Phineas was sitting at a table outside Good Hunter drumming his fingers on the table, pondering over his lack of information. He can't stay with the Knights of Favonius forever, unless he joins them. But that red haired guy from the temple seemed to have some sort of problem with them. Were they hiding something?
His eyes took in the square one more time, taking in a deep breath of the fresh air that breezed through the city. It seems that this is indeed the City of Wind. Out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw a familiar cream-colored shirt. Rubbing his eyes to clear them as if he was seeing things he stood up and went towards the alley way he thought he saw the figure walk in-
"Ah, Phineas, just the man I was looking for." Only to be stopped by Kaeya.
Phineas turned around to face Kaeya and greeted him. "Oh… Hey Kaeya. What's up?"
"I'm thankful I found you, the Anemo Archon must be gracing me right now. Could you spare me a moment of your time?" Kaeya requested. Phineas raised an eyebrow but nodded.
"Excellent. I will need your help with this, it's something that I cannot let just anyone listen into." Kaeya clasped his hands together. "Let's move this conversation somewhere more private."
Kaeya started walking in the opposite direction towards the alleyways near a building with a lot of cats hanging around. They moved deeper into the alley where the hustle and bustle of Mondstadt was little more than white noise. "This place will do."
"So, what's the problem?" Phineas asked, curious as to why Kaeya had to lead him into an alleyway to speak.
"Let me start with a secret of my past, something that I do hope you keep." Phineas nodded. "Good. Well, my grandfather was a pirate." Kaeya confessed.
"..." Phineas was silent for a bit mulling over the times when he had to defend his home from invaders from the sea, those Deadeyes were always 'fun' to deal with. "Like, the kind that pillage, plunder, and kill?" Phineas asked with a bit of a bite.
"No, definitely not. It's more of an informal title really, he wasn't allied to any of the seven nations, but he did fight the good fight." Kaeya put his hands up in a mock surrender. "I inherited my eye patch from him." He excused. "Anyways, I was looking through his old stuff that he left me and found old records that spoke of a treasure. A sword that was dropped from Celestia by a god into the sea. Coursing with magic power, he used that blade to fell many a foe, and wicked sea monsters."
Phineas was deep in thought, there was some merit to him being the grandson of a pirate, but they don't give their children their eyepatches. He lived with one for crying out loud. And a sword that was forged by the gods and dropped in the ocean? While he would admit it sounded cool, it was just that. Something that sounded too good to be true. Plus, he already had his own blade.
"Kaeya, I've met real pirates before, and they do not pass down eyepatches. Also, while the sword does sound awesome, you know I've already got mine. And with all the flowery language in which you spoke to me earlier, this all just isn't adding up…" Phineas said.
Kaeya let his whimsical story-telling demeanor drop. "I guess I should have known that you would sleuth me out, Phineas." He chuckled mirthfully. "But I guess I can let you know what I'm planning since you've seen right through my deception.
"The Knights of Favonius have gotten reports that a band of Treasure Hoarders being led by a man named Izzard are following adventurers into ruins and strong-arming them into giving up the treasure they find. Had you fell for my ruse, you would have been the key part in our operation to catch these rapscallions red-handed." Kaeya explained.
"How so?" Phineas asked.
"I was going to leave the location that the treasure was supposedly buried in intentionally vague, prompting you to go research for it. Asking people around and what not." Kaeya revealed. "In your search, you would have been bound to catch the attention of Izzard and his men. Then when we finally gave you the right information, he and his men would have fallen right into our trap with them being none the wiser."
"I am sorry for lying to you, Phineas. But please, if you would still like to help, I can see to it that you'll have a part in our operation." Kaeya offered.
"Apology accepted. Where do we start?" Phineas smirked.
"We can have you play the role of a black market informant, the adventurer was to meet with a contact in the Whispering Woods for information regarding the ruins where our trap is set up…"
Perhaps, for all the bad luck he has, there are some pockets of good mixed in.
That's what Bennett thought to himself when Cavalry Captain Kaeya himself asked him specifically to help him find the lost treasure of the Arcadian Ruins. Kaeya explained to him that he requested information of its whereabouts from the black market, but due to his status within the Knights, he couldn't really just go and get it himself. Plus, he still had duties to attend to within Mondstadt's walls.
He was told to meet the informant at the edge of the Whispering Woods…
But no one's here.
As he approached the tree line, he heard the distinct sounds of Hilichurls yelling and blades clashing further in the forest. Bennett rushed in; he couldn't just sit idle when there were people under attack.
As he rushed through the forest, he could hear the combat getting louder, breaking through the edge of a small clearing, he saw a man in a green shirt and brown pants with red flaming wings growing out of his back was battling against a group of Hilichurls and an Abyss Mage.
Wasting no time, Bennett jumped into the fray. He shouts as he punches the ground in the middle of the closest group of monsters, a wave of flame covered over the ground and infused into the soil. Some of the Hilichurls were knocked off their feet and singed while the Abyss Mage's protective Hydro barrier took a decent enough blow where it now showed visible cracks. A large glowing ring was embedded in the floor with a large thumbs-up symbol in the center.
