Chapter 294: Deception (3)

TL/ED – Miso

"Hmm...?"

"I'll be honest with you. The situation is already over, and there's no use struggling against it."

Sharmia wore an expression that said she had no idea what I was talking about, so I added an explanation.

"Void has been planning this for a very long time. If he were an incomplete being, then maybe there'd be some other way out. But I doubt there'd be any such flaw in a method devised over nearly several thousand years by a being like an Outer God."

"Th-then. What sort of countermeasure have you prepared?"

"None. At first I thought I'd buy time using you, Princess, and figure something out, but no matter how I look at it, there's no way he hasn't already accounted for anything I could come up with."

"Ah..."

It was a reality with no way around it.

Void's vigilance was so extreme that the moment he began to act was the moment the conclusion had already been reached. Everything he did afterward was paranoid, like grinding an already shattered glass into powder with a mortar.

'Though I still don't quite understand the reason for that behavior...'

Why did he remain so wary of me even after his victory was assured?

I had guesses, but no certainty.

That was why I had to gather information.

"And so- I'd like you to create the countermeasure yourself, Your Highness."

"...You mean, go back into the past and put a crack in Void's plan."

"No."

Seeing Sharmia's resolute expression, the Emperor, who had been listening in silence, opened his mouth.

Using human speech because he stood before his own daughter, he scratched his temple with a troubled look.

"Even if you receive my Authority and go back to the earliest point of your life, everything had already ended by then. No matter what different actions you take there, nothing will change."

"Above all, this isn't a battle a single human can change. If you go back to the past and take similar actions, Void will simply revise his strategy to match."

"Then I understand even less. What am I supposed to do?"

Before her bewildered face, I exchanged a glance with the Emperor, then nodded.

"We have to find out why Void fears the Deep Sea."

"Wh-what?"

"Void, that one, his World was originally nothing more than a sky. He never held the throne above the firmament, which is why he was drowned in the Deep Sea. But that's no longer the case. The domain he now commands has already gone far beyond the realm of an Outer God. It's more than that."

The Emperor continued calmly.

"How did he seize such a domain? And having seized it, why does he guard so warily against the Deep Sea? If we obtain the answer to that, a way to resist may present itself."

"I understand. But, but I don't really know how far back I can go, or how. And I don't know what I'm supposed to do once I'm there either..."

"That, I will help you with."

The Emperor raised his hand and stroked Sharmia's hair.

"You have been granted the whole of my Authority. If you act together with me, you'll be able to trace the memories of your bloodline back further than the point permitted to you alone."

"...It means you can go all the way up to the ancestors of your lineage. At that reach, you'll be able to glimpse the memories of someone who even had ties to the Wizard of the Deep Sea, and you should be able to obtain a fair amount of information."

Failure to obtain it was not an option.

Sharmia nodded as if she understood, then looked up at the sky.

"I understand what you're saying. I'll have to finish quickly before Void arrives."

"That's impossible."

"...What?"

I shrugged and laid out a somewhat hopeless fact.

"Originally you were supposed to buy time, Sharmia-nim, but now you have to obtain information instead, don't you? Which means Void will be coming down very soon. There's no stopping it."

"Th-then even if I come back with the information, won't it already be over?"

"No, the roles have simply switched."

I shook my head and gave a smile.

"While you go and obtain the information, Your Highness, I'll hold out here."

"...Will that be possible?"

"It should be. That guy isn't out to devour me. If I throw myself at him recklessly, he won't be able to strike at me carelessly."

"Ngh..."

"Sharmia."

I looked straight into her wavering eyes and declared.

"No matter what happens, I will protect the people here. Trust me, and you, Your Highness, see your own task through."

"...I'll trust you."

After a very brief silence.

Sharmia nodded and smiled softly, as if she had never doubted my words for even an instant.

"Because whatever else may be, Jern, you've never once broken a promise."

"Hmm, I did say I'd definitely bring Void down, and then came back after a crushing defeat, though..."

"We're still in the middle of the fight, aren't we? The Jern I know isn't someone who talks weak just because the odds have turned a little against him."

After watching Sharmia smile like that, I bowed my head deeply.

"...I'm counting on you."

"Of course. Just wait a little while. I'll be back soon!"

Sharmia gave me a gentle smile.

Smiling so beautifully that it was impossible to believe the world was soon to be destroyed.

*

Sharmia didn't want to show 'the sight of her using her ability'.

I had no desire to see it either, so I moved at once.

'Less than a day left.'

No matter that this was underground, this place was the Deep Sea.

I could feel a vast presence that had drawn near, right up to the edge of the Deep Layer. What I had to do now was buy time.

He seemed to want to avoid killing me as much as possible, so just as I'd confidently told Sharmia, I might somehow be able to drag things out.

-If it weren't for the people.

"Ugh, it's cramped."

"How long do we have to stay here..."

