The order of the Mortal Knights
By Javier Delgado R.
Fan fiction, inspired by "Oh My Goddess" by Kosuke Fujishima.
Alert Level 6
Chapter XLVIV
There was an unusual silence in the Tarikihongan temple. It was dark in Keiichi's room, while three silent figures were watching the young man's breath. he was unconscious on his futon. He had a calm breath, but sometimes there was a sign of pain on his face. As soon as it happened, three pairs of hands touched him and began a gentle song until the pain ceased. Eventually, the interval between those pain episodes began to take longer. Finally Urd hugged her sisters.
- "I think we can't do more for now. If we try to accelerate the recovery we could damage his body. Unfortunately, the explosion was so powerful that it destroyed the aura of his hand, and that makes it impossible to restore it only with magic. We will have to depend on the recovery capacity of his own body, the process will take several days. "
For a few moments Belldandy seemed to faint, but her face held firm. After all the tests she had stood, the sweet goddess had changed profoundly and said:
- "For a moment I thought that my nightmares would come true, I had been trying to convince myself that the danger had disappeared, but it hasn't changed."
Skuld looked at her sisters, her face was still swollen from crying.
- "What's going on? What dangers are you talking about? I knew you haven't been telling me everything, but I was confident that you could solve it."
Urd looked at her sister, closed her eyes for a moment, then took her little sister by the hands and told her.
- "I want to apologize. We've done what you hate most, treating yourself like a child. - She bowed her head in apology - But your sister and I thought you weren't ready, and now I realize we were very wrong. It is time for Belldandy to tell you all about her prophetic dreams and the threat there is, not only about Keiichi, but I think also about Kenji and Sentaro kun. You need to know why it is so important to restore Galileo's memory. So far you have treated it as a new technical challenge, but our destiny may depend on that knowledge. "
Skuld looked at her sister. Not that she hadn't suspected anything before, but it was always her older sisters who solved everything and she had had many new "toys" to play with. But so many disasters could not be coincidence, she looked at her sisters with determination and said:
-"I will listen. If this puts Sentaro or others in danger, I have to know everything. "
In the HPCI (High-Performance Computing Infrastructure) Professor Kawazu was in the middle of an emergency meeting with his people. He looked around, he could feel fear and nervousness in the air. Kawazu trusted his team and knew that despite the incredible work that was coming they would respond, but the situation had taken a dangerous turn. Urd and Skuld were attending to Keiichi so he didn't count on their help.
After he released the latest news there has been a silence, finally one of the youngest technicians asked nervously.
- "Then this being, this ... demon ... Wotan or Odin ... attempted to commit suicide with an ancient magic, and now the spell or instructions he used are still active and could detonate at any time."
-"So it is. I will not hide the danger. As I was informed, he still has a lot of energy. If released, everything in several kilometers around will be vaporized. Even if we wanted to run, there is nowhere near where to evacuate everyone. Chiba and other nearby towns would be destroyed. That's why it's so important to save his life. "
A murmur spread among scientists and technicians. It was not just their lives, but also that of their family and friends.
- "What can we do to reduce the danger?" Asked the young man. As far as I can understand, his body has containment fields that maintain and regulate the energy they use it on a daily basis. But when one of these ... beings dies, is it always like this? Does it always generate great destruction?"
- "They are immortal beings, but usually when they disappear their energy disperses without causing damage. But he used a type of instruction that overloads his system and makes him somewhat unstable, so instead of slowly dispersing he does so catastrophically. "
Shugahara intervened, he had remained silent since que felt insecure about the situation .:
- "As Urd San explained to me, in ancient times when gods and demons fought each other, it was a way of sacrificing themselves causing as much damage as possible to the enemy. I think the younger gods and demons no longer know those spells. "
Another of the technicians spoke in a trembling voice;
-"So there is no other way to prevent this reaction from occurring? "
Professor Kawazu swallowed and told them.
- "I've been working with Galileo looking for other options, but I haven't found a solution, that's why I gathered you, I need ideas, however insane they are."
