While the fans were endlessly arguing over whether the defense tower fits the Teyvat worldview.
Mu Yang wanted to try again.
"Try a few more times, I can definitely do it."
Mu Yang challenged [Enemy Annihilation Mode] once more.
Mu Yang achieved a good score of surviving 3 seconds.
[Streamer, give up.]
[You surviving 3 seconds isn't skill persisting until 3 seconds; it's purely because the fireball takes 2 seconds to spray over.]
[In short, the streamer only lived for less than a second.]
"No more, no more, continue the story." Mu Yang also realized that this [Enemy Annihilation Mode] is genuinely difficult; it's not meant for people to play at all.
Oh, right—this [Enemy Annihilation Mode] is for eliminating Abyss monsters, so Abyss monsters should be the ones experiencing this game.
After Mu Yang gave up on challenging the defense tower, the plot continued to advance.
Upon entering the plot again, the exclamations of the Natlan warriors could be heard.
"They actually succeeded in Hard Mode on the first try."
"What kind of divine being is this Traveler!"
The warriors of the Children of Echoes said admiringly.
Most of them need to practice for a while even in Simple Mode to advance, yet the Traveler succeeded on her very first attempt.
"The Traveler is very powerful."
Paimon proudly placed her hands on her waist, her little face raised up, as if she were the one being praised.
"Probably, only [Enemy Annihilation Mode] might be able to bring trouble to the Traveler." One of the warriors said gravely.
"[Enemy Annihilation Mode]?" Paimon tilted her head in confusion.
"This is a mode specifically designed to target Abyss monsters." That warrior explained. "Natlan has a long-standing grudge with the Abyss. Perhaps you who just arrived here aren't very clear on it."
"We really aren't very clear on it." Paimon spread her small hands and said.
"Then I'll start from the beginning..."
After the warriors' explanations, the Traveler and little Paimon learned about Natlan's history, including but not limited to the Pilgrimage of the Sacred Flame and matters concerning the Pyro Archon.
The players watching the plot also learned about Natlan's worldview from the warriors' mouths.
"So Natlan's Pyro Archon was turned into one from a human." Paimon surprisedly covered her little mouth.
"That's right." The Children of Echoes warrior nodded and continued, "This generation's Pyro Archon is a red-haired youth from the People of the Springs. His performance in the tournament was exceptionally outstanding. He crushed every opponent he faced; none of them were his match at all."
"Even Mavuika, who is equally very powerful in our eyes, was taken down by him in less than half a minute." The warrior sighed. "The elders in the village all say they've never seen such a powerful Pyro Archon."
"H-half a minute?" Paimon widened her eyes. "Doesn't that mean he has no opponents at all!"
"Honestly, the fact that Mavuika managed to hold out for half a minute was what surprised us."
The warrior smiled bitterly and said, "Ordinary warriors fall in the instant the Lord Pyro Archon makes his move, but Mavuika persisted for that long."
"If Mavuika had been born in another era, perhaps she would have been the one to serve as Natlan's Lord Pyro Archon."
The Children of Echoes warrior paused for a moment, then added, "However, after losing, Mavuika was appointed as the Lord Pyro Archon's assistant. In situations where the Lord Pyro Archon is absent, Mavuika's words represent the Lord Pyro Archon's intentions."
Upon seeing this, the players raised questions.
[Mavuika... isn't that the red-haired woman who appeared at the end of the Natlan preview video?]
[Back then, there were rumors online that she was the previous Pyro Archon and was about to fight the current one. But their relationship seems pretty good, doesn't it? She can even represent the Lord Pyro Archon in speaking.]
[Being able to represent the Pyro Archon in speaking is what's dangerous. Think about the Third Hokage and Danzo.]
[Land of Fire—the highest leader uses fire, and his assistant lost to the highest leader. Mavuika even wears all black. The dark side of the Land of Fire is confirmed.]
[Case closed. The Pyro Archon and Mavuika have the same relationship as the Third Hokage and Danzo.]
[When's "You Regret, I Shadow" coming?]
[Mavuika: Lord Pyro Archon, you'll regret this! Pyro Archon: Mavuika, I am the Pyro Archon!]
Genshin world.
After listening to the warriors' account, Paimon tilted her head and asked, "Since the Pilgrimage of the Sacred Flame is so important, why did that Lord Pyro Archon shut it down?"
"We don't know the Lord Pyro Archon's intentions either." One warrior shook his head. "On the day he announced the closure of the Pilgrimage of the Sacred Flame, many people voiced opposition, but they were all defeated by the Lord Pyro Archon."
Before becoming a god, the Pyro Archon was already invincible across Natlan. After becoming a god, he had no opponents at all.
So even though many rebelled, in the end, they were all suppressed.
"Sounds like... your Pyro Archon is a tyrant." No sooner had she said it than Paimon panicked and covered her mouth. "Sorry, I said the wrong thing."
"Haha, no problem. Everyone thought that at the beginning." The warriors laughed.
[Tyrant?]
[Reminds me of what happened in Fontaine.]
[Could it be that this Pyro Archon is also pretending to be cruel, actually to conceal the truth that Natlan is about to be destroyed, and wants to get through the crisis in a special way?]
[Then Mavuika, positioned as the Archon's aide, wouldn't that be the same as Neuvillette, both version main pushes?]
[Can plot positioning be the same as gacha positioning...?]
[Neuvillette can spin in circles. Can Mavuika?]
While the players were arguing, the Traveler unexpectedly spoke up on her own without any options being selected.
"You don't seem very sad?" While Paimon was covering her mouth for misspeaking, the Traveler raised her own question.
Based on what she had heard earlier, the people of Natlan should value the Pilgrimage of the Sacred Flame greatly, even more than their own lives.
But looking at the Natlan people's demeanor right now, they didn't seem as grief-stricken as she had imagined.
"After the Lord Pyro Archon announced the suspension of the Pilgrimage of the Sacred Flame, we were once worried that the Sacred Flame would extinguish without an energy source."
The warrior looked toward a flame in the distance. "But the Sacred Flame is still burning, and the frequency of Abyss monster invasions has decreased significantly compared to before. So gradually, many people have come to feel that even if the Pilgrimage of the Sacred Flame is canceled, it won't affect our lives."
"Moreover, in what followed, the Lord Pyro Archon did many things for us—researching weapons, fulfilling our wishes."
"Even this defense tower was set up here at great expense out of fear that Abyss monsters might suddenly attack the tribe."
"Is a Pyro Archon who cares for his people in this way really a tyrant?" The warrior was asking not only the Traveler but also themselves.
Rios, is he really a tyrant?