Windrise
A harp was playing, the medley is calm and soothing as the monsters are listening and sleeping together.
With a harp player singing, the voice he made is like an angel to them.
As the music continues, slashing and splitting noises has him finishing his tune, then opening his eyes.
The harpist puts his harp down and sees Lumine and her blood covered sword turning towards him.
"Ah. So you have arrived, Lumine, Paimon."
"Hello, Barbatos." Lumine approaches the harpist without posing a threat.
"Please, call me Venti. This is the third time you didn't say my name." Venti sighs.
"Isn't that who you are?" Lumine asked.
"Sorry about that, Venti." Paimon apologised.
"No need. I'd like to thank you for doing my quest. I needed some assistance. Ehehe." Venti giggles.
Venti then strolls through the fields along with Lumine.
After that, Venti is curious about Lumine going out on a journey when she usually hunts her enemies down like a wolf.
"Venti." Lumine called.
"What is it, Lumine?" Venti responded.
"Did you catch any traces on him?"
"Well… I actually did, but these guys are dangerous."
"You mean…"
"Yeah." Venti confirmed where a certain boy went as he revealed his arm to have claw marks. "These guys are tough, but they got nothing on me, ehehe."
"Sweet. I'll let you lead the way once I'm done with the temple quests." Said Lumine.
"Sure. Also, you'll help me save Dvalin, okay?"
"Fine."
As Lumine and Venti accepted each other's offers, Paimon is getting suspicious about Lumine and Venti's deal.
Paimon then floats by Lumine and gestures a charade about a hood she used to wear.
"Hm? You lost your cloak?" Venti asked.
Lumine nods.
"Well, good thing I got plenty for you."
"Give me five." Lumine orders.
"Done." Venti hands over 5 cloaks as Lumine wears one and carries 4.
"If he comes across you, tell him that Lumine is in Mondstadt. In a week or more I'll be heading to Liyue." Said Lumine.
"Alright. See ya, girls!"
"Bye, Venti!" Paimon waves with excitement.
Lumine waves with a smile and then turns away by pulling a hood up.
"Now! Onwards! To the Temple of Falcon!" Paimon yelled with excitement while pointing up at the distance.
"Heh. Let us begin." Lumine chuckles.
20 minutes later.
Standing by the temple door is Amber as she's sorting out the arrows on her magical bow, even checking out her puppet to see how much they explode.
She stops humming as she hears Lumine appearing with Paimon in a similar looking cloak.
"Lumine! Paimon! Thank goodness! I thought you'll be ditching us." Amber sighs with relief.
Lumine wished she could, considering that partying with those is not on her to do list.
"So this is the Temple of Four Winds, huh?" Paimon asked.
"Yeah. But it's now abandoned, even the Stormterror abandoned it. It's been left to waste and almost nobody in Mondstadt comes over there. It's a Hilichurl's nest." Amber sounds serious as she told Lumine and Paimon about its condition.
To Lumine, footprints are discovered which means someone went in before them.
"They're here."
"Huh? What the!?" Amber gasped.
"Who went in before us?" Paimon asked.
Lumine points at the entrance where there's a silhouette running inside.
Amber gasps after knowing who they are.
"They're the guild!? Why are they here!?"
"Probably them being stupid. Here." Lumine leads the way after handing a cloak over to Amber.
"Huh?"
"Put it on. Paimon knows why Lumine's wearing it." Paimon suggests.
"Sure." Amber, who has no idea why Lumine is hiding her face, is now confused and curious to know what Lumine is going to do.
Afterwards, Amber follows Lumine after pulling a hood up as she and Paimon entered a temple.
Temple of the Falcon
Temple of the Falcon of the West Wind, a temple that is so huge and spacious inside, expected to be the same for the other 2 temples.
Walking forwards, the adventurer is on a search for a certain item that could be destroyed.
If only he doesn't have bad luck, then he'd be with his group by now.
So much for being the leader of 'Benny's Adventure Team.'
This grey haired boy's name is Bennett and he's all alone.
What surprises him is the sound of the stone that is disturbing and eerie.