Bennett looked back to the man in green and spoke. "Stand back, I can take it from here." Channeling Pyro into his sword, he turned to the nearest target, a Hydro Abyss Mage recovering from the initial attack. The blade flashes red twice before he unleashes a devastating Pyro infused swing into the side of the Mage's shield, staggering it once again, but it did not matter as Bennett quickly followed up with another deadly uppercut with his blade shattering the remains of the Hydro shield and launching the Mage into the air and jumping up after it. He brought about his blade one last time before slamming it into the head of the Abyss Mage, sending it and himself flying with a fierce explosion.
The abyss mage landed on the floor and tried to get up, but it clutched its head in pain before its life was brought to a quick end by a purple sword bisecting it. Bennett looked around at the rest of the monsters to see that they were either already gone or disintegrating corpses left in their place, remnants of shattered masks and arrowheads littered the ground. He looked at the abyss mage only to see it disappear in a cloud of smoke as the person he saw fighting placed his sword back in its sheath.
"You wouldn't happen to be named Bennett, would you?" The man, now with his wings missing, spoke.
"Why, yes I am, fellow adventurer!" Bennett placed a fist over his chest as the red aura from the ground dissipated.
"Good, then that means you're the one I'm here to meet. I was mulling over how I would get payment for this information, but since you did help me, I can just give it to you for free." The man said.
"Thanks, I couldn't just sit by when someone was in danger." Bennett rubbed the back of his head with a bit of a flush to his face.
The informant nodded. "Listen well then, about the Arcadian Ruins… 'Three six-armed giants reside in the city in the lake. Two guard the statue, one, the treasure.'" The informant spoke. "It also came with a map to follow." He said, handing over the map to Bennett.
"Hmm…" Bennett hummed to himself as he thought over the information. "It's definitely a riddle of some kind, and this map…"
Almost looks like the city… Wait.
That is the city.
He pondered for a moment before turning back to his informant one last time, "Thanks for the information, I'm sure I can figure it out somehow."
With a wave, Bennett left the forest and trekked back to Mondstadt City.
Phineas watched him disappear around the corner and with one last look at the battlefield, he collected all the items that dropped from the monsters and bolted out of the forest.
He made sure that Bennett entered the city before he continued along the path. Taking a glance at the looming statue of Barbatos, he looked at the sun to gauge the time of day. Seeing that it was nearing the beginning of sundown, he offered a whisper of good luck to Lumine and Paimon for their upcoming task.
Continuing his path, he parted off to run down the hills of Windrise and towards Falcon Coast. With the speed from his boots and a leap, he cleared the river that banks the large tree and continued towards the staging area set up by the Knights.
The group took notice of his arrival and murmurs of confusion and surprise gathered among the knights currently present. The noise was silenced by a more decorated knight than the others. "You there, this is official business of the Knights of Fav- Oh… it's you."
The man speaking to him stuttered, "I must once again thank you for saving my wife and child back when Stormterror attacked, but again, this is official knight business, you cannot be here."
Now Phineas remembered this man, the one he told to get to cover before. Clearing his throat, he spoke up, "Actually, I'm here as part of the party hunting down a band of Treasure Hoarders. Kaeya asked me to be the informant to pass on the fabricated intel, and then meet up back here."
"That's strange, I don't remember you becoming a Knight." The man replied. "My name's Samuel. It'll be a pleasure to work with you." Samuel greeted, extending his hand out for a shake.
Phineas grabbed it and shook with his own. "I'm not a Knight, just here on temporary help. The name's Phineas, it's good to finally meet you, Samuel."
"I assume the Cavalry Captain has at least filled you in on the important details?" Samuel asks.
"Chasing down a band of thieves led by a man named Izzard. Right?" Phineas quizzed.
"Yeah, but more so leading them into a trap." Samuel corrected. "In all previous reported encounters with him and his gang, each one states that Izzard always goes in for the steal after unsuspecting adventures. Threatening adventurers who don't give up their treasure and belongings, by letting them know of his men always waiting around the corner for his call."
"The plan is that, once he goes in after our bait, we spring the trap on his men waiting outside. Then once they are taken care of, we move in to capture Izzard." Samuel concluded.
"Sounds simple enough, though, are you sure that this wild goose chase is going to draw them out?" Phineas mused.
"Hey, trust the process. In all my time as a knight, Sir Kaeya hasn't once led me and my comrades astray. He is intelligent, cunningly so, and has orchestrated the arrest of some of Mondstadt's most elusive criminals." Samuel praised. "I'm honored to be working under such a capable captain."
"Now, now. I'm just doing my job, and my schemes could not have been pulled off without everyone doing their part." The smooth voice of Kaeya butts into the conversation.
