No Flesh Shall Be Spared

"Sephiroth… That's a…nice name, unique name," Jas said with a small nod. "Uh, oh… Right, I, um, bought some clothes for you yesterday. I'll bring 'em up right now," she told him and twisted on her heels towards the door.

"…thank you."

"Huh?" Jas turned back around. "You say something?"

"…thank you for…all you've done," Sephiroth murmured. He raised his head up and laid eyes upon the young woman once more. Jas came near to blushing. She shook her head humbly.

"Oh, no need to thank us. Anyone would've done the same thing," she answered in a tiny chuckle.

"But now…"

"Pardon?"

"You've served your purpose…" Sephiroth rose from bed and stepped toward Jas. She held her balled up fists to her breast in slight hesitance.

"I-I've what?"

"But don't worry, a paradise awaits you where you're going…"

"What…?"

--

"Jas?" Uncle Gio called up the stairs.

Thump.

"Jas? What was that?" He began to ascend the stairs. A little gleam of light caught in the corner of his eye at the top. "Jas, you're up there, right?"

A shadow crept down the steps from above. But it wasn't a shadow for there was nothing casting it. It came down a couple of steps before Gio bent over and warily poked a finger at it. He pulled back and stared. It was liquid, dark…red. It was blood, with fleeting warmth.

"Oh my god… Jas?! Jas!" He bolted up the rest of the stairs, sidestepping the blood. "Jas, are you-"

A figure lay fallen on the floor. His niece, in an ever-widening puddle of black.

"Jas, no!" Gio fell on his knees next to Jas's slain body and drew her into his arms. He cried. "No, no! Why… Jas, you can't do this…"

"Do not shed such precious tears. You'll join her soon enough."

"Huh…?"

Sephiroth came from behind, Masamune in his grasp. He raised it with one hand above his head and swiftly brought the blade down upon the unsuspecting man. He grinned as the sword drove through with ease. The man went down without even so much as a gasp from the sheer force of the bloodthirsty blade.

"Now, you'll be together. And the Planet will receive you with open loving arms," uttered Sephiroth, as with both hands gripping the hilt of his sword, he drove it in further, piercing the hardwood floor. He snickered.

Arise. Rise from your grave of earthly light and earthly blood. Let your strength supreme shed the shadow of final and holy judgment upon the wicked and ungodly. Harvester of sin, be reborn. Reclaim what is rightfully yours… The world.

"Yes…Mother. That is my one sole purpose, to step up to my right as heir to the Planet. To be ruler…agh!" Sephiroth was swept off his feet by sudden agony in his chest. His heart pounded so hard he felt it would leap out onto the floor. He clutched his chest, reeling in quivering breaths. His muscles became taut. He laughed. "Yes… I will become a god once again. And no one will stop me…AAAHHHH!"

--

"C'mon, kids. Out of the snow and inside. It's time for lunch," called a woman to her children. Two brothers frolicked outside while building a snowman. They groaned in disappointment at the sound of their mother's call.

"Mom," one of them whined.

"You heard me. Inside. Now."

"Aww," both kids moaned. They trudged sullenly back to the house.

One of the siblings stopped in his tracks. "Hey, bro, what's that?"

"Huh?" They both wheeled round. "Whoa, what IS that? Looks like somebody turned a green light really high in that house over there."

"That's where Jas lives."

"Kids!"

The ground commenced a low rumbling that made the sibling boys cling fast to each other. Shafts of green shot up from the snow here and there. And the rumbling turned to shaking and the shaking to quaking and the quaking to…

"Kids, get inside now!" their mother shouted. The boys scrambled across the snow for the safety of their house. The earth under their booted feet fissured, some of it rising three feet into the air and the rest, sinking below, revealing frantic Lifestream. One of the boys tripped when a chunk of earth spontaneously leapt up below him.

"Get up!"

A nearby house split down the middle and collapsed into the Lifestream, dragging its screaming occupants with it. The mother of the children ran outside to help.

"My babies!"

"Mom, wait!"

The ground crumbled.

And came the emerald moonrise of the end.