Part 47 Absinthe Urd couldn't believe her sudden windfall of good fortune! He was in her arms at last! She felt a whirlwind of passion drumming in her breast, filling her with an exhilarating ardor. To her utter amazement, the unseen but omnipresent Ultimate Force had somehow withdrawn its unerring prohibition. For the first time since she had fallen in love with him, they could touch. And...*how* he was touching her! Passionately, hungrily, impatiently... She was giddy in the swarming nectar of sensations that deliciously gripped her. Yet, something in the back of her mind kept beckoning; beaconing past shivers of pleasure with an irksome persistence. Catching her breath, Urd paused to listen to her inner voice just as he was undoing her blouse. *This* wasn't like Cevn! Her boyfriend was a sex-starved mortal male, to be sure. She could read it in his eyes...had seen it for a long time. Urd knew that he had often felt heart-dead in romantic matters, at least by mortal reckoning. And Cevn was regretfully saddled with an almost paranoid regard towards sexuality. Mortal adolescent boys weren't even one-tenth as uncomfortable about sexual matters as he was. And yet, in *this* moment, he seemed to have completely discarded his customary fear of being close to her, of being physical with her. Which was about time, since she *was* the Goddess of Love... She was unsettled. What had happened to change him? Urd reflected on the fact that Cevn had broken up with her several weeks ago. Now he had reversed his decision. Disavowing his foolery, he had returned to her. Where he belonged. But Urd was confused. Despite everything, it didn't feel *right*. "Hee hee...Cevn, what's come over you? Not that I don't like it...but you never were this bold before! How did you shed your fear of the garden of delights?" Urd asked sultrily, half-teasingly. "Urd, my beloved. I'm...just a new man," he replied, then kissed her with a smothering kiss, stroking her hair. Urd felt a raiment of caution wrap itself around her heart. Her feminine Goddess instincts, dormant for millennia in these kinds of situations, were pulsing with warning. "No...wait. Wait! This is happening too fast! I need time...to think," Urd said, pushing him away slightly. She didn't want to discourage him, however. Urd giggled to herself as she acknowledged the irony of the situation. She was suddenly shy, behaving like her younger sister Belldandy. She never imagined that she would be asking Cevn to slow down his amorous advances. But her head and heart were swimming under different waterfalls... "NO!" he countered. Urd's smile fled as she felt a stark chill traverse her shoulders as the words of his negation registered. She realized that his voice seemed different somehow... "*What* are you doing? Stop it!" Urd said, her intentions suddenly serious. She pushed herself away from him, her ire bristling. In response, he gripped her arms tightly and pulled her back to his chest, roughly. "No...I'm not going to. I don't *want* to stop!" he said. Urd was astonished at his brusqueness. What the hell was wrong with him? He was actually being rude, not to mention childish. "Yes you are going to stop! I said 'stop it' and I meant it!" Urd said angrily. "Let go of me, NOW!" She glared at him, trying to use her eyes to intimidate him into releasing her. He stared back at her defiantly. "What the hell is the matter with you?" Urd shouted as his grip tightened on her wrists. She realized that he was trying to force her on her back, trying to pin her down by her wrists. She struggled to free her arms. Slipping one slender wrist free, she arched her arm back... *SLAP* She saw a red skinflush spreading on his cheek where she had smacked him. Then she saw something else that was red... A blood-red aura surrounded him, glowing visibly with arcane energy. Her free hand shot up to cover the gasp escaping from her lips... "You're not..." she choked on her words as Cevn's face turned into a rictus of rage. A second later, her cheek was stinging from his slap. * * * * * * * * Peorth ascended towards her workstation at the Earth Otasuke Division of the Goddess Relief Office. She had programmed it yesterday in "Floating Chamber" mode: detached from the main GRO Cluster. She needed some privacy to reassess her workload after the debacle with Banpei. Yesterday, she was summoned for the final hearing regarding the pending disciplinary hearing against her. To her huge relief, instead of being fired or reassigned...Peorth had received a temporary license demotion to Goddess Second Class, First Grade. After returning to Yggdrasil after Belldandy's birthday bash, she had spent many days browknitted with concern regarding the outcome of her case. Every millennia, a qualified GRO office worker would be randomly selected to serve as Adjudicator General of the Goddess Relief Office. The AG would address any situations during the process of wish fulfillment that may required potential disciplinary action. This millennium, it was Sh'ilde who was the presiding judge. Despite being on good terms with Sh'ilde, Peorth had been certain that she would receive a full license suspension. The type of suspension Urd was renowned for receiving. Yet, in an enigmatic unfolding of fate, Urd was the main reason why she had been given a demotion rather than a suspension. The leniency in her sanction resulted from the fact that she was only partly held to blame for the now-infamous 'Robot Incident' as her office coworkers had humorously coined it. Opportunely, Urd's inept alchemical dabbling had created mitigating circumstances in regards to Peorth's initial inability to grant Banpei's wish. Yet, the most significant redeeming factor in her favor was, that in the end, Banpei-kun's wish *was* granted. Consequently, the disciplinary action she had received was far less severe than she had expected. True, a license demotion was quite humiliating to the Goddess of the Roses...but her embarrassment was tempered by Sh'ilde's comment about the leniency of her punishment. "You could have had it *much* worse, Peorth!" Sh'ilde had told her after the final hearing. "So, there was a little disaster along the way. Oh well! Nothing that I couldn't handle with the help of the three Norns. Urd, much as I hate to admit it, I owe ya one!" she giggled to herself as she floated closer to her office. For once, the sisters had helped her, rather than hinder her. She was thankful that the disciplinary measures taken against her were very much on the light side. Peorth knew she had gotten off very smartly. And as an added bonus, a number of her Helper Office peers now openly admired her for being the first Earth Otasuke Division worker to fulfill the wish of an artificial construct. Of course, Banpei was the *only* artificial construct with anything resembling sentience...the Earthrealm mortals were centuries away from designing an A.I. that could pass their Turing Test, let alone display any other attributes of mecha-intelligence. This praise somewhat countered the sting of being demoted and retained on limited duty. "But I granted this wish in the waning weeks of last