The Dark Rebirth of Pandora: Revenge of the Abyss

Chapter 297: Mana in the World

I walk through the school humming and chasing the ”rats” who think they’re well hidden. I end up entering one of the classrooms, but I’m greeted by chalk dust in the face and a rope that binds me.

”...” I see a girl holding a kendō sword pointed at me. I knew about the trap, but it’s ridiculous to think that could stop me.

”Why aren’t you hiding?” I ask as the rope breaks with the movement of my tail.

”I-I’m going to protect the others,” she says, getting into a fighting stance. I briefly look at the live stream, and several people seem to recognize this girl.

’National kendō champion...’ It’s completely irrelevant, but I like the color of this girl’s aura it’s a mix of courage and innocence that overpowers the color of fear.

”Are you protecting those students hidden over there?” Four students and three parents of the heroes hiding like cowards.

”Y-Yes,” she agrees, trying to stop trembling.

’Doesn’t seem fake...’ She doesn’t have the color of disgust, hatred, or disdain, only the colors of fear, courage, and a strange innocence.

”Urhk” In an instant, I open a huge hole in her stomach with my tail before she can react. As I slowly pull my tail back, the hole allows me to see the other side, and she falls to the ground.

”It’s foolish to think you can defeat me with fencing when you don’t even have the speed to react to my tail,” I say to her, approaching and looking at her colors.

’They’re still beautiful, though there’s much more fear now.’ I think for a moment and then heal her wound.

”You’ve been given the chance for a new life,” I say, ignoring her on the ground and going to kill the others. Her innocence was enough, and I liked the color of her aura it reminds me a bit of Shogo.

Also, I had told the lie that I’m purifying the land and leaving the pure ones alive, so it doesn’t cost me anything to leave this girl alive. It was fun to see someone try to fight and fail miserably.

”Hmm hmm hmm,” I hum lightly, passing through the desks as shadow tentacles capture all the hidden ”rats,” covering their mouths while I pull them closer to me.

”I think...yes, this seems like a good animal,” I’m trying out many new shadows, not even knowing what abilities they have, just using them because they seem good for torture.

With the tentacles covering their mouths, I generate a shadow electric eel that descends into their throats, entering their stomachs. I look at the 7 captured people, seeing how their stomachs twist because the shadow eel is thrashing around.

They cry and try to scream, but I just watch as the eel violently writhes inside each one. It seems relatively large, so it must be putting an enormous strain on their organs.

”Can...devour,” I think for a moment and allow the shadow eel to eat, and soon the despair of everyone increases as the eel thrashes even more violently.

They seem to be suffering greatly as holes appear in their stomachs, and you can even see slight movements inside where the eel is feasting.

I dodge to the side without even looking, evading the kendō girl’s strike. Even after a second chance, she still comes to try and help these people.

With my tail, I knock her to the ground and look at her as she tries to get up, but I stomp on her head with force, disorienting her.

”Why do you want to save these people so much? It’s not like you owe them anything, and you’ve already been given a chance to survive.”

”It’s b-because it’s n-not fair,” she says with courage and tears.

”They’re f-friends and acquaintances, h-how could I let a genocidal m-monster with a god complex kill t-them,” she speaks with courage and tears.

”A monster with a god complex? Is that how I appear in the human vision?” I say with a little smile. It’s quite amusing that they think that of me.

”I honestly don’t care much, but I can tell you that not everything I’m doing is bad,” I tell her the truth. I’m spreading my mana in this world.

”I think I’ll mention the positive points. It’s true that I’m killing many people, but I’m also leaving a gift to humanity,” I say, moving away from her a bit and sitting on the desk while briefly looking at the live stream.

”What I’m doing is spreading all my mana throughout this world. This means that when I’m gone, remnants of what is my power will still remain in this world.”

”And my power is completely self-sustaining, so my mana will only restore itself and never disappear from this world. Do you know what that means?” I ask rhetorically without expecting her to answer.

