Mara watched the sun going lower in the sky as she put down the phone urgently. She wasn't getting through the lines fast enough. She'd have to go talk to Hild directly.
First though...
Mara vanished from her temporary lair and appeared beside Naiki, noting that Eija was standing there with Kaname and Sousuke as well. She didn't hesitate.
"Geisthexe-san," Naiki said with a smile, turning to look at her mentor and hesitating at the very serious expression she held.
"You need to get to Persephone, fast," Mara said. "If Eija can travel through her personal medium all ready..."
"My medium is blood though," Eija noted reluctantly.
"You travel through..." Kaname stopped as she saw what Mara was doing.
Mara nodded at that and sliced a finger nail across her arm, letting a small stream of blood pool at their feet before she started to wrap the wound to close it.
"What are you doing?" Eija asked, shocked. "Let me..."
"No time, there'll be blood somewhere at the Temple of Fates, trust me," Mara said. "Get to Persephone, tell her Hecate has a demon in Doublet System Guard. I'm heading to Nifelheim to tell Hild. Tell her it's Vritra, Hecate has a bunch of his family sealed somewhere."
With that she vanished into a puff of smoke.
"What can she do to the Doublet System?" Sousuke asked.
"I don't know," Eija said. "I don't know much about how it works."
"Can't be anything good," Naiki muttered. "You go talk to Persephone, I'll tell Mom what's up."
"Is it possible for us to go with you?" Sousuke asked.
"Well, I practiced taking Urd along," Eija noted. "But I don't think..."
"You're not going anywhere alone just yet," Kaname said seriously.
Eija's performance in the Whispers hadn't let Kaname forget that she was still a little shaky with some things. Sousuke backed her up with a silent nod and shook his head.
"Well...let's try," Eija sighed, reaching out her hands to take one each of Sousuke's and Kaname's.
The goddess stepped into the small pool of blood, barely the size of a hand mirror, and started to sink down into it, pulling Sousuke and Kaname with her.
"Okay, this is the weirdest thing yet," Kaname declared as they quickly sank out of sight.
Behind them, the sun hit the horizon and in a short time twilight began. A time that was neither day or night.
******
Far away, Deimosu watched out the gate to see the sun setting and nodded purposefully before stepping back through the open passage into the labyrinth, shutting the gate down behind him.
He had no way of knowing, of course, that his mother had set people to watch for gates within the last few days. So far, only one of the psychics or exorcists assigned had reached one of the sights Ranma suspected Deimosu had opened the gate at.
The remnants of Kodachi's facility that he had raided, demoed to avoid the crazed woman from doing it at some inappropriate time. Elements of the Labyrinth gate's signature sat there still, not completely faded yet over the last few weeks.
It was enough for the exorcist to recognize the signature repeating itself and, given how long it remained open, track it to its source.
Hecate had calmed herself down as she arranged for messages to reach her pawns and minions. It wasn't as bad as she had thought.
Deimosu still needed her to tell him how to properly sabotage the Doublet System or get in undetected. He didn't have the strength to wage an assault or even to outright destroy the System. So things were still under her control.
Yes, everything could still go according to plan.
"Well?" Yonjuu asked as Deimosu came back.
The young man didn't waste any time, taking one of his scrolls and looking it over to re-familiarize himself with what he was about to do. Eventually, he'd have to memorize this thing given how much he was using it, but until then, this would do.
"It's twilight in Japan," Deimosu said. "I just hope that makes this work."
Yonjuu winced in sympathy at the pain that moved through Deimosu as he started casting the mind link spell again and linking to the crystal grotto, which was still growing, as if it was now feeding itself.
Yaku also watched, curious as to how her creation would work.
Deimosu leaned against a wall for the last part of spell, setting the scroll down carefully, and then he finished. And suddenly, the pain seemed to lessen considerably. It wasn't gone, but it was more like something in the background compared to the sudden wash of energy and power he felt flooding into him.
It reminded him of the circle and how much he'd over done the lightning storm. He had to be careful not to do too much again.
"I think it worked," he said, stretching out his limbs in order to get used to the power within him for the moment. "We're outside the seasons and outside the world. Let's open the gate."
*****
The fortress around the Doublet System was surrounded by a wide open field with practically no cover. Surrounding it was a vast sea that seemed to stretch forever and above a smoky sky that hid any celestial bodies which might have existed.
Sulfur, salt water and the smell of wheat filled the small pocket world. It could have been unpleasant, and it was certainly thick and surprising, but the shock seemed to fade quickly once you were introduced to it, and it muddled into a sort of incense.
The fortress itself sat atop the only hill, perhaps a mountain, of the realm. A long road, passing through many lesser fortresses strung down toward a large stone pier ending in a large circular pier something like a landing zone.
Every building was staffed with Demons and Gods. Mostly category twos with a great degree of skill and reliability, but with a handful of category ones and some powerful category twos that had turned down promotion.
