WETRIED TRANSLATIONS

Wizard of the Abyss

[Translator – Aren]

Chapter 281 - Disaster (7)

Even after that, I continued flooding abandoned cities, mountains, and rivers with seawater.

Choosing to hunt Outer Gods had apparently been the right decision. I never ran short of seawater. The sea replenished itself far faster than I could draw from it.

And now that my range of movement had expanded to the point where distance no longer meant anything—the world was truly becoming an ocean.

The problem was…

It was absolutely not a normal ocean.

"This is genuinely horrifying.”

Standing atop a mountain peak—or rather, what had become a tiny island floating above the water, I let out a sigh and gazed beneath the surface.

It was a living nightmare. Instead of fish, animated skeletons wandered aimlessly through the depths. Trees uprooted themselves and crawled across the seabed. Occasionally, black mist drifted about as though it possessed a mind of its own.

The entire place was a complete disaster. No matter how I looked at it, it resembled a purgatory far more than a sea. As I stared into the chaos below, Nightchaser casually ran a hand across the surface of the water and replied in a weirdly pleased tone.

"Why? I think it looks nice.”

"Nice? What part of this looks nice? Watching those things move around in groups just gives me chills.”

Worse yet, the countless forms of life emerging within the Abyssal Sea were gradually adapting to it.

I’d seen all sorts of grotesque deep-sea creatures before, but those had remained within the category of fish at least. These things had no such limits.

"That’s because you’ve never seen the original world.”

Nightchaser shrugged and smiled nostalgically.

"It’s still lacking in a lot of ways, but… it gives off the feeling of the old world, so it’s not bad.”

"...The world you lived in looked like this?”

"Pretty similar.”

I found myself speechless. Gazing into the depths where no rules existed and chaos refined supreme, I silently strengthened my resolve.

If this was the age Great Void wished to restore, then I could never allow that to happen.

"Accept it. Now that you’ve decided to hunt Outer Gods, things aren’t going to become any less chaotic. In fact things will only get more chaotic.”

"Tsk, maybe I should take things a bit slower.”

As of today, I had submerged a total of 1309 locations.

All of that in only 3 days. By now, more than half the world had probably sunk beneath the sea. The results were far beyond anything I’d expected.

There was only one thing bothering me… Despite how aggressively I was flooding the world, Great Void still hadn’t reacted at all.

At this point he should have realized what I was doing. Even if he hadn’t figured out the entire plan, he should at least understand that I intended to drown the world.

So why was he doing nothing? After pondering it for a while, I let out a sigh and shook my head.

Trying to understand that lunatic would only drag me down with him. I just needed to focus on what I could do.

"I’m going to do some public appearances again. Let me know if you get a bite.”

"Yeah. Got it.”

Nightchaser casually grabbed the thread wrapped around her wrist.

It was connected to my clone lurking within the Abyssal Sea.

By now, all the truly gullible Outer Gods had already been caught. The reactions toward my clone had grown noticeably weaker.

Still, they hadn’t vanished completely. Since I couldn’t spend all my time sitting around waiting for that, I had given my clone a certain degree of autonomy and left it to lure the Outer Gods on its own.

If something took the bait, the thread would be pulled. Nightchaser would then toss a stone into a puddle. That stone would fall in front of me, signaling that it was time to go catch another Outer God.

Of course, there was always a chance they’d realize something was wrong and escape in the meantime. If possible, I wanted to stay beside my clone and help with the fishing, but…

"You really do love making things harder for yourself. You idiot.”

"..."

"You could just sweep everything away with water and be done with it. Why make things so difficult?”

This time, I couldn’t immediately snap back at her. Because she wasn’t entirely wrong.

"...I think this is the right thing to do. Probably.”

Nightchaser looked at me with a strange expression.

As if she were weighing something. The look irritated me for no particular reason. I kicked at the water, sending a spray into the air, then stepped through a puddle.

"Hey, you little…”

Nightchaser’s angry shout vanished the next instant.

In its place came dazzling sunlight, and instead of a sea of water, there was a sea of people.

They filled an enormous plaza, seemingly gathered to await someone’s arrival. The moment they saw me appear from thin air, their faces lit up with emotion, and cheers erupted from every direction.

"...He has descended! Our savior!”

"Aah, please watch over us with your divine grace…”

'This is awful.’

I did my best not to let my disgust show as I walked through the crowd.

The people looked overwhelmed with emotion, yet none of them dared come too close. It was the way one might approach an exceptionally noble, sacred beast.

Thankfully, not everyone treated me that way.

"M-mister God..."

A young boy limped toward me.

He didn’t say much and simply looked up at me with desperate eyes. Rather than answering, I waved my hand.

"You’re not completely healed yet, so don’t move around too much.”

"Ah, yes… hic."

The authority of creation I had gained as an Outer God was, quite literally, close to omnipotent.

The boy’s injuries healed instantly, returning his body to its original state.

