WETRIED TRANSLATIONS

Wizard of the Abyss

[Translator – Aren]

Chapter 47 - Rescue (4)

"Sorry, I’ll be right back. Just stay here and talk with your mother a bit more." 

Elisia watched Jern’s back as he left through the door with slight bewilderment.

Everything should have been fine; everyone was supposed to be happy—

But Jern was angry for some reason. 

...Why?

She couldn't understand. As she was pondering over this matter, a clear voice, like jade beads rolling across a tray, called out to her.

"Eli, are you alright?”

"H-huh?” 

"You don’t look well.” 

"I’m fine, I’m really healthy, you know?” 

Well, what did it matter? 

Elisia buried herself into her mother’s warm embrace, who anxiously looked down at her. 

Even though she [saw her every single day] somehow it felt like it had been a very long time since she had seen her. 

"Hehehe, Mom..." 

"What’s gotten into you today? That’s not like you." 

[Elisia’s mother] seemed flustered but then gently stroked Elisia’s head.

"Was that child the friend you mentioned before?” 

"Yeah! I invited him to come with me today, but it seems like he had other plans, but, um…his name…” 

Elisia frowned, struggling with her thoughts.

Why? She had clearly remembered it just a moment ago, but his name…

"If it’s too hard, you don’t have to think about it, my child.”

"...Is that really fine?”

"Of course. You’ve been through so much lately. Get some proper rest today.” 

"Sniff…O-okay…” 

As tears welled up in her eyes, Elisia hugged her mother again. 

She was sad. She was exhausted. She was lonely. 

She had lost her mother, her classmates bullied her, she had been kidnapped, and her father got injured. 

So, she just wanted to tell her everything right now. 

Just this once, she wanted to cry and cling to her mother and spill everything she had been holding inside of her and be comforted. 

"Right. Mom. You know, it was really hard…” 

At that moment. 

Elisia saw something strange, which made her stop her words. 

"Go ahead, I’m listening.”

"...Mom, your hand." 

"Huh?” 

Elisia’s mother, tilting her head, looked down at her hand to see it stained with crimson blood. 

"Oh my, how strange. Did I cut myself somewhere?” 

"..." 

‘Elisia—' 

She remembered that her mother had placed that same hand on her shoulder moments ago. 

She carefully touched her own shoulder. Warm, still-fresh blood stained her fingers. 

Elisia’s mother fussed and reached for a nearby cloth. 

"Goodness, so it was you who got hurt, not me? What in the world happened?”

One step. 

Elisia backed away and refused the cloth. 

"...I’m not the one who got hurt.”

"What do you mean?” 

Elisia slowly blinked, staring at the blood.

Just now—there had been one more person who touched her shoulder besides her mother.

Then the name she had just forgotten softly leaked out from Elisia’s lips. 

"Jern." 

* * * 

"Waha, wahaha—! Now this is really fun!” 

The severed head was still laughing. Like a madman, it laughed while blood still poured from the cut.

It was a truly disturbing sight, enough to make me furrow my brows and ask,

"Do you still think this is a dream?” 

"Who knows? Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t!” 

"...?" 

I couldn’t understand. As Illusory Flower’s body slowly turned pale, he continued.

"This is exactly the 1023rd time I’ve had my head cut off. Though this is the first time since I was an emperor.” 

"You were an emperor?" 

"In my last dream I was. Kgh, cough. If I want it, I can be anything. From an emperor of a nation to a beauty that could bring a kingdom to ruin. Anything I desire! But…at some point, no matter how many times I woke up, I just couldn’t return to my original self anymore… Keheg.” 

"..." 

How horrifying. 

The price for a life that could be anything: he had to live while constantly fearing that everything around him was just an illusion his collapsing mind had created.

No relationship could feel real, and no evil deed would feel like one. That was the kind of life he was living. 

"I, cough… w-wonder what I’ll be next…time.”

"There is no next time." 

There wouldn’t be.

Illusory Flower died without realizing that this life was real. He lived an illusory, false life and died dreaming of the next lie. 

I stared down at the still smiling, frozen face with disgust, then turned away. 

I didn’t want to waste any more time on something like that. 

"What should I do…” 

I sighed, looking at my surroundings that were now much more saturated. 

If I had wanted to—I probably could’ve done this a long time ago. 

Ever since I learned the concept of ‘Abyssal Fusion,’ I knew it opened countless possibilities. Just as one could instinctively tell from the wings attached to a bird’s body that it was meant to fly. Various things kept popping up in my mind.

However, I had forcibly erased all these ideas from my mind. Because I didn’t know what would happen if I had given in to them. 

But now I did. 

