WETRIED TRANSLATIONS

Wizard of the Abyss

[Translator – Aren]

Chapter 181 - Oblivion (6)

A snow-covered mountain, and beside it, a spire.

Yet while the peak of the mountain was clearly visible, the tip of the spire was hidden within the clouds.

Even looking at it again, it sure was tall.

"What the hell is that…?”

"..."

The sheer height of that spire made it seem almost endless.

Staring up at it, Balkan frowned.

"I’ve never seen that kind of tower before. No, I haven’t even heard of anything like this.”

"Isn’t that only natural, considering that you’ve only stayed in the capital?”

"...Elf mage. The duty of a Guardian Knight isn’t just to guard a single gate in the capital.”

He shot an irritated glare at Dercia as he snapped back.

"Our mission is to repel any enemy of the Empire that could possibly reach the capital. Naturally, that means monitoring the entire Empire every day. However, even after scouring it like that, I have no memory of ever seeing a spire like this.”

"I see. Jern, are the Upper Tiers inside that tower?”

"Heavenly Balance permanently resides in its underground. As for the others, they only occasionally appear.”

"Then that means Decay may or may not be here.”

"I’ll check right now.”

I turned my Tide Sense toward the spire.

Then my brows narrowed slightly at the unexpected result.

"...Decay isn’t here.”

"And the other Upper Tiers?”

"None of them. Though, there are quite a lot of dogs being kept here.”

Originally, that massive spire should have contained only a handful of people, myself included.

But now, it was packed with hundreds.

All of them were Fallen.

Lower Tiers.

"...Ah, I see.”

Dercia nodded as soon as she heard what was going on.

"No matter how capable Fallen may be, they wouldn’t survive in a frozen wasteland like this. It seems they’ve gathered them all indoors.”

"Hmm..."

Brimdal’s gaze toward the spire changed.

Stroking his beard with faint anticipation, it looked like his blood was already starting to boil.

"W-wait a second.”

As I was thinking about what to do next, Balkan cut in with a visibly shocked expression.

"You’re telling me that all the Fallen under Scarlet Abyss’ command are inside that spire?”

"Yes. That seems to be the case. The Upper Tiers aren’t here, though. I’m currently considering where Decay might have gone.”

"...No, wait, are you just going to leave it at that?”

"Huh?"

Balkan pointed at the spire, utterly dumbfounded.

"So if we just burn that hive to the ground, Scarlet Abyss is finished, isn’t it?”

"The Lower Tiers may be numerous, but they’re only a tiny fraction of Scarlet Abyss’ forces. Even if we slaughter everyone in there, it wouldn’t deal them any real blow.”

"But most of the damage to the Empire is caused by those bastards! I think now’s our chance…”

Mid-sentence, he realized something and frowned.

"...Why am I even arguing with you? Lady Dercia, Sir Brimdal. What do you think? Isn’t this something we have to deal with?”

"You’ve suddenly become very formal. As Jern said, that spire is a white elephant. There’s nothing to gain from attacking a tower with no Upper Tiers inside. Worse still, if we take any losses, it will cause problems for the long journey still ahead of us.”

As she dismissed the idea nonchalantly, Brimdal scratched his cheek and muttered regretfully.

"Well, I wouldn’t mind crossing blades with those Fallen myself…but our mission is to stop this blizzard, isn’t it? We should stay focused on the objective. Urgh.”

"Ugh…then we could at least call reinforcements…”

"We’re moving in a small group not only for speed but also for the sake of catching them by surprise. There’s no reason to poke a hornet’s nest and announce to Decay that we’re coming. Was that explanation sufficient?”

Unfortunately for him, no one was on his side.

When Balkan clamped his mouth shut, faced with the logical rebuttals from Dercia and Brimdal, I shrugged and threw him a bone.

"Still, I think we should make contact with the spire. Someone there might know where Decay went.”

"Contact?”

"Yes. Kidnap a few people and interrogate them. Quietly, of course, so it doesn’t look like we were involved.”

"That won’t be difficult.”

-Step.

Dercia took a step toward the spire.

I shook my head and stopped her.

"Your magic is too flashy, and it leaves traces. Please stay with the carriage. The Knights and I will handle this.”

"...It’s not as though I can only use noisy magic.”

"I know, but someone needs to guard the carriage.”

A fierce blizzard was raging. With my Tide Sense, losing the carriage was pretty much impossible, but if it were blown away, it would be a massive headache.

