At the foot of Mt. Tianheng.
This restricted territory of Liyue, long kept quiet, had grown uncharacteristically loud.
Not far from the Heavy Cavalry base, fifteen hundred soldiers of varied complexion stood in loose formation, trading whispers among themselves.
These were the new Sumeru forces, the Eremites and the Thirty-Man Corps, consolidated into a single integrated unit, brought here today by Cyno and Rahim.
By any reasonable standard, troops of this quality ought to have had the discipline not to whisper in the ranks. But there was simply no helping it. What they had seen and heard along the way had been too far beyond anything they were prepared for.
In the morning, a Dragon-Rider formation had passed overhead.
At midday, they had barely registered a monster horde before several rounds of gunfire cracked through the air, followed by a salvo of RPG rockets, and the entire mob was reduced to ash.
In the afternoon, they had crossed paths with a merchant convoy whose guards wielded swords wreathed in open flame, casually subduing monsters without breaking stride.
If they hadn't already heard some of what was going on, and seen Dragon Riders on more than one occasion,
They might have concluded that the entire nation of Liyue had ascended into some realm of transcendence.
And then they had arrived at Mt. Tianheng, and even the capacity for shock had gone numb.
The Millelith moved in perfect order, their layers of checkpoints forming a seamless wall. Dragon Riders swept across the sky at intervals, vanishing beyond the mountain's peak. On the ground, hundreds of Millelith rotated through patrols on a steady rhythm.
Some were heavy cavalry, mounted knights armored head to toe in plate that looked as though it had been poured from molten iron.
Some were light-armored element-users, bearing either swords blazing with fire or longbows drawn back with threads of frost.
And some were entirely unremarkable hot-weapon infantry, but the Sumeru soldiers who had witnessed those units in action on the road over here understood perfectly well: the hot-weapon corps were among the most dangerous people in this entire place.
It had never occurred to them that a military force could be subdivided into so many distinct categories of specialization. And every single one of those specialized units could, without exerting themselves, wipe out their entire fifteen hundred with a hundred soldiers to spare.
Given all that, the fact that they were only whispering to each other rather than clutching each other and crying out loud said something rather good about their military discipline.
In Ryen's courtyard.
For the first time in three days, everyone had gathered here again.
Ryen sat between Ganyu and Lisa, glancing over at Cyno and Rahim across the way.
"You've made a long journey. I appreciate it."
Cyno shook his head.
"The distance between Sumeru and Liyue isn't all that far, and the Millelith helped considerably along the way. We didn't even get a chance to fight the monsters ourselves. It wasn't hardship."
He paused, and something like sobered wonder moved across his face.
"But only by seeing the Millelith in person can you truly understand how much distance separates us. Every single one of them carries a threat I can feel. Even facing their hot-weapon squads, a single unit of them could put me in genuine danger of dying."
"A force like that, tens of thousands strong, it's genuinely frightening."
Jean smiled and gave a small nod.
"Liyue was the first to begin large-scale settlement and development of the MC World, and it remains the furthest along. The military's refinement reflects that. But all of this happened within half a year. If you keep pace, you can reach the same point within half a year."
Cyno and Rahim responded with a slow, heavy nod.
They were not particularly optimistic.
A military of that caliber was a double-edged sword.
Liyue had no fear of the Millelith turning unstable, every soldier was bound to absolute loyalty to the nation, willing to lay down their lives without hesitation. That was the Millelith's foundational military doctrine.
Sumeru was not there yet.
They had the numbers. But numbers came with disorder.
To say nothing of the Eremites, even folding them into the new army required careful, thorough vetting. If a force like that went wrong, it wasn't something Cyno and the others could suppress.
There was still a very long road ahead.
Ryen hadn't anticipated the weight of thought behind Cyno's expression. He leaned over to murmur something to Ganyu and the others, then smiled.
"Take your units to settle in shortly, Alhaitham knows the process. Head to Millelith Base One first, then let them handle the arrangements from there."
"One more thing: I'd recommend getting familiar with the world as quickly as you can, especially the recreational events. The Bed Wars tournament and so on."
"More than a week from now, the Lantern Rite begins. The MC World will hold a Five-Nation Entertainment Championship to coincide with it. There will be substantial rewards for the winners."
Cyno nodded, and something quietly restless shifted in his expression. If he was being honest, he was already having trouble keeping still. The Millelith he'd encountered on the road, and the transformations he'd seen in Liyue since arriving,
His curiosity about that world was climbing by the hour.
After a moment's silence, Cyno looked up with a puzzled expression.
"Ryen, what are we waiting for?"
Ryen didn't answer. He simply smiled and lifted his chin toward the gate.
"They've arrived."
Before the words had fully left his mouth, the sound of sharp, clashing voices drifted in from outside.
Aether and Lumine shoved their way through the entrance together, each directing a look of profound disgust at the other, the particular expression one reserves for something unpleasant found underfoot.
Ryen stifled his amusement.
He had heard from Zhongli and Hu Tao over these past few days that whenever Lumine and Aether ran into each other, a verbal sparring match was absolutely guaranteed to break out immediately, and once the words ran out, the fists would follow. At moments like these, the prudent measure was to clear everything in the immediate vicinity. Otherwise, whatever was within reach would cease to exist.
Yesterday, the two had crossed paths while out in the harbor. Aether had tossed one cutting remark at Lumine about her figure.
Then,
War.
Both of them were ultimately collected by the Millelith, with Hu Tao and Zhongli arriving separately to retrieve them.
According to Hu Tao, the Millelith had initially been prepared to turn a blind eye out of courtesy to Lumine. But there was no managing it.
The two of them were simply too loud.
It had started with Lumine grabbing a cup of hot milk from a nearby stall and throwing it in Aether's face. And then,
The conflict evolved.
