User blog:Seieireppa/God Eater:Universitas, chapter 29: Beoblade's Resolve, part 2

Blades clashed and clashed as Beo locked swords with his mirror image over and over again. This was a decisive battle in more ways than one—since Beo knew all his own moves, his mirror image was always one step away from him… and this was a battle with everything on the line, with all of Beo’s hopes and dreams for the future at stake.

No matter what, he HAD to win this. For himself and for everyone he held dear.

With a particularly resonant clash, Beo and his alternate self dashed apart, both showing signs of fatigue.

“You’re pretty strong,” Beo exclaimed. “Just what I’d expect from me!”

“Of course,” came his mirror image’s flippant reply. “I am you, after all!”

As the two of them charged at each other again, blades ready to clash once more, a shot rang out. Beo barely managed to deploy his shield in time before countless more shots pelted him from multiple angles, pushing him back.

“What the hell is this?!” Beo called out at his doppelgänger. “I’d say this is hardly fair!”

“Fair?” came the alternate Beo’s reply. “Of course this is fair! This is the army of followers you gather in order to rid the world of Aragami once and for all! You’re fighting against your perfect, ideal self, so it would go to figure that you’d have to go up against them, wouldn’t it?”

“True enough,” Beo responded. “Have at you!”

With fierce decisiveness, Beo dashed towards one side of the array of soldiers and slashed, scattering their ranks and laying them low. Without missing a beat, Beo dashed through the ranks of soldiers, slashing left and right while keeping his distance from the alternate Beo.

Before too long, all of them had been laid out—but Beo himself had seen better days. A handful of bullets and blade attacks here and there had landed, and he had suffered a bit of damage himself. But still… there was no way he’d lose here! He had his life, his dreams, ahead of him; he could not afford to fall here, not with everything he stood for on the line!

But no matter how hard he tried, Beo just couldn’t pierce his doppelgänger’s defense. They were evenly matched in almost every way… but Beo was injured, and the alternate Beo was beginning to gain the upper hand. He had to act fast, or else…!!

“Think, Thomas,” Beo thought to himself. “What would ‘you’ do? What would ‘you’ not expect… wait, that’s it!”

Before Beo could react, he was knocked to his knees by a fierce blow, with the alternate Beo upon him, ready to deliver a decisive blow—

—but the doppelgänger’s thrust was met with Beo’s arm, the blade piercing through his forearm and halting instantly.

“You…” the alternate Beo growled. “You know yourself better than you think you do, hm?”

“I suppose so,” winced Beo, readying his God Arc for the final strike—

—as he ran the alternate Beo through the heart with his blade, stopping him where he stood.

As Beo’s doppelgänger slumped to the ground, he gasped out some last words.

“Why…” he began, “didn’t you use… your Blood Art…?”

“Why didn’t YOU?” came Beo’s simple response.

“Haha… ahahahahahahahaha!”  The alternate Beo began to laugh, a hearty laugh interspersed with sputters of blood, blood that was a bright blue and seemed to glow with the color of the Horizon.

“I guess… you have what it takes after all…”

And with those words, the alternate Beo faded away, his body dissolving to dust and scattering to some unseen, unfelt wind along with the bodies of his hundreds of soldiers.

“So… so that’s it?”  Beo slumped to the ground, worn out from his battle.


 * No, not yet.

There was that voice again.

“What do you mean, ‘not yet?’”


 * You have proven yourself worthy.  Now, step forth and forge a contract.

Oh, right, Beo thought. This must have been what Sigma was referring to.

Placing one weary foot in front of the other, Beo marched slowly forward, until the light of the Horizon engulfed him completely and he stood bathed in ethereal blue light.


 * Now speak the words, Thomas Beoblade.

No longer was there any doubt left in Beo’s mind.

“Horizon!” he called out with every fiber of his being. “I want power! Power to save those precious to me, power to destroy the Aragami, and power to lead this world towards a future where no one else has to die!”


 * Good.  Now close your eyes…

Beo did as instructed, closing his eyes—

—and then it happened.

The feeling was akin to a powerful electrical vibration spreading from his spine outwards, followed by a sensation not unlike a mighty shiver. Beo could feel his senses expanding outwards, being elevated until he was aware of his own presence before him, looking down at himself from outside his own body. And then, as he descended downwards towards himself—

-

Sigma stood alone atop the landing pad of the Liverpool Branch. According to everyone else, Beoblade had vanished, disappearing all of a sudden before Kaitlin’s eyes with no indication where he had gone or how he had managed to disappear.

Sigma had his suspicions, though. In all likelihood, the Horizon had taken notice of him and plucked him up so that he could prove his determination and make a contract of his own. Sigma wondered how his battle went—if Sigma’s own experience was any indication, Beo would have had to fight against a representation of himself having achieved his ultimate goals, and, at least for Sigma, that wasn’t an easy experience.

At any rate, though, he should be arriving back soon, unless his battle lasted longer than expected, or he died in the process…

Sigma’s thoughts were interrupted by a familiar feeling, a ripple in the fabric of space-time that spread outwards like the surface of a lake disturbed by a pebble breaking its surface.

“So you’ve finally returned, eh, Beo?” Sigma called out as a portal opened in the air behind him, sending Beo tumbling out rather ungracefully.

“I’m still getting used to my new powers, to be honest,” came Beo’s reply, “so I’ve gotta apologize for my rather pitiful entrance.”

Sigma turned to look at his guest. “How does it feel?” he inquired of the newly-arrived Beo.

“It’s amazing,” Beo answered. “It’s damn incredible, honestly. It’s like my sense of awareness, my entire being, has been elevated up to a plane above this one, like I’m aware of everything and everyone at once.”

“You’ll get used to that feeling eventually,” affirmed Sigma. “But for now, though… what do you say to a little challenge?”

Beo’s ears were piqued. “Oh? Do go on.”

“I won’t attack you or even act, but I will make every attempt to dodge or otherwise negate your attacks. I want you to do everything in your power to land a single hit on me. There’s no winning or losing here, and nothing’s at stake. I just want to see how much your power has—”

Sigma did not finish his sentence—or rather, he COULD not, for the blade of Beo’s God Arc was upon him, the cold steel of its blade fixed at Sigma’s throat. Sigma had not seen Beo move—and indeed, he had not. He was still standing where he had been, approximately seven meters away, but somehow, there he was, standing in front of Sigma with his blade held at Sigma’s throat.

“Impressive,” Sigma mused, cracking his neck. “How did you manage that?”

“I don’t know…” came Beo’s reply. “I just tried expanding my sphere of awareness, trying to stretch my consciousness outwards as far as I could, and then, well… that happened.”

“I see…” Sigma interjected. “Quantum superpositioning, is that it? There’s still only one of you, yet somehow you’ve managed to locate yourself in two places at once. Truly a formidable power.”

“And that’s not all,” spoke Beo. “I feel like if I tried, I’d be able to increase the range even further and appear in even more places at once.”

“It would stand to reason that this would be the case,” Sigma answered. “For now, though, get some rest… but first, you should let everyone know you’ve returned.”

Beo nodded, departing towards the elevator.

With this, surely the battle against Feldman wouldn’t be that difficult…

…but meanwhile, on the other side of time…

-

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