Chapter 194. Fruit Blooming in the Depths
The cold sensation against my skin kept growing stronger.
Even though we were underwater, I didn’t particularly feel any floating sensation or resistance.
But walking through pitch-black darkness where no one except me could even see ahead was horrifying.
Even Mallyangi’s magic couldn’t illuminate this place.
The darkness here was fundamentally different from ordinary darkness.
[Deeper than the deepest part of the Deep Sea.]
[The darkest and deepest place even within that.]
[If one were to give it a name, it could be called the Abyss.]
This voice....
Was it Hope?
[What sustained my crumbling existence was probably the ‘interest’ flowing from that Abyss.]
[People often say that when you gaze into the Abyss, the Abyss also gazes into you.]
[However, I made the Abyss gaze at me without ever gazing into it myself.]
[Perhaps whatever existed within the Abyss, or perhaps the Abyss itself, simply found my existence far too fascinating.]
Hope had survived in this place in that horrible state.
Then she met me and died here.
Had her lingering thoughts remained in a place like this?
But the Hope who had actually existed in reality hadn’t died here.
Then was this only a game presentation?
Huh?
Uh....
There it was again.
This happened every so often and always left me confused....
[Within the Abyss, where Light cannot reach.]
[In that place possessing the power to erase Light, there is a monster.]
[A very, very ancient monster.]
[That monster has spread its roots throughout this entire world of numbness.]
[It devours those who flow into it, absorbs those who are dying, and little by little... makes its flower bloom.]
[And when that flower finally becomes a Fruit and falls to the ground, what will happen then is something not even the flower itself knows.]
[Nor can I, trapped here, know.]
[Hayangi: Am I the only one who finds this a little scary? Because all I’m hearing is, ‘You’ve entered somewhere you absolutely shouldn’t have entered.’]
I don’t know!
I don’t know anything!
Straight ahead!!!
[Mallyangi: I can feel something ominous...! Ingwang-ssi, you’re walking surprisingly well through somewhere this dark. Is it because of the blessing of Darkness?]
[Levyinge: I can’t see anything! I can’t see anything! Hweeeeh!]
Tsk.
Levy eventually stopped walking altogether and grabbed my sleeve while trembling.
I tucked her under one arm and kept moving.
Then I found something that looked like a trail where something had passed before.
This was probably the trace of what Hope had described earlier as spreading roots.
And if only traces remained now....
Did that mean a Fruit had already fallen?
I quickened my pace and ran along the trail.
Something was happening.
Or was about to happen.
And of course...
It had to happen at the exact moment I arrived.
...What the hell is that...?
A gigantic...
Fruit?
It looked like an enormous wild strawberry giving off a faint glow.
It was so huge I couldn’t take in the whole thing at once.
No.
It only looked like it was floating in midair.
Pitch-black stems that reflected absolutely no light were spread all around it.
I only noticed them once I approached the wild-strawberry-like Fruit and its faint glow illuminated the surroundings.
...
Wait.
Did I just fail to read its Flow?
[Hayangi: Hey, stop staring only at the Fruit and look around. There are traces where something bloomed once and died.]
So...
The Fruit in front of me might not be the only one.
Or maybe Fruits had already bloomed and fallen several times before new flowers grew and produced more.
Just looking at those withered remains...
I could even guess that perhaps a Fruit had once fallen and created this ridiculous world.
If a Fruit containing enough power to shock even Hayangi had bloomed somewhere more normal and grown into a tree....
Maybe it would have become something like that gigantic tree I had seen in the Demonic Realm.
Then could there be one of those horrible pits beneath this place too?
Was this Fruit grown using the Remnants of the World as fertilizer?
Was it filled with all kinds of things mixed together from the previous world?
...
Maybe I was reaching too far.
Let’s find out more clearly.
Slide.
I placed a hand on the Fruit and concentrated, trying to seize its Flow like usual.
The force contained within was so enormous that I could feel resistance just from touching it.
Still...
No matter how immense the power was, if I had enough time, I could at least read it.
I had grown quite a lot since the battle between Root and Grandpa Aro.
But wait.
If this had anything to do with the Fruit the Fanatics talked about....
Hadn’t I actually found a medicinal treasure that could help Pie?
If so, this was a chance to gain a lot of clues about Pie’s missing half.
Until now, I had only heard the word Fruit, so I had no idea what form it actually took.
Maybe it really could exist as a literal fruit like this.
Just thinking that made me unconsciously put more strength into my hand.
Pop!
Maybe because of that...
A wound the size of my palm appeared on its surface, and juice burst out from inside.
It contained more power than I could fully read, so I had assumed being a little rough wouldn’t matter.
Apparently, I had been too rough.
No, wait.
Something this powerful shouldn’t burst from something that minor.
Was something going wrong?
I really didn’t want to just stand there and somehow become the protagonist of another incident.
I tensed and carefully watched the Fruit’s reaction.
But nothing else happened.
Had I simply overestimated it?
[ㅅㅔrPㅇml ㅈㅗd ㅇiㅇ]
“Nope.”
I stared.
“Uh, what? Huh? Why does the sound....”
RUMBLEEEEE!
An earthquake?!
A gigantic vibration shook the world itself!
Maybe because we were underwater, the vibrations rolled through like waves and slammed against my body.
Damn it.
My realistic senses had returned down here, so it actually hurt a little!
The Fruit’s faint glow became brighter and brighter.
The surroundings slowly gained light.
Then sound returned.
Smell.
Color.
And what came next...
Was the sharp stench of rot.
I had smelled something like this only once in my life.
Exactly once.
Yes.
Only once.
“The smell of corpses....”
The entire space reeked of it.
That unpleasant, revolting smell of decay.
I didn’t understand.
Had the entire Black-and-White World always smelled like this?
[ASD!N@OE*(UY////Long, long ago. In an age before humans had yet become masters of the continent, the elves are said to have possessed a peculiar custom.]
“Hope?”
Mallyangi looked around.
“Ingwang-ssi, what exactly is happening?”
Levy suddenly jerked.
“An... ancient elven custom...?”
Her eyes widened.
“Don’t tell me...!”
