Wizard of the Deep Sea

TL/ED – Miso

Come to think of it, something had always been off.

No matter where you go in the world, language develops out of necessity. For example, would an island on the equator have a word for snow, or for winter?

Even if a resident of that island traveled far away and walked upon piled snow, they would have no way to explain it when they returned. Something cold falls from the sky, and it piles up on the ground… that would be the best they could manage.

In that sense, the language system of the Deep Sea Creatures had quite a few things that were clearly unnecessary.

Things that didn’t need to be said in the Deep Sea. Concepts that didn’t need to be explained. And words that served no purpose.

Those things would pull out such words with the utmost naturalness.

“Was I overthinking this…”

I watched the shark twist its body and quietly sat down on a chair.

All this time, I had brushed past that point lightly, thinking maybe they were just born knowing the language or something. They didn’t seem close enough to teach each other language or engage in any kind of learning. And in truth, Deep Sea Creatures would devour their own kind without a moment’s hesitation if they were crushed under the Water Pressure.

There was no way creatures like that would teach one another. The conclusion was that all these sentences and words were things they had learned while living in the Deep Sea.

The problem circled back to the beginning.

From whom?

If there existed a being intelligent enough to teach the Deep Sea Creatures language, or at least let them steal it…

Perhaps that being might know how to survive in this Deep Sea.

“…Hmm.”

I opened the encyclopedia with a bit more seriousness and studied the faces of the Deep Sea Creatures.

Cheon-hwa, the Crimson Circle’s fake priestess, seemed to have never realized until the very end that I was a traitor, based on how she had acted.

Maybe she had simply never let it show, but… if that were the case, then she had truly been trying to save me from the Deep Sea.

If the result of that effort was observing the Deep Sea Creatures and acquiring their language…

If that work, which she had been forced to abandon partway through, leaving nothing but question marks, had truly been for my sake…

Then perhaps this really was the right direction after all.

After agonizing over it again and again, I clicked my tongue and let out a sigh.

“I don’t know, damn it.”

To be honest, at the moment, neither my Water Barrier nor my Water Pressure…

felt all that severe. Of course, it wasn’t that I had no Burden, but since it felt the same as usual, I kept thinking, is it really that serious…?

Dersia always worried too much. Maybe it really wasn’t that dire.

Thinking that, I let out a deep sigh, then headed to the library where Dersia was staying and knocked on the door.

She had been searching for something with books piled high around her, and she glanced at me with eyes tinged deeply with dark circles.

“…What is it? Make it quick, please.”

“The World-Sealing Pills. Give me all you have left.”

“?”

Since I hadn’t joined the Crimson Circle at this point, the World-Sealing Pills that Decay had given me were all I had.

She must have read something in my expression, because her face gradually soured.

“You’re planning to do something reckless again.”

“I have my own reasoning. And even if the worst comes to pass, I’m confident I can ‘come back.'”

“…”

Dersia eyed me with a skeptical look before eventually pulling out all the World-Sealing Pills she had been keeping.

“…Before you go through with that foolish act, there’s one piece of advice I’d like to give you first.”

“Yes?”

“Jern, I’ve been thinking over what you said. About how this world is actually already the Celestial Realm, and that Wizards hone themselves to become the sole god.”

“…Is that how it works? I feel like it’s a bit different.”

“There’s no other way to explain it. In essence, a Wizard is a seed, meant to produce the being closest to a god, one who can recreate a crumbling world.”

“Hmm… now that you say it, that does make sense. So?”

“If that’s true, then stopping the Crimson Circle’s goal becomes truly simple.”

Dersia continued in a somber tone, devoid of any expectation or confidence.

“If someone reaches the Celestial Realm before they manage to slaughter every last Wizard, then it would all be over.”

“That would be one way to do it, I suppose.”

I shrugged in agreement. That, too, would utterly destroy their objective, so it counted as one of the victory conditions.

But at the same time, it was an absurd notion.

Given that the elf standing before me still hadn’t reached the Celestial Realm.

“But if even you haven’t reached the Celestial Realm yet, Master, who could possibly do it?”

“…Indeed.”

