I do not own the Ah! Megami sama / Oh! My Goddess series

Sitting leisurely on an aerial antenna that was placed on top of a nearby building, the miniature version of Urd was intently observing the events that were unfolding below her. Her original mission was to pick Lind and go back to the temple, but the situation had taken a very interesting turn as Keiichi's parents had somehow managed to run into the Valkyrie.

On the other hand, Keima Morisato wasn't having such a great time. The disapproving look on his wife's face was all the evidence he needed to realize just how much trouble he had gotten into. She was correct, though, as he has indeed spent most of their money on some business related purchase, while the original intent was to buy something for their son's birthday. "I'm sorry. I just got enthusiastic about it and spent too much for the vase..."

"Well, it's a bit late for that, isn't it, Keima-kun?" asked his wife, before she turned to the goddess that was standing next to them. "I must admit that it is rather surprising to see that Keiichi is befriending artists. He certainly wasn't all that interested in Keima's craft back home. Or does it have to do with the fact that you're Belldandy's friend?"

"How do you know that?" asked a puzzled Lind, as the woman had only recently joined them and couldn't have possibly heard that she knew Keiichi from her conversation with his father.

"Actually, it's the markings on your face. All of the ladies living with him have them as well," said Takano.

"Oh..." Her sigils were something very natural for her, but on the other hand, the mortals were clearly unfamiliar with them. The latter did have some techniques to create markings with paint under their skin, but those were very different in nature and purpose compared to the ones that the former had. She could turn them invisible for the mortals, although it was a bit late for that right now since they had already seen them anyway. "It's true that I'm friends with Keiichi's wife."

Above them, Urd face palmed as she realized the Valkyrie's blunder. In her attempt to provide a helpful reply, she had accidentally disclosed a dangerous bit of information. Maybe it was a bad idea to let her handle this on her own, as she was a rather honest individual that wouldn't try to deceive anyone. Especially in a critical situation like this.

The couple stared at the blue haired goddess for a long time as they tried to process that last bit of information. It was entirely possible that the foreign looking woman mistook the word 'girlfriend' with 'wife,' but so far she was speaking Japanese fluently, just like Belldandy and her sisters. That left only the possibility that she meant exactly what she said.

"They got married?" asked Takano, as she was still trying to recover from the news. "When did that happen?"

It was exactly at that moment that the goddess fully realized her error. 'Oh no... I've really done it this time...'

Urd scratched the back of her head as she tried to figure out what to do as well. Maybe if she hadn't taken this so lightly, she could have stopped the Valkyrie from spilling the beans. So much for that idea. If Keiichi heard about this, the poor boy was going to end in in the hospital from all the stress. It was possible that the situation demanded one of her forgetfulness pills, but it could be a bit early to take such decisive action. The best option was to continue to observe and where things went. If worst came to worst, then some divine intervention would be necessary.

Lind was still struggling to come up with something that would get herself out of her current predicament. Maybe telling them part of the truth was going to be better. "They married yesterday

as a matter of fact."

"Really? We hadn't gotten any invitations. No one told us anything either... Hm... Was it a private wedding then?" asked Takano, as she tried to get more information out of Lind.

"Well... Yes, I suppose you could call it that, but..."

"Aha! I knew it!" exclaimed the woman, as she had gotten one step closer to figuring things out. "He must have run out of money again, didn't he? But why didn't he call us in that case?"

"Huh?!" was the only thing that the goddess could say. How in Asgard's name did she came up with that? Humans were so strange at times...

It was Keima who offered an answer to his wife. "Keiichi had always wanted to be self reliant, so it's only natural that he chose this course of action. He is my son, after all."

"Um... excuse me..." started Lind, who felt the urge to clean up this misunderstanding before it got out of hand. However, she remembered Peorth's words from yesterday, when Hild had suggested that it was Hagall who damaged Keiichi's home.

'Lind, just go along with it...'

Finding that this was the best course of action for the time being, she stopped herself from correcting Keiichi's parents. Instead, she decided that getting back was her new priority. "I'm really late and they must be already waiting for me to return. But before I go, can I ask one thing?"

Looking at each other for a moment, the two mortals wondered what the blue haired woman wanted to know. Eventually, Takano decided to find out. "Sure thing, what is it?"

"You don't seem too surprised that Keiichi got married. I'd expected that you would've had a stronger reaction to the news."

