"Sephiroth!"
"I'm glad you know me too. Although I'm not surprised by that, what makes me curious is, just where exactly did you come from?" Sephiroth looked at this person who should not have appeared in fate with great interest.
"You don't need to worry about that." Aiden shook his head. He couldn't, and didn't want to explain.
"In that case, I can only…" As Sephiroth spoke, he also shook his head. Then he raised his left hand, gripped the air, and a massive katana, longer than his own height, appeared in his hand.
Only then did he finish his earlier sentence, "Then I can only eliminate you, 'outsider'."
"That won't be so easy, Sephiroth." Aiden gripped his dual guns tightly, aiming at Sephiroth.
"No, Aiden, you're not his match." At this moment, Aerith suddenly grabbed Aiden's arm and said tearfully.
"Please go. As long as you leave me and don't appear by my side again, he definitely won't harm you." Aerith continued, then shouted at Sephiroth, "Isn't that right?"
Sephiroth didn't respond, instead, Aiden spoke up, "It's already impossible. I can feel his chilling and overwhelming killing intent."
"He's right." Sephiroth nodded. The long sword in his hand scraped the ground, and a sharp blade aura carved a deep trench into it.
"Step back a little, Aerith." Aiden pulled his arm out of Aerith's grasp.
"No!" Aerith firmly shook her head, then pulled out two short rods from behind. She connected them, pulled them apart, and a magical staff appeared in her hand.
"I'll fight alongside you." Aerith stepped forward, standing beside Aiden. The magical staff in her hand tapped the ground, and a dazzling magic circle appeared beneath both of them.
In an instant, Aiden felt his power grow stronger and his senses sharper. He turned to glance at Aerith, nodded, then shouted loudly, "Alright, I'm going in!"
The moment his words fell, Aiden's figure flashed and charged toward Sephiroth, his dual guns firing continuously, unleashing a barrage of bullets and aura waves.
"What an unheard-of power!" Sephiroth swung his long sword, releasing a massive blade aura that clashed with the aura waves mid-air and exploded.
"But with just that, you won't be able to fight me!" he said again, then stepped forward and rushed at Aiden.
Both were incredibly fast. In the blink of an eye, the distance between them was less than ten meters.
At such close range, Sephiroth immediately swung his sword, unleashing several blade auras at Aiden. Then he dragged his sword along the ground, preparing to follow up with Amaterasu.
But at that moment, the revolver in Aiden's hand suddenly vanished and was replaced by a lightsaber radiating scorching energy, the Heaven's Spine Universe Sword.
When he charged out, Aiden already knew that in the Gunner state, he couldn't fight Sephiroth evenly. So he immediately switched to the Wandering Swordsman.
"Triple Slash!"
Facing the oncoming blade auras, Aiden gripped the lightsaber and unleashed several slashes of sword aura to meet them. Then, with a blur, he used a chain slash technique and quickly slid toward Sephiroth.
"Huh!"
Seeing this, Sephiroth was extremely surprised. 'Wasn't he a gunner? Why is he suddenly using a sword?'
But now wasn't the time to think about that, because Aiden's lightsaber was already stabbing toward his chest.
"Interesting, but not enough!" Feeling the scorching heat from this sword he'd never seen before, Sephiroth shook his head, gave up casting Amaterasu, and lifted his blade to block the lightsaber.
The energy-formed lightsaber collided with the long sword, but there was no metallic clash, only a deep hum. Both frowned and jumped back simultaneously.
"I've never seen your weapon before. Care to explain where exactly you're from?" Sephiroth looked at Aiden's lightsaber with a glimmer of curiosity in his eyes.
"I don't have time to explain that to you." Aiden replied, also a bit surprised at the quality of Sephiroth's blade. When he first used the Heaven's Spine Universe Sword, it had cut through a one-centimeter-thick steel plate like a hot knife through butter.
"Taking your secrets to the grave isn't a good ending." Sephiroth's tone carried a trace of regret.
"Who ends up in the grave is still undecided." Aiden sneered, then raised his hand and grasped the air toward Sephiroth.
In an instant, Sephiroth felt the air around him solidify, as if a massive invisible hand was tightly gripping him, and the grip kept tightening.
However, as Shinra's strongest SOLDIER with Jenova's blood flowing through him, how could Sephiroth be restrained so easily? He gave a slight shake, and the Four Symbols Pull was broken.
Of course, Aiden hadn't expected that move, one he barely used in the game, to hurt Sephiroth. He just wanted to see if he could restrain him. Obviously, Sephiroth was completely unaffected.
"Is that all your power amounts to?" Sephiroth laughed disdainfully, then raised his long sword and flashed toward Aiden.
