He could not let Cloud leave here by escaping; he had to follow the original script of fate and knock Cloud down from the disc, sending him to the place he was supposed to go.
Aiden had been running behind everyone all along, just to guard against this scene from appearing. He instantly flashed forward and swung his sword, blocking Sephiroth's blade.
BOOM!
When the sword and blade collided, they actually produced a loud booming sound, and the resulting shockwave not only shattered the ground beneath their feet into powder, but also swept outward with them as the center, causing the ground to crack inch by inch wherever it passed.
The fleeing crowd, upon hearing the noise behind them, immediately stopped and turned around, intending to help Aiden.
"Run quickly! If you stay, you'll only get in my way!" Seeing this, Aiden shouted anxiously.
As for Avalanche and the others, needless to say, apart from Tifa, their strength could only be considered average. Staying would only be a burden to him. As for Cloud... alright, Aiden simply didn't want Cloud to stay. It wasn't out of concern for his life or death, but because he didn't want fate to repeat itself.
Moreover, Cloud's strength at this moment wasn't great, and on top of that, his mind was easily influenced by Sephiroth. If a real fight broke out, he would likely end up swinging his sword at Aiden's head, especially since Aiden had already taken two of the women Cloud liked.
However, although Barret and Cloud hesitated after hearing his words, Tifa and Jessie ignored it completely and charged toward Sephiroth. This made Aiden anxious, wasn't this just walking into death? So he immediately raised his hand and used Four Symbols Pull on them, grabbing them out of thin air and throwing them back.
Tifa and Jessie got up from the ground, still wanting to help Aiden, but at that moment, a large number of Shinra special forces soldiers appeared in helicopters above them, continuously jumping down from the aircraft. So Barret exchanged a glance with Biggs, and the two of them each forcibly carried one person.
Under the cover of Cloud and Wedge, they followed the planned evacuation route and left Mako Reactor No. 5.
Watching Cloud disappear from sight, Sephiroth suddenly stopped, jumped to the side, and coldly looked at Aiden.
As Sephiroth stopped, the gray Whispers began to gather around him, wildly spinning around him as if reminding him to quickly chase after them.
But Sephiroth still did not move, just looking at Aiden. In his gaze, the decisiveness from before had disappeared, replaced, unusually, by a trace of hesitation.
Of course, he wasn't hesitating whether or not to chase after them, but whether to continue persisting, because at this moment, the sky was already gradually brightening.
The time had come to the next day, and the events of the past had already become unchangeable facts. Even if he caught up to Cloud now and threw him down from the disc, it would be an event of the second day, and would have nothing to do with what happened in fate.
Perhaps also feeling that it was already beyond recovery, the gray Whispers stopped, then turned into clusters of gray mist and slowly vanished into the air.
"This time, you win." Looking at the disappearing Whispers, Sephiroth slowly said to Aiden, "But fate will not give up so easily. Next time, and the time after that, it will still take action. However, I suddenly look forward to seeing whether you can continue to change things then."
"I definitely can." Aiden nodded confidently.
"Alright, I'll be waiting." Sephiroth nodded as well, then disappeared.
Sephiroth's final words before leaving left Aiden a bit dazed.
That sentence "I'll be waiting", was it waiting to sit back and watch, or waiting to see how he would change fate?
Thinking about it, Aiden felt it was very likely the latter.
"Sephiroth… you also want to change your fate. Actually… you also want to live, right?" Aiden softly said toward the spot where Sephiroth had disappeared, then turned and prepared to leave.
However, leaving now wasn't so easy. After Sephiroth left, the slightly late Shinra special forces had already surrounded him. Among them, Aiden also saw Scarlet.
At that moment, Scarlet's face was full of anxiety. Although the special forces she brought were all implanted with chips and completely obeyed her orders, don't forget, the Shinra president was still monitoring the situation. She did not yet have the power to turn against him openly.
