Of Angles and Demons
By: Ben Craton
Aka: Genki Dama
Ah! Megami-sama! Copyright 1989, 1995 by Kodansha and Koshuke Fujishima.
Story and original characters Copyright 2001-2003 by Ben Craton ---------
Of Angles and Demons Part 7: Darkness Piercing the Light
---------
Move not unless you see an advantage; use not your troops unless there is something to be gained; fight not unless the position is critical. -The Art of War [12:17]
--
"Ouch! That hurt! Why couldn't Kami send us somewhere that wasn't like the black forest?" Urd rubbed her arm where a branch had just jabbed it.
"You know that he couldn't get us any closer than he did." Keiichi called back at her.
"You'd think he'd make a clearing or something at least." Urd crossed her arms and huffed. "We can't even fly around here."
Belldandy rolled her eyes as she pushed the front. It had been at least an hour since Kami had sent them there, wherever it was. All they knew was that they were in eastern Europe, but where exactly was anyone's guess. The forest was extremely thick. The undergrowth was robust and mostly thorny. The floor was invisible because of the amount of foliage. There were small pine trees here and there, but only where there was a small clearing where it had room to grow. The trees themselves were enormous. Dark and ominous, they towered high above the trio, blotting out what little light there was.
The mist didn't help much either. It wasn't blinding, but it kept their vision limited to only a hundred feet or so. It moved like a great spirit, even there was no wind at all. It was silent too, no birds, no rustling of leaves. It was like walking through a graveyard. The forest seemed to be watching them from all sides, waiting. The only thing that kept them from freaking out was light conversation that had nothing to do with their mission, apart from Urd asking every so often if they were there yet.
Still, there was no path, they had no map, and only Belldandy to guide them as she was the only one of the group that could feel out places of power. But even she seemed just as lost as the others.
Urd gruffed again. "These stupid thorns keep pulling on my skirt!"
"Take it off then." Keiichi smiled wirily.
Belldandy turned to give him a not so nice look. Urd sweatdropped. "I'm afraid you would enjoy that entirely too much."
Keiichi grinned. "Not much more than what you usually wear."
Urd shrugged. "True, but no. But what I will do..." She snapped her fingers. Nothing happened.
"Is...?" Keiichi was waiting for her to finish.
"Umm...oh damn! I forgot about that stupid temple. Ugh, I was going to get myself some hiking clothes. But oohhhh no. Can't use my power near it. What good is a first class license when you cant use it?" She mocked.
Belldandy stopped for a second and turned her head. "When did you get an first class license?"
Urd chuckled. "Of yeah, I forgot to tell you didn't I? I got it two days ago. Sorta just, slipped my mind I guess."
"Sometimes I think you are one of the dumbest people Urd." Belldandy turned around and kept trudging ahead.
"Hey! That's not very nice." Urd tossed a small pine cone at her sister, bonking her on the back. Belldandy turned, smiling, and tossed a bigger one at Urd, knocking her in the forehead.
"Take that."
Keiichi moved out of the line of fire as the cone went by his head. He grinned. "Nice to see you smiling again."
Belldandy smiled bigger. "Thanks Keiichi. I fell better now."
Urd rubbed her head. "Oh yeah, back to her old self. Lots of fun."
Belldandy gave her a mocking glare and started forward again.
"Just out of curiosity, Bell-chan, are we getting any closer?"
"Uh... well, it seems like it, but I really have no idea. Kami said we'd see a bunch of monoliths before we got to it. I guess they surround the temple."
"I don't even see rocks." Urd kicked a bush out of the way. "You would think we would see 'something' by now. How long has it been? An hour?"
"Probably." Belldandy said. "I can't reach Yggdrasil right now because of the interference, or else I would have asked for directions."
"Why must there be so much interference? Its just a stupid old temple."
"Yes, and a gateway to Hell if I recall. You would think that a cross dimensional breach would play havoc with elemental energies." Belldandy broke a branch off a tree what was in their way.
"What is Neiflehelm like?" Keiichi asked.
Belldandy blinked. "Well... honestly, I've never thought about it. Never been there."
"I have. Its not a very nice place." Urd bunched her skirt up to near her waist, getting tired of the thorns playing tag with it. "Its dark. Everything is either black or red. Everything glows a dull reddish color. There's always this annoying rumbling sound. And it smells."
"Like what?" Keiichi hopped over a log.
"Sulfur. But it's not that strong. It just sort of, reminds you every so often you are an idiot for going there."
"Guess we're idiots then."
"Guess so."
"So, how come you were there Urd?"
Urd sighed. "Oh, back in the good old days, I got to play page for the higher-ups. They'd send me down there every so often, delivering messages and such. That was back before..." She paused. "Anyway, no one goes there anymore."
"Any reason?"
"Would you want to?"
"Point."
Belldandy stopped suddenly, raising her hand, causing the other two to quickly hush. She turned around and looked at Urd, using some hand signals Keiichi couldn't make out. Belldandy pointed to herself and then to her left. Urd nodded. He turned to Urd with a questioning look. Urd mouthed the explanation. 'Demons.' She jumped backwards and got behind a tree. Keiichi looked for Belldandy, but she too had hidden herself. He decided he should do the same. He leapt straight up and lighted on a branch silently.
Keiichi listened hard for them. He could hear only slight rustling of leaves, not much. He looked over at a tree about twenty feet from where he was. In it, Urd crouched, searching the area below. He looked over to Belldandy, who had taken up residence in a tree father away than Urd. She too was scouring the ground. The air began to move in soft gentle waves around him, thick and dark.
"We know you're here goddesses, just come on down and get it over with." A woman's voice called out from below.
"Yesss. Pleassse do." Another voice hissed. It was serpentine and seemed a little too eager.
A half a minute of silence passed. The lower pair's footsteps grew closer to where the three were hiding. Keiichi craned his neck carefully to see them. A few seconds later, they stepped out into the clearing. One was indeed a woman. She wore a skintight leather body suit with steel armor plating; a huge sword was strapped to her back. The other creature with her was shorter than her, though very menacing. Its body was long and black; its snout came to a snarly point. It hovered in the hair with two red dragon like wings; its pudgy arms were curled up in an anticipated attack stance, baring its sharp claws.
Keiichi gulped. They had no weapons and their powers were useless. His breathing quickened. The dragon thing stopped and sniffed the air.
"I sssmell divine flesssh." It giggled in a high pitched screech,
"They must be close, fly high Sharezel. Track them down." The woman took the sword from her back and went to the defensive.
'Come on Keiichi, control yourself.' He quickly held his breath as the dragon lifted off and began flying through the near trees. It began to cackle.
