WETRIED TRANSLATIONS
Wizard of the Abyss
[Translator – Aren]
Chapter 191 - Oblivion (16)
"Didn't you say you couldn’t find him with your Tide Sense?”
"Yes. Even now, I don’t sense Decay through my Tide Sense.”
"...?"
At Dercia’s perfectly reasonable question, I nodded in agreement.
Her expression grew even more confused.
"Just follow me for now.”
I led Dercia back toward Virem’s castle. Avoiding the guards, we quickly moved forward until we reached Roan’s bedroom door. I quietly pushed it open, careful to not make a single sound.
-Creak
Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, Roan seemed exhausted from the day’s events and had gone to sleep early.
I turned to Dercia and whispered,
"This isn’t exactly the time to ask, but how good is an elf’s hearing?”
"It, indeed, isn’t. It’s reasonably good, but why do you ask?”
"Well, I suppose not good enough to catch the sound of a heartbeat.”
"...”
Dercia titled her head slightly—
Then slowly shifted her gaze toward Roan.
"Don’t tell me—"
"Yes, he’s inside.”
Virem wasn’t Decay.
—He was Decay’s father.
Dercia frowned, showing an openly disgusted expression she rarely showed.
"That man truly is vile.”
"Agreed.”
I grimaced as I looked at Roan’s slightly swollen abdomen.
She’d been wearing loose clothing, so I just assumed she was simply overweight. But it had been a desperate attempt to conceal a pregnancy.
Decay hadn’t been born yet. So, in that sense, he was still in this castle.
Of course, I hadn’t sensed him. I didn’t run my Tide Sense through every human down to their bones.
This had become really unpleasant—but it still had to be done.
Steeling myself, I slowly raised my hand.
"What other choice do we have? Even if this is nothing more than a remnant of memory, we should at least ensure to kill her painlessly.”
As I lifted my hand, Dercia grabbed me urgently.
"Jern!"
"Master. I know. But this has to be…”
"No, I’m not about to lecture you about morality at this point. We need to leave this castle immediately.”
Her expression was more urgent than I had expected. She took my arm and forcibly dragged me out of the bedroom.
"When I called him vile, it was because I realized this entire castle is one big trap. Killing Decay right now would be the worst possible move.”
"What? Wait, why? Isn’t he the one experiencing this flashback right now?”
"This is part of the process."
Once outside the castle, Derica quickly surveyed the surrounding mountains.
Then, as if realizing something, she raised her hand.
"...We just barely made it in time. Run.”
"Huh?"
The moment I let out that sound…
My Tide Sense flooded me with countless voices.
[C-Captain! The mountain… Something’s wrong…]
[...What?]
From the northern gate came a surge of frantic shouting. Fear, panic, shock, and screams. All of it poured into my head at once.
Dercia sprinted toward the southern gate, continuing her explanation as we ran.
"This was my mistake. I should have realized from the fact that this revolving lantern consists solely of the snow mountains.”
"What do you mean?”
"Humans travel many places in their lives. Even if one were to look back on their life at the moment of death, you could not create a landscape where an infinite mountain range exists with only a single castle.”
She paused briefly and glared back at the castle.
"—Unless they were born in that castle and died there.”
"Hm, then…”
"Decay died before he was even born. Due to some incident.”
-Ruuuumble...
The ground began to shake.
Once we cleared the southern gate, she stopped running and let out a breath, staring at the small waves of snow beginning to roll down from the looming mountains.
"So this is how he intended to take us down with him. At least we weren’t asleep…Wait. If we kill Decay now, wouldn't that stop it?”
"Quite the opposite. If we had killed him, he likely set his own death as the trigger for the avalanche. That’s why I stopped you…It seems he was watching us.”
The event occurred almost simultaneously with our escape through the southern gate.
-...Boooom!!!!
"No, just what–?”
"Crazy!”
-Crack!
The unfortunate part was that this wasn’t an ordinary avalanche.
It was a torrent of snow, no, practically an entire mountain weighing billions of tons, lifted and slammed directly into the small castle.
A natural disaster that was anything but natural. There was no way to withstand it.
"...At least they didn’t feel pain.”
