The night air in Mondstadt carried a quiet chill, but the street in front of Kael Arclight felt sharper, as if every breath had turned to glass.
Five Fatui operatives closed in on him, their cold stares like the flat edge of a blade.
Kael tilted his head, meeting them with an unreadable expression. "This is the level of the Fatui's so-called 'elite'?"
A flicker of anger rippled through the group.
One woman stepped forward, her boots scraping stone. She raised her blade too late.
Kael's sword flashed like a falling star.
Metal split. Her guard shattered. The impact sent her crashing across the street, blood blooming across her shoulder as she hit the ground and didn't rise.
Silence—followed by panic.
The remaining operatives faltered. They had met adventurers, knights, mercenaries. But not him.
Kael stepped once, the movement calm, clean. "You came to take me. Try."
That was when the leader—a tall man with a mask cut in ash-gray—slowly exhaled.
And smiled.
"Bold. Suicidal, but bold."
He pulled something from his coat: a crimson device with jagged edges, humming with a sickly heartbeat. Its carved symbols glowed like blood in a lantern.
A chill raced down the alley.
Kael recognized it instantly. "A Delusion."
One of the last things he expected to see used so casually.
The leader's grin widened. "You know more than a simple adventurer should."
Red light lanced outward.
A pulse of twisted elemental force roared through the street, shattering the night's calm. The temperature dropped, then spiked—like frost and fire clashing in Kael's lungs.
"Black Flame," the operative whispered.
Then the world snapped.
A chain of pitch-dark fire burst from the Delusion and cracked toward Kael like a whip. The flame wasn't flame at all—more like liquid shadow, a rope of raw elemental corruption. It hissed, leaving scars in stone.
Kael shifted sideways, barely avoiding it.
A second chain lashed from the opposite direction.
He blocked—instinct driving his arm rather than conscious thought—and the impact sent a jolt up his bones. His blade sizzled where the chain struck, scorched black lines spreading like rot.
This power… was pulling at him.
Trying to bind him.
Trying to claim him.
If that hits me clean, I'm done.
A pressure bloomed in his chest—something sharp, urging him to move faster, strike deeper. A familiar pulse. Not text, not a voice, but the sudden clarity of choice.
Overwhelm, evade, or break the flow…
Kael inhaled.
And chose.
His blade—the sword he'd reforged earlier—thrummed as he flooded it with destructive will. The echo of Clara's Path flared, a strand of annihilation weaving through the steel.
The next chain descended.
Kael cut upward.
CRACK.
Dark fire shattered, breaking apart like glass under a hammer. Wisps of shadow evaporated into the air.
The Fatui leader froze.
"You broke it…?"
Kael didn't answer. He stepped forward, blade low, eyes locked.
Another chain snapped toward him. He spun once, then carved through it with a fierce, clean arc. Sparks and black vapor spiraled into the night sky.
His footwork tightened. His grip steadied. Every slice carried the weight of a storm compressed into steel.
A third chain struck.
He severed it.
A fourth.
Broken.
A fifth lunged to bind him—
Kael cut it so sharply that the shattering burst of dark fire illuminated the alley like a dying star.
When the smoke cleared, Kael stood alone amid fading cinders.
The Fatui stared, stunned.
"What… what kind of sword is that…?"
"Is it an elemental arm…?"
"No—no arm could cut through a Delusion's full output—"
The leader's jaw clenched. His fingers tightened around the crimson device. "You think this is the extent of a Delusion's power?"
Red light surged again.
This time, the flame deepened, turning several shades darker—almost purple at the edges. The pressure doubled, then tripled, a suffocating weight that crushed the air.
A second resonance.
A second awakening.
Kael's eyes narrowed. So Delusions can… escalate?
The black fire didn't form chains. It twisted, spiraled, hungry, a living thing.
And it lunged.
Kael's heartbeat hammered once.
Then he moved.