【SC】Endless Journey

He opened his eyes and found himself floating close to the core of the planet.The surroundings were dark, and beneath his feet was a vast abyss filled with life. The vast void was like a womb, and he was using his parasitic umbilical cord to devour the energy of the planet.

At this moment, he heard a cry from the void.

"Sephiroth! It's time to end!"

So he lowered his head slightly and saw a small but familiar figure.

— Claude Strife.

His weak, humble, inconspicuous copy had once driven a knife through his mortal body at Nibelheim.Before he got the Black Magic Stone, his eyes hardly stayed on the opponent, but now this ant stood in front of him again, trying to prevent him from taking the planet.

...how pathetic and disgusting.

Intense emotions surged in the opponent's blue pupils, mixed with hatred, anger and determination.He crushed the opponent with a power comparable to that of a god, but was stubbornly resisted by the little ants.

They fought above the core of the planet, huge energy surged in the void, and the brilliance was like a supernova explosion.At the juncture of life and death, a strange flame ignited on the young man, and the epee chopped his body and soul from all directions, sending him into the cycle of the planet.

From then on, he remembered this young man, Claude Strife, the most special one among his countless dolls, his compatriots, and his only old enemy.

"Beep beep beep."

Sephiroth casually pressed the alarm clock of the communication terminal, realizing that he was dreaming again.

He got up slowly, and saw Genesis closed the poetry collection in his hand, and was sitting in front of the fireplace looking at himself inexplicably.

"What did you dream about?" Genesis' eyes were full of desire to explore.

"...a little bit of the past." Sephiroth rubbed the center of his brows, and lifted the blanket off his body to wash up.

"Strife?"

Sephiroth's footsteps faltered slightly, and he quickly continued to walk towards the bathroom.

Genesis understood immediately, so he continued to ask: "Your knife also looks familiar. Is it Murasame?"

Sephiroth glanced at the expiration date on the mouthwash on the shelf and put it back.

"As far as I know, this knife is regarded as one of the five national treasures. It was once in the name of Strife, but it was auctioned off later. How did it get into your hands?"

Sephiroth washed it briefly with the things in his luggage, and walked out of the bathroom.

"Then let's change the question. How did your knife break? It's a good knife, and even the red sword can't leave scratches on it. Who broke it?"

Seeing that Sephiroth didn't seem to be ready to answer any questions, Genesis concluded without authorization: "Oh, it's Strife." After speaking, he leaned back into the sofa and cast a playful look at him, "So before you parted ways, he had already done something?"

Sephiroth finally packed up everything and turned to Genesis.

"What exactly do you want to ask?"

Genesis shrugged.

"I've always been curious about why Strife let you survive." He fiddled with the wood carving left by someone on the coffee table, and glanced at Sephiroth from the corner of his eye, "If you still remember, what happened between you?" It's a bloody feud—you killed his mother, killed his ancient girlfriend in front of him, and then he killed you more than three times, besides, Strife was entrusted with the responsibility of protecting Gaia like me, he It doesn’t make sense to let a mortal enemy who will destroy the planet at any time grow up well, and even let you off who has partially recovered your memory not long ago.” In order to make this part of the reasoning appear more rigorous, he added: “Your knife cut is very serious. Neat, it should be broken due to excessive stress when colliding with weapons such as epee. Am I right?"

Sephiroth glanced at him lightly and corrected: "First of all, Alice Gainsborough is not his girlfriend. Secondly, I never intend to destroy the planet, on the contrary, I need it."

Genesis was stunned for a second, thinking he heard it wrong: "So you summoned a meteor to show your friendship?"

"At that time, I needed the flow of life to strengthen myself. After the planet was hit hard, the flow of life would be gathered at the crack to repair myself. It would be more convenient for me to absorb energy. This is a one-off." Sephiroth explained patiently. , "But if according to what you said, 'it' is absorbing the flow of life at the bottom of the big void and desperately proliferating, this process is continuous, and will eventually drain the flow of life on the planet, and the planet will die accordingly."

