"I am the Shadow of the Hydro Archon; I will not deceive you."
Xia Yu looked toward the Fountain of Lucine. "Go. Your salvation lies within."
"Lady Ei, please do not..." Neuvillette began, his brow furrowing. This did not follow the established procedure.
"But... but I cannot hear her voice," Vacher muttered as he was escorted forward. He stared blankly. "I cannot see her... the Fountain of Lucine... hasn't it always been this way?"
"Oh, I almost forgot." Xia Yu reached out and produced a glass bottle, tossing it to Vacher. "You should know exactly what is inside. Drink it."
"Once you do, you will be able to see her."
Vacher caught the bottle and unscrewed the cap. "Water from the Primordial Sea..."
The guards escorting him tensed instantly, eyeing him like a mortal enemy. They could not fathom why the Shadow of the Hydro Archon would hand such a lethal substance to a high-profile criminal, yet they dared not question her.
The bustling crowd fell silent as they watched her converse with the mastermind behind the disappearances. Every eye fixed on the scene.
Vacher remained silent for a moment before draining the Primordial Sea water in a single gulp. He possessed no other choice.
He could only hope the Archon told the truth.
After finishing the draft, he turned to the fountain and gripped the stone edge with both hands. "Vigneire... Vigneire! It's me, Vacher! I've come for you!"
"Vigneire! Vigneire!!"
The onlookers were confused, save for those who just exited the Opera House and knew that name belonged to his lover.
But why scream it at the fountain?
They could not hear it, but someone could.
"Vacher... Vacher...?"
A whisper-like sound echoed from within the waters of the Fountain of Lucine.
Neuvillette snapped his gaze toward the pool. Xia Yu looked on pensively.
Only Furina, devoid of elemental energy, felt nothing. However, seeing their expressions, she knew she couldn't break character in front of the crowd. She mimicked their gravity perfectly.
Xia Yu caught a fleeting glimpse of disappointment on Furina's face. After a brief thought, she quietly removed her Vision, concealed it in her palm, and took Furina's right hand.
Sharing a Vision felt strange; they felt their consciousness and souls intertwining, plucking at the surrounding Hydro elements together.
Holding the Vision, Furina finally heard that faint, ethereal calling.
Having consumed the Primordial Sea water, Vacher heard it even more clearly.
"I'm here... I'm here!" Tears streamed down Vacher's face as he heard the voice he craved for decades. "Where are you, Vigneire? I'm coming to find you!"
Neuvillette could no longer restrain himself. Where do you think you're going? He reached out to arrest him again, but Xia Yu blocked his path.
"Watch," Xia Yu said softly. "Whatever happens, this is a matter of natural justice. We possess no right to interfere."
"Lady Ei, this is inappropriate," Neuvillette argued, his frown deepening.
"Just watch." Xia Yu remained firm, and Furina, as always, supported her.
Standing among the crowd exiting the Opera House, Arlecchino looked at her in shock. Wait, sister, weren't you the domineering one inside? The one shouting that if the Hydro Archon were assassinated, you'd sink Fontaine and drag the world down with it?
Why the sudden change? "Natural justice"? "No right to interfere"? Is the Hydro Archon's shadow just a romantic at heart?
Before the Knave could finish the thought, Vacher climbed onto the ledge. Ignoring the shouts of the Special Security and Surveillance Patrol, he leapt into the Fountain of Lucine.
The splash rose meters high—far more than a jump from that height should produce.
Xia Yu and Furina instinctively used the Vision to command the spray, forcing the water back into the basin.
The patrol members were innocent; there was no need for them to get soaked.
"Fish him out!" The guards didn't even stop to thank the Archon. They rushed the fountain to seize Vacher, but once they reached the edge, they stood in stunned silence.
"Gone... how can a grown man just vanish?" Chevreuse even plunged her favorite rifle into the water to stir it. The fountain wasn't deep.
How could it swallow a man whole?
"Could he have... dissolved into water?" A patrol member voiced the horrifying truth revealed during the trial.
Unable to find a trace of him, they turned to the Hydro Archon.
The citizens began to murmur. How could a person just disappear?
"Is it a magic trick? I've read about this in novels."
"No... he definitely dissolved! But I thought only Fontainians dissolved?"
"What does 'dissolving into water' even mean?"
"Pay it no mind," Xia Yu announced over the din of the crowd. "The criminal simply went to face his final judgment."
★ ★ ★
Inside the current:
"Vigneire... is it you?" Vacher gazed into the brilliant blue aqueous space, searching frantically for his lover. "It's me, Vacher! Vigneire!"
"I've come for you!"
"Vacher..." A shimmering Oceanid slowly coalesced from the void. "You shouldn't have come... Vacher..."
"You... you look so much older. How much time passed?"
"It has been... over twenty years." Vacher stared blankly at the Oceanid. He prepared himself to accept Vigneire regardless of her form.
Even an Oceanid was fine.
'As long as it's Vigneire,' he told himself.
"Since the day you left, I suffered for over twenty years."
"In those twenty years, I lived only to restore you," he said excitedly. "Nothing else mattered!"
"Ah... I must be dreaming, to finally have the chance to tell you everything in my heart!" He was ecstatic, looking at the floating spirit with profound affection. "Vigneire, you are my everything. Without you, I didn't even know how to go on living."
He finally realized his long-cherished wish. Though captured, he reached his goal.
