Keiichi's Faith Chapter 8, an oh my goddess! fanfic

Keiichi's faith

Rel1.4

By Pizzigri

Chapter 8! WARNING.

This is an intense chapter. It even may be disturbing for some readers, although it never reaches an M rating. This is a nodal point in the story, so it is slightly longer than previous chapters.

One last thing, I'd like to thank HuuskerDu for the help, beta reading and precious suggestions that helped me shape the chapter as it is.

OC, functional to the story, are mine and, actually also © 1220 A.D. by Snorri Sturluson. No copyright infringement intended!

…

Another time… another place.

…

"I have chosen my path. Beginning now, I take this matter in my own hands, and will pursue my mission to the fullest extent of my powers. But, dearest sisters, I cannot do it alone. Are you with me?"

Urd watches in numb and unbelieving fascination Belldandy's hand reaching her left earring, and unclasping it.

"Belldandy, what are you doing…"

Before Urd manages to step towards her younger sister, it is done.

Belldandy's melodious voice softly fills the air, as tiny sparks glitter all over her body and dress, and the gold earring shatters silently and disintegrates into nothingness.

The air surrounding the temple seems to ripple with immense power, warping the very fabric of reality around the three Norns.

Clouds disappear in the sky, the backlash echoing in the space above the whole city.

A glowing halo envelopes the Norn of Present. A blast of the purest white light washes away her dress, replacing it with a white and blue Divine Combat Uniform. As Power flows around her body, Her sigils morph into blue ellipses encompassing a circle, and clear white wings spanning three times the Goddess' height again extend from her back.

Billionths of a second have passed, and with her full powers unsealed, the Goddess reaches for the Knowledge - and immense sadness fills Her Soul, as the path taken by Keiichi's essence and its definitive fate reveals itself, confirming Peorth's Verbum, and her most secret fears.

Lost.

Keii-kun…

Cleansed of all his memories, emotions and traits, Keiichi's Immortal Soul dissolved, merging with the Ultimate Force.

It is as if a glass of water blended with the Ocean… or her tears rolled along her cheeks in a raging Monsoon, irreversibly fusing together, forever.

But, there's a Way.

And, for it to work, the Three Norns must reclaim their True Purpose, beyond Eternity, Infinity and Time itself.

Belldandy's tears fall freely in her conflicted Mind, upon a decision which rips her very Soul apart, but no outward sign of her immense grief is visible. Her Choice made, the Norn of the Present irrevocably commits herself.

Belldandy levitates, and as soon as she stops quietly singing in her Celestial voice, all that's left is only a deafening silence.

She opens her eyes to look down to a frowning Urd and a terrified Skuld.

Turning to the younger Goddess, Belldandy gently smiles, her voice again seems to fill the air, drowning everything, and resonating almost to a molecular level: "Skuld, my dear little sister. Are you with me? I need your help, for this to work."

Urd realizes that Belldandy is using a strong compelling voice spell. Skuld doesn't stand a chance; unprepared, her pupils widen, a shiver briefly quakes her small frame and then she smiles back, charmed and relaxed, nodding with her head, opening her arms in an embracing gesture, with her hands open, palms towards her older sister.

Urd barely manages to pull up a protective spell around herself, in part aided by her double ancestry.

Magnificent in all her full, unsealed Power and Glory, Belldandy smiles to her older sister, the Norn of the Past.

"And you, Urd? Are you also with me?"

The older Goddess takes nervously a step back, crossing her arms and tilting her head to the side, slowly and carefully replying in a steady voice, trying to buy time, "How about you explain what you intend to do with all your limiters removed, first."

"Oh! Of course. I want to unseal and reclaim our full powers as Norns over Time from Yggdrasil, to rewind the timeflow to before Sinthgunt's death. This way, I can save her, too, and everything that has happened, will never have happened."

Urd knits her brow in surprise.

"You can't be serious. We both know that it won't work! Even combined, Our powers are limited by the Ultimate Force to the timeflow in the lower five dimensions, we have no way to reach all eleven dimensional planes and synchronize them all to a previous state! Neither Keiichi nor Sinthgunt can be restored this way, and even then, Heaven will remain untouched by the rewind… To do so will turn time on Earth back all right, but all you'll achieve is a soulless body in a vegetative state, and Father's -and mother's – ire to deal with!"