"You actually care about the survival of the planet." Genesis raised his eyebrows suspiciously.

"I'm also in the cycle of the stream of life." Sephiroth's lips moved slightly, showing a chilling smile, "Of course, the main reason is that I don't like others to mess with my things."

— my things.

Genesis thought of the meaning behind this sentence, and his heart sank.

Sephiroth cares about the planet, but he doesn't care about other life on the planet, because in his eyes, the planet is his private property and can only be disposed of by him at will.

"Let's go." Sephiroth picked up Murame again, and pinned the broken blade on his waist. "I need to go to the big hollow to see what it is."

They turned back to the Ice and Snow Village, stored most of their things at the front desk of the hotel, and then packed up and headed for the big hole.

Blizzards in the Northern Continent are still covering the far north, which makes it very unsafe on land.Sephiroth estimated the time and equipment needed to walk there, and decided to fly over the clouds.

This decision itself also carries certain risks. The top of the blizzard cloud layer in the extreme north is about [-] meters above the ground, and there is an eight-kilometer-thick cloud belt in the middle, in which strong convection and thunderstorms lurk.The first time they passed through the blizzard clouds and reached the top, they were somewhat embarrassed. Their drenched coats were quickly frozen at minus thirty degrees, and the two had to rely on magic spar to dry themselves.After that, Sephiroth had experience. Even the process of take-off and landing required the shield to be deployed. He would rather stop at a high altitude to rest than return to the ground easily.

At the same time, as the two gradually approached the Peking University void, the noise in Sephiroth's mind became more and more obvious.The thing seemed to be able to confirm each other's positions with him, and had never communicated with him except calling.But these intermittent calls allowed him to see the scene in Cloud's vision, so he knew that the two were forced to synchronize at some point.

This thing is also calling for Cloud.

Realizing this, Sephiroth's eyes turned cold.

In other words, it is calling for all creatures with S cells.

Genesis said the thing felt so much like him that when Cloud's crystal disappeared and it began to spread across the far north, Genesis thought at one point he was awakening in some new life form come over.But he knows that is impossible, there are no S cells in this world that cannot be controlled by his will, unless...

...unless it's not an S cell anymore.

Sephiroth tensed up involuntarily.

The essence of Reunion is recombination, which is to reunite all creatures with Jenova genes to form a more complete and powerful life.Every creature with Jenova's gene is like a worker bee in a hive. It usually acts with its own will, but when called by the queen bee of the main brain, they will return to the main brain and become a collective life controlled by the main brain's will body.

Genesis can also sense a little summoning, but to a much weaker degree than him, which also proves from the side that the thing is more closely related to him.

Although he hasn't fully remembered everything, he remembers that he once had many copies.Jenova may not care that her gene carriers have independent consciousness, but Sephiroth never leaves control, only Cloud is a special case.If that thing is really an S-cell life form, and even trying to be its master, he absolutely cannot let it continue.

After two days' journey, they finally reached the top of the Great Hollow in the evening of the second day.At that time, the blizzard had dissipated a bit, and the rays of light fell on the rock wall of the large hollow, and Sephiroth could see clearly what happened here.

——Beidakong once formed a huge crater due to the impact of a meteorite 2000 years ago. Although the outside of the mountain is covered with snow all the year round, the black rocks inside the crater are usually not covered by ice and snow.However, at present, the Peking University Cavern presents a strange silvery white from the inside to the outside, as if covered with a layer of satin with metallic luster, and the tiny particles reflect dazzling colorful halos in the setting sun, like some kind of alien scenery .

Sephiroth finally knew what the thing that attacked him in the snow really looked like.The silver hair color similar to his own made it blend perfectly with the snow in the dark, so that he couldn't see the opponent's trajectory at all.And when he used the water vapor produced by the explosion to observe its movement, he had vaguely realized that it had no fixed form.

