"Prepare yourself!"

Noelle shouted, charging towards The Knave who quickly swung her own weapon, a scythe, towards Noelle. The blades of both the Unforged and The Knave's scythe met each other, and crimson sparks begin to shoot out from them.

The Knave gives Noelle a small smile of excitement, which is returned by a smile of contempt by the latter, still enraged at the former.

"Noelle!" Aether called out.

"Aether... All of you, please do not interfere!"

"No way, pal! We're going to help!" Nilou shouted, as she summons her Xiphos Moonlight sword.

"If you join in, then I fear that all of you may end up getting injured or worse! Please, stay away!"

"Father! Please reconsider your decision!" Lyney shouted.

Both The Knave and Noelle then stopped locking their blades as they pushed each other away. Both of them then circled around the arena, as The Knave listened to what Lyney has to say while Noelle is on alert.

"What Filliol and the others did... Does it really count as betrayal? We all come from broken families. From the very first day we joined the House of the Hearth, we wanted nothing more than to make it a real home."

Lyney then clarified that he may not have all the answers, but by upholding the rules would just bring the members of the House of The Hearth even further away from being a real family.

"So please, Father... Please reconsider! Especially since the Maid-Knight is not accepting a refusal!"

"We don't want to see you die, Father! Not like The Fair Lady! Please!" Shouted Freminet.

The thought of dying like Signora, however never crossed The Knave's mind as she has faced a lot of adversaries as well. The moment Freminet mentioned it, however caused her to freeze in position to think. After a few moments, which caused Noelle to tilt her head in curiosity as to why The Knave stopped on the spot.

"I agree with Lyney. Please, stop the punishment, Father." Lynette continued.

Her words are enough to cause The Knave to reply.

"Lynette. You do understand why I sent those soldiers after you, correct? Your newfound power, it needs to be controlled, not to be used by those outside of the House. And so, I have to stand by my point. An order, once given, cannot be rescinded."

"I just knew it... She won't give up!" Furina commented, as she shook her head in disbelief.

"Furina, wait." Aether said, blocking Furina's way with his hand.

"However, given the extent of your determination, I suppose we shall have to go about this a different way... Draw your weapons, and face me." The Knave continued, proposing a battle.

"She said it. Everyone, prepare yourselves." Keqing commanded, as she summons her Lion's Roar sword.

"For once, I have to agree with you..." Ayaka continued, as she unsheathed her tachi.

Nilou brandished her sword once, as a signal saying that she is ready when the others are.

"I will not be afraid anymore... So, Lady Arlecchino... I-I will take up arms as well!" Furina declared.

"If you leave us no choice, Father... Then I shall accept."

"Lynette! You can't be..." Foltz shook his head in disbelief.

"Did you hear that, Aether? Noelle, Lynette and the others have to duel The Knave! What should we do? Can they really win something like that, even with all of their powers combined?"

Aether didn't reply, as Noelle and Furina charged ahead, Furina transforming into her arch-transcended form, and her pneuma light blade appears on her arm while Noelle still remained in her human form, attempting to slash The Knave, whom Furina called Arlecchino, managed to dodge thanks to Noelle's easily choreographed attack patterns using The Unforged, but then raised a brow in surprise as Furina jumped over Noelle, and attempted to slash Arle with her pneuma blade which Arle barely managed to react against, as she raised the shaft of her scythe which barely parried away Furina's attack.

Furina was pushed back by the parry, and deactivated her light blade before attempting to perform a corkscrew dive attack on Arle, who managed  to knock her off target, causing her to crash to a nearby wall. Noelle then followed, swinging the Unforged once, however was outmatched by Arle's speed as she swiped the Unforged away with the blade of her scythe, disarming Noelle.

"Darn!"

"I expected more from you, Maid-Knight of Destruction!"

Before the second swing from her scythe, Arle raised a brow as Noelle's gauntlets emit geo-imbued rods, akin to that of a pair of tonfas and managed to catch the scythe's blade in a criss-cross.

"Then you should have expected even more!" Said Noelle, as her gauntlet's rods managed to gather pyro energy from Arle's scythe.

Noelle pushed the scythe upwards, causing Arle to stagger and upon seeing the opportunity, Noelle landed three punches to her torso, causing Arle to gasp and finally cough due to the damage upon getting hit by the third punch. Afterwards, Noelle casts her hand towards the Unforged, which then levitates and launched itself to Noelle's grasp, which Noelle caught and used to perform an uppercut slash with it, while the blade is imbued with pyro energy gathered from before.

