The Dark Rebirth of Pandora: Revenge of the Abyss

Chapter 572: A Brief Moment of Calm

"...Over here, Mother! Come this way," Pandora says, taking my hand and pulling me along excitedly as I look at everything around us. Everything seems so fragile, but it’s quite beautiful. Pandora did an excellent job creating this.

’Goddess of the apocalypse, huh...’ Pandora is like a mix of a goddess of destruction and a goddess of creation. So, at the same time she’s good at breaking things, she’s also proven to be good at creating new ones.

’I wonder if that was a personal choice of the Primordial Goddess, since Pandora always had the Essence of Creation with her...’

"Mother, since you took a little while to come, I used that time to expand the structures a bit! So now you should be able to enter most places, even being as tall as you are!" Pandora says, leading me inside one of the structures.

Immediately, I smell a delicious aroma and see a table full of food. The place is pretty empty, so I believe Pandora wants privacy, or maybe she wants to give me privacy.

"Pandora, I’m not fragile. You don’t need to be so cautious about what you show your creations of me..."

"I know, I just thought a meal together in private would be more pleasant. But if you don’t like it, I can have them come in."

"It’s fine..." I say, spotting a chair that’s the right size for me. I move over to it, sitting at one corner of the table, and then I just stare at the food.

’How do you use utensils?’ I didn’t eat anything in the Abyss; everything tasted horrible. So it’s really been a long time since I’ve eaten. And when I lived with my sister, she would feed me, so I never really needed to use such fragile utensils.

Back in the goddess meetings, the utensils are special accessories that adjust to the hand of the goddess holding them, so they’re very simple to use. But these here are normal utensils; they’ll break when I hold them.

"Something wrong, Mother?"

"I can’t use utensils this weak. My hands can’t hold something so delicately."

"Oh, right. I already thought of that. These utensils are a solidified spiritual item, so they don’t take physical damage. You can squeeze them tight, and they probably won’t break unless you have passives that make any of your movements interact with souls."

"..." I pick up the utensil from the table, and it really doesn’t break. This calms me down, since I didn’t want to eat with my hands. It would be kind of embarrassing to do that in front of Pandora.

"..."

"Mother, you don’t need to wait for permission. It’s your feast," she says when I just keep staring.

"It’s just... I’m curious about the food that mortals eat." There’s an immense variety of dishes, mostly consisting of different meats and a mix of raw, rare, and fully cooked meats.

I start eating slowly from a few different dishes to try them, still not directly judging the flavor, while Pandora also eats some things, but she seems more focused on watching me.

"Pandora, what’s that bubble in the city?" I ask curiously. It’s impossible not to see it.

"Oh, that’s the school. Well, it’s one of the schools. There will be new schools around, but that one holds the people I got my revenge on... well, almost all of them. Two of them aren’t there."

"One is my teacher, who is now treated like a cow. Since her fluids are potions, they’re constantly being extracted, which seems like a fitting torture."

"And the other is Amiya. Honestly, Amiya isn’t a target because Amiya isn’t the person I wanted revenge on, but the owner of the body that Amiya stole. The stars really are something curious."

"Are you satisfied?" I ask, savoring one of the raw meats. I think raw meat is the best part of the meal.

"Yes, I’m fully satisfied with my revenge. Eternity is a long time, and knowing they’ll be tortured in that school for eternity already satisfies me."

"Although... I doubt they’ll really be there for eternity."

"Oh, and why do you say that? Are you going to release them?" I ask ironically, knowing she would never do that.

"No, but someday this universe will reach its end. Everything has a time limit, and I know it might take a very long time, but one day this universe will collapse, just like any universe that exists."

"And honestly, when this universe here comes to an end, I’ll only take what matters to me from it. So the heroes can stay and witness the end of the universe. Taking them out would seem like I was still stuck in the past."

"But I can’t really feel strongly about it anymore. I just continue their torture because it’s an achievement I planned for and it took years. They don’t deserve freedom, but they also don’t deserve my attention or effort."

’I see... that’s so like Pandora, to do that...’ Although, until this universe collapses will take a very long time, because this universe seems quite stable. I can easily see this universe lasting more than septillions of years.

"So, what did you think of the food?"

"Well, it doesn’t compare to the meals at the goddess meetings, but without a doubt, this is much better than anything I could find in the Abyss. And since the goddess meetings, from my perspective, take so long, it’s great to be able to eat something tasty now."

"Mother, do you want me to pull your sister here?"

"..."

Pandora looks at me with a smile upon seeing my silence. She seems to have thought about this proposal a lot.

"What do you mean?"

"Your sister, who has now reincarnated, and Evangeline, as I explained before. But what I didn’t say was that I marked Evangeline so I could ’pull’ her, but I lacked the magic to do it."

"And the Abyss was too dangerous for me to pull her out. But now we’re in my universe, and I have a lot of magic. If you want, I can bring your sister back into your arms. I know you love her very much."

"..." I stare at the empty plate in front of me. It’s a bit disconcerting to receive so many good things from Pandora.

Destiny is written on a very ’ironic’ line, since it really repays everything you do, whether you’re good or evil. Happiness is something everyone can achieve temporarily, and lose just as quickly.

Pandora herself has already received her ’punishment’ for being such a malevolent existence. Her punishment is to be a goddess who will live forever, bringing the end and the beginning of things if she doesn’t die before then, unable to truly get attached to anything because everything will disappear at some point.

It’s a punishment that applies as ’Eternal Loneliness.’ I am also receiving my punishment now, just as all goddesses also suffer for their acts of malice or kindness.

The Primordial Goddess made destiny this way to create balance. After all, if everyone were evil, it would be bad, but if everyone were good all the time, that would also be bad. So it’s necessary to maintain balance, but it’s also necessary to prevent the wicked from getting away unpunished.

And the good from going unrewarded. That’s why destiny does ’this.’ So now that I’m full of good things happening, it’s my ’payment’ for the suffering I went through in the Abyss and my sister’s death.

But this happiness is temporary. I wonder how many years until this crumbles or ends.

’I should enjoy it. It’s not like I have much else to do. It was the Primordial Goddess who made destiny this way.’

"I want to, Pandora. Bring my sister back to me." I’m going to make the most of the joys Pandora brings me, the family I’m having now, and my little grandchildren who have been born or will be born.

Pandora has also already realized how unpleasant destiny can be. She also decided to live, enjoying the good things to the fullest before they are ’taken’ from us.

’I wonder if Elysia has already received her punishment...’ As incredible as it may seem, the only goddess I see not being ’punished’ by destiny is Elowen.

"Mother, you seem tense. Are you thinking about destiny?"

"How..."

"It’s obvious, Mother. I was just thinking about it a little while ago too, and I think I like the punishment I received."

"?"

"If my punishment is an eternity of destruction and creation, then I am invincible!!"

"Pfft hahahahahahahahaha" I burst into laughter seeing this strange way of looking at life. There’s nothing funnier among the things Pandora has ever said to me than this. I’ve never seen someone twist their own interpretation of punishment over a logic made by destiny. Pandora manages to have so much charisma, it’s enchanting.

"You can be so optimistic! Well, alright then. You’re right. So, daughter, enjoy your eternal ’invincibility,’ and let’s see if destiny will be favorable to your future!" I pick up a wine glass, raising it to Pandora, who is the only one who has ever made me laugh like this besides my sister.

"Of course, to a prosperous future!" she says, clinking her glass against mine and starting to drink. I smile at her and also begin to drink the wine, which is sweet and pleasant.