Chapter 7
2:00pm Nov 13
Tarikihongan Temple.
Belldandy continued to care for Keiichi as he lay on the floor of his room. She cradled his head in her lap and stroked his hair lovingly. She smiled as she did so, relieved that the source of Keiichi's bizarre behavior was as a result of the Rage Token, and not because he was genuinely angry at her.
Even though, in his impaired state, Keiichi had said and done some bad things to her, she believed that deep down, a part of him was trying to retain some control. According to Urd, the token could cause a weaker person to lose control to the point that they would definitely commit physical violence.
Keiichi didn't have a violent bone in his body, and knowing this, Belldandy should have determined that his anger was brought about from an outside magical force. But the ferocity and power of Keiichi's rage caught her by complete surpriseand disrupted her reasoning.
Belldandy continued to think about the recent events as she cared for Keiichi when Lind stopped by Keiichi's room.
She was dressed in her white battlesuit, and by the look on her face, Belldandy could tell she was back to warrior mode. During the past month, while Lind was on vacation since returning from Heaven with the rest, she, Belldandy, and Keiichi had gone out on various outings, she worked out constantly, and almost ate the gang out of house and home. She had loosened up quite a bit in terms of her overall attitude, and she actually seemed as if she was enjoying herself for a while.
"Belldandy." Lind said in her usual no-nonsense voice.
"Oh, hello Lind." Belldandy said pleasantly.
As befit her nature, Lind got to the point. "Belldandy, I am going back to Heaven. I have to get back to work. My vacation is over."
"Aww, Lind. I was hoping that you'd stay for the wedding. Do you really have to leave now? What's another month?"
"I would love to stay and be a part of your special day." Lind said. "I have never been a part of a wedding before, and I'm sure it would have been a lot of fun." She let a smile escape her lips for a split second, then became all business again as she held up a message cube. "But I received an urgent message from Heaven. There's something big going on there, and it looks like my assistance is needed."
"Do you need my help with anything? What about Urd or Skuld? Can they help?"
"No. Belldandy. This isn't a recall notice or anything that requires your involvement. Heaven's not under threat or in any danger. They just called for me to come back"
"What's going on?"
Lind firmly shook her head. "I can't tell you. You aren't cleared for the information in the message, unless field Goddesses are now holding Iridium-level clearances."
Belldandy blanched when she heard this. Whatever Lind was talking about, when she mentioned Iridium, Bell knew that the issue was well above her paygrade. Iridium was the highest level of security clearance by far in Heaven. Only Lind, the members of the Heavenly Council and Kami-sama himself held those credentials. Even though Lind couldn't say what was in the message she received, that she let it be known that it was under Iridium-level secrecy told Belldandy all she needed to know about whatever was going on in Heaven. Whatever it was, it was a very big deal.
"I might have told you too much already. I have to get going. Tell Keiichi that I appreciate the hospitality." Lind said as she waved goodbye. She walked out of the house into the courtyard and summoned the Gate and was gone in a flash.
Belldandy started to speculate about what Lind had said. She wondered whether this situation could have been linked to the matter of the Eye of Heaven that she, Keiichi, and her sisters endured. She tried to remember what had happened that could connect an Iridium level secret to those events, but she could not. It was at that time that Keiichi stirred in her lap. She looked down at him and continued to stroke his head.
His eyes opened, and he looked up at Belldandy. She smiled at Keiichi as if to tell him that all was forgiven.
"Belldandy."
"Yes, Keiichi? I am here. How do you feel?"
"Like Banpei was beating me upside the head with his staff for the last hour. I've got a serious headache."
" I can understand why. That Rage Token badly affected you."
"Is everything all right? Did you and Urd destroy it?"
"Yes, Keiichi. It's gone, never to bother us again."
"Once again, Bell, I'm so sorry that I did those things to you."
"You don't need to apologize, Keiichi. It wasn't your fault."
"Belldandy?"
"Yes?"
"If I ever do something like that again...?"
"Yes, Keiichi?"
"I want you to leave me and never come back. Don't even look back. Go and forget you ever met me. I don't want you to suffer because of me. Promise me that you'll do that."
Belldandy shook her head vigorously. "No."
"No?"
"No, Keiichi. I can't make that promise."
