Ah! The following day

by zeroIQ

Getting married is never really simple for anyone, let alone a certain mortal and his goddess. One might expect that with the hard part out of the way, the rest would be just an ordinary married life. But with those two and the ones around them, there is no such thing as ordinary...

72. Chapter 72

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

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"O-Ow… my head…" Pulling herself out of what appeared to be a thick layer of mud that had nearly swallowed her up whole, Peorth struggled to regain her bearings. Not too long ago, she managed to free herself from Surt, after their parachutes had somehow entangled during their descent, forcing the latter to cut them with his combat knife. Unfortunately, this happened a bit too close to the ground, leaving them with little time to deploy their backup parachutes. Which… inevitably resulted in a rather harsh collision with the ground.

At the very least, she narrowly avoided hitting one of the numerous dead trees that was all that remained of one of Asgard's most beautiful forests, although at the same time, she could hardly consider herself lucky. For once, Peorth was eternally glad that the combat uniform she was currently wearing, concealed so much of her skin, that it spared her from the deeply unpleasant feeling of being covered in mud from head to toe. Sure, she didn't walk out of that mud pit unscathed, as that disgusting stuff has gotten all over her hair, but beggars can't be choosers.

'Alright, let's stay focused. First things first… where's that idiot?' Looking around for any signs of Surt, only to find none, Peorth let out a disgruntled sigh, and then reached for her own combat knife to free herself from the parachute's harness. Leaving that behind her, the goddess made a valiant effort to tread the muddy path towards the top of the nearby cliff, just to get a better look of her surroundings. She had a general idea of where she was, but with the forest in such a poor state, it was practically impossible for her to be absolutely sure of her current location. More so, she had yet to detect any signs of the others' whereabouts, a task that was all that more difficult thanks to their agreement on not using any magic until they were close to their destination.

'Ugh… what I would've given to being able to float right now.' Every single step she took proved to be quite the hurdle, since her boots sank into the mud like anchors. Worse yet, the ongoing storm has dramatically reduced visibility to the point where she began to wonder if her trek to the hilltop was utterly pointless. Then again, staying on low ground wasn't exactly an option either, given how fast some of the areas below became waterlogged. Already, a small stream started to form next to her path, with water trickling downhill to her landing area, and a look over her shoulder confirmed her suspicion. 'I really got out of there in time. Any more, and I'd be swimming in that muddy water. Yuck!...'

Her only consolation was that the downpour did wonders to wash her hair, even if she was almost certain that this was in fact acid rain. 'Good thing I'm a goddess, or I would've suffered some nasty burns. Still… it makes it no easier to walk in this muck. How am I supposed to reach the city at this rate? Perhaps, waiting out the storm might be an option. Although, the longer I stay here, the more likely I'll get spotted.' Truth to be told, Peorth was starting to get genuinely afraid. Given how dangerous this world is, she had no delusions that it was possible to survive for very long on her own. Unlike pretty much everyone else she's been travelling with, Peorth's got no official combat training, with the closest thing being the mandatory self defense classes she took when she was younger, as well as Lind's lessons, back when they stayed on Earth. And though those should provide her with just enough combat skills to keep herself alive for the time being, it still did little to boost her confidence.

Nevertheless, after a good couple of minutes fighting against the elements to reach the top of the hill, it became apparent that her hunch was unfortunately right. The downpour was simply too strong to allow her to see too far from her vantage point, which left her with a sinking feeling in the stomach. Alone and without a better plan as to how to locate the others, Peorth decided that staying in place was definitely a bad idea, given that once the storm passes, she'll be left out in the open without a place to take cover. And if there's anything worse than being alone, it's to invite Nidhogg's spawn to keep her company.

'Mistress, this isn't working!' came Gorgeous Rose's voice from within her mind. 'Let's retreat to…' The angel came to a pause, as she searched through her mistress' recent memories for any nook or cranny that they could use as a makeshift shelter. Under different circumstances they could've simply climbed up a tree, even if that didn't provide them with sufficient coverage, given how withered all plant life was around this area. However, doing that in the middle of a thunderstorm was like asking for trouble, and if that wasn't bad already, they were most likely surrounded by hungry critters lurking in the dark. 'Over there! That tree's hollow might do the trick. It's not ideal, but better than being in the open.'

Turning her head in the direction Gorgeous Rose was indicating, Peorth wrinkled her nose at the disgusting sight of that bug-infested, rotting tree. In fact, a fair number of… things crawled out of that hollow near its base, as the wind directed enough water into its interior, evicting some of its numerous tenants. This stomach-churning exodus of bugs, proved more than enough for Peorth -and even her angel- to completely dismiss the thought of getting anywhere near it, let alone take refuge inside of it.

'Not there. Definitely not there. Let's… find another place,' sent Peorth over her link with Gorgeous Rose, after the sound of distant thunder brought her attention back to her immediate problems.

'That goes without saying, mistress. My delicate vines don't deserve such a cruel fate!' The mere thought of being too close to plant eating bugs, spooked the blonde angel to no end, even if she wasn't exactly covered with actual vines. 'Now, how about…' This time, the blonde angel fully materialized from her mistress' back, and despite their priorities, she did her best to shield Peorth with her wings. It was merely an instinctive act, and yet she felt elated when her goddess reached up with a hand and lovingly brushed her feathers. 'Aw… you didn't have to thank me, mistress. It's only natural that I wish to protect you.'

'And it's natural for a goddess to care about her angel, right?' To the untrained eye, this whole exchange could be easily confused for patting one's own back. However, it is perhaps the biggest advantage of having an angel in the first place. By offering psychological support to each other, they can face situations far more stressful than they'd be capable of handling on their lonesome. On top of it, the added morale boost of knowing that they had someone watch their back, helped most celestials during such trying times.

This much-needed moment of respite was interrupted by a sudden gust of wind, that was immediately accompanied by the sound of flapping wings. More importantly, judging by the sound of it, those wings belonged to an enormous being, and there were few remaining creatures in Asgard that could be described as friendly.

'It's upon us! Mistress, get in the water!' shouted Gorgeous Rose, as she dived back into her mistress' body. Her wings along with her ethereal glow were too much of a dead giveaway of their position, so, no matter how much she wished to stay and help Peorth fend off this adversary, she'd only make matters worse for them.

Initially confused by her angels prompt, Peorth had to rely on their link just to find out what Gorgeous Rose was talking about. However, the moment she saw that mud-filled stream rushing downhill… she suddenly wasn't all that eager to jump in it. Still, beggars couldn't be choosers, and to avoid a direct confrontation that would most certainly attract a lot of unneeded attention, Peorth took a deep breath and made a dash for the stream. She barely got to hear the sound of the dragon's landing, as she dived into the water, and thankfully enough, its tall stature made it even harder to see her right now.

On the other hand, Peorth had to deal with so much muck that she felt utterly disgusted with herself, even though she was wearing far more than usual. While her combat uniform covered most of her body, she could still feel that mud water reach places she's rather not mention, let alone consider having them covered in grime. 'I swear, when I get back home, I'll never ever see mud baths the same anymore. Yuck!... It's… No, try not to think of it!'

The dragon turned its head in her direction, causing her to fully submerge into the water, no matter how much she wished to avoid such a drastic measure. And for what felt like an eternity, she patiently waited for the beast to lose interest, and leave. Unfortunately, it was nigh impossible for her to tell what was going on, since she couldn't see out of the murky water, but the sudden vibration caused by the dragon's take off was enough to signal that the worst has passed.

"Phew!" With a jolt, she almost shot out of the water, and clawed herself to the -figuratively speaking- dry land. As expected, she was positively filthy. Covered from head to toe in a thick mud that she didn't even want to know what exactly it consisted of, Peorth simply hoped that the torrential rain would at least wash some of it off of her. "Good riddance, scale breath-" Before she could even finish her sentence, the dragon was back with a mighty crash that caught Peorth by surprise. It was all too easy to assume that the creature outsmarted her by letting her think that it was gone, only to return once she got out of her hiding place. So, when the thing snapped its head in her direction, Peorth summoned her thorny vines, and hoped that this little amount of magic she had to use, wouldn't be all that noticeable.

She waited, and waited, yet the creature remained still on the ground, not even moving an inch from where it landed. And if that wasn't enough, when she took a better look at it, the rose goddess could in fact see that its neck was… angled in an odd -yet incredibly painful to look at- manner. In fact, the longer she thought about it, the more it became evident that in the few seconds it was gone, something or perhaps someone snapped its neck. 'Please, let be it a friend. I really need a friend right now. Pretty please?...'

