WETRIED TRANSLATIONS

Wizard of the Abyss

[Translator – Aren]

Chapter 126 - Turbidity (2)

"..."

Nightfall stared at Undercurrent, frozen stiff like a stone, then let out a sigh.

It was over.

This wasn’t a level of burden a single Fallen could possibly endure.

"If only I had a little more time…”

With a sulky expression, she pouted her lips and looked at the broken Undercurrent with regret.

Losing such a talented person was truly a crying shame. At most, she had expected him to seize some children and launch a surprise attack.

And yet, even after losing all his memories, starting from a blank slate, he had gathered the remaining information, identified what needed to be done, and carried it out.

Nightfall found herself thinking that if she’d turned him into a fool and used him, perhaps…

He really could have become a truly reliable big brother.

"...?"

As she thought about that, Nightfall realized that the burdens hadn’t vanished yet and narrowed her gaze at Undercurrent.

He was kneeling with his eyes closed, arms hanging limp with his palms exposed.

He clearly wasn’t in his right mind. The problem was that the burdens were still being updated constantly.

And it wasn’t just Undercurrent’s Abyssal Sea. She still had to bear the burdens of the other Fallen.

In other words, Number 1 had failed to deal with the other Fallen.

"Tsk."

She didn’t know why, but one thing was certain: if she didn’t finish Undercurrent off right now, the burdens would surge back onto her. Clicking her tongue, she shot a glare toward the Abyssal Sea’s creatures still drifting about, then stepped forward.

[...]

The deep-sea creatures didn’t react. With their master in that state, that was only natural.

Without a single worry in mind, Nightfall approached Undercurrent and pressed a dagger made of threads against his neck.

She was about to kill someone who she had once called family not too long ago—yet not a flicker of emotion stirred within her.

She could just give the name to someone else. There was no problem at all…

"...This feels awful.”

"!”

-Crack.

The dagger was caught.

Nightfall staggered back, feeling startled, but Undercurrent didn’t release the threads.

"H-how…?”

She was horrified as she stared at Undercurrent, who was rising unsteadily to his feet, not believing her own eyes.

She should kill him. Even if it was a waste, she’d decided to do it, so she hadn’t held back in the slightest.

She slammed the strongest burden she possessed straight into Undercurrent’s head without any mercy.

Yes, her strongest burden.

"..."

"Ugh!”

But there was no time for words.

He had managed to seize her threads from that close.

The only relief was that Undercurrent didn’t seem fully normal either. She hastily pulled away, but—

She saw nothing gathering in her hand.

-Boom!

"Oh, isn’t that amazing? I can even do things like that.”

"..."

Undercurrent, still slumped on the ground, stretched out his hand and conjured magic.

The spear of wind pierced straight through Nightfall’s abdomen.

After receiving an attack powerful enough to tear a person apart with ease at point-blank, with her slender body, Nightfall clutched her stomach.

It was meaningless.

"However."

Undercurrent looked at her abdomen with eyes full of pity.

There was a hole, yet no blood flowed out. Instead, what should have been flesh had become a cavity colored like flesh.

Moments later, the hole closed. Seeing Nightfall grit her teeth, he continued bitterly,

"You were already no longer human. A mere phenomenon.”

* * *

I tapped my head a few times as I got up. My memories were still muddled, but I had grasped everything important.

There was something I had realized at the end of my fight with Illusory Flower.

When a Fallen uses their abilities too excessively without dying, they become part of their world.

Abyssal Fusion. That was the state they would enter.

I still didn’t know how I had survived becoming like that. I should have become part of the Abyssal Sea…

But back to the main point.

"To be honest, there was something I never quite understood.”

Passing burdens onto others.

Was that really something an individual could do?

No, to begin with—was that even an ability that belonged to the world’s burdens?

Nightfall was far too versatile. She used abilities on a massive scale without suffering from burdens, without even consuming World-Sealing Elixirs.

If this truly fell within the category of abilities—then Nightfall, as both the medium and user, should have been consuming tens of thousands of pills every day.

She never did.

The reason was simple.

"You weren’t a Fallen to begin with. You were the world itself. Of course you wouldn’t bear any burdens. Worlds impose burdens, not receive them.”

"..."

As she remained silent, I realized another truth.

"Then does that mean that the Upper Tiers weren’t Fallen in the first place but rather people who had merged with their words? No…even calling them people feels wrong.”

The enemy I was facing right now was quite literally worlds.

At least Fallen had burdens, so what was I supposed to do now?

Believing I could win was about as foolish as headbutting a glacier or digging a mountain with a shovel.

As I let out a sigh, Nightfall finally asked quietly.

"How do you know about fusion?”

"I nearly became like that once.”

"...What?"

"That’s why I was able to endure what you did just now.”

Just moments ago, my consciousness had been torn apart, split into countless threads.

It was a sensation that should have left me a complete wreck—but perhaps because I had experienced something like that before, or perhaps due to something else entirely—

Anyway, when Nightfall stepped closer, I was able to realize it. Thank the heavens.

"What I really can’t understand is how you’re maintaining your humanity.”

"..."

"In my experience, fusion means a human turning into seawater. Naturally, seawater isn’t a person but an object. I can’t believe you’re standing here having a conversation with me.”

"I’m…still human.”

"Oh, the bundle of threads is talking.”

Her reaction was immediate.

As if she no longer felt the need to hide it, her body split from her feet up to her waist, fluttering. With an expression that looked like it might devour a person whole, the treads came crashing down.

"So what!!”

There was no avoiding that speed. I was already too exhausted to properly handle the deep-sea creatures, and in an instant, I was wrapped up like an insect caught in a spider’s web.

"Then you should know that there’s no chance for you! Even if you understand it all, nothing changes, you know?”

-Crush!

