Wizard of the Abyss – Ch. 186

Wizard of the Abyss

[Extra Novels]

Chapter 186 - Oblivion (11)

After entering the Abyssal Sea and coming back out.

A thought would cross my mind from time to time.

Now that my Water Partition was far thicker, now that I could draw upon the power of much deeper depths...

Maybe, just maybe, could my fangs finally reach those Knights of Heavenly Retribution I'd never dared to challenge before—or even those who lived beyond those realms?

When I brought that thought up to Dercia, this was her answer.

"Not certain.”

"What?"

"Your senses are undeniably superior, so much so that one would be troubled to compare you with them. However, the fact that you are the one using them is a flaw.”

She continued casually, spouting statements that seemed a bit harsh to me.

"Even if you perceive something through your Tide Sense, reacting is the problem. If another Knight possessed your senses, they could evade a sword strike flying at them from point-blank range. But if you were attacked by a Knight within a certain distance, the moment you react would also be the moment your head would be severed.”

"So that’s how it is.”

I wasn’t disappointed. I’d already expected as much.

But Dercia didn’t stop there. She slowly rested her chin on her hand.

"Still, yes, with how you are now…if you were to observe your opponent with those fine senses of yours and wait for an opening. You would at least be able to recognize the moment when a surprise attack on them could succeed.”

At the time, I didn’t quite understand what she meant.

Not that the surprise attack would succeed, but that I’d be able to recognize the moment it would.

'...So this is what you meant.’

I swallowed quietly as I watched Balkan’s neck slowly stain the snow while his body rolled across the ground.

For just an instant, as I saw Balkan turn his back…

His bundles of muscle, the fibers beneath them, the angle of his sword, the hand he extended, the movement of his toes, the direction of his gaze… Everything was laid bare for me.

No matter how fast he was, unless he was faster than an arrow in flight, there was one decisive hit that would definitely hit.

And I could feel the moment it would work.

-Thud.

As Balkan collapsed to the ground, I silently clenched my teeth.

Had I just killed an innocent Knight?

Or had I correctly solved Dercia’s puzzle?

The moment I decided that if it were the former, I’d blame everything on that damned elf, the fallen body of Balkan began to twitch grotesquely.

At first, I thought it was just post-mortem spasms—

"...Kgh."

But then he slowly moved, lifting his head. I let out a sigh.

Looks like I had picked the right answer.

"You damn bastard…”

The thing wearing Balkan’s form—no, Balkan himself, holding his own severed head—glared at me.

It was a rather strange sight seeing a headless body, blood pouring down from its cut neck, holding its own head but still having its mouth moving and even producing sound.

"Are you out of your mind? Do you have any idea what it means to kill a Guardian Knight? It’s practically a declaration of war on the Empire.”

"Her Highness the Princess is rather accommodating—”

As I spoke, I crushed the ground where that thing stood with pressure.

-Boom!

"Woah, that’s dangerous."

Perhaps because that thing was using a Guardian Knight’s body, it easily slipped backward to evade, then grinned.

"...She’d gladly forgive a certain degree of rudeness.”

"Looks like you’ve gotten a lot more used to the Abyssal Sea. Should’ve killed you earlier.”

"Don’t take me for an idiot. You could never kill me.”

From the moment the Lump encountered me, I had always been beside Dercia and Brimdal.

Even if I failed to notice an ambush, those two would not. If it had ever drawn its blade against me during this journey, the Lump would have been reduced to minced flesh on the spot.

"The only moment you could’ve killed me was right after we arrived at this mountain…but you didn’t.”

"Hah, that loss really stung, you know?”

The Lump had fought me before in a Knight’s body. Back then, I’d been able to see its attacks using the bubbles that preceded them and deal with it.

With that experience, it realized inside the carriage that the range of my Tide Sense had grown far wider. And after confirming it once more with that thread, it must have reached a certain conclusion.

I put out a statement that even I intentionally filled to the brim with confidence.

"You chose well. Surprise attacks won’t work on me.”

"..."

Actually, that was only true while my Realm was spread out.

But it didn’t know that. Believing I could foresee any Knight’s attack before it even happened, it had chosen to lure me instead of ambushing.