As if a cosmic entity has heard of the goddess' plea, at that very moment a feminine figure landed not too far from Peorth. Of course, said cosmic entity had an odd sense of humor, since the ally in question turned out to be none other than Hild. 'On the other hand… she's the most powerful of us all, so, I should be fine.' Still, as she slowly approached Hild, Peorth couldn't help but take one more glance at the dead dragon and winched. Thanks to her mannerisms it was easy to overlook the more bloodthirsty side of Hild, which was perfectly showcased here. In fact, even from this distance, Peorth felt almost overwhelmed by the Daimakaicho's bloodlust, despite how relaxed the latter seemed to be at the time being. She even turned around and offered her a bewildered look, when she noticed her current state, which both surprised and unnerved Peorth to no end. 'I can't believe how threatening it feels to be around her, even when she's not actually trying. I guess, that's why she's the Daimakaicho back home.'

"Are you alright?" Breaking the silence first, Hild approached Peorth, and wrinkled her nose when she got too close. Despite the seriousness of their situation, she sure felt happy that she wasn't in Peorth's shoes right now.

"Do, I look alright?" managed the disgruntled goddess of the roses, as she ran a finger across her hair to scoop up more than enough muck to prove her point. "Still, I suppose I shouldn't complain. My dignity aside, I'm pretty fine."

The demoness nodded in reply, and then looked around for any hints of another member of their ragtag assault force. By all means, she already knew that the goddess was on her own, yet she simply hoped that she was missing something here. "Have you seen anyone? From what I remember, you fell from our transporter along with Surt, so… where is he?"

"Honestly? I've got no idea what happened, but at some point on our way to the ground, we split up and I haven't seen him since. I couldn't even tell where he landed, or how far he's from us."

"What a fine mess!..." sighed Hild, since it became pretty obvious by now that their plan was a total bust. The whole idea was to avoid being detected by the Dragon's spawn, yet they ended up avoiding each other on top of it.

"I take that you haven't seen any of the others, too?" Perhaps it was too much of an unnecessary question, yet Peorth really hoped that at the very least Hild knew the whereabouts of Lind and Excalibur. With the latter being reduced to a teen, as well as everything else that happened to him -identity crisis included- it put him at a huge disadvantage. And though Lind was more than skilled enough to keep most threats at bay, having to do that while protecting Excalibur was a task too daunting even for a Valkyrie like her.

"Nope, not a single soul. That dragon was in fact the first living thing I've seen," admitted Hild, before she threw a thumb in the general direction she came from. "There's a dragon graveyard over that hill, though. Or at least, that's what I think it is. I saw several piles of dragon bones lying around, although… it's rather strange."

"Bones, you say?" No matter how creeped out Peorth felt about this, she did notice that there was something odd about that particular bit of information. "Were dragons always corporeal?"

"Not to my knowledge, no. Which is exactly what I was getting at. For some reason, these guys seem to not only die of natural causes, but also leave remains behind , there are certain occasions where a dragon could leave something behind when they pass away, but that's the exception to the rule, not the rule itself." To her credit, the Daimakaicho tried to omit some of the most gruesome details of her findings, but much to her surprise Peorth was more observant than one might give her credit for.

"Wait. Natural causes?" wondered the rose goddess. She was about to ask if perhaps those were the fatalities caused by the activities of their synthetic allies, but Hild's nod caused her to stop and reconsider. "Then… they're mortal? How is that even possible? I've never heard of such a thing before!"

"Tell me about it. They seem pretty strong, but at the same time, they're both corporeal and moral. This is such a strange combination that almost makes me think that it wasn't meant to be this way. If I didn't know better, I'd almost say that they're… failures. Although, that too doesn't answer all the questions here." mused Hild, but stopped herself when she remembered that they were still in the open. "At any rate, I spotted a place we can use as a makeshift shelter on my way here. Unless I'm mistaken, it's the remains of an old building, or house, but it should be enough for us to regroup and then look for the others."

Seeing no reason to object, Peorth eagerly nodded in reply. She was sick tired of this rain, even if it washed away the muck she's been covered up with. Then again, none of this would've happened if it wasn't for this rain in the first place. "As much as I don't want to trespass someone's old home, I'm so done with this shitty weather!"

The Daimakaicho raised an eyebrow at the rose goddess' slip of the tongue, although she knew better than rub it in Peorth's face. This was not the time nor place for such shenanigans, so she merely turned around and gestured for the goddess to follow her. "This way. We should be able to make it in a series of short jumps. And don't worry about being discovered, I know a few tricks on how to keep our magic extremely low. Of course, anything more than that, and we'll get a lot of unwanted attention. So, keep your cool no matter what happens, okay?"

"Uh… yes, I'll do my best. Now, let's get out of here."

XXX

Nekomi, Japan

For the longest time, homecoming was a word without meaning for Odal, as deep down he has come to terms with the loss of own homeworld, along with the majority of his loved ones. Only a handful of Dryads, and the Norns' angels made followed him along the trip to this world, yet that was far from enough to actually make him truly feel at home. Of course, it went without saying that he was more than happy to see his parents once again, and the same applies to the rest of his relatives, too. Yet there was more than one occasion, when he spent hours late at night, trying to figure out whether he actually belongs here, or he's just imposing himself on everyone, just for the sake of getting a sense of normalcy back in his life.

Already, his parents need to accustom to the idea of having a kid that's not only fully grown up, but is also much older than them. Yet, that's hardly the worst problem in his mind. The fact that his mere presence here caused history to take a different path this time around, was something that deeply troubled him. For instance, his parents' firstborn is going to be a girl, despite that in his own timeline they had… well… him. And to a much more personal note, his whole marriage to Hagall left him wondering whether he has the right to change her life like this. As far as he can recall, Hagall never quite had a lover in his timeline; at least, not an official one.

As a result, he couldn't quite shake the feeling that he didn't deserve to be by her side, especially after his latest blunder. To be fair though, his wife's reaction wasn't nearly as bad as it could've been, leaving Odal with a glimmering hope that he could make up for his mistake. The only thing is that he's too stubborn to give anything up, at the sight of the first problem; which in this case could either help exonerate him, or make a bad situation, worse.

At this point, it was prudent to seek some advice as to how to tackle this rather delicate matter, yet he really doesn't want to burden his parents with his own problems. After all, this was their moment to be happy, as things have started to look up for them, especially after being in the epicenter of all sorts of weird incidents that took place in the last couple of years. 'Actually… it's not like everything's exactly normal. At least, I wouldn't consider having a bunch of immortals disappear without a trace, to be normal. And if that's not bad enough, from the sound of it, we've got an avatar of Nidhogg's running around.' This latest development caught Odal off guard, given that according to the information he got from Tyr, the avatar in question seems to be almost identical to Hild. Such a thing was practically unheard of, despite the fact that the Infernal Dragon is no stranger of creating avatars to escape the confines of its prison.

Sensing her host's troubled thoughts, Holy Bell decided to emerge from Odal's back on her own, and then place a hand on his shoulder. 'Fret not, Odal. Even failures can turn into valuable lessons, if you're willing to learn from your mistakes. So, don't waste all of your time worrying about the past, and see how we can shape our future, alright?'

"Sorry about that, Holy Bell. I guess I can't help but being a worrywort at times. I think it runs in the family," said Odal with a chuckle, as he thought just how much he sounded like his father at times. And speaking of the man -or rather god- in question, the distant sound of Keiichi's Beemer, caught his attention. "Well, what would you know? They're back."

Holy Bell's face beamed with the excitement of seeing her old mistress again, as well as her counterpart in this timeline. Still, she had to remind herself not to go too overboard, and end up imposing on them. It was already enough that they've got a child from another world, so, adding another angel to the mix was ill advised for the time being. 'Alright, I'm going back inside. Just try to avoid saying anything troublesome while around them. We may have a lot to do, but that's our problem, not theirs.'

Offering a nod, Odal was about to head towards the temple's entrance, when the sound of whirling servos caught his attention. At first, this brought him to high alert, almost expecting it to be an ambush of sorts, but soon enough the sight of Banpei caused him to let out a sigh of relief. 'Well, duh… I should've expected that, since he and Sig-... Eh? Wait, what?' Before he could even have a chance to finish his thought, Odal caught sight of a dark haired teenager, who greatly resembled Skuld, even if she lacked any facial markings. Upon further inspection, it also became obvious that this girl was blue-eyed, which was closer to Belldandy's eye color, rather than Skuld's. 'Hold on! Is that… Sigel? She does look like her, but… how? I wasn't aware that Skuld remodeled her.'

