Christian Clark
5th February 2005, 07:13 AM
Pre-note: This story takes place a few months after 'Shades of Malice', which can be found at the FF.net link at the end of the post.
---
Hues of Belligerence
Chapter 1
---
“Queen's Knight, f3.” Belldandy said casually, taking the piece off the board and placing it in front of the remaining black knight.
She waited patiently for her opponent to place the move. Her king was safe and her pieces were more numerous than her foe's. In fact, if she played right, she could defeat her foe within three more moves.
She looked up to her opponent and found only a mirror. The mirror itself was not special, but the reflection was much different than the image presented to it. The Belldandy in the mirror was encased in shadow, while the real one was shrouded in light.
The other difference was Belldandy's reflection had an unsettling glare which would not falter. After every move the reflection made on the dark side side of the mirror, the reflection would resume glaring at her.
The reflection moved the king's bishop to an unassuming position. However, Belldandy was wary of such a maneuver. With a few of her pieces protecting the king, it would be easy to defend and retaliate.
She moved the king out of the way and to what she believed would be a safe place while her other pieces would take the rook and bishop out before they could do anything.
However, the reflection moved its rook, looked to the board, and said calmly, “Checkmate.” For a noticeable moment, the reflection locked her gaze with Belldandy's and smirked as though she knew this would happen from move one.
She looked to the board and to the set with utter horror at the realization she had completely missed the pawns... but they weren't there a minute ago... were they?
Time seemed to slow down as she reached forward and slowly removed the king from the board. She had been defeated. The instant she picked the piece up, she blinked and realized something had changed.
She looked around to see herself in the darkness, while the reflection grinned triumphantly towards her from the light. She felt constricted, like a set of chains was crushing her torso. She had to get out of there, but the darkness felt thick as tar and rendered her immobile.
A whispered, cruel chuckle caught her attention as she saw the reflection sitting casually in the light, reveling in newfound freedom.
The reflection had everything that was hers. Her face, her skin, hair, everything. But there was a clear difference in the eyes. They were cold, cruel, and bitter. And the other Belldandy made no effort to hide her spite when she hissed like a snake, “you lose... at last.”
-
Belldandy's eyes shot open. Her face was lightly covered in perspiration and her heart was beating twice as fast. She looked up and realized that she had been dozing off while waiting for the rain to stop. She never did that before, however. Something was wrong.
She was on her way back home when the storm had hit the neighborhood out of nowhere. Seeking shelter from the rain, she found an alcove for a store that had been closed that day and knowing that the rain would be there for a little while, thought it best if she relaxed for a while. She didn't expect to nod off and dream. There were a few possible meanings to the dream, but one stood out more than any other.
Before she could dwell on it, a burning sensation from her ear brought her out of her reverie, and she ran through the rain to see a large eighteen wheeler careen out of control on the street and into a building. The heavy steel pipes on the flatbed spilled from their bonds and towards a group of fleeing pedestrians.
On instinct; she raised her hands and summoned the wind to cast the pipes into a non-threatening directions. Several of the pipes landed harmlessly in front of the crowd, and the rest simply remained where they were on the flatbed when they should have been tossed like sticks.
With a sigh, she brought her hands down and joined the group of concerned peoples that had survived an incident that would be described miraculous. It all happened so fast. Upon closer inspection, there was something that didn't seem right. Closing her eyes and feeling the ether in the air, she found nothing to see the cause of the accident. It was human error, nothing more.
-
From the shadows, a figure watched Belldandy leave with a sigh of relief. If the goddess wasn't there, then things would have gotten ugly very quickly. Yet, it didn't and so there was nothing left to worry about. With no other business here, the shadow retreated quickly. The sooner it got out of the general vicinity, the better.
-
Watching from the safety of her room, Belldandy found herself entranced by the rain's steady roar. As soothing as it was, there was something gnawing at her about the events from earlier that day. She couldn't place a name as to what was. Worse yet, though she had saved innocents from the accident, the burning in her ear had yet to cease completely.
The seals on the Obsidian Seal were all in place and secure. In her years of learning, her teacher had instructed her to never release that unless it was completely necessary. She had only done it once. That was to rescue Megumi from an infection a few months ago. Since that time, the Obsidian Seal was calm, but everyone once in a while, it would be strained, to the point where she could feel physical pain. Recently, it was starting to act up more than usual.
