Chapter 539: A Gluttonous Goddess Who Desires to Devour Everything

“…” I look around. I’m in a place that looks like the universe. I see stars, planets, galaxies, and everything else in the cosmos. However, the ground beneath me is solid, and I see all sorts of things floating around me.

Furniture, paralyzed animals, people, strange objects, literally active magic spells like a massive sphere of flame, but nothing moves.

“I see…” I’ve begun to receive the knowledge of the Fundamentals of Creation. I feel it pouring into my head. There’s a lot of it, and it hurts a little, but for now it’s still bearable.

One piece of knowledge I received is how the Fundamentals of Creation work. What we “see” is different for each person. In other words, I’m seeing this static universe with random things floating around, but my mother, as the Goddess of the Abyss, must have seen something different.

“How curious… It seems Mother was mistaken… I know you’re there.” Mom told me not to speak to or interact with whatever is here. However, it turns out the Fundamentals of Creation are different for each person. That means the “guardian’s” attitude changes. The guardian probably won’t attack me even if I talk to it.

“You won’t show yourself? Fine, I didn’t really need to chat anyway,” I say to the thing that’s watching me but won’t appear, merely observing from a distance.

“You know, Mister or Miss Guardian, with the Fundamentals of Creation, perhaps I can create the first anti-universe attack I’ll be able to use. Shouldn’t you be trying to stop me from learning this?” Just with the beginning of this knowledge, I already understand how to tear reality apart as if it were paper.

Reality is like a kind of “fiber.” For it to crack like glass… I always thought of reality as if it were a mirror. But now, with this initial knowledge, I’d say reality is more like thousands of perfectly interwoven lines forming a “sheet,” and the reason this sheet shatters like glass is because it’s hard.

But still, it’s more like a sheet than actual glass. So if I take it from one point to another, I can tear it in half.

’Nothing, despite such a threat?’ I’m not joking. With every second, more and more information floods my mind, to the point where I can truly do insane things with this knowledge.

“…” I look ahead, seeing something that could be categorized as the Big Bang—a colossal explosion whose power I can feel even from a distance. But it’s static, like everything in this place.

’I’d say this is the limbo between past, present, and future…’ I start walking through the observable “universe” until I find something that makes me stop completely.

“Is that… me?” I see myself, but not the me of now. I see Takashi Nakamura, that stupid, weak boy.

“…” I snarl at it. Was I really that pathetic? I don’t even remember it anymore. But now, seeing that body in front of me, I realize how utterly garbage it looks—the physique, the strength, the expression of someone who’s given up on everything and is just waiting.

“This must be the past… So… I wonder where I might see my future?” I look around. Nothing for kilometers in sight. It seems the future is still far away from me.

’Will it be a problem if I touch this?…’ I touch the face of this feeble, useless version of me. But the moment I do, its eyes open and blink.

“…”

“G-Gah!!” It falls backward, starting to move. Its eyes stare at me with fear, which makes sense. It’s seeing a ten-meter-tall headless humanoid with four arms.

’It seems if I touch something, I can make it act as if it were alive. But…’ Now that it’s moving, I notice many things about it aren’t functioning. It seems it can’t affect the timelines of the past.

’I’d say this limbo is where everything converges into a single point of existence… Truly something worthy of the Fundamentals of Creation…’ I finally grasp the staggering magnitude of it all.

This place isn’t just a simple mental projection. In fact, this place is literally a piece of existence. If the history of existence is a book, this place is the draft. You could simplify it that way.

It means this Takashi Nakamura I see here is truly the Takashi Nakamura from the past.

“Hey, kid. Do you remember how you got here?”

“W-What are you…” he asks, frightened, ignoring my question. I watch his hand clenching his palm tightly until it bleeds—that bad habit I had when I was stressed.

“I am… the Goddess of the Apocalypse. The one who will one day bring the end of all things and create a new beginning.” I like that phrase because it’s true. It’s what I represent. If I don’t die, one day I must bring the end of everything that exists, so that something new may begin.

