I do not own the Ah! Megami sama / Oh! My Goddess series
Asgard
Hours have passed since the unlikely trio had started digging their tunnel towards the Norns' house, but as some point, the initial enthusiasm gave way to harsh realism. Progress was so slow that at this rate it would've taken them weeks, if not months to cross that distance. And while there were a lot of methods to significantly speed up the process, none of them was nearly inconspicuous enough to be a viable solution to their problem.
"Okay, I give up… There's no way we're getting through with shovels alone," said Loki as he wiped his forehead in an attempt to get the dirt out of his face.
"Hey, I'm doing most of the work here," muttered Fenrir who was admittedly a lot more efficient at digging that the two gods, even though that made little difference in the long run.
"Yes, yes… but we're still nowhere close to the property's perimeter wall, let alone the house itself," said Loki with a sigh. "And we just can't afford staying here for too long. Sooner or later, they're gonna detect us, and this time it won't be so easy to escape."
"Are there any other alternatives, though?" asked Odal who knew all too well that this was an impossible task from the very beginning, yet in his desperation he decided to give it a go. Not unlike a man chasing a mirage in the desert, the rogue god couldn't help but try to get his hands on what he's been after for so long, and yet it remained out of his reach.
"We can't use magic, and even power tools would be too noisy to let us dig through all this dirt. I'm afraid that the only way to do it in time… is by using explosives," said Loki and immediately raised a hand in front of him to stop Odal from protesting. "Wait! I know what you're thinking, and I've already gotten a solution!"
"Well… let us hear it then…"
"It may be impossible to use something like that without everyone else noticing, but, there's someone in that house who loves explosives. Do you think that anyone's going to find it strange if one of Skuld-chan's bombs goes off in the lawn?" said Loki with a grin, and by the looks of it, Odal seemed to think about it.
"Huh… It's a long shot, but… it might just work. Aunt Skuld certainly loves her bombs, so… yeah we can pretend that one of them just... happened to go off in the garden or something," said Odal as he scratched his head. "Still… how are we gonna get our hands on one of them?"
"Obviously we need to sneak into her room."
"And then what? Because I'm not going to fish one out of her blouse," said Odal as he crossed his arms. "I may have stolen a battleship, but there's no way I'll end up molesting a minor; thank you very much!"
"Me neither…" said Loki as he glanced towards the only available person left, but even he didn't want to have part in it.
"Forget it. Besides… how am I supposed to do it? I don't have opposing thumbs, dammit!" said Fenrir before he resumed digging, seeing no other way around their problem. "Now enough with that nonsense, and let's get back to work!"
"Hold on! What about her robots?" asked Loki, in a moment of brilliance, even though Odal was still skeptical about it. "We can program them to do it for us!"
"Yes… although those two are kind of… hard to deal with. From what I remember, they're a combination of basic programming, extensive artificial intelligence networks and some of Skuld's magical formulas," said Odal as he became increasingly doubtful that this was nearly the foolproof plan they so much needed right now; or even something with a decent chance of success for that matter. "I dunno, but if you ask me, that's nearly as risky as trying to use magic."
"Hm… that's kind of true. Well… back to the drawing board, I guess."
"Hey, if you know all that about Skuld's machines… they why do you have to steal one of her bombs?" asked Fenrir as he poked his head out of the tunnel they've been digging, and stared at the gods who were taking a break near its entrance. "Why don't you make one? After all, she pretty much builds them from random scrap, so… it's not like you need some sort of crazy materials to begin with. Just sayin..."
The two gods shared a stunned look when they realized that the wolf pup was onto something so obvious that they had completely overlooked. Without delay they both started to go through their supplies for anything of use for making a Skuld bomb.
"Hey, which version is she actually using these days?" asked Odal as he went through some of the tubes they've removed from the tunnel's walls in order to dig through it towards the house.
"Hm… I think she calls them Neo Skuld bombs. That must her… second version, I guess," said Loki as he tried to recall the last time he saw his niece use her favorite type of ordnance.
"Right! Okay, let's get to work then!"
XXX
Niflheim, Hild's mansion
"Mimir's BIOS? Where did you even hear about that?"
When Hild decided to show up in his quarters almost in the middle of the night, Odin already had a bad feeling about this, but coupled by the fact that she came straight from Verthandi's prison raised all sorts of red flags in the self exiled celestial.
"I think it's pretty obvious, but at the same time irrelevant," said Hild as she took a seat in thin air opposite of the elder god. "What I want to know is what's wrong with it. Heck, I never knew that such a thing even existed in the first place."
"I can't blame you, to be honest. Not many know much about Mimir's later work, and even those who actually do, aren't allowed to reveal anything," said Odin, but immediately noticed Hild's features shift as her mood darkened, leaving no doubt that she wasn't planning to leave empty handed. "But, I suppose I could tell you a few things. First of all, though… How much do you know about him?"
"Mostly what the general public does. He was a leading expert in Yggdrasil's early software development and a bit of a philosopher of sorts. Or that's probably how he'd like to think of himself, since others sometimes described him more as a mad scientist," said Hild as she attempted to recall as much as she could about Asgard's most notorious artificer prior to Loki.
"Yes, and you're kind of correct on both accounts, I'm afraid," said Odin, letting a long sigh as he got up from his seat and strode towards the window overlooking the mansion's inner garden. Spending a few moments to collect his thoughts as he peered outside, the silver haired god wondered just how much he could say without hitting some ancient limiter that may still be in place. "It's not something we really wanted to become widely known, but Mimir's mentality had gradually deteriorated to a much less stable and potentially corrupted state. Back then, the Yggdrasil mainframe was still a work in progress and we had to make groundbreaking discoveries in order to develop the necessary components for its completion. There was very little in ways of proper procedure, safety standards or even… common sense at times, given how easy it was for enthusiasm to get a grasp of someone's better judgement when they were so close to a major breakthrough. The bottom line is that some of our pioneering experts spend a bit too much time researching on the World Tree and the constant chatter with it eventually took its toll on their minds."
"Wait a moment! I was under the impression that Yggdrasil rarely talks to anyone!" said the baffled Hild, only for Odin to shake his head.
"Not really; that's merely a convenient misconception that most of us encouraged to keep others from trying to chat with the tree. Sure, Yggdrasil will most certainly ignore most attempts of communication, should it deem them pointless, but as long as the questions are interesting, then you're in for a conversation. And that's where the problems start," said Odin as he turned to face Hild with a troubled expression on his face. "Few have the mental strength to talk to the Tree directly, as its overwhelming mind can shatter ours with minimal effort."
