In mid-air, Columbina constructed an invisible force, steadily holding Coppelia aloft.
Coppelia drew the longbow in her hand, which flowed with a purple halo. With every vibration of the string, an arrow of light containing violent elemental power shot toward the ground.
"Swoosh—boom!"
"Swoosh—boom!"
Violent [Overload] reactions exploded one after another, throwing dirt and rubble into the air.
This forced the Knightly Order soldiers, who were trying to stabilize their formation, to crowd and gather like a flock of driven sheep toward the entrance of the residential district's alleys, so as to compress the enemy's main force into the pre-set battlefield.
Later, Gunnhildr would, as planned, circle to the enemy's rear and form an encirclement.
To constantly monitor the elemental flow from the direction of the High Tower, Coppelia maintained her Elemental Sight.
Just as she nocked another arrow, preparing to make the chaos even more intense, she caught a glimpse from the corner of her eye of a vast, cyan light suddenly erupting from the top of the High Tower, spreading outward at a visible speed, heading straight for their airspace!
The mission could no longer continue.
"Let's go!" Coppelia cried out, abandoning her attack without hesitation.
She immediately mobilized all the Anemo element she could muster, forming a powerful thrust that enveloped herself and Columbina, and flew backward at high speed toward the relatively safe residential district, evading the fierce gale ahead of time.
The soldiers who were preparing to charge were blown off balance, finding it difficult to even stand firm. They had to crouch down and seek cover, and the pincer attack was instantly broken.
Under the indiscriminate suppression that couldn't distinguish friend from foe, any tactic lost its meaning. Their soldiers' equipment advantage was equally useless before the divine might.
Upon entering the complex alleyways of the residential district, the Knightly Order formed groups of five to ten, back-to-back, and tried to advance steadily through the labyrinth.
Lumiere and Venerare led a small elite squad, moving through the streets like phantoms, sometimes launching short, fierce assaults from the front, sometimes throwing javelins from the flank, striking and then retreating without getting entangled, playing the role of bait perfectly.
Venti transformed into an formless stream of air, weaving through the bottom of the alleys. It quietly gathered dust and blew it upwards, blinding the archers who were trying to aim and the shield-bearers who were focused ahead, causing suppressed coughs and curses.
The real threat came from above.
On the rooftops, behind the windows, the residents who knew every brick and tile became the most lethal ambushers.
Arrows carrying the fury of vengeance shot down from tricky angles, and stones slammed against armor with dull thuds.
There were also rolling logs studded with large spikes pushed from the rooftops with combined effort, crashing into the knights' small groups with the force to crush everything, followed by the sound of breaking bones.
Boiling water and hot oil poured from the windows, drenching the Knightly Order soldiers and instantly incapacitating them with excruciating pain.
There were also hastily woven rope snares and nets thrown from the shadows, accurately entangling the soldiers' weapons and limbs. They were pulled to the ground and instantly finished off by short blades stabbing out from the shadows.
"Retreat! Fall back!" the Knightly Order Commander shouted himself hoarse.
But their comrades, driven from the rear by Coppelia's elemental explosions, were constantly flooding into the narrow streets, getting congested and trapped, unable to advance or retreat.
They were like beasts caught in a thick swamp, every step a struggle on the edge of death.
Just then, Gunnhildr saw her chance. She personally led the main force of the resistance, preparing to complete the encirclement of this turtle trapped in a jar.
However—
"Whoosh—BOOM!!!"
A fierce gale, without any warning, descended from the sky!
The soldiers who were preparing to charge were blown off balance, finding it difficult to even stand firm. They had to crouch down and seek cover, and the pincer attack was instantly broken.
At the rear, the Knightly Order Commander had just breathed a sigh of relief as the menacing purple orb of light in the sky vanished. Just as he was preparing to regroup his troops and avoid getting too clustered and falling into a trap, this sudden fierce gale left him stunned as well.
"The King! The King has finally acted!" Vladimir, his face streaked with blood, was like a man grasping at straws, his voice sharp with excitement.
The Commander's brow furrowed, but there was not a trace of joy in his heart.
Could the King's fierce gale truly distinguish between friend and foe?
It could indeed hinder the resistance, but it would also render his troops bogged down in street fighting immobile, and even completely disrupt his command and troop movements.
Under the indiscriminate suppression that couldn't distinguish friend from foe, any tactic lost its meaning. Their soldiers' equipment advantage was equally useless before the divine might.
The fierce gale, like an invisible millstone, ground across the entire battlefield.
