In a secluded corner near the main Natlan Battlefield, the Doctor remained blissfully unaware of the impending disaster. He continued to test the Umbral Scion's capabilities against the Abyss Monsters.
As he had predicted, these creatures were no match for her. However, since there were no particularly strong monsters present, he could only test her abilities to a limited extent.
The Doctor had witnessed Lumine's devastating sword strike. While astonished by the Traveler's rapid growth, he also felt a strong urge to test his own strength against her.
Ultimately, he abandoned the idea.
The Doctor was, after all, still a native of Teyvat. Though his madness bordered on fanaticism, he couldn't bring himself to aid the Abyss in its assault against his homeland.
His creation of the Umbral Scion served dual purposes: validating his twisted intellect and wielding such formidable power to manipulate events according to his designs.
For now, he had no desire to see the Abyss triumph.
Under these exceptional circumstances, the Doctor was willing to lend a helping hand to Teyvat.
Beside the Doctor, the Abyss Monsters, which had been charging mindlessly at him, suddenly slowed their assault. Instead of attacking, they began to retreat slowly.
"Hmm?"
The Doctor had studied these low-level Abyss Monsters extensively. He knew they were mindless puppets, driven solely by instinct to attack and kill. Yet this sudden change...
Has the Abyss's higher echelon noticed me?
Perfect. Just the opportunity to test this body's Ability...
Just as the Doctor was anticipating the arrival of a more formidable entity from the Abyss, a powerful consciousness abruptly invaded the body he currently controlled.
Initially unconcerned, the Doctor's expression twisted in alarm as he sensed the sheer strength of the invading presence:
"No good!"
The moment those words left his lips, the mechanical head's normal eyes, which represented the Doctor's consciousness, turned crimson. In that instant, the Doctor's consciousness, which had been controlling the Umbral Scion's body, was devoured.
-
In a certain experimental workshop in Snezhnaya,
When the Tsaritsa summoned all the Harbingers, the Doctor did indeed respond to the call, but the segment he sent was not his strongest.
The Doctor's most formidable segment was currently residing in this workshop.
The Doctor had previously used the method of controlling a body through a segment's consciousness on Chu Xi, though the results hadn't been ideal.
After absorbing the lessons from that failed experiment, the Doctor had made thorough preparations for this attempt to control the Umbral Scion.
As the consciousness controlling the Umbral Scion's body was devoured, a surge of information flooded back to him.
The Doctor, who had been deeply engrossed in an important experiment, froze mid-action. The instrument in his hand clattered onto the cold metal table with a sharp, discordant clank, its sound jarringly abrupt in the deathly silent workshop.
A frigid stream of fragmented data remnants surged back along the violently severed consciousness link, forcefully flooding his brain.
There were no coherent images, only shattered, deeply unsettling fragments of perception:
An unimaginable absolute dominance, a complete disdain for his meticulously constructed consciousness defense systems, and a sense of... the cold indifference of a higher being casually crushing an insignificant insect.
What chilled him to the bone was the faint yet primordial hunger clinging to the end of the data stream—a hunger that seemed to originate from the very dawn of the universe.
He attempted to retrieve the Umbral Scion's final visual feed, but the screen only flashed a violently trembling, indecipherable crimson before going completely dark. The connection status abruptly displayed:
[Carrier Lost: Consciousness Link Overridden and Devoured by Unknown Entity].
"Devoured...?" the Doctor murmured, his usually steady fingertips trembling uncontrollably.
He had anticipated the possibility of the Umbral Scion going rogue, even preparing multiple forced retrieval and self-destruct protocols.
But he had never imagined such a form of "going rogue"—
Not resistance, not destruction, but... being so easily and completely "overridden" and "devoured" by something?
As if the consciousness he had poured into it were merely insignificant bait?
He knew the Umbral Scion's power level better than anyone. It was a war machine capable of directly challenging even a God, and even beyond that—it was still incomplete. According to his projections, if the Scion were developed to its full potential, even the Seven Archons of Teyvat would find themselves outmatched!
An unprecedented chill surged up his spine!
He suddenly realized that the Pandora's Box he had confidently opened contained monsters far beyond his comprehension or imagination—a primal fear gripped him!
He had made a fatal mistake!
He believed he was controlling the power of the Abyss, yet he never truly understood what that power represented!
"No... I must..." He bolted to his feet, his panicked movements knocking over an expensive instrument beside him. The shattering glass failed to snap him out of his daze.
His mind raced, not with experimental calculations, but with assessing the level of disaster.
That thing... that unknown entity devouring his creations and consciousness... was it in Natlan? Could it be the Abyss itself?!
What did it want?
A flicker of extreme terror flashed through the Doctor's eyes, immediately overwhelmed by an even stronger, almost obsessive desire for control.
He had to go to Natlan personally!
Before everything became irreversible, he would exhaust every possibility... to regain control, or at least learn how to destroy it!
For the first time, fear and greed intertwined so intensely, driving this mad scientist to rush headlong into the battlefield that had become a living Purgatory.
-
The Natlan Battlefield.
Xilonen was already wounded, Kachina was supporting Mualani as they retreated to the rear lines, and Ororon was utterly exhausted...
As one of Natlan's Six Heroes, they had promised Mavuika they wouldn't die so easily.
Ahead, the monsters continued to surge forward relentlessly, forcing Lumine's battlefield to shift elsewhere.
The battlefield was now covered in a thick layer of corpses. The surviving heroes, their eyes bloodshot, watched helplessly as their former comrades fell one by one before them—a feeling far more agonizing than death itself!
"Is Natlan... going to fall?"
Xilonen's longsword was already chipped and dulled. Blood trickled from the corner of her mouth as she gazed up at the Natlan sky, completely obscured by dark clouds. A tear dripped from her chin onto the back of her hand.
Despair hung heavy in the air, with scarcely a glimmer of hope for victory.
Across the ravaged land of Natlan, the corpses of fallen warriors littered the ground. The Six Heroes were still incomplete, and one Pure Soul remained missing...
Kachina's eyes welled with tears, but she stubbornly refused to cry out loud.
Mualani leaned heavily on Kachina's shoulder, her forehead wounded and her head still reeling from the injury.
Ororon and Iansan were also in dire condition...
-
At that moment, the Elemental Energy between heaven and earth suddenly erupted into a frenzy!
This was no tainted, chaotic surge like that of the Abyss, but a vastly different yet equally boundless power, descending with overwhelming force upon this near-shattered battlefield!
"Perish here."
A cold, imperious female voice echoed from the heavens, utterly devoid of emotion.
In the next instant, an endless barrage of thunderbolts crashed down like divine punishment!