The Hydro Tulpa recoiled, its core reeling.
GGGGGGGGGGgggggggggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Abyss Herald: "You feel the fear, don't you?"
Murmured the Abyss Herald, advancing slowly.
But the Tulpa did not yield.
In a final surge of rage, it roared silently, and all the water in the cavern began to vibrate in unison.
The dissolved fragments began to reform, drawn together by an invisible force.
Abyss Herald: "You still refuse…"
The mini-Tulpas returned, even more numerous, their cores glowing with an unstable light, ready to explode at the slightest touch.
The Abyss Herald smiled, a dangerous, almost ecstatic smile.
Abyss Herald: "Perfect…"
It raised its hand, the pearl's energy reaching a critical threshold.
BBbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbzzzzzzzzzz
Abyss Herald: "The more you resist… the greater your power will be once I have subdued you."
"YOU WILL BE MINE!"
The entire cavern became a chaotic battlefield where Hydro, Electro, and Cryo clashed without restraint.
BAM
SLASH
BOOM
CCCRRREEECC
Each second brought one of them closer to victory… or total destruction.
Then…
Foush
Abyss Herald: "Huh?"
The mini Hydro summons suddenly ceased all movement.
They vibrated.
A deep tremor ran through their translucent bodies, as if an invisible force were calling them.
The water around them resonated, forming concentric waves that spread throughout the cavern.
Abyss Herald: "…Huh?"
The Abyss Herald blurted out, surprised.
Before he could even analyze the situation, the miniature creatures were sucked back, transforming into liquid trails that all converged on the main Hydro Tulpa.
They melted into it one after another, absorbed by its central core with a deep, continuous rumble.
GGGGGGGGGGGGGGggggggggggggggggggggggrrrrrrrrrrrr.
The sound wasn't just audible:
It resonated in his chest, vibrated his bones, and compressed the air and water like an abyssal pressure.
BBBBBBBBBBBBbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
The cavern walls trembled, cracks spread across the rock, and the water on the floor began to swirl violently around the Tulpa.
GGGGGGGgggggggggggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Its Hydro Core shone with a blinding brilliance.
Then… it grew.
The Tulpa's body expanded abruptly, its liquid mass doubling almost instantly.
Its shoulders broadened, its arms became thicker, denser, as if sculpted from water that had become almost solid.
Its imposing silhouette now dominated the cavern, even forcing the surrounding water to recede under the pressure of its existence.
Abyss Herald: "…THAT WON'T BE ENOUGH."
The Abyss Herald spat through gritted teeth.
Despite his words, his aura subtly shifted. He had just understood:
The Tulpa had ceased to divide.
It had chosen absolute concentration.
Abyss Herald: "Very well… if you're going all in… then so am I."
He stretched his arms.
CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
Cryo energy surged toward his daggers, enveloping them in a bluish ice with sharp edges.
CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCRRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEE
The cold was so intense that the air crystallized around the blades.
At the same time, the Electro Pearl pulsed violently, releasing arcs of electricity that coiled around the daggers, fusing with the ice in an unstable crackling sound.
Blades of ice streaked with lightning took shape, floating around him like a deadly crown.
Abyss Herald: "A perfect combination."
He murmured.
The rigidity of Cryo, the speed of Electro.
He pointed the daggers at the Tulpa.
Abyss Herald: "Let's see if your water can withstand this."
GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGRRRRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
For its part, the Hydro Tulpa slowly raised its two massive arms.
The water throughout the cavern answered its call, drawn in by a supernatural gravitational force.
The level dropped abruptly, revealing the rocky floor as Hydro energy accumulated in its hands.
A sphere formed.
No… two.
Masses of compressed water swirled in its palms, so dense they distorted the light around them.
Inside, internal currents clashed, producing a continuous rumble, like an ocean trapped in a space too small.
The Tulpa didn't shout.
It didn't need to.
Its rage manifested in the crushing pressure of its power.
The Abyss Herald felt his breath catch.
Abyss Herald: "...So this is your ultimate attack."
He planted a foot back, energy coursing through his body.
The Cryo-Electro blades began to vibrate, resonating with the pearl.
Lightning struck the ground around him, leaving blackened marks in the frozen rock.
Abyss Herald: "Approach."
The world seemed to slow down.
The Hydro Tulpa launched its attack.
BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
The two spheres of water were hurled forward, merging mid-air into a condensed wave, a destructive mass of pure Hydro energy, spinning like a liquid cyclone.
At the same instant, the Abyss Herald vanished in a flash of violet.
It reappeared above the wave, arms outstretched.
Abyss Herald: "Now!"
The blades of ice sliced through the air, propelled at supersonic speed.
BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
They collided with the Hydro attack, triggering a chain reaction of unimaginable violence.
Hydro, Cryo, and Electro collided.
The explosion was titanic.
