The Raiden Shogun awaits

The losses inflicted on the Shogun’s forces by the party and Beidou’s ship cannons had been severe enough to shift the entire balance of the war.

Word reached them quickly: Sangonomiya Kokomi had seized the opportunity and launched a direct assault on Tenshukaku itself. Resistance forces were already engaging the outer defenses of the palace.

Beidou clapped Aether on the shoulder with a fierce grin.

“That’s my cue. I’ll do more damage from the water than on foot.” She turned and strode back toward the harbor without another word, already shouting orders to her crew in the distance.

Yelan simply melted into the shadows with a short nod. “I’ll be more useful unseen. Try not to die.”

That left the core group to push straight toward the castle.

Rosaria clearly hated saying it out loud, but the truth was obvious.

“…Shenhe. You’re with him. Directly. You’re the only one who can keep up if things get truly ugly, and i still have a bone to pick with a certain someone”

as she said the last part her expression shifted into a terrifying sadistic smile with her target already in sight.

Shenhe stepped to Aether’s side without hesitation, red ropes steady, expression blank but presence overwhelming. The rest of the women formed up around them as they began breaking through the remaining guard lines that still stood between them and Tenshukaku.

Electro soldiers fell quickly under the combined assault. the group carved a path forward. Aether stayed at the center, the charm Yae had given him held tightly in one hand.

As they fought their way closer to the palace gates, the information the Guuji had given them stayed at the forefront of their minds:

The Raiden Shogun they would face first was only a puppet — a sophisticated creation. To reach the true Archon, Ei, they would need to draw the real one out.

The final approach to Tenshukaku had begun.

The throne room of Tenshukaku fell silent as the Raiden Shogun finally stood to face them.

The puppet’s expression was cold, absolute, and filled with quiet contempt as her violet eyes locked onto Aether.

“You are an exception,” she declared, her voice echoing with mechanical certainty. “A variable that cannot be permitted to exist within Eternity. You will be eliminated.”

She raised the Musou Isshin, electro energy gathering around the blade in a lethal arc aimed directly at him.

Shenhe stepped forward.

“No.”

Before anyone could stop her, the tall woman reached up and deliberately tore away the last of her red restraining ropes. The bindings that had suppressed her for years fell to the polished floor in tatters.

The change was instant and terrifying.

Shenhe’s blank, emotionless mask shattered. Her face lit up with clear, exaggerated expression — eyes blazing with protective fury, lips curled in a snarl of pure possessiveness. The air around her warped as her power and the ancient curse of calamity she carried skyrocketed without the restraints to hold them back. Cryo energy and raw destructive force radiated from her in visible waves.

She planted herself directly between Aether and the Shogun, polearm materializing in her hand with a violent surge of power.

“You will not touch a single hair on my man’s head,” Shenhe declared, voice no longer flat but filled with raw, passionate intensity. “I will not allow it. Not you. Not anyone.”

The once-silent disciple of Cloud Retainer now stood fully unleashed — more human, more emotional, and vastly more lethal than anything the puppet Shogun had expected to face.

Lightning crackled around the Musou Isshin.

Shenhe’s unrestrained power answered it with a freezing, catastrophic pressure that made the very air scream.

The rest of the party could only watch as the two forces prepared to collide. The unrestrained calamity faced the puppet of Eternity.