Chapter 40

Kami-sama breathed a sigh of relief. "Now that Istvar is gone and the drama with the Interface Layer is settled, now we can get down to the business at hand."

Hild snorted loudly. "The business at hand can wait until I'm satisfied with the reason Kami-sama is here. I'm still plenty upset about this." She leered at Keiichi saying, "Well. Keiichi, boy. You missed my fireworks earlier. When are going to give me the deference and respect I deserve?"

Keiichi looked around at the devastation Hild caused to the temple, and said meekly. "Lady Hild. I am here to serve and obey you. How may I please you today?"

Hild said. "Well, I could let you seduce me until you begged for mercy, but I'm not in the mood to get on Belldandy's bad side right now, so I'll just settle for that trifle of a greeting." She turned her eye to Kami-sama. "Okay, old man. Once again. Why are you here? And make your excuse a good one. I didn't come all the way from Niflheim to play games with you."

While Hild continued her rant. Keiichi looked down at the ring in his hand. He knew that gold couldn't tarnish, but that's just what this ring did. Whatever magic he and Belldandy unleashed on the ring had done the impossible. He focused his magic on the band and allowed his essence to be transported into the metal as before. But instead of seeing Arvid's citadel with his spirit in the middle, all he could see was a dark and devastated expanse, like a house that was abandoned and waiting for demolition. And most importantly, he saw no sign of Arvid anywhere. It was as if once he was finished with dealing with Keiichi, he merely packed up and moved away. But Keiichi could tell that Arvid had not merely moved on. The vibrations of power indicated that Arvid had disappeared. Disappeared or did he die? Had he been punished for revealing Kami-sama's plan to Keiichi, or had he sacrificed himself, his mission now completed. Whatever happened, he was no longer part of the ring. Keiichi let himself feel a pang of grief for the loss of the spirit. He left the space and let his mind return to the Tea Room. When he re-emerged, Belldandy whispered to him.

"Keiichi, what did you see?"

"Arvid, the spirit of the ring, is gone."

"He left no sign?"

"No. Are you still under Special Significance about the rung?"

"No. As soon as you produced the cube, the ban was lifted. That's how I was able to say the spell with you."

" I just wonder what happened to Arvid?"

"We may never know. Kami-sama put him in there. The answer is his to give should he choose to."

Kami-sama cleared his throat to get everybody's attention. "Okay, everybody. I had come to Earth to speak to Keiichi and Belldandy about a special assignment I had for them. I originally wanted to speak with them alone, but…" He looked at Hild, who smirked back at him "Being that all the principals are already here, I might was well speak now. Ilse, Urd, the warning I gave you about the Eye of Heaven applies to this matter also."

Kami-sama cleared his throat again. "All of you know about how Heaven and Hell have been engaged in a battle for the hearts and minds of the humans on Earth. Goddesses and demons competing for the wishes of these frail beings. And until now, there has always been a kind of equilibrium between the two realms. Neither side gaining more than a slight advantage over the other. A few points either way. And so far the peace has been maintained. But I'm tired of maintaining the status quo. I want to turn the balance towards Heaven...permanently."

The color drained from the Goddesses faces. What could Kami-sama

be talking about? Each Goddess thought about what the Divine Ruler could be saying? If it was what they were thinking, things were going to get real bad real soon.

Bell whispered to Keiichi. "This doesn't sound good, Keiichi.

Kei responded. "Arvid told me of Kami-sama's plan. If this is what he says it is, we could be looking at war between Heaven and Hell."

Kami-sama said. "I am planning to establish a permanent outpost of Goddesses here on Earth. Keiichi and Belldandy will be in charge of this outpost. They will be my special liaisons and will report directly to me. They will be responsible for supervising a cohort of Goddesses who will be stationed here to grant wishes without having to go back to Heaven to check in. By being stationed on Earth permanently, they will be able to grant more wishes and thereby increasing Heaven's share."

Hild listened carefully to Kami-sama's plan, then said. "You're kidding, right?"

Kami-sama replied. "I could not be more serious."

