Chapter 861 - 860: Friendship Power Proved Ineffective, Resorting to Pure Violence."

After the timely appearance of Aerith and Tifa, Alex clearly understood that the thrashing of Sephiroth now promised to become far more interesting. And before resuming the clash with Sephiroth, who once again had suspiciously quickly recovered after a series of crushing blows, Alex involuntarily thought about the fate of the others.

He did not doubt for a second that Yuffie, Barrett, and Red were completely fine thanks to the protective spell he had laid on them in advance. And Alex knew that none of this trio would have suffered even if Sephiroth had decided to completely collapse this astral dimension.

What occupied him far more was the question of where Dean had disappeared to, for whom such spatial tricks of Sephiroth should have been a complete matter of indifference. The first thing that came to Alex's mind was that Dean had simply gotten lost in this labyrinth of the ruins of mirrored Midgar and now simply did not understand where to go.

But this thought only flashed through his head for a moment, because Sephiroth had already risen to his feet with lightning speed, ready to continue the battle. Observing how Sephiroth once again recovered after the blows, Alex quickly turned to Tifa and in two words brought her up to speed, clearly outlining their further tactical plan.

Having listened to the idea, Tifa confidently nodded, showing that she had understood everything and was ready to act at his first signal. While Alex was instructing Tifa, Sephiroth with a powerful sweep of his black wing soared above the ground again, radiating only icy, all-consuming rage toward all who dared to stand in his way. Looking from above at the foursome gathered below—Alex, Claudia, Aerith, and Tifa—Sephiroth's gaze grew colder and more detached with every second.

On his lips the familiar mocking smile played again when he slowly raised a hand above his head, intending to demonstrate the complete futility of their desperate attempts at resistance. In that same moment his massive black wing fluttered, and the space behind thickened into impenetrable fog from which with a horrible hum entire swarms of Black Whispers poured out.

"What is he plotting this time?" Aerith asked with growing anxiety in her voice, more tightly gripping her magic staff and not taking her eyes from Sephiroth, around whom Black Whispers were already circling.

"Clearly some nastiness. Judging by his sour mug, our kid who's mad at the whole world is raging again," Alex answered with a smirk, slightly tilting his head to the side and shifting his gaze from Sephiroth to the swarming Black Whispers.

"It doesn't matter at all what exactly he's planning there. We must stop him right now before he brings the matter to an end," Claudia tossed out coldly and resolutely, already preparing to tear off from the spot for a new attack.

"Definitely need to interrupt him. I have some extremely bad premonition from this spectacle," Tifa nodded worriedly, feeling how too unpleasant a feeling of anxiety was growing inside.

"Then let's thrash this salty idiot again with the power of friendship… And everything heavy that happens to turn up under hand," Alex grinned, with a flick of his fingers tossing aside the glowing butt of a thin cigar.

Tifa quietly laughed at Alex's joke, but immediately pulled herself together, completely discarding the amusement and focusing on the deadly figure of Sephiroth. Slightly narrowing his eyes, Alex raised his gaze to the ashen sky, clearly seeing how the space above was beginning to warp unpleasantly.

Assessing the scale of the changes, he instantly understood exactly what Sephiroth had planned and what next filthy trick he was trying to pull with the help of the swarm of Black Whispers. Even without additional commands from Alex's side, Claudia and Tifa tore off from their places synchronously, rapidly closing the distance to Sephiroth floating above the debris.

Seeing how Claudia and Tifa rushed forward, Aerith also did not delay: she quickly swung her magic staff, and before her a bright turquoise circle of a spell flared. Noticing the two girls running toward him, Sephiroth contemptuously smirked, and in that same second a dense stream of Black Whispers rushed like an avalanche across the path of Claudia and Tifa, trying to cut them off from the target.

Already preparing to meet the collision with the swarm of Black Whispers, Claudia and Tifa heard behind their backs the ringing voice of Aerith asking them to immediately step aside. Trusting Aerith's actions, Tifa and Claudia without hesitation jumped in different directions.

The moment Claudia and Tifa left the line of fire, Aerith forcefully drove the tip of her magic staff right into the center of the shimmering circle. From it with a deafening hum a blindingly white ray of pure energy burst out, which in the blink of an eye incinerated the entire flock of Black Whispers, turning them to ash.

