Our party to say the least was hardly challenged as no Hilichurl groups or even the odd wandering Abyssal Mages we caught unaware were able to put up any amount of a fight against us.
But on the other hand, I realized that Eula was feeling more apprehensive the closer we got to the old capital. This was understandable due to her being a member of the Lawrence clan who once ruled Mondstadt and generally just the worst type of people with how they abused their power.
Looking to Lumine who noticed our companion's distress she rolled her eyes and whispered as Paimon flew over to the front of the group to continue her toxic friendship with Venti. "Go ahead and talk to her but no groping without me."
I chuckled at Lumine's light tone and she just side-hugged me as she walked forward to keep the grumbling form of Lisa who was already tired of walking company allowing me to slow down into the back of the group where Eula was.
"Yes, Jake?" Eula asked somewhat aggressively but my disarming smile so similar to Ambers shut down her hostile stance making her deflate. "May I help you, Jake?" She said this time using her aristocratic tone.
"Nope, I just wanted to talk to one of my friends," I said shaking my head making Eula blink in surprise at my nonchalant tone. "So, me and Lumine went over to Liyue by using my summons and we got to try a bunch of great Liyue-style cuisine. Do you like foreign food styles?" I asked and then I got Eula talking about her favorite foods and how she explained how she hated overly rich foods especially soups as they would upset her stomach and prevent her from training or fighting.
Hearing her words, I noticed she was actually beginning to look kinda hungry, and I remembered she loved a sort of stuffed fried croissant or something so instead I shared some Crab Rangoon as it was a light snack we could share.
"Hoohoo. Jake you sly dog, you are plying Eula with food for what I wonder?" Lisa teased as she noticed us happily eating some of the leftover food, we kept from the buffet we ordered back in Liyue.
"Lisa if you attempt to steal our food, I will tell Klee books make perfect bomb materials!" I threatened and then I wanted to slap myself as everyone gave me pitying looks.
Jean hearing my words facepalmed grumbling that Mondstadt had lost a great friend as Lisa's face twitched in outrage at my words and I could literally see a vein popping up on the side of her face. Lisa visibly took a deep as her normally flirtatious smile came back with a dangerous edge as she spoke with her witch's hat pulled low to disguise her obviously murderous look, she was throwing at me under its cover.
"I have been very very... Thorough in educating Klee on her antics not affecting my library." Even as she said the Knights Library was hers, she paid no mind to Diluc and Jean muttering about how the knight's library was basically public property.
Venti loudly coughed and rubbed his belly as he chuckled. "Hey uhm can this humble bard have some food? I am certainly going to need to ply my talents and having some energy to do so will be important."
Diluc wordlessly handed the now pouting Anemo archon a literal stack of hard-tack slices and a small container of juice to wash it down. "Here, this hard tack has a bunch of dried and salted fruits and vegetables added to it in order to bring out maximum energy." Even Diluc had to brush his hands through his hair as Venti's face comically scrunched up at the taste when the trap took a bite.
"Well, the taste may leave much to be desired, but each slice can easily account for a hearty meal worth of substance and frankly I recommend drinking the juice first to cover up the taste."
Leave it to Teyvat's Batman to rely on a super nutrient bar in order to be able to skip the inefficient time it takes to make meals while he is constantly on the go.
With food exchanging hands our morale was boosted with Eula in particular seeming to be more comfortable with us finally after another twenty or so minute walk we arrived within a canyon with a powerful gale of solid wind blocking our path.
"Heh, this is the first set of Stormwind walls we need to get past," Venti said and through the wall of powerful wind energy, I saw the wrecked remains of Mondstadt's old capital.
"Alright, mighty Anemo Archon open the gates so you can go back to being useless!" Paimon called out making Venti's face twitch.
"Ooh, why don't you open the wind wall then, little one?" Venti asked sarcastically and when Paimon couldn't reply he haughtily sniffed and turned his head back to the wind wall with his pigtails whipping around in the motion.
As Venti went about opening the wind wall a few Hilichurls came to stop him but frankly, as I thought before they were literally no challenge, especially with my own summoned Mitachurls knocking aside their large shields and axes so we could hit their vital spots.
Finally, with a series of notes of Venti's Lyre the wind wall collapsed into itself.
"Wow, this place is so huge! And there is the front gate!" Paimon cried out as we entered the valley, and I couldn't help but agree with Paimon's words as the old capital was far larger than the current city of Mondstadt but then again, the new one is locked onto an island and had been around for a far shorter period then this city had.
We quickly made our way across the dilapidated bridge that separated the valley entrance to the central palace and Venti went on to explain how Dvalin was using the lower levels of the central palace as its nest, so we needed to break into the central palace by bypassing the various wind walls that surrounded the area.
"Venti why can't you just calm the winds here and we can just deal with Dvalin?" Lumine asked ignorant about why this place was almost always a hellhole of constant storms.
"This place is where the Anemo God Barbatos killed the Storm God with the help of the people who rebelled against the Lawrence clan who was sponsored by the Storm God Decarabian. When a god dies, especially in battle filled with negative emotions their death, scars the land basically eternally until other gods deal with its effects to put simply gods were once eternal before Celestia put Erosion into effect but funny enough Erosion doesn't rid the world of karma of killing a god." I said scoffing as Celestia basically purged the world of its strength with the Archon War and the purge of Khaenri'ah basically killed off all the supernatural races.
"Not many people know my history that well Jake..." Venti said wryly seeing the questioning it looked like people were throwing him but he had to deny Lumine's prior question. "And he is right these wind walls aren't merely Anemo energy, they fall within the aegis of a 'storm' and carry the Storm Gods Decarabian's energy and are thus far more difficult to control. Plus, it's for the best I don't exhaust myself before we meet my old friend."
Diluc kicked a piece of rubble off the bridge into the valley beneath us gathering our attention to him. "Well let's get going to the top of the tower, I can already foresee annoying puzzles to unlock those seals but who knows maybe Lisa will be able to unseal them and we won't need to trapeze around this horrid dead city."
"Hmm, those seals as far as I can see seem to be based on Light Sigils, and I am well practiced at dealing with those at this point Hehe." Lisa chuckled.
For the next hour we spent going around the central building catching specific air currents until we reached the top of the capital building and Lisa spent another few minutes' tinkering with the magical seals before she said they were ready.