"Nuclear Peace" Beneath the Cryo Regisvine
Boom.
The tremendous explosion went utterly beyond Teyvat's understanding of conventional elemental reactions.
What burst from the muzzle was not the fiery elemental blast commonly seen in Genshin Impact, but a dark red torrent of destructive law.
It was Scorched Girl's despair and embers. It cared nothing for a melt reaction; its law was simply to forcibly reduce everything it touched to ash.
The Cryo Regisvine did not even manage a proper roar.
The instant its massive, rigid body of frost touched the dark red flames, it was forcibly evaporated and carbonized inch by inch, from its core to its roots.
But that was not all. The terrifying recoil and penetrating force of Light of the Final Match had gone completely out of control.
After killing the Cryo Regisvine in an instant, the dark red beam lost none of its force. It blasted straight through the thick rock overhead, tearing through it like rotten wood.
With a deafening crash, the ground beneath the Temple of the Thousand Winds bulged sharply upward, then exploded.
A violent current of air mixed with rubble, solid ice, and black ash shot into the sky. A small mushroom cloud rose brazenly over the horizon east of the City of Mondstadt.
Half an hour later, on the outskirts of the Temple of the Thousand Winds ruins.
"Cough, cough, cough... ptoo, ptoo!"
Wei Zhenzu climbed up from the edge of the bottomless crater, his hair blown out as though he had been struck by lightning and his face covered in black soot. He looked utterly done with life.
His once-stylish red Dante coat had been scorched into strips of blackened cloth.
"Wow! The explosion went so, so high! Klee's bomb upgrade was a huge success!" Klee hopped nimbly out from behind Wei Zhenzu.
Although her little face was blackened with soot too, she clutched the gradually cooling cannon tightly to her chest and spun excitedly on the spot.
Wei Zhenzu slumped on the ground, swallowed, and stared at the landscape before him, which had been completely transformed:
"Grand Master Varka above... does this count as inciting a minor to illegally blow up a national nature reserve?"
Just then, a sharp gust of wind came howling toward them from ahead.
"Klee!"
An authoritative woman's voice rang out over the empty ruins.
Wei Zhenzu stiffly raised his head.
On the grass not far away, Jean, acting grand master of the Knights of Favonius, strode toward them with the Aquila Favonia in hand, surrounded by fully armed Knights of Favonius. Her face was full of murderous intent.
Beside Jean was the Spindrift Knight, Eula, also carrying a greatsword, her gaze as cold as ice.
They had been meeting at the knights' headquarters to discuss what to do about Stormterror's Lair when they suddenly spotted a mushroom cloud rising in the direction of the Temple of the Thousand Winds.
Jean had immediately sounded a level-one city defense alert, thinking the Abyss Order's elites had reached their doorstep, and rushed over with a large force, ready to fight.
But when she looked down... there was no Abyss Order, only a scorched crater, a soot-covered outlander, and Klee holding a terrifying heavy cannon of unknown origin.
Jean's gaze swept back and forth between the crater that smelled of burning, Klee's cannon, and Wei Zhenzu's plainly guilty face.
"Mr. Wei. Zhen. Zu." Veins bulged on the back of Jean's hand as she gripped the Aquila Favonia. She took a deep breath, doing her utmost to suppress the dizziness brought on by her high blood pressure.
"Shouldn't you explain why Klee is holding a dangerous weapon that isn't a product of Teyvat's alchemy? Just what dangerous ideas have you been putting into our Spark Knight's head?"
Eula snorted beside her and lifted her chin haughtily:
"Without the Knights of Favonius' permission, you brought dangerous explosives here and blew up Mondstadt's landscape, even setting off the city defense alert... outlander, vengeance will be mine. Get ready to reflect on your actions in solitary confinement for eight or ten years."
"You've got it wrong, big sisters!" Seeing this, Klee immediately scampered in front of Wei Zhenzu on her short little legs and spread her hands, trying hard to explain.
"This super-duper big match was a present from big brother! Big brother isn't a bad person. He took Klee to blow up a super-duper big ice tree!"
It would have been better if she had said nothing. Her explanation only made Jean's expression darken further.
Wei Zhenzu wanted to cry but had no tears. He had just started to raise his hand. "Acting Grand Master Jean, hear my excuse... I mean, hear me out. It was actually an accident..."
Just as Acting Grand Master Jean reached the end of her patience and was about to order this dangerous, unstable element seized on the spot-
Flutter, flutter.
A faint, frantic beating of wings suddenly came from the sky.
Everyone froze at once.
A carrier pigeon that had once been snow-white now had disheveled feathers, and more than half its body was stained a vivid red with blood.
As though it had exhausted its last bit of strength, it fell stiffly from high in the sky and crashed onto the scorched earth between Acting Grand Master Jean and Wei Zhenzu. It twitched twice, then lay still.
Jean's expression changed instantly.
Forgetting about reprimanding Wei Zhenzu, she hurried forward and carefully removed the metal message tube from the pigeon's leg.
She pulled out the bloodstained note inside and quickly scanned the words.
"Jean, what happened?" Eula sensed that something was wrong. She put away her greatsword, her expression turning grave.
Jean's fingers trembled slightly. She abruptly raised her head and looked toward Stormterror's Lair in shock, her voice frighteningly hoarse:
"It's a distress signal from Kaeya... the storm barrier around Stormterror's Lair... has mutated."
Jean gritted her teeth and spoke words that sent an icy chill through everyone present:
"The space there has been completely shattered, forming a bizarre maze where even Elemental Power can't function normally. Our scouting party... is trapped inside!"