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

Odal's diary, Entry 8

As a god who was raised on Earth and exposed to its culture and ways of life, I ended up with some very contradictory views of many things, and time is one of them. Generally speaking I tend to think on a much smaller time frame than most of my fellow celestials, and yet from a mortal's perspective I might appear as too resistant to change. It's almost as if I'm one of those grumpy old men who desperately cling onto a way of life that's long gone, forgotten by the contemporary generations, even though in my case I'm nowhere as… grumpy as them. At least, that's what I'd like to think anyways.

Regardless, the prospect of spending months or even years alone didn't quite seem as terrifying to me as it would've to the average human. Sure, when you're not dependant on food for sustenance, when you don't need to fear about diseases, and even wasting a significant portion of your already limited time you've got on this world… it's much easier to wait for a couple of decades until some form or relief arrives.

At that point, I've pretty much wandered all across the globe, always moving from one place to the next, never wanting to settle in for more than a couple days at a time. And like I've already mentioned I stubbornly held onto the belief that one day the whole blockade would end, allowing the Gate to open up once again, at which point my parents and the rest of the immortals would come and bring this planet from brink of destruction.

Alright, I must confess that this is a very human centric point of view, as life on Earth was perfectly capable of going on even after the extinction of homo sapiens. As a matter of fact, a couple of years after that calamity, whole cities became urban jungles of a different, most literal kind. I distinctly remember how impressed I was whenever I tried to navigate the plant infested streets of some of the most iconic cities, where wildlife seemed better suited to survive under such conditions, as ironic as that sounded. Actually, what was left of the human population chose to live in rural areas where food production was relatively easier, or on the move, not unlike the hunter gatherers of the ancient past. Aside from them, there were still some tribes in remote areas of the planet that managed not only to survive but thrive as well, since from their perspective few things had really changed since that disaster.

And as such, time passed and the world around me would once more change, along with my own perspective of it.

Once I finally reached my adolescence for good, the fact that I was left alone became one of the biggest burdens I had to live with. Aunt Skuld's robots that followed me wherever I went, started to show some serious signs of age, despite my best efforts to maintain them with whatever resources I could get my hands on. One day though, I had to take the toughest decision of my life thus far and talk to them about their ultimate fate. The main problem was that they depended on aunt's magic aside from their own circuits and programming logic, which made it extremely hard for me to completely rebuild them from the ground up and expect them to work properly. At best I could offer them several more years of life, but at worst… I could cause some permanent damage and reduce them to mindless automata, only suitable for the simplest of tasks.

Eventually, they decided to become the basis of a totally new generation of robots, and thus I used them as the blueprints to develop more advanced neural processors, which also inherited the core logics of Banpei and Sigel. As such, even after those two ceased working, their legacy would carry on; which it did, even to this day.

The hardest part though that that after they were gone, I was truly alone.

XXX

Unknown location, Earth

"Don't those shitheads have anything better to do than build their airbases over our cashes? Seriously! This is second fucking time it happens in the last fifty years!" Resisting the urge to smash his binoculars onto the nearby rocks, the cloaked demon turned to his similarly garbed companion who stared at the aforementioned base with a detached expression on his face. "Hey, are you even listening? Or do you thing that I give a damn about the whole dark and mysterious routine? This is your problem too!"

"Calm yourself down, Alph. There's no need to work yourself up for something that unimportant. We're gonna get what Fafnir-sama requested regardless of the human presence in this sector," replied the stoic demon, having gotten used to his comrade's ill temper over the long years of their exile.

"Shut up! We're not going to wait for whole weeks this time around! We need that container and we need it now! So, either these guys get outta here or we're gonna kick them out!"

Shaking his head in disdain, the second demon knew that while his comrade was eventually going to listen to reason… in the meantime he had every intention to test his patience. "We both know that no human nation would spend a huge amount of money to build an air base, only to abandon it for absolutely no reason whatsoever. And that also includes us asking them to move out of the area, just because we need to access something buried deep underneath their feet?"

"No… but there's no need to ask anything, if there's no one left alive in there," said the irate demon while throwing a thumb in the airbase's direction. "These guys have nuclear warheads in there. A couple of them going off should solve our problem for sure."

"And also turn a recovery mission into a salvage operation? Do you really need to bury the cache under an additional layer of debris, charred bodies and wrecked machinery?" countered the second of the demons, maintaining his cool despite his comrade's trigger happy attitude. "Now, if you're done, can we stick to our original idea and infiltrate the base instead of blowing it up to smithereens?"

"You're no fun at all…"

"Neither are you, but I'm not complaining," said the demon with a sigh and got up from his concealed position, but not before he cast a glance towards the base's perimeter fence, causing the nearest security camera to blow up to pieces. "Alright… all we need to do now is wait for them to come and see what happened to their primitive surveillance equipment."

"Can we kill them at least?" asked the other demon with a tiny, hopeful smile on his face, only for his comrade to dash his foolish daydreams.

"No, we need to possess them. Otherwise we might as well blow up this joint. But I've already explained why that would be a bad idea. Now, let's get closer to the perimeter. I think I can hear a vehicle in the distance."

"Fine!... Let's get this over with..."

XXX

Nekomi, Japan

As the sun rose over the horizon, the once mortal groggily opened his eyes to find himself back in familiar ground. He was finally home, along with his beloved wife and her sisters; just like the good old times. Well, except for the fact that, Mara had moved into Urd's room, and the tea room that once acted as Belldandy's bedroom was now housing their son and his wife.

'From a college boy to a married man and now a family… god? When did that all even happen? It feels like yesterday when I left for Asgard, and yet things changed so much that it's hard to believe.'

Case to the point, when Keiichi tried to get out of his bed as carefully as he could in order to avoid waking his wife up, the dark haired god momentarily paused and readjusted the covers around Belldandy's naked form. Granted, the middle Norn didn't normally sleep in the nude and typically wore a cutesy pajama or at the very least a negligee, however it wasn't too strange to spend so much time cuddling with Keiichi in their post coital bliss, that she occasionally fell asleep before she had the chance to put something on.

'I never thought that there would come a day when Belldandy was going to keep me up for hours. Literally, too!' Blushing at the memories of their first night after their homecoming, which Keiichi aptly called their second honeymoon, the dark haired god had to admit that Belldandy too had probably changed a bit as well. After all, in the not so distant past she used to be almost oblivious to any forms of physical attraction, acting in a perfectly asexual manner. And yet, all that changed after their marriage, despite it took them quite some time to get accustomed to the more physical aspect of their relationship. 'Although as Bell says… a kiss is something you do with love and reverence, as it's meant to convey your feelings. I'm sure she probably sees this in a very different manner that most men like myself do. And that's what makes her truly adorable.'

Unable to resist the urge to give his beautiful wife a peck on her forehead, Keiichi leaned down and did just that, making sure not to disturb the sleeping goddess, as she probably needed as much rest as possible. The previous day had been one heck of an emotional roller coaster, and the fact that Belldandy of all goddesses got in a fight with someone, as a testament of how much stress she was experiencing at the moment.

