I stretched out my hand, trying to control the Abyssal Sea that Mimicry had imitated.

"..."

Naturally, it was useless.

It wasn’t the cold, dark, crushing Abyssal Sea I knew.

It was only a fake imitation of it. And because of that, I couldn’t control it.

[So it truly was a counterfeit.]

From beyond my fading consciousness came a voice dripping with ridicule.

[If you had truly been an Outer God of the Abyssal Sea, imitating the Abyssal Sea itself would have been a dangerous gamble for me. But—you really are nothing more than a byproduct.]

"B-byproduct…?”

[Indeed. A creature capable only of handling the Abyssal Sea that created it, yet incapable of governing any world of its own. You are not an Outer God. You are closer to an immune response created by a world without gods in order to protect itself.]

Mimicry tightened its grip around my throat even harder as I continued.

[How far did you think you could deceive me?]

"...I didn’t—"

I twisted my wrist with all my strength and pulled the surrounding seawater toward me.

The seawater eroded the Abyssal Sea Mimicry had become. Only slightly, but it created an opening.

An opening I would die if I missed. I grabbed my body with ropes made from true seawater and yanked myself free.

At last I could breathe again. Even though this body technically didn’t need air.

"No, cough! You…just misunderstood on your own.”

I muttered toward the empty air.

My Tide Sense still couldn’t pinpoint where Mimicry was. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

He could still be in the space I had just escaped from or right in front of my face. The thought sent chills through my entire body. It felt like sharing a room with an invisible serial killer capable of murdering me at any moment.

And that killer had no intention of giving me time.

[You dare impersonate a god before me and still beg for mercy—?!]

"..."

Pressure.

It wasn’t the playful kind from before but a genuine crushing force meant to turn me into pulp.

However, this time I was ready.

[...Hmm. So you’ve used your wit.]

-Craaack, crack…!!

The seawater I had hurriedly gathered around myself was crushed in my place.

Scientifically speaking, I should have been crushed alongside the water—but I endured. Because if I diverted it this way, the increasing pressure no longer belonged to Mimicry but to the Abyssal Sea itself.

It was the only possible method, and simultaneously, suicide.

[You are also quite foolish to imprison yourself inside your own cage.]

"Tsk."

Unfortunately, I couldn’t refute that.

In order to survive immediately, I had hidden myself inside the palm of this guy's hand.

The Water Partition couldn’t withstand infinite pressure. Even now, Mimicry continued increasing the pressure, and all of it was applied to the Partition.

-Creak, creaaaak...

As the sound of things breaking echoed out, the pressure steadily intensified.

If the Water Partition collapsed, I would end up crushed into pulp all the same.

[Be crushed where you stand—human who dared impersonate a god…]

This was bad.

Frowning, I desperately racked my brain.

In every assumption I had made, I had never imagined Mimicry could imitate an entire world. At most, I thought he could imitate a world’s abilities, but if he could become the world itself, then he was basically a god…

...Right, he was a god. I had to admit my thinking had been shallow.

Escape was difficult in this situation as well. Just enduring the pressure with all my strength was already my limit. The moment I diverted even a fragment of concentration toward creating something, I’d instantly be crushed into paste.

Was this the end?

Half-resigned, I let out a sigh and asked.

"There’s something I want to ask.”

[If you desire.]

"Aren’t you kind of stupid for a god?"

[...?]

"If you had an ability like that, why didn't you escape already? There’s Abyssal Sea water all over the palace around here. You could just imitate it and leave immediately."

[To creatures of the shallow world, nothing exists deeper than a well.]

Mimicry answered mockingly.

[Whether I become water, air, or even the Abyssal Sea itself—none of it leads to escape from the Abyssal Sea. What has sunk can never rise again. Even if it is seawater belonging to the very same ocean.]

"..."

-Creak, crack.

As the sounds announcing how close I was to death echoed around me, I replayed those words in the darkness of the sea.

'Even Abyssal Sea water can’t escape?’

I couldn’t accept that.

I had definitely traveled through the sea using Abyssal Sea water. Sure, the pressure had been intense, but if Mimicry had truly become Abyssal Sea water itself, then at the very least it should have been able to leave the depths. Maybe it would sink again afterward.

[After killing you, I will uncover the method by which you opened the passage. Whether it takes a hundred years or a thousand, in the end, time is on my side.]

Hearing Mimicry’s threat, this time I let out a dry laugh and shook my head.

"Why do you think I showed you that method in the first place?”

[What?]

"Even if you can use it, you still won’t be able to escape."

[And why are you so certain of that?]

"Well…"

Because only I could do it.

I was about to answer that way, when I suddenly froze.

...Even Mimicry, who could imitate me, couldn’t do it?

Could something like that even exist? He was a god. Just moments ago, he had literally become a world itself.

And yet, I had instinctively assumed that even a being capable of imitating worlds still wouldn’t be able to imitate me as an individual.

Even now, that certainty hadn’t disappeared. No matter what Mimicry did, I unconsciously knew he would never be able to open a passage and escape.

'Why?'

And that inexplicable certainty had a very clear point of origin.

The moment I heard Nightchaser’s method for escaping the Abyssal Sea.

When I heard that method, I concluded that even Outer Gods could make mistakes and be wrong. I became convinced that it wasn’t I who was mistaken, but the gods who had chosen the wrong method.

Since when had I become this arrogant?

As I frowned in thought, Mimicry burst into laughter as though he had expected this.

[Have you lost your mind after realizing your end? Change your mind and tell me how to open the passage. If you spare me the time, I shall at least grant you a painless death.]

