Chapter 88: Coming so far.
Everything seemed clouded until finally Subaru was able to tell where exactly was his checkpoint, the exact moment Sephiroth had arrived.
"...fuck."
Beatrice was confused by this kind of comment coming from Subaru for a moment before realizing who it was that had arrived. Subaru looked at Beatrice before giving her a tight hug, catching her off guard.
"S-Subaru?!"
Subaru remained silent as he thought back of the previous loop, how she was left sadden by his death.
"Sorry, I just...needed this."
"...fine."
Beatrice didn't mind it, if anything she felt happy by this...though the timing could be worked on. As Subaru gets back up after the hug, he turns towards Sephiroth has he began to say:
"Isn't this a treat." The one winged angel said this as he's been itching for a fight though something caught his attention, Cloud. "I have been waiting for this moment."
As the one winged angel says this, he lifts his arm up, causing the sky to turn dark.
"I shall show you all despair—"
"El Minya!" Subaru and Beatrice shouted in unison as they quickly started the fight with Sephiroth by attacking first.
As the barrage of purple projectiles were reaching the one winged angel's position, he lowered his arm as he rapidly countered each projectile with his sword.
This gave Subaru enough time to turn towards Cloud to yell:
"Now!"
Cloud understood this and quickly charged in at the one winged angel, seeing this as the best opportunity to strike.
Just as Cloud's sword was about to connect, Sephiroth swiftly blocked his attack while using his wing to block Subaru and Beatrice's remaining projectiles.
Subaru smiled as he knew Sephiroth wasn't going to be that easy to catch off guard, prompting him to turn towards Sora's direction.
'In the last loop, Master Sora didn't participate. If I want things to change, I need him to help...but why didn't he joined in?'
With this question in mind, he quickly carried Beatrice while formchange into the sage attire to move swiftly towards Sora's position. As he was doing this, everyone was on edge as Cloud and Sephiroth were clashing swords intensely.
Al looked at Subaru as he was quickly approaching Sora, seeing that perhaps the keyblade master is the key to victory.
He turned towards Priscilla as he noticed her approaching the battle between Cloud and Sephiroth, realizing that she's planning on joining in.
This prompted him to quickly charge into the fight, wanting to do something before Sephiroth decides to target the sun princess.
'Seems like I'll need to get involved.'
Medium noticed this as well as Rem and Ram, prompting the three girls to quickly charge into the fight to assist Al and Cloud.
Rem and Ram managed to close in first on Sephiroth with Rem firing a couple of water type projectiles while Ram fired a wind attack towards the one winged angel the moment Cloud and Sephiroth pushed each other back.
With this distance, the twin oni sisters' attack had landed on Sephiroth though this didn't cause too much damage. Sephiroth found the two annoying and prepared to target them only for Cloud to swing his sword towards him once again, attracting his attention.
Al and Medium both jumped in and swung their weapons at him to provide Cloud some cover only to be easily pushed back by Sephiroth's sword attack.
"Despair."
As the one winged angel said this, he and Cloud returned into their fight by clashing swords with more force each time. While this was happening, Subaru approached Sora's position.
"Ma—Sora, we need to act now."
"..." Sora turned towards Subaru, having realized that his apprentice and friend was right there next to him. "Subaru."
"What's wrong, Sora?"
"...I'm okay."
Subaru could tell that something was bothering his master and friend, though this was something that could be taken care of after the battle.
"Then we need to fight." Subaru turned towards Louis, having just noticed her. "Louis...think you can help with the fight?"
"We...we can help."
Subaru doesn't like to rely on the former Sin Archbishop of Gluttony, he knows that everyone will need to participate if they want a chance on beating the one winged angel. Louis knew this but wanted to help him, since she owes it to the boy that can return by death. Subaru and Beatrice turned around to look at the fight, noticing Rem and Ram were fighting on close quarters with Sephiroth...well, mainly the two doing their best to avoid getting hit by the one winged angel's sword. As this was going on, Waraki and Julius both prepared to join in on the fight after observing the way the one winged angel was fighting, noticing how fast and strong he is.
"You ready?" The finest knight asked.
"Always." Waraki responded confidently, instigating the two to charge at Sephiroth right when Ram had gotten hit by Sephiroth's sword, causing her to be knocked out by the fight due to a nearly fatal wound.
"Sister!"
Rem shouted before losing control of her emotions, causing her horn to come on out, activating her oni form. She closed in on Sephiroth and began to go on an all out attack on him, forcing the one winged angel to block away the close range attacks. Eventually Rem in her enraged oni form had managed to land a kick on her opponent, having done some damage though it wasn't enough to have stun him as he looked at her with a sadistic smile.
"Impressive, that tickled a little."
"Die!"
Rem swung her morningstar in an attempt to kill her opponent by aiming for his head only for her opponent to easily dodge the attack. This gave him the opening he needed to eliminate Rem with a single swing. Before he could kill her though, Waraki and Julius combined their strength to block away this attack, saving Rem in the process.
"You are not going to kill her!"
"Hm."
Sephiroth looked at the two knights for a moment before turning towards his right side, noticing Cloud closing in on him.
"Sephiroth!"
The one winged angel pushed Waraki and Julius back before blocking away Cloud's attack. As the two knights were forced back for a moment, Julius managed to recover fast enough to summon one of his quasi spirits to attack their shared opponent.
"Ia, now!"
The fire quasi spirit created fire around itself as it approached Sephiroth's position only for the one winged angel to suddenly teleport away from them.
"What the?!"
Waraki was surprised by this, seeing that they will need to take care of another opponent that can just teleport out of the fight whenever he feels like it. Everyone took a few seconds to look before Subaru shouted:
"Right above!"
Everyone looked up upon hearing Subaru's words, seeing that Sephiroth was floating up, looking down on everyone. At first he looked with a blank expression before smiling as he raised his arm up.
"Give in to the dark."
As he said this, a large number of dark orbs appear as they start targeting everyone while he looks around to see who his target should be, wanting to save Cloud for last. As he was observing everyone blocking away his attack, he noticed Arakiya jumping towards his position to fight him.
"Well." Sephiroth lowered his guard as he saw the second divine general approaching him in rapid speed, curious to know what she will do. He waited until he saw her fire a deadly water base attack at his head, prompting him to block it away with his wing. Once he did this, Arakiya closed the gap as she started to attack in close combat. Sephiroth dodged each of these attacks unimpressed before swiftly managing to land a kick to the divine general's chest area.
"Disappointing."
Right before he could dispose of his current opponent, he felt someone trying to attack him from a distance, prompting him to quickly move out of the way from a random explosion from the position he was at. As he succeeded in dodging this specific attack, he looked around to see who was responsible for this attack. After a couple of seconds, he spotted the source of the attack, that being Priscilla Barielle. The sun princess was wielding the Yang Sword Vollachia, making it clear that she was the source of this attack.
"Fascinating."
This intrigued him enough to where he decided to take her on instead. As he rapidly approached her position, Al got in between the two as he blocked the attack.
"You won't hurt princess!"
"Oh. Is that so?"
Just as he was about to attack Al, he suddenly stopped himself.
"Interesting. That ability of yours is similar to hers."
Al was unsure on how to respond except to go for another attack on Sephiroth. Subaru recognized these events as in the last loop the one winged angel had cut off Al's arm though because Waraki and Tiga were still able to fight in this loop, they quickly interfered with the one winged angel's attack.
"I'm not done yet!"
"You won't win!"
Waraki and Tiga both spoke at the same time, each of them motivated by separate things to achieve victory. As the two were prepared to fight Sephiroth, Yorna as well as Kyda, Cloud, Arakiya, and Julius all stepped in to attack the one winged angel at once. Subaru took note of this yet he knew that this won't defeat their shared opponent. He turned towards Louis to see if she's ready for his plan.
"Remember, follow my every command."
"Understood." Louis said as she along with Subaru turned towards Sora, seeing that he was looking at Sephiroth's direction with a stern look.
"Sora, will you be able to fight?" He asked this since he knows his master must be exhausted from all the fighting he's been going through. Sora continued to look at the one winged angel before slowly turning towards his apprentice.
"I'm okay, Subaru. I'm ready to fight."
"Then let's kick his ass together!"
