Wizard of the Abyss – Ch. 185

Wizard of the Abyss

[Extra Novels]

Chapter 185 - Oblivion (10)

White snow, split by a black line.

The stark contrast those two colors created was overwhelming. Faced with the surreal sight of a mountain that looked as though it was nothing more than a single sheet of paper, Balkan’s eyes trembled slightly.

Even a Knight couldn’t help but feel something when witnessing the extreme ends of magic at play, it seemed.

"Run."

"...Y-yeah.”

There was no time for consideration. Even now, an enormous amount of time was slipping away.

No matter how hard we ran, by the time we arrived, it might already be over… I spread my Tide Sense as wide as I could and sprinted across the snowfield.

"What exactly do you think you’re doing?”

Balkan let out a disbelieving snort and grabbed me by the back of my neck.

"I’m running.”

"Hah, brace yourself, unless you want your neck to snap.”

After taking a sharp breath, Balkan kicked off the ground.

-Booooom!!!

"Oh..."

Each step he took triggered a small avalanche.

To an outside observer, it must have looked like he was sprinting while detonating bombs beneath his feet.

I watched in awe as he shouted,

"Guide me! Where is it?!”

"At this speed, turn right in 10 seconds. After that, straight ahead.”

A Knight really was a Knight. I calmly served as his navigator, my Tide Sense finally starting to reach the palace where Dercia had landed.

Little by little, certainty took hold of me.

The certainty of victory.

"We might not need to rush that much.”

"What?”

"I don’t know the details, but I think it’s already over.”

"What? You mean, she already dealt with Decay?!”

"Not yet…it seems.”

"I-I see.”

Balkan nodded as if that made sense to him, yet didn’t slow down.

"You never know. Spread those senses of yours as wide as possible. The moment you see anything, report it.”

"I will.”

With a faint sense of anticipation, we closed in on Dercia’s impact point.

And the closer we got…

"...?”

That hope began to warp into something else.

A sense of dissonance.

"What is it? What did you see?!”

"...Ice.”

"Well, of course there’s ice.”

"It’s a different kind of ice.”

"?"

By the time we arrived at the place where Dercia had been, Balkan could see the same thing I had.

Countless ice statues. They weren’t shaped like Dercia.

There were simply a countless number of human-shaped ice sculptures. Many held swords in the posture of Knights, yet their faces were hollow and empty. Perfectly carved figures, nothing more.

I slowly brushed my Tide Sense over them and muttered,

"Traces of battle.”

"Must have been Decay’s doing.”

"No. This was Dercia.”

There was a precision to it bordering on madness. I could feel Dercia’s hand in this work.

There was no doubt a battle had taken place here.

But—

"This is too strange."

There was neither victor nor loser remaining on this battlefield.

No one was here. If Dercia had won, she should have been calmly reading a book among these statues. If Decay had won, he should’ve greeted us with that unpleasant smile of his.

No, at the very least, Brimdal should have been here, scratching his head alongside us. That Knight would never arrive later than us.

Several hours must have passed by the time we reached this place.

And yet, aside from these statues, nothing was here.

"Please wait a moment. I’ll extend my sen—….?”

As I said that and turned toward Balkan, I noticed that his expression seemed off.

"...I see now.”

"What?"

His face twisted grotesquely as he slowly drew his sword.

"Now it all makes sense. It was all a lie.”

"You’re spouting nonsense again.”

If it was his usual nonsense, I could tolerate it. But coming from that hairy guy, delivering those lines with the tone of a tragic heroine, it was hard to stay polite.

Balkan didn’t trust me and slowly stepped closer.

His eyes were brimming with killing intent.

"You were in league with Decay.”

"...Let me hear you out at least.”

"I don’t want to admit it, but—Dercia is someone who would not lose to any Fallen. Not even to their leader."

Balkan’s assessment of Dercia was unexpectedly sound.

"If what you say is true, then Dercia faced Decay on her own.”

"That’s right."

"And yet, judging by the outcome, she was easily defeated.”

"And why would you conclude that?”

As I frowned and asked, Balkan pulled out a crimson stone as if it were obvious.

"Because I planted a tracking device on her.”

"?"

"The duty of a Guardian Knight is to root out infiltrators. And to catch those who hide, one must know how to hide. My swordsmanship and footwork are built entirely around extreme stealth.”

He lightly shook the stone. Even though I was watching with my own eyes, the hand holding the stone seemed to vanish entirely.

"If one allows me to get close enough, then even a 9-star mage wouldn’t notice a single loose thread caught on their collar. I attached tracking devices to Dercia, Brimdal, and you.”

I hurriedly expanded my Tide Sense and examined my own body.

And sure enough, on my neck was a single thread, thinner than a chick’s down feather, clinging there. I pulled it off.

Watching this, Balkan nodded, genuinely impressed.

"As expected. An ambush wouldn’t work on you. Such precision.”

"No, why would you do something like this?”

"Isn’t it obvious? Because I don’t trust you.”

Balkan glared at me with cold eyes. At some point, he had already closed the distance to the point that he could reach me with his hand.

"You expect me to trust a Fallen? Hah! Ridiculous. On top of that, you were once a member of Scarlet Abyss…Do you know how absurd that sounded to me when I heard it?”

"My status is guaranteed by Her Highness the Princess. And my time in Scarlet Abyss was purely an infiltration mission.”

"I don’t trust the princess either.”

The words he muttered carried great conviction.

