User blog:Seieireppa/God Eater ∑: The Maxim of Possibility, chapter 9

Nanako watched in awe as her God Arc, which she had possessed ever since the Gehenna disaster twelve years ago, emitted a bright, blinding light as it rose into the air. Slowly, it began to bubble and warp, its form shifting and altering behind the emanating brilliance.

And as Nanako looked on, her mouth ajar, her God Arc took on an all too familiar form.

The light faded as before her stood the very man who had set her on this journey in the first place.

Before her stood the form of Sigma.

Nanako was dumbfounded. “But you…” she began, “you’re… you… how?”

“It’s really quite simple,” replied Sigma. “When I transferred my Oracle Cells into your body to give you the ability to survive the Gehenna’s initial onslaught and grant you a God Arc, my will transferred along with them. Without the power to reconstitute my body, I lay in wait for the past twelve years, watching as you rallied the people and slew the Gehenna’s spawn. With each of them you devoured, I regained a bit of my power, watching the world around you and waiting for the day I would be able to take on my original form.”

“So,” Nanako interjected, “you mean you’ve been watching over me this entire time?”

“That is correct,” came Sigma’s response. “Even in your darkest hour, when you might have felt truly and utterly alone, you were never truly alone, for I was always there by your side. You have done better than I could ever have imagined in leading humanity towards a new tomorrow, and while I would want nothing more than to stand by your side now in humanity’s deciding hour…”

Sigma looked at Nanako, his eyes aimed at her right hand.

“…you need my aid in another respect. You must use me to strike the deciding blow to the Gehenna and free humanity from the chains that have trapped them for the past twelve years. I know you can do it, Nanako. You are more than capable of wielding me to my fullest potential.”

Nanako merely looked on, tears welling up in her eyes. She had this ally the entire time, and now he stood by her in her time of direst need.

“I guess you’ll need to be going now,” Sigma continued, “so I’ll have to transform again… but know, no matter my form, that I will always be by your side, supporting you. But before I go…”

Sigma straightened himself up, his expression suddenly taking on an incredibly dire air.

“The Gehenna is not what you think. Make utmost haste to the hive, but be aware that what awaits you may not be what you expect… or what you even want to see. No matter what happens, though, you must be prepared to do whatever it takes to bring the Gehenna down. No matter what you have to do. Can you promise me that, Nanako?”

Nanako returned Sigma’s gaze, nodding in affirmation. She had lived through twelve years of hell, as had all of humanity up to this point. Nanako knew that she had a duty to annihilate the Gehenna at all costs.

And with that, Sigma stepped back and began to emit the same brilliant light, assuming the form of Nanako’s God Arc when the light faded. Nanako took her blade in hand, burning with a renewed determination to lead humanity towards the end of their twelve-year waking nightmare.

But what was with Sigma’s final words…?

The day had been long and hard. Nanako, leading the joint task force of Rhizome Duos, had departed at the crack of dawn and headed northwest. Over the course of their long and distant journey, Nanako’s team had rendezvoused with the three other teams from allied resistance groups, increasing their ranks approximately fivefold. Together, the largest contingent of God Eaters the world had ever seen marched northward, towards Loch Lomond, where the main entrance of the Neo Aragami hive, and the Gehenna’s resting place, was located. However, upon their arrival, what they found waiting for them was a deployment of what had to be hundreds and hundreds of Neo Aragami, seemingly ready for their arrival.

Sasha, Croswell, Natalia, Lyrr, and Baluar all simultaneously readied their God Arcs –

–however, Nanako held them back, for it did not take long to realize that, in spite of its size, the Rhizome Duos joint force was not the Neo Aragami’s current target.

Rather, the attention of the innumerable eyes dotting the bodies of the hundreds of Neo Aragami were all fixated on a single man, standing on the banks of the loch. Armed with only a single short blade-type God Arc, the man was easily identifiable as a God Eater… but how would he alone survive against the hundreds of Neo Aragami that were out for his blood?

It would appear that they were about to find out.

“Really… only this few of you?” the man spoke, scoffing at the ranks of Neo Aragami before him. “It’ll take more of you than that to stop me!”

And with that, as the Neo Aragami surrounding him stood still, the man inhaled…

…and cried out.

“RELEASE!!”

A sinister aura overtook the bank of Loch Lomond as the God Arcs of every member of the joint task force simultaneously cried out in agony. Whatever this man was, it certainly wasn’t human–

–a feeling that was immediately confirmed, as a powerful shockwave blasted out from the man and buffeted the members of the task force, causing them to stagger as a bright flash followed. When the light faded, a number of visible changes had come over the man – his coat had been overtaken by a red hue, and some sort of cracked red armor covering his left eye and the corresponding side of his face.

An Aragami.

Nanako and her fellow God Eaters could only watch in awe, restraining their own God Arcs, as the half-Aragami before them tore into the Neo Aragami in the vicinity with relentless brutality, cleaving them in half one after the other with his blade while displaying a power that far exceeded what his body should by all rights be capable of. The carnage was unspeakable; never before had the members of the joint task force seen such pure battle ability and prowess. In no time at all, every last Neo Aragami before them had been laid out, their countless bodies cleaved in twain.

