User blog:Seieireppa/God Eater:Universitas, chapter 44: The Maxim of Possibility

“Do you remember back when Sigma explained about his own past?” Nanako spoke.

“I mean, yeah,” came the voice of Bal in response. “He told us about his youth, how he joined the Russia Branch, how he came to Glasgow to stop the construction of the Gigantes cannon and how he fought the Gehenna alongside you, and…!!”

“Yeah,” Nanako replied. “The alternate branching timeline where the Gehenna was not destroyed, which itself was created WHEN the Gehenna was destroyed. In that timeline, the Gehenna ravaged the planet and reduced the human population to a mere fraction of its former size, both through the destruction it directly caused and through the deaths wrought by the so-called Neo Aragami, spawn of the Gehenna sent to finish what the Gehenna started.

“There, having survived the destruction thanks to Sigma fusing himself with me and becoming my God Arc, I rallied a group of survivors, consisting of both civilians and God Eaters alike, to fight against the Neo Aragami with the ultimate goal of destroying the Gehenna itself. Eventually, we did accomplish this, resetting the timeline back to its proper course, but…”  Nanako paused.

“But what?” came the reply of Blake. “Wasn’t that the end of the story?”

“That is what I thought,” responded Nanako, “at least, until recently. What I had failed to consider, of course, is the reality that not only one branching timeline was created when Sigma and I destroyed the Gehenna in this timeline. In reality, there were countless more, but one in particular stood out. In that particular timeline, I failed to destroy the Gehenna in the ruined future, but my desire to do so nonetheless and to save our future, the ruined present I called my home, called out to something else—the Horizon.”

Beo gasped. “You mean—!”

“Precisely,” replied Nanako. “You see, I did not obtain the power of the Horizon in this timeline. It was the alternate me in that timeline who obtained the Horizon’s power, and she used her newfound ability to give that power to me.”

“Wait a second,” spoke Idenn. “How exactly did that happen?”

Nanako paused once more before speaking further. “The power that this alternate me got from the Horizon was the ability to alter the flow of world lines, to influence parallel events across timelines. Events that happened in one timeline could, within limits, be made to happen in other timelines. By using this power, Nanako β, for lack of a better term, altered this timeline to make it so that I received the Horizon’s power myself. Of course, the power is the same—I can, within limits, alter the flow of timelines to influence which events occur. There’s only one real catch…”

“And that is…?” came the voice of Nia.

“That catch,” continued Nanako, “is that I can’t actually use it at will yet. Along with the power itself, I received a message from my other self, and that message was that I’d ‘know when the time was right to use this power.’  What that means, I don’t know… but all I can do now is just wait until the time is right, I guess.”

“I have a feeling that you’ll play a key part when it comes time to defeat Feldman once and for all,” Sigma chimed in. “And something tells me that the me from the other world would think so, too."

Nanako smiled and nodded. With this, victory was as good as theirs… but one thing remained to be done.

“Lyrr, Blake, Jack,” spoke Sigma. “It is time. Now, in earnest, it is time. If the three of you wish to stand on the front lines against Isaac Feldman, stand now and come with me…”

The three of them rose and approached Sigma as Idenn prepared herself.

“…to the Horizon.”

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