'Hm… I bet that once she gets up, Bell's going to prepare a nice breakfast for everyone. So, if I prepare a very simple one for her and bring it to our bed, she's going to be so surprised!'

Happy that he finally got a nice idea for a sweet, romantic breakfast with his wife, Keiichi knew that time was of the essence. With Belldandy being an early bird, he didn't have nearly as much time as he'd like in order to make sure that everything was ready, After all, it's been a couple of years since the last time Keiichi had to prepare his own breakfast, and even then, cooking had never been his forte.

So, without time to waste, Keiichi made a beeline for the kitchen, which by all means should've been empty, since neither Urd nor Skuld had a thing for cooking either. Actually, the only one of them who'd have a legitimate reason to be there would be the younger Norn, but only to raid the fridge for ice cream. As a result, Keiichi opened the door without a care in the world, only to catch a fleeting glimpse of a small disc shaped item flying towards his face; only to smack him dead in the middle of his forehead. "Hey! What the?!"

The projectile, that was now broken -or rather crumbled- into a several pieces… turned out to be a cookie that was hurled across the kitchen from where Odal stood by the stove. "Oops! Sorry about that… um… dad. I guess I'm still a bit too jumpy whenever I think that someone's trying to sneak up on me."

"I wasn't trying to-" said Keiichi, but then paused and let out a sigh. Of course the first thing that came to Keiichi's mind was how Odal would've defended himself with a cookie of all things, but in the end, the former mortal chose to avoid any potentially troublesome topics. After all, he needed to make a lot of progress with his… son, who still felt like a stranger to him. And suspecting that the feeling was mutual, Keiichi tried to avoid asking for too much at the time being. "Ah, never mind about that. More importantly, what are you doing here?"

"Uh… I'm making some breakfast for me and Hagall… what else?" replied Odal with some confusion as he genuinely thought that it was too obvious that he was going to do most of the cooking from this point on. While the blonde deputy of Niflheim was more than an accomplished cook, she had grown accustomed to have a personal chef to prepare her meals, which meant that she was far from inclined to stay in the kitchen for too long. Even if she tried to show her culinary skills yesterday, Odal had little doubt that it counted as a special occasion for his wife -now that she was introduced to his whole family- and not to be taken as the norm. "The real question is what you are doing here, dad."

"Well, I thought it would've been a sweet gesture if I tried to make breakfast for Belldandy," admitted Keiichi with a nervous smile, scratching the back of his head as he felt too embarrassing to say such a thing out loud.

"I believe that the word you're looking for is romantic, not sweet," said Odal as casually as he could, since he was genuinely surprised that his father ever came up with something like that on his own. 'Wait!... Was he always like that, but I couldn't tell, since he's shy about it?' As the realization hit him, Odal pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance, since this changed so many things that the rogue god didn't even start listing them, for the fear of becoming even more disappointed at his old self than he was right now. "But that's unimportant at the moment. Just do me a favor and grab a couple of eggs from the fridge; I'm giving you a hand."

"But! I'm supposed to-"

"And you will, but it's been years since the last time you cooked, right?" countered Odal, without even waiting to hear his father's objections. Instead he reached for a frying pan and once he put some oil in it, Odal light up the gas stove with a snap of his fingers. "Come on, stop staring at me. I need to cook something too, so it's not like you're cheating. We're just collaborating, that's all there is to it."

Even though Keiichi was far from convinced that this didn't count as cheating, the dark haired god eventually relented and decided to go along with his son's suggestion as this could turn into a great opportunity to do something together with him. Of course it was more than obvious that Odal was far from a child -and in reality way older than everyone here- yet at the same time they somehow needed to find a way for the rogue god to become 'adopted' into the family. And one of the most important first steps in order to do that was to get to know him better. "Okay, I'll take as much help as I can get. After all, it's been a few years since I cooked anything by myself."

"Okay, then start by scrambling the eggs and I'll find us some bacon. I know that this isn't a traditional Japanese breakfast, but I've got a lot more experience with western cuisine, so it makes more sense to go for that if you don't mind."

Offering the fellow god a nod, Keiichi picked up a bowl from the cupboard and cracked the eggs on its rim, trying his best not to get any of the shells into the bowl. "That's pretty fine with me, Odal. I'm the only one here who's actually Japanese and…" Pausing a moment, it just occurred to him that he didn't actually know for sure whether Odal was born in Japan or not, and this was the best opportunity for him to ask for a few more details about his son's background. "Actually… back in your world were we still living here by the time you were born?"

"Yes, we did. Although it took you and mom more time to have me in my world, compared to… my sister… in this one," said Odal, still finding it hard to get used to the idea that his parent's child in this world wasn't some alternative version of him. "It looks like someone was in a hurry, huh…"

Choosing wisely not to make a comment on that last bit, Keiichi resumed scrambling the eggs, while Odal went to grab some sausages from the fridge until a dark blur entered his field of view. And almost by instinct, the rogue god reached the closest pan to him and used it a fashion not unlike a baseball bat, which resulted in a clearly audible thud, when the hard metal came into contact with a relatively soft material; one that actually let out a pained yelp, allowing Odal to realize just what, or rather who he had just hit. "Oh… it's you."

"Oww… it's me alright!" grumbled the pained Welsper as he picked himself from the floor, after being launched right across the kitchen… only to end up landing on his paws. As a matter of fact, the demonic cat didn't look any worse for wear, as his nature prevented him from getting hurt from something this insignificant. Still, Welsper didn't quite appreciate the gesture, and especially not after he spent the whole previous day locked in a cat carrier, until he managed to break through the specially modified lock. "After deliberately forgetting that I've even existed -like everyone else does as of late- you have the nerve to smack me with a frying pan? What's this? A slapstick comedy?!" cried the outraged demon cat, before his attention was drawn to the other god present in the room. 'Well… what would you know… He finally decided to stay with Belldandy forever.'

Noticing Welsper's eyes hold his in an intense stare, as well as Odal's who followed the cat's gaze, Keiichi tried to come up with something before this situation turned far too awkward for his liking. "Long time no see. How's life on Earth?"

"Pretty well, thank you very much. What about you, though? How did you like Asgard?" Despite the seemingly polite tone in Welsper's voice, the cat's body language betrayed the sarcasm and even envy he was most certainly feeling towards the former mortal, as he not only managed to marry Belldandy but to become her legitimate husband in every sense of the word. Previously one could question whether Keiichi was a worthy partner for the lovely middle Norn, yet it was now much more difficult to do so when the once unassuming mortal joined her as a proper god; one that could truly stay with her forever.

"It was simply divine," said Keiichi with the barest hint of a smirk, returning the favor by teasing the cursed cat, instead of fighting fire with fire and become as sarcastic as Welsper had been moments ago. After all, Keiichi had little to earn by acting like that, and not to mention that his wife would've been disappointed of him if he suddenly tried to gloat over every single soul who had a thing for her. "But enough of that. Would you like to have something for breakfast too?"

