"Keep being a hero!"
King was stunned for a moment, then the corners of his mouth curled up slightly.
He also raised his hand, clenched his fist, and gave a firm pump toward Saitama.
"Yeah, of course!"
In the next instant, light swallowed the two of them... Teyvat.
On that familiar little path in Fontaine, the afterglow of the setting sun still spread gently across the cobblestones.
It was as if that earth-shattering cross-world journey had just been a brief dream.
King steadied himself and quickly looked around.
Furina and Lumine were not there.
Beside him was only that tall, white figure—
Asmodeus.
"Paimon,"
King looked at the familiar yet strange 'emergency food' before him and spoke, his voice carrying a hint of barely perceptible dryness.
"What are your plans next?"
Asmodeus slowly raised her head.
"To continue my slumber,"
She said softly, her fingers stroking the smooth surface of the 'lunar cube'.
"To accumulate power and recover from my injuries."
"To release the moon and stabilize Teyvat."
"And then, the most important thing..."
"To protect the Newborn Throne."
"The Newborn Throne?"
King's brow furrowed slightly.
Almost subconsciously, he thought of that 'Teyvat Elbow King'.
"Do you mean Lumine?"
"Are you going to assist her in becoming King?"
Asmodeus slowly shook her head, the movement slight but carrying an air of unquestionable certainty.
"No."
She raised her eyes to look at King, her gaze so complex that even King couldn't quite decipher it.
"The object of my protection has only ever been one."
"I love her more than I love myself, more than I love this starry sky, more than I love everything in Teyvat."
Her voice was light, yet it felt as if it carried a weight of a thousand pounds, crashing into King's heart.
"The only one I must protect is 'Paimon'."
King was stunned.
The information was too much, and the logic seemed completely muddled.
"Wait,"
He rubbed his temples. "Aren't you Paimon?"
"'Paimon' is you, how can you protect yourself?"
"I am Paimon, that is true."
Asmodeus nodded affirmatively.
"But 'Paimon' is not 'Asmodeus'."
King: "...?"
He felt like he wasn't talking to a person.
But rather solving a philosophical riddle.
"What on earth are you talking about?"
King felt a rare headache coming on, a trace of helplessness appearing on his ferocious face. "Can you say something I can actually understand? Don't be a riddler!"
Asmodeus was amused by King's reaction.
The corners of her mouth curled slightly, but she quickly regained her composure.
She was silent for a moment, as if organizing her words, or perhaps weighing whether to reveal that greatest secret.
The setting sun stretched her shadow very long.
Finally, she looked up, her gaze becoming incredibly serious as she looked at King, as if she had made some sort of decision.
"Alright, since it's King..."
"It should be fine to tell you some of it."
She took a deep breath, even though this body didn't actually need to breathe.
"Asmodeus is 'His' shadow, 'His' creation, the Guardian of the 'Newborn Throne'."
"And Paimon..."
...is His rebirth."
King's heart skipped a beat.
A vague and startling guess flashed through his mind like a bolt of lightning.
"...This 'He' you're talking about,"
King's voice lowered unconsciously.
Carrying a tension that even he hadn't noticed: "Who is He?"
Asmodeus looked at him quietly.
In those eyes that reflected the starry sky and the sunset, it seemed as if countless ages were flowing.
She didn't answer immediately.
Time seemed to freeze for a few seconds.
Only the faint, distant bustle of Fontaine's streets reminded them that they had returned to daily life.
Finally, she softly uttered that name.
The name that was the oldest, most revered, and most mysterious in Teyvat's sealed history.
"He is..."
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