Venti: "That's it…"
A violet light.
A pulsating, almost living glow floated above an ancient stone pedestal, covered in abyssal symbols carved directly into the rock.
With each pulse, the air crackled with electricity, making Venti's hair pop.
Venti: "The pearl…"
He thought, breathless.
But he wasn't alone.
On the opposite shore, a figure stood out in the gloom.
Standing motionless, as if he had been waiting for a long time.
Two daggers glittered faintly at his waist, and the abyssal energy around him was so dense it almost warped the air.
Venti gritted his teeth.
Abyss Herald
Abyss Herald: ".....".
The battle he dreaded most awaited him here, in the heart of the depths.
And this time, it wasn't just about survival.
He had to buy time.
Retrieve the pearl.
Not die.
And stop the Abyss from carrying out its plan.
Without making a sound, Venti retreated slightly into the shadows, his mind already formulating a strategy.
The electric pulse of the pearl resonated throughout the cavern.
The countdown had begun.
The Abyss Herald's gaze settled on Venti with calculated slowness.
For a brief moment, time seemed suspended, as if even the water of the subterranean pool held its breath.
The waves almost ceased crashing against the rock, frozen by the invisible tension that settled between the two beings.
The abyssal energy around the Herald began to ripple, betraying his barely contained anger.
Abyss Herald: "So you dared to come after all."
His voice echoed throughout the cavern, amplified by the damp walls.
It was cold, laden with contempt, but also with a certain unhealthy satisfaction.
He had hoped Venti would descend this far… and seeing him before him confirmed that the trap was closing.
Venti did not respond immediately.
His eyes remained fixed on the dark figure, analyzing every detail:
- The relaxed yet ready-to-strike posture
- The way the Cryo energy mingled with the abyssal aura
- And above all, that barely visible smile beneath the mask.
Venti: "You know... I was hoping you wouldn't be here when I came down."
He inhaled slowly, letting the Anemo flow through his body to calm his racing heart.
Venti: "But I suppose the Abyss never does things halfway."
The Herald gave a sharp sneer.
Abyss Herald: "Still as insolent as ever, even in the face of your death."
"So you haven't learned anything?"
He took a few steps forward, his boots echoing on the damp rock.
With each movement, the water in the pool rippled, as if responding to his presence.
Abyss Herald: "You should have fled when you still had the chance."
"This cavern will be your grave."
Venti shrugged slightly, feigning a nonchalance he didn't truly feel.
Venti: "If I'm going to die anyway, I might as well understand what you're doing here."
A silence fell.
Then, unexpectedly, the Herald burst into a deep laugh.
Abyss Herald: "Hah... Very well."
"After all, a condemned man deserves to know the truth."
He slowly raised an arm and indicated the immense basin.
Abyss Herald: "This cavern is a perfect place."
"Rare."
"Unique."
"Elemental energy flows have been intersecting here for centuries."
"Hydro... Electro... and even Cryo, thanks to me."
The water began to glow faintly, crisscrossed by violet arcs of electricity that snaked beneath the surface.
Abyss Herald: "The Hydro energy here is so dense that it has finally taken form."
A low rumble echoed from the depths of the pool.
Venti felt his stomach clench.
Abyss Herald: "Not far from here lies a Hydro Tulpa."
Archive : A humanoid monster formed from the agglomeration of water.
Countless wills dissolved in the water, which, like the universe, was full of souls that wished to be born. Are the newborn Hydro Tulpas from the former or the latter?
They're not as different as we'd like to think, anyway.
The sun can't distinguish them, and neither can time, the surging tides, or even the darkness that permeates everything.
At these words, the surface of the water rose slightly, as if something gigantic were moving beneath the cavern.
Abyss Herald: "A creature composed purely of Hydro elemental energy."
"Without flesh."
"Without a soul."
"A raw embodiment of the element's will."
Venti clenched his fists.
Venti: "And you intend to use it..."
Abyss Herald: "Exactly." "
The Herald then turned his gaze toward the small rocky island in the center of the basin, where the electro pearl floated.
BBBBBBbbbbbbbbbbzzzzzzzzzzz
The violet light pulsed more intensely, as if reacting to his words.
Abyss Herald: "This pearl contains enough Electro energy to power an entire nation."
"It belonged to a creature too weak to deserve it."
A cruel smile spread across his face.
Abyss Herald: "I will merge my body with it."
The air seemed to freeze.
Abyss Herald: "Electro for power."0
"Hydro for regeneration and control."
"And Cryo…"
He placed a hand on his chest.
Abyss Herald: "...for absolute domination."
Venti swallowed.
Venti: "You want to become an elemental abomination."
