There was another burden I hadn't considered. The world felt muffled. It wasn't quiet.
The sound of bursting water bubbles, the sound of something being crushed, the sound of grinding teeth, the sound of squirming screams. Noises no different from the surface world rang in my ears. It was just that they all sounded distant and echoing, like what you hear when you're underwater in a swimming pool.
Would my own words sound that way?
"Can you hear me?"
"..."
Dersia didn't answer. She only narrowed her eyes as she looked at the leaves and chunks of stone moving with extreme slowness around me.
"Where are you right now?"
It was an ambiguous question, so I asked for more detail.
"Hmm. What do you see?"
"Nothing has changed. In my vision, you, Jern, are still standing in the same place, in the exact same way."
Dersia paused, then let out a low groan as she looked at a piece of stone shaped like a blade moving minutely beside me.
"... Though it seems that's not what's happening in reality."
"Yes."
I deliberately touched that piece of stone. My skin made contact, but no blood flowed.
Instead— —Krrrsssh!
The stone turned into a powder so fine you couldn't see the particles, and slowly sank. An impossible event. If this were the true Deep Sea, it shouldn't be sinking, but gradually floating up.
Only then could I answer the question.
"This... if I had to describe it, it's something like a superimposition of worlds."
"..."
I nodded and looked at Dersia with surprised eyes. Meanwhile, I looked around. This was the Deep Sea.
But the physical-realm where Dersia was also appeared, overlapping. The ratio was fifty-fifty. It was enough to understand what had happened.
"The buoyancy of the Deep Sea and the gravity of the physical-realm applying at the same time, I see you've experienced it directly? It seems you got the idea for the burdens you were trying to place on me—interfering with each other's worlds—from this phenomenon—" "Jern, get out of there right now."
Dersia cut me off, her expression urgent.
"I don't know how you did it, but manifesting your heart-realm is something that should never be done."
"I never even considered it a possibility because it was supposed to be impossible, but how..."
"Ah."
I cut her off too. I answered her bewildered face with a proud smile and asked.
"Is it more than you imagined?"
"... Jern. This is not the time to be concerned with such things."
She took a step forward, about to approach, so I asked with a slightly more serious expression than before.
"If you take that step, I will consider it your defeat."
"..."
Only then did Dersia realize, and she quietly clenched her teeth. She knew I had no intention of stopping this contest.
"I know what you're worried about. If this entanglement of laws collapses, I'll be devoured by the Deep Sea and be demoted to a mere phenomenon."
The moment that powder on the ground begins to float. The moment the laws of the heart-realm crush the laws of the physical-realm and declare victory. I become a part of the Deep Sea.
Defeat, demise, death. Things like that. Recalling the mix of despair and ecstasy I felt in the tower was enough to give me chills.
Dersia frowned and tried to persuade me.
"If you know that, then we can still talk. The entanglement of laws is a problem, but the real issue is the burden."
"It's on a completely different level from the playful burdens until now. You'll be crushed to death in less than a second."
"But I'm alive."
"..."
"Perfectly fine, contrary to what you're saying."
"..."
Dersia seemed to catch on to that, and she studied me with a strange look in her eyes. Of course, she wasn't wrong. This was different from before.
Unlike the burden I had experienced once, it felt like I was watching the world through a transparent glass wall. My small inner world separates me from the Deep Sea. Even though I've summoned the world of the Deep Sea here, it feels like I'm looking out from inside a diving suit.
Yes, a diving suit. That's a fitting description. My small inner world.
It's too small to be called a realm, yet it's a world for being so small. A boundary that divides me from the Deep Sea. Perhaps I'll call it a Water Barrier.
Inside the Water Barrier, even the deep sea creatures didn't seem to notice me. They approached as if they'd seen something curious and inspected me for a bit, but it seemed they regarded me as neither prey nor kin. Like those robot animals that sometimes appear in documentaries.
I suppose that's how they perceive me. If I were to step outside the Water Barrier, well... they'd react like last time, but...
"... I can't understand it, but I can tell that the method you're using is not normal."
Dersia, who had regained her composure, argued back. She wasn't just nitpicking. I had simply passed on the burden I was actually receiving to the Water Barrier.
And the Water Barrier was not invincible. A world that had barely reached 2-Star was already beginning to collapse.
"That's true."
When I raised my hand, I could feel the faint boundary separating me from the Deep Sea gradually shrinking. The miracle wouldn't last much longer.
"But then, the method you're using isn't exactly proper either, is it?"
"Stop playing with words. This is a matter of safety versus danger."
"Which side is truly the dangerous one, I wonder."
I stared at Dersia. I could tell. All the water pressure and currents she was using now were being generated without any burden.
A 2-Star Dersia? I could move a single finger and literally tear her to shreds.
"Try it."
Dersia smirked and raised a hand.
"I know you can't. I don't know how you summoned it, but I'm sure you're not foolish enough to borrow its power as well."
"..."
That, too, was true. If I were to use anything from here—be it currents, water pressure, or even tide sense—even just once, the golden entanglement of laws created by the Water Barrier would collapse. I would be directly exposed to the Deep Sea and die.
Even so, I didn't give up. Seeing my firm resolve, she clicked her tongue and reached into her robes.
"If you still wish to treat this as a duel, very well. I will do you the favor of saving you."
