The Dark Rebirth of Pandora: Revenge of the Abyss

Chapter 192: Brief explanation about the stars

”Mom, I’ll explain calmly, okay?”

”First, what happened was that when I accessed the system and gained a certain level of privilege as a goddess, I ended up receiving a gift. I wasn’t expecting anything big from it.”

”So I used the question rather irresponsibly, but I ended up gaining information that greatly exceeds my level of authority over the system.”

”And from that information, I discovered who my aunt reincarnated as, but... she reincarnated as something rather strange...”

”...” My mother remains silent, as if she’s thinking.

”I deduce that she reincarnated as a human.”

”!!”

”How?” I’m surprised, she guessed it even without any clues from me.

”I didn’t know she had returned... but if she returned as something strange, it could only be as a human.”

”Mom, why could she have only returned as a human?”

”Some goddesses know reincarnation magic, but you can only reincarnate into something close to yourself... Naturally, this means that goddesses can only reincarnate into races they’ve created.”

”But demons and humans have a minimal degree of ’kinship,’ being somewhat distant cousins, so if she didn’t reincarnate as a demon, it could only be as a human.”

”...But there’s a problem with that, and the problem is that the body may not be suitable for her, so something might have happened.”

”Like false memories, dual personality, and other similar things, in addition to the fact that she won’t have any memories of when she was a goddess, since the main price of reincarnation is the memories.”

”Mom, what do you want me to do with your sister?”

”Well, you...”

Knock, knock, knock.

”Pandora and Echidna, it’s time for the meeting. It’s also been decided that this will be the last meeting, as an external guest will be participating.”

I look at my mother with a bit of disappointment. She was still going to train my own fighting style, and I was hoping to have more time with her. It seems fate is not on my side.

”Haaa... Mom, I guess we’ll have to leave that for the future.”

”Yes, it’s not good to discuss this kind of thing near the other goddesses. I’m grateful for what you said, and I’m happy to know she’s back, even if it’s not in the most suitable way.” My mother says with a gentle smile as she heads for the door.

”Pandora, can I talk to you for a moment?” Aradia says, stopping me as I was about to follow my mother. My mother nods to me and continues on.

”...What do you need, Aradia?”

”Pandora, I want to send you back to the place you came from.”

”Why?”

”The next meeting will address a topic that will cause you serious problems, and to prevent that for you, I’m informing you that you can go back.”

”First, this topic will take a long time, so we’ll probably just be discussing it for a considerable amount of time. Second, the topic itself is the biggest problem for you.”

”That’s why you have special permission to leave first. Consider it a small privilege for being a new goddess.”

”So I ask you, do you want to go back or participate in the meeting?”

”I’ll leave.” There’s no reason for me to stay here and cause trouble. I don’t know what the topic is, and if I want to know, I can ask Delphina later.

”Then I wish you all the best. We’ll see you at the next meeting.”

”...”

”...? Already?” I’m back in Delphina’s clone’s kingdom. The transition was absurdly fast.

”How abrupt...” Everything was quite different from what I expected, and I barely spent any time in that place, nor was I able to explore it. I wanted to spend more time there, at least to learn how to create universes.

”...”

”So, Pandora, what did you think?” Delphina’s clone is here by my side.

”It was... nice. It wasn’t bad to be able to see my mother, and I learned some really good things... Delphina, do you know what kind of topic would cause me problems?”

”...Hmmm,” she puts her hand on her chin and closes her eyes, as if she’s thinking deeply.

”Maybe it’s about the [Stars]?”

’Stars... again, these so-called stars...’ Amiya mentions the stars in most of the things she does related to magic and her transformations.

”Delphina, what are the stars?”

”...It’s hard to say. I think we can call them invaders. They’re not from this universe, they came from an inferior universe, but even so, they managed to quickly become powerful in this universe.”

”They’re much weaker than the Primordial Goddess, but in terms of power, they’re equivalent to the goddesses. Sometimes they become a topic of discussion because there are some annoying things they do.”

”Delphina, if one of the heroes extracts power from them, could that be problematic?”

”A hero does that? I see, then he’s dying or is already dead.”

”...Could you explain?” Is Amiya dying? She seemed completely fine the last time I saw her.

”Let me remember the name, I think it’s Amiya.”

”Amiya Luminara, if I’m not mistaken. It’s like an alter ego of the stars. She replaces a person, so a person chosen by the stars can transform into Amiya, but they’re two different people.”