Seeing that the path was clear, Claudia and Tifa did not waste a single second—pushing off from the debris, they again lunged forward. Sephiroth only arrogantly smirked, already preparing to create a new nastiness in order to stop Claudia and Tifa, when suddenly right next to his ear a distinct, dry click of a cocked hammer rang out.

Instantly catching the sound, Sephiroth cast his eyes sideways and with surprise discovered that Alex, who a second ago had been standing next to Aerith, had disappeared somewhere. Sharply turning his head to the side, Sephiroth froze when he saw in dangerous proximity to his face the black muzzle of a large-caliber pistol, while on a rusty beam sticking out of the concrete sat Alex, smiling serenely as if he had ended up here by accident.

"Oi, cunt. Smile, there's about to be a bright flash," Alex tossed out with a broad, mocking grin, aiming the muzzle of the "Jackal" at point-blank range right into the face of the stunned Sephiroth.

Alex perfectly understood that bullets of consecrated Macedonian silver were unlikely to be able to inflict mortal harm on Sephiroth, considering the entire perverse nature of his true essence. But he did not need at all for Sephiroth to so ingloriously end his path from an ordinary silver bullet to the forehead.

The main task Alex was aiming for was to distract attention and gift Claudia and Tifa a precious second for closing in. Before Sephiroth managed to react in any way to the threat right at his ear, Alex's finger smoothly squeezed the trigger—a deafening shot rang out.

A large-caliber silver bullet slammed right between Sephiroth's eyebrows, causing his head to jerk sharply back, and from the back of his head dense, acrid black smoke immediately began to stream. Receiving such an unexpected wound, Sephiroth for a moment fell into a stupor—and this microscopic delay was more than enough for Claudia and Tifa.

Exchanging glances on the run, Tifa and Claudia without a single word synchronized their actions. Sharply running out into an open position, Claudia reduced her pace, turning her body into a sharp rotation, and with all her might hurled the Buster Sword right toward Sephiroth floating above the ground.

The heavy blade with a ringing metallic screech slammed into the swarm of Black Whispers protecting Sephiroth and immediately bounced back. Running after her, Tifa instantly accelerated and made a most powerful jump forward. Softly pushing off from Claudia's shoulder, she soared even higher, leveling with the sword flying through the air.

In a virtuoso somersault Tifa flipped and delivered a crushing kick flat against the spine of the Buster Sword, putting all her strength into this kick. The heavy sword flew forward with a whistle, breaking the sound barrier with a deafening clap.

At supersonic speed the sword pierced the remnants of the stunned Black Whispers and drove into Sephiroth's chest, forcing his body to jerk strongly back. Feeling the sudden push to the chest, Sephiroth instantly emerged from the stupor and convulsively seized the hilt of the Buster Sword with his hands, desperately trying to pull it out of the wound. But the moment he only yanked the blade away from himself, before his eyes as if from the air the figure of Claudia grew up, already raising a fist for the final reckoning.

"This is the end," Claudia pronounced in a cold voice, preparing to bring down upon Sephiroth a crushing finishing blow.

Not giving Sephiroth a chance to recover and react in any way, Claudia with terrible force struck with her fist against the end of the hilt of the Buster Sword, driving the heavy blade even deeper into his chest. With a distinct, creepy crunch the tip of the blade came out through Sephiroth's back.

But even having received such a wound, on Sephiroth's lips the same cold, contemptuous smirk played when he raised his gaze to Claudia for the last time. And in the next moment his flesh distorted and melted, and instead of the defeated Sephiroth before Claudia remained only a Black Whisperer, which immediately turned into a handful of gray ash.

The Buster Sword with a ringing crash fell downward, deeply embedding itself into the cracked concrete. And immediately next to the sword the stunned Claudia landed, who at once yanked the stuck weapon out of the cracked concrete. Tightly gripping the hilt of the sword, she raised an anxious gaze to the swarm of Whispers floating above them, feeling an unpleasant bitterness from the fact that Sephiroth had slipped away again.

Noticing this disappearing trick, Alex silently holstered the "Jackal" pistol and softly jumped down from the metal beam. Landing next to Claudia, he sharply turned at the sound of rapidly approaching footsteps.

