Ah My Goddess Fan Fiction ❯ Ah! My Revolutions! ❯ Urd and the Tree ( Chapter 1 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

How does one dethrone the heavens? By corporate espionage of course. Considering how the universe is run almost like one big software program, it's actually easier than what you may think. That's assuming you have the means of course…

Lif, an artificial and powerful computer capable of observing the whole world, was only a decimeter of the power that the celestial computers, Niddhog and Yggdrasil, held. Only a small piece of both computers in order to create this one, small enough for them to barely notice, but it managed to seek it's wires into the world, half-metaphorically and half-literally speaking.

The user of this computer patiently observed Asia, where the epitome of strange circumstances circulated. Particularly in a town in Japan where three goddesses, a demon and the Daimakocho's avatar resided, this town was called Nekomi.

As several lights on his screen alerted him to something, the man with the colorless jaguar mask knew he had to move and quickly.

Marller unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you look at it, didn't have much time for evil these days. With the convenience store job, and paying the bills and some slight socializing, the goddesses didn't seem like much of a big deal any more. She was falling too much into the human pattern.

Hild, for the most part, didn't seem to care at the gradual laxness of the Nekomi area. Mini Hild hasn't even given Mara missions lately. It's been a few months since anything happened up there: no attempted sieges of the goddesses' temple, no luring into deceptive traps and no confrontations with any of the goddesses. Honestly, things were just peaceful, on the surface at least.

"I'll close up tonight!" The blonde demon said to her manager as he was preparing to leave.

"Alrighty then Marller, have a good night" The elderly shop keeper said as he left. Mara then locked behind him. He was such a nice old man, giving a "foreigner" a job out of the blue even though although her fluency of Japanese, which extended to all other human languages, helped. Sometimes she couldn't even tell which language she was speaking since her brain uses far more of its power than humans did so she was "smarter" generally than humans, though not necessarily sharper.

Still, being the advanced entity that she was couldn't let her be aware of the presence in the room as quickly as she should have. She was stocking the last of the canned food in the aisle when it was then that she felt something in the room. Turning around she was faced with dark shadowy tentacles wrapping around her. She tried to summon her powers, but the blonde's hands were tied, unable to move. A mass of shadow quickly enveloped her mouth, gagging her.

She looked at her attacker, a man dressed in a black robe like attire. With a low cut grey undertunic, an overtunic and a long robe that also doubled as a cloak with a hood. His whole head was covered by a colorless jaguar mask with a tribal like design.

With her trapped, the masked man walked up to her stretching his hand out and caressing her cheek.

"Scared demon skank? Well I suppose you should be." As he said that the shadowy tentacles began to pull her to the ground, where a small black hole made of shadow as well was swallowing her. Marller screamed into her shadowy gag, futile effort on her part, as she was swallowed into the ground.

Bangkok, Thailand

The Jotunn were warrior female demons and Niffelheim's guard, elite and the counterparts to the valkyries. They barely ventured to midgard, unless something serious happening…like a demon being killed.

Several female demons wearing black battle robes were gathered around an area, while demons leave no physical evidence of their deaths behind, some of their energies remain and are easily trackable.

"Who was it this time?" Approached a stoic looking red-haired Jotunn wielding a large halberd.

"It was Fatima, Second class license, Gerda-Sama." Said the lower ranking one.

"How troublesome…this is the 7th so far…"

4th century B.C. in ancient India

Near to being enlightened, Siddharta Guatama sat cross legged beneath a bo-tree, having meditated now for several days. He was a dark skinned man, with his short curly hair springing on his head resembling little snails with a patch of longer hair tied into a bun and wearing simple orange robes. Several phases of malnutrition however have made him physically weak and skinny, his ribcage visible. While he was eating a bit more normally now his muscle mass loss was still prevalent.

Continuing meditating, he would not leave this spot until he reached enlightment. Deep in a trance, he was interrupted by large earth pounding sounds. Opening his eyes, he saw an elephant heading towards him. On top of the elephant sat a handsome blond man, whose features suggested him being from the far off northwestern lands, beyond the Greek states. However he was dressed as a lavish local, with a turban covering most of his hair and forehead and robes that suggested nobility. He approached him with a smile and a wink, suggesting friendliness, but there was something off about him.

Before he began talking, Guatama had figured out that he was a demon.

"Greetings my friend. My name is Mara." He said

"Greetings demon, I am Siddharta Guatama, just a simple person trying to find the answers to life." At that, Mara smiled, this man was a sharp one.

"Well I suppose we should drop the pretenses then, prince." He said as his clothes transformed into the more traditional demon clothes, a red elaborate top with gold lining and genie pants with matching genie shoes. His hair was loose and he had earrings and all sorts of jewelry. Since demons commonly pranced around central Asia, he knew those to be seals of his power. His demon markings adorned his forehead and cheeks, bearing the symbol of a shell.

"Knowing of titles that nobility like to place upon ourselves won't give you an advantage. Also you will not stear me from my enlightment, demon."