The question caught Welsper unprepared at first, but eventually the cursed cat let out a sigh and lowered his ears in defeat. "Oh, well… Just get me a nice tuna can and I might forget about being locked," said Welsper before adding under his breath. "Or even being forgotten for so long by everyone."

"Okay, okay… we got it!" said Odal, stepping in after he retrieved a tuna can from the cupboards and opened it, before finally placing it in front of the demonic cat. "Here, have something while we finish the breakfast for our wives." Putting some extra emphasis on the last part, just to send the message that this had to do with Belldandy as well, Odal was pleased to see that Welsper decided to back off and mind about his food, rather than keep antagonizing them.

And with that being done, Odal went back to finishing the omelet mix with his father before pouring it on the frying pan. 'Mm… this smells good. I hope that mom and Hagall will like it.'

XXX

Asgard

With the arrival of the demonic diplomatic envoy scheduled for later this day, the entire perimeter around the primary Gate room was quarantined, just to minimize chances for yet another incident from taking place and so soon after the Hel debacle. After all, tensions between the two species were already at such a point that no one missed the fact that the Daimakaicho's usual representative was replaced by a far older demoness who's been through the pre Doublet System era, and her personal guard for the visit comprised of some of members from the best military units they had.

As such, it was fitting for Asgard to take all the necessary measures to prevent anyone from exploiting this opportunity to escalate the situation even further by baiting the demons into attacking them, just like Sanngrid did with Urd. And for that reason, only the most trustworthy members of the Fighting Wings were allowed to partake in this operation, along with a select few civilians who were deemed loyal enough to the Daitenkaicho to be allowed around the demons without fear of them trying to undermine the negotiations.

"Excuse me ma'am, but did I hear correctly?" asked Lind as she addressed her commanding officer with the same apprehension one would whenever dealing with an avatar of the Infernal Dragon itself. Which may seemed quite the overreaction, given Freya's otherwise gentle nature -at least outside of the battlefield- yet the moment that name was brought up, Lind started to worry about her superior's mental health. Especially after the latter pulled an allnighter in order to review each and every of the participating Valkyries in this event.

"Indeed you had, Lind. Since we're going to need as much help as we can get, I'm more than inclined to show leniency and use as much of that god's experience with handling demons to our advantage."

"Ma'am… you do realize that we're talking about Loki, here?" pleaded Lind, despite her firm command of her emotions that helped her maintain that stoic expression she was most famous for. "Surely, a prankster like him could easily turn this meeting into a fair."

"I'm well aware of the risks involved, but at the same time considering his reputation and antics, I doubt that the demons will take him far too seriously. And while it's easy to write off his antics as nonsense, one should not forget that when needed, Loki can indeed produce results." Taking a pause as she heard another's approach, the Valkyrie commander turned around to welcome the other civilian involved in this operation. And just like with Loki, her inclusion to this diplomatic mission raised more than enough eyebrows, along with comments about Freya's decision making skills. "Ah, Peorth!... It's nice to see that you've accepted my request."

"Of course, Freya-sama! I'm more than happy to offer my assistance however I can!" said the goddess of the roses with a slight smile, since it was quite flattering to be personally invited by the head of the Valkyries to give them a hand by acting as Asgard's representative. After all, with most celestials present in site being members of the Fighting Wings and their 'guests' part of the various demonic military groups, it was deemed absolutely necessary to have them interact with civilians in order to minimize chances for all involved parties to antagonize each other.

"Excellent! In that case, I'll let you two get briefed by Lind, as I'm needed elsewhere," said Freya as she started to walk away, leaving her subordinate wonder why she addressed Peorth in plural.

The blue haired war goddess even looked around them, just in case there was someone else nearby that she didn't notice, but with no one in their immediate surroundings, Lind had to admit that she was stumped. "Peorth… do you have any idea who the Commander's referring to?"

"Well… it's a bit funny, but…" Try as she might, the brunette had no idea whether it was a good idea to actually discuss this particular subject with her friend right now. After all, she had little doubt that considering how early the Valkyrie must've gotten up today, it was a doubtful that she was in the mood for shenanigans; not that she'd ever be.

"But I believe that Freya was talking about me," came a voice from the general area of Peorth's chest, yet not only didn't it belong to that rose goddess, but it was positively masculine too.

Giving the brunette administrator a long and particularly hard stare, Lind was convinced that this was indeed Peorth herself and not some kind of doppelganger, and more specifically a certain synthetic she knew. Still, as the voice itself was indeed Excalibur's, there was little doubt that he picked the worst possible moment to annoy her with his antics that were slowly evolving to match those of Loki's. "I can understand that on certain occasions it's preferable to turn into a set armor, instead of a weapon. I can also understand that under the current circumstances it's better if you keep a low profile. However, what I don't understand is what in the World Tree's name possessed you to think that becoming Peorth's bikini was a good idea?"

'Whoa! Is it my idea or Lind sounds angry?' wondered Peorth but wisely avoided to make any comments on the subject. Instead she tried her best to resolve this misunderstanding by pointing at the belt harness she was wearing and only that. "He's actually my vest, not my bikini. You know… just in case I need some extra protection in the next few hours."

"And not to mention that this was the easiest way for me to become involved into this whole thing, since I'm still an unregistered member of the Fighting Wings," explained the morphed synthetic, until he came to an abrupt pause and then remained silent for the next couple of seconds, causing the two goddesses to share a curious glance.

"Something's the matter?" asked the blue haired Valkyrie, hoping that her comrades didn't think that she was strange for talking to Peorth's clothes.

"The Tree's network is starting to get too chatty, and most of that traffic is forwarded to Helheim," reported Excalibur in a somewhat troubled voice, that it was more than enough to make Lind and Peorth to realize that something terrible was either going on, or about happen in the near future.

"That's a bit too vague, Excalibur. Do you have something more specific as to what's going on?" asked Lind in an effort to figure out if they had to prepare for the worst; which in this case would be to enforce a blockade and once more evacuate the mortal realm.

"I's afraid that I cannot extract much more than that, since the messages are extremely well encrypted. However, I think that there's something else about, and it has to do with human souls. Although this time around, Hel's servers don't seem happy about it, but unfortunately I have no more information about what's going on over there," said Excalibur as he made a mental note to keep some processes to monitor for any changes in Hel's status. "Just keep your eyes peeled out there."

"Duly noted," said Lind with a curt nod, motioning for Peorth to follow her. "Now come. We've got a job to do here."

"Alright, I'm right behind you Lind."

"This isn't payback for that time. Right Peorth?" asked Lind with a barely amused tone that caused the brunette to wonder just what the warrior referring to, until it eventually hit her.

