I apologize for the long time it took, but I was sick and I went through a surgery that prevented me concentrate on the story, but finally is here so I hope you like this chapter.

Elnauhual

The order of the Mortal Knights

By Elnauhual

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

Chapter XXXIII

At the heart of Yggdrasil

The night at the semi-desert place was a magnificent spectacle. Without the lights and fumes of the civilization the stars shone with a breathtaking splendor. Under that spectacle, leaning on a rock was a lonely man who was trying to concentrate on the bright screen of his laptop. However, it could not capture his attention. He was trying to write, but just typed, erased and corrected again and again, unable to translate his ideas. Finally he gave up and with and angry gesture turned off the machine, He closed his eyes to try to regain his night vision lost due the glare of the screen, meanwhile he meditated trying to organize his ideas. After a while he opened his eyes and looked at the starry sky. It was not the familiar sky where he was born, but neither was it unknown. Along his travels around the world he had the opportunity to familiarize himself with the stars of other latitudes. Slowly his full night vision began to return, he patiently waited as more and more stars became visible and with them he felt he regained an inner peace.

With certain resignation he leaned back comfortably on the ground to watch the magnificent starry sky and mentally hailed the visible constellations. He was enthralled as his vision was able to discern them; he softly spoke remembering the most ancient names he knew. Some names came from Greece, other Japan, Rome, Sumer and Mesoamerica. Each culture had given them different names, he could not help thinking that the oldest names were now lost, and yet the constellations stayed the same without apparent change. He smiled and thought he had been a fool trying to write down what had happened that day. His training as a scientist made him think he had to document everything, but now he had to accept he was so overwhelmed to do it, that would have to wait. After all he was just a human being.

Under the starry sky he realized he was a small and tiny speckle in the middle of the universe, yet he knew what he had done could change the destiny of humanity and he felt a shudder at the thought. He was a mortal who had intervened in the affairs of the gods, and then felt a kind of premonition. His actions had the potential to affect even the same stars and the thought was terribly disturbing. That was something only the gods should do, then athought of a particular goddess came into his mind and with a soft whisper a sentence escaped involuntarily from his lips:

- Urth, my goddess, where are you?

But the starry sky seemed unwilling to answer. He knew she was waging a struggle against an unknown enemy. His reason told him that his goddess was powerful so he didn't need to be scared but his human heart said otherwise. That idea was strange: to protect a goddess! That idea had taken him farther than he had ever imagined and gone into unexpected ways that ultimately had brought him to this lonely place.

Then Shugahara Kenji straightened and just sat for a moment on the cold ground. Then peered away into the dark looking for the dim lights of the town where something wonderful had happened that day. At least for one night, enemies, friends, strangers, foreigners, men, women, youth, children and elderly had joined into one, sharing their humanity and he was responsible for all that. He shuddered at the thought of having the power to do so. That was not something he wanted, he was just a man, a mortal, even when the gods had said he was now something else. Was he really a judge of demons and gods? At first he had seen it as a purely ceremonial title, but what happened to Galileo had shown him that it was much more than a title.

He remembered when he had had his first encounter with the supernatural, when the Tear of Hild had tried to seduce him with power. He had somehow passed that test, but deep down he knew he was not completely immune to the call of power. He would have to be on guard against his own thoughts. At the thought he uttered an ancient curse in a dead language that echoed in the silence of the night and then was shocked by his action. Finally he broke into a hearty and contagious laugh at the thought of what his students would have said of the old fashioned professor using those words to express his feelings. Humor was a great medicine, perhaps the most powerful, especially against taking himself too seriously.

Finally with a sigh he realized he had walked to far away from the town in his desire to have a little solitude. He knew there were mines not far away and he should not stray too far from the safe zone. He looked once again at the starry sky and mentally He thanked those constellations that were like old friends and that fortunately could guide him to the town, even if they did not care to answer his former question. Then slowly he made his way back to town.

After long minutes and fearing he had lost his way, he arrived at the town and there, under the yellow light of a haggard old incandescent light he saw two familiar figures. Sentarō and Sergeant Valois were attempting to communicate, with little success. The child´s Japanese was completely incomprehensible to Valois while his heavily accented English was far beyond what the child had learned in school. Kenji stopped a moment enjoying the scene; at least between these two different beings there was an attempt to communicate. Finally he went to act as an interpreter.

The boy looked at him with joy.

- Sensei Shugahara, I've been looking for you, now that Ghadril finished her song, I cannot understand anyone.

Kenji replied smiling.

- I just wanted to walk around trying to write what happened here, but I am too excited to concentrate. I am glad you are trying to talk to the sergeant, he is an excellent person. I hope you would have time to know him better.

- But I do not understand him. I asked him to explain to me how he was able to fake his death and I hear him saying something about ... ... - The child stopped, then blushed and continued- I think he said something about a condom.

Kenji smiled amused; he knew that had been a suggestion of Valois. It was essential that Hervieux earn the terrorists trust, and at the same time Ghadril could be put into the terrorists hands so she could protect the hostages in case the worst happened. At first it seemed Valois plan was crazier than his own plans, but it had been a success. It had been a miracle that Valois had relied on Ghadril skills without checking them first but apparently his desire to protect the young scientist in his care was very strong.

Kenji spoke briefly to Valois to confirm what had been trying to tell him and then began to explain to Sentarō.

- Sergeant Valois was once called to train some actors for a movie and there he learned some special effects. Basically, you place a protective metal plate in the chest, then a small explosive charge that is powered by electricity; on top of that you put on a condom filled with fake blood and tape it with some medical tape , finally you put your clothes on. For a better effect, you can also make some cuts on the clothes so they break more easily with the explosion. So when Hervieux shot blanks, Valois activated the explosive charge that broke the condom and fabric, expelling the fake blood. The result was the perfect illusion of a bullet penetrating the body with a wound full of very convincing fake blood. It's an old movie trick, but still very effective.

The boy looked with admiration to the burly sergeant and thanked him the explanation, the sergeant laughed with an conspiratorial laugh and soon all three were laughing. It was a liberating laughter after the events they had experienced.

