Chapter 785: Survival

"...Hmmm... I'm pretty sure you all shouldn't be doing this! ...It's weird... why the hell did all of you gather here?" I ask, looking at six Pandoras who came from who knows where.

"Come on, Amiya, you don't need to complain so much," a Pandora with red streaks in her hair says, playing chess with another Pandora who's missing one of her arms.

"Yeah, don't be such a buzzkill," the one-armed Pandora says, rolling her eyes while I look at Star, who just shrugs.

"Seriously, why are all of you here?"

"My universe died," the blonde Pandora reading a book says, and then all of them repeat the exact same thing.

"Okay... but why are you here?"

"Star, you're an invader who came to this universe, so we decided to do the same. Besides, I've already seen the Original Pandora, so I decided to come to her universe. The others are pretty much the same," a Pandora with two tails mutters, crushing a cube and reshaping it into a sphere.

"...So all of you lost your universes and decided to invade this one?"

"Something like that, but it's all Pandora's fault!! Some so-called goddess of death has been visiting multiple universes and collapsing them. There's also some wretched one who's apparently an avatar of the original — she's been infecting entire universes, and timelines have been suffering because of it," a Pandora with glasses says, answering my question.

'Pandora wearing glasses?' I look at her, and she seems to notice my gaze fixed on her glasses.

"I don't have vision problems. These glasses just censor all the colors I can see that go beyond the eyes of a normal living being. Anyway, this place is cozy. I like it," she says, even though I didn't ask.

"Pandoras!! Look here!!" I say seriously, calling all of them, and they stop what they're doing.

"This place is not your home! Please, leave!! You're messing up my master's house!! And besides... Kyaa!! Stop eating my little pet!!" I run over to a Pandora who's trying to eat my pet.

"...Tsk." I take it from her hand and return it to the glass jar.

"Star!! Say something, send them away!!! They've been here for two days and they've already trashed my room!!!"

"Sorry, Disciple... they're way stronger than me, and we kind of really are invaders in this universe. Either way, it's only six of them... I'll be... busy, so please deal with it," Star practically flees, ignoring the problem.

"No!!... GET OUT OF MY ROOM!!" I end up losing my composure and shouting at them.

"...Amiya, we don't have a home anymore. Don't be so cruel to us. It's all the Original Pandora's fault — she created a universe just for herself and isolated herself, leaving everything in complete chaos."

"That's because several powerful versions of her who can leave their universes started doing whatever they wanted. After all, if we're just variants of Pandora, then a lot of things lose their meaning," the red-streaked Pandora says, and honestly, it's frustrating.

"But that has nothing to do with me!!"

"It doesn't, but this universe is safe. It's protected by the original's power, so we can't use very strong or destructive powers in here, and we can't even get close to the planet."

"The Omnipotent Pandora, being the Original, basically prevented any version of herself from being able to destroy her home universe or kill the people she likes," the glasses Pandora says, moving closer to me.

"Even so!! You should find another place to live! Why specifically with me and Star? I—" She pulls me by the waist and kisses me.

"You talk too much for a half-corrupted slut. We're all trying to be really nice here, but if you're only going to open your mouth to spew bullshit, maybe we should just fuck you?" I look at all of them, and it's obvious — they're still Pandora.

"N-No..."

"Then stop complaining. If you want to complain to someone, complain to the original, who let those two lunatics do whatever they want. Honestly, Pandora is a really irresponsible god. She abandoned us to chance."

"Yeah!!" They all agree with this criticism, though I don't know what to say.

"W-Will more of you keep showing up?"

"No. There seems to be a limit to how many Pandoras this universe can support, so any others who tried to enter died instantly. The true Pandora is quite cruel," I notice something when she says that.

'So Pandora didn't completely abandon this universe?' I grow curious about it.

"Hey... why does every Pandora call me Amiya? I'm Star's Disciple, but you all keep calling me that, and no one explains it properly..." Most of them go back to what they were doing while the glasses Pandora pulls me out of my room.

"...?" She moves away from the others and then stops, looking at me with a serious expression.

"I take pride in saying I'm one of the most intelligent Pandoras. In my universe, I followed a path entirely focused on learning things and creating things — so much so that I'm a Goddess of Creation..."

"Okay..."

"And with that, I learned some troubling things. All of us here lost our universes, but we stayed alive because we had something special that sets us apart from other versions of ourselves..."

"Right... where are you going with this?"

"...Amiya, we're chaotic beings. The Omnipotent Pandora is an anchor — she anchored all of us. That's because she's an omnipotent being, so she is, at the same time, all of us. But by doing that, she made most of us aware of other versions of ourselves."

"Except we're beings of pure chaos and disorder... many Pandoras are killing each other out there across the universe. To many of us, Pandora abandoned us to our own luck."

"And that's because one of her avatars is the main one who started causing problems. This universe here is safe, but everything that exists here that we can get close to is you — the stars — which shows that Pandora doesn't care about you."

"I... sorry, but I don't understand..." I don't know what she means by that.

"...Haa... let me simplify. Pandora no longer dictates how our lives should go. She anchored us to each other, and she abandoned us."

"That means no one here likes each other, which means that in a not-so-distant future, more than 99% of Pandoras will die — and at the hands of other variants of themselves."

"Even though infinite possibilities exist, there aren't actually infinite Pandoras. That's because we were anchored to each other, which limits how many variables can create new Pandoras."

"...I—"

"Shhh. Understand one thing: in the future, if there are 100 Pandoras left in all of existence, that will be a miracle. All of us here are scared — scared of those aberrations from other timelines who are hunting their own versions."

"W-Why the hell is this happening?" I ask, confused.

"Because the Original doesn't care. The Top Two doesn't interfere. And the Top Three is weakened but recovering her powers, and she's one of the most insane — and the same goes for most of the top..."

"Most of the strong Pandoras have serious control issues, and they hate that other versions of themselves exist, so they're obtaining individuality by killing their variants."

"If we leave this universe, we'll die. So get used to it. The six of us are going to live here now, and nothing is going to drag me out of here, got it!?"

"G-Got it..."

"Good. Don't worry — none of us here want trouble... it's just... genuine fear of what's out there hunting us. The future is dark for us."

"The Pandoras are connected to the Original. The Original isn't just one Pandora among infinite ones. She is, in a way, the reference point that gives existence and identity to the entire set of us."

"The Pandora population is collapsing. And the reason is almost Darwinian, only applied far more directly, since the strongest are wiping out the weakest to prove they're unique."

"It all comes down to one simple phrase: [I am different precisely because I killed the versions that could have been the same as me.] Which is true."

"And the Original Pandora knows this, but she ignored it. If she ignored it, she condones it. So just be patient. When everything calms down, we'll probably try to leave." She gives me a nod and heads back to my room.

"...Pandora... is self-destructing... how strange..." It's really bizarre to learn this, but ironically, I feel like it was almost obvious considering what I know about Pandora.

"I guess this has nothing to do with me. I'll just ignore it..."