User blog comment:Seieireppa/God Eater:Universitas, chapter 27: Erasure/@comment-24799642-20150710211036/@comment-1419424-20150710215932

That's not at all how it works.

It's basically the skip button on a TV remote for EVERYONE EXCEPT SIGMA.



Consider the above diagram depicting a period of ten seconds. The blue arrow represents Sigma's "time"—the time of which he is aware and during which he can move, and the green represents the "time" of everyone else in the room. In the above diagram, Sigma's ability is active from the four-second mark to the nine-second mark. Sigma is able to act during those five seconds—however, for everyone else, as far as they're concerned, the events of 4s-9s never happened.

Also note what C said about "results" and the stuff about the water bottle. What Sigma's ability lets him do is erase the "cause" but keep the "effect" of actions. For example, when Baluar threw his God Arc at Sigma, Sigma activated his ability. He grabbed the God Arc out of the air and walked behind Bal. When the period of erased time elapsed, the "cause" (Sigma grabbing the God Arc and moving) had essentially never happened, because that time had been erased, but the "effect" (Sigma being located behind Bal while holding Bal's God Arc) remained.

Look at it this way:  You press the skip button on your remote while watching a film. Everyone else watching with you has no idea what happened during the portion of the film skipped, but you, thanks to your hypothetical ability, do.

I hope that made it clear.