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One day when they’re in their early teens, Diluc gets it into his head to hunt down Cryo Whopper Flowers, and of course Kaeya gets dragged into it, as usual.
“But why do you want to?” Kaeya asks as they reach the other side of the river separating Mondstadt from Liyue. “You don’t need anything from them.”
“Well, they’re evolved Mist Flowers –”
“That don’t drop corollas.”
“ – and they’re often found near Mist Flowers, so we could gather –”
“We have Mist Flowers at home,” Kaeya says. Diluc knows this. Gathering Mist Flower corollas for the winery is one of his chores.
“Yes. I harvest them before they evolve, so, I’ve never actually fought a Cryo Whopper Flower before. I want the experience.”
“But why?”
“Because someday I plan to fight a Cryo Regisvine.”
Kaeya pauses.
“Don’t worry, I won’t drag you along –”
“The hell you won’t,” Kaeya says dryly. “I’m not letting you face one of those alone.”
“No, I mean, I’ll be going after it with other allogenes,” Diluc explains. “Someday I hope to put together a party to hunt powerful monsters for their rare treasures, so we can get stronger together.”
“I could be wrong, but won’t you need the loot from Pyro Regisvines?”
“Yes, but since I’m Pyro myself, it’s not a good match for me. So, I’ll need a team, since I won’t be able to take one down alone. We’ll help each other.”
It’s a good plan, but Kaeya doesn’t like it. His brother’s an excellent fighter, but is also naïve and far too trusting. He’s likely to team up with a bunch of two-mora Adventurers who’ll get him killed.
“I hope you get a Vision,” Diluc says. “Then you could come with me.”
That’ll never happen, but Kaeya’s spared having to feign enthusiasm when his eye is drawn several pieces of lamp grass glowing in the predawn light . . . and one that isn’t.
“There.” Kaeya points.
Diluc frowns. “Lamp grass? What about it?”
“One’s not glowing.”
“Maybe it’s sick,” Diluc says dismissively.
“Or it’s not really lamp grass.” Kaeya waits for it to sink in.
“Oh! You’re right! That’s one of the plants they mimic,” Diluc remembers.
Kaeya draws his sword. “Well then. Shall we?”
Cryo Whopper Flowers, Kaeya quickly learns, are even more annoying than the Pyro Whopper Flowers he and Diluc fought before. Both species are freakishly resilient. Their attack patterns are similar; going underground and shielding themselves are in both their playbooks. Diluc can deal with the Cryo’s shield more easily, but that convenience is offset by these its element’s effect. The Pyro ones can singe you, but these Cryos can freeze you, which Kaeya and Diluc learn the hard way, since they’re fighting next to a small pool. Things get messy when the Whopper Flower hits them with a spinning attack and they both get knocked into the water. Then it spits a Cryo attack at them and . . . well.
At first, Kaeya’s not sure what happened. Everything’s pale and cold, and he can’t move. Can’t even breathe.
He struggles . . . and when he struggles hard enough the Cryo encasing him cracks. That’s when Kaeya realizes what happened – just in time to get frozen again, because the damn flower’s still spitting.
Diluc fairs better. Perhaps because of his Vision, but when Kaeya breaks free again, he sees his brother’s already made it out of the water, summoned flames to his claymore, and is slashing at the annoying plant.
Kaeya rejoins the fight in time to help finish putting it down, then sheathes his sword.
“Right. Let’s go home.” They’ve accomplished what they came for. Diluc now has experience fighting Cryo Whopper Flowers.
“What? We’ve only fought one,” Diluc protests, killing Kaeya’s dreams of getting home in time for breakfast.
They follow the path up the hill and between rocky crags, watching out for hidden enemies. Around midmorning they reach the path’s end, at a pool of icy water where Mist Flowers sprout amongst stony ruins half submerged in the headwaters.
“Look at all these Mist Flowers!” Diluc says enthusiastically. “Do you mind waiting for me to pick them? With this many, I won’t have to collect them for the winery for a couple weeks!”
Practical reasoning, so Kaeya nods, but he’s more concerned the fact that there’s an awful lot of old dressed stones here, and when you run into ancient ruins backed up into a cliff wall or cave like this one . . .
“Hey, Kaeya! Come look at this!”
. . . you also tend to get domains.
“I think there’s a domain entrance behind this wall of ice! The Mist Flowers have sealed it, but I think I can . . .” Then Diluc happily melts the icy barrier, revealing a sizable crack between the stones that’s definitely a domain entrance.
