"Uh... where am I...?"
The Traveler woke from her unconsciousness. After rubbing her throbbing head, she discovered that her wounds had been bandaged!
But the surrounding walls clearly still had the Fatui factory style, which meant she was still in the factory. So who saved her?
"Not bad, you woke up pretty fast."
The Traveler froze. That voice... wasn't that Tartaglia's?
She turned her head and, indeed, it was Childe, still in his familiar clothes.
"Surprised? Surprised why I'm here?"
"Well, of course, it's because the Liyue matter is over. The Tsaritsa's mission is to collect the Gnosis of the Celestial Archons. The Demoiselle died, so without a mission, I was naturally sent to Inazuma."
"I really don't know why you two would charge in here alone. You should have brought more people." Childe briefly explained the situation.
Lumine remained silent for a moment: "...Why did you save me?"
"Aren't you and Balladeer both Fatui?"
"So what does that have to do with me saving you?" Childe shrugged: "You're my comrade, of course I couldn't just let you die."
The Traveler didn't speak. She saw Paimon soundly asleep on the bed. This Emergency Food was truly carefree, able to sleep even in a place like this.
But it also implicitly showed that Childe could be trusted for now.
"However, it's better for you to stay here for now and not go out. Given Balladeer's terrible personality, he'd probably attack you directly if he saw you."
"But... what about Ryougi?"
"She was taken by Balladeer. I don't know exactly what Balladeer intends to do."
Childe shook his head. He only knew part of Balladeer's plan, not the full scope.
And he himself was really not good at this kind of brain-intensive work. In his opinion, spending half a day thinking was not as practical as just having a fight.
"No, I have to save her!"
Lumine said, throwing off the covers and getting out of bed. But she hadn't taken two steps before she stumbled and fell to the ground.
"Don't waste your energy. You're seriously injured right now. Even when you were perfectly fine, you couldn't beat Balladeer. What can you do now?"
At these words, Lumine recalled Balladeer's overwhelming strength. She had exhausted everything, yet only managed to give him a minor scratch.
"I... can't do anything..."
Lumine clenched her hands. It was always like this, whenever she encountered a strong enemy, someone had to help.
The Dragonstorm in Mondstadt was when Venti gave her the power of the Thousand Winds, plus Dvalin's strength was greatly reduced by the poisoned blood; otherwise, it would have been uncertain if she could even keep up.
And there was the Vortex Archon who awakened from the seal. She only played a supporting role; the true main force was Ningguang's one-time version of the Jade Screen.
It could be said that in every major crisis, Lumine always had powerful people helping her, which meant that when the sky fell, taller people would bear the burden.
However, in Inazuma, she didn't know anyone similar. The only one who could be considered 'taller' was Shiki, but she too had been defeated by Balladeer.
Wait, help...
Lumine thought of something. If it's a 'taller' person, could she teleport out and bring Morax over? He could definitely defeat Balladeer!
It's just...
'Why can't I communicate?'
Lumine didn't understand. She couldn't use the Waypoint to teleport here. The glowing points that usually shone brightly now seemed to be out of power.
"Heh heh, the abnormal Ley Lines and artifacts are interfering with you strongly, aren't they?"
Balladeer's words echoed in Lumine's ears. These were words he had said to Shiki, but she had heard them too.
This meant that the Ley Lines where this factory was located had been tampered with by Balladeer, which was why she couldn't teleport?
In that case, wouldn't her plan to call for reinforcements be completely ruined? What about Shiki? Should she just hope for Balladeer to have a change of heart?
That was clearly impossible! She had to do something.
"Um... do you know why the Ley Lines here are abnormal?"
"How would I know that? Do I look like someone who understands that?" Childe shrugged: "But it's definitely something Balladeer cooked up. He used some kind of technology from a lost nation to modify the Ley Lines here."
'Lost nation... Khaenri'ah?'
Lumine was a bit bewildered. How could she encounter things related to Khaenri'ah everywhere she went?
Also, didn't Shiki say that Balladeer was a prototype created by the Electro Archon? Where did he learn such technology?
There was still too little information. She wasn't from this world to begin with, and knew very little about it. How could she compare to Balladeer, this five-hundred-year-old schemer?
On the other side, Balladeer dragged the unconscious Shiki to his laboratory. This cornerstone that would allow him to reach "eternity" needed to be thoroughly studied.
However, after he scanned her, he was dumbfounded.
Because... she was just a person!
'She's not a puppet at all! Or has Beelzebul mastered this kind of Alkahestry to create artificial humans!?'
'No, no, artificial humans, it's impossible for them to be so perfect!'
Artificial creations would always have flaws; they wouldn't be as naturally flawless as those born naturally.
Just like Albedo, this Kreideprinz created by "The Gold" alchemist, had a star-like pattern on his neck.
This was a flaw, or perhaps proof. And the puppet general also had the Electro Trigram on the back of her neck.
Although he really didn't want to admit it, Balladeer also had this kind of mark on his own body.
Bang!
Balladeer slammed the table heavily. If she wasn't an artificial creation, then the path of merging into one wouldn't work.
Whether it was a puppet or an alchemical artificial human, he had a way. But humans, no, that wouldn't work.
And in this way, all his previous conjectures were wrong. The girl was not a puppet like him at all.
She was a human, a genuine human, possessing what he had once so desperately yearned for... a "Heart."
However, now that the arrow was on the string, it had to be fired. He had to and could only continue!
So now, there was only one path left: to transform himself and Shiki into beings similar to Beelzebul and the puppet general.
Of course, his method would be more extreme. Balladeer would abandon his own body, erase Shiki's consciousness, and then usurp her body!
In other words...
Body snatching!
It's just that humans and puppets are different. A puppet's consciousness comes from a certain core component in its body, while a human's consciousness comes from the brain.
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