The Demons were more visibly well armed and obviously the combat arm of the security, but the Gods were all trained as well. And every one knew a hefty supply of sealing spells.
Sealing spells which were targeted at Gods and Demons, or those with the blood of both.
A long time ago, there were only the assigned guards here, but now, after so long, it had become a military town, with a number of small families. Perhaps the largest community of Demon and God interrelations throughout the known multiverse. Many of the residents were unwilling to leave the Doublet Fortress for either Asgard or Nifelheim, where they'd be separated from family or friends.
Only a few Demons and Gods kept themselves separate from the general community, mostly new assignees. But there were a few that had been there for a long time that still kept separate.
Vritra was one of these eccentrics, spending time alone maintaining the systems and checking the back-ups. More precisely, he was altering the backups. Instead of copying the existing randomly assigned doublets, he was applying lists and programs Hecate had provided him with.
And now, it was only a very short time before he would be finished. Among other things, Hecate would be tied to no one, but several would be tied to her. She'd be in a position to stand on top of everything.
And he was helping that happen.
He sighed and looked out a nearby window toward the landing zone, keeping in mind the distraction that he was supposed to set off once the signal came.
Hecate never sent him messages directly. Her messages came through the news that was occasionally brought to the fortress, things that the others did not realize were personal to him.
More than a thousand years ago, he'd attempted to sabotage the plan. Then came the next round of news.
A report of a crime where a Demon was sealed into a torturous seal and came out all but broken. The God who seemed responsible was punished with Tartarus and the Demon was reincarnated and the memory of the torture sealed.
The Demon in question was related to Vritra and the punished God was someone he'd considered contacting about the problem.
He took the hint.
Even with Hecate now in hiding, he was still receiving messages. He looked out a window down toward the arrival circle and reviewed the distraction he was supposed to use so that Hecate's half-human pawn could get in unnoticed.
Which is how he saw the gate appearing at the circle.
*****
Deimosu came out of the gate at a run, aware that he would probably be arriving at some common entry point complete with guards. Sure enough, as the gate closed behind him, he saw ahead two Demons drawing weapons in surprise at his sudden appearance. Behind them a God was in the process of casting some sort of spell.
He could feel their power, and knew that none of the immediate three was quite as strong as his mother. And nowhere near what he was running with right now.
"Kachuu Tenshin Amaguriken Kansei!" Deimosu shouted.
He almost lost himself in the sudden rush of speed and the immense drain of power that came with it. Given it was his first time, he was nowhere near as efficient as his mother, who could manage a couple of minutes under this state with a fraction of the power.
He was past the Demons in a flash, disabling the God before whatever spell was being cast could be completed and then flipping back to take out the two demons that were just finishing drawing weapons.
He let the full-body chestnut go, relieved that it hadn't broken his connection with the crystals as the power started refilling at once. And then he was rushing up the road.
Hecate had wanted to use him because white magic, and thus the sentinels in the Doublet Fortress, couldn't detect him. Perhaps it was a bit of overconfidence, but he wasn't feeling like he needed stealth just now.
A blast of lightning struck down out of the sky striking the ground ahead of him as he charged forward. He smirked in response and twisted before sending a horizontal blast of chi up ahead of him, scattering the Demons that were coming down the road to stop him.
Several more bursts of lightning erupted above him, and this time he simply reached out and deflected the lightning around him. Then the first Demons reached him in melee, scattered among them several Gods.
They were very good, highly skilled, probably about on level with what he could do under normal circumstances. He wasn't about to use the full-body chestnut again, his little experiment showed him that he wasn't even close to an appropriate level of efficiency with it, however, even without it, he was currently running faster and stronger than he had ever been before.
Still, they might slow him down and he didn't want to kill anybody here, so lethal action wasn't an option. He jumped off the road out into the field, drawing the host of guards with him.
Someone cast a spell that had the wheat about his feet growing rapidly, reaching out to try and catch his limbs. He caught it quickly, and moved swiftly, avoiding any one spot for long as the wheat stalks continued to try and grab him. Obviously they didn't want to give him a solid place to stand.
Which was fine with him as he let them chase him around in a closing circle. A spiral his mother and siblings would recognize.
"We've got him hemmed in," someone shouted as they pushed him toward the center.
"Hiryu Shoten Ha!" Deimosu shouted as he spun into a seemingly pointless upper cut.
The tornado that erupted around him was fueled with the pishogue and mana of every guard within the spiral and many times stronger than any such spiral could produce with only two participants.
Deimosu leaped up from the ground into the blast of air, letting himself be carried along like the shocked Demons and Gods scattering around him. And then he thrust a burst of chi toward the ground, letting the momentum of wind and chi propel him forward up toward the fortress on the hill.
Those Gods and Demons that remained standing watched in amazement as the inexplicably powerful mortal flew away from them and slammed into the wall of the cliff side in the distance and started running up the side to land sharply on the wall.