Keiichi was incredulous. "Why, Belldandy?"
"Because I know that it'll never happen again. I know you too well. As we go through life together, we will have times where we disagree with each other. There will be times when we make each other so mad that we may not like each other for a while. But I know that even if you're mad at me for something that I did, you'd never raise your voice or your hand to me. That's not your nature. We talk through our problems and arrive at a solution. Through it all, I will always love you, and will always be by your side."
"Yes, but..."
"But nothing, Keiichi. The sign of our true love is when we can still love and care for each other when we are going through tough times, and even when we don't always feel like loving each other. We've had some hard times, Keiichi. But we've made it through them, and we love each other even more than before. That's when we know that we have a real love. The hard times are when our love will shine brightest. And no matter how hard our life together gets, Keiichi. I will always be here for you."
"You're right as usual, Belldandy."
" I know, Keiichi."
Keiichi felt well enough that he could rise from Belldandy's lap. He straightened up, stretched out, and sat up facing his Goddess.
"Keiichi? How much do you remember from our trip to Heaven?" She asked.
"This last one?"
"Yes."
"Well, I remember watching Lind work out after we had our alone time, and then I remember one of Urd's experiments catching fire and you, Urd and Skuld in that Mjolnir Protocol trance. Lind and I followed you three to Heaven. We confronted Baldur and he told me about the secret you were hiding. I remember you creating that portal and you and your sisters stepping into it. Then we met Ragnar and entered the Eternal Chamber, and the next thing I remember was all of us lying in the grass outside the temple six months later. I remember that Ragnar had said something to us while we were in the Chamber, but nothing else.
Belldandy said, "I don't even remember any of that. I remember cleaning your room, and then ending up in the temple grass. I have no recollection of what happened in Heaven. It's very strange, Keiichi."
Keiichi looked at Belldandy quizzically and said, "Well, you were under the Mjolnir Protocol. That completely took over your body and mind. Why do you ask me what I remember?"
Bell responded. "Something that Lind said before she left to return to Heaven. She said that there's something big going on there, but she couldn't talk about it. It was under Iridium-level security."
"Iridium?"
"Yes." Bell said as if the word itself was forbidden to be said by a mere field Goddess. "Iridium is the highest level of security in Heaven. Only a few possess that level of knowledge."
"Well, if Lind specifically said that we weren't involved, then I don't see anything for us to worry about."
"You're right, Keiichi. If it was something that concerned us, we'd know about it."
Urd walked by Keiichi's room. "Oh, I see that you have returned to the land of the living, Keiichi. I trust that you are feeling better?"
Keiichi answered. "Yes, Urd. Thanks to you and Belldandy, I feel much better.
Urd said. "I was doing some checking and my suspicions were confirmed. The creator of that Rage Token was once a disciple of my mother. His name is Torvald. A pretty formidable demon in his own right. He was once very devoted to Hild and learned quite a bit about how to manipulate Rage magic from her. When he thought he had learned enough from her, he broke off his training and went his own way. He's a piece of work. Very powerful, headstrong, manipulative. Just like Mommy dearest."
Keiichi was about to say something about the apple not falling far from the tree when it came to Urd and her Mother, the Daimaikaicho, but he wisely held his tongue. " So, what is it about Rage magic?"
Urd looked as if she really didn't want to have this discussion, but she decided to speak anyway.
"To understand Rage magic, you need to understand magic in general, Keiichi. The use of magic is not free. It comes at a cost. Anytime Belldandy or I use our powers for too long, we have to rest and recover our energy. We get that energy from Yggdrasil, but when it's down, or we can't otherwise get that energy from it, we have to use other sources. Belldandy sleeps, I drink sake, and Skuld eats ice cream. But eventually, we recover what was expended.
"Rage magic is a different beast all together. Rage magic gets its power from the soul, and emotion. Specifically, the emotion of anger. Do you remember when Hild attacked Belldandy and hit her with Hell's Lightning?"
"How could I forget?" Keiichi answered, his voice flaring with anger. That incident was still fresh in his mind. He had almost lost Belldandy that day.
"You remember how you responded, right?"
"Of course. I cast Lava Wind Barrage and sent Hild back where she came from."