"Well... To be honest, we already knew that he wanted to marry Belldandy," said Takano. "During our last visit, it was really obvious that he loved her a lot, so it was only a matter of time before it actually happened."

"That's true indeed," added Keima as he slowly nodded his head. "He really showed a lot of determination in the race we had back then, so we were certain that this wasn't just some simple crush. He really wanted her to stay with him for his entire life."

'Actually he wanted her to stay with him forever...' thought the Valkyrie. But that was something entirely different from what the mortal couple had in mind. "I see... Well, I have to go now..."

"Wait a second," said Takano. "Thanks to Keima-kun, we don't have the money to buy a gift anymore, so why don't we all go to Keiichi's home together?"

Thinking about it for a moment, Lind found no reason to decline the woman's offer. "Very well. The bike's just a block away, then we can head to the temple."

The unlikely trio, plus the miniature Urd above them, headed towards the location where Keiichi's BMW was parked.

XXX

Ithavoll, Asgard.

Located at the outskirts of the Asgard's capital city were the plains of Ithavoll, the very place were the ancient gods held their meetings. Today, a huge complex stands to provide the necessary facilities and offices for the High Council of the Gods. The latter consisted of twelve members that represented the gods, without counting the Daitenkaicho himself. The goddesses on the other hand were gathered in Vingolf, a hall located at the main part of the city where the High Council of the Goddesses gathered under the supervision of their Representative Director, who also was the second highest ranking celestial in Asgard.

Technically speaking, the Daitenkaicho was supposed to control both the administrative bodies, but for practical reasons, only had one of those two under their direct control. Based on the gender of the leader of Asgard, he or she was appointed to the appropriate council and somebody else had to oversee the other. Because the vast majority of the Daitenkaichos were gods, the second in command was naturally a goddess in order to fit the needs of this governing system. In most cases the leader's spouse managed to get that position, although it was not an actual rule. When, Tyr, the current Daitenkaicho tried to get himself a demoness wife, some secretly joked that Vingolf was going to get styled after Niflheim in order to appease the missus.

Nobody really knew why the celestial government was organized like that and almost certainly there was not anyone alive to remember that back when that decision was made. It just passed from one generation to the next and became part of Asgard's history and tradition. Most of those earlier gods were no longer around, as the constant fighting with the demons had claimed many lives on both sides. While it was inconvenient, gods did like to follow the old customs and were very reluctant to change them. Due to that there were also two identical offices available for the Daitenkaicho. The first was actually assigned to the one who held that title and the other for the second in command. The only difference was their locations and the selection was again based on the ruler's gender.

Tyr was located in the same office that his father and predecessor had been in. Odin was one of the longest reigning Daitenkaicho, more so than any other god in history. But Tyr found little solace in this place, despite how much of his own life he spent here.

One of the biggest problems was that he ended up living and not just working in this environment. The gods had very high standards for their leader, so his work had to be perfect in every respect, something that simply meant a lot of time consuming effort to keep up with those expectations. What had started as a few all-nighters of boring paperwork had become a lifestyle now. Taking a break was very hard and the best he could do was to head over to the window in order to watch the outside world with his own eyes, instead of relying on the various camera feeds that he could access though his terminal.

The very same was true for his wife, Ansuz, who was also having a hard time as the Representative Director of the goddess council. She lived in a virtually identical office in Vingolf and was just as busy. Even though there was the Lesser Council that regulated the needs of the capital city, the other two administrative bodies had to oversee all the celestial activities not only in Asgard but also the rest of the realms under their control. Those tasks required constant attention which resulted in very few interactions between them. As a matter of fact, both deities had to rely on Baldr to raise their daughters, since they rarely even visited their own house.

The god of light and youngest of his three brothers was more than happy to raise the Norns as he had no children of his own. He was even the one who had taken Urd when Hild had brought her to Asgard, introducing the nervous goddess to the anxiously waiting Belldandy. Baldr was considered a role model amongst gods and the decision to raise Belldandy was a good one, he did refuse to raise Urd though and instead left that task for the eldest of his brothers, Thor. He had repeatedly stated that he had no issues with the girl and it was merely a matter of conflicting personalities.

