In this world, the only one besides the gods who could grant Pandora salvation was undoubtedly Alaric.
Ever since Pandora had left for the wilderness, Alaric had been following her from a distance.
All this time, he had never reached out a helping hand to this woman who had endured the bitterest hardships of life.
He had simply watched, eyes cold and calm, as this delicate young woman lived wretchedly under the open sky, gnawing on wild fruits, striking flints with her tender hands to make fire, chopping wood and felling trees.
He had watched her chased by wild wolves; watched her cast aside the timidness of a woman and fight like a warrior against fierce beasts.
He had watched her attacked by humans who bore her a grudge, only for her to turn the tables and kill them in return.
He had watched her curl up in a bed of leaves and dry grass, shivering through cold, moonless nights.
Only twice had he intervened, when she encountered a hydra and a cockatrice, two terrifying magical beasts, and was on the brink of being slain.
Then, he had stepped in to kill the monsters and ensure her survival, though not without first making her faint, lest she discover him.
Alaric did this because he knew deeply that merely being shunned by humanity, cast out by her would-be husband, and betrayed by the gods was not enough to make this woman truly grow.
In other words, she had not yet suffered enough.
While enduring the trials of the wilderness, her character could mature, at the very least, some of her willfulness, vanity, and delicate airs would slowly be worn away by hardship, replaced by steadfastness, strength, and courage.
Though Alaric sought to gain from her information about divine bodies or heroic spirit vessels, he did not wish to treat her as a disposable tool.
He still hoped this pitiful woman could have a better future.
Of course, Alaric had his own selfish motives.
First, only enough suffering could deepen Pandora's resentment and hatred toward the gods.
Alaric was human himself.
Though he shared no blood with these ancient Greeks and even enjoyed a favorable relationship with the moon goddess Artemis, that did not mean he stood on the side of the gods.
In fact, by nature, he was aligned with humanity, something already decided by the Olympian gods' contemptuous treatment of mortals.
Second, Alaric had always believed one thing: rescuing a beauty was the fastest way to win someone's favor.
And the more suffering the rescued had endured, the greater the gratitude, and perhaps deeper feelings, they would have for their savior.
Finally, when Pandora had endured every hardship of surviving alone and was on the verge of surrendering to fate, Alaric appeared before her.
She was living in a small cave.
A few days earlier, she had killed a bear and claimed it as her shelter.
Now, the sky poured with relentless rain. Endless sheets of water swallowed the wilderness, the floods rising higher and higher.
Though Pandora's cave sat above the plain, the waters were threatening to reach it.
Alaric knew this was the gods' final move, the world-ending flood.
Soon, Poseidon would raise towering waves to engulf the land, sweeping away this generation of humanity with unending waters.
The gods were preparing to remake mankind.
At that moment, Pandora sat alone, huddled deep in the cave, clutching damp grass to her chest. Cold, hungry, and solitary, she seemed to be quietly waiting for death.
Days of unbroken rain had left her without food.
The sound of footsteps reached her ears, instantly drawing her attention.
But unlike before, when she would have sprung into action with agility beyond that of any mortal, she simply lay unmoving at the back of the cave.
It was as if she had lost the will to live.
As the footsteps drew closer, Pandora finally spoke.
Her once melodious, clear voice was now tinged with hoarseness.
"Has the one come to end my life… at last?"
Alaric said nothing.
But Pandora seemed not to care about the lack of response, speaking on as if to herself.
"Kill me. Kill this foolish woman deceived by the gods. I actually dared to believe I was favored by them, to believe they would grant me perfect love and a happy life.
For such delusions, I suppose I deserve this fate."
Alaric stepped nearer.
Pandora went on, "My life… in the end, is nothing but a joke. If only I hadn't been so curious, I wouldn't have brought such disaster.
Or perhaps if I had listened to him back then… I was created to be the spouse of a god, yet here I am, dying without ever… how laughable."
She lifted her gaze toward the source of the footsteps.
"O bringer of my death, grant me one last wish before the end: if you can still find worth in this cursed body crafted by the gods, then let me at least experience the purpose for which they created me.
Epimetheus, the man who abandoned me, I will give to you what he desired but could not have."
Her dying wish… is to sleep with someone?
Alaric almost laughed aloud at Pandora's fixation, but when he thought about it, it was not so strange.
After all, Zeus had created her precisely to tempt Epimetheus, to cause disaster upon the earth in a way that seemed justified, without attracting too much blame.
And the means to that end was, of course, Pandora's beauty.
In truth, Pandora had long sensed that even Zeus himself lusted after her body.
To give herself to some stranger sent to kill her, this, to her, was the only punishment she could inflict upon the two men she hated most: Zeus and Epimetheus.
"So… you've given up entirely?"
Alaric let out a deep sigh and finally spoke.
"Have you completely abandoned yourself?"
She did not recognize his voice at first and answered, "What else can I do but give up? The gods' goal is to destroy this world.
How can insignificant beings like us survive in the face of their wrath? All we can do is await the end…"
From her words, Alaric could hear the depth of her despair.
So he asked, "If there were a chance before you now, a chance to live, and perhaps in the future to gain the power to take revenge on the gods, would you seize it?"
"Re… venge?" A faint spark entered Pandora's voice, but it was still laden with gloom. "Is that even possible?
The gods are so powerful, so high above us, ruling this world. How could a mere creation of theirs ever hope to do such a thing? Revenge is nothing but a dream."
By the end, her voice had sunk back into resignation, as though convincing herself it was hopeless.
Listening to her self-defeating words, Alaric smiled faintly.
"Just because you can't do it doesn't mean others can't. Gods… are nothing more than a kind of stronger lifeform."
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