Wizard of the Abyss – Ch. 212

Wizard of the Abyss

[Extra Novels]

Chapter 212 - Blade (6)

When anger rose beyond a certain point, one’s heart would instead turn cold.

It was a fairly well-known saying. But this probably wasn’t what it meant.

"...?"

I frowned, feeling my heart literally growing cold.

My chest was filling with some kind of freezing energy. As I tried to figure out what it was, Aksha looked at his crushed arms and let out a sigh.

"What kind of monsters is the Empire even raising?”

"I don’t think it’s your place to say that.”

I gathered pressure again to crush his legs this time, but he panicked and leapt back dozens of steps.

Then he pulled out a whistle from his chest and put it in his mouth.

"Don’t."

I immediately tried to crush it, but—

-Peeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!

A shrill, deafening sound filled the entire lighthouse. 

I frowned. Behind the broken whistle, his upper body had grotesquely swollen.

So the whistle was just a fake. Still, even if reinforcements came, nothing would change.

He seemed to know that as well, giving a bitter smile as he sheathed his dagger.

"This is a bit excessive. I expected maybe the princess’ right-hand Knight to show up. Not a monster who crushes limbs just by looking.”

"Are you begging for your life?”

"Begging? That’s pointless. I’ve heard it thousands of times and never once granted it.”

-Crack!

He shook his arms, and the crushed limbs began to regenerate.

Regeneration bordering on a miracle. At first, I wondered if it was magic or some hidden elixir.

But when I saw the arm fully restored, with a different skin tone, I couldn’t help but frown.

"...That’s not—”

"Sorry for lying. Our organization may be old, but we're pretty good at adopting new things. Knights, Fallen, whatever can be used, we use.”

He wasn't a mage, but just a pure assassin. So he couldn’t fall.

Instead, he was borrowing a Fallen’s ability remotely using some sort of method. 

I let out a dry laugh and clenched my hand in the air.

"You’re lucky. I've got something to ask before you die.”

"That’s funny. I was about to say the same thing!”

Aksha stomped the ground hard.

Of course, that meant nothing in the Abyssal Sea. At that moment, I was already gripping his neck.

Since I couldn’t kill him, I tightened my grip just enough to knock him out, but then he slit his own throat without a shred of hesitation.

"What…?!”

A literal decapitation. The sharp dagger sliced through his neck as if it were tofu.

And yet, he didn’t die. Holding his own severed head, he leapt back dozens of steps, then threw himself out of the lighthouse, trying to escape.

Wait, something like that was possible?! Suppressing my disbelief, I immediately locked onto him with my Tide Sense.

If cutting off his head wasn’t enough, then I’d crush his legs.

-Crunch!

"Hah, you can reach pretty far, huh…”

-Slash!

As expected, it meant nothing. As if she couldn’t even feel pain, he smiled and cut off his own legs again, dropping into the lake.

He immediately began swimming straight toward Lumia. I was about to jump after him but clenched my teeth.

'Damn it.'

I couldn’t approach Lumia in my current state, with my Abyssal Sea manifested.

Right now, I was essentially a walking disaster. Just like how thoughts slowed near Decay, any normal person that approached me would gradually be crushed by pressure. Like people freezing to death near Decay.

Even now, I could feel the surrounding air growing thick and heavy. I had thrown Lumia below the lighthouse for her safety, but it might not have been the best decision.

No matter how tightly I constrained the enemy, if he kept sacrificing his body like a lizard and closing the distance, I had no choice but to let him approach her.

And that wasn’t the only problem.

[Over there! Something’s happening at the lighthouse!]

[Have we made contact? Still no response?]

[No, Headquarters said to move in for now…]

The soldiers, alerted by the whistle, were approaching.

They weren’t a threat. Ordinary soldiers would simply be crushed to death no matter how many of them came at me.

But…

'There are a lot of them.'

Roughly hundreds.

I was prepared to kill people. But not on this insane scale.

With the Abyssal Sea active, controlling my power would be difficult. The only option would be to kill them all. It would become an unprecedented massacre.

