A storm of dark magic raged, and the streets of Mondstadt had become a warzone.
Lisa's breath hitched, the agonizing price of her power thrumming beneath her skin. The battle had been won, but her body was on the verge of collapse.
"Lady Lisa!" a knight shouted, pointing a trembling sword. "More of them!"
Another experimental creature—a scrawny girl wrapped in bandages—had appeared. But it wasn't the girl who was the threat. It was the monster coiling from her back: a massive, shadowy serpent of pure Archon Residue.
"Kill..." the girl hissed, her eyes a glowing, bloody red.
Lisa grit her teeth. "So this is their plan. They're using children as living weapons."
"I will handle this!" a voice rang out. Barbara, her eyes burning with a new, fierce light, stepped forward. "Sister Lisa, you've done enough. Let me!"
Before Lisa could protest, Barbara slammed her hands together. The air hummed, not with gentle Hydro, but with the raw, crackling energy of the natural world.
"Senjutsu: Holy Water Vortex!"
She didn't create a gentle melody; she weaponized the rain. The air pressure dropped, and a high-speed vortex of water and natural energy formed around the girl. The creature shrieked, the blackflame serpent recoiling as if struck by a holy-water cannon.
"It works!" Jean yelled from her position. "Lisa, you were right! Senjutsu is the key!"
Lisa watched, her mind racing. "It's not just that it's strong… Natural energy, the power of life itself… it's the perfect antithesis to the Abyss. It's not just fighting it; it's purging it."
A new hope, sharp and bright, cut through her exhaustion. This is how we win.
But the victory was short-lived.
A deafening, soul-shattering roar tore through the sky.
"He's here!" Keqing screamed, her gaze fixed on the storm cell above the city.
The sky ripped open. Dvalin, Stormterror, descended. But he was wrong. His scales were no longer a bright cyan, but a sickly, bloody black-red. The dark power La Signora had injected into him was now in full control.
"Barbatos!" the dragon roared, its voice a chorus of hate and agony. "I will tear down this city! I will destroy everything you love!"
"Diluc, Kaeya, now!" Jean commanded.
A pillar of fire and a storm of ice shot into the sky, slamming into the dragon's side. The combined assault, which had repelled Dvalin before, now barely made him flinch.
"He's stronger," Diluc grunted, landing on a rooftop. "The corruption... it's amplifying his power."
"He won't come near us," Eula analyzed, her eyes tracking his flight path. "He knows we can hurt him on the ground. He's going to stay in the air and bombard us from above!"
As if on cue, Dvalin opened his maw. A massive, swirling ball of Anemo and Abyssal energy began to form—a Caelestinum Finale Termini aimed at the heart of the city.
"He's going to wipe us out!" Amber cried.
"We can't reach him!" Kaeya yelled, his Haki-infused ice lances dissipating harmlessly against the dragon's new, dark barrier.
"Su Han," Jean whispered, her heart seizing. "Where is he…?"
"Hehe. Big Brother Su Han said this was a job for Klee!"
A new, cheerful voice cut through the panic.
"Klee?!" Jean whirled around, her eyes widening in terror. "No! Get to the shelter!"
"It's okay!" Klee chirped, standing on the very edge of the city wall. She was sitting atop a strange, red, mechanical crane, the wind whipping her pigtails. "Master Cloud Retainer taught me all about mechanics! And this is my new, special Jumpy Dumpty!"
She held up a "bomb." It was the size of a carriage, covered in Dodoco faces and humming with a terrifying, unstable energy.
"Klee, NO! That's too dangerous!" Jean screamed.
"But Sister Sucrose helped me with the stabilizers! And Master Cloud Retainer approved the propellant!" Klee argued back, her face a mask of pure, childish concentration.
Dvalin unleashed his attack. The massive storm projectile descended on Mondstadt.
"Okay, Da Bai, now!" Klee yelled at her adeptal crane.
The crane launched her high into the air, above the descending storm.
"Big Lizard!" Klee shouted, her voice echoing with impossible power. "You made Sister Jean and Big Brother Su Han sad! Klee will not allow that! This is Klee's Super-Special-Delivery-Kaboom-Bomb!"
She dropped the massive Jumpy Dumpty.
The bomb fell, striking the Caelestinum Finale Termini in mid-air.
For one silent, agonizing moment, the two orbs met.
Then, the world turned white.
A soundless explosion, a blossom of pure fire and adeptal energy, erupted over Mondstadt, vaporizing Dvalin's attack instantly. The shockwave itself was so powerful it slammed the great dragon out of the sky.
Dvalin, his dark scales cracked and smoking, let out a shriek of pure confusion and pain before crashing into the ground far outside the city walls.
The storm vanished. The sky cleared.
Klee, perched on her crane, pumped her fist in the air.
"Hehe! Klee's bombardment mission was a success!"
In the silence of the city, Jean, Diluc, and Kaeya could only stare, utterly dumbfounded.
Mondstadt had just been saved by a ten-year-old girl.
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