Wizard of the Deep Sea

TL/ED – Miso

“You’re saying you got like that from eating?”

When I demanded an answer again, the octopus’s tentacle flinched.

I tilted my head, wondering what it was doing, when…

[–, the time… has come…]

Splat, crack!

Suddenly, hairline fractures began spreading across the tentacle.

The suckers gradually turned black, and purple blood burst through the cracks, fouling the Deep Sea. While I stood stunned by the sudden turn of events, the last remaining tentacle slowly began to sink.

“What the… what is this? What’s going on?”

[All things… sink…] “What?”

[If bound by shackles, one cannot rise again. If one rise… one are cursed…]

“…Ah, are you talking about Decompression Sickness?”

It seemed this tentacle had climbed an absurd distance all at once, and the enormous pressure difference had taken its toll.

But couldn’t Decompression Sickness be avoided by ascending slowly? It must have wanted to catch me so badly that it clawed its way up with everything it had.

A chill ran through me. Not because it wanted to catch me that badly, but because it had endured in that state the entire time.

‘So this bastard took the full brunt of Decompression Sickness, and still…’

I looked at the canyon wall the tentacle had struck. The marks left behind looked as though a massive meteorite had crashed into it.

Just moments ago, I had gotten a rough sense of how violent the recoil of Decompression Sickness was through my own attempt to rise toward the surface. To have endured that kind of Burden and still left marks like those.

And that wasn’t even all. Though it had lowered most of its tentacles, it had kept this one up specifically to talk to me, holding on all this time.

Watching the tentacle slowly sink into the Abyss, I called out urgently.

“What the hell are you things?”

[…]

“What do you want from me? Why are you trying to kill me?”

[……..]

“You son of a…”

Seeing the octopus remain stubbornly silent made my blood boil.

If this had been just moments ago, I would have let it go. But now that I knew it was on the verge of death, the answer was no.

Crunch! I seized its tentacle with all my strength using Water Pressure and issued a threat.

“Where do you think you’re going? Talk before I rip this off.”

[……]

“You think I can’t? Hmm…”

Partway through, I realized something. I couldn’t.

It wasn’t that the creature was exerting any force. It was simply that a single strand of tentacle was impossibly, absurdly heavy.

It felt like trying to grab a mountain and move it.

‘Aren’t we underwater…?’

It felt like some kind of joke, but watching the creature do nothing but sink snapped me back to my senses.

I changed tactics. Sharpening the surrounding Current into a blade of water, I lightly grazed the tentacle.

Fwit!

[….ngh.]

Purple blood scattered once more, and the creature reacted.

“I may not have lived here long, but I’ve seen what happens to things that get cut.”

Even the slightest wound meant the deep-sea fish could no longer hold on and became prey for the Deep Sea.

No matter how large a creature was, and even for something like this, losing a single leg probably wouldn’t kill it outright, but a critical wound was still a critical wound.

I scraped the leg several times with blades of the Deep Sea and threw out my threat.

“Answer me. What am I? What the hell am I that you’re all so desperate to kill me? Is it just because I’m the master of this world? Or is it…”

[…—, —-! ———!]

Mid-question, the octopus let out a shriek.

It was on an entirely different level from its previous voice. Loud enough to make the canyon tremble and send the clams clinging to the walls falling off.

[—! ——!!!]

At first I tensed, thinking the octopus had flown into a blind rage.

But as I listened, something seemed off.

The wavelength of that sound, reverberating with such regularity and consistency, was closer to… laughter.

[–, child.]

Somehow, I could tell.

The octopus was mocking me.

[Come down.]

“What?”

[…We… will be waiting…]

The next moment, something began to churn from within the canyon’s Inner World.

Blorblorblorb… An enormous volume of bubbles surged upward as a violent torrent.

“Tch.”

The instant my Current Sense detected the flow, further threats were pointless.

The Current wasn’t visible to the naked eye, but it was rushing upward at an incomprehensible speed, grinding apart everything in its path.