"Come out godesssesss. I wisssh to tassste you're flesssh again."
It flew faster and faster about the trees, dodging the trunks and branches by mere inches. Keiichi saw where it was heading. It was going towards Belldandy.
"NO!" Keiichi left from the tree down to the clearing, landing a few feet from the woman.
The woman swung around and leveled the sword at his throat. He swallowed hard. "I am the one you want, I surrender to you."
The dragon, Sharezel, flew up behind him.
The woman's face grinned evilly. "Ah, so you're the little scoundrel sent to kill the master? You don't look like a goddess to me." She glared.
Sharezel sniffed him over and paused.
"Where are the others?" The woman stuck the sword up to his skin, drawing a bit of blood.
"W...what others? I'm the only one here." Keichii stammered.
"You lie!" She growled and nodded to the dragon. He instantly spun quickly in the air, using his tail like a whip and cutting into Keiichi's back. He screamed in pain and fell to his knees.
She stepped closer to him, placing the point of her sword under his chin, lifting his head up to meet her eyes. She moved closer so he could smell the sulfur in her breath. "Ill ask you again and no more, you dog. Where are the others?"
Keiichi glanced up for a moment and then back down at the woman. "Why... why don't you ask her?"
The woman looked puzzled for a moment, then as realization stuck her so did Urd's double fist on the back of her neck. She crumpled and rolled to the side, jumping to her feet and reeling around to face her assailant, sword in hand. Urd stood to her feet, glaring menacingly at the woman.
"Leave here now," Urd growled.
Sharezel took this opportunity to grab on to Keiichi's shoulders with its claws and wrap its tail around his waist, pointing the end of it to his throat.
"Goddessss, you are the one who isss to leave. You and you friend here." It hissed.
"You are in no position to make demands goddess!" The woman grinned fiendishly, her grip tightening on the swords hilt. "You have a choice, you can die, or you can surrender. I prefer the latter much more, but the master gives you the choice. Which will it be goddess?"
Urd did not change her expression, nor her posture. "I think I will have to choose neither."
"You will choossse, or you friend diesss." The serpent thrust its tail closer to Keiichi's neck.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Urd's voice seemed to calm for the woman's liking.
"And what are you going to do about it witch? Kill us? With what? You have no weapons and you can not use your powers here. You have no third option. I will ask again. Surrender or death?"
Urd's cold, emotionless glare stabbed into the woman's eyes. "I choose neither." She spoke slowly.
At that moment, a blur fell past Keiichi's back taking the dragon with it. Keiichi doubled over, the pressure on him now absent. The woman turned from Urd for one second to see what had happened. The shock was apparent on her face. Belldandy was in a crouching position, her back half turned to the others. She stood slowly and faced them. In her hand was a thick branch, and at the end of that hung the lifeless body of the serpent, dangling by its head.
Belldandy just stared at the woman. No emotion, no fear, no nothing. Her normally shimmering eyes were lifeless and void blue orbs. The woman began to show signs of nervousness.
"H..how, could you kill Sharezel? His skin is hard as steel." She questioned as nervousness crept into her voice.
Belldandy said nothing. She simply stared at her. Urd crossed her arms. "I told you, I choose neither."
The woman reeled to face Urd, then reeled back to Belldandy, obviously loosing all bearing. "You.. will not take me as well! I will fall each of you! I swear it!"
At this Belldandy tossed the stick and its victim to the woman's feet. "You shall not." Her voice was flat and lifeless. "We shall take our leave now."
The woman was now sweating, the sword trembling slightly in her hands. "You will not! You will die!" She regained her composure and assumed an attack stance.
"Come Keiichi." Belldandy said flatly, not taking her eyes off of the woman. Keiichi stared at her, a streak of fear running through him. This could not be his Bell-chan.
"NOW!" He scrambled to his feet and stood behind her so as to not be able to see her eyes. "Let us continue, Urd?"
Urd glanced over at the woman, "I told you." She began walking in the direction Belldandy was going.
"I WILL NOT ALLOW THIS!" The woman lunged at Belldandy, sword extended, ready for the kill. Her battle cry screeched through the air. It was all over in a split second.
Belldandy spun just as the blade was inches from her face. With one swipe of her hand she deflected it, causing the weapon to fly harmlessly over her shoulder. With her other hand she grabbed a hold of the woman's free arm and yanked her closer, bringing her own knee into the abdomen of the warrior. Before the woman could even wince in pain, Belldandy pushed her away while simultaneously wrenching the sword from her hand. She leveled the steel at the woman who was coughing up blood.
"We will leave now." She said calmly. "You will never hurt my Keiichi again. NEVER!!"
"I will kill you goddess!" The woman reached into her boot and retrieved a large dagger. She lunged a second time. Belldandy stepped to one side as the crazed attacker flew by, unable to change her direction. Closing her eyes, she flipped the sword around and jabbed it behind her. The sound of steel meeting flesh stung the air. The woman screamed, then died.
Keiichi couldn't move, his eyes were wide and staring at his lover, the hilt still in her hand. Urd's reaction was no less filled with shock, but not quite as filled with fear as was Keiichi's.
"B...Belldandy," He quivered. "You, you killed!" He began backing away from her slowly.
Belldandy drew in a long deep breath, allowing her grip on the sword to loosen and fall away. The heavy weapon leaned to one side and fell to the ground, prying the woman's flesh as it did. She let her breath out through her mouth slowly, calming her self. She opened her eyes and looked over at Keiichi. The life had reclaimed her eyes, yet she still had not regret.
"I did not kill her Kei-chan," she said plainly.
"Wha?" He looked from the corpse to the goddess and back again. He pointed in disbelief. "How do you explain that then!? She's not breathing!"
Urd stepped up to her sister and put a hand on her shoulder in comfort. Belldandy closed her eyes at the touch. Urd spoke. "Demons and beings of the Hell do not die so easily. They must be killed with magic and not without killing one of our own."
Keiichi's hand sagged as realization sunk in. "Oh yeah. But still..."
"She will be incapacitated for the time being while her body regenerates, we should get going," Urd started moving.
"Wait." Belldandy said.
"What?" Urd stopped and turned to her sister.
"Wait, she may know where Scold is."
"I doubt that a lowly specter would know where she is."
"Still, she may be of some use to us." Belldandy turned to the body lying on the ground. She bent down and picked the sword from the ground. With anything but mercy she yanked the steel from the woman's back. She walked around to her head and kneeled down placing her hand on the girl's shoulder, turning her over. She smacked the girl's cheeks a few times.
"Wake up specter." She said with mock compassion.