I murmured quietly, looking at the snow surging beneath our feet.
Surprisingly, the avalanche moved as if it possessed intent, crushing only the castle with perfect precision.
The towering walls, the coughing child tending a fire. Everything was flattened equally in a single direction.
Even knowing it was only a memory, it was a hard sight to watch.
"But it’s over now.”
Dercia gently rubbed the top of my head as she spoke.
"Designing it so that if he died, we would die as well was sharp of him, but since we avoided it, there should be nothing else up his sleeve. We’ll return.”
"Ah, I suppose so.”
Come to think of it, this was the end of the revolving lantern show.
Decay had obviously died. We would soon return to reality.
"You did well. You neither froze to death in this flashback nor fell into his trap. All that remains now is to defeat Decay himself.”
"If you hadn’t been here, I would’ve found him only to die right after. Thank you.”
Even I had no confidence in surviving that crushing force of snow.
Dercia shook her head and let out a sigh.
"It’s nothing more than knowing one additional fact. If you hadn’t realized that Decay was inside the womb, Jern, I doubt we would have lasted long.”
"Didn’t you say you could endure 6 years?”
"It was my first time trying to bluff, but judging by your reaction, it seems it worked.”
"..."
We stood there for a while, staring at the mound of snow, waiting for something to change.
...But.
"Hmm."
Several minutes passed, but the world remained the same. It was still cold, and the ruined castle still lay before us.
If the flashback had truly ended, we would have returned to reality by now.
"Why hasn’t anything changed?”
"It seems there’s something more. Would you use your Tide Sense to check?”
"Ah, yes.”
I extended my Tide Sense toward the shattered castle buried beneath the snow.
And for the first time in my life, I doubted what it showed me.
"It’s all gone…"
"...What?”
"There’s nothing beneath the snow. It’s all just gone.”
I summoned some water pressure, remaining on my guard.
Something about this felt off.
Very off.
"Virem. You fool.”
—Perhaps this was why.
When a face I absolutely did not wish to see appeared atop the avalanche, I crushed down with my water pressure the moment I saw it.
A calm, ordinary-looking man you would never believe had made slaughtering tens of millions of people the purpose of his life.
Great Void.
"Kgh—!"
-Cruuunch
The pressure I exerted could have compressed steel into a sphere, yet it did not so much as scratch him.
It felt as though I was crushing empty air. As if he had been there from the very beginning, the leader of Scarlet Abyss, Great Void, smiled gently as he looked down at the avalanche below, paying us no mind at all.
"Not a single one of your wishes will come true. You will save neither your domain nor protect those you love nor see the son your wife bore…”
"Jern, stop.”
Dercia immediately came to a conclusion and restrained me.
"I can't feel anything from that being. It’s merely an illusion. We cannot interfere with it.”
"—But a contract must still be honored."
-Crack.
With a wave of Great Void’s hand, something drenched in blood burst forth from the empty air.
At first, I didn’t even recognize it as a person. It was too crushed and hardly even retained a human shape.
And yet—It was still breathing. It bordered on a miracle.
Though it looked as if it would die at any moment.
"Rise, fragment.”
"...Wh-who…”
"I am one who received several promises from your husband.”
Only then did I realize that the bloodied mass was Roan.
The woman I had been speaking to mere moments ago now resembled a lump of crushed flesh more than a human being. It was a truly unpleasant sight. Even without knowing her all too well, anyone would feel revulsion seeing someone in that state. Yet Great Void continued speaking as if there were nothing wrong.
"To save this castle, Virem borrowed a world from me. The result…doesn’t appear to have turned out so well though.”
Great Void glanced at the mound of snow and let out a chuckle.
"Don't resent him. He offered his life knowing full well the fate of a Fallen. However, I have yet to collect my payment.”
As he spoke, he extended his hand.
"Do you wish to live? Then take it. You alone survived that avalanche. You were born with the talent to handle Extreme Frost.”
"..."
Roan raised a trembling, dying hand—
However, before she grabbed his hand, she spoke.
"I–I want…to ask…”
"Hmm."
Though slightly surprised, tilting his head as if he hadn’t expected this, Great Void permitted it.
