God Eater: Shattered Dawn

Chapter 7: Strength at a price

"What was that about?" Sakuya murmered, staring at the now empty space through the helicopter door.

"Maybe it's his girlfriend." Lindow suggested. Sakuya face palmed.

Lupa's POV

"It's like that one time..."

I stared out across the wintery terrain, snow beating down across my shoulders as I stood under the blankety sky.

Holding up a gloved hand, I stared at the snowflakes as they landed on my palm, intricate patterns mesmerising me.

"This is...amazing..."

I'd learnt that each snowflake had its own individual pattern as I stood here, the flakes dancing to the floor around me. I could see a thousand different shades of colour in the once simply white snow, the light shining dazzlingly off its surface.

I could see the details in everything, near or far, there was no limits to my sight anymore.

I reached my hand up towards my right eye, covering it for a moment. I laughed nervously as I was overwhelmed with dizziness at the contrast in sight between eyes.

Guess that's going to take some getting used to.

The oracle cells injected into my right eye had turned it a bright, burning crimson red; it seemed to echo the darkness of my former right wing; strength at a price.

And of course, my hearing had been strengthened too, no doubt thanks to research done on Soma.

My hearing was mind blowing.

I could pick up the sound of a single footstep, define its size and shape, what the owner was, its speed and direction, its emotion, its  weaknesses. I could analyse a threat in a mere second.

So this is Soma's world...

Sometimes, the sheer size of this new world startled me. The powerful sight and sounds overwhelmed my senses, causing my head to throb continuously.

And, since I was not born with oracle cells like Soma was, I had another problem. Using my eye exposed my body to the oracle cells injected, and they would immediately start attacking my own cells, attempting to devour them.

Soma's body naturally formed a catalyst that kept his oracle cells neutral, meaning they could flow through his body, working with his cells.

My angel body, however, didn't do this.

I touched the metal piece that was placed over my eye, letting it fold back from my face. This was the scientists solution.

The technology within the device allowed it to monitor the oracle cells activities and it would release the required dosage of catalyst to maintain the cells neutral state.

It worked a little like the armlet I now wore, preventing devouring whilst allowing enhanced power.

There was a small problem though. My powers.

The catalyst seemed to be affecting my powers, limiting how much I could use them. My eyepiece displayed a bar showing the exact limits of its usage; I could only use a limited amount of  power before the catalyst would kick in, shutting off my magic.

I couldn't help but feel like it was purposeful. After all, a power like mine was dangerous.

I yawned and stretched before casually doing 500 press ups. Damn. I sure love this strength. I winced slightly at the pain running through my back and shuddered.

The lab had been absolute hell, but it was over now.

And I was a God Eater.

I recalled the agonising pain running through my wrist as the silver and black bracelet was clamped to my wrist, the burning which felt like it would never end...

And it was over. Even my god arc was an experiment; they had fused together a long sword silver and a black/silver gun, white shields on either side of the gun.

I was the first unofficial New-type God Eater, though they hadn't come up with a name at the time.

My head whipped round at the sound of whirring blades, and I watched the helicopter in the distance.

But my ears also picked up the sound of footsteps. Closing my eyes, I concentrated on the sound, picking up every detail. I gasped softly.

Soma...