Croswell was the first to speak up. “I’ve heard of being strong,” he began, his voice shaky from a combination of fear and awe, “but this… this is something else entirely!”

“I’ve never even seen an Aragami OR a Neo Aragami fight like this,” came Sasha’s equally disturbed voice. “What even IS this guy?”

“He’s, well,” began Nanako. “…he’s our mystery helper, the one I mentioned during the briefing. His name is Thomas Beoblade, and he’s the former leader of a special ops unit called the Infinity Unit.”

“Sounds impressive,” Baluar interjected. “I wonder if he’d ever consent to a battle?”

“Don’t bother,” came Nanako’s curt reply. “Even you’d never stand a chance. I might, given… exigent circumstances, but I certainly wouldn’t come out unscathed.”

The conversation among members of the joint task force was interrupted by Beo disengaging his Aragami form and turning to face them. “You must be the ones from the anti-Gehenna task force, huh?” he called out. “I’m afraid I’ve got some bad news for you. The hive isn’t here.”

Everyone, Nanako included, let out a collective gasp. They’d come all this way, only for the hive, which had been confirmed to be right here, beneath Loch Lomond, to just… not BE there?

Nanako couldn’t believe it. “What do you mean, the hive’s ‘not here?’”  She got up from her crouching position and walked over to where Beo stood amidst the hundreds of Neo Aragami corpses.

“Just what it sounds like,” Beo replied. "The entrance was supposed to be through an underwater cave in the loch, but no such cave exists.  We’ve been had.”

“Not quite,” came a response from Nanako’s direction. Her God Arc had spoken, much to the readily apparent surprise of everyone involved.

Nanako gulped, nervous about having to explain the situation. Sigma, however, had other ideas.

He leapt out of Nanako’s hand and assumed his humanoid form. “Beo here is correct,” he stated. “The hive is not here. However, it’s not that it’s not here ‘in this place’…”

“…but rather, it’s not here ‘in this time.’”

Croswell had had enough. “What the hell do you mean, it ain’t here ‘in this time?’  And for that matter, Nanako, who the hell IS this guy?”

Nanako cleared her throat and told everyone the story of that day in 2067, the day the Gigantes failed, and the day Sigma gave her the power to fight on in a world without hope.

“So what you’re saying,” interjected Lyrr, scratching his head, “is that Sigma here turned himself into a God Arc?”

Sigma nodded in affirmation. “That’s about the long and short of it. I converted my body into pure Oracle Cells and inserted them into Nanako’s body in 2067. Nanako Kawashima as she exists now is essentially half Aragami.”

“Is… is that true?” came Sasha’s inquiry upon hearing this news. Nanako merely nodded in response.

Croswell stepped forward and slapped Nanako’s back, grinning. “So what if she’s an Aragami, a human, or a refrigerator? She’s done more for us, and for all of humanity, than anyone ever has. If it hadn’t been for her, we’d all be dead in a ditch somewhere.”

The members of Rhizome Duos all nodded, cheers of affirmation rising forth from the crowd.

“But anyway, Sigma,” Baluar spoke up, “what did you mean when you said that the hive isn’t ‘in this time?’”

“I’ll explain.”  Sigma cleared his throat. “The Gehenna is a being that exists outside the normal flow of time. When it awoke in 2067, it awoke not from a physical location as is commonly believed, but rather from a dimension outside of time itself. It spent two years traveling the planet and bringing it to ruin, then returned to its home timeline to sleep.”

Natalia, calculations running in her head, was the next to come forward. “So, in other words, you’re saying that the Neo Aragami have been able to come to our dimension as a result of the temporal warp caused by the Gehenna’s sheer temporospatial displacement?”

“That is correct,” came Sigma’s reply. “The hive entrances that have been reported over the years were not in fact physical entrances to an underground complex, but rather the locations of timespace portals linking to the Gehenna’s home timeline. If we are to get at the Gehenna…”

“…then we’ll need to travel to the past and attack it at the point of its emergence into our timeline?” continued Nanako.

“Correct,” answered Sigma. “We’ll use the portal here, beneath the surface of Loch Lomond, to travel to the year 2067 and change the past by defeating the Gehenna before it can ravage the planet.”

“But then,” Nanako posited, “what will happen to us, from this timeline?”

Sigma was silent. “That’s… well, we’ll have to find out when the time comes. Now, is everyone ready?”

Croswell gave a hearty chuckle. “What the hell kind of question is that? I’ve been ready to kick that monster’s ass ever since it destroyed the planet. With these fists, I’ll pound its ass to kingdom come!”

Sigma nodded. “Good. Now, Nanako, if you will…”

As Sigma once more took the form of Nanako’s God Arc, Nanako took her blade in hand and turned towards the surface of the loch. “Is everyone ready? Then… follow me!”

Nanako leapt from the bank of Loch Lomond and plunged beneath the water’s surface.

And as she swam downwards, hearing the splashes of countless others behind her, she knew…

…that the dawn of a new age for humanity was finally within her grasp.