The Dark Rebirth of Pandora: Revenge of the Abyss

Chapter 616: Story of a Star

”...Pandora, don’t you feel strange being naked? Besides, that form of yours is a bit frightening...” The Star says as the two of us draw a magic circle on the floor.

”I suppose so. My appearance, though beautiful, is frightening, and I have no reason to wear clothes in this form.” I adjust myself on the floor, finishing the inscription with a formula we started creating together using something I had already developed.

”Why is your form like that? I also have a ’true form,’ but it’s more of a shapeless, circular mass of light, or with slight variations. Where I come from, true forms follow patterns of symbolism based on what the ’entity’ in question represents.” She, now far more at ease, asks with curiosity.

”I wouldn’t say my case is symbolism.” She finishes her part, and now it’s time to test it. We need to embed the magic circle into an object to form a relic.

”Is that so? If you don’t mind... I’d like to know... but you don’t have to answer.” She says, somewhat retreating from her own question.

”It’s fine. In my case, it’s more about practicality. With four arms, I can fight, use magic, and cast spells much more skillfully.”

”My voice isn’t emitted from my mouth, but rather through magic into the entire environment. This reduces the need to recite incantations; I can simply think of them and cast them.”

”The mouth on my belly is so I can devour things. As for the ten-meter height, I don’t know. Nor do I know why there’s this black spiral where my head should be.”

”However, I do know that the giant eye floating behind me has some general utilities, despite being a weak point.” At ten meters tall, I can easily put things into my mouth to chew, though I doubt that’s the reason for this size.

Furthermore, with the jaw being on my belly, I can open it so absurdly wide that a jaw on a head could never replicate the feat.

”It seems more like you maximized everything with a focus on fighting...”

”That’s right. My body was indeed made for combat. But it’s logical, isn’t it? I am a goddess who needs to destroy, so it makes sense that my body is adapted for combat.” I transfer the magic circle onto a small necklace.

”Try using it. See if it works.” The Star, in order to help me create the artifact that will prevent me, Mother, and Azraelith from destroying everything, made the part that contains the aura within the body using dimensional magic.

The artifact will compress everything that leaks from the body into another dimension and then send it back into the body, preventing both waste and damage. If it works, we can teach this skill to Mother and Azraelith, and they will be able to use it without even needing artifacts.

”Let me see...” The Star takes the object, observing it cautiously while I look at her disciple.

”You, Disciple of the Star, are you anxious to become the new Star?”

”N-Not really... it means my master will die... I didn’t want that yet...”

”I can understand that. Knowing that someone important to you is fated to end is not pleasant.” I look out the castle window, seeing space and the stars outside. We are finally getting close to leaving the ”neutral” zone, and from this point on, the goddesses will no longer be able to reach us.

”Do you really understand?... That’s not exactly the image you project...” She speaks in a tone of doubt that the Star lacks the courage to use.

”Hehehe, you are bold, Disciple of the Star. I like that. It’s better than your master’s cowardly attitude, though I know that boldness comes from the fact that you are corrupted.” Without this corruption in their bodies, they wouldn’t even have the courage to try speaking to me.

”...” She growls at me at the insult. It’s almost hilarious.

”When Amiya evolves into a Disciple of the Stars, you will be cured of the corruption, right? Once cured, will you still want to maintain a friendship with me? I understand if you choose absolute neutrality and distance yourselves from me.”

”And that’s fine. I won’t come after you. You are neither enemies nor any kind of risk.” I shrug as I say this.

”We will still maintain our friendship. The protection of a goddess—even one like you—is good. Without you, we didn’t have permission from anyone but the primordial goddess to live here.”

”With you here, it’s more of a direct confirmation that this universe is our home.” The Disciple of the Star speaks with a sad face.

”What happened to your universe?” I’m curious about this now. Amiya is a ”Magical Girl,” so in the universe of the Stars, are powers based one hundred percent on magical girls fighting evil?

”It collapsed.”

”Could you explain? The Star over there looks like she’ll take a while to analyze and evaluate the artifact we just created.”

”...Our universe was different from this one. Only humans existed there, and there were two sources of power: Stars, which are us, or Chaos, which was another entity.”

