The air on Yujing Terrace grew still, the collective breath of Liyue held in a moment of supreme, sacred anticipation. Ningguang stood at the heart of the ceremonial platform, her hands raised to the heavens. The offerings were presented, the ancient litanies were spoken. The air itself began to thrum with a powerful, gathering energy, a sign that the border between the mortal realm and the divine was thinning.
Ren stood beside Ganyu, his small hands clenched into tight fists. His heart hammered against his ribs, a frantic, desperate drumbeat counting down the final seconds. He kept his eyes locked on the sky, not with reverence, but with a dreadful, clinical focus.
And then, it happened.
The sky, which had been a perfect, cloudless blue, suddenly darkened. A swirling vortex of golden clouds and elemental energy ripped open the heavens. A colossal, serpentine form, its scales the color of Cor Lapis and its mane like flowing amber, began to descend. It was the Exuvia, the half-qilin, half-dragon vessel of the Geo Archon.
A collective gasp of awe and reverence went through the crowd. This was the moment they had all been waiting for, the divine descent of their god.
But as the magnificent form descended, something went terribly, horribly wrong.
The vibrant, golden light that surrounded it flickered and died. Its powerful, serpentine body went limp, all signs of divine life extinguishing in an instant. It was no longer a descending god; it was a falling corpse.
With a final, terrible momentum, the massive, lifeless body of the Exuvia crashed onto the ceremonial platform with a deafening, earth-shaking CRUNCH. The sacred altar shattered. Dust and debris flew everywhere.
Silence.
A single, profound, heart-stopping moment of absolute, stunned silence.
Ningguang immediately, calmly walks and kneels beside the exuvia, checking and realizing the situation "Rex Lapis is dead! Seal the exits! No one leaves Yujing Terrace!"
This was the moment. The catalyst. Ren's mind, which had been a storm of dread, became a point of cold, sharp clarity. He knew what would happen next. The Qixing, in their panic, would blame the only outlander who had been present: the Traveler who tries to escape.
He didn't hesitate. While Ganyu was frozen in a state of pure, horrified shock, her face ashen, and Keqing was already barking orders, trying to restore a semblance of control, Ren moved.
He darted through the screaming, panicked crowd, his small form a blur of determined motion. His eyes were locked on a single target.
Lumine and Paimon were standing near the edge of the chaos, their faces a mask of stunned, wide-eyed disbelief. They were frozen, caught completely off guard by the sudden, catastrophic turn of events.
Just as the first of the Millelith guards turned their suspicious, accusing gaze towards the two strange, outlandishly-dressed newcomers, Ren reached them.
He grabbed Lumine's hand, his grip surprisingly firm. "Stay with me," he said, his voice a low, urgent command that cut through the noise. "No matter what happens, do not leave my side."
Lumine stared at him, her golden eyes wide with confusion, but she saw the absolute, unwavering seriousness in his face and instinctively nodded.
As the guard approached them, his polearm held in a defensive, accusatory stance, he pointed at Lumine. "You! Outlander! You are to come with us for questioning regarding the death of Rex Lapis!"
Before Lumine could even protest, Ren stepped directly in front of her, placing himself between her and the guard. He was a small, unassuming shield, but he stood with an authority that was utterly unshakable.
"She is with me," Ren stated, his voice ringing with a calm, clear power that made the guard pause.
The guard hesitated, his eyes flicking from the strange outlander to the small, beautifully-dressed boy who was known throughout the Harbor as the beloved brother of Secretary Ganyu. This complicated things.
"She is a person of interest," the guard insisted, though his tone was less certain now. "She must be questioned."
"And she will be," Ren replied, his gaze unwavering. "But not by you. If she is to be questioned, my sister, Ganyu, or the Yuheng, Lady Keqing, will do so themselves. Until then, she is under my personal protection."
He had invoked the names of two of the most powerful people in the Qixing, claiming a jurisdiction that no mere guard would dare to challenge. He had wrapped Lumine in the unassailable political and social standing of his own adopted family.
The guard was completely flummoxed. He looked at the child, then at the two powerful women who were now making their way through the chaos towards them, their expressions a mixture of confusion and authority. He was hopelessly outranked.
With a frustrated, reluctant sigh, he lowered his polearm. "As you say," he muttered, before turning to deal with a more manageable part of the panicked crowd.
Ren had done it. He had intervened at the most critical possible moment. He had severed the thread of the original story, the one that began with the Traveler becoming a wanted fugitive. He had, with a few, well-chosen words, completely derailed the start of the Liyue Archon Quest, and in doing so, had just rewritten the future of his own.