On the rooftop, the fierce battle continued.
Although the Sephiroth from another world had the help of Whispers, under the siege of Aiden and others, signs of defeat gradually began to show.
He was very powerful, and even stronger now than this world's Sephiroth. However, his strength was limited, because after all, he was merely a spiritual body summoned by this world's fate.
Relying on Whispers, he could still hold out against Aiden and the others, but once the Shinra special forces finished assembling their heavy sniper rifles, the bullets fired from weapons embedded with magic crystals shattered his counterattacks again and again.
"You are going to lose, and fate is going to lose as well." In the midst of the fight, the Sephiroth of this world said coldly. In his cat-like vertical pupils, there was no longer the apathy of the past, but instead, a trace of joy, because as long as fate lost, he could continue to live.
He... did not want to die.
Even though he was the heir of Jenova, he didn't know when it started, but he began to feel a sense of attachment to this world.
Perhaps this was the result of fate being altered.
However, upon hearing this, the other Sephiroth's eyes didn't seem to show any emotion, but his heart was full of hatred.
In his timeline, he had already killed Aerith and had been defeated by Cloud, returning to the Great Hollow. So he hated, why was it that this world's version of him got to live?
Besieged by several people, he was in imminent danger. Even though Whispers kept helping him, he was slowly being pushed back.
But he didn't panic, because a voice rang in his ears. That voice was ethereal, yet clearly told him to hold out a little longer, someone would soon come to help him.
'Who will it be? Could it be him?' Although the voice didn't tell him who it would be, he seemed to have already guessed.
BOOM!
With a loud explosion, Aiden used another move to knock back the other Sephiroth. Just as he was about to follow up with another slash, a sword aura came piercing through the air and stopped his assault.
"Cloud, what are you doing?"
Aerith's voice came from behind Aiden. He turned his head and saw Cloud standing at the edge of the rooftop. The sword aura just now was slashed by him.
Upon hearing Aerith's voice, Cloud's lifeless eyes trembled slightly, then returned to calm. And in his ears, that demonic voice was still echoing. He slowly looked at Aerith, then slowly at Tifa, and muttered under his breath, "You… are mine."
Aside from telling him to take back everything that belonged to him, the demonic voice also played some scenes in his mind, scenes from the original timeline's future. In those future scenes, he saw Aerith and Tifa beside him, both looking at him with eyes full of love.
However, now, these two women were standing behind another man. In an instant, his heart was filled with hatred.
"What belongs to me, I will take it all back." Cloud raised his greatsword, pointed it toward Aiden from afar, then dashed forward with large strides and slashed down.
But halfway, he was blocked by the Sephiroth of this world.
"Wouldn't it be better to just honestly be a mercenary? Why… Oh, I see, it wants to make one last desperate move?" The Sephiroth of this world let go of his inner confusion, he understood why the once content Cloud had come.
"Fate… truly is… mysterious." The Sephiroth of this world turned to look at Aiden and shouted, "You handle him, I'll take care of Cloud. When it's over, I'll return to the Great Hollow."
"Alright!" Aiden had always thought Cloud's existence was troublesome, but since he was once the "protagonist," due to the influence of the original plot, he didn't want to kill Cloud at first. But now, if he wanted to completely change this world's story, he had no choice but to kill him.
And letting him die by the hands of this world's Sephiroth might deal a fatal blow to the world's fate, make it completely abandon the idea of correcting the timeline.
So, a new round of battle began.
Aiden, Tifa, and Aerith, still aided by the special forces under Scarlet's command, fought against Sephiroth from another world. Meanwhile, this world's Sephiroth fought Cloud one-on-one.
Cloud was very strong, but because the plot had changed, he had yet to grow to his full potential. From the start, he was suppressed by this world's Sephiroth, not to the point of being in danger, but he was clearly at a disadvantage.
Aiden's side was about the same. Although they were short one Sephiroth, Aiden and the others were increasingly coordinated. The other Sephiroth began to struggle to defend himself.
Magic power continuously flowed from Aerith's magic circle into Aiden's body. In an instant, it transformed into internal energy. Aiden once again raised his sword, dashed forward at high speed, knocked the other Sephiroth back, then leapt high into the air and transformed into a giant sword in midair before smashing down heavily.
BOOM!
The other Sephiroth was blasted away by the violent sword aura, but he immediately used his wings to stabilize himself and hovered steadily at the rooftop's edge.
Just then, Cloud was also knocked to the rooftop's edge by this world's Sephiroth. As he tried to get up for another fight, the other Sephiroth placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Cloud, wait a moment."
