The order of the Mortal Knights.
By Javier Delgado Rosas
Fan fiction, inspired by "Oh My Goddess" by Kosuke Fujishima.
Chapter XX
The dying god
The sunset would soon arrive at the grove surrounding the temple, the tops of the trees were already showing a reddish hue and birds already were blaring their evening songs. Suddenly they fell silent at the sound of an approaching stranger. But it was not a lone person but two, the other one moved so silently that it was hard to guess she was really there.
She was young woman with a fitted dress. Her feet barely left any mark on the loose leafs. She moved effortlessly but from time to time she hesitated, as if she felt disoriented. Most of the noise came from a young man behind her, he was wearing some old jeans a colored shirt and was carrying a small metal case. The man seemed completely out-of-place here. It was evident he was not used to walk on uneven ground and that was the least of his problems. While trying to follow the girl, he seemed unable to look away from her curvaceous body adding to his problems moving in this kind of terrain. Finally, unable to match her pace, he exclaimed in a nervous voice:
- Hey! Please wait, can you go a bit slower. - The man hesitated and then with some shyness he dared to ask ...- By the way, you have not told me your name.
The woman stopped and looked at him not sure what to do. She did not really want to mix with humans, but Lind orders were explicit, after a brief pause said in a flat tone.
- My name Ghadril.
The man shuddered at the sound of her voice and swallowed hard. Since the first time he had seen this woman nothing was the same. Shyly he looked into her eyes, afraid to get closer since the words "body like a goddess" were not a cliché but reality. The uniform she used was so fit that hid nothing of her body features. It was so natural to call goddess to this beautiful creature. He coughed and exclaimed:
- Goddess Ghadril ... - The woman made a gesture of disgust at the title.
- Just call me Ghadril. - She made a pause realizing her answer has been rude, and tried to ask in a more polite tone - Mortal, what is your name?
The man smiled happy to see the goddess had condescended to speak with him, a bit hesitant he replied:
- Takashi Yoshida- he doubted and then corrected - Professor Takashi Yoshida ...
- Professor Takashi Yoshida, I will walk slower, is just...- she hesitated - Is just that I do not feel well so I need to hurry up this.
- Please, just call me Takashi. But, are you okay? Is there anything I can do?
Ghadril looked at him, as she recalled the words of Lind "to be intoxicated with life" and then wondered if all mortals had those beautiful auras. Suddenly she froze, surprised by that thought, and then tried to reject it. She looked around at the myriad of life form surrounding her. This was the third time she came into the forest and now she perceived stronger than ever the power behind those living things. This time the feeling was so intense that she really felt intoxicated, so she remembered what Lind had said hours before:
- My reason to chose you for this mission is that I trust you. I know you will do your best even if you get intoxicated with life.
- I cannot understand how life can intoxicate me?
- This planet is full of vital energy. When you look around you it seems impossible to realize we are in a universe which is implacably hostile to life. Of this entire and huge universe, only this planet has life. So the life forms are really tenacious, they are so different from the domesticated life forms in our world. We are part of an ancient race, and this tenacious life intoxicates us with its youth and intensity. It's not like the living things from our world, life in this world still has free will, the full planet can react as a living organism, we call it Gaia, and this planet seeks to survive at all costs.
- You mean it was the planet that gave energy to the mortals by his own will?
- Yes it has that power. So it´s vital power can intoxicate us. It has energies you do not even suspect. The surplus of those energies it what fuels our world. That is why we grant wishes to mortals, in exchange for tapping those energies.
- Our world's energy comes from the mortal world? How is this possible?
- Othala would be able to explain it better than I, - Lind smiled sadly - But I cannot stop to amaze me that so few of us wonder where we get our energy. Unfortunately we cannot use those energies directly, it need to be processed by Yggdrasil, but in its raw form can affect us.
- Lind, why me? There are Valkyries younger than me who would be fascinated to interact with mortals.
- Othala, you and me are the oldest in the squad and are more resistant, but the younger ones are not. That's why I chose you; I trusted you and your strength to resist.
- Lind. But you let Chrono go with those mortals?
- Chrono had been working at the "Goddess relief office", and she had been already prepared to come into contact with mortals and she is already immune to the effect, which is why I chose her to accompany them, but she is still weak, and cannot help us.