“What do you want from me?” Takashi Nakamura tries to sound brave, but his lips tremble. His eyes waver, looking all around as if he wants to run from me, and he seems confused and scared by the environment.

“Before that, please touch something here… now.” I give an order with an authoritative tone. Fearfully, he gets up from the ground, his legs shaking as he walks over to a small floating animal. He touches it, but nothing happens.

’It seems beings who are in this [Limbo] cannot interact with other beings from the limbo…’ From what I see, I’m the only one who can interact with this place and make things take form.

’Considering it will take a while for all the knowledge to enter my head, I should explore…’ I’ll have plenty of time in this place. I should take it slow and take care of my mind so it doesn’t break and I die.

’The Goddesses… must be around here too…’ There must be small versions of the Goddesses here, their childhood phases. I’d like to try to find the previous Goddess of the Apocalypse.

“Hey, kid, stay still.” I order as I start moving away from Takashi, but always keeping my eyes on him. When I’m about 100 meters away, his body becomes static again.

“As expected. This place can only move if I’m in contact with it and close enough…” I want to do another test, so I approach this past version of myself again and touch it, making it start moving again.

“Do you remember me?”

“Y-Yes, Goddess of the Apocalypse.” He speaks, looking down. With that, I know the things in the limbo remember the moments of freedom I gave them. Which is interesting. It shows these things are truly real, not momentary projections of a point in time.

“Human, do you remember how you got here?”

“N-No, I-I was in the kingdom…”

“How many days since you were summoned?” He seems surprised by what I say.

“T-Two days…”

’I see. It’s relatively early… What creates these choices?’ I look around. There are infinite things floating around us, but if there’s something notable, it’s that nothing repeats, at least not in the same state.

For example, there are several tables floating around, and I’ve already seen 3 marble tables. But one of them was intact, another was missing a piece, and another was completely broken.

In other words, there are no repetitions near each other. This must be the only Takashi Nakamura that exists in this place. The rest will be different versions of “Pandora,” different versions of me after rebirth.

’This place is very interesting… I wish I could access it whenever I wanted…’ It’s like a vast library that tells the story of the entire universe from the moment it was created, up to a certain point. I doubt I can easily interact with things from the future. There must be a limit to prevent breaks in the timelines.

Like how versions of the future can’t be seen, or versions of the future don’t remember what happens.

“How about introducing yourself to me?” I say, sitting on the ground with my legs tucked behind me, in front of this past version of myself. I’m being relatively gentle with my tone because this one is still me, no matter how pathetic he is.

’I really want to eat him… Would it be a problem?’ The mouth on my belly licks its lips, and even without knowing exactly why, Takashi takes a step back, as if sensing I want to devour him.

But I won’t do that… Or maybe I will… Well, it seems like a terrible idea to devour my past version, even if he’s just a weak human.

“I-I’m Takashi Nakamura…” He introduces himself politely. Seeing this version so subservient disgusts me, and he seems to feel my disgust because his body wavers.

“Ugh, what a pathetic man you are.”

“Sorry…”

“Don’t apologize. It’s disgusting.” Quickly, my desire to eat him fades. I don’t eat garbage.

“Haa…” I sigh. It’s disheartening to see this version that no longer exists. Ever since I devoured all the Pandoras, I lost any trace of being this person in front of me. Everything about him vanished except for the memories I still carry with me and the hatred for the heroes.

But everything else in itself was dismantled and remade. Tiny Pandora was the last “piece” of this person, and now that she’s completely gone, I don’t know what to feel about the person in front of me.

He and I are not and never will be the same person again. That’s clear to me, seeing this. Even if this Takashi dies, becomes a Demon King and evolves, he’ll take a different path.

But there is indeed something in him that I want to test, and that’s his desire. I want to see it. I want to feel that rage. I want to feel the hatred. I want to feel the thirst for revenge that he has.

