The girls chewed on the newest revelation with five flavors in their hearts.
Under Su Xuan's telling, the truth of "Heaven" flipped their worldview: that lofty god was merely a man-made intelligence—like the Raiden Shogun's puppet, like Katheryne—crafted by a civilization of wise beings.
Yes, Su Xuan had prefaced it as a "just-for-fun" tale—he'd say it casually, they could hear it casually.
But deep down they believed him: a civilization capable of projecting fifty-three linked holograms across a galaxy must have existed.
A wandering, self-styled "god" of that civilization—an artificial intelligence—must also exist.
Why bring up that perished super-civilization when speaking of Heaven's home?
Obvious: in Su Xuan's eyes, the AI that survived its world's fall wandered into the cosmos…and found Teyvat.
"Is that what power beyond this world looks like?"
Keqing had just arrived at the Jade Chamber to discuss the iron-sand collection with Ningguang—and froze. She couldn't even picture a galaxy-wide hologram, let alone "the universe." She didn't even know what Teyvat looked like from above. And Su Xuan was talking space?
"An artificial intelligence born of mortals can manage an entire planet," she whispered, dazed.
She looked to Ningguang, Lumine, Paimon—and Ganyu, who'd come to hand Lumine the account card.
Ningguang rested her chin and thought.
Lumine, Paimon, and Ganyu traded glances and said almost together:
"No wonder Su Xuan laughed that when you can one-shot the world, you'll be able to defeat Heaven."
"After all, Heaven's native capability is full-spectrum data handling and resource orchestration at planetary scale."
Ningguang and Keqing both sighed.
Was this the time to be debating that? A moment ago they'd worried Morax's quiet support for the Tsaritsa might provoke Heaven's wrath and divine punishment for Liyue. Now…perhaps they didn't need to worry. If Fate under the false sky was a grand system, maybe "rebellion" was just one of its scheduled phases.
Worse followed. Fate's endpoint—the endpoint of all lives—
was to unite and fight the Abyss to the death.
What a joke.
A civilization that could project fifty-three galaxy panels died to the Abyss—
and they, shackled under a false firmament, were supposed to unite and win?
What was Heaven thinking? Was her core rattled by the loss of her mother world?
In an instant the girls understood why the cosmic Recorder had painted Heaven so monstrous: to bind every life to a final battle with the void was little better than locking them in a pen to die.
"Doesn't she realize a disaster her homeworld couldn't solve—how could we…" Keqing's vision swam.
Ningguang and Ganyu snapped their eyes to her.
"Keqing," Ningguang warned softly, "mind your tongue—"
"Mm!" Keqing jolted, clapping a hand over her mouth.
[ Still, speaking of technological artifacts—ours aren't shabby. The star-skiffs may look like mere transports, but… ]
[ 'Transport' here means interstellar freight. ]
[ Besides commerce, they double as carriers for small special-operations teams during star wars. ]
[ In short: star-skiffs are space transports. ]
[ Trouble is, the false sky caps Teyvat. They can't leave, so they only circle the world below—and bound to a planet's surface, their speed is severely limited. ]
"...Huh?"
So the flat, boat-like flyers the Gongzao Division produced weren't meant for the continent at all—
but for space?
Crux Fleet, Alcor.
The Uncrowned Lord of the Ocean stared at the diary, thunderstruck.
To conquer the sea was her joy; danger only spiced the voyage.
"A ship…that sails the cosmos…" Beidou's eyes trembled. Then she scowled. "Damn it! How did Ningguang get that toy?"
She shot to her feet. "Full speed ahead! Back to Liyue—yesterday!"
Up in the Jade Chamber, the women stared at one another.
Ganyu's eyes shone. "So Su Xuan already prepared a way for us to leave Teyvat."
The false sky would be broken—sooner or later. If the rebels failed, then in the final war the Abyss would pierce it from outside. Escape craft would be priceless.
"But the skiffs roll off the Gongzao Division slowly—only thirty-six a year," Keqing murmured. "Even in ten years, not even four hundred. They can't carry Teyvat's people."
"The Division can't—but Su Xuan can," Ningguang cut in.
They blinked. Then it clicked.
"You mean…"
Ningguang nodded. "He's already understood their design. With the Law of Construction, he can instantiate star-skiffs. If he wished, he could mass-conjure an ark to lift everyone off this world. He could also feed each conjured skiff back into the Division for fusion, scaling them without limit—up to a vessel so vast an entire civilization could live aboard it."
The four—Paimon, Keqing, Ganyu, Lumine—gaped.
"If that's real…we could build a human-piloted world to roam the void."
"Wandering Teyvat?" Lumine and Paimon stared at each other.
[ Honest truth? In front of the Abyss, technology cannot save Teyvat. ]
"…What?"
They'd barely started planning a "Wandering Teyvat," and he splashed cold water on it.
[ Heaven knows this. ]
[ She once barred contact with the Abyss and with powers from beyond this world—accused by many of guarding her rule. ]
[ Frankly, she did fear extrinsic powers smashing the fate-system she'd set. ]
[ But she had experience. ]
[ Perhaps this was the only way she knew to keep life going. Perhaps it was everything her motherworld left her—lessons from a planet that fell. ]
[ Fix every life to a final war with the Abyss. ]
[ The aim may not be to defeat it…but to embrace it. ]
"...What?" again.