Unlike Belldandy, Urd had the same temper as Thor at times and the god of thunder already had a daughter around her age as well. What he never told Urd was that trying to raise her like her sister wouldn't really work out as she was a half goddess hybrid and using the same approach as with any other goddess would suppress her demonic side far too much. Unlike himself who was only a healer in the Fighting Wings, while Thor had a much more experience with demons. However those facts were kept a secret from the young Urd as they would only make her early life in Asgard even harder.

Separating the girls would have been a bad decision though, so they both stayed together and Urd only visited Thor for a few lessons and spent the rest of her free time with Belldandy and even Baldr who kept a watchful eye on the young goddesses.

Despite the situation with Urd's training, he hadn't personally spoken with his elder brother for quite some time. It only happened in cases of official business, but nothing much beyond that. The god of thunder was a bit old fashioned in certain ways and valued family and traditions more than any other law in Asgard, as it was a matter of honor for him. When Tyr was forced to be separated from Hild, Thor was furious that his brother simply went along with it just like that. He called him a spineless coward and never spoke to him from that point on, at least for personal matters.

Perhaps that was one of the reasons that Thor wasn't interested in the Daitenkaicho's position to begin with. He valued his own family too much to take a job that would consume all of his personal time. At least Thor hadn't shown the same attitude towards the other members of his family and even spoiled the three goddesses on occasions. Still, he refused to acknowledge Ansuz as his sister-in-law on the grounds that Tyr hadn't properly separated from Hild yet and even went as far as to continue calling the latter 'sister', a fact that aggravated Asgard's second in command to no end. Despite that, she never tried to correct him, as the god of thunder wasn't known for his patience and it didn't take much to annoy him, with all the predictable results.

Tyr, however, had more issues than his elder brother to worry about right now. Turning away from the office's window, the Daitenkaicho decided to return back to his work. Niflheim's rebellion had generated a month's paperwork in less than a single day. Scratching his head, he didn't even know where to start from, as the number of reports he had to read were simply staggering. At least he didn't have to deal with the ones from Peorth and Lind, since he gave them a short vacation, but that would hardly change anything. However, it would appease those who constantly complained that the council never really rewarded anyone and only made the work harder. As a matter of fact, those two goddesses sounded really happy, given that they've got the chance to stay with his daughters for a while.

The sudden noise from the door made him turn. It was just the god he was expecting. Using his power to push most of the papers to the sides of his desk in neatly organized stacks, he decided that it was time to deal with this issue once and for all. "Come in"

As the double doors opened, a god with blonde hair that was pulled in a long ponytail walked in. Taking a look around the office with his green eyes, he eventually turned to the dark haired god that was still waiting for him to approach. "Hello, oniisama."

"Hello, Baldr. Have you brought the item I've ordered?" asked the Daitenkaicho as he stared at his youngest brother.

"Yes, I just got it from the Magical Research Institution. Here, it's inside the box, although they wouldn't tell me what's its purpose," said the god of light.

Taking the box in his own hands, Tyr quickly turned around to inspect the contents. Inside was a seemingly plain looking bracelet with a single gemstone, as well as a note with what was most likely the instructions from its creators. Checking both of them for a few minutes, he nodded happily as he found that the item was indeed built to meet his specifications. However as he was about to turn back to his brother, he realized that Baldr was fiddling around with a second box. "Hm? What's that you've got there?"

"Oh, this?" asked Baldr as he opened the box. "It's a gift! I've got a nice hairpin for you."

"Huh?!" exclaimed the startled Daitenkaicho. "Look... now... You're the last person in the family to pull this joke on me. Your hair is just as long as mine, so you're not one to speak. Besides I don't wear hairpins... Got it? Just who asked you to do this anyway? Loki?"

The god of light looked puzzled for a moment, until he realized that his brother had misunderstood. "Um... Actually, it's not for you. I just thought that it would've been nice to buy a gift for sister, since your anniversary is coming up and, knowing you, it's unlikely you've remembered it."

"What are you talking about Baldr, of course I keep track of such matters. I even have it marked on my calendar, so I wouldn't possibly forget it." Reaching out to his desk, he managed to get the item in question, but in the process he decided to check it as well. Suddenly the supreme ruler of Asgard started to lose his color as he stared at the circled date, that was dangerously close and yet he had made absolutely no preparations. "Uh... Now that I think about it, that hairpin is really nice. Can I have it?"