After a few seconds, the woman began to cough up blood. She took painful, hacking breaths, wheezing for air. This of course was quite difficult seeing as she had half of one lung missing. Slowly she opened her eyes, trying to focus on the blur hovering above her. As her vision cleared and realization dawned, she lurched up but found that a severed spinal cord was hampering her efforts to move.
"Yo..you," she said is a rasp whisper that sounded forced.
"Yes, me. Tell me, where is my sister?" Belldandy asked flatly.
"I...I don't know."
Belldandy stood and placed the sword over the woman's neck. "Tell me now!"
Keiichi leaned over to Urd, speaking in a low tone. "I thought that you said she can't kill a demon without magic."
Urd grinned. "She can't, but without someone to put the demon's head back on her head would just lay there until it could reattach to her body. And since the body is encapsulated, it couldn't get up and do it itself cause its gotta have the link markings to regenerate Now wouldn't that be unpleasant?"
"I really don't know!" The demon pleaded. "I was just told to find you two and to stop you."
"Who told you?" Belldandy questioned.
"Hel, she told me to take Sharezel with me."
"Just the two of you? A specter and an underling?"
"Yes, yes I swear."
"I see...we are leaving now. I do hope you find a new...companion." She said looking over at the quite dead serpent. "Oh yes, and I shall be taking this sword with me. You don't seem to be able to wield it. You might poke someone's eye out." She smiled sweetly, got up and joined the others.
"I will have you goddess! I swear, when I am whole I will come for you." The specter yelled, her voice returning. She twitched on the ground trying to move still but finding it still quite undoable.
* * *
Deep within the caverns of Neifilhelm, Hel stood below the ominous beastly figure of Loki. Her head was bowed and her hand was in a fist over her heart. The figure rumbled as it strained for breath, shaking the cavern as it did so. Hel stayed in her stance regardless, expressionless.
"How far away is the most loved one demon queen?" Loki hissed through the twisted net of teeth.
"Not far now my lord. They will find their way here within the hour. The specter I sent earlier has been wounded within the forest not more than a mile from the temple."
"This news is good demon queen. The time for resurrection is at hand. Begin moving our forces out from this accursed place. Have the infested goddess bought here. The time for her to kill the elder is close."
"As you wish." Hel bowed deeply and turned to exit. The figure of Loki sunk back into the rock wall behind him.
* * *
"Not much farther now." Peorth looked behind her at the trailing demi-god. Megumi was enthralled with the magnitude of the architecture around her. Since she had left the others and followed the scantily clad goddess she had seen nothing that had not amazed her. Of course, she was walking through the most spectacular sights in all of Asgard but did nothing to hamper the impression it left upon her.
Peorth suddenly stopped and felt Megumi run right into her back. The smaller girl jumped back at being shaken from her transfixiation. She blinked and looked up at the goddess. "Gomennasai."
"Get used to it, all of this place looks the same." Peorth waved her hand at the walls. "Its not really that impressive."
Megumi thought about this for a second before turning her head back to the building. "For you maybe. It's the first time I've been here remember."
Peorth sniffed. "So it is." She began walked again down the long corridor. Megumi quickened her pace and tried walking next to her.
"What is it you need me for anyway? I figured you have quite a lot of skilled people running around. I'm nothing special"
"Apparently the Lord thinks differently. All he told me was to take you up and put you to work. Although I have no idea what I could have you do." She scratched her head.
"All I know how to do is build engines."
"Yeah..." Peorth crossed her arms. "We don't have much use for those around here. Not with the ability to fly and all." "I didn't figure you did." Megumi sighed.
"Ah well, I'm sure I can find you something to make you feel useful." Peorth smiled down at Megumi. She seemed to brighten a bit. "I suppose...I could put you on the station monitoring the D virus. All you have to do is watch the screen. Pretty much what Scold was doing before she up and vanished."
"D virus?"
"The virus we found. Oh that's right." Peroth tapped her head. "You don't know about that yet. We found the core of the doublet system, turns out to be a virus that's slowly degenerating."
"Umm..." Megumi raised an eyebrow. "I don't know much about all that but isn't that a good thing?"
Peroth looked sideways at her. "No, by no means is it a good thing. It's the only thing keeping those demon armies from coming in an slaughtering us."
Megumi let out an 'ohhh.'
"The fact that it's degenerating is not a good thing. But at the rate we saw yesterday it'll quite a while before it actually goes kapoot."
"I see." Megumi stopped as they entered the main Yggdrasil chamber. The huge twisting spires that made up the tree where enormous. Her head tilted back to see if she could see the top. The tree traced all the way up where it became nothing more than a small pinprick.
"Meguuuumiiiii." Peroth cooed to get the girls attention again. Megumi snapped her head down.
"Gomen." She hopped down to the lower golden platform where the goddess was standing as the elder turned and gestured toward a small console to the side of a large silver chair. Peroth walked down and across in front of the console to the chair, flopping herself in, draping her arm over the armrest. She pointed at the small seat next to her.
"Sit there and watch that." She groaned.
Megumi sweatdropped, but proceeded down to the seat and attempted to make herself comfortable. She looked at the screen in front of her. The screen was surrounded by a loom like structure made of small white threads that were attached to an outer platform, which was stuck into the ground via a pole. White shuttle looking blocks sat in the web of string. There was nothing on the screen. Megumi looked blearily at the screen hoping maybe it would just click on so she wouldn't have to touch the confusing input controls and possibly drop a small country into the sea by mistake.
"Annoo...." She looked up to her right at the over draped arm of Peorth. "Peorth-sama... how does this thing work."
There was the sound of scuffling and the hand disappeared, replaced in a few seconds by a head perched on two hands on the armrest. Megumi grinned nervously and pointed at the console. "No idea how to work it."
"Oi. I forgot, its all password protected and all. Big secret you know."
"Ah"
Peorth reached down and twiddled quickly with the shuttles. A short wait produced the screen blinking with hundreds of lines of code flashing by.
"There ya go." Peorth readjusted herself again. "All you gotta do is watch that for anything strange. As for me, I'm going to take a short cat nap."
Megumi just nodded and looked at the console. The strange lines of garbled code were rearranging themselves into a pattern like string. She sat back and watched for a few minutes, quickly loosing interest in the code. 'If this is what these guys do everyday, I don't know if I wanna stay a goddess.' She laughed inwardly at this thought. That the all-powerful beings that controlled the universe had such mundane tasks was ironic to her.
She sat watching the screen for what seemed like hours though she knew it was probably more like twenty minutes. Her mind began to wander off to how her brother was doing. It wasn't often she worried about him. He was the older of the two and had been independent since childhood. But under the circumstances, with being turned into gods and goddesses being kidnapped, if any time was a good time to start worrying about him this was it.