Belldandy's voice lowers somewhat, becoming softer with a hint of shyness in her tone.

"I… want to stall the Ultimate Force by bringing down Yggdrasil with a root level DoS attack, using my basecode to bypass all firewalls, then repartition and reboot the central mainframe kernels completely. This way, we will have absolute control over Time, in every dimension of the Multiverse. Just as… as Celestine attempted… only, I'll succeed."

Her eyes wide in horror, Urd screams "What?!"

"Please, Urd. Take my hand now, and join me."

Shaking her head, Urd takes another step back, feeding more power to her shield, worry all over her face: Where the hell are you, Lind?!

"But, don't you understand, Bell! If you do manage to bring down Yggdrasil to the point that it will be completely offline, Nidhogg will collapse as well, and Doublet will crash!"

Belldandy raises her arm towards Urd, offering her open hand, while her eyes sparkle and a wave of irresistible power washes over the oldest Norn, the energy briefly visible as a glowing golden halo flaring around the edges of the older Norn's shield.

"I am well aware and concerned of that, Urd. I do not have Celestine's Goal, as it will be only temporary, a microsecond to a couple seconds at worst, before the Ultimate Force kicks back in, but we would have already rewritten all of reality by then. We would be the only ones to actually remember. Trust me, I have everything under control."

Skuld walks to Belldandy's side, her clothing morphing slowly to a Divine Combat Uniform, flowing into a battle stance. The young Goddess seems relaxed and smiles brightly, but her eyes implore for help.

It's the Little One's eyes that hit her the hardest.

Struggling to resist the onslaught, as layer upon layer of her magic shield shatters one after the other, Urd feels utterly betrayed.

Belldandy disappears, and all she can see in her sister's place is a tall, magnificent woman, standing alone in front of a setting sun, her regal and proud figure silhouetted by the light dominating the immense plain, her dark bronze skin lusciously glinting from the sun's glancing rays, her pure white hair literally glowing as it flares around her.

Sad and piercing violet eyes glow against the sunset.

Urd feels the strong arms of an immense and incredibly powerful stranger circle her tiny body. For an instant, she's again a frail little girl, the betrayal delving deep in her soul like a million blades running through her heart, as her familiar inner energy seeps away, fading and being forcedly replaced by a foreign one.

She can hear herself desperately screaming for her mommy, as she fades away in a white flash. Tears well up in the Norns' eyes.

Her resolve crumbles into oblivion as her protective spell evaporates and Urd continues to scream silently in the prison of her mind.

Abandoned, betrayed, by her most loved one - once again.

The Norn of the Past's body shivers and dazedly takes a step towards her sister, one hand to her head, the other weakly reaching for Belldandy.

…

"I will not allow it", a new voice calmly states.

Flashing across the Temple's grounds, a white streak thunderously crashes into Urd before her hand touches Belldandy's, sending the silver maned Goddess against the Temple's main building.

As Urd disappears in a massive explosion of splinters and dust, and the whole building collapses over the Goddess, Lind stands poised in a combat stance in the same spot previously occupied by the oldest Norn, facing a frowning Belldandy, her battleaxe held at an angle at her side, ready to pounce in an instant.

"Belldandy, Goddess first class, unlimited: cross your arms over your head, kneel and surrender, or else know my wrath."

"Lind. As always, your timing is perfect", Belldandy sadly remarks, almost to herself.

"You know that you're no match for me, Belldandy. Yield!"

Belldandy tilts her head to the side, casually noting, "But, Lind, you have not removed your limiters, yet. And you're still holding your axe…"

The proud Valkyrie inwardly flinches, knowing Bell called her bluff. Instants ago, Yggdrasil had denied her request to remove her limiters and had Lind been any other Valkyrie, maybe she could have disobeyed knowing she had to face Belldandy. However, being His chosen, Lind has no option left, but to stall the Norn of the Present as much as possible, at least until reinforcements arrive, or He deems necessary to intervene, whichever comes first. As such, she instantly attacks with her full – but restrained - power, a shockwave of energy leveling what was left of the temple.

Lind, even restrained by her limiters, is a force to be reckoned with. Her second-in-command, herself a First Class, finds impossible to enter the fray, and all she can do is order the rest of the Wing to form a perimeter and contain as much as possible the rippling shockwaves from each impact.