"Calm down, Bennett, the Stormterror's crystal is around there somewhere." Bennett is talking to himself while still moving forward.
And then came the Hilichurls from above.
"Oh. I guess it's nothing new, huh." Bennett chuckles as he can tell that his bad luck invited the Hilichurls.
Although he does have the solution to run away, he needs to make it out alive.
On the other side of the temple, Lumine and Amber are fully covered by their cloaks as their hoods are pulled up, only for them to hide their faces.
To Paimon's surprise, she can see the temple's atmosphere as otherworldly which is impossible for a temple to look like on the inside.
To Lumine, it's nothing special to her.
"Hold it. They're here." Amber whispers as she blocks Lumine and Paimon from moving, only to see a bunch of Hilichurls and Slimes camping as they speak their own language.
To Lumine and Paimon, these guys are off guard, knowing that Amber summons her Hunter's Bow and pulls her arrow by targeting a Hilichurl and a Slime.
With Amber charging her bow and arrow, her arrow starts to glow as flames accumulate on the arrowhead, giving Amber some time to charge.
"Gotcha." Amber then lets go of the arrow as the arrow itself moves at light speed.
Considering how confident Amber was, she's certain that it'll blow up on the enemies without any issue.
Unfortunately, a Hilichurl caught an arrow, blew the fire and then turned towards a couple of cloaked girls as Paimon and Amber shrieks and Lumine grunts.
"What!?" Amber gasped in shock.
"He caught it!? But how!?" Paimon exclaims.
"Run!" Lumine grabs Amber's arm while a Slime appears and turns itself into a flaming wheel, causing Lumine to hastily swing a sword by splitting it in two.
Then Lumine, Paimon and Amber are escaping from a howling Hilichurl as he summons more of his tribe and the Slimes.
With the trio making haste, Lumine is the one leading while dragging Amber and Paimon flies by as quickly as she could.
"I don't understand! I thought the Hilichurls were easy! Why're they quick!?" Amber pants as she doesn't know what's going on.
"Are they learning!?" Paimon asked.
Even Lumine doesn't know what's going on as she's thinking of a solution.
While still running, Lumine sees a grey haired boy, who was also chased by the Hilichurls.
"Tch!" Lumine knows she doesn't have time for this and leaps on different platforms with Amber, leading Paimon to pull faces as the trio managed to escape.
"BLEH! You can't get us! We're on the other side of-"
"Paimon, look out!" Amber interrupts as she shrieks, seeing another Hilichurl behind Paimon by raising his club.
This leads to Lumine pushing Paimon and blocking the club with the same sword she used against a Slime, leading her to grunt and slide her sword off by letting a Hilichurl loose and slash horizontally.
But he blocks again as Lumine is not only shocked, but struggling while slashing again and again.
"Ngh! Damn you!"
"Hold on!" Amber shouts while pulling her Hunter's Bow and a flaming arrow, closing one of her eyes while targeting a Hilichurl, only to see more jumping on the platform.
"What're we gonna do?" Paimon is worried about the possibility of her friends' survival.
"It's okay. If anything, we'll make it out alive!" Amber said, preparing to shoot her arrow.
After letting go, an arrow moves as fast as the other one earlier, causing a Hilichurl to dodge until Lumine has the chance to pierce her sword through a Hilichurl's chest.
As a Hilichurl exclaims, Lumine lets go and then decapitates him as he spurs out some blood that is staining Lumine's cloak.
With more Hilichurls incoming, Lumine yanks Amber's weapon off of her and pulls the arrow twice as hard while aiming for the solution.
"Lumine!?" Amber exclaims.
"Lumine! What are you doing!?" Paimon yelled.
Lumine ignores both of her allies as she has found it and lets go of the arrow at a hasty pace.
As a Hilichurl jumps, a flaming arrow catches his leg as a Hilichurl screams, leading other Hilichurls to land on him as they all fall into a bottomless pit while screaming.
It's over for now.
"Lumine. How did you know?" Amber asked, surprised to see another smart move Lumine pulled.
"Learn to keep the enemy off guard. Let's move." Lumine orders while walking towards the direction.
"Ah. Sure." Amber nods as she and Paimon follows, considering Amber herself should've led the way instead like earlier.