I should probably give these new skills some sort of name, but I wasn’t really good at naming things, so I looked at the railing and muttered,

"Cut." 

-Slash! 

As I watched the cleanly sliced railing plummet to the ground below, I felt cold sweat slowly trickling down my spine.

I already vaguely realized while using it just now. This was a seriously absurd ability.

It didn’t matter where; as long as it was within the range of my Tide Sense, I could form an invisible blade and cut anything down at any time. 

The scariest thing was that this was only a fraction. 

If I tried to fully apply water pressure while in the Abyssal Fusion state, It would be so strong that I’d be crushed right along with my target—so instead, I narrowed the range to the very limit. Thinner than a strand of hair, applying pressure only for the briefest of moments.

Then, that pressure would become a thin blade I could fire outward. It worked on the same principle as a waterjet on Earth.

That was what Cut was. And—of course—this wasn’t even the proper way to use it. 

It was just a tiny fraction of power, used only to avoid the usual aftereffects of the water pressure. 

...That was what was so frightening about it. 

Just how horrific were the burdens awaiting me? 

Wouldn’t I just be crushed into blood paste the moment I undid the Abyssal Fusion state?

I wasn’t just being dramatic here. The Abyssal Sea was a very fair place. It always took back exactly what you took from it. It always had been that way up to this point. 

But I would have to face it eventually. 

The longer I stayed like this, the worse it would get. 

"Haaah..." 

Taking a deep breath, I looked toward Illusory Flower’s now-cold severed head.

I, too, had to pay the price for using my power more than I should now.

I slowly separated myself from the Abyssal Sea. 

"Hmpf." 

I braced myself as best as I could.

Preparing for the water pressure, for the cold, for narrowing vision, for every possible consequence. 

I was like that for about 30 seconds. My body was shivering since I was bracing myself to endure the Abyssal Sea’s torture with my weak human body. 

But— 

"?" 

Nothing happened. 

The pressure that could easily crush a human— Well, it wasn’t completely absent, but it wasn’t worse than before.

My vision narrowed, and it was cold. Well, that was it. 

But those were just my usual burdens. Nothing more. 

I didn’t really know what was going on, but I sure wouldn’t complain about it. I turned and immediately headed toward Elisia. 

I had to wake her up properly, treat Aletus, and get the hell out of here.

It felt annoying. Was this really necessary?

...No, it was. While it definitely felt annoying, and it wouldn’t change anything about my future of being crushed to death by the Abyss, I still needed to do what I could.

"---What is this?” 

I stopped in my tracks, feeling confused. 

Something felt… really, horribly wrong. A wave of negative emotions churned inside of me. It was so overwhelmingly intense. 

Burdens! I quickly checked again. Was the pressure crushing me internally?

 ...No. I still didn’t feel any physical strain. 

My hands and legs began to tremble. It was so bad that I couldn’t even stand properly, my knees buckling until I collapsed to the floor.

"Ugh…Uweeeeehk—!" 

Everything I had eaten today poured out onto the ground. When I wiped my forehead, I noticed that my whole face was covered in copious amounts of sweat. So much that I could hardly believe that it came from my own body. 

I had to stay calm. I mustered every bit of strength left in me to stand upright, leaning against the railing, and examined my condition. 

I confirmed yet again that I didn’t feel any physical staring. So what is it? What part of my body was breaking right now? 

If my foot got crushed, I could blame it on the water pressure. But what was this? My limbs were trembling, and this suffocating panic, this certainty that I was going to die. Was this claustrophobia? Or Thalassophobia? Did I develop some sort of fear?

"Ugh."

And that wasn’t all. This constant urge for self-destruction just kept creeping in.

Everything seemed so pointless and terrifying. Every thought spinning in my mind led back to that. 

I clung to the railing, gritting my teeth so hard they hurt just to resist this sensation—

Then a sudden absurd idea appeared in my head.

"No way…”

I frowned, wanting to deny it, but tried to focus my Tide Sense somewhere else. 

Once I saw the outline of the hall around me, the panic slightly eased.  

Of course, I still felt like dying, but I was certain of one thing now. 

It was seriously absurd, but I… was going through withdrawal. 

"Hah." 

A hollow laugh escaped my lips. 

When I was using Abyssal Fusion, when I became one with the Abyssal Sea, I was safe. 

Senses like sight, hearing, and touch were just so crude. In that state, I could see and know everything.

And more than anything, it didn’t feel like the Abyssal Sea was my enemy anymore.

I felt protected, like I had found a new nest, a new home. 

But once I released that state, I crashed. Hard. 

Now that I was back to seeing with my eyes, hearing with my ears, and walking with my feet… I felt like an insect. 

