CHAPTER 6:

FURTHER BATTLES

To say that the fight between Rosso and Cloud was titanic was inaccurate in many regards. Both parties were holding back, if only because this was meant to be a friendly match rather than a battle to the death. And it was confined to a relatively small arena.

That being said, it was an interesting match, if only because Cloud and Rosso were roughly evenly matched. Not actually equal: Cloud favoured strength, and Rosso speed, though this was only a subtle difference in favouring, as Cloud and Rosso were both quick and strong. Rosso's style was perhaps a bit more brutal and yet flamboyant, while Cloud's was cleaner and pragmatic. Rosso liked to play with her opponent, while Cloud went for finishing strikes where he could. Even when she went into Bloodburst mode, Cloud was able to keep up.

Azul, watching the match, said to Tifa, "Your man is good. Rosso's using more of her Bloodburst ability than she did with Harry, and Cloud is matching her. I can see how you were able to fight one like Sephiroth."

"We fought him together," Tifa said. "It was a hard-won battle."

"Sephiroth was a monster, above even the monsters Deepground produced," Azul rumbled. "I would say the only one of us who could defeat Sephiroth alone would be Weiss. A shame he could not be here, as he loves battle far more than I, and that is saying something."

"He is watching us through a video feed, Azul," Shelke said quietly. "Rufus Shinra put it in place. He will not be wholly deprived of the spectacle, and neither will Nero."

Suddenly, a clash led to Cloud and Rosso sprawled on the floor simultaneously, unconscious from their respective attacks. After a moment, Dio announced, "Double knock-out! The match is a draw, and there are no winners! Therefore, Gilgamesh will fight the winner of the next round, which is Tifa Lockheart versus Azul the Cerulean!"

As Cloud and Rosso were revived and given medicine, Azul stood. "Don't fail to entertain me, Tifa Lockheart," the massive man said.


Harry watched the next match with quiet horror, as did Cloud, who had recovered. Tifa was no slouch when it came to fighting, not by any means. At first, she gave Azul trouble, because she was far more agile than he was. Not that he wasn't fast, she was just faster, using martial arts techniques to dance around him.

But then, Azul transformed. And much of the arena was now taken up by Azul's transformation, a Behemoth. And soon, Tifa was hard pressed to avoid his attacks, her main advantage hampered by a lack of room to manoeuvre.

And yet, despite the opinions of many, Tifa persevered, until a particularly hard blow sent her into a wall. For a moment, the spectators and Azul thought that was it, but just as Dio opened his mouth to call it, Tifa got to her feet, her eyes glowing with the distinctive glow of a Limit Break, before she leapt at Azul, hitting him with a series of brutal martial arts attacks. By the time she finished with her ultimate attack, the Final Heaven, Azul was unconscious. Rosso (who had recovered thanks to potions) and Shelke looked surprised. It was clear, though, that Tifa was only barely staying on her feet. Dio then said, "The winner of this round is Tifa Lockheart! She will go on to fight Gilgamesh!"

Tifa was soon treated, as was Azul, who, on transforming back, looked at Tifa thoughtfully, before he headed back. It was clear that the burly man seemed to have marked Tifa as a worthy opponent. True, it was only luck that she had managed to tap into a Limit Break, but luck had its place on the battlefield. It was overreliance on it that was potentially fatal.

Tifa sat down next to Cloud, who gave her a relieved smile. Azul sat down near Rosso. Harry, meanwhile, stood, as did Vincent, as it was their turn to fight.


Hermione frowned. She hadn't really known much about Vincent Valentine, save for what Rufus, Harry, and Jenova had told her. Apparently he had once been part of the Turks. The Turks were basically bodyguards and attendants to the executives of Shinra, though they were also known for doing espionage, assassinations, and kidnappings, unofficially, anyway. However, thanks to Professor Hojo and the woman who was his lover, Lucrezia, Vincent was now a darker figure. Not evil by any means, but he certainly looked like he had spent much of his life sleeping in a coffin…which apparently he had.

Hermione asked Lucrezia about Vincent as the two contestants made their way to the arena. Lucrezia pursed her lips, before saying, "Hojo modified his body to make it transform into a monster under stress, usually as part of a Limit Break. But because Vincent was dying despite those modifications…I grafted the essence of an entity known as Chaos onto him."

"Chaos?"

