Wizard of the Abyss - Chapter 232

Chapter 232: Flower (6)

TL/ED – Miso

By the point where I’d become capable of handling an area nearly the size of a city, trying to fill the Deep Sea with sheer volume was meaningless.

Compared to that, pouring sugar into the ocean to sweeten it would be an easier task.

And…

Cheon-hwa was now trying to fill the ocean with sugar.

[Uu. Uuuugh…]

“…What the…”

-Kkwajijijik!

I crushed the new Vine Giant as it sprouted up and watched its sap seep into the ground.

It was easy work. Simple enough that I could keep it up for hours.

But after actually doing this for hours on end, the Water Pressure slowly began to press down on my body.

Grimacing, I crushed the thousands of vines crawling up from the ground again. What kind of Burden was this thing carrying to be able to handle such an absurd volume?

“If you wish to leave, I’ll open a path for you.”

“?!”

Startled by the sudden voice, I quickly turned around to find Cheon-hwa, now wearing a body made of vines, had opened a small hole in the floor.

“If you give up and stop now, I won’t report this incident to Void.”

“Do I look stupid enough to believe that right now?”

“Believe it. Dealing with you like this is a loss for me in itself.”

I crushed that form of Cheon-hwa with Water Pressure, but another vine immediately rose up beside it.

“What you are killing are the lives I have gathered. You are making all the work I have done meaningless. And since even that cannot kill you, you are merely buying time. I only wish for you to leave this place right now and never return.”

“Thanks for the helpful info. Knowing there’s an end to this gives me a little strength.”

“No. You will not see the end.”

Cheon-hwa shook her head and declared it flatly.

“Because up to now, you have not managed to use up even one percent of all the lives I hold.”

“…”

I clenched my fist, my face twisting into a scowl.

I’d crushed and killed tens of thousands of giants over the course of nearly several hours. And that wasn’t even one percent?

For it to be a bluff, there would have been no need to share that information in the first place.

Still, if it really was true, it boiled my blood in more ways than one.

“…Just how many have you killed?”

Even granting the absurd premise that Cheon-hwa had transferred every life Void had killed into this Mass Grave, that meant at least millions of lives, if not more, had been taken.

I knew the bastards of the Crimson Circle had existed for a long time. Even so, it was a number I couldn’t even begin to grasp.

Cheon-hwa closed her eyes, looked up at the sky, and murmured.

“Just now, you said that all of you are simply being raised like livestock.”

“That’s right.”

“There was a time, in the past, when Void regarded the empire as his enemy.”

“…”

“That era has passed. The Holy Relics were all destroyed, broken, and stripped of their function. The Sages took their own lives, and the Primordial Lives fell into Void’s grasp. There was a process of tearing all of it apart without leaving a single possibility behind.”

Cheon-hwa, who had been watching the Vine Giants rise up again without rest, turned back to me.

“I remember that age of fierce battles. Because all of their lives sleep here.”

“Judging by the number of these giants, you really got up to all sorts of things.”

“At times we were a nation, at times an organization, at times rebels, at times defenders. Countless people died. No matter how many die from here on, it will not reach even half of those who died in that era.”

The giants that had risen again stared at me with vacant eyes.

I’d been curious, just once, about what would happen if I didn’t kill them.

[Ah…]

As expected, they weren’t the sort to simply stand still.

-Kwang!! I barely managed to block and dodge as the giants slammed down fists bristling with thorns, trying to turn me into pulp. I’d thought bodies made of plants wouldn’t be that strong, but the force was enough to grind boulders into powder.

In the end, I had no choice but to keep crushing them with Water Pressure.

“Do you think you are resisting?”

-Kwang!

“That you are challenging, that your challenge has value, that through it something might change?”

-…Kkwajik!

“Everything you have done has already been tried. Every conceivable idea has already been thought of. The current situation is merely the result, and it is being carried out.”

-Eudeuk!

“Nothing will change.”

“Tuh…”

By the point nearly half a day had passed.

I had no choice but to admit it in the end.

The fact that I was still bound to the Deep Sea.

‘My head…’

From continuously invoking Water Pressure like this, the Burden had gradually climbed all the way up under my chin.

The sensation of being crushed wouldn’t fade, and the Water Barrier was screaming.

If I kept fighting any longer, only an obvious result would be waiting.

“Now leave.”

Cheon-hwa opened the floor again, as though it were only natural that I would make that choice.

Strangely, sunlight was pouring down through the hole that had opened right in front of me. The forest I had come from was simply visible there.

My Current Sense told me it wasn’t a trap. If I threw myself in, I’d be able to leave this world.

