A Sword of Common Iron, an Edge That Slays Demons

The gale tore at the hem of Wei Zhenzu's coat.

Riding the powerful updraft, he and Varka plunged headfirst into the dark red clouds of chaos.

A powerful sensation of weightlessness struck as the air pressure plummeted.

Wei Zhenzu clenched his teeth and forced his eyes open, taking in the hopeless situation before him.

This was the highest point of Stormterror's Lair. The once-flat circular stone platform had become a realm of death.

Ahead, a massive ice prison was cracking apart.

Kaeya knelt on one knee at its center, his signature fur-collared coat in tatters. Blood had soaked through the dark fabric and was dripping from its hem.

He braced himself against the ground with his longsword in one hand, barely keeping his Vision active with the other.

Outside the ice prison, countless Abyss Mages and bloodthirsty monsters swung their weapons, hammering madly at the teetering walls of ice.

"Roaaar-!"

A deafening roar came from high above.

Wei Zhenzu snapped his head up. Dvalin was circling at the center of the storm's eye.

Black and purple veins of deadly poison spread across his beautiful teal scales. On his broad back, a huge clot of poisonous Abyssal blood throbbed violently.

Buried deep within the clot was a length of [Golden Bough], radiating a dazzling light.

The Abyssal curse and the energy of The City clashed wildly inside him.

Dvalin writhed in agony, his long body twisting as he opened his enormous maw. The raging winds around him began to converge in his mouth, rapidly compressing into a sphere of stormlight that radiated destruction.

[Stormterror's Breath]. He intended to wipe out the entire platform, Kaeya and all.

"Out of my way, you vermin."

A low, furious shout exploded beside Wei Zhenzu's ear.

A towering figure clad in steel followed it down, crashing into the mass of monsters ahead with a piercing sonic boom.

The solid stone platform shuddered violently, and thick, web-like cracks spread madly in every direction from his point of impact.

Varka's heavily armored arms shot back, his hands closing around the massive hilts of two greatswords.

With a deafening scrape of metal, he drew both heavy blades, each as large as a door.

The air around him instantly went berserk. Violent teal Anemo was forcibly torn apart, becoming visible streams of razor-sharp light that coiled around the dark silver blades with a piercing shriek.

The Knight of Boreas swung both arms in wide arcs and spun on his axis, charging forward in a deadly onslaught of pure steel and wind pressure.

The Ice Shieldwall Mitachurls at the very front of the ice prison didn't even have time to let out their opening roars.

Their sturdy elemental shields burst into a shower of ice the instant they touched the greatswords.

Then the blades' unmatched edges cut through their heavy armor, slicing their massive bodies cleanly in half at the waist.

Before their foul black blood could hit the ground, the fierce teal wind pressure shredded it into a glaring red mist.

Against that whirlwind of steel, a veritable meat grinder, numbers meant nothing.

The Abyss Mages who tried to withstand the attack with elemental shields were smashed into pulp along with their shields.

Severed limbs, broken weapons, and chunks of viscera scattered everywhere.

Flying bone fragments struck Wei Zhenzu's coat with a rapid patter.

This brought Varka's codename to mind.

"A sword of common iron, an edge that slays demons."

In just a few seconds, Varka used sheer, overwhelming violence to carve a bloody path more than ten meters long through the tightly packed horde of monsters.

He strode over the remains still twitching at his feet and reached the crumbling ice prison.

He raised his right leg, wrapped in raging wind, and drove the heavy combat sole of his boot into the cracked ice wall with crushing force.

With a thunderous crash, the thick ice wall exploded into a shower of shards, revealing the dying cavalry captain inside.

"Cough, cough... Master." Kaeya sank to the ground, drained of strength, and spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva.

"Your timing... couldn't be better."

"You're alive. That's enough." Varka seized Kaeya by the collar and hauled him to his feet.

The Knight of Boreas looked up, fixing his gaze on the fully charged sphere of light in the sky. "What's going on?"

"Can't break through it." Kaeya gasped for breath and pointed at the sky.

"The poisonous Abyssal blood and that branch formed an absolute shield. My Cryo couldn't even leave a speck of ice on it. Grand Master, we need to retreat..."

"There's no time."

Wei Zhenzu took a deep breath and stepped forward, placing his not particularly broad back between Varka and Kaeya and the threat above.

Overhead, Stormterror's Breath had reached its limit.

The once-raging hurricane grew eerily still under the extreme compression. The surrounding air was as thick as liquid amber, and every breath took all their strength.