This is not a living body at all.This is a hive consciousness body formed by the gathering of hundreds of billions of independent cells without self-awareness.

Genesis was shocked by the current scene of the Peking University Hollow.He circled the crater for 10 minutes before carefully returning to the sky: "A year ago, it was far from reaching this scale. At that time, it didn't even cover the inside of the mountain pass."

"The speed of cell proliferation is exponential. Now it has merged with the ice and snow, and the edge has probably spread to the place where we met, which is at least three hundred kilometers away from the big cavity." Sephiroth looked at the silver substance below, His expression became very serious, "When did you find it?"

"Five years ago." Genesis carefully recalled the scene at that time, "At that time, it was growing up and down at the bottom of the cave where the Strife crystal was once sealed, and it had not completely covered the cave, so I will be able to see The parts that arrived were all burned."

"How did you determine its identity at that time?" Sephiroth slowly descended to the inside of the mountain pass, carefully observing the thing on the rock wall. It was even slightly undulating, like some kind of breathing creature.

"Reunion. Don't forget I feel the call, too, though only a little."

Genesis flew cautiously into the big void with him, but when he saw that he was still planning to continue descending, the other party's brows were tightly knit together.

"Are you sure you want to go down to the bottom? This is its base camp. If we disturb it, we may not be able to escape unscathed."

Sephiroth glanced at him slightly sideways, then turned his gaze back to the big hole below.

"After you burned it, it was born again."

"Yes. I didn't pay attention to this matter at all for a few years, until two years ago, when I received the will of the goddess..."

"When you came to inspect it again, you burned it again."

"……Yes."

"And it was much bigger two years ago than it was five years ago. By the time you burn it down a second time, and come back a year later, it's about to spread out a big hole."

When Genesis heard these words, he looked at Sephiroth instantly, and his expression became very alert: "How do you know?"

Sephiroth stretched out two fingers and tapped his forehead lightly: "Read your memory."

"..."

Although he is also a monster transformed by Jenova's cells, Genesis sincerely feels that he is more like a normal human being than Sephiroth. At least he does not have the ability to read other people's memories at will, and even if he does, he will not say nothing. Used to read the brains of comrades-in-arms.

"I know you are doubting me." Sephiroth said lightly, "But the fact is, I can control Claude, but I can't control it. You should understand the difference."

Genesis snorted coldly and refused to comment on this dangerous statement.

They fell vertically for about 15 minutes before reaching the bottom of the Great Cavity.The solid ice here used to be pale green due to the high concentration of life streams, but at this moment it has been completely covered by the silver-white substance like a creeper.

Sephiroth walked slowly on the creep, looking at an obvious depression on the ground, couldn't help frowning slightly.Claude's crystal should have been in this depression, and there is obviously the most dense area of ​​silver-white material, which is probably its birthplace.

Sephiroth pondered for a moment, then suddenly drew out the broken blade, gathered all the strength in his body, and hit the rock formation under his feet heavily.The rock formation crumbled, and the whole ground suddenly began to sink.

"What are you doing—" Genesis rose into the air from the cracked rock, and was about to question Sephiroth's rash action, but he suddenly stopped after seeing the scene under his feet.

The place where the ground is broken is connected to an endless abyss, in which the energy of an incomparably huge stream of life surges.However, at the place where they stood just now, a silver-white column extending downward was exposed.The shape of the cylinder is very uneven, and there are countless tentacles extending around, like the roots of plants. Some are connected to the silver-white creepers on the rock wall, and others go down as far as they can until they disappear under the light. light up the place.

"That's why you can't completely destroy it." Sephiroth stood in the void, his vertical pupils flickering with some kind of strange fluorescence, "Its roots have penetrated deep into the fountain of life and reached the core of the planet. The outer part is much larger. Each of your destructions just cuts a little bit off of it, and over time, these remaining cells continue to proliferate exponentially, quickly spreading out of the large cavity. "

The expressions of both of them became extremely solemn, and the situation might be a hundred times more serious than they had imagined before.