”Stars and Chaos coexisted to maintain balance, and we granted powers to specific humans. But Chaos was the evil of the universe, so the humans who received Chaos’s power were malevolent.”

”And the people who received power from us, the Stars, were good and fought against evil people. However, there were limits. Chaos could only grant power to 1,000 people at a time, and we Stars could only grant power to 20 people at a time.”

”Chaos users were weaker but more numerous, and users of us Stars were stronger but far fewer in number.”

”But... an Amiya created by us caused the destruction of our universe... She... she was tired of the repetitive conflict between Chaos and Star.”

”...S-So she killed Chaos. She used our power, deceived us, and coldly murdered Chaos. But we didn’t fight because we wanted to see humans suffer.”

”It was necessary for the balance. With the death of Chaos, our universe lost one of its sides, and with that, it began to collapse days later, ending in self-destruction.”

”We Stars fled, but we were left without a home, until we found this universe. There was a small crack, and we weren’t in very good shape, so we entered it to survive.”

”Without Chaos to balance us, we Stars became seventy percent weaker than normal, and our source of power vanished almost completely. So we became dependent on the energy that this universe generates, which is this thing called Mana.”

”And that’s it. Our universe ended because an Amiya created by us thought that both we Stars and Chaos were deliberately watching and delighting in human suffering.”

”She didn’t understand that this conflict was what kept the universe alive. Chaos, despite being malevolent, understood that the evil she did kept the universe alive. So, in a more direct sense, Chaos was neutral, and we Stars were also neutral.”

”And we acted as ’Good’ and ’Evil’ for the sake of balance...” I see some tears on the face of the Disciple of the Star.

”What a touching story.” I say, trying to hide the sarcasm. I truly don’t care about this. Although it’s interesting, I asked more out of curiosity than genuine interest.

’From the way she spoke, Chaos was a feminine entity linked mainly to destruction and balance, while the Stars probably represented creation and entropy, since they depended on destruction to keep creation alive.’ The part that interests me is mainly how it functions.

’We are similar...’ My duty is to maintain balance through creation and destruction. That is to say, in this universe, I alone fulfill the role that Chaos and Star were responsible for in theirs.

Which only shows how off the charts the power of this universe is, since I fulfill the function of two supreme deities from their universe, while I am just one goddess in this one.

’It seems other universes aren’t as big a threat as I initially judged.’ It’s probably standardized. Most universes likely don’t have many living divinities maintaining their existence, and the ones that do exist probably don’t have that much power.

After all, in the universe I came from when I was human, the divinity that maintained planet Earth was Tsukuyomi, who has a power level of 50,000. That gives me these parameters.

”Pandora, I’m finished.” The Star cuts off my train of thought, drawing my attention.

”So? Did it work?”

”Yes, the magic circle fulfills its function well. If used by you, your sister, or the Goddess of the Abyss, it will prevent you from destroying everything around you.” She hands me the artifact.

’All I have to do is give this to Mother and Azraelith, and then both will analyze and copy the magic formula.’ I am satisfied with the results.

”Thank you, Star. Your help is well valued by me. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have more things to do. You can stay here or leave, but I suggest returning to your corner.”

”After all, if Elysia learns you were here, she will make you a direct enemy and eliminate you.”

”...I appreciate the concern... I’ll be going then...” She walks to the door with her disciple behind her, but before leaving, she stops.

”I don’t regret any Amiya I created, not even their mistakes.” She says before leaving. This puts an immense smile on the mouth in my belly.

”How amusing... so even the most destructive of your creations has your love? That sounds almost comical.” They say that the love of ”God” is something that reaches anyone regardless of their sin.

Just as the primordial goddess loves her creations despite the way they are, the Star loves what she created, even if that creation destroyed her universe.

’I wonder why one would love one’s own creations like that.’ I can’t understand it. I created a universe, but I don’t love my creations. I merely tolerate them as long as they don’t make mistakes.

”Yeah... I guess I’ll never be able to possess the benevolence to love something I created from scratch in such a stupid way.” I stand up, stretching exaggeratedly and listening to the cracks my body makes.