The man known as Diluc walked over to the unconscious Abyss Mage, binding its limbs together with rope before hoisting it over his shoulder.

"I'm going to interrogate it, see if it knows anything useful." He said as he walked past the two. He stopped and turned to Phineas, "You have my thanks for helping to protect Mondstadt. If we meet again, maybe we can talk a little more."

He continued back on his path, standing on the nearby exit pad as he and the Abyss Mage disappeared in a flash of light.

"Don't mind him. He was a nice young lad, but nowadays he just seems to be in a world of his own... Overall, not much fun to hang out with." Kaeya spoke up. "Anyways, we should head back to Mondstadt. With any luck, the other groups should be done with their temples by now as well."

With that, Kaeya started to saunter over to the exit pad of the domain. "Wait a minute, Kaeya. I might have something to get us back to Mondstadt, it will save us the walk back." Phineas pulled out a glass bottle in the shape of an hourglass, inside was a bubbly liquid that was light blue in color.

"What is that?" Kaeya asked.

"A Recall Potion. Upon drinking it, you will be teleported back to the place you consider home. Or at least that is what it says it does, more often than not, you just end up in the room containing, or near the last bed you fell asleep in." He says as he shakes it around in its bottle, watching the liquid slosh against the sides of the glass. "They've helped me escape situations that would have been fatal."

He tossed the bottle to Kaeya. He caught the bottle and stared at the liquid in thought for a moment before turning to Phineas, "But how will you get back?"

"I have something similar that I can use, I shouldn't be too far behind."

Kaeya shrugged and popped off the cork of the bottle before chugging it down. He starts to glow a bright blue as he inspects his arms, before long his whole body is covered in the blue light and then it dissipates, leaving empty space behind.

After Kaeya disappeared in a blue shimmer of light, Phineas pulled out his Shellphone and tapped the button to take him home. The device glowed in the familiar brilliant blue as his vision was overtaken by a bright white light.

Opening his eyes once more he saw that he was in some kind of tube, rocketing through it at an incredibly high speed. As he traveled through the vortex, he thought about why it was taking longer than normal. Maybe the Shellphone was actually trying to take him back to Terraria.

But before he could ponder more, he felt something metallic grab around his ankle, looking back he saw a shackle with a golden chain expanding as far back as his eyes could see. He went to cut it with his blade but three more similar cuffs spring out of the void behind him. Grabbing onto his free limbs and restraining him. He felt himself slow down to a stop before moving in the opposite direction he was headed.

The vortex around him quickly disappeared as he was dragged out of the stream and back to Teyvat. The chains let go of his limbs as he was flung out of a wormhole, slamming into the sturdy trunk of the tree he once woke up under. Groaning in pain he slowly stood back up, looking over his Shellphone to see what had happened. On the screen was an error message being displayed:

Something interfered with teleportation! Failsafe activated. Current location saved to databank; Overwriting 'World Center' to 'Windrise'.

"Well, shit." Phineas muttered to himself as he closed the device, slipping it back into his pocket.

Phineas, deciding that he needed to catch up with Kaeya, decided to use a Wormhole Potion instead of flying back to Mondstadt. Pulling out a glass bottle with a deeper blue liquid than the Recall Potion and downing it before he disappeared in the familiar blue shimmer.

Once again in the absence of any other presence at Windrise, a soft harp-like sound could be heard among the breeze in the canopy.

"Amber, I trust that the problem inside of the Temple of the Falcon is all taken care of?" Acting Grand Master Jean asked.

"Yup! Lumine's combat skills are something else, we could use more people like her." Amber responded, throwing her arm around Lumine's shoulder.

"Yeah, they were all like: Hii-yah! Oooo-wah!" Paimon said as she punched and kicked to mimic their moves. "Those Hilichurls stood no chance!" Jean smiled and nodded, Lisa stifled a giggle, and Lumine embarrassingly looked away.

"A-Anyways. I have something to show the Knights of Favonius." Lumine said.

"Oh? And what would it-" Jean started, being cut off.

The door to the Acting Grand Master's office opened and stepping through was Kaeya. "The situation at the Temple of the Wolf is now under control. We removed all traces of the Abyss Order."

"So, they really are behind all this. This makes it a lot harder, but we must try… for Mondstadt." Jean looked down at her clenched fist, relaxing it and looking back up to Kaeya. "What happened to Phineas?" Now realizing the missing member from this expedition.

"He said he would be right behind me." Kaeya said, shrugging. He looked towards the group gathered, noticing everyone got back before them, they might have had less trouble in their temples. Oddly they weren't looking at him, they were all looking next to him, he turned towards his side to see a blue shimmer in the space next to him. Taking a few steps away the shimmering intensifies, and the lights gather into the silhouette of a man.

The light died down, leaving Phineas in its place. "Sorry I was late, got a little held up."

Everyone in the room except Kaeya stood dumbfounded.

