WETRIED TRANSLATIONS

Wizard of the Abyss

[Translator – Aren]

Chapter 127 - Turbidity (3)

Puppet resisted fiercely.

Her threads tore and split apart, and she repeatedly abandoned her human shape altogether. In the process, there were moments when she managed to reach me using her practiced methods.

It didn’t mean much, though.

"This is impossible…”

Bubbles rose, and I could see the future paths her threads would take.

I wasn’t being damaged by her attacks. No, I couldn’t be damaged in the first place. In my current state, I was already half-fused with the seawater.

Meanwhile, Puppet was being shredded apart in real time.

There was no way for her to block it. The very space she occupied was just one gigantic blade.

“You haven’t even abandoned your human body yet…!”

"There’s something I’d like to ask you about that.”

Seizing the opportunity, I closed the distance.

Now that I could see her body splitting into threads, she’d become something like a grotesque monster—she couldn’t resist anymore and only stepped back.

She knew it. That her life was already resting in my hands.

"Ah."

When I lightly shook my head, the threads supporting her neck fell away.

Seeing fear bloom in Puppet’s eyes, I confirmed it once more.

For some reason, this world was imitating humans, and it feared losing its human body.

That didn’t make any sense to me.

"Why are you trying to pretend to be human?”

"...What?"

"You’re not human. You’re just this, right?”

I swirled the seawater a bit. This water and Puppet weren’t fundamentally different.

This was no different from a human suddenly wrapping themselves in a cow’s hide, eating grass, and trying to mingle with cattle. They were already completely different species—no, perhaps they could still be called members of this species in some vague way.

"I can roughly understand how that Great Void or whatever turned a world like you into something resembling a human, but did he implant some kind of purpose in you as well?”

"...”

"If you don’t want to answer, then don’t.”

-Slice!

She glared at me with great malice, so I casually sliced away more of the threads forming her body.

No matter how many times I cut her, I couldn’t kill her. But I could strip away the humanity she clung to and yearned for.

Just like what I had nearly experienced myself, once she lost her human form, she would revert to her original state, made of nothing but thread.

Only then did Puppet hurriedly respond.

"...If fusion has already begun for you, then you should understand.”

"Understand what?”

"We don’t become the entire world. We become part of it.”

"I don’t see the difference…”

"If you dissolve into seawater, you don’t become one with the sea. Your memories and will merely merge into the world.”

"I still don’t understand.”

"A Fallen who fuses with a world kills that world.”

"?"

Puppet clutched at her chest.

"You’re right. I am Puppet, a world that still holds the memories of Nightfall. The problem is that even if one fully fuses with the world, the burdens don’t disappear. Only the target changes.”

Only then did I grasp the full context.

A world kills the Fallen through burdens. That was how and why it was made.

But what if, through some circumstance, a Fallen were to fuse with that world?

The Fallen’s world would still carry out its role.

It would have to kill itself.

The burdens would begin to be imposed on the world.

"That’s the end of a world that has swallowed a Fallen.”

Puppet answered gloomily.

"I was originally meant to wait for my end. To be killed by my creator, by myself. But Great Void traveled across worlds to find me, scraped together Nightfall’s memories, and made me as Nightfall.”

"Well… I understand how you were born, at least.”

I shrugged.

"Then I suppose I can roughly understand that ridiculous family act as well.”

"It was to cut Nightfall out of Puppet. At the very least, to free her from the cause of her fall.”

"More precisely, to erase Nightfall and survive as Puppet.”

Puppet had to erase the Nightfall dissolved within her to survive as a world.

And in the middle of that, Great Void arrived and somehow forced her to act.

Still, there was something I still couldn’t understand.

"So what was the reason for turning this country into this?”

Expanding her family, creating children, and raising humans as livestock.

There was no way all this misery could exist without a reason. That would be far too cruel to the victims.

But the answer I got was so terrible that I almost wished there had been no reason at all.

"To erase Nightfall from Puppet, she has to be satisfied.”

"Satisfied…?”

"Yes, didn’t you too become what you are because you felt despair, malice, and suffering when you fell into the Abyssal Sea?”

Not really.

But I remembered Ren, searching for her parents until the very end.

It seemed the experience that led a Fallen into their fall was extremely important.

"By resolving the cause of that fall, I can remain without being erased.”

"Then what was the cause?”

"Nightfall wanted all living people to become one big family that loved one another.”

"..."

"Undercurrent, no, Abyssal Sea. I know you too. You’re…the kind of human who leans toward good.”

Sensing that combat would no longer yield any results, Puppet tried persuasion instead.

"Do you really think this is such a terrible thing? I have no limits. Under my rule, everyone will flourish and prosper without conflict. And because I must satisfy Nightfall to survive, it will last literally forever.”

"...You call yourself Nightfall, so I thought you’d understand.”

"Hm?”

"How did you fall to end up with a wish like that?"

"...?"

Puppet looked confused, yet still answered.

"I was born a princess of Manganji. That was a long time ago during an era of war. To avoid being pushed out of the line of succession, I had to stamp documents ordering people’s deaths over and over with my own seal.”

Her expression as she recounted it was completely calm.

"As the war dragged on, I had to approve increasingly dangerous operations. Cutting off prisoners’ limbs one by one and sending them back. Destroying dams near enemy cities and drowning everyone below. I personally issued those orders.”