Cloud turned his head and looked at the other Sephiroth expressionlessly. His lifeless eyes showed a hint of confusion. Just as he was about to ask something, he saw a faint green glow emerge from the vertical pupils of the other Sephiroth.
"Open your heart, let us become one." The other Sephiroth said slowly.
Then, after saying that, the hand pressing on Cloud's shoulder disappeared.
No, not disappeared, it fused into Cloud's body.
As a spiritual body, he didn't have a physical form. And within Cloud's body, there were also Jenova cells. The two were both children of Jenova.
Seeing this, Aiden and the Sephiroth of this world swung their swords to try and stop it, but at that moment, the Whisperss all gathered in front of Cloud, blocking them with all their might.
"Damn it! Fate, what exactly are you trying to do?" The Sephiroth of this world could no longer maintain his usual calm.
Aiden and the others were also shocked, watching as Cloud merged with the other Sephiroth.
Finally, when Cloud opened his eyes again, his eyes had turned into Sephiroth-like vertical pupils.
But he did not move. Instead, he opened his arms. At that moment, all the Whisperss blocking Aiden and Sephiroth gathered before him and madly rushed into his body.
This was fate's final gamble. It wanted to make Cloud become this world's strongest special forces warrior ahead of time, to eliminate all unstable variables, and then reset the timeline.
BOOM!
When the last Whispers entered Cloud's body, a strange vortex appeared above the Shinra Building.
The vortex had an extremely strong suction. Aiden, Aerith, Sephiroth, and Cloud were all sucked in by that force, but the others on the rooftop weren't affected.
When Aiden and the others regained their sight, they were surprised to find themselves in a strange space.
This space had a huge platform, no light, but they could clearly see around them. What surprised everyone even more was that images were continuously appearing all around, images of events they had experienced.
"Where is this?" Aerith looked around. She swore she had absolutely no memory of this place.
Then she looked at Aiden and saw that he too was staring around in amazement.
"You… don't know either?" Aerith knew Aiden knew a lot, but it seemed even he didn't know this place.
"Yeah, I've never seen it before." Aiden shook his head. There was no record of this place in the game.
"What about you, Sephiroth?" Aiden turned to this world's Sephiroth, oh right, now there was only one Sephiroth in this world again.
"This... should be the node of time." Sephiroth didn't know either, but somehow, information suddenly appeared in his mind and he blurted it out.
"The node of time?" Aiden seemed thoughtful, he vaguely guessed why they had ended up here.
This world's fate intended to eliminate them here, then rewind time and completely erase the traces they left that didn't belong in the original story.
At that moment, a sword aura descending from the sky interrupted their thoughts.
It was Cloud, now floating above them, using Sephiroth-like vertical pupils and an indifferent gaze to look down on them.
However, he was no longer Cloud. He was now completely under the control of this world's fate.
"Since it's already come to this, just let things unfold naturally." Aiden looked at Cloud in the sky and spoke.
But Cloud did not reply, for fate would never speak. He simply responded with sword aura.
The massive Buster Sword slashed out a huge sword wave, he wanted to tell them, fate cannot be defied.
"Looks like, only by killing him can we make fate give up completely." Sephiroth swung out sword aura and soared into the sky, engaging Cloud in combat.
The two clashed fiercely in the air, the sound of sword clashes rang out endlessly.
Aiden and Aerith couldn't fly, they could only support from the platform. One occasionally sent out sword aura, the other used all the magic she knew.
At this point, Cloud's strength had completely surpassed Sephiroth's. Even with Aiden and Aerith's interference, after hundreds of clashes, he knocked Sephiroth out of the sky.
BOOM!
Sephiroth, like a fallen angel, crashed hard into the ground.
Even if he was just an avatar now, he still felt pain, mental pain.
Seeing Cloud holding the Buster Sword and slashing down at Sephiroth, a scorching fireball hit Cloud, followed by Aiden swinging his sword up and striking Cloud's chest with a palm.
Although Cloud was very strong now, with a qualitatively improved body, all his power-ups had a limit, fate wouldn't allow him to surpass the original plot too much. So Aiden's palm strike caved in Cloud's chest.
"Ugh!" Cloud coughed up blood, but his expression did not change. Instead, he turned and slashed at Aiden.
At that moment, Aiden hadn't retracted his palm yet, so in a rush, he could only use one hand to hold his sword over his head.
Bang!
The massive sword's force knocked Aiden flying. Midair, he also coughed up blood.
"Aiden!" Aerith caught him anxiously, but she herself was knocked over too.
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