The kind that I could easily crush when I was one with the Abyssal Sea. 

...And now I was back to this. Why even bother to struggle and endure like this?

If I just reached out and fused with it again— 

"...!!" 

Suddenly snapping back to reality, I grabbed a piece of shattered wood and rammed it into my thigh. 

Crack... Agony ripped through my flesh, my teeth grinding against each other to endure. I bit the inside of my cheeks over and over, forcing myself to stay grounded. 

"Get a grip, you stupid, worthless bastard! Why the hell do you think you made it this far?!” 

In my Abyssal Fusion state, I might as well be invincible. 

Just like how I easily killed Illusory Flower, who was stronger than me. I had been completely liberated from my burdens even though I used all of my power. 

That wasn’t a blessing. No, not even close to it.

Now that I had realized its price, I felt even more so. If I stayed in that state for too long, I’d stop being human. 

The ‘human’ called Jern. 

I’d just be demoted to the ‘phenomenon’ called the Abyssal Sea. 

...So that was it. That was what Scarlet Abyss would call ‘ascension’? They were turning themselves into something that was no longer human to use powers beyond understanding.

No, there was no time to analyze this any further. I staggered as far away from the railing as I could. My mind was still spinning. If I continued like that, I might actually end up jumping.

Because if I did that, I would become one with the Deep Sea again. It would feel so nice, and— 

"No!” 

This was the worst outcome—no matter how many times I replayed it in my head, I realized I had made the worst move. 

I told myself that I had to do this to survive, but I had used a power whose price I absolutely couldn’t afford. 

I felt my heart sinking in my chest. 

Now, I couldn’t even escape through death. 

That was what I had become. 

This was the Abyss Realm. 

A world that absolutely hated its master. 

Suddenly, the Abyssal Sea where I had been hiding inside felt vast and hollow.

And I felt lonely. 

“.……..Just a little more.” 

There was nothing I could do about it now. 

I had to use Abyssal Fusion, even just a little. Just enough to survive this moment.

... Were those really my thoughts? 

Or was this the cry of the instinct of a being that had already fallen deeply, desperately trying to drag back the me that is still human? 

I didn’t know. So I simply let go. 

—My mind slowly melted back into the Abyssal Sea. And the last thing I saw was.

Illusory Flower’s severed head, smiling with tears of blood running down his face. 

* * *

"Mom, Dad got hurt." 

"...Huh?" 

Elisia looked up at her slightly flustered mother, smiling like a girl her age. 

"I’m sorry. When you weren’t here, I should have protected him too. But I couldn’t. Hehe…” 

"What are you talking about? Your father is right next door, cooking for us, remember?” 

As soon as she finished speaking, a loud knock shook the door next to them.

[Honey, Elisia! Just wait a moment longer! I will make you the perfect honey pie!] 

"Huhuhu… You could have just asked the servants to do it." 

Elisia stared at her mother’s smiling face. 

She wanted to remember every single detail about it, not missing a single thing.

Then she slowly opened her mouth and expressed her feelings.

"You know, losing you hurt a lot. I was bullied. I got kidnapped… Everything felt like it was my fault. Like the whole world hated me.” 

"Mom is here. I love you, my daughter." 

"Yes, I love you too!”

Elisia smiled as she replied.

"But I met someone who had it far worse than me.” 

"He grew up in an orphanage. And the moment he turned ten, he was told he would die soon. If it were me, I would’ve cried and given up already, but he didn’t. He learned magic and saved all of us when we were kidnapped. He became the disciple of that really scary and strong wizard and went through all that grueling, awful training. He kept persevering and even comforted me.” 

A memory of them sitting by a gravesite came to her mind. 

Seeing Elisia’s lips fall slightly, her mother smiled softly. 

"He must be a very good person. Do you want to be like him?”

"No. I don’t think I can.” 

Jern—she knew how hard he was fighting to survive since she was standing right by his side.

Sometimes she wondered why he was going to such great lengths. 

He was always so honest. He never lied… 

"I don’t think I could live like him.” 

"Then—” 

"Still, if I can… If there’s anything I can do for him, I want to help him.”

"Why?" 

Her mother seemed to genuinely find it difficult to understand her.

"Is he really worth all of this?” 

"Yes!" 

Elisia answered, her voice overflowing with confidence.

"Because every time I was in pain, it was Jern who always came to find me!” 

"..." 

Her eyes were bright and unwavering. The kind only children her age could have.

[Elisia’s mother] smiled softly. 

"Then go." 

"...Yes, and when I come back, I’ll tell you everything else!” 

"Huhu, I’ll look forward to it." 

Elisia rubbed her eyes.

There was no sound, no light, nothing. 