"Sir," Samuel ran up to Kaeya, saluting him. "My men and I are ready; everything is set in place."
Kaeya took a moment to look around, observing the state of the temporary stake out location turned into an ambush spot. "Thank you, Samuel, our bait should be arriving any moment now." Kaeya informed.
"You heard the man, places everyone!" Samuel ordered the Knights.
Kaeya turned to Phineas and bobbed his head up above the cave entrance. "Phineas, think you can fly us up there? We can use it to get the drop on Izzard's men."
Phineas nodded, leaping in the air, and flapping hard with his wings, taking off in flight. He flew over Kaeya and grabbed his hands before ascending the cliff face and dropping Kaeya down on the nearest ledge. Landing, he walked over to the edge and crouched down to look over the edge. There was no sign of Bennett just yet, which means that they still have a bit before they need to act.
Phineas broke the silence, deciding to tell him who he ran into while in the woods. "Hey Kaeya, while I was in the woods acting as the informant, I was attacked by more members of the Abyss Order. It happened when Bennett showed up for the info."
Kaeya hummed in thought, eyes showing a calculating look to them. "They're getting closer to Mondstadt than we thought. I can't tell if they're incredibly brave or incredibly foolish. Nothing we can do about it right now, however. First, we will take care of this, then we can report this to the Acting Grand Master."
Phineas nodded in agreement, thoughts starting to run again before he was broken from his brief distraction as he heard a murmur from below. Spying over the edge he saw Bennett looking between a rather old-looking map in his hands and back at the cave entrance to the ruins.
"This must be it." Bennett spoke quietly to himself as he stepped into the cave's maw.
Unbeknownst to Bennett, however, was a man silently trailing him. He had maroon hair tied up into a ponytail with an olive mask covering his face. It was Izzard alright.
He looked around, most likely to see if he was being followed or watched, somehow forgetting to look up. It seems a lot of people always forget that.
"Well, well, it seems our guests have finally arrived." Kaeya softly mused as more men with similar masks to Izzard trailed the original to the beach's cave. They all huddled up around Izzard, while he spoke to them. While Phineas couldn't hear much, he could make out a word or two here and there. And from what he heard; it sounded like they fell for it. Hook, line, and sinker.
The group of bandits finished their huddle and Izzard marched into the cavern alone. His men hung back outside, a few dropping their guard while the more experienced took up positions near the cave entrance to wait for Izzard's signal. However, they wouldn't have much of a chance to respond as Kaeya and Phineas landed behind the group.
A few of the men yelped in surprise but were quickly incapacitated with the flat side of the Zenith. As he leaped from person to person, he noticed an electrified purple bottle come sailing towards him. He jumped into a roll, avoiding the bottle as it crashed into the sand. The force of the impact seemingly caused an elemental chain reaction inside making the bottle burst with the crackle of electro spreading across the sand.
Phineas looked up to see one of the bandits standing in the shallow water about to throw another. He was prepared to rush him before he could throw it, but a large sledgehammer narrowly crashed down next to him. Phineas kicked the bandit in the head, knocking him backwards to the floor.
Turning back to the one throwing the electrified Molotov Cocktails he found him quite literally frozen in place, like a perfect ice sculpture. Though he quickly moved on to another bandit, taking notice of their dwindling numbers now that the knights joined into the fray, causing many more of them to surrender.
Phineas spared a glance towards Kaeya to see him send another chilling blow towards a Treasure Hoarder with a shovel, before swinging his sword at the handlebar of the shovel, rendering the makeshift weapon useless. Phineas turned his attention towards a screaming bandit, the one with the hammer was now rushing him down in anger.
Leaping into the air with a flap of his wings, he soared right over the enemy. He dropped down and willed the Zenith to split, sending a wheel of blades flying at the Treasure Hoarder like a frisbee. The hammer wielding bandit tried to block the attack but was too slow. He was knocked back one more time and landed on his stomach, his hammer's head now broken off the handle.
Samuel directed a few of the knights to restrain the now unconscious bandit. "Kaeya, sir, the remaining bandits have been subdued." Samuel reported as he turned towards Kaeya, who was just finishing up his battle with another Treasure Hoarder.
"Excellent. Samuel, I want you and two of your best men to join me and Phineas inside the ruins. Something tells me Izzard won't go down without a fight, and poor Bennett might not last by himself." Kaeya said.
With a quick nod from Samuel, he called two other knights and the group of five then made their way into the ruins. The group quickly made their way over a catwalk towards a flamethrower. Kaeya ran up to it and let an icy blast hit its core disabling it.
They pushed further into the ruins, passing by more flamethrowers. As they ran past, Phineas could once again smell the distinct smell of burning slime, it was very strong. "These ruins had monsters, Kaeya?" Phineas asked.
"It had to seem genuine, so we didn't bother clearing it out beforehand, we also weren't going to send in just any ordinary adventurer as well, we needed someone who would be able to overcome these challenges." Kaeya explained.
