Chapter 284 - Disaster (10) |
Every time the Abyssal Sea that had submerged the world rose a little higher, I shuddered and clutched my head as an indescribable sensation washed over me.
"Ugh."
Information beyond what I could possibly handle flooded my mind.
I governed the Abyssal Sea. That meant everything that occurred within it was something I could know and control.
At least within the domain known as the Abyssal Sea, I was omniscient and omnipotent.
And now—the entire world was the Abyssal Sea.
What I had previously known only as a vague sensation had become reality.
'Now I finally understand why those bastards went so completely insane.'
My entire body trembled as I slowly gritted my teeth.
Of course it had. For an Outer God, covering every domain with their own was equivalent to becoming a true god.
That insane obsession all Outer Gods had with expanding their domains suddenly made sense to me now that I was sitting upon the throne they had all desperately coveted.
It felt—as if someone were whispering into my ear.
Rot, the Abyssal Sea, the Grasslands, the Sky, the Underground…and countless others.
Only the Abyssal Sea was the one true answer.
"Y-you did it!”
While I lay collapsed on the ground, devoting every ounce of my willpower to not blacking out, I felt warm skin against the top of my head.
"You swallowed Great Void!”
"...”
At those words, I painfully lifted my head. The scar in the sky had sunk beneath the surface.
Since that was where Great Void resided, it meant the plan had succeeded perfectly.
Unable to believe it, Nightchaser pounded on my head repeatedly with a mixture of excitement and disbelief plastered across her face.
"An entire world has been completely engulfed by a single Outer God…and it wasn’t even Great Void who did it. Am I dreaming?”
"Then wake up. No matter what happens, this is only the beginning.”
I forced myself to stand.
The scenery around me wasn’t much different from before. Except for the fact that everything was bathed in a giant, hazy light.
It was neither day nor night nor even twilight. Scattered light drifted and swayed alongside the currents, creating an eerie atmosphere.
So this was what the Abyssal Sea looked like without seawater. Fortunately, after confirming that there was nothing particularly wrong with my body, I immediately sharpened my senses.
"We haven’t won. We’ve only managed to stand at the same eye level.”
"I suppose…that’s true.”
I’d barely managed to drag the Sky into the Abyssal Sea.
Before, I had no choice but to endure attacks falling from above. Even if I survived them, I had no way to strike back. Now my fist could finally reach him, but that was all.
First I had to throw a punch before worrying about whether it would land. I clenched the Abyssal Sea in my grasp and waited for him to react.
"..."
"...He’s not coming?”
"Hm."
Strangely enough, even after several minutes had passed, there was no response from Great Void.
"This bastard…”
I let out a small laugh at the sheer arrogance of him and clenched my fist. Before, all I could have done was speculate about what he was thinking, but the situation had changed.
-Ruuuuuuumble…
The pressure slowly increased.
It wasn’t targeting a specific area or subject.
What I was manipulating was the pressure of the entire world.
"Ugh, you…”
Nightchaser immediately realized what I was doing and frowned.
Now that he was submerged within the Abyssal Sea, the one under pressure was Great Void.
Where he was, what he was doing, what scheme he was plotting? None of that mattered. As long as he was submerged in the Abyssal Sea, he had to obey the Abyssal Sea’s rules.
"If you can endure it, then keep your mouth shut.”
The overwhelming pressure gradually crushed the entire world.
Everything that had been standing was forced to kneel. Everything that had been sitting was crushed and flattened against the ground.
Only when mountains became hills, and hills became flat plains…
Did he finally react.
"...Ugh!”
A sudden headache stabbed through my skull. My Tide Sense had detected too many reactions to count.
The Abyssal Sea trembled violently. Then—something shot toward the Abyssal Sea from above.
After confirming it was nothing more than a mass of matter, I didn’t bother dodging. I simply accepted the falling object.
-Booom!
"What in the world is this?”
...Meteorites?
At least, that was what these chunks of stone looked like. As a response to the pressure, it was an embarrassingly pathetic counterattack.
I tilted my head in confusion, then the meteorite split apart. And from within emerged stone statues, carving chisels, and hammers.
[...Carve.]
[For our master, carve.]
-Craaack!
Those words became the statues’ final words.
They weren’t particularly powerful. They seemed to be made from some special metal capable of withstanding the pressure, but in the end they were still just statues.
As I wondered why he sent those things down here, I looked back toward the sky and froze.
Thousands, no, tens of thousands of shooting stars were falling.
Of course, they weren’t real shooting stars. The blue flames wrapped around them merely made them look like stars. Every single one of them was a meteorite carrying a statue inside.
"What in the world is this…?”
I completely forgot the situation and stared open-mouthed at the rain of stars descending across the entire world.
Even by conservative estimates, tens of millions had already fallen.
[Carve.]
[Carve.]
[Carve.]
The statues emerging from the meteorites did only one thing.
Stone, glass, sand. Whatever they could get their hands on. They gathered it all and hammered away with the chisels and hammers they carried.
Even the shattered fragments of other statues weren’t spared. And what they created from those materials were more statues.
"—He gave the authority of creation to his servants.”
After examining the creatures multiplying by the second, Nightchaser answered urgently.
