AMG is property of Kosuke Fujishima. I'll put it back how I found it. "Particle Man" was created by They Might Be Giants. Satsu's quote is based from John Milton.
The balance between gods and demons, as well as the injunction against killing, is maintained through the doublet system just described. It works by a principle so simple that mortals have described it using just three words – Mutually Assured Destruction.
Each god or goddess is linked to a demon or demoness. If someone from either side kills someone on the other, the linked kami on their own side dies as well. Thus, it is pointless to assault the other side with lethal intent, as one would only cause attrition of their own forces by equal measure.
This system, of course, requires that both sides possess concern for the safety of their own side.
-- The Handbook of Deistic Combat (205th edition) updated by Goddess Lind of the Almighty's "Fighting Wings" Valkyries
Kami, both god and demon, can be named the patron of a given act (such as writing), or of a natural force (such as the Past, of which my sister Urd is the current patroness), or other things. Sometimes, for the very oldest things, patronage, and even the name of the patron, can be passed from one to another, down through time.
However, these things are not dependant on their patrons' existence, but are an intrinsic part of nature. For instance, time unwinds itself without the assistance of the Norns, and writing would not disappear, even if Thoth, the god of writing, were tragically to die. As long as those with the ability still exist, the concept lives on, carried in their hearts.
Patrons can gain strength from the rise of their action, or have dominion over their patronized concept. For example, in my position as Norn of the Present, I have the ability of psychometry, which lets me tell what has recently happened to or near a given object. However, as the present is by nature both ever-present and fleeting, this power can only be used for recent history.
We must remember, too, that demons benefit from patronage of evil actions, and remain watchful for the rise of such acts, which demonic patrons will try to incite for their own benefit.
I hope this helps you understand the workings and powers of patronage. Enjoy the next chapter, dear reader!
-- Introduction for New Gods & Goddesses (412th edition) updated by Goddess Belldandy
Ah! To Reign in Heaven?
Part 3
Hell – Discontinuity +3 days
((( Hild, the ruler of demonkind, was furious. Someone had violated the doublet system prohibition against killing! The signature was unmistakable. She has had to query the infernal system Nidhoggr with her top-level access, to find the names of the two gods linked to two of the dead demons.
She has not needed to query for the identity of the third. That death has struck her like a body blow from a giant. Her daughter was gone. Dire punishment awaited the one who had done this thing.
Scanning to the end of the record, she brings up the visual record of Urd's last few moments. This would tell her the identity of the dead demon walking who had done this thing. She sees Urd's half-sister Belldandy take a fireball in the back followed by younger Skuld.
She hears Urd's scream and watches the third fireball end her. Hild thought she recognized the style of the energy attacks, but she had to be sure. She magnified the part of the "god's eye view" that showed the attacker. Her eyes narrowed as she recognizes him.
As it turns out, she doesn't have to go looking for her vengeance, since he has come to her.
Satsu, as the demon of murder, gained power every time one was committed. Generally, the gain from the normal course of human-on-human mayhem was negligible. However, he had estimated that the death of a goddess, especially by his hand, would raise his power immensely. As for the demons that would die from the doublet system, they were irrelevant to his concerns. His plan worked on the assumption that that would stop being a concern. Three demons as a cost of ultimate victory? Not even a question.
Smashing open the doors, Satsu strides into the chamber.
Hild doesn't waste words, but throws a force bolt with enough power to split a mountain...and reels back in shock when Satsu casually swats it away to crash into a nearby wall.
Satsu smiles. Works better than I thought.
Before the Demon Mistress can start to unseal her full might, Satsu reaches out and grabbed her throat in a massive hand.
"The mortals have a saying, you know." he says slowly as Hild chokes in the iron grip. "'Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven.' Well, I intend to reign in Heaven..."
The last thing Hild sees is the evil fire Satsu raises in his other hand. "...and in Hell."
He looks down at his handiwork. Wounded, not dead. He wasn't so arrogant as to believe that even his current strength could be enough to defeat the ruler of demons. Her power was matched only by the Almighty One himself. At least for now. Luckily, he has brought plenty of implements to seal enough of her power that her healing would be slowed just long enough for his plans to come to fruition.
