They descended the beanstalk once more and returned to the ground.
After cutting down the goblins that gathered around them, the group made their way back toward the Troll Caverns.
Perhaps not much time had passed since they last left; the cavern had not yet spawned any new trolls.
They swept aside the endlessly respawning goblins, re-entered the Troll Caverns, tore down the wall of colossal obsidian, and retrieved the Lamp of Cinders sealed within.
Inside the chest that housed the lantern, they also discovered a Master-level Spell Scroll: Suffocating Fog.
Ryen was completely uninterested. He already owned the spellbook version, and if he ever wanted extras, the manor vaults held plenty.
No one else seemed especially enthused either, most preferred upgrading their existing weapons and staves.
In the end, after being passed around a few times, the scroll ended up in Yae Miko's hands.
She examined it with leisurely amusement.
"So this is the spell that little one used to stop the Shogun?"
Lumine nodded.
"Blindness, forced disorientation, and once the Suffocating Fog spreads, it summons tendrils that restrict movement.
Raiden Shogun didn't dare pursue us recklessly."
"If we'd kept this scroll, I could have stalled Ei even longer when she was chasing us afterward."
Ei cast a brief sidelong glance at the scroll.
But she had little interest in spellcraft.
Her preferences remained with blade techniques, especially the draw-style swords of Ryen's mods.
Staves mattered only because she wanted to equip Makoto with more tools for protection.
Makoto already carried an Advanced Thunder Staff, but Ei preferred her to have several options, safety above all.
Ideally something like Lumine's arsenal: multiple staves, each carrying the Lich Barrier enhancement strong enough to withstand even her own Musou no Hitotachi.
To Ei, Makoto's combat power didn't matter.
Her defense mattered.
Even that potent Master-level Thunder Staff, which increased Electro power by sixty percent, didn't tempt Ei half as much as a good blade.
Especially a blade like Ryen's Enma Blade, infused with spatial force.
With that in hand, paired with her Musou no Hitotachi, she was convinced she could challenge even the Sustainer of Heavenly Principles alone.
"Interesting scroll," Miko murmured, tucking it away.
"I'll hold onto it, for now. Perhaps it will be useful in some unexpected way."
"Don't get your hopes up about embedding Vision-magic into spell scrolls," Lisa reminded gently.
"Albedo has attempted it countless times. The system simply doesn't cooperate."
"And besides, we don't have the materials to craft scrolls at all."
"Better to rely on the new batch of Delusions instead. If nothing goes wrong, Sumeru should have its first shipment by tonight."
Kujou Sara tilted her head slightly, curiosity rising.
"I heard Delusions require the corruption of a defeated god. Didn't Liyue already purify all their divine filth? Rex Lapis' Yaksha and the Kaeya handled the remnants, did they not?"
"Huh?"
Lumine blinked at her innocently.
"Did I not tell you?"
Sara looked confused.
"Tell me… what?"
Lumine pointed toward Ryen, who was whispering something to Ganyu and making her ears turn pink.
"A few days ago, when Ryen first obtained a Delusion, he ran out of elemental energy almost immediately."
"He thought waiting for it to recharge was a hassle, so he simply went to the Dark Sea, caught a random demon god, and drained him."
"Some guy whose name started with… 'Pi' something."
Ei stiffened.
"Petrus?"
"That's the one!"
Ei fell silent.
Sara frowned slightly.
"Shogun… is that Petrus formidable?"
Ei slowly shook her head.
"Petrus himself is not powerful. He is merely a high-ranking demon god."
"But he is the strongest underling of Boethius, one of the most dangerous demon gods beyond Teyvat."
Lumine nodded earnestly.
"Yes! Ryen said he kept bragging about being under someone named Boethius."
Ei exhaled.
"Boethius is… extraordinary. He is a foreign demon god believed to govern eras and the flow of history.
A top-tier existence, undeniably."
"And where is Petrus now?" Ei asked.
Ningguang answered with an amused smile:
"He's being detained in our Tianheng Mountain base. We're extracting his corrupted divine energy, that's how we're producing so many Delusions."
Ei felt a new headache forming.
Jean stepped in with an apologetic smile:
"Don't worry. When Ryen captured him, Petrus tried threatening him by claiming he had powerful backing.
So Ryen simply punched toward Boethius' occupied region."
"Venti said the entire Dark Sea shook. The demon gods there were thrown into chaos, too busy to retaliate."
"Even if Boethius knows, I doubt he'd dare come."
Ei looked blankly at Ryen again.
He was still chatting casually with Ganyu, making her flush and clamp a hand over his mouth every few seconds.
After a long silence, Ei whispered:
"So in the end… what is the true meaning behind his pursuit of elemental power?"
Lumine sighed.
"I told you already. He just thinks it looks cool."
"I know it sounds ridiculous, but I think… maybe that's just how the strongest beings are."
"When you have nothing left that challenges you, you need something to keep your heart entertained."
"That's probably all it is."
Ei said nothing.
The sheer absurdity of today's revelations left her adrift.
Only now did she understand, the power she once believed absolutely supreme…
To Ryen, it was barely a toy.
