Chapter 283 - Disaster (9) |
There were people who had to survive even if the world itself was turned upside down.
Those people were the imperial family.
"I feel a little guilty about this…”
Inside the office.
After gathering every report and document she could get her hands on, Sharmia scratched her head as she watched the procession leaving the capital.
Among them were members of the imperial bloodline, including Lumia. People of noble blood and people who would have to bear responsibility.
Knowing that, it didn't feel like privilege to her. After all, if I lost, they would be the ones left to shoulder everything.
"It’s fine. Have you finished preparing to evacuate as well, Your Highness?”
"For the most part. But there’s no one besides me who can handle the important administrative work…so I think I’ll have to stay until the very last possible moment.”
"What about the other nobles, Your Highness?”
"Most of them have either, erm, fled, fallen, or died. And while my younger sister is adorable, she’s not exactly much help.”
She really had it rough in every possible way.
"Haah, if only His Majesty were still here. He would have been a tremendous help…”
"You mean His Majesty the Emperor? True…”
I replied absentmindedly before suddenly tilting my head.
Come to think of it, there was something I’d always wanted to ask about the Emperor.
"Your Highness, there’s something I’ve been curious about for a while now…”
-Bang, bang, bang!
The question was cut off by the sound of urgent knocking.
"Yes, come in.”
At Sharmia’s response, an elderly official hurried inside. Bowing deeply, he started to speak.
"Your Highness. A rather strange incident has occurred, so I came to report it. It may be nothing, but just in case…”
"What is it?”
"The sun isn’t setting.”
"...Pardon?”
"Please check the clock. It’s already evening, yet the sun is still hanging high in the sky.”
Sharmia titled her head in confusion.
The official himself looked uncertain of his own words as he continued awkwardly.
"I don’t really understand what I’m saying either..."
"Tsk."
I was the only one who understood the situation.
Immediately checking outside with my Tide Sense, I let out a sigh and rose from my seat.
At last.
It seemed that that guy had finally decided to get off his lazy ass.
"If anything, I’d say it’s a bit late.”
"Jern...?"
I slowly met the gaze of the bewildered princess before continuing.
"Send everyone underground. Every single person. Immediately.”
"That’s impossible right now. There aren’t that many routes left and…”
The princess immediately grasped the severity of the situation and gave a practical response.
"Then I’ll send them myself.”
"...What?”
Instead of answering, I created a puddle beneath the feet of the official who had been listening to our conversation.
"Wha–uwaagh!”
It was only the size of a handspan, yet the official immediately fell into it and vanished. Watching that happen, Sharmia looked startled for an entirely different reason.
"You’re going to send everyone away like that? Is that even possible?”
"Yes. In fact, I’m already doing it.”
"Tha-that’s incredibly fast…”
Compared to completely submerging the world, transporting every person to the underground city at once wasn’t particularly difficult.
There was only one reason I hadn’t done it sooner.
I wanted to preserve the current situation for as long as possible. I didn’t want to provoke Great Void by introducing variables as massive as a worldwide migration.
Now that he’d finally started moving, however, that concern had become meaningless—
At this point, this would be enough.
Once they arrive underground, most citizens will be shocked by the sudden relocation. I’d appreciate it if Your Highness could head there and maintain order. Just let me know when you’re ready, and I’ll send you over as well.”
"...Hmm."
Sharmia hesitated, unable to continue speaking for a moment.
It felt like there was something she wanted to say but couldn’t quite bring herself to voice it. She kept glancing at me, so I tilted my head and asked.
"Is something wrong? Don’t tell me you’re afraid of water…?”
"What do you take me for? A rabid dog? No, it’s just…I’m wondering whether this is really alright.”
"What?"
"—Can you really face that thing all alone?”
So that was what she wanted to ask.
Sharmia continued with a worried expression.
"No matter how much of a god you are, fighting alone and fighting alongside others are two very different things. At the very least, my ability could help…”
"Hm, Your Highness.”
I thought for a moment about how I should explain it. In the end, I decided to be blunt.
"I’m sorry, but it won’t help. It’s not because you’re weak. It’s because your powers are simply different. I’ve felt that more and more clearly lately after spending time around outer Outer Gods.”
"...?”
"I think it'll be easier if you see it for yourself.”
I used a current of water to pull the curtains aside.
Sharmia looked out the window in confusion. Then she slowly froze in place.
"Tha-that’s…”
The brass window frame was melting.
The marble floor bubbled like liquid. The buildings had already burned away into ash long ago. Had the evacuation been delayed even slightly—most of that ash would have been human remains.
Even Sharmia, who had remained composed through the world being turned upside down, pressed a hand to her temple in confusion.
"...What is this? Does it mean the sunlight itself is under his control?”
"If he rules the sky, then perhaps that’s exactly what it means. We should have prepared for something like this to some extent.”
"Prepared…? For that?”
"Yes. Though, to be fair, it was pretty much impossible.”
It truly was impossible.
How could anyone hope to manage a risk like this? And if it were possible, just how many things would one have to control simultaneously to pull it off?
—As long as we lived beneath the sky, it was impossible to prepare for every situation.
"Which is why there’s no point in anyone else getting involved but me.”
Just me.
I was the only one capable of dragging that guy beneath the sea.
*t*t*
After convincing Sharmia and finding myself left alone, I stared at the ceiling as it slowly began to melt and sank into thought.
'What is he aiming for?'
Why move now of all times?
And why was the first thing he did nothing more than melt the entire world?
"...Though calling it ‘nothing more’ is a bit of an understatement.”
