Wizard of the Abyss – Ch. 189

Wizard of the Abyss

[Extra Novels]

Chapter 189 - Oblivion (14)

"It’s way too vast..."

"..."

Almost a full week.

In a place with no distinction between night and day, I’d spent enough time climbing mountains and sweeping even the smallest ravines with my Tide Sense to make my head ache.

Far from finding a single trace of Decay, the only yield was a few wolves.

Those wolves had since become the silver coat I was wearing. Especially made by Dercia, no less. Her sense was good enough to rival a professional tailor, which honestly surprised me a bit.

"Why are there wolves here in the first place?”

"It seems that there were living wolves around him in Decay’s final moments.”

"...Is that even possible?”

"Look at this endlessly spreading mountain range. This was never a real world to begin with. It’s simply the last scene Decay saw before dying. He was probably eaten by wolves. Ah, would you like a scarf?”

She casually handed me a scarf she’d fashioned from leftover scraps.

"Thank you. But I don’t think this will be enough to completely fend off the burdens.”

I muttered while rubbing my reddened fingertips.

After a full week, even I was starting to lose sensation in my extremities.

At this rate, I would really freeze to death. I quietly clenched my teeth, glancing at Dercia from the corner of my eyes.

"Do you have any guesses?”

"I’m sorry for being of so little help. I can’t even search a single mountain properly on my own in my current state. This is the first time I’ve ever traveled such a distance.”

"..."

A week of searching through the snowfields with nothing to show for it meant we absolutely needed another method.

Was there really no other way?

I tapped my foot irritably, and then suddenly a thought occurred to me.

"Please wait a moment, just in case.”

"?"

Leaving the puzzled Dercia behind, I grabbed hold of this space itself—and destabilized the balance of the world.

-Splash, gurgle…

It felt like I heard something.

When I opened my eyes again, instead of the snow-covered plains, I felt the constant cold, crushing darkness of the Abyssal Sea.

'Tsk...'

I clicked my tongue internally. This damn ocean had no intention of letting me go, whether I went into the future, past, or even this imaginary revolving lantern.

Still, it did give me another option.

"Hey, you, come here.”

[...]

Searching around the area, I casually called over a few fast-moving swordfish and then froze.

Inside their mouth were teeth disturbingly similar to a human’s. They were so neatly aligned and white, they looked like they could be pulled out as is and used as dentures.

I’d never seen ones like this before. Which meant I had sunk to an even deeper depth.

"Alright, put this on…”

I pulled thread from my ring and fastened it to the deep-sea creature.

It didn’t resist. It accepted the threads and became my loyal slave without any complaint. They consumed a fair amount of my thread capacity, so four of them was my limit.

"Now, watch carefully.”

In that state, I returned to reality.

Not completely. Just a little.

"...Jern?”

Dercia’s frown came into view again.

From her perspective, I had vanished and then abruptly reappeared, so it was understandable that she made that face.

"Can you see me now?”

"More than just see.”

"Huh?”

Without a word, she pointed at my hand.

When I lifted it—-

-Drip, drip

A viscous liquid fell, soaking the ground beneath.

So dark that it could have been mistaken for crude oil, the liquid melted the ice as if slowly seeping downward.

It wasn’t just my hand. Seawater was pouring off my entire body.

"Hmm…Please don’t take this the wrong way.”

Dercia carefully chose her words, her expression complicated.

"If you asked a hundred citizens of the Empire, all hundred would think you’re a high-ranking member of Scarlet Abyss. You look exactly like them.”

"Ah, yes. I have eyes too.”

It seemed the reason the Upper Tiers always appeared grotesque was because they carefully balanced the ratio between their world and the real world.

Not fully submerged to the point they couldn’t influence reality, but not completely severed either.

...Though the latter was impossible anyway.

"Why are you maintaining this dangerous overlapping state?”

"I want to use these guys. Can you see them as well?”

"I see nothing.”

Dercia couldn’t see the swordfish that were circling me.

But since they were connected to me by thread, they could see this world.

It seemed like they couldn’t influence it, but seeing alone was possible.

"Go and find beings that look like us, then come back.”

The moment I gave them this order, the swordfish shot off like bullets.

The threads were looped around their necks, so there was no risk of them snapping.

Watching them rush off in all four directions at terrifying speed, I let out a quiet sigh of relief. Dercia stared at me, eyes wide.

"You speak quite fluently. What exactly did you say?”

"I told them to come back if they find people like us.”

"Hmm. And what if he’s hiding inside the mountains?”

"They can use Tide Sense as well. I’m sure they’ll manage… Is there a reason you’re looking at me like that?”

Feeling uncomfortable under Dercia’s scrutiny, I asked, but she just shook her head lightly.

"Half of it is because your current appearance is quite unusual, and the other half is because you suggested using the deep-sea creatures to survey this entire mountain range quite naturally. Which made me think that if you applied that method in reality, you could theoretically encompass the entire world with your Tide Sense.”