As Subaru smiled at his master, Sora gave a weak smile before they began to go assist the others with Subaru holding onto Beatrice while Louis stayed close to Sora. As the four were approaching Sephiroth, the one winged angel quickly disposed of Yorna and of Kyda from the fight by landing fatal injuries on them. Kyda took it the worst as she was almost decapitated though Yorna took the hit. Waraki saw this and immediately tried to intervene but all that ended up happening was him getting sliced on his chest area.
"hk!"
As he received this fatal wound, Rem quickly threw her weapon towards Sephiroth's direction, managing to counter Sephiroth's attack on Waraki, preventing him from killing him with a second hit.
"Die!"
As she threw her morningstar once again towards Sephiroth's direction, the one winged angel looked at her with an serious expression before suddenly slashing her stomach area with all of his strength, leaving her wounded. As this stunned everyone, especially the two keyblade wielders.
"S-Sephiroth!"
Cloud tried to stop the one winged angel from harming Rem anymore but unfortunately, Sephiroth swiftly landed another hit on Rem. This time having aimed for something that even shocked Ram, Rem's horn. In a similar manner to how Ram lost her horn, Rem lost her horn thanks to Sephiroth swinging his sword directly at it at full strength.
"Sister!"
"..."
"Rem!"
Sora was stunned for a second all the while Subaru felt an increasing amount of anger.
'I...I can't reverse this…can I?'
This was something he feared since he doesn't want Rem to suffer this kind of irreversible injury...but he can't just reset the world. He needs to keep fighting with all his strength until the very end. As he along with Beatrice and Louis close in on Sephiroth, Subaru turns and notices that Sora had suddenly stopped.
'Master Sora?'
Just as this happened, Sephiroth took his chance at attacking Subaru due to him not paying attention.
"You shouldn't look away from despair."
Just as Sephiroth was going to strike down the boy, Subaru turned around and was preparing to go for a counter only for Louis to quickly get in between the two and take the hit, effectively being cut in half.
"Louis!"
Medium, Subaru, Beatrice, and Sora all four shouted as she sacrificed her life for Subaru's sake, despite how much she didn't want to die. As Louis's both halves collapsed to the ground, Beatrice looked at the one winged angel with hatred as she pointed her hand towards him.
"You will die a miserable death, in fact! El Minya!"
With the purple projectiles appearing extremely close to Sephiroth, he got hit by the barrage of projectiles summoned by the Great Spirit. As the purple smoke began to cover the area, Subaru quickly joined in on the attack by having his shadows from his sage attire to quickly fire directly onto the one winged angel.
"I'll make you suffer dearly, you piece of shit!"
Subaru didn't care for Louis, still disliking what she had done to him at the watchtower but watching her die in such a gruesome way...it left him angry at Sephiroth. As the purple smoke was fading away, Sephiroth attempted to slice Subaru and Beatrice apart.
"No you don't! Shamak!"
As he creates a dark cloud around him and Beatrice, he uses the shadows from his sage attire to block away the attack.
As he parried this attack with his shadows, Cloud quickly used this opportunity to start throwing a barrage of attacks onto the one winged angel.
"You'll pay for that, Sephiroth!"
As he shouted this, he began to glow a dark blue aura as bits of darkness were starting to seethe in his heart.
This cause his strength to slowly increase rapidly as he was starting to match Sephiroth's speed.
While Cloud was taking on Sephiroth, Subaru and Beatrice were able to keep a distance just as Priscilla, Medium, Al, and Tiga jumped to assist Cloud in pushing the one winged angel into a corner.
While they were attacking Sephiroth, Subaru and Beatrice both rushed to Rem's location along with Sora after the Keyblade Master had snapped out of his stunned trance. As the three were right with her, Sora was the first to call out her name.
"Rem!"
"...S-Sora-kun...R-Rem's...sorry..." Rem spoke weakly as she was trying to use all her ounce of strength to speak.
"Don't force yourself, Rem. Rest." Subaru turned towards Beatrice to ask her: "Is it possible to heal her?"
Beatrice was silent for a moment as she prepared to try and heal the oni sister only for someone to shout:
"Watch out!"
Sora and Subaru both had their respective keyblades up, prepared to protect Rem and Beatrice only for this attack from Sephiroth to be blocked away by a pissed off Ram.
"Ram."
Subaru and Sora watched as a powerful aura of wind was surrounding the pink haired oni maid, with her facial expression being one of pure hatred and wrath.
Ram slowly approached Sephiroth's position as she watched Tiga and Medium be taken down by a couple of sword attacks.
Priscilla attempted to take the one winged angel down right when he had his guard open only for him to almost eliminate her.
Al had protected her but ended up losing a leg in the progress.
Sephiroth had only sent a fireball at the keyblade wielders direction to see if Sora will join the fight, having been excited for a rematch with him.
With Ram back in the battle, she menacingly spoke out:
"I'm going to make you suffer, you piece of shit."
Once said this, she swiftly charged towards the one winged angel's location and attempted to slice off the man's head from his shoulders.
'Impressive.'
Sephiroth thought to himself as he swiftly dodged away her killing attack.
He smiled as he started to swing his sword at her, each attempt to kill this worthy fighter.
Ram knew that she can't keep up in this form forever, making it her mission to eliminate the one winged angel.
Subaru looked at the current situation, seeing that this loop is done for now that he has lost many of his allies.
"I just..."
Subaru took a step back as he looked back at Rem, seeing that she's permanently damaged.
He turned towards Cloud and notice that he was oddly looking like he's struggling to stay standing.
"Beako...stay here. I'll be right back."
"Subaru!"
As Beatrice shouted his name, Subaru ran all the way towards Cloud's position to see what's wrong with him.
"Cloud. What's wrong?"
"..."
Cloud was just standing still with the dark blue aura slowly increasing with each second that past. Subaru noticed this and quickly approached him to shake his body.
"Hey! Cloud!"
"...huh?"
Cloud's dark blue aura had disappeared once he was moving around.
"What happened to you?" Subaru asked, knowing that Cloud was in some kind of trance.
As Cloud looked at him, he immediately noticed someone behind the boy, prompting him to quickly get his sword out and ready for a fight.
Subaru turned around and was shocked that the keyblade master known as Xehanort standing with No Name Keyblade out.
"Xehanort? The hell are you doing here?!" Subaru was surprised that the dark keyblade master was here unlike in the previous loop. Xehanort just looked at the boy for a moment before turning towards Cloud.
"You. That darkness in you might prove useful to me." As Xehanort said this, he charged towards Cloud to commence their match. "Now, show me that darkness in your heart."
Cloud was caught off guard by this and quickly blocked away Xehanort's attack, forcing the warrior to turn his focus onto the dark keyblade master.
Subaru immediately realized that with Xehanort back in action, they are truly screwed.
Right before he could react, Sephiroth had went straight for him.
"What—?!"
Subaru tried to react but it seemed like he was just struck down by the one winged angel before he even had a chance to fight.
'What? Why?'
He looked around before seeing that Ram was killed before she could even land a hit on him.
'Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! How did things get so fucked?!'
With these thoughts rushing into him, he turned around to see that Beatrice was in shock by him being taken out as well as Sora.
'Master Sora. Beako. I'm sorry, I couldn't do anything this loop...'
As everything started to fade away, the boy steeled himself as he realized what he needs to do.
'To beat this man, I'll need to focus on Cloud and Sora. They are the key to victory.' As he was thinking this, he recalled that Sora had a sad smile when they were preparing to join in on the fight. Prior to Louis having been killed by Sephiroth. 'Why did you had such a sad face?'
"Subaru!"
The boy returned back to the checkpoint right when Sephiroth had arrived, leaving Subaru stunned for a second.
He turned towards his right side to see that Sora was stunned as well, as if fear had hit him.
He then turned his attention to Cloud, noticing that he was also stunned but the anger in his heart was slowly showing.
'So, that's where the darkness in Cloud suddenly appears.'
But as he thought this, he turned and saw Xehanort leave the fight, making him question:
"Why did he return?"
"Huh? What are you talking about, I suppose?" Beatrice questioned, catching Subaru off guard.
"S-Sorry, I was speaking out loud." As Subaru apologized, a thought came into mind. This prompted him to turn towards Beatrice once again. "Hey Beako, I have an idea."
"Hm?"
