The Rise Of Calamity

In the forest one could see a visible beam of golden light shoot across the trees, jumping from branch to branch while lighting up their way with the vibrant light terminating out it.

The bright golden light was only further emphasized by the dominant divine aura around it that made every beast in the forest feel a certain level of threat from the light beam even though it meat np harm towards any of them, at least, it did not mean any harm to them as long as they stayed out of its way.

The golden beam of light was obviously me.

When I had left the hotel, instead of going towards the middle region of the city, I moved towards the outer gate of the city before dashing towards the forest, about 30 miles away from the gate.

From then, I had started navigating my way through the forest until I eventually would find something.

It has been almost 3 hours and I have found almost nothing, however, at the same time, one could argue that I had found out more from this 3-hour journey than one could see through their mortal eyes.

From the start one thing I had realized was that the beasts were a lot more friendly compared to when I was with June. While this can be attributed to June and I being bigger and more threatening targets together, the real reason was that she had the scent of a human.

This meant the beasts around the forest are more inclined, for whatever reason, to attack humans, and seeing how they have been "corrupted", it seems that someone wants to keep something away from the eyes of the humans.

The pattern I had seen so far was quite simple. When I go towards the north, the number of beasts increases even though some of them are strong enough to have their own domains in the forest. Yet, they still decided to stay within the same area as each other without fighting over territory.

While this might have made anyone else not want to enter the area, I had a mission to complete, and going in was the only way I was going to be able to do that.

'Hela?'

[What?]

'What do you think of what's happening?' I asked while crouching at a branch at the top of the tree as I looked down at the multiple beasts who were surveying the area.

[Tell me what you think first]

'you can read my mind...'

[Things become more apparent as you say them out loud]

'Ugh, fine... There are two possibilities. One, they are guarding and making sure the stupid humans don't get to it, or they are being used as bait so of if the humans do find out about them trying to keep them away from something, they would focus their attention on the beasts rather what is right under their noses.' 

[But?]

'Both plans are flawed. They are double-edged swords. If the person is trying to keep the humans from something, why make it so obvious? While if it is using the beasts as bait, the humans had not taken it, and instead, they have been repelled from the area overall.' I touched my chin and looked around carefully.

[But, what if the person doing this has 'bamboozled' all of you, and the answer was quite simple...]

'Bamboozled? Really?' I barely held in the laugh.

[Yes, bamboozled... What I am trying to say is that the person behind this might have pulled 'The animal corpse over the body' maneuver from Earth, just this time it is a lot more large scale and instead of hiding a corpse, it is hiding a soon to be cemetery.]

Listening to what Hera had to say, I could not help but frown slightly under my mask.

After staying silent for a bit, I unknitted my brows and looked down to see a beast ordering a few beasts around.

'Since they aren't aggressive towards me, let's go talk to them' I stepped into thin air before plunging down towards the beasts at the bottom of the tree.

About 8 half a meter tall rabbits standing around their boss who was telling them where to patrol. Their boss was a 2-meter tall rabbit with light blue fur instead of the usual white that the rest of its species had. It was clearly stronger than most of them and had a power level of around 36 000. 

It seemed to have immediately sensed me, but due to me not having the scent of a human, it was only wary, not aggressive. It slowly looked up to see a golden-haired humanoid figure plunge down from the branched high up. The smaller rabbits also went on guard the moment they saw their leader become so wary, however, I did not care.

I landed a mere few meters away from all of them before looking at them and making eye contact with the leader whose eyes were filled with confusion.

"Human?" It asked while bearing its two front fangs at me.

"Do I smell human to you?" I chuckled back causing it to be surprised after seeing that I had spoken the beast's tongue.

"H-how do you know beast tongue! You are a human!" It shouted again

I myself did not know how I knew beast tongue, right now I was speaking the normal human language as if it was nothing, while at the same time, everything the rabbit said I was able to understand. While the sounds coming out of its mouth were those I would hear from a normal beast, however, I could understand everything it was saying to me as if it was my instincts too.

"As I said before, who said I am human? I might look like a human, but I don't have to be human, right?" I chuckled again.

"Take off your mask and show us your true face!" The leader shouted back while simultaneously covering himself with lighting bolts that crackled around his fur.

"sure..." I slowly moved my hand up and touched my mask before lifting it off my face.

The first thing that saw was my beautiful warm smile, and as if the heavens themselves reacted to the reveal of my face, I felt the sudden warmth of the sun hit my face directly and shining on me as if I was a goddess that had descended to the mortal plane to spread the blessings.

"Goddess..." The rabbit could not help but mutter, making my smile freeze before twitching slightly.

'Since when did beasts feel anything towards humans other than gluttony?' I asked inwardly.

[You aren't human, well according to them you aren't so they don't really mind. Usually one wouldn't be able to mate across species, but for someone like you with divinity, it should be fine and they sense that.]

'Shit...' I thought inwardly while looking at the fanatic gazes of the rabbits.

[It kind of looks like a scene from one of those shows you used to watch, right? Hahahaha, even the heavens gave you the spotlight... You are truly blessed] 

Hearing the robotic laugh of my closest companion, I could not help but feel the vein on my forehead bulge while my fists itched to punch something.

"Anyway, why are there so many beasts around here?" I asked with a raised brow while the rabbits tensed up and realized where they were and what their jobs were.

"W-We can't tell you" the leader stuttered

"Are you protecting something?" I asked again

"..."

"Hello?" I waved my hand at them to see if they were still alive.

"D-do you not hear it?" The rabbit took a step back while the smaller rabbits followed.

"Hear it?" I raised a brow once again before parking it ears up while trying to listen to anything that might have significance to what they were referring to.

After a few seconds, I just looked back at them and shrugged with a "Nope"

The rabbit was about to take another step back before his eyes widened in realization.

"The curse of that monster must not be able to affect a goddess like yourself!" It finally shouted in surprise.

My eyes twitched and I was about to retort that I was not a 'goddess', but then an idea hit me with the speed and power of a truck.

'Heheheheh' a slightly evil smile crept up my face which made the rabbits shiver in fear.

"Yes... I go by many names, but one of my most renowned titles would make even the gods shudder... I am Pandora, the light goddess"

Even though I could see some confusion in their eyes, I knew that I had succeeded, yet to just add fuel to the fire, I lifted my arm before raising my index finger and creating a golden Rubix cube with my arcane magic. 

The Rubix cube would constantly shuffle and turn in many different combinations while slowly ascending to the sky.