In Snezhnaya, inside the Fatui Harbingers' council chamber—
Summoned by the Jester, Pierro, every Harbinger present—save for the still-returning Rosalyne—stood in two neat lines along the long table.
Each wore a grim expression as they listened to a Dottore segment report on recent events.
Pierro's brows were knotted tight.
"The death of your main body…"
"Was it done by the Raiden Shogun?"
The Jester's voice was low and heavy.
Harbinger No. 4, Arlecchino, and No. 3, Columbina, both frowned slightly.
The Doctor's segments all shared information; even if the main body had never seen Su Xuan personally, the segments already knew of Rosalyne's change.
If things went as expected, this particular segment was about to blurt her out.
"Will he really say Rosalyne's name?" Arlecchino's heart pounded as she fixed her gaze on the diary's projected light screen.
At that moment, the floating light curtain, usually showing only new diary text, had split into countless smaller panes.
And in each of those panes—
A different Dottore, at a different age.
Even the child-sized Dottore from long ago hadn't escaped Su Xuan's psychic lock.
Every segment scattered across Teyvat had been marked by his telekinesis.
Arlecchino shot a quick look at Columbina, who still stood with her eyes closed, expression unreadable.
Among everyone present, only the two of them knew what was really going on.
Just as the segment in the council chamber opened his mouth to speak—
His neck jerked to the side with a sickening crack.
In the next instant, before anyone could react, his entire body twisted as if seized by invisible hands, bones snapping one after another.
In the blink of an eye he was crumpled into a grotesque ball of flesh and bone.
The fifth Harbinger, "The Rooster" Pulcinella, blurted, "What happened!?"
His voice choked off mid-sentence.
The mangled ball that had been Dottore shuddered once, then was crushed apart by some unseen force, bursting into shredded meat and bloody mist.
The suddenness of it left every Harbinger in stunned silence.
Under that suffocating, unknown terror, the council chamber was deathly quiet.
Everyone stared around warily, as if expecting something else to erupt out of the shadows.
After a long, long moment with no further changes, Pierro was the first to recover.
"What in the world just happened?"
He spoke through clenched teeth.
Arlecchino glanced at Columbina, who still hadn't opened her eyes.
Just now, every single Dottore segment had been twisted to pieces at exactly the same moment.
And in Arlecchino's perception, the diary's light curtain hadn't only shown the segments themselves.
The environments around each segment had also appeared, one after another, within those panes.
Including the council room they now stood in.
Including the Dottore that had just died at their feet.
A cold shiver ran down Arlecchino's spine.
That means our entire meeting… was under his gaze.
Her throat tightened.
For a moment, she didn't know how to describe what she felt.
Not long ago, Su Xuan had said he'd wait until his perception could cover all of Teyvat before wiping out Dottore's segments.
It hadn't even been that many days—
But now, his telekinesis was already sweeping every corner of the world.
He could peer into any place, any moment, at will.
Just knowing he looked in here once is enough to make my body shake…
And yet, mixed with that fear, there was something else in her chest—
A vicious, quiet satisfaction.
Finally… the Doctor is gone.
Because of an old agreement, the previous "Knave" had sent children from the House of the Hearth to Dottore as test subjects.
Dottore had, later on, made the exact same proposal to Arlecchino:
he wanted the "useless failures" from her House.
She'd wanted to send him to join the old Knave for a long, long time.
But he'd been stronger than her.
And he was a fellow Harbinger.
In the end, all she could do was keep her hatred buried.
Now, thanks to Su Xuan, she'd gotten exactly what she wanted.
Her mood lightened in a single breath.
"Whatever it was, it was beyond us," she said, looking around at the stunned faces. "We should report this to Her Majesty and await her instructions."
Without waiting for objections, Arlecchino turned and strode toward the door.
Even if they told the Tsaritsa, even if they explained every detail, the result would be the same as always—
Some neat, official reason would be given, and then the matter would be quietly shelved.
Just like his attitude right now…
Arlecchino had thought Su Xuan might leave at least a few words in the diary about destroying all of Dottore's segments.
Some reflection, some warning, some aftertaste.
