Facing the earnest and enthusiastic man who called himself Aji, Furina was just about to agree when she suddenly heard a voice from nearby.
"Furina, are you still around?"
"The situation has been temporarily resolved, and everything is safe for now. You don't have to hide anymore!"
"It's Su Yuan's voice!"
Furina exclaimed, immediately standing up from the bushes.
She turned to Aji with an apologetic smile and said,
"Sorry, Aji, I don't need to hide anymore. I'll come find you next time to learn!"
Then, waving her hand, she called out,
"Su Yuan, I'm here!"
She ran toward the voice, her steps light and quick.
Before long, Furina and Su Yuan met up.
"Furina, I knew you wouldn't go far," Su Yuan said with a smile.
"Yeah, I just hid nearby," Furina replied.
"I thought I was well hidden, but I ended up running into one of my fans…"
"He even offered to teach me how to conceal myself properly! I was about to accept, but then you called my name, so I had to turn him down."
Su Yuan's heart suddenly sank, and his right eyelid twitched twice.
He hesitantly asked,
"That person… his name wasn't Aji, was it?"
"Huh? Su Yuan, how did you know? Is he actually some famous person?"
Furina asked in surprise.
"Furina, where exactly were you hiding just now? Take me there, quick!" Su Yuan said urgently.
But when they returned to the bushes where Furina had been hiding, Aji was nowhere to be found.
"Furina, I made a critical mistake… I forgot to warn everyone about this earlier…"
Su Yuan felt a wave of fear wash over him, sweat forming on his back as he spoke.
"It's not just people like us who can be corrupted and controlled by the eerie influence…"
"Even ordinary people can also be affected and fall under its control…"
"And Aji is one of them."
"The condition for his eerie transformation… might be getting someone to agree to let him help them hide."
Hearing Su Yuan's words, Furina was instantly terrified.
She had nearly fallen into the trap—if Su Yuan hadn't shown up and called her just in time…
...............
After dealing with the rampaging Armored Crabs of the Primordial Sea, everyone regrouped in front of the Oratrice Mecanique d'Analyse Cardinale.
"Hmm, ah…" Wriothesley looked at the unrecognizable, heavily censored mess on the ground and couldn't help but comment, "Neuvillette, you really went all out, huh? You did this to Dottore?"
"I was hoping we could capture him alive and extract some information from him."
"Arlecchino, Dottore has done many things he shouldn't have within Fontaine's borders, but in the end, he is one of Snezhnaya's Fatui Harbingers. If your Tsaritsa has any objections to my actions, I am more than willing to answer for them."
Neuvillette turned to Arlecchino as he spoke.
"No, Lord Neuvillette, you're overthinking it. This was simply Dottore's fate—he brought this upon himself." Arlecchino responded calmly.
"Within Snezhnaya and the Fatui, Dottore has already been deemed a traitor."
"Her Majesty the Tsaritsa will not hold you accountable for this. On the contrary, she will be grateful that you helped cleanse the Fatui of its corruption."
"What a pity—Dottore just had to die like this. I never even got the chance to fight him," Tartaglia sighed.
"But then again, he has so many segments… I'm sure I'll get my chance eventually."
Regardless, with the death of this particular segment of Dottore, everyone could finally breathe a temporary sigh of relief…
"Focalors, I had an idea last night."
Su Yuan looked at Focalors and spoke.
"Since the prophecy cannot be avoided, why not let it naturally unfold? Then, you can follow the example of the previous Hydro Archon, Egeria, and turn those who have transformed into Oceanids back into humans. Would this method work?"
"Egeria..." Hearing that name, Focalors couldn't help but recall some sorrowful memories.
She thought for a moment but ultimately rejected the proposal.
"Su Yuan, your method is feasible in a certain sense, but it only treats the symptoms, not the root cause."
"If The Heavenly Principles remained asleep forever, this might be a viable solution."
"But one day, The Heavenly Principles will awaken. When that happens, everything will simply fall into an endless cycle of tragedy."
"The only way to truly resolve this crisis is to completely transform the people of Fontaine into true humans."
As they listened to Focalors' words, the group fell silent.
Everyone understood that the only way to truly resolve Fontaine's prophecy crisis was to cleanse the sins of all Fontainians and make them fully human.
And the only way to achieve that was to return the Authority of the Sovereign Hydro Dragon to Neuvillette…
"Focalors." At that moment, Arlecchino spoke.
"You have accumulated five hundred years' worth of Indemnitium Energy, all to break through the rules and restrictions of Celestia, to shatter the throne of the Hydro Archon, and to return the Authority of the Sovereign Hydro Dragon to Neuvillette…"
"But you… you were never supposed to choose self-sacrifice from the very beginning."
That's right.
Hearing Arlecchino's words, Su Yuan suddenly realized something…
Why must Focalors die? Wasn't her goal to destroy the throne of the Hydro Archon?
So, Su Yuan considered a hypothesis: If the throne of the Hydro Archon still existed, then upon Focalors' death, the Hydro Archon's authority would return to the throne and then be passed on to the next Hydro Archon.
In essence, the throne acted like a relay station, simply transferring the power of the Hydro Archon to its next successor.
Therefore, by killing herself and destroying the throne, Focalors ensured that, without the interference of the throne, the Hydro Archon's authority would return to its original owner—Neuvillette.
If this hypothesis held true, then there would be several new possible approaches…
With that realization, Su Yuan immediately spoke up:
"Focalors, I just had an idea—what if you renounced the position of Hydro Archon and directly passed the title to Neuvillette? Wouldn't that allow him to regain the full power of the sovereign dragon?"
Hearing Su Yuan's words, Focalors let out a soft, somewhat helpless chuckle before responding, "If that method worked, I would have done it long ago."
"An elemental dragon cannot become an Archon—that is a rule set by Celestia."
Su Yuan sighed.
Of course… there was no way the system would let him exploit a insect so easily!
"Then, Focalors, I suddenly have another idea." Su Yuan said.
"If we can't pass the title of Hydro Archon to Neuvillette, then… what if we passed it to an insect?"
"The one sentenced to death isn't you, Focalors. The one condemned is the 'Hydro Archon'… And what needs to be completely destroyed is merely the throne of the Hydro Archon."
"So, what if we made that insect the new Hydro Archon, and then killed the insect while also destroying the throne? Would that allow the authority of the sovereign dragon to return to Neuvillette?"
Hearing Su Yuan's bold and utterly insane idea, everyone was stunned.
Even Focalors froze in place, staring at Su Yuan with an expression that was impossible to define…
This possibility had never even crossed her mind before.
There had never been any indication that an insect could become the Hydro Archon…
But at the same time, there had never been any confirmation that an insect could not become the Hydro Archon.
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