Belldandy confronts Sayoko at the top of the castle after Keiichi falls under Sayoko's influence.
Summary
Keiichi races up the stairs to reach Sayoko, but stops upon realizing that Sora is tired and far behind him. He picks her up piggyback style and continues onward, and if that wasn't taxing enough, Sora informs Keiichi that the stairs they're on tend to retract their steps at random intervals, which includes right now! Keiichi runs like a maniac to avoid falling and barely manages to get to the top, though he thinks his legs feel like rubber spaghetti.
Sayoko greets Keiichi and Sora as they enter her throne room, but he can't get closer to Sayoko since there's a moat separating the two of them and she knows he can't swim. Keiichi demands to know where Belldandy is, and Sayoko offers to let him see Belldandy in exchange for him taking his ribbon off and pledging his undying fealty to her, something he immediately refuses. However, Sayoko doesn't need to take his ribbon off personally, as she has Sora to do it for her—it's revealed that she has been under Sayoko's influence the whole time and wore a fake ribbon to lure to lure Keiichi into a trap. In his exhaustion, Keiichi trips himself and allows Sora to take his ribbon.
Urd and Skuld reach a dead-end hallway and argue over which way they should've been going. Urd then tells Skuld that she is useless without any of her bombs, which gets Skuld angry enough to want to magically stamp the word "baka" on Urd's face. However, the magic Skuld emits is way more powerful than either of them expected and trashes the hall they're in. Skuld wants to believe her magical powers have gotten stronger, but Urd determines that the castle is amplifying all magical power. Coincidentally, the hole that Skuld blew through the hall revealed the room with the equipment amplifying their magic.
Belldandy finds the staircase leading to Sayoko's throne room and leaps to the very top in a single jump. Upon landing, she finds that Sayoko has been waiting for her, along with Keiichi whom she has dressed up in a dog outfit. She makes Keiichi perform a bunch of tricks to prove his new loyalty to her and tells Belldandy that he chose to be her lapdog. However, she offers Belldandy the chance to take Keiichi back with her, if he chooses to do so. Belldandy approaches Keiichi and asks for him to come back, but he predictably rebuffs her due to Sayoko's mind influence.
Sayoko reveals that she has taken Keiichi's ribbon, but Belldandy surprises Sayoko by preparing to take her own ribbon off to give to Keiichi. Sayoko warns Belldandy that it'll torture Keiichi if he sees her serve at her command and claims that Keiichi is happy the way he is now, but Belldandy tells her that true happiness can only come from within and not be given, and that the right to feel any emotion is more valuable than having only empty joy. She takes off her ribbon and puts it on Keiichi's head, immediately falling under Sayoko's influence and willingly accepting being her slave.
Sayoko has fun with her newfound control over Belldandy and makes her do various tasks such as telling a funny story and massaging her shoulders, but she eventually becomes bored and quits being a queen, admitting that this entire affair was pointless and that she needs to beat Belldandy all her herself. Sayoko tells all her subjects to pack up and go home, but before she can tell Belldandy to leave with Keiichi, Mara suddenly appears and grabs her from behind to muffle her speech, informing her that she may do no such thing without her permission because the two of them are in a contract!