"The west wind carries the scent of wine,"
"The mountain wind brings word of victory."
"A far-off breeze pulls at my heartstrings,"
"And every rustling leaf sings of my longing."
Many memories awoke.
[Favonius Bladework: 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%...]
The world in Kiyono Fugin's eyes changed. Dizziness swept over him like waves, then quickly dissipated. He slowly exhaled a breath of turbid air. Those vast fragments of life kept replaying in his mind.
He was still himself. He was still Kiyono Fugin, only recalling some things from before.
"Human Principles System."
He called out the system's name. "Is this alright?"
Kiyono knew his current state was precarious.
The memory fragments were said to have no side effects, but in fact they were only temporarily suppressed.
The erosion of those memories had always been rooted deep in his soul. If they were not erased, erosion would eventually consume him completely.
[Because of that failed death, since coming to Mondstadt, past memories have been troubling you. You can never walk out of it. I'm letting you fully remember, just to let you fully die, to completely bury the past.]
[Whether it concerns the poisonous dragon, Dvalin, or anything else, you have returned to Mondstadt this time to bring that destiny to an end.]
Severely harmed.
"Hah..." Kiyono slowly exhaled another breath.
The Favonius Bladework was fully inherited.
Dvalin let out a mournful howl. Its wings glided over the clouds, spiraling upward. The azure scales glittered with a metallic luster in the gloomy storm, stirring the sea-like haze.
Kiyono Fugin took Kamigiri from his waist. The sword tip pointed diagonally to the ground. He raised his eyes, gazing straight at the gloom before him.
Jean felt something different about Kiyono. Was it his bearing?
Or something he originally possessed.
If the initial impression this youth gave was a lazy and carefree afternoon breeze, now the impression was a winter west wind about to topple a building.
The boy lowered his stance. His slender fingers pressed on the scabbard. His center of gravity lowered, his back foot braced, his shoulders relaxed—this was the posture of drawing a sword.
Before his sword was the rampaging demon dragon.
"You..." Jean wanted to say something. "I'll cover for you to take shelter now. Don't push yourself..."
She only said half of it before stopping.
Only to see the wind rise and clouds surge. Kiyono unsheathed his sword. He stepped on the roof tiles of the high tower, advancing. The wind passed through his body. His speed grew faster and faster. His fluttering coattails were compressed into a blur by the rapid speed, as if he had merged into the wind.
"I'll hold it back. The Knights go protect the people."
Kiyono said this.
This sentence was both unfamiliar and familiar. It seemed he had said the same thing hundreds of years ago.
Dvalin had obviously noticed Kiyono's approach.
It swung its tail.
The boulders and rubble stirred up by the demon dragon came head-on. Kiyono dropped his center of gravity and slipped through the debris, spinning as he drew his sword.
The speed of those stones was very fast.
The wind pressure accelerated them to an unimaginable speed. The boulders shattered in the air. The huge volumes turned into countless fragments. The sky was full of shards, like a rainstorm made of sharp stones.
If an ordinary person was even grazed by a bit, they would definitely have their bones broken and fall on the spot.
Damn it.
How could he be so reckless!
Jean's pupils dilated slightly. Such a dense stone rain, even a senior knight couldn't take it.
She had thought that when this boy said he would join the Knights and stay, he meant only to help the soldiers evacuate the people. She had never imagined he would charge straight at the demon dragon.
But Kiyono's subsequent performance exceeded her expectations.
Kiyono closed his eyes.
The world was a clear void.
Only trajectories remained, the trajectories of those stones' flight.
Only points and lines.
The Fudoshin and Favonius Bladework combined, sparking new inspiration.
One was the highest mental state of Inazuma swordsmanship, the other was the highest sword technique of the Knights of Favonius.
He imagined the stones as raindrops. The sky full of stones was a sky full of rainstorm. In the past, he had also sliced through a rainstorm in Mondstadt City. He danced with his sword in the rain. The nimble sword passed through each falling raindrop.
He waited, waited for the last moment, waited for those raindrops to fall on his body.
Then, unsheathed his sword.
"That's the Favonius... Bladework?" Jean murmured.
The Favonius Bladework created by Wolf Pup Rostam was performed with a one-handed longsword.
