User blog:Baluar/God Eater: Fall of the Heavens, chapter 28: Regret

As Baluar rushed in, the monster had seemingly disappeared. Nanako and Lyrr were walking to the plane as well, but they were walking slower and would probably take a minute or two before arriving. The sudden disappearance of the monster did nothing to calm Baluar, as he knew that monsters like that were sneaky and could approach to their victims without fear of being detected.

But not all God Eaters had so much Aragami in them as he did. His senses were heightened beyond that of mere humans, and the Aragami inside him honed his already heightened senses to the max, in hopes of getting any sort of information on the location of his enemy.

Below the noise of Lina's heart, as well as his own (which moved noticeably slower), there was an incredibly subtle sound which faintly reminded him of hooves. It seemed to become stronger and stronger as the moments passed, but it was still incredibly subtle, in the very edge of perception. Baluar turned around just in time...

...just in time to receive a slash in the face, that is.

-Goddammit! - He said, quickly taking a step back while drawing his God Arc with his right hand and covering his new wound with his left hand. He would probably have destroyed that monster shortly... were he not out of breath and extremely tired from the recent slaughter. In his current state, he was at best an equal with the monster that fiercely wished his death... and the bleeding over his left eye didn't help at all.

The monster began the fight by trying to slash his abdomen, but Baluar deflected the strike with his God Arc and countered with a thrust towards his opponent's chest. The monster sidestepped, the attack missing it entirely, and motioned its weapon so as to cut Baluar's arm. In all response, Baluar bent his body to avoid the attack and prepared himself to deliver another counterattack...

...only to find his opponent's head literally exploding. He turned his head to his right, and sure enough, Lyrr was in position.

Baluar then immediately turned to check on Lina, and she was healed of most of her wounds. Some bruises remained, but she was fine.

In doing so, however, he commited a fatal mistake: he didn't confirm the kill. Because his enemy wasn't human, and was Aragami instead, it could work for a while without a head and continue fighting, albeit with reduced efficiency. So, as he was checking Lina's status, his enemy lodged its weapon into his right shoulder, causing him immense pain.

He managed to turn around, the weapon still firmly lodged in his skin, and saw his opponent, half of its upper half blown up, yet clearly standing and ready for more. Before any rational thought or emotion had enough time to cross his mind, he acted purely on instinct and used his God Arc to cut his opponent in half, and then cut the arm from the upper body, just to make sure.

Then, after returning to his senses, the unimaginable pain of having an Aragami inside of him, a being who only lived to devour whatever it came in contact with, finally got to him. All of his will was not enough to prevent himself from screaming like a madman. The pain... The Oracle Cells of his body resonated with those that tried to invade him, and while the resonance was negative in a way (his cells fighting the invading ones, rather than joining then), it was still a battle raging inside his body. Cells devouring cells... Normal in any human (that's how infections work, after all), but normal cells did not grow stronger as they devoured their enemies. He would either live and become stronger, or die slowly enough to see his body wither in front of his eyes. Or worse... What if the foreign cells didn't devour his body, but took control of it?

"Do I regret my decision to prioritize Lina's safety over my own?" He thought to himself. As he lost his consciousness and fell to the pitch black void, he found the answer.

No.

At least, not in the current circumstances. Would he regret it if he lost control and killed everyone? Definitely yes.

Before the last trace of consciousness vanished, he thought it would be ironical... to save someone, only to lose control and kill them later.

It was the first irony in his life that didn't feel good... It was bitter, if anything.

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