"Of course, oniisama. Here you go."

"Thank you," said Tyr as he quickly placed both boxes on his desk and used his powers to wrap them as proper gifts. He did however notice the look on his brother's face which clearly indicated that the younger god was expecting something. "Is there something else, Baldr?"

"Well, I'm going to deliver it, right?" asked the blonde god in the sweetest voice he could manage.

"Actually, I was going to send a Valkyrie..." started to say the ruler of Asgard.

"But, oniisama, both Thor and Loki are already on Midgard. Why can't I go and congratulate my own student as well?" asked Baldr. He was certain that his other two brothers had already gone to Midgard to meet with the newlyweds and yet he was the was supposed to let a Valkyrie to get there instead of him? After he practically raised Belldandy? No way...

"Hold on! What did you say?!" shouted Tyr, turning pale once more.

"That I wanted to congratulate my student?" asked Baldr while he slightly tilted his head.

"No! Before that!"

"Oh! Our brothers are already on Midgard," said the god of light.

"Do you have any idea what that means? Every time those two head there, they break something and now they're there?!" Grabbing one of the two wrapped gifts, Tyr tossed the item to his younger brother and started to push him towards the door. "Here. Have fun! Take a few days off, my treat. Just make sure they don't do anything this time. I've got enough work already! Send my daughters my regards. Bye bye, take care, etc..."

The overwhelmed god stared at the door behind him as it closed, leaving him alone and slightly confused in the vast hall. Tyr was collected and serious most of the time, but started to act really funny and childish when he was under a lot of stress. Well, he did have a gift to deliver and he would get to see his nieces again. While the three of them were often a bit of a trouble, he really did miss them after they left for Midgard. With a smile, he started for the Gate room.

XXX

Keiichi and Megumi had already finished their fifth lap around the area when the young mechanic suddenly recognized his prized bike among the parked vehicles. "Hold on, Megumi! It's over there!"

"Really?! I could have sworn that we already passed this place before. Well, we found your bike at the very least." Stopping her green KSR right in front of Keiichi's BMW, she let out a sigh of relief. What a crazy situation this was... But then again she missed the excitement from those crazy incidents that happened around her brother. Ever since Keiichi graduated from NIT, things were rather dull for Megumi, considering that he rarely showed up anymore. His friends at the Motor Club were also much tamer since Tamiya and Otaki had also graduated and while the club's reputation was still questionable, they rarely involved themselves in the same antics that they used to.

Life was starting to get boring for the youngest Morisato. A year or even two and she was going to graduate as well and for the most part, she had no idea what to do from that point on. Keiichi managed to get the position in Chihiro's shop and while not the most glamorous of jobs, it was something. She didn't know if she could manage to work in that shop as well, given that the founder of the Motor Club didn't have the budget to set up a big business. The store in question was actually housed inside a re-purposed shipping container that was modified to meet their needs. It was doubtful if there was even the room for an extra employee in there. But on the other hand, it would have been really nice to be around Keii-chan and Bell-chan again.

Keiichi's inspection of the bike had confirmed that nothing was out of place or even broken. Now all he needed was to find Lind and get back into the temple, hopefully in time to let Belldandy prepare something for his parents' arrival. At least that way, they would probably take the news a bit better and not disown him for not inviting them to his wedding.

"Um... Keii-chan. Does this Lind character have blue hair?" asked Megumi as she suddenly noticed someone approaching them in the distance.

"Yes..." said a puzzled Keiichi. "I thought you never met her, Megumi."

"I haven't, Keii-chan," said his sister while she pointed towards the Valkyrie. "But she must be the one that's walking alongside Keima-san and Takano-san over there."

Keiichi felt at times the universe was doing its best to get him in the most bizarre situations possible. This was starting to look like one of those cases, with his bad luck striking once more. After all, what were the chances for the Valkyrie to run across his parents before he had a chance to even talk to them? Turning his head slowly towards the indicated direction, he realized that his sister had been indeed correct.

"Hey, Keii-chan? Are you okay? You seem awfully pale all of a sudden..." Waving a hand in front of her brother's face, she realized that he was not responsive at all. Smacking him on the back of his head, she tried to get his attention. "Wake up! This isn't the right situation to space out like that."

"Ow... You're right, but that wasn't a reason to hit me like that, Megumi!" complained Keiichi as he rubbed his head.

