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.
Venti felt his heart race even before the words had truly left his lips.
Venti: "I'VE FOUND THE ANSWER!"
His voice echoed through the submerged library, spreading through the water like a clear ripple.
BLOUP BLOUP BLOUP BLOUP BLOUP BLOUP BLOUP BLOUP
The next instant, the space around him began to vibrate.
The water rose in elegant spirals, forming a translucent vortex where azure light mingled with pearly glints.
One by one, the five Oceanids materialized before him, their fluid silhouettes taking shape as if the ocean itself had decided to give them form.
Oceanid #1 stepped forward slightly, his calm but piercing gaze fixed on Venti.
Oceanid #1: "So, you're sure you've found the answer?"
Venti nodded without hesitation.
His expression was no longer one of uncertainty, but of a conviction forged by reflection and introspection.
Venti: "Yes."
"I'm sure of it."
Oceanid #3 inclined his head, his watery hair rippling gently around him.
Oceanid #1: "Then tell us."
"What is your answer to the question?"
What power does a soul confer, and what power can a drop of water transmit?
Venti took a moment to organize his thoughts.
Then, in a clear and calm voice, he explained everything.
Consciousness.
The capacity to reflect.
To understand one's mistakes.
To start again.
He spoke of the soul as of an engine of evolution, learning, and self-improvement.
Then he spoke of the tear.
Not raw water, but water charged with emotions.
Sadness, joy, fear, love.
A single drop capable of conveying what words could not express.
As he spoke, the Oceanids remained silent, their gazes locked, their expressions unreadable.
Venti: "So, for me, the capacity conferred by a soul is the ability to improve itself, and the power a motorcycle can transmit is that of emotions."
When he finished, a brief silence fell.
Then Oceanid #2 crossed his arms and declared:
Oceanid #2: "That's not the right answer."
The world seemed to stop.
Venti: "What?"
Venti blurted out, stunned.
Oceanid #1: "........".
Oceanid #2: "........".
Oceanid #3: "........".
Oceanid #4: "........".
Oceanid #5: "........".
A moment later, Oceanid #2 burst into laughter, a crystalline laugh that resonated like bubbles bursting on the surface of the water.
Oceanid #2: "HAHAHA!"
"No, I was just kidding."
The other Oceanids smiled slightly.
Oceanid #1: "You passed the Hydro trial, Venti."
Oceanid #1 declared.
Your answer is correct.
And more importantly, your reasoning is too.
Venti felt the tension leave his shoulders.
He took a deep breath, a genuine smile spreading across his face.
Venti: "Does that mean I can leave here?"
Oceanid #4: "Yes."
Oceanid #4 replied.
Oceanid #4: "But before that, we need to explain what's happening outside... and what will happen if you fail."
The tone changed.
More serious.
Oceanid #5 spoke:
Oceanid #5: "The Abyss Herald is currently battling the Tulpa Hydro."
"Their fight is disrupting the elemental balance of the entire region."
"If the Abyss Herald manages to fully merge with the energies it covets, the consequences will be catastrophic."
"Rillmont will be the first to suffer the effects, but not the last."
Venti clenched his fists.
Venti: "And Arthur…?"
Oceanid #1 approached him and placed a translucent hand on his shoulder.
Oceanid #1: "Arthur is safe."
"We got him out of the cavern."
"However, these caves hold too many secrets, so to protect him, we erased his memory of what he saw here."
Venti closed his eyes for a moment.
Then he nodded.
Venti: "That's better…"
"No child should have to bear the burden of such horrors."
He then took out the scroll he had found earlier and handed it to the Oceanids.
Venti: "I found this."
"A map of the underground tunnels."
"May I keep it?"
The Oceanids exchanged a glance, then Oceanid #3 replied:
Oceanid #5: "This scroll is over one hundred and fifty years old."
"It is part of the history of this place… but it now belongs to you."
Oceanid #4 stepped forward.
Oceanid #4: "Now, we will explain what you must do."
Fush
The Oceanids formed a circle around Venti.
The water around them began to glow intensely.
Fush
A gentle yet powerful energy concentrated in their hands.
Oceanid #1: "We will each entrust you with a fragment of our power."
Oceanid #1 declared.
Oceanid #1: "Your level will increase considerably."
"Your body will be stronger, faster, more resilient."
Oceanid #2: "But your skills will remain at level 1."
Added Oceanid #2.
This choice is intentional.
Venti frowned slightly.
Venti: "Why?"
Oceanid #5 replied:
Oceanid #5: "Because when facing an elemental entity, the key isn't always element against element."
"But physical strength can be more practical."
The Functioning of Elemental Energy and the Advantage of Physical Strength :
Elemental energy is a force omnipresent in the world.
