User blog:Seieireppa/God Eater:Universitas, chapter 57: Montana Max

“Well, let’s start things off simple,” spoke the mystery man, having gathered the other five God Eaters in the shelter of a nearby building, out of the snow. “My name is Maxwell. Maxwell Verture.”

The man named Maxwell cracked his neck and ruffled his gray-silver hair. “I was born in… well, that doesn’t matter. Became a God Eater in… well, that doesn’t really matter either. Anyway, back then, I was a firebrand. In fact… you might say I caused more than my fair share of destruction. I, well… I killed a lot of people, and Fenrir almost had it in for me… but then, when the Aragami started evolving at an abnormal rate, they called on me again, and I’ve been fighting them ever since.”

“Hold on a second,” interjected Baluar. “That doesn’t explain that little show you put on back there. Those were definitely Horizon powers! The flames and the… whatever the hell that was!”

“‘Horizon?’  Is that what you call it?” came Maxwell’s reply. “I, well… yeah, I did get powers from something. It was, let’s see… a while ago, I can’t quite remember. But remember how I said I killed a bunch of people? They were all God Eaters, people who’d been assigned to my unit. I killed them all… but then, somewhere down the line, I started to have regrets. Why’d I do it? What did I stand to gain? And what was I going to do from there on out? I asked myself these questions, day after day after day. The regret was crushing… and then, well, in a particularly dark moment, it came for me. That ‘Horizon’ thing.”

Maxwell stood up and began to pace around the building. “It called out to me, asked me if I wanted a second chance. To make amends for my mistakes. So I said ‘of course I do’… and it gave me that power. Told me to work towards penance with my own two hands. And as for the power itself…”

“You mentioned that you could read Feldman’s mind,” spoke Beoblade. “So… precognition?”

“Yeah, basically,” came Maxwell’s reply, scratching his head. “Aside from the basic physical upgrades, I can read people’s thoughts, anticipating their next move and essentially letting me pre-empt everything they do.”

“So that’s why you were able to handle Feldman so efficiently,” Kaitlin muttered. “You knew exactly where he was going to strike before he even moved!”

Maxwell grinned. “Heh, yeah, pretty much. Only, this power isn’t exactly perfect. If we’d fought Feldman at his full strength, there isn’t much that precognition could have done against that much raw power. And I don’t think it needs mentioning, but I can’t use this power on Aragami, because they don’t exactly have ‘brains’ in the same way that people do.”

“Alright,” interjected Arthur, “so how’d you know to be here, at this moment?”

“As for that…”  Maxwell paused, and scratched his head. “After I got that power, the Horizon spoke to me. Told me that there was someone who sought to bring the world to ruin, and that I should go and help the people who’re trying to stop him. After that, it just kind of… spat me back out, but I knew that the time my powers would be needed was not far off. And now, well… here I am.”

“Well, at any rate,” spoke up Bal, walking over to Maxwell and extending his hand for a handshake, “it’s good to have you on board.”

“Likewise,” came Maxwell’s reply, returning the handshake. “It’s good to be here.”

With Maxwell’s addition, the task force was that much closer to defeating Feldman once and for all.

However…

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