Rubbing her eyes and getting a good yawn in, Megumi leaned her head on one arm propped up on the hand rest of the console, tapping her fingers on the other hand. She glanced down at the code again. Something caught her eye. She crossed her arms and leaned closer. Something seemed different than a short bit ago. She couldn't quite put her finger on it though. She looked up at Peorth, or what little of the woman she could see, and figured she was napping now. Looking back down, she got the same feeling. Something definitely was wrong. After a few more seconds realization clicked.
"Peorth-sama." She put a hand on the chair above her, not taking her eyes from the screen. Not getting a response, she put her hand on the goddess' leg and shook. "Peorth-sama!"
There was a snorting sound and a few muffled words, but the woman didn't move. Megumi stood up and grabbed Peorth's arm and forcefully jerked her. "PEORTH-SAMA!"
The woman's eyes shot open and she sat up almost instantly. "Wha-What! I didn't do it I swear!" She blinked and realizing her subordinates were nowhere to be found looked to her side. "Oh... its just you." She rubbed her forehead. "What do you need?"
"Peorth-sama, you said look for anything weird in that code right?"
Peorth raised an eyebrow. "Yeah... I did...Why?"
"Well I think there's something you need to see." Megumi release her hold and pointed down to her console. Peorth's heart started beating a bit faster as she adjusted herself and peered over the edge of the chair to the screen. The code was still moving across the screen, still changing.
"What's to see?"
"Just watch a second."
She did. And after a few moments her eyes went wide and her heart nearly skipped a beat. The code disintegration was speeding up.
* * *
It had been nearly two hours since the small party wondering through the woods had encountered any sort of trouble. Urd was beginning to become quite suspicious. Surely one of only a handful of gateways to Niefelhelm would be guard much more closely than this. Especially if the demons had just managed to kidnap a goddess. She continuously scoured the forest for any signs of movement but she couldn't detect anything. She glanced up at the two in front of her. Belldandy was in the lead, her new sword resting on her shoulder when she wasn't using it to hack down the thick underbrush before her. Keiichi was a few steps behind her. None of them had said much while walking, probably more out of residual shock of seeing Belldandy attack someone than out of nothing to say.
Regardless, it seemed that Belldandy had picked up the power source and was tracking it fairly thoroughly. It would only be a matter of time before they reached the gateway and maybe an entourage of guards to go along with it. Out of the corner of her eye, Urd spotted a small obelisk protruding from the dense leaf pack. Even though it was no taller than her knee it meant they were getting very close.
"Oi, Belldandy." Urd called ahead.
Belldandy hacked through a small sapling that had snagged on a bit of her dress. She sniffed and bounced the sword back on her shoulder, continuing on. "Yes Urd?"
"You notice that rock back there?"
"You mean the one that I about tripped on? Yes."
Urd chuckled to herself. "Think we're getting closer?"
Belldandy stopped and put her finger in her mouth. She pulled it out and held it up. After examining it for a few moments she pointed in front of her and smiled. "This way! No more than half a mile."
Keiichi looked confused and rubbed his head. "Don't tell me that that actually worked."
Urd walked up next to him and put her hand on his shoulder. "Of course not, she's just showing off."
Belldandy stuck out her tongue at her sister and chuckled. "Spoil my fun why don't you." She turned and started walking again in the direction she had just pointed in, swinging the sword as she went.
Urd leaned over to Keiichi's ear. "She's gone a bit loopy ne?"
"I heard that!" Belldandy called over her shoulder.
Keiichi sweatdropped as Urd patted him on the head. "Don't worry, I'm sure she'll get back to normal when we get home after all this.
"I hope so." Keiichi thought back to earlier when he saw something he never in his life thought he would witness. He saw his beloved basically kill someone. Albeit a demon that couldn't die thanks to that handy doublet thingy, but for all intents and purposes she had struck down another living thing. Even now she was cutting through trees with that demon's sword. This was not the Belldandy he knew, but that didn't meant he didn't still love her. He reached up and fondled the ring under his robes. If he got the chance at some calm point in the near future, he was planning on giving it to her and perhaps mellow her out a bit. Then again, he had no idea how much power could be coursing through her or what that power could do to her mind. He gulped at the implications that realization had.
The small group trudged on through the forest for another half hour before the stone monuments became more frequent and larger in size. They were even beginning to see larger stones with markings on them, though no one could make out what they meant. The markings looked like a cross between pictographic and phonetic writing styles. Before they could ponder the meanings trapped in the ancient stones, they came to a large clearing.
"We're here." Belldandy said triumphantly as the other two came up beside her. Before them was a larger stone staircase that rose gently out of the ground and proceeded some thirty feet into the air into the side of a hill. It was lined with stone pillars bearing many more of the markings they saw before. The whole thing was obviously worn and over grown with vegetation, but the grandeur made up for what it lacked in aesthetics. At the top of the stairs and buried in the hillside was an arched doorway that glowed a very faint red.
Urd glanced around. "This is way too easy. There should be guards here."
Belldandy huffed and stuck her sword into the ground. "Perhaps they're too lazy to come get us."
"Or this is a trap." Keiichi interjected.
Belldandy looked over to him and smiled. "That is quite obvious don't you think."
Keiichi nodded and looked to Urd. "So what do you say?"
Urd looked at him and then to her sister. "Well, I guess since we knew it was going to be a trap to begin with we're at least one step on them."
"Quite right." Belldandy closed her eyes and bowed her head. "Be it a trap or not, it really doesn't matter. Skuld is down there and we have to go get her. No matter what." She opened her eyes and looked back to Keiichi.
He smiled. This was the Belldandy he knew. "Right, lets go."
"Hai."
"Alright then, lets go to hell then!" Belldandy drew her sword from the ground and shouldered it once more. The group climbed the steps before pausing at the door, looking down the stone tunnel from which the red glow emanated. The cave like walls glistened in the light. They all looked to each other and nodded their finalities. Keiichi took a step forward. "To hell we go."
--------- End Part 7 ---------
Yeah... so this part took a while to write. Looks like a year. Darn my laziness. College life does that to you I suppose. Writing this chapter knowing full well what is about to happen was very frustrating because I want to get to that part, but I have to make the journey to get there, causing severe writers block. Oh well.
Next time, Peorth and Megumi scramble to find a way to stop the rapidly increasing speed of the doublet destruction, Hel assembles her forces, and our three heros find the person they are searching for, although its not the reunion they are expecting. Stay tuned for action and blatant abuses of literary license, next time in Of Angels and Demons.
