Their retreat from the warring Herrscher and angel had been a messy one.
Aether was ever glad to have Zhongli around, as he'd raised a forest of pillars to block an eviscerating splash of angelfire upon imaginary matter. 02's screening palm and Ningguang's Jade Screen became improvised shields against raining debris, and Aether didn't even hesitate to tuck Paimon under his arm before making a break for it.
Even having retreated this far out, turning back tasked Aether's courage. Behind them, a geyser of imaginary matter erupted from the land. Though said matter knew not the stir of flesh, the liquid steel pulsed and writhed in a grotesque imitation before falling upon the white speck. Their battle guaranteed cartographers work for decades to come, as searing-red valleys were carved through Liyue while hills were torn apart with such disturbing ease, it boggled Aether's mind that they were ever whole and solid to begin with.
Paimon floated out of Aether's grip. "Paimon thought we were done for! Oooh, but to think our best chance of beating the Herrscher was that thing… it terrifies Paimon that we'll have to beat whoever comes out on top!" He didn't fault her for that, since the threat had been severe enough for Zhongli to -
"You do not have the authority to order the Qixing around!" Aether whirled around to find Ningguang glaring at Zhongli. She hadn't yelled, but the force behind those words telegraphed her ire clearer than a yell ever could. The power of the cultured, Aether supposed.
"Then your authority would have ended with your demise. 'When all else fails, retreat.' The last of the Thirty-Six Stratagems, which minimized our losses instead of standing between a rock and a hard place." Zhongli, reining in his perturbed mood, concerned himself more with the duel between monsters than the irate Qixing.
Ningguang stepped up to Zhongli. "You don't know that - "
"It is because I am not under your thumb, that I dare to speak truth to power: this team is not enough to interfere with those two dueling monsters." As if on cue, another flash of angelfire tore across Liyue, so bright a roar of energy which illuminated their faceoff.
Aether knew Zhongli couldn't go all-out in front of everyone. And even if he could, to have to protect them against both the Herrscher and angel would divide his attention. Fighting either monster alone might've sufficed, but both was too much.
"Ningguang, if I may." Keqing's hand rested on Ningguang's shoulder. Something between the two Qixing was wordlessly understood to allow the switch. "Upon sighting that… thing, you ordered a retreat, before it even revealed its firepower. That means you had some idea of what it was, am I right?"
Like the bloom of poison into the clear water it was poured into, suspicion spread across the team's souring scowls. Aether inched closer to Zhongli as everyone, save Hu Tao, tensed up with tightened grips around their weapons and increasingly cold glares boring into Zhongli.
To keep secrets was one thing, everybody had them. But to have anything to do with that angel? And risk everybody's lives by holding out on them?
Aether bit his lip, put on the spot too quickly to cover for Zhongli. Hu Tao likewise fretted from her employee being put on the spot, while Paimon lamented.
"Oh, Zhongli, you gotta explain to everyone you had nothing to do with that thing… right?"
All eyes were trained on Zhongli, the Archon unmoved even under a harsh, interrogative spotlight.
He finally spoke.
"Traveler, you're well-traveled, and have been to the peak of Dragonspine. Do you know of the mural room, locked within the Entombed City?" Aether nodded. "On that mural, there was a winged celestial who bestowed something or another to the people below."
Paimon's eyes lit up in recognition. "Ooh, so those winged figures were like that angel which fell from the sky?"
"Perhaps," Zhongli blinked in his equivalent of a shrug, "likely an agent sent from Celestia. Anything concerning Celestia, like the Cataclysm, is to be rightly feared. At least, that was my line of thought."
Aether stood, silent.
Zhongli had crafted a believable story, verifiable with a third party's testimony and keeping with his well-learned facade, but was vague enough to avoid alluding to his status as Archon.
He'd never doubted the Archon's intelligence. But seeing him so cleverly dispel the doubt from everyone's minds gave Aether newfound appreciation for what a long-lived Archon was capable of. He glanced at Ningguang, Yelan and Hu Tao. Their expressions formed a spectrum of disbelieving skepticism, Yelan's being the most prominent. But since Zhongli's explanation disarmed the majority's suspicions, Ningguang and Yelan had no choice but to swallow these unspoken accusations and let the matter go.
