The Dark Rebirth of Pandora: Revenge of the Abyss

Chapter 336: Problems to Deal With

”Thanks for comin’ with me Lilith, Nix, Kaos and Iris,” I say to the saint with a smile.

”Ain’t no thang, Elena. You’re gonna see that human that showed up a while back, right? Ain’t that somethin’? Pandora literally got humans to start a whole religion for her,” Lilith says excitedly.

”Yeah, it is... though havin’ humans here is kinda gross,” I say as we arrive at a building that’s the church for worshippin’ Pandora. This church has beastmen, humans, and elves that came with that girl.

”Oh, Elena, what brings you here?” someone says to me, and I look to see it’s the very person I came to see Isabel, a pretty bold human that Pandora apparently saved.

”I came to talk to you about housin’ and services for the humans... or somethin’ like that,” Pandora didn’t show the slightest interest in comin’ here to see ’em.

’That’s kinda sad...’ This girl seems to worship Pandora with all her might, but it’s obvious Pandora don’t give a hoot about her. Besides, humans ain’t trustworthy they’re greedy and sneaky.

”I gotcha, well, just follow me then,” she says, walkin’ into the church, while I follow. Lilith and her other heads decide to hang back outside.

”You know how it is, Elena. I’m a saint, so it ain’t too comfy for me to go in a church that ain’t mine, even if it’s a church for Her Majesty,” Lilith says, headin’ off somewhere.

”...” Meanwhile, I follow Isabel to a private room in the back, where she offers me a chair to sit.

”So, how’s things goin’ here?” I ask.

”Ah, you know how it is. I got here a while back, but there’s so many people, we’re still tryin’ to figure everything out. And ’bout 23% of the folks died on the trip,” she says with sorrow.

’Had to be humans to be so slow-witted.’ Demons would’ve had everything squared away in a week, max, and these humans can’t even get their act together after more than 2 months.

”Any specific issues you wanna mention?” I ask.

”Well, yeah, it’s about the food we’re gettin’ it ain’t enough...” she says, and I give her a strange look.

”I hope you know we ain’t got food to be givin’ y’all for free. 70% of the folks that came with you don’t even work.”

”We demons are already offerin’ a whole lot just by sharin’ food. If you want more, get everyone to grab a real job,” I say coldly. She thinks food just grows on trees?

Food here is one of the toughest things to come by. It ain’t somethin’ that just appears. We’ve got our own issues, and we don’t need her problems too, just ’cause the demons are gettin’ free food don’t mean we got plenty of it.

It takes a lotta effort from everyone for this to happen, not to mention the clever ideas that make it work.

”Well... it’s tough, the demon territory is real hostile, even the air here is kinda bad...”

”So now you’re insultin’ us too? We’ve lived here forever, and everything’s been fine so far. If you weak humans are havin’ issues, it ain’t our responsibility to deal with that,” I interrupt her.

”Even the beastmen we’ve taken in have already adapted to the place and our rules. You ain’t special just ’cause you worship Pandora. The rules are the same for everyone,” I say with an irritated expression.

”...” She grips the table tightly, glarin’ at me like I’m some awful person.

”We’re bein’ real generous. You’d better get yourselves adjusted quick and start workin’, or maybe we’ll have to cut you out, ’cause you’re practically parasites livin’ in this kingdom.” Things are tough enough without more problems.

”You’re awfully bold for a mere assistant,” she says to me, like this is some kind of competition.

”At least I serve Pandora directly, unlike a stuck-up weakling like you who can only worship her. Don’t think you’re special just ’cause you got some help from Pandora,” Pandora don’t care much about others’ races.

She only cares if something can be useful or not. If it’s useful, she takes it, and if it’s useless, she discards it.

”...I know that well. I’m just tryin’ my best to make her religion prosper...” She says with determination.

’At least she seems genuinely loyal...’

”There’s a possible solution for your... ’protégés’ to receive some benefits, if you’re interested in hearin’ it,” I say, catching her attention.

”And what’s that?” Isabel asks with some interest.

”Pandora handed down several plans to deal with the current hunger, one of which has been active for a while the ’factory’ for milk and tentacles. That’s helped, but it’s still not enough, thanks to you.”

Besides the demons who already need the food, there are the beastmen that Pandora took in. So with the beings that Isabel brought, the number got really big, and we even had to expand the kingdom by 3.1 times, making it as big as the elven kingdom.

Isabel brought over 100,000 people with her a mix of humans, beastmen, and elves. Of course, 100,000 more normally wouldn’t make that much of a difference if they were demons.

But the thing is, these are 3 different races, and these races aren’t blindly loyal to Pandora. So they cause problems with disobedience and insubordination.

