Knight of Boreas: Varka

"Don't scare Paimon like that! The look in your eyes was so frightening just now, and now you're suddenly this weak..."

"Stop shaking me... If you keep shaking me, I'm going to throw up..."

Wei Zhenzu weakly waved a hand. Forcing himself to endure the dizzying sensation of the world spinning around him, he managed a smile uglier than a crying face.

"Taking out a big cash advance on a credit card... means you have to pay interest. Let me... catch my breath."

The two rested where they were for a full ten minutes.

Once his racing heart had calmed down a little, hunger and the emptiness of having his sanity bottom out began to torment Wei Zhenzu's stomach.

If he didn't replenish his strength soon, there was no way he would last through the final battle ahead.

"Paimon, do me a favor." Wei Zhenzu took a deep breath and struggled to his feet, pointing at the Abnormality meat in the corner that he had just cut into perfect cubes.

"Go pick up the scraps. We need to make some provisions."

"Ew, gross chunks of meat with eyes."

Seeing how pale Wei Zhenzu was, Paimon obediently pinched her nose and carried a few pieces back.

Wei Zhenzu forced himself to perk up. His knife rose and fell, and he tossed the meat, still carrying traces of void energy, into a pot. He added Jueyun Chili snatched from Paimon's pocket and quickly cooked up a pot of "quantum entanglement spicy space hodgepodge," which glowed purple yet gave off a powerful meaty aroma.

"Premium ingredients often require only the simplest cooking methods."

This potent dish from hell proved to be an excellent secret remedy for restoring sanity and stamina.

Meanwhile, at the Knights of Favonius headquarters in the City of Mondstadt.

Grand Master Varka stood in his office, pacing back and forth restlessly.

Every step his hulking frame took on the floor made a dull thud.

When the main force had set out, Jean had used the excuse that "the rear will be left vulnerable, so a top fighter must remain at headquarters to guard against a surprise attack by the Abyss Order"

to force the battle-hungry Knight of Boreas to stay in the city.

But just now, another secret report had arrived from the front: the scouting party was trapped in a Mirror Dungeon, and a mushroom cloud like a nuclear explosion had risen in the direction of the Temple of the Thousand Winds!

Varka couldn't sit still any longer.

He could feel the blood burning in his veins. The bloody scent of battle came to him on the wind from afar, yet all he could do was stand here looking at the damned pile of paperwork on his desk.

He stopped abruptly and flung open his office window. Looking toward Stormterror's Lair, shrouded in dark clouds in the distance, he spoke in a deep voice, as though making a declaration to the whole world:

"The wind fears neither tomorrow nor chains. Prisons and high walls cannot confine the wind, nor can they confine those who sing for freedom!"

"Well said. But that doesn't mean you can escape to the Cat's Tail Tavern and reward yourself with a drink while Jean has you confined to quarters, Master Varka."

A deep, magnetic voice, carrying an unquestionable authority, came from the office doorway.

Varka spun around.

The heavy oak door swung open, and Diluc strode into the office, dressed in a black coat, his red hair like fire.

He had evidently just learned of the strange developments at Stormterror's Lair and ridden over from the Dawn Winery. Morning dew still clung to the hem of his coat.

"Hey! Diluc!" Varka's eyes lit up as though he had seen a savior. Not at all embarrassed at being found out, he burst out laughing instead.

Diluc ignored Varka's attempt at familiarity. He walked straight up to the desk and planted his heavy two-handed sword on the floor with a thud, his gaze like a fire burning in the dark of night.

"I know what you're thinking. Go to the front, Grand Master. If Kaeya dies in a place like that, it'll give me a headache."

Diluc turned his head slightly. "As for the gates of the City of Mondstadt, I'll guard them. I will keep moving forward until dawn arrives."

"Hahahaha! Good lad! I knew the Ragnvindrs were the most dependable."

Varka let out a boisterous laugh. Those were exactly the words he had been waiting for.

He spun around, strode over to the weapon rack in the corner, and roughly yanked out two enormous greatswords.

"I'm leaving Mondstadt to you, Diluc! I'll bring them all back in one piece."

Varka crossed the two greatswords on his back and leaped straight out of the window, bringing a violent rush of wind with him.

But as Varka rushed out of the front gate of the City of Mondstadt, something in the shadows at the base of the city wall suddenly caught the corner of his eye.

Timmie, the little boy who usually fed pigeons on the bridge, was now crouched in a corner, behaving very strangely.

Not one of the white pigeons that usually flocked around him was in sight.

Timmie clutched his knees tightly, staring vacantly at the stone pavement as he muttered frantically and neurotically to himself:

"Pigeons... my pigeons... they didn't fly away today..."

"That Traveler came to use Palm Vortex again... but the pigeons didn't turn into fowl..."

"A pigeon... the pigeon pulled a coin out of its wing... it went 'ding'... and landed heads up..."

Timmie suddenly grabbed his own hair and let out a wail as his entire worldview collapsed:

"A pigeon's base power is 4, and its coin bonus is 10! It won the clash! A pigeon hit the Traveler at max constellation with one wing and put them in a staggered state, aaah!"

"They dragged the Traveler away and stuffed them into a containment room to work a sewing machine, waaah!"

Varka came to an abrupt halt, nearly doing the splits on the stone bridge.

The battle-hardened Knight of Boreas stared at the frantic Timmie in astonishment, the corner of his mouth twitching wildly.

What the hell? A pigeon pulled out a coin? It crushed the Traveler in a clash with one wing?

Had this child finally gone mad and started having ridiculous hallucinations from having his fowl stolen all these years?

Or had the evolution of the species in the City of Mondstadt already reached such an incomprehensible level?

"Sigh, adventurers these days really are awful. They blow up pigeons every day and drove a perfectly good child into paranoid delusions."

He walked over, stuffed a large handful of Mora into Timmie's arms, and patted the little boy on the head.

"Here, take this and go buy some fried chicken legs at Good Hunter. Once you've eaten your fill, you'll stop imagining things. How could pigeons flip coins? If even pigeons could clash, wouldn't the Hilichurls of Teyvat be sitting postgraduate entrance exams?"

But the red light over Stormterror's Lair was flashing wildly on the distant horizon, and there was no time for him to stop and give Timmie counseling.

"Tch, damn Abyss!"

Varka gritted his teeth and looked away.

His Anemo Elemental Power erupted with a roar, and he became a raging tornado that tore across the ground, heading at terrifying speed toward the deadly situation at Stormterror's Lair.

Without him noticing, Timmie's eyes gradually took on a tinge of red behind him.

"Pigeons... the pigeons' feathers turned into gears... they grew so, so many red eyes... they're in the sky... they're hungry..."