-Drip, drip...

Drops of ink fell from the trees, flowing down onto the ground.

The liquid was far too viscous to move like water, which only made the sight stranger. Thick black ink hanging heavily from every branch.

"Isn’t this kind of a waste?”

The moment Linmel realized the black liquid was ink, she tilted her head in confusion.

§There’s enough ink here to fill every sheet of paper in the capital. Why dump it all over the ground?”

"I don’t know. There’s probably some reason for it…”

Assuming the worst-case scenario—Maybe Dercia had paid a great price for injuring Great Void and fallen herself.

'But at the very least, it’s not that.'

After carefully examining the ink, I reached a conclusion.

This wasn't material from another world. It was just ordinary ink. A real object from the real world.

In that case, why had she done something like this?

Well, I could just ask directly.

"Let’s look for her.”

I slowly spread my Tide Sense across the forest, trying to inspect the deeper areas I hadn’t been able to reach from farther away.

—Or at least I tried to.

"! Jern!"

-Crack...!!

The instant I spread my Tide Sense, Linmel drew her sword.

It was because the ink, which had seemed like nothing more than an inanimate substance, suddenly changed. It wriggled as though alive and slowly began gathering together in response to my Tide Sense.

"It should…be fine. I think.”

I calmed the tense Linmel and watched the gathered ink carefully.

This stuff had definitely reacted to my Tide Sense. meaning Dercia had prepared for it.

That made things far simpler. If it tried to kill me, then Dercia had truly become a Fallen incapable of recognizing her own student. And if it attacked without murderous intent, then it was probably just severe punishment for a disciple who disappeared for 5 years without a word.

Given Dercia’s personality, either way there was a good chance she’d try to tear my limbs off, so I stayed tense. Yet, to my surprise, the gathered ink didn’t attack.

Instead, it shaped itself into something vaguely human and opened what should’ve been its mouth.

And from it came an extremely familiar voice.

[If this message has reached you, then you are probably Jern, who came searching for the place where I was last seen. Well…I figured you’d still be alive.]

"Huh?"

The ink spoke in Dercia’s usual languid tone.

Seeing that, Linmel grimaced and shoved her sword back into its sheath.

"Then why was it giving off killing intent?!”

"..."

I couldn’t answer. I was too busy replaying the phrase I’d just heard.

If this message has reached you...

That sounded less like a conversation and more like something from a prerecorded message.

[And that is indeed correct. This communication is one-way. I cannot hear your replies, Jern.]

"?"

The mass of ink answered as though it had read my thoughts exactly.

[It must be quite the reunion. 10 years, 20 years, or perhaps even 100. Even so, I have nothing to offer besides an apology for having to use a method like this.]

Without caring about our reactions, the ink continued speaking.

It could not be helped. I am currently in no state where I can meet you directly.]

No, even in a situation like this, she was still conducting experiments.

I tilted my head, wondering if Dercia had truly been that unhinged.

[By the time you receive this message, I will already be dead.]

"......What?"

A sentence completely beyond comprehension emerged.

I stared blankly, trying to understand whether it was some sort of metaphor.

[It was not a sacrifice. I trust you know well enough that I am not the sort of person who would do such a thing.]

[Nor was it surrender. At one point, I did consider it, but every time I did, I remembered a certain foolish human who struggled desperately to survive even after falling into the Abyssal Sea.]

[After the purpose of my life vanished, and with the world standing on the edge of destruction—I merely attempted to search for a new purpose.]

"Wait, hold on a second."

Even knowing this was nothing more than a recording, I grabbed my pounding head and desperately interjected.

"You died? Seriously? You mean not in the sense that you prepared some sort of resurrection ritual or split your life apart and scattered it across the world or something…?”

[Look up at the sky.]

The recording gave the command in the same languid tone as my master.

And yet, even though I knew it was a recording, I found myself unable to refuse. When I looked up, the sunset-colored sky spread overhead.

[If you see a black, vivid line cutting across the sky regardless of whether it is day or night, then it means everything ended long ago. In that case, come quickly. I shall spend several days lecturing you in the afterlife about how late and how foolish you were.]

[However, if you do not see it, then it means the world still has some time remaining.]

[I melted away my life itself to inflict a wound upon Great Void that can never be erased. It only succeeded because I never intended to return alive from the start. That wound both restrains that being for a time and acts as a marker.]

[If Great Void ever truly comes to dominate the whole sky, if even a single cloud falls entirely under his control, then you'll see the scar I left behind across the heavens.]

[I know you have a plan. If you did not, you would never have returned.]

[There is little time left. Remember that.]

"...I don’t."

Grinding my teeth, I confessed bitterly to the ink mass.

"I’m sorry to disappoint you, but all I found was an incomplete method to somehow imprison the sky. I was planning to think of a way to actually fight and win together with you, Master, but that’s impossible now.”

Dercia was dead.

Thinking about it now, it was an obvious possibility I should’ve considered.

She was truly extraordinary. The greatest mage I had ever known.

But injuring Great Void meant she had approached him directly, and for a mortal being to wound that thing and escape unharmed afterward was simply impossible.