"So, you want to create a permanent outpost on Earth to staff with a bunch of Goddesses so they can grant more wishes without having to traipse back to Heaven, am I right?"

"Yes." Kami-sama said. "I think it's a bold plan."

Hild burst out laughing hysterically.

Kami-sama showed a quick burst of anger. "I don't see anything funny here, Hild. If anything, I would think that you'd be quite concerned about this. I am essentially telling you that I intend to move in on your share of the wishes of these humans. I would have expected you to be angry and outraged about this."

Hild said. "You Heavenly types are so behind the curve. It's a wonder that you have the market share you have. Niflheim has had permanent outposts of Demons on earth for years, decades, centuries even. You people think that Marller is the only demon permanently assigned here?" Hild spread her arms wide. "I've got demons all over the place. The only reason that we haven't cleaned YOU out yet is that humans are more interested in the no-string-attached wishes that your Goddesses dole out. We don't roll like that.

"We demand something in return before we grant a human a wish. We're not giving the store away like you do." Hild continued. "While it's true that our form of contracts are more like what humans expect, they will always be attracted to the idea of getting something for nothing. But we have a business to run down in Hell, so we can't afford to give anything away. We even use something that you folks up in Heaven use. It helps us out so much. It's called...It's called…" Hild looked up at the ceiling and snapped her fingers as if she was trying to remember something that was on the tip of her tongue. "Umm, my minions know better than I do...umm, oh, yeah! The Wishes of Sympathetic Proximity Effect. But you know it as the Belldandy effect."

Kami-sama slowly turned his head towards Hild as he rumbled in a low menacing voice. "Hild what do YOU know about the Belldandy effect?" Enunciating every word.

Hild smartly answered. "That Belldandy here attracts wishes like nobody's business. And wherever she goes, a bunch of Goddesses follow her because they know that wherever Belldandy is, there are a bunch of humans who come up with wishes just by her being around. And it's only too easy to send some demons to the same places to go after any leftover potential contracts We clean up!"

Kami-sama didn't look thrilled that the Belldandy effect was being used against his Goddesses, but there wasn't anything he could do about it. It was perfectly legal for demons to go after the same clients as Goddesses. More than a few demons were able to snare contracts after Goddesses had determined that a particular client's wish went against the rules. Demons were not held to the same restrictions that Goddesses were held to. As long as a human could pay the demon's price, which could be very high indeed, any wish was fair game.

Ilse, who had said nothing for a long time piped up. "Kami-sama, how are you going to get around the restriction that forbids Goddesses from staying on the Earth on a permanent basis? Heavenly law forbids it."

What Ilse said was true. Before Keiichi and Belldandy forged their contract that allowed her to stay with Keiichi forever, Goddesses were allowed to stay on Earth for however long it took to grant the wish of a client. Some wishes could take years to fulfill. And Keiichi's wish for Belldandy to stay forever was not the first one to be granted. Many Goddesses found themselves in such long term contracts that Heaven started to get short-handed. But after their wish, the Heavenly council quickly decided that Goddesses could not take on wishes that took more than 30 days to grant. But more than a few Goddesses took advantage of a loophole in the law that allowed that 30 day period to be reset if they returned to Heaven for one day to check in and update Yggdrasil of their progress.

And the council, as was its wont, hadn't gotten around to amending the law. Keiichi and Belldandy were grandfathered in, so they were not affected by the 30 day period. But Belldandy being Belldandy, she continued to come to Heaven for a day to check in and receive new orders. Even though Belldandy was living on Earth full-time with Keiichi, she was still a working field Goddess who took on a substantial caseload of wishes. Most of them were the kinds that could be granted in a day or so while Keiichi was asleep or otherwise indisposed, or they were within Bell's capabilities if she split off parts of herself to fulfill them. Bell could handle dozens of wishes in that fashion. And her statistics had shown that she hadn't missed a step. She still led most categories as well as placing very highly in others. Her performance ratings were still off the charts and she held the highest grades in customer satisfaction.