Leaning against the wall of her room, Belldandy started to wonder what it was exactly she had released. It was a paradox that she couldn't perfectly describe. She knew and didn't know what it was she had released to save Megumi.
Only in the most precarious of situations should the Obsidian Seal be broken. And even then, it should be resealed as soon as possible. Or so Celestine had often told her in the past when she would constantly ask him what it was for. Sadly, she never got any more than 'it is an evil thing' as an answer. Any details were lost when he was imprisoned and later perished.
She had even made an inquiry to the Almighty concerning the matter. 'It is what you are. You will learn when the truth lets itself known.' He knew and understood her frustration, but insisted that this concern was hers and hers alone.
Now, the burning from the seal was starting to become more obvious as the nerves in her lobe sparked to life with pain. She held her head as the heat spread from her ear. It became a splitting migraine as her head started to throb and her her eyesight started to grow fuzzy.
Turning to the bathroom, she could hear a voice screeching a summons for her. Against her will, she dashed through the hallway, threw open the door as the mark on her forehead shone brightly. The mirror matched the radiance of the mark, and became a liquid for her to move through.
Hoping to quell the screaming, she leaped through the mirror, to the confusion of her sisters and Keiichi. Their protests were drowned out by a single word repeated in accusing tones.
"VIOLATOR!"
-
Looking frantically for an entrance, Belldandy ran through the thickening darkness. When her hands touched what felt like a wall made of the clay and rock, she followed it as far as her legs could take her. Soon enough, she heard her own foot steps echoing through the hallway she found herself in. The clap of her feet against the soft floor grew louder as she felt the hallway growing smaller the deeper she went. However, she could hear the sounds emptying into what sounded like an auditorium ahead. There was a light there she followed like a moth to a candle. She could go nowhere else.
Her steps slowed cautiously into the room, even then, every step she took sounded louder than she wanted and it reverberated through the massive room. The light from the many sets of ancient runes on the walls, many of which she couldn't recognize, illuminated the room with an eerie glow. Yet, she still felt drawn to the center of the room, where a circular dais rose from the floor.
With careful steps, she walked onto the dais and as she reached the central area, she heard the entryway shut loudly. She whirled to the now invisible hallway and before she could even question as to where she was, an ice cold wind brushed past her face and to her ear, where the Obsidian Seal appeared.
Again, the searing heat returned and as she struggled with the pain, the Seal shattered and its pieces fell to the floor. She looked to the remnants in complete horror, wondering how this was so as the pieces began to melt into a viscous thick fluid at her feet.
She watched in horrid fascination as the liquid, seemingly with its own will, raced to the other end of the dais. The liquid gathered into a puddle, roughly the diameter of a plate before calming down momentarily.
Belldandy was about to step forward when a rumble threw her off balance and she fell to the ground as a pillar around her size sprouted from the ground. She looked up to the pillar to see the liquid that was once the Obsidian Seal thin out into a string and crawl into and around the clay into a pattern she was familiar with. Those were the Seals of Abolition.
Soon enough, the seals grew into a weaving around the pillar that could have resembled a person. When the designs finally settled, the pillar shattered violently. On instinct, Belldandy held her forearms in front of her self to shield her face from the many pieces. When the last of the debris settled, she peeked through her arms to see an almost perfect replication of herself, cast in clay with rocky patches here and there.
The posture of the cast was a severe slouch forward. Its head was drooped, the shoulders were slack, and the arms were hanging dead at its sides. Belldandy stood up slowly, fearing that whatever it was that appeared, she didn't wish to disturb it.
However, despite her care in silence, the cast came to life, threw its head back, and screamed. It was the same accusing wail that she heard before she had lost consciousness. It was a beautiful and horrifying song that created an all-consuming dissonance wherever it went. Try as she may, she could not block out the sound as the cast was joined by a host of other voices to create a terrifying choir.
The cast then bent over again, only this time, fingers dug into the ground and dashed to the goddess. Belldandy hardly had enough time to bring her hands up to find her fingers locked with the casts. Her hands didn't hurt much, but she found it hard to concentrate on a defense when her eyes were locked with the beasts own.
