WETRIED TRANSLATIONS
Wizard of the Abyss
[Translator – Aren]
Chapter 46 - Rescue (3)
Dercia had never learned any magic related to combat.
Because she simply never felt the need to.
While it was perfectly reasonable to her, Ciel, her loyal maid, did not find it acceptable.
"Cia. You should at least learn basic self-defense magic, okay? You’re an 8-star mage, yet you can’t fight? People will laugh at you.”
"I’ll take care of that myself."
"Take care of that yourself? You say that, but what exactly have you ever taken care of yourself? I cook your meals, I clean your rooms, I braid your hair—”
"..."
Dercia knew that Ciel wouldn’t stop rambling when she got like this. If she didn’t want to get lectured for three months straight, she had to somehow convince her.
So she simply demonstrated the ‘reason,’ wearing a sullen expression.
After seeing it with her own eyes, Ciel nodded, looking more surprised than she had when she once saw a dying elf.
"I see."
After that, Ciel no longer worried about Dercia, at least when it came to combat.
It could be said to be a natural outcome.
* * *
Dercia glanced up at the spire.
The once beautiful floral engravings were now completely burnt, cracked, and impossible to even recognize at this point. The structure seemed about to collapse at any second, leaving nothing of that past beauty it had just hours ago.
'How beautiful…’
Dercia narrowed her eyes, dark circles heavy beneath them, and pondered what the differences were between before and after.
She came to no answer.
"---This is becoming quite troublesome…”
As she gazed at the spire, the masked man let out a sigh as he clenched his hand.
Without any warning, without a single sound, a massive iceberg formed where Dercia had been standing.
It was as if it had always been there.
"What is your name?”
"...Decay."
"It seems you weren’t blessed with proper parents.”
Dercia was no different, however.
She casually stepped down from the iceberg, her gaze devoid of emotion.
Decay slowly retreated, widening the distance between them.
"Names are given by the world.”
"How curious. Your world surely despises you, and yet it still gave you a name?”
"That’s exactly why I ended up like this.”
Decay smiled bitterly, and Dercia simply stared at him before she spoke again.
"I’m curious.”
"...?"
"That beast was so pathetically weak, it was almost pitiful—”
Dercia looked up at the sky.
Even though it was midsummer, snow was falling. The breath she exhaled came out white, spreading into the air around her.
Dercia’s mouth quirked up.
"This is rather fascinating. How did you pull this off?”
"I declared my realm here, so the world corrodes. That’s all there is to it.”
"I do rather enjoy riddles. There’s a certain pleasure in slowly cutting off someone’s limbs and then coming to the right answer through said experience.”
"What are you—”
"Shall we start with the legs first?”
Thud.
Only after Decay’s knees hit the floor did he even realize that he was kneeling.
The blood that flowed out of him immediately froze as it hit the ground. It didn’t take long before he understood that every tendon in his legs had been severed.
"It would be quite inconvenient if you were to run away. First, you assimilated your inner world into the real… no, not quite assimilated. You infused it? Yes, that should do to describe it. But why did you do such a thing…?”
Dercia muttered as if her opponent didn’t matter to her at all.
Decay noticed that a black fluid was mixed with his blood. Ink from Dercia’s fountain pen had spread in all directions as if it had a will of its own.
That ink carried no mana.
"..."
Decay carefully reached out his hand.
The world froze before his eyes. Dercia, too, became part of that ice.
"Hmm… That’s quite menacing.”
Dercia’s voice came from behind him.
Decay swallowed dryly when he saw the ink climb up his knees, gradually encircling his heart.
"Can you instantly manifest a portion of your projected world without any distortion? If it cannot be perceived clearly, that ability could even kill a 7-star mage in an instant.”
"How did you do it?”
"I do not come to harm from any attacks."
"What?"
"That’s what I recorded. In the world you so boast of.”
Dercia stood with her foot on the ink.
Decay’s expression hardened.
He had understood the meaning of her words.
Dercia Aspandil had touched the clouds.
"...So you were on the verge."
"According to you people, I’ll never be able to reach the Heavenly Realm—correct?”
