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~ Diluc: Wolf's Gravestone ~

Heir to the prestigious Ragnvindr Clan, the youngest-ever Cavalry Captain in the vast history of the Knights of Favonius; such are the responsibilities that young Diluc has on his shoulders. Yet, for someone to be entrusted with such monumental tasks at such a young age, Diluc prided himself on having these responsibilities and walked amongst the people with his head held high. After all, he had long since made up his mind of living up to his father's wishes of becoming an outstanding knight and a worthy successor to the Ragnvindr name that Mondstadt has held in high regard throughout its entire history.

In his duties as the Cavalry Captain, Diluc served as a headstrong leader, preferring to be out on the field alongside his men whenever he could instead of simply giving them orders as most of his predecessors did. It wasn't for a lack of trust in the abilities of the people around him, but rather a desire to lead by example. Indeed, morale of the members of the Cavalry Unit went up to an unprecented high knowing their young leader was willing to fight alongside them on the frontlines. This remarkable display of leadership caused Varka, Grandmaster of the Knights himself, to hold Diluc in very high esteem.

As time went on, the Grandmaster began to realize that the Cavalry Captain's potential was high enough that Diluc could very well surpass him, and so began to invite the young captain out on training sessions with him outside of the city in the forests of Wolvendom, which the latter graciously accepted. It wasn't everyday the Grandmaster had taken other people with him whenever he went training, and it was certainly an opportunity every other knight would want for themselves.

However, what people didn't expect was the pair coming back to the city with the Cavalry Captain looking beaten up while the Grandmaster looked as fresh as he did when they first left. Everyone quickly realized that whatever training Varka had put Diluc through was far beyond anything they imagined. Suddenly, the idea of getting invited to personally train with the Grandmaster turned from a once in a lifetime opportunity to something akin to capital punishment, and feelings of envy towards Diluc turned to pity as they looked upon the sight of the young captain being bruised and battered.

Even Diluc's childhood friend, the Dandelion Knight Jean, who also served as Grandmaster Varka's right hand woman began to worry and even pleaded with the Grandmaster to not put her friend through too much trouble while training. Varka simply laughed at the idea and told her that he never intended to push him hard, and that it was Diluc who insisted on training more than they originally planned to every time they went out.

For several weeks, Diluc continued to further improve his swordsmanship while sparring with Varka, who was hailed as the strongest warrior of his generation. While Diluc wasn't short of physical strength required to wield the massive two-handed swords, the Grandmaster with his larger, bulkier physique was comparatively more apt to these weapons. This meant that the Cavalry Captain found himself on the losing end of every single one of their sparring sessions until he finally learned to utilize the agility his smaller frame provided to at least go against the Grandmaster to a standstill, albeit knowing the latter was still holding back.

Eventually, Diluc's improvement began to accelerate, as he found himself able to evenly spar with the Grandmaster on a more consistent basis, while the latter was pushed ever closer to his full strength when he went up against the younger knight. Much to the people's surprise, the Grandmaster and the Cavalary would return to the city both looking worse for wear.

On one of their later training trips, Varka decided to forego sparring in order to take Diluc deeper into the Wolvendom forest to the Wolf of the North's lair, a wide, open arena that somewhat resembled the amphitheater ruin of the Thousand Winds Temple at Starfell Valley. Standing out in the middle of the arena was a single, peculiar looking broadsword planted firmly on the ground. As they walked closer to it, Diluc began to realize that it was no ordinary sword.

The sword had a wide blade, considerably wider compared to the Favonius Greatsword he had been carrying. The fuller had a deep red, almost crimson hue with elaborate engravings across the surface that stretched all the way to the cross-guard as well as parts of the edge, which itself shone in bright silver. The cross guard was made of dark gray metal with a strange, red orb embedded right in the middle and connected to the thick gray grip that featured a spiked, cross-shaped pommel at the end.

