Wizard of the Deep Sea

From the moment I realized he couldn’t fight back, my attacks gained a bit more confidence behind them.

"At this rate, it’s only a matter of time.”

I continued crushing the sky beneath overwhelming pressure, and maybe it was just my imagination, but even the scar itself seemed to be growing fainter.

If that bastard really kept taking it without resisting, that was exactly what would happen.

Unfortunately, things weren’t going to be that easy.

-Craaack!

Suddenly, a strange sound rang out as the ground split apart. It looked as though an earthquake had struck.

"...?"

[Re…lease…]

Then the statues trapped beneath the ground began crawling out one by one, trying to multiply once more.

Was this—Great Void’s power?

There wasn’t much time to think. I immediately stretched out a hand and transformed seawater into life.

Hundreds of millions of deep-sea creatures sprang into existence. Mayfly-like creatures unable to move for more than a single minute between birth and death. They charged straight toward the cracks and slammed their heads into them.

The opened fissures were sealed shut instantly. The statues could no longer crawl out, but—

Not long afterward, the deep-sea creatures plugging the cracks began glowing red-hot.

[Ex…plode.]

-Boooom!!!

One of the statue’s hands was glowing crimson. As though it had created fire with that very hand.

Yet my Tide Sense wasn’t focused elsewhere.

The eyes.

Within those clearly stone-carved eyes, several stars were drifting about.

"So it's a mage."

What the hell was this? I examined the statues, and a disbelieving laugh escaped me.

"All of them?”

Every single one had stars swirling within its eyes.

These weren’t statues with spells engraved into them. Nor were they cheap tricks that stored and released preloaded magic.

The statues themselves were consciously casting spells.

[Explode...]

"You explode."

-Crunch!

The instant one of them stretched out its hand toward me from a crack, it was flattened into powder.

A single extra mage wasn’t enough to influence the battlefield. Compared to me, it was still just a statue.

But if one statue could use magic…

[Split apart]

[Explode—]

[Sever.]

—then all the others could as well be.

My Tide Sense flooded my mind with countless scenes. Throughout the world, statues scattered across every corner were using all kinds of magic to overcome the pressure and escape their confinement.

Their magic systems differed too. Some possessed 3 stars, the stronger ones had 5. At that level, they could toy with most ordinary Knights without effort.

'How is this even possible?'

Contrary to my confusion, my reason quickly arrived at an answer.

He was the god of magic as well as the Sky. Then granting his servants the ability to use magic would be entirely possible.

That meant he could overturn a fundamental truth of this world. The truth that only those who inherited the blood of the Outer God of the Abyssal Sea could become wizards.

"So this is how you’re planning to settle things.”

I slowly muttered as I watched the world descend further into chaos.

The statues were creating more statues. At first they had used only chisels and hammers, but now they were using magic to copy themselves by the dozens.

I had assumed this was merely a way to buy time—but that had been a mistake.

These statues were likely Great Void’s only defense while he was unable to fight back.

"They’re coming.”

As I organized my thoughts, Nightchaser stared beyond the city walls and bit her lip.

"You see it, right? Looks like they’re targeting you.”

"I know. The ones far away keep multiplying, while the ones nearby come after me. Seems to be that kind of strategy.”

I had to maintain the Abyssal Sea. I couldn’t allow Great Void to escape.

The statues were multiplying endlessly. Now that they had learned magic, this was no longer a problem that could be solved simply by increasing the world’s pressure beyond a certain threshold.

If I tried to keep destroying them, they would send forces specifically to stop me from doing so—an incredibly annoying approach. And, when fighting an Outer God, it was also the most orthodox one. Wearing down your opponent little by little.

No matter how confident I was in my defensive abilities, I couldn’t leave these statues alone.

In the end, my objective became crystal clear.

Destroy every wizard Great Void had created, then kill him while he was defenseless. Even by generous standards, it didn’t sound easy.

"If it’s only this much, then…”

But the difficulty itself gave me confidence.

If this truly was the only method Great Void had chosen…

Then breaking it would mean victory.

"Yeah. This is doable.”

[Freeze—]

The statues spoke in voices that sounded almost melodic, despite possessing no vocal cords.

The one standing at the very front had 6 stars shining within its eyes. The spell cast by a 6-star wizard instantly surrounded the imperial palace where I stood with an enormous wall of ice. Not even an ant could slip through the gaps.

I watched with interest. Their first move was containment.