Why hadn’t I considered it?

Or maybe I had but simply refused to think about it.

"Jern..."

Linmel reached toward my shoulder with a pained expression before hesitating and lowering her hand again.

I let out a long sigh and gently patted her back instead.

[...]

As though it had finished saying everything it needed to say, the mass of ink finally fell silent.

Just saying what she wanted to say without even bothering with a proper goodbye was really so much like Dercia… And then—

[Are you crying?]

"?"

That woman actually tried to comfort me?

[Hmm. If you are, then perhaps I would feel a slight sense of satisfaction. Though I doubt it.]

[Still, I think I know what you're thinking. Something along the lines of “There was no perfect method for dealing with Great Void in the first place. Why did you die first?” or perhaps “How does an elf die before a human?” I imagine you are spewing quite the colorful array of profanities right about now.]

"...You got all of it wrong."

I clenched my fist tightly, suddenly wanting to punch her.

[Understood.]

[A master is someone who compensates for the shortcomings of their disciple. And I am aware that I, too, am your master.]

[Just once will suffice. Create a space from which Great Void can never escape. Lure him there, abduct him, do whatever you must, but absolutely imprison him.]

[And if you address me by the title you used when we first met, then I shall stop Great Void for exactly 11 seconds.]

"...!"

My eyes widened at those words.

11 seconds.

That amount of time was more than enough—No, it was overflowing with possibility.

But how?

[It seems my life was valued far more highly than I expected.]

[This is the final assistance I can offer you.]

[As for farewells, or any response to all of these explanations, there will be plenty of time for that after you defeat him. That should be soon enough.]

[Then, farewell.]

"You goddamn– You're not dead after all!”

Unable to contain my anger, I hurled seawater at the ink mass just as it began fading away, blowing it apart.

So that meant Dercia was still alive in the form of that scar, tormenting Great Void himself. Of course, she had thrown away her life. She had sacrificed countless things, but—

I'd genuinely thought she was dead. As I chewed over that horrible feeling, I realized a faint smile was tugging at my lips and consciously forced it back down.

"Phew, thank god..."

"What do you mean, ‘Thank god?’ What a rotten personality…”

She had definitely phrased things that way on purpose just because I’d arrived late.

Seriously, what a nasty personality. While I was thinking that, Nightchaser finally crawled out from inside the cup where she’d been quietly hiding.

"You’re not actually believing that, are you?”

"What nonsense are you talking now?”

"It’s complete bullshit. How is some talented mortal supposed to stop Great Void for 11 whole seconds? If you build your plan around that, you’re doomed.”

"It won’t fail. My master’s personality may be terrible, but she never says things she can’t do.”

"I don’t even believe the part about wounding him..."

Then shut up and look at this. Do you think I could pull something like that off?”

"Haah..."

I immediately sat down on the ground and began writing out a plan across the dirt.

Cover the world with the Abyssal Sea.

The 11 seconds Dercia could grant me.

And every connection and power I could possibly use.

Every single possibility I could possibly leverage in this current situation.

"This will work. You’re the Outer God of the Abyssal Sea, after all. This domain is definitely under your control.”

"This one…I’m not sure. I think we’d have to try it first.”

"Hmm, and this..."

Maybe Nightchaser hadn’t spent all those years as an Outer God for nothing, because she went through my plan point by point, calculating everything.

"Hey, does this make any sense? You want to submerge ordinary mortals in the Abyssal Sea and expect them to survive for three days? What exactly do you think humans are?”

"No, if it’s near the surface, they should manage. Right, Linmel?”

"J-Jern. Sorry, but… I think the director would die in about 30 minutes…?”

"...Really?”

Sometimes I got corrected on the theoretical parts too, but eventually, we finished it.

"Phew, so what do you think?”

"..."

Nightchaser stared closely at the words scrawled across the dirt—

Then she frowned.

"Your handwriting is seriously awful.”

"...Come to think of it, how are you even reading this?”

"I can understand the structure of inferior languages just by looking at the arrangement of their characters. Hmm..."

After silently pouring over the plan for a while longer, she crossed her arms with a dissatisfied look. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

"This part needs to be changed."

"What do you think we spent the last three hours doing?”

"That was the process of tearing it apart and rebuilding it.”

Letting out a sigh, she crawled back into the bag.

"If you keep the general framework the same and only revise the finer details, well, considering the current situation, this is probably the best plan possible.”

"That’s good enough.”

At least now there was a foundation.

Compared to before when I’d been blindly groping through darkness without even knowing what was where, it was a world of differences.

"The first thing you need to fix is the timeline. You’ve given yourself far too much room. You’ll need to move faster.”

"What? No, if we can finish a plan like this within half a year, that’s already…”

"Look at the sky.”

With a faint smirk, Nightchaser repeated the same words the ink mass had said earlier.

"..."

A bad feeling crept down my spine as I slowly raised my head—

"Ah..."

"..."

Even against the dimming evening sky, it was unmistakable.

—A faint black line was cutting across the heavens.