(Brain storage space...)
(Gentle reminder, no zombies inside...)
In the land of Teyvat, within the borders of Mondstadt.
Lush green grass stretched across the earth, the mottled yellow and green of the fields obscuring patches of sunlight, while the rippling water of Starfell Lake gleamed with brilliant reflections.
Everywhere was filled with vitality and the breath of freedom.
Suddenly, a childish, youthful voice rang out.
"Da-da-da..."
"Heh-hiss!"
Beside Starfell Lake,
a tiny red figure jogging along came to an abrupt halt, her small body leaning slightly forward from the momentum before she hurriedly waved her arms to steady herself.
The little one wore a small red hat, the brim decorated with a four-leaf clover and a feather ornament. She was dressed in a little red princess dress and carried a small brown backpack.
Hanging from both sides of the backpack were a uniquely shaped doll and a small, fist-sized blue-and-white orb.
"Hehe, finally out of confinement! It's been so long since Klee came to Starfell Lake to blast some fish!"
At the mere thought of being able to happily go fish-blasting, Klee's long, pointy little ears couldn't help twitching as she broke into an adorable smile.
She plunged both small hands into her bag!
"Starfell Lake, here I come!"
"Jumpy Dumpty!"
In her long-awaited excitement, little Klee completely failed to consider the bomb's destructive power, nor did she notice that the one she had just pulled from her small backpack was a supersized Jumpy Dumpty!
The cute-looking plush bomb met the dazzling sunlight as it plunged into the lake.
"Boom!!"
A massive roar echoed through the forest, the surrounding trees scorched directly to ashes by the intense pyro energy, still trailing wisps of glowing sparks.
In the distance, the panicked shouts of Hilichurls could be faintly heard.
The waves kicked up by the bomb surged fully a dozen meters high!
It even formed a small rainbow across the sky.
Whether it was Klee's lucky streak acting up or pure coincidence, thanks precisely to this churning lake water, most of the burning trees in the surrounding area were drenched and extinguished.
No forest fire broke out.
"Whoa~"
Little Klee stared with star-shaped eyes at the rainbow in the sky until it finally faded away.
Only then did she belatedly look around herself.
"Huh?"
"Oh no, oh no!"
Klee surveyed the surrounding devastation, wearing a look of sheer terror as she fished a small notebook out of her backpack.
The very first page bore several bold characters clearly written upon it.
"Torch the mountains, Klee is finished."
"Bomb the people, Jean comes knocking."
"Detonate in the city, report to confinement."
The three most terrifying rules in existence stared Klee right in the face.
"Oh no, Klee really didn't mean to."
Little Klee lowered her head and pouted, her mind racing as she wondered what to do.
In her momentary burst of excitement, she had failed to control the bomb's power.
With such a huge commotion, the Knights of Favonius would probably receive word any second now.
By then, Sister Jean would definitely come drag her back!
A flicker of fear crossed Klee's eyes.
She had only just gotten out of the confinement room today; she had no desire to go back there again.
Though researching Jumpy Dumpty inside was pretty fun, not being able to blast fish was just too agonizing!
Little Klee squirmed her little body in embarrassment, even as a tiny part of her wondered if she should just make a run for it first.
Yet Jean's upbringing and Klee's own personality made her too ashamed to just sneak off on her own like that.
Though she had sometimes accidentally blown things up in the past, she had never once run away from it!
Not that she had ever actually corrected her behavior, mind you!
After all, Jumpy Dumpty was one of her very best friends!
"Sigh~"
"What should I tell Sister Jean so I don't have to go to confinement?"
With a bitter little face, Klee worked her little brain and pondered in silence.
While Klee was busy racking her brain over how to dodge confinement, she failed to notice the strange disturbances happening in Starfell Lake.
Ripples were gradually spreading across the surface of the lake.
And they were not stirred up by the wind; rather, they began flowing directly against the wind.
The ground, too, began to tremble slightly.
Even the small island at the center of the lake, anchored by the Statue of The Seven, began to shake!
As the commotion grew louder and larger, little Klee, meditating nearby, finally began to notice the anomalies at Starfell Lake.
She couldn't help standing on tiptoe to peer forward.
"Eh, what's happening?"
"Did Klee blow up something?"
Klee felt a wave of worry; as much as she loved blasting fish, her innocent and kind-hearted self certainly didn't want to hurt anyone else. The current Klee hadn't yet reached the level of Alice, who could cheerfully turn the Stormterror's Lair into ruins.
Thus, witnessing the commotion at Starfell Lake, she assumed it was caused by her own bomb.
Klee was terribly worried.
Yet right then, the upheaval at Starfell Lake turned earth-shattering—the trembling earth was on an entirely different scale from the vibrations caused by Jumpy Dumpty's explosion just moments before.
Suddenly, the blue-and-white orb on the side of Klee's backpack radiated a white halo, transforming into a shield of light that enveloped her entirely.
It sealed off all outside influence.
Klee felt no surprise at all; this little orb had been protecting her ever since she was a little girl, a gift from her mother, Alice.
Mom had said this was a treasure left behind by Klee's father, and as long as she wore it, no one in all of Teyvat could ever harm Klee!
Ah!
That's right!
Klee's little head suddenly recalled the stories Mom used to tell her.
About her father—though she had never met him, Mom had mentioned it more than once.
