Calming The Storm

Just in case there are any grammatical errors at all, I apologise in advance. My writing skills aren't exactly top-notch. Though, I am hoping to improve quite a bit in the next few years when I reach the tenth grade at least.

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"Talking"

'Thinking'

[System]

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"Kaeya, we got another horde heading our way!"

"Deal with them. I'll deal with this one!"

"Got it!" Valorant responded as he charged forwards and began taking down the new horde of Hilichurls as well as slimes. He wasn't having any difficulty as was currently installed into Jeanne's Class Card, making his attacks far more powerful. It didn't take long for him to quickly reduce the number of the enemies.

Valorant had quickly caught up to Kaeya, who was already inside of the temple, though thankfully not that far in before Valorant had arrived. He already said his farewells to Xiangling before quickly making his way here, which brings them to the current situation where they were now taking down hordes of Hilichurls and slimes.

Upon having entered into the temple, Valorant had noticed how the temple had quite a bit of water flooding everywhere. Not to the point that it was hard to walk, but the water level did reach up a few centimeters. Kaeya seemed to use it to his advantage though since Valorant had seen that he was capable of utilising ice, unlike Lumine and Amber who used wind and fire respectively.

"Very well done, Valorant. You certainly do fit all the requirements to become a Knight of Favonius." Kaeya praised as they had just finished off the remaining groups. Valorant walked on over to Kaeya, who was waiting over at the next doorway. "It truly does confuse me though, You don't seem to have a Vision, so how is it that you can channel energy? Or whatever it is you do with changing into that armour of yours. Truly curious."

"I'm just one of the many mysteries of the world." Valorant smirked as he tapped the headpiece that he had on. Kaeya just gave an amused chuckle at this before they both continued moving forward into the temple. 'Vision, huh? I suppose that must be some kind of catalyst or whatever the people here need to use elemental energy.'

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"Alright, cuties. Stand back."

Lumine quickly complied as both her and Paimon backed off as Lisa stepped forwards before opening up her book as what looked to be very similar to a magic circle formed in front of her hands as purple lightning soon shot out of the circle and destroyed the Hilichurls as well as orange slimes that were surrounding them.

The lightning seemed to dance a bit as it traveled across each of the enemies, effectively hurting all of them simultaneously. It didn't take long before the lightning completely destroyed the enemies as they fell to the ground and the slimes turned into simple puddles that soon disappeared into nothingness. The damage was pretty great since the enemies were soaked in water.

"Let us get going, cuties. The end of the temple shouldn't be much longer." Lisa voiced as they all began walking towards the next area within the temple. Lisa then looked at Lumine and decided to ask. "You said that the other cutie went to help Kaeya out at the Temple of the Wolf, correct?"

"Yeah... we all separated upon having exited the first temple." Lumine responded as they continued walking. Paimon then flew beside Lumine as she looked up at Lisa curiously before deciding to ask.

"Why'd you ask?"

"Well, it's just that I've heard that a number of strong monsters were starting to appear over at the East area. Much more powerful than your usual Hilichurl and slime." Lisa voiced as the two looked up at her in surprise. "From what I have heard, there has been an increase in the number of Mitachurls that have been appearing."

"Mitachurls?!" Paimon shouted as Lumine just had a confused look on her face. But, hearing the amount of surprise in Paimon's voice brought her some concern. "I haven't really seen on, but I've heard that they're way strong than Hilichurls and more!"

"Will Valorant be... okay?" Lumine asked Lisa with concern as the woman gave a small giggle.

"I'm sure that he'll be fine over there." Lisa assured them as they continued walking through the temple. "While the increase of them is certainly concerning. From what Kaeya has told me, Valorant is quite skilled. I'm sure they'll be fine over there, especially if the both of them work together to fight off against the number of monsters."

This did bring them some relief, though Lumine was still concerned for her friend. She could only hope that he'll be fine.

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Kaeya and Valorant were quickly making their way through the temple, they destroyed any Hilichurl or slime that had gotten in their way and were quickly getting to the end. Valorant was honestly thankful that these things weren't as strong as the ones he had fought when he was helping out Xiangling not too long ago.