Bursts of smoke erupted around him as Demons teleported to his position. He dodged aside swords and fire, blocks from the wall flew up from underneath him and struggled to avoid contact while fighting back, without trying to kill any of them.
He did a double take as he saw the first sign of young Demons and Gods running down the streets of the fortress town, getting away from the fighting.
"She never said anything about kids," he muttered as he leaped down from the wall into the streets.
It would be easier down here to cut loose without sending someone over a hundreds foot fall.
*****
"What's going on?" a God demanded as he appeared at a window and saw the fight going on in the town below.
"We're under attack," the Demon next to him said. "By a mortal with category one or higher strength."
"A mortal?" the God responded. "How is that possible? It was only recently that they identified a category two mortal. And what is he here for?"
"Let's ask him when we stop him," the Demon said, bursting into a smoke cloud.
*****
Deimosu dodged away from the guards pursuing him as he cast about with his senses, the Doublet System would have to have some sort of power, and it should ring out easily from the area.
A blast of ice washed over him, trying to freeze him in place, and he simply burst through by main strength. This was getting intoxicating, but he could feel his chi refreshing itself slower as the mind link he'd forced into the crystal was breaking down.
At the moment, he was the only person that the crystal was powering, giving him an immense reserve of energy. But that was falling apart, at which point, he was going to be swarmed and captured or worse.
Best to end this quickly.
He interrupted his thoughts as he saw some stray burst cut off a piece of the stone structures around them and rain rubble down onto the streets which still had scattered non-combatants and kids.
For about twenty seconds, the fighting stopped as Deimosu and every guard in the area directed their efforts against the rubble. Once the danger to the children was cleared, they shared a cautionary nod with Deimosu and the battle started again.
He leaped up away from the town portion of the fortress and landed upon the edges of the central keep, and then he felt it beneath him, mana and pishogue both radiating upward out of the ground.
As the guards came after him again, teleporting or otherwise, he turned his efforts down to the ground.
"Baksei Tenketsu!"
He dropped into the next floor and repeated the process, turning aside once as the rock underneath him seemed to turn into steel spontaneously.
The demigod didn't pause to find a new path, but simply brute-forced a chi blast downward, tearing through the floor and dropping into a room where trees and vines interwoven with snakes grew with seeming random, indecipherable abandon.
Deimosu paused for a moment as he took it in and realized that, like the crystal, this was the System he was looking for.
He looked up to see the guards following him downward. He took a stance and started spinning around swiftly.
"Kijin-Gun Dai Ranbu!" he shouted as the first black blades of vacuum ripped out from his position.
*****
The Doublet System died and it ceased to contact with Yggdrasil or Nidhog. That continued contact had been keeping the multi-part virus in each system from triggering the first phase of their operation.
Suddenly, those two viruses erupted into activity, spreading throughout either system.
The locks on Tartarus and the Abyss went first, as the will of the current regime in both Nifelheim and Asgard found themselves unable to seal the powers of their prisoners any longer.
Next, the links in Yggdrasil and Nidhog each collapsed, leaving every God and Demon with only their own personal resources for a long period of time as the Goddesses and Demons that maintained each system worked to fix the problem.
Then the viruses flooded into the impure elements and signals were sent to certain people to make a move.
If Hecate's plan had been followed, the Doublet would have been disabled and then the corrupted information replaced with Vritra's doctored backup information. Hecate had not considered that the entire garden would have been annihilated, that every snake and plant was torn asunder.
That the computer which had taken the Gods and Demons a century to build would have been simply gone.
The virus was never going to get the second part of its command.
It wasn't going to be able to kill the impure.
It wasn't going to be able to lock out the Gods and Demons from rebooting either Nidhog or Yggdrasil.
The coming fight was going to be much more fair than Hecate or her ilk had planned.
*****
"Attacking the Doublet System?" Ranma said.
"What's the Doublet System?" Akane asked.
"It's what kept me from killing Poseidon," Naiki said. "If a God dies, then so does a Demon, and no one knows who is linked."
"I can see why you'd want to destroy this," Ryuu noted. "It'd let you kill...certain people and nobody else. But why would a God or Demon want to destroy it."
"So they can take over without fear of accidentally killing themselves," Akane said.
"That's what Deimosu is doing," Ranma said. "We're close to finding him with what Tessa found, I might be able to find him and stop him before..."
Naiki winced and stumbled suddenly before collapsing immediately.
"Naiki!" Kyoko shouted as she arrived then with Shinji and Mizuki behind her.
"Captain, this was a very reckless decision!" Commander Mardukas said. "At the very least, you should have had someone monitoring you."
"I understand that, Commander," Tessa said. "But it had to be done, and it had to be me. No one else first. And I knew it would work."