She had told her to go fish-blasting near Starfell Lake whenever she had free time, saying that who knows, one day she might just blast her way into meeting her father!
Could it be that Mom wasn't just teasing her?!
Could she really blast her dad out of there?!
A wave of anticipation welled up in little Klee's heart. If her dad really came, she could act spoiled in his arms just like all the other kids!
Protected within the light shield, little Klee watched the center of Starfell Lake with shining anticipation.
"Boom!"
A sudden roar pierced the air, and a pillar of blue-and-white light piercing the heavens surged from the waters of Starfell Lake.
It shot straight up into the high sky.
That dazzling pillar of light could be seen across the entire continent of Teyvat, leaving countless people gasping in awe and wondering which deity was manifesting once more.
As for the Archons themselves, the Seven rulers of the mortal world, they cast gazes of varied and complex emotions in that direction.
Even Celestia, sitting high above in the sky, seemed almost frightened as it shifted slightly away from the opposite direction of the light beam.
Meanwhile,
at Windrise,
Venti, who had been lounging in a tree and slacking off, was so startled by the sudden, familiar fluctuation that he nearly tumbled out of the branches.
He hurriedly steadied himself, brushed off his hat and cape, and broke into a delighted smile.
"Has he finally awakened?"
"Such a massive commotion really is just his style. The old man and the rest must have felt it too."
"Ehe! Never mind all that, my drinks are secured once more!"
Venti chuckled an "ehe" and vanished, dissolving into a strand of the thousand winds.
In Liyue Harbor,
Zhongli, who was sipping tea and listening to opera in a teahouse, paused mid-sip. Then, in a rare occurrence, he set his teacup down halfway through, his golden eyes—as heavy and deep as bedrock—turning toward the direction of the light pillar.
"Wishing to buy osmanthus wine, but sharing it with no one..."
"A millennium has slipped away; has that person finally awakened?"
"That being the case, those two lasses in Inazuma and Snezhnaya will likely find it hard to sit still."
"No matter. Having just awakened, he is bound to be entangled in affairs. I shall let him sort things out before speaking of other matters."
Zhongli withdrew his gaze and picked up his teacup once more to listen to Ms. Yun's performance.
Slackers, double the count!
In Inazuma,
The Raiden Shogun, seated upright in Tenshukaku, furrowed her brow in confusion and demanded,
"My physical form, what are you attempting to do? Why such a commotion?"
Within her inner consciousness, the Plane of Euthymia, Ei sensed that familiar fluctuation and was making a fuss to come out.
Yet the Shogun blocked this unprovoked behavior.
Thus, the Shogun said with a frown,
"Your actions violate the path of Eternity; the request is denied."
"No! That fellow took my sister away back then; I must find that person and ask what happened to my sister."
"Hand over control of the body!"
Desperate to find her sister, Ei completely ignored the Shogun's obstruction and tried to forcefully seize control of the physical body.
Yet when the foolish Ei had set up her permissions back then, she hadn't left herself any backdoors, and so she was suppressed once more.
Ei was driven nearly mad with rage.
"Ah!! I really should have set a few more restrictions on you back then!"
"My existence is dedicated to the pursuit of Eternity. Even you must step over this body with force if you wish to defy it!"
The puppet Shogun entered the Plane of Euthymia, drew her Engulfing Lightning, and stood facing Ei.
"Damn it! I'm going to thoroughly thrash you this time!!"
With no other choice, Ei drew her Musou Isshin, her form radiating the same purple thunder of heavenly might.
And right before the fight broke out, she fired off a message outward.
"Miko! That fellow is awake! Once I finish beating the Shogun, I'm coming for him—hurry and bring Kitsune Saiguu and the others to help!!"
...
In Sumeru, two figures—one large and one small—sat cross-legged on a bed of green flora in the Sanctuary of Surasthana, looking off into the distance with smiles.
"Mother, is Daddy awake?"
"Yes, your father has finally woken up."
"Then little Nahida wants to go find Daddy!"
"Be a good girl, Nahida, wait just a bit longer. Didn't I say before that I'd have your father come find you?"
"All right then..."
The tiny figure kept gazing into the distance with anticipation and curiosity.
The larger one wore a look of gentle maternal affection, her distant gaze filled with memories and longing.
Far away in Snezhnaya, the Tsaritsa naturally felt this fluctuation as well, springing up from her throne in an instant.
She stared at that pillar of light in sheer disbelief, murmuring under her breath,
"You... you bastard!"
"You actually didn't die back then!"
"Well, well, Morax, you actually teamed up with that bad guy to fool me! Just you wait, I'm coming to settle accounts with you!"
Though her words sounded misleading, anyone could see just how overjoyed the frost queen was at that moment, tears of emotion shimmering in her eyes.
Even the perpetual, howling blizzards of Snezhnaya had died down considerably by now.
Down below, the only Fatui Harbinger present, the Jester, asked with a strange expression,
"Your Majesty, since that person has awakened, our plan..."
"The plan continues! Although he didn't die, I have certainly not forgotten how that fellow in the skies struck him down back then! This debt, I shall exact vengeance for!"
The Jester breathed a sigh of relief. Since the plan was proceeding, there was no need to worry about dissent from the other Harbingers.
They each pursued their own goals; if Her Majesty could not provide her backing here—
"As you command, Her Majesty the Tsaritsa!"
...