As Lind approached the bike, she noticed that Keiichi was already waiting for her. "Keiichi-kun? Did your visitor leave already? By the way, I ran into..."

"Yes, at least that's what Belldandy told me when I called earlier," said Keiichi as he wearily eyed his parents. "And I can see them very well, Lind..."

Before anyone could say anything, a deafening explosion shook the ground and even broke a few windows in the distance. It was more than enough to cause everyone to look in the direction of its most likely source, the Nekomi mountain ridge.

'That was most certainly made by a celestial,' thought Lind. Ignoring the other mortals, the Valkyrie focused on Keiichi. "Keiichi-kun, it would be for the best to get back as soon as possible. I need to check on this."

While the rest of his relatives were looking in the general direction of the explosion, just like some of the other pedestrians, Keiichi moved a bit closer to the goddess in hopes to avoid being heard. Lowering his voice as much as he could manage, he whispered the first question that popped into his head. "Demons?"

Keeping an eye to the rest, the Valkyrie shook her head. "Gods," she whispered back.

'What's next?' wondered Keiichi. A demonic rebellion, getting through the Judgment Gate test, his wedding, the party, Sayoko, Lind, his family dropping by... Just when was he going to be able to take a breath? The last two days had been so frantic that he didn't even get to celebrate his birthday, not that it was truly important anymore. He just wanted to finally spend some time with his... wife. Funny thing... It's still hard to even believe he'd gotten married.

"Keii-chan," said his sister, bringing him out of his thoughts. "Wasn't that from the direction of the temple?"

"Nah... it's probably nothing..." he lied as a way to avoid any topic that may involve immortals in front of his family. "Maybe it was just thunder."

The younger Morisato raised an eyebrow at that. "Really?! Thunder? There's not even a single cloud today, so where do you think it came from?"

'Urd? Who knows...' thought Keiichi. It was amusing to think that he had a lot of possibilities for this kind of situation. It was only natural for most other mortals to have no idea about any of those matters. "I still don't think that it's something serious."

"You think? Remember that incident when the Makhuhari convention center got completely smashed?" asked Megumi. "It came out of the blue, just like that. Who knows what happened this time?"

'That was Urd being possessed by the Lord of Terror...' thought Keiichi while he tried to suppress a groan.

Seeing that her brother wasn't going to do anything, Megumi put on her helmet and started the motor of her KSR. "Well, stay here if you want, Keii-chan. I'm going to see if everything is alright at the temple."

His parents also shared a look, before they turned to leave. "We're going after Megumi-chan too," said his mother.

"Eh?! You're going there?" asked the surprised mechanic.

"Well... We were planning to visit anyways," said Takano. "Besides we want to see how your wife is doing as well."

"See you on the temple, Keiichi," added his father.

As soon as they were out of sight, Lind handed Keiichi the shopping bags. "Keiichi-kun, take those and bring them home. In the meanwhile, I'll head there to see what's going on."

Before he even had a chance to say anything, he was left alone with the bags as the Valkyrie pressed her hand on the windscreen of a nearby parked car and disappeared in a flash. Seeing that he had no other option, he got on his BMW and started for the temple as well.

Above him, the miniature version of Urd decided that her mission had technically failed, but she was having too much fun, as things were about to get really interesting. With that, she headed back to the temple as well.

XXX

At the Tariki Hongan Temple, a cloud of thick smoke was just dissipating after the fierce explosion that took place moments ago. In the middle of the bell tower's remains, two figures were dusting themselves while they inspected the damage around them. Apparently there seemed to be a structure underneath the destination point of their transfer, which was blown away the moment they landed. Especially thanks to the rather large momentum that one of them gained as they descended from the sky where the Gate had opened.

"You know, Thor..." said Loki as he turned to his taller companion. "The war is over."

"Huh?!" How was that even relevant to this situation at all? The god of thunder knew that trying to understand the trickster's mind was a lost cause, but it still bugged him when he threw him off like that. "What are you talking about?"

"We're supposed to meet our nieces and our new nephew, not charge into a battlefield," replied Loki. It wasn't unusual for the Fighting Wings to sometimes use such dynamic entries as a way to provide cover as well as a method of disrupting a possible ambush. Using it in a situation like this was completely pointless and possibly dangerous as well, since this Morisato boy was a mortal and possibly nearby.