"And where do we go from here?" Kalinin asked. "We now know that we can secure a Whispered from Resonance, but can it also convert others the way the Gods and Demons can."
"Yes," Tessa said. "It's programmed to base on Human DNA, it'll put in anything missing and base it on the individual's compatibility."
"You told me this was just a first step," Mardukas said. "What made you take that step without having the second done."
"Someone else started the second step," Tessa said. "I get the feeling we're going to find them soon. And I think..."
She stopped and considered something.
"Is their something wrong?" Mardukas asked.
"Something's wrong with Naiki," Tessa said sharply. "Hecate's made her move."
*****
"The Doublet System," Hild said. "That's madness."
"Think about it," Mara said. "She wants to take over, go back to the old ways. The entire movement does. The first thing they'd have to do."
"Is get rid of us who support the new ways," Hild frowned. "If either Asgard or we stay strong, we have the power to put down the old ones like we did before and return to status quo."
"That's right," Mara said. "They have to kill all of us, or they lose."
"I'll send a warning immediately," Hild said with a frown.
And then, in the distance, something screamed so loudly it filled Nifelheim.
"The Abyss just opened," Hild said. "Get to the Rakshasha, Mara, we have to go in there and seal those..."
At which point the two demonesses felt their connection to Nidhog, and it's connected power, stop suddenly.
Within sight, a half-god resident suddenly collapsed into seizures, and several Hild knew to be converted humans from ages past did likewise.
"It's starting," Hild said as she moved the side and started grabbing her armor and weapons.
"I'll go join the Rakshasha," Mara said turning about. "If this is the rebellion, they could use support."
"No, go to the Civil areas," Hild said. "Get people out, the best support you can give us is giving us a clear field to fight unrestricted. And we'll need a Shadow when we get clear of this."
"As you wish, Mistress," Mara said, she paused before heading to her task. "If the Doublet System is down, I'd wonder, Mistress, if you can make sure Balor dies."
"Why is that?" Hild asked. "He is strong, but he has no followers any more. He's just another thug in the lot."
"Naiki Satomi cast one of his spells while she was mortal," the demoness noted. "She owes him at least one favor, maybe more. We'll need everybody we can get, and having that over her is not something anybody can afford."
Hild cursed.
"I'll see what I can do," Hild said. "Now go, you have civilians to escort to safety."
*****
"Eija-chan," Belldandy said, as Eija arose out of an old patch of blood from a "testing accident" a few hours past. "This is a pleasant surprise."
She turned to look at Kaname and Sousuke and smiled in welcome. She noted the worried look on their faces and her smile faded slightly.
"Is there something wrong?" she asked.
"Mara said that Hecate is influencing a demon who guards the Doublet System," Eija said.
"She seemed to think it was an urgent matter," Sousuke added, catching his breath and suppressing the uncomfortable feeling of traveling through a small pool of blood.
Belldandy's eyes widened and she gestured for them to come with her inside.
"Lady Persephone," Belldandy called out. "Eija is here, there's something urgent. Urd? I need to see you."
Lady Persephone appeared in the hallway and smiled briefly as she saw Eija coming toward her.
"Eija," she said. "I think I could use your help with a newly dead..."
"Lady Persephone," Belldandy interrupted, obviously reluctantly. "I apologize, but they have said that Mara believes Hecate is planning an attack on the Doublet System."
"The Doublet System?" Persephone said aghast. "That's madness, the wars might start again."
"Why are we talking about the Doublet System?" Urd asked as she came in.
"This Hecate lady might be planning to attack it," Kaname said. "How many times do we have to say it."
"Why would...." Urd stopped as she and the other Goddesses in the room shivered.
"What? What is it?" Kaname asked.
"Yggdrasil just broke contact," Belldandy said with a stuttering tone.
"That's happened before," Urd said. "A crash can ...can..."
Urd's face screwed up several times as she tensed and started to lean against the wall. Across from her, Eija was likewise flinching and starting to breath heavily.
"Eija!" Kaname shouted, holding her tightly as the Satomi goddess collapsed.
Belldandy likewise caught Urd and kept from falling hard to the ground.
Keiichi and Skuld finally came to the source of the chaos and found the others sitting over the two goddesses afflicted while they were having seizures.
"What's going on?" Skuld demanded.
"Belldandy are you okay?" Keiichi asked as he came to his girlfriend's side and looked at Urd as she shook in obvious but silent pain in Belldandy's arms. "What's happening to Urd?"
"There's something attacking Eija!" Kaname said as she held tightly to her friend.
"A virus," Persephone said as she bent between the two. "This has to be what Hecate planted in the system. Eija is a converted mortal and Urd is half-demon."
"It's attacking the impure," Sousuke agreed.
A sound outside in the complex then, came to their attention. A sound like a multitude of voices singing. Sousuke moved toward a window and watched as several gates put out a number of obviously armed Gods into the grounds of the Temple of Fates.
