Wizard of the Abyss – Ch. 203

Wizard of the Abyss

[Extra Novels]

Chapter 203 - Journey (9)

In the end, we didn’t stop by the library.

Because Malo insisted so strongly that I had no choice but to enter the Abyssal Sea instead.

[Since we never knew when Scarlet Abyss might move, our creator required us to make autonomous decisions. We were given intelligence so that we could act directly.]

-Swoosh...

As usual, I swam through the pitch-black Abyssal Sea, scanning everything with my Tide Sense, while Malo kept poking my shoulder.

"That kind of stings. Could you stop poking me?”

[...Sorry. Let me borrow just a little bit.]

Judging only from its timid tone, it looked less like a guardian of the world prepared by the First Mage and more like a mosquito.

Malo pierced my skin with a thread and sucked out a little blood, then continued its explanation with renewed vigor.

[For that purpose, he gave us his blood and, in return, granted us a long life and the power to achieve our purpose. Through that blood he made us into artificial—no, sacred—True Blood Factors.]

"What does that have to do with finding Decay right now?”

[The point you should focus on is that the thing our creator bestowed upon us was not magic, but merely a single drop of blood. His blood is not something that can simply be handled. Something like dozens of tons of gunpowder given without purpose lies dormant in your Abyssal Sea.]

"Will it explode?”

[Perhaps it will simply remain still, or perhaps it will gain a will of its own…or perhaps it will be neither. No one knows. You, of all people, should understand that.]

"...I think I get it a little.”

The fear of the unknown.

The idea that a monstrous liquid capable of turning humans into tools and sustaining life for thousands of years was sleeping in the Abyssal Sea was even more dangerous than certain destruction, precisely because it was unpredictable.

After all, the only real countermeasure was to find it quickly and eliminate it.

'The worst outcome would be if Decay revived using that blood or sacred relic as the catalyst…’

But honestly, it didn't seem likely that it possessed such absurd power.

If it did, he would have resurrected long ago and tried to kill me already.

[Have you found it?]

"No, not yet.”

I thoroughly searched the Abyssal Sea with my Tide Sense. I even tied threads to some deep-sea creatures and sent them out with instructions to return immediately if they found anything strange like Decay. 

But there wasn’t a single trace to be found. If he were that easy to find, I would have discovered him long ago.

"Are you sure Decay has that sacred relic?”

[I am certain. If you had possessed a relic from the beginning, I would have sensed it when you bled. And you bleed all the time. But after you fought that Scarlet Abyss Fallen I have felt the presence of True Blood.]

"...You’re really useless. How did your companions even get captured by Scarlet Abyss? Sounds like your creator did a sloppy job.”

Come to think of it, the real problem was that these relics, which were supposedly scattered everywhere by the First Mage to protect the world, had completely failed to fulfill their duty.

As I grumbled, Malo protested desperately.

[Our creator did his best. If we had awakened and fought Scarlet Abyss alongside the True-Blood Factors…if that had happened, they would have had no hope whatsoever. Even if they grew dozens of times stronger and pushed us to the brink of defeat, when that moment came, we would have used our judgment to revive Him…]

"But it all failed."

[Th-that was because of a traitor.]

"...What are you talking about?"

[Right. Originally, the existence of us sacred relics was meant to remain strictly secret. But Scarlet Abyss searched for us and brutally destroyed us. Let me say this in advance. We are beings that cannot be distinguished by any method. No matter who in the world comes, unless we reveal ourselves first, they cannot recognize us.]

"You mean they found you because of a traitor?"

[Yes, I suspect Sinto, the one we absorbed. But if it wasn’t him, then who could it have been…?]

"Shh."

While Malo was lost in thought, the shark I had planted a thread in began swimming toward us at high speed from a distance.

I had told them to return only if they discovered something unusual.

In other words, the deep-sea creature had seen something strange from its point of view.

"Tsk, finally found it.”

[Be careful. The creator’s True Blood is unpredictable.]

"Unpredictable? What do you mean?”

[I mean it reacts easily to stimulation. And this is the Abyssal Sea…]

Malo hesitated for a long time before finally forming the words..

[This is a world made of nothing but stimulation.]

It was hard to disagree with its words.

Quickly following the shark, something soon entered the range of my Tide Sense.

At first, I thought it was just another canyon.

But as I got closer, it didn’t take long to realize it was something completely different.

"...A volcano?”

[??]

Since Malo couldn’t use Tide Sense, it didn’t understand what I meant.

But it truly was a volcano. The only difference from a normal one was that its base was so massive my Tide Sense couldn’t even reach around it—and it was entirely made of ice.

[At the very least, we know Decay is connected to it.]

"I really don’t want to fight that guy again…"

Sighing, I entered the crater.

Not long after—just like when I came across Puppet—I discovered a corpse inside.

In the middle of the hollow crater, with no lava and no sound at all, Decay’s body was floating silently.

I cautiously approached and touched the corpse—

-Crack.

"...What the—?”

Something different happened this time compared to when I came across Puppet.

The body, which should have been something made of flesh and blood, began to crack.

In an instant, it shattered into dust and scattered through the Abyssal Sea.

At the same time, I felt a chill run through my chest. When I raised my hand and moved it, nothing about my body seemed to have changed, yet something felt different.

It was as if I had gained a new capability. A strange sensation, as if I had suddenly grown a tail.

Just as I was about to test what it was, Malo shouted.

[There it is! Was it called Pure Silver?!]

Decay’s corpse had left behind a necklace decorated with platinum and rubies.

I quickly grabbed it, to which Malo let out a sigh of relief.

