The order of the Mortal Knights.

By Elnauhual

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

Chapter XXXVIII

Power and Ambition

Heaven, Heaven, Heofon, Himel, Shomayim, Olympus, Tlalocan, Tengoku, all human cultures have imagined a world where the gods live into a perfect world free of all sorrows, but in the god´s real world sorrow could exists.

Standing on the top of the main building of what supposed to be a perfect world, as if defying the law of gravity, was Belldandy also known as Kamisama, Megamisama, the goddess among goddesses, and other great titles she had been granted. Her gaze was lost in the horizon, as ignoring the beautiful city of the gods, but actually she was trying to encompass the wonderful world that she called home. Her gaze was calm and yet full of sadness. The goddess called Belldandy, to whom everyone in this world had sworn loyalty, knew that in this moment she was being betrayed.

She had guessed it even before she had moved away from young healer. At that moment she had felt the great temptation to get into his mind and make him her unconditional ally. It would have been something extremely simple, at that point she was about to do it without thinking ... but she reacted and therefore had quickly away ran from him. Belldandy took a deep breath, she had win over herself and knew that from now on power would not tempt her, but at what price?

It would have been easier to dominate everyone, manipulate them to accept her orders, that would have been easy to do without them realizing it, she would have been loved and blessed, but into her heart would she would always know he'd would be stealing their will in such a way that that it would be worse than the fear Hild inspired on her subjects since even them were free to hate her.

Belldandy had been praised, obeyed and even feared, but at the end she had been unable to gain the trust and loyalty from the gods, maybe they did not want a leader but a savior, so she now knew she had no other way but to act alone at any cost. She put her hand on her chest, sighted, and after a brief pause, decided to act, but first she needed to leave some messages, she materialized a couple of crystal message , one would be for Myr and the other for Keiichi, on one she left a lot of information and instructions, on the other a message of love and hope. With a gesture she sent the message to Myr, and with a kissed she send the other to Keiichi, then forgot about them, the magic that surrounded them would take them to their recipients, no matter in which universe they were.

Belldandy then looked again at the horizon and began to sing, at first her voice was a sad whisper, barely audible, but gradually it began to grow and overpower everything around her. The goddess among goddesses was about to honor her title.

xxXXxx

At the same time somewhere in the depths of heaven, something unusual in this world that hated enclosed spaces, there was a secret meeting. Powerful and complex spells shielded the walls isolating that place from all outside contact and few knew of its existence, it was the perfect place for a conspiracy. So, in this place some of the most powerful gods were gathered. In front of them a young healer, with his head bowed in respect was speaking about his recent encounter with the goddess Belldandy, his body was shaking and his voice quivered in shame, yet he did not stop, at the end fell unto his knees and began to cry. He knew it was his duty to inform to his peers, yet he could not help thinking he was betraying her goddess trust. He tried to excuse himself thinking that those powerful gods were much wiser than he and they would know what to do.

xxXXxx

Shugahara looked at the young girl, and then looked sideways at the vigilance camera, thinking what to do, then he had an idea and got near her to hug and comfort her, but also he used this proximity to whisper at her ear:

- I also think I would not resist torture and I have secrets that these people must not know. I will not let that happen, there is a way around it. - She caught his eyes with questioning gaze; the sudden proximity had left her confused. Shugahara gently took her hands into his hand so she could felt the object he was hiding between his fingers. Shugahara glanced at the camera, then he make sure she felt the sharp edge and whispered: - I can make a painless cut in the jugular, it´s all we will need, unconsciousness would came within seconds and soon after, death. I am looking for other options, but if everything else fails, I offer you this release.

The young woman let out a sudden gasp and shuddered, Kenji embrace her to try to reassure her, but to his surprise she lifted her head and looked into his eyes, then she nodded:

- Do it, please. If the time comes to that, I will be grateful... - then she responded to the embrace of the man who had offered to take her life, and in doing so she felt her fears were gone.