"And that's that happened to Mimir..." said Hild, as she started to see where this was heading to. "He worked for far too long with Yggdrasil and ended up with a few loose screws?"
"I would've put it a bit differently, but… more or less… that's what happened," said Odin with a slow nod. "Although, it should be noted that Mimir's personality wasn't affected in a very noticeable manner, which is why we never found out until it was far too late to save him. Only towards the end of his career as a researcher did we realize that some of his projects became… problematic, as they explored dangerous prospects."
"Which… is where the System's BIOS gets into the picture, I presume?"
"Indeed. His views was that the existing low level communication protocol between the fledgling System and the World Tree was over complicated and inefficient. At the time, I saw no reason to actually challenge him, since any improvements to the System were more than welcome, but his revisions were… unsound, to say the least."
"Hm… I don't suppose you're going to provide me more details, do you?" For her part, Hild was doing her best to sound as ignorant as she possibly could, given that in reality, she already knew the answer. However, before she took Verthandi's word for granted, Hild needed to make sure that the middle Norn's doppelganger wasn't playing mind games with her. Which was exactly why she came here to verify her story, even if she didn't tell that to Odin in fear of deterring him from revealing too much. Centuries of experience taught her that it was easier for others to provide information if they believed that they were in charge of a situation, instead of the other way around.
"I'm not sure if I can, and even then… it's not like I remember anything too specific about that bloody thing. What I do know for a fact is that all Hell would break loose should we had installed it," said Odin with a grunt. "Something about it being too invasive, that the Tree was likely to see it as a threat and react violently to what it appeared to be a virus. If you want my opinion, though, I think that Mimir may had literally forgotten that he was dealing with a sentient living being, and instead attempted to write a firmware under the assumption that it was a mere computer. Needless to say that reality can't be any more different, and to prevent such a thing from falling on wrong hands, I had to take drastic measures."
"Still… lopping one's head to keep them silent, is a bit too much even for us," said Hild with a raised eyebrow, as she found it hard to believe that gods were more ruthless than demons, even back then. "You could've used all sorts of other methods -protector spells included- to prevent Mimir from revealing anything too sensitive."
"Yes, but protectors are very specific on what kind of information you can prevent someone from communicating to others and even if we put an insane amount of them on him, in the end it would've been utterly futile. The real problem was that we had no idea just how much information he had gotten from the Tree in all those years he spent chatting with it, and can't really protect information you're unaware of. In those cases, you have to rely on someone's reliability, and based on what Mimir was doing, there was a clear indication that he was going rogue on us," admitted Odin with a faint trace of sadness laced in his voice. "Perhaps I may have overreacted and allowed my paranoia to take over my better judgment. But, after a few warnings that fell on deaf ears, I really thought that I was dealing with a potentially dangerous god, and acted accordingly. Even if I have my regrets today, it's much better than having much worse problems to deal with; should Mimir's program somehow found itself installed on the System."
'So… she was right after all. This certainly changes things and might explain why Grid offered her assistance to them. Which means that I need to talk to her as well, but first…' Offering Odin a nod, Hild decided that she had to take certain steps before things escalated out of control, just like in Verthandi's scenario. Unfortunately for her, the most direct course of action was all but impossible to take, since contacting Tyr was going to be rather… problematic. With Odal and his supporters being officially declared as rogues, there was little the Daitenkaicho could do to aid them behind the scenes. There were already more than enough Councilors who criticized him for his stance during some of the latest developments and they'd love to use anything akin to a conspiracy, in order to smear his name and prove that he was more than happy to break the rules whenever it was convenient for him.
Already details about Tyr's involvement in his daughter's Judgment Test created enough controversy, with even some of his old allies -like Njord- openly express their displeasure about that incident. Most felt that testing Keiichi's resolve was something that could've waited for a later point of time, especially while Niflheim was recovering from a coup. Others went even further and directly questioned the neutrality of the Test's result. However, with the Judgment Gate now decommissioned, Tyr had no other option but to leave the matter unresolved, much to his opposition's great annoyance.
Unfortunately, for the same reason, both Ansuz and Frigg were far from a viable source of help, since involving them in anything suspicious could add fuel for their political opponents in the Council. The only way for Hild was to approach a celestial she otherwise had a legitimate reason to do so, and while Urd immediately popped in her mind, but with the hybrid's reputation as a troublemaker, such a move would've been far too risky. Instead, a goddess who was above suspicion seemed as an ideal candidate to act as an insider and in this case, Hild knew exactly who she needed to talk to.
"Very well, I suppose that should suffice," said Hild as she started for the door. "I don't suppose I'll get more information, given the… sensitive nature of the topic, so, I might as well do something constructive with my free time than bore you with questions you're unlikely to answer."
'She's up to something…' thought the silver haired god as he offered his former daughter in law a slow nod. "Yes, that would be for the best; given that I've told you everything I could." However, as soon as Hild left the room, Odin turned to his two ravens who silently witnessed this whole exchange from their tree shaped lounge in the corner. "Alright! We're going for a field trip, so, get ready."
"Caw!"
"Caw caw!"
XXX
The Norns' residence, Asgard
After dinner was served, most of the immortals found themselves in the common living room where dessert was meant to be served, allowing them to share a few stories before they finally retired for the night. Although for one of them, the whole setup was her first great opportunity to get to know a few more things about her mentor; now that everyone was in the mood to talk about their lives.
"Say… Peorth? I was wondering…" said Skuld as she gave her new mentor a cautious glance, just to make sure that the rose goddess was in an amiable mood.
"Yes, what is it, Skuld?" said Peorth with a smile as she took a seat next to her newly assigned protegee.
"Back when you first showed up to grant Keiichi's wish… Just what exactly what were you trying to accomplish?" asked Skuld, causing Peorth to raise an eyebrow at the somewhat unexpected question. "I mean... "
"If you're trying to ask me whether or not I was trying to satisfy Keiichi's carnal desires… then I suppose the easiest way to answer is… yes," said Peorth before she put a finger in front of her lips. "However, I believe that it's for the best not to continue this conversation while Belldandy is within the general vicinity. And probably wait a decade or two, given that the intricate details of granting such an intimate wish may be a little bit too much for a younger goddess like you, Skuld."