Suddenly the doctor felt a presence and looked back. There was a little girl, she was about ten years old and watching them in amazement. The girl was shocked when she realized that Shugahara was looking at her and said something almost incomprehensible, slowly she got nearer, trembling and left a tray of food at their feet. Then she knelt hiding her face.

Kenji was stunned, he tried to speak to her but she trembled again saying something he could not understand. Kenji attempted to comfort her, then had an idea, and asked Sentarō to approach the girl. Sentarō nodded, and knelt beside her and spoke, she lifted her face. She still showed fear at foreign child, but the child's smile made it quickly disappear. Sentarō very gently forced her to get up, but there was still fear on her face. She knew he was a child like her, but also he was a child that could talk to a goddess.

Sentaro overcame his shyness and touched her face, at the touch of his hands she stopped shaking, and fear gradually became wonder. She had seen they had power, they had survived the land mines, and yet they seemed to be very friendly. There was an awkward moment, until they heard a voice and saw a man coming out of the darkness, he was Hervieux, he stopped a few feet away and spoke with reverence reflected in his voice.

- You should not wonder about that, Shugahara, in fact, even I am tempted to bow down to the one to whom the gods obey. What will happen now? Even now I cannot comprehend what happened. I never thought I could forgive that man, and I know that I should doubt that he will change, but reason tells me one thing and my heart says another. I do not understand it. Will this also happen in rest of the world? Is that your plan?

Kenji gulped nervously, he really was not sure, what had happened that day had exceeded all his expectations. He knew Valkyrie were specialists into altering people's memories in order to hide certain events so they were not known to mortals, and in this case he had ordered Ghadril to go beneath their memories to look on the seed of their hatred and try to sooth it, but somehow he went much deeper, she went deep into the human soul, heart and mind, touching the most inner depths and venting their innermost feelings sharing it with other humans. It had had been a beautiful, exhilarating and at the same time terrible and disturbing communion. The results have gone beyond his wildest dreams. How had the warrior goddess gained such knowledge? Kenji was lost in his train of thoughts until he realized everyone was staring at him, he sighed and said:

- The world is not yet prepared to understand what happened here, but I think this is like a seed that will grow very slowly, and as a seed, we need to look after it and nurture it. Also we will have to seed other ideas, not everything may depend on magic. That terrible man, who tried to fill the world with terror, is now trying to convince his followers that the path is not hatred, but also he is aware that it may not survive that effort. The road will be long and I think that blood still can be spilled and we must do everything possible to stop that from happening, so I will need men and women with dreams, willing to trust me on what we are doing. I want you to join me along other dreamers, together we can guide humanity in ways never before dreamed.

Valois and Hervieux and looked at each other, Kenji's words gave them a new goal in their lives to a level that could transcend way beyond anything they had imagined. Hervieux answered first.

- I do not know what plans you have, but I will not return to the CERN, the young teacher that died here, she was also a dreamer, I knew her since she was a child and I encouraged her to stay here, I am responsible. I have a debt so I will take her place. I brought suffering to this place, my own town. I have huge debts to pay here.

Kenji smiled; he was a better judge of men than he gave himself credit. He had expected something like that.

- Then you can help us here too. This is as good a place as any ... And you Valois, there is a young and brilliant woman we need to protect and I fear this is only the first time of many. You also have your responsibility. I have peered into her work, and she can take us to unknown roads, unfortunately many people hate unknowns. We'll stay a few days here, there are many plans we need to prepare, and we must disable many mines, and I mean not only those mines that explode, but also to human actions that in the long term may be even more destructive. Will you join me?

Valois and Hervieux and nodded eagerly. Then Kenji commented.

- Now, speaking of deactivating mines, we must decide what we do with our reporter. By now the outside world should have received many of the pictures he took and I will need a good explanation of events.

Valois commented:

- I think that it was a mistake to let him stay here; let me requisition all his photos and videos. I saw him a few moments ago, he continues to shoot everything, fortunately he only managed to enter the town when Ghadril had finished so he does not understand what happened, still he does not cease to document everything he sees. Tomorrow the world will know that something extraordinary happened here and we will all be known to the world.

- Do not worry, in that sense, we have already exercised a little censorship in what he already sent. I have someone monitoring that. That was how I got the pictures of the minefield and remember he voluntarily gave you the rest of the photos of the mine-free areas. Also I spoke with him earlier and agreed that there should be some censorship. He has agreed not to send any of our faces. He has been a war reporter and understands that. I trust him, he is a good man.

- I must admit that the information he gave us was very useful, but is it really enough to rely on? Also have you thought what story will the world know?

Kenji did not answer, he looked at Sentarō, and he was trying to talk to the girl. While words did not work, somehow communication was still possible. He smiled and let himself to be distracted by that then said thoughtfully.

- It must be a story that does not make us into messiahs or something similar. Mankind must believe in itself, and not place their faith into a man or into magic. Yes, humanity will know that something happened here ... but for a while we leave it as a mystery... Until they find an appropriate explanation in my forthcoming book - he could not help laughing at the thought - You will all be partakers of the biggest conspiracy theory of all time...

Keiichi could not help but gasp at the greeting of the God. He had heard something about Gaia when Othala had explained to him how he had recovered after the Tarikihongan temple attack. But at the time he was so worried about Belldandy, that barely had paid attention, just remembered it had something do with a strange power coming from earth itself.

Then he felt observed, the god looked at him with intense curiosity, examining his reactions, then the god slowly separated his hand from Keiichi´s, as if he afraid to break something, then he examined his hand carefully, as hoping to see some change on it and said:

- Interesting, I never imagined that a human could have so much power and not realize it. You have a power that is able to change any god that comes in contact with you. - He closed his eyes as if he was trying to gasp what was going on and then opened them with an air of understanding - Now I begin to understand the memories that I drew forcibly from Skuld. You have been in contact with various gods and you have altered their existence, even ... - He hesitated and then said softly - you have changed my daughters, especially Belldandy. I had destined Belldandy to be the greatest among the gods ... You have... - He did not finish talking, he shuddered as trying to fight something, then he wondered- You have changed me, I had my plans, my intentions. What has become of them? What have you done to me?