The eyes were white. They seemed hollow and devoid of intellect. A wild animal given her form. Its icy cold breath creating small clouds of steam in the room and its mouth slack with a deep throat based growl. She was in the middle of summoning Holy Bell when the cast screamed once more and threw her into the wall on the other side of the large room.
She hit the wall with a sickening crack and left an indent before she crumbled to the floor. Despite the pain, she looked up to see the cast spasm violently several times before it settled and then stood upright.
With fresh pain coursing through her, she shook her head to regain her equilibrium. Her head was pounding furiously as she staggered to her feet. Using the wall for support, she noticed the breathing of the cast slowing to something more human. A tense stand-off took place as Belldandy prepared Holy Bell for the upcoming confrontation, despite the pain slowing the process.
When the cast opened her eyes, Belldandy gasped. There were pupils now... her pupils. It was the reflection in her dream from earlier that day. This was what she summoned when she released the Obsidian Seal? It was familiar. It even had a name, but she couldn't find it in her memory.
The cast discerned her confusion and frowned.
“You've forgotten... haven't you?”
The voice was hers, but the inflection was much more dark and accompanied by a harsh bite.
“Who... who are you?” Belldandy asked, scared of the answer.
“Who... am I?” the other Belldandy asked slowly, her anger started to show through her features.
“Who... am I? WhO aM I?! WHO AM I?!” with every successive utterance, the other version of the goddess started to seethe with a primal rage and from her back, a pair of wings encased in metal emerged. Without warning, the other Belldandy charged, faster than before, and trapped the original to the wall.
“WHO?! AM?! I?!”
Before Belldandy could say anything, cold steel emerged from the casts hands and clamped over her throat in attempt to squeeze the life out of her. To her good fortune, Holy Bell had emerged and freed herself to sprint away to give herself some much needed room.
The other Belldandy turned slowly to her and growled, “How dare you...”
Belldandy prepared a shield of gales to give her a much needed defense as the metal version of herself charged once more. To her shock, the clay cast struck the ground, causing a spike to jut out of the ground and shatter the shield she created. She didn't have any time to recover when the other dove through her non-existent perimeter.
However, she didn't get a chance to take advantage of Belldandy's weakness as Holy Bell sent a surge of powerful winds to send Belldandy attacker away.
With control that surprised even Belldandy, the other one's back opened to reveal an angel completely covered in armor. The momentary lapse in defense cost her dearly as the armored angel charged and tackled Holy Bell, leaving Belldandy to defend herself alone.
As the two angels fought, the other Belldandy resumed her assault and slowly drove the original back to the dais with a flurry of punches and kicks that the latter blocked and diverted desperately. Using a hole in Belldandy's defense, the beast launched herself off the Belldandy's stomach, flew to the wall and used it as a spring board to charge once more, giving no chance for Belldandy to dodge.
As Belldandy skid backward, she noticed the runes on the walls glowing brighter with a sickly light. Once again, the second she took her gaze off her opponent, she found herself on the ground facing her foe's angered face.
“wHo aM I?!” The other one screamed before drawing her hand back and sending it full force into Belldandy's stomach.
Fresh pain assaulted her body as she tried to restore the breath in her lungs. However, the other Belldandy was far from finished as it repeatedly struck her with lithic malice.
“i'M YoU!! I'm YoUr sHaDoW, ViOlAtOr!!”
Just then, everything went bright and she blacked out, feeling only the anger and the blows colliding with her head.
-
Keiichi, Urd, and Skuld looked on in worry as the mirror fluctuated violently with every few seconds. All they heard was Belldandy's hurried pace to the bathroom and her rushed entry into the mirror. Both of the remaining goddesses attempted to enter, but a vicious shock prevented either one from gaining entry.
“I'll make a call to the Almighty. He's got to have some idea on what's going on.”
“That will not be necessary,” Belldandy's voice said sharply as she exited the mirror portal.
They all turned to her rising form in joy until they noticed there were a few notable things different than the Belldandy they all knew. There was a scowl that seemed out of place on her face, her markings had changed slightly, and her eyes were a earthy brown, as opposed to Belldandy's sky blue.
With a voice that sounded like Belldandy's, but with a much harsher tone, she said “under my authority as a Judicator, the violator has been incarcerated.”
