Chapter 108.
Judgment.
As Matra, it was a right that belonged to Cyno, the General Mahamatra, alone, and one he did not wield lightly.
Long ago, the ancient Sages had established the six Root Sins — laws meant to preserve reverence for wisdom and knowledge, standing beyond the reach of ambition or Time. But as the centuries passed, those sins had faded from memory, and into that forgetting, ambitious men had extended their grasping claws.
For Cyno, though, the duty of the Matra had never changed. He judged every transgressor by the oldest laws, the original Six Root Sins, and no rank placed anyone beyond that judgment — not even a Sage.
And so Cyno turned his judgment upon Azar.
As Great Sage, he should have guided Sumeru toward a better future. Instead, he had chosen selfishness. He had imprisoned a deity, disrespected her, sought to create a new Archon in her place, colluded with the Fatui to see that ambition realized, and sacrificed the lives of others in the name of experimentation.
Whatever justification he might offer,sin remained sin — blasphemy against a deity, blasphemy against life itself, the abuse of power entrusted to him.
In the name of Maha Rukkhadevata, and in the name of Lesser Lord Kusanali, Cyno began to carry out that judgment.
The Matra moved swiftly to restore order, and several of the Sages and Scholars who had stood loyal to Azar found themselves subdued by the very Eremites who had, moments before, been prepared to follow his command.
The thirty mercenaries, now fully aware of how the tide had turned, made their choice without hesitation and abandoned Azar's side entirely.
It was not truly defection — not in the way the word usually implied. It was, more fittingly, the act of turning away from darkness and stepping into the light. Together, the Matra and the Eremites worked in concert with Cyno, methodically bringing down Azar and the Sages and Scholars who had stood beside him.
No one dared intervene.
A few Scholars considered resistance, if only for a moment, but the sight of the Matra's discipline and the Eremites' raw strength was enough to convince them otherwise, and one by one they chose silence over defiance.
To resist now would only worsen their standing — better, surely, to submit quietly and let the true reckoning fall upon Azar and his inner circle, along with those who had followed him most closely.
What did any of this truly have to do with the ordinary Scholars gathered here?
At most, they had followed orders they dared not refuse, swept into the God Creation Project not out of conviction but out of helplessness, powerless to stand against a Great Sage's will.
The remaining hundred or so Scholars who witnessed this unfold felt something far more complicated than simple emotion churning within them.
Because in truth, Azar had not been seized solely for his role in the God Creation Project. He was being seized because the sins the Akademiya had accumulated across five hundred years were, at last, coming due — and someone had to answer for them.
When the sky falls, it is the tallest among them who must bear its weight, and on this day, that weight had settled upon Azar. Even without the God Creation Project, even without his dealings with the Fatui, his arrest would likely have come regardless — the debt had simply grown too large to ignore any longer.
Meanwhile, within the group live stream, the conversation carried on with growing animation.
Guizhong: "I never imagined this Great Sage would actually end up arrested. What of the Fatui? Won't they step in to stop this?"
Azhdaha: "Given the circumstances, why would they bother? Though I'll admit, there's something about this that genuinely moves me. Watching through the group stream, I can sense that the Sages and Scholars of the Akademiya don't seem particularly opposed to the God Creation Project at all."
Keqing: "You're right, there's no real resistance from them. If anything... it seems most of the Scholars have quietly accepted the project all along. That's what I find hard to understand. They already have an Archon. Why go through with something like this in the first place?"
Kamisato Ayaka: "I don't understand it either."
Eula: "Even as a descendant of a sinner, my faith in the Anemo Archon, Barbatos, has never wavered."
Venti: "Ehehe, forget it!"
Klee: "Klee still doesn't get it. Nahida's wonderful — so why won't they accept her?"
Albedo: "I have a theory on that, actually."
Kuki Shinobu: "Let's hear it. I have one of my own, but yours first."
Yae Miko: "Oh my~ Is it really so strange? Once you've known a superior Archon, settling for a lesser one feels like a step backward, doesn't it?"
Yae Miko: "Think of it from the Scholars' side. Maha Rukkhadevata gave them everything — wisdom, chief among it. Lesser Lord Kusanali arrived knowing nothing at all. Weak, untested. Set loose without guidance, who knows what chaos she might have unleashed? Yes, she'd grow — eventually. But 'eventually' is a long word when you're speaking of an Archon's maturation. I don't fault the Sages for locking her away."
