It felt like sinking into a bottomless abyss.
Despair, cold, silence... Unnameable whispers lingered in his ears, clinging like a malignant growth, impossible to shake off.
Ray instinctively tried to struggle, but in the next moment, the endless darkness before him suddenly receded.
Countless frequencies began to interweave and condense. In the blink of an eye, the world reshaped itself into a familiar place.
"Porto-Veno? When did we come back?"
"No, this is... the Sonora realm?"
Ray looked around in astonishment.
He remembered this place. This was the hall of Porto-Veno.
Though the furnishings were identical to his memory, upon closer inspection, there was an indescribable strangeness to it all.
"This is a Sonora realm condensed from the obsessions of generations of Fisalia heads of the family." Cantarella emerged from the shadows and walked slowly to his side, looking up at the massive Sentinel statue in the center of the hall. "To some extent... you could call it a hell unique to the Fisalia family."
"Obsession? Hell?"
Ray murmured softly.
Though this wasn't his first time entering a Sonora realm, hearing Cantarella explain the origin of this domain in such a calm tone still seemed somewhat unbelievable.
"Remember what I told you before?" Cantarella stepped forward slowly, raising a slender hand. A faintly glowing jellyfish gently landed in her palm. "The Fisalia were the first family to believe in the Sentinel. Our history is even older than the Order of the Deep."
"Unfortunately, during the first war against the Dark Tide, the Sentinel was corrupted by Leviathan's scheme and lost its sense of self. The Fisalia family was also devastated. Later, the Order of the Deep was established, proclaiming to the world that Rinascita had always had only one god, Imperator."
"Though the first Primus, Napoli II, knew the whole truth, the situation was already irreparable. Subsequent Primuses inherited the secret, but Leviathan it's a spiritual plague. It taints your soul. It whispers lies in your ear, a thousand times, ten thousand times until a crack appears in your mind, until you become its puppet, believing everything it says without question."
"At first, it was just a lie full of holes... but when that lie is told too many times, it ceases to be a lie."
"From then on, what the Order of the Deep worshipped was no longer the true Imperator, but a defiled false god."
"To guard this secret, the Fisalia ancestors had no choice but to pretend to make peace with the Order of the Deep and serve the Sentinel together."
"But we never gave up hope. Within the family, we secretly selected for a Saintess in other words, the true Resonator of the Sentinel."
Cantarella waved her hand gracefully. The faint light dissipated like mist in the air.
She turned around. Her violet eyes deeply reflected his silhouette. An indescribable melancholy tinged her voice.
Ray listened in silence.
Though he didn't understand why Cantarella would reveal so many secrets to an outsider like him...
the deeply hidden hope in her eyes made him vaguely sense, this noble head of the family needed his help.
"So, Miss Cantarella. Are you the real Saintess? The... Resonator of the Sentinel?"
"I was, but not anymore."
"What do you mean?"
Cantarella shook her head. "The day I became the Sentinel's Resonator, I lost most of my memories."
"But if you're the real Saintess, then what about the Order of the Deep's Saintess? Cartethyia... what is she?"
"Cartethyia?" Hearing that name, a ripple of surprise passed through Cantarella's violet eyes. "You... how do you know that name? Logically... people should be more familiar with Fleurdelys."
Ray looked directly into her eyes. "What if I told you she told me herself? Would you believe me?"
Cantarella's lips parted slightly. The shock in her eyes vanished in an instant.
Soon, that familiar composure returned to her face.
She walked closer, leaned forward slightly, and carefully studied his features.
"If anyone else had said this to me, I'd probably think... they had been driven mad by the tacet discord's erosion."
"But you, you're someone who can devour the Dark Tide without being affected." A faint smile curled at the corner of her mouth. "Alright, I believe you. Though I'm curious now about how you met her, let's deal with the immediate trouble first."
As her words faded, the space ahead suddenly twisted. Alien frequencies coalesced into form, creatures not of this world, shrieking as they charged at them.