He had already cancelled out his transformation and was back to normal, he could feel his magic reserves drained quite a bit. He wanted to test a few things out by having been changed, that being that he wanted to see the changes in mana usage rate when he was transformed. It seemed that whenever he moved, the more mana it would use.

And he had no doubt in his mind that using Noble Phantasms would also drain an incredible amount of his mana reserves.

"Kaeya, I see the stone. It's just like the one in the Temple of the Falcon!"

"Then let's destroy it!" Kaeya nodded his head after hearing Valorant as they both quickly charged up the stairs and into the room where Valorant could see the stone stationed at the center of the room. Valorant stayed a bit behind as he was the one that was dealing with the enemies that were following them as Kaeya charged towards the stone. "Hya~!"

Kaeya then jumped up before swinging his sword down at the stone, easily smashing the stone to pieces as the pieces shattered onto the ground as the energy that once covered the stone began to disperse before disappearing entirely. Valorant finished off the last Hilichurls before rushing up beside Kaeya and panting slightly.

'Man, I'm tired. All this running and fighting today is really taking the toll...' Valorant thought to himself. He was seriously going to get some sleep when they got back to the city. Speaking of which, he was going to need to get some kind of arrangement for a place that he could stay at. Both Lumine, Paimon and him had yet to do so.

They were pretty much homeless right now.

"Alright then, that should be that then." Kaeya voiced as he picked up one of the chunks from the stone before placing it back down on the ground as he stood back up and turned to face Valorant. "With that those intense storms outside should have subsided. It would be good for us to report back to Jean that we have managed to finish off this temple."

"Right, gotcha." Valorant nodded. They then heard a noise as they turned their heads towards the doorway to see that a portal had opened up at the end of the long extended bridge just outside of the room. "There's the portal. If this temple is the same as the one we finished off with Amber, then it should be able to take us to the front of the temple gates."

"Then you go on ahead."

"What about you?"

"I want to check a few things out here." Valorant stared at him for a second before shrugging as he began calmly walking towards the portal. Kaeya just watched as he went. "Remember to explain to Jean what had happened here at the temple. Also, inform her on the whole situation with the increase in Mitachurls!"

"I know!" Valorant responded simply as he approached the portal. Just as he was about to step in, he stopped for a second as he narrowed his eyes and looked over his shoulder. Kaeya seemed to be thinking as Valorant scanned his eyes around the area. 'What was that? I could have sworn that I heard something, and it felt like someone was watching me...'

Valorant then shook his head before walking through the portal and disappearing from the spot. Unknown to him, a red-haired male stepped out from behind one of the temple's pillars and stared at the portal with a slightly narrowed look as a small smirk seemed to appear on their lips ever so slightly. 'Impressive, that one has some pretty acute senses.'

"Unless you were the one that was behind it."

'Guess I better help Kaeya out a bit. How inefficient of him...'

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As soon as Valorant had found himself outside of the Temple of the Wolf, he wasted no time and began his run back to Mondstadt. It was a tiring run back with all that he had done today, but he managed to push through and could see the city in sight. He was glad that he didn't see any Hilichurls, and God forbid those Mitachurls, as he questioned if he had the power right now to deal with them swiftly.

'Alright, just in time!' Valorant smirked as he ran across the dirt road leading towards the bridge of the city. He looked up at the sky and had noticed that it was quickly turning nighttime, and there was thankfully still a bit of sunlight. He needed to find a place to stay for the night. He was then about to run over the bridge before a voice shouted.

"Valorant~!"

Said male stopped in his tracks and panted heavily as he turned his head towards the source of the voice. He was glad to see that the one that had called out to him was none other than Paimon, the girl was waving her arms at him with a big smile as both Lisa and Lumine were seen running beside the flying girl as they headed over towards him.

"Oh, hey! Nice to see... you guys are okay." Valorant panted as he placed both hands on his hips as the three stopped in front of him. "With the whole storm having been cleared up already, I assume that you guys have also managed to deal with the situation in the Temple of the Lion?"

"Of course we did." Paimon smiled as she said this.

"It also seems that you are rather exhausted, cutie."

