Nidhog coiled sluggishly in the sky above Nifelheim as Demons skirted about its massive form, moving from terminal to terminal where small teams of virus experts did their best to unravel the mess that the loyalist defenders had left the biological computer in.
However, the Demons that had sabotaged it had sabotaged it well, and had been very familiar with the pathways of Nidhog. Some few had escaped after finishing their work, but most had been taken when the stations about the great serpent had been overrun.
Not that that had helped much, they had mostly refused to aid the effort to undo the damage that they had done.
But that wasn't the only problem facing the Demons in restarting Nidhog.
"The Kindly Ones have ordered that..." a rebel Rakshasha was starting to say before he was backhanded and thrown back to the ground.
"The Kindly Ones aren't here are they?" the interrupting Demon snapped. "They're still somewhere on Earth from what you tell me, playing hide and seek games with the mortals down below."
The Demon flinched briefly and reached up to cover the patch that covered a burned out eye. But slowly he recovered himself and firmed his shoulders, cursing Hild for destroying his greatest weapon.
"I am here," he said sharply. "And I'm the only category one Demon that is here. So I am taking..."
"You're the only category one Demon here because you fled when the rest died fighting Hild," the Rakshasha snapped, he turned toward one of the techs. "Don't give him so much as a trainee's access, that's for the Furies."
"Without someone to serve as the focus," Balor noted. "We won't be able to reawaken Nidhog, and the Furies won't be able to get to us. If you insist on waiting for them, then we will be stuck here forever."
"Then we'll choose out of our own numbers," the Rakshasha snapped. "Not some crippled criminal who was only released as a distraction. Your eye is broken, you don't have any power to fear any longer."
A sneer came over the Demon warrior's face as he turned away from Balor, dismissing what he took to be a blustering broken creature. He was surprised, then, when he felt a hand press against his back moments before a burst of power ripped through the unnamed Demon's body.
He fell forward, face composed of a shocked expression as his life ended and Balor looked out over the people that had watched him.
"People forget that I had power before I imbued my eye," he said coolly to the techs. "Now, I will be the focus and we will get Nidhogg back online."
Across Nifelheim, other petty would-be leaders put forth their own claims. There would be a lot of time before one rose above the others enough that the complete awakening of Nidhog was possible. Not the least because the mass of rebels and criminals had the bulk of Nifelheim's population to keep an eye on.
They were mostly category threes, Demons who would have been uncertain which side to join had the coup been the clean and complete attack that had been intended. When the impure would have been killed by a virus that could have been blamed on the Gods.
Instead, it had been messy and bloody, and those that hadn't managed to evacuate lived in quiet contemplation of the fact that few of them were warriors as Demons measured such.
Little acts of sabotage and delay continued to plague those rebels, though those caught performing such found themselves treated harshly.
In Asgard, the rebels had nothing to do except monitor the remaining citizens. They had the benefit that far fewer of the Gods had been involved in war in the past, and were mostly of a non-violent and harmless sort.
Unfortunately, they didn't have the problem of divided leadership.
Zeus sat up on a throne he'd acquired from somewhere and leaned forward as he stared down at the rebel Einherjar, minor Gods all of them, but he could make do with that.
Yggdrasil was gone, but not destroyed, and soon it would be back, if he knew the techs at all. Once that happened, it would be possible to leave Asgard without being stuck outside of it.
In the meantime, he would enjoy his...vacation.
He smiled at the sound of music being played by some of the muses, his own daughters, who had remained behind and raised his mug towards the warriors that stood about in a way that made no doubt as to just what they would do if someone disturbed Zeus's revelries.
The God of the Sky turned toward Hera with a smirk.
"Just like the old times, isn't it, my lovely wife," he asked.
"Yes," Hera said dryly. "Isn't it just?"
She eyed the heavy chains holding her down to the throne at Zeus's side as her husband eyed the various Goddesses that had been stuck behind.
Unlike the Demons, the Gods weren't used to running campaigns of hidden sabotage and resistance. The many civilians, used to a long period of a safe and idyllic life were slow to resist.
Zeus was starting to push such thoughts into them however.
Peorth came down from the rooms of terminals at a much more sedate pace than she had been, until then, repairing the damage done to Yggdrasil. Slowly she came down to the ground floor and found the small group of Einherjar and Eyes of Ra that had been forced to the base of the tree for sanctuary.
"Kami-sama is dead," she said solemnly.
