Wizard of the Abyss - Chapter 125

WETRIED TRANSLATIONS

Wizard of the Abyss

[Translator – Aren]

Chapter 125 - Turbidity (1)

The moment I realized I had lost my memories.

And the moment Nightfall, wearing an intrigued expression, told me only one thing: that I had sworn loyalty to her.

I lowered my head without asking a single question.

"Yes. Then I will swear my loyalty.”

"Is that so? That makes me happy.”

"..."

I still remember the way Number 1 had looked at me, as if I were a monster.

After receiving everything I needed to know under the pretense of education, I searched my body. There were exactly three things on me.

A key whose purpose I couldn’t even begin to fathom.

A pearl-shaped pill.

And a strange bestiary.

"...What is this?”

The first two aside, the last was by far the most bizarre.

When I read it, the handwriting and script were unmistakably my own. Yet the contents described grotesque lifeforms I couldn’t quite accept as real, no matter how much I had supposedly lost my memories.

In the end, while I was busy grasping the situation, I had entirely forgotten about the book.

That was until I saw a long, bleeding eel pass right before me.

"?"

At first, I had no idea what I was looking at.

I wondered if it was normal to see monstrous creatures drifting through empty air, but after asking others, I learned it wasn’t.

"Is that a lifeform from Lady Nightfall’s world?”

"...? What are you pointing at? A bird?”

"No, the one moving with the currents…”

"Currents?"

That was when I realized that not everyone lived in the same environment I did.

The sensation that the world was completely submerged and the existence of these grotesque creatures seemed completely unique to me.

It didn’t take long to identify what this condition was.

"I-is it really you…?”

"Yes. Look at me! I escaped my burdens while keeping my sanity intact. If it weren’t for Lady Nightfall, I’d still be pulling out my teeth every day.”

"Th-then maybe I could too…”

"Of course. She’s so compassionate. You can do it as well!”

Through my main work, proselytizing to the Fallen, I realized it was extremely similar to the condition they suffered from, called burdens.

But something didn’t add up. According to Nightfall, I was a Fallen, and in exchange for transferring all of my world’s burdens to her, I had sworn loyalty.

As that unease about this illogical situation lingered, other family members returned to the capital.

By then, I had grown fairly close to them. So I went to help as well.

"What’s going on?”

"We brought livestock.”

"?"

To me, they looked like nothing more than people.

Wondering if they were slaves, I asked again.

"Are these people also Fallen?”

"No. They’re literally livestock. The ones who take on our burdens.”

"...Huh?”

"What? You didn’t know?”

"Well, didn’t they say this guy offered up his memories? It happens.”

Since the other family members had taken a liking to me for working so diligently, they explained things carefully.

"Lady Nightfall bears all of our burdens. But no matter how great she is, it’d be impossible for her to endure them all alone, right?”

"That’s true.”

"But Puppet can, astonishingly, transfer the burdens onto others. So Lady Nightfall has these livestock experience the burdens she’s taken from us in our stead.”

"...Are the livestock bred for this purpose?”

"Haha, we call them livestock, but it’s not like we raise them the way you would cows, chickens, or pigs. Usually, we gather natives from nearby countries, orphans, vagrants, and so on, but lately, thanks to how hard you’ve been working, we’re even planning to bring some from neighboring small states as well.”

"Ah, that’s a relief."

At such a matter-of-fact response, I too smiled in satisfaction as I let out a soft sigh.

"If what you’re saying is true, then this seems to be the perfect countermeasure against our burdens.”

"It’s all thanks to how much she loves us.”

Looking at the family member laughing heartily and the livestock repeating only what they had been told—it finally dawned on me.

Why my past self had come here, and why, despite not having handed over all of my burdens yet, I hadn’t told Nightfall about it to receive any follow-up adjustments.

I had come here to kill Nightfall.

"May I ask when you’re planning to bring the livestock from the small states?”

"Hmm? Why do you ask?”

"In case there’s anything I might be able to help with.”

