PANDORA. Hope Dies Last: ToG

Broken Child

Chapter 3

Arie Aria Pandora, Age 7

Narrative POV

Pandora's appearance was that of a true Arie, taking heavily after her father's characteristics as an Arie but anyone could tell she was going to be a beauty...however her face was too smooth, her hair too silky and her eyes (especially her left) blank of conscience or emotion. It was as if she was more of a doll than a person. Despite this, what made her eerie was her smile. A flat smile, a grin, that she always had on that had no emotion—no, there was pain behind that smile.

Through everything, no matter when or anything...Pandora never lost that smile. It was as if she couldn't...she simply grinned.

Pandora was a quiet child, not that there was anything wrong with that...she often chose not to interact or enjoy herself. Due to this, she wasn't close to the other Arie children her age, not that the main family encouraged her to make friends with the branch families or the ones' who's blood have been diluted for generations. She was treated like a different breed altogether, like an isolated princess. Pandora grinned.

Perhaps the reason of why Pandora's mother even let her little princess get away with her silence was due to her excellent performance. All Arie children were put through foundational training and testing to discover their talents and potential. As little Pandora, only 7 years old, breezed past any examinations and crushed the learning curve, the elders of the family laughed as they began pouring their resources into the child; deeming her to be the future of the family. Pandora kept grinning.

Other children trained with fun, approached the lessons wishing to end. The children, arrogant of their blood, believed that their natural talent with their blades would bring them to the top of the tower.

Not all of them are wrong...the blood of the Ten Families were never to be underestimated, especially not the blood of the White Sword; however, reaching the ceiling of the tower would only mean the beginning for little Pandora.

Others her age could afford to be childish, immature, and take their lessons with a smile. Pandora took her's with desperation, an ice cold fury, and an unquenchable thirst for revenge...all with that grin...a grin that wouldn't leave her face.

If Pandora could get power to kill the gods, then she knew that the tower was capable of challenges that would be equally painful and demanding. There were Divine Sea Fish swimming in the currents of shinsu whose's ancestors once challenged the ten families and Jahad themselves. There were organizations and people who actively sought to kill her and her family for having the blood of a living god through her veins. Her grin widened.

For that reason she took every lesson to memory, every demonstration to the bone, and every spar to heart. Every bit of knowledge would be required to climb up this hellish tower and every bit of strength would increase her chance of survival.

Even through all her hardship and struggle, the nights never failed to remind her of why she fought; her dreams plagued with the screams and vision of what she saw inside that pithos and what remained of humanity. The memories of the horrors burned her mind and yet she could only smile...it was tragically funny.

She would be getting her blood, even if it came at the cost of her own...going all the way with her smile.

Age 9

Pandora was brought to the age group 50-100 to accelerate her training and provide her with partners who were more worthy as the elders put it. In the end, it was almost the same with only the oldest and the most experienced of the age group being able to compete with her.