Tifa and Aerith ran up to them at full speed and immediately began asking Alex where Sephiroth had gone and whether Claudia had managed to deliver a fatal blow. Hearing their words, Claudia only gloomily shook her head, admitting that there was no victory here at all, and she had simply failed to figure out Sephiroth's disappearance itself.

As for Alex, he continued to maintain serene calm, peering into the thickening mass of Black Whispers—his inner instinct clearly sensed the presence of Sephiroth inside this living cloud. Noticing the direction of his gaze, Aerith also raised her head and frowned tensely. Following their gazes, Claudia and Tifa likewise raised their eyes to the sky.

And in the next moment the dense ranks of Whispers synchronously parted, revealing to the eye Sephiroth floating in the center with his eternal haughty smirk and the unsheathed katana Masamune in his hand. Seeing this self-satisfied mug once again, Alex involuntarily caught himself thinking: had he really been behaving too softly and mercifully with all sorts of scum lately, if they continued to so fearlessly bare their teeth at him?

"You tried hard. But this is where it all ends," Sephiroth spoke in an icy tone, slowly raising an open palm above his head, at which the Whispers floating around him fluttered anxiously.

"What the hell end? You and I haven't even properly finished our little game yet. All your teeth are still perfectly intact, and that's not fair. Come on down here, you owe us a whole fortune," Alex drawled caustically, rolling his eyes and provocatively beckoning Sephiroth with a finger, proposing that he descend.

"Your words are still as bold for one who will die in a few seconds, Opponent of Fate. But it's time to close this circus once and for all," Sephiroth tossed out in a mocking voice, looking down at Alex from above.

"Hey, feathered bastard! We're not finished here yet! Suck on this, you scum!" Barrett's rolling roar full of rage suddenly thundered over the ruins, coming from somewhere above.

The moment Barrett's rolling roar rolled over the ruins, a whole series of fiery explosions flared around Sephiroth, in the blink of an eye smashing to pieces the dense ring of circling Whispers.

Raising their heads toward the cry, Alex, Claudia, Aerith, and Tifa saw Barrett, who was standing on the roof of a destroyed high-rise and desperately firing explosive shells from his machine gun right at the floating enemy. Not restraining the rage overflowing him, Barrett poured fire on Sephiroth from all possible barrels of his cyber-arm, sincerely wishing only one thing—to forever erase this feathered bastard from the face of the earth.

Confronted with such a frenzied bombardment, Sephiroth noticeably frowned and with a contemptuous snort swung his katana toward Barrett. In the next moment a powerful air wave sliced across the base of the building—the concrete roof under Barrett's feet sharply tilted and with a screech slid downward.

Losing balance from the unexpected tilt, Barrett swore loudly and rushed to flee, on the move showering Sephiroth with three-story curses. Coldly snorting at such a primitive interference, Sephiroth was already preparing to finish what he had started, but the moment he raised his hand, several huge shurikens sliced through the air around him with a whistle.

Between the rotating blades bright electric arcs instantly flared, and powerful lightning discharges sank right into Sephiroth's body. Feeling how powerful current once again pierced his muscles, Sephiroth only irritably rolled his shoulder and with a sharp swing of his hand threw the gigantic blades aside.

But the moment they flew off, the gigantic shurikens along an intricate trajectory turned in the air and again took Sephiroth into a dense ring. Feeling the approaching frenzy from this round dance of annoying flies, Sephiroth clenched his teeth from yet another attack of irritation.

"Pitiful, meaningless attempts to stop the inevitable," Sephiroth tossed out in an icy tone, lazily parrying the attacks of the gigantic shurikens circling around him.

"No, you're the pitiful one! And I am the Great Kunoichi of Wutai, Yuffie Kisaragi! And right now you will see with your own eyes my absolutely secret super-final technique… Catch the explosion!" Yuffie shouted loudly, standing on a protruding metal beam and forming a hand seal with her fingers.

Having finished speaking, Yuffie rapidly formed yet another series of complex hand seals, and in that same moment the gigantic shurikens circling around Sephiroth detonated simultaneously, generating a gigantic fiery cloud. Proudly lifting her chin on the balancing metal beam, Yuffie was already deciding that she had managed to inflict crushing, mortal damage on the enemy.

