Decarabian's remains suddenly exploded. Before the violent energy could be fully vented, the azure stream of light that was Venti had already surged upward, crashing straight into that shattered god's heart.
The divine power of wind from the future surged forth, instantly suppressing the restless gales at their source, forcibly strangling the next destructive explosion in its infancy.
Without a moment's pause, Venti's will delved into the storm's center, stripping away the lingering, insane obsession and violent will, condensing them into a constantly twisting, tumbling, pale-azure sphere of light, which it temporarily set aside.
The gales, stripped of the god's will, were still immense, but they had lost their master and become gentle and pure. Venti immediately immersed its own will into them, beginning to assimilate this ancient power.
The purified, pure wind flowed ceaselessly into its small wind sprite body. Soon, this elemental vessel reached its limit.
Poof—
Its form expanded rapidly as if inflated, transforming in an instant into a smooth sphere about a meter in diameter. On its surface, azure and white energies intertwined and flowed.
Behind it, the pair of illusory wings of light with their cyan gradients also grew and unfurled madly. The huge wingspan, in turn, gently embraced the round body. The illusory wings of light quickly solidified, turning into dense, pure white feathers that spread out layer by layer, emitting a soft and sacred halo.
At this moment, the connection to the authority over time also reached its end. That wisp of wind borrowed from the future, having completed its mission, quietly dissipated into the air.
The authority it had taken over was already powerful enough. Venti's perception expanded rapidly, instantly blanketing the chaotic airspace. It sensed countless wisps of the fierce gales, propelled by the earlier explosion, scattering and fleeing.
Not a single wisp must be allowed to escape! Alarm bells screamed in Venti's mind.
It remembered the sight it had witnessed in the south, before meeting Gunnhildr and the others: After the god named 'Guizhong' passed away, her divine remains spread with the dust. Wherever they went, fertile soil turned to gravel, plants withered, plagues ran rampant, and death devoured human settlements.
After a god's death, their obsession and power spin out of control. If not contained, they will become a natural disaster, continuously polluting the world.
And Decarabian's remains, with the omnipresent gales as their carrier, would spread faster and farther, bringing even more terrifying destruction, enough to drag the entire newborn Mondstadt back into the abyss!
Without a trace of hesitation, Venti drove the authority it had just mastered. Wisps of pure Anemo element detached from its body, transforming into countless invisible, great hands. They pierced through the chaotic airflow, capturing, twining around, and tightly wrapping each of the gales that tried to flee, then forcibly dragged them back.
Next, Venti began to meticulously separate and purify them. The pure power of wind was stripped away and merged into its own source, strengthening its nascent divinity. The violent, foul, and destructive parts, however, were cast into the nearby sphere of the Solitary King's residual will, making it even darker and more unstable.
Below, the King of the North Wind, Andrius, withdrew the massive wind shield covering Mondstadt City, instead applying the immense power of the North Wind to the city's perimeter. The bone-chilling cold wind howled, forming a huge, spherical barrier that intercepted all of the gale's remnants that tried to flee into the distance.
As Venti accelerated the recovery at the center, Andrius tacitly contracted the barrier, pushing the captured gales toward Venti at the core. The power grew stronger in a continuous cycle. The light of Venti's azure-white sphere shone brightly.
Finally, a stable, rotating vortex of Anemo element formed around its body, trapping all the remaining gales around it, with no chance of escape.
Seeing that Venti could now control the remaining gales, Andrius withdrew all his power. His profound gaze swept over the crowd of survivors below, finally pausing for a brief moment on Lupus.
Lupus, who was looking up in prayer, sensed something and looked toward the gradually dissipating silver-white ball of wind in the sky. He involuntarily took a few steps forward, wanting to get closer, trying to understand the deep meaning in the Wolf King's glance.
The next second, that gaze quietly vanished. Andrius transformed into a pure North Wind, swiftly flying away from Mondstadt City and disappearing over the horizon.
Lupus's forward steps halted, and he stared blankly at the sky where the Wolf King had departed. He subconsciously took a deep breath, feeling the rise and fall of his chest beneath his armor. His breathing was steady, not disordered by this sudden farewell.
He looked around at the crowd, still immersed in prayer, and a strange sense of calm replaced his expected feeling of loss.
He muttered to himself, as if convincing himself, "It seems... I'm not as reluctant as I thought..."
After speaking, he raised his head again, his gaze turning to the high sky, and continued to recite his unfinished prayer.
Below the High Tower.
In Coppelia's Elemental Sight, the pale-azure wind sphere in the high sky had been completely taken over by Venti's pure, cyan-green light and was now contracting steadily.
"It's a success," she said softly, breathing a sigh of relief.
The commotion caused by the god's death had left her with lingering fear. If not for the protection of the authority Venti had granted, she would have been shattered into several thousand pieces atop the High Tower just now.
