The accumulated dark clouds outside the cave briefly split open, revealing a crack. The cold moonlight, like silver gauze, passed through the entrance and sprinkled onto the ground.
Columbina saw it. Holding the "Moon Spirit," she stood up, walked out of the cave step by step, and looked up at the moon in the night sky.
Now looking at this moon again, the deep longing for "home" she initially felt was long gone. She knew that was not her moon, but merely a false copy.
Gazing at that false "replica" in the sky, a thought suddenly illuminated her mind like the moonlight itself: Can I share a part of my own flight ability with the Moon Spirit?
The Authority of gods can be lent out... She remembered in Mondstadt, the Wind God Venti had once borrowed power from his future self to give to two human companions.
Then, Authority should also be divisible, giftable... I can give a little bit of my Authority to the Moon Spirit!
Thinking of this, she gently floated back into the cave, sat down by the bonfire again, lowered her head, and began to inspect herself internally. Inside her body, around that shattered power core, some tiny fragments in a free state were still lingering.
All her powers originated from this core. Since it was already shattered, taking a small piece out of it shouldn't be a problem.
She condensed her will over and over, attempting to "peel" a small fragment from around the core. But no matter how she concentrated, those fragments remained motionless, as if they had an uncuttable deep connection with the core itself.
She didn't give up and continued trying. The clouds outside closed up again, hiding the moonlight. Just at a certain moment, she suddenly grasped a "knack" in the sensation.
She no longer guided it gently, but forcibly tore that selected small fragment out from the core's force field.
The tearing process brought a strange and intense discomfort, as if her internal organs were being stirred by an invisible hand. The further the fragment moved from the core, the sharper this sensation became.
The violent churning of power within her made her feel as if her heart was displaced; her throat tightened violently, nearly causing her to vomit the minced meat she had eaten before sleeping.
She immediately set the "Moon Spirit" in her arms aside, curled her body, and pressed her left elbow hard against her abdomen to suppress the overwhelming nausea.
At the same time, her right hand reached directly into her chest—at this moment, it was not physical flesh, but a layer of surging moonlight. She gritted her teeth, poured her will into her fingertips, grabbed suddenly, and pulled hard!
"Urgh—!"
A cry of pain that couldn't be suppressed squeezed out of her throat. The instant the fragment left her body, she felt as if all the blood and senses in her body were violently inverted. The scene before her became blurred and twisted, her ears filled with a sharp, piercing ringing.
"What's wrong?!" Coppelia was instantly startled awake by the sound. She flipped up to sit, her gaze sweeping quickly across the cave. The firelight remained, nothing abnormal.
She stood up immediately, crossed to Columbina's left side in a few steps, her fists clenching unconsciously: "What exactly happened?!"
Columbina's tinnitus hadn't faded yet, so she didn't hear the voice behind her; her blurred perception hadn't cleared up either.
Relying on memory, she groped for the "Moon Spirit" beside her, grabbed it with her left hand, and then forcefully pressed the tiny yet Authority-filled fragment—torn raw from her own power core—held in her right palm into the position of the "core" within the "Moon Spirit's" body.
Columbina's senses recovered slightly. She brought her face close to the "Moon Spirit," focusing intently on sensing the changes within... It seemed some subtle and rapid reactions were occurring.
Then, she felt a violent shaking on her left shoulder. She turned her head to the left and saw Coppelia kneeling beside her, hands gripping her shoulders tightly, eyes reflecting the dancing firelight, mixed with panic and urgency.
The other's voice penetrated the residual ringing: "Don't scare me! Speak! What happened? What were you holding just now?"
"I'm fine," Columbina answered, her voice still a bit floaty. "I couldn't sleep, so..."
Just then, she felt a strange throbbing from the "Moon Spirit" in her left hand. She hurriedly held the "Moon Spirit" up with both hands, lifting it before her, turning her head, her perception locking onto it tightly.
Coppelia also released the hands gripping Columbina's shoulders, casting her gaze upon that "Moon Spirit."
At the core position in the center of the "Moon Spirit's" head, a white light suddenly lit up, stable and soft. Immediately after, its body began to twitch slightly, followed by larger swinging movements. The pair of small wing-like structures on top of its head flapped back and forth, and the two long "braids" swayed, as if brushed by a breeze.
"It's alive!" Columbina raised her volume unconsciously, her voice filled with unbelievable joy.
Coppelia's gaze, however, did not linger much on the "Moon Spirit." She immediately turned back to Columbina's face. Compared to the newborn creation, she cared more about what that cry of pain just now meant. "What exactly did you do? Are you hurt anywhere?"
"No." Columbina's gaze still tightly followed the "Moon Spirit," answering somewhat absent-mindedly.
Coppelia didn't fully believe it, but seeing the upturned corners of Columbina's mouth and her completely relaxed brows, she knew the other was fully immersed in joy and had no time for other questions.
However, in the very next second, Coppelia saw the smile on Columbina's face recede rapidly like a tide, her brows drooping and knitting tightly together.
She immediately looked at the "Moon Spirit."
She saw that the little fellow, emitting a faint white light, was seeing the light around its body dim at a speed visible to the naked eye. The light of the core flickered uncertainly.
The two flowing "braids" on the sides of its body suddenly lost all vitality, detaching from the connection points. First, they fell downward extremely slowly for a short distance, then, like all objects losing support, they obeyed the law of gravity and slapped onto the cold ground with a soft pa sound.
Its originally round body was also continuously deflating, shrinking into a wrinkled, irregular lump of flesh—round on top and pointed at the bottom—its surface uneven and trembling violently.
"No! Don't!" Columbina almost cried out.
She hurriedly injected Lunar Force into that lump of flesh, trying to help regulate its state, but it only made things more chaotic; several parts of the flesh lump's skin ruptured.
She immediately stopped all manipulation and hugged that shrinking lump of flesh, which was rapidly losing form and life, tightly into her arms.
She seemed to be able to personally feel the pain the creation in her arms was experiencing. She shook her head constantly, curled her body into a ball, and trembled uncontrollably.
This sudden turn of events left Coppelia somewhat at a loss for a moment.
"Columbina..." She called out softly but received no response.
She moved her body closer, knelt down beside Columbina, extended her arms, and gently pulled that figure—trembling ceaselessly and holding the "dead" creation tight—into her own embrace, one hand slowly patting her back.
...
To be continued.
____
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