Heads hung low across the vast area as the various Gods and the few remaining Demons and half-Demons that hadn't been evacuated took in that news. The silence lasted for several minutes, but unfortunately, there was business to attend to, and most of those present had faced war before.
"I'm not going to reboot Yggdrasil," she said firmly. "Not until we've had time to heal and recover. Until we're ready to take back our home. I want the rebels boxed in where they are."
"Someone needs to go to Earth and tell the others what happened," Athena noted, standing up.
Peorth nodded.
"You won't be able to get back," she said. "Aside from Yggdrasil's defenses, we also seem to be...drifting, is the only word I can find for it. If you want back in, you'll have to wait until we let you in."
"I'll go," Morrigan said, sitting up. "Athena would be of more use here, and I'm mostly healed."
Peorth nodded and sadly looked up toward Kami-sama's office. If only there was time for a proper funeral, but that would be best saved for when everything was done and all of them could attend.
Poseidon reveled as he dived down deep into the waters of Earth yet again. He hadn't remained behind for Zeus's ploy to take over the Heavens and hadn't cared that, with Yggdrasil down, he wouldn't be able to get back in.
No, he wanted to remain on Earth for now and watch. Maybe test his most recent child more personally as she seemed bound and determined to do.
"I've gotten some contact with some of the other evacuation groups," Mara said. "All total, we have two carapaces, both somewhat damaged, and and maybe three hundred Rakshasha...those would be our soldiers."
She turned to look toward Persephone.
"And I've done a bit of your work too," she said. "We've had contact with four or five camps of Gods and other Asgardians. So far you don't even have a single mantle, but you do have somewhere around five hundred Einherjar. Of course, most of them are Demons or half Demons, so it's still mostly us supplying the warriors."
"And how many healers are 'you' supplying?" Persephone asked casually.
"Ladies," Mao snapped. "We're trying to get a set of what our resources are, and what the enemy has, not flex our muscles or one-up each other. Let's focus. So again, what's the odds?"
"Three hundred Rakshasha, five hundred Einherjar, two carapaces," Persephone said. "Against perhaps, ten thousand rebel demons?"
Mara nodded.
"With at least five carapaces," Mara added. "And no word from Asgard yet. What do you have?"
"I'd have to have numbers from the other fleet headquarters to be sure," Mao said. "But I think we can more than double your numbers. The question being if our equipment can match yours. Any chance we can look at one of your machines."
"As I said, they're both damaged," Mara said. "Maybe you can help with that? By the way, you defeated a kill squad at the Temple of the Fates...where are the prisoners?"
"I believe Sergeant Sagara's people took them off our hands," Persephone noted.
"You cannot keep me here forever, dhamphyl," Tzelanit said confidently as Harker entered the prison room again.
The young demon's confidence had been growing by the day. And he'd been getting a lot more belligerent. The vampire-descended man turned to look at him before eight Gods were marched into the dungeon rooms much to the Demon's surprise.
"I have some bad news for you, Tzelanit," Harker said solemnly as the Gods were secured in their own prison circles.
Leonard a voice said to Tessa's twin. I will need your help soon.
Leonard sat up as he felt Sofia's presence Resonating with his.
They've found a way to keep me out of Kaname's mind, she said. If you do not act soon, our plans will be ruined.
A way to prevent Resonance? he mused. How interesting. I'll step up the plans then.
I will need you in the Whispers soon, Sofia noted.
And why is that? the sinister Whispered asked.
Because you are not dead, the disembodied Whispered soul noted.
Kodachi frowned, almost uniformly across several bodies. Something strange had happened the last time she'd induced a Whispered state. Something that could be dangerous to her.
For a brief moment, she felt a connection to one of her daughters and then that connection was...not cut off, but a wall was placed and it was if she only had a window to look through at the girl's body.
A body that should rightfully have been hers.
Someone was taking her property and rendering it useless. This had to be answered.
Lady Kuno, a familiar boy's voice noted.
Ahhh, Testarossa, she said with a smirk. Do you require another delivery of medicines and machines?
Not at the moment, Leonard noted. We have a mutual problem.
Indeed, Kodachi said, resisting the urge to push her mind forward and attempt to devour Leonard's.
However, Testarossa was a full Whispered, not merely a telepath or psychic, and Kodachi wasn't willing to risk that battle until she'd tested the results on Yaku.