Shugahara looked around checking the camera. Surely they would have microphones, and if they continued whispering they may suspect they were planning something. He had an idea and suddenly he kissed her neck, she was surprised yet did not faltered... Shugahara listened carefully ... he overheard a vulgar laugh from outside ... they were being watched and he was sure they would misinterpret his actions.

With an awkward expression, he whispered in her ear explaining what he was trying to do, to his relief she smiled and nodded and began to correspond to his caress. So while simulating a more intimate embrace both told their stories. He told her about his knowledge of ancient potions and the discovering of Urth Manuscript, she in turn told him she was looking for information about this secret organization and explained him about the USB with the copy of the manuscript. Shugahara reassured her, although it had dangerous formulas that could be used, he was sure the most important could not be used without the right ingredients that only he knew how to obtain. Gyrid initially refused to believe him, the manuscript was almost legendary among the sisterhood and to find someone with so deep knowledge about it was disconcerting, but this man inspired confidence so she decided to tell him about the sisterhood.

Shugahara had already suspected much of her story, he had noticed a hidden hand guiding humanity, but something had happened and it had deviated. Gyrid confirmed it. She told him how that nightmare had begun. About 80 years ago, trying to save the life of a proud Archduke who did not listened to reasons, an envoy from the sisterhood had been captured by the Austrian secret police, as a result of her failed their mission the archduke was assassinated, therefore the First World War had started, but another tragedy of major proportions occurred. The captured sister was sent to a sadistic chief of police; using torture he discovered the secrets of the brotherhood. Power-hungry, he used what he knew to gather influence and dedicated to look for the secrets of the sisterhood, with the pretext of seeking spies, he had used ruthless methods used to catch them. With that knowledge he had learned to manipulate the world for his own benefit. He now had allies in the entire world, bound by the promise of eternal youth.

Shugahara was furious, stood before him there was an incredibly brave young girl who was offering her life to fight against that power. Then he remember he had heard Gyrid name before. It was the name of Fafnir apprentice, she was a proud successor, so he hugged the girl and his eyes watered at the thought that this girl could find her end under his own hands. There should be another way out.

A brief exchange of words confirmed him about what he already suspected, the medallion in his hands was too damaged to be used for protection and apparently the girl had just used the little magic it had, however he could detect some power, then remembered that those medallions had other uses besides protection, they had been used as communication devices, maybe it could have enough magic for that use.

He closed his eyes, mentally repeated a spell form Urth´s notebook, he had been practicing with Sentarō for an emergency ... but nothing happened. Apparently the residual magic of the medallion was not enough to obey a mental spell. So he forgot all caution and said it out loud, without hesitation he took the medallion between his two hands and raised it above his head and began singing out loud:

- "Ok fyr gefþu oss synther pray, sem vér gefom theim fyr er Vith hafa misger oss"

Gyrid looked at him with surprise ... then realized what he was trying to do, after she recognized the ancient spell, it was the same the sisterhood had use in the past, but all her sisters had gone and there was no one else... Could it be anyone else with a medallion? she felt hope and began so chant along Shugahara .

- Leiðd í oss Eigi freistni, heldr leys THV oss frá OLLU illu.

Shugahara felt a tingling in his hands, it was as if the damaged medallion was trying to wake up, he looked at the young girl and both began to repeat the spell louder, there might not have another chance and it did not matter being discovered. Both shouted in unison.

- "OK FYR GEFÞU OSS SYNTHER PRAY, SEM VÉR GEFOM THEIM FYR ER VITH HAFA MISGER OSS, OSS LEIÐD EIGI Í FREISTNI, HELDR LEYS THV OSS FRÁ OLLU ILLU ...

The medallion started to tremble; it seemed the little magic on it could still work. Both clung to the medallion and repeated the spell again and again, louder and louder. Suddenly the medallion gave a soft glow and Shugahara saw two familiar figures materializing in the room looking at him with surprise, they were Keiichi and Sentaro, he stop chanting and tried to speak to them... but before he could say anything the door opened with violence and the guards entered, one of them took against Shugahara, punching him on the stomach, the other snatched the medallion Gyrid had on her hand, throwing her to the floor putting his boot on her head, then the woman came ...

