Wizard of the Deep Sea

TL/ED – Miso

“Sorry, something came up and I have to go.”

“Wh-what?”

I brushed past him and left the area.

I mounted a horse and hurried toward the Spire.

After arriving, I descended to the underground before even tying up the horse.

“What brings you here in the middle of the night?”

Cheon-hwa greeted me with her usual calm expression.

Sharmia’s face, now bearing dark circles under her eyes.

…It couldn’t be, but her reaction made it seem as if she had known I would come.

“I came because I have something to ask.”

“I see.”

Still wearing an expression of complete indifference, she set down her pen and rose from her seat, approaching me with light steps.

Since her height had always been tall compared to the average woman, I naturally found myself looking up at her.

After briefly looking down at me, she picked up a teapot from the table beside me.

It seemed to have just been brewed.

“Sit. I have some time remaining, so I shall keep you company.”

“…”

-Trickle. I watched the teacup being filled, interlocked my fingers, and clenched my teeth.

I was still somewhat conflicted. Of course I was. Asking this was essentially the same as ending things.

But.

“I found something rather peculiar.”

I couldn’t back down now.

I scattered the white powder I had been holding onto the desk.

“This is…”

Cheon-hwa sipped her tea for a moment, then let out a sigh and chided me.

“Where did you find this?”

“I discovered it in the underground of a ruined city nearby.”

“Discovered, you say. Even claiming you picked up an emperor’s crown while walking down the street would be more credible.”

“Yes. I actually knew it was there before going in and stole it.”

“…”

Cheon-hwa glared at me briefly, then shook her head as she swept up the powder.

“Keep this secret. If there is anyone you told about this, find them and ensure they can never open their mouths again. I will not forgive you a second time.”

“You’re just going to let this slide? I think I committed quite a serious offense.”

“You would have found out eventually anyway. If you had cut the tree in the Cradle, there is no way I would not have known. If you did not cut it, then that is sufficient.”

Cradle.

As expected, Cheon-hwa seemed to know what that place was.

“So, was that all you wanted to say? What a foolish confession. When something like this happens, one would normally hide it from their superiors…”

“I’m not finished.”

Until then, Cheon-hwa had been slightly annoyed but seemed ready to laugh it off.

When I scattered the brown soil from my other hand, the smile vanished from her face instantly as she fell silent.

I could feel the atmosphere in the room grow thick and heavy, but I had no intention of stopping.

“This white stuff, called white soil. When it’s compressed, it became the brown soil you’re looking at now.”

“…And?”

“Neither magic nor my Abyss Realm abilities worked properly on this soil. At first, I thought it was just some kind of anti-magic property. But something was different.”

I gripped the soil tightly.

“It seems this soil is matter from another world.”

If the Deep Sea could not exist without ‘me’ as an individual.

Just as the Deep Sea would have no influence on the real world if ‘I’ a being that lives in both worlds, didn’t exist.

This soil was something from such an Abyss Realm.

Then who?

From what world had this soil been pulled out?

The skeleton had given me the answer.

“Cheon-hwa-nim.”

“…”

“I already knew that Crimson Circle was hostile toward something called The Prophet. Though personally, I thought it was more like obsession.”

“And what of it?”

“From what I understand, a prophet is usually someone who receives divine revelation, isn’t it?”

The Prophet. A mysterious existence who created the prophecy that Crimson Circle follows, yet is somehow treated with hostility.

But the strange thing was that despite their hostility, they still dutifully called him The Prophet, a title meaning one who leads the way.

If the reason for that was…

If his prophecy did not align with Crimson Circle’s objectives.

“Why did you call him The Prophet?”

Cheon-hwa met my gaze.

“We call him The Prophet simply because there is no other suitable word. There was no god he served.”

“…I see.”

It was an evasive, generic answer.

I wasn’t sure what I had expected. Just as I downed my tea in one gulp and was about to rise from my seat.

She quietly continued.

“Rather, he worshipped life.”

“…Huh?”

“Your thinking is correct. You, me, us… All life living on this land is nothing more than parasites who forcibly took their places and live by stealing them.”

“…”

When I couldn’t say anything, Cheon-hwa smiled bitterly and asked.

“Would you like me to explain it in simpler terms?”

“No.”

After all, I had come here already knowing to some extent.