Beatrice turned towards her contractor as he began to ask his question. While this was going on, Sephiroth looked around with interest, seeing so many warriors. This made him speak with a smile on his face:
"Isn't this a treat." He says this as he's been itching for a fight though something caught his attention, Cloud. "I have been waiting for this moment."
As the one winged angel says this, he lifts his arm up, causing the sky to turn dark.
"I shall show you all despair."
With those words being said, he prepared to attack Cloud first, wanting his rematch with him only to notice Yorna and Kyda to attack him. This was a drastic change as Subaru expected since in the last two loops, it was he and Beatrice that started the bloodbath war with the one winged angel.
'So, this is who would start it if it wasn't going to be me and Beatrice.'
As he was interested by this, he turned towards Beatrice to ask her:
"What do you think?"
"...it can work, but it'll take both our mana combined."
Having to account for this, Subaru feels that it's a twenty to eighty percent chance of success to failure.
'This guy is fast. That's what makes it difficult to see this attack working...but it's all I can think of.'
He quickly looked back at the fight, seeing that Yorna was able to keep up with the one winged angel with Kyda being backup for the divine general.
Priscilla looked up as she watched the two female warriors giving it their all to win.
Sephiroth continued to be on the defense, slowly beginning to find this boring.
He easily sliced the chest area of Kyda before kicking her to the ground with enough force to kill her ten times over.
As she crashed to the ground, Waraki was the first to approach her swiftly to check on the Shudraq warrior.
As he checked on her, he noticed her eyes were glowing with fire with all her wounds also burning for a few seconds before being healed.
"What the?!"
"..."
Kyda was slowly getting up with the one winged angel having noticed this while blocking the divine general's attacks.
"Interesting."
Seeing someone being able to survive quite a kill attack made him interested just how far he can go before this healing factor gives up.
He dodged one of Yorna's attacks before slicing her stomach area before kicking her away in order to turn his attention to Kyda.
"Let me bring you despair!"
As he charged right at her, Waraki stepped in and barely was able to block away the attack.
As he barely held his ground, he shouted at the one winged angel:
"I won't let you harm her, you son of a bitch!"
As a knight, he can't stand as someone like Kyda gets attack by a fiend like Sephiroth, prompting him to prepare himself for death.
'I know this guy's too strong for me alone...but I'm still a knight of Lugnica. I won't stand by and watch as everyone else fights this monster.'
As he held his sword high and mighty, Sephiroth gave him a look of interest, curious to see how long before this knight falls.
He swung his long blade to see just how fast Waraki can keep up only to be surprised by how he was able to keep up.
"For a knight, not too bad."
As he was beginning to increase his speed, Waraki was determined to keep going only for Julius to swiftly join in right when Sephiroth had caught an opening to eliminate the knight.
"Huh?"
"Careful, you don't wish to be killed here, do you?"
Waraki looked and saw that the finest knight had managed to cover him on his blind spot, allowing him to still be on this fight.
"Thanks, Julius."
Julius nodded before he turned back towards Sephiroth, confident that the two together can take him on.
His swords were drawn as the finest knight's sword began to glow a rainbow as he countered a few of Sephiroth's attacks.
Waraki assisted as the two were able to work together to push back the one winged angel to buy time for the others to join in.
As the two were giving it their all, Cloud managed to get his head together as he charged in and began a one on one with the one winged angel.
"Sephiroth!" As Cloud shouted this, he gave it his very all when clashing swords with him, having his body burn with the blue aura from before.
'I'll push my limits to beat you!'
As he thought this and continued to clash swords with Sephiroth, Subaru and Beatrice approached Sora and Louis, having noticed the keyblade master was standing still like on the previous two loops.
"Sora! Snap out of it!"
"..."
"Master!"
As he shouted this, Sora slowly turned towards Subaru's location as he saw his apprentice and friend along with his contracted spirit right next to him.
As he saw him and Beatrice, he turned back towards Sephiroth and Cloud's battle, seeing his friend hanging in there.
Subaru slightly shoved Sora as he began to say to him:
"Look, I don't know what's wrong Master...but I need you to snap out of it, please."
"..." Sora was still silent but he had noticed what was said by Subaru, prompting him to take a deep breath before finally being ready for battle. "Sorry Subaru, I shouldn't act like this."
"It's fine...but I'm going to need you...and Louis's help."
He still hated her...but after how she chose to sacrifice her life for his, despite fearing death, is what makes it somewhat easy to ask for help.
"Louis, please help me with this plan."
Louis remained silent as this was the first time the boy was asking for her assistance...especially after what she had done to him.
"W-We will do our best!"
Subaru nodded at her before beginning to lay out the plan to his master and the former sin archbishop of gluttony. Once this was all laid out, Louis turned towards Sora to see what did he think about the plan.
The keyblade master remained silent for a moment to think. While he was processing what was told to him, he turned towards Sephiroth to see that Cloud was still clashing with him on his own. Just before going with Subaru's plan, a thought came to mind.
"Subaru...you sound positive on this plan of yours. Did you...came back?"
"Came back?" Beatrice and Louis both questioned with their heads tilting. Subaru was silent as he had a feeling that his master would ask him this once he laid out the plan. He looked the side and with a simple number, "2.", he confirmed that he had indeed looped back. Sora's eyes had suddenly saddened by hearing this.
'I...I failed...to save Subaru...to save the others...'
These thoughts were plaguing his mind but then he recalled Subaru's plan, seeing that this might work.
"Okay. Let's do it, Subaru."
"Yeah. And don't worry Sora, we won't lose."
As Subaru said this confidently, he turned towards Sephiroth's direction to see that Cloud was starting to be pushed back. Eventually Sephiroth managed to disarm his opponent as he prepared to strike him down.
"How disappointing, Cloud."
"He's not done yet!"
As Julius shouted this, he blocked away the attack Sephiroth was intending to be a deadly blow before Tiga and a recovered Yorna jump in. Yorna went for a kick while Tiga attempted to stab the one winged angel in the face.
"This is the end, you evil angel!"
"Is that so?"
Sephiroth dodged the two attacks before going for a counterattack, causing Julius to quickly block away this attack.
"You won't harm any of them."
As the finest knight shouted this, Priscilla and Al were closing in.
"Princess...are you sure it's safe for you to—"
"This is my fight, you buffoon. The world brought me here to eliminate this fallen angel."
Al didn't like this at all, but he knew that he wouldn't be able to convince her, prompting him to then instead fight by her side and be her sword.
"Well then princess, allow me to be your sword."
"Hmph." Priscilla didn't care for that and just summoned her Yang Sword Vollachia for battle. Once he was close to the one winged angel, she swung her sword in an attempt to burn her opponent into dust only for Sephiroth to quickly block away the attack with his sword.
"Nice try."
As he said this, he prepared to create fire pillars to burn away his opponents only for Al to close in and swing his blade right for the one winged angel's neck. Sephiroth sensed this and immediately teleported himself out of the area. This was something that shocked them all, prompting them to look around with caution.
"Where did he go?"
As they were looking around, Sephiroth appeared above them as he prepared to summon a barrage of meteors. He lifted his arm up as he began to say:
"Accept the darkness."
Once this was said, he summoned a large amount of meteors to head towards everyone in the battlefield, prompting Cloud and Arakiya to quickly destroy away these said meteors.
While this was going on, Sephiroth took this chance to look around and see who would be the best target to eliminate. When he spotted Kyda, he was once again curious to know how long her healing factor will keep up.
As he went to target the shudraq warrior, Subaru began to implement his plan by having Louis and Sora charge in and protect Kyda first in order to be in close range to the one winged angel.
As they closed in on Kyda's location, Sora was the one with Kingdom Key in hand to block away Sephiroth's attacks. The one winged angel was shocked to see the keyblade's chosen one once again.
"It's been a while, Sora."
"..."
The keyblade master didn't want to speak with the one winged angel yet he was prepared to fight him until Subaru and Beatrice can implement their plan. As he blocked away each of Sephiroth's attack, his opponent had noticed that the keyblade master was being pushed back a bit to easily.
"What's the matter, Sora? You were stronger than this in our last encounter."
"..."
Sora continued to be on the defense, slowly starting to lose his strength with each hit. Louis realized this and quickly went for a counterattack on the one winged angel.
"Leave Sora-kun alone!"