"Haha, just focus on bringing in more Fallen. We’ll handle that sort of menial work. Still, since the number of burdens we have to bear has been increasing lately, we’ll probably need to head out within a month.”

"I see. I was worried that my work might only be increasing the burdens our family has to shoulder.”

"Hah, what a strange thing to worry about…”

The time limit was set.

The method, however, was lacking.

Nightfall commanded countless family members. I was alone, bearing burdens. The difference in power wasn’t just overwhelming but akin to trying to crack steel with an egg.

That was when I finally understood what my past self had arranged.

-Crrrrrrack!

"Ugh."

I felt nauseating, suffocating pressure crush down on me.

And at the same time, I clenched my fists as I looked at the person-sized boulder that had been pulverized.

I could unfold my world.

I possessed the power to make my opponent taste this hell.

"This won’t be easy…”

I agonized over the plan from every angle, but in the end, I could never gain certainty.

No matter how absurd the method, I couldn’t avoid the outcome of facing Nightfall alone. In fact, creating that very situation was the purpose of the plan from the start.

As for whether I could defeat her, the answer was always the same. I couldn’t.

Nightfall could manipulate me at any given moment using her threads and strangle me at any time. Even if I tried to crush her to death, she could simply dump those burdens onto someone else.

Aside from using my world’s burdens, there was no way to kill her. However, unlike her, who could kill me in an instant, my burdens would always get blocked.

In the end, with no clear solution for this problem, I spent a long time doing nothing but refining the plan, until one day…

[....]

[-----?]

Those things drifting through my world.

As I watched those monstrous creatures, I reached out on a whim.

I believe a thread brushed against the body of a headless octopus.

[.]

[-]

For an instant, just an instant.

The moment the thread touched it, I was able to control that creature.

But this meant nothing.

[?..???]

Every other creature rushed at the octopus at once.

-Rrrrrip!!

With their teeth, claws, and fangs, they seized it, tore it apart, and shredded it.

Not a trace of the octopus remained. As it vanished, the others resumed swimming as if nothing had happened.

"...So that’s how it is.”

I had found out two things.

First, that I absolutely must never let these creatures realize I exist.

"This is it."

And right before the octopus was devoured—

I had unmistakably moved its limbs with my own will.

* * *

I had expected a Fallen at Nightfall’s level to be able to see it.

And I had also expected her to be surprised.

But Nightfall wasn’t surprised. Instead, she clenched her teeth.

"...Decay."

"?"

She spoke a name I had never heard before.

"So that’s it. I guess you really didn’t like me.”

"I’m not quite sure what you mean.”

Without answering, rain fell into the Abyssal Sea.

So many threads descended that they obscured my vision.

They weren’t aiming for me. They were aiming for the deep-sea creatures.

It was only natural. If she was trying to command the same targets I was, there was no way I could beat her who had been raised within the Puppet world from birth.

So I simply smiled and took a single action.

I released my control over them.

[?]

[...?]

The creatures that had been my puppets moments ago looked bewildered, then lightly dodged the threads reaching for their bodies.

Their speed was abnormal. Seeing Nightfall frown as she failed to control the deep-sea creatures, she sent down more threads.

Strangely enough, they seemed completely oblivious to ‘me.’

Both to the threads I controlled and the fact that I existed.

Every now and then, one of them would move about as if they were about to realize something—and each time it sent a chill down my spine—but the important thing was that they still didn’t know.

However, any creature that was controlled by my threads was devoured almost instantly.

So, I controlled every deep-sea creature in that area at once.

In exchange, I had to expend all of my threads.

Seeing that my threads were accepted without any resistance, Nightfall ground her teeth.

"How dare you try to abandon me? Without me, you wouldn’t have fulfilled half of your prophecy!”

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

"Shut up!”

Nightfall tore out threads again and again.

I forced a smile, hiding my growing tension. If even one deep-sea creature fell under Nightfall’s control. I’d be finished.

