"Although you've lost your power, your recovery speed is very fast, Lumine. It seems you haven't slacked off on your training."
Although Lumine had become much stronger under Durandal's training, her strength was ultimately no match for Aether's. If Aether hadn't wanted to test Lumine's strength, she would have probably been defeated long ago.
"Why? Why won't you leave with me, Brother?"
Lumine looked at Aether with tears in her eyes. Don't be fooled by her usual carefree demeanor, as if she didn't care about Aether's affairs at all.
But how could she forget her own kin, her most important brother?
Now that she finally saw her brother again, he completely disregarded her feelings, just reminding her not to get too close to Dain. Who was his real family anyway!
"…I'm sorry, Lumine. If I could, I would also love to go with you. But I can't right now. I… must complete those things."
Aether looked apologetically at Lumine's tears. He wanted to stop immediately and wipe away her tears, but he couldn't be soft-hearted here.
"The reason I haven't worried about your safety is because I know your safety is absolutely assured. With that person by your side, even if the Heavenly Principles came, they wouldn't be able to lay a hand on you."
"That person? Are you talking about Durandal? You know Durandal?"
"Of course, the greatest threat to the Abyss. No member of the Abyss would not know of her existence."
Aether subtly glanced at Durandal's position, saw that she was still standing there dealing with the Abyssal aura on the statue, and then breathed a sigh of relief.
"The Abyss found her in Mondstadt back then, understood her abilities, and thought they could recruit her to join the Abyss, but she refused."
How could the Abyss Order accept such a thing? They wanted to use the seductive power of Abyssal energy to force Durandal to become a person of the Abyss.
But the Abyssal energy they unleashed was completely absorbed by Durandal. All the members of the Abyss Order who went out at that time died, leaving only a dying Abyss Mage to report the situation.
The Abyss Order did not allow the existence of anything that could deal with Abyssal aura, so they attempted to destroy Durandal. The first thing to do was to tell her that the Abyss was not to be trifled with.
To make her deeply understand this, the Abyss Order targeted Durandal's most important thing.
"Durandal's most important thing? What is it?"
Lumine's curiosity was piqued by Aether. The events Aether spoke of took place before they met, before she met Klee.
At that time, Durandal didn't have anyone she cherished, so what exactly did the Abyss Order target of Durandal's?
Aether was silent for a moment, blocked Lumine's sneak attack with his weapon, and said, "Her flower field."
At these words, Lumine's eyes widened instantly, her face filled with disbelief.
The Abyss Order… The Abyss Order actually went to such an extent? Are they really not afraid of death?
Lumine's reaction was within Aether's expectations. They hadn't expected things to turn out that way either. They had only burned her flower field, and Durandal directly rushed into the Abyss's base, going on a killing spree.
At that time, Durandal was unstoppable. Except for a few powerful ones who found a chance to escape, most other members of the Abyss fell under Durandal's great scythe.
One Abyss member completely broke down at the time, shouting as Durandal was about to bring down her great scythe on them.
"It was just a flower field! Just a flower field!"
In the end, this Abyss member was not only dealt with, but Durandal repeatedly hacked at them with her great scythe, even tormenting them with a poison more terrifying than the Abyss before they drew their last breath.
It was a group of high-ranking Abyss members who, through their abilities, took advantage of Durandal's momentary distraction to teleport her out of the Abyss, thus preventing further casualties in the Abyss Order.
Through this incident, the Abyss Order understood that Durandal was not to be provoked. Since they couldn't afford to provoke her, they wouldn't, and would try their best not to let her affect the Abyss's subsequent plans.
This plan was originally going very smoothly, but with Lumine's contact with Durandal, Durandal seemed to be inevitably drawn into stopping the Abyss's progress.
"Have you… finished talking?"
At this moment, Durandal, who had finished purifying the statue, interrupted the siblings' conversation, sitting on the giant claw she had summoned.
"As agreed, I won't participate in your battle. But if you need help, I can act now. While I can't guarantee he won't lose an arm or a leg in the end, I can heal him, so you can rest assured and leave things to me."
At these words, Aether, who had just been relaxed, instantly tensed up. He looked at his dear sister, surely she wouldn't make such a choice, to let Durandal harm him.
Aether firmly believed this, but Lumine immediately slapped him hard across the face.
"Be careful, if your movements are too big, the blood will be hard to clean."
"Lumine!"
Aether looked at his good sister in disbelief. What did she just say? The blood would be hard to clean? Whose blood do you want to clean?
Receiving Lumine's affirmative answer, Durandal's lips curved slightly. She jumped down from the giant claw and took a few steps forward, preparing to attack Aether.
