"If I may ask… Who is SHE that you spoke of before?" Rachel asked with the same fear and obedience in her tone, wary of angering the force of nature she was working for.
Minato paid no attention to the blonde for the next several minutes as he attended to the orphan boy groaning and whimpering in his sleep, seconds away from death. For a frail and malnourished child such at this one, the prognosis was a few minutes of life after contacting the black plague but just a simple touch from the blunet was enough to pacific the raging oracle cells ravaging the body of the boy, rendering him unconscious after a simple tap to his shoulder.
"She is a great entity," Minato responded to the question when he stood up to observe the state of the other orphans who had left the orphanage and now resided in the lower levels of Friar. "There is no comparable word in your filthy language for her."
"A great entity," Rachel mouthed the words and wheeled herself forward, glancing over to her children knocked unconscious after exposure to the ominous red rain Minato had triggered with a snap of his fingers. "Can you tell me more?"
"Shut your mouth," Minato spat, cracking his finger as he left the basement after one last look at the kids he had experimented on. All of them had survived and the former savior was pleased at his control over oracle cells as he expected the more worthless ones to die from the plague, a few dozens at the very minimum.
He was more blessed than he had anticipated. Now that he was done with the initial preparations for her coming, he had a little time to spare to torment and play around with the so called fools masquerading as the saviors of humanity and especially the leader of the pack-
"Yuu Kannagi was it?"
….
Even when Lindow was presumed dead, the Den was able to function and the people of Fenrir were able to carry on the day to day operations but after the last disaster, the emergence of the new aragami, aptly named the Reaper, the Far East Branch was a haunted graveyard, even after the burial of the corpses.
The remaining God Eaters were grappling with the idea of handing in their resignations as no one wanted any part of the new aragami who was only brought down with the combined effort of the legendary first unit and the timely arrival of Yuu.
The scientists were at a loss for words to explain the emergence of the aragami as the bias field suddenly exploded without warning, as if the creature was birthed instantaneously. Not to mention, the power of the aragami exceeded that of Nova and that was a terrifying finding and only led to two possibilities.
The Reaper was either an extremely rare, once in a billion mutation of oracle cells or the creatures were going through a boom period of rapid evolution and that left humanity with a few days left to live. Even Doctor Sakaki was confused but the likeliest hypothesis was grim and going by the track record, the creatures were most likely evolving to eradicate humanity once and for all.
Even the once invincible leader of the Den, who was looked up as nothing less than God in the branch was now seen as just another God Eater, who was fated to meet his end sooner rather than later. Yuu heard that himself when he was overlooking the repair of the wall, hearing people talking about the end of the world as if such a thing was a virtual certainty.
"I doubt even Yuu can stop the apocalypse this time,"
"Nobody can! It is the end of the world!"
"No God Eater can save us. We need a messiah!"
"Messiah, huh?" Yuu glanced at his curled up fist and bit his lip and then at his God Arc, a weapon made by humans but in essence, it was as the same as the vile creatures that roamed the world, looking to end humanity.
He was using the power of the very same creatures and not his own and without the arc, he was worthless, a small snack to a goddamn zygote.
"I am no messiah…"
Just to add to the growing list of issues, a new phenomena by the name of red rain brought forward an incurable virus and even with the advanced medical science of the current year, there was no cure, not even palliative care to ease the suffering as the disease was quick to progress and kill.
The pandemic was brutal, especially after the last aragami attack and so most of the efforts were allocated to repairing the wall, leading to numerous deaths adding to mountains of dead bodies left by the Reaper.
The world had a few days to live, even Yuu was certain about that this time around. Such was divine decree after all but there was one question he had and a very simple one but with no answer in sight, just what on earth was the cause of this dreadful chain of events?
….
Minato sipped on the dozenth can of First Love Juice, an invention of the old fool pretending to be an expert on aragami. The drink had a thrash name but Minato found it soothing going down his throat, as regular drinks and water made him barf in disgust.
His new servant girl, Leah brought a can at a moment's notice and left the room as soon as she was done handing the drink. She was going to die anyway, either by the end of the world or his own hands if she pissed him off. Just last night, she had the audacity to murmur something against the treatment of the orphans but a quick glare from the blunet knocked her down but only when she bowed and begged for forgiveness did Minato spare her, deciding she would do well as a servant.
Sick to her stomach as she always was, Leah ran for her sister's room and banged on the door until Rachel allowed her in, seated on the chair and working on the next phase of plans.
"Sister," Leah was out of breath and pale, slowly dying with every glance the vile boy threw her way. "H-How can you tolerate working with someone as disgusting as that boy?"
Rachel nearly crushed the button upon her words as she faced her older sister with a frown, teeth gritted as if Leah had insulted her. "You would do well not to insult my God again, understood, dear sister?"
"G-God?" Leah was irate herself and raised her volume, but too much in fear that Minato would hear her. "Sister, look what he is doing to the poor kids! The very same ones you took in as a mother."
"Exactly," Rachel responded, sighing softly as she carried on cracking the system with utter ease and not a hint of fear. "Minato will cleanse this godforsaken land and I will be by his side, every step of the way."