Under the pressure cutting off my blood flow, I couldn’t even breathe as Nightfall’s bloodshot eyes bore into me.

"All your struggles are just that, struggles. Even if I get destroyed by those burdens, that won’t be a true death! Great Void will just remake me!”

"...Great Void."

"You were never my enemy. Not once, from the beginning until now. Even if you kill all my children and family members, it means nothing to me. I’ll just put them back together again.”

Listening to her, I nodded with everything I had.

Only now did I finally understand. She was a world trying to imitate a human.

If I had to be precise….

"You, ugh, were…one human.”

"...!"

"Khg."

It seemed I had hit the mark, seeing that the threads around me tightened even further.

There were parts of Nightfall’s behavior that simply didn’t make any sense.

If she were increasing the number of Fallen to expand her power and influence, then fine, that much was understandable. Logical even, regardless of good and evil.

Passing their burdens onto normal humans, those they called livestock, was also a rational way of managing risk.

But then what about the family members and children?

Why did she genuinely believe memoryless livestock would be happy, assign family positions without even distinguishing gender, outwardly cherish them yet replace them without hesitation, and not care whether they lived or died?

Why did she want to turn the entire world into that?

It was impossible to comprehend. There was no reason, no logic, and no rationality to be found.

But once I understood that she herself was a world, the picture finally came together.

Puppet was imitating a human.

A human named Nightfall.

"Die."

"..."

As my vision gradually turned white, I looked at her expression and became certain.

Great Void, most likely the highest being among the Upper Tiers, was turning worlds into humans by whatever means necessary.

A Fallen without any burdens. It most certainly sounded quite sweet, right?

One might become able to use power rivalling that of a wizard who had reached the Heavenly Realm.

"Well, yeah…”

Though, seeing how Decay lost to Master again and again, they didn’t seem to be comparable to a Heavenly Realm mage after all.

The Lump didn’t seem to be a phenomenon yet, either.

"How…are you still alive?”

I set those thoughts aside and slipped free.

The threads binding my arms and legs had already come undone.

Nightfall, no… Puppet hadn’t freed me. She stared at me in disbelief as I walked through the threads themselves.

I shrugged and replied lightly.

"You’re right. Honestly, I don’t have any confidence in beating a world while remaining human.”

"...You!”

"But I told you, didn’t I? I’ve had that experience too.”

The step I took didn’t touch the ground.

When I inhaled, seawater flooded my lungs—but instead of pain, I felt omnipotence.

I had sworn to never use this again after my fight with Illusory Flower.

But now that I knew that my opponent was a world, I had no other choice.

I had to end this as quickly as possible.

"...Ah, now I see it.”

It couldn’t be—but if I had activated Abyssal Fusion the moment I saw Puppet, I never would have mistaken her for a human.

The Tide Sense in my fused state slammed an overwhelming flood of information straight into my brain, to the point that my usual Tide Sense felt like glimpsing at vague shadows in the dark.

In that flood, Puppet wasn’t wearing the shape of a human woman.

Instead, it was a writhing mass of threads mimicking the form of a human, sucking something out of every Fallen and every livestock.

An insect’s cocoon… That was the closest description I could come up with.

"...Ugh."

Once again, that nauseating sense of omnipotence surged through me.

Wouldn’t it be fine to just stay like this? To perceive, understand, and grasp everything that humans could never comprehend, and just feel all this forever…

"Fuck..."

It took time to suppress that impulse. Seeing me like that, Puppet smiled in relief.

"H-haha…! Do you really think that you can stand up against me, who’s lived as a world my entire life, now that you’ve finally become a world yourself?”

"We’ll see. Why don’t you show me something?”

"This is—!”

Her threads could no longer bind me.

Instead, they tangled chaotically and pierced into the ground. As I glanced at the space collapsing into a gap so tight not even water could flow through, sharpened threads rained down.

They weren’t trying to grab me. They were trying to pierce indiscriminately, to destroy my human form so I could no longer maintain it.

"...Hmm."

Every time it happened, that impulse tried to drag me under again.

I had thought that in my Abyssal Fusion state, any attack would be like cutting water with a blade, but that wasn’t the case.

If I truly lost my form, I would be swallowed by the world completely. That might not count as defeat… but I would lose the will to fight.

...Which meant defeat. As my perception warped and shifted, I frowned. Puppet took a few steps back, sneering mockingly.

"You chose the wrong opponent. Do you really think threads will crumple inside your Abyssal Sea?”

"..."

"A world may not have superiority or inferiority, but compatibility does exist! I don’t need the likes of you anymore. You’re not even the Grand Sea anyway, so hurry up and get out of this world!”

"You seem to be misunderstanding something.”

I took a single step, dodging the threads.

It was only natural. Every trajectory of those threads was already visible to me from the very beginning.

The reason I let them hit me before was simple curiosity. I wanted to know why she kept using attacks that didn’t even work on me.

But Puppet didn’t take it for granted. Startled, she increased the number of threads.

I watched indifferently, then casually swung my hand.

"Water pressure is just a characteristic of the Abyssal Sea. It’s not really an attack I’m using.”

"...What?"

-Slice!

Fluttering lightly, a part of her arm was severed and swept away by the current.

Staring at it in shock, Puppet frantically scanned her surroundings, trying to identify where the attack was coming from and how it was damaging her.

It was pointless.

"Kya–kyaaaaahg!!”

Letting out a human-like scream, Puppet’s arms, legs, neck…even her torso were haphazardly hacked apart.

Only then did she realize it.

"This…”

"Yes."

There were blades everywhere. Up, down, left, right. No matter where she turned.

I watched her with faint pity as despair flooded her expression and explained calmly.

“A terrible match indeed.”

It was a shame, but…

Puppet simply had really bad luck.

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