But her triumph did not last long when a moment later the wall of flame cracked and parted in two, revealing the completely undamaged Sephiroth, who was looking at her with a horrible, icy gaze.

Instinctively sensing the deadly threat, Yuffie without hesitation rushed forward from the support. And the moment she left the beam, the concrete fragments behind her with a horrible screech tore from their places, with terrible force compressing into a dense stone sphere.

Deftly landing on the destroyed road below, Yuffie went into an elastic roll and sharply looked back. Seeing how tons of concrete and metal in the blink of an eye crumpled into a tight lifeless heap, she with relief wiped cold sweat from her forehead. Clapping herself a couple of times on the cheeks with all her heart in order to finally come to after the experienced shock, Yuffie jumped to her feet and raced at full speed toward the remaining members of the group.

At that same moment Sephiroth had already decided that no one else would dare stand in his way when suddenly behind him a rolling, sinister wolf howl rang out. In that same second around his enormous black wing a blindingly bright sphere of purest energy flared, and immediately a monstrously powerful explosion thundered.

Sephiroth did not even manage to dodge when the blast wave shredded his black wing to pieces, and the detonating impact scattered the remaining Black Whispers in different directions. Deprived of aerial support, Sephiroth rapidly flew headfirst toward the ground. Sharply opening his eyes and emerging from a momentary stupor, he expected to see anything, but right in front of his face appeared the grinning mug of Alex.

"You've been falling quite often lately, buddy. No big deal, right now I'll launch you into orbital flight again," Alex said, shining with a broad, mocking smile and putting sufficient force into a crushing hook right against Sephiroth's jaw.

Carefully restraining the blow exactly enough to cause maximum pain but not finish Sephiroth off with a single blow, Alex slammed his fist right into the center of his face.

From this monstrous hit a destructive shockwave spread in all directions, in the blink of an eye scattering the remnants of walls within a radius of several meters, and Sephiroth himself with a whistle and a howl flew back. This time the impulse turned out so powerful that Sephiroth lost consciousness for a fraction of a second, at frantic speed ramming through several remaining buildings.

With a crash breaking through the brickwork of a collapsed supermarket, Sephiroth heavily slammed with his back into the far wall and helplessly collapsed right onto a broken counter. Widely opening his eyes, he convulsively realized that the bones in his face had completely cracked, and in the broken skull a horrible, tearing pain was pulsing.

After everything he had experienced he could not understand at all how and why his perfect body was still capable of feeling agony, especially now when he was drawing power directly from the Essence of the Whispering Harbinger?

The first obsessive thought became the suspicion that all of this was a side effect of temporary residence in Sephira's body over the course of several years, when he had influenced her actions and thoughts. But even in that case his body still should not have experienced any pain.

Tormented by feverish reflections, Sephiroth caught a strange, lazy rustle nearby and slowly cast a bloodshot gaze to the side. The first one he saw turned out to be Dean, who was casually sitting on an overturned refrigerator, unhurriedly crunching some snack from a pack, while empty beer bottles lay around him in barbarian fashion.

Instantly recognizing who this was, Sephiroth without hesitation jerked the hand with the clenched katana Masamune, aiming right at Dean's throat. But the moment the cold blade only for an instant approached Dean's neck, it froze dead in the air as if it had run into an invisible wall.

Not even deigning the tip at his throat with a glance, Dean languidly took a large gulp of beer from the bottle, belched juicily, and carelessly tossed an empty snack pack right into Sephiroth's face. Fixing Dean with a heavy gaze, Sephiroth tried with all his strength to move even a finger, but no matter how much he tried to fight this feeling, the body no longer obeyed his commands.

Slightly smirking, Dean affectionately patted the crown of Tonberry Steve perched nearby, who in one paw carelessly held his kerosene lamp and in the other squeezed a can of beer. Slightly stretching, Dean drained the remnants of the beer and gripped the glass bottle by the narrow neck. Finally noticing Steve's presence in this place, Sephiroth frowned even more strongly, absolutely failing to understand by what means the Tonberry had managed to stop him.