Then, her mother suddenly vanished, the room was completely ruined, and the bed was covered in shredded cloth. 

"..." 

However, Elisia didn’t panic, touching her shoulder. 

The blood, now dry, was unmistakably real. 

And as her memories returned— 

"Ugh..." 

Tears seemed about to overflow from her eyes. 

But she held them back, slapping her cheeks with a determined expression on her face.

'I can’t stay here!' 

Everything had come back to her. 

Her father was trapped in the room next door. 

And Jern. Jern had definitely come here to rescue her.

Elisia was certain of it. Jern cared about her so much that she didn’t know what to do after all.

He always came for her. He’d never leave unless he was absolutely sure she was safe.

'First I need to help Dad...' 

She then would somehow escape this blasted spire and let him know that she was safe. 

Taking a deep breath, she steadied herself and carefully opened the door—

"Kyaaaaaah!! Jern!!” 

Then her heart immediately dropped as she rushed forward. 

Jern was collapsed in front of the door, covered in blood. Ignoring everything else, Elisia ran to him, dragging him fully inside and laying him down properly. Then she pressed her ear against his chest. 

That was when her heart sank once more. 

"H-he’s not breathing!” 

Was he dead? No way, that couldn’t be! 

She felt her hands and feet tremble. She had finally come to the decision that she wanted to help him, but now he lay there dying. 

"...No!”

She pressed her tiny hands against Jern’s chest and pushed with all her might.

She remembered learning this somewhere, but she had no idea if she was doing it right.

"Jerm, wake up! Come to your senses!” 

Elisia, at the end of her rope, just slapped Jern’s cheeks. 

And then— 

"..." 

"You’re…awake?” 

Jern opened his eyes. 

That was a good thing, but—

No matter how she looked at them, his eyes weren’t normal. 

He never had the warmest eyes. But today, they seemed worse. A lot worse. 

It looked like someone looking at an inanimate object rather than a human. 

Elisia swallowed hard and carefully reached out to him.

"A-are you ok—" 

-Boom! 

Elisa was sent flying to the other side of the hallway, rolling across the floor. 

"...!" 

The pain was so great that she couldn’t even scream. 

It felt like she had been beaten with an iron rod.

"Ah, urgh…” 

Thud. 

As Elisia writhed in pain, Jern’s body fell to the floor with a single jerk.

"...Ugh." 

She gritted her teeth and forced herself to stand. 

She didn’t understand what was going on. Even Elisia knew that she wasn’t some kind of genius. She couldn’t tell what magic Jern had used to hit her either.

So she relied on something else.

"J-Jern…” 

Staggering onto her shaking feet, she approached Jern. 

It took quite a while for her to get close enough to sit beside him again since her legs seemed to be broken. 

Her face held no hostility or anger. Instead, she smiled confidently.

"You told me this before, remember? That I might save you someday as well. You always say the right things, so it must be true this time as well.” 

She believed in those words far more than she believed in herself. 

She laid her bruised arm over Jern’s chest and took a deep breath. 

When she first heard that she possessed the ability that prevented her from using magic, she thought it was nothing but a curse. 

Even now, she still kind of does. However. 

If this cursed power could help Jern now, even just a little…then she would consider it the greatest blessing. 

"I-It’s working right?” 

She summoned up every bit of mana inside of her. All her power. Even though she felt her heart pounding so hard that it felt as if it was about to burst and her blood felt like it was on fire—she didn’t stop.

"Hnnng..."

She groaned, pouring everything she had into him. 

Even though she saw no visible changes. Even though she felt hopelessness set in.

For 10 minutes, with every last drop of her strength. Until she felt like she was about to die— 

"...Hah, haah..." 

By the time Jern woke up, she was far too drained to even be happy about it. 

She had really spent all she had. 

For some reason, Jern choked, coughing up tons of water, while clutching and shaking his head as if he had a severe headache. Then finally, he slowly raised his upper body and turned to her. 

"Where am I… Elisia?” 

"Yeah..." 

She didn’t even have the strength to properly answer. The moment he heard her infinitesimally faint voice, his face changed, and he grabbed her shoulders and slightly shook her limp body. 

"Just what happened? No, wait, your legs are broken… Who did this?!” 

Jern shouted as he looked at the badly injured Elisia, his eyes filled with slight anger.

She didn’t have the strength to say anything.

But seeing Jern, who was just as hurt, getting angry because of her pain lifted her spirits a bit. 

So, she managed to say one last thing before fainting completely. 

"You were the one who hit me, you dummy…”

"??" 

Even as her consciousness faded, seeing the utterly confused look on Jern’s face was actually kind of amusing to her.

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