There was a pause as the incredulous rose goddess gave her friend a long stare, trying to figure out whether Lind was too stressed, but immediately dismissed the notion. After all, it was highly unlikely that a Valkyrie would find this situation to be stressful, so the most likely explanation was that the blue haired goddess was effectively repeating the same stunt she pulled on her during Hagall's coup. "You know… for someone as stoic as you, it still baffles me how you choose such serious moments to crack the most ridiculous jokes…"

Tilting her head ever so slightly, Lind rubbed her chin as she briefly wondered if Peorth's comments had any basis, but quickly dismissed the thought. "I think that the others consider this as part of their pep talk, or something of that effect. From what I've heard it reduces the stress level, and to a certain degree it helps the others socialize over such jokes. Even if they tend to be silly ones."

"Alright… I suppose that kind of makes sense," said Peorth, and then decided to give her friend a dose of her own medicine. "Although now that I think of it… Have you noticed how form fitting your uniform is? Especially when you look at it from behind."

"Of course it is," replied Lind in the most matter of fact manner she could possibly muster, that clearly wasn't what Peorth was expecting at this moment. "A combat uniform is designed to provide the least amount of resistance to our movements, so it needs to hug our bodies like a second skin. Which is exactly why our uniforms have those two flaps on the back, just so that we don't give others too much of a free show. After all, once you spend as much time training as half of us do, it's only natural that you'll end up with a nicely toned body."

Offering a nod, Peorth watched Lind turn around and resume walking, before she followed suit, yet not without pondering about that reply. "Excalibur… is it my imagination or did Lind just brag about her body?"

"Knowing her… I'd say that she was most likely trying to entice you into joining her unit. After all, invoking your vanity is a sound strategy to-" started Excalibur, only to immediately pause when he felt the brunette's fingers dig into his 'skin' as Peorth attempted to 'readjust' her vest. "Okay, I'll say nothing more."

"Good boy. Now keep those comments to yourself and we're gonna get along just nicely."

"Yes, ma'am!"

XXX

Classified location, Earth

There was no warning, no provocation and not even an explanation as to why this came to be. One moment everything seemed to be fine, just another day in the job, and the next… all Hell broke loose; and quite literally too.

The sound of gunshots filled the air, along with the blood-curdling screams of the unfortunate souls who failed to outrun the impending onslaught that this surprise attack brought to them. Unsightly insect-like creatures out of a horror film spang from the ground, almost as if they literally oozed like a dark viscous goo out the sand to form something that loosely resembled gigantic centipedes, large enough to dwarf even cars, and without any provocation they seized everyone within reach of their mandibles. Advancing rapidly, these nightmarish creatures took advantage of the mayhem and panic they caused on their wake to force their way from one building to the next, all while the airbase's sirens rallied the survivors to form some kind of defensive perimeter in hopes to contain this disaster before the entire facility was completely lost.

A task that was rapidly proving to be too much of a tall order, as their monstrous adversaries responded to the escalating use of ever more powerful ranged weapons with some of their own abilities, that included spitting some acidic dark goo that exploded a couple of seconds after it made contact with the air. Thus, whoever was unfortunate enough to survive the horrifying ordeal of having part of their skin melt away, this dark goo would most likely put them out of their misery once it began to bubble and expand, only to result in an explosion that dwarfed those of the RPGs used by the defenders to hold back the invading army of centipedes. This stuff was so violently corrosive that even light armored vehicles didn't stand a chance, as the goo rapidly worked its way into the armor, only to explode there and leave gaping holes that left the vehicles exposed to further attacks.

Mutilated corpses laid scattered around the hangars, while the desert sand became stained with from the thick blood and gore that the centipede-like being left behind, only to seek for new victims, new blood to spill, and pain to feast upon; just so that they grew stronger and numerous. While some of the most powerful conventional guns eventually stopped them dead on their tracks, there were far too many by now to be contained, leaving the defenders no other option but to slowly retreat in hopes of buying more time for their comrades to bring out the heaviest weapons they had available in the base; namely the main battle tanks. Unfortunately though, the smaller calibre guns were effectively useless against these things, and the moment they began spitting that explosive goo, the number of casualties on the defenders' side only increased.

Dirt, metal and flesh went flying up in the air, as one blast after the next riddled the ground with holes, that in most cases acted as the graves of those who couldn't get away in time, or simply weren't in a state to do so. And yet no one knew why. Not even those responsible for it. Or at the very least, one of them.

"Alph… Which part of keeping a low profile you didn't quite get?" demanded the apparently calmer of the two intruders, as he stared at his grinning companion who did anything but follow his orders. While he knew that this was a type of job he would've handled much better if he was on his own, Fafnir had insisted to send yet another with him, just to ensure the success of this operation; only to do the exact opposite. "Do you even hear me?"

"Yeah, yeah… some poor humans are bleeding to death and I'm supposed to give a damn about it. After all, we're humanity's best buddies, always helping them in the name of friendship and… ugh… I can't even say the word love without feeling sick in the gut," said Alph, as he made a disgusted face, yet not due to the massacre that was taking place around them. Now, that actually brought a smile on his face, as the whole 'caring' of their livelihood had gotten to the utterly ridiculous point where demons these days were nothing more but spooky boogeymen, if not downright jokes. "I mean… look at this. You may think that it lacks refinement, yet it has everything that we want from them, and not a single thing more. What these goody-goody demons these days would call an atrocity, is in reality a thing of beauty. Not a single thing in this is unnecessary, nothing goes to waste. It's art."

Watching the mortals trying to push back the summoned truck sized centipedes with a high caliber machine gun, the stoic demon couldn't help but shake his head at the stupidity of this all. "What's truly unnecessary here is you. I'm quite honestly tired of your shitty attitude, and you've compromised my mission for far too long. Now, unless you want me to lop your useless head and toss it to the pile of corpses over there -to lie in silence amongst your beloved mortals- you better start listening or..." Yet before he had the chance to finish his sentence, a loud scream caused them both to cover their ears.

However, those were not the death cries of the hapless humans, but the deafening sound of retro boosters as they came to life, mere seconds before the half dozen or so entry pods descended from the skies above.

"What the Hell? When did they open the Gate?!" screamed Alph, as he snapped out of his reverie, just in time to see one of the boxy pods land on top of a group of centipedes, effectively pulverizing them in a shower of dark goo. "Zolf! Did you-"

"I saw them! They must've opened the Gate too high up for us to take notice!" barked the stoic demon as he summoned his battleaxe. "Look what you got us into! Moron!"

Doors opened on all four sides of the pods, revealing the nearly three meters tall behemoths within, clad in an armor that was as futuristic as it was ancient in appearance, almost resembling knights from an age long gone by, which was further augmented by their choice of weapons. A couple of the hulking robots carried chainsaws in the form of swords, with a few being equipped with the heavier version of the same weapon that was attached on a pole, making it look like a double axe, with one chain blade on each side. Finally, the rest carried heavy particle cannons that clearly outgunned anything the mortals present could carry on themselves, and even some vehicle mounted weapons they had available to them.