"Indeed. You will fall. The end of magic is only decay after all.”
"Advice about the path of magic from someone who has never walked upon it is truly precious.”
Despite Dercia’s taunt, Decay quietly froze his severed tendons together.
"I’ll hasten the process for you.”
Dercia stepped forward, completely unconcerned.
She had learned about the weakness of Abyssal magic by watching Jern.
It was strong. Completely different from ordinary magic. If Jern were to fall completely, he would be able to sweep away cities with a single gesture and crush steel with ease before dying miserably.
But—there was a glaring weakness to it.
Lack of diversity.
Stronger currents, stronger pressure, stronger senses….
That was all there was to it.
In the end, it only borrowed a portion of a world.
If one can counter that, one could crush these mages as easily as stepping on an ant.
However, there was something strange—
-with the part about corroding the world.
Well, there was no real need—
-for her to pay attention to it.
"...?"
Dercia suddenly clutched her head while they were in the middle of the conversation.
Her thoughts slowed. It felt as if her thoughts only came in broken intervals.
Decay rose to his feet. Dercia noticed the ink freezing and shattering to pieces. She also realized that there was something strange about that.
But she couldn’t understand why it was strange.
It felt like she was becoming an idiot.
"I wonder what the thoughts of someone freezing to death look like.”
"...Hmm.”
That answer explained everything. Dercia slowly nodded.
The reason why he bothered to corrode the world was actually a lot simpler than she thought.
"To synchronize your burdens, huh?”
"A privilege unique to a Grand System…”
Other than Decay, who had lived his whole life searching for a way to overcome this burden, no one else could survive it.
The tables had turned. But Decay, who was approaching her, didn’t freeze her. He only extended his hand.
"Dercia Aspandil. Come to our side. You could create a far greater world than mine. I will grant you all the knowledge you desire.”
"...Ha, hahaha..."
Dercia let out a bitter laugh as she massaged the space between her brows.
Decay tilted his head, confused by her laughter even as she was gradually freezing.
"What’s so funny?”
"It’s nothing. Your ability suddenly reminded me of my disciple.”
"...Your disciple?”
Even as her thoughts slowed to a painful crawl and her body froze, one person clearly came to her mind.
"Yes, my disciple.”
Dercia looked at Decay with some interest.
But what was reflected in her eyes was someone else entirely.
What if this place were not this insignificant world but his instead?
"The method of using your Realm to corrode the world.”
Dercia blinked once.
Then nine stars shimmered in a vibrant array of colors.
"You will have to teach me that.”
"..."
It was only then that Decay realized.
There were no mana circles in Dercia’s eyes.
* * *
The grotesquely twisted Illusory Flower spoke with his mangled mouth.
"Ah, really? So, are you satisfied now? You killed me, so that means you’re finally joining, right?”
Watching Illusory Flower’s crushed face slowly return to how it was before, I realized one thing.
This—was not in the realm of normal recovery anymore.
To defeat him, I needed to know what enlightenment he had reached and how he had constructed his world.
"Jern? What are you doing?”
Of course, before anything else, I had to change locations.
Bam! I slammed Illusory Flower out of the room.
As I tried to follow after him, a pain, as if someone had jammed a burning toothpick into my ear, suddenly shot through me.
"Ugh...!"
I pushed myself too far.
When I touched my ear, I could feel blood gushing out of it.
...Did my eardrums burst? It was unmistakably a backlash related to the Abyssal Sea. Actually, why did it only happen now?
"Jern?”
Even in the midst of this chaos, Elisia was smiling brightly at me. I grabbed her shoulders.
"Elisia. Your mother is very beautiful.”
"H-huh?”
"Hello, Elisia’s mother. My name is Jern. I’m very sorry to say this as soon as I greeted you, but I urgently need to go to the bathroom. I’ll come back later and greet you properly.”
"...??"
"Sorry, I’ll be right back. Just stay here and talk with your mother a bit more.”
"Huh, okay…”
I could shake her right now and tell her that she was just seeing a dream and that she was being held captive here.
But then Elisia would definitely fall.
I didn’t want to rely on my enemy’s power, but for now, I had to leave her here for now.
