Novel Full Chapter 617: A Small Warm-Up
Chapter 617: A Small Warm-Up
"So that’s it, Pandora?" Mom shakes the relic in her hands with curiosity; she’s already analyzing the object to copy its magic circle.
"Yes, after I fix this problem, the only thing left will be arriving at the planet we’re heading to. Besides that—"
"How many levels do you have left?" She interrupts me somewhat lazily, but it’s fine.
"7 billion. Mom, you seem frustrated."
"...It’s just the universe... it seems more fragile than I remembered in the past." When she says that, I look toward the castle’s stained-glass window, gazing outside.
’She’s right... this is... so unpleasant.’ The universe feels so weak and fragile, forcing us to restrain even natural body movements, like muscle contractions, since even that would damage reality.
’Well, this is probably why goddesses are forbidden from coming to the universe and delving too deep into it...’ Delphina is impressive. I can’t believe she lived so long inside the ocean without accidentally obliterating the entire planet.
’Delphina’s self-control is absurd... maybe that explains why she demands absolute silence and discipline... probably to avoid getting stressed and releasing more magic than is safe.’ This bubble is all that protects the universe now.
And even with this suppression magic circle I created alongside the stars, caution is still necessary—extreme care and maximum restraint.
"You’re right, Mother. The universe also seems much more fragile than I remembered, and it hasn’t even been that long since I left this place."
"Yes. Now, Pandora, you already have nearly the maximum power a goddess can achieve. However, climbing those 7 billion levels will be very difficult. You’ll have to figure out some way to increase those levels on your own."
"It’s fine, Mom! By the way, please stay... restrained when we arrive. You’re a bit... intense. It would be problematic if you tried to get too involved in things like the leadership of my kingdom."
"I’ll park your castle on the moon. That way, you’ll have the moon to yourself, and you can easily visit my home... Is that a problem?" When I say I’ll leave her castle on the moon, she starts laughing.
"Trying to get rid of your mother already, Pandora? Hahahaha! Leaving me on the moon is a bit mean, don’t you think? But it’s fine. I understand. You’re young; obviously you want your space and time. Don’t worry, I won’t meddle in your affairs."
"O-Of course..." She hit the nail on the head. I don’t want her involved in what I do. She’s my mother and I respect her, but my life is mine to live.
"Pandora, while we’re heading to your planet, how about we spar? No magic, no magical reinforcement, just physical blows. It’ll be a good test to see how much magic we can release without causing damage." She proposes a fight absolutely out of nowhere.
"Okay!! Now that’s interesting!!" As soon as I agree, she begins to grow, reaching a height close to mine so the fight doesn’t get complicated.
"Here are the rules: physical blows only. No form of reinforcement, weapons, or use of passives that are activated by choice. I want to see how strong my little girl has gotten." She seems quite excited.
"Let’s do this! I’m ready—" The moment I confirm, she lunges. I dodge a punch and land two hits on her stomach, but she uses her tail to pull my leg.
I spin, violently twisting my foot and getting into a better position to kick her head with my other leg. She’s pushed back, but the castle cracks.
"Too violent..." she murmurs with a soft "Tsk," and we’re both forced to reduce our strength. She makes another advance, and I catch her punch, though stopping the blow is extremely difficult.
"You’re so strong," I say, holding her fists. The weight of each strike is absurd. Even the Abyss was lighter than the weight of her fists.
"My body is very dense. It’s so dense that internally it generates infinite gravity, but physics can’t keep up, so it loses all gravitational attraction because gravity collapses inward. In exchange, it just makes me too heavy to stay stable at a fixed point."
’Really? So she’s constantly using magic just to hold herself in place?’ As I try to push her back, I picture my mother deactivating the magic and suddenly sinking into the ground—it would be kind of funny.
"Is that why the halo floating above your head looks like a black hole?" I ask, being completely pushed backward. But the windows crack, so we’re forced to reduce our strength again.
