User blog:Roinelll/God Eater - Next Crusade - Volume 1 - Segment 06

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Individuality.

The spark of our downfall...

Laughable isn't it?

''The sense of self, which we managed finally to attain... It didn't came alone, among many others bloomed a major disagreement. Resulting in none other than a contradictive nature erupting amongst humankind.''

''We yearn for being separate, yet at the same time can't live without another... In the end, we succumb to our self-destructive nature.''

Pathetic, right?

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========== G. E. N. C. - 1 - 06

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Barna frowned after putting down the last page of the reports from the other days incident. His gaze swept over the girl sitting across him, who was staring forward her usually blank expression even more empty. They've been en route for a good half day now, but soon they'll reach their destination. Up to this moment, ever since they found En, she didn't even react to anything, no matter what they tried.

Barna recalled the reports once again as the helicopter started to descent, then he threw his pack onto his back and picked up the girl. The two of them this way entered the institute where Lucas was usually holed up, after depositing the girl into one of the observation rooms and assigning someone to watch over her, the man decided to report to his superior.

After scaling a couple of stairs and proceeding down numerous corridors, Barna reached a large door which was labeled 'E. Lucas. R.' He then knocked on it a few times, waiting for a response. Which didn't come to him even after Barna waited a few minutes, so he repeated that action again this time more forcefully.

"Sir?" After the second attempt didn't succeed either, the man checked the door if it was locked and found it open. Peering inside he saw the superior slumped forward on the desk he was sitting at. "Lucas!?!" Barna shouted in surprise as he quickly approached the man coated in his usual white garments.

"Keep it down, will you?" Lucas groaned as he weekly leaned backwards in the chair he was sitting in. The brown hair of his, despite being short as usual was a complete mess and his face looked like it went through a wrangler. Then he just reached down by his side, feeling around a bit and knocking over something glass before picking it up. "What is it anyways?" The scientist took a gulp of whatever was inside it and groaned again.

"I've brought the girl, she's under supervision right now in one of the observation rooms." Barna raised an eyebrow, while usually his superior was quite prone to symptoms of depression, this now was on a scale that surprised him.

"Down the drain it goes..." With that, Lucas drank the rest of the bottle's content and tossed it aside, the glass container shattered to many dozens of pieces in one of the corners. The remains joined a few other ones before it which made Barna realize, he had been drinking probably the whole night.

"Sir... ?"

"Can you imagine it? What could we have done... if we managed to crack the base of Oracle Cells?" Lucas pulled out on of the drawers on the desk and pulled out an untouched bottle. His subordinate raised an eyebrow, but didn't question it why the superior kept such a thing there.

"Weapons."

"Weapons... Why is it always a weapon that pops into a militarist fool's head like yours Barna?" Lucas popped the cap off the bottle and chugged it.

"Because if the Oracle Cells would be freely controllable, that would mean their purpose of using them in the art of war would be exponentially increased. With our current level of technology we can't manage that without any Aragami material acquisition."

"I meant we could have stopped this foolish war against the Aragami. Cured the sick, rebuilt our world. Anything we wanted." Lucas for a few seconds stared in front of himself, then took another mouthful from his drink. "Heck, we could have MADE our world whatever we desired." Suddenly anger flared up in him and he threw the not even half finished bottle into the stack of the others, where it shattered and the gloss brown liquid seeped out from the cracks.

"So in the end you wanted to become a god?" Barna just sighed as the scientist searched for another bottle, he found one only after opening a couple of compartments though.

"A father..." Lucas' response at fight caught his subordinate by surprise, as he couldn't place that answer correctly for a short while. The scientist stared in front of himself, as he sluggishly tried to remove the cap from that bottle as well. "My daughter was the first documented victim of Oracle Cell infection, in early '48 before the actual outbreak happened where the world was overrun by the monsters..." After a few tries he gave up, looking at the bottle and contemplated throwing it where the others lay also.

"You did this for your girl?" Barna stepped forward, took it from Lucas before he could have thrown the bottle and with a quick move unplugged the stopper. Then he handed the now open bottle back. "That's... admirable... Sir."

