Wizard of the Deep Sea

TL/ED – Miso

Dersia had never learned any combat-related magic.

It was simply because she did not feel the need to.

It was a natural reasoning, but Ciel, her loyal maid, did not take kindly to that.

“Sia. Still, shouldn’t you at least learn some basic self-defense magic? You’re an 8-Star Wizard and yet you can’t fight. People will laugh at you.”

“I’ll take care of it myself.”

“Take care of it yourself. You’ve said you’d take care of it until now, but have you taken care of a single thing? I cook for you, I clean for you, I braid your hair for you-”

“…”

Dersia knew that once Ciel got into this kind of mood, it would last for a long time. If she didn’t want to be nagged for at least three months, she had to make her understand somehow.

So with a sullen face, she demonstrated the “reason”.

After seeing that reason with her own eyes, Ciel nodded in slight shock, more than she had shown even when seeing a dying Elf.

“I see.”

After that, at least in the matter of combat, Ciel no longer worried about Dersia.

It was a natural result.

*

Dersia glanced at the spire.

The once-proud floral engravings had burned and cracked so badly that their traces could no longer be confirmed, and it looked as though it might collapse at any moment. There was not even a trace left of the beauty it had shown just hours earlier.

‘Beautiful…’

Narrowing her eyes, dark circles clearly under them, Dersia wondered what the difference really was between before and after.

There was no answer.

“-This got troublesome…”

As Dersia stared at the spire, the masked man let out a sigh and pulled his hand inward.

Without any sign or sound, a massive iceberg appeared where Dersia had been.

It was as if it had always been there.

“What is your name?”

“…Decay.”

“Seems you didn’t have the luck of meeting good parents.”

The same went for Dersia.

As if it were natural, she came softly down from atop the iceberg, looking at him with emotionless eyes.

Decay slowly stepped back, putting distance between them.

“Names are given by the world.”

“That’s quite strange. If your world hates you, does it still give you a name?”

“That’s why I ended up like this.”

Decay gave a bitter smile, and Dersia, watching his expressionless face, finally opened her mouth.

“I’m curious.” 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

“…?”

“That beast was so feeble, it was almost pitiful-”

Dersia looked up at the sky.

Snow was falling in the middle of summer.

She saw her exhaled breath turn white and spread through the surroundings. The corners of Dersia’s lips rose.

“This is a bit interesting. How did you pull it out?”

“I declared my Inner World here, so the world is being eroded. That is all.”

“I enjoy riddles too. There’s fun in arriving at the correct answer by slicing off arms and legs one at a time.”

“What are you-”

“I’ll start with the leg first.”

Squelch.

Only after Decay fell to his knees did he realize that he had fallen to his knees.

The moment his blood touched the ground, it froze. It didn’t take him long to realize all the tendons in his leg had been severed.

“It’s a problem if you try to run. For now, assimilating the mental world into the Material Realm… no, not assimilation, huh. Tainting it? Something like that. But why go to such lengths…”

Dersia was muttering something, as if Decay himself didn’t even matter.

Decay noticed that black liquid was mixed in with the blood he had shed. The filthy ink leaking from the dirty fountain pen Dersia was holding was spreading in all directions as if it had a will of its own.

There was no mana contained in that ink.

“…”

Decay cautiously reached out his hand.

In his vision, the world froze. Dersia should have become part of that ice as well.

“Hmm… this is quite threatening.”

Dersia’s voice came from behind him.

Decay swallowed dryly as he saw the flowing ink crawl up his knees, gradually trying to encase his heart.

“Are you instantly manifesting parts of your projected world without distinction? If it can’t be clearly perceived, it’s a power that could kill even a 7-Star Wizard in a single blow.”

“How did you do it?”

“I do not receive attacks.”

“What?”

“I recorded it that way. In this world you’re so proud of.”

Dersia was standing with the ink beneath her feet.

Decay’s expression gradually hardened.

It was because he realized the meaning of those words.

Dersia Aspandil had reached the clouds with her hand.

