“You know? When I first yelled out ‘I HAVE A SMALL MOUNTAIN IN MY PANTS RIGHT NOW!!!’ in front of those people, I meant it literally. You know!? The BLOCKS!? From that mountain? That I mined into my inventory?” 

Feng suddenly and randomly remembers what he said to the crowd, and that has resulted in him being thoroughly embarrassed. 

He is so embarrassed that he is feeling second-hand embarrassment from himself, on top of his own embarrassment.

Feng is now feeling embarrassment-squared. 

Embarrassment²

Not even the eight water dragon heads that have emerged from the ocean surface, currently overshadowing the entire stone hut town, is enough to distract Feng from the thought of flipping his face upside down for eternity just so that no one can recognize him again. 

Not until the ocean around them begins to ripple and clash into several vortexes that slightly shake the earth. 

“So much for deciding to help and get out before trouble arrives.” Feng sighs to himself. In the past dozen hours, he has been trying to decide how much he should help without getting involved in this disaster. It’d appear that life will not wait for him any longer and has delivered the big bads with same-day shipping. 

He returns to the stone hut, tripping over his own foot in the process but avoids faceplanting to the ground when Corcell holds him up by the arms. Feng looks up, the Archon ladies have exited. Havria is pressing both hands in front of her chest as she sees the campground’s newest visitors. 

Feng thanks Corcell but does not have the time to be distracted. He had anticipated that chaos would soon erupt when the people noticed the monsters approaching, but surprisingly, there was only silence. 

Corcell’s expression doesn’t change; it’s normal that when the enemy strikes, an Archon’s believers would look to their gods and heed their commands. What does make her look back and forth a bit is the discovery that Havria’s people are not looking to the Salt Archon, but instead, to Feng. 

Back at the sea, the Vortex Archon has his eyes locked on the field of stone buildings. Each of his five heads periodically let out heavy huffs. 

“I can sense it. Two Archons by the shore.” A voice vibrates the ocean surface, sending waves to the Hydra next to the Vortex Archon. 

“And the aggressive one had spotted you last night?” Another voice echoes back to the Archon, comparatively less deep. 

“I bet it was a bluff. I know I can take them both! And besides, I have you with me.” The Vortex Archon replies. 

“Osial, just…promise me, promise me that if anything happens, we must retreat! If they are too much to handle, we go! If Morax arrives, we go!” Beisht warns her husband. One of her heads can’t help but to look at the building-sized charred mark on his back. 

It has been weeks since their battle against the Geo Archon. Beisht still remembers when Morax summoned that giant meteor, when the unstoppable rock was crashing through the water jet she fired, how Osial shoved her aside and took the hit in her place. 

“It will be over quick-”

“Promise. Me!” She cuts him off. 

Beisht gestures towards Mt. Tianheng, and Osial instantly stops talking. Indeed, after weeks of hiding, Morax would have likely moved on to addend to other matters. The two had been waiting all that time to recover. Now that there are other Archons nearby, Osial can devour them, and use the new-found nourishment to heal. 

However, just a day before their arrival, a being of unspeakable horror suddenly befell at Mt. Tianheng, looking for some Terra Archon. Not long after, that mountain collapsed, quaking both the land and sea. 

That would have definitely drawn Morax’s attention to this place again, and no one knows when the Geo Archon would arrive to survey his territory. This hunt must be swift and silent. 

“I promise.” Osial replies to his wife, nodding all five of his heads.

“Yep, as I had thought, Osial and Beisht.” Feng lets out “There is no running now. What do we do?”

He looks at Corcell and Havria, then at everyone else around him. “Stop looking at me! I don’t know what to do!” He thinks. 

Havria’s silent. 

Corcell flies into the air, and after circling the campsite once, she returns with a cold expression: “Facing the ocean, backed by a mountain, the sides are on a hill. When they strike, there will be nowhere for those people to run.” 

“If I magic-mirror myself away, they’re all dead.” Feng thinks to himself. 

Now he hears all the voices from the crowd that had surrounded them three. Now he sees the frowns and shakes, the children and mother hugging each other tightly, the lightless gaze from the elders, and the young and strong ones searching frantically for a way out of this place. 

If Mt. Tianheng hadn’t collapsed, Feng probably could have led those people to the other side of it through the tunnels. But that is not an option now. Even if he digs a new one as fast as he can, such an evacuation attempt would surely ensue an aggressive assault from those two water dragons. 

“Any plans or do we just go at it?” Feng asks, quite bluntly towards Havria. 

She’s close to biting her nails until she finally lets out a little smile. Feng recognizes it; Corcell gave a similar smile when they were inside that collapsing mountain until Feng yanked her out. 

