The tentacles were frozen solid and white as snow.

Clutching my chest as pain surged through it like it might burst, I suddenly saw cracks begin to form in the space around the tentacles.

Startled by the bizarre sight, Malo asked,

[What in the world is that—?]

"It won’t last long."

[What?]

Malo looked around the frozen tentacles in confusion, then shouted in shock.

[...You froze everything around them!]

"That was part of my goal, but it won’t hold.”

Clicking my tongue, I looked at the now completely transparent surroundings.

What I had done was simple. Using my Tide Sense, I froze every point where the tentacles existed. No matter how free they were, they couldn’t pass through solid matter. The moment the water froze, it became physically impossible for them to pass through.

And the ice Decay could create was far harder than ordinary ice. I had thought it could hold for several hours at least…

But the cracks were spreading exponentially, as if it would burst open at any moment.

'Not immediately, though.'

I slowly stepped back, staring at the massive chunk of ice about the size of a small fortress.

It should at least hold a few minutes. Even in this situation, I felt a chill at what I had just done.

.....Had I always been this good at handling Decay’s power? I remembered barely being able to create small bits of ice before.

Shaking my head, I forced my thoughts back.

Now wasn’t the time to dwell on that.

"Alright. Let’s try this…”

Suppressing the pain in my chest, I focused on the pressure.

Sharper and stronger than any pressure blade I had ever created before, something that could cut through anything.

This was the same pressure that had torn through the mid-layer barrier. As I slowly formed the blade, Malo cautiously spoke.

[Jern. Don’t tell me you’re planning to fight that Sealed System with that?]

"Yeah. I don’t have any other option. I’ll use the sharpest thing I can make."

[Erm, sorry, but……that won’t work.]

"What?"

Frowning at the sudden warning, Malo explained calmly.

[Right now, you’re trying to fight a collection of worlds using their own weapon. It’s like trying to pierce an awl with a toothpick. I know you’re skilled with your power, but no matter how fast a human runs, they can’t outrun a horse.]

"No, what even is a Sealed System that it works like that?”

[Hmm, the Abyssal Sea you’re in is made up of pressure, water, deep-sea creatures, and so on, correct?]

"Right?”

[Now imagine every bit of that pressure, water, and every creature acting under a single, unified will toward one purpose—then it’s like the world itself has consciousness. But you’re only borrowing the power of that world, right? You can’t possibly oppose it.]

I didn’t fully understand, but it sounded like none of my abilities, pressure, currents, and Tide Sense would work on it.

Considering that my pressure and currents had absolutely no effect, and even my Tide Sense only detected the empty space around it, barely allowing me to track its movements, it was probably true. And this wasn’t the kind of situation where that robe would spout nonsense.

'This is bad.'

To break that so-called ‘Sealed System,’ I needed to injure it somehow.

But fighting the Abyssal Sea with something that isn’t from the Abyssal Sea…was that even possible?

Even as I thought, time was running out.

-.....Crack!

"...Ah."

As the ice began to split—

Something from earlier flashed through my mind. When I had been caught, I escaped using a blade of wind.

It hadn’t dealt much damage, but it did cut through.

I steeled myself, letting stars rise in my eyes.

"But…”

It was only two stars.

With just that, there wasn’t much I could do. If my Abyssal Sea abilities didn’t work, would magic enhanced by them even make a difference?

No, even if I enhanced my spells, would they actually work against something like that? The chances were slim.

One thing was certain, though.

It was better than doing nothing.

-Crack!

[K-kgh...]

The ice completely shattered.

At the same time, the now-freed tentacles began to twist violently. So much so that even I could feel it through my Tide Sense.

The currents created by their movement alone made it hard to stay in place. Gritting my teeth, I endured and gathered every ounce of mana inside me.

Dercia had once said that my talent as a mage was pathetic.

That even with a lifetime of training, I’d barely reach 3 stars. Right now I had 2 stars.

But at this moment, those words felt meaningless.

From the instant I began gathering mana with everything I had, I felt omnipotent. Like I could do anything.

[Jern? Wh-what are you doing…?!]

"...I don’t know."

