Ryen's protective nature was an established, absolute law.
If given the choice, he would have gladly tucked Ganyu and his partners into the palm of his hand, shielding them from the harshness of the world day and night.
He lived in constant dread of them suffering even the slightest injury. A paper cut on their fingers was enough to leave his heart aching for half the afternoon.
During an earlier outing on the plains, Klee had tripped and scraped her knee.
The moment Ryen received the news, he boarded a redstone bomber without a word and carpet-bombed the surrounding terrain into flat oblivion, ordering the engineers to pave over the craters with immaculate grass blocks.
Such extremes illustrated perfectly the depths of his devotion to his daughter and his companions.
Ei commanded terrifying martial strength, standing undisputed as the most lethal warrior among all his partners.
Yet in Ryen's eyes, all her grand sovereign titles fell secondary to her primary identity: she was a woman he was sworn to protect.
Had the interior of the fortress not genuinely required a supreme warden, and had the other commanders not been bound by strict tactical duties, Ryen would have forcefully evacuated Ei across the portal alongside the others.
Ei clearly sensed the deep, lingering anxiety weighing on his thoughts.
Pressing her lips together, she did something unprecedented. Under the watchful eyes of Makoto and the assembly, she reached out and gently laced her fingers through his, offering a soft, deeply tender smile.
"Rest easy. I will not fall. Our lives together have only just begun, and we have yet to truly share our days..."
"Place your faith in me."
Ryen smiled warmly, offering no further debate.
Instead, he silently retrieved his Master Staff from his inventory.
"You understand the mechanics of the Time Stoppage spell, correct? If the perimeter collapses around you, trigger the cast immediately and secure a safe retreat."
Ei's violet eyes softened with profound affection as she gave a small nod, accepting the carved wood.
While the engineering corps frantically locked down the final defensive grids across Redstone Tech City, the sun began its slow, inevitable descent toward the western horizon.
Ryen stood upon the battlements, his left hand holding Guizhong's and his right gripping Ei's. After a long silence, he turned his gaze toward Zhongli.
"In your estimation, what will the casualty count look like this time?"
The question snuffed out the remaining conversation on the wall. A heavy, suffocating silence gripped the commanders.
It was the grim, agonizing reality they had all been actively avoiding, yet fundamentally could not ignore.
The leaders quieted their breathing, hanging on Zhongli's every word.
In a theater of war of this magnitude, Zhongli's tactical assessment offered the most grounded, objective projection available.
After all, he had weathered more bloodshed and commanded more campaigns than anyone else alive.
"Speaking plainly..."
Zhongli let out a slow, heavy sigh, a shadow of ancient sorrow darkening his amber eyes.
"I can only project that keeping the fatalities below one thousand is our absolute best-case scenario. If the outer perimeter buckles and the city defenses fail..."
"The losses will climb near ten thousand."
Venti parted his lips to speak, but before the question could form, Zhongli nodded in preemptive understanding.
"I grasp your concern."
"That figure represents absolute, permanent losses."
"It factors in the complete exhaustion of our Totem of Undying stockpiles, our reserves of Totems of Rebirth, and the mass-resurrection utility of my Master Healing Staff."
"After all safety nets have been burned, we will still lose that many souls."
"Those are the men who will permanently cease to exist..."
The commanders averted their eyes, entirely at a loss for words.
From the very first day they stepped into the block world to chart its frontiers...
Whether surviving the lethal heat of the Nether, hunting the Wither Storm, slaying the Ender Dragon, or clearing the Twilight Forest...
They had never suffered a single permanent casualty.
If a soldier fell, a Totem of Undying instantly breathed life back into his lungs. If the totem failed, a Totem of Rebirth dragged his soul back from the void.
Strictly speaking, their casualty rate sat at absolute zero.
Yet now, after more than half a year of unbroken triumph, true death had finally arrived at their gates.
And it threatened to claim nearly a thousand lives in a single stroke, under the most optimistic projections.
Diluc briefly considered whether the Lord of Geo was exaggerating the threat to maintain vigilance.
Yet reviewing the terrifying evolutionary leaps the zombies had achieved by the seventh Blood Moon, and factoring in the sheer density of the horde...