“…You’re on the verge of it.”

“According to your claim, I can never reach the Celestial Realm, isn’t that right?”

“Correct. You will fall. The end of magic is always erosion.”

“Advice from someone who has never walked the Path of Magic even once about magic… how precious.”

Despite Dersia’s mockery, Decay quietly froze the severed tendons together.

“I’ll bring it forward for you.”

Dersia approached him without care.

She had learned the weaknesses of the abyss from observing Jern.

It was powerful. Entirely different in nature from ordinary magic. If Jern were to fully fall, he could sweep away cities and crush steel with a mere gesture before he died.

But, there was a very obvious weakness.

Diversity.

Stronger currents, higher pressure. Stronger current sense…

That was all. In the end, it was simply

Borrowing a portion of a world.

If one could counter it,

It could be defeated as easily as stepping on an ant.

However, there was one strange thing.

The mention of having eroded the world.

Well, there was no need

To particularly worry

“…?”

Mid-thought, Dersia grabbed her head.

Her thinking slowed. It felt as though her thoughts were coming in broken fragments.

Decay rose to his feet. Dersia noticed that the frozen ink was crumbling.

But she couldn’t understand why it seemed strange.

It felt like she was turning into a fool.

“How does the mind of someone freezing to death work?”

“…Hmm.”

To the answer that seemed to explain everything, Dersia slowly nodded.

The reason for eroding the world was surprisingly simple.

“Burden synchronization, I see.”

“It is the privilege of those in the great realm.”

Unless it was Decay, who had lived his entire life searching for a way to overcome that burden,

No one could survive.

The situation had reversed. But Decay, who approached, did not freeze Dersia, he held out his hand.

“Dersia Aspandil. Come to this side. You can create a world greater than mine. I will grant you all the knowledge you desire.”

“…Ha, hahaha…”

Dersia laughed bitterly and pressed her fingers to her brow.

Even as Decay tilted his head and continued to freeze, he asked the smiling Dersia a question.

“What’s so funny?”

“It’s nothing. This power just reminded me of my disciple.”

“…disciple?”

Even in her thinking slowed to the extreme as she froze, one person came to mind.

“Yes, my disciple.”

Dersia looked at Decay with curious eyes.

But in her gaze, she saw someone else.

If the place she stood in now wasn’t this pitiful world, but his.

“The method of eroding the world with your Inner World.”

For the first time, Dersia blinked.

Nine stars twinkled in all the colors of the spectrum.

“You’ll have to teach me.”

“…”

Only then did Decay realize.

That there were no Astral Wheels in Dersia’s eyes.

*

Grotesquely twisted, Wihwa spoke with his mouth.

“Ah, really? Then you’re satisfied now? You killed me, so you’re coming in now, right?”

I realized one thing as I watched Wihwa’s crushed face gradually return to its original form.

This, was not in the realm of recovery.

I had to figure out what kind of enlightenment this guy had achieved to construct such a world.

“Jern? What are you doing?”

Of course, before that, I needed to move the location.

Crash! Wihwa was smashed straight out of the room.

I was about to follow after him when suddenly, a pain like shoving a burning toothpick into my ear exploded.

“Ugh…!”

I had overused it.

When I touched my ear, blood was flowing freely.

…The eardrum bursting, it was a Burden so related to the deep sea that I wondered why it appeared now.

“Jern?”

Even in this chaos, Elysia was smiling as she looked at me, and I grabbed her shoulders.

“Elysia. Your mother is very beautiful.”

“U-uh?”

“Hello, Elysia’s friend here. I’m Jern. Sorry to be so rude on our first meeting, but I urgently need to use the restroom. I’ll come back to greet you properly.”

“…??”

“Sorry, see you later. Just have a chat with your mother here for a moment.”

“O-okay…”

I could shake her and say this was a dream, that she was being controlled.

If I did that, Elysia would definitely fall.

I didn’t want to rely on the enemy’s abilities for help, but for now, I had to leave her be.