“C’mon, let’s check it out.”
“We shouldn’t,” Kaeya says quickly. “Domains are dangerous.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll protect you. There might be more Whopper Flowers inside, and they’re what we came for!”
“They won’t be the only thing inside. There might also be traps.” Traps and mechanisms that only admit you if you wield the right element, or know the proper sequence, or a number of other conditions. It’s possible to get stuck and starve to death if you go in unprepared. While Kaeya’s early life in Khaenri’ah taught him a few tricks to bypass deathtraps, he’d rather not reveal that part of him to Diluc right now, or ever.
Talking Diluc out of something once his mind’s made up, however, is impossible, so Kaeya soon finds himself trailing along behind him, through ancient corridors frozen in time.
There are elemental mechanisms, but they all seem to be activated by Pryo, which is just Kaeya’s luck. Were they any other element, he could have gone home after watching Diluc trying vainly to force them open for an hour, but no, they had to be Pyro.
Everything else in the ruins, however, is Cryo based. Mist Flowers, slimes, and chunks of ice that constantly fall from the ceiling. Twice, Kaeya has to yank Diluc aside to keep him from getting brained. Finally, they reach a sealed corridor with four Pryo-activated mechanisms that all have to be activated within seconds of each other to advance. Most people would have to turn back here, but Diluc’s Dawn reaches them all, and fortunately elemental energy seems to be abundant here, because according to Diluc, particles of it keep regenerating. They linger there long enough for Diluc to regain enough energy to use Dawn again. Just in case.
It turns out to be a good idea.
When they enter the next room, they don’t see the danger at first. They’re distracted by what appear to be ice sculptures, but Kaeya knows they’re not.
“Are those . . . animals?” Diluc asks.
“Frozen solid.”
There’s a lot of them. Mostly boars, but Kaeya sees birds, foxes, and one eerily human shaped frozen lump . . . but no, it’s got cat-like ears, so it must be something else . . .
“These boars . . . they’re huge. I’ve never seen ones like these before. Have you?” Diluc stops beside one and seems to be trying to measure it with his hands.
Then, behind him, Kaeya sees movement.
“Heads up!” Kaeya rushes forward so they’re side by side. Far enough apart that it would be hard to hit them both at once, but close enough to defend each other if necessary.
“This is . . .”
“Yeah.” Though Kaeya’s never seen one before, Cryo Regisvines are pretty unmistakable. This one was curled up when they entered, so it didn’t stand out amongst the frozen animals. Now it unfurls like a demonic fern, rising higher and higher, and Kaeya realizes it’s actually pretty huge.
Then it attacks, and it’s a good thing Kaeya and Diluc are several feet apart, because it tries to smash them both at once. It slams its . . . head? Flower? Whatever. It slams it down midway between them, and if they hadn’t moved, it would have pounded them into the frost covered floor.
Unfortunately, frost isn’t the only thing covering the floor, Kaeya sees, as he dodges. There are scattered puddles of water, which means it’s going to be way too easy to get frozen again here.
Even as he opens his mouth to warn Diluc, it happens. The Regisvine shoots a freaking Cryo beam from its tendrils. It nearly misses Diluc, barely glances him really, but it’s enough. Diluc is instantly frozen in place.
“Hey!” Kaeya screams, hoping that will draw the Regisvine’s attention. Can plants hear? He doesn’t know. No matter. He charges in and attacks. Kaeya targets a bud near its base, because it looks like a potential weak spot. The shrill sound it makes when Kaeya slices it confirms it. Kaeya cuts through it again, then leaps back as the monster counters, slamming its head down right where Kaeya just was . . . then spins around, impossibly fast.
Kaeya avoids the slam, but not the spin. It sends him flying. He twists and manages to control his fall so he doesn’t crash into the ground at full force. He skids across the icy stones, then crashes into something that shatters.
For a second, he feels mildly horrified. Stupid, he knows, but Kaeya thinks he just shattered a frozen boar and that when he looks down he’ll be be lying amongst shards of frozen meat and blood . . . but no. Only bone fragments from a boar. A giant boar, from the looks of the nearby skull. He’s lucky he wasn’t skewered on its tusks. Well, its tusk. One of them’s broken off and missing . . .
“Diluc!” Kaeya shouts, when he realizes his brother still hasn’t managed to unfreeze. “Damn it!”
