Chapter 857 - 856: The Whisper Harbinger's 'Mini-Me' Tactic Backfires."

Being in the very epicenter of the raging tornado and tightly pressing Aerith to himself so that she would not be carried away by the hurricane stream of air, Alex simply could not help swearing out loud about the absurd situation they had once again found themselves in.

While they were being spun at frantic speed inside the tornado, Alex was desperately trying to locate the rest of the friends with his gaze, strongly worrying about their safety—for in the first seconds, when the entire group had been picked up by the stream, he had managed to catch only Aerith on the fly, and that solely because she had been carried in dangerous proximity to him.

Briefly warning Aerith to prepare for the inevitable collision, Alex pressed her more securely to himself, completely covering her fragile body with his torso. And the moment he completed the maneuver, they slammed at full speed into a huge chunk of concrete road, which from the force of the impact instantly shattered into small fragments.

Feeling absolutely no discomfort from this powerful impact—except for a slight anxiety that his favorite black shirt might tear on the back—Alex began quickly and concentratedly looking around in all directions, searching in the chaos for the remaining members of the group.

He could have, without any particular problems, destroyed this gigantic tornado in a single movement, but he deliberately restrained his true power, as he always did, wanting to fully find out exactly what Sephira was aiming for.

Distracted for a fraction of a second, Alex heard Aerith's frightened cry, in which she was desperately warning him that the ascending stream was carrying them straight toward yet another gigantic fragment of the overpass. Quickly looking back and noticing the concrete slab rushing straight at them, Alex did not want to smash through barriers with himself again and sharply spun around in the air.

At full speed Alex slammed with a deafening crash feet-first into the flying piece of torn-up road. From the monstrous inertia of the collision this massive chunk of concrete immediately spun into a wild rotation right in the middle of the flight.

Deeply digging his fingers straight into the concrete rubble so that they would not be thrown off by centrifugal force, Alex pressed Aerith to the surface, holding her in place by force. Feeling this mad, dizzying rotation, Aerith convulsively clutched the black fabric of Alex's shirt with her hands, tightly wrapping her legs around his waist.

"Hold on to me tighter, I'll think of something right now!" Alex roared over the whistle of the wind, feverishly looking around and figuring out exactly how they could stop this frenzied spinning piece of road.

"I'm already holding on with my last strength! A little more—and from this stupid rotation my dress will ride up higher than it should!" Aerith cried desperately in response, wrapping her legs even tighter and denser around Alex's waist.

"Did you absolutely have to start a conversation on that topic at exactly such a moment?" Alex asked again with slight amazement, lowering his gaze to Aerith and accidentally squeezing his fingers harder, almost crumbling the piece of concrete under his hands.

"I just don't want you to see that right now!" Aerith shouted with all her might in response, blushing and pressing tightly to his chest, feeling how she was quickly beginning to get carsick from the crazy carousel.

For a brief moment Alex was slightly taken aback by such a situation, but immediately quickly pulled himself together. He perfectly understood that in this peculiar way Aerith was simply trying to hide her growing nervousness about what exactly awaited them at the very end of the path.

Feeling how the rotating piece of road on which they were located was soaring higher and higher inside the enraged tornado, Alex resolutely slapped his palm against the concrete surface. And at that very same moment the dangerous carousel sharply ceased its frantic rotation, although the ascent toward the heavens did not stop at all.

Still pressing Aerith to the cold concrete so that she would not accidentally be blown away by the most powerful stream of air, Alex managed to make out the floundering and loudly swearing Barrett, who was being wildly tossed in the center of the storm.

Noticing how a heavy iron beam was rushing at Barrett at enormous speed, Alex instantly stretched his hand to the side and clenched his fingers into a fist as if he had invisibly grabbed something. The moment he made a sharp swing of his hand, a huge chunk of broken concrete flew with a whistle exactly in the direction where Barrett was being helplessly tossed.

Barrett himself at that moment already saw the deadly beam rushing at him and squeezed his eyes shut, preparing for the inevitable impact. But in the next fraction of a second the massive fragment at extreme speed flew past and smashed the flying obstacle to pieces.

