WETRIED TRANSLATIONS

Wizard of the Abyss

[Translator – Aren]

Chapter 140 - Connection (1)

"Can’t you see that?”

"...? See what?”

It seemed I was the only one who could see that dome.

A creeping sense of disbelief washed over me as I reached out and pushed my hand into it—

"Ugh."

I immediately yanked it back, feeling like it was being inflated from the inside, about to burst.

The change in pressure was immediate. I could see it, and I could feel it. Even after experiencing it firsthand, it was rather hard to believe…

My Abyssal Sea was unable to invade the inside of this dome.

"...Hah."

The first thing that came over me was a hollow kind of disbelief.

All this time, I had struggled so desperately to escape, but who would have thought that a place like this existed?

Even if I couldn’t enter right away because of decompression sickness, perhaps, if used properly—

"...No, that’s impossible."

I forcibly calmed my racing heart.

There was still nothing certain. And if there was one immutable rule so far, it was that there had never been an easy path.

There was no way that simply living in one specific region could be a solution. And even if it were, believing in it blindly would be foolish.

As I stared blankly up at the dome, VIle Blood nodded.

"Looks like you’ve found something.”

"Seems like it. Give me a moment.”

I swept the dome with my Tide Sense.

The inside wasn’t part of the Abyssal Sea’s domain, so I couldn’t see anything directly—

But it felt like a scientific phenomenon or a massive air bubble.

'I think I could break it.’

I pressed against the dome again and again, feeling this strangely familiar sensation.

"...?"

Only after plunging it firmly into the Abyssal Sea did I realize the truth.

This dome. I had one too.

'This is a Water Partition.'

The diving suit wrapped around me. The world that kept me from being crushed to death by the Abyssal Sea.

It was the same thing, just on a scale so vast it defied comprehension, rejecting the Abyssal Sea itself.

Which meant—

"Vile Blood. I have a question.”

"Hm? What is it?”

"Is it possible for two Fallen to have the same world?”

"There aren't so many worlds that it’s impossible. While rare, it does happen.”

Hearing his casual answer, my suspicion solidified.

Inside this colossal Water Partition was another Fallen of the Abyssal Sea who had chosen the same path as me.

A monster who had survived the Abyssal Sea far longer than I ever had.

I furrowed my brow and stirred the currents.

"Then I suppose I should say hello first.”

"What?”

Before Vile Blood could say anything else, I crushed the Water Partition with the pressure of the Abyssal Sea.

We lived in the same world, so I knew its weaknesses. If someone survived the Abyssal Sea by relying on the Water Partition, then the moment it collapsed, there was no way they could endure it.

As I slowly forced the dome to sink in, Vile Blood finally realized I was doing something and panicked.

"H-Hey, are you doing something right now? Is that okay? Shouldn't we at least try talking first, or maybe hide…”

"Hmm..."

I thought about it for a moment, then explained it in the simplest way possible.

"It’s already too late.”

"What do you mean?”

"I know the world of the Fallen inside the dome. At this point, we’ve already been completely mapped, down to the number of hairs on our heads. There’s already a blade at our throats.”

"?"

"To put it simply, the one inside is observing us in detail, and if they wanted to kill us, they could have done so at any time.”

"How…how does that make any sense?”

"Well, unfortunately, it’s the truth.”

An Abyssal Sea Fallen with a Water Partition of that scale would have detected us the moment we approached. Our words, movements, even our heartbeats would have been sensed by them.

There was no way back from the moment we arrived here.

"If they noticed we came here, we'd die even if we retreated. In that case, striking first is the best thing we can do.”

Even so, they wouldn’t have realized we shared the same world.

And there was no way that they could predict that we were both enduring through the same method, the Water Partition.

The Water Partition specialized in resisting overall force, but when that force was concentrated into a single point and driven through, it would instantly open up a hole, causing the shell to collapse.

Before long, the dome was swallowed back into the Abyssal Sea.

As if that fantastical sanctuary had never existed at all.