Critizism, monies, and silly abuse can be addressed to: tsunami@falseblue.com
Ah! Megami-sama! Copyright 1989, 1995 by Kodansha and Koshuke Fujishima.
Story and original characters Copyright 2001-2003 by Ben Craton ---------
Of Angles and Demons Part 7: Darkness Piercing the Light
---------
Move not unless you see an advantage; use not your troops unless there is something to be gained; fight not unless the position is critical. -The Art of War [12:17]
--
"Ouch! That hurt! Why couldn't Kami send us somewhere that wasn't like the black forest?" Urd rubbed her arm where a branch had just jabbed it.
"You know that he couldn't get us any closer than he did." Keiichi called back at her.
"You'd think he'd make a clearing or something at least." Urd crossed her arms and huffed. "We can't even fly around here."
Belldandy rolled her eyes as she pushed the front. It had been at least an hour since Kami had sent them there, wherever it was. All they knew was that they were in eastern Europe, but where exactly was anyone's guess. The forest was extremely thick. The undergrowth was robust and mostly thorny. The floor was invisible because of the amount of foliage. There were small pine trees here and there, but only where there was a small clearing where it had room to grow. The trees themselves were enormous. Dark and ominous, they towered high above the trio, blotting out what little light there was.
The mist didn't help much either. It wasn't blinding, but it kept their vision limited to only a hundred feet or so. It moved like a great spirit, even there was no wind at all. It was silent too, no birds, no rustling of leaves. It was like walking through a graveyard. The forest seemed to be watching them from all sides, waiting. The only thing that kept them from freaking out was light conversation that had nothing to do with their mission, apart from Urd asking every so often if they were there yet.
Still, there was no path, they had no map, and only Belldandy to guide them as she was the only one of the group that could feel out places of power. But even she seemed just as lost as the others.
Urd gruffed again. "These stupid thorns keep pulling on my skirt!"
"Take it off then." Keiichi smiled wirily.
Belldandy turned to give him a not so nice look. Urd sweatdropped. "I'm afraid you would enjoy that entirely too much."
Keiichi grinned. "Not much more than what you usually wear."
Urd shrugged. "True, but no. But what I will do..." She snapped her fingers. Nothing happened.
"Is...?" Keiichi was waiting for her to finish.
"Umm...oh damn! I forgot about that stupid temple. Ugh, I was going to get myself some hiking clothes. But oohhhh no. Can't use my power near it. What good is a first class license when you cant use it?" She mocked.
Belldandy stopped for a second and turned her head. "When did you get an first class license?"
Urd chuckled. "Of yeah, I forgot to tell you didn't I? I got it two days ago. Sorta just, slipped my mind I guess."
"Sometimes I think you are one of the dumbest people Urd." Belldandy turned around and kept trudging ahead.
"Hey! That's not very nice." Urd tossed a small pine cone at her sister, bonking her on the back. Belldandy turned, smiling, and tossed a bigger one at Urd, knocking her in the forehead.
"Take that."
Keiichi moved out of the line of fire as the cone went by his head. He grinned. "Nice to see you smiling again."
Belldandy smiled bigger. "Thanks Keiichi. I fell better now."
Urd rubbed her head. "Oh yeah, back to her old self. Lots of fun."
Belldandy gave her a mocking glare and started forward again.
"Just out of curiosity, Bell-chan, are we getting any closer?"
"Uh... well, it seems like it, but I really have no idea. Kami said we'd see a bunch of monoliths before we got to it. I guess they surround the temple."
"I don't even see rocks." Urd kicked a bush out of the way. "You would think we would see 'something' by now. How long has it been? An hour?"
"Probably." Belldandy said. "I can't reach Yggdrasil right now because of the interference, or else I would have asked for directions."
"Why must there be so much interference? Its just a stupid old temple."
"Yes, and a gateway to Hell if I recall. You would think that a cross dimensional breach would play havoc with elemental energies." Belldandy broke a branch off a tree what was in their way.
"What is Neiflehelm like?" Keiichi asked.
Belldandy blinked. "Well... honestly, I've never thought about it. Never been there."
"I have. Its not a very nice place." Urd bunched her skirt up to near her waist, getting tired of the thorns playing tag with it. "Its dark. Everything is either black or red. Everything glows a dull reddish color. There's always this annoying rumbling sound. And it smells."
"Like what?" Keiichi hopped over a log.
"Sulfur. But it's not that strong. It just sort of, reminds you every so often you are an idiot for going there."
"Guess we're idiots then."
"Guess so."
"So, how come you were there Urd?"
Urd sighed. "Oh, back in the good old days, I got to play page for the higher-ups. They'd send me down there every so often, delivering messages and such. That was back before..." She paused. "Anyway, no one goes there anymore."
"Any reason?"
"Would you want to?"
"Point."
Belldandy stopped suddenly, raising her hand, causing the other two to quickly hush. She turned around and looked at Urd, using some hand signals Keiichi couldn't make out. Belldandy pointed to herself and then to her left. Urd nodded. He turned to Urd with a questioning look. Urd mouthed the explanation. 'Demons.' She jumped backwards and got behind a tree. Keiichi looked for Belldandy, but she too had hidden herself. He decided he should do the same. He leapt straight up and lighted on a branch silently.
Keiichi listened hard for them. He could hear only slight rustling of leaves, not much. He looked over at a tree about twenty feet from where he was. In it, Urd crouched, searching the area below. He looked over to Belldandy, who had taken up residence in a tree father away than Urd. She too was scouring the ground. The air began to move in soft gentle waves around him, thick and dark.
"We know you're here goddesses, just come on down and get it over with." A woman's voice called out from below.
"Yesss. Pleassse do." Another voice hissed. It was serpentine and seemed a little too eager.
A half a minute of silence passed. The lower pair's footsteps grew closer to where the three were hiding. Keiichi craned his neck carefully to see them. A few seconds later, they stepped out into the clearing. One was indeed a woman. She wore a skintight leather body suit with steel armor plating; a huge sword was strapped to her back. The other creature with her was shorter than her, though very menacing. Its body was long and black; its snout came to a snarly point. It hovered in the hair with two red dragon like wings; its pudgy arms were curled up in an anticipated attack stance, baring its sharp claws.
Keiichi gulped. They had no weapons and their powers were useless. His breathing quickened. The dragon thing stopped and sniffed the air.
"I sssmell divine flesssh." It giggled in a high pitched screech,
"They must be close, fly high Sharezel. Track them down." The woman took the sword from her back and went to the defensive.
'Come on Keiichi, control yourself.' He quickly held his breath as the dragon lifted off and began flying through the near trees. It began to cackle.
