WETRIED TRANSLATIONS

Wizard of the Abyss

[Translator – Aren]

Chapter 292 - Deception (1)

I stared blankly up at the sky.

‘Is it even possible?'

If everything the Emperor had told me was true…

No, now that I was certain it was true, my motivation only seemed to fade further.

If that collapsing sky reached this place, I had no idea how I was supposed to resist.

What should I do? How was I supposed to fight?

Everything was shrouded in darkness.

"..."

But—I clenched my teeth.

At the very least, one thing was certain. In a situation this hopeless, weak thoughts were completely useless.

Looking at the Emperor seated in his chair, I made a request.

"Buy me some time."

[...]

"If you’re the one who’s been sending Sharmia back over and over, then you should at least be able to stall him. It doesn’t seem like even Great Void managed to conquer this place in the end.”

The Emperor didn’t react at all.

In a situation like this, silence was no different from refusal. Then again, I’d basically just asked him to die for me, so it wasn’t exactly surprising.

"It’s necessary. Please.”

[...Granting your request is not difficult. 3 days, perhaps a bit longer. Halting him for that long would not be particularly challenging. However, I cannot understand why I should.]

Only then did he answer, raising one of his withered hands toward me.

[The reason I revealed myself was for your final moments.]

"What are you talking about?"

[I exist wherever the Creator’s blood remains. The Imperial Family possessed the purest bloodline, and so I resided there. But you, too, are a wizard. You inherited their blood.]

I blinked, then realized what he was implying and frowned.

"...You’ve been watching me too?”

[Whether I wished to or not, yes. That is simply how it is, which is why I know you. I know you better than you know yourself. I know the efforts you have made, the crises you endured, and every result you achieved.]

For the first time, a faint trace of warmth entered his otherwise mechanical voice.

[Though all of it was meaningless.]

That conclusion was a little strange, though.

"Then why reveal yourself?”

[I wished to comfort you.]

"...What?”

[I had to tell you that your meaningless end, that all your struggles had been futile from the very beginning and that everything had already been decided long ago]

He claimed he wanted to comfort me, yet everything coming out of his mouth sounded like a provocation.

[I know you. Had I not told you this, you would have died blaming yourself.]

"I don’t know what kind of lunatic you think I am, but I wouldn’t do that.”

[...A lunatic? That is actually a rather fitting description.]

A faint chuckle left the Emperor’s lips.

[Do you know which world attracts the greatest number of wizards?]

"? No. How would I know something like that?”

[The Abyssal Sea. It’s only natural. After all, wizards are descendants of the Creator, the Outer God of the Abyssal Sea.]

"...Does that even matter? Aren’t they all going to die anyway?”

[They can be saved. I have made them awaken their power before. I was the one who made it possible.]

"Ah."

Right.

If this being had been living within the blood of every wizard all this time, then perhaps he really had possessed some method of awakening a wizard of the Abyssal Sea.

Then why didn’t he do it for me? As that slightly unfair thought crossed my mind, he continued.

[Perhaps, just perhaps, even if the chance were one in 100 million, I hoped that the one who inherited the Creator’s world might help. It was my greed.]

Lowering his head, he looked almost remorseful.

[Every wizard who awakened as a wizard of the Abyssal Sea wished to know the truth. They wanted to know why they had fallen into such a hell. I never imagined that every one of them would make the same choice after learning the answer.]

"...They died.”

[There are truths that must never be learned. The human mind is finite. There are realities so impossible to accept that they inflict suffering worse than death itself. That was the answer they sought.]

Having said that, the Emperor looked at me.

[That is why I never interfered with you. Even though you exceeded every expectation I had. Even though, for the first time, I found something that resembled hope, I did not wish for you to collapse as well after learning these truths.]

"I heard your so-called truth and didn’t collapse.”

[For that, I truly think highly of you.]

The Emperor lowered his head slightly, as though offering me genuine respect, then continued.

[But it is too late. As I said before, the reason I came was to help you abandon this struggle. To watch someone like you, the final hope of humanity, continue struggling until the very end is simply too painful—]

"Hey."

I cut him off. I couldn’t bear listening to this idiot’s bullshit anymore.

"That’s enough, don’t you think?”

[...What do you mean?]

“I mean this act where you’re trying to make me give up.”

He kept feeding me fact after fact, and none of them sounded like lies.

But in the end, his conclusion was exactly the same as Great Void’s.

He had no intention of helping me. He was simply piling up reasons why I should surrender.

I had absolutely no intention of doing that, though. Taking several steps backward, I glared at him.

"Do I look like an idiot to you? You’re pulling the exact same stunt as Great Void, and then you say that you’re doing it for my own sake? You actually expect me to fall for that?”

[...No, to me, you appear to be humanity’s final hope.]

"So you do think I’m an idiot. You know what you look like to me? You still look like someone who considers that bastard your master.”

That was the only way his words made sense to me. He still regarded Great Void as his Creator. And because of that he was trying to make me surrender for Great Void’s sake.

The Emperor simply shook his head, his expression remaining perfectly calm.

[No. Great Void is no longer the Creator. He has become something entirely different. I consider him an enemy. Never someone to be served.]

“Then what’s your objective?”

-Swish.

A blade of compressed pressure formed, its edge resting against his throat.

I didn’t think he posed much danger, but if he really was working with Great Void, there was no reason to keep him alive.

"Why are you trying to make me give up?”

[I am not trying to make you give up.]

The Emperor slowly closed his eyes.

His expression remained perfectly calm, not a single emotion showing on his face. A flawless poker face.

But—for some reason…

"...?"

[It is to save my daughter.]

To me he looked as though he were weeping.

