53 Chapter 48

I couldn't help but feel jittery as I followed Lumine Venti and Paimon out of the church and as we approached the side stairs to head to towards the more populated part of Mondstadt my anxiety was proven correct as we were met with a powerful gust of frigid air that I could feel draining my aura saving me from frostbite worthy temperatures.

Once I lowered my arms that blocked off the icy winds from buffeting my face I was immediately ducked and rolled on the ground as two Fatui assassins popped up out of our shadows and attempted to grab the back of our heads.

But I grabbed one of their arms and swung him around hitting his compatriot and throwing the duo closer to the now-approaching form of La Signora.

Signora just oozed sex appeal with her confident strut towards us flanked by her two electro-Cicin mages. She had long light blond hair with one of her eyes covered by her large mask-like crown with a lace-like eye patch covering her eye itself leaving her other light purple one to stare at us with disdain.

Not to mention with how she was clad in rather revealing clothing consisting of a very low-cut girdle that showed off her cleavage and rather weird skirt that only covered her front and direct back leaving her legs and lacy underwear to be freely seen from her sides as her hips swayed with each step.

"At last, Mondstadt's rodent ruler in the flesh," Signora spoke with both vehemence and glee in her voice as she effortlessly walked over of the frozen ground, she had frozen with her Cryo Delusion.

"Scurrying through the streets looking for leftovers I see..." She said as she walked to Venti who had his legs frozen to the thick ice on the ground I likewise freed Lumine from her own bindings. "Mondstadt calls this a god?" She pondered aloud as she gripped Venti's face and began turning it back in forth in a parody of inspection.

"Heh, better a local rodent than a traitorous bitch who leaped to join the people who caused your suffering!" Venti snarled and earned a backhand to his throat making the Archon gag.

"Don't you dare speak back to me insolent bard!" Signora snarled and as Venti thrummed with Anemo's power and shattered the ice holding him down Signora was upon him with her hand about to reach the Anemo Archons chest.

About to steal the god of Mondstadt's Gnosis.

Rather than a green glowing light of Venti's gnosis being taken Signora was met with a large flash of white light as a large Schnee emblem blocked her from touching Venti and as she looked at me holding my glowing silver hand towards them, she was met with what the Glyph's actual purpose was.

A large mechanical arm swung out of the Glyph, and I very much made the battle apparent to Mondstadt as Signora was pimp-slapped by the now emerging Ruin Grader through the walls of the church and within causing a series of loud crashing noises as part of the church collapsed.

"Kill all of the vermin!" Signora screeched as parts of her body were coated in flames healing her wounds and from the shadows, several more assassins appeared with Cicin mages of various elements appearing in teleportations.

Even as our battle became a wide melee of assassins attempting to get the drop on us and likewise with the Cicin Mages attempting to break any defenses we had with our own elemental powers the Fatui were very much on a clock.

An assassination on supernatural individuals in the heart of a city filled with allies can only work when done quickly and quietly.

And to be clear a massive Ruin Grader being summoned in the middle of the city and begin shooting loud as hell lasers and missiles is anything but subtle.

First to join the battle was Jean who smashed Signora through another side of the church with a condensed tornado coming off her sword and for the first time ever I saw Jean's face twisted in a rictus of fury as Barbara was escorted out of the church by her fellow sisters with a large gash going down her exposed collar bone and dying her church's outfit with blood.

Then came Rosaria as she herself used her stealthy tactics to all but teleport between pieces of debris to bury her spear into Fatui agents as everyone was battling wildly.

For a moment I considered flying off on my Anemo elemental summon but seeing the Fatui agents going after Barbara and other civilians escaping from the church I cursed and merely summoned a large Electro Lawachurl beside the crowd of civilians that roared as it coated itself in lightning and grabbed the large Electro Fatui agent armed with its Electro Delusion and quickly absorbed the Electo energies coating the man and with an audible crunching noise the Fatui agent was killed in the Lawachurl's hands.

"Stay by it! It will protect you against anyone approaching you!" I yelled as I used my saber and that Rain Slasher claymore to kill the Fatui that advanced upon me and Lumine as we got closer to Venti who was fighting with Jean against Signora.

But just as I feared and as Yelan warned I was smacked in the back seemingly by the hand of God into the ground by a solid mass of water.

