Wizard of the Abyss - Chapter 242

Chapter 242: Depth (9)

TL/ED – Miso

The first thing I tried was binding the creature with Puppet threads.

As expected, it did little good. The blades attached to the tips of its tentacles cut through the slowly extending threads with ease.

“Of course it doesn’t work…”

I had hoped it might dismiss them as mere threads and ignore them.

Letting out a sigh, I stared at the creature and slowly stepped back.

‘Let me get a closer look at what this thing is first.’

Just from how the surrounding Water Pressure had intensified, it was clear this being was on a completely different level from the ordinary Deep Sea Creatures.

True enough, the creature did not extend its tentacles to attack me.

[…]

It glared at me from every angle with its countless eyes, as though calculating something, behaving as though it didn’t matter whether I retreated or not.

Was it judging me as dangerous? Or was it after something else?

Either way, there was no chance it would simply let me leave, so I waited, ready to respond if it struck first-

“…Huh?”

The tentacles disintegrated in an instant.

Quite literally, they crumbled to dust and vanished. All that remained was the Fish-Man, hanging in the water like a tattered rag.

Caught off guard by this sudden self-destruction, I quickly raised a barrier of Water Pressure around my body and approached the Fish-Man’s body.

Whatever was happening, this was an opportunity. If I could just bind threads to that body, which appeared to be the main one, this could end without a fight.

In that very moment.

-Crunch!

“Gah-!”

A jolt of pain spread through me as my organs were crushed.

Through vision blurring with agony, I stared at my grotesquely caved-in abdomen and collapsed where I stood.

It felt as if I’d been struck head-on by a massive iron bludgeon. The wall of Water Pressure had offered no defense whatsoever.

I barely managed to swallow back the blood rising in my throat and focused Current Sense to scan my surroundings.

At first, I saw nothing. But when I pushed it harder, taking on greater Burden to look in finer detail-

I felt a different flow of power within the Deep Sea.

“Tch…”

I corrected my posture and concentrated on those flows, and only then did the tentacles begin to come into view again.

Their form had shifted. From organic matter into the seawater of the Deep Sea.

A trick like that, I could pull off too. I drew on Current and Water Pressure, manifesting invisible tentacles of similar size within the Deep Sea.

‘What…?’

Clutching my stomach, I looked at the seawater tentacles I’d created and felt a wave of confusion. Their precision was so vast and exact that I could hardly believe they were my own work.

Significantly more so than before I had entered this Deep Sea. Almost concerningly so.

…Slowly, I was starting to grasp why so many things had changed during this particular dive.

But this wasn’t the time to dwell on that.

[Oh, oh, oh… oh……..!!!!!]

The Fish-Man’s main body let out an eerie noise and pointed at me with a withered finger.

What it was commanding was perfectly clear. I immediately stretched out the tentacles I’d created, trying to block them.

It was a futile attempt.

-Slip…

“What the…!”

The Fish-Man’s tentacles passed cleanly through the ones I’d formed from Current.

As though such things didn’t exist at all.

Stunned, I poured all my strength into pushing forward with Current to flee, just barely evading the tentacle’s strike.

Not a clean dodge. The tentacle pierced even my Water Barrier and left a shallow cut on my cheek.

I wiped the blood away with my sleeve before it could run, and clenched my teeth.

“…Should it really be able to do something like that?”

If it had simply turned itself into seawater, I could have produced as much of the same as I wanted.

But that wasn’t it. The tentacles transformed into seawater seemed entirely unaffected by my Water Pressure or Current.

After a brief moment of thought, I figured it out.

‘So this isn’t a Deep Sea I can manipulate.’

The Deep Sea Water I could control and the Deep Sea Water that thing had transformed into seemed to possess different properties.

If I had to put it plainly: that creature held within this Deep Sea its own Deep Sea Water, one that only it could manipulate.

I couldn’t.

The moment I realized that, a deep sigh escaped me.

‘What the hell am I supposed to do, then?’

In this Deep Sea, neither Water Pressure nor Current would work.

Which meant the thing was practically invincible. It alone was ignoring the rules.

Without giving me a chance to think of a method, the Fish-Man cocked its head once more and raised its finger.

[Ah, aaah…!!]

A primal scream, the kind a human who had never learned to speak might let out under torture.

Along with that gut-churning sound, invisible tentacles surged forward, hunting for me.

There was no way out. I tried first to put distance between us, but-

“Ugh.”

The tentacles didn’t seem to care about distance at all.

In an instant, they surrounded me and began closing in to crush me. Dodging had its limits, so this time I tried slicing the tentacles using my Magic.

Stars rose in my eyes, and blades of wind formed from Mana sliced through the tentacles.

It worked. The tentacles were definitely cleaved in two.

But they were seawater to begin with.

That is, made of water.

“Ngh…!”

The severed ends rejoined immediately.

I confirmed there was at least about a 0.1-second gap, and the moment they closed in I slashed wildly at my surroundings to barely escape, but a pain that felt like broken bones was already rising in me.

Had this not been a Deep Sea where I could move freely with Current, I would have been finished here, unable to move at all.