"Come out godesssesss. I wisssh to tassste you're flesssh again."
It flew faster and faster about the trees, dodging the trunks and branches by mere inches. Keiichi saw where it was heading. It was going towards Belldandy.
"NO!" Keiichi left from the tree down to the clearing, landing a few feet from the woman.
The woman swung around and leveled the sword at his throat. He swallowed hard. "I am the one you want, I surrender to you."
The dragon, Sharezel, flew up behind him.
The woman's face grinned evilly. "Ah, so you're the little scoundrel sent to kill the master? You don't look like a goddess to me." She glared.
Sharezel sniffed him over and paused.
"Where are the others?" The woman stuck the sword up to his skin, drawing a bit of blood.
"W...what others? I'm the only one here." Keichii stammered.
"You lie!" She growled and nodded to the dragon. He instantly spun quickly in the air, using his tail like a whip and cutting into Keiichi's back. He screamed in pain and fell to his knees.
She stepped closer to him, placing the point of her sword under his chin, lifting his head up to meet her eyes. She moved closer so he could smell the sulfur in her breath. "Ill ask you again and no more, you dog. Where are the others?"
Keiichi glanced up for a moment and then back down at the woman. "Why... why don't you ask her?"
The woman looked puzzled for a moment, then as realization stuck her so did Urd's double fist on the back of her neck. She crumpled and rolled to the side, jumping to her feet and reeling around to face her assailant, sword in hand. Urd stood to her feet, glaring menacingly at the woman.
"Leave here now," Urd growled.
Sharezel took this opportunity to grab on to Keiichi's shoulders with its claws and wrap its tail around his waist, pointing the end of it to his throat.
"Goddessss, you are the one who isss to leave. You and you friend here." It hissed.
"You are in no position to make demands goddess!" The woman grinned fiendishly, her grip tightening on the swords hilt. "You have a choice, you can die, or you can surrender. I prefer the latter much more, but the master gives you the choice. Which will it be goddess?"
Urd did not change her expression, nor her posture. "I think I will have to choose neither."
"You will choossse, or you friend diesss." The serpent thrust its tail closer to Keiichi's neck.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Urd's voice seemed to calm for the woman's liking.
"And what are you going to do about it witch? Kill us? With what? You have no weapons and you can not use your powers here. You have no third option. I will ask again. Surrender or death?"
Urd's cold, emotionless glare stabbed into the woman's eyes. "I choose neither." She spoke slowly.
At that moment, a blur fell past Keiichi's back taking the dragon with it. Keiichi doubled over, the pressure on him now absent. The woman turned from Urd for one second to see what had happened. The shock was apparent on her face. Belldandy was in a crouching position, her back half turned to the others. She stood slowly and faced them. In her hand was a thick branch, and at the end of that hung the lifeless body of the serpent, dangling by its head.
Belldandy just stared at the woman. No emotion, no fear, no nothing. Her normally shimmering eyes were lifeless and void blue orbs. The woman began to show signs of nervousness.
"H..how, could you kill Sharezel? His skin is hard as steel." She questioned as nervousness crept into her voice.
Belldandy said nothing. She simply stared at her. Urd crossed her arms. "I told you, I choose neither."
The woman reeled to face Urd, then reeled back to Belldandy, obviously loosing all bearing. "You.. will not take me as well! I will fall each of you! I swear it!"
At this Belldandy tossed the stick and its victim to the woman's feet. "You shall not." Her voice was flat and lifeless. "We shall take our leave now."
The woman was now sweating, the sword trembling slightly in her hands. "You will not! You will die!" She regained her composure and assumed an attack stance.
"Come Keiichi." Belldandy said flatly, not taking her eyes off of the woman. Keiichi stared at her, a streak of fear running through him. This could not be his Bell-chan.
"NOW!" He scrambled to his feet and stood behind her so as to not be able to see her eyes. "Let us continue, Urd?"
Urd glanced over at the woman, "I told you." She began walking in the direction Belldandy was going.
"I WILL NOT ALLOW THIS!" The woman lunged at Belldandy, sword extended, ready for the kill. Her battle cry screeched through the air. It was all over in a split second.
Belldandy spun just as the blade was inches from her face. With one swipe of her hand she deflected it, causing the weapon to fly harmlessly over her shoulder. With her other hand she grabbed a hold of the woman's free arm and yanked her closer, bringing her own knee into the abdomen of the warrior. Before the woman could even wince in pain, Belldandy pushed her away while simultaneously wrenching the sword from her hand. She leveled the steel at the woman who was coughing up blood.
"We will leave now." She said calmly. "You will never hurt my Keiichi again. NEVER!!"
"I will kill you goddess!" The woman reached into her boot and retrieved a large dagger. She lunged a second time. Belldandy stepped to one side as the crazed attacker flew by, unable to change her direction. Closing her eyes, she flipped the sword around and jabbed it behind her. The sound of steel meeting flesh stung the air. The woman screamed, then died.
Keiichi couldn't move, his eyes were wide and staring at his lover, the hilt still in her hand. Urd's reaction was no less filled with shock, but not quite as filled with fear as was Keiichi's.
"B...Belldandy," He quivered. "You, you killed!" He began backing away from her slowly.
Belldandy drew in a long deep breath, allowing her grip on the sword to loosen and fall away. The heavy weapon leaned to one side and fell to the ground, prying the woman's flesh as it did. She let her breath out through her mouth slowly, calming her self. She opened her eyes and looked over at Keiichi. The life had reclaimed her eyes, yet she still had not regret.
"I did not kill her Kei-chan," she said plainly.
"Wha?" He looked from the corpse to the goddess and back again. He pointed in disbelief. "How do you explain that then!? She's not breathing!"
Urd stepped up to her sister and put a hand on her shoulder in comfort. Belldandy closed her eyes at the touch. Urd spoke. "Demons and beings of the Hell do not die so easily. They must be killed with magic and not without killing one of our own."
Keiichi's hand sagged as realization sunk in. "Oh yeah. But still..."
"She will be incapacitated for the time being while her body regenerates, we should get going," Urd started moving.
"Wait." Belldandy said.
"What?" Urd stopped and turned to her sister.
"Wait, she may know where Scold is."
"I doubt that a lowly specter would know where she is."
"Still, she may be of some use to us." Belldandy turned to the body lying on the ground. She bent down and picked the sword from the ground. With anything but mercy she yanked the steel from the woman's back. She walked around to her head and kneeled down placing her hand on the girl's shoulder, turning her over. She smacked the girl's cheeks a few times.
"Wake up specter." She said with mock compassion.