The underground city I gazed up at from midair was packed to bursting, crammed with every last person from the entire world.

If I engaged Void in combat in a place like this, human lives would be worth less than a fly's. With every exchange of blows, tens of thousands would die.

I had no intention of breaking my promise to Sharmia. These were lives I had to protect no matter what.

And to do that- I couldn't manage alone.

"...Well, of course."

I let out a small laugh and set out into the Deep Layer.

As if there were anything I had ever accomplished on my own.

I was nothing more than an unlucky human who had fallen into the Deep Sea. That such a human had managed to survive until now was thanks to the help of others, not to myself.

The problem was that, being in no position to think it, I had jumped to the conclusion that no one else could be of any help and resolved to face Void alone.

Traveling through the Deep Layer, I arrived at a place I'd missed.

The Capital.

It was the Capital where I had once been, before it was ruined.

'Incredible.'

For a moment I forgot the situation entirely and was struck with amazement.

The Capital, even within the Deep Sea, remained unsubmerged, preserved exactly as I remembered it. Considering how long it took other Outer Gods to manage a feat like this, it showed just how outstanding her ability to command her domain was.

Setting my astonishment aside for the moment, I knocked on the castle gate.

"Elysia."

"...Jern?"

The answer came back at once.

The castle gate cracked open, and as if she'd been waiting all along, her silver-haired head poked out.

But she couldn't come out any further than that. Just as she was about to stick her head out into the Deep Sea, she flinched in surprise and shut the gate again.

"Wh-what happened? The world suddenly got submerged, and it startled me."

"Sorry. Void invaded all of a sudden. I couldn't give you any warning ahead of time. Did something go wrong on your end?"

"I'm fine, but Jern, you're the problem."

"What?"

"I'm not supposed to be inside another World. You know that."

...Only after hearing that did I look around the castle and realize that the Capital was being protected in a peculiar way.

At first I thought Elysia had pushed the Sea Water away with her own ability, but that wasn't it.

The Sea Water was drawing back, reluctant to touch the Capital. It wasn't something I had done. It had simply come to be that way, as naturally as an air bubble in water that refuses to burst.

"If we don't settle this quickly, your Deep Sea is going to get contaminated because of me. So..."

"Ah, you don't need to worry about that."

"...D-did you win?"

From inside the gate, Elysia's voice brightened a notch.

"No, I lost. Lost miserably. He was completely out of my league."

"...Ah, uh..."

"Huh, you're not as surprised as I expected."

"...I'm sorry, Jern... I, I thought you might not be able to win."

Listening to Elysia's cowed words, I nodded.

Then again, Elysia had actually seen Void before. It was understandable that she'd think that way.

"N-no! I'm not saying you're weak, Jern. It's just... I've seen Void, remember. When I saw him, he was badly wounded and weakened, but..."

After hesitating, Elysia finally let her true feelings spill out.

"...He was different. From the other Outer Gods. It felt like his very existence was on another level."

"I see. I understand."

Now that I thought about it, hadn't Elysia sensed something of Void's true nature, to some degree?

As I mused on that, a slightly mischievous question suddenly came to mind.

"By the way, if I really had lost and never come to find you, what were you planning to do?"

"Go and rescue you, obviously!"

"Oh yeah? How?"

"..."

Elysia fell silent once more, then slipped a hand out through the gap in the gate.

Small, white fingers came into view. Those fingers touched the Sea Water, and-

they made very tiny bubbles.

"...!"

An ordinary person wouldn't have grasped what meaning that action carried, but I, the Outer God of the Deep Sea and the one currently governing this domain, understood it at once.

Just now, Elysia- though it was only a minuscule amount, killed the Deep Sea.

"I'm sorry. I know it wouldn't be much help, but I couldn't just sit still..."

The spot Elysia's hand had just touched was no longer the Deep Sea.

It was merely what one would call a deep place in the ocean.

A natural place I could no longer govern or rule. Just as I could not command Heaven, and Heaven could not command me, it had become something entirely separate and distinct.

Nihility.

A concept created to erase the domains of gods. I swallowed once and shook my head.

"Elysia."

"H-huh? Did I do something wrong?"

"Void probably won't touch you. Not your ability, not your World. It's too dangerous. As long as you stay in there like this, he won't go out of his way to provoke you. Not unless you try to fight him yourself."

It was a fact that had already been proven several times over.

Even if I were Void, I wouldn't have the nerve to touch a World like that.

"But I'm sorry. I want you to brave that danger and help me anyway."

"..."

"Right now, I need you."

I had prepared plenty of other words to persuade her besides.

They turned out to be quite useless.

-Creeeak... because the moment she heard me say I needed her, the castle gate swung open.

"Okay, got it. What do I need to do?"

Elysia didn't ask a single thing.

...Wearing, for some reason, a face that looked just a little bit happy.

*

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