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The Vain Rose's Garden	By : h3nta1fun Category: +. to F > Ah My Goddess Views: 23960 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 3
Disclaimer: I do not own the Ah!/Oh! My goddess series. This is not made for profit.

Chapter List
- 10
- 11
- 12
Before I start with the chapter, I'd like to thank everyone who decided to follow this story as well as comment on it on all the sites I'm posting it. And I want to further reassure you that I've got no intention to simply abandon this without any further notice, even if updates might be somewhat slow (as it seems to be the norm by now). The average chapter here is much longer compared to other stories and as such, they cover 3-4 times the amount of content I would've covered with a lot more frequent releases.
Also, I'd like to offer a big thanks to TheSinful (from tvtropes) who apparently added several records to the tvtropes site about my story. I'm quite surprised that there are any references to my work on such a site, so, big kudos to you!
Speaking of kudos, I'd also like to thank FlummoxedCentipede from archiveofourown for the time and effort put into those astonishingly lengthy reviews they've left for this story. In all honesty, I haven't personally seen anyone post such lengthy and detailed reviews anywhere, and we might be having a record-breaker here. Well, at least as far as this particular fandom is concerned.
The sites I'm releasing (under the same username) this story are: Hentai Foundry, Adult Fanfiction and Archive of our own. Technically speaking the main site is Hentai Foundry, where I originally posted this story, but you can follow/read it on the other sites too. I generally check them on a regular basis and if you wish to leave some feedback, feel free to comment on any of them.
Additionally, I've created a feedback forum post on both Hentai Foundry and Adult Fanfiction, where you can ask or discuss about the story, if you're reluctant to do so in the comment section. Also, one more thing to note is that the forum in Adult Fanfiction allows guest to post without the need for making an account there, so if anyone wishes to ask me anything (yet without the hassle of joining some site, even if it's for free), that's the best place to do. Constructive criticism is always welcome.
An important notice is that Skuld is an adult here, not the young girl she's in the actual series.
And for the necessary legal disclaimer:
I don't own the Ah!/Oh! my goddess series. This is not made for profit.
xXx
Hell
"Councilor Styrkr! It's such a pleasure to meet you again!" Cordial as ever, the leader of Hell outstretched her arms to invite one of her oldest supporters for a friendly hug that the other demon eagerly returned, much to his son's embarrassment, and even fear. After all, the way his father was greeting the CEO of Hell was a bit too forward for his comfort, and the moment Hild leaned in for a quick peck on the lips, almost made the demon youngster to jump out of his skin.
Still, none of that was of any concern to Styrkr, who merely returned Hild's playful kiss with one of his own, and then even reached around to cheekily squeeze her rear, as this was apparently a tradition whenever they greeted one another; in private, of course. "The pleasure is all mine, lady Hild. It's been years since I had a chance to meet you again like this, my ladyship."
"Now, now… Styrkr, I know that you missed me, but… let's not get ahead of ourselves," chided Hild in a low, sensual purr that caused goosebumps to the two demons in her presence. Offering the affectionate councilor another kiss, yet one that lasted considerably longer than the previous one, she studied his son's stunned expression and couldn't help but grin in satisfaction. Finally, pulling away from the kiss, Hild turned to properly address the demonic youngster, and soon a smile formed in her lips. "My, my… you've grown up to become a fine young man, Stein. Ah, I can still remember you being a little kid, running around your parent's villa."
"Uh… I… It's my pleasure to meet you again, lady Hild," said the nervous demon, before he saw Hild let go of his father and began to approach him. As a matter of fact, it was too hard to maintain eye contact with her for too long without losing his composure, and thus lowered his gaze. Only to realize that Hild's delightfully plump bosom was way closer to his face all of a sudden, and before he even knew what happened, Stein found himself in a very familiar situation; one that he experienced not too long ago, when the Norn of the past pushed her breasts right against his face. 'Oh… Hell! These are… at least as good as Urd's funbags! What a family!'
Letting out a chuckle as she brushed the youngster's hair, while she maintained her grip on him, Hild looked over at his smiling father, who most certainly was proud of his boy's newfound popularity. "If I remember correctly, today is his birthday, right?"
"Indeed, my lady! And not just that, but today, he's officially coming of age, too," proudly declared Styrkr, only to lose much of that pride as he added in a quieter voice. "Although… still a virgin."
"What the Hell, dad?! Why is that detail even relevant?!" cried the demonic youth, as he barely managed to dislodge his face from Hild's bosom for long enough to protest, before his captor pushed him back in.
"Hush! Demon or not, you should show respect to your elders. And that goes twice for your parents," scolded Hild, even though she stroked Stein's hair in a rather calm manner. "Besides, I believe it's a crime for a fine lad as yourself to have never experiences sex at least once in your life. Actually, if the news you bring me are good… I might go ahead and let you pop your cherry with me."
The younger demon's eyes went wide in shock, as he never even imagined having an opportunity to sleep with Hild, of all demonesses, let alone on his first time too. However, his father did a much better job at keeping his cool, offering Hild a cordial bow, as a gesture of his gratitude. "That would be simply marvelous, my lady."
"Oh, come on, Styrkr! Enough with the formalities, already. Just call me by name when we're alone," chided Hild with a theatrical pout, much to Stein's surprise, as he never thought that his father was so close to the CEO to refer to her by name alone.
"As you wish… Hild," said Strykr with a clearly nostalgic, yet somewhat sad tone in his voice. "It sure brings back memories. And maybe… makes me feel really old, when I realize how long ago that was."
"It sure does. But be careful there, old timer… I'm also part of those memories, so don't go ahead and say things about my age." Though playful, Hild's voice retained a certain sense of seriousness that made it hard to completely dismiss her words as a complete joke, even when she merely pulled someone's leg.
As such, the councilor did his best to avoid pushing his luck even further, and merely changed the topic. "I wouldn't even dream of that. Besides, I didn't come here to talk about the past, either. You see, it's been forever since I saw your little girl, and she's grown up to be a fine goddess; in every sense of the word."
"Why you, dirty old man!" laughed Hild, as she walked towards the minibar she had in her living room to pour a glass of fine booze for all three of them. "Did you gave my Urdy's ass a check, too?"
"Do you even have to ask? Of course I'd fondle a fine, bubble bottom when I see one! After all, she was nice enough to offer my boy a birthday present, by rubbing her titties against his face!" laughed the deceptively young looking demon, considering that he didn't appear any older than Hild, even though he was roughly twice her age; if not more. "You should've seen my poor Stein! All blushy, and stammering for long after she left, too!"
"Dad?! What's the point of bringing this up?! Actually, do you even think that you should be saying this to begin with?!" objected the furiously blushing youth, although he could also feel a sense of dread from his father's unspeakable breach of protocol.
"Calm yourself down, Stein dear," soothingly said Hild, taking a seat right between the troubled youth and his father, but not before she took a long sip from her whiskey. "We've known each other for a very long time, your father and me. So, it's alright to be a bit familiar when no one else is present, don't you think?"
Offering a rather stiff nod, Stein tried to keep his eyes up, and avoid staring at the demoness' breasts, that he could definitely feel against his left arm, as she deliberately leaned against him. "If… you say so, lady Hild." Unconsciously, the boy tried to put some safe distance between himself and his boss, considering that despite everything, he was still too fearful of breaking protocol by acting too friendly towards Hild, and in the process end up insulting her. Yet no matter how afraid he was, it was far too difficult to take his eyes off hers, feeling those purple orbs swallow him up, as her intense gaze almost touched him in ways he never thought possible. However, it didn't last forever, as Hild eventually broke eye contact and turned back to his father.
"Before we have any fun… how about we get down to business?" asked Hild in a much more serious tone than before, causing her councilor to sober up accordingly too. "I take it that my daughter's debut was a success, but even then, that's nothing more than a temporary measure. We need another solution, and fast."
"That we do," agreed Strykr with a heavy sigh. "Unfortunately, the simplest solutions may seem incompatible with the prospect of allowing your daughter to stay on Earth. Then again, having her work as a stripper is far from ideal either. So, I was wondering if doing the same with them could help us balance out the market shares."
"Do the same? You can't possibly mean having a guy get his harem of demonesses. I seriously doubt that we'll find the proper candidate for such a thing." said Hild with some hesitation towards the end, as she did found the idea to be rather intriguing, although at the same time it was a rather questionable plan. "Actually, even if we do find the proper mortal to become our 'Keiichi' so to speak, few demonesses might consider a good guy to be what they want as a lover. Sure, there will be more than enough willing to screw around with a mortal, but it's unlikely that they'll stick around for too long. Besides, I really don't want to start a new trend that in the worst case could degenerate in outright whoring our people for contracts. It's one thing to allow some fun, and a totally different matter to make it into an obligation, or even the easy way to make a profit."
"I'll have to admit that the thought crossed my mind. At least as far as those goddesses' involvement with that mortal is concerned. Still, I'm convinced that this is merely a coincidence, but… if we try to counter this in the same manner, I'm afraid that we might escalate this to something we'd rather not want to deal with. Not only that, but if that came to be, then the general populate won't think highly of you, lady Hild."
The demoness offered a slow nod as she got up and prepared to refill her glass, when a knock on the door caught her attention. And considering that she made it absolutely clear that she was not to be disturbed, unless it was an emergency, it didn't take long for her to wonder just what happened now. After all, she was well aware of Hagall's little… attempt to woo Tyr, so it was far from impossible that Ansuz wished to give the blonde a piece of her mind. "Oh great… Sorry gentlemen, but I need to see what's going on," said the demon CEO in a semi serious tone, given that she had no reason to assume that this was an actual emergency. "I don't think it'll take too long, so sit tight for a while. I'll be back before you miss me."
xXx
Inside Hild's living room, the two demons patiently awaited for their CEO's return, as the latter had yet to return from her inner chambers, where she took off, in order to discuss whatever matters were involved behind that unexpected call. Of course with her being in charge of Hell, it was no big surprise that she wasn't allowed to be off duty, at any given time, especially when emergencies were concerned.
But after the first couple minutes of silence, Stein couldn't quite wait anymore to ask what was really eating him right now. With all that stuff from before, the demon had to admit how little he understood his father's relationship with their leader, given that he never thought that they would be this familiar with one another. "Father, can I ask you something?"
"Sure, go ahead," replied Styrkr, even though he had a very good idea what this was all about. "Since we're alone, I don't see why we can't use our spare time in a productive manner."
"How did you come to know lady HIld?"
Letting out a sigh, as his hunch was proven to be right, Styrkr reached across the coffee table to grab the bottle Hild had left there, and refilled his glass, before looking at his son. "It's a very long story, but, I suppose I can give you the short version. You see, Hild is... the daughter of two good friends of mine, back from my own younger days. They were really powerful demons, you know, and easily found themselves in the highest ranking positions of our armed forces. But those were turbulent times, and wars were kind of a reality, especially when it was the easiest way to resolve our problems with the gods. And what started out as a series of skirmishes, soon evolved into an all out war, to the point where we had to draft all able hands to the army. We even had to construct a whole district specifically to act as barracks and storage facilities for our militia. It was really that bad."
"Wait, I've read about that. It's the same place where we've got the red light district today, right?" asked Stein, only to receive a knowing nod from his father.
"That's correct. Most of those buildings were meant to house the soldiers, in order to have them ready at all times, rather than looking all over the place for them. You could even say… it was to keep them from running away, too. And over time it became the perfect place to open up bars, and other similar businesses, all for the sake of entertaining the guys and gals that were stationed there. Anyways… back to what I was originally saying. I've met Hild when her parents were about to head out to a campaign in the mortal realm. Back then, I was merely a secretary working for the council, and was assigned to assist the armed forces with maintaining the logistics. For the most part, I had no friends there, as most of the lower ranked troops hated me for having a cozy, safe job while they risked their necks for the rest of us. Still, some of the higher ups knew that war wasn't just about bashing your enemy's brains out, but also required someone to handle the logistics, as well as the rest of that boring stuff. And that's how I've met Hild's parents. She was barely a toddler herself when we departed for the mortal realm, but due to her young age, she was left in a state daycare, along with other kids whose parents were also mobilized."
"I see…" Actually, the truth was that he had real trouble even imagining their almighty ruler being that young; let alone left in such a place, but then again, it was public knowledge that Hild didn't have an easy childhood. "Then? What happened next?"
"Don't you youngsters read history anymore?" shot Styrkr back at his son, causing the boy to slightly back off a bit, but soon relaxed, as it wasn't the time to get upset with him. "I would recommend you to check it out later, but the short version is that we won the battle, yet lost the war. Actually… it was more of a draw, although I beg to differ. Even at best, I'd call it a pyrrhic victory. The gods launched a surprise attack, and got most of our command in one swept move, yet… the losses they suffered were terrible. By the end of the day it was actually hard to tell who actually won. By sheer numbers I'd say that we did win that fight, yet out campaign was a failure. We withdrew the next day… no, we run away, but the high command declared it a victory to avoid damaging our morale. Unfortunately, Hild's parents were part of the losses that day, even though they took many as they went down. The few that actually made it out of there were paraded as heroes; myself included."
"Wait, you never told me that you were a war hero!"
"Because I wasn't!" bitterly spat Styrkr, taking his eyes off his son for a moment, and back onto his drink. "I was a survivor. Nothing more, nothing less. But people back then wanted to celebrate that 'success' and put me and few others on a pedestal, just to make the masses happy. And it wasn't just that, but they offered us some good promotions, fitting for heroes. It really shames me to admit it, yet back then I… grabbed the opportunity when it was offered to me. That's how I've made it to the Council. Sure, I saw some action during that incident, but I can't say that I did anything other than keeping my sorry ass alive. Which is exactly what I didn't want to tell you, either. Still, I've felt that I owned the rest of us something from getting that position, so I devoted myself to the restoration effort. Our economy… no, our whole realm was in shambles after that war, and the same went for Heavens as well. The progress was painfully slow, though. The restrictions imposed to both sides proved to be so harsh, that I've lost count how many years it took us to get everything up and running again. And to be honest, I kind of forgot about her during those dark decades. It was only when I became so frustrated with my job, that I run into her into the most unexpected of locations: the same cabaret I took you earlier."
"Whoa! Hold on a second!..." said the astonished demon, as he stared at his father in sheer disbelief. "You don't mean she was…"
"Working there? She sure was," said Styrkr with a heavy sigh. "Apparently she had just gotten of age, and without any other options at the time, she decided to give it a go as a dancer at that cabaret. It was actually her first night there, when I met her, and barely even managed to recognize her. Well, I suppose that was to be expected, since the last time I've seen Hild, was back when she was still a little kid. And boy… had she grown up quite a bit in the meantime; filled out in all the right places, too. So, I couldn't help it and stayed for the show. I can't say it was the best performance I've seen, given that despite her drop dead gorgeous looks and sex appeal, Hild didn't quite know how to project her sensuality at the time. Sure, it wasn't a bad show for sure, just mediocre by everyone's standards. At the end of it, the dancers were waiting in the main hall, dressed in just their lingerie for any of the customers to solicit them. I've seen a few approach Hild, but all backed off as if their lives depended on it. And while I had other reasons to talk to her, I kind of acted like anyone else and asked her what she wanted for a night with her…"
"A… night…. with lady Hild?" At this point, Stein couldn't hide his curiosity any longer, even though he feared that whatever transpired between his father and Hild. "Did… did you screw her?"
"I wish I did… But she screwed me, instead," shamefully admitted Styrkr, only to notice the astonishment in his son's face, who was simply gawking at him. Still, it didn't take him far too long to realize what was the problem here, and all but shouted at his son, in sheer anger and frustration. "I was speaking metaphorically, you dolt!"
"Hey, it's alright, dad!... I… I don't judge! I mean, mom's a lesbian, so-"
"Thank you for reminding me that, too!" As much as he loved Nali, and she returned those feelings of affection, it was no huge secret that their relationship was mostly a platonic one, since his darling wife wasn't actually into men at all. Of course, that caused a big issue when they wanted to have a child, but thankfully Nali was willing to make an exception, as long as it happened in the middle of a hot foursome with two other lovely ladies. It was also why Nali wasn't terribly worried about her husband's closeness to Hild, although she was definitely not willing to share as long as relationships were concerned; only allowing him to have sex with a few demonesses of her choice. Still, they did get along, and that's what really mattered to Styrkr, even if their love life was a lot more complicated than he would've preferred. "Anyway… stop interrupting me with nonsense. Now where was I?..."
"You've mentioned asking lady Hild for a night, after her performance."
"Right! That's it! Although… that's what I wanted to think anyway. You see, that girl was too shrewd for most of us, and the whole reason why she wished to work there was to audit a potential employer for her. After all, it was no secret that upper class demons frequented such places, and this was the finest opportunity for her to charm her way into getting hired by the best candidate she could find."
"Hired as… what?" asked Stein with bated breath, almost too afraid as to the answer. After all, he was one massive fan of the CEO's, and even though the other involved party happened to be his own father, Stein sure didn't wish to hear about his idol being debased like that.