More importantly, Heavenly Balance might still be hiding somewhere in the spire. She wasn’t showing up in the range of my Tide Sense, but she had always been there before.

If we entered, there was a real chance we’d run into her. And if that happened, Dercia wouldn’t hesitate for a moment to kill Heavenly Balance.

Not that i felt any sympathy toward her. Regardless of how she’d treated me, Heavenly Balance was still an irredeemable villain.

But.

'...There are still things I need to ask her.'

The deep-sea creatures possessed a language system, and understanding it was absolutely essential. Looking only at the results, it made sense, but it wasn’t something one would naturally consider.

She knew more about the Abyssal Sea. Things I had to find out.

Hiding my thoughts, I walked across the snow with Balkan and Brimdal, when Brimdal suddenly spoke up.

"Ahem, Je…No, Fallen boy.”

"Yes, Sir Brimdal?”

Calling me that was somehow even more awkward.

"I’m just curious. When fighting Fallen, is there anything we should be especially careful about?”

"Nothing in particular. Just don’t think of them as fellow humans.”

"Hm?"

"There’s nothing strange about a tiger having claws and fangs, right? Fallen are the same. They possess separate weapons called ‘worlds.’ It’s not something you can understand until you experience it yourself, so as long as you're wary of that, there’s not much else to it. If they aren’t Upper Tiers, it’s basically a fight decided by information imbalance.”

At least, it wasn’t something that would work against a first-rate Knight like Brimdal.

By the time I reached the wall of the spire, I focused my Tide Sense far more precisely and swept through the interior, corner to corner.

[Dammit, how long are we supposed to stay stuck here?]

[Who knows? Maybe a month or so?]

[At least they keep giving us World-Sealing Elixirs regularly...]

As expected, the Upper Tiers really had shoved them all in here.

But since it was evening, there was far too much chatter. Countless conversations overlapped, making my head spin.

It was hard to process that much information at once. At the very least, I needed to identify who actually knew something about Decay…

"Jern?"

"Please wait a moment.”

Gently steeling myself, I raised my Tide Sense to the same level I’d used in the Abyssal Sea.

-Beeeeep…

A sharp ringing filled my ears, and in an instant, the countless overlapping voices assaulted my mind all at once.

[Ijustsaidsoitwasallmisseditmealreadywentcamethen—]

"Ugh..."

They were fragments of sound with no original shape left intact. Before maximizing my Tide Sense, it felt like standing in a room full of radios all turned on at once. Now, it was like smashing a pile of layered audio sources directly against my ears.

Still, the suffering was worth it.

[So, orders came down from the Upper Tiers…]

[Lord Decay…]

I could distinguish them.

As I slowly adjusted, I began picking out the information I wanted from the fragments of sound.

Each time I did, the headache worsened, but I could catch voices where the words "Decay" and "Upper Tier" appeared together.

"A-are you alright?”

"...Yes."

Seeing me nearly slam my head into the ground as I collapsed, Brimdal clicked his tongue and helped me up.

"I found them. There are some on the 17th floor, in the 4th room, who seem to have received a mission directly from Decay.”

"How many?”

"7 in total. It’s pretty high up, so we’ll probably have to climb the wall…”

"That won’t be a problem.”

-Thud

Brimdal casually drove his greatsword into the wall.

"Hrrah...Hyah!"

-Boom!

Using sheer grip strength, he launched himself upward, bounding up the wall.

After repeating that process a few times, he reached the location I had indicated. Balkan watched the scene with a displeased look, then tapped his boot against the wall.

-Ping

A blade slid out from his heel.

"Where exactly?”

"Over there. That way.”

Balkan walked gracefully as though the wall were perfectly level.

Halfway there, as if realizing something, he turned back toward me and asked,

"Bring a rope from the workshop. I’ll help you up as well.”

"Ah, I’m fine.”

Like Balkan, I planted my foot against the wall and fixed it in place by pressing down hard with water pressure.

Then I lifted my foot and repeated the process. Even without blades, I could do something similar.

"What’s wrong?”

"...It’s nothing."

Balkan alternated his gaze between me and my shoes with a look of disbelief, then turned toward the designated wall.

"Should we do it carefully? Or…"

"Let’s finish it in one go. The blizzard’s heavy, so there won’t be much noise.”

"I like that.”

Brimdal chuckled once, lifted his greatsword, and—brought it straight down on the wall.

