Chapter 612: Leading Out of the Abyss
Chapter 612: Leading Out of the Abyss
"...Finished, sister. What do you think?" Pandora asks me while I look at the completely obliterated area of the abyss—a hole with no visible bottom, and a massive tear in the sky glowing red.
There’s no more space or time in the affected areas. Pandora’s element is undeniably absurdly destructive.
Pandora tested how much power she could use without sacrificing anything, and how much power she releases by temporarily sacrificing small things—and the increase was absurd, truly monstrous.
"Look, I think it was incredible—"
"Great, now let’s go back to the castle. It’s time to move it out." She speaks to me very coldly, interrupting me, while creating some kind of shadow monster beneath us, and it starts flying back toward the castle.
’I can’t believe she generated a high-level magical attack by sacrificing a fingernail for two seconds...’ Pandora sits on the shadow creature, meditating.
"Have you figured out how to completely remove the castle from the abyss yet?"
"Yes, and I plan to remove it today. With that, I’ll finally be able to devour this place. Mom sent her remaining servants on ’missions,’ so only Baeh’Wa is in the castle to go with us, and I’ll reduce her levels to just ten thousand."
"..." When she says that, I can’t help but feel anger remembering the levels she stole from me, even though she later helped me recover them.
"How will you do that? Now I’m curious. The castle isn’t just a structure—it’s existed inside the abyss for so long it’s almost part of it..."
"It’s simple. I’ll create a bubble that will lock the castle inside, then I’ll cut that bubble, separating it from the abyss, and using Doom, I’ll open a hole big enough in the abyss for me to push the bubble out."
"With that, the castle will leave the abyss. It’s not complex—it’s quite simple. It just requires a lot of magic so the castle isn’t obliterated in the attempt to leave, so it’ll require concentration and courage."
"After all, I’m not crazy enough to break Mom’s entire castle. She’d be so furious... urgh, I don’t even want to imagine what she’d do to me if I completely destroyed this castle."
"Of course, Pandora! ...Wait, how... wow..." I’m impressed. She already told our mother she’s going to do this now—move the entire castle—and I didn’t even notice when. Even though it’s pretty mean of her to hide it out of petty revenge, it’s still impressive that I didn’t notice anything.
"Your magic concealment is insane!!"
"It wasn’t magic. I have my own system. It’s not as good as other goddesses’ systems, and its screen is red with eyes, but it works for quite a lot!" She looks at me and gives a little smile, while a red screen appears in front of me.
"[You are pretty]" That’s all it says while some eyes on the screen stare at me intently, but there are two options: yes or no.
"..." I click no because I know there’s some trick here, and as expected, the system gives me a reward, but the writing is all jumbled, and I don’t even know what I supposedly gained.
"I don’t think you’re ugly," she says out of nowhere, knowing exactly what I chose.
"Stop spying on my choices. And obviously I’m not ugly—I only chose that because the way you are, I bet there was something in it."
"Sure... we’re here... I want you to go inside the castle. If you’re outside, you won’t be moved along with the castle, and you’ll stay here in the abyss, and even if you leave later, we’ll end up losing each other." She speaks all authoritatively.
"Have you satisfied yourself with everything the abyss has given you?"
"Yes. There’s nothing left here for me. Besides, I found Mom’s registry book—Yty’Lya, Uel’Raw, Prystia, Felya, Quwerya, among other servants of my mother that she used as inspiration for our race, and I discovered what they are. That was all that still sparked my curiosity."
"Now go." She pushes me off the creature out of nowhere. I end up falling into the darkness and appearing inside the castle in the throne room, where Mom, Evangeline, Baeh’Wa, and Violet are.
...
...
...
"Now go." I push Azraelith into the darkness, teleporting her inside the castle while I land on the castle’s exterior. I touch the ground and start spreading my mana, creating an immense magical circle slightly larger than the castle.
"...Hmmm..." I cut off my tail, throwing it above the magical circle to give all the magic I stored in it to the magical circle, feeding it enough magic so the "bubble" doesn’t burst while exiting the abyss.