"Hey! I held back quite a bit, you know. If I hadn't done that, then this town would have been..." Thor started to say as he noticed the skeptical look that his companion was giving him. "Why are you staring at me like that?"

"You know... Now that I think about it, Hild sure tried to marry the wrong god," said Loki while scratching his chin, lost in thought. "You would have made a great couple, actually."

Feeling that the trickster was either trying to aggravate him or just being silly like usually was, Thor simply remained silent and started to walk towards the house in front of him. Just as he was about to reach the door, he felt a small amount of magic being summoned behind him. Apparently Loki had decided to fix the damage that they... or rather he had caused for the most part. That was a rather interesting sight, if he had to admit, as the other god was anything but responsible. After all Thor wasn't going to leave it like that, he just wanted to say 'hi' before he got cleaned up the mess. Did he accidentally hit the trickster's head as well or was he just trying to make a good first impression?

'Whatever... it's about time he fixes something instead of causing the mess. Could become a good habit.' Before he even managed to ring the doorbell, someone had already gotten out to meet him.

"Uncle Thor! What a surprise! Why didn't you call us beforehand, so we could prepare something?" said Urd as she hovered closer to the tall god.

While the goddess was indeed smiling, Thor knew her better than her own father. "Urd-chan, you may be a bit of a liar, but you're certainly a bad one. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that you don't really want me here, so what's up?"

Letting out a sigh, the goddess of the past set her feet on the ground before she folded her arms. "What's not up is the real question. We had a little bit of everything going on the last two days and Keiichi's parents are already in Nekomi. Having both of you here might be a bit too much for the poor guy."

"Yeah, I know..." said Thor with a shrug. "But you know how it is. Since I was in the neighborhood, I took the opportunity to drop by as well. If I went back to Asgard, then who knows when I would be allowed to visit."

Urd knew that her uncle was right and to be honest she did miss him and his silly antics, but some things had to be prioritized. Keiichi was coming home with the shopping bags according to her miniature version that just had returned. But his parents were most likely going to arrive before him. Belldandy was at least making some more tea in order to have something for them.

"Uncle! Welcome to our home," Belldandy said, who had just arrived to find out who was at the door. As the goddess of the present offered a small bow, she looked around with a puzzled expression. "Wasn't uncle Loki with you too?"

"He's over there," said Thor as he pointed behind him, but suddenly realized that there was no one beside the bell tower. Turning to his right, he spotted the trickster next to the main temple. While some may have assumed that he had just gotten confused with the two buildings and went for the wrong one, the god of thunder knew better. Approaching the short, waist-tall wooden fence that separated the main temple from the house, he saw Loki inspecting the offerings. "Hey! How many times have I told you to leave money alone?!"

"But... Aren't we gods? Surely it isn't bad if we just collect the..."

"Just come here, you!" shouted Thor, who had no intention to go though the same old argument with his adopted brother. It happened from time to time, when they ran into temples and Loki wanted to make some easy cash by using that excuse. To be honest, he was certain that the trickster didn't even need the money but mostly did it to aggravate him.

"Can I keep the batteries though?" asked Loki. "There are a couple of them among the offerings."

"Huh?!" That was something that he had never heard before. Power cells as a form of tribute? Crazy mortals... Looking at Urd, his niece had the same baffled expression, so maybe that wasn't common after all. "Whatever..."

Loki was about to say something, before he noticed something or rather someone coming at his location at high speed. Aeons of experience and well exercised reflexes at avoiding whatever the others tried to throw at him kicked in as he narrowly missed a foot that was aiming for his face. The owner of said body part smashed into the ground with enough force to bring down the main temple. Even worse, she was a very familiar and extremely dangerous individual. "Lind-san, how nice of you to drop by for a visit. I assume that everything is going well?"

"Cut the small talk, Loki. What have you done this time?" asked the irate goddess that had the misfortune of knowing the trickster all too personally. Actually, most of the Valkyries knew him due to his pranks, causing them to chase him quite a few times. It happened so often that some even thought to include this in the training exercises as Loki was good at taking the goddesses for a jog. There was even a running gag among them that whoever caught him was going to get a nice promotion all the way to the highest ranks of Valhalla.

