Wizard of the Abyss – Ch. 193

Wizard of the Abyss

[Extra Novels]

Chapter 193 - Oblivion (18)

I knew well that I wouldn’t get a second chance like this one.

If Decay realized he wasn’t invincible…

If he realized that the gap in time could be overcome, he would never again give me any distance.

"...I never thought of you as merely a child swallowed by a Great World.”

And I didn’t waste that opportunity.

The final surge of water pressure I unleashed with everything I had undoubtedly dealt a fatal wound beyond recovery to Decay. From his shoulder blade to his heart. I had literally torn half of his body away.

—And yet he was still alive.

"The elf who stands closest to becoming the next pillar of Heaven found the most suitable candidate and bestowed upon them the Abyssal Sea. That was our evaluation of you.”

Though a bit slower, Decay spoke normally, forming words even with his jaw torn off.

He even adjusted his pace so that I could hear him.

Even in this situation, he remained relaxed.

The blurriness had faded somewhat. Yet even with my Tide Sense on the verge of exploding my head, I still couldn’t fully grasp him.

He still existed in a timeframe far faster than mine.

No—it was probably that I was trapped within slowed time.

"A suitable body. That is why you can endure it. Because you can endure it, you can wield it. That alone is remarkable…”

"..."

Watching Decay slowly walk toward me, I struggled to stay on my feet, but my vision grew dim, and my body swayed.

Even the armor of water pressure surrounding my body had weakened. I had staked too much on that last attack.

Grinding my teeth, I forced my sluggish mind to plan the next move. Then suddenly, Decay frowned.

"You deceived us.”

"What?"

"You were never chosen. You were never deliberately granted the Abyssal Sea. The elf didn’t succeed through some unknown method in doing what we have pursued all our lives. You just naturally sunk into the Abyssal Sea.”

"...Of course I did, you bastard. What? Did you think my master drowned me in the sea and forced me to fall like you people do? And that I’d happily follow her afterward?”

Curses slipped out of my mouth unconsciously. Apparently Scarlet Abyss had believed that I had fallen because of Dercia.

Clutching my spinning head, I snapped back sharply, barely steadying my trembling legs. Decay muttered quietly and raised his hand.

"Great Void said that no matter what happens, you must be kept alive. That it would serve our cause.

-...Craaack.

Suddenly, a small but unpleasant sound began to emanate from somewhere. As I looked around, a chill slowly crawled up my spine.

The sea was freezing.

Of course, near Decay, chunks of ice had always floated around even if he did nothing. But until now it had felt accidental. Like seawater reacting to a coolant and freezing—this time was different. It was deliberate.

Decay was freezing the water around me.

'Just when I thought things couldn’t get worse.'

I swallowed dryly and quickly scanned my surroundings. I had considered this possibility. Decay commanded the world of Absolute Frost. Even the Abyssal Sea might not be immune to this freezing.

However, I hadn’t prepared any countermeasures. Until now, he hadn’t done it, so I had simply assumed he couldn’t do it and dismissed it.

The reason was simple.

Because that attack couldn’t be countered.

If Decay could truly freeze the Abyssal Sea, then it was a perfect counter to my ability. It would be like a fire mage attacking me.

"But based on my own judgment, you cannot come with us.”

"What’s the difference between Dercia creating me and me falling on my own?”

"Purity."

No further explanation came from Decay, whose tone had grown far colder.

There was no reason to tell a man who was about to die anyway.Watching my armor of water pressure slowly begin to freeze, I examined him anxiously.

"...?”

Though it was hard to see clearly through the blur, I noticed that the severed cross-section of his body had frozen solid.

I understood that he froze his body to stop the bleeding, but if that were possible, he should have frozen himself more thoroughly. Some parts remained unfrozen, blood still spreading into the sea.

Why had he not sealed those areas?

The answer could be guessed from the speed at which the Abyssal Sea itself was freezing.

'Slow.'

Even now Decay lived in a timeframe far faster than mine, yet the rate at which the Abyssal Sea froze was incredibly slow.

At this pace, it would take about 30 minutes before I completely lost control and simply froze to death after being turned into a block of ice.

Considering that it would appear even slower to Decay, this was certainly strange. He had already declared that he would kill me, so there was no reason for him to hesitate now.

In other words, the speed at which Decay could deliberately freeze the Abyssal Sea was absurdly slow.

Still, that didn't really change anything. Those wounds wouldn’t kill him.

Perhaps if I landed one more decisive strike, but for me to do that now…

"...Ah.”

Something flashed through my mind.

As I considered several possibilities, I realized something.

There was no time to think of another method.

"Hmm?"

The moment I made my decision, I turned—

And fled with all my might along the ocean current.

Unlike the real world, the Abyssal Sea was filled with currents, meaning if I wished, I would rush anywhere. The acceleration was so tremendous that if someone had fired a gun beside me, it might have been a fair race between me and the bullet.

Decay instantly shrank into a tiny dot in the distance.

Then—when I turned my head again, he was right in front of me.

"You’re as slow as a turtle.”

I clenched my fist as I heard his mocking voice.

From his perspective, I must have looked like a child who had just learned how to swim.

There was no escaping Decay. That was the biggest reason I had never even considered running in the first place.

