The Eye of the Storm

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***

Leaving Hu tao and Fischl behind, Yomite and Lumine left the room and sneakily used her teleport ability to get there faster.

The requirement for her to activate the ability was to hold the person's hand or to touch a part of his skin.

Well, teleportation was a convenient little thing many isekai protagonists used.

However, Yomite read about teleports, and they were hella dangerous.

Reading about how many times teleports failed, made him a little bit sceptical.

And sometimes, it was truly horrifying.

In the best case scenario, you would get transported to a different location than the one you were supposed to go to, or get stranded on some island that's outside of the map.

Which was bad in itself, however there was an even worse alternative.

In the worst case scenario...Half of your body would teleport somewhere else while the other half would reach the location you wanted...

Successfully cutting you in half which was pretty much guaranteed death.

Sometimes, if you misplaced the coordinates, you might as well end up inside of a wall without your own volution, or your bones might get turned into a green jelly. A scary thought.

In that way, teleporting wasn't fun. At all.

Venti the bard, mentioned they should meet him at the tallest tree of Teyvat.

He had never been in that location before nor did he use teleports, Lumine, however, visited that place a couple of times and he trusted that he won't get dissected by the teleport half way through.

Once she touched him, a white light enveloped them and after it faded, they appeared in front of a giant tree, right next to the teleport device, however, unlike the alien-shaped device, this one looked more like an actual statue of an important person or a figure of the past.

"Looks like we are here." He sighed in relief that all of his body parts were still intact.

He didn't die yet! Great!

It was a monumental stone statue that watched over Mondstadt for thousands of years...

Legends say that it was sculpted in the image of the Anemo Archon, Barbatos. Its size was quite large.

Maybe a bit more than the full height of a fully grown man.

It was a tall, leaves and vine-covered statue of a man with a hood perched on his head, and a pair of wings spread wide on his back, as if it was an angel, or a messenger of a god.

It also had a feminine face that resembled that of the Bard that both of them met not too long ago, which might also make his identity more credible.

It was deep into the night, but with some difficulty he could read the words inscribed on the statue as such, "Seeds brought by the wind will grow over time."

The statue silently anticipated the arrival of a noble soul, while a thousand winds of time would soon unfold a new story...

"Amazing, Party leader." Lumine suddenly spoke while he observed the Statue of the Seven.

"Hm? What is?"

"The first time I used the instant transportation...I...I vomited all over...It's still a bit difficult...for me, yet you look completely fine." Lumine replied, somewhat shyly.

"Paimon admits that Paimon's head was hurting the first couple of time we used it, but Paimon got used to it as well!"

His resistance to teleportation or rather, throwing up, might be because of the amount of rollercoaster rides he took as a kid.

Although that might be unrelated, considering his body was made anew and upgraded a whole bunch. It wouldn't surprise him if it was like a hidden feature to prevent him from puking or something.

But wait...

"...Great...And you didn't mention it to me on purpose, so that you could laugh if that happened to me? Is that it?"

"N-No...it's not like that!" Lumine hurriedly denied it, forming an X with her hands.

"Haha! What a lovely bunch you are! Both of you finally came! Together with this... Flying child?" A gleeful voice from within the tree branches echoed and soon enough a green clothed figure jumped down.

Venti the bard, the apparent God and the apparent Male, both of which Yomite still suspected were false deep inside of his mind.

The little fairy felt insulted and immediately rebutted the bard, "Hey! Paimon will let you know that Paimon is much older than you are! Paimon's not a child! Some respect to the elders you have! Hmph!"

"I apologize," Venti giggled, "I'm glad you finally came. I thought you forgot about me…"

"Ahahah...No way...we were...a bit busy." He glanced at Lumine, and saw she wanted to urgently ask something, so he let her speak.

Lumine stepped forward and spoke, "Venti...or Barbatos…I am searching for my brother, have you seen anyone even remotely similar to me before?"

Venti put his fingers on his chin and contemplated for a while before replying, "...Unfortunately no. However, I have an old, grumpy acquaintance in Liyue that might be able to know something. He is a grandpa, but his knowledge is way, way beyond mine. So if you help me with Dvalin, I promise you I will let him know, and you can talk to him. How does that sound?"

"Mhm. Thank you." Satisfied, Lumine nodded.

She felt that it wasn't long before her brother and her would meet.

A happy reunion.

"Now then! After thinking for a while, I've devised a plan to save Dvalin! First of all, we need to—"

*Screech*

A weird sound, strong enough to twist the air itself, interrupted their 'negotiations' and Venti's explanation.

The group of three looked up and saw a large, floating, translucent sphere in a greenish hue, hovering over the grass.

White ancient markings were embedded in the middle of its core, swirling the wind around itself.

Chunks of debris and other slabs of rocks, formed something akin to a shield, or a skeletal structure that was protecting its core, covering it like a cocoon in a disorderly pattern giving it the image of a structured organism.

The organism gave off a feeling of storm driven to life, as the greenish wind swirled around the orb.

This was the first time Yomite saw a creature like this, and a second time he saw a flying enemy..

Although he did wonder if it even was a monster, and not some sort of a golem instead.

Venti frowned, his expression darkening, "It's the Eye of the Storm, also known as the Restless Elemental. It seems like it sensed me and came over to gather more power...Welp, I'm a bad match up for it, so I'm gonna hide now, good luck! Laters!" With that, Venti used a gust of wind and floated away to safety of the tree where the Eye of the Storm couldn't reach him.

"Oi! Wait! What the...This dude just ran away!"

"Party leader...what do we do?" Lumine asked, while pulling out her sword from its scabbard.

Yomite cursed his luck when it came to this bard, nothing was going the way he imagine, "Aw, come on... let's just kill it...It seems hostile, so I doubt there is any room for negotiation."