"You know, my pretty little buddy… All this snotty nonsense about the power of friendship and other vanilla bullshit is not my story at all. I'm used to immediately wasting such bastards without long preludes. You all always get stuck on the same record: 'I have this, I have that, you can't stop me'… And other template crap that you spew by the ton. But since you've been delivered here by direct express delivery right to my doorstep, I'm simply obliged to knock out a couple of sweet team points. And now tightly clench your little teeth, buddy… It's about to be very ow-ow," Dean said cheerfully, lazily rising from the overturned refrigerator and with a languid gait heading toward the frozen-in-place Sephiroth and familiarly patting him on the cheek.

Completely ignoring Sephiroth's deadly gaze, Dean did not doubt for a second. Carelessly swinging the glass bottle from top to bottom, Dean immediately brought it down with full force on Sephiroth's head. From such a sudden blow Sephiroth's head jerked heavily downward, and shards rang on his shoulders.

Carelessly tossing aside the remaining neck in his hand, Dean immediately reached for a new bottle. Spinning the new glass bottle in his hand, Dean immediately smashed it against the unfortunate head of Sephiroth. Having delivered yet another blow, Dean stretched his hand back, and Steve without the slightest delay placed the next empty beer bottle into his palm.

Broadly smiling, Dean began methodically cracking beer bottles against Sephiroth's crown with truly sadistic enjoyment. The reason for such cruelty lay in banal irritation.

For Dean had simply planned to quietly and peacefully wait out this entire global cataclysm in the destroyed supermarket in the company of his Pokémon Steve until this entire pompous struggle of the forces of good against evil with the help of the Power of Friendship ended by itself. But instead the main idiot who had staged this entire circus had suddenly crashed right at his feet.

Dean perfectly understood that the only person in this mirror dimension capable of delivering Sephiroth straight to his doorstep could be exclusively Alex. Having smashed yet another beer bottle against the nape of the stunned-from-such-humiliation Sephiroth, Dean again reached back. But, not feeling the familiar cold of glass in his hand, he turned in surprise to Steve.

The Tonberry in response looked at him with his signature, frighteningly imperturbable gaze of round eyes. Understanding that the reserves of free weapons had come to an end, Dean clicked his tongue in annoyance and began looking around in search of an alternative tool of education. While he excitedly scavenged among the debris of the trading floor in search of something truly weighty, Sephiroth continued to incinerate him with a gaze full of suppressed rage.

"You'll answer for this… As soon as this paralysis lifts, I'll personally cut the heart out of you and feed it to your ugly pet," Sephiroth hissed through his teeth with hatred, fixing Dean's back with his gaze.

"Yes-yes, of course, I've heard that record, salty boy. Get in line, please. I've listened to similar monologues so many times from pompous idiots. And what in the end? I'm still here, and they're not. And now let's continue earning my sweet team points under the aegis of the power of friendship and violence," Dean tossed out lazily in response, picking up a hefty metal pipe from the floor and easily gripping it more comfortably.

"You… Miserable worm… You deeply underestimate my true power," Sephiroth hissed with even greater bitterness, overcoming the remnants of magic and with difficulty moving his right index finger.

"As you say, little Anakin. And I'll play the role of Obi-Wan and properly thrash your ass," Dean drawled with a mocking grin, swinging the heavy pipe like a baseball bat.

Not wanting to listen to yet another portion of pompous threats and beaten templates, Dean with a swing slammed the heavy metal pipe right against Sephiroth's face. From the most powerful blow Sephiroth's head involuntarily jerked back, and inside his broken body primordial rage from such unprecedented humiliation boiled up with new force.

But Dean gave a damn about exactly what high goals or complexes tormented Sephiroth's inflamed brain; he only continued to methodically work him over with the pipe. For him Sephiroth was no different from the bastard Lucifer from his native world, who had likewise imagined himself the navel of the earth, sincerely believing that the entire world order belonged to him by right, and those around were obliged to fall prostrate.

Dean openly despised such peacocks suffering from an incurable mania of grandeur and endless self-importance. And Dean perfectly realized that this arrogant "god" in the person of Sephiroth had in fact turned out to be absolutely the same puppet that Lucifer had once been.

Carefully restraining the force so as not to turn the haughty idiot into a bloody mess with one blow, Dean continued to deliver blow after blow, clearly and comprehensibly explaining to Sephiroth his true place in the food chain. After a series of crushing blows to the face Sephiroth finally felt that he could move the hand in which he held his katana.