I forced down the blood-tasting bitter fluid rising up my throat, braced my legs so I wouldn’t collapse, and shook my head.

“Why would I?”

“Such pointless stubbornness…”

Cheon-hwa sighed as if looking at a disobedient problem child and widened the hole further.

“You got what you wanted. Did you not come to me because you wished to know the prophecy? I told you. And no worthwhile course of action presents itself in this situation, does it? Go. Later, draw up a more precise plan and come back to kill me. When that time comes, I will duly die for you.”

“What I wanted, my ass. It’s just a way of saying that since everything we do is meaningless, we should just live like that and die.”

“That is the prophecy. The one you desired and wished to know. If you want to change it, then go rampage as you please. Don’t waste your life here for nothing.”

“…Is that so?”

I glanced at the hole, then glared at Cheon-hwa as I replied.

“Then, mind if I ask just one last thing?”

“What is it?”

“The one who rebelled against Void, was that you?”

“…What?”

Cheon-hwa furrowed her brow, as if she hadn’t expected that question.

“What kind of nonsense is that? The one who made me is Void. Why would I rebel against my creator?”

“I’ve never once in my life seen a child who actually listens to their parents. I heard Void rebelled against the First Wizard too. And more than anything, that tone of yours is really fucking grating.”

Cheon-hwa had spoken with conviction that everything I was trying to do was useless.

Of course, whether that was true or not was none of my concern. I had no intention whatsoever of backing down just because there was no chance of winning.

But I could roughly guess what had formed that conviction of hers.

“Get the wording right. You were the one who rebelled, and you were the one who challenged. The one who failed is you too.”

“…”

“Why you take no Burden at all, while I’m reduced to this state… kugh!”

Unable to hold it in any longer, I spat blood onto the ground, wiped my mouth with my robe, and continued.

“…yet remain perfectly fine. I’ve got a rough idea of it. This isn’t your world, is it?”

“…”

“This is that bastard Void’s world, isn’t it?”

The picture came together.

A fake Priestess made for the sake of prophecy.

But Cheon-hwa, having come to know the prophecy, had refused to speak it. If moving toward that process required nothing more than a nod that told Void his thinking was correct, she did not nod.

She had not given Void certainty. The notion that this girl had affirmed his plan the moment she laid eyes on Void had to be an outright lie.

And… she had probably become the first opponent of the Crimson Circle, before me.

To placate a Priestess like that, Void had simply pressed on with his plan unwaveringly.

He carried out massacres of tens of millions from the shadows. Without a trace of guilt.

…so that the Priestess would be the first to give up and try to negotiate.

“…Nothing changed.”

Cheon-hwa shook her head, her tone still unwavering.

“Receiving this small world was all I could do. An insult to the dead that cannot even serve as a place of rest: that is the reward for my resistance.”

“That’s really a tearjerker.”

“But you won’t even get that much.”

Cheon-hwa tapped her foot on the ground.

-Ddddddk…

As if everything until now had been a joke, countless giants I hadn’t even caught sight of before began to rise up all at once, thousands of them.

Vines covered the world. In place of thorns, flower buds rose up, gradually giving off their fragrance.

“I’ll give you a final ultimatum.”

“…”

“Killing you here would disrupt Void’s plans. It would only drag things out a bit longer, but… it seems you’d rather go through with that farce anyway.”

“I don’t particularly plan on dying.”

“So I will not kill you. I will turn you into a body that can neither die nor live, and have you sleep in the underground of this world for all eternity.”

The giants no longer took the shape of humans.

Had even that been the bare minimum of decoration, cumbersome trappings?

Now monsters whose proper forms were hard even to make out, they scattered their vines and stretched their hands toward me.

I let out a sigh and drew up Water Pressure once again.

“Leave this world on your own two feet.”

“No way.”

“…Stubborn as they come.”

I gave a soft snort of a laugh as I watched hatred bleed into Cheon-hwa’s serene face.

“What, does seeing your past self disgust you?”

“…”

“Then let me tell you one thing, from the same position. The way you think you’ve tried everything there is, the way you think it’s all over, is really pathetic to watch.”

“Babble as you like.”

Cheon-hwa vanished again, as though no further conversation were needed.

What lurked around me now was only vines. Still, she’d be listening from somewhere.

I answered in the tone that would piss her off the most if she was listening.

“If you don’t know, watch and learn.”

I felt the sensation of being unable to breathe.

Even though I wasn’t resting.

“Because I’ll show you what it looks like to refuse to give up until the very end.”

The next moment…

The entire ground was buried under Water Pressure.