The Dark Rebirth of Pandora: Revenge of the Abyss-Chapter 581: A Sweet Illusion
"...So, Echidna, that’s my past? It’s curious... if I really was the goddess of demons, why did I reincarnate into a human?" Evangeline asks, sitting in a wheelchair as I push her a bit around the terrace of the place. Her belly is completely full, and her legs are trembling, so she can’t stand.
"Yes, Evangeline. We were very close, like I said, and I used a lot of what you taught me." I think about her question as I take a deep breath, smelling a mix of fresh air and the alluring scent coming from Evangeline.
"Evangeline, you probably reincarnated into a human because of compatibility. Demons and humans are like distant ’cousins,’ so they’re relatively compatible up to a point." They are, strangely enough, the races most closely related to each other.
"However, the problem is that you, as a goddess, obviously wouldn’t fit well into a human body. So, unfortunately, you ended up with two personalities. More precisely, it’s as if your human and demonic mindsets merged and then split into two." I don’t even notice when they switch.
The two act practically the same. So, even though Evangeline warns me when she switches personalities, I wouldn’t notice it on my own. Although, from what I could tell, one personality is more perverted and liberal, and the other is perverted but tries to hide the fact.
"They’re both the same being, but with a slight division of personality between the two," I tell her, stopping the chair in front of a sofa on the terrace, while I sit on the other side, looking out at the stunning city below.
Living here is... so good. It’s peaceful, orderly, and the weather is predictable—things the Abyss doesn’t provide. Honestly, I even feel a little sad that I have to go back to the Abyss in three days.
"I see... curious... you talked about the creation of Pandora, but I didn’t quite understand what I have to do with it?" She tilts her head in confusion, though her gaze keeps dropping to my chest.
"I used some things you showed me. The truth is, before you died, you had already started a project to create a unique living being. Unfortunately, you never completed the project."
"But you left the theory with me. You were easily the goddess with the most information because you were addicted to hoarding things, so you kept many books with you." I kept almost everything she had that wasn’t destroyed, especially the special books like the Universal Laws, Fundamentals of Creation, Universal Theory of Matter, and Temporal Synthesis of Divine Rules.
"That’s why, thanks to you, I was able to create the Pandora race. Using the theory you wrote, I made my own alterations, adjustments, and improvements, and I even based the tail you had on the one I put on my daughters’ bodies." The multi-purpose tail that Pandora and Azraelith have is identical to the tail my sister had, though my daughters’ is thicker and a little longer.
"So, is Pandora technically my daughter on paper?"
"Well... technically, yes? I used 40% of what you created, and the rest were my discoveries and improvements, so you have a lot of influence." Pandora and Azraelith are projects, so anyone who had a major part in their creation would, theoretically, have some kinship with Pandora on paper.
Although only I have a more direct kinship, since the eggs and the magic that nourished them both came 100% from me, and the physical basis for them also came from me.
"How did that egg come about? Did you create it with magic?" she asks curiously, and I decide to try and give a more theoretical answer because the practical truth is more embarrassing.
"You don’t get it, do you? Let me simplify. My daughters and I are not the same race. Goddesses themselves don’t really have a specific race; we have racial traits. This means a goddess can have various physical traits while not belonging to any race."
"The mortal races each goddess created are simplifications of themselves. For example, Delphina has a tail, gills, claspers, and lateral lines like a shark, yet she doesn’t directly belong to the mermaid race she created."
"She just has physical characteristics of that type. Although you could call her a shark, she’s not the same as the races you can find out there..."
"Echidna, I don’t see what that matters?" She raises a hand, making me sigh. Even in this, she’s like she was in the past—very direct when it comes to wanting to know something.
"I created an egg inside my uterus with magic. I kept modifying it and then expelled it through my vagina. Satisfied? Using magic, I kept modifying aspects of the egg, and that egg lived inside me for a very long time."
"And the egg itself was a magical construct made from my magic, refined to the point of allowing modifications inside. So, I’m literally their mother, even though, genetically speaking, we have nothing in common."
