I drag the elf back to base—she’s still alive. I already cauterized her wounds, burning them deep so she wouldn’t bleed out anymore. Calypso follows behind me in an uncomfortable silence.

"Is there a problem, Calypso?" I ask, my voice colder than I’d like. I’m not fully recovered yet; my vision is still hazy and washed out, though it’s slowly coming back, and my instincts are on a hair trigger.

"Aqua, do you really believe... that thing I heard you say about girls?" She was there watching me get my "revenge" for this elf’s cowardice in attacking my already incapacitated sister, and she asks the question with a certain unease.

"Yeah..." I know my worldview isn’t exactly common. I’ve never met anyone who thinks the same way I do, but I’m not going to hide what I believe.

"Is Lycoris okay?"

"She’s fine. It was a nasty poison, but I handled it and she was taken back to base. You two were incredibly irresponsible going off on your own." Calypso uses my question as an opening to criticize my actions.

"...I know. The soldiers were so weak, I thought the two of us would be fine... I didn’t think there’d be anyone who was even the slightest threat." I need to apologize to Lycoris. She got hurt because I was disobedient and arrogant.

"Pandora would be furious with you if she’d seen that scene." When she says that, I stop walking and stare at her.

"Why?"

"Because you had sex with an enemy. And that’s not the real problem—the problem is your inability to stop, to think, and to save it for the right moment."

"You abandoned Lycoris after signaling, while she was poisoned. Anyone could have shown up. If it had been an enemy, Lycoris would be dead. If Pandora were here, she’d punish you for that."

"I..." I open my mouth to deny it, but she’s right. As the fight dragged on, I lost more and more of my calm and patience.

"Besides, you left this elf alive. Pandora would be disappointed in that, too... She doesn’t leave enemies alive unless she already has a punishment in mind that’s worse than death for that person."

"Like that futanari heroine locked up in the castle, having all her fluids extracted. She’s in there, restrained and drained twenty-four hours a day, every single day. Or Liona and Aube, who Pandora gave to Shogo as a gift to punish them."

"And this elf? What are you going to do with this dismembered, traumatized elf?" Calypso asks a question I don’t have an answer to, as I just stare at the girl I brought with me, completely unsure.

"I-I’ll figure that out later... Stop comparing me to Mama Pandora. I’m not her, and I don’t want to be... I’ll be better! I can think of something..." Frustrated, I snap at her and start walking again, dragging the elf by her hair. She’s unconscious, letting out only low, pained moans.

...

...

...

"Pandora, you seem frustrated," Azraelith says to me as I float in the middle of the room, watching my daughters through the system. Eclipsya is training with Tsukuyomi, working hard to increase her strength.

Azazel is training too, undergoing an intense regimen with Grimm that’s making her much stronger, leaving the others in the dust at this pace. As for Lycoris and Aqua, who went off to war... I’m watching them the most.

’Aqua... what a disappointment. I expected more from you.’ I expected so much more from Aqua. I hate to admit it, but she’s let me down badly. When she was born, she was the daughter most like me, so I had high hopes for giving her the title of Demon King.

But her actions are... weak. She’s more fragile than I care to admit, and her mindset doesn’t come close to the kind of genius I wanted.

"It’s just my daughter. She disappointed me greatly." If it had been me in that situation, the first thing I would have done was ensure the safety of the person I love. Aqua, stupidly, left Lycoris with nothing but a flimsy barrier anyone could break.

And in a fight, if I were the one fighting, I wouldn’t have destroyed the terrain like that. The terrain did give the elf an advantage, it’s true, and turning the area to mud helped Aqua, but Aqua is a shark. She should have created an artificial lake to gain more of an advantage instead of just trying to knock down trees.

In other words: zero strategic mindset. She only thought about destroying the enemy’s advantage, not about creating one for herself. And the worst part is her shallow method of incapacitating an enemy.

If it were me in that situation, I wouldn’t start with the legs. I’d start with one of the arms. First, to remove the elf’s only good weapon—the bow—and second, to instill fear. And fear leads to mistakes.

After that, I’d take one leg. And going further, I’d break her spine, completely incapacitating her. Only then would I fully dismember her to continue.

And the absolute worst part was having to watch the stupid sexual and verbal abuse Aqua dished out. My god, I’m ashamed I didn’t teach her properly.

It’s true that for a princess to be deflowered is humiliating and demoralizing. But by dismembering her, insulting her, and spewing misogynistic lines, she completely destroyed the humiliation of being forcefully deflowered.

