A foreigner's journey

Jesse felt like he was being led quickly through the mountains and forests by Heather.

Occasionally, there were tree branches with crossbars in their path. Jesse raised his hands and tried to shield his face, only to find that the tree branches passed through him without any hindrance.

It seems that he is just a bystander now, unable to affect or be affected by anything in Claude's memory.

Almost instantly, Heather and Jesse arrived at the Mako Reactor on the top of the mountain.

Passing through layers of pipes and stairs, they finally arrived at the core area. The huge metal steps go all the way up, and at the end is the most secret metal door leading to the interior of the Mako Reactor.

"Tifa!" Jesse was horrified to find Tifa in cowboy clothing lying in a pool of blood. She rushed over to help her best friend up, but found that her hand had passed through Tifa's body.

"That was Tifa five years ago. She was slashed in the chest by Sephiroth. Not only did she break several ribs but also damaged her internal organs. She still has metal plates implanted in her body by the hospital."

Heather stood aside with her hands in her pockets, her voice low and full of anger.

At this moment, there was a huge impact sound from deep inside the door at the top of the stairs, and then a figure flew out from the door, hit hard on the Mako transmission pipe outside, and then hit the ground heavily. He was helpless. He collapsed at the edge of the steps, blood seeping out from under him and flowing down the metal steps.

It's Zack Phil! His destruction sword fell to the side, and he suffered extremely serious cuts. It was Sephiroth's handiwork at first glance.

"Tifa! Zack!"

There were screams in the distance, and Cloud, wearing a Shinra soldier's helmet, rushed over. He first checked Tifa's injuries, and then punched the ground in annoyance. He then ran up the steps and found Zack unconscious.

Cloud lifted up his helmet and threw it aside, picked up Zack's destruction sword and rushed towards the inside of the Mako Reactor.

Jesse and Heather followed closely behind and entered the Mako Reactor together.

I saw a huge cylindrical culture tank in the deepest part of the Mako Reactor. What was soaked in it was a naked woman with a beautiful appearance but no arms. A large number of pipelines and strange biological tissues spread from her body and extended outwards. Red light continued to reflect outward from her eyes.

Sephiroth was facing away from the passage and was gently stroking the reinforced glass on the surface of the culture tank. He murmured to himself: "Mom... let us take back this world together..."

Cloud raised the Destroyer Sword and burst out with unimaginable power. The sword stabbed through Sephiroth's body hard, and the tip of the Destroyer Sword even penetrated from the front of his body.

Sephiroth coughed up a mouthful of blood in disbelief, and tried to grab Cloud backwards, but the opponent suddenly pulled out the destroyer sword. Blood gushed out from the huge wound. Even Sephiroth, the strongest swordsman in the world, shook and then half-knelt on the ground: "You... you are..."

"Mom...Tifa...hometown...you took everything away from me!"

Cloud roared with grief and anger: "I once admired you so much, why did you do this! Sephiroth!"

Sephiroth wanted to speak but coughed up a large mouthful of blood. The blood was mixed with visceral fragments. This injury was obviously hopeless.

"Zacks! Tifa!" Cloud thought of his friends, immediately dropped his destroyer sword and rushed outside. Now that the culprits have been eliminated, as long as they are sent for treatment in time, it will still be too late.

He ran to the steps outside, first helped Tifa and moved her to the wide area in front of the steps, and then ran back to help Zack. As soon as he helped Zack up, he suddenly looked at the door at the top of the steps alertly.

I saw Sephiroth walking out staggeringly, holding on to the door frame. The huge penetrating wound on the surface of his body was still gushing blood. He was holding an authentic knife in one hand and a female head in the other.

Sephiroth knew that he could not remove the entire body of Jenova in this state, so he cut off Jenova's head and tried to take it away.

Noticing Cloud below, the corners of Sephiroth's blood-covered mouth slowly raised: "You...can't...kill me..."

He staggered down the steps and walked outside, blood stains spreading all the way.

Cloud gritted his teeth, and Zack's weak voice came to his ears: "Claude... kill Sephiroth..."

"……give it to me!"

After putting Zack down, Cloud had no time to go back to the cultivation tank to pick up the buster sword, so he had to chase Sephiroth all the way.

Finally, he caught up with Sephiroth in front of a long, narrow metal passage. There are abysses on both sides of the passage, surrounded by constantly rotating gear chains and huge pipes transporting magic energy.

"Sephiroth!" Cloud yelled and chased after him. Just as he was about to grab Sephiroth's shoulder, he only saw a flash of the knife.

Sephiroth stabbed Cloud through with a backhand knife. Even though he was so seriously injured, he still slowly lifted Cloud up with the sword in one hand: "Don't touch her..."

Jesse, who was standing aside, covered his mouth and watched the brutal duel with horror on his face.

Heather looked at the authentic knife and frowned slightly.

I saw blood spilling from the corner of Claude's mouth, grabbing the blade of the authentic sword with both hands and struggling hard. After all, Sephiroth was too seriously injured, and Cloud struggled with the blade and fell to the metal floor of the passage.

"Drink!" Cloud grabbed the blade with both hands and exerted force, actually lifting Sephiroth who was holding the knife.

"This...impossible..." Sephiroth showed a mixture of shock and anger for the first time.

Cloud suddenly threw Sephiroth out with his knife, and the latter hit hard on the high-speed rotating gear chain, and then fell into the abyss below.

Cloud clutched the fatal penetrating wound in his chest and limped towards the direction of Zack and Tifa. He just walked back to Zack's side and tried to help his friend up, but he couldn't hold it up anymore and fell next to Zack and fell into a deep coma.

At this time, the flames ignited in the sky, the earth, or the distant towns were quickly dimming, and eventually turned into endless darkness.

Jesse looked around: "What happened?"

"Claude's memory of this place has come to an end."

Heather looked up into the dark distance: "Ah, I found Tifa. I'll leave this to you, I'll keep an eye on you."

"Huh? Hey, don't leave me here alone..." Jesse stretched out his hand weakly and watched as Heather disappeared.

Jesse had no choice but to sit there holding his knees, feeling the endless darkness around him.

Suddenly, she noticed a small bright light in the distance, so she ran towards the light. When Jesse ran near the bright light, he realized that it was a young blond boy with a slight fluorescent light all over his body. He was Claude in his teenage years.

Little Claude sat there hugging his knees, raised his eyes to look at Jesse who was running over, hesitated and said:

"Jesse... don't come over here."

"Claude? Is that you?" Jesse was overjoyed. Just as he was about to run over, he was blocked by an invisible wall: "Claude, let me pass?"

Little Claude shook his head and curled up tighter:

"Don't come here... I, I don't want to disappoint you anymore. I'm not what I brag about. I'm not the 1st warrior of Shinra. I haven't done those heroic deeds. That's all Zack's experience. I Just a despicable thief...I'm sorry I let you down..."

"Don't be stupid, Claude, it's you I love, not those deeds. You've never let me down, don't break up with me."

Jesse whispered softly, "Let me go over and give you a hug, okay?"

Suddenly feeling the invisible wall disappear, Jesse walked over and knelt on the ground, holding little Claude in his arms.

As if feeling Jesse's true feelings, the little Claude also hugged Jesse, and his figure slowly transformed into the adult version of Claude.

"Let's go, everyone is waiting for you."

"……Um."