Children of the Future

Chapter 39

Greetings! Time to turn up the heat! With this chapter! Speaking of heat, I pulled Hu Tao on my Asia server account so yay!

Anyways, here's the next part!

Tension was rising exponentially by the second. The light and jolly mood was long gone and an eerie silence spread all over the Jade Chamber. As Aether and Lumine were on guard, all the ladies instinctively moved their children further away from the robed figure.

"Who are you?" Ningguang asked the figure.

"Hemera, The Archon of Light," their voice was so distorted that no one could tell if they were a man or a woman.

"Why have you come here?" Aether asked.

"Her," she pointed a sword to Lumine. It looked eerily similar to one ones Aether and Lumine used to wield. That made Aether think they could be linked but there was no time to dwell on that. 

The figure charged Lumine who was barely able to block with her own weapon. Lumine forced the person back for a moment before the two were locked in combat. Now that they were occupied, Aether went to everyone else.

"Ganyu, go take the kids inside! It's. not safe out here!"

"R-Right! Kids, come this way!" she rounded them up with the older ones helping the younger ones move. They all quickly ran inside the main building of the Jade Chamber.

Meanwhile, Lumine was stuck on the defensive. Nothing she tried was able to phase her opponent. Each swing was easily blocked and her own attacks only hit air.

"You've improved. Still, not enough to stand against me," she figure noticed Lumine's improved abilities. Her sparring with Ayaka had borne some fruit but it still didn't close the gap between them by enough. Lumine was covered in scratches while the robed figure had taken no damage at all.

That's when Aether jumped in between them, his trusty Prototype Rancour in his hand. 

"Aether!"

"You're obviously not going to beat them alone."

"If you believe two-on-one will make a difference, give it your best shot," the figure taunted them.

Aether and Lumine lunged for them. Both of them together were able to even the odds of the battle. Everyone else watched with concern as the two fought together.

"So, uh, you think we should jump in there?" Hu Tao asked everyone.

*Whoosh* *Crack*

Shenhe rushed in and joined them, forcing the figure to take the defensive for once. 

"How odd."

"What is it, Zhongli?" Hu Tao asked him.

"That person has a similar fighting style to the Traveler and his sister," he observed.

"Their weapon looks like Lumine's too," Yanfei added.

They all wondered who this person was.

"Tch! This is no time to be asking questions! We have to help!" Keqing yelled and joined in the fight.

Yelan shrugged and drew her bow and began opening fire whenever she saw an opening.

Now five-on-one, the figure was beginning to have trouble. Aether knocked the sword out of their hand and Keqing and Lumine went in for an overhead slash. However, everyone was shocked to see the figure caught their weapons in their hands.

"If that's how we're playing this, then I suppose I should start getting serious."

They threw Keqing and Lumine aside before regrading their weapon. Suddenly, Aether, Lumine, Shenhe and Keqing were beginning to lose ground.