A Gods Eater Burst / Gods Eater 2 fanfiction by Lushard.

Chapter 10

Falling

06 – 09 – 2075 / 22:11:00

The ride had gone in silence.

They had traveled through barren snowy land for a day without delay. There were not so many threats—whether posed by Aragami or hostile military forces—in the part of the land where they'd been. But when they had entered the southern part of the area, marked with slightly thicker vegetation and warmer temperature, Aragami could be found lurking everywhere. There were not too many of them, thankfully, but they hunted in groups, and were especially active at night. It was because that very reason Larg had chosen to park the military truck in a thin forested area before going further.

Larg had figured that it would be probably best to clear the path first before passing the area through. Ray had agreed, so they had left for a night hunt, leaving silver-haired young woman with one of the new-type Borzois. Of course, they had brought the two big wolfhounds with them for many purposes—mainly for tracking and signaling them of unwanted presence. They were of a new breed, fruits of long genetic experimentation and DNA splicing.

The beasts were just slightly bigger than wolfhounds; they were more muscular, yet their heads and body features had strangely retained the shape of their ancestors: wolves. Larg thought that it may probably because of the Aragami cells' doing rather than their own. They were good partners nontheless.

He and Max had brought the black one with them, while the gray wolfhound, its twin, had been left at the truck to alert them if danger lurked around the messenger they ought to escort. (They also had let the wolfhounds to remember the messenger's scent so they would 'behave' around her). The young woman, Larg noticed, had behaved politely, though somehow withdrawn and a bit anxious.

No. She only behaved that way when she was around him.

Now, the two were busy combatting dozens of Ogretails and a pack of newly evolved Vajras in the wild. Their plan had been simple: alert them to one place, then massacre every one of the beasts. The area was surrounded by tall trees. The forest was not too thick, but enough to entrap the scent of their blood.

Larg bashed his enormous hammer-shaped God Arc onto one of the Ogretails, resulting in a splash of dark blood as its skull shattered from the impact. He leapt backward to avoid the blood and landed heavily on the ground, grunting in disgust. His partner was sommersaulting two meters above him, impaling his blade into a leaping Vajra in midair. If Larg was like an invincible bull in land, then the younger man was like an agile winged serpent who was able to slither and leap a few meters high in a blink of an eye. Different types of Aragami blood injected in their bodies explained everything, he thought.

"Save your bullets," Larg warned him as he saw Max changing his God Arc into a sniping mode. Max snorted in reply and quickly changed it back into a short ranged weapon before leaping again to engage two Ogretails with his blade.

After a few minutes of bashing, thursting and slicing, they were the only ones left standing amongst the corpses of newly slain monsters. Larg wrinkled his nose at the striking scent of the dead Aragami and the pools of blood wetting the ground. The other packs, if there was any Aragami left in the area, would be undoubtedfully attracted to the bloody spot rather than their truck and a faint human scent.

"Garry," Larg called out to the black beast. It sprang from the trees nearby.

The hounds were not designed to battle Aragami, but tracking them, though it was entirely a different matter when their opponents were humans or beasts smaller than their size. Larg made a gesture with two fingers to point at his ear and out. The beast growled in response, slightly dipping its head to one side. "They are safe, then," he concluded. It meant that Garry hadn't picked any sound from its twin who was stationed back at the truck, Devar.

Max folded his God Arc into a passive mode after devouring some of the Aragami cores, all the while keeping his mouth firmly shut. As far as Larg had known him, he'd always been a silent person. But he was kind of different now. It was as if he had grown more and more distant, especially around the young woman they were supposed to escort. It was rare to see him behaving like that: showing his anxiety and uncertainties in the surface of his otherwise calm persona. Well, maybe most people would miss them, but Larg would not. That was only to be expected, though, since he was the one among the hunters who had known him for the longest time during their initiation.

Larg could tell that there was something strange, restraining even, in the way he moved and fought. His movements were usually sharp and relaxed. But he was more—Larg searched his mind to find the right word—stiff as of late. And when he battled, he did it in such ferocity as if in need of slamming his weapon against something.

He decided it was time to speak up.

"Max," he called in a conversational tone. "I don't mean to pry, but were you in any way close to that girl?"

He didn't reply. Larg rumbled a bitter laugh. "I was right, then."

The blond was already walking back to where they'd come, not bothering to comment on his statement. Larg strode easily after him. He was, after all, almost two heads taller than his younger companion.

He studied his face for a while, then chose to voice his opinion in a low voice. "She loves you, you know."