Samuel pointed towards the staircase at the end of the room, "C'mon, he should be up those stairs!"
As the group made their way up, they began to hear talking, one voice Phineas could make out as Bennett, but the other…
"My gang is just outside waiting for my order. However, they're not as… ahh… sociable as me." Izzard threatened.
Bennett clutched his sword tightly and opened his mouth to say something in return-
"I'm sorry to rain on your parade," Kaeya spoke as he slowly approached the two. "But your gang won't be participating in your current plan."
"What!?" Izzard shouted angrily.
"...Kaeya? What's going on?" Bennett curiously asked.
"Perhaps you can ask them why in Mondstadt Prison." Samuel said, as his men slowly made their way to him.
"You bastard! I almost had it!" Izzard spat with vitriol.
"Oh, you mean the treasure?" Kaeya had a smirk on his face. "Sorry, but there wasn't any treasure to begin with." Izzard's expression dropped in shock. "You came all this way… for nothing. Just give it up."
Izzard looked down to the floor, and then started chuckling to himself. Phineas readied to grab his blade, as the laughter became more chaotic and twisted. "You got me good! I didn't think the Knights would resort to such tactics!"
Izzard broke out into a full sprint towards an activation terminal. Placing his hand on it it glowed blue before the door to the exit of the room sealed shut and the door behind Izzard opened. "You'll never get me!" He shouts as he makes to run through the opening door.
Phineas breaks out in a sprint with the goal to apprehend Izzard, green particles of energy kicking off his shoes as he is accelerated by his Terraspark boots. But as he looked to the room, he saw it.
Ruin Guard has awoken!
A large mech, with a singular yellow piercing eye stood in the small room glaring down at Izzard. Its torso big and bulky compared to its lanky arms and legs, it almost reminded him of that Deerclops thing he saw one night in the Tundra. However, it was built of a material not unlike Golem.
The machine raised an arm and clenched its digits into a fist. Miniature thrusters along its arm puffed as its fist jet forward straight toward Izzard.
He only let out a grunt as he was punched by the machine, sent flying into the opposite door that just closed. Knocked out cold from the attack. The machine let out a mechanical roar as it turned towards those remaining in the room.
The machine crouched down before springing off the ground, leaping over to Phineas with the intent to crush him.
Phineas rolled out of the way with a shout towards Kaeya. "What the hell is this thing?!"
Kaeya ran over to Phineas, grabbing his hand and pulling him up. "A Ruin Guard, be careful they're tough."
The Ruin Guard spun its torso around as its legs kneeled on the floor. It dug its lanky arms into the ground, as Phineas noticed a floating red crosshair appear on his chest. The tube-like protrusions on its back flared as six rockets shot out from them.
The missiles turned in the air, each one aiming right for him. "OH SHIT!" He yelled as he dived to the side. He spread his wings and flew low to the floor, almost scraping along it. The red crosshair continued to track him, acting as the target for whatever homing system these missiles used. He circled the Ruin Guard as the missiles continued to fly after him.
Kaeya was keeping the Ruin Guard busy, occasionally blasting Cryo directly into its joints whenever possible. But that only served to piss it off, Kaeya had to jump back as the Ruin Guard used the thrusters on its arms to bring them together with the intent to crush him.
The red crosshair finally disappeared leaving the missiles to stop tracking Phineas, they flew straight into the wall crashing and exploding as they slammed into the large stone slabs. Phineas took the opportunity to hatch some kind of plan to take it down, he saw Kaeya release a burst of frost into the machine once again, and then it struck him.
He remembered back to when he and Kaeya stopped the Abyss Order at the Temple of the Wolf, the Hilichurls covered in water were frozen solid when Kaeya blasted them. If he could only find a way to get it wet… "Oh," He muttered, looking at a stray bottle of Holy Water he had in his pocket. "That might work."
With a plan concocted, he set out to enact it. "Kaeya, when I give you the signal, freeze this bastard!"
"We've got company." Kaeya stated as he pointed to an opening door. Several Hilichurls rushed out with clubs and crossbows ready to attack. With quick thinking, Phineas hastily constructed a wall out of some spare dirt. A volley of arrows fired by the Hilichurl Shooters smashed harmlessly against the barrier. They were just about to move once more, but a large figure burst through the wall, knocking the two away from the slam.
They landed in a tumble, each of them sliding to a stop and facing the machine again. "I need you to keep it busy for a bit." Phineas said to Kaeya, while grabbing the Zenith. "So, here." He lifted the Zenith with two hands by its blade, offering it to Kaeya.
The Ruin Guard screeched in anger, it spun around again and launched more missiles, each one aiming right at Phineas. Panicked, he shoved the Zenith into Kaeya's hands and took off again.