"Oh, we've got a visitor!" cheerfully announced the synthetic teen, just as she caught sight of Odal. As she took another look at him though, her facial recognition algorithms kicked in, and her initial enthusiasm quickly waned. "Ugh… it's you again."

This… unfavorable reaction caught Odal off guard, given that for the most part, Sigel had been almost a sister figure in his timeline. As a matter of fact, much of his opinion about synthetics was shaped by his interactions with the gynoid, that in his world, used to look after him whenever the others in the house were too busy. And given Sigel's inability to obtain children on her own -at least in the traditional sense- she was more than happy to play her role as the Temple's designated babysitter. However, for whatever reason, this version of Sigel didn't seem all too excited to see him, and that deeply troubled him. "Um… have I missed something?"

"Not that much. It's just that ever since you asked Skuld-sama to build that ternary computer, she's been working late at night, and I really dislike seeing her so exhausted. It seems that she found all sorts of applications for that technology, and started prototyping several processors based around that principle. And to be fair, as much as I think that she's really enjoying herself, it's worrisome that she sleeps so late at night. A goddess her age should at the very least get eight full hours of sleep, not six and a half!"

"Hm… are you absolutely sure she was busy with my project, or… your upgrades?" asked Odal, in an attempt to turn the tables on the unsuspecting gynoid. "Of course, I don't rule out the possibility that my project inspired Skuld to make those upgrades in the first place, but inspiration is a pretty unpredictable thing at times."

The dark haired synthetic went silent for a moment, as she carefully processed the situation, and eventually reached the conclusion that he had a point. Better yet, her annoyance turned into joy, knowing that her mistress has spent all this time for her sake, rather than just some totally random project. To be fair though, it's not like Skuld has been negligent of her or Banpei as of late… just that with so many distractions, it was hard to get her attention. At times, she felt that no matter how hard she tried to get noticed, everyone seemed to ignore her, almost to the point that she finally got to know her mistress' frustration of being treated like a kid. And while her situation isn't entirely comparable to Skuld's, the irony wasn't lost to her.

As such, the idea that her mistress spent so much time working on her, finally offered her the reassurance she needed to regain some of her lost confidence. "Oh, I'm so happy!" she quite audibly sighed, clasping her hands in front of her in a rather exaggerated reaction, along with the appropriate dreamy expression to complete the look of adoration she was going for. "Mistress worked so hard on my behalf, and I'm so caught up in complaining, rather than finding a way to thank her! That must be corrected, and soon!"

Odal couldn't help but chuckle at the gynoid's enthusiasm, which all thanks to Holy Bell's memories, he found it directly comparable to how Skuld acted around Belldandy. "Don't worry, I can give you a hand with that. But since she's already here, how about we go greet her and my parents?"

Just at the gynoid began to nod, a rather loud crash came from the direction of the shed Keiichi uses to park his bike. In no time, and without even the slightest hesitation, she, Banpei and Odal rushed to see what the commotion was all about. And truth to be told, with everything else going on at the moment, they were expecting some kind of ambush, only… to end up in a scene out of a situational comedy.

"Dad… I'm not even going to ask how you've ended up in the roof, but why exactly are you upside down, too?" asked Odal, with a valiant enough of an effort to keep a straight face in the presence of such lunacy. Needless to say, it didn't help that none of the other celestials present were expecting him to be here, so, their surprise only made this situation even more hilarious.

"He tried to help Bell get the shopping bags by hovering them…" trailed off Skuld, as she turned her head to look up at the roof, where Belldandy joined Keiichi to check whether he was fine. "And he somehow ended up hovering himself, as well. Dunno how he even managed to make such a basic spell run out of control, but… to be fair, I've got my own share of this kind of moments." It felt strange for her to openly admit such a weakness, yet at the same time, she was fully aware that it would've been extremely hypocritical to make fun of Keiichi's lack of control over his powers. That being said, she didn't shy from showing off a bit, by doing exactly what Keiichi attempted mere moments ago. She carefully held a bag in mid-air, making sure to stabilize it, before she attempted to slowly spin it around a couple of times. "Although, as you can see, I've gotten a bit better at it."

The rogue god felt a sudden deja vu, as this whole display reminded him of his childhood, back when he tried to show off his abilities to his mother, and her sisters. Urd in particular loved to tease him whenever something didn't go exactly according to plan, yet always offered him advice on how to overcome his hardships. Skuld's approach was to get him to utilize whatever new skill he learned in one of her projects, all while offering more than enough opportunities to discover the areas he needed to improve. On the other hand, Belldandy remained surprisingly neutral, despite his disappointment at that point of time. After all, a child couldn't quite comprehend that his mother only wanted to keep him trying, rather than being complacent about his early successes. Without having other kids his age to compare to, Odal could easily end up becoming conceited, especially given that his own father struggled with his powers even back in their original timeline.

When he noticed the expectant look on Skuld's face, Odal realized that he's been silent for too long -likely lost in his own thoughts- and given the young Norn's troubles at harnessing her powers, he felt that a little praise was due. "Better? I'd say you're amazing, but I'm kinda biased. Then again, from what I remember, you did become quite the popular goddess in my own world, so, it can't be just my opinion," said Odal with a wink that actually startled the young goddess. Skuld even blushed a bit, since she wasn't accustomed to having people praise her magic skills.

"Really? I got better over time?" wondered Skuld out loud, even though she's already been told that she became quite popular in Odal's world. Then again, as the words sank in, Skuld realized that the way Odal said it, there was more than one way to interpret that. "Um… when you say popular… was it anything like Bell?"

"Yes and no," replied Odal, trying desperately to recall as much as he could from his early childhood. "As far as I can tell, you never became such a songstress like mother, or even a wish granter for that matter. Sure, you did gain a lot of popularity thanks to your inventions, as well as your programming skills, but that's a totally different career path."

"Oh, that… makes sense really." She felt embarrassed for not thinking this beforehand, but either way, Odal's reply left her with a huge grin on her face.

Meanwhile, on the roof Keiichi stared down at the sight of Skuld and his son from a different timeline, and couldn't help but wonder just what would've happened if Odal had been raised under very different circumstances. More importantly, he wanted to know how much of an impact he could've made in his upbringing, if he actually spent more time with his son, and to a certain degree… whether this would've been a good thing or not. It was natural, after all, to assume that playing a more active role in his son's life, would help him in the long run. But from what Keiichi has seen thus far, he honestly didn't believe that he was capable of enduring nearly as much as that boy did; and yet emerge with his sanity intact.

Noticing her husband's troubled expression, Belldandy gave him a peck on the cheek, just to grab his attention. "What's bothering you, love?" gently asked the brunette, before a smile formed in her lips. "I'm sure it's not the hole you've opened on our roof. Come to think of it, I pretty much did something similar when we first met, only my method was very different from yours."

"Well… I've always been a fan of using my head, so, I guess that also counts here. Beams of light are a bit too fancy for my tastes," chuckled Keiichi, joining Belldandy in her spontaneous fit of laughter. It always amazed him just how easily the brunette Norn made everyone feel in her presence, to the point where some of her fellow goddesses seemed envious of her. As a matter of fact, he could clearly recall several occasions in Asgard where he caught sound of such comments, whenever said goddesses thought that they were out of earshot. Still, what impressed him the most was the fact that Belldandy's ego remained unaffected by what would've made most others feel like a celebrity, with the predictable effects in their overall personality. 'Not my Bell, though. I'm such a lucky guy being able to be by her side. Heh… no wonder I kept getting those envious looks whenever they saw us together in Asgard. Hm… come to think of it, the same is kinda true here as well, but to a lesser degree. It's been a while since the last time we visited the campus, after all.'

Taking a moment to listen in to the ongoing conversation between Skuld and Odal, the middle Norn turned her attention back to her husband, who seemed lost in thought. "Keiichi, love? Should we go to greet him, too?"

Just as Keiichi was about to reply, an inhuman shreek came from below, followed by a loud crash. Then, all Hell broke loose, and in a rather literal fashion, given that amidst this commotion, the couple could feel the unmistaken scent of demons from below them. Under any other circumstances, this would've been more than alarming enough, yet once the initial surprise was gone, it slowly became apparent that there was something familiar about the demons in question. One of them was Welsper, the cursed cat that lived together with them, and the other… "Um… Bell? Is this who I think it is?"