It was then he gained his attention. Max slightly jerked his head toward him and narrowed his eyes, shooting him a sharp glare, although his face remained guarded. "What brings this up?" There was a flickered annoyance and open irritation in his voice.

Larg shrugged his broad shoulders, undisturbed by his accusing eyes. "A simple observation from a married man."

"You were married?"

"For fifteen years. Had a daughter and a son."

"Had," he wondered aloud.

The bulky man grinned, his white teeth flashing dangerously against his dark skin. "Each of us has our own history. You know that more than anyone else."

That was an unofficial rule between those who were kept on the labs: avoid prying on each other's past lives. The survivors of the tests run by the scientists in the underground labs had all been subjects of the world's funny way of twisting about men's lives, which had been exactly the reason why they had spoken very little of the past and cast their old identities away. Taking up a new name was a customary for the survivors, since the white coats never bothered to call them by names and used numbers instead. Larg had bitterly thought that their existence was close to that of a stock labelled goods. If not mere pieces of junk.

Max seemed to be thoughtful; his eyes becoming distant, the dark orbs focusing at nothing in particular. Larg took notice of this and said, "Do what must be done while the people you hold dear are still alive. You don't get everyday to see them in a time like these."

A snort. "What's this now? Getting old and sentimental, all of a sudden?"

"As you will only regret everything after their deaths," he finished, ignoring his mocking remark. Gary chose that very moment to bark playfully at him, and Larg patted the wolfhound's dark head. "And then again, this 'sentimental old man' was only talking to himself."

xx - 0 - xx

06 – 09 – 2075 / 23:39:03

The moon was hanging high in the black sky, giving them the slightest light that shone warily against the engulfing darkness. Hidden by the trees and its shadows, one could never spot a military truck that was parked near a cluster of large pine trees. But Larg and Ray didn't need the moon's light to guide them. They also didn't need maps nor compass to bring them back to the truck through the natural maze of the terrain since Gary was with them.

Thankfully, Larg had closed the subject throughout the long walk and preferred to chat with the wolfhound instead, though not without missing the chance to tease Ray for being a tough nut. Ray had been too tired and too disturbed to play along. Had the giant asked him further about his past, Ray was not sure he could keep himself together.

There was something tugging at the back of his mind ever since he'd met Alisa again. It had been pure hatred and anger at first, but somehow, it had changed into something else... Something foreign and disturbing. He hated the feeling of it.

Also, he didn't need Larg or anyone else to tell him of her feelings. He had, after all, felt and seen everything through her eyes during the Resonance. Flashes of images and thoughts which were not his flooded his mind at the reminiscence, forcing him to silently grit his teeth to prevent them from conquering his emotions. Gods, he disliked being forced to feel what she felt; scared that it would only reopen the doors to memories and senses he had long discarded.

A low, howling sound from Devar signaled that they'd neared the truck. Immediately, he could see the large vehicle concealed beneath the shadows of looming trees in the darkness. They quickened their pace at the sight of it. Garry broke into a light run when he spotted Devar, and the two wolfhounds greeted each other with playful bites and gnaws, seemingly happy in each other's company once again.

"I'll take the first watch," Larg said as he opened the door to the driver's seat. He gave him a sidelong glance before climbing in and added, "Don't try to do anything funny to her, now. She's an ally. Or perhaps I should take away every sharp object you conceal first."

Ray didn't bother to reply and headed straight to the back car. He opened it without a sound and climbed in. He seated himself across of a sleeping Alisa once he was inside.

She was laying to one side on the long bench, blanketed by a gray piece of wool that only left her head and upper torso uncovered. Her pale skin seemed to glow in the darkness; silver hair was loosely astray behind slim coated shoulders, glistening at the slightest touch of the minimum light in the dark trailer; and her face, for once, was serene.

Funny, he thought, how sleeping Gods Eaters could sense immediate danger of a lurking Aragami and not a hybrid like him and his kind. An assassination order would have been carried out smoothly had it been issued.

Ray leaned back and breathed deeply, dismissing any thoughts of faint, prickling feelings from the past as he closed his tired eyes. There was no need to be bothered by thing that had been lost, he knew. He was a dead man. A dead man shouldn't be chained by his past, more so intrigued by feelings for the living.

But his body couldn't lie.

Even though his mind was able to shut the gnawing feeling down, two of his senses were not: the light, familiar scent filling his nostrils and the sound of her even breathing were relaxing his muscles little by little, eating away the vagueness and his mind's barrier in the process.

