The azure water column—potent enough to grievously wound even a Liyue adeptus—poured forth entirely onto the colossal form of the kitsune before them.
The demon fox's massive body merely tilted slightly backward in midair, unscathed.
"ROOOAAAR!!!"
A cry that echoed across the entire Yunlai Sea.
It whipped up towering waves once more.
Osial, enraged by the fox's defiance in blocking its strike, seethed with fury. It could sense that this sudden interloper was no ordinary beast—her power rivaled that of a god.
"Yae..."
Lin Mo's expression twisted with awkwardness.
Hearing him call her name, the fox slowly turned her enormous head toward him. "Sasa Yuri, we've met again."
"Sasa Yuri... That's the name from back then..."
Ganyu suddenly recalled it all.
Beside her, the weakened Luyun Borrowing Wind True Lord slowly lifted her head.
Her gaze fell on the six pitch-black wings sprouting from Lin Mo's back, and she murmured, "The Shadow Toward Heavenly Dog clan's great general, slain by Orobashi..."
"Luyun, that's called sacrifice," Xiyue Building the Sun True Lord corrected her. "Three Zero Seven."
"Aren't they the same thing?"
Only then did it dawn on everyone: Lin Mo harbored secrets far deeper than they could imagine.
"Yae... from our encounter in the mountains to now... everything I've done, you've..."
Lin Mo trailed off, the words catching in his throat, too afraid to voice them fully.
"I've seen it all. Heard it all."
Yae Miko's response was soft and even. As she spoke, she lowered her head, inviting Lin Mo—who had been hovering in the air—to perch atop her vast form.
Lin Mo fell silent.
He figured a normal girl, upon learning how many lies he'd spun, would despise him by now.
"Though your methods tread a fine line between right and wrong,"
She continued, "but... who could hate the one who lifted me from those frozen stone steps all those years ago?"
"Yae~ You're still the sweetest."
Unable to help himself, Lin Mo leaned forward and buried his face in the plush fur of her head.
Hugging a big fox was worlds more comforting than a little one!
"Daddy, Daddy~!"
Klee bounced excitedly, calling out, "Klee wants to ride on big fox sis too~!"
"Klee, not yet, sweetie."
Lin Mo savored the warm fluff all to himself, murmuring, "What's the situation down there?"
The others, swallowing their flood of questions, turned their eyes back to Osial.
The brief elation from Yae Miko's arrival on the battlefield evaporated in an instant.
Countless thick waterspouts twisted and writhed across the sea's surface.
And Osial's five towering heads, piercing the clouds,
now converged toward a single point.
The cataclysmic hydro energy ball forming from their union hung in the air like a radiant moon amid the swirling storm clouds.
Despair crept into every heart.
They had poured everything into subduing three of its heads and the azure beams they unleashed.
Who could have foreseen this? Now all five heads united.
And from the looks of it, Osial meant to channel the full might of a god's power into a single, devastating blow.
"Yae... can your strikes stop it?" Lin Mo asked, his voice heavy with worry.
"I'm just the little fox you picked up," Yae Miko replied, shaking her head. "Not a full god."
"If I strike with all I've got, I might hold it off for a moment."
"But scattering the attack entirely? That's beyond me."
"Especially now, with Osial corrupted by the Abyss, its core aflame with divine essence. Its power... it's likely doubled from what it once was."
Yae Miko's words weren't just for Lin Mo—they were a stark warning to everyone.
Her strength might brush against godhood, but it fell short of the real thing.
No one should bank on her single-handedly repelling this onslaught.
"What do we do..."
Ganyu's lovely eyes brimmed with uncertainty.
She wasn't alone.
The question echoed in every mind: What now?
Lin Mo sank into thought as well.
Across a hundred lifetimes of reincarnation, his well of knowledge rivaled even Zhongli's.
Yet even he couldn't conjure a solution in this dire moment.
Before raw, overwhelming force,
all schemes and stratagems crumbled to dust.
Sensing their collective helplessness, Yae Miko spoke up. "If no one's got a plan, I can carry you all to safety."
Just then—
"ROOOAAAR~!!"