Everyone understood the situation, one by one began to make suggestions that were written down on the board, where Dr Kawazu read them without saying anything, he didn't want to stop the creative process ... Suddenly he stopped at one of them, he muttered quietly:
- "Transfer the energy to a more stable repository? - nervously he scratched his ear. Not that there were a battery / accumulator with such capacity, or did it?... - He spoke a little louder- Dr. Shugahara, what do you think? I remember you told me about Hild's tears, those crystals that are a kind of deposits of demonic energy. What are they, if I understand correctly, they contain a lot of energy. "
Shugahara closed his eyes, trying to remember the details of Hild's story.
- "I don't know exactly, I know they are the crystallized power of a demon or a god. From what we have learned, it must be energy stored in the structure at the limit of space time, and even though it has a certain level of consciousness. What are you thinking? "
- "Could we extract the energy from Wotan's body and create one of those crystals?"
Kenji's eyes shone, the idea seemed promising, but it was definitely out of his area, he finally answered in an uncertain voice:
- "That is beyond my knowledge ... but Dr. Rosenthal might know. It may not exactly be like Hild's crystals, but Ms. Roshenthal is the one who managed to synthesize the dilithium crystals in a stable manner so we can use them to extract almost unlimited energy from them. It is the source of the new reactor that provides power to this installation. Maybe she knows how to store energy back in them. "
Just a few seconds later, a voice interrupted them, it was Galileo.
- "According to your suggestions I am analyzing the work of Dr. Rosenthal and I think it is feasible. I am trying to locate her. From the information I have, gods and demons use various processes to absorb energy. I think we can reverse the process. While I get in contact with Dr. Rosenthal I will proceed to create the necessary magic circuits. She can tell me the parameters to modify the reactor. "
There was a sigh of collective relief. The danger still existed, but apparently a first step could be taken. Shugahara asked:
- "Galileo, what would happen to Wotan if we leave it with a minimum of energy"
- "His body will try to minimize its processes to save energy. It would be the equivalent of placing a human in hypothermia. It will give us more time to act "
Dr Kawazu clenched his fists, took a deep breath while he felt a brief shudder in his body. Finally said.
- "You have heard it, we have a lot of work ahead, and many lives depend on it."
Hild arrived to her room. She verified there was no guards nearby, then murmured a brief spell and a dark, mass of amorphous energy formed on the palm of her hand. She manipulated it, taking care not to touch it, then hide it in the hollow of her left hand, in case she had to attack. Satisfied, she smiled and with a haughty gesture opened the door.
As she got in, she became speechless at the sight of the figure that was waiting for her, she had expected to see a goddess, but this was a mortal woman, how she could have gotten there? ... then she began to recognize her features.
- "Lind?"- She looked at her up and down with distaste -" Are you really Lind? Those are no longer a goddess marks. "
Lind was dressed in a simple yet very feminine street dress, her face outlined a soft smile and her pose was relaxed, she could pass for a young school teacher. However, as soon as she saw Hild she put a knee on the floor, bowed her head and greeted with all the formality of a former Valkyrie
- "Hail Hild, supreme Daimakaicho. Indeed, I am no longer a goddess and I think that my old uniform might not be well received, so I preferred to use these clothes. -Proudly she said- Now I am Lind, the mortal. I came here to bring an urgent message from Urd ."
For a few moments Hild let her bewilderment be shown, Lind had been a fearsome figure in the memory of Hells people, but the woman in his room evoked none of that. That explained why no alarms had been activated.
-"You had no remnants of the magic of a god or a demon, although apparently you must now have some other kind of power. Apparently, after running out of Marler's reports, I had missed a very interesting story …"
But what was her old enemy doing with the transport crystal she had given Urd ...?
Her confusion was apparent only a few moments, soon she resumed her dignified and authoritative pose while dissolving the dark mass she had prepared in case of an attack, and said.
- "I'm sure you must have a very good explanation to dare to come my room ..."
The body of the dying demon had a variable brightness, in everyone's mind, it was like the ticking of a time bomb. Dr Kawazu ordered:
- "Galileo, start the container field."
In mid air magic symbols began to appear, also something that looked like filaments began to emerge from the columns around the chamber, forming a transparent cocoon around the body. It was the combined power of earth science and heavens magic. Ghadril, who alone was holding the container field, finally stopped singing and collapsed exhausted. Dr Takashi Yoshida ran to help her and then carried her in his arms. He slowly withdrew, pressing gently her body while nervously watching the dying demon, he knew he could not do anything about it, then looked at the exhausted goddess and took her away.