"Verthandi," breathed the goddess over the sound of Welsper's tortured screams. She still felt somewhat awkward whenever she referred to her look alike, especially after that little incident back when they first met her. Joke or not, the idea of having anyone flirt with her Keiichi didn't sit well with her, and though she rarely made an appearance, Verthandi's presence was more than enough to put her on edge. "And judging by the sound of it, we better stop her, before she causes any permanent damage to poor Welsper."

Not wanting to waste more time -albeit for Belldandy's sake, thanks to Welsper being her doublet- Keiichi jumped off the roof, and then made a beeline for the bathroom. That was the most likely source of Welsper's scream, even if it made no sense why he chose to hide in the most water-filled room in the entire house. Whatever the case may be, Keiichi could hear the still frantic cat hissing and scratching the wooden bathtub with his claws, all while a surprisingly panicked Verthandi tried to calm him down. But the moment he flung the door open and was about to ask what was going on here, the sight of Belldandy's doppelganger in that revealing red outfit from the Angel Eater incident, was a bit too much for him to take in all at once. Not only that, but the fact that she's been trying to get the cat out of the tub, also meant that she was bending over when Keiichi entered the scene, leaving the poor god with a fierce blush on his face.

"Ahem!" The sound of Belldandy clearing her throat, caught everyone's attention, as the Norn quickly caught up to her husband, and didn't quite approve the view her doppelganger was offering him -even if it was by accident. Furthermore, she flicked her hand in Welsper's direction, levitating the hapless cat out ot the tub, which should've been the correct course of action in the first place, instead of all this nonsense.

"I thought I was a goner!" breathed the shell shocked Welsper, as soon as his paws touched the floor, even if his fur was still drenched with that loathsome water he so much hated.

"Ah, sorry about that!" Straightening herself up, Verthandi turned around to properly face her hosts, and even offered them a polite bow. She could see Odal standing behind them, alongside Skuld who also arrived with him, yet neither of the newcomers intervened, since this was Belldandy's household she was trespassing. "I tried to get here as soon as possible, and ended up scaring Welsper when I shot through the mirror all of a sudden."

Given the honesty in the demoness' voice, Belldandy found it hard to remain angry at her doppelganger even if she totally disapproved any such display in Keiichi's presence. Then again, she had to remind herself that her husband was essentially looking at someone whose physical resemblance to her made it uncertain whether Verthandi had anything to do with his reaction. 'Perhaps I could pull off a stunt like this?' Belldandy mulled the thought for a good second or two, until Holy Bell's protests reminded her of her manners. 'No, I'd rather not stoop that low in order to get a reaction out of Keiichi dear. Peorth's bikini is more than enough for now.' Interestingly enough, her angel remained eerily silent this time around, since some things were better left unsaid.

When she realized that everyone's gaze was upon her, Belldandy felt somewhat embarrassed at leaving them waiting for a response, all while she was entertaining such impure thoughts. "Well, you seem to be in a hurry," said Belldandy in an attempt to recover, before it became too awkward to do so. "I hope it's not another emergency. We had more than a fair share of those as of late..."

"It's… complicated," said Verthandi, her voice quivering with uncertainty. "I've been trying to locate that scum, Thrivaldi, ever since I was done dealing with Ao-... I mean, some other assh-..."

"Don't worry about me, I know the word," quipped Skuld, when she noticed Verthandi's gaze wonder in her direction, as well as the discomfort she felt trying to censor herself. However, by doing so, she nearly got herself into trouble, judging by Belldandy's stern glare. "What? Come on, I've been living on Earth for long enough to learn a swear or two! Besides, this is the same word for what we're sitting on!"

"Can we please listen to her story first?" suggested Keiichi, as he spoke up for the first time in the last couple of minutes. Seeing that no one offered any objections, he turned back to Verthandi. "Go on, what did you find?"

"Some local spirits mentioned unusual activity in the vicinity of the Amazon river's basin, and I have a feeling that it's Thrivaldi and his group of thugs." With a flick of her wrist, a world map formed onto her hand, and then proceeded to point at the area she's been talking about. "Unless I'm mistaken, they should be hiding somewhere in this part of the rainforest. I know it's still a pretty big area to search for them, but it's better than having no clue at all."

The two Norns and Keiichi shared a look, but before either of them had a chance to voice their thoughts, Odal spoke up first. "That's all fine and everything, but we need to get some professional help for this. Namely, ask the demons' Intelligence Sector to drop by and organize a proper plan on how to capture them. Rushing there all on our own will only ruin this opportunity, since they must've set up some sort of early warning system in case they have visitors. On top of it, no one here is specifically trained for this kind of operation, and I'd rather avoid putting anyone's life on the line when there are better alternatives." To avoid sounding way too harsh, he took a moment to give Verthandi a pat on the shoulder. "You've done a great job though! I wasn't even aware that you've been looking for them."

"Well, I didn't have anything else to do, and I was already here, so…" Shrugging off, Verthandi did her best to play dumb in the presence of Keiichi and the Norns, and for the most part Odal got the hint not to press on for more details. After all, she's been ordered to teach that Aoshima creep a lesson for trying to hit on Hagall, and his long record of similar offenses didn't make her feel any pity for him. Sure, things have gotten a bit out of control, but that was only due to him failing to tell the difference between a nightmare, and real life. However, in the end none of that matters. The important thing was that she did her job, and not wanting to sit idly, she also took the initiative to ask around for Thrivaldi's whereabouts.

"You've done an excellent job, Verthandi," said Odal with a warm smile, that the demoness eagerly returned. "Although… can I ask you for a bit of a favor? Privately," he added, making sure to keep his voice down as he said the last part. He even pointedly glanced at the others, and then back at Verthandi, who nodded in reply, as she took the hint and followed him in the kitchen. Closing the door behind them, Odal watched Verthandi as she cast him a curious gaze while she waited to hear the reason he brought her here. And truth to be told, he had no intention to offend her after going through all those hardships together. "Look, I never made a big deal about your choice of outfits, and to be fair, I know that demonesses tend to wear more revealing clothes. Hell, I'm married to one, too! However, can you at least not do that while in the presence of my parents? I'd rather not deal with this sort of thing at the moment."

The surprise in Verthandi's face only rivaled her embarrassment, no matter how seemingly out of character that seemed for her. In all fairness she had completely forgotten about changing into something a tad more conservative upon arrival at the temple grounds. "Ah! I'm so sorry!" she exclaims, and immediately lowers her head in apology. "I can't believe I didn't notice before! And I was looking forward to get along with everyone here, too! Last time was far from ideal, and… ugh!... Why can't I make a good impression with your mother?"

"Perhaps because you also tried to flirt with my father that one time?" shrugged Odal off, doing his best to sound as casual as celestially possible. After seeing her reaction, he knew that it was a genuine mistake on Verthandi's part, so trying to make her feel bad about it just wasn't fair. Not only that, but in a manner of speaking she was the closest he had for a mother for a very long time. And now that he was finally home, there was no need to avoid thinking of her as such, out of respect of his deceased mother.

"Okay… I'll admit that I shouldn't have done that. But, how could I resist? He looked so cute, so..." admitted the demoness with a faint blush, only to realize how bad that probably sounded. Not wanting to get into deeper trouble than she already was, Verthandi cleared her throat in an attempt to drop the subject, since in all fairness it was irrelevant. Finding someone cute, and liking them are two different things altogether, and no matter how lonely she felt at times, there was simply no way she'd try to make it hard for her counterpart and her husband. Not only that, but it went without saying that pulling off a stunt like that wouldn't sit well with Odal, too. "Anyhow!... At least, we can take a breather for a change. Once we get our hands on Thrivaldi and his goons, all there's left is Fafnir…" Noticing the way Odal raised an eyebrow at her, Verthandi came to a slow stop, and promptly revised her statement. "Okay, okay! I'll have to admit it. We still have a lot to do, but at least, we might as well start from somewhere. Right?"

