Wizard of the Deep Sea

Once people learned I was a god, they began pleading for mercy in every way imaginable.

“Can you truly restore the world to the way it was?”

"If you’ll do that for us, I’ll believe in anything you say.”

"Please, if not for me, then at least for this child…”

I silently watched those exhausted by life beg desperately in front of me.

I didn’t know whether I could actually save all of them. Because I wasn’t a god.

Twisting the world, creating life, ruling over existence, that alone wasn’t enough to be called a god. That described an Outer God. Beings that possessed power but lacked qualification.

"I’ll do my best.”

Still, saying ‘You’ve chosen the wrong deity to pray to’ felt a bit much, so I simply gave them comforting words they wanted to hear.

After listening to enough confessions that were practically prayers, I eventually returned to the palace, where Sharmia smiled at me bitterly.

"I’m sorry. I should’ve discussed it with you beforehand at least.”

Letting out a small sigh, I shook my head.

In the end, in a situation like this, there needed to be someone for the people to lean on.

"It’s fine. It was probably necessary.”

"Hmm, I’m glad you see it that way. Though I think you’ll have to step out into the open completely from now on.”

"What?"

As I stared at her, wondering what she meant, Sharmia continued with an awkward expression.

"You are planning to move everyone underground, right?”

"Looks like I told you after all. That’s right.”

"No matter how much territory the Empire controls, I don't govern every remaining nation in the world. Convincing all those people to abandon everything they have left and follow us without exception will be a bit difficult.”

"Hmm, true…”

No matter how many nations Sharmia ruled, with the world already halfway destroyed, enforcing absolute orders on everyone would be quite difficult.

But we couldn’t simply abandon them either. As I was considering that, Sharmia spoke again.

"In the end, we need orders from someone with greater authority than me. Someone who might actually be capable of solving this crisis.”

"...A person with greater authority than the Emperor of the Empire…?”

"There is no person with such authority, but there is a god.”

"..."

Seeing Sharmia smiling brightly, it looked like she’d already made up her mind.

I’d probably accepted it already. Even now, after becoming an Outer God, standing before her ability made me feel like nothing more than a simple mortal again.

"Understood. If you prepare the stage, I’ll put on this ridiculous act as many times as necessary.”

"Thank you. I’ll send word to every nation that still exists. Ah, and would it be alright if we went with the setting that I offered myself up to summon the god who’ll save us?”

"You already publicly announced that, and now you’re asking me? Is that part really necessary?”

"Probably? It’ll take around 2 weeks.”

"Then I think we can issue the evacuation order around then. The dwarves should’ve at least finished enough space for people to move into by then…”

As we talked while passing by the busy officials carrying out Sharmia’s orders, the outline of the plan finally started taking shape.

Bringing all humans underground, placing them all under the control of my power.

At the same time, flood the entire world. Completely.

And after that—

"Can you do it?”

"..."

At Sharmia’s worried question, I looked at the scar that remained vividly visible even against the darkened sky and nodded.

"I can. I have to. Though I think we should prepare for the worst-case scenario.”

"...And what would that be?”

"I’ve witnessed Great Void’s power once before, and I’ve met other Outer Gods as well. That thing has devoured countless worlds, so if we’re talking about the duration of the final battle…Hmm, I’m estimating around one week.”

Realistically, one week was also the maximum amount of time I could keep the world submerged.

If it dragged on any longer, I would no longer be able to confine Great Void within the space of the Abyssal Sea. The sky would return above the water’s surface once more.

And when that happened, everything would end.

"If a week passes and you still haven’t heard anything from me, then you’ll need to try a different method.”

"A different method…?”

After glancing around for a moment, I explained that method to Sharmia.

At first, she simply looked confused. Then her eyes slowly widened as she stared at me.

With a trace of reproach.

"Jern."

"I-It’s really only for the absolute worst-case scenario.”

"..."

"If you promise me, then I’ll definitely win somehow. Please.”

"Haah…”

After thinking for a while, Sharmia let out an unusually deep sigh before reluctantly nodding.

"Alright. But I can’t make any guarantees. I don’t particularly want to survive that badly.”

"Thank you.”

The more contingencies, the better. Thinking that, I gave her a small bow before turning to leave. Sharmia, looking exhausted, called out to me.

"I’ll call for you once preparations are finished. What are you planning to do until then?”

"I’m going to struggle a little.”

I clenched my fist as I steeled my resolve.

If I could, I intended to expand my Abyssal Sea as much as I possibly could.

*t*t*

The Underground prison.

Deep beneath a small tower located some distance from the capital, in a place thick with the foul smell of mold and rotting wood, Carose held up a torch with a displeased expression.

"There are prisons in the capital. Normally these people would’ve been locked up there. But the citizens wouldn’t stay quiet. People who lost family members, people who lost lovers… There are too many wounded people to count.”

"And they’d probably be dangerous too.”

"Exactly."

"...You don’t have to use formal speech with me.”

"Please don’t concern yourself with it.”

Carose led me deeper underground with a level of politeness that somehow contained not the slightest shred of respect.

And the farther down we went, the more my Tide Sense screamed warnings at me.

That was because I could gradually feel what was down there.

"Tsk. Small fry.”

