The Dark Rebirth of Pandora: Revenge of the Abyss

Chapter 554: An Easily Irritable Sister

”What do you want, Elysia?” I ask, frustrated. It’s so annoying serving this creepy weirdo.

”Morynna, cheer up. I have good news for you today.” She speaks with a strange smile. Lately, she’s spent all her time frustrated and angry because Azraelith escaped.

’Good news. As if that wretched woman could ever do anything good...’

”Rolling your eyes at your master is disrespectful, but fine, goddess of dragons. I’ll get straight to it. I’m going to free you from slavery.” When she says this, I look at her, shocked.

”Seriously?”

”Oh, absolutely. It’s only logical, you know? With Azraelith loose, you’re in danger too. Your only option is to cooperate with me. And I need my divine weapon back. Since I can only use it exclusively on one person, if I keep it bound to you, I won’t even be able to use it to fight.”

”And I’m definitely going to have to use it in the battles to come, so I’ve already started preparations. Weapons, artifacts, potions, spells, and much more. Preparation is the best we have to be able to defeat those aberrations.”

”And unfortunately, you free are more useful than you being my slave. Besides, this time you won’t be able to try to run away, since this problem affects you too.” When she says that, I feel disappointed.

’Damn it... she’s right... freedom won’t make a difference now. I’ll still need her help.’ Undeniably, Elysia is an incredible strategist. She’s the only one who can rival the Abyss Goddess in strategy, and considering the power difference, strategies are important.

”Fine...” Before I can even finish speaking, she already has her sword in her hand. I look at my neck and feel the freedom to do whatever I want again.

”...”

”I know what you’re thinking, and it wouldn’t be smart to attack me. We don’t have enough power to waste. I need your help with some spells I’m preparing in advance to cast during the fight.”

”The Elf Goddess said she’ll help too, though she’s only helping because she’s a target anyway. And I haven’t found the Nature Goddess yet, but I just need to pressure her a little and she’ll help.”

”The only problem is that bitch Delphina. She’s definitely not going to help anymore. She probably won’t take any side, so at least she’s not a concern.”

’She’s right. Delphina usually avoids things unless it disturbs the peace she loves. But in the past, our chance of victory was greater, and because Elysia kept bothering her, Delphina joined us reluctantly.’

’But now our chance of victory is smaller, so she won’t even see a reason to join us...’ I click my tongue. The situation is terrible.

”And what will you do about Pandora? Azraelith isn’t the only problem, even if she’s the biggest one. We already know how to beat Azraelith—just defeat her within the first hundred blows.” Because Azraelith’s power increases based on how many hits she takes.

The focus is always to land powerful, one-shot attacks to defeat her, rather than prolonging the fight or using weak blows.

”You’re right. Azraelith might be an absolute monster, but even she only becomes dangerous if she takes too many hits. That’s why I think it’s better for you to handle her. Your fighting style is based on single attacks with immense destructive power—you have the best chance of killing Azraelith with few blows.”

”About Pandora... she’s an inconvenient variable. We don’t know how she’ll fight using what she has. We only know she adapts, so prolonging a fight against her isn’t suitable... but fortunately, during the war on the planet, my humans discovered quite a bit.”

”Even though humanity was practically decimated, I gained some concrete data. And I can say Pandora isn’t as big a threat as Azraelith.”

”Why? Because Pandora fights like I do—relying on strategy and using various abilities. It’s a fighting style that matches mine, so I believe it’s better for me to handle Pandora.”

”That leaves the Abyss Goddess. No way to know if she’ll show up, since she’s usually trapped inside the Abyss. But if she does appear, the Elf and Nature Goddesses would need to hold her off until one of us is free to go help.”

”But if the Abyss Goddess doesn’t appear, I’ll probably have the two of them come help me kill Pandora. And once Pandora is dead, we’ll come help you land a strong enough attack to finish Azraelith once and for all.” She speaks something concrete but unrefined.

’Seems like a decent start to a plan... but this whole plan depends on none of us losing our respective fights...’ This plan seems too risky.

”Elysia, you usually don’t like taking this many risks. Why now?”

”Because those two aberrations, daughters of that damned Echidna, adapt. An overly complex plan won’t work. The more complex the plan, the greater the chance it fails because of them.”

”The best thing is a simple, fast plan, so neither of them has time to adapt. That’s why the plan I mentioned is simple and risky. With them in play, this is all we have left.”

”Okay...” I’m free, but she’s right. If I run away, it won’t end like this. The Abyss Goddess doesn’t leave loose ends. She’ll come after me if Elysia dies. So for now, I just accept following her.

...

...

...

”Pandora, you little bitch!! This isn’t the training you said we’d have!!” I shout at the hundreds of tiny Pandoras running around crazily. Some of them are latched onto me, biting me.

”Azraelith! Azraelith!! Azraelith!!! Azraelith!!!!” One of the tiny Pandoras approaches me, jumping onto my stomach. I grab the one biting my neck and throw it far away.

”Pandora, what the hell was that?! And which one are you among all of them?!” I don’t know—they’re all identical, with the same power and the same mana release.

”Hehehehe!” Several of them laugh. Some are fighting, throwing themselves on top of each other, and others have even started fucking in the middle of everything. Meanwhile, others are gnawing on my body, and their little teeth really hurt.

