"Wind's Grand Ode!"
"Herald of Frost!"
The twilight canopy of the Twilight Forest shuddered with explosions of elemental light.
At the edge of the Final Plateau, a colossal beanstalk pierced straight into the sky, its tip lost within the clouds.
Above lay a vast sky-island, its surface soft and pale, like land shaped from condensed cloud-mist.
This was the Cloud Cottage, a floating domain belonging to the giants of the Dusk Forest.
The "cottage," from afar, resembled nothing more than a massive house with a single front tree. In truth, it looked nearly identical to the homes of villagers in Minecraft's overworld, just stretched to absurd scale.
Normally, this place was quiet and peaceful.
Today, that peace had been utterly shattered.
A kaleidoscope of exaggerated elemental skills rained down upon a giant warrior carrying a sword large enough to crush an ox with its flat alone.
The brilliant detonations lit up the eternal night of the forest.
Not far away, Ningguang and the others simply watched. Even Zhongli had not joined the fight.
Because none of these abilities belonged to them.
Every dazzling blast came from Ryen, wielding four Gnosis and seven Delusions, who was currently treating the giant like a practice target.
The group watched the excited Ryen with expressions that were… complicated, to say the least.
When they first climbed up to Cloud Cottage, the first thing they'd seen was a Giant Miner.
His pickaxe alone was larger than all of them combined.
Everyone had expected an extremely difficult battle.
Instead, a single round of coordinated modern firepower, rifles, cannons, enchanted munitions, obliterated the miner before he even crossed half the field.
That was when everyone realized something essential:
Being big doesn't mean being strong.
Next came the Giant Knight.
Again, everyone intended to simply wipe it out with combined firepower and move on to the Final Castle to finish the final objective.
But Ryen refused.
After all, he had four Gnosis, seven Delusions, and had never properly tested all the flashy abilities available to him.
And now he had a perfect target.
He had been bombarding the giant for half an hour, and the giant's health had dropped only halfway.
Another Starshatter slammed down.
The giant staggered, and its health bar shrank by, if one looked closely, a microscopic sliver.
Ryen's grin was radiant.
Ender Pearls flicked from his hand as he teleported around like a child who had discovered a new game.
Lumine finally couldn't take it anymore.
"This is exactly why you shouldn't have given Ryen the Gnosis!"
"If he didn't have them, we'd have finished this giant ages ago!"
Zhongli leisurely admired the drifting clouds.
"By common reason, taking slightly more time makes little difference."
"How does it not make a difference!?"
Lumine planted her hands on her hips.
"He used to be the most serious one about progressing in world-development!
But ever since he got elemental power, he's become completely distracted!"
"He spends every day studying element fusion, weird combo skills, pointless visual effects,
And monsters he could flatten with one punch, he now spends minutes bullying with special effects!"
"Give me back the brave, focused Ryen I used to know!"
Hu Tao patted Lumine on the shoulder with a grin.
"First of all, Ryen is mine, "
She instantly froze, sensing Ningguang's, Ganyu's, Shenhe's, and several others' eyes sharpening.
"Ahem, ! I mean, Ryen is ours!"
She coughed and continued:
"Second, Ryen rarely has hobbies. We should support him."
"And honestly?
He looks pretty handsome using those flashy skills!"
"Think of it this way, "
Hu Tao pressed a finger to her lips like a seasoned sage:
"In Teyvat, letting him sling element powers around is much better than him punching people into the landscape."
"You wouldn't want Teyvat to get split into a middle part again, right?"
Lumine scratched her cheek.
"Well… when you put it like that, I guess…"
"But still, he's way too obsessed with flashy moves, "
"Infernal Blazing Seal!"
"Judgment of the Gods!"
"Blazefury Hex!"
"Crescent Moon Flash!"
Everyone fell silent for a moment as Ryen continued gleefully shouting move names while attacking.
Ningguang exhaled softly, choosing her words with care.
"As his partner, I suppose… supporting Ryen's rare enthusiasm is a good thing."
"Besides, ever since he obtained the Gnosis, he's stopped talking about going to Celestia to give that 'I have a dream' speech…"
Yae Miko watched Ryen with a playful smile.
"Despite the dramatic appearance, the damage is actually quite modest, even in Teyvat.
Most of it is just wasted elemental energy for special effects."
"But… I must admit, it does look surprisingly cool."
"Ganyu," Miko added with a chuckle, "don't you feel like all of you indulge him the way parents indulge a child?"
Ganyu pressed a hand to her cheek, softening.
"Ryen has always been mature and composed.
Sometimes too composed… to the point where he never seemed to really enjoy anything."
"Pursuing elemental special effects is still a kind of aspiration," Ganyu said softly.
"If this makes him happy, of course I'll support him. And as for wasted elemental power… well, in a real fight he won't need it anyway."
Her voice faded just as a dark violet blade of spatial energy tore the sky apart.