year...sooo I get to grant a wish *this* year!" Peorth said to herself with a grin. At least she wouldn't have to sit around for a year cooped up in her office node, doing nothing... She abruptly hovered to a dead stop. The normal cloud of pink fragrances that surrounded her workstation was conspicuously absent. Collecting her thoughts, she ascended cautiously towards her office. And shuddered to a halt. "M..my *roses*!!!" she choked, too shocked to cry at the sight. Her succulent abundance of beautiful roses...were all dead! The cheery burgess of her rose plots had been replaced by the grim sight of rotted and withered stalks. The brilliant petals were reduced to a floating worm-brown clutter of death. Her carefully plaited nosegaies...withered! Her floating spheres of woven garlands of rainbow-hued shoots...no more! Her plots of blended roses, painstakingly tuned for mordacity and penetration of fragrance...now smelled of decay and rot! Someone or something had *killed all of her roses*! * * * * * * * * The nightmare was over, at last. Urd felt warm blood dripping down her chin as he stood over her, a shadow-figure of bestial arrogance. She fought with herself to finally open her eyes; overwhelmed with terror and pain, she had clenched them tightly shut during the horror... This *thing* had beaten her, then raped her, then tortured her. Now he was gloating over her, like a hunter over a wounded deer. She knew for certain that this wasn't Cevn the moment he slapped her. For one thing, Cevn wouldn't *ever* resort to physical violence against her. After a stunned moment, Urd had reacted by zapping him with a low-level lightning strike...which should have immobilized any mortal. He simply grinned malignly at her. Then he beat her mercilessly. Her physical manifestation was in rapt agony. The monstrous being was stomping around her, circling her, playing on her nerves. Urd flinched with each loud footfall, expecting to get hit or kicked again. This *thing* was unmistakably a Demon. The power contained in his Demonic aura was beyond anything she had experienced. It made Mara's Demoness aura appear insignificant in comparison... Before forcing himself on her, the Demon had clawed his way out of Cevn. Urd had watched in wordless shock as 'Cevn' split open down the middle, shedding gobbets of bloody flesh and stringly sinew as the Demon emerged, covered in ochre. The Demon grew in size as he manifested his true Demonic form. For a terrible moment, Urd thought that the real Cevn had just been killed...but then she realized that the 'Cevn' the Demon had tore out of...was only a fleshclone. This Demon had been a wolf in sheep's clothing. The Demon was dark red, with gleaming rouge-skin and a ridiculously muscular body. He stood almost eight feet tall. His brutal face was crowned with two golden horns and long green hair with orange streaks. His deepset bright red eyes glowed like beads of volcanic lava; his complexion was studded with ridges of small horns for eyebrows, cheekbones and jawline. His eyes spilled over with a lusty hatred which repulsed and terrified Urd. The Demon's body was covered with a rough skin scaled with small prickly spikes, and he had bone-like shards extending out of his knuckles and down the middle of his back. He was the incarnation of terror. Urd was reluctantly grateful that her sisters weren't here. This thing would have killed them. She had never felt such a dramatically evil Demonic presence. "Strange how one notices things like that when she's living through her worst terror," she thought through a veil of agony. She tried to staunch the cursed memories... Urd remembered desperately begging him to stop, whoever he was. Pleading with him. Crying at his horned feet. With each tearful protestation, he only became more vicious. A series of body blows had worn down her resistance. This Demon wasn't content with brute savagery...he possessed a sadistic coolness and precision as he hit and clawed her. Time seemed to stand still as she couldn't resist him in the slightest. He had completely overpowered her. Vilely dominated her. Her bedroom had become a prison... Urd felt like every shred of dignity had been ripped from her. When it was over, she could only cover herself up with the blood stained sheet. Urd felt *dirty*. Disgustingly horrid. Her honor was besmirched; her body was ripped with cuts and bruises. He had been *inside* of her, had touched every inch of her skin with his horrible claws...his leatherrough lips. While he was defiling her, Urd had squeezed her eyes shut so hard she thought they would pop out. She retched at the haunting memory of his abuse. Curled up in a ball, Urd could see her own blood splattered on the walls of her bedroom. *Her* bedroom. It had happened in *her own bedroom*! She could barely see out of her left eye. The image of her tormenter rendered itself hazy in her vision. There was a oozing stillness in the air, like the dearthy atmosphere in Makuhari immediately after it had borne the brunt of Supertyphoon Akira's devastation. Urd shivered with fear, waiting for his next move. All she could do was wait. She was so battered, she couldn't even sit up if she wanted to. Her mind wandered, attempting to desert her abused body... Rape was an all-too-common occurrence amongst the mortals. Every minute of every day, women were being raped in the Earthrealm. Urd had never even considered the possibility that it could happen to her. There were no recorded instances of rape between Gods. During the war that Father fought in, Demons would rape Goddesses as a symbolic act of defiance; attempting to demoralize their divine counterparts. With the exception of a few incidents, most recently Tyyr's abhorrent behavior towards Bell, there had been almost no untoward sexual behavior between Gods and Goddesses in Yggdrasilian history. "How could the Lord let this happen to me?" she thought, bitterly anguished as the pain reeled her back to the moment... Every part of her *hurt*. Every part of her soul was bathed in wretched indignity. Her spirit had snapcased broken from the first moment he touched her where she didn't want to be touched. Urd knew she would never be the same again. Her soul...it had been viciously violated. She had been touched by the skin of Evil itself. And somehow, the Almighty had been thwarted from finding out about this! Urd knew that the Lord would have instantly blasted this Demon into utter obliteration if He even had an inkling of what was happening to her. She felt doubly depressed and doubly frightened by the fact that this Demon had concealed this base act of Evil from her Lord... "Why...me?" Urd gasped. She flinched again as the Demon suddenly halted his pacing and leaned down towards her. "Urd, Norn of the Past. I want you to know who I am. I want you to know who did this to you. I am called...Isilblius," he said in a glowering voice. Urd, already weakened by his beating, could only suck a breathy inhalation of shock. She coughed up more blood. Isilblius...the Ultimate Demon. The stuff of barely whispered legend. An improbable mythic figure of total evil, used mostly to scare young