“Oh boy, what’s she thinking?”

“Well, Feng, it would appear that your prophecy won’t be true after all; my death wouldn’t be by the hands of my people.” Havria says. “I only beg that you can lead them to safety after this. They’ve been through enough.” 

“... and?” 

“I think I know what they want. Archons can absorb the power of another to strengthen or recover.” Havria explains as she steps to the ocean. Salt crystallized under her feet, forming a salt bridge towards Osial and Beisht that’s only wide enough to support Havria’s own thin and frail stature. “But they wouldn’t harm those people because that won’t bring them any good. I’ll offer my life in exchange for theirs, and as long as you both get away, those people will be spared. That’d be the last thing I can provide to those poor souls.” 

A thunderous clap silences the field. It didn’t land on Havria; Feng has just done a huge facepalm. 

“This girl, I swear.” Feng shoves the Salt Archon back, not caring at all that he has just thrown her to the floor. “Alright Corcell, let’s team up again.” 

Feng doesn’t even want to bother explaining to Havria why her plan is stupid. She’s asking an organ trafficker to take her wallet and spare her life. Yeah right, that’d work. 

“And so you’ve decided to fight for those people after all?” 

“Hey, think of it this way, I’m also fighting for us. Not sure about me, but you are definitely on their menu.” 

Corcell lets out a scuff. She has a lot of questions that she’ll have to answer to herself after this. Ever since she met Feng, she has found herself falling into a near-endless pit of curiosity about this man. Feng has surprised her a few times by now. Since the mountain’s collapse, Corcell has been wondering what this man will do next. She can not explain why she’s curious, just that she is. At one point she even wanted to fly away so as to not continue to think about this guy. 

She could have avoided this battle that was never her concern; she could have been hurrying towards her city since surviving the mountain, yet she chose to stay. There are many reasons, but frankly, she also wishes to witness his next move. Now look at her, nowhere left to run, especially not with how little power she has left after her fight with the cultist. “Oh, what has become of me?” Crocell thinks to herself.

“Will you surprise me again this time?” She jokingly asks as her pupil once again turns blood-red. 

“Let’s see.” Feng replies, taking out his pickaxe. “You said that you can control the clouds, show me.” 

Corcell looks at him for a second, then, with one swipe of her arm, a little piece of white cloud gathers in front of them. 

Feng takes a swing, and under Crocell’s widened gaze, the puff of cloud breaks into a few white blocks. Feng then places them down, forming a platform, and puts an orange portal on it. 

“Can you still move it?” 

Corcell is silent. She stares at the blocky clouds and applies her elemental power. Feng smiles when he sees that Corcell can carry that orange portal to wherever she wants on those cloud blocks.

“And that will be a crucial part of our fight. Surprised enough?”

Corcell nods. Her hair has extended and shifted to white. 

“Oh and, this.” Feng flicks a blue shield badge to Corcell. She catches it with one hand. 

“What is it?”

“Consider it a symbol of our team.” Feng sticks up his thumb at her. 

She smiles a little, and retrieves the badge: “What I used on the Cultist won’t work on them.”

“No matter where you hit?” 

“Hmm… Practically not.” 

“Dead end huh?” 

“Not entirely.” Corcell calmly says. Feng hurls his gaze back at her, his lips shut tight, and his ears fully open. “Who knows? They may have a weak spot. And besides, I have a plan.”

The Vortexes around Osial have now risen into the sky as pillars of hydro tornados. Thunder clouds soon emerge from the horizon, though Osial is careful not to let any move too close to Mt. Tianheng. 

The couple watches as the people scramble back into the stone huts. Ignoring the fact that the buildings are weirdly square-y, they approach the shore. Feng has told Havria to command everyone to go back to their huts and keep the doors shut. 

 “But,” Havria suddenly takes a heavy step forward toward the two and asks: “We can all sense how powerful they are! There’s no way that you can win against those two!”

No, Havria isn’t correct; Feng can’t sense shit.

“To be honest,” Feng says, “I don’t know how strong they are, and I don’t know how strong I am. All I know is that m---any lives will be lost if I don’t do something.”

He then turns to Corcell and confesses: “My weapon has no ammunition. I won’t be able to hurt those two.” 

“Maybe you don’t have to then. We only need to stir up a big enough chaos to notify Liyue.” Corcell explains. “Leave them to me. Just stay alive. But Feng, I hope that you won’t disappoint me.”

Corcell has fully transformed. Her hair long and white, her eyes crimson red, her outfit dark as night, and her sword cold and sharp. A pair of wings sprout out of her back, and she takes to the air.

“What does she mean?” Havria asks. The quivering girl reminds Feng of a newborn kitten helplessly trembling in the cold. 