-Boooooom!!!

With a thunderous roar, the stone wall shattered with ease.

"Wh-what the…?!”

"Who the hell are these bastards?!”

Thud…

Beyond the collapsed wall, one Fallen lay unconscious with his head buried in the ground.

He’d been leaning against the wall Brimdal had smashed. There were six others left. They'd been chatting in the same room when the wall suddenly exploded, and they looked completely stunned.

"Who do we leave alive?”

"Leave the one casually drinking over there. You can deal with the rest.”

"You bastards—!”

The Fallen reacted quickly.

One grabbed the doorknob, trying to alert the others. The rest raised their hands.

Until one actually saw it, one never knew what kind of world a Fallen possessed. That ignorance was their greatest advantage. If one didn’t know, one would die in their first strike.

Balkan and Brimdal responded in the most efficient and lightest way possible.

"For beasts, they bark awfully easily.”

Their forms blurred.

Movement so fast that even my Tide Sense couldn’t catch it. The speed characteristic of Knights.

A faster first strike—by the time the Fallen tried to do anything, the hands they’d raised were already severed halfway through.

-Slash!

"Ah..."

Maybe they were trying to scream.

Unfortunately for them, the hand was cut because it lay directly in the path of a blade aimed at his neck.

Blood mixed with the blizzard roaring through the hole in the wall.

-Thud.

"..."

I swallowed dryly as I watched.

The monstrous strength that severed both hand and neck in one strike, the speed behind it—none of this was new to me.

But there was one difference.

'I think… I can see it a bit now.'

Brimdal’s movements, which should’ve been impossible for me to catch even with my Tide Sense.

And the overwhelming power that could sever a man’s head yet leave it resting on his shoulders for a split second…

Very slightly, but unmistakably, they were caught in my Tide Sense.

Of course, maintaining my Tide Sense at its maximum was insanely exhausting. There was no need to push it anymore, so when I relaxed it, the slowed time snapped back into motion. Hands and heads finally fell to the ground, staining the floor red.

Someone’s going to have to clean that up later. As I frowned at the mess, Balkan turned his gaze toward the door.

"...Hm?”

Then, seeing the unconscious Fallen, he tilted his head, looking slightly surprised.

"Why is that one knocked out?”

"Probably a hopeless coward. Good thing he couldn’t make a run for it.”

I’d actually crushed his throat with pressure because letting him escape would’ve been dangerous, but I played it off calmly.

"Let’s toss all the bodies outside for now. We can’t let this be discovered.”

"...? Fine."

Balkan stared oddly at the unconscious Fallen, then hurled the remaining scraps outside.

The snow would erase the traces. The problem was this hole…

Unfortunately, there wasn’t really a way to disguise it.

"If we throw some rocks around nearby, won’t they think the blizzard just smashed things up?”

"You think that kind of cover will work?”

"We only need to fool them until we track down Decay. And this one knows something about Decay. He said he received orders and all that. Once we find him, everything after that is simple.”

"I see. What about soundproofing?”

"There aren't any other Fallen nearby, at least. Even if we make some noise, no one should come.”

"Good. I’ll handle the interrogation. Hey, wake up.”

Balkan nudged the unconscious Fallen awake with his boot.

"Kgh, uurgh..."

Clutching his head, the man staggered upright—and swallowed hard when he saw the sharp blade held right at his throat.

Balkan spoke with a look of pure disgust, as if staring at a rat.

"If you mix even a single lie into your answer, I’ll kill you. If you want to live, answer with either yes or no. Do you know where Decay is?”

"..."

"I’ll ask again."

"Kgh, cough..."

When the Fallen kept his mouth shut, Balkan applied more strength to the blade at his neck without a single shred of hesitation, drawing some blood.

"Do you know where Decay is?”

"..."

Trembling under the chilling threat, the Fallen—

"...I-I knew it.”

"What?"

"I was right…I was right!!”

He screamed like a madman, his face flushed red.

Even with death right in front of him, he struggled violently. Balkan, thrown off by the reaction, grew even angrier and pressed the blade closer.

"What were you right about?”

"Y-you were sent by Decay, weren’t you?”

"?"

"That’s it, right? You bastards…”

The Fallen protested tearfully, looking genuinely wronged.

"So we’re useless now, huh?! So you’re here to kill all of us, right?!”

"..."

It seemed—

We'd have to hear him out.

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