User blog:Seieireppa/God Eater: The Butterfly Effect, chapter 5: Prime

World Line Prime.

That was the name that those in Operation Looking Glass, under Silas Smith’s leadership, had given to the one timeline where Isaac Feldman did not exist. It was in this timeline that time and history itself seemed to stop in its tracks on the morning of January 29th, 2183, with only a creeping darkness left over afterwards, an enigmatic nothingness that obscured everything from that point on.

Silas, on his own judgment, had used the Renewal Project, an experimental technology to send information back in time, to implant information and knowledge of time travel in the mind of Willard Knox, a God Eater from the end of humanity, to prompt him to travel to the future and come to Silas’ aid in discovering the truth behind this. Key in their investigations would be Isaac Feldman, whose existence was documented in every timeline except World Line Prime.

And now, here they stood, poised to take the first step of their journey through time in order to uncover the truth. Their first stop would be the former country of the United States of America, to witness the moment of Isaac Feldman’s birth—or, rather, the moment when he should have been born, where he was born in every other timeline. From there, Silas reasoned, they should be able to discern what happened in World Line Prime alone, the key event that would cause the divergence that would lead to the end of the timeline altogether.

But what, exactly, would they find…?

“You remember the technique, right?”

Silas’ words reverberated through the room where he and Will now stood, preparing for their departure. In mere moments, the two of them would take the first step in their journey, leaving this time altogether and arriving in a wholly different timeline from their own.

“Yeah, I do,” came Will’s plain response. “I concentrate Oracle energy inside myself, compress it into a gravitational singularity—a miniature black hole—and apply rotational force to bring the event horizon into the singularity to convert it into a naked singularity, then focus it outwards and bring in the matter around me so as to pass it through the singularity and across time and space. That’s what I did to get here… it’s what you passed to me… and somehow, I can’t help but feel that I’ve seen it somewhere else before.”

“Somewhere else?” inquired Silas. “Do you mean…?”

“There’s no way to say for sure,” spoke Will. “For now, all we can do is press onwards. From what you told me, the moment that darkness reaches us, time itself might very well come undone… is that right?”

“It is,” came Silas’ reply. “For the sake of everything that is, was, and will be, we need to find the cause before it’s too late.”

“In that case,” continued Will, “let’s get this on with. Silas… grab my hand.”

Silas did as instructed, grasping Will’s hand and holding on tight as Will began the process.

Like a ripple spreading through the atmosphere, the distortion in the gravitational field could be felt as Will focused Oracle energy inside him. The condensed Oracle energy forming the black hole effected a radius of increased pressure, which migrated inwards as Will turned it over onto itself to expose the naked singularity.

“Are you ready?”

Will spoke only these words, to which Silas responded only with a nod.

And with that, Will concentrated, and—

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