The Dark Rebirth of Pandora: Revenge of the Abyss-Chapter 565: Planning

"Hey, Baeh’Wa, I can’t understand what’s written in this book!" I say, waving a book in front of Baeh’Wa. There are several books in this small library, but most of them are illegible.

"I-I’m so sorry..."

"I’m not complaining to you, I’m telling you to get me another one!" It’s obvious most of them would be ruined. This place is so old it’d be surprising if they were in good condition. Actually, it’s more surprising that there are some that are legible. Magic has its limits.

You could even preserve books forever with time magic, but magic in the Abyss doesn’t work the way it normally does, so you can’t do that here.

"H-How about this one?" Baeh’Wa timidly comes over to hand me a book.

’What do you think, Violet? Can you decipher it?’ Violet, with her power, might be able to see what was written in the books before they deteriorated too much.

"I don’t know anything, Pandora!! These things are too old for me to even try to figure anything out!! They’ve been sitting there for a very long time!"

’Then we’ll have to search manually...’

"Baeh’Wa, do you know how to read?"

"...N-No, I don’t."

’That’s about what I expected...’

"Violet, I’m going to manifest you here. You at least know how to read." I use my magic to fuel Violet. Her body begins to manifest while Baeh’Wa stares at the magic taking shape.

"...Ohhh!! I’m here!" Violet stares at her body, which is still as short as ever, then she looks around.

"Unfh!! Took you long enough for this, Pandora!! You should have manifested me much sooner!!" She speaks arrogantly instead of thanking me for manifesting her here with my magic.

’I didn’t even have the magic to sustain this before.’ Just having her here for a few seconds feels like my magic is leaking through a hole. She undoubtedly costs a lot of magic to maintain.

"...Ouch!" I flick her forehead.

"Go read books. Find things that are still legible." This library is pretty small, unfortunately, and the only books I found that I could read didn’t have anything special in them.

’I think my mother keeps all the important books locked in her room or hidden away in some secret place...’ Using magic, I’ve found several "false points" around, so there’s plenty of secret stuff.

"Tsk, you’re so arrogant, Pandora... and you, idiot! What are you staring at?" Violet speaks arrogantly to Baeh’Wa, who cowers.

"S-Sorry." When Baeh’Wa apologizes, I just have to smack my forehead at how stupid Violet can be sometimes.

’That girl has so many eyes, it’s hard for her not to be looking at someone as fidgety and loud as you, Violet.’ I move to another book, ignoring Violet as she arrogantly starts talking nonsense to Baeh’Wa, taking advantage of the girl’s shyness.

’I wonder how Elysia’s progress is going...’ That woman is dangerous. I hope she’s behind on everything, completely screwed when it comes to finding allies, and that she’s weakened! But of course, considering she’s smart, she’s probably doing well.

...

...

...

"So, it’s truly heartening to see all of us gathered here again." I say to Elowen, Eryndriel, and Morynna, who were able to meet me here. Even Delphina is here. I managed to summon her "voluntarily" with a spell I have.

"Elysia, why did you drag me to this place? I’ve already made it clear I’m not helping you anymore." Delphina speaks irritably.

"Calm down, Delphina. Listen to what I have to say first. Isn’t it great to have us all gathered here again? After all, it’s been a while..."

"It’s been a while because the last time was literally a situation just like this one, and it was a situation where several goddesses died, some were erased so deeply that I don’t even remember their names or domains." Delphina says sarcastically.

"..."

’Damned fish... if you weren’t so strong...’ This is so unfair. Why did goddesses like her get the highest level of power? I should have that power. If I had strength equal to Delphina’s or Echidna’s, with my intellect, no one would stand against me like this.

"I-I th-think we sh-should all just l-live in p-peace, shouldn’t we? C-Can’t we resolve this by talking?" The goddess of nature speaks in her weak voice.

"Elowen, shut up. That was the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard!! Talk? With those aberrations?" I say, slamming the table. This makes her cower.

"Elysia, lower your tone. Watch how you speak to Elowen." Eryndriel speaks, standing up.

"Oh yeah? And what are you going to do to me if I don’t lower my tone, tree-hugger? You know very well there’s no talking between us and those aberrations!!"

"There’s no talking because of you! You started this stupid fight and created even more reasons for conflict." Eryndriel speaks seriously.

"Hahaha, now it’s my fault? You participated too!"