"A maid, apparently. She even made her own cutesy, itsy bitsy uniform, and wrote a ten page legal contract that covered all of her duties, as well as the binding restrictions imposed on her prospective employer." It was due to that particular part of the story that Styrkr didn't wish to tell his son about this whole thing to begin with, but considering that it was much better if he heard of it from him -rather than Hild herself- the councilor did his best to minimise the damage. "I tried to read the whole document, and for the most part it was pretty standard stuff. But… somewhere between the distractions of everything else going on around us, and Hild's acting the cutesy maid role, I must've skipped a page or two."
"Father? That's…"
"I know, I know! It was very unprofessional of me. But that's exactly why I don't normally sign anything in a place full of scantily clad demonesses, and with someone like Hild acting the whole cutesy maid routine. So, I kind of accepted the deal, even though I later realized that her wage was ten times the norm for a live-in maid, especially when she only listed herself as a part timer. And that's not the worst of it, either! I was supposed to hire mentors to allow her to expand her skillset, even though I couldn't do as much as touch her anywhere funny!"
"In other words… you didn't exactly hire a maid, you got yourself a live-in... apprentice. As expected of lady Hild, even back then she was quite devious and charismatic," said Stein, feeling his admiration for their leader grow, despite the slight glare he was getting from his father, who more or less admitted of falling victim of Hild's scheme to find herself a sponsor for her personal education.
"Try to sound a bit more sympathetic for your poor father, will you?" muttered Styrkr, even though it was obvious by the tone of his voice that he didn't take offense by his son's words. "Anyways, the rest is pretty much as it's described by history books. I did my best to help her reach her full potential, and soon enough it was hard for anyone to deny her power. In little to no time, Hild became known as the ultimate success story for all demonesses, considering how she rose so fast in our society's ranks without taking crap from anyone. After all, I didn't try to find ways around her contract, just to get some from her, and that was something that eventually got her to trust me. Even after she left my employment and gained a rather successful job as an administrator, I tried to give her a hand whenever I could, which is why we became friends of sort. Sure, she knew that I had a thing for her, but I never pushed her, and neither did she attempt to exploit that to her own profit. And before I even knew it, she actually ended up outranking me, taking control of the Council in less than a millennium of joining in; quite the feat by anyone's standards."
"Yes, I can actually recognize that from the history books, father," said Stein with a smile, although it didn't take him long to realize that something was still amiss. "However, I don't think you've actually told me about you and her. I mean… I get that you liked her and all, but so far it sounded like a one side thing. So, what was all that kissing from before?"
"Ah… that's a rather unpleasant chapter of her life, I suppose. I can't quite say as much as I'd like, given that it's not my business, but it all started after a mere century of becoming our leader. At the time she was the textbook example of the successful demoness, until… she found a boyfriend. Sure, there were more than enough wanna be suitors for her, and perhaps I even hoped for it myself too, but in the end she fell for a god. Now that was a near disaster, almost ending her career in the wake of that scandal."
"Was it really that bad?" asked the young demon with a frown, finding it strange for someone that successful to face such hardships, only because of her choice of a date.
"Like I said, it's Hild's business, so I won't say anything too much. Still, it's the way our society works. Even though she was highly successful, there were those in the Council who'd definitely take her place. Especially once the situation was stable, and they didn't need to deal with the mess she inherited. So, they exaggerated about the whole deal, making it sound as if our CEO had been seduced by the lord of the gods, who used her as a pawn to rule us as well. It was all garbage, but the masses didn't know her well enough to dismiss all that, and as a result Hild faced a lot of pressure to put an end to that relationship. Plus, the timing was bad too. It was soon after the implementation of the Doublet System, which was controversial on its own. Of course, we all saw the need for that cruel measure, as the death toll from all the wars of the past was too great to be dismissed that easily, and no treaty lasted forever. Yet, those who still felt sore about it, jumped the hatewagon and caused a lot of fuss over nothing at all. In the end, I ended up being summoned -just like tonight- and the conversation we had, was eerily similar with what we've been talking about earlier."
"You mean… finding a boyfriend for her?"
"In a manner of speaking. Either that, or stop seeing Tyr altogether. However, Hild wasn't going to have any of that, so she proposed to go with the phony boyfriend idea, and while she didn't seem happy to ask me for my assistance, she claimed that there were few others she could trust with it. And though it hurts my pride as a demon to say this, I sort of accepted her offer, fully knowing that it was going to be a front to keep seeing Tyr behind the scenes." The councilor paused for a moment to finish off his drink, before placing the now empty glass on the coffee table, although it was all for the sake of recomposing himself. He too had both good and bad memories from that whole mess, even though he sometimes couldn't draw a fine line between them. "I won't bore you with the details, but the deities also didn't like Tyr's dealings with Hild one bit either. So, when we started the whole make-believe relationship of ours, not only our people, but a lot of deities seemed to be really happy about that development. I suppose more than enough of them suspected that it was all for show, yet they probably expected that jealousy would eventually ruin things anyway, so in the end, it didn't matter how those two separated."
"Hm… Still, wasn't it the gods' fault that they split up? I don't recall the details, but I'm almost sure I read about it, before."
"You're correct," said Styrkr as he let out a heavy sigh. "Even though our people were content to know that sooner or later, lady Hild would have no other option but to give up on that relationship, the deities were far less generous than that. They wanted Tyr's unacceptable affair to get over as soon as possible, so they coerced him to authorise a test that was meant to evaluate such relationships. However, it was soon proven to be nigh impossible to pass, as its first few failed attempts made by unsuspecting couples of all descriptions, convinced them that it was better to avoid giving it a try. In the end, lady Hild chose to give up to avoid having the Judgment Gate's restrictions placed upon her and Tyr. Still, that didn't stop her from having Urd, and once that the whole thing was all but forgotten, she more or less went back at having an affair with him."
"Until now. So, more or less, it's like history repeating itself," concluded Stein, watching his father offer him a solemn nod.
"It sure looks like it, doesn't it? Still, not everything's the same. The mere presence of Urd, as well as her sisters and their dealings with that mortal are all new factors in this game of sorts. Which only means that the whole situation is more unstable and complicated than before. Even though the Judgment Test is no longer an obstacle, what's happening right now is potentially more problematic than we may think, as it gives people an excuse to make a big fuss over nothing."
At that moment, the door opened so abruptly that the two demons nearly jumped from their surprise as Hild marched inside, and judging by the looks of it, she was not happy at all. "Lady Hild, what's the matter?" asked Styrkr as diplomatically as he could, given that her displeasure was clearly painted on her face.
"My daughter apparently went missing, that's what happened!" barked Hild back at her councilor, causing the latter's son to freeze from the sheer intensity of her gaze. Yet, either Hild didn't take notice or simply didn't care, as she was too angry to bother herself with such matter right now. "It seems that she never returned home after the end of that show, and neither did she tell anyone why."
"That's… disconcerting to say the least. Perhaps it would be better if we launch a search? Although I can't see who might be foolish enough to try to do something to her, it's better to find out what happened," suggested the councilor, but Hild was already one step ahead.
"I've just ordered that. Which is also why we'll have to cut this meeting short. I need to get over there and see what's going on," said Hild, until she remembered about the younger demon and shot him an apologetic glance. "It seems that today's not your lucky day, Stein. Perhaps we can spend some time on another occasion."
"Of course, lady Hild! It's perfectly understandable!" Despite his own disappointment at this development, Stein knew that having fun was the last thing in Hild's mind right now. Still, as he and his father prepared to leave, it only seemed fitting to offer his assistance, rather than walk away as if this wasn't his concern. Even if he didn't accomplish anything, it was still better to give it a try, instead of showing indifference. "Um… lady Hild?... If it's alright with you, I'd like to participate in the search as well."
For a moment, Hild seemed rather confused as she was searching through her phone's contacts to summon some of her most trusted subordinates, when the younger demon made that request. It actually took her a few seconds to consider whether she wanted him to tag along or not, but in the end, she reasoned that having an extra set of eyes wouldn't hurt, and offered him a nod. "Very well. Just follow me, and pay attention to what I'm saying."
"Yes, my lady!"
xXx
Earth
Just keeping herself upright was a major task for the stumbling half goddess who barely managed to make it back home. She wasn't even sure how she got here in the first place, as her memories were somewhat… hazy at the moment, with the last thing she could vividly recall was waking up in a dark alley in Hell. Of course, that by itself was worrisome, as she had no delusions that falling asleep at a place like that was extremely dangerous, yet she somehow managed to make it unscathed. After all, Urd took the time to search her body for any signs of recent sexual activity, and much to her relief there was none. At least nothing that took place while she was on Hell.
Unfortunately, as more memories of the past few hours came back to her, Urd managed to recall the whole argument she had with Skuld, and the last thing she needed was a repeated experience of that ordeal. Perhaps, it wasn't so bad that she ended up being this late, since it was unlikely that anyone was awake right now, and therefore she could sneak in and have a good night's rest. After all, her head was killing her, since whatever she drank must've done a lot more damage than she had originally anticipated, and the splitting headache she ended up with was making it hard for her to even think straight.
So, even though she was somewhat unstable and in dire need of proper rest, Urd managed to slide the front door without making much noise, and slip inside as quietly as possible. Taking off her high heels, which she dematerialized moments later, the bare footed goddess silently tiptoed her way across the hall, only stopping to check who was inside the living room. She wasn't entirely sure how she sensed their presence, as they clearly didn't emit too much energy at the moment to allow her to feel them, but in the end it didn't matter. Urd knew that there were two goddesses in the living room, and careful as ever, Urd opened the door ever so slightly to take a good look inside.
Much to her confusion, she found Peorth and Skuld sleeping next to each other, who most likely must've waited for her to return, until it wasn't possible to remain awake anymore. Just the sight of her youngest sister was more than enough to bring a smile on Urd's face, and even though she wanted to go and give her a tight hug, the bronze skinned Norn had no idea what Skuld's reaction was going to be. For all she knew, the younger goddess could still be mad at her, and therefore such a gesture was ill advised. If nothing else, it was probably better to give Skuld some time to cool off her head, and talk to her in the morning.
Still, as soon as she closed the door and prepared to go and check on Belldandy, the half goddess realized that with Skuld and Peorth in the living room, then Gullveig must've been all alone in Skuld's room. After all, she found it highly unlikely for either Lind or Belldandy to spend a night with him, and especially at a time like this. Yet no matter how logical this conclusion seemed to be, Urd couldn't help but find it quite strange that she considered this to be important information. Stranger yet, Urd made a beeline for her youngest sister's room, without bothering to stop and check on Keiichi, or the others for that matter. Instead, all she could think for was to get to the place where Gullveig was alone, even if she didn't exactly know why.
Once there, Urd cracked the door open and peered inside, squinting her eyes to pick the sleeping form of the blonde god, and before long she managed to find her target. As expected, Gullveig was fast asleep on the futon he shared with Skuld, and waiting for a couple of seconds to ensure that he hadn't notice her, Urd began to approach him as carefully as she could. This obviously meant that she took each step with great care, making sure that she didn't accidentally stumble on one of her sister's contraptions, or just tools she may have left lying around. Thankfully for her though, the room was rather small, just like the rest of the house, making easy for her to cross the distance without getting caught, and the moment she was standing next to the sleeping god, her hands moved almost on their own.
Despite all logic, Urd started to unbutton her microdress, exposing her breasts in the cool night air that sent shivers up her spine, before she finally took it off altogether. A part of her questioned her actions, as it seemed a ridiculous thing for her to do at a time like this, and yet she happily -if not desperately- went ahead to drop her panties, leaving her stark naked in the dark room. For a moment, she wondered just what she was thinking, although she quickly dismissed such concerns as a likely side effect of her drinking herself to unconsciousness.
So, when she found her hands coming into contact with her privates, she also tried not to feel too alarmed by her lack of control and allowed her body to masturbate in Gullveig's presence. Like a well oiled engine, her slender fingers darted in and out of her already moistening entrance, that noticeably tightened in response to the memories of that partner swap that took place here a while ago, and began to resurface as she instinctively tried to satisfy herself.
Sure, every so often, Urd would slow down and wonder just what in Heaven's name she's doing, but every time, her fingers will resume almost on their own. Yet no matter how impulsive of a person she may be, Urd knew that deep down, this was a highly unlikely thing for her to do. It was almost as if she lost all semblance of control, or even her very sanity, and merely cared for nothing other than keep pleasuring herself, driving her body closer to a much needed release.
Only when Gullveig stirred in his sleep did Urd pause, as she realized that with her breathing so erratically, it was only a matter of time for the slumbering god to wake up and catch her in the middle of such a scandalous act. Still, now that she calmed down a bit, the half goddess couldn't help but question her actions even further, since no matter how much she didn't wish to wake everyone up in the middle of the night, that wasn't an excuse to do such things in Skuld's room. If nothing else, she should've been getting some sleep to recover from her hangover, yet something kept her going.
'Am I really that horny? Sure, performing for that stip show was a bit… arousing, but that's not enough for me to get all hot and needy like… now. So, why?'
The euphoric feeling of having her fingers slide in and out of her love channel was soon replaced by an intense hunger that she couldn't quite explain, given that food wasn't a necessity for immortals like her. Actually, the closest to that would be their alternative energy sources, which in Urd's case involved drinking Sake, but… she that wasn't want she currently wanted. This only confused her even more, and she already had enough to worry about, since everything that took place after her argument with Skuld was one huge mess that she couldn't even recall clearly, perhaps aside from the fact that she wished it never took place.
Just as she was about to get up and leave, Urd felt a presence behind her, almost as if someone was watching her. Making an effort to turn around, Urd found much to her surprise that her body simply didn't wish to move, and the more she tried the harder it was to even budge from where she stood, until white feathers filled her vision. 'What the?!'
However, before she could find out what was going on, Urd's vision became blurry and all of a sudden, the Norn lost consciousness.
xXx
Hell
The prospect of working alongside the demons was something so foreign for Lind, that she halfway expected this to be a ruse to keep her from accomplishing her goal. Yet the moment she saw an entire company of Hellriders, in their full combat gear, march their way into the seediest part of their capital, it wasn't just her who paused to make a double take. And as if that wasn't enough, the ones in charge of this most unusual procession were none other than Hild's top five demonesses.
Out of all five of them, Lind was most familiar with the tallest and by far the most muscular of them all; a bear of a demoness that went by the name Thrym, who valued physical strength above anything else. The next in line was Halval, a rather peculiar dark haired demoness who possessed the ability to 'see' sound with her eyes. Finally, the two sisters of the group, with the elder one called Ehwaz, and the younger being the inventor and Skuld's eternal rival, Mokkurkalfi. Yet strangely enough, Ehwaz appeared to be the youngest of the entire group and by a large margin, as she physically seemed to be a girl in her early teens, even though her younger sister looked like a young adult.
Turning to face the de facto leader of this strange group, Lind found Hagall staring back at her with a tired expression, although she didn't make much of it. After all, it was kind of late, and Lind had no delusions that the blonde demoness would've preferred to be in her bed, rather than searching this entire place for Urd. And based on Ehwaz's scowl, her assumption didn't seem to be off the mark.
"Can anyone tell me why we're in the middle of this cesspit?" asked the seemingly young demoness, letting a drown out groan as she distastefully glanced at a nearby building where the unmistakable sounds of an ongoing orgy could be heard.
Ignoring the moans and groans that could barely from across the street, Hagall rubbed her eyes and addressed her subordinates. "Lady Hild informed me that her daughter, who was last seen in a local nightclub, went missing. So, it's our job to locate her whereabouts. Also, if someone's responsible for her disappearance, we should take them into custody."
"Fuck yeah!"
The almost anticlimactic cry of a… climaxing demoness from a nearby building not only ruined Hegall's speech, causing the troops to snigger like kids in a candy store, but also reminded her of how much she wanted to be in this position, even though in a very different location than this infamous district. "OH, SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Her sudden outburst startled most of the unsuspecting demons, and even caused Lind to slightly jump from the sheer ferocity behind Hagall's scream, which also seemed to be the case for another demon that was currently approaching them. Noticing him, Hagall did her best to regain her composure and turned to properly address him, considering that with her current entourage, it was highly unlikely that this was a guy looking to get some from her. 'He better be, or I'm having him arrested just for being an idiot. Well… I can't exactly do that, but it does count as obstruction of an investigation.' However, as the demon approached her, and she got a clear view of his facial features, Hagall recognized him as the son of one of Hild's friends in the Council, and immediately relaxed. "Stein? What are you doing here?"
"I'm really sorry to interrupt you, lady Hagall, but I've been told of the situation and I want to give you a hand in the search." Coming to a stop near Lind, it took the demon a while to realize that he was standing right next to a Valkyrie, but by the time he did, Stein tried not to react. Making a fool of himself in front of Hild's deputy, as well as one of the Valkyries, was simply out of question, especially if he ever wanted to get a decent job in the future.
