Chapter 1041: Astrea"s Pandora mode
After a short interaction with the other girls, Kanon integrated herself into the girls' group.
She can hang out just fine with the ladies but she chose to return inside Wu Yan after a meal with Wu Yan & co.
According to her, Nagisa will be throwing a tantrum if she wakes up to find her missing.
It's a vague reason but Yukari, Shokuhou Misaki, Kotori, and Kurumi snickered as if they knew the true reason.
Wu Yan accepted Kanon's reason and he cut off her mana, returning Kanon into himself.
It felt like the other girls were slightly envious that Kanon can be one with Wu Yan through familiar merging.
His guts told him to keep his hunch to himself or risk certain disasters upon verbal disclosure.
Wu Yan started recounting what they encountered in the Giant Beast Forest.
"Dark mist... Black lights..."
The girls digested the information Wu Yan brought back with a frown.
"Where do those annoying things come from?!"
Mikoto wasn't amused.
"There wasn't any in the forest before this, why now?!"
"Well, I don't know..."
Wu Yan shook his head.
"We wouldn't need to investigate if we already know why..."
"Except for the elimination of the dark mist and black lights, I take it you guys didn't find anything significant?"
Shokuhou Misaki assessed. She turned towards Yukari.
"Yukari, what do you think?"
"Maa..."
Yukari chuckled lightly.
"I wonder if my theory's wrong or the disgusting lights changed their behavior..."
The others bitterly laughed when they heard Yukari.
The dark lights acted against basic instincts to attack Wu Yan, Ikaros, and Astrea. It's unknown if she's trying to prove her theory or if she's just trying to reconcile the error.
Wu Yan thinks Yukari leaned towards the behavior change theory.
She's probably bored of being right all the time, when something happens out of her expectations, the fresh experience of being wrong or in uncertainty probably thrills her.
Yukari waved the fan in her hand.
"Maa, since Yan-kun destroyed the apparent source of the black lights, I think we can put this case to rest. Instead, fill me in on Astrea's Pandora Mode..."
The other girls also focused on Astrea's Pandora transformation.
"Huh?"
Astrea stopped eating as everyone looked at her intently. She started giggling bashfully.
"Ahaha, I just got lucky that's all..."
The ladies started chortling. They thought Astrea's trying to forget about the torment she went through in the ladies' hands when they tried all sorts of experiments on her.
On Astrea's end, she's trying to hide the fact that she didn't evolve because she chose not to evolve. She felt embarrassed that she's the reason she didn't evolve.
"We already saw Ikaros' Pandora mode, I am curious about Astrea's Pandora mode..."
The ladies recalled Ikaros' goddess-like beauty in her Pandora mode, naturally, they wanted to see what Astrea looked like in her Pandora mode.
"Hey, Astrea-chan..."
Hinagiku started looking at Astrea with hopeful eyes.
"Let us see your Pandora mode!"
The other girls nodded. Even Yukari's intrigued. They gathered around Astrea.
"Huh?!"
Astrea jumped back.
"H-here?"
"Mwuuu..."
The girls looked around the tent and they shook their heads bitterly. They don't know what she will look like in her Pandora mode but they reckoned it's probably a bad idea to make her transform here. They built this on their past experience when Ikaros evolved.
"Ok, let's change the venue."
Yukari waved her fan and a portal filled with weird eyes opened up.
"Come..."
Giant Beast Forest, outer region, on top of a tall mountain.
Spade suddenly distorted as a crack opened up, the spatial gap filled with eyes expanded...
Multiple individuals came out of the portal. They saw there's nothing around for miles except dirt and stones so they floated satisfied looks.
"This place will do the trick."
Yukari closed the portal and she backed away.
"Astrea-chan, it's your turn to shine..."
"I know!"
Astrea glanced at Wu Yan subconsciously.
Feeling her gaze, he smiled back while nodding to egg her on.
Astrea started feeling confident and she flew into the air with a mighty flap of her wings.
Then, they saw it...
Astrea started shining brightly.
Astrea turned into a flash of light as the surrounding air got swept up in her transformation, sharp winds swirled around her shining figure.
Swish
A photon sword pierced the swirling wind and split it into halves, revealing the angel within.
In light armor that revealed all but her swimsuits area, she had metallic tassets covering her sides and wing-esque pauldrons. Her hair accessories merged into a helm as she descended with her three pairs of wings. She had a photon sword that took the form of a feather and she had an enlarged shield.
This is her first Pandora transformation.
Astrea can throw her shield away and go through a second transformation. She can choose which transformation mode.
Without a doubt, Pandora level II is stronger than the first one, far stronger!
However, that mode trades all defense for offensive abilities. It's a risky move that might backfire on her.
Wu Yan warned Astrea against using the Level II mode unless the situation calls for it.
Astrea knows about her weakness in her second Pandora mode so she decided to listen to Wu Yan's advice. It's not a total ban on her second mode so she can still use it when the situation calls for it.
She can still use the first Pandora mode.
They looked at Astrea's martial goddess appearance while praising her for her achievement.
"You look gallant..."
Hinagiku and Mikoto giggled. She earned recognition from her peers.
"She looks so valiant..."
The other girls gave their assessments as well...