Still, more curious than the strange visage of those robots -along with the patches of fake wolf pelts that adorned their armor- was the lone dark clad woman whose cloak concealed her identity, and despite her rather unimposing companions, it seemed as if she was in charge. "Hati, take the first squad and eradicate these pests. Managarmr, advance to secure the target with the second squad. The rest, follow me."

"YES MA'AM!" chorused the robots, with the two in charge jumping first out of the pods, while the next pod landed on top, and then through the nearby hangar, much to the demonic familiars' horror when they found themselves biting more than they could chew.

"What was that, again?" asked the dark clad woman in an almost bored tone.

"HUURRYYYYAAAAHHHH!" This time the resulting stampede as the hulking robots shoot out of the pods with a mighty roar caused both familiars and even their summoner to back off; with the latter wondering if it might've been a better idea to follow the original plan and infiltrate this place. After all, not only did these robots seem better equipped to handle this type of threat, but they apparently possessed defensive barriers that prevented that explosive goo to even reach them, splashing harmlessly onto the invisible surface of those protective fields.

More baffling yet was the fact that some of these robots seemed to glide just above the ground at speeds that left the centipedes no time to react, before they were literally on top of them, their chainblades digging deep into their armored hide, sending gore and severed limbs flying across the air. And as if that wasn't enough, the leader of the first group launched what appeared to be an ice spell to freeze a dozen or so centipedes, and cause the demonic duo to share a look, as it was almost unheard for synthetics to cast spells on their own.

"Zolf! Did you see that?"

"Yes… I did, and I don't like it one bit! Just summon more of those things and get ready!" barked Zolf as he saw the advancing female and her entourage that had their eyes trained on them. "We're about to have some company!"

As the dark clad woman stepped closer however, it soon became apparent that she was a synthetic as well; at least judging by her half finished body that left more than enough of her inner mechanisms exposed. And sensing that this was likely a weakness, Alph decided that taking the leader of those synthetics out of commission, would leave the rest in disarray. So, without much thinking, he shot forward and prepared a lightning spell. "I've got a better idea! Just watch!"

"Wait, what are you?"

Ignoring his comrade's protests, Alph brought himself upon the dark clad woman who passively watched him, without doing anything to get out of the way. However, as he was within inches of punching her right on the face, a pair of wings shot from her back, wrapping around her body, forming a protective shield from the imminent attack. "Huh?!"

The demon's fist clashed against a barrier, mere inches from the wings themselves, and not only that, but the electric magic dissipated almost harmlessly onto the barrier, leaving the demon to stare at the seemingly synthetic being hold her ground without any help from her fellow robots. And that's when he realized that not only did those wings seem as real as any other angel's, but the fact that one of the was white and the other black also meant that there was only one possibility as to their owner's identity.

Which all by itself caused him to back off and stare back at his comrade's position, who in turn summoned a battleaxe. All while the angel attached to those dichromatic wings slowly emerged from her synthetic cocoon, dark tattoos running along her otherwise fair skin and her hair reflecting her wings' colors, with one side being white and the other black. Then a fitting pair of mismatching eyes, stared at her assailant and a grin formed at the angel's face.

'I don't think so.'

Lightning descended from the sky, striking down the retreating demon who barely had the time to form a shield around him. But the moment the smoke cleared, the dichromatic angel further surprised him with a jab straight on the face, sending him reeling backwards, and just in the right distance for her to form a ball of fire on her palm and then point it in his direction.

'Payback's a bitch… And so am I.' Then fire consumed the demonic duo, along with the hangar right behind them, incinerating all the centipedes inside, that went up in flames with an inhuman scream of pain and suffering.

And that's when the sound of the tanks' engines filled the air, along with the thunderous roar of their 120mm guns that screamed murder to the remaining groups of centipedes, that were already being butchered down by Hati's group.

'Have fun dying.'

XXX

"I thought that first class goddesses weren't allowed to lie."

Looking up from the glass of water she poured for herself, Belldandy stared at her daughter-in-law who was already on her fifth, and kept going strong; not unlike a woman who just returned from the desert. However, Hagall wasn't exactly the only one who was absolutely desperate for water, as Belldandy was one glass behind the demoness, even though she desperately tried not to make a big deal about this. "I wasn't lying, you know. Keiichi and Odal put a lot of effort in their attempt to prepare us a nice breakfast. That much was nothing less than the truth."

"Say what you will, but I'm not eating anything they've prepared, even if my life depends on it," spat Hagall with a grimace as she tried to forget the excessive amount of salt that gave their breakfast a unique crunchy texture; yet not one that actually counted as an improvement over the original recipe. "How did you manage to eat it, is beyond me…"

"I… must admit that it was far from perfect, but they both put their hearts into making us something to eat, and I'd hate to throw it away like that." Sure, Belldandy was somewhat surprised that they've managed to misjudge the needed amount of salt for this recipe, unless due to poor communication, they both sprinkled more than enough into the mix. Which, unsurprisingly enough, resulted into this culinary disaster of sorts. "Besides, no one was born knowing how to cook, so, you should give them the credit for doing their best."

"If this was their best, then I'd hate to see what counts as their worst," said Hagall with a grunt as she set her glass on the counter and rubbed the bridge of her nose in annoyance. Still, she knew that at this rate their conversation was heading for yet another argument, and thus the blonde demoness tried to change the topic before they ended up in a cat fight. "But enough of that. Do you know where my illustrious husband -and chef- had gone to? And stop staring at me like that, I don't mean to blast him or something. We were planning to visit the city, that's all."

While not totally convinced about her daughter-in-law's honestly, the middle Norn had to recognize her last minute effort to avoid a confrontation, and thus pretended that she didn't listen some of that. Instead, Belldandy put a disarming smile on her face pointed in the direction of the shed, where Keiichi parked his Beemer. "Unless I'm mistaken, I think that Odal's helping his… father check on his bike, so that we can go on a ride later. I kind of missed that part, and even going to work over at Whirlwind."

Offering a nod, as she wasn't entirely sure how to respond to that -having next to no interest in human jobs- Hagall started to walk towards the exit. However, before she exited the kitchen, she heard Belldandy's voice call her name, which was rather weird all by itself, and turned around to see what the None wanted from her. "Yes?"

"You should try the ferry route across Nekomi bay! It's one of my favorites, and I think that, Odal's going to love it too!"

"Uh… I'll keep that in mind," replied Hagall with a blink, as she wasn't expecting that sort of advice; or any kind of advice to be absolutely honest. Which was exactly why she hesitated to simply leave, and spent a couple of seconds to watch the brunette goddess go back at cleaning the kitchen from the mess those two motorheads left in their wake. And while she felt inclined to thank her for that little piece of advice, it was against her sense of pride to express any form of gratitude after yesterday's events. So, instead of that, Hagall did the next best thing, which essentially involved getting Odal to buy her a gift. 'Hey, she's his mom, so, there's no problem if he gets her something nice. Now, let's go get him before Keiichi converts him into a motorbike geek like himself. I can deal with the rest of his projects, since they kind of remind me of Mokkurkalfi, but I sure don't need him to spend hours playing with toys for big boys.'

