Ryen's sudden, sharp shout caught everyone off guard.
Venti was jostled backward by a newly materialized spirit. Before he could even utter a word of complaint, he watched Ryen vanish in a streak of spatial light, teleporting away without a single word of explanation.
Venti's lighthearted expression vanished instantly, his posture tightening as divine anemo energy flared around him. He exchanged a solemn glance with Zhongli.
Never before had they seen Ryen show such raw urgency.
Furthermore, the spatial coordinates he used did not point to the manor villa; they led directly to Redstone Tech City.
Abandoning the hunt for spirits, the leaders triggered their return tokens and flashed back to the central square of Redstone Tech City.
The moment they materialized, they found Da Shi pacing back and forth in visible distress.
"Lord Morax, you have returned!" Da Shi called out, rushing forward the moment he caught sight of Zhongli and the others.
"What has happened?" Zhongli asked in a low, resonant tone, casting his gaze across the streets. "Has a vulnerability appeared within the city? Where is Ryen?"
Da Shi shook his head, his brow furrowed. "I was surveying our patrols in the lower district when Lord Ryen suddenly appeared and ordered me to await your arrival here. His face was pale, and he looked immensely pressed for time. He has taken Lady Ningguang and the others toward the City Lord Manor. Please, we must hurry."
Zhongli and the Archons traded another tense glance, their unease deepening.
For Ryen to rush ahead without waiting even a few seconds for their arrival was entirely out of character.
With heavy steps, Zhongli led the group in a swift march toward the central manor. Along the avenue, he swept his eyes across the towering structures. Everything appeared orderly, bustling with productive energy.
The City Lord Manor stood in the exact center of the metropolis. When they pushed through the double doors, they found Ryen seated in the great hall, his brow locked in a tight frown. Ningguang and the women surrounded him, their faces marked with concern yet hesitant to break his concentration.
"Ryen, what on earth..." Zhongli began, stepping forward.
Before he could finish the sentence, Ryen raised his head. His eyes carried a heavy, unreadable weight as he cut in with absolute authority.
"Explanations will come later. Right now, execute my orders immediately."
The assembly fell dead silent, nodding in unison.
Ryen turned his gaze toward Ningguang and Aether.
"Contact every military unit on the New Continent and all personnel from Khaenri'ah. Order a complete, total evacuation back to Redstone Tech City. Every single hand, without exception, must be inside these walls! Not a single soul is to be left behind!"
"Aether, speed up the transition for your five thousand new arrivals and bring them straight to Redstone Tech City as soon as they cross the threshold."
Aether and Ningguang nodded with solemn intensity, immediately bringing up their communication arrays to dispatch emergency recalls.
Ryen shifted his eyes to Zhongli.
"Zhongli, summon every adeptus and immortal beast currently outside this realm. Have them enter through the Mt. Tianheng gate and gather at the manor."
"Da Shi, recall every Millelith soldier currently on leave back to active duty inside Redstone Tech City."
"Kujou Sara, Alhaitham, Jean, Rosalyne, contact your respective commands. Whether your divisions are operating in the Nether, harvesting in the End, or sweeping the Twilight Forest, issue a full recall order. Every resource extraction squad, base construction crew, and scouting regiment across the entire world must fall back to Redstone Tech City."
"No matter what task they are engaged in, pull them back!"
"Every single individual must be within this perimeter before tomorrow noon!"
"Furthermore, Lisa, Ganyu, prepare to escort Klee and the young ones back through the gate to Teyvat."
A suffocating gravity settled over the room. Since the day they had first set foot in this block realm, Ryen had never once issued a total mobilization order.
How many souls currently resided within this world?
Liyue alone fielded nearly ten thousand troops, and when combined with the other four nations and Khaenri'ah, the total population approached thirty thousand.
A summons of this magnitude was nothing less than a wartime declaration. For Ryen to enact it, and to demand that the children be sent away, meant a catastrophe of unprecedented proportions was looming.
No one dared to hesitate. Ryen never joked about survival. The hall erupted into a flurry of urgent movement and hurried transmissions.
Ryen continued his instructions without missing a beat, turning toward Diluc, Kamisato Ayato, and Tighnari.
"Diluc, Ayato, Tighnari, inspect our ordnance stockpiles immediately. Bring the modern firearms factories to maximum overdrive. Within twenty-four hours, every soldier in the city must be equipped with standard firearms and full ammunition reserves."
"Distribute our metal stores and ensure every combatant is fitted with a complete suit of iron armor."
"Rally the garrison currently in the city. Within a one-kilometer radius outside the outer perimeter, excavate three concentric strategic trench lines and defensive kill zones. Fill them completely with lava reservoirs and concealed TNT arrays."
"Guizhong, take Cloud Retainer and Mountain Shaper to inspect every single Redstone TNT cannon along the battlements."
"Tartaglia, Kaeya, empty our reserves of obsidian! Replace the entire outer wall with solid obsidian, with a minimum thickness of five full meters!"
"These fortifications must be completed before noon tomorrow."
"Seal all ground-level city gates entirely with solid obsidian."
"Raise the uniform height of the perimeter wall to twenty meters."
