76 Pandora.EXE

"The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence alone, becomes an act of rebellion."

-Albert Camus

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(Jaiden's POV)

As my vision is a little blurry, with my head, feels spinning, and my consciousness slowly but assuredly fading away, I started to see these tiny droplets of red slowly entering through my clothes, creeping in such a strange way...

"Was that Hades? In the form of cockroaches? Hehehe... There's no way." I cretinously start to converse with my self in vigor to somehow ameliorate the silence that's getting to me.

But then, out of nowhere and unprecedentedly, my consciousness returned to me like the eyesore-causing lights on the background, suddenly filling me up like a jar of water. Eh? What the hell did I want to convey through that weird definitions? But First...

I wake up from that fainting sensation and found myself obscured in this rather flaxen place with a cold atmosphere making the heat index drop via exponential degree... Hays... It was supposed to be a dark one if we go with the cliches, but whoever put me in here must be that ingenious enough to realize that I can likely manipulate that darkness to get myself out of here.

So cliches can quite be useful in some specific times huh... But, I stand firm in my belief that cliches are very disturbing. There's no way I'm depriving myself of that golden fact.

Yet still, what boggles me is the setting's yellow color... Too bright and luminous that it could make my head explode at any second.

"Yet, where am I?"

Oh right, I was feined by that hero's easy defeat, hence I let my guard down and Wella, here I am... My paradigm has been canceled by that unpredictable priest and the next thing I knew was being eaten alive in this resplendent place while feeling these many stabs approximately everywhere in my body as if I got tortured or something using Rome's very own tool for persecution, an iron maiden?

"Wait, what were those anyway?" I then examined my body checking as to where those tiny red creeping things went but there's nothing... How I hope that this better not be the story niche where a character of importance suddenly gets Amnesia.

I sat down a little, as my feet begin to gnaw, and I just noticed this many torns in my worn uniform, and as to where I got it, I don't remember. But I did feel like I was pierced by many blades moments ago as I got here, but ghastly, I also have no wounds.

"Oh, Shiro! What, what happened to her?!"

Tsk... There's no time to chill. I have to get out of here.

Remembering that I left a kid in the hands of those aggressive Tarragons who want her for their personal reasons that I am still to know more about, I quickly got up my feet to start thinking any form of stratagem that can likely get me out of here. I then let out of my pen, and to my surprise, it ran out of ink... It must be because of my massive utilization earlier.

Right, my torn clothes are black...

I then tried to manipulate it, but it's not responding. Still, It's got to be this place. I can't use anything in my Paradigm.

Wait. Calm down... I can't afford to lose even an ounce of my sound logic right now...

Well then, if I can't use anything, I should probably just open my Persona Interface... maybe a guide is there? Not that I remember but it's worth a try...

I then opened up the interface and there, still just the presentation of the most basic information and participant counts... but there's this button that's quite new to me...

✞———————❖———————✞

Name: Jaiden Axcel Cendrillon

Classification: Human

Affiliation: @!$%^#%#^#%$%\u0026#*#^$%

Crusade Pass: Herrscher

Killed Participants: 0

Killed Herrschers: 0

Re: Characterization Database

\u003cGeneral Information\u003e

Sentient Contender Count: 11, 732 negative

Herrscher Count: 333/333 alive

\u003cPandora\u003e

✞———————❖———————✞

Pandora? What's that supposed to be... I have no recollection of it always being here... Still, for its button to appear here, it must be something of cruciality... right?

Without waivers, I then clicked on the button...

But, suddenly a glitch appeared and manifested this malfunctioning-like display..... like a virus in my PI and like potent cancer cells, the reoccurring glitches covered the original interface...then displayed this rather elongated loading screen and these texts with the visual interface now a bit more futuristic.

╔═══━━━─── • ───━━━═══╗

\u003cInitiating third-party programme\u003e

\u003cProgramme Initiated\u003e

\u003cPANDORA.EXE\u003e

\u003cInstalling execration for fist time use\u003e

░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░

\u003cDisplaying\u003e

╚═══━━━─── • ───━━━═══╝

Pandora.exe?

