"No!"
Hearing the Doctor's voice, Nahida's consciousness swept frantically across Sumeru City.
She quickly turned to Lu Chen, her face anxious.
"They're all asleep!"
"They restarted the dream again! We have to act quickly! We can't let this continue, or else—"
"Or else the people's brains will be fried," Lu Chen finished for her, sighing helplessly.
Nahida nodded hard, and the three of them quickened their pace.
Moments later, they arrived at the foot of a colossal mecha.
The towering humanoid construct, over a hundred meters tall, exuded a crushing sense of oppression—no less than what they had felt when facing the Puppet Shogun in the consciousness space.
Lu Chen released his spatial power, and as the space-time rift vanished, the three suddenly appeared in midair.
Their sudden arrival startled the Fatui below. The Lion's Roar in Lu Chen's hand gleamed, and in an instant, condensed elemental energy lashed out at the machines the Fatui were operating, triggering a chain of explosions.
"Enemy attack! Enemy attack!"
The Fatui and Akademiya scholars scattered in panic. At that moment, Lu Chen felt a powerful, threatening gaze descend from above.
"Hmph, finally."
The much younger-looking Doctor, with a boyish face, immediately seized control of his mecha and stomped toward them.
"Damn it! Didn't you say they couldn't be used yet?" Lu Chen cursed, pulling Nahida with him as he blinked several dozen meters away.
Looking back, the spot they had just been standing in was now a smoking crater more than ten meters across.
Lightning crackled, and Scaramouche appeared on the other side.
"It's not that it can't move—it just hasn't become a god yet."
He shot Lu Chen a resentful glare. If he had reacted a moment slower, he would have been crushed to paste. This guy had only bothered to save Nahida—it was clear he didn't care about Scaramouche's life at all...
"Scaramouche?" The young Doctor's eyes narrowed in surprise. "You're actually siding with them? Shouldn't the people of Inazuma be the ones you hate the most?"
Scaramouche only looked up at him, gave a cold snort, and remained silent.
"Let me think..." The young Doctor sneered. "It seems I misjudged you from the start. Your so-called revenge, your dream of burning the world... all just a pathetic joke!"
"You still want to crawl back into the warm embrace of your precious creator mother? To be spoiled and pampered like a fragile infant? Hahahaha!"
"Revenge? Destruction? Heh. In the end, you're nothing but a pitiful little brat who can't control his emotions!"
Under the barrage of mockery, Scaramouche's fists clenched tight, his rage boiling over. Nothing enraged him more than someone using Ei to ridicule him.
"You bastard!" Lightning flared from his hands, striking straight toward the cockpit a hundred meters above.
But the massive mecha was like a wall of iron. The Doctor didn't even dodge, instead driving the giant's fist down against Scaramouche's attack.
A thunderous crash shook the hall. The spot Scaramouche had just stood in was obliterated, leaving behind a crater even larger than before.
"Die!" Scaramouche snarled, still seething.
He launched himself upward, using the momentum of the mecha's swing, racing toward the cockpit.
Bolts of lightning split the air. Watching them, Lu Chen couldn't help but admit—the Fatui Harbingers were masters of psychological warfare. This young Doctor was even sharper than the one outside, and every word he spat at Scaramouche struck like a blade.
No wonder he was furious.
Scaramouche darted nimbly across the anemo mecha's frame, his movements sharp and relentless. His wounds had mostly healed by now—he had simply avoided going all-out until this moment so Lu Chen and Ei wouldn't notice. But against such an opponent, he had no choice but to fight at full strength.
"This pest..." The young Doctor frowned, clearly finding Scaramouche's ferocity troublesome.
"Time to teach you a lesson!"
The mecha's massive arms rose, and the Gnosis at its core blazed with dazzling green light. A fierce storm instantly engulfed the entire hall.
"Stormfall!"
The technique looked strikingly similar to Venti's abilities—unsurprising, since the Gnosis fueling it was his.
As Scaramouche fought against the storm-wielding mecha, Lu Chen pressed forward through the razor-edged winds, flying straight toward the still-vacant Geo mecha.
"If I destroy these machines, the collective dream should collapse..."
Light Realm power gathered in his hands, but just as he was about to strike, Nahida's cry rang out behind him.
At the same time, he felt the chill of the Doctor's sinister grin.
"!"
Lu Chen reacted instantly, invoking the Power of Time.
The flow of the hall slowed to a crawl. Even the raging storm felt like a gentle breeze against his skin.
Whipping around, he saw Nahida, eyes wide in shock—and the Doctor lunging to strike her down.
Had he been a second later, the blade would have pierced her chest.
Fury burned through him. Without hesitation, Lu Chen swung his power toward the young Doctor.
But the Harbinger's instincts were terrifying. Even as time slowed, he managed to snatch up a test tube filled with some strange liquid.
The glass shattered, and a cloud of acrid, stinging gas burst forth. Within the choking haze, the Doctor's form vanished.
"It's... poisonous..." Nahida gasped, covering her nose.
Lu Chen swept her into his arms and leapt back, conjuring Anemo to disperse the cloud.
When the smoke finally cleared, the Doctor was gone.
"Interesting... very interesting..."
Though his ambush on Nahida had failed, his true goal had succeeded.
He knew Lu Chen would never ignore her, so he had seized the chance to delay him.
Now, his figure appeared inside the cockpit of the Geo mecha.
"To think I'd trade blows with the famed Prince... your strength is indeed impressive."
"In that case..."
The ground began to rumble as the Geo mecha's head blazed with light.
"Looks like we're fighting two giants now," Lu Chen muttered, glancing upward.
Nahida, standing beside him, let out a bitter laugh. "But the good news is that your attack just now interrupted the collective dream. Without enough computational power, these artificial gods are incomplete."
"That's good." Relief washed over Lu Chen. He didn't want Nahida inheriting a city of empty husks—that would be too cruel.
Compared to that, two incomplete artificial gods didn't worry him much. Even if they were complete, he wouldn't be afraid.
Since grasping the Light Realm power, he hadn't had a true battle. Now, with opponents, a battlefield, and no distractions—the timing couldn't be better.
As the Geo mecha roared to life, the other fight was reaching its climax.
The storm dissipated, and Scaramouche, battered and bloodied, plummeted from the sky like a discarded puppet.
Lu Chen lifted his palm, catching him gently with a current of wind.
Scaramouche wiped blood from his forehead, eyes burning with fury.
But when he saw it was Lu Chen, his gaze softened for a moment before his guard dropped.
"Took you long enough to help."
"To be honest," he clicked his tongue, "I regret showing up here... Turns out risking my life for you is even more dangerous than serving the Fatui."
"That's different." Lu Chen chuckled. "Risking your life with us makes you one of Teyvat's three good young men—a partner of justice! What do you get from risking your life for them?"
As they spoke, the young Doctor's voice thundered from above, oblivious to their banter.
"The destruction of all things will mark the dawn of a new order!"
"At the end of ruin, a pure dawn awaits!"
His tone carried a strange persuasion.
"With ideals this lofty, why would you call it risking your life? Scaramouche! Have you forgotten the oath you swore when you joined the Fatui?"
"You never trusted humans. You despised the gods even more. You denied and mocked everything in this world."
"And now—their era is ending! Your chance lies right before you!"