Abyss Herald: "No."
His voice turned icy.
Abyss Herald: "I want to become the ultimate life form."
He raised his arms, and the energy around him exploded briefly, sending a wave of cold that frosted the nearest rocks.
Abyss Herald: "Once the fusion is complete, I will bond with the Hydro Tulpa. Three elements. Three essences. One body."
The water in the pool began to swirl slowly, forming a massive vortex.
Abyss Herald: "And then..."
He moved closer to the edge, looking Venti straight in the eyes.
Abyss Herald: "I will flood the entire region."
"The villages, the roads, the ports."
Greasy images formed in Venti's mind:
- Submerged houses
- Muffled cries underwater
- Bodies frozen in ice
- Dozens of people tortured by violet lightning
Abyss Herald: "Humans will have only two choices."
"Submit... or suffer."
His voice softened almost.
Abyss Herald: "Some will be kept as slaves. Forced to build, to serve, to pray to the Abyss."
Then his tone turned cruel.
Abyss Herald: "Others will serve as examples."
Click
He snapped his fingers.
BAM!
An electric discharge erupted in the water, exploding the surface in a blinding flash.
Abyss Herald: "Hydro and Electro energy combined... perfect for electrocution."
"The pain is slow."
"Devastating."
A thin layer of ice suddenly formed on part of the pool.
Abyss Herald: "And my Cryo..."
The ice thickened abruptly.
Abyss Herald: "...to freeze their screams in their throats."
"AND GET RID OF THESE HUMANS!"
The silence that followed was heavy.
Venti trembled slightly, not from fear for himself, but from rage.
Venti: "You talk about lives as if they were nothing."
The Herald tilted his head.
Abyss Herald: "Humans are nothing."
"Mere resources."
Venti: "I disagree."
Abyss Herald: "Then... you will DIE!"
Venti: "..."
Venti took a deep breath.
Venti: "Then I really can't let you go."
A flash of determination crossed his eyes.
Venti: "Even though I don't stand a chance."
The Herald smiled.
Abyss Herald: "Hehe."
"That's why your death will be memorable."
BBBBBBBBBRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrrzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Elemental energy exploded in the cavern.
The fight was now inevitable.
Clic
The Abyss Herald's snap of his fingers sounded like shattering glass.
In a fraction of a second, the electro orb left its rocky base, whizzing through the air before settling in the Herald's palm.
The violet energy pulsed violently, instantly mingling with the biting cold of the Cryo and the heavy pressure of the surrounding Hydro.
Abyss Herald: "We'll see how long you can survive..."
He slowly raised his hand, his eyes gleaming with cold cruelty.
Abyss Herald: "...to protect this pathetic city called Rillmont."
Venti instantly sensed the danger. His instincts screamed.
Venti: "No!"
He concentrated all the Anemo he could muster and propelled himself forward, using both his teleportation and a gust of wind to close the distance. The air split open around him, his footsteps barely touching the water's surface.
But it was too late.
The Herald closed his fingers.
Abyss Herald: "You can always try."
The next instant, the explosion occurred.
Cryo, Hydro, and Electro collided in an elemental cataclysm.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM
The light was so intense that Venti was blinded.
A gigantic shockwave swept through the cavern, pulverizing rock and hurling entire walls into the churning water.
The extreme cold instantly froze certain areas while electricity coursed through the liquid like a network of purple serpents.
Venti felt his body being pulled into the blast.
A searing pain shot through every limb.
Then
Slash.
A sharp shock.
Brutal.
As if something had pierced his body or mind.
The world tore apart.
Then
Silence.
Then… a strange sensation.
Cold.
Then
More silence.
Heavy.
Venti slowly opened his eyes.
His vision was blurry, the outlines distorted by a bluish light that reflected everywhere around him.
He tried to move, but his body took a few seconds to obey. When he inhaled, the air was humid, heavy with a mineral, salty scent.
He sat up with difficulty.
Water lapped around him.
He looked down.
The cave floor was completely covered in water, about thirty centimeters deep.
Each movement created small circular waves that spread to the far walls.
The cavern was immense, far larger than the one he had traversed before.
The ceiling faded into darkness, punctuated by natural crystals that diffused a pale, almost ghostly glow.
Venti : "...Where am I...?"
He raised a hand to his head. A dull ache throbbed at the back of his skull, as if his mind had been brutally ripped out and then forcibly reattached. His adventurer's crystal was still there, intact, but strangely silent.
He stood up completely, feeling the cold water seep into his boots.
No sign of the Herald.
No sign of the basin.
No sign of the pearl.
Only this gigantic... and oppressive cavern.
Then he felt something.
A pressure.
