As most Fan fiction writers, I die on hearing about your opinion.

Please! Comment! there is much more to come.
Thanks for reading.

Javier Delgado

(note: English is not my native language,
please let know if some of my English offends you aesthetic sensibilities...)

The order of the Mortal Knights.

By Javier Delgado Rosas

Fan fiction, inspired by "Oh My Goddess" by Kosuke Fujishima.

Chapter XXIII

Curiosity

- Mademoiselle Rosenthal ...

That was the only thing Jenny could understand, the rest were unintelligible words. Deep into her brain something told her it had to be French, but the info did not help to understand it. The jet lag and the exhaustion had taken its toll.

Then she felt she was shaken gently while the words continued. Slowly her body began to respond, she opened her eyes and saw only a blurred male figure leaning toward her. But all she wanted was to go back to sleep.

- Please do not bother me ...

The voice remained insistent. It was very masculine and friendly, so she gradually began to react. Whose voice was? she did not live with anyone? ... Finally she awakened and recalled that she was not in her apartment.

- Where am I? - she managed to babble and the voice laugh in seductive way.

Finally could focus her thoughts while strong hands helped her straighten up and sit on the overstuffed sofa. The blanket that covered her slipped down leaving behind their cozy warmth.

She looked around and remembered she was now in the CERN facilities at Switzerland. Her memories began to return but she was terribly tired. She could remember sipping a coffee while was sitting behind her desktop. Who had taken her to the sofa and and covered her? Could have been this man?

Then she received the aroma of a delicious and strong coffee that someone put on her hands. She sniffed it and then sucked greedily. At the same time she felt that someone pun on her glasses. Finally she was able to focus her sight. A man who had a familiar face smiled in front of her.

- Mademoiselle Rosenthal!- he repeated - I'm sorry to wake up you so early - He said this time in English but with a strong yet nice accent- but your presence has been requested and seems to be something important.

The man definitely had a martial appearance, with a face tanned by the sun and a some small scars. He wore a sober military uniform and came heavily armed.

W. .. wh.. Who are you? - She looked at him embarrassed, definitely he was not one of the scientists at CERN

I am sergeant Philippe Valois, and currently assigned to be your bodyguard.

My what? Are you kidding?- she said incredulous - I think I remember you. You've been following me!. I thought you were just a guard here.

The man laughed with a width grin - I am more than a guard, right now my mission is to protect you

- Protect me? Why? I am nobody, just a student ...

- It seems not everyone thinks the same. Everyone has been talking about you and about your safety, so something must worry them. My work usually involves only problematic diplomats. You are really a welcome change. I can say you are more attractive than them.

Jenny could not help blushing, accustomed to the campus nerds, a compliment so direct was disconcerting.

- Please come with me. - he paused and looked at her, then smiled - But before going to the meeting, maybe I can get you a change of clothes, something to comb your hair and maybe a little make up. I think the meeting will be full of important people that want to see you. You shall cause a good impression ...

Jenny was left speechless, she rarely cared about her personal appearance, but she recognized her current appearance was a total disaster and without further protest, she got up and let herself to be led by the man.

Meanwhile, one of the warehouse of the main building at CERN there was a frenetic activity. There had been a call for an urgent general meeting at the warehouse SM18. This was a free area, originally had been used for the initial design and test of superconductors, but now it was used for meetings and celebrations such as LHCfest. It was a large warehouse with space for about hundred people.

But something important must have happened and the frenetic activity was transforming the space. Some technicians quickly have installed several projection screens and video projectors connected to several computers, others had assembled a platform with a long table for personalities, and still others placed speakers and a sound system. As people arrived, they took a folding chair and accommodated as best they could, most formed small groups around friends.

The minutes passed slowly, suddenly a big "ahhh!" was heard emitted by a hundred voices. People from the kitchen staff had brought several carts with coffee, biscuits and some snacks and everyone fell upon them. The food announced the meeting would be long. Some of them hoped that with luck they could even enjoy the specialty of the chef at CERN, ice cream cooled with liquid nitrogen .

The VIPs started arriving and took their place at the table on the platform. The air was filled with the sound of hundreds of people commenting and speculating about the purpose of the call.

Finally everything seemed ready to go. The projection screens were lit, and on several of them appeared the images from other groups of people, signs on each screen showed there were from important places: Brookhaven, JPL, CNRS , Oak Ridge Institute , Astrogad, Tokyo University, JST in Japan, the CHEP at Beijing etc. They were more than twenty of the most important institutions of education and science around the world and now they were all interconnected, all of them also showed images of worried and surprised people.

An old Japanese-looking man stood up and took a microphone, then waited. Soon there was a silence.

- Good evening everyone, in case someone does not know me, I'm Professor Yoichiro Nambu, professor Emeritus at the Chicago University, and the old guy behind the Nambu-Goldstone bosons - a cheerful laughter was heard after the last statement -. I will try to be brief. In recent days many of you have heard strange rumors. Today I come to clarify what really lies behind those rumors, and let me tell you. What I am going to tell you much stranger than you have heard so far.

Not a sound was heard. The introduction had achieved its purpose. He had captured everyone's attention.