Ray was momentarily startled but quickly reacted. "What are these? remnants? No... their frequency is similar to the Dark Tide."
"These are the obsessions of generations of Fisalia heads of the family, and the resentments of countless girls who perished in the saintess trials, corrupted by the tacet discords into remnants." Cantarella turned gracefully, raising a hand. Several faintly glowing jellyfish emerged from the void. "They've been trapped here too long... Help them find release."
Ray said nothing more. His form shot forward like an arrow from a bow.
A crystalline long blade appeared in his hand. With a flash of cold light, he plunged into the swarm of remnants.
Wherever his blade reached, those twisted entities crumbled into shattered frequencies but they didn't dissipate. Instead, they condensed into a yellowed note that fluttered gently into his palm.
Ray looked down, barely making out the writing.
Cantarella silently came to his side, standing quietly until he finished reading.
"What's recorded here... is the content of the head trial?" Ray's pupils trembled slightly. "You were brewing poisons for each other? Why?"
"The Fisalia have lived for generations within the Resonance's whispers. Once a crack appears in the mind, you become a puppet, losing yourself."
Cantarella's voice was calm as a deep pool. "This erosion has no cure. Only an absolutely resilient will can resist it. Therefore, the Fisalia select the Saintess, also to ensure the truth continues, require every head of the family to undergo tempering by a hundred poisons. Only those who can maintain their sense of self on the brink of mental collapse are qualified to lead the family."
"But even so, this only delays the erosion of the whispers. Leviathan's murmurings will follow you relentlessly until your will completely shatters."
"And the succession ritual for the Fisalia head of the family is for the successor, when the previous head of the family is about to fall... The successor has to personally brew a poison and grant that person on the verge of falling a long dream from which they will never wake."
Cantarella's fingertip lightly traced her cheek, an enigmatic smile curving her lips. "Even me, talking to you now, am still enduring Leviathan's unending whispers."
Ray gazed at her, silent for a long time.
He seemed to be beginning to understand what that young woman named Rosemary had told him at the Rosemary Apothecary.
"The head of the family is actually a very gentle person."
"How long has this... cruel succession lasted?"
The corner of her mouth lifted slightly. In a voice as soft as a murmur, she spoke words that carried no bloodshed but sent chills down the spine.
"Centuries. Every generation."
Those six short words contained the blood, tears, and farewells of who knows how many generations.
"So, in the future, you will also—"
Ray's voice stopped abruptly.
"This is the Fisalia's destiny." Cantarella's voice was as light as a sigh.
Ray fell silent again.
Though he didn't know what story lay behind Cantarella's past, just from that slip of paper, he could glimpse, this head of the family, seen by the world as cold and ruthless, was far from simple.
What she carried on her shoulders was an eternal nightmare beyond ordinary imagination.
Death? Poison?
To her, they were just part of an ordinary day.
Ray asked her, "Aren't you afraid?"
"Afraid? How could I not be?" Cantarella laughed lightly, her voice like a feather brushing the water's surface. "There's no one in this world who doesn't fear death."
"It's just that everyone fears it for different reasons, some truly cherish life itself, while others are afraid of losing those unique bonds." Her gaze deepened. "These emotions and connections are precisely the most brilliant light in the brief human life, the most precious treasure."
"But death will strip you completely from all of this."
"That's exactly what makes death most terrifying, and also humanity's greatest weakness."
As Cantarella's voice faded into the distance, her figure moved deeper into the manor.
"So why did you participate in the trial?"
"For tomorrow."
They continued deeper into the manor, but the surrounding atmosphere grew increasingly sinister.
An invisible pressure filled the air, as if even light was twisted by some force.
The remnants corrupted by the leviathan became more frenzied, shrieking as they charged.
From the fragments of these twisted frequencies, Ray gradually pieced together the full picture of the trial
It was an endless cycle.
Unless Leviathan was completely annihilated, this cruel succession would go on forever.
The Fisalia held the truth of the past in their hands, and they had to guard it.
Otherwise, reality would eventually be completely overwritten by Leviathan's whispers.