"His Majesty the Emperor suddenly grew frail. Then, without warning, he transferred all authority to the princess. No matter how gifted an heir may be, there are unspoken rules within the imperial family. In a thousand years of our glorious history, nothing like this has ever happened.”

"Are you denying Her Highness’ competence as well?”

"She’s far too competent… competent enough to think she’s colluding with Scarlet Abyss to orchestrate a disaster of this scale.”

"...At this point, those suspicions are more akin to delusions.”

"Do you know what kind of rumors are spreading through the Empire since Scarlet Abyss began acting openly? That the current princess should be crowned Emperor—while His Majesty still lies on his sickbed. Those words circulate freely. All because our great princess has been resolving crises with such terrifying precision. Anyone watching might believe she can see the future.”

Shockingly, he was brushing against the truth. Even if he sounded as though he were joking.

"The elf is no longer present on this mountain. My tracking device has been destroyed, which means she’s dead.”

"..."

Of course, I didn’t believe it for a second. I met his gaze without wavering.

"How could Dercia lose to Decay? And if your senses are truly that precise, why did you divide us into three groups? Almost as if you wanted Decay to defeat us one by one."

"Even my senses can’t perfectly track the Upper Tiers. That’s why I selected the most likely locations.”

"You’ve prepared your excuses well. Wasn’t it you who informed Decay of all of Dercia’s weaknesses? And if this is connected to the princess…”

Balkan drew his sword as he spewed out those terrifying statements.

"Then I will act in the name of my loyalty to the Empire.”

If he returned like this, he would almost certainly instigate an actual rebellion.

Should I fight him? No, this was a waste of precious time.

Clenching my fist, I tried one last time to appeal to him.

"Even His Majesty wouldn’t wish for the Empire to be ruled by a traitorous daughter over a loyal subject.”

"How dare someone like you presume to judge His Majesty’s will? I, a Guardian Knight, am his only hope.”

"You speak as if you received direct orders.”

"I did. You wouldn’t understand.”

"?"

He received orders from an Emperor who hadn’t risen from his sickbed in years?

Something about that sentence triggered a sense of déjà vu. As he raised his sword, clearly intending to cut me down, I quickly asked.

"Did His Majesty, who’s supposedly bedridden, suddenly appear right in front of you, say a few things, and then vanish just as suddenly as he appeared?”

"......What?"

"Ah, he left me a book, actually.”

"........."

Balkan froze with his sword still raised—

Then stared at me with his mouth agape.

"W-wait. What did you say? You—you also had an audience? With His Majesty’s soul?”

"It wasn’t a soul. He’s still alive, isn’t he?”

"H-his astral body. He appeared before me in that state and asked me to make a decision for the sake of the Empire…”

That was the kind of thing only someone utterly ignorant of real magic would say.

I calmly explained it to Balkan.

"Whatever it was, it’s definitely connected to His Majesty. He was holding an item that could only exist in the Emperor’s private chambers. But that situation clearly wasn’t normal. Did you really completely believe it?”

"...Impossible. What did His Majesty say to you?”

It seemed Blakan believed that figure was 100% the Emperor’s astral body, and that belief was what had turned him against the princess.

What a mess. What was that thing anyway? As I tilted my head, I realized that I could use this and answered smoothly.

"Hmm, he told me to assist the savior of the Empire. I assumed that meant Her Highness the Princess, so while I had my doubts, I chose to stand at her side.”

"I-is that really true?”

"Yes. Why would I lie about something like that?"

At some point, Balkan had already sheathed his sword. He slowly nodded, as if everything made sense to him now.

"I see…so that’s it. His Majesty chose you to assist me…”

He really was easy to handle.

Just moments ago he had been ready to kill me, and now he was smiling broadly, holding his hand out.

"My apologies. It seems there was a slight misunderstanding between us.”

"It’s fine. Misunderstandings happen. It really was just a slight one.”

"Wahaha, indeed! Now then, actually, the elf’s signal isn’t coming from here. It’s coming from elsewhere.”

"What?"

"I concealed that fact in case you were hiding something. Looks like the battlefield has shifted. If we don’t hurry, we’ll be too late.”

"You..."

This absolute lunatic.

Still, there was no point spitting at someone’s smiling face. Seeing that grin, I figured getting angry would just make me look like an idiot. I sighed and started walking.

Then I stopped again.

"Hmm."

"What are you looking at?”

Seeing my gaze linger on the ice statues, Balkan approached with a puzzled look and examined them as well.

"Is there some secret hidden in them?”

"No. I was just wondering why they don’t have faces.”

"...Ask that when we meet up with the elf.”

He frowned in bewilderment, then bent forward.

"I’ll carry you this time. Get on.”

His treatment had completely changed.

Letting out a hollow chuckle, I didn’t climb onto his back. Instead, I stared once more at the ice statues.

Faceless ice statues.

Faceless Knights.

As my thoughts kept drifting about, my face twisted into a scowl in realization.

"Ah. You’ve got to be kidding me…”

"What is it? Time’s running out. Hurry up and get on already.”

"Even now, you’re still being this annoying. What a personality, seriously.”

When I snapped, Balkan turned around in surprise.

"? Was that directed at me?”

"No. At my master.”

"Your master?”

"Yes. It’s nothing. She just hid the hint in the most irritating way possible.”

I lightly summoned some water pressure.

"...Huh?"

-Pshhhk!

Along with Balkan’s confused grunt… A red flower embroidered itself across the snow.

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