"Wow Signora, you are definitely taking a beating, aren't you?" A voice spoke cutting through the din of battle and coming up from the step close to the city was Childe.

"I have this under control Childe, leave!" Signora snarled in response as she blasted Jean and Venti away with a gale of ice blades and landed beside her fellow Fatui Harbinger.

But the newest Harbinger merely shrugged with more portals opening around the church of Barbatos allowing more and more Fatui to pile out.

"A total invasion of another city huh... I wonder how your so-called diplomats will spin this." I said as I stood up with my back popping with my aura healing any damage Childe's sucker punch did to me.

"Oh, wow I hit you straight in the back of this chest behind your heart!? You will be fun to fight I bet!" Childe said excitedly as he threw aside his large winter coat to leave him in his standard outfit of a jacket with rolled-up sleeves, pants, and his Hydro vision hanging on his hip that contrasted the demonic small mask he was wearing on the side of his head.

"I don't know... I mean you are the weakest of the Fatui Harbingers. Are you even worth my time?" I prodded and even Signora paid more attention to me as Childe's whole body twitched as I hit his sore spot.

"Alright, kid I got your number." He said as he put away his bow and then I knew he was taking me seriously as two swords made out of condensed pressurized hydroenergy formed in his hands.

Then at an unseen signal, we dashed towards one another with Childe blocking my overhead swing of my claymore with his sword head in a X formation and then he spun to the side with his water swords disappearing instantly allowing my claymore to fall forward past him as he went to form a large spear of hydro to impale me.

But I likewise met his feint with my own as I let go of my claymore with my saber flashing into my hands from my space bag coated in an Anemo tornado.

An explosion pushed us back as my Anemo energy violently reacted as per usual with another more active element sending Childe flying back as he couldn't react in time and unlike him, I was able to apply a weak Geo shield to myself before the explosion went off.

No words or taunts were needed to pass our lips as we repeatedly met each other in a melee dance of death and Childe proved very much that he was the superior duelist, but I had a whole bag of tricks I could call upon with my solid Schnee glyphs slamming into him along with my summons.

And then there was the fact that with my Aura I was able to shrug off what should have been lethal wounds with the Aura's forcefield and use the lethal wound he attempted to land on me to land my own wounds upon him that he most certainly didn't have a forcefield in Aura or a Geo shield for.

"My fellow compatriots, the Prinzessin is here!" I heard someone all but yell with Childe being nailed by a column of condescending Electro energy and thrown aside from me.

"Hail Fatui agents of evil kneel in supplication as the Prinzessin der Verurteilung is here and officially denounces your actions!" Fischl cried out as she partially covered her Electro radiating visible eye with her hand as her Electro enthused familiar flapped in the air beside her.

"Who the hell is she?" Childe asked as he stood up and then seemed to look between the new interloper and me. "Is that your girlfriend or something?" He asked casually as one of his hands came up to cup the mask on his head and then pulled it over his face and became coated in Electro energy which enhanced the Hydro spear he was holding.

"No! Maybe!" Lumine and Fischl yelled at the same time with the two girls glaring at one another before they got back into the fight.

"Well either way hopefully there shouldn't be anyone else coming for the next couple minutes and by then you will be dead," Childe said carelessly as he approached me with his Vision and Delusion being used at the same time.

"I am afraid such hopes aren't possible." Another voice cut through and Childe spun around to cut apart a powerful Hydro and Cryo series of arrows, but he was still partially frozen as Yelan and Ganyu walked into the church's area flanked by Diluc, Kaeya, Lisa, Bennet, and several dozen knights of Favonius.

"Yo Signora you still want me to take off?" Childe grinned maniacally with his battle lust reaching unknown levels with Electro energies roaring off him as he burnt through his life force to break off the ice off him.

"Just help me get the damned gnosis, so we can leave this vermin-infested city!" Signora cried out as she herself gave up only using her Cryo delusion to deal with Venti and the others as she engulfed herself in flames and grew to be five-plus meters tall.

"Sorry buddy but you got to die now." Childe shrugged as he was cloaked in his foul legacy transformation as he knew quite clearly, he was heavily outnumbered by vision wielders, and I could only throw up a Schnee glyph that instant shattered into motes of light as he all but teleported with his insane speed and smashed into my Rain Slasher I put in front of me to block Childe's blow.