Sephiroth recalled all the lives he had seen carrying Jenova's genes, most of them were transformed monsters, and had never had such a primitive and prosperous form.He doesn't know what form his mother existed on the original planet, but it is clear that the S cells here—probably the part left on his body during the Great Hollow Battle 200 years ago—has evolved, just like his The embryo evolved into a more powerful creature than the mother after possessing the Jenova gene.

It is not at all the appearance of the S cell extracted from him or Claude. In other words, through hundreds of years of fusion with the flow of life, it has evolved from a small cell that must be differentiated to have basic functions into a certain cell that can maintain its basic functions The most primitive single-cell form is still a creature with the ability to move, eat and attack.

He should have thought that since infecting a pregnant mother with Jenova's genes can create an evolutionary life like him, after hundreds of years of integration with the flow of life, it is entirely possible for Jenova's genes to evolve new creatures.This is one of the basic characteristics of Jenova, super adaptability and self-transformation ability.

At this moment, countless sharp noises invaded Sephiroth's mind.

"Reunion."

"Reunion. Reunion. Reunion—"

"--found it."

Sephiroth opened his eyes suddenly, and his snake-like vertical pupils shrank tightly into a slit.

In the next second, the inside of the entire large cavity began to shake violently, and the silver-white substance that was originally attached to the rock wall flowed towards the bottom of the cavity like a liquid, setting off huge waves.

"Not good. Go!"

Genesis immediately grabbed Sephiroth and flew upwards, but the surrounding silver fluid quickly rushed towards the two of them.He immediately ran across the sword with his finger, and the red sword rushed away a huge wave that was about to engulf the two of them.He took advantage of the gap opened by the sword wind to quickly climb towards the mountain pass, but there were more silver waves covering the top of his head. Genesis lowered his head slightly, and saw that the silver material under his feet had also gathered into a bunch, directly below them It unfolded into a hemisphere, and it was about to form an encirclement with the liquid above the head.

Knowing that both of them would be swallowed by that thing, Genesis immediately began to chant the spell.A huge magic circle unfolded below them, covering almost the entire bottom of the cave. A few seconds later, with a series of loud noises, red lightning exploded in the large cavity, and the huge blast blasted straight into the clouds.

"Sephiroth! Can you still move?" Genesis avoided the collapsed debris in the cloud of smoke and dust, trying to find the location of his friend, but the moment he turned around, something suddenly jumped from under his feet. hit.

"Tsk! There are too many, and we can't clear them up like this."

Genesis raised his sword to block the attack of the silver fluid, and released flames casually, but the thing only retreated a little, and quickly faced the flames, taking the spell forcefully.

Genesis didn't expect the other party to act like this at all, and his pupils constricted suddenly.After the blast dissipated, although the silver substance at the bottom of the large cavity could not be called intact, there was only a small gap near the magic circle.

"This is impossible!" Genesis exclaimed, "The previous two apocalypses have completely burned this place!"

He suddenly felt a heat source approaching from behind, and just as he was about to turn around to block, he saw two silver arcs brushing past his sides and piercing through the air, trying to disperse the thing before it hit him.

Sephiroth waved his wings and landed beside him, his eyes dimmed.

"...Adaptability." Sephiroth said in a deep voice, "You failed to completely destroy it with the apocalypse and magic before, so it remembered that kind of damage, and developed a certain resistance to this kind of damage through genetic mutation. sex. This is also one of the properties of Jenova cells."

Genesis reacted for a few seconds, realizing the horror behind this sentence: "You mean, if you are not sure of killing it with one blow, you should try to avoid attacking it?"

"At least the magic damage looks like this. I don't know how effective the physical damage is." Sephiroth pondered a little, looked up at the hole, and the silver fluid had turned into a dome, blocking their upward path. "All in all, we'd better figure out a way to get out of here now."