"Very well, I don't see why I should turn down your offer. You'll join me and Lind as we search the area Urd was last seen. In the meantime…" Looking over to the scowling Ehwaz, Hagall gestured her to approach, which she did, regardless of her current mood. "I want you and Mokkurkalfi to search the west segment of this district." Receiving a reluctant nod from the seemingly young demoness, who in reality was more eager to get out of her, Hagall addressed her two remaining subordinates. "Halval, you're gonna take Thrym and look in the eastern segment of the district. Also, take half the troops with you, and the others should go with Ehwaz."
"What about you, though? Having only a… Valkyrie and a single demon is hardly what I'd call a proper escort," protested Halval, even though she attempted not to sound too critical of Hagall's orders, or make Lind's presence seem to be a problem, even though she wasn't exactly comfortable to have a goddess around her.
"I'll be fine. We need to ask people a few questions, and it's going to be really difficult if we have soldiers following us everywhere," insisted Hagall, making it clear that she wasn't going to back off from this argument.
"As you wish." Offering a tiny bow, the dark haired demoness walked towards the muscular Thrym, all while Ehwaz and her sister started in the other direction, finally leaving the unlikely trio alone.
Truth to be told, it was now even more awkward for Lind to stand next to Hagall, no matter how strange it sounded. After all, while she wasn't terribly happy to join a demonic unit in what was a search operation, the very nature of this place made the goddess somewhat self conscious about being -almost- alone with Hagall. Sure, there was that other guy with them, but Lind couldn't shake the feeling of uneasiness from being together with a demoness she somehow had sex with, and not too long ago. Actually, just the fact that she had casually done it with anyone, and let alone a demoness, was something she never thought possible; even if they had both been drunk at the time. 'What am I thinking right now? This isn't the place nor the time for this.' She mentally scolded herself for those foolish thoughts, even if she suspected that this district's vice was probably the reason why they even resurfaced to begin with. Lind may had heard rumors of this place, yet she never expected that she'd ever find herself in one of the most infamous corners of Hell, even for totally different reasons than the majority of people here.
"Are you coming?"
The question brought Lind out of her thoughts, as Hagall apparently noticed her spacing out and decided to indirectly make her snap out of it. "Yes, I'm right behind you," said Lind with a tiny nod, waiting for the blonde to start towards their first destination, as well as that other demon to do the same, since she wasn't going to turn her back to anyone here. It didn't matter whether it was a younger guy or not, as Lind had more than enough experience in the field to know that appearances could be deceiving. And to be honest, regardless of what was the case here, she just didn't care to find out. Her primary goal was to locate Urd and bring her back home; not to make new friends. "Yes, lead the way."
xXx
Earth
"Wha?..."
Shooting up from her futon, or at least putting a valiant effort to do so, Urd found herself unsure how she even managed to get into her bed in the first place. The last thing she remembered was entering the house, but from that point on, her memory became rather fuzzy. It was almost the same as with any attempt to recall how she came back from Hell, yet this time around, Urd was starting to become worried. At least back then she's been drinking, and thus dismissed the whole memory gap as a side effect of the surprisingly strong ale the demons served. On this case however, it was starting to become evident that something was horribly wrong, as she never experienced anything similar, even after consuming a lot of booze. Furthermore, there was this… strange feeling in her gut, that Urd couldn't quite identify, although for the time being she needed to get a glass of water; and perhaps while she was at it, a painkiller as well.
The half goddess let out a groan as she sluggishly approached her medicine rack, that was full of jars containing all kinds of concoctions, with the majority of them being on the useful side, and the rest… just whatever that caught Urd's fancy to make. Thankfully for her, she put a lot of effort to keep a decent stock of useful medicine, and with her taste for Sake, that meant that there was always something to deal with nasty hangovers.
Grabbing a pill from the cabinet, Urd was about to head to the kitchen to get a glass of water, when a scream startled her so badly, that she nearly dropped the jar she was holding. 'It came from… Skuld's room?' Forcing herself to remain focused, since this could as well be an emergency, Urd rushed for her little sister's room, almost forgetting to put something on. "Skuld! What's wrong?"
As soon as she exited the room, Urd came to a stop, as the small crowd outside of Skuld's room stared right back at her in shocked silence, and for the most part she returned their incredulous gaze with an almost confused one of her own. Pretty much everyone in the house was standing there, with the only exceptions being Lind and Gullveig, although for some inexplicable reason, Urd wasn't terribly surprised by the latter's absence. Yet none of that really mattered at the time being, as Urd was reminded of the very reason why she hadn't come straight to this place after her performance in that club, and prepared for what could become round two of that horrible argument.
Instead, much to her own confusion, Urd found Skuld closing the distance between them and before she could even react, the younger goddess grabbed her into a crushing hug that caught her off guard. "Uh… S-Skuld?..."
"Where have you been, you idiot? Everyone was so worried that something happened to you!" cried the distressed goddess, and quite literally too, as she buried her face in her sister's bosom, despite Urd's state of undress.
It was actually that moment when the half goddess realized that in her rush to find out what happened, she more or less walked out of her room in her birthday suit. Not that everyone here hadn't seen her naked before, but she still didn't think that it was the time for such shenanigans. "I… don't remember too well. I think I went on a bar or two… okay, probably more, but somehow I found my way here. And when I did you and Peorth were sleeping in the living room, so I went… to…" As much as she wanted to say 'her room,' Urd found herself incapable of actually recalling the moment she got there. She didn't even remember when she took off her clothes, since she was clearly dressed when she arrived here.
While Skuld seemed confused by her sister's odd behavior, yet didn't do as much as comment about it, Belldandy had seen more than enough to suspect that there was something deeply wrong with Urd. And it wasn't just the difficulty she had to recall what happened, but also why she made a lot of uncharacteristic decisions, ever since she arrived here. Although she could understand why Urd wouldn't want to talk to Skuld before she made sure that she was forgiven, Belldandy refused to accept that her sister would simply go to sleep without telling anyone that she got home. At the very least, she could've told her.
Even though the two of them seemed to be the polar opposite of one another, Belldandy still treated her like a true sister, and Urd never failed to unconditionally return those feelings. On every given opportunity, they would support each other the best way they could, and contrary to popular assumptions, Belldandy needed someone to be there for her, and so far, Urd had never disappointed her. It was very easy for everyone to forget that she had genuine feelings like any other goddess, and not just the 'good' ones that earned herself that stellar reputation among her people. Yet as much as all those deities would praise her for those 'good' qualities, none would even admit that their species is equally susceptible to darkness. And with Belldandy being one of the few who embodied Heaven's ideals, she would receive almost no support from her peers. It was only Urd who would do that, and without offering any sermons, or otherwise patronise her. She was there for her, no matter what happened, because she loved her sister.
For that very reason, Belldandy saw Urd in a very different light than most other deities. She knew all too well that without Urd's support, she would've never become the goddess she is today. Sure, she wasn't an orphan or even abandoned by her parents, but considering how intimidating it was to admit certain things to her parents, especially given their positions and status, Belldandy preferred to confide to Urd for advice. She couldn't even do that with Skuld; not with her little idolising her as much as she did back when she was a kid. Doing something like that, would've crushed the poor child's image of her, and thus she always tried her hardest to be Skuld's idol.
It was exactly because of all those reasons why Belldandy knew Urd better than everyone else, since her sister never felt the need to hide anything from her. So, to see her act like this was not just out of character for Urd, but it almost screamed that something was downright wrong with her; perhaps in a physical manner, too. Not only that, but considering what happened just a while ago, the middle Norn was starting to wonder whether they needed to restrain her, at least until they had her thoroughly scanned for any sort of parasite that could explain the current situation. "Sister… I'm not sure how to say this, but Gullveig's unconscious. And by the looks of it, he had his angel removed from him."
"Wait… what?!" It took her a moment to even acknowledge what she's been told, given how outlandish it sounded. Although, after she saw the way everyone's expressions changed the moment Belldandy announced the problem at hand, Urd realized the seriousness of the situation. As a matter of fact, this was way beyond any kind of emergency she would've ever imagined, since nothing in the mortal realm had the ability to forcibly remove their angels. "How's that even possible?!"
"We're… not sure," said Peorth ever so cautiously. It was always tricky for a first class goddess to hide information without accidentally telling a lie, and in this case there was the added complication of whether she could trust Urd or not. Sure, Peorth didn't think ill of the half goddess, and under any other circumstance she'd vouch for her, yet… the timing was bad. When they woke up to find Gullveig in this kind of state, the first suspect that popped up in everyone's minds was Mara. Even if she normally didn't mean harm, the blonde demoness had a history of blunders, and perhaps this was one of them; basically, a scheme that went out control. However, now that it was fairly safe to assume that Urd had been present in the house while this incident took place, it seemed awfully hard to ignore the possibility that she was somehow involved, willingly or not. Worse yet, the difficulty she had to recall many details about what took place just a couple of hours ago, only made her look even more suspicious, at least to Peorth. Still, the brunette had no delusions that the rest wouldn't share such concerns, but given how dire the situation was, there was no time to lose. "There are only a few ways to remove an angel from their host, but most of them require the willing cooperation of both. I don't think that Gullveig wanted his angel gone, though. And the fact that he's comatose points out to the possibility of this being a forced removal."
"Yeah, I can't believe that he'd do that to Ardent Lance," agreed Skuld, since she honestly had no reason to suspect that Gullveig had any reason to have his angel removed. Even then, when the host generally wished to remove their angel, it was highly unlikely for them to become comatose, unless of course they did everything wrong. But still, that was a highly unrealistic possibility.
"If that's the case, then something or someone must've done it, right?" said Keiichi with an inquisitive tone, as he shared a long stare with Peorth who clearly must've been suspecting someone; and if he had to take a guess, that was probably Urd. In all honesty, he too found that to be a likely explanation, although he wouldn't accept the notion that Urd was capable of such an act; at least, not willingly.
"I believe so," replied Peorth while offering a nod at her boyfriend, and purposely tried to avoid too much eye contact with the eldest Norn. She didn't wish to play the blame game, especially when there was so little evidence to support that Urd had done such a thing on purpose. So, the best way to deal with this was by finding a neutral way of discerning who was responsible, rather than point an accusatory finger at Urd, especially when she most likely didn't willingly do it. "In that case, it's better to run a scan on everyone present, just to make sure that they're fine as well."
Urd may had been known for a lot of things, but stupidity wasn't one of them. It was painfully obvious to her that Peorth suspected her, and while neither of her sisters seemed too enthusiastic about that idea, she knew all too well that no matter what, their safety was her utmost priority. Besides, she too was rather suspicious that something was wrong with her, although she would've never expected a problem of this magnitude. "Alright, let's not do that. As much as I appreciate that you're not saying it in my face, there's no need to beat around the bush," said Urd with a long sigh, before she paused to scratch her head. "I'm not sure what's going on, but I suppose it's better if you start by scanning me. None of what happened in the last few hours feels normal to me, and while I have no idea how I could remove an angel, I sure don't want to waste everyone's time while Gullveig's in that kind of state."
"Thank you, sister," said the relieved Belldandy, as she worried about the potential of this turning into a huge fight between Urd and Peorth. For someone who was often treated as an irresponsible goddess, Urd knew when to display the necessary maturity when the situation called for it. Furthermore, she had no objections to set her ego aside for the greater good, and instead of throwing a fit about how everyone suspected her, Urd merely accepted their judgement without as much as a single complaint. "If it makes you feel better, would you like me to be the one who scans you?"
"Actually, I'd prefer that," agreed Urd with a tiny smile, before she glanced over at Peorth and gave her an apologetic look. "No offense, Rosy. It's nothing personal."
"None taken," said Peorth with a sigh of relief, as she worried that her cautiousness would've been misunderstood and taken for something else altogether. Although, she did offer a tiny pout, as she added. "But that doesn't mean you can call me, Rosy!" As silly as this exchange seemed, and especially at a time like this, it was also important to relieve some stress that could potentially overwhelm them if left unchecked. While all goddesses present had their fair share of dealing with stressful situations, none of those happened to include gods falling comatose on their watch. And in all seriousness, no matter how much she wanted to act as if everything was under control, Peorth was scared.
"Hey, shouldn't we tell Lind that Urd's back?" asked Keiichi all of a sudden, getting everyone's attention, as he apparently raised a valid point. After all, thanks to everything else going on, Keiichi had almost forgotten that Lind was still searching for Urd in the demonic realm, and it was probably for the best to contact her and inform her of the current developments.
"I'll do that," offered Peorth, before she turned to Belldandy and Skuld. "In the meantime how about you prepare Urd's scan? It's better not to waste any time by waiting for Lind to return."
"Actually… I can do it on my own," said Belldandy, just as Skuld was about to help Urd towards the bathroom, where they could use the tub as a source of water for the necessary ablution that was part of the prescanning cleanup procedure. "Instead, why don't you and Keiichi make sure that Gullveig's comfortable?"
"Uhh…. I suppose I can do that." As much as she's like to remind her sister than there was little to do, other than locating the whereabouts of Ardent Lance, Skuld didn't think that Belldandy was being daft. She knew that a deep scanning could be a deeply personal moment, since there were incidents where the deities in charge of this process go to witness fragments of the subject's memories. Now, there were a lot of less invasive procedures that eliminated those risks, which was exactly why full scans were rarely performed unless necessary. Yet this was one of those cases where it was for the best to leave nothing to chance, and Skuld could tell that Belldandy didn't wish for her to end up seeing something that might embarrass Urd. "Come on, Keiichi."
"Uhh, sure."
xXx
Hell
The search through the seediest district of the demonic capital was proving much slower than Lind would've expected. Apparently, even with Hagall and that other guy tagging along with her, Lind was having some serious trouble to get anything useful out of the bystanders, who often pretended to be drunk, even though she could hear them talk in a perfectly sober manner moments before addressing them. As it seems, the vast majority of demons in this area were low class citizens, along with several -predominantly female- Earth Spirits that somehow found themselves in this hellhole. While getting some answers from them proved to be a challenge, since few Earth Spirits felt comfortable to talk to a war goddess, Lind still managed to collect enough information to understand why they were here to begin with.
There were apparently three distinctive groups of Earth Spirits that visited this district, and each of them had very different reasons to do so. First among them were the same kind of individuals that in the distant past sought after attractive mortals as their lovers. As a matter of fact, more than half of all the legends of such encounters were a direct result of this kind of behavior, considering that back then it wasn't exactly prohibited to reveal their nature in front of the humans. Things had changed since then though, and some of those Earth Spirits are now highly discouraged to seek out mortals for such reasons, which eventually led them to use this place as an alternative to satisfy their needs. The second group however was far more goal-driven and primarily consisted of high class Earth Spirits that sought every chance to rub shoulders with influential demons that visited some of the more prestigious businesses here. Obviously, their primary goal was to gain favor with the right kind of demons, and in the process become more influential among their own. Unlike the members of the first group who loved to screw around with just about everyone, these high class Earth Spirits were considerably more tactical in their approach. So, once they gained the favor of an influential demon, they'd normally try keep their trysts outside of this place, and preferably in the actual residences of said demons. Those who managed to succeed would often become official lovers, or at the very least consorts of high ranking demons, with all the benefits that came with that position.
Last but not least were the fugitives, who found this place as a means to disappear from the public eye, especially if they had the deities after them. Considering the aggressive expansion of the human habitats, there were more than enough Earth Spirits who had to relocate themselves in order to avoid having their 'power lines' severed or hindered by human development. Unfortunately though, not everyone agreed on such course of action, and some insisted on staying where they used to live for thousands of years, even if it meant that conflict would sooner or later become an inevitable reality. And when that happened, the gods would often mediate to resolve such problems, but not always in the way those Earth Spirits would've preferred. Especially if the latter proved to be the aggressors, and pushed things too far. As such, several of those individuals ended up here in search of a place to keep a low profile until their pursuers gave up, even though in some cases the life here was worse than the most likely punishment they'd get for their own deeds.
With that in mind, Lind decided to try her luck with some of the more willing to cooperate Earth Spirits, and have a bit a chat with them, since Hagall's negotiations were taking far too long for her taste. Although, she couldn't exactly blame the blonde, given how tight-lipped some of the demons here got in the presence of their superiors. In a place where law was only upheld in the loosest manner, it made perfect sense for most of the business owners and employees to be reluctant to share too much useful information, in fear that they might get themselves into trouble. But with time being on short supply, Lind felt that she had to do something, other than stand idle and wait for Hagall or that demon that tagged along them to come up with what she wanted to know.
Scanning the crowd for an Earth Spirit, it didn't take her long to find the first target: a lone guy standing next to the nearest exit. And while he wasn't wearing any kind of uniform to indicate that he was part of the staff, just the way that he inspected the customers, definitely reminded her of a security guard. If that turned out to be the case, and Urd came here, then there was a possibility that he might've caught sight of the Norn, no matter how remote that seemed to be. Worse yet, she couldn't just walk up to him and start asking questions, as this would make him realize what she was after. From her personal experience as a Valkyrie, it was foolish to give away what the real goal of an investigation during the questioning of the eyewitnesses. Some would even outright lie and fabricate information, providing that it suited their own agenda, and the last thing she needed right now was to play this sort of game with pretty much everyone she had to deal with.