Grinding his teeth from boiling anger, Sephiroth sharply thrust the blade forward, aiming right at Dean's head. Lazily tilting his head to the side and playfully dodging the deadly thrusting lunge, Dean lightning-fast delivered a retaliatory blow when the toe of his combat boot with a swing slammed with terrible force right into Sephiroth's chin.

Receiving yet another blow to the face, Sephiroth felt how in his mouth a familiar metallic taste of thick blood instantly appeared. But right now this taste had no meaning for him, for he understood that the shackles had fallen and his body again obeyed his will.

Gaining full freedom, Sephiroth fiercely raised his hand forward, releasing all the accumulated rage in the form of a huge sphere of compressed flame and destructive electric discharges. In the next second the ruins of the supermarket were illuminated by an explosion of monstrous force that scattered a fiery storm and myriads of sparks in all directions.

Slowly lowering his hand, Sephiroth cast a cold glance over the completely destroyed sector from which nothing remained except a melted, smoking crater where residual charges of current still crackled. Having surveyed the devastated locality, Sephiroth was already preparing to proudly turn around when he suddenly clearly felt that someone had suddenly, in a friendly manner, thrown a heavy arm over his shoulder.

"And I see you're a real wizard, Harry, my boy… Only in this particular fairy tale the role of the boy who lived didn't fall to you at all," Dean drawled cheerfully with a shining smile, slightly whistling and familiarly putting an arm around the stunned Sephiroth's shoulder.

Not ceasing to smile, Dean turned his head and came nose to nose with Sephiroth's enraged eyes. Cheerfully winking at the stunned Sephiroth, Dean without warning seized the back of his head with both hands and with all his might slammed his forehead right into Sephiroth's bridge of the nose.

From such a painful blow in Sephiroth's head for a second an absurd, desperate thought flashed: why, no matter what happened, did everyone around tend to hit him exclusively in the face? But in the current situation no one was going to answer this existential question.

Especially Dean gave a damn about the internal torments of yet another psychopath with a mania of grandeur. Not giving Sephiroth even a moment of respite, Dean sharply yanked his head downward, forcefully slamming his face right into the still red-hot mass of molten concrete.

Casting a glance downward, Dean hummed contentedly and with truly maniacal enthusiasm began rubbing Sephiroth's face against the molten stone. Feeling how his face from time to time slammed against the molten concrete, Sephiroth desperately tried to resist, pouring all his strength into his muscles. But no matter how hard Sephiroth strained, he could not break free from Dean's steel grip—it seemed to him as if his neck had been clamped in a vise.

Once again properly applying Sephiroth against the molten flooring, Dean released his head and immediately added a most powerful heel strike to the nape. From this crushing kick Sephiroth was driven into the cracked ground up to his waist.

Taking a couple of steps back, Dean surveyed the fruits of his labors, smirked self-satisfiedly, and carelessly shook dust and soot from his palms. Deciding that the team points earned for today were more than enough from him, Dean by the scruff of the neck scooped up Steve and deftly seated the Tonberry on his shoulders.

In that same moment the ground under their feet exploded when Sephiroth flew out from under the rubble with such monstrous force that it seemed he was ready to tear space itself apart with bare hands. Fixing Dean with a mad, bloodshot gaze, Sephiroth swung his hand, and the air around instantly shuddered under the weight of colossal gravitational pressure bending metal into an accordion.

But Dean was completely unconcerned about whatever physical anomalies were occurring around. Taking a sharp step forward, Dean in the blink of an eye closed the distance, ending up right up against Sephiroth. Noticing Dean so close, Sephiroth howled with rage and with terrible speed sliced with the katana Masamune, putting all his hatred into this blow.

"You're already a corpse!" Sephiroth hissed through his teeth, preparing to cut Dean in two.

"NO! THIS IS SPARTA!" Dean barked with a broad, shining-to-the-ears smile, swinging his leg in a crushing kick.

Having loudly shouted the cherished phrase, Dean with all his might slammed his foot right into Sephiroth's chest with such monstrous force that the latter instantly tore off from the spot, with a wild whistle breaking the sound barrier. Smiling like a child from the opportunity to finally apply this quote in practice, Dean contentedly cracked his neck and unhurriedly ran after the flying Sephiroth.