Limping out of the room, I saw Wihwa getting back up from being embedded into the wall, and smiling. I asked,

“Daydream, was it?”

“Hmm? I don’t really remember.”

Watching Wihwa shamelessly feign ignorance, I took a breath.

When I had crushed him with water pressure, I’d clearly felt it.

It wasn’t the sensation of suppressing a human. Rather, it felt more like rubber… closer to that.

I slowly approached, observing his condition.

It hurt, I felt like I was dying. Like I could throw up any second.

If I tried to wield the Deep Sea’s power in this state, Even if I blocked off my senses through Form:, I probably wouldn’t last ten minutes.

“-It is a dream.”

“Thinking that helps you run away?”

“That’s your angle. You’re the one who believes this world is a dream. That’s why it’s more like regeneration than recovery.”

“Well, I mean, it’s not like I can be sure it’s a dream. Could be reality, you know.”

Wihwa shrugged and vanished on the spot.

“-The odds are low, though!”

I already knew.

The Wihwa I’d been speaking with melted into the soggy background, and another Wihwa, who had appeared without a trace right beside me, stabbed something at me.

Without moving a step, I pushed it away with the current, but when I saw his form, my brows furrowed on their own.

“…What is that?”

“Ahaha, cool, right?”

He had already long departed from the category of human.

His skin jutted out with sharp bone spikes all over his body, on his knees, elbows, the backs of his hands, even his back.

And with a frame that reached nearly 3 meters tall, he was literally a monster.

“You’d think you’d have realized by now that being ten times bigger still won’t work on me.”

“Yeah. But I can stay like this for a month, you know. I don’t know what kind of magic you’re using, but judging from that burst eardrum, the cost must be pretty steep… you sure you’re okay?”

“…”

Like I said, ten minutes at best.

It seemed Wihwa had noticed that too, he was acting all sly again.

“If we stay like this, will you run out first, or will I?”

Time was on Wihwa’s side.

Knowing that, he wasn’t in a rush.

“And hey, you can’t kill me either, can you!”

Wihwa drooled as he charged in. If I took that body slam head-on, I’d die instantly. I had no choice but to use the currents.

Bang!

“Ahaha, is that all you’ve got? Come on, hit me harder!”

“…”

I couldn’t kill him.

The limits of the Deep Sea held me back.

Apparently confident in his victory, Wihwa’s smile only deepened.

“Is that all? Is glaring your only way of resisting?”

“Let me ask just one thing.”

“Is it about what you have to do after joining the Crimson Circle?”

“No.”

I asked the question that had been bothering me since the moment I saw the moat on my way in.

“Why are you doing this?”

“…What?”

Wihwa tilted his head, as if he truly didn’t understand what I was saying.

“I get it, that you’ve fallen into abyss. I understand that it wasn’t what you wanted, and that you’re struggling to survive.”

Because I had been the same.

“So I don’t want to condemn you. But no matter how perfect your answer might be, it can’t be mine. I don’t want to live if it means doing something like this.”

“What are you trying to ask?”

“How exactly is this helping anything? Destroying an innocent city, killing everyone, kidnapping children, torturing them, increasing your numbers, how does any of that help an organization like the Crimson Circle?”

“…Sheesh, I really don’t get what you’re going on about.”

I just wanted to know.

Killing alone doesn’t change anything.

So what kind of benefit do they expect from all this killing.

Wihwa shrugged and answered.

“It’s just something we do.”

“?”

“The higher-ups say there’s some kind of reason… but I don’t really know the details. They tell me to kill, so I kill. Tell me to torture, so I torture. If they live, great~ If not… oh well.”

“You’ve never thought of trying to live a different way?”

“Why?”

Wihwa grinned widely.

“Is there a reason I should?”

“Yeah?”

My question, Is there a reason to do that?, was met with an answer: Is there a reason I shouldn’t?

I was an idiot for expecting anything else. Instead, I felt a strange sense of clarity and returned his grin as I shifted my stance.

“Got it. Then it’s better if you die.”

“Ahahahahaha! Man, you’re the best!”