Keiichi winced, he was afraid that the god had recovered his previous attitude, so he felt the need to explain to him

- I do not want to cause any damage. I love ... - he hesitated before daring to say-I love your daughter Belldandy, I will never harm her, nor those whom she loves.

- Those whom she loves? - The god said softly and looked straight into the deep brown eyes of the mortal- Would my daughter still love me if she knew what I had planned for her?. I considered her a pawn, as a tool, like a puppet that only would serve to take control. - the god suddenly seemed to start to age, his youthful aspect was dissolving and wrinkles appeared on his face, as if the years of his past were revealed, Keiichi exclaimed in alarm.

-Are you alright! Maybe you need to rest, maybe we should ask for help.

The god looked at him and smiled with surprise on his face, Keiichi's genuine concern for him seemed surprising.

- Extraordinary, only a few moments ago I tried to destroy you, yet now you care about me. I can see why Belldandy loves you. I think I have no choice but to accept that you really are one of the great judges, even if it´s difficult to accept. Still I do not understand why there is a human here in Yggdrasil memory? Skuld memories are fuzzy, but I realize we are living in strange times, Hild has become Heavens Ally? And there is a human that there is a great judge? I think I do not belong here, I am starting to feel old.

At those words the god really became older. At his first encounter he looked barely a bit older than Keiichi, but now he looked like a human of sixty years and was aging fast. Keiichi began to understand. The appearance of a god was not about age but about his mental state, the god should be going through a deep crisis. Keiichi stooped seeing in him a mighty god, and instead he saw only a confused person. The young mortal felt his sadness, then examined his own hands. Did he really have the power to change gods? After some doubts he put his hands on the god's shoulders.

- I think I begin understand who you are, is something like when the goddesses are divided into avatars, you must be a fragment of Belldandy father and in a way you are still alive, but I know Belldandy's father was very powerful, judging from Hild´s avatar, you must be still have a lot of power. That power may be needed to protect Belldandy and your world.

- Protect my world? – the god shook his head - Something very strange is going on, but the memories that I took from Skuld are confusing, I have to figure out what's going on.

Keiichi looked into the eyes of the God; He felt a genuine concern for his words and said:

- Then take my own memories!

- And you offer them freely? - Asked the astonished god - In spite of everything I did?

Keiichi nodded with a smile, then the god reached out his hand to touch Keiichi´s face, hesitated a bit, but Keiichi grabbed his hand and pulled it into his own face.

The god began mining the memories of the mortal who did not try to hide or hold anything back. The god saw the first meeting between the mortal and his daughter, he saw what they had spent together and began to wonder. In awe he saw Keiichi´s memories from the battle of the temple, and his actions to help his goddess. Then he saw Belldandy becoming Kamisama, he saw Hild saving his daughters, he saw about the magna truce and Keiichi becoming a judge of gods and mortals.

He was taken aback at the deep love between the young moral and his daughter, and then his eyes were flooded in tears at the images of the destruction of the council chamber that Keiichi had witnessed in a recording. He felt there was much more, but it was beyond Keiichi's memories. The god was horrified by what he had seen, and needed to know more, he extended his free hand and it materialized a control screen, then began to search files into Yggdrasil huge memories, using Keiichi's memories as reference.

The god deftly began collecting information fragments, breaking trough protection barrier, retrieving secret recordings, assembled all that he had learned in great detail what had been happening. As a token he shared with Keiichi those images. The horror of the scenes brought them together.

They saw how Belldandy had been intoxicated with the energy she had absorbed, and they witnessed her transformation into a being dominated by the lust for power. They also saw the effects of infection on his people, at that moment Keiichi's offered a last memory that made the god cry, Keiichi showed him that mortals were working to help demons and gods.

At that moment the god looked at Keiichi in awe and searched once again among the system files, he materialized Keiichi's file. Keiichi was surprised by the file. This was something very special; Keiichi had learned to perceive data systems as tastes and odors. And that file had the taste of very high secret encoded files. But why? Belldandy had told him he was special to the system, so Heaven had sent a goddess first class, the best of all goddess, to protect him. Keiichi had forgotten about that, but here was the proof.

The god frowned and closed his eyes muttering a spell so the file protection broke into pieces. Both began to examine it, but it was too complex for Keiichi, who could only understand that the system gave his life a higher priority than Belldandy ... Then the God separated sharply from Keiichi, who felt pain at the sudden disconnection. The mortal saw the horror and despair in the face of god after he had realized that he had contributed to the state of things.

- Son of Gaia, I tried to destroy you and thereby I have endangered my world, I have interfered with my daughters, and Belldandy was seized by a strange entity, I think everything I've done has only put my world in danger.

The god fell upon his knees moaning, but then Keiichi took him by his shoulders and shouted at him.

- This is no time to get carried away by the burden of your acts. I think you still have a lot of power and you can use it to help us. We believe that in Yggdrasil's memory there is an enemy hidden, the real culprit of the tragedies in Heaven and in Hell. An enemy that we suspect it has been hidden for long, we need to recover Galileo´s memory.

The god was taken by surprise.

- Galileo? Is he the artificial consciousness I saw in your mind! He is here! in Yggdrasil memory?

Keiichi nodded.

- The artificial consciences are prohibited in Yggdrasil, if the system detects him, it will destroy him immediately, if that hidden enemy does not destroy him first.

- But Galileo is now a citizen of the earth...

- That does not matter to the system. - The god was silent a moment, then said, musing. - Now I begin to understand. I'm sure that hidden intruder you are seeking is the cause of the madness, I do not understand how it could penetrate into the depths of the system, but I cannot tolerate its existence. You are right, there is something that I can do, and if I destroy it maybe we can stop the infection of the madness. Maybe doing that I can compensate for what I have done.

The god appeared to regain his youth in response to his new resolution. Suddenly s they heard a buzzing sound and something began to appear in front of them, it looked completely out-of-place.