Wave upon wave of power pound the temple's wreckage into the ground, and as the battle rages over her head, under tons of rubble, Urd comes round.

Exhausted and with her energy completely depleted, her eyes open to the darkness, a huge wooden beam pinning her body against the floor. She finds herself staring at the small space left between the beam and a big chunk of concrete and masonry, everything else buried under bricks and other debris, desperately wishing for a Magnum size bottle of sake.

When has everything gotten so out of hand? When has everything fallen apart… Kei dead, my own sister turned against me, about to destroy and rebuild reality, and in the process, bringing forth Ragnarok…

Never, not even in her wildest dreams, Urd would have believed for one second that her younger sister Belldandy, Norn of the Present, would have taken away her free will with a Compelling spell.

Urd painfully tries to move, to lift the beam that makes breathing of her material body so difficult.

What the hell… I'm so weak.

"Then, become stronger, sweetheart."

"M… mother…?"

"That's mommy, for you, baby", a miniaturized version of Hild hovering a couple of inches before Urd's eyes warmly coos.

"Don't just lie down in the dust like that, Baby. Come on, just reach and touch it, you've done it before. Access your birthright powers, accept them."

"C-can't. I've seen what that does, Mother. It turns me into a monster, a Demon. It turns me into something too much like you."

"You make it sound like a bad thing, baby… I'm offended", mini-Hild exclaims, crossing her tiny arms, closing her eyes and turning her pouting head away from Urd in mocking disdain.

"It is a bad thing. A-all this… is your fault. Because… you protected that bastard. I'll never forgive you… never switch sides. I-"

"Then, don't. You do not need to turn, dear. Only a few weeks ago, in Niflheim, you've overpowered your little half-sister's doomsday device, using one-hundred-percent Demonic power. Cut off from your Divine permalink, entirely hollowed out of Divine powers, all alone in the very heart of the Land of Demons, and still, you saved yourself and the tarty brat- and you don't look one bit a demon to me." – yet, Hild very privately thinks to herself.

"It… it took every ounce of my will to… rein in the power, then. What if I fail? What if I destroy Earth? Or-"

"Not an issue. Control comes with experience, and you've gained a lot of it. You'll do just fine"

And the more you use Demonic energy, the more you'll become a Demon –or Ascend, my baby.

"Even if so, know that I will not accept nor forgive you, Mother. I… cannot risk it all… I will always be a Goddess, as much as it hurts. As much as I… I…" - love you, Mom, Urd thinks closing her eyes. Even if you betrayed me, I can't help loving you.

"The choice is yours, daughter." Hild smiles a Cheshire's cat smile, and silently disappears.

One last attempt to free herself, and Urd notices a blue glow faintly shimmering around the wrist of the hand that she's using to push the beam away… the truth is painfully obvious: Lind in a split second restrained her Divine power, surely to remove a potential opponent from the battlefield in case Belldandy's compelling spell had full effect. The Norn of the Past cannot hold a grudge to her Valkyrie friend, she would have done the same in her place. But, because of this…

Lind, you've made the choice for me.

Urd clenches her teeth and concentrates, reaching inside herself for the dark fire relegated in the deepest and blackest recess of her heart. She can feel World of Elegance cower in fear once again in her soul, and forces herself to ignore it.

A red glow surrounds her body, while the blue triangle Seal on the Goddess' forehead morphs into a violet five pointed star.

…

In the subdued darkness of her Throne Hall, in Niflheim, Hild's eyes flash ominously, as a black fire suddenly and quietly surges, expanding violently in a shock wave from her body to disappear an instant later, her lips curling in a dazzling smile. Every Demon in her vicinity shivers in blind terror at the sight.

The Queen of Hell closes her eyes in bliss. I felt that, honey. I love you, too.

…

"Now I'm pissed", a deep voice growls from the ruins of the downed temple, an instant before the rubble vaporizes.

"Lind, stand back and perform damage containment, while I take care of family business."

"Urd, stay out of-" Lind's words die in her mouth as soon as Urd emerges from the cloud of settling dust, calmly walking towards Belldandy. The Norn's slit eyes flash in her direction, and Lind cannot stop a shiver in recognizing that cold gaze – and a five pointed star on Urd's forehead! Immense Demonic energy washes against the Valkyrie's body, wave after wave, making her feel dizzy and slightly sick.