'Don't get angry… Don't get angry…' Doing her best to ignore that comment about her age, Skuld willed a pleasant smile on her face, and once she made sure that both Belldandy and Keiichi were still busy talking to her parents, she decided to correct Peorth's somewhat incorrect assumption. "Actually, what I meant to ask was that with his desires sealed… how was it even possible to entice him with… you know…" trailed Skuld as a blush formed on her cheeks.
"My body?" finished Peorth as she wrapped an arm around her student's shoulders and pulled her a bit closer, so that they could talk without the risk of being heard from the others. "Your assumption is only partially correct, Skuld. Keiichi's desires may had a limiter placed upon them, but at the same time, it was only restricted to his reactions to Belldandy's physical appeal. As a result, he was still affected by the appeal of other women -myself included- and that's why I've thought it was nice idea to grant him the one thing he could potentially never get from Belldandy. Although to be fair, I haven't caught up with what was going on right away and it took me a while to decide to check on his file to find out what was wrong with him. Well… that and the fact that I was too busy trying to best your sister as a wish granter."
"Huh… so I guess his reactions to everyone else was just his shyness after all. Come to think of it, his father was ridiculously shy, too," mused Skuld out loud, before she noticed Peorth's rather intent gaze and furrowed her eyebrows at her mentor. "Uh… did I say something wrong?"
"No, but given that you're in the mood of asking personal questions, I've also got one for you too. What's your personal aspiration, Skuld?" asked Peorth, but then decided to further elaborate, given that her student gave her an empty stare. "I know that you've mentioned countless times that you wish to follow Belldandy's footsteps, which is why I'm somewhat reluctant to tutor you if that remains to be the case. So, what's the type of career that most appeals to you, now?"
"I… I honestly don't know," admitted Skuld as the thought never crossed her mind. "As much as I'd love to become a goddess like Belldandy, wish granting may not be the right thing for me. But then again, I'm kind of tired of debugging and becoming a System administrator isn't exactly all that enticing of a deal either. Heh… I sure sound really picky, huh?"
"That's to be expected from a goddess of your age, and I'm definitely going to support you regardless of your decision. However..." said Peorth as she raised a finger before her young student's face. "If you wish to learn anything about wish granting, you'll have to ask Belldandy. My style and hers cannot be any more different and as such, I'd rather not have you learn to do things in a fashion that would betray your dreams. Well, that and you'd probably have to wait for decades in order for me to show you anything of use," finished the rose goddess, even though she had to clear her throat as she said the last part, and in hasty fashion too.
For a moment, the little Norn's mind was bombarded with images from her ecchi manga, causing her cheeks to turn crimson, but in order to not to lose face in front of her mentor, Skuld did her best to avoid the urge to offer her a witty reply. Instead, she merely nodded and then tried to change the subject to something that she was a lot more comfortable discussing about. "By the way… how's your Valkyrie training coming along?"
"Not so great, considering that I hardly had any time for me and Lind to practice," said Peorth with a sigh. "Of course given what else is taking place right now, I can't quite say that I blame Lind for not having the time to train me. Hopefully once things settle down a bit, we should be able to resume our training regiment and…" Pausing for a moment, Peorth's face light up when an idea came to her. "Actually, would you like to join us too?"
"Eh?" Blinking as she hadn't expected that sort of request, Skuld thought about it for a few moments, but in the end she found no reason to decline; even if it meant that she was going to undertake a training that was never meant for a goddess her age. "Um… sure, I wouldn't mind that. If nothing else, I'd love to have Lind show me how to fight properly!"
"Excellent! I'll ask her if I can have you observe us, and hopefully you might even get to properly join us for some hand to hand combat drills," said Peorth with a warm smile, as it was the first major step to gain her young charge's trust and even do something that could impact her life. At least… in a positive manner, since she was already worried about the Belldandy's reaction should her youngest sister started to act like a teenage delinquent. And not to mention anything about Ansuz's reaction, that could make anything Belldandy come up look like a joke by comparison.
However, while mentor and apprentice kept chatting, another goddess looked at them with a mixture of wonder and even… envy. Not too long ago, it was her that, Skuld turned up to seek advice, yet things have changed. On one hand, Urd was now a demoness and regardless of how temporary this change happened to be, she spent most of her time around Mara, and now… even Skuld had her mentor to monopolize her attention. She really didn't want to admit it, but… Belldandy was jealous.
'Mistress? Is there something wrong?' Of course it more of an excuse to prod her mistress than a legitimate question of course, since Holy Bell already shared all those thoughts with her host.
'I don't know, Holy Bell. I… shouldn't be thinking things like that, but… I just can't help it,' sent Belldandy over her link with her angel who was still inside of her mindscape.
'It's alright, mistress. We've made quite some progress, but it still takes some time to get over centuries old habits. Especially when jealousy is concerned,' admitted the angel as she shifted uncomfortably inside her goddess' mindscape. 'I also have my moments where I find it hard to hold back. Like when… the others are messing around with Terrestrial Spark!'
'That's the same when it comes to me and Keiichi, actually,' sent Belldandy over her link, but the growl she got back was so unexpected, considering that it came from her angel that actually shocked the brunette. 'Holy Bell?'
'It's not the same at all, mistress! With Keiichi, at least the others had stopped teasing him. But… with Terrestrial Spark being so small, they still make all those jokes and… pet him… and c-cuddle him… and… and they don't seem to care that he's mine!' At this point, Holy Bell's voice started to lose her melodic tone and began to waver before she blurted the most incredulous thing she'd ever said to her mistress. 'He's mine… yet… I still have that accursed cherry of mine. If only he was the same size as me...'
Unfortunately for the unsuspecting goddess who was in the middle of taking a sip from her teacup, that proclamation came at the worst possible moment. Which… resulted into her spitting the Darjeeling tea at her father's face, who happened to be sitting opposite of her, and really startled everyone else in the room as no one expected such a reaction from her.
"Too bitter?" came Tyr's almost sarcastic reply, as he eyed his still shocked daughter who only shook her head while her hand reached for her mouth, not trusting herself to say anything.
'I'm so sorry, mistress!' cried the furiously blushing Holy Bell as she curled into a ball and struggled not to burst into tears from her embarrassment.
"I fear that's not the case father…" said Belldandy before she got up to grab a napkin for Tyr, but Ansuz beat her to the punch. Which gave the embarrassed goddess the opportunity to simply turn around and bolt, much to the bystanders' confusion.