Vacher wanted to tell her so much—every detail of the past two decades, every sleepless night. He held a lifetime of buried emotions ready to pour out.
Coincidentally, Vigneire(?) wanted to say many things to Vacher as well.
"Vacher, you say you missed me." Her voice sounded like a heavenly melody to him, but her next words dragged him straight to hell.
"But I think... it would be better if you never existed, Vacher."
"What... what did you say?" Vacher looked up, incredulous.
"If not for you, I could finish my law degree. Perhaps I would become a top-tier attorney."
Her words were nonsensical to Vacher. She didn't study law twenty years ago.
"If not for you, I could pursue my dream of painting. One day, my work might hang in the Palais Mermonia."
"Without you... I could stay with my mother, instead of letting her grow old alone and die in tears!"
"If not for you..."
"If not for you..."
Each accusation struck Vacher's chest like a sledgehammer. He was no fool. Though the voice was Vigneire's, the tone and personality changed with every sentence.
Vigneire didn't study law. She didn't paint. She grew up in an orphanage; she had no mother.
Memories surfaced in his mind, piece by agonizing piece.
The indictments continued.
"It was all because of your selfishness, Vacher! All because of you!"
"You... wait, you aren't Vigneire... Who are you!?"
Even as he spoke, he knew the answer. He simply refused to accept it.
"My name was never Vigneire." The Oceanid spread its watery wings and declared loudly, "I am... the victims!"
"Every girl who died at your hands had her consciousness return to the Primordial Sea as her body dissolved. Our minds flowed through the sea, no longer separate, merging together like converging streams!"
Distinct voices began to erupt from the spirit.
"I am Callas..."
"I am Lemonia..."
"I am Aisine..."
Voice after voice rang out, stating their names.
Finally, they spoke in unison as Vacher trembled. "The one person I am NOT... is Vigneire!"
"Why... why?" Vacher collapsed. "Then where is Vigneire?"
He thought his long search finally led to the light, only to find it a cruel reflection.
"She does not want to see you," the collective voices said with chilling satisfaction. "Every shred of consciousness related to her avoids you!"
"This is the price of your selfishness! You claimed you would do anything for her while you stole our young lives!"
"But you never considered if she wanted these things, or how disappointed she would be in the man you became!"
"I... I..." Vacher shook violently, unable to offer a single word of defense.
"You are a liar! A murderous demon!! A self-indulgent coward!!!"
"But above all, you are NOT Vigneire's lover!"
"From the moment the first girl you killed merged with Vigneire, she began to loathe you!"
The Oceanid's voice carried the thrill of revenge, laying the truth bare.
"No... Vigneire... she hates me?" He could endure the other charges, but that one sentence broke him completely. "No... let me see her... I beg of you..."
He forgot that once upon a time, innocent girls begged him just as piteously before he pushed them into the water.
"Do you still not understand?" The Oceanid sneered. "When I said you shouldn't have come, that was Vigneire's true intent. She indeed possesses no wish to see you."
"But there was another layer to it—the last sliver of pity she felt for you."
"Because she knew that if you came here, we would never let you go!"
"Oh, did you not know? What it means for our consciousness to merge? It means that every time you pushed an innocent girl into the water, your beloved Vigneire had to experience the sensation of dissolving and dying all over again. For twenty years, over and over... How much love do you think she has left for you?"
Vacher shattered.
The spectral figures of countless girls emerged in the space, their eyes filled with unquenchable hatred as they chanted his name.
Vacher! Vacher! Vacher! Vacher!
"Die!"
Hands reached for Vacher's soul—tearing, mauling, slicing.
"AAAAAAAAAGH!!!"
Vacher's screams echoed through the space. He remained conscious as the victims peeled away his flesh and dismantled his bones piece by piece. It was a torture more horrific than a thousand cuts.
Simultaneously, his screams resonated across the plaza outside the Opera House.
The entire conversation was broadcast clearly for all to hear.
The families of the victims broke down in tears, recognizing the voices and the grievances of their lost daughters.
"You thought it was a reunion?" Xia Yu looked at Neuvillette. "No. It was a walk into a trap."
"You still don't understand humans well enough."
"Citizens of Fontaine!" Xia Yu projected her voice. "As you have seen, the mastermind of the serial disappearances faced a just judgment—an execution carried out by the victims themselves!"
There was no justice more righteous than this.
"Their existence faded; they cannot return. The only thing we can do for them is send the culprit down to face them!"
"But let us not forget: Vacher's clique remained at large for twenty years. The 'umbrellas' protecting them are equally guilty. The Special Security Patrol already interrogates the vermin we dragged out. We will never tolerate any act that defies justice!"
The surrounding Fontainians erupted in cheers.
They naturally supported the Hydro Archon's methods. After all, those who didn't... were currently in prison.
Xia Yu exhaled, feeling the matter finally settle. As for the voices being projected... she didn't need to guess. In Fontaine, only one person could manage such a feat.
Focalors.
Xia Yu hoped this display would keep the other woman calm so she'd stop watching her so intently.
Xia Yu looked down at Furina beside her.
"What is it?" Furina asked, confused. "Do you want me to praise you? Oh, you did wonderfully, my dear sister!"
"No, I just... once you're free, I want you to take me on a proper tour of Fontaine," Xia Yu said with a smile. "There are still many places I want to—"
Her voice cut off abruptly.
A hazy sensation flooded her mind.
It was a... countdown?!