What Paimon sees is a traveler killing her enemies without mercy as a way to move forward, especially after she saved Paimon's life.
Something about Lumine is getting more suspicious.
On Bennett's side, Bennett himself is all alone in a room that is glowing green.
To his surprise, he has finally found it, the crystal that belonged to the Stormterror.
"Sweet! Now I can break that thing and get out of this place!" Bennett cheers while holding out his Silver Sword to prepare himself.
"Hraaagh!" A voice yelled.
"Eh?"
What stops Bennett from trying to smash the crystal is a group of Hilichurls that's been chasing him for so long, even though they finally caught up to him.
"Mmn… What do you want from me?" Bennett asked as he grunted.
Knowing the Hilichurls, they're incapable of answering Bennett's question as one of the Hilichurls raises his club to crush Bennett's head until…
A slashing noise is heard.
"Huh? Huh!?" In Bennett's shock, he witnesses a Hilichurl being splitted in half vertically as blood splats on his face.
Even the Hilichurls shriek as they witness a bloodstained cloaked girl with golden eyes holding out her Dull Blade while piercing a glare at the Hilichurls.
Before one of them escapes, an arrow catches the mask as one of the Hilichurls is off guard, leading the last one to scream.
After cracking her neck, Lumine quickly pierces her Dull Blade through the last one and then swings it sideways by spraying blood on the wall as well as almost hitting Bennett, leading the Hilichurl to drop dead on the ground.
"Tough guys you are, but in the end, you're still weak." Said Lumine.
After the battle, Amber and Paimon sigh as it's all over and Lumine approaches Bennett by looking him in the eyes.
"Bennett."
"Huh? Y- You know my name? Well, it's not surprising considering I'm the leader of Benny's Adventure Team! Ahaha!" Bennett laughs while Lumine is not. "Anyway, thanks for saving me. I would've been a goner if no one's around."
"I'm not saving you. I'm here for this." Lumine points at the crystal as it's the reason why the weather is acting a little funnier.
"Oh, this? I was about to destroy the crystal since no one's doing it. But you guys are doing it, so I guess it's all up to you." Said Bennett.
"Huh? What about you?" Amber asks.
"Well… My bad luck might get in the way, so maybe you guys can do it. I got some adventure to do. See ya!" Bennett answers as he stabs the crystal with his Silver Sword, then smashes it by throwing it down and leaves the Temple by vanishing through the warp portal.
This leaves Lumine, Paimon and Amber standing together as they're seeing a smashed crystal and a bloodbath as Amber is starting to get uncomfortable.
"Hey, um… Let's get out of this place." Amber requested.
"Sure. Let's go." Paimon nods.
Lumine also nods as she leaves along with Paimon and Amber through the warp together.
Little did Bennett know that he forgets to ask about Lumine and Paimon as he's too focused on his journey.
Back outside at Windrise, Amber pulls down the hood of a cloak as she pants.
"Hoo! I know you're tough and all, but you don't have to go all out and- Um…" Amber stops herself after seeing Lumine's glare, causing her to lower her head and poke her own fingers while feeling defeated. "N- Never mind."
"Amber, don't be afraid of expressing yourself. I always think that Lumine is a psycho bi- BEH!" Interrupted, Paimon gets a knuckle sandwich to her head from Lumine as Lumine can tell that Paimon is about to insult her for her actions.
"Zip it." Lumine hissed.
Amber halted.
She had a feeling that Lumine and Paimon's relationship is not as Paimon described, knowing Lumine is very cold towards everyone.
Despite saving her, Paimon and Bennett, Lumine is nothing but a maniac when battling which is giving her a not so great impression towards her.
But Amber will keep going and see how this'll go on later on.
"Well, Lumine, for a first timer of a knight, you're pretty cool. If this keeps up, then you'll be promoted!" Amber laughs with joy.
In Lumine's case, Amber is actually strange as Lumine herself isn't interested in being a knight and only prioritises her journey to search for something and someone important to her which is why she had Venti helping her.
That's 1 temple down and 2 to go.
Next stop: the Temple of Wolf.