As he flew, he saw the Hilichurls load up another volley and take aim, with the missiles hot on his trail, he didn't know if he could spare to dodge. Hoping his armor could hold up and he could tank a few hits, he braces for the arrows… But they never came. Sparing a brief glance towards the Hilichurls, he saw them being swiftly taken out with blasts of fire. Bennett looked towards him and grinned, shooting him a quick thumbs up. He then had to jump away from the swing of a club. Phineas looked at the red mark on his chest and realized what would happen once it disappeared; he could use this.
The Ruin Guard stomped over to Kaeya once more and threw another punch. Kaeya thought about the motions to deflect the attack, but as he moved to do so, the blade lifted from his grasp and flew to meet with the fist of the Ruin Guard. The blade and fist locked with a loud clang, the thrusters on its arm constantly burning to keep it stable. The blade slowly moved forward, pushing the fist back more and more.
Eventually the thrusters on the arm gave out and with it its resistance, as the blade cleaved clean through the rest of its arm splitting it right down the middle. The Ruin Guard staggered as its arm exploded due to the damage it sustained. Through the smoke, the Zenith flew right back into Kaeya's grasp.
He took the time to get a feel for the blade, thinking that it was almost weightless with how effortlessly he could twirl it around. If this was how Phineas fought, then he also wanted one.
The Ruin Guard let off a screech that shook the ruin's foundation. From the smoke, Kaeya could make out the eye of the Ruin Guard getting brighter with each passing second. Wisps of energy coalesced near the light, as an electrical buzz could be heard.
Kaeya braced the Zenith in an attempt to block its next attack… But just as it was about to fire, a salvo of missiles slammed into its side, staggering the robot as it fired. The beam hit the wall behind Kaeya, sending rocks and debris flying from the explosion.
Phineas landed right next to the Ruin Guard, taking out his Yoyo and tossed it towards the robot. The Yoyo spun around its legs, encasing them in a web of string. With a strong tug, the machine's legs were pulled together causing it to topple over.
Phineas then pulled a jar of blue water out of his pocket; the jar had a golden cross on the cap of it. He tossed it onto the Ruin Guard and yelled, "Now, Kaeya! Ice the bastard!"
The bottle crashed against the downed Ruin Guard splashing the water all over its form. Just as it landed, Kaeya brought the Zenith in close as he let the power of Cryo flood over the blade.
"Freeze!" With a thrust of the sword, it split. Three blades made of pure Cryo flew from the Zenith, each impaling into the robot at different points, causing the water from the bottle to freeze rapidly.
"Now smash it to bits!" Phineas yelled.
Kaeya nodded and took the Zenith high over his head. With a shout, he cleaved the blade right through the frozen head of the Ruin Guard. A shatter, akin to breaking glass, erupted throughout the chamber as with the destruction of its head, the rest of the body went limp. Electricity started to arc over its shell as beams of light shone through the frost.
Phineas let go of its legs and brought the yoyo back to him and Kaeya backed away from the machine's body, it reached a climax and exploded in a fireball. Left behind on the ground where it once laid were an assortment of tan shafts running through a black casing, and ancient looking circuit boards. Walking over, he grabbed a few of them off the floor, lifting them up to the nearest source of light to get a better look. If anything, he could take a few of them and get a better look at them later, maybe even use them in a new weapon?
The door that shut behind them opened once again, allowing the party to leave.
"I'm afraid you won't be able to do much with those, not even the best scientists in Fontaine could figure them out." Kaeya spoke up, walking over to Phineas. He held out the Zenith back to him, "Now how do you get it to split apart like you do? The best I could do was make it float around."
Phineas took the blade in his hands and inspected the surface of it. "I mentally make a list of which blade I want to use, and then it splits." He placed it back on his back. "I guess you need to know exactly what it was forged with to make full use of it."
Samuel walks over with his men, one of them holding an unconscious and bound Izzard over his back, Bennett also walks over to the two. "Target captured, Sir." Samuel said.
"Excellent, let's take them in now." He nodded to the Knights, then looked to Bennett. "Bennett, a word please?"
Samuel and the knights took this as the queue to make their way out. Leaving the last three to talk. "First of all, I am sorry for tricking you in such a manner. No, there was no secret hidden treasure left behind my grandfather, this was only a trap to catch a band of Treasure Hoarders."
Bennett looked a little downtrodden, and Phineas couldn't help but wince a bit as he had a part in that. "However, this is compensation for your time and effort." Kaeya interrupted his momentary sadness, holding out a heft looking pouch towards him. "Without you causing a fuss looking for those clues and fabricated intel, Izzard would have remained in hiding and they would still be free. So, you have my thanks."
"Aww shucks Kaeya. Well, in any case, I'm glad I could be of assistance." Bennett rubbed the back of his head again.
"And you," he momentarily recovers and points to Phineas. "That's some incredible quick thinking you did back there!"
Now it was Phineas' turn to get flustered, he brought a fist to his mouth and cleared his throat. "It was nothing, I'm just used to fighting on the fly like that."
"Oh man, I'd love to learn a thing or two if you can spare it!" Bennett's eyes lit up like a kid on Christmas.