Barrett did not even have a single opportunity to at least try to comprehend what was happening when the raging stream of air picked him up with new force, carrying him even higher into the thunderclouds. Observing how the cursing Barrett was being pulled into the heavens, Alex quietly laughed, continuing to carefully scan the space in search of the remaining members of the group.

But by this moment the floating piece of road on which Alex and Aerith were stuck had been lifted to a dizzying height, after which it smoothly froze in place, opening from a bird's-eye view a panorama of the entire mirrored, silent Midgar. The moment the wild howl of the wind finally died down, Alex stopped pressing Aerith to the asphalt and rose first, extending a hand and helping her up.

Straightening to his full height, Alex slightly frowned, mentally calculating what exactly was supposed to happen next, and at the same time looking around in search of the remaining friends, sincerely hoping that they had not had to, like him, work as a living battering ram for clearing the path.

"Are you okay? Is your head spinning badly? And most importantly—did your dress accidentally ride up higher than it should?" Alex inquired with a sly smile, casting a glance over Aerith's figure for possible bruises.

"My head… Yes, it's still spinning a little. But overall I'm completely fine. Probably. How wonderful it is after all that you turned out to be nearby, my permanent hero. Well, and as a small token of gratitude…" Aerith answered, embarrassed, pressing her palm to her forehead, looking warmly at Alex, after which she resolutely rose onto her tiptoes and lightly pecked him on the cheek.

"You know, generally I prefer to receive one-hundred-percent payment right away, but a modest advance will also do. However, there's definitely no point in rejoicing ahead of time—this is far from the end," Alex said with a smile in response, unhurriedly lighting a thin cigar and shifting his gaze upward, where innumerable streams of Black Whispers were rushing with a deafening whistle.

"Yes, you're right, this is still far from the end. The Harbinger is finally awakening… And he will try with all his might to return absolutely everything to its former places," Aerith said with a heavy sigh, anxiously looking around and observing how from all ends of the world the astral rivers of Whispers were converging into one gigantic funnel.

"Let this freak better return me all those nerves that I irreversibly spent during this insanely long day," Alex grumbled, exhaling a thick stream of gray smoke through his nose, narrowing his eyes at the sight of the slowly emerging purple portal from the rupture.

Unhurriedly bringing the thin cigar to his lips and deeply inhaling the aromatic smoke, Alex carefully observed the rapidly expanding purple portal, from whose depths the Whispering Harbinger was about to appear any minute.

Exhaling a thick ring of gray smoke into the darkening sky, he thoughtfully tilted his head when dense purple fog, pierced by discharges of electric lightning, poured from the formed rupture. Slightly narrowing his eyes, Alex made out how inside this horrible fog the gigantic silhouette of the Harbinger was forming at incredible speed.

And at the sight of the impressive dimensions of this creature Alex was even slightly surprised that the colossus turned out to be noticeably more massive and larger than he remembered from his experience in the game. However, looking closer at the details, Alex quickly understood why the characters of the original story had managed to defeat this creature at all.

The main reason was this unique dimension itself, located on the fragile junction between two touched timelines. Like any other astral creature of this kind, the Harbinger was entirely subject to the severe laws of the space in which it was located, which made it vulnerable to quite material, physical influence.

Having drawn this conclusion, Alex again raised his gaze to the colossal body of the monster and clearly noticed in its massive chest a huge, sinisterly pulsing purple crystal, hidden under the dense armor of what was supposed to serve the creature as skin. Not taking his intent gaze from the Harbinger, Alex sharply narrowed his eyes and in that same second lightning-fast covered Aerith with himself.

In the next moment a piercing, grinding screech burst from the giant's side. The shockwave from this cry split in all directions like a crushing typhoon, causing colossal damage and rolling with a crushing echo even to Midgar lying below.

When this sound wave struck the city, a large part of the megacity below was instantly wiped from the face of the earth, and gigantic chunks of concrete and molten metal suddenly tore from their places and began soaring into the heavens, as if an invisible gravitational force was madly attracting them to the center of the anomaly.