Confirming that even Magic had little effect, I changed my approach.

‘For now, I run.’

At least for the moment, I had no way of dealing with this creature.

Of course, the thing was already fired up and unlikely to let me go, so I resorted to a slightly extreme measure.

“Sorry, see you in a bit. Can’t do this right now.”

I cut off the sleeve I’d used earlier to wipe away the blood and flung it out beyond my Water Barrier.

My blood spread on the Current, and a horrific Blood Scent that even I would struggle to keep my sanity against stained the Deep Sea.

Soon, thousands of Deep Sea Creatures would come swarming. I planned to slip away in the chaos.

But.

“…Huh?”

One second.

Three seconds.

Ten seconds.

Even after nearly thirty seconds had passed, there was no reaction.

This couldn’t be right. Bewildered, I expanded my Current Sense, which I’d kept focused only on my immediate area to track the tentacles.

And then-

“What…?”

Deep Sea turned into a portrait of hell.

It had always been hell, but now it was worse.

The Deep Sea Creatures were obeying their instincts. The moment they caught the Blood Scent, they came swimming toward me in a frenzy to kill.

But at the same time- they were bursting.

-Crack, crunch… pop!

“…Hah.”

Hundreds of Deep Sea Creatures, thousands of them, were being crushed all at once.

Wrapped, pierced, beaten by something invisible-

Within a fixed range, not a single intruder was permitted, all of them simply dying.

The Deep Sea was painted in every color of blood. The Blood Scent that had brushed past my nose was overwritten by far more horrific pheromones.

Death, death, death, danger, danger, danger.

A hellish scent that, were I a Deep Sea Creature, would have made me never approach, billowed outward, and within moments the area became a pristine zone where no Deep Sea Creature dared to come.

I let out a hollow laugh, dumbfounded.

So this was how that thing dealt with Deep Sea Creatures. Then again, for a being that wasn’t affected by Water Pressure or Current, something like this was just one of many tools at its disposal.

The tentacles that had finished off all the Deep Sea Creatures slowly stretched toward me. As I watched, slowly returning to reality, another voice spoke.

[…Ngh, why does the pain of flesh being cut…]

Mallo. The robe I was wearing.

It seemed it had woken from being soaked in my blood and the pain of being torn.

Drawing my Mana up to its limit for a final desperate struggle, I gave it an unwelcoming greeting.

“Why don’t you go back to sleep? Doesn’t seem like staying awake will lead to anything good.”

[What are you talking about… no, what is that thing?]

“You won’t believe me, but it’s something currently trying to kill me.”

Mallo, baffled by the sudden situation, stared at the Fish-Man.

To something unable to perceive the Deep Sea, it would just look like a corpse, so there was no way Mallo could understand the situation.

But to my surprise, the relic tightened around me in shock.

[That, that’s… a S, Sealed Realm? Hah, I’d only ever heard of it! To think such a thing was actually possible…]

“Sealed Realm?”

Tilting my head at the unfamiliar term, Mallo continued in a stunned tone.

[It’s a world within a world, said to be created when countless beings sharing the same World gather and unite into one. The Creator spoke of it on occasion. But for such a thing to be possible, the same World would have to exist, and since Worlds exist only as singular things, it was generally accepted to be impossible… yet that thing truly is countless Worlds perfectly merged into one. Hah. Marvelous…]

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Frowning, I quickly caught a glimmer of hope and pressed.

“So, does this Sealed Realm have a weakness?”

[A, a weakness?]

“Yes. Because if it doesn’t, I’m about to die here.”

[Ah, I see! So you’re locked in combat with a Sealed Realm right now… first, run. You aren’t fighting an individual right now, but engaging in close combat with countless Worlds. In a situation like that, fleeing is the right call.]

“I’d love to, but the thing doesn’t seem inclined to let me go.”

[Tch, that’s a problem. A weakness, a weakness…]

After turning it over in its head, Mallo offered its advice in a small, hesitant voice.

[Th, that… opening it might work.]

“Open? Open what?”

[A Sealed Realm is, in the end, countless Worlds acting with a single will, so if a different World were to flow in, it would break down at once. If you could pry open their Worlds and muddy them, that would do it, but…]

“How do I open it?”

[I don’t know. This is the first time I’ve even seen a Sealed Realm.]

Inflow. Inflow, hm…

Countless possibilities flickered through my mind and faded away. Just as the tentacles closed in before my eyes-

One possibility I held came to me.

“…Alright.”

Nothing to lose.

I pictured the fall of the Empire.

…It was a sad thought, but no real anger welled up. Patriotism had left me long ago.

[J, Jern. That thing seems to be doing something…]

Glaring at the approaching tentacles, I now pictured my own death this time.

A life that had simply, by misfortune, fallen into the Deep Sea, and was about to die by misfortune.

Only then did my heart boil over with rage.

A rage colder than anything else.

“-So this is what it feels like.”

I murmured, slowly smiling.

“Let’s see what you really look like.”

And, in the next moment- the tentacles that had been hard to see even with Current Sense came into plain view.

Frozen pure white.