It was a well-known secret that the Abyss twisted people's wills.
Even as he lay dying, the evil dragon Durin had thought destroying Mondstadt was a form of play. The same was true of those forcibly transformed by the Abyss.
In the Abyss Lector's eyes, he stood on a battlefield, with the lights of Mondstadt's countless homes behind him.
"Dad, Mom..." Feeling the searing pain of his body burning to ash, he murmured like a child, "No, I have to protect... protect them!"
Thus, his immense desire took the form of Human Realm Power and ultimately stirred the Abyss within him.
The instant Albedo raised the sword in his hand, a fierce burst of lightning erupted. His body flew backward, and blood that was not quite human rained through the air, leaving something horrifying on the stone paving and grass.
"Lofty..." The Abyss Lector rose into the air, violent lightning coiling around the blue-and-white Lost Prayer to the Sacred Winds in his palm. "Truth!"
Terrifying Elemental Power reverberated between heaven and earth. The Abyss's authority over the void let fierce lightning ravage all of Windrise.
"Everyone, find cover immediately!" At Acting Grand Master Jean's command, the Knights of Favonius immediately hid behind the nearest cover.
The wounded Albedo also used Geo Elemental Power to form an enormous hemisphere, then created a massive metal bar inside it to avoid being struck by lightning.
"Most sacred grace!"
"Most exalted truth!"
"All-loving divine favor!"
"Enlighten all beings!"
High in the air, the Abyss Lector's cries grew louder with each shout. Lightning gathered into all manner of shapes, from swords, spears, axes and other conventional weapons to natural forms such as mountains, oceans and clouds...
From a distance, it could almost have passed for some world-ending divine punishment. But a closer look revealed that most of those struck by the lightning were Abyss monsters.
Besides that, the strangest sight of all appeared: throughout Windrise, the flow and element of wind seemed to have vanished completely under the lightning strikes.
Acting Grand Master Jean, who had been trying to heal the wounded with Elemental Power, was the first to notice. Soon afterward, the elite squad trapped inside the stone sphere also noticed the anomaly.
"Albedo, how are you feeling?" Linaya had immediately used her Elemental Power to heal him. He was propped halfway up, staring at the Abyss Lector in the sky.
"I'm all right," he said with a faint sigh. "It seems I still have room to improve as a scholar."
"What's happening now?" Columbina asked anxiously as she supported Ronava.
"The threat of death has driven the Abyss Lector completely out of his mind." Albedo looked up into the air. "And the weapon in his hand has amplified his own power even further."
"Is that the Lost Prayer to the Sacred Winds?" At that moment, Tang Wang also noticed it. "Are you kidding me? This Abyss Lector is actually using the Lost Prayer to the Sacred Winds?"
"That name sounds familiar. What is it?"
"A five-star weapon."
At those words, everyone present was stunned, except for Columbina, who had no idea what any of that meant.
"For most nations, a five-star weapon would be a powerful relic with a long history, wouldn't it?" Danika was the first to speak. "How did an Abyss Lector get his hands on something like that?"
"That isn't the issue right now." Albedo leaned out for another look. "The Abyss Lector is about seventy meters above the ground. Aside from Tang Wang and me, the rest of you probably can't attack at that height."
"Of course, if Grand Master Varka were here, he might be able to knock it down quite easily..."
"In any case, the question now is how we can continue breaking the Abyss Lector's shield."
A thick layer of Abyss was entwined with lightning over the Abyss Lector's surface. Without a doubt, if they couldn't trigger an Alienation Reaction, the shield's effect would likely endure as eternally as the concept of lightning itself.
"I think I can try manipulating gravity to fly that high," Columbina said earnestly.
"But manipulating gravity isn't easy for you, is it?" Albedo asked.
"Mm." She nodded. "But if it's for my family..."
As she spoke, Columbina looked around at the people surrounding her, finally fixing her gaze on Tang Wang's face.
"Even if it's hard, I have to try."
Moonlight began to spill from her body. In response, the very space of Teyvat rose at her pull, like the tide.
"Ugh..." She had barely risen before a pained groan escaped her lips.
Just as she tried to bear the pain, a melodious lyre suddenly sounded, carried toward them by the winds of all Teyvat.
"Should you be trapped in a windless land..." Tang Wang knew the tune well; it was the song that played every time he entered Genshin Impact. "I shall play you the song of the high heavens."
"It's Venti! Great, we're saved!" As Tang Wang shouted excitedly, a gentle wind lifted them into the air at a furious speed.
One meter, three meters, ten meters, a hundred meters... Though the Electro Abyss Lector kept rising higher, their group soon drew level with him in midair.
"Lili, are you ready?" Seeing this, Columbina let go of Tang Wang's hand. Wearing an unprecedentedly serious expression, she turned to Linaya beside her.
"Lumi, can you still keep going?" Linaya first asked Lumi.
"Yah-ho, yah-ho!" The little golden Frost Spirit nodded at her cheerfully.
"Boom!" Just then, a great bolt of lightning shot toward them. Danika and Tang Wang immediately rushed to the front and used their own power to block the attack for those behind them.
"There's no time to hesitate." As Columbina spoke, her palm filled with surging Kuuvahki. "Lili, I'll lend you this moonlight."
Under the moonlight, the Wheel of the Moon on her body began to ripple with a whiteness closest to Light Realm Power.
"The birth of gold requires the death of a sun at least eight times larger." At the same time, Albedo took some Mora out of his Vision. "In that case, by reversing the process and using the law of conservation of matter, I can bring it close to the limit of sixteen times its size imposed by the laws."
He wove a formation in his hand. All the Mora vanished and poured into Lumi's body.
"Try this!" Linaya quickly tossed the crystal into Lumi's mouth. This time, Lumi swelled rapidly, a majestic crown growing atop its head, while the heavy hammer in its hand gave off a dazzling white light.
Just as Albedo had said, sixteen times was the limit the laws could accommodate. And now, Lumi's body briefly expanded to that limit.
"Yah!!! Ho!!!" Its hammer crashed toward the Abyss Lector, who was still trying to attack, bringing a terrifying blast of air with it.
The instant it met the hammerhead, the dark Abyss melted away like butter, and the Abyss Lector's body was struck down toward the ground.
"Now." Tang Wang had appeared beneath the Abyss Lector at some point.
His spear brimmed with gold. As he thrust it fiercely above his head, Lumi's other hammer also came crashing down.
The two opposing forces intertwined in midair, tearing the Abyss Lector's body into pieces while he was still alive.
"Dad... Mom..." Before his consciousness faded, the Abyss Lector gazed with a hint of regret at the clear blue sky overhead. "I'm sorry, I wasn't... a good child..."