The silver substance below gathered again, bursting like a fountain, and the large cavity that was blocked was immediately filled with droplets of that thing.Sephiroth immediately released the magic, separated the space around the two from the liquid droplets with frenzied airflow, and flew towards the entrance of the hole at the same time.

Silver on the rock wall sensed that the two of them were about to flee, and immediately surged crazily. Countless liquid tentacles reached out to the two of them, trying to drag them back into the silver-white ocean.Sephiroth and Genesis had to take the time to slash the tentacles while breaking through upwards, but the half-shortened Murasame was unable to catch up. When he saw a tentacle rolled towards Genesis's calf through the shield , Subconsciously swung a knife towards the opponent's lower side, but Duan Ren was far from reaching that position.

"Pay attention to your feet!" Sephiroth shouted at the opponent.

It was too late for this reminder, Genesis only felt that he was pulled by something, and suddenly fell into the surging silver waves as if weightless.He instinctively raised the red sword and chanted the spell, but remembered Sephiroth's conclusion just now, hesitated and couldn't attack.

Sephiroth suppressed his headache and swooped down, trying to pull Genesis out of the substance, but several tentacles entangled his arms.In a trance, he saw that the silver ocean was temporarily calm for a few seconds, and a large amount of matter began to gather in one direction, condensing into a red figure in the air.

The light dissipated, and a man exactly like Genesis stood at the bottom of the large cavity, and raised the corners of his lips maliciously towards the two above.

Sephiroth was stunned for a moment, and suddenly figured out why this new life form evolved from S cells should summon him and Claude.

——It wants to devour other individuals carrying the Jenova gene, so as to obtain the abilities they possess.

Genesis was touched by it for a long time, so it used Genesis' memory to create another opponent.If he is accidentally swallowed by this thing, the consequences will be disastrous.

Sephiroth's heart trembled, and he immediately raised the village rain to prepare for defense.However, at this moment, the newborn Genesis raised his hand and quickly chanted a mantra, and a giant magic circle was unfolded in the air, and red lightning suddenly hit the two people around them who had no cover.

If they were hit in this situation, the two of them would either die or be injured, but the escape route of the crater was completely sealed by the silver substance, and it would also be absorbed by it if they fled blindly.

Sephiroth looked at the biomorphic Genesis, and suddenly burst out with a strong anger.

——There is no life on this planet that can dominate him, not Shinra, Gaia, not even Xenovia.

He does not follow any order, he is his own order.His will is above all things, how could he be swallowed by something more primitive than himself.

The moment the lightning was about to hit the two, Sephiroth took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down.

He has to get out of here, and for that he needs strength.The power he once possessed, as the power of planetary calamity, the power enough to destroy the world, resides in the depths of his memory, he just needs to find it——

"Reunion. Reunion. Reunion—"

Thousands of electric noises screamed in Sephiroth's mind, and countless fragments of memories flickered before his eyes.

He remembered that he had gained the power of the stream of life in the North Great Hole and turned into a god, a huge meteorite fell to the planet, the atmosphere was ignited by strong friction, and the sky turned red.

He remembered that he was fighting Claude under the cloudy sky, the young man was covered with blue flames, and the dismantling blades hit him from all directions, tearing his soul apart.

He remembered a certain battle in the ruins of Midgar. Claude missed and was nailed to a collapsed reinforced concrete wall. He looked at the other party's particularly vivid expression of pain and anger, lowered his head and bit the other party. lips.

He remembered that he watched Claude trek across mountains and rivers to the Great Hollow in the stream of life, and looked at his relics in the cave that once sealed him in ice, and then slowly and painfully turned into crystals, and fell into a 140-year-long turmoil ever since. deep sleep.

He remembered that he had sensed the voice in the void of Peking University at a certain moment, and that thing was him but not him, which aroused his interest in the stream of life——

……correct.This is it.

That is the root of everything.

As if the seal in the depths of the soul was released, a huge energy quickly rushed to the limbs and bones.Sephiroth raised his hand mechanically, held it in the air, and guided the energy between his hands, so a large sword that had disappeared for more than 140 years reappeared on the surface of the planet.

