The Dark Rebirth of Pandora: Revenge of the Abyss

Chapter 566: A Truth for a Friend

”...” Baeh’Wa left to go see my sister and help her for the next few hours, while I’m looking through the only books there are to read. There’s some information about races in the abyss.

’So the natural habitats of tentacle beasts are pretty much all over this area... what terrible luck I had, I was wandering around here the whole time...’ I was wandering through a terrible place, no doubt about it.

”Haa... nothing really useful for me right now.” I set the book down, uninterested in this useless content.

”Find anything good, Violet?” I ask curiously, putting the books I’d picked up back in their places. Honestly, whenever I remember that tentacled bitch and that spider slut, it just makes me furious.

”Nothing, just random knowledge about places in the abyss, some monster races, and how they live.”

’Mommy must have watched monsters and how they live for entertainment.’ It’s a shame, but I doubt Mommy will let me read the books in her room, since they’re books with pretty significant uses.

”Pandora... you know, there’s something I want to talk to you about...” Violet says, sitting down in front of me.

’On the floor?...’ I stare at her, then roll my eyes and sit on the floor, expecting some kind of complaint, but she creates a barrier that prevents anyone outside from seeing or hearing us.

’What a powerful barrier.’ I tap the barrier with my hand to test it, and it reverberates, reflecting everything back inside.

”What do you want to talk about that needs this barrier? Besides, you’re using my magic. Wasting this much magic on a barrier just to complain would honestly be irritating.”

”Pandora, now that for the first time in a long time you’ve actually summoned me for real, there’s something I need answers to... you know, we’re friends, right?”

”Yes, you’re annoying and all, but I do consider you a friend.” I also consider you a tool, but she doesn’t need me to say that.

”Yeah... we’re friends, and that’s why I, as your friend, kept ’ignoring’ things that weren’t my business... but honestly, Pandora, it got hard to ignore, you know?”

”What are you talking about?”

”Were you really human?”

”...”

’Ah... of course...’ I take a deep breath. It was obvious she knew. She’s always with me. She never said anything, but she’s been with me for a long time. She saw my hatred for the heroes, my revenge, me going to the planet Earth, me killing the heroes’ parents.

She saw my conversations with them, and she probably saw that conversation with the heroes where they figured out my identity. That actually gives me a good feeling, in a way. She always knew, but she never said anything.

I always ”lied” to myself, saying Violet was always asleep, because she never questioned anything, even though she’s arrogant and bold. But in the end, she just didn’t question it because our relationship, beyond master and weapon, is one of friends.

”Yeah... no reason to hide it from you. I was human in the past. Of course, I can’t even really consider myself that anymore.” With the knowledge of souls that I have, I know there’s absolutely nothing human left in me. My soul, at the moment it was reborn, completely molded itself to its ”new role” as Pandora.

From the point I was reborn, all that remained of the human in me were memories and some feelings. But even those feelings disappeared when I devoured the other Pandoras and Takashi within the Foundations of Creation.

I practically can’t feel anything for the past anymore. When I think about the past now, what comes to me isn’t hatred or a desire for revenge. It’s simply the emptiness of understanding that it no longer holds value. I’m already satisfied with what I’ve accomplished to avenge the past.

”H-Hahaha, seriously? You were human?” She laughs incredulously. Even knowing, it seems she could never really believe it.

”Yeah, by the way, I was a guy... it’s kinda weird to talk about it.”

”You were human!!? And a guy!!! YOU!?” She says this with so much disbelief and shock in her voice, as if she really didn’t know.

”Yeah...”

”Really?! Impossible!! You, who acts like a lascivious prostitute!! A bloody, savage beast, were once a human?”

’Is she actually surprised, or just insulting me?’

”Yeah, you know, saying it like that kind of sounds like you’re insulting me, right?”

”!!!”

”It’s simply unbelievable!! One of the first things we experienced together was your fight against Mikael in that sort of mental space where there was a soul battle or whatever. Back then, we hadn’t been together long, and you were also pretty young.”

”And one of my first glimpses of you was you masturbating and moaning for Mikael after he decapitated you in that fight and you returned to the room you were in before!! Are you telling me that someone who does that was a man!?”

’...’

”Saying it like that makes me seem like a freak. I’m a girl, you know? Besides, Mikael is a special case. I have a clear preference for girls.” It’s a fact that my taste leans toward the feminine side.

”Delphina has a dick, and not just one!! She has two!! Grimm also has one, using metamorphosis. Of your partners, only one is truly a complete girl, and that’s Zephyra!!”

”...”

”It’s just a coincidence. Besides, Azraelith doesn’t have a dick...”