Paying not the slightest attention to the roar of explosions below, Alex continued to uninterruptedly watch the Harbinger, still reliably protecting Aerith with his body. When the destructive consequences of the shockwave finally subsided, Alex saw how the Harbinger slowly raised its gigantic hand, forming a small black sphere on its palm.

This sphere with frightening speed grew to colossal dimensions, beginning to mercilessly suck in all the floating objects around. The first thing Alex thought at the sight of this black sphere was that before them was a genuine artificial black hole.

But looking closer, he noticed with surprise that the surrounding fragments that found themselves in immediate proximity to the sphere were behaving extremely strangely: some instantly aged, crumbling before their eyes into fine dust, while others looked as if someone had just turned on reverse time rewind for them.

Alex's eyes instantly flared with bright violet light when he became truly curious about exactly what magic stood behind this sphere. And the moment he better examined the true nature of what was happening, his lips twisted in disgust from dull irritation.

"No one, damn it, even warned that this bastard is capable of creating a full-fledged Temporal Rift!" Alex swore loudly, watching with annoyance the chaotic flow of time around the rotating black sphere.

"But he is the Harbinger himself… Shouldn't something like that be quite within his power?" Aerith said with growing anxiety in her voice, peeking from behind Alex's shoulder and looking with horror at the anomaly.

"Right now is damnably not the time for such philosophical reasoning, my love. And now hold on to me with all your strength—we're about to make a very sharp jump," Alex tossed out, deftly scooping Aerith into his arms and intending to instantly carry them both far away from the deadly epicenter.

"I'm already holding on with my last strength… But please hurry a little, we're already starting to get pulled there!" Aerith exclaimed in fright, tightly wrapping her arms around Alex's neck and anxiously looking over his shoulder at the Harbinger looming over them.

Feeling how the heavy piece of road on which they had stood a second ago was beginning to be sucked at frantic speed straight into the maw of the Temporal Rift, Alex swore juicily and rushed to run.

This large-scale spatial anomaly itself represented absolutely no real threat to him—exactly the same as for Dean, who at that moment was surely located somewhere on one of the neighboring floating platforms and was puzzledly scratching the back of his head, guessing what the hell was going on around. But right now Alex was truly worried about something completely different: the catastrophic consequences that would inevitably strike if the Harbinger continued to keep the Temporal Rift active further.

Such madness could easily lead to the complete and final collapse of this entire fragile mirror dimension, and at the same time of all the nearest worlds because of the monstrous contradiction between past and future forcibly collided at one point.

Feeling how from such a brazen state of affairs his left eyelid was even beginning to twitch nervously, Alex rapidly jumped from one flying platform to another, continuing to carefully hold Aerith in his arms. Tightly pressing Aerith to his chest with one hand, Alex in a jump on the fly grabbed a hanging metal beam, immediately swung and vaulted onto the next floating piece of rebar.

Not reducing the gained pace, he continued to rush forward, with every second feeling greater irritation from the fact that the gigantic Harbinger was stubbornly pursuing exclusively the two of them. With another deft jump landing on a massive concrete slab, Alex virtuously slid downward along its inclined slope, not even looking back, although behind his back a horrible screech was clearly heard as all the surrounding fragments were being sucked in a continuous stream into the pulsing funnel of the Rift.

"What the hell is this bastard tagging along specifically after us for?!" Alex shouted irritably and loudly, climbing upward on the move along the frame of a half-destroyed tower crane.

"I have no idea! But he's still not falling behind!" Aerith shouted in response, tightly wrapping Alex's body with her arms and legs and anxiously looking over his shoulder at the chaos unfolding behind.

"What a persistent asshole…" Alex swore viciously, finally reaching the very top of the tower crane and feverishly searching with his eyes for a further path of retreat.

Quickly looking around in all directions in search of a further path of retreat, Alex noticed with annoyance that the surrounding mirror dimension was beginning to rapidly collapse under the destructive influence of the Temporal Rift.

Once again swearing juicily and cursing absolutely everyone—starting with the capricious Gaia and ending with this brazen Harbinger—Alex pressed Aerith more tightly to himself and in that same fraction of a second instantly disappeared from the top of the tower crane, materializing hundreds of meters from this dangerous place. Holding Aerith in his arms, Alex sharply stretched forward an open palm and with force clenched his fingers into a lock.