Goddesses at night to keep them from roaming about. If he *was* Isilblius, then everything and everybody was in deep shit. "How did you enjoy my gentle loving caresses?" his gravelly voice mocked. Urd felt her eyes tear up again with a hoarfrost twist of grief. "I chose to torture you until a slight strand of lifesoul remained...for a reason. To utterly humiliate you. To hear the sweet sound of your lamentations. To see the gleam of trepidation in your eyes, the twise of pain in your expression, the blaze of agony mixed with struggling dread alarm in your being. To know for certain that I could kill a Goddess. I could have easily snuffed out your worthless life just like this!" he said as he snapped his fingers. He made a motion to kick her in the side...Urd could only flinch as she was too wounded to move. Even the flinch gripped her with agony. "Bleah heah heh! But...I wanted you to live!" he declared. "Wh..why?" Urd coughed, feeling the presence of several cracked ribs. "Because I *hate* you, half-Demon half-Goddess bitch! I hate everything you stand for. I hate all the Gods. I hate all the Demons. Especially you...because you are both. Yet, somehow, you are merely a toy...a beautiful toy for me to play with, despite your half- bred nature. I *had* to have you...to taste the nearness of death in your Soul...and you were delicious," he answered, not so much for explanation's sake, but to degrade her some more. "You...fucking bastard! You didn't have me...you raped me!!!" "And I'm not finished raping you!" Isilblius announced in a taunting voice that made Urd shudder. The thought of him doing anything worse to her...caused her to tremble uncontrollably. She just wanted him to go away. Wanted the violation to go away; as if it had only been a misgoverned catastrophe of imagination. "I've raped your body. But I'm not done raping your mind. Not by any means. Know this...that you will not remember that this conversation ever occurred. You will not remember my identity or anything details about me. But I will leave you with memories, to be sure. Painful, horrible memories," he growled. "No! I...will live...and the memories of what you did to me today will fade. I have people in my life that *love* me. They will make sure that I'll be all right! My sister's will tell the Lord...and He'll make you quail with regret for the rest of your miserable existence!" Urd countered defiantly. With an effort, she lifted her arm up and gave Isilblius the finger. "Fheh! That's what you think! I'll make sure that you will spend the rest of *your* miserable existence...and it *will* be miserable...living a lie. I will leave you as you are, deceived by false memories that I will create in your mind. I know of your secret affection for an Earthrealm mortal...a mortal human that you think you are in love with. I will make you believe that it was he who did this to you! Every fiber of your soul will know that *he* raped you! These memories will forever snuff out your love for him and replace it with utter hatred! This is but one gift I leave you, Urd. The other gift will make its presence known shortly. Ahhh...the cursed triumph of hate over love!" he explained as he licked her blood off of his knuckles. "I...will fight it! You cannot control my mind. I'm a *Goddess*! My father will *kill* you for what you've done today! The Almighty will..." a half-conscious Urd struggled to say with a flair of dignity. "No, I think not. I believe that it is your sister who will be doing the killing. I've have carefully prepared this scenario all along, accounting for every life that it touches. I am fully aware of your sister's protective inclinations...and I plan on her to do what I know she'll do when she finds out who did this to you. Do you know how your sister will react when she learns that it was the Earthrealm mortal who harmed you?" Urd watched him grin evilly as realization dawned on her with a snarl. "Yes, I sense that you can see it in your mind. In a rage, Belldandy will *kill* the one who did this to you! She will kill the half-Demon mortal in a fury of vengeance! And of course, he'll never know why his life is being snuffed out by one of his most trusted companions! Rest assured that *you* will be the one that speeds his executioner to him," Isilblius said, leaning over close to her face and leering at her. "Noooo!" Urd hoarsely shouted. Despite all that had just happened to her...the last tattered remains of her heart were being torn apart by what this horror-made-real was planning. "You don't know my sister...she'll find out what you did...and she'll *hurt* you! Belldandy will open her seal, increasing her power a thousandfold...and then you'll regret what you've done to me!" Urd corrected him with defiance. With a supreme effort, she spat a bloody glob onto his face. "Bwah hah ha! I'd welcome that! Of course, your sister will eventually find out that you were raped by a Demon. I would even go as far as to say that I count on her to discovery this fact. As a result, she'll have to live with the knowledge that she killed the mortal that *you love*...by a rash mistake! But it won't end there!" he said with the soothing tongue of true cruelty. "Y..you're insane!" Urd sputtered. "My dear lover...do you realize what your *father* will do when he finds out that his eldest daughter was ravished by a Demon?" Isilblius contested with a smug voice. "Oh...my...God!" Urd gasped as she realized the thrust of his question. She wanted to clamp her mind shut; too much information was flooding her. "F..Father...would personally take command of the WarGods and go off to war with the Demons! Once the word was out amongst the Gods that I was raped by a Demon, the Assembly would waste no time declaring this incident as an act of war!" she realized, her mind conjuring images of wasteworlds of destruction... "Oh...my...WAR!" Isilblius taunted with an evil chuckle. "*My war*! A final battle between the Demons and the Gods, orchestrated by me! While all-out war reaps souls from both Yggdrasil and Vanagdrasil, *I* will exact *my* judgment on them all! By the end of this year, the mortal's Earthrealm will be no more!" "Leave the mortals out of this!" Urd said with faint anger, choking on her own blood as her mind whirlpooled in and out of awareness. "Why? They're just...pets. Worms that live brief, panic- stricken, trauma-filled lives. They're not even amusing to me! Do you realize who *I am*? I possess *many* times the power of the Ultimate Destruction Program!" he gloated. Urd shook her head painfully, feeling a bone crackling along her jawline. "And guess what? I've even been to your precious Yggdrasil...to plant a virus in the Yggdrasil Mainframe! One that will cripple the Gods completely. I have likewise injected a virus into the Vanagdrasil Mainframe. With both Mainframe Systems effectively rendered inoperative, the war will produce a most satisfactory level of casualties. And as you know, the Doublet System which prevents Gods and Demons from killing each other...will double the casualties. Then the Lord and the Dark Lord will *have* to involve themselves in a fight for survival. To