Then as she was about to exit the house, Hagall came to a halt, just about the same time she made a rather startling realization. 'Hold on a second… When did I start caring what Odal does in his free time? Don't tell me I'm in the process of becoming an… old hag? Shit!'

XXX

Odal's diary, Entry 9

It's hard to estimate just how long it took me to combine Banpei and Siegel's technology into one, unified platform along with many additions and modifications of my own. But without anything better to do and the human world around me descending into anarchy, I suppose that the best I could do is to spend my time constructively. After all, although I was a god, I had absolutely no authority over the human survivors and using my powers to impose my rules wherever I went, simply didn't sound right to me. Sure, I wasn't going to back off from a confrontation, if I deemed it necessary, but for the most part, I kept to myself.

Unfortunately, not everyone seemed to share that sentiment, as I eventually came to realize.

It was no big secret that a lot of Earth Spirits weren't particularly happy with the way humans ran the place for millennia, but even if they had a problem with them, both us celestials, and the infernals prevented any of them from becoming too vindictive. Of course, there were more than enough times when natural disasters had to be scrutinized for any obvious signs of manipulation, but for the most part we've maintained the peace.

As a result, you can easily imagine that the moment we weren't around to keep an eye out for inappropriate behavior, things slowly went out of control.

Some Earth Spirits began to disregard the non-interference policies placed upon them by celestial law, to the point where they would occasionally show up in front of mortals, and even go as far as exact vengeance for humanity's millennia old control over Earth's fate. Based on eyewitness testimonies, those spirits would claim certain areas of interest as their own, and threaten anyone who'd try to trespass their territory. Unfortunately, that was only the beginning. Feeling invincible, some went as far as to outright attack humans at the first given opportunity -or rather excuse- and with an ever increasing number of such incidents taking place all over the world, I eventually became sick of it.

Just as aunt Skuld had once created Banpei to protect them from Mara's schemes, I too ended up using the fruits of my labor to build a series of robots that would help me on this task, since I was effectively on my own to handle an unknown number of potentially hostile Earth Spirits. So, after months of hard work to create an assembly line, I've managed to have the first units ready within a year's time.

Those units however were pretty ancient compared to the current models, since not only did they lack any ability to manipulate magic in any shape or form, but also were significantly less intelligent compared to the average human. Only by networking them, I was able to make them handle complex task, since the entire group managed to process all the necessary information to make intelligent decisions, but even that wasn't a huge improvement.

Ultimately I wanted to make them as autonomous as their predecessors were, but before I could make the necessary modifications, I found myself with a pretty nasty situation in my hands. A small human settlement -barely a dozen souls strong- fell victim of what seemed a rough act of intimidation by neighboring tree spirits, that clearly wanted them out of their woods.

So, with no time to properly prepare for this reality, I took all I had with me and headed there. Robots, weapons, and armed vehicles that I've managed to build within a year's time were now on the move, just like soldiers of the old, marching off to their battlefield; to their impending date with fate.

Alas, we were too late, though. By the time it took us to get there, there was no settlement to help, but a disaster scene that for the first time in a long while made my blood boil. Yes, I've seen death everywhere I went during the past years, but to see evidence of pointless murder was a totally different thing altogether. Those hypocrites who blamed humans for their evil ways, proved to be equally petty and cruel as those they so much thrived to drive away from their land.

And while I don't wish to write down all the details of that incident, I feel that it's necessary to state that sometimes it doesn't matter how noble your intentions may be. In war, there are circumstances above your control -even if you're a god- and to keep your hands clean may be nothing more than an illusion. Perhaps… that's the only thing I could recognize to those particular Earth Spirits, who may have also started something that eventually escalated beyond their control, but in the end, it's irrelevant.

Someone had to rise up and do something about this outrageous situation; and that someone had to be me. There was simply no one else on Earth who could make a difference.

Even if, all I ended up doing was to make a huge mess of my own.

That'll have to wait for later, though, since I'd rather not ruin my mood and end up spending the rest of the day sulking. And with my parents trying their best to adjust to having me around -and not to say anything about my unborn sister- I must make things easier for them. After all, that's the very least I can do in a situation like this.

So, I'll have to go and see if father needs a hand with the Beemer. Well… not that I doubt he can handle this on his own, but it's the best excuse to do something together. Perhaps for the first time… ever.

XXX

Ithavoll, Asgard

Walking with his daughter by his side, the most infamous of gods couldn't help but notice the stares he was getting from the bystanders, as news of Hel's nature spread like wildfire among the celestial populate. Even if most of that were gross inaccuracies or simple rumors, Loki wouldn't care any less, as he knew all too well that either way it made little difference what the others thought of his daughter, and finest creation.

"Don't you worry, Hel-chan! You're going to like it here, I'm sure of it," said Loki after several long minutes of silence, as he and the cybernetic half goddess walked down the long corridor of Ithavoll, with the Daitenkaicho's office as their destination. "Now, try to relax, dear. Tyr may be a bit of a sore stick at times, but he's not actually cruel. I'm sure that once he gets to know you, he'll accept you as his niece and…"

However, as her father kept on, Hel seemed even more troubled than she was moments ago. And when her central body sent her a detailed report of what their third unit was up to, Hel had little reason to feel reassured that everything would go fine. "Father, we need to talk!"

"About what, dear?" asked Loki with a raised eyebrow, as the sudden change in his daughter's otherwise calm demeanor couldn't be a good sign.

"A group of rogue demons started a huge mess over at the mortal realm, and it seems that my third avatar had decided to deal with them on her own," said the somewhat concerned Hel, as she didn't wish to consider the damage those two demons were capable of, should things go too badly for them. "Also, based on my database, I've identified the two demons as members of the previous Daimakaicho's personal guard. Although… I'm unsure why they're over at the mortal realm, when they were supposed to be sealed for eternity."

Much to Hel's astonishment, her father remained rather calm as he heard this news and even scratched his chin thoughtfully, before he turned around and headed back where they came from.

"Wait!... Where are you going, father?" Staring off after the departing god of mischief, Hel wondered just what had gotten in him to cause such an abrupt mood swing.

"To grab your brothers, and Thor. We need to do something about this, before this gets out of hand. I know that Tyr wants me to handle this meeting, but it'll have to wait," replied Loki without even pausing to look back. "In the meantime, is your counterpart there on her own?"

"No, Wor-... I mean, my counterpart is leading the third tactical squad of Odal's synthetics, so, she's got some help at the very least," said Hel, correcting herself when she nearly addressed the angel inhabiting that model of hers, by her given name.

"Right… In that case, tell her to hold her ground. We'll be there in a minute."