The tower crane hovering in space, which was inexorably being sucked into the maw of the Temporal Rift, suddenly froze dead in the air and began rapidly bending, completely changing its familiar form before their eyes. Only a moment passed, and the hulk of the crane turned into a gigantic pointed metal stake. Making a sharp swing of his index finger, Alex launched this gigantic pike straight toward the Harbinger.

The projectile instantly tore off from the spot, gaining such wild speed that in fractions of a second it heated to a blindingly white glow, surrounding itself with crackling arcs of red-hot plasma.

The Black Whispers, swarming in clouds in the air, tried to block the path of the flying stake. But the moment they only approached it, they instantly evaporated in the flame, not even managing to slow the deadly object for even a moment. The Harbinger, completely focused on pursuing Alex and Aerith, did not even manage to react when the white-hot stake slammed with full force exactly into its head.

Receiving the crushing blow, the giant heavily staggered, for a brief moment plunging into a stupor, and the sinister Temporal Rift on its palm collapsed with a dry clap, raising in all directions clouds of small fragments of the destroyed city.

Noticing the heavy pieces of rebar flying straight at them, Alex made a powerful jump forward, virtuously sliding down an inclined piece of road and dodging the flying debris. Vaulting over several fragments floating in weightlessness, Alex softly landed on the surviving concrete roof of a multi-story building and froze, again raising his gaze to the frozen Harbinger, from whose head their metal weapon was sticking out.

"Take that, you bastard! This is what will always happen to those who have the stupidity to pursue me," Alex said with a broad, satisfied smile, demonstratively raising the middle finger of his right hand toward the giant.

"We need to urgently find the others while he's in this state. Perhaps together we'll find a way to finally stop him," Aerith spoke agitatedly, turning her head toward the monster and not even trying to climb down from Alex's arms.

"I think this freak will provide us with such an opportunity himself. The Temporal Rift just collapsed, and he's unlikely to be able to open a new one right now, so he'll have to invent some new nastiness," Alex answered, narrowing his eyes, carefully observing the strange, wave-like oscillations in the distorted space.

"Perhaps you're right… I don't know for certain what else this creature is capable of. Oh, look! It seems he's about to undertake something again," Aerith said anxiously, pointing her hand at the Harbinger, who had begun slowly raising his gigantic palm.

Shifting his gaze back to the Harbinger, Alex noticed how the latter had begun raising his colossal hand, on the palm of which dense black fog began to swirl. Slightly narrowing his eyes, Alex carefully lowered Aerith onto the concrete roof of the building on which they were standing and thoughtfully ran a finger along his chin.

The black fog that had accumulated on the giant's palm suddenly cracked apart and with a whistle flew in three different directions. Tracing the trajectory of the clumps, Alex immediately determined the targets: one of them rushed to where Claudia, Tifa, Yuffie, and Barrett were currently located; the second flew in the direction of Dean, Tonberry Steve, and Red; and the third, the most brazen clump, raced straight toward them and Aerith.

Tightly wrapping Aerith around the waist, Alex sharply jumped back—and in that same second a dense pillar of black fog crashed into the roof of the building with a roar, which instantly spread to the sides. The dispersed haze began rapidly flowing back, taking on new, threatening outlines before their eyes.

In literally a couple of moments three miniature figures formed from this fog, resembling reduced copies of the Harbinger himself—with the sole exception that their arms and limbs had been directly transformed into deadly weapons. Seeing this, Alex nodded understandingly, finally fully figuring out the cunning plan of the Harbinger.

Noticing the dangerous opponents, Aerith deftly pulled her magic staff from her pocket and with a sharp, habitual click unfolded it to combat length. Observing the mini-copies, Alex sharply jerked his head to the side at the very moment when a sharp shot rang out—this was Whispering Croceo opening fire from his arm transformed into a cannon.

