Wizard of the Deep Sea

TL/ED – Miso

“You don’t see that?”

“…? See what?”

It seemed that none of the others except me could even perceive this dome.

I felt a sense of disbelief and reached my hand into the dome—

“Ugh.”

A sensation like I was about to bloat and burst hit me immediately, and I yanked my hand back.

A sudden change in pressure. I could see it with my eyes, and I could feel it with my body. Even after experiencing it firsthand, I still couldn’t believe it, but…

The inside of this dome was a place the Deep Sea couldn’t encroach upon.

“…Hah.”

The first emotion that washed over me was a sense of futility.

I had struggled desperately to escape this whole time, never imagining a ridiculous space like this existed.

Even if I couldn’t enter immediately because of the decompression sickness, if I could somehow make use of it—

“…No, that can’t be right.”

I forced my racing heart to calm down.

Nothing was certain yet. If there was one constant through all of this, it was that there had never been an easy path. Not once.

There was no way that simply living in one region could be the solution. And even if it was, believing it outright would be idiotic.

While I stared up at the dome with a dumbfounded expression, Piercing Blood nodded.

“Found something, did you?”

“Seems like it. Give me a moment.”

I scanned the dome with Current Sense.

Since the inside wasn’t part of the Deep Sea’s domain, I couldn’t examine it at all—but it felt similar to scientific principles, like a massive air bubble.

I think I could pop it.

As I pressed against the dome, something about its texture felt familiar.

“…?”

Only after stabbing it once with the Deep Sea did I realize.

This dome. I had the same thing.

This is a Water Barrier.

It was the diving suit I wore, the World that kept me from being crushed by the Deep Sea.

The only thing rejecting the Deep Sea was a Water Barrier of staggering size.

Which meant—

“Piercing Blood. I have a question.”

“Hm? What is it?”

“Can two Fallen possess the same World?”

“Worlds aren’t that rare, so it’s not uncommon. Yeah, I understand it’s possible.”

Piercing Blood shrugged as if it was no big deal, and hearing that confirmed my suspicion.

Inside this massive Water Barrier was a Fallen of the Deep Sea who had chosen the same path as me.

A monster who had survived in the Deep Sea far longer than someone like me could ever compare.

I furrowed my brow and manipulated the Current.

“Let me say hello first.”

“What?”

Before Piercing Blood could say anything more, I crushed his Water Barrier with the pressure of the Deep Sea.

We shared the same World, so I knew its weakness. If he was surviving in the Deep Sea using a Water Barrier, there was no way he could withstand it collapsing.

As I slowly sank the dome, Piercing Blood noticed I was doing something and asked in alarm.

“A-are you doing something right now? Is this okay? Shouldn’t we try talking first or stay hidden before—”

“Mm…”

After a moment’s thought, I just explained it in a way he could easily understand.

“It’s already far too late for that.”

“What do you mean?”

“I know what World the Fallen inside has. We’ve already been completely analyzed down to the number of hairs on our heads. And there’s already a blade at our throats.”

“?”

“To put it simply, whoever’s inside has been observing us closely, and if they wanted to kill us, they could do it anytime.”

“Is that… even possible?”

“Unfortunately.”

If it was a Deep Sea with a Water Barrier of this size, the moment we got close, their Current Sense would have picked up our words, movements, and even our heartbeats.

From the moment we arrived, there was no path back.

“If they know we came here, we’re dead even if we turn back. Might as well strike first.”

Even so, they couldn’t have figured out that I had the same World.

And we even chose the same method, a Water Barrier? There was absolutely no way they could have predicted that.

The Water Barrier was specialized for withstanding overall pressure. When I focused my force into a point and stabbed, a hole immediately punctured through and it gradually dissipated.

Before long, the dome became part of the Deep Sea again.

As if such a fantastical place had never existed in the first place.

“…?”

And throughout all of that, there wasn’t a single counterattack.

While I silently stared at the scene, Piercing Blood tilted his head.

“Did it work? I can’t tell if anything changed…”

“…Let’s go inside. I think I know roughly where it is.”

What was going on?

If my opponent had been a Fallen of the Deep Sea like me, they would already be dead.

And if they really were a Deep Sea, they should have at least put up a final struggle when the Water Barrier started collapsing…

It was too one-sided of a kill. After hesitating briefly, I entered the city to find out what had happened.

The dome had been emanating from a fountain at the exact center of the city. Since I was at the center of my Water Barrier, this mysterious Deep Sea Fallen should be inside theirs as well.

“We searched this entire area thoroughly, but there were no hidden doors.”

“Hmm…”

Indeed, the fountain had been completely excavated, and nothing was visible.

Of course there wasn’t. As I probed with Current Sense, my expression soured.

“Oh come on, are the Crimson Circle guys moles or something? Why do they love underground so much?”

“…Huh?”

“We need to dig deeper. The entrance is much further down.”

“But we already dug deep enough for five people to fit inside?”

The members looked bewildered. I fully sympathized with how they felt, but facts were facts.

I had Damyu turn the ground into a swamp, and only after creating an antlion-pit of a hole more than thirty meters deep did we finally hit something.

A Bottomless Pit. But there was a hole with a ladder inside—clearly man-made.

Piercing Blood clicked his tongue in disbelief as he looked into the dark, shadowed hole.

“What kind of… there’s not a single airhole. You’re saying something alive is in there? Or was?”

“…”

My suspicion grew stronger.

A World that allowed you to not breathe… or rather, couldn’t let you breathe.

I had skimmed through encyclopedias listing countless Worlds, but only one had a Burden where one cannot survive from the very start.

I turned around and looked at the uneasy expressions on the others’ faces.

