User blog:Seieireppa/God Eater: The Butterfly Effect, chapter 11: ∑

“I’m pleased we could meet under circumstances like this, Will,” Sigma spoke, lashing out with his God Arc to knock Will away from the meteorite. “The last time we met, it was under… exigent circumstances. At least now we have time to chat.”

“The… last time we met?” came Will’s reply. “But… weren’t you killed by—”

And as though a key were turned, a lock within Will’s mind was undone. As though great floodgates opened, everything came back to him. All the time the two of them spent together, his memories of his own mother, whom he had all but forgotten, everything came rushing back. Memories of the long battle against Isaac Feldman now once again took up residence in Will’s mind.

Will dropped his stance and looked incredulously at Sigma, who stood before him.

“But…” he began, his face no longer wearing the fierce expression it had been. “Didn’t you vanish along with the Horizon when you and Mother devoured each other?”

Sigma wore a quizzical expression on his face, an expression which quickly dissipated.

“Normally,” he exclaimed, “that would have happened, but as you have no doubt yourself witnessed, there is a time loop in place which sustains me. As long as I exist at any point in time, no matter what happens to me, I can return. Destruction of the Horizon certainly erased me, but as time itself repeats endlessly, so did the world itself decide that I should remain. My child self, when I was still known as Isaac Feldman, devoured the Abaddon I had left for myself and subsumed a seed of my own powers. And thus did I once again overcome my own erasure.”

“But destruction of the Horizon should have expunged you from history completely! How was your child self not erased?”  Will was once again heated up, for lack of understanding.

“It’s simple, really,” came Sigma’s reply. “You are correct; when the Horizon was destroyed, I was erased from existence, from all history. But all that means is that I was erased from this reality.”

“‘This reality?’  What the hell’s that supposed to mean?”

“What you…” Sigma began, glancing over at Silas, who stood incredulous. “What you call World Line Prime is a very particular existence. You thought at first that the divergence point was my, Isaac Feldman’s birth, and, failing that, you assumed that it would be the moment where I consumed the seed I planted for myself. But the truth is beyond that. Far, far beyond that, beyond the reaches of time itself.”

“Beyond time…? Ah, I see…”  Suddenly, Silas seemed to understand. “It’s the singularity, right?”

“Correct,” came Sigma’s response. “The singularity at the start of the universe, that existed before the Big Bang as all that was, condensed into a single infinitesimal point. In a single instant, all that condensed matter expanded outwards, giving birth to the universe and beginning the flow of time. It is in that universe that we all live and exist… except, as you have realized, for World Line Prime.”

Will now stepped forward. “Sorry,” he began, “but I’m lost here. Completely lost. What are you getting at, Father?”

“Like I said,” Sigma replied, “it’s simple. If destruction of the Horizon erased me from this reality… what about another reality entirely?”

At once, Will seemed to understand, a chill running down his spine as the ultimate truth came crashing down on him.

“You… reset time?”

“There we go.”  Sigma’s words were spoken knowing and calm. “In the instant of the Horizon’s destruction, I traveled back in time once more. Although I suppose that ‘back in time’ would be a bit of a misnomer… because where I ended up was at the singularity that existed before the Big Bang. It was my presence there, in the pre-Big Bang singularity, that caused time to flow in a different direction upon the birth of the universe, creating a different reality where the Horizon did not exist. I then used this reality as a base point from which to re-enter this reality and continue the cycle.”

Will could not believe what he heard. He knew his father was powerful, to be sure, but to be able to influence the birth of the universe itself? This was absurd!

“At any rate,” continued Sigma, holding out his hand, “there’s work to be done.”

In the palm of his hand gathered a stream of Oracle cells, flowing from the meteorite and forming into a small glowing sphere.

“This is the seed,” spoke Sigma, “the seed into which I will implant my powers and send into the future, for myself to consume. I need to continue the cycle, after all.”

“Father…” Will began, approaching Sigma with his God Arc clenched tightly. “Is there no way I can persuade you to reconsider? Countless people will suffer and die in an infinity of alternate futures because of this. Are you really okay with that?”

“I understand your sentiments, Will,” came Sigma’s reply, “but if I don’t continue the cycle and sustain the time loop, well… you’ve already seen what will happen.”

Sigma glanced at Silas, who immediately understood.

“You mean,” Silas spoke, “that darkness…?”

“Bingo,” answered Sigma. “If the time loop isn’t sustained, then everything the loop has been holding together will come undone. My existence, as well as yours, Will, will be negated along with countless others, and everything that resulted therefrom will cease to exist as well.”

“So that’s why there’s nothing but darkness in this timeline’s future,” exclaimed Will. “Without me there, there was no one to recreate the world… so the future that every other timeline saw never happened.”

“Precisely.”  Sigma’s words rang loud and clear as the mass of Oracle cells in his hand took form, becoming the familiar shape of an Abaddon and subsequently vanishing into a portal created by Sigma out of thin air. “So you see, Will, that I cannot let you undo the future. If you still intend to stop me, of course, I will no longer look at you as my son and will meet you with the full brunt of my strength, from one God Eater to another.”

Will’s determination was… had been strong, but in the face of one such as his father, he knew there was nothing he could do. His God Arc alone was proof enough of that; when it had been a part of Sigma’s body, it could be commanded by Sigma to take any shape he pleased, but now it was but a hunk of Oracle cells that could function only as a normal God Arc. Against Sigma, against Will’s father, who still had full command of his God Arc and Aragami abilities, Will might as well have been a sniveling child.

And yet…

“You’re right,” Will spoke, his words betraying his own underlying resolve as he steeled himself, “but still… I can’t just leave things like this. I’m strong now, Father. I’ve become a God Eater just like you, and now that the Horizon is no more… I feel like the time is finally right.”

“To settle this, once and for all?” mused Sigma.

“Yeah,” came Will’s reply. “Not from God Eater to God Eater, not from father to son… but from man to man.”

“Man to man… that’s just what a son of mine would say.”  Sigma sized up Will, sized up his son, finally regarding him as an equal.

“Well then… are you ready, Father?” Will spoke, taking a stance.

“Indeed I am,” responded Sigma, returning the gesture. “Have at you!”

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