Louis shouted as she went for a kick on Sephiroth's face. The one winged angel avoided this and swung his sword towards Louis's face only for said attack to be blocked by Sora.
"I...I won't let you hurt her...!"
As Sora said this, he quickly took the opportunity to start attacking Sephiroth, seeing that he has an opening. As the keyblade master along with the former sin archbishop of gluttony worked together to push the one winged angel back, Cloud jumped right back in to join his friend.
"Don't worry, Sora, I got your back."
Sora looked at Cloud for a brief moment before turning his attention back to Sephiroth, feeling his confidence increasing once again. As the two warriors and Louis were on the offensive, Subaru and Beatrice saw this as the best chance to go for the finishing blow.
"Ready, Beako?"
"Always."
As she confidently said this, Subaru put away his Rebirth Keyblade before carrying his contracted spirit on his back all the while starting to run towards the location of the fight. As they close in, Beatrice prepared her body for all of the mana she has remaining on her. Subaru waits for the right moment before shouting:
"Now!"
Once shouting this, Louis and Sora quickly took the lead in the fight against Sephiroth, knowing that they need to quickly push the one winged angel right towards Subaru and Beatrice's direction. As this was accomplished, both gave it their all in their combined attack:
"Al Shamak!"
With every ounce of mana in them, as well as Subaru using the wrath witch factor to boast the power, covered the area with dark cloud like attack, causing Sephiroth's sense to be stunned for a couple of seconds before sensing that he's being trapped in a different dimension.
"Hm. What a shame."
He quickly moved towards the fading light that was the dimension his opponents and Cloud were at. Right as the portal was closing in, Subaru wanted to make sure that Sephiroth didn't try to escape right at the last moment by pointing his keyblade at closing portal while shouting:
"Mega flare!"
A small fireball created by the tip of Subaru's keyblade flew off towards the closing portal and managed to connect to the one winged angel the moment he tried to escape. Since he didn't notice the attack, he took the attack head on.
Once Subaru's attack connected, it exploded violently which pushed Beatrice and Subaru back. Everyone watched as the fire and consumed the one winged angel, prompting most to start lowering their guard.
"That crazy boy." Waraki said which caught Kyda's attention.
"He can be reckless."
"Indeed. I've never seen him not be reckless." Julius added, having thought back on the events of the Pleiades watchtower. Rem and Ram both looked at Subaru with a smile, having expected this by the one trained directly by Sora.
The Keyblade Master and Louis both lowered their guard a bit with Louis feeling like it's over while Sora as well as Cloud both being unsure if Sephiroth would even be beaten by an attack like that.
("I admit you're very skilled... But apparently, Cloud is the only one who can eliminate me. Tell Cloud to come here. Tell him Sephiroth is looking to settle things.")
"He's not...!"
Sora paused himself as Cloud quickly jumped up to protect Subaru and Beatrice from Sephiroth as he charged right in at the two, ready to kill the pair. Just before he could pull that off, Cloud got in between the two and blocked the attack.
"Cloud."
"Sephiroth."
The two said each other's names as they prepared to continue their one on one fight. While this happened, Subaru was annoyed by this outcome.
'What the hell?! That should've worked! Dammit!'
Frustrated, he kicked the ground once he managed to get up though once he did that, his mind suddenly felt a sudden dizziness.
"What...the...?"
"You should rest, in fact. Your body needs to recover."
Beatrice warns her contractor, also feeling weak from the attack due to it using up all of her mana. Just as it seemed like she was going to collapse to the ground, Louis quickly grabbed her to prevent her from falling to the ground. The great spirit looked at her and just closed her eyes and with a blank expression she said:
"Thanks."
Louis just nodded at her before helping her sit on the ground to rest up.
While that was happening, Sora looked at Cloud and Sephiroth's fight, being reminded of their previous fight in Radiant Garden before disappearing.
He wondered if things would end the same as before…this thought would scrap the moment he saw someone new join in the fight.
"Garfiel?"
As Sora questioned this, Subaru and Beatrice both turned towards the direction Sora was looking to see the Shield of Sanctuary jump in between the Cloud and Sephiroth similar to how he did in the city of Chaosflame.
"Aight asshole, th'Shield'f Sanctuary's here!"
As he shouted this with pride, he closed the gap between himself and the one winged angel before beginning to throw a flurry of punches.
Sephiroth at first didn't recognized the boy and was just dodging the attacks.
After a couple of dodges, he eventually remembered Garfiel Tinsel, the boy that had interfered with his fight with Cloud once before.
"Hm. Annoying boy."
Sephiroth attempted to slice off Garfiel's head with one simple and clean counterattack only for the demi human boy to have reacted fast enough to avoid said attack.
"Hm?"
"Nice try!"
Garfiel quickly closed the gap once again and nearly landed a punch on his opponent's face, prompting the one winged angel to be intrigued by this.
"Interesting. You have grown stronger."
"Yea, I'm gonna be th'strongest warrior in all of th's world!"
"Is that so?"
Sephiroth teleported away for a moment in order to gain the advantage on Garfiel, wanting to see if the boy can keep up with him now that he's taking the fight a bit more seriously. The demi human boy realized this yet he was able to keep up, if barely.
He blocked away as many attacks as he could while dodging the ones that are too fast for him to block with his twin shields.
While he was doing this, Cloud and the other fighters look at how Garfiel Tinsel was keeping up with the one winged angel.
This prompted Waraki, Julius, and Kyda to join the fight by attacking Sephiroth's back side.
Kenichi and Naoko looked at Garfiel and Sephiroth's fight for a moment before turning towards Subaru's direction, noticing that he's tired.
This prompted the two parents to approached their son, wanting to check up on him and on Beatrice. Once they approached the pair, Naoko was the one to say first:
"Are you okay, my baby boy?"
"...yes, mother. I'm okay. Just need a moment."
As his mother was checking on him, she eventually turned her attention to Beatrice, seeing that she also looks exhausted.
"How about you little Beako, are you hurt?"
"...I'm okay..."
Beatrice felt a bit embarrassed as well as nervous since she's still not accustomed to the motherly love Naoko was showing her. Naoko had noticed this yet she didn't care since Beatrice was a part of the family similar to how Garfiel and Frederica became a part of their family when Kenichi decided that they should adopt Garfiel.
Kenichi looked at his family for a moment before turning his attention towards Sora and Louis, noticing that the two were not taking this time to rest up. He approached the two to check on them.
"Yo, Sora, something's wrong?"
"...hm?" Sora was lost in thought during the entire time Garfiel had been facing Sephiroth on his own, surprised by his arrival. Once Kenichi spoke to him, he turned his attention towards Subaru's father.
"...I'm alright, just...waiting."
"Waiting, for what?"
"..."
Sora was silent from here as a sudden explosion had caused them to turn back to the fight going on, seeing that Garfiel was using his divine protection to attack from a distance by slamming his foot on the ground.
This caused Sephiroth's position to explode though the one winged angel had managed to avoid this attack one second before it happened. As he had avoided the attack, he turned around and noticed the two knights and the shudraq warrior closing in on him and going for an attack.
Sephiroth looked at the three before blocking away Julius and Waraki's sword attacks with a simple parry of his long sword while dodging Kyda's kick. As he did this, Priscilla and Arakiya had both taken this chance to attack the one winged angel.
Priscilla and Arakiya both attacked from a distance, with the second divine general using water magic to attack from a distance and Priscilla using the Yang Sword Vollachia to attack from a distance once again.
Sephiroth easily blocked away the attack from the divine general while moving out of Priscilla's attack. The sun princess noticed this and quickly took this opportunity to charge in and swing the powerful fire based sword at the one winged angel.
Sephiroth swung his sword towards her direction, causing both weapons to clash. Once the two clashed with everything they have, Priscilla was slowly getting overwhelmed.
The one winged angel's strength was eventually overwhelming Priscilla to the point that she was forced to break the blade lock they were in to avoid getting overpowered and possibly killed by her opponent.
As she jumped back, Arakiya took this opportunity to start fighting close to close combat with the one winged angel. She threw a flurry of punches at her opponent with everything she had in her, all motivated to impress and protect Priscilla.
Sephiroth dodged the attacks with ease though before he could even counterattack, Yorna jumped back in and started to go work in sync with Arakiya's flurry of punches with her very own.