"You-you gave in to your Demon side!"

"Nahhh, just got a free power-up. Now, move over."

This time, the immense Power flowing in her body, although exhilarating and heady, seems to be mostly under control. This time, Urd can actually recognize her Sisters and Lind, her mind, although 'off', still feels as her own and with supreme effort, she manages to rein in both stray energy and leaking Lightning.

A passing thought forces itself across her Mind, before placing all her undivided attention to her younger sister.

Could Mom – Mother be right? Could it be?

Completely ignoring Lind, slowly retreating maintaining a very careful and guarded defensive stance, Belldandy stares at her older sister with sadness in her eyes, her arms limp along her sides, standing in a non-threatening posture. Urd isn't fooled even for an instant, knowing full well the Norn of the Present's power and capabilities.

However, the Norn of the Past' eyes and voice become softer, losing the edge, as she stops in front of her sister.

"Bell… please, stand down. We can still work this out. To tell you the truth, I'm not sure for how much time I'll actually be able to keep control of myself in this state… so, power down and secure back your limiters."

"Urd, I want Keiichi back."

"So do I! Do you think I didn't love him? That his passing didn't carve my heart out, as well? He… he was a brother to me! But this…" Urd exclaims, her right arm moving in a wide arc in front of her, "…you cannot trade the whole multidimensional reality timestream coherence for one mortal! Without even knowing what happened, why or who rewrote this timeline continuity!"

The younger Norn visibly gasps, and in that instant Urd realizes she said too much.

"What are you talking about?"

Damning her slip, Urd replies, "There is no accident. This timeline reality has been already rewritten, for an unknown purpose. What happened to Keichii's essence… either he's a 'collateral', or…" Urd hesitates.

"or the true target", Belldandy finishes.

"Yes. And, to do so without Yggdrasil even noticing…"

Belldandy for the first time furrows her brow, her features sharp and tense. It's obvious. So obvious… we always forget that The Ultimate Force is Sentient… Oh, Great Father, Why?

She shakes her head, her eyes never losing contact with her sister's split irises. Belldandy breathes sharply, and sets her jaw in renewed resolution.

"It does not matter. I will go on, I have no other choice, even if I have to go against our Beloved Father. For the last time, my dearest sister, are you with me?"

"No."

"Then, I am sorry. Please forgive me."

Belldandy reaches for her golden staff, literally creating it from the air in front of her.

Urd focuses her slit eyes on Belldandy. A gentle smile makes her lips part, allowing a glimpse of snow white fangs, her hair weightlessly fluttering in a slow, mesmerizing dance around her.

Dusky light expands from the Norn of the Past's shimmering body, wisps of dark purple and black lightning glitter, arcing all the way to the sky.

Shining like a supernova, yet perfectly visible, Urd spreads both her arms and her black and white wings wide towards her younger sister.

The whole hill disappears beneath the Divine beings, vaporized by the pressure of both Demonic and Divine energy, in a fiery fireball.

Belldandy steels herself and grits her teeth, a scowl slightly warping her beautiful features, deliberately and slowly falling back in a defensive stance, golden staff held at a forty-five degrees in front of her chest, fighting the unbearable pressure effortlessly exerted by her older sister's aura.

The Norn of the Present realizes there can be only one outcome from this confrontation.

Even after having removed every limiter, and even if she were permitted to call upon powers above and beyond her levels… Urd in her present state would still be able to utterly annihilate and erase her existence.

However, I cannot stop now. I cannot fail you, Keiichi… This is the moment, I've gone against Heaven, Father, and my own blood for you, my Love. Keiichi… I love you.

Impossible odds do not mean anything. A mere mortal showed her that, not long ago.

Belldandy advances, her staff raised and pointed towards her older sister, the end glowing with golden light, in an attempt to subdue the last obstacle in fulfilling her plan.

Urd's only reply is to lick her lips in lustful anticipation of the impending battle. A single tear slides across her cheek, as her hands draw a complex pattern; a six pointed star glows brightly all around the Norns, cleaving a huge wound in the very fabric of reality, swallowing all three Goddesses from Earth's skies to rematerialize them nine hundred miles above the hidden face of the Moon's surface.

…

Back on Earth, the wind just slowed down from the violent rush to fill the void left following the teleport.

Lind collapses to the ground. Her Battle Uniform still pristine white, but torn and frayed.