"My, my. That's certainly an interesting entrance." Lisa stated, recovering from her moment of surprise.

"I- Wha- How did you do that?" Paimon inquired. "Are you like… magic or something?!"

"It certainly would appear so." Lumine answered, looking at Phineas curiously.

"This is all kinds of weird!" Amber exclaimed.

Kaeya audibly cleared his throat to get everyone's attention. After everyone quieted down and focused on him, he spoke. "Yes, Phineas does have some rather… special abilities, he's shown he was quite capable during our expedition." He turned towards Jean, "However I believe our Acting Grand Master has a few things to say?"

"Yes, thank you, Kaeya. Lumine, what did you want to show us?" She looked over to the girl who was now fishing through a pocket behind her. She pulled out an ominous glowing red crystal shaped like a droplet of water.

"It's a crystal embedded with some kind of power... Lisa, are you able to analyze it?" She asked the librarian.

"Let me take a look… Hmm... I can see impurities in the crystal, but upon further inspection…" She pondered it further, "No, I'm sorry, I can't make a proper analysis at the moment." She apologized. "Give me some time. I'll take a look through the library's restricted section."

"Right. I'll leave the research to you then." Jean concluded.

Phineas stepped up to Lumine, eager to satiate his curiosity about the object she was holding. He held his hand out to her, "May I?" Lumine nodded and handed the crystal off to him.

He held his hands out as it gently hovered above his palms. "It feels… sad? Like the energy within this crystal is crying out in agony." He poured a bit of mana into the crystal to see how it would react, getting back a familiar energy signature to that of Stormterror when he faced the dragon in the skies.

"Say, does this object have anything to do with that dragon?" He asked Lumine.

"Yeah, it did. How did you know?" She asked incredulously.

"The energy signature of the crystal and the one Stormterror emanated felt similar." He shrugged, handing the crystal back off to Lumine.

"Can I take it with me? It would be good to have when researchi- Ouch!"

"What happened?" Amber asked.

"The negative energy in the crystal stung me when I got close…" Lisa noticed a purple glow in her Vision. "I see… it appears to have reacted to my Vision. The negative energy and the elemental energy us Vision Holders embody, repel each other."

"But Lumine has elemental powers too, and she didn't get hurt by it." Amber looked to Lumine and saw her lost in thought.

"Well, I guess the crystal would be better left in the hands of either of you cuties, it would only bring pain if left with us." Lisa decided.

"Okay, I'll keep it safe." Lumine put it back in her pocket.

'Cutie?' Phineas thought to himself, shaking his head to rid that thought. He had someone else he liked.

"Fascinating… Do you know what would keep it from harming you, Lumine?" Jean asked, as she mentally shelved that info for later.

Lumine shook her head in the negative.

"Regardless, Lumine and Phineas, the Knights of Favonius have another favor to ask of you… Please accept the title of Honorary Knight, the gratitude of the Acting Grand Master, and we ask for your continued support with the Stormterror situation."

"Honorary Knight… of Favonius?!" Paimon asked giddily.

"Sounds like a nice offer, but I'll pass."

"WHAT?!" Paimon screamed.

"Please reconsider!" Jean implored.

"I'll still help with Stormterror. I can't just sit around when innocent lives are on the line, but I'm no knight." Phineas clarified.

"I see…" Jean frowned, but quickly shook it away. "Well, then, Stormterror's rage, and that crystal, I know Mondstadt's safety is at risk. Knights of Favonius, Windborne warrior, may the wind guide you to the truth. We'll meet back here if you find anything."

"Can I trouble you for an inn, or a place to spend the night? If payment is required, I don't know if my currency would work here… But I'd be willing to barter if I need to."

"That isn't necessary. There are spare empty quarters we usually set aside for delegates; however, the current delegations are renting out the entire Grand Hotel. So, the both of you can feel free to take those and use all accommodations here at the Headquarters if you'd like."

"They're on the second floor, I can show you to them." Amber jabbed her thumb to the door of the office.

With that, the group left the office, and all went their separate ways. After Amber showed them to the spare rooms, Lumine offered a quick goodnight and took Paimon into one of them, while Phineas took the other.

He set an alarm to wake him up at what would be sunrise in Terraria. The clock read 11:45 PM. Looking out the window, he could see the moon of the world nearing the crown of its arch. Relieved that he didn't have to re-adjust the clock on the Shellphone he set it on the nightstand next to the bed and laid down. After about 15 minutes of tossing and turning, he finally let rest take over and fell into a blissful slumber.

AN:

Hey guys, sorry for taking like a month to update, this chapter isn't even the original length I wanted and it ended up being cut short.

The next chapter will have two certain world travelers finally getting a chance to talk.

Thanks to iDrmzIt for being my lore consultant.

Until next time, (hopefully sometime within the next 3 weeks as opposed to 4 or 5)

-Spoopy