-Boom, boom!

After dodging several bursts of water pressure, it twisted its face into a creepy smile.

And then said something even creepier.

"Hmm…No matter how I think about it, you really do resemble me.”

"That’s the most disgusting insult I’ve ever heard.”

If its goal was to provoke me, it succeeded. I spread pressure in all directions, intending to crush that thing completely. The Lump retreated, muttering.

"You can deny it all you want. I don’t really care. But no matter how I look at it, you’re also nothing but a killer who follows orders, no different from me.”

"...What?"

"Yeah, your master got it right. I’m the Lump. But you see…before that I was Balkan as well.”

Blood slowly seeped downward as it stood there, clinging to its head.

That thing, looking like a well-made Halloween decoration, reached out its hand to me, making a sincere offer.

"Abyssal Sea, how about joining us? A new world where you can achieve anything you desire…”

"How ridiculous…”

"...What?"

"You think I killed you just because I listened to Dercia?”

It was true that Dercia told me Balkan was the enemy.

But I had no right to judge someone based solely on another person’s words.

No one did.

I acted because I reached my own conclusion.

"You wouldn’t know living in that shabby little world of yours. These burdens aren’t normal.”

"...?"

"The world being buried under snow that never melts. That much is possible. But spreading cognitive delay over such a vast area? That’s impossible.”

A burden on par with my pressure or even exceeding it.

The moment I first confirmed something like that spreading across the entire world, I’d found it odd.

If something like that was truly possible, then the destruction of the world would have been absurdly easy.

There had to be a hidden trick.

"You moved Decay.”

The Lump could use its ability to relocate members of the Upper Tier.

That was exactly how it had sent Decay away the first time we met.

"When I was digging through the ground, you waited for the moment you slipped out of my Tide Sense’s rage, transformed into Decay, and applied the burden.”

The burden had appeared only after that. If it were truly proportional to distance, I should have felt it grow stronger the closer I came to this mountain.

Of course, nothing like that happened.

"It’s true that Dercia told me. But I didn't just believe it. I assumed it was true and worked from there. And once I did, a few strange things finally made sense to me.”

"..."

"That was my judgement, not someone else’s orders. Are you satisfied?”

"...Tsk. I knew this kind of thing wasn’t for me.”

As if realizing persuasion was no longer possible, the Lump scratched its head, let out a sigh—and vanished.

"?!"

I immediately pushed my Tide Sense to its limit and swept the surroundings. Faint footprints appeared, revealing the Lump’s movement.

Yet despite that, its body remained completely invisible. It was camouflage so perfect it made my skin crawl.

"Surprise attacks won’t work, huh? That’s true. If I were just a Knight, I wouldn’t be able to touch you.”

"This bastard…!”

Balkan hadn’t been lying.

His stealth techniques far surpassed those of ordinary Knights.

'No problem.'

It was fine. As long as it couldn’t touch my body, everything it did was meaningless.

I immediately spread my Realm and fully released my Tide Sense that I had been suppressing without holding anything back.

My senses sharpened further, locking onto Balkan with increasing precision. If that thing approached, I could crush it instantly.

But—

"But this one isn’t a Knight.”

-Woosh!

"...Ugh!"

Balkan didn’t come any closer.

Instead, that thing fired something at incredible speed from a distance.

Grabbing the projectile just in time, I confirmed what it was. An ice spike.

'...Packed snow?'

Then razor-sharp spikes poured in endlessly from all directions.

-Papapapapapap!

I caught them one by one with pressure but quickly realized this would never end. So instead, I compressed myself with pressure.

"Oho?”

"..."

It was painful but effective.

Every spike flying toward me dangled midair and froze in place. Even if Balkan tried to approach, it would meet the same fate.

My defense held, but the Lump smiled leisurely and kept talking.

"Not bad, but even so, are you really okay with this?”

"...What?”

"Isn’t it strange? The elf and the dwarf. Neither of them has shown up.”

The Lump, smirking slyly, was irritatingly stating the truth.

Indeed, Dercia, who had been fighting Decay, had vanished somewhere, and Brimdal hadn’t arrived either.