Thanks to Pandora, our kingdom is basically a utopia compared to the past everything here is thousands of times better than before. But this is maintained largely through loyalty and force.

Pandora is too strong for anyone to challenge her, so the demons obey everything out of loyalty, and the beastmen obey out of force. But the humans are arrogant.

Even with someone obviously stronger, they still try to be rebellious. So the problem is 100% the humans that came.

”But the ’factory’ for milk and tentacles isn’t the only thing. Pandora may not have come to see you, but she figured your insubordination would exist,” I say, as Isabel seems bothered by the way I’m talking about them.

”The option I’m offering is this: you’ll voluntarily use this in the water and food of your church members,” I say, placing a bottle with a purple liquid on the table.

”And what is this?” She asks, suspicious, picking up the bottle.

”It’s a potion, made with Pandora’s blood, lots of magic, some monster materials, as well as compressed blood and flesh from 79% of all common demon types. And it received a mana alteration from Pandora herself in her spare time,” There’s blood and flesh from most demon types in there.

”What does it do?” She asks, now with some interest.

”It’s simple, really. Pandora’s been studying something recently these past few months something about humans creating monsters,” She didn’t explain it properly when I asked about those confusing reports.

She just said the human church is trying to create something and is creating monsters, so she decided to create her own monsters.

”What this potion does is a forced ’demonization’ it genetically and fundamentally alters the basis of a being’s existence, forcing them to become a demon,” Pandora said Shogo can transform others’ bodies into tentacles.

Just like she did with Liona and her other pet. So Pandora was studying how to forcibly swap a being’s race.

”...” Isabel seems shocked.

”A-Are you saying...”

”That you should transform all the humans and elves into demons. Only the beastmen can remain normal. No one else should keep their original race,” The beastmen are forced to serve Pandora due to the system, since their representative lost a war involving both races.

”And don’t worry, this potion has already been tested and works. Pandora is a genius, isn’t she? Swapping a being’s race is a truly divine feat that only a goddess could accomplish,” I say with a smile.

”Plus, there’s no reversal or second swap. Once you change, there’s no going back to the original state. Pandora said even she couldn’t undo the effect trying would result in guaranteed death.”

”So they’ll be demons forever, and as such, they’ll be forced to be loyal due to the authority that comes with the demon king title,” I say, as Isabel seems to think it over.

”I accept, but we don’t need to do this in secret,” She says with a devilish smile.

”...?”

”I learned from Pandora. I’ll gather everyone and explain what this is. Those who accept will continue to live, and those who refuse will be executed by the execution squad,” She says, surprising me.

”Oh? Interesting... Just dilute the potion in water a drop can transform 2,000 liters without losing effect,” I tell her how to use it. She seems unusually excited to become a demon.

”Great... great indeed. I can’t wait to be closer to Pandora,” She says, holding the potion with extreme care.

”Also, be careful. This potion is extremely difficult to make. It’ll take a while to make another bottle,” I say seriously. Pandora took some time to make this.

’Though... she could’ve valued it more...’ Pandora practically didn’t care about the potion after it worked. She just gave it to me and said to do whatever I wanted with it.

When I asked, Pandora just said she had no interest in it at all. She only practiced the potion because she wanted to try seeing how to swap a being’s race.

Pandora said she already knew how to do this before, using shadow insects to modify someone from the inside, but it was slow and didn’t fully change them, leaving traces.

This potion, however, modifies them 100%, so it’s better than the shadow insects. Pandora said it was fun learning to make this and that she understood the principle, so she had no reason to keep practicing it.

’Though, I lied...’ There are over a thousand bottles of this. Pandora was trying various things, so she made a lot. I just said it’s limited to see Isabel’s reaction and whether she’ll try to discard it.

’I wonder what kind of demon Isabel will become.’ I think it’s possible she’ll become a succubus she has that kind of style that reminds me of that. The potion can transform the drinker into one of the 79% demon types it contains.

The demon blood and flesh were used to create an adaptable choice, so when someone drinks it, they can turn into whichever race best suits their body.

”Thank you for the help, Elena... Sorry for being so prickly. I’m just trying my best, it’s just hard to control people,” Isabel apologizes.

”It’s fine... I’ll be going now. And I’ll start sending more supplies your way, as long as you hold up your end, everything will be perfect,” I say, standing up to leave.

’Pandora can really be terrifying.’ Swapping someone’s race and treating it like nothing I wonder if Pandora plans to become something greater than a goddess.

Not even the other goddesses have tried messing with each other’s races, but Pandora had the audacity and courage to try this. She’s truly one of a kind.