Smiling slightly, Alex carelessly kicked a cobblestone lying under his foot, which with a supersonic whistle slammed into Croceo right in the head, throwing him back and forcing him to crash with full force back-first into a thick metal beam sticking out of the roof.

But even when Croceo collapsed from the blow, the other two avatars—Rubrum and Viridi—immediately synchronously rushed into an attack on Alex and Aerith. Deftly intercepting Rubrum's red energy blade, Alex with frantic force hurled him at Viridi, who was intending to approach from the flank.

Having scattered this trio of idiots in mere seconds, Alex unhurriedly lit a thin cigar and slightly exhaled a gray stream of smoke, clearly sensing upon physical collision with the copies that all of them were fully connected with the Harbinger, being a literal extension of his own flesh.

"So this smart guy decided to set his pocket 'mini-mes' on us… Got it. I think it'll even be amusing to somehow touch them in the most forbidden places," Alex said with a light smirk, flexing his fingers and evaluatingly examining Croceo, Rubrum, and Viridi, who were already nimbly rising after the fall.

"I'll gladly help, of course… But you're strictly forbidden to touch these creatures in any forbidden places whatsoever. Did you even hear me?" Aerith said, sharply striking the tip of her staff against the concrete, giving Alex a strict, no-arguments gaze.

"Well, if you want, I can touch you for a change?" Alex answered in the most cheerful and carefree tone possible, driving his fingers into the concrete of the roof and with a light effort tearing out a meter-long piece of rusty rebar from there.

"When this entire nightmare finally ends, I would with enormous pleasure not refuse a good massage… And if the result truly completely satisfies me, I might even think about something more," Aerith answered, narrowing her eyes slyly, giving Alex a languid, coquettish glance and lightly poking him in the stomach with the blunt end of her magic staff.

"Wow, and that sounds like simply a flawless plan for the evening! Then I definitely count on your all-round support. Well, and for now I think I'll go poke them a little with this rebar… Oh, damn it, this is going to be truly fun," Alex spoke with a broad smile, taking a wide step forward and easily spinning the heavy piece of metal in his right hand.

Standing right in front of Croceo, Rubrum, and Viridi, Alex on the move calculated the balance of forces and instantly understood who was who. In his head a light joke immediately flashed about the fact that he had been given the "pleasure" of fighting against a classic balanced party consisting of the long-range shooter Croceo, the agile swordsman Rubrum, and the aggressive close-combat fighter Viridi.

Tapping the heavy rusty rebar against his own shoulder, Alex lazily pondered exactly whom to start this mini-massacre with. And while he was occupied with such a simple choice, Rubrum and Viridi again rushed into the attack first, while Croceo took a position farther away and began methodically firing from his cannon.

Deftly blocking Rubrum's blade, Alex did not even bother to turn around toward Viridi, who once again tried to approach from the back. When Viridi was already ready to deliver a crushing blow to the unprotected torso, a sturdy pink magic shield flared brightly behind Alex, materializing in the form of an elegant blossomed flower.

Sharply pushing Rubrum's blade aside, Alex delivered a ringing kick to his stomach and instantly spun in place, swinging the rebar with a wild arc. The piece of rusty iron with a dull crack slammed right into Viridi's head, forcing him to crash face-first into the concrete roof of the destroyed building with a crushing roar.

Alex was already raising the rebar, intending to pierce Viridi's skull through and pin him to the ceiling, but immediately reflexively stepped back when a yellow energy clump resembling a red-hot large-caliber bullet flew at supersonic speed right in front of his nose.

Narrowing his eyes, Alex with a swing hurled the piece of rebar forward—and it with frightening accuracy pierced into Croceo's torso, throwing the shooter several meters back. Having dealt with this interference, Alex immediately heavily stepped with his combat boot onto Viridi's head, depriving him of even a ghost of a chance to rise.

Hearing the sharp whistle of air being sliced behind his back, Alex easily tilted his head to the side, allowing Rubrum's blade to whistle millimeters from his face. Ducking under yet another sweeping blow aimed at his neck, Alex lightning-fast spun and put his entire body mass into a heavy elbow strike right into Rubrum's jaw.