"Please hurry. Even for me, I don't think I can last more than a minute."
"Then hurry up and surrender."
A filthy fountain pen appeared. The nib was warped and broken, and just holding it caused thick, viscous ink to drip, staining the floor. Aside from that, I realized something.
That pen is a separate world in itself. ... Was this what Ciel was worried about? Fortunately, Dersia didn't seem to feel any burden from handling her fountain pen.
"But it's over 2-Star~" "The water pressure you use is also excessively powerful for 2-Star magic. I will accept no arguments."
"..."
I can't even use that anymore. If there was an opening, it was now. I lunged before Dersia could lift the viscous fountain pen.
As long as the Water Barrier protected me, the current burden was low. It was bearable.
"...!"
Just a few steps away, a sudden chill ran down my spine, and I rolled to the side.
"Hm?"
Why did I do that? I knew before I even realized.
[?]
A long line was drawn across the body of an innocent shark. Dersia, watching it, muttered in surprise.
"I can't see it so I'm not sure, but it seems to have been drawn. Jern, it's not on your body, is it?"
"... No." "Is that so. Then let's confirm."
Dersia lifted the fountain pen without a hint of hesitation. The shark's body was sliced in half.
[...????]
The poor shark was split in two before it even realized what happened, dying compressed with a dazed expression. Other deep sea creatures rushed over and devoured the shark. Watching them, I asked in disbelief.
"Hey, why did you kill an innocent shark?"
"Shark? Is there such a thing as a shark among the deep sea creatures you speak of?"
"Well, it has some tentacles, so it's not exactly a shark, but..."
"... You've become able to see them."
Dersia's expression turned serious as she raised the fountain pen again. It felt different from before. If that line were drawn on my body, that day would be the day of my funeral.
"Get out of here quickly before things get more dangerous."
"..."
She had no intention of going easy on me. Even for me, if that line was drawn, I'd have no choice but to admit defeat. It was the same as having a sword pressed to my throat.
"Ugh!"
The line wasn't drawn just by swinging the pen. It was drawn even without that. No matter where I tried to flee, dozens of lines blocked my path.
I had no idea what kind of world this was. If you draw it, it splits, and it dies? Was this a world?
If so, what kind of world was it? I felt like a character in a painting being drawn by an artist. Instead of clenching my teeth and approaching her, I spent a while running and doing what I had to do, and time was running out.
First, the Water Barrier had only a few dozen seconds left. And second— "It has been drawn."
"..."
Dersia spoke calmly, looking at my hand. In the body of an eleven-year-old, it was too much to evade lines that were drawn without any spatial constraints.
"Come out now. Jern, it is your defeat."
"It hasn't been drawn yet."
"How could I not know a place where my color has been applied? I can see it has been drawn on your hand."
Dersia lowered the hand holding the pen. But she didn't put it away. It was a declaration that she could sever it at any time.
"I apologize for using such rough methods. It was not something I should have done to a child like you. However, even I cannot simply withstand the burden of the Deep Sea."
"Oh, are you feeling it now?"
"Because you summoned it. For now, besides the strange phenomenon of you appearing blurry and some difficulty breathing, I don't feel much else, but..."
Dersia looked around her. She probably couldn't see my world clearly yet. But based on what she'd heard from me and the burdens she felt, her knowledge would be constructing an image of this world for her.
"... So this is where you've been living."
"Yes."
"..."
For a moment, her eyebrow twitched.
"I... don't quite understand."
"What is it you don't understand?"
"Why you think of other things here. Why you can uphold the standards of the human world... I don't know."
"?"
"It is like a man stranded on a deserted island, freezing to death because he refuses to light a fire for fear of it spreading. Don't you think that's foolish?"
"I don't live on a deserted island."
I slowly approached Dersia.
"... Stop."
I lightly ignored the warning. As I walked, I spoke.
"Dersia. You were wrong from the very beginning."
"What was I wrong about?"
"Me enduring within the Deep Sea is ultimately just a means to an end. Surviving, all of it. I can't live here forever, you know."
"Pardon?"
"I want to escape."
"..."
I conveyed my true feelings to the speechless woman.
"A person stranded on a deserted island would desire a sail more than a flint."
"Even if he has to shiver every night for it, it's far better than living there forever. I, too, will leave this place one day."
"..."
"So, I'd appreciate it if you could show me a way to endure here—not a way to live."
I slowly reached out my hand.
"Because there's no point escaping if I've become a cannibal."
"Don't do this. I don't want to hurt you."
"You know how to make me stop, don't you?"
"... It will hurt."
"Do you think I would have fought a 9-Star mage if I wasn't prepared?"
Her surprise stopped just before my hand reached her neck. —Zzzik! The line was drawn, and the world collapsed. Two catastrophes occurred at once.
I should have been split in half and compressed in the Deep Sea, turned into a human-shaped meatball. But I wasn't. [—....]
"What...!"
Her expression twisted when she saw that I was unharmed. I smiled and spoke.
"There are a lot of jellyfish around here."
"...?"
Dersia didn't understand. That the line she had drawn wasn't actually on my arm, but on something on top of it. How could she have known?
I grabbed the miserably exploded jellyfish and used the precious two seconds I'd been given to their fullest. —Thwack!
"Ah."
Dersia's neck was much thinner than I thought. So thin that the hand of an eleven-year-old could grasp it.