No matter what he said, I continued thinking.

Why was I so certain that Mimicry—a being capable of imitating everything—could not imitate the opening of a passage, the one technique belonging to humans? Even though I already knew he could reproduce the powers of gods themselves.

"...Maybe that’s it? Maybe I really have gone insane.”

[...?]

As I nodded with a hollow expression, even Mimicry fell silent.

Instead of speaking, I acted.

I stretched out my hand beyond the Water Partition, and beyond the Abyssal Sea I knew.

I reached out toward the Abyssal Sea Mimicry was imitating.

[What are you trying to do…? Are you trying to hasten your own end?]

-Crunch!

As though mocking my attempt, Mimicry crushed my hand with pressure.

It was pulverized instantly, as if an 8-ton truck had run over it at full speed.

Watching that, Mimicry sneered.

[Or are you merely repeating your mistakes?]

Slowly closing my eyes, I endured the agony of my hand being destroyed and focused solely on what I needed to do.

'I have nothing left to lose anyway.'

Whether I died now or later made no difference.

I slowly searched for the flow.

Within my Tide Sense, where nothing could be seen, I tried to perceive Mimicry.

—I tried to perceive the Abyssal Sea.

[An impossible endeavor…]

I felt nothing.

My hand had been shattered long ago, and aside from pain, no sensation remained.

[...]

Then even the pain disappeared.

Perhaps because the nerves capable of feeling it had already been destroyed. Or perhaps because adrenaline had flooded my brain.

Other than a faint sense of agony, I still perceived nothing.

[...Whatever you are attempting, this ends now.]

-Craaaaack!

I heard my final barrier, Water Partition, crumble apart, unable to endure.

Mimicry’s Abyssal Sea began flooding toward me.

He displayed frantic impatience, as though he wished to crush my body even a single moment sooner.

And yet my focus remained fixed upon my right hand, which had already lost all sensation.

[You—]

As if rewarding my endless effort, just barely…

[You.]

Gentle Abyssal Sea water brushed across my hand.

My sense of touch had vanished long ago.

What I felt was not my hand.

[You existed.]

My Water Partition had completely vanished.

Mimicry should have crushed me to death long ago.

He didn’t. More accurately, he couldn’t.

When I opened my eyes, I saw something I should never have been able to see. I could feel the emotions of that creature made entirely liquid.

Shock, and despair.

[Impossible.]

"I mostly agree with that."

[You…cannot exist.]

His Abyssal Sea water was caught in my grasp.

I was controlling Mimicry, who had transformed into the Abyssal Sea, and slowly consumed him.

Even as I felt that enormous body gradually becoming a part of me, Mimicry began to convulse.

[No…!]

Twisting his entire body, he desperately tried to abandon his Abyssal Sea form.

And at the same time, I finally realized why Mimicry had never transformed into a world before it became certain I was a mere human.

To imitate the world governed by an Outer God in front of that god was tantamount to suicide.

Outer Gods were beings who governed and dominated their worlds completely. Transforming into that world before them meant nothing less than placing your leash into the enemy’s hand.

[Noooo!!!!]

And Mimicry had done exactly that.

I did not permit him to transform into another world. He couldn’t do so to begin with. My Tide Sense observed every single fragment of him without omission. Controlling him was as simple as moving my own hand.

[I-I’m not the Abyssal Sea that birthed you! I am an entirely different, new Abyssal Sea!]

"I know. I’m looking right at it."

[To control even this means…you are…]

Mimicry finished in a voice that sounded unable to believe his own words.

[...An Outer God of the Abyssal Sea?]

“...”

[—Impossible! There is no being that governs the Abyssal Sea! If such a thing existed, it would have been devoured by its own world long ago! A being that governs a domain this vast could never have been something as insignificant as a human! Y-you are merely human!]

Since he was correct, I shrugged in agreement.

"That’s what I thought too. But apparently not—at least not for beings called wizards.”

[What...?]

"Have you ever wondered why there are no Outer Gods in the Abyssal Sea?”

[That’s obvious. Because throughout all this time, none have existed....]

"What if one did exist?”

[If one existed…then somehow, in some way, we would certainly have known.]

"Haah..."

Listening to those words only made me more certain as I lowered my head.

"Great Void had been searching for wizards of the Abyssal Sea from the very beginning.”

[...?]

"After obtaining the power of a human who reached the Heavenly Realm, once the time was right, he drowned every wizard he found without exception. I thought it was because of that Great Plan he had, because they were one of the Three Calamities, but now I realize there was another reason.”

Mimicry still looked unable to understand, but I didn’t care.

There was only one thing.

Once I made this single assumption, everything seemed to fall into place all of a sudden.

Why was I, a Fallen who shouldn’t even be supposed to be able to use magic, capable of wielding both the power of the Abyssal Sea and magic simultaneously?

Because the Outer God of the Abyssal Sea could use magic.

Why did nobody know the identity of the Outer God of the Abyssal Sea?

Because they had escaped the Abyssal Sea long ago and were out there doing something.

Why had Great Void become so obsessed with hunting wizards of the Abyssal Sea?

Because he had once been defeated by the Outer God of the Abyssal Sea.

If the Outer God of the Abyssal Sea had escaped, everyone should have known. So why did nobody know?

—No. The question itself was wrong.

Everyone already knew.

"You might want to leave, but once you see the outside, you won’t want to anymore.”

[Wh-what are you talking about…?]

"Because outside, creatures like me are crawling everywhere. The offspring born from the Outer God of the Abyssal Sea.”

That single assumption was—The First Mage…was the Outer God of the Abyssal Sea.