From the deep blue-violet caused by the atmosphere rarefaction, the sky above the Valkyrie gradually returns to light blue, the humidity condensing into clouds. The low rumbling of thunder and darkening in the distance attests to how troubled the weather has been by the brief confrontation.

Nekomi is still standing. The hill where the Temple stood is a couple thousand feet wide smoking crater now, but Japan and all of its inhabitants still exist. It has taken almost all of her power, but she did it. Maybe this was my purpose from the beginning of this assignment, she thinks as her mind processes the information she grasped from Urd and Belldandy's last words before disappearing.

The fiery Valkyrie wearily glances to the exhausted bodies of the components of her wing, all sprawled about. Only her second in command, herself a First Class, has her eyes open and is standing wearily.

"What now, My Lady?"

Lind answers tiredly, "We wait."

…

Crime and Punishment!

…

"….les a bercés, le long des golfes clairs… Et d'une chanson d'amour, La Mer…"

Peorth sings languidly, drowning her emotions in the small and intimate shower box - a little bit of Earth she smuggled back in Heaven years ago, and concealed in a corner of her Divine dwelling -, hot water pouring down over her naked body and luscious smooth hair, her eyes closed, trying to wash away the sadness and the tears.

White light envelopes her body and instantly she appears, standing in all her magnificent and glorious nakedness, over Yggdrasil Main System Administrator's chair, in the middle of Creation Supercomputer's immense hall.

"A bercé mon cœur… pour la viiiie!"

Silence permeates the air, as the echo of the song's last line fades in the distance.

Realizing she's not in her shower any more, Peorth opens her eyes.

Peorth lingers, a deer caught in the headlights, as small drops glisten suggestively along her beautiful nude body, her hands still raised high to rinse her hair. Many Gods, and more than one Goddess staffing the terminals feel more than giddy staring at her. Some stumble to fetch a handkerchief to stop their nosebleed.

"Merde."

Sensing a very powerful presence at her side, the Goddess turns her head, to find a quite flushing Freyja.

"Honey… how about a bit of modesty, hmm? Not that in my youth I've been stranger to some… capricious behaviour, but…"

As her leathers cover her body, Peorth blushes, but not of embarrassment.

"Milady, always at your service", the Goddess replies, her words dripping with sarcasm.

"I'm sorry to disturb your rest, sweetie, but your presence is needed here, until He deems it necessary. Ponder very carefully your actions and initiative in the immediate future, honeybun, as we are at a nodal point in the Collective Timestream Flow. And before you ask, no. The Almighty will not grant you a hearing, since he's presently… busy. Yggdrasil"

"At your command"

"Unlock Veritas seal communications sieve. Allow full control and comlink access to Admin consoles. Enable Fifth Protocol."

"Accomplished"

"Ere, be a good girl and transfer Fifth Protocol live data feed on the main multidimensional strategic display. Au revoir, Hon."

As soon as the powerful Goddess quietly fades away, on the mile wide holographic display a satellite image of Nekomi appears.

"Syncing with AO local time. Locked. Realtime data: streaming"

Alarms start to go off at almost every workstation, and suddenly, a bright fireball appears above the Tariki Hongan temple location.

The mood of the whole Divine staff in Yggdrasil's hall sobers up instantly, while Peorth slowly sits down in her chair, moaning.

Blue DivineScript and Runes frantically appear in multiple overlays, a battle grid forms over the depicted area, low alarm tones sound from many workstations. Many Gods and Goddesses raise their hands in warning.

Ex jumps over her workstation, screaming without realizing it, "We have an unregistered Omnipotent class Celestial being on Earth right now!" Other Divine operators stand in panic.

"Goddess First Class Unlimited Belldandy, Norn of the Present, released all her seals and limiters, three minutes ago, AO time! Yggdrasil has not reported the breach until now!"

"First class, special duty wing commander Lind pinpointed within the AO grid and traced!"

Peorth turns to the Goddess, "Bon! Lofn, Establish a comlink with Lind! Request a full status report!"

"Unregistered Celestial Being cannot be identified! Although the signature seems to be Demonic in origin, it's currently unaligned, and its Nidhogg Permalink appears to be disconnected!"

"Why haven't we received advanced warning prescience!"

"They are engaging! Repeat, they are engaging!"