Sephiroth looked at the two female warriors, impressed that they are able to work together to push him a bit into trying to dodge the attacks with some effort.
"Die!"
As Arakiya shouted this, she stopped on her tracks and quickly started to use fire to try and burn the one winged angel to a crisp. Yorna noticed this and quickly jumped back to avoid getting caught by the flames created from the second divine general.
Sephiroth looked at Arakiya with a serious facial expression as he used his wing to block away the fire from consuming him. While doing this, Rem and Ram took this chance to combine their attack together for an ultimate attack.
"Al Huma!"
"Al Fura!"
With this attack, it managed to hit Sephiroth's wing with enough force to push him back. Cloud noticed this and took the opportunity to use every ounce of strength remaining in him to charge at the one winged angel, determined to end this fight once and for all.
"Sephiroth!"
As he shouted this, the one winged angel quickly moved his blade into defensive position to block away Cloud's attack, noticing that this is all of the warrior's strength in one hit.
As the attack connected and both blades ended up in a blade lock, Cloud was using everything he had in him to push his opponent back with his body producing a strong bright blue aura. Everyone looked to see Cloud managing to overpower the one winged angel, making it seem like the battle is theirs to win.
"We have to help him." Subaru said as he got back on his feet, having a small amount of strength he can use. As he said this, he pulled out Rebirth Keyblade once again before using the formchange, knowing that this'll get him to Sephiroth and Cloud's position faster. Before trying to reach their position, he turned towards Louis and Sora to tell them:
"We need to help Cloud, and fast!"
Louis and Sora noticed what Subaru said, agreeing that they need to help while they have the upper hand.
Although Naoko wants the three of them to rest, she understands that this is a war and that if there's a chance for victory, they need to take it.
She along with Kenichi and Beatrice watch as Subaru, Sora, and Louis do their best to reach Cloud and Sephiroth's position.
Sephiroth was waiting until Cloud's strength was starting to decrease in rapid pace before attempting to counterattack. Before he could even have the chance, Subaru used the shadows from his attire to hold Sephiroth in place to give Louis and Sora a chance to land a couple of hits on him.
"Let's see you escape this, asshole!"
Subaru shouted as blood started to come out his nose and ears, using Canis Majoris to add more strength to his shadows coming from his formchange attire.
'This is the last chance we have to take this bastard out! I'll put it all on the line to make sure Sora and...Louis take this fallen angel out!'
Putting his faith on this, Sora with Kingdom Key and Louis using all of her strength from her fist landed their strongest hits on the one winged angel. Cloud saw this and knew that it was now or never, prompting him to swing his sword right at him.
"This is the end for you, Sephiroth!"
Right as he was about to defeat the one winged angel, Sephiroth's eyes started to emit some darkness with his body suddenly breaking free from Subaru's shadows.
"What?!"
As Subaru said this, he began to cough some blood as his wrath witch factor turned off, having been overused and strained the boy's body.
'Fuck!'
As Subaru was trying to do his best to stay standing on his feet while Sora and Louis quickly went on the defensive once the one winged angel pushed away Cloud before turning his attention towards the two.
"I will show you despair."
He swung his blade with the Keyblade Master quickly managing to barely block away the attack while Louis did her best to dodge the attack.
As this happened, Tiga and Al rushed into the battle and swung their blades at the one winged angel, trying to draw his attention away from them.
The one winged angel looked at the two and wasn't bothered by them as he viewed Tiga as a nobody and Al as an annoying peasant.
"That's enough."
He swung his blade at the two, managing to break Tiga's sword all the while Al was barely able to keep him and Tiga safe.
"Allow me to face him." Al said as he got in front of Tiga, seeing that he's the only one capable of facing the one winged angel since his sword was still intact compared to Tiga's.
Sephiroth looked at Al for a moment before swinging his sword in rapid speed, attempting to end this fight quickly only for Al to somehow block the attack.
The one winged angel gave him a stare before swing his sword in rapid speed once again and once again having been blocked by the one arm warrior.
"Within this territory, you won't win."
"Oh really?"
Sephiroth started to throw a barrage of attacks on Al, trying to push the one arm warrior back only to see that he was somehow keeping up. This made Sephiroth to increase the speed and strength behind of his attacks, beginning to overwhelm Al.
'Shit. The territory's starting to break.'
As he thought this, Garfiel had just managed to join the fight right when it seemed like Sephiroth had gained the upper hand. The boy blocked away an attack from Sephiroth before attempting to throw one of his own, wanting to defeat the one winged angel before he had a chance to gain the upper hand on them.
As he was throwing a barrage of punches at the one winged angel, Sephiroth dodged each of these attacks with some effort before going for a counterattack. This would be blocked away when Julius stepped in to protect the demi human boy.
"Careful, he's a lot stronger than he was a moment ago."
"I know! I know!"
Garfiel responded slightly aggressive as he can sense this opponent is far stronger than possible Ansem and Xemnas separately. Determined to win, he pays close attention to Sephiroth's next move in order to see how he will counter it.
Once he saw the one winged angel preparing to strike, Garfiel swiftly managed to react correctly by moving forward and using both his twin shields to block away the powerful strike.
"Yer a tough bastard!"
"..."
Sephiroth remained silent as Garfiel looked at his shields, seeing that Sephiroth's attacks are strong enough to cause some damage to his shields.
'Th's guy's just on another level!'
As Sephiroth went for another attack, Garfiel managed to once again block away the attack with his shields cracking even more from the impact. Julius saw this and quickly stepped in to try and push the one winged angel back with everything he had.
As his sword connected with Sephiroth's, the finest knight began to use all of his techniques to try and gain the advantage on his opponent, knowing that the best he can do is outwit his opponent rather than overpower him.
While he was able to keep Sephiroth for a bit, the others one by one started to join in with Priscilla slowly approaching the fight before swinging her blade right at the one winged angel's direction.
Sephiroth noticed this and blocked it with some ease only to see Arakiya and Yorna both approaching him from both sides in rapid speed. This prompted him to quickly create dark orbs to keep the two away.
"Th't won't work!" Garfiel shouted as he quickly tried to land a punch on him, forcing him to dodge this attack. Once he did this, Medium and Kyda jumped in and tried to land their own hits only for the one winged angel to be pushed to teleport away from the fight for now.
This forced everyone to be on edge as they are aware how dangerous Sephiroth is. Cloud slowly got up as he was at his limit.
'I can't fight like this...I'll be killed if I don't get a potion.'
As he thought this, he looked around before having finally spotted Sephiroth.
'...No, I need to make a stand. We have him cornered now, so it's my chance to get rid of him for good this time.'
Cloud kept pushing himself to stand tall with his sword ready for battle, having a strong determination to defeat the one winged angel. Just before anybody else could spot their shared opponent, Sephiroth calmly lifted his arm up while saying:
"Descend, heartless angel."
Cloud and Sora's eyes widen when this was said as they were immediately aware by this. A halo appeared on top of Sephiroth for a moment before disappearing, forcing both the Keyblade Master and the warrior to shout:
"Watch out!"
Everyone noticed what the two had said, prompting them to look up to finally see Sephiroth, causing them to prepare for an attack. Right when Garfiel was about to jump towards the one winged angel's location, a halo appeared on top of him.
"What th'?!"
Before he could even react accordingly, a sudden explosion occurred right where the Shield of Sanctuary was standing. The others noticed this as Garfiel was sent flying, looking extremely injured from the explosion.
"Garfiel!"
Ram shouted as she wanted to check on her friend's well-being but her attention was turned back towards Sephiroth, angered by what he did to him. Rem also looked with anger, hating that the one winged angel not only hurt Garfiel but also anger her sister.
Sephiroth lowered his arm for a moment as he looked at all of his opponents, intrigued by how tough they can all be when they work together. This caused him to have a smile as he began to say:
"This is so much fun."
He looked at Julius and Waraki first before swiftly appearing right behind them.
"Know your place."
He swung his sword in an attempt to kill the two knights only for someone new to join in on the fight.
"Hm?"
Sephiroth looked at this new opponent joining in, Heinkel. He had taken a step back to recover his strength before joining in to assist Priscilla and the others in beat the one winged angel.
He looked at Sephiroth with a determined before breaking the blade lock. Once he moved his sword away, he quickly went for an offensive attack only to have said attack be blocked away with such ease.