"And they have boots on the ground," he said grimly as he drew a gun.
First though...
Mara vanished from her temporary lair and appeared beside Naiki, noting that Eija was standing there with Kaname and Sousuke as well. She didn't hesitate.
"Geisthexe-san," Naiki said with a smile, turning to look at her mentor and hesitating at the very serious expression she held.
"You need to get to Persephone, fast," Mara said. "If Eija can travel through her personal medium all ready..."
"My medium is blood though," Eija noted reluctantly.
"You travel through..." Kaname stopped as she saw what Mara was doing.
Mara nodded at that and sliced a finger nail across her arm, letting a small stream of blood pool at their feet before she started to wrap the wound to close it.
"What are you doing?" Eija asked, shocked. "Let me..."
"No time, there'll be blood somewhere at the Temple of Fates, trust me," Mara said. "Get to Persephone, tell her Hecate has a demon in Doublet System Guard. I'm heading to Nifelheim to tell Hild. Tell her it's Vritra, Hecate has a bunch of his family sealed somewhere."
With that she vanished into a puff of smoke.
"What can she do to the Doublet System?" Sousuke asked.
"I don't know," Eija said. "I don't know much about how it works."
"Can't be anything good," Naiki muttered. "You go talk to Persephone, I'll tell Mom what's up."
"Is it possible for us to go with you?" Sousuke asked.
"Well, I practiced taking Urd along," Eija noted. "But I don't think..."
"You're not going anywhere alone just yet," Kaname said seriously.
Eija's performance in the Whispers hadn't let Kaname forget that she was still a little shaky with some things. Sousuke backed her up with a silent nod and shook his head.
"Well...let's try," Eija sighed, reaching out her hands to take one each of Sousuke's and Kaname's.
The goddess stepped into the small pool of blood, barely the size of a hand mirror, and started to sink down into it, pulling Sousuke and Kaname with her.
"Okay, this is the weirdest thing yet," Kaname declared as they quickly sank out of sight.
Behind them, the sun hit the horizon and in a short time twilight began. A time that was neither day or night.
******
Far away, Deimosu watched out the gate to see the sun setting and nodded purposefully before stepping back through the open passage into the labyrinth, shutting the gate down behind him.
He had no way of knowing, of course, that his mother had set people to watch for gates within the last few days. So far, only one of the psychics or exorcists assigned had reached one of the sights Ranma suspected Deimosu had opened the gate at.
The remnants of Kodachi's facility that he had raided, demoed to avoid the crazed woman from doing it at some inappropriate time. Elements of the Labyrinth gate's signature sat there still, not completely faded yet over the last few weeks.
It was enough for the exorcist to recognize the signature repeating itself and, given how long it remained open, track it to its source.
Hecate had calmed herself down as she arranged for messages to reach her pawns and minions. It wasn't as bad as she had thought.
Deimosu still needed her to tell him how to properly sabotage the Doublet System or get in undetected. He didn't have the strength to wage an assault or even to outright destroy the System. So things were still under her control.
Yes, everything could still go according to plan.
"Well?" Yonjuu asked as Deimosu came back.
The young man didn't waste any time, taking one of his scrolls and looking it over to re-familiarize himself with what he was about to do. Eventually, he'd have to memorize this thing given how much he was using it, but until then, this would do.
"It's twilight in Japan," Deimosu said. "I just hope that makes this work."
Yonjuu winced in sympathy at the pain that moved through Deimosu as he started casting the mind link spell again and linking to the crystal grotto, which was still growing, as if it was now feeding itself.
Yaku also watched, curious as to how her creation would work.
Deimosu leaned against a wall for the last part of spell, setting the scroll down carefully, and then he finished. And suddenly, the pain seemed to lessen considerably. It wasn't gone, but it was more like something in the background compared to the sudden wash of energy and power he felt flooding into him.
It reminded him of the circle and how much he'd over done the lightning storm. He had to be careful not to do too much again.
"I think it worked," he said, stretching out his limbs in order to get used to the power within him for the moment. "We're outside the seasons and outside the world. Let's open the gate."
*****
The fortress around the Doublet System was surrounded by a wide open field with practically no cover. Surrounding it was a vast sea that seemed to stretch forever and above a smoky sky that hid any celestial bodies which might have existed.
Sulfur, salt water and the smell of wheat filled the small pocket world. It could have been unpleasant, and it was certainly thick and surprising, but the shock seemed to fade quickly once you were introduced to it, and it muddled into a sort of incense.
The fortress itself sat atop the only hill, perhaps a mountain, of the realm. A long road, passing through many lesser fortresses strung down toward a large stone pier ending in a large circular pier something like a landing zone.
Every building was staffed with Demons and Gods. Mostly category twos with a great degree of skill and reliability, but with a handful of category ones and some powerful category twos that had turned down promotion.