"What gotten into her?" wondered Ansuz out loud, before Keiichi decided to go after his wife and make sure that she was fine.
"Don't worry, I'll go and talk to her."
XXX
'I'm terribly sorry, mistress! I really don't know what came over me and said such a terrible thing!'
With her head lowered in shame, Holy Bell found herself in the rather unique position of apologizing to her mistress. During her entire life together with Belldandy, the otherwise innocent angel had never been in a situation where she expressed her desires in such a crass manner; or at all.
"No, I think I'm the one who should be apologizing to you, actually," said Belldandy with a shake of her head. "You're so close to me and yet I've completely neglected you for such a long time that's… unforgivable. I'm so sorry for being such a terrible goddess, Holy Bell…"
Stepping in before the angel had a chance to reply, Keiichi along with Terrestrial Spark gave the embarrassed women a curious glance. "Hey, what's up with the long faces? Actually… what's going on to begin with? Did I miss something?"
Exchanging a look with her angel, the Norn realized that trying to come up with a cover up would've done no one a favor. Instead, coming clean was likely the best of choices, even if the whole topic was a somewhat embarrassing one for everyone involved. "Well… it concerns our angels' bonding," said Belldandy as she averted her gaze from her confused husband.
"Bonding? I'm afraid I'm not following you, Bell…" admitted Keiichi, but his angel decided to spare the others the trouble of explaining what should've been obvious.
'She's referring to the relationship between me and Holy Bell. Since we're the expression of your innermost feelings, it shouldn't be that much of a shock for us to share the same connection that you two have,' explained Terrestrial Spark, and then pointed at himself. 'But with me being this tiny, you can imagine what kinds of problems that might cause.'
"Oh!" Keiichi's eyes went wide when he finally caught up with what was going on here, and despite his blush the mortal tried to come up with a solution. "Um… can't we use some kind of potion or spell to make you la-... I mean… the same size as Holy Bell?" asked Keiichi as he corrected himself in mid sentence to avoid anything that could've sounded wrong under a certain perspective.
'Physical size isn't actually the problem,' said Holy Bell, and to further demonstrate her point, the blonde angel momentarily changed into her chibi form before resuming her original size. 'I can modify my appearance, but the real problem is that me and Terrestrial Spark aren't totally physical entities while in your perspective mindscapes. And that's where the real problem lies.'
Offering a nod, Belldandy went on. "That's right, Keiichi. Given that Terrestrial Spark has very little power at the moment, it's somewhat problematic for him to directly… um… interface with Holy Bell." It was a bit of a struggle to say all that with a straight face, but somehow Belldandy had managed to do so without running away. "Worse yet, even if he attempted that, the feedback you'd get could… be too much for a human mind to handle, since the amulet uncle Loki gave you only protects from physical damage."
"Huh…" Taking a look at his watch where the aforementioned amulet was attached to, Keiichi tried not to consider all the problems his decision to stay a mortal had caused. While Loki may had found a way to extend his lifespan for Belldandy's sake, it was now his own angel and Holy Bell who suffered by his obstinacy to stick to his original nature. "I never thought this was going to become a problem. If I did…"
"We're not blaming you for what you couldn't know, love," said Belldandy when she started to sense her husband's remorse in his voice. "Nor we're trying to make you feel guilty for anything. It's much better if we find another solution to the problem instead of wasting time and energy to ponder what could've been if things happened differently."
However as Keiichi smiled at Belldandy and moved a bit closer for a kiss, the whole place shook by a violent explosion that sent a good chunk of their lawn up in the air.
"WHOA!"
XXX
Svartalfheim
Sitting across the ruler of the nocturnal realm, Angrboda did her best to act in the most respectful manner possible; especially given her otherwise hot temper. This whole visit was taking much longer than she had initially anticipated and for the typically impatient Angrboda, it was starting to get on her nerves. 'Just say yes already! You've read the bloody thing…at least ten times by now!'
Grid however was a naturally cautious demoness and scrutinized every little detail before she decided whether a proposition was beneficial one or not. As such, she kept the Ironwood Dryad waiting while she went through the document she gave her when she first showed up in her villa, a couple of hours ago. Still, she knew that postponing the inevitable was simply a waste of time and sooner or later, she had to offer an answer. "I must admit that this proposition sounds intriguing, although the feasibility of such a plan is kind of dubious. Even if I had the resources to spare, the scale of such a project is too much for my realm to handle without the aid of the centrals. And let's not mention anything about the celestials' reaction once they found out. I might've agreed to help you and your entourage, but I'm unwilling to start a war over a hypothesis."
"It's not a mere hypothesis," said Angrboda, trying to sound as pleasant as she could; despite how hard it was to that when talking behind clenched teeth. She was very close to the point of losing her cool and blow a gasket, but bit her lower lip with enough force to feel enough pain to distract her otherwise violent thoughts. "What you're looking at is the biggest technological innovation since the construction of the two Systems! It's such a huge breakthrough that I can't even describe how shortsighted it would be to simply dismiss it!"
"You have no idea how many times I keep hearing things like that," said Grid as she rolled her eyes at the Daimakaicho's lookalike. "What I need is some kind of proof of concept, even on a small scale to properly demonstrate that this isn't a huge waste of time and resources."
Scratching her chin, Angrboda was somewhat pleased with that answer, considering that at the very least it wasn't a straight no. Of course, it was far from a yes either, so, what she really needed was a foolproof plan in order to impress the leader of Svartalfheim enough to seal the deal. Unfortunately… only that fool was probably skilled enough to design a system like that, since Odal simply lacked the experience to tackle such a massive project. 'Just great… I need to convince that idiot to work for me. Ugh… why does everything has to be so frigging hard?' However, as she contemplated her options, Angrboda had a sudden epiphany. It was a bit of a long shot, but she knew this was going to make that troublemaker work for her and without any complaints too.
Raising an eyebrow as she watched the bronze skinned demoness face light up, Grid wondered what kind of trouble Angrboda was going to cause again, but decided against asking her directly. It was unwise to annoy the most volatile of the rogues, especially one nearly as powerful as the demoness she was based upon. 'On the other hand, keeping her preoccupied with some kind of project might be a much better choice than leave her with too much free time on her hands to come up with something far more… disruptive. Like she did by attempting to control Asgard through Tyr; now, that was a cringeworthy.' Standing up, Grid offered the documents back to Angrboda and with the skills of a seasoned politician, the pale skinned demoness offered her visitor a smile, before she shook her hand. "I'm sorry I couldn't be much more of use, but if you actually make some progress with this project, please inform me and I'll see if I can do anything to help."