It was similar to the Tidal Wave I had used against Void in Paradise, but the power and speed were on a completely different level.

I pulled myself out in a hurry, and a clattering sound filled the area.

[Apocalypse! Apocalypse! Apocalypse!]

[Apocalypse! Apocalypse! Apocalypse!]

[Apocalypse! Apocalypse! Apocalypse!]

[Apocalypse! Apocalypse! Apocalypse!]

It was the clams.

They too could use Current Sense, so while slower than me, they had detected the incoming Tidal Wave.

But they couldn’t escape. From the very beginning, they were creatures that had chosen to cling to the canyon walls, unable to move.

Life was life, and they desperately pushed and pulled at their surroundings with their tongues, struggling to survive, but in the end, they were reduced to paste.

Rummmble…

CRAAAAASH!!!

“…What is this?”

The scene that unfolded was like tossing clamshells into a jet engine.

The canyon walls that had been covered in white clams just one second before the Tidal Wave hit were now simply white walls.

It was the remains of the clams. The Tidal Wave was now visible to the naked eye, dyed in the colors of the ground-up shells.

“…”

I cautiously approached the canyon and peered down into it.

The octopus had long since vanished, and the Abyss greeted me.

I had almost been done for.

“We… it said.”

I carefully mulled over that word.

In other words, down there, creatures like that octopus were teeming in droves.

And one more thing.

I was like a human Venice, gradually sinking, which meant I would eventually fall to where those things were.

I could see the Abyss.

A pitch-dark hole where nothing was visible even an inch ahead.

“That’s my future.”

It was a rather accurate assessment.

***

In any case, I began my observations around the canyon.

Unlike other times, I watched with laser focus.

After all, these were things I would be putting into my mouth.

‘There’s a ton of them.’

The usual suspects were all here: eels, anglerfish, pufferfish, sharks, hairtail, and more. Some of those sounded tasty enough, but one look at the red innards jutting out between their scales would change anyone’s mind.

I had noticed this since long ago, but these creatures were truly horrifically shaped.

Traits from different organisms were haphazardly mashed together, as if a creator had swept the leftover scraps from making life and dumped them carelessly into one pile. Even among the same species, every individual looked completely different.

The jellyfish traveled in groups, but some had fins on their tentacles, some had teeth, and some were different colors, making it hard to say whether they were even the same species. The only observation I could make was that they simply traveled with their own kind.

In any case, to sum it all up:

“I really, truly don’t want to eat these even if it kills me…”

Even back on Earth, I hadn’t been particularly fond of seafood.

Shoving creatures that looked like sin given physical form into my mouth filled me with revulsion.

More importantly, there was another problem.

‘Did it actually tell me the truth?’

There was no trust.

The chances that the octopus had genuinely given me the right answer for my sake were far too low.

Of course, I was in no position to complain since I had been the one to go ask, but it had clearly been trying to kill me.

Believing the words of something like that was, frankly, something only a fool would do. If I ate the deep-sea fish and died from poison, it would probably clap and think, “Well deserved, what an idiot for actually believing it.”

But still…

“Hmm…”

I waved my hand.

The Water Barrier covering it let out a creaking scream and began to shrink, and I sighed at the sight.

I was in no position to be picky. Of course, the bubble hadn’t burst yet, so I could just go back with the basic information I had gathered and call it a day.

But if I did that, when I returned again, I would have far less time to work with. The conditions would be more dire, and the urgency far greater.

In the end, even if I didn’t fully trust the information I had obtained, I still needed to use it as a foundation to accomplish something.

“Alright.”

First, I looked for the most manageable targets.

What caught my eye were the anglerfish. I couldn’t judge everything from a single specimen, but this anglerfish was stupid and obedient, making it the perfect test subject.

“Follow the one in front.”

[…?]

[….]

“Good, wait here.”

Fortunately, the others were equally brainless. I caught five anglerfish that had been drifting around and had them stay near the canyon.