The only problem was that she had to make her move fast, before word about the reason Hagall was talking to his boss got out, and the element of surprise was gone. Because of that, she wasted no time coming up with an elaborate plan, and simply did her best to walk in the same… disjointed manner she had seen from Peorth and even Urd at times; the kind of walk where the hips moved a bit too much, and for reasons totally unrelated to bipedal locomotion. And just as she intended, the Earth Spirit immediately caught sight of her, rather than quietly stare at the strip show that was still at full swing on the stage. Sure, it did help that she was in her combat uniform, which was more than enough reason to make everyone turn their heads regardless of how she walked, but in this case, Lind tried to use that to her advantage.
"Are you surprised to see a goddess like me, here?" asked the Valkyrie as she leisurely came to a stop just a few steps away from the alarmed Earth Spirit, who honestly didn't how to respond at first.
Indeed, the poor guard seemed to mentally kick himself for paying too much attention to the show to notice a Valkyrie walk up to him. Worse yet, if he called for help from the actual guards, then he was likely to lose his job, since he was merely a poor substitute to a security camera. Sure, those were far better to easily monitor the club, and allow the actual security staff to supervise what was going on inside of the building. However, most of the clients didn't seem to enjoy being filmed during their visits, so the next best thing was to leave such boring tasks to people like him. And for all the benefits that came with this position, he had to admit that it was fairly decent job; until a Valkyrie decided to show up. "Well… I can't say we get many goddesses here," admitted the Earth Spirit with some hesitation.
'That wasn't a no,' noted Lind, and made an effort to pay more attention to her target's body language. Even though fighting was her duty, she also needed other skills to dominate the battlefield, and reading a person's body language was an invaluable tool. And this guard sure seemed to act as if he knew more than he let on, rather than being totally lost as to what she was even talking about. "Actually, that's good. It looks like I'm in the right place after all," said Lind, before glancing around her, to make sure that no one was looking in their direction. "You see, there's this goddess I've been looking, and she was supposed to be here. At least, at some point."
"What can I say?... It's not my business to speak about the identity of our clients," said the security guard with his best apologetic smile, in hopes that the Valkyrie wouldn't press on. "You see, it's really bad for business to talk about that stuff."
"I'm fully aware of that," calmly replied Lind, who was hardly surprised by this reaction. After all, she too would've been less than cooperative if their roles were reversed. Although, there was a fundamental difference between her and this guy: certain jobs appeal to certain people. Even if that sounded like an overgeneralization, Lind was more than willing to bet that this guard could fall for what some of her colleagues used in situations like these. Although she'd normally rely on force to make things happen, and prefer assignments that didn't require a lot of diplomacy to get the job done, Lind wasn't willing to back off and simply wait for Hagall to come up with the necessary information. As such, the Valkyrie decided to give 'seduction' a try, no matter how inexperienced she was on this particular tactique. "Still, I'm not asking you to reveal anything about your employers, or even other demons. I'm just interested in that goddess that came here." Given how unnatural it felt for her to pull a truly seductive act, Lind avoided relying on subtleness, since all she'd accomplish is to make that guy cringe with her poor performance. Instead, she discreetly glanced around to make sure that no one was paying much attention to her, and began to fiddle with her uniform's collar.
The sudden movement initially alarmed the guard, as he half expected her to pull a knife or other type of weapon from her uniform. But when he saw her open up the skin tight uniform to reveal some cleavage, it was hard for him not to lower his gaze and appreciate the Valkyrie's flawless skin. While she lacked in the volume department, at least compared to some demonesses here, this goddess' rigorous training resulted in a pair of pert, firm breasts that under the right circumstances could even be described as erotic. In addition, as she kept going, it soon became clear that she wasn't wearing a bra, which initially surprised the guard given how there was not the slightest hint of sag. That enthusiasm quickly turned into frustration though, as she stopped before her nipples were fully exposed, leaving him with just a tiny hint of her pink areolas. "Mm… for a Valkyrie, you sure play dirty. Still, that's quite the pretty sight."
"I suppose that's a good thing," said Lind while trying her best to keep a neutral expression. In reality, she found this course of action to be downright tasteless, but in an environment like this, it was for the best to avoid an unnecessary conflict. "Now, I believe you know what I want, and I have something you like. So, how about we make a deal?"
"Sure, I'm all ears. What exactly are you offering?"
"You tell me all you know about that goddess, and I let you touch them for a minute or two." It was such an outrageous proposition by her standards, that Lind's cheeks light up in a light shade of pink that thankfully for her, wasn't as noticeable in the low lighting conditions inside the club. Worse yet, she knew that in a place like this, it was highly unlikely to tempt anyone with something this… innocent, and the skepticism in the guard's eyes only confirmed her suspicion.
"Hm… that's a lot of trouble I can get into, for just a brief touch," muttered the Earth Spirit, even though he honestly liked what he saw. After all, if he learned anything about negotiations from working in the demonic realm, was that haggling required for both sides to state their price, and then find the best compromise. So, rather than just ask for something a bit more than that, he went for much more, in hopes that the Valkyrie would likely agree with what he actually had in mind. "Still, you've got a fantastic body. So, if you're up for a quickie, I'll tell you everything I know."
It was only thanks to decades worth of combat experience that stopped her from simply punching his head through the wall, for even suggesting such a thing in her face. The mere notion that a war goddess like her would let a goon to the likes of him to have sex with her for information, was more than enough to make her want to hurt someone, but Lind tried to avoid that. If nothing, this could hinder her cooperation with the other demons that allowed her to tag along during this negotiation, so in a total unprecedented move, she spared him. Even more, she felt inclined to make a counter offer, but not before setting up some ground rules. "Sex is out of question. However, if you'd like, I can give you a handjob." At least with her gloves still on, she wouldn't directly touch his penis, which barely made this thing seem tolerable to her.
"A hanjob, huh?" The disappointment was evident in the guard's voice, since he was actually going for a blowjob, and even then he considered that as a compromise. "That's pretty wea~aaaaeeek!"
Not willing to take no for an answer, Lind grabbed the guard's crotch, while using her free hand to pin him against the wall. And if the amount of force she put behind her vice-like grip wasn't enough, the hard stare she gave him promised that this was nothing compared to what was going to come if he kept being this difficult. "I insist. After all, I'm pretty good at handjobs. And getting one from a Valkyrie is quite the honor, too."
If the Earth Spirit still possessed the ability to speak, then he'd probably refute her claims. But thanks to having his privates subjected to the same level of pressure normally generated from an industrial press, he was suddenly far less talkative than moments ago. So, the only thing left for him to do, is to ensure that his manhood would remain attached to his body after the departure of this war goddess, rather than going home with her; as a trophy. "Y-Yes, p-please…"
Although it a tad hard for her to make out what that weak squeak meant, Lind eventually figured out that he was willing to cooperate, so she started to fish out his penis from the confinements of his pants. This of course involved the loss of a button or two, that Lind accidentally ripped off, as well as a slight tear of the boxer's fabric, since she yanked those a tad too hard. Once she did have access to the guard's not-so-hard penis, the Valkyrie got hold of it, not unlike the shaft of her poleaxe, and started to stroke him in fast and deliberate moves. "You can actually touch my breasts if you want," she commented after a couple of seconds after she started working on the guard's pride and joy, yet the guy's hands remained placed on the wall, almost as if he plastered himself against it.
As a matter of fact, the poor sod was so worried about the possibility of ending up neutered after this, that he began to talk even though she didn't ask him to do just yet. "She… she was drinking at the bar. And then two demons approached her, and offered her a drink."
Nodding slowly, Lind mistook this reaction as a sign of appreciation for what she was doing, and rewarded the guard by applying a bit more force, that only made matters worse for him. Still, considering that the end result was pretty much the same -as in making him talk- Lind kept on going without the slightest worry. "So, what happened next? And can you describe those demons?"
"I'm sorry but from here I couldn't see their faces too well. One was taller and lean, and the other was a short, stocky guy. Other than that, I don't know. But, once they had a few drinks, they paid for them and escorted her out of the bar. You can ask the bartender for the receipt. Maybe a name is there, or something," wheezed the Earth Spirit, until he could finally take in a much needed breath, when Lind decided to let go of him.
"Excellent. Although… you're not getting hard," noted the Valkyrie in a moment of curiosity, even though she wasn't particularly interested whether he felt good or not. Still, she did wish to find out what was wrong, just in case she accidentally repeated the same mistake on someone else. And when the mental image of Keiichi popped in her mind, causing her to blush at the mere idea. It was true that she wasn't too keen in having sex with men, although in reality she didn't perceive herself as a lesbian either. So, perhaps she wouldn't terribly mind if she and the apparently famous student did something of this nature, as her angels actually enjoyed that little incident that took place in her mindscape.
"It's nothing! Just… performance anxiety!" lied the guard, since he had no idea what she was going to do in case he told her how terrible of an experience this was for him. And to make sure that she wouldn't figure it out on her own, before he had the chance to put some distance between himself and this dangerous Valkyrie, the guard promptly excused himself. "Now, um… it's my time to change shifts, so… I need to go!"
Lind didn't even bother stopping the departing Earth Spirit, as she actually got what she wanted from him. So, instead of that, she closed her uniform and just in time to avoid being seen like, as Hagall chose that moment to approach her. The demoness apparently finished her discussion with the owner, although for the most part, Lind didn't expect much. "So, how did it go?"
"He's hiding something, that's for sure," said Hagall with an angry huff. "But without anything to question his claims, I'd rather not arrest him. If this goes badly, we can end up making a fool for ourselves."
"In that case, you're lucky. From what I've gathered, there were two demons who approached Urd and offered her a drink. The bartender knows more, actually."
For a moment, Hagall simply wondered just how did Lind find out about that, although to a degree she didn't want to know. "Well… that changes a few things. We can question the bartender and then pressure up the owner for more information."
The blue haired goddess offered her a nod, but before she could speak up again, Lind noticed her phone ringing. Rather, she could feel the vibration that warned her of an incoming call, and reaching into her uniform to retrieve it, she excused herself. "Sorry, but I need to answer it." Turning away from Hagall, and that other demon who still tagged along them, Lind moved a bit further from those two before answering the call. "Yes?"
xXx
Earth
Although the entire premise for getting alone with her, was to allow Belldandy to perform a deep scan on her, Urd had to admit that receiving a relaxing massage from her sister was a surprisingly enjoyable experience. It sure felt rather awkward when Belldandy asked her to use this as part of the necessary cleansing process, which normally didn't require anything more than a thorough shower. Instead, once Urd finished washing herself, she noticed that Belldandy had set up an inflatable mat and kindly suggested her to lie on it for the next phase of this operation.
Now, Urd does have some experience with using such mats, but in most cases, that includes actions that she'd rather not perform with a relative, and the collection of oils and balms Belldandy had set up next to her, indicated that she knew what she was doing. Of course, that raised all kinds of questions that Urd didn't wish to answer at the time being, since her sister never told her that she studied on how to perform erotic massages. Even then… that did little to explain why she'd wish to try the same on her. While Urd had a lot of vices, and experimented with a lot of different things over the centuries, that still didn't mean that she was willing to do just about everything possible. And that included incest as well.
However, all her concerns were pushed aside when Belldandy started to work with her back, carefully kneading the muscles with her thumbs, in slow deliberate motions. This was unlike her own massage technique that primarily geared towards bringing arousal, while Belldandy's method was more deliberate and even clinical, aiming to bring relaxation rather than excitement. So, from this onset, the two Norns used superficially similar yet fundamentally opposite methods, which in this case was more than enough to allow Urd to relax and enjoy the attention she was getting from her sister.
On the other hand, Belldandy's been really tense for more than one reasons, even though she tried to act as if nothing was wrong. While she honestly wished to ease her sister's apparent fatigue -which by itself was rather unusual, since Urd was a fairly powerful goddess- Belldandy hated to willingly mislead her into thinking that this was the only purpose of this massage. Without even knowing it, Urd was already subjected to a scanning, although the exact method for doing it was rather unconventional. After all, there were all sorts of ways to try to deceive a scanning spell, which is why the person in charge had to a fairly experienced medic, or at the very least someone with great knowledge on the magical theory. And considering that no one present met those standards, Belldandy used an admittedly rare phenomenon as an excuse to get a chance to pull this off on Urd. With her sister in such a state of relaxation, it was far less likely for her to try to resist the analysis, even though Belldandy had to take her sweet time to complete this procedure, as channeling any more power through her hands could expose her deceit. Doing that would immediately alert her sister, and Belldandy couldn't face her after misleading her like this.
It was all for Urd's good, that's for sure, but that didn't mean it was ethical to willingly deceive someone who trusted her so much. After all, a first class goddess like her wasn't allowed to lie, and thus Urd had no reason to suspect that Belldandy had any other ulterior motives for doing this. Sure, this wasn't a case of an exact lie, but rather a situation where she withheld crucial information from her sister, and the worst part is that she had to continue doing so. Even this early on in her analysis, Belldandy could tell that Urd carried a parasite of some description, although the exact details of its nature still eluded her. While that was to be expected for someone who didn't have the expertise on this particular field, all deities received lessons on identifying the majority of known parasites, and even ways to hinder them, until a proper medical staff could remove them. In this case however, it seemed that either this was some new species, or at the very least, it was a rare and therefore dangerous specimen. And the fact the Urd most certainly contracted it during her visit to Hell, only made matters worse.
Demonic parasites had the tendency to be far more aggressive and dangerous than those found elsewhere, so the utmost care had to be taken when dealing with them. In extreme cases, such creatures even used aggressive and often self-destructive measures to prevent anyone from removing them from their unlucky host, which was exactly why Belldandy hesitated to take action. She feared that anything too abrupt could alarm the creature lurking inside of Urd's mindscape, with potentially life threatening consequences for her sister, if this went out of control. The only option right now was to sedate Urd herself, as in most cases, this has the same effect on anything latched on them as well. Still, doing so during a massage was a big challenge. Belldandy only had access to rubbing oils and perfumes that she was supposed to use for this relaxation treatment, as anything else -spells included- would immediately give away her ruse. Not only was Urd familiar with a large variety of concoctions, thanks to her alchemical knowledge, but Belldandy was downright terrible at deception. Even this whole setup was far too much for her, and probably the main reason why her technique was too harsh, as she normally worked more gently. Thankfully though, Urd didn't seem to mind it one bit.
"A penny for your thoughts?…"
The unexpected question startled Belldandy so much, that she nearly fell back, given that she halfway expected something to spring up at her. Thankfully though, that wasn't the case, so the middle Norn tried to collect herself, before addressing her sister. "Oh, I'm sorry about that, sis. I was so concentrated, that I wasn't expecting you to speak all of a sudden."
"Actually, I'm the one who should be apologizing, Bell. I've gotten you all worried about me, and I think you still are," admitted Urd as she turned her gaze from her sister, to the nearest wooden wall of their bathroom. "I don't think it's for the best to tell you, but in the end, I'm probably going to need to speak to someone about this. And so far you've been the most understanding when it comes to this kind of stuff." Taking a deep breath, Urd glanced back at the middle Norn, who slowly nodded at her to go on, and after a slight hesitation, she did just that. "It's a bit of a long story, but the short version is that I've made a silly deal to make some quick income, in order to compensate for the profits of Peorth's contract. Apparently having this many goddesses making a mortal happy is tipping the scales. And while it's far from an ideal solution, as a stopgap I signed up to work part-time as a stripper. Earlier today… or should I say yesterday, I had my first show." Urd didn't show it in her voice, but while she acted in a calm and collected manner, she was anything but that. If she was talking to anyone else, then a response similar to Skuld's was to be expected. But with Belldandy… there was no telling how she'd react to such news. In the worst case scenario, her sister would simply tell her that she was disappointed with her, and never listen to anything she said for a long time.
"I see. Although, I must admit that I already knew this, sis. When Skuld arrived and told me about your… disagreement, I chewed her off for it. Still, no one really knew why you did this, but in the end I was right: you did have a sound reason," said Belldandy, much to Urd's utter disbelief.
"Wait! You… You knew? And you even chewed off Skuld? Belldandy… you never scolded her! Not too seriously at least!"
The shock in her sister's eyes was understandable, and as the older Norn shot up to a sitting position on the mat, Belldandy leaned in to place a hand on her shoulder. "Urd… you shouldn't take anyone's criticism as an absolute truth. Even if this comes from one of us, you deserve to be judged with fairness, and not accept what they throw at you without a single comeback. If you told Skuld your reasons, I don't think that she would've overreacted. Although, in her defense, she deeply regretted what she told you back there, even moments after she left. I guess, both of you can be a bit too hot headed at times."
"No, that's not it, Bell," said the half goddess with a frown. "You always make me sound more noble than I really am. And while I truly appreciate it, I did deserve Skuld's scolding. You know how I sometimes get lose sight of my goals and get too caught in the means to accomplish them. Back there, I tried so hard to fulfil my end of the deal, that I ended up putting some extra things into the show. Nothing too explicit, mind tell you, but certainly more than enough to upset Skuld with my act."