The Demons were more visibly well armed and obviously the combat arm of the security, but the Gods were all trained as well. And every one knew a hefty supply of sealing spells.
Sealing spells which were targeted at Gods and Demons, or those with the blood of both.
A long time ago, there were only the assigned guards here, but now, after so long, it had become a military town, with a number of small families. Perhaps the largest community of Demon and God interrelations throughout the known multiverse. Many of the residents were unwilling to leave the Doublet Fortress for either Asgard or Nifelheim, where they'd be separated from family or friends.
Only a few Demons and Gods kept themselves separate from the general community, mostly new assignees. But there were a few that had been there for a long time that still kept separate.
Vritra was one of these eccentrics, spending time alone maintaining the systems and checking the back-ups. More precisely, he was altering the backups. Instead of copying the existing randomly assigned doublets, he was applying lists and programs Hecate had provided him with.
And now, it was only a very short time before he would be finished. Among other things, Hecate would be tied to no one, but several would be tied to her. She'd be in a position to stand on top of everything.
And he was helping that happen.
He sighed and looked out a nearby window toward the landing zone, keeping in mind the distraction that he was supposed to set off once the signal came.
Hecate never sent him messages directly. Her messages came through the news that was occasionally brought to the fortress, things that the others did not realize were personal to him.
More than a thousand years ago, he'd attempted to sabotage the plan. Then came the next round of news.
A report of a crime where a Demon was sealed into a torturous seal and came out all but broken. The God who seemed responsible was punished with Tartarus and the Demon was reincarnated and the memory of the torture sealed.
The Demon in question was related to Vritra and the punished God was someone he'd considered contacting about the problem.
He took the hint.
Even with Hecate now in hiding, he was still receiving messages. He looked out a window down toward the arrival circle and reviewed the distraction he was supposed to use so that Hecate's half-human pawn could get in unnoticed.
Which is how he saw the gate appearing at the circle.
*****
Deimosu came out of the gate at a run, aware that he would probably be arriving at some common entry point complete with guards. Sure enough, as the gate closed behind him, he saw ahead two Demons drawing weapons in surprise at his sudden appearance. Behind them a God was in the process of casting some sort of spell.
He could feel their power, and knew that none of the immediate three was quite as strong as his mother. And nowhere near what he was running with right now.
"Kachuu Tenshin Amaguriken Kansei!" Deimosu shouted.
He almost lost himself in the sudden rush of speed and the immense drain of power that came with it. Given it was his first time, he was nowhere near as efficient as his mother, who could manage a couple of minutes under this state with a fraction of the power.
He was past the Demons in a flash, disabling the God before whatever spell was being cast could be completed and then flipping back to take out the two demons that were just finishing drawing weapons.
He let the full-body chestnut go, relieved that it hadn't broken his connection with the crystals as the power started refilling at once. And then he was rushing up the road.
Hecate had wanted to use him because white magic, and thus the sentinels in the Doublet Fortress, couldn't detect him. Perhaps it was a bit of overconfidence, but he wasn't feeling like he needed stealth just now.
A blast of lightning struck down out of the sky striking the ground ahead of him as he charged forward. He smirked in response and twisted before sending a horizontal blast of chi up ahead of him, scattering the Demons that were coming down the road to stop him.
Several more bursts of lightning erupted above him, and this time he simply reached out and deflected the lightning around him. Then the first Demons reached him in melee, scattered among them several Gods.
They were very good, highly skilled, probably about on level with what he could do under normal circumstances. He wasn't about to use the full-body chestnut again, his little experiment showed him that he wasn't even close to an appropriate level of efficiency with it, however, even without it, he was currently running faster and stronger than he had ever been before.
Still, they might slow him down and he didn't want to kill anybody here, so lethal action wasn't an option. He jumped off the road out into the field, drawing the host of guards with him.
Someone cast a spell that had the wheat about his feet growing rapidly, reaching out to try and catch his limbs. He caught it quickly, and moved swiftly, avoiding any one spot for long as the wheat stalks continued to try and grab him. Obviously they didn't want to give him a solid place to stand.
Which was fine with him as he let them chase him around in a closing circle. A spiral his mother and siblings would recognize.
"We've got him hemmed in," someone shouted as they pushed him toward the center.
"Hiryu Shoten Ha!" Deimosu shouted as he spun into a seemingly pointless upper cut.
The tornado that erupted around him was fueled with the pishogue and mana of every guard within the spiral and many times stronger than any such spiral could produce with only two participants.
Deimosu leaped up from the ground into the blast of air, letting himself be carried along like the shocked Demons and Gods scattering around him. And then he thrust a burst of chi toward the ground, letting the momentum of wind and chi propel him forward up toward the fortress on the hill.
Those Gods and Demons that remained standing watched in amazement as the inexplicably powerful mortal flew away from them and slammed into the wall of the cliff side in the distance and started running up the side to land sharply on the wall.