Now it was time to gather my experimental tools.

[…?]

[…..]

After swimming for a while, I found a spot where orange and red jellyfish were clustered together.

Their colors were so varied that I wondered if some might be different species, but there was nothing I could do about it. Perfect variable control was impossible in this situation. Using a light manipulation of Current, I sliced off all their legs in one sweep.

[…!!!!]

[!!!!]

As the surrounding jellyfish had their legs cut off and crumpled into small balls, unable to withstand the Water Pressure, they began silently flailing and fleeing, but they couldn’t outrun my Water Pressure blade.

It seemed the deep-sea fish in this zone hadn’t yet learned how to sharpen the Deep Sea into a keen edge. I was truly, sincerely grateful for that as I gathered the compressed, shrunken jellyfish, basically jellyfish balls, and headed back to where the anglerfish were waiting.

Preparations were complete.

[….food.]

[Must eat…]

The moment they saw the jellyfish balls, the creatures’ eyes lit up and they began creeping over.

“Hold on.”

I calmed the anglerfish, then grabbed one specimen and brought it over.

“Stay still. I’ll give you food.”

[Food…]

Regrettably, the first one up was the test subject.

Crunch.

[Food…?]

The anglerfish swelled grotesquely, then began to shrivel.

[…!!]

It tried to resist partway through, but it was already too late.

Crunch! The anglerfish that had tried to eat the jellyfish ball became an anglerfish ball.

I didn’t need that, so I tossed it aside, dusted off my hands, and committed the sensation to memory.

‘So that’s how much it can take.’

It had a soft exterior, but it held up far better than I expected.

Individual variation would exist, of course, but roughly speaking, it burst at about that level of pressure.

Then what if I fed them the jellyfish balls?

If I crushed them afterward and there was a meaningful difference in how much they could withstand, that would be solid proof that the effect was real.

I planned to consume them myself only after confirming that.

‘There might still be side effects, though…’

Crack. I shook off the weak thought, clenched my fist, and steeled my resolve.

I had never expected to survive with my body intact anyway. Even if my legs were shattered and my skin melted off, all I wanted was to live.

With firm determination, I brought the anglerfish over one at a time.

“Here, eat.”

[…]

The anglerfish swallowed one, two, three jellyfish balls without a moment’s hesitation.

After giving it about a five-minute interval, I tried crushing it again.

[!!!!]

Creak.

“Hmm…”

The feel was about the same.

Was it because I only gave it three? I brought over the next anglerfish and fed it ten this time.

[…Bleh.]

“…No, did this bastard just…?”

Remarkably, after eating seven, the creature spat out the eighth jellyfish ball.

I was dumbfounded, but since it had clearly eaten more than double, I tried crushing it once more.

Creak.

“…That’s not right.”

It was the same. No, it even felt mushier than before.

So the octopus had lied after all. I let out a sigh, brought over another anglerfish, and fed it jellyfish balls again.

This one spat at the sixth.

Of course, I wasn’t about to just sit back and take that.

“Where do you get off being a picky eater?”

[…Keh, hack…!]

I crammed nearly twenty jellyfish balls into the anglerfish’s mouth, forcing it to eat them.

That was almost all of them. If there was still no noticeable effect after this, it would prove the octopus had definitely fed me lies.

But since I had fed it so many, I waited long enough for it to digest.

An hour passed, and the digestion period was over.

I pressed down on my racing heart and readied myself.

“…Please, hold on.”

If this worked, it would change so much.

Making a request that wasn’t quite a request, I wrapped the anglerfish in Current, and then…

“?”

I felt something… strange, and tilted my head.

It was a sensation I hadn’t felt when I brought this one over. I turned the stupidly standing anglerfish on its side and looked at the spot that had felt off.

“…What is this?”

On the anglerfish’s fin, orange tentacles had sprouted.

…Tentacles with the exact same texture as a jellyfish’s.