A/N:

For background music I recommend that you listen to one of your favorite epic soundtracks as you read the following chapters. Or you can play one of these suggested YouTube OSTs: Two Steps from Hell - Heart of Courage (Extended Version) (8:13) by afrosmaximus, Requiem for a dream Soundtrack (4:06) by Wolf Skull, or Mass Effect 2 OST - Suicide Mission (4:46) by asmodejan.

Chapter 14: The Last Battle (Part 1)

The Last Battle had begun. Demons were pouring out of the gate like a cloud of locusts, splitting off into waves, then diving down. Various forms of energy were flashing out from the plunging swarm: heat rays, lightning, plasma bolts, magic lances. Others were shooting strange weapons, some kinetic, some particulate, some invisible - the latter causing huge percussive blasts on the ground.

Then great engines of war emerged from the gate, flying platforms hundreds of meters long, with huge siege canons firing broadsides like a Spanish galleon. They looked much like the great Martian flying war platforms in the film John Carter. The bottoms were shielded with Adamite, impregnable. Swarms of soldiers were repelling down the lines from the great craft.

It was chaos. The gods and goddesses scattered in a wild panic, overwhelmed.

{ Skuld: Chrono! Sit-rep! }

Silence. { Keiichi: We lost her. }

{ Chrono: No.. I'm here. I'm down. This hurts.. }

{ Skuld: Stop whining! You're a combat Valkyrie, so suck it up soldier! }

{ Chrono: Okay. Uh.. }

{ Skuld: Sit-rep! }

{ Chrono: Massive invasion, I think it's 100%. Everthing Hrungnir's got. I saw wyrm formations, some standalone, some with Uruk-Hai riding them, also lots of L2 and L3 standard types. And the usual animal types - great spiders, giant locusts, demon wolves in standard pack formation. No champions though. Some war platforms, but only normal ones. The big guns haven't shown up yet. }

{ Keiichi: Crap. We haven't seen the big guns yet? }

{ Skuld: No. Hrungnir will hold those back. }

{ Chrono: I haven't seen Hrungnir yet. That's odd. Oh man.. I'm gonna pass out. Sorry. }

{ Skuld: Wait, no Hrungnir? You sure? }

It was because in all such battles the Daimakaicho always leads the attack. Always. Vanity demands she be at the front of the line. She is usually riding some fearsome war-beast, such as a dragon, while wearing glorious armor and wielding a great weapon, usually a unique and fearsome sword or lance that can kill anything.

Only another goddess of equal rank can possibly hurt her. Only the Daitenkaicho can fight her. Tradition says that the Daimakaicho and the Daitenkaicho face off at some point in the battle for a one-on-one fight.

Skuld had a horrible thought. { Please tell me you didn't see Lindy leading them! Please! }

The link was silent. Chrono was gone.

{ Keiichi: No, Lindy's dead. Don't you see? }

{ Skuld: I don't understand.. }

{ Keiichi: It's so simple: Lindy was the Daimakaicho. But so was Hrungnir, unofficially. Succession down there is always by assassination or ensealment. So the two Daimakaicho's finally faced off. The big mano-o-mano fight in this battle has already happened! }

{ Skuld: And my daughter lost, and now she's gone. } Her heart was black with grief.

{ Keiichi: No, she won! Yeah, she's dead, but that's why Hrungnir isn't up there leading the battle. She took her out. They went down together. It's totally Lindy's style to sacrifice herself like that. }

Skuld realized it was probably due to a kinetic impact between two L1s, the only sure-fire way for one L1 to kill another. The attacker smashed into the target at the highest possible speed. It always killed them both. Always. It was how Belldandy stopped Hild at the start of Ragnarok. It was the only way such a powerful being could possibly be stopped.

Skuld gave herself ten seconds to mourn the death of her beautiful daughter. She was the bravest goddess in the history of Asgard, going down alone into Hell undercover. And to surround herself with all that terrible evil, that hate. To embrace it all. All out of love.

{ Skuld: Where did Thoriko go? }

{ Keiichi: She just dived into the battle, to end it one way or another. The same as what we should be doing. }

{ Skuld: Why should we fight? Even without Hrungnir out there, It's hopeless. Tactically we are screwed. Most of the goddesses won't even follow my orders anymore. Even if we somehow won, Asgard has revolted. Our shared mansion is finished. }

{ Keiichi: Because we have a duty to our people. We have to fight on, to save them from themselves. }

{ Skuld: It won't work. They're too pig headed.. }

{ Keiichi: Even so. }

{ Skuld: Give it up already. Our mansion is done. The Blue File clearly warned us that if we tore ourselves apart in a civil war, we are toast. You read it yourself: Every living soul will be destroyed. That's why I refused to fight Troubadour - because I didn't want to start the civil war that would end our existence. But now Niflheim kicked it off. Everybody's fighting everybody else. We're screwed. We're done. It's Game Over. }