- Most of you have heard about the destruction of the laboratory of materials at Chiba University due to strange circumstances, but we've been hiding the real causes. Now the time has come to inform you what happened, I will show you several sections of video taken by security cameras so you can judge by yourself what really happened. I was present at the incident and assure you that everything is real. I ask you do not bring questions at the moment. This is just the introduction to something bigger.

An annoyed voice was heard.

- What can be so great to convene such a meeting and suspend all activities at the LHC? We were about to start a run on the big one, it will take us days to restart and recalibrate the equipment.

Dr. Nambu, smiled, then dropped a bomb

- Do you think that verifying the string theory and the confirmation of the existence of the multiverses seems to be big enough to justify this? - As expected the silence was absolute- Now please watch this video.

Soon hundreds of scientists, technicians, engineers and other specialists from around the world were silent witnesses of the destruction of the laboratory and the heroic act of a strange girl with the incredible ability to contain an incandescent plasma discharge.

At the end of the video, the audience became silent, but slowly began to grow the sound of hundreds of voices calling for an explanation. The words "fabricated, impossible, special effects, extraordinary joke" were heard.

Dr. Nambu let rumors run a little more, it was inevitable, yet he knew more fantastic events were still to come. Finally he raised his arms to call for silence.

- "Please, Silence all!" Soon you receive answers, for the time being I will just tell them some facts. We were investigating a crystalline substance, whose structural mesh appears to extend into other dimensions. According to our estimates, what we saw was the result of releasing the energies of the Planck limit, and that girl in the video is a being from another universe, she is a being from a civilization so advanced that their technology seems ...

A voice at the back shouted:

- Clarke's Third Law. A sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic!

There was nervous laughter among those present. Something told them this was not a joke, but it was too incredible to accept it . Professor Nambu smiled at the remark, and then continued.

- Yes indeed, their technology seems like magic to us, and from now on you will hear that word often. Those video images occurred several days ago. Since that time even more extraordinary events have occurred...

Professor Nambu interrupted his explanation, he discerned at the back of the room a small feminine figure accompanied by a large man. She looked stunned, looking at the screens ...

- Ah! Ms. Rosenthal, I am glad you were able to watch the video. You had already seen some pictures of it, but we had omitted some important parts in the report we send to you. Please join us at the table. Hundreds of eyes turned to see the young girl who had received inside information that no one else had seen before.

She hesitated and could not move. Jenny was still stunned by the video and to be the center of attention did not help, but the corpulent figure behind her, pushed her gently. And before she knew, she was in the table reserved for the VIPs. Professor Nambu continued:

What you saw in the video was the result of excitation of a few milligrams of a crystal synthesized by Dr. Shugahara, a specialist in ethnobotany, and if I understand correctly, that substance is part of the ingredients of an ancient magic potion ...

The audience reaction was swift as he expected. Hundred voices shouted in protest but were silenced by Professor Nambu.

- Soon some of you will receive technical details about the crystal structure, but I must warn you. It is extremely unstable. You have already seen the result ... However, this brilliant women here, Ms. Jenny Rosenthal from the Argonne National Laboratory, was able to analyze it and then she synthesized a much more stable variant of the crystal. Ms. Rosenthal conceived some variations in the crystal structure but they will not be published until we could verify them. Her work is brilliant and in the future you will often heard her name. But most importantly, we have showed you this video so you can realize how dangerous it could be experimenting with this compound without having complete data.

Another shout was heard ...

- But how do we know this is real? - Many voices were heard approving the commentary.

- As you have seen, I was present and I was a witness, but more important, besides the video and the physical evidence of the damage, we have all the data and readings from the experiment. This experiment will be replicated in more controlled conditions once we finish in the post-Morten of the first experiment. That would take some time, but before that you will see something else. We have received a number of reports and videos of an extraordinary event that happened at the city of Nekomi, near Chiba University. What happened there is truly incredible, and yet seems to be the preamble to something much bigger.

A soft murmur was heard in the classroom. Despite the doubts, the scientists were really impressed. Professor Nambu waited a few minutes in order to allow the free exchange of ideas and then continued:

- We will show you and edition of several videos that we have received, we edited them to have some continuity, but if you doubt about it´s veracity I will send you an encrypted address where you can download other videos that were taken from several cell phones. Unfortunately some of those videos had been uploaded to youtube and other public sites, but we have requester their owners to remove them, while we can not avoid the news to come out, we want to delay it until we have a proper explanation. I assure you, soon all of you will get all the information since the purpose of this meeting is to discuss how we are going to deal with it. Eventually all this has to be known, there will be a lot of questions, so we must have proper answers.

Professor Nambu gave an order to play another video, and commented:

- The audio from the videos isn´t very good, still I will try to translate it for you.

The sound of voices fade out as the images of the videos began to unfold. It had been assembled from several cellphones taken by the scientist from Chiba after they had been called by Shugahara to help him to deliver the Tears of Hild.

After the video ended, there was an absolute silence, this time the shock of the images lasted longer, slowly there was a crescent noise. Keyboards were taped, while the people with laptops began to search the info they had received. The murmur was growing, as they share the info. There were other videos, and comments in personal blogs. Slowly, even as fantastic as it was, their doubts began to fade.

A person in the middle of the room slowly stood up and raised his hand in a reverent way requesting to speak. Everyone turned to face him and remainded silent. Professor Nambu signaled a technician to give him a microphone, then the man asked:

- Throughout the video I heard several words that sounded familiar to me. "Valkyries, Hild, Hell, Yggdrasil, besides the names of the three Norns: Verthandy, Urd and Skuld ... All those are elements of Norse mythology ... Are you saying that the Norse gods really exist?

Professor Nambu thought for a moment and replied:

- I think it is not something as simple. I would say that these beings had contact with our ancestors and those legends were generated there. Maybe the mythologies of other peoples also began with such contacts.

- What were those crystals that you gave to that ... that Creature, the one called Hild - the man hesitated- " the great lady of the demons?

- I am not completely sure, but in recent months Dr Shugahara started something that looked like a marathon of archaeological excavations, he directed about thirty excavations around the world. It seemed he had accurate information about where to excavate, but we still ignore his source. As soon as we can contact him, I Hope he will answer. So far he has been willing to give us all the information we want. By the way, I'm not sure how he could convince as many people, but I would like to put him in charge of one of our laboratories, that man has real ability to lead. But for all we know, all those excavations were by intention to recover those crystals. Crystals that were apparently hidden and protected by our ancestors for thousands of years.

A reverent silence was his answer, the man took a few seconds to absorb the answer and continued asking, somehow he summed up everyone's ideas:

- What do you know about these crystals called Hild´s tears, How do you know they are the same that were given ... to Hild?

Professor Nambu sighted. He was not sure it was wise to disclose the answer, but it was to late for that-

- Because we have obtained one. It was found under a megalith in France, Professor Shubashini Sripathi from Bombay university was following Shugahara orders and directing the excavation. But he was called urgently to Japan by Dr. Shugahara and he could not remove it, yet he left very precise instructions to remove it from the excavation since it seems to be very dangerous. One of those who participated in the excavation suffered some kind of madness after he was exposed to it accidentally and began to recover only after he was shielded from it. So that the crystal was removed from the site and was subsequently handed over to our custody a few hours ago. Fortunately, they believed it emitted some kind of radiation and thought we could handle it. Since then, it has been emitting radiation of the most peculiar kind. Definitely it´s not something of natural origin.

- Will you release it for research?

The question was to be expected, but the response of Professor Nambu was not.

-No. We are assuming it´s alien technology, and also very dangerous, specially after we know who is the owner. We will not touch it at least until we know how to handle and develop proper protocols. We will contact Dr Shugahara first, and then we will decide how to deal with it. I trust him

-One last question. Several times you have referred to Dr. Shugahara. Who is this man?

- Dr. Shugahara Kenji, from Chiba University. I'd say in a way he is an extraordinary person. As I mentioned he is a specialist in ancient Norse traditions and ethnobotany, also it seem he has a lot of curiosity and intuition on other branches of science completely unrelated to his area. He handed to me the compound that caused the destruction of the laboratory at Chiba. He had wild ideas about it´s structure, and somehow convinced me to put them to test, and it was Ms Rosenthal´s research that prove he was right. I will not give details, but along the years, his research led him to discover some remarkable compounds in ancient potions and this is one of them. - The professor hesitated a moment, but then decided to continue. - It was during his search that he got in contact with these being he insists to call "gods"...

Contrary to what he expected, this time no one commented, it seems everyone need time to think about his words. His interlocutor sat down slowly, he was trying to digest the information, so the professor continued:

- From what we have learned, there are at least two universes beside ours One is called Hell or Niflhel and the other is called "Heaven" although it seems we should call it Asgard, if we take in consideration the Nordic mythology, since seems it has no connection with Christianity's paradise. The beings of those universes have been in conflict for eons. But something has happened, we still have no idea why, but they are about to sign a truce. At this time staff from the Chiba University are in a temple called Tarikihongan, where a ceremony is to be held and three men would be appointed judges in that conflict.- not a sound was heard after those words- One of them is Dr Shugahara, so we hope that we can would explain us more. We are expecting more videos and reports, maybe even a video streaming. I think we are about to discover the universe is more amazing than anything we have imagined before.

Belldandy was still recapitulating what had happened in the temple. Keiichi had become one of the great judges. That was beyond any scenario she had thought of and yet it seemed it had been inevitable. Keiichi now would be part of the legends, but virtually all the legends had a tragic end. Suddenly she was distracted from her thoughts by Lind.

- Kamisama. It´s time for you to assume your place. The gods are waiting.

Her your place? Her right place was the great heavenly council room, but it had been obliterated. She had to choose now a new place to officially assume the command of her world in order to restore its pride and hope. The mixture of chaos and fear that surrounded her, and that had invaded HER world hurt like a sore in her own flesh. Inside of her a feeling of anger was born, it told her to fight, crush the evil,and end violence using her power ..

Belldandy stayed frozen in disbelief ... That was not like her, that could not be her own thought. Again she perceived strange ideas on her mind ...so took a deep breath and review her meditation exercises. No, she must perceive first the needs of those who needed and depended on her.

She started singing and casted a small spell to connect her to the flow of vital energy form her world. It allowed to feel the sum of emotions around her, and she found fear, doubt, discouragement. It was sad to think that a world so perfect could crumble so easily. But she also found hope, bravery and wisdom that just needed guidance, her guidance!.

Now Belldandy knew what she needed to do and spoke with decision on her voice:

- There is only one place where I should assume my post, and that is the Hall of Great Council in Heaven ...

Lind was left speechless, for a moment her discipline failed him.

- But Belldandy, you still do not have your full power, you must wait to recover and absorb more power...

Belldandy looked at her and smiled.

- I know my power is still not enough, but there is someone here who currently has almost as much power as me. Before my is the most powerful and eldest of the Valkyries. Will you help me?

Lind attempted to protest ...

- Belldandy, I have never master reparative magic , I only serve to fight and destroy and ...

- Then let me guide you and we will do it together, we have fought together before, just need to trust your skills. -Belldandy looked around to the other Valkyrie and said: -Let's do it together, but I will not give you orders. I simple will say: "please"

Lind looked surprised at Belldandy . She was not the kind of leader that gave orders and expected everyone to comply blindly, she was a leader who lead, and let everyone to do the best. He shuddered, she sensed that Belldandy had begun to show her true power.

- We will, kami ...

- Lind - Belldandy interrupted with a commanding voice -I will give you just one last order ... - Lind looked at her in surprise - Lind, never call me again Kami-sama. You are my friend, just call me Belldandy ...

Lind closed her eyes and could not avoid being swept by a wave of emotion, after eons of serving the former Kami-sama, he had never asked for anything else besides to comply his orders. Now this Kami-sama was asking just to be friends. She realized she would give her life for this goddess, even if she would not ask for it.

- I will ... Ka ... eh ... Belldandy!

Belldandy looked around and then floated slowly until she reached the center of the giant crater where The council room had stood once. The atmosphere still retained the violence of what had happened,and the wind whipped her dress and fluttered wildly.

She spread her hands and began to inquire to the elements around her for their memories of the building. Air, soil, dust, rock, all released their memories at the request of the goddess and she began to call back the elements that had been part of the place. She called Holly Bell, her beloved angel, and the Valkyrie made a circle around her. Lind floated above her and called her twin angels, then opened her inner thoughts to be in contact with Belldandy.

The goddesses began to synchronize their movements like twin figures, and her power began to spread around in a way that was beautiful and terrible at once. The other warrior goddesses began to follow them and sang, so their power to destruct began to liberate, but under a new guide the chaos of destruction began to turn into order.

But the task was immense, even for such powerful goddesses. But they did not doubt, they had a guide. Belldandy continued her song and they followed.

Around them, the gods began to feel the power of Belldandy´s song into their hearts, the slow song of the goddess among gods invaded them and gradually they began to approach, and one by one, they began to link their singing to their goddess voice.

A powerful song began flooding a shattered world, the song of thousands of gods that once again felt they had a purpose. And the elements began to respond, a powerful wind flooded the place, but did not bring destruction, but instead brought one by one the fragments, debris and even the atoms of matter dispersed than had been there before.

But the song brought much more, Belldandy´s singing began to be filled with new themes and harmonies, which were gradually adopted and enriched by the other gods and those melodies brought with them new forms. Gradually the great building began to take shape, but not it was the same. The building had been designed by the former Kamisama as a perfect place. It had been like a beautiful music box, perfect orderly, but also ... Predictable. Now the form was freer, more daring, less perfect and therefore with more life.

The new council room was born, but this time it was not the work of Kamisama, but form the voices of all the gods, who did not stop singing. Then they split into groups and began touring their injured realm.. They could not recover the lost lives, but they could rebuild in their name and memory. Slowly their songs started to run around this world. More and more gods left their shelters and joined the singing and a celebration started.

And then they realized that they had always had the power to fight against the destruction, and slowly a thought began to be in everyone's mind: Belldandy, a goddess among gods was with them.

Urd looked around and a feeling of nostalgia swept over her. Could not keep moist out of her eyes This was in her old room as a child. There were her magical toys, the burnings on the walls, even the stupid guards were there ... They did not look as big as she remembered, but still they measure almost eight feet and were impressive with their hypertrophied muscles.

Intrigued, she approached one of them, and saw something. The look of one guard was not as stupid as she remembered. Almost imperceptible but still visible, there was the shadow of a smile on his face. Urd raised her eyebrows in surprise, she dug on her memory and finally remembered:

- You are Bragg. You were my guardian!

Yes, there was definitely a smile there. And then Urd recalled her mother's orders for the guards. Orders supported by her magic power He thought about it, then casted a spell over the guard, she now had the power and authority to remove it, then spoke - You have my permission to speak, the great Daimakaicho has given me authority over you.

Now the guard really smiled and made a clumsy bow, then lifted a sleeve of his uniform to show a burn on his rugged skin, and spoke in a rough and guttural voice.

- I Bragg, little princess. You grew. You strong and beautiful.

Urd realized that she had softened. Belldandy would be proud of her, but in Hell it was not a good idea to let her emotion out, yet she could not stop them:

- I'm sorry, forgive me for hurting you.

- Princess did not hurt me. I am proud, it was for you. I asked to be your guard again.

Urd could stop a tear for running away. This rough being remembered her! Then heard footsteps behind her. She did not need to saw who was there, she could feel her aura. Quickly she cleaned the running tear and talked.

- I wish I had known before about your real mission, I always wondered what happened to you to become my enemy. Now I found all of you only tried only to protect me.

She turned slowly, the figure that was behind her was Marller, But not she was no longer Marller her dumb rival on earth. Marller was from one of the higher houses, that's how her family had obtained for her the privilege for being the play partner of the daughter of the great Daimakaicho. But her acting had been so perfect she had forgotten that fact, now the change on her was more profound than a simple change on her attire. It was something deeper. Probably her mother had use some subtle magic to change her.

The two women stood still, each one trying to reconcile the figure they had in front with the girl they had known. So much have changed, then forgetting all pride they embraced.

- Urd my old friend, how often have wished to say the truth, but we didn't know if someone could be monitoring you, even in heaven so the simulation should have to be perfect. I lost the count of the times I had to interfere to save your life.

The women parted their embrace, Urd looked incredulous, her life had been at risk and she never noticed. Marller realize it, so she pointed the Guard with the mark on his arm and said:

-That wound was not your work, although you really tried hard. Bragg was wounded defending your, he was badly wounded and another guard died.. Remember he just disappeared?

- Yeah, I thought it was because my mother had discovered I was talking to him. I enjoyed to tease him for being so stupid.

- He may be stupid for small talk, but he is an elite fighter, yet he was wounded in an attack against you, but your mother tried hard to pretend everything was normal, so she hid everything from you. He was removed so you never knew about his injury and never do any questioning.

Urd closed her eyes. So she had been a protected princess in Heaven and Hell. That changed all her world, since she always had felt she was being been rejected.

- Seems you have so much to tell me. I must say I am happy all this had ended and I need to know this new Marller. But it will have to wait. I need all the information on this madness that you can give me. I have never seen anything like this. What are they doing with those infected?

Marller stayed silent for a moment and could not conceal a painful expression, then said ...

- The first cases were executed ... - Urd was left speechless - The guards acted to protect the vital buildings, they captured and asked for orders, but Hild was unconscious, and members of the council were trying to get more power, so no one noticed them. So the guards resorted to long forgotten orders that demanded execution. They just reported to the system the names to be executed in order to avoid the doublet system. Since Yggdrasil is down and did not rejected the requests, they simply proceeded. If Hild had not returned and changed the orders it would have been a massacre. After that, many were taken prisoner to the restrain magic chambers, but soon there was no more room. Now after Belldandy's suggestion, we are sealing them, unfortunately the madness continues to spread, and several guards have fallen and caused destruction before they could be sealed.

Urd had closed her eyes, she could hardly keep her eyes free with tears. Even in Hell, the life of eternal beings was too valuable. Those who had been executed, did not deserve it, there had been useless and senseless deaths, and finally they were her people. Despite she had been always isolated in the palace, maybe she knew some of them.

Finally Urd shouted - We can not allow more deaths. We have to look for the cause and find a cure.

Marller looked at her. Now as the new "Druhting" it was also her responsibility. She took Urd´s hands and nodded ans said: - There will be none. We are doing everything possible but we can not hold much longer, if this disease spread to much there will by no one to resist. Do you think to find the cure? I have seen the power of your potions. Urd, I have faith in you so does your mother, even if she does not show it. We are preparing your workplace, and have recruited those few that know about potions. We will get you any ingredient you want. We already have the list you requested. Also, Walharen is analyzing those infected, if anyone can figure out something he is the one. Unlike our healers, it seems he has an idea on what is going on.

Urd closed her eyes, trying to grasp the situation. Then remembered something she had told to Belldandy: "The doctor found how to solve the problem on my potions! Maybe that is the reason we were meant to meet each other! My potions may be needed in the future." Urd shuddered at the though. Had she and everyone else really been manipulated by the Predictive Defense Programs for this moment? She and her love for Kenji were just part of a bigger plan.? She had tried to search for any running copy of the adx-654 software in Yggdrasil and found none, yet Keiichi told her the mysterious software on his machine claimed to be a copy adx-654, but that was impossible, there is no way it could run in such small machine. Well, she would have to left that in Kenji´s hands. Mortals have proved to be more capable than she had ever dreamed. Then remembered Marllers presence, and her comment about that young Demon, the new SysOp.

- Walharen seems to be a very capable young demon. You just named him the new Nidhogg´s SYSOP? You have rewarded him well, he would be useful. I need his help. I would need Nidhogg´s analysis of the problem, and I haven´t time to learn. How is the situation outside?

- All over Hell you hear fear and rumors of an invasion. The news that a Magna truce has been declared does not seem to have alleviated the fear. We know many are accusing Hild for treason,

Urd's face tightened with anger. - Fools, my mother can be many things, but treason is the latest thing she would do. She would give her life for our realm.

- Still, the council members are trying to reunite, they are furious they had not consulted, but they had been hiding since the problem started. They are such cowards. Your presence will of help. Now Hild has a legitimate heir, even ... - Marller doubted before continuing - even if she is no longer a demon or even half goddess ..- then Marller gave a maquiavelich smile- But it does no matter, your new power will be a much better argument. Nobody would dare to act against you and your mother. That is why I need you in the council meeting right now.

- But... We can not waste time on that. - Urd claimed furious at such trivialities!

- We will have to go, or our efforts would be useless. While Hild has replaced many of her political enemies with Anang-Reh´s followers, we need to secure the whole council loyalty, if not by persuasion, then by force. But we can not afford to be divided.

- Anang-Reh? - Urd was perplexed- I know that name, Shaikh Anang-Reng was the one who attacked and almost killed us. This Anang-Reh is ?...

Anang-Reh was his son, but his views had nothing to do with his father, and his loyalty was ... - Marler showed a painful expression that Urd found striking.

- Do you know him?. Why do you speak about him in past tense?

- He Died, He was Giörel doublet ... - Urd gasped at the memories of the unfortunate goddess and then understood.

- She goddess who was murdered on earth ... He was executed and you... you loved him?

Marller tried to continue... - Yes, I was ... I wanted ... I..

Urd Marler´s felt pain and knew it had to come from a very deep emotion. In Hell sorrow was seldom showed, since those kinds of feelings were hidden. They were considered a weakness. Then almost unwittingly embraced her old friend. She was surprised at the unexpected touch, but somehow it was comforting and for the first time, she let out her pain.

Belldandy was at the center of the New Great Council Hall. Apparently she was alone with Lind and part of her squad, but she knew it was an illusion. Thousands of eyes were watching their actions and as Kamisama she could feel and their presence and their emotions. She wondered how would be when Yggdrasil would be back on line and she would be almost omniscient about everything that would occur in Heaven. Meanwhile she had to receive reports from Valkyries sent to inspect. So far, Yggdrasil nodes were under attack by the infected, but now those nodes had being reinforced and guarded by the newly recruited Valkyries and repairs were being undertaken. A grateful Peorth had reported to her and now she had begun an aggressive plan to restore the system. Besides the Valkyries had captured hundreds of infected that soon would be sent to her to be cured.

But the attacks did not cease and she felt confusion on the gods feelings. After her display of power they had expected and aggressive counterattack, it was as if they had not realized the infected were not their enemies. Belldandy perceived the Magna Truce instead of security was greeted with fear. She could hear wild rumors on her head, yet she could do little to stop them, since they were not rational. Belldandy sighted when Lind gave her a signal, It was time for her first official declaration. She floated slowly into the great Hall and waited until she felt all were paying attention.

- Listen all, listen to my story, the story of our sadness. There has been treachery among us. A great god, Hannus, member of the high council member, second in line of succession, took and unfortunate decision on his hearth. He dreamed on our glorious past and attempt to resume the war against Hell, regardless of treaties or the implications of the doublet system. He knew there would be an attack from a rogue group from Hell and instead of warning us, he allowed to proceed. He allowed an attack on my sisters and me. He allowed an attack on the Norns.

Belldandy continue her story. She was a great story teller and had captivated everyone attention, yet she had doubts, Keiichi had told her what he had seen at the council room and about the treason, but Lind had been unable ti retrieve that recording, Belldandy had no evidence except Keiichi´s word. That was had not worried her, since a first class goddess, she could not lie, but Lind had reminded her that as Kamisama ... she now had "that ability".

- ... Hannus treason was discovered, Kami-sama offered his the opportunity to put his case to vote, but instead he confronted Kamisama and the council and resorted to the most feared and now despised act. The battle suicide. With this act he brought us pain and destruction, chaos and sorrow. All the members of the council died and Kamisama is moribund. - Belldandy pause feeling the effects on her words. She new Hannus was popular and many gods expected he should have replaced Kamisama. The news of his treason had not been well received, yet her tale had been accepted and she could hear gods moaning over the god's treason. - And That is why it was raised to this dignity. I and been prepared all my life for this duty and I will comply to secure Heaven. and that is why, In order to ensure our safety, I have established a Magna truce with Hell. Our old enemy is suffering the same curse we are suffering now, the curse of madness, and therefore they are now our allies against a common enemy...

But Belldandy could not continue. The roar of hundred thousand thoughts raged into her mind. The impact from a deluge of negative emotion: Disbelief, fear, incredulity, denial, hate , ire, and so on was too much for her. Belldandy attempted to close her mind. This was completely unexpected, no one ever had doubted her word, and now ... It was too painful and she was unprepared..

- Wait, Hild is not our enemy, she saved my life ..

This time the reaction was even more violent. It was as if the hatred and fear her people hold against Hild, was now directed to her. For some gods, she was no longer Belldandy, goddess among gods, but "Belldandy, the contaminated goddess"!

Belldandy had fought all her life to be free of negative emotions, she new about hate, but had not felt hate and now, she could feel so much hate being poured into her hearth, that seemed impossible it could exist on the perfection of her realm. She stopped floating and felt down to the floor moaning in pain.

Lind reacted immediately and used her physical barrier to protect her. She could not tolerate to see her dearest friend in pain. Se also was astounded at the reaction. How such hatred had born into the world of the gods?, She began to suspect that madness was not the only infection that existed on this realm.

Belldandy looked at her still in pain, nothing had prepared her for something like this. She close her eyes were closed and crumbled on the floor as her eyes filled with tears But she could not go back, then a thought alien to her nature appeared, but the pain did not let her think. So Belldandy did something she had never done before on her long life. The goddess close her heart. The pain stopped, and slowly opened her eyes. He stood and signaled Lind she could lift the barrier.

Belldandy now faced toward the sky and she wore a strange expression on her, it was an expression of defiance. She now had closed herself to others feelings and felt liberated. She had come to save her people and she would do so regardless of costs... or suffering she could cause in the process. It was time for them to know her power.

Two young people walked down a grove and suddenly came to a ridge where the ground fell sharply. The landscape offered to their eyes was beautiful and far away, over the mountains, the sun began to brush the tops staining them in red. Both were dressed similarly, worn jeans and a colorful shirt. But that did not hide the perfect silhouette of the girl. She looked at the landscape with satisfaction and sat under a beautiful tree, the man hesitated nervously, then sat beside her and she commented.

- I could never imagined my uniform would unsettle you. This clothes are strange, but I have seen stranger ones. Besides, It is more convenient than what has been used in the past.

The man looked nervous, she had copied his clothes, adjusting them to her body, but she had dissolved her uniform before his eyes, leaving her divine body exposed for a few seconds. He could not banish the image from his mind ... He started talking in an effort to calm down.

- Ghadril, Did I bother you when I asked to change your clothes?

She had a dignified bearing that not even some old jeans managed to soften yet she had a hint of a smile and replied:

- It does not bother me, I understand that every human culture is different and clothes can mean different things . I understand my uniform somehow that may be inappropriate on your current culture. But it its difficult to follow those changes. Human civilizations pass so quickly ...

The man swallowed hard, she spoke of civilizations as referring to the fashion of the previous year ..

- I .. I meant the personal reason, that is ... what affects me is your ...

- Is my body? Are you talking about sexuality? Yes i can understand that.. I sense great tension inside you. - she lifted her right arm and extended her palm almost touching his chest - I think you should release it, if I can help you, simply ask.

The man´s hearth accelerated rapidly and became even more nervous.

- I ... I'd rather prefer to talk about something else. What would happen now? All your companions have departed to heaven, but as I understand you offered to stay here ... Why..?

- Why did I stayed here? - Again the goddess complete his sentence - There are several reasons, the main one is that Lind needed a volunteer and I met the requirements. The new judges did not know how to use the weapons of the first born, and not only I am one of the oldest of the Valkyrie, but also I am the only one who has seen them in action besides Lind.

The man doubted and repeated ..

- The oldest Valkyrie! Can I ask, how old are you?

The woman close her eyes thinking, as if the concept of age were alien to her. After a few seconds she commented:

- I'm not sure how to carry out the computation in terms of your universe, but I remember the catastrophic war that ended up with the great reptiles of this world, when your ancestors were still small insectivorous animals. That is the oldest reference I have from your world, but even at that time I was already a veteran at the squad.

The man felt a chill, 55 million years ago she was already a veteran!. He remained silent pondering the information, then remembered something that intrigued him.

- Who are the first born you have talked before? What are those weapons? Your people seems to regard them as if they were sacred.

Ghadril stayed silent and then replied with some awe in his voice.

- Now that you mentioned, I think the first born should have not been very different from you: mortals that are just entering the era of technology. They were short lived like you and had no powers of their own, but had acquired great knowledge of the universe. It was the time when other multiverses were contacted and began the first conflicts. When some of the first born began to become the first gods, some of they went into some kind of madness, so they developed weapons to fight them using their technology. Even now, our magic has few defenses against such non magic weapons. Then they delayed turning into gods until they became wiser. We owe them our existence. Therefore we fear and respect those weapons along their builders. We no longer used them, but those few who carry them, used them as symbols of the power of our ancestors.

- So they are technology and can be used against magic? Amazing. But what would happen to Dr. Shugahara, to the young Keiichi and that child, Sentaro-kun. Will they have magical powers or something?

- No, they are still only mortal, but now they will have connections with Yggdrasil and Nidhogg. They are necessary because they need to know if the treaty is being held. Their real power lyes not in their arms, but in their connections with the systems of Heaven and Hell. That is why they received those passwords and access codes. That is the old tradition, but it had been so long ago the last time this have been done. It's hard to explain it without some understanding of our realm ...

- Amazing, is like being in a dream, I never thought we could verify the existence of the multiverses, much less to contact with being in them ... and then ..

Wait - the goddess silenced him- I think this is the reason you asked me to come with you.

The sun began to sink between the mountains and the sky began to be tinged with fire. The red disk of the sun seemed to be painted like a perfect red circle in the sky. The sky was limpid and the tones were so pure, as if the belonged to an artist palette instead. The disk descended behind the mountains and suddenly, just before the border of the circle disappeared, a beautiful and rare green flash crossed the sky. I was such a rare phenomena yet the presence of the warrior goddess seemed as if it had been a welcome greeting from the sky. Both stayed in silence, after watching the daily but no less beautiful miracle that is the sunset in the mountains.

Silently, the man sensed the presence of his companion and remembered that after the impressive ceremony in the temple, his heart had leaped with joy at knowing that Ghadril would stay on earth. Several hours later he had returned to the temple to see her, yet he: Takashi Yoshida, a researcher in high energy physics, asistan profesor and first-rate scientist, had not been able to say more to her than a sentence from a melodramatic drama he had recently been: - " Would you like to come with me to see the sunset?".

To his surprise the dignified goddess had accepted. Besides the goddess had noticed his nervousness and asked the reason. He had only able to point at her fit uniform that reveal the forms of almost every detail of her body, and somehow the goddess had understood.

He returned to the presented and felt the magical moment. He was sitting there with a beautiful and proud goddess, sharing a wonderful moment. Slowly his nervousness began to fade away to be replaced with a sense of joy.

Finally only some red tint was the remainder for the gone sunlight. The red tones began to leave the sky to be replaced by the night sky. The sky suddenly was filled with stars. After a some minutes of silence the goddess spoke:

- Mortal, your world is beautiful. Thanks for sharing this with me. It is so different from my world where everything is planned and directed. Now I know I took the right decision.

The man finally was relaxed by the beauty of the sunset and without turning to see her he dared to ask, somewhat hopefully:

- You mentioned that one of the reason to stay, was to teach the use of the weapons, but ... is there any other ... reason?

Ghadril was silent for a moment and then asked:

- Tell me mortal, are you glad that I am here?

The man did not expect such a direct question and his heart skipped a beat but finally said.

- Since I first saw you I felt I had a special connection, even if I cannot understand how could it be possible. You were only a vision, how could that feeling be real? And then... then - he tried to stop stuttering before continued. - When I touched your hand and felt something very special that I can not define. In my country we have a legend. When to people are born, we say there is an invisible ribbon that it´s attached to other people hearth, so they are attached from the moment they are born, and no matter what happens, sooner or later they met and share they're hearths. Somehow that legend resonates in my mind.

Ghadril sighted and said.

- It´s true, we have a special bond, it even could be that story you told me. But I realized it was something special so I decided to care for it. The life of mortals is so short that I could not leave this opportunity pass

- Short life?

The goddess looked at him and then took a handful of soil. He saw her hand emitted a very soft glow, yet it allowed to see something amazing. The goddess began to sing, her voice had the purity of tone of a perfect sky and then from the soil in the goddess hand a stem sprouted and a few seconds later turned into a beautiful flower. T hen the goddess took the handful of soil and reverently planted it into the ground. She sang a simple protection spell for the plant and continued.

- Have you ever seen a beautiful flower just blossom like this? You know that will last just a few days, so you decide to stay and look after it night and day until the flower fades away. For my, your life is so short and so it become equally precious to me. I'm not like the administrative goddesses than can come to your world on any pretext. If I leave your world it may take centuries of your time before I can go back and you would not longer exist. For that reason I decided to stay to see the passing of your whole life.

The man swallowed hard, this beautiful and immortal creature saw him as a fragile and delicate flower, his life was for her nothing but a fraction of the almost eternal life of a goddess, and therefore she had decided to spend a few moments to be with him. The idea was so strange and disturbing, yet there was something beautiful about it. Finally, he only managed to say:

- Thanks for this, I hope ... I hope that my life is to your liking and that it would leave good memories on you, I could not dream of something bigger than being in the memory of a goddess. - He bowed reverently before her as a sign of respect and then added - now I think we should go back to the temple but ... - he laughed nervously - but again I can not see in the dark, Can I...?

- Mortal, you do not no longer need to ask

But despite her words, Ghadril hesitate to reach out and touch the hand of mortal. Finally she touched him and both shuddered at the contact. Both consciously accepted now that there was a bond between them. She stood up and walked slowly, he let her take the lead. Suddenly the man stumbled and almost fell over her. His body tensed at the unexpected contact with the goddess body.

She took him firmly by the arm to prevent him from falling, she sensed his tense muscles. Ghadril breathed deeply inhaling the atmosphere of the forest. Now she knew about the intoxication of life and began to enjoy it. After a long life where thousands of years could pass indistinguishable one from another, life began to have meaning But she felt alive again. She looked at the mortal man, smiling since she knew he could not see her, and commented:

- I sense a lot of tension within you, and that's not good. Let me help you to release it ...

The man froze in surprise and without knowing exactly why, his heart began to beat rapidly.

End of Chapter XXIII

notes:

"ice cream cooled with liquid nitrogen .": this is a special dessert offered to VIP´s at CERN.

"Green flash": This is rare phenomena , but it´s real, usually it´s seen at sea, but sometimes it has been seen at the mountains. Just before the sunset goes down, a green flash is seen. The phenomena is due to the refraction of colors in the atmosphere.