Something had clearly gone wrong. We needed to regroup.

"Well, if you’re going to keep standing there like this, that works out great for me.”

Moving irregularly so as not to be caught by my pressure, the Lump kept throwing meaningless ice spikes, as if it were simply doing its job by keeping me tied down here.

This was bad. In the end, this was Decay’s territory. If I stayed still, I was the one at a disadvantage.

"Haah..."

After taking a deep breath, I checked the range of Lump’s movement.

Would it work?

'Probably not…'

Then I’d just have to make it work.

"...?”

Suddenly, the snow-filled ground began to sink slowly.

That thing, staring at the steadily collapsing ground in confusion, twisted its face grotesquely and leapt backward at once.

"You insane bastard, are you trying to get yourself killed?”

"Don’t know.”

"What?"

"Guess we’ll find out.”

Using Tide Sense without restriction while my Realm was spread out felt like my brain might burst from the overload of accumulated information.

Then what would happen if I used pressure without restriction while my Realm was spread out as well?

I’d never tested it before. Unlike the former, which at worst caused some headaches, the latter was directly tied to my life.

And life was what I liked to stake the most.

"Fuck...!"

The Lump realized that no matter how hard it ran, it couldn’t escape the collapsing area, turned its body, and charged straight at me.

But it was far too late. Watching it rush toward me, I muttered quietly.

"Get crushed.”

-Crack, Crrrrruuuuush!!

Next to the black line Dercia had carved, a dot appeared.

The snowless mountaintop was the same color as that line, stained by rotted trees beneath.

"Uweeeegh…"

I vomited what little was in my stomach.

It wasn’t my choice. The sensation was like my body being wrung out like a rag. I was far beyond the point where enduring was a matter of my own will.

-Drip, drip…

Staring at the bloody tears flowing on their own and my bloodshot fingertips, I muttered,

"...It was worth it.”

My state was incredibly dire.

But looking at the scene I had created, the price I paid for it was absurdly low.

A massive cavern lay there submerged in darkness.

A shadow cast by walls of snow tens of meters high, which clearly showed just how much snow had piled up. And aside from the area I had crushed, the sheer walls precisely marked my full range.

Turning my gaze forward I saw the Lump that had been crushed mid-charge vomiting blood as it violently gasped for breath.

"Kgh, gasp...Y-you crazy bastard…hahaha…”

That thing burst into laughter while sprawled on the ground, as if thoroughly fed up.

"You did this…over this entire range…?”

A radius of over several hundred meters.

It was asking whether I had applied pressure strong enough to kill a Knight like Balkan across this whole area.

I slowly nodded in agreement.

"Seems like it."

"I knew I should’ve killed you back then…”

"If you’re going to regret it, do it fast.”

I raised my trembling hand and aimed it at it.

"So? What are you going to do?”

"..."

"You can’t kill me anyway…hehe…”

The situation had returned back to square one.

Crushing it to death wouldn’t be difficult for me right now.

But it would mean nothing. It had surely hidden another body somewhere nearby.

I had to suppress the Lump without killing it, but how?

Knocking it unconscious would be ideal, but it was still inside a Knight’s body. Even in its current state, if I made the wrong move, it had more than enough strength left to instantly kill itself.

And then I’d be forced to face another Lump inside a far more capable Knight’s body.

In the end, the problem was the location. If its goal was to keep me pinned here, escaping wouldn’t be easy.

'Is killing it quickly and moving before it inhabits the next body my only option?'

A plan entirely dependent on luck. If its other body was already somewhere nearby, it’d all be pointless.

But I couldn’t just stand here either. As I slowly began to raise the pressure, preparing to give that grinning bastard exactly what it wanted…

At that moment…

The Lump suddenly grabbed its own throat.

That alone wasn’t strange. I assumed it had realized I was trying to knock it out and was attempting suicide.

"..."

But something about its expressions was off.

Even as it strangled itself, its hands were trembling violently, as if it couldn’t comprehend what it had just done.

"You..."

"So this is it."

Before I could even ask, it spoke first.

"What?"

"This was the decision His Majesty meant.”

...That voice was completely serious and utterly resolute.

_______________________________________________________________________