"Ask, but if you do not choose quickly, you will die.”
"Is…surviving that castle…the…qualification?”
"Yes."
Great Void answered without hesitation.
"Refusing to accept death until the very end. That is the quality of one who wields a world. Unfortunately, your husband lacked it. As did all the others in your domain. Each chose death as their bodies were crushed. All except you.”
He smiled faintly, seeming pleased, before continuing.
"With that talent and having grown in this land of Extreme Frost, you are sufficient. Now, take my hand.”
"...O-one more. There’s…one more…”
Roan forced her barely functioning lips to move, whispering words that could hardly even be heard.
Great Void leaned in, listening intently.
"Oho."
His gaze shifted toward Roan’s abdomen.
"It’s not a very appealing offer, but it may be worth a try.”
He stroked his chin, then nodded.
"I accept."
The moment those words fell—and I blinked involuntarily, Great Void vanished.
And so did Roan, the avalanche, and even Dercia.
Everything.
* * *
Everything disappeared all of a sudden.
It felt as though the world had evaporated, leaving only me behind.
"Master? Where…”
I stopped mid-sentence.
When I noticed someone slowly walking toward me, I found myself frowning.
It was the source of all of this.
"...”
This time, it wasn't an illusion. As I slowly stepped back and extended my Tide Sense to find Dercia, he softly spoke up.
"Saying you were lucky won’t quite suffice.”
"Where did you send my master?”
"That question again? This time, I sent her back.”
"...Are you an idiot?”
That meant he had returned Dercia to reality and only left me here.
If anything, it should have been the opposite. Sending her back meant allowing her to use magic in the real world.
Decay burst into laughter and raised a hand.
"I had no choice. I never expected her to have prepared a spare personality.”
"...What?"
"It would seem that I have failed.”
Only then did I truly look at him. His body was far from intact.
Torn and clawed flesh. Blood seeping faintly from wounds and even black lines carved across him, albeit hard to see since his body was naturally dark.
As if—he had been fighting the Dercia who had just vanished.
Looking at him again, a certain realization crept into me.
"That spare personality, could it be…?”
"To think she had prepared for the moment she might lose consciousness. Turning such a being into an enemy is truly a living nightmare.”
...As expected.
The calm Dercia had maintained all this time finally made sense.
She had constructed a spell that allowed her to fight even while unconscious.
It was preparation to the point that I almost felt sorry for Decay. No, at this stage, victory had nearly tipped in our favor.
And yet, there was not a hint of unease in Decay’s tone.
"Of course, you’re still here. Nothing has been decided yet.”
"...What do you want?"
It was a question layered with meaning.
I had seen his past. He hadn’t been something that could contain any desire. Just a nameless, hollow fetus.
I couldn't understand what purpose he had in following Scarlet Abyss’ will.
But Decay answered without hesitation.
"Following Scarlet Abyss’ will, of course.”
As if it were the most natural thing in the world.
"What you saw was not me. If you are searching for that nameless child…Hmm, I can only offer you disappointment.”
"...Well, I don’t really care.”
It had merely been curiosity.
Whatever past Decay had, now he was nothing more than a world inhabiting a human body.
A world I had to devour.
"How long do you think this revolving lantern will last once my master starts tearing it apart from the outside?”
"Revolving lantern…you even gave it a name.”
In the end, it was only a matter of time. Once Dercia returned from her spare personality to her original self, she would immediately locate Decay.
When that happened, this fight would be meaningless. All I had to do was endure and buy time.
Decay, fully aware of this, smiled as if amused and stepped forward.
His form blurred faintly.
"An interesting name. It captures the essence quite well.”
I clenched my sweat-soaked hands and took another step back.
—Thinking about it, Decay had done nothing but repeatedly run away from me.
In the capital, in the mountains, and even in this flashback.
He had struggled until the very end and been driven out. That seemed like the most rational interpretation.
...But.
"I wonder whose world this revolving lantern will ultimately become.”
—Perhaps.
Perhaps everything he had done had been arranged for this very moment.
For the sake of facing me alone…
An assumption, which was nothing more than a hypothesis formed by anxiety, surfaced and then faded.
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