Kami-sama leveled his gaze at Ilse and said. "I don't foresee a problem with this situation. I can talk to council and declare that I am changing the law to accommodate the outpost. While I am Absolute Ruler of Heaven, I don't rule absolutely. There are certain things where I defer my authority to act to council and others where I can act on my own. And setting up this outpost is one of those occurrences. All I have to do is to tell the council what I am doing, invoke my authority to act unilaterally and there's nothing they can do about it. There may be some grumbling and complaining, but they will eventually come along.

He then turned to Hild and said. "Hild. So you don't seem to have a problem with what I'm proposing?"

Hild said. "No, old man. If you want to establish a permanent outpost of Goddesses here at the temple to try and compete with us, you're more than welcome to try. There's nothing I can do to stop you. You should understand that we will stop at nothing to make this little competition as cutthroat as possible. By doing this, you're raising the stakes on this game. I just hope that you know what you're doing and what you're willing to lose."

Kami-sama said "Don't worry, Hild. I know exactly what I'm doing. Now, If you don't mind, I would appreciate it greatly if you were to excuse us. You wanted to know why I was here? I just told you. Have a nice trip back to Niflheim...and, I would appreciate it if you fixed what you had broken when you arrived."

Hild stood up, stretched her black leather-clothed body suggestively enough to make Keiichi do a double take whilst gaping at her 'curves in all the right places', blew him a kiss and said. "Okay, I'll take my leave. Be careful what you wish for, Kami-sama. You just might get it." She tipped the Almighty One a wink and as she left, she waved her hand casually, and all the destruction she caused as she arrived was cleaned up. A few seconds later, there was no evidence that Hild had wrecked the temple.

Hild entered the courtyard, summoned the Niflheim Gate, strode through it and immediately found herself back in the throne room of her Infernal Domain. As the gate spun back into non-existence, she sat on her throne, turned to a jet-black telephone next to the obsidian chair and spoke into the receiver.

"This is Hild. Bring Torvald to my throne room immediately."

Chapter 41

Hild sat on her obsidian throne impatiently waiting for her demon security to bring Torvald to her. She sat casually, legs crossed. She was still wearing the skintight black leather jumpsuit, although she pulled down the front zipper a few more inches to reveal more of her bodacious cleavage. If Kami-sama preferred the interior of his Palace to be featureless and pure white, Hild was the antithesis. The walls of her throne room were a deep colorless black. Everything in the room was black, from her throne, which sat on a high platform with three steps, to the walls which were inscribed with vivid and disturbing carvings of demons inflicting all sorts of perversions and cruelties on their human captives. The only sources of light in the room were the four sconces containing spirit lamps that were attached to the four walls, and the overhead lamp that hung directly over Hild's throne projecting a red spotlight on the throne and its occupant.

Hild was not one who liked to be kept waiting, and she was thinking of a suitable punishment to inflict on her security goons when the door to the room opened and the guards in question hauled in a gaunt, thin and mousy looking demon. They pushed him into the room and left without saying a word.

Hild stood up, dismounted the platform and stood before the bedraggled Torvald. No doubt that he was confused, not a little disoriented, and wondering what he had done to be sprung from his cell.

It had been fifty years since Torvald had entered his rooms deep in the bowels of Niflheim. He had assured Hild that even though his cell had no door nor guards to watch over him, he had no desire to escape. He just wanted to be left alone to pursue his forbidden experiments and rituals. And to his credit, he kept his word. He was never tempted to leave his abode. He had only to walk out the door and ascend back to taking his place amongst his demonic comrades, but he never did. The temptation to leave was never visited upon him. He was perfectly willing to stay where he was.

He voluntarily went into seclusion rather than face the mocking wrath of Demonkind after he lost face being embarrassed after he professed his love for the Daimaikaicho. After repeated love making episodes in Hild's bed, he boldly expressed his feelings to Hild only to have her outright reject him. She only desired Torvald as a sexual object to possess, and was not interested in the least in pursuing a relationship with Torvald, or anyone else, for that matter. Hild didn't want any relationship to get in the way of her running Hell, and she did not want said relationship to be used against her by potential enemies. Of which, there was no shortage. There were plenty of demons who did not cotton to how Hild was running Niflheim and there were always plots and schemes afoot to wrest the throne away from her. But Hild ran Hell with a combination of the iron fist in a velvet glove, although she occasionally forgot the glove.

