Lora watched the three of them leave and made a gesture as if praying for them and wishing them luck.
Nahida noticed the gesture and asked, "Lora, what's wrong? Is there something wrong with Rana?"
Hearing her question, Lora shook her head. "No, there's nothing wrong with Rana."
But unless something unexpected happened, Lumine and Paimon were about to run into an even bigger problem. Still... that was not something Lora needed to worry about. It had nothing to do with her. She was not the one who triggered it, anyway.
"Let's go. We should head back to the city," Lora said.
Nahida had no reason to doubt her, so she returned with Lora. By the time they arrived, they happened to run into Faruzan, who was standing at the entrance of the Akademiya, clearly waiting to intercept them.
"You're finally back! Dendro Archon! Lady Lora!" The moment Faruzan saw the two of them, she rushed straight over.
Lora took a step back and stared at her in confusion, frowning as she asked, "What happened? Did the Akademiya flood, or did Sumeru City get taken by the Fatui?"
Faruzan shook her head and complained, "There are too many! There are just too many official documents! I really don't understand what's wrong with the people of Sumeru these days. It's clearly some tiny matter, yet they still write up an official document and ask the Akademiya to decide!"
Oh... so she was exhausted.
Looking at Faruzan as she poured out her grievances, Nahida said gently, "That can't be helped. After the Akasha shut down, the people of Sumeru need time to adjust. Once everyone gets used to life without the Akasha, there will be far fewer matters that require the Akademiya's involvement."
"So during this period, we'll still have to trouble Madam Faruzan for her help," Lora said beside Nahida, smiling warmly at her.
Faruzan: "..."
After parting ways with Faruzan, Nahida and Lora returned to the Sanctuary of Surasthana.
Although they had been away for several days, the Sanctuary was still cleaned every day, so there was no dust anywhere. Everything looked neat and spotless.
Suddenly, Nahida seemed to sense something and looked toward a corner of the room. Then she left Lora's side, walked over, and took out what was hidden there.
It was something like a green crystal, filled with dense, pure elemental energy.
"What is this?" Nahida looked at the crystal, a little lost. "It feels very similar to my power, but somehow different..."
"Let me see..." Lora walked over and carefully examined the crystal in her hand. Rich Dendro power flowed within it, but that power did not belong to Nahida. It belonged to Greater Lord Rukkhadevata.
After a brief silence, Lora shook her head and said, "Sorry, I'm not too sure either."
"Looks like we'll have to investigate it..." Nahida sighed after hearing her answer.
Just then, she suddenly looked outside.
Seeing her reaction, Lora asked, "What's wrong?"
Nahida said, "Something is approaching the city."
As the Dendro Archon, every blade of grass and every tree in Sumeru City fell within her perception. If anything unusual happened, she would sense it immediately.
"Let's go take a look," Lora said.
"Mm! Let's go together." Nahida nodded, then hurried toward the city gate with Lora.
When the two of them arrived, they happened to see Eremite guards driving away a Fungus. Seeing this, Nahida stepped forward to stop them and said, "Don't be hasty. This Fungus seems to have something to say..."
"Dendro Archon, Fungi can talk?" Hearing Nahida's words, one of the Eremite guards froze for a moment and looked at her blankly.
The Floating Hydro Fungus looked at Nahida, clearly anxious, as if it were desperately trying to say something. Lora, however, could not understand a thing. As far as she was concerned, it was just speaking fluent Mushroom.
Nahida, however, kept nodding from the side. "Mm... okay, I understand."
After a while, she looked at Lora and said, "This Fungus is very anxious. It wants us to go with it."
"Go with it?" Lora blinked and began to think, searching through those twenty years of memories for anything related to this part of the plot. Then she nodded. "All right. Let's go!"
And so, Lora and Nahida followed the Floating Hydro Fungus out of the city. Before long, they arrived at the place it wanted to bring them to. There, they saw two more Floating Hydro Fungi, and one of them was lying unconscious on the ground.
"It seems it wants us to help treat this Fungus." Nahida's gaze fell on the unconscious Floating Hydro Fungus. She walked over, crouched down, and examined it carefully.
However, after finishing her check, she could not help frowning. "Strange... This is too strange... This Fungus actually isn't a life-form evolved from spores. It's an elemental life-form!"
"An elemental life-form?" Lora looked at Nahida and continued, "So it isn't really a Fungus. It only looks like one, right?"
Nahida nodded. "Yes. This is too strange. I've never seen a life-form like this before!"
"There are quite a lot of elemental life-forms in Fontaine..." Lora said. "It's just that they usually exist in their own forms and don't turn into another natural life-form that already exists."
"And there is an empty void inside this elemental life-form's body. That void is blocking the flow of elements within it, which is why it fainted," Nahida explained softly. "As long as we fill that void, it should wake up!"
After that, Nahida drew in the elemental energy around them and poured it into the Fungus's body.
With her elemental energy flowing into it, the unconscious Fungus soon woke up.
Seeing it regain consciousness, Nahida let out a breath of relief.
The elemental Hydro Fungus looked around, and its gaze landed on Nahida and Lora. Then it suddenly spoke.
"Dendro Archon... Queen of Waters... I never expected to see you here..."
Hearing the elemental Hydro Fungus speak, Nahida frowned and said slowly, "You know us? But I don't know of your existence... I have cataloged every elemental creature, but none of them match your traits. What exactly are you?"