"Actually, you might hear from me sooner than later," said Angrboda as she put some effort to smile back at her. Even though it was more than obvious that the leader of Svartalfheim was more likely happy to see her leave, Angrboda simply played along and acted as if nothing was wrong at all. "Now, you'll have to excuse me, I've got some things I need to take care of."
As soon as her unexpected visitor left, Grid's smile disappeared from her face and instead, it was replaced with a profoundly worried expression. Although everyone else was caught off guard by the recent turn of events, Grid had to admit that some of them didn't appear all too surprising to her. Since the fateful day almost twenty years ago when her agents accidentally discovered Odal and Verthandi in a tomb deep inside the forest of Jarnvid, things had become quite… strange. It was highly unlikely choice of a hideout for any immortal, let alone a shelter to spent countless of millennia in what appeared to be a comatose state. Even weirder was the fact the entire forest itself was still alive to a certain degree, with many of the once thought to be fossilized Dryads showing signs of life; especially her.
Apart from everyone else, Angrboda even inside the tree shaped cocoon that developed to encase her over the billions of years she came to rest there, was emanating enough energy to be noticeable even from a distance. No one was certain why she wasn't discovered when the forest was first explored several millennia ago, but the leading theory was that she only became to stir when someone with a distinctively similar energy signature came to be. And that one was none other than the birth of the demoness who came to be the Daimakaicho herself; Hild.
Of course it was highly unlikely that she could prove this theory, yet it was absolutely fascinating to find someone who resembled Hild so much and yet she appeared to be even older than the first demons, or even the universe itself. A trend that was shared by her fellow Ironwood Dryad, Verthandi. Still, considering the connection between the Dryads and Yggdrasil, it was to be expected that maybe what they attempted to measure was the World Tree's own age, which unsurprisingly exceeded that of the rest of the cosmos. However, when they discovered that the same was more or less true about the god who was placed beside them, no one could really come up with an explanation for that anomaly.
Despite what was actually expected of her as the Daimakaicho's subordinate, Grid suppressed any information of the discovery and even went as far as to falsify the reports, citing that nothing of great interest was ever found. The biggest challenge however came when she did manage to wake up the slumbering god and instead of getting any real answers, more questions soon began to emerge.
'He even thought I was Skuld when he first woke up, which wasn't unexpected… given that his senses were barely functional at that point, after so much time of dormancy. Yet, why he thought that the youngest of the Norns had a nephew was quite bizarre, let alone why she should be an adult herself.'
A few weeks after his recovery, Odal -as the god called himself- was in a state of mind to provide some of the much needed answers, yet everything sounded so ridiculous that Grid sternly warned him to… cut the crap and start talking. His whole story sounded so improbable that no matter the circumstances behind his accidental discovery and eventual recovery, it was the stuff of fiction rather than anything Grid was willing to listen to. From the very beginning, the whole concept of a goddess accepting to stay together with a mortal forever was… preposterous to say the least; if not downright insulting, as this god probably expected her to buy such an incredulous thing.
Until roughly three years ago, when a Morisato Keiichi asked for a first class goddess like Belldandy to stay with him forever.
While most demons laughed their asses at the news of such a wish being granted, Grid was utterly horrified. She could even remember dropping her glass of wine when she first read the news on her datapad and for the next hour, all the leader of Svartalfheim could do was stare at the wall in state of shock. Before she finally snapped out of it and run to get Odal and Verthandi out of the solitary confinement she put them years ago. Only then did she realize that they had indeed told her the truth from the very beginning, and worse… she may had wasted precious years already.
The god's very question after he misidentified her as Skuld was whether Nidhogg was still in his burrow. And given that he must've meant the dragon, rather than the demonic supercomputer, the implications were quite sobering.
'Even with the numerous deviations from that story, most of the main incidents had taken place in one way or another. This means that we're mere days away from what might be our make or break moment. But what should I do? What can I do? Despite all the interference Odal and his group caused, not much has changed in regards to Asgard's political scene. If nothing else, Odal's idea of dealing with Thrivaldi and his lot is probably too soft to get any real results. I should've handled that son of a bitch myself instead of leaving such a job to…'
Grid's thoughts were interrupted when her communicator alerted her of Hild's arrival. Even though it was an unscheduled visit, Grid was already expecting that it was a matter of time before her name popped up during Verthandi's questioning by the Daimakaicho; hence the visit.
'Well… I suppose I need to worry about my own make or break moment. Let's see what Hild-sama thinks about all this.'
XXX
Asgard
"Seriously… I left you unsupervised for a few days, and you've started planting landmines in our back yard?"
Pointing at the rather sizable crater in their lawn, Urd was expecting an answer from the most likely culprit behind this incident.
"I didn't do it!" insisted the youngest of the Norns as she stubbornly rebuked the accusations of her involvement, even though the rest of her family and friends… weren't all too convinced of her innocence.
Of course with an explosion that would've brought down most human made buildings of that size, it was inevitable that everyone joined Urd and Skuld at the backyard to assess the damage. And by the looks of it, the outcome was quite impressive as far as Skuld's basic bombs were concerned. The crater itself was nearly five meters across and roughly two meters at its deepest point, yet the strangest thing was that the fact that it was mostly a semicircle since it was located right against the house's back wall. Which meant that whoever did that, deliberately planted the bomb against the Norns' residence, and while Urd insisted that it was one of Skuld's bombs, based on the recovered fragments they found all over the place, some weren't all too certain of that.
"Tyr… this doesn't look like an accident," said Ansuz just above a whisper as she leaned closer to her husband who merely nodded at her.
"Yes, that much is obvious. Although, I'm not certain what they were trying to accomplish. This doesn't seem powerful enough of an explosive to be used in an assassination attempt," mused Tyr as he inspected the damage and no matter how ill prepared, it should've been clear that this wasn't going to cut it.
"Maybe they… targeted Keiichi?" suggested Ansuz in a hushed voice, making sure that her daughters were out of earshot. "He's the most vulnerable of us all. Although with everything else that's happening, maybe they attempted to kidnap him again and use him as an exchange for that Verthandi?"
