It was a rather quiet night. Keqing was in hiding, many were recovering from the battle with the Ruin Grader, Sparkle was separated from her team, Bennet and Kitayuu were resting deep down in a cave and Raiden was still out cold.
Fischl; "Hey, you know, have you ever thought of getting rid of Raiden right now, so that we don't have to deal with him in the tournament."
Gepard's head perked up a bit, "That sounds tempting..."
"But..."
"Our group is a primary target, because of all the commotion we have caused over the past few days. I hate to admit it, but we might need Raiden's power to get us through"
Fischl turned her head away with disapproval, "Tsk, fine. Don't blame me when he's the reason you get humiliated in this tournament"
The night passed by very fast, almost no fighting was present and even as the sun rose signalling a new day, everyone was still basically out cold.
-Somewhere near the academy-
The cloaked group were busy investigating an abandoned library. The books were dusty, full of cobwebs and an awful smell of what must have been rat droppings.
"I never thought I'd find information about her here..."
The leader paged through a very old book.
Jingliu, the blindfolded woman, noticed and came from behind, interested in what he had found, "Did you get what you were looking for?"
The leader shook his head before coughing and almost collapsing in his frail state. Jingliu held him up as he breathed heavily, "Are you sure you still want to continue this mission?"
The man nodded weakly, "We've made it this far, it would be a waste to go back now. If Scar tried to teleport me out, we'd probably get detected by someone nearby. Besides, we aren't that far from the academy."
Jingliu took a look at the book in his hand, "That book..."
The man nodded, "Yes"
"This thing here is probably older than the Archons... This story is believed to be a myth nowadays and is briefly taught in school before being forgotten, sort of like one of those ghost stories."
The man closed the book and started dusting the cover.
"Have you ever heard... of the most powerful being to ever exist?"
Jingliu stood there quietly.
"The creator of this universe..."
"Madame Herta"
Jingliu; "Herta? That is just a legend though. Is there any proof that she really did exist"
"Well, this book has many pages ripped out and I only have bits and pieces of the story. One things is for sure though, if she really did exist. Then she is long dead."
Jingliu; "Who knew someone so powerful still couldn't avoid the inevitable"
"Herta was unchallenged. Neither the seven, Saturo or even the Heavenly Principles could raise a candle to her. She was basically untouchable. Make anything she wanted happen by warping, reality, time and space. Madame Herta was even able to negate anything thrown at her from a simple attack to even an ability able to change the laws of her power. She was immune to anything hostile to her, nothing was able to bypass that law, not even the power to warp reality. She was the root cause of everything existing around us. On top of all that, she was widely praised for her immaculate beauty. However... no one knows how she died, and that is a mystery that will never be solved."
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There was a loud silence for a moment. It was as if time had stopped.
"Herta had one big problem..."
"And that was having no problems at all"
Before Jingliu could comment, Blade interrupted the two of them, "Boss, are we here to find what the Abyss seeks, or are you just here for your own selfish desires?"
"The Abyss can wait, and I didn't come here just to give a history lesson about Herta either. I just happened to run into this book"
The man tossed the book about Herta at Blade, who was caught off guard and barely able to catch it. He then placed his palm on the floor of the abandoned library and reached into his cloak before pulling out another book from behind, "The eyes of the Phoenix belonging to one of the previous Pyro Archon's still remains in his preserved body and is heavily guarded. Auro's name was feared across all of Teyvat during his rule. His downfall came when he decided to battle both the Raiden Shogun and her sister around five hundred years ago."
White flames suddenly started appearing from under his palm and quickly spread across the entire room, burning everything in almost an instant.
"This book brings me one step closer to finding those eyes, and with the combination of my white flames. I shall overthrow divine authority."