Osial let out a prolonged bellow.
From its maw erupted a force mighty enough to fell a god, shattering the oppressive blanket of crimson clouds overhead.
"Hm? Wait—there's hope!!" Lin Mo's fist clenched in sudden excitement.
He knew this move all too well.
In the original Genshin tale, Osial unleashed just this assault from the heavens: countless deadly water arrows raining down, shattering the Jade Chamber's array platform.
But as long as it wasn't a single beam fusing the power of all five heads, they could manage.
"Hope? What do you mean?" Keqing hurried to the platform's edge, pressing him.
"Probably wary of Yae blocking a water column with her body,"
Lin Mo explained, "Osial's opting for something less concentrated this time. Not as terrifying as before."
"It'll come as a storm of arrows piercing the clouds."
"Vast in scope, relentless in barrage!"
"The goal? To obliterate the Jade Chamber holding the Exuvia!"
As he spoke, Lin Mo scanned their faces. "But if we weather the arrow rain, we save the Chamber. And I doubt it'll muster anything like this again anytime soon."
"I'll do my best..." Ganyu nodded firmly.
Lin Mo's words reignited the spark of hope in everyone.
"A rain of hydro arrows laced with a god's might, hmm..."
Yae Miko glanced at the array platform.
The Jade Chamber, combined with their foothold, spanned an area rivaling a quarter of the Liyue countryside.
Even her titanic kitsune form could only shield half of it.
"I can block half the arrows for you," she said. "The rest is on you."
But before the words fully left her, the sky ignited in a torrent of azure light.
This wasn't arrow rain!
These were hydro spears, each brimming with divine fury!
"It's here!"
Lin Mo's hand flew to the hilt of his Windblume.
With a flash—
Clang!!
The sword sang out.
It summoned a vortex of terrifying Anemo, birthing a massive wind's eye high above the Jade Chamber.
The descending arrows caught in the gale's fury.
A third of the barrage veered off course, drawn into the swirling maelstrom.
"It's working!"
Lin Mo's grip tightened, a grim smile forming.
But then Klee's panicked shout cut through: "Daddy! The bad guy's attacking again!"
What!?
Lin Mo whipped around in alarm.
One of Osial's heads was rapidly condensing another azure water column.
It hurtled straight toward the Jade Chamber's right flank.
"An ancient sea beast like Osial must've anticipated we'd counter the arrows,"
Yae Miko sighed, as if she'd seen it coming. "Sasa Yuri, I fear I can't shield you from the rain anymore."
Even as she spoke, her colossal frame surged forward on crackling thunder, toward the Chamber's right side.
In the next breath, lightning erupted.
The Jade Chamber bathed in violet fury from the arcs coiling in the kitsune's jaws.
BOOM!! Thunder cracked the air.
A bolt of apocalyptic lightning lanced from Yae Miko's maw, slamming into the oncoming azure beam.
Where thunder met water, the clash was cataclysmic—two titans locked in deadlock.
"Trouble..."
Lin Mo stared at the sky.
Even with his wind's eye diverting a chunk of the arrows,
two-thirds of the spear-like deluge still plummeted unchecked toward them.
Hundreds, thousands of them!
How could they possibly hold?
But in that instant,
a swarm of fire moths enveloped the entire Jade Chamber.
The blinding, vivid cluster turned the thunder-scorched palace from purple haze to an eerie crimson glow.
"What the—? Hu Tao! Did you summon these!?" Lin Mo demanded, urgency sharpening his voice.
"This one's the Fire Butterfly!"
"Those flying up there? Clearly fire moths!" Hu Tao shot back.
Her quip jogged Lin Mo's memory.
He spun toward the direction of the incoming swarm.
There, a more resplendent fire moth streaked across Liyue Harbor's skies, arrowing toward the Jade Chamber.
Lin Mo recognized her at a glance.
What fire moth? This was the Flame-Witch Rosalyn—the scourge that had plunged all of Mondstadt into terror five centuries past.
--------
T/N:
You'll also get 5 extra chapters just for being a free member!
Access 40 chapters in advance on my Patreon : [email protected]/furinaimpact