Chapter 578: A Deception Among Infinite Futures

“…Ah, this point, this really isn’t a nightmare anymore.” I murmur, looking around. I noticed when the “world” started to change; someone took advantage of my nightmare to try something else.

“Taking advantage of a sleeping lady is cowardly.” I say to whoever it was that tampered with my nightmare. I was starting to like the nightmare, because I could eat pieces of it, and it was tasty.

“…”

“Silence? What’s everyone’s problem with staying quiet when I ask a question?”

[How did you notice me?]

“Isn’t it obvious? The nightmare was ’mine.’ Now this place isn’t ’mine,’ so obviously I’m somewhere else.” I say, shrugging.

[I am here to test you.]

“Test me?…Oh, right, basically you came to see if you can kill me, didn’t you?” It’s an avatar. I already imagined some of the avatars would try to “kill” me through small attempts to make me slip up.

“You guys are really pissed because of what I did with that skill, huh?” Seems like I hurt their egos, by forcing my way into getting that skill to always move at Time Zero speed.

[You affected my domains. It’s only natural that I test the one who cheated.]

“?”

’That doesn’t tell me much.’

“Alright then, and what will you do with me?” I don’t see who it is, and I don’t know which avatar this is or what it represents.

’This avatar invaded my nightmare, and pulled only my consciousness… what concept could do that?’

[I am the one who knows everything, sees everything, and is everywhere, through infinite possibilities. Pandora, let’s see your choice in the present.]

I hear a clicking sound, and then I’m in a house I recognize. This makes my body shiver and my tail lash aggressively, like a defense.

“…” My eyes scan the place with a coldness I never imagined I could show towards something familiar.

“Sweetie, could you get the pot for mommy?” A woman with a tired look speaks, while a child runs to her excitedly.

“This is seriously a really dirty move, you know?” I say with a terrifyingly wide smile to hide my anger. The two people here are Takashi and my mother from the other world.

My mother looks as tired as I always imagined. It seems to be some time after her husband abandoned her. The exhaustion is clear, but she still smiles at Takashi, trying to keep everything under control.

[Pandora, you have the chance to save her. How about that? Or you could…]

“Let her die.” I say, already imagining exactly what she’s going to say.

[!!?]

[You have no heart? You don’t want to save her?]

“Of course I do. It pumps blood through my veins.” I say sarcastically.

“You think showing me this would change anything?” If I ’save her,’ time changes, and I die. Simple as that.

“I couldn’t care less about that. I could easily use time magic to try and save her if I wanted to. I don’t need you offering it.” Her death is an event that will happen, and one I won’t try to change. Even if I had complete atemporality, I still wouldn’t try to mess with this event because it defines who I am now. Erasing my past because I don’t like it is cowardly, running away from who I am.

“Did you really think you could fool me? I won’t stop her from dying. That’s the price for my existence. I won’t erase my existence for anyone in this world.”

“My life will always come first for me. Honestly, if this is all you planned, then you’re pathetic.”

[!!!]

[You wretched girl! This isn’t what I saw!? What did you do!! WHAT DID YOU DO?] This thing’s voice becomes distorted, like some kind of broken machine.

“Hahaha, I bet I can guess what happened. You’re an Avatar of Time, aren’t you? The one who prevents mortals and goddesses from time travel.”

“You saw my future, and I said I would save my mother, right? Hahahaha.” I laugh out loud, not believing she fell for it.

“I have the Fundamentals of Creation. I know how timelines work. A timeline is like a straight line that splits into infinite branches for each being.” I say arrogantly to her, who surely already knows this fact.

“I am the original branch. That means I am the main timeline, and any other Pandora are branches of my choices. Since I haven’t died yet in the main timeline that defines my life, I’m still the original timeline.”

“However, just as I know I am the main root, all Pandoras know they are branches…” She was fooled. Fooled by every Pandora she saw. They all knew I would never choose that. Every version of me would never choose to throw their life away, but they pretended to make that choice when they received this same proposal from this Avatar.

“Looks like I’m a genius even in other timelines. And it seems you can’t really see everything, can you?” The air around seems like it could shatter any second, while Takashi and his mother cook together, oblivious to the two powerful entities in their house.

[You win, this Disaster Bearer.] Everything begins to dissolve into dust, as I take one last look at my mother. I never thought I’d be able to see her again, even for a second.

I don’t know how to feel about it, since this is a past that doesn’t matter to me anymore. But I guess it’s okay. That’s just how life is. The past won’t really affect my choices now.

Besides, I’m genuinely fascinated to know that other timelines of me helped me out. Seems we have a good sense of existential preservation.

“Urgh…” I wake up feeling pain in my shoulder and realize I’m trapped. Waking up from the “nightmare” feels strange because part of it was really the nightmare I was having, and another part was my consciousness being pulled from my body.