"Pretty much, yeah." He agreed, even if he still had some reservations after their past failure to capture their former 'employer' -so to speak. For such an idiot, Thrivaldi proved remarkably competent when it came to saving his hide. Then again, this could very well be his natural instincts of self-preservation motivating him to keep a low profile at the time being, rather than make an attempt to regain all that he lost. On top of it, after that fiasco at the military base, Fafnir too kept a low profile, most likely fearing the loss of more of his men. It's not like he could easily get more help, as things currently stand, and besides… facing both Niflheim and Asgard at the same time, was too much even for a former Daimakaicho. "Can you at least tell me exactly how you found out about their whereabouts?"

Almost instantly, Verthandi's cheerful expression became somewhat clouded, and even tried to avert her gaze without being too obvious. Or at least, that was her intention, since in all seriousness she's not that good when it comes to deceiving close friends and family. Then again she didn't have a family per se, being an Ironwood Dryad and all, but she had yet to give up playing the role of Odal's adoptive mother. Even if this turns out to be a one-sided sentiment on her part, the demoness refused to let it go that easily, since in fairness that was all she really has in this world. "Well… as you probably remember, not every single one of them was blindly supportive of Thrivaldi's goals and motives."

"Let me take a guess…" said Odal with a sigh. "Celestine?"

The demoness offered a reluctant nod, since she wasn't entirely sure whether that was a good idea or not, especially given that she went ahead and made than announcement earlier on, without consulting Odal beforehand. "I believe we wanted to give him a fair chance, right? Besides, we did kinda play the role of Thrivaldi's goons for a while. So, maybe he chose to stay with them for similar reasons?"

"You do have a point, although I'm not foolish enough to blindly put my faith in him. As long as we had him under our constant supervision, I'd be much more willing to listen to anything he has to say. But right now?... Not so much." Despite offering his honest -if not blunt- opinion on the subject, Odal didn't wish to outright dismiss Verthandi's efforts. After all, she's done her best to locate Thrivalidi's group, and to blame her for the credibility of her sources is simply unfair. "That being said, we'll have to deal with them even if they try to lure us into a trap. It's no coincidence that I didn't let mother and the others to help us with this one, and instead proposed to leave this task to the demonic Intelligence Sector. At the very least, they know how to deal with traps."

"I know how to deal with traps, too," said Verthandi all while she desperately struggled to keep a straight face. Even so, her shoulders soon began to shake, and the very edges of her lips curled up in an awkward smile, especially given how hard she tried to avoid laughing out loud.

For all five seconds that she managed to hold herself.

"Ver-tha-ndi~!... We agreed that we won't bring that incident up!" Demanded the indignant god, as he really didn't wish to tackle that kind of stupid subject at the time being. Even Holy Bell who was still inside of Odal's mindscape, felt the urge to palm herself at the mere mention of that one time when Verthandi set off a boobytrapped demonic vessel they attempted to salvage. While the thing was essentially abandoned for centuries, it remained a rich source of materials to repurpose once they dismantled it. Obviously, the keyword here was dismantle -as in a systematic and careful procedure to take a structure apart- not blow said thing into smithereens.

"Hey, I've always said that if it's worth doing, it's also worth overdoing. So, if I do fail, I might as well do it epically!" There was nothing about that argument to be proud of, yet the demoness managed to deliver it with such gusto, that left her audience speechless. And as if that wasn't enough, she went as far as to strike a rather haughty pose that would've made Urd jealous -much to Odal's chagrin.

'At least someone's having fun. Wish I could say the same for myself, but… ugh.' Pinching the bridge of his nose in annoyance, Odal tried not to think too much about his latest woes, and instead do something a bit more productive. Of course, the biggest priority was to deal with Thrivaldi, and if possible locate and capture Hagall's father while he's at it, although the latter goal could wait for a bit longer. 'Wait a sec! Verthandi is a demoness. Maybe I could ask her for advice on how to make up to Hagall.' While he had to admit that there were some issues with this idea of his, Odal felt confident that at the very least he could get some pointers on what to do in a situation like this. "Speaking of failures, I trust you've heard of my… let's say… stupid idea to contact Hagall's mother?"

"Unfortunately, I did," groaned Verthandi, as her previously cheerful expression turned into a disappointed scowl. "Sometimes I wish that your intelligence extended to things other than building machines. Although to be fair, you did grow up without any chance to get a girlfriend, so, I can't pin all the blame on you.."

"Thanks for being so blunt about it, but can you at least tell me what to do now? As much as I hate to admit it, I've bitten more than I can chew here."

"To be honest, I'm not all that experienced in relationships myself to actually give you the best solution. However!... If I were in Hagall's shoes, the last I would've expected from my spouse is to keep poking his nose into my past. At least when you first started this, you didn't have a concrete idea as to what Hagall's reaction would be. To push further under such circumstances though… is beyond foolish; it's the definition of being a selfish asshole." Crude as she currently was, Verthandi felt that this was the best way to ensure that she got the message across. And judging by Odal's wince at the sound of her opinion, he finally got it. "That being said," she continues before Odal has a chance to reach into any conclusions of his own. "I've got nothing to do with your wife, so… no one has the right to complain if I go ahead and try to locate her father."

Odal's initial disappointment turned into genuine surprise when he realized that Verthandi volunteered to carry on what he started, only without getting him into further trouble with Hagall. As such, it was hard to resist the urge to pull her into a tight hug, as the demoness proved -once again- that she was reliable in times of need. "Thank you! I really owe you a big one, Verthandi!"

"You owe me nothing, Odal," she replied while tentatively returning the rogue god's hug. "That's what family is for. Well… I mean-"

"Shh… I know all too well what you mean. For far too long you've been my mother in all but name, so there's no need to treat you like a stranger anymore. With my actual mother alive and well in this world, I don't feel it's any less… appropriate to consider you as my adoptive mother." What he actually meant to say is that it wouldn't sound disrespectful for his deceased mother to find a 'replacement' for her, but the more he carried on, the more award he became. After all, it was incredibly hard to maintain his composure under the stunned stare he was receiving from Verthandi. "Aw… come on! Don't look at me like that! It's not like you didn't know how I thought of you."

Not trusting herself at the moment to offer a reply, Verthandi simply nodded and returned Odal's hug with enough force to actually make him squirm. At the very least, that was gonna leave a bruise tomorrow, but for right now, she was far too happy to notice. Besides, the kid was pretty resilient to begin with, so chances of smothering him to oblivion were next to none.

"Um... You're welcome?" said the rogue god in an attempt to break this awkward silence, after it became apparent that Verthandi didn't plan to break the silence on her own. As a matter of fact, that just about did the trick, since the demoness began to stir in his arms, which caught Odal's attention. Letting her go, he watched her rub her eyes -which she would later claim to be due to pesky dust getting in there- and offered her a reassuring smile, now that the proverbial cat was out of the bag.

"You've got no idea how good that felt," whispered the demoness, before she clears her throat and takes a moment to recompose herself. "Okay, I'm much better now. No need to worry about ol' me, I'll manage. Just go and have some fun with the others, and I'll join you in a second."

"Are you sure about that, Verthandi? You're welcome to join us, too."

"I will, but unless you've forgotten already, I need to first pick something decent to wear," said the demoness as she spun around her heels, and crudely pointed at her… inadequately covered posterior. As a matter of fact, if it wasn't Odal she was talking to, this would've been a recipe for a nosebleed. After all, she's more or less a wild combination of Belldandy's beauty and charm, with perhaps… Peorth's sense of modesty; which doesn't really say much.

The dark haired god rubbed his chin in wonder, since he had the feeling that this was rapidly devolving into one of those conversations, that he always denied that even took place to begin with. Racking his brain for an answer, Odal simply extended his right hand, and promptly snapped his fingers, much to Verthandi's surprise. "There! That'll do the trick!" Taking a moment to step back and inspect his handiwork, he was quite pleased with his choice of outfits.

For her part, Verthandi worried for a moment that she has somehow ended up in one of Hagall's… less extravagant dresses. What she ended up wasn't even a dress, but something that strongly reminded her of Megumi's casual wear, albeit adapted to her physique. Even so, she was almost certain that her pants were a tad tighter than absolutely necessary, and her top sported not only a plunging neckline, but a pretty reinforced in-built bra that convinced her that she was right from the beginning. "Let me guess… these are meant for Hagall?" asked Verthandi while pointed at her clothes, and then waited for a good couple of seconds as Odal simply stared at her in deep thought. "Uh… hello? Anyone's home?"

"Ah! Sorry, I was taking some notes for… future reference," bashfully admitted Odal, in a momentary lapse of poor judgment. By the time he realized his folly, it was far too late to take his words back. 'I just had to open my big mouth, didn't I?'

