leylines now than he had then.
Looking back, that silver-white tree had likely been a sacred tree much like the Sacred Sakura at Inazuma's Grand Narukami Shrine, capable of channeling leyline power and blessing the surrounding land.
According to the history of Mondstadt that Seymour had obtained from his colleague Saeed, three thousand years ago Mondstadt had been frozen wasteland in every direction, with Dragonspine alone remaining warm and verdant throughout the year. That anomaly had almost certainly been due to the sacred tree's blessing.
Mona considered. "Neither description is quite accurate, actually."
"According to my master, Dragonspine's leylines weren't severed. They were suppressed. Something is holding them down, preventing the leyline power from flowing and protecting the area as it should."
Ji An nodded slowly.
The leyline network threaded throughout all of Teyvat, invisible and taken for granted, much like air. One doesn't notice air until it's gone.
Without leyline power, Dragonspine had ended up like this.
No wonder Herloxia's mood had dropped. She could likely sense there was nothing here to sustain her.
Mona met his eyes. "Disciple, let's turn back for now. Without proper preparation, Dragonspine is dangerous for both of us."
Ji An hesitated briefly, then nodded.
The clue to upgrading Herloxia's core lay somewhere within that mountain. But there was no rush.
"Don't look so grim," Mona added. "From what I understand, there's a group of scholars in Mondstadt who make a study of the snowy mountain. Once we're in the city, we can look into contacting them."
Ji An looked at her and smiled. "You know, you really are starting to seem like an actual master sometimes."
Mona lifted her chin. "Obviously."
---
Just before reaching Mondstadt, they passed through a small town on the way.
To avoid unnecessary complications, Ji An had Herloxia fall back and wait at a distance, as before.
They arrived at the great stone bridge before Mondstadt's gate.
Mona stepped forward, pointed at the city gate, and looked back at Ji An.
"We're about to meet that successor. Are you ready? Don't embarrass your master."
Ji An: "Yes, yes, yes."
Mona: "Then let's go in... Eh!"
Her expression shifted abruptly. Ji An guessed she had divined something and was about to ask what was wrong.
The next moment, the sky darkened.
Winds and clouds churned.
"ROAAAAAR!"
A tremendous roar shook the air. The pigeons on the bridge scattered in every direction.
The two looked up.
Within the heavy, churning clouds, the silhouette of an enormous creature flickered briefly and vanished.
Then, without warning, the beast burst through the cloud cover and bore down toward Mondstadt.
Now they could see it clearly.
Ji An didn't react strongly, only thinking the creature looked somewhat unusual.
Mona's expression changed. "This is... Stormterror, Dvalin?!"
"ROAAR! ROAAR!"
As if in answer, the dragon called Dvalin beat its wings.
The air turned hostile instantly, thick with a violent, aggressive energy.
Tornadoes erupted across Mondstadt. Screams broke out as people fled in every direction.
One of the tornadoes touched down directly beside Ji An.
"Disciple, move!" Mona shouted, elemental energy already gathering in her hands as she reached for him.
"It's fine, don't worry."
Ji An gave her a reassuring look. His body had been tempered by leyline power, sharpened by the combat memories of a divine marksman, and equipped with the artifact left by Little Jiang's father. He was far from what he once had been.
A small tornado wasn't going to throw him around.
Thud!
"What the—"
The sky went dark as something soft crashed directly into his face. His footing gave, and he and whatever had hit him were swept upward into the tornado together.
Spinning through the air, Ji An's sense of direction dissolved completely.
That, however, was not the part that concerned him most.
What concerned him more was the person now clinging to his back, white-sleeved hands locked around him in a tight grip.
Ji An struggled, trying to make sense of the situation, doing his best to ignore the warm pressure against his back.
"Stop moving!"
A clear girl's voice sounded close to his ear. He tried to turn his head.
The grip around him made it impossible. He caught only the glimpse of light golden strands of hair falling across his shoulder.
"Who are you? Let go!"
"Are you certain you want me to let go? If I do, you'll fall."
Ji An looked down at Mondstadt, now impossibly small far below, and said nothing.
A proud little hum came from behind him.
"Then do as I say."
The girl tightened her hold.
Ji An went still.
His thoughts, against his will, wandered briefly in an entirely inappropriate direction.
She really is quite something, whoever she is.
-------
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