It looked like an old fashioned computer monitor, at first the screen was out of sync, but then began to stabilize and the image of a beautiful goddess appeared . Keiichi recognize her and was gladly surprised at the familiar face.

- Peorth? - He exclaimed in surprise. How did you locate us? How is that you can communicate with me?.

The goddess looked at him in amazement, and took a few seconds to react, she replied doubtfully.

- Keiichi? Is that really you? And the god besides you looks like Councilman Tyr. But that's impossible; he should be dead along with his wife. He was ambushed in the last days before the truce with Hell.

Keiichi felt a chill. That seemed to explain many things.

- It's a long story how I got here, but yes, He is Belldandy´s father or maybe I should say, one of his avatars, I think he had been hidden into Skuld even before this death, and I suspect there must be another part of him in Urd and Belldandy.

The goddess looked at him; she narrowed her eyes and then she just nodded slowly. Keiichi tried to speak, but was interrupted by Peorth.

- We do not have much time, Keiichi, I'm sure your story will be interesting, but what I want to know right now is this. You did not come alone, your logged into the system in the form of a very important software for us, It´s the ADX Series, this software is part of Yggdrasil system protection, yet we could not find any active copies of it, only scattered code fragments in memory and what is left appears damaged. How is it possible that you have access to a copy of that software? How did you activate it and control it? I have many gods nervous about that. They believe it could be a spy or worse, besides that it is impossible for a human to be able to get into the system as a conscious. No human has that ability.

Keiichi angrily heard the suggestion that Galileo could be dangerous, so he spoke with a poise and determination that surprised Peorth

- This software has a new name: he is called Galileo; he fled from Yggdrasil to take refuge on earth. We gave him asylum and now we have recognized him as a conscious being. - Keiichi overheard exclamations of wonder and fear that came from the screen, apparently his words had not been well received, but that didn't matter, He knew now that there were other listeners- with our authority of judges we accepted him as a denizen from earth, you no longer have jurisdiction over him. But Galileo's memory was damaged while he was trying to take refuge on earth, specifically on my computer. He cannot remember his existence here and who or what destroyed his parent process. That brought us here, looking for the missing information; we believe it has to do with the infection that is affecting the gods. - Keiichi smiled with a hint of bitterness to hear whispers from the screen, he knew the reason. - I know that for some reasons artificial consciences are prohibited in heaven, so we entered here by a backdoor and tried to hide our presence, but it seems that you finally found us.

Peorth had run out of words, it was an incredible story, and then Belldandy's father stepped in and spoke with authority, yet the tension in his voice was evident.

- Peorth, first class goddess. I am the councilor Tyr, and I order you to contact Belldandy and Urd, I have to prevent them. - He hesitated before continuing, but this time his voice lost all this authority, instead he was begging - I cannot reach my other avatars that reside into my daughters. I think at least one of them was destroyed and something very strange happened to the other. Although we are only a fragment of Councilor Tyr, We still have a lot of power, and if one of us gets out of control it can be dangerous, I need to contact them and inform them of the new situation, I beg you goddess Peorth

Peorth paled at Tyr´s words then slowly and painfully said:

- A short while ago it was reported that Ragna protocol was invoked. - And added accusingly - Lind seemed to be the only one that is left from the high council of the sisterhood of the Valkyrie, and soon she also will be executed. The other members of the high council of the sisterhood of the Valkyrie are already dead.

Belldandy's father let out a gasp of horror, and dropped to his knees. He knew there was an explanation for that. He put his hands into his head in horror and said.

- What have I done? - Then added slowly - At the time Belldandy was named Kamisama, my other avatar should have slowly taken control of her in order to fulfill my dream of uniting the multiverse into one. Belldandy needed my guidance and my power. But I just checked the logs and saw that Belldandy was not acting according to what I expect; something must have gone wrong, very wrong.

Another figure appeared on the screen with Peorth. He was Councilman Myr, but this time he was not acting as the kind god, but as an angered god, a severe figure representing all the authority of his office. He said accusingly.

- You tried to control Kamisama? Your own daughter Belldandy? She is Kamisama our highest authority. That is high treason councilor Tyr. I always knew you were ambitious, that you could do anything to get whatever you wish for, but I never thought that you could to resort to manipulating your own daughters. Since you were authorized to have three daughters, I should have suspected something strange. Yes Councilor Tyr! I remember you well, and even if you are only a ghost of the real Tyr, you are still responsible. By your words I suspect that Lind discovered that something was insides Belldandy, trying to take control of her, so she decided to act to free Belldandy, even if that would costs her life. As consequence, Lind and the high council of the sisterhood of the Valkyrie have been sacrificed to correct your actions. Do you know the penalty for doing something like that?

- The penalty for treason? yes I know it, I actually wrote it, remember? - He smiled with some bitterness- When I was planning this, it did not seem to be treason, and I just wanted to act against those stupid council members that did not want to see into the future. But now this young mortal, this judge has made me realize what I did.

Keiichi have been following the conversation and was trying to grasp it´s meaning and when he finally realized the implication, he exclaimed in alarm:

-You tried to control Belldandy? What did you do to her? In those recordings she was acting strange, as if she did not care about anyone. That is not how Belldandy would act! You have poisoned her!

- That was not supposed to happen. - Replied the god in pain- Something else must have gotten inside her. I cannot contact my avatar in her. I must contact Belldandy to find out.

Peorth interrupted.

-I have sent a message to Belldandy, asking her to contact me. But she is Kamisama. I am sure she is Ok.

Keiichi insisted:

- And Lind? Why is she is in danger? we know she never would hurt Belldandy, and Councilman Myr already has said he is the culprit, so there is no reason to execute Lind! - Keiichi felt panic: - you must found Belldandy and speak with her, told her what we have found, I trust Lind, if she found out and acted, then all must be well now. She does not deserve to die for helping her. We must save Lind.

Peorth looked sadly at Keiichi.

