The Dark Rebirth of Pandora: Revenge of the Abyss

Chapter 529: Humiliation for the Enemy

”...So you’re Pandora? You’re... bigger than they told me... and quite different in appearance, too.” A strange girl says to me out of nowhere. I was flying, searching for one of my mother’s servants, and this girl just appeared.

And she’s strong—undeniably very strong. Her level is probably in the range of 1 to 3 billion. Fortunately, still within the range of an opponent I can kill, even though my level is only 600 million.

”Your name?” I ask, landing on the ground. Normally, I’d be bothered by someone looking up from below to see my ”face”—since I’m naked, from that angle she can see everything—but at this point, it really doesn’t matter. Besides, she’s mainly staring into my eyes.

”I am Tsukiyo... a servant of the Abyss Goddess Echidna. I’ve come to take you to the goddess...” She speaks, giving a slight bow. I glance at her sword. It’s a katana.

’Liar...’

”I see. That sounds great... but why would my mother want to see me now? I’m not strong enough yet. I believe she expects me to achieve that by finding her on my own.” I play along.

”...She wishes to see you, so she sent me to fetch you. It was a bit difficult to find you at first, but now, with your power so visible, it’s become much easier.”

”How do you know I’m Pandora?” I look nothing like my normal form. Literally everything about my physique is different now.

”I have an ability for that. But I believe that doesn’t matter at the moment.” She’s quite polite in her speech, hardly seeming like an abyss monster.

”Alright... I guess I’ll go with you.”

”Excellent! Then please follow me. It’s a bit of a distance.” She turns and starts walking. I follow behind with extremely slow steps because she’s only 2 meters tall, and I’m 10 meters tall, so my strides are long.

’She smells of blood, death, and violence, despite all her politeness. Besides, she hasn’t told a single truth so far...’ I’ve been watching the colors of her emotions since we met.

I won’t be as lenient or patient with beings I don’t know anymore. I learned my lesson after going through some pretty awful things in the abyss.

”...” Since we’re near a plains area, I just follow her in silence, the slow pace letting me think calmly.

”You said your name is Tsukiyo?” I ask again, making conversation.

”Correct. My name is Tsukiyo.”

”That weapon... where did you get it?” She has a real katana, but a katana isn’t a weapon you’d find in the abyss. In fact, most abyss beings don’t have weapons, and if they do, the weapons are pieces of strong monsters that happen to resemble weapons.

But this girl’s weapon was clearly forged by someone. It’s too refined and too efficient to be a natural piece of a monster’s body.

”I... cannot answer that, and—GAHHHM!!” She leaps forward as I rip off her arm. She quickly turns to me, placing her remaining hand on the hilt of her sword.

She stares at me with pure confusion as I hold her severed arm, bringing it to my stomach, where a mouth opens and I devour her arm. The sound of crunching bones is pleasing.

”W-What do you think you’re doing?”

”Not bad. Even for a micro-fraction of a second, your body shifted to avoid worse damage. It’s hard to dodge when you don’t feel threatened, isn’t it?” My attack had zero murderous intent and zero intent to harm her, so it could easily be mistaken for a pat on the back.

”...” Tsukiyo draws her sword and takes a step back. She looks at her lost arm, then at me.

”It’s hard to regenerate, isn’t it? Does it hurt? Want another wound?” The mouth on my stomach smiles as I mock her.

”May I know why?” she questions, ready to fight.

”Tsukiyo... Tsukiyo... Tsukiyo... you’re not who you say you are. You’re not a servant of my mother. You’re probably the servant of one of my mother’s servants.”

”In other words, the one who sent you to fetch me was a servant of my mother, not my mother herself. Do you think I’m an idiot?” I take a stance, slightly spreading my legs and joining two of my hands in a symbol, while the other two hands take combat positions.

”...You just needed to come quietly...” Her expression turns serious as she mutters, her innocent facade vanishing.

”Do you think you can kill me?” Tsukiyo questions seriously. She must have noticed I’m weaker.

”I believe so. Your arm not regenerating is proof of that.” The Doom element, along with my passives, is perfect for completely destroying a living being’s natural regenerative factor.

”Besides, what about you, Tsukiyo? Do you think you can kill me?” I, who have no weak points like normal beings, who have no noticeable openings, and who injured her first, am truly a threat.

”Yes, I can.”

”Great, truly great. Then let’s fight to the death and see who kills who first. Hihihihi.” She charges at me, but before she gets close, I punch the ground, destroying the entire area and throwing her off balance. I appear behind her in an instant as she turns to defend against the blow, but I kick the rock she’s on to launch her upward.

”Ghmm!” She blocks a punch when I appear above her, but the force of my punch makes her hands tremble, and the lack of one arm prevents her from fighting at full strength.

”Good hit.” With my compliment, in an instant, I turn around and grab her blade with my hand. She looks at me in surprise, but my giant eye floating behind me gives me absolute vision from all possible angles around me. Attacking from behind is useless.

”...” I try to throw her away using the sword as leverage, but she doesn’t let go, so she’s flung along with it.

I join my four hands—two facing down, two facing up—and then fire a pure Mana beam of the Doom element. Firing Mana beams barely requires any sacrifice because it sacrifices small things from the environment to be launched.

”[Psyc-Gyo-Slash]” She uses a spell, and immediately both the Mana beam and my body are split vertically in two. But my blood holds the cut part and reattaches it.

My true flawed body—that giant black slime was ”immune” to death as long as it had Mana. No matter the attack, it would ”regenerate.” My current true form also has that. I won’t die as long as I have magic to regenerate my body.