Bursts of smoke erupted around him as Demons teleported to his position. He dodged aside swords and fire, blocks from the wall flew up from underneath him and struggled to avoid contact while fighting back, without trying to kill any of them.
He did a double take as he saw the first sign of young Demons and Gods running down the streets of the fortress town, getting away from the fighting.
"She never said anything about kids," he muttered as he leaped down from the wall into the streets.
It would be easier down here to cut loose without sending someone over a hundreds foot fall.
*****
"What's going on?" a God demanded as he appeared at a window and saw the fight going on in the town below.
"We're under attack," the Demon next to him said. "By a mortal with category one or higher strength."
"A mortal?" the God responded. "How is that possible? It was only recently that they identified a category two mortal. And what is he here for?"
"Let's ask him when we stop him," the Demon said, bursting into a smoke cloud.
*****
Deimosu dodged away from the guards pursuing him as he cast about with his senses, the Doublet System would have to have some sort of power, and it should ring out easily from the area.
A blast of ice washed over him, trying to freeze him in place, and he simply burst through by main strength. This was getting intoxicating, but he could feel his chi refreshing itself slower as the mind link he'd forced into the crystal was breaking down.
At the moment, he was the only person that the crystal was powering, giving him an immense reserve of energy. But that was falling apart, at which point, he was going to be swarmed and captured or worse.
Best to end this quickly.
He interrupted his thoughts as he saw some stray burst cut off a piece of the stone structures around them and rain rubble down onto the streets which still had scattered non-combatants and kids.
For about twenty seconds, the fighting stopped as Deimosu and every guard in the area directed their efforts against the rubble. Once the danger to the children was cleared, they shared a cautionary nod with Deimosu and the battle started again.
He leaped up away from the town portion of the fortress and landed upon the edges of the central keep, and then he felt it beneath him, mana and pishogue both radiating upward out of the ground.
As the guards came after him again, teleporting or otherwise, he turned his efforts down to the ground.
"Baksei Tenketsu!"
He dropped into the next floor and repeated the process, turning aside once as the rock underneath him seemed to turn into steel spontaneously.
The demigod didn't pause to find a new path, but simply brute-forced a chi blast downward, tearing through the floor and dropping into a room where trees and vines interwoven with snakes grew with seeming random, indecipherable abandon.
Deimosu paused for a moment as he took it in and realized that, like the crystal, this was the System he was looking for.
He looked up to see the guards following him downward. He took a stance and started spinning around swiftly.
"Kijin-Gun Dai Ranbu!" he shouted as the first black blades of vacuum ripped out from his position.
*****
The Doublet System died and it ceased to contact with Yggdrasil or Nidhog. That continued contact had been keeping the multi-part virus in each system from triggering the first phase of their operation.
Suddenly, those two viruses erupted into activity, spreading throughout either system.
The locks on Tartarus and the Abyss went first, as the will of the current regime in both Nifelheim and Asgard found themselves unable to seal the powers of their prisoners any longer.
Next, the links in Yggdrasil and Nidhog each collapsed, leaving every God and Demon with only their own personal resources for a long period of time as the Goddesses and Demons that maintained each system worked to fix the problem.
Then the viruses flooded into the impure elements and signals were sent to certain people to make a move.
If Hecate's plan had been followed, the Doublet would have been disabled and then the corrupted information replaced with Vritra's doctored backup information. Hecate had not considered that the entire garden would have been annihilated, that every snake and plant was torn asunder.
That the computer which had taken the Gods and Demons a century to build would have been simply gone.
The virus was never going to get the second part of its command.
It wasn't going to be able to kill the impure.
It wasn't going to be able to lock out the Gods and Demons from rebooting either Nidhog or Yggdrasil.
The coming fight was going to be much more fair than Hecate or her ilk had planned.
*****
"Attacking the Doublet System?" Ranma said.
"What's the Doublet System?" Akane asked.
"It's what kept me from killing Poseidon," Naiki said. "If a God dies, then so does a Demon, and no one knows who is linked."
"I can see why you'd want to destroy this," Ryuu noted. "It'd let you kill...certain people and nobody else. But why would a God or Demon want to destroy it."
"So they can take over without fear of accidentally killing themselves," Akane said.
"That's what Deimosu is doing," Ranma said. "We're close to finding him with what Tessa found, I might be able to find him and stop him before..."
Naiki winced and stumbled suddenly before collapsing immediately.
"Naiki!" Kyoko shouted as she arrived then with Shinji and Mizuki behind her.
"Captain, this was a very reckless decision!" Commander Mardukas said. "At the very least, you should have had someone monitoring you."
"I understand that, Commander," Tessa said. "But it had to be done, and it had to be me. No one else first. And I knew it would work."
"And where do we go from here?" Kalinin asked. "We now know that we can secure a Whispered from Resonance, but can it also convert others the way the Gods and Demons can."