- Sorry Keiichi this is no longer about who is guilty or not. Lind should have realized something was wrong with Belldandy, that is the only reason I can imagine to invoke the Ragna protocol. This protocol involves calling the high council of the Valkyrie and the death sentence is the price to invoke the Ragna protocol. No matter if she was right or wrong. When the Valkyrie accepted the Ragna protocol, they all knew it was their death sentence, yet they accepted it. From the beginning they knew it. It´s something similar to the doublet system. Once invoked there is no way to stop it. We have no way to save Lind, whether she is right or not. To act against Kamisama it´s the supreme treason, if the reason is right or not, it does not matter. At this moment there is a meeting at the highest level. Belldandy is going to talk; I guess she is alright now. I am sure that if Myr cannot contact his avatar it means that Lind was successful. But that would not save Lind.

Keiichi swallowed hard at grasping the meaning of the Ragna protocol.

- But Councilman Tyr said he is guilty!- Insisted Keiichi, and looked at the god in despair- There must be a way to prevent it- He took the god by his shoulders and shook him - There must be a way, you must tell them the truth, tell Belldandy the truth about you.

The god did not dare to look into his eyes and said: - It will not help. Time is already running and Lind´s death is already programmed into her own goddess code. There is no way to avoid it.

Keiichi beg them:

- There must be a way, Belldandy would not allow it. She is Kamisama; she must have the power to stop it. Please contact her!

From the screen, Councilman Tyr looked at the mortal and felt his pain, He had not imagined that anyone could feel such strong feelings for the cold Lind, and then said sadly.

- Not even Kamisama can stop it, And at this moment not even I have the power to contact Kamisama, interrupting a meeting after the Ragna protocol has been involved. The place is sealed beyond my reach until a decision is made. But there is something urgent, something we can do. We are using undocumented features from Yggdrasil for observation and besides you we have detected that there is another unknown process. At this time the process is in motion and it´s heading toward the entity you call Galileo I have suspicions that it is the same process that destroyed all Yggdrasil's defenses. If this is true, then when the process detects that Galileo comes from the ADX Series it will try to destroy it. Unfortunately, the ADX Series was designed to manipulate the system against external threats, but not internal, so it does not have any defense against an attack from inside the system.

Keiichi looked at the screen, his face showed determination, then again he wielded the weapon of the first born and spoke to the god which still had his hands on his head as not wanting to hear anything.

- I don´t know why you tried to control Belldandy; I am willing to accept that as her father you did not tried to harm her. But if we cannot do anything for Belldandy and Lind, then at least we must do something. You must help me to protect the system and Galileo.

The god looked at Keiichi with humility, and then as Keiichi's words sank into his conscious, his face hardened, and muttered a spell that sounded familiar to Keiichi. A flash enveloped the god and his appearance changed, Keiichi immediately recognized the new outfit, it was the battle uniform of the gods. Then the god shouted at the screen.

- Peorth, goddess first class! Transfer me immediately to the memory location closest to the intruder. I'll face this menace, this mortal life has already done too much and his life is too valuable...

But the god was interrupted abruptly.

- Wait a second Tyr, your arrogance is still the same. You are officially dead and you do not have any authority to give orders. Keiichi, why were you and Galileo looking in that particular memory area ?

Keiichi felt he was between two powerful gods, but he did not care, his mind was thinking of Belldandy, so he said almost defiantly.

- We detected fragments of code that were almost identical to Galileo´s code, so we thought they had to belong to the software that you call ADX, Galileo´s parent task. Maybe we can recover data from those memory fragments to know about the attacker, the enemy responsible behind the madness.

Myr was surprised by that mortal that seemed to know Yggdrasil as much as he, after thinking a moment replied:

- Then we must you help to recover that memory. Since you already have identified the memory section, I will run an algorithm to try to recover the memory pool and try to repair the damage information as much as I can. But we will need time to recover corrupted information. Since that memory has been declared free by the system, any task can use it an erase the traces, fortunately that is a seldom used node but the stranger is moving toward it. It can wipe it completely. Tyr, did you hear me? If you mindlessly attack the stranger you will corrupt the memory in that area and it will become useless.

- Then I will draw it unto me and take it beyond that area, but you must find a secure memory area where I will destroy it.

Myr gave him a quizzical look:

- And just how do you think you are going to attract it. It´s a stealth process, if you simply attack it, it will vanish from view, and then we will lose it. I can tell from its current movements in memory, it seems it has already chosen its prey. - Keiichi cried at the implications, but was interrupted by Belldandy´s father who answered angrily:

- Myr, you were always the genius of the system, you tell me.

- It´s good you remember it, I think I have a plan. I can move you there, but I will exchange your position in memory with Galileo´s position, but before that, I will change you system ID so you appear to be part of the ADX series, so it will go after you. Peorth is already isolating a section from the nodes auxiliary memory that we can afford to damaged. But in doing so, you cannot have all your power, I will put a seal on them so you appear to be similar to ADX, otherwise you will look suspicious and this thing will not fall into the trap. When the information is retrieved, I will break the seal and you must destroy it, you must survive until then.

Keiichi interrupted, he had several ideas going in his head...

- I also must participate, that's why I came here.

The god looked at him straight in his eyes then put his hands on his shoulders and said softly.

- You're a mortal, your life is short and limited, and I have found it´s much richer than I ever can imagine. Belldandy not only loves you, but I also have found special information about you. You're too valuable to risk your life.- Keiichi tried to protest, but the god continued: - I'll leave you something; I hope you will be able to share it with Belldandy.

Before the young mortal had time to react, the god put hands on his temples and started singing.

The impact left Keiichi breathless, then he saw wonderful things and also tragic things, he realized they were memories extracted directly from the god's mind, but Keiichi panicked at the volume of them, even if they were selected, the god had existed for millions of years, it was too much for him. Keiichi tried to make some sense of them and realized that they were old memories that were not in the files, they were very personal memories, along ancient history and very old magic. But it was too much information and too little time. Finally Keiichi could not stand the flow of information anymore and fall unconscious.

- What have you done to the mortal? - Myr askedhim with a demanding tone.

- Nothing dangerous, He will remain unconscious for a while; I overload his mind but not enough to cause damage. I do not wish to harm him; I just don't want him to try to go after me. I'm ready!

