Klee! Was this your doing?

"With a blaze like this and the Whopperflowers surrounding us, there's no way we can escape, is there?"

The crackle of flames surrounded Fischl, and the oppressive atmosphere filled her with despair.

Had she only just met her, only for them to die here?

It wasn't fair... I really wanted to get to know everything about her.

Fischl pressed her lips together, tears shimmering in her eyes.

But just as despair overtook her, Ellin's voice reached her ears.

"Fischl, don't be afraid. I'm still here!"

Those simple words carried tremendous confidence.

That confidence soothed Fischl's panic.

She looked toward the voice and saw that the white-haired girl had already nocked a crystal-clear Frost Arrow.

Cold vapor rose from the arrow, keeping the nearby flames at bay.

The elemental power radiating from it was so strong that her heart trembled!

Once she had calmed down, Fischl glanced at where the arrow was aimed, then at the positions of the two Whopperflowers.

She had known Ellin for less than an hour, yet some invisible bond connected them now, as though they were old friends. Without a single word, she understood what Ellin needed.

Her confident smile returned, and she struck an extravagantly theatrical pose before the approaching Whopperflowers.

"How could flames kindled by mere flowers of falsehood ever make this Prinzessin retreat!"

"My friend, let this Prinzessin lend you aid with the thunder of sacred judgment!"

With a flick of her bow, Fischl shifted her footing and fired three arrows at a Whopperflower, halting its advance.

At the same time, she moved swiftly. With her retreat cut off, she ran to the right, firing arrow after arrow to hold the Whopperflower back while steadily putting distance between them.

While holding off the other Whopperflower, Feng'er also spared some effort to release cold air, extinguishing flames and clearing a path so Fischl could draw away from her pursuer.

Finally, after putting twenty meters between herself and the Whopperflower, Fischl winked at Feng'er, then fired an arrow at it!

This was no ordinary arrow, but a powerful shot imbued with intensely concentrated Electro.

Thanks to Fischl's precise archery, the arrow struck the Whopperflower's fiery shield dead-on. It shattered the Pyro shield and triggered an Overloaded Reaction, whose explosion unleashed a tremendous shock wave.

Losing its shield would already leave the Whopperflower briefly drained of strength. When the explosion struck, it was immediately hurled into the distance.

At the same moment, Feng'er let out a ringing phoenix cry and instantly summoned ten icicles as thick as a calf, launching them at the other Whopperflower.

The powerful icicles shattered its Pyro shield and blasted it away.

Through Fischl and Feng'er's coordination, both Whopperflowers had their shields broken at the same time and were sent flying in the same direction.

When the two Whopperflowers landed in the same spot, Ellin, who had been holding back all this time, finally struck!

"Shatter into shards of ice beneath this Frostflake Arrow I've charged for two minutes and twenty seconds!"

Ellin shouted furiously and released the bowstring.

Bang!!

The Frostflake Arrow, brimming with Cryo, shot from Amos' Bow!

The instant it left the bow, the tremendous recoil produced a thunderous thud and forced Ellin back several steps.

The Frost Arrow became a blue-white meteor. Cold air spread in its wake, the temperature plummeting as it snuffed out the flames!

At last, carrying unparalleled power, the Frost Arrow tore through the flames and slammed into a Whopperflower's corolla!

Then frost bloomed, and the immense Cryo energy imbued in the Frost Arrow erupted!

Boom!!

The tremendous sound of an Ice Burst rang through the forest as a mushroom cloud of freezing vapor more than ten meters tall rose into the air!

The cold wave unleashed by the explosion swept outward, instantly crushing a vast swath of flames...

Meanwhile, at the edge of the forest.

The Whispering Woods were not far from Mondstadt City. After crossing the bridge outside the city gates, a left turn and a walk of less than a kilometer would bring you there.

The blaze was therefore discovered quickly. By now, the outskirts of the Whispering Woods were crowded with members of the Knights of Favonius and the Adventurers' Guild, along with concerned residents of Mondstadt City who had volunteered to help fight the fire.

A young woman with blue eyes, blonde hair tied in a ponytail, and an Anemo Vision hanging at her waist was pushing through the crowd, gritting her teeth and shouting in fury.

"Klee!!! Was this your doing? Come out right now!!"

"Klee, where are you?!"

The anger in the young woman's voice kept mounting. She was like a volcano on the verge of eruption.

Fortunately, a girl in red with a red bunny-ear bow on her head soon emerged from the crowd. She was Amber, an Outrider of the Knights of Favonius.

"Acting Grand Master Jean... please calm down. Have you forgotten that Klee blew one of the city's windmills crooked yesterday? She's still in solitary confinement."

"Ah... well..."

At Amber's reminder, Jean froze for a moment, then covered her forehead and said helplessly, "Sigh. Am I simply too tired, or has that child Klee made me jumpy? Whenever I hear about a fire or an explosion somewhere, the first thing that comes to mind is Klee's face."

"Never mind. Amber, have you determined the cause of the incident?"

"We can't determine the cause of the fire yet, but according to Mr. Cyrus, the Adventurers' Guild's branch master, two guild members accepted a commission to eliminate Large Pyro Slimes in the Whispering Woods an hour ago. The fire might be related to that."

"If they were able to accept a commission like that, they must have sufficient strength and experience. Dealing with a few Slimes shouldn't have caused a fire this large."

"By the way, who accepted the commission?"

"The Adventurers' Guild investigator Fischl and... Ellin."

At the mention of Ellin's name, a trace of sadness visibly crossed Amber's face. She was quite fond of the girl, who trained so diligently in hopes of becoming a knight.

"Their parents are frantic. They keep trying to force their way into the flames to find their children, but we've stopped them."

"And... as soon as Noelle heard that people were trapped, she activated her shield and tried to rush into the fire to save them. Kaeya spent a long time persuading her not to, then assigned her another task."

"Ellin is such a hardworking, earnest girl. She only received her Vision yesterday. I was sure she'd pass this year's assessment, and then I could look after her as her senior. But who could have imagined..."

"Don't be sad, Amber. They might both be all right."

Jean knew the name of every resident of Mondstadt City by heart, and a hardworking girl like Ellin had left a particularly strong impression on her.

Now that they had met with such a disaster, Jean felt deeply distressed. She looked toward the sea of flames, her face full of worry.

"Ellin and Fischl are outstanding members of Mondstadt's younger generation. I am just as worried about what has happened to them. As Acting Grand Master of the Knights of Favonius, I promise you that we will bring them back safely."

After reassuring Ellin's and Fischl's parents, Jean stood at the edge of the sea of flames with her sword in hand. Fierce winds surged around her!

Just as she was about to command the wind with her sword and force a path through the flames to rescue them, something suddenly changed!

Within the crimson sea of flames, Jean spotted a speck of blue light!