Chapter 33

After we finished fixing the Lyre and we began discussing where we were going to have Venti play the Lyre in question in order to call over Dvalin Diluc had to firmly deny calling Dvalin close to his Winery as despite the fact that he could fix it... Not only would he lose a lot of money but as one of the world's largest providers of wine there could literally be political instability should his massive operation be ruined for a whole season.

Keep in mind that Teyvat was a death world basically, towns and farmland had to contest and fight with the very dangerous wildlife that could easily slaughter a whole town should their territory be approached without consent. So, the large area of land needed to cultivate the materials needed to cultivate Mondstadts famous wines that is famous across the world was the equivalent of destroying all the mulberry fields in ancient China which would kill off all the silkworms.

Whereas back on earth if some large ship decided to use a huge net to catch a bunch of fish, they could do so rather easily without much danger from the wildlife. Here in Teyvat... Well, Beidou being attacked and damn near killed by a massive sea monster was a perfect example of the monsters that resided within the shadows of the world.

"A bard's song must be sung at both a high place as well as in a place that isn't all that dry lest my voice crack!" Venti cut off the discussing of where we could summon Dvalin and I frowned for a moment as I remembered how in canon when they summoned Dvalin it was at the top of a very high cliff bordering the ocean on the western part of Mondstadt.

Diluc hummed in thought for a moment before he confirmed my thoughts when he began mentioning Starsnatch Cliff. "Does that place meet your needs, Bard?"

Venti swiftly agreed smiling as he clapped his hands in excitement. "Well in that case lets go then!"

-

We swiftly made our way across Mondstadt and although the steep climb up the hill to the peak of Starsnatch Cliff was annoying especially with Paimon acting as a sort of annoying vocal motivator as she would keep mentioning how she wasn't tired when she wasn't even walking at all.

Once we reached the top of the cliff I looked over and saw the ever-expansive ocean ahead of me and almost faintly I believed that I saw the entrance to the abyssal trial place that I never really got into.

"Well, we are all here. Are we ready to possibly throw down with Dvalin?" I asked seeing the Knights of Favonius and Diluc were already armed and although they had their weapons stabbed into the ground beside them in the case of Eula and otherwise generally at rest, it was apparent that they expected this to go sideways.

"We have no idea as to the current mental state of Dvalin... In the case of him immediately being hostile our priority is to subdue him so you two can purge the corrupted blood within him." Jean quickly explained as Venti was seemingly strumming the glowing Lyre in preparation to get Dvalin's attention.

"Alright! I the best wandering bard of the mortal realm shall now begin my performance with the Holy Lyre." Venti called out silencing our discussions.

Venti alone walked over to the edge of the cliff facing the ocean and with a strum of the Holy Lyre the endless winds buffeting the cliffside were seemingly silenced as his carefully pulled notes from the Lyre carried within the new winds, he seemingly created to spread his song across the land.

Within but a few moments a massive gust of wind shored off a chunk of wind as the massive form of Dvalin flew up with the winds that hugged the cliff and he straightened himself out in the air as he flew in place staring at Venti for a few moments and then his loud deep voice carried to us. "You have come... What has been done cannot be undone!"

As Venti went onto ask why Dvalin still looked sad at how they were standing at odds now and how he obviously was still yearning for the song that once made them friends I poked Jean and Diluc on the back and slightly pushed them forward.

"I saw an Abyss Mage, come!" I hissed to them as I knew if I just walked forward to 'possibly disturb' the scene of 'Barbatos and Dvalin' possibly reconciling and they thought I may be trying to literally stab Venti in the back for some reason... That would be a terrible way to die having Diluc's or Jean's take my head off.

As Venti's words seemed to reach and calm Dvalin, the dragon began shaking its head as though it was trying to clear the fog the corrupted blood infected it with, but just as I came up behind Venti I was right as out of nowhere, a series of a dozen powerful rays of elemental energy were shot at Venti.

"I got Venti!" I yelled as I drew upon my Schnee Semblance and although I didn't know how to use Glyphs yet to make gravity or other energy-altering effects I did know, that they made great shields especially when I coated the Glyph in Anemo energy which softened the magical blows raining on my Glyph.

Venti's Lyre glowed heavily as Dvalin was seemingly being infused with Venti's Anemo energy allowing him to temporarily clear his mind.

"Do not fall for his lies and trickery great dragon!" A voice hissed and then a half dozen Abyss mages with a Cryo Abyss leading them flew around Dvalin with the leading Cryo mage speaking for them all. "He left you to rot! Now he attempts to deceive you once more..."

Then the Cryo mage began gaslighting Dvalin with some Sith nonsense. "Yes... Let your wrath fester! They came here with the greatest knights of the age to slay you!"

Dvalin already mentally messed up roared as his mind seemingly came to the conclusion that the Abyssal Mage was telling the truth and Barbatos was here to kill him.

