The Dark Rebirth of Pandora: Revenge of the Abyss

Chapter 507: Captured

”...” I finally wake up and look around. The first thing I do is check my surroundings. I see I’m in some sort of underground place, very deep because the atmospheric pressure has changed drastically.

I also see that the walls, the floor, and everything is made of pulsating reddish flesh that’s oozing a strange liquid. The whole place has a faint sweet smell that my body recognizes as a mild drug, but it’s very potent.

’My copy?’ I try to see if I managed it, and fortunately, thanks to the Essence of Creation ability, I succeeded in creating a copy of my consciousness. It’s in an inert state, completely deactivated until I seal away my true consciousness.

’It’s identical to me...’ I analyze it, and it’s 100% the same as me in every way, except, of course, for being more curious. I made it more curious so it would ask lots of questions and scour all the information it finds, allowing me to discover new things.

”I see you’re awake.” Mnemosyne emerges from the floor, her body connected to the place, which seems to contort.

”Yes... so... what are you going to do with me?” I ask, now more confident. Since she isn’t going to kill me, I’m relatively safe until I regain the strength to escape.

”Obviously have children. I want your genes, and I’m going to take them.” She speaks with such confidence it irritates me.

”One question. If you only want my genes, why not let me go after taking them?” She could release me. I’d even let her have her tentacles on me if she freed me afterward.

”Because you regenerate. Because you’re fertile. Because you’re perfect for getting pregnant repeatedly without breaking. Do you know how hard it is to find a good ’mother’ for my children?”

”Most girls break in just a few years. I take such good care of them, with so much love, affection, and perfect nourishment, but their fragile bodies reach their limit regardless of care... and either they die from exhaustion or their brains can’t handle it anymore.”

”Ah, but not you. Not your race. Your race has no limits. If a wall appears, you’ll adjust to it... I know if you have time, you’ll adapt until you can escape me.” She speaks with a crooked smile.

”Think I don’t know? I know your race well. Because I helped build it.”

”W-wait, what?” I’m completely confused by what she says.

”Where do you think your abnormally high regeneration comes from? I was with your mother on the day your race was created. Me and a bunch of other Abyssal beings. We all shared something with your mother.”

”Of course, that doesn’t mean you’re a chimera—far from it. You just use the biological means that we use. In short, your mother studied my body, saw how I regenerated, saw that I had the greatest regeneration, and decided to use it.”

”Don’t you think it’s strange how your body regenerates so quickly, even compared to other regenerative beings?” She’s teaching me something absurd. I always thought my mother created my race alone. I never imagined she used other beings as templates.

”There’s a select group of participants who know exactly how strong your race is, and we also know all its strengths. And of course, one of the points of your adaptation is passive growth.”

’Damn, she talks too much...’ This is good for finding out more, but since she appeared, it’s been clear she’s very talkative.

”In a few millennia, you should already have the strength to escape me and—”

”Could you summarize? You know, you do a lot of monologuing...” She’s practically repeating what she said at the beginning at this point.

”...Summarize... Yes, I’ll summarize for you... I’m going to destroy your mind and control you. It doesn’t matter if you get stronger in the future. Your adaptation is incapable of freeing you from my mental control.”

”And I know this well, because the brain your mother used as a basis to build yours wasn’t very efficient at dealing with mental attacks. She focused everything on processing power to handle your adaptation.”

’It’s what I expected...’ Of course she’d try to dominate my mind. I didn’t expect anything different.

”So... are you going to do it now? Also, do you really only want me for children?” It’s a much calmer kidnapping than I expected. She isn’t very aggressive, or maybe being aggressive is useless for someone like her, so she avoids aggression.

”Yes, only children. And you will give them to me. Nothing more than that... Oh, but maybe I’ll use you to kill your older sister.”

”Hey, what the fuck did you just say?” She has a serene face and a devilish little smile.

”HEY, YOU BITCH, THINK THAT UHMMHH!!!” A tentacle emerges from the floor and covers my mouth while I curse this fucking whore who wants to kill my older sister.

’Shit! This bitch will pay! I’ll devour her when I’m stronger!’ I activate the ability I made to protect myself from this and leave the copy in my place. The copy, which doesn’t know it’s a copy and acts just like me, will fool this bitch.

If the copy knew it was a copy, this bitch might find out. But if the copy really thinks it’s me, then they’ll never discover anything.

17=Mental Prison - An ability that contains the target’s mind in a cocoon within a hidden point of the mind. The user will be trapped, unable to interact with the outside world, but in return, the outside world is unable to interact with the user.

