Chapter 33: The Other Side

Lumine POV

The group arrived in a large hall and at the far end was a huge door sealed shut. In the center was a mechanism, perhaps the only way to open the door. On the sides were stairs and multiple pathways leading to who knows where

"Is this a mechanism to open the door?" asked Lumine

"It seems to need a key to operate it," said Diluc

"Then let's go find them! The faster we do the faster Paimon gets out of here!"

We searched through the paths in the sides of the hall trying to find the keys. Sometimes we found chests on one of the paths but ended up being trapped inside with monsters spawning and the door closing shut. We easily defeated them and the door opened letting us out. This path was a dead end so we decided to search a different path. We traced our steps and took a different path in the hall. Fortunately, we found a lone guard himself. He seemed pretty timid so went up to him and intimidated him

"Wh—Who are you people? Wh—What are you doing here? Argh!"

"Give up. No one's coming to rescue you." Lumine said

"Did you already beat all the other guards?"

"We kicked their Snezhnayan butts."

"What!? I—I'm not scared of you."

"Then that will be your mistake," said Diluc which frightened the guard

"Ugh...Ah...Hehe...I've had enough! I am a proud citizen of Snezhnaya! I will not falter!"

The guard ran behind him and pulled a lever. It opened a gate letting out mitachurls who attacked us.

"Hahaha! Who is scared now!" the guard taunted at us

"Lumine follow me. Amber back us up," said Diluc taking command

"Yes X2"

Diluc and I went toward the mitachurls, while Amber shot arrows at them. Her arrows managed to hit the mitachurls and they exploded, knocking them back. Diluc and I came close to them and started slashing at them. Diluc with his greatsword coated in pyro energy bisected them with ease. I slashed at their legs to stumble them off balance. I then created a tornado sucking up all the nearby mitachurls. The tornado was moving toward another group of mitachurl that were on fire from Amber's arrows. The tornado also swallows them up making the tornado a pillar of fire burning the mitachurls into ashes

"This is impossible…" said the Fatui guard with dread

"End of the line," Diluc said as he came up to the guard knocking him out

The guard had the key with him and so we took it from his body. We went back to the hall and inserted the key to the mechanism. The large door glowed and then opened up.

"That takes care of it. That guard sure was bold sending those mitachurls at us," said Paimon

"They weren't a big deal. We fight them all the time." Lumine said with confidence

"Let's go. I suspect there are more things to come." Diluc said snapping Lumine out of back to focus

We entered the door and saw a platform that would take us to an upper floor. We stood on it and it began to move, taking us up. When it stopped we entered a large room and at the far end was a cage. Within the cage was the lyre we were trying to find

"Hey look there is the lyre. Come on Lumine, hurry and grab it." said Paimon urging Lumine

Lumine went and tried to get the lyre but someone appeared between her and the lyre

"Where did you rats scurry out from…"

He wore a black long-sleeve coat with a lion's mane and red flames at the end of his coat. He wore a hood with a red mask resembling a skull and in the center of his chests is a pyro delusion. He had combat boots with protective leg armor. He wore gloves and attached to his right arm a curved blade. This was a Fatui Pyro Agent

"Signora is not going to tolerate this kind of interference in our affairs. So I'll be the one to take care of you — save her the trouble of having to deal with you herself."

The Fatui agent snapped his fingers and more guards started rushing into the room. They were all armed and surrounding us.

"This does not look good…" Paimon said hiding behind Lumine

"This is going to be trouble," said Diluc readying his sword

The guards launched themselves at us and we intercepted them. Diluc was sending flames at them to keep them at bay and Amber was shooting her arrows to knock down as many as she could. I was engaged to many of them at once. They were sloppy in their swordsmanship so I was able to fight many of them at once. While my attention was on the guards in front of me, the Fatui pyro agent suddenly appeared behind me and tried to strike my back

"Lumine! Get down!"

Diluc took a strike at the Fatui agent but he managed to raise his blade in time to Diluc's sword knocking him back. The agent landed on his feet unharmed

"You have good instincts but you won't be able to save her for long…"

The agent turned invisible and blended with the guards. 'Great, he can turn invisible' I thought annoyingly

"Thank you, Diluc,"

"Keep an eye on your surroundings. Those agents strike when you least expect it."

We keep fighting the guards but no matter how many we knock down more keep coming

"They are endless, Master Diluc do we have any plan," said Amber while she kept firing arrows

"We need an opening to take down the Fatui agent." when he said that the agent took a strike at Amber but Diluc managed to block it. The agent jumped back and disappeared once again

"Easier said than done…" I said annoyingly while knocking a guard down

"You won't escape… you rats… this will be your end…" said the Fatui agent as more and more guards surrounded us

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