Before he could land another crushing blow however, he was met with Diluc's Pyro-covered claymore before Diluc was pushed aside by Childe's enhanced physical abilities from using his Vision, Delusion, and his Foul Legacy Transformation that imbued him with a portion of the abyss's power.

"Well now... You are a scary one." Kaeya muttered as he likewise dashed forward to meet Childe, as I recovered and joined the cavalry captain and Diluc in a melee against Childe while dealing with the occasional Fatui agents that attempted to interfere with the battle.

Childe was able to bat aside our blows fairly easily with his enhanced abilities and only the geo constructs that I summoned were able to block his blows, otherwise, we need to dodge his every blow as we would be thrown dozens of meters away if we didn't.

But finally, Lisa made her presence known as a massive titanic bolt of lightning in the shape of a snake roared into existence above our heads, before mercilessly smashing into Childe smashing his floating form into the ground and exploding sending jagged bolts of electroenergy everywhere.

Once the smoke cleared and I saw the state of Childe I knew our resident Electro queen had either killed or knocked him unconscious as his abyss mask fell off his head making him lose his abyssal form and he was just lying there limp.

But Lisa obviously was dead tired after using such and Electro spell and I saw Kaeya break off the battle to carry her out of sight lest the Fatui gets the idea of taking her hostage.

With Childe seemingly taken out of the battle and literally seemingly hundreds of dead fatui and Mondstadt citizens littering the ground I threw my already exhausted form into the frantic battle with Signora who had realized this was a total wash with how Childe was defeated.

"You rats! Do you know what you are doing? We are the Fatui! We will destroy Mondstadt and that pathetic god cannot stop us!" Signora screeched hysterically and I see that the stress had made the woman snap and lose the calm disdain she had for us as she began to franticly threaten how the Fatui would poison our water and everything imaginable as vengeance for killing her.

But it was useless and as scary as she would be typically... We had more than a dozen vision wielders and a literal Arcon very much pissed at her, so she soon got beat on. Simply by using a newly summoned Ruin Grader being filled with the remains of my aura so it could withstand the insane heat of her flames, everyone could beat on her head and upper chest while the Ruin Grader's large claws held her arms locked to her sides as the mech held onto her.

Finally, though Signora was knocked unconscious or maybe killed... I don't know. Diluc smashed the flat of his claymore atop her head before she went silent.

"Well, this is certainly awkward..." A voice called out and I frowned as yet another Harbinger came out from deeper in the city and I didn't know anything much about this one as I had never read the Genshin comics in my old world. "You know she wasn't really lying about the whole poisoning bit. I have prepared enough chemicals to poison the lake surrounding Mondstadt for the next couple weeks so why don't you let my people go?"

"Dottore," Jean called out while the still-living Fatui agents began to pick themselves up off the ground.

"Here I will tell you what. In return for Signora and Childe, I will leave a sample of the chemicals I had prepared to flood your city with. Would that satisfy you?' He asked.

Dottore was wearing a heavily decorated Sneznahyan coat that covered up all his skin so the only features I could really see on him was his face which was mostly covered by a weird mask that covered the man's eyes and down to his nose leaving only his smug grin to be seen.

"And should we simply capture you as well?" Jean challenged with her sword all but roaring with the tornado condensed around it.

Dottore only lightly chuckled before he responded. "Who is to say I am actually here to begin with? Is this form you see before you an illusion or even one of my automatons? Will you chance your city being poisoned with a condensed form of the Withering from Sumeru in order to capture a remote-controlled automaton? Or will you allow my fellow Harbingers go, to save your city?"

Even as I gripped my Saber I could only mentally snarl as Jean had literally no choice but to capitulate as although we vision wielders were highly resistant to the Withering from what an exhausted Lisa was explaining hurriedly to Jean. But literally, everyone else in Mondstadt that touches that taint will waste away with no known cure.

"Ladies and Gentlemen please carry my colleagues away... Oh and leave the chaff behind. Let the little people of Mondstadt have a bit of a win today." Dottore spoke carelessly and even as the heavily wounded Fatui members attempted to crawl away hearing how they were being abandoned...

But the uninjured members simply followed their newest commanding officers' orders as they hurriedly grabbed Childe, Signora and helped the less injured members flee the site of battle as the rest were left behind seeing their circumstances just collapsed back into the ground in defeat.