At this moment, the Abyssal Apostle, who had been suppressed by the clone, saw that the situation was bad and immediately opened a teleportation portal behind itself.
However, this time, the portal was not for escape, but for guiding reinforcements in.
One after another, members of the Abyss Order rushed out. Besides the usual Abyss Mages, there were also Abyssal Apostles, Abyssal Mages, and other armored units that Durandal had never seen before.
They were there to cover Aether's departure. The Abyssal Apostle that Durandal had previously eliminated had managed to send back intelligence about Durandal's potential interference.
Before entering the portal, Aether had told them to prepare for support, and it seemed this decision was correct, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to leave today.
Countless Abyss Order members charged at Durandal, using their bodies to slow her down and buy Aether time to leave.
"We will meet again, Lumine. Until then, take care of yourself."
Leaving these words, Aether, accompanied by an Abyssal Apostle, entered the portal. Seeing this, Durandal, who had originally wanted to make one last effort, instantly erupted with terrifying power, using her giant claws to instantly eliminate countless enemies in front of her.
But Aether's side clearly understood the principle that 'the more you say, the more mistakes you make,' so after leaving those words, he made no other moves and left immediately.
"To buy himself time to leave with this kind of human-wave tactic, that's quite a calculation."
Looking at the members of the Abyss Order on the ground who had turned into black mist and disappeared, Durandal disarmed herself and turned her gaze back to Lumine.
"To avoid accidentally killing him by exerting too much effort, I could only do this much."
"...Forget it. Even if you had managed to keep him this time, he would still find a way to sneak away later. He has already made up his mind not to return to my side for now."
Aether's attitude was already very clear: he wouldn't return to her side until he achieved his goal.
Lumine sighed with a hint of loss, but quickly adjusted her emotions and hugged Durandal with a smile.
"But it doesn't matter. I still have you and Paimon. With you two by my side, I'm not so lonely."
Yes, compared to having her brother by her side, Lumine preferred to stick close to sweet-smelling, soft, beautiful Damselettes.
Her brother would eventually return to her side; there was no need to worry about that. If he wanted to do something foolish, she, as his sister, could just stop him.
But before that, she wanted to properly enjoy her journey.
Aether had also said that she should travel through various nations like he once did to find the answers.
Since he said so, it was very necessary to continue the journey.
Besides the beautiful Damselettes of Mondstadt and Liyue, there were also beautiful Damselettes in nations like Inazuma, Sumeru, and Fontaine waiting for her to meet.
Therefore, Lumine, strictly speaking, was not lonely, because there were many beautiful Damselettes waiting for her to meet, and her journey was far from over.
Durandal, held in Lumine's arms, had no idea what she was thinking right now. Otherwise, she would definitely push her away, stomp on her face, and look at her with disdain.
Emmmm... Paimon, who had been worried that Lumine might be too sad and was ready to comfort her, saw this and felt that her worries were completely unnecessary.
However, what she said was true. No matter what, she and Durandal would stay by Lumine's side. As long as they were there, Lumine wouldn't feel lonely.
"I won't disturb you two; I'll be leaving now."
Seeing this, Dainsleif prepared to leave first. There was nothing left for him here, and he still had to track the Abyss Order's movements to stop their schemes.
"Wait, Dain! Where else will you go in the future?"
Lumine spoke up, stopping Dainsleif who was about to leave, and asked, "We still have many questions about the Abyss Order to ask you in the future. Will we have a chance to meet again?"
"...Of course. This reunion was also unexpected. I believe there will be opportunities to meet again in the future. As long as you are willing to trust me, I am willing to tell you about the Abyss Order."
Dainsleif's identity had been exposed. If Lumine, knowing all this, still trusted him, then Dainsleif would not betray her trust.
After speaking, Dainsleif turned and left the ruins, leaving Durandal, Lumine, and Paimon behind.
"I never thought such a simple commission would involve so many things. When we go back this time, Ningguang better prepare a good Reward for us."
Paimon stretched widely. She had originally thought this commission was just a simple investigation task, but she never expected it to involve so many things.
Hmph~ She hoped Ningguang would give them a satisfactory Reward, otherwise she would give Ningguang an unpleasant nickname.
"Now, we need to figure out how to take this statue of the seven back. But... how should we do it?"
Paimon looked at the statue of the seven with some distress. With just the few of them, could they really take the statue of the seven out of here?
While Paimon and Lumine were troubled about how to take it back to Mondstadt, Durandal put the statue of the seven down, and under their gaze, lifted it up with great ease.
"? What kind of look is that? Is there a problem?"
"No, no, no problem at all."
Ah haha~ They had forgotten that there was a reliable Durandal here. It was just that her small frame carrying such a large object looked really out of place.
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