A white light engulfed the cavern. The impact hurled the remaining water against the walls with a force equivalent to a tidal wave.
The ceiling cracked, entire blocks of stone collapsed with a deafening crash.
The Abyss Herald was pushed back, dragging for several meters before coming to a stop against a frozen wall.
CRACK
Its armor was cracked, its breath erratic.
Abyss Herald: "...Hah... hah..."
Facing him, the Hydro Tulpa still held its ground.
Its body was deformed, part of its mass had vaporized, but its core still glowed, more unstable than ever.
Water flowed continuously from it, falling back to the ground before being reabsorbed.
Abyss Herald: "Incredible..."
GGGGGGGGGGGGGGRRRRRRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrr
The Abyss Herald breathed. Even that wasn't enough to destroy you.
The Tulpa advanced.
Then another.
Each movement made the cavern tremble.
Abyss Herald: "Very well."
Said the Abyss Herald, slowly rising to his feet.
Abyss Herald: "If it's a battle of endurance you want..."
He clutched the pearl to his hand, ignoring the growing pain.
Abyss Herald: "...then I'll shatter you core by core."
The two entities faced each other, enveloped in the swirling remnants of the explosion. The air was thick with steam, residual electricity, and biting cold.
Neither backed down.
For at that precise moment, they both knew one thing:
The next exchange would decide the outcome of the fight...
And perhaps even the fate of Rillmont itself.
Meanwhile, on Venti's side:
Venti continued to swim slowly between the submerged shelves of the library, his body gliding effortlessly through the clear, almost unreal water.
The books sometimes floated slightly off their shelves, held in place by an ancient magic that prevented knowledge from dispersing.
Some volumes were open, their pages rippling gently like seaweed, others sealed with tarnished metal clasps, engraved with forgotten Hydro symbols.
He leafed through several.
Treatises on the circulation of elemental energy.
Tales of the ancient Oceanids and their connection to the primordial sources.
Chronicles describing sunken cities, abandoned experiments, mistakes that the water had slowly erased.
Venti: "..."
But no direct answer.
No clear sentence capable of illuminating the question posed.
Frustration was beginning to surface when a movement caught his eye.
A scroll of parchment, wedged between two massive stone-bound books, suddenly came loose and drifted slowly toward him.
Venti reached out and caught it before it could move any further.
Venti: "...A scroll?"
He carefully unrolled it.
The instant the scroll opened fully, the symbols drawn in dark blue ink began to glow faintly.
Lines appeared, connecting to one another, forming a complex and incredibly dense network.
Venti blinked.
Venti: "Wait... it's a map."
But not just any map.
It depicted a labyrinth of underground galleries, tunnels, and vast chambers, extending far beyond what he had imagined possible beneath Rillmont.
The drawings were disturbingly precise, with tiny annotations indicating flows, energy accumulation zones, and even circular structures resembling experimental chambers.
Venti: "Why is it so big…"
"Why is it so big, anyway?"
he murmured.
He let his gaze sweep across the map, trying to understand its logic.
The tunnels weren't laid out randomly.
They intersected at precise angles, parallel and perpendicular, forming an almost mathematical structure.
Venti: "Maybe I should go there someday…"
He frowned slightly.
Everything about this map reeked of human intervention.
It wasn't a natural formation.
Too regular.
Too calculated.
A secret laboratory, perhaps.
Or an ancient research complex.
Or even… a network designed to discreetly move people or resources beneath the city.
The idea sent a chill down his spine.
Venti began to imagine.
And as his thoughts unfolded, the tunnels came to life in his mind.
He first envisioned a forgotten laboratory:
- Scientists, decades ago, perhaps centuries ago, working beneath Rillmont, far from prying eyes.
- Rooms filled with strange devices, channeling raw elemental energy.
- Elemental crystals suspended from the ceiling, pulsing gently, powering machines designed to push the boundaries of body and soul.
- And vats filled with mysterious liquid.
Perhaps they were trying to understand what a soul truly is.
Or how a single drop of water can become a destructive force.
Venti imagined himself walking through these corridors, his footsteps echoing on the damp stone floor, observing inscriptions carved into the walls, evidence of successful experiments… and catastrophic failures.
He visualized sealed, forbidden chambers where something had gone wrong.
Something that had been buried underground rather than confronted.
Then his mind drifted to another possibility.
An escape network:
- Galleries designed to allow Rillmont's leaders, or a secret elite, to escape in the event of a siege or disaster.
- Passages concealed behind false walls, leading out of the city, to the mountains or the coast.
- Or secret passages.
Venti: "That would make sense…"
He thought.
He imagined chariots gliding silently along rails, carrying noble families, treasures, precious artifacts.
Perhaps even Oceanids, once cooperating with humans, maintaining these tunnels to preserve a fragile balance.
But if that were the case…
Venti: "Why was the Abyss Herald here?"
Why was he so interested in the caverns?
