Focalors was deeply troubled.
She watched her human half chatting happily with that unknown entity, then looked up at the execution platform she had long prepared in the sky. Hugging her knees, she sat on the floor in silence.
'Where on earth did this thing come from?'
'I don't remember creating anything like this.'
To be honest, it wasn't just Furina who was confused; even the Hydro Archon herself was bewildered. Even with her divine sight, she couldn't see a single difference between the two.
The fact that they could even share a Vision shocked her to the core.
The moment she discovered this, her first thought was that the Heavenly Principles had intervened to check if she was behaving herself.
In truth, at that moment, Focalors had even considered whether she should just force a confrontation and go out in a blaze of glory against the Heavenly Principles.
Otherwise, there was simply no explaining what this being—who was identical to Furina—actually was.
'But this person seems to truly know what I intend to do...' Focalors analyzed this from the conversations between her and Furina.
She knew the prophecy, she knew the reason why the Heavenly Principles had sent down the calamity, and she even seemed to know Focalors' own thoughts...
This made Focalors afraid to act rashly. If it were the Heavenly Principles, and they already knew this much, what were they waiting for? Fontaine couldn't possibly withstand Celestia.
But Focalors waited and waited, yet no judgment from the Heavenly Principles arrived.
This only deepened her confusion.
'You don't belong to the Heavenly Principles, and I didn't create you. So, the question remains: who exactly are you?'
Focalors couldn't see through her.
She could only watch as the silly Furina opened her heart bit by bit to that person, trusting her completely. Meanwhile, Focalors didn't dare move an inch, terrified that this was a test designed to trap her.
Five hundred years of waiting—she couldn't let it all fail now.
★ ★ ★
Regarding that prophecy, it wasn't exactly Focalors' fault.
The previous Hydro Archon, Egeria, felt that the realm she ruled was too lonely. The land of Fontaine was naturally sparsely populated, so she boldly used the waters of the Primordial Sea mixed with the essence of Oceanids to create Fontainians.
But this violated the taboos of the Heavenly Principles—specifically Phanes, the Great King Phanes.
In truth, there were originally no humans on the planet of Teyvat. The Dragon Sovereign race were the original inhabitants. They possessed a magnificent civilization; the Pyro Dragon King of Natlan had even constructed super-structures similar to space elevators and space stations. The dragon civilization was flourishing.
Then the Descender—Phanes—came from beyond the heavens and crushed the dragon civilization almost single-handedly. Nibelung, the supreme leader of the dragons, was away exploring outer space at the time. The remaining Dragon Sovereigns were scattered by Phanes, and the dragon civilization fell into silence.
As the victor, Phanes brought his own kin, humans, to Teyvat. He stripped the authorities from the ancient dragons, broke them apart, and scattered them across Teyvat, carving a fundamental rule into them:
"Love thy people."
That was why the Archons born from this rule loved their subjects so dearly. Though their methods differed, their starting point was for the sake of humanity.
Then came the history people knew as the Archon War.
To understand it in modern terms: Phanes, the vanguard of human civilization, discovered the dragon civilization just as it was about to step off its home planet. It so happened that this planet, Teyvat, had its own special properties, and Phanes took a liking to it.
He defeated the dragons, colonized the planet, replaced the dominant civilization from dragons to humans, and created four shades to help him govern.
Thus, Egeria's actions were a major taboo.
In Egeria's eyes, 'Love people?' 'No problem, I love them very much. It's just that there are too few people here. If I go snatch them from elsewhere, starting a war will kill a lot of people.' So, looking at the Primordial Sea, Egeria had an idea.
'Hey, since there are too few people, why don't I just make a batch?'
So, without consulting her superiors—the Heavenly Principles and the Four Shades—she rolled up her sleeves and got to work. By the time the Heavenly Principles looked over, they found that their appointed Hydro Archon had pulled off a massive stunt.
'You call these humans?' From a god's perspective, essence is what matters. These so-called humans were molded from Primordial Sea water and Oceanid essence. Weren't they just "imposter humans"? In the eyes of Phanes, this was an act of absolute defiance.
'I came to colonize this planet to find a habitat for humanity. You, on the other hand, just molded local elements into human shapes and claimed you finished the task I gave you?'
'Can those things even be called humans?'
What superior could tolerate a subordinate acting like this? Thus, the Heavenly Principles sent down the prophecy, completely locking in Fontaine's future.
"Every person will be dissolved in the sea, leaving only the Hydro Archon weeping on her throne."