- Okay, but I must warn you, the stranger moves very fast in our system, he has lived on it during major eras and maybe he knows it better than us. I'm checking the area where the mortal told us, and indeed there are remains from a failed ADX267 task, but it's very damaged, it was a very deliberate destruction, I can see that logic bombs were used. I do not know if I can retrieve the information, it is too damaged but still I'll try. That information can be vital for us, since the madness continues attacking other gods, and we have not found any way to stop it by ourselves.

- You have not found how it´s done?

Chancellor Myr sighted and lifted a hand, he was wearing a bracelet.

- The Mortals gave us this. At first I reject it as a bad joke, but Lind´s report to the council seemed adamant. She claimed the infection comes from the energy Yggdrasil gives to each one of us. She insisted that the most important members of the council and the Valkyrie use it. This bracelet has pure energy from the mortal world. It is very pure, and none of those who have used this bracelet have been infected. Lind sent some bracelets to the highest level members of the council. Some of them refused to use it, but now they have fallen victims to the madness.

Tyr exclaimed: - So that bracelet is the work of mortals! - He looked at Keiichi at with respect. - The world I which I have waked up in is stranger that I ever dreamt. We the almighty gods, have to rely on mortals.

Myr nodded solemnly, and murmurs were heard behind him, His revelation had taken other gods by surprise. Peorth, who had been working, made him a signal, he nodded and said:

- We are ready, but you should be careful, once we send you there you will be very vulnerable.

- I understand the danger, now transfer me!

Myr signaled to Peorth, she activated the controls and her screen and Tyr´s body froze and then began to dissolve. He was replaced by a geometric and changing shape. It was Galileo. There was a general gasp; there it was, one of the most feared things in Heaven, synthetic consciences. Even Myr was shaken, with his voice breaking with emotion he muttered:

- Welcome Galileo, we have been looking for you, but we never expected we could talk to you.

Galileo had no human form, but his code was depicted as a beautiful and complex geometry with continuously changing colors that transmitted something. Peorth observed and correctly guess it´s meaning. He had emotions! The software was able to have emotions and showed them as colors!, A shiver ran through her body. For thousands of years she had been taught that any software with conscience and emotions should not exist or the consequences could be dire. Yet here it was exactly that and her mission now was to protect it. Galileo spoke and Peorth was frozen at hearing a voice that was kind and intelligent.

- What happened to Keiichi-san? Has he been damaged?

While he spoke, he enveloped Keiichi´s body, examining him carefully, while pulsating colors roamed across his geometrical body. Stunned, Peorth looked at Chancellor Myr, who just nodded with a smile. He was an ancient god but even he was fascinated. Somehow this being was not as fearsome as he had expected, and he remembered the times before the ban when he had played with this possibility in mind. He put his hand on the goddess shoulder to reassure her, he knew that the young goddess had experienced many new things today and just needed a little support. Peorth did not disappoint the Chancellor. After a brief pause she recovered and spoke, trying not to show emotion on her voice.

- Keiichi-san just received a huge data transfer, he has not received any damage, but he will take a while to process and organize the information. He will be alright, but meanwhile, we have many questions. Will you give us information? are you still part of Yggdrasils system?.

Galileo left Keiichi body; apparently he was satisfied after his examination, and then answered quietly and firmly.

- I am a free conscience, and no longer part of Yggdrasils hierarchy, I have been accepted as a self-aware being in the mortal world. But you are not my enemy, my origins are here and I accept I have some responsibilities to your world even if my existence is banned here. I will give you all the information you ask.

From the screen several cries of horror were heard, they had confirmed Galileo was really a free artificial consciousness. Councilman Myr made a gesture to silence the gods. Peorth spoke nervously.

- Please confirm your Identity, what or who are you?

- Mortals have given me the name Galileo, but my previous designation within Yggdrasils system would bePredictive Defense Program v2.03.0 adx-654 5 for being a thread derived from that software, however because I suffered damage to my code, several damaged routines were replaced by new routines borrowed from other libraries of code, so my current designation using Yggdrasil´s directives would be adx-654 v3.00. Those new functions and subroutines have given me cognitive ability that not my parent process lacked.

Peorth questioned him; curiosity began to help her to master her fear.

- Keiichi says that you fled to the mortal world why?

- My existence as a self aware being started in the mortal world, some of the information that my parent process tried to preserve was damaged and so far I have been enabled to recover, so I have little knowledge before that event. I know that my parent process had stored knowledge about the stranger, but was not able to communicate with the system operators since most of his I/O routines had been damaged. I was sure my parent process was destroyed, but maybe we could repair the data using two different sources. We were hoping to recover the damaged memory, so we entered Yggdrasil, I estimate there is a good chance of recovering at least some of the info. Keiichi thinks that would help to identify and understand the threat that is acting against Yggdrasil. So I asked to be returned to the memory area from where I was extracted.

At saying these words a violent change of color occurred in the software body, Peorth observed with curiosity and wonder.

- Was that an emotion? Why would say that you should return provoke an emotion so strong?

- Keiichi tells me that emotion is called "fear", but that should I learn to control it and not ignore it.

- Fear? What are you afraid of?

- I felt a strange presence coming, maybe be a residual memory from my parent task, but I could say it is the same process that destroyed it. I must return. I failed to recover the fragments of information that were resident in the system.

- Even risking to be destroyed.

- Yes.

Chancellor Myr was impressed and he was not trying to hide it, he addressed Galileo in his full capacity of chancellor.

- Galileo, I'm the Chancellor Myr, and one of the designers of the system. You need not return to that area, it's too dangerous, all of Yggdrasil defense software including the ADX software has been rendered inoperative, and I agree, this strange software may be the culprit. It´s a surprise to know that a copy survived, albeit you are an altered copy. I will try to use the system recovery options to retrieve as much information as remains in that memory zone, it´s true, it´s too much damage, but your plan to mix the two damaged sources is a brilliant idea. As soon as we get the full scan and recovery, we will send you that information. But I must warn you, Yggdrasil is not a safe place for you. You must leave the system as soon as possible.