Zhongli's projection was terrifyingly sound.
A defending garrison of roughly a hundred thousand men standing against an ocean of over a million mutated corpses.
To expect zero fatalities was a profound insult to the lethal reality of the block world.
Yet the sheer scale of the bloodletting...
Setting aside the localized skirmishes of the Fatui and the civil strife in Inazuma, the continent of Teyvat had not witnessed casualties of this magnitude in decades.
And this localized slaughter was contained entirely within Redstone Tech City.
When the foreign courts eventually completed their own sovereign server cities, they would inevitably face their own apocalyptic trials to secure administrator privileges. The sieges would be no less brutal.
A city required immense civilization points to qualify, and achieving that milestone guaranteed a cataclysmic retaliation from the world engine.
It was a flawless, inescapable loop of violence.
Realizing this, the Tsaritsa and the foreign leaders silently resolved to freeze all their domestic municipal construction projects until further notice.
Enduring one apocalypse was enough; surviving consecutive sieges would completely shatter their nations.
After a long, heavy silence, Ryen sighed softly.
"Fight to survive. We have clawed our way too far to simply fold now."
"If the worst comes to pass, once the cataclysm breaks, we will mobilize massive expeditions into the Nether to harvest Wither Skeleton Skulls and systematically resurrect every fallen soldier."
"These men are the seasoned veterans of this universe. They are the foundational bedrock of your sovereign courts."
"We led them across the threshold into this realm, meaning we bear the absolute obligation to safeguard their lives."
"Sacrifice is an inevitable reality of war, but we are not bound by rigid mortal limits."
"Every soul that crosses the portal is permanently registered within the system logs. They can all be restored."
Hearing his vow, the suffocating tension gripping the commanders finally eased a fraction.
Zhongli let out a long breath, a wry smile touching his lips.
"That stands as the sole beacon of hope in this darkness..."
"However, Wither Skeleton Skulls are notoriously scarce. We must do everything in our power to minimize the slaughter."
"If we genuinely lose a thousand men, gathering sufficient resurrection points will consume at least half a year of dedicated farming."
"And that assumes we face zero new crises during that window."
The commanders nodded in solemn agreement.
The Totem of Rebirth module served as the ultimate safety net, offering a psychological baseline of comfort when facing impossible odds.
Yet relying upon it as a primary strategy was foolish; keeping the men alive in the first place remained the absolute priority.
The horizon bled into vibrant, bruised shades of twilight. Below them, Redstone Tech City was practically vibrating with nervous, kinetic energy.
The regiments were visibly restless, the suffocating pressure of the impending night bleeding through their discipline.
General Gorou exchanged a brief nod with the commanders, asking Buer to cast a subtle illusion to mask his movements before he descended the stairs to walk among the ranks.
Calming the hearts of soldiers was an art he had mastered across countless battlefields. It was the most vital contribution he could offer during this trial.
He was a brilliant battlefield tactician and a capable warrior in his own right.
Yet within the absolute, rigid physics of the block world, and facing a horde of a million mutants, standard infantry tactics were meaningless.
They could only hold the walls and pray.
Zhongli excelled at stationary fortress defense far more than Gorou ever could.
Gorou's true genius lay in preserving the fragile morale of his men.
Judging by the steadying lines below, his presence was working miracles.
Atop the wall, the tension among the leaders began to spike.
Zhongli considered the tactical board, looking toward Ryen to break the stifling silence.
"Are you truly resolved to seal the dimensional portal for seven full days?"
Ryen offered a dry, helpless laugh.
"What alternative do I possess?"
"The moment the siege begins, we will barely have the bandwidth to defend ourselves. These mutants have mastered breaking blocks."
"Setting aside whether the outer walls hold, I cannot guarantee that a subterranean breach won't slip past our molten grid."
"We possess the arsenal to combat them here, but if even a fraction of this horde spills through the gateway into Teyvat..."
"It would not require an army. A mere thousand mutants crossing the threshold would trigger an apocalyptic extinction event across your homeland."
"The raw parameters of these Blood Moon mutants vastly eclipse anything the native forces of Teyvat can handle."