protect their petty domains. Thus weakened, they will be easy prey to my power. By the end of this year, both the Lord and the Dark Lord will be dead by my hand! I'll mount both of their heads on a pitchfork and parade it in front of my subjects!" Urd felt herself fading back to consciousness, her mind a forest of noirhaze memories. She had missed most of what Isilblius had just said, but she shuddered as she heard Isilblius threaten to kill Kami- sama. "Then I will rule a unified Yggdrasil and Vanagdrasil...in fact, the force of my will shall attend to the furthest corners of the Multiverse! *My* version of the Multiverse..." Isilblius shouted. He made a gesture and two floating orbs appeared in mid-air. Urd was so weak that she could barely hold her eyes open. A red sphere showed a dark figure on a throne; inside the blue bubble of matter...was the Almighty! With a flash, a dead flower appeared in his hand. "A rose for you, my love!" he mocked, throwing it idly towards Urd like it was a piece of trash. Urd recognized with a shock that it was one of Peorth's; it had her runic symbol on one of the petals. The symbol of Destiny. Then the mental and physical pain claimed her... "Witness the triumph of hate over love!" Isilblius said triumphantly with a grandiose gesture as he disappeared with a wave of his beclawed hands. * * * * * * * * Keiichi had almost fallen asleep in his Advanced Engineering Chemistry class. The graduate school test series consisted of two days worth of exams. A grueling battering ram of mind-plundering exercises in minutiae and complex formulae; much more challenging than his college entrance exams in senior high school. However, once he had been restored to normalcy by Skuld, there was an unexpected aftereffect, which he noticed while he was taking the exam. For once in his life, he had suffered a welcome change as the result of using one of Skuld's inventions. Skuld's Electro-Intellihancer had 'shrunk' his head, returning it exactly to its former size; for which he was immensely grateful. But despite this, the entire process had mysteriously left him *smarter*! Questions that he had struggled over in the practice exams...he could now answer with only a little mental exertion. And the problems that he couldn't answer before...he found that he could reason out answers with a high degree of confidence. The day after the exams, Sayoko had confided to him that she was slightly pissed off at him. She had noticed that Keiichi seemed to whiz effortlessly through the barrage of tests, while everyone else had trudged their way towards a migraine... He felt his head bobbing up and down again. A moment later, someone nudged him with an elbow. "Go home Keiichi," Sayoko whispered to him. "I'll share my notes with you from Tech Calc." Keiichi knew she was right. He wouldn't make it through the rest of the day like this. He shouldered his bookbag as class ended, chased down Megumi so he could borrow her car, and headed back home. * * * * * * * * The house was silent. Keiichi called out to see if anybody was home, then read Bell-chan's note on the dining room kosatsu, pinned underneath a batch of fresh cookies. As he munched his girlfriend's tasty handiwork, he heard a low groaning sound. At first, he thought it was the snowwind brushing against the wooden walls. But it sounded *human*. Like a whispered moan. Curious, he walked down the hallway towards the source of the sound, which seemed to come from the sister's room. He casually slid the shoji door open... Everything inside of him jolted into a standstill. "Oh..my God, URD!" he gasped as he saw Urd in the midst of a scene from his worst nightghostings. She was curled under a bedsheet that was stained brown with dry blood. He felt his breath being sucked out of him with the dawning fear that she was *dead*. Rushing to her side, he instantly realized that something had beaten her terribly. He knelt beside her, fighting back tears. Any hint of exhaustion in him had imploded, replaced by a manic rush of vertigo. Urd was barely breathing. Both her eyes were swollen shut. Keiichi felt sickened when he saw that her beautiful silverwhite hair was slick with blood. She had cuts and bruises all over her body... With a start, Keiichi realized that she was naked under the bloodstained futon covers. "Urd," he said as the tears burst through his composure. "Wh..what happened? *Who did this to you*?" In response, she moved ever so slightly, grimacing with pain, trying to reach out to him. Keiichi smoothed her hair gently, trying to soothe her because he didn't know what else he could do. Her labored breathing consisted of shallow gasps. Urd was in physical shock. Keiichi realized that she must be in absolute agony; he felt momentarily guilty because he had stirred her to wakefulness. "You're going to be okay, Urd. Please j..just lie still. Don't move," he assured her. "I'm going to get a washcloth to clean you up. Belldandy will be back soon." There was no response. He quickly darted out of the room towards the kitchen to get a wet cloth. His mind raced with motorcycle precision. "Where is Belldandy? How could this happen without her even sensing it? What about the Banpeis...or the Ninjettes and the new Ninjas? What happened here? I gotta keep my cool!" he reasoned, slamming a mental door shut on the rapid chain of questions that rifled through his mind. As he walked into the kitchen, he saw the six shinobi frozen inside of an icecube. Whatever had done this to Urd...was definitely powerful and supernatural. His fear found him...what if the being which had caused Urd's grievous injuries *was still in the house*? Fighting against a rising sense of panic, Keiichi soaked the washcloth in the sink... "Why *Urd*?" he sobbed aloud. * * * * * * * * Sayoko was seated across from me on the zabuton, talking about the upcoming finals and her graduation party plans. She was dressed in a red and gray Swiss-knit sweater-vest over a black turtleneck blouse. Her khaki baggy jeans had the knees ripped out, with her jacket tied around her hips. Her fur-collared longcoat was piled on my futon bed. The intended effect was her idea of a 'retro grunge' look. Except for the ungrungable fact that her outfit cost almost 50 thousand yen. After my last class, Sayoko had offered to drive me to my studio flat. The snow had started again, a wet clinging paste of liquid skymush greedily grabbing at the windshield as we drove through darkening streets. But instead of just dropping me off, she invited herself in for a visit. It turned out that Sayoko had concerns about the whole graduation process and wanted to run some things by me. Swallowing a brief surge of panic, I realized that after Megumi's several stopbys, I had become a little bit comfortable with female visitors in my cramped apartment. Sayoko's recovery program had afforded her much personal growth. She had progressed from dope fiend to studious coed in the past six months. Each time I witnessed this transformation in an addict, I sensed that I was gazing upon direct evidence of miracles. From worst to first. From victim to hero. From scourge to citizen. From