Wizard of the Abyss - Chapter 269

Chapter 269: False God (13)

TL/ED – Miso

Drip, drip…

The ink fell from the tree drop by drop, trickling down toward the floor.

It was so viscous that it didn’t flow like water, but for that very reason, the sight of the thick ink clinging to every branch was nothing short of grotesque.

“Isn’t this a waste?”

The moment Linmel realized the black liquid was ink, she tilted her head.

“With this much ink, you could fill every sheet of paper in the capital. Why dump it all over the ground?”

“I don’t know. There must be some reason for it…”

If I assumed the worst-case scenario, it would be that Dersia herself had paid a price in the process of wounding Void and become one of the Fallen. But.

‘At least it isn’t this.’

Studying the ink closely, I came to a conclusion.

This wasn’t a substance from another world. It was just ink. Something from the real world.

So then, why had she done something like this?

That was a question I could answer simply by asking her directly.

“Let’s go look for her.”

To find Dersia, I slowly stretched out my Current Sense and checked the parts of the forest that hadn’t been within reach from a distance.

That was what I’d meant to do.

“! Jern!”

Crunch…!

The instant I unfurled my Current Sense, Linmel drew her sword.

It was because the ink, which had looked like nothing more than inert matter, abruptly changed. The stuff that had been writhing as though life had been breathed into it began to slowly gather together in response to my Current Sense.

“It’s… going to be fine. Probably.”

I calmed the tense, on-edge Linmel and observed the ink as it began to clump.

There was no doubt this thing had reacted to my Current Sense. Which meant it was something Dersia had prepared in advance.

That made the story even simpler. If this thing tried to kill me, then Dersia had become one of the Fallen, unable to recognize even her own disciple’s face. And if it attacked without intent to kill, then it was just a stern punishment aimed at a disciple who’d vanished without a word for a full five years.

Either way, given Dersia’s personality, it was obvious she’d try to tear my limbs apart, so I braced myself. But to my surprise, the gathered ink launched no attack.

Instead, it shaped itself into something vaguely resembling a human, and the part where a mouth should be opened up.

And it spoke in a rather familiar voice, at that.

[If this message has reached you, then you’re probably Jern, who came searching for the last place I was seen. Well… I figured you’d be alive.]

“Huh.”

The ink used Dersia’s usual tone, languid as ever.

Seeing it, Linmel grimaced, sheathed her sword again, and grumbled.

“Hey, then why was it brimming with killing intent?”

“…”

I couldn’t answer, too busy turning over the words I’d just heard.

If this message has reached you…

That was, how to put it, a sentence better suited to a recording than to a conversation.

[That’s exactly right. This message is one-directional, and I cannot hear your words, Jern.]

“?”

The lump of ink returned an answer that seemed to read my thoughts precisely.

[It’s a reunion after a long while, I imagine. Ten years, twenty years, or perhaps even a hundred years later. Even so, the fact that I have to use a method like this leaves me with nothing to offer but an apology.]

Whatever I thought of it, the lump of ink went on.

[It can’t be helped. I’m currently not in a state where I can meet you in person.]

No, was she still doing research even in a situation like this?

Dersia was crazy, but I wondered whether she was crazy to that degree, and tilted my head.

[Because by the time you’re receiving this message, I will already be dead.]

“…………What?”

A sentence I couldn’t comprehend spilled out.

Wondering whether this was some kind of metaphor, I tilted my head.

[I did not sacrifice myself. I trust you know that isn’t the sort of person I am.]

[Nor did I give up. There was a time I considered it, but whenever I did, I’d remember a certain foolish human who flailed to keep living even after sinking into the Deep Sea.]

[With my life’s purpose gone and the world standing on the brink of ruin, I simply tried, just once, to find a new purpose.]

“Wait, wait a moment.”

Even though I knew it was a lump of ink, a recording, I clutched my throbbing head and threw out a question.

“You died? Really? I mean, it’s not like you performed some resurrection ritual or split off a piece of your life and scattered it across the world or anything…”

[Look up at the sky.]

The recording delivered the command in its still-languid voice.

But once again I found it utterly impossible to refuse, and when I looked up, a sky tinged faintly with the color of dusk came into view.

[If, regardless of day or night, you can see a black, distinct line cutting across the sky, then it means everything ended a long time ago. In that case, just hurry up and follow me. In the afterlife, I’ll lecture you for days on end about how late you were and how foolish you were.]

[But if you can’t see it, then it means time is still permitted to you, and to the world.]

[I melted down my own life to inflict upon Void a Stigma that can never be erased. It worked precisely because I never intended to come back alive, and it serves both to keep him from moving for a while and as a marker.]

[If Void truly comes to rule all of the sky, if every last wisp of cloud falls into his grasp, then at that point the Stigma I left will become visible in the sky.]

[I know you have a plan. I know that if you didn’t, you wouldn’t have come back.]

[There’s little time to wait. Remember that.]

“…I don’t have one.”

Gritting my teeth, I confessed to the lump of ink.

“I’m sorry to disappoint you, but all I’ve managed is to find an imperfect method of somehow caging the sky. I’d meant to think through a way to face him head-on and win together with you, Master, but now that’s impossible.”

