Wizard of the Abyss - Chapter 252

Chapter 252: Depth (19)

TL/ED – Miso

“…It’s not impossible.”

Recovering her composure quickly, Nightchase walked toward me with a mocking smile, as if she had read my intentions completely.

“That is, if you’re useful to me.”

“…”

“If you want to learn the method, prove your worth to me. It doesn’t matter whether you can handle Deep Sea Creatures or not. If you can’t rise to a level where you’re actually useful, you’re nothing.”

She had a point.

As I quietly accepted it, Nightchase glanced at my Sea Water and replied coldly.

“What you’re producing right now is just sculptures. At best, they’re like insects, things with nothing but instinct.”

“Create higher life. If you can’t even do this, then you have no value at all.”

Fortunately, the first stage wasn’t difficult.

After roughly three days of struggle, Nightchase looked at the otter I had created, scoffed as if it were nothing remarkable, and led me into a strange space.

I frowned as sand-laden wind blew into my eyes.

It was a desert with no end in sight.

“It’s a little lacking, and even slow at that- but considering you’ve only just been born, I’ll let it slide.”

“If you’ve created life, then you should create a world. Originally, you live down in that Deep Sea, don’t you? Recreate it here.”

This time I frowned because I had no idea how.

“How am I supposed to make a world? The only Authority I can wield amounts to making an otter.”

“You created life with your Authority, so use that.”

Nightchase replied while watching the otter slowly dying in the sand.

“…What?”

“You used your Authority to make that otter. So the more otters there are, the more your Authority grows. Try multiplying it.”

“You mean make a male and female and have them breed?”

“You’ll have to figure out the method yourself. I’ll come back when that sun has set and risen five times. Until then, turn this desert into a sea.”

“…”

With only those words, Nightchase vanished.

I stared blankly into the empty air, then was about to make a new otter when I realized that if I really tried to make a male and female and breed them, it would take years just to get to two pairs.

‘Animals won’t work.’

I dissolved the otter back into Sea Water and pondered Nightchase’s words carefully.

‘Is she saying that the more I let my created life flourish, the more my influence grows?’

But if that were true, those things called Outer Gods do nothing but smash the world to pieces.

…Unless?

“Oho.”

Five days later.

When Nightchase returned and saw the desert filled with sloshing water, her eyes widened in genuine surprise.

“That was pretty fast. And without anyone telling you.”

“Is this the right method?”

Make one’s own power reproduce on its own.

Maybe, in some very, very distant past, the things called gods used to accumulate power that way.

But in the Primordial Worlds that Void longed for, not a single one of those benevolent gods remained.

What remained was nothing but hell.

The reason it had become so was-

“Yes, that’s right.”

Nightchase nodded as if it were obvious, affirming my guess.

“This way is far more efficient.”

“…”

Rather than turning living beings into Apostles, making Calamity itself into an Apostle.

To be precise: turning the byproducts devoured by Corrosion, Deep Sea, swamp, fire- such things, into one’s own power.

To rule not over life, but over death.

That was far more efficient for cultivating power.

I, too, had turned everything submerged in my Sea Water into Apostles.

Subjugating everything that had been broken was an overwhelming method. Just as I had turned this desert into a sea in only five days.

As I chewed the words over, I let out a sigh while looking at Nightchase, who was smiling in satisfaction.

“So you were testing me.”

“That’s right too.”

Nightchase admitted it without hesitation.

She had deliberately made me create life and taught me the method of having it reproduce on its own. As if that were the correct answer.

Even though she knew perfectly well that without using this method, it was utterly impossible to flood a desert in five days.

“But not every god thinks cleverly, you know.”

“…”

“In the past, there were actually more who chose the foolish methods. Naturally, they were weeded out- but I had to confirm whether you, just born, were that type or not, didn’t I?”

Up until now, I had taken the word “Outer God” (外神) to mean a god from outside. And in fact, that meaning is probably correct.

But in substance, it seemed closer to “Feared God” (畏神), a term for gods who must be feared.

If even a single Outer God were to escape this Deep Sea and dominate the world, the Real World would, in an instant, be turned into a hell ruled by that Outer God.