It blew over the open ground where the fierce battle had just taken place, tearing at the robes on the bodies of the lifeless soldiers scattered on the ground, making them whip and crackle.
It blew into the streets of the residential district. The people fighting there, whether they were resistance fighters, Lawrence knights, or noble knights, were bent over by this irresistible power, their movements becoming incredibly sluggish. Every swing of a weapon was like moving through thick glue.
It scattered the sporadic arrows shot from the rooftops, rendering the once-lethal attacks soft and powerless.
Venti felt this oppressive power, immediately concealed its aura to the extreme, and quietly hid in a stone house, to avoid provoking a more intense reaction from Decarabian.
The wind grew stronger.
The residents on the rooftops were forced to abandon their positions, helping each other down rickety ladders to hide back inside their houses, forcefully shutting their doors and windows and bracing them with wooden poles, listening to the wind howl outside like ghosts and wolves.
The Knightly Order's soldiers were in a similar state. They tried to use the walls for cover, but the wind came from all directions. The heavy armor was now a burden, and they could only lie prone on the ground like the resistance, or squeeze into relatively sturdy doorways, losing all formation.
Gunnhildr's encircling troops were suppressed in place, unable to advance an inch. They could only cling desperately to any fixed object nearby, resisting the danger of being blown away.
A magnificent, cold, and emotionless voice sounded from that high tower:
"My subjects, I provide you with a place of shelter, not for you to kill one another. Since words cannot awaken you, I will use my divine wind to quell your disputes. Once all filth is cleansed, you shall be free from this nightmare and return to a pure order."
A powerful pressure descended with the fierce gale. All who remained outside, whether warrior or commoner, were pressed down by this force until they couldn't even stand straight, let alone fight.
The wounded curled up on the ground, the fierce gale scraping over their wounds like cold blades, bringing heart-wrenching pain.
Their screams were swallowed by the wind.
The uninjured also kept their heads down, using all their strength to resist the force that wanted to press them to the ground, their nails digging deep into the cracks of the ground or walls.
Atop the High Tower, Decarabian's perception swept over the district that had fallen 'silent' in the fierce wind.
However, just then,
"THUD!!!"
A dull impact sounded from the east side of the storm wall! Andrius's attack suddenly became incomparably fierce. A patch of dazzling white light exploded on the cyan-gray storm wall, like stars bursting!
He was forced to withdraw most of his attention from his infighting subjects to reinforce the storm wall.
The fierce wind blowing near the residential district visibly eased, and although it still made movement difficult, it was no longer irresistible.
In Decarabian's judgment, this level of wind was already enough to make those lost subjects completely 'calm down' and not dare to act rashly again.
He poured the vast majority of his power into the storm wall.
When this round of Andrius's fierce assault temporarily weakened, He once again sent a sliver of perception toward the residential district.
The fierce gale had only weakened, not completely dissipated.
The moment the wind eased, the sounds of slaughter, like a volcano after being suppressed, erupted once more!
Within the alleyways, the Lawrence knights and the resistance fighters, relying on their familiarity with the terrain and more flexible light armor, actually pushed back against the still-strong gale to launch a counterattack on the Knightly Order soldiers, who were trapped in place and clumsy in their movements!
Although their speed was hindered, every one of their attacks was even more lethal.
Rolling logs and stones once again fell from some not-quite-closed windows and hidden firing ports, smashing down on those tin cans who were crowded together and unable to dodge.
The Knightly Order's formation completely collapsed under the combined effects of the quagmire of war and the residual gales.
On the other side, Gunnhildr discovered that the Knightly Order's rear had not gathered as expected, making a forced encirclement impossible.
She made a swift decision, changing tactics. Taking advantage of the weakened gale, she led her troops to break up their formation, like countless sharp knives, stabbing into the enemy's chaotic rear from multiple directions, harassing and dividing them in an attempt to completely disrupt the enemy's command.
The Knightly Order Commander quickly gathered a part of the core troops who had not been drawn into the alley fighting, forming a circular formation that stubbornly resisted Gunnhildr's assault. They even once used their superior numbers and tighter formation to force Gunnhildr's squad back, temporarily putting them at a disadvantage.
Atop the High Tower, Decarabian was plunged into an unprecedented state of shock and doubt.
His wind… was actually useless?
For the past several hundred years, whenever He sent down his divine wind, the people would always face the High Tower, kneel piously, fearful and obedient.
It had always been this way.
