Peace and quiet at last.
The wind breezes, cooling the air down with a man wearing an eyepatch sitting on a stone, stained in blood by his arm and his sword.
He can hear the footsteps coming.
"Hm? Ah! I see you ladies have arrived." Kaeya calls while raising his arm and smiles like the charmer he is. "So, Amber, how's working with Lumine?"
"Well… She's great, until you see for yourself." Laughing bitterly, Amber doesn't want to talk about it.
"Ugh! This is going to be one of those days!" Paimon groaned.
"Oh relax, girls. Whatever Lumine did, I'll judge her for her actions." Kaeya promises as he patted both Amber's shoulder and Paimon's head.
"Thanks, Kaeya." Amber is relieved.
Then Kaeya approaches Lumine while thinking and rubs his chin.
"Blood. You've been killing a lot earlier."
Lumine looks away without a word, avoiding her interactions with Kaeya, only for Kaeya to let Lumine through.
"I must say, you have a lot of potential to save Mondstadt for us. Now stand in front of the temple." Kaeya orders as Lumine does what he said.
After Lumine stands, Kaeya approaches Lumine from behind while the gate slowly opens.
"Good. See ya."
"Huh?" Lumine halts.
Before she turns around, Kaeya's foot has pushed her so hard that Lumine is forced to enter a temple, leading Amber and Paimon to exclaim.
"Kaeya! What are you doing!?" Amber shouts.
"Relax. Lumine did ask for it. Although, she needs to prove herself if she's strong enough to fight by herself." Kaeya explains.
"But-..."
"And besides, I don't condone that kind of attitude she makes. I don't care if she dies or not." Kaeya interrupts Paimon as he pierces a glare towards both Amber and Paimon, knowing that Lumine is the problem.
Paimon grunts, worried that Lumine will die all alone in the temple.
Amber then walks towards Kaeya and looks him in the eyes.
"Even if she's strong, the Hilichurls are worse than you think." Amber warned.
"I know. I'm wondering where they learn to be more cunning and less savage." Kaeya had a feeling that something was wrong.
What had Kaeya thinking is the fact that he's meant to go in as well, but was caught up on his judgement despite it being intentional.
"Alright, you got me." Kaeya sighs and then carries Paimon, only for him and Paimon to enter through the gate. "Let's go, Paimon."
"Um… Okay." Paimon reluctantly accepts.
"Don't worry, Amber, I'll make sure the traveler isn't dead. I'll be back." Kaeya waves while walking through the gate.
"Yeah. Good luck, Kaeya. You too, Paimon." Amber nods while wishing Kaeya and Paimon luck.
Finally, Amber is left alone as she's sitting down and sighing.
To think she didn't see it all coming. For an outrider, this is embarrassing.
Temple of the Wolf
The Temple of the Wolf of the North Wind, a temple similar to the Temple of the Falcon is actually huge, which is all true, but the difference is the structures and the pathways.
With the Hilichurl walking while singing, he's off guard.
Then a sword appears out of nowhere by stabbing his head and puts him on the wall as the sword comes from Lumine.
Her cloak, her face, even her under it by her arms and legs are all a mess as they're stained with blood.
Lumine pants as she's surrounded by more Hilichurls, leading her to pull the sword off the wall, wipe the blade and raise it as she glares at the Pyro Slimes and the Hilichurl horde.
With one Hilichurl raise his club, Lumine instantly elbows his chest and smashes his mask with her fist and then jabs her Dull Blade behind by stabbing a Pyro Slime and swings her sword by cutting 2 Hilichurls horizontally, only for one of them to parry and beats Lumine by the side of her stomach.
Lumine grunts as more are being blocked yet some are hitting her which makes Lumine fall to one of her knees in pain as she clenches her teeth out of desperation.
Then she swings her blood stained sword by cross cutting both Hilichurls while being stained more while being beaten.
If Kaeya hadn't put her in this place, then she would've got to the crystal by now.
Before Lumine is done for, shards of ice are coming out of Hilichurls and Slimes as they explode, creating a rain of blood and char.