After a few seconds, the woman began to cough up blood. She took painful, hacking breaths, wheezing for air. This of course was quite difficult seeing as she had half of one lung missing. Slowly she opened her eyes, trying to focus on the blur hovering above her. As her vision cleared and realization dawned, she lurched up but found that a severed spinal cord was hampering her efforts to move.
"Yo..you," she said is a rasp whisper that sounded forced.
"Yes, me. Tell me, where is my sister?" Belldandy asked flatly.
"I...I don't know."
Belldandy stood and placed the sword over the woman's neck. "Tell me now!"
Keiichi leaned over to Urd, speaking in a low tone. "I thought that you said she can't kill a demon without magic."
Urd grinned. "She can't, but without someone to put the demon's head back on her head would just lay there until it could reattach to her body. And since the body is encapsulated, it couldn't get up and do it itself cause its gotta have the link markings to regenerate Now wouldn't that be unpleasant?"
"I really don't know!" The demon pleaded. "I was just told to find you two and to stop you."
"Who told you?" Belldandy questioned.
"Hel, she told me to take Sharezel with me."
"Just the two of you? A specter and an underling?"
"Yes, yes I swear."
"I see...we are leaving now. I do hope you find a new...companion." She said looking over at the quite dead serpent. "Oh yes, and I shall be taking this sword with me. You don't seem to be able to wield it. You might poke someone's eye out." She smiled sweetly, got up and joined the others.
"I will have you goddess! I swear, when I am whole I will come for you." The specter yelled, her voice returning. She twitched on the ground trying to move still but finding it still quite undoable.
* * *
Deep within the caverns of Neifilhelm, Hel stood below the ominous beastly figure of Loki. Her head was bowed and her hand was in a fist over her heart. The figure rumbled as it strained for breath, shaking the cavern as it did so. Hel stayed in her stance regardless, expressionless.
"How far away is the most loved one demon queen?" Loki hissed through the twisted net of teeth.
"Not far now my lord. They will find their way here within the hour. The specter I sent earlier has been wounded within the forest not more than a mile from the temple."
"This news is good demon queen. The time for resurrection is at hand. Begin moving our forces out from this accursed place. Have the infested goddess bought here. The time for her to kill the elder is close."
"As you wish." Hel bowed deeply and turned to exit. The figure of Loki sunk back into the rock wall behind him.
* * *
"Not much farther now." Peorth looked behind her at the trailing demi-god. Megumi was enthralled with the magnitude of the architecture around her. Since she had left the others and followed the scantily clad goddess she had seen nothing that had not amazed her. Of course, she was walking through the most spectacular sights in all of Asgard but did nothing to hamper the impression it left upon her.
Peorth suddenly stopped and felt Megumi run right into her back. The smaller girl jumped back at being shaken from her transfixiation. She blinked and looked up at the goddess. "Gomennasai."
"Get used to it, all of this place looks the same." Peorth waved her hand at the walls. "Its not really that impressive."
Megumi thought about this for a second before turning her head back to the building. "For you maybe. It's the first time I've been here remember."
Peorth sniffed. "So it is." She began walked again down the long corridor. Megumi quickened her pace and tried walking next to her.
"What is it you need me for anyway? I figured you have quite a lot of skilled people running around. I'm nothing special"
"Apparently the Lord thinks differently. All he told me was to take you up and put you to work. Although I have no idea what I could have you do." She scratched her head.
"All I know how to do is build engines."
"Yeah..." Peorth crossed her arms. "We don't have much use for those around here. Not with the ability to fly and all." "I didn't figure you did." Megumi sighed.
"Ah well, I'm sure I can find you something to make you feel useful." Peorth smiled down at Megumi. She seemed to brighten a bit. "I suppose...I could put you on the station monitoring the D virus. All you have to do is watch the screen. Pretty much what Scold was doing before she up and vanished."
"D virus?"
"The virus we found. Oh that's right." Peroth tapped her head. "You don't know about that yet. We found the core of the doublet system, turns out to be a virus that's slowly degenerating."
"Umm..." Megumi raised an eyebrow. "I don't know much about all that but isn't that a good thing?"
Peroth looked sideways at her. "No, by no means is it a good thing. It's the only thing keeping those demon armies from coming in an slaughtering us."
Megumi let out an 'ohhh.'
"The fact that it's degenerating is not a good thing. But at the rate we saw yesterday it'll quite a while before it actually goes kapoot."
"I see." Megumi stopped as they entered the main Yggdrasil chamber. The huge twisting spires that made up the tree where enormous. Her head tilted back to see if she could see the top. The tree traced all the way up where it became nothing more than a small pinprick.
"Meguuuumiiiii." Peroth cooed to get the girls attention again. Megumi snapped her head down.
"Gomen." She hopped down to the lower golden platform where the goddess was standing as the elder turned and gestured toward a small console to the side of a large silver chair. Peroth walked down and across in front of the console to the chair, flopping herself in, draping her arm over the armrest. She pointed at the small seat next to her.
"Sit there and watch that." She groaned.
Megumi sweatdropped, but proceeded down to the seat and attempted to make herself comfortable. She looked at the screen in front of her. The screen was surrounded by a loom like structure made of small white threads that were attached to an outer platform, which was stuck into the ground via a pole. White shuttle looking blocks sat in the web of string. There was nothing on the screen. Megumi looked blearily at the screen hoping maybe it would just click on so she wouldn't have to touch the confusing input controls and possibly drop a small country into the sea by mistake.
"Annoo...." She looked up to her right at the over draped arm of Peorth. "Peorth-sama... how does this thing work."
There was the sound of scuffling and the hand disappeared, replaced in a few seconds by a head perched on two hands on the armrest. Megumi grinned nervously and pointed at the console. "No idea how to work it."
"Oi. I forgot, its all password protected and all. Big secret you know."
"Ah"
Peorth reached down and twiddled quickly with the shuttles. A short wait produced the screen blinking with hundreds of lines of code flashing by.
"There ya go." Peorth readjusted herself again. "All you gotta do is watch that for anything strange. As for me, I'm going to take a short cat nap."
Megumi just nodded and looked at the console. The strange lines of garbled code were rearranging themselves into a pattern like string. She sat back and watched for a few minutes, quickly loosing interest in the code. 'If this is what these guys do everyday, I don't know if I wanna stay a goddess.' She laughed inwardly at this thought. That the all-powerful beings that controlled the universe had such mundane tasks was ironic to her.
She sat watching the screen for what seemed like hours though she knew it was probably more like twenty minutes. Her mind began to wander off to how her brother was doing. It wasn't often she worried about him. He was the older of the two and had been independent since childhood. But under the circumstances, with being turned into gods and goddesses being kidnapped, if any time was a good time to start worrying about him this was it.