"Yes, something like that." She quickly blocks the punches from my other hands with rapid kicks and then manages to land a knee to my stomach, piercing my chest with her horns and shoving me back.
"Pandora, I’ll show you an interesting trick you can pull off using weight." She shifts into a stance, pulling her arm all the way back with her fist near her hip.
I quickly cross my arms in an X to block the punch, but her fist, emitting a black and faintly purple glow, advances at an absurd speed. When it hits, I’m hurled violently against the castle wall.
Two of my four arms are instantly destroyed—not torn off, but literally compressed and crushed so violently that the very atoms were smashed apart. Strangely, without causing nuclear fission; the atomic energy itself was destroyed before it could expand.
"H-Hahaha..." I let out a weak laugh and start coughing up blood as I look at her hand, which is completely intact. It didn’t seem like magic, since nothing around us collapsed.
"W-What did you do?" I ask curiously, getting up to continue.
"Infinite mass means equivalent force. If the inside of my body has infinite density, any blow from me is a critical mass greater than a black hole. So gravity, which isn’t attractive, becomes a compressive force that crushes everything within an area of two centimeters."
"You’re forgetting that infinite density doesn’t just mean weight." She enters a fighting stance, her fists glowing with that same light. I mimic her posture, but with something quite different.
"I’ll show you a pretty cool trick too." I kick off the wall to launch toward her at high speed. When she punches, I kick the air to dodge to the side.
I twist my whole body into an overhead side kick, which she stops just before it hits her face. But I pull my leg back, dragging her straight toward my fist. When the punch connects with her face, there’s a faint cracking sound, and she’s thrown back, losing a tooth.
"..." She spits out the tooth with blood and looks surprised. But now that I’m level 93 billion, I can injure her without issue since she only has 7 billion more levels than me. Still, having hurt her gives me a tight feeling in my chest and a very uncomfortable sensation that I did something wrong.
"Good punch... no, actually, an excellent punch. Did you invent that?" she asks, wiping her lips where the bleeding hasn’t closed.
"Hehehe, yes. I made it specifically thinking about injuring goddesses. I have several things I created for use in battle." Goddesses are complex existences divided into "logical" layers to balance their existence with their duties in the universe.
So what I did was punch every layer of reality that composes a goddess’s existence, shattering it completely and striking the divine body directly without any barrier.
"Then let’s see which punch wins: my punch of infinite density versus your existence-breaking punch." She perfectly figured out what this martial art does.
"Great, then let’s go for the final blow." This fight is getting dangerous, so it’s better to stop here.
"..." We stare each other down, settling into the same stance, and then we advance. I put in as much strength as I can without that strength becoming destructive to the universe, and she does the same.
When our fists collide, something unexpected happens. My fist is repelled with such violence that my arm is completely ripped off while her fist keeps going, nearly hitting my stomach, and I barely manage to dodge.
"W-Wow..." I back away, falling to my knees as blood pours onto the floor, staining it with this black ooze. I stare at the wound, which is more serious than I expected.
’Singularity...’ She managed to generate her own singularity, or maybe she is a stable singularity herself. I didn’t expect that. The same thing as the center of a black hole—a singularity goes far beyond standard physics. It seems she’s capable of destroying even a divine body. Even though I wasn’t using mana, this is still impressive.
"It was a good workout. It’s been a long time since I could use that level of strength against something living, though this force would be useless against a goddess strengthening herself with Mana."
’How did she do that?’ I didn’t understand. I’m genuinely confused about how she used the Singularity to destroy my arm.
"Mom, how did you do that without magic?" It’s possible to control the behavior of a singularity with magic, but neither of us used any.
"A secret. You still have much to learn from me, daughter. Now you can go do something else. I’m going to talk to Evangeline." She gives me a slight nod, turning her back to me.
’...Impressive...’ I still rely heavily on Mana to use my powers in general. It seems the older goddesses have already abandoned dependence on Mana and can alter phenomena without using magic.
"I will definitely learn how to do that!!!" I regenerate as I prepare to go see my big sister. After all, we still have some things to settle.