But the next lines in the diary didn't mention Dottore at all.
To him… wiping out Dottore was no more than squashing a few insects.
She let out a bitter little laugh and shook her head.
Then she froze mid-step.
New text flowed across the page.
[The stronger I become, the more strange little powers pile up.]
[Before, aside from Limit Break and Demon Essence, I couldn't actually give any of that strength to anyone else.]
[Not even to Ying, who's basically a walking "all-attributes compatible" vessel.]
[But now, things are different.]
A few simple lines were enough to snap every diary-holder out of the "Dottore incident" and drag their attention elsewhere.
"Different how…?"
Their eyes widened one after another.
Can he… really pass his power to other people now?
[I went through the abilities I'm currently lugging around.]
[Not all of them can be transferred. Divine authority still can't be shared.]
[And even for the ones that do transfer, how much power you can actually use depends on you.]
[Anyway, here's what I can pass on.]
[Maha Vairochana—]
The girls: "?!"
They remembered that one very clearly.
He'd blinked once and frozen all of Mondstadt in time.
Even if someone else could only use a fraction of that, localized time-stop was already terrifying enough.
"To think he could hand out something like this…"
"My god…"
[Electromagnetism—]
The girls: "?!"
[The Lost Sky Magic.]
[Unfortunately, most of that is wrapped up in authority.]
[I still can't give away Dragon-Slayer, God-Slayer, or my "I recover stamina by breathing air" passive.]
[The parts that can be gifted are just the bits about controlling the flow of air.]
Every girl reading: "…"
Just controlling the flow of air?
That was basically having Barbatos' job in your pocket.
What more did he want?
Sometimes people really needed to learn the phrase "contentment brings happiness."
[Explosive Clay.]
[Don't underestimate it just because it's clay that blows up.]
[It's ridiculously versatile.]
[You don't even need to get close to plant landmines. Just mold a clay ball and toss it; it'll burrow itself into the ground wherever it lands.]
[If you shape it into animals, it gains their properties.]
[Make a bird, and it flies.]
"Explosive… landmines…?"
"Isn't that just a flying bomb!?"
[Or you make tiny creatures—spiders, insects no one notices…]
[Then you have them crawl onto someone and detonate.]
[It's a very underhanded power.]
[As long as you mold the clay small enough and sneaky enough, it's basically impossible to defend against.]
[So, counting everything up…]
[Ice, lightning, wind, and earth are all covered.]
[That leaves fire.]
[This one's a black flame that never goes out unless the caster cancels it, or someone stronger puts it out by force.]
[Amaterasu.]
"Flames that never go out?" Mavuika's eyes nearly popped from their sockets.
Even Natlan's holy fire could burn out if no one fed it.
But the fire in his hand simply wouldn't extinguish on its own.
[Amaterasu: Evil King Dragon Flame Picture.jpg]
Mavuika's expression froze.
In the picture, a long black dragon coiled around Su Xuan, its scales as dark as Morax's stone armor.
The caption beneath it made every reader's heart skip.
[As for Evil King Dragon Flame…]
[It's literally just me molding Amaterasu into a dragon.]
[Looks cool. Very little practical use.]
The girls: "…"
[If I cut off my control mid-cast, though, it floats off like a kite with its string cut.]
[Wherever it drifts, it burns.]
[And the flames it starts are still Amaterasu—black fire that doesn't go out.]
[If no one in this world could stop it—]
[Given enough time, it would eventually turn the entire world into a black sea of fire.]
[On that scale, I suppose you could call it a proper world-ending calamity.]
[Especially now that I've made it into a dragon. The aesthetics fit.]
Back in the Immortal Mansion, Guizhong shivered.
She'd been resurrected by Su Xuan, but she'd never actually met him in person yet.
Reading this directly, without the "in-person filter" everyone else had, was enough to make her scalp tingle.
She couldn't help glancing at Cloud Retainer.
Only to find the adeptus completely calm, just muttering, "This man really hoards a lot of tricks."
Guizhong: "…"
"You're… not scared at all?" she asked with a strained smile. "My heart's about to pound its way out of my chest."