She took the medallion from the hands of the guard, she examined it and produced a wild laugh after seeing the crack running through it, and then she took it with both hands and forcefully broke it, and towed the fragments to floor with contempt.

- Do you think this useless relic will serve? I know what you are trying to do, but even if you could render invisible again, we have now special detectors so you have no chance to escape. By the way, Gyrid, I want to thank you for that USB memory, the information it has its very interesting. We thought we knew much of the content of Urth's manuscript, but I never imagined it could possess so many marvelous potions and spells. Thanks to you we will soon be the masters of the world. It is a pity that you will only remain alive while you are useful, but do not despair, you will have a few hours of respite before you are mine, since my boss wish the board to meet you, then I will enjoy cracking you... It will be so fun!

Shugahara had recovered from the blow and tried to get up, but his attempts were met with more savages blows ... then the woman made gesture and another two guards advanced, they took the doctor form his arms and lifted him by force. Then the woman turned around and ordered the guards to follow her. The guard that had his boot on Gyrid head, smiled and force her to stand, then pushed her out of the room, but this time Gyrid was not afraid, she walked behind the men that were dragging Shugahara and gave a sad smile. She had observed that Shugahara had not opened his left hand, and she knew what he had there. No matter what would happen know, she knew she would not have to endure torture.

xxXXxx

Keiichi was at the entrance of the temple, he was opening a cardboard box that had been just delivered, he was excited to see what was inside, it was something wrapped in newspaper and packing material, quickly he removed the wrapper and finally had an elaborate piece of metal in his hand and whistled in surprise. It was a motorcycle carburetor, to be more precise, it was the carburetor of a BMW RS54 Racer motorcycle model 1954. His former boss at Whirlwind had been getting for him the necessary pieces to restore an old motorcycle he had found among the junk. He was trying to recover the one it had been destroyed in the battle of the temple.

Keiichi froze, his mind filled with memories as he held the piece of metal. That motorcycle was a way to preserve the memories of the idyllic life he had been leading until a few months ago. That old machine was full of memories. He bowed his head and sighed, Belldandy was back to her world and he missed her so much. At that moment he heard footsteps, some was running in his direction, he quickly dried a tear that had fallen on his cheek and turned around, it was Sentarō running wildly toward him. The child´s face was shows surprise, but before Keiichi could wonder why he felt it too.

He had been so deep in his thoughts that he had not felt the call before. But now felt a sensation emanating from the wood medallion hanging on his chest. Sentarō shouted something as he pulled out his own medallion, his medallion also was calling ... Keiichi didn´t knew what to do. The boy nearly crashed on him trying to stop, he took a deep breath and said.

- Someone is trying to communicate with us, but it´s not Shugahara Sensei, the call is not from his medallion, it´s another one, an unknown one! ... He taught me a spell to answer, but I wonder if we should.

Keiichi hesitated but if there was a possibility it had something to do with Kenji it was worth risking, another medallion, it could be a new ally.

- What should we do in order to answer?

- He taught me a spell while we were on our way to Africa, he said he we could use it for an emergency- Then he started to chant: - Ok fyr gefþu oss synther pray, sem vér fyr gefom theim er Vith oss hafa misger, Leiðd oss Eigi í freistni, leys heldr THV oss frá OLLU illu

Keiichi heard the spell, acknowledged and repeated along him.

- Ok fyr gefþu oss synther pray, sem vér gefom theim fyr er Vith hafa misger oss, oss Leiðd Eigi í freistni, heldr leys THV oss frá OLLU illu.

They felt some kind of connection was formed and for a few seconds they saw some images. Suddenly the images disappeared but it had been enough to perceive something, they had recognized Shugahara, he was with a young girl and both had their hand clasped on an battered medallion, they were in a locked room, then some armed people had enter violently and attacked them, at that moment everything disappeared.