"...They have fish-level intelligence. They can’t handle detailed reconnaissance. I just gave them a simple order to find strange-looking people in this empty snow world.”

"I see. Though if you ever find an intelligent deep-sea creature, it might be different.”

"..."

Dercia’s words weren’t entirely wrong.

If I were to find a deep-sea creature capable of understanding commands like ”observe what the leader of that country is doing and report back,” rather than something as simple as "find someone who looks like me in these snowy mountains,” then I wouldn’t be just a human anymore, but someone closer to Scarlet Abyss, leisurely being able to examine the whole world’s happenings.

"That won’t happen."

There was no reason for it to.

Outside of emergencies like this, what would be the point of digging through the private lives of an entire continent? At best, it might help against the Upper Tiers, whose locations I was barely aware of.

"...Right. You never were that kind of person.”

Seeing my stiff expression, Dercia muttered something seemingly meaningful.

Not long after, one of the thread-bound swordfish returned, moving at the exact same speed it had departed with.

[...]

"Oh, one came back from the east.”

Barely 30 minutes had passed.

As I calmly ordered it to guide us to the location, Dercia showed a faint smile.

"Remarkably efficient.”

"..."

For some reason, that didn’t sound like praise.

* * *

[Close, close …]

"Master."

"Yes."

The moment the swordfish gave me that signal, I dismissed it and pushed my Tide Sense to its absolute limit.

This meant we were close to Decay—or to the corpse inside his revolving lantern hallucination.

No matter what form it took, there was no chance he hadn’t prepared something.

Combat was inevitable.

"It may not be of much help, but I did prepare a few things in advance.”

"..."

"Jern?”

She suddenly stopped, looking at me in confusion when I froze in place.

I couldn’t even respond first—too busy confirming what I had perceived.

Only after convincing myself I wasn’t imagining things did I finally open my mouth.

"Erm…Hm, Master?”

"What is it now?”

"I think, hmm. Yes, you should see this for yourself.”

I pointed at the sky.

There—a thin wisp of smoke drifted upward.

Dercia blinked, staring at it for a moment, then quietly asked.

"Jern, what did you see?”

"At the very least, it isn’t Decay.”

We walked in silence.

Until a small castle came into view.

Up close, the rising smoke became unmistakable. Children’s laughter echoed faintly through the snowstorm, mingled with merchants haggling over wares.

Guards shivering atop watchtowers. Lights burning warmly. Snowy roads branching out everywhere.

I couldn’t hold it in any longer and asked Dercia.

"What is this?”

"...Part of the revolving lantern…I suppose.”

A revolving lantern was a fleeting hallucination seen just before death.

And yet, all those visions would ultimately end in death. In the end, only this snowfield and the wolves should remain. Even if a castle and people appeared, they should exist only as frozen corpses and collapsed walls.

"Perhaps because Decay hasn’t died yet, this revolving lantern is still in progress.”

"If it’s a dream of his life continuing up until his death, isn’t that just life?”

"...We’ll only know for sure once we go inside.”

"I’ll need to enter as well if I want to sweep everything properly with my Tide Sense.”

The castle was rather large. It wasn’t quite the size of the capital, but it was large enough that we’d need to go inside so that I could confirm everything, every conversation included.

We approached the castle, avoiding the guards’ lines of sight, reached the walls, and searched for any kind of hidden opening.

It was completely sealed. And it wasn't as if we could politely ask the guards to just open the gates.

"We can’t just break in, can we?”

"Of course not. Whatever is inside that place, provoking it is the worst possible choice.”

"Hmm…”

In that case...

"Excuse me for a moment.”

"Huh?"

I gently lifted Dercia with water pressure, anchoring myself to the wall as well, and slowly ascended the castle wall.

Dercia, who was suddenly floating in the air, looked at me with disbelief and quietly said,

"You’re becoming less human and more of a phenomenon by the day.”

"That’s a deeply triggering thing to say. I’m being as careful as I can.”

Carefully confirming every guard’s field of vision, we slipped onto the wall.

Having made it inside somehow, I lightly dropped into the inner city and, though I had already seen it through my Tide Sense, exhaled sharply upon seeing it with my own eyes.

"Master. Look at that.”

"...Yes."

The city was beautiful, buried beneath snow and ice.

Most of its citizens seemed to be soldiers, considering that it was harder to find someone without a sword or armor. There were a plethora of blacksmith shops as well.

Yet it wasn’t only soldiers. There were elderly people who looked like family members, women managing households, and even children. Facilities existed for them as well, but that wasn’t what was the most important.

At the center of the city stood a statue, as if commemorating someone.

That statue wasn’t wearing a mask.

But its build and the heavy clothing were unmistakable.

Dercia let out a sigh and summarized it in a single sentence.

"It seems like he was the type to dream in great detail.”

Decay was the lord of this city.

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