Wizard of the Deep Sea

If he truly were the cosmos...

Then the first thing that made no sense was everything he’d done up until now.

His world contained that many stars, and yet he’d gone through all of this just to obtain a single world?

I genuinely couldn’t understand it, so a question slipped out from my mouth in my bafflement.

"Then why did you go through all this if you govern the cosmos?”

Great Void closed his eyes and answered without a moment’s hesitation.

"Because I was afraid."

"...?"

"Well, is there any need for further questions?”

Wounds opened across his body, blood seeping out.

The blood drifted slowly through the Abyssal Sea, spreading as though it possessed a will of its own.

"You know this already. You have to kill me.”

"...”

It was the one truth that had never changed from the very beginning.

But how was I supposed to kill the cosmos? Even if he was wounded, even if he wasn’t at full strength, I couldn’t even begin to imagine where to start.

"But I don’t need to do the same.”

Smiling lightly, Great Void extended his blood-covered hand toward me.

It looked almost like he was offering a handshake. I frowned.

"What are you doing?”

"Do you remember my question? The one you refused?”

"...?"

"Join me.”

I blinked several times before studying his face.

Trying to read the emotions of an Outer God through facial expressions felt rather ridiculous, but both my eyes and my Tode Sense told me the same thing. He wasn’t mocking me.

After some time, I stared at him with a scowl.

"Are you serious? Now, of all times?”

"Hmm?”

"Have you looked around?”

I spread my arms, presenting the world that had become entirely part of the Abyssal Sea.

"All of this is a trap designed to kill you. Why do you think I did it? Because your goal is to kill everyone in this world, and you've already gotten halfway there. If you wanted reconciliation, you shouldn’t have killed even one person.”

"If you stand somewhere else, you must think differently.”

Great Void shook his head and corrected me calmly.

"You are the Outer God of the Abyssal Sea. Look carefully. What does this appear to be?”

Great Void waved his hand.

Seawater gathered together, color flowed into it—then its shape solidified into something familiar.

"Oh my, my head…what is this place…?”

"...This bastard."

I cursed viciously as my eyes widened.

What Great Void created was a human. A human I knew well—probably the person I had known the longest in this world. The director of the orphanage who had raised me.

Appearing just as I remembered him, the director looked around in bewilderment, reacting exactly as he would have.

"J-Jern? What are you doing over there? Wait, why is everything underwater? H-huh? I can breathe? What in the world is…”

"That’s enough.”

My cold anger affected the world itself.

The surrounding seawater began freezing into strange, jagged shapes. The shards of ice moved as though they possessed a will, drifting toward Great Void.

"I apologize. This wasn’t the reaction I intended…”

Great Void smiled slightly and flicked his hand in the opposite direction. The thing that had been the director dissolved into bubbles.

Finding myself unable to speak, Great Void was the first to speak up.

"For you and me, such things are far too simple. Of course, to create beings, life is precious, sacred, and worth more than anything else. You were raised with that perspective, so perhaps it is only natural you think that way. But look around you.”

Like I had earlier, Great Void spread his arms toward the Abyssal Sea.

"All of this is that very life you hold so dear. With a single droplet of this water, you could create a human if you wished. The only reason you do not is because you don’t want to, right?”

I opened my mouth to refute him—then closed it again.

I’d deliberately avoided thinking about it, but was what Great Void had done truly impossible? Was it something only he could accomplish?

I probably—could do it as well.

Given enough practice and experience…just as a master blacksmith could forge a legendary blade, I could likely mass-produce humans as well.

"Those who place great value on life are merely beings who cling to a single life. For us, life is no more than a tool or entertainment. It can never become anything more.”

"Stop lumping me together with you every time you say ‘us.’ It makes me sick.”

"All the other Outer Gods wanted to become part of that ‘us,’ but you are different. Of course, if you weren't different, I wouldn’t want you this badly.”

Great Void merely laughed off my hostility and extended his hand again.

"Very well, I understand. You truly value humanity and believe human lives are precious beyond comparison. If that is who you are, then I shall respect it.”

"What kind of bullshit are you spouting now?”

"I’ll be specific. I will guarantee the lives of every human.”

"...?"

Unable to understand what he meant, I stared at him, so he elaborated.

"I will allow the humans you have hidden to live upon this world for the rest of their lives. I will ensure that not a single hardship touches them. If they farm, no drought will come. If they fish, the fish will swim willingly into their nets. I am capable of such things.”

"Hah, and in exchange you’ll slaughter every wizard?”

"No, of course not.”

Great Void shook his head, dismissing the idea.

"You may include them as well if you wish. To be honest, I no longer have any need for such things.”

"What a load of crap. Do you even remember what you’ve been saying this whole time? You wanted to return the world to its primordial state. Do you think I still don’t know how horrifying that world was?”