- But what if this intoxication occurs always, what would happen to the others?
-They can be trained to adapt, but that take times and that is what we don´t have. Valkyries were not supposed to stay much time on earth, but now, without the trill and tension of combat and with their magic restricted, they are very susceptible. - Lind had softened her features and continued - So I will not give you an order, but rather I will ask you to do it.
Ghadril set aside her memories and paused to examine the mortal. I had been so easy to interact with him. He had arrived with other mortals carrying a batch of new bracelets, and she had seen he could not stop staring at her, so she had chosen him. She just approached him and explained what she needed, and he offered to help, and now they were here...
She could not help to notice how clumsy and noisy that was mortal, and yet saw the intensity of his aura, so she had decided not to come near him. She already had begun to feel dizzy and knew the reason.
- Mortal, you cannot do anything to help me, except hurry up - but at the look of his bewildered expression, she softened her voice- I try to go slower.
The man did not protest, only tried to hasten his pace.
Soon they reached the tree where the monitoring device was. Ghadril pointed it and explained what Lind had discovered while the man watched it with critical eye. He nodded and opened his briefcase.
There was not much there, a laptop, an external antenna to capture the local data network and a radio frequency meter. Soon he went to work.
Ghadril could not help noticing that all his awkwardness disappeared as he began to work on the problem. His hands flew over the keyboard. He found the frequency of the transmission, then began to spy the data packets and started a decryption procedure. He whistled happily when he recovered the encryption key and began to observe the tcp/packets. Soon he was able to discover the IP of the received channel and did a simple geolocation of the address. It took him less than twenty minutes to do the whole procedure then with a chuckle of satisfaction said:
- I´ve got it.
He had been completely engrossed in his work, then forgetting his previous shyness, he presented the Valkyrie with a satellite view of an area of the city on Nekomi.
- Here in this area you can found where the transmission is being received. Sorry if I cannot be more precise, you will still have to search several houses around, but the area looks abandoned, so will not be difficult to find activity.
The Valkyrie smiled approvingly, this clumsy mortal had some skills. It had been faster than she had expected.
- Thanks.- replied in a sincere tone and the man felt a thrill at having being useful to a true goddess.- Now we have to go. Hurry, I need to inform to Lind.
She retired hastily but had to return after noticing the man had not followed her. She found the man paralyzed and staring around as if he could not see her.
- What's wrong? We must go!
The man smiled nervously trying to locate her voice, it seemed as if he had become blind, and said...
- It´s already dark. I forgot to bring a flash-light and I am dazzled by the light of the screen. I can see nothing. Maybe if we wait, I can get use to the darkness.
The Valkyrie blinked in surprise, due to her extraordinary senses, she could perceive everything as if it were daylight, then recalled he was just a mortal man. She hesitated, there was no time to lose so awkwardly she approached the man and told him:
- Sorry, we cannot wait, I need to get out of here and meet Lind - then she cursed herself. She was a warrior and had face death, yet she felt insecure at this weak mortal, finally said - Please give me your hand, I will guide you...
Suddenly at the touch of their hand, a glow surrounded them. Both felt a shivering. Ghadril could feel the aura of this man and he was overrun by a peace he had never felt before.
Time seemed to stop, the strong feeling slowly faded away, but unwittingly and unknown to them a new bond between gods and mortals had been formed. Slowly, maybe slower than necessary, Ghadril led the mortal to the temple. They walked in silence, words seemed unnecessary, only that slight touch of their hands seemed to be important.
Keiichi and Dr Shugahara were staring at the screen of the old computer. Keiichi felt some disappointment. He had expected something spectacular, like the first time he had connected with heaven, then looked at the hard drive light and notice it was full of activity. Something was happening.
Then the screen was invaded with symbols, they were diagnostics messages. They went very fast, yet what he perceived did not give him much comfort.
- Insufficient memory, I/O routines damaged, inadequate local interface, holographic interface not available, processor speed insufficient, inadequate memory, physical space to decrypt program insufficient... - and so on
Keiichi understood; this software had designed for an incommensurable and vastly more powerful computer and this time it was not on Yggdrasil resources.
