WETRIED TRANSLATIONS

Wizard of the Abyss

[Translator – Aren]

Chapter 182 - Oblivion (7)

"So you’re just going to get rid of us because we’re no longer useful now, huh?!”

"..."

We watched the Fallen cry, thrash, and throw a fit with obvious contempt, waiting about 10 minutes until he somewhat regained his composure.

Only then were we able to hear the full story.

"...So. You think you’ve been abandoned?”

"R-right."

From what he told us,

The Fallen inside the spire had come to believe that they’d been cast aside.

'It’s not exactly an unreasonable conclusion.'

Carefully thinking about the situation, there were plenty of things that wouldn’t make sense from their perspective.

They’d suddenly been ordered to gather at the headquarters, then a blizzard hit so severe that no one could leave. At first, they might have thought they were being sheltered from this abnormal weather, but remembering what it was like when I’d been part of Scarlet Abyss, these people didn’t follow the Upper Tiers unconditionally.

Not that it really mattered. After hearing everything, Balkan clicked his tongue in irritation.

"So, do you know where Decay went, or don’t you?”

"I-if we're going to die anyway…Kgh!”

"Who said there’s only one way to die?”

He glared down as he brutally stomped on the Fallen’s throat.

"I can make the next hour far worse than every bit of suffering you’ve endured over your miserable lifetime. That’s easy for me…”

"...C-can’t breathe..."

"When I allow you to speak again, you’d better give me the information I asked for.”

Judging by the way his eyes precisely scanned his vital points, it didn’t sound like an empty threat. He clearly had experience with torture.

The Fallen, eyes shaking in fear, nodded slightly, and only then was he allowed to breathe again.

"H-he went back.”

"Went back? To where?”

"To the Dwind Mountains."

"...?"

Balkan tilted his head, then frowned.

"The Dwind Mountains are at the northernmost frontier, aren’t they? Why would he go to a place like that?”

"Th-that’s where Decay used to live. It’s also near where he issued his last orders, so I’m sure of it.”

"That’s possible…Hm, or is it…?”

Balkan looked uneasy about the answer, so I asked in his place.

"Where are the Dwind Mountains? The Empire had a frontier region like that?”

"That’s a story from several hundred years ago. Back then, the mountain range was home to unruly barbarian tribes who were hostile to the Empire and constantly preparing invasions, so there were territories there too. But the climate, already terrible, became even worse. After everything was wiped out, the territories disappeared as well.”

"Why did the territories disappear?”

"Like I said, it wasn’t a climate humans could survive in. Not just the tribes; the Lords who fought them in that wasteland froze to death as well. Though, come to think of it, that Decay fellow might be able to endure it.”

Hearing that, I recalled something Vile Blood had once said.

'Every Upper Tier is the monarch of a nation, was it…?’

Several hundred years ago.

I was estimating the time when Balkan’s shout snapped me back to my senses.

"And where exactly is he in that vast mountain range? Answer me!”

"I really don't know! If I did, I would’ve gone there myself, so how could I…”

"So you’re not lying.”

"I-I swear..."

"Tsk, then that’s enough.”

-Slash

With a single swing of his sword, Balkan decapitated the Fallen.

It was so fast he didn’t even have time to feel pain. I reminded myself that it was something that had to be done, and then Balkan suddenly spoke up again, his expression seeming dissatisfied.

"...You seem used to watching people die.”

"Well, he was someone who deserved to die."

"At your age, a boy would normally take even a justified death to heart.”

"Should I cry for you? I can, if you want.”

"That won’t be necessary.”

Even our short time together was enough for me to notice that he really liked picking fights.

Then Brimdal, who had been quietly staring at the corpse, spoke with a troubled look.

"But the Dwind Mountains. Even with the Fallen boy, this won’t be something we can finish quickly.”

"Is the range that wide?”

"It’s not just that the mountain range is wide but tall as well. To check every peak, we’d have to climb them. That won’t be easy.”

"My senses can cover the entire imperial capital at once. Would that still not be enough?”

"...You’re far more impressive than I thought. What you showed in the carriage wasn’t everything, huh?”

After a moment of thought, Brimdal nodded.

"Even so…Hm, it won’t be enough.”

"Wait, even with that?”

"Yes. That’s why I thought of using the tunnels.”

"Tunnels?”

"I remember the Dwind Mountains having small tunnels running through them like an ant nest. There used to be gold mines there.”

"...How do you know that?”

"Have you forgotten? I'm a dwarf. I know every mine within this Empire. But those tunnels are as shallow and shabby as anything dug out by humans. Even if we enter them, we’d eventually have to dig our way forward. In the end, it’d be less efficient than climbing.”

"I see…”

"We need a clearer solution…hmm…”

Watching Brimdal ponder, I started to rack my brain as well.

I did find a possibility in my memories.

"...It’s not that there’s no way.”

"Oh, did you think of something?”

"There’s someone in the capital right now who’d be perfect for this kind of job.”