From this crushing hit the swordsman's head sharply jerked back, but Alex did not give him a chance to recover: intercepting his transformed arm-blade, he with a swing drove the enemy's own blade straight into the roof of the building and immediately began methodically pounding him with his fists in the face.

"Hey, don't get distracted! There are three of them here, not two!" Aerith cried ringing, rapidly swinging her magic staff and directing a powerful discharge of heavenly lightning straight at the rising Croceo.

"I'm not getting distracted at all. I simply know perfectly well that behind my back there is always someone who will reliably cover me," Alex tossed out with a sly smile, sharply jumping back and immediately delivering a powerful kick right into the face of the stunned Rubrum.

"If you're really not getting distracted, then urgently invent how we can finish them off as soon as possible! And preferably faster!" Aerith shouted on the move, forcefully swinging her staff and materializing right above herself a huge shimmering pink crystal, which she immediately launched into an attack on the recovering Viridi.

Hearing Aerith's request, Alex nodded affirmatively and raised a thumb high, showing with his entire demeanor that right now an excellent idea had been born in his head. Lowering his hand, he lightning-fast intercepted the blade of the resisting Rubrum and unceremoniously held it in front of himself as a barrier. In the very next second a series of deafening shots rang out, and large yellow bullets densely embedded into the body of the unfortunate Rubrum.

Using the swordsman as an improvised living shield, Alex looked with a cheerful gaze at Croceo, silently proposing that the latter continue shooting. But Croceo gave a damn about the fact that Rubrum was serving as his protection—the shooter only cynically poured a new portion of lead into the back of his partner.

Successfully covering himself with Rubrum's body from the withering fire, Alex noticed out of the corner of his eye how the Harbinger instantly signaled the received damage: a network of barely noticeable cracks appeared on the armor of his colossal arm. Hearing the familiar whistle of air being sliced behind himself, Alex sharply turned Rubrum's bulk front-back. And in that same second Viridi's fist landed with a dull, crunching sound right into Rubrum's face—with such monstrous force that the swordsman's protective mask cracked in half.

Smiling even wider, Alex tightly grabbed Rubrum by the back of the head and with a swing smashed his face against the face of the stunned Viridi. Releasing the enemy's nape, Alex instantly stepped back a step and put his entire mass into a crushing kick into Rubrum's back, sending both stunned opponents into free flight.

Intending to rapidly close the distance to Croceo, Alex suddenly saw how a sturdy pink barrier in the form of an elegant flower flared right in front of his face, solidly blocking the bullets flying at him. Turning to Aerith, Alex made a sharp gesture with his index finger from top to bottom, pointing at the staggering Rubrum and Viridi nearby.

Instantly catching this gesture without words, Aerith nodded understandingly and forcefully struck the tip of her staff against the concrete roof. At that same moment a rolling strike of thick lightning tore from the cloud-covered heavens, simultaneously striking Rubrum and Viridi and paralyzing their bodies for good.

While Aerith was holding the two enemies in a state of deep shock, Alex moved across the roof toward Croceo in short, jerky dashes, gracefully dodging the flying projectiles. Dodging yet another shot, he noticed how a heavy bullet knocked out a piece of concrete, exposing the internal frame of the ceiling. And at that moment a damnably simple plan lightning-fast formed in Alex's head, reinforced by the metal base sticking out of Croceo's stomach.

"Aerith, get ready! It seems an absolutely insane plan has just been born in my head!" Alex shouted loudly, making a sharp roll to the side and simultaneously tearing from the concrete ceiling two long pieces of rusty rebar at once.

"And what kind of plan is that?!" Aerith asked loudly over the whistle of the wind, directing yet another concentrated discharge of lightning at the floundering Rubrum and Viridi.

"There's no time at all to explain! Just leave these two idiots alone for a while and start preparing a lightning strike at maximum power!" Alex shouted, dodging yet another series of machine-gun shots, with wild effort tearing new meter-long metal rods from the roof.

Hearing Alex's request, Aerith carefully followed exactly what he was doing, but so far had not fully understood exactly what insane plan had matured in his head for victory over these avatars of the Harbinger. And therefore all that remained for her to do in this situation was simply to fully trust Alex.