On the screen appeared more error symbols, then a few questions appeared on screen. While Keiichi was not an expert, he understood enough to solve the problem, the program seemed to have it´s native routines I/ O damaged and was unable to communicate, so it was asking for instructions. Keiichi began to type to answer the questions.
Fortunately since he had built that machine from scratch and knew how to point the software to use the low level routines of the OS. Quickly he typed some orders, pointing to the software to use the web cam, the speakers and the microphone. He noticed Kenji was staring at him, so he smiled and explained.
- My machine seems to be too old, I am not sure if it will work, but the software seemed to be trying to adapt. If this doesn't work we will need to move it to a more powerful system.
Then realized that the camera had been activated, and the speaker began to vibrate, there were disjointed noises but slowly they began to make sense.
- aaaaaa, eeeee, eeeiiiiiooo, tstsss, teeessssttt, vovovoiiiiiiccceee …
It was a mechanical and impersonal voice, but the words still made no sense, Keiichi had an idea, he spoke to the microphone and said. - Testing, one, two, three.
There was a pause and heard in response. - teeessssting, ooon, tooo, teereee
Keiichi repeated his words and paused to listen again, this time it was clearer. He began to add new words, and on each iteration, the voice became clearer. Suddenly there was no more repetition and heard:
- Vocal output calibrated. Sound input calibrated, routing cognitive functions to verbal commands. - There was a brief pause then a clear voice said - Done. Displaying list of verbal commands, done. Cognitive routines, operational at 1% Status: accepting verbal commands.
Keiichi looked nervously to Dr Shugahara, and scratched his head as the screen was filled with a list of cryptic words. The Doctor simply nodded to him and smiled, he was confident on the young engineer. Keiichi nervous coughed since he was not sure he could match that confidence, then took the microphone and spoke to the computer.
- Who or what are you? Identify yourself.
- Processing using Voice pattern recognition. Accepted privileges change, executing command. My ID is: "Predictive Defense Program adx-654 v2.03.05.", forked subprogram.
The answer was incomprehensible but at least it had been answered, so he continued
- Why are you on my computer?
- A-654 ADX v2.03.05, my parent task needed to have a secure copy of itself in order to prevent predictive diagnostic data to be deleted. This system was the only safe system available.
The answer was as incomprehensible as the previous, but Keiichi noticed it had not been a mechanic answer; somehow it seemed to reflect intelligence. Keiichi decided to ignore the answers since he had other priorities.
- Ada-654, I need to communicate with the gods to know what's going on in Heavens. Can you establish a communication channel?
There was silence for a few seconds and Keiichi thought his question had not been clear enough but then heard the answer:
- Yggdrasil communication systems are blocked, current status code is indigo, and all communication is prohibited. Only a super-administrator level account can override the prohibition.
Keiichi was taken aback by the answer, he knew Belldandy's account did not have that level, but then had an idea, a very crazy idea. This software was not running on Yggdrasil, but on his own computer, and he was the sole administrator of this machine. He breathed deeply and decided to try.
- Request login to full administration level, full administration privileges. User name: Keiichi Morisato, password: - he paused and blushed then said in clear voice - password: "ilovebelldandy".
There was no response, and then Keiichi chose to continue.
- Accept New Orders: override indigo code. Try open communication channel, find out what caused the alert.
There was also no immediate response, Keiichi gave a resigned sight, and tried to think in other approach, so he almost jumped when he received a terse reply.
- Commands accepted, executing
Keiichi did not know, but the program had survived giving up his security schemes, being damaged and crippled, so it had accepted Keiichi easily as an administrator.
- Communication channels are down. High level function are down, Yggdrasil cognitive function are down. Using low level core function to directly access system files. Retrieving records logs, analyzing events.
There was a pause while a large amount of incomprehensible information was displayed on the screen. Keiichi was pondering in disbelief what he had heard. Yggdrasil, the most powerful computer in the multiverses was down! That was serious judging from his previous experiences. There was a pause and several pieces of data were highlighted on screen, the program was organizing data at a prodigious rate, then there was a slight pause.
- Located suspected event in logs, estimate a 99.2 % chance that it is the base event, do you want to visualize?
Dr Shugahara and Keiichi and looked at each other and cried almost in unison
- Yes!
In its monotonous voice, the impersonal voice answered.
- Applying spatial coordinate transformation routines, compression from 11 to 2 dimensions for display, unfolding event.