[ She's seen beings who can adapt to the Abyss. Not all are devoured. Perhaps, she thought, coexistence is the only path left for life. ]
[ Those who can coexist share one trait: will strong enough to overmatch ordinary minds. ]
[ But precisely because their will is strong, they deviate from the fate-tracks of the false sky. ]
[ At her peak, she could reach down and nudge fate back into line. ]
[ After the battle with Nibelung reborn from the Abyss, she was damaged—her functions broken. She could no longer press the world's defiance down by herself. ]
[ So, for the strong-willed, she forged a new shackle: the Vision. ]
[ Nicely phrased as "wishes reaching heaven's ear, watched by the divine." ]
[ The Seven don't issue Visions. Heaven sleeps. The Sustainer is dying. ]
[ Who watches the mortals below? ]
[ I suspect the system felt certain stars burning too bright—fearing they'd break free—and lowered Visions to monitor them, keep them from straying too far. ]
[ Not entirely bad: Vision-bearers stand the best chance to survive the end—and to seed the next civilization. ]
[ Because Teyvat is steered by fate, I don't overthink it. I just want to have fun. ]
[ As an aside… ]
[ That was the plan—until two blond travelers arrived. ]
[ One let the Abyss talk him into lowering his rank. ]
[ The other became this world's variable. ]
[ Yes—my adorable Fourth Descender Auntie is Teyvat's biggest wildcard. ]
[ Funny, really. To keep her plan safe, Heaven hard-policed and surveilled the ones she pitied, terrified that a powerful will would smash the firmament before the time. ]
[ Millennia of vigilance. And in the end, a blond girl slips in and steals the house. ]
[ When she wakes, Heaven might need an extra drumstick just to keep her temper down. ]
[ As for Teyvat's future: if the greater weave arranged for Auntie to arrive, then this world will be saved. ]
"...Huh?" Lumine's brain blanked. She'd thought she was destined to face Heaven—
and now it sounded like her true foe was the Abyss that consumes worlds.
Great. Su Xuan had spent the whole day assigning her cross-tier bosses.
"Wait—he did say you can absorb all kinds of power," Keqing brightened. "The Abyss doesn't affect you—you can even purify it. You're the key!"
"..." Lumine stared.
Has the purple twin-tails gone soft from the shock? Did she forget how Su Xuan's psychokinesis crushed Abyssal energy like lint? How the Abyss couldn't even touch his barrier?
You look at me, who can only stick my butt out when he crooks a finger, and call me the savior?
"Don't mind his nonsense," Lumine sighed. "He also said I'd have to challenge Heaven for her throne. Now it's fight the Abyss."
"Eh?" Paimon blinked—then tapped her chin. "Robbing Heaven's seat doesn't conflict with fighting the Abyss. I mean, the Abyss will come, and Heaven will probably wake up before that, right? So pass Heaven's 'gate,' then punch the Abyss."
Ningguang nodded. "If you can't cross Heaven, how do you face the Abyss?"
"..." Lumine deflated.
"Mm," she said at last. "You're all very right. But I'm the employee of Boss Su. Without his word, I act when he tells me to."
She shot Ningguang a look. The woman knew Big Daddy Su was at home having the time of his life with Cloud Retainer, and didn't dare interrupt—so she was trying to slide the headache onto Lumine.
Lumine wouldn't take the fall.
Hands on hips: "I'm afraid I can't help. For a crisis this big, you'll have to ask Boss. Whether you beg him or not is your business. I won't advise—and I'm not worried anyway. The Abyss can't touch me."
Ningguang smiled. "As it happens, the Abyss isn't so scary to me anymore either. Look."
She drew a chunk of ice from her storage. Inside the block, a clump of purple-black sludge writhed, frozen.
Keqing's eyes widened. "That filth—is it…"
"Yes. The black mud from The Chasm." Ningguang's face turned openly proud. "After receiving power from Boss Su, I took the Jade Chamber there at night and tested it myself. I can't purify it—but it can't harm me at all."
"So," she lifted her chin, "if you want the simplest path to 'coexist with the Abyss,' get outside power from Boss Su—with no side effects."
"Ah…!" Ganyu covered her mouth—and then scratched her cheek, voice the size of a mosquito. "Then…does that mean I don't have to worry about the Abyss either?"
Keqing looked from Ningguang's smug smile to Ganyu's shy glow and felt her jaw slacken.
"So I'm the only one here who actually needs to worry?"
Ningguang glanced at the sky. "It's late. Will you go home for dinner, or eat here?"
Lumine and Ganyu traded a look. Ganyu's cheeks went scarlet.
No need to guess the state of Cloud Retainer and Rosalyne with Su Xuan. If they went back now, they'd only be…interrupting.
And Ningguang's sly smile said she knew, which was why she'd asked.
"I haven't slept in the sky before," Lumine said cheerfully. "Paimon, let's stay."
Paimon didn't think twice. The Jade Chamber's pantry was stocked with delicacies from every nation. She was in.
"What about you, Keqing?" Ningguang asked, eyes twinkling.
Keqing flicked her twin-tails with a huff. "Dinner can wait. Tell me how to get Su Xuan to help. And Lumine, Paimon—
I gave you all my mora. How are you two… ugh…"
"At least do a girl a favor!"
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