Chapter 40: Purification, Dragon of the East Wind

Losing control of the wind, the injured Dvalin fell from the sky.

"Here, judgment!"

As soon as Dvalin landed, Diluc rushed out from the field, and a huge firebird spread its wings.

He remembered the purpose of this journey—to attract Dvalin's attention and create an opportunity for the Knights of Favonius to purify the tainted blood on Dvalin.

The next moment, the falling dragon ignored the incoming firebird, and its damaged wings flapped down. Behind the wings were its sharp dragon claws.

Diluc, whose view was blocked by the dragon's wings, didn't notice Dvalin's small trick.

After parrying the dragon's wing strike with his sword, Diluc was instantly hit by the massive dragon claw. As the dragon claw made contact with Diluc, he was sent flying.

"Elder Diluc!"

Xiangling exclaimed, swiftly moving to catch Diluc in mid-air. Both of them were then propelled into the wall of the tower by the immense force.

"Xiangling, Diluc, are you okay?"

Worriedly, Lumine asked, her eyes fixed on Dvalin across, attempting to regain control of the elements of Anemo.

The two struggled to get up.

"We're fine, thanks to the shield generator, we weren't hit directly!"

At Xiangling's feet lay a damaged shield generator. Obviously, she didn't have time to activate it properly during the impact, so she just crushed it to form a crystal shield.

"Let's continue, don't give it time to recover!"

Diluc disregarded the injuries just sustained, flicking the blood off his arm onto the ground before charging out again with his greatsword.

Meanwhile, Xiangling and Lumine cooperated once more, unleashing another fire tornado towards the dragon.

The scorching flames assaulted Dvalin, who was unable to escape this time. Venti's melody continued to play, firmly suppressing its control over the element of Anemo.

"Roar!"

Dvalin let out a painful roar, as endless anger and sadness flooded its mind. Combined with Venti's Song of the Sky, the emotions of betrayal continued to erode Dvalin's consciousness.

"Barbatos, put an end to this!"

Even though it couldn't fly, Dvalin was still an unstoppable behemoth.

With a powerful body and immense strength beyond just elements, Dvalin abandoned the struggle for control of the element of Anemo with Venti. It used all four limbs to charge at Venti like a giant bulldozer.

[WC, Dragon Car!]

Wang Daoyi had a thought, then looked worriedly at Venti.

However, Venti didn't seem too concerned. He was too familiar with Dvalin, and its tricks were all too familiar to him.

Gentle winds appeared under Venti's feet. With just a light touch on the ground, Venti soared into the air, avoiding Dvalin's charge.

"Now's the time!"

Dvalin's charge crashed heavily into the wall of the tower. The collapsing wall pressed down on Dvalin, rendering the beast unable to rise for a moment.

Wang Daoyis eyes flashed with golden runes as a heavy aura-filled rock spear was outlined by element of Geo in front of him.

Among the Laws bestowed upon Wang Daoyi by Zhongli, the rock spear could be enchanted in various ways. However, Wang Daoyi had always used only one type—penetration.

But this time, Wang Daoyi chose another one—restraint.

Under this rune-inscribed rock spear, Zhongli had suppressed countless demons. Now, Wang Daoyi intended to use it to suppress Dvalin and create an opportunity for Lumine.

The rock spear whizzed out, piercing Dvalin's right front claw and firmly pinning it to the ground.

Dvalin let out a painful roar, attempting to lift its claw to pull out the rock spear. However, to its surprise, the rock spear, which felt as light as a toothpick, was unexpectedly heavy, and it couldn't lift its right front claw.

Of course, for a being of Dvalin's level, Wang Daoyi's rock spear couldn't suppress Dvalin like Zhongli did to demons.

However, controlling it for a short time was entirely feasible.

"Yan, now!"

Seeing Dvalin's right claw controlled by Wang Daoyi, Diluc immediately realized it was their chance. A hook shot out, firmly binding Dvalin's other dragon claw.

Diluc and Venti worked together to hold the hook lock, restraining Dvalin.

Seeing this, Lumine dashed forward. Using the momentum from a sprint, she leaped onto Dvalin's back.

On Dvalin's back, clots of purple-red toxic blood were still flowing from the wound caused by Venti's sword earlier.

Without hesitation, Lumine called upon her inner power. Milky-white light radiated from her hands.

As Lumine's hands approached, the purple-red toxic blood surged more violently, causing Dvalin even more pain.

But it was futile. The others firmly controlled Dvalin, preventing it from moving or evading.

Pressing her hands onto the clots of purple-red blood, the milky-white light intensified, gradually dissolving the toxic blood.

Feeling the pain lessen, Dvalin gradually calmed down, collapsing on the ground. In its huge dragon eyes, flashes of resentment and calmness alternated.

As the milky-white light grew stronger, the clots of toxic blood on Dvalin's back grew smaller and smaller, until they disappeared completely. The resentment in Dvalin's eyes also gradually faded away, and its consciousness returned to normal.

"Barbatos!"

This time, the voice was not filled with anger or sadness, only calmness and a hint of apology.

Seeing Dvalin return to normal, the people who had been controlling it relaxed and collapsed to the ground.

With Wang Daoyii losing control, the rock spear that was pinning Dvalin's right claw also disintegrated in an instant.

"Dvalin!"

Seeing the dragon return to normal, Venti hurriedly moved to embrace it.

However, before he could take a step, the platform under his feet suddenly cracked, revealing a bottomless abyss below. Surprisingly, this place was not the bottom of the tower.

"This is bad, everyone, be careful!"

Seeing this, Lumine immediately realized what had happened and reminded everyone.

The thousand-year-old tower, having endured the intense battle just now, began to collapse. Beneath it lay an unknown abyss.

The intense tremors made it impossible for the exhausted people who had just controlled Dvalin to stand up.

"Boom!"

Finally, after a loud noise, the floor shattered, and everyone fell downwards.

Wang Daoyi quickly grabbed Xiangling beside him, holding her in his arms. He was about to activate his glider, but he felt a gentle breeze lifting his body.

[In a hurry, forgot that Venti was still here!]

Nevertheless, Wang Daoyi still didn't release Xiangling, holding her firmly with both hands.

[She's so soft and comfortable!]

In the next moment, the giant dragon roared from below, and everyone had already landed on the back of the green dragon.

Dvalin carried everyone away from the ruins of the Wind Dragon.

"Brother Daoyi!"

Xiangling's shy voice reached Wang Daoyi's ears.

"Cough, cough," he quickly let go of Xiangling, "I was worried, haha, I was worried about you!"

"I know!" Xiangling's voice was so soft it was almost inaudible.

········

In the end, Wang Daoyi and the others didn't know what the bard and the now-normal dragon talked about.

However, thanks to Dvalin, they were all sent back to Dawn Winery.

Why didn't they go back to Mondstadt? Because they were afraid of causing panic. After all, in the eyes of the Mondstadt citizens, Dvalin was still Stormterror.

(End of Chapter)