"Beelzebul, General of today, vanished in the past!"
Scaramouche unleashed the gathered power, his target only one person—the Raiden Shogun!
Ei had just wanted to block it when she furrowed her brows. "Hm?"
Under this immense power, she sensed something unusual.
Ei's emotional intelligence wasn't high, but her combat intelligence was ridiculously so; she instantly figured out the reason.
No wonder Lucian told me not to attack; I thought he liked watching me take hits, and I was even prepared to satisfy him by tanking it hard.
Since that's how it is, Ei decided not to block either; I'm going to end this.
Ei directly dropped her defense, letting the sky-full of 'light curtains' envelop her, her presence vanishing.
The Raiden Shogun's figure disappeared without a trace, as if she had already been annihilated in this attack.
"Hahahahahaha! I win!" Scaramouche laughed in relief!
At this moment, he seemed brilliant and great, but in truth, he was evading, his heart full of emptiness.
Right now, he truly fit his name "Scaramouche," "Scaramuccia"—a cowardly, boastful character.
In fact, the Fatui Harbingers and their titles all had some relation.
Like "The Knave—Arlecchino" and "The Jester—Pierro," both loyal 'servants,' yet unexpectedly popular characters.
"Childe—Tartaglia," a case of great wisdom appearing foolish, seeming dumb but actually shrewd, which fit the Hydro element's brainy playfulness.
Though Tartaglia mostly preferred direct action.
"The Regrator—Pantalone" was a greedy, miserly person, harboring desires for 'young women.'
Of course, Pantalone had no desires for young women; his desire was for Morax, the opposite of young women—an 'aged elder.'
"The Doctor—Dottore" was a knowledgeable but arrogant scholar.
Only "Captain" was an exception; by original commedia dell'arte roles, "Capitano" was a braggart of martial prowess who fled at the last moment.
The "Captain" himself was the opposite; he didn't boast about himself and certainly wouldn't flee in battle.
And at this very moment, Scaramouche was evading because of his 'revenge'; he felt he had proven to Ei, see, I'm right! I'm not a failure!
Beelzebul, look...
Even now, I still can't be gazed upon by you...?
When Scaramouche's vengeful emotions faded, he noticed something off—Beelzebul just died like that? So easily?
How could this be? Why did this victory feel so unreal? It felt... like something was missing...
"That's right, that's right, you won, so don't be so impulsive next time." Lucian's smiling face appeared in Scaramouche's pupils.
What did that mean? Next time? What next time...
The doubt in his heart had no time to process; Scaramouche blinked, darkness flashing before his eyes, and upon reopening them, no one was before him, yet he didn't find it strange.
So slow... when will Lucian finally come?
The door opened; it was Lucian.
That's right; they'd already been in the loop for a while. Earlier, Lucian stopping Ei was because in some cycle, a furious Ei had acted once.
The power was too world-shattering to reference, and doing it multiple times would overload the computational power, causing the dream to shatter, so he simply didn't let her act.
"Lord of the Secret of the Seven-Colored Sunlight, I've arrived." Lucian said.
"You! Hmph, words of an ant!" Scaramouche was annoyed.
The exact same dialogue happened once again, yet Scaramouche didn't notice anything amiss.
Like last time, he was still questioning about Beelzebul.
But this time, Lucian didn't summon 'Pikachu'; this time, he was sending out 'Oddish.'
"What should I call you? Scaramuccia, or Kunikuzushi?" Nahida's tiny figure stepped forward, standing before Scaramouche without fear.
"Truly an interesting technology." Nahida said: "In terms of technique alone, it is indeed the crystallization of human wisdom—hm, it even makes me want to delve deeper."
Scaramouche: "Hmph, the wisdom of lowly things, far inferior to that of gods."
"In the moment of ascension, I seemed to understand everything!"
"My birth, and the 'I'... end."
"The existence named Kunikuzushi has already vanished!"
With that, the "Shouki no Kami's" figure leaned forward, the giant's head staring intently at Nahida.
The size difference between the two was so vast that just the approaching head was enough to block the light shining on Nahida; the "Shouki no Kami" said:
"I am no longer Kunikuzushi; God of Wisdom, can't even you see that?"
"Can't you sense the power named 'Strife'?"
Facing the colossal behemoth before her, Nahida showed no fear; her figure slowly floated up, meeting the "Shouki no Kami's" gaze levelly.
Nahida shook her head. "No, you are still you."
"If you truly no longer 'exist,' then 'Strife' wouldn't affect you."
What Nahida meant was that Scaramouche was still Scaramouche, and precisely because of that, he could be influenced by the power of 'Strife.'
Other gods had sufficiently high mental strength; that power could no longer affect them.
The "Shouki no Kami" fell silent for a moment, then said: "God of Wisdom 'Buer,' wisdom cannot solve every problem, and lip service even less so."
"Let me expose your fear of conflict!"
"Hahahahahaha, now, a recollection—the corner of the Archon War!!"
With that, the "Shouki no Kami" launched his attack, but Nahida merely dodged, while the Traveler charged forward instead.
"Lowly thing, daring to meddle in the strife of gods! Utterly lacking self-awareness!"
Ei was eavesdropping on everything from the side—the corner of the Archon War... is that so...
If not mentioning the Archon War, their dialogue actually made the Raiden Shogun quite pleased, because it felt like they were acknowledging my wisdom.
Scaramouche's ascension experiment seemed like a joint effort between the Doctor and the Great Sage, but Ei had 'participated' too.
Scaramouche was developed by Ei, meaning this god's 'underlying code' was programmed by Ei.
So she was a genius, right!
Being acknowledged for her wisdom by the God of Wisdom—this time, Lucian couldn't call me dumb, could he?
Ei didn't really care about others' evaluations; she was quite indifferent to criticism and unaffected by it.
But praise could improve her mood, especially praise from people she cared about.
It was like, if you cursed her, she'd ignore it and not take it to heart, but if you praised her, she'd wag her tail.
This was also why so many called her stubborn; no matter what you said to her, she didn't take it seriously—that wasn't stubborn?
Of course, this could also be called a good mentality; Ei's mental resilience was actually quite strong.
One could only say the successive blows five hundred years ago were a bit too high-spec for her.
Friends died, best friend died, subordinates died, even her own elder sister died, and all in quick succession over a short time.
Sister dying in her arms, friends slain by her own hand.
In the end, almost everyone she could talk to around her had died; it would be strange if her mentality didn't shatter.
Though not all happened during the Archon War, the Archon War itself was countless deaths.
That was truly 'the corner of the Archon War'...