Wizard of the Deep Sea

When I opened my eyes again, I was back in the Abyssal Sea.

I opened and closed my hand as I spread my Tide Sense. It was still and silent. The only sound in the world was the occasional, tranquil flow of water.

For some reason, I found the darkness, where I couldn’t see even an inch ahead with my bare eyes, strangely comforting. I immediately sat down.

I couldn’t afford to waste even a moment. I had to figure it out.

Why did he hesitate?

'Great Void was definitely afraid of me.'

From the very beginning, he could have crushed me with a single finger.

But he didn’t. Or perhaps he couldn’t.

That was why he’d been so wary of me. Why he’d tried to avoid fighting. Why he’d tried to persuade me instead. Why he’d hesitated until the very end to strike. Even while we talked, everything he’d done had been aimed at breaking my spirit.

"Did he not want me to die?"

What would change if I died?

I currently was an Outer God. Outer Gods couldn’t die so easily, but I wasn’t exactly a true Outer God to begin with. I was a human who became one, so maybe I could actually die.

But that only led to another question. If he really was reluctant to kill me, why?

If I die, then the Outer Gods of the Abyssal Sea would die as well.

What exactly would happen if the being that governs the Abyssal Sea disappeared?

"...I don’t know."

I let out a long sigh.

Judging from everything that had happened, whether Great Void feared my death or was avoiding something else entirely—he definitely regarded me as troublesome.

But I had far too little information to understand why.

If I had more time, maybe I could have figured something out…

-Creaaaak, crrrrrrrrrk...

"Tsk."

A grotesque sound echoed from the upper layers, carrying all the way down into the depths.

It sounded as though unimaginably massive chains were being stretched to their absolute limit. As though they were groaning just before they snapped. It was safe to say that I had no time left.

Great Void had already set foot in the Abyssal Sea.

If he reached me this time, he wouldn’t let me escape again.

Not that there was anywhere left to run.

'Then I’ll have to fight.'

Using the authority of creation, I recreated the old enemies that had tormented me all this time and sent them toward the surface.

Even as I created them, though, I didn’t expect much. Could something so insignificant, less than dust, really buy time against the cosmos itself?

'Impossible. Even here in the Abyssal Sea, what could creatures like these possibly do against something that enormous…?’

I clenched my teeth and sighed, then…

"...Huh?"

A strange question suddenly surfaced in my mind.

'Wasn’t this guy supposed to be trapped in the Abyssal Sea?'

I immediately focused my consciousness on the upper layers.

Even with my Tide Sense spanning the entirety of the Abyssal Sea, I couldn’t make out what Great Void actually looked like now that he’d entered it. I only knew that he was enormous.

It was like trying to guess what an elephant looked like by staring at nothing but its foot after it had stepped into a bathtub. The sheer scale of Great Void was far too vast to even begin to comprehend his true form just by glimpsing a single part.

In that case—how had it been possible?

How had the First Mage…

How had the Outer God of the Abyssal Sea managed to imprison something like that in the depths?

That thought made my expression twist.

"Damn it, if only they were still here…!"

If the Outer God of the Abyssal Sea had been alive, I could’ve asked how he’d done it. But asking the dead…

"...The dead?"

I blinked.

Dead?

The Outer God of the Abyssal Sea?

...An Outer God?

"..."

For a long time.

Long enough that Great Void should have reached the mid-layers. At least several hours, I thought and thought.

Every realization I’d had until now, every strange piece of knowledge I’d somehow possessed, chaotically swirled through my head.

When I finally reached my conclusion, my face twisted into a grimace even I could feel.

"They were alive."

I immediately teleported using a puddle.

'I’m a human who became an Outer God. Unlike the others, maybe I really can die, but there’s no way they could.'

I’d been wrong from the very beginning.

The Outer God of the Abyssal Sea had died? Had I ever actually seen an Outer God die? Even the Outer Gods I’d defeated hadn’t truly died. I’d only stripped away their power. They hadn’t died in a true sense.

But the original, the true master of this world.

The one who created the real world of today. The one who imprisoned every Outer God beneath the Abyssal Sea and forced even Great Void to kneel. The previous Outer God of the Abyssal Sea. The idea that they had simply exhausted their strength and died ‘like a human’...

That had been the very first cog that didn’t fit.

There was no way they’d died.

'But they never appeared.'

Because they’d lost interest?

Because they’d been satisfied?

That didn’t fit either. He had left behind artifacts like Mallo. He had squeezed out every last ounce of their power, hoping humanity would one day stand against the Outer Gods when they returned. He hadn’t wanted the world to perish.

Those records were the last traces they left behind, and then they disappeared without actually dying.

Or at least—after making it seem like they died.

"...You terrifying bastard."

Grinding my teeth, I slowly looked toward the royal palace I’d finally reached.

Or rather what remained of it. There wasn’t a single soul left. The palace had been reduced to ruins by the aftermath of Great Void’s battle with me. I stared at it for a moment before walking toward one very specific place.

Would the Outer God of the Abyssal Sea have simply given up?

Would someone who had surrendered even the throne of the Abyssal Sea to create this world abandon everything so easily?

Absolutely not. The obsession of an Outer God was not something to be underestimated. They had to be alive.

Then why hadn’t they appeared?

That was the second cog that didn’t fit.

They had already appeared.

-Boom!

I kicked through the ruined palace and headed straight into Sharmia’s office.

Of course, there was no one there. Every last human had already evacuated to the underground city.