He rushes back in range of the Regisvine to keep its attention on him. Like hell he’s letting it attack his helpless brother. A troubling thought occurs to Kaeya, as he attacks the monster’s weak spot again. These boars have been frozen for a very long time. What if things frozen by this monster can’t break free on their own?
Just the thought makes Kaeya swear. This is crap. He has no business here, fighting a Regisvine. He’s not even an allogene, damn it!
When his sword pierces the bud again, the Regisvine screams, then shudders. Then, to Kaeya’s surprise, it . . . sort of wilts and crashes to the ground, stem bent, head bowed and vulnerable. Kaeya then does his utmost to cut it off. Since there are very few things that don’t die when decapitated. He just hopes this isn’t one of them.
The stem is too thick though, its outer layer too hard. Kaeya’s blade barely leaves a mark on it. Then the Regisvine recovers and nearly catches Kaeya in another spinning attack. He just manages to dodge, then ducks behind a boar to avoid a beam attack.
Cutting off its head seems like a no go. The bud on the base is gone now, so Kaeya can’t exploit that again. Even if he could, he still can’t pierce its skin. So what’s he supposed to do?!
“Diluc! Wake up!”
Distracting it seems like the only thing Kaeya really can do . . . or is it?
As the Regisvine squares up to face him again, Kaeya notices something he hadn’t before. Piercing the edge of the gem-like hexagon in the center of its face . . . is that giant boar skull’s missing tusk. It seems the massive boar and this Regisvine fought once, long ago. The boar may have lost, but its tusk could still prove to be the Regisvine’s undoing.
Kaeya’s heard of humans surviving horrible head injuries, with weapons stuck in their skulls. The rule, apparently, is when it’s that bad, you leave the weapon in. The skull heals around it. Pulling the weapon out, leaving the skull breached, always results in death.
“Let’s hope it’s the same for plants . . . and that ugly hexagon thing’s important,” Kaeya mutters. Then he goes back on the attack.
Kaeya doesn’t have a Vision. Nor does he want one. He’s Khaenri’ahn. He survives by his own merit, not the favor of any god. When the Regisvine slams its head down again, Kaeya strikes slashes through the scar holding the tusk in place on one side. He’ll need to land at least three hits, to remove it. Which is much easier said than done.
But he does it. There’s no other choice. Diluc’s frozen and helpless, and Kaeya’s not letting this thing near him. It takes four strikes to sever enough tissue to loosen the tusk. Then he has to yank it free, which is also much easier said than done. On his first attempt, the monster almost dislocates his arm. So Kaeya changes tact.
He leaps off the back of another boar, through the air, right toward the monster’s ugly face. Naturally, Diluc chooses that moment to unfreeze. Kaeya can tell because he hears his brother shout, “Kaeya, what the devil?!”
Kaeya grabs the tusk with both hands, braces his feet against the hexagon, pulls with all his might, and hurrah! The tusk comes free!
He lands on his feet, which is good, because the Regisvine’s having a fit. It’s thrashing around, hopefully in its death throes. Kaeya quickly scrambles out of range.
“Kaeya, get down!” Diluc shouts, and Kaeya knows what’s coming. He drops and a flaming phoenix streaks over his head, smack into the Regisvine’s face.
Then the overgrown weed decides it’s had enough. It rises straight up in the air, and spins again, but in place, like a drill rather than in a sweeping circle of destruction like before. Then it sinks through the stone floor and out of sight.
Good riddance.
“Kaeya! Are you okay? I’m sorry, I couldn’t break free! That Cryo was too strong . . . but what were you doing?!” Diluc rushes up to him.
“Getting a souvenir.” Kaeya hands Diluc the boar tusk and smirks.
Diluc looks bewildered . . . then his eyes light up as he sees something on the ground, and he quickly retrieves it. “Here’s a better souvenir for you. A Shivada Jade fragment.”
“You take it. For your future party member,” Kaeya says, but Diluc presses it into his hand.
“You’re my current party member, and you just saved my life. Besides, it’s your color. We’ll make you a necklace or maybe an earring.”
“Huh. We’ll see.” Kaeya sheathes his sword and stretches. “Let’s get out of here. I assume you’re ready to go? Now that we’ve beaten a Cryo Regisvine and lived to tell the tale?”
He’s not sure if it’s dead or just driven off, and right now, he doesn’t really care. Thankfully, neither does Diluc.
“Yes,” Diluc agrees. “Let’s go home.”