"...Ohhhh, I’d like to... wait, wasn’t the egg over two meters?"
"I’m over twenty meters tall when I’m usually on my throne, so a two-meter egg isn’t that exaggerated." Obviously, my current size of three meters couldn’t handle carrying a two-meter egg; that would be absurd.
"Incredible... that’s genius... I had something similar, or rather, I used to have something similar, but I broke it due to lack of scientific interest from others and funds to continue researching. That damned church didn’t want to know what I was doing."
"Something similar?" I ask, curious.
"It’s an artifact I created in the past!! I wasn’t sure what I was doing, but it was a sphere made of gold. I would put eggs inside the sphere and modify the hatchlings inside with magic... No one cared about this relic, so I abandoned it, and I couldn’t even do it properly!"
"But it’s all the church’s fault. They considered my project blasphemy because only goddesses can tamper with life. That’s why I even started killing some people! I became known as the Crescent Moon Hunter! An assassin who was never caught! I targeted specific people from the church."
"Yet it seems the idea for this project came from the fact that I was a reincarnated goddess."
"That’s probably it, Evangeline. Souls end up repeating small behaviors from the past." I’d like to see what she created, but there’s no way to bring it back, and she’s already discarded it.
"Echidna, I have another doubt. There are so many questions... I wish I could remember... anyway, my doubt is about Pandora. She’s your daughter and all, but isn’t that too much trust to put in a monster?"
"You’re a goddess, she’s a monster. Wouldn’t she be untrustworthy?"
"Haa... you too?"
"Evangeline, that’s not how it works. She won’t betray me. I don’t want to explain this; it’s complicated. Are you asking this out of doubt or curiosity?" ’Doubt’ would mean she doesn’t trust Pandora, whereas ’curiosity’ is more acceptable.
"Curiosity! I don’t doubt Pandora! I have a good amount of trust in Pandora." I feel calmer at what she says.
"I’ll explain this to you better later, Evangeline. I have to return to the Abyss, so I’m taking you with me." If I don’t return to the Abyss, chaos will take over the place. For now, I have to deal with that.
I’ll have to take care of the Abyss until I’ve eliminated goddesses like Elysia, so I can live outside the Abyss without a direct threat constantly planning to kill me. And I have to look after the Abyss now so its chaos doesn’t hinder Pandora’s growth.
"Of course! I’m really excited about that. I can feel your warm and viscous protection deep inside me," she says with a perverted smile, instead of just saying she can feel my magic inside her.
"With my magic, you’ll be able to live in the Abyss without any problems. Since you’re weak, you probably won’t be able to use magic there, but I’ve placed my defensive spells on you."
"So no one in the Abyss will even be able to scratch you. Plus, I have my automatic attack spells on you, so if anyone attacks you, they’ll die automatically."
"You’re so good to me, Echidna, however... you know I’m not her anymore, right? You’re just clinging to an illusion of the past, trying to hold onto someone who no longer exists..."
"..." When she says this, I look at her with disgust, biting my lips as the windows on the terrace door crack.
"I didn’t ask you what you think about that, Evangeline."
"...No, you didn’t ask... but during sex, you didn’t call me Evangeline... it’s kind of weird being called Aranthis when I don’t even remember that life..."
"Evangeline, please shut up?" Does she think I don’t know she’s not my sister anymore? That’s obvious to me. She doesn’t even emit any divine traits anymore; at most, small reflections of her life as a goddess that came with her soul.
"I like to delude myself this way. Your doubts make me feel stupid. Do you think I don’t know? But even if you aren’t Aranthis, you react just like her..." Even if the soul has already changed so much, she was still my sister in the past.
"Now, enough of this talk. Let’s eat something? I love the food from Pandora’s universe." I’m even storing and preserving a lot of the food from this place with spatial and temporal magic so I can eat it there in the Abyss.
"Yes! I want to eat something with you! Even if I don’t remember, and we’re not sisters anymore, I still feel that I really like you, and that much can’t be denied," she says, trying to fix the bad atmosphere her question created.
"I’ll bring everything. Stay here for a moment."