The slash hits Arle from the stomach to the chin, which she managed to shrug off, surprising Noelle as she didn't even get a dent from it. 

"...Is it my turn now?" Arle said, the low tone of her voice unnerving everyone present.

However, with the momentum from her jump when doing the uppercut slash, Noelle then quickly readjusted the blade's position so that it is pointing downwards, attempting to impale Arle from above.

However, Arle took one step backwards, narrowly avoiding the downward stab, which hits the floor in front of her, giving her time to reel Noelle in using her scythe, and grab her by the throat.

"Ghhk!?"

"You're holding back despite your pleas to stop me earlier. Where is the power that you used to terrify both Childe and Dottore?"

Arle then looked to the area behind Noelle, where Furina began to finally stand up after the failed corkscrew dive attack. Not wanting to give her to react quickly, Arle then tossed her scythe towards Furina, the weapon rolling across the arena like a wheel, which hits Furina, sending her flying to another wall, which caused it to crumble, and the rubble buried Furina beneath them.

"Lady Furina!"

"As for you... You should've gone all out from the very beginning."

A dozen of black strings imbued with pyro that is blazing with black flames then bind Noelle on the spot, and from beneath her, a huge ring of fire rises and engulfs Noelle within it.

"AAARGHHH!"

"Noelle!" Paimon shouted.

The flames died down, revealing that Noelle has vanished, shocking everyone present. Shaking her head, Lynette attempts to be the next one to attack, as she puts on her cloak to make herself turn invisible to the eyes, and dashed towards Arle before unleashing a thrusting attack with her rapier.

However, Arle manages to catch Lynette by the wrist, and redirected her rapier thrust elsewhere. Unceremoniously, she then twisted her arm, a loud crunch is heard, inviting a scream out of Lynette's lips.

"What a pitiful attack, I thought I trained you better than this."

"...Got you." Lynette said in a different person's voice, as she makes an uncharacteristically maniacal grin.

"What!?"

Her body then turned into water which falls to the floor, before a pair of cards landed in front and behind Arle.

"A hydro clone?!"

"Hehe~" Nilou chuckled.

The cards then exploded in a cloud of smoke, before the real Freminet and Lynette both dashed in to attack, Freminet attempting to crush Arle under the weight of his claymore while Lynette performed the similar thrust attack as before.

"Forgive me, Father!" Freminet shouted.

However, both attacks failed to land on Arle, as she grabbed Freminet's claymore by it's blade, and Lynette on her wrist again.

"Isn't this just repeating the same thing again!?" Nilou commented.

"You're the one who created those hydro clones, don't be surprised!" Ayaka shouted.

"Sorry for what, this pitiful excuse for an attack?" Arle asked both Freminet and Lynette, before she tossed the two of them to another wall, which knocked Freminet out in an instant, while Lynette struggles to recover.

"You are open!" Lyney shouted the moment she tossed the two, and he retorted with a charged shot from his bow, which Arle manages to cut off using her scythe, only for the broken arrow pieces to transform into two cat-shaped pyro bombs.

"Did he get her...?!" Keqing asked.

The ash clouds suddenly dispersed, as Arle hovers above the arena, a pair of wings resembling the legs of a spider's legs appearing on her back. The wings enclosed her body like a cocoon, before an explosion occurs, and when the dust settles, Arle hovers in her harbinger form, looming over the remaining fighters.

"Whoa, what power...!" Nilou commented.

Lyney nearly dropped his bow the moment he saw Arle's harbinger form, his hands trembling out of fear.

"That is enough, Knave! You shall face the three of us now!" Keqing shouted, as she appears in her arch-transcended form, a thundering aura surrounding her body.

"We will protect these and children with our lives!" Nilou continued, as she pointed her Xiphos moonlight sword to Arle.

"You should have never stolen my chance in killing that airheaded maid!" Ayaka shouted.

"Wow, you stopped using The Next Dimension this time?"

"Chiori told me to drop it, and so I did."

"You three talk too much." Arle said, silencing the three of them before she performs a 360 degree slash with her scythe, which caused a trail of blazing fire that follows it.

The trio managed to dodge away, as Ayaka then flew towards Arle with her tachi still sheathed, and when she unsheathed with the speed of light, she manages to scratch Arle by her shoulder pads.

"Finally, for once my attack landed!"

"You still need more improvement, Shirasagi Himegimi. It never landed on my skin."

"Silence!"

Ayaka then retorted with a flurry of slashes, which are all parried away by Arle, and the moment Ayaka reached her limit, her guard broke down, which made Arle use the opportunity to grab her by her neck, dive and slam her to the ground.