"I'm sure I could give you a few pointers later…" Phineas mused, he looked towards the spot where the Ruin Guard fell. He knew that the Holy Water mostly splashed on the machine, and the surrounding ground looked unchanged, but he had to be sure…
"Heck yeah! And not even a single time did my bad luck ruin anything!" Bennett shouted. It seemed that his voice was loud enough to shake the foundation a little more, though. As a small pebble fell from the ceiling and hit him on the head.
"Ow!" Bennett rubbed the spot it fell on his head, "Or not…" He grumbled.
Phineas shook his head and uncorked a Healing Potion to give to Bennett. I wonder how Lumine is holding up… He peeked at his Shellphone, and the clock read 6:52 PM. They should be starting the heist now.
With an all too familiar weight on his back, he pointed the nozzle of the Clentaminator over to the general area of where it splashed. With the pull of the trigger, a sparkling green mist ejected from the tool as he slowly aimed along the floor.
"Phineas, what are you doing?" Kaeya spoke up.
"Cleaning up my mess. That bottle was filled with Holy Water, if left unchecked it could spread the Hallow. Something very dangerous from Terraria that I'm not going to risk spreading here."
Phineas pulled out a round vial of pink liquid and gulped it down in one swig. His eyes lit up with a pink glow as he peered at the ground. Through his eyes he could see a small patch of glowing pink through the floor. Lining up his Clentaminator, he let loose a blast of Green Solution in its direction and watched it disappear. He double and triple checked the surroundings in case he missed any more stray patches of Hallow, eyes no longer glowing when he couldn't spot any more.
After a brief moment of silence, he spoke up again. "I got it all. We're safe."
Bennett released a sigh of relief and Kaeya nodded and walked out, the other two following suit.
Lumine was standing behind a pillar, seemingly hidden from sight. Occasionally peeking towards the stairs behind the altar.
"Any minute now and the Guards will change." Paimon said in a hushed voice.
Lumine saw the knight at the entrance yawn and checked his pocket watch. He saw the time and looked elsewhere in the hall, nodding at someone, and then walking away.
"He's moving! Now's our chance!" Paimon said, turning towards Lumine who was already drinking down the cyan liquid. Lumine began to fade from sight. "Woah, it's really working! Now let's move!"
Lumine dashed from her hiding place over to the stairs, making it to the staircase before the new guard could take the position. She moved quickly down the stairs and came to a large library-esc room with a large, lowered section in the middle.
She noticed a few knights on patrol down here, either standing at posts or roaming the aisles. Not wanting to be caught when the potion wore off, she made her way to the right and passed by a few of the guards on patrol. She made her way up a small staircase and swiftly made her way past the last few guards. Sneaking around was a total cakewalk when invisible. She entered the room at the end and found the Holy Lyre placed on a pedestal in the middle of the room.
She made her way to grab it but stopped in place when a woman seemingly appeared into the same room out of thin air. She had a long purple coat with black fur cuffs. She wore a hood, the same color as the jacket, with two rabbit ear-looking protrusions on top, and a mask covering her eyes. In one hand she held a purple lantern that also seemed to have rabbit ear-looking protrusions. On her chest was an insignia, a blue-looking animal head with a golden flower symbol where the face would be. The same insignia that was on the Fatui woman speaking to the Acting Grandmaster this morning.
Paimon let out a small gasp at the sudden appearance. The Fatui agent must have caught on to that, as she looked out the doorway. Lumine stood completely still, holding her breath. Seconds passed like hours as she sat there staring at the interloper.
The woman grinned and lifted her lantern, it glowed a violent purple before an Electro infused shockwave passed throughout the room. Lumine and Paimon were knocked back, the sound blast alerting the nearby Knights.
Because of the attack, the potion effect was dropped and Lumine lost her invisibility. The Fatui agent then grabbed the Lyre and blinked away. Lumine was frozen. She had been too slow again.
Goddamnit.
"Freeze! What are you doing here?!"
Lumine broke from her thoughts and turned around, there was a knight staring at them with a sword drawn. Clambering sounds from the hall behind him meant that more were on the way. She booked it past the knight, with Paimon following right behind. A few gave chase but she pushed them away with a light gust of Anemo.
She legged it up the stairs and slipped past the knight now standing guard, he yelped in surprise, but she didn't stop. She ran towards the cathedral doors and pushed on through.
Outside, Venti was sitting on the railing. He looked a bit jumpy; he likely wasn't expecting them to burst out of the doors like this.
"It's a bust, we gotta run. They're right on our tail." Lumine said in between deep breaths.
"What? Follow me!" Venti grabs at the wind around him, physically manipulating Anemo to his bidding. He makes a circular gesture with his arm and thrusts it forward. Rings of rushing wind form over the courtyard and beyond.
Venti takes a leap off the railing and deploys a wind glider, he enters the first ring and is shot forward out of it, up and over the Statue of Barbatos. Lumine jumps over the railing and follows suit with Paimon trailing close behind.
