The Dark Rebirth of Pandora: Revenge of the Abyss
Chapter 348: Small Gap
"Here's your glass," Lucius says, handing me a glass and filling it with wine as he also fills his own. The aroma of the wine seems quite nice.
"Thank you," I say, taking the glass and savoring the scent of the wine that fills the air as he takes his own glass.
"A toast to the future," he says as we clink our glasses, the sound of the glass breaking the silence as we drink the wine.
'...What a horrible taste...' It's very alcoholic, such a high concentration of alcohol that it becomes unpleasant, more so than any drink I've had before. The real problem is the extremely bitter taste, so bitter that it reminds me of the blood of spider monsters.
"..." Lucius also puts the glass in my hand. He seems disappointed, and it's noticeable on his face. I guess he never imagined the taste of this was complete garbage. If I wasn't seeing his emotions now, I would judge that he did this on purpose.
"Well... life is made up of good and bad experiences. I must say that this experience was unpleasant. It's a shame since it was a celebration," he says, going to the table to get another bottle.
"Want some? This is a 60-year-old wine, and I can assure you of its quality this time, as I drink it at special fraternity parties specifically for political purposes."
"Yes," I say as he pours me a new glass of wine. We quickly try it, and this one is much better than the other one. It's sweet and sour, with a pleasant hint of bitterness at the end.
"Much better," I say, and he agrees, sitting down in his chair.
"Yes, I agree. So, what do you want to know about the church?" he asks as I decide what to ask.
"I have a lot of doubts about the goddess Elysia," I say as he takes a long sip from his wine glass, savoring the familiar taste of the wine.
"There's a lot to say about her, but if we're talking about religious history not available to the public, how about we talk about the heroes instead?" he says, and the subject immediately catches my attention.
"Sounds like a great topic," I say, taking a sip of the wine. I doubt he'll talk about the heroes' abilities, since the conversation is about history, so it's probably something more ancient, but maybe he'll talk about the summoning circle.
"Undoubtedly, after all, there are only 3 goddesses who have directly affected this world the goddess of the sirens who lives at the bottom of the sea, the goddess of the abyss who can 'create' the being known as the Demon King, and the Goddess of Humans who can summon heroes," he says, and I think about it.
'He's right, only those three have had different and notable contact with this planet.' It seems there's something behind this, I hadn't tried to figure out why others have such low contact with the world.
"So, why can only they three have direct contact with this world?" I ask, drinking my glass completely and refilling it.
"We're not sure, but by analyzing the ancient scriptures of the church, patterns in the three things, and each goddess individually, we believe we have the answer to that," he says, addressing a subject that differs from what I expected, but that's fine.
"And what would that be?" I ask, curious about what it could be, although considering that they are deductions, there is no absolute guarantee that this is true, but I'll try to see how far it's true using what I know.
"External influence. We believe that for a goddess to manifest indirectly or directly, she needs someone to influence that from the outside," he says, and I think of my mother.
'Oh yes, that's what he's talking about...' If I cause enough chaos, death, and destruction, I can allow my mother a passage to this world, but if even my older sister couldn't, then the amount of chaos created necessary must be enormous.
"So...the heroes are not something made to help humans, but a tiny passage that the goddess created to try to come to this world?" I say, stating what seems most obvious.
"Exactly. We believe that the heroes are what is creating this passage for our goddess to come to this world, just as the Goddess of the Abyss has the Demon King, and we believe that something has already made this passage a long time ago, allowing the Goddess of the Sirens to come to this world," he explains.
"That's interesting, very interesting indeed...wait, the summoning circle doesn't work periodically at a certain interval," I say, and he nods.
"It seems you understand. We are 'accumulating' and slowly opening the passage, after all, if a hole is opened and no one closes it, it will only get bigger," he says, giving me the answer I needed most to bring my mother to this world.
'I see, that's why my mother's tactic of creating a Demon King never changed she's slowly creating a breach.' It's useful to know this, but which breach is closer to being open enough?
The breach for my mother to pass or the breach for Elysia, although that doesn't matter much, at some point I'll be able to prevent this magic summoning circle from being used again.
"So basically, the current duty of the church is more to bring the goddess to this world, right?" I say, and he agrees, drinking another glass of wine. Who would have thought he would tell me these things.
Although I have one doubt why do the goddesses have all this focus on coming to this planet? Does it have something special?
"Correct. If we can bring her to this world, any problems that exist will be easily solved, after all, she is our goddess," he says, as if this were an absolute certainty.
'How arrogant.' Even if Elysia came to this world, she couldn't do whatever she wanted, because Delphina is also here, and the two of them fighting would guarantee the end of everyone here.
"Lucius, I have a question. If the real religious and historical motivation of the church is to bring the goddess Elysia to the world, a question arises that I don't understand," I say as he becomes curious, refilling his glass with more wine.
"And what would that be?" he asks, taking another sip.
"Why is the primordial goddess not worshipped?" Ironically, even though the primordial goddess is the creator of the other goddesses, she is not worshipped by anyone, and there is nothing written about it.
She is ignored, as if she did not exist, which is strange considering that the goddesses themselves respect her in their own way and even have a certain degree of worship for her, as shown by Elysia, who, although arrogant, uses the fact of "being similar" to the primordial goddess as a reason for her audacious actions against other goddesses.
"This question is very complex, Pandora...and although we've tried to figure it out...no member of the church has the slightest idea why," he says, leaving me slightly disappointed with the subject.
"It's not as if the primordial goddess is a heretical goddess or an evil goddess. In fact, she is respected as the mother of our goddess, but...she has never been seen as a target of worship."
"It's not that she doesn't deserve worship, she created all existence, so she deserves respect, but that's just it, you know? It's been stagnant in that, maybe because we have more divine figures closer to us, so we don't need such a distant divine figure," he says, and I think about it.
'So it's more like utilitarianism the goddesses are already more connected to mortals than the primordial goddess, so there's no reason to try to worship someone who isn't connected to them, even if they're important.' It's like not worshiping the king of another nation.
"Well, it's a shame, although there's not much about her either," I say, finishing another glass of wine. I'd like to know more about her, I doubt she will be an enemy in the future considering her personality, but she's kind of like my grandmother, so I'd at least like to know a little more about her.
"Yes, if she decided to get involved actively and help us, she could be worshipped. It's regrettable that a being like her remains in such a neutral position," he says, and I laugh at that.
"Yes..." I doubt very much that she would join any side, from what I've heard from Delphina, it's obvious that she is too neutral and kind to get involved in the stupid fights that have arisen from irrational hatred.
After all, the fight between the races is kind of stupid if analyzed deeply it arose purely from a matter of different races, different cultures, and different worship of divinities, which generated unnecessary hatred and fights.
"Well, it's nice to know that the church wants to bring the goddess back. Do you know how many heroes are left until that happens?" I ask, slightly attentive to the subject, after all, if the current generation of heroes is the last, I'll have serious problems with the goddess Elysia appearing out of nowhere.
"We have no idea. She is a goddess, the power is very high, so the breach needs to be equally large, which can still take a long time. Unfortunately, we have lost many ancient records," he says, and I let out a laugh.
"Something funny?"
"Nothing, just imagining the torment of our enemies when the goddess returns..." It's funny because they lost those records to the demons, they were stolen and they don't even know.
"I see. Well, want more wine?" he asks, seeing that the wine bottle is already empty.
"Of course, we have a lot to talk about," I say with a smile as he gets another bottle of wine. I don't know if he can get drunk, but I want to get as much information as possible through simple questions.
"Yes, we have a lot to talk about," he agrees as he pours more wine.