“It’ll probably be really hard to breathe in there. Anyone here who can survive without breathing?”

“Who could possibly do that?”

Well, it seemed like just me.

“I can, so I’ll go take a look. Keep watch for me.”

I shrugged and grabbed the ladder. Damyu looked at me with a worried expression.

“Will you be okay?”

“No.”

“?”

“But well, I have to check.”

It was definitely dangerous. There was no way Crimson Circle would carelessly guard the place where they made World-Sealing Pills.

But that was exactly why I had to go down. Just learning this much would change everything.

“I’ll be back.”

***

Naturally.

I couldn’t see an inch ahead inside.

“…”

Had I descended several hundred meters? I immediately activated Current Sense.

This Bottomless Pit was a labyrinth of thousands of thin tunnels branching out like an ant colony.

Wondering which way to go, I found a small Cavity at the center of the ant colony.

Surprisingly, Current Sense couldn’t reach inside the Cavity.

Based on its position, it felt like the Deep Sea Fallen was in that empty space. I steadied my racing heart for a moment and quickened my pace.

-Splat, splat… The earthen tunnel, humid enough to feel like it could collapse at any moment, was extremely muddy.

But the path gradually widened. The humidity decreased, and eventually I could even see a brick road with footprints on it.

At its end was a door wrapped in tree roots.

I calmed my racing heart—

And gathered wind in my left hand.

I took my stance.

“…Hup!”

-Boom! The compressed wind became a spear and easily shattered the door.

I immediately ducked and charged forward, spreading Current Sense as fast as possible. To crush whoever was there with water pressure first.

But.

“?”

There was nothing alive in that Cavity.

There was only a corpse that had died while embracing a tree.

“What is this?”

The Fallen of the Deep Sea I killed—or so I thought, but it was a skeleton that had died far too long ago for that.

I stared in bewilderment at the skeleton clad in a worn robe, embracing a small tree as if holding a beloved lover, then surveyed the surroundings.

There was nothing. Literally nothing.

If I had to point something out, there were traces of someone having roughly scooped up the dirt from the floor. But that seemed insufficient to be what Crimson Circle was hiding.

I approached the skeleton while keeping my guard up.

I was confident I could react even if this tree-hugging thing suddenly came to life and tried to kill me, but somewhat disappointingly, that didn’t happen.

As I carefully examined the skeleton so it wouldn’t crumble—

I noticed a worn piece of paper in its left hand, the one embracing the tree.

I unfolded the paper, which had taken the full brunt of time’s passage.

[I don’t know who you are to have reached this place, but please, do not kill this tree.]

[This is the last remaining tree. The last remaining hope.]

The end.

“…”

What the hell was I supposed to do with this?

The tree was an ordinary oak. It was quite fascinating that it was growing underground, but aside from that, I couldn’t find any difference from the thousands, tens of thousands of trees outside.

“This is it…?”

Did Piercing Blood make a mistake?

Wait, then what was that Water Barrier?

With a puzzled expression, I scoured every corner of the Bottomless Pit.

I did manage to find a cart loaded with World-Sealing Pills. Seeing that, it seemed true that they were making World-Sealing Pills here, but it wasn’t exactly a gain.

What I wanted to know was how to make them. The pills themselves had a limit to how much I could carry, and they’d all run out eventually anyway.

Only after spending about ten minutes exploring almost every tunnel, unable to accept reality, could I reach a conclusion.

There was nothing here except the World-Sealing Pills and that Cavity.

“A dead end, huh…”

It seemed this place was only for manufacturing World-Sealing Pills, and the formula and ingredients were brought from elsewhere.

I had no idea why they were making World-Sealing Pills in such a godawful underground hole, but maybe they were just crazy.

I returned to the Cavity one last time, wondering if I’d missed something, and ran Current Sense more precisely.

All I learned was that the skeleton was male, the robe was similar to what I was wearing, and the tree really had no sacred power whatsoever.

“Sigh…”

I briefly wondered if this guy might be The First Wizard, but Crimson Circle didn’t seem stupid enough to worship or hate some tree-hugger like this.

After heaving a deep sigh, I sat down on the floor before heading back.

If there had been even a single clue, I could have investigated somehow, but there was nothing, so there was nothing I could do.

All I could tell from this Cavity were the scrape marks on the dirt floor.

Is there something even further underground? I wondered, but nothing showed up on Current Sense.

And it’s not like dirt could be the objective. In a fit of resignation, I scooped up some dirt and examined it.

And then.

“?”

As I stared at the dirt, I sensed something was off.

There wasn’t a single light in this Bottomless Pit. Of course, it made no difference to me since I used Current Sense.

The precision of my Current Sense had long since surpassed sight. Wandering around the Bottomless Pit had actually been unnecessary; I’d just put myself through the trouble for no reason.

But there was exactly one thing it fell short of compared to vision—

I couldn’t see colors.

After thinking for a moment, I lit a small flame and checked the dirt.

“…Huh?”

The color of the dirt was different.

The dirt I had assumed was brown was pure white.

I went outside the Cavity and shone my light around.

It became even clearer. Only the dirt inside the Cavity was white.

And this white felt quite familiar.

“No way.”

I pulled out a World-Sealing Pill I had kept in my pocket.

When I held it up against the dirt, the color matched perfectly.

“…Seriously?”

I stared at the dirt in my hand with my mouth slightly agape—

Then put it in my mouth.

It was the first time I had eaten dirt since kindergarten. It was incredibly gritty, and a bitter, acrid taste made something rise up from my stomach.

At the same time—

The sensation I felt every time I took a World-Sealing Pill, of the Burden decreasing, washed over me.

“…”

I silently looked around the Cavity.

It seemed…

I had found out what World-Sealing Pills were made of.