The corpses of the fallen Fatui elites lay scattered across the ground.
Some had been cleaved cleanly in half, broken limbs strewn in all directions. Scarlet blood trickled slowly along the cracks between the cobblestones, forming dark crimson veins beneath the night, painting the entire scene with a macabre glow.
Kaeya narrowed his eyes, studying the bodies carefully.
Their deaths were gruesome—utterly one-sided.
There wasn't even a trace of resistance.
It was as if they had faced a foe so overwhelmingly powerful that they were annihilated in an instant.
"Fatui elites… and more than one?"
Kaeya muttered under his breath, his brow furrowing deeply as waves of shock surged in his heart.
He crouched down swiftly to inspect one of the corpses.
The Fatui soldier's hand still clutched his weapon tightly, his face twisted in terror and agony—clearly, his final moments had been filled with fear and pain.
Kaeya brushed his fingers against the body, feeling for residual warmth.
They hadn't been dead long—no more than half an hour.
"Fatui elites… just what kind of enemy did you encounter?"
His voice dropped low, his expression grave.
But what shook him even more was the residual aura lingering in the air.
Closing his eyes, Kaeya focused on the elemental energy around him.
Almost immediately, a strange power flared into his senses.
This wasn't ordinary Pyro energy.
It was something fiercer, more violent—an energy so scorching and aggressive it felt capable of burning everything to ash.
"This energy…"
Kaeya's eyes snapped open, sharp as a blade, scanning his surroundings.
His gaze soon landed on a patch of scorched ground.
It bore the marks of intense combustion—stone warped and melted, edges hardened again after cooling. Even the nearby walls were charred and pitted.
These were not the marks of any ordinary Pyro attack.
Only an extreme, destructive force of terrifying heat could have done this in such a short time.
Then, he saw it—a faint trace of dark fire, flickering ominously.
Kaeya's expression darkened.
A Delusion's residual aura.
He stepped closer, raising a gloved hand toward the remnants of black flame.
Even through the leather, the faint heat still stung his fingertips.
Kaeya's frown deepened.
He knew this power all too well.
The Delusion — an artificial Vision forged by the Fatui in Snezhnaya, granting ordinary humans elemental power at the cost of their own life force.
That black flame had appeared before, within Mondstadt's borders.
And now, once again, it burned here, inside the city itself.
"Fatui elites fighting here in the dead of night…"
"Even resorting to using Delusions…"
Kaeya's voice was low, his gaze dark and distant.
The Fatui would never engage in open combat inside Mondstadt without reason—unless they'd encountered a foe so formidable that they were forced to use Delusions.
And even then, they were utterly wiped out.
Straightening up, Kaeya swept his hawk-like eyes across the battlefield.
Just as he did, he sensed something else—an aura even more violent than the black flames of the Delusion.
This wasn't Fatui's power.
It was something far worse—an energy surpassing even Pyro in its ferocity.
Kaeya's expression hardened, his body tensing in alertness.
A faint but savage pulse still lingered in the air — not elemental, but of something deeper… purer.
More violent than Pyro.
More invasive than the black fire of a Delusion.
A power that felt like Destruction itself — the force of ruin given form.
"What kind of power is this…?" Kaeya murmured, eyes narrowing with confusion and caution.
Never before had Mondstadt witnessed energy like this.
As captain of the Cavalry under the Knights of Favonius, Kaeya had fought countless battles and seen every form of elemental clash imaginable.
He had even crossed blades with Fatui Delusion-bearers.
Yet this power felt utterly alien—and dangerously so.
"Stronger than a Delusion's black fire…" he muttered, frowning deeper.
"Has Fatui developed something new?"
None of it fit within his understanding.
This was neither a natural element nor any known form of elemental energy.
It was something more extreme—an annihilating force that sought to erase all things.
"Who did this?"
The words escaped Kaeya's lips quietly, filled with a complex mix of awe and unease.
A massacre like this, in the heart of Mondstadt…
and every Fatui elite was annihilated.
This was no small incident.
That unknown destructive energy only deepened his sense of foreboding.
If it were to erupt again… could the Knights of Favonius truly withstand it?
As he pondered, Kaeya suddenly noticed a faint sword mark on the ground.
It was razor-sharp—cleanly cleaving through solid stone, its depth astonishing.
But what drew his attention most was the trace of that same destructive aura clinging to its edge.
"The Abyss Order?"
"Or internal strife among the Fatui?"
"Could it be one of their experiments gone wrong…?"
Countless thoughts flashed through Kaeya's mind as his eyes narrowed.
Judging from the scene, he leaned toward the possibility that the Fatui had been conducting some secret experiment in Mondstadt—one that had spiraled out of control.
It wouldn't be the first time such a thing had happened.
But as far as he knew, the Fatui Harbinger known as the Doctor — Il Dottore — had already left Mondstadt.
Unless… another Harbinger was involved.
The Lady, perhaps?
No — that wasn't her style.
Kaeya exhaled slowly, finally pulling his gaze away.
The battlefield lay in ruins before him—Fatui corpses strewn about, violent elemental energy still hanging heavy in the air.
Whoever did this… it was no trivial affair.
"I'd better inform the stationed Knights and report to Acting Grand Master Jean."
Kaeya murmured softly, moving swiftly.
With a sharp whistle, he summoned a West Wind Falcon—one of the trained messengers of the Knights of Favonius.
Following standard procedure, he sent it off to call in a squad of knights.
Moments later, the sound of hurried footsteps echoed from the far end of the street.
A fully armed team from the Knights of Favonius arrived promptly.
Their steps slowed as they saw Kaeya standing at the center of the devastation, eyes scanning the area warily.
Then their gazes fell upon the corpses.
The color drained from their faces.
"Wait… are those—"
"The Fatui elites?!" one knight exclaimed, his voice tight.
"They're all… dead?" another stammered, disbelief thick in his tone.
"By the Archons… who could possibly wipe out a Fatui elite unit in such a short time—?"
Their voices trailed off.
All eyes turned toward Kaeya, standing calmly amidst the carnage.
Summoned in the middle of the night…
Kaeya is already on-site…
The implication was obvious.
Kaeya met their stares in silence for a moment.
Then, the solemn look on his face twitched — his expression slipping into one of pure exasperation.
"…Wait. Don't tell me you all seriously think I did this?"
He looked at their complicated gazes, utterly speechless, a sigh of helplessness escaping his lips.
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