G𝚎𝚗𝚜𝚑𝚒𝚗 I𝚖𝚙𝚊𝚌𝚝

4: The Temple of Wolf

After defeating some slimes and opening some chests on the way, Aether and Paimon have finally catched up with the Cavalry Captain.
Kaeya sat under a big rock, flipping his coin. He smirked when he saw the Traveler panting from all his running.
"You've arrived." He said, crossing his hands. "Come closer, can you smell that?"

A burning scent reaches Aether's nose. Turns out, it leads towards the temple in front of them. Just like what happened on Amber's.
"It's the smell of burnt Pyro slimes." He replied.
"Something must have happened in the temple. I imagine there will be slimes, hilichurls, and whatever is giving Stormterror extra power. Oh yes, it's going to be lively indeed." Kaeya smirked.
"No doubt nothing more than a disorderly mob of creatures." Aether said confidently.
"Oh, ho-ho! You're quite the brave one, aren't you!"

"It's a pity that the Temple of Wolf has been disturbed by such an atrocity. Let's head in Traveler. No one makes offerings to the Four Winds anymore, yet the old winds never vanish..." Kaeya explained, turning in front of the temple. "We need to clear out the temples, for the Four Winds."

Aether nodded determinedly. He quickly rushed towards the door and tried to open it the same way he opened the Temple of Falcon. Sure enough, it did opened. Kaeya rushed inside as Aether followed him inside.
"Let me show you how the Knights of Favonius conquer our adversaries!" Kaeya said, taking out his sword.

Moving inside, there was a platform seen  floating above.
"Hmm, if I'm not mistaken, the end of the temple should be up there." Kaeya oberved the platform and the many paths they have to cross.
"Wait...how do you know?" Paimon asked, floating beside Aether.
"Heh, experience. The kind of experience you got after years of dealing with things like this for others."

He sprinted down the stairs leading towards a door that need to be open using the same machine Aether saw back at the Temple of Falcon.
Maybe that machine is normal for temples, he thought.

Several hilichurls were guarding the machine, dancing and singing as usual.
Water was filled below, and Kaeya found this a good chance. With one use of his skill, he could freeze and soon shatter the hilichurls.

Kaeya quickly dashed below and the hilichurls immediately noticed his presence.
"Freeze!" Kaeya cried, completing turning the hilichurls into ice. He slashed the hilichurls with his blade, but it wasn't long till the ice melted.
"Dodge this!"
The hilichurls didn't have the time to fight back against Kaeya as he cornered them all, slashing them back and forth. Soon enough, they all died into ashes.
Aether and Paimon look at Kaeya with awe after he single-handedly finished off the hilichurls.

Kaeya snorted seeing their faces. But he took notice on one thing...
"Traveler, unless I'm not mistaken, you don't seem to have a Vision. So how exactly are you able to charge elemental energy?" He asked, recalling the time how Aether manage to scare Stormterror away.
"Well...it was a very strange occurence." Paimon nervously chuckled, fidgeting her fingers.
Kaeya only hummed in response. "I see. Well then, I believe you can open this door?"
"Oh right-"

Aether quickly hurried towards the machine.
And there showed even more stairs and labyrinths. There were also other mechanics that shoots out fire.
Kaeya manage to stop it for a while using his skill.

Suddenly, hydro slimes shooted down out of nowhere. Aether started to shoot them down below using his skill, killing the slimes because of the fall.
A wind current was then suddenly activated, making it possible for them to glide upwards towards the platform.
"Ugh, we're finally here." Paimon sighed.
"Seems the path ends here. Let's use the wind currents to fly up." Kaeya suggested, running towards the wind current.

He and Aether rided the wind current, leading them towards a door that has the same machine.
As Aether opened the door, it showed some pyro slimes inside, guarding a chest. That must've been what we smelled back outside, he thought, readying his sword for battle.

"Look Aether! There's a hydro amber right there! If you hit it, it make it rain, so the slime would be vaporized!" Paimon exclaimed, pointing towards it.
However, because of the high-pitched voice Paimon has, the pyro slimes started to notice them and shooted fireballs at them.
"Whoopsies." Paimon whispered, disappearing into dust.
Aether internally facepalmed but he then dashed towards the slime, trying to avoid the fireballs.

"I must say, that's still a good idea. What a keen observation." Kaeya smirked, attacking the amber, causing to rain and freezing the slimes.
Aether used his skill to shatter the slimes and soon use his burst to slide them towards the corner. He proceeds to slash them and quickly went back when the slimes starts to explode.

"Yay! We did it!" Paimon cheered, reappearing in front of Aether.
"Really now?" Aether sighed. He was about to bicker to Paimon but the door suddenly opened, leading towards another pathway.

It was a platform with water and spikes. Aether was about to swim, not thinking much about the spikes but luckily Kaeya managed to stop him from moving any further.
"Careful there, underwater spikes are too dangerous to swim through." He warned.
"Yikes! You could have been killed!"
"How do we get across though?" Aether asked. Kaeya just gave him another smirk. "Watch me"

He soon used his elemental skill creating an icebridge for them to cross. It was quite slippery but they managed to get across.

Another crystal shard was seen from above, kinda similar like the one from the previous temple.
Aether dashed towards it, slashing it and using his skill until it finally shattered.
He panted from the stamina he used up.

Kaeya went towards them and started clapping at them. "Bravo! What a performance! You are, to my surprise, a well-trained knight." He remarked. "The battles you fought were sights to behold."
"That's nice of you to say..." Aether chuckled.
"Haha, I see you already have the knightly virtue of modesty. Please do visit me in our headquarters when you have the time. I also know a lovely tavern, if that's more your thing."

✥﹤┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈﹥✥

"Quite rewarding no?"
"We've seized another temple from Stormterror's grasp!" Paimon exclaimed.
"I can take it from here. You go take care of the other things while I'm at it." Kaeya said, dusting off the dirt from his shoulders.
"See you later then! Bye~bye!" Aether and Paimon smiled at him, waving away. They're about to go meet Lisa.

But meanwhile, Kaeya observed the temple, still suspicious of the events that happened. There's no way hilichurls organized an ambush like this themselves- not with their limited mental capacity, he thought, walking around the temple.

From behind him, an Abyss Mage was approaching him from afar. It chuckled darkly to itself.
"Thus, YOU were behind this." Kaeya suddenly said, turning around.

They both faced each other, each of them preparing for battle.
"Gohus, Chiso Vonph!" The Abyss Mage casted a spell but before Kaeya could even attack, blazing fire appeared and attacked the mage.

A guy wearing dark clothing and red hair suddenly dragged the mage away, violently pushing it towards the corner. The red-haired guy stole a quick glance at Kaeya and so did he.
The guy soon attacked the mage using his claymore that was filled with pyro element and slashed it on the mage's face, causing it to fall. The mage soon fell unconscious.

"Knights of Favonius, always so inefficient..." the red-head said, taking a sharp glance at Kaeya. Kaeya only clapped at the amusing performance that was just displayed in front of him.
"Agree to disagree. But your involvement in this just made things a whole lot more interesting."

«────── « ⋅ʚ♡ɞ⋅ » ──────»

A/N: sorry, it was rushed and messy :(
I just have a hard time keeping up with my schedule-

I'll try not to make this mistake again^^;
(I'm really not giving Kaeya any justice-)