Above the confusion and noise, Yggdrasil calmly and levelly states, "Dimensional shifting rift violation, full gate breach violation, unauthorized transit in progress, destination: Luna."

Chrono turns to Peorth, her eyes flashing, "Milady! Commander Lind and her wing is retreating outside dimensional rift boundary and forming an Aegis class III containment construct spell to restrain backlash shockwave, no carrier lines available, comlinks presently unachievable!"

…

Belldandy calmly looks around herself and sadly smiles, returning her gaze upon the totally emotionless face of her elder sister.

The silvery surface of the Moon looms beneath the three Norns, appearing as a giant ghost, and the harsh, unfiltered light from the Sun casts dramatic shadows over the Divine Beings features. The Norns are miles apart, but can see each other as if only mere inches stand between them.

Urd attacks immediately with a beam of energy from her outstretched hand that Belldandy, with great effort, manages to deflect with her staff.

Skuld confusedly watches as a bystander while her older sisters battle among themselves, not knowing what to do and still partially under Belldandy's compelling spell.

She materialized her debugging hammer, and now clutches it to her chest in the manner a child would a teddy bear, blind fear showing in her eyes, paralyzed and unable to flee.

Then, a shield of immense power suddenly appears, separating Urd from Belldandy, apparently extending into the infinite and splitting the Moon, and the galaxy, in two. Runes ripple the surface of the barrier like waves in a pond, originating from Belldandy's raised and outstretched left hand, her right thrown back clutching her Staff. A low and marvelous Song, incredibly complex and melodious, echo in the void of space, vibrating along higher dimensional planes.

The Norn of the Past knows that not even Gungnir would be able to penetrate Bell's Aegis protective spell, possibly the strongest among all Divine Beings, excluding The Almighty's own; however she still releases another few experimental blasts that the shield deflects harmlessly either against the surface of Earth's Satellite or open space.

…

Peorth incredulously stares at the battle, raging over the far side of the Moon, on the Main display.

"Milady…", Chrono finally breaks the silence. "What are your orders?"

"Milady, do we have a target? Should we deploy Thor's Mjölnir?", Ere weakly suggests.

Ponder very carefully your actions and initiative in the immediate future… Freyja's words echo in Peorth's mind.

Sighing, Peorth replies, "No. We are not to interfere, and we cannot choose a side. Everything must run its course."

After a brief pause, almost as an afterthought, Peorth continues.

"It is Fate, and what will happen, must happen. We can only brace ourselves for the aftermath."

On cue, Ere reports: "All carrier channels now online, Milady! Full secure communication links established. Bilrost replies as fully operational with multiple, immediately available Gate slots, open for transfer."

"Goddess First Class, Special Duty, Lind reporting, Milady. Commander Lind requests an Alpha priority Gate transfer slot for herself and her wing."

"… Pass order to prepare a full Valkyrie wing to support Lind, they will be needed once the silence falls over Luna AO. I want Sìgrun to command the second wing. Designate Goddess First Class, Special Duty, Unlimited, Lind as in charge of the mission. Upload full operative data to both Wing Commanders. Ere, schedule Bilrost with enough gate slots once both Lind and Sìgrun report back with a green light, and transfer to grid on my command."

"Yes, Milady."

"Yggdrasil, authorize Goddess First Class, Peorth."

"Authorized."

"Request clearance to limiter removal for Goddess First Class, Special Duty, Unlimited, Lind and Goddess First Class, Special Duty, Unlimited, Sìgrun in specific assignment and for the sole purpose of enforcing her assignment. AO planetary space, Midgard satellite Luna."

"Acknowledged. Clearance granted, upon personnel deployment."

"Chrono... Summon the High Council, the three Norns are returning to Asgard."

"Yes, Milady."

Suppressing a sob, Peorth resignedly lies back in her chair, forcing herself to witness the fratricide fight until the end.

…

"Please dearest sister. Please, grant me your blessing and power, and everything will be as before", Belldandy whispers. "It will bring back Keiichi, and I only mean well."

Her voice carries as if in space there was air. No other sound can be heard in the void.

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions, Bell. Trust me on this."

Clenching her fists, Urd tries to find a solution to defeat Belldandy's Aegis spell; there's no way for her to penetrate the barrier without resorting to power levels that would destroy the planetary system.

