"What is he doing?"Rheindot stared without blinking at the motionless figure of Su Xuan, curiosity crackling in her voice as she nudged the two white-haired women beside her.
"Who knows—maybe surveying Teyvat,"Yonavah replied coolly.
Istaroth hadn't joined their banter; she was watching Su Xuan with an intensity that made the air around her feel electric. He'd just been talking with Asmode moments ago, then frozen in place like a statue. They'd waited and waited, but neither of them moved.
Finally Istaroth tilted her head and said, "I think we should step out and greet him."
"Asmode has already defected," she continued, "even if the First One wakes, Su Xuan's power means he won't bother us. Besides—what he's done for the world aligns with the idea of Eternity. Supporting him is within the rules."
Rheindot chuckled. "True enough. But this handsome fellow once killed my precious child without mercy." She toyed with the notion, "Should I ask him for compensation?"
Yonavah cast a cold glance at Rheindot. The joke was exactly the sort Rheindot loved to make—loud, outrageous, and impossible to resist. Rheindot's antics always drew a stern reprimand from Benarist in the old days; she'd never stop teasing.
"Compensation?"Yonavah sniffed. "Pray he doesn't just squash you. Or feed you to that strange Jianmu."
Rheindot twitched an amused shoulder and ignored the grim rebuke.
"Enough bickering—he's arrived. No point hiding any longer. Let's go say hello."Istaroth stretched and rose, about to leave when Su Xuan's diary popped open by itself in the air.
"Tch— he really does like writing diaries," Rheindot mused.
[Diary — Sky-Islands Visit]
[How to put this… As I suspected, the Sky-Islands are not what people imagine.]
[One glance upward and you see the seven nation-isles encircling a titanic central isle.]
[Liyue's adepts craft independent pocket-realms; the Witch's Guild can form book-worlds.]
[No, the Sky-Islands are not a simple ornament hanging above—finding them is not trivial.]
[Teyvat is richer in dimensional pockets than anyone suspects.]
[Still, no dimension escapes the essence of the world—when the world ends, so do the pockets.]
[From here, seeing the whole continent is simple; one can observe without need for psychic probes.]
[A humbling, panoramic feeling.]
The assembled women exchanged puzzled looks. "Huh?" they echoed in unison.
Something had happened—sudden and strange. The three peers paused.
"What's wrong with him now?"Rheindot asked with amused curiosity.
Istaroth twirled a silvery lock around her finger and shrugged. "Maybe he spotted something interesting."
Yonavah snorted. "Or he locked eyes with the Ice-Queen's retinue."
At her words, Rheindot peered down through the veils of smoke. A cloaked figure came into view on the icebound ground below.
"Oh—an old colleague," she murmured.
Yonavah rolled her eyes. "Troublesome lot. With that little fragment of authority they always dream of overthrowing Fate…" Her tone cut off, half amusement, half disgust.
[Diary]
[I thought it was—turns out it's Pierrot, the jester. Once court mage in the dark-sun Kanria dynasty; now the Harbinger of the Fatui.]
[He can see into Sky-Island pocket spaces with his power?]
[Pierrot opposed the use of Abyssal power in Kanria. He lost that fight—his rival, the sage Helotati, won the day.]
[He then watched his homeland fall to ruin; those who embraced the Abyss grew terrifying might.]
[Some grew strong enough to roam the cosmos, others to rule above the clouds.]
[Pierrot—left with hate, pondering revenge.]
[Hard to blame someone for wanting to topple Fate when your whole world was stolen.]
Yonavah was wordless for a moment.
Far to the north, in the frozen Snezhnaya of old, Pierrot's eyes went wide and fear crept over him. High above, in the Sky-Isles, a black-haired man had smiled at him—just a slight, knowing smile—and some strange force severed Pierrot's gaze into the heavens.
"It's him." Pierrot broke into cold sweat. All those unsolved anomalies across Teyvat now clicked into place. A being—far beyond mortal comprehension—had come and was gently taking the reins of the world. He'd even reached the Sky-Isles.
Pierrot's mind raced: "Could the Prince's recent habit of gathering the cursed, undead folk relate to this man?" He shuddered. The odd behavior of several officers—tiny things like handing back the Electro God's Heart—suddenly made sense.
Pierrot laughed, then sighed. "A new world order is already in motion. He cannot be resisted." He would wait and watch the Prince, eager to see what fate he would deal to Kanria's ruined masses.
From his perch on the Sky-Isles, Su Xuan scanned Teyvat and felt a small frown crease his brow. Asmode followed his gaze and blinked golden eyes in surprise.
"What's Mavika doing?" she asked.
Below, Mavika—proud, chest thrust out—stood calling to the heavens in her own awkward way.
"She's signaling me," Su Xuan said, bemused. "She clearly interpreted my message and hopes to draw me to Nata."
Asmode tilted her head. "You said diary-holders must be 'awakened'—is chest-thrusting part of that?"
Su Xuan smiled and scribbled another note in the floating diary.
[Mavika's Summoning Ritual.jpg]
The women blinked at him, bewildered.
"Wait—are you actually discussing pride with Asmode?" they asked.
[Back to business.]
[Standing here, looking down at the world, I realize I've only been in Teyvat a few months.]
[Aside from Nata's Abyss problem, there isn't much else that needs fixing.]
[And the Abyss in the Night-God nation? Laughably simple for me.]
[So why hasn't the Sky-Isles authority helped them?]
[Perhaps they wanted to test Nata?]
[Oh well—if the Sky-Isles won't act, I will.]
[But that ledger will be kept against the Regent responsible for Nata.]
Yonavah bristled—"Wait, why is that on me?"—and then the scene below the islands snapped into motion.
A red, reach-fingered rupture opened in Nata's sky. Crimson, tendril-like branches—Jianmu—thrust from the tear and began devouring the Abyssal corruption on the land. An immense dragon-shape coalesced, wings purple-black, brandishing a blade aflame with orange-red fire—the Abyssal Fire Dragon-King Shukutel.
It cleaved the invading branches in half. The severed branches plunged into the earth, rooting themselves like parasitic trees—then they drank the Abyssal taint, sprouted, and crawled back to rejoin the tide of crimson growth, swarming toward Shukutel like ravenous things.
Asmode shuddered. Su Xuan patted her shoulder and said with a casual smile, "They treat the Abyssal scourge as food—they want to devour it."
Asmode's eyes widened until the whites showed. This Jianmu actually eats—and eats people? The sight was strange enough to be almost laughable, but the implications were anything but.
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