What Ji An found strange was that Elder Andrei of the Temple of the God of Storms treated Jean and Diluc with cool indifference, yet was exceptionally respectful toward Ji An.
This made no sense on the surface. Jean and Diluc represented the political and economic power of modern Mondstadt. Ji An was simply a foreign visitor with no particular standing.
Why the difference?
Without the relevant memories, Ji An couldn't ask directly. He had to feel his way toward the answer through indirect questions.
Andrei's answer was: "Because you are recognized by the Divine King."
After Andrei explained further, Ji An understood. When other people approached Decarabian's statue, the residual divine power woven into it repelled them. When Ji An had approached, something in him resonated with that power instead of being pushed away. That resonance was what had earned Andrei's respect.
Ji An suspected it was because of the Physique he had inherited from the solitary king, which had created some kind of compatibility. Whatever the exact cause, the outcome worked in his favor. He wasn't going to question it too closely.
And more importantly, he hadn't forgotten one of his original reasons for coming to Stormterror's Lair.
"You're looking for a special Seelie that can store Pyro elemental power?"
After Ji An described what he needed, Andrei nodded: "Such Seelies do exist. There are some near the Temple of the Gale God."
Ji An felt a wave of relief: "Then would you be willing to take me to find them, Elder Andrei?"
He turned to the others: "Grand Master Jean, Master Diluc, Lumine, Paimon, please go on ahead. I have something to take care of here."
Jean nodded: "Of course. We'll return to Mondstadt and wait for news from Venti."
---
Jean and the others left the Temple of the Gale God.
"Is something wrong, Traveler?" Jean asked, noticing Lumine's expression as she walked.
"Ah... it's just that this place feels very different from before," Lumine said, keeping her answer vague.
Diluc, arms crossed, looked around at the stone buildings with his usual flat expression: "Different? Hasn't the old royal city always looked like this?"
Lumine sighed quietly: "Before, it was all ruins. Now everything is..."
"Hmm? Sorry, what did you say, Traveler?" Jean had not quite caught it.
"Nothing." Lumine shook her head.
Paimon jumped in smoothly: "Grand Master Jean, Master Diluc, the Traveler's just a little tired from everything. Don't worry about it!"
The shift was significant to anyone who remembered what had been there before. Compared to the ruined, wind-battered husk of a place that had been Stormterror's Lair, the old royal city as it now existed after the timeline alteration was something else entirely. The grand stone buildings were intact and carried the weight of history in every carved surface. The Anemo Archon Barbatos, after rising to godhood, had cleared the ice and snow from the northern lands and made life beyond the royal city possible. Most of Mondstadt's people had relocated to build a new city. Only the caretakers of the Temple of the Gale God had stayed behind.
But for all Mondstadters, regardless of where they lived, the old royal city remained a sacred site. People still made the journey to pay their respects to the solitary king.
As the group walked and talked, the conversation gradually turned to Ji An.
Paimon: "Why didn't Ji An come back with us?"
Jean thought for a moment: "Mr. Ji An learned from Scholar Saeed about a method for reaching Dragonspine that requires Elder Andrei's assistance. The archaeological team that explored Dragonspine used special Seelies capable of storing fire element to survive the cold there. Those Seelies are in the old royal city."
Paimon tilted her head: "Dragonspine? That sounds freezing. Why would Ji An want to go there?"
Jean gave a small shake of her head. That was not her question to answer.
"Dragonspine," Diluc said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "Now that you mention it, I've been planning a new wine I want to call Snow-Kissed. One of the ingredients requires a particular variety of ice from the snowy mountain."
"Snow-Kissed!"
Paimon's eyes went wide, her hands clasping together: "That sounds amazing! Master Diluc, when you make it, will Paimon and the Traveler get to try some?"
Lumine said, without looking up: "Paimon's a child. She can't drink alcohol."
Paimon: "I am NOT a child!"
Diluc said: "We do have something called Valley Sunset at the tavern. Fresh-squeezed fruit juice, made by hand."
Paimon bounced in place: "That sounds wonderful! Yes!"
Lumine pressed a hand to her forehead: "Paimon, you'll eat and drink anything anyone offers you."
Diluc said, with complete seriousness: "That's perfectly fine. If either of you ever have time to spare, you're welcome to help out at Angel's Share. We can always use someone at the bar."