Toy figurines from the stalls alongside them. The trash cans lining the street. The patrol wolves traveling with a nearby Millelith unit.
Anything visible to the naked eye. Anything that could be picked up was thrown at the other person's face.
Aether got a faceful of garbage. Lumine got furniture hurled at her from across the street.
The entire block was caught in the crossfire.
Economic damages ran into the millions.
The Millelith had no choice but to detain them both temporarily.
The Liyue citizens who got swept up in the chaos, interestingly, had no complaints. If anything, they seemed excited.
Word was that someone had already opened a betting pool today, odds on who would win if Aether and Lumine got into it again.
Well.
Once people were fed and comfortable, Liyue had certainly produced its share of those who lived for entertainment.
Ryen pulled his attention back and looked at Aether and Lumine.
He studied them for a moment, and exhaled a helpless sigh.
Lumine's hair was soaking wet. Aether had it worse, there were boba pearls stuck to his face.
And behind the two of them, Endis looked as though he'd been through a full bath, head bowed, radiating silent misery.
Ryen gave Paimon a gentle squeeze where she was tucked in his arms.
Good thing he hadn't let Paimon go along. She'd have been caught in the collateral damage.
They fight the moment they meet. These two and their sibling bond, truly as indestructible as iron.
"Ryen, I brought you an idiot. You don't mind, do you?"
Lumine lifted her chin with the air of someone who had just claimed the decisive victory. And in this round, she had.
Aether had assumed that Lumine coming to fetch him meant the matter was serious, so he'd followed without overthinking it, stepped out the door after her, and the moment he cleared the threshold, Lumine had spun around and drenched him head to toe with an entire bucket of milk tea.
Aether's temper had ignited instantly. He'd turned to go back inside for his gear, ready to settle the score properly,
And Lumine had said, very lightly:
"Aether. You wouldn't want to keep Ryen waiting, would you?"
So Aether had been left with no choice but to follow along, dripping like a half-drowned cat.
And the insufferable creature had added glue and paste to the milk tea.
Aether was now sticky from head to toe, thoroughly miserable.
Ryen rolled his eyes, crooked a finger, and beckoned Lumine over. Without preamble, he flicked her on the forehead.
"When did you become this much trouble?"
He reached back and produced a towel, patting her wet hair dry as he said it.
It had been a case of dealing a thousand damage and taking eight hundred, the ambush had taken Aether by surprise and given Lumine her win, but a fair amount had splashed back onto her as well. She was hardly spotless.
"He attacked me first! I'm completely innocent, Ryen~ You're going to help me get revenge, aren't you?"
Lumine's eyes flicked sideways and she burrowed into Ryen's arms with an expression of absolute injured innocence.
Across the courtyard, Aether stared with eyes the size of coins.
He could not believe it.
His little sister had gone insufferable, fine. He could accept that. But when had she also learned to do this?
Attacked her first?
In the past few days alone, they had run into each other over a dozen times, and Lumine had ambushed him every single time. If Aether's strength weren't what it was, those dozen encounters would have been a dozen defeats.
Who exactly was the victim here?
Aether looked at Ryen with an expression full of desperate hope, please, let this man see through it.
But even knowing perfectly well that Lumine had started things, Ryen was never going to say anything harsh to her about it.
He patted her on the head with evident fondness.
"What would you like to do about it?"
Lumine's eyes shifted. She glanced back at Aether with a long, measuring look.
Her expression in that moment, calculating, deeply scheming, bore no resemblance whatsoever to the soft, adoring look she wore when facing Ryen.
Aether's irritation notched up another several degrees.
This little wretch had two completely different faces.
An act. A complete, shameless act.
"Hah… two-faced," Aether said coldly, contempt clear in his voice.
Lumine smoothly withdrew her gaze and rearranged her expression into something small and soft, fingers curling into Ryen's collar.
"Ryen," she said, in a very small voice, "I'm afraid that if he stays here permanently, he'll bully me every single day. You wouldn't want me to be bullied, right?"
"Why don't you make him hurry up and leave, I mean, make him hurry up and go back where he came from."
Aether went still.
Then stared at Lumine with an expression of complete disbelief.
She had actually gone that far?
Five hundred years apart, and this was what she had become?
Seeing Ryen beginning to genuinely consider this, Aether felt a surge of panic rise in his chest and spoke immediately:
"Ryen, please don't believe a word she says. This creature is a shameless, two-faced manipulator. Do not let her fool you!"
Lumine's eyes sharpened, then softened again into a picture of wounded fragility.
"Ryen ge~ he's calling me names! I'm so scared!"
"You, you scheming little,!"
Sensing that Aether had gone well past the point of ordinary anger, Lumine turned and shot him one look of pure, satisfied mockery, then stuck out her tongue.
Ryen looked between them with an expression caught somewhere between exasperation and helpless laughter. He patted Lumine's head once, firmly, and nudged her to one side.
"Alright, that's enough. Let's talk about the matter at hand."
Ryen looked up at Aether. The latter threw one last glare at Lumine, then composed himself and turned serious.
"You've spent these days in Liyue. You've seen quite a bit. I imagine you've formed some sense of the situation."
"I heard you bought a considerable amount of milk and alchemical elixirs?"
Aether gave a single nod, his voice steady.
"The milk and alchemical elixirs can resolve the undying curse that afflicts the Abyss Order, allow the Abyss Mages to reclaim their humanity."
Ryen showed no particular reaction to this. A casual nod.
"Why have you come? What is it you want from me?"
A beat of silence.
"You possess a world of your own, a world that belongs entirely to you and stands outside the Tree-and-Sea universe. And so, "
Aether's expression settled into something careful and deliberate. He paused.
Then spoke in a low, clear voice:
"I have come to speak for the Abyss."