The next day, Aether, Ayaka, Noelle (still in disguise) and Paimon went out of the lodge house to see Dunyarzad who escorted them through what was available during the Sabzeruz festival, ranging from a fruit stall, a scholar who tries divination and a self-proclaimed knight of flowers. Afterwards, they went towards the Grand Bazaar, along the way a group of Eremite mercenaries ambushed them. Coincidentally, Dehya was there and offered to assist before Ayaka joined in, unsheathing her tachi.

"Aether, go! Let me and Dehya take care of them."

"Got it, be careful, Ayaka! Come on, Noelle, let's get Dunyarzad someplace safe!"

Aether, Noelle and Dunyarzad then fled the streets to the exterior of Lambad's tavern, as screams of agony can be heard in the background. Aether almost felt sorry about the ambushers, especially when Ayaka is around. Dunyarzad, exhausted from the running, decides to sit down on a bench, and that's when Aether realizes that she has Eleazar when he sees those scaled skin. Dehya later returned with Ayaka, the latter covered in blood while Dehya herself only suffered a small scratch on her arm.

"You were too overkill back there, princess."

"They tried to attack Aether, what kind of mercy do you expect me to give them?"

"Huff... I'm lucky I didn't have feelings for him, then. But you ignoring HER, though..." Dehya's eyes glanced towards Noelle.

At that point, a small tongue clicking sound is heard from Noelle, which Paimon finds unusual. Noelle was never jealous before, is she? Paimon shrugs it off afterwards. The group, after getting their bearings, headed on over to the stage at the Grand Bazaar to watch Nilou's dance. However to their disappointment, the festival must be ended abruptly due to the Akademiya warning her to end it or else an investigation is imminent. Aether tried to comfort Nilou herself, who then accepted the situation. Well, there's always a next year, right?

It turns out, there's not.

The party went to sleep at the lodging house, and awaken the next day only to find Ayaka and Noelle not there.

"Hmm, they must be at the pot. Oh well, let's go on to enjoy the Sabzeruz festival!"

It happens, over and over again.

Meeting Dunyarzad at the streets, going through stalls, getting ambushed, Dehya getting injured (although this time, there is no extreme bloodshed from Ayaka's fury), and the festival getting ended abruptly.

Until what seems like a never ending cycle, Aether finally tries to find an answer to this neverending sense of Deja Vu, and it led to him meeting with Kusanali herself, introducing herself as Nahida. After a couple of more attempts to break the cycle, Aether has had enough and he ended up showing no mercy to Dunyarzad's ambushers instead of Dehya or Ayaka.

It was then when Paimon noticed, although humorously it was already way too late.

"Paimon just realized, why aren't Ayaka and Noelle with us? They are only there during our first Sabzeruz cycle whatchamacallit."

"Hold on. They never wore their Akasha Terminals, right? Maybe that is why. They were never pulled into the cycle, and are around Sumeru, but not this one... Then that means..."

*Somewhere, outside of the city in the real world...*

Ayaka is in a battle against Noelle, after noticing her abnormalities for the past days. Noelle is battling against her but with much more dexterity instead of her usual way of fighting with brute strength. She also dodges more and rarely summoned a shield.

Ayaka sheathes her tachi back into it's saya scabbard, and multiple slashes hit Noelle's body, shattering her mask and tearing her hood apart, exposing her appearance. Violet hair instead of pale lavender, and aqua eyes.

"As I thought, there is something wrong with you!"

"To think you've found out... Oh well, it was bound to happen, right?" Nilou's voice said, through Noelle.

"What did you do to her?"

"Isn't it obvious? I used her to make my observation on the Traveler more easier! Think about it, the three of us are smitten by him. Like the both of you, I want to get closer to him."

"Oh yeah? When did you get smitten yourself, when we've only met each other a few times!"

"You still think that the me at the festival is me? It's merely one of my hydro clones! I have been following Aether all over Sumeru. From when You met Alhaitham, finishing Tighnari's problems, helping to craft Aranara statues at Port Ormos, and that battle at the docks after a week passed."

"I see... You're just like me... Back in Inazuma after Aether helped in abolishing the Sakoku Decree, all that following around and finding a threat. I find it rather ironic myself, but even with Noelle's body, you are no match to me as of now."

"Oh, and why is that?"

"I fought her once, nearly dying as a result.... That state you're in now, she never became like that. Her actual breaking point is still too far."

Nilou then widened her eyes at that statement, as she then summoned Whiteblind and a blade of crystallized hydro extended it's main blade.  She charges forwards, and clashed her blade against Ayaka's frozen tachi as the center of the latter's eyes then glowed an icy blue, and a pair of heron wings made out of cryo sprouts from her back. She manages to hold herself until the crystallized blade returns into being made out of mere hydro, froze the blade, breaking the frozen part and landed a hit on Noelle's controlled body, although she made sure that she made her cryo infused blade blunt in order not to draw blood. So she managed to hit Noelle's head, knocking her out.

Having no use with a body that went out cold and losing it's strength, a gush of water escaped from Noelle's wounds that, until now were never mysteriously healed. It then formed itself into a puddle on the grasslands, before it began to take a human form of it's own. Soon, the familiar sight of red hair, aqua eyes, that exquisitely designed dancer's outfit and the hourglass figure that wore it fully formed in front of Ayaka.

"To think that I have to resort to use my full potential..."

Nilou's eyes then glowed, and when the glow faded, only a tiny dot in the center of her pupils that remains to have that glow. The glow is in an aqua blue color, symbolizing her element which is of course, hydro. A long sash made out of hydro forms and snaked around her two arms forming a raiment making her appearance akin to that of a divine goddess of flowing waters.

"So she's the same as us both... A Transcended One..."

"Yes... Now, let's see what we are truly made of, Frostflake Heron of Inazuma."

The moment her sentence ends, her eyes then widened, following with a translucent veil out of hydro that forms, and covers the lower half of her face, nearly hiding her wide smile.