While I was tensing up, Nightchaser, who was standing beside me, immediately ruined the mood.

With a disappointed look, she swept her gaze across the filthy underground walls and stared, listing names I’d never heard before.

"Contamination, Decomposition, Stench…nothing but trash-tier worlds. I know this isn’t the time to be picky, but…these are way too low-class to bother adding to the Abyssal Sea.”

"Sometimes I really wonder whether you actually gave up your divinity.”

"I spent thousands of years dealing with things like these. You think I wouldn’t recognize them just from the smell?”

She furrowed her brows.

Watching Nightchaser make absolutely no effort to hide her disgust, something suddenly came to mind.

"So do Outer Gods really just fight each other all the time? There’s no concept of cooperation or coexistence?”

"The problem is that you think too much like a human. If those things exist, then the territory I can rule over shrinks. How exactly am I supposed to cooperate with that? Though if they’d kindly kill themselves for my benefit, then cooperation wouldn’t be impossible.”

As I received a lecture on the absolutely horrifying teamwork of Outer Gods, we descended for a few more minutes—

Until I saw several people dying inside the prison.

"...Ah, ugh…”

"Ugh..."

They had already lost any trace of consciousness.

Several people had been crammed into a single cell like livestock. The occasional groan and twitching were the only indications they were still human beings.

Carose clicked her tongue at the sight and explained,

"Unlike other Fallen, these don’t die easily and aren’t especially aggressive either. They’ve become something like living mold, spreading spores around themselves. So they weren’t useful for research, but executing them felt questionable too, so we just locked them up for now.”

"And those skeletons?”

"Looks like they died after being locked up in the same cell as these things.”

Ever since Scarlet Abyss had completely destroyed the capital, the Fallen, who had already been looked down on before, seemed to have fallen to a status even lower than animals.

A certain girl suddenly came to mind. Feeling a slight pang of sadness, I nodded.

"Thanks for bringing me here. Could you leave now?”

"It’s dangerous. They might look like this now, but there’s no telling when they’ll regain awareness and attack.”

"Thank you for worrying, but right now the most dangerous thing here is you, Carose.”

I casually waved my hand.

-Clang

With just that, the iron bars were sliced apart as easily as paper.

Carose stared at it in surprise for a moment before giving a small bow and heading back up the stairs.

Only after confirming through my Tide Sense that she’d completely left the underground prison did I approach the Fallen and let out a sigh.

"So what exactly am I supposed to do with them?””

Great Void grew stronger by absorbing the Fallen. Calling it absorption was putting it nicely. His method was actually more like a savage act of devouring and domination.

At first, even I had felt uncomfortable with the idea of consuming people. But with the final battle so close now, I knew this wasn’t the time to be picky about methods.

Eventually, I too had to consume whatever Fallen remained and increase the total size of my Abyssal Sea. At the very least, enough to flood the world.

"Summon the Abyssal Sea."

Nightchaser spoke as if it were nothing.

"Everything that dies inside your Abyssal Sea becomes yours. So your task is actually pretty simple, right?”

"Ugh, I really hate this.”

I twisted my face into a grimace and summoned the Abyssal Sea.

The damp prison cell instantly became something far beyond merely damp. A piece of the Abyssal Sea itself.

"..."

Even within it, the Fallen didn’t die. They simply continued breathing.

At least this would be better than forcing them to continue living like that. It would be better to let them go peacefully.

I casually raised my hand and summoned a current.

And right then…

"Uh…Ugh……Ah……”

"?"

Suddenly—

One of the Fallen opened their eyes.

As if breathing underwater were the most natural thing in the world, they looked around calmly before slowly moving their hand.

"What?”

Three Fallen rose at the same time in exactly the same way.

I frowned, trying to understand what the hell was happening, but Nightchaser reacted first.

"Shit—”

She cursed in some strange language and immediately ripped out a rib bone from one of the nearby skeletons, driving it straight through a Fallen’s neck before shouting.

"We’re screwed. Kill them!”

"..."

I acted immediately.

Using all my strength, I crushed the necks of two of the Fallen with water pressure.

-Crack

Along with the sensation of bones breaking, an incomprehensible sense of fulfillment washed over me.

A satisfaction beyond anything even the greatest delicacies could bring. It felt as though the very rank of my existence had risen.

As I resisted the almost drug-like sensation, the one whose neck had been pierced by the rib reached out and grabbed Nightchaser.

"...Where is…this?”

"Too late. Ugh…”

Nightchaser retreated with all her strength before crawling straight into my pocket.

The Fallen’s body began twisting and deforming. As foul fluids started leaking from their body, I felt something painfully familiar.

An Outer God.

The Fallen before me was gradually transforming into an Outer God.

"—What in the world is happening? Why are they doing this?”

I immediately pushed the water pressure to its limit, restraining them as I asked calmly.

"Th-those things were originally from beneath the Abyssal Sea, remember?!”

Despite panicking, Nightchaser hurriedly explained.

"When you brought that guy into the Abyssal Sea, it manifested using them as a medium. I can’t believe this could happen. I should’ve thought of it…”

"What?"

"Good luck, do your best.”

And the moment Nightchaser disappeared into my pocket…

"...So you're the Abyssal Sea." 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

The Outer God of Contamination descended before my eyes.