The Ruler of Time's Gift!
A few minutes earlier.
At the highest plaza in Mondstadt.
Outrider Amber had brought Lumine, a Traveler who had just arrived in Mondstadt, and her guide Paimon here.
"Welcome to Mondstadt. I have a gift for you."
As she spoke, Amber pulled out two enormous wings from behind her and said with a smile, "Ta-da! This is a Wind Glider, a Mondstadt specialty. You can use it to glide through the sky. Once you pass the Wind Glider exam, you can use it whenever you like."
"A Wind Glider?"
Lumine looked a little surprised at Amber's words.
She had just equipped the Wind Glider and was about to use it when she suddenly noticed an astonishing gale whipping up around them.
"W-what's going on?"
Amber, who apparently hadn't expected anything like this either, hurriedly looked up at the sky.
The next second, the weather over all of Mondstadt suddenly changed.
A gray haze enveloped everything around them.
Then, a cyan dragon with purple markings on its body flew in from afar, heading straight for the sky above Mondstadt.
The hurricane it stirred up blew the eaves off many houses, and residents who hadn't made it to shelter were swept away on the spot.
Lumine, who had just strapped on her Wind Glider, had it worst of all. She was a complete novice and hadn't even learned how to put it away before she was flung into the air. She had no choice but to use it to fly, lest she be smashed into mincemeat.
"I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die... How am I supposed to get down now..."
A tangle of confused and complicated emotions flashed through Lumine's eyes.
She tried desperately to steer the Wind Glider down, only to find that the gale around her showed no sign of stopping. Instead, with every beat of the dragon's wings, its oppressive force grew stronger.
In the end, Lumine could only remain in the sky for the time being, waiting for a rescue that would never come.
Just as Lumine thought she would have to keep flying like this until she exhausted every last bit of strength and fell from the sky, made intimate contact with the ground, and became Lumine paste, she suddenly spotted an armored figure darting along Mondstadt's walls.
Having only just arrived in Mondstadt, Lumine didn't know who he was. Thinking he was a protector of the city, she called out, "Um, could you help me? I can't get down!"
"???"
Mo Fan had been planning to snipe the wind dragon from the city wall, but the moment he saw Lumine, he stopped in his tracks.
Why was there someone up in the sky?
Yes, Mo Fan had never expected Lumine to appear here.
Although he was a transmigrator, he wasn't familiar with the plot of Genshin Impact. Or rather, he had once known it well, but after the grinding passage and Erosion of a full hundred lifetimes, his memories of his previous life had long since blurred into a few pixels.
Thus, Mo Fan knew nothing about the background of this Stormterror incident, nor could he be bothered to care about the reason behind it.
As far as he was concerned, this damned dragon had actually dared to wreck his house, overturn his dining table, and hurt his girl... Those things alone were enough to warrant killing him ten million times over.
As for the seemingly boundless gap between him and Stormterror...
Let's put it this way.
Over the course of a hundred reincarnations, Mo Fan had defeated who knew how many opponents ten million times stronger than Stormterror.
Although he had now lost the power he once possessed, his memories and experience from the past remained.
More importantly, he still had one last, crucial trump card.
Its name was the Edict of Time.
It was something Istaroth, the Ruler of Time, had given him a very, very long time ago, after he made a contract with her.
The Edict of Time had a simple effect: it allowed Mo Fan's soul to return to the past for a short time and regain the power he had accumulated in his previous reincarnations.
Because it let him obtain the abilities from all his reincarnations at once, the Edict of Time's effect grew stronger as the number of his reincarnations increased.
Now that Mo Fan had reincarnated a hundred times, a full release would give him strength at the level of a Ruler, or even beyond.
But the Edict of Time also came at an enormous cost.
To put it plainly, using the Edict of Time consumed Mo Fan's soul.
As the Knight of Boreas, he had only been able to defeat Decarabian, the God of Tornadoes, because he had the Edict of Time.
But the moment he finished using it, his soul had collapsed on the spot, sending him on to his next life.
So under normal circumstances, Mo Fan would never use the Edict of Time. He would only activate this final trump card when he had no choice but to stake his life.
Now that Mo Fan's soul had just been revived, he could use the Edict of Time again, but he obviously couldn't use such an astonishing ultimate move just to deal with a mere Stormterror.
Besides, even without the Edict of Time, he still had a way to defeat the dragon.
"Girl over there, give me a hand!"
Mo Fan leaped from side to side until he reached the highest point in Mondstadt. Then he suddenly sprang into the air, crossing several hundred meters in an astonishing leap and landing beside Lumine high above the ground.
"Are you Superman?"
Lumine was astonished. She had never expected Mo Fan to move in such an incredible way.
Even so, she grabbed Mo Fan's hand at the crucial moment, allowing him to remain in the air as well.
"It's nothing. I just used a little trick to ride the wind."
Mo Fan smiled.
Although he didn't have a Vision, he could use Elemental Power.
That was because he had obtained more than one Vision in his previous reincarnations, and he could now draw on the power of his past.
As for how he did it,
it all came down to the Edict of Time.
As mentioned earlier, the Edict of Time could grant Mo Fan the power from his previous reincarnations, but it cost him his soul.
So, if he borrowed only a small portion of that power, wouldn't the cost to his soul be much smaller?
That was indeed the case.
Mo Fan had just consumed an extremely small, even negligible amount of soul power to use the Edict of Time and obtain the ability to wield Anemo that he had possessed as the Knight of Boreas.
By now, he and Lumine were extremely high in the sky, with little distance between them and Stormterror nearby.
"Come on, it's time to finish this dragon!"
Mo Fan didn't hesitate in the slightest.
He drew the two-handed sword from his back. Although it was only the lowest-grade greatsword he had picked up at a blacksmith's shop, once he held it in his hands, the piece of ordinary iron radiated a power no less than that of a divine weapon.
"North Wind Earth-Splitting Slash!"
The next second, Mo Fan let go of Lumine's hand and plunged straight toward Stormterror.
He wasn't using the Edict of Time, nor was he relying on any additional abilities. He was simply using the swordsmanship he remembered.
It was the swordsmanship he had spent his entire life honing as the Knight of Boreas.
Although he had ultimately failed to overcome Decarabian, the God of Storms, his current opponent was not that terrifying great god, but merely Stormterror, who had long since been weakened by the Abyss's corruption!
Boom!
In an instant, as Lumine looked on in shock, Mo Fan's attack struck Stormterror on the head with tremendous force.
"Raaaargh!"
The next moment, the dragon let out an incomparably miserable scream. Just like that, the wind dragon that had been ravaging Mondstadt was struck down and sent plummeting toward the ground!