His finger was locked tight around the machine gun's trigger, squeezed so hard it had begun to turn purple.
As a result, the machine gun in his hands kept shaking, its rounds screaming through the air at supersonic speed.
At first, he had been aiming at a single target. But because he kept the trigger clamped down, the continuous recoil could not be vented quickly enough. It built up higher and higher, and the muzzle started to go out of control, as if the gun had come alive and stopped obeying him. It jerked and wandered wildly.
The target had already been impossible to hit. Now, it was even more impossible.
Only when the muzzle stopped roaring, when orange light stopped spitting from the barrel, did the sound of spent casings clattering unsteadily to the floor snap the soldier out of his seeming madness.
Calling it madness was not quite right.
In truth, he had been terrified.
Because the target they were fighting was a monster. A monster that seemed impossible to bury no matter how many soldiers they threw at it.
Every time that monster struck, at least one life was taken.
Sometimes, in the blink of an eye, an entire six- or seven-man squad—including him and everyone around him—would be reduced to chunks of meat.
Thud.
It was not the sound of metal falling to the ground.
He looked toward the source of the noise and saw a head rolling across the floor. It turned as it rolled toward him.
The instant its wide-open eyes met his, all he saw in them was fear and confusion.
When the head rolled up beside him and bumped against his foot, he recoiled in terror and tried to scream.
But he found that no sound would come out.
Then he realized his body had somehow collapsed.
Not like someone falling down.
More like a body built from blocks suddenly crumbling apart.
Thud. Thud.
His swaying field of vision bounced twice with the two impacts, then steadied.
What he saw was his own pair of legs still standing there, one shorter than the other.
Through the gap between them, he saw the intruder instantly cut down another person behind him.
That seemed to be a SOLDIER.
A Shinra SOLDIER, who looked like a superhuman to them.
So why had he died just like the rest of them, killed in a single blow?
His thoughts ended there.
Boom! Boom!
The chain of explosions left the group following behind staring in a daze.
The robots that appeared immediately opened fire with grenade launchers, attacking the approaching figure, who made no attempt to dodge.
Each grenade blast was stopped by an invisible force field.
The scene grew even stranger when the high-speed bullets reached him.
Once the rounds came within half a meter of him, they were abruptly forced to brake, visibly slowing in midair until they stopped dead.
Then, when he moved away, they simply fell to the floor.
In the span of a single breath, more than a dozen machines were reduced to scrap.
Some had been sliced apart by him. Others had been hit by his unerring gunfire, melting and collapsing where they stood.
"It really looks like we're unnecessary."
Biggs, who had served as the planner in past Avalanche operations, said something no one could refute.
Only now did they understand just how terrifying the person Tifa had brought with her truly was.
If not for the fact that he had to account for Avalanche's movement speed, this humanoid killing machine would have left them far behind long ago.
Most of them were doing nothing except running, and yet they still could not keep up with the speed at which he was cutting his way in.
Suddenly, the man snapped his gun upward and fired at the ceiling.
Biggs looked up just in time to see two lasers descending. The two shots Kain fired exploded in their path, blocking the beams.
But from the look of it, that could only delay them for a second, maybe less than half a second.
Then the lasers suddenly vanished, as if their power had been cut.
That was because the two emitters that had fired them had been melted.
In other words, the man had reacted in an instant, switched into dual-wielding mode, and fired four bullets in less than a second.
Two were used to obstruct the lasers.
Two were used to destroy the laser emitters.
Was that kind of reaction speed really human?
No.
It wasn't.
At the same time, in the office of Shinra's president—
"What the hell kind of monster is he?"
Scarlet, the head of Weapons Development, bit her lip as she stared at the footage.
Earlier, she had been coveting the weapons he used: bullets that could melt and vaporize almost anything, and the suitcase-sized device carried by a big, rather simple-looking man, which could unfold a protective force field.
Now, Scarlet was no longer merely coveting them.
She was starting to consider running.
That humanoid killing machine was far too terrifying. Anything that engaged him, whether soldier or machine, was instantly eliminated.
His reaction speed had already reached a perverse, unimaginable level. He could lock onto incoming laser beams in an instant and intercept them with bullets.
That scene made Scarlet realize that killing this man would require a bomb with an unimaginable area of effect.
But this was Shinra Company.
Any bomb powerful enough to threaten him would probably heavily damage the Shinra Building as well.
No, even a bomb would not be enough unless it got extremely close to the target without him noticing. Otherwise, with his precise shooting ability, nothing would ever reach him. Even the blast might fail to break through his defensive barrier.
Unless, of course, he happened to step directly onto an area where a bomb had already been buried without knowing it.
"Hojo, are you ready yet?"
"Almost."
"Hurry up!"
The president's face was dark as he urged the madman on the other end of the communications window.
Through that window, Scarlet could also see Hojo activating a group of monsters.
Hm?
From the corner of her eye, Scarlet caught sight of a figure in another display window, and the corners of her mouth curled upward.
"Rufus is about to make contact with them."
She said it with interest.
She had no concern for the president's son. Her tone even carried a hint of gloating.
Because if Rufus became president one day, that would be troublesome for her. Rufus did not get along with her.
Of course, the president himself was not very satisfied with this heir of his, either.
If Rufus remained at Shinra Headquarters, the young man's apparent sense of justice would interfere with some of Shinra's operations and research.
That was why he had been sent away on long-term assignments.
If a crisis ever arose where only one of the father and son could survive, this president would not hesitate to sacrifice his own son.
"That foolish brat. He's actually trying to negotiate with the enemy."
As Shinra's president, Shinra's ruler, and the man who dominated the world, he was furious at his son's actions.
It was an act of weakness.
And in the president's eyes, Shinra had not yet reached a point where it needed to make concessions.
Rufus was humiliating him as a father.
Besides, one of his trump cards had already been deployed.
One of the Tsviets—Nero.
A fighter on the level of a 1st Class SOLDIER.
(End of Chapter)
[Get +30 Extra Chapters On — P@tr3on "Zaelum"]
[Every 300 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter Drop]
[Thanks for Reading!]