"Because you forced me into it! You forced everyone here by threatening to affect what we cared about! No one here wanted to be part of this madness. Everyone was just ignoring Echidna. You’re the one who always wanted to end everything!! And you still failed and left Echidna alive."

"..."

"And what does that matter now, Eryndriel? Do you think you have a choice now? Whether you help or not doesn’t matter anymore, because you’re a target too now!! And you’ll certainly be killed if you’re alone." I smile arrogantly. She has no choice but to help.

"So this is why I was dragged here?" Delphina speaks, standing up, her gaze turning dangerous.

"I’m not helping. Send me back, Elysia."

"...Are you serious about this, Delphina? You won’t?"

"Unlike a cowardly opportunist like you, Elysia, I’m not afraid of Echidna, nor do I have any reason to worry. I only helped the first time because you threatened to disturb my peace and you had high chances of winning, so I didn’t want to become a target."

"But now? Now you only have three goddesses who will side with you. You won’t win. And if you don’t win, you can’t follow through on any threats against me. And I can guarantee my survival against Echidna, while you can’t."

"I’m not participating in this nonsense from either side. Kill yourselves on your own." She begins to use magic. I think about drawing my sword to control Delphina, but before I can, my hand falls to the floor.

My body trembles with cold shivers, blood gushing out as everyone stares at me in shock. I bite my lips, using magic to regenerate and hide the fear that came from not even being able to react to the strike.

"Try to attack me again, and your head will be the next thing to hit the floor." Delphina’s magic cracks the floor, the ceiling, and the table where the others are. I didn’t even have time to touch my divine weapon. The smell of blood spreads faintly as some rubble falls from the ceiling.

"..."

"You have a lovely daughter." When I say this, Delphina freezes everything. She slowly locks eyes with me as I smile.

"She’s a pretty little girl, but still an aberration, exactly like everything connected to the Abyss Goddess. You’ve really sunk low, Delphina. It’s almost pathetic."

"If I win, I’ll make sure to torture that thing in front of you until it dies. I’ll have the pleasure of hearing its screams while I watch your desperation. Don’t forget, Delphina, I have ’eyes’ everywhere. I know relatively well what’s happening on that planet."

"As soon as I finally erase those damned aberrations, I’ll make sure not a single being with Pandora’s blood remains in that world." She stares at me with a wild look.

"You’re really lucky, Elysia. Your cowardice saved you again. But you can be sure of one thing: you won’t beat Pandora, and I won’t fall for this cheap trick you’re pulling." She opens a portal and steps through, leaving the meeting.

’Tsk...’ If she had attacked me, I could have enslaved her with my sword—a powerful sealing spell I activated as an emergency measure, but it only works on contact.

’Wasted a spell that takes years to prepare for nothing...’ I take a deep breath, looking at the three who stayed.

’This will be difficult... Elowen is a weak and cowardly goddess. Eryndriel is decently strong, but doesn’t come close to Echidna’s or Azraelith’s strength. And Morynna, despite being strong, isn’t very smart—she’s impulsive and only focuses on big attacks...’ I rub my eyelids, itching with rage.

"Well, looks like it’s just us here. Anyone else want to leave?" I ask, knowing they won’t. Morynna and Eryndriel are guaranteed targets for Echidna and Azraelith. Elowen is too cowardly to abandon us, and Elowen would never abandon Eryndriel since they have a good relationship.

"Now that we’ve settled that, we’ll need to follow a very strict plan if we want any chance of victory. We can’t give those two aberrations too much time to adapt."

"Sealing probably won’t work a second time, so we’ll have to kill them for sure. The best approach would be to kill both in a single blow with something they haven’t adapted to yet."

"Therefore, the best option would probably be for me, with help from you two, to create a spell in advance to fire only at the decisive moment when we’re guaranteed to kill the target." I say, pointing at Morynna and Eryndriel.

Undeniably, Morynna is very good at spells prepared in advance to be cast later. It was thanks to her that we sealed Azraelith in the past.

"Does anyone have anything to propose?"

"...A-Are you sure w-we can’t t-try to talk? M-Maybe with Aradia’s h-help we could reach a consensus?" Elowen says something ridiculous, going back to this nonsense about talking.

"No."

"A-Alright..." She shrinks into her chair, looking down as I toss an artifact onto the table that creates a magical hologram.

"We’ll have the advantage of being able to choose the battlefield. We’ll force our enemies to fight where we want. That’s better for our advance preparation." I say, thinking about where to choose for the fight.