Standing in the middle of the office, I slowly opened my mouth, hoping someone was listening.

"If there really were someone who loved this world, someone who wanted it to survive at all costs, someone who loved humanity, wished for this world to endure—but had lost all of their power and become little more than a god in name. Where would they be?”

There was no answer.

After a brief chuckle, I continued speaking to myself.

"At the center of power. The one place where you could manipulate humanity without having to rely on your authority. The only place where, with the least amount of strength, you could warn them, prepare them, and guide them. Don’t misunderstand. I’m not saying you were the Imperial Princess. You were simply always by her side, constantly influencing things. So, you were the one who made her regress. You forced Sharmia to relive her life thousands, tens of thousands of times so she’d eventually be able to stand against Great Void. Didn’t you feel even a shred of guilt? Doing something like that to a single human being?”

-Creak.

Using seawater, I slowly turned the overturned chair in the office.

Someone was sitting there. Someone who shouldn’t have been. An old man whose very presence radiated authority.

I’d met him before. I’d seen the same figure countless times in the murals.

[It was not only one.]

The Emperor.

The man who should have been bedridden rested quietly in the chair, head lowered, eyes closed.

[Including this one, I sent dozens of creations back.]

Yet he spoke by creating meaning by projecting his will as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

[Yet in the end only that child endured.]

"Should I call you senior? I’d really rather not.”

I looked at the aged Emperor.

He was still using the authority of creation, yet not even a fragment of divine power remained within him.

He truly was nothing but a withered god. Or rather, a hollow shell of something that had once been a god.

[You may resent me. But it was the only way.]

The First Mage, the Outer God of the Abyssal Sea, the Emperor—

The savior who loved humanity. The lord of this world who had defied the gods. The man burdened with all those titles slowly rose to his feet on legs so emaciated they suited none of them.

[Every miracle demands a price.]

"So you were beside us all this time."

Regression had never been a feat accomplished by magic.

I’d thought it was only possible because the imperial family carried the First Mage’s bloodline in its purest form. But the truth was much simpler. This guy had been doing it himself.

The Outer God of the Abyssal Sea had never abandoned the world.

He simply never revealed himself but kept helping us all along.

Even if his methods left a lot to be desired—

"I’ve got a lot I want to ask you. Why you created us, why you didn’t make sure that bastard stayed sealed, but none of that’s important right now.”

I strode straight toward him.

“Why are you only showing yourself now?”

How to defeat Great Void.

Or how he’d managed to imprison him beneath the Abyssal Sea—Those should have been my first questions. But before that, there was something far more absurd that I needed answered.

"Why are you only now getting off your ass?”

I’d found him. I’d been right to come here.

But if the Outer God of the Abyssal Sea had sought us out first…

If he’d simply told us how to fight Great Void, things would never have gotten this far.

So many people would have lived. And yet, even until the very end, he'd revised to reveal himself.

If I figured it out, he might not have appeared until after the world had already ended.

That really pissed me off.

"You said you loved this world. You created us. You made Sharmia regress again, and again, and again, killing her tens of thousands of times. You could have said something while that bastard Great Void slaughtered wizards over and over again.”

[...]

The Emperor remained silent beneath my icy glare.

With no guilt, no anger, no grief… no emotion whatsoever filling his face, he finally spoke.

[Allow me to correct you.]

"...What?"

[You speak as though I were capable of doing something for you. I was not.]

"What are you talking about?"

[I can do nothing— for you, for humanity, for this world.]

"You say that after sending Sharmia back over and over again?”

[That was merely a desperate struggle. To begin with, I am not the one you seek.]

"??"

[You believe me to be the Outer God of the Abyssal Sea. You are mistaken. I am merely a degraded copy born from inheriting that being’s blood. A parasite living off that being’s bloodline… Yes.]

The Emperor pointed at my clothes.

[Just like that robe. Though I was created at the very end, so the others never came to know of my existence.]

The robe he pointed at was Mallo.

In other words, he was an artifact. A failsafe left behind by the Outer God of the Abyssal Sea.

"Damn it…!”

Had I gotten it wrong again?

And yet, he had unquestionably been using an Outer God’s power. The fact that he’d appeared inside the office alone proved that…

[Ordinarily, even appearing before you like this would have been impossible. But you wished for me.]

"I never wished for you."

[No, you, the master of this world, did. I was only able to appear within this Abyssal Sea, because the world’s master wished for me.]

Which meant…

He wasn’t going to be much help either.

"Ugh..."

I clenched my fist until it hurt.

Even now, Great Void was steadily descending, moving past the mid-layer toward the deepest depths.

Was this really the end?

Or was there some other way…?

[Jern.]

"Don’t you dare say my name so casually…”

[The Creator was afraid.]

At those words, I looked up at the Emperor.

He seemed even smaller than the first time I’d met him.

[The reason I remained silent, the reason you heard nothing, was because the Creator desired it so.]

"...? They feared Great Void?"

[Not Great Void. They feared you. They did not wish for their successor to learn this truth. That is why they prevented me. And I, too, believed that judgement to be the correct one.

As he spoke, the Emperor absentmindedly touched his own throat.

[But the Creator is not here. And it was you who allowed me to exist here. Nothing remains to silence me. And my own judgement has changed somewhat as well. After watching you.]

"...What exactly are you trying to say?"

I glared at the Emperor, whose words had grown increasingly bizarre.

Meeting my gaze with the same emotionless eyes, he slowly opened his mouth.

[Then I shall tell you. The one thing you were never meant to know.]

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