Ningguang finally broke the silence. "'Observe the fire from the opposite shore,' I see the wisdom in that too. But their battle will endanger the nearby villages, we should split up and aid in their evacuation."
"Indeed," Zhongli gave a conceding nod.
Aether, satisfied with the resolution, gave Zhongli a look as the team split up to hit more villages in harm's way. Paimon clapped, "Alright! No village is gonna be left behind, and Paimon's not even going to ask them for food or Mora as payment! We're doing this out of principle, nobody should be endangered by these fighting freaks!"
But as Zhongli turned his back on Ningguang, he heard one last line from the Archon. "Lady Ningguang? Whatever you may think of me, when the time comes, rest assured I will lay down my life to defend Liyue."
Some wordless understanding passed between them, and Ningguang turned to head for Luhua Pool. Aether had his questions for Zhongli, but he swallowed them before heading with Yelan back to Liyue.
"Thunder?" Venti piped up behind Fischl. "I didn't know there was a storm brewing."
Fischl was accompanied by Mona, Eula, Venti and Barbara on their trek towards the Thousand Winds Temple. Mona squatted down to pick up another colored stone, left by Rosaria as a trail. Nobody had been in the mood to say much, since the OSF's revelation about a war-torn Teyvat and Kaeya's betrayal had killed any attempt at sparking conversation. Venti had resorted to humming tunes to pass the time, and the further they got, the tighter everyone was wound up at the thought of fighting a veteran.
Numbers did not assuage those concerns, not with the OSF's wealth of battle experience.
Fischl entered the amphitheater which was the Thousand Winds Temple. She'd been here before, dispatched by her Adventurer's Guild, but this time the amphitheater's nature as a scene of spectacle curiously oppressed Fischl with the weight of some hundred invisible spectators' gazes. OSF Fischl waited in the shade, hunched over a familiar face.
"Sister Rosaria!"
The nun was bruised, her Cryo Vision confiscated and arms tied up above her. The OSF sauntered up to them and inclined her head back at Rosaria.
"You can check on her. I didn't kill her, in case you were wondering." Her gaze was on Barbara, and upon being given the go-ahead by Eula, the deaconess hurried over to the nun's side. While her Elemental Skill sang in confirmation of Rosaria's survival, the OSF continued. "You know, now that I've time to think, I realize now. I recognize that this world is different from mine, and I shouldn't have shot Kaeya. But that doesn't necessarily mean I should follow you, if you don't deserve my strength."
Fischl blinked. While it was a relief they didn't need to talk the OSF out of her hostility, to deal with the veteran's wrath, even defanged of killing intent, struck a chord of fear within her.
Venti chimed, "Wouldn't a team-up be easier? You've nobody to depend on here."
"Just humor this veteran, alright? I need to get a measure of your strength and if you can take on half the stuff I've heard from Jean. And it's the best way to get rid of any hard feelings whilst not shooting to kill. Well," she hefted her crossbow rifle, "it'll still hurt."
Fischl cast a glance at her team. This was her struggle, and thus she called the shot on whether to accept or decline. And despite her concerns, Fischl was likewise curious about the veteran's capabilities which had granted her such a prestigious rank.
"Very well. The Prinzessin and her retinue shall display the strength which shall overcome all obstacles and restore the rightful order to this phenomenological crossover!"
"Mein Fräulein means to say - "
"I got what I… she said." The OSF cut Oz off before raising her rifle.
Venti's wind wall confounded the trajectories of incoming arrows, granting Eula the opening to charge ahead. Fischl, Oz and Mona provided cover fire, and bitter experience drove them to back away from the canister chucked at Venti.
And it exploded in shrieking white.
Even at this distance, Fischl blinked away the discombobulating wave which jarred her out of her skin, while Venti keeled over to regurgitate his lunch all over the floor. The OSF planted herself such that Fischl and Mona couldn't risk hitting Eula's back, leaving it up to the Knight to engage the veteran.
