Sumeru! Sumeru! Sumeru!

While the many powerful figures reacted in different ways, Greater Lord Kusanali · Buer and the Abyssal Prince · Aether also had their own responses...

As early as when Sky Island had summoned the Seven Archons of the Mortal Realm for a meeting, Aether, as the Abyssal Prince, had already sensed that something was amiss.

However, as one who harbored the power of the Abyss, Aether had been excluded from Teyvat's world system. He could not even hear the conversation between Greater Lord Kusanali and the world.

Much less was Sky Island something he could peer into at his current level.

"Your Highness, I have already investigated the disturbance surrounding Inazuma's Thunder God. The Thunder God is enraged. She has personally drawn her blade and begun a massacre across Inazuma!"

An Abyssal Herald missing his left leg and right arm stood there, faint arcs of lightning still flickering and spreading across his body. Blood-colored killing intent manifested within the lightning, carrying the resolve to slaughter all things.

The Abyssal Herald Enjou spoke with lingering relief at having survived. "Thunder God Beelzebul has nearly gone mad. Not only did she personally slaughter more than a hundred thousand Inazuman nobles, even one of the Fatui Harbingers has fallen forever on that land!"

"If not for the contingency I left behind in the Abyss, I fear the Thunder God would have torn me apart alive!"

Aether stared gravely at the lightning on Enjou's body, intending to erase it.

However—

A power utterly unlike the Thunder God's usual sword intent of no thought and no self condensed into a terrifying sword flash that killed everything in its path, slashing straight through the air at Aether!

Rumble!

A streak of blood-red lightning followed, bearing an inescapable will as it crashed down into the Abyss.

Splurt~

"The Thunder God really has gone mad!"

Aether crawled out from a mountain that had been blasted to powder by the lightning, thin trails of blood even running from the corner of his mouth.

"Your Highness, are you all right?"

Only then did the Abyssal Heralds react. They rushed over and dug their prince out of the rubble.

"This time, I underestimated Beelzebul's strength. But a distant strike from the Thunder God alone cannot do anything to me!"

Though Aether appeared quite composed on the surface, his heart was exceedingly grave.

The power of this Thunder God, who had cast off every restraint, was simply too outrageous!

Aether now somewhat understood why Heavenly Principles had imposed the law of Erosion upon the world of Teyvat!

Without that law, who knew how terrifyingly the powers of those ancient Demon Gods would have swelled?

If they were allowed to live for another few thousand years, Teyvat might have shattered outright amid the Demon Gods' chaotic warfare!

Now, Beelzebul was the best example.

When she no longer cared about Erosion and no longer expended most of her power suppressing the pressure imposed by it...

Aether could sense that Beelzebul's strength had drawn extremely close to those four shadows of Heavenly Principles.

As the Thunder God was exceptionally skilled in slaughter, she might even be capable of directly killing a Sustainer of Heavenly Principles!

The moment he reached that conclusion, Aether was dumbfounded!

If the Thunder God could reach such a level, then the God of Wind and the Geo Archon, who stood at the same level, could not be much weaker!

After forcibly calming himself, Aether frowned and asked, "What is the situation with my sister, Lumine? Where is she now? What is she doing?"

To Aether, nothing in Teyvat mattered more than his sister.

During this period of violent upheaval, he had to find out Lumine's movements clearly.

The Electro Abyss Lector Enar hurried forward to report, "Your Highness, the Princess's movements have also been very strange lately."

"Oh? In what way?"

Aether frowned. He had the feeling that nothing had been going right recently.

"The Princess had originally been traveling through the Seven Nations according to plan. But some time ago, for reasons unknown, she disrupted her itinerary and suddenly went to Sumeru."

The Electro Abyss Lector Enar was equally puzzled. "Then, shortly after arriving in Sumeru, the Princess seemed to receive some kind of message. After mastering Dendro Elemental Power, she hurriedly departed and quickly gathered the remaining Elemental Powers she lacked."

"Finally, after mastering all seven elements, the Princess returned to Liyue and found a Liyue Immortal. She is currently holding a strange ritual..."

The more Aether heard, the stranger it seemed. "What ritual?"

"Apparently, it is an ancient luck-changing ritual."

Enar scratched his head in confusion and pondered for a moment before describing the scene in full. "And at the time, the Princess kept muttering something like, 'Stay away from being an Unlucky Person, sneak into the European server—success or failure rests on this one attempt...'"

"Huh?"

Enar did not understand what that meant, but how could Aether not understand?

"It seems Lumine learned some information from somewhere that I do not know..."

Though Aether was puzzled by Lumine's series of actions, he immediately became certain that Lumine definitely knew many things!

"It seems the situation has changed. I must make contact with Lumine..."

After a long while, Aether's low murmur echoed through the Abyss.

Sumeru.

Buer walked in silence through the rainforest, where the canopy blotted out the sky.

As far as the eye could see, there was green everywhere—still the same familiar sight.

So familiar that...

It made Buer feel strangely alienated, even absurd!

"Back when I ruled, how prosperous was Sumeru? The Akademiya was filled with outstanding talents. Every Grand Sage possessed exceptional Wisdom and achieved great deeds. But now..."

Buer sensed the muddled, chaotic power of faith and wishes permeating Sumeru's land. The Akademiya, in particular, felt like an Abyss that made her sick!

The number of her kin—the Ranaara—with whom her senses connected through Sumeru caused her even greater heartache!

And Nahida...

She was Buer's other half, the new sprout she had once planted to protect Sumeru!

Yet she was still imprisoned within the Sanctum of Wisdom!

Though Nahida's standing was inferior to hers, she was still a genuine Archon!

If she truly wished to escape, it might not have been effortless, but she could have casually come up with more than a dozen methods.

But Nahida was, after all, a newly born child Archon. From the moment she came into being, she had been trapped inside the Sanctum of Wisdom, without ever having the chance for her mind to develop...

As a result, although Nahida possessed the innate gift of knowledge, she had almost no thought of freeing herself!

"Sumeru! Sumeru! Sumeru!"

Buer repeated the name of the nation she had once protected, her emerald eyes growing colder and colder.

It was true that Archons loved humanity.

But for an Archon like Buer, one who had fully matured and even fought her way out of the Archon War...

She could never be so weak as The Salt God Havria—allowing her followers to hold a blade to her throat without striking back!

At that moment, the frenzied ring of Beelzebul's blade came from Inazuma.

As Inazuma's bloodshed grew ever more intense, traces of crimson seemed to stain Buer's gaze as she looked toward the Akademiya...