What surprises Lumine is Kaeya arriving in a raining blood as well as char dust flying around, knowing that he used his cryo ability against the enemies.
"Lumine! Are you okay!?" Paimon asked as she desperately helped Lumine up.
"I know. You'll say you'll be fine, but in honesty, you won't be." Kaeya points out, leading Lumine to click her tongue and lower her head.
After picking herself up, she grabs Kaeya by the collar and puts a tip of a bloodstained Dull Blade on Kaeya's neck.
Kaeya can tell Lumine's anger comes from pushing her in the temple and leaving her all alone to die, even her quiet growl says it all.
"Alright, you got me. I was thinking about abandoning you, but killing me is also a crime. I guess both of us aren't justified to do these kinds of stuff." Sighing, Kaeya knows what Lumine has gotten into as he can see a bloodbath.
"Kaeya…" Paimon grunts.
"Also. It seems you don't care much about Paimon. You know how worried she was about you?" Kaeya said, leading Lumine to let him go and turn around.
"It's not that I don't care. It's that I'm focusing on my mission." Lumine finally speaks out and then stops while walking forward.
"Your mission?" Kaeya stops as he's thinking about what Lumine said about 'her mission.'
"Yeah. Paimon doesn't know either. She and her friend are searching for a certain boy she's been thinking about." Paimon explained.
"So that's why she's distant towards us. Well, it seems we have a mystery on foot." Kaeya sighed.
"Yeah…" Paimon agreed. "Oh! You need a cloak on. Here."
As Paimon holds out a cloak, Kaeya waves as a way of decline.
"Thanks, but I prefer not to. I'm covered anyway, also I wanna fight as myself." Said Kaeya.
"Oh. I get it." Paimon nods and puts the cloak back under her spacial scarf.
Finally, Lumine, Paimon and Kaeya are following their paths as they're still on a search and leave the bloody hallway.
10 minutes later, Lumine, Paimon and Kaeya have finally reached the crystal as Paimon rejoices with excitement.
"There it is! Now destroy it!"
"Hmph! Don't mind if I do." Kaeya is glad to be doing this.
But Lumine knows what's going on behind the scenes.
"Wait. They're here." Lumine raises her blood covered Dull Blade and another one that is fresh as Lumine becomes dual wielding.
"Huh?" Both Kaeya and Paimon halt as the enemies dive down as they surround the trio, leading Lumine to back herself towards Kaeya and raise both her swords.
"What did I just say?" Lumine growls.
"Relax. These guys are not as tough as you think. Admittedly, I struggled against them, so we can only beat them when we work…" Clashing his Silver Sword against a club, Kaeya knows how an ambush goes as Lumine is struggling the same as him, making Kaeya himself finish the sentence slowly. "Together!"
"Tch! Fine." Lumine reluctantly accepts as she pushes a Hilichurl and kicks the other while standing back to back with Kaeya. "But don't get in my way."
"Oh I won't." Kaeya accepted. "Paimon, if we die,tell Amber to finish the job for us."
Finally, the Hilichurls and the Pyro Slimes dive as every enemy yells, causing both Lumine and Kaeya to raise their weapons while surrounded.
After that, the duo are piled up as Paimon watches Lumine and Kaeya meeting their doom as the Pyro Slimes and Hilichurls are beating them both mercilessly like actual savages.
"Please… Just live. Remember what you promised." Paimon prays as she's hoping for Lumine and Kaeya to save each other from death.
Then something comes out.
Spikes of ice are coming out as most of the Hilichurls and Pyro Slimes are being stabbed and some of them are unscathed which is a sign that Kaeya is using his cryo ability.
After that a bunch of slashes that are cutting the Hilichurls and Pyro Slimes to pieces until they explode into nothing but gel and blood as they spread everywhere, with the survivors yelling out of rage.
After Kaeya and Lumine are freed, Lumine grunts as she falls to one of her knees and places one of her swords on the ground.
"Gh!"
"Are you alright?" Kaeya asked.
