This was already the tenth, or perhaps even more, time that Lumine had ridden a dragon across Teyvat.
Unlike in the MC world, where dragon flight was constrained by rigid rules and felt slow and stiff, flying on a dragon in Teyvat was an entirely different experience. To Lumine, it felt no different from riding Dvalin himself.
Pure, unrestrained exhilaration.
Floating clouds drifted lazily by, brushing past her as fine droplets of moisture splashed against her face. Taking a flight like this early in the morning was indescribably refreshing.
As for Paimon…
She had already crawled back into subspace to sleep.
Once that little thing ate her fill, she immediately became drowsy. Lumine guessed it would be impressive if Paimon even woke up by the afternoon.
Lumine couldn't help but complain inwardly, this was entirely Ryen's fault.
In the past, whenever Lumine traveled long distances, Paimon would always come out to chat with her, no matter what. Ever since Ryen started spoiling Paimon, giving her stars if she asked for stars, the moon if she wanted the moon, Paimon had completely changed.
And that wasn't an exaggeration.
Not long ago, a meteor had fallen from the sky. Paimon and Nahida casually remarked that it looked beautiful and would make a great necklace. Ryen didn't hesitate for even a second, didn't care whose constellation it belonged to, he smashed it with one punch and made necklaces for Paimon, Ganyu, and the others.
Ryen had practically spoiled Paimon into a non-functioning member of society.
Lumine sighed inwardly, but once she was soaring through the skies on a dragon, she couldn't bring herself to care too much about it.
She guided the dragon through the air, performing high-difficulty maneuvers, her cheers echoing again and again.
For Dehya and Nilou, this was their first time riding a dragon. They had thought it would be extremely difficult.
But once they mounted it, they discovered that they were in perfect sync with the dragon. As long as they sat steadily and willed it, the dragon responded instantly.
This foolproof control made the two of them relax and enjoy themselves, following Lumine as they attempted daring aerial stunts.
Deep down, however, Dehya was shaken.
Riding a dragon required virtually no skill.
And the dragon itself possessed terrifying power. Even in a one-on-one fight, Dehya had no confidence she could defeat one. Escaping would already be considered a success.
Dragons wielded elemental power, and beyond that, a form of dragon breath that wasn't even elemental. Their physical strength was monstrous. A single diving strike was enough to crush high-level monsters outright.
Even a Stonehide Lawachurl would fall on the spot.
Add aerial superiority, a rider in perfect coordination with the dragon, and the enhanced Millelith forces,
This was an utterly unstoppable army.
No wonder the people of Liyue spoke so casually about god-level threats.
With a force like this, even if sacrifices had to be made, a god could still be brought down.
Ordinary gods truly stood no chance against the Dragon Rider Corps.
"Liyue is far too strong…" Dehya muttered. "I wonder just how many dragon riders they actually have."
Lumine, flying beside her, heard this and laughed.
"Liyue has five hundred dragon riders right now. Sister Ningguang plans to expand it to a full legion of one thousand."
"And if you count the dragons that Ningguang and Keqing raise themselves, it's already close to six hundred."
Dehya fell silent. She pressed her lips together, then said slowly,
"Five hundred dragons… and you're saying 'only'?"
Lumine shrugged cheerfully.
"Getting dragons isn't difficult. Incubation isn't hard either. Forming a dragon force with real combat power takes less than a week."
"The real challenge is qualifying dragon riders."
"Liyue alone harvests more than twenty dragon eggs every day."
As she spoke, Lumine guided her dragon into a midair roll, grinning.
"But more importantly, Liyue, Mondstadt, Inazuma, and Snezhnaya are now a life-and-death alliance."
"So you can't just count Liyue's dragon riders. If one nation is threatened, the others mobilize completely."
"You should be counting how many dragon riders the alliance has in total."
Nilou leaned closer, curiosity written on her face.
"Is that… something you're allowed to say?"
"Why wouldn't it be?" Lumine replied, puzzled.
"If you possessed power enough to completely crush all of Teyvat, would you still worry about your trump cards being exposed?"
"…That makes sense," Nilou admitted.
She scratched her cheek, then asked softly,
"Then… how many dragon riders does the Four-Nation Alliance have?"
Lumine thought for a moment, counting on her fingers.
"Liyue has the most. Mondstadt has two hundred and thirty, Inazuma has eighty, and Snezhnaya has one hundred and fifty."
"Altogether, the alliance has close to one thousand dragon riders."
"And that's not counting privately raised dragons. If you include the ones Ningguang and Ei keep, it's probably over eleven hundred dragons."
Dehya and Nilou exchanged glances, their scalps tingling.
More than a thousand dragons.
Nearly a thousand dragon riders.
This wasn't just overwhelming Teyvat.
This was enough to sweep away every dissenting voice across the continent.
To put it bluntly, even if the remaining three nations all had active Archons, and even if the Pyro Archon were a peerless god of war,
Three gods working together might be able to wipe out the dragon riders.
But before they could do that, those dragons would already be capable of annihilating all three nations.
And besides, the Four-Nation Alliance wasn't relying solely on dragon riders.
Just the gods Dehya knew of already numbered six, four of them top-tier existences.
Morax, the God of War, needed no introduction. The first Anemo Archon, Barbatos, was equally unquestionable.
Ei, wielding the Musou no Hitotachi, stood at the pinnacle even among top-tier gods.
And the second Cryo Archon of Snezhnaya was also a true powerhouse.
Beyond them were Guizhong and Makoto.