He had associated her presence with comfort before, and it seemed that it was not going to change for a long while, so long as the order that kept her as an ally did not change. How an outdated physical reaction could still be intact after a year, he didn't know.

He despised it. He felt weak around her. Vulnerable, even. It was as if every ounce of emotions and feelings he'd discarded was haunting him again, budging to be recognized. It was confusing, as well as sickening.

Producing a small flask containing sleeping pills he and his kind had to consume in order to fully rest outside of their pods, Ray opened it and was about to take one before deciding against it. He eyed the figure lying motionlessly across him once again.

Alisa shifted a bit in her sleep, tugging the blanket to cover her shoulder unconsciously before her breathing settled into a slower pace.

Ray shoved the flask back to his pocket after a moment of absent consideration. Maybe he wouldn't need the pills to succumb into the realm of emptiness tonight. Maybe... Maybe his body would still remember how to sleep like a normal person when it was given the right bait.

He shook his head at the though.

"Such a bother you are," he sighed, before closing his eyes and giving in to the faint scent of nostalgia.

xx - 0 - xx

07 – 09 – 2075 / 07:01:12

The following morning, Ray had woken up early before dawn to take the watch. He had been at ease, choosing to trust Gary and Devar to spot any unnatural sounds and movements in the trees rather than wasting his energy to sharpen his senses.

To his surprise, he had fallen asleep without the pills. He'd thought that it would, at least, take hours for him to fall into slumber without them, but it seemed that he had underestimated his own brain and body too much. There was another problem. If Alisa had been the catalyst, things would not get prettier: unlike being able to sleep naturally for the first time after a year, letting his guard down wasn't something he'd accounted as an achievement.

From the small chatters and murmurs from the back car, he knew that Alisa had awoken. Despite his appearance, Larg was a friendly, easy going guy with a sarcastic sense of humor. He'd spoken to her occasionally and, to Ray's surprise, they had gotten along quite well. Either way Ray was thankful for it, since it meant that he didn't have to answer Alisa's questions about things.

Ray heard a heavy bump from the back which then was followed by Larg's approaching steps. Unlike him, the giant had never been one to move in a stealthy fashion, let alone attract unnecessary attention with his stature. "We'd better get going now," Larg said as he opened the door to the front car.

He shrugged. Larg stood idly outside the car.

"Are you not going to get in and drive?" Ray finally asked.

"Are you not going to the back?" he returned the question with folded arms.

"Why should I?"

"You haven't eaten your 'breakfast.'"

Ray scowled. Larg was talking about the routine medication they had to take. A medication in a form of H03-Bias Factor injection.

The giant flashed a smile at his expression. "Don't be like a kid, Max. It doesn't hurt as much."

Ray rolled his eyes. He got out of the car and slammed the door. Once outside, he drew in a long breath to clear his mind. There was no choice, it seemed. To be honest, he'd rather stayed away from Alisa as long and as far as he could. But Larg was right: it was childish of him to behave this way.

He whistled a low note to the wolfhounds and they immediately rose up to their clawed feet and got in the back car through the side door. He followed suit.

Alisa was sitting on the same bench where she'd been sleeping on. She extended her hand to stroke Devar when the wolfhound sat close to her feet. She went completely still for a moment, and he could sense her growing alertness upon his entry. Both of them said nothing.

The engine roared to life as Ray walked over to the cupboard at the far back of the car. He tried to ignore the uncomfortable feeling that crept in as he felt her eyes on his back. He opened it and grabbed a small bag of clear blue liquid from a case. The dosage, with the bag only a size of his thumb, was enough to keep his mutated cells under control for three or four days without fighting. He clicked on the side of the plastic to spring the needle out of the small syringe while his other hand was busy removing the choker wrapped on his neck. He paused before injecting it.

"Don't stare at me like that. It's not infectious."

Alisa quickly averted her eyes from his back. "I-I'm sorry."

He eased the tip of the needle into the tender skin on the side of his neck. A faint, familiar, ache spread through his throat, numbing his body for a second. He closed his eyes and could see prickles of white blooming in the blackness, then at a rapid blink, they disappeared.

"Is that... the Bias Factor?" Alisa asked after he had put on his collar. Reluctance could be heard in her voice.

The vehicle began moving. Ray closed the cupboard and sat across her, his body still feeling heavy and a bit sluggish from the injection.

Gods Eaters had to be injected with a certain amount of Bias Factor on a regular basis—once a month, usually—but they didn't need syringes and needles to do that. That was the armlet was for. But the same thing and procedure were out of option for him.

