The group arrived at a strange hall. Suspended above them was a pool of water hanging in midair—yet not a single drop fell.
"Whoa! There's actually a pool floating in the air, and the water isn't even falling!" Paimon stared up at it in amazement before turning to Lora beside her. "This is incredible! Lora, do you know what's going on with this pool?"
Lora quietly sensed the Hydro elemental power flowing from it. The water carried an extremely pure aura.
After a moment, she shook her head.
The sensation it gave her was somewhat similar to the waters of the Primordial Sea, yet fundamentally different. It was extraordinarily pure—so pure that nothing else seemed to exist within it.
Because of that purity, it could weaken the effects of the "curse."
This was not water from Teyvat. A substance capable of delaying the curse imposed by the Heavenly Principles could only have come from Celestia.
Lora finally spoke.
"It possesses purifying power. It can ease the pain caused by the curse."
"Purify?" Paimon asked quickly. "Then… can it completely remove the curse?"
Before Lora could respond, Dainsleif immediately shook his head.
"Impossible. I've lived with this curse for five hundred years—I understand it better than anyone. It's an imprint at the level of causality within this world. The curse placed by the gods exists on a higher order than humanity itself."
"That is the curse the Heavenly Principles placed upon Khaenri'ah," Lora said firmly. "Don't blame everything on the gods. Dainsleif, gods get tired too."
Dainsleif fell silent.
Lumine spoke up to explain.
"Dainsleif, Lora is an adeptus from Liyue. She's very close to Rex Lapis, so she doesn't like hearing people speak badly about the gods..."
"An adeptus, hm?" Dainsleif murmured. His gaze darkened slightly, though no one could tell what he was thinking.
Regardless of what was going through his mind, Lora had already prepared herself.
If he dared expose her true identity here, she would accuse him of slander.
"Ahem! Let's not talk about that anymore!" Paimon said quickly, sensing the atmosphere growing awkward. She pointed toward the center of the hall. "Look at that machine in the middle! It looks really strange. It feels like it was installed here later."
"An out-of-place device…" Lumine studied it for a moment before saying, "Maybe the Abyss Order put it here?"
"To be honest, I've never seen a mechanism like this either," Dainsleif said with a nod. "So it wouldn't be unreasonable if the Abyss Order placed it here."
Suddenly, Lora sensed something and turned her head toward a nearby passage.
Starting with the stone door in that direction, the surrounding doors opened one after another, gradually encircling them.
Then, from another corridor, the Black Serpent Knight—Halfdan—appeared once more.
"It's him again! He showed up again!" Paimon exclaimed.
Lora studied Halfdan for a moment before speaking.
"He's signaling for us to follow him. Let's go and see."
"Could it be dangerous?" Paimon asked cautiously.
Lora glanced back at her.
"With me here, what danger could there be?"
Hearing that, Lumine immediately nodded.
"That's right. With Lora here, it'll be fine."
Dainsleif, however, let out a cold snort.
"Entrusting your safety entirely to someone else is an extremely foolish thing to do. Traveler, Paimon—you'd better stay alert."
His words were clearly directed at Lora.
But she had no interest in arguing with him right now. Instead, she simply followed Halfdan deeper inside.
After passing through several winding passages, the group finally arrived at a Hilichurl camp.
Several Hilichurls sat quietly there, as if waiting for death.
In front of each of them lay a hardened, petrified flower.
"It's… Inteyvat." Lora sighed softly when she saw it.
She still remembered when she first descended upon Khaenri'ah. Inteyvat flowers had once bloomed across the mountains and fields.
Later, they were destroyed by the countless Abyss monsters that flooded the land.
"Inteyvat? What's that?" Paimon asked curiously.
Dainsleif stared at the flower for a long moment before finally explaining.
"Inteyvat is the national flower of Khaenri'ah. It once bloomed across every corner of the nation."
"It blooms for only two weeks. But if it's picked and taken away from the land of Khaenri'ah, it stops growing and becomes as hard as stone."
"In Khaenri'ah, it symbolizes the 'traveler who has left home.' It also represents the tenderness of one's homeland."
"Then if this flower appeared here… does that mean…" Paimon frowned, as if she had realized something important.
Lumine stepped forward and crouched down, gently touching the Inteyvat.
In that moment, she seemed to fall into some kind of illusion and became completely still.
Lora noticed immediately.
She stopped Paimon and Dainsleif when they tried to approach, her gaze fixed on Lumine as she quietly waited.
Several minutes later, Lumine finally snapped out of the illusion and told them what she had just experienced.
"So this is the Abyss Order's plan…" Dainsleif frowned deeply. "They intend to completely purge the curse from the Hilichurls."
"But forcibly removing the curse will only bring them endless suffering. They are no longer human."
Just as the group continued investigating, a sudden burst of light erupted from the room they had passed through earlier.
They quickly turned back.
On the way, they encountered an Abyss Herald.
It was a Hydro Abyss Herald.
The Herald had originally appeared to stop Dainsleif—but when he noticed Lora standing among them, he froze in shock and stumbled several steps backward.
"How… how are you here?!"
Lora didn't waste a single word on him.
She dashed forward, Hydro elemental power wrapping around her fist.
In the blink of an eye, she was directly in front of the Abyss Herald and drove a punch straight toward his head.
The enormous impact shook the surrounding stone walls, sending fragments of rock tumbling down.
The Abyss Herald was blasted away by the strike, crashing violently into the wall behind him before sliding down to the ground.
Lora closed the distance instantly.
She stepped on his chest, pinning him down, while several sharp water arrows shot out and pierced his limbs, nailing him firmly to the floor.
The entire exchange happened in a split second.
Even Lumine and Paimon behind her had yet to react.