Paimon's ears practically perked up: "A bartender? That sounds fun! Would we get to drink as much as we want while working?"
She looked at Lumine with bright eyes: "Traveler, let's do it! If you make a mistake with a drink, you can just give it to Paimon!"
Lumine nodded slightly. She was also, if she was honest, a little curious.
Paimon turned to Jean: "Grand Master Jean, you should come too! When we go, Paimon will have the Traveler make you the biggest cup!"
Jean smiled and shook her head: "I appreciate the invitation, but there's quite a lot waiting for me back in Mondstadt. Another time. Ah—"
"Watch out!"
Her voice shifted in an instant. She drew the sword at her waist and swung it, hard and fast, in the direction of Paimon.
"G-Grand Master Jean!?"
Paimon froze in midair, eyes wide, completely taken aback.
Clang.
The sound of steel on steel rang out from directly behind Paimon.
"Wh-what happened?"
Paimon's face tightened as she spun around.
She had misread the situation entirely.
Grand Master Jean had not been swinging at her.
Standing before them was a tall knight, his presence deeply wrong. His armor was encrusted with what looked like dried bloodstains. A dark, corrupted black mist seeped from his body in slow, continuous threads.
Even in the brief moment he had been standing there, the grass and flowers nearest to him had wilted and dissolved into a black liquid. The stone beneath his boots was quietly corroding.
Jean and Diluc's pupils contracted.
This was not a normal enemy.
Paimon, still not quite catching up to the seriousness of what was in front of them, shook her fists indignantly: "Hey! Who are you? Why did you attack us?"
"Paimon, get back!"
Lumine pulled her back and held her in place, keeping her own eyes fixed on the dark knight.
Jean and Diluc stepped forward together, positioning themselves between the knight and the others.
Diluc said quietly, not taking his eyes off the figure: "His aura. It's very similar to the power that corrupted Dvalin."
Jean murmured back: "Are you saying he's connected to the group that stole the Divine King's sacred relic? The Abyss Order?"
"Most likely. Be careful."
"Heh... heh heh heh..."
The dark knight gave no sign of having heard them. He raised the black sword in his hand, and the sound of his laughter raised the hair on the back of their necks.
"Did you hear it? The sound of the blades meeting." His voice dropped to something almost reverent. "How beautiful."
The laughter gave way to something darker.
"Even my sword... is denouncing your sins."
His voice moved between laughter and something close to weeping, muttering in fragments:
"Am I right... this is my knightly path... how could it ever tolerate..."
"Only when blade meets flesh... can your detestable sins be truly cleansed."
The erratic behavior gave Jean and Diluc pause. They exchanged a glance.
This figure was clearly not mentally stable. And yet he spoke of knightly paths, of justice, of sin. These were not the words you would expect from a creature of the Abyss.
Was there a possibility of a misunderstanding here?
His power was unreadable. If a peaceful resolution was possible, Jean would prefer not to fight something this dangerous when she could not estimate the outcome.
"Sin? Injustice?"
Jean spoke carefully, keeping her voice measured: "I'm not sure what you mean. What injustice do you believe we have committed?"
She let a beat pass, then added: "And if I'm not mistaken, the theft of the Divine King of Gales' sacred relic was carried out by your group, was it not?"
The implication was clear, and politely delivered.
The dark knight went still.
His twisted face shifted through several expressions, none of them settled.
"Stealing another's possessions... that is... an unjust act."
"We... did do that. So does that make us the sinners?"
He clutched his head, visibly agitated, muttering in circles: "An act of evil committed in the name of justice is still evil. No. I... I only wanted to carry out justice. I..."
There was an opening.
Jean's eyes lit up. She gave Diluc a small nod and was about to press forward carefully.
Then the knight's agitated movements stopped.
He lowered his hand from his head. His voice went calm in a way that was somehow more unsettling than the agitation had been.
"No."
"An act committed in the name of justice, for the sake of justice, is still justice."
"My knightly path is justice."
He turned slowly, raising the black sword toward Jean and Diluc, and the fanaticism came flooding back across his face.
"And your weakness... is the greatest sin of all!"
The moment the last word left his mouth, everyone's unease peaked at once.
The dark knight vanished.