Aiden noticed Scarlet's expression. Seeing how anxious she was, almost to the point of stomping her feet. He felt a warmth in his heart, and gave her a reassuring look. Then he turned into a stream of light and charged outward.
The moment Aiden moved, Scarlet naturally couldn't just watch. She had to order the Shinra special forces to pursue him, but her command was to capture him alive, not to harm him.
In fact, even though these Shinra soldiers had been soaked in Mako and injected with Jenova cells, their current strength was still quite average. They hadn't grown strong yet, even compared to Roche, they were far behind.
When Aiden broke through the siege, he only used one move, Four Symbols Pull, and flung more than a dozen special forces soldiers away, easily tearing open a gap in the seemingly airtight encirclement.
Taking advantage of the opening before it closed, Aiden leaped out, and after running several hundred meters forward, he arrived at a bridge connecting to the disc.
Below the bridge was Sector 5 of the lower level. But with a height of three hundred meters, Aiden felt a bit dizzy just looking down.
At this moment, the Shinra special forces had caught up. Aiden turned to glance at them, noticed that Scarlet had also followed, and then blew her a kiss, before leaping off the bridge.
Seeing Aiden jump, Scarlet was almost scared to faint. That was a 300-meter drop, even a metal ball falling from that height would be smashed flat, let alone a human.
Covering her mouth to stifle a scream, Scarlet ran to the bridge and painfully looked down. Just one glance, and her heart finally settled, because in her view, a parachute had appeared...
It wasn't surprising that Aiden had a parachute. Back when they were in Roanapur, Koko and Valmet had parachuted down from a plane.
Originally, they had planned to throw it away after use, but Aiden had reclaimed it, because they were using military-grade parachutes, which were hard to buy on the market.
Carefully controlling the parachute, Aiden tried to drift toward an area with fewer people. But perhaps due to bad luck, when he was still about a hundred meters from the ground, a gust of wind suddenly blew him off course.
That drift was hundreds of meters. Aiden could even see the buildings below, and because the altitude was already low, it was too late to steer the parachute toward another direction.
As the ground got closer, Aiden became more confused, could it really be such a coincidence?
That gust of wind had actually blown him near Aerith's house. Because the place he was about to land… was the church where Aerith once planted flowers.
Bang!
Aiden landed on the church roof. As soon as he stabilized himself, he began packing up the parachute to prevent another gust of wind from blowing him off again. Though the height wouldn't kill him now, it would definitely hurt.
Just as he was putting the parachute back into the system space and looking for a way to get down, he saw the large hole in the roof made by Zack's crash. Curious, he took two steps forward, and then heard a crack. The tiles and rooftop under his feet crumbled at the same time.
He fell.
The distance from the church roof to the ground was about twenty meters. For an ordinary person, that would either be fatal or crippling. But with Aiden's current physical strength, it just hurt a bit. Especially since there was a layer of flowers cushioning him.
'Wait a minute…'
Aiden suddenly froze. How could there be flowers under him? Weren't they all pulled out already? He remembered even the soil had been dug away.
Realizing something was off, Aiden abruptly sat up from the flower bed, and saw Aerith holding a small hoe, blankly staring at him.
Aiden was dumbfounded. He even suspected he had time-traveled again, and this time to a Final Fantasy VII parallel world.
But no, there was no system notification.
While Aiden's brain was a mess, Aerith finally moved. She threw down the small hoe and pounced onto Aiden, pressing him down again after he sat up.
"Aiden!" Aerith called out in surprise beside his ear.
In that moment, Aiden relaxed. He hadn't time-traveled, Aerith was still the same Aerith.
But soon he frowned, grabbed her shoulders, and asked seriously, "Why are you here? And what's with these flowers?"
Seeing his serious expression, Aerith blinked and sniffed him with her delicate nose as if smelling something. Then she smiled, she had guessed what Aiden really wanted to ask.
Breaking free from his grip, Aerith leaned down and kissed his lips, then rested her head on his arm and said, "You think I restored this place on purpose and waited for someone to fall from the sky, don't you?"
