Ah! My Goddess Manga/Oh My Goddess! Manga
ああっ女神さまっVolume 40 Chapter 253

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

In the utter darkness, Keiichi starts to panic, which is what Ebony wanted. However, feeling Belldandy grab him and knowing she probably has a worried look on her face, Keiichi starts to relax. When Ebony steps next to him to taunt him a bit, Keiichi shouts at her, figuring that to be similar to a flash bomb. Skuld gets into the act with her chemical reaction Skuld Air Bomb. While the explosion does ring Ebony’s ears, because it exploded behind her, her eyes were unaffected.

As Hagal explains what is going on to the young mazoku girl, Skuld attempts to flee but finds her whole body shaking and she’s knocked out. Belldandy tells Keiichi not to get separated from her as Glühen Desherzen brings the unconscious Urd and Skuld to Belldandy. He explains to Keiichi that upon entering the room, he’d mapped it out and having absolute spacial coordinates, he knows where they are. Now that Urd and Skuld are close at hand, Belldandy casts a spell. She warns Keiichi not to move and this is reinforced by Glühen Desherzen who tells Keiichi he’ll be blown away if he does. That’s because Belldandy has cast a massive wind spell and they are in the eye of the storm.

Thoughts/Review:

Ah. So Keiichi thought as I did — attack with sound. It sorta worked but it sorta didn’t as Ebony “sees” sound somehow. Interesting. That’s sorta how the blind Daredevil of Marvel Comics moved around by gaining a visual image thanks to sound.

Anyway, Skuld’s attack failed only because it didn’t go off in front of Ebony. So what kind of attack did Ebony use on Skuld to knock her out? I’m guessing it would have to be sonic based based on what we’ve seen thus far and how Ebony’s mouth was drawn.

Belldandy’s wind solution is an interesting one. After all, not only would the strong winds very likely blow Ebony away, the noise of the winds might make her blind as well. However, I can’t see Ebony being defeated quite so easily and for some reason, I think back to when Mara was first introduced and attempted to get at Keiichi. Belldandy raised a different kind of barrier then but it was already too late as Mara was already inside. I suppose Ebony could get in before the wind barrier-sweep (since it is such a large wind attack) and they wouldn’t know it since they wouldn’t be able to see her. We’ll see what Fujishima-sensei does though.

Still, this chapter has me wondering what the smeg Hagal is planning. Why stage such an elaborate event for the ones assisting Hild, whom she dethroned? I suppose there’s the entertainment aspect of it since she’s able to observe the whole thing, but there doesn’t seem to be any logic to this. I suppose I’ll just have to wait and see how things go.

We did get to see the little mazoku girl again. Interesting that Fujishima-sensei used her as an exposition device to help the audience better understand what was going on.

Not much else to say though I do find this latest story pretty interesting.