Because the truth of the matter was—I had only half-succeeded in commanding them.

I could make them move by twisting their bodies somehow. But commands like ‘bite the enemy’ simply didn’t work no matter how often I tried.

I had even practiced by controlling similar-looking fish.

Those were rather easy to move, to my surprise.

But deep-sea creatures were different. They felt like beings that lived in an entirely different world. Well, they probably did.

So if Nightfall managed to embed her threads and realized that she too could only make them move and nothing more, I was more or less dead.

Thankfully…

"...!"

Not a single deep-sea creature fell under Nightfall’s control.

Some of them even grabbed her threads and tore them apart as if annoyed. Seeing that, Nightfall’s face darkened.

It seemed it caused more damage than just snapping some threads.

The situation had reversed. Since bluffing was now the obvious thing to do, I mocked her acting relaxed.

"How is it? Enduring it must be quite difficult.”

"..."

In reality, even at this very moment, Nightfall was offloading the Abyssal Sea.

They weren’t just any burdens, but the burdens of the Abyssal Sea. I couldn’t even imagine how many she was transferring just to move around normally.

If Sunken Mire managed to keep the Fallen from dying, then as time passed… Nightfall would eventually be forced to bear the burdens with her own body.

If I endured, I would win. That much was certain.

In the midst of this tense standoff, she suddenly stopped.

"...What a waste.”

She looked at me with genuine regret.

...?

She showed no scorn, no irritation, and no desperation.

Well, regret, of course, was also a negative emotion, but still…

For some reason, a sense of unease crept over me.

"Tsk, I wanted to at least keep your mind intact…”

"...What are you talking about?”

She looked at me with irritation mixed with anger, then raised her hand and pointed at me, attempting to start a conversation.

"You, you’re Decay’s dog. This is my last request. Get out of my brother’s body.”

"The current situation is in my favor. If you bring proper evidence, I’ll consider it.”

"You were just being used. If you at least want to die as yourself, follow my order.”

"By whom?”

"Decay. Decay probably realized, to some extent, that you were the Abyssal Sea.”

"...?"

"Ah, so that’s as far as it goes.”

"Ugh..."

Snap

The moment she flicked her fingers, my head was flooded with noise.

Amid the chaos of memories, the word ‘Decay’ surfaced. Clutching my head, I glared at her as I realized what she had done.

"Even if you do this, nothing changes.”

"You know who Decay is now, don’t you?”

"..."

Just now, Nightfall had returned my memories.

The volume of information was overwhelming, so my past self and my present self hadn’t fully merged yet, but I clearly remembered one thing. Decay was an Upper Tier.

She continued, her voice filled with irritation.

"Decay set the stage for you to kill me and rise to the Upper Tier. He’s always criticized me for ignoring Great Void and pursuing my own interests. So he decided to clear me out for the Abyssal Sea to take my seat.”

"That sounds like an excellent choice. Care to explain what the downside is?”

"—I already suspected as much when Mother told me about you. Even so, I took you under my wing.”

Nightfall glared at me as she spoke.

"One reason was that I thought you’d make a good big brother. The other, because you're already my family, my child.”

"...What?"

"Answer me."

Nightfall pulled a single thread from her finger and tossed it toward me.

The thread drifted through the seawater and stopped right in front of me.

"Say it. That you’ll become a fool with only your mind left intact. If you do, I’ll assemble the remaining memories and put them back in for you. You’ll become my big brother again.”

"Hmm..."

I nodded thoughtfully, then raised my middle finger.

"It’s a tempting offer, but I’ll have to decline.”

"Idiot.”

Nightfall let out a deep sigh and extended her hand once more.

I thought she might give me a similar offer again, just with a different twist.

But that wasn’t the case.

In the next instant, it went beyond just mental fog. Something started happening inside my head.

"There’s something you seem to be misunderstanding.”

No way.

I couldn’t be, right? Suppressing those feelings, I looked up at her.

"I can pass burdens onto my family members as well.”