Night was black as ink, staining Midgar’s steel sky pitch dark.
The lights of the Sector 7 slums were like scattered stars, struggling to survive beneath the shadow of the enormous plate.
The five members of Avalanche had already quietly arrived at the outskirts of Mako Reactor 1.
“Everyone clear on their job?” Barret said to the others through the comms, keeping his voice low.
“Jessie, Biggs, you two handle the outer security systems.
Wedge, cover them.
Tifa, Cain, and I will break in from the front and head straight for the core.
Remember, we only have fifteen minutes!” “Got it!” came the brief replies through the comms.
Cain followed behind Tifa, moving through the maze of pipes and iron frames.
The enormous Buster Sword rested on his back, yet his steps were as light as a cat’s.
Their surroundings gave him an inexplicable sense of familiarity, as if he had been here countless times before.
“Cain, are you nervous?” Tifa looked back at him and asked softly.
There was also a hint of tension on her face that she could not quite hide.
Cain shook his head.
He did not feel nervous.
All he felt was a strange pull, something almost like fate, drawing him deeper into the mako reactor.
Soon, they encountered the first wave of Shinra security troops.
“Intruders!
Open fire!” The alarm blared, and bullets came pouring toward them like rain.
“I got this!” Barret roared.
The Gatling gun on his right arm instantly began to spin, spitting out fierce tongues of flame and temporarily suppressing the enemy fire.
“Now!
Cain!” Tifa shouted.
Cain did not hesitate at all.
His figure shot out from behind cover in an instant.
He did not draw his sword, nor did he use that strange demonic arm.
He simply charged into the enemy formation in the most direct, brutal way possible.
He was too fast, too strong.
One security trooper did not even have time to react before Cain slammed into him and sent him flying, the armor on his body letting out a teeth-grating crunch as it caved in.
Cain casually snatched the rifle from another soldier, swung it backward like a blunt weapon, and swept down all the enemies around him.
His fighting style was simple, direct, and terrifyingly efficient.
Barret and Tifa had not even had time to catch up before the path ahead had already been cleared.
“That guy… really is a monster…” Barret clicked his tongue as he looked at the soldiers groaning on the floor.
Tifa’s feelings were far more complicated.
Cain’s strength reassured her, but at the same time, his nearly instinctive and ruthless way of fighting sent a faint chill through her heart.
Was this really the Cain she knew?
As they pushed deeper, the stabbing pain in Cain’s mind grew stronger and stronger.
Fragmented images began flashing before his eyes.
He saw a black-haired, energetic young man carrying the exact same Buster Sword as his, smiling as he spoke to a flower girl.
He saw himself, or rather, a silver-haired man who looked very much like him, standing in a burning village with a bloodstained long sword in his hand.
He saw countless people in black robes, staggering forward like pilgrims as they headed toward some unknown destination.
Those images flashed past in an instant, too quickly for him to grasp, yet they left deep confusion and unease in his heart.
“Cain?
What’s wrong?” Tifa noticed that his face had gone a little pale.
“Nothing.” Cain shook his head and forced those visions down.
Just then, something strange happened.
An eerie ripple suddenly passed through the air, and several ghostlike creatures in black cloaks appeared out of nowhere, blocking their path.
They had no solid bodies.
Their forms were made of some unstable energy, and they gave off unsettling whispers.
“What the hell are those things?!” Barret raised his gun in shock.
Tifa also shifted into a fighting stance, her face filled with vigilance.
But the instant Cain saw those creatures, his whole body shook.
He recognized them.
Or rather, the voice in his head that did not belong to him told him their name.
“Whispers…” he murmured uncontrollably.
These black-robed ghosts were the very creatures he had seen in his earlier visions.
They seemed to be the embodiment of fate, messengers sent by the Planet to correct “changes that should not have happened.” The Whispers did not attack them.
Instead, they circled Cain, spiraling around him.
Their murmurs echoed directly inside his mind.
It was not any kind of language, but a pure transmission of will.
Correct… Return to the proper course… You should not exist… Those wills stabbed into Cain’s mind like countless steel needles.
He grabbed his head in agony, feeling as if his consciousness was about to be torn apart.
His joining Avalanche, his standing here at this moment… all of it seemed to be a “mistake.” “Cain!” Seeing him in pain, Tifa immediately rushed over to support him.
But one Whisper suddenly accelerated and blocked Tifa’s path.
An invisible force shoved her away.
“Stay away from him!” Barret roared, his Gatling gun sweeping wildly, but the bullets passed straight through the Whispers’ bodies and had no effect at all.
Just as Cain was about to be swallowed by the Whispers’ mental assault, the dormant power inside him awakened again.
It was not the Jenova cells.
Nor was it his demonic power.
It was his own soul, his purest and firmest will, the will to protect Tifa.
“Don’t… touch her!” Cain suddenly raised his head.
In his faintly glowing green eyes, astonishing fury erupted.
His right arm demonized in an instant, blue light blazing as it formed a massive demon claw.
He swung fiercely at the Whisper closest to Tifa.
This time, his attack worked.
The power contained within his demonic arm seemed to belong to a system of laws outside the Planet.
The instant it touched the Whisper, the ghost let out a piercing shriek.
Its body was torn apart by the blue light before finally collapsing into countless points of light.
“It worked!” Tifa shouted in surprise.
Cain’s attack was like kicking a hornet’s nest.
All the Whispers abandoned their mental interference and turned to view him as the greatest threat, rushing at him from every direction.
“Come on!” Cain roared and yanked the Buster Sword from his back, gripping it in his left hand.
Sword in his left hand, claw in his right, he charged straight into the wave of Whispers like a berserk god of war.
Every swing of the Buster Sword carried tremendous force.
Though it could not directly harm the Whispers, the immense wind pressure from the blade effectively hindered their movements.
His demonic arm, however, became the deadliest weapon.
Every grab, every slash, precisely tore a Whisper apart.
Barret and Tifa were both stunned.
They had never seen such a violent yet magnificent battle.
Cain’s figure shifted and weaved through the encirclement of ghosts, the enormous sword and savage demonic claw reflecting each other, as if performing a waltz of death.
At last, as the final Whisper was crushed in Cain’s demonic claw, the entire passage returned to calm.
Cain dropped to one knee, gasping for breath.
The battle against the Whispers had drained his mind far more than his body.
The blue light on his arm faded, and it returned to normal.
“Cain!
Are you okay?” Tifa and Barret immediately ran over.
“I’m fine…” Cain shook his head and stood up.
“Those things… what were they?” “I don’t know either.” Barret’s voice still carried lingering fear.
“Never seen monsters like that before.” Tifa looked at Cain with concern.
“Just now… you looked like you were in a lot of pain.” Cain fell silent.
He could not explain to them what the Whispers had murmured inside his mind, nor could he explain the chaotic visions in his head.
All he could do was blame it on his fractured memories.
“We need to hurry.” He changed the subject and looked toward the end of the passage.
“There isn’t much time left.” The others nodded.
They stopped dwelling on what had just happened and continued toward the reactor core.
But a shadow had fallen over everyone’s hearts.
This mission seemed far more complicated than they had imagined.
And Cain, this mysterious man, was carrying secrets far heavier than anyone had expected.