Dadaupa Gorge was worse than the rumors.
"Ehhh?! There are this many hilichurls?!" Paimon almost flipped in midair. "This is basically their main base!"
No wonder Jean and Diluc had both gone all serious the moment they saw the map.
Down below, the valley had been completely claimed by hilichurls. Crude camps and watchtowers sat on ledges, rope bridges connected platforms, fire pits smoked, and groups of hilichurls were doing everything at once — patrolling, hunting, dancing, chanting around totems.
And right in the middle of the gorge was a bigger structure — thicker logs, beast bones hanging off it, red-dyed banners smeared with who-knew-what. That was clearly the "chief's nest."
Lumine frowned. "Are we really going in? With this many hilichurls, it's going to be almost impossible not to alert them."
"If we get surrounded, it'll get messy," she added.
Jean's face was all business. "If Dvalin's Tear really is in there, we don't have a choice." Her gaze swept the camps. "But yes — a frontal rush will wake the whole tribe."
"And…" Diluc's voice was low, eyes fixed on a corner lower in the valley.
There, hulking shapes were moving — mitachurls and axe-wielding brutes in thick animal hide, each one easily a match for an inexperienced adventurer.
"There are a lot more heavy units than usual here. I'd expect at least one higher-ranked shaman among them," he said. "We can wipe them, but not without taking hits. And the archers and shamans will turn it into a bad day."
Paimon scratched her head. "Yeah… these aren't just your average 'Hilichurl number 1'. We've got shamans, berserkers, elemental guys… basically all the hilichurls Mondstadt has ever seen! How are we supposed to just walk in?"
That was the core problem — not strength, but density. One shout, one vision of a stranger, and the whole gorge would avalanche toward them.
Then Lumine suddenly looked at Kairo, eyes lighting up. "What about what you did last night? When you stole back the Holy Lyre — nobody could see you. Can you do that again?"
That got everybody's attention.
Jean turned to him. Diluc did too.
"Last night?" Jean repeated. "You mean the infiltration in Mondstadt Cathedral?"
Lumine nodded hard. "Mm. He was just… gone. If he can go invisible again, he can sneak in, grab the Tear, and come back before anyone realizes."
Kairo rubbed his chin. "I can try."
Internally, he was already lining it up.
Seele's Path skill — twenty seconds of full stealth.
After twenty seconds, he'd be forcibly revealed.
But right then, he could pop Sampo's trick — a flash that blinds everything around him — and in that confusion, slip back into Seele's stealth.
Combine that with his bio-wave detector to walk straight to the Tear…
Yeah. He could chain it.
"Perfect!" Lumine actually pumped her fist. Traveling with Kairo was so convenient. She decided right there: when Stormterror was done, she was dragging him around Teyvat.
Before anyone could say anything else, Kairo… vanished.
"...?!" Jean's pupils shrank.
Diluc's brows slammed together. There wasn't even residual element in the air — no wind dispersal, no Pyro burst, not even Cryo mist. He just wasn't there anymore.
Paimon nearly jumped onto Lumine's arm. "W-where'd he go?! Where'd Kairo go?!"
Last night she hadn't been along for the infiltration, so this was the first time she'd seen it. To her, it was the purest Mondstadt-grade what-the-heck.
Jean tried to spread Anemo, searching for him.
Nothing.
No elemental response, no life signature. It was like the world had been generated without Kairo in it.
"What… kind of ability is this?" Jean thought, stunned. "It's not Vision-based. He doesn't have a Vision…"
"Same power as his speed boost?" Diluc wondered aloud, eyes narrowed. "No… it's different."
Down below, the hilichurl camp was still normal.
No alarms.
No shouts.
No flares of element.
Which made it even creepier, because they all knew Kairo had already gone down there.
Ten seconds. Fifteen. Twenty—
Suddenly Kairo appeared in the middle of the hilichurl camp like he'd been teleported.
A dozen hilichurls turned at once.
"GAAH-WOO!"
"LUKA! OLA—!"
"UGAAAA—!"
Weapons came up, angry cries shook the valley — and then:
BOOM!
A white flash detonated right in their faces.
It was blinding, scorching-bright, like a mini sun had been dropped in the middle of the tribe. Paimon yelped and covered her eyes. Down below, hilichurls screamed, clutching their faces, staggering around, bumping into each other.
And right in that chaos…
Kairo was gone again.
Jean actually had to take a breath to steady herself. "Invisibility… chained with a mass blind. I've never seen a technique like this."
