User blog:Seieireppa/God Eater:Universitas, chapter 59: Desolation




 * X/X/2117


 * BLAKE, JACK, NANAKO, AND IDENN’S GROUP

“This place… I never thought I’d be coming back here ever again.”

Idenn shivered as she, Nanako, Blake, and Jack stood in the cold, damp underground of Friar’s God Arc storage complex… or rather, what was left of it, at least.

Far too long ago—at least, it felt like it for Idenn—she had stood here, her comrades slain around her as she faced down Isaac Feldman for the first time. Shortly thereafter, she would use Lifespring for the first time to send herself and Feldman back in time, to the year 2081. But now, it appeared, they had ended up in this very location once more, sent to finish what Idenn had started.

“I don’t hear anything…” Idenn spoke, her voice at a low whisper. “My team must not have arrived yet…”

“Feldman should be here already, though,” came Nanako’s reply. “And with any luck, ‘our’ Feldman should be following shortly… and that’s when we’ll strike.”

Blake stared at the ground, God Arc in hand and an apprehensive expression worn upon his face.

“Grandfather…” he began, turning to face Jack. “Do you think… do you think that, if we defeat Feldman here… that everything will go back to normal? If Feldman is eliminated from history altogether… will our future change?”

Jack gazed at his future grandson, his own thoughts eliciting a small smile. “I’d say there’s only one way to find out… isn’t that right?”

Blake looked forward, his countenance no longer shaken. “You’re right, grandfather. All we can do is press on towards tomorrow.”

“Well said, Blake,” came a followup from Nanako, who stood nearby. “But be careful. Feldman… either of him… could show up at any moment, so everyone, be on your toes! We need to be ready to fight at a moment’s n—”

Nanako’s words could not have come a moment later, as the underground facility was rocked by a mighty tremor, as green flames exploded all around them.

What followed next was an all too familiar sight for Idenn. Before her stood a hated foe, the reaper of the lives of her comrades and friends from the future. Before her, the Boundary Hannibal stood, fiery Oracle wings spread wide as it readied to strike.

“Everyone, this is it!” Idenn called out to the other three God Eaters. “It may be a Boundary Aragami, but it’s one of the older variety. It isn’t nearly powerful enough to stop us as we are, so just—”

Idenn paused for an instant, as something chilling caught her eye.

Behind the Boundary Hannibal stood Isaac Feldman, just as she remembered him…

…but behind him, Nanako spied something else, something that, by all rights, should not exist.

A portal, the same type of portal used by Feldman to travel through time and space, and from it emerging another Isaac Feldman, suffering visible damage.

“I… made it in time…” the second Feldman panted, blood dripping from a gaping wound across his torso. “You… you there…”  The heavily injured Feldman began to advance towards the already-arrived Feldman, his hand outstretched towards the latter.

“Shit!” Nanako exclaimed, brandishing her twin God Arcs. “We can’t let them come into contact with each other! Everyone, mobilize!”

At once, all of the God Eaters of the task force sprinted towards the two Feldmans, attempting to strike them down or, at the very least, stop them from touching each other…

…but their hopes were dashed when the ceiling of the underground complex burst open, a shape of blue flames crashing to the ground.

No one there could mistake what stood before them now. It stood atop four powerful legs, possessed two mighty mouths in the image of God Arcs on the ends of its arms, and wore a face of boundless rage… and most imposing of all was the tail. A massive tail that extended behind and above it like that of a scorpion, the tail was tipped in a mighty blade that pointed directly at the four God Eaters before it. This, too, was wreathed in blue flames, flames that seemed to burn away the fabric of reality itself as the beast prepared to strike.

“A… Boundary Susano’o?” Nanako exclaimed, as the other members of the task force stared on in awe. Certainly, this wasn’t the first time they’d faced a Boundary Deusphage… but with the Tsukuyomi, the entire task force had been present. Now, though, there were only four of them, and they were up against not just one, but two Boundary Aragami, as well as Feldman himself—

—a Feldman who was now joined with his alternate self, the two of them merging in a scene that the task force members were powerless to stop.

“Hah…” the second Feldman spoke, his breath short. “Did you really think I’d come without a backup plan? My pet will keep you busy… while I transfer all of my powers onto this version of me who is in perfect physical form! All of my powers… and all of my will…”

The second Feldman stared intensely at the first, all his focus directed thereupon.

“…are yours!!”

There was a mighty flash, and then there was only one Feldman standing there before them, wreathed in blue flames and staring them down as his two Boundary Aragami advanced towards them.

“Now, I don’t want you to get it in your head that my Boundary Hannibal is some sort of weak, or something,” began Feldman, a malefic grin spanning his face as he held his arms out towards the task force members in a grandiose gesture. “Before my ascension, it was the strongest of my Boundary Aragami… so it’ll be more than capable of handling one or two of you!”

Nanako gritted her teeth, then turned to Blake and Jack.

“Blake… Jack…” Nanako began, “I’m warning you. Don’t use your Horizon powers here. We’re in a precarious enough situation temporally as it is… and besides, it’s not like rewinding time here would make much of a difference against these odds.”

“But Nanako,” Blake shot back, “what if we rewound time and just killed the second Feldman before he could—”

A blinding movement cut off Blake’s words, a monstrous flaming fist driven into Blake’s gut, sending him flying against a wall. The Boundary Hannibal had moved, faster than anyone could track, and entered the range of the task force members, taking down Blake before he could finish speaking. It turned its head towards Jack, exhaling a breath of green flames before raising its fist for a subsequent strike—

—but before it could act, Idenn was there, her hand on the Boundary Hannibal’s core.

“I’ve already done this twice before,” she spoke, her face wearing a picture of intense determination, “so it should come as no surprise to you what I’m about to do.”

At once, Idenn attempted to banish the Aragami using Lifespring, but…

“…it’s not working? What the—”

And in that moment, Idenn spoke no more, the Boundary Susano’o’s blade impaling her through the heart as its blue flames burned at her body.

“Wha…t…?” was all Idenn could speak, before the wound and the flames stole her life away, her body crumpling to the ground.

“Feldman…” Nanako began, her teeth gritted with rage. “What… the HELL DID YOU DO?!”

“Oh, that?” Feldman began, his arms in the air as he shrugged his shoulders. “Idenn and her accursed Lifespring have been a thorn in my side for far too long… so, with the accumulation of powers from my past selves, I was able to develop a bit of a countermeasure. It’s really quite simple—whenever Idenn uses Lifespring, she has to ‘input’ a temporal directional vector to determine when and where the target is sent to, so all I do is match her with an equal and opposite vector, and boom, no more Lifespring! Now, my greatest obstacles are gone! There’s nothing stopping me from ending all of your lives, returning to the past, and—“


 * Is that what you think?

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