Limping, I stepped out into the hall. I found Illusory Flower still half embedded in the wall, pulling himself back up, a smile on his face.
"You mentioned daydreams just now, didn’t you?”
"Hmm? I don’t really remember~”
His blatant act made me take a deep breath.
When I had crushed him with water pressure earlier, I had felt it clearly.
It wasn’t the sensation of pressing down a human. It felt more like… pushing down on thick rubber.
I slowly approached him, observing.
It hurt. I felt like I was about to die. Like I could vomit at any moment.
If I continued to use my Abyssal power in this state, even if I blocked Tide Sense using ‘Form,’ I wouldn’t even last 10 minutes.
"--A dream."
"So you’re trying to run away by thinking that?”
"No. That’s what you’re doing. You’re the one treating this world as a dream, right? Which is why you regenerate like that, rather than recover normally.”
"Well, I can’t be sure that this is a dream. It could be reality, right?”
Illusory Flower shrugged, then disappeared.
"---Though I admit that’s pretty unlikely!”
I already knew.
The Illusory Flower I had been conversing with melted into the surroundings, while the real one silently appeared right next to me, stabbing at me.
I didn’t move a single step and simply knocked him away with my currents, but once I saw his appearance, I couldn’t help but narrow my eyes.
"...What is that?”
"Wahaha, cool, right?”
He was long past anything that could be called human anymore.
Sharp bones jutted from the skin all over his body. Knees, elbows, the backs of his hands, and even his spine.
And with his massive size of nearly 3 meters, he was a monster in the most literal sense.
"I think it’s about time you realize that even if you make yourself ten times bigger, it won’t work on me.”
"Right. But I can stay like this for about a month. I don’t know what your magic is, but judging from your busted eardrum, it looks like the cost is pretty high… You sure, you’re okay?”
"..."
Like I mentioned, I had 10 minutes at most.
Illusory Flower seemed to have noticed that, so he grinned cockily.
"If we keep this up, who do you think would get tired first? You or me?”
Time was on Illusory Flower’s side.
He knew that very well, so he didn’t act impatient.
"And besides, you can’t kill me either!”
Illusory Flower charged, drool running from his mouth. If he slammed into me with that body, I’d be dead for sure. I had no choice but to use my currents, but—
Boom!
"Wahaha, is that all? Come at me harder!”
"..."
I couldn’t kill him.
The limits of the Abyssal Sea were holding me back.
Confident of his victory, Illusory Flower’s smile deepened.
"Is that it? Is staring your only counter now?”
"Let me ask you one thing."
"What you should do when you join Scarlet Abyss?”
"No."
On my way in, from the moment I saw that moat, I had this one question gnawing at me.
"Why are you doing this?”
"...What?"
Illusory Flower tilted his head, as if he genuinely didn’t understand what I meant.
"I get that all of you fell into hell, the Abyss Realm. It’s not like you wanted that, and I get that you’re fighting for your survival.”
Because I was in that situation as well.
"So I’m not trying to criticize you here. But whatever perfect answer you might have, it just can’t be mine. I don’t want to live by doing things like this.”
"What are you getting at?”
"How exactly does this help you? Destroying an innocent city, killing everyone, kidnapping children to torture them, increasing your numbers. How does it benefit the organization called Scarlet Abyss?”
"...Huh, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
I just wanted to know.
Killing alone wouldn’t change anything.
Just what benefit did killing bring that made them do this—?
Illusory Flower shrugged, then gave me his answer.
"We just do it.”
"?"
"The higher-ups say there’s a reason… I don’t really know the details. They tell us to kill, so we just kill. They tell us to torture, so we torture. If someone survives, that’s nice~ otherwise…whatever.”
"Have you never tried to live in any other way?”
"Why?”
Illusory Flower grinned.
"Is there any reason to?”
"Really?”
The question “Is there any reason you do that?” was met with the same question.
I was an idiot for expecting anything else. Oddly, it made me feel relieved, which made me come back to my senses. I laughed and straightened my posture.
"Got it. So you’re better off dead.”
"Wahahahahahaha! You’re seriously the best!”