"I don't care so much about your "enlightment", but you're drawing positive energy and coercing yourself with a few gods and goddesses. It disrupts our business so whatever it is you're doing, it stops now. And of course…I'm willing to negotiate. As a token of good will though, I will bring your body back to its peak" He said as the elephant extended his trunk and he walked down towards him. Siddharta remained unchanged as the effect of the malnutrition were reversed and his body back to normal. Showing him to be a true physical specimen.

"Now then, you're already a prince, so it would be fruitless of me to offer you a throne. Instead I can offer to make your Kingdom into an EMPIRE!" He said extending his arms outward.

"Clinging to titles like that simply makes one a slave to life and causes unnecessary suffering. We live in illusion and the appearance of things. There is a reality. We are that reality. When you understand this, you see that you are nothing, and being nothing, you are everything. That is all." He said as he continued meditating.

"Hmmn…" Mara thought. "This man has gone so deep into delusion that normal promises of wealth and power won't budge him…let's try something more classical. Raga, Thani, Arati!" He said as he summoned his next temptation. From the sky, a bold hit the ground as three women appeared. His beautiful daughters appeared, half naked with little clothing that resembled modern bikinis. Raga took the lead and began to dance around the tree, with her two sisters following. They danced around him, swerving their hips and shaking their bosom. But he was deep in meditation, his eyes closed, aware but not caring about the pleasure of the flesh that manifested around him.

In frustration, the three daughters of Mara then slowly discarded their clothes, showing their complete skin as they continued dancing, but this too had no effect on him.

Mara was starting to get nervous, he would actually be forced to kill him if this didn't work and killing a human for the betterment of Niffelheim…well its effect tends to be significantly lesser than simply manipulating humans. There were even talks with their enemies (they've been forced to kill humans as well) to make an outright ban on human killing, since the negative effects are proving to be much too bothersome and too straining on their equities on Earth.

But right now, it would appear that killing this man is the only way to stop the flow of positive energy in the area and break Heaven's hold here. He whistled, signaling his daughters to disperse and get behind him. He summoned a beautiful carved bow in his hands and pointed it at him.

Despite his eyes being closed, he was seemingly able to sense what the demon was doing so Guatama simply said "The Earth shall be my witness"

"Sorry, I can't fail Hel-Sama" he said as he released the arrow, but as the arrow closed in on the meditating man, it glowed and turned into a flower which floated away and drifted into the hands of a woman.

"Can't be doing that now can we?" She said as she walked from behind the tree. Mara looked at the goddess, brown and white battle robes, which hugged her body quite well. Her long brown hair tied into two long ponytails. He has heard of this goddess, Jord, a young hot shot rising in the ranks and also powerful, having attained the First Class license which is his rank counterpart. Her primary element…was Earth. "I am Jord, Goddess, Licence First class, unlimited. It's good to be finally face to face with the great demon Mara. But your efforts here are futile as I have guided this man into seeking his answers. I will not hesitate to fight you for the energies this man is about to give off will give me an advantage. And lastly…you wouldn't put your daughters in harm's way right?" She said with a small smile.

Such deviousness coming from her nearly angered him, but instead he found the irony laughable. His daughters weren't really the fighting type as they were only held second class license and they would most likely get killed quickly by her.

"Let's go girls…" He would rather fail this mission than have his daughters face a first class goddess.

Marller hadn't dreamed of her father's story in a long time. Of the romantic times before the regulations and the doublet system, times before she was even born.

She woke up, dizzy, in the floor. It was dark, so she stumbled around, noticing that the walls were metal. She touched her neck, noticing a collar. Attempting to remove it, she found she couldn't, it was stuck there. She tried to teleport out of the area, but she found that it was also futile. She walked clumsily down on what was presumably a hallway, following the only source of light.

Reaching she found herself in a room eerily similar to Nidhogg's control room in hell. Computer displays all around, although yellow here as opposed to hell's red, but only one chair at the far off end where someone was seated. It was the same man that attacked her. Before she could do anything he spoke.

"Ah good you're awake, get over here and stay still." He said as her body, much to her surprise moved on its own and once she reached a short distance from the masked man, her body stood rigidly still, not moving. She couldn't even speak. "In case you haven't noticed, that collar serves as a control device and has a secondary function as a demon power neutralizer. So all in all, you're pretty screwed." He said. "So "Marller" besides having the task of amusing me, which you will be doing a lot, your link to Nidhogg will serve my purpose well, I'll be able to see all demons and your three friends will be acting as heroes and saving the day." He said as pictures of Urd, Skuld and Belldandy appeared on the displays. "What purpose you ask? Which you can't cause you can't talk ja ja ja ja ja!" He said, laughing through his mask.

"That purpose…" His voice became serious again. "…is too save your race." As he said this, only the pictures of Urd, the silver haired Goddess, remained.

Nekomi, Japan

Urd was bathing peacefully in the temple bath washing her leg as it rose from the water. Singing beautifully as she rested her head back, wetting her hair and letting the water glisten her dark skin. She had no worries in the world, no stress and living a perfect single life. Besides having to worry about her two siblings, everything was pretty perfect…almost boringly so. She sighed as she wished something would happen, maybe a demon attacking or something…

Of course her wish came true when she suddenly found herself falling and hitting a hard cement floor with water falling and splashing all around her.