"Lastly, ensure every single square meter inside the city is completely illuminated, leaving no shadow untouched."
Orders cascaded outward from the central hall, spreading across dimensions and continents through the waypoint network.
The entire world churned with frantic motion as thousands of miners, builders, and scouts abandoned their posts, stepping into spatial rifts to converge upon Redstone Tech City.
Ryen pressed his fingers against his temples, reviewing every tactical angle in his mind.
Trenches, obsidian battlements, modern weaponry, light levels... all were accounted for.
Yet an unsettling itch lingered in his thoughts.
Suddenly, he clapped his hands together.
"The main portal! Relocate the primary Ley Line portal to the inner courtyard of the City Lord Manor!"
"From this moment forward, the portal at the manor villa is closed indefinitely!"
The silence in the room grew heavier. Ever since development had scaled up, the villa's gate had remained open day and night without interruption. To seal it shut was something they had not seen in months.
"Brother Ryen, Klee doesn't want to leave! Klee wants to stay and protect you!"
Klee's small hands gripped the hem of his coat, her eyes welling with stubborn tears.
"Qiqi wants to stay with Brother Ryen too..."
Within moments, the young girls gathered tightly around him, clutching his arms and waist.
Ryen looked down at them, a mixture of warmth and sorrow passing through his eyes. Ever since they had crossed over, there had not been a single day he spent away from them. Sending them away went against his every instinct, but the trial ahead promised absolute devastation, and he could not bear the thought of them being caught in the crossfire.
"My love, calm yourself," Yae Miko murmured gently, stepping behind him to rest a warm hand against his shoulder. "Tell us what is coming. Facing it together is far better than bearing the entire world on your own shoulders. We are all standing right beside you; why must you carry it in solitude?"
Zhongli inclined his head, his voice steady as bedrock. "Is the foundation of this world fracturing? If the peril is extreme, I can summon the entire armed forces of Liyue through the threshold."
Makoto added with resolute calm, "Inazuma's full military stands on standby, prepared to reinforce this city at a moment's notice. What has triggered this upheaval?"
Looking at the determined faces around him, Ryen let out a slow, weary breath.
"To be precise, it is both a blessing and a calamity."
Seeing their bewildered expressions, he continued in a heavy tone.
"Over the next forty-nine days, Redstone Tech City will endure an uninterrupted, relentless siege by an endless horde of the undead. We must hold the line until the final dawn."
Venti blinked, then let out a long breath, waving his hand with a relaxed chuckle.
"Good heavens, you nearly frightened the life out of me! I thought some colossal, world-ending titan had awakened, but it is merely zombies. When our numbers were small, didn't you easily repel the Pillager raids? With an army of tens of thousands, why should we fear ordinary walking corpses?"
Ryen stared at Venti in dead silence, shaking his head.
"If it were merely ordinary zombies, I would not be issuing a single command."
"This is a trial handed down by the world itself."
Venti's smile stiffened, an uneasy chill creeping into his chest.
Ryen continued slowly, "Think of the worlds scattered across the Sea of Quanta and the Imaginary Tree. When a civilization advances beyond a certain threshold, it draws the descent of the Honkai, a cataclysm meant to test the species. Overcome the trial, and the civilization ascends; fail it, and the entire world perishes."
"What we face now operates under the exact same cosmic logic. It is the evolutionary trial of civilization imposed by this universe."
The faces of the Archons darkened with grim realization.
"So you are saying... Teyvat will eventually face a similar reckoning?" Zhongli asked, his golden eyes narrowing.
Ryen gave a slow nod. "Inevitably. The trial of civilization will arrive sooner or later, though now is not the time for that discussion. This realm, and specifically Redstone Tech City, has reached that evolutionary crossroad. The technological complexity of this settlement has triggered the world's threshold for qualitative ascension, and with that ascension comes the trial."
In truth, that was simply the grand metaphysical explanation; in raw terms, the system was initiating a forced survival event.
"In other words, because of our large-scale construction, the impending resettlement of Khaenri'ah, and the advanced industrialization of this city, we have ignited the spark of true civilization, prompting the world to test our endurance?" Zhongli asked, piecing together the sequence.
"Precisely," Ryen confirmed. "The trial is keyed directly to Redstone Tech City's technological density, but to guarantee safety, consolidating every piece of our strength here is mandatory. Undead naturally gravitate toward the scent of living intellect. Concentrating all sentient life within these walls turns Redstone Tech City into the sole beacon for the horde across the entire continent, but behind these walls, our defense has the highest chance of holding."
"Losses..." Ningguang murmured, her fingers tightening.
It was the first time Ryen had ever spoken of casualties before battle was even joined. Even when preparing to face the Wither, he had displayed absolute confidence.
"Ryen, exactly how many undead are we expecting?" Ningguang asked, her voice quiet and taut.
Ryen looked up at the ceiling of the hall, letting out a long, quiet sigh.
"How many? You should be asking how many consecutive days the waves will crash against our walls."
"If you truly want a head count..."
He fell silent for a moment before meeting her eyes.
"A conservative estimate would be... over a million."