His consciousness followed the connection back to his original body, and Flynn slowly opened his eyes.
"You're all right, aren't you? Um... are you done talking?"
As soon as he woke, Escoffier was once again the first to speak to him. This time, though, there was a trace of urgency in her voice.
There had been a few twists and turns, but communicating with a macro-level will did not actually take long. For one thing, exchanges of consciousness were efficient by nature. For another, that sort of thing did not talk in circles. The situation on deck had not changed much from before, so while guarding Flynn's side, she had mostly just been watching the spectacle unfold.
Still, because of what he had told her earlier, she had been paying close attention to the state of the ship beneath their feet, and she really had noticed that something was wrong.
Even if Flynn had already resolved the problem of his bad luck, the ship itself had been beyond saving long before that.
The malice that had driven the sea beast under the universe's instinctive rejection had faded, but the wounds left on it by the ballistae and other weapons had not. It was still attacking the ship without pause, which only sped up the vessel's deterioration.
Flynn understood what she meant.
"Don't worry. Everything's settled."
Escoffier let out a breath of relief.
"Then... should we just slip away from the back?"
"I checked just now. We're still pretty far from Fontaine, but we're much closer to Port Ormos in Sumeru. I can use Cryo to freeze a path over the sea. I should be able to keep it up long enough to get us there."
She offered the suggestion.
From a normal perspective, it was the best plan. Let this doomed ship and the people on it hold the sea beast in place while the two of them quietly escaped over the water on a road of ice, no swimming required.
But Flynn had a better option now.
So he gently pressed a hand to Escoffier, stopping her, and refused in a calm voice.
"No need. Watch this."
Escoffier blinked. For a moment, she thought she was seeing things. From the side, she could have sworn she saw a flame-like glow flash at the corner of Flynn's eye, carrying a searing heat that felt strangely familiar, like the sacred flame of Natlan.
Hm?
Where had that fire come from?
Still half convinced it was a trick of the eye, she blinked again, only to see flames surge up around Flynn in a blazing wave. Scorching heat spread outward, warping the air and setting nearby flammable objects alight, including part of the deck beneath them.
Escoffier instinctively summoned Cryo to shield herself from the heat, but then she realized that the heat, the flames, and even the burning debris all seemed to consciously avoid the small patch of space where she stood.
Her eyes widened.
She looked at Flynn carefully, only to see him already gathering and compressing the flames around him, condensing them into more than a dozen pale fireballs, each no larger than a baby's fist.
They floated quietly above his hand, yet even so, her instincts were already screaming a warning.
Highly dangerous.
But Flynn still was not satisfied.
The fireballs continued to condense, and their color continued to change.
Most importantly, the flames were not being forced inward by some external pressure. It was more like loyal subjects obeying a command from their sovereign, gathering inward of their own accord.
At last, the fireballs seemed to change in nature altogether, shrinking into tiny translucent "gems" no larger than grains of rice.
Solid phlogiston?
No... a little different, maybe. Forget it. I can study it later.
Flynn raised his eyes and looked toward the battle with the sea beast. Then he lifted a finger lightly.
The dozen tiny "gems" launched at once, cutting across the night sky without making the slightest sound. In an instant, they reached their target.
Then they exploded.
In that moment, both the enormous sea beast and the humans operating the weapons against it were swallowed by the surging fire. Not that they were reduced to ash on the spot, but without exception, every one of them had their life severed in an instant.
"Not bad."
Flynn nodded, satisfied.
He did not consider himself some champion of justice, but for people involved in Sinthe trafficking, dying without understanding how, with only ruined remains left to sink into the bellies of fish, was one of the most satisfying endings he could imagine.
What else was he supposed to do, let them ramble on with a few last words before they died?
Or graciously grant them some glorious, clear, heroic final moment?
Ridiculous.
The same went for Vacher. The only reason Flynn had not reported him or dealt with him earlier was because he had been worried that trying anything while burdened with his bad-luck constitution would cause trouble.
Leaving evil unfinished meant endless consequences, and if the universe's instinctive operation took the chance to stir things up and somehow strengthened the man in the process, that would have been a complete disaster.
But now things were different.
Flynn could say with confidence that he had just arranged for Vacher an ending more or less like the one in the original story, only much simpler and much earlier.
Hopefully he would enjoy it.
"Did you get a Vision?"
Once Flynn was done and the flames had faded, Escoffier hurried over, her eyes shining as she asked in delight.
It was no wonder she thought that. Based on her own experience and the common assumptions of people in Teyvat, what else could Flynn's display just now mean but the awakening of a Vision?
Flynn smiled.
"Not a Vision... though I suppose it does have some connection to that. The burden is just a bit heavy."
As he spoke, he quietly withdrew the flames and sent back, through their connection, the thing he had just used to command them, returning it to his world-incarnation to bear instead.
But burden...
Feeling the state of his body, Flynn decided that burden was not quite the right word.
Maybe pressure would be more accurate.
This ability was an unexpected gain that had come from the understanding he had reached with Teyvat.
Thinking back on how he had obtained it, Flynn clicked his tongue inwardly.
Teyvat, my friend, you're generous.
Once I've grown strong enough, I'll definitely help you beat Phanes down. As for how exactly I'll beat them... that can wait until I see what their model looks like.