It exists in its natural state, permeating the air, water, earth, and even living beings.
Each element:
- Hydro
- Pyro
- Dendro
- Cryo
- Electro
- Anemo
- And Geo
Possesses its own characteristics, its own laws.
When a being masters an elemental energy, it does not create this force:
It channels, shapes, and directs it.
However, this energy obeys a fundamental principle: it always seeks balance.
When a user concentrates too much elemental energy within themselves, their body becomes a point of tension.
The more powerful the element, the more unstable it becomes.
Pure elemental entities, like the Hydro Tulpa, are composed almost entirely of this energy.
They are extremely powerful, but also dependent on their element.
Any disturbance in the elemental flow can weaken them, make them unstable… or uncontrollable.
Physical force, however, does not depend on these flows.
A blow struck with the body, with a weapon, with a real mass, does not interact directly with elemental energy.
It bypasses its laws.
Whereas an elemental attack can be absorbed, neutralized, or amplified by an elemental entity, a physical attack strikes at the very structure of its existence.
Furthermore, elemental energy tends to react to opposing or equivalent energy.
An elemental confrontation then becomes a game of energetic domination.
Conversely, physical force acts as an anomaly:
It does not nourish the element, does not strengthen it, does not balance it.
It breaks it.
This is why, when facing high-level elemental entities, a strengthened body, increased speed, and high physical power can prove far more effective than an immature elemental mastery.
But unfortunately, there is another source of energy that corrupts all elemental energy:
The Abyss.
The Abyss is not simply a force opposed to the elements, but a parasitic entity that understands, imitates, and distorts their very nature.
Where elemental energy flows naturally, guided by laws of balance and harmony, the Abyss acts like a ravenous chasm: it absorbs this energy, strips it of its original intention, and recomposes it according to a logic of destruction.
When it comes into contact with an elemental source, whether Hydro, Pyro, Electro, Cryo, or even Anemo, it does not immediately neutralize it.
On the contrary, it studies it, dissects it, and then artificially reproduces its properties.
This imitation is never perfect: abyssal energy retains a profound instability, a dissonance that makes it corrosive to everything it touches.
Thus, water corrupted by the Abyss no longer purifies, but slowly corrodes matter and spirit, while an abyssal lightning bolt does not merely strike, it lingers, searing the nerves and leaving behind a feeling of emptiness.
This ability to parasitize the elements allows the Abyss to progressively contaminate its environment:
- The ground cracks and twists
- The caverns deform as if breathing
- Even the vegetation adopts unhealthy forms, devoid of color and vitality.
But the most dangerous corruption is not always visible.
Abyssal energy seeps into the minds of living beings, exploiting their fears, regrets, and unacknowledged desires.
The longer a person is exposed to this influence, the more their perception of reality fragments: thoughts become confused, willpower erodes, and the individual eventually mistakes their own inner voice for the whispers of the Abyss.
Some lose all reason, while others become conscious instruments of this force, convinced they are acting of their own volition when they are merely vessels.
In the most extreme cases, the Abyss completely obliterates its victim's identity, leaving only a shell animated by a foreign energy.
It is this capacity for absorption, imitation, and corruption that makes the Abyss so formidable: it not only destroys the world from the outside, it devours it from within, transforming the very energy that sustains existence into a weapon against those who try to control it.
This is how the servants of the Abyss are born: not created, but deformed, reassembled from fragments of souls and corrupted elements.
The Abyss Heralds and the Abyys Lectors themselves are the ultimate example of this phenomenon.
They do not wield the elements as a Visionary or a natural entity would; they force them to obey through the Abyss, combining incompatible energies at the cost of perpetual instability.
Each use of this power widens the rift, drawing more energy from around them, accelerating the corruption of the land and living beings.
Ultimately, if an abyssal plan succeeds fully, the affected region becomes an elemental no man's land, a place where the elements still exist, but are devoid of meaning, hostile to all life, and where even time seems reluctant to flow normally.
Once a sufficient number of lives and memories have been collected, the Abyss begins to use them as building materials.
Memories become foundations, emotions become walls, and fears become the dungeon's internal mechanisms.
This is how impossible structures are born, defying architectural logic:
- Corridors that seem to repeat endlessly
- Rooms whose size changes according to the state of mind of those who pass through them
- Or even staircases leading to places that shouldn't exist.
These spaces are not designed to be practical or coherent, but to disorient, to force intruders to confront their own mental flaws.
Those whose lives have been drained do not always disappear completely.
Their stolen memories are often fragmented and reassembled to create entities, trials, or illusions.