The giant knight, still with more than half of its health remaining, was sliced cleanly in two.
Its massive form dissolved into particles and collapsed without a groan.
Ryen exhaled, expression cool, and slid the Enma Blade back into its sheath.
"Enemy commander, slain."
Nahida, Klee, and Paimon immediately burst into applause.
"Ryen is so cool!"
"Ryen big bro! Klee wants to learn that move!"
"Ryen! You're the best!"
Yae Miko and the others finally understood why those three little creatures received so much of Ryen's affection:
It was impossible not to adore the trio who sprinted over after every battle just to smother him in praise.
With fans like that, who wouldn't want to fight three hundred more rounds?
"…That sword…"
Ei stared at the line where the spatial blade had carved through the air.
It felt as though the whole night sky had been cleaved open.
All of Ryen's earlier tricks, even the imitation of Ningguang's were full of openings.
In Ei's eyes, they were merely high-level monster-clearing moves; nothing more.
After all, Ryen had never trained in martial arts.
He lacked technique, form, and discipline.
Even with divine power, he squandered nine-tenths of it on dramatic effects.
From a warrior's perspective, it was all mistakes and wasted motion.
But that final draw,
that single slash,
was different.
Ryen merely drew the sword.
And space itself yielded.
Cold realization rippled down Ei's spine.
That cut…
might actually surpass her Musou no Hitotachi.
How was that possible?
A moment ago he fought like an untrained amateur.
But the instant he drew the Enma Blade, he had surpassed even archons and battle-scarred veterans?
The difference was absurd.
And the power within the blade,
spatial power,
was on a level far beyond elemental force.
Could it be… did the fusion of seven elements manifest as spatial power?
Ryen overheard her muttering and grinned.
"I call that move the Super-Ultra-Slice-Everything-Strike."
Hu Tao rolled her eyes.
"That's obviously a dimensional slash! My name sounds way better!"
"Not the same!" Ryen protested, serious as ever.
"If a low-damage Starshatter deserves an epic name…
then my infinite-damage sword-draw should have an even longer, cooler one!"
Ningguang's face darkened faintly.
"Starshatter is not low-damage. Even with divine power suppressed in this world, if you used it properly, its force would remain formidable.
But you insist on spending most of your power on visual effects."
Ryen folded his arms.
"And what's wrong with that? Skills are supposed to look cool!
Your plain 'drop a meteor' is so boring."
Ningguang closed her eyes.
"As long as you're pleased."
Ei's gaze drifted to the Enma Blade at Ryen's waist, awe mingling with longing.
She finally understood:
the true treasure wasn't the enchanted staves they'd been collecting,
it was the sword.
That slash had not been Ryen's own technique.
It was the sword's built-in power.
With such a weapon, Ei felt she could carve through even the Heavenly Principles.
"…This blade…" she murmured.
Ryen smiled.
"One of the strongest sword-draw weapons in the whole mod set.
Enma Blade, master of spatial force.
Want to try it?"
Ei's eyes lit with unmistakable hope.
"…May I?"
Ryen handed it over casually.
"You gave me a Gnosis. Letting you play with a sword for a bit is only fair."
Ei accepted it with reverence, brushing a hand along the sheath.
Lightning gathered at her fingertips.
She drew the blade in a fluid flash,
several arcs of swordlight tracing elegant patterns through the air.
Graceful, lethal, effortless.
In truth… she wielded the weapon more naturally than Ryen himself.
She tested its balance, its bite, its affinity for elemental current.
The blade's density, its flow of power, its affinity for the user,
It surpassed even divine artifacts.
And its spatial authority was beyond outrageous.
After savoring it for some time, Ei reluctantly returned the blade.
"This sword is extraordinary. You should learn proper swordsmanship, if you're willing, I can teach you."
But Ryen only raised a brow and chuckled.
"I appreciate it, but it wouldn't help much…"
He drew the blade again, and reality shattered.
Dozens, then hundreds of transparent spatial blades nailed themselves in a circle around them.
Ryen's silhouette fragmented into thousands of afterimages,
and in a blink, he reappeared beside the group.
"Sword-draw weapons don't really need technique.
Just use their abilities properly."
"Check out my Flying Thunder God, cool, right?"
He sighed a little.
"Shame it doesn't have any special effects…"
Ei watched him effortlessly step through space.
Each movement stirred visions of countless lethal attack patterns.
And yet…
He only cared about visual flair.
That blade… entrusted to him… it really was suffering indignity.
Ei pressed her lips together and said nothing more about teaching him.
He didn't need technique.
His overwhelming power made forms and stances irrelevant.
If he ever faced something requiring genuine martial discipline, he'd probably just pull out nuclear weaponry, or the sword itself, and end the matter instantly.
The Gnosis, elemental power…
they were all merely toys to him.
And yet,
A question rose within Ei:
Why hadn't he used her Musou no Hitotachi earlier?
She couldn't help wondering.
~~----------------------
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