Once again swinging her magic staff, Aerith directed a powerful restraining discharge of lightning into Rubrum and Viridi in order to guarantee immobilizing them for some more time. Making sure that she had the necessary head start while the enemies were powerless, Aerith retreated to a safe position, and right under her feet a pure white magic circle brightly shone.

The moment the weaving flared, Aerith instantly relocated farther from the epicenter of the future mess and raised her magic staff high above her head. In that same second an enormous magic circle opened above the roof of the destroyed building, inside which hundreds of powerful discharges of heavenly lightning danced with a deafening crack.

Noticing that Aerith had begun the decisive preparation of the spell, Alex instantly grabbed a hefty armful of rusty rebar and took a short step forward, in that same fraction of a second materializing right behind Croceo's back. Before the shooter managed to even halfway turn around, Alex with a swing drove yet another piece of iron into his body and from the heart delivered a powerful kick in the back.

Receiving a powerful impulse, Croceo flew exactly in the direction where Rubrum and Viridi were lying helplessly, and the rebars sticking out of his torso with a screech pierced into the concrete ceiling of the roof. Not giving Croceo a chance to recover, Alex was already nearby and with a precise kick of his boot drove the two long rebars even deeper into the roof, pinning the enemy to the floor for good.

"And now try especially not to twitch, or I might miss. And we clearly don't want you to go to the other world earlier than your best friends, right, buddy?" Alex said with a broad, mocking grin, instantly driving a rusty rod straight into Croceo's neck.

Not giving Croceo a single opportunity to even move, Alex methodically pierced his body with several more rusty rods, pinning his bulk to the concrete roof for good. Having dealt with the shooter, he sharply leaned forward, easily dodging Viridi's sweeping blow.

Sharply spinning in place, Alex with a swing swung a rusty rod and pierced both of Viridi's arms through with it. Not giving the fighter a second to recover, Alex tightly grabbed Viridi by the head and sharply jumped back. From this rough yank Viridi lurched forward and with a nasty crunch impaled his belly on those very rebars that were sticking out of Croceo's body.

Making a deft somersault to the side and dodging Rubrum's sword whistling past his ear, Alex scooped from the floor two more fallen rebars and with full force drove them straight into Viridi's wrists, pinning him even more tightly to the roof. Again dodging yet another blind lunge of the swordsman, Alex playfully jumped over the pinned bodies of Viridi and Croceo, on the move picking up yet another pair of metal rods.

Parrying the swordsman's blow and roughly pushing him aside, Alex drove the next two rebars into where under the torn robe Viridi's legs should have been. Having dealt with this pair of idiots, Alex with an open palm deflected Rubrum's direct blow to the side and synchronously drove a rusty rod straight under his ribs.

Paying not the slightest attention to the rebar sticking out of his own side, Rubrum delivered yet another frenzied, sweeping sword strike, aiming right at Alex's neck. Deftly tossing with his foot from the floor yet another piece of rebar straight into his palm, Alex with a sharp motion parried Rubrum's blade, forcing it with terrible force to pierce the bodies of the already pinned Viridi and Croceo.

And before the swordsman managed to pull out the stuck blade, Alex with a swing pierced his own body with a new rusty rod and with a heavy fist blow drove it in to the very base. Scooping up the last two rods lying nearby, Alex drove them into Rubrum's shoulders, finally turning this trio into a single immobile meat grinder.

Casting a glance over this horrible composition of three pinned bodies, Alex raised his eyes to the magic circle looming over them, which had already almost completely finished its charging. Calculating the scale of the coming disaster, he decided that for such a spell they would need a more serious lightning rod.

Quickly looking around, Alex noticed a long piece of metal antenna lying on the edge of the debris and with a light flick of his fingers pulled it to himself. Raising the heavy hulk above his head, Alex with a wild swing pierced the bodies of Rubrum, Viridi, and Croceo with it simultaneously.

"Well, now you absolutely will not hide anywhere… I really hope that you guys will successfully survive this small session of intensive electrotherapy," Alex said with a broad, mocking grin, sharply yanking his hand downward and driving the thick metal antenna deep into the concrete ceiling of the roof.