{ Keiichi: Look, I've had enough of your damn fatalism already! What happened to the fiery woman I fell in love with? The woman who never stepped back from any challenge? Who always rushed headlong into every battle? }

{ Skuld: I'm sorry, Keiichi. It's over. We all lost. }

{ Keiichi: No! Never give up like that! Skuld, if you feel so defeated now, if you won't even fight to save your kingdom, then give me control of your body. I'll end this battle myself. }

{ Skuld: Sigh.. no.. we'll both do it together. We'll fight to the bitter end. Go out in a blaze of glory. }

{ Keiichi: That's better. Never give up. }

{ Skuld: You're right, I've been too passive during the past few decades. We should fight even if there is no hope. It's our duty. Thanks for the verbal ass kicking, Keiichi, I deserved it. }

{ Keiichi: You're welcome. And like I said, don't give up. Now, there is just one more thing.. }

{ Skuld: What? }

{ Keiichi: You know I love you. So please listen carefully to what I am about to tell you: Skuld, you remember how during the past eighty years I've always begged you, over and over, to please calm down, to not get angry, to control your temper? }

{ Skuld: Yes, my darling, and it worked. I'm pretty mellow nowadays. }

{ Keiichi: Well, forget everything I ever said about that. I want you to get pissed. I want you to really cut loose. I want to see the old angry Skuld go roaring out. }

{ Skuld: Keiichi, when I get angry I lose all my self control. I become manic. It makes Aang in the Avatar State look like an upset kitten. It's too dangerous. }

{ Keiichi: Look, what have we got to lose? Do it. I'll moderate you. Veto when I need to. }

{ Skuld: I'm not sure even you can stop me. Nobody can. }

{ Keiichi: I will. }

She knew the strength of Keiichi's will.

{ Skuld: Okay.. It's been a long time since I lost my temper, but I think I can still do it, let's see... }

She started to get herself worked up. She began talking to herself: "Those suicidal idiots. Those stupid morons.. what the hell is wrong with them? Don't they know they are destroying their own future, cutting their own throats? Grr.."

{ Skuld: Yeah, I'm starting to want to go kick some asses now. }

{ Keiichi: That's good. Keep thinking that. Get upset. Get pissed. Let me see the old Skuld that I used to know and love. }

{ Skuld: Darn tootin'. }

"It's clobberin' time!"

{ Keiichi: And for once I will actually help you break things. }

{ Skuld: Wow, even Mr. Pacifist wants to mix it up! }

"Let's go knock some heads!"

{ Keiichi: Good, let's go help Thoriko kick some ass. Let's fly! }

She made a nasty grin. { No dear, we're not flying. I've got something more impressive in mind. }

He read her thoughts. { Ooh, I like that even better.. }

And so the Daitenkaicho prepared to go to war.

Thoriko was desperate. The battle was going badly. She was the only first-class goddess on the battlefield. And she was starting to draw too much attention from the enemy. They began to focus on her. She didn't care.

Good. Don't hurt those children. Hurt me instead! Bring it on!

Her second-sense felt something behind her. She spun around and sliced it in half with a wind cut. The two halves of the giant spider fell apart.

The other enemies, the sentient enemies, were smart enough not to get too close. Instead they let their range weapons do the talking for them. The kinetic weapons swooshed at her body, missing only by inches. She was flying at only 3 meters, using the undulating landscape for cover, doing what fighter pilots called jinking: random shifts in speed and direction at least every two seconds. It was a standard anti-sniper defense technique taught to her by Chrono. She knew the snipers were still far enough away that they needed two seconds to lead their target.

The mortar explosions were getting closer, too close. They were getting her range now. She knew that a splash from an indirect hit from a fluorosulfuric acid grenade or a lithium diisopropylamide cluster bomb could cause painful and potentially fatal injury to a goddess. These ultimate chemicals of destruction were jellied like napalm so they would stick to whatever surface they touched: armor, clothing, or living flesh. And then the strongest acid, or the strongest base, in known history would eat away, unstoppable. It was like the acid blood of the xenomorphs in Aliens, only one hundred times more powerful.

This is what hit Chrono in the arm. It was burning her flesh away, unstoppable, slowly working its way up her elbow, then into her shoulder, then into her heart, which would then kill her. It was a miracle she lasted as long as she did before she passed out from the pain. Thoriko had no time to find her to perform the necessary life-saving amputation.

Thoriko created a standing wind vortex around herself to deflect the napalm mortars. Then she spotted a target of opportunity: A large group of Uruk-Hai wyrm riders were moving in formation in her direction. With her eagle eyes she recognized their war crests. They were the erīto senshi, the elite personal guard of Hrungnir herself. Two of them had personally escorted Lindy to her doom. Her anger swelled. She wanted them. She took a chance and landed. It was necessary so she could whirl up Mjölnir.