Rubbing her eyes and getting a good yawn in, Megumi leaned her head on one arm propped up on the hand rest of the console, tapping her fingers on the other hand. She glanced down at the code again. Something caught her eye. She crossed her arms and leaned closer. Something seemed different than a short bit ago. She couldn't quite put her finger on it though. She looked up at Peorth, or what little of the woman she could see, and figured she was napping now. Looking back down, she got the same feeling. Something definitely was wrong. After a few more seconds realization clicked.
"Peorth-sama." She put a hand on the chair above her, not taking her eyes from the screen. Not getting a response, she put her hand on the goddess' leg and shook. "Peorth-sama!"
There was a snorting sound and a few muffled words, but the woman didn't move. Megumi stood up and grabbed Peorth's arm and forcefully jerked her. "PEORTH-SAMA!"
The woman's eyes shot open and she sat up almost instantly. "Wha-What! I didn't do it I swear!" She blinked and realizing her subordinates were nowhere to be found looked to her side. "Oh... its just you." She rubbed her forehead. "What do you need?"
"Peorth-sama, you said look for anything weird in that code right?"
Peorth raised an eyebrow. "Yeah... I did...Why?"
"Well I think there's something you need to see." Megumi release her hold and pointed down to her console. Peorth's heart started beating a bit faster as she adjusted herself and peered over the edge of the chair to the screen. The code was still moving across the screen, still changing.
"What's to see?"
"Just watch a second."
She did. And after a few moments her eyes went wide and her heart nearly skipped a beat. The code disintegration was speeding up.
* * *
It had been nearly two hours since the small party wondering through the woods had encountered any sort of trouble. Urd was beginning to become quite suspicious. Surely one of only a handful of gateways to Niefelhelm would be guard much more closely than this. Especially if the demons had just managed to kidnap a goddess. She continuously scoured the forest for any signs of movement but she couldn't detect anything. She glanced up at the two in front of her. Belldandy was in the lead, her new sword resting on her shoulder when she wasn't using it to hack down the thick underbrush before her. Keiichi was a few steps behind her. None of them had said much while walking, probably more out of residual shock of seeing Belldandy attack someone than out of nothing to say.
Regardless, it seemed that Belldandy had picked up the power source and was tracking it fairly thoroughly. It would only be a matter of time before they reached the gateway and maybe an entourage of guards to go along with it. Out of the corner of her eye, Urd spotted a small obelisk protruding from the dense leaf pack. Even though it was no taller than her knee it meant they were getting very close.
"Oi, Belldandy." Urd called ahead.
Belldandy hacked through a small sapling that had snagged on a bit of her dress. She sniffed and bounced the sword back on her shoulder, continuing on. "Yes Urd?"
"You notice that rock back there?"
"You mean the one that I about tripped on? Yes."
Urd chuckled to herself. "Think we're getting closer?"
Belldandy stopped and put her finger in her mouth. She pulled it out and held it up. After examining it for a few moments she pointed in front of her and smiled. "This way! No more than half a mile."
Keiichi looked confused and rubbed his head. "Don't tell me that that actually worked."
Urd walked up next to him and put her hand on his shoulder. "Of course not, she's just showing off."
Belldandy stuck out her tongue at her sister and chuckled. "Spoil my fun why don't you." She turned and started walking again in the direction she had just pointed in, swinging the sword as she went.
Urd leaned over to Keiichi's ear. "She's gone a bit loopy ne?"
"I heard that!" Belldandy called over her shoulder.
Keiichi sweatdropped as Urd patted him on the head. "Don't worry, I'm sure she'll get back to normal when we get home after all this.
"I hope so." Keiichi thought back to earlier when he saw something he never in his life thought he would witness. He saw his beloved basically kill someone. Albeit a demon that couldn't die thanks to that handy doublet thingy, but for all intents and purposes she had struck down another living thing. Even now she was cutting through trees with that demon's sword. This was not the Belldandy he knew, but that didn't meant he didn't still love her. He reached up and fondled the ring under his robes. If he got the chance at some calm point in the near future, he was planning on giving it to her and perhaps mellow her out a bit. Then again, he had no idea how much power could be coursing through her or what that power could do to her mind. He gulped at the implications that realization had.
The small group trudged on through the forest for another half hour before the stone monuments became more frequent and larger in size. They were even beginning to see larger stones with markings on them, though no one could make out what they meant. The markings looked like a cross between pictographic and phonetic writing styles. Before they could ponder the meanings trapped in the ancient stones, they came to a large clearing.
"We're here." Belldandy said triumphantly as the other two came up beside her. Before them was a larger stone staircase that rose gently out of the ground and proceeded some thirty feet into the air into the side of a hill. It was lined with stone pillars bearing many more of the markings they saw before. The whole thing was obviously worn and over grown with vegetation, but the grandeur made up for what it lacked in aesthetics. At the top of the stairs and buried in the hillside was an arched doorway that glowed a very faint red.
Urd glanced around. "This is way too easy. There should be guards here."
Belldandy huffed and stuck her sword into the ground. "Perhaps they're too lazy to come get us."
"Or this is a trap." Keiichi interjected.
Belldandy looked over to him and smiled. "That is quite obvious don't you think."
Keiichi nodded and looked to Urd. "So what do you say?"
Urd looked at him and then to her sister. "Well, I guess since we knew it was going to be a trap to begin with we're at least one step on them."
"Quite right." Belldandy closed her eyes and bowed her head. "Be it a trap or not, it really doesn't matter. Skuld is down there and we have to go get her. No matter what." She opened her eyes and looked back to Keiichi.
He smiled. This was the Belldandy he knew. "Right, lets go."
"Hai."
"Alright then, lets go to hell then!" Belldandy drew her sword from the ground and shouldered it once more. The group climbed the steps before pausing at the door, looking down the stone tunnel from which the red glow emanated. The cave like walls glistened in the light. They all looked to each other and nodded their finalities. Keiichi took a step forward. "To hell we go."
--------- End Part 7 ---------
Yeah... so this part took a while to write. Looks like a year. Darn my laziness. College life does that to you I suppose. Writing this chapter knowing full well what is about to happen was very frustrating because I want to get to that part, but I have to make the journey to get there, causing severe writers block. Oh well.
Next time, Peorth and Megumi scramble to find a way to stop the rapidly increasing speed of the doublet destruction, Hel assembles her forces, and our three heros find the person they are searching for, although its not the reunion they are expecting. Stay tuned for action and blatant abuses of literary license, next time in Of Angels and Demons.
Critizism, monies, and silly abuse can be addressed to: tsunami@falseblue.com
