Chapter 74.2

They retreated back towards the hill with the Dragon right behind their tail.

"We need to get to the Stormterror's Lair! There is an ancient spatial magic formation! It's our best chance at fighting some sense into Dvalin and removing its poisoned blood clot!" Venti announced and immediately ditched everyone afterwards.

"Oh? So now we want to fight Dvalin!? We could have done so a long time ago!" Yomite complained to no one, as the bard was long gone, shouting something along the lines of, "Good luck and see you in front of the barrier! Te-he!"

(Little bastard…)

Yomite glanced at the Dragon who was still following them.

Dvalin's scales were scraggly and rough, with chunks of blue and green scales.

The force of the Dragon's breath crushed the budding flowers in the forest surrounding it.

Smaller animals and monsters were being coaxed from their homes, with the sight of the Stormterror, roaming the skies.

The combination attacks from Cryo Abyss Mage and the Stormterror, consisting of ice and wind attributes, didn't make it at all easy for the party that was running away.

Most of them were skilled enough to dodge the onslaught, or had the awareness of spells being shot at them.

Most of them…

Unfortunately, or, fortunately, if you wish to see the world burn...

While Paimon was boasting that she didn't need to run like them, but could float instead, she was hit by one of the Cryo Attacks from the Cryo Abyss Mage, and turned into a popsicle.

"Paimon!!"

With Hu Tao's helpful Pyro Vision, they eventually managed to get her out of it, but they lost a lot of valuable time and Paimon was scarred for life, wet like a dog and shivering all the while.

"Pa-Pa-Paimon…I-I-Is..."

She wanted to say something but the sheer cold she was currently subjected to, didn't allow her to do so.

Lumine put her into one of her pockets while keeping her hands inside, warming her up.

That ought to help!

Yomite didn't know where the Stormterror's Lair was located, so he followed Hu Tao who was currently leading them, and after a few minutes, the Dragon let them off hook and flew into his lair all the while completely ignoring them.

"Finally some peace and quiet…" Yomite let out a sigh of relief.

He was currently with Hu Tao, Lumine and Paimon, as the group split up, but that was about to change.

Up ahead, he saw the Bard and the rest of their party standing in front of an erected barrier that covered the entirety of the Lair.

Venti was busy, trying to force himself into the first layer of the barrier so that they could enter, while the others cautiously watched the skies to make sure Stormterror wouldn't surprise attack them, once they let their guard down.

"Yo!" Yomite called out at them from a distance.

Jean nodded at them, "I'm glad you're safe."

"So, what are we doing here?"

"Venti is trying to force open the barrier, so that we can intercept Stormterror directly in its lair."

"So, how is it going?"

"Welp, it is hard...Time for a short break! Te-he!"

"No break! Move your ass!"

"Alright, alright! Fine...You don't have to shout at me, Master Diluc..."

Venti's words, coupled with his indecisiveness and relaxed attitude made Diluc clench his teeth in dismay.

(I still can't believe that he is...tch...)

Diluc decided to let go of the thought and focused on surveiling the area.

The true identity of the Bard made him recall all the escapades he was a witness to, when the so called 'Barbatos' started taking off his clothes inside of Angel's Share pub, after drinking more than ten bottles of Diluc's dandelion wine.

It was hard.

Hard to believe that this "thing" was the Archon of Mondstadt.

Venti understood Diluc's point, but he wanted all of the people present to appreciate how beautiful the barrier and the area around them looked.

After all, this was once...the city of Mondstadt...

***

The Stormterror's Lair was once the capital of Old Mondstadt, ruled by the God of Storms, Decarabian.

After he was slain in an uprising hundreds of years ago, Barbatos took his place and reshaped the land.

The citizens then moved the capital to an island in the middle of Cider Lake, where the City of Mondstadt remained till this day.

All that was left here were the ruins of an ancient city filled with magical mechanisms and painful memories.

It was currently used as a lair by the 'dangerous dragon', Stormterror.

Despite the danger, many audacious adventurers seeked the treasures hidden in this place.

But to no avail, as no one was ever able to enter the center of the location due to the barrier.

The most they could harvest were the minerals around the Lair, which were hardly any treasures.

In reality, the story about Dvalin was anything but the truth…

***

Venti used his powers to send shockwaves into the barrier, as if trying to overwrite some sort of code, and during that, he explained what truly happened back then...

Five hundred years ago, victorious but grievously injured by the corrupted dragon Durin, the Dragon of the East, Dvalin, fell into a deep slumber in the ruins of the former capital.

However, hundreds of years have passed, and the people of Mondstadt forgot about the existence of their Protector.

When Dvalin reawakened and went to find its people with its injured body, shunned it away, they feared it and called it "Stormterror" giving the region its current infamous name.

This, along with the pain from the never stopping poisonous blood clots inflicted by Durin, allowed Dvalin to be manipulated by the Abyss Order.

In reality, the whole thing was just a huge misunderstanding…

As long as people were notified about its existence, nothing of this would have ever happened.

But they weren't...

"Indeed... It's awful…" Jean muttered, taking in the view of the old, ruined Mondstadt.

Once everything was over, she would make sure to relay the truth to the public, even if Grand Master Varka reprimanded her.

Dvalin didn't deserve this.

Fischl ran her hand through her blonde air and scoffed, "To think that my pet was subjected to such tyranny! Vengeance will be mine!"

Yomite flinched at the last part of Fischl's sentence.

He felt like he heard that somewhere recently, but he couldn't quite put the finger on it.

For some reason, it pissed him off greatly…

But back to the history...

"That Durin part is interesting. What kind of dragon was it?" Yomite asked.

Dragon tales were always interesting to listen to, especially about those that actually roamed the world in the past, and weren't just fiction.

Venti frowned when he heard his question, but decided to answer it to the best of his abilities in a shortened version.

"Durin... was a shadow Dragon, corrupted by an Alchemist named Gold. Its appearance...Durin took on a monstrous form of a disfigured skeletal dragon...Despite that, its wings were still intact, with long veins running along the folds. It was honestly hard to look at…and people were scared of it just because it was a cursed entity.... I'm sorry, I don't want to talk about it..."