Wei Zhenzu felt as though a mountain of thunderbolts were pressing on his chest. The roar of blood under extreme pressure filled his ears.

It was the destructive pressure of a true dragon of this world. Even space warped slightly under its power.

"Outlander, do you intend to withstand it head-on?"

He held both swords across his chest, Anemo surging wildly within him as he prepared to face the impending catastrophe.

"No, I don't like meeting force with force."

Wei Zhenzu slowly lowered his head and looked at the back of his hand.

There, a teal mark of the Anemo Archon burned like a branding iron, even bringing the outlines of his veins into sharp relief beneath his skin.

This was the advance payment that slacking drunkard had given him. Since it was authority granted by a god, it ought to have the grandeur of a god.

He raised his right hand sharply, spread his fingers, and aimed the burning mark at Stormterror, who had descended into complete madness in the sky.

"Dvalin."

Wei Zhenzu's voice wasn't loud, yet it miraculously pierced the frozen air and echoed directly in Dvalin's enormous, Abyss-corrupted slit pupils.

"You were once free. The wind should not be bound."

Teal light burst forth from the mark on the back of Wei Zhenzu's hand.

It was the purest primordial wind, standing above every elemental law in the world.

A pillar of teal light shot skyward, instantly tearing through the dark red clouds covering the ruins.

The destructive storm came to a complete halt.

At the center of the pillar, the phantom of a young man in a green cape, a lyre in his arms, flashed through the air.

The phantom didn't look at Dvalin. He merely plucked the strings of the lyre in his arms.

Ding-

A clear, ethereal note from the lyre pierced the frozen space and time.

The sound seemed to possess a magical power that soothed the soul, spreading across the whole land of Mondstadt in an instant.

Before that phantom, Dvalin's terrifying breath, powerful enough to destroy heaven and earth, went out like a candle flame smothered by an adult's hand.

A fleeting trace of confusion and struggle flashed through his dragon eyes, filled with the urge to destroy.

The presence of his old friend had finally awakened what remained of his reason.

That single second of hesitation completely interrupted the violent cycle of Abyssal energy within him.

Dvalin let out a pained cry.

The destructive energy amassed deep in his throat instantly collapsed. A violent backlash of air exploded in his mouth, and his enormous body lost its balance. Like a collapsing mountain, he plunged from the sky.

Boom!

A giant shadow crashed down.

Dvalin's heavy body slammed into the ruined platform, gouging countless deep cracks into it. Rubble and dust filled the air, and the entire tower shook violently, as if it might collapse at any moment.

The wind stopped, and much of the dark red cloud cover dispersed under the sweeping primordial wind.

Dvalin panted weakly, his massive head hanging limply on the ground, his eyes full of pain.

On his exposed broad back, the purple-black clot of poisonous Abyssal blood had finally lost the protection of the storm and was throbbing violently.

At the center of the poisonous blood, the length of [Golden Bough] radiated a deadly allure.

Wei Zhenzu slowly lowered his burning right hand, gasping for breath.

He knew he had only used Venti's authority to forcibly interrupt Dvalin's attack. The Abyssal curse was still eating away at him.

"It's not over yet."

Amid a soft, sacred teal radiance, an exquisite lyre materialized out of thin air and settled firmly into his left hand.

[E.G.O accessory (special category): Holy Lyre der Himmel]

"Help me out a little longer."

Wei Zhenzu looked at the Holy Lyre der Himmel in his hand and took a deep breath.

He knew nothing of music, but at that moment, through the Anemo Archon's mark on the back of his hand, he seemed to resonate with the divine artifact in a wondrous way.

He raised his trembling right hand and gently plucked the strings of the Holy Lyre der Himmel.

Ding-ding-dong-

The notes rang out, unpracticed and even somewhat stiff.

But within that rough music lay the will of the primordial wind.

Teal Anemo spread from the Holy Lyre der Himmel in soft, visible ripples, gently caressing Dvalin's enormous, suffering body like a pair of tender hands.

"Rrr... ooh..."

Dvalin let out a weak rumble, but it no longer sounded pained.

Soothed by the Holy Lyre der Himmel's pure Anemo, the purple-black clot of poisonous Abyssal blood on his back throbbed noticeably more slowly, and its color grew somewhat duller.

The dark red Abyssal Aura that had enveloped Dvalin was gradually stripped away and purified by the gentle wind.

Wei Zhenzu stared at the glowing length of [Golden Bough] exposed at the center of the poisonous blood.

"This time, the chance has really come."