Abyss—Floor -58. Kreutzwald called it the Floor of Regret.
What he felt immediately after escaping that place through Kreutzwald’s magic was a sense of buoyancy, as though he were drifting through empty air.
It felt as if his soul had been pulled clean out of his body and was floating aimlessly.
Of course, at the time he could see nothing and feel nothing, but before he knew it, his two feet were planted on the ground, and he began to feel the cold air surrounding him.
Only then, looking back on it, did he think that was what it had felt like.
Dwelling on such useless thoughts, he slowly opened his eyes.
The first thing that caught his eye was a candlestick hanging on the wall, and the candle burning faintly atop it.
Starting from there, as he looked around, he saw a modest room.
A rough-textured carpet spread across the floor and a single small bed.
Across from it were an old bookcase, a desk, and one chair. That was all.
In short, it was a narrow, small, old room.
And so, naturally, the first thought that came to mind was suspicion.
“……Was I tricked?”
The end of the world, or whatever.
After frightening him with all that talk about how he had the right to go and so on, wasn’t this just a country house?
Had he deceived him into thinking they would be going somewhere far away, when in truth he had merely teleported them to some random house in the countryside?
At the same time that suspicion arose, a hearty laugh came from right beside him.
“You seem to be doubting me again. Child, this is indeed the end of the world I spoke of.”
“Not the end of the countryside?”
“Heh heh heh…… To be precise, it would be more accurate to call it a world that has already perished.”
Kreutzwald moved and left the room.
With every step he took, the wooden planks creaked, and though he was not particularly tall, the doorway he passed through was low enough that he had to slightly lower his head.
“The end of the world is merely a grand-sounding name we magicians gave it.”
Following him out of the room, Hio saw, just as expected, the interior of a house.
An old living room, an old sofa, an old kitchen, and old tableware.
There was one more room across the way, but Kreutzwald did not head there and instead moved straight toward the front door.
“So do not think too poorly of this place. This, too, is a place where people live…… no, lived.”
Hio also followed close behind him toward the entrance.
The front door creaked, then soon opened wide.
A cool wind blew through it.
No, a cool……
「Mental attack detected.」
「Trait—‘Can’t Live Without Style!’ has been activated.」
Abyssal energy.
The pitch-black energy that came rushing in refreshingly with the wind pelted across Hio’s face.
The sky was far from blue; it was so black that he could barely see it. There was no sun, of course, nor stars, nor moon—nothing floating in that sky.
Other than the old house where Hio and Kreutzwald stood, every building around them had collapsed.
Even so.
“……Is it winter? Snow is falling.”
Snowflakes fluttered down from the sky and settled gently on his palm.
Looking at them like that, the color of the snowflakes seemed strange.
Were they not gray, as though heavily contaminated somehow?
On top of that, they did not melt even after landing on his hand.
They were not snowflakes to begin with. They were ash.
Instead of snow, ash was fluttering down from the sky.
“……Insane.”
A pitch-black sky where the stars, moon, and sun had disappeared.
Cool abyssal energy blowing in place of wind.
Ash falling in place of snowflakes.
“This really is the end of the world.”
The typical sight of a ruined world.
A place that starkly showed what the end of the world looked like.
As if he found Hio’s reaction amusing, Kreutzwald burst into hearty laughter once more.
“Heh heh heh.”
Hio had felt it from the first time he heard it, but he did not like that laugh.
* * *
After leaving Kreutzwald’s old house and looking around, the conclusion Hio reached was simple.
‘This is not a place where people can live.’
It was the same no matter where he looked.
The air was thickly mixed with abyssal energy, and perhaps because of that, the ruins of the buildings had not merely corroded but were crumbling and fluttering about like ash.
Apparently, ash like this blew around all year long.
Even if a fire was lit, it could only illuminate a few meters ahead at best, and since the sun never rose, the temperature was extremely low.
Even so, the reason an ice age had not arrived was because of the abyssal energy spread everywhere, he said.
“……Now, let us go back. It is almost time for them to become active.”
“Them?”
“The beings that live at the end of the world.”
“Are they like the Eye of the Abyss I saw in the labyrinth?”
“Similar, but different. A Watcher is just that—a watcher.”
On the way back to the house, Hio was able to hear an explanation about them.
They were beings born and raised in the abyss.
Beings that could not even be called living creatures.
“The abyss is imitating light.”
It envies and resents light.
At the same time, it also yearns for it, and so it imitates it.
That was how those beings had been born.
Monsters of the abyss.
Things that deserved to be called abominations.
“They have become far stronger than they were a thousand years ago. If their purpose a thousand years ago was to cover the world’s living beings with their own energy and dye them in it, then now, based on the information they obtained back then, they have reached the point where they can create living beings of their own directly.”
The things born in that way appeared at fixed times and roamed the surroundings.
Though there was no such thing as night or day at the end of the world, he called that time night.
Even when night came, the area around Kreutzwald’s house was safe, protected by a barrier he had personally put great effort into.
“Because they were created directly from the abyss itself, they are strong. What is more, their numbers are steadily increasing. As if they are only waiting for the time of invasion to arrive. What do you think will happen if those things are released into the world?”
What would happen?
Wasn’t it obvious?
Ruin.
Rather than such an obvious fact, Hio asked when the time of invasion would be.
He also asked how the other Abyss Gates…… the Tower of the Abyss, had been made, and how many floors it had.
At those questions, Kreutzwald let out that same displeasing laugh and opened the front door of the old house.
“Let us speak of that from now on.”
It was time to learn the truth the world had hidden.
* * *
The Tower of the Abyss.
The thing every possessor had called the Abyss.
“It goes down exactly one hundred floors.”
