Xyrin Empire-Chapter 233 - Tragic Fate
Chapter 233: Chapter 233 Tragic Fate
Chapter 233 -233 Tragic Fate
Pandora’s account came to a close, but I knew the story was far from simple.
The “Undying” project had created Substitute Puppets devoid of consciousness, lifeless shells that would remain in eternal dormancy until the death of their original beings, yet the Visca I encountered had not only awakened but had also developed its own consciousness—albeit a deeply mad one. This suggested that something had happened after the termination of the project, leading to Visca’s existence.
Pandora didn’t allow my confusion to linger long. She organized her far-distant and somewhat challenging-to-access memories, and then revealed to me the regrettable latter half of the story.
“Fifty years after the project was forcibly terminated, the Colonized Star System where I was stationed encountered the largest Abyss erosion in history. Hundreds of Constant Stars became overly dangerous Critical Stars due to the disturbances of Abyss Power; thousands of large and small planets careened wildly through the Sky Zone. The Abyss Power even invaded the Colonies’ Mother Star, making the originally stable planet frenzied and on the verge of collapse. Millions of Xyrin Apostles participated in the battle against the planetary rampage; we destroyed several stars that had gone completely out of control, but during the extermination of a giant Critical Star, an accident occurred. Due to the severe interference created by the Critical Star, we fell into a trap laid by the Abyss. All the forces under my command were sacrificed in the intersecting energy field of the Abyss entrance and the universe’s black hole, leaving only me to narrowly survive…”
I was completely shaken by Pandora’s account of the colossal war. What scale of battlefield it was! To think she was fighting against rampaging planets!
I looked at the doll-like, well-behaved Little Pandora in my arms with disbelief; it was hard to imagine that this little girl had once led such a terrifying star-system-destroying war. Compared to the planet-level battles during the Empire’s prime, the current crisis facing the Azeroth world was literally insignificant, like a soldier’s gun jamming on a battlefield. No wonder Sandora and others never showed any concern about the battle situation; to those who had already witnessed the ultimate war, this small regional disturbance was really nothing to worry about…
Nevertheless, there was still something to be noted. Although the crisis in the Azeroth world didn’t seem a big deal to Sandora and Pandora, the forces we currently commanded were incomparably weak compared to those during the Empire’s prime…
Pandora’s narration was still ongoing. This little iceberg’s storytelling ability was certainly not commendable—the utterly bland and monotonous descriptions almost possessed an unprecedented hypnotic power—but due to the shocking content of the story, I was deeply captivated: “…In that ambush, we lost most of our High Order Xyrin commanders, but fortunately, thanks to soul preservation technology, most of the commanders had the opportunity for rebirth. However, there was an anomaly with me—I was seriously injured at the time and even lost my spiritual connection with the base. In that situation, the ‘Undying’ system was activated.”
“According to the system’s settings, when the mother dies, a random substitute puppet would be simultaneously activated, and then my soul data should have been transmitted into this substitute puppet by the Super Space-Time Transmission Device. However, I was still alive at the time, so the activated substitute puppet remained in stasis, and the system thus made an error judgment, assuming the first activation had failed and activated a second body… In this way, within a short period of time, all my spare bodies were activated, and chaos ensued. This was due to a setting in the initial design of the ‘Undying’ system: only one Pandora could remain active at the same time to prevent multiple spare bodies from waking up simultaneously and causing my soul to not accurately locate, but since my soul was never uploaded, all clones developed severe system errors, and they even began to actively execute that original setting: only one Pandora could exist at the same time…”
“Thousands of clones started a frenzied battle, lacking consciousness, yet the program made them recognize their sisters around them as bugs that disrupted the system rules, and their task was to eliminate every copy bearing the Pandora insignia until only one remained. When I woke up in the base and sensed the chaos happening among my clones, it was already too late. The Death Star, used as an experimental field, had been shattered into pieces in their battle, and fragments drifted all over the space, none of the clone bodies reserved for backup remained…”
“Now it seems, there remains only one…”
I forced myself to suppress the chaos in my mind and then helplessly shook my head with a bitter smile.