self- abandoned to God-reliant. Then I found myself here, where Goddesses and Demons mingled with us mere mortals. Glancing at the Enigma Book, I realized that miracles had shifted into a whole new realm of meaning. Yet the unexplainable metamorphosis in Sayoko as she returned to humanity...had molded her into a beautiful, wonderful woman. Her face had visibly softened into a glow of femininity. Her hair, now clean of the drugs, was slowly gaining back a silken sheen that suggested Skuld's raven tresses. Her recovery was nothing short of impressive...she was doing the right thing by getting some input on how to throw a non-alcoholic graduation party. I remembered how I felt when I graduated...the last thing I wanted was to be around a bunch of drunken celebrants. Especially since I felt like I was walking on tenterhooks when I got my degrees. Sayoko admitted that she was more than nervous about the fact that her parents were going to pay her a rare visit, in order to attend her graduation ceremony. She didn't want to do anything to embarrass them. She mentioned that she was still driving in to Tokyo on the weekends for NA meetings. She had found a woman there with a number of years clean off drugs, to sponsor her in her recovery. Sayoko added that she was working the Steps...and that graduating from N.I.T. was a means of making amends to her family, even if her parents were unclued about her drug abuse. Sayoko had kept in contact with me on the phone, often asking questions about the recovery process over the past few months. I wanted to confess how fatigued I was because of my breakup with Urd, but I held my voice and listened. In a word, in a brotherly fashion, I was *proud* of her. Yet, I could see the telltale lines of exhaustion under her eyes. This had been a trying time for the young N.I.T. senior...midterms coupled with the battery of graduate exams. She admitted as much when I asked... *Balllammmm!* In a split second, the wall to my apartment had blown apart, as if it had been punched by an invisible iron giant. It had just *disappeared*. Sayoko was knocked off of my futon bed; as my vision cleared, I saw that she was sprawled on the floor in a breathless daze. I was flat on my back against the wall; the wind cracked out of me by the sudden blast. Stuff was all over the floor, and wet snow flurried in. My immediate thought was that a bomb had went off in our apartment complex. Or maybe there had been an earthquake, and a gas line had exploded... Then I saw Belldandy. She was hovering in the open space where the wall formerly was, dressed brightly in her otherworldly ornate 'warrior Goddess' attire. The length of her lustrous cloak billowed in the wind, the blue and white clusters of its gems casting twinkles all over my apartment. Her necklace was bright with wedge-like crystals; the cowl to her cloak sported navy blue arrowspikes. A thick golden sash wrapped her waist; below it, a long robe-like skirt fluttered with circlets of red and green, the hems feathering like an angel's wings. Her hair haloed a face that was ugly with rage. Instantly, I realized that she was the cause of the sudden opening in my wall. "HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO MY SISTER!" Belldandy screamed in a booming angry snarl that could probably be heard all the way in Osaka. She fixed me with a burning stare...and I saw pure hatred shining in her blue eyes. She clasped her hands in front of her, as if she was holding a gun. Aimed at me. A pulse of blue energy formed... "W..wait!!!" I heard my voice shrill as the bolt shot out towards me. I felt it strike me full on... * * * * * * * * "You *killed* him!" Sayoko accused Belldandy in a tearful scream. She had been sitting here peacefully talking to Cevn-sensei about her upcoming graduation plans when the angry Goddess literally broke down the wall. She had barely cleared the stars and cobwebs in her head when she saw Belldandy blast Cevn; a blue lightning bolt bursting in a deadly arc into his chest, flinging him clear across his apartment. Now he was in a crumpled heap on the floor. There was no way that he could have survived her energy blast. Belldandy hovered in the air, the snowwind whipping her hair. Sayoko was still trying to catch her breath...and settle her nerves. She had seen Belldandy feeling sad, feeling guilty, feeling concerned for Keiichi, feeling mellowly romantic...but never had she witnessed the wrath of a Goddess. "He deserved it! He *beat and raped* my older sister! For that, he should DIE!" Belldandy shouted in justification. She glared at Sayoko, daring her to question the righteousness of her actions. "H...how?" Sayoko responded, astonished at Belldandy's accusation. Looking back at Cevn, she choked down the rising surge...the all-too-familiar flush of resentment from all those years of enmity towards her former rival. An enmity she had surrendered away months ago. Seeing Keiichi's happiness with his divine girlfriend had rendered her resentment...ridiculous. Now she was happy for Keiichi, and friends with his friends. She was beginning to see Belldandy as an older sister... Until now. Belldandy was acting...like Mara. She tried to calm herself, knowing that she had to be reasonable...or *she* might get blasted next. Sayoko was quite convinced that Belldandy was insane with rage. The Goddess had simply gunned him down, no questions asked. And what was this about Urd? Rape? Physical abuse? The N.I.T. senior felt the wetness of the snow blanketing her face. This was totally, absolutely, horribly *wrong*! Pulling her hair out of her eyes, Sayoko slowly stood up on pudding-wavery legs and faced the floating Goddess. "Cevn was at N.I.T. *all day*, teaching classes. After his last class, we came here to talk..." she confronted Belldandy coolly. "I've been with him for the last couple hours! And there are dozens of students who attended his classes at N.I.T. today!" Sayoko was cautious as she spoke, keeping her voice flat and smooth...frightened by the seemingly psychotic break that seemed to push this Goddess over the edge. The tension in the room was as taunt as the skin of a kodo drum. "I don't believe you! He was just at my house. He almost *killed* my older sister! If you'd have seen what he did to Urd...you'd want to make him pay too! Why are you lying to me, Sayoko!" "Belldandy, how can I prove to you that I'm telling the truth, if you won't listen? If you're so filled with rage that you can't even think straight?" Sayoko answered. "You have to collect yourself...and stop and listen!" Despite her fear, Sayoko fixed Belldandy with a stare. Belldandy saw Sayoko through eyes soaked with the sight of her helpless, injured sister. When she returned home with Skuld, she found her older sister hovering near death. The Dark Reaper was nearby, unseen but all-too-apparent to her. All Urd could say was that she had been raped...and it had been Cevn who had done such...an unspeakable thing...to her. Cevn had even brutally tortured Urd! To fend off the Reaper, Belldandy quickly cast a stasis spell over Urd, to keep her alive. The look of absolute shock and hurt on Skuld's