Petrus wasn't impressive, true.
But a single punch shaking the entire Dark Sea?
Enough to force demon gods into panic?
She could hardly imagine that kind of strength.
Wasn't this equivalent to saying that, if Ryen ever chose to strike her, it would take him one punch?
And she had been seriously considering teaching him swordsmanship.
So that was nothing more than her own wishful thinking… he truly didn't need it.
Yet, from another angle, Ei found a strange sense of reassurance.
If he had already hammered the Dark Sea into upheaval, then defeating even the Sustainer of Heavenly Principles suddenly didn't seem impossible.
Lisa, however, paid no mind to Ei's inner turmoil.
She stepped briskly up to Ryen, her eyes flicking toward the Lamp of Cinders in his hand.
"So this is the item you mentioned, the one that releases fire without harming anyone?"
Ryen passed the lantern to her.
"In this world, yes, it deals no damage at all.
But in Teyvat, it'll probably apply a Burn status, nothing fatal, but still a bit of damage."
"Why? Interested in studying it?"
Lisa nodded with a soft, charming laugh.
"A curiosity like this would interest anyone.
And besides, because you keep dumping every strange relic on poor Albedo, he hasn't had a normal research topic in ages."
"You're not about to let me fade into idleness, are you?"
Ryen chuckled.
"Funny. Two nights ago, you said the greatest research topic of your life was me, that even a lifetime wouldn't be enough to finish studying me."
"And now you're changing loyalties?"
Lisa rolled her eyes at him, half irritated, half amused.
"Studying you doesn't mean I can't study other things.
Besides, wasn't it you doing most of the 'research' that night?"
"And if anyone should be accused of being fickle, it's you."
"That's not fickleness." Ryen straightened. "That's universal love. I intend to give every girl a home! A grand, selfless vision, a benevolence greater than the world has ever known!"
Lisa burst out laughing at his nonsense and shook her head.
"So, are you giving the Lamp of Cinders to me or to Albedo?"
"Of course to you."
Ryen pinched her nose affectionately.
"Study it if you want. It's not terribly urgent, just something that seemed useful earlier."
Originally, the Lamp of Cinders mattered because it could blanket large areas in flames, which in certain situations created strategic openings.
But with Delusions soon to be mass-produced, even non-Pyro characters could freely add Pyro to their arsenal.
And as for outfitting soldiers with elemental attacks, Flame Arrows, Frost Arrows, elemental enchantments, even dragon-breaths, those covered everything.
As time went on, things that once seemed critical now felt like mere accessories.
Eventually, even dragon riders might become obsolete.
Once every soldier owned a draw-style sword mod, the entire army would simply fly.
Or perhaps hundreds of cultivator-style sword-riders soaring through the sky.
After all, modded worlds have no ceiling.
Lisa held the Lamp up, turning it in her hands.
There wasn't much to see. She wasn't particularly attached to studying the object; she simply wanted to help Ryen in some way.
Even if he had no real need for the results.
They walked only a short distance before brambles began appearing in the terrain.
Above them, the distant sky opened into sheets of heavy rain.
Ryen lifted a hand, stopping everyone.
Zhongli stepped ahead, brow furrowing.
"The rain feels… wrong."
Ryen nodded.
"Acid Rain magic."
Tartaglia perked up.
"That spell, the one that looks like rain but actually counts as Electro damage?
Continuous damage over time, right?"
"Exactly," Ryen said calmly.
"This is the last barrier before the Final Castle.
If we don't neutralize the acid rain, we can't approach it at all."
"So what do we do?" Lisa asked, glancing at him.
Ryen pointed toward the lantern in her hand.
"Burn away the brambles with that."
Lisa nodded and released her will.
A torrent of flame erupted from the Lamp of Cinders, vast, sweeping, engulfing the thicket.
Kujou Sara instinctively stepped in front of Ei.
But when the fire washed over her harmlessly, she blinked and recalled Ryen's earlier explanation.
"No harm… at all."
Sara shook her head in wonder.
"So much fire, yet not a single living thing is affected?
So its only purpose is to dispel the acid rain barrier?"
Ryen glanced toward the sky, where the corrosive rain was already dissipating.
"Something like that. Think of it as a magical key.
Lisa can study the specifics later."
"It's not very important now. Once we finish the Final Castle, everything resets."
"And after we repeat the Twilight Forest progression again… it'll be time to open the new mod pack."
At the mention of a new mod, everyone visibly brightened.
If not for the sheer number of bosses remaining, they might have rushed through the Final Castle immediately just to start over.
Yet the closer they drew to the Final Castle, the stronger the pressure became, a suffocating aura pressing directly against the soul.
"Ryen," Lumine murmured, rubbing the back of her neck,
"You said there were no powerful enemies inside the Final Castle… but this feels like the opposite."
Ryen exhaled softly.
That had been true before. But now that the Twilight Forest included the Witchcraft Expansion Pack, who could say what new bosses lurked inside?
Still… this oppressive force wasn't trivial.
"We can't assume anything.
Let's enter first and see for ourselves."
~~----------------------
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