Not a direct presence, but a diffuse, overwhelming sensation, as if the entire mass of water around him were conscious.
Each ripple seemed to vibrate with a familiar energy.
Hydro.
But not only that.
Venti: "…It's even denser than before."
He closed his eyes for a moment and let his Anemo affinity scan the surroundings.
The elemental flows were chaotic, intertwined, unstable.
Hydro clearly dominated, but electro residues drifted through the water at irregular intervals, while pockets of extreme cold floated like invisible traps.
Then Venti understood.
Venti: "He triggered the fusion…"
Or at least, something dangerously close to it.
This cavern wasn't just an underground space.
It was a receptacle.
A place prepared to receive a much larger entity.
A low rumble could be heard, coming from a great distance, resonating through the water and the rock.
The waves around Venti grew slightly larger, as if something were moving in the depths.
Very slowly.
Very heavily.
Venti gritted his teeth.
Venti: "...Arthur, Rillmont, the crabs."
He took a deep breath, despite the fatigue and pain.
Venti: "I'm still alive."
He looked up into the darkness.
Venti: "And as long as I'm breathing... I won't let you win."
"Bastard."
In the distance, beneath the surface of the water, a colossal shadow moved.
Venti: "The real fight is just beginning."
Venti then looked around to see if there was an exit, but he realized the only one was above him.
Above Venti's head was an opening that resembled the entrance to a vertical cave, meaning his only options for getting out were:
- Either use Flight to take off, but his skill wasn't very high.
- Or use a rope to climb back up, but he didn't have one.
Venti began to wonder if he had a skill that could help him in this kind of situation, as it had always helped him, but not this time.
???: "Who are you, stranger?"
It was neither low nor high.
It was multiple.
As if several voices were speaking in unison, slightly out of sync, resonating through the water, the rock… and directly into his mind.
Venti shivered.
His breath caught for a moment before he turned slowly, his hand already resting on his bow by reflex.
What he saw forced him to freeze.
Before him, the water began to move differently.
It wasn't a wave, nor a current.
It was an uplift.
Elemental Hydro energy was gathering, sculpting itself, taking on a form both majestic and otherworldly.
Translucent arms, a slender silhouette, a luminous core beating gently in the center of his chest like a liquid heart.
Around this main form, several smaller water creatures floated: hydrobirds, fluid foxes, indefinable shapes that seemed to be constantly emerging and dissolving.
There was no longer any doubt.
Venti: "...An Oceanid."
Archive : A life-form created from condensed Hydro elements of incredible purity.
Often attached to bodies of water. It is said that as water bodies become purer, the Hydro elements within grow more abundant, causing the Oceanids to grow more powerful.
It is also said by some that Oceanids were once sea creatures from a home far away who carried the fragments of a long-dead god to the many corners of this world.
Perhaps they did this so that the love their god held for this world could be spread through the waters to all the land...
The creature seemed neither hostile nor welcoming.
It was observing.
It was judging.
Oceanid: "Few beings of flesh reach this sanctuary. Even fewer after the abyss has troubled these waters."
The water around Venti rippled slightly, as if reacting to her thoughts.
Oceanid: "You carry the scent of the wind... but also the scent of blood."
Venti inhaled slowly and loosened her grip on her bow. Attacking an Oceanid here would be suicide. But more importantly... she hadn't attacked yet.
Venti: "My name is Venti."
"I'm not here to fight you."
The hydro creatures swirled around the Oceanid, some approaching, others moving away as if debating amongst themselves.
Oceanid: "The wind speaks frankly… but mortals often lie, even unintentionally."
Venti felt a shiver run down his neck. The sensation was familiar.
Venti: "It's probing my intentions…"
He instinctively activated Soul Manipulation & Lie Detection, not to control, but to protect himself.
FFFFFFFFFFffffffffffffffffffff
Immediately, he felt an ancient, immense mental stream briefly intertwine with his own. It wasn't a violent intrusion, but a constant pressure, like an ocean trying to gauge a rock.
Venti: "I'm here because of the Abyss. An Abyss Herald triggered an explosion. It seeks to merge with an Electro Pearl and a Hydro entity."
At these words, the water around the Oceanid grew turbulent.
The small Hydro creatures emitted high-pitched vibrations, almost cries.
Oceanid: "The Abyss..."
The name echoed like a curse.
Oceanid: "They pollute the currents. They disrupt the balance."
"They reduce the sacred waters to mere tools."
The light from its core pulsed more intensely.
Oceanid: "You're not the first to mention this pearl."
Venti's heart sank.
Venti: "Do you know where it is?"
Chapter 60: Tulpa and Oceanid
The End