"Alex, get aside right now!" Aerith shouted with all her might, holding above her head the magic staff heated from frantic energy and fully completing the preparation of the destructive spell.

Hearing Aerith's emergency cry, Alex immediately shifted his concentrated gaze to her and took only one wide step, in the blink of an eye ending up right next to her. Noticing out of the corner of her eye that Alex was already in safety, Aerith sharply swung her magic staff from top to bottom.

And in that very same second the colossal magic circle above the roof of the destroyed building shone blindingly, and from the heavens a thickest pillar of red-hot lightning crashed straight onto the created lightning rod. The brightest stream instantly swallowed the bodies of Rubrum, Viridi, and Croceo, passing through them a continuous, monstrously powerful wave of electricity that literally tore them apart from the inside, circulating along the red-hot rusty rods.

While the avatars of the Harbinger were horribly suffering from this concentrated electrotherapy, Alex did not take his satisfied gaze from the main culprit of the celebration. A broad grin immediately spread across his lips when he noticed how a thin web of cracks on the Harbinger's armor began rapidly spreading across his entire gigantic arm.

The cracks instantly reached the giant's forearm, and from the formed deep fissures powerful arcs of lightning burst out with a whistle, literally chipping off entire pieces of armor from the monster. Receiving such heavy damage, the Harbinger let out a deafening roar that pierced to the bones and with a sharp swing of his hand urgently summoned the remnants of his destroyed avatars back.

And when the colossus again turned to face them, Alex clearly noticed that exactly the same cracks dotted his face and chest—a sure sign that the remaining members of their group had also thoroughly battered the Harbinger's avatars. By this moment Aerith's most powerful spell had fully completed its action, and on the blackened, destroyed roof only red-hot, whimsically bent pieces of metal rebar remained.

"Excellent work, Aerith. This lightning strike definitely deserves an honest ten sessions of electrotherapy out of ten," Alex said with a broad grin, unhurriedly lighting a thin cigar and lightly poking a finger into Aerith's reddened cheek.

"It's not like that at all… You were supposed to say it completely differently," Aerith drawled offendedly, artificially pouting her lips and crossing her arms on her chest, sharply turning her face to him.

"Mmm? And what exactly, in your modest opinion, was I supposed to say?" Alex clarified, slightly tilting his head to the side, sincerely not understanding the reason for Aerith's sudden dissatisfaction.

"Well… How did you call me a little earlier? Exactly like that you were supposed to praise me right now," Aerith quietly began speaking, continuing to stand with pouted lips, playfully poking a finger into Alex's chest.

"Excellent work, my love. Did I say everything correctly?" Alex pronounced with a funny note of thoughtfulness, looking deeply straight into the girl's eyes.

"Now it's absolutely correct! That's how it should have started right away," Aerith said with a shining, happy smile, rapidly rising onto her tiptoes and passionately kissing Alex right on the lips.

"Eh… And what am I even supposed to do with you, little witch? All right, let's go find the others faster before this huge underdeveloped pulls some new trick out of his leaky ass," Alex said, lightly shaking his head with a soft smile on his face, deftly scooping Aerith into his arms and intending to immediately set off in search of the rest of the team.

To be continued...

(And so, the ultimate "Fart of Fate" appeared—a creature whose legs definitely need breaking. For now, I've only managed to take off one arm, but the legs are next on the list. Though, honestly, I'm not even sure if this freak has legs at all; the game didn't show it, and I even tried to hunt down some full-body concept art of the moron—but no luck. Maybe I'm just an idiot. Oh well, screw it. Next up: meeting the rest of the gang, a battle against a bunch of "Mini-Mes," and a little trick I've got up my sleeve for after I take down the Fart of Fate. I'll keep the nature of that trick to myself for now, but since I've already started messing around with the balls of the timeline, I'm not about to pass up an opportunity like this. Now, time for a beer—and to pretend that I don't absolutely loathe myself. Peace, love, and remember: lightning never strikes the same place twice—unless, of course, you happen to be standing there.)

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