It was the moment its end was officially revealed.
From none other than the mouth of the great magician who had personally designed the Tower of the Abyss.
“To capture and confine all the energy spread throughout the world, as well as the twisted beings. A thousand years ago, it was the only method to end the war in one stroke. From the first underground floor, where the faintest energy and weakest beings were imprisoned, down to the hundredth underground floor, where a being that should never have been twisted was twisted, and thus became the worst existence of all.”
In other words, it was the isolation of the Abyss.
A kind of seal.
“The conditions required to accomplish such a thing were severe. It took hundreds of years merely to complete the magic, and since we could not create the Tower of the Abyss on the continent, all of Tetradia had to prepare to migrate here. Only by mobilizing all the mana of Tetradia and the strength of every magician in the Magic Tower could we barely complete it.”
Kreutzwald was a figure from far earlier than a thousand years ago.
Such a man foresaw and prophesied the appearance of the abyss.
This fact was secretly passed down only to successive Magic Tower Masters and those closely connected to them, who continued the research together with Kreutzwald.
The ultimate sealing magic.
Hundreds of years of research carried on to complete the Tower of the Abyss.
“However, it was insufficient. The magic was completed, but it was not perfect.”
Even though Kreutzwald’s hundreds of years of effort and the power of all Tetradia, including the Magic Tower, were combined, it was still not perfect.
In the end, Kreutzwald had no choice but to use his final means.
The magic he was best at. Black magic.
“Do you know the most fundamental concept of black magic? In order to obtain what you desire, you must lose something equivalent in return. It is a kind of theory of sacrifice.”
What they chose as their sacrifice was magic.
The discipline and act called magic itself.
For them, it was practically everything.
Because the transaction could only be established to some extent by offering up what was most precious and beloved.
And so magic was lost.
“Yet even that was insufficient. Even after offering up magic, a perfect seal was impossible.”
The reason became clear quickly.
If this world was going to perish anyway, then magic, too, would naturally disappear, so its value was not quite that great.
On the other hand, if the ultimate sealing magic, the Tower of the Abyss, was completed, this world would be wholly saved, and so the transaction could not be established.
Instead, an incomplete Tower of the Abyss was completed.
“In that way, the Tower of the Abyss was sealed for a thousand years, but after that, it was set to lose its strength and be released one by one. In exchange, the condition of conquest was attached. If one succeeds, that floor can be sunk forever, but if one fails, the seal is undone, and the disaster from a thousand years ago trapped on that floor is released back into the world.”
At the time, they had thought it was not a bad method.
They believed it would at least let later generations know a little of the horror of the abyss, and since they would be able to experience the abyss even slightly, they could prepare for it.
The problem was the loss of magic.
A miracle called Skills descended upon a world that had lost magic, but the continent’s military strength continued to decline with each passing day.
An age in which the advancement and development of magic did not occur.
An age in which everything was decided by randomly granted Skills.
Lifestyle magic.
Magic artifacts.
Magic weapons.
Magic circles.
Magic scrolls.
An age in which all of it had vanished was weaker than imagined.
“Why didn’t you foresee that situation? Weren’t you able to see the future?”
“Heh heh…… If I could see every future, do you think I would have remained a mere magician until now? What I can peer into is not much, nor can I do it often.”
“So…… putting it all together, you’re saying the place Tetradia migrated to is here.”
“That is right.”
“Then can I go to Tetradia too?”
“With your current ability, not a chance.”
“My current ability?”
“That is so.”
Kreutzwald nodded, brought over a candlestick, and placed it between himself and Hio.
The faintly burning candlelight drove away the shadows cast over Hio’s face.
“The place where Tetradia has settled is the center of this ruined continent. In other words, it is a place swarming with all manner of abominations. With your current ability, even one of the creatures outside the house would be too much for you.”
“Don’t say something so ridiculous……”
“Without Skills. I speak of you as a magician.”
“……Tch. That’s true.”
As a magician, he was still only at the 5th Circle.
Thanks to the power of the system, his amount of mana was greater than that of other 5th Circle magicians, but he had yet to grasp a clue for reaching the 6th Circle.
“And so, child. You must grow here.”
In the midst of that, what Kreutzwald said was an offer tempting enough—frankly, tempting enough to make him drool.
“I shall teach you. You must grow as quickly as possible and return to the world.”
A situation in which the great magician praised by the entire continent was offering to become his teacher.
Who could remain calm so easily when told that not only would he be able to break through the wall of the 6th Circle that had been blocking him, but perhaps he might even go beyond that?
Slurp.
Swallowing back the drool that was about to spill out, he forced himself to get a grip and conveyed his thoughts inwardly.
‘Kreutzwald says he’ll teach me magic?’
After sending that thought, he waited briefly for the answer that should come back, but strangely, it was quiet.
Normally, before he could even think something like this, Pureunel would already have kicked up an outrageous fuss and made his head ring with noise.
‘……Pureunel?’
It was quiet.
No, more than quiet, it even felt somehow empty.
‘Don’t joke around.’
It felt as if something that had always been by his side had suddenly been severed away.
A hollow feeling, as if a hole had been punched through his chest.
How had he only noticed this now?
Had he been distracted by the scenery presented by the end of the world?
By the truth of the past that Kreutzwald had told him?
‘……Answer me. Pureunel.’
No answer came back.
The voice that had been so excited just before coming here could no longer be heard.
Raising his head, which had been slightly lowered, and looking at Kreutzwald, Hio saw that he was smiling.
Looking at Hio from just beyond the candle flame.
With shadows cast thickly over his face, he was smiling like that.
“Did I not tell you?”
Hio’s expression sank coldly.
“You would be the only one coming here.”