The exact same events from the dream were now happening in reality.
The shock to Aerith was immense.
Because that meant her other "dreams," or the "daydreams," "delusions," and "hallucinations" that sometimes surfaced in her mind for no reason, were probably also fates she would encounter in the future.
Now that the exact same dream was unfolding in reality, unchanged, did that mean those fates could not be changed either?
And among those fates, some were things she could not accept.
For example, the street where she lived would suffer some kind of disaster in the future and collapse outright.
No. It probably was not just that one street. Even more places would crumble, burying countless people beneath the ruins.
Among the people she knew, someone would lose their life.
As for her adoptive mother, although she had not seen her in those future-like "images," that did not mean she would be safe. The thought left Aerith utterly at a loss.
Finally, there was an even more serious "image."
A giant fireball falling from the sky, destroying the world.
Was that also an unchangeable fate?
Suddenly, a stumble jolted Aerith back to herself.
While she had been falling into confusion over the impossibility of changing fate, Tifa had been pulling her along as they ran. Distracted and dazed, Aerith had accidentally tripped over a raised stone slab on the ground.
Her body lost its balance, and she was about to slam heavily into the ground.
But before she could hit it, Tifa, who was still holding her hand, yanked her hard and pulled her into her arms. Tifa herself could not maintain both of their balance, and the two of them fell together.
But Tifa became the cushion, protecting her.
Aerith's pupils widened. In the reflection of Tifa's eyes, she saw a figure rapidly approaching, seemingly leaping down from above.
She turned her head and looked back, only to see a silver-haired man radiating an aura that made her tremble as he lunged toward them.
The hand he reached toward her felt like the hand of a devil, as if it were about to drag her down into hell. Aerith's pupils shook with fear.
In the next instant, a sharp metallic scraping sound rang out.
The hand that should have grabbed her had instead become the man's blade thrusting toward her.
The long, razor-sharp blade collided violently with someone in metal armor who had appeared in front of Aerith without warning, producing that piercing, grating sound.
She saw part of the long blade slide across the armored figure's hand, scraping against the metal gauntlet and throwing off sparks, before it was finally clamped down and stopped dead. It could not advance any farther. The tip of the blade was less than ten centimeters from Aerith's eye.
The next second, Aerith's vision blurred. The long blade vanished, and the armored figure began fighting the man who had attacked her.
Their battle was inhuman. She could not see their movements at all.
It was as if, in the span of a blink, their weapons had already clashed dozens of times.
Every collision violently shook the air. The gusts alone made her skirt snap and flutter.
Looking closer, she could barely make out one detail: the weapon in the armored figure's hand was actually a broken section of the attacker's own blade.
"Are you hurt, Aerith?"
Tifa's concerned voice pulled her back to herself.
"N-No."
As Aerith answered, her gaze searched for something.
"Is... is that...?"
She could not help asking.
"Mm. That's Mr. Kain."
If he had arrived even one second later, it would have been too late. It had truly been a hair's breadth from disaster, and Tifa could not help wiping away a cold sweat.
Boom!
The silver-haired man was Sephiroth, wasn't he? Forced onto the back foot, he was blasted away like a cannonball and smashed heavily through a wall.
It seemed Mr. Kain was still stronger.
However, just as Mr. Kain was about to press the attack, those things came again.
Whispers surged toward him one after another like a pitch-black gale, restricting his movements.
At the same time, Sephiroth used the Whispers' interference to conceal himself and launch attacks at Mr. Kain from within their assault.
For a moment, the scales returned to balance.
But as more and more Whispers joined in, the situation gradually began tilting against Mr. Kain.
At this rate, too many Whispers would cover him completely. With black miasma everywhere and nothing visible, the danger would only increase.
Hm?
Aerith kept retreating, backing farther and farther away. Was she afraid of the growing number of Whispers?
That was understandable.
The next second, Aerith broke into a run. It looked as if she were abandoning both Tifa and Mr. Kain.
No.
Tifa understood what Aerith was doing.
Aerith had tried backing away, and the Whispers seemed to be affected by her movement.
And once Aerith ran in a certain direction, some of the Whispers immediately split off to chase her.
Aerith was helping share the pressure by drawing part of the Whispers away.
Once she understood that, Tifa bit her lip and chased after her to protect her.
If she stayed where she was, she would not be able to interfere in a battle like that. She might even become a burden.
In the blink of an eye, the two of them ran into an unfavorable stretch of terrain. They were descending from one large upper level to a lower one, constantly rushing down stairs.
That slowed them down, and if they got too anxious and made one wrong step, they could fall. A drop of several dozen meters was enough to kill someone.
"Get away!"
Tifa threw a fierce punch at one of the Whispers lunging toward them. Although she could not kill the thing, she could at least obstruct it somewhat.
The impact felt like striking cotton.
Suddenly, an ominous metallic sound made Tifa immediately look over.
She saw Aerith slip past a metal railing that looked old and poorly maintained.
Tifa rushed over at once and reached out, grabbing Aerith's hand. Almost at the same time, the railing Aerith had grabbed collapsed, leaving Aerith's full weight hanging from Tifa's hand. The force of her fall nearly dragged Tifa over the edge as well.
Just as Tifa was about to be pulled to the brink, she hurriedly hooked her foot into another railing.
"Mm!"
The pain nearly made her cry out, but she bit down hard on her lip.
"One, two... three!"
With a fierce burst of strength, Tifa used everything she had to pull Aerith up.
Just a little more.
Just a little more!
But just as she was about to pull Aerith back up, Tifa's face went ashen.
That thing came crashing into her.
It nearly made her lose her grip, and Aerith's body dropped back down.
Then an ominous sound rang out. Tifa looked up at the stair railing above her.
Under the influence of the Whispers, the railings were loosening.
Once they came free, they would come crashing down on her.
The next moment, several screws fell loose, and the railing came smashing toward Tifa with a metallic crash.
Almost at the same time, the Whispers charged at her again, blocking her vision.
Then, Tifa's heart nearly stopped.
The pointed end of a metal rod had frozen just a few centimeters in front of her eye.
It had stopped?
Was it stuck?
She saw the Whispers suddenly seem to scream, their figures instantly vaporizing as if evaporated.
At that moment, what entered Tifa's vision was a hand gripping the metal railing.
And the pointed end of the metal rod was no longer aimed at her eye.
It looked like, at the instant the Whispers vanished, Mr. Kain had shifted it toward—
Her pupils shrank.
Mr. Kain had reversed his grip and stabbed the rod at the man behind him, piercing through his skull. The impact carried the man backward and pinned him to the wall.
In other words, Sephiroth had been defeated.
(End of Chapter)
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