face was enough to ignite her fury to soar to nova-like proportions. Eyeblink swift, she transported herself to a street mirror near his apartment complex. Finding him was easy. But all of her training as a GRO Goddess hadn't prepared her for this scenario. Belldandy wanted to make him *pay* for what he did to Urd! After she rayed him, she realized that she had completely screwed up. Instant death was too good for Cevn. He should have been made to suffer! She looked at Sayoko, then turned her head to look where he once stood. "W..what!" she shouted with surprise. He was *still there* at the school? Mara was right. Cevn was a Demon. Only one of the most vile denizens of Vanagdrasil could do the horrible, brutal thing...that he had done to Urd. He should have been completely atomized by the force of her powerful energy spell. But he wasn't. Belldandy could see his corpse stretched akimbo against the wall. He *must* have been a Demon...playing out his scheme of deception ever since he first arrived in Japan. This was the only explanation as to why he wasn't destroyed by the burst of energy. Cevn must have been a powerful Demon. Completely evil. Belldandy considered unsealing her powers, increasing them a thousandfold just in case she would need them. In case Cevn revived to attack her or Sayoko. In order to punish him. But Cevn was dead. He wasn't moving. Yet, she was still angry. Killing him had only slightly relieved the coiling rage that consumed her. And *that* scared her...the fact that she had derived such little pleasure from killing the being that had viciously violated her sister's honor. She remembered killing Aoshima and Tyyr when she and her sisters were exiled into the future; her actions were justified because her life was at stake. But this mortal had done far worse than merely imprison she and her sisters. He had won over their confidence, and then used their trust against them to brutalize her Older Sister. As peaceloving and gentle as she was, Cevn's actions had roused the "warrior Goddess" inside of her. Belldandy's vengeance had been as swift and deadly as that of the Valkyrie, the special Goddess Guardians of the Almighty. "Belldandy! Listen to me..." Belldandy snapped her head towards the sound. Sayoko was still harping on the fact that Cevn was innocent! Sayoko was often daft and stupid, even for a mortal girl, but this insolent denial she was maintaining...was almost insulting! Her thoughts maelstromed in tight circles as the impulse to fire a bolt at Sayoko crept up in her mind. *This* impulse to hurt another mortal...screeched her thoughts to a standstill. Sayoko may be many things, but Belldandy knew that she was a complete innocent in this matter. "What is going on? Why am I angry with Sayoko all of a sudden? She didn't have anything to do with this...and yet I want to *hurt* her!" Belldandy challenged herself. She could sense the earnestness in Sayoko's expressions. Sayoko was trying to get her attention. Words from afar floated towards her on a wave of howling snowwind... "...he wouldn't do something like that to Urd! He *loved* her, for God's sake! Even if he was too stubborn to act the part sometimes! It must have been Mara! Somehow, she made it look like he did it! I was *with* him...here! He can't be in two places at once. You *have* to believe me, Belldandy! For God's sake, try to regain your senses and believe me!" Sayoko watched Belldandy slowly shake her head "no". She wasn't buying it. Shivering from the cold, Sayoko realized that the only chance Cevn had was if she could convince Belldandy to save him. She was a Goddess...she must be able to save him! Thinking hard, Sayoko tried a different tact. "What if it *wasn't* Cevn, Belldandy? You wouldn't want to live with the certain knowledge that whatever had done such a terrible thing...had slipped through your grasp! That you had killed the *wrong* person or Demon or whatever did this horrible thing to your older sister! You wouldn't want that, huh?" she said, walking right up to the enraged Goddess, caught up in the passion of her attempt to save her friend. "And if you *did* make a hasty mistake...then whatever did such a horrible thing to your sister...could do it *again*!" she argued. Belldandy didn't flinch a blink. Sayoko slumped to the floor. What was the use? Cevn was dead already! Belldandy had killed him...right in front of her. Nothing could be done to undo her actions. Belldandy resigned herself to the fact that Sayoko had drawn an inviting appeal to reason. What if she *was* telling the truth? She suddenly reached out and cradled Sayoko's head in her hands, feeling Sayoko flinch with fear as she touched her. She pressed her forehead to Sayoko's, her mind stretching tendril-like through the echoes of Sayoko's recent memories as she scanned the N.I.T. senior's mind... Her eyes flew wide as her skin blanched from its former resentful blush. Her hand shot up to cover her mouth. Cevn had been with Sayoko during the time Urd had been raped. There was absolutely no questioning his whereabouts for the past several hours! "OH...NO!" she shoutmuttered. "I've made a terrible mistake!" In her mind, the horror of her sister's rape was now coupled with the shock that she may have killed an innocent mortal. Not just any mortal...but Urd's boyfriend! A man who had been friends with all of Keiichi's gang... She shuddered as she was overpowered by the fact that *something* was horribly amiss. Who was telling the truth? Her sister...or Sayoko? Sayoko shot Belldandy a contemptuous glare, which withered the Goddess visibly. "How could you call the wanton murder of my friend...*your* friend...a freakin' mistake? And what about that Kami-sama you and your sisters always mention?" Sayoko said, tears commingled with red anger. Belldandy felt numb. It hadn't even occurred to her that the Lord would have certainly prevented she and her sisters from being harmed to extent that Urd had been! "Uhhh... Would someone tell me what is going on here?" Both women turned towards the voice. Belldandy rollercoastered emotionally as she realized that *Cevn was alive*! She had used a full-strength blast of arcane energy...striking him with her most powerful energy- bolt discharge. And now he was acting groggy, as if he had hit his head on a cupboard! "What is going on here?" Belldandy said, echoing his question in wavering voice, even more confused than before. * * * * * * * * I felt hot tears fill my eyes. I wanted to go to Urd, to try and release her pain away. My mind failed to grasp how something like this could have happened to her. Nets of powerlessness seemed to contain me...but not my sorrow and fear. All the love that I had tried to push away...rushed back as Belldandy recounted how she had found Urd. How Urd was lingering at the edge of death. How Urd had been...sexually abused. With the pain I felt as I heard her words...came *more* warm waves of love. My love for her had never left! The emotional bond I had with Urd had been only an arm's length away all the time! I wanted to *know*. To know who or what had done this to her. When I had been transported into this world of