"Me?! Nothing at all... not yet anyways..." said the god as he stared at the broken structure beside him. Of all the Valkyries, why her? She was the hardest to deal with, but also the best one to tease as well.

"Then what was that explosion from before?" asked Lind who hadn't really bought anything that the troublemaker had said. Grabbing the front of his robes, she slightly lifted him from the ground. "Give me a reason to believe you."

"Two actually... The first is that I'm technically a first class god," said Loki as he raised a finger while he counted, before he pointed at the god of thunder who was watching them. "And the second is that he did it."

Noticing the other god, Lind let go of Loki and suddenly snapped at attention. "Thor-sama! I'm sorry but I didn't notice you."

"How many times I've told you that I'm no longer in the Fighting Wings? Never mind, the explosion was indeed my doing, but that's no longer an issue. We'll only have fix the damage that you've caused and there won't be any problems anymore. But I must commend your sense of duty given that you're on... vacation by the look of it."

Lind could barely contain her smile. One of the most famous members in the Fighting Wings' history had just praised her. Before she had the opportunity to say something, the troublemaker god had decided to voice his thoughts as well.

"That's not the only thing that's commendable about her. She finally started to show some skin too. The tube top is a very nice touch indeed."

He didn't manage to say anything else as the embarrassed goddess gave him a sharp kick, sending him into the nearby pile of debris, before she started for Keiichi's home in order to ask Peorth for something else to wear.

"The Valkyries sure love him," said Urd as Lind walked into the house.

"That's nothing really. He's usually worse than that," replied Thor as he remembered the trickster's past interactions with the warrior goddesses. Most likely he was holding back a bit since he was dealing with Lind. It was nice to see that she had relaxed a bit though. "Okay, let's fix this mess now, shall we?"

"Sure thing," agreed Urd. Keiichi's parents were most likely just minutes away.

Belldandy smiled despite having not participated in the banter. After all, she was used to this and instead joined her sister and their uncle in the repairs.

XXX

Meanwhile, the Gate's impromptu search party had finally reached the center of Nidhogg's subterranean chamber. Indeed, the item they were looking for was right in front of them, carefully placed in a pile of various items that must have fallen into the Pit and brought here by the Infernal Dragon's minions. They could just reach and grab it, but that seemed easy. Way too easy as a matter of fact.

There was apparently no sign of those snakes, which was rather alarming for Hild. Last time they were all over the darn place, but now it was way too qiet and she didn't like it a bit. "Stop, Hagall-chan."

Her subordinate did exactly what she'd been told to do, but couldn't help but wonder what the problem was. The goddess' axe was just a few steps ahead, so what were they waiting for? Not everything had to be so complicated, but on the other hand, Hild-sama had a lot more combat experience than her. 'Who am I kidding? I've never fought against anyone at all... Not unless you count that mortal pet, but that was really against Hild-sama, as he really had no hope otherwise...'

As the blonde demoness stood as still as possible, Hild turned back to check Surt who had apparently not payed much attention to her warnings and was looking right above them. Lowering his gaze to her, he silently gestured to get out of the way. It was sometimes common for the demon warriors to rely in that form of communication in hopes keep a low profile. The Eldjontunn prepared two spells silently, as Hild grabbed the top of Hagall's dress and jumped as far on the right as possible, taking the other demoness with her.

Only as soon as they were both out of the way did the Daimakaicho look up to see what was the problem. Hanging from the tree roots were dozens of snakes, all completely immobile in a ready to strike position and with their fangs exposed. Instead of attacking them head on as was usual for them, they had opted for an ambush. Hild had no doubt that they were all waiting for them to get to the exact center where the axe was. This meant that they must have also realized their goal too. Somehow those things were getting smarter over time, as there was no other possible explanation for their current behavior.

At that exact moment, Surt slammed his right hand on the ground, sending a wave of dark energy towards the center of the room and creating a series of lines on the cavern's floor. Reacting to the sudden change, the snakes all decided to lunge forward in hopes to dispatch any threat. Before they had the chance, though, the lines erupted into a series of very sharp obsidian-like spikes. Falling into a trap themselves, the serpents got impaled but even that was merely a temporary situation. They were gifted with remarkable regenerating powers and it was only a minor setback.

Trying to save as much time as possible, the Eldjotunn pointed his other spell straight at the unsuspecting Ansuz who was staring at the mess in front of her. By the time she noticed anything it was far too late, as the wind spell sent her flying across the narrow path right in the middle of all those obsidian pikes. "What do you think you're doing?!"

