No matter how anyone looked at it, the outcome had already been decided.
The cunning Hojo had won.
And he separated even more feathers, driving them into Kain as if he meant to pierce him full of holes, seemingly to ensure his target was completely dead.
Yet what happened next made everyone realize that Hojo's goal was not to kill him.
The additional feathers stabbed into Kain did not produce a great spray of blood. Instead, they sank in like needles, as if they were injecting something into his body.
"Tifa, the operation from earlier!"
Aerith's urgent reminder snapped Tifa back to her senses. She immediately understood what Aerith meant and was about to perform the operation to eject Mr. Kain from this world.
But just as Tifa was about to act, something invisible seemed to expand outward in an instant with Mako Reactor No. 1's mako pool as its center. It swept over her and spread across the area.
The next second, the world seemed to have been put on pause.
What was happening?
Tifa realized that no one could move. It was as if time really had been stopped.
Even more disturbingly, she found that she could no longer mentally operate the Hyperdimensional Channel interface. Her will-command had apparently been blocked.
Panic gripped her.
She turned her gaze back toward the surveillance feed and saw Mr. Kain, who had suffered such terrible injuries, suddenly curl his lips.
It was the smile of a victor. The smile of someone mocking the defeated.
But in that moment, Tifa felt only a chill crawling through her body.
Because Mr. Kain might no longer be Mr. Kain.
Hojo was trying to take over his body.
And the reason Tifa could not move might be because Hojo had used some ability to restrain her.
The black Whispers circling around them suddenly changed as well. Their color began to fade, shifting toward white.
No, that could not really be called white. It was closer to gray.
They changed from black to gray.
Then, in perfect order, they formed ring after ring, creating concentric circles as they swam like dancers. They seemed to be celebrating the birth of something.
They were the guardians of fate. So were they celebrating the birth of the god of fate?
Was Hojo truly becoming a god?
Was that why he possessed this kind of power? Why he could instantly imprison her will and prevent her from operating the Hyperdimensional Channel?
As that thought crossed Tifa's mind, fear and despair surged up inside her.
『Tifa, it isn't what you think.』
Aerith's voice suddenly echoed in her mind.
What did that mean?
『The one becoming a god isn't Hojo. He thought he was being clever by luring Mr. Kain into the mako pool, but that was his greatest mistake—and the flaw in his entire scheme.』
So the current situation had not been caused by Hojo. Hojo was not the one becoming a god.
Wait—
Aerith had said, "The one becoming a god isn't Hojo." In other words, someone really was becoming a god. And if it was not Hojo, then it could only be one other person.
At that, Tifa let out a breath of relief.
No. Something was wrong. There was not the slightest joy in Aerith's voice. Instead, it was growing heavier and heavier.
『If this continues, Mr. Kain won't be able to return to his normal state. He won't be the Mr. Kain we understand.』
There really was a problem.
『If that happens, he'll remain in this world and never be able to go back.』
What?
Those words caused something to surge in Tifa's heart for a split second—
No. What was she thinking? How could she have such a selfish thought?
Tifa was immediately overwhelmed by guilt at the vile impulse that had almost risen inside her.
『He has to be stopped—but how do I stop him? Like this? I understand now.』
Those words did not seem to be directed at Tifa. They sounded more like Aerith talking to herself.
Or perhaps she was speaking with the Whispers. With the white Whispers. Because white Whispers had suddenly appeared beside Aerith.
What was Aerith going to do?
From the corner of Tifa's eye, she saw Aerith, whose body also seemed frozen in time, gradually begin to glow. Aerith was struggling.
In the end, it was as though time resumed for her. She stumbled and fell to the floor.
After rising again, Aerith took a short dagger from her body and gripped it in a reverse hold. Her next movement made Tifa frantic.
Aerith, what are you doing?!
Tifa wanted to stop her, but she could not move at all.
Whatever needed to be done, Aerith should tell her. Let her do it.
『I'm sorry, Tifa. Right now, this is the only way I can reach Mr. Kain through the Lifestream. Maybe this is the moment my true mission was meant for.』
Her voice was very gentle. A little reluctant. Yet there was no regret in it.
After that voice fell silent, a flower of blood bloomed.
...
Letting him enter the mako pool had been Hojo's greatest mistake.
If Hojo had kept Kain away and continued absorbing the mako pool to attack him, his chances of winning would have been much better.
But allowing him to enter the mako pool—that psychic pool—was no different from giving him an enormous source of psychic power.
If it had not been absolutely necessary, Kain had never planned to absorb this world's mako.
But given Hojo's current state, Kain had no choice but to devour the psychic energy of Mako Reactor No. 1.
The instant his entire body was submerged in the psychic pool and he began absorbing it, it was like a dam breaking. The flood poured in uncontrollably, surging into him with terrifying force.
The Warp that belonged to him, which he had previously stopped from rotating, began to spin again. And it spun faster and faster. Only by doing so could it rapidly absorb the torrent of psychic energy.
Yet even that did not seem to be enough.
The next second, the flow actually reversed. The result was like a balloon being rapidly inflated.
Then the Warp expanded in an instant.
It no longer existed only in the depths of his soul. Like a blank field being deployed, it directly covered physical reality.
In that instant, he saw a vast number of anomalies appear within the Warp.
The expansion of the Warp was like a radar activating. After the radar waves spread outward, the targets it detected appeared as points of light.
Kain immediately understood what they were.
They were the soul projections of people in reality, reflected within his Warp.
At that moment, he felt that he could freely manipulate the fate of those projections.
Under his will, the Warp became like an extension of his own body. He seized several of the projections.
All of them were Hojo.
This bastard really did know how to prepare backup plans.
He was like a planarian. If its body was cut into multiple pieces, each piece could grow into a complete planarian.
Now, who was the god of fate?
Neither pleased nor angry, Kain snuffed those projections out as easily as extinguishing candles. He had no intention of playing with Hojo or torturing him. He simply erased them.
And with that, Hojo vanished from this world completely.
Yet the Warp was still expanding, spreading along the Lifestream.
At this rate, it would cover the entire planet through the Lifestream flowing throughout it.
If that continued, he would become the will of this planet.
No. More accurately, he would become humanity's Alaya. He could also be called the god of fate.
The direction of humanity's will in this world would become the direction of his will.
And the direction of his will would become the direction of humanity's will in this world.
Right now, the countless life projections within the Lifestream were transmitting one will.
Destroy Jenova.
Then he would destroy Jenova.
Then he would continue expanding the Warp.
(End of Chapter)
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