Rubbing his chin, the Daitenkaicho thought about it for a few moments, but before he offered his wife a reply, Tyr looked over his shoulders where Urd was still teasing Skuld and decided to put an end to that first. "Urd! Play nice with your little sister or I'm gonna turn YOU into the little sister!"
Memories of the time after the Lord of Terror's fiasco came rushing to the half demoness' mind, and without hesitation, Urd shook her hands in front of her. "No! I'll be good!" said Urd with a sense of urgency, as the last thing she wanted was to end up like a kid again.
With a content grin, Tyr decided to turn back to his wife, now that the matter was settled and his daughters were no longer bickering. However, the fact that Ansuz was whispering something to Excalibur wasn't a good sign at all. Waiting for those two to finish with their chatter, Tyr approached his wife after the synthetic walked off towards Lind's position at the far end of the yard. "Well? Did he find anything?"
"Actually… he kind of did," said Ansuz with a troubled expression, although she did try to keep her voice down. "I've asked him to check the perimeter and he did report that there are signs of stirred earth at the other end of the property. Although there are visible hints of such activity, under the use of a ground penetrating radar, it's possible to detect what appears to be a very short tunnel, branching from the nearby drainage shaft."
"Hm… so, someone actually dug towards the house?" asked the incredulous Daitenkaicho as he glanced towards the indicated spot and then to the crater next to him. "That makes no sense whatsoever! Why would any assassin try to… dig towards the house itself?"
"I know. The more I think of it, the less it looks like an assassination attempt. Those have to be swift and clean, but a tunnel? No, that's the slowest method imaginable and leaves too much evidence behind for anyone to conceal what took place," said Ansuz, while staring at the crater. "Still, what's even stranger is that they must've realized it was going to take too long to dig all the way here, and then decided to simply vault the fence and bury the explosive directly against the wall."
"Which is more or less an amateur approach," concluded Tyr. "In all seriousness, this almost looks more like an attempt to break into the house. Although there's nothing particularly valuable in there to justify that, and the biggest question yet, is why make it look as if Skuld was responsible for it?"
"No idea, but I hope we're going to find out soon. In the meanwhile, let's get everyone inside and order a Valkyrie detachment to monitor the house," said Ansuz as she narrowed her eyes. "We've gotten pretty careless by thinking that after we got Skidbladnir from them, they'd go into hiding."
"You believe that the rogues were behind this, too?"
"Honestly? That almost feels like something Loki came up with," said Ansuz with a groan, as soon as she uttered that god's name. "And let's not even mention anything about him being a perfectly willing collaborator, since I can't believe that a god so notorious for finding his way out of any situation is still their prisoner."
"I'm having my own doubts, but in the end it doesn't matter. We need to get him back, even if he's kicking and screaming, before he actually develops any kind of super weapon for them," said Tyr with a groan, knowing all too well his adopted brother's less… reputable habits.
"Amen to that. Although… what could he possibly build in a few days?"
XXX
Earth
"You want a… a... WHAT?"
Having narrowly escaped certain capture at the last possible moment, Loki along with Odal and Fenrir returned back to the abandoned warehouse that acted as their temporary headquarters; or rather… a poor excuse of one.
"You heard me! I'm commissioning you a daughter!" said Angrboda, much to the bystanders' utter confusion, who just like the trickster god, had no idea what the demoness was talking about.
"Not to sound rude, but... you can't commission a child, you know. I mean… it's not how kids work actually," said Loki as he found himself in the unique and eerily uncomfortable position of having to explain the most embarrassing of things to one who closely resembled… Hild. "Look, I know that in reality you're an Ironwood Dryad, so you… may not be aware of how some things work in our genus…"
"Spare me the birds and bees crap. I already know that I need to get shagged to get a kid, but I have not the time nor the mental fortitude to raise one right now," said Angrboda, taking a few steps towards the trickster god and then leaned down a bit, since she was taller than him. "So, I want you to build one for me, and make sure she follows all the specifications I've got in this document… and… she's gonna take after me. The last thing I need is to deal with another troublemaker to the likes of you. Oh, and just in case you didn't get it, I want her to be fully grown up and as the mortals would say… ready to leave for college."
"That's not how kids work, damn you!" shouted Loki as he leaned closer to the glaring demoness, until their noses were almost touching. "What kind of sorry excuse of parent you want to be, you… you… Titzilla! If you want a daughter so much, then do it the old fashioned way and raise her!"
Instead of an answer though, Angrboda simply pointed towards the direction of the god's most famous or rather... infamous creations. And then all she did was to raise an eyebrow at the troublesome god whose entire argument just became void. "The kettle called the pot black…"
'She's definitely craftier than she looks...' Clearing his throat in an attempt to recompose himself, Loki simply grabbed the documents Angrboda was carrying with her and checked them in the same fashion a proper gentleman would read the newspaper.
"Well? Is it something you can make?"
However the more he read the documents, the more Loki got confused. "Wait a second! This is a… datacenter? I thought you wanted a daughter? Am I missing something here?"
"Actually, I want a massive mainframe, but at the same time, since I'd rather not have it manned, I'd prefer if it had a personality to it. And if you go as far to install that, then why not make an avatar for her too?"
"Okay… I'm starting to get it," said Loki as he quickly went through the specifications once again. "What I certainly don't get, is how do you even expect me to built this… this… megastructure? Do you even have any idea what it's going to take to build one server, let alone a single rack of them? About 1024 servers per rack… And wait, I'm not done yet!… That's only to make one of the 65536 racks that the whole system requires. Let's not even take into account all the network equipment we're gonna need, the backup units, the power units, and… you also want this to be fully autonomous! In essence you want me to build a computer almost as big as Yggdrasil and Nidhogg mainframes together?"
"Yes." If the demoness' almost cheerful yet totally out of character tone wasn't enough, she even placed her hands on the incredulous god's shoulders and offered him a pretty… forced smile. "If it's you, I know you can do it!"
"Did you even hear a thing I've said?" asked Loki in deadpan, as even he started to lose the mental fortitude to keep up with an opponent this formidable. 'At least she does have one thing in common with Hild in terms of her personality. She's not listening to anyone!'
"Oh, come on! I know you make the control unit for me! From there, I can hopefully convince my contacts to invest in this project!" said Angrboda, her lips twitching as she struggled to keep them curled up in a smile. "Think about this way. Your name will be forever commemorated in history!"