There were only three key points: One, slice. Two, slash. Three, pierce.
Kiyono made a horizontal slice. The shards he touched were cut in half, grazing past his cheeks. His speed didn't slow down in the slightest. His body avoided the oncoming debris. Kamigiri sparked a trail of fire on the roof tiles. He leapt from the highest point of the roof beam, slashing upward. In Kiyono's vision, another raindrop shattered.
Drip.
This was the sound of raindrops shattering beside him.
He grew faster and faster. The afterimages of Kamigiri were already indiscernible. The sword light blurred into wind. Countless raindrops were cut open by the wind, shattered, splashing by his feet. He passed through the raging windstorm. Nothing could obstruct his steps anymore.
Jean had never seen such Favonius Bladework.
Nor had she ever reached such a realm.
She was a diligent swordswoman. For twenty years, she had studied swordsmanship day and night. Until just before the dragon disaster happened, she was still honing the Favonius Bladework. But she had hit a bottleneck, a bottleneck she couldn't break through no matter what. Jean knew that above this bottleneck was another world.
And all this was reproduced in the hands of a boy only sixteen years old.
She must do something, Jean thought to herself.
She turned around.
She was a mortal. She was not a genius. But mortals also had things they could do.
There were still many people not yet evacuated, many civilians still buried in the ruins. She wanted to go with Kiyono Fugin, but she was the Vice Grand Master of the Knights of Favonius. She could do more elsewhere than on a battlefield belonging to a prodigy and a demon dragon.
She had to cherish the time this noble boy bought.
She didn't know what to say.
When Jean turned around, her heart ached as if spasming. That was the knightly spirit spitting on her.
Huff... Roar!
The demon dragon was already in a rage. It raised its neck and let out a roar-like howl.
In front of it, in the raging dragon tornado around it, those layers of wind screens were split open. The mist rapidly expanded. Kiyono Fugin passed through the mist, slashing at its neck.
Kamigiri struck the demon dragon's scales. Metal and scales collided in a shower of sparks. The wound ran from its neck down across its chest, cutting deep.
But this was the limit.
Kiyono Fugin couldn't possibly defeat a God-tier being.
His body was still weak. Even if he picked up his former skills, he still couldn't do more.
The only thing Kiyono could do was buy more time for the evacuating crowd.
Dvalin swung its tail, hitting his chest. Kiyono used his sword to block. Upon contact, he felt all the blood in his body reverse flow. His limbs were about to scatter. He crashed to the ground powerlessly.
He struggled out of the rubble. The demon dragon dove at him again.
—"Fugin."
At that moment, another storm of sword wind struck the demon dragon's unguarded body. The demon dragon cried out, lost its balance, and veered off course, grazing past Kiyono Fugin.
Kiyono turned his head.
Only to see that girl, that girl who quietly ate fish by the bonfire and said she would share half with him—Lumine panted heavily. Her chest heaved up and down from the intense running. In her open palm, wind elements slowly gathered.
Seeing Kiyono look over, Lumine tilted her head, winked her right eye playfully, and smiled proudly.
"Drowned Corpse!" Paimon put her hands on her hips. "Don't hog all the glory!"
—
"...The demon dragon is occupied."
La Signora clicked her tongue.
"Favonius Bladework."
Why was he here.
She gazed at the young knight confronting the demon dragon. She remembered killing that boy—he should have been dead. So how was he still alive?
That set of swordsmanship... She saw it again, the Favonius Bladework.
Familiar yet unfamiliar.
La Signora had seen it countless times before, in every dusk and afternoon.
Again, a demon dragon. Again, a young knight. Again, Mondstadt.
For some reason, she had an inexplicable sense of déjà vu.
The demon dragon Durin went berserk and invaded Mondstadt. The young knight fought alone and died... The sky had been just as heavy that day.
The only difference was the ending.
Rosalyne didn't make it in time. Rostam died alone. But the blonde girl stood beside the boy, fighting the enemy together with him.
For some reason, she felt irritated, irritated by this inexplicable sense of déjà vu.
They were clearly different people.
Gazing at that blonde girl's breathless smile, with a look of "finally made it in time", she instinctively loathed it.