“And what would you have done if I’d been raising the otter?”

To my curious question-

Nightchase smiled quietly with Linmel’s pretty face.

“Do you really want to know?”

“Is there some reason you can’t say?”

“Well, if you found out, I think it’d be hard for us to remain in a cooperative relationship.”

“…”

“Don’t worry. You passed. You may be a sorely lacking Outer God, but I’ll make you into a proper Outer God in your own right.”

Nightchase brushed it off and dropped down into the lapping sea.

“Ask me anything you want to know. Even if it takes a hundred years, even a thousand, I’ll answer.”

“Right. Cultivating you really does seem like it’ll be useful.”

No matter how hard I stared at her face as she spoke, I couldn’t read her true intentions in the slightest.

Maybe the day I learned this Outer God’s true heart wouldn’t come even if the world were to perish.

“…You, you- what on earth are you?”

It took less than a month for me to realize that thought was wrong.

Nightchase, as it turned out, was the type whose emotions showed clearly on her face.

***

There was only one thing I wanted to do with the Authority of Creation.

‘How do I use this to take down Void?’

He may be called a man, but Void is- the very consciousness of an Outer God who took down every Outer God in the Deep Sea.

What’s more, the body he had devoured had reached the level of the Celestial Realm, so in essence he was off the scale, a being who had to be regarded as a God among Gods.

If I made the mistake of thinking he was on the same level as these defeated Outer Gods, I’d pay for it dearly.

Even though those defeated Outer Gods were beings far beyond my reach.

That was why what I focused on was a way to use the Authority of Creation offensively.

“How does fighting between Outer Gods actually work?”

“You don’t need to know, do you?”

A week into wielding the Authority of Creation and beginning to build my own Deep Sea.

As I was pondering how to make a lake-sized pool of water and bend everything submerged within it to my will, Nightchase, who was floating around the edges, snorted and replied.

“What, do you want to kill me too?”

“I want to be able to resist when you try to kill me.”

“Hah, ambitious, aren’t we.”

When I came back to my senses, part of the sea I had created had vanished, as if a hole had been punched through it.

“You can’t resist me. As if a newborn not even a month old could.”

“I see…”

I nodded as I looked at the sea that had been bitten away and felt my dominion shake.

“So losing the entire world an Outer God controls means defeat.”

“You learn quickly.”

An Outer God is a phenomenon.

To take Nightchase as an example- as long as water surfaces exist, and as long as those surfaces belong to her, she cannot be erased from this world.

But if someone with power approaching omnipotence were to gradually erase those water surfaces.

If there were one who could ensure no water remained pooled in this world, who could dry up every lake.

Then Nightchase, having lost every domain, would become a being that couldn’t be called anything at all.

“Of course, you can’t actually kill an Outer God. In the end, no one can control every water surface for an entire lifetime…”

“So instead, you toss the Outer God down into a Deep Sea where even they can’t escape. My case is a bit different, though.”

What if every flame remaining in the world were lodged only in the deepest part of the Deep Sea?

Then the Outer God who governs fire would have to be down beneath it.

And when they came to their senses, they’d be in a hell from which they could never leave.

“That’s why no one could oppose Void.”

Nightchase muttered as she looked up at the falsely-made sky.

“Even if someone managed to defeat Void, you can’t make the sky sink into the Deep Sea. Nothing to be done.”

“…”

That wasn’t true.

Void had once been defeated by the First Wizard and sealed within his body.

And as for a way to cover the sky.

“It’s not as if there isn’t one.”

“More importantly, why are there no Deep Sea Creatures living here? It just looks like there’s nothing but sea.”

“…Look closely, they’re there.”

I quickly created a few Anglerfish.

The more territory I dominated, the more my range of possible actions grew exponentially.

The Flying Fish I had once put effort into making could now be produced with a simple flick of a finger.

Of course, the more Deep Sea Creatures I made, the more Sea Water it consumed, just the same.

I needed more Sea Water.

-I need more space.

“Nightchase, I’ve completely covered the desert. Is there no other space?”