At that moment Galileo spoke.
- "I was in contact with Dr. Rosenthal. She explained to me that the crystals we have were not designed to store energy, so if we try to force the process we could destabilize them. That is why we must distribute the extracted energy among several crystals. So we will use four of them. Estimated transfer energy: 4 petajoules. It will take us about 12 hours to transfer it, at the maximum load limit of our power circuits. "
One of the technicians gave a long whistle.
- "Four petajoules! That's the energy of a nice one megaton bomb ... I know he's a demon and not a battery, but with that we could satisfy Japan energy requirements for several years."
Several of the scientists gave a somewhat nervous laugh. Although humor did not seem appropriate for the situation, it would help them relax.
Hild was pretending to savor a cup of tea while Lind watched her with the same patient look she used with her little pupils (something that Hild would not appreciate if she knew about it). The great lady of Hell at heart felt wished to abandon everything and go to the mortal world, but eons of being a ruler of Hell had taught her that she needed to understand everything first.
Lind's story was completely unheard of. Wotan had tried to assassinate his daughter along Belldandy, to the other mortals, at a time when his people depended on the lunar medallions created by mortals. It made no sense, Wotan was a cunning and calculating demon who would never act so irrationally. The Madness seemed to be a possible explanation, however they had been very careful to bee disconnected from Nieghod for all their energy needs. And if Lind was telling the truth, he was now dying. A lump in her throat made her remember those old emotions that had existed between the two, her hands trembled slightly.
In addition there was Urd's request. Nothing less than full access to her master key, revealing her encryption code so that mortals could restore Wotan ́s code. Her best healers had taken weeks to heal Urd, and now mortals seemed to have that ability. If her people found out, she could be declared a traitor even by the same young demons that supported her. If I could bring Wotan to Hell in absolute secrecy, she would need to put the healers under a loyalty spell, and then dispose of them ... Apparently Urd had reached the same conclusion and therefore had turned to mortals. Meanwhile, Lind waited patiently imagining the demon's mental dialogue. The former Valkyrie, perceiving that Hild was about to reach a decision, so she dropped a final bomb:
- "I must tell you that Wotan reverted to his original form, I do not think it is convenient to bring his in such state. I don't know the reasons why he has been hidden in that way, but I think I can recognize his original identity. I remember that long ago he was one of the contenders to be the leader of Hell and was very close to you. "
If it weren't for his millennia of training hiding her feelings, Hild would have spit the tea ...!
-"Ahem!"- she clearing her throat ostentatiously, once she recovered her composure continued-" So I have no choice but to go to the mortal world. But I must do it in secret. "
- "We will leave immediately ...! "
-"Not so fast." - interrupted Hild- "If I disappear without leaving a trace there will be problems and many questions that I won ́t like to answer. Nor can I send an avatar, I will need all my power to help to save it. "
Lind looked irritated, Hell's internal problems were none of her business. Only because of Urd she had accepted this mission.
- "Surely your honor must have a double body that can temporarily replace you ... It is an elementary precaution of every ruler."
Hild laughed in a way that didn't announce anything good.
- "Marler, my usual double is no longer available, as I raised her to the rank of Druhting and she is working very hard, but I think I have the perfect substitute, someone who has no power here to act against me."
Before Lind reacts, Hild rose in the air and began to draw a magic circle.
In one of the boardrooms of the computing complex, Professor Takashi put the exhausted goddess Ghadril on one of the fluffy sofas, then from a canvas bag on his back he took out one of the lunar bracelets and carefully exchanged by the one the goddess was wearing. He had been doing that procedure for several hours so Ghadril could maintain her power to create the force field. The goddess seemed to be in the middle of a restless sleep but at the moment he exchanged the bracelet worn by the new one the goddess sighed and then relaxed, then fell into a peaceful and restful sleep.
He marked the bracelet he had removed and placed it with the group that had already been used. From the mortal point of view, no difference could be detected between them, but the gods and demons could extract a great amount of energy from them.
He took off his white coat and used it to gently cover the goddess. He knew it was a useless gesture. The goddess could withstand temperature changes that would be deadly for a human, but still felt the urge to take care of her.