"...?"

And throughout all that, there wasn’t a single counterattack.

As I stared at the scene, Vile Blood tilted his head in confusion.

"Is it done? I don’t feel any difference…”

"...Let’s go inside for now. I think I know roughly where it is.”

What the…?

If the other was truly an Abyssal Sea Fallen like me, they should already be dead.

And if they really were in the Abyssal Sea, the moment the Water Partition began collapsing, they should’ve lashed out at least once in desperation…

This had been far too one-sided. Hesitating for a moment, I entered the city to uncover the truth.

The dome had been centered on a fountain in the middle of the city. Since I stood at the center of the Water Partition, that unknown Abyssal Sea Fallen should be somewhere nearby as well.

"We searched everywhere, but there weren’t any secret passages."

"Hmm..."

The fountain had clearly been completely torn apart already, yet there was nothing there.

That was only natural.

"Are those Scarlet Abyss bastards moles or something? Why are they so obsessed with underground spaces?”

“...Huh?"

"We need to dig deeper. There’s an entrance far below.”

"What? But we already dug deep enough for five people to fit down there!”

The squad members looked dumbfounded. I completely sympathized, but facts were facts.

After having Sunken Mire turn the ground into a swamp and carving out an antlion pit more than 30 meters deep, we finally hit something.

A bottomless shaft. And inside was a clearly man made ladder descending into the hole.

Vile Blood clicked his tongue as he peered into the shadowed hole.

"What the hell is this…? There isn’t even a single air vent. You’re telling me something was living down there? Or well, had it been?”

"..."

My suspicion solidified.

A world where breathing wasn’t necessary…or rather, a world where breathing was impossible.

I’d skimmed through encyclopedias listing countless worlds, and only one fit that description. A world whose burden made survival impossible from the start.

Turning back to the uneasy-looking group, I muttered.

"It’s probably really hard to breathe down there. Can anyone here live without breathing?”

"As if such a person exists.”

Yeah, it seemed like it was just me.

"I can manage, so I’ll go down alone. Keep watch up here.”

I shrugged and grabbed the ladder when I noticed Sunken Mire looking at me with worry on her face.

"Will you be alright?"

"No."

"?"

"But I still need to check.”

It was definitely dangerous. Scarlet Abyss wouldn’t leave a place as important as their World-Sealing Elixir production site so lightly guarded.

Which was exactly why I had to go down. Just knowing this much could flip the entire board.

"I’ll be back.”

* * *

As I had expected.

I couldn’t see a thing down there.

"..."

After descending several hundred meters, I immediately spread out my Tide Sense.

This pit was shaped like an ant colony with countless narrow tunnels branching outward in a labyrinthine manner.

While debating which way to go, I found a small cavity at the center of the maze.

Strangely, my Tide Sense couldn’t reach inside.

Judging by its location, I could feel that the Abyssal Sea Fallen was inside that space. I steadied my racing heart and quickened my pace.

-Splash, splash…

The earthen cave, soaked with moisture and on the verge of collapse, was disgustingly soft underfoot.

But gradually, the passage widened. The humidity subsided, and a brick road, still bearing some footprints, became visible.

At the end stood a door wrapped tightly in tree roots.

I paused, calming my racing heart—

Then gathered wind in my left hand.

I braced myself.

"...Hmph!"

-Boom!

The compressed wind turned into a spear and blew the door apart with ease.

I immediately lowered my stance and rushed forward, spreading my Tide Sense as fast as possible. I wanted to make absolutely sure that I was able to crush whoever was inside with water pressure first.

But.

"?"

There was nothing alive inside the chamber.

Instead there was a single corpse clinging to a tree.

"What the hell is this?”

It was far too old to be the Abyssal Sea Fallen I had just killed—It was a skeleton of someone who seemed to have died a very long time ago.

Feeling bewildered, I stared at the skeleton, wearing a tattered robe, embracing the small tree as if holding a lover, before scanning the surroundings.