Malo asked in shock as seawater began to rush into my body.

But I couldn’t help being confused and flustered either. This had never happened before.

At first, I gathered as much mana as I possibly could.

Before, my capacity was limited to a mere 2-star mage, so no matter how abundant mana was in the world, I could only hold a tiny amount before it filled up.

But now it was different. My small vessel was being flooded with so much mana that even my Water Partition couldn’t handle it.

Even I was shocked at how much was accumulating, drawing in the surrounding seawater as I gathered it. More and more piled up, and then I felt something burst in my eyes.

"Ugh."

I immediately clutched them. Blood vessels had ruptured, and blood spread into the sea.

It didn’t matter much anymore—but as I slowly blinked, I saw my reflection in the shattered ice fragments drifting around me.

...The stars swimming in my eyes had increased to three.

3 stars.

The rise in magical level immediately reflected itself in my Water Partition. With a sudden sense of relief, the pressure around me eased significantly, and the range of my Tide Sense, pressure, and currents expanded several times over.

I could see much farther now. I could feel the flow of currents controlled by other deep-sea creatures. And it felt like I could crush even rock if I wanted to.

Along with an overwhelming sense of unease.

"U-uhm. Huh…? Wait a second.”

This was nothing like when I moved from 1-star to 2-star.

Completely different. Not just the fact that I obtained what I wanted and needed so effortlessly, but it wasn’t just a feeling of becoming more familiar with the Abyssal Sea either.

-Crack, crunch…!

"..."

Strange noises echoed from inside my body.

The sound of bones breaking and flesh and blood vessels rearranging. The fact that I felt no pain at all made it even more bizarre.

As I clutched my head at the weird sensation, Malo shouted urgently.

[Jern! It’s coming!]

I was still in the middle of a fight.

Reaching 3 stars all of a sudden wasn’t enough to make it back off. No, there was no guarantee it even had the intelligence to recognize the change in me.

A tentacle shot straight for my face. Before, I would’ve dodged with everything I had, but for some reason my body moved naturally. I bent backward, almost reclining.

[W-wait, Jern…?]

-Crunch!

The tentacle brushed past above my head. It had aimed for my chest, but I had folded backward like some kind of flip phone, nearly 180-degrees.

I could feel my spine shattering. No, an ordinary person wouldn’t even feel that. They’d just be dead instantly.

But I was alive. I stood back up and didn’t even feel like anything had broken.

"This is…”

[A-aah, ah, ah...]

Even as I brushed over my lower back, staring at my own body in disbelief, the withered hand of Fishman pointed at me again.

Dozens of tentacles aimed at me. I was about to form wind blades, but I quickly realized that cutting wouldn’t stop them, so I tried something else.

"Burn."

A red flame ignited in the pitch-black Abyssal Sea.

Calling it a flame didn’t do it justice, though, since it was massive.

[....!!!!]

For the first time, Fishman and its tentacles reacted.

The moment the flames touched them, the tentacles recoiled, like animals experiencing burning heat for the first time.

Of course, it wasn’t the heat itself that stopped them.

"I had a feeling, but it seems like I was right.”

I smiled faintly and intensified the flames.

My enhanced Tide Sense had already analyzed what happened the instant the flames made contact.

The seawater forming the tentacles began to boil slightly.

At the same time, a small amount evaporated and mixed with the surrounding water.

-...Splash!!

"Oho?"

Fishman reacted quickly. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

The moment even a little bit of its tentacles boiled over and mixed with other seawater, causing it to weaken, it cut the tentacle off.

So it wasn't a complete mid-layer after all. It was too small and incomplete for that. The fact that it had to sever its own limb just to deal with a bit of contaminated seawater proved it.

Since I had forcibly reached 3 stars, the flame magic I could use after the first one was still weak and barely enough to produce simple fire. Even calling it 2-star, no, even 1-star magic was questionable.

But Fishman began to step backward through the Abyssal Sea.

For the first time since becoming a Sealed System, it felt the fear of loss. It had realized that it wasn’t invincible.

Of course, I had no intention of letting it go.

"After beating me up like that, where do you think you’re going?”