As soon as I use the ability, I’m thrown from consciousness. I look around and realize I’m in an all-black place, and my current ”body” is inside a completely transparent cocoon.

”This is it?” I can move around inside here. I try hitting the cocoon, but nothing happens. It seems my mind really is trapped.

”I’d like to see the outside.” I murmur, sitting on the floor. Soon, the cocoon in front of me glows and shows the vision from the body.

”I can see?” I see the outside, my body. It’s trying to curse that whore for saying she’d kill my older sister.

”Hehehe, she acts just like me... Now... what do I do?” I don’t know what to do, since all I can do is wait for my body to become strong enough to kill that bitch. Then I can return with my mind intact.

”Maybe... this is a good time to finally take my time to study?” I have time, and there’s a training technique that boils down to using a mental space to strengthen oneself. Using my knowledge of universal laws, I can do many things.

”Hmmmm, what should I learn... I know... I’ll create an element!!! Why did I never think of this?” This idea comes to me out of nowhere. To create my own element—not learn one or practice an existing one, but create an element from scratch that only I will have in all of existence.

A powerful element that no one but me knows. The Sacred Element was clearly created by Elysia, the goddess of humans. Meaning, goddesses—even if not the Primordial Goddess—can still create elements.

”A powerful element... made to annihilate things...” I close my eyes, deciding not to pay attention to the outside for now. It’s cool that I can see, but why would I want to watch my body start to be controlled? Better to use the time on something useful.

I cross my legs, place my hands on my thighs, and begin to meditate. At the same time, I organize my memories into something more suitable and gather fragments of information to try to create a new element with what I know and have.

...

...

...

”Mommy Grimm, you seem shaken?” Azazel asks while I’m in her room at the academy. I visit her sometimes at night.

”Ah, daughter... it’s nothing... just something bad happened.” I say, waving my hand as if it’s nothing serious while watching Pandora’s future. Pandora ended up meeting the one person I least wanted her to meet.

’I can’t believe Pandora has such bad luck to run into Mnemosyne of all people.’ That greedy little aberration is a troublesome enemy, and I didn’t want Pandora to find her, especially because of her mind-control capabilities.

’There were so many futures where Pandora never found her. Did she have to go and pick a future where she did? This is frustrating...’ It’s like reading a wonderful story, but at an advanced moment, the protagonist chooses something wrong and falls into a stupid story branch.

’If I could see what’s going on in Pandora’s head... it would be so much easier to deal with this feeling...’ I look at Azazel, my dear daughter with Pandora, my soulmate.

’Well, at least Mnemosyne won’t kill Pandora.’ I know that woman well. She almost never kills other women, because her power depends heavily on female bodies in general, so she usually protects them.

”Azazel, what’s the best way to deal with a tentacle monster’s mind control?” I ask Azazel, who is friends with Shogo, that tentacle girl. I’m curious about my daughter’s answer.

”Hmmm, Mommy Grimm, wouldn’t it just be to protect your mind?” She says something curious.

”How so?”

”Well... Shogo told me she controls people’s brains! She did that for Mommy Pandora. Mommy Pandora told her to control those human women’s brains, but not their minds!”

”Shogo said she was forbidden from altering the mind, so she can only continue controlling the brain! And with that, the weakness of tentacle monsters’ mind control is that they attack the brain first, then the target’s mind!!”

”If you protect your mind, they become unable to attack it! Although I don’t know how to protect your mind.” She says something very clever.

’Did she really just come up with that idea? That... speed...’

”You’re a genius, Azazel. Even if that’s how it is, almost no one would be able to think of that!” Separating the brain from the mind isn’t something people normally do. People treat the brain and mind as the same thing.

’I wonder if Pandora noticed that weakness too?’ If Pandora can’t protect her mind, she’ll be completely screwed, and I’m... worried... I’m very worried she’ll fall into eternal mind control.

”Mommy Grimm, are you worried about Mommy Pandora?” My daughter notices.

”...What gave it away?”

”You’re always smiling, or you have this kind of... mischievous... face. But when you think about Mommy Pandora, you give dumber smiles, or you look worried with your eyebrows furrowed.”

”Don’t worry, Mommy Grimm!! Mommy Pandora is amazing, and powerful, and invincible!!” Azazel innocently cheers me up.

”...Yes... she is... Pandora is invincible.” I go along with it, knowing it’s not true. She’s nowhere near invincible, but I guess I’ll give a vote of confidence that she’ll be okay.