[...Good. At least there’s nothing wrong with its appearance.]

"So is it over?”

[Yes. This can only be described as incredibly good luck. We should give it a little blood and ask what happened.]

"Hey, not my blood. It hurts."

[Don’t worry. Since your blood contains True Blood, even a small amount—wait.]

Malo suddenly stopped mid-sentence and muttered.

[If Pure Silver is intact, then why is True Blood mixed in your blood… Wait. Could you bring Pure Silver to my collar for a moment?]

"?"

When I held the necklace against the collar, Malo rubbed against it for a moment and then let out a gloomy sound.

[...It’s too late.]

"What?"

[It’s an empty shell. The True Blood has already completely dissolved into the Abyssal Sea. And it happened long ago.]

"Hmm, still, this isn’t the absolute worst outcome."

At least the situation wasn’t terrible.

Decay hadn't resurrected. The possibility was low anyway, but if the True Blood had only created this ice mountain, then that would be the end of it.

Malo still sounded uneasy.

[But that’s strange… If the True Blood had spread, there should have been a change in the Abyssal Sea that even you could feel. Don't you notice anything?]

"Nothing seems different."

[...Then there are two possibilities. The first is that the change caused by the True Blood was only this ice volcano. That would be the most optimistic scenario.]

"And the second?"

[...]

After a moment of silence, Malo spoke up again.

[That something else absorbed the entire change by itself.]

I was just about to ask what it meant by that when it happened.

[-! Dodge!]

"Tsk, I see it!"

I immediately generated a massive current and shot out of the crater with all my strength.

A mouth swallowed the volcano.

More precisely, the crater itself was the mouth. Just before I escaped, dozens of teeth sprouted from the crater and clenched together like a mixer, trying to grind me to pieces.

If I had been even slightly slower, I would have been eaten. While escaping, Malo’s collar was torn slightly.

[...]

"You okay?"

[This much will repair itself. But…Wh-what is that—?]

Malo fumbled for words while staring at the thing we had mistaken for a volcano.

-Crrrrrk, crrrrrrrrrrrk…

Hundreds or thousands of eyes began opening across the volcano’s surface.

The mouth that had been the crater opened, revealing sticky fluid and rows of sharp teeth. The eyes blinked while scanning the dark Abyssal Sea before slowly shifting.

After examining it with my Tide Sense, I slowly spoke.

"...A barnacle.”

[...What?]

Of course, it wasn’t a normal barnacle.

Normal barnacles weren’t that big, and they didn’t have eyes on their shells. And they definitely weren’t this massive.

More importantly, they didn’t have legs like that.

"Damn it—!”

Escaping its mouth hadn’t meant we were safe. I recoiled in shock just as a sharp tentacle lashed toward me.

Tentacles of terrifying length, studded with countless spikes, so deadly that being wrapped by them even once meant death, were grabbing nearby deep-sea creatures and stuffing them into its mouth.

The shark I had brought along became its food as well. But that wasn’t the real problem.

"...It can see me?”

There was one thing that made it different from the other deep-sea creatures.

It was targeting me.

Which meant it could clearly see me. Even the gigantic octopus couldn’t. The absurdity of it all made me mutter in disbelief.

"What the hell is this thing? How can it see me?”

[It is distinguishing True Blood.]

"You?"

[No, you. Whose blood do you think I’ve been drinking?]

"That’s a serious problem.”

As I dodged one tentacle after another, I realized the situation was worse than expected.

The only reason I had been safe in the Abyssal Sea until now was because of the fundamental premise that ‘the deep-sea creatures couldn’t see me.’

If even a single creature could detect me, that alone would make things far more dangerous…

[And that’s not all. Look over there.]

"What do yo–..."

Following the direction Malo pulled my collar, I noticed something. The tentacles weren’t only stuffing creatures into its mouth.

Other tentacles were pulling deep-sea creatures back out of its mouth. The exact ones it had just swallowed.

And they were still alive. It was eating them and then spitting them back out. Confused, I scanned the expelled creatures with my Tide Sense and frowned.

Every single one of them had barnacles attached all over their bodies. Tiny barnacles.

And each of those small barnacles had a single eye on top. The creatures that were spat back out had become…unspeakably grotesque beings covered in eyes. 

But the problem wasn’t just their appearance.

"Don’t tell me those things—"

[Yes, they can see you now.]

The deep-sea creatures that had been spat out were staring at me—with eyes attached to the barnacles.

They were undoubtedly watching me.

[Its goal for survival is not just mere survival but propagation.]

A barnacle volcano that grants creatures the ability to detect cloaked targets.

It had to be destroyed immediately. But even now, the countless deep-sea creatures around me were staring at me relentlessly, and the tentacles lashing toward me were unbelievably dangerous.

"Tsk...!"

Left with no other choice, I reversed the world once more while thousands of eyes watched me.

-Splash... 

As the seawater receded, the sun appeared again.

I stood up from the grassland where I had collapsed and shook the water from my body.

"This is the worst. I need to get back in and destroy that thing immediately.”

The existence of something that could mass-produce deep-sea creatures capable of recognizing me meant—as ridiculous as it sounded—that the Abyssal Sea was no longer safe.

It had to be erased no matter what it took.

[Agreed. But how?]

Destroy that gigantic mountain, while other deep-sea creatures were already targeting me.

No matter how much stronger I had become, destroying a mountain was practically impossible.

For me at least.

"That doesn’t mean there’s no way."

[...What are you planning to do?]

I smiled lightly at Malo, who seemed quite anxious.

"I brought someone into the Abyssal Sea once before, you know?”

I was no longer alone.

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