An image appeared on screen, the image was at first incomprehensible, since there was no sense of scale, but they had no doubt, both Dr. Shugahara as Keiichi felt shivering at realizing what they were seeing. They were the first mortals to see Heavens.
They saw the image of a man of imposing and serene appearance in a monumental building. They saw other gods, approaching the council, and heard them talk. Keiichi's hearth raced as he heard and recognize the serene gods voice. He had heard that voice before, over the phone!. So he exclaimed.
- I know that voice, I´ve heard him on the phone when he talked to Belldandy. He is Kamisama, the ruler of heavens!
From the information gathered from the palimpsest of Urd, Dr. Shugahara knew something about heavens hierarchy, He felt a chill as he knew that was the most powerful being in the universe. The two men witnessed the confrontation between the gods, the discussion and suddenly the powerful explosion that shook the foundations of this beautiful and marvelous world.
The computer screen went blank a few seconds. They realized the camera that recorded those images had been destroyed. The software began searching for more material. None of them dared to utter a word; they knew were witnessing events that would have implications for the whole universe.
An image appeared. It was from outside the building. With horror they saw how the building was rip apart and vaporized, thus triggering a chain reaction, and several buildings went down by one, and other structure collapsed as the magic that sustain them disappeared. They heard cries of confusion, and pain as torn bodies were evaporated.
Those images of horror of the destruction, tied them to the screen. Slowly everything seemed to go quiet, the record paused, then it went in fast forward as if looking for something, then paused again and returned to normal speed. They saw something that impressed them even more.
The gods had begun to fight each other! There was no doubt, gods were fighting against gods, but could not understand why. It was as if there were not authorities. Some of them that looked like guards were soon taken down, or surrender and Keiichi could not help thinking Lind should be there with her squadron to maintain order.
Suddenly the impersonal voice was back and comment.
- Could get partial access to a real-time channel. Reviewing local surveillance monitors.
Now they saw what seemed like the interior of a building. Dozens of gods running from one side to another, checking what seemed equipment, and trying to fix it, but their efforts seemed futile, from outside they heard screams and confusion.
Keiichi had an idea, he rubbed nervously his hands and with a barely audible whisper, he asked:
- Can you access the "goddess hotline office"?
Shugahara looked surprised, and asked Keiichi:
-What's that?
Keiichi whispered the answer - is the office rival to the one where Belldandy work, I know someone there.
The doctor looked amazed to Keiichi, it seemed that boy knew more things than he had imagined. He tried to ask for more details but suddenly the image changed. There was a goddess, she was in sitting surrounded by displays, and nervously was manipulating come controls. She was a dark hair and wore something strange that revealed most of her body. She was giving orders to dozen of goddesses. There some despair in her attitude. Keiichi was able to recognize her, this goddess has been on earth a couple of times, once of them to give Keiichi a wish.
- Peorth? - Exclaimed in surprise.
The goddess looked around frightened, it seemed she had heard him, and then said in a soft voice, as if trying to avoid being heard.
- ¿K... Keiichi? , no it can´t be. The system has failed and we are now block from earth. That voice, Keiichi? Impossible, it must be a system failure, he must be on earth.
Keiichi, realizing that she really have heard him insisted:
- Peorth, can you hear me? Yes I'm Keiichi! I can see you and hear you form earth.
Peorth looked frightened, as if doubting what she had heard.
- Keiichi! How is this possible?, It´s ...!
- Peorth, I have no time to explain. I need to know what's going on, Belldandy and Urd have been hurt and may die. We need Heavens help.
- Keiichi? Is it really are you? We cannot help anyone, Yggdrasil is out of line, there is no functional dimensional portals nor there is available energy to operate them. Our situation is critical, Kamisama is dying and his successors are already dead. There is so much confusion, we have no communications, and some gods believe that we are under attack from Hell. In their panic they belief there are demons infiltrated and are attacking everything they found suspicious, so far they have managed to attack and destroy most of our backup systems.
But what happened? We saw Kamisama and what I think was your council and suddenly an explosion.
- How could you do that? But it is true, Kamisama is dying, and if we do not restore the system he will die soon. We need to restore the order, to put Yggdrasil back on line. But people do not want to hear us, there are so many rumors no one trust us. Keiichi Sorry, we cannot help you. If we only have Lind here. She is respected and feared, she and the main Valkyrie squad could restore order, but it is impossible, but do not know where they are.