"Someone?"

After dumping the body and returning to the carriage, I used Dercia’s Gate and brought back that now plump fellow.

"L-Lord Undercurrent…?”

"This woman."

Faced with the curious stares of a Guardian Knight, an ordinary Knight, and an almost Archmage, Sunken Mire shrank like cotton candy dropped into water.

The first to point at her and voice his doubt was, as one might expect, Balkan.

"What’s this?”

"A Fallen."

"...Then why was a Fallen in the capital instead of inside that spire?”

"We captured her for experimental purposes.”

"Eeeeek..."

At my ominous words, Sunken Mire didn’t just shrink back, her feet actually began sinking into the snow.

"And what…is that about…?”

"Sunken Mire lives within a swamp world. She can sink into the ground or even dive through it.”

"I see."

Dercia nodded, as if she just understood something.

"You’re planning to use that Fallen to enter the ground, pass straight through the mountain, and extend your Tide Sense while doing so.”

"Yes. Exactly.”

Even dog poop has its uses. I was planning to use Sunken Mire to go through the mountain.

Hearing that, Sunken Mire panicked and shook her head violently.

"Then I’ll die!! I’ve never used it to pass through a mountain before!!”

"You don’t need to go in. Just treat me as an object and move me.”

"Then you’ll die…?”

"Even though I don’t need to breathe?”

"You’re breathing right now, though…”

"?"

Sunken Mire pointed at my mouth with suspicious eyes. White breath was spilling out from my lips.

I stared at it for a moment, then clenched my teeth.

Because I knew exactly what that meant.

"...Everyone. Do any of you feel something wrong with your bodies?”

“Something wrong?”

"There should be something. Aside from feeling cold, is there anything else?”

"Hmm, not really..."

They all tilted their heads, clearly not understanding what I meant. As I examined them more closely, I noticed the Knights were wearing full armor, so I asked them a favor.

"Sir Balkan, Sir Brimdal. Please remove your gauntlets.”

"...Gauntlets?”

"There’s something I need to check.”

Still puzzled, the two removed their gauntlets.

And—

"Wait, what in the…?!”

"What…?"

They froze in shock at the sight of their hands.

They were stained a deep violet. As if they were suffering from frostbite. They flexed their fingers a few times, then asked in confusion.

"What is this? I don’t feel cold at all…”

"It’s one of the burdens."

"But like we said before, we’re actively generating heat ourselves.”

"And that’s precisely why you haven’t escaped the cold.”

Within this world of extreme cold, everything freezes.

Humans, naturally, would enter hypothermia.

Everything a person must experience right before freezing to death.

Those hostile effects bearing down on us were what we called burdens.

"We’ve got a time limit now. We need to move quickly.”

I knew the World of Absolute Frost was horrifying, but I hadn’t expected it to be so severe that even Knights like Balkan and Brimdal would struggle to endure it.

As I silently revised my evaluation of Decay’s Absolute Frost, Brimdal looked at me as if he couldn’t understand.

"I get what you’re saying. But then why are you fine?”

"...Good question. Maybe it’s because I’m already a Fallen.”

Was it because I was already bearing the Abyssal Sea’s burdens?

For some reason, Decay’s burdens didn't weigh on me that heavily.

Brimdal then shot a glance at Dercia.

"Then what about the elf?”

"?"

I looked at Dercia’s hand.

It was deathly pale, enough that I almost wondered if it was already necrotic, but thinking about it, her fingers had always looked like that.

It seemed that she was mostly unaffected, like me. As I tilted my head in confusion, Dercia let out a sigh and climbed into the carriage.

"I have my own ways of dealing with it. What matters right now isn’t that, but eliminating Decay as quickly as possible. If even you two are like this, I can’t imagine what the capital looks like right now.”

"I-it’s not quite that bad yet…”

Sunken Mire added anxiously, but Dercia shook her head.

"That just means the capital is still outside the range. And Decay’s world is continuing to expand even now. If we don’t act properly, it will eventually become the same.”

"She’s right."

Balkan gritted his teeth as he slid his gauntlet back on, having recovered from the shock.

"I can keep moving until these fingers rot off. No, even after they already rotted off. Let’s go.”

"Hmm, losing a few fingers isn’t the end of the world.”

"Do I really have to go…? Isn’t there something I could do back in the capital instead???”

I grabbed Sunken Mire by the back of the neck as she resisted to the very end and shoved her into the carriage.

Then I suddenly looked at my fingers again.

"..."

—Come to think of it, that didn’t make sense.

There was no way that being in the Abyssal Sea was some magical key that let me withstand every other burden.

The white breath alone made that clear. The burden of Absolute Frost was reaching for me as well.

Then why?

After a moment of thought, I turned my senses inward, checking my own condition.

-Thump.......Thump…

I was fine. My heartbeat was a little slow, but nothing more.

'...It’s probably nothing.’

For now, I cleared my mind of any distracting thought.

If it helped in the moment, that was enough.

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