A deeply ingrained fear can become a monstrous guardian, while a distorted happy memory can transform into a deceptively reassuring chamber, designed to lower the adventurers' guard.
In some cases, echoes of consciousness remain: distant voices, frozen figures, or scenes frozen in time, endlessly repeating the final moments of those who served as the dungeon's "foundations."
These remnants give the impression that the place is alive, that it observes and reacts.
This is precisely how structures like the one into which Venti, Lyra, Kael, Eron, and Bram entered came into being.
The longer an abyssal dungeon exists, the more complex and dangerous it becomes.
It continues to drain the energy and memories of new victims, constantly reshaping itself.
Ultimately, the Abyss is not merely a physical or magical threat:
It represents the inverse of vital energy and elemental energy.
Where the elements build, connect, and renew, the Abyss diverts, fragments, and empties of all intention.
It seeks neither immediate destruction nor brutal domination, but the total perversion of all that exists, until the world itself becomes unrecognizable, emptied of its harmony, reduced to a distorted echo of what it once was, until nothingness remains.
End of explanation:
When the explanation ended, the Oceanids unleashed their energy.
Fragments of light penetrated Venti's body.
He felt a warmth coursing through his muscles, his bones, his breath.
His heart beat harder.
Faster.
Oceanid #1: "Go, Venti."
Oceanid #1 said.
Oceanid #1: "Time is not on your side, but you now have a real chance."
Oceanid #4: "And remember."
Oceanid #4 added.
Oceanid #4: "If you lose, everyone dies."
FFFFFFFOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUSSSSSSFFFFFFFFFF
Venti and the five Oceanids slowly positioned themselves in the center of the sunken library.
It was there, precisely where the energy flows were most stable, that the Oceanids had once gathered to erect the original barrier.
The ancient stone floor was covered with a thin veil of luminous water, crisscrossed by bluish lines like pulsating veins.
Each engraved symbol reacted to their presence, as if the cavern itself were holding its breath.
The Oceanids formed a perfect circle around Venti.
Their watery silhouettes became sharper, denser, as a gentle magical pressure spread through the humid air.
The water floated in motionless droplets, defying gravity, vibrant with an ancient power.
Venti inhaled deeply.
Despite the urgency of the situation outside, he felt strangely calm.
His gaze rested on each of the Oceanids, recognizing in their translucent eyes a kind of benevolence mingled with gravity.
Venti: "Don't worry,"
he declared confidently.
Venti: "I'll handle this."
Oceanid #3 offered a faint smile.
Oceanid #3: "Your determination is sincere, bard."
"Few humans would maintain such composure knowing that an Abyss Herald is about to upset the balance."
Venti: "If I'm still standing,"
Venti replied, "it's thanks to you."
Venti: "Without your help, I would have remained trapped in the cave with the crabs… or worse, I would have failed without ever understanding why."
He paused, then added with a gentler smile:
Venti: "Thank you."
"For guiding me, for making me think differently… and for giving me a chance."
The Oceanids exchanged silent glances.
Oceanid #1 inclined his head slightly.
Oceanid #1: "Oceanids do not bestow their power lightly, Venti."
"But your mind is clear, and your heart does not seek domination."
"You want to protect, not conquer or destroy."
Oceanid #5: "And that makes all the difference."
The atmosphere subtly shifted.
BLOUP BLOUP BLOUP BLOUP BLOUP BLOUP BLOUP BLOUP
The water around them began to shimmer more brightly, as if an invisible moon had risen beneath the surface.
Oceanid #1: "......."
Oceanid #2: "......."
Oceanid #3: "......".
Oceanid #4: "......".
Oceanid #5: "......".
The Oceanids simultaneously raised their arms, palms open, toward the center of the circle.
A gentle yet powerful energy emanated from them, forming five shimmering hydro filaments that intertwined above Venti.
Oceanid #4: "We will transmit a controlled amount of our elemental energy to you."
"Enough to strengthen your body and your potential, but not enough to disrupt your inner balance."
Oceanid #2: "Stay focused."
Added Oceanid #2.
Oceanid #2: "Absorption isn't painful... but it requires a steady will."
Venti nodded and closed his eyes.
The instant the energy filaments made contact with his body, he felt a strange sensation wash over him.
It wasn't a burning or a shock, but rather a feeling of fullness, as if every cell in his body was awakening simultaneously.
The Hydro energy seeped in slowly, adapting to his life force, mingling with his breath.
BOMBOM BOMBOM BOMBOM BOMBOM BOMBOM
His heart beat faster.
Deeper.
Memories of his past battles, his mistakes, his doubts, flashed through his mind briefly.
But instead of weighing him down, they now seemed to fuel this newfound strength.
Chapter 65: The right and wrong answer
The End