"So what? Out of all of us present, you're the only who tried to fix a problem that everyone else didn't even know about. And even if we did, no one would've accepted such a deal. I've asked Peorth when we got alone, and she too admitted that she'd never do that kind of thing, out of fear for losing her dignity as a goddess. Apparently, lowering yourself to the point where you willingly serve demons like this, is seen as undignified for a deity; even though we can do a lot more depraved acts with our own. At any rate, the big question here, is whether you've done something wrong by taking an admittedly problematic course of action, or… it was us, who in a way would've shouldered this on you."
"What? Whoa! Hold on a second!" protested Urd, stopping her sister before she could carry on. "There's no way you'd ask me to do something like this!"
"And yet there's no way I'd do something to appease the demons either. While working as a stripper in Hell may seem a depraved thing for a goddess to do, it's way worse if I -or anyone else here- tried to increase the demons' market share. That's a punishable offense for any deity, while what you did is merely seen as… unethical, but not more than that. Not only that, but even if we were to allow the demons to aggressively expand their market without the slightest attempt to stop them, then we could still be accused of negligence. Compared to all that, I believe that morality aside, you may have attempted the lesser of all evils here, even if it's hardly what I'd call ideal."
"Well, it's not like we thought this as permanent solution," admitted Urd with a sigh of relief. Somehow, Belldandy was far more understanding than she initially feared; but then again, her sister had always been quite supportive of her. Sure, it was highly likely that Belldandy's perspective wasn't totally impartial, yet for Urd that was more than enough to reassure her. Despite her confident attitude, the elder Norn did have some serious confidence issues, so to know that someone supported her was a much needed source of relief for her. As such, despite their state of undress, Urd got up in a seated position and pulled Belldandy in for a warm hug. "Still, thank you so much, Bell. It's nice to know that someone cares."
While this reaction was far from unexpected, Belldandy felt somewhat alarmed that her opportunity to quietly subdue Urd was potentially wasted. However, she wasn't such a cold goddess to show her frustration at a moment like this, and thus the middle Norn returned the gesture, by hugging her sister back. "It's alright, Urd. You know that everyone here loves you, even if the show it in different ways." Rather than a proper reply, her sister merely offered her a lethargic murmur, as her body began to relax and almost stopped supporting its own weight. And while she didn't think much of it at first, assuming that this was just a display of affection, Belldandy soon realized that her sister was on the verge of falling asleep on the spot. Even worse, she could feel something… dark stirring inside of her sister, at which point she prepared to defend herself.
But it was already far too late.
Rather than manifesting itself or even indirectly attack her, whatever parasite had attached to her sister emitted a shrill cry that was specifically designed for angels and only them to hear, making no physical sound at all. And just as a reflex reaction to what seemed to be an emergency call, Holy Bell emerged from within her mindscape, only to be immediately snatched by Angel Eater's vines that emerged from Urd's back at the last possible moment.
Belldandy didn't even have a chance to utter a single word, as the whole attack lasted for less than a second, leaving her without her angel and in a state of shock that caused her to fall onto the mat, along with the already asleep Urd.
xXx
'Ugh… did I fall asleep? Again?'
What started out as a peculiarity, soon became more than a serious annoyance to the half goddess, as she had no past experience of fainting spells. Yet in the last couple of hours, Urd found herself drifting on and off consciousness at an almost irregular pattern she found hard to explain. At this point it was clear that no matter what the demons put in their booze, couldn't fully explain such a problem, but that still left her unsure as to what the real issue was here. Furthermore, when she rolled around her bed, the half goddess noticed two important details. First, she was wearing a leather set of lingerie that she had no memories of ever possessing, and second… she was definitely not in her room.
However, as she nearly shot up from her bed and surveyed her surroundings, a strange feeling of nostalgia overcame her. 'Wait… this is… was… my room.' It may had been ages since the last time she was sleeping in this bed, but even then, Urd could barely recall the room she used to occupy before her mother sent her to Heavens. 'Yes, this is how it looked before I left. There's the study with my alchemy books, my ingredients rack, my equipment… everything's here. Even the furniture seems to be the same.'
Getting on her feet, Urd started to look around, only to verify her initial observations, at least to a certain degree. While this was indeed her room from back then, there were clear signs that it's been used for quite some time, judging by the fact that some of her newer potions, books and other antiques she possessed were also stacked in here. However, her inspection came to an early and rather abrupt end, when she happened to step in front of her full body mirror and saw her reflection. Rather than her familiar triangle-shaped blue markings, she sported a set of red ones, the same as with any other demoness. Furthermore, her forehead marking had changed into an upright five-pointed star, almost like the marks her mother had on her cheeks.
Shocked by this sudden revelation, Urd felt the need to confront her mother, who was likely the person to know what was going on here. Once outside her room, Urd took the briefest moment to check her surroundings as she searched for her mother, and considering that it seemed to be nighttime, the Norn decided to start from Hild's bedroom.
However, as soon as she set foot on the corridor leading to the room in question, the faint sounds of sex became apparent. That obviously slowed down Urd, who honestly didn't wish to catch her parents right in the middle of her trysts, and judging by the sounds coming from inside, it was extremely likely that the man entertaining her mother, was Tyr. Still, as she leaned against the door to make sure that her hunch was right, Urd realized that the masculine grunts coming from inside didn't belong to her father at all. Deciding that it was somewhat safe to check what was taking place inside, Urd cracked the door open ever so slightly, and peered into the room.
Initially she found no trace of her mother or her mysterious partner, even though the bedsheets were visibly wrinkled, which was more than an obvious hint that someone's been recently lying on them. Without any sight of them, yet their voices as loud and clear as if they stood next to her, Urd opened the door further and poked her head into the room, allowing herself a better view of what was going on inside. Instead of being anywhere close to the bed, Hild and an eerily familiar looking demon were standing in front of a large window at the far end of the room. They were both naked, with the only exception being their seals, which in her mother's case consisted of her jewelry that glittered under the moonlight coming from outside. This, coupled with Hild's bronze skin and platinum hair, gave her an alluring visage that was further enhanced by the position she was having sex in: pressed firmly against the glass, which caused her voluminous mounds to compress against the glass.
Unsurprisingly, the sight of her mother during such an intimate moment, stirred up a deeply protective feeling inside of her, although at the same time the lust in Hild's moans was so evident that even Urd wouldn't dare interrupt her. The demon CEO was so into this, that she enthusiastically rocked her hips against her partner's thrusts, that matched Hild's in both intensity and gusto. It could be even said that with the way this demon was ploughing Hild's soaking womanhood, he was less abiding by his leader's request to have fun and more… having his merry way with her.
The demon's hands slowly moved from Hild's wide hips towards her back, caressing the voluptuous demoness' impeccable bronze skin as he moved higher up, towards her shoulders. He briefly kissed her between the shoulderblades, and then run his tongue along her lower neck, giving Hild the goosebumps, especially as he eased off the pacing of his thrusts and turned his focus on pleasing her with a simple yet enjoyable massage. The demon slowly kneaded Hild's tense muscles with his thumbs, while he slid inside and out of her sopping womanhood in a series of brief, yet strong motions that not only caused her firm ass to jiggle, but also filled the room with an erotic sound that greatly supplemented the effect of Hild's drawn out moans.
By this point, Urd had to admit that her initially mixed feelings about this whole situation were slowly giving way to a searing sense of arousal. As such, the Norn gradually became more acclimated with the idea that she was watching her mother having sex, and even found it a truly enjoyable sight to behold. Sure, there was that incident with Keiichi's clones a while back, however, those were only temporary beings made out of magic that wouldn't stick around for far too long. Perhaps more than that, it wasn't exactly the fact that Hild was having sex with someone that worried Urd the most, but the species this person belonged to. With those clones, or even a normal human, there was no chance that this would end up into something more than a passionate night of pleasure. However, given that this man was actually a demon, there was a realistic possibility that her mother may have chosen him for more than just a sex partner. More specifically, what worried Urd the most was that her mother picked this guy in order to have another child. A child that could potentially replace her in Hild's eyes, especially now that their relationship wasn't nearly as strained as before, and therefore Hild could pull this off without the fear of alienating her daughter forever. Of course, Urd wasn't so immature to expect that her mother would never move on from her failed attempt to marry Tyr, and thus have more children with others. Not that Hild was in a hurry to expand her bloodline, but the possibility always existed. And while Urd gained two fantastic sisters from her father's second marriage, she had no idea how well she'd get along with a demonic half sibling.
Realizing that she was probably overthinking this to the point where it wasn't even funny, Urd decided to push away such impulsive thoughts, and stick to the facts. After all, her mother wasn't exactly abstaining from having the occasional partner for the night, and yet, she never had any kids with any of them. Now, this wasn't necessarily to the temporary nature of these flings, since it there were occasions where demons signed special agreements in order for them to have kids outside of marriage, yet without branding them as bastards. Sure, it was rather unusual, and some historians even suggested that it was only implemented in times of war, in order to recover the declined population, rather than something that was generally acceptable in times of peace.
Whatever was the case, Urd felt that it all depended on the identity of this mysterious demon, and as such she tried to observe him for longer, hoping to get any hints as why her mother picked him. So, after she spent a few seconds to recompose herself and watch the scene from a more objective viewpoint, this demon started to look quite familiar in her eyes. Even some of the techniques this guy was using on Hild felt like something she had personally experienced before. So, with her curiosity now piqued and feeling more comfortable with the overall situation, Urd stepped inside the room and quietly approached the fornicating couple. It was only then that the Norn managed to get a better glimpse of the demon's face, since his longer hair prevented her from properly identifying him from that particular angle.
"Keiichi?!" gasped Urd as her eyes went wide shock, and for more than a single reason. It was one thing to see her boyfriend screw her mother, but having him being a demon was a whole different matter altogether. After all, turning a human into any kind of immortal was hard enough and only done on exceptional occasions, which eliminated the possibility that this was another clone of Keiichi having his merry way with Hild. In other words this had to be the man himself. "What's going on here?"
"Huh? What do you mean by that, Urd?" asked the demon, much to the Norn's confusion. Of course, it took him a split second to realize how stupid his question must've sounded, and immediately tried to explain himself. "Um… I thought it was your mother's turn? The deal was once a week, right?"
"Right…" muttered the still unconvinced Urd, as she tried to give her panting mother a mother to regain her composure for long enough to hopefully offer a more meaningful explanation. "Anything you'd like to add, mom?"
"One… thing…" managed the demoness between her gasps for air. "You're such a cockblock, Urdy! At least wait until your husband finished with me! And I was so close to cum, too!"
"Yeah, sorry about that but… Wait!" said Urd, until she just realized how her mother had addressed Keiichi. "Did you call him… my husband? When did that happen?"
"A couple of decades ago?" replied Hild, while she cast a curious glance at her daughter. "Are you sure you didn't drink too much, Urdy? I know you love the stuff, but that's not an excuse to get so drunk that you're not even thinking straight anymore."
The Norn's only response was a blink, since at this point she was so confused that nothing else popped in her mind. 'Wait a sec! My mind?... Oh, for-' Cursing under her breath for not figuring out what was going on earlier, Urd shot her 'mother' a hard glare and summoned as much of her willpower she could, to completely dispel what in fact was nothing more than a fantasy. Everything around her -including the demon Keiichi- simply vanished in a thin mist, leaving a dark, empty space where all sense of direction was practically lost, thanks to the almost invisible horizon. Most importantly though, her 'mother' was in fact not Hild herself, but someone who merely borrowed her visage, even if her own appearance was already close enough; a bit too much, actually. "I never dreamt that we'd meet each other like this."
"Neither did I, but here I am," replied the virtually identical Urd that stood just an arm's reach away from her. "I suppose that happens when you start to lose control of your body; you lock yourself inside your own mind."
Offering a nod, Urd stared at her counterpart, who in fact was the representation of her demonic side, that apparently decided to manifest herself in such an unexpected manner. After all, at no point in her life so far, did Urd face her other half like this. "That still doesn't explain why you pulled that on me."
"Considering that you kept me cooped up at the back of your head for most of our life? Heh… you're one to talk," scoffed the demon-Urd, before she stopped herself, knowing that this would only accomplish the opposite of what they needed right now. "Anyway! I had to get you surprised enough to snap out of the trance you were in. Consider this as… a shock therapy of some sort. Besides, I think I've also demonstrated what I can do, since we demons have greater mind controlling abilities than you goddesses. You can say that this little display was my idea of killing two birds with one stone."
"Why do you even have to tell me that? You're also me, so I know all that already!"
"Do you, really?" snapped the demon-Urd, leaning closer to her goddess counterpart. "You've been carrying a parasite all this time, and you didn't even notice it? No demoness worth her fangs would ever do such a blunder, and you… we… have more than fangs to show for!"
Although the need to tell her off was overwhelming, Urd realized that there was literally no point saying that to another aspect of herself. Instead, she crossed her arms and chuckled softly, much to her counterpart's curiosity. "You were always my proud part, even when things went downhill. Frankly, as much of a pain in the ass you are, I'm glad you don't let me give up so easily."
"Look who's talking, miss sunshine! You're the royal pain in the ass, but… you're also me," admitted the demonic Urd with a sigh. "Still, in this case we need to work together if we're to break free from that parasite's control. And like I said before, I've shown you what I can do, so keeping me cooped up in here at a time like this is downright stupid. Like it or not, but without my help you've got no hope of regaining control of your body. So, what says you?"
"There's no other choice, is there?"
"Actually there is: to let that thing do as it pleases. Well… to be fair, it's not really controlling you directly, but its presence is kind of affecting our actions. It's like we're no longer in total control of ourselves, and do things even without knowing why."
"Very well… I guess we have to do this, don't we?" Of course, that was more of a statement than a proper question, even if she felt a bit too nervous to fully and unconditionally accept her demonic side. After so much time fearing her other half, Urd was far from enthusiastic from having to do this, despite all the progress she's done in that department. "So… let's give it a shot."
xXx
With the task of warning Lind now done, Peorth could let out a sigh of relief, as the Valkyrie reassured her that she'd get back as soon as possible. Which in reality was the only good thing she heard during the last couple of hours, since things seemed to deteriorate at an alarmingly fast rate. First, Urd almost went missing, and now, even though she returned home, it was questionable whether she was safe and most importantly… sound. While she knows that she's a bit too paranoid at times, the way Urd acted from a while ago was a far cry from what actually counted as normal for her. If nothing else, Peorth was absolutely certain that something must've happened during the Norn's disappearance, although she didn't have any definitive proof for that. As such, the rose goddess wished to avoid throwing accusations around, especially when Urd had a long history of being suspected for all sorts of things, only due to her demonic ancestry. 'Let's not get ahead of ourselves. Let's wait until Bell's done with her scan, and then we can figure out what to do.'
"So, we'll have wait until Lind gets back?" asked Keiichi, mostly as a way to start up a conversation. After all, he was standing close enough to Peorth to hear the whole exchange between her and Lind, so there was no need for the rose goddess to relay what she heard from the fellow goddess. Truth to be told, what mostly troubled him was during this kind of crisis he felt pretty useless. As a mere mortal, Keiichi possessed no means to help anyone here, and even worse, he worried that if things deteriorated any further, he'd end up becoming a liability. The only thing he could hope to offer was perhaps a suggestion or two, but even then, Keiichi doubted that this would be of any real help.
"For the most part, yes," replied Peorth with a troubled expression evident in her face. She was debating whether Lind's presence would be even enough to be of any help, given that she was a Valkyrie, and not exactly a medic. Furthermore, there was so much a single goddess could do, and perhaps it was for the best to call Heavens and let them know what was taking place here. The only problem with this course of action was that some might try to pin the blame solely on the Urd, or even go as far as implicate Keiichi as well. While she kept quiet about it, in a totally routine call she had with some of her colleagues back at the Earth Help Center, rumors of what was taking place here were already circulating in Heavens. And as was typical in such cases, the involvement of a single mortal with so many goddesses was something that attracted some attention from deities who depicted Keiichi's personality in a rather unkind manner. Frankly that was just a case of jealousy, since a few goddesses here were highly sought after, with Belldandy being the prime example, and more than enough gods would simply hate Keiichi for being so lucky to get not one but three girlfriends. And while this had nothing to do with the current crisis, some idiots would love to use any excuse to call this type of cohabitation as unsafe for the assorted deities, and recall most of them back in Heavens.
Expecting a bit more than that, Keiichi remained silent and patiently waited for the rose goddess to finish her sentence, only for Peorth to go uncharacteristically silent. As a result, Keiichi made an attempt to clear his throat to grab her attention, only for a loud thud to be heard across the entire house. "What was that?"
"Nothing good, that's for sure," muttered Peorth as she took a step forward and dissolved her clothes, replacing them with what initially seemed to be a black full-body latex catsuit, with a brown leather harness that resembled what she casually wore around her torso, only this one had more straps. "Just do a favor and stay behind me. We need to go and warn Skuld, before we check on Belldandy and Urd. And if something goes wrong, just run outside and hide in the temple. Lind should be here soon enough, so she should be more capable of protecting you."