Aqua mixed physical, mental, and psychological torture all at once, reducing the impact of each one without giving the elf any room to truly suffer. Not to mention, that’s the same stupid elf whose bow I destroyed in the past. It seems she had a personal grudge against me.

And Aqua didn’t even try to use that to her advantage. She failed at everything!! EVERYTHING!! She didn’t fail at one or two steps; she failed at every single step she set out to take. Maybe the problem is me—that I’m just too twisted.

But even before I was an adult, shortly after I was born, I already knew how to make someone’s life a living hell. So Aqua should understand what causes the most suffering, too.

And of course, the cherry on top of this cake of failures: she completely lost her composure. Nothing she did during the entire fight was a rational, conscious choice. It was just misdirected instinct.

Obviously, I understand that instincts are intense and hard to control. But even when I’m overwhelmed by instinct, I control it and dictate how it affects me. I have never let my instincts override my will.

"Haa... I guess I expected too much from a bunch of girls who’ve never experienced anything bad... Maybe I’ve been too lenient. I shouldn’t have protected them so much." Maybe the academy was a mistake.

I created the academy thinking of giving them stability, time to grow, and practical conditions to refine their minds and skills. But all I got was a bunch of girls who can’t analyze danger or formulate better plans because they trust too much in what they have.

"Big sister, I think I was foolish. I should have created hellish training. I should have thrown my daughters into constant life-or-death scenarios... Yeah, I should have created a dungeon instead of an academy."

"I should have created an infernal dungeon where every floor could claim their lives before they even realized it. That way, they’d learn to use what they have better!" I say, trying to hide the anger in my voice.

"I agree, Pandora. From the way you’re acting, your daughters have failed miserably at what you expected. And I didn’t have an easy life in the beginning, either," Azraelith murmurs about her own past.

"Exactly! I didn’t have an easy life either, big sister! Okay, sure, I had servants, pleasure, wealth, and all that. But I was constantly seeking power and taking life-threatening risks!!"

"I mean, I must have been at risk of dying over a hundred times just in my first year of life!! And it’s even worse when I think about certain training sessions and attempts to get stronger that I made! My near-death experiences easily number in the thousands and then some!!"

"Meanwhile, ironically, the most dangerous situation my daughters have ever been in was a fight among themselves and Grimm threatening them!! And in none of those cases were they ever actually going to die..."

"And to my misfortune, hybridization gave them some neat powers, but it screwed up the best part of our race. They largely lost their regeneration and adaptation!! Only Azazel has regeneration worthy of a Tenebris Abyssus!!"

"And even she barely has any adaptive power... I thought hybrids born from my blood would be stronger... but I guess that’s just how it is, right? Mom created a perfect race, and if you mix perfect with something else, it doesn’t get better. It just gets worse." I hate talking like this, as if they are defective. But it’s a concrete fact. They are biological failures compared to me and Azraelith.

"...I think this is why Mom wanted you to get pregnant by me, or to knock me up, so badly. She obviously knows that all her current granddaughters don’t even come close to her own creation," I murmur, stopping my floating and sitting down on the bed.

"Pandora, you don’t need to worry. Even if they aren’t what you expected, it’s not like it matters, right? We don’t want them to fight the goddesses, so it’s not that big of a problem," my sister says, and she’s right.

By their world’s standard of power, they are completely fine and have the advantage. It’s just a little sad that they’re incapable of surpassing me.

’I thought my daughters would have the potential to surpass me... I guess I placed them on too high a pedestal... In the end, hybridization destroyed the most important thing about the race: adaptation. None of them have good adaptation... so none of them grow much from mistakes, difficulties, or problems.’ I sigh, exhausted.

"Yes, big sister, you’re completely right. Besides, I can always have more children. And I still need to have one with Mikael and one with you!! What’s more, the one with you is the one I’m most excited to see!" It will be the first non-hybrid Tenebris Abyssus.

I bet this child will be my strongest because it will inherit all the good traits of the race—extreme regeneration and extreme adaptation.

"I just hope my little girls improve before I get there, because seriously, none of them are currently worthy of succeeding me." For now, none are fit to receive the title of Demon King. I’ll have to keep watching until I reach the planet.

’They have three months at most... If they don’t improve in three months, none of them will get the title. And if they keep this up... maybe I should punish all of them for failing me so badly.’ Azraelith just strokes my head gently, seeing my frustration, before giving me a little kiss on the forehead and leaving the room.

"I love you, big sister!"

"I love you too. Just don’t get so frustrated. Tomorrow we’ll train together. I want to run some tests with the Doom element." She waves as she leaves, and I return my focus to my meditation.