"Is that the best you got?"
"Don't underestimate me!"
Heinkel shouted as he once again swung his sword directly towards Sephiroth's direction with everything he had. This attack would also be deflected by the one winged angel, looking with a blank expression.
Heinkel continued to swing his sword at his opponent, no matter how many times his attacks get easily blocked away. Eventually Sephiroth prepared to eliminate this non-threat only for an attack from his left side forced him to teleport a few feet back from where he was standing.
As he did this, the barrage of icicles thrown towards him had crossed in front of Heinkel which caused him to turn towards the direction the icicles had come from. Subaru's eyes widen as he knew exactly who that was.
"Emilia-tan..."
Subaru had a smile on his face since it felt like a year had gone by since he's seen that beautiful girl he's engaged with. Sora was happy to see Emilia, knowing from just a simple glance that out of everyone, she's currently the strongest with the amount of energy she has compared to the rest of them.
Garfiel was slowly getting up once he noticed Emilia had arrived to the battle, determined to keep fighting. Just before he was able to get up all on his own, Otto approached him and assisted the demi human boy in getting back on his feet.
"You can be really stubborn, Garf."
"I'm aware. But still, th's fight's got my blood boilin'."
"Of course it does."
Otto shook his head, understanding Garfiel's desire to fight strong people. Once back on his feet, the Shield of Sanctuary was slowly regaining his strength thanks to his divine protection.
"Whatever th't guy did really hurt...but I'm not out just yet!"
"Try to be careful." Otto warned, worried that Garfiel might actually get himself killed this time, having seen the sudden explosion that had occurred to his friend a moment ago.
"I know, th't's why I got ya t'back me up."
Otto just sighed when hearing this though he also smiled, seeing how much his friend trusts him. The two turn towards Emilia's direction as she looked at the one winged angel with a serious expression.
"Stop right there, villain."
"..." Sephiroth turned towards the silver haired half elf. "Who are you?"
"Emilia, just Emilia." As she said this, she pointed her hand towards him with a couple of icicles behind her being formed. "Stand down."
The one winged angel had a blank expression when hearing this, not really caring what she was saying though he was interested to see what she's capable of.
The moment his expression changed into one of a sinister smile, he charged right at her and was about to land a fatal hit on his opponent only for her to dodge the attack just in the nick of time.
Emilia looked at Sephiroth with a determined look as she commenced her counterattack, having her icicles attack him right were he stood. The one winged angel noticed this and quickly countered this by destroyed the icicles with one swing of his long blade.
Emilia noticed this and immediately changed tactics by creating a few Natsuki Subaru ice clones to push back her opponent all the while she creates two ice swords to fend off against the one winged angel in close quarters.
Sephiroth looked at these ice soldiers with a blank expression before easily taking them out. Once this was done, he turned towards Emilia to eliminate her only for his attack to be countered by her ice swords.
As Emilia was in a blade lock with the one winged angel, Heinkel looked at the fight before quickly joining in by getting in between the two and clashing swords with Sephiroth.
"You are my opponent, not hers!"
As the father of the current Sword Saint shouted this, he thought back on how his son had robbed him of his previous fight, taking it into his own hands to face Young Xehanort.
This anger allowed him to keep up with the one winged angel for a small amount of time, using his anger has a motivation to keep his body moving.
Though just before Heinkel's temporary advantage could disappear, Emilia joined in and assisted in countering Sephiroth's relentless attacks.
"What the hell are you doing, half-devil?! This is my fight!"
"It's our fight!" Emilia shouted as she quickly attempted to stab the one winged angel's neck. "We are strong when we fight together."
"She's right!" Julius shouted as he and Waraki joined the battle. They assisted Emilia in attacking the one winged angel, wanting to keep him on the defensive as they know he can kill them at any point if he gets the opportunity to. Sephiroth was slowly getting annoyed, prompting him to create fire pillars to burn his opponents as well as wanting to push them back.
Just as the fire pillars were about to come up and burn Heinkel, Waraki and Julius, Emilia quickly let one of her ice swords go to try and counter one of the closer fire pillars to them. As she was creating powerful amount of ice to counter the fire pillar closest to her, Garfiel pushed himself to move Heinkel and the two knights away from Sephiroth's attack as well as Emilia's counterattack.
"Watch out!"
As Garfiel shouted this, he was hit by Emilia's ice though it was a minor injury all the while he had succeeded in getting Heinkel, Waraki, and Julius away from danger. Emilia had managed to destroy one of the fire pillars to allow her a chance to attack him.
She swung her other ice sword at Sephiroth's direction, trying to stop him only for the one winged angel to counter this attack.
As the two were on a blade lock, Otto quickly closed in on the fight to see how he can be of some use. He can't really fight in terms of combat but he knows he can provide support with his earth mana magic.
'Careful Emilia-sama, this one will take advantage the moment you let your guard down.'
This was the thought the merchant had, having heard the stories of Sephiroth from Cloud during their journey to the capital of Vollachia. Emilia was struggling to keep up with Sephiroth's abnormally increasing strength but she was ready to break the blade lock once she had an idea on how to push her opponent back. The moment an idea came to her mind, she jumped back the exact moment Sephiroth managed to break her ice sword.
As Emilia jumped back, she posed as she released an ultimate move on Sephiroth. With both hands together out in front, focusing more magic than ever before it was shot off like an arrow. The magic did not take the shape of ice, but was simply a load of destructive energy. Sephiroth was barely able to dodge the attack, with his wing being injured from Emilia's attack.
"Impressive. That actually did damage."
Emilia gave Sephiroth a look before creating another set of two ice swords. Once these were made, she pointed one of them at the one winged angel.
"Last chance villain, stand down."
As she spoke in such a serious tone, Sephiroth couldn't help but smile, seeing another worthy warrior to take down. He grabbed his sword with both his hands before swinging the blade at Emilia's direction, creating projectiles directed towards the silver haired half elf. Emilia was caught off guard by this and quickly dodged each of these projectiles directed towards her, with only one of them cutting bits and pieces of her silver hair.
"Emilia-tan!"
Subaru shouted, worried for her sake by this sudden ability from the one winged angel. Everyone looked with an annoyed expression, seeing that their shared opponent was holding back his skills, prompting them all to prepare to assist Emilia. Rem and Ram were to first to help by combining their range attacks together once again, wanting to give it their all to land a devastating blow to the one winged angel.
As their attack was rapidly approaching towards Sephiroth's location, he sliced through the attack with his sword. Right when this happened, Priscilla swung her sword at Sephiroth after closing the distance between the two.
He looked at the sun princess, noticing that she was using her full potential right now. Sephiroth pushed Priscilla for a moment to allow himself to go on the offense, swinging his sword directly at her direction. She was able to block away some of these attacks before Heinkel blocked away one of Sephiroth's attacks that was about to hit her.
"Priscilla-sama, this fight is mine."
"Then prove it."
With those words being said, Heinkel once again motivated himself with anger but he also added that he wished to see his wife awake once again. He wished to be by her side at this moment and show her how strong he's become.
This bought time for Julius, Kyda, Arakiya, Al, Medium, and Yorna to join back in the fight and start attacking the one winged angel. As they were on the offense, Subaru turned towards his father and mother.
"We need to use that ability, together."
"Do you even have enough mana to pull something like that off, my amazing son?" Kenichi questioned, knowing that his son was at his limit. Subaru looked at his father for a moment before turning his attention towards Beatrice, seeing that she's still sitting down, barely able to be conscious.
This made him think of how they can help finish the one winged angel off in one big attack.
'When Beako and I did our ultimate move, it didn't work because he had enough time and distance to escape it. Perhaps it has to do with how he's smart compared to the great rabbit.'
He started to think back to something Daphne had said to him, Sora, and Emilia in a failed loop:
("There may be many of them Subarun, but they all share one consciousness. They don't have the wisdom to avoid being killed or anything.")
'Sephiroth wouldn't just allow himself to be killed compared to the Great Rabbit, that should've been something to account for.'
With this in mind now, he approached his parents.
"I have an idea to help beat this guy but we will need to do it right."
Naoko and Kenichi looked at each other for a moment before turning back towards their son.
"Okay my baby boy, tell us how we can help."
"Yes, we are listening."