'...'

But if I withdrew the Abyssal Sea and lost Lumia? A war would likely break out. And then not hundreds, but thousands would die.

In the end, it was just a numbers game.

Sacrificing hundreds versus thousands.

"...No choice."

What I had to do was clear.

Kill the assassin. Repel all the soldiers. Take the injured Linmel and retreat.

There was no such thing as an easy choice. A peaceful solution, like Lumia hoped for, was probably impossible.

Watching them swarm across the lake like ants, I steeled myself and spread both hands wide.

-Ruuuuuumble...

[...Wh-what? Why’s the water surface acting like this?]

[There’s no wind…]

I needed to resolve this with minimal impact on Lumia.

And I didn’t have time, so I seized the lake.

It was enormous. To a country bumpkin, it might as well have been a small ocean. That was how vast it was.

But now, my Tide Sense and control over currents had far surpassed even that.

[What is…this?]

[Could it be that someone did this…?]

[Don’t be ridiculous! How could a human possibly do that?!]

The flow of the lake began to twist violently in one direction, forming a massive storm that even a normal person could recognize.

Only then did the soldiers realize what was happening.

Someone was controlling the flow of this massive lake.

[Th-that’s impossible…]

My Tide Sense showed me the expressions of the people aboard the boats.

As they slowly grasped the situation, their faces filled with shock, fear, and despair.

One of them looked up at the lighthouse, at me, controlling the lake, and spoke a certain word.

[Monster...]

—They weren’t wrong.

Clenching my teeth, I was about to overturn the entire lake, when—

"Jern."

"...Linmel?”

The girl who had just been injured stood up and stepped in front of me.

I could see the back of her head, faintly smelling like citrus. She spoke lightly, as if deciding on dinner.

"Leave this to me.”

"What?”

Her tone was so matter-of-fact that I couldn’t help but ask.

"What are you talking about? What are you going to do on your own?”

"I’ll rescue Lumia, take down that assassin, and make sure no one gets hurt. Jern, you just figure out a way for us to escape safely.”

"..."

Her clear, steady words left me speechless.

"But…you’re injured.”

"Yeah. It hurts a bit. My ribs are aching.”

"Even if you weren’t injured, that assassin is stronger than you.”

This wasn’t about Linmel being weak.

She was young. She had only just become a Knight.

And now she wanted to defeat a member of some legendary assassin group that created the Knights of Heavenly Retribution? If he could even stall for time, that would already be a miracle.

Still, Limmel wasn’t the kind of girl to spout nonsense in a situation like this.

"Do you even have a chance?”

"I don’t really know. But what you’re about to do isn’t something you really want to do, right?”

"...What?"

"Then I want to do it.”

She glanced down toward the base of the lighthouse, then drew her sword.

"I think I can do it.”

She smiled lightly as she said those words.

There was no guarantee in her words, showing not even a hint of a plan.

And yet, that smile carried the confidence of someone who could make anything succeed.

'If Linmel can just hold on for a little while...'

My thoughts raced. If she could protect Lumia and buy even a small amount of time—

There was a way to avoid a massacre and still extract information from that assassin.

In the end, I lowered my head and let out a sigh.

"...10 minutes. I’ll be back within that time. Just hold out somehow. In the worst case, it’s fine if Lumia gets taken. Just survive.”

Her wounds seemed to have healed somewhat, seeing how she seemed fine. And judging by her speed when she escaped from those Knights, if she truly tried, she likely wouldn’t get caught by the assassin. 

Even so, it still felt like a reckless decision. Was it really right to send this young Knight to face that monstrous assassin?

"Yeah! I’ll take care of everything!”

...It was such a confident answer that it made my doubts feel stupid.

* * *

After confirming that Jern had withdrawn the Abyssal Sea and retreated…

"Ouch, ouch…! This hurts like hell…! U-urgh.”

Linmel immediately collapsed and rolled on the ground.

The assassin’s kick had been like a cannon blast. She looked fine on the outside, but inside, it felt like everything had been turned to mush.