I understood well what reaching the Celestial Realm meant.

Perhaps Dersia could get there someday. But that was only possible because she was a Long-lived Race, and by that time, I would have long since died of natural causes, even if I had escaped the Deep Sea.

Dersia fell silent for a moment.

Then she continued, her voice calm.

“Jern. I sense a kind of forced causality at work.”

“Causality?”

“Yes. I feel as though all of this, every last piece, is a chain forged to compel a single path. So much so that even my race feels like a tool designed for that purpose.”

“…”

“If you find something in there, it may shake the very purpose you hold, but…”

Dersia trailed off.

“…Just focus on surviving. Everything else comes after survival.”

“Well, that’s the easiest option, so works for me.”

Whatever she was trying to say, I could ask her in detail after I came back.

I bundled up all the World-Sealing Pills and slipped out of the palace, heading for an empty forest.

So that no one else would get caught up in this.

“Phew…”

Only after spreading my Current Sense wide and confirming that there wasn’t a single herbalist nearby who might get dragged in…

I placed one of the World-Sealing Pills in my mouth and muttered.

“This world is the Deep Sea.”

In an instant, the world was eroded.

The forest spread before my eyes and the Deep Sea existed in the same space.

They were merely maintaining a precarious balance. If I overused my abilities and that balance collapsed, I would be trapped in the Deep Sea, slowly dissolving away.

Assimilation. A death far more horrific than being crushed or drowned.

But.

“…Ugh.”

I deliberately increased the ratio of the Deep Sea.

The surrounding trees blurred, and the air liquefied.

Raindrops that had suddenly begun to fall froze in midair. Not raindrops, but fractures. The erosion of the world.

Gradually, the forest around me was swallowed.

Into the Deep Sea, ever deeper.

The world that my Current Sense knew and the world that my eyes knew gradually converged.

And then…

“Kh.”

With a stinging sensation in my heart, the world inverted.

No more forest, no more trees, no more grass, no more ground to stand on.

Nothing existed anymore.

All there was, was a deep, dark ocean where I couldn’t see an inch ahead, and the terrifying noise created by bubbles that occasionally rose and burst.

And in the darkness, Deep Sea Creatures with half-lidded eyes drifted about, exchanging meaningless words.

[…cold, seek, —falling. soon.]

[flowing…? flows. why…]

The words were so eerily meaningless that I wondered if my interpretation was wrong.

I examined them closely with my Current Sense and quietly opened my fist.

-Blub.

“…Good.”

One tiny little bubble.

I breathed a sigh of relief and cradled it as if it were the most precious thing in the world.

I hadn’t brought it to breathe. It was my lifeline.

I had succeeded in bringing air from the Real World, the world I lived in.

‘If that hadn’t worked, I was going to chew up all the World-Sealing Pills and try to escape that way.’

I was glad I didn’t have to resort to something that desperate. Now, when it was time to go back, I just had to reverse the process using this air as a reference point.

From the Deep Sea to the Real World. From the Real World to the Deep Sea.

It was a compass that let me traverse between worlds, with only the tiniest fragment left behind as an anchor.

In other words, it was also the only means of escaping this dark Deep Sea.

The moment this burst, I was dead, no two ways about it. I clenched my teeth and staked everything on maintaining the air bubble, even if it meant reducing my Current Sense somewhat.

Only after fixing it so firmly in place that even a steel arrow couldn’t pop it did I finally begin to move.

“Oh my.”

I nearly slammed my head into the ground and barely stopped myself.

I’d felt it last time too, but swimming through the water was far harder than I’d imagined. It wasn’t like swimming in a pool; it felt like walking with dozens of kilograms of steel plates strapped to my body.

I’d been trying to move by kicking my legs, but once I realized that method wouldn’t get me more than a few hundred meters even after an hour of swimming, I looked for alternatives. That was when I spotted an Anglerfish passing overhead, twisting its body through a trajectory that should have been physically impossible.

“…Oh?”

Seeing that, something clicked, and I wrapped my body in Current.

…My body floated and moved with absurd ease.

More than the ease, I was shocked by how natural it felt. As if Current had always existed for exactly this purpose, the way a newborn gazelle can run the moment it’s born.