XXX

Elsewhere, on the celestial capital city, the infernal diplomatic mission had just arrived, which was already enough of a reason for the standing by Valkyries to be on high alert. What Grid and her entourage soon realized however, was that there were a bit too many members of the Fighting Wings present, and while most demons would've simply dismissed this as a mere security measure, the ruler of Svartalfheim knew better than to make assumptions. Glancing over her shoulder, the dark haired demoness spotted her fellow regional commander amongst the guards, and gestured him to approach.

Furrowing his brows, the ruler of Muspelheim seemed equally apprehensive with his colleague, but feigned ignorance; if not, to prevent the surrounding celestials from realizing that they were aware that something was amiss. "Yes?"

"Something's wrong here, and it's not the weather; as delightfully sunny as it is," said Grid with a mirthless smile, since what most describe as the perfect day, would've looked rather unusual to a denizen of the eternally dark realm. "They're definitely up to something."

"Maybe they're still sore about the whole Hel debacle," suggested Surt with a shrug, even though he scanned the corridor for any familiar faces. Unsurprisingly, there were some pretty high profile Valkyries there, although the most famous among them was standing next to synthetic shapeshifter, and… an exhibitionist. 'And here I was thinking that they took us seriously for once. But… no! Let's turn this into something utterly ridiculous, shall we? Damned fools…'

"That they are, but with this being their own realm, it's unlikely that we can do much even if we wanted. Which makes this display of power totally unnecessary," said Grid with a sigh, and then stopped when she saw Peorth along with Lind and their synthetic friend approach them. "At any rate, don't let your guard down."

"Got it," said Surt with a sharp nod, and briefly readjusted his uniform's collar. Just so that he could make sure that the chain with Hild's one millionth avatar wasn't visible. 'Just great… How am I supposed to get close to Yggdrasil now?'

XXX

Nekomi, Japan

"Well, aside from the slightly loose chain, I can't find anything wrong with the Beemer," said Keiichi, as he set the wrench down and wiped his forehead with his sleeve… only to find nothing other than some grease he must've gotten there without realizing as he worked on the bike.

Noticing the look of wonder in his father's face, Odal couldn't help but chuckle at the former mortal, who was most certainly wondering why he wasn't covered in sweat by now. "As a god, your physical abilities and stamina are far beyond that of a human's. So, don't expect to break a sweat from something this easy. Although… you can definitely expect a scolding from mother if you keep getting grease all over your face."

"Actually, now that you mentioned it… How did you manage to stay spotless?" asked Keiichi, noticing how clean Odal was, despite the fact that he's been helping him with the Beemer.

"Heh… Have you already forgotten who's my mother? I've learned from a young age how to keep myself clean, even while messing around with machines. And not to mention that cleaning spells were my specialty back then," declared the rogue god with a proud smile. "Even though it seemed like something useless, I did end up learning a lot about material properties, matter manipulation and purification, that eventually proved to be invaluable to me. After all, the only way to learn how to build advanced machines is by understanding them from the ground up, starting from the raw materials that make their basic components."

"Hm… wish this worked with food though. You would've definitely saved us some trouble back then," said Keiichi with a nervous chuckle. "I honestly didn't realize that we put twice the needed amount of salt in the omelet…"

"What can I say? I've learned how to do this with machines and their basic components; not with food," admitted Odal with a sigh, trying not to remember the wide eyed look of surprise on Hagall's face, after she took the first bite, and realized just how much salt there was in there. "Still, I must admit that I'm impressed by mom's reaction. She really seemed to enjoy her breakfast."

"Well… that's Belldandy for you, alright. She's the sweetest goddess one could find, so there's no way she would berate us for that mistake," said Keiichi with a warm smile, as he recalled his wife's heartfelt thanks for the breakfast they prepared for her.

"Lucky you, then. Because my wife certainly didn't seem equally forgiving," said Odal with a wince, trying to forget the irate stare he got from Hagall after this whole fiasco. "Let's hope next time it won't end up like that, or I might be looking for a new place to stay."

Before Keiichi could offer a reply though, a feminine voice came from around the corner. "After today's…disaster, I'm pretty surprised that you'd even consider cooking again," said Hagall with a noticeable dose of sarcasm, as she casually leaned against the house's exterior wall. Interestingly enough though, instead of wearing her trademark green dress, the demoness had changed into an earthly attire, consisting of a white shirt, and black form-fitting pants that gave her a pretty casual appeal.

"You underestimate my tenacity. Besides… I'm not a terrible cook, and neither is dad. We just… didn't have enough experience working together as a team, I guess," came Odal's reply, even though the rogue god spent a good couple of seconds staring at his wife. "Oh, and nice look by the way."

"Oh joy, oh joy… Looks like someone loves to get me all salty. Although, I suppose I could give you a second chance, providing that you won't repeat the same stunt," said the blonde demoness with a chuckle, tossing her hair over her shoulder. "Now, you didn't think that I'd look anything less than perfect, do you?"

"No, but it's still too… casual for you," said Odal after he glanced over at his father's direction, who wisely chose to pretend that he was checking his Beemer's brakes. So, without anyone else for support, the rogue god turned back to his wife, and even approached her, despite the obvious risks involved thanks to the demoness' volatile nature. "Although I must admit that I can definitely get used to it."

"Hm… it depends," said Hagall with a cryptic smile, and then wrapped an arm around her husband's, pulling him aside. Then, once she made sure that they were out of Keiichi's earshot, Hagall leaned closer to Odal and added in a much lower voice. "I chose this for our date, so… if it goes well, I guess I can try this style more often."

"Our… what?" Although Odal knew that they were heading to downtown Nekomi later on, he couldn't for the love of his life recall anything about a date. And even if he did, then he was almost certain that Hagall wouldn't be in the mood for one. Which by the looks of it, proved to be a false assumption.

"Date," replied Hagall, putting some extra emphasis on the word. "And I know a good place we can try. Although, do you have any idea where one can buy gifts here?"

Raising an eyebrow at the rather unusual request -at least by demonic standards- Odal briefly wondered if Hagall was setting him up for something, but eventually dismissed the notion. 'Come on… she's your wife, dumbass. It's not like she's going to kill me for adding a little too much salt on her omelet… And even if she did, I doubt that she would've gotten me. Tried that with dad when he was a human, and she failed, so… that's not her forte.' Feeling relieved that his well being was likely not under threat, Odal saw this as the perfect opportunity to redeem himself for that earlier blunder, and considering that this a rather trivial manner, telling a bit of a lie shouldn't be too bad. So, even though he had no idea about the current state of Nekomi, since he wasn't even born at this point of time in his own world, Odal offered her a reassuring smile. "You're lucky, because I know just the perfect place."

"Good! Then we're going to take a small detour and buy something nice for your mother," said Hagall while dragging her husband along as she headed for the temple's stone stairway. "Oh, and if anyone asks, it was your idea."

"What for? I thought that bribery wasn't something unusual for demons, so, there's no reason not to offer the gift yourself. After all, that's a peace offering for mom, right?" commented Odal dryly, only to earn a sideways glance from his wife.