This is a very oppressive story; I never imagined that Pandora had undergone such an ordeal. Although those clones were unconscious puppets, that thousands of entities called “sisters” could annihilate each other due to a program error was something not everyone could accept, especially now known to have produced a clone that developed its personality and escaped, the psychological impact it brings to oneself is absolutely not as calm as Pandora currently appears on the surface.
“Brother, the Pandora clone you mentioned must have developed its intelligence during the battles,” Pandora said, lowering her head and calmly presenting her analysis, “Possessing a more outstanding physical body than ordinary Angel Envoys, it is more likely to develop self-awareness in the future, and for us, Xyrin Apostles, the most suitable conditions for evolution naturally arise from combat. The awakening of Vis could have happened during that battle.”
So that’s it, since Pandora analyzed it this way, the truth of the matter must not be far off, as no one knows her spare bodies better than Pandora herself. Thus, Vis’s madness also has a certain explanation.
The self-awareness that emerged from the brutal self-mutilation, such consciousness itself could not possibly be normal. I could hardly imagine, a newborn little girl, when she naively opened her eyes only to find herself standing amidst a chaotic scene littered with corpses, and her hands covered in the blood of countless “sisters” who looked just like her, what kind of shock she would have experienced. Maybe at that moment, Vis had already gone mad. After she escaped the collapsing experimental field of the Death Star and wandered in the universe for millions of years, this madness only intensified. Moreover, I can now be sure that during her wandering, Vis was eroded by the Abyss Power, which further muddled her consciousness. From the jumbled words she spoke, I can deduce that the old system setting of “only allowing one Pandora to exist” had not disappeared from her thoughts; instead, it had become a deadly vicious cycle. This is also why Vis, who already possesses self-awareness, still believes she is just a spare clone, and her only mission is to eliminate Pandora.”
However, I still have a question in my mind, a question more perplexing than any mystery.
“Why does Visca consider me her brother?”
That’s something I am curious about, and it seems I’m not the only one. Visca also calls Qianqian “sister,” and I suspect that apart from Pandora, Visca sees all of us as her “original” family members. It is under this notion that she harbored the thought of “reclaiming” what belongs to her from Pandora.
“Because she can share my memories to some extent.”
Pandora lifted her tiny face, her eyes filled with guilt.
“I thought all the clones had vanished, so I never scanned my mental upload port, but Visca had scanned my memories through this port without my knowledge…”
So that was it!
In an instant, many of the issues that puzzled us became clear, and our exposed whereabouts finally had an explanation. The attacks Pandora and Sandora faced while hiding in the Dragon Clan’s settlement also became easy to understand. All the secrets had been stolen by Visca using Pandora as the stepping stone.
“It’s not your fault.”
Seeing the remorseful expression on Pandora’s face, I flashed a gentle smile and then rubbed her head twice: “You were just being used, and you helped me find the channel of the information leak, didn’t you? At least now we can prevent similar situations from continuing to happen—oh, you’ve shut off that upload port, haven’t you?”
Pandora nodded, saying, “I just turned it off and I checked the data record of the port. Since brother met Visca, there hasn’t been any further data leak.”
“That’s good, but even though Visca can share your memories, she wouldn’t see me as her brother, right? She is already insane… Um, perhaps being insane is a good explanation…”
Despite saying this, I actually have a possible explanation in my heart: Although Visca is mad, deep down in her heart, there may still be a sanctuary.
I cannot imagine what I would become if I went through what Visca had experienced, but I know that as a girl whose birth purpose was to be someone else’s soul container, Visca must feel utterly lonely and confused deep inside. She does not know what she lives for, nor does she know to whom she should entrust her future. Her mission to eradicate Pandora is not just due to programming locks; it likely carries a significance of self-hypnosis—by eradicating Pandora, she finds her purpose; it is the best means to prove her own existence. Only by destroying Pandora can she possess a true self—this is how Visca hypnotizes herself.
Having seen many novels and films, I am all too familiar with such cases.
But now, Visca suddenly shared Pandora’s memories, and everything changed. She started to feel jealous of Pandora’s happiness, but more than that, she longed for it—the happiness Pandora experienced was far beyond what she could imagine.
Thus, under the influence of chaotic thoughts, she began to see us as her family and Pandora as the culprit who took everything away from her…
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