"I don't need your pity. I have not lost yet." With a flourish, the scientist angrily gulped down almost the entire content of the drink. Before he could have finished it, a violent cough seized him as he grasped his chest trying to get some air. "I will not give up, even if I were to die..." Lucas coughed up some of the drink that went almost into his lungs and took a heavy exhale. His eyes flared with determination, although the state of his face made it look rather questionable. "Nova will awaken from her nightmare, mark my words." He threw that one into the corner as well, and Barna watched as the almost empty bottle drew an arc in the air.

"Wha--?" However the last statement caught him completely off-guard. "But... that would mean."

"Nova is very much alive even right now... She's been combating her infection for the last 13 years..." With a pained and heavy sigh, Lucas once again rummaged around the desk to search for another drink, yet he couldn't find any. With a dejected sigh he collapsed back into his chair.

"You're experimenting on your own daughter?!"

"FOOL!!" Lucas' face twitched as his legs kicked out sending the desk tumbling forward, almost crashing into Barna who just barely jumped aside. "I WOULD NEVER HARM MY NOVA!!" That is when the scientist lunged at him, pinning him onto the ground, then raising a balled fist quenched tight ready to strike down, should another such statement even be uttered in his presence. "EVER!!" Lucas glared into the eyes of the surprised Barna, who held up his arms in both defense.

"But... What about En?" Barna just stared into the menacing glare of the superior, he realized that he probably said something that he shouldn't have uttered even without giving it a good though-over.

"#5 is different, just like the others before her." With a sigh Lucas stood up and looked at the now lightly damaged desk, with a grimace he slumped back into his chair and pulled up his right arm to massage his aching temple. "Like the others that would have came after..."

"Would?" Barna raised an eyebrow as he stood up.

"Sköll isn't really approved by Fenrir... Ironic, isn't it?" Lucas laughed bitterly, his head bobbing down with a sigh.

"Huh?"

"Never mind... it's better you don't know that much, for the both of us..." The scientist answered without looking up, his fighting spirit had already departed. "Well... it's already a failure..." He wanted to say something else, but it wouldn't have mattered at all. So he changed the flow of his thoughts. "I... think I'll have to take a new path, as this isn't working at all."

"What were you trying to achieve?" All Barna knew of this project was that a new direction of Oracle Cell technology was implemented although in a very experimental and early stage. And that the subjects were young children, with four failures already.

"As I said, control over Oracle Cells... But that was just wishful thinking..." Lucas squeezed at his temple hard, trying to counter his headache with a different kind of pain. It wasn't really working sadly.

"I don't think we should give up on it in the first place." Barna stepped forward then, flipping the desk onto it's legs and pulling out a case from his backpack.

"Shouldn't?!" The scientist lowered his hand, to glare at the subordinate as he proceeded to open the case, which turned into a laptop. "Do you even know what you've suggested?" Although it raised his interest on what he is doing, but what happened already made things really hectic. Way too dangerous for them to continue actually. "#5's circumstance is now known to Fenrir! I have no delusions that they won't be able to add 1 + 1... I better cut my ties before more damage will be caused."

"En managed to control Aragami on multiple occasions." Barna then presented his theory, to the scientist who scoffed.

"What nonsense are you babbling now, Barna? #5 is a clear failure, just like the rest were."

"The Aragami attack wasn't a coincidence. I believe the trigger for it was En herself." The subordinate's gaze met with the stubborn superiors as he snickered.

"Believe." Lucas repeated that word, between two small laughs. "You, believe?"

"Yes." Barna gazed at the scientist adamantly, standing by his claim.

"Humor me then." With a smile, Lucas folded his arms and turned towards a report file that the other man handed over.

"As my unit entered the settlement, the very first clue we found a Borg Camlann practically standing guard atop the orphanage." He flipped it open and saw the picture of the aforementioned Aragami. It was something like a mixture of a scorpion and a knight, it's tail resembling a lance while the top of it's head looking like a helmet fused onto the monsters skin.

"Go on." Lucas took the report and read the contents of the first page.

"It didn't move from it's spot, extremely defiantly was fixed in position only lashing out with it's tail or firing the spikes at anyone who neared." Barna recited a summary of what was written inside, and the scientist only shrugged.

"So?"