Add to that the many adepti and the Four Yakshas, beings not far removed from gods themselves.
In both quantity and quality, the alliance's top-tier combat power utterly eclipsed every enemy except one.
Even Celestia itself, bound together, might not be enough.
The only true enemies left were the Sustainer of Heavenly Principles and the Heavenly Principles themselves.
Dehya and Nilou didn't know what exactly had happened behind the scenes, but this was the very foundation of another power.
They didn't dare to ask.
In truth, Dehya and Nilou didn't even fully understand matters related to the Heavenly Principles.
But they weren't foolish. If all four nations had already grown this powerful, yet still felt the need to bind themselves together in a life-and-death alliance, then there could only be one explanation,
There was an even greater, more terrifying enemy pressing down on them.
The realization left both of them feeling heavy-hearted.
After a brief silence, Dehya suddenly spoke.
"So… the Four-Nation Alliance exists to fight something even stronger and more dangerous?"
Lumine paused, then looked at them with a puzzled expression.
"Didn't you hear about it while staying in Liyue? Pretty much everyone there knows."
The two exchanged glances and shook their heads. During their time in Liyue, they had mostly acted together with Yun Jin, watching performances, going out to have fun. When chatting with locals, the topics were usually dragon riders, firearms units, and other military matters.
Lumine scratched her head and spread her hands.
"Alright, guess you really don't know."
"The reason everyone joined forces is to oppose something that stands above the Seven Archons, the Heavenly Principles and Celestia."
"They're also the true culprits behind the destruction of Khaenri'ah."
"So don't be fooled by how powerful the alliance looks right now. Against an enemy like the Heavenly Principles, something fundamentally unmatched, our odds still aren't great."
"That kind of enemy can only be confronted by top-tier combatants. Numbers don't mean much to her."
"The dragon riders and similar forces are actually meant to deal with the gods stationed on Celestia."
Lumine's expression turned serious as she added,
"And you two should be careful as well."
"The Sumeru god-creation plan isn't just blasphemous in the eyes of the Seven, it's absolutely intolerable to the Heavenly Principles."
"The gods may cherish humanity and leave Sumeru's civilization intact, but the Heavenly Principles aren't like that."
"She's cold, ruthless, and has destroyed countless civilizations. The only reason she hasn't acted is because she's dormant."
"If your god-creation plan succeeds, it might wake her up. And when that happens…"
"With her personality, there's only one outcome, Sumeru would be forcibly erased, and all its people would be cursed with immortality, reduced to monsters like hilichurls."
Both Dehya and Nilou felt a headache coming on.
Angering Zhongli and the others with the god-creation plan had already been bad enough. Now the Heavenly Principles were added to the equation.
And this enemy was so powerful that even the current Four-Nation Alliance didn't want to face her directly.
Worse still, she was utterly merciless.
Khaenri'ah had already been destroyed. Destroying Sumeru as well would mean nothing to her.
The problems kept piling up. Dehya let out a long sigh.
"So in the end, we only have one choice. We must completely deal with Azar before the god-creation plan succeeds."
"Tch… I swear, are the scholars of the Akademiya all insane? Bringing this kind of disaster down on Sumeru for no reason. They really deserve to die."
Lumine didn't respond.
At the dragon's speed, a journey that would normally take three or four days was already nearing Sumeru's borders.
From afar, towering trees bursting with life began to fill the landscape.
It was scenery Lumine had never seen before. Without thinking, she lowered the dragon's altitude, carefully observing the rainforest below.
After some thought, Nilou flew closer to Lumine and asked gently,
"Lumine, if we resolve the god-creation plan… can Sumeru join the alliance?"
Lumine gave her a strange look.
"Why even ask? Isn't it obvious?"
"Nahida is your god. Once she truly takes charge of Sumeru again, and considering how much Ryen dotes on her…"
"How could Sumeru not join the alliance?"
"Besides, Ningguang and the others already want to unite all seven nations against the Heavenly Principles. This alliance, at its core, revolves around Ryen."
"As long as he agrees, even the Abyss could be welcomed in."
"And given how he treats Nahida, Sumeru will probably progress even faster under her leadership."
"The four nations will help you get up to speed as well. There's really nothing to worry about."
Hearing this, Nilou and Dehya both relaxed.
"So in the end, what we need to do is purge the Akademiya, overthrow Azar…"
"Stabilize Sumeru, clear the Little Lucky Grass Lord's name, and invite her to retake her place as Sumeru's ruler?"
Nilou asked carefully.
Lumine nodded.
"And don't forget, hold a proper Festival to celebrate Nahida's birthday. Ryen is very unhappy with how Sumeru's people have ignored her."
"If you can't truly make Nahida happy and let the people accept her from the heart…"
"With Ryen's personality, he'll probably just wipe out the stubborn ones himself."
"He's said it outright, if Sumeru's people refuse to accept Nahida, he'll kill them all and replace them with more obedient citizens."
Nilou froze for a moment, then smiled awkwardly.
"Mr. Ryen… really does adore the Little Lucky Grass Lord."
"But don't worry. She's the successor of Greater Lord Rukkhadevata. The people were merely misled by the Akademiya."
"Once the Akademiya is purged, the people will accept her quickly. We'll also hold a grand birthday celebration to welcome her return."
Lumine simply nodded, saying nothing more.
Dehya glanced downward and caught sight of Gandharva Ville in the corner of her vision. She immediately pointed.
"Lumine! Let's land, we'll go find Collei first!"
"No problem!"