She was the only goddess who could physically lift that greatest of all warhammers, a posthumous gift from her namesake uncle. The name, Mjölnir, which means 'that which smashes', meant that whatsoever she might smite would be destroyed by that hammer. And if she threw it, it would never miss, and it would always return to her hand afterward.

Like all the greatest artifacts of the gods, the hammer was sentient. She spoke to the living hammer of doom, "Are you ready?"

"Yes, my lady. Use me."

She started to whirl it in a vertical circular arc, faster and faster, the angular momentum pouring energy into it, charging it up. "Fly where I wish. Now fly! Fly!"

And the hammer flew. It arced left, up, left again, aligned with the wyrm riders at a parallel altitude, speed, and direction. Then it instantly changed its velocity vector by 90 degrees and zoomed in a straight horizontal line and at a terrific speed. The hammer neatly punched a square hole through the hearts of 16 dragons and came out the other side. Then it returned to her hand.

The great orcs fell from the sky.

That felt good. Too good. I'll worry about that later.

She paused for a second to admire her handiwork. That was a mistake. In stopping like that, a sniper finally found his target. She was hit.

She was lucky. The wind vortex shifted the projectile 8 centimeters left of her neck, so the decapitation attempt failed. Instead the bullet sliced off a chunk of her shoulder.

She ignored it. She couldn't afford to waste the energy to regenerate it anyway. Instead she intensified the vortex and tightened it, like a spinning figure skater bringing in her arms to increase the angular momentum. The winds could now deflect bullets. It also meant that no melee fighter could touch her. But she knew she couldn't sustain it for long. Not by herself.

She took off and starting jinking again, with the powerful vortex following her as she flew. She was shooting lightning bolts in continuous arcs, sweeping them back and like a cutting beam. She hit the bottom of one of the flying platforms, but the Adamite armor absorbed the hit.

Then her eyes flared yellow as she growled like an animal. She was filled with anger.

Previously she had believed that her feelings of resentment and anger, all due to decades worth of emotional abuse - the shunning, mistrust, prejudice, and fear of her - were purged, that all the hidden anger inside of her was gone.

"But Mother, Keld is purified. And he's changed me as well. All the feelings of anger within me are gone. They really are. All I have now is sadness."

She was wrong. Those feelings were not gone. They were simply buried, suppressed.

For there was one thing that could rekindle that red fire of furious anger.

For Lindy.

For you see, Thoriko's heart contained not the blue fire of Belldandy: the fire of creation that sustains and nurtures life and makes it grow. Instead, her heart contained the red fire of Skuld: the fire of wrath, storming, full of outrage and fury, that punishes or destroys.

She fired again with pure vengeful wrath in her heart. This lightning bolt was 10 times more powerful than the last. It blinded anyone who saw it. It perforated the platform. For a second nothing happened, then it lit up inside. The Adamite shield punched out, revealing the steel ribbing of the superstructure for a moment like a dissected skeleton in a laboratory. Then it flashed again and blew apart. The explosive sonic wave blasted all the flying combat formations within a 200 meter radius, taking most of them out as well.

Her attacks were working. The enemy formations were splitting, the standard group attacks were slowing. She was causing confusion in the enemy lines.

She focused her vengeful wrath and took out another platform. Her side was hopelessly scattered, but the enemy was now breaking up as well.

She felt a rush of excitement as she gave in to her feelings.

Lindy, look at me now! I'm doing this for you!

Then she used a sonic spell to roar a challenge. Everyone heard it.

"Hear me! I am Thoriko, daughter of Skuld, daughter of Anzus. I am the goddess of lightning, wind, and wrath. I am a first class goddess. You are not. None of you. So if you value your lives, lay down your weapons. And if you do not, then I will end you."

The enemy lines briefly wavered. They knew her threat was very real. A first class goddess can raise mountains or change the course of great rivers, even destroy a world.

And then.

And then.

And then she saw it.

It came shooting out of the gate at incredible speed. Her combat-trained Valkyrie eyes tracked the target. It was already starting to cast an epic-level spell.

Aimed directly at her.

The first of the big guns had shown up, and Thoriko was now being targeted.

With her eagle eyes she saw her attacker. Her eyes widened in surprise and fear.

No... No! Please! I surrender! Don't kill me!

Then a blinding wave of light impacted her body, shoving her back and down into a shallow hillside, which exploded.

And then Thoriko knew no more.

The victor then quickly landed at the edge the crater that was formerly a hill, and she smiled a nasty smile as she pulled off her spiked WWI war helmet and mask, and shook out her blond locks of hair from underneath. "Sorry I was late."

Her minions then landed several yards behind her.

Thrymr and Halval.

For the true Daimakaicho, the true Leader of Hell, had now joined the battle.