"Good work, Grand Sage Idris."
Nahida smiled as Idris landed safely beside her and tugged at his sleeve. Her life-energy flowed into him as always, helping knit up the exhaustion his body still felt after the fight.
Against the Scarlet King Idris had already burned through almost every trump card he possessed. Aside from popping a pill on the spot (which, as a matter of principle in a king-vs-king duel, would have been gauche), he'd fought with everything he was willing to use. Winning earned him more than loot — it earned him inheritance.
Ying stepped forward and bumped fists with him, offering congratulations. "Congratulations, Grand Sage Idris. From now on you're truly the Desert's king. And thank you for helping my friends." She bowed politely, though inwardly she lamented how indebted she'd become to Idris — in Sumeru, it seemed, he was the one doing the saving.
Idris waved the thanks away as Nahida continued to transfer regenerative energy into him. "No need to thank me. Helping you was incidental. If you insist on repaying me, tell me how your teleport anchor works."
Ying only shook her head apologetically. "I don't know how to teach it. It's tied to me somehow."
Nearby, Jade helped her wounded father forward and spoke with sincere gratitude. "Thank you, Grand Sage Idris. If you hadn't helped, my father would never have returned. From now on, I'll serve you as your slave if you wish." She almost bowed into a half-kneel before him — the raw impression of awe after witnessing Idris defeat the desert's old god was that powerful.
Idris waved her down. "I don't want slaves. One small auspicious princess by my side is enough." He smiled. "If you truly want to serve, join the Sumeru Guards. There's a desert detachment; become a squad leader. You'll find your place there."
Jade accepted the suggestion with heartfelt thanks and promised to enlist.
As Idris scanned the crowd, the sea of desert folk — once restless — began to kneel. When his gaze swept over them, something in their blood answered; it felt as if his presence stirred ancestral echoes in their veins. Faces folded in deeper reverence; the worship that had clung to the sand for generations quietly shifted its focus.
Idris turned to Nahida with a small smile. "Let's return to Aru Village and rest. Then we'll deal with the Grass Dragon lord Apep."
"Okay — I'll follow your lead," Nahida chirped, nestling shyly against him.
With a graceful beat of grass-element wings, Idris lifted them both and bore them toward Aru Village, departing in style beneath the open sky.
As he went, the system's voice chimed in his mind, crisp and clinical.
[Congratulations, Host. You altered the desert's storyline and changed the Golden Dream sequence.]
[Reward unlocked for altering the plot.]
[Reward received: Yin–Yang Sealing Array.]
[Yin–Yang Sealing Array: creates a vast, voidlike chamber to imprison targets with extremely strong sealing capability.]
[Requirement to operate: a 'heart that commands arrays' and possession of two interrelated energy types.]
[Verification: Host meets requirements.]
Idris smiled inwardly — a sealing array had been the one thing he'd wanted. On Teyvat, sealing arrays were invaluable: they were precisely the tools that kept the aftermath of fallen divine beings from poisoning whole regions for centuries. Liyue's stoneworks and the deeds of Zhongli were living proof.
The Yin–Yang Sealing Array required a pair of interdependent energies to seed it. Wood/Grass and Stone/Geo are naturally complementary — the perfect combination for Idris. The system's reward fit his current needs to a T.
Counting his gains from the desert venture, the haul was staggering: the Scarlet King's sigil, the golden desert war-plate, the system-granted Yin–Yang Sealing Array — and, most crucially, the land's acceptance. As in the rainforest before, this soil now recognized who its true ruler was.
Thoughts like that made Idris grin. He carried Nahida and flew off, leaving a crowd that watched him go with mixed emotion. Paimon whispered to Ying: "After today, Grand Sage Idris's status in all of Sumeru will be steadier than ever. His position as a human king is actually more secure than some gods' places!"
Ying nodded, a wistful look in her eyes. If not for her own quests and the memory of her brother, she might have stayed and lingered in Sumeru a while longer.
Paimon pointed back at the enormous pit carved in the sand where their clash had roared — a scar on the desert floor produced by the duel of kings. "They'll call that place the King's Fall Pit," she said. It would become a name people recalled for generations: a mark of a god's fall and a new king's rise.
Idris felt the exhaustion settle deeper as they neared Aru Village. He needed rest; Nahida knew that and brought him straight to Cantiess, the village guardian and headman, for shelter and care.
Cantiess greeted them respectfully. Idris nodded politely in return as he scanned the villagers. Something tugged at Cantiess's mind — a strange pressure in the bloodlines he could sense now. He wondered quietly why Idris's presence felt so weighty, as if an imprint had been stamped into the very veins of the desert folk.
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