"What is 'Columbina'?"
Hearing the girl's question, Coppelia's mechanical brain crashed. It took a moment before she replied:
"It's your name."
"So my name... is Columbina..." the girl said slowly, as if in a daze of realization.
"Then do you remember the name 'Kuutar'?" Coppelia asked.
"No."
"Have you seen anyone else besides me? Non-humans count, too."
"No, I haven't."
The first Moon-Gazing Herald of the Children of the Frost Moon held the prophecy that "the Moon Goddess shall be born." When the "Maiden of the Moon," Kuutar, was born, that Herald was present. Even if Columbina didn't seek out the Herald, the Herald would have found her. Yet Columbina herself said she hadn't seen anyone else.
Faced with this situation, Coppelia considered two possibilities. First, the Teyvat she was in was not the Teyvat she knew. Second, the Columbina before her had not yet become the Moon Goddess.
She leaned toward the second possibility. If that was the case, the blond traveler and the flying munchkin wouldn't begin their journey for at least another five hundred years. Five hundred years... then Khaenri'ah at this time...
Don't tell me I've run right into the Cataclysm of Khaenri'ah! If a transmigrator like her were discovered by the Five Sinners or the Four Shades, it would be all over.
But on the bright side, what if it was an even earlier time? Ugh, that wasn't much better. Any earlier would be the Archon War...
Whatever, agonizing over this was pointless.
Coppelia then asked the girl if she remembered anything that happened before they met.
Columbina's memories were fragmented and chaotic. It took a long time for her to haltingly describe a few images, repeatedly mentioning "pitch black," "shattered," and "falling."
Coppelia carefully pieced it together and came to a rough conclusion: "Simply put, you were forced to fall from the moon. A terrifying entity wielding a pitch-black power defeated you, and your own power shattered into a thousand pieces, scattering in all directions. Subsequently, your memory was completely damaged."
"That sounds right," the girl affirmed.
"How long ago did that happen?"
"I don't know."
Coppelia recalled the various theories she had heard from the "Genshinologists" online, roughly deducing that the scene the girl described was the War of the Funeral Fire and the Shattering of the Three Moons. This would place the current historical period somewhere between the War of the Funeral Fire and the Cataclysm of Khaenri'ah, though the exact time was impossible to confirm.
Columbina might be a memory fragment left behind by some Moon Goddess after losing her power. According to the typical adventure novel trope, now was the time to "find the lost power and take back what is rightfully yours."
The power definitely had to be reclaimed. Coppelia guessed that the future Columbina would gather all the fragments of her power, be 'born' in Nod-Krai as the new Moon Goddess, be found by the Children of the Frost Moon, join the Fatui, and then, five hundred years later, meet the blond traveler.
This, perhaps, was her "main quest" for transmigrating here—help Columbina achieve godhood!
...
Columbina gently shook Coppelia's shoulder, waking her from her thoughts. Seeing that Coppelia was looking at her, she pointed to the moon with the same hand and said:
"I want to go back to the moon." Columbina lowered her hand and looked at Coppelia. "Will you help me?"
Coppelia was stunned, not expecting Columbina to take the initiative and invite her. A smile quickly spread across her face, and she said loudly,
"I will!"
...
The next day at dawn, an early-rising Coppelia surveyed the terrain and paths once more.
This stretch of beach was too remote. To the east and south was the boundless sea, with no islands or ships in sight. Two large mountains loomed to the north and west, their rock faces blocking the tides and warm winds, and their steep terrain was impossible to climb. The only path to the outside world seemed to be the valley to the northwest.
Coppelia roasted another pile of mushrooms for Columbina, who had woken up complaining of hunger. After eating her fill, Columbina, in turn, replenished Coppelia's energy.
The two of them followed the stream deeper into the valley and soon arrived near the pool where Coppelia had found the fish the day before. Through a gap in the bushes, they could still see that mysterious, ice-blue monster.
Coppelia told Columbina to find a sturdy hiding spot to protect herself from the monster's ranged attacks.
She crouched down and quietly stepped out of the woods, a circular clearing twenty meters in diameter coming into view.
The clearing was covered in frost and snow, which grew thicker toward the center. Black and dark green plants lay wilted in the snow, clearly frozen to death long ago but not yet fully decomposed.
In the center of the clearing, a giant, ice-blue plant emitted waves of icy mist. Its thick stalk was as pliable as a vine, supporting a corolla. Four petals extended from the corolla's edge, resembling a four-pointed snowflake. In the center of the corolla, frost had condensed into a shell, protecting the massive core within.
The "starter village boss" turned out to be a Cryo Regisvine.
The Cryo Regisvine also spotted Coppelia, who had just gotten a clear look at it. It immediately turned its corolla toward her, condensed seven or eight pale orbs of light, and from the center of each orb, a sharp, light-blue icicle shot out, firing at Coppelia in unison.
While the icicles were still forming, Coppelia immediately turned and bolted, practically scrambling on all fours back into the forest.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The icicles flew across the twenty-meter distance at high speed, kicking up dust and ash as they slammed into the ground and splintering branches as they struck the trees.
Coppelia was not hit. When the sounds died down, she lay flat on the ground and poked half her head out from the bushes to observe the clearing, looking for a way around.
The opposite side of the clearing seemed to be a cliff with no trees. The other two sides had no cover between them and the mountain face; trying to cross there would be like walking into a shooting gallery.
It seemed she had to defeat the Cryo Regisvine, or at least disable its ranged attacks, to have any chance of passing.
In Coppelia's memory, the Cryo Regisvine had a glowing, hemispherical object at the base of its stalk near the ground. Attacking it with elemental reactions would paralyze the plant. But the one in front of her didn't seem to have such a structure. In that case, its only weak point was the core protected by the icy shell in the center of its corolla.
"Get close, punch through the ice shell, and burn the core with Pyro. That should do it."
Having formed a simple plan, Coppelia immediately put it into action.
She slowly rose, bent her waist, powered up her legs, and burst out of the forest.
The Cryo Regisvine seemed to have anticipated this, quickly creating wave after wave of icicles and firing them.
Her mechanical body was faster than expected. Coppelia dodged left and right, evading all the icicle attacks, and came to a stop two meters in front of the Cryo Regisvine. With Pyro energy ready in her hand, she prepared to jump up and smash the Regisvine's head with one punch.
But as she straightened up to attack, she saw the Cryo Regisvine's corolla swinging backward.
The moment the corolla touched the ground, the Cryo Regisvine put its strength into it, whipping its stalk in a counter-clockwise direction.
Coppelia couldn't dodge in time. The high-speed corolla slammed into her left side, sending her flying. She scraped a long gash across the vine-covered cliff face before tumbling down into the valley, crashing through several shrubs and leaving a crater in the ground.
___
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