"Burn it all... Turn this city to ashes, and no one will know our sins..."
The Doctor wore a crazed expression.
He looked at the blazing fire and smiled brightly.
Then he sprinted toward the upper level.
But when he reached the top, the excited expression on his face froze completely.
The Fatui soldiers had already been killed to near extinction.
Only a few of the Harbingers remained, along with some high-level fighters locked in a standoff.
"Hey... Sandrone, what's going on?"
"Idiot, can't you tell this is a trap? My creations are all dead..."
Even Sandrone, who usually had a fairly good temper, could not help swearing.
This battle was basically sending them to their deaths.
Their intelligence had been very clear when the enemy arrived.
The leader was Ningguang.
Her protectors were Keqing and Beidou.
The others were just soldiers, and all of those soldiers were already listed in the Fatui roster.
They were the troops stationed in the Chasm.
The earlier attack had also been to confirm this intelligence.
Otherwise, they would not have dared to launch such a large-scale assault.
But aside from Keqing and Beidou, where had all the other fighting power come from?
The Doctor looked across the battlefield.
In the distance, Beidou was fighting the Captain.
The Captain had been forced to use a Delusion.
On the other side, Keqing was cooperating with Inuyasha and the others to hunt down Fatui elite troops.
The situation was not looking good.
And they still had not seen Ningguang, their target.
"All right... Retreat. This performance is over..."
Feathers of pure white filled the air, blocking everyone's view.
A cool voice carried an unquestionable command.
Sandrone and the Doctor both turned toward the distance.
There, a girl was watching the battle.
She had black hair with dark crimson highlights.
A mesh veil covered her face.
A six-winged feather ornament rested at the back of her head.
Though her frame was slight, her presence was terrifying.
She had not used any support at all, yet she was floating in the air.
Her eyes were closed, but she seemed to see everything.
This battle could not continue.
In that case, it was better to end it now.
Katakuri looked at her with a grave expression.
His Observation Haki had not even detected how this person appeared.
There really were too many strong people in this world.
When Inuyasha saw the girl appear, he did not care about anything else anymore. He raised Tessaiga and charged at once.
"Stop right there, you bastard... You're an enemy too, right? Wind Scar!"
A storm of blade-like wind slashed forward.
But Inuyasha's attack did not harm the girl at all.
Instead, several gashes appeared across his own body.
For some reason, the massive sword energy had been turned against him.
"Cough... What's going on..."
Inuyasha was sent flying by Wind Scar into a tree trunk.
With a boom, he started coughing up blood nonstop.
Yet the girl in the distance had not done anything at all.
In an instant, the battlefield fell silent.
Columbina did not attack. She simply repeated herself.
"Retreat..."
The surviving Fatui heard the order and began to withdraw slowly.
Katakuri did not act rashly either.
The enemy's strength was unclear.
If he moved carelessly, he might end up in the same state as Inuyasha.
Not long after, the Fatui completely withdrew.
Ganyu looked at the fire below the mountain and tried to cover it with ice, but something strange happened.
The flames could not be extinguished by the ice.
"This... what's going on? Why can't the fire be put out...?"
She was suddenly a little panicked.
If this fire could not be extinguished,
Bubu Pharmacy would be completely destroyed.
Keqing observed for a moment and frowned. "This should be the work of that Doctor just now. He was studying the power of the remnants of a god, so this might be the flames of some god."
Every god had their own power.
For example, the God of Salt, Havria, could turn rock into salt.
And Zhongli represented the sealing force that suppressed everything.
Raiden Ei controlled lightning.
So naturally, divine power was not something that could be extinguished so easily.
At that moment, a fresh green wind blew over.
"Let me get rid of these guys. This little bit of fire won't be enough to stop me..."
Venti finally appeared.
A strong gust of wind compressed the flames.
They shrank into a single sphere, which Venti then collected.
Ganyu looked at the fire and asked, "Is this the power of a god?"
"Mm... It's from Natlan. To be precise, it's from a god who died a long time ago. It's quite troublesome... Looks like that Doctor's research is pretty frightening."
Even Venti was startled by those methods.
Casually tampering with divine power would only bring trouble sooner or later.
At that moment, Katakuri asked, "My lord, what exactly was that girl just now? I watched Inuyasha attack, but he was the one who got injured..."
