Wizard of the Abyss - Chapter 233

Chapter 233: Flower (7)

TL/ED – Miso

“…You didn’t strike me as the type to take your own life.”

Even as she watched every Vine Giant she had created get crushed all at once, Cheon-hwa showed no particular sign of being shaken.

It was plainly because she knew that anyone already straining under a Burden that looked impossible to withstand would simply be crushed under their own force if they tried to wield such a tremendous power on top of it.

She had been trying to confirm my end for certain,

but then her brow furrowed as she saw me still standing, even as I clawed roughly at my chest.

“You’re far tougher than I thought.”

“…”

I didn’t have the strength to answer. Instead, I raised a finger.

At the same moment, the vines that had been writhing and trying to burrow up through the ground went still.

Their movement hadn’t vanished entirely. Even now, under Cheon-hwa’s orders, they were struggling desperately to break through the surface.

But they never once managed to pierce the ground.

Naturally, the world fell as silent as the grave.

“What on earth…”

A faintly bewildered look crossed Cheon-hwa’s face as she turned toward me.

It wasn’t just the area around us. Every surface of this world was being pressed flat against the ground.

With an expression that said she couldn’t fathom how I had overcome the Burden, Cheon-hwa asked,

“How are you still in one piece?”

“Does it look like I’m in one piece to you right now…?”

I was standing, sure, but the Burden was crushing me to the point my ribs were about to shatter, so no stretch of the imagination would call me fine.

Still, I had just enough strength left to force a smile and flip her the middle finger.

“Picked up a little something from your friend.”

A thread was tied around the finger I held up.

A thread that ran down into the ground.

“…Puppet?”

Cheon-hwa, who hadn’t grasped it at a glance even after seeing it, widened her eyes and slammed a hand of woven vines down against the earth.

The ground instantly caved in, and the moment she confirmed the vines still trapped below, unable to rise, she clenched her teeth.

“When in the world did you…!”

I had used Water Pressure just once, solely to drive the vines back into the ground.

After that, the reason they remained pinned down, unable to rise, was that the threads of Puppet had been woven through the vines.

Of course, I couldn’t use Puppet’s abilities perfectly. If those giants really had been separate individual beings, it would have been impossible.

“But when I actually thought it through, there was no way a single world could hold that many lives.”

It was something I’d already heard a few times.

That only three worlds in existence could house life, and those were The Three Evils.

And yet this Flower Garden, which wasn’t one of The Three Evils, was casually home to tens of millions of lives. Even if they were merely the souls of the already dead.

A question naturally surfaced. What kind of world was it that she’d been given?

Even for one of The Three Evils, was it truly possible to pack that many lives into a single world?

The certainty came when I watched those vines divide and grow without limit.

“The forms were different enough that I almost fell for it. You bastard. They’re all from the same root, aren’t they?”

“…”

“A single root capable of producing an endless number of buds. That is the only thing that exists in this world.”

A single root divides to create the countless vessels that house life.

That was the true nature of the Flower Garden Cheon-hwa commanded.

“Once I knew, it was easy. All I had to do was crush that one thing, and it’s over.”

The vines writhing beneath the ground were already incapable of carrying out Cheon-hwa’s orders.

And even Cheon-hwa herself. The vine-woven body of hers was stiffening in place.

“Tsk…”

Realizing that at this rate she wouldn’t even be able to resist, she glared down at her own vine-made hand and then tore her own face off.

Inside was Cheon-hwa in her human form. Looking rather furious.

“This should be impossible.”

“If it’s just a loser’s grumbling, why don’t you wrap it up?”

“Puppet’s ability looks like flawless domination at a glance, but it requires the target’s consent. For lowly creatures, perhaps, but the Mugeun of this Flower Garden is not the kind of being that could ever agree to such a thing.”

Cheon-hwa pointed out what I already knew, glaring at me fiercely.

Mugeun, was it. So the true nature of the Flower Garden seemed to be a world built upon a single root bearing that name.

“Why would Mugeun allow itself to be yoked under you?”

“I don’t know what kind of being it is. I don’t know what it’s thinking, either.”

I kept Puppet clamped on the vines that were thrashing between me and Cheon-hwa’s conflicting orders, and gritted my teeth.

From here on out, it was a contest of whether Cheon-hwa’s authority over them could break my Puppet.

“Maybe it didn’t obey me so much as it didn’t want to obey you.”

“…What?”

“Hey, you bastard. Take a good look at the state you’ve left this world in!”

I shouted, sweeping my gaze across the garden that had once been in full bloom.

“You did all this because it was the most you could manage? And self-satisfaction is enough for you? Sure, maybe for you it is. But from this world’s point of view, what kind of bastard do you think you looked like? Living out your own life just fine, then dragging in people who’d died in other worlds one by one, planting them in your own body, treating it like farming.”

“You prattle without knowing. This place was originally specialized for…”

“Being specialized for something and actually doing it are different. I’ll admit it’s a rather beautiful and solemn Mass Grave, but of course the ones who were supposed to serve as that grave aren’t going to be satisfied with it.”

“…”

“If you’re so confident, show me with action.”

I pushed Puppet harder still.

[….!]

Until then I’d only been ordering them not to break through the surface; now I was driving them to go deeper still, to sink down out of reach.