"Ow!" As she got up she saw she was in an empty alley somewhere that she could tell wasn't Japan. She quickly generated jeans and t-shirt just in case a human would walk in at any moment. Though she was planning on teleporting quickly out, but circumstances, complicated as they always were, prevented her from doing so.

Before leaving, she saw someone running into the alley, a meek looking female demon with glasses. Urd at first thought this was an attack and prepared for such by charging lightning, but the demon's face gave that of panic, the demon girl was running from something. She quickly ran behind the dumbfounded Urd, and hid behind her.

"Please save me…it-it's after me." She said with terror in her voice. Urd looked forward as someone else entered the alley. A man with a mask with simple features, like that of human baby, and what seemed to be a gray variation of a god's robes. As he walked, almost with a skip, vegetation ranging from grass to small trees and bushes grew behind him, cracking the concrete floor of the alley. He stopped several feet away, perhaps surprised at Urd's presence.

"Leave goddess, this doesn't concern you." The masked man said.

"Which heavenly unit are you assigned too?" Urd asked as she looked at him sternly.

"Like I said, this doesn't in…" Before he finished his sentence, he dodged a lightning bolt thrown by Urd.

"I am Urd, Goddess, Second class, Management limited license. You have failed to answer procedure identification questions. That was a warning shot, identify yourself now…"

The masked man simply stared at her "I'm not supposed to kill your kind…but this is self defense." He rolled up his sleeves, showing intricate tattoos tribal tattoos all over it. Disturbingly, much like a jigsaw puzzle, he began to pull back a piece of his skin. Instead of the gore and blood that she expected, what was beneath itnstead appeared to be water, releasing itself in an explosion from his body as several large tree branches grew out of him fast.

Urd took the young demon and rolled, dodging the attack. The branches receded back into the man, back into his body as he put the flayed skin back on its place.

Urd stood up as she thought of her current situation. This was no god, and this was no demon. For if it was it wouldn't be shooting to kill a demon, no one's been killing each other since the regulations came into place. Plus those abilities are unheard of.

"A Second class goddess shouldn't be any problem, hopefully I can just disable you, but no one's stopping me from my mission." He said as he pulled off another piece of skin, releasing several seeds and shooting them into the ground in front of him. It quickly sprouted into large vines that began to move towards Urd fast.

"Oh no, I'm not letting myself get into this fantasy situation." Urd then began chanting. "O spirits of lighting come, lighting god's breath, tear apart the air, lighting strike surging waves!" Before the vines reached her, lightning came down and struck the part where they were growing, the shear explosion caused the masked assailant to jump a few feet back to avoid collateral damage. It stopped the vines' advance as they dried quickly. "And that wasn't even the whole incantation."

"Wow…you're like Hild-sama" The young demon said, almost having a star-struck look in her eyes. Urd simply sighed at that.

"Great…"

"Impressive, but you're no match for me, Xipe Totec." He said rather pompously, finally introducing himself as he opened his robe from his chest. Much like his arms, it also had tribal lines, which he wasted no time in ripping. Urd prepared, taking the demon in her arms as dozens of tree branches exploded from him.

She found herself stuck in an area between two branches, but this was exactly where she needed to be. She placed her hand on the wood and began chanting as the young demon wondered what she was doing.

Xipe Totec then receded his branches, summoning them back into his chest. However he noticed that the massive amount of wood coming back at him…was on fire!

"Oh…fuuuu-"Before he could finish his words, the burning branches were back inside him, causing his body to heat up at unbearable temperatures. "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" He began to scream in pain, falling and rolling onto floor trying rather futilely the "Stop, drop and roll" maneuver.

"Now's our chance, let's go." She said as she zoomed upward, flying while having the young demon in hand. "Take me to nearest portal, it's not a good idea for you to stay in the human world." She said. The demon nodded in agreement.

"There's a portal to hell over there, on that rooftop." She pointed towards an apartment building. Shew flew there quickly, putting the demon on the ground.

"Thank you, my name is Dagrun, Second Class, limited." She said.

"Um…my name is Urd, Second class, limited as well…"

"Urd? As in?"

"Yes, Urddaughterofthatperson, now go before that tree guy comes back!"

"Hai." Dagrun turned, pointing her hand towards the air above her. A flash of light, and then a golden rimmed portal with the center being a purple energy field opened. "Thank you Urd-Sama." And then Dagrun turned into a red ball of energy, quickly dashing into the portal, which closed as soon she was gone.

"This was a pain…Urd-Sama…heh" The goddess said before teleporting away.

Meanwhile

The man with the jaguar mask observed the events on Lif. "Perfect." He said. Then he looked at another red beep on the map on Lif's display that suddenly appeared "What? So soon?" He zoomed in on the beep, this one located on Mogadishu, Somalia. The profile of another demon materialized on his screen. "Well…time for hero number two." He said as a picture of the goddess Skuld appeared.

Marller could only stare in helplessness at what was happening.