“…What? You’re already done? I thought it’d take a year.”

“Go see for yourself. What should I do next to make my world even stronger?”

“Hmm. For now, fill up all the space you have. This time, upward.”

The desert that had seemed endless was now completely a sea, and from there I slowly increased only the Depth.

But even that had its limits. The sky, which had only seemed high, was lower than I’d thought. That place above was probably the Middle Layer.

I also multiplied the Deep Sea Creatures within it to enormous numbers. Watching it become a vast fishery in just two weeks, Nightchase couldn’t hide her bewilderment.

“You’re growing it much faster than I expected. At this rate, I think it’s about time I explained the plan to…”

“Not enough.”

But I was extremely sullen.

Now that I had swallowed it whole, the desert turned out to be far smaller than I had thought. It only had territory on the scale of a large lake, and to run experiments aimed at facing Void, I needed much more space.

I had even considered escaping outright, but I wanted to avoid pulling stunts like that out in reality and catching Void’s attention.

If I was going to do anything reckless, it would be here, where there were no consequences.

“There really isn’t any other space? It seems like I might be able to cross over the boundary of the desert if I’m careful.”

“Try it if you want to die.”

Nightchase, who had been softening at my pace of growth, gave a sharp warning.

“That’s Corrosion’s territory. Right now they’ve given up on escape and gone dormant, but at one time they were an Outer God ruling territory so vast that even I would have struggled to face them. Be content.”

“Hmm…”

“Still, you’ve done well. Next time I’ll introduce you to a colleague, so don’t try anything and stay put. It takes some time to wake him.”

“…”

I didn’t bother answering.

Because I was going to do it.

After that, Nightchase truly didn’t appear for about a week.

That made it a month.

It was just a moment ago.

“Nightchase.”

“…You.”

Nightchase, appearing after a long while, stared at me with trembling eyes.

More precisely, at the world that had grown wider.

“What did you do?”

“I expanded the space.”

“…And Corrosion?”

Without a word, I pointed at the wreckage that had sunk to the floor.

There, once, had stood the garden ruled by an Outer God called Corrosion.

Now completely submerged in Sea Water.

Watching the sight blankly, Nightchase slowly took a step back.

“You killed them?”

“I couldn’t kill them. I just made it so they can’t get up off the floor.”

“-What is that supposed to mean.”

“I tried doing something similar to what’s been done to us.”

After swallowing Corrosion’s world too into my sea, I- crushed the garden flat.

Because the present me could control Currents to the extent of maintaining Water Pressure not on a single individual, but over an entire space.

“Looks like the Water Pressure is a bit heavy. They’re trying to get up somehow, but they can’t. Lucky me.”

“…”

Having devoured Corrosion’s space as well, I was an entirely different existence from the novice Outer God who had only just stepped into this world.

I clenched my fist and organized my thoughts.

‘At this rate…’

What I had learned in this space was- that my Deep Sea, when it came to Erosion, possessed an absolutely absurd speed.

Then.

A way to confine the sky emerges.

-To make it fall.

“Nightchase.”

“Y, yes?”

I asked the woman who, for some reason, was looking flustered.

“Void is the Outer God of the sky, right?”

“…Th, that’s right.”

“Then if the sky moves, would he get dragged along too?”

“Well, yes, but- how exactly do you intend to move the sky?”

In response to her words, I shifted the Depth.

Slowly the floor split, and the Deep Sea rose upward.

Like a miniature version of the Deep Layer we were in- the Deep Sea now existed above our heads.

“If I do this.”

“What are you trying to say…”

The puzzled expression on Nightchase’s face turned dead pale.

“…You’re saying you’ll submerge the world?”

“That’s how it’d work out.”

Increase the Sea Water.

Expand the territory, and expand it again, until the entire world is covered by sea.

Only the land I would float upward like the spaces these Outer Gods inhabited, so that beneath the Deep Sea a sky would form.

Looking up at the Deep Sea Creatures swimming along the underside of the translucent dome of Deep Sea, I clenched my teeth.

“Now I’ll finally reach him.”

It felt as though my fingertips had just caught the edge of the clouds.