As soon as she clears the statue, the doors to the church burst open as multiple Knights and a few sisters pour out. One of the more decorated knights immediately started to bark out orders.
"You," He points to a young knight staring at the two fly away. "Alert the Acting Grandmaster."
The younger knight nods and runs off to the HQ.
"I need a search party looking for them right now!"
"...And with the Ruin Guard's defeat, we all left the ruins in one piece, and we captured Izzard and his men." Kaeya finished retelling the events as they played out. Phineas was leaning against the wall, eyes closed but still listening. Giving his own thoughts every now and then.
"Excellent Kaeya, I knew I could count on you. Izzard has been causing a lot of trouble recently, and with our hands practically tied with Stormterror and the Fatui I was afraid he would continue to evade capture." Jean said. "And Phineas, although you previously said you do not want to become a knight, the previous offer still stands."
Phineas nodded, he turned around and reached for the door handle. But then the door opened, bumping him on the forehead and knocking him back.
A young-looking knight bursts into the room. He stands there, panting heavily. "Ma'am, the Holy-" He pants some more, "The Holy Lyre's been stolen!"
Oh shit, that's news.
Kaeya's eyes widened in surprise, Jean dropped the papers she was holding and shot up ramrod straight.
"What?!"
"Can you put a face to this thief?" Kaeya asked.
"No sir." He shook his head, "I could only discern that they were blonde."
Well, that meant that they got away with it right? Hopefully they made it to the hideout location. If only he knew where that was…
Jean was about to rush out of the office when her shoulder was grabbed by Kaeya. "Easy now, rushing headfirst out there isn't going to get it found. Chances are the thief is hiding out somewhere in the city. You should finish the current paperwork you have and then relax for a bit. I'll handle the search."
Jean sighed and nodded, she slumped back down in her desk chair and muttered up a storm.
"If that's everything then, we'll be off now." Kaeya said. Phineas looked at the Acting Grandmaster and all she did was wave them off. Seems like she gets really engrossed in work fast.
The three walked out of the office as Phineas got lost in thought again. Hopefully they got away. It seems like that, if they did, then they should be at the meeting spot… Which he still had to find. Guess he could make an excuse to go see the night life or someth-
Wait a minute, he has a potion that can teleport himself to people. He mentally facepalmed, well he can make the excuse he's going to retire for the night to slip away.
He looked towards Kaeya, he had just dismissed the younger knight that walked in, Kaeya noticed him staring and approached. "I'm glad you helped me with my task, we would have been in quite the pickle with that Ruin Guard had you not been there. Thank you, my friend."
"It was nothing, glad I could help." Phineas dismissed.
"Now, now there's no need to be so modest. Someone of your skill is deserving of the praise." Kaeya argued.
"I… Thank you, Kaeya."
Kaeya hummed and looked at a clock on the wall. "Well, I do have to go interrogate our suspects, please excuse me." Phineas nodded and the two split off.
"Oh, and one more thing, next time we have some time off, let's grab some lunch." Kaeya popped his head back out in the room.
"For sure!" Phineas waved at him.
Kaeya smiled warmly and closed the door once again, leaving Phineas to his own devices.
He pulls out a Wormhole Potion and pops off the cork. I hope they're alright. As he sips down the potion he's whisked away in the familiar blue light.
The blue light overtaking his vision clears up as he takes in his current surroundings and notices a few things:
There's a bar off to his right so he must be in some sort of tavern.
Lumine and Venti are trying to get a man with red hair- no wait, that's Diluc. Diluc to put away his sword.
All eyes were on him.
Oh shit, everyone saw that.
"What the hell did I just witness?" The man with red hair spoke up.
Phineas sighed and put his hands up in a calming gesture, "Teleportation, it's quite easy with the right materials."
Diluc shot him a glare, Phineas recoiled a bit and recognized that as a queue to shut up.
The customers in the bar went back to what they were doing as the silence was slowly replaced by the conversations of those present.
"Bard." Diluc called.
"Yes, Master Diluc?"
"That information was confidential. Why did you let me know?" He asked.
What info?
"Why? Hmm…" Venti put a hand to his chin in a mock thinker's pose. "Perhaps the winds are changing… What say you, Master Diluc?"
Diluc hummed. "Give me a few hours, I'll pull a few favors, organize some contacts."
Both Venti and Lumine seemed to breathe a sigh of relief at his verdict.
"Outlander, as one of the Knights, it seems you're not a suspect. With blonde being the only description of the thief, you should be relatively safe." Diluc remarked.
"And as for you two," Diluc spoke to Venti and Phineas. "I'd be better if you stayed here at the tavern until it closes."
"It's no problem at all, I quite like taverns!" Venti beamed and moved to go sit at the bar.
Diluc grumbled as he watched the man behind the bar serve Venti a drink.
"I'm going to head out, I'll be back in time for the meeting, don't worry." Lumine said as she and Paimon strolled out of the Tavern.