In all honesty, the way Peorth was talking left the mortal with a sinking feeling of dread, as it became quite clear to him that something was horribly wrong. Of course, the realization that Peorth's new attire was in fact a battle uniform, did little to reassure him that everything was going to be fine. From what he's been told from Lind, battle uniforms were also distributed to civilians, who were actually allowed to modify them based on their personal tastes. Regardless of those stylistic decisions, what remained the same about them was that they provided a higher level of protection than most other types of clothing, and thus used primarily when a battle was all but imminent. 'Although… who is she going to fight with? Don't tell me that she plans on attacking Urd?' As much as he didn't want to consider it, there was a very strong possibility that for reasons beyond anyone's control, Urd was behaving in a manner where restraining her might be their only option. "Wait! Is this really the only way?"
"Probably not. And I really don't want to be the first to pick a fight with her, but… I can't lower my guard. She's not acting like herself, and the longer we let this go on, the worse it might become; especially for her," said Peorth in the most serious tone she ever used since her arrival on Earth. "Keiichi, if Urd ends up hurting someone while she's like this, even if we get her back to normal, we won't be able to ease of the pain of knowing that she allowed something bad to happen to those she loves. A bruise or two is nothing by comparison."
Unsure how to respond to such an argument, since it was becoming obvious that there was no easy way out of a situation like this, Keiichi simply nodded ever so slowly. Granted, at the back of his mind he maintained his conviction to find a way to avoid any unnecessary conflict, but at the same time, he knew that opposing Peorth wasn't going to do help anyone right now. However, as soon as they started for Skuld's room, Keiichi had a sudden moment of inspiration. "Peorth… you said before, that the reason why Gullveig fell unconscious is due to having his angel forcibly removed, right? But at the same time, there are methods of removing an angel that don't cause such problems. Am I still on the right track?"
Recalling what she told him moments before Urd make her appearance, Peorth scratched her chin, as she honestly didn't follow what her boyfriend was going for in this case. "Yes, that's quite right. Although, I don't see how's that relevant right now."
"But… if the main problem is falling unconscious because your angel was forcefully pulled out, then doesn't that mean that having no angel makes you immune to that kind of attack?" asked Keiichi, much to Peorth's surprise.
"That's!... We can't just get rid of our angels!" said Peorth and quite hotly too, until the Gorgeous Rose's voice in her head interrupted her.
'Please, don't dismiss his suggestion, mistress! If we just go ahead and confront Urd, or whoever else is responsible for this… I might get removed from you as well. Why don't we try to do as Keiichi suggested and give them a surprise when the same trick won't work on you?' suggested the angel from within her hostess' mindscape, causing her to remain silent for a good couple of seconds before she eventually relented.
"I… I don't like it, but… I can see why this might just work. Still, we never actually tried this kind of thing with Gorgeous Rose, so I don't know if I'll manage to remain conscious after removing her from me. Hm… perhaps passing her onto another might work better. The transfer process is said to be smoother than the emergency removal," mused Peorth out loud, as she wondered whether Skuld would allow passing Gorgeous Rose to Gullveig, given the somewhat intimate nature of such an action.
Totally unaware of the social issues that preoccupied Peorth's mind, Keiichi decided to just go ahead and make matters worse by opening his mouth without being sure whether his new suggestion was even possible. "In that case, can I get her?"
"I beg your pardon?" asked Peorth as she initially thought that her stress reached the point where she was starting to imagine things. "Get… her? You couldn't mean… my Gorgeous Rose?"
"Well… this is probably not the best idea in the world, but it should keep her safe, right?" offered Keiichi as a reply, even though he started to regret his decision to open his mouth, given the intensity of Peorth's stare. Then again, he couldn't blame her, since he knew that the connection between a goddess and her angel was a deep one, and making light of it was a sure way to insult them. "I mean, who's going to look for an angel inside a mortal?"
"That's not the problem!" almost yelled the rose goddess as she leaned against her boyfriend. "This is never done before! We don't even know if it's possible for her to stay within you… and even if she does, I have no idea if that's good for your health! For all I know, the stress of hosting an angel can potentially kill you!"
"We'll never know for sure unless we give it a try, though. After all, if anything seems off, you should be able to take her back, right?" asked Keiichi, and though he didn't get an immediate response -positive or otherwise- he knew that at the very least he managed to get the message across. "So, how do we do this?"
Before she could offer a proper reply, Peorth heard the bathroom's door slide open, and the sheer amount of demonic energy coming from that direction was more than enough to cause her hair to stand on its end. "Actually, I don't think we have the time to do this right here and now! Let's grab Skuld and make a run for it! We need to regroup!"
"But!..." tried Keiichi, only to have one of Peorth's vines materialize from her back and then wrap around him, tugging him along in the opposite direction they were originally meant to head to. He didn't even need to ask what the goddess had in her mind, since he knew that this was the way to Skuld's room, although he still worried about the others' fate. "Hold on a moment, Peorth! We can't leave Bell and Urd behind!"
"Who said anything about leaving them? We just need to get Skuld and Gullveig out of here first, and then come up with a plan. If we mindlessly charge ahead, then it's game over for us, too!" countered Peorth as she was about to open Skuld's door, only for the Norn of the future to do that on her own.
Apparently, she had also sensed the demonic presence inside the house, but given familiarity of said presence, she didn't immediately respond; until now, that is. "Hey, what's going on? Peorth? Why are you wearing a battle uniform?"
"There's no time to explain right now, Skuld! Quick, give me a hand to take Gullveig outside, and then we can talk!" said Peorth with an authoritative tone that didn't leave much room for negotiation. She even pushed the confused Skuld back inside the room, and followed after her, along with Keiichi who also had no real saying in this.
"O-Okay?... Although, what about Belldandy?" asked Skuld, with Keiichi also offering a nod in agreement.
"First we need to make sure that we can help her, before we actually attempt it. Otherwise, we'll just get caught as well," said Peorth with a frown, since in all honesty she hated having to play the role of the realist here, especially when such decisions had to be made. "Look, I'm not saying we should leave her behind, but charging ahead without a plan, won't work at all."
With the two goddesses at odds, Keiichi felt that he had to put an end to this stalemate, as they've already wasted more than enough time already. "Skuld, can you help us move Gullveig out of the house? Like, shrink him down or something? I've seen you change size before, so that would be really handy right now."
"Sure, I can do that!" While she had more than enough reasons to continue protesting, Skuld hoped that Peorth and Keiichi had a plan, or at least were right about this course of action.
As the Norn headed back inside her room, Keiichi turned to Peorth who nervously stared in the bathroom's direction. "What's wrong, Peorth?"
"She's sure taking her sweet time to make a move. I can totally feel her power surging through the whole building, but... she's not going anywhere," said the rose goddess with a frown. "I don't get it. Demons aren't exactly known for their patience, especially when they emit this amount of bloodlust."
"Maybe she's trying to hold back whatever that's causing her to act like this? I mean, this is Urd we're talking about! She's got no reason to attack any of us. Especially her sisters!"
Finding no flaw in Keiichi's observation, Peorth merely offered him a nod, but she still couldn't shake off the feeling that perhaps this was the calm before the storm. As such, when she heard the bathroom's door slide open, Peorth pushed Keiichi behind her. "Go with Skuld! I'll buy us some time!"
"Wait, what about Gorgeous Rose?" asked Keiichi, referring to his idea for transfering the angel into him.
"There's no time for that right now! Just go!" With that, Peorth pushed her boyfriend into Skuld's room and shut the door, before she grabbed her whip and prepared herself for what could be a hopeless fight. Even though she theoretically had the advantage, as she was about to face a second class goddess, while she had full access to first class spells, Peorth had no idea what Urd was capable of once she turned into a demoness. Since there were no other examples of hybrids -at least as far as she concerned- Peorth feared that Urd's goddess licence had no influence over her demonic power. And if that was indeed the case, then fighting Urd at full strength might just as well be too much even for her. 'Come on Lind! What's taking you so long?'
xXx
Despite the dramatic developments taking place inside the house, a certain demoness had somehow managed to miss all that, given that she was currently asleep on top of the main temple's roof. Having chosen that spot as her vantage point to better monitor the house next to the actual temple, Mara waited for a good half an hour or so, until her eyelids felt so heavy that falling asleep was only a matter of time. After all, by the time she got here, everyone had already retired for the night, and nothing out of the ordinary was taking place. She didn't even know what Vornir was so riled up about, considering that he gave her so little information, that Mara started to wonder if this was a form of punishment for her lack or results.
In all fairness though, it wasn't easy for one demoness to antagonize such a large number of deities. Dealing with not one but six adversaries, that included a Valkyrie of all things, was far beyond the abilities of even the best demonesses in her office. Only a handful of them was capable of such an undertaking, so without any reinforcements, Mara was at a loss as what to do. It was all too obvious that the goddesses had the clear advantage here, and even Keiichi also proved a tough opponent on his own. After all, she was instructed not to harm the boy, which eliminated too many options for attacking the weakest of the whole group. Besides, even that wasn't the case, Mara didn't want to ruin her friendship with Urd over something as pointless as helping her boss gain favor with Hild. It was all too obvious even to her, that Hild used a 'carrot and stick' strategy on Vornir, but unfortunately for Mara, she ended up getting involved in this whole mess. So, in a way, pretending to be a lazy ass was the lesser of two evils for her; at least until lady Hild stepped in and relieved her of Vornir's stupid orders.
As uncomfortable as it was to sleep on top of a roof, Mara had somehow managed to do just that, until a loud crash from inside Keiichi's house woke her up with a start. "Wha-?..." Mara sleepily looked around, trying to remember what she was doing on top of the roof, until she managed to shake off the sleep from her eyes and began to focus. However, once she did, the first thing that caught her attention was the enormous amount of demonic energy coming from inside the nearby building, which was actually totally unexpected.'Huh? Aren't they all deities in there? So, how come there's a demonic presence in there? And it kind of reminds me lady Hild, although it's kinda… different? Like it's… Urd? Could that really be? I thought that she didn't want to-'
Her thoughts were interrupted when another crash came from inside the house, although this time, Peorth shot out from one of the door panels, thanks to their flimsy design. Then again, the force behind that demonic blast was too much even for sturdier structures to withhold, so at least, Peorth's impact was lessened when the rice paper panel gave way. The next important observation to make was that the typically scantily clad goddess was wearing a combat uniform, which by itself was a statement on its own. 'What's going on here? Why are they fighting each other? Did they get into an argument over that mortal? Maybe something else? Still… a combat uniform is a bit too serious for a lovers' spat. And Urd's… Bloody Hell, that's really her?!'
Mara could only gawk at the demonic visage of the eldest Norn, as she apparently switched sides, which was clearly evident from the different markings: a red five-pointed star on her forehead and similarly colored triangles on her cheeks. Even her clothes were different from her usual attires, with her wearing something that strongly resembles a cross between a one-piece bikini and bondage gear. Made out of shiny black leather, this piece was truly outrageous, since it possessed several additional zippers, that aside from the one going down from her neck to her navel, she also had others that allowed easy access to her breasts and crotch. And right now, all of them were open, with the only partial exception being the last, that only allowed her pubic hair to be seen, but nothing more than that. On the other hand, she had a plunging neckline that reached down her navel, and her bountiful breasts were completely out in the open, with her chocolaty nipples standing fully erect, just like glass cutters.
'Wow! Even this much changes her whole demeanor. Although… there's still something off about her. I better watch and find out what it is, before this whole thing goes south.'
xXx
Unaware of their uninvited guest, the demonic Urd kept her gaze fixed on her current adversary, who was in the process of picking herself up from the ground. The rose goddess attempted to stop her, just moments ago, yet she had other ideas. With the parasite's influence still evident, Urd was in a state between freedom and thralldom, which also explained her rather erratic behavior. More than anything else, she felt the insatiable need to find sexual gratification, which in reality was part of the Angel Eater's method to motivate her to seek out healthy and potent mates, who in turn were likely to possess equally fine angels for the parasite to eat. After all, so far Urd haven't slept with anyone, even if her libido was off the chart, prompting her to walk around in something that merely covered her womanhood, and nothing more than that.
"That was quite cute of you. Trying to mess around with me… I don't know if I should be flattered or insulted by that attack," purred Urd, even though the sexiness in her voice was somewhat questionable, and more likely to be taken as a drunken slur.
"I guess, I underestimated you," groaned Peorth as she finally managed to get back on her feet. The idea to restrain Urd with her vines turned into a fiasco, as the Norn of the past proved too much for Peorth to handle on her own. Worse yet, the half goddess was now a half demoness, and without the limitations of her goddess license, Urd was a force to be reckoned. In a way, she could see why some people back home were weary of her, even if she still didn't find their reactions to be justified. Intriguingly enough though, Urd -or rather, whatever was attached to her- has yet to try remove Gorgeous Rose from her, which should've been their first priority. Instead, Peorth now had the chance to retaliate, although she knew that this wasn't going to last for too long. So, in the end she decided to take the risk and remove Gorgeous Rose on her own, before anyone -or anything- else beat her to it. "But!... I've got a few tricks up my sleeves, too!"
Before Urd could ask for an explanation, Peorth initiated the removal procedure, since Gorgeous Rose also found it to be their best chance to avoid captivity -or worse. The floral angel was reverted to her egg state, but for her to be absolutely safe, Peorth covered the egg in a thin membrane, and as soon as she had it in her hands, she swallowed it. This course of action took Urd by surprise, given that it seemed totally counterproductive. After all, once the angel egg hit Peorth's stomach, it should hatch once more, and rejoin her; only to be devoured.
"What the Hell are you doing?" asked the baffled Urd, but her target was in no state to offer a reply. The shock of having her angel removed took a toll on Peorth, who barely managed to remain conscious after she swallowed the encapsulated egg. With that done though, Peorth hit the floor with a thud, much to Urd's initial confusion. At first, she didn't even know what was going on, and suspected that this was a trick of sorts, but then, a series of vines shot out of her back, reaching to grab Peorth's clothes.
With a few yanks, the Angel Eater's tentacles ripped the goddess' combat uniform apart, exposing her pert breasts to the cool night air, before the rest of it gave way, leaving her naked on the floor. Almost immediately, the Angel Eater tried to extract Peorth's angel, but to no avail. Impossible as it seemed, the creature couldn't quite locate the angel, even if Gorgeous Rose's scent was still all over the unconscious goddess.
"What a letdown," exclaimed the Norn of the past, almost as is if she was voicing her parasite's frustration. Still, with one more goddess in the general vicinity, the Angel Eater wished to feast on Noble Scarlet, too. As such, Urd left Peorth lying on the floor and headed outside, where Keiichi and Skuld were most likely hiding in the nearby forest.
Little did she know of the magnitude of her error.
xXx
"Okay, now what?"
Keiichi's question lingered in the air, as Skuld didn't have an immediate answer to that. She already felt the pressure when Belldandy was taken out, but now she was literally the last goddess standing. "I'm not sure. Whatever happened inside, Peorth's presence is almost gone. I fear she's out cold, too."
The frustration in Skuld's voice was more than enough to deter Keiichi from asking more questions. Not only that wouldn't accomplish anything, but in the worst case scenario, he might end up demoralizing Skuld. "Just hang in there. Lind's gonna get here, any moment now."
As if by a huge coincidence, at that very moment, the Gate opened above them, allowing the Valkyrie in question to transfer through at the most critical moment. Lind's arrival brought a smile on Skuld's face, even though moments ago she was ready to refute Keiichi's attempt to reassure her. "Finally! Lind, over here!" called Skuld from behind the bell tower, waving at the war goddess the moment she set foot on the ground.
The Valkyrie didn't need to be told twice, and immediately rushed to their location, only to feel disheartened when she noticed that Belldandy and Peorth were nowhere to be seen. "Alright! Give me the sitrep!"
Offering a nod, Keiichi stepped in and volunteered to quickly explain what took place during her absence; at least from past that phone call. "Well, you see…"
Roughly three minutes later, Lind had the whole story, and she could even see the culprit from across the temple grounds, as Urd and the bulbous creature hovering behind her, were apparently looking for them. It was thanks to her quick thinking that she cast an anti-detection spell just as she heard the door open, that gave them a four meters wide area to regroup and discuss their strategy. Of course, time was of the essence, since this field did little if Urd caught sight of them, and besides, the creature's identity was another serious matter all on its own. "The Angel Eater. I've only seen pictures of it, since it's too dangerous to even study. Still, I didn't know it was stolen."
"Do you think we can save them?" asked the worried Skuld, with Keiichi quipping in.
"That thing's holding the angels like one huge fly trap. Uh… sorry about that analogy, but it's the only thing that popped in my mind."
"No offense taken," said Lind, without taking her eyes from the creature in question. "We still have time to rescue them, but we must be careful. This is no different from a hostage situation, so, going all out is out of question. And not only that, but if we're careless, that thing will remove our angels, too."
"Even your twins?" asked Keiichi, as he tried to come up with some kind of idea to help them, since he couldn't really contribute in a fight.