- What will you do with the stranger?

Myr put attention to one of the information screens in front of him, and slowly replied.

- At this time, the avatar of a god, Councilman Tyr will face the stranger, he is attracting it to a safe memory zone masked as you, and then he will try to destroy.

Galileo stayed silent a few seconds. At the operative center they could see how it was retrieving info from several parts of the system, and then spoke. His voice had little emotion, but his erratic changing colors said otherwise.

- I have analyzed information about this Councilman Tyr. It seems he is not a full god, but only an avatar, a fragment of a god. I estimate a 90% of possibility of him being destroyed. I remembered that Yggdrasil had powerful defenses, more powerful than any god, and all were destroyed. Yet you sent an avatar, not a full god, he willhave no chance against the stranger if he dares to attack it. He must flee from there...

Myr paled at Galileo words, He had been a fool, and Tyr´s confidence had made him forget he was just a fraction of a god. Had he done iton purpose?

He shouted to all the personal: - Fast, release all of Tyr´s seals and gethim out of there, move him to a safe area...

But nobody seemed to react; Myr looked around and saw only incredulous looks, finally saw that Peorth was pointing to a screen.

- Councilman Tyr's process has been brought to a halt, the system reports an error: corrupted code execution. It was too fast, we could not react in time.

Peorth said shaken as tears flowed from her eyes.

Myr was shaken too; he closed his eyes, his fists twitching with impotence and breathed slowly trying to recover his pose. Then he realized something, Tyr, or at least his avatar had committed treason, not only should he would be executed, but as Belldandy´s father, that would bring shame on her and her position as Kamisama would be weaken. No one dared to say a word and silence invaded the room broken only by some system sounds.

Finally Myr opened his eyes and looked at Peorth-

- Councilman Tyr would have been tried and convicted for treason even if he was only a fragment of the original consciousness. - He looked around and said solemnly - Councilman Tyr died in battle many years ago, and died with honor. Today we have only seen... software with his image being destroyed. That is all, and that way will be registered on logs. As a Councilman I bind you to keep all this as a private matter on Kamisama behalf. Not to be spoken of. That is my command

He put his hand on his chest, muttered a spell and from him a flash of light flooded the room. The gods were silent and then bowed to him. They had accepted his command.

This time Peorth took the hand of the god, she had realized that she had been a link between these two gods. Had they been friends or rivals? She would never know. Myr smiled at the gesture, and gently grab her hand and softly said.

- I did not expect to mourn him again, but that will have to wait. We have several problems here, the stranger is much more powerful than I ever imagined. - He looked at the screen and said - Galileo, you must go and take with you that young mortal; he is too valuable to risk his life. I'm sending the fragments of memory we could recover. Without a running copy of the ADX series that is useless to us. I cannot use your code and get a new task, it has been altered and eventually Yggdrasil would reject it. Do not try to return, the system is too dangerous for you, and we will not be able to protect you.

- Thank Chancellor Myr, we have learned a lot, I also assess that staying here involves more risks than benefits.

To Myr´s surprise, Galileo wrapped Keiichi and merged with him and now they were a single piece of software, Myr never thought that was possible, He wanted to know more, but the old prejudices against artificial intelligences were still present, before he could react, it disappeared.

In the control room, Myr turned off the screens and looked at all the gods with whom he had been working. You have heard. Yggdrasil is no longer safe, but not only for Galileo, but for us. We must try to contain it because the infection comes from there. We need to stop extracting our energy from the system. Cancel all the functions that provide power to the gods. We cannot risk having more infected.

- But we shall have no energy and no power! - Said a voice of protest, which only provoked a smile from the Chancellor, he extended his arm to show them the bracelet.

- Lind was right, this bracelet can give us the power to sustain us. Now I hope she is right in the second part. Seems the old mortal legends can be truth.

- What legends? - Asked Peorth.

- Mortals have legends that they made offerings to the gods, so gods could have power and live, since they could nor live without that. Lind told me that mortals are now making millions of these to help us. I do not understand how we got to this, but, however strange it may be, we now depend on the mortals offerings.

A woman in her forties and with the impeccable immaculate white coat worn by high-level theoretical scientists was examining a bracelet that appeared to be made of a polished ceramic. She was using a low level microscope on its surface and was checking it with a critical eye, her face was too severe to be consider attractive, but after she finished the analysis her face had a smirk and her eyes shone with an intensity that turn her severity into friendliness. She heard a voice behind her.

It came from a young man in jeans and a t-shirt that celebrated the tour of a rock band. He was a post graduate student under Dr. Yukiko Ohta, associate professor, and a specialist in condensed matter physics from the University of Chiba.

- Dr. Ohta we have finished the statistical verification of the lot. The variations in the specifications are tiny and far exceed the tolerances that we set for them. Whoever designed the manufacturing process is a genius. I could guarantee that the whole lot is perfect. When we designed these pieces of Synthetic Regolith Energy concentrator, I never thought someone could actually make them and in this quantity

Dr Ohta looked around, and walked to one of the boxes, where there was a polystyrene packaging containing hundreds of bracelets, there was an empty place that showed that one was missing. Carefully she put the bracelet she had in her hands there, and then looked around

They were into a huge tent, a temporary warehouse where there were boxes and more boxes filling the place. Each box contained 1000 pieces carefully arranged; in total in the whole place should have about 16 million bracelets. They had been manufactured in record time. She was satisfied and then she turned her attention to his student.

- Well done, but you remember that the official name is not "Synthetic Regolith Energy concentrator "but just "bracelet", that is the name we will use.

- But professor that does not sound cool...!

Dr. Ohta smiled at her student´s protest. Despite the apparent severity of her appearance: short hair, no makeup and a conservative business suit beneath her white coat, her eyes shone with the intensity of a young woman.

- Do you want a fancy name? How about "power bracelet for gods and demons"?

Dr Ohta laughed at her students' amazement who stuttered trying to find a proper word...

- Do ... Do ... Do you mean that the rumors are true? Gods and demons are really coming to pick them up? I thought it was only a joke to hide the purpose of the project.