I closed my eyes as I watched Wihwa charge toward me.

If I can’t win with what I have now, I have to go further.

…I must sink deeper.

“I release it.”

-From some point,

It became hard to tell the difference between opening and closing my eyes.

Of course, if I paid close attention, I could tell whether my eyelids were up or down.

But the amount of information provided by vision was so small, so minimal, that I could barely feel the difference between seeing and not seeing.

The current sense covered the world.

The terrain of the spire, the heartbeat of the enemy standing before me, the breath of Alletus, lying in the room next door as if dead, could be heard even with ears plugged, could be seen even with eyes closed…

My existence melted into the world.

Deep Fusion, the power Dersia told me not to use.

This went beyond the realm of merely lifting something with my hands.

I dissolved into the Deep Sea.

-Prepared to die, I reached toward a realm I had never intended to touch.

“What, just closing your eyes by yourself? Are you giving up?”

Wihwa’s voice didn’t register in my ears. With the vastness and infinity of this power, it felt like I could do anything.

I raised my hand and touched the existing currents.

I couldn’t use water pressure the same way I usually did.

I didn’t need to test it to know, if I tried to suppress him with this state, my body would burst.

Even if I used Remove:, or Form:, or even reduced the burden with the robe, I would definitely die.

But I could extremely narrow the range of the water pressure, and trigger it locally, on an area thinner than a strand of hair.

For example, like this.

-Slash. Wihwa’s bone was sliced off without any warning.

“Eh…?!”

I could feel it.

Wihwa, startled, darting his eyes around the air, searching for an invisible blade.

It wasn’t pressure or blunt force, it was a slice.

The first use of a blade formed from water pressure.

Of course, it wasn’t of much significance. His bones sprouted back in an instant and filled the gap, and Wihwa laughed loudly as he bent his knees.

“What, this is fun!”

I knew the enemy would charge. I knew it in advance.

I traced the contracted muscles in his legs and understood his direction exactly.

His fist drew a horizontal arc. Knowing that, I could dodge.

But I didn’t dodge.

“Try blocking this too!”

Just before his fist tore through my nape.

I took a step back.

It was too short a step to leave the range of his punch,

“…!”

But my step traveled slightly farther. Far enough that my back touched a wall several meters outside the reach of his attack.

Why had I been able to lift objects far heavier than myself all this time, yet never thought to move my own body?

From a distance, I looked down at myself in third person and moved myself using the current.

My body was nothing more than a game piece.

A living game piece that wielded power.

“What the hell kind of movement technique is that…?”

Even as he panted for breath, I danced with Wihwa, who kept charging at me without pause.

Read and dodge. If I couldn’t dodge, I made myself slip away.

I knew the entire board, understood the enemy’s movements, and could move myself freely.

It was so easy, I almost sighed.

-Slash!

“Kh… uha… ahahaha…! What the hell is this…?!”

Up, down, left, right, front, back.

Wherever seawater existed, dissolved metal existed too.

If I wished it, molten steel that could instantly be forged into my blade and cut the enemy down.

“You…”

Slice. Slice. Slice, and slice again.

“You-”

If he reaches out his hand, I chop it off.

Before he could regenerate, I’d already sliced again.

I cut the wound open, cleave through the bones trying to burst out.

Even though using water pressure that finely reduced the burden, fine red lines began appearing across my own body, but I ignored them.

A rain of slashes fell.

“Ah.”

With the splattered blood, the hallway turned into hell.

Approximately 3 minutes and 21 seconds.

That was the time it took to inflict wounds that Wihwa’s regeneration couldn’t keep up with.

“You… who are you…?”

Wihwa said that, still wearing a smiling face.

Not that he was actually smiling. His whole body had been severed and cut into chunks.

Of course, I didn’t feel a shred of pity. As I formed one final blade of water pressure, I gave him my answer.

“Who knows. If you still don’t get it, you’ll never understand.”

“Uh-”

-Slash.

As if realizing something in that moment, Wihwa’s head fell from his neck.