I glared at him and spat,

"Yeah, you prepared well. I can’t catch you, I can’t escape, and you can kill me whenever you want, yet you still avoid even the burden of my world. It’s almost as if…this world exists solely to kill me.”

"What are you trying to say?”

"Isn’t that actually your role?”

Decay tilted his head as if wondering what nonsense I was talking about.

"That revolving lantern, your past. I saw it too. If it wasn’t a lie, Great Void was looking for a vessel capable of holding the world of Absolute Frost, wasn’t he?”

"Yes."

"Then why did Great Void prepare a world like Absolute Frost in the first place? Your father, your mother…He tried to save them no matter what. As far as I can tell, the only ones he’s shown that level of interest in are you and me.”

"...Are you trying to say Great Void created me to oppose the Abyssal Sea?”

He curled the corner of his mouth in a sneer, seeming bewildered.

"You are certainly part of the plan. But your estimation of your own importance is excessive.”

"Then why didn’t you know?”

"...?”

"You knew quite a lot about the Abyssal Sea. The moment we met, you immediately realized I was a Fallen of the Abyssal Sea. That means Great Void must have explained everything about it in great detail.”

"Our original target was the Grand Sea. The Abyssal Sea was never our goal. Aside from being a far more extreme environment, its properties are not that different. That is why I knew so much about you.”

"But it seems you didn’t know everything.”

I raised the thread ring bound around my finger.

Decay stared at it without speaking for a moment.

It was proof that Puppet had merged into the Abyssal Sea.

When he saw me using Puppet’s ability, his reaction had been one of disbelief.

He hadn’t known.

More precisely, Great Void hadn’t told him.

"Great Void must have known. If I’m really just a minor piece of the plan like you say, then why did he order that I shouldn’t be killed and attempted to be recruited instead?”

"If you were truly important, every member of Scarlet Abyss would have been sent after you.”

"What if there’s something Great Void doesn’t want revealed?”

I scanned my surroundings, forcing the conversation to continue.

"What if there’s something about the Abyssal Sea that he’s hiding from all of you? You know it too. Great Void is a bit obsessed with the Abyssal Sea. He’s been drowning nearly every mage he finds in seawater. Is that really just to fulfill one step of the plan?”

The conversation was meant to buy time, but it wasn’t entirely improvised.

Thinking back on my memories of Scarlet Abyss, Great Void had always been a strange bastard. There was no way he had revealed everything even to the Upper Tiers within Scarlet Abyss.

After hearing everything, Decay stroked his chin for a moment, then sneered.

"Yes, it does seem Great Void may be hiding something from me—but so what? You didn’t seriously think I’d betray Scarlet Abyss and join you over something like that, did you? If that was what you were hoping for, then all I can offer you is disappointment.”

Well, that was obvious.

If someone betrayed their organization just because their boss kept a few secrets, they’d have to be completely insane. Even if Scarlet Abyss was a nest of lunatics, Decay didn’t seem like that kind of person.

"Do not misunderstand. Great Void is not the only one who dreams of the fall of Heaven. Sometimes there are worlds that are better off never being born.”

"Tsk, is that so?”

"Do you have anything else to say? If not, close your eyes. At the very least, you will not suffer unnecessary pain.”

"Something to say? Yeah, I do.”

Once again, I hurled myself away with all the strength I had.

"...A pointless effort.”

Decay followed me no matter how far I fled.

No matter how fast I swam, no matter how desperate I ran, he was always right in front of me.

Yet the scenery around us kept changing.

[Cold! Cold! Cold! Cold!]

[Cold! Cold! Cold! Cold!]

Until I reached the end of the canyon filled with clams, I didn’t stop swimming.

"I see..."

Decay finally seemed to understand. He smiled faintly and nodded.

"So you want me to destroy myself in this Abyssal Sea.”

It seemed he had also noticed that the surrounding water pressure had grown stronger.

But that method wouldn’t work to begin with.

If the time spent here was short, then the time exposed to the burden would also be short.

Water pressure didn’t crush one all at once. The time we had actually spent in the Abyssal Sea was probably far less than it felt to me.

Even wounded, Decay wouldn’t be crushed so easily.

"No."

There—

I released the armor of water pressure.

The crushing pressure that had wrapped around my entire body vanished.

"Are you an idiot?”

-Boom!

Decay tilted his head in confusion, a mass of ice flying toward me at that exact moment.

My sudden strange behavior was punished instantly. Without even needing to freeze me, the ice punched straight through my abdomen. My mind went blank as I felt the hole open in my stomach.

But now, without the armor of water pressure—

I could touch something else.

"..."

-Crack.

With all my might, I grabbed the eel that shot toward me like an arrow.

This eel had not yet been affected by Decay’s cognitive deceleration, so from my perspective, it moved at an impossible speed.

Decay assumed I was trying to escape and hurriedly prepared another chunk of ice—

But I had no intention of running.

"...G-go..."

The eel carried out my command perfectly.

And then for a moment, the time it took one to blink—

The eel delivered me directly in front of Decay.

Of course, with my slowed thoughts, reacting was impossible.

I couldn’t do anything.

But—

"...Got you. You bastard!”

The instant Decay’s body touched mine.

I poured every ounce of strength into crushing every bit of space around us with water pressure—

And that brief moment was more than enough to apply that burden to ‘both of us.'

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