Varka, having noticed that the sword had piqued the young knight's interest, began to elaborate on the mysterious weapon. He explained that the sword once belonged to the original Wolf Knight, aptly named the Wolf's Gravestone and was a weapon imbued with the powers of the Wolf of the North. As the present-day Knight of Boreas, Varka recalled that he himself wielded this weapon in the past, but chose to return it to Wolvendom as he opted to pursue strength in his own way, without relying on such a powerful weapon like the Wolf Knight's sword.

The Grandmaster's expression then changed to a serious one, and told Diluc of another reason why he had brought him along to this part of Wolvendom: the chance to challenge the Wolf of the North himself, telling him that it was to be the final part of their training. Despite having no idea of what laid ahead, Diluc steeled himself and agreed to face the challenge, knowing that turning it down meant the same as undoing all the work he has done until this point.

Varka then turned towards the far end of the arena where the wall engraving of the Wolf of the North was and called out the wolf's spirit.

"Andrius! Come out and show yourself, old friend."

A deep blue fog began to envelop the arena in an instant, blocking out the clear skies above and seemingly containing them within a barrier. Diluc held his claymore at the ready and watched as streams of energy started gathering towards the wall engraving. Moments later, the spirit of Andrius, Dominator of Wolves began to manifest itself in the form of a colossal, ice blue wolf, howling as his physical form completely materialized. The wolf then walked up to where the knights were, as Varka simply stood with his arms crossed, smiling as if he was greeting an old acquaintance.

"Varka, you've returned. Have you come to challenge me again, Knight of Boreas?"

"Not today, old friend. But I did bring someone today who I feel is still worth your time."

Andrius' eyes then darted towards Diluc, who was standing beside Varka with his claymore still at the ready. The wolf looked the young knight over and recognized from his red hair that he was a descendant of the Dawn Knight, Ragnvindr.

"So you're the one looking to take on the challenge? If Varka personally brought you before me then I suppose I can expect a lot from for young knight. Still, I wonder how long it has been since a child of Ragnvindr has come before me."

With no time to register the surprise he felt when Andrius correctly identified him as one from the Ragnvindr clan, Diluc simply responded by assuming a battle stance, holding his sword out in front of him. Sensing that the young captain was ready, Varka couldn't help but smile as he walked away from the center of the arena, climbing up to higher ground using the broken parts of the wall, settling to watch the upcoming battle from there.

Andrius, meanwhile walked back to where he came from near the wall engraving, appropriately creating distance between himself and his challenger before the start of their battle.

"Get ready, child of Ragnvindr!"

Diluc then saw the ground beneath him suddenly turn to ice as Andrius leapt into the air and headed straight for him. Quickly channeling his Pyro vision's energy onto his feet, he was able to get away from the icy surface in time to avoid the wolf landing right on top of him. Looking for a quick counterattack, Diluc charged towards the wolf as he imbued his sword with pyro, only to be met with Andrius swiftly swinging one of his arms at him. Diluc barely blocked the blow with his blade but the impact sent him flying away from the colossal wolf, getting down to a knee as he landed.

Andrius then turned his back towards the young knight and began violently swinging his tail in the air, creating icicle shards that he promptly hurled towards Diluc, who was trying to get back to his feet. With not enough time to dodge, Diluc simply swung at the incoming projectile, breaking it apart with a pyro-powered slash. When the knight set his eyes forward once again, however, Andrius was nowhere to be seen.

Frantically looking around to find the wolf, the ground he stood on once again froze and Diluc looked up to see that the wolf had leapt at him once more. With not enough time to completely get away from where the ice had formed, Diluc decided to just melt the ice around his feet to give himself a foothold to use and jumped up to try and meet Andrius' attack head on in mid-air. The wolf clearly hadn't expected this sudden attack and was met with Diluc's pyro-imbued slash, and while Diluc felt the slash solidly connect, Andrius showed no visible signs of damage.