This actually caused Lind to pause for a moment, since in all honesty, she had no idea whether her unique condition could hinder that beast or not. "I'm unsure. Like I said, this thing is too dangerous to study, and besides, I don't think that there are many goddesses with twin angels. So, either way, there's not enough data to make any assumptions. Then again, I can't exactly summon both at the same time. If that was the case… who knows what effect it would have on the Angel Eater. The way things stand, it might just remove them one at a time."
"Actually, I have an idea," said Keiichi, even though he remembered the less than enthusiastic reaction he got from Peorth when he made that proposition.
"Very well," said Lind with a nod. "Let us hear it."
xXx
"Are you an idiot?"
Skuld's outraged cry was so loud that Lind had to put her hand over her mouth to prevent the Norn from giving away their position. Still, she found herself wondering whether Skuld was right or not, given the absurdity of the suggestion. More importantly, Cool Mint felt inclined to give this a try, and Spear Mint backed her up, putting Lind in the difficult situation of being the only one who had some reservations about the whole plan. In this case though, the Valkyrie decided to trust her angels as well as her intuition and no matter how crazy that idea sounded, she was going to give it a go. "Actually, I have a feeling that if there's any chance for that plan to succeed, then it's worth going for it."
The war goddess' statement earned a stare from Skuld, who clearly didn't agree with her, but the determination behind Lind's eyes prevented her from arguing even further. So instead, she glanced over at Keiichi who suddenly realized that he had no idea what he was in for.
"Alright then. Tell me what to do," said the nervous mortal in an attempt to maintain his composure, as losing his cool at a moment like this was out of question.
"There are better methods to transfer an angel, but we don't have the time to set up a formal transfer ceremony," explained Lind while she approached Keiichi and stopped right in front of him. Then much to his further confusion, she placed her arms around his shoulders, and slightly pulled him closer. "Instead, we have to rely on an emergency transfer, that's basically performed with a kiss on the mouth. Think of it like a mouth-to-mouth resuscitation technique."
"Oh, okay." Offering a slow nod, Keiichi found himself in the oddly strange situation where he had to kiss Lind, but for very different reasons than he would've preferred. Furthermore, he felt somewhat awkward to do that right in front of Skuld, which sounded rather strange, given that not too long ago, he had done a lot more with her, while Urd did the same with Gullveig. Then again, the severity of this situation had nothing to do with that incident. "I think I'm ready."
Lind waited to get a similar confirmation from Cool Mint, before she took a deep breath to calm herself as well as Spear Mint, and then leaned forward. Her lips met Keiichi's in an awkward kiss that gradually deepened as both participants opened their mouths. However, before Keiichi could slip his tongue in, Lind performed the transfer, almost knocking the mortal out in the process. "Stay strong. You should be fine in a moment."
"Y-Yes…" rasped the overwhelmed Keiichi, as he took a couple of unsteady steps back. The feeling of having another entity in his head was so disorienting that he momentarily lost his footing, but Skuld caught him before he hit the ground.
"You don't look good to me," noted the brunette while she helped him regain his balance. And a glance in Lind's direction revealed that while she was in a much better state than Keiichi, the Valkyrie seemed rather winded. Still, once she caught her breath, Lind moved closer and checked on Keiichi, just to make sure that the angel transfer didn't pose an immediate threat to his health. In the meanwhile, Skuld tried to come up with ideas to re-energize Keiichi, since it was becoming apparent that he was rapidly running out of power.
"I'll manage, somehow. On the other hand, how are you, Lind?" asked Keiichi, in an attempt to look brave in front of the others. Humans weren't actually meant to host angels, and even though his connection with Cool Mint wasn't as solid as the ones the goddesses shared with their own angels, the idea that the innocent girl was going through some of his private thoughts, worried him. Every man had things that he didn't want others to know, and Keiichi was no exception to that rule. Sure, he didn't suspect that Cool Mint would go out of her way to spy on him, and besides, there was no time for that. Yet, the sudden lack of privacy inside his own head was a source of uneasiness for Keiichi, until the angel in question decided to reassure him.
'Please, don't be alarmed. I'm not trying to look into anything I shouldn't. All I'm doing is gain access to your sensory information, so I know what's going on outside.'
The voice clearly came from inside his head, which initially seemed pretty weird to the confused mortal, but at the very least, he now felt a bit better than moments ago. As a matter of fact, once his dizziness started to go away, Keiichi felt better than ever, all thanks to Cool Mint's presence that helped him recover way faster than he would've on his own. 'Thank you, Cool Mint. I know I'm probably worried about the wrong kind of thing right now, but is totally new for me. How are you doing, by the way? Is everything alright?'
'It feels lonely, not having Spear Mint with me. SInce we're twins, we're quite close, and it's very strange to be all on my own. Still, that's necessary right now, so, don't worry about me.'
'She may be sensitive, but she's as tough as Lind,' thought Keiichi, only to realize that Cool Mint heard it, and giggled in response. Of course, that was unintentional, yet it acted as a reminder of the implications of sharing his personal space with another entity. However, before he could offer a reply, Keiichi heard his name, and turned to stare right in Lind's blue eyes, since the Valkyrie was leaning towards him. "Sorry, were you saying something?"
"Yes. I asked you whether you were feeling fine; about five times, already," said Lind, adding the last part as an afterthought. "Try to empty your thoughts and don't fight it. Once you get accustomed to the feeling of having an angel, it should get much better."
Next, it was Skuld's turn to join the conversation with a rather surprising act: before she even said anything, the Norn leaned in to kiss him on the lips. It only lasted for a brief moment, but actually did accomplish its intended purpose, much to Skuld's excitement. "Yes! Looks like my idea works!"
"Idea? What idea?" asked the confused Keiichi, only to have Cool Mint note that they just received an energy boost. "Oh! I see now!... Thanks for that, Skuld!"
"You're wel-" started to say Skuld, only to have Lind violently grab her and Keiichi by the waist, and jump high up in the air, just as the ground they previously stood, blew up in splendor. As a matter of fact, the debris almost reached the trio, forcing Lind to erect a barrier to keep Keiichi -the most vulnerable of them- from harm's way.
"Tch! I missed…" cursed Urd as she glanced up at her intended targets, and let out an annoyed huff. However, she soon regained her composure as if their escape was of no consequence for her, and gathered more of her energy in her right palm, forming a small fireball. "Then again, it would've been boring a Valkyrie couldn't even dodge a meager spell like that. Providing that you're not too distracted from making out with my boyfriend..."
"What do you think you're doing, Urd? That could've hurt Keiichi!" shouted Skuld on top of her lungs, instead of letting Lind reply, since the jab was primarily aimed at the war goddess.
"Could've… would've… What's the point? It didn't, and that's what matters. Besides, I wasn't even trying to do any damage; just… grab your attention," said the power drunk Urd, as she sensually brushed her hair out of her face with one hand. On the other, she was still 'holding' that fireball, and even fed it with more power, making it grow in the progress. If nothing else, it acted as a statement that this time she was serious, and judging by the looks of it, Lind got the message.
"Skuld! Take care of him!" Without any further elaboration, Lind pushed Keiichi in the brunette's arms and practically kicked her out of the barrier, just as she dissolved it. Even though that seemed counterproductive, her instincts dictated her to take initiative, rather than trying to hold her ground. Despite being the strongest and most skilled Valkyrie of her generation, Lind has heard of the rumors about the hybrid's potential. And if they were to be proven correct, then even she wasn't enough to stop her on her own. The biggest problem however, was that requesting reinforcements could escalate Urd's response, and in the process turn the entire city into a battleground. This left Lind with the only practical option to go for: close in and use everything she's got to subdue Urd.
"Hm?" The half demoness was just about to launch her attack, when the Valkyrie all but vanished right in front of her eyes. However, Urd couldn't feel any spells being triggered, which in turn dismissed the possibility of this being a cloaking technique of some sort, but rather, she could barely see a blur move rapidly towards her. It happened so fast that she totally failed to take aim in time, causing the fireball to miss the incoming blur, and instead continue harmlessly across the night sky, until it hit the upper parts of the atmosphere, where it dissipated. "What the?!"
Almost by instinct, Urd crossed her arms in a defensive position in front of her, and immediately jumped back to avoid the imminent attack. She didn't take into account the Angel Eater's presence though, and as such she collided with the creature, which all by itself wasn't a problem. The real issue was that this denied her the chance to dodge Lind's attack, and amidst her lack of concentration, Urd barely managed to see a leg slam onto her stomach. Such was the force behind Lind's kick, that the half demoness was forcibly separated from the Angel Eater, since the parasite's bulk prevented it to follow its host when she was launched across the temple grounds.
Still, this was far from enough to completely set Urd free from the creature's influence, although its grip on her ought to be weaker now that they weren't directly connected. "Now's our chance! Keep her busy and I'll take that thing down!" ordered Lind, as she placed herself between the others, and the dazed Urd who ended up crashing against the perimeter wall. This was to give Skuld the time to grab a few of her bombs, and even pass a few to Keiichi, since those weren't threatening enough to actually cause Urd any harm; at least the ones Skuld picked for the occasion.
Just as the brunette goddess was about to reply, she realized that Urd didn't even seem fazed from the Valkyrie's kick, and was actually chanting a counterattack. "Lind! Watch out!"
To her credit, the Valkyrie has already sensed the incoming attack and got out of the way, with the same speed she previously used to attacked Urd, making her opponent pause in order to track her. Of course, the best defense was a good offense, and thus she launched herself towards the half demoness for a second attack, forcing her to assume a defensive stance and change her spell, too. After all, she couldn't afford to use magic in such proximity to a human city, since the slightest mistake has the potential to result in a disaster.
While Lind attempted to punch her way through Urd's magic barrier, Skuld turned her attention to the creature that was staring at her the same way she stared at ice-cream. Of course, it didn't help that she had summoned Noble Scarlet to further entice the being into focusing its attention on her. This allowed Keiichi to get close enough without having the Angel Eater realize that he was hosting Cool Mint, which in fact was a crucial point of their plan.
Still, before he tossed the bomb he was holding at the beast, Keiichi couldn't help but appreciate Noble Scarlet's majestic appearance. Even though the angel wasn't as exotic as Gorgeous Rose with those vines of hers, or World of Elegance with her dual nature, Noble Scarlet was a different kind of beauty. She was almost similar to how Holy Bell looked attractive by letting her personality shine through her appearance, rather than the other way around, although in Noble Scarlet's case, one could also see her mistress' determination and intelligence in those sharp, red eyes of hers. 'Okay, let's not just stand here gawking,' thought Keiichi, feeling the need to chide himself for wasting time under such circumstances.
The mortal shook his head to push away such unnecessary thoughts, and aimed his bomb at the creature's back, just as Skuld circled around it. Then he just waited for the Norn to launch her bomb, before he joined in, hitting the Angel Eater from two sides. The explosions weren't strong enough to cause damage, since the risk of hurting the angels was too high, yet they still managed to inflict pain. "Hey, it's working!" said Keiichi, although Skuld didn't share his enthusiasm.
"It's not letting them go, though. We must keep going!" replied Skuld, walking a full circle around the Angel Eater, so that she could give another bomb to Keiichi. Not only that, but once he attacked the creature, there was a great possibility that it might consider him as a threat and retaliate; at which point, he would have no other option but play their trump card too soon.
"I hear you," said Keiichi, with a fresh batch of explosives at hand, just as Skuld armed herself for the second barrage. Meanwhile, the Angel Eater puffed itself up, not unlike a balloon in response to the escalating threat, making itself nearly twice as large as it previously was. And as if that wasn't bad enough, the creature let out a piercing screech, even though Keiichi would've sworn that his ears didn't register anything at all. It was almost reminiscent to the angels' telepathic voice, although this time, it also sounded like some sort of alarm or distress call. While it initially seemed that this was the creature's response to the bombs thrown at it, the moment Noble Scarlet heard that call, she almost instinctively moved closer to the Angel Eater.
"No, stop! Noble Scarlet!" cried Skuld, when she realized how the creature lured its victims. Apparently, the Angel Eater was an ambush predator, stalking its food from a safe distance, only to lure it out with a fake cry for help. And when an angel responded, it simply grabbed and removed its prey from their host's body, causing the latter to lose consciousness. Then as if that wasn't bad enough, the creature would invade the unconscious deity and manipulate them into getting close to other of their kind, allowing the Angel Eater to grab more angels for it to gorge.
"Oh no, you don't!" Just as the creature's vines closed onto the surprised Noble Scarlet, Keiichi knew that it was the time for him to make the difference. "Cool and ice blade!" A burst of feathers from behind him was soon followed by a concentrated beam of pure ice, hitting the unsuspecting Angel Eater dead on, before it could do anything to protect itself. The creature was immediately engulfed in a relatively thin layer of ice, although it was still more than enough to immobilize it, and without harming the captive angels, too.
For a moment, everything came to a grinding halt, since both the Angel Eater and Urd were taken aback by this unexpected turn of events. Of course, the former wasn't exactly in any position to show its surprise in any meaningful way -given that it was frozen in place- but the latter, did gawk at the sight of Cool Mint floating right behind Keiichi, in a manner that clearly implied that she was hosted by him. And to make matters even stranger, at that moment, Spear Mint made her entrance to the scene, causing Urd to look between the twin angels in wonder. "What the?! How?!"
As if that wasn't big enough of a surprise, the moment Urd uttered those words, an explosion caught everyone's attention. A couple of vines shot right through the house's walls, creating a hole large enough for Peorth to pass through, who was not only back to her feet and with her angel intact, but said angel was now carrying the unconscious Belldandy as well. "Mmhm… sorry for the delay, everyone. I overslept, I guess." There a certain hint of playfulness in Peorth's voice, especially as she pointedly stared in Urd's direction, before turned her gaze in Keiichi's direction. "Well, what do we have here? I can't believe I nearly missed this."
"Okay… how the Hell did you manage to recover?" asked the frustrated Urd, who was starting to find this whole situation a tad too much to believe. "You did swallow your egg, but… nothing happened! So, how?!"
"Easy thing, dear Urd. When I turned Gorgeous Rose back into an egg, I covered her in a thin, herbal based film that started to slowly dissolve after I swallowed her. So, even though nothing happened right away, it did allow her egg to hatch a few minutes later. And by that time, you and that thing were gone," explained Peorth, shooting a sideways glance in the Angel Eater's frozen form.
"Alright, I'll admit it. You're smarter than you look," said Urd much to the rose goddess' chagrin.
"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?"
Instead of an answer, Urd formed a fireball on her palm and then launched it at the frozen Angel Eater, which slowly thawed out the beast, much to everyone's displeasure. Some of them even thought that the whole thing was over, only to see that creature get free of its icy prison. Worse yet, they've lost the element of surprise, since now Keiichi's idea of using an angel was exposed, and besides he couldn't quite last for much longer. That spell he used to freeze the Angel Eater, left him gasping for air, since no mortal possessed enough energy to support an angel during combat. It was a miracle how he was even capable of standing up, and even if Skuld or anyone else tried to resupply him with energy, it was uncertain whether his body would handle all this stress.
This actually didn't go unnoticed by Lind, who immediately realized Keiichi's signs of fatigue, that were also reflected by Cool Mint's body language. Without wasting time, the Valkyrie rushed to Keiichi's side and pulled him close for a brief kiss that allowed her to recover her angel, and then wrapped an arm around him, before his legs gave way. "Thank you, Keiichi You really gave all you had for her," whispered Lind while she supported the exhausted Keiichi who let out a sigh of relief.
"I just wish I could hold on longer," said Keiichi, although the moment he saw up, his disappointment was dispersed by what was actually the best thing that happened tonight. "They really look beautiful together, though. I guess something good did come out of this."
"I… suppose you're right. Although, it was thanks to your help, too," said Lind, and for the first time she looked over her shoulder to see both her angels float next to each other, while they smiled back at her and Keiichi. "I know you can't hear her now, but they're both thankful for your help as well."
"Sorry to interrupt the touching scene, but you've forgotten about us," commented Urd from the sidelines, with a slightly perturbed tone that could be taken for a mild case of jealousy. Regardless, the half demoness managed to get the point across, and just as everyone turned to face her, the Angel Eater grew even larger in size. With the creature much closer to her, it was easier to provide it with even more power, which caused it to reach an even higher form of evolution. By this point, the Angel Eater was so large, that Urd looked nothing more than a mere toy in front of it. And by extend, they were slowly offsetting the numerical advantage of their opponents, especially now that the beast was so full of energy that could easily remove their angels without having to resort to trickery and ambushes. "I think it's about time we put an end to this farce."
"Urd! Why are you doing this? Don't tell me that you can't see what's wrong here! Please… just snap out of it!" cried Skuld, almost expressing everyone's thoughts, even if they didn't dare to say that first.
"It's not that simple," replied the half demoness, before a dark aura formed around her, engulfing both the Norn and the Angel Eater with its demonic power. "If I were to break free from its control, then it wouldn't get my power. And in that case, the next source of nutrition would be none other than the angels it already captured." Urd's voice remained calm and collected, and nothing akin to a person fighting against his loved ones, which initially surprised them. So far, Urd seemed to act as if she was out of control, or at least turned into the polar opposite of her usual self. However, she suddenly started to sound like the good old Urd, regardless of the immense demonic power that engulfed her… until someone noticed what was actually going on.