"Even a baseline, unmutated zombie dropped into Teyvat sheds its voxel restraints, unleashing horrific, uncontainable devastation."
"Alhaitham and the Sumeru delegation can attest to that reality, can they not?"
Alhaitham nodded sharply, his expression hardening.
"When Ryen infected Grand Sage Azar with the zombie virus months ago, the affliction proved entirely incurable by our native arts. Azar remains a mindless, flesh-eating horror to this day..."
"The true terror of these undead lies not merely in their physical strength, but in the absolute, terminal nature of the pathogen they carry."
"If a mutant horde breaches the gateway, halting the infection would require oceans of milk and mountains of Golden Apples."
"From a strategic standpoint, Ryen's decision to seal the portal is flawlessly correct."
Ryen nodded slowly.
"Alhaitham speaks the truth. I harbor no desire to sever our supply lines, but I have no choice."
"Once the fighting starts, we cannot afford to split our attention. The war here demands absolute focus."
"The most prudent measure is guaranteeing that not a single spark of chaos reaches Teyvat in the first place."
"Our concentration must remain absolute."
Watching Ryen's calm, pragmatic profile, Guizhong blinked softly.
"Can your heart genuinely bear being separated from Ganyu and Klee for seven whole days?"
A bitter, longing smile touched Ryen's lips as he shook his head.
"Bear it? Being away from them for a single afternoon leaves me hollow... but what other path is there?"
"Compared to the selfish desire to keep them close, I prioritize their absolute safety."
"I will barely be able to keep myself alive once the horde hits. Keeping Klee here would shatter my focus completely."
"If my attention fractures, the perimeter falls, and I cannot even guarantee I could protect her in the chaos."
"No matter how deeply it aches, locking them out is the only way."
Hearing his confession, Guizhong blinked rapidly, adopting a mask of exaggerated, playful indignation.
"Does that mean you care nothing for the safety of Ei and myself?!"
Ryen paused, offering an amused chuckle as he lightly tapped her forehead.
"Do not twist my logic. You were the one who stubbornly demanded to stay on the wall. If you wish to leave, I can toss you through the portal right now."
Guizhong stuck her tongue out, her face a picture of adorable rebellion.
"Forget it! I was only teasing! I refuse to leave. I intend to face life and death by your side!"
"We will have no talk of death today."
Ryen rolled his eyes, his tone softening into a warm, gentle cadence.
"Ganyu and Klee require different considerations. You and Ei possess terrifying martial supremacy. Even against a swarming horde, you hold the strength to carve out a secure perimeter."
"Furthermore, managing only the two of you falls well within my operational capacity. If a crisis erupts, I can intervene immediately."
"Does that logic satisfy you?"
Ryen gently squeezed Guizhong's hand, his thumb tracing her knuckles.
"In my heart, you are all equally irreplaceable. I will only consider tactical maneuvers when I am absolutely certain of your physical safety."
"If I harbored a shred of doubt regarding my ability to protect you tonight, I would have physically thrown you through that gate hours ago."
Guizhong's heart melted completely. She leaned her weight against his shoulder, nuzzling into his coat.
"Lumine was entirely correct. You really do act like an overprotective father sometimes..."
"But... I adore it!"
Ryen smiled, letting the quiet moment linger without further comment.
Down in the city square, the towering dimensional portal flared with sudden, blinding brilliance.
The rhythmic, thunderous march of heavy boots echoed from the shimmering gateway.
Dashi and Fengyan, leading twenty-two thousand fully armored Millelith guardsmen, had finally crossed the threshold into the block world.
The sudden influx sent a ripple of organized chaos through the city streets.
It was a testament to the supreme, ironclad discipline of the Millelith; had an ordinary mortal army experienced the sudden, mind-shattering surge of block-world physics and enhanced vitality, they would have been paralyzed by shock for an entire day.
"The final reinforcements have arrived..."
Ryen murmured softly. His gaze drifted past the marching columns, locking onto the shimmering surface of the portal. Through the watery light, he could faintly make out the silhouettes of Ganyu, Lumine, and Klee watching him from the other side.
After a long, suffocating silence, Ryen hardened his heart.
"Close the portal!"
~~----------------------
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