"Of course it was horrifying. But think about it. If you and I joined forces and decided to protect humanity, what world could possibly harm them?”

"..."

Whether it was true or not, that argument was quite persuasive.

Compared to the cosmos, my Abyssal Sea was small. But if my Abyssal Sea and his cosmos truly worked together, there probably wouldn’t be an Outer God left capable of threatening humanity.

Of course, that relied entirely on the absurd assumption that Great Void would actually honor such an agreement.

Smirking, I made no move to take his hand.

"And the price? You expect me to believe you’ll grant all of our demands without asking anything in return? You really think I’d buy that?”

"A price? I’ve never really thought about one. If I had to name one…I would wish for your existence.”

Great Void answered with a benevolent smile.

"I still lack the capacity to govern the Abyssal Sea. But you are different. You have successfully governed a world that would be too much for me to handle. Your very existence itself is my greatest reward.”

“Bullshit."

At this point, he wasn’t even trying to hide his clear ulterior motives.

"I still don’t understand what kind of bastard you are. I don’t know what goes on inside your head. I don’t even know if restoring the primordial world is actually your goal. Even now, I still have no clue.”

"We have plenty of time to get to know one another.”

"Yeah, we had plenty of time. I wasn’t watching your thoughts, but your actions.”

He devoured, dominated, and subjugated.

Worlds, humanity, Outer Gods, the cosmos. Nothing was spared. Everything became nourishment for him.

Maybe the Outer Gods Night Chaser had described to me all this time had really just been descriptions of Great Void.

"You can never be satisfied.”

"...”

"Being unsatisfied is your natural state. As natural as it is for water to flow downhill. That’s just what you are. Because if that weren’t true, then why would a bastard who governs the whole cosmos still want this world as well?”

"...!"

For the first time, Great Void’s eyes widened in genuine surprise.

Then—he burst out in hearty laughter with his head thrown back.

"Hah, hahahaha!! I see. You’ve hit the nail right on the head!”

It was the most dramatic emotional shift I’d ever seen from him.

As though he’d just heard the funniest joke imaginable, he laughed for quite a while before wiping at the corner of his eye.

"So, you’re refusing?”

"It’s not a refusal. It’s a rejection, you idiot. You never should’ve made that offer, no matter if you govern the cosmos or not.”

The fear inside me was already gone.

What reason could a creature like that possibly have for begging me so desperately to join him? A being incapable of satisfaction that desired everything in existence.

"Your condition still isn’t stable, is it?”

"Hmm."

"By making that offer, you basically told me this is my only chance.”

The Abyssal Sea stirred once more. Currents shifted wildly in every direction.

"Whether you govern the sky or the cosmos, this is still the Abyssal Sea.”

-Graaaaah...!

Everywhere my Tide Sense reached, seawater transformed into life.

Some became crustacean monstrosities. Others became colossal octopi with tens of thousands of tentacles that had once nearly devoured me.

My old enemies, created from nothing, advanced through the water.

Not all of them reached. Most were crushed by ever-increasing pressure before they could reach us.

"A pity.”

Great Void raised a hand that was becoming as thin and brittle as a dead branch.

The pressure that had once imprisoned Outer Gods for thousands of years descended precisely upon the place where he and I stood. Even for Great Void, it was a weight that could not be ignored. As his body slowly began to crumple, he looked down at himself and sighed.

This was hardly a situation that warranted such a casual reaction. Yet he seemed more interested in my state of mind than in his own condition.

"I was slightly too early. Perhaps I saw too much of myself in you…”

I couldn’t hear the rest of his muttering.

Because I was concentrating. Inside my mind, the pressure that had once suppressed Outer Gods was being compressed into something finer than a strand of hair.

More intense than any spear of pressure I had ever created—No, calling it a spear of pressure no longer did it justice.

Its purpose was not to kill an Outer God. Any weapon made for that purpose carried the possibility of failure.

So my objective had been something else entirely. It was to split a continent in half.

A knife made to cut steel would never break cutting fruit.

"Ugh…!”

The weapon was finally complete. A weapon that even the Outer God of the Abyssal Sea could barely control.

The brilliant white strand shimmering even within the Abyssal Sea itself. As it drifted through the water, it voraciously absorbed the surrounding seawater.

'This is difficult.'

Would Great Void actually let himself be hit by something like this? As that thought crossed my mind—

He walked toward me.

"A truly magnificent creation. With something like that, you could certainly kill an Outer God.”

"...?”

"Come."

He didn’t move any farther.

Smiling gently, wearing that same unreadable expression, he spread his arms.

"I think it may help you understand.”

For an instant, countless thoughts flashed through my mind.

But my authority moved before thoughts could catch up.

"...If your wish is to die, that’s easy enough.”

The spear of pressure touched his forehead.

And—

"Huh?"

His body dissolved into several drops of blood, then vanished completely.

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