"...Sorry, Diluc, was it?" Phineas spoke up. "Why should I stay here? I'm definitely not the one they're looking for."
"No, you're not." Diluc agreed. "But one of my contacts asked me to keep an eye out for someone like you. They come here often to wind down, they'll be here in half an hour or so."
After the impromptu quest with Kaeya, he just wanted to take it easy. He didn't want to spend his night in a tavern, but alas, Ms. Fortune decided to toy with him again.
Grumbling, he walked over to the corner opposite the bar. There was a staircase leading up to the second floor that overlooked the first, he could see seating up there with not a person in sight. Perfect.
He ascended the staircase and found a booth away from all the noise of the tavern. With relative peace achieved, he opened his void bag and dug around for a certain item.
He pulled out a book with a worn cover, opening the book he flipped to an empty page. Pulling out the various items he has collected from the felled monsters of this world, he started to sketch each one onto its own page along with a brief description of the monster he gained it from.
He made a note to experiment with what they can do when he got the time, he would say that he isn't very skilled, but he's sure that Nort and Ella would love to have a look at those parts that dropped from that Ruin Guard. The prospect of a new weapon or tool was not lost to him.
Phineas noticed a person approach the table and sit across from him; he was in the middle of sketching out the details of the ancient circuit piece.
"What 'cha drawing?" The carefree voice of Venti spoke.
"This circuit board looking object I found earlier today, found it in some old robot. I want to find out what it does."
Phineas took a rolled-up blueprint and spread it out on the table placing the circuit on top. The blueprint's chalk white text started to adjust to the new object placed on top of it. Wrenches of various colors along with wire cutters and a glass lens materialized off to the side.
The object he placed on top, dubbed Chaos Circuit, by the Grand Design, was measured by the blueprint. Lines of measurement expanded on both sides of the object measuring it out to the nearest millimeter, some of the chalk floating off the page like a projection to measure up its thickness in 3D space.
Phineas wrote down the details of the item into his notebook for later, swapping the Chaos Circuit for the now named Chaos Device, and Broken Mask to be marked down as well.
"Woah…"
Phineas stared back up at Venti, who was watching as the chalk dropped back onto the print when he picked up the mask. Venti shuffled around, procuring an apple, and placing it down on the page. The Grand Design displayed the name as a Teyvatean Apple, the chalk outlining a rough circumference, diameter, and radius of the apple.
Interesting…
He swapped the apple placed down by Venti and replaced it with one from Terraria. The measurements adjusted only slightly as his apple was slightly smaller than Venti's, but the more interesting part was the changing of its name to Terrarian Apple.
It knows there's a difference?
"Huh. That's odd." He muttered to himself; he'd have to explore that later. He knew it could name objects that he himself knew what they were after asking Andrew, but to see it take liberties to name things he's never seen before was wild. He'd need to try so many things, does this imply that Terraria and Teyvat share more than a few objects? He could easily tell when something was grass, dirt, and stone because he's seen that stuff everywhere. Teyvat had iron, he would have to see how it held up with iron from Terrar-
"Terraria? Can't say I've ever heard of that place before."
Ah, shit.
He closed his notebook and moved the apple off the Grand Design, rolling it back up to put it away. "It's uh, my home. Where I come from."
"Oh? What's it like?" Venti asked curiously.
"Quite peaceful, when everything there isn't trying to kill you." He answered honestly.
He wondered what had happened while he was gone, because it seemed that all her focus was on him. Hopefully the smaller settlements out there were left untouched, they've already been through enough as is.
"I'm sure it's a nice place." Venti said with a warm smile.
Phineas couldn't help but smile at all the good memories he's had, despite everything that happened. The walks in the forest he and Andrew would have, fishing with Matty and Captain Morgan, picnics with Shea…
His thoughts were broken when a drink was placed down in front of him. He never ordered anything.
"Hey, I never ordered anyth-" Phineas looked at the figure holding the drink and froze.
"I've been told it was 'on the house.'"
In front of him stood a figure he didn't think he'd ever see again.
"Andrew?" His voice, spotty and meek.
"Hey Phineas."
AN:
I understand that I am a bit late to the party when I say this, but I hope that everyone has had a lovely holiday and a happy New Year.
With that out of the way, it's time for your irregularly scheduled Author's Notes with Spoopy.
Hey guys, it's been a bit. First off I want to say that I tried to get this chapter rushed out before Christmas, however that did not come to pass. Self imposed deadlines suck.
Second, I've been toying with the idea of making a Discord Server for this fic, though I'm still debating that. I don't want to make a Server and have maybe 5-6 people join and no one talks until it fades into obscurity. We might have one, just much later down the line.
That's actually about it. Coming up in about two months will be the birthday for this fic. If there is a self imposed deadline that I'd actually like to meet, it'd be that one.
As always, thanks to iDrmzIt for being my lore consultant.
See you guys next time!
-Spoopy