Keiichi and Sentarō and fall down to the floor, the magic had been broken so violent they felt as if something had hit them. They took a few seconds to react, and then Keiichi was the first to speak:

- Kenji is in danger, I could feel it, but I can´t say where is that place, seems like an underground room, somehow I can remember every detail of it, and I think I can feel where it came from...-

Having said that, he slowly stood up, he raised his medallion. He closed his eyes and slowly turned around moving the medallion up and down. He felt something, he moved his arms pointing in various directions, it seemed the feeling was stronger extending the medallion into a particular direction, at that moment he opened her eyes. He realized he was pointing down ... his geography was not particularly good but he guessed he was pointing in the direction of Europe at the other side of the world. Then he had an idea, he took his Smartphone, and then launched an app to get GPS position, compass and inclination, he put the Smartphone aligned with the medallion and took a reading. He realized it was a crude approximation, but maybe, maybe with more readings he would be able to triangulate the source. He walked away some meters to another position but found the distance was not enough to get a different reading; it was too vague and imprecise.

He scratched his head looking for a solution and realized he would need many measurements to get a good average, probably hundreds of kilometers apart and then processed them cancel the measurement errors and get a precise location.

He would need help! An expert would know how to use the information to triangulate the position, and help to take readings, it would be best if there were several positions throughout the world. HE remembered that Professor Takashi Yoshida was good mathematician and if also he could contact other experts. He dialed the professor while the explained his plans to Sentaro.

- Maybe there is a way to locate Kenji, but I will have to travel to various parts of the world. It has to be quick ... I feel the sensation is becoming weaker so we have not much time. I will ask help form Professor Takahashi and Ghadril. She can transport me to various parts of the world, and Professor Takashi can compute the information to get an accurate position, Galileo can help us to maintain communication and give us the best coordinates to travel. I think Kenji is in a serious danger, though I will go with Ghadril we may need help; your mission will be to contact Heaven for help.

xxXXxx

Diseases among gods were something virtually unknown, and only the battles between demons and gods had justified the existence of healers and healing centers, but due the long peace after the establishment of the doublets system, the healing centers had almost been abandoned and healers only treated minor ailments that barely deserved to be called disease, thereby forgetting much of their healing art and science.

So now they had to confront a real disease, the madness, the old healing centers had to be reopened but still they were overwhelmed, since healers proudly had rejected the help offered by the scientist of the mortal realm and the healers from Hell their only solution so far have been to seal the more serious cases to leave them in a state of suspended animation, then create a huge vaults to store them. Centuries of almost total inactivity had left them unable to react to a crisis and now they were in total despair. But among the confusion there was a special place in the main healing center where an almost absolute calm reigned. It was a great space full of information screens and technicians that did not sought to heal, instead their only mission was to keep alive and stable the being held in a large crystal in the center of the room. It was a miracle that there were any signs of life in that battered body. The giant Cristal was used as a container of the energy and integrity of the being that had been the greatest god of heaven. It was almost a miracle. through the missing parts of the body the bare magical code could be seen, it was pulsing, twisting, it was beyond repair yet it seemed alive as if trying to escape from the crystalline cell. To prevent that the crystal generated an energy field that had to be constantly adjusted in an uneasy equilibrium, the field should strong enough to contain the body yet not strong enough to cause more damage to the fragile remains that still contained the magic power that had been accumulating for eons. If that damaged magic would had been released the destruction would be unimaginable.

A senior goddess examined the system control panel; she wore an elaborate dress according to her status. The eternal youth of her face could not hide her ancient wisdom. She was reading every panel making sure everything was nominal then she paused and could not avoid a curious glance into the crystal. For more time that even gods could remember that being had been known as Kamisama and few gods had seen him face to face. Even in that state the goddess had an awed chill.