"Isn't his power a bit too scary?"
Cloud Retainer, on the other hand, seemed to get a strange sense of pride from it.
She straightened her back and said lightly, "You don't seriously think he wants to destroy the world, do you?"
"Compared to the things he uses all the time, these tricks are actually rather tame."
"Black fire drifts and burns, sure, and it doesn't go out."
"But it still needs fuel to spread."
"If you consider terrain, wind, and other conditions carefully, there are always ways to corral it, isolate it, block its advance."
"But his telekinesis… there is no real way to defend against that."
"And now that his perception covers the whole world…" She paused, realization dawning. "I'd say, if he wanted to, he could shatter Teyvat with a thought."
Then she went quiet.
Because she'd just noticed something.
He hadn't mentioned Explosive Clay and Amaterasu before.
Now he was laying his cards on the table and explicitly pointing out which abilities he could gift to others.
The implication was obvious.
Just like Demon Essence and Limit Break, Su Xuan fully intended to pass these powers on—
To the women who'd crossed that last line with him.
Whether the recipient knew how to use them or not, whether they were "necessary" or redundant, that wasn't his concern.
In a world like this, no one in their right mind complained about having too many extraordinary abilities.
Cloud Retainer's eyes lit up.
She cleared her throat and said, "He's finally broken through that wall and can share his power."
"When he comes back, I'm having him transfer all of it to me."
Guizhong: "?"
She stared at her friend.
Just because he could share power now didn't mean he had to.
"Cloud Retainer, we haven't seen each other for a thousand years, but somehow you feel… different," she said slowly.
"I don't even know where to start with what you just said."
"Why, exactly, does his power have to go to you?"
"Because we sleep together from time to time like a married couple," Cloud Retainer said, forcing the words out, face turning bright red.
Then she immediately turned away.
Guizhong: "…"
She sat there, stunned for several heartbeats, and then her eyes practically flew out of her head.
"What!? You two got married!?"
The diary text scrolled on.
[The last two powers I can share, I've mentioned before.]
[No need to repeat myself.]
[One is Total Cognitive Override, which hits the mind directly.]
[The other is the perfect partner for it—telekinesis.]
Every girl reading perked up.
They knew exactly how practical telekinesis was by now.
Even if they couldn't unleash the apocalyptic force Su Xuan could—
Just being able to fly freely, lift things with a thought, and crush monsters without swinging a sword was life-changing.
Especially for the ones who couldn't fly at all, being able to soar through the sky was basically a childhood dream come true.
And beyond that, in daily life?
It saved time. It saved effort. It solved problems.
This was absolutely the most "household friendly, must-have modern convenience" of all the powers he had.
Cloud Retainer suddenly sprang to her feet.
"I'm going to bathe."
Guizhong: "???"
"You're acting very strangely," Guizhong said. "What are you so excited about?"
"Do you really have to bathe and change just to receive a power transfer?"
"Of course I do," Cloud Retainer said, face serious. "He's only going to pass these powers to his women."
"As one of his women, I should at least have the mindset to serve him properly."
She hesitated, then continued, "And I won't keep it from you. The reason he brought you back… is to make you his as well."
Guizhong: "?"
She froze completely.
Cloud Retainer pressed on. "This room is wrapped in his telekinetic barrier. Without his spiritual imprint, you can't leave."
Her voice hitched slightly, but she forced the words out.
"I'll come back later. Use the alone time to think it over."
Just as she stepped toward the door, the diary's viewpoint abruptly shifted.
Su Xuan's perspective flooded across the page.
Cloud Retainer: "…?!"
[Judging by the time, it should be close to midnight.]
[Time to move again.]
[Back in Inazuma, Yae Miko kept poking at the question of whether I'd ever leave this world.]
[She's terrified I'll disappear someday, with no one left to face the end of all things.]
[And she's not the only one. A lot of them don't say it, but they're all thinking the same thing.]
[Sigh. For the sake of how hard they've been working to keep my mood light—]
[Tonight, I'll take a trip beyond the world and have a proper look at the Abyss' erosion.]
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