At the same time Alex together with the entire remaining part of the group was racing toward the sounds of the epicenter of the explosion, knowing precisely in which direction to look for Sephiroth. Especially since Alex himself had deliberately launched Sephiroth into flight exactly to where Dean was supposed to be resting.

Having covered half the distance, Alex was the first to hear a series of deafening peals, as if something at insane speed was rushing through the destroyed districts straight at them. Slightly narrowing his eyes, Alex through the veil of dust and debris made out the flying silhouette of Sephiroth.

Not thinking for even a second, Alex sharply seized Aerith by the waist and jumped aside. Noticing his maneuver, Claudia with a swing pushed Barrett and also left the line of impact. Tifa, Yuffie, and Red reacted no worse, jumping aside at the last moment.

And in the next moment with a deafening crash Sephiroth flew out of a mountain of rubble, racing past the group like a cannonball. Mockingly smirking, Alex barely noticeably moved his index finger, slightly braking Sephiroth's flight exactly enough so that the latter would not fly off on a new circle.

Under the influence of invisible vises Sephiroth with a crunch slammed into a massive concrete wall and helplessly collapsed like a sack onto the ground. The first who headed toward the arrived Sephiroth was Claudia, firmly deciding to end this nightmare here and now.

As for Sephiroth himself, he with difficulty rose to his feet, heavily leaning a hand against the cracked masonry, and surveyed all those present with a mad, icy gaze. Looking at his torn clothing and bloody streaks, Alex involuntarily thought that Dean had clearly approached the matter creatively and with soul. Even Aerith froze in surprise, seeing for the first time someone like Sephiroth in such a pitiful and beaten state.

"This is the end, Sephiroth," Claudia pronounced in a cold tone, directing the tip of the Buster Sword right at Sephiroth's chest.

"Ha-ha-ha… The end? You think exactly the same as they do. None of you ever understood the simple truth: this place was never the end. This is only a new beginning…" Sephiroth tossed out mockingly laughing, giving Claudia a contemptuous smirk.

"Enough of this nonsense, feathered bastard! Right now we'll quickly check whether this is the end or not when I take your damned head off your shoulders," Barrett roared in rage, cocking the machine gun and aiming the barrel right at Sephiroth's head.

"Do it. But nothing can be changed anymore. You're all too late, and you couldn't fix anything," Sephiroth spoke in a haughty tone, casting a glance full of indifference at Barrett.

"We can! We'll succeed! We'll change everything and correct every mistake!" Aerith cried enthusiastically, confidently directing the tip of her magic staff at Sephiroth.

Hearing Aerith's words, Sephiroth smirked skeptically, already preparing to deliver yet another portion of venomous words. But at that very moment his body unnaturally jerked back. Lowering a shocked gaze downward, Sephiroth for a moment froze when he saw that the blade of Masamune had driven into his chest.

Slightly tilting his head to the side from surprise, Alex sharply turned back and saw Sephira, who was serenely floating above a pile of debris, while behind her back an dazzling snow-white wing had unfolded, around which White Whispers circled in smooth loops.

Slightly raising an eyebrow at such an unexpected turn of the plot, Alex experienced sincere surprise observing the metamorphoses of Sephira. Aerith was no less surprised, for she clearly sensed the most powerful resonance connecting Sephira with the Lifestream itself, as if the latter had been reborn into a true Cetra.

And while everyone was stunned and looking in shock at this picture, Sephiroth himself lightning-fast took advantage of the momentary confusion. From his torn body a monstrous, blindingly white flash of pure energy suddenly poured out, instantly flooding the entire mirror dimension with light.

To be continued...

(Yeah, sure—Sephiroth is the "coolest" character ever, and he can just pull any trick out of his own ass. Yeah, right—screw that guy. If you're a villain, you're going to get the living daylights beaten out of you, just like every other scumbag before you. You want to destroy the world? Well, get ready to take a beating—over and over again. As for the story, there's just a tiny bit left before we leave Midgar—actually, we'll be out of Midgar by the next chapter. I've still got one last trick to pull out of my magic hat; I've got plenty of surprises tucked away for later, after all. But before that, I think I'll go grab something to eat. Peace, love, and—THIS IS SPARTA!)

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