User blog:Seieireppa/God Eater:Universitas, chapter 53: Axel

“My name is Axel.”

The four of them—Lyrr, C, Ken, and the newcomer named Axel—sat around a table in a ruined building outside Fenrir’s walls.

“I was born in France in the 90s,” continued Axel. “I worked as an assassin for many years, but when the Aragami menaced this world, I enlisted as a God Eater to fight them.”

“You enlisted as a God Eater to…” began Lyrr. “But that would mean you were like sixty years old when you became a God Eater, and yet… you don’t look a day over twenty now! What the…?!”

“That is correct,” came Axel’s response. “I may have been past my prime, but I felt it to be my duty to do what I could to combat the Aragami threat. As for my physical appearance, well… one thing led to another, and here I am. it would be difficult to explain it all now.”

“Which would mean you’re in the area of eighty now?” continued Ken. “I’ve… got nothing to say to that. That’s just impressive. I’d tip my hat to you, if I were wearing one. But anyway… how did you manage to hit Feldman through his barrier?”

“I didn’t,” came Axel’s curt reply. “Rather, it would be more accurate to say I hit him from within his barrier.”

“From within his barrier, huh?” interjected C. “So… manipulation of spatial coordinates? But that sounds like… a Horizon power!”

“Ah, so that’s what you call it? replied Axel. “Yes, I did indeed obtain a power from that place, the boundary realm beyond time itself. It was years ago… I know not when, but it was a good long while. All my life, all I wanted was a place to rest, a place to settle down and be rid of all this strife, of all this endless struggle. I begged, pleaded with unseen deities to grant my wish… and then, well…”

“…you found your way to the Horizon, huh?” spoke C.

“Yes, I suppose I did,” came Axel’s reply. “I forgot precisely when and how it happened, but one day I found myself before that brilliant blue light, and it heard my prayer, my deepest wish. It granted me power then and there, the power of manipulation of spatial coordinates that you mentioned. It aided me greatly in my travels… but, ironically, I was still nowhere close to finding my final resting place.”

“Hold on,” interjected Ken. “You mentioned that ‘something’ warned you of Feldman’s threat. What was this ‘something’ you speak of?”

“It was when I was in this ‘Horizon,’” responded Axel. “While I was there, a voice called out to me. I know not whose voice it was, but it seemed to speak with a strange warmth, the warmth of a doting parent. It told me that someone was going to threaten the planet with ultimate extinction, that there would be someone whose ambitions would drive him to subjugate all of humanity with a great and terrible power. For those reasons, the voice told me, I must use my power to hunt down and destroy whatever would cause this threat… perhaps then I could have my rest I so dearly sought.”

“A doting parent, huh?” spoke Lyrr. “Sounds weird… I didn’t know the Horizon had a soul, or a personality, or anything like that.”

“At any rate,” spoke up C, “Feldman fled through time before we could finish him off. He’s probably fled to one of the two other times that Nanako mentioned, 2081 or 2117. Either way, there’s nothing any of us can do now, since we can’t travel through time without Idenn or Sigma. All we can do now is wait, and have faith that the others will take care of things.”

“True enough,” spoke Ken, reclining in his chair. But there was one thing that rested on all their minds above all else.

Where the hell was Sigma?

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