”But she has a tail she uses like one to penetrate you!!”

”Violet!! I’m a girl! What’s the problem with that? Seriously!! You know reincarnation doesn’t work like that, right?” Reincarnation doesn’t take into account your gender or your past.

Reincarnated souls adapt to their new existences. It’s exactly like the Demon Goddess or the Beastman Goddess. Both reincarnated, and their souls adjusted to what their bodies were.

With the Demon Goddess reincarnating into a human, and the Beastman Goddess reincarnating into a kitsune girl. The fact is, gender is more a construct of the body than something spiritual. Souls don’t really have a defined gender.

And personal preference is based more on what the body feels and what the mind thinks than on the memories of what someone once was. After all, as a girl, I have female hormones. I’m biologically female, and obviously, I have the instincts of a female body.

So, despite the fact that I was a man before, me being a girl now doesn’t stop me from feeling things for the male sex, because my female body obviously has its own tastes. And my preference for girls is mainly personal preference.

”Violet, seriously, out of the fact that I reincarnated, the only thing that bothers you is that I like dick? Really?” There’s SO much she could ask or find strange, and the only thing is my personal taste? What a waste of time.

”Well, it’s kind of uncomfortable knowing that, you know, Pandora? It’s not that I have a problem, but the fact that you’re a reincarnation of a human makes me seriously question your mental health!! You’re, like, the most messed-up being I know.”

”And I always thought, ’Okay, Pandora is like this because she was born a monster.’ But no!! You’re like this for who knows what reason!!! Seriously, I’ve seen you do so many atrocities that now I feel really weird thinking about it, knowing that you weren’t like this before... you... weren’t like this, right?”

”No, as a human, I wasn’t ’evil.’ I was actually pretty pathetic.”

”Pff, must have been pretty funny... wait, you won’t get mad at me for saying that, right?”

”No... maybe in the past I would have, but now? Now I can’t care about that... the past just seems like an irrelevant flash, a fleeting moment in my life.” I can’t feel strongly about the past anymore.

Probably because I don’t have Tiny Pandora anymore, who represented that ”side” of me.

”What was your life like before?” She asks curiously, and I realize I’ve never talked about my life before.

”It was... unpleasant... I think the only good thing I had in my past life was my mother...”

”Ohhh, is that why you’re so obsessed with your current mother?”

”...I wouldn’t say obsessed, but maybe my desire for a family in the past grew a lot in this life and made me a bit controlling. But that’s inevitable, considering I came back with all my memories.”

”How did that happen?” She asks, genuinely curious, without judging me.

”...When I died, I found myself in a dark place, listening to the voice of the Abyss Goddess making me an offer. She wanted a daughter who would do anything for her, who would spread chaos, and who, as I understand it now, would free her. And I wanted power.”

”So, it just so happened that we were great options for each other. Besides, the fact that my human past existed doesn’t matter to her, because my mother understands that souls change.”

”She understands that the ’me’ of now has nothing human left. And I truly love the Abyss Goddess as my mother. So, in a way, we help each other have what we can’t have alone.”

”...” Violet stares at me, furrowing her brow.

”You don’t feel any discomfort... in being a different race?”

”Actually, no. Maybe because of the hatred I had in the past, I adapted perfectly to my new body. So much so that the first thing I did when I was reborn was devour someone, showing that I wasn’t capable of feeling remorse for killing.”

”Curious...”

”And you, Violet? Will you not want to be my friend because of this?”

”Of course I’ll be your friend! We’re connected for eternity, remember?!! We’ll always be friends, and I’d never judge you for your strange past. I’m just curious... and... happy...” She says, looking away and blushing.

”Happy?”

”Y-Yeah... happy that you trust me enough not to lie.” When she says that, it’s kind of funny, because I’m saying this not just because I trust her, but simply because I already can’t care about it.

If she had asked me this when I was outside the abyss, before devouring all the Pandoras within the Sea of Consciousness, I would have lied, out of shame for the past.

”Of course. I trust you, Violet, and I’m very grateful for your help, too. Without you, a lot of what I did could have gone wrong.” Especially my fight against Mikael. Without Violet, I would have died in that battle because I wouldn’t have been able to handle Mesumari.

”Hahaha, this is getting too sentimental!! Let’s talk about something else?” She says, all embarrassed. It’s the first time she’s dropped her tsundere attitude.

”Sure.” I smile at her, also satisfied to have such a good friend who doesn’t care about my past and is always by my side. It’s good to have someone who knows the past and doesn’t judge me for it. Violet is truly my closest first friend.

’A best friend, huh...’ That sounds great, although I’m not going to say Violet is my best friend. She’d get all pompous and arrogant.