[By the time I regained my consciousness, everything had already ended. Great Void had completed every preparation. Everything the Creator had arranged had already been destroyed. The only thing left was me. I wandered through the bloodline of the Imperial Family and eventually thought of one method. Then I carried it out. Sharmia, she became that method. I never believed an egg could break a boulder, but it was the only thing I could do. Hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of times—I sent her back.]

At first I thought I was imagining it, but the Emperor's face truly began to twist.

[...The moment I realized what I had done was when I felt her hand trembling through her veins as she reached for the dagger to drive it through her own throat. What had I done? Had I truly gathered all of humanity’s suffering and grief and forced it onto a single person, then dared call that torture a solution? But I couldn’t stop. That was what I had been created to do. To stop the collapsing heavens, I had to do everything within my power. The me of the past judged that repeatedly sending back the most capable human dozens, hundreds, thousands of times. That transferring all of humanity’s suffering onto one person was the most efficient way to preserve mankind.]

-Bang!

The Emperor slammed his fist onto the desk, hard enough to leave it bruised and bloodied.

[You say we should resist? Very well. We can resist as long as you wish. I can grant you all the time you ask for. All we have to do is kill that child. Kill her again and again and again and again. Repeat everything we’ve done until now. The only difference is that these deaths would no longer be for the sake of achieving anything. They would exist solely to preserve this stalemate. This was the plan my former self devised. To preserve humanity by condemning one human being to die forever. Even now I can still carry it out. If I tell Sharmia that the end of the world is at hand, she will gladly kill herself hundreds of millions of times if that is what it takes to maintain this deadlock.]

The Emperor looked at me.

It was only after I took a step back that I realized that I had been momentarily overwhelmed by his gaze alone.

[There has never been a single day that I did not regret making such a monstrous choice. Every day was filled with torment… But now, at last, I can free her. Because my judgment tells me that there is no hope in a situation like this. Even if I make Sharmia die forever, even if that preserves humanity, if you abandon this fight, then everything ends. Sharmia will finally be released, but if you refuse to give up here, then I must place her back into those chains.]

-Thud.

The Emperor fell to his knees. Gone was the cold demeanor of a relic or a contingency left behind by the Creator.

If I had to describe the face before me, it was simply the face of a desperate father.

[Please, do not resist, wizard of the Abyssal Sea. For the sake of my daughter, abandon this world.]

His words were heavy.

The broken expression on the Emperor’s face as he looked up at me carried a weight that I couldn’t simply ignore.

"...I see."

The Emperor, calling Sharmia his daughter…

As I looked at him, I strangely felt my heart grow lighter.

One of the questions that had been weighing on me vanished completely.

"I was right.”

[?]

With a small chuckle, I crouched down until our eyes were level.

"So all that nonsense about Outer Gods creating people was bullshit after all.”

[What are you talking about…?]

"What else? It means that before you started sending Sharmia back, you weren’t a person.”

Life had no value.

According to Great Void, it was nothing more than a single cup, or maybe half a cup, of seawater that could be created at will.

To some extent, his logic made sense. After all, I could do the same thing.

But…

The thing that concluded the world should be preserved by forcing one human to eternally loop may have been alive, but it was never a person.

The one who transformed that inhuman thing into someone capable of regretting its own actions was another person.

"Maybe only Outer Gods can create life, but only people can create other people. I think I finally understand why your Creator was so desperate to protect humanity.”

The First Mage hadn’t thrown away their life for something as insignificant as a single cup of seawater.

They had sacrificed everything because they understood the difference between a person and a cup of seawater.

The Emperor had taught me that.

I placed both hands on the shoulders of the dazed old man, then knelt before him in exactly the same posture.

"I’m sorry, but I have a request too.”

[What…?]

"Lend me your daughter for three days.”

[That’s…]

"I know."

Looking him straight in the eyes, I quietly spoke.

"If I lose, it won't end after three days. Sharmia will spend eternity trapped in a hell she can never escape, killing herself again and again by her own choice. It’s horrifying.”

[If you understand that, then why would you ask me such a thing?]

"I’ll finish it in three days."

[Wh-what…?]

"No matter what happens, I’ll bring down the heavens and save your daughter within three days. I can promise you that.”

[...And you expect me to believe that?]

The Emperor’s expression changed. It wasn’t merely disbelief anymore. He looked at me like an adult watching a stubborn child throw a tantrum.

[You think I wish to free that child by calling it liberation through death? I have agonized over this for centuries longer than you can imagine. And yet—]

“If I fail, I’ll end everything with my own hands. I’ll kill you and everyone else.”

[...]

"Your daughter, the Director, my friends, my family, every last one of them. I won’t let Great Void stain them. Not even a single one.”

I wasn’t joking.

The Emperor searched my eyes. Then he asked, utterly bewildered.

[Why would you go that far? You could simply accept it. No one would blame you. Even I, who have watched everything you’ve done, know that you’ve already accomplished more than anyone could ever ask.]

"I’d blame myself.”

I shook my head.

"If I give up here, I think I’d be deeply disappointed in myself. I'm not asking anything of you. If you allow it, I’m going to Sharmia right now and tell her everything. I’ll explain the worst possible outcome and ask for her help, and if she refuses, I’ll give up.”

[And if I refuse to grant permission?]

I shrugged.

"Then I’ll have to give up.”

[What…?]

"I’m human too. If a father tells me not to kill his daughter, I’m not enough of a devil to ignore him and draw my sword anyway.”

[I call myself her father, but… I have not become so shameless that I believe to be deserving of the title. My permission should matter…]

The Emperor slowly lowered his head as he spoke.

“True. You’re just a horrible father who only realized she was your daughter after throwing her into hell. So, out of respect to you, let me change the question."

I met the eyes of the man, whose gaze looked as though it might shatter at any moment.

"You’ve done enough. Leave the rest to me.”

—It was time to expose his deception.

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