"Did that torment you?”

"I remember that it did. One day, I went to a city I had personally ordered to be massacred. I saw a well filled with blood, and two children hiding inside it. In that moment, I felt like a puppet, stamping papers that killed people, rather than a princess revered by all.”

"..."

"I don’t remember much after that. I suppose I fused quite quickly. Until Great Void extracted me, I was slowly dying.”

A chuckle escaped me.

Puppet was sincere. She truly believed that this was the only way for everyone to survive happily and the only way to use her powers.

We were, quite literally, operating on different levels.

Perhaps, in the realm of worlds, this really was the correct answer.

"Trust me. Everyone will be happy.”

In the end, what I had to do didn’t change.

When I rose from my spot and raised my hand, Puppet flinched.

"Th-this is meaningless.”

"It has meaning to me. And to those you’ve enslaved.”

"If you fuse like this, the only ones who’ll benefit are Great Void and Decay! Come to your senses!”

"Ah, that’s fine.”

I answered lightly.

"Even if that Great Void assembles me inside the Abyssal Sea, I won’t listen.”

"How can you be so sure?”

"Didn’t you see it yourself?”

"...”

Even after losing my memories, I had acted the same way.

It was perfect, undeniable proof. Puppet opened her mouth to argue, but in the end, she shut it again with a sullen expression.

"Yes, alright.”

-Slice!

Those were her final words.

* * *

Dawn passed, and the sun began to rise.

"..."

Standing dazed in the morning light. I looked over the livestock collapsed throughout the capital. My Tide Sense expanded so much it was beyond control.

Their hearts were beating.

With the tyrant gone—it seemed they had returned to normal.

That was a relief.

Except for the fact that I wasn’t normal.

"Khg..."

I had learned many things. That the Upper Tier were personifications of worlds and that there was a man called Great Void among them.

And above all—by killing Puppet, I too had gained the qualification to enter that place.

Had Decay foreseen this? Who that qualification would fall to…?

But that wasn’t important right now.

"F…uck…”

I dropped to my knees and clawed at the dirt. I clenched my fists until blood flowed, trying to escape the dizzying sense of omnipotence, but I couldn’t stop the intoxicating euphoria.

My body was melting. Becoming one…

I had survived Abyssal Fusion once before.

But this time, I didn’t feel even the slightest optimism that things would somehow work out again.

As I desperately clung to the sensation of becoming part of the Abyssal Sea and endured it, something was caught in my Tide Sense.

[D-did he leave…?]

It was Sunken Mire.

Faithfully carrying out my orders, she had apparently survived Number 1 by stuffing all the Fallen into the swamp.

I hesitated for a moment. She had followed my orders, sure, but…

Could I trust her?

"Tsk."

This wasn’t the time to worry about that.

Dragging my steadily dissolving body, I made my way to where she was hiding. She immediately rushed over to me in a panic when she saw me trembling when she reached my side.

"S-Sir Undercurrent? Did you win?”

"What would you do if I said I lost?”

"...I’d run away by myself, I guess?”

Hearing that made my trust in her plummet instantly, but—

She was also the one who had risked her life to come find me while I had lost my memories.

Even if it wasn’t out of pure goodwill, if she had staked her life, then she was worth entrusting something to.

With trembling hands, I pulled a key from my clothes.

"Listen carefully. I won’t wake up for several hours. Use this key to open the sealed room and put me inside. There’ll be a flute in there. When you play it, a crow will come flying. Don’t doubt anything that the crow will say. Do exactly as it tells you.”

"W-wait a second. I don’t really understand what you’re saying… And why are you sweating so much?”

"I’ve said everything I need to. I’m counting on you.”

"What?”

I had to endure.

After coming this far, melting away at the very end was completely unacceptable.

But as if mocking that resolve, the moment I handed Sunken Mire the key—

With the sound of water splashing around me, the world changed.

Everything around me was swallowed by dark blue water.

"...Ah."

Sunken Mire vanished in an instant.

More accurately, my perception had shifted to something else.

[...-------..................]

[...???!...........]

The deep-sea creatures drifted around me.

A place where several huge pupils were around me, with every sound muffled. That was where I now existed.

When I exhaled, bubbles came out. A misfortune, and yet a blessing.

My inner world had become closer to the Abyssal Sea than to the Reality Realm.

I clenched my teeth. The only thing I had to do was endure without losing my physical form.

But strangely enough—

"...Huh?”

It wasn’t as difficult as I had expected.

Of course, if I let my mind slip even for a second, I would be devoured in an instant, but it was bearable at the very least.

Before, it felt like I’d die on the spot if even a branch pierced my leg.

"Hmm..."

I remained kneeling, not letting my guard down, but after several hours passed like that, stray thoughts began to surface.

Maybe the reason it wasn’t so unbearable was because it was already too late?

Had I already become one with the Abyssal Sea the moment I arrived here?

Perhaps it meant I could never return, doomed to live in this hell for the rest of eternity.

I shook my head, brushing those negative thoughts away.

The fact that I was even thinking like this was proof that it wasn’t the case.

As I held onto my thoughts and pondered what exactly my current state was….

Something incredibly bizarre was caught by my Tide Sense.

Something I had never seen before in my life.

"...?"

Inside the Abyssal Sea—

A corpse was floating.

"...Nightfall?”

And it was the corpse of the one I had just killed.

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