Diluc's jaw tightened. "Definitely not elemental. That's… some other system."
Invisible again, Kairo zipped through the now-confused camp.
With the whole tribe rubbing their eyes and yelling "Uga-aaa!", no one noticed a human walk straight through the middle.
The bio-wave detector in his hand pinged.
There — tucked beside a smashed totem and half-buried by dirt — a red-black crystal, glowing faintly with Dvalin's twisted wind.
"Got you," Kairo murmured, scooped it up, and ran for the canyon edge.
From Jean and Diluc's point of view, it was even scarier: they saw him appear → hilichurls roar → blinding light → he vanish → hilichurls flail → he pop back on the cliff right next to them.
"…!!"
Jean had to literally force her shoulders to relax. "This… is beyond what I've seen in Mondstadt."
Diluc didn't speak. But his eyes were cold and focused on Kairo — memorizing, comparing, wondering how many more of these "otherworld" tricks he was hiding.
"All done," Kairo said cheerfully, tossing the corrupt Tear to Lumine.
"You're amazing, Kairo!" Paimon flew circles around him. "You just went 'shoop shoop' and it was over!"
Jean finally let herself smile — today really was going too smoothly. "That's the last Tear in the wild, then. All that's left is the one at Dawn Winery."
"Right, right! Let's go meet up with Venti!" Paimon was already imagining going back to Mondstadt before dark.
They set off.
With Jean's Anemo pushing them and Kairo's Path buff stacked on top, they moved even faster than in the morning. The forest thinned, the road widened, and soon the sprawling vineyards of Dawn Winery appeared — rows of green under the afternoon sun, the air full of a faint grape fragrance.
"It smells so good!" Paimon's nose twitched.
Then—
BOOOOM!
A thunderous explosion from not far ahead.
Jean's head snapped up at once, eyes sharpening. Diluc's face instantly darkened — this was his land.
"Is someone fighting in my—"
A small figure came pelting toward them, backpack bouncing, waving wildly.
"Kairo-gege!! Captain Jean!! Why are you here too?!"
"Klee?!" Diluc was actually surprised. "What are you doing here?"
Even Jean lost her calm façade for a second. "Klee!" she said, voice sharp. "Why did you leave Mondstadt?!"
But Klee only got even more excited when she saw Kairo, ran straight for him, and hugged his leg.
"I came to find boom-boom materials!" she said proudly. The heavy backpack on her back clanked with suspicious, very-not-approved-by-the-Knights sounds. "Klee needs Flaming Flower Stamens!"
"Flaming Flower… for bombs?" Diluc pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Because they explode pretty!" Klee said as if that explained everything. "If Klee puts it in, it'll go even farther!"
Jean inhaled. Long. Slow. "Klee… you were supposed to stay at the Knights Headquarters today."
Klee poked her fingers together. "Klee snuck out… just a little."
Jean: "…"
Paimon leaned over to Lumine and Kairo and whispered, "She definitely came to bomb something."
Kairo's mouth twitched. Dawn Winery has Flaming Flowers? When did that happen…
Jean looked like she was about to give the "Klee, you're grounded again" speech — but then hesitated. Sending Klee back to Mondstadt alone right now wasn't actually safe.
And that was when Klee dashed straight to Kairo again, grabbed his sleeve, and looked up with big, hopeful eyes. "Kairo-gege, help Klee, okay? Tell Captain Jean Klee will be good! Klee wants to help save Dvalin too!"
Kairo opened his mouth—
—and a translucent screen slid into his vision.
Lines of text scrolled by. Not from Mondstadt. Not from Teyvat.
From his system.
[With your assistance, the Trailblazer finally met Clara. Clara led your group to Svarog.]
[But Svarog remained unmoved, and once the Trailblazer mentioned the star core, he classified everyone as the highest threat.]
[Clara tried to stop it, but conflict still broke out.]
[With your and Natasha's support, Svarog was defeated.]
[Clara, in tears, begged you not to hurt Svarog — and begged Svarog to treat the Underworlders more gently, like family.]
[Faced with Clara's plea, you choose…]
The screen didn't go away.
It waited.
Kairo blinked once.
On one side was Klee, tugging his sleeve, eyes full of trust — Kairo will help, right?
On the other side, in his system's memory, was Clara, crying and clinging to Svarog's arm, begging him to spare her "family."
Two worlds.
Two girls.
Both asking him to be kind.
The system cursor flashed.
And it asked again:
[Faced with Clara's plea, you choose…]
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