The Ultimate Materia had finally been successfully synthesized.
The crystal sphere in Kain's hand, roughly the size of Aerith's fist, was the Ultimate Materia. The energy contained in a single one was equivalent to a Mako reactor reservoir filled to capacity with Mako.
Right now, he was drawing that energy out—not devouring it to construct his own Warp, but releasing it back into this world.
What he wanted was the Materia as a vessel.
Normally, since Materia was Mako—compressed psychic energy—turned into a solid, once its energy was drained, it should have behaved like dry ice evaporating into gas. It should not have left behind a seemingly transparent crystal blank.
But now that he had gained a deeper understanding of the technology behind synthesized Materia, he understood what was going on.
A portion of the Mako—psychic energy—had undergone genuine materialization. Irreversible materialization.
That materialized portion was equivalent to a perfect battery vessel, one that could charge and discharge without any loss whatsoever.
This synthesis technology could not be reproduced on the Warhammer side, either. Kain was certain of that. The issue was the environment.
Perhaps an environment capable of producing it existed near the Great Rift.
Where the energy of the Warp spilled out and churned together with the physical world, such a thing might be possible. The problem was that places like that were overrun with daemons, and daemons would never simply stand by and allow it.
Or rather, the four Chaos Gods themselves would never allow it.
Because this technology was no different from draining their blood and digging up their roots.
"Hah!"
Aerith's girlish cry rang out. In her hand was a staff from the Temple, and a piece of Materia embedded in it was glowing.
At the moment, she was using the staff to guide the psychic energy Kain had released back into the earth, restoring vitality to the dried, dying land and condensing the mist-like psychic energy into sweet dew.
The two of them now looked like gods of thunder and lightning bestowing blessings upon the earth.
In truth, Aerith did not need to go to such trouble. In the end, the energy would return to the Lifestream regardless. But with her help, the process would be much faster, allowing the land around Midgar to become fertile again in a short time.
After all, he had brought agricultural technology with him as well, and it required fertile soil for testing.
This act of blessing continued for four hours before Kain finally drained most of the psychic energy from the Materia and stopped.
Technically, he could have released all of it in one go, but the result would have been the Materia shattering.
Even after breaking, the fragments would still have some effect, but with the structure damaged, their energy-storage capacity would definitely suffer a severe drop.
He could only output psychic energy at the highest safe rate.
And with this thing, it was not as if he could completely counter daemons once he returned to the Warhammer side, much less swagger around invincible in front of them. That was impossible.
Materia could grant immunity to pure psychic attacks, but it could not make someone immune to physical attacks caused by psychic power.
Aside from the Ultimate Materia in his hand, his personal space was already packed with a large quantity of drained Materia, all recovered by the Shinra Company over the past few days.
"Mr. Kain, there's one hour left, right?"
Aerith had calculated it very clearly.
Mr. Kain had already been in this world for five days. Only one hour remained out of his one-hundred-hour stay.
Then again, five days should have exceeded one hundred hours.
That was because, on the second day, when they attacked Shinra, Tifa had invited him again, refreshing the hundred-hour limit.
That afternoon, he had taken Aerith to the Temple. After returning the next day, he had immediately hurried to the Northern Crater to duel Sephiroth.
Only around eight o'clock last night had the battle finally reached its conclusion.
After that, Mr. Kain had slept for about four hours. Once he woke up, it had been time to fulfill his ridiculous little wish, which lasted until sunrise.
After Aerith rested briefly, she followed him to Shinra to retrieve the Ultimate Materia, leading to everything they had just done.
Now, there was only about one hour left.
In another hour, he would leave her world. Aerith was deeply reluctant to let him go.
She felt that if she asked him to stay, Mr. Kain would accept and spend more energy coins to extend his time.
But her world was already safe now. She could not be so selfish as to make Mr. Kain stay.
If a lion lingered too long in a gentle paradise, it would gradually lose its fighting strength and grow stagnant.
When he faced greater crises in other worlds, that would only make it harder for him to respond.
And it was not as if Mr. Kain had so many energy coins that he could spend them without care.
So Aerith could not bind him here. She could not make him lose the wildness he needed for adventure.
As for those other worlds—the worlds of the members in the Superdimensional Channel—perhaps any one of them could fall into crisis, waiting for Mr. Kain to arrive and save the day.
Through those adventures, Mr. Kain would gradually become even stronger.
Aerith had a feeling that one day, Mr. Kain would become powerful enough that he would no longer need the Superdimensional Channel to cross between worlds.
When that day came, the distance between them would no longer be distance.
Then again, if Shinra had taken a few more hours to synthesize the Ultimate Materia, perhaps he would have had to extend his stay by another hundred hours.
Sigh.
"For this last hour, I want you to go with Tifa to her hometown."
Since arriving here, once the time Mr. Kain had spent accompanying Aerith to the Temple was included, she had received far more of his time than Tifa had.
It seemed Tifa had never truly had time alone with Mr. Kain.
And when it came to romance, Tifa was reserved. She did not know how to take the initiative and was rather shy.
As for Mr. Kain, while he was not exactly dense, he was not the type who knew how to sweet-talk girls, either. If Tifa did not express herself, he would not know how to start the conversation.
Unless Tifa also happened to like things like anime, the way Mr. Kain did.
Otherwise, if he tried to talk with Tifa, the conversation would probably be something painfully unromantic, like asking whether she had eaten yet.
In simpler terms, he was what people called a straight man—straightforward in personality and bad at adapting.
Aerith had learned that phrase from his mental world, and specifically from that psychologist.
With both of them staying silent like that, Aerith really had to worry for them.
After saying this, Aerith immediately threw herself at him and pressed her lips to his.
Only when the air in her lungs was nearly gone did they part.
"You have to work hard and stay alive, okay? Next time, I'll let you have that other reward. Next time, I'll even reward you with that disgusted expression you like. As for the time after that… we'll talk once next time actually happens."
After their lips parted, Aerith blushed as she tossed out that temptation.
She had discovered his subtle preferences inside his mental world, buried among his massive collection of study material.
Something good could not be eaten all at once. It had to be savored slowly, a little at a time.
Like a little devil, she dangled temptation before him bit by bit.
So she would also do her best to turn Tifa just as bad as she was.
That way, no one would have to feel awkward.
It was not as if Aerith truly felt no shame. She was unbelievably embarrassed, okay?
Especially after taking the lead in that partnered "tai chi" routine.
Just thinking about it made her head spin.
Sigh. For his sake, she really had become a bad girl.
(End of Chapter)
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