Unfortunately, she wasn't familiar enough with Yaku to Resonate with her across distances.
And that fact became troublesome as Leonard Testarossa explained their mutual problem.
"Wow," Kyoko said as she watched the news. "They've all got marks like Naiki and Eija. What was it her Grandmother, the nice one said? They're a family trait?"
Shinji nodded at that.
"That's a large family," Mizuki noted with a whistle. "I wonder what happened after we got dropped off. That whole magic circle thing was pretty...weird, wasn't it? I didn't know Naiki's and Eija's mom was into that new age stuff."
"She's a feng shih," Shinji noted as if that was obvious.
The parachutes opened up in the night sky over Canada's wilds and drifted slowly down to Earth. Quietly, four men hit the ground carrying light armaments and each wearing an amulet formed of three oddly cut crystals. The central amulet of each seemed to glow with a weak white light that may have been a reaction to the chi of the team, or else was just reflected moonlight.
"This is Urzu-6," Kurz said quietly. "We're on the ground, proceeding with the mission."
"Roger that, Urzu-6," the radio said quietly. "Radio silence from here on out except at pre-arranged times. Do not engage, repeat, do not engage. Locate and report only. Also, be advised that the US is dispatching a Socrates Group unit to the air, rendezvous information to follow."
"Roger on the Dover Convention," Kurz said. "See you when we see you."
He turned toward the other Mithril operatives and silently waved his hand for them to follow.
"Let's go," he said. "The killing ground should be a couple of hours south of here, we'll start the search there. Remember to watch those crystals, that's the best we got for sensors right now."
Gauron sat in his cabin on the freighter that had been converted to a troop transport. He was only a day out from his mission, a bit of gratuitous terrorism aimed at drawing out Mithril's West Pacific Fleet to come to the rescue.
He idly played with the compact disk in his hand, the one that held a great deal of information on a certain submarine.
His current mission was still priority, but he couldn't say he wasn't intrigued by this sudden appearance of so many people around the world, it sounded like chaos of just the right mix to amuse him.
Urd found a rock to sit and pulled her knees up into herself, uncertain of exactly how to feel about the news she had just received.
If...if Mara was right, then Hild was never going to be popping into her life again. She was never going to try to turn her sisters and friends to join Nifelheim. She was never going to harass Urd to call her "Mommy" ever again.
She was gone.
"Urd," Keiichi said, coming to her side. "I'm...I'm sorry."
Belldandy was there just as quickly as Keiichi was, coming close on Urd's other side and wrapping her arms tightly around the half-Demon's shoulder as Keiichi stood on the other side and let a hand rest on her shoulder.
"She was...the oldest," Urd said. "The oldest living mind in the world. Millions of years old. How can she just be gone...just like that?"
"I'm sure she didn't go easy," Keiichi said quietly.
"But she's still gone," Urd said harshly. "That wasn't supposed to happen. Not after the doublet system...and if she's dead...what...what about Father?"
"The doublet system is down," Belldandy said. "Despite...everything. There have been no doublet deaths according to Mara. Father...Father could still be alive."
And yet no message had been sent to them to reassure them.
Somehow neither felt that Kami-sama had escaped the carnage any better than Hild had.
"It's all starting again," Urd said quietly. "All starting again."
"This isn't the same," Belldandy said. "It's only a small number of people...peace will come back. That was the way our two peoples were heading already. Everything will come out for the best, you'll see."
Urd sighed and took a breath.
"Did you know I was the first Demon-God born, Belldandy?" Urd asked.
Belldandy blinked and pulled back a moment in surprise.
"I...I hadn't realized you were that old," she said, surprised.
"I've seen almost thirty thousand years of war between Demons and Gods," Urd said quietly. "And only three thousand of this truce. And...if humans are becoming like us...how much bloodier will it get?"
"Maybe this time it'll be different," Keiichi suggested.
"The last time an immortal race evolved," Urd said. "A million years ago, war destroyed civilization so thoroughly that there are hardly any signs of it today. Some millions before that, an asteroid destroyed the last civilization to evolve to our point. It's almost like someone decides to preserve a handful of us and wipe the board to see what he can make next."
"I don't think the Creator could be so cruel," Belldandy said warmly and comfortingly. "And we have people like you, who are tired of war, and Persephone. Mara's a friend too. This will come out for the best this time."
"Yeah," Keiichi said. "No one wants everything to die. We'll make sure it won't."