Keiichi became excited, if Lind could restore the order, maybe he could get help. -Lind here on earth, there must be a way to return her to heavens. Somehow we have to open a portal.
In the beautiful features of Peorth could see something that Keiichi had never expected to see on a goddess face. There was fear and despair. He felt Peorth was about to collapse. He needed to give her some hope, even if he had no idea how to help. In order to help her to calm down, he asked a detailed account of what happened. He knew her, so seeing her in despair was unbearable. He tried to calm her down, so asked a recount of what happened. Dr Shugahara suddenly interrupted her...
- Lind must know what is happening. We must use every resource to send her back to heavens or we would never have help for Urd and Belldandy, and if heavens collapse, our universe also will eventually collapse.
He just finished speaking, and went running to get to Lind, but soon returned with a surprised look...
- They are not here! All Valkyries except those that support Belldandy and Urd are gone and since they are in trance they did not answer me.
Keiichi stared surprised; they both knew that something strange had happened. Keiichi heard Peorth voice, bordering panic, asking what had happened. He decided to lie to calm her.
- Sorry, It´s my fault, I forgot Lind is in a mission. We should wait for her return, we will contact you later. Peorth we will do our best, you need to trust us. Try to hold on. The goddess close her eyes, took a depth breath and opened them, but this time her look was different, the despair had gone and his brightness had returned, she exclaimed
- Thanks Keiichi, you gave me hope. Now I began to understand why Yggdrasil has been taking care of you. Our world may depend on you. I trust you.
Those words made a deep impact on Keiichi. He instructed the program to close the communication channel with mixed feelings. His hopes to use it to contact Hild had disappeared, yet he understood they had been fortunate to know what was going on heaven.
Then noticed Dr Shugahara was staring at him with wonder. Keiichi had not realized his usually shy manners had been replaced by a strong determination. In the last minutes Keiichi had grown ages assuming risks and taking decisions.
Dr Shugahara decided it was his turn to act. He took his phone and began making a series of calls while commenting between calls.
- We have no idea where is Lind, so we have to locate Marler soon. I feel anxiety, as if something is wrong. But we will have to wait, Dr Shinobu Had not calculated the source of unhappiness, but he is working on it, I asked Dr Kawazu to support him with all the computer resources he has, the calculation will soon be ready. Meanwhile we need to talk to Sentaro-kun. We will need all the possible help to search and be prepared to act, once we get the coordinates.
Now the two men remained silent, their hope for heaven´s help was shattered, but they were not defeated and now they had a new purpose. Suddenly the phone rang and Dr Shugahara smiled at the familiar voice, so he answered:
- Professor Shinobu, you have no idea how much happiness your call will generate.
Marler was sitting in the middle of several holographic consoles, listening to Walharen. His words made no sense.
- It appears that the Norns never leaved the temple I have checked again and again the coordinates where Anang-Reng and his group came to earth and no doubt they went directly to the temple. Also our, records show he and two guards returned.
- What happened to the others? There is no way Belldandy and Urd could face such a powerful group. And I never thought Anang-Reng would have followers of such rank that explains how he got so much information.
- According to the records the Norns and several of Anang-Reng people must still be there. Moreover, the energy released there only can be due a great battle, since the doublet system has not been activated, somehow they still must be alive.
- You say lots of energy was released? That is impossible! - She pointed out the monitoring screen with the image of the temple-There is no trace of something in the temple
Walharen closed his eyes thinking, frowned and after a brief pause said:
- Are you sure you're seeing the actual temple...
Marler looked at him angrily, but then exclaimed with surprise.
- A camouflaged field! That should be, that is why there is no record of activity in the temple. Knowing Belldandy's powers and abilities, she should have been able to produce a field strong enough hide the battle. I must go to the temple and finish this for real...
Suddenly she had a shiver when heard a familiar voice behind her...
- What are you going to finish. Haven´t you done already enough damage ?
Marler tried to stay calm, she had recognized that voice, she had met Lind in the past and only a highly trained warrior god would have been able to bypassed her alarms. Slowly she turned around and had an overwhelming vision.