- Sometimes the truth can be a better way to hide something. Soon they will be here. I've seen them.

- Really? you really have seen them? Gods are real?

- I've seen what they can do. I saw a young woman that saved my life at the incident that destroyed the material's lab. That young girl had the power to contain high energy plasma that would have vaporized a human being, for me that is enough to call her a god.

She looked around, her other students had fallen silent and were still, not to lose a single word of her conversation. She sighed and called them to get near.

- Please come, I need to explain some things. - Gradually the students approached and surrounded her – all of you have heard some rumors about the extraordinary events at Chiba University and I must say that all the rumors are true - she heard them gasp, but no one said anything, they sensed there was more to come. – Today you will see extraordinary things and you will know why we have not told you everything, soon I will show the whole truth of what happened recently at the university. Some scientists around the world, coordinated by CERN, already know this. We do not wish to hide this but we must be careful as how we release this to the public.

A breathy voice spoke behind her.

- But this is so big, how long would you be able to hide it?

- I know it will not be forever. All this will be known to the world, but we must be careful, if done improperly it could cause panic and disorder...

Another awed voice asked - So there are real gods? This. This is...

- Gods and Demons - the scientist corrected - And we will help them all.

- Demons! - Another voice interrupted with fear- We will call demons here? Real demons?

Dr Ohta sighted and explained

- The true gods and demons have little resemblance to those of the religions, but if you tell people you're going to help demons most will not understand...

One of the girls, a small blond, spoke with heavy accent.

- We are helping Demons? We are going to hell for that, Demons are... They are evil, we should not...

- Silence. - Dr Ohta looked sternly at her - That is exactly what we must avoid. You are a scientist. You know you must not judge before you have the full facts.

The small blond shivered and put her hand on her chest where a small crucifix hung.

Dr Ohta continued

- That's all for now, but I promise you have nothing to fear. At this point I want you to make sure that all boxes are properly closed and identified. Half of them will go to heaven and the other half to Hell.

- Is there any problem Dr Ohta? - said a voice from the entrance of the warehouse. He was a man with a turban and he came accompanied by a young man. He went to meet the scientist with a firm step and greeting with a nod, the young man who accompanied him was trying to imitate his gestures.

- Professor Sripathi, I'm glad to see you. All is well; I am just trying to convince these young people that soon we will see that those fantastic rumors they have heard are real. I do not blame them for reacting with a bit of skepticism and wonder, otherwise they would not be able to be good scientists.

Professor Sripathi laughed with her and said:

- I'm glad you're here. Outside I glanced at professor Nakayama, seems he was lost. I know you two perfected this material along with the design of the bracelets based on Keiichi's work. He told me you managed to increase the concentration of power in several magnitudes. Many lives will be saved thanks to you.

- Thanks but that young man, Keiichi, he must be a very bright engineer, we did not really expect that someone could manufacture them on this scale- she said, pointing to the rows of boxes around them- but I still need to confirm what is going on, I mean, the part about Gods and demons being sick and that these bracelets will avoid the spread of the infection.

- That's right, we had not fully explained it to you because when we started all this, it was just a hypothesis, but we have finally confirmed it. We should send you a full report. I'm sorry we did not tell you everything. Dr. Shugahara organized a group of specialists on infectious diseases, and together with scholars from Hell they finally were able to determine the exact source of the infection.

- Do you mean that there are scientists working directly with demons? Professor Sripathi that seems outrageous! I should have been invited.

Prof. Sripathi was speechless at the words of the woman, but then he saw her eyes ... And he understood.

- I'm so sorry - he said smiling to her- but after today you will not have any complaints about that. We'll have to provide them periodically with new bracelets; you will have all the contact you want with them.

Suddenly they felt something in the air, it was a suffocating feeling, as if they needed air, and then a powerful light began to unwrap in front of them...

- What is this? What's going on?

Prof. Sripathi explained - They are beings who live in a universe of 11 spacial dimensions. To open a portal between universes requires much energy and extraordinary control to prevent collapse.

Dr Ohta's eyes narrowed and stared with intense curiosity to light that was forming. Multiverses really existed! This alone would confirm or falsify many of her theories. Trans-dimensional space! She was about to see something she only had dreamed. Then a cry was heard in the distance and a man came running.

- Wait for me; I also want to see that!

It was Dr Nakayama Shigeru, who ran as if he were a teenager, completely ignoring his dignity as an associate professor...

Two twin portals were forming; the view was magnificent and terrifying. They knew they were looking at the dimensionless abyss separating the Multiverses and hovering over those abysses there were strange symbols moving around, as if they seemed to contain them.

Shigeru was so engrossed trying to observe the walls of the portal that he did not realize he was entering one of the circles, the powerful light blinded him and then he bumped into something solid that had appeared exactly in front of him. Or maybe it was not so solid. He realized it was soft and warm.

Still dazed by the light and without thinking he raised his hands to feel the sudden obstacle, it had a comforting softness that...

Dr Shigeru screamed and stepped back falling awkwardly on the floor. He recovered his sight and saw her. She was a woman ... But that was an understatement. She was a voluptuous woman with dark skin and spectacular blonde hair cascading over her back, she was wearing a tight dress that accentuated the voluptuousness of her body while it was richly adorned suggesting she was important, besides the dress barely covered her front and...

Dr Shigeru felt his hands were burning when he realized what they had touched ... Then he dared to see above her magnificent attributes and stood petrified. He saw fiery red eyes that looked at him with fury, then she smiled but that seemed to be worse than her fury as she revealed small and pointed canine teeth. She was a demon!.The woman raised her hand and pointed at him while a reddish glow began to form around it. Dr Shigeru gulped and closed his eyes expecting the worst.

End of Chapter XXXIII

Notes:

Chancellor Myr: One of the old Yggdrasil programmers, he does not like the rules and nor responsibilities, unless necessary

Chancellor Tyr: Father of the Norns and conspirator. Recently in the manga it was revealed that this was the name of Belldandy's father and I decided to use it, but some confusion may occur with other similarly named character Myr, I hope you do not mind. .