Suddenly, the Norn of the Past's eyes become aware of a terrorized Skuld, hiding behind her hammer and cloaking her power signature as much as possible, floating next to Belldandy's barrier, trying her best to not be noticed and slowly recoiling away from Urd, sliding along the plane of the Aegis spell.

The Little Goddess didn't move fast enough, and found herself on the outward side of the shield!

Urd turns back to Belldandy, the corner of her lips curved in an evil smile.

"Y-you wouldn't…!", Bell murmurs.

In an instant, Urd vanishes to appear in front of Skuld. The little Goddess silently screams in fright, crossing her arms protectively in front of herself. Smirking, the dark Goddess envelopes the Norn of the Future in a shady sphere, freezing all her movements and sealing her in time and leaving the child totally defenseless.

Belldandy watches in utter horror her older sister's cold smirk as she raises both her fists high above her head, and angrily lowering them upon the sphere. The attack carries the equivalent energy of Earth's entire thermonuclear arsenal.

From Earth the silhouette of the Moon is blazingly lit by a corona of light and fire, illuminating the skies to daylight.

Months later, the scientific community on Earth will still debate the possibility that the event was caused by the impact of a totally undetected meteorite, possibly one eigth to one fifth in size of the Baptistina fragment that caused Tycho crater, with the surface of the far side of the moon.

As the immense power of the blast washes over Belldandy's barrier, Skuld's body, transformed in a blazing shooting star, descends towards the Moon's surface in a ball of fire, creating a two mile wide crater on impact and driven thousands of feet into hard basalt, to finally rest deep into the cold crust of the satellite.

"Skuld!", Belldandy cries, totally aghast at Urd's attack on her younger sister.

"You… Why did you hurt her! She was harmless and never threatened you!"

Assuming a neutral stance, and calmly crossing her arms, as if the battle just ended, Urd tilts her head to the side before replying.

"Easy. Because without her, you cannot turn back time."

Belldandy tries to sense Skuld's presence. Failing, she coldly stares at her older sister, not believing what just happened before her.

She manages to whisper, "Y-you sublimated our very s-sister so that I could not…?"

A cruel smirk twists Urd's beautiful features.

"Hey, it did seem a good idea at the moment."

Belldandy screams in blind rage, allowing the barrier to fall and shining like the Crown of Creation, concentrating all her power in a sublime instant and channeling it in an attack; if released, the attack would be more than enough to turn the Sun into a singularity.

Urd finally sees the opening she craved for; she explodes in a million sparks, each fragment accelerating outwards in a fireworks like display, disappearing and only leaving behind a dim afterimage of herself smirking in front of the enraged and confused Goddess.

Silently, dark particles coalesce instantly solidifying behind the Norn of the Present, and before the younger Goddess can react or release her strike, Urd grabs her sister's ponytail with her left hand, yanking back hard the base of Belldandy's skull against her right index finger.

Completely surprised, Belldandy slowly relaxes under the finger's pressure, slightly shivering. Her arms fall to lie along her body, closing her eyes in defeat.

"I've… I've lost. Lost Keiichi, my family… all lost. I-"

"Bang."

The Norn of the Present's words are cut off, as a solid beam of light erupting from Urd's finger passes through her head.

The bronze Goddess releases her younger sister's ponytail, and Belldandy slowly collapses bonelessly crumpling upon herself, her white wings furling, then gently tumbles towards the surface of the Moon, captured by the satellite's gravity field, a shower of gradually fading feathers tracing her fall in slow motion.

Reappearing beneath Belldandy's form, Urd allows the limp body to fall softly in her arms, cradling her tenderly, and descending in the same crater formed by Skuld's impact. The Celestial being known as Urd, now ascended to the state of a Demon Goddess, kneels on the rapidly cooling dark grey glass surface, chanting softly a spell sealing the Norn of the Present's physical body in a stasis field - Her voice remarkably evoking a lullaby - and gently lies her younger sister to rest on the barren surface.

Standing again, her fists on her sides, Urd stares for many, long minutes at Belldandy's body and at the huge abyss at the bottom of which lies Skuld, then shakes her head slowly, her expression totally unreadable.

In the distance, Urd can sense a full Valkyrie wing rapidly approaching.

…

Lyrics are of Charles Trenet's "la Mer", a magnificent song written at the end of World War II.

Please have patience for the next chapters, as everything will fall into place. Thank you!