Indeed, Verthandi took another look at her attire, and even moved around a bit to get a feel of the fitting. Satisfied with her observations, she conspiratorially leaned closer to Odal and with a quick glance at the ceiling to make sure that neither of the younger Norns followed the example of their eldest sister and spied on them, she leaned even closer to him. "It's a wild guess, but if you picked something like this for your wife, then you do plan to take her on a proper honeymoon, right?"

"I'd like to say yes, but I know that I'm going to regret it even more than I already do, so… Who knows?"

"Fine! Be that way…" grumbled the demoness, before she let out an annoyed huff. Of course she wasn't going to let him off the hook that easily, but for the time being a change of pace was needed. "How about we go to the living room? The others must be already there, and wondering what's taking us so long."

"Ah… yeah, sure. I'm right behind you."

XXX

Asgard

"Are we there yet?"

This seemingly innocent question -yet delivered with more than a healthy dose of sarcasm- brought Loki closer to an outburst that would've made Thor proud. For the last half an hour or so, he, Fenrir and Nidhogg-Hild went through one security door after the other in a quest to get closer to the World Tree. "You should know the answer to that, so give me a break, will you?" shot the trickster god over his shoulder, to where Nidhogg-Hild impatiently awaited for him to open up the final door to the Tree's inner chambers.

"Oh, I'm all for breaks… until I start to question your dedication to this plan," quipped the demoness while casually inspecting her fingernails. "Dunno, but it almost seems as if you're deliberately biding your time."

"Who, me?" pointedly asked Loki, with every bit of his usual gusto.

"Yes, you! Now, get it over with!"

The trickster got uttered some particularly ungodly curses under his breath, as he returned back at the task at hand. While he made it seem easy, his fingers danced across the terminal's keyboard with incredible speed, given the borderline ridiculous number of instructions needed to circumvent the security system placed upon the final door to the Tree's chambers. Then again, it was only thanks to his insight of how those systems worked that he was even capable of pulling such a stunt to begin with, yet the task was no less arduous -to say nothing of time consuming. "There! The door should open in a few seconds!" announced Loki, before he turned to look at the demoness behind him. "I trust you remember our deal?"

"Yes, I do! I always keep my word, yada yada. Now, get out of the way, I've got places to go," groaned Nidhogg-Hild with a roll of her eyes. And with her goal in sight, she had no desire to spend any more time negotiating with him. Instead, she promptly pushed the god to the side, where Fenrir growled at her, but even then she paid them no attention. Instead, she marched straight for Yggdrasil, and hopefully eliminate the need to maintain such an inconvenient avatar once she was done with her business.

However, the moment she set her foot inside of the vast chamber of the World Tree, and she got a good look of her surroundings, even she had to come to a screeching halt.

Valkyries and war gods were stationed all across the Tree's enormous branches, patiently awaiting her arrival with battleaxes already drawn and ready to take her down. And if that wasn't enough, right across the room, near Yggrasil's massive roots a most fearsome quartet also waited for her.

"You're late," said Frigg, first to break the silence while she and Ansuz stepped forward towards the demoness. Behind them, Tyr and Thor held their ground and glanced in Loki's direction, offering the trickster god a silent nod.

This didn't go unnoticed though, and in a moment of seething rage Nidhogg-Hild turned towards the traitorous god who cheerfully waved at her, with even Fenrir trying to do the same with a paw. And the mere fact that they did so while the doors were already closing in front of them, didn't help one bit. "Just wait until I get my hands on you, bastards!"

"If I were you, I'd worry more about myself right now," warned Frigg, with even her voice conveying the gravity of the situation. While this should've been the other way around, on this particular occasion, Nidhogg's choice of an avatar put it in the unfamiliar position of being at a disadvantage. And all things considered, Frigg had no qualms to make the best out of this situation, especially if that brought results for them.

To her credit, Nidhogg-Hild didn't seem nearly as worried as anyone else would under such circumstances. Even though it was more than evident from her body language that she was quite annoyed by this unexpected setback, she maintained an air of superiority that outright denied her welcoming committee the pleasure of watching her fidget. "My, my!... Such a bold statement from someone who brought a whole company with her. What's wrong? Trying to compensate for something?"

"Not particularly. If you're only as powerful as Hild's supposed to be, then I'd definitely put up a decent fight all by my lonesome," happily replied Frigg, since she outright refused to give her the satisfaction of letting her get under her skin. "Of course, we both know that you're not Hild at all, so I won't take any chances to challenge you on my own."

For a moment, Nidhogg-Hild took her eyes off the elder goddess, as well as the rest of her entourage and looked up at the imposing form of the World Tree. Despite facing odds that would've made even the original Hild feel the need to make a run for it -or at least make a tactical retreat- the Dragon's avatar found herself worrying about the unusual silence at the back of her mind. Even if access to her main body's powers was severely limited in this form, the extensive knowledge and insight she possesses as the true Nidhogg gives her a significant tactical advantage against most adversaries. But ever since she set her foot inside of this chamber, it became clear that someone or something was blocking her connection to her main body.

'So, this is how you want to play, huh? Well, I'm not one to disappoint.' With a wicked smile creeping on her face, the demoness' attention turned back to her welcoming committee- yet not the most threatening of them all. Instead, she scanned for an opening in their defenses, since she seriously doubted that every single celestial on the room was capable of holding her back for more than a precious couple of seconds. After all, charging at the most powerful of them all, would only get her captured in no time, while turning the situation around by exploiting the number of her opponents could in fact spare her from suffering an inevitable defeat. And soon enough, one such opening presented to her, when she spotted one Einharjar who didn't seem to be on guard -or at least, paying as much attention as he should in a situation like this.

Whether out of overconfidence due to having four of the mightiest Celestials present, or a simple lapse of poor judgment, Nidhogg-Hild knew that charging at the inattentive god was her ticket out of this pinch. Thus, she spent no time at rushing towards him, shooting up in the air before Frigg or the others managed to intervene. Actually, the only reason she was able to get away with it, was the mere fact that they probably assumed that she'd behave like the real Hild, and avoid going for such a cheap tactique. Yet for Nidhogg-Hild, results were far more important than the empty feeling of pride, especially when so much was at stake.

In an instant, every Celestial present became aware of the demoness' intentions, just as her body disappeared into a blur. Even the inattentive war god that was about to become the first victim of the Dragon's avatar tried to leap out of the way, and use his battleaxe to block the jab aiming for his head. Ansuz was the first person to shoot up in the air after her, with Thor not too far behind, mostly due to the tiny delay caused by him summoning his angel, Mjolnir. Back on the ground, Tyr and Frigg were already casting powerful sealing spells to restrain Nidhogg-Hild once the others stop her for long enough to become entangled by the overlapping effect of said spells. As a matter of fact, just one of them alone was capable of restraining Hild for long enough to allow the rest to act.

All happened in a fraction of a second, too little even for battle hardened warriors to fully comprehend what was about to take place in the next moment, yet as soon as everything was set in motion… it suddenly came to a halt.

Literally time itself came to stop, just as Nidhogg-Hild's hand was about to make contact with her target's axe, giving the impression of a holo-photo with one glaring exception: Yggdrasil's leaves swayed under the influence of a seemingly nonexistent wind that completely defied the stasis field that enveloped everyone else.

The Tree has made its move.

XXX

Asgard in a different timeline

Well inside the Celestial capital's outskirts, Lind found herself wondering just how did she and Excalibur veer off so far from their intended landing zone. By all means they should've make it to the nearby forest, yet instead they crashed on top of a dilapidated house. 'It must've been the crosswinds. I can't find any other explanation, unless Excalibur did something… although I doubt it.' Being reminded of her comrade, the Valkyrie quickly checked her surroundings. She could remember him holding onto her during their descend, until the moment they went through what was left of the roof.

As a matter of fact, the more she looked around, the more familiar this place seemed to be. 'Wait a moment! This can't be!... We're in… my home?!'

Indeed, after the initial shock settled down, Lind could finally identify bits and pieces of her house's interior design. With the roof mostly destroyed and a fair number of walls broken down, the interior was left at the mercy of the elements, which… turned this place into a literal mess. And while she never felt particularly attached to material possessions, the idea of seeing her own house in such a state of disrepair… deeply upset Lind. Perhaps more so than anything else was the idea that this was the testament of this world's Fighting Wings failure to perform their sworn duty of protecting Asgard, along with its citizens.