"Your sword has an unusual shape." After the battle, Cantarella observed the weapon in his hand curiously. "It looks like it was created by Resonance energy."
Ray looked down at the sword in his hand and nodded. "Yes, it's a gift from the Second Young Miss."
"A gift?" Cantarella frowned in confusion, but quickly lifted into a faint smile. "Then you probably lack a true weapon? Perhaps, after this matter is concluded, I could give you one, a real weapon. Consider it a gift from me."
"In that case, I'll thank the Matriarch in advance."
"You may as well call me Cantarella."
"Then, Miss Cantarella, regarding the trial... have you been the only survivor all along?" Ray looked toward the deep corridor, the names glimpsed from the remnants surfacing in his mind.
Hearing this question, Cantarella didn't answer directly. Instead, she said softly in a vague tone, "Mm... why don't you guess? After being tempered by thousands of poisons, how many could possibly survive in the end?"
Ray was about to speak when he suddenly caught an eerie sound seeping into the gaps of his consciousness.
It wasn't an ordinary sound, more like the breath of some ancient existence, slowly eroding the boundary of reality.
It spread silently like ink dripping into clear water, dyeing all surrounding sounds with an unnameable texture.
The previously clear sounds in his ears began to twist and deform, as if countless slimy tentacles were probing into the depths of his hearing, reorganizing all frequencies into a maddening rhythm.
In this suffocating wave of whispers, even time began to grow thick and strange.
Just as his consciousness was about to sink, a wisp of elegant fragrance pierced through the chaos like a blade.
Ray pressed his throbbing temples and opened his eyes to see Cantarella scattering a violet potion into the air. Those shimmering droplets seemed to form an invisible barrier.
"Are you alright?" She had shed her usual languor, solemnity in her brow. "It seems even someone as special as you cannot avoid His gaze after touching the truth."
She twirled her fingertips, letting the last drops of the secret medicine melt into the air. "This is a secret medicine developed by generations of Fisalia, temporarily able to isolate those whispers... that shouldn't exist in this world."
"I'm fine. This feeling isn't new anyway." Ray shook his head gently, trying to rally.
"Is that so? Good." The tension in Cantarella's shoulders relaxed slightly. "But if you feel unwell afterward, you may come to me anytime. I'll personally prepare calming medicine for you... to free you from all this pain."
Ray took a deep breath; the faint fragrance of the potion still lingered in the air. "By the way, Miss Cantarella, you haven't told me yet. What exactly do you need me to do next?"
She was silent for a moment, her gaze turning toward the end of the corridor where a sealed giant door stood. Even from several meters away, one could feel the bone-chilling cold seeping through its cracks. It was resentment condensed into substance, freezing the surrounding air.
"It's just ahead."
Ray followed her gaze. "What's inside there?"
"It's the previous old head of the family... or rather, the aggregate of resentment from generations of Fisalia heads of the family, polluted by the Leviathan." Her voice was soft, as if afraid of awakening something. "Centuries of cruel trials have kept the entire family living in eternal fear. And the existence behind that door... is the incarnation of this prolonged despair."
"This Sonora realm was originally meant to be a cage imprisoning them. But the previous old head of the family..." Cantarella placed a hand lightly on her chest, biting her silver teeth. "Before I could let him sink into his dream, he had already become a puppet. Now, his residual obsession, twisted by the leviathan, has fused with the resentment of generations of heads of the family. Recently, it's been trying to break free of this Sonora's bonds."
"Now, he has become Leviathan's vanguard. If it escapes, the consequences would be unimaginable."
"Therefore, I, Cantarella Fisalia, the thirty-sixth head of the Fisalia family, hereby implore the one who can devour the Dark Tide." She gazed deeply at Ray. "For the future of Rinascita, please help me once more to thoroughly end this nightmare."
She clasped her hands together, gently placing them on her chest. As if in prayer, she slightly lowered her eyelids. Her voice was as soft as dying embers in the wind.
"For this, I am willing to accept any condition, satisfy any request you have."