Eula was undeniably skilled, but she would've had better luck hitting a falling leaf than the ducking OSF. She weaved out of slices in an economical conservation of energy, and lightning danced upon the OSF's hand before grabbing Eula by the elbow. Eula writhed in such visceral and spastic convulsions, twisting Fischl's heart at hearing her shriek. Trembling hands heaved her claymore down at the veteran, and ate another round of shocks. It was a testament to Eula's will that she still stood, though twitching and far from combat-ready.
The OSF recoiled, her guard lowered in curious awe at Eula's resilience.
"Huh. Most people go down within two shocks."
"You dare lump me with 'most people' … I will have vengeance!" Her strike was parried by the OSF, who struck her somewhere in the torso which forced the Knight to keel over.
A flash of inspiration struck Fischl, and she glanced back. "Oz, lay down cover fire from here! Lady Megistus, Formation: Kopfsprung!"
"Yes, mein Fräulein!"
"Got it!" Mona dived into the floor and threw up a bubbly streak which Fischl stepped on. As Mona shot off, Fischl was carried along while she continued firing, pinning down the OSF with a crossfire. The veteran's crown came alight in sparks, granting her the foresight to evade Oz and Fischl's shots.
But not even she could react fast enough to Eula's charge, the Knight bulling through her pain to crash the flat of her blade into OSF Fischl.
And Venti's drawn bow unleashed the coup de grace.
"Time for takeoff!"
Catching the veteran, she was pulled into a maelstrom of slicing winds from which there was little escape, the team's dogpiled attacks adding to the damage. While the veteran picked herself off the floor, her raised palm halted the momentum of battle.
"Alright, that's enough!" Her voice rumbled with… joy? "Oh hoh, that was quite a workout. I've a good idea of your capabilities now, you can hold your own."
Fischl and the team heaved a sigh of relief. It was strange how this battle was a non-lethal affair, yet to face the OSF was to behold an intensity which bled into every action seeking nothing less than the enemy's absolute and utter subjugation, if not destruction. Rosaria laid as proof of the OSF's skill, though Barbara's healing returned the color to the nun's pallid face.
Mona huffed, "Would it be too much to hope you were going all-out there?"
The OSF shook her head. "Nah. There was no way I'd face all five of you at once in a serious confrontation. If I were serious, I'd first shoot Barbara dead from afar as your team's medic. You really left yourselves wide open on your walk here." She jabbed her finger at Barbara, and Fischl fought down the dark chuckle which threatened to erupt at the deaconess' doe-eyed terror in contrast to the OSF's seriousness.
With the battle resolved, Mona took charge of the situation. "Barbara, bring Rosaria back to Mondstadt. We'll get in touch with the others and find out where we'll head next." Everybody busied themselves with business, Venti trying to scrape the vomit off his outfit while Eula sat and accepted Barbara's healing.
Fischl jumped at someone grabbing her hand, her gaze shooting down to find Rosaria propped up by the wall with an arm outstretched in a feeble grasp.
Rosaria gasped, "She … talking to someone … fore you came…" Despite her injuries, Rosaria pushing herself to get this information across to them silenced Fischl's more verbose side, too dumbfounded by the revelation to say much.
"T - The Prinzessin shall take thy words into account, devout nun…"
"Sister Rosaria!" Barbara rushed in, broke them up and settled Rosaria back down into a supine rest. Oz, upon the fluttering beat of his wings, flew level with Fischl as he shared the suspicion which now poisoned Fischl's heart.
"Mein Fräulein, do you think…"
Fischl shot the OSF a glance, the veteran talking shop with Mona. "The Prinzessin… is not sure. Take great heed, Oz, of the snake we bring close to our bosom in supposedly allegiant embrace." It was not good form to be immediately suspicious of the ally they immediately gained, but in the wake of such a phenomenon which had shaken Teyvat to its roots, every bond was formed upon this precarious covenant of aligned goals. And without knowing the OSF further, to hold her at arm's length was the prudent course of action until Fischl found the answer.
Who was the OSF talking to?
Il Dottore stood over Scaramouche's corpse, the strange circumstances surrounding his death foiling Dottore's plans as a runaway sentence was halted by a full stop. His hand wrapped around the Electro Archon's Gnosis, but without Scaramouche to channel its might, the Gnosis might as well be a piece of worthless rock.