At the moment when the red electric light rushed towards them, Sephiroth swung a sword wind with his backhand, and countless silver arcs were densely woven into a network in the air, completely suppressing the explosion of the apocalypse under their feet.

"boom--"

The bottom of the Peking University Cavity completely collapsed due to the explosion, revealing an abyss leading directly to the core of the planet.The stream of life surged and overflowed the ground, washing away the silver substance below.

The cold vertical pupil looked down for the last time, turned around and flew towards the top of the head.The silver substance above still rushed towards the two without giving up, but was cut open by Sephiroth, and immediately turned into countless debris and fell into the abyss.

The flashing silver light broke through the clouds above the large void, Sephiroth rushed up to the stratosphere with Genesis's collar in his hand, and flew [-] kilometers in the direction he came from, before throwing Genesis on the snow field exhausted .

Genesis didn't pay much attention to his rough actions, and hurriedly got up to check his situation.

"Do you remember?" The other party observed for a while, and finally asked cautiously.

Sephiroth was noncommittal, but his eyes turned to the location of another life that possessed his cells.

He has completely remembered what he is, what Claude is, how they returned to the surface of the planet, and how they got to this point.And the most important point of this is-

"Catholm is not Hojo." Sephiroth whispered, his face extremely pale.

Genesis froze for a long time before realizing what he was saying, and his expression immediately became serious.

"What the hell is going on with all this?"

Sephiroth did not answer, looking at the stars in the night sky, fell into a long silence.

Things go back to the 140 years that Claude slept.

About halfway through the time, Sephiroth sensed a very pure S-cell life form in the void that could call him.Although he usually doesn't care about his only half body and things other than dolls, an existence that is highly similar to him may become the cell donor he needs when he returns to the surface of the planet in the future, so he has a little interest in that thing. little interest.

Sephiroth waited decades for this, and finally realized that if Cloud didn't plan to wake up, he would never have the chance to return to the surface of the planet.So he read Claude's memory, found a person who had been completely forgotten by him, but was the most likely to recreate him-Hojo, and began to plan another resurrection.

However, Baojo is already dead, completely dead, and no trace of this person will be found in the stream of life.The only way he can think of is to use Claude's memory to pinch a missing boy, suggesting that when he grows up, he will go to Peking University to find the crystallized Claude, and then use Claude's cells to clone himself.This method was indeed successful. The little boy studied hard according to his suggestion, obtained a Ph.D. Redeemer”—

The little boy was Carter Holm.

Sephiroth looked down at his arm, this body was younger and fresher than any he had ever obtained through the resurrection of Cloud's memory, and at the same time weaker.

... All of this was planned by himself in the stream of life, including the resurrection treasure, including the establishment of a research institute, just to allow himself to return to the surface of the planet again.

Most of the things went smoothly according to his plan, and he even considered that he might lose his memory, so the experience of the institute was a must.He thinks that the research institute will provide him with a growth environment similar to that in his lifetime. One day he will remember who he is, and when his strength recovers, he can unlock Cloud's crystal seal and put his only old enemy, Siblings and cherished anchors are brought back into the palm.But he didn't count that Claude's soul would be transferred into the clone.

Thinking of this, Sephiroth's heart seemed to be tightly grasped by an invisible hand.

He never intended for Claude to experience everything in the institute with him, and the pain of the other party can only be inflicted by him, not some unknown human being.What he didn't expect was that the other party would love and raise him with all his heart like a real child, so that he spent a period of what can be called a warm childhood in the institute.

If Claude knew the truth, he would probably hate him more than ever before.Although he was keen to let Claude remember himself in order to return to the surface of the planet, hatred is the deepest emotion, so he has been consciously guiding the other party's hatred towards him, but this time he didn't want to do that.

Because after more than 200 years of long struggle, he finally clearly realized a fact: Claude loved him, and in a certain level, he may have loved Claude too.