Who else could have extracted soil from another world?

Which Fallen could be continuously creating it?

That skeleton?

I knew that thing was the previous Fallen of the Deep Sea. At least I couldn’t do such a thing.

If it wasn’t being brought from a Fallen’s own world, there was only one conclusion.

“Humanity itself was a life form created in another world.”

A world that could exist without a Fallen? Such a thing didn’t exist.

If one did exist, it would mean the world of reality itself.

It was the opposite. All these worlds were fake, and we were no different from those Deep Sea creatures.

This pile of dirt was the only place that could truly be called the ‘Real World’.

“…Hoh.”

Cheon-hwa, who had been listening quietly, widened her eyes in surprise.

“To have figured out even that. I knew you had potential, but you have quite the sharp mind.”

“It wasn’t that difficult. And I wasn’t the only one who figured it out.”

“?”

The reason Piercing Blood killed himself was because of his pride.

He was someone who took pride in the mere fact of having survived, no matter what hellscape he had to live through. It seemed he had reached the same conclusion as me.

I wasn’t sure how he got there when we had access to different knowledge. He must have been hiding something.

In the end, he simply couldn’t accept that he too was nothing but a byproduct.

Looking at Cheon-hwa tilting her head in curiosity, I let out a deep sigh.

“The Three Evils are large enough, life forms live within them… and they can cover a world. I should have thought more carefully about how you people came to know such things.”

For some reason, even long before finding a Three Evils like me, Crimson Circle already knew various facts.

That the Three Evils could somehow cover a world.

That life lived within them.

And that they were sufficiently vast.

I hadn’t given any thought to how they knew. I had just figured they found out somehow and moved on.

But there was a reason. They already knew what the Three Evils were.

More precisely, they had been living in a world that had been covered.

…We were the life forms of a Three Evils that had covered a world.

“You knew because our case already existed.”

“It is not just humans. Did I not tell you? That there is more than one type of Deep Sea creature.”

Cheon-hwa shook her head.

“In The Beginning, there were three calamities. Beyond that, countless worlds existed, too many to number. The deep sea, the seething darkness, the endless voids. They were beautiful in their mere existence.”

“…You call that beautiful?”

“Something that truly exists in the genuine sense, without any deception or falsehood, is beautiful in itself. As you are.”

While I was caught off guard by the sudden compliment, she continued.

“Only life did not exist. The various worlds were blended together, and in that state, there was no suffering, no sorrow, no pain. Such things could not exist. Until ‘Heaven’ arrived.”

“…Heaven?”

“That world devoured everything.”

Pain crept into Cheon-hwa’s expression.

“Heaven denied all other worlds. The earth no longer boiled, the stars no longer crumbled, and the sun rose at the same time each day. When a foot stepped on fire and burned, it was deemed pain. Solitude and cold were named loneliness. It fabricated concepts that did not exist and forced only its own righteousness upon everything.”

“…”

“All chaos vanished. One step came to mean one step. Life that was born followed cycles and gained regularity. And because of that, the worlds melted away.”

Melted into the world.

At those words, I thought of Puppet sleeping in my Deep Sea.

A world in human form.

…Void had turned Puppet, which fused with Dark Night into a human. As if it were the most natural thing, as if he already knew it could be done.

I couldn’t control my expression and my face twisted.

“Is what I’m thinking correct?”

“I do not know what you are thinking, but all life living in the real world, with only differences in form, is part of the worlds that Heaven consumed.”

“…Then I was also the Deep Sea?? Pretending to be human?”

“Did I not say it melted?”

Cheon-hwa shook her head in denial.

“Within the chest of every life form, countless billions of worlds have melted together, little by little. You too contain not just the Deep Sea but Void, Extreme Ice, and countless other worlds. Among all of those, your essence of the Deep Sea was stimulated and awakened.”

“The reason Crimson Circle was torturing people was also…”

“To awaken their essence. To rouse the sleeping Three Evils, we have no choice but to commit such acts.”

Only now did it make sense why those who suffered extreme pain would suddenly turn into monsters.

Becoming one with a world, and death…

While I stood there in a daze, having lost my senses, I hurriedly asked something else.

“Then what about only wizards being able to Fall?”

“Heaven was originally meant to collapse naturally.”

She continued her explanation calmly.