This time, he was even faster, appearing before Aiden in the blink of an eye. Just as he was about to strike, he saw Aiden step to the side and vanish in a flash of light, reappearing dozens of meters away.
Sephiroth froze for a moment. Before he could react, several blazing fireballs struck him, erupting in a series of explosions.
However, possessing Jenova's cells, Sephiroth emerged unscathed once the flames dissipated.
"Aerith, I still don't want to attack you." Sephiroth said coldly to Aerith.
"On the contrary, I want to attack you." Aerith gripped her staff tightly and began chanting another spell.
"What a nuisance." Sephiroth shook his head, then turned to charge at Aerith. His slender katana drew a crescent arc through the air, he wanted to make her suffer a little.
"The tank is still here, and you're already going for the backline?" At the same moment Sephiroth turned, Aiden appeared behind him dragging his long sword, saying words Sephiroth had never heard before, and stabbed toward him.
Hearing the hum behind him, Sephiroth dared not be careless. He could feel the terrifying heat radiating from that strange longsword, far more threatening than Aerith's magic.
He instantly swung his sword behind him, knocking the lightsaber away, then unleashed a flurry of slashes and clashed with Aiden.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The muffled clashing of blade and saber echoed endlessly as the two exchanged dozens of strikes in a single instant.
However, compared to Sephiroth, Aiden lagged behind both in physical strength and weapon mastery. After a few dozen hard exchanges, he felt immense pressure.
The opponent was the strongest First Class SOLDIER after all…
"Though your techniques are unheard of, you're still just a human. How could you be my match?" Seeing sweat beading on Aiden's forehead, Sephiroth said arrogantly.
"What about me?!" Not far away, Aerith had finished her spell. Upon hearing Sephiroth's words, she pointed her staff at him.
"Try this!" As Aerith spoke, a magic circle appeared above the church. Countless bolts of lightning flickered in its center and, under her guidance, turned into snakes of lightning that struck down toward Sephiroth.
Sephiroth had to split his attention to slash several lightning snakes with blade aura, but Aiden seized the chance to stab him in the chest.
Sizzle~
A sound like meat searing on a hot iron plate came from Sephiroth's body. A charred black hole appeared on his chest. Possibly due to the extreme heat, there was no blood.
Though Aiden struck him, the wound wasn't deep. As soon as the lightsaber pierced him, Sephiroth jumped back.
"Damn it!" Sephiroth glanced at the wound. Though it was visibly healing, he was still furious.
He slashed the magic circle above his head with a blade aura. His pale blue eyes flashed with a blinding light, and he pointed his long sword at Aiden.
"Very good. I acknowledge your strength. Even though you hurt me with help from another, for a mere human, you can be proud."
"Sounds like you don't consider yourself human." Aiden, fully aware of Sephiroth's identity, sneered.
"Of course not. I am a one-of-a-kind existence." Sephiroth ignored the taunt, slashed again, and a blade aura over ten meters wide rushed at Aiden.
Now he was starting to reveal his true power.
Faced with that giant blade aura, Aiden didn't even think of blocking. His current strength was only that of a newly advanced class, not even awakened, many skills were unusable. Without Aerith's magic circle, he would've lost already.
Whoosh~
Aiden used his movement skill Crossing by a Reed Leaf, dashing dozens of meters to the side. He then glanced at the giant blade aura from the corner of his eye.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Everything in the blade aura's path was split in two. A massive gash was carved through the flowerbed in the church, sending petals flying.
The aura continued onward, crashing into the church wall. With a thunderous boom, it burst through the wall and vanished into the night, followed by a string of explosions, who knows how many buildings it destroyed.
'Turns out, when this guy fought Cloud in the Remake, he didn't just hold back, he held back the ocean.' A drop of sweat slid down Aiden's forehead. The enemy was far stronger than he'd imagined.
"Looks like you're scared." Sephiroth sneered at Aiden.
"Of course. Fear is normal when facing a powerful foe. But fear or not, I won't back down." Aiden nodded, pointed his lightsaber at Sephiroth, and dashed forward.
"Futile resistance!" Seeing Aiden charge as a streak of light, Sephiroth shook his head and prepared to block the incoming lightsaber.
But he guessed wrong, Aiden's next move wasn't a lightsaber strike, but a palm… or rather, the internal energy in his body.
"Annihilation Palm!"
With a loud shout, Aiden raised his left hand. A fireball containing destructive energy gathered in his palm. When he was seven to eight meters away from Sephiroth, it exploded, engulfing him.
This was an extremely violent flame. Its heat and destructive force not only consumed Sephiroth, but also destroyed everything around him. Everything within the fire's range turned to ash, even the ground was scorched away.
At the same time, Aerith's magic circle was destroyed, making the already-nervous girl pout in frustration.
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