Changes began to occur in the Childe.
His water element suddenly changed color.
In the azure water, a faint, almost purple lightning flashed.
That is a power that does not belong to the Vision.
" Delusion..."
Bai You, standing in the corridor, suddenly narrowed her eyes.
She knew what the Childe was going to do.
"Ying, watch out!"
She couldn't help but shout it out.
The sound penetrated the force field of the water element.
The Childe and Ying looked up at the same time and saw Bai You and Varesa on the corridor.
The Childe saw her, paused for a moment, and then smiled.
"Oh, Bai You."
"You've come too."
"Perfect, let me show you how much I've improved in the last two months."
As soon as he finished speaking, his aura surged dramatically.
The elements of water and lightning intertwined wildly around him, transforming into a dark purple, ferocious suit of armor that enveloped his entire body.
His figure grew taller and changed within the armor, and a pair of enormous wings of light formed from Elemental Power even materialized behind him.
Foul Legacy.
That was the battle form forcibly activated by the Fatui Harbinger with the help of the Delusion and the power bestowed by the Queen.
The price was a huge backlash.
"Watch out!"
Before Bai You could finish speaking, the Childe had already made his move.
Armed with the Foul Legacy, his speed and strength were more than twice as great as before.
He appeared in front of Ying almost instantly, and his fist, imbued with water and lightning, slammed down.
He parried with his sword.
Clang!
A loud bang.
Ying was thrown backward by the shock and crashed heavily into a stone pillar in the vault, cracking the pillar.
She gritted her teeth, steadied herself, and a trickle of blood escaped from the corner of her mouth.
"That's more like it."
The Childe's voice came through the armor, carrying an almost manic excitement.
"That's how you should fight—that's what makes it exciting!"
He charged forward again.
The attack, a mix of water and lightning, enveloped Ying like a violent storm.
Ying struggled to stay afloat amidst the flashes of lightning and shimmering water.
Her sword light was repeatedly shattered, only to reform time and time again.
Bai You and Varesa are in the corridor.
She knew better than anyone that this battle belonged to Ying.
Moreover, she knew that the Childe wouldn't actually harm Ying's life.
He was simply blinded by anger and fighting spirit.
The battle had reached a fever pitch.
Ying already had several wounds on her body.
The Childe's Foul Legacy also began to become unstable.
The menacing armor was cracked open, and Elemental Power surged wildly from the cracks.
The backlash from the Delusion has begun.
Ying seized the last opportunity.
She concentrated all her Elemental Power into the sword, and taking advantage of the moment when the Childe's heavy blow missed, she pierced through the gap in his armor with a single strike.
Boom!
The Elemental Power of water and lightning exploded.
The Childe's Foul Legacy shattered inch by inch.
He fell heavily to the ground, panting heavily, his menacing armor turning into specks of light and dissipating into the air.
He transformed back into the young man in the dark gray coat.
His face was pale, and there was blood at the corner of his mouth.
Ying collapsed to her knees, exhausted, using her sword to support herself, panting heavily.
The vault was in complete disarray.
Bai You and Varesa then jumped down from the corridor and rushed into the inner hall, first helping Ying up.
"Are you alright?"
"Are you alright?"
"It's nothing."
Ying shook her head, pushed her away, and looked at the Childe warily.
The Childe used the ground as a support to slowly sit up.
He did not make another move.
He lowered his head, looked at his hands, and took a long, deep breath.
Then, he suddenly laughed.
The laughter was soft, tinged with a hint of self-deprecation.
"I see."
He raised his head and looked at the floating, empty immortal body.
"I went through so much trouble, storming the Golden House, fighting the Millelith, and even using the Foul Legacy."
"But within the immortal body, there is no Gnosis at all."
" Traveler, you didn't take any either."
"Where is that thing?"
His gaze gradually turned cold.
There is only one explanation.
" The Rex Lapis did not die."
"This was all a trap he set."
The Childe supported himself on the ground and slowly stood up.
He was injured, but his eyes shone with an alarming light.
It's a kind of desperate, all-or-nothing brilliance that's ignited when someone is driven to the brink of despair.
"Since the Gnosis is not in an immortal body,"
He murmured, "Since the Geo Archon isn't dead, he's just hiding."
"Then I'll force him to come out."
She knew what he was going to do.
The Childe took out a stack of talismans from his robes.
That wasn't the original "Sigil of Permission that Ying held.
It was a stack of densely packed, counterfeit talismans.
Each one is decorated with patterns similar to the Sigil of Permission, but the colors are much darker, exuding a restless, forcefully activated aura.
"These talismans are imitations of the Sigil of Permission bestowed by the Geo Archon."
The Childe held the talisman in his palm.
"The original image was taken by Traveler to see an immortal, and it became imbued with the immortal power of the Three-Eyed Five-Manifestation."
"I had someone make a batch of copies based on it."
"Looking at a single image, its power is weak."
"But with so many stacked together, and with the power of the Harbinger bestowed upon me by Her Majesty the Tsaritsa..."
He raised his head and looked into the depths of the Golden House, at the sealed key to the seabed.
"Enough to pry open something that Geo Archon itself sealed away."
"The seabed beneath Guyun Stone Forest,"
His voice, each word striking the vault, echoed deeply.
"Sealed within is an ancient Archon."
Ying's expression changed drastically.
" The Archon of the Vortex, Osial."