Dvalin set Nahida down on a mountainside. Nahida waved to him and said, "Thank you, Dvalin."
With everyone working together, one person after another was rescued.
Wriothesley piloted the enormous airship he had prepared for the apocalypse, rising from beneath the sea and into the sky to save even more people.
As the floodwaters slowly receded, the Court of Fontaine surfaced once more.
Everyone gathered outside the Opera Epiclese. Venti and the others, who had returned from the Primordial Sea, saw Nahida and smiled.
"Looks like Dvalin didn't get lost after all. He actually brought you here."
"By the time I finished handling matters in Sumeru and rushed over, it was already too late," Nahida said with a sigh. "If Dvalin hadn't picked me up halfway, I really wouldn't have made it."
There was simply too much administrative work in Sumeru. Nothing could be done about that.
Makoto looked around and asked, "Where's Lora?"
Neuvillette turned toward the Opera Epiclese.
"She should be inside with Focalors and Furina. After enduring so much for so many years, they have finally reached the end. I imagine they need some time together."
"Then perhaps we shouldn't go in and disturb them?" Zhongyue said.
Chaya nodded. "That would be best."
But soon, Furina and Focalors walked out of the Opera Epiclese.
Neither of them looked right.
The moment everyone saw them, their brows furrowed.
Even the youngest person present was already several hundred years old. Naturally, they could tell at once that Furina and Focalors were in terrible shape.
And Lora had not come out with them.
For a while, the atmosphere grew suffocatingly heavy.
Focalors walked up to Neuvillette. She returned the Anemo Gnosis and Electro Gnosis to Venti and Makoto, then handed the Hydro Gnosis to Neuvillette.
"Neuvillette, Lady Egeria specifically asked for this to be given to the Fatui Harbinger Tartaglia. Please pass it on to him. Furina and I... would like to rest for a while."
Neuvillette accepted the Hydro Gnosis and watched the two leave without stopping them.
Only after a long silence did Zhongyue finally curse.
"Bastard! You lied to me! Didn't you say we were going to freeload together and open a candied hawthorn chain?"
Chaya gazed at the Opera Epiclese with deep eyes, then sighed.
...
The sharp smell of disinfectant flooded Lora's nose.
She struggled to open her eyes, but before she could, agony surged through her entire body and nearly made her pass out again.
"How is she?"
"Her vital signs have stabilized."
"We checked. She has no family."
"Sigh... poor girl. So young, and we almost couldn't save her."
The voices seemed to drift in from somewhere far away, close one moment and distant the next, leaving Lora unable to tell whether they were real.
She forced her eyes open.
A white ceiling and bright fluorescent lights filled her vision.
The moment the nurse beside her saw that she had woken up, she quickly called the doctor and the police officer over.
The doctor immediately checked Lora's condition, then let out a breath of relief.
"She's awake. Good, good. She's completely out of danger now. We just need to let her recover."
The police officer looked at Lora's condition, then nodded.
"All right. I'll come back later, once she's recovered."
They soon left the ward, not wanting to disturb her rest.
Lora stared at everything around her.
Had everything she experienced before been a dream?
Had she never saved Fontaine?
Had she never saved Focalors?
No...
Could a dream really feel that real?
Her awareness gradually returned, but the sharp pain throughout her body also slowly faded. She raised her head and looked at the hanging IV drip, watching the medicine fall drop by drop.
Everything in the hospital felt just as real.
This was not a dream either.
Lora stayed in the hospital for nearly two months before she was finally discharged. Even then, she had to leave in a wheelchair, still unable to walk fully on her own.
The truck driver who had hit her had already been punished. According to him, his mind had gone completely blank at the time. He had no idea what happened and simply drove straight ahead.
Naturally, no one found that explanation convincing. Most people preferred to believe he had been driving while exhausted.
Lora received compensation, and her life gradually returned to normal. Because she had been hospitalized for so long, she lost her job and had no choice but to look for new work to support herself.
Whether for psychological reasons or something else, she subconsciously avoided the intersection where the accident had happened.
But that day, Lora went to a convenience store with an umbrella to buy some food. On her way home, she happened to pass that intersection again.
She stopped in front of the crosswalk and stared at the center of the road.
The same place.
The same rainy day.
The traffic lights blinked and changed. Cars streamed along the road, and people came and went.
Lora stood there through several light cycles, her gaze fixed on the middle of the intersection.
That was where she had gone to Teyvat.
Maybe...
Maybe it really had only been a dream.
The bloodstains had long since disappeared, but Lora still remembered everything vividly.
It had all been so real.
The girl in white standing on the other side of the road could not have been an illusion.
And yet, she could not find even the slightest proof.
Just then, a young girl beside Lora lowered her head to look at her phone. Without noticing the traffic light, she stepped straight into the road.
Lora instinctively tried to stop her.
Then water rose from a puddle on the ground, wrapped around the girl's ankle, and held her back.
Lora stared at the scene in disbelief.
When the young girl looked down in confusion, Lora cursed inwardly.
But the puddle seemed to obey Lora's will. The water reaching out from it quickly collapsed and vanished.
Lora no longer had any desire to stay outside.
She hurried home, went straight into her bedroom without even changing her shoes, and opened the game she had not touched once since returning.
Genshin Impact, launch.
The familiar startup screen appeared. After the door opened, the familiar interface came into view.
The story on her account was still at the end of The Sinner's Dance, after Focalors's death.
Everything was exactly the same as before.
Lora fell silent for a moment.
Then she suddenly stood up and looked at the long trail of wet footprints behind her.
With a single thought, the water stains rapidly disappeared.
The proof she had been searching for had appeared right before her eyes.
Going to Teyvat and becoming the Hydro Archon had not been a dream.
It was not a dream.
None of what she had experienced was a dream.
She had to go back.
No matter what, she had to go back!