This was Egeria's punishment. In Phanes' view, he had been merciful enough by sparing Egeria's life, and the "pure" humans under her rule wouldn't be dissolved—only those created from the Primordial Sea would be.
Normally, this prophecy would be inescapable. If Phanes himself was watching, how could you slip through?
But what he didn't expect was that Nibelung, the leader of Teyvat's dragons who had been exploring space, had obtained a power from beyond the world within the endless void: the Abyss.
He returned with the Abyss and an endless black tide, dealing a heavy blow to Phanes.
Of course, Phanes ultimately won the exchange, but the cost was high. The Heavenly Principles fell into a deep slumber, leaving only the Four Shades to maintain Teyvat's operation. The "False Sky" completely shrouded Teyvat, and the burgeoning human civilization suffered a massive setback.
This gave Focalors, the successor to the Hydro Archon, an opportunity. She spared no expense to set a grand stage to deceive the prophecy.
As the ruler of Teyvat, Phanes' prophecy wasn't just a prediction; it was an anchor that fixed the future into history. No matter what, as long as he didn't die, the events of the prophecy would come to pass.
For Focalors to try and fight the Heavenly Principles directly was a fantasy. She couldn't even defeat the Four Shades, let alone the sleeping Heavenly Principles. She had to take a different path.
Since the scene in the prophecy had to be realized, she would simply change the other conditions.
So, at any cost, she sought out the newly born Hydro Dragon King, Neuvillette. She spent five hundred years letting him interact with and integrate into humanity. She then prepared a guillotine for herself, intending to use her life as the price to shatter the Hydro Archon's Divine Throne and return the ancient dragon's authority to Neuvillette.
As a native being of the planet who also held absolute authority, the Hydro Dragon King couldn't break Phanes' prophecy, but he could command the Primordial Sea!
As long as Neuvillette found a loophole and used the authority of water to pardon the sins of Fontainians—severing the connection between their bloodlines and the Primordial Sea—they would no longer dissolve. Then, the prophecy of national destruction would turn into nothing more than a massive flood.
In any case, Fontaine would have a chance to survive.
And the only sacrifice required was herself.
Focalors would die before the prophecy concluded. If she, the Hydro Archon, did not die, the Divine Throne could not be shattered, and the conditions would not be met.
She had prepared for five hundred years, using the Oratrice Mecanique d'Analyse Cardinale to collect Indemnitium—an energy born from the emotions of Fontainians. Setting the trials in the Opera House was also to better facilitate this collection.
Indemnitium now powered every aspect of Fontaine, from daily necessities to the Clockwork Meka.
But that was only a small portion. The vast majority was stored within the Oratrice, transformed into that giant sword of judgment.
Focalors had worked diligently inside the Oratrice for five hundred years. In all that time, she hadn't spoken a single word to anyone. She could only watch Furina's every move from within this all-too-familiar space.
She had waited five hundred years, and just as her wish was about to be granted, an uninvited guest appeared.
'Who can tell me where this thing came from? What on earth is she?'
Focalors peeked through the mirror at the sleeping Xia Yu on the bed and shook her fist.
'I really want to go out and grab her for an interrogation, but I'm so afraid it's a trap set for me...'
She was truly afraid that the moment she stepped out, she wouldn't see a person identical to Furina, but rather the Four Shades standing in a row under the moonlight, arms crossed, staring back at her.
Focalors looked at the soundly sleeping Furina, then at the "imposter" whose sleeping posture was anything but elegant...
"Hoo... Focalors, think carefully, use your brain," she said, slapping her own head. "Is it possible that person outside is just another fragment I split off because I was so bored and longed for the outside world?"
"...Hoo, that's impossible no matter how I think about it!"
"My divinity and humanity were already separated into me and Furina. What else is there to split?"
"But... but..." She looked back at the sleeping Xia Yu. "This person... it's like... what I feel from Furina, I can feel from her too... If there weren't already a Furina here, I'd suspect she was the humanity I cast off..."
Yes, that was the most agonizing part. They were too similar. Simply too similar.
"I can't tell, I really can't tell..." Inside the Oratrice, Focalors wailed as she clutched her head. "What is going on here?!"
She rolled around on the floor, holding her head. "My head is going to split! Where did this person come from!"
Finally, after a whole night of internal struggle, Focalors gave in.
With her hair disheveled, she watched Xia Yu through the medium of water.
She muttered under her breath, "I'll be watching you, I'll be watching you..."
At that moment, the sleeping Xia Yu suddenly sneezed in her dream and opened her eyes, looking bewildered.
'I feel like someone is watching me...'