All my blood has a composition similar to black slime, but much more efficient at regenerating me.

”That really makes me hungry, you know? When I defeat you, I’ll dismember you slowly while making you watch me devour your body.” The mouth on my stomach licks its lips as she jumps to strike me. Despite my size, I dodge and kick her upward, followed by a punch downward, slamming her into the ground.

She jumps back, dodging a downward kick. Rocks crack and fly from the kick’s impact.

”...” Tsukiyo stands still this time, not moving a muscle, but also not attacking.

”I see... seems you’ve noticed... how pitiful.” I say with pity that she’s stopped trying to attack. It turns out my true form prioritizes efficiency and survival above all else.

In other words, my fighting style, combined with this giant form, has become a strange counterattacking style. Whenever I’m attacked, I’ll use the enemy’s attack to counterattack them in some way.

It’s more of an automatic reflex. So if she doesn’t attack, I’ll be forced to attack on my own, rendering the counterattack margin useless.

”Clever... but also foolish. I’m not a warrior.” I point two of my arms at her.

”[Lunar Meteor Crater]”

[Lunar Meteor Crater] A Space-Dimensional magic that amplifies the force of 1 strike. This strike will have a 500-times increase in original force, creating a rupture in Space and the first 3 Dimensions.

”[Demon King’s Gravitational Pressure]” Lunar Meteor Crater is an ability I always thought of using with a physical strike, like a punch or kick. But it turns out the ability doesn’t say it’s only for physical strikes; it actually says ”one strike” without specifications.

And considering how the system works, it means this attack is actually a Buff—a Buff that will affect the attack used after the Buff. That’s why I use one of my favorite abilities, an ability I won’t need to hit with and that will remain in the environment for as long as I want.

”GGAAAAHHHHH” Tsukiyo screams in pain as her body begins to be crushed by gravity. Considering my level of 600 million, the 500-times increase means it’s as if this attack were from a Pandora at level 300 billion.

Of course, there are the limits of magic, reinforcement, and magical resistance, so 300 billion is an exaggeration. If it were really that, this girl would be dead.

But it’s a fact that it should still be power almost equivalent to a Pandora at around level 20 to 60 billion, more or less.

”What do you think, Tsukiyo? Smart use of the abilities I have, don’t you agree?” I taunt her, taking a step closer. She glares at me but can’t move. If she tries to move, she’ll be crushed by gravity, so she can only stand still, resisting the weight.

”You know, Tsukiyo... since I arrived in the abyss, I always thought, I must survive at all costs... but after finally becoming one, I realized: I am the Goddess of the Apocalypse. I am the Demon King who, on that planet, was the absolute top, who slaughtered my enemies.”

”So... why in the abyss would I have to be so submissive? It seems so... counterintuitive.” I stop in front of Tsukiyo and step on her. Now she has to resist two forces, making it even harder.

”That’s why I realized I wasn’t making the most of my Status. I thought most of my abilities would be useless in the abyss... but no. I was just using them wrong.” I step harder. Blood starts spraying from her body onto the ground.

”If I had been bold, if I had paid attention, I wouldn’t have stupidly lost to some years in the past...” I should have read my status better. I had many useful abilities.

”P-Please... s-stop...” Tsukiyo begs because now there’s no way she can beat me. Even though she’s stronger, it’s because gravity doesn’t just crush her exterior—it also crushes her insides. So her organs are being crushed too, and even for her, that must be horrible.

”No, not yet... not yet... I enjoy humiliating my opponents. I enjoy crushing them and making them feel like trash... I enjoy this unstoppable violence. I enjoy being so violent that I make those who challenge me afraid.” This is how I was when I was born.

And this is how I lived before—through pure violence. And now I’m returning to my ”roots,” but not as an irrationally violent beast. I’ve already left that phase.

”This is a totally new violence—a rational violence. What do you think of it?” I step even harder now, crushing her against the ground. I hear the sound of her sword cracking.

She can’t even use magic, and even if she could, it wouldn’t make a difference. She hasn’t noticed, but my current true form drains a lot of the ambient magic and magic used around me. In other words, any magic used near me becomes weaker and strengthens me.

”P-Please, I-I’ll tell you everything!! I-I don’t want to die!” she screams as I consider whether I should stop.

”Hehehehe... you’re strong. You could have killed me with the first strike. You would have won if you had attacked from the beginning... but you thought you could deceive me. How foolish.”

”Seems I’ve discovered an interesting weakness...” Abyss beings greatly underestimate those who are weaker. It’s not ”a little”—it’s literally guaranteed! Every being I’ve encountered so far underestimated me when I was weaker or seemed weak in their eyes.

’I see... the top predator mentality has made everyone in the abyss never even consider the idea that something weaker could not only defeat them but also humiliate them...’ I smile—a devilish smile with the mouth on my stomach.

”Ah... what a bad habit. Sorry for my monologue... I guess I’ve started to like talking a lot when humiliating my enemies.” Now that I’m acting like the goddess I am,

I’m able to make much more use of the system—the system full of loopholes, my status full of powerful abilities that I had ignored because I didn’t understand the best way to use them... until now. Now I understand.

Without the Yandere Pandora to limit me, I’ve finally reached the peak of control over my own mind and reasoning. And if before, as a monstrous, barely rational beast, I was dangerous, now that I have more rationality, my danger has increased.

”I wonder if your master is better than you, or if I’ll crush him like an insect too, for underestimating me too much. KAYHAHAHAHAHA” I laugh at this pathetic being who didn’t know how to make use of the strength she has.

Even though all my attacks in the fight were dirty, cowardly, opportunistic strikes, catching her by surprise.