Subaru began to lay out the plan to them, this time having everything accounted for, including his very limited strength he had left in him.
While this was going on, Sephiroth managed to knock many fighters out with the only remaining ones being Emilia, Heinkel, Rem, Priscilla, and Ram.
Otto was standing in the back, keeping a distance while preparing to protect the others were getting ready to attack the one winged angel.
"Only five left. How disappointing."
"Don't look so smug, asshole. You are the one who will die here." As Heinkel said this, he charged in first at Sephiroth, still having enough energy to take him on alone.
Ram and Rem followed behind him with Emilia and Priscilla being the last ones to charge in at Sephiroth, everyone giving it their all to stop this monster.
Rem swung her weapon first at Sephiroth, prompting him to block it, giving Ram her opening to go for another wind based attack.
"Fura!"
As she did this, Emilia quickly added an attack of her own by creating a couple of icicles to fire directly towards the one winged angel's direction. This also prompted him to deflect these attacks away which allowed Heinkel to take the offense of the fight.
As he swung his sword, Sephiroth managed to quickly block away the attack.
Heinkel was caught off guard by this yet he kept swinging his sword to try and land a hit. Priscilla would eventually join in and assist in pushing Sephiroth back, with her Yang Sword Vollachia burning hot with each swing of the blade.
Emilia would also join in and start swinging her two ice swords at him, prompting Sephiroth to block away the attacks. These attacks keep going until Sephiroth managed to disarm Heinkel right when he was about to swing his sword once again at him.
"What?!"
"Know your place."
Sephiroth prepared to eliminate the man only for Otto to quickly use Ul Dona to create a thick wall to block away the one winged angel's attack.
'I won't let you harm anybody else!'
As Otto thought this, Sephiroth was suspicious of this sudden ability, prompting him to inspect the area for a brief moment before blocking away Emilia and Priscilla's attacks. Within the three seconds of inspecting, he had spotted Otto.
With just spotting the merchant, it gave him all the information he needed to know that he needs to be killed. He continued to be on the defensive for a moment before using his full strength to break Emilia's ice swords first before turning his attention to Priscilla.
The weapon she was wielding had a similar aura to the keyblade Sora and Subaru wields but unlike those weapons, this one seemed to emit danger to those that can't wield it.
The one winged angel was aware of this but he was curious if he could destroy the weapon, prompting him to start swinging a barrage of attacks on the sun princess.
These attacks were rapid that eventually one of Sephiroth's attacks would hit her, causing one of her jewels to suddenly break.
"Princess!" Al shouted as he was about to join back in the fight only for Subaru to implement his plan at this moment.
"Now!"
Once he shouted this, Kenichi and Naoko both pointed their hands towards Sephiroth's direction.
"El Minya!"
As the pair shouted this, a barrage of purple projectiles was created.
The one winged angel noticed this yet he wasn't fazed by this kind of showing since he's dealt with it before.
Subaru accounted for this, knowing how confident the one winged angel usually is after seeing an attack.
Using the small energy he had, he quickly prepared to use the unseen hand, being the last resort he has against Sephiroth.
'Invisible Providence...don't fail me now.'
He closed in where Sephiroth's position was in order to have the distance he needed to have his unseen hand reach the one winged angel.
The moment he was within range, he quickly used the sloth witch factor to go and grab Sephiroth to keep him in place.
Once this happened, he quickly turned towards Emilia's direction.
"Emilia-tan!"
That being said, Emilia's heart slowed down for a moment has she had missed hearing that voice of the boy she's in love with.
She turned towards his direction and at first she was overcome with feelings of joy as she's reunited with her knight.
Unfortunately, those feelings would immediately shift into fear as she can see that he's using his Invisible Providence move since his eyes are starting to tear up blood as well how strained he looked.
"Subaru!"
"D-Don't worry about me!" Subaru shouted, using all of his will to keep fighting. "I need you to go all out, now!"
"Huh?"
"You can do it...Emilia-tan..."
Subaru was slowly losing conscious as his mind was starting to lose its grip due to how much pain the boy was in. Emilia was silent as she turned towards Sephiroth, seeing that this was the opportunity she was given by her beloved knight.
Her worried expression turned to a serious one as she knew what exactly she needed to do to help achieve victory against the monster that is the one winged angel.
"Everyone, stand back."
The second she said this, those around her began to feel the temperature drop significantly. This prompted them to get out of the area to avoid being caught by Emilia's attack.
As everyone was keeping their distance, Emilia looked at Sephiroth with a strong determined look as her ability, known as Absolute Zero, began to be implement. Emilia's trump card freeze the atmosphere around her to such a degree that a vacuum is created, consuming Sephiroth into this vacuum.
While this was happening, Naoko and Kenichi's duo attack was thrown towards the one winged angel to make sure that this combine attack works. Arakiya, Rem, and Ram joined in on this as well, adding their own strongest attack to make sure Sephiroth is down for good.
Subaru wasn't accounting for this, but he was happy that others were joining in as this would for sure put an end to the one winged angel.
'That should be the end of you...jackass...'
Subaru waited a minute before turning off the sloth witch factor, no longer feeling that he needs it since he can feel the intense cold of Emilia's trump card attack reaching him.
'She wasn't kidding when she said this attack is an ending battle attack.' Subaru paused his thoughts for a moment before smiling. 'That's just so cool.'
Everyone was on guard for a moment before seeing an ice sculpture of Sephiroth remaining with two sets of colors, one being the color of ice and the other being the color purple.
This made everyone feel relieved for this moment as it is shown concrete evidence that the one winged angel as been taken care of.
Emilia took a moment to breath, calm herself down before turning towards Subaru, seeing that he's still standing.
"Subaru!"
Emilia shouted as she immediately started to run towards his position, with Subaru smiling happily as he can be with Emilia once again.
"What a disgusting sight."
'Oh shut it you.'
"It is disgusting to think you've won this battle."
'The hell are you talking about?'
"That thing isn't something to take lightly. It is much more powerful than you idiots perceive."
'What the hell would you know?' Subaru was preparing to ignore Vanitas only for something he said within his mind to catch his attention.
"That attack would've worked on majority of people, perhaps even the old master himself, but against that thing..."
*Crack*
'What?!'
"That thing won't go down by an attack like that."
Subaru was shocked when he saw that the frozen Sephiroth had suddenly moved in rapid speed.
"Emilia!"
He shouted this as he quickly attempted to save her life from Sephiroth. Emilia noticed Subaru's shout of concern, prompting her to turn around but before she could even move to check on the one winged angel, something pierced her back as she felt a strong sting.
"...!"
"EMILIA!"
Subaru shouted with tears in his eyes, something in him breaking as he has to witness Emilia die for a second time. The first time was when he attempted to tell her of Return By Death, this being the second time for him.
"Seems like you'll learn your lesson now for taking this fight lightly."
There wasn't anything more painful but to watch the woman he loves dying in such a brutal way. Sephiroth looked at Emilia, his body damaged from Emilia's absolute zero move.
"I will say that attack wasn't too bad. Unfortunately for you, only Cloud can kill me."
"..."
Emilia cough out some blood before collapsing to the ground the moment the one winged angel pulled out his sword from Emilia's back.
Everyone was in shock with Sora and Subaru taking this death the most.
Sora collapsed to the ground on his knees, seeing how useless he was in stopping this from happening.
Subaru remained standing still, feeling time had suddenly stopped.
Sephiroth looked at the silver haired half elf for a second before turning towards Cloud, seeing that he's barely able to stay standing.
"Hm. Another person you have failed."
Cloud looked at the one winged angel with hatred, causing darkness to start sinking into his heart, causing a dark blue aura to slowly emit. While this was happening, the one winged angel turned his attention towards Subaru, viewing him as the second most dangerous fighter here.
He pointed his sword towards him while having a serious facial expression before charging towards the boy. Subaru just didn't care to move at this point, accepting his fate only for his father to step in and protect his son by barely blocking away the attack.
"Subaru! Snap out of it!"
"..."
Subaru looked at his father for a second before seeing the one winged angel easily breaking his guard before easily striking the man down.
"Dad!"
Once again, his witnessed his father die.
"Sephiroth!"
Cloud shouted as he charged in with darkness slowly consuming him, allowing his body to keep on fighting.
Sephiroth swiftly swung his sword to clash with Cloud, causing the two to be in a blade lock.
