"That's... Lumine?"
Seeing the blonde girl at the very front, Xiangling felt she looked a little like Lumine, but from the back of her head alone, she couldn't be sure.
Just as she was about to send Paimon over to take a look...
The girl's voice came from the front.
"Morax! I challenge you!"
"..."
'Huh?'
Xiangling wondered if she hadn't slept well last night and was hearing things.
Or maybe she was still dreaming.
That familiar voice confirmed the girl's identity.
It was Lumine, possessed by the evil spirit.
But...
'How did he dare?!'
'On Liyue's land, openly challenging the ruler of this land!'
The Geo Lord, Morax, the strongest of the Seven, known throughout the world as the God of War.
Everyone in Teyvat knew that.
How did a tiny evil spirit possessing Lumine dare to do something like this?
Xiangling racked her brain but couldn't figure out where his confidence came from.
The entire crowd fell silent because of him.
The only voice echoing through the silent Rite of Descension was Lumine's.
"If you won't come down, then I'll come find you!"
Seeing how spirited he looked, Xiangling immediately realized she had to stop him.
If he succeeded, even if he failed to affect Rex Lapis in any way...
Attacking the nation's god was among the gravest of crimes.
That evil spirit didn't care. After all, it wasn't even alive.
But Lumine was different.
Right now, aside from herself, Paimon, the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor, and a handful of others, no one knew about Lumine's situation.
Everyone else had no idea she was possessed by an evil spirit.
If the evil spirit was still possessing her afterward, it would at least be possible to explain.
But if it ran away... or died...
Then there would be no explaining it.
They could only hope that Rex Lapis would personally speak up and explain things for Lumine.
'But the best outcome was still stopping this before it happened.'
'But how?!'
'How am I supposed to stop him?!'
Xiangling couldn't think of any way to stop him in a situation like this.
Packed inside the dense crowd, she couldn't even move her arms and legs freely, much less get close enough to stop what he was about to do.
She could only stand there and watch as Lumine rushed into the sky.
"Sigh."
A heavy sigh came from somewhere unknown.
Xiangling's attention was fixed on the sky, and she didn't notice it.
At the edge of the Rite of Descension grounds, Zhongli, the consultant of the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor, looked toward Levi as he charged into the clouds and let out a deep sigh.
He naturally paid no mind to the challenge.
To him, those words were nothing more than childish antics.
The reason for his sigh was that this unexpected turn of events might disrupt the plans he had made.
Lumine.
He had heard that name before.
She was apparently the companion who had resolved Mondstadt's dragon crisis.
What puzzled Zhongli was that, based on what he'd heard from an old acquaintance, she shouldn't have been the type to do something like this.
After thinking it over again and again, he decided...
He would die now, to avoid further complications.
His gaze pierced through the clouds and landed on the dragon's body. A glimmer flashed through his eyes.
The golden dragon circling in the clouds seemed to jerk as if shocked, then the light faded from its eyes.
Just then, Levi shouted again, "Take this! Starfell Hammer!"
A trace of reluctance appeared in Zhongli's eyes.
After this, life in Liyue would definitely become difficult for him.
Levi swung the Dull Blade.
The tip of the sword became wrapped in a Starfell, turning the originally plain sword into a giant hammer.
Just as his attack was about to strike the Exuvia...
A clap of thunder rang out.
The Exuvia, now devoid of any power, dropped straight down and crashed onto the ceremonial table used for the Rite of Descension.
Seeing this, Ningguang's pupils contracted, and she immediately stepped forward to examine it.
'You killed him?!'
Lumine cried out in horror.
'How am I supposed to survive in Teyvat after he does something like this?!'
Did that mean she had to give up looking for her brother, flee to another world, wait until she had grown strong enough, and only then come back?
By then, Ningguang had already finished examining the Exuvia on the ground.
After confirming that it was a corpse, she immediately looked up and fixed her gaze on Levi.
If looks could kill, Levi would have died hundreds or thousands of times under Ningguang's murderous glare.
"Relax. She can't beat us."
'What do we do now?', Lumine asked cautiously.
There was no way she could stay in Liyue anymore.
Although instantly killing the Geo Archon felt incredibly strange, the Geo Archon's people wouldn't care whether it made sense or not.
She could only flee to another nation.
No...
Maybe she couldn't even do that.
Leaving aside the fact that Liyue was Teyvat's economic center and how much influence it had...
Whether fleeing to another nation would even work...
Just the fact that she had supposedly killed the Geo Archon would probably make every other nation refuse to shelter her.
After all, every nation had its own god.
What if one day she got upset and decided to kill another god for fun?
If she were the ruler of those nations, she'd cooperate with Liyue to eliminate her.
Did that mean... Her only option was to hide in another world?
Lumine couldn't help feeling a little despondent.
Looking at Ningguang glaring at him from below, Levi curled his lips into a faint smile.
"What do we do?"
The surrounding soldiers were already gathering.
Liyue's powerful figures were all rushing this way as well.
What else could they do?
Obviously...
"Run for it!"
Looks like it really was time to make a run for it.
Lumine nodded.
Her future was still full of promise.
At worst, she'd work harder from now on and aim to gain the strength to fight a god one-on-one within a few months.
By then, Teyvat would be hers to roam.
"The sea is wide enough for fish to leap, the sky high enough for birds to fly."
She could go wherever she wanted.
'Retreat!'
As soon as those words fell, Levi ran.
Then...
Then she realized she was in free fall.
Seeing this, Lumine suddenly realized that when he said "Run for it," he hadn't meant taking her with him.
As the ground drew closer and closer, Lumine wasn't flustered at all.
First, panicking wouldn't help.
Second, she had a way to land safely and escape from all these people without a scratch.
'I've got it!'
'The Wind Glider!'
Lumine immediately adjusted her posture and spread the Wind Glider Amber had given her.
After opening the Wind Glider, her falling speed dropped sharply...
Crack!
"...Uh-oh."
Looking at the broken Wind Glider, only two words remained in Lumine's mind.
"I'm doomed!"
BOOM!
A thick cloud of dust instantly rose from the ground.
When it finally settled, Ningguang discovered that Lumine was nowhere to be seen.
She immediately began searching the area.
"She's over here!"
A shout came from the distance.
Hearing it, Lumine, who had just managed to get back on her feet, ignored everything else, got up, and ran.
Along the way, she held the Dull Blade and put on a fierce expression, threatening people to get out of her way.
But no matter how threatening she looked, there were always a few stubborn people who refused to move.
After Lumine stomped on their toes a few times, they all became obedient.
"Lumine!"
Seeing her back, Paimon shouted and flew after her.
She was so fast that Xiangling didn't even have time to react before Paimon had already flown more than ten meters away.
"Hey! Hey! Hey!"
By the time Xiangling came to her senses and called out several times, Paimon never looked back.
She didn't dare shout any louder.
If she did, she might end up being suspected as an accomplice herself.
[T/N: Consider joining P@treon to keep the stories going. Enjoy~]