Chapter 134
Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 134
Chapter Title: Flow
Tower of Wisdom, Blazing Glory, Son of Courage.
And me, Hidden Scales.
I planned to summon them all to the Abyss.
There were more than enough reasons for me to head there myself. I had to confirm firsthand whether I could truly control the Abyss, and check if the hero's arrangements were there.
Naturally, that meant I couldn't leave out Roselin either. She was the hero, and with the hero's arrangements at stake, she had to be involved.
But the Abyss was far too dangerous a place.
Even if I'd achieved magical integration, that alone wasn't enough to let my guard down—it was simply too risky.
That's why I had to call in the Tower of Wisdom.
Blazing Glory wasn't in the best shape right now either, but the Abyss was like home to him.
And so, the chat room's momentum was gathering toward the Abyss.
In the midst of all this, the only one who could keep an eye on the outside—specifically, the movements of the forces of evil—was the Root of Understanding.
Once the matter with the Merciful Crown was safely resolved, he could join us too... but the time wasn't right yet.
With all these thoughts tightly intertwined, I'd left that message in the chat room.
And if everyone gathered in the Abyss as I intended, Roselin would learn that I... no, more precisely, that Cedric was the Hidden Scales.
That would mark the first face-to-face meeting between Roselin and Cedric.
I wondered what her reaction would be.
I had a rough idea already.
After all, I'd been operating as Anonymous 4 under Cedric's name, so there wouldn't be much disconnect between the two.
After sending the message to the chat room, I set out first.
I figured I'd head to the Abyss ahead of everyone and wait there.
I passed through the Newbern Plains and headed toward the spot near where I'd once found the Abyss's hidden entrance with the Tower of Wisdom.
Was it fortunate?
When I'd escaped from there, countless prisoners had revealed themselves, but now, there wasn't even a trace of them.
It felt almost serene.
...Which was the real problem. It meant they'd all successfully escaped.
I suppressed my presence as much as possible and made my way to where the Abyss had been concealed.
Last time, I'd had the Tower of Wisdom with me, so I hadn't needed to be overly cautious, but now I was alone.
In that sense, the complete absence of any prisoner traces might actually be a blessing. At least it meant less immediate danger.
The place I arrived at still had the rift torn open by the Tower of Wisdom, unchanged.
I stepped carefully into it.
The suffocating pressure that gripped my breath lasted only a moment.
Before my eyes unfolded a landscape utterly different from before. I'd entered the threshold of the Abyss.
Naturally, I could no longer use mana.
But natural mana was still under my control.
There, without delay, I summoned the primordial mana of Aliu.
The instant I did.
The primordial mana, shaped like a dot at the tip of my index finger, began to glow faintly, then swelled into a brilliant light that pierced the darkness like the dawn sun.
Soon after, an incomprehensible wave erupted.
A wave that spread instantly throughout the entire space.
There was no echo or vibration.
Perhaps it was a wave only I could sense.
Just as the light of primordial mana had once revealed the hidden inscription on the stele, this barren space was bathed in that light and transformed into something entirely different.
'...A night sky?'
The first time I'd come, I'd been too tense and preoccupied to look properly, but it had been a dimly lit space to begin with.
With nothing but an endless flat plain stretching out.
But after the primordial mana's wave swept through, a crystalline backdrop unfolded, as if we were right beneath a night sky.
Above my head stretched a deep sky studded with starlight, and below my feet extended a soft plane mingled with silvery afterglow.
And yet another odd sensation.
It felt as if I were connected to this space as one.
As if the Abyss itself were linked to my nerves, the space becoming an extension of my senses.
Naturally, the structure and purpose of the space seeped into my mind. Like suddenly recalling something I'd learned long ago—a strange comprehension.
It had been a while since I'd felt this. Knowledge forcibly injected into me.
"Hm..."
However, there was a problem.
The sense of connection to the space was definitely there, but that didn't mean I could control everything at will.
What I could do was extremely limited.
All I could manage was tidying up this hidden space and opening or closing the entrance to the first floor?
Even the area where I felt that connection was limited to what could be called the 'periphery' of the Abyss's entrance.
There was no such feeling below the first floor.
Of course, even that was astonishing.
'Periphery' or not, this peripheral area alone was vast beyond imagination.
And this in itself was proof that if I could properly wield primordial mana, even the deeper layers of the Abyss would eventually fall into my grasp.
'If I'd known beforehand, I might have been able to stop the prisoners from escaping.'
Back then, I knew nothing, so dazedly watching and escaping had been my best option.
'At least I could round up the ones on the first floor again.'
Of course, whether I'd actually do that was another matter.
For now, I decided to explore this vast area where I felt the connection.
The truly fortunate part was that even here, no prisoners were in sight.
'If Aliu's primordial mana hadn't worked here, I'd have bolted right away.'
Wasn't that why I'd called the Tower of Wisdom—to reduce the risks?
There was no need to recklessly face a situation where my powers didn't fully work alone.
'I wonder where the hero's arrangements are.'
Having confirmed that at least some of my power worked here, it made sense to search for the arrangements first.
I cautiously surveyed the space.
To get a feel for whether the entire ground was connected to me in the same sensory way, I circled around.
Mana was restricted here, but I could still manipulate the surrounding mana, so there were no major issues for me.
As I wandered, I realized it was even larger than I'd thought.
The mere fact that such a space was hidden in some crevice of the world was astonishing.
Well, considering the sizes of the prisoners who'd been locked up, it couldn't have been contained in anything smaller...
Why had Sephirot created a prison like this?
To control those who defied his order?
'It symbolically records how the laws of the world, fate, and order flow...'
That was the true purpose of the Abyss, as written on the stele.
I still couldn't fully grasp its meaning... but I could sense that Sephirot was someone who could exert enormous influence over the entire world.
So what were the arrangements left here?
The Oracle Stele had compared the Abyss to a star, and among the seven words left for the hero, the third was 'star.'
Beginning. Silence. Star. Time. Shadow. Wind. Blood.
First was beginning. Then silence. Next was star.
Of course, the order might not matter.
But what was clear was that the 'beginning' arrangement had been left for before the hero became a Transcendent, while the ones after were preparations for after reaching that stage.
Roselin would soon realize she was the hero. But in truth, I was the one less prepared.
Because I still couldn't forge the holy sword.
So many things had been put off until after primordial mana. But at the same time, mastering it properly would grant me much.
As I mulled over these thoughts while walking.
Suddenly, a distinct area appeared, markedly different from the surroundings. The ground bore traces of someone passing through repeatedly.
'A space used by the warden?'
There had only been one warden here, so it must have been a place used by Blazing Glory.
And to manage this massive Abyss with just one warden... there had to be something enabling that.
My gaze naturally dropped to the floor.
A single bizarre object lay there.
A shape similar to a hat... but below it, tentacle-like forms connected it to the ground.
Not metal, not cloth... something straddling the line between living thing and object.
'Is this... that something.'
It had a strangely fascinating form.
Looking closer, the tentacles connecting to the floor twitched slowly, as if pulsing with a heartbeat.
It didn't seem like an artifact...
Because it lacked the mana threads typical of artifacts.
Instinctively, I sensed this object might be a device that substituted for the warden's granted senses and authority.
Could it allow control over things manageable with primordial mana, through this strange item?