╔═══━━━─── • ───━━━═══╗

\u003cPandora.exe Installed\u003e

\u003cYou will be re-directed to another page. Continue?\u003e

╚═══━━━─── • ───━━━═══╝

What? As though simply switching Google tabs, it mundanely asked, but fortunately, not with an MS Window's prompt box, but with this peculiar interface that I never saw before. It's made up of entirely black unlike the original PI with a gray interface.

Feeling the curiosity seeping through my vein I clicked yes, and then, the glitch took over everything... and then...

"Greetings, Master!" Suddenly, a feminine three-dimensional human figure appeared with a speech of half realistic and half robotic tone dressed in a black professional suit...with the frameless glasses... with a ponytail hairdo... and with the ideal '(w)oppai'...

"And what the hell should you be?" Choosing to ignore and divert my eyes from these rather, 'unexplainable' features, I asked...

"Pardon, master... My name is 'Azazel', a fixed autonomous intelligence designed to organize the third party program 'Pandora.EXE'. I, together with the program was created by your Goddess Dea Lacrimosa with the remaining of her points of authority before it reached zero."

"What the hell is this...?" brimming with curiosity, I yelled even though I understood half of what she said...

"Pardon, Master, it seems that I may have introduced myself inefficiently...I am 'Azazel', a fixed autonomous Intelli-..."

"Yeah-yeah... I know." I stopped the redundant repetition.

"Nice to meet you, Master Jaiden" the teen AI displayed in the interface then bowed in kindness in a very orderly manner.

What? The hell is this? An AI, from that goddess? And It calls itself 'autonomous' and 'augmented' ... Well, first I must clear out the most basic questions...yet, again.

"Hey..."

"What is it, master?"

"What's Pandora.exe?"

"It's an illegal third party program that has the ability to organize your skills, your paradigms and can likely answer all of your questions in accordance with this realm, hence called 'Pandora' which means... 'All Gift'.

" Illegal? Then is it okay to have you around?"

"Unfortunately no, Master... I am by all means illegal, If Ethereal paradigm will detect my existence, I will be erased, quite possibly, with...you."

Oh, it is that bad... Quite the opposite of what I presumed it to be.

"So your existence alone is an obvious rebellion against the ruling system in this realm?"

"Yes... But, no need to be concerned Master. Our beautiful Goddess made sure that my existence is of the highest classified case."

"Y-yeah... Not that I became confident because of that evidence-depraved statement from a cute 3d artificial intelligence. But, Lacrimosa... how much a cheat could she really be? I mean, implanting a program in the Ethereal Paradigm? I hate to admit it, but it's rather too clever for braggadocio like her.

"Did Lacrimosa really create you?" I asked to somehow minimize the doubts that I am having.

"Correct, Master, and to prove my stead, I have a letter from her, to you..."

"Before that, could you let me out of here?" As the thoughts of Shiro in danger came to me, I literally have no time to listen to another balderdash from that Goddess.

"What could your concern be, Master?"

"Uhmmm... I don't know if I should be telling you this, but I have to get out of here to save a little girl. The one I was with earlier we met."

"Miss Shiro?"

"Eh?"

"Shiro was her name, Master?"

"Yes... Is- is she okay?"

"Scanning vital signs... heart rate... brain activity... All functional, Master."

"Wait, you can see her?"

"No master, but I can read her in the form of Boolean Binary...and I can tell that 3 million Tarragons are coming this way."

"Not that I completely understand what you just said, but 3 million? Just what the hell happened when I was out for like a few minutes? Where is she?"

"Calculating exact coordinates 41°24'12.2"N 2°10'26.5"E. ... Distance is 5 meters, 30 meters altitude... The distance of opponents, 4.36 miles with one opponent, badly hurt, 2.5 miles."

Wait, she's flying at 30-meter altitude, how? I then looked around, but all I see is the yellow annoying brightness

"Oh Master, Miss Shiro is not here... As you can see, you have been sealed by a canceling paradigm. As of now, you are inside an object."