He sat down to wait for the goddess to recover, and began to fiddle with one of the bracelets.
Ghadril had explained to him that normally Nieghod or Yggdrasil were responsible for distributing power among gods and demons. That energy that was obtained from the mortal universe and processed in some way.
But something bothered him. If the bracelets could somehow capture the energy of this universe and process it so that gods and demons could use it, what was the purpose of these great supercomputers to process it? Could it be a rationing system? Goddesses and demons of different levels seemed to receive different quotas of energy.
He knew the mortal universe was full of energy,it was Gaia's energy. If the gods and demons absorbed it directly without realizing it, it could produce a kind of intoxication, Gadril had suffered it, it was the reason for their first encounter, they called it the intoxication of life. The bracelets seemed to filter that energy so that didn't happen. However its very nature seemed unknown, even to the gods.
He took the bracelet between his hands and stare at it, trying to reconcile his ideas. Then trying not to make noise, he turned one of the computer terminals and spoke softly.
- "Galileo, I'm Dr Takashi. I request access to the unpublished works of Dr. Rosenthal and the file of the research about subject Goddess Belldandy. Authorization A3-blue code. "
After a brief pause, Galileo replied:
- "Identity confirmed. Your credentials have the right level. What aspects are you interested in Dr Takashi. "
- "To begin with, I want to know more about the code routines that the gods use to absorb Yggdrasil's energy. I think some of Belldandy's code has been decompiled. I want to see if in addition to the energy there is some data communication channel. "
- "Confirmed. We have partially disassembled those routines. There is an information channel next to the energy channel. We have paid special attention because it is the means by which the infection we know as "madness" is transmitted. "
- "How is this energy transmitted and received? What is the normal function of that communication channel? What type of information is normally transmitted? "
- "All that is unknown. That is information that gods and demons have not give us, seems to be high level classified information, apparently they themselves do not know. "
Dr Takashi raised his eyebrows and began scratching his chin while meditating. The fact that the gods did not know the purpose of this communication channel intrigued him. The obvious us for it would be an identification channel to be able to ration energy. But judging by the routines he could see, the bandwidth seemed excessive.
- "I want to see the Dr. Rosenthal ́s file, especially the similarities between the crystal structure of the ceramic of the bracelets and the ... er... " dilithium crystals !" ."
He couldn't help laughing at the thought of that name: "dilithium crystals," Roshentahl. had taken the name of an old TV series. Ironically, the name had been very appropriate because in the series it had been suggested that the crystals extended their geometry in other dimensions and that had proved to be true. He knew that Dr. Shugahara had made a mistake in thinking that dilithium crystals were a purer form of the bracelet structure. However there was something in common.
Dr. Takashi's area was high energy physics, there were aspects of Dr. Rosenthal's work that he could not understand, but he understood the global idea.
He was intrigued by the nature of the energy that the gods used, and how it was possible that information were transmitted, and what information was transmitted there. Suddenly his eyes lit up and he began to laugh, full of satisfaction ... but he stopped ... he didn't want to wake the goddess ..
- "Galileo, open a new file. Share it with Dr. Rosenthal and Dr. Ohta. Thinking about it, also with Professor Kawazu. It may also be of to interest him. Tentative title: On the possibility of energy transmission by means of adimensional subatomic particles. Use of entropy modulation to encode information. "
Dr Takashi began typing quickly, just pausing for the equations to be verified by Galileo.
A few hours later Gadril woke up from a restful sleep. She jumped up ready for action ... But all she found was Dr Takashi asleep in a chair and leaning on the keyboard. The goddess smiled at the scene. She looked at the bracelet on her arm and at the coat that had covered her. She turned her attention to the young man and then carried him as if it weighed nothing, to place him on the sofa. This time it was she who covered him with the lab coat and then gently stroked his face. Then she approached the screen. After scanning the file her face turn into astonishment. She checked the rest file and for a moment she seemed to frozze ... suddenly she shouted and held her head between hands with pain reflected on her face... She seemed to be fighting something. She fell to the floor with and agitated breathing, then slowly she regained her control, but her body shuddered again and she murmured in fear.