Her gaze moved from the sky to her surroundings. The mountain range that had once surrounded Mondstadt, with its rising and falling peaks, had now been sheared clean in half, the cross-sections smooth. Countless fragments of rock were still peeling off the cuts, rumbling as they fell.
Thinking of the tower, she suddenly remembered the situation up there. She quickly pulled Columbina, who was beside her, and the two flew up, entering the High Tower, which had lost all its surrounding wind power and was now just a stone structure.
On the top floor of the High Tower, on the outer ring of stone slabs, Amos lay quietly. Her body was already cold, but her face was frozen in an expression of satisfied peace. That longbow, glowing with a faint purple light, was still held tightly in her hand.
Coppelia leaned down, gently took the bow from Amos's hand, and passed it to Columbina. Then, she carefully lifted the attendant's body, and the two silently flew back down.
On the other side, Gunnhildr noticed Coppelia and Columbina's movements but said nothing. She looked around and found that the familiar red-haired figure was also gone. She soon found him at the edge of the crowd. Lumiere was silently packing his belongings, seemingly preparing to leave.
"Stay, Lumiere." Gunnhildr walked up. "Your talents are vital to the newborn Mondstadt."
Lumiere shook his head, his red hair stirring in the breeze. "Gunnhildr, my mission to lead the people in rebellion was completed when the tyrant fell. As for building a new Mondstadt... you know better than I what the people need." He looked toward the populace in the distance. "Now, I want to return to the crowd."
Gunnhildr watched him for a moment, then stopped trying to persuade him, only making a solemn promise: "I understand. Then, from this day forward, Mondstadt's history will only record that it was a nameless red-haired knight who first raised the banner of resistance."
"That is enough." Lumiere gave a slight nod, a relieved smile on his face, then turned. His figure quickly disappeared into the dense crowd.
After seeing off her comrade-in-arms, Coppelia and Columbina also returned, carrying Amos.
"She... after all, she deeply loved the Solitary King, and she also pleaded for the people in secret. In the end, she even..." Gunnhildr looked at Amos's peaceful remains, her voice low. "We will give her a proper burial."
Columbina held up the longbow, which glowed with a purple light. "Then what about this?"
Gunnhildr's gaze fell on the bow. "You are about to travel far, and the road ahead is unknown. Take it with you, Coppelia. Perhaps it can be of some help to you on your journey."
High in the sky, Venti finally finished purifying and absorbing the last wisp of the scattered gales. That mass of divine remains, which held all of the Solitary King's lingering will and violence, was also completely sealed.
Venti had no experience in dealing with this object, so it could only temporarily take it into its body, wrap it in divine power, and find a solution later when the opportunity arose.
Next, it had to reshape its own body.
It remembered Himmel's words: "People would prefer a god with a human form."
It remembered that promise: "When you've turned into a person, I'll teach you how to play the lyre."
Its consciousness gently swept downward, over the crowd, finally landing on its close friend, who had already lost all signs of life. Himmel lay there, tightly clutching that treasured feather, his face showing the relief and peace of having witnessed the sky.
It seems his dream has come true. That's good...
Venti's 'gaze' carefully traced every detail of its friend's body—the boy's form, his features, the curve of his hair... Using this as a blueprint, it began to shape its new image.
The sphere-like body began to contract inward. The huge wings that had embraced the body also drew in, conforming to the forming outline.
When the last wisp of overflowing Anemo element was drawn into its body, Venti burst forth with an incomparably pure azure light and slowly descended from the sky.
On the ground, all the praying people looked up in unison, their gazes following that warm and sacred light.
Venti landed lightly in the center of the crowd. A gentle wind radiated from it as the center, brushing against every person's cheek, carrying the scent of life and hope, dispelling the last of the chill and fear.
The next moment, the pair of pure white wings elegantly unfurled.
Beneath the feathers was a young man dressed in a simple white robe. His short black hair stirred gently in the wind, and the tips of the strands hanging by his temples were dyed with a gradient of cyan, like a gentle breeze.
In his arms, he held a lyre condensed from pure Anemo element. Every curve of its body was identical to the one Himmel had cherished.
Venti named it after Himmel, 'Der Himmel,' which meant 'the sky.'
When the form of the young god was clearly reflected in their eyes, the crowd, after a brief silence, erupted in a deafening wave of cheers.
"God of Wind!"
"Lord Barbatos!"
The elderly shed tears of joy, excited to have witnessed a legend with their own eyes; the young people waved their arms in excitement, filled with yearning for a brand-new future; the children mimicked the adults, calling out the god's name in their young voices.
Surrounded by thousands of gazes and cheers, the newborn God of Wind, Barbatos, lifted his face slightly, using the wind to deliver the unprecedented air of freedom to every single person.
___
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