Valorant sweatdropped at this. "Yeah, kind of had to deal with a bunch of Mitachurls before getting to the temple that Kaeya went to..."

"Are you okay?" Lumine decided to ask as concern was very much present on her face. Valorant just smiled and nodded his head in response to her question, Lumine smiled back in return as she gave him a small nod as well. They then heard giggling as they all turned their heads to look at Lisa, who had a hand over her mouth as she giggled. "Lisa...?"

"Little adorable Lumine here was so worried, she couldn't stop worrying about you." Lisa said between giggles. Paimon seemed to catch on as she smirked towards the two. Valorant just blinked at this while Lumine felt heat rushing all the way to her face as she gave the two a glare, they just smirked even wider than before.

"L-Let's just go!"

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As the group had walked into the city, they noticed how the people were visibly much happier compared to before. This was obviously due to the fact that the storms that Stormterror had whipped up before were finally gone and it was all back to normal, though they were all starting to head inside due to its becoming nighttime.

Lisa had told them that she was needing to go do something, thus left Paimon, Lumine and Valorant alone as they were now heading towards the Knights of Favonius headquarters to inform Jean. Speaking of which, Paimon tugged on both of their arms as they looked at her in confusion at the sudden action.

"Look over there. Isn't that Jean?"

"Oh yeah, it is."

"Who is she talking to...?" Lumine wondered as the group could see that Jean was talking with some kind of strangely dressed woman. She was also wearing a black mask over her eyes, so it made her look pretty damn sus if you asked Valorant. They just waited for a second before the masked woman began walking away inside of the building as Jean sighed with a hand over her eyes.

"Jean~!"

"Huh? Oh, glad to see you back." Jean looked up as she saw the group walking over to her. "Thanks for the help with clearing up the storms. The elemental flow seems to have finally become stable once more."

"No problem. Kaeya should be back soon, he wanted to do something back at the Temple of the Wolf."

"I see, thanks for telling me." Jean nodded in appreciation to Valorant's words. Though she soon gave another sigh. "The aftermath of Stormterror's attack has settled for the moment. However, even with that, the pressure we are getting from the delegation has become far too big for us to ignore at this point in time."

"Delegation?" Paimon repeated in confusion. "Do you mean from Liyue Harbor or Inazuma City?"

'Inazuma? Must be another nation here...'

"Snezhnaya actually. They have chosen to follow the God of Cryo." Jean informed them. She then crossed her arms over her chest as she then added. "Their envoys are going by a particular name of 'The Fatui'. Have any of you heard of them at all?"

"Is it that person you were talking to?" Valorant asked curiously.

"Yes, they were a part of the Fatui..."

"Oh, I've heard of them! They're pretty famous!" Paimon voiced as they all looked at her. She felt a bit embarrassed before adding. "Well, it's more like... infamous actually."

"They believe that killing Stormterror is the correct action. Though, I don't believe in that." Jean continued as the three just continued listening. "The Cryo God's Fatui have always coveted the Anemo God's power. I really don't believe that they have Mondstadt's best interests at heart here..."

"Then we'll just need to keep an eye on them then." Valorant shrugged as he voiced this. This Fatui group really did seem suspicious, and if this Cryo god of theirs is in some way helping them out as they are apparently envoys, then that just made them an even more suspicious group. "Also, we wanted to fill you in on the information regarding everything."

"Oh, yes. of course. It's already late though, we'll talk about everything tomorrow." Jean decided as they all nodded their heads in agreement. If they were honest, all of them felt completely exhausted due to everything that had happened in a single day. The attack of Stormterror, taking down the temples and now this Fatui talk.

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"So, the dragon's name is really Dvalin?"

"Yeah. That's what Lisa had told us..." Lumine nodded her head as she explained to Valorant. Both of them, including Paimon, were now seen in a room with two beds. The room was a guest room within the Knights of Favonius headquarters, and Jean allowed them to stay here for as long as they wanted since their assistance was much appreciated.

Though, Valorant did want to end up getting his own place at some point. When he got enough Mora, he would see if he could find a place that he could purchase. Or he might end up just trying to even build his own house somewhere outside of the city walls, it could be an interesting development if he did so.