Albedo: "Exactly my point. And there's more to it than that — the shadow Maha Rukkhadevata cast was enormous. A flawless Archon vanishes overnight, her heir too young to carry that weight. Of course, people would start hunting for a different answer."
Albedo: "If I'm honest, had Futsu Mitama and Nahida not stepped in when they did — with Faruzan and Tighnari rallying the Scholars the way they have — the God Creation Project might well have gone off without a hitch."
Maha Rukkhadevata: "That failing would have been mine, then. I moved too quickly back then, without pausing to think it through properly. I never imagined I'd be leaving a threat like that behind me."
Cyno: "No — don't take that on yourself, Greater Lord Rukkhadevata. The fault lies with the Sages, who reasoned themselves straight into the wrong answer."
Sangonomiya Kokomi: "Even the wisest minds can be blinded by their own confidence. They were so certain of their righteousness that they never noticed how far they'd drifted from it. Perhaps that's the cruelest trick wisdom plays — undoing the very people who possess the most of it."
Raiden Ei: "Yae Miko left my name out of that, but I won't pretend I'm innocent of it either. Every time some crisis in Inazuma proved too much for force alone to solve, my thoughts drifted to Raiden Makoto. How much simpler things would be, if she were still at my side."
Raiden Makoto: "Is that the excuse, then? For handing everything to me and Yae Miko, passing your title off to Futsu Mitama, and settling into a life of leisure in Tenshukaku instead of remaining Electro Archon?"
Raiden Ei: "Hmm... no, that's not it."
Raiden Makoto: "Oh? Then what is?"
Yae Miko: "Do tell."
Futsu Mitama: "Wait — it's not?!"
Raiden Ei: "Once I've stepped down as Shogun, idleness isn't the plan at all. I intend to take the resurrected Raiden Makoto and see every corner of Teyvat with her. Freed from the burdens of an Archon, I'll finally have the chance to savor good food properly, and to look upon views I haven't seen in far too long."
Zhongli: "That's good. Approve."
Venti: "Now that's a plan worth backing! Approve!"
Maha Rukkhadevata: "Should Sumeru's troubles find resolution, I'd like to travel as well — assuming I'm still around to do it."
Aila: "My Young Master shares that thought exactly."
Futsu Mitama: "Truthfully, I've never had the chance to see Teyvat properly myself either. I'd like nothing more. But that's a matter for later — let's settle what's in front of us first."
Futsu Mitama: "Nahida — how does it look from where you are? Is Alhaitham holding up?"
Nahida: "Not especially well. La Signora, Scaramouche, and Dottore have all converged here. Alhaitham should manage fine for now, though. If you want them spread thin, you'll need to stir up something loud."
Aila: "La Signora hasn't run for it?"
Kuki Shinobu: "That is surprising."
Shenhe: "Maybe running was never her plan. Maybe she means to stand her ground and meet us head-on."
Futsu Mitama: "As for stirring things up — we could simply break in directly. Alhaitham's intelligence already gave us the location of the experimental site. I'd genuinely like to see which of the Fatui thinks they can stand in my way."
Albedo: "Nahida — we're prepared to create a disturbance from here. How much noise do you actually need?"
Klee: "Klee's ready to help!!! Klee's brought so, so many Jumpy Dumpties along!"
Albedo: "Enough force, roughly speaking, to level a few mountains. I'd like to cautiously offer Klee's services for this."
Nahida: "Hmm~~ Klee won't be necessary this time. Leave this part to Futsu Mitama and the others — they can move freely. Just make sure it's loud enough. I'm hoping to catch Dottore and Scaramouche off guard while they're distracted."
Futsu Mitama: "Understood. I'd wager some of the Fatui are already rushing to warn Dottore as we speak."
Maha Rukkhadevata: "Sumeru's fate rests in your hands now."
Azhdaha: "So it's finally begun? I can hardly wait to see how this battle plays out."
Raiden Makoto: "I'm curious myself — just how strong has Futsu Mitama grown by now?"
Venti: "Stronger than me, at the very least."
Guizhong: "Stronger than me too, at the very least."
Zhongli: "..."
—
Standing beore the Akademiya's entrance, Futsu Mitama read through Nahida's words and let a faint smile cross his face. At last — the moment for a direct strike had come.
Everything had grown remarkably smoother since Nahida's release, exactly as he'd anticipated. What remained now was simpler still: settling accounts with a few familiar faces.