"That? I can't say I understand it completely either. Just be careful. What your eyes see isn't necessarily the truth... The top three of the Fatui Harbingers are all complicated people."
Venti gave a brief answer, then disappeared.
He wanted to confirm the concentration of this divine power.
If the Fatui really were desecrating a large number of gods,
then he felt he would need to talk to Zhongli.
This world had once had many gods. If Doctor were allowed to keep defiling and tampering with them recklessly,
it would lead to huge trouble.
And tonight, many of the Fatui's subordinates had also shown strange powers.
Although they were similar to divine power,
they were not as complete as Klee's.
They were all experimental bodies full of flaws.
But that did not mean nothing would happen.
If a hundred people were injected with fragments of a god,
then there would be a hundred beings with divine power.
...
On the other side, Columbina led the main force in retreat.
Partway through,
the Captain ran over with injuries.
"Why are we retreating?"
"Because Ningguang is not here!"
"What did you say? She was here during the day... Did she hide somewhere?"
"No. I've already confirmed it. She isn't here. She went somewhere else... I don't know where, but she definitely isn't in Bubu Pharmacy anymore.
We managed to gather quite a bit of intelligence this time.
That's not bad, I suppose..."
"But..."
"You want to say the losses were huge? At the very least, it proved that Arlecchino hasn't betrayed us. More importantly, we've mostly figured out the enemy's strength, haven't we? Tartaglia..."
"Heh... Yeah. The power to see the future. What a terrifying guy... But after this battle, I need to recover from my injuries too. I'm really sorry..."
Everyone had seen how bravely he had fought.
No one dared blame him now.
After all, Tartaglia had fought while injured.
Who would dare say anything?
The Doctor looked at the extinguished flames and frowned. "Looks like those guys have some real ability. Even flames like that got put out... Seems I'll have to keep studying how to deal with them."
"Hmph... You make it sound easy, but my servants died by the dozens. Do you even know how much all those machines cost?"
"What's there to worry about? Just have Mr. Rich provide the funds."
"Hmph... That shady face? I don't want to deal with him."
Sandrone's tone was unpleasant.
Among the Fatui, there were two people she hated very much.
One was Pantalone.
The other was Pulcinella.
Both of them were disgusting to her.
Ahead, the Captain and the girl ignored their argument and continued discussing today's events.
"Do you think today's event was really that simple? If it was only a scheme, then why did the city's citizens hide as well?"
"You're suspecting Arlecchino?"
"No. I just think there may be a traitor inside the Fatui. Arlecchino is under surveillance, and we also received word just now that she has shown no unusual movement.
But if today's situation had already been prepared in advance, then how do we explain those citizens?
And there's another thing... The people around Su Han are growing too fast. Even with a Delusion, I'm almost unable to suppress that madwoman.
I even have this feeling that if we weren't so close to Bubu Pharmacy, her strength would have increased even more.
That level of power is already on the level of the adepti..."
"Hey... Mr. Capitano, you're not Beidou's match either?"
"Mm. That woman's weapon is no longer that Dragon-Cutting Sword. It's some kind of strange weapon. I can't explain it... but it can still provide her with tremendous strength."
"A flying sword?"
"No... absolutely not a flying sword."
The Captain kept shaking his head.
The enemy's hidden cards kept multiplying.
But with Rosalyn, that traitor, their secrets were being exposed one after another.
If this continued,
Sumeru would also slowly fall out of their grasp.
The fact that they had taken Bubu Pharmacy,
and if the attack on Snezhnaya was used as an ignition point,
they would be in an extremely difficult position.
Even though everyone wore masks,
their identities had not been revealed.
However, based on his understanding of Ningguang,
that woman would not let this matter go so easily.
"Sigh... With this chance gone, catching Ningguang again will be harder than reaching the sky. She always travels with a large number of experts. Maybe we should inform the Jester...
Our strength is clearly not enough."
"That lord is busy. If he really had time, he would have come this time. Besides... his identity is sensitive, so he can't act casually."
"The aftermath of this matter can be handed to the Doctor. You'll handle it, no problem, right?"
Facing Columbina's suggestion,
the Doctor shrugged and said indifferently, "Sure... This sort of thing is simple. I was even thinking of using this opportunity to strike back. This is Sumeru,
not Liyue...
With so many soldiers brought here, I'd like to see how Ningguang explains it."
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