If she had shown that earlier, Jern wouldn’t have trusted her, so she had forced herself to act fine, even though she felt like dying.

'...Still.’

Linmel steadied her aching stomach, stood up, and smiled brightly.

'He trusted me.'

Was this the first time?

That Jern trusted her and asked for her help.

Her insides were still screaming in pain, but after a few deep breaths, Linmel regained her composure and jumped straight into the lake.

-Splash! 

A massive spray of water rose up.

"S-something jumped from the lighthouse!”

"All units, fire…?!”

The soldiers on standby aimed their bows, ready to shoot whatever surfaced.

But it was pointless. She never sank to begin with.

Linmel calmly walked across the surface of the lake and approached the soldiers who stared at her in disbelief.

"...Fire!"

-Thwaaaack!

A barrage of arrows flew toward her.

However, Linmel's arms whipped around wildly, deflecting every single arrow without missing one.

"What the…?”

"Hooh, quite skilled.”

"?!"

The captain flinched at the sudden unfamiliar voice and turned around.

Aksha, thoroughly soaked, stood there casually, watching Linmel with interest. He tossed the unconscious Lumia carelessly onto the deck.

"Hold her. If she’s taken, you die.”

"Y-yes?!”

The soldier stammered, completely stunned.

Aksha paid him no mind and stepped onto the lake’s surface as well, closing the distance until he stood within striking range of Linmel.

Standing there, he looked down at her, who was glaring at him murderously, and smirked.

"Seeking Rashasa techniques used like this sure brings back some memories.”

"My master taught them to me.”

"Your master merely taught you what we passed onto them. How much do you know about Rakshasa?”

"Nothing. Just that it’s a destroyed assassin organization.”

"Harsh. But not wrong. Still…if you joined, things might change.”

"Hm…I’d rather die than join you.”

Watching her speak so boldly, Aksha sneered and drew his dagger.

"A foolish choice. Where’s that Fallen?”

"Don’t know, but if it’s Jern, he’s probably doing something amazing right now.”

"Oho? You’ll be dead before you find out then.”

"I won’t."

Linmel declared it firmly and pointed her sword at Aksha’s throat.

She tightened her grip and showed him a sneer as well.

"I have a reason I can’t forgive you.”

"...Are you a survivor from some village I destroyed? It happens all the time. Avengers blinded by anger always come looking for me.”

"—You made Jern do something he didn’t want to do.”

Her sword traced a light arc.

"...!?"

A Knight’s blade, no matter how close it was to his neck, should have been something easily avoidable for him. That was what Aksha believed, at least.

-Slash! 

The trajectory twisted unnaturally and struck straight for his heart.

Aksha leapt back several steps in an instant, one foot dipping slightly into the lake.

For a moment, he blankly stared at his chest.

The injury didn’t matter. It would heal anyway. But that technique and movement—were far too familiar to him.

Grinding his teeth, Aksha growled.

"You even learned that from your master…? No, that’s impossible. A Knight of Heavenly Retribution shouldn’t know that.”

"Really?”

"That belongs to us. How could you use our blade…”

"Hmm. Is that so?”

Linmel looked at his rising anger and rage with clear disinterest.

"Guess we were thinking the same thing.”

"...What?"

"I figured doing it like this might be faster…? Harder to react to.”

She spoke casually as she began closing the distance.

Her feet didn’t get wet at all. Aksha glanced down at his own. 

Drops of water trembled on top of his foot.

Without a single word, he drew his second dagger from his waist.

'That was a foolish thought.'

He had thought of capturing her, raising her as an assassin, and refining her talent into the sharpest blade, but that fantasy vanished.

She had to be killed. Right now.

As that thought formed in his mind, a violet liquid began to drop from his dagger.

However, when Linmel saw what obviously was poison, she smiled.

"What’s so funny?”

"That looks like it would hurt a lot if it hit.”

"...What?"

Linmel closed her eyes and remembered Jern, looking down from the lighthouse above.

"I’m glad it’s me fighting you and not Jern.”

This was the result of the first lie she had ever told Jern.

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