Because I… I don’t have it anymore. Not on the same level. I’ve already had my revenge. I’ve already killed the heroes and put them in eternal torture. But I still want to feel the same hatred. I want to see again what it’s like.

“Boy, do you want revenge?”

“…”

“Honesty is important in front of beings like deities who can erase someone’s existence with a snap of their fingers.”

“I do…”

“That’s better. And would you do anything for that revenge? For the chance to make all the heroes suffer a horrible death and an infernal torture for eternity?”

“Yes!” He doesn’t even hesitate as he looks into my giant eye. And I see something that makes the mouth on my belly lick its lips—a delicious flame of vengeance, a pure hatred that I love to observe.

I begin to see his emotions, and what I see is black. Totally black. It was supposed to be dark red, but his hatred is so great the color darkened to black. This makes me fidget in place.

’Ah, this feeling…’ It’s almost like having an orgasm, being able to observe this hatred. My hatred has undeniably cooled. It hasn’t disappeared, but after I got my revenge, this hatred I felt was sated by the sensation that I finally got what I wanted.

It didn’t make me feel empty, but it undeniably cooled the relationship I had with this emotion. Being able to revisit my hatred so directly is sweet.

“I like that answer. How about a deal? I will brutally torture the heroes. I will take their lives, and I will make their souls go through hell and eternal torment…”

“What do you want from me?” He doesn’t hesitate again. None of that cowardly boy who was afraid of me. This reminds me of the past, when I died, when my mother appeared to me offering to give me the power to get my revenge.

“You’re smart… I want you. I want to devour you… Would you give me your life? Know that as a Goddess, I always keep my promises. There’s no true promise I’ve broken so far, and I’ve made many.” I devoured the other Pandoras. They were pieces of me, and by devouring them I felt complete.

However, there’s something not even those Pandoras had, and that’s something Takashi has: the weakness, the human weakness. I feel that devouring Takashi is to completely finalize any boundary between what I was and what I am. And it seems… delicious.

To kill, shred, and grind the body of this fragile human will make me feel a sweet sensation of satiation. Because I am someone who is always hungry.

“I accept. If you can destroy their lives, I don’t care about giving mine!” Takashi says without hesitation. I observe his emotions, and it’s a feast.

Gluttony… Yes, I am the representative of Gluttony. I am a gluttonous being who always wants to eat more. I eat what hurts me. I eat what I hate. I eat my enemies and I even eat pieces of existence if they get in my way.

But gluttony isn’t just physical. I also have emotional gluttony. The greatest proof of this are the people I love, where I always want more and more of their love.

’Ah, I want to taint this hatred with my own current emotions. I want to eat these emotions…’ I feel active, like a wolf seeing a helpless little rabbit. I want to devour it.

“Hey, boy, take off your clothes.”

“…?” He looks at me, confused.

“I’m going to fuck you. Take off that shitty clothing.” I begin to shed my true form. My body shrinks with a cracking sound of bones being compressed. My head emerges normally as I return to that version of myself—two meters tall, a beautiful woman, still completely naked.

I want to have sex with him. Not for the sexual act itself, but because I need to devour everything about him and because I want to taint him with my emotions. Because I am the only one of me who has the right to do as I please with the others. I want to consume his existence completely—his body, his emotions, his memories. I am gluttonous, so I want it all.

“I believe my body is magnificent for a pathetic virgin like you. Now take off your clothes and feel honored that you’ll have this chance.” Normally, the only man I would have sex with is Mikael, who is my husband.

But Takashi is the exception of exceptions. Not because he’s special, but because he is me. This counts more as masturbation than actual sex. Besides, I’m doing this to devour him completely, since we are both the same being in the end.

“I-I…”

“After we fuck, I’m going to tear your body apart. I’ll devour it completely until not even a drop of blood is left on the ground. So I suggest you enjoy the fact that a beauty like me is going to fuck you. And don’t worry, I’ll make the heroes suffer more than you can imagine.” He gets nervous, and a light blush colors his face.