A cold sweat, or something like it, ran through Venti despite the surrounding water.
His mind then drifted to a darker thought.
Venti: "...".
What if these tunnels were a control network?
Conduits designed to circulate elemental energy beneath the entire city.
Invisible lines connecting specific points, capable of flooding Rillmont, freezing it, or obliterating it with lightning if someone were to seize control.
The map seemed to almost confirm this hypothesis.
Some markings resembled concentration nodes, others discharge points.
Venti: "If someone activated all of this…"
Venti murmured.
He imagined Rillmont trembling, water gushing from the ground, elemental energy coursing through the streets, the cold descending suddenly like a curse.
A shiver ran through him.
Venti: "No… it's too close to the Abyss Herald's plan."
His fingers tightened slightly on the parchment.
Then an even stranger thought surfaced.
What if these galleries weren't just human?
What if they had been built with the help of the Oceanids?
He studied the symbols again.
Some weren't human.
They looked more like the glyphs used in the library.
Marks related to water, flow, and adaptation.
Venti: "A shared sanctuary..."
he murmured.
Perhaps once, humans and Oceanids had collaborated.
A place where water wasn't a weapon, but a bond.
A space to study life, the soul, the balance between the elements.
But something must have broken.
Always.
Venti continued to imagine.
- Galleries that had become refuges for forgotten creatures.
- Collapsed tunnels where stagnant water harbored monsters born of corrupted energy.
- Untouched rooms, frozen in time, where instruments still awaited use.
He imagined himself entering them one day.
Stronger.
More experienced.
With answers.
Venti: "If I survive all this…"
He murmured with a bitter smile.
The map seemed almost to call to him.
As if it hadn't fallen into his hands by chance.
He carefully folded it and tucked it close to him, sensing its importance without yet fully grasping its implications.
Venti: "Strange."
Around him, the library seemed silent, but not empty.
The Oceanids were watching.
The water rippled slightly, as if responding to his thoughts.
Venti looked up at the endless shelves.
Venti: "Okay..."
He breathed.
Perhaps the answer isn't in a book.
His gaze returned to the map, then to the words of the question he couldn't shake from his mind.
Venti: "What power does a soul confer... and what power can a drop of water transmit?"
"........."
Finally, a clear idea formed in Venti's mind, as if the scattered thoughts he'd been accumulating since his arrival were finally aligning.
He stopped swimming.
His body remained motionless in the middle of the water, while the books around him continued to float slowly, indifferent to what had just happened within him.
Venti: "...A soul."
He closed his eyes.
From the beginning, he had been searching for an abstract definition, something grand, mystical, complicated.
But the answer was much simpler. And much more human.
A soul wasn't just a source of energy
Nor a core of power.
Nor a mere vessel.
But it was what most represented consciousness.
A soul was consciousness.
And consciousness was the capacity to think.
To doubt.
To understand his mistakes.
Venti took a deep breath, even underwater.
Venti: "If someone has a conscience… then they can change."
He understood then.
Making a mistake didn't mean the end. As long as a soul existed, as long as consciousness persisted, there was always a chance to start again.
To do better.
To learn.
To adapt.
To evolve.
The power of a soul didn't reside in brute force…
But in the capacity to improve.
Venti: "There…"
He murmured softly.
The first part of the question began to resonate differently in his mind, as if it had been waiting for him to be ready.
Then came the second.
Venti : "What is the power that a drop of water can transmit "?
"......."
Venti opened his eyes and looked around.
The entire library was filled with water.
Oceans, rivers, storms, torrential rains… he had read about all these forms.
Venti: "Strange."
Yet, none of them seemed to fit.
Yet, none of them seemed to fit.
Venti: "This isn't just any drop…"
He suddenly understood.
His gaze drifted for a moment, and an image came to him unbidden.
A person crying.
A tear.
A single drop of water, so small, so fragile… and yet impossible to ignore. A tear could be seen by anyone.
It needed no words. It asked for no explanation.
When someone cries, we understand.
We understand sadness.
Anger.
A tear of rage.
Relief.
A tear of simplicity.
Fear.
A tear of stress.
Love.
A tear of joy.
A tear revealed the full range of a soul's emotions.
Venti: "A tear…"
Venti breathed.
He felt something vibrate in the water around him, almost imperceptibly.
The power of a drop of water didn't come from its physical strength.
It came from what it conveyed. Emotions.
That invisible connection between beings.
That silent understanding that transcends words and differences.
Venti: "The answer…"
He murmured finally.
He raised his head slightly, as if addressing the Oceanids, even though he couldn't see them.
Venti: "The power of a soul is the capacity to improve."
"And the power of a drop of water… is emotions."
At that precise moment, the water around Venti began to ripple gently, like a deep breath.
The books stopped drifting and remained motionless, suspended in space.
Chapter 64: Tulpa hydro vs Abyss Herald
The End