"What confidence my mother has in me... if this goes wrong, Evangeline, Baeh’Wa, and the castle will probably be destroyed..." That’s why I left Violet there—to prevent that from happening. Obviously I have safety measures. I don’t trust what I’m doing 100%.
"[Doom: In exchange for all the magic accumulated in my abyssal halo, create a hole in the abyss between the outer and inner shell that faces the universe, near the border between the abyss and limbo, using temporary existential erasure on the area]" This is the weakest point of the abyss.
Which is the threshold between universe and limbo, where the universe is more fragile and can accept the hole without collapsing. As soon as I use this beneath the magical circle, an immense, completely black hole with an intense red light appears.
The castle slowly begins to sink into the hole while the bubble the barrier generated around the castle protects it. I touch the barrier, constantly feeding it magic to prevent a collapse from pressure.
’Damn...’ I feel my nose start to bleed. Because I’m too close to the border between abyss, universe, and limbo, I’m taking some damage. That’s actually why I created the bubble slightly larger than the castle—to avoid breaking things.
’It’s fine... for now, it’s stable. Just a little bleeding because my brain is suffering intense pressure from the magic use...’ I take a deep breath, trying to remain completely calm.
"Haa... Haaa..." I gasp in pain, letting the castle sink slowly. All beings near the castle flee upon sensing the magic, not understanding what’s happening. But as soon as the castle crosses halfway through the hole, the burden on me becomes lighter.
’Just a few more seconds.’ Completely white lightning strikes the bubble—a mixture of magic and mana—remnants that almost pierce the bubble, but the reinforcement I do with my hands keeps it stable, even though it deforms like an egg.
"Go!!" I push the barrier downward, and it finally comes out completely with a sound that’s almost funny—like a "plop." As soon as it comes out, the hole closes. The entire castle is floating in the universe. I look around—the view is beautiful.
There are thousands of stars, and I can even see a black hole in the distance. We seem to be in some galaxy near the edge of the universe. It’s not exactly a safe place because the goddesses can come to this location, but they have no way of knowing we’re here.
The place is almost too beautiful, with a calm, gentle silence, although I hear tiny cracking sounds from the movement of particles and molecules because of my extreme hearing.
’I need to drag this bubble to a place they can’t access...’ I’d say there are three layers: the part near the universe’s exterior that goddesses can come to, the middle part that goddesses can no longer come to, and the center part that goddesses are forbidden from trying to reach.
That prevents the universe from collapsing. The planet where my beloved wives and daughters are is roughly in the second layer, near the first layer—that’s why goddesses don’t have easy access.
"[Hey, Mom, keep everyone inside the castle. It’ll take a while, but I need to move it to a safe location. As soon as I finish eating the abyss, I’ll come in there with you. For now, I’ll leave an avatar moving it while I devour the abyss]" I send a message through the system to my mother, and I make an avatar of myself. It’s identical to me and has 20% of my strength.
"Take this castle in that direction." When I give the order, the avatar immediately starts pushing the castle while creating large black wings. The castle slowly begins to be pushed. I look toward the "edge" of the universe.
It doesn’t actually look like an edge, but from here forward there’s a "barrier" that leads to the limbo and the abyss. I need to partially cross the barrier and devour the abyss without dying to the limbo.
’I just need to be careful of Elysia’s perception...’ From what I learned about the fundamentals of creation, the [Sky] created by Elysia is like a kind of separate reality that connects to the abyss, so the abyss is directly below the [Sky].
But that means that as soon as the abyss disappears, the sky will be above normal reality—so Elysia will notice. Not only that, she’ll gain the advantage that by jumping from the [Sky], she’ll enter directly into the universe’s outer layer. And if I’m still in this layer when she comes to check, she’ll kill me.
"It’s fine... it’s easy... I can do this..." I start transforming into my true form, but because of my power, the release of magic is so violent that planets in this entire galaxy begin to break apart.
Reality develops some cracks as the form finishes completing itself. It’s still kind of strange not having a head, and since I’m in space, the black liquid dripping from the spiral above my neck floats in the void, but I ignore that completely.
"Time to eat." The tongue of the mouth on my stomach licks its "lips"—I must say I’m starving and desperate to eat the entire abyss.
"How many levels will I gain!!! I’m so excited to see!!"
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