Sister Lumine sheathed her sword, and Dottore slightly stepped aside, gesturing for the group to enter.
At this moment, Dottore harbored no hostility toward everyone—or rather, he was enduring.
It was a good thing he was enduring too; after all, the Raiden Shogun was still secretly observing everything from the shadows.
Without making a move, the Raiden Shogun could hide herself well enough to fool even Dottore.
If Dottore couldn't hold back and attacked Lucian right now, then the moment he lunged at Lucian, the Dream of One Mind would appear at his neck.
With assurance at his back, Lucian walked with swagger, striding past Dottore and entering through the door.
Everyone knew Lucian was like this; when his strength was about equal to yours, he'd chat while fighting, but if he could crush you, he'd be too lazy to even talk.
Nahida followed at Lucian's side without any extra actions.
The Doctor was indeed very dangerous, but right now, compared to this guy showing no hostility, the one inside concerned her more.
So she stuck close to Lucian's side and entered.
Speaking of which, having Nahida following at his side in reality was truly an interesting feeling.
First off, she was tiny, so just the visual of her walking beside him was already very cute.
More importantly, she would occasionally make a 'photography' gesture—yes, just like the mind-reading gesture in the game, framing a square with four fingers.
A cute little loli doing this gesture and looking around—that scene was truly eye-candy; Lucian even sensed the 'envious' gazes from those around.
Hahaha, envious, aren't you? So many beautiful girls strolling with me, plus such a cute loli.
One could only say Lucian's biggest flaw was his lack of actual contact with people; his emotional intelligence wasn't low, but sometimes he couldn't read the room unless it was obvious.
He naturally couldn't understand those sympathetic 'cuckolded' gazes; he hadn't experienced it, after all.
And everyone was looking quite subtly too, also afraid of hurting Lucian's self-esteem.
Lucian didn't know; his densely packed self-esteem had shattered once without him even realizing.
Fortunately, if you don't know about self-esteem, it doesn't count as shattered—otherwise, how would it be called self-esteem?
At the time, Nahida's giggling appearance just seemed to Lucian like the cute Nahida constantly observing the world and happily laughing.
Yeah, she definitely would be happy, right? After all, even after five hundred years, this world was still one she had scarcely encountered.
One could only say Lucian guessed correctly; Nahida's happiness did indeed have an element of observing the world.
But the other part was the fun of listening to thoughts.
In fact, Nahida generally wouldn't listen to people's thoughts; this time, it was just that while observing the world, someone passed in front of her 'frame,' so she heard it—unexpectedly so interesting.
On the contrary, at this moment, Scaramouche found it utterly boring—where were the people? Why hadn't they come yet!
Hurry up, the flowers I'm waiting on are wilting!
After the group entered the testing ground, Scaramouche—or rather, the "Shouki no Kami," the "Everlasting Lord of Arcane Wisdom"—immediately struck a pose.
He had already been waiting here for a long time; originally, his line should have been 'This world... is so eager for my birth.'
Now, he just wanted to say 'Lucian, I've been waiting so impatiently for you!'
Seeing the "Shouki no Kami," Lucian's thought was 'Pretty cool, huh—can you let me try driving it?'
One could only say Teyvat's tech tree was truly inexplicable; they'd already unlocked mechs over here.
"Lord of the Secret of the Seven-Colored Sunlight, I've arrived." Lucian said.
"You! Hmph, words of an ant!" Scaramouche snorted lightly; this guy was still so infuriating.
The stories he wrote were infuriating, and the man himself was infuriating too!
Scaramouche's 'output' was high, but his defense was low, and he broke pretty easily.
Though Scaramouche didn't know what 'Seven-Colored Sunlight' was, since it came from Lucian's mouth, Scaramouche had reason to suspect it wasn't anything good.
Because time was plentiful enough, Scaramouche's birth hadn't required the Sumerians to 'mine,' so Lucian was in the mood to mess around.
It was also because time was plentiful that this time's Scaramouche had received quite a bit of 'knowledge.'
Unfortunately, even so, he couldn't achieve 'omniscient and omnipotent.'
'Omniscient and omnipotent' even the Greater Lord Rukkhadevata couldn't achieve; she could only know parts of the truths on the Ley Lines.
Scaramouche couldn't establish a connection with the Ley Lines; he had merely obtained some of the Greater Lord Rukkhadevata's knowledge.
"Our agreement—you still remember it, right?" Scaramouche asked, opening his mouth.
Paimon was shocked—Lucian this kid actually had other collaborations?
What are you, some super big shot? How do you have deals with everyone?
Lucian: "Of course—in this time, you don't cause trouble, and I'll bring the Raiden Shogun."
"Then where is she!!" Scaramouche was urgent.
Lucian snapped his fingers; a flash of lightning streaked, and the Raiden Shogun's figure appeared in the field.
Lucian inwardly thrilled—this was truly something he could never get enough of!
"Beelzebul!! I have ascended to godhood!!!"
Ei: "...?"
This time, Scaramouche said no more; after his words fell, the fist of the "Shouki no Kami" had already smashed down.
The massive fist smashed down—one finger alone larger than Ei—yet Ei's face remained expressionless.
She was about to draw her blade.
"Don't attack him." Lucian's voice reached Ei's ear.
Ei didn't draw her blade, extending the hand she had meant to use for drawing toward her front instead.
With a 'boom,' the immense force cracked the ground, sending smoke and dust billowing.
Yet Ei's figure stood tall as ever; she caught Scaramouche's fist with one hand and looked at Lucian in puzzlement.
Ei: "?"
The huge contrast from the scene before her stunned Paimon, her mouth agape, momentarily at a loss for words.
In fact, this was Paimon's first time seeing such an off-the-charts existence like Ei in action up close.
During previous fights, she might have seemed too small to enter the 'tick-tock space' for passionate exchanges.
Later, when cleaning up the bleeding little dog, Ei had gone by herself too.
So at this moment, Paimon's surprise was just like that of the resistance fighters the first time seeing the Electro Archon draw her blade.
The "Shouki no Kami's" fist was larger than Ei's entire body, yet she caught it casually?
Actually, there was nothing strange about it; though the size difference was huge, they were both Archons—Ei was just small in size, not in power.
"How is this possible?" Scaramouche was shocked; he had already ascended to godhood! An undoubted god!
Why was she responding so nonchalantly? This couldn't be!
He could imagine Beelzebul catching this strike, but he thought it would at least require drawing her blade, right?
Scaramouche gritted his teeth—could the gap really be this vast? Then what was the point of all his hard work to become a god?
Just this one blow nearly shattered Scaramouche's 'Tao heart.'
He hadn't held back, yet his attack wasn't even enough to make Ei draw her blade...
Since physical attacks wouldn't work, then elemental power it was!
Wind, Electro, Cryo, Pyro, Hydro—vast elemental power gathered around the "Shouki no Kami."
===✧✦✧===
Character Voice Line · Scaramouche: About Beelzebul
"This kind of gap... what was the point of me becoming a god..."