SEPHIROTH ADVENTURE: Sephiroth Vs. Shadow; CH.6

Sephiroth and Tails approached a strange marking on one of the walls of the shrine as Knuckles finished piecing together the master emerald that was shattered in their previous battle with Megabot. When he was finished, he joined the others and explained to them what the marking on the shrine meant. KNUCKLES: "In order to enter the sacred Shrine Temple, you must be worthy of the Chaos Emeralds. See that indent? Place the emerald you have right there, and the door should open." Sephiroth, who has been very quiet lately, did so, and the door to the Shrine Temple flew open.

The three began descending a large staircase that seemed to go on forever. When they reached the bottom, they found themselves in a huge underground chamber, and the darkness was countered only by a few torches that were hardly lit. They soon found themselves in a maze that seemed to lead in circles. More hieroglyphics were on the walls in the maze. Knuckles interpreted them as "Those worthy of Chaos will find the way." When they read this, they grabbed their Emerald, just in case.

For two hours, they wandered around the seemingly endless maze, and they noticed the emerald started to react to one of the walls. They noticed there was a crack in the wall that they were next to. Knuckles did the honors. One punch and the wall shattered. A door was revealed, and behind the door was a small room with three pillars, on each was a Chaos Emerald. Sephiroth approached a pillar, and reached for the Emerald. KNUCKLES: "NO! Sephiroth NO! Don't touch that!" But he was too late. By that time, Sephiroth snatched the Emerald. The room began to crumble, and everything began to collapse. KNUCKLES: "We gotta get outta here! Grab the other Emeralds and RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!"

As they quickly stormed out of the room and back through the winding maze, walls collapsed, which made their escape a little easier. They saw the staircase, but it was blocked by some large chunks of stone that had fallen. Suddenly, the emeralds began to glow, and so did Sephiroth's "Chaos Sword" as he now called it. It glowed even brighter than it did before. He then thought for a minute, and drew his sword. TAILS: "We hafta go NOW!" So Sephiroth ran towards the stones, glowing sword in front of him, and plowed through them almost effortlessly. The three ran up the staircase as fast as they could, and just made it out before the temple was completely collapsed, and the shrine of the Master Emerald began to sink into the ground, so Knuckles grabbed the Master Emerald, moving it to safety, and they watched the shrine of the Master Emerald quickly sink into the ground and disappear.

Later that day, Tails, Knuckles, and Sephiroth returned to Knothole Village, and Knuckles met with Princess Sally. She agreed to keep the Master Emerald in the village as a temporary safe hiding place for it. Sally approached Sephiroth and once again tried to talk to him. SALLY: "So, um…what did you say your name was?" Sephiroth said nothing. TAILS: "It's ok, Seph, you can talk to Sally, she's on our side." Sephiroth was just staring straight ahead of him with a frightened look on his face. SEPHIROTH: "Oh my God, how did he find us here?" Tails and Sally saw no one. Sephiroth charged with his sword drawn. SEPHIROTH: "I'll kill you Cloud! I'll kill you!"

Everyone thought he was hallucinating. He stopped, and began to shout. SEPHIROTH: "Come back here you coward! CLOUD!" He was on the ground shouting, and everyone was becoming worried. Sephiroth stood up and walked off. SALLY: "Your friend has problems. Maybe you should try talking to him." KNUCKLES: "It's no use, he doesn't want to talk about it, whatever 'it' is". Sephiroth was sitting under a tree with his eyes focused on his "Chaos Sword". He thought to himself "What is this thing? And why was it just laying there in the middle of nowhere? And why does it react to the emeralds?" By this time he noticed Shadow standing directly in front of him. SHADOW: "We have something to finish, Sephiroth." Shadow drew his strange chainsaw sword thing, and Sephiroth picked up his Chaos Sword. They stared each other down, and stood there in the night air, prepared for battle…