“It is a Three Evils, but not evil. Though vast, it could not digest all the worlds. It should have crumbled a thousand years ago.”

“Then why are we still alive?”

“Someone acted before us.”

Something I had heard countless times before.

I could tell without her saying it.

“That was The Prophet.”

“To prevent the world from collapsing, he passed down that possibility through Bloodline. So that all beings could create their own heaven. So that someday, a new heaven capable of embracing everyone would open.”

Heaven. It was a familiar word. Another term that Cheon-hwa was deliberately not using.

…The Celestial Realm.

The first wizard had already reached heaven.

Heaven was his world.

“…The place we’re standing on right now is already the Celestial Realm.”

“Yes. The real world consists only of the tree you saw and… these crumbs.”

Cheon-hwa looked down at the soil on the desk with an impassive expression.

But I couldn’t do the same. What I had heard was far too shocking.

“You’re saying the world we’re living in right now is about to be destroyed?”

“It should have happened long ago. If not for The Prophet. If he had not granted heaven to humanity, allowing them to hold back the collapse simply by being alive and breathing…”

The Celestial Realm was not merely a title for an archmage.

When this world crumbles, hoping someone would save them.

Crimson Circle had called the one who strived to create his own god ‘The Prophet’ as a term of derision.

Cheon-hwa also clenched her teeth as if displeased with him.

“It was pointless. No one can ever create a new Celestial Realm. But it is also true that the fragments he spread are delaying Liberation.”

“…So to kill all the Fallen of the Celestial Realm…”

“We ‘collect’ the fragments of the Celestial Realm called wizards.”

Cheon-hwa’s words were chillingly cold.

“We turned it against him. Originally, lowly life forms such as humans could never awaken a world, but those who inherited fragments of the Celestial Realm through Bloodline created their own small heavens. Reaching a world by whatever means. We give those things the primordial worlds, the pain and despair they once held, to make them awaken.”

“Then…”

“The Prophet must have known the danger. Those who obtained his fragments gained the right to advance toward the Celestial Realm, but in exchange, they could crumble. Knowing this, he deliberately passed his blood only to nobles who could live peaceful lives, rather than to all humans.”

Now I could finally see the purpose of those people that had seemed utterly incomprehensible.

The reason they were so desperate to kill wizards, to make them Fall.

It wasn’t mere madness. It was calculated action. For the sake of that Liberation.

But then something else didn’t make sense.

“Why are you doing this?”

“…”

I looked at Cheon-hwa, who seemed the most likely to give me a reasonable answer.

It wasn’t hostility. It was closer to genuine curiosity.

Yet for the first time during our conversation, she lowered her head.

“From what I’ve heard, those worlds from The Beginning, before the Celestial Realm existed, sound absolutely dreadful. Why is Crimson Circle trying to return to such a place? Just because that state is your essence? Because it’s beautiful?”

“…What is called pain is only pain because the Celestial Realm defined it as such.”

Cheon-hwa rebutted in her usual cold tone, but there was no strength behind it.

“When everything ends and Liberation comes, all life will become one with their essential world. No pain, no suffering, no despair. They will no longer be considered negative emotions. In a world where everything is natural, no one will…”

“I see.”

I held back my words for a moment, then lightly bowed my head.

“I have no desire to go to a place where pain is natural.”

When I quietly rose from my seat, Cheon-hwa gripped the table tightly.

“Sit.”

“I don’t think I can do that.”

“I called for Void the moment this conversation began.”

“…Why?”

“I am a false Priestess… but that does not mean I cannot use the Priestess’s abilities. I can use a degraded version of her power.”

She meant she possessed similar power to Sharmia’s, even if not as strong.

Well, I had seen it a few times before.

When I actually spread my Current Sense, I could feel an extremely ominous presence gradually descending toward this place.

“No matter what feelings you may harbor, for now, you should bow your head…”

I looked down at Cheon-hwa’s somewhat anxious expression, then couldn’t help but let out a soft laugh.

“…Do you find this situation amusing?”

“No. That’s not it.”

I replied, turning away from her as she tilted her head in confusion.

“It’s just that you really are exactly like someone I know.”

Next time I meet Sharmia, I think I’ll be able to face her with a more comfortable feeling.

So then.

“I’m tired of bowing my head.”

It seemed it was about time to go meet her.