This was the only room available, so they had to share the room. Not really any way of getting around that.

When they were getting ready to go to sleep, Lumine had decided to explain everything that had happened to her thus far. Valorant already knew quite the majority of it since he had been with her through it, though not the time she had already been stranded in this world. Lumine also explained about what Lisa had told her and Paimon back at the Temple of the Lion.

Apparently, Stormterror's true name was Dvalin. Along with why Dvalin could only channel three of the Four Winds powers was due to the fact that it had been apparently consuming itself from the beginning, not in the literal sense. According to Lisa, this was due to some kind of hatred that Dvalin has for Mondstadt.

"Do you know why Dvalin hates this place? Isn't it supposed to protect the nation?"

"We don't know." Paimon shook her head as she sat down on the bed beside Lumine as Valorant was sitting on the other bed and facing her as they were speaking. "Lisa seemed pretty uncomfortable with talking about why Dvalin might hate Mondstadt."

"Hm... must be a sensitive topic for her then." Valorant muttered as he gained a thinking expression. This was truly interesting, just why did Dvalin, or Stormterror, hate Mondstadt? He had learned that the Four Winds supposedly protected Mondstadt, so why hate the place you protect? He was sure there must have been a reason. "Anyway, you said something about a red teardrop or something?"

"That's right... take a look." Lumine replied as she suddenly began materialising something. It seemed as though every single person in this world or multiverse since Lumine wasn't from this world had a damn pocket dimension or something since they could carry so much without a bag. He had one of his own thanks to the System.

When the object finished materialising, a crystal of ruby red colouration formed and was floating atop Lumine's hands. The crystal was shaped like a massive tear-drop and had this rather ominous red aura that constantly leaked out from inside of it. Valorant narrowed his eyes at the item, he had this bad feeling just looking at it.

"We should ask Lisa or Jean tomorrow about it, maybe they can help." Valorant suggested as the other two nodded their heads in agreement. "You said that you found this thing after having encountered Dvalin the second time, right?"

"Yeah, it wasn't too long before we met you and Amber!" Paimon nodded.

"Maybe it has something to do with Dvalin then. Though, that is just a guess. It might be completely unrelated." Valorant shrugged before standing up as he took off his jacket, which made Lumine flush a bit since she could now see his rather muscular arms, not big muscles, more along the lines of compact and strong. They had already taken off their shoes as they were placed by the door. Valorant then chucked his jacket onto the wooden chair at the desk near his side of the room.

They all didn't have any other clothes that they could wear aside from the ones that they had right now, so they had no choice but to sleep in their current wear. Thankfully, they haven't really dirtied their clothes at all somehow today. Valorant made sure to keep a mental note that he needed to buy a few essentials later on though.

"We should get to sleep." Valorant suggested.

"Hold on, what's that?" Paimon asked curiously. Valorant blinked in confusion at the sudden question, though he also saw Lumine looking at something curiously. He followed their gaze before it landed on something that was hanging down from his neck. "Is that some kind of pendant? It's a pretty looking jewel!"

"Oh, this." Valorant muttered. Around his neck was a golden and blue jewel that was connected to a silver lean chain that acted as a necklace. They hadn't been able to see it before since he had it tucked into his t-shirt, though it seemed to have come out. "This necklace was a gift from my father. It's something that I can remember him by."

"Wait, remember him?" Lumine asked with a slightly widened look.

"What happened?"

"Paimon...!" Lumine glared at the small girl due to how insensitive she was being. It was obvious that Paimon didn't seem to catch the mood. Paimon seemed surprised by the shout before a look of realisation had made its way onto the small girl's face. She looked at Valorant and gave a small bow with an apologetic look on her face.

"Sorry, Valorant..."

"It's fine, I know you didn't mean to be rude or anything. I'd rather not talk about it though." Valorant smiled as he tucked the pendant back inside his shirt. They noticed how he seemed to grip the pendant tightly for a second, though they didn't question it. They didn't want to be insensitive. "Anyway, we should go to sleep. I have a feeling tomorrow might be a big day as well."

"Agreed, I am feeling tired..."

"Paimon agrees! Today was exhausting..."

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