"Just grab the darn thing and come back!" shouted Surt. "Those things won't stay like that forever!"

Hild had already started to fly towards the exit, dragging Hagall with her as well. The other demoness stood no chance if those things ever got to her. Ansuz wasn't nearly as vulnerable, after all she used to be a Valkyrie as well.

Indeed, the goddess didn't need anyone to tell her twice and began to hover. She did pause for a moment when she noticed that among the stack of all the other items, there were a few other battleaxes. The very same ones that the Fighting Wings used, but what were they doing down here? That could wait for later... Right now she had to move and fast. Flying as fast as it was possibly safe in such a subterranean environment, she passed right next to the demon who was apparently preparing another spell and joined Hild and Hagall who were already in the exit tunnel.

Surt's spell was ready too and by the looks of it, just in time too. As the snakes had already fully healed, they turned their attention to Surt since he was the only member of the party that still remained in the vast chamber. Raising both his hands directly in front of him, the series of red runes had finally completed. "Mega flare!"

For a split second the entire chamber was illuminated with the light of a thousand suns as a tremendous amount of energy was suddenly released. While Nidhogg could care less and hardly even moved in its sleep, its subordinates had no such luck. They immediately turned to ash, breaking down into such small particles that regeneration was impossible. Indeed a new batch from the spring of Hvergelmir emerged, just a few tunnels away from Nidhogg's chamber, ready to take up the position of the deceased ones.

The tunnel system that was connected with Nidhogg's chamber shook as the colossal explosion sent a wave of superheated air and debris. As the two demonesses and the goddess landed briefly to avoid being swept away by the surges of air that rushed to fill the void behind them, Surt had barely managed to catch up.

"All done?" asked Hild, before she picked Hagall once again, much to the blonde's embarrassment.

"Yes, they're dead. But others will most likely take their place. We must get out of here," said the Eldjotunn. "Fighting them here isn't an option."

"Why?" was the only question that Hagall had. The other demon certainly didn't hold back over there, so what was so different now?

"Hagall-chan, the chamber over there is full of Yggdrasil's roots and can absorb nearly anything," explained Hild. "Think of it this way. If we try anything like that, we're going to bury ourselves and they'd just love to keep us company."

"In other words, we have to get out right now," said Ansuz as she turned to see what was suddenly causing noise behind them. "Are they...?"

"Yes. Lovable, persistent buggers, aren't they?" answered Surt while he also took a glance behind them. 'At this rate we won't make it out in time. I wish I didn't have to use this in front of them, but I have little choice.'

"Come forth, Laevateinn!"

AN: I would like to offer my thanks to WhoIsAtlas for proofreading this and making the needed corrections.

Additionally I would like to thank everyone that has offered their feedback and support both here and on the Goddess Relief site.

There are several things I'd like to note for this chapter.

Ithavoll ("splendour-plain") and the hall of Vingolf did exist in Norse mythology and while I changes a few things to make it work with my story, there were similarities. In this story they serve as the locations where the Gods Council and the Goddesses council are located. There are a few reasons for them to have two governing bodies instead of one in the story. Part of that decision was due to the way that Ansuz was introduced in the manga, where Hild stated that the goddess was the representative director of the goddess council. So, I had them have two councils.

Additionally it explains why the parents of the three sisters weren't that much involved in raising them. I'd like to think that it was due to the fact that they were both overworked and not a case of negligence.

Baldr's personality is heavily based on Belldandy's, as he was supposed to be the one that mostly raised her and acted as her teacher too. I do know that Celestin was supposed to be her mentor in the Movie, but he never made an appearance in the manga (and neither he was mentioned). I feel that Belldandy is a role model for the goddesses and the closest character in the Norse myths was Baldr. Plus, he's a family member as well.

Urd's personality has more to do with her mother and her own nature as a hybrid. Her habit of throwing thunders here and there might have something to do with her mentor, who in this story is Thor.

Finally both Baldr and Loki are single in this story, unlike their Norse counterparts. The first mostly because he might be a bit too friendly but is a bit naive when it comes to relationships (again in some aspects like the early depictions of Belldandy in the manga), while the latter suffers from his own reputation of being a troublemaker.