Wizard of the Deep Sea

"Get ready. I’m starting right away.”

"Alright."

-Tap.

Nightchaser patted me on the back, and then she took a deep breath and exhaled.

Ger body began to swell. The figure that had once resembled a human transformed into something like a living mass of light before placing a hand against the ground.

[Open.]

"..."

Without a word, I opened a puddle.

Countless small puddles appeared across the entire world. They were nothing more than ordinary pools of water, but—

[Do your best. I’m entrusting my future to you.]

"I’ll try."

[If only your mouth weren’t so good at making promises…]

It happened in an instant.

-Krrrrrrrk…!

The status had no idea what was happening. Like debris being sucked into a vacuum cleaner, they were swallowed into the water’s surface.

Tiny puddles consumed thousands upon thousands of statues. The speed wasn’t even comparable to my tidal waves.

Of course, that was only possible because a very clear price had been paid.

"Your body’s dissolving."

[I was prepared for this. You don’t need to keep reminding me.]

The mass of light that was Nightchaser was steadily fading away.

Watching her, I realized once more that she’d truly been lying before. This was completely different from when she’d handed her power over to me.

Back then, when she told me she turned human, it had merely felt as though her size had shrunk. Now it felt as though her very existence was being reduced.

“..."

She really was an Outer God.

And now she was truly staking her life on this.

[Remember.]

As the statues vanished into water one after another, the once-brilliant light dwindled until only something no brighter than a lone firefly remained. In that faint state, Nightchaser left behind a final whisper.

[Don’t let your… guard…down…until the very end……Great… Void…is hiding something. He always…has been…since long…long…ago.]

"I know. I’ll stay alert until the end. Rest easy."

[...I can’t believe… I ended up…trusting a human…]

With those final words…

Nightchaser could no longer form speech or even intent.

I used the Authority of Creation to make a small glass bottle, then carefully captured the firefly-like light within it and sealed it inside to keep it safe.

The world grew silent.

Nightchaser had fulfilled her side of the bargain perfectly. She had literally dragged away every statue and sealed them elsewhere.

Now, I was the only one left in this world in the truest sense of the phrase.

"...Shall we begin?”

In other words…

There was nothing left that could interfere with me.

'This is basically a finished fight. Just don’t make any mistakes.'

With things having come to this, there was only one thing left for me to do.

Increase the volume of seawater.

-Whoooosh...!

The moment I willed it, rain began to fall. Rain flowing from a sky made of ocean.

The rain fell without pause, gradually filling the world below. The dried canyon beds of the desert became rivers. Those rivers soon overflowed, turning lakes into seas.

More, and even more.

For three days and nights, without a moment of sleep, I made it rain.

What began as a downpour became a storm, and in the end, it became nothing less than colossal pillars of water.

Every second of time I had gained was spent making up for the seawater I had lacked.

And eventually—

I reached it.

"Haah..."

I wiped my forehead and looked around.

Everything around me had become the true Abyssal Sea. Within this world, there was only a single palace where water had not reached.

A patch of ground raised barely above the surface, no larger than the span of a hand.

The only remaining space that the world could still recognize as sky.

As if proving it, the scar had shrunk to match, engraved upon the ceiling of that tiny space.

Seeing the sky that had once looked down upon the entire world reduced to that state left me with complicated emotions.

Great Void had truly never retaliated even once. Whether Dercia had genuinely inflicted such a devastating wound upon him or whether he’d poured everything into the statue offensive, there was no way to know.

Well, I could find out now.

"Are you still planning to keep your mouth shut?”

I clenched the last fragment of sky in my grasp.

Pressure increased as I sought to crush even Great Void’s final refuge.

"Then keep it shut and die.”

Honestly, that would’ve been ideal.

But reality was always disappointing. As the space slowly shrank and crumbled, I sensed a familiar presence behind me.

"...You’re not easy to get a look at.”

I slowly turned around while drawing all the seawater in the world toward this place.

I had never expected things to end this easily. Naturally, I’d prepared thoroughly. Not even the slightest trace of carelessness remained.

Whatever he’d prepared, I had already become so powerful after truly swallowing the entire world that the mere concept of defeat was beyond my comprehension.

Forming my resolve, I turned toward him, and...

Hmm...

Great Void looked nothing like I had expected.

His face was gaunt, his limbs emaciated, his hair patchy. Bruises and wounds covered his entire body.

He looked like a walking corpse, horrifyingly withered and frail.

I forced myself to suppress my shock. I’d expected him to be heavily injured, but this heavily?

Had Dercia really done all of this alone? While those thoughts ran through my mind, the figure standing several meters away smiled.

A warm smile. The sort of smile one might show upon meeting a beloved relative after many years apart.

"I’m sorry you have to see me like this. Jern. Jern Aspandil.”

"It doesn’t matter."

Even those words sounded warm. Of course, I returned the favor.

I unleashed my pressure at full power.

The overwhelming mass distorted space itself. The world twisted. Great Void’s limbs bent in directions solid matter was never meant to bend, and his body compressed until he resembled a basketball more than a human being.