Dersia was dead.

Thinking about it now, it was a possibility I should obviously have considered.

She was undeniably a great Wizard. The finest Wizard I knew.

But the fact that she’d wounded Void meant she’d gotten that close to him, and to wound him and still escape unharmed was something utterly impossible for a mortal.

Why hadn’t I thought of it?

Or perhaps, had I thought of it and simply refused to let it surface?

“Jern…”

Linmel reached out to lay a hand on my shoulder with a tender expression, then let it drop.

What fault was it of hers? Letting out a sigh, I patted Linmel’s back.

[…]

The lump of ink fell silent, as though it had said everything it had to say.

No farewell, nothing, just saying its piece and being done, that was so very like Dersia, I thought, and then.

[Are you crying?]

“?”

The thing attempted to comfort me.

[Hm. If so, it would put me in a slightly better mood. Though I’m sure that isn’t the case.]

[Still, I think I can guess what you’re thinking. Probably something like, there’s no perfect way to handle Void, why did you die first, how is it that an elf lives a shorter life than a human, hurling whatever curses come to mind.]

“…You’re completely wrong.”

I clenched my fist, wanting to deck her.

[Understood.]

[It is a master’s role to make up for a disciple’s shortcomings, and I do retain the awareness that I am your master.]

[Just once is enough. Create a space Void can absolutely never escape from, and whether you lure him in, abduct him, or do whatever else, cage him.]

[And then, if you call me by the title you used when we first met, I will stop Void for exactly eleven seconds.]

“…!”

At those words, my eyes went wide.

Eleven seconds.

That much time would be more than enough. No, it was enough.

But how?

[My life turned out to carry a higher price than I expected.]

[This is the last help I can leave you.]

[Farewell, or rather the answer to all these explanations, can wait until after you’ve struck him down, I think.]

[Well then, that’s all.]

“Oh, damn it, she’s not even dead!”

Unable to hold back my anger, I hurled Sea Water and burst the lump of ink as it tried to slowly fade away.

In other words, Dersia was living on as a Stigma, tormenting Void. Of course it was true that she’d thrown away her life, and true that she’d given up a great deal, but.

I really thought she’d died. Chewing over that utterly awful feeling, I soon caught myself starting to smile a little and consciously pulled the corners of my mouth back down.

“Phew, what a relief…”

“Relief, my foot. What a temper…”

She must have phrased it that way on purpose because I’d been a little late.

What a nasty streak. As I was thinking that, Nightchase, who had been sitting quietly inside the cup all this while, crawled out.

“You’re not actually buying that, are you?”

“What are you on about now?”

“It’s nonsense, is what. How could a mortal who’s just a bit clever stop Void for eleven whole seconds? Build a plan on top of that and you’ll fail.”

“It won’t fail. My Master’s character may be a bit off, but she never, ever says things she doesn’t mean.”

“I can’t even believe she inflicted a Stigma…”

“Shut your mouth and take a look at this. Do you think I could pull off something like this?”

“Haaah…”

I sat right down on the ground and began writing out the plan on the dirt.

Covering the world in the Deep Sea.

The eleven seconds Dersia could give me.

And every connection and every power I could call upon.

These were all the possibilities I could draw on in the current situation.

“This part will work. You’re the Outer God of the Deep Sea, after all. You definitely govern up to this domain.”

“This part… I’m not sure. I think I’d have to try it once to know.”

“Hm, this one…”

It turned out Nightchase hadn’t earned her Outer God seniority for nothing, going through my plan point by point and running the calculations for me.

“Hey, does this even make sense? You want to submerge mortals in the Deep Sea and have them hold out for three days? What do you take humans for?”

“No, in the Surface Layer they can manage it. Right, Linmel?”

“J-Jern. I hate to say it, but… the headmaster would probably die in about thirty minutes…?”

“…Really?”

Sometimes catching corrections on the theoretical points as well.

In the end, I finished it.

“Phew. How’s that?”

“…”

Nightchase stared intently at the letters scratched into the dirt, and then.

Her face soon scrunched up.

“Your handwriting is really terrible.”

“…Now that you mention it, how is it you can even read this?”

“Because with a language this crude, I can grasp how it’s structured just by looking at the collection of letters. Hmm…”

After inspecting my plan for a while, Nightchase crossed her arms with a displeased look.

“This needs revising.”

“What do you think we’ve been doing for the last three hours?”

“That was the process of tearing it apart and fixing it.”

With a sigh, she crawled back into the bag.

“If you keep this plan as is and only revise the finer details, well, considering the current situation, it’d be the best you can do.”

“That’s good enough.”

I was satisfied that at least the main framework had been set up.

It was a world of difference from the past, when I’d reached out into total darkness with no idea where anything was.

“The first thing that needs revising is the time. You set it far too generously. You’ll have to revise it to be much faster.”

“What? No, if you’re saying I should finish a plan like this within half a year, that’s plenty of…”

“Look at the sky.”

Nightchase let out a snicker and uttered the same words as the lump of ink.

“…”

Sensing something uneasy in that laugh, I looked up at the sky.

“Ah…”

“…”

Even within the darkening sky, I could clearly make it out.

A faint black line was cutting across the sky.