Ding.
The elevator doors opened with that sound, revealing an empty interior.
The group stepped inside, taking the elevator straight toward Shinra's core floors—straight to the president's office.
"He got off too damn easy, dying like that," Barret said, still seething.
President Shinra had just announced over a live broadcast that he was going to destroy Sector 7. It had left all of them sick with rage.
Granted, the man Tifa had brought with her had also brought a special weapon called an EMP device, something that could wipe out the building's electronic equipment in an instant. It should have been able to destroy the activation system.
On top of that, he had left a safe-room-like device at the bar, similar to that metal armory of his. If the plate really collapsed, then hiding inside it immediately should let people survive.
"Yeah, way too easy."
Yuffie clenched her fists and waved them around. The bastard responsible for destroying Sector 7 had died far too painlessly!
And he had been shot dead right as he was about to destroy Sector 7.
It really had been a hair's breadth from disaster.
Her gaze shifted toward the center of the group, toward the man named Kain. He had truly made Yuffie understand just how absurd someone could be.
He was a freak in combat, and he had predicted in advance what President Shinra might do—that he would threaten them by using the destruction of Sector 7 or Sector 5 as leverage.
So Kain had prepared for exactly that.
This man really was incredible. It was starting to be a problem. She might actually be falling for him. What was she supposed to do about that?
"Announcement. All personnel are now requested to—"
An electronic voice began speaking, broadcasting instructions for the building's many employees to evacuate as quickly as possible.
"Everyone, against the wall!"
Kain suddenly barked the order, and without the slightest hesitation, he pulled the trigger repeatedly at the floor and walls.
In an instant, he burned a large hole straight through.
"Aerith, watch out, your elevator—"
The warning cut off, because Kain was already dealing with whatever had been shooting upward from below.
He was not worried about destroying the elevator cables and sending the elevator plummeting.
The reason was simple: the cables below had already been destroyed. Since the elevator was still rising, that meant the damage had not affected it much. In other words, the elevator's design had accounted for the possibility of that kind of failure.
After several melta rounds blasted downward, the bottom of the elevator shaft became something like a pit of magma. The "magma" was molten steel, and nearly ten monsters had dissolved inside it.
Kain lowered his gun. There was no need to keep attacking, because isolation plates were already descending and dividing the elevator shaft below into multiple sealed sections.
Rufus must have activated the system, sealing off the elevator shaft.
Now that his father was dead, he was the heir to this building.
That did not mean the position of president. It meant the building system's authority levels.
While his father had still been alive, Rufus had been unable to bypass his permissions. Now that his father was dead, Rufus had the authority to operate the Shinra Building's systems.
As for why Kain had not simply used an EMP attack from the start, destroying Shinra's internal electronics when he first launched his attack, it was because he had taken certain things into account. In particular, Hojo's laboratory. If the EMP destroyed every electronic device there, those monsters might break loose and run wild, which would become a serious problem.
And the EMP he had brought would work here. He had already tested that.
In reality, their technology was fundamentally compatible. The only difference was that their power source was mako.
Ding.
The elevator reached its floor. After walking out and going only a short distance, they entered Shinra's president's office.
The moment they went in—
Bang!
Kain raised his hand and fired, startling quite a few people.
The reason was simple. He had destroyed one target without hesitation: Scarlet. He had not given her even a chance to speak. She was directly vaporized.
There was no need to leave that kind of unstable factor alive, especially when he sensed intense malice from her.
"I'm going to destroy this corpse too. Any objections?"
He turned his gun toward a body. It was President Shinra, who had three gunshot wounds.
One in the wrist, one in the heart, and one in the head.
Based on the communications video Kain had seen earlier, the wound in the wrist had been made by Rufus. The wound in the heart was likely from Tseng. As for the head, that was probably Reeve Tuesti and the others.
The latter two had long been dissatisfied with President Shinra, so they had simply forced Rufus into power with brutal decisiveness.
"Go ahead."
Rufus answered with almost no hesitation, seeming cold and ruthless.
But it was not that he truly felt nothing. Rather, things had already reached this point, and he wanted to prevent the situation from deteriorating any further.
The reason Kain wanted to destroy his father's corpse was to stop Jenova from using it to obtain information and create a mimicry. That could allow her to seize back control of the Shinra Building's system permissions.
Right now, Rufus was performing a series of operations on the system, preparing to lock down the entire Shinra Building.
Hojo's underground laboratory, in particular, had to be completely sealed off.
If possible, Rufus would have preferred to make Hojo's underground research facility explode outright and self-destruct.
However, Hojo had already transformed the underground laboratory into his own absolute domain. All Rufus could do from this side was drop lockdown plates outside the laboratory and cut off its energy supply.
But that underground laboratory had its own backup power inside, enough to last for a while.
To prevent those monsters from spreading outward, Rufus had also issued orders to Shinra's troops, instructing them to prepare perimeter defenses.
If anything broke through the lockdown, they absolutely could not let it escape.
Bang!
The gunshot rang out. Rufus had not wanted to look, but he still turned his eyes toward it. What entered his vision were sparks of light lingering briefly in the air. His father's body had already vanished.
"What the hell are these things? There are more and more of them."
"Are these the Whispers you and Aerith were talking about?"
The Whispers were increasing in number. Barret and the others, who originally had not been able to see them, could now perceive them with their own eyes.
They were everywhere, darting around in every direction, and some were trying to approach this room.
If Kain had not been here, Aerith would have been attacked immediately.
Faced with that sight, Aerith tightened her grip on the metal staff in her hands and bit her lip. It was all because she was nothing but a burden.
If Kain did not have to protect her, he could do far more—such as dealing with Hojo, that demon.
She desperately tried to listen to the voices and speak with the Planet, but her progress was minimal. She still could not obtain help from the white Whispers.
"What is he doing?"
A faintly shocked and uneasy voice sounded. Rufus had brought up a video feed.
In the image, the monsters Hojo had released were killing and devouring one another.
And that was not all. The Whispers around them were gathering as well, seemingly merging into the monsters.
At the same time, mako fluid poured in, submerging everything and churning together into a dark swamp. It felt as if something was about to be born from it.
A man in a white lab coat and glasses walked to the edge of the dark swamp, his face twisted with madness as he watched.
Looking at that scene, Aerith felt a violent surge of unease.
They had to stop it immediately.
"Mr. Kain, please don't worry about—!"
Aerith's voice seemed to be cut off at the throat.
She stared blankly at Kain, frightened by what he had just done.
And not only her. Everyone was shaken by his sudden action. A chill crawled over them, raising the hairs on the backs of their necks.
(End of Chapter)
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