Aiden didn't speak or move, but his body suddenly tensed.
"Alright, stop overthinking. Let me explain," Aerith said, pressing a hand to his chest. "It was those Whispers' doing. They restored this place, then drove me here early in the morning and wouldn't let me leave."
"Hmph! Of course I wouldn't let them get their way, I used a hoe to try to dig up the flowers. But no matter how many I removed, they'd come right back. We were stuck in a standoff. Then, for some reason, all the Whispers watching me suddenly disappeared… and right after that, you fell from the sky."
She looked at the hole in the roof and continued, "I was worried it might be that person, and was ready to leave, but it turned out to be you… Aiden, it seems like fate has begun to favor you."
"..."
"I'm sorry, Aerith." After hearing Aerith's words, Aiden's face turned red, feeling extremely embarrassed and guilty in his heart, feeling very bad for doubting Aerith.
But this was also very normal. The scene that had just happened was almost exactly the same as the one in the original plot where Cloud and Aerith first met, the only difference was that the person who fell down this time was him.
At this moment, he suddenly somewhat understood Aerith's last sentence. It really felt like fate had changed...
'No!'
Suddenly, Aiden had another idea. Perhaps fate hadn't changed, but was still progressing according to the original plot, only the protagonist had become him.
After all, not only were the two heroines in the story now his, but he was also involved in most of the events that had happened, leaving the original protagonist, Cloud, with nothing to do and turning him into a background character. So fate simply gave up and let him replace Cloud.
Thinking of this, Aiden instead furrowed his brows. Because it looked like he had changed fate, but in reality, nothing had changed much. The events that had happened these past few days were almost exactly the same as in the original plot.
The collapse of Mako Reactor No. 1, the failure of the Mako Reactor No. 5 operation plan, none of it had changed. So now, perhaps to fate, as long as the story keeps following the script, it doesn't matter who the protagonist is.
So Aerith's words, being favored by fate, actually served as a reminder to him, if he didn't do something that could truly change the plot, fate would still continue according to the original script.
'No wonder you all left so decisively.' Thinking of what Sephiroth said when he left, and of how Black Phira had disappeared without hesitation, Aiden somewhat understood.
While he was silently deep in thought, Aerith didn't disturb him but instead quietly lay beside him. She really enjoyed the time spent alone with Aiden, especially now, the two of them lying together in the flowerbed, surrounded by flowers, made her feel incredibly romantic.
"I really wish we could stay like this forever," Aerith sighed.
Waking from his thoughts, Aiden heard Aerith's words, lovingly wrapped his arm around her shoulder, and then said something that made her particularly dissatisfied, "There will be chances like this again in the future. But for now, let's leave. We should go."
"Let's lie down a bit longer..." Aerith wouldn't give in and said coquettishly.
But Aiden remained unmoved. He got up by force, then picked Aerith up in his arms. While walking out, he said, "Next time, we'll lie somewhere else. And you can lie down however long you want, however you want. But right now, we're going back to your house to see Ms. Elmyra. Then we'll head to Sector Seven. Don't forget what's going to happen tonight."
'Tonight...'
Upon hearing this, Aerith immediately stopped struggling and obediently let Aiden carry her home.
Elmyra had only twisted her ankle. Aside from moving being a bit inconvenient, there was really no problem. In fact, after Aiden and Aerith returned, she even personally cooked a meal for them.
Although Aiden didn't have much of an appetite due to constantly thinking about what to do tonight to avoid the destruction of Sector Seven, after a night of fierce battle and having not eaten anything in the morning, he was already starving.
He devoured the food ravenously, and only after filling his stomach did he say goodbye to Elmyra along with Aerith and head off to catch transport to Sector Seven.
However, due to the events that happened last night, all of Midgar's transportation was under control. Although vehicles were still allowed to pass, the efficiency was terribly low. By the time Aiden and Aerith arrived at Sector Seven, it was already close to evening.
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