Both Skuld and Keiichi gaped in confusion and shock at what they just heard.
Keiichi spoke up in confusion. “Wait a minute. Violator? What's that supposed to mean?”
Skuld frowned when recognition settled in. “It means Belldandy's gone.” Without giving an explanation why, the youngest goddess stood up and stomped out.
“Having a tantrum won't bring her back, dear Skuld. Just live with it!” 'Belldandy' sneered. All she received in reply was a heated glare and a slam of the door from her room.
Keiichi looked from Urd, standing still as a statue, to the closed door of Skuld's room, and to the cruel face of the woman that looked like Belldandy, but was not. He felt lost as the temperature of the room fell several degrees through all the harsh words tossed about.
Urd, on the other hand, recognized this one immediately, much to her chagrin.
“Verthandi.”
The goddess using Belldandy's body turned to Urd and frowned. “Glad to know that at least someone still remembers.”
The other two occupants turned to each other and then to Urd and 'Belldandy'. There was a noticeable malice in their gazes, almost like a pair of scorpions waiting for the first blow to fall. The standstill came to a close when 'Belldandy' turned to Keiichi with a hard stare.
When Keiichi locked eyes with her, he realized he was seeing a complete stranger and wondered whom it was. As though she picked up on his thought, she answered in a condescending tone, “Greetings, mortal. I am Verthandi Nohlin; Judicator.”
End of Chapter 1
This started out with Shades of Malice around April of 2003 and since then it's snowballed into this. Kinda weird if you think about it. However, when SoM got written, I wanted to write a sequel to it, but the ideas were sparse at best at the time.
Thanks go out to Dev, Chan Wei Lik, and Elisteran for looking over the first draft, pointing out the mistakes and setting me straight on a few things. Now, I finally think I got something to work with.
Next, stories like this can only get better... with contributions from you readers at home. C&C in all forms is acceptable in all major emailing outlets.
Lastly; all things OMG belongs to Fujishima and Dark Horse.
For pointless fanfiction, go to:
http://www.fanfiction.net/~twh
For a Live Journal to waste your time with, go to:
http://www.livejournal.com/userinfo.bml?user=twh
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---
Hues of Belligerence
Chapter 1
---
“Queen's Knight, f3.” Belldandy said casually, taking the piece off the board and placing it in front of the remaining black knight.
She waited patiently for her opponent to place the move. Her king was safe and her pieces were more numerous than her foe's. In fact, if she played right, she could defeat her foe within three more moves.
She looked up to her opponent and found only a mirror. The mirror itself was not special, but the reflection was much different than the image presented to it. The Belldandy in the mirror was encased in shadow, while the real one was shrouded in light.
The other difference was Belldandy's reflection had an unsettling glare which would not falter. After every move the reflection made on the dark side side of the mirror, the reflection would resume glaring at her.
The reflection moved the king's bishop to an unassuming position. However, Belldandy was wary of such a maneuver. With a few of her pieces protecting the king, it would be easy to defend and retaliate.
She moved the king out of the way and to what she believed would be a safe place while her other pieces would take the rook and bishop out before they could do anything.
However, the reflection moved its rook, looked to the board, and said calmly, “Checkmate.” For a noticeable moment, the reflection locked her gaze with Belldandy's and smirked as though she knew this would happen from move one.
She looked to the board and to the set with utter horror at the realization she had completely missed the pawns... but they weren't there a minute ago... were they?
Time seemed to slow down as she reached forward and slowly removed the king from the board. She had been defeated. The instant she picked the piece up, she blinked and realized something had changed.
She looked around to see herself in the darkness, while the reflection grinned triumphantly towards her from the light. She felt constricted, like a set of chains was crushing her torso. She had to get out of there, but the darkness felt thick as tar and rendered her immobile.
A whispered, cruel chuckle caught her attention as she saw the reflection sitting casually in the light, reveling in newfound freedom.
The reflection had everything that was hers. Her face, her skin, hair, everything. But there was a clear difference in the eyes. They were cold, cruel, and bitter. And the other Belldandy made no effort to hide her spite when she hissed like a snake, “you lose... at last.”