I closed my eyes as I saw Illusory Flower charge at me.
If I couldn’t win now, I had to go further.
...Sink even deeper.
"Purge."
—At some point.
It became difficult for me to tell the difference between opening and closing my eyes.
Of course, I could tell if my eyelid was up or down with a little attention. But the information my sight provided me had become so small and negligible that I couldn’t feel whether it was there or not.
My Tide Sense spread out and covered the world. The layout of the spire, the heartbeat of my enemy standing right before me, Aletus’ breathing, who lay collapsed in the next room as if dead. I could hear everything even if I covered my ears, and see even with my eyes closed…
My existence melted into the world.
Abyssal Fusion, the ability Dercia told me not to use.
It went far beyond just lifting something with my hand.
It melted my being into the Abyssal Sea.
—I was bracing for death and stretched my hand into a realm I never intended to ever reach.
"What are you doing? Why are you closing your eyes like that? Have you accepted it?”
Illusory Flower’s words didn’t even register in my mind. My possibilities had become so vast, so limitless, that I felt like I could do anything.
I raised my hand and touched the currents existing around me.
I couldn’t use my usual way of applying pressure on something.
I knew it without trying. If I did crush my enemy using it while in this state, my body would most certainly explode.
Whether I used ‘Purge’ or ‘Form’ or tried to mitigate the effects using the robe, I would face certain death.
However, I could drastically reduce the water pressure’s range, activating it locally in an array thinner than a strand of hair.
For example, like this—
-Crunch. Illusory Flower’s bone was cut cleanly through without any warning.
"Huh…?!”
I felt it.
Bewildered, Illusory Flower looked around himself, searching for something like an invisible blade in the air.
Not blunt force or bruising, but slicing.
This was the very first use of a blade made from hydraulic pressure.
Of course, it didn’t mean much. The bone immediately regrew, filling the gap, to which Illusory Flower grinned, bending his knees.
"Wow, this is fun!”
I knew my enemy would charge at me. I even knew the direction from the contraction of his leg muscles.
A fist traced a horizontal arc. As long as one could tell that much, one could dodge.
But I didn’t immediately.
"Try blocking this too!”
Just before his fist tore through my neck, I took a step back.
It was a small step, too short to get entirely out of the punch’s range, but—
"...!"
That single step was slightly farther than I had expected. It not only carried me out of the fist’s range, but it also pushed me against the wall several meters away.
Why had I never thought of moving myself when I had lifted objects far heavier than me countless times before?
From far above, I looked down at myself in a detached third-person view, reaching out with the current, grasping myself, and pulling.
My body was nothing but a chess piece.
A living chess piece that controls some power.
"What kind of footwork is that…?”
Illusory Flower charged at me relentlessly, his breath ragged, while I simply danced.
I read him and dodged. If I couldn’t avoid it, I would move myself.
I could see the whole board, I knew my opponent’s motions, and I could move myself however I wanted.
It was so easy it almost made me sigh.
-Slash!
"Kgh, ugh… Whahaha…! What the hell is this…?”
Up, down, left, right, front, back.
Wherever the sea existed, so did this sharp steel within it.
If I willed it, it would become my blade in the next instant, slicing through my opponents.
"You…”
Cut, cut, cut, and cut again.
"This…”
Every time I extended my hand, something was cut apart.
Before it could regenerate, I cut again.
Wounds opened, and bones pushed out, which I also sliced through.
Even if I only used a thin strand of pressure, the blood vessels under my skin began to burst. I ignored it.
A rain of slashes fell.
"Ah."
The splattered blood turned the corridor into the very picture of hell.
About 3 minutes and 21 seconds.
That was how long it took to injure Illusory Flower beyond what his regeneration could keep up with.
"You, who are you…?”
He asked, still smiling.
But it wasn’t an actual smile. His entire body had been carved and dismembered.
Of course, I felt not a shred of pity. I formed my final pressure blade and gave him my answer.
"Who knows. If you still haven’t figured it out, you never will.”
"Huh."
-Slice.
Seeming as if he had come to a realization far too late, Illusory Flower’s head fell to the ground.
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