It was the first time He had seen his subjects fighting each other under His fierce gale.
A bewildered thought echoed in His heart: They would rather bleed and slaughter each other in my wind than accept my purification?
An impulse to increase the gale's strength surged in His heart. But a faint premonition told Him that doing so would have no effect.
After several minutes of suffocating silence and stalemate, the fierce gale completely dissipated, as abruptly as it had appeared.
The fierce gale completely vanished.
The pressure on Gunnhildr lifted, and she immediately led her soldiers to launch a fierce attack on the Knightly Order Commander's circular formation.
At the same time, Coppelia also rushed into the battlefield. She manipulated the Anemo element to form a thrust, increasing her speed, her light arrows accurately striking the key nodes of the circular formation.
Columbina hovered in mid-air. With a gentle wave of her hand, some of the enemy soldiers' footing became unsteady, and their formation revealed an opening.
And from the direction of the residential district, Lumiere, covered in blood, wielded his greatsword like a god of war and was the first to break through the last line of the Knightly Order's resistance.
Venerare followed close behind. The Lawrence knights, like fierce tigers, joined with the main force of the resistance that had finished the fighting in the alleys. Like a bursting flood, they charged toward the final battlefield.
The Knightly Order Commander, seeing that all was lost, with the forces of Gunnhildr, Lumiere, and Venerare about to converge, and with two individuals with strange abilities in the sky, all the color drained from his face. He grabbed Vladimir, who was still screaming that 'the King will punish them,' and roared, 'Go!'
Venti disrupted the pursuers' vision from the shadows, Columbina used her power to create obstacles, and Coppelia sealed their path of retreat with light arrows.
With perfect coordination, the soldiers led by Lumiere, Venerare, and Gunnhildr were like three iron hammers, smashing down hard on the remnants of the Knightly Order, whose fighting spirit was already gone.
A rout, a complete rout.
Only the Knightly Order Commander, Vladimir, and a few personal guards, by ruthlessly sacrificing their men, barely managed to break through the blockade and disappear into the distance.
Lumiere propped his greatsword, covered in blood and chipped, on the ground to support his exhausted body, panting heavily. He looked up at Gunnhildr and Venerare, who were also covered in wounds but had bright eyes.
The next moment, it's unknown who let out the first cry, but the surviving warriors, whether from Lawrence or the resistance, whether commoner or soldier, embraced each other in excitement. The relief of surviving and the elation of victory transformed into a heaven-shaking cheer that shot to the clouds!
The doors and windows of the residential district were thrown open, and the populace poured into the streets. They looked at the fleeing noble knights, at the cheering warriors, their faces showing disbelief, which then turned into ecstatic smiles.
Cries, laughter, and shouts for loved ones intertwined.
Starsnatch Cliff.
Venti hovered above the Thousand Winds Temple, its wings of light vibrating slightly.
The wind sprite companions it had previously entrusted with finding traces of the Lord of Time were not here at this moment.
The feeling of the wind in the surrounding air was somewhat strange. It was no longer flowing freely, but instead had an indescribable sense of stagnation.
Every wisp of airflow seemed to have transformed into invisible eyes, silently watching Venti from all directions, from the cracks of time.
The time must have come!
Venti suppressed its nervousness and excitement and continued to float forward. Its perception was extended to its limit, carefully probing every inch of space.
The scenery was no different from usual, and there were no other figures around, but the feeling of being watched grew stronger and stronger.
Venti concealed the Anemo element flowing around it as much as possible, as if gathering its courage.
It raised its head, facing the empty sky, facing that omnipresent gaze, and sent out its own voice, a voice no longer as tender as before:
"Master of Time… I have not come seeking power for myself."
"I have come for my companions, for the people who have placed their hopes in the name of 'Barbatos'. They have given me their trust, and I yearn to repay them with a real future."
"The tyranny of the High Tower erodes the soul of Mondstadt. The people there, their chests hold hearts that long for freedom, their eyes reflect the illusion of the sky outside the walls. I do not want these wishes to be like sweet Dandelions blown away by the wind, vanishing without a sound."
"Therefore, I implore you… please tell me the way to defeat the God of Gales and return freedom to Mondstadt!"
Its voice echoed among the ruins, then was swallowed by a strange silence.
A moment later, nothing happened. No figure appeared, no voice replied.
However, the wind that Venti had concealed around itself suddenly trembled violently!
It felt a faint glimmer of light, as if stripped from the very source of the river of time, travel an incomprehensible distance and silently merge into its body.
___
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