"After we defeated it we found that the Borg devoured two fix spots. One was the room of En, the second was the place she used to sit in front of the orphanages front door. As you can see on the next pages details."

"Why would this matter?" Lucas raised an eyebrow as he read that part, though it wasn't clear why did he bring this up.

"We found the not yet decomposed carcasses of a Zygote and an Ogretail as well who were destroyed by the Borg, but not consumed. Neither were the remains of the dead children scattered about the orphanage. Only the two spots where En was hanging around the most." Barna pointed out the fact. He knew that the scientist knows enough about the Aragami, so he can get to the same conclusion as him.

"This makes you believe that En 'called' the Aragami? Laughable." After finishing the report, Lucas tossed it back to his subordinate. Not being convinced by any of it.

"I have some other proof. They lack audio although..." Barna scratched his head and switched on the laptop, as the screen came to life the scientist could make out the frames of three files stacked upon each other. "On the first video, although it can't be that clearly seen an Ogretail notices the group of children that is moving with En and starts to trace them." With a press on the laptops touch-pad the video file started to play. It's quality wasn't the best, but it was more than enough to make out that the Aragami turned towards the children. Then one of them burst out, drew it's attention by throwing stones at it then lured it away from them.

Lucas with that stood up and walked to the machine, where Barna stepped aside to give him space. The scientist pulled out a small USB drive and plugged it into the correct port, quickly accessing the database of Sköll.

"I believe this is what you were lacking." He pressed play on both the video file and another he just pulled out. There was some static in the audio recording and it wasn't clearly synched with the video, but it fulfilled it's purpose.

"I..." As the children stopped to rest, En stepped forward and pulled on the sleeve of a boy. "Shut up, you idiot." The boy hit her, then a loud roar signaled that the Ogretail spotted them. "Go to hell..." Once again, the boy hit the girl before stepping into the visual range of the Aragami, where it roared acknowledging it's target. "I'll meet you there Devil... I hope you'll make my stay comfortable." The boy grabbed something from the ground and threw it at the coming monstrosity.

"As you can see, she was simply a fool and attracted attention by an accident." Lucas stopped both recordings and turned with a smirk towards Barna, who was grinning like a fool.

"Outside from an Ogretails vision and sight range? Makes perfect sense, no?" He taunted the scientist, who for a few seconds seemed surprised, but then came up with an answer.

"You mean a normal monsters. You are aware that as they devour, these beasts mature, get stronger and smarter. The stats you might have on them on your dossiers can be completely false by now." Lucas shrugged as he gave an answer.

"That was just a regular Ogre, nothing fancy. It went down way too easy after we caught it. I stand by the claim that En attracted it."

"Then explain me, why did it go after that trouble maker IF and this is a very BIG IF #5 really was the source of attraction?" Lucas presented a valid point of interest.

"I... have no clue." Barna winced, then shrugged in defeat. He wasn't quite sure about it, but all the facts were pointing in this direction. "Maybe the signal wasn't strong enough to completely overwrite the instinct of the Ogre to devour anything not related to it's Bias factor, that's why it went after Joe... Maybe?" He scratched the back of his head, although he knew that this didn't make it sound more believable at all.

"You're just throwing around weird ideas that might click together for now, but we can't state a firm affirmation with such standards."

"Then the next one." Barna reached for the portable machine and flicked on the second recording. It revealed a tiger like Aragami, covered in a red cape-like substance glaring at a building. Around the beast sparks or electricity were flying, while on top the building a condensed energy dome was expanding and occasionally sparking. After a few seconds as the dome reached it's full and the overflow of the power it generated shattered the top of the shelter. Shortly after the large Aragami roared and jumped onto the ledge of the hole it created. For a short while it stared inside it, then jumped down vanishing from sight.

"So the Vajra demolished the shelter in search of #5, BUT conveniently for our cause those caught within were the dinner instead of our little mind-broken dollie." Lucas read this from the other reports he already accessed yesterday, he wasn't convinced any more.

"Sir... why would a Vajra even attempt to attack a shelter? They repel Aragami completely." Barna re-winded the video file and he pointed at the screen as the image of the electric dome started to appear.

"What are you hinting at now?" That made Lucas perk up one of his eyebrows, however he wasn't in the mood to play Q & A.

