In Sector 5 of Midgar, there was a flower bed inside the church.
Anywhere else, it would have been a rare and beautiful sight.
The mako reactors had drained Midgar and the surrounding region of their energy, leaving the land itself dying. Plants could barely survive.
The only reason flowers grew in the church and at Aerith's house was because Aerith had carefully tended and cultivated them.
Those flowers had now become an important source of income for her family.
She often picked flowers and sold them to cover the household's daily expenses. She could not let her adoptive mother keep exhausting herself forever. Her mother was already old.
And Aerith was no longer a child. It was her turn to support this family.
Today, however, she had not gone out to sell flowers. Instead, she was doing some maintenance in the garden.
Suddenly, a sound made her turn her head.
It was Tifa, who seemed to have been napping here, waking up.
Tifa was also taking the day off today, so she had come over to share what she had seen in other worlds.
Today, however, the important matter was not about Mr. Kain's situation.
Something beyond imagination was happening on his side. An alien species called the Tyranids was invading the galaxy.
As for what a galaxy was, Tifa had explained it to her. Only then did Aerith roughly understand how much larger it was than their own world.
In other words, the human Imperium under Mr. Kain's side ruled at least a million planets, making it more than a million times larger than their world.
That meant the human domain on Mr. Kain's side was at least a million times larger than Aerith's world.
It was impossible to imagine how vast that was.
And now, humanity's million worlds were facing an invasion by terrifying monsters called the Tyranids. It was even more frightening than the invasion by the Beta aliens in that other world.
Back then, Tifa had used a device to let Aerith see footage from that war, and it had left her deeply shaken.
But the war on Mr. Kain's side today surpassed her imagination even more.
If the war between humanity and the Beta in Dr. Kouzuki's world could be compared to two groups of ants in Aerith's world fighting over territory, then the war between humanity and the Tyranids on Mr. Kain's side was like the global war between Shinra and Wutai in Aerith's world.
In the latter war, one stray round could directly wipe out the two ant colonies still fighting each other.
That was how terrifying the difference was.
Now, Aerith came to Tifa's side. Tifa had already downloaded the latest video from over there so Aerith could understand the situation.
"It's ready, Aerith."
"Mm."
Aerith nodded, and the footage jumped to what Tifa had seen three hours earlier.
The war was as brutal as ever. More and more Tyranids were arriving in that star system, making it look as if they intended to fill the entire system.
As for the reinforcements on humanity's side and the others, although more forces were continuously arriving, the scene looked like moths flying into a flame. They were almost simply coming there to die.
Finally, when Aerith saw a fleet burn itself out to ignite an entire planet, her heart sank to its lowest point.
"What's wrong, Aerith?"
Tifa noticed that Aerith seemed to want to say something, and not for the first time.
"Mr. Kain's weapon seems to have already been activated. Why isn't he using it?"
Aerith had noticed the conversations between the Astartes beside Mr. Kain. It sounded like that ship had the power to directly destroy all the bugs in the star system.
Yet it remained invisible and motionless, watching the brutal war unfold. It watched the forces continuously arriving as reinforcements be devoured. It watched countless people die.
Aerith could not understand it.
She did not think Mr. Kain was cold-blooded. If he were, he would not have gone to several worlds to help.
True, it did not seem like he helped for nothing. He was still trying to obtain something, and his actions carried some expectation of a return. But in the end, he was still helping to stop disasters in those worlds. He was saving them.
That alone proved Mr. Kain was a good person.
So Aerith did not understand why he had not activated the weapon yet. What was he waiting for?
Or perhaps he was not waiting for something. Perhaps Mr. Kain had not yet made some kind of decision. It seemed that activating the weapon would require paying an enormous price, and that price might be extremely tragic.
For example, if Aerith's world faced destruction, and the only way to eliminate that crisis was to sacrifice every life in the Midgar region...
What choice should be made then?
Ah!
When that thought struck her, Aerith's face changed drastically.
She had not considered that possibility.
That dangerous weapon was said to be capable of destroying all the bugs in that star system. Could it also strike his own people within the range?
Was that why Mr. Kain had not activated it yet? Was he still struggling with the decision?
"The reason he isn't using it is because he's waiting for the bugs' main force to arrive."
"Huh? Main force?"
Aerith froze. That was different from what she had imagined.
"Yes."
Tifa explained the specific reason in more detail. The reason Aerith did not know was that she had not seen the earlier footage of Mr. Kain fighting the race known as the Necrons, so she was missing some context.
When Tifa had logged on, Mr. Kain's side was already quietly watching the war. At first, she had not known the full situation either.
The reason she had missed the livestream of Mr. Kain returning to his original world was that Avalanche had a mission on Tifa's side, and she had gone to help.
Only after the mission ended did she log back in. Because she had missed the earlier context, she had been just as confused as Aerith. She had only gone back to catch up just now, and that was when she understood the real reason the weapon had not yet been activated.
It could be said that the pressure on Mr. Kain right now was unprecedented.
If he activated the weapon now, he could destroy these bugs and interrupt the Tyranids' attempt to transmit something unimaginably terrifying over.
But that would only delay the arrival of that terrifying thing a little longer. Of course, it would still give humanity some time to prepare.
If they waited until the terrifying thing on the Tyranid side arrived before activating the weapon, then killing it would be the best possible result. But if the weapon could not kill it, then humanity's world would suffer an unimaginably terrible disaster.
In addition, once the weapon was activated, it would not distinguish friend from foe. That meant millions, tens of millions, or even hundreds of millions of human warriors, along with their temporary allied forces, would all be swept into it.
Although, from the looks of it, the decision was not being made by Mr. Kain himself, but by the upper ranks of the human Imperium as they waited for a reply from humanity's Lord Commander.
Even so, Mr. Kain was the one holding the trigger.
The weight on his shoulders was unimaginable.
"So that's why."
After learning the truth, Aerith's expression turned gloomy, and her heart grew even heavier.
She could not imagine having a button in her hand one day, a button that could save her world from destruction if she pressed it, but at the cost of annihilating the Midgar region and sacrificing everyone there.
She did not know whether she could press it.
That would be far too painful.
"Tifa."
"Hmm?"
"Is it really okay for us to do this?"
Aerith had noticed one detail.
Mr. Kain, who was currently wearing a metal combat suit, looked exactly like he had in her dream.
Even the battle marks on his armor were identical.
That made it seem as though Mr. Kain might be invited to their side very soon.
Was that really okay?
Something so massive was happening on his side, yet they were still going to ask him for help. They were going to make him squeeze out time for them?
Was that really okay?
Wait.
Did this also mean that the attack on her and Tifa in the dream was going to happen soon?
If so, could she and Tifa not simply hide in advance?
Aerith immediately told Tifa what she was thinking.
(End of Chapter)
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