Maybe I’d already become too accustomed to the mindset of Outer Gods. I’d found myself treating the sun turning into a death ray far too lightly.
But to me, it really was just that insignificant. No matter how hot it became, it lacked the power needed to boil the entirety of the sea.
More importantly, as a solution to the situation, it was laughably inadequate.
-Crash, crack…!
While I was lost in thought, the palace ceiling finally gave way and came crashing down toward me.
And just before it touched my head, it stopped in midair.
I wasn’t using currents, pressure, or magic.
It was buoyancy.
"Let’s see what you’re thinking.”
I chuckled and kicked lightly through the water.
Most likely—the biggest reason he had finally started moving was the steadily submerging land.
Whether he had figured out my plan or not, he must have realized my goal was to flood the entire world. If so, taking action now, when roughly half the work was done, made some sense.
But if that really was his line of thinking, then he was already far too late.
The regions I’d submerged first were deep basins and mountain ranges. Places that naturally functioned as dams.
Those places were capable of storing several to dozens of times more seawater than they appeared to hold.
It was a simple deception. The moment I confirmed that everyone had entered the underground city, I created a puddle at the deepest point of one of those places.
The other end of the opening connected to the entire world.
"...You crazy bastard."
An astonished voice came from behind me.
It was Nightchaser. Rather than evacuating underground, she’d remained in the plaza and was now staring in disbelief at the endless torrents of seawater pouring from the countless puddles spread across the ground.
"You were digging downward the whole time?”
"Everywhere else was visible.”
I dug deeper beneath the oceans I’d already created, expanding the Abyssal Sea and storing even more seawater within it.
From the outside, a location might look no larger than a modest lake. But beneath the surface, it already held enough water to rival all the lakes in the world combined.
Because my enemy had been sitting high above, observing everything and playing the part of an all-seeing god, I’d fed him false information and used it against him.
"He didn’t even notice. It was down there the whole time…”
"Of course not. I deliberately kept the surface shallow enough to be visible from the sky. Meanwhile, I just kept digging underneath. More importantly… Why are you still here? Go evacuate to the city while you still can.”
Nightchaser might have been quite powerful once, but now she was just an ordinary human. Once the pressure started increasing and Great Void descended, she’d die in an instant.
"I’ll take care of myself, so worry about your own problems. Are you sure there’s enough seawater?”
"It’s already done.”
"...What?”
"In terms of sheer volume, the seawater reached the sky a long time ago.”
As if to prove my words, the puddles never stopped.
Millions of puddles were scattered evenly across the world, each one vomiting out its contents without pause, distributing the Abyssal Sea evenly throughout the land.
The world had become an ocean long ago. Now, all that remained was for the water level to rise.
This was the crossroads determining whether we could stand on the same battlefield or not, whether the sea could swallow the sky or not.
If it failed to reach the sky, then all my efforts until now would become meaningless. Great Void would remain in absolute safety, gradually erasing the sea, and my resistance would remain nothing more than resistance.
But if it reached the sky… If the meaning of "sky" itself was reduced to nothing more than a boundary separating the Abyssal Sea from everything that wasn’t the Abyssal Sea—
Then, for the first time, Great Void and I would be standing at eye level.
"..."
"...”
Neither Nightchaser nor I spoke a single word. We simply focused.
Other than altering the sunlight, Great Void did nothing.
Did he think no further action was necessary? Or did he simply believe no matter what I did, the sea could never cover the sky?
Just before the ever-rising water breached the clouds…
"It won’t be enough."
Taking Great Void’s side, Nightchaser lowered her head.
"The plan was clever, but you needed more time. At least half a year more. If you’d had that much, you could’ve reached it…”
"Why do you think that?”
"You… You've fought Outer Gods dozens of times. You couldn't have done anything else during all that time. Even if you spent every remaining moment pulling in seawater, there just wasn’t enough time.”
"That’s true.”
She wasn’t wrong. Every single Outer God had been dangerous enough that worrying about seawater had been the last thing on my mind.
-Ruuumble...
"Ugh..."
Unable to bear watching any longer, Nightchaser turned away from the stalling waterline.
The sea was still rising, but its momentum had faded long ago.
It had swallowed the clouds, yet the sky remained distant.
The scar in the heavens, the proof that the sky was still existent within itself, was still far above the ocean.
"So it ends according to the natural order after all.”
"The natural order?"
"Yes, the sea belongs below the sky. The sky belongs above the sea. An absolute law that even Outer Gods can’t escape. The thing that keeps us from becoming true gods and leaves us as nothing more than Outer Gods.”
Even though she hadn’t done anything herself, Nightchaser’s face gradually filled with despair.
"This is the end. Yeah, it is…”
"Quite whining. It’s only just beginning.”
"...Beginning? Is there somewhere else you can pull seawater from?”
"No. I’ve already used all of it.”
There wasn't enough time. Like she said, if I’d only had a little more, I could have swallowed the sky without resorting to this.
"Now I raise it.”
"...What?"
"The sky isn’t swallowed yet, but we’re out of seawater. That only leaves one option.”
The Abyssal Sea itself began to disappear.
From below toward above.
As the seawater started vanishing from around our ankles, Nightchaser’s eyes widened. Then she stared, her mouth hanging open in utter disbelief.
"You...!"
"Don’t talk to me. This is hard enough already.”
The Abyssal Sea itself was being reduced to empty space and—
The sea level began rising again.
I looked up at the surface beneath the surface as it slowly disappeared and bared my teeth in a grin.
"Hope you like your new home.”
Slowly, yet surely.
The prison that would confine him was rising.