-
Belldandy's eyes shot open. Her face was lightly covered in perspiration and her heart was beating twice as fast. She looked up and realized that she had been dozing off while waiting for the rain to stop. She never did that before, however. Something was wrong.
She was on her way back home when the storm had hit the neighborhood out of nowhere. Seeking shelter from the rain, she found an alcove for a store that had been closed that day and knowing that the rain would be there for a little while, thought it best if she relaxed for a while. She didn't expect to nod off and dream. There were a few possible meanings to the dream, but one stood out more than any other.
Before she could dwell on it, a burning sensation from her ear brought her out of her reverie, and she ran through the rain to see a large eighteen wheeler careen out of control on the street and into a building. The heavy steel pipes on the flatbed spilled from their bonds and towards a group of fleeing pedestrians.
On instinct; she raised her hands and summoned the wind to cast the pipes into a non-threatening directions. Several of the pipes landed harmlessly in front of the crowd, and the rest simply remained where they were on the flatbed when they should have been tossed like sticks.
With a sigh, she brought her hands down and joined the group of concerned peoples that had survived an incident that would be described miraculous. It all happened so fast. Upon closer inspection, there was something that didn't seem right. Closing her eyes and feeling the ether in the air, she found nothing to see the cause of the accident. It was human error, nothing more.
-
From the shadows, a figure watched Belldandy leave with a sigh of relief. If the goddess wasn't there, then things would have gotten ugly very quickly. Yet, it didn't and so there was nothing left to worry about. With no other business here, the shadow retreated quickly. The sooner it got out of the general vicinity, the better.
-
Watching from the safety of her room, Belldandy found herself entranced by the rain's steady roar. As soothing as it was, there was something gnawing at her about the events from earlier that day. She couldn't place a name as to what was. Worse yet, though she had saved innocents from the accident, the burning in her ear had yet to cease completely.
The seals on the Obsidian Seal were all in place and secure. In her years of learning, her teacher had instructed her to never release that unless it was completely necessary. She had only done it once. That was to rescue Megumi from an infection a few months ago. Since that time, the Obsidian Seal was calm, but everyone once in a while, it would be strained, to the point where she could feel physical pain. Recently, it was starting to act up more than usual.
Leaning against the wall of her room, Belldandy started to wonder what it was exactly she had released. It was a paradox that she couldn't perfectly describe. She knew and didn't know what it was she had released to save Megumi.
Only in the most precarious of situations should the Obsidian Seal be broken. And even then, it should be resealed as soon as possible. Or so Celestine had often told her in the past when she would constantly ask him what it was for. Sadly, she never got any more than 'it is an evil thing' as an answer. Any details were lost when he was imprisoned and later perished.
She had even made an inquiry to the Almighty concerning the matter. 'It is what you are. You will learn when the truth lets itself known.' He knew and understood her frustration, but insisted that this concern was hers and hers alone.
Now, the burning from the seal was starting to become more obvious as the nerves in her lobe sparked to life with pain. She held her head as the heat spread from her ear. It became a splitting migraine as her head started to throb and her her eyesight started to grow fuzzy.
Turning to the bathroom, she could hear a voice screeching a summons for her. Against her will, she dashed through the hallway, threw open the door as the mark on her forehead shone brightly. The mirror matched the radiance of the mark, and became a liquid for her to move through.
Hoping to quell the screaming, she leaped through the mirror, to the confusion of her sisters and Keiichi. Their protests were drowned out by a single word repeated in accusing tones.
"VIOLATOR!"
-
Looking frantically for an entrance, Belldandy ran through the thickening darkness. When her hands touched what felt like a wall made of the clay and rock, she followed it as far as her legs could take her. Soon enough, she heard her own foot steps echoing through the hallway she found herself in. The clap of her feet against the soft floor grew louder as she felt the hallway growing smaller the deeper she went. However, she could hear the sounds emptying into what sounded like an auditorium ahead. There was a light there she followed like a moth to a candle. She could go nowhere else.
Her steps slowed cautiously into the room, even then, every step she took sounded louder than she wanted and it reverberated through the massive room. The light from the many sets of ancient runes on the walls, many of which she couldn't recognize, illuminated the room with an eerie glow. Yet, she still felt drawn to the center of the room, where a circular dais rose from the floor.