The she stop abruptly, the goddess saw a flashing light on a panel ... something was unbalancing the field, the change was small but she did not liked surprises. With an elegant gesture she produced a complex diagram floating in the air that revealed details about the curious anomaly, she raised an eyebrow ... Kamisama body was incrementing it´s activity, it seemed as if some external energy was reactivating it. Then she screamed! ... Something had entered into her body, she felt like a life force was forcing its way into her. She fall into her knees as she gasped from the impact ... that vital force was increasing rapidly but there pain what she felt but an almost orgasmic pleasure, she had never before felt so good and full of life.

At that moment all the alarms screamed. Something was happening, the energy levels of the unconscious god were going beyond all scales ... with fear she looked at the crystal, she need to do something, if the crystal containment field would burst Kamisama´s energy would dissolve into nothing while destroying everything, she had to control the field!.

She made an effort to stand up, but her body did not obeyed her, desperate she looked up toward the glass and yelled ... Kamisama had opened his eyes, and his face wore a look of disbelief as his broken body began to regenerate.

xxXXxx

Gyrid and Shugahara were pushed through several corridors until they stopped before a large and elegant anteroom. The cold and anonymous aspect of an administration building was now replaced by opulence. Wall adorned with fine and richly carved wood, thick curtains, a soft and ornamentated carpet, the walls had valuable paintings, and in the corners there were exquisite classical and rare sculptures. Without warning one of the guards pulled out his gun and ordered them to stay put at gunpoint, from a concealed door came a group of people, some of then approached Shugahara and force him to take out his wrinkled and dirty shirt, the put him an new one and added an elegant coat and a silk tie, other began to wipe his face and carefully comb his hair, meanwhile the women undressed Gyrid ignoring her protests, then dressed her with an elegant evening gown, put makeup and arrange her hair. Now they looked as if they were going to an elegant party. Finally one of the men gave Shugahara a drink, the sipped it carefully, it was an analgesic for the pain and drank it.

Then the cruel woman approached, she examined then and once satisfied she gave an order to the guard, the man pointed his gun and indicated them they should remain silent. At that moment the large carved wooden door opened and was order to enter behind the woman.

The site was an enormous saloon, in the center there was a large table with about fifty people seated, there were all kinds of nationalities, as if it were a meeting of partners from a large multinational corporation, all had their laptops open, while they reviewed data and observed a wall with a great projection screen filled with lots of graphs and financial data. They all had the hardened and proud face of those accustomed to be obeyed without questioning. The slightest gesture of one of them was enough to be served immediately by a small army of servants bringing drinks, appetizers or anything they wished.

The entrance of the prisoners had little effect on them, they were too engrossed in what looked like an earnings report from a company, yet Shugahara realized the scale of their actions was much; much larger, whole nations were being controlled. One of the guards discreetly indicated they should be silent, and took Gyrid and Kenji to sit on a pair of armchairs in a remote corner of the saloon, the previous violence was gone, the guards were silent and with a deep attitude of respect, they seemed like a group of faithful entering into a sacred place.

Kenji with his still ached body slumped on the couch; still he was curious about what was going on. In the center he saw the man whit the elegant suit, Mr. Cromwell, giving an explanation. Meanwhile the woman who had brought them sat at the table near the head, where she was received with cold greetings, Shugahara noticed she was the only woman. She seemed exceptionally lively and happy ... and that happiness sank into Kenji´s hearth, the pain in his body reminded him of her promise, in order to distract his mind he decided to concentrate on what they were talking, he heard Mr. Cromwell speaking with a smooth voice.

- As you must know, recently we have had some problems in North Africa. We had managed to convince several terrorist groups to restart their activities, we need a good civil war to destabilize the region, if you remember our last report, we have discovered large deposits of lithium and we need to prevent the access to those deposits, the price of the metal could go down and we need to produce some scarcity in order to control the market. We will keep the conflict until the deposits of the rest of the world are exhausted and then take over.

One of the men at the table asked with angry voice.

- Do you mean incident of the town taken by terrorists? I thought that everything was under control. The latest report was very promising.

- Something still unexplainable happened and now the terrorist groups in the area not only have ceased all hostilities, but all our efforts to provoke them to launch an attack have been useless. Even the men we have infiltrated in those groups have been unable to convince then, instead they were sent to the authorities by the same terrorist.