He hoped, above all, that La Signora wouldn't slip away from him this time. She'd caused him more grief than he cared to tally, and if the chance presented itself, he meant to end her without hesitation — no mercy, no second thoughts.
Scaramouche occupied a different category entirely in his mind.
Should the boy somehow claw his way through Futsu Mitama's attack alive, the plan was to bring him back to Inazuma in chains and let Raiden Ei render judgment herself.
Whatever his crimes, it had been Raiden Ei who created him, and it was her failure to act, all those years ago, that set him on the path to becoming who he now was. Reasoned from every angle, the responsibility for his fate belonged to her, not to Futsu Mitama. Naturally, should Scaramouche fall in the coming battle instead, the question of bringing him home would resolve itself.
Dottore presented a similar calculus, though killing this particular segment wouldn't accomplish much in the broader sense — his true body remained beyond death's reach, endlessly capable of spawning replacements.
Still, a Demon God-caliber segment was no simple thing to lose. Such constructs took considerable effort to forge, and its destruction would sting him, genuinely, for a very long time to come.
With those thoughts settled in his mind, Futsu Mitama started forward into the Akademiya's depths. The Matra and the Eremites traded uneasy glances, words clearly forming on their tongues that none of them found the courage to speak aloud.
"Let him pass," Cyno finally said, his voice firm and final. "Whatever business Futsu Mitama and his companions have with the Fatui, it doesn't concern our Akademiya."
Relief washed visibly over the Matra and Eremites at his words — none of them had wanted the burden of stopping Futsu Mitama to begin with.
Even so, standing by idly didn't sit entirely right either; Futsu Mitama held no standing as an Akademiya Scholar, and his unchecked passage plainly broke their rules. But Cyno had spoken, and in speaking, had effectively taken on the role of Futsu Mitama's guarantor.
Whatever unfolded in Sumeru from here forward, the weight of it would land on Cyno's shoulders alone. Not that anyone present intended to make an issue of it — everyone knew precisely who Futsu Mitama was.
Who among them stood any real chance of stopping him regardless?
With that settled, Futsu Mitama's group pressed onward, moving swiftly toward the heart of the Akademiya's grounds.
—
Elsewhere, deep within the God Creation Project's experimental site, a Fatui soldier burst through the entrance and snapped a hurried salute before the three Harbingers gathered there.
"Such urgency — what is it?"
La Signora asked, her brow creasing slightly as she took in the woman's agitation, clearly puzzled by the haste.
"Something's shifted upstairs,"
Dottore said before the soldier could speak, a thin smile already tugging at his lips. To him, Sumeru had long resembled water gone still — utterly stagnant, entirely bent to his will — and the sudden emergence of a variable delighted him more than he let show.
For all his obsession with keeping every thread firmly in hand, Dottore had always harbored a quiet weakness for the unpredictable. A life too smooth bored him thoroughly; in his view, existence was meant to be riddled with surprises and sudden turns.
Scaramouche wore a matching look of interest, equally curious about whatever had stirred the surface above them.
"My Lords." Steadied now by their presence, the Fatui soldier delivered her report without further delay. "Futsu Mitama has arrived. Azar has been taken."
"What?! The nerve of him!"
Firnas's eyes flew wide, utterly blindsided by the news. He didn't want to believe it — yet the Fatui had no reason to lie, and the truth would surface with the barest investigation. But there was no logic to any of this!
What could Futsu Mitama possibly stand to gain by seizing Azar? Nothing but the outright fury of every Scholar in Sumeru! Even as the future Electro Archon, he had no business interfering in another nation's internal affairs! And Azar — Azar was the single most venerated figure in all of Sumeru, the Great Sage of the Akademiya himself. That title carried weight not easily dismissed.
Alhaitham, hearing the report, kept his features composed on the surface. Beneath it, though, certainty settled into place — the plan had begun in earnest. His thoughts turned at once toward extraction; the battle now closing in was not one he could afford to be caught within.
"They're moving toward us now, my Lords. Your orders?"
The Fatui soldier addressed the three Harbingers directly, brushing past Firnas entirely as though he weren't there.
What should they do?
This was Futsu Mitama, after all — the future Electro Archon, a name whose weight needed no explanation among the Fatui. Had the three Harbingers not been standing right there before her, she might well have proposed falling back. This wasn't Snezhnaya, after all. Retreat now, and let the situation dictate whatever came next.