"What is it?" asked Artemis.
"This alternate here. Celestin succeeded in his bid."
The two goddesses stared before Artemis continued. "You can't access that, that's from an alternate main branch off of Heaven itself. WE can't access that. Even if we combined power."
"Of course I can, I'm an Elder god," said Toltiir as he focussed on the scene.
"Then why, puss, do you act like you're scared when I'm threatening you?" asked Bastet.
"Because it's funnier that way," said Toltiir off-handedly. "There we go, let me just bring up this scene."
The double spiral collapsed, and thousands of years of energy flooded out."Behold, O Heavens," triumphantly called out Celestin. "The cruel gods who have decreed sadness and suffering take place on Earth - no longer will your will be done."
"NOOOO!" Belldandy cried out, the word becoming part of a scream of despair as she saw it.
Tokyo first. A flare of light and energy as life forms were suddenly thrown one hundred thousand years along an evolutionary spiral that they weren't ready for.
"What's happening?" Celestin demanded as the cities and lives grew dark and cold around him. "Their suffering should be ending."
"IT IS," said Urd, throwing Morgan aside. The Princess Of The Fae landed, blood seeping from ears and mouth and nose. Her eyes stared sightlessly off into the distance. "You were told they weren't ready for that sort of event, but you were so full of yourself. Like a battery that's had too much voltage thrown into it - you're burning them out! Those flares are human lives igniting under the forces you've unleashed."
"Not all," countered Celestin. "I still feel some lives remaining."
"The wave now extends beyond Japan, it will swallow the entire world before our countermeasures are effective - as you designed," said Urd, ignoring the way Belldandy was curled in on herself and weeping. "Those lives that remain are a telepathic group mind formed by this forced evolution. A linked intelligence that knows only despair and rage. Heaven and Hel are barred for you, Celestin. Where will you go when what's left of humanity comes for you?"
"That's pretty bad," admitted Artemis.
"An act of madness birthed a mad god, forged of the death of humanity," said one of the more philosophical Beings in the Inn.
"Yet humanity has not been extinguished," said Toltiir. "Not at this moment of space/time. This is not humorous, and therefore something my nature protests against. I can grab individuals from the moment before their doom."
Bastet stirred. "In that realm, unless Urd and Skuld drag her to safety, even Belldandy might be permanently discorporated. Certainly the psychological wounds would require another draught of forgetfulness to overcome."
"Like I said, not humorous," agreed Toltiir. "So I put a joker in the deck. Like so. A different, more friendly fate, is possible."
(Posted Sun, 25 Apr 2004 10:05)
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