Keiichi and Belldandy, I expected it to be sweet, innocent, fun and humorous. After all, the manga was pretty light stuff. A fluffy Japan with cartoon-like characters, acting out their kindness against a tapestry of romance and silly sexual tension. An occasional wreath of poignancy around the drama of mortals coexisting with Goddesses. Yet, today had proven otherwise, once again. My fantasies had been outstripped by a horribly trisome reality. Belldandy had tried to kill me in a fit of piquence. Urd had been raped. Sayoko had witnessed a murderous Goddess. I had a feeling that all Hell was going to break loose. I couldn't even call it Hell anymore...as I forever knew that the abode of the Demons was Vanagdrasil. There was no Hell, except in my imaginings. However, whatever or whoever had done this to Urd...deserved to burn in the deepest pit of Hell. I *knew* in the deepest recesses of my soul...that a Demon was behind this atrocity. A Demon who was far more evil and determined than Mara ever had been! I silently found myself wishing that I had the power of a God. Belldandy's rage would only be a shallow pool...my rage would be a roaring tidal wave. I didn't know if I would stop short of killing the Demon who had hurt my Urd! "My Urd?" I heard the question reacting off of the chambers of my thoughts. Whoever had done this to Urd...had used me as bait. Had framed me as her tormentor. It was sickening to the very medulla of disgust. Belldandy had quickly excused herself to tend to her sister. I asked her to take me with her, but she refused. She reminded me that Urd thought *I* had victimized her. Reluctantly, I had to agree. Urd had suffered enough pain already...seeing me would just re-traumatize her. Now, Belldandy was traumatized as well, because the source of her sister's agony was no longer so obvious. It wasn't me. In the kind of hospitable gesture that only a true friend could make, Sayoko invited me to stay at her parent's house for the night, as my apartment was now uninhabitable. "So much for next month's rent," I thought with grim humor as we left the wreckage of my former home. Five minutes after we arrived at Sayoko's house, I found a vision of sadness bursting through the fog of my anger with torchlight clarity. I didn't know what to do with such a sharp emotional pain, so I grabbed Sayoko, just to feel the presence of another human being. I knew that my sudden move must have freaked her out...the last time I made a sudden move towards her, I had nearly choked her to death. But a moment later, with the compassion that is unique to womankind, Sayoko pulled my head to her shoulder, and invited me to dissolve a battalion of vulnerable tears into her woolen sweater. "Just let it out, Cevn," she said softly as I wrenched loose the tears of pain and confusion... At that moment, I felt grateful for Sayoko. At that moment, she was the most thoughtful and kind being in the Multiverse. So much for my birthday tomorrow, I realized. Tomorrow was Valentine's Day. I had made my mind up...I had planned to visit the temple household and attempt a reconciliation with Urd. Now, I just hoped that she would find the strength to *stay alive*. * * * * * * * * The first thing Urd did when she felt good enough to walk was go to the bathroom and wash up. She wanted to scrub off any evidence of the abuse. Belldandy had exhausted herself in the process of healing Urd's wounds over the weeks that followed. But no amount of healing her manifestation could mend the wound of Urd's memories. When she first came to the Earthrealm and became accustomed to regenerating her atomic structure as a mortal manifestation, Urd had simply parted her hair in the middle and let it fall in straight and true cascades down her back and front. As she became more acclimated to the solid manifest of her being, she began to experiment with her hair. She would stand in front of the bathroom mirror and reform herself with a variety of hairstyles. Her primping used to really annoy Belldandy and Keiichi to no end. Eventually she settled on an off center part with an upswept front and soft waves all the way down. Her bronzed skin had contrasted beautifully with her silverwhite mane of abundant hair. While Belldandy and Skuld had kept their hair reasonably long, Urd had designed her hair to fall past her knees...and sometimes all the way to the floor, depending on her mood. Urd sometimes observed that her long tresses made her resemble a modern-day Heian princess. The mortals had been correct in their assertion that a woman's crowning glory was her hair. Urd knew she was dropdead gorgeous and totally sexy in her mortal manifestation. But now, beauty and sexual appeal meant nothing to her. In fact, now it was a weapon of destruction against the purity of her heart. "I'm ugly," she declared as she looked into the mirror. Instead of feeling beautiful, attractive, charming, sexy...she felt horrible. All the beauty had been stolen from her in one wanton act of brutality. Looking at her body, which had been the object of lust desire for several dozen Gods, thousands of mortal men and more than a few mortal women...Urd just wanted to cover up. Not just because of the cuts and bruises and scars. She felt like her body had betrayed her by attracting Cevn's attention. Causing him to do the most horrible thing imaginable...to take her own body away from her. She shivered, remembering... The memories caved in all around her; Urd gave up and broke down into heaving sobs. Again. Wordlessly, the door opened and she felt a warm long towel being wrapped around her shoulders. "Urd...it's okay. You're safe with us," Belldandy said softly. * * * * * * * * Since the attack had occurred in their temple house, everyone living there was cast under a dark ominium that weighed almost gothic in its heavy oppressiveness. Skuld couldn't stand it. It was no longer safe here. Being in her bedroom reminded her of...the terrible thing that had happened there. Its unseen presence lingered malignantly, like some foul odor that had been absorbed into the walls. She started sleeping in her 'Skuld's Lab' room. But even the familiar trappings of her hobby room, filled with her carefully assembled mechas, her computers and all of her stocks of machine components...didn't comfort her one bit. Sadly, Cevn's two cats had somehow sensed that she was upset, and had swarmed her with feline affection. Every night, they would huddle next to her as she fell asleep...and gently lick her face the moment she awoke. Belldandy had mentioned to Skuld that their feline instincts were tragi-ironic...that their human master was the source of her pain; yet neither cat would ever know this, however. Seeing her oldest sister have her dignity stripped away so brutally, being so vulnerable...only served to make Skuld feel weak and insignificant. She wanted to hide forever in her lab with her mechas; just hide away from this horrible place. This horrible, rotten-as-garbage Earthrealm. It had happened in her *bedroom*. In the very place she thought was the safest place in the Multiverse. Where she and her sisters slept, where they had talked late