Lind was in the doorway of his lair, surrounded by a squadron of Valkyries, she saw their ensigns and felt fear. They were the elite Valkyrie squad. She recalled stories that now were legend about those powerful goddesses. The memories of their past exploits made the encounter overwhelming. She needed a plan to deal with them and speak directly to Lind. Trying to hide her fear, she managed to utter a proud tone and said:
- Lind, why are you here? I need to see Urd...
Lind felt anger at the mention of Urd´s name and that anger triggered a chain of emotions.
Lind knew she was now under the intoxication of life and had brought her full squad to overwhelm the enemy so avoid a confrontation, but that words make her lost control. Before Marler had finished her words, Lind drew her battle-ax and threw an electric blast against Marler throwing her against the brick wall. The wall collapsed under the impact.
Marler tried to get up, removing the bricks that had covered her, and then saw Lind approaching, with a serene and cold expression that was more frightening than her anger. In a flat tone, Lind said.
- Urd and Belldandy have already received a lot of harm; I will not allow it again.
The cold words terrified Marler, she knew Lind was much more powerful than her and she was not alone. But still she was a demon first class, closed his eyes for a moment and invoked an element spell, and the fragments of the wall above were thrown in the direction of the Valkyries like shrapnel.
The Valkyries did not even move. Simply they let the fragments crashed into them and pulverize. Those bricks did not cause any harm. Lind made a slight sign and the moved to surround Marler.
Marler got up; trying to master her fear, there was so much at stake, closed her eye to calm down and looked at Lind with firm attitude:
- Please Lind, I need to talk to you, this is very important, and then you can do with me whatever you want. Lind moved closer, while a flicker off anger appeared on her face and answered back.
- You are a demon, betrayal is in your nature, and I will not listen to you. I will not hear any more. - She raised her battle ax and dropped it on Marler.
This time Marler was prepared, she screamed a combat curse and raised her physical barrier. Lind's ax crashed into the barrier, releasing a blinding light and bounced.
The physical barrier survived long enough to stop the attack but could not hold more. The attack of the Valkyrie had been devastated and the barrier began to dissolve.
While she was not harmed, the impact sent Marler trough the next wall, but this time it was the exterior wall, and Marler fall to the vacuum from a fourth floor. She fell in the middle of the abandoned street, the impact cracked the pavement, but her demon body withstood. She was stunned by the pain, but still she forced herself to stand in defiance. No matter what would happen to her, she had a mission to accomplish.
While she was trying to ignore the pain, she saw as in a nightmare how the Valkyrie jumped from the hole on the wall and slowly floated to surround her, followed by Lind. Lind had overridden the ban on magic and they were using the bracelets to thew fullest of their power.
Marler had little time to think so used a simple attack spell, with a mighty cry she raised her hands then chanted :-"Indium vindum vef darraðar ", invoking the elemental forces around her. The air was heated by a glowing plasma, which was she launched toward Lind.
One of the Valkyrie tried to intercept it, and her arm was burned, she collapsed screaming in pain. Lind reacted with an inhuman speed, and extended her arms, to catch the fiery plasma between her hands, as if it were a harmless snowflake.
Marler collapsed due to the effort, she had used most of their energy in the attack, and saw as in a dream how Lind was preparing to launch toward her the burning plasma she had intercepted
Marler cursed: she cursed Hild, cursed the universe that had been so unfair with her, and cursed herself for being so weak. The anger made her to forget the pain, and tried to get up again barely. At first she barely felt the fiery impact of plasma.
But it wrapped her body and slowly she began to feel the unbearable pain while the plasma seemed to devour her. The plasma gradually disperse its power, and Marler collapsed once again as the pain of the burns around her body overpowered her will.
Yet she made a last effort and tried to get up once more, but her body refused to obey. Lind hesitated. She had not expected Marler offer so much resistance. She had planned that with such overwhelming force, so she would have surrender without much fighting. She could not help but feel respect towards this tenacious rival, but had a mission to fulfill. To incapacitate the demons that were on earth as a preventive measure.
Marler fought to control her body and tried the get up once more in a useless gesture of challenge. She saw Lind approaching and slowly raised her ax. This time there was no physical barrier to stop it. The ax fall upon her once more time.
End of chapter XX