While this was happening, Subaru collapsed to the ground with nothing but despair.
'I can't...I can't let...this loop keep going...without Emilia...without dad...'
Naoko and Beatrice both approach Subaru quickly, Naoko trying to stay strong as she knows that Kenichi gave his life to protect their son.
"We need to go, now!"
Naoko and Beatrice pulled Subaru's arm in order to get the boy to move.
As the two were getting the boy away from danger, Sephiroth easily overpowered and disarmed his opponent.
Cloud's darkness may have come in handy in keeping him fight but he was already too tired to hold out for too long.
He looked at Cloud with a serious expression before sending him flying with a strong hit of his wing.
"Await your turn, Cloud."
Once saying this, he turned his attention back towards Natsuki Subaru, immediately charging at him.
"Ya ain't hurtin' th'Cap'n!"
Garfiel shouted as he got in between Sephiroth and his target, determined to keep fighting with all he's got to avenge Emilia.
He blocked away one of Sephiroth's attack before another was blocked by Otto's intervention, having still enough mana to help in the fight.
"Don't worry, Subaru-san, Garfiel and I will handle him."
The merchant says this as he stands right behind Garfiel Tinsel, determined to protect his friend from the one winged angel no matter what.
Subaru looked at the two before being pulled by Beatrice and Naoko, trying to get him out of danger.
While this was going on, Louis turned towards Sora to see him on his knees, broken.
This prompted her to go and hug him, wanting to comfort the boy. Sora slowly turned towards Louis, seeing that she's doing her best to help him despite the situation.
He had a sad smile as he knew that Subaru would eventually loop, especially considering that the moment Roswaal knows...it's all over here.
'Seems like I can't do anything on my own...right Donald? Goofy? Riku?'
With these thoughts on his mind, Sora just essentially gave up all the while Subaru was being taken away from the battlefield and deeper into the capital of Vollachia, with Naoko and Beatrice's attempt of hiding the boy from the one winged angel.
As the three enter a room, Naoko turns towards Beatrice to tell her:
"Watch over him, I'll be right back."
Beatrice nodded at Naoko as she held Subaru's hand tightly while Subaru's mother investigated the area, trying to keep her composure in check.
While she went off, Beatrice looked at Subaru's eyes and could see that he was still in extreme shock.
"S-Subaru...?"
"..."
"Please...say something..."
Beatrice was extremely worried for Subaru's sake as he was looking dead, as if the person inside was completely dead.
She hugged the boy, understanding his pain before her attention turned towards Naoko as she ran towards the two.
"We have to leave, and fast!"
With her saying this, the ground began to shake which caused Beatrice to be on high alert.
Subaru was still processing everything that has transpired on this loop but the earthquake did help him return back to reality for a moment.
He looked around and noticed that the sky was getting brighter all of a sudden.
"Wha...?"
"Let's go!"
Naoko pulled on Subaru's arm as she wanted to do her best to keep her son alive, wanting Kenichi's sacrifice to not be in vain.
As Naoko and Beatrice were both pulling Subaru out of the building the sky continued to get even brighter with each second that past, prompting Subaru to look up and see that something was coming their way...though he didn't even the strength both mentally and physically to counter this attack.
Even if he had a way to, he just doesn't care anymore.
"This is how the world will end now. The so-called hero giving up."
'...'
"What? Staying silent on me? Man, how pathetic can you get."
Subaru remained silent as he just looked at the light rapidly approaching the three.
"Subaru!" Beatrice shouted as she prepared to use her life force to counter this attack. Before she had a chance to use Al Shamak, the light had hit them. In Subaru's final moments, he thought back about something.
During their travel to the capital, there was a specific conversation he had with his master.
("What will you do after this is all done?" Subaru questioned since there was that deal his master had made with Priscilla. "Are you going to go into her camp after this is all done?")
("Not sure." Sora said at first as he placed his hands behind his head. "I haven't had a chance to think about it.")
("Well, do you want to be in her camp? You've been very friendly with her.")
("...I don't know. I'll decide after the fight." Sora was silent for a few seconds before following that up with: "What about you? Aren't you excited to see Emilia once this is over?")
("Of course! I haven't seen her in over a month...well since coming to this forsaken place!")
("That's a bit mean to say." Flop added in, having overheard Subaru's complaint of his home land.)
("I mean it is the truth." As Subaru said this, Sora and Flop chuckled by the way he was acting, causing them to feel less tense from what the battle ahead will entail on them. Subaru takes a moment to calm himself down before laughing alongside his friends.)
("Well then, hopefully we get this done soon so you can go see Emilia again.")
("Yeah, I hope so." Subaru said as he looked up at the sky, thinking of Emilia. "I'll make sure that when I reunite with her, I'll make sure to hold her tightly.")
Those words burned in his soul, only because he refuses to ever see Emilia die, even if it isn't the last loop of the current situation. Recalling this memory had caused darkness to enter his heart in the last few seconds before being killed by a bright light.
"I...I will kill him."
The world was slowly fading back into color as the dark void was beginning to turn back into light, back into the moment where Sephiroth was about to start the fight. There was a momentary pause as Subaru was recalling the current failed loops.
He had witnessed Waraki be killed after protecting him in the first loop as well as Julius being brutally killed via burning. Rem lost her horn in the second loop as well as Ram being enraged by it which lead to her death.
Louis having died right in front of him despite how he still dislike her and how she didn't want to die. He had to witness his father die once again as well as watch his family be broken up by one of his deaths.
And the most biggest sin that Sephiroth had done...killing Emilia in such a gruesome way after having reunited with her in such a long while. All of this pain caused the anger he had felt in the last loop to come back to him, tenfold actually.
As this anger was increasing within each second he looked at the one winged angel, darkness slowly was entering his heart.
'I want him dead...I Want Him Dead...!'
Just as this thought was going through his mind, a dark aura could be seen around him with Beatrice being the only one to notice this.
"Subaru?"
"..."
As the darkness started to increase within the boy's heart, filled with pain and hatred, exploded.
"Subaru!"
Beatrice shouted as she was sent flying a few feet away all the while Subaru was screaming in both anger and agony. This sudden explosion and scream had caught everyone's attention, especially both Sephiroth and Xehanort as this was something unexpected to happen.
"Well, isn't that interesting." Xehanort had sensed before the darkness in Natsuki Subaru's heart but what he did not expect was to also sense him in there as well. "You always impress me, Vanitas."
As he said this, he created a corridor of darkness to leave the area, entrusting everything on Vanitas. While the old keyblade master was leaving, Sephiroth looked at the darkness covering Subaru's body, interested to see how strong the boy will be in this form. He lowered his guard to see when this little transformation had finished.
While he was waiting, everyone looked in shock, more specifically Beatrice, Naoko, Kenichi, Sora, Louis, Waraki, and Julius. All of them were not sure what was happening but they knew it wasn't anything good.
After a minute had passed, the darkness eventually stopped and would eventually fade away from Subaru's body...only to reveal that the boy was no longer in his usual attire.
His travel attire was no longer what he was wearing, he was now wearing a black and red organic-looking bodysuit. This confused a majority of people except for Sora, who recognized this attire.
"Wait a minute...that's..."
As Sora paused at his words, Subaru opened his eyes to reveal yellow eyes rather than his usual black ones. He took a moment to look at his surrounding before speaking in a manner unbefitting of him.
"This vessel will be how I return to this world." He says this before summoning more darkness around him, fully intriguing Sephiroth. Subaru looks at him for a moment before looking at everyone else. He smiles as he summons a different keyblade while saying:
"Alright then, who's first?"
Author's note:
So there are some things thanks to Tappai that he added that makes me feel like I'll need to re-read this arc and change a few things, which is fine because I can refresh myself with this long arc but as for the new stuff:
Will the great disaster take place in this version of events? No, not necessarily, for now the great disaster is just Sephiroth.
Why was Vanitas able to control Subaru? Well, that goes into why Subaru succumb to darkness. For those that don't recall, after Rem died in Season 1 to Sloth, Subaru RBD and was just in pure rage. This can be said here but add the fact that Vanitas as been with Subaru, it gave way for darkness to strike.
How many chapters are left before we can move to the next arc? 4 left plus 2 short interludes
Well then, I hope you all enjoyed the chapter.