"C-Cleanse the world?" Leah blinked, shaking in fear and rage. "Sister, we are scientists! We became scientists to rid the world of these creatures, that was our promise to each other."
Rachel merely laughed, her face contorting into a disgusting smile, one that reeked of death and decay. She was never this expressive but the sudden emergence of the nasty and vile grin was enough to render Leah speechless and she wondered….
"Sister… did you always feel this way?" Leah said, already defeated and in tears. "All those years of promising that we would fix this world together… was all of that a lie?"
"Correctly deduced," Rachel said, hacking her way into the main system after another clicks and letting out another merry laugh. "I was forced to keep this plan under wraps but with Minato's protection, I no longer have to play along with you disgusting cretins."
'B-But…"
"Good riddance, dear sister," Rachel faced her again, tilting her head to the side with the same smile playing on her features. "I hope you rot in hell for what you did to me back then."
Leah broke down in tears when she remembered traumatic event but just then, Minato strolled into the room and Leah was forced to compose herself, blocking out the tears and sobbing quietly into her palm. As unpredictable as the boy was, one loud wail would irritate him and he would have her head on his table.
Minato took the last sip and crushed the can in his grip. He gestured over to Leah and jerked his head towards the door as an order to get him another can of the juice. Leah ran out as soon as he ordered and Minato hissed in disgust. Ugh. Human tears.
"I have finally hacked into the system, Minato," Rachel said, her finger hovering over the offline command. "Should I start now?"
"Very well," Minato said, glancing over to the feed and noting the names of the remaining God Eaters in the Far East Branch. He rolled his shoulders and smirked, quite eager to teach the foolish kids a lesson.
"Send the command,"
God, he was thirsty already and the girl had yet to show up with his drink. Tch. She was useless as the rest of them.
...
Tsubaki stormed into the main room where Hibari was already working, typing a slew of commands in a frenzy and with a horrified expression plastered on her face. After several SOS messages, she received no response and the operator of Fenrir gave up, already dreading telling Tsubaki the news.
"Well? What's wrong?" Tsubaki demanded to know.
"Friar has gone offline instantaneously," Hibari said slowly, sending another message to no avail. "At this speed, the only way someone could have forced the command would be by hacking into the operating system."
"Hacking?" Tsubaki widened her eyes. "Hacking into Friar? That is impossible…"
"The branch sent a few scouts and they reported a layer of large aragamis guarding Friar," Hibari continued. "As of right now, Friar is stationed a few miles away from us and the headquarters have ordered us to investigate."
"Gutless cowards," Tsubaki growled. After the last aragami attack, the big wigs regarded the branch as expendable so no wonder they were given the suicide mission. Regardless, she still had faith, after all, they still had-
"Yuu Kannagi reporting," Yuu said from the doorway upon his arrival, giving Tsubaki some life back. Yes, Yuu was still with them and with the boy, anything was possible, even a far fetched miracle.
The entire first unit was selected for the infiltration mission as the infestation of the aragamis was dense, consisting of some of the deadliest aragamis in packs. Doctor Sakaki had theorized the real enemy was inside the base, something strong enough to attract and pacify so many of the creatures. Most likely, they were hunting another singularity which was born inside Friar, somehow.
"I have a feeling…" Yuu said after a bias factor injection in preparation for the mission. "We will find the root of all the problems inside the base."
"I think so too," Aki said, rubbing the injection spot with a small pout. She always hated needles. "Doctor Sakaki said it would be the strongest one yet so far so we have to be careful."
"We don't have the luxury anymore," Yuu said, checking his shield for any cracks and defects. "We're in a death match against time, Aki, especially after what has happened…"
Aki slumped her shoulders and gave a defeated sigh. "I agree…" she snatched his wrist and forced her leader to look at her. "That is no reason to recklessly throw your life away. Am I clear?"
Yuu gave a bitter chuckle but nodded, whispering under his breath as she left to get her weapon.
"I'll try…"
As the first unit prepared for the mission, Minato was all alone to prepare for the wave of some of the strongest God Eaters in the world. He had no advanced machinery or weaponry, only a girl on a wheelchair who worshipped the ground he walked on and-
"Ah, First Love Juice…"
He had to fetch this one himself so the taste was extra special, not contaminated by the touch of the disgusting servant girl.
Minato took a sip and observed the satellite feed with a smirk, savoring the taste of the drink until the cargo consisting of the first unit left the den. He finished his drink and stalked off, eyes flashing gold as he exited the room with a haunting laugh.
"This is for HER,"
So... I am curious... Who are you rooting for? hehehe... Team God Eater or Minato? I hope the former, especially with how I've built up Minato.
Sorry for the absence but I am sort of determined to finish at least one crossover. Yes, first love juice is to this Minato what hotdogs were to Fallen Minato, nuff said.
Next chapter, the first unit will finally face off Minato and we kickstart the end of the story... Hopefully.
As always, drop a review and I hope you enjoyed this. Thank you for the ones so far. This is pretty much a niche fanfic but grateful for the people following his miserable tale of death and horror.
Cheers!