"Well… the Titanic also made history, but not for the reason her creators would've preferred. And while it's not a ship we're talking about, the idea of creating an AI with so much power that she could kill most immortals in one to one combat is… a bit too dangerous even for me to feel comfortable with."
Shaking her head as in utter disbelief, Angrboda gave Loki an incredulous look. "Excuse me? You're creating weapons of mass destruction as a hobby -two of which are even present among us- and you want me to buy that excuse?"
"I had to try," said Loki with a shrug, but soon found himself staring at Angrboda's now glowing eyes.
"Just say yes already, damn you!" growled the demoness, her canines poking out of her lips. "I know you can't wait to get your hands on such an ambitious project. So, I'll graciously accept your offer to help me realize this vision of the future."
"How about… no?" shot the trickster god with a toothy grin, knowing exactly how to make even the most patient individual blow a gasket. And this demoness was far from patient, which meant that his victory was close at hand; even if it was a Pyrrhic one.
"How about I kick your sorry ass, instead?" asked Angrboda, as her temper got the better of her. "If I can handle Tyr, then you're a joke in comparison!"
"I may have a few tricks up my sleeve, so, don't be so dismissive of me," said Loki with a chuckle, just for the sake of further annoying her. "Besides… didn't you actually fail to get what you wanted from him, too?"
There was a collective gasp as the bystanders -Odal's robots included- took several steps away from them. The situation was about to go critical, when Angrboda's anger reached its highest point and lightning crackled around her body, as her energy began to leak out. "Only because he's such a loser!"
By now, even Loki began to wonder why everyone went to the far side of the room, with Odal's robots clearly pointing their guns at them. Although after a more careful observation… he immediately concluded that their target wasn't him nor Angrboda, but rather whoever was standing behind the fuming demoness. 'What are they… Oh. Uh oh!'
"What did you say about my ex-husband… you bitch?"
'What the?!' Twirling around on her heels, Angrboda came to the shocking realization that in her anger, she became completely ignorant of what the others had already noticed. The massive magical signature that almost mirrored hers, but in this case, it wasn't due to the Ironwood Dryad creating an avatar of her own. Instead, she was face to face with someone who could easily pass as her twin. "Considering that you're still wagging your tail at the mere mention of that loser's name… are you really one to speak? Bitch..."
"Let go of me, before you kill each other, at least!" shouted Loki, but it was too late for that. The demoness holding him was launched across the warehouse and onto a wooden crate, as the Daimakaicho's heel violently smashed against her jaw. Finally free from Angrboda's grasp, Loki turned to warn Odal and the others to get out of there, only to notice that they were all but impossible to move. 'Binding magic? On this scale?!'
Muttering something absolutely incomprehensible, Angrboda stopped and reached to clasp her fractured jaw, forcing into back into its originals shape. "Mm… much better. As I was saying before, your daughter hits harder."
Ramming her knee of the dryad's gut with enough force to make her gasp for air, Hild's grin became wider as she pushed her opponent back against the crate and then through it. "What can I say? I'm a proud mama!" Hitting her gut once more, Hild finally managed to make her opponent bend over and then bashed the back of her skull with her elbow, sending her head first on a painful collision on the concrete floor. 'Why? Why is she taking this beating without even resisting?'
However, even weirder than the fact that she wasn't fighting back was that Angrboda's shoulders shook, but not in shock nor fear. She was soundlessly laughing, and almost maniacally too. "Yes! I've really missed this! To face an equal!" said the chuckling dryad as she picked herself from the floor and then glanced up at her slightly disturbed Hild; given that she was essentially staring at her own bloodied face. "Although… please… recall your avatar. I don't want to attack you while you're missing even a thousandth of your strength. It would've been a shame if I only won because of such a marginal advantage."
"You're insane…" muttered Hild, raising an eyebrow at her grinning doppelganger, and then took a step back to give herself a chance to consider her options. Brute force only worked when she had a clear advantage over her opponent, and especially when she didn't care about their survival. Although Angrboda wasn't part of the Doublet System for more than obvious reasons, at the same time Hild really needed to keep her alive, no matter how annoying she appeared to be. Yet the worst fact was that just like any other Ironwood Dryads, Angrboda had a phenomenal pain tolerance, which made it extremely unlikely for Hild to incapacitate her. Most of her opponent would've passed out from her attacks, yet her doppelganger seemed almost unaffected by the amount of damage she received in this short amount of time. 'Which basically means that if I want to win, I must use something she doesn't possess. Hm… I guess it can't be helped… Dark Star? Come out.'
Dark wings spurt out of the Daimakaicho's back as an entity began to emerge with a growl that caused everything in her immediate area to violently shake. Sharing the same skin complexion with her mistress, Dark Star arched her back and flexed the limbs she hadn't used for many aeons since the last time her help was needed. And while she sported a lot of features commonly found on other familiars, the biggest difference -aside from the skin complexion- was the fact that she possessed feathered wings, instead of the almost ubiquitous bat-like wings of the other devils. Finally, with a small yawn, the violet haired familiar stared down at her mistress. 'My my… how rare! And here I thought that you've totally forgotten about little ol' me.'
"This isn't the time for chitchat!" snapped Hild, without even turning to face her familiar, fearing that this would've given Angrboda the best opportunity for a counter attack. "We need to capture her, and… I could use a hand here."
'How proud! Well, I suppose that's one of you better traits,' sent Dark Star over their link, before she began to chuckle. 'Alright… let's show this copycat who's the real thing!'
Meanwhile Angrboda's surprised expression when her opponent's familiar first appeared was gradually replaced with far more sarcastic one, as she never thought that Hild would've summoned her in front of an audience. "Well!... Would you look at that! For someone who made fun of the goddesses for possessing angels… you've got your very own fluffy chicken!"
"This is a devil you moron, not an angel!" muttered Hild with a roll of her eyes, before she and her familiar assumed a defensive stance. "Now, are you gonna do something or just stay there and keep throwing insults like an overgrown kiddo?"
"I'll show you who's the kiddo!" growled Angrboda and launched at the pair, only to realize that they split at the very last moment, just as her fist was about to connect with Hild's face.
With the Daimakaicho crouched to avoid the incoming attack, her devil jumped from her back and with her legs now fully materialized, she landed on Angrboda's shoulders, trapping her head between her folded legs. And with a sharp twist of her torso, Dark Star caused the dryad's head to turn much further it was originally meant for, all while Hild prepare to punch her in the gut. Only to have the doppelganger grab her wrist and then proceed to kick her hard on her crotch, sending her flying across the warehouse.