”Amiya will gradually become the real face of that person, and the person in question will slowly die. Every time they transform into Amiya, the person disappears, and only Amiya remains. We’ve had a few of them before.”

”I think the last Amiya was around 59,000 years ago, so this hero is slowly being replaced by Amiya every time they transform. Think of it as a cost for using a power that isn’t theirs.”

”Amiya isn’t even human, she’s just an alter ego formed from the power of the stars, and in the end, she’ll replace the person who takes her power. If I’m not mistaken, the stars use Amiya to achieve something.”

”They seek to maintain their power. Amiya serves as a bridge that connects the stars to something, though I don’t know what that something is. But as long as Amiya exists, the stars will continue to be strong.”

”But if Amiya completely disappears, the stars will become extremely weak and die.”

”That’s why the stars always choose someone to transform into Amiya, without caring at all about the person in question. After all, people are replaceable, as long as Amiya doesn’t die, the stars don’t care.”

”Delphina, I raped this Amiya. Would that cause me problems?” It wasn’t my fault, I was drugged, but that doesn’t change the fact that I did something against the alter ego of a being as strong as a goddess.

”Probably not. As long as you didn’t try to kill Amiya, the stars don’t care. The stars will only do something if you try to kill Amiya or try to prevent her from being the bridge that helps the stars.”

”So raping Amiya doesn’t change anything...” Delphina speaks with a little bit of jealousy.

’...So Riko will die even if I don’t do anything... I guess I can consider that as one less hero.’ Riko was the one who bullied me the least, as he was too cowardly to do so in that regard.

But it doesn’t change the fact that he did something to me. Knowing that he’ll die slowly without even knowing it, while being replaced, is somewhat satisfying. Besides, it means I can have Amiya as an ally.

After all, Amiya is not the one I’m seeking revenge against, and she’s not human.

”But Delphina, why would the topic of the stars cause me problems?”

”You’re the Demon King...”

”I see, it has something to do with magical girls and their purity or something like that?”

”Actually, no... Pandora, as the Demon King, you kind of symbolize the complete opposite of the stars, and it happens that the stars will probably appear at the meeting, so you may have problems when faced with them directly.”

’Aradia mentioned a guest...’

”And unlike the goddesses, who don’t interact much with the world directly, the stars are kind of rebellious and may try to attack you even if you’re in the world. And they’ve done that before.”

”It was with the last Amiya who was killed by a human. The stars completely evaporated the kingdom with a light attack, of course, that exhausted them a lot, weakening them.”

”Since they’re not good fighters and their magic has no focus on attack, to the point that the one who fights for the stars is Amiya.”

”The stars take care of support and defense, while Amiya handles the combat. Of course, an Amiya can at most reach the level of small planets in terms of power, but it’s not like the stars want to fight us.”

”They know they’re invaders, and they know that if the Primordial Goddess wanted to, they’d be dead. And if I or any other goddess like Elysia and Echidna wanted to kill her, she wouldn’t stand a chance.”

”As I said, they came from an inferior universe. Even though they’ve become very strong here in this universe, they can’t escape certain limitations.”

”You know, Pandora, it was good that you didn’t participate. Sometimes these meetings end in unnecessary fights and hatred.”

”If you had been there, you would have clearly got involved, especially with Elysia, who can’t stand the stars and just leaves them alone because she doesn’t care about them.”

”...Delphina, do you know of any isolated place where they can’t find me quickly?”

”...?”

”Well... there’s a desert here nearby. No one goes there because there are no resources, little ambient mana, and nothing to eat. There are hardly any monsters there either.”

”Perfect... Delphina, I’ll give you this as a gift.” I hand her an empty core made of my mana.

”...Oh, thank you!!” She gets excited when she sees what it is. Giving mana to someone is a sign of trust.

Because mana usually leaves traces, it means that committing crimes and framing someone else is easy if you have something like this mana core I gave to Delphina’s clone.

”Delphina, give me a map, I’ll stay there.” I’ll wait at least until October 21st, my birthday. My mother said Vanessa will come after me, but she doesn’t know the exact time.

I never imagined that Vanessa would be the first to reach maximum level, but with her ability, it makes sense. However, her ability is full of weaknesses.

”...Here you go.” Delphina takes a map from somewhere and hands it to me.

”Pandora, be careful... I know you’re going to do something dangerous.”

”...Don’t worry.” I’ve waited a long time for my revenge, and although it’s only with one hero, that’s already very good. I’m going to love making that bitch suffer.

”I’ll have the advantage, Delphina.” I’ll prepare in this place and make the entire area around me useful for me.