There was nothing. Literally, nothing.

If I were being generous, I could say the soil on the floor had clearly been dug out and removed in large quantities. But that alone felt insufficient to be something Scarlet Abyss had been hiding so carefully.

I approached the skeleton without lowering my guard.

If it suddenly started to move and tried to kill me, I was confident I could react, but to my disappointment, nothing happened.

As I carefully examined it, making sure the bones wouldn’t collapse—

I noticed a piece of old paper clutched in its left hand, clutching the tree.

I unfolded the paper, which had been ravaged by time.

[I do not know who you are, who has reached this place, but please, do not kill this tree.]

[It is the last remaining tree. The last remaining hope.]

That was all.

"..."

So what the hell was I supposed to do with that?

The tree was just an ordinary oak. The fact that it was growing underground was quite unusual, but aside from that, I couldn’t find any difference between it and the tens of thousands of trees growing above ground.

"This is it…?”

Had Vile Blood made a mistake?

But then what was with the Water Partition?

Frowning, I swept every corner of the pit with my Tide Sense.

In the process, I did find carts loaded with large quantities of World-Sealing Elixirs. That confirmed that this place really was used to produce them, but that alone wasn’t particularly valuable.

What mattered was how they were made. There was a limit to how much we could carry, and eventually they’d all be used up anyway.

Unable to accept it, I spent about 10 minutes thoroughly exploring nearly every tunnel before finally reaching a conclusion.

Aside from the pills and that chamber, there was nothing here.

"A waste of time…”

It seemed this place was merely where the World-Sealing Elixirs were manufactured, while the formula and ingredients were sourced elsewhere.

Why they’d bother making them in such a shitty underground hole, I had no idea, though ‘because they are lunatics’ seemed like the most reasonable explanation to me.

Before leaving, I returned to the chamber one last time and checked it again with my Tide Sense, hoping that I had somehow missed something.

All I could say that it was that the skeleton of a man, that the robe was similar to the one I wore, and that the tree truly possessed no sacred power or something.

"Haah..."

For a moment, I wondered if this man had been the so-called First Mage, but Scarlet Abyss didn’t seem stupid enough to worship or despise some tree-hugger.

Letting out a deep sigh, I sat down on the floor before leaving.

If there had been even a single lead, I could’ve investigated further, but there were none, so there was nothing I could do.

The only thing I could learn from this chamber was the scrape marks left in the soil on the floor.

I wondered if there was something deeper underground, but my Tide Sense detected nothing at all.

Surely dirt itself couldn’t be the objective here. With a sense of resignation, I scooped up a handful of soil and let it crumble through my fingers.

And then.

"?"

As I stared at it, something felt off.

There wasn’t a single light source anywhere in this dark pit. Of course, that didn’t matter to me since I relied on my Tide Sense, not sight.

My Tide Sense had surpassed vision long ago. Strictly speaking, even wandering through this place had been unnecessary, but I still inflicted that hardship upon myself.

However, there was one thing my Tide Sense lagged behind sight in—

It couldn’t see color.

After a moment of thought, I lit a small flame and examined the soil.

"...Huh?"

The color was different.

The soil, which I had naturally assumed was brown, was actually pure white.

I stepped outside the cavern and shone the light again.

That made it abundantly clear. Only the soil inside the cavern was white.

And that white felt disturbingly familiar.

"No way.”

I took out a World-Sealing Elixir from my pocket.

When I held it next to the soil, the colors matched perfectly.

"...Seriously?"

Staring blankly at the soil in my hand, my mouth slightly ajar, I then—

Put it in my mouth.

It was the first time I had eaten dirt since kindergarten. It was incredibly gritty, bitter, and made something foul rise up from my stomach.

And at the same time—

The familiar feeling I always got whenever I took a World-Sealing Elixir, of my burdens starting to diminish, spread out within me.

"..."

Without a word, I looked around the cavern.

It seemed that...

I had finally discovered what the World-Sealing Elixirs were made from.

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