Torvald entered the throne room with his eyes squarely facing the ground. While he still professed a love for Hild, he also knew what it was like to face her wrath.

"Look at me, Torvald" Hild said. She reached out, gently touched his chin and lifted his head up. She could see in his eyes a look of defeat and subjugation. But looking deeper, she could also see the Rage that gave him the raw material to feed his formidable magical power. Torvald, despite his hopeless appearance was still the most powerful Rage Magician in Niflheim. The only one of his kind who could handle the highly effective, yet emotionally corrosive magic without going mad. He could tap into the seemingly limitless pool of Rage deeply below the surface of his emotions and turn it into the fuel to power the most devastating spells. But Rage magic also tended to cause its practitioners to lose all other emotions other than Rage to the extent that they could not function in normal Demonic society. Rage Magicians would sacrifice all other emotions, even happiness, joy, sadness, and empathy in order to feed the Rage within. In the end, all they had left was the all consuming Rage, and Rage burned hot, but also burned quickly. Most Rage Magicians only lasted a few months, the best, a year or two before the Rage consumed them utterly.

But Torvald was able to last fifty years keeping the Rage contained with him.

Torvald spoke. "My Queen, how may I, your loathsome servant serve you?"

Hild replied. "I have an assignment that requires your special set of skills. Do you remember a certain Keiichi Morisato?"

"Of course." Torvald said with increasing boldness. "I had such a great time tormenting him and using little Skuld…"

"And you know that you did that without my permission, which is why I had to punish you."

"Yes, Lady Hild. I still bear the scars and pain of that punishment."

"Of course you do, Torvald. But what if I were to tell you that you have a chance to redeem yourself in my eyes by going after Keiichi again, this time with my full blessing? How do you feel about that?"

"To be honored with such a task would please me greatly, Lady Hild."

"Here's the situation. Kami-sama has come up with the idea of creating a permanent outpost on Earth staffed with Goddesses to grant wishes to the humans without going to Heaven. He has assigned Keiichi and Belldandy to be his liaisons for this outpost. What I want you to do is to attack the outpost and destroy it."

Torvald said. "Seems like a simple enough plan. Why do you need me to do it? Can't you take this on yourself?"

Hild looked Torvald in the eye and said. "Because, the last couple of times I tried to attack Keiichi and those Goddesses, I met with defeat. There's something about that Keiichi that makes it hard for me to prevail against him. I think it has to do with Belldandy. Somehow, she just influences him in a way that I can't understand or overcome. But this time, instead of taking over his mind or using Rage Tokens, I want you to meet him face to face. Let him see the depths of your rage in person. I want you to hold nothing back. Use your most powerful Rage spells. I want you to not only destroy the outpost, I want you to destroy Keiichi Morisato."

"Do you mean…"

"Yes, Torvald. I want you to kill him."

"But what about the doublet system? Won't we be sacrificing one of our own demons also?"

"No, Torvald. Keiichi has not yet been assigned a doublet. He is still new to being a God. He has yet to go through the ceremony."

"What about the Goddesses, especially Belldandy?"

"I have a way to get them conveniently out of the way. I still have a few moles in Heaven who can make up a fake summons or two."

Hild reached inside her jumpsuit and pulled a message cube from her cleavage. She handed it to him saying. "And use this against Keiichi. It may give you an important edge."

Torvald took the cube and held it against his face feeling the heat from Hild's breasts radiating from the cube. "Consider it done, my Queen. I will utterly destroy that hybrid and his outpost."