Then the other Abyssal Mages seemingly teleported away as the leading Cryo Mage flew up behind Dvalin and grabbed the crystalized evil blood spike that was jutting off the dragon's neck then with another roar Dvalin angrily flew away with Venti being unable to do anything the Anemo enhanced winds that Dvalin threw at us all into disarray as we stopped ourselves from being pushed off down the cliff we climbed up.

After a moment of silence where we recollected our thoughts, everyone looked to Venti to light the way as the god of the land... Or actually Amber wasn't having the town drunkard Bard be the god she had been worshipping. "Wait you are Barbatos! I have carried your drunk ass into the drunk tank!!!" Amber cried out stamping her feet into the ground as her worship of the Anemo archon visibly collapsed into pieces.

"Hehe..." Venti replied awkwardly before he literally turned to Jean ignoring the stunned expressions of Amber and Eula and thanked Jean for still calling him Venti despite knowing his identity.

"So can we use the Holy Lyre again?" I asked as this time with my assistance and Jean plus Diluc throwing some elemental attacks at the Abyss Mages we managed to stop the attacks from hitting said Lyre and ruining it.

"With Jake's timely assistance, it was saved physically. However, calling upon Dvalin while he also absorbed a good deal of power from it to clear his mind which failed means... No, we cannot use it as it's out of energy again and I cannot refuel it lest we get more Tears which I doubt they will be found soon enough." What Venti left unsaid was how it was plain to see that the Abyss Order's plans with Dvalin were obviously coming to fruition and we needed to take a different approach.

"Amber, Eula as the scout captain and leader of the Outriders, I am assigning the task of finding out where Dvalin is, as well as finding out where the Abyss Mages are making their camp!" Jean ordered.

Diluc scoffed muttering about the inefficacy of the Knights of Favonius but then he finally spoke up. "I will also have my contacts looking into things, I say we meet up in three days as we know the general direction Dvalin is flying and it's the old capital... He likely made his nest there as the place is the perfect resting ground being surrounded by the old wind wall..." As he was speaking, I could hear Eula's leather gloves audibly creasing as her face went stone still at the mention of the destroyed city of old Mondstadt from where her clan used to rule.

To say the least, should she go, it will bring very complicated feelings

I hummed in thought before I looked at Jean. "Jean, what should me and Lumine do? Do you perhaps have a quest or something in Dragonspine?" I asked thinking deeply as I realized how I was nearly blasted away by those Abyss Mages, and I realized if I wanted to take the next step to strengthen my Semblance then I needed to kill a Frostarm Lawachurl and a Ruin Grader.

Both of those monsters once I summon them would greatly strengthen my combat potential as Lawachurls of all elements could create an elemental force field around them to dampen much of the physical damage it can receive and even heal off the element that matches their shield, plus the fact that it was ten-meter-tall brawler that can shatter boulders with ease makes it a good beat stick.

The Ruin Grader is likely to be my strongest force multiplier for a long while as it is a staggering fifteen-meter tall, massive robot capable of using its powerful arms to use trees as weapons along with its powerful array of missiles that far outshine the missiles that my Ruin Guard can send. Not to mention how its central eye can shoot a very powerful beam of light that can help hit flying and elusive foes.

Jean thought about my question for a while before she nodded. "Actually yes. Both the Knights of Favonius and the Adventure's guild have a standing bounty to clear out some of the Ruin Guards within the Dragon Spine mountains."

I looked to Lumine for confirmation, and she nodded agreeing to my idea with a shrug. "Alright well in that case, Me and Lumine are going to get going."

A few minutes later while we were walking down the cliff's hill Paimon finally came out from behind Lumine and spoke. "Jake, why do you want to go to Dragonspine Mountain?"

I briefly explained my desire to get stronger summons and then I added another thing. "Plus, with how we will be right there in the Dragonspine Mountains, we could fairly easily just dip into Liyue and touch one of their Statues of the Seven. Maybe we can get Geo elemental powers from poking it."

Paimon looked like she wanted to argue that relying on the off chance we could snag another elemental power was a waste, but Lumine shook her head. "No... Jake is right, me and him need to become stronger especially if we are going to directly fight Dvalin as our Anemo powers will be all but useless."

Lumine took my head making us stop and Paimon flew into my back with a muffled grunt of pain, but Lumine's face only twitched for a moment before her serious expression came back. "Jake summon your Anemo elemental so we can quickly get to Mondstadt, grab the mission, and then we can fly over the Dragonspine Mountains with the elemental separating the insane cold coming off the mountain so we can easily find the monsters you want to kill."

Lumine took a deep breath before she nodded. "Then we will test your theory about seeing if we can get stronger by touching the Lord of Geo's statue."

'Alright well, it sounds like we have a plan.' I thought as a large Glyph formed beneath us and our ride came out once, I sat atop it with Lumine on my lap and Paimon on her lap we flew off to Mondstadt to register ourselves for the mission.