Huh?
The battle pattern had suddenly changed.
The kamaitachi-like blades formed from those wings had become much sharper in combat.
Before, the attacks could be described as beastlike, driven by instinct. Now, they seemed trained, structured, and backed by actual technique.
And that was not the only difference. Kain could sense that the emotional fluctuations had changed as well.
There had not been such powerful malice before.
No. It should be hatred. Malice and hatred were different.
Malice meant someone harbored cruel thoughts toward him without any reason. Hatred was intense, malicious hostility caused by something he had done.
It was as if, in that instant, Hojo had become someone else entirely.
Bang, bang!
Melta rounds fired out, but before they could strike the target, they exploded in midair.
The powerful shockwaves created by the other party's slashes had collided with the warheads and detonated them directly.
Kain's vision seemed to blur. In an instant, the other party appeared before him.
The wings that transformed into kamaitachi blades—no, they had now shifted into sword form—were gripped and swung by his opponent.
In that split second, countless sword shadows slashed toward him, as if innumerable phantom hands were swinging at once.
Boom!
The psychic shockwave Kain released collided with the torrent of sword-qi-like impacts from the other party.
If the sword qi had been purely released through power extracted from mako, then Kain would have absorbed it outright. Unfortunately, it was not. It was a physical shockwave created through force.
Because the other party's combat style had completely changed into that of another person, Kain had no choice but to adapt all over again.
He had already roughly identified the original attack pattern and was about to finish things with a clean kill, only for the enemy to suddenly switch templates.
It was deeply strange.
"How did my brother die at your hands?"
Those sudden words were very interesting, because Kain could analyze the hidden information contained within them.
"You're Weiss now? What happened to Hojo?"
"That useless fool tried to take over my body. Unfortunately for him, I took control of his instead!"
So that was it.
The one fighting him now was no longer Hojo, but Weiss—the man crowned within Shinra as Weiss the Immaculate. He was the older brother of Nero, whose psychic energy Kain had drained dry.
But was Hojo really the one who had been taken over?
In the world of Final Fantasy VII, Hojo was the most dangerous figure. He was not the sort of person who could be killed so easily.
Kain remembered that in one version, Hojo had abandoned his physical body and hidden his soul inside the servers of the Deepground SOLDIER forces. Later, he seized Weiss's body and became powerful enough to rival, or perhaps even surpass, Sephiroth.
A schemer like that, a cockroach who seemed impossible to kill, had really had his will suppressed by Weiss?
"Since you killed my brother, I'll kill that Aerith. She seems important to you, doesn't she?"
Weiss spoke cruelly, then unleashed his slashes at full force once more, holding nothing back. He pushed himself into an overloaded attack state to force Kain back.
He was driving Kain into a corner.
The result was that abnormalities were beginning to appear in his body. The chitinous material protecting him withered like a tree that had aged hundreds of years in an instant. Bark-like layers peeled away, and the glowing patterns across his body visibly dimmed.
His body was drying out, pushed beyond its limits by reckless overuse.
If this continued, it would collapse.
Weiss did not care.
It was not his body anyway.
Good.
Now!
Weiss flashed to a device in an instant. According to Hojo's memories, this was a self-destruct mechanism.
Without hesitation, he pressed the button.
There was no countdown.
It activated immediately.
Boom!
The earth shook violently as the entire underground research facility was swallowed by fire. The area where Kain stood was hit hardest, becoming the center of the blast and the point where the underground facility collapsed most severely.
That was exactly what Weiss wanted.
He used the massive explosion to delay Kain for a tiny amount of time. He did not believe it would kill him.
He only needed a brief window.
As long as he could kill Aerith before this body collapsed, that was enough.
The violent explosion also blasted open the lockdown plates. The powerful shockwave tore through many floors and even punched a path to the surface.
Weiss immediately turned into something like lightning and shot out.
In the blink of an eye, Weiss arrived outside one of the floors of the Shinra Building.
He was not worried about being unable to find Aerith, because those things called Whispers were entangling her.
Wherever those things gathered in the greatest numbers, that was where Aerith would be.
"I see her."
The corners of his mouth rose. A smile filled his eyes, but it was cruel.
"Out of my way!"
The Whispers were in the way. The shockwave formed by Weiss's slash blew part of them aside, along with one black-robed figure, revealing the woman behind them.
That beautiful woman named Aerith noticed him as well. Shock appeared in her eyes, followed immediately by fear.
Correction: there probably would not be time for fear to appear.
Because at the speed he was flying in, his blade would tear open that slender, delicate throat before terror could even surface. Blood would gush out, and her head would be sent flying.
So he was very much looking forward to seeing what expression that man would show after seeing this beautiful woman's head severed from her body.
Would it be—
Pfft.
The sound of flesh being pierced rang out.
That sound left Weiss, who had been forced to a sudden stop, stunned.
"How... did you do that?"
He should have cut off Aerith's head.
Instead, that man had suddenly emerged from behind her.
He had arrived above even faster than Weiss, standing right behind Aerith, waiting for Weiss to come kill her. Waiting for Weiss to hurl himself into the trap.
And then Kain had cut away half of his body.
At the same time, the bone-like spike in Kain's hand sank through the opened wound and drove deep into Weiss's body. Then it produced a series of tiny explosions.
That thing seemed to split into countless fragments, spreading throughout his entire body.
Weiss could not understand why Kain had appeared before him, waiting for him to throw himself into the net.
If Kain had come up from inside the Shinra Building, then the door leading from the president's office to the elevator should have been open. Yet it was closed, and the protective plate had already dropped. It clearly had not just fallen either.
That meant Kain had not come up from inside.
Then there was only one other possibility. Kain had flown up from outside, just like him.
But Weiss could not possibly have failed to notice that.
If Kain could move without Weiss noticing, then his speed should have been fast enough to kill Weiss before he could react.
The man was so absurd it was as if he had instantly transferred to this spot, as if he had used spatial movement.
Could that really be what had happened?
Before Weiss could think any further, abnormal pain overwhelmed him.
It was not simple physical pain. It was pain in his soul.
When he had been tearing at Hojo earlier, he had already experienced that kind of pain, pain more intense than anything the body could feel. But he had endured it.
Now, however, the pain was far beyond Hojo's attempt to bite into his soul. It was so severe that his consciousness nearly collapsed.
He felt as if his soul were riddled with holes, about to fall apart.
He could not help but scream. He howled in agony.
He had to return to his original body immediately. He had to—
Hm?
Why could he not go back?
He was clearly still connected, so why could he not return? It felt as if a knife had been driven through a book, pinning it in place.
A prey animal that thought itself the hunter. How pitiful.
Before his consciousness was swallowed by eternal darkness, he heard those words.
They were a mocking voice transmitted from his original body.
...
Hojo moved his body.
As expected, this body was much better.
That fool had truly believed he had devoured Hojo.
In reality, what he had devoured was only the backup memory body Hojo had split off. A backup missing only a small portion of his memories.
Using the devoured backup as cover, Hojo had invaded in reverse and taken possession of this body.
Now, it was time to prepare the ritual of apotheosis once again.
(End of Chapter)
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