There was an angry murmur in the room.

- That is unacceptable, we need this war. What is the problem?

- The problem seems to be that... - he pointed to Shugahara, and everybody looked at him. Somehow this man managed to take control of the terrorists, but now that he is in our power, I'm sure we will correct this anomaly and return to our business. But there are much more important reasons than a small civil war and that is why I called you so suddenly. Thanks to this man we will increase our power over the world. But to present our guest and how important he may be, I will give the floor to Dr. Batthory- he looked at the woman and she smiled, it was her turn to speak ... slowly she rose from her seat, for years she had sought recognition among these people, and no it was her moment to get it.

- Indeed this man, using unknown methods, has managed to interfere with one of our businesses but you will see that the gains we'll get will be so huge that this will not be a loss. Recently we have been getting some strange reports from various scientific centers worldwide. They were too fantastic, some spoke about gods coming to earth, we had dismiss them as colleges pranks, but some of those rumors involved our guest who for certain reasons had already called my attention, so I decided to review the reports and found some very interesting things. This video was uploaded to the Internet and for a few hours it produce great commotion until it was withdrawn, fortunately we got a copy before that.

Shugahara felt a chill when he recognized the images. The video had been taken during the confrontation between Marler and Lind. The picture quality was not very good, but the user of that cell phone had a firm hand and had not lost any details, the murmurs of surprise and disbelief were immediate … And old man, probably form Asia protested:

- This must be a trick, surely some contest of special effects among students, it would not be the first time, and I can't see why we have been called for this...

- Our experts have analyzed the video, there are ways to tell if a digital image has been processed and altered, I can assure that it is real, but more importantly ... - She paused and advanced the recording to freeze a frame - You can see that here we have one of the eyewitnesses to the event. - Dr. Shugahara appeared in the frame along with several scientists from the university and also we have those other witnesses that can be questioned using our special methods if necessary.

Shugahara felt a quiver, now his colleagues could also be victims of this insane woman, he felt the metal foil in his hand, but now it no longer offered him comfort.

- What are those beings? - Asked the man with the oriental appearance - If the video is real, they have extraordinary powers! apparently there is a rivalry between them, if we could make us allies of one of them...

- I believe we can do much more than that. After Dr Shugahara became our guest I have learned many things. I think those beings were responsible for creating the manuscript of Urth, which has given us so much power, and now thanks to our guest I got a full copy and have finally read completely - an exclamation of surprise was heard from her public, she smirked at the impact of her words- I believe the information that is in the rest of the manuscript will give us power over those beings that you have seen. They would not be our allies, but our servants!

Finally her words had captured the audience, for a moment there was absolute silence, after all, they shared the same goal: to have more power.

- How can you be so sure? - Asked a man at the back of the long table, with contempt showing on his face.

The reports we have from that village in North Africa makes me think that our host, Dr Shugahara has control over one of those things. Somehow he had forced over one of those beings and ordered it to intervene in our plans. I have been reading the copy of Urth's manuscript we got from Dr Shugahara computer and I think I can understand how he did, after all a being with such power would not waste it´s time avoiding a small war when it could rule the world. I am convinced the magic of the book of Urth will give us power even over gods, I dare to say that some of these formulas - as she spoke she took the Dr Shugahara´s metal case- are used to control them, I have managed to identify in them components mentioned on Urth´s book.

Dr. Shugahara was surprised by her conclusions. He realized she would never believe Ghadril was not his servant but her ally and friend. But he chose not to speak, this group of people saw the world from their warped perspective, they would be unable to understand his own motives. Also her words had caused him a shiver; he knew Urd´s magic potions were very powerful enough to have effects on gods and demons. The situation was taking a completely unexpected turn.

xxXXxx

Keiichi materialized amid a snow storm and the sudden impact of a freezing cold make him cry, the temperature was below 50 degrees Celsius! He had asked Galileo for a position in the most northern place in Europe where he could still reach a cellular network and now he was in a small settlement called Ny-Alesund in Norway at latitude of 78 degrees north. But in his clever plan he had forgot to think about the weather, he only had a jacket. Suddenly the cold ceased, Ghadril had materialized beside him and said:

- Are you alright? I have placed my physical barrier to stay warm, unfortunately it also blocks radio waves and prevents you to take the measurements and send them to Yoshida.

