The Dark Rebirth of Pandora: Revenge of the Abyss

Chapter 724: Symbolism for an Omnipotent

"Pandora, are you planning to kill those people?" Oriane asks me as I think about the classmates who bullied me. Since I’m an "evil goddess," it would make sense to kill them.

But there’s no reason that holds up. After all, I already got my revenge on them, and the version of them that needed to be tortured has already been tortured.

"No, I don’t think it matters, and there’s no merit in it... but there is a moment that could be... something that catches my attention to observe. Would you like to come with me?" I ask her, and she takes my hand.

"I’ll go wherever you go." When she says that, I start walking forward, and in a single step, we’re in the future. I look at a simple house where Shion lives.

"Here we are, on the day of Shion’s death. Before we see it, what do you think of Shion?"

"She’s a good human. My avatar would like her. She’s the kind of person who doesn’t change the world directly, but makes it better for the people around her." Oriane gives a good description as we watch those six approaching. Oriane lets go of my hand while I get closer to them.

’Kaito, Yuki, Tsubasa, Sakura, Kaori, and Hana...’ I watch the six of them approaching her house.

"H-Hana, I don’t know if this is a good idea. It seems dangerous," Kaori says nervously as they all approach carrying things to start a fire.

"Don’t be such a prude, Kaori. It’s just a prank. She’ll get out of the house... probably, and even if something happens, we can just pay to make it go away," Hana says, while Tsubasa also speaks, encouraging it.

"You know, it really is strange to think that young people do stupid things like this," Oriane says to me while the six argue, showing that some of them were already realizing this was escalating to a level that could cause problems.

"Yes, well, I just had bad luck. There are billions of people, these six are a more extreme case. Most people who bully don’t take it to the level of trying to set the target’s house on fire."

"Hana is the problem in this case. She’s clearly a sociopath. Look at her expression, the calmness. She and Tsubasa are the only ones comfortable with this, but they’re all still guilty."

"They all agreed to it and kept escalating. It’s just interesting, in a way. It shows how humans are shaped by whoever is in front of them," I say, getting closer while they all spread easily flammable materials around.

"It really is a shame that humans destroy each other just to feel superior. They have such short lives and waste them doing this," Oriane says as she touches a piece of paper on the ground.

"Hmmm..." I have nothing to say to Oriane, because I did worse than all of them combined. As the demon king, I did thousands of evil and terrible things, and I never regretted them — I even had fun with them.

"I think it’s something based on the feeling of superiority, but for the two of us, who have transcended such a simple concept, it ends up having no value."

"In the end, human evil is still something that makes humans human. If they weren’t wicked, they could hardly be called human. They’d be like empty puppets, in my view." I watch Hana light a lighter with a smile.

That day, Takashi wasn’t home. He had gone out to buy a few things for his mother, who wasn’t doing well at all because of all the stress and the abandonment.

"They didn’t stay to watch... curious behavior," Oriane says, seeing that the six are leaving after what they did.

"They’re just running from responsibility, and some from guilt. It’s obvious they understand the weight of what they did, but they minimize it with excuses to themselves..." I say, touching the flames. In a few minutes, Takashi appears and sees the house on fire. The old wooden base structure ended up being more flammable than those six expected.

And Shion, weakened, wasn’t able to notice the fire in time and get out of the house. In the end, even though they did it on purpose, they wound up thinking that at most, Shion would come out hurt.

Even though they accepted the risk of killing her the moment they did it, human rottenness really is something unique.

"Takashi looks desperate, but it’s already too late. Shion died well before he arrived," Oriane says, touching the flames. For a moment, time stops completely at this point.

"This is ’sad.’ Takashi didn’t deserve this. Many people end up targeting the wrong person when it’s time to place blame."

"Pandora... Pandora the Demon King was a despicable being who deserved to suffer, but her past was unjust. Someone’s suffering in the past is not a good reason to say that person deserved to suffer."

"After all, Takashi was just an ordinary, kind boy. Even though he became the greatest monster of all, the evil that Pandora carried out isn’t something you can say made her past deserved. After all, without that past, Pandora would never have even been born," Oriane says something quite philosophical.

"Oriane, many humans don’t understand that. It’s true that Takashi didn’t deserve to suffer, but anyone who saw my past self would say I deserved to suffer and would be happy to know I suffered in the past." I make rain start to fall and time start moving again.

"And you, Pandora, what do you think of your past? What would Pandora feel seeing this?"

"Immense hatred, and a desire to destroy... although she wouldn’t stand by watching Shion burn and die a second time," I say, crouching on the ground and tracing lines in the mud that’s starting to form.

"You could still save her. You just need to act as Pandora. Don’t you want that?"

"....No, saving Shion would go against everything I represent today. Even if I felt things that way, Shion needs to die here today. Not out of some cosmic necessity, or because she has no value."

"I obviously won’t change or be affected if she remains alive. Nothing changes for my existence."

"But because her death is part of who I am. I am only what I am today because she died. If I had gone to another world without her having died first, I would never be what I am today."

"And even if it doesn’t affect me in my current state, symbolically it matters. A symbol I don’t want to destroy."

"Her death was one of the greatest forces behind my past determination, a determination that was fundamental to my survival. Without that determination, I should have died much sooner... Pandora the Demon King wasn’t an absolute monster because she was strong, but because she clung to life in a desperate and obsessive way in every situation where she could have died."

"Besides, since I’m omnipotent, I know that Shion’s soul really did go to a better place. She reincarnated into a good family and became a very kind girl."

"It seems that kindness is part of her soul. Something gratifying to see, in a way." Takashi comes out of the house carrying Shion’s extremely charred body. He screams and cries, begging for help in the rain.

"The day this happened, it rained, didn’t it? The fact that we’re here and you made it rain has made you the new anchor of this moment in time. On that fateful night, the rain was natural. Today, it’s your fault."

"Anchoring yourself to this point is an almost cruel choice toward your past self." Oriane makes an ambulance pass by on the street. She says I was cruel, but she just anchored herself to this moment too.

"Cruelty only exists in the view of inferior beings who don’t understand the vision of beings like us. I’m being as merciful as I can be. Shall we go now? I think we’ve seen everything there was to see. It was good to see her again, but now it’s time to move on to something else."

"Alright. I hope it was a good experience for you."