[Sorry!!]
Psychic formulas were not something he had studied.
Even if he had, he had no idea whether they would work in this world.
As for this world's magic, he still needed to understand it through Materia.
So in his view, having magic power but being unable to use even a single spell properly made him nothing more than a useless mage.
Although he could not construct any sort of formula through psychic energy and use it to release wind, fire, lightning, or anything similar, that did not mean psychic energy was completely unusable.
Under his will, it could form something similar to telekinetic bullets.
It was like qigong. He could release psychic energy like qi, turning it into impact force to attack enemies.
If he emitted it in every direction, it could also serve as a defensive shield.
Compressed telekinetic bullets could be thrown out and detonated the instant they left his hand. He could also step on them while jumping, using the resulting blast force to launch himself farther into the sky.
It was somewhat similar to how he operated the A-driver, making the machine leap by kicking off explosive force.
Now, the air rippled several times in succession. Using the shockwaves as propulsion, Kain launched himself into the swarm of Whispers, shattering them on contact with his Blank buff and bringing them further into the observational range of his Blank field.
After destroying four in a row, Kain spotted a figure. With another burst of psychic energy, he shot toward her and successfully caught her.
"Wah—"
Aerith's panicked cry abruptly stopped halfway.
She had thought the thing grabbing her was an even more terrifying Whisper, one that had already become capable of fully interacting with physical reality. Instead, it was Mr. Kain's hand catching her and pulling her into his arms.
Immediately afterward, the surrounding Whispers were shattered by Kain's touch as well—no, it was more like they evaporated.
With that, the black cloud that had swept her away—really a swarm of Whispers—had been almost completely wiped out.
She had only just finished explaining things to her mother when those Whispers had suddenly drilled up from beneath the ground and carried her off.
Wait.
Only after the Whispers around them were gone did Aerith realize that the two of them were high in the sky.
And they were still in free fall.
In a burst of instinctive panic, she clung tightly to Mr. Kain.
In the face of that free fall, however, Mr. Kain looked perfectly calm. Was he planning to land by brute force?
Then an unbelievable sight unfolded.
Mr. Kain suddenly began stepping through the air, as if there were invisible stairs beneath his feet, and descended step by step.
In reality, he was not truly stepping on air. Aerith, who carried the bloodline of the Ancients, could tell that it was the Lifestream released by Mr. Kain—or rather, the special energy he called psychic energy—creating bursts of expansion and impact force to support him.
So this was the second time he had saved her.
Suddenly, his gaze turned toward her and met her eyes. For some reason, Aerith felt a strange panic rise inside her, and she quickly looked away. At the same time, her heartbeat seemed to pound especially hard.
A moment later, the arm that had been holding her tightly—the arm that had made her feel so safe—loosened, and Aerith felt a faint sense of loss.
"Are you all right, Aerith?"
"Huh? I'm fine. Luckily, Mr. Kain saved me again."
The moment she finished speaking, someone rushed over and embraced her.
It was her foster mother. Her second mother.
"Aerith, please don't go risking your life, all right? You're just an ordinary girl. You don't need to go off doing some hero's work."
As Aerith's foster mother, Elmyra knew Aerith was not her biological daughter. But did that require a blood connection?
Aerith was the hope that kept her alive. She did not want Aerith to risk her life trying to save the world, always standing one step away from death.
She was selfish. Between the world and her daughter, she chose her daughter.
"Aerith, you didn't tell your mother about your original fate?"
The young man Aerith had brought with her said this, making Elmyra glare at him furiously.
"Aerith, she—"
"Her original fate is likely to end in death within a few months. Right now, she wants to break that fate. Doing so may also put her life in danger at any moment, but if she succeeds, she won't have to face her predetermined end several months from now."
He cut her off and said it plainly.
"What does that mean? Aerith!"
"Huh? Well…"
Among the things Aerith had revealed to her mother, she had hidden the fact that, according to the fate recognized by the Whispers, she was supposed to die.
Based on the "original story" Mr. Kain had told her, she would die at Sephiroth's hands while trying to stop Meteor from being summoned to destroy the world.
In other words, the vision she had once seen of a giant fireball falling from the sky was the moment she would meet her death.
She had hidden that part because she did not want her mother to worry even more.
But now, it looked like she had no choice but to tell her.
"…So, Mom, I'm not as noble as you think. I'm doing this because I want to survive too. I'm selfish as well."
She was not some great person who wanted to save the world the way her mother imagined. She wanted to live too.
"No, Aerith. You're not selfish at all."
Elmyra shook her head. How could she not know what kind of child her own daughter was?
Clearly, there had been a turning point. Otherwise, if the world faced destruction and Aerith's life was needed to avert it, this child would absolutely offer up her own life without hesitation.
And that turning point was probably this young man.
This young man had displayed such special abilities that they could not possibly belong to an ordinary human.
In other words, he might be like Aerith, someone with the bloodline of the Ancients. Or perhaps he was one of the ancient Cetra himself—in other words, one of Aerith's people.
As for the Cetra, those ancient humans, Elmyra had only just learned about them from Aerith.
"Sir, please. I'm begging you. Let Aerith live."
"I'll do what I can."
Kain had not expected that sinking his awareness slightly into his soul would blur his sense of time so much. Quite a bit of time had passed in reality.
That was why, before his awareness could fully return to the real world, Tifa had shaken him hard enough to wake him and sent him to save Aerith.
From the look of things, Aerith had been completely targeted by the Whispers. The moment he failed to pay attention, she would be attacked and carried off.
That was troublesome.
Did this mean he had to become her personal bodyguard twenty-four hours a day?
"Aerith, to what extent can you use your abilities?"
"Extent?"
"I mean your ability to hear the voice of the Planet."
"Well, I can hear some voices to a certain degree…"
Aerith then described the specifics.
"From now on, do everything you can to hear it clearly, even to communicate with it. Make the Planet, which doesn't want to die either, contribute. Have it send white Whispers to help you."
Since black Whispers had appeared, that meant white Whispers should exist as well.
Black represented the fate of destruction and would assist Sephiroth—or Jenova.
White represented the fate in which the Planet wanted to survive, so they would assist Aerith.
The reason they had not appeared yet was because Aerith had not been able to fully draw out her power.
Hm?
Kain raised his head and looked toward the night sky.
The unfriendly "guests" had finally arrived.
(End of Chapter)
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