"Get rid of them! Use pressure, currents, anything!”
"What’s that supposed to accomplish? Isn’t he just eating away at his own resources?”
"No. Look!”
Nightchaser hurriedly picked up a fragment of one of the statues and tossed it into a puddle.
Astonishingly—the puddle dried up instantly. The fragment had absorbed all the water.
"If those things keep multiplying and eventually reach the sky you’ve trapped, they’ll create gaps! Gaps, Great Void can escape through!”
"What a ridiculous stunt.”
Frowning, I increased the pressure being exerted on the entire world 10-fold in an instant.
[Ca…r…ve…]
[......]
As the pressure became overwhelming, the statues’ movements slowed dramatically. Their regeneration was severely reduced.
Some couldn’t withstand it and shattered outright, but not all of them. Apparently, these creatures had been designed from the moment of their creation to possess extraordinary resistance to pressure.
'This is going to be annoying.’
Maintaining this level of pressure across the entire world required considerable concentration. Yet if I eased up, they’d immediately begin multiplying like crazy again.
-Crack!
After halting their advance, I turned my attention to the meteorites still falling from above. I drastically increased the pressure in the middle layers of the Abyssal Sea, causing them to explode before they could land.
Then I began burying the remaining statues region by region, trapping them underground so they could later be gathered together and incinerated.
Even while doing all that, however, part of my attention remained fixed on the Sky.
'Did this bastard know?'
This strategy almost felt as if he’d prepared it on the assumption that the world would eventually be swallowed by the Abyssal Sea.
But that made no sense. If you were going to fight under those conditions, preventing yourself from being submerged in the first palace was dozens of times more advantageous.
A strange sense of déjà vu washed over me. Great Void’s moves had been bizarre from the very beginning. Even from an Outer God’s perspective, deliberately cornering yourself like this made no sense.
So why?
Why—
"...Huh?"
Suddenly—an answer occurred to me that explained all those contradictions at once.
A bold, almost absurdly convenient possibility.
'Don’t tell me this bastard still hasn’t recovered?'
The moment that thought crossed my mind, several things clicked into place.
Great Void had only begun acting after I emerged from the Abyssal Sea.
Yet during the entire 5 years I spent inside it, he’d done nothing significant. Sure, he’d destroyed the capital, but beyond that, he hadn’t used his authority to conquer the world or wipe out humanity.
Because there were still more Fallen left to harvest? If that were the case, then why did he suddenly finish all of that the moment I appeared?
Because he needed me for his plan? Then he should have already conquered the world and waited. He should have struck when I was at my weakest.
But he hadn’t. Time and time again, Great Void provoked and threatened me, and yet he never truly stepped forward himself.
The reason he hadn’t wiped out humanity and hadn’t fully conquered the world was…
'Because he simply wasn’t in a condition to do it.'
And the reason he’d put on such an elaborate display the moment I emerged was to make it look like he was perfectly healthy.
'To ensure I’d misjudge his strength, keeping me from attacking recklessly. To buy himself time until he recovered…'
The reason he hadn’t stopped me while I was flooding the world was…
'Because he couldn’t.'
And the reason he’d finally attempted an attack now, when almost everything was already over—
"...He couldn’t just sit there and watch anymore, huh?"
It felt as though every gear had suddenly clicked into place.
It wasn't that Great Void had chosen to stop me.
He’d simply been unable to.
The moment I realized that, an overwhelming sense of respect for my master surged through me.
'No, seriously. What the hell did she do to leave a wound that deep on Great Void?'
Even if Dercia had reached the realm of a demigod, Great Void was an Outer God among Outer Gods. And yet she’d left him with injuries this severe? It was hard to believe, but there was no other explanation left.
Great Void had merely pretended to be unharmed in order to deceive me, and I’d fallen for it.
It was a pleasant deception. Pleasant enough that I was actually glad I’d been fooled.
Time had chosen my side over his. The world being consumed by the Abyssal Sea was far more catastrophic than Great Void taking time to recover.
In the end, he’d been unable to endure it any longer and had made the first mistake himself. He’d probably hoped I’d become frightened and back down, but even that hope missed its mark.
Instead of panicking and retreating, I’d played the card I’d been preparing all along.
Was all of this merely wishful thinking, or was it a reliable conclusion built upon a mountain of evidence?
"...Let’s test it."
I looked up at the Sky, which continued doing nothing but releasing statues, and steeled myself.
And then, I withdrew the water pressure.
—All of it.
"...What are you doing?!”
The pressure vanished from the surrounding world in an instant, to which Nightchaser cried out in shock.
Pressure was the greatest suppressive force in my domain. The entire reason he’d begun scattering those statues was to escape from it. And now I had removed it myself.
I’d voluntarily given away my own advantage and given him room to make his next move comfortably.
But—
"...Huh?”
Several minutes passed, and Great Void did nothing.
"W-what’s going on? Why isn’t he doing anything?”
"...Hah..."
My hypothesis has been confirmed. He still needed more time.
And until then—
"So that’s how it is, huh?”
A smile naturally spread across my face.
After all, few things in life were more satisfying than beating on an opponent who couldn’t fight back.