Hild stepped closer to Torvald until there was no space between them, her breasts pushing hard against his chest. He could feel her hot breath as well as her raw sex appeal washing over him. He felt himself getting aroused and overflowing with desire. She said lustfully. "And, to provide you with a little incentive…"

She pulled her jumpsuit zipper down to her navel, turned around and with a beckoning of her finger, she sashayed sexily behind her throne, her curvaceous butt swaying erotically, pushed a hidden button on the wall, which caused it to open up revealing a lavish bedroom dressed all in red. In the middle of the room sat a queen sized bed. She pulled back the covers, tapped the bed and said huskily. "I hope you get the message." She then pulled off the leather jumpsuit, wearing nothing underneath.

Torvald got the message.

Back at the temple, Kami-sama and the Goddesses were still talking about the plans for the outpost.

Kami-sama said. "I will be sending the equipment for connecting to Yggdrasil so the Goddesses can check in here in a few days. We will start with about twenty Goddesses at first. Depending on how well the project goes, we'll add more as needed."

Turning to Keiichi, The Exalted One said. "You and Belldandy will be responsible to get the Goddesses acquainted with Earth customs, as well as finding them room and board. Don't worry about expenses, believe it or not, Heaven actually has a source of funding on Earth which is more than enough to take care of any financial issues you may have. Ilse will be the Special Cases representative for this outpost. She will take care of the more unusual wishes you may come across. Urd and Skuld will also be available to take care of anything you may need. If you have any questions or concerns, you can contact me directly. I am the only one you will report to. No need to access the chain of command.

"Are there any questions for me right now?"

Keiichi said. "Kami-sama, please do not take this as a form of disrespect. But I wish to go on the record and state that while I take on this responsibility willingly and I appreciate the confidence you've placed in me and Belldandy for operating this outpost, I have concerns about it."

Kami-sama said. "What concerns do you have?"

Keiichi said with a touch of worry. "I'm worried about Hild. She left here seemingly not worried about this outpost. You told her directly that you were going after her share of contracts with humans. I expected her to put up much more of a protest or some outrage. Arvid told me when I was talking with him that this idea could cause a war between Heaven and Hell. He was very much against this project and he said that you put his spirit into the ring as punishment for opposing you. I have to admit that I share Arvid's position. I am very worried that Hild has something up her sleeve that she will pull to try to disrupt this outpost."

Kami-sama stroked his beard and patiently responded. "I understand your concern, Keiichi. And I too do not trust Hild to go along with this plan. I fully expect her to treat this as a declaration of war. I expect her to fight this plan with every fiber of her being. And I regret that you and Belldandy will be in her crosshairs. I admit that I acted rashly against Arvid when I punished him. I listened to his objections, and I understand where he is coming from.

"But I feel that it is important that we make this bold move against Hild and Hell. You've seen how the Earth has gone through so many natural and man-made disasters. You live in Japan, which has had its share of earthquakes and tsunamis. You've seen how terrorists have attacked innocent people and destroyed property. You've seen wars and conflicts cover the Earth in the blood of the innocents. You've seen governments and corporations being corrupted. Humanity doing such evil things to humanity. All these are as a result of evil people making these contracts with Hild's demons. Demons don't act the way Goddesses do, they are not subject to the rule that says that they cannot accept wishes that negatively affect the Earth. They'll contract with anyone who'll give them something in return. I cannot have my Goddesses doing things like that. Heaven is supposed to stand for the good in the world, not the evil. So this is why we are embarking on this drastic effort. We need to bring sanity back to the world."

Kami-sama stood up and said to all. "It is time for me to go back to Heaven. There is much work I still have to do. But I leave you with one final pronouncement. This is for your ears only." He paused and said with resignation. "Another reason why I am setting up this outpost is to test you, Keiichi Morisato."

"Test me?" Keiichi exclaimed. "Why?"

"Because if you can make this outpost work, your success will tell me that you are ready for a much bigger and important task. You see, I am getting weary of running Heaven. I tire of the politics and all the hassles. Heaven needs a new leader with fresh ideas, fresh thoughts. A new Kami-sama. Some time soon, I don't know when, I will step down as Kami-sama. And Heaven will appoint a new Almighty One."

"Who?"

Pointing at Keiichi, Kami-sama said with finality. "You, Keiichi Morisato. You!"