- "Alert level 6! Immediate execution of the transgressor! - She looked at the man who was sleeping peacefully and shouted in horror - Nooo.! I refused to comply. "
As in response to her words his body contorted. The goddess tried to get up but only managed to sit on the floor. She contracted his legs and hugged them tightly trying to overcome the pain. Then with great effort she crawled to the sleeping scientist was and begged.
- "Yoshida, wake up. Please, you have to stop me before I kill you!"
In the Tarikigonhan temple Keiichi was lying on his futon while taking Belldandy hand. He looked at the stump of his hand, covered in bandages and sighed. It's a relief to know that it could be recovered, even if would take some time. Then he told to his beloved goddess.
-"I'll be fine. I promise that I will not move from here. It is important that we find out what happened to Wotan. He seemed to be a good guy. I'm sure he didn't act on his own will. "
Belldandy nodded.
- "Apparently he is still in critical condition. And we have no news about Hild, so we will do whatever is in our power. Sentaro will be here soon, and he will keep you company. "
Belldandy kissed him on the cheek and set off along her sisters. Alone in his room, Keiichi closed his eyes, but he knew he would not be able to sleep. After a while he slowly sat on the futon and ordered.
- "Galileo, I need you to give me a summary of the situation."
Keiichi fell silent after Galileo summarized what they were doing at the HPCI. Then he tried to scratch his chin ... and to realize that he only had a stump. Having been mutilated reminded him of how close to death he had been.
- "Galileo, please contact me with Gyrid, if she is awake at this time."
- "She has been asking about you, Keiichi san. She asked to be awakened as soon as there were some news. "
Soon a screen appeared with a sleepy and beautiful face, it was still something amusing to realize that this young woman in pink pajamas was the virtual ruler of planet earth ...
- "After a few seconds the young woman recognized him and exclaimed scared."
- "Keiichi San, are you alright? Galileo informed me of what happened. Are you okay?"
- "I am out of danger, but I will be resting for a few days to receive a treatment to heal this."
He showed her his stump. The young woman could not avoid a horror yelp. Keiichi quickly reassured her.
- "It's really no problem, it still hurts a little but with the help of magic in a few weeks I will recover it, but there are matters much more pressing."
Gyrid breathed calmly, and soon went on to "work mode." She said seriously ..
- "So, so you think the time has come?"
- "I'm afraid so. For the first time in history, our world has enjoyed many years of peace .. "
- "... but it is time for the earth to have a new army."
In the HPCI control room Dr. Kawazu was sleeping on his chair. He began to move restlessly, as a delicious aroma invaded him, then woke up ... One of his assistants smiled as was moving a steaming cup of coffee under his nose ... The doctor opened his eyes, took the cup and drank it avidly. He was about to say something when his assistant offered him a sandwich, which he began to devour while the young man began to present his report.
- "We are about 90% of the energy drain, you asked me to wake him up when we reached that level. The subject state is stable. According to Galileo, even if he entered a critical state, this time our shields would be able to contain the damage. "
- "Excellent, soon we can start trying to repair the code. At least enough to stabilize him. What do we know about the three goddesses?"
- "They had informed that Keiichi San is stable, so they will be able to be with us soon."
- "Very well, I think I'll take a quick shower and I'll be with you right away."
The assistant withdrew with a weary pace, but now there was no fear in his face. The situation had changed. Kawazu stood awkwardly from his chair and began to stretch, in the meantime with a yawn said:
- "Galileo, do I have any pending messages?"
- "Dr Takashi shared you a document with you. It is very extensive, do you want to see it?"
- "Takashi? I suspect I won't understand anything, but show it to me, I'll take a quick look. "
Galileo generated a holographic screen with the file and began to display its parts. Dr Kawazu scratched his head, most of it was too theoretical for him, but upon reaching the conclusions he remained motionless and then opened his mouth in surprise. Then he scratched his chin and said
- "Takashi, you're a genius. It's just a hypothesis, but that would explain many things. "
At that moment an alarm began to sound. It sounded like a fire alert. Since it was a computer center so there weren't really many types of alerts ...
- "What's going on?"
After a pause, Galileo answered
- "Apparently the goddess Ghadril attacked Professor Takashi."
-xxx-
End of chapter XLVIV
notes:
dilithium crystals: If you remember it, it was the name Dr Rosenthal gave to the purified crystals obtained from Urd ́s flower