”I’m Pandora.” One of the Pandoras steps away from the others. She has a calmer, less chaotic look.

”And yes, this is part of the training. I wanted to test if my beloved sister could find the real one. And from what I see, you can’t!” She speaks all pompous and arrogant. I grab the Pandora clinging to my leg and crush her head.

”Okay, what the hell kind of weird ability is this?”

”...Nothing special. Anyway, I’m thinking about the best way for us to win our fight against the goddesses. This ability might be useful. Unfortunately, it prevents me from using my full power—it’s an escape ability.”

”But it’s useful for you. I know the Human Goddess is incredibly skilled and has many diverse powers, just as humans have diverse powers. I wouldn’t doubt she has an escape plan.”

”I bet that unlike a proud goddess, Elysia and the others might try to run. If you end up fighting Elysia in my place—since the future is unpredictable—you must not let her escape.”

”And avoid being sealed again.” Her saying this makes me growl at her.

”I won’t get sealed again. That was a dirty trick by the goddesses, and I was fighting several of them at once. Besides, why are those little things fighting?”

”...” Pandora looks at her various copies.

”They’re chaotic and driven 100% by instinct. Not very rational, and they just do whatever they want, but they generally obey. They’re only good for distraction, but they can use my passives, so their teeth can chew through anything.”

”They’ll help us with anger control training. You’re someone very angry and impulsive, and that’s bad. What if they provoke you to lead you into a trap?”

”Remember, they won’t fight fair. I’m sure the goddesses have already started preparing! If you get provoked and recklessly charge at them, you could lose!! And if you lose, I might end up losing too.”

”And you can be sure, they’ll use your previous defeat to provoke you! So before they provoke you, I’m going to provoke you! Or rather, my copies here will provoke you. You can kill them—it’s no problem.”

”Just try to restrain yourself and only endure the insults! The day you stop reacting to provocations, you’ll have passed the training.”

”That’s easy. What do you think? That I’m some kind of child who falls for any provocation?” I say irritably that she thinks I’m so easily manipulated.

”...Copies, you may verbally hurt our beloved big sister here. Make her fill with hatred!” The real Pandora blends in with the fake Pandoras and vanishes. I don’t know if she’s among them or ran off, but I feel a magic signature moving far away, so I think Pandora is just going to observe.

”So...”

”You look like a slut!!”

”Weak!! Weak! Weak! Lost to a weak little goddess like Elysia, how pathetic!! Buuuhh!! Got sealed in such a pitiful way!!!”

”Hideous! Trash! Failure! You’re so incompetent, hihihihi!”

”Mommy hates you because you’re useless-”

CRACK

I punch the copy’s face, exploding its head, followed by crushing the heads of the other two copies, my face red with rage.

”You damned brats, I’ll erase you from existence!!”

”Buuh, buhh!! So angry!! Stupid bitch! Easily manipulated! Rookie!! That’s why mommy doesn’t trust you!! Buuh-!”

CRASH

”SHUT UP, YOU LITTLE BITCH!!”

”Oh, oh, oh, poor me!! I’m the adorable, gentle, loving little sister of an airhead who falls for provocations and insults!! Echidna would be so disappointed-”

”YOU DAMNED WOMAN! DON’T YOU DARE SPEAK OF MY MOTHER IN THAT MOCKING WAY!” I crush her by stomping on her body, my mind filling with hatred from every word and the laughter of all these copies.

That annoying laughter coming from all sides, each one spewing different insults, playing with my insecurities.

’Pandora, you are such a malicious worm!!’ I don’t even know if this is training or just Pandora wanting to mock me. But without giving me time, while they’re all talking, one jumps onto my back, reaching my ear.

”Breeding piglet, it’s so pathetic you’re losing to mere words. Come on, resist a little. Do it for your beloved little sister who’s going to fuck you senseless-”

”SHUT UP! [INCINERATE]” I use magic, burning them all until nothing’s left and melting the entire training area into a great sphere of flames. The silence that follows, without more laughter, is so sweet that I fall to my knees, gasping.

I can still hear their laughter in my head, as if they were still here mocking and laughing at me, hundreds of voices repeating insults.

”You failed, Azraelith.” The real Pandora appears. She’s in her normal form, not shrunk, probably because all the copies died, so Pandora regained her size.

”You couldn’t even endure one minute of insults. That’s regrettable, but it’s okay. You did better than I expected, considering Wrath makes you easy to irritate. We have time. Want to stop now or continue?”

”...” I get up and push her away, leaving.

”Okay, we’ll stop here then. But I’m not stopping this training. I’ll give you twelve hours of rest and then I’ll come back to irritate you until you’re able to hear and ignore the insult! And I’ll do this no matter where you are—eating, bathing, reading, sleeping!”

”I’ll be there to irritate you until you lose your cool! Because I don’t want you to die or get sealed just because you fell for the provocations of those bitch goddesses.” She says this with such malice. But she’ll see—when it’s my turn to train her, she’ll regret doing this to me now.

Since this bitch wants to do everything to irritate me, I’ll watch her. I’ll learn what hurts her most, and I’ll hurt her as much as she’s hurting me now!! She must have some weak point! And I’ll find it.