Keiichi trembled at the thought that he had to return to the cold with his thin clothes, still he told the warrior goddess.

- Then I'll have to endure the cold. I'll need a couple of minutes for the phone to get the GPS position at this latitude, and to connect to the local cellular network. As soon as the data is sent, please put the barrier again, a position so far north will help to reduce the number of measurements, so I have to endure this.

In response to his words Ghadril moved behind him and clasping his body as close as possible. Keiichi could not help but gasp at the unexpected touch of her warmth body.

- I will protect you with my body, to help you to resist. When you're ready, give me the signal and will drop the barrier.

Keiichi thought how much the goddess had changed since her arrival to this world, her almost total indifference to mortals was gone and now she would not hesitate looking for ways to protect them, he thought about how lucky was Professor Takashi to share his life with her. He could not help remembering about Belldandy, so full with excitement he shouted:

- I am ready.

xxXXxx

After Keiichi´s departure, Sentarō went the computer where Galileo´s conscience resided. He had explained to the A.I. and the need to contact Belldandy, so he eagerly awaited a reply.

With impatience he asked- have you been able to establish contact?

The A.I called Galileo responded with his gentle voice- It´s impossible to contact Belldandy directly, her current security level is too high, I have a list of gods that should help us to contact her yet no one is answering. It´s very unusual, communications are working well, yet nobody answers still I have not found any alarm signal. Also they have updated their security so I cannot get into their system as before. I doubt we could have any help from heaven; there must be some kind of crisis.

Sentarō scratched his head, he was just a child yet not devoid of wit, he had an idea:

Galileo, is there way to contact Hell? Hild scares me, yet I think she's on our side.

xxXXxx

In heaven all was chaos and confusion. By now all gods felt invaded by a powerful energy that left them petrified while an unknown intelligence was digging in the depths of each one looking for any evidence of the evil madness. Meanwhile the sick and infected that had not been sealed looked like they had epileptic seizures as the energy purged their minds. This alien intelligence ruthlessly plunged into them and repaired their broken memories to erase the evil. Then the energy went after the hundreds of thousands of gods that were sealed. With an unparallel power it went inside the vaults where they had been stored, rip off their seals and plunged into them, one by one they began to materialize as the strange energy revived and cure them with a restorative force.

Even the healthy gods felt something, they were filled with a profound happiness that almost drove then to a climax and that prevented them from acting in any way.

Nobody escaped from the effects of Belldandy chant, all activity in heaven stopped as her power ran along this world looking for even the slightest trace of evil to destroy it.

xxXXxx

In the great hall a heated argument had started. Although her words were awfully seductive, there was a general skepticism the men did not tried to hide, meanwhile Cromwell had been enjoying the show until he decided they had lost too much time. Nominally they were his partners, yet from time to time he liked to make them remember who had the real power, for him they were only useful pawns of his army. Now with just an energetic gesture he forced everyone to become silent, then he turned to the woman at his side and with teasing voice he said:

- I think they will need a practical demonstration of the power you are promising us, what evidence can you present to them?

The woman was somewhat confused, in her enthusiasm she had not thought about that, but then Mr. Cromwell gave her an evil smile and she understood.

She took Shugara´s metal case; she leaved her chair and went to meet the Doctor and the girl. Without a word, she took a gun from one of the guards, the man just lowered his gaze to avoid her eyes, and then she smiled Shugahara with a chilling sweetness and shot Gyrid on the chest.

Shugahara screamed as the girl's chest filled with blood and her face contorted in a grimace of pain and surprise.

End of Chapter XXXVIII