I froze the entire area behind it, cutting off its escape path, and it immediately smashed the ice wall apart with its tentacles.

It had clearly anticipated I would try to block it.

No matter how fast I brought out the flames, it was determined to flee.

Everything was moving exactly as I intended.

[...!!!]

"Got you."

If pressure didn’t work, I’d just use something else. I grabbed the shattered ice fragments with pressure and hurled them straight at its body at maximum speed.

-Boom!

[Ugh...]

Fishman’s body was crushed into chunks of flesh under the massive ice fragments, but it wasn't dead. It was still writhing, and the tentacles were still alive.

But in the end, the tentacles were connected to the main body. It couldn’t escape.

Realizing its end, it made one final desperate attempt.

[Gah, gah.....]

Front, back, left, right, up, down.

Its sharp tentacles surged toward me from every direction. Confronted with their obvious intent to kill me, I responded with the most shameless tactic in my book.

"Burn."

-Whoosh!

Flames erupted. Not at the tentacles, but Fishman itself.

After all, the tentacles were connected to its body.

[....!!]

In the Abyssal Sea, where such sensations were almost impossible to feel, Fishman experienced burning.

It let out a sorrowful, agonized scream.

*t*t*

The Abyssal Sea.

After all tentacles had melted away.

"Phew, this should be enough…"

I finally let out a sigh of relief after wrapping Fishman’s entire body tightly in puppet threads.

Right now, between the burns and the bruises from being battered by ice, it looked completely unconscious.

Still, once it woke up, it would immediately be under my control. I just needed to wait, then head toward the mid-layer.

Just as I was thinking that things had gone surprisingly well…

[...Jern.]

Malo, who had been silent until now, spoke in a heavy, sunken tone.

"What?"

[Can you go back right now?]

It was an unexpected question, but I answered as calmly as possible.

"No, I can’t."

[Then how do you plan to return?]

"By reaching the bottom.”

As I looked down into the Abyssal Sea and answered, Malo spoke up again, almost as if it was chewing on the words.

[...I knew it…I knew it.]

"What? You already knew?"

[I had some idea. You’ve been cut off from any way back and are now adrift in this world. Am I right?]

"Yeah. I didn’t have a choice."

There was no other option, really.

Before I could say more, Malo let out a sigh.

[Listen carefully. You’ve changed.]

"I know. I didn’t want to do something this reckless either…”

[That’s not what I mean. You’ve truly changed. And you’re changing much faster than you think. Look. What’s the difference between you and the deep-sea creatures?]

"...What? I can think.”

[There are deep-sea creatures that can think. Some can even speak. Is the difference just that you’re a bit smarter and more articulate?]

"And I’m human. I’m different from those fish.”

[Jern. If something swims in the Abyssal Sea with no way out, then it is a deep-sea creature. And whether you want it or not, you’re becoming something that can no longer clearly be called human.]

"...”

Malo wasn’t joking.

And I couldn’t brush it off either. Because something about it bothered me.

[Look at that anglerfish.]

Malo pointed to one passing close enough to see with the naked eye.

It had teeth larger than a palm. Monstrous, though relatively mild by Abyssal Sea standards.

[They’re all like that. Unlike ordinary creatures, one part of them is grotesquely exaggerated. And that part is their strength. To survive this Abyssal Sea, they adapt by maximizing their advantages. The real world is no different. Every world is like that. It’s not just the creatures suited to a world that survive, but also those that adapt themselves to it.]

"...So…"

I looked down at my hand and asked.

"The reason my magic suddenly reached 3 stars—"

[Is the same as those teeth.]

Silence followed.

After pondering for a long time, I slowly reached out my hand.

There was only one way to confirm it.

[Jern. That’s...]

"I know. Just one finger."

I reassured Malo and extended my pinky finger and slowly released the Water Partition…

"...Ugh."

My finger instantly turned a bluish-purple.

And that was it.

Even I couldn’t pretend otherwise. There was no way a human could survive something like this.

"Guess I’m a deep-sea creature."

Apparently, somewhere along the way I had stopped being human without realizing it.