”It means that humans will have powers in the future. Think of it as a new beginning for the remaining humanity. I’m eliminating the dregs and excess of humans, but I’m also giving the gift of having a new, powerful source of energy that guarantees magical powers.”

She gets up, picking up her sword and looking at me.

”I-If you’re really doing this because you need to kill us, why do you seem to enjoy playing with our lives!” She says with anger and tears.

”Because I can, that’s all there is to it. For me, this is truly very entertaining, but I’m not just doing bad things I’m giving a unique gift to what I can call the [New Humanity].”

”You of the future, those who survive this apocalypse that is happening, will, so to speak, be different from the current humans. Three fundamental things have changed.”

”First, problems like housing, hunger, and overpopulation will disappear for a time because you will have more resources, as well as new resources like new animals and plants that have emerged due to my mana.”

”Second, you will be more responsible and ’good’ beings because you will fear that I will revisit you again to perform another purification. There will still be sins, and obviously, many will still be evil, but it will improve a bit.”

”Third, you will have a new source of clean, pure, and powerful energy that will grant you incredible powers to help solve many problems.” I stop my explanation here.

”Now I’m going to continue my work. Don’t show up in front of me again. I suggest you stay here because I’m very patient, but I hate when people try to waste my gifts.”

”And if I see you again trying to kill me or defend these people, I’ll put you through hell before killing you.” I say to her as I leave the room. The humans I captured have already died painfully to the shadow eels.

”Good luck in the new world I’m creating, human,” I say as my heavy aura, which I momentarily release, leaves her on her knees, struggling to breathe. I close the door and go after the next ones, humming softly.

In reality, I’m not going to give powers to humans. It just happened by chance since my mana will simply remain here, affecting the world, so I just took the credit as if it were a real gift.

I don’t care what these idiots will do, and I don’t plan to return to this place again. They can do whatever they want, even kill themselves with the magic they gain. I don’t care.

”Found them,” I murmur, entering another room and seeing two of the parents of the heroes. They try to run, but I cut off their legs with wind magic, listening to their screams with a smile as the live stream records everything.

”What could be interesting now... How about the ants?” I murmur, releasing thousands of shadow ants, and watch what they’ll do. The ants quickly crawl to the two and, as soon as they arrive, the screams intensify.

The ants begin to dig into the flesh, making tunnels in the area where the legs were cut off. They cut, tear, and move the flesh in small pieces, making tunnels and quickly entering the body.

As some enter through any hole the body already has, they scream in despair, but that only helps the ants to enter through their mouths. Soon the bodies are completely covered in ants, and the screams have stopped.

”Tsk, they died too quickly,” I won’t use the ants anymore, I think. They’re too efficient at what they do, or maybe there were just too many of them.

”Oh well, next,” I leave the room without caring about it. The soul of each of the parents of the heroes, as soon as they die, goes into the empty pocket dimension to wait.

’Some of my shadows have been taken down...’ The army seems to be doing a great job.

”Seems the Japanese army is good, so how about I send them a little present?” I say to the live stream with a maniacal smile as I generate a huge shadow hidden in the ground.

A 400-meter shark that swims hidden within the ground, quickly joining the other shadows. They’ll have trouble killing a being like this, which can easily destroy them and be stealthy, entering the ground without making noise or showing where it is.

Just the fin sticking out would be the equivalent of a structure. It will certainly be something fun for them to try and hunt. I look out the window for a brief moment and see the shark leaping out of the shadows and catching a Japanese fighter jet in full flight.

”...” The live stream has incredulous comments, after all, the shark noticed the flying jet, positioned itself, and even caught it in flight, being faster than it.

”What a cute animal,” I leave the phrase in the air as I continue walking. Some other hundreds of shadows are also created to help destroy everything while I go after the remaining humans.

Anyway, the humans are only managing to kill the smaller and weaker shadows, but so far no large shadow has died because they are too resistant for common weapons.

’I think the next ones I encounter, I can try an animal like a shadow falcon or maybe an octopus,’ I think about what animal would make a painful, slow, and entertaining death.