"An enhanced type," Ray corrected. "Normal Bias Factor has undesired effects on my kind."

She lowered her gaze to the metal floor at his remark, her face darkening. Ray recalled her statement about witnessing what the white-coats had done to revive him through the Resonance, which meant that she should also have seen the rejection effect.

For a long while, they just sat there in silence. Neither of them looked at each other. After some minutes had passed, Alisa spoke in a low voice that almost felt like a whisper. "What will you do after all of this?"

Ray slowly returned his attention to her. "Nothing," came the reply almost right away. "I'll do whatever they order me to do."

A pained look came across her face, and from what he could see, she was fighting back tears. "Why?" Her voice, though, was deceptively calm and soft.

"Because they feed me?" he suggested.

"I'm serious, Ray."

"And I was serious." He dared her by mustering a taunting look. "Who else has the substance to keep this mind and body function properly?"

She seemed to be at a loss of words for a second, but then recovered quickly. "You're... not going back, then?"

"I can't." That was the fact. From the start, there had never been an option for him to return. Ray heaved a sigh. "If you've seen it, than you know it better than anybody else. This body requires a certain treatment," he said, trying to sound logical despite the heat rushing through his veins. He wasn't used to get emotional like this. "So to cut things short, they are the only option I have."

"Living like this..." she trailed off. "Are you happy—being used as a mere tool and weapon?"

"The same goes for you."

She blinked. "What do you mean?"

"Whether being kept in the base or in the labs, we are all tools of a greater mind. Mere chess pieces, you can say. Maybe you would understand that if you'd died at least once," he added with a shrug. Being around Larg had unconsciously instilled the seeds of sarcasm into him. His old self would think of it as being rude, but now, what was the point in being polite to the damned world again?

"But I'm sure they would figure something out—"

"They sold me, remember?" he cut her off, so sharp she went stiff in her seat. "I don't think they would want to buy me back and feed me well unless I prove to be very useful. Which I doubt, considering the high funds in keeping my human sense working. Even a king wouldn't want his killer hound to sleep at his feet."

When Alisa didn't reply, Ray said in a less hostile tone, "You shouldn't concern yourself with the deceased. Just go on with your life."

He'd thought she was going to retort, but she didn't. Instead, she squeezed her eyes shut and inhaled deeply. When she opened them again, a tender look mingled with a veiled sadness glistened in the blue orbs. Tears making them glassy as a rueful smile touched her lips. "I've tried," she said softly, her voice quavering, nearly swallowed by the rumbling engine. And that was when a tear escaped from the corner of her eye. "I've tried. Many times. And always failed."

Ray looked away.

He didn't need her to say so. He'd seen it. Felt it. He knew how broken she had been. And maybe he had too, to the point where he didn't even want to acknowledge it anymore.

Before he could think of anything to reply, Gary and Devar's ears shot up.

"What is it?" he asked the two. They gave a deep, long growl in response, with eyes darting to the back door. Ray quickly rose to his feet and grabbed his God Arc from a metal case sitting above him.

He stood idly in the moving car for a while, opening his senses to a broader range, sensing every movement around them, searching for something that didn't fit in right. Then his sensitive ears caught it: a sound of a moving vehicle running after them. It was faint at first; they were probably around three or four kilometers far. But as each second passed, it got louder and louder.

Ray opened the side door and planted one feet to the railing, letting the wind to blow up his hair as his nose picked the scents of metal and gunpowder in the air. They were crossing a barren land with large, jagged rocks scattered around the area, and, mapping the entire field in his mind, he started to develop a strategy to escape.

"Companies?" grunted Larg from the front car.

"Five cars," he confirmed. "Heavily armed." He looked inside to meet Alisa's gaze and said to her, "Grab on to something," and to Larg: "Do your thing, old man."

At the first sight of the first car, Larg hit the brake hard, shocking the approaching military jeeps a kilometer away. Ray saw that they had snipers with them, and used the brief moment to switch his God Arc into a long distance mode and began sniping them down.

His God Arc, like all of the newly modified God Arcs the white coats had provided them with, had three stances instead of two, with the additional one being a sniping mode that was close to a long rifle in shape and way of using. The two remaining were the close combat mode and the gun mode.

The first jeep slid from its track as the riders were slumped in their seats. Realizing that distance was not on their side, the pursuers began to open fire.

