Over the past seven-plus years, Lumine and Paimon traveled extensively across The Seven Nations. After enduring being wanted and imprisoned in seven different countries, they witnessed firsthand and participated in the attitudes, influences, and practices of the gods of each nation toward their respective subjects, meeting many people and experiencing many things.
Finally, having gathered the power of seven elements, Lumine returned to the ruins of Khaenri'ah on the final stop of her journey. There, she met her older brother, who had been waiting for a long time and served as the prince of the Abyss Order.
Aether: "Lumine, your journey has reached its end. Surely, your eyes have retained the sedimentation of this world. Now, the time has come for you to make a choice."
"Will you choose to join me in submerging the throne with the power of the abyss, or will you choose to stop me alongside the culprit right beside you, the one who caused the tragedy of our separation five hundred years ago!"
Lumine looked at Paimon beside her in astonishment and said incredulously: "The culprit? Paimon? Could you possibly be..."
Right at that moment, Paimon's figure emitted a dazzling white light, finally restoring the sacred and noble appearance of days past.
This scene made Lumine instantly feel a massive blow to her heart, and she looked at everything before her in disbelief. She had never imagined that the silly, cute, foodie little Paimon who slept in the same room and spent every day with him was actually the past Sustainer of Heavenly Principles. This was a naked betrayal.
Looking at Paimon with hostility, Lumine angrily rebuked: "So the god I had been searching for all these years was actually right by my side! You've been deceiving me from the very beginning, haven't you?"
Even though he had restored his past appearance, Paimon's original voice remained unchanged. He shook his head and said: "Perhaps it truly was like that at the very beginning; I thought about using you. But as so many years have passed, through all the wind and rain we've experienced together, I truly gave you my sincere heart."
"You were originally Travelers from beyond this world, and all the karma of the Teyvat World should have had nothing to do with you. However, because of my reasons, the two of you were forced to place yourselves in the middle of it, and even turn your swords against each other. For this, I feel deeply apologetic."
Seeing Paimon admit his faults so decisively was rather unexpected to Lumine. For some reason, a sentence that Venti had warned her about over seven years ago suddenly popped into Lumine's mind.
"Traveler, when you set out on your journey once again, you must remember the true meaning of the journey itself. The birds, poems, and city-states of Teyvat, the Archons, the Fatui, and the monsters are all parts of your journey. The destination does not mean everything; before reaching the destination, use your eyes to observe this world more closely."
It was precisely because she recalled this sentence that countless memories with Paimon surfaced in Lumine's mind.
Mondstadt — "The Outlander Who Caught the Wind";
Liyue — "Farewell, Archaic Lord";
Inazuma — "Omnipresent God";
Sumeru — "Akasha Pulses, the Kalpa Flame Rises";
Fontaine — "Masquerade of the Guilty";
Natlan — "Incandescent Ode of Resurrection";
Snezhnaya — "The Snow Nation Unloved by the Gods";
Khaenri'ah — "The Unprecedented Dream"!
As various memories surged into her heart, Paimon truly had never done anything to wrong her. Aside from being lazy and gluttonous, eating up 300,000 Mora of hers every month, he never dropped the ball at critical moments; otherwise, she would have died countless times already.
At this moment, Lumine's inner self returned to its original clarity, and she then said to Paimon: "Fine, Paimon, I am willing to give you a chance to explain everything to me. Everything you say will determine what kind of choice I make!"
Hearing this, Paimon nodded, a trace of memory flashing through his eyes as he said: "This should be a very long story..."
"Actually, all the conflicts that occurred on Teyvat boil down to that cold and evil forbidden knowledge."
"Teyvat was originally the world of the Dragon clan, ruled by the Dragon Sovereigns who mastered the seven elements. But one day, an outsider, the Primordial One Phanes, came to Teyvat, historically known as the First Throne. To fight against the Seven Sovereigns, Phanes used supreme might to condense four shadow avatars possessing their respective clearances, fighting alongside each other against the Sovereigns."
"Those four shadow avatars respectively governed the four clearances of life, death, time, and space. In that great battle, Phanes and the four shadows fought five against seven, successfully defeating the Seven Sovereigns. Meanwhile, Nibelung, the head of the Seven Sovereigns, fled outside the world."
"After seizing the world of Teyvat, Phanes created humans. As for the four shadows he had previously condensed to fight the Seven Sovereigns, Phanes did not take them back into his body, instead letting them become envoys guiding human development—who later became the Sustainers of Heavenly Principles—while he himself resided high above upon the throne of Celestia."
"I do not know how much more time passed before the Dragon Sovereign Nibelung, having obtained the power of pitch-black darkness from outside the world, killed his way back to Teyvat, historically known as the Second Throne."
"Nibelung, blessed by the power of forbidden knowledge, came back almost recklessly. It did not exercise any forbearance, nor did it summon the surviving Seven Sovereigns still on Teyvat, such as Apep."
"It just rushed all the way to Celestia amidst sparks and lightning, fighting five opponents alone yet not falling into a disadvantage. That great battle shattered the heavens and earth, leaving the world incomplete. Enkanomiya was formed at that very moment."
"Out of apology to the people of Enkanomiya, the Time Archon responded to the prayers of the people over there after the war and helped them. The Time Archon also became known as the Tokoyo Ookami in the mouths of the people of Enkanomiya."
"In the end, Phanes and the four Sustainers of Heavenly Principles used a war of attrition to finally defeat and slay the Dragon Sovereign Nibelung. However, rather than saying they defeated it, it would be more accurate to say they wore it to death."
"And the forbidden knowledge that Nibelung brought back continued to exist even after he himself perished."
"After the war, the Heavenly Principles felt that this power was too evil and overbearing; if left to be used, it would lead to the collapse of the world. However, the Heavenly Principles and the Sustainers exhausted all methods and could not completely eradicate it."
"Therefore, the Heavenly Principles could only have the Space Archon use the clearance of space to transfer this forbidden knowledge to the edges of the shattered world and guard it strictly. If anyone attempted to contact the forbidden knowledge, a Skyfrost Nail would be served directly. Apep was the earliest unlucky dragon to taste the flavor of the Skyfrost Nail."
"This great battle also made Apep, who had witnessed everything firsthand, firmly believe that forbidden knowledge was the only power that could defeat the Heavenly Principles."
"There was no other way, the contrast was simply too stark. During the first war for the world, their side's seven Elemental Sovereigns fought the Heavenly Principles' quintet, only to be beaten to a pulp by the Heavenly Principles. Yet after Nibelung was blessed by forbidden knowledge, he was actually able to fight five opponents alone without falling into a disadvantage."
"If Nibelung hadn't been so reckless back then, and after returning to Teyvat, had first secretly contacted them—the surviving Sovereigns—letting them also gain the blessing of forbidden knowledge, and then fought against the Heavenly Principles together, victory would have been absolute."
"However, Apep was not the only one who realized this; there was also someone who had experienced this battle firsthand: the Death Archon!"