into the night, where they had shared opinions and arguments about dresses, the Earthrealm, Keiichi... The place where they reminisced about Yggdrasilian things... It went far beyond her comprehension. Big Sister Urd was in *so* much pain. And there was nothing that the Norn of the Future could do to take it away. Skuld felt totally useless. She remembered with bittersweet nostalgia all the times Urd used to punish her by making her create machines that were perpetually useless, like the Perpetual Immotion Machine. It used to drive Skuld nuts. There was nothing that she hated worse than being useless. In her reality, Skuld saw patterns of life, patterns of mechanics, patterns of energy, patterns of Future Times. It was her role to use her environment to craft utility out of discord. She *used* things to make life better...or easier. She couldn't take her sister's pain away. Skuld even wished she was mortal, so she could be afforded an opportunity to make one very obvious wish. "I can't even wish Big Sister to be better!" she exclaimed in frustration, tossing a molecular polywrench across the room. Elder Sister had worn herself out just saving Urd's life. Now they had to try and resurrect Urd's spirit. *If* it could be resurrected... Skuld blamed herself...if only Banpei-kun was built with more weaponry, this wouldn't have happened. If only she had been a smarter little sister for Urd. If only she had stayed home that fateful day, instead of giving in to her ice cream cravings and going to 32 Flavors with Belldandy. She pounded her small fist against the tatami mat. "How could I have trusted Cevn?" Her trust of this one mortal had been the most stupid, foolish mistake of all. Belldandy tried to convince her that it wasn't her fault, by any stretch of the imagination. All the lucky tokens, all the objects of reverence that they had around the temple house...and still, her sister had been raped. Raped. By a mortal man who had claimed that he loved Urd. Skuld had never been with a man or God, had never been in love, had never even considered the fact that males were anything besides a necessarily yucky part of life. Then she came to the Earthrealm and witnessed a love blossoming between Belldandy and Keiichi. Between Urd and Cevn. She didn't know about anything about physical sex...or about the special Sharing between a God and Goddess...but she knew something terrible had happened to Urd. Urd was no longer the sexy, naughty sister with the sassy attitude. Urd was an empty shell. "I can't stand it here!" Skuld yelled. A split second later, the words formed on the walls of her lab, much to her surprise. * * * * * * * * "Are we agreed?" Odeyn asked his wife. One again, he noticed Freiija's stately bearing as she reclined on the couch in the main hall of their cloudhome. When she was deep in reflection, her face merged beauty and wisdom effortlessly. It was easy to fated to be young and beautiful. But to age gracefully over the eons? In her maturity, Freiija had elevated her beauty to an exquisite work of art. She looked at him with regal inquisitiveness...and he could see his daughter's eyes. All three of them. Of all the objects in the Multiverse, Freiija was the most beautiful. With the exception of Kami-sama. But then again, nothing compared to their Lord. Freiija looked at her husband, observing the impetuous little boy-God in him. When Odeyn wanted something, he just *had* to have it. Just like a child. It was a charming, yet sometimes irritating trait of his. But mostly charming. This was one of those times where his impulsiveness was alluring to her. Odeyn had prepared his case carefully; presenting it to her along with a series of gifts designed to ply her decision. She didn't mind the extra attention that her husband was paying her, of course. Gods can be so transparent sometimes when they want a Goddess to agree with them. But this... But this? The matter at hand was unprecedented just by the virtue of its nature. There existed no guidelines; no instructions that resided somewhere in the Yggdrasil Mainframe that could advise her on a course of action. *She* didn't even know what would happen. Freiija admitted to herself that she didn't have a clue about this... And she was the Goddess of Marriages! She looked inwards, envisioning how all her peers in the Yggdrasilian social circles would react if she agreed to her husband's request. Some would be offended, some would be put off by the very audacity of what her husband had proposed, some would be insatiably curious, and some would praise her and her beloved husband for taking such a risk. But ultimately, it was her recent memories that decided the issue for her. The last time she had visited the Earthrealm... The look on her beloved B'dandy's face. "Oh...all right! One cannot steal against the compassionate fate of the heart, huh? But I have a single condition that necessarily sponsors my agreement. The Earthrealm mortal *must* be tested!" she admitted teasingly, then walked over and tousled her husband's beard. The look of joyous triumph in Odeyn's single eye was enough to melt her heart all over again. * * * * * * * * Urd rushed off to the bathroom again. She had been sick to her stomach with increasing frequency during the past week. In fact, her whole body felt like one big swollen bruise. The only relief from the dull pain was her hatred of Cevn. Cevn had turned her trust inside out and strangled her with it. Urd found the basin and vomited into it. Something was very wrong...she *couldn't* be sick like this! Her fleshclothed mortal energy manifestation was only a reflection of her true being. At the most, she could only be ill for a single mortal day. Then her atomic structure would renew itself into a healthy physical body. She felt wretchedly...crummy. She was fatigued all the time. She would wake up in the middle of the night with a pain in her chest. The nausea plagued her constantly. "What is wrong with me?" she worried. Her illness was well past the point where it was simply a nuisance. She was *really* concerned about this ongoing infirmity. If she kept remanifesting in this condition...she might have to take a leave from the Earthrealm and get examined by the Proctors in Yggdrasil. She had tried to cover it up, so as to not worry her two sisters any more than they were already. Belldandy and Skuld had been very solicitous after the...horror...in an effort to embolden her spirit. Belldandy had literally saved her life. Skuld was totally confused, yet trying to appear calm and in control. Their attentions had buoyed her spirits slightly. But Urd knew that she had been pushed off a cliff that she should have never been allowed to approach. She had been thrust past the line of safety and comfort. She had crossed the icepond of no return. Urd simply didn't feel safe...*anywhere*. She was jumpy at slight noises and shadows. Any sudden sound or light would cause her to experience tremors. Dizzily, she stood up, flushed the toilet, and looked in the mirror. She flicked her hair back with her fingers, then slowly held her hand up in front of her face. Her hair was falling out..