A question arose.

I immediately launched myself upward with all my strength.

Nothing stopped me. With a feeling like I might actually escape the Deep Sea just like this, I shot upward like an arrow, and…

“Gakh…!”

Partway up, my vision went white, and it felt like my heart had stopped.

-Eeeeee… After writhing in agony for a long time through the severe ringing in my ears, I finally remembered the other Burden I suffered from.

Decompression Sickness. In other words, pressure sickness.

I staggered and sank back to where I’d started. It had been worth a try, but the Deep Sea wasn’t going to let me off that easy, it seemed.

After taking some time to collect myself, I shook my head with effort and stood up, beginning to explore my surroundings.

But the Deep Sea wasn’t exactly a great tourist destination. There wasn’t much to see in a cold place with nothing but unsettling fish and silence. I was scanning the area without much expectation when…

“What the, that’s…”

I spotted a human figure and nearly had my heart stop from shock.

But after probing it with my Current Sense, I scowled.

Dark Night, or more precisely, the hollow shell of the Puppet, was drifting limply and sinking somewhere.

“For the love of…”

That thing was still around, uneaten. I gave it a pointless kick to send it drifting elsewhere, then got back to my original objective.

[…?….??]

[…]

A swarm of Anglerfish that said nothing.

No, to be precise, smaller Anglerfish were clinging to a single massive one about three times my size, gnawing at its flesh.

It was the first direct fight I’d witnessed, but on closer inspection, the Anglerfish being devoured showed no reaction at all, and its torn flesh regenerated quickly.

Judging from its sluggish movements that its use of Current wasn’t particularly skillful, I carefully spoke up.

[An enemy approaches.]

[…!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!]

The frenzy was instantaneous.

The smaller Anglerfish that had been tearing into the large one’s flesh stopped eating the moment they heard me and shot off in every direction at tremendous speed.

It wasn’t an attack; it was flight. The Anglerfish that had been getting gnawed on immediately lit its lure a bright red and began leaking green fluid from between its teeth.

It was obviously poison, so I kept my distance. The Anglerfish then began frantically sweeping the area with its Current Sense.

[falling. falling. falling. falling. falling…]

After scanning its surroundings and clacking its teeth for a while, its Current Sense finally reached me as well.

[…?]

But it seemed to notice nothing, immediately checking elsewhere.

As expected, these Deep Sea Creatures couldn’t detect me unless I actively exerted my presence.

Eventually, the Anglerfish realized there was no enemy and no fellow creature who had spoken, and it flashed yellow in confusion.

That settled it.

‘No intelligence whatsoever.’

Since they could speak and learn, I’d entertained the possibility that they might possess intellect capable of conversation, but judging by that reaction, their brains simply executed whatever words they heard.

Same as last time, when one had bitten on command. They were less like animals and more like biological computers closer to insects. Beings that simply carried out whatever input they received.

That didn’t mean I could control them at will, though. If anything, because they moved on instinct, there was a high chance they wouldn’t even comprehend anything that wasn’t extremely simple.

“Bite yourself right now.”

[…?]

Just as I thought. Anything even slightly difficult to understand, and rather than getting angry, they simply refused to comprehend. Idiots.

How had creatures like these ever learned language in the first place? Pondering this, I tried issuing various commands to the Anglerfish.

“Um… find prey.”

[…]

“Find a teacher?”

[…]

“Find a lifeform different from me.”

[…]

“Find an enemy.”

[…]

Dumber than a box of rocks.

The Anglerfish just blinked its yellow light stupidly. Could I really use creatures like these to find other lifeforms within the Deep Sea?

I rubbed my chin, lost in thought. If these Deep Sea Creatures knew the ones who had taught them language…

what would they call them?

…Ah.

Something flashed through my mind.

“Find something that speaks.”

If you asked a newborn to describe its parents, wouldn’t it put it something like that?

Even as I said it, I wasn’t sure it would work, but…

[…don’t come. don’t come. don’t come…]

The Anglerfish’s light flickered orange, and it began swimming off in some direction.

…While spitting out some deeply unsettling words.