User blog:Seieireppa/God Eater: The Butterfly Effect, chapter 2: Silas

My name is Silas Smith.

My family lineage can be traced back five hundred years, all the way back to the dawn of this new world. From a series of recordings found hundreds of years ago, we discovered that a man named Willard Knox took a planet ravaged by beasts called Aragami to the point of the complete extinction of the human race and gave it new life. At the end of Willard’s own life, he breathed new life into this dead planet, bringing about the birth of new plant life, new animals, and most importantly, new humans to populate the Earth. It is thanks to him that we are here today, over five hundred years later.

However, further digging into uncovered files brought to our attention the existence of an organization known as Fenrir, a group who organized warriors to fight against the Aragami. Over the better part of a century until the organization’s downfall, Fenrir organized a successful offense against the monstrous Aragami, gathering surviving humans within their own walls to ensure their continued survival. And a few decades—somewhere in the area of thirty years—into Fenrir’s history, a certain man made himself known.

Isaac Feldman was an information and publicity manager for Fenrir who came to the Far East Branch as acting director after the death of their previous director. What happened after that is of little consequence… until, of course, the year 2081.

That year, at midnight of January 1st, a certain individual arrived on the Far East Branch’s doorstep. Named Idenn, the girl had come from the far future, the year 2117, to thwart the efforts of a certain man. This man, as Idenn and the members of the Far East Branch would later find out, was none other than Isaac Feldman himself, who had disappeared altogether five years prior. In truth, he had been removed from the timeline by an unknown agent—the truth of this matter we have been thus far unable to discern—in order to save the timeline from Feldman’s machinations. However, as they would later discover, this did little to remedy the situation, as a number of God Eaters—the name given to the warriors of Fenrir who fought the Aragami—from all over the world banded together to fight against Feldman’s aftereffects. Upon Feldman’s return, these God Eaters pursued him across time and cornered him, ending his life once and for all before returning whence they came.

These events, upon their discovery, prompted us in the current era to open what was dubbed Operation Looking Glass. Through technology to analyze temporal fluctuations, we were able to peer directly into the past, which had the added effect of awakening us to the existence of alternate timelines, alternate versions of history where events may have occurred somewhat differently. What we found was that, whether or not events occurred in these timelines as they did in our own, Feldman existed at some point or another in each and every one of these timelines.

Every one of them, that is, except for one.

To this day, we are not sure what caused this divergence, but for whatever reason, there is no trace of Isaac Feldman in this timeline. In his place, one Paylor Sakaki took up the mantle of director of the Far East Branch on a permanent basis instead of Feldman assuming that position, and the events beginning in 2081 never happened. Life, for the people of this world, proceeded as normal… except for a very troubling discovery.

In this one timeline, as opposed to all others, there is no data to be observed from any point after early in the year 2183. As though the hands of some cosmic clock counted down to zero, nothing can be observed after 9:05 AM on the morning of January 29th, 2183. The rest of the year and onward is completely shrouded in darkness. As for what this means, no one knows, but there is a lingering fear that pervades those of us in Operation Looking Glass.

What if this creeping darkness reaches us?

What happens when, looking back through the invisible history of this one timeline, we reach our own time, and we look upon ourselves, with nothing to look upon?

Something happened on that winter day in 2183. No one knows what, but something happened… and I must find out what that something is before its ripples catch up to us.

And for these reasons, I have taken it upon myself to intervene.

-

&lt;-- Previous chapter