"Hold it! Is it just me or the Angel Eater is… withering?" noted Peorth, much to her own surprise. At first, it seemed like the creature was growing more powerful by each passing second, and then… it began to shrivel. Its body seemed to sag and there were clear signs of discomfort as its tentacles frantically moved about, yet without any sign of coordination. If nothing else, it was clear that it was in pain, and as she looked at the others, they too have reached the same conclusion.
"Yes, it seems to be suffering. But… why?" asked Lind, before she turned to the grinning Urd for the answer.
"Since the cat's out of the bag… all I need to say is that this thing was never designed to metabolize demonic magic. You see, I'm a half-goddess, half-demoness hybrid, so, for all this time it's been siphoning my divine power, since that's what it can actually digest. Sure, its preferred diet consists of angels, but those are filled with divine energy as well. And considering how I allowed it to get so much throughout this whole night, especially once we started this little fight, all I now have is…"
"Demonic energy," concluded Skuld, almost in disbelief. "Then… you're poisoning it!"
"Yep! And I've been doing it slowly, ever since we started this," laughed Urd, as she visibly relaxed and pumped even more demonic power to the hapless parasite, causing it to screech in pain. "I knew that if I tried this earlier, it would've immediately notice what I wanted to do. But as long as you kept it busy, and even presented it with more, delicious angels to focus on, I could do my thing without risking the lives of the angels it captured. Still, I think it's time we set those free, before anything bad happens. Lind?"
The Valkyrie nodded, since she knew that this was her cue to step in and get the captive angels to safety. Lind snapped the crystals from both her earrings and tossed them to her angels, allowing the twins to get hold of her axes, once the crystals transformed into her weapons; or rather, safety equipment. Then, she and the Mints crouched down, before they launched forward onto the Angel Eater, and quite literally ripped the creature's fly-trap appendages.
A loud telepathic screech caused the rest of the bystanders to wince, except for Keiichi who was lucky enough not to be able to hear it. Yet, once that was over, the Angel Eater toppled over like a fallen tree, since the last source of power was robbed from it.
The angelic trio opened their eyes, slowly recovering from the energy drain they've been subjected to, yet thankfully it was still soon enough to avoid any permanent damage. If not for being somewhat exhausted, the angels were actually unharmed, and the moment they started to stir up, they looked around for their hosts. First to move was Ardent Lance, who wasted no time and headed for his miniaturized god, that Skuld somehow managed to keep on her person. Next was Holy Bell, although she did pause to check on World of Elegance who lost the most power of them all, given that she was captured first. However, as the dichromatic angel offered a weak nod at her sister, Holy Bell gave her a brief hug, and then headed for Belldandy. And as both Gullveig and the middle Norn started to regain consciousness, now that their angels returned to them, Urd extended her arms in invitation and smiled at her angel.
"Come, World of Elegance!"
Despite her weakened state, the dichromatic angel shot up in the air, and approached her mistress, where she joined up with Urd, allowing her to get the much needed nourishment from her hostess. Most importantly though, she could now feel the feedback from her, and the tremendous sense of relief her mistress experienced the moment she returned home, brought a smile on the angel's face. 'I'm home.'
'Welcome back, my other self. I've missed you,' thought Urd back at her angel, before she added in a more serious note. 'I'm sorry for all the trouble I caused today. I should've known better than go about like this.'
'You didn't want for any of this to happen, so, don't blame yourself. Instead, let's deal with that thing, and then we can finally relax.'
Urd couldn't agree more, and with a mere thought she reverted back to her half-goddess configuration, now that there was no need to rely on her demonic power. Still, the whole experience brought her a sense of peace of mind, since for the first time she managed to cooperate with her demonic persona, rather than fight over control of their collective self. Although it started off somewhat awkwardly, both sides of Urd found a decent compromise in order for her to overcome this ordeal, and most importantly, they stopped considering each other as the enemy. Sure, she would've preferred to accomplish this without having to get involved in this mess, but sometimes it was good to see the good things that came out of a near disaster, rather than lament on the bad ones. "Lind, what should we do with it?"
"I'd say we kill it," came the Valkyrie's stoic reply, as her twin angels got behind her, and aimed their axes at the stunned creature. "There's no reason to waste this opportunity, and let it victimize someone else, later on."
At first, it seemed that no one disagreed with Lind's reasoning, since the Angel Eater was too dangerous to simply let it go like that. However, before the Valkyrie could make her move, Belldandy intervened by placing a hand on her shoulder. "Please, wait a moment, Lind! This is the first time we managed to learn something about the Angel Eater. And while I do agree that it's too dangerous, there's no guarantee whether there are more creatures like this one, or even if it was an artificially created being. If that's the case, now that we know its weaknesses, we should capture it and study it even further. By killing it, we'll learn nothing about how to deal with it. And not only that, but we could find out how to prevent our angels from falling into the same trap it used to get them."
"You… do have a fair point," concluded Lind after spending a moment to consider her options. "Very well, we'll capture it, and then take it to Heaven. Urd, I need some help with this thing!"
"Why?" asked the half goddess, only to mentally kick herself moments later. It was apparent that she was the only one present who could use demonic power, even if she was back in her goddess self. "Okay, got it! Just give me a second to find something to seal this thing in."
"Oh, ho ho! There's no need for that!" The disembodied laughter echoed across the temple grounds, causing the celestials present to look around for the intruder, assuming that whoever was behind the Angel Eater may have come to retrieve it. However, soon after that voice was heard, a dark clad figure descended from the night sky, causing everyone to immediately turn in her direction, with Lind almost about to attack her too. "Whoa! Hold on a second, I'm not here to pick a fight!"
"Mara?" exclaimed the baffled Urd, when she saw her old friend float towards the ground with a jar in hand. "What are you doing here?"
"Not much. I was just passing by, and heard someone asking for a container… and I just happen to have one!" While the dramatic announcement felt quite unnecessary, Mara was happy to make herself useful, especially now that the whole situation was sorted out. Even though she felt compelled to intervene previously, the demoness was actually at a loss on whether to help the demonic Urd or not. At least now that she knew that the whole thing was merely an act, Mara could join forces with them without making a huge mistake in the process, and get herself into trouble for it.
"Yeah… right…" grumbled Urd, since she honestly didn't buy that story. Still, she did snatch the jar from the blonde's hands and placed on the ground, before she began to form a magic circle around it. "I can almost bet that you were spying on us, and fell asleep on the job."
"How dare you! I'm not… that bad!" snapped Mara back at her old friend, although her thoughts told a totally different story. 'Dammit! She got me... Am I really that obvious?'
Just as Urd was about to refute Mara's claims, a beam of pure magic shot through the night sky, demanding everyone's attention. The Angel Eater had managed to partially recover from its weakened state, and in the absence of any way out of here, the creature began to panic and lashed out at the bystanders. There was no sense of coordination in its attacks though, making it easy for them to avoid them; providing that they actually threatened to hit them in the first place. Still, it was obvious that if they allowed it to run away, the potential damage it could cause in the city would be far from insignificant, and that also included human casualties.
"Shoot! The thing's gone berserk! It must be burning up all its remaining energy to break through!" yelled Lind over the sound of the creature's attacks. "Urd, hurry up with the seal. The rest of you, give me a hand to contain this place in a shield. If any of those shots leaves the temple, things will get ugly and fast!"
"Got it!" chorused the assorted deities, with Mara looking unsure what to do, until Urd barked at her to give a hand with the sealing process. Sure, the demoness was still somewhat uncertain whether she should help or not, but considering that the Angel Eater was also aiming for her, she eventually caved in and followed Urd's suggestion. In the meantime, Lind, Peorth, Belldandy and Skuld formed a shield around the berserk monster, while Gullveig shielded Keiichi, just to avoid any nasty surprises.
It took Urd and Mara about a minute or two, but in the end, they had the sealing mandala ready, allowing the others to fall back and let the jar do its job. While this initial retreat seemed to confuse the still frantic Angel Eater, it soon became apparent what was going on, when it was almost sucked into the jar by the sealing spell's effect that almost acted like a potent vortex, pulling at the creature with tremendous force. Still, moment before it was absorbed in the jar, the Angel Eater placed its tentacles around it, pressing hard against the ground in a desperate attempt to keep it from being sealed.
"That thing really needs to learn when to quit," moaned Skuld, as she pulled out a bomb, but Lind stopped her.
"Leave it to me," said the Valkyrie, before she crouched down and then shot herself high up in the air, along with her angels. Lind was actually so high up in the air, that she could see the whole Nekomi bay underneath her -and then some- all while her target was nothing more than a tiny dot on the ground. "Alright, girls. Here we go!"
At the temple, all eyes turned skyward, as they tried to see where Lind had gone to, only to hear an explosion. However, it soon became apparent that this was actually Lind breaking the speed of sound, and before long the Valkyrie descended upon the creature, smashing it onto the ground with incredible force. The impact was actually so strong that it send shockwaves across the whole area, imitating the effect of an earthquake, while for Keiichi and the rest of the immortals, that was soon followed by a cloud of dust, that took several seconds to dissipate.
Frustratingly enough, however, even then the Angel Eater seemed to hold its ground, and bruised as it was, it still managed to keep itself from being completely absorbed into the jar. Actually, it was halfway inside in an almost comical fashion, yet it obstinately resisted Lind's attempt to push the rest of it into the jar.
"I don't even…" groaned Lind with a frown, as she looked down at the struggling Angel Eater. This prompted the rest of the goddesses to approach, and see what they could do in order to 'convince' the creature to get inside. The rest held their ground, with Gullveig not moving an inch from Keiichi's location, since it was too early to let their guard down, while Mara didn't feel motivated to go the extra mile to help them capture one of their monsters. Again, that was mostly thanks to her uncertainty on whether such an action could come to bite her later on, so, for the most part she remained an observer.
Out of the four goddesses that did approach, Skuld and Urd were the most obvious, since the former held a cluster of bombs, and the latter a couple of vials whose contents were as suspicious as they could get. On the other hand, Belldandy held a dusting feather, probably wanting to see if it was possible to tickle the thing into letting go, but it was Peorth who actually got the most prominent reaction from the creature.
The rose goddess cracked her whip in the air, and then summoned a cat o'nine tails, that looked so intimidating that the Angel Eater seemed to take a moment to consider its options, and promptly shoved itself into the jar. It all happened so fast that, Lind nearly fell onto the ground since she was literally standing on top of the creature, before it suddenly disappeared from underneath her feet.
Right after that, all eyes fell on Peorth. "What? It's not like you wanted to become its friends, right?"
"Well, at least we didn't look like we wanted some BDSM action with it," quipped Urd, much to Peorth's chagrin.
"Excuse me, but that's not how plants work, to begin with!"
While Urd and Peorth continued their banter, Mara found the opportunity to slip away from the group, since she needed to report back to her boss; and even, lady Hild. After all, she was certain that the demonic CEO would be quite interested to listen to her testimony of what took place here, and in the process also make sure that her contribution didn't cross any lines. The last thing she needed was to get herself sealed for a stupid reason beyond her control, although she could theoretically speaking pin the blame to Vornir, for being the one who ordered her to come here. 'Hm… that's interesting. It's almost as if he knew that something was about to happen. And he insisted so hard, that it can't be a coincidence. Perhaps… I should go straight to lady Hild, just for a good measure. Yeah, that sounds like a plan.'
Keiichi was the only to notice the demoness' departure, but then realized that either way she had to leave the scene, so, he didn't make a fuss about it. In a sense, he felt that some of the others may have also noticed, but deliberately ignored her as well. After all, it would be for the best to simply put an end to this incident, rather than make any attempts to assign blame on the demons, without first knowing who was the true mastermind. As such, Keiichi did the same and tried to relax, now that the Angel Eater was sealed, and Urd was back to normal, even if part of that was only an act.
"Pretty crazy night, huh?" commented Gullveig as he cast a glance at Keiichi, who could only nod in agreement.
"You can say that again. Boy, I'd rather not go through anything like this ever again," said Keiichi, only to pause for a moment when he glanced at the twin angels hovering right behind Lind, and not to mention World of Elegance who was holding a staring match with Gorgeous Rose while their goddesses carried on their banter. "At the very least though, something good did come out of it."
While the blonde god offered a nod in agreement, he noticed Lind staring in their direction, and realized that she probably wanted to talk to Keiichi, albeit privately. "Now, if you excuse me, I need to check on Skuld. I'm pretty sure she and Noble Scarlet wants to talk to me… you know, about the whole thing."
Although Keiichi seemed confused by Gullveig's sudden change of attitude, he soon noticed that Lind was approaching him, and realized that his friend just wanted to give them some privacy. Once they were relatively alone -or rather everyone else was out of earshot- Lind and her angels got within an arm's reach from him, and the Mints moved to give him a group hug. "Whoa! It's nice to see you too, girls! And this time in the real world, too!"
As Keiichi awkwardly returned the hug, Lind couldn't help but smile at the spectacle, even though she initially intended to join in. Then again, her angels conveyed their collective emotions of gratitude way better than she'd ever manage on her own, and thus decided to just let them be. Still, remaining silent could potentially lead to misunderstandings, and the last thing she needed was to let him think that she's ungrateful for his efforts. "I don't know if offering you my thanks is good enough, but, that's all I can for now." Despite the smile those words brought on Keiichi's face, Lind felt that she still didn't do a good job to express herself, and that was just too little to make up for the almost impossible task this mortal managed to pull off on her behalf. As such, she joined in and gave Keiichi a hug, even though it felt strange at first, since she wasn't entirely sure whether the others were looking or not. After all, she wanted to express her gratitude, rather than try to hit on him, which would've been tasteless at a moment like this. "I never thought it would be possible to say this to someone I met over such a short period of time, but, you're one of the truest friends I have."
"I… I don't know if I deserve such praise, but… thank you, Lind. It's quite an honor to hear this from you," said Keiichi as he eventually let go of the Valkyrie and her angels. However, as he did, the mortal couldn't help but notice a certain hint of sadness in Lind's voice, and wondered just what was all this about; until he remembered about the sealed Angel Eater. "Although, it sounds as if you're… leaving?"
"You're quite perspective, but yes," agreed Lind with a solemn nod of her head. "I can't just leave something like the Angel Eater lying around, even if it's sealed. As such, I must report back to HQ and hand over the beast to the Mystics, so that they can study it. Now, this doesn't necessarily mean that my vacation is called off, but if anything occurs and my presence is needed elsewhere, my duty takes priority. Still, I'll try to see if I can come back as soon as possible."
"Of course! Just remember that you're always welcome here, Lind."
"I will." Pausing for a moment to look in Urd's direction, Lind watched Belldandy approach her and Peorth, and then join their discussion. Apparently those two were done with their playful banter, and the middle Norn saw the opportunity to further help everyone forget about this night's incident. And judging by the looks of it, the same went for Skuld and Gullveig, who also seemed interested to join into the trio's discussion too. Apparently, their current topic shifted to their angels' appearance, and the two most exotic angels -Gorgeous Rose and World of Elegance- compared their attractiveness. "This might sound strange, but I'll miss this… craziness."
"I actually don't find that strange anymore," laughed Keiichi as he watched the two angels compare their breast size. "At least they didn't lose their sense of humor, although I'll still ask Bell and Skuld to stay with Urd tonight. It's better for her to know that her sisters are with her, even if she acts as if there's no problem at all."
"A reasonable suggestion," agreed Lind with a shake of her head. "I'll join in, once I make sure that the temple grounds are completely safe. Then, I'll have to take my leave."
"Sounds good to me, Lind. I'll go tell the others too. Oh, and…I know I'm repeating myself, but I hope you'll come back soon enough."
The Valkyrie offered Keiichi a nod, and then waited for him to join the others, before she decided it was about time to wrap things up here. Strangely enough, the idea of returning to Heavens sounded almost like a chore she'd rather not deal with right now. While she never had such issues before, Lind knew that it wasn't just Belldandy's presence that made her feel welcome in this place, and her angels had to agree to that, too. 'My angels. I can't believe they're finally both out.' The mere thought warmed up the Valkyrie's heart, since she was finally no longer the 'One Winged Angel' of Heavens. For once, she could look into her future with optimism, and forget about all those comments that popped up wherever she went. Of course, more than that was the fact that for the first time, she opened herself up to not only trust someone else, but agreed to accept their help. After all, she also trusted Belldandy, as well as several of her fellow Valkyries, but never tried to turn to them for help, deeming it unfit for a warrior like her. Then again, back then she did consider this kind of thing as a weakness, and in her pursuit of more power, it was simply out of question.
With all that being a thing of the past, Lind could finally move on with her life, and the possibilities were almost endless. And given how all this came to happen, she was more than eager to spend some additional time with Keiichi and the others here; if she was allowed to, at least. 'You're right, girls. It's for the best if we can stay here for a bit longer. While it's pretty hectic most of the time, I kind of like it here. Besides, with this incident, I can't just assume that everything's over like that. And the last thing I want to do is turn my back to a friend in need. I'll get back, that much I promise.'
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The Vain Rose's Garden