"[Hmm, running away again... how botherso...]" All monsters within a radius of several kiloters flee from . Even though I hide my aura, they instinctively know sothing dangerous has entered their range.
I guess it’s more a matter of "sight." When those monsters enter the area covered by my aura and I "see" them, I know exactly where they are. They must sense that, too—they must feel they’re within the "field of vision" of sothing dangerous.
"[My mana pathways... still unstable...]" I stop walking and touch my arm. I managed to heal it. During my ti in the mana cocoon, I thought of many ways to fix this and found one.
But at the sa ti, it’s still unstable. So the healing wasn’t that good. My arm almost deford horribly, and the damage nearly increased. It was a really close call. The mana pathway warped slightly, making mana "leakage" more explosive.
"[Haaah... my voice is so strange... how do I fix this?]" I can’t even say I’m emitting a voice. It’s more like a loud noise that, by sheer luck, vaguely resembles the sound of words.
"[Testing... testing...]"
"Like this?..."
"Seems more suitable now..." I manage to make the sound less static. It’s still a deep, distorted sound, but now it sounds more like words than just noise.
"I wonder what to do now. I’m partially blind for a while, and I have no sure way of finding my mother..." I take a step forward, and everything suddenly turns white.
For a mont, I’m confused, my mind completely blank. Then follows the pure sensation of being erased, as if I’m in an area so dense that my very existence is being wiped away.
An absurd aura that makes every goddess’s aura I’ve seen so far look like trash. It’s not an oppressive aura—just too dense, too vast. I literally stop breathing. It’s not that I’m being suffocated; my body simply can’t breathe anymore because the aura is so dense.
My body won’t move. The aura has beco so dense that my body is locked in place in this completely white space.
’W-Where is this place?’ This isn’t the Abyss. I know because the ambient magic isn’t chaotic. And that’s the problem—it’s stable. Too stable. I’ve never seen magic this stable.
"..." I see sothing. A shape, a completely white silhouette. For a second, it seems formless before truly taking shape. That’s when I see a woman.
She has long silver-amber hair, with the lower parts of the strands turning red at the tips. The white and red blend into streaks that have a strange yellowish-orange hue from the diluted red color.
Her eyes have golden pupils, but the sclera of her eyes is completely black. Her ears are pointed, and her face itself seems gentle, almost maternal, with large breasts.
Her eyelashes are long, and her body, while beautiful and alluring, has no trace of anything deliberately voluptuous, nor anything evil. But it also has nothing that reminds one of sothing good, being far too neutral.
’...’ I look at myself, regaining my movents. My body is small, not in my true form. It’s in the normal form, actually closer to the appearance of the first form I had when I was born into this world—the form without many pronounced feminine attributes.
"You..." I feel compelled to kneel before her, and I do so before speaking. I know who she is. Who else could it be? A being with so much power that it makes the power of other goddesses look like trash. There’s only one being in all existence I’ve ever heard of with that much power—the Primordial Goddess herself.
Her appearance is quite different from what I expected. She’s beautiful, but the neutrality she exudes is strange. She vaguely reminds of Grimm’s appearance, but it’s quite different. Grimm’s appearance is more lascivious.
Like a slut who deliberately wants to seduce onlookers. But this woman before doesn’t give off that feeling.
"D-Dea Oriane... to what do I owe the honor of eting you..." I had never seen her before, and information about her is very limited. But seeing her now, I know she’s more than just strong. She’s invincible.
"There’s no need to bow, Granddaughter... You are a goddess. And I’m here because, for the first ti, you truly used your position as a goddess for sothing. All my daughters have seen before. It’s only natural that you should see at least once, too." She speaks gently.
’She’s so... polite...’ It’s different from what I expected from an invincible being. She’s very calm and composed. Her gaze is gentle, and she seems almost loving and overly familiar.
"I-It’s just..." I hesitate to say anything. What does one say upon eting the creator of the universe? I don’t know. I’ve never felt so nervous. Even though she’s not oppressive, I feel "fear" that making a mistake might cause her to do sothing to .
"We are family. You don’t need to be so scared, Pandora. I am your grandmother. I won’t hurt you. I would never hurt my children or grandchildren." Her tone is so calm and composed that I imdiately relax.
"H-Hahaha, it’s just strange... I-I was in the Abyss just monts ago, so stopping here so suddenly is unsettling..."
"Think of it as a more experienced goddess eting her junior to give advice, if that makes you feel more at ease."
"Unless, of course, you dislike how I refer to your current self? Then I can try to temporarily make you resemble Takashi Nakamura more." She says my old na. I’m not too surprised. Obviously, she would know.