“I can’t believe I haven’t thought of that.” Feng gushes, locking his gaze on Corcell. “If the battle is intense enough, we may potentially attract Morax to come here. This is close to his territory, and he probably won’t ignore battle on the border of his land. If anything, he at least should be more reasonable than those two fish spaghetti.” However, as for what she meant by not disappointing her, Feng has no clue about that.

“But, what if Morax considers us enemies as well?” Havria asks. 

Feng stutters from that thought: “If that happens, I’ma gonna press the off button (of my brain).” 

Havria: ???

Osial and Beisht momentarily stop upon seeing a winged figure ascending from the field. Beisht quickly swims before her husband, while Osial points all his heads towards the newcomer. Sizing her up, the couple wastes no time shooting several jets of water at her. 

Corcell puts her blade in front of her, forming a cross with her fully opened wings. Wind is channeled around her, resulting in her swiftly swirling in the air, spiraling around each of the coming attacks. 

The jets disperse into mist upon impacting the mountain, leaving smoothly drilled holes behind. Corcell points her sword upward, and the mist is guided by her into puffs of dark thunderclouds. 

“Oh that's not good!” Osial realizes. “Beisht, do not let her form those clouds! We can't let Liyue from the other side of that mountain notice!”

“Be careful by yourself!” she says, and begins to focus her own power. 

The thunderclouds begin to twist and turn, scatter then gather, then scatter again. Sparkles of lightning momentarily pop out, but are then quickly snuffed out. 

Osial fires a few more water jets at Corcell. She lets go of one of her hands that was gripping her starfury and opens that palm. 

“Condense!”

A shield of hydro and cryo materializes around her, blocking a single jet that she has failed to avoid. Ripples and cracks spread on her shield like a spiderweb, and a few drops of water force their way through and splatter onto Corcell's face. 

Feng opens his map, and indeed he sees Corcell's icon with a blue outline around it, appearing on the map. Below her icon, Feng sees a green bar that is suddenly shortened by a little. 

Alright, so I can see a teammate and check on their health. He focuses on it for a bit. No numbers. 

Whatever. 

However, seeing that Corcell's health is dropping consistently, Feng turns towards Havria. 

“I have to go help her. Havria, just tell me if there's literally anything you can do in this situation.”

“Um, I…” Havria looks around her frantically. 

“Don't bother thinking whether it'd work or not. Whatever you can think of, just do it, anything!” Feng says as he approaches one of the huts. 

He opens the door to a frightened family. 

“Wha, what's the matter Great Archon?” The man of the family speaks. 

“I'm not an Arch-, whatever. We're in a fight, and I need your help! All of you.” Feng says. 

But then, he thinks back to the amount of huts that he built last night and shakes his head. He can not go and knock on every single door. Realizing that, Feng turns back to Havria and asks: “Havria, how did you command all your people to stay in their huts?”

“Mmm? What do you mean?” 

“Are you able to talk to all of your people at once? There’s something I need everyone to know.”

Havria is a little confused. Being able to talk to their believers is almost an instinctive ability for an Archon. Could it be that Feng simply doesn’t have any believers? Nevertheless, she still explains: “Uh, yes, I can. I am able to communicate to all my believers at once through my mind.”

Feng's shoulders are now a little less tense than before. He knew from gameplay that the Geo Archon would annually show up during Liyue’s annual Rite of Descension, to give guidance to his people for a prosperous year and alter economic conditions or whatever. The point is, Zhongli talks to his entire nation once a year. If that’s the case, Archons may possess the means to wide-range communication. He guessed right. Havria is indeed the biggest megaphone currently on the field. 

“Alright, lady, listen. I need your people to do two things for me: 1, bring me all the carrots! And 2, afterward, stay inside and close their door!”

“I’m sorry what?”

“YES!”

“Um, great Archon?” The man from that family from before that Feng has chosen to ignore after kicking open their door nervously asks. 

“Listen to your Archon, Go. Bring. Me. ALL. the Carrots!!!”

Osial fires several water bolts. They look less intense than the jets, but they quickly put a much more serious expression on Corcell's face. 

Just as she once again gathers Anemo elements to push her wings away from the water's trajectory, she senses that those attacks have turned before crashing into the mountainside. 

Each one of Osial's heads has launched one of those, and five ballistic water spheres quickly surround Corcell from every angle. She leaps through the air, trying to form an ice kite shield in her hand, but she stops at the last second. That attack from before has infused her with Hydro element. If she uses her Cryo abilities right now, Corcell risks freezing herself in midair. Realizing that, she instead blows a water bubble that engulfs her.