"Heavy. So you truly have become the Outer God of the Abyssal Sea.”

The fact that he remained so composed even in that state was impressive, but I already knew he was bluffing.

I’d learned far too much as Outer God to remain ignorant. Pressing down harder and harder with the pressure, I offered not a proposal but a threat.

"Give up that body and descend into the Abyssal Sea yourself and never come back up.”

"Why should I?”

"Because that’s your only option.”

-Crack!

At last, one of his bones broke. He probably could heal it at any time—but only after escaping my pressure.

And I had absolutely no intention of letting that happen.

Even while we talked, the weight of every ocean in existence continued piling onto him. In only a few minutes, he would no longer be carrying the weight of the world as a metaphor. He would be carrying it literally.

"..."

Great Void watched me issue my ultimatum for a moment before opening his crumbling mouth.

"It has been a long time.”

"...?”

That was true.

But it wasn’t something he should be saying right now.

The absurdity of it made irritation rise within me. I formed a spear of pressure.

"I didn’t know even gods could go insane. Do you have any idea what situation you’re in?”

"I do not. Would you enlighten me?”

"Everything you wanted is in my hands now.”

I stated the simple truth.

A realm no Outer God had ever reached. Every last inch of the whole world lay beneath my control.

The world was now, in every sense of the word, the Abyssal Sea. The exact opposite of what Great Void had planned.

"It must be a feeling you’ve never experienced before. I can understand why you’d go crazy. How does it feel? Having your life’s world overturned by some human?”

I deliberately provoked him. Partially to shatter that calm demeanor. Partly to buy time while gathering even more pressure.

But Great Void said something even stranger in response.

"Of course I knew. I once stood where you stand now.”

"What?"

"I subjugated every world beneath my gaze. There was a time when the Outer Gods feared the boundless heavens more than the depths of the sea. Ah, I was truly happy then…”

"..."

Obviously, that had to be a lie.

If Great Void had truly subjugated every world, then no Outer God could possibly have turned the tables on him.

—And yet.

A sense of unease began to fill me. Not at the level of logic or facts, it stemmed from my instincts.

I immediately intensified the pressure. A spear of pressure formed and pierced straight through his forehead.

-Craaaaaash!!!!

The spear of pressure, wielded by the master of the world, did not merely tear Great Void apart.

The city split in half, creating a massive chasm. Part of that was because I hadn’t held back at all, but regardless, it looked like nothing could possibly survive inside that destruction.

"What in the..."

It was an illusion.

Despite being pierced by the spear of pressure, Great Void remained completely unharmed, still pinned beneath the crushing force.

As for Great Void himself, he seemed utterly uninterested in the attack. Instead, he looked down at the ground with a bitter expression.

"I was mistaken. There were worlds above me as well. I was not the highest existence. I was young then.”

"Tsk."

There was no longer a reason to listen to him ramble.

This conversation had been meaningless from the start. A spear of pressure, vastly larger than any I’d ever created before, smashed mercilessly into Great Void.

The earth split apart. A crater hundreds of meters deep appeared in an instant. Razor-sharp currents tore his body to pieces as though flaying flesh with blades. Yet Great Void seemed completely unaffected.

It was as though he existed in another dimension. Every attack came to nothing. I stepped back, deciding to at least figure out what was happening.

"You should see it as well.”

"—!"

When I came back to my senses, he was standing directly in front of me. Divine Authority.

'...Impossible.'

His world was no larger than the span of a palm. Yet he manipulated authority so naturally that even my Tide Sense failed to notice it.

More than that—

"...Was this how it was done?”

"What...!"

Using seawater, he created life. Tiny fish began swimming through the water. Only then did I realize something had gone terribly wrong.

The authority belonged exclusively to the Outer God of the Abyssal Sea.

Great Void shouldn't have been able to use it. It was impossible.

Seeing uncertainty finally enter my eyes, Great Void smiled faintly.

"Curious?”

"Not at all. Cheap tricks won’t work on me.”

"Don’t be like that. It’s a simple matter…”

Still smiling gently, Great Void pointed upward.

Of course, this place was the Abyssal Sea. So what he pointed toward should have been the ocean.

That was how it had to be.

"...Ah..."

Something was floating above the sea.

The stars spread across the waters formed a single pattern.

—The scar.

The mark that proved he was the Sky. The scar that should have existed in the sky was carved there instead, made from countless stars.

...Why?

Why was it there? The scar should have been inside that tiny remaining patch of sky.

I turned around. The place where Great Void’s final world should have been contained no such thing.

And yet he still stood alive before me.

"You merely made the same mistake I once made.”

Great Void spoke gently, almost as if comforting me.

"I simply happened to be standing a little higher than you this time.”

"...Damn it."

I clenched my teeth, unable to refute him.

He hadn’t lied. Great Void was undoubtedly the sky.

But he was the sky that exists above the sky.

"How am I supposed to fill that…?”

The world under his dominion was—

The cosmos.

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