The Sky-Piercing Pillar of Light had been destroyed, cutting off the flow of monsters. Though many had already escaped, Ei's assistance had largely stabilized the battlefield.
As The Captain rushed back, he ignored the remaining monsters, focusing solely on finding Dottore as quickly as possible.
He soon reached the heart of the battlefield and found Rosalyne, La Signora, and Arlecchino, "The Knave."
"The Captain?" Arlecchino's expression was one of surprise. In her memory, The Captain had always been composed and steady. This was the first time she had ever seen him so agitated.
"Arlecchino? Where's Dottore?" The Captain cut straight to the point, with no time for pleasantries.
"Dottore? The Traveler has already slain the segment of him that was here... Why are you looking for him? Is it urgent?"
"Slain?" The Captain frowned. "An unidentified enemy has appeared on the battlefield, bearing Dottore's mark and wielding power surpassing even the Seven Archons..."
Just as The Captain finished speaking, a massive explosion erupted from the direction of the former Pillar of Light.
The explosion was so loud and powerful that it instantly drew everyone's attention.
"The situation is critical. The enemy is far too powerful. Stay away."
The Captain glanced at the corpses of fallen soldiers scattered across the battlefield, bowed his head slightly, and two seconds later, he returned to the site of the blast.
-
Lumine and Paimon were currently at the Flower-Feather Clan, where Lumine had already cleared out all the monsters.
The Flower-Feather Clan had suffered severe damage, with nearly all the warriors on the defensive lines having perished.
Before the war began, Chuychu had returned to the Flower-Feather Clan. When the Abyss Monsters attacked, she rushed into the fray despite her limited combat capabilities, as Chasca was engaged in battle elsewhere at the time.
The final outcome was tragic: Chuychu was killed in action, and the Abyss Monsters breached the defensive lines.
If Lumine hadn't arrived in time to reinforce the Flower-Feather Clan, the consequences of the monsters breaking through would have been unimaginable.
Lumine didn't linger long. After eliminating the monsters here, she departed immediately, leveraging her teleportation ability to swiftly reinforce other besieged Tribes.
Throughout this entire ordeal, she remained utterly silent, and even Paimon, who usually chattered incessantly, was unusually quiet.
-
As Chasca staggered back to the Flower-Feather Clan's defensive line, her body battered and exhausted, her eyes caught sight of a figure collapsed beside a shattered trench, never to rise again—Chuychu.
Even in death, Chuychu clutched a bloodstained herb-gathering sickle tightly, a dark pool of blood staining the earth beneath her.
Chasca's feet froze mid-stride, as if struck by an invisible hammer.
She approached step by step, her body hunching slightly, as if all strength had been drained from her.
She knelt slowly beside her sister, her trembling hand gently brushing across Chuychu's icy cheek, closing her unseeing eyes.
No wailing broke the silence, only scalding tears sliding soundlessly down her smoke- and blood-streaked face, dripping onto the lifeless earth.
She leaned down, pressing her forehead lightly against Chuychu's icy brow, her broad shoulders shuddering violently as a muffled sob, suppressed to its limit, escaped her lips—a sound like that of a wounded beast.
"I'm sorry... I was too late..."
The hoarse words shattered on the wind, carrying boundless remorse and heart-wrenching grief.
At that moment, an Ancient Name materialized beside Chasca, and the spectral figure of Menilek, the Flower-Feather Clan's Hero from five centuries past, materialized alongside it.
"I leave the hardships of my life as my epitaph."
"A memorial to having once possessed them."
"And a testament to my transcendence over them."
-
Scions of the Canopy.
Due to their proximity to the Pillar of Light, the Scions of the Canopy and the Children of Echoes bore the brunt of the Abyss's most ferocious attacks.
The moment Lumine and Paimon stepped into the Scions of the Canopy's village, a nauseatingly intense stench of blood mixed with the Abyss's characteristic miasma struck them like a physical blow, choking their breath.
The scene before them defied mere description.
What had once been a vibrant village nestled among ancient trees, teeming with life, had been utterly reduced to ruins and a graveyard.
Sturdy canopy trees lay cleaved in half, their charred trunks scarred with ferocious claw marks.
Crude treehouses lay collapsed and crumbling, resembling bird nests trampled by colossal beasts.
The village's totem poles lay toppled and shattered into fragments, their surfaces stained with foul black blood.
But what truly sent chills down their spines was the... corpses that blanketed every inch of the earth.
Natlan warriors and Abyss Monsters lay entangled in death, their bodies carpeting the ground like a macabre tapestry.
Congealed blood stained the earth a sinister dark red, its surface sticky and icy to the touch.
Many corpses lay frozen in their final battle poses, clutching broken weapons in stiffened hands, their faces twisted in eternal fury and despair.
A deathly silence hung in the air.
Apart from the mournful wails of the wind whistling through the ruins, no sound of life stirred.
At the heart of this mountain of corpses and sea of blood, Lumine and Paimon spotted Kinich.
He sat alone atop a pile of bodies, his back to them. His once-proud, pine-straight posture now slumped, radiating an indescribable weariness and deathly stillness.
His claymore lay beside him, its blade clotted with blood. His clothes were tattered and torn, his face streaked with crimson stains.
Lumine and Paimon approached slowly, their footsteps heavy as if weighted with lead.
They also noticed Ajaw, the pixel-art-styled Sacred Dragon with its distinctive appearance. The usually talkative and arrogant dragon lay collapsed nearby, tongue lolling limply, its once-vibrant glow dimmed to a faint ember.
To protect the Tribes and Kinich, and to fulfill its Contract, it had exhausted all its strength and fallen into a deep coma.
As if sensing movement behind him, Kinich slowly, stiffly turned his head.
Lumine met a pair of hollow, lifeless eyes. Gone was the former sharpness and untamed spirit; only boundless pain, numbness, and... the crushing despair of being utterly broken remained.
Bloodstains and tear tracks mingled on his young yet world-worn face.
Kinich looked at Lumine, his lips trembling as if he wanted to speak. In the end, only a few faint, broken syllables escaped his lips:
"I... couldn't protect the Tribes..."
"...Sister can't be found... Everyone... is dead..."
His voice was barely audible, yet it pierced Lumine's heart like the sharpest blade.
Kinich's utter, soul-hollowing despair was far more suffocating and heartbreaking than any wailing cry.
Lumine's fists clenched until they cracked, her eyes bloodshot.
-
The live stream chat fell into silence, and Chen Xiyao couldn't help but sob softly.
The NPCs in Genshin Impact were meticulously crafted, with many being of high enough quality to be gacha-eligible. Players had grown to know these NPCs during their quests, but now...
They were all dead, having sacrificed themselves to protect their nation, to defend their tribes...