With Lumine, Amber, Lisa and Kaeya departing on their critical mission to the abandoned temples, a heavy, uncertain quiet fell over the city. The direct assault was over, but the sky was still a turbulent mess, and the winds, though no longer tornado-force, continued to howl through the streets with a furious, relentless power. Debris still flew, and the danger to the citizens of Mondstadt was far from over.
There was no question of the Liyue delegation simply waiting out the storm in their inn.
"Our mission has changed," Keqing announced, her voice ringing with an authority that commanded immediate respect from the assembled Millelith and Qixing administrators. "We are no longer just diplomats; we are a disaster relief unit. Our priority is the safety of the people of Mondstadt. Let's move."
The highly trained and disciplined Liyue contingent became a beacon of order in the lingering chaos. The Millelith, with their sturdy shields and disciplined formations, began systematically clearing rubble from the main thoroughfares, creating safe paths for civilians. The Qixing administrators, their logistical minds perfectly suited to the task, began organizing shelters and distributing emergency supplies from their own caravan.
At the heart of this effort was the strange, powerful trio of Ren and his guardians.
Yelan moved like a ghost through the most damaged parts of the city. Her senses, honed by years of intelligence work, were preternaturally sharp. "There's someone trapped in that collapsed bakery!" she would call out, and her hydro-infused arrows would fire in quick succession, not to harm, but to precisely cut away weakened support beams, allowing the Millelith to move in and rescue the grateful, dust-covered baker.
Ganyu became a force of nature in her own right. She moved through the plazas, her Cryo Vision glowing with a soft, steady light. Where the winds were strongest, threatening to topple weakened statues or walls, she would fire a single, perfectly aimed frostflake arrow. A massive, beautiful ice lotus would bloom at the point of impact, its expanding, crystalline structure acting as a magical support brace, holding the crumbling architecture in place with the unyielding strength of adeptal frost.
And Ren, who was never more than a few feet from Ganyu's side, became the city's mobile shield. His power, so perfectly suited for defense, was in its element. He moved with a practiced, intuitive grace, his small form a beacon of safety for the scared and the vulnerable.
He would see a group of nuns trying to usher children into the safety of the cathedral, struggling against a particularly vicious crosswind that threatened to send them tumbling. Ren would be there in an instant, a long, curved wall of translucent ice materializing to block the wind, creating a pocket of calm in the heart of the gale. "Hurry!" he would urge, his voice clear and steady, and the nuns would guide their young charges to safety, looking back at the small, glowing boy with eyes full of awe and gratitude.
He worked in perfect, unspoken sync with Ganyu. She would stabilize a structure, and he would shield the people fleeing from it. Together, they were a symphony of protective Cryo, their powers interweaving to save lives and restore a semblance of order to the chaos.
For hours, they worked, their efforts tireless. They helped the Knights of Favonius, they comforted crying children, they rescued the trapped and shielded the exposed. Ren, who had once been a simple tourist in this city, was now a vital part of its defense, his name being whispered with reverence by the very people he was protecting.
Then, as the afternoon sun began its slow descent, something in the air changed.
The relentless, howling shriek of the wind began to soften. The furious, battering gusts lessened, their angry punches turning into tired, frustrated shoves. The dark, churning clouds in the sky seemed to lose their violent energy, the sickly green haze slowly, almost imperceptibly, receding.
A collective, hopeful silence began to fall over the city as everyone, from the highest knight to the humblest citizen, looked up at the sky.
The winds were dying down. The storm was breaking.
A gentle breeze, the familiar, friendly wind of Mondstadt, began to whisper through the streets, carrying not the sound of destruction, but the scent of dandelions and the promise of peace.
Ren stood in the center of the main plaza, beside the great statue of Barbatos, Ganyu's hand resting protectively on his shoulder. He looked at the calming sky, and he knew, with an absolute certainty, what it meant.
Somewhere, in the ancient, forgotten temples, the heroes had been successful.
Lumine had done it.