"No... I prefer Pandora. Takashi Nakamura died completely."
"...Indeed. Since you finished sacrificing any remnants of him to your elent, [Doom]. A creation worthy of the Goddess of the Apocalypse." Her praise strangely excites .
"Goddess... Oriane... why did you favor ? Why did you make a goddess?" I ask, confused about this. She knows my future. I’m sure she knows perfectly everything I’ve done, do, and will ever do.
"...Pandora, why are you evil?" She asks a strange question, and I’m confused since she didn’t answer .
"Well... why am I evil? I’m sorry, but I don’t understand the question."
"...Pandora, tell , why do you think you are evil? Are you evil because you are the Demon King? Are you evil because you are a Monster? What exactly is your evil?" With her many questions, I think I understand.
"I’m not evil just for being evil. I’m evil because I chose to be evil after being given reasons. I suffered, was humiliated, and treated like trash. And when I had the chance to receive great power, I had two paths." I don’t deny that I’m evil or justify myself. I just give the answer that is the truth.
"I could choose hatred and revenge to satisfy myself, or I could try to use my power to make things better for and for everyone. And I chose hatred, because I preferred my own satisfaction over the kindness of others." That is why I am evil.
"Hmm..."
"Exactly, Pandora. You chose what you judged best for you... but what about now? Now that that fragile, pitiful human has died completely? Now that you’ve already had your revenge?"
"You’re not after my daughter Elysia for revenge. You don’t even have solid reasons to truly hate her. You only seek to kill her because she is a threat to you and because she fights with my other daughter, Echidna..."
"...I’m sorry, Goddess Oriane, but I don’t understand what you an again. What does this have to do with the reason you favored ?"
"...Because you are neutral... That is the reason I chose you, Pandora, to be a goddess. You are absolutely neutral."
"...?"
"Pandora, you are like ."
"...!?!" I beco even more confused, and my expression makes the goddess smile.
"Pandora, think carefully. Think of all the goddesses and your older sister. All of them seek grand things. All of them want more than their hands can carry. All are too proud to see the beauty of simplicity..."
"But what about you? What are your desires, Pandora? A simple life with your children and wives... sothing so banal and simplistic compared to the other goddesses, yet also truly important."
"I love my daughters, Pandora. But I cannot handle them. I am... a fragile mother. When I get too involved with them, I end up causing strife, chaos, and discord... I can’t... even stop them and make them get along." She makes a sad expression. It makes my heart ache, as if I’m seeing sothing very wrong.
"I didn’t choose you to be a goddess because you are special, or because you have incredible powers, and certainly not because you are the daughter of my daughter Echidna... I chose you because you are simple."
"You don’t seek conquest, domination. Even the power you seek is focused on the goal of not being bothered in the future. You are the perfect example of sothing neutral."
"But you are sothing neutral that becos aggressive when attacked, rather than passively neutral like I am. That is why you received the position of Goddess of the Apocalypse. Because the apocalypse is also an active neutral."
"It may sound harsh, but you are not special, Pandora. And not being special is precisely the point that makes you... agreeable."
"Have you imagined what would happen if people like your older sister beca goddesses? They would end all creation. I don’t need soone who will just destroy in that position. I need a passive observer like ."
"...." When she says this, sothing bothers .
"Are you saying I might replace you in the future?" When I ask this, she neither denies nor confirms anything.
"Goddess Oriane, did you just imply that I might take your place in the future, or am I arrogantly deducing wrong?" I ask again, but she rely maintains her smile, which doesn’t say whether I’m right or just deluding myself with her wordplay.
"The life of a Primordial Goddess is not interesting. It is infinite, endless, eternal, and immutable. What you are seeing here isn’t even my real body, Pandora."
"None of my daughters can get close to without dying. I am limited to smaller avatars to interact with existence..."
"Do you think you could handle the weight of my position? The complete loneliness of being unreachable, of being infinite, of only being able to falsely interact with reality? It’s not just a position of power. It is an external pillar that supports existence."
"It’s not a pleasant position to be in. Just like Atlas from the mythology of the world you ca from, he holds up the heavens out of obligation. Just as I sustain all life equally out of obligation."
"I created it, so I must take responsibility. Don’t you think?" She says many interesting things, but at the sa ti, much is left in strange implications.
"...I have so other questions... would you have ti to answer them, or sothing like that?"
"Ti to answer? Pandora, I am the very concept of ti. You can be sure I have as much ti as you need. And I can help you with the emptiness you feel now." She even hits on that.
"...Then I have questions, and I hope you don’t mind listening to them."
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