Ray quickly swung himself inside at the rain of bullets. He pressed a switch to his left to open the back door. He whistled two notes to the wolfhounds, and they bolted right through the half opened door immediately. The order was simple: Spread out and assault them. Ray closed the metal door again before any bullets could come crashing in.

One more was down, judging by the sound of the car sliding off and the explosion that soon followed. Ray was back on his position again to shoot when another car appeared from the side—its vehicle's sound had been masked by the others all along, the sight of it had been covered by the rocks. He thrust his shield to cover him from the bullets coming down.

"Old man!"

A gunshot came off from the front car, and the bullets stopped. As Larg sped up the truck, Ray used the chance to shot down the driver to his right and jumped to his car, taking over it.

He positioned himself to sit backward with one feet over the steer and shot again. Only two cars remained now, with Gary and Devar running in an incredible speed at their sides, waiting for a chance to strike. Their snipers and gunners had all their eyes on the two giant hounds, and only the drivers were focused on Ray. The blond took the momentum to spin the steer and then quickly jumped to the truck's top as the jeep spun wildly and hit one of the two cars.

Ray was about to shout to Larg to get closer to the last pursuer's jeep before he caught the sight of similar jeeps moving on both sides: two from the cliff meters away above them, and four from the wall of rocks at their right.

They were surrounded.

Rain of bullets from the cliff forced Larg to take a sharp turn to the right. The truck was solid and was specially designed for military purposes, but it didn't mean that it could whistand a round of attacks from two gatling guns head on.

Their pursuers pressing them to the side where the cliff was, Ray knew. He began firing again while his mind was racing thoughts. What were his options now? They could continue westward to create some distance from the gatling guns, but that was what they wanted: for them to be cornered against a narrow one-way passage and a cliff.

"Hey, big guy!" he called. "Gamma!"

"You're sure?" he shouted back, sounding grim. It was a code they'd made to communicate in a time like these.

"No choice! We'll give them what they want."

Larg made a guttural noise. "You and your suicidal tactics..."

Ray managed to shoot down the driver of the following car behind them, but his second shot missed their gunner as the truck made a turn. He didn't have time to see what happened and could only hope the hounds would take the chance to kill the man. Ray opened the door below his feet and got into the truck.

Alisa was sitting in a corner, gripping on tightly to a rail. She wasn't used to be in this kind of a mess. Surrounded by hungry Aragami, yes; by armed men with pure intention to kill and gunshots without her God Arc or any weapons, no. He walked over to her and grabbed her wrist with his free hand, yanking her to stand up.

"We'll jump," he told her curtly.

She snapped her head at him, shock gleaming in her eyes. Before she could mutter anything, Ray said, "We will smash the truck onto the attackers once we're nearing the cliff. Jump from the back door when I told you to. Below the cliff, there is a river. It's water should be deep enough."

"But—"

He turned to face her, locking his eyes on hers, their faces only a few centimeters apart. "Just remember to jump as far as you can to avoid the rocks. I'll jump after you and do something about the fall." He paused for a second, then added in a lower voice, "You won't die."

Alisa looked uncertain for a moment, but when a round of bullets came at them again, she nodded and positioned herself near the back of the car. Ray hurriedly made his way to the side door again and measured their distance to their pursuers. Only three jeeps remained now, and Garry was nowhere to be seen. Damn. They'd gotten him.

Ray whistled again, signaling Devar to distance himself from the raging battle, and changed his God Arc into gun mode. They were closing in to the cliff. He measured their distance and position: two jeeps were still running after them from behind. One was a few paces away to their left.

The path had begun to narrow as a high wall of rocks towered against their left. There was only a few seconds left to act before it finally narrowed to where they would have no room to spin the truck.

Larg seemed to consider this as he slowed the truck down, closing the gap between the truck and the pursuing jeeps. His head sprang from the window. "On my count, Max! Three, two—"

Ray hit the switch to open the back door.

"One!"

The truck spun to the left, once, twice. Then it hit the first jeep.

Ray shot the second jeep's driver in that very second before the impact of the crash forced him to leave his post. "Jump!" he shouted to Alisa, to which the young woman complied by throwing herself into the air.

He thrust himself forward.

He heard none of the explosion resounding behind his back, not caring to even steal a glance back to look out for Larg; all of his senses and attention were focused solely on the silver-haired figure falling ahead of him.

A/N : I apologize for the long update. Midterm tests were enslaving me...

Oh, and I want to use this chance properly thank all of my Reviewers! You guys are the best! XD

I hope you'd still lend me your support in the chapters to come!