Lucrezia nodded. "Soul wrought of terra corrupt, quelling impurity, purging the stream to beckon forth an ultimate fate. Behold mighty Chaos, Omega's squire to the lofty heavens. Chaos is a herald to an entity known as Omega Weapon. Do you know how Jenova came to be here?"

"I think so. She used to be the guiding consciousness of another world, right?"

"Right. Her world suffered a calamity, and Jenova is presumably the result of a fusion between that guiding consciousness, and the equivalent of Omega Weapon. Think of Omega Weapon as an ark for all the lifeforce of an entire world, or what's left of it, when calamity strikes, taking it to another world to start afresh. Chaos has the rather gruesome task of ensuring no scrap of Lifestream gets left behind…by killing any living organisms left, particularly those pure of contamination."

Hermione's face scrunched up in distaste. "Charming."

"Miss Granger here is one of the top students at the school Harry is going to back on Earth," Rufus Shinra said. "I'm sure she'd find your treatises most fascinating. And definitely more palatable than almost anything Hojo could have written." He then frowned as Vincent came out into the arena, his gun nowhere in sight, even with his cloak partly concealing his holster. "Why isn't he wielding his gun?"

"Probably handicapping himself for Harry," Lucrezia mused. "Maybe he's going to use his Limit Break instead. There are special circumstances where he can trigger it consciously without needing to have one ready, so to speak. Maybe they're looking to fight, transformation against transformation. Anyway, guns are somewhat more singularly lethal. At least with swords, you can block."

Lucrezia's prediction proved spot on. As the match began, both Harry and Vincent transformed. Harry got his wing and his Sephiroth-like features, while Vincent turned into a semi-demonic winged being not unlike himself with pale skin, glowing eyes, and thick red hair that seemed almost like a growth of some kind. "Chaos…" Lucrezia whispered in awe. "Vincent must feel confident enough to control it to use it against Harry in a non-lethal duel…"

And unlike the previous fights, which were always a member of Deepground versus someone else, there was no rancour or rivalry. Rather, this was two friends sparring, trying to see which one of them was the stronger, testing and probing, but fighting in the name of sport rather than for conflict's sake.

Hermione watched the battle with widening eyes. With every battle she watched here, she realised just how powerful Harry must be just to survive against these opponents. Sure, she heard the tales of how powerful Sephiroth and the Weapons and the Jenova creatures were, but this really made things strike home. She was sure her parents were thinking the same thing.

"It's a frightening thought, isn't it?" Lucrezia asked, as if reading Hermione's thoughts. "Vincent was enhanced by the power of Chaos, and Harry by Jenova's cells. But unlike Sephiroth, he isn't insane. Sephiroth…I wish I had been allowed to raise him. I should have protested harder. Maybe then, this might not have happened. Sephiroth may not have become a monster."

Soon, the fight was over, with Harry, barely, claiming victory over Vincent. Hermione got the feeling, though, that Vincent had given Harry the win. He was a more experienced opponent, and his power could be greater than Harry's. The two combatants transformed back to normal, and shook hands.

The next battle was Barrett versus Jenova. As with Vincent, the burly dark-skinned man had changed his weapon, from the usual minigun that it had to a laser. Jenova had no weapon. She didn't need one. She transformed into her battleform, an armoured carapace that left only her head exposed, although her arms had transformed into wicked-looking blades.

When that battle began, Hermione was certain that Barrett was outmatched. Jenova moved with great speed, dodging Barrett's shots. Barrett, however, was no slouch, dodging Jenova's attacks with an alacrity most men his size didn't have. He also fought rather dirtily: still within the rules, but whatever opening he could take, he took it. It seemed that Jenova was even a little impressed at how well he managed to fight her.

However, as with Gilgamesh's fight against Shelke, Barrett was soon worn down, and even a couple of Limit Breaks didn't manage to subdue Jenova. She ended up pinning the burly man to the floor, and hissed, "Surrender."

After a moment of struggling against a woman who didn't have as many muscles as he did, and yet was managing to pin him to the floor, he reluctantly growled, "Fine."

"The winner of this match is Jenova!" Dio declared. "Jenova will face off against Harry Gainsborough! There will be a short interval before the semi-finals begin."


"All of the Deepground candidates are out of the running," Shelke said quietly. "Weiss will be disappointed." That last word had the air of a considerable understatement.