"Dear… should we also buy some camping gear while we're at it? You know, something you could use if you were to spend the night outside," said Hagall in such a pointed manner that it was all but impossible for the god to miss the perfectly clear hint to keep quiet or face the consequences.

"That's fair enough, Hagall. Although… I did spend quite some time outdoors, so, if you want to give that a try, I suppose we could set camp next to the main temple for a night or two. You know… just for the experience."

Staring at him with a thoughtful expression, Hagall remained silent for a while, as she carefully considered her options, and eventually came to the conclusion that it was worth the trouble to give it a try. "You know… that could be fun. But before that, we have other things to do. Like our date, for example."

"I'll have to agree with that. So, let's get going."

XXX

Classified location, Earth

What initially seemed like a walk in the park was quickly devolving into a bitter standstill between the two demons and Hel's forces, along with the relentless assault from the mortal defenders of this airbase. Heaps of rapidly decaying centipedes littered the ground where their remains evaporated in columns of dark mist, joining the thick smoke of the burning hangars as the high explosive shells kept coming without pause from the defensive perimeter, where the human-made tanks kept spewing their shells on the advancing familiars.

And strap in the middle of all this were the synthetics, already suffering their first losses at the hands of Zolph, who proved too much for World of Elegance to handle on her own. Mighty as the angel was, without her mistress by her side, it was hard to match a first class demon on one to one combat; regardless of the latter being a renegade or not. Six units were taken out of commission, even if their cores were still intact, but that could easily change once the demons broke off this stalemate and push back the defenders, along with these meddling pests that stood in their way.

"Ha! Who's going to have fun dying now?" gloated Alph, who in a somewhat cowardly move, exploited World of Elegance's moment of distraction as she faced his comrade, to launch a sneak attack at the dichromatic angel.

The dark bolt of energy exploded against her sole white wing, causing her to let out a silent scream of pain and reel back to erect a defensive barrier. Only to catch a glimpse of the other demon's battleaxe coming down for her neck. There was no time to move, nor even blink as the cold demonite axe dug deep into the synthetic muscle of the robot that charged at the demons, its chainblade trained at Zolph's sword arm, with his own free hand stopping the incoming blow aimed at the angel, even at the expense of its limb.

"BACK OFF, MISTRESS! THIS SHITHEAD'S MINE!" barked the synthetic, using the momentum of his massive body to push the demon back. Although it was obvious that those were about to become its last moments, the synthetic drew upon all the energy its dryad enhanced core could muster, and promptly went berserk, pushing the demon further back. Unleashing its wrath at the demonic warrior, it sent sparks flying as the chainblade nicked the hard demonite axe, causing an almost unholy screech as metal ground against metal.

But just at the demon was about to launch his counter attack, a rapidly approaching shadow in his peripheral vision caused him to backflip out of harm's way. Only to realize that what he actually dodged was nothing more than a HEAT round from one of the standing by tanks, with the tank commander pelting him with the 50 cal machine gun. "Noble… but pointless," muttered the demon, raising his free arm to shield his face from the stray bullets, that did little other than annoy him.

"Pests… the lot of them," laughed Alph as he summoned a new wave of centipedes to wear down the defenders who were starting to run out of munitions ready to fire at them. "They delayed us for long enough! It's time to send them to oblivion! And this mongrel too!"

Noticing the glare she got from the demon, World of Elegance got up on her feet and brought her hands in front of her and formed a literal wall of fire in preparation for a counterattack that would hopefully protect not only the remainders of the mortals, but also the synthetics she dragged into this mess. 'Consume by-'

A sharp kick to her gut stopped her though, as Zolph wasted no time and encircled her, launching an attack from her unprotected side, before the wounded robot could rush to her defense. Then seizing her by her long hair, the demon sent an electric pulse through her body, eliciting another silent scream from the angel, but this time the demon was determined to put an end to this farce.

Staring at the sharp edge of the axe with steely determination, World of Elegance denied her opponent the satisfaction of showing fear, even if it meant that she failed not only her late mistress, but also her youngest sister who was still in the process of being awakened back in Helheim. 'I'm sorry Holy Bell… I did my best but, you should take care of the kid from now on.' But, as the axe rose high, and the angel's eyes followed it, the sky darkened all of a sudden. It was such an abrupt change that took everyone by surprise, especially since they were in the middle of a desert.

And then everything light ablaze by the celestial thunder that descended upon the face of the Earth.

Blasting anything on its wake, the column of violent light and plasma burned hotter than the surface of the Sun, filling the air with the distinct smell of ozone, along with the stench of the dozens of centipedes that had no way of getting out of its path in time. More than anything else though, it acted as the herald of the one who stood amidst the clouds of smoke and falling debris.

The terrible sight of the mightiest son of Odin in his battle uniform and Mjolnir at hand -already in his hammer form- brought everyone to a grinding halt; especially the demons, who suddenly found themselves staring at the most terrifying god there is. Behind him the colossal form of Fenrir landed on the ground with a mighty thud, along with Loki, the prototype Hel and Jormungandr, who also arrived on site to offer their assistance.

Letting go of World of Elegance, Zolp backpedaled from the newcomers, and more importantly of them all, Thor, before glancing in the direction of the shivering Alph, who lost his nerve in the presence of a celestial that severely outclassed them. "Don't just stand there! We must go! NOW!"

There was no immediate response from the demon, however, as he remained rooted on his spot, while the god of thunder surveyed his surroundings and came to a stop at the sight of the human remains that littered the ground. And then grit his teeth.

"ALPH! Move your sorry ass!" barked Zolph in a desperate attempt to get his comrade to move, but seeing that his efforts were in vain, he reached to grab the fellow demon's arm and pulled him along. Only to realize that he literally took the other's arm with him, and his arm alone. Glancing over his shoulder as he came to a stop, Zolph barely managed to get a glimpse of the silvery gleam of Mjolnir's cold metallic surface as it flew through what once used to be his comrade's upper torso.

Out of all gods, there was one who'd stand up to defend the mortals with greater fervor than anyone else. The mightiest of his whole generation, and whose very name meant just that: Strength.

And that god was furious.

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

Now, there are a few things that I'd like to note for this chapter.

Originally, the incident covered in this chapter would've taken place later in the story, but I decided against postponing it for too long. Not only this will allow a better pacing later on, instead of having stuff happening too rapidly all of a sudden, but to allow some of that develop in the background.

That being said, I'm definitely going to feature some much more lighthearted topics to balance out the serious subjects in this chapter. Which, will most certainly include some familiar faces.

Finally, keep in mind that the two demons featured in this chapter were supposedly sealed during the pre Doublet era, and as such they were never included in that system. As such, it's not too unthinkable for Thor to lethally attack one of them, knowing in advance that no celestial would suffer from his decision. In addition, they're renegade demons, so, it's unlikely for gods to worry too much about Niflheim's response to that.