Recalling that the Andrius before him was just the spirit of the Wolf of the North and that body materialized from elemental energy, Diluc assumed that his attack still did actual damage despite the lack of any visible marks. Not wanting to give Andrius time to recover, he kept on the offensive, carefully reading the movement of wolf's limbs to predict the oncoming attacks and deftly dodging its swipes to get a few more of his attacks to connect.

Seemingly stuck on the defensive, Andrius then began to beat a hasty retreat and sprinted away from Diluc. He then continued to run around the arena at incredible speeds, leaving afterimages behind him as he went. With the wolf circling him as such high speeds, Diluc struggled to predict what was coming next, as either a charge attack or a more aggressive leap were both possible given how much distance Andrius had put between them. Suddenly, the wolf stopped in its tracks right next to the wall surrounding the arena, but before Diluc could ready himself for an attack, Andrius dashed aggressively towards him and knocked him off his feet as he barely got his guard up in time.

Diluc quickly got back to his feet and hastily looked around him to see where the next attack could come from, but with Andrius moving so rapidly around the arena, he was blindsided by the next charge that knocked him back down again. Now having endured two consecutive hits that that felt harder than any of Varka's sword swings, Diluc struggled to get back to his feet. Andrius took the opportunity to then freeze the ground around Diluc and leapt into the air, intending on finishing the battle with his next attack.

Diluc, predicting another leaping attack based on the frozen ground, charged his sword with elemental energy as soon as he got to his feet and attacked the wolf coming down from above with a single slash that sent a burst of flame coming out from his sword in the shape of a phoenix. The attack intercepted the wolf mid-air and connected, knocking Andrius down as he hit the ground.

However, the wolf wasn't quite finished as he quickly got back to his feet and jumped away from Diluc. However, instead of posturing up for another attack, Andrius began to gather Anemo energy around him and howled into the air as he unleashed a burst of wind that pushed Diluc back from where he stood. The Anemo energy turned the wolf from its ice blue appearance to one of white with streams of green flowing around him, with the swirls of ice and wind signifying its use of both Anemo and Cryo energies.

With his opponent powered up, Diluc readied himself for a tougher fight to come. Andrius raised his front legs as he froze the path directly between him and Diluc, then causing bursts of Anemo energy to erupt from the frozen path as he slammed his legs down on the ground. Diluc manages to avoid this attack and runs towards the wolf to counter, but gets stopped in his tracks as Andrius summons a swirl of Anemo energy around to act as a barrier as he summoned a pack of small, phantom wolves around the knight.

The smaller wolves then began to charge at Diluc, who dispatches of them by planting his sword on the ground and surrounding himself with a small whirlwind of flames that caused the wolves to disappear one by one. While Diluc was occupied with dealing with the smaller wolves, however, Andrius raised his front legs once again for another attack: an Anemo-powered slash that flew straight towards the Cavalry Captain but broke up into multiple slashes mid-flight in order to try and catch the knight off-guard as he attempted to dodge. However, Diluc patiently observed the attack and simply didn't move, causing the attacks to miss entirely.

Despite his successful dodge attempt, Diluc knew that a prolonged battle would simply put him at a disadvantage against a being made of elemental energy. He charged at the wolf, determined to end the battle as quickly as he can. Andrius answered his charge by summoning up a storm of icicles to rain down on his path, but to little effect as the knight was able to dodge the storm and keep on closing the distance. Andrius delivered a swift Anemo slash at the knight to stop him, but instead of blocking the attack, Diluc decided to meet it head on with yet another powerful Pyro powered slash that conjured up a phoenix.

The phoenix clashed with the waves of Anemo energy, but instead of dispelling the flames, the winds ended up feeding the flames, creating a blazing swirl that headed straight towards Andrius, who had no time to react. The sight of the fallen wolf was then revealed as the flames died down. Diluc, heavily exhausted after the fight, dropped his sword and got down to the ground on one knee as he tried to catch his breath. The blue fog that enveloped the arena then began started to disappear, fading back into the clear skies above Mondstadt.