The water bolts fly like a swarm of hornets locking onto an intruder covered in honey. They spiral and turn in the air, drawing out streams of tails as they travel, all while locking on Corcell. 

When one of the bolts maneuvers behind the Cloud Archon, she finally lowers her starfury and cleaves at it. The strike shatters the water bolt into speckles of ice particles and starlights, but the thunderclouds in the sky also dissipate in an instant. 

Seeing that, Beisht joins the battle as well. She takes her husband's place in striking from afar while Osial begins to summon several more pillars of vortexes. 

The ocean hasn't been calm since the Hydras' emersion, and with those newly formed water tornadoes, waves begin to crash onto the shore.  

Feng is just about to build himself a stone tower to prevent being washed away when he sees Havria approaching the shore with what looks like a stone plate in her hands. 

Unlike last time, no salt bridge is popping out. She grips her salt ruler firmly and mumbles to herself: “Don't bother thinking whether it'd work or not, just do something, anything.”

Suddenly, she opens her eyes. Mist-like aura flows out of her pupils, and the tips of her hair begin to glow a salty-white hue. She stabs her ruler into the beach, and the ground begins to lightly tremble. 

Feng and the people in their huts watch as a wall of snow-white salt crystalizes at the shore. The wall grows, stopping when it barely blocks the Hydras in the distant ocean. 

Waves crash and collide onto the wall of salt, but all are blocked right back into the sea, washing away only the outermost surface of the crystals. 

Havria kneels in the sand, holding her ruler like a knight would her sword. The withering wall soon expands to cover the entire shoreline, shielding every hut from the sea while repairing the damage that the waves have been dealing. 

“Hmm,” Feng lets out. He opens his inventory and focuses on the text box at the bottom left of his sight.

The one that said “Welcome, ‘Terrarian’ has joined the ‘World of Teyvat’.”

“‘Block System’ Activated.”

He concentrates on it, and indeed texts begin to appear in the box.“Corcell, this is Feng! Move my portal above those dragons. Try not to let them see it!”

*send

And only after a few seconds, Feng sees that little platform made from cloud blocks is flying into the sky. 

Corcell is momentarily surprised by that line of text that suddenly appeared, but the battle doesn't allow her mind to wander around. 

She ascends that platform into the air and looks through it. He sees Feng facing her with a strange metal tube with purple light stripes in his hand. Feng nods and points his Celebration Mk2 directly at the portal he just opened. 

Corcell now understands, she controls the cloud platform and faces the portal above and at Osial. 

After Havria has made her wall of salt, some of her believers dared to venture out of their huts to bring the carrots that they had to Feng. Few have the time to wonder what he plans to do with those carrots, and the people quickly return to their buildings afterward. 

Feng's ammunition has grown from a single-digit number to a wapping 194. In the past few hours, he had nearly forgotten that his Celebration Mk2 has auto fire. 

When he sees only a vague outline of the water hydras in his portal, Feng clenches down the trigger. A barrage of colorful missiles fly out his barrel and rain down to the ocean. 

Osial's gaze is still fixated on Corcell, but Beisht notices the flashing lights in the distant sky. Seven colors of rocket fall with great velocity like a meteor shower towards the Archon couple. 

Beisht fires several water spheres at the lights and sees as they explode into fireworks with various patterns. However, the water spheres are insufficient for clearing the rockets. 

Feng isn't letting go of the trigger for a single moment, and his carrots are rapidly depleting. Soon the rockets reach their targets.

“Watch out!” Beisht warns Osial, who has just noticed Feng's attack. They quickly stop combating Corcell and combine their strength to raise the water beneath them, forming a barrier around themselves. 

The rockets hit, and the impacts create yet another firework show that lights up the sky. Corcell moves the cloud platform around the dragons, and Feng's missiles are now hitting from multiple angles. 

Feng looks as the scenery in his portal flies through the air and across the ocean surface. He feels as if he is the gunner of a fighter jet, and the pilot knows exactly where to fly for him to have the best aims. 

Wind and mist blast out of the portal on Feng's side, flipping the tails of his clothing like capes. The wind around his ear is nearly loud enough to block out the explosion of his rockets, yet Feng stands firmly in place. 

A little smirk appears on the corner of Corcell's lips, and Feng watches as she moves further and further away from Mt. Tianheng on his mini-map. 

“Wait what?” Feng stumbles for a moment. “BURH!? Yo, is she leaving!?”

ReadLight

I finally wrote it out. The reason for the delay was simply that this chapter was difficult to write. I had to burn out a lot of my brain bacteria thinking how this fight should play out and stuff. More than all other chapters so far, I want to know what you think/feel about it. So, if you would, please fill out the poll and let me know how the chapter was. (Feel free to be honest, I'm prepared to die.)