Interlude 4

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The entire building rumbled as alarms screamed all over. Gods and Goddesses flew frantically about, trying to keep Yggdrasil in operation.

But they were losing that battle too.

Kristine typed frantically at an upper level terminal. Every now and then she stole a glance at the main screen. What she saw only made her type faster.

Gone was the map display of heaven. Now all that remained was a diagram of the main building. Several areas were already red, but not because Demons controlled them.

It was because they no longer existed.

Kristine gritted her teeth and continued to work at the terminal. She'd lost track of how long she'd been here, but she knew she had very little time left.

The terminal let off a chime and flashed something across the screen. Kristine read the screen, then smiled for the first time in months. She grabbed her communicator and flipped it to a special frequency.

"I've got it." She said, "What's a good place?"

"Is there such a place anymore?" a voice responded.

"Council chambers." Came a third voice.

"On my way." Kristine replied. She shut down her communicator and did one final looked around the control room. Everyone was still running about frantically. Peorth was at the SysOp chair now, shouting out commands. Kristine's eyes slowly moved over to the chair nearby. The chair had been occupied by Mist until a day ago.

Now it would probably never be sat in again.

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Kristine walked out to the main entrance hall. From the control room level, she could see all the way down to the main floor. There, several Valkyries were still fighting to keep the Demonic armies out. The building then shuddered and several pieces of debris from higher up fell past Kristine. She quickly floated up and out over the main space, heading towards the level the council room resided on. There she hurried through the halls till she reached the huge council doors.

"Uhhh Kris?" came a voice over her communicator.

"I'm just outside the Council room." Kristine replied as she pushed the doors open.

"Yeah…..about that."

The doors opened wide and Kristine started forward, only instead of the council room, there was nothing.

"GAH!" Kristine stopped walking and pin wheeled her arms to keep from falling. Once she had her balance back, she looked around. The Council room seemed to have taken a hit at some point. Several stories above and below her position had collapsed.

"…the Council Chamber isn't there anymore." Came the voice over her communicator.

Kristine let out a few choice swear words in Norse she'd learn from her mother, then picked up her communicator.

"Where?" she asked.

"Terra 2 Office."

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Kristine walked down the hallway towards the Terra 2 office as she had so many times in the past 400 years or so. The Demon attacks outside had not affected this area yet, so the paintings of her family still remained. Kristine paused only briefly to look up at the paintings of her Uncle and Mother that lined the hall.

She reached the outer office and found Cayla's desk empty. She continued on to the door of her Grandmother's office and started to raise her hand to knock. She paused and mentally scanned the room. All she could detect was one Goddess, Cayla from the feel of it, and a Valkyrie, most likely Dawn.

Kristine entered the office and was able to confirm that Cayla and Dawn were present. Also there was Yui, whom as a Guardian she was unable to sense.

"Glad you could make it." Yui said.

"Considering I almost fell in the Council Room." Kristine replied.

"Yeah, That was my bad." Dawn said, "I forgot it wasn't there. Cayla had to remind me."

Kristine glanced over at her Grandmother's assistant.

"What is she doing here?"

"She's here because she can help us with things that would require a Council Member's access." Yui replied.

Kristine stared wide eyed at Cayla.

"I know all your Grandmother's codes and passwords." Cayla said softly, "I can help with what you are planning."

"What exactly are we planning?" Dawn asked, "Other then something to save Yoko."

Yui glanced at Kristine. "Could you explain?"

Kristine nodded.

"Using Yggdrasil," she began, "I've worked out a spell. I have the exact specifications of the Mandela we will have to make, including markings figures, power, and such." Kristine glanced up at Yui. "We will need Arael for this."

"Arael's not in the best shape right now." Yui said, "She's barely alive as it is."

"We'll need her," Kristine repeated, "As well as you, me, Dawn," She looked over at Cayla. "If you're in, we could use you too."

"I'm in." Cayla replied, "Anything to help Sayoko."

Everyone present winced at Cayla's use of the young goddesses given name.

"Cayla," Yui said, "for now, call her Yoko."

"Alright." Cayla replied, "But my I ask, what is the spell for?"

"We are going to send Yoko away." Yui replied, "To a place where she'll be safe."

Cayla blinked, "If it's so safe, why can't the rest of us go?"

"Because I've been working for the past week or more on making sure Yoko WILL survive there." Kristine said, "For the rest of us, it will be almost impossible."

Cayla blinked in confusion.

"And where is this place?"