With careful steps, she walked onto the dais and as she reached the central area, she heard the entryway shut loudly. She whirled to the now invisible hallway and before she could even question as to where she was, an ice cold wind brushed past her face and to her ear, where the Obsidian Seal appeared.
Again, the searing heat returned and as she struggled with the pain, the Seal shattered and its pieces fell to the floor. She looked to the remnants in complete horror, wondering how this was so as the pieces began to melt into a viscous thick fluid at her feet.
She watched in horrid fascination as the liquid, seemingly with its own will, raced to the other end of the dais. The liquid gathered into a puddle, roughly the diameter of a plate before calming down momentarily.
Belldandy was about to step forward when a rumble threw her off balance and she fell to the ground as a pillar around her size sprouted from the ground. She looked up to the pillar to see the liquid that was once the Obsidian Seal thin out into a string and crawl into and around the clay into a pattern she was familiar with. Those were the Seals of Abolition.
Soon enough, the seals grew into a weaving around the pillar that could have resembled a person. When the designs finally settled, the pillar shattered violently. On instinct, Belldandy held her forearms in front of her self to shield her face from the many pieces. When the last of the debris settled, she peeked through her arms to see an almost perfect replication of herself, cast in clay with rocky patches here and there.
The posture of the cast was a severe slouch forward. Its head was drooped, the shoulders were slack, and the arms were hanging dead at its sides. Belldandy stood up slowly, fearing that whatever it was that appeared, she didn't wish to disturb it.
However, despite her care in silence, the cast came to life, threw its head back, and screamed. It was the same accusing wail that she heard before she had lost consciousness. It was a beautiful and horrifying song that created an all-consuming dissonance wherever it went. Try as she may, she could not block out the sound as the cast was joined by a host of other voices to create a terrifying choir.
The cast then bent over again, only this time, fingers dug into the ground and dashed to the goddess. Belldandy hardly had enough time to bring her hands up to find her fingers locked with the casts. Her hands didn't hurt much, but she found it hard to concentrate on a defense when her eyes were locked with the beasts own.
The eyes were white. They seemed hollow and devoid of intellect. A wild animal given her form. Its icy cold breath creating small clouds of steam in the room and its mouth slack with a deep throat based growl. She was in the middle of summoning Holy Bell when the cast screamed once more and threw her into the wall on the other side of the large room.
She hit the wall with a sickening crack and left an indent before she crumbled to the floor. Despite the pain, she looked up to see the cast spasm violently several times before it settled and then stood upright.
With fresh pain coursing through her, she shook her head to regain her equilibrium. Her head was pounding furiously as she staggered to her feet. Using the wall for support, she noticed the breathing of the cast slowing to something more human. A tense stand-off took place as Belldandy prepared Holy Bell for the upcoming confrontation, despite the pain slowing the process.
When the cast opened her eyes, Belldandy gasped. There were pupils now... her pupils. It was the reflection in her dream from earlier that day. This was what she summoned when she released the Obsidian Seal? It was familiar. It even had a name, but she couldn't find it in her memory.
The cast discerned her confusion and frowned.
“You've forgotten... haven't you?”
The voice was hers, but the inflection was much more dark and accompanied by a harsh bite.
“Who... who are you?” Belldandy asked, scared of the answer.
“Who... am I?” the other Belldandy asked slowly, her anger started to show through her features.
“Who... am I? WhO aM I?! WHO AM I?!” with every successive utterance, the other version of the goddess started to seethe with a primal rage and from her back, a pair of wings encased in metal emerged. Without warning, the other Belldandy charged, faster than before, and trapped the original to the wall.
“WHO?! AM?! I?!”
Before Belldandy could say anything, cold steel emerged from the casts hands and clamped over her throat in attempt to squeeze the life out of her. To her good fortune, Holy Bell had emerged and freed herself to sprint away to give herself some much needed room.
The other Belldandy turned slowly to her and growled, “How dare you...”
Belldandy prepared a shield of gales to give her a much needed defense as the metal version of herself charged once more. To her shock, the clay cast struck the ground, causing a spike to jut out of the ground and shatter the shield she created. She didn't have any time to recover when the other dove through her non-existent perimeter.