Lumine pulls herself up as she refuses to answer and stands by Kaeya's side.
"I can tell that you're beaten up before I caught up. I think you need a rest when this is over." Said Kaeya.
Lumine refuses to take heed as she wants to do all this, even if it kills her to do it.
Kaeya may be the guy to enjoy watching other people suffer, but he's actually concerned about Lumine's actions which is something he can't stand seeing.
Afterward, both Kaeya and Lumine dashes towards the remaining enemies and splits them all with Lumine herself blocking 2 clubs and slides them by diagonally cutting both Hilichurls, splits one from his crotch to his shoulder and and behead another one, whereas Kaeya dances around by cutting a horde and stabs a Hilichurl and push his Silver Sword down by cutting a Hilichurl's torso directly in half and then stabs another one's face and smash his mask be crushing it with his hand and twist it as hard as he could.
It's not just Lumine who's out for blood, but Kaeya as well and Kaeya himself is feeling the joy while Lumine is showing bloodlust and stoicism.
Now Paimon is seeing a couple of monsters as she doesn't know who's the real monster in this world.
The battle is over and there's nothing but blood and guts all over the room, with both Lumine and Kaeya panting as they're both fully covered in red blood, even in a bloody rain.
"I can feel it. It's so good…" Kaeya sighs with relief.
To Lumine, it's normal for her to do something like this, even if Paimon disapproved of this kind of behaviour.
"Oh. I forgot about the crystal." Kaeya then turns around and stabs the crystal and then breaks it by putting it down and stepping on it. "There we go. You know, Lumine, as my point still stands about you, I must say, with the two of us together, we're a match made in heaven."
"What?" Lumine cringed at what Kaeya just said about being a match made in heaven.
"More like a match made in hell! You're both devils!" Paimon exclaimed, realising that it's a horrible idea to bring Kaeya along with her.
"Haah. I know. But they're no better." Kaeya points out the enemies.
"Even if they're no better, Paimon can almost feel sorry for these guys, dealing with the two of you!" Paimon couldn't believe she said that as it's going nowhere for Lumine to improve her attitude and Kaeya is a bad influence. "Now I feel like Amber is the most reliable girl to be around a couple of maniacs like you!"
"What? I'm not a maniac. I just love to fight, but I also don't want to go on journeys." Kaeya admitted.
Now what about Lisa? Maybe she's like Amber, the lesser of crazy that Lumine and Kaeya are.
If so, then how did Amber, Lisa and Jean manage to deal with this guy?
Outside at Windrise again.
Amber is waiting alone as she's humming and sorting her puppets as well as her Hunter's Bow to see if they're not a dud or a failed creation.
What stops Amber is a sound of a warp which leads her to turn around and gasp with excitement.
"Guys! Eh?" What shocks Amber is that both Lumine and Kaeya are nothing but red as they also smell rotten, causing Amber to yelp and then cover her nose. "Wh- What happened!?"
"Oh hey, Amber! Lumine and I had a great time there!" Kaeya laughs while patting and shaking Lumine's shoulder like a best friend does, even though Lumine is still unimpressed.
"Trust me. It's a long story." Paimon flatly said, looking dead on the inside after the things she witnessed. "Ugh! Why did I become friends with a monster!?" Paimon groaned.
"Well… I guess it's nothing new for those two, huh. You really had it rough over there, Paimon." Amber laughs nervously while patting Paimon's head as she pities her.
But what stops the group is Lumine's grunt as she falls down and holds the side of her torso as she's in pain.
"Lumine…" Amber gasped.
"If you're hurt, then maybe you should rest." Kaeya suggested.
"Kaeya's right. Please settle down, Lumine." Paimon pleads.
"No. I must keep going." Lumine forces herself back on her feet as the pain feels worse than earlier.
Despite that, some of the blood clears off from Lumine and Kaeya after they're stained all over.
In the end, the journey still continues as Amber, Kaeya and Paimon are worried about Lumine's wellbeing, knowing that she'll end up dead if this keeps going.
The next area is the Temple of the Lion.