Once that happened, there would be nothing Cheon-hwa could do in this world. Even I, in my current state, would be able to finish her off easily.

“…Fine.”

Cheon-hwa gritted her teeth, relented, and stirred Mugeun into motion.

“I’ll correct that foolish notion of yours that worlds possess some kind of will.”

Conversely, if those vines broke through the ground again, it was over.

I couldn’t resist any further. I was already enduring every scrap of Burden I could bear.

The two of us simply stood there, doing nothing, staring at each other. Though beneath the water, no, beneath the ground, a fierce battle for control was being waged.

[….!]

[Kraaagh…]

[Kheuk…]

The only one suffering was Mugeun, caught between us.

Its vines rose up, sank back down, burst apart and regenerated all the while, repeating the cycle dozens of times.

It felt like watching someone beat their own face raw, tearing at themselves. I knew it was just a creature made of vines, and yet I still started to feel sorry for it.

Several minutes passed, and beads of sweat formed on Cheon-hwa’s face.

“…Kh.”

Cheon-hwa wasn’t the master of this world. That was Void; he had merely loaned it to her for a time.

So there was no knowing by what method she controlled Mugeun to hold dominion over the world.

It didn’t matter. In the end, there was only one outcome left.

[…]

Current Sense told me the vines were gradually sinking further underground.

The root had chosen to return to where it was meant to be.

To the deep earth, where even uprooting it would require tremendous force.

It was my victory.

“Hah.”

Realizing there was no longer any undoing this, Cheon-hwa let out a strange, dry laugh.

“…It was my own greed.”

“Does it even make sense to call it mere greed? That’s outright hubris.”

What Cheon-hwa had done was, in essence, an attempt to craft her own version of The Three Evils.

Similar to what The First Wizard had done, an act of creating another safe world to contain living beings.

She simply lacked the ability.

A world received from an enemy, and a Mass Grave that even that world didn’t want.

That was the place she had devoted her whole life to obtaining.

And she’d just been betrayed by that very place, so it made sense that she’d be crushed by it.

“Kill me.”

And yet, Cheon-hwa replied, looking at me with an expression that was surprisingly unburdened.

Even at death’s door, she was composed. She had been from the very start.

There was only one thing to say back to that.

“How many times do I have to tell you I’m not going to kill you?”

“…Then I truly have no idea what it is you want.”

Cheon-hwa put on a look of weary disgust and glared at me.

“You’ve heard the prophecy, you’ve wrecked my world, and you have no intention of leaving. So what on earth do you want?”

“You.”

“…What?”

I pointed at Cheon-hwa and let out a sigh.

“Honestly, you’re right. I don’t think there’s anything I can actually pull off against Void. Coming to see you was just, I heard something about a prophecy and figured maybe there’d be something useful in it, an impulsive visit, that’s all.”

“At least you know your limits”

Cheon-hwa answered with a distasteful look, then tossed out a question tinged with puzzlement.

“So, are you saying you’ll do something similar to my world? That you’ll build a refuge?”

“Don’t misunderstand. That doesn’t mean I’ve arrived at the same conclusion you did.”

Cheon-hwa had fled in the face of an impossible problem.

It was probably the most rational choice, but if that choice was a synonym for defeat, then “fled” was the right word for it.

But I had no intention of doing the same.

“If there’s no way, I want to find one.”

“As your predecessor, I’ve tried thousands, tens of thousands…”

“If I can’t find one, I want to make one.”

I cut off Cheon-hwa’s words, met her eyes, and bowed my head.

“Even if they’re methods that have already failed, I’d like you to tell me about them.”

“…And the end of those roads is this world.”

“That’s because you were incompetent.”

“?”

I could do it.

I had to.

“Since capable me is going to accomplish what incompetent you couldn’t, lend me a little help.”

In the end, it was a plea.

Cheon-hwa was the kind of person on whom threats of death wouldn’t land in the slightest.

“…”

Seeing her wear an expression even more flabbergasted than when Mugeun had been crushed, I grew impatient and added a little more.

“If the ending is going to be what it is no matter what I do, then you might as well help. The conclusion’s already decided, right? So whether you help or not, it doesn’t really matter, does it?”

“It seems I had misjudged you.”

Cheon-hwa shook her head and made a grim face.

“In that body, enduring the Deep Sea, however much it was in Void’s palm, you danced exceedingly well. That was why I had thought you were among the more gifted of humans.”

“You’re not entirely wrong…”

“But in truth, you’re staggeringly slow-witted.”

Cheon-hwa sighed, and her hand dropped limply.

“I never thought I’d meet someone stupider and more hopeless than my past self.”

“…”

A refusal, then.

Well, from her position, there was no reason whatsoever to side with the one destined to lose.

As I swallowed down the bitterness, Cheon-hwa said something I hadn’t expected.

“Kill me.”

“No, even if negotiations fall through, I’m not going to kill…”

“Because only then will you be able to take me with you without Void noticing.”

“…?”

Cheon-hwa continued, still looking at me as if I were an unbearably hopeless creature.

“You said you’d arrive at a different end from mine.”

“…Probably?”

“I don’t believe it, but, I’ll watch and see.”

After glancing around, Cheon-hwa murmured in a gloomy tone.

“Whatever it ends up being, it’s bound to be better than this desolate world.”