The Dark Rebirth of Pandora: Revenge of the Abyss

Chapter 661: Elysia Part 3

It’s been six months since I was born, and Mommy has taken care of me. The last two months have been the worst — I’ve started remembering more things, but everything’s extremely fragmented.

And Mommy has been making me more and more wicked while hurting me more and more, steering me down wrong paths. I can’t take this hellish training routine anymore.

The beatings, the horrible wounds I get, the magic drills that leave me full of aches, dizzy, and nauseous — and the worst is the hunger.

I barely get any food now. In the past, she gave me her milk. Now, I have to hunt for my own food, and she always throws me into rooms with dangerous monsters where I’m forced into life-or-death battles just to eat.

The affection has dwindled too, because now I’m never good enough. Nothing I do is ever enough, so even the motivation to seek love has cooled, killed by all this cruelty with nothing to show for it.

"..."

"Daughteeer~" I hear Mommy’s voice echo through the space. I get up immediately and walk to the main hall of our house. When I see her, the first thing I notice is that everything I’ve earned is here.

Toys, clothes, things I use to pass the time, even my study books. I stand there confused as to why she took everything — or how she took it all without me noticing, since I just left my room and some of these things were there.

"Mommy—"

"You did poorly on your last hunt. You ran away and went without food. What weakness, Daughter. You’re already a teenager — time flies, doesn’t it? But for a teenager, you were pathetic. At your age, I was immensely powerful." She does this again — talking about herself, about how incredible she was at my age.

And how weak and pathetic I am compared to her abilities. But I really have been putting in the work, giving it everything I have, and hearing her say this is utterly demoralizing.

"I’m sorry, Mom... I... I didn’t want to die... so I ran." I lower my head, until I hear a sound that makes me snap my gaze back up. When I do, I see all my things burning.

"N-No!! Why did you do that!!" I shout at her with rage. Those were all things I fought to earn with so much hard work.

"Obviously, it’s because you failed to feed yourself. You wanted food, but you were too weak to get it, so I took your things away. That’s how things work. You’re too weak to change it, aren’t you?"

"I’ve already made it clear to you — as long as you’re weak, everything will be taken from you. So be stronger if you don’t want to lose anything else."

"B-But I’m trying... I-I swear, I’m doing my best, Mom!!"

"Your best isn’t good enough."

"..." I stare at her with an ugly face full of tears. Why is she doing this to me? I just wanted to make her proud. Just because I have some fragmented, scattered memories of another life, she’s ruining me.

"Daughter, you’re so pathetic. Honestly, your cowardice disgusts me. You don’t have the courage required to take something from anyone, and that’s frustrating. And that is exactly why I’m treating you so harshly. If you were better, you’d only receive love."

"..."

"And to prove my point about how pathetic you are — look at this stone." She conjures a pedestal with magic and places a blood-red jewel on top of a small cushion.

"This stone — if you devour it, you’ll steal almost all of my power. That means a jump to at least level 70,000. I’ll become weak and you’ll become strong. BUT in exchange, this place will be sealed, and you won’t be able to free yourself from this house anymore."

"Would you have the courage to steal from your mother?" She questions me, touching the red stone lightly before stepping away and walking toward me.

"N-Never... I-I would never do that." I shake my head, terrified. I would never steal her powers! She’s my mother! That’s just insane!

"...Pathetic. Fine, then. I’ll leave this here. We’ll see if you ever get the courage to steal this jewel. Now — let’s go train." She comes to me, grabbing my hand and pulling me out of the main hall.

"M-Mom, what’s today’s training?"

"Today marks exactly six months and eleven days since you were born, and since you’re already a teenager, I’ve decided to change your training. From now on, all your training will be duels with me. They will start at any moment, anywhere, at any time."

"But then— URGH!!" A punch sinks into my stomach, making me vomit blood. Suddenly, an uppercut slams under my chin, cracking some of my teeth and throwing me backward. When I hit the floor, she steps on my stomach.

I hear the sound of my organs rupturing and bursting inside me as I gasp in agony. I writhe on the floor, groaning in pain, while I see that dark look in her eyes.

That look is worse than the wicked smiles she usually gives me when she hurts me. There’s a disappointment so deep in her eyes that it shatters my mind more than fear.

"Lost. One point for me. I’ll keep a tally of all the points I win and all the points you win. Every victory is one point. We’ll see how many points you have by the time you’re an adult, my little sinner who fears sin."

"I’m going to go make myself something to eat. If you want food, wait until the evening hour. Also, I’m no longer going to release your food into a specific room prepared for you to go in and try to hunt." She gestures with her arms.

"I’m going to release monsters randomly throughout the house at breakfast, lunch, and dinner times, and these monsters will roam free for one hour. So you have one hour to eat or hide so you don’t die."

"And I hope you understand — I don’t care if you can’t manage to eat after killing. If you kill with one minute left on the clock, I’ll clean up the corpse. So it’s one hour to kill and eat. Stay mindful of that fact. After all, you wouldn’t want to fight, get hurt, and in the end lose the food, right?"

"I wish you luck, Daughter. Although I suggest you don’t count on luck too much. I won’t stop the monsters if you’re dying. I will let them kill you." She smiles maliciously at me as I lie on the floor, crying from the pain.

"Elysia, next meal is in two hours. I suggest you regenerate before then — or you might end up being some monster’s dinner. Hahaha."