"Ow…"

The pained groan brought Lind's attention to Excalibur, who apparently found himself to her room, that was located just across the second floor of the house. Although she never quite asked for a big house to begin with, Lind somehow found herself living in a two storey building, with most of the rooms located there, except for her weapon display that occupied the majority of the lower floor. "Excalibur, are you okay?" She asked upon entering her bedroom, that was fared no better than the rest of this place. It took her a moment to pinpoint the fallen Earth Spirit when the latter didn't respond, but given the odd angle his arm was stuck at, she reasoned that he had more things to think about other than offering a reply. "You want me to put it back in place?"

"No… I… I think I can do it on my own," said the teen between gasps of air, while he cradled his dislocated arm. It took him by surprise that this was even a thing, since physical damage of this sort was something totally unknown to him. In fact, he was so used to freely rearrange his body to all sorts of configurations that it was nigh impossible to even feel pain from something this trivial; but not right now. Still, that was mostly a mental trick, and as soon as he managed to calm himself down enough to regain finer control of his body, the former synthetic willed his limb back into place. It wasn't without any discomfort though, as his body had to switch off all neural feedback from said limb, then partially liquify it, before he could finally restore the damage and 'reactivate' the entire arm. The whole process slightly reminded him of his former self, and even wondered what Lind must be seeing him as right now, since this wasn't exactly normal even for most immortals. Despite his own feelings of loss whenever he thought about his synthetic self, there was a small hope that others might finally start to see him like one of their own… until something like this happens.

"Since you're mostly organic, you don't have to be afraid of my restoration skills," said Lind with such a matter-of-fact expression in her face that simply stunned her injured comrade. Actually, he ended up staring her for so long that she began to wonder if he didn't hear her, and thus repeated herself. "I said, I won't get you distorted like… well… most physical things… no, uh… Look, I'm not going to hurt you further."

"It's alright, I know that you mean well. However, I'm not exactly the easiest person to heal, given my… background." This really sounded weak, and he was acutely aware of it, but he was in no shape to come up with a better excuse. Truth to be told he felt that he was currently a shadow of his former self, since all this transition being mostly organic left him with few of his original powers and abilities. Not only that, but he was currently stuck in a teenager's body, which didn't even have his full physical strength and agility, leaving Excalibur with the sinking feeling of being Lind's… luggage. However, he also knew that this line of thought wouldn't do him any favors, so he desperately tried to change the subject. "Anyway… where are we?"

"My home, actually," came Lind's simple, yet rather surprising, reply. In fact, she started to wonder if she said something wrong, and was about to repeat herself once again, until Excalibur snapped out of it.

"Really?!" If he felt awkward before, Excalibur was now totally at a loss of words. While he was always a bit curious to see Lind's place, what was actually left of her home… certainly didn't count as much -nor it represented the Valkyrie's character and interests. And to be fair, even if it did, then this wasn't the time nor place for such observations. So, instead he racked his brain to come up with yet another excuse to change the subject, before his silence became far too awkward. "You know, I just noticed that this place must have had a great view of the forest. I never thought this would be your thing, although… I'm glad that's the case."

"Oh? And why is that?" asked the somewhat confused Lind, as she followed Excalibur's gaze to what used to be her bedroom's largest window; the one that faced the nearby woods.

'Yeah you idiot, why's that? Seriously… why did I open my stupid mouth in the first place? And to think that I used to laugh with how stupid organics sounded when trying to flirt with…' That last bit brought Excalibur's entire train of thought to a screeching halt; and even derailed it. He wasn't exactly oblivious of his own interest in a certain blue haired Valkyrie, but at no point did he lose track of what he was saying around her. Sure, there were some moments back when he became a lot more expressive than his old, emotionless self, but that still wasn't anywhere close to this level of irrationality. Regardless, the proverbial die was now cast, so he needed to come up with something that wouldn't sound offensive, and fast. "It's hard to explain why, but I always found forests to have this… calming effect on me. And if that's the case with a living weapon like me, then I guess that's also true for a goddess like you as well."

"Former living weapon, you mean," corrected Lind, before continuing. "But, I see what you mean. Apparently, people find it hard to believe that I have a more sensitive side, even though it should've been obvious that I'm not totally emotionless, or insensitive for that matter."

Just as Excalibur was about to offer her nod, a low rumble shook the entire building, causing more than enough debris to fall all around them. And if that wasn't enough, a fierce gust of wind blew through the broken windows, alerting the duo that something, or perhaps someone made landfall outside. Neither of them needed to wonder what was going on though, since there was actually only one possibility that immediately popped in their mind was that one of the 'locals' dropped by for a visit. Wasting no time, Lind and Excalibur duck behind a nearby pile of debris, just as a massive dragon came into view.

The creature came to a stop right outside of the building, and casually sniffed the air for any hints of the intruders they were looking for. By now, it became more than obvious that the transport that crashed at the other side of the city wasn't in fact empty, and search parties were immediately dispatched to locate its passengers. Heavy footsteps shook the already worn out building, as the rest of the dragon's comrades encircled it like ravenous vultures, lunging forward every now and then as if they have already detected them. In fact, those were mere fake-charges, in hopes of forcing their targets out of their cover and straight to the awaiting jaws of more than a dozen dragons that awaited for them outside. Furthermore, the reptiles knew that it was practically impossible for Skuld's robots to squeeze themselves in such a tiny space, so their targets must've been the fabled group of immortals, whose presence was already felt across the Celestial capital. Their master even went as far as to offer the best nesting grounds for whoever manages to bring him even one of the overworlders; a reward that few dragons would willingly refuse.

For several long minutes, Lind and Excalibur held their ground with remarkable self-control, doing their best to ignore what was going on around them. They had somehow managed to exploit their adversaries' enormous size against them, by almost burying themselves under the rubble, while the dragons could do nothing to take a closer look at every possible hiding spot inside of the house. After all, if the creatures attempted to do so, all they would accomplish is to bring the whole place on top of them, which didn't even count as a legitimate threat for an Earth Spirit, let alone a Valkyrie. Knowing this, the dragons kept pacing back and forth, lunging at the building in their continued attempts to fool the besieged immortals into giving away their position.

However, just as they were about to give up, a single dragon happened to pick up the faintest hint of Excalibur's scent. And that proved more than enough to justify a full scale attack. Worse yet, being already used to the dragons' fake-lunges, neither Excalibur nor Lind reacted to the incoming attack. Until, the former found himself staring at a row of impossibly sharp teeth that were rapidly closing onto his position.

The last thing the Earth Spirit remembered was Lind's voice, ordering him to move out of the way, although by then… it was far too late to move out of the way.

XXX

Darkness. An empty field of eternity, sprawling out of nothing, and heading into nowhere and everywhere all at the same time.

One would expect a creature familiar with such an existence to feel comfort in this empty space, remembering the void it too calls home. After all, this had been and will forever be the place inhabited by those whose very existence defies the laws of cause and causality. Yet in this eternal, cold darkness, one such being cannot fathom what had become of it, even when by all means that should've never been possible.

Of course 'never' is a word without meaning in a world outside of time itself.

"For a moment, you really got me," dryly commented the otherwise immobilized Nidhogg-Hild, as she inevitably came to the conclusion that the only person -no, entity- capable of such a feat, was none other than the very being she so wished to meet. "Since when did you start caring about your little bugs? Intervening in one of their battles, just so spare their lives… isn't becoming of you."

"Intervening in the affairs of linears, under the guise of one, isn't becoming of you, either. Long have we embraced each other in this maddening dance, endlessly perpetuating the creation and destruction of time, space, and all in between it. Yet never have I touched upon a timeline as unique as this one. Tell me, oh serpent… Why?" The voice emanated from the darkness itself, cold yet not unfeeling, and deep yer inconsequential, it served no other purpose than communicate with what shouldn't need such sluggish methods of exchanging ideas. "Why is this one different? Omnipotent as I am, the very gift of knowledge of what lies in the endless stream of time becomes a curse, once I touch an equal of mine."

"Isn't that always the case? No matter which timeline we're entangled with, at no point can we predict the effects one of us has over the other. It's in fact the very reason why I'm wearing this body as a means to obstruct my own omnipotence, in hopes of perhaps finding a way around the rules." Casually pointing at herself, or at least trying to do so, given that she was almost immaterial at the time being, Nidhogg-Hild patiently waited for Yggdrasil's reply. More than anything though, the demoness has been waiting for her main body's response ever since she became aware that the Tree had contacted her, yet… the Infernal Dragon remained eerily silent. It was entirely possible that this was Yggdrasil's doing, since nothing else was actually capable of cutting her off from the rest of her being. More so, if that was indeed the case, then Nidhogg-Hild was facing a situation clearly unprepared for. The whole idea was to use her current body as a Trojan Horse, in order for her main body to make direct contact with Yggdrasil; a plan that was crumbling, and quite majestically too.