[Turn to ash…]

Their second move was attack.

-Snap, snap!

Several sparks ignited within the ice prison. And from those tiny flames rose clouds of smoke so massive it was hard to believe they had originated from such insignificant embers. The smoke quickly filled the entire interior.

"Ugh, that looks like something we should probably stop.”

Nightchaser frowned as she watched everything touched by the smoke crumble into a handful of dust. The spell was far too powerful for something supposedly cast by a 6-star wizard. When I looked back at the statue responsible, there were now 7 stars floating around its eyes.

'So the later generations become stronger.'

I frowned and examined the 7-star statue more closely.

It wasn't my imagination. Its appearance had definitely changed. Unlike the earlier statues who were bald things with barely defined bodies, this one had recognizable facial features. You could distinguish its eyes, nose, and mouth. It even had clothing sculpted onto its body, resembling a Greek statue.

Which meant that dragging things out was becoming a disadvantage for me as well.

Not right now, though.

"Hey! I’m human, you know? Hurry up and…”

"Stop making a fuss. This isn’t even anything serious yet.”

-Crush!

I didn’t do anything special.

I merely closed my hand lightly. The wall of ice shattered into powder and scattered away.

The smoke was swept aside by the currents as though it had never existed in the first place. And the statues that had confidently advanced toward me were compressed into a single massive spherical lump.

What they called an attack couldn’t cause even the slightest harm to an Outer God.

Meanwhile, I could kill them whenever I wanted.

After all, the space they occupied was a part of the Abyssal Sea under my dominion.

'But if they reach 9 stars, that’s going to be a problem!'

There was no way a 9-star statue would be comparable to a human 9-star wizard. If it were, that would mean hundreds of millions of archmages on Dercia’s level. Even this one already felt less strong than a 7-star mage should be.

Even so, once 9-star statues began appearing, they would become a genuine threat.

"We’ll have to give up attacking for now. First, we need to smash every statue.”

"Are you going to increase the water pressure even more?”

"No."

I’d already seen that it wouldn’t work. At this point, merely slowing them down wasn’t enough.

"Then what?”

"These things have a habit of clumping together.”

"...What?”

According to what I’d seen through Tide Sense, the statues possessed an instinct to gather.

They created more statues like themselves, and whenever they landed separately, they would first gather in one location before beginning their work.

Most likely, because each of them learned different kinds of magic, they became far more efficient when working together, making construction and attacking easier.

"So what? Are you going to run around smashing them group by group?”

“Something like that. Though I won’t be going there in person.”

I took a deep breath, then clapped my hands together.

It hadn’t even been a few hours since I gained dominion over this whole world.

Because of that, I was still far from what one could call a perfect, singular god. I was like a child standing inside an enormous swimming pool all alone, yet able to control everything, but unable to truly manage every corner of it.

But even so, with Great Void unable to act, I was the only being in this world capable of creating waves.

[Awaken, move, create—]

[Twist fate and turn back the hands of the clock...]

[Melt and be reborn.]

The statues were evolving at a frightening pace, like monkeys suddenly gifted with fire. They continued discovering increasingly advanced forms of magic.

Watching their incantations grow more fluent by the second, I let out a small laugh, then answered with a far simpler command.

"Rise."

At first, only a few drops of water seeped from the ground and trickled forward.

-Ruuuuumble…

But those few drops quickly became a stream. The steam became a river.

And the river swelled larger and larger as endless water poured into it like a dam had burst.

It didn’t take long for it to become a tidal wave capable of swallowing entire buildings.

But it had absolutely no intention of stopping.

"More."

One tidal wave piled atop another…

Massive structures were swept away and ground into dust. The sides of mountains vanished beneath the flood.

"More."

-Cruuuuuunch…

Eventually, the waves reached the peaks themselves. And the mountain ranges, unable to endure any longer, were flattened into plains.

At some point, the world was plunged into darkness.

Or so it seemed.

"...You crazy bastard."

Nightchaser let out a sigh as she stared up at the sky, now darkened by the shadow of something that could no longer be described as a mere tidal wave.

Imagine if there had been no ocean in this world and one suddenly appeared.

That hypothetical scenario had just become reality.

[Freeze...]

[Block...]

The mage statues tried to cast spells.

I didn’t really know what they were trying to do, but one thing was certain.

"It’ll take 5 minutes, maybe."

Whatever it was, it wouldn’t have worked.

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