In the same instant, he reappeared within striking distance of Jean and Diluc, close enough that there was almost no time to respond.
A grotesque smile spread across his face.
"Senior, move!"
Jean threw herself backward. The warning came out as she was already moving.
Diluc was a fraction slower. He gritted his teeth, raised his greatsword, and let the Vision at his waist flare to life. Scorching Pyro flames engulfed the blade as he swung to meet the attack.
Hiss.
His Pyro power dissolved on contact with the dark knight's aura, eaten through like paper in water.
The black sword came down.
Diluc rolled aside and narrowly avoided it.
Where he had been standing, the ground had been carved open like soft clay. A deep trench split the stone. Black power clung to its edges, still corroding outward.
"Wind, answer my call!"
Jean abandoned any measured approach. She channeled Anemo energy into her blade, gathering it at the tip, and drove the attack at the dark knight from behind while he was still extended from the swing.
The knight sensed her coming and began to shift.
"Judgment Dawn!"
"Gone with the Wind!"
Diluc and Lumine struck from opposite sides at the same moment.
The dark knight was caught in a three-way pincer with nowhere to go.
With her teammates driving him into the opening, Jean thrust her sword into the dark knight's chest. Anemo energy tore through the impact point, ripping apart his internal structure. Diluc's fire followed immediately, melting the dark knight's armor into rivulets of molten metal that ran down his body. Lumine's strike hit home in the same breath.
They stood for a moment, watching the figure they had hit.
His body was broken. His movements had stopped.
The thought crossed all of their minds at once: did that do it?
And immediately after: something doesn't feel right.
---
Deep within the Abyss, Aether sat on his throne.
Two Abyss Mages stood before him, staves raised, sustaining a deep blue crystal mirror that floated in the air between them. Its surface reflected the scene playing out above: the dark knight, Jean, Diluc, Lumine.
Most of the time, Aether's gaze rested on Lumine, his expression difficult to read.
It was only when the knight appeared to be losing ground against the three-way assault that he raised an eyebrow.
A Cryo Abyss Mage watching the mirror asked cautiously: "Your Highness. Sir Roland..."
"Don't worry about it."
Aether leaned an elbow on the throne and propped his chin on his hand, his posture unhurried: "Sir Roland's nature is fundamentally different from yours. He came from the true Abyss."
He looked at the mirror with faint amusement: "How would mortal power contend with what comes from the Abyss at its source?"
---
Back above.
The dark knight looked down at Jean's sword embedded in his chest.
Rather than pain or fear, he smiled.
"This thrust. Is that Favonius Bladework?"
His head tilted slightly.
"No. This is child's play. This is not his technique."
Jean's hand tightened on the hilt: "What do you mean? You recognize this technique?"
"Heh heh heh."
The knight laughed. It was not a pleasant sound.
Around him, deep fissures split open in the air, like eyes blinking open one after another. From within those fissures poured a vast dark aura, forming thick tendrils that latched onto the knight from every direction.
Like blood flowing through an umbilical cord, they fed him.
The damage to his body began reversing. The molten metal cooled and reformed. The torn structures knitted themselves back together. The pressure radiating from him climbed higher than it had been before the fight started.
Paimon: "He's cheating! That's completely unfair! How are we supposed to fight someone who heals faster than we can hurt him? Traveler, do something!"
Lumine stepped forward and reached her hand toward the dark aura surrounding the knight.
The corrupted power responded to her touch the way it always had, drawn toward her and beginning to purify.
Paimon cheered: "You're doing it! Keep going!"
Jean and Diluc both exhaled with visible relief when they saw it working.
But Lumine's expression did not ease. A cold sweat had appeared at her temple.
"There's too much coming in. I can't purify it fast enough."
Her purification was not slow. The problem was that the dark power pouring through the fissures was faster still, a continuous flood with no sign of stopping.
The corrupted aura was also spreading outward, reaching toward everyone nearby.
Diluc stepped back until he was outside its range and stopped there.
Jean was still channeling Anemo energy to maintain a barrier around herself while simultaneously trying to keep the sword embedded in the knight's chest doing something useful. It wasn't working anymore. The blade was being pushed out as the knight's body continued to rebuild itself.
When the process finished, the knight stood fully restored. His aura pressed down on the area around him with more weight than before.
-------
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