"Yes," Tessa said. "It's programmed to base on Human DNA, it'll put in anything missing and base it on the individual's compatibility."
"You told me this was just a first step," Mardukas said. "What made you take that step without having the second done."
"Someone else started the second step," Tessa said. "I get the feeling we're going to find them soon. And I think..."
She stopped and considered something.
"Is their something wrong?" Mardukas asked.
"Something's wrong with Naiki," Tessa said sharply. "Hecate's made her move."
*****
"The Doublet System," Hild said. "That's madness."
"Think about it," Mara said. "She wants to take over, go back to the old ways. The entire movement does. The first thing they'd have to do."
"Is get rid of us who support the new ways," Hild frowned. "If either Asgard or we stay strong, we have the power to put down the old ones like we did before and return to status quo."
"That's right," Mara said. "They have to kill all of us, or they lose."
"I'll send a warning immediately," Hild said with a frown.
And then, in the distance, something screamed so loudly it filled Nifelheim.
"The Abyss just opened," Hild said. "Get to the Rakshasha, Mara, we have to go in there and seal those..."
At which point the two demonesses felt their connection to Nidhog, and it's connected power, stop suddenly.
Within sight, a half-god resident suddenly collapsed into seizures, and several Hild knew to be converted humans from ages past did likewise.
"It's starting," Hild said as she moved the side and started grabbing her armor and weapons.
"I'll go join the Rakshasha," Mara said turning about. "If this is the rebellion, they could use support."
"No, go to the Civil areas," Hild said. "Get people out, the best support you can give us is giving us a clear field to fight unrestricted. And we'll need a Shadow when we get clear of this."
"As you wish, Mistress," Mara said, she paused before heading to her task. "If the Doublet System is down, I'd wonder, Mistress, if you can make sure Balor dies."
"Why is that?" Hild asked. "He is strong, but he has no followers any more. He's just another thug in the lot."
"Naiki Satomi cast one of his spells while she was mortal," the demoness noted. "She owes him at least one favor, maybe more. We'll need everybody we can get, and having that over her is not something anybody can afford."
Hild cursed.
"I'll see what I can do," Hild said. "Now go, you have civilians to escort to safety."
*****
"Eija-chan," Belldandy said, as Eija arose out of an old patch of blood from a "testing accident" a few hours past. "This is a pleasant surprise."
She turned to look at Kaname and Sousuke and smiled in welcome. She noted the worried look on their faces and her smile faded slightly.
"Is there something wrong?" she asked.
"Mara said that Hecate is influencing a demon who guards the Doublet System," Eija said.
"She seemed to think it was an urgent matter," Sousuke added, catching his breath and suppressing the uncomfortable feeling of traveling through a small pool of blood.
Belldandy's eyes widened and she gestured for them to come with her inside.
"Lady Persephone," Belldandy called out. "Eija is here, there's something urgent. Urd? I need to see you."
Lady Persephone appeared in the hallway and smiled briefly as she saw Eija coming toward her.
"Eija," she said. "I think I could use your help with a newly dead..."
"Lady Persephone," Belldandy interrupted, obviously reluctantly. "I apologize, but they have said that Mara believes Hecate is planning an attack on the Doublet System."
"The Doublet System?" Persephone said aghast. "That's madness, the wars might start again."
"Why are we talking about the Doublet System?" Urd asked as she came in.
"This Hecate lady might be planning to attack it," Kaname said. "How many times do we have to say it."
"Why would...." Urd stopped as she and the other Goddesses in the room shivered.
"What? What is it?" Kaname asked.
"Yggdrasil just broke contact," Belldandy said with a stuttering tone.
"That's happened before," Urd said. "A crash can ...can..."
Urd's face screwed up several times as she tensed and started to lean against the wall. Across from her, Eija was likewise flinching and starting to breath heavily.
"Eija!" Kaname shouted, holding her tightly as the Satomi goddess collapsed.
Belldandy likewise caught Urd and kept from falling hard to the ground.
Keiichi and Skuld finally came to the source of the chaos and found the others sitting over the two goddesses afflicted while they were having seizures.
"What's going on?" Skuld demanded.
"Belldandy are you okay?" Keiichi asked as he came to his girlfriend's side and looked at Urd as she shook in obvious but silent pain in Belldandy's arms. "What's happening to Urd?"
"There's something attacking Eija!" Kaname said as she held tightly to her friend.
"A virus," Persephone said as she bent between the two. "This has to be what Hecate planted in the system. Eija is a converted mortal and Urd is half-demon."
"It's attacking the impure," Sousuke agreed.
A sound outside in the complex then, came to their attention. A sound like a multitude of voices singing. Sousuke moved toward a window and watched as several gates put out a number of obviously armed Gods into the grounds of the Temple of Fates.
"And they have boots on the ground," he said grimly as he drew a gun.