Right after Arle stood back up, Nilou appears in front of her, slashing at her in the manner of a twirling dancer, which Arle finds much more difficult to parry as Nilou's movements are akin to that of water itself, calm at first before becoming unpredictably dangerous as each of her slashes are so powerful that even Arle almost lost her grip on her scythe on the third slash, but managed to regain it, and kicked Nilou away, causing her to fly backwards before she recovered by pirouetting across the arena, and performed one slash, which shoots out a hydro slash projectile towards Arle which the latter dodged by jumping backwards.

"Hmm!?"

"Got you." Keqing's voice is heard, as Arle then turned her gaze around to see her face to face.

Keqing's eyes which has electro symbols in them then glowed, and a loud heartbeat is heard as Arle froze in place. Without realizing it, Keqing grabs Arle's right wrist with her left hand.

"I... I can't move!?"

"I'll beat you down!"

Using her free right hand, Keqing fisted Arle in the stomach, inviting a small gasp from the latter, before throwing her out of the arena towards the lake. As Arle is sent flying from the throw, Keqing closed her eyes, as the previously purple electro suddenly changed color to yellow, as well as the colors of her previously purple jades on her wings and her hair bangs.

"Fry in divine retribution!" Keqing opened her eyes, revealing them to be yellow as well, before her body is engulfed in yellow thunder.

She pointed her finger towards Arle, and a beam of yellow lightning coursed it's way towards her.

Arle managed to recover midair, and twirled her scythe in front of her, causing the yellow lightning beam to change course to the skies instead. And, in a blink of an eye, Arle appeared in front of Keqing, and Pushed her away with the hilt of her scythe.

"Wow, did she just glitch her way to Miss Keqing!? I knew it, this world is just a simulation after all!" Nilou shouted in disbelief, causing everyone present to stare at her, including Ayaka, who just recovered from the chokeslam earlier.

"Simulation? Nilou, what on Teyvat are you talking about?" Paimon asked.

"Even if I tell you, you won't believe me." Nilou winked.

 "Enough talking. Who is next? I have to admire your ability to stand and fight."

"And I... admire your ability to DIE! You both, combined attack! Kamisato-Ryuu: Soumetsuu!"

"Special Electro cannon!"

"Ha!"

Ayaka's blizzard, as well as Keqing's electro beam and Nilou's wave of hydro combined itself into one attack as they perform them, and coursed it's way towards Arle, who, with her Scythe, simply held it horizontally and held off the combined attack. Channeling a bit of her power from within, Arle then launched the attack back towards the trio, sending them flying, and upon landing back down on the floor, are all but defeated.

"Aether, do something!"

"Noelle... She..."

"Come on, Aether, the children are on thin ice right now!"

"That's... a wrong pun, Paimon..." Nilou commented.

"This isn't the time to be pulling puns, Nilou! Come on, Aether!"

Gripping his dull blade tighter, Aether then shouted out a battle cry as he charged towards Arle, who tried to stop him by firing a few pyro projectiles at him, which he blew away using anemo, and managed to reach Arle, landing a few hits on her.

"Ugh!"

With one overhead slash, Aether attempts to furiously crush Arle down. However, Arle managed to stop him by using the shaft of her scythe to block his crushing slash, and attacked back with a single swipe of her scythe which narrowly missed Aether as he dodged backwards, only for Arle to then use the opportunity to punch the floor beneath her, causing a prison of spikes to rise up from within, trapping Aether.

"Hmph."

"Please... Father!" Lyney pleaded as he stood in front of Arle's path.

"The rules is as follows, Lyney. Now, stay out of my path." Arle coldly said, as she prepared to slap Lyney away with the back of her hand.

Lyney closed his eyes, but the slap never landed.

"Eh?"

Someone has caught Arle by her wrist. And it happened so suddenly, as if the person who did it appeared out of thin air.

"So, you choose to awaken now... Lynette?" Arle said, turning her gaze to Lynette boredly.

Within each of Lynette's eyes... are anemo symbols. Her form also drastically changed. She now wears a greyish dress, with a dark bow on her back. A pair of golden pauldrons, gauntlets and greaves  protect her, and the most striking of all, are the crystalline spikes that emanated from the tips of her armor and cat ears.

"I realize I am often quiet whenever you punish the others, Father. But I will draw the line if it's towards Lyney, Freminet and Aether!"

For once, Lynette spoke with venom within her tone. The fight has just begun...