It had taken years to gather all he needed for this to have a chance of working. Locating enough seals to have a chance had alone had taken half a century, not to mention keeping them hidden. Slowly, he had recruited or intimidated a small army of fellow demons who, like him, were tired of the eternal status quo, and thirsted for more direct combat.
Leaving Hild where she was, Satsu goes to call his forces. If his plans are right, it should be time for the next phase, right about now. )))
Heaven – Discontinuity +3 days
In Heaven, as in legend, the Norns were linked inextricably to Yggdrasil. Each goddess who had carried the name had her life linked to the system. Even when they weren't personally present, they sustained it. Without them…
((( The goddesses Chrono, Ere, and Ex work frantically at their terminals, trying to stop the cascade of system failures that were spreading through Yggdrasil's system. They could not understand what had happened. Everything was crashing!
The door to the control chamber opens behind the trio. A tall, strong-looking goddess with ice-blue hair and carrying a huge polearm enters and bolts the door behind her. "What is your status?" asks Lind, Goddess first class of the Almighty's Valkyries.
"We're losing everything! Massive system failure across the board!" reports Ex.
"Am I to assume that the Gate protection system is one of those failures?"
"How did you know?"
Lind's answers drops like an anvil. "There are demons in Heaven. Status of the doublet system?"
"Gone!" Ere replies. "It's all we can do to keep up the Universal Superstring! We're trying to bring in backup systems…"
"Summon Administrator Goddesses Urd and Skuld." Lind orders.
Chrono works her system to get the word out. What she sees in response shakes her to her core. She looks up, ghost-white. "It says…it says they're…"
"What?"
"Dead."
As if to punctuate this revelation, a pounding comes at the chamber door. )))
Yggdrasil of the past pans its view over Heaven, watching as the battle unfolds. Satsu has split his forces. Half of them were here with him, warring with the Valkyries and taking potshots at other gods as they could. Satsu himself leads them. As Yggdrasil watches, Satsu narrowly shields himself from being annihilated by one of the Almighty One's own bolts, having been empowered by the massive destruction he has wrought.
The other half were on Earth, rampaging at random. The damage, between the demons and the disasters brought on by Yggdrasil of the future's damage, was incredible to behold. Yggdrasil of the past pulls back its awareness and considers what to do.
This is not possible! Yggdrasil thought. If it had been a human, its mood could be described as near panic. It is not simply Morisato and Belldandy who are endangered, but myself as well, and all of Creation!
The preservation of Creation was one of the three prime directives that held maximum priority in Yggdrasil's system. Maintaining the doublet system and enforcing wish contracts through the System Force were the others. All three of them were in danger now. This discontinuity had to stopped, at any cost! But how?
Yggdrasil stretched its four-dimensional awareness again. Simply manipulating probabilities as it usually did, using the System Force to create "coincidences", would not do this time. A more direct approach was needed, but how to do it?
It was then that Yggdrasil saw the tiny blue spark ricocheting through time. It wasn't simply a natural, or even a supernatural, phenomenon. It was a person. Yggdrasil saw that here lay the key to saving everything.
For some unknown reason, from the depths of Yggdrasil's knowledge base, a snippet of song came to its mind:
Particle Man, Particle Man,
Doing the things
a particle can.
What's he like?
It's not important.
Particle Man...
The song is wrong. Yggdrasil thought. He is very important. Vital.
Yggdrasil reached out towards the little blue spark.
And grabbed it.
(Music from the previews)
Keiichi: The System Force makes a desperate move.
Belldandy: As it witnesses a future laid to ruin.
Keiichi: But a mysterious stranger might be able to set things right.
Belldandy: Coming up: Ah! Can the Man Out of Time Bring Salvation?
Keiichi: Hey! Who's that pretending to be me?!
Author note: I hope you'll leave a review. This is my first serious writing attempt. I'm not sure which fic it was that inspired the idea for Belldandy being an author in Heaven, but thanks to him.