"Rules are only needed when a 'society' is involved. With the two of us entangled in this infinite spacetime, there's no such thing as 'rules' in any definition of that word," noted the Tree, stoic as ever… until its tone shifted into what could be taken as a faint hint of sarcasm. "Under such pretext, no respect is taken for granted in regards to the sanctimony of your mind."

"Then you know what's going on, don't you?" shot Nidhogg-Hild back at the Tree. In fact, it was more of a statement than an actual question, given that Yggdrasil's own activity over the last couple of months hinted that it was fully aware of the problem at hand. Not that… months had a meaning in this place, but right now, Nidhogg-Hild was stuck with the perception of a linear being, much to her chagrin.

"Indeed."

The demoness waited, almost certain that there was more to it than that, yet the silence that followed was deafening. "Is… that all you have to say? Haven't you made it your bloody purpose of life to preserve everything, like cosmos' demented curator? And that's the reply I get?!"

"That linear facade of yours is obstructing your view of the threads that we weave. In another place, at another time, you had asked me this: Wings of Dark and Light… Is that what interests you, Terror Tree?... Why you faltered?... Appeased?... Intrigued?..." The sound of those familiar, yet distant words, caught Nidhogg-Hild off guard, as they reminded her of that timeline where her other avatar had uttered them. And with its point made, Yggdrasil made its presence known by piercing the darkness with a blinding network of threads that formed its 'projection' -that of a majestic, yet abstract tree. From the roots, all the way to the very leaves, the light threads shimmered and weaved, pulsating in a manner almost intelligent yet chaotic all at the same time. "Having had the opportunity to ponder upon your question, I saw no reason to answer, given that more than enough threads intersect to this very point in the grand cosmic stage."

"Ah, yes… that one," said Nidhogg-Hild with a heavy sigh. "I can definitely see how I made a fool of myself by stating the obvious. That being said though, I truly wished to hear you say it: That for once, we agree on something."

"Regretful as such a conclusion may be, the facts remain. Nevertheless, it is imperative that you first fix your own mess, starting with the very body you're currently using as an avatar."

The comment made Nidhogg-Hild to look at herself once again, but this time around she did manage to get a glimpse of the near perfect replica of Hild's ten-dimensional body, rather than the much more familiar humanoid form of hers. "In my defense, I didn't start the trend of making copies of existing people; you might even say that I got a bit late into the party. Besides, I find it oh too convenient to resemble my most… precious allies."

"Touche. Though your unnecessarily sarcastic follow up, rendered the rest of your point moot."

"You know, I do believe that the longer we talk, the less… mystical you sound. Not that I care about all that song and dance per se, but I have a nagging feeling that I'm starting to get under your skin… or should I say bark. Regardless of the technical term applicable here, or my mannerisms for that matter, I do believe that I have a point. It was your Dryads that started copying all those people, and one of them even sports the very appearance I'm borrowing right now. Well… at the very least, I did a much better job at it, and even have a legitimate reason for creating a spare body for the linear known as Hild."

"Again you speak the truth, yet your motives are shrouded in a non-linear mystery, that even I can't scratch the surface of it. At the very least, answer me this: Why send a group of linear entities to another timeline?"

The demoness' shot an amused glance at the Tree's aetherial representation, placing her hands on her hips in a casual sign of triumph, before a sly grin graced her face. "You're actually asking a question that you should by all means know by merely peering into my currently linear mind? Why… I'm flattered that you think so highly of ol' me! Any more and you'll make me blush!"

"Only you are paranoid enough to implant false memories in your own avatar. And while that sounds to be a valid strategy, it also exposes you to the destabilizing effect that individuality had on my linear creations, when they became exposed to your trickery. Deprived of your connection with your main body… just how much of Nidhogg are you, and how much is it that linear persona you're going for?"

The Tree's question didn't exactly come off as a surprise to Nidhogg-Hild, given how acutely aware was the demoness of her own past experiments. Even so, the idea that she was a person of her own -rather than a simple part of an infinite sum- put Nidhogg-Hild in the not-so-desirable position of getting a taste of her own medicine. That being said, she has never been a huge proponent of staying on the defense for far too long, and thus attempted to regain the lost ground in the most blunt manner possible. "Funny how casual you sound about my… trickery, when you took all the necessary steps to make sure that your allegedly corrupted servants could be wiped out and replaced by flash copies courtesy of their own loving master. I gifted them with individuality, and you signed their death warrant, just in case something about their further evolution upsets your natural order of things; the stagnant order of things."

"Fumbling in the words of a linear, this conversation is proving way too inconsequential to prove of any use to either of us. And though I'm willing to offer you the benefit of doubt in light of the recent events in the thread of time your avatar hails from, I also feel the need to remind you of your role in doing nothing more than further entangle such loose ends."

All things considered, this was the closest thing to a victory Nidhogg-Hild could've accomplished under such circumstances. Sure, there was a price to pay in the long run, yet the same could also be said about Yggdrasil; and that was all she cared for. "Do not concern yourself with my end of the deal. I know how to follow up with my plans, and I always deliver," said the demoness with confidence clearly evident in her voice. "Now, before I go back, I believe that it's about time you cut all ties with your agent… and let Pinocchio become a real boy."

As the darkness suddenly dissolved into a blinding light emanating from the demoness' shadow, the Tree's astral form too dissolved into an endless abyss, leaving only it deep, resounding voice in the absolute cold of nothingness.

"By my will, so be it."

XXX

In a different place, at a different time, a scream joined the cacophony of the Hellspawn surrounding its owner like a wicked flame licks a tree amids a wildfire. Strings cut and malformed to near non-existence formed once again, giving the abandoned Earth Spirit its synthetic circuits, along with a momentary sense of belonging.

But for a fleeting moment, as the strings were cut once again.

Severed by the same entity that wove them in the first place, the now visible twines of light pierced the very fiber of reality, forming the same ancient formula of life; that of the familiar symbol of eternity. What was once an Earth Spirit, became the spirit of the machine. And from there, the boy he ended up as amidst this chaos, too became something different yet familiar at the same time. At least, familiar to the Valkyrie standing not too far from him.

Something... or rather, someone… who could be truly described as her equal: a god.

Reaching to touch his face, Excalibur inspected his now features as soon as he managed to pick himself up from the wall he had ended up, after being flung across the room by that dragon. And with cold silver eyes that matched the color of the blade he summoned at hand, the once Spirit of the Sword prepared to meet his foe in battle. Just like he did eons ago for Asgard, the newly ascended God of the Blade, prepared to teach that lizard of what happened the last time he was cast aside.

But before he lunged at the startled dragon, Excalibur glanced in Lind's direction, just as the Valkyrie lopped the other dragon's head. "Sorry to keep you waiting."

Unsure how to explain what happened, the goddess spent a good couple of awkward seconds staring at the once again adult version of Excalibur. Even so, a full complement of blue markings adorned his face, making it rather clear that something was indeed different from before. And if it wasn't for that visual cue, then the unmistaken torrent of celestial power that matched that of a fierce war god, left no doubt as to what she was staring at. "I... must admit I'm not sure what just happened, but… Welcome back."

"Me neither, to be honest. But let's fell the rest of them, and then we can talk."

---

AN: I would like to thank everyone here and the Goddess Relief site for offering their continuing support.

Where should even start with this? Even though I was looking forward for that little conversation between Yggdrasil and Nighogg, I just couldn't be satisfied with the way I wrote it. So, I kept making revisions until what I have is close to my original intent.

Speaking of which, the question Yggrasil speaks about was in fact something Nidhogg asked in one of my other stories "Ah! The lost contract." To give you an idea, parts of this conversation existed all the way back when that little scene came to play. Which… is long enough that even surprised myself, to be honest.

Another thing is that Excalibur had an indirect… Keiichi incident. Despite not being the one who got to talk to Yggdrasil, he still ended up becoming a god. Of course, that's all I can say for now, since I have more plans for him, along with a way to retain some aspects of his old self. Still, he is indeed a real god by this point.