“…” He seems very thoughtful and nervous as he starts to obey, taking off his clothes, but without looking at me. He only looks at the floor. But what matters are his emotions—that sweet hatred I see.

However, I don’t look at his body. I care little for this pathetic body. What I look at are the emotions. Even during this moment, their color is still that absolute black, and I love this sensation of hatred. It makes me lick my lips.

’I want to eat this so badly…’ Takashi is [Garbage]. His body is the same as trash in my eyes, and he has nothing worth the effort of eating. But his emotions… they are a feast. And the reason for that is simple: because emotions this extreme are rare.

I’ve lived a long time. I’ve seen many beings. And in the end, emotions have a limit that most beings do not cross.

I myself have rarely seen emotions this extreme, and one of those times was with Grimm, showing that only beings like me, who are quite intense, can have emotions this strong. And seeing someone as pathetic and weak as this human with these emotions makes him a rare delicacy.

It’s like finding the greatest of meals hidden inside an ugly piece of rock, waiting to be eaten by someone who sees its value.

“Are you ready, boy? Because you’d better be. This is the last day of your life, and it will probably be the best day you’ll ever have.” I don’t know if I should devour him, but I can’t restrain myself. I want to eat, and I will eat. I’m starving. I can’t stop salivating so I can start eating him. But first, I must season him properly.

I doubt his death will affect the present, past, and future, because this place is the “draft” and not the “original story” of existence. And I want to see what happens if I destroy him.

——————————————-

A Brief Notice from Galaxy!

Hello, readers! This notice is here for a reason! I want to briefly explain why there’s sex in this upcoming scene, so it doesn’t seem strange or confusing, because it’s actually very important!!

The reason for this sexual scene that’s about to happen isn’t necessarily about the sex itself, but about the act of “sullying” that Pandora wants! It’s basically like adding seasoning to a dish that’s already delicious.

Pandora wants to taint the hatred with something more, and that something is precisely hunger. Pandora is the embodiment of Gluttony, and this fact is also connected to her title as the Goddess of the Apocalypse!

In other words, this scene with Takashi has a lot hidden beneath the surface! I won’t reveal it, because it would be a spoiler, but if you pay close attention to these parts, you’ll find many important secrets about Pandora and her place in existence as the Goddess of the Apocalypse!

I know that the fact Pandora met her mother for about 2 Chapters and then already left and entered this limbo makes it seem like Echidna barely had any story time! But we will get much more of Echidna in the future when Pandora leaves the Foundations of Creation! As I said before, the Abyss arc will be massive!

So for now, we’ll have Pandora exploring this [Limbo]. She will find many interesting things here! Things that will explain some past questions and doubts!

Because as you all should know, there are many unresolved plot points that past Chapters left to be addressed in the future! And here in [Limbo] is where Pandora will find some of those answers on her own.

Precisely through her own merit! I hope you’ve been enjoying the story so far, and that things have improved in recent Chapters!! I’ve been working hard to balance action, plot, and discovery, since I want to answer many of the things left open in the past!!

So, I hope you’ll take the upcoming sexual scene as an act of [Sacrilege] (since Pandora obviously feels disgust for the Takashi of the past and considers his body garbage) rather than actual sex, because what Pandora wants is to [Contaminate] the past in order to devour it, sort of like saying not even the past can escape her anymore!!

Furthermore, this Chapter shows something important about the protagonist of the past! It shows he was so desperate for revenge that he would accept a proposal from ANYTHING to get his revenge, even at the cost of his life.

In other words, even if it wasn’t the Goddess of the Abyss making an offer, if anything had offered a chance for revenge, Takashi would have given even his soul for it! Showing how immense his despair was in the early Chapters and how much he changed when he became Pandora.

Pandora is basically “repeating” the cycle; she is now the superior being who has the power to make an offer to a fragile and weak human filled with hatred! Following a path similar to her mother’s, even if indirectly and involuntarily.

Now, have a good read, and I hope you find the many things between the lines of this Chapter!!

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep