Despite some problems posting this, we go ahead with the story...
I managed to accidentally delete this chapter after I almost had finished it :(

But I hope the wait was worth it.

Yours

Elnauhual

The order of the Mortal Knights

By Elnauhual

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

Chapter XXXI

Terrorist

Giorgio shouted even though he knew his voice would not be heard. He had seen too many times the effect of mines and feared he had to watch it again. He stopped screaming when he realized that the vehicle had stopped exactly at the point where the previous vehicles had stopped, as if they knew it was the right place.

He saw the man and the child abandon the vehicle and begin to walk slowly towards the village, but they stopped a couple of meters from the place he knew there was a mine. The boy had something in his hand, it looked like a small laptop and he told something to the man, then pointed to a place in front of them, it was the exact place Giorgio knew there was a mine! Nodding the man pulled something from his pocket. Giorgio quickly grabbed one of his video cameras, forgetting and any further attempt at keeping hidden, and he ran to the edge of the cliff where he leaned against a rock. Using the maximum zoom of his powerful camera, he examined the scene. He was able to see the man's features; he looked like a middle-aged Japanese in a suit which seemed more appropriate in a university classroom than in a town taken over by terrorists.

Due to the distance it was hard to keep the camera still, the tripod was in his hiding spot but he did not want to lose any detail. Finally he stabilized the image, and was able to see that the man was carrying a sort of elaborated medallion around his neck. Painstakingly he was able to capture a still image. It seemed like an ancient medallion carved in wood with strange markings and he was sure they were not in Japanese.

Almost the same time Giorgio managed to finish his inspection, the man and the child finished discussing the terrain around them and the man pulled something from his pocket. It seemed like a small cylinder that the man wielded and pointed to the place where Giorgio knew there was a mine. The cylinder seemed to extend, like those old telescopic pointers used by teachers. The explosion took Giorgio by surprise. He could see shrapnel flying everywhere. It was strange to see the silent flash of the explosion. Giorgio uttered a futile cry of warning, he had seen bloody bodies, shredded by mines shrapnel, thrown into the air many times, and then the horror of watching those mutilated bodies move and writhe in pain. He knew mines were usually not designed to kill but to injure and mutilate. A cloud of dust and sand had risen obscuring the scene. A few seconds later, due to the distance, came the explosion sound. It sounded ridiculously high pitched, like fireworks used in festivities, but he knew that sound was misleading.

As he stood petrified, a gush of wind suddenly cleared the scene and he realized the man and the child were still there, unharmed. He saw how the dust delineated a sphere around them. Something extraordinary had just happened! Again Giorgio focused his camera on the scene, this time it has more difficult as his pulse was trembling. The man turned around and looked away, looking directly to Giorgio as if he knew he was there. He saw through the lens of his camera, and then man was staring directly to him. Yes, he knew Giorgio was watching him! The Japanese smiled and then bowed respectfully as if he were thanking him.

Giorgio almost dropped his camera; he was unable to understand how they knew about him. At that moment he heard footsteps behind him, he thought it was his partner and excited he turned around to talk about what he had just seen. But he was left speechless as fear and surprise paralyzed him. The figure he found was not his friend, but a stocky man with some kind of military uniform without any identifying marks. Then the man smiled and spoke with a deep French accent.

- Monsieur Giorgio Vaglia I presume.

Keiichi attempted to feel hands he knew were not there, he knew that no physical movement was possible yet he was surprised to feel something. In fact he was able to sense much more than that. Galileo had explained to him that he had integrated routines to translate everything to route it to his senses, but he had not expected such an assault on his senses and of such intensity. Touch, sight, smell, taste, warmth, everything was there as part of a world whose existence was not real.

He looked around, despite having no physical body; he could change the focus of his awareness as if his body was real. He looked around and was able to see a geometric landscape, but whose laws challenged what he knew about geometry. He could see feel, touch and even smell and taste the flow of information of this world. He could make out the insipid taste of maintenance information from the aromatic sensation that produced information rich in meaning and the spicy taste of the encrypted information.

At that moment he felt in his mind Galileo´s presence. In order to get into the system Keiichi's awareness had been absorbed by Galileo, and both had been converted into a new program. His mind and that of Galileo were one and it did not even require an internal dialogue to share their thoughts.

They had come through the hidden connection that Urd had planted into Yggdrasil to allow it to contact the mortal world and quickly they were hidden in a sea of information. Thanks to the carefully use of Belldandy´s security credentials, they had cross several security gates, but they were trying to reduce their use to a minimum to avoid being tracked.

Keiichi felt a thought that was not his and nodded, they could not lose time, at that moment they were like a process running over the operating system and were detectable. They needed to hide.

Keiichi had an idea and suggested- Became a Trojan? -. Despite its complexity the system was very logical. They could hide as part of one of the maintenance system processes. They would just have to change their signature so it did not look like an infection. Thanks to Galileo's mind Keiichi began to become familiar with the system and soon they were able to identify a suitable process. It was one of the systems that recovered the space left by halting processes, a kind of garbage collector. There were thousands of copies of it running around the system. The detected one of those processes and proceeded to inserted themselves inside it.

Until now Keiichi / Galileo had appeared in the system with the original ADX process identity, but now that was gone and they were relived they had not activated any alarms.

Keiichi could not help feeling pleasure. The process they had invaded was simple, lacking in intelligence, but was rich in information it had collected. Keiichi began to savor the information, but it was not what he was looking for. Then Galileo suggested and an idea and he nodded with curiosity.

For Keiichi, suddenly the world seemed to explode, for a moment he panicked and cried and cried and cried ... the world was now filled with his own echoes. His screams had been multiplied and were echoing in a world made from his own thoughts ... Then he smiled and thought - So this is real multitasking? - He as a process had been multiplied and now there were thousands of copies of his conscience touring Yggdrasil memory banks, all with their own thought and conscience yet tied as a single conscience. Keiichi could feel he was simultaneously in thousands of places at once and had thousands of minds, each making slightly different decisions, exploring, examining and analyzing different parts of Yggdrasil. Keiichi felt like an omnipotent god and the idea make him laugh. What else could be expected if he was now in heaven, the world of the gods?

Peorth slumped on her seat, and the surrounding gods paused, completely baffled by their results. The system did not report any errors, all the normal processes should be working, yet there were many processes missing: The Sparta series, responsible for process security, the Phoenix series, the firewall that protected all I/O inputs, and the mysterious ADX series. They searched each one of the defense processes list and all were missing. That meant Yggdrasil was defenseless against any attack.

A technician spoke, trying to sound dispassionate, yet her voice could not hide her fears.

- I have tried to manually restart some of the Sparta process, but it didn't work. The system reports no errors, yet the process does not run, something blocks it and hides the errors. I have tried to restart some of the ADX series, but it reports invalid code, as if it were apparently damaged. I have tried to restore it from one of the backups, but the result is the same, so I think it´s not the code. None of the defense systems and processes are working.

All the gods and Peorth froze. Peorth began to feel despair, she was running out of options, and then an authoritative voice made her react.

- Peorth First Class Goddess, you have done an excellent job, and I will make sure to report it to the council, you must continue, all these gods trust you.

Peorth looked at the God who had spoken. Gods of all levels, rank and occupation had been cooperating to repair Yggdrasil, one of them happened to be a council member. At first Peorth had felt embarrassed by his presence, but he had been working with the same commitment and dedication as the others, besides he seemed to know the system almost like her. Peorth had even smiled at the idea that it was a pity that he did not work for her instead of the council. But in that moment the God had not spoke as a technician but had spoken with the authority of a council member. Peorth hesitated and then felt ashamed; she realized that behind those proud words was the message of not giving up.

- Chancellor Myr, I appreciate your words, but I feel I'm at the limit of my ability, I...

The god interrupted her... instead he spoke as if he were continuing her line of reasoning.

- So, clearly we have an infection of some sort that has made it into the lower level functions, and it successfully intercepts all the messages from the system, so we cannot see the level where errors occur. We can assume it´s presenting a false image of the system. - The god stopped to think and then said almost whispering – This is a contingency we thought was too remote when we designed the current system...

At that moment he touched Peorth casually, and she felt a rush of empathy that helped her to remember him, she shivered with surprise and admiration. Myr was one of the legendary programmers who had been involved in the design of Yggdrasil, while he was not one of the creators; the current system architecture owed much to him. How could she have failed to recognize him? Perth felt embarrassed for her previous thoughts about him. She was distracted by a surge of data that began to pour into her screen; somehow Myr was sending it directly to her, bypassing the system. Peorth looked at him with surprise; in return he gave her a knowing smile. Myr was giving her an alternative plan in secret, and it seemed that she would get all the merit or guilt for it, but why? She gave him a questioning look. The god leaned toward her and whispered.

- We will do some very unorthodox things that a councilor should not do. And if something goes wrong, do not be surprised if you receive the guilt, but mainly because you've done a lot and those gods trust you, besides I do not like to lead. So just shown them you can do more, you just need a little help, - then he spoke aloud: - Excellent idea, so you just need my credentials to access those extra functions.

Peorth was surprised, and then smiled briefly, so that was his game, no responsibilities for him? Good for him, but this seemed to be a very interesting god, she would need to do some personal research later. Peorth laughed; at realizing she was no longer in a gloomy mood. The god smiled as if he knew about her thoughts, then touched her console and whispered an encrypted spell. On Peorth´s console the new programs appeared with functions that she had never seen or even dreamed existed.

- I thought I would never need them again, they are hidden debug options I used to develop our current system, they work outside the system security, and I just used a back door to activate them. Officially they no longer exist since they simply skip all security restrictions...

That was enough explanation for Peorth, Myr had already sent her the instructions, so she immediately began to try them on the system, and after a few tests she activated them on all consoles and began to explain them. The info generated was soon overwhelming, she would need everyone's help to handle it all. After she instructed all the gods they returned to a flurry of activity, they were already aware of the seriousness of the situation and almost as important, they trusted her.

Myr smiled approvingly and returned to his place as if nothing had happened. At first nothing new appeared, but a few hours later Peorth detected something. She had set an alarm in case some of the missing processes were detected, and there it was. A process called ADX/K1 had fired the alarm. She quickly began to examine it.

The basic footprint seemed like the ADX series, but the ending k1 did not correspond to any known version. She sent the information to the other technicians, so they could trace its origin while she checked it´s resources. It seemed as it had recently activated, and she was sure it did not come from the main repository, but from a secondary node.

The software worked differently than any other she had known, it was constantly changing its position in memory as if it were hiding, then suddenly disappeared. She was sure it had not just stopped, since it has not freed its resources. On a closer look she found its function were now executing as part of another software. Thanks to the new functions she realized what had happened. The software had inserted itself into another running software adopting its identity. She managed to identify the infected process, and trace it. It was fascinating; she realized it was extremely complex. At one moment it began to generate other execution threads, Peorth was about to halt it manually but realized it was not infecting the system, just scanning memory locations everywhere along Yggdrasil memories as if searching for something. While the program seems to be just gathering info, she was still sure was its purpose and began to wonder how to interact with it. Meanwhile everybody began to watch it. The ADX series was almost legendary, yet very little was known about it, and it´s behavior showed how special it was. It was very peculiar, reminiscent of a living being.

Peorth rose from her seat and went to talk to Councilman Myr; maybe he knew something more, when she heard a collective gasp while everyone looked at their screens.

Peorth found the process had split into two, one of them held now the identification ADX-654 v3.00, exactly the software they were looking for, but the other one was the reason that had caused the general exclamation. The system reported the new running task as: "Morisato Keiichi". Access level: judge Level 3.

The gods began to murmur, everyone knew about the mortal named Keiichi, and the story that he had been appointed a judge of gods and demons. So it was true. It was an amazing thought...

Peorth felt her head spinning. Something beyond her grasp had happened, she looked at Myr in search of answer, but his perplexed expression was not reassuring. Slowly everyone began to react and trace the new program task. It was moving to a very old part of the system, so old that no one knew it existed. It was hard to follow; the protocols of that system were extremely old. Suddenly they lost him; It seemed it had entered a high security area, which not even the new debugging functions could follow.

Peorth gave orders to search for info for that part of the system to map it´s resources and privileges, when two new processes entered the same region. One of them was reported as a system cleaning routine, yet it behave in a strange way, and it bore very high level credentials, Perth knew it was the one that had been reported as Morisato Keiichi, the other was completely unknown and was working with the levels of high council member or even higher.

Peorth shouted: - We need to identify it´s owner account. Locate the user, it appears as if it has entered the system from a console from the main Council building.

A technician spoke, completely failing to control her excitement.

- That account ... ah! Belongs to Belldandy´s father!

Skuld entered into one of the elegant and luxurious private rooms from the council building. There were terminals that could provide high level access to Yggdrasil, for exclusive use of the council members. But there was something different in the way the young goddess acted, a haughty expression and firm steps made her look much older. A young Valkyrie patrolling the building had witnessed her arrival and went to the room to stop her, and said sternly.

- How did you get here? This area is reserved, only council members can enter!

As only answer, Skuld extended her left arm and calmly whispered a few words. From her hand came a faint flash and the Valkyrie tried to cover her head in pain, while emitting a surprised moan, then her body convulsed and fell to the ground motionless, she said coldly:

- I am a council member.

Skuld the ignored the fallen body and looked around until she found one of the access consoles, she put her hand on it and immediately her identity was acknowledged, and signaled it was ready for command input. Skuld ordered a priority one seal, the same used in secret meeting to prevent any possible interference. Nobody could know now, what was happening inside. Finally she sat in front of the console. Her expression suddenly changed, it was as if she was waking from a dream. Surprised she looked at the figure lying on the floor with a look of concern:

- Father, was that necessary?, Please let me examine her to make sure she is not wounded.- Skuld made the attempt to get up, but her body would not obey. The image of a young and proud god with the clothing of a council member appeared in front of her. Skuld had already realized it was not real. It was only in her mind. The god spoke coldly.

- Do not worry about such trivial things, there are important matters. Unfortunately you do not have enough magic to be of any help - Skuld attempt protest but her father interrupted her - But that´s my fault. When you were born I set a partial blockage on your magic powers.

Skuld looked at her father in surprise. She had suffered by not being able to fully develop her magic, knowing that it was her father´s doing, was extremely puzzling, to say the least.

- Father, why did you do that? - Said in an accusing tone- I fought hard to develop my powers, I have suffered so much for that...

Again the god interrupted her; he did not seem to care much about Skuld's feelings.

- I needed you to develop other powers I programmed into you. I decided your destiny. Eventually you will control the mortal realm, but in that place magic is of limited use, so I gave you the capacity to manipulate and control technology instead of magic, Maybe it was a mistake, I should have given you a bit more of magic- The god was not really talking to Skuld, but to himself and ignored her protest- but now it´s too late to do something about that, even if I lift the blockade it would take too much time before you learn to control your magic. - Suddenly he stopped and thoughtfully looked around - Something has happened, I feel as if one of my avatars has been destroyed and the other is under attack, I cannot get in touch with them. I need more information to decide what to do; maybe I'll have to take control of Yggdrasil. In that case I should have to transfer my consciousness to the system instead of depending on your limited magic.

Skuld had been trying to get his attention, but his last words were too much, so she spoke as loud as she could:

- Father, please listen to me! After the destruction of the council building and many of Yggdrasil's nodes, we have been repairing Yggdrasil so it´s been heavily monitored. You cannot do that without attracting attention.

- Destruction of the council building? - Asked surprised - then we were attacked by demons. It´s a very good opportunity, I must take control. Maybe I should become Kamisama in order to attack. I did not expect they would dare to attack. Maybe it's the right time to attack them and put your sister Urd in charge.

Skuld said, frightened by the intensity of his father´s words.

- Father! We were not attacked by demons, the destruction was due to a god and the origin of the madness is unknown, so demons are not our enemies now, even the doublet system has been suspended; besides we can't break the Magna Truce.

- What? What did you say? A Magna Truce! that's impossible - the god exclaimed incredulously.

- But it´s true, Belldandy and Hild declared the Magna Truce.

- Belldandy and Hild? It cannot be. That would only be possible if Belldandy were Kamisama, And in that case ... She should be under my control and should know it. No, that cannot be true! Also there are no other races; the Magna Truce requires members of a third race as judges.

Skuld started to panic at the violence of his father's reaction.

- But we have judges, Dr Shugahara, Keiichi and Sentarō are judges. They are mortal.

- Mortal Judges? – He cried in rage -No mortal should be judge of gods!

The god stared incredulously at her daughter, slowly raised an arm toward his daughter and with an energetic gesture he immersed into her memories, ignoring her cries of protest. She felt like her memories were violently uprooted and examined. Skuld was shocked with the violence that had been inflicted on her, her father stated:

- Seem everything is upside down. Belldandy? Loves a mortal? And how did she avoid my control? And if Urd is in Hell my other avatar should have been in control, unless Hild had detected and destroyed it. - His ire was growing and stated- And how could Belldandy and Hild dare to elect miserable mortals as judges! The natural order of things has been altered, I must intervene.

Skuld stared at her father with fear. She began to realize something was wrong He was talking about controlling Belldandy. This god was not the loving father she remembered.

- Father, how can that be wrong? the war with demons has ended, you told me that was what you dreamed, we are and mortals are helping us

The god spoke angrily.

- That cannot be, demons should not to be our allies, but our subjects. Only the gods must have the control of the multiverse. Neither demons nor mortal should be our equals. I must do something, but I feel weak, there is a great emptiness inside me. Really one of my avatars must been destroyed and the other seems to be very weak. My death was a serious drawback, since I no longer have a physical body, but I can deal with that. You will use functions I left hidden in Yggdrasil. You must obey your father. If the doublet system has been disabled, maybe is the right time to attack Hell

Skuld did not wish to obey but found her will was overpowered by her father magic.

Although her face reflected fear, her only words were - Yes father!

Belldandy´s body trembled under the pain, but that did not stop her. The captive god writhed and howled furiously while Belldandy with her open hands gradually extracted and purified his inner essence inside. Belldandy was at her limits, while Lind also was using all her power to keep the powerful being under her control.

The god's body started to become translucent, inside him something became visible, it was something dark, moving from one point to other as if it were trying to hide.

Belldandy put her attention on it, and began to follow it´s movements, then she come closer to her father's body. Suddenly she extended her arm with her open hand, and penetrated into his body; the god shuddered at the contact, and then captured the dark substance to pull it out.

The god seemed gasped, and then stopped fighting and cried. He began to breathe deeply as fought to avoid losing consciousness.

The dark seem to be alive and began to fight against Belldandy, it tried to escape from her hands, while if began to spread ominous pseudopodia that grew toward Belldandy's face. The goddess shouted to Peorth.

- Release my father and help me destroy this.

Lind obeyed and lowered her pole-ax; the god slumped to the floor free from his prison. Lind carefully analyzed the situation, she did not wish to harm Belldandy, then swung her pole ax, charging it with power and warned the goddess - It´s too close to you, try to use your physical barrier to have some protection...- Belldandy nodded, even she was tired still she was quick to react. She put a barrier between her and the dark mass, without further warning Lind liberated the energy accumulated on her ax.

It was a precise attack, Belldandy was thrown backwards by the violence of the impact, yet was unharmed, the mass glowed like a dying charcoal, and then began to boil violently, and a few seconds later it froze and then became sand that fell to the ground, finally converted into something completely harmless.

Belldandy stood up slowly and looked at Lind; there was a look of relief in her beautiful eyes and with great effort managed to say.

- You did it, you have destroyed the infection.

Both looked at the god, lying collapsed at the ground. His body was translucent, but now his expression was different, seemed as he had woken up and began to look around with an air of surprise. He looked at his hands and rub them realizing they were translucent, then looked embarrassed to Belldandy and Lind.

- Belldandy! What happened? How is that you can see me? I should be hidden in your unconscious, unknown to you.

Belldandy began to mourn and ran to hug his father; he seemed comforted by her touch, and then said with urgency.

- I feel weak, you should help me, and I have a job to do, I ...I must...

Belldandy looked at her father and spoke softly and tender.

- Father, please you do not need to talk. I know about your mission and about your plans and I can tell you they are wrong, you cannot impose your personal vision to the world.

Belldandy separated from her father, who looked puzzled at her. The goddess with tears on her eyes said:

- You have not been completely healed, but this part of your sickness is much older, I am sorry I was not there to heal you; there is still an unhealthy ambition. It should not be there, because I do not remember that in my father. I will heal. Forgive me for this but I want to see my old father.

Then Belldandy reintroduced her hands on his father´s body, she searched into it and pulled out a red and evanescent substance, which began to dissolve on her fingers. Her father shuddered and inhaled deeply, then began to mourn slowly as he regained control and with a broken voice said:

- My Daughter! What have I done! - He extended his hand and tried to touch her daughter, but Lind moved to hold his hand with a fierce grip. Belldandy smiled and told her: - Everything is right now; he will not harm me anymore. The god look at Lind with surprise: - A Valkyrie here? I remember you, you are Lind. You are one of the greatest warriors and one of the heads at the supreme council of the Valkyrie. What are you doing in Belldandy´s mind? If I am conscious it means that Belldandy is now Kamisama, but then it would be impossible for anyone to enter into her mind.

Belldandy looked at him and said with pain and sorrow on her voice

- She invoked the Ragna protocol to protect me from you.

The god looked sadly at Lind.

- So this is you death sentence? Why did you do it?. You cannot do it alone, all members of the Valkyrie supreme council must have done the same. Why did you do it? you not only have sacrificed you life, but also went against the foundations of our laws. Why?

Lind bowed her head to him, recognizing him again as a member of the high council and she said humbly.

- The supreme council of the sisterhood of the Valkyrie acted on their own will, we not fear death, but we fear not to be able to do our duty and our duty was to help Kamisama, besides...- Lind hesitated but then said - Belldandy accepted me as a friend. No sacrifice is too much.

The god closed his eyes trying to hide the moisture that flooded, then said:

- What I've done! Lind, you are one of the greatest warriors. I am responsible that you are going to sacrifice your life along with your sisterhood. It's my fault!

Belldandy spoke with sadness: - Father, you were infected...

- Yes, I was infected, but I have realized that my infection comes from many years ago, that dark entity did nothing that I was not willing to do.

The god tried to stand up, but was he was too weak and Belldandy began to cry, she knew he would not survive much longer.

- Father, you must forgive me, I've destroyed you, and maybe I should have found another way to prevent your death.

- No my child, I died long before and this, this image you see is just a ghost that should have disappeared long time ago, a ghost who tried to impose an inhuman plan. I have nothing to forgive, but thank you. You have stopped me from cause more harm. Unfortunately I cannot repair the damage I have caused to you and to them, whom have sacrificed all...

Belldandy said with hope.

- Father, you were a senior member of the council, maybe you know to prevent that destiny, a way to avoid being destroyed. I owe them at least to try to save them.

- It's part of their nature of a Valkyrie, the code that was put into the Valkyrie is similar to the code of the doublet system, and you know it can't be disabled.

His voice began to wane, as his body began to dissolve, already his hand were fussy, he looked at her daughter with wonder.

- Goodbye daughter, I hope you could keep only the best of my memory, You have grown beyond expectations, unfortunately you must still save your sisters from me.- The God started to dissolve but made one last effort and said - Yes!, I think there is one way, but maybe is too cruel, if you dare to do it then you ...

His voice trailed off into a whisper and ended up dissolving completely. Belldandy closed her eyes and fought back her tears; she went with Lind and embraced her. The worst of the nightmare seemed to be over for now.

Urd floated in the air, her body shone with the accumulated power of gods and a demon and it was barely contained. Her face showed an ecstasy that bordered on madness as she felt the surge of power in her body. She started laughing but it was a sound that would inspire fear. She looked at her hands engulfed in a fire that burned but not consumed, it was painful, but a pain that filled her with the ecstasy to feel alive, she felt more alive than she had ever felt in her long life. She looked down and saw the infected guards had perceived her changes and rearranged for a new attack. Her senses were also finer; she could see they were organizing into groups and each group were calling their physical barriers, joining them in layers, like an onion, creating a protection that seemed impregnable.

That made her laugh wildly. For her nothing was now impregnable. She rose in the air and floated over one group, and extended her hand. She did not invoke any spells, her hands emitted a soft glow, and there was no sound, no explosions. Just a soft light that engulfed the guards firing, and instantly they were converted into ashes. Their barriers were like paper for her.

She looked fascinated at her incandescent hands. Nothing could stop her now, nothing in the universe; even her mother could stop her. She could do whatever she wanted and now she was prepared to get rid of clutter that was down below her.

But the guards were still not defeated. One of those groups, suddenly joined their magic and launch a powerful attack against her.

Urd was taken aback for a moment, yet she diverted the attack with incredible ease, it barely took a gesture. She was preparing to obliterate them when the big underground room began to shake...

She looked up and saw that the attack she had diverted had crashed into a wall. It´s intensity was such that it had shattered the magic barrier that maintained the integrity of the cave, one of the most protected sites in Hell, and that so far had kept the great battle sealed inside. That magic was also responsible of maintaining the artificial cave intact at such great depth.

For a moment she smiled. The guards had sealed their fate; everyone there would be buried alive. Maybe it would be more merciful to exterminate them first...

Then she was assaulted by an inside voice, a delicate voice that whispered something... Urd tried to ignore it to launch an attack, but this voice would not let her. What did it say? Somehow she needed to know.

- "Urd, You have taken lives; you have taken lives of your own people ..."

Whose was that voice? ...

The voice kept talking and talking, Urd refused to listen, she put her hand on her head and screamed, she did not like what the voice said, - Who it´s talking? - But then, she realized that the voice was her own voice.

She was shaken, and then said aloud. - "I have taken lives"! - Urd gasped after saying those words, it was as if she had awakened, then felt that her new powers would not release her will, but chain it, as if her consciousness was only a veneer over her most primitive instincts that only caused destruction. Then she began to remembered, she saw her past, and realized that her memories in the world of the gods were blurred but her memories of the land of the mortal were vivid, She remembered clearly the time living with Fafnir with more presence than the previous eons of her life. Then remembered Fafnir and his life among mortals, she remembered Keiichi and humans she had known, she remembered Kenji and that memory brought her peace, then looked at the guards who attacked her and recalled that they were not her real enemies. They were merely puppets of an unknown enemy.

As the memories began to make her remember that she had felt alive, the intoxication of power began to fade, the glow around her body faded away. Now she felt that the she was in control of her power and not a slave of it. At that moment the thundering noise of the crumbling walls recalled her attention. Without thinking more, she concentrated her magic and created a barrier to contain the cavern. the noise stopped, but she did not know how to repair the wall´s broken magic, that magic was too ancient for her to know, so she had to keep her magic flowing to the barrier.

She tried to get some ideas, but her mind was still was slow, she could only think into using her physical barrier to hold the cavern, unfortunately the physical barrier was used to protect from external things, and the guards... were now inside it. Soon they realized she was now unprotected and began to attack. Thanks to her overflowing in power, Urd resisted, but she knew that would be temporary, even with her new power, her unprotected body would not last.

Urd began to curse the stupid guards she was trying to save, and screamed to the full of her lungs, just a distraction and the barrier wavered and that caused the walls began to crumble. So she concentrated again.

She kept cursing while the guards attack began to penetrate her body, filling her with pain and that weakened her. Bit by bit her sight began to fade into darkness while she continued to curse the universe. The world was becoming darker and darker.

Inside the village school, the man with the cruel look heard an explosion and quickly took the semiautomatic weapon he had on the rickety desk. He got up from the chair and listened carefully, it sounded like one of the old mines. Had one of his men became careless and stepped on one of them? Why everyone was so stupid?

After a couple of minutes, which seemed like an eternity, he heard another and then another. Something was detonating the mines. Only an armored vehicle could cause that, but he had been told that only a tourist jeep had approached. It could not be that. A jeep would have not resisted that.

Then the door burst open and a couple of men entered reflecting fear and surprise on their face. They began to speak quickly but it was hard to understand them. Something about a man and a child, they were walking through the minefield detonating the mines!

- Shut up, stop talking nonsense. - Ordered and the men became silent - If they attack us, we have the hostages. Go and get the women, and especially bring the American girl. Make sure the explosive charges on them are well connected and then take them to the town limits where everyone can see us. We'll see if they dare to attack us.

The men looked at each other and ran to meet their orders. The man watched them go, and cursed at the stupidity of people under his command. He went to the desk and took an ammunition clip for his gun, after checking it was full, he inserted it into his gun, then pulled out a homemade radio detonator. He smiled to think that maybe it was not bad they could see some hostages die. That always helped in negotiations even when governments said they did not negotiate with terrorists.

Keiichi felt entranced by the feeling of being in many places at once, each one was like an echo of his conscience, he could feel how each part could act on their own, some were behind the spicy bits of encrypted information, and others sought other flavors and odors. Then he saw something familiar, he could not recognize it since it was mixed with other elements. His main conscience became concentrated at that point and began to look for the source. He went to a place that was unlike anything he had seen so far. Its geometry was more sober and simple, and unlike anything around the place, there was almost no movement there.

Carefully he tried to enter, but found a barrier that could not penetrate despite having high level system credentials. It had to be a place of restricted data, but there was something strange, with the help of Galileo he searched the system map and found this place was not there. It had to be a very old system component hid from the system; at least the architecture seemed to be very old, more ancient than other parts of the system he had seen.

He felt Galileo´s thoughts and agreed, if it was ancient, then it could have valuable information of those ancient times, still Keiichi wondered what it was that had drawn him to place. There was a familiar scent that he could not identify.

He tried to use Belldandy´s password to gain access, but it was rejected. That was strange. Could it really be information not accessible to Kamisama? That fueled Keiichi´s curiosity. Maybe that section was so old that new credentials were rejected even if they were high level.

Galileo nodded at his thought, which was an interesting point. Keiichi remembered that he had a high-level identity of his own and with an access password, after all, Keiichi was now one of the ancient judges. But in order to use it he had to be alone.

Galileo agreed so he and Keiichi would separate their consciences. Keiichi had to act on his own, the process was strange, Keiichi had felt some familiarity with this strange world, thanks to Galileo, but now he began to feel disoriented, especially since he could see how a new code was created, that code. In a way, that code held his conscious. Suddenly he felt alone, Galileo had separated and now Keiichi felt disconcerted, as a child that had been left alone, the thought was funny, that he recovered and began to explore the place by itself.

Keiichi approached the access point to this unknown system; in his mind he perceived it as if were a huge and ornamented door. He was not sure what to do so he simply touched it immediately the door activated and scanned him, then the door communicated a though: - ID attributes accepted as Judge. Please provide password for level III security.

Keiichi remembered he had received a series of passwords. Level III was the highest level, he wondered if it would work. He recalled it in his mind and without warning the access was open. The huge door simply disappeared.

He heard Galileo's voice this time it was outside his mind.

- I cannot enter. This access does not recognize my own credentials. I do not wish to force the security, since it could make the system reject you. Also one of my tasks has identified some fragments of my parent task. Apparently there are still data fragments on it, I will try to recover them.

Keiichi answered - Then I will wait for your return- and went into the door.

It was a vast file system, it overflowed his senses. The site was rich with complex information, it was like a feast to his senses, then without conscious effort he spread his conscious and with hundreds copies of himself began to work. At the taste of the first bits of information he was awed. This place contained information about the first born; soon he began to taste and sample around. His consciousness spread throughout this huge file-system, most of it was information from the time of the first born- Keiichi felt his spine Shiver, some of this was older than the big bang of his own universe – he took pieces from here and there to get some understanding. Slowly he learned about an era full of wonders and dreams, but also had pain and suffering, as ancient mortal beings learned the joy and agony of becoming gods. For Keiichi was a revelation that help him to understand Belldandy in a way he had never thought to be possible. It was a lot of information, he realized he had no time to analyze it, and began to absorb what seemed more relevant, and he went from a place to another. He reached a part that had to be recent. It was about the implementation of the doublet system. Keiichi suddenly stopped, he felt something, and he was not alone. Then a question popped into his mind.

- Who are you? How did you get permission to enter here?

Keiichi look around and saw a floating image. It was a young god, but with an arrogant stand. Keiichi could not interpret his facial marks, but realized he was a high rank god, yet there was something more important. . There was something familiar in, in his appearance and his ... aroma? Keiichi aspired and realized. It reminded him about Belldandy.

The god came and repeated his question impatiently; he was someone who was used to obedience.

- Answer me. Who are you? You're not a god, and you do not seem to be a demon. What are you?

Keiichi was someone used to respecting authorities, and even more; this was not a common authority, but a high rank god. Usually he would have become nervous and would begin to offer apologies, but Keiichi still remembered the godlike sensation of being omniscient and the attitude of the god had hurt him. Keiichi thought, that being could be a god, but that did not justify his tone, so Keiichi somehow felt angry enough to answer him using the same tone. Keiichi stood and proudly said:

- My name is Keiichi Morisato, I am a member of the order of the mortal knights, and I have been appointed as a judge of gods and demons, now answer me. Who are you and what is your relationship with Belldandy?

The god could not help an exclamation of surprise.

- Yes, you're a mortal!- said in accusing tone - You are the mortal that has been living with my daughter! Even more, you dare to use the title of Judge that is only for superior beings. What kind of creature are you? How did you get it?

Keiichi was taken aback by that statement.

- Belldandy's father? - His anger was replaced by his natural shyness, he felt embarrassed. He sniffed and realized that it was his data scent that had attracted him to that place. It reminded him about Belldandy. Keiichi swallowed hard and tried to change his attitude, he said with all the respect he could:

-It´s an honor to meet you. I have not harmed you daughter in any way, we love each other. I would give my life for her and I'm here because I fear there is a hidden menace to her. There is a menace that is targeting gods and demons; I want to know what it is.

The man was angered at Keiichi´s words.

- You? a mortal? We helped your race to exist, and yet you want to steal the secrets of the gods? Now I understand some of Skuld's memories, she did not like you. I cannot let you exist. Not only you have desecrated this place, I think you have changed Belldandy in some way and that is one of the reasons she has escaped my control. So, I will destroy you. You must die.

Sentarō was shaken by the explosion; he saw how the bomb´s shrapnel was thrown out, flying in all directions, it even detonated some nearby mines that produced more shrapnel. Those mines were not like those in the TV action movies where they simply throw people in the air. Dr Shugahara had explained to him how real mines worked and the effect of the shrapnel in a human body. While he explained that, it was the first time he has seen him angry, Sentaro had not dared to ask, but he suspected Shugahara had been a witness of the mines effect, so Sentaro did not wish to bother him with his fear, he clenched his teeth and concentrated on their plans. Each mine they could detonate was a mine that would not harm a human being. So while his fear was evident on his face, his eyes shone with decision. He raised the laptop he was carrying and examined the photos that were on the screen; soon he located another mine, and pointed it to Shugahara.

Shugahara looked at the children and smiled. Yes, it had been the correct decision. He had seen how he was controlling his fear, despite his young age. This child was really special; with a little guidance someday he could be a great man. Sentarō called him and pointed to a small promontory and he nodded. Shugahara had a small cylinder on his hand, it was the weapon of the first born, with it, and he pointed to the promontory, and simply made a mental order. The cylinder stretched faster than the human eye could follow. At the moment one extreme touched the rock at the promontory, it exploded and that detonated the land mine. He proceeded to detonate the next mine.

The first time, Sentarō had seen it work, He had commented that it looked like a light-saber from Star Wars, but soon they realized it was something much more powerful and deadly. At the moment it touched something, with just a mental order it could dissolve the bonds that kept atoms together, so anything material would disintegrate, but even that was not its true power. It had not been designed to rupture matter, but magic, its true purpose was to destroy the magic of a god or demon, and that included the containment field that held the power of a god, thus he had the power to kill a god. But so far he had no plans to use it for that. Somehow he felt as it were using the power of a nuclear reactor to light a candle. From moment he imagined he was using it like a scalpel, with the purpose of removing malignant tumors. Sentarō pointed to another place and he used it to detonate another mine.

Shugahara looked at the town and saw with satisfaction that and it looked like an anthill which had been molested. There was frantic activity everywhere, but his smile faded when he noticed several men that were dragging a group of weeping women. Each of them had something strapped to her body.

Sentarō spoke, but Shugahara signaled him to keep silent for a moment. He looked and examined each one of the women, but did not recognize any. Then he saw the door of a solid building the opened. His eyes glared with anger at noticing that it took two men to draw a young woman with torn occidental cloths. It took two men to drag the young woman. Yes, it was her!

His heart began to race, many live depended on this plan; they would never forgive him if something came out wrong.

He saw the women were gathered at the edge of town, even at that distance he could hear their screams and frightened cries. He called Sentarō attention toward the women, the child was scared by what he saw but recovered and understood, he took the laptop and began to mark the way to get near them. That is, the way where they could detonate the biggest number of mines.

Suddenly they heard an angry buzz and a small explosion in front of them followed for something that felled into the ground. It was a high-caliber bullet, stooped by the medallions shield. Then more began to impact the shield. They were being shot with everything the terrorist had, fortunately the shield could hold, yet they could feel the violence of the attack. Shugahara instinctively took the medallion hanging from his neck and saw glowing magical symbols on its surface. He held it firmly while he put his other hand on Sentaro´s shoulder, to help him to control his fear, and then whispered. - Urd, thanks for making this.

Once they were sure the shield would hold, they started walking slowly towards the women, they continue detonating the mines while a shower of bullets fell upon them. He wanted to make sure he got all their attention. So far this seemed safe, but Shugahara knew Ghadril had been right, if they had been there alone, only with one medallion, probably it would not have been enough.

They slowly approached the place where were the women had been gathered, and then they heard a sharp shout. Intermediately all the shooting stopped and they heard a voice speaking to them.

- Stop there, who are you? If you take one step further, we will kill the hostages.

They saw the voice came from a bearded man with a cruel face. There could not be any doubt he intended his words to be true. Shugahara replied with a loud voice... the same voice he sometimes had to use to put down rebellious students.

- You have kidnapped someone very important to us and stolen something you should not have, since you are unable to understand it´s power I will take it from you.

Momentously the bearded man was taken aback as being addresses as if he were a naughty child, but eventually he recovered and then he laughed.

- The world has turned its back on us, so we take what we need, and we know what we can do with that power. We understand that power. But now I see that you also have something that can give us more power. Surrender and give us whatever you are using or we will begin to kill these women. I doubt very much you can stand to see a woman die, you are so soft.

The man laughed again, he seemed to enjoy the prospect of killing someone. Shugahara´s anger was clearly visible, but he didn't answer, instead he instructed Sentarō to continue forward.

They advance a few steps and detonated another mine. The man screamed with rage.

- Haven't you heard me? Do you think I will not kill them? -He raised his hands to show his gun in one hand, and the detonator in the other. Each of these women has an explosive charge. I can detonate them one by one. So Stop, now!

As an answer Shugahara and Sentaro advances a few steps more and the man extended the detonator, punched a code to select one charge. But before he used it, a female voice cried. It was the American girl.

- Stop, I will not let you. - She jerked and managed to get released from the men that were holding her, then ran and stood between the women and the bearded man.

He exclaimed with anger.

- Do you really believe you're too important just because you created these crystals? - He pointed to bag he was carrying - No woman is worth so much.

The man pointed his gun toward her, and without saying anything, opened fire on her. He began to laughing madly as he emptied the full clip on the frail girl's body.

Soon the place was filled with screams.

End of Chapter XXXI