Eventually Andrius recovered and got back to his feet. He slowly walked towards Diluc and lowered his head as a sign of conceding defeat.

"You have won the wolf's challenge. Tell me, child of Ragnvindr, what is your name?"

"Diluc."

"Diluc Ragnvindr. I shall remember your name, as one of the few beyond the Knights of Boreas to have proven themselves worthy of my blessing. Come forth anytime you wish to test your strength, young knight, I shall be here to answer your challenge."

Varka then walked towards the pair of them, clapping his hands in applause of Diluc's achievement. Andrius then turned his eyes towards the Knight of Boreas.

"You have raised a fine knight, Varka. I am delighted to see that Mondstadt still has strong protectors."

"I am the Grandmaster of the Knight, dear friend. I would dishonor the title if my knights weren't up to the task."

"Then I suppose I have little to worry about, after all."

The wolf then howled into the air once more as it faded away, with the streams of energy now gathering around the mysterious sword that still laid in the middle of the arena. Varka and Diluc then walked towards it and noticed that the blade now appeared different, glowing a brighter shade all over in a way that made it appears as if it had been finally awakened

"Diluc, Lupus Boreas himself has deemed you worthy of wielding the Wolf's Gravestone. Go on, take that blade as your own, and let it help you realize your full potential as a Knight of Favonius."

Diluc then pulled the sword out from the ground, and began to feel an overwhelming amount of power from the sword as he held it in his hands, causing him to almost drop the sword in surprise. As he tightened his grip on it, however, the power began to slowly settle down until it simply went away. Unsure of what just occurred, Diluc assumed that the sword tried to overpower him the first time, only to settle down as it began to gradually recognize him as a worthy wielder.

After this event, Diluc continued to flourish as the Cavalry Captain of the Knights, completing one mission after another while wielding the Wolf's Gravestone to great effect in battle. However, the unfortunate encounter with Ursa the Drake proved to be too much for the young captain, resulting in tragedy as it ended with the death of his father Crepus, who died from the effects of a Fatui Delusion in a desperate attempt to protect his son.

The aftermath of the tragedy drove Diluc into despair, and he abruptly left the Knights of Favonius and the City of Mondstadt altogether. Carrying the Delusion that killed his father Crepus, Diluc returned the Wolf's Gravestone to its resting place in Wolvendom as he set out on his self-exile. To Diluc, he no longer considered himself worthy of the sword as the tragedy caused him to eventually abandon his life as knight, the purpose upon which he had taken up the sword in the first place.

Four years later, Diluc eventually returned to Mondstadt but with a vastly different outlook in life, as well as a completely different personality. As he settled into his role as the heir to the Dawn Winery and the Ragnvindr Clan, the once sociable Cavalry Captain had now become the aloof noble, coveted by the people in high society, all the while displaying a clear disdain for the Knights of Favonius that he was once a proud member of.

However, the desire to protect Mondstadt only seemingly grew with time, as he eventually took up his old Favonius Sword in the cover of darkness, personally confronting the threats to the city in anonymity. His deeds eventually garnered praise among the people, who began calling him the "Darknight Hero", at the same time gaining infamy among the knights, who didn't take well to his rampant vigilantism.

During the events of the Stormterror Incident, Diluc played a key part in helping resolve the conflict and saving Dvalin with the help of the Dandelion Knight, the Honorary Knight, and the Anemo Archon himself. While their efforts proved successful, the incident also helped him realize that if he wanted to keep on acting as Mondstadt's protector from the shadows, he needed as much power as he can get, owing to the fact that his endeavors would often require him to deal with the threats alone.

To that extent, Diluc once again ventured to the forests of Wolvendom. Much to his surprise, the Wolf's Gravestone laid just where he left it at the Wolf of the North's arena seemingly waiting for him. As he pulled the sword out of the ground, however, the arena was quickly enveloped in a blue fog. Knowing what was coming, Diluc simply smiled and held the sword at the ready as Andrius appeared in front of him to answer his challenge.