However, she didn't get a chance to take advantage of Belldandy's weakness as Holy Bell sent a surge of powerful winds to send Belldandy attacker away.
With control that surprised even Belldandy, the other one's back opened to reveal an angel completely covered in armor. The momentary lapse in defense cost her dearly as the armored angel charged and tackled Holy Bell, leaving Belldandy to defend herself alone.
As the two angels fought, the other Belldandy resumed her assault and slowly drove the original back to the dais with a flurry of punches and kicks that the latter blocked and diverted desperately. Using a hole in Belldandy's defense, the beast launched herself off the Belldandy's stomach, flew to the wall and used it as a spring board to charge once more, giving no chance for Belldandy to dodge.
As Belldandy skid backward, she noticed the runes on the walls glowing brighter with a sickly light. Once again, the second she took her gaze off her opponent, she found herself on the ground facing her foe's angered face.
“wHo aM I?!” The other one screamed before drawing her hand back and sending it full force into Belldandy's stomach.
Fresh pain assaulted her body as she tried to restore the breath in her lungs. However, the other Belldandy was far from finished as it repeatedly struck her with lithic malice.
“i'M YoU!! I'm YoUr sHaDoW, ViOlAtOr!!”
Just then, everything went bright and she blacked out, feeling only the anger and the blows colliding with her head.
-
Keiichi, Urd, and Skuld looked on in worry as the mirror fluctuated violently with every few seconds. All they heard was Belldandy's hurried pace to the bathroom and her rushed entry into the mirror. Both of the remaining goddesses attempted to enter, but a vicious shock prevented either one from gaining entry.
“I'll make a call to the Almighty. He's got to have some idea on what's going on.”
“That will not be necessary,” Belldandy's voice said sharply as she exited the mirror portal.
They all turned to her rising form in joy until they noticed there were a few notable things different than the Belldandy they all knew. There was a scowl that seemed out of place on her face, her markings had changed slightly, and her eyes were a earthy brown, as opposed to Belldandy's sky blue.
With a voice that sounded like Belldandy's, but with a much harsher tone, she said “under my authority as a Judicator, the violator has been incarcerated.”
Both Skuld and Keiichi gaped in confusion and shock at what they just heard.
Keiichi spoke up in confusion. “Wait a minute. Violator? What's that supposed to mean?”
Skuld frowned when recognition settled in. “It means Belldandy's gone.” Without giving an explanation why, the youngest goddess stood up and stomped out.
“Having a tantrum won't bring her back, dear Skuld. Just live with it!” 'Belldandy' sneered. All she received in reply was a heated glare and a slam of the door from her room.
Keiichi looked from Urd, standing still as a statue, to the closed door of Skuld's room, and to the cruel face of the woman that looked like Belldandy, but was not. He felt lost as the temperature of the room fell several degrees through all the harsh words tossed about.
Urd, on the other hand, recognized this one immediately, much to her chagrin.
“Verthandi.”
The goddess using Belldandy's body turned to Urd and frowned. “Glad to know that at least someone still remembers.”
The other two occupants turned to each other and then to Urd and 'Belldandy'. There was a noticeable malice in their gazes, almost like a pair of scorpions waiting for the first blow to fall. The standstill came to a close when 'Belldandy' turned to Keiichi with a hard stare.
When Keiichi locked eyes with her, he realized he was seeing a complete stranger and wondered whom it was. As though she picked up on his thought, she answered in a condescending tone, “Greetings, mortal. I am Verthandi Nohlin; Judicator.”
End of Chapter 1
This started out with Shades of Malice around April of 2003 and since then it's snowballed into this. Kinda weird if you think about it. However, when SoM got written, I wanted to write a sequel to it, but the ideas were sparse at best at the time.
Thanks go out to Dev, Chan Wei Lik, and Elisteran for looking over the first draft, pointing out the mistakes and setting me straight on a few things. Now, I finally think I got something to work with.
Next, stories like this can only get better... with contributions from you readers at home. C&C in all forms is acceptable in all major emailing outlets.
Lastly; all things OMG belongs to Fujishima and Dark Horse.
For pointless fanfiction, go to:
http://www.fanfiction.net/~twh
For a Live Journal to waste your time with, go to:
http://www.livejournal.com/userinfo.bml?user=twh
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