Dottore seethed. This experiment was but a curiosity, a side project as opposed to the Akademiya's wholehearted investment in creating a new god. But regardless, he had a stake in its outcome, and he mourned not for Scaramouche but the results now forever closed off to him. And with the Akademiya slaughtered by alien invaders, there was nobody to show up, this petty grudge finding no release.
"All my plans, foiled!"
"Not necessarily," and Dottore whirled around to find the same black-suited aliens having snuck up on him, armed with rifles he knew to be more advanced than anything Snezhnaya had invented. Yet, Dottore bristled. One of them wielded some kind of voiced projector, allowing a specter of the Empress to stand before him.
"Ah, the Empress from another world. Did you kill Scaramouche?"
"Did you?"
They stared each other down, the silence hanging between them heavy with the weight of a murdered city. Dottore had encountered scenes of lynched scholars, and the spreading fire of revolution across the nation had left only an oppressive silence which hung over the corpse of Sumeru City like a funeral veil.
"Well then." The empress shrugged, then nodded at Scaramouche's corpse. "I'm not responsible for what happened to him, but you must be the one whose name was blacked out on the list of Sumeru scholars. I'm curious as to what you were trying to accomplish with him."
Dottore preened. "I've no need for such meager names these days, my title as 'the Doctor' is feared and respected in equal regard." Dottore gave the Empress a foxy grin, since despite his irritation the promise of salvaging the experiment's premise would be fulfilled by a negotiation he could smell coming. "You know what I want. To elevate man above all mortal limits, and bring us to a level to the gods. If you chose to approach me, I can assume you won't pour upon me inane arguments in refutation of scientific pursuit."
The Empress shook her head. "I want to help with that. Help me become a God-Empress."
"Impossible, you are a meager human," He paused at the bristling gunmen, "but, I am first and foremost a scholar, and I consider all possibilities. This has always been my principle and is an essential trait as an experimenter. What shall you offer in exchange?"
"Not just access to the Dendro Gnosis, but also technology not of this world." She waved a hand back at the technology on display, vistas of that unknown which beckoned at Dottore to learn their secrets. "But, let me make another accord with you. An accord, which shall have you steal the Anemo and Geo Gnosis from your boss."
He sneered. Did this Empress believe her to be a fool?
"Do you believe a scholar would risk himself any more than this for one experiment? Even if I side with the Tsaritsa wholly to advance my goals, I will have recourse to fall back upon should this little experiment go awry. Still, hearing your terms may make for amusing banter." The Empress held her tongue, yet Dottore read the consideration of alternatives in her silence. He saw her as driven, and despite his ego knew she'd one card to play. One she had every ounce of faith in, judging by the conviction in her expression.
"How about an idea? What do you know of Elemental Reactions?"
"An elementary interaction between two of the seven elements. What does tha - "
"What if I told you we could create reactions from three elements?"
What.
Dottore, in a regrettable slackening of his guard, was unsure of whether he'd thought or said that. But this opening allowed the Empress to close in with her pitch's selling point.
"We've run our calculations through Akasha. As people not of this world, should I succeed in your experiment whilst possessing four Gnoses, we could theoretically create an Elemental Reaction from three elements. Likely more. No matter what your boss, the Cryo Archon, does after collecting these Gnoses, she will be limited by the laws of this world.
"But imagine if we were in possession of all seven Gnoses, fueling technology unbound by Teyvat's laws and advised by Akasha's computation. These multi-elemental combinations would create new reactions, even from Geo and Anemo, and open up new swaths of knowledge we created. You're a scientist, yes? What say you, limited by all that is not yet known, when I offer you all that was once unknowable?"
Today was truly a day of firsts for Dottore. This flabbergasted silence, which would've had him stewing in grudgeful resentment at the responsible party by now, was now smothered by the intellectual awe at the possibilities. What would an Electro-Dendro-Anemo reaction look like? Or Electro-Geo-Anemo? To subjugate Teyvat's laws and learn this knowledge was reward enough. But to be the one in Teyvat to be the inventor and bearer of such knowledge newly born into this world, most arcane of arcane, tickled his ego in ways which creased him up.
The question of Scaramouche's killer, and its results denied to Dottore, had long vacated his mind.
The grin slashed across Dottore's face was answer enough.