"To say the least," Rosso said. "However, Weiss cannot be disappointed with our performances, just the results. We use these battles as benchmarks of how much further we have to go to surpass them. Be thankful these defeats were in friendly spars, and not on the battlefield. Then, we'd be truly dishonoured. As it is, think of these as a wake-up call. I battled to a draw because my opponent was in many regards my equal. You lost, despite a surprisingly good effort, because Gilgamesh was both more experienced and more powerful. And Azul was just plain unlucky, as without a Limit Break, the Lockheart woman would not have won."

"Small consolation," Azul rumbled. "She hits pretty hard and fast, though. You can tell she's a student of Zangan. One of his best. We need a martial arts expert in Deepground. We need to find someone like her. What of the kid, the one you fought, Rosso?"

"An excellent fighter for his age," Rosso said without hesitation. "True, he requires more experience, and he hesitates at hurting people. But woe betide the imbecile who manages to rouse the beast within him."

"That has already happened," came the distinctive rasp of Vincent Valentine, who was standing nearby, his arms crossed. "Sephiroth and Voldemort underestimated Harry's power at their peril. He is young, but his potential is astonishing. If he ever joined SOLDIER, I would imagine his potential to be right up with Sephiroth or Genesis, especially now that he's a Jenova hybrid. The sad truth is, he needs every bit of strength he can get. The resurgence of Sephiroth is always a distinct possibility, but a more immediate concern would be Voldemort. He seems to have gotten it into his head that Harry is his nemesis, and he is a mage of no mean skill. Harry will probably have to fight, or he will die."

"Oh, he has his own nemesis already," Rosso cooed. "I've always wanted a nemesis."

"It's no laughing matter," Vincent said with a glare. "Voldemort may be weak compared to Sephiroth, but his power and the terror he caused was real enough. He murdered Harry's parents and tried to do the same to Harry over a prophecy. He killed people either because they lacked Cetra parentage, or else they opposed him. Harry's parents qualified: his father was from a well-established family that opposed Voldemort, and his mother's parents lacked the ability to use magic. You saw a warrior in him, but even if he hadn't ended up in this world, he may have been forced to become one simply because Voldemort wants him dead. And this man, apparently, has a bad habit of not dying, from what I heard."

"Well, I'm sure that would change once we Tsviets had our way with him," Rosso said with a wide grin. "If he can't die, then he will wish that he could by the time we're through with him. Nero and I are particular connoisseurs of psychological torment. I am an expert in inflicting pain of the body, and Nero, through trapping people in his darkness, is expert at tormenting the mind."

After a moment, Vincent commented, "You'd get on very well with Jenova."

"I know I will. It's rare to meet someone whose bloodlust and ability approaches my own. A shame I have not had much of a chance to speak to her yet. She did promise to use something called a Pensieve to show me her fights against Hojo and Sephiroth, as well as the part of her that still followed Sephiroth."

Vincent looked askance at her, before he said, "Sirius Black often compared you and Jenova to his cousin, one Bellatrix Lestrange. If you and Jenova are any indication, I'm not sure I want to meet her."


In Azkaban, the deranged, wild-haired Bellatrix Lestrange sneezed twice, and scowled. "Some mephitic little Mudblood's talking shit about me. I will turn him into itty little bits. And why do I get the feeling I'm never going to meet kindred spirits?"

"Stop whinin', Bella!" snarled her husband (and the guy who pimped her to Voldemort) from the next cell over.

Bellatrix subsided sulkily, and went back to reminiscing about the time she used the Cruciatus Curse on Frank Longbottom. Ah, that was a good night, making him convulse until he pissed himself…

CHAPTER 6 ANNOTATIONS:

Yep, this story's still going, believe it or not. Since the last chapter, the Cetra Heritage Saga (including this very work) actually got a TV Tropes page, courtesy of EmperorMax2019 (dunno if he has an account on this website). Thanks, EmperorMax2019!

On another note, I have gotten rid of The New Cetra Heritage: Imago, archiving the posted chapters in my new archive/sample chapters compilation, The Cauldron. However, you may not know, but a better revamp of the Cetra Heritage, Vert the Emerald and the Cetra Heritage, has been posted. I mentioned it in the previous chapter's annotations, but it's since been posted. If you haven't read it, give it a whirl. In all likelihood, though, if you're a fan of this story, you've read Vert the Emerald and the Cetra Heritage.

No numbered annotations this time.