A faint bluish bruise remained, but there was no sign of the fracture.

"Th-thank you very much.”

The boy’s face brightened immediately. The surrounding people trembled with reverence.

And underneath that reference I could feel fear.

'Do I look similar to that guy?'

The more I displayed my divine powers, the more I became their hope, the more I proved that I belonged to the same category as their despair, the more reliable I appeared, and the more frightening I became.

It was inevitable. And exactly what I intended.

So I offered no explanation. I simply let them think of me however they wished.

That was far more effective.

"Ah, Jern. Welcome back.”

After passing through the silent crowd that had been waiting for me, I returned to the office in the imperial palace. Sharmia was practically buried in paperwork. She greeted me warmly without even fully looking up from the mountain of documents.

"How are the people doing?”

"Better than before. They seem to have hope now. They believe I’ll be able to do something against Great Void.”

That much was true.

If they feared my power, then by the same logic, they trusted it just as much. Sharmia nodded faintly.

"That’s a relief. They may not have a journey as difficult as yours, Jern, but they’ll still have a long road ahead of them. It would be hard to endure without hope.”

"Speaking of which, how are things progressing?”

"Several cities have already reported that preparations are complete. They say they’ll be ready to depart by tomorrow. When should we set the deadline?”

"The sooner they leave, the better.”

"Hmm, the problem is that we’re still short on drinking water and food. We’ll need another three days…”

Watching her headache worsen by the second, I couldn’t help but chuckle.

Just yesterday, I wouldn’t have had an answer to that.

But not anymore.

"You don’t need to worry about that.”

"What?"

Instead of explaining, I snapped my fingers. A thin layer of water spread across the floor of the office.

Sharmia stared in confusion, but soon her eyes widened as something suddenly began growing within the water.

"What is that? It looks like rice.”

"That’s because it is rice. If it's a grain crop, I can probably grow most of them.”

"What? I thought you were the Outer God of the Abyssal Sea. This is the first I’ve heard that you’re also moonlighting as the Outer God of Rice.”

As Sharmia plucked a stalk of rice and examined it from every possible angle, I was left scratching my head.

"Recently I’ve been hunting other Outer Gods. One of them happened to govern agriculture. I can probably provide food indefinitely now.”

"...So Outer Gods are the sort of beings that can be used in the same sentence as the word 'hunting,' huh?”

"Not ones as strong as Great Void, but just the ones trapped in the Abyssal Sea. I got lucky.”

"I see. That’s wonderful news. If you can do this, then we could start the evacuation immediately."

Sharmia visibly relaxed for the first time in a while.

"I’ll issue orders for as many people as possible to relocate to the underground city. Including everyone in the capital. And…has anything changed up there?”

"Nothing. That’s what’s bothering me.”

The Outer Gods were being hunted, the sea was expanding, and preparations for evacuation were nearly complete.

The groundwork was essentially finished.

And yet, Great Void, whose wounds should have healed enough by now to interfere however he pleased, remained completely silent.

Were the injuries deeper than I thought?

Or was there another plan at work?

"He’s not the type to generously give us this much time.”

"...But thinking about it now won’t accomplish anything, will it?”

Seeing the crease deepen between my brows, Sharmia shook her head with a small smile.

"If something happens, I’ll check it with my ability first. Don’t worry too much.”

"I feel like a terrible person for saying this, but I’m going to have to rely on you.”

"Of course. I’ve already been doing that more times than I can count. One more won’t hurt.”

We spent a little while talking about lighter things when…

-Bang, bang, bang!

Someone hammered on the office door.

I’d noticed them though Tide Sense long ago, but that kind of knock was impossible to miss even without it.

"I’ll excuse myself first. Please take care of the evacuation.”

"Leave the administrative work to me.”

After entrusting the refugees to Sharmia, I stepped outside the office. Waiting there was Linmel, fidgeting anxiously in place.

Linmel was usually energetic, but this time, there was a trace of anxiety mixed into her usual enthusiasm.

"Did something happen?”

"Jern, it’s nothing serious…I mean, it really isn’t that serious.”

So something huge happened.

Watching her fidget nervously, I let out a sigh. After struggling to find the words, she finally blurted it out.

"So, erm. Apparently people have started worshipping Great Void.”

"?”

The answer exceeded even my worst expectations.

"They’re worshipping that guy? Why? There’s literally no reason to do that.”

"Well, you’re too human. You listen to people. You can be reasoned with. So some people are saying Great Void might be the same. They think if they worship Great Void and serve him properly, maybe he’ll grant their wishes…”

"..."

What should we do?”

"Don’t kill them, just try to persuade them. They’re probably just exhausted, that’s all.”

"Ah! Right, got it!”

Linmel’s face immediately brightened as she drew her sword and marched out of the office.

They probably wouldn’t die, but judging from the determined look on her face, they were about to experience enough pain to wish they had.

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