"En was just like before attracting the Aragami, however there was something in between the predator and victim. Something that is an unsurmountable wall, but not unbreakable." As Barna explained his theory the scientist stopped and thought it through.

"Are you saying, that the Vajra first wanted to just break the shelter because it was in the way?" Looking it that way it made sense now, also similarly how the Ogretail lost the so-called 'tracking signal' because of it's urge to devour a more closer target, that could explain why the Vajra chose to feed on the unfortunate ones trapped inside the shelter.

"Yes. I am aware it's quite far-fetched, however this last piece will prove it." Barna then played the final piece of file. It revealed  an Aragami falling from the sky right in front of En and a red-head child who was trying to pull the former one away hastily. The Aragami looking similar to a Sariel, sporting the same legs and cloth-like organs with the large eye in the center of it's headpiece, but that is where the similarities ended.

This Aragami's legs looked like they were covered with chrome-like armor instead of a blue frills, the torso covered in a very dark grey armor was clearly male instead of bearing the female signs of the other kinds resembling it. The eye on top of the headpiece, along the ones on the skirts underside were glowing bright pink. The skirt and the upper part of it's arms were white, while the lower arms frills were blood red.

The 'male' Sariel's headpiece was clearly different from the females headdress. Multitude of spikes were protruding from the grey armor-like substance, while the Eye in it's middle was focused on the two girls. With a quick swipe, it reached forward with the left arm. The cloth-like frilly substance literally cut through the red-head separating her head from torso.

"I see, you might want to hear this then." Lucas didn't see the file through the end and accessed the system of Sköll once again, pulling a file, which he immediately played switching back to the still ongoing video. En reached up to her face, feeling the blood of the other girl as the limp body fell on her. She rolled away with it and her hands touched the bloody pile forming below them. En in her surprise pulled her hand back and stared at the blood on her palms with her un-functioning eyes. Then as she tried to grab the shoulder of the dead girl, her hands slipped and it fell on her again.

Blood started to spray on her as the beheaded corpses heart pumped out the very last of it, and with a panicked scream attempted to stop the flow of blood and grabbed onto the torn neck of the carcass. In surprise she touched it a couple of times, completely forgetting about the blood still oozing from it. The 'male' Sariel then floated closer to the shocked girl, as the Vajra emerged and immediately started to generate another electric Dome around both the girl and the other Aragami.

"The... noise." An inhuman scream filled the air around them, not resembling any living being. Yet clearly not originating from any known Aragami either. Forming something like a shock wave, which originated from the grief struck En it traveled outwards. Passing through the spark dome and eliminating it, just like after passing through the Sariel variant and Vajra, making them flee instantly.

Shortly after the un-earthly scream returned to first a normal humanly possible scream, then a pained cry and finally sobbing. With that Lucas stopped both files and looked at his subordinate. He might have been adamant earlier on, but this was really a proof that En somehow managed to do something he yearned for.

"#5 Apparently did manage to control Aragami on a level... even if it is scaring them away after attracting them." After witnessing that scene Lucas became quite sober, in fact... He was never more aware earlier in his entire life, and now the goal was set. More clear than ever, it shined brightly before his eyes.

"Now, we only have to reproduce it." Barna managed to ruin the moment as he made the claim and the scientist sighed.

"Fenrir will bear down on Sköll, with full force... there will be no fruit for us even if we were to succeed." Lucas massaged his temple again, feeling the headache roar with increased ferocity.

"Let's make Hati a scapegoat. Martha was associated with them anyways." Barna proposed something bold then, which made the other man gaze at him with a mixed expression.

"Barna... weren't you preaching to those brats you respect Martha?" Lucas recalled one of the reports he received and smirked in contempt.

"And I still, hold onto that. However, a few dozen lives against the survival of our world. The choice is pretty self explanatory, no?"

"Admit it, you want you're weapon, no?" Lucas shook his head in disgust.

"We need to win the war, plus there is no problem mixing business with pleasure." Barna grinned sadistically.

"... Sometimes I wonder... Shouldn't we also just go extinct?" With that the scientist stood up to search for a painkiller, as his headache stormed him with redoubled effort.

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End of Chapter 2016,01,23

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