"Right, at that moment, you were working with a variation of Rage magic. You saw Belldandy lying there near death, and that sent you over the edge. You used your emotions, and the love you had for Belldandy, combined it with the hatred you had for Hild, and that provided the catalyst, as well as the raw magical material to cast that spell. Despite the fact that Lava Wind Barrage was a First Class spell and on the Restricted List, you were able to cast that spell even though you were a Second Class God barely in control of your powers at that time. Do you know why?"
Keiichi said. "No, why?" He had an idea, but he wanted to see whether Urd's answer matched what he was thinking.
"Because the ability to focus one's rage in that manner at such a high level, and to use it to channel such a powerful spell caused a temporary override in the protection programming of Yggdrasil. Your anger and desire to destroy Hild caused you to reach past the override protection in Yggdrasil that normally should have made it impossible to cast that spell. In short, for a moment, you beat the system. That is the reason that particular spell is on the Restricted List and can only be taught to certain highly trained First Class Gods and Goddesses. To allow lower class deities to be able to throw that spell around without any idea what they are doing would be catastrophic.
"Keiichi, you have the ability to take your emotions as well as the energy Belldandy passes to you through the Sacred Coupling and use it to fuel magic. Very powerful magic, I might add. Using Bell's jealousy storms to break her free of Hild's trap during your First Class test was brilliant. I could only imagine the thoughts and feelings roaring through your mind as you were kissing Hild. If you're not careful, Belldandy. I might try that on Keiichi to see what I can put into his mind." Urd said with a devilish wink.
"But." Urd continued. "Back to Rage magic. Rage magic works along the same lines, except that the user relies on no other emotion other than anger and rage. And of all the emotions that can be experienced, rage is the most dangerous, and the most corrosive. Rage and anger corrupts the soul totally and permanently. It can provide a limitless pool of energy from which a magic user of that type can draw his or her power, but remember what I said about magic coming at a cost, Keiichi. Rage magic burns extremely brightly, but for a very short time. Those who use it destroy themselves, as the rage and anger within them builds up and consumes their ability to feel any other emotion. At first, the user has to build up sufficient rage to cast the spell desired, but it can be very difficult to willingly suspend other emotions to summon rage on demand. But as the user becomes more familiar with the emotion of rage, it becomes easier to summon at will. But it also makes it harder to summon any other emotion. Soon, rage is all that user knows, and eventually it destroys him. But not without granting the user that deep pool of raw material to perform magic. And that's what happened to Torvald. He let the rage within him take control. It's all he knows now. It's what drives him, and eventually will destroy him."
Keiichi said. "Will he attack again? Is this something we'll have to constantly look over our shoulders about?"
Urd said. "Unknown. We have to assume that he will try something. Even though the rage has consumed him, he is infinitely patient. But one of the tactics that he uses is to plant the seed of an imminent attack into his victim's mind to keep them constantly on guard, so that they are so preoccupied with the thought of an attack, that such thoughts can do more harm to the victim than a real attack. Torvald has learned that the best attacks aren't always frontal, and that sometimes a mental attack does a lot more damage than a physical one. So it's best that we keep going as we are, and cross that bridge when we come to it. Between the three of us, we have what we need to defend ourselves. Keep it in the back of your mind. But you two have a wedding to plan. Don't let Torvald rob you of your special time."
"She's right, Keiichi." Belldandy said. "We can't let ourselves be overrun with the thought of if or when Torvald will attack again. We'll be playing right into his hands if we do." Keiichi tried to protest this seemingly lax attitude that the Goddesses were advocating. He wanted to focus his full attention
on dealing with this threat, when and however it arrived, but some of what the Goddesses were saying made some sense. And after all, even after knowing her for over four years, Keiichi still had his reservations about Urd and whatever agenda she served. But he had full and implacable trust in Belldandy. And if she thought that what Urd was saying was a wise course of action, then what right did he have in questioning Belldandy's trust in her own sister, her own flesh and blood? After all, they were both Norns. The Goddesses of Time. Their connections were so intertwined and deeply rooted that Keiichi could never understand the various workings of their relationship. So it was with no small amount of concern that Keiichi accepted Urd and Belldandy's course of action. Although he started to make some preparations of his own that he would keep secret from Belldandy. Because one just never knew.