I look to the side and down, seeing that my older sister is clinging to me, biting my shoulder hard while keeping me pinned to her. I sigh calmly.

’I’m awake, it seems…’ That was dangerous. The test itself was easy, but if the Avatar of Time tried to play with my emotions to kill me, other avatars probably tried too.

“Pandora, you seem tense.” Azraelith speaks, stroking my belly while her tail rubs intensely against mine.

“It’s nothing, just… had a nightmare.” I completely hide the part where a level 1 trillion being just tried to kill me and failed.

’I should thank my mother for teaching me the Fundamentals of Creation…’ That was close. If I didn’t have the Fundamentals of Creation, I couldn’t have fooled her. As I am the main branch, any time branch that comes from me has the same things I do. That is, they all have the Fundamentals of Creation.

It’s just that without having fooled the Avatar of Time, she could have set a more elaborate trap that I would have fallen into, since she would see which future leads to me doing something wrong, allowing her to kill me.

’…’ I feel her mana, impregnated in my body, as if she were marking me as a warning that she’ll come to kill me. Or maybe it’s just the remnants of her magic left on me.

“Hahahaha.” I laugh at this. Who would have thought, right? Such a powerful being was fooled by its own arrogance in thinking it could easily visualize my future to deceive me.

“Pandora, when you laugh to yourself like that, you seem kind of crazy.”

“It’s just that something funny happened in the ’nightmare,’ but you wouldn’t understand.” My heart is racing. This adrenaline that surges in moments where death is an almost absolute certainty is so addictive.

“Big sister, why are you here hugging me?”

“I just saw you seemed tense and wanted to give you affection.”

“…Okay then.” I say to her while trying to get up. This probably won’t be the last “attack” on me, but the Avatar of Time probably won’t try again.

Because just her presence started to break the concept she represented around her. So if she manifests again, she could cause a serious problem and imbalance in the universe.

After all, she took me to the past for a brief moment. Even if I couldn’t interact or do anything relevant, was that still time travel? Though, I’m not sure if it was time travel, or if she temporarily sent me to another timeline.

“Oohh!?” Azraelith pulls my tail, making me fall face-first onto the bed. I turn to her as she holds me.

“Pandora… can you stay here just a little longer?”

’Is she feeling needy?’ I look at my hands. They’re a bit shaky from the chaotic and unexpected experience.

“Sure, sis. Let’s do something fun.” Despite my cheerful tone, fear is still present in my body. She didn’t even manifest completely, but I know this: if that avatar fought me, I would lose instantly. Good thing they’re forced to follow rules.

“But sis, I still have very little magic, so while we’re not training, I want to choose what fun thing we do!” I smile at her, and she gets excited.

…

…

…

“[So you failed, huh?]” The Avatar of Entropy speaks to me, her tone icy because of my failure.

[Naturally, I was fooled. And by an unfortunate infinity of events, I was unable to achieve what I aimed for from my brief encounter with the Disaster Bearer.] I say, annoyed by my failure.

“[You are the Avatar of Time. How could you supposedly be fooled?]” She asks as if it’s absurd that Pandora fooled me.

[It so happens that time remains stable based on the branch of the main timeline. As long as the main being doesn’t die, all timelines converge at the instants of time when that being is alive.]

[Therefore, Pandora, who possesses advanced knowledge about time, ends up transmitting such knowledge to all infinite Pandoras that arise from the main branch of that instant.]

[Because of this, every Pandora who encountered me pretended they would accept my proposal, leading me into error by making me believe that all Pandoras would always choose to save that mortal woman.]

[And considering the balance limitations, I am limited from seeing excessively into the malleable future.] I can see the future completely, but such knowledge is ’sealed’ so I only access certain parts to prevent me from breaking the balance.

“[I don’t know if this makes you factually incompetent, or if it makes Pandora such a stupidly genius monster that she completely breaks logic.]” She speaks, confused by this.

[I regret my failure. Now that I have failed, I believe this no longer involves me.] I have failed once. I probably won’t try again, as it no longer matters.

“[…Very well. Due to your failure, Pandora will for now return to being a target of observation. Considering she made a choice that respects the balance, I believe we can all give observation a chance.]” When she says this, I get frustrated.

She waited for me to fail to decide that we don’t need to erase Pandora, when she could have decided to just keep observing before. Although, I agree. Pandora chose the best option for the universal balance. In that regard, she fulfilled her role as a goddess well.

[Of course. Choose what you want. I’ve done my part. That being so, I will take my leave. Entropy, I hope the balance is with you.] I say, beginning to fade.

“[May the balance… be with you.]” She speaks with the cold tone I’m so used to.

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