Immediately after, the dryad reached up to grab the startled familiar by the hips and tossed her back at her downed mistress. Before launching a counterattack though, Angrboda had to pause and repair the otherwise crippling damage she had received, leaving her opponents with a feeling of helplessness.
'Mistress! Physical damage isn't going to cut it!' barked Dark Star over their link. 'Unless we use magic, she's just gonna keep coming back!'
'I know that! But any spell that's powerful enough to bring her down could also accidentally kill the others if we happen to miss. Unless…' Hild's lips curled up in a grin and with her sending her thoughts directly to her familiar, there was no need to waste time by discussing her plan in any further details. Dark Star already knew what she was supposed to do and the moment her mistress got up, she hovered behind her and ever so casually, the familiar yanked Hild's trademark dress.
Watching her opponent strip naked, as she even dropped her panties on the concrete floor, Angrboda briefly wondered if she hit her too hard. 'No… I didn't smack her head, and it's unlikely she's doing that to distract me. Why would I be interested at staring her nude body? Wait… hold on a moment!...' By the time Angrboda started to realize what was going on, it was far too late to stop her.
Hild's entire body was already covered by a thick mist that began to solidify on her skin, turning from an almost gaseous form to something akin of gooey substance; not unlike bitumen. Taking a few steps towards her opponent, it immediately began to become apparent that her body was no longer solid, as her limbs were moving in a sluggish and utterly unnatural manner, one that was impossible for anyone who possessed bones or at the very least something that provided a similar function. And as the temperature around her began to rise at an almost exponential rate, the whole 'skin' started to bubble, while each of her steps produced a wet, sloshing sound.
"You cheater!" screamed Angrboda, making a desperate attempt to put as much distance between herself and Hild. Only to find out that while she wasn't paying attention to the second of her opponents, Dark Star cast a fairly powerful trap fight under her feet. And although it was technically easy for her to break the spell, Angrboda just didn't have the time to do so.
Hild tackled the Ironwood Dryad to the floor and enveloped her body with hers, before she raised the temperature to a level that she now glowed, just like molten magma would. It was a technique aptly named as the Fire's Embrace at which a demon could turn their own physical shell into an instrument of pain, by getting hold of their opponents and then cook them alive all while crushing them at the same time. Yet it wasn't just the physical application of heat and pressure that was devastating, but also the fact that they also ensnared them with their powers. And with all their magic contained around their victim's bodies, it was one of the more discreet method of applying both their physical and magical power to its fullest extend. But… it was also a notoriously dangerous technique too, given that anyone without the necessary level of skill and concentration could actually share their victim's fate, in the event where they lost control of this this extremely unstable spell.
However, the real reason of using such a technique was to turn one of Angrboda's biggest advantage to her downfall. Given how physically resilient dryads were, it was practically pointless to try and attack them in a conventional fashion. Furthermore, an Ironwood Dryad's biggest advantage over their less advanced cousins was that they were almost fireproof, unlike the ordinary and much more common dryads. Yet, that also came at a high price. The more someone tried to burn them, the greater their body's response became to what should've been a life threatening situation to them.
And with Hild applying both heat and pressure around Angrboda, it caused the dryad's body to almost solidify in its most resilient state; that of a purely metallic version of herself. A form that wile impervious from most attacks, it also came with one huge disadvantage: for all practical purposes, until Angrboda sufficiently cooled down, she was effectively as immobile as a statue.
Resuming her original form with barely any effort at all, Hild ended up lying on top her now incapacitated opponent who was still glowing white from the sheer heat of her body. Yet somehow Hild herself was not only unaffected, but also calmly inspected her solidified lookalike as if nothing was amiss. "Mm… now that's what I'd call hot action! Well? Did you enjoy my performance, sweetheart? Don't be so shy dear! Say something!" asked Hild with a purr as she tapped her doppelganger's nose with a finger. "Oh… right! You can't!"
Getting up, the Daimakaicho couldn't help but fan herself with her hands, since despite appearances, her own body was also superheated to the point where putting her clothes back on was impossible for the moment. Not unless she wanted them to ignite upon contact. "Boy… it feels like a forge in here!"
'Mistress? Should I seal her up for good?' asked Dark Star as she held up a sealing container that was already primed. While Hild was busy dealing with her opponent, Dark Star got the perfect opportunity to prepare a series of intricate spells specifically meant to keep Angrboda sealed in stasis for a long time.
"Hm…" Looking over her shoulder Hild gave the slowly recovering dryad a pointed look. "What do you say? Do you admit defeat and cut the crap… or should I lock you away for several millennia to come?"
Begrudgingly, Angrboda realized that with her body still several minutes away from a full recovery, she was for all practical purposes a sitting duck. And the last thing she needed on top of a humiliating defeat was to end up inside a container; not when she had other options available to her. As a result, Angrboda did all she could at the time being and managed to offer a tiny nod.
"Good! Now, you're all coming with me!" said Hild with a grin, before she gave Angrboda one last glare. "Oh! And if you try to make fun of my ex husband again, I'll show you what happens when I'm really pissed of. Got me?"
AN: I would like to thank everyone that has offered their feedback and support both here and on the Goddess Relief site.
There are a few things that I'd like to note for this chapter.
For the vast majority of the story, Grid essentially kept to herself and rarely if ever mentioned in the past chapters. Considering what's now revealed for her, there's a legitimate reason why she simply sat back and observed what was going on throughout the earlier events.
Considering the discussion between Angrboda and Loki, you can expect a certain character to show up in the near future. I think it's pretty obvious who that might be, but that's all I'm going to say for now.
Perhaps the biggest thing to discuss here is Dark Star, Hild's familiar (devil). For all purposes, we have no idea whether any the known demons in AMG have devils. The only confirmed example is Welsper, but aside from him, we haven't seen anyone else to use one. Sure, Mara has Sembei as an assistant, the mini ninjas she created and there are also many other entities called 'familiars' in the story (including Mokkurkalfi's little robots), but none of them is anything like an angel. All those are more or less autonomous entities and while they act as servants to their demonesses, they're not directly supported by them (like Blue Lance does). As such, whether Hild has a devil is a pure speculation on my part, and while most might disagree with me, I do have a reason to include her (which by the way has nothing with the fight between her and Angrboda).