"Mr. Xia is… Lord Barbatos's… dearest friend?"
Noelle's eyes widened.
For her, that was a bit too much to process.
"Yup. He said so himself… In your heart, what do you think Barbatos should be like?"
An image of the sacred statue in the Church of Favonius surfaced in Noelle's mind.
"I… don't dare speak carelessly about the Anemo Archon…"
"All right, I'll let you in on a secret—actually, you've already met Barbatos."
"???"
Noelle froze.
"I've already met Lord Barbatos?"
"That wine-loving bard."
"Venti?!"
"Mhm. Does it feel like your image of a god just got shattered?"
"…"
Right now, Noelle did feel a bit of that disillusionment.
Mainly because the gap between Venti's image and the Anemo Archon's was just too big, to the point that even her faith in Barbatos wobbled a little.
But when she thought carefully about various things related to Venti, his identity did seem awfully mysterious.
Like how he'd appeared in Mondstadt a few years ago out of nowhere; how he could sing many ancient songs long lost to time; how the sound of his lyre could draw the dragon of the skies, Dvalin…
All of these things pointed to the possibility that he was the Anemo Archon.
Seeing Noelle spacing out, Xia Zhi said, "I've told you who I am as well. Come on—try the sword."
Noelle steadied herself. "Okay."
She gripped the metal hilt in her hands and slashed down at the wooden dummy before her.
The solid dummy split into two, the cut surface smooth as glass.
"How does the sword feel?"
"Very light! Very fast!"
"This sword can grow or shrink, but you have to feed it wind energy to maintain it. The longer and wider the blade, the more energy it consumes."
"That's amazing!"
"After transforming, you should've also acquired a number of Anemo spells. Try using them."
"Mhm!"
"I'll give you five minutes to get familiar. After five minutes, I'll release the time stop in this area."
"Eh! Only five minutes?"
"Fischl got the same."
"Oh…"
Noelle hurried to seriously familiarize herself with the strange, powerful force inside her.
Xia Zhi stood to the side, watching quietly.
After five minutes passed, Xia Zhi spoke, then took from his inventory a test tube filled with some kind of black liquid.
Noelle sensed an ominous aura from it.
"Mr. Xia, what's that?"
"Abyssal Aura."
"Huh? Are you going to do something bad with that, Mr. Xia?"
"I'm going to whip up a simple finder."
"A finder?"
"You were taken down by an Abyss Mage before, right? There's no way only one Abyss Mage is lurking in Mondstadt. I happen to have done some research on this [Abyssal Aura]—using it as a lure to make a special device can help you locate those hidden Abyss Mages."
"That sounds incredible!"
A moment later, a small compass appeared in Xia Zhi's hand.
He drew a little of the [Abyssal Aura] into a syringe, injected it into the compass, then handed the device to Noelle.
"It'll guide you. Treat tonight's payback fight as a Magical Girl's splendid stage performance."
"Okay!"
Noelle carefully accepted the instrument.
Xia Zhi released the time stop in the area.
Not far away, Rosaria peered out from behind a large tree—only to find that the two figures who had been in sight a moment ago had suddenly vanished.
Rosaria felt it was strange.
Frowning, she walked onto the open ground and searched around, but saw no suspicious figures.
All she discovered was a dummy cut neatly in half.
She bent down, ran a fingertip along the smooth cut, and narrowed her eyes. "Very fresh marks… but where did they go?"
The cat in her arms let out a soft mewl.
Rosaria hugged the cat and straightened up.
—
The compass in Noelle's hand had only a single pointer, and right now it was fixed firmly in one direction.
That was where the nearby source of Abyssal Aura lay.
Noelle cast an Anemo spell on herself, making her as light as a swallow—she could leap across rooftops with ease.
Soon, she reached the end of the compass's guidance.
Another dark alley.
An Abyss Mage was hopping around a tree, muttering in eerie whispers.
Gripping her Invisible Greatsword, Noelle slipped in behind it without a sound and brought the blade down in one stroke.
A thin elemental shield instantly surfaced over the Abyss Mage's body.
This was the very trick that had knocked Noelle out in a single hit the night before last.
But tonight, the same trick no longer worked.
The invisible greatsword in Noelle's hands sliced through the elemental shield—and the monster behind it—like tofu.
Watching as the monster that had so easily defeated her before crumbled to ash under her blade, Noelle couldn't help exhaling a breath.
Magical Girls are amazing!
She lowered her head and looked at the compass again. The pointer began to turn once more.
Which meant there were still Abyss creatures lurking in Mondstadt.
Noelle felt a surge of crusading power fill her body.
After cutting down several Abyssal monsters in succession, Noelle sensed a faint, strange ripple from the hilt.
For some reason, she understood that this ripple referred to the ability to stop time.
Thinking it over, she followed the compass to the next Abyssal monster. This time, instead of charging in, she tried to unfurl that faint ripple she'd just sensed.
Centered on Noelle, an area of roughly twenty meters around her fell into a state of time stop.
Noelle was a little shocked.
She hadn't expected that, after transforming, she could actually command such a wondrous power over time.
The Abyssal monster became like a statue, standing motionless in the shadows.
Noelle strolled through the stillness, walked up to it, then gripped the hilt and brought the invisible blade down.
The troublesome Abyssal creature turned to ash in an instant.
So strong…
Canceling the time stop, Noelle was about to set off to eliminate the next monster when a wave of dizziness washed over her. A teal anemo field flared over her body, wrapping her up.
In the next instant, Noelle reverted from her Magical Girl form back to that of the little maid.
Weakness rippled through her body.
Her transformation… was undone?
Why did it end so fast?
Was the item out of charge?
Bracing a hand against the wall, Noelle steadied the weakness coursing through her.
Mr. Xia hadn't lied to her.
With his help, she had become a Magical Girl.
Next step—bring the hilt back for a recharge.