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In the middle of the night, the sounds of monsters screeching echo through the forest. A young man dressed in blue clothing soared through the sky and slashed through the hilichurls using wind blades.
"Tssk, they just keep on coming." He says as he keeps on fighting. Through a modified Akasha terminal, the lord of Dendro communicates and asks about the situation.
"Do you need some help?" She asked as he smirked and scoffed saying that he'll be fine. His eyes blazed with excitement as he continued to take down his enemies. Sometimes, just a bit of fighting is needed to unwind from the Akademiya.
He killed off half of a horde in one go using a powerful wind vortex. The monster subjugation was merely one of his ways to atone for the sins he committed in the past. As a prisoner, he is expected to comply with Nahida's orders.
After hours of fighting the forces of the abyss order, he sat down by a rock and rested for a while. Enemies slowly disappearing like ashes in the wind leaving their broken masks that concealed their cursed appearances.
After watching his enemies vanish, he then stood up and began to look around the area when suddenly he heard a baby's cry.
Walking a bit more he found a wrecked carriage where many people had been killed. From their clothing, he can surmise that they came from the desert. He immediately contacted Nahida to report his findings.
Moving past the corpses he found a woman protectively holding a newborn baby inside the damaged carriage. Despite her desert clothing, she seems far from being someone in the Sumeru desert.
"There's one survivor, a newborn infant. What should I do with it?" He asked as he stared at the mother who was holding her offspring. Just by the blood smeared on her clothes and hands, she had just given birth and bled to death as the others tried to protect the carriage.
"Please take the child and bury the corpses properly. It's the least we could do. Had we arrived a bit early, this tragedy shouldn't have happened." Nahida orders which he affirmed.
Kneeling down, he tries to take the baby from the woman's grasp but struggles as the mother held on to her child strongly even in death. Finger by finger, one crack of a bone was heard, he removed them just so he could take the baby into his arms.
The baby kept crying as he held it securely with both arms. The baby was small and light, its skin was still bloodied and the umbilical cord was still uncut.
"How unlucky you are. It would've been better if you also died with your mother to save you from the pain of being alone." He says as the baby continues to cry.
He looked at the baby without interest and gently poked its cheek. The baby reached and held his index finger as tightly as it could.
"Are you holding on to my finger because you want to live? Or is it because you're afraid to die?" He asked as the baby slowly quieted down, hearing him talk.
