In mid-air, the wind howled.
A sense of weightlessness enveloped Rose. She could feel her body beginning to fall.
Her eyes were tightly shut, her mind a complete blank.
I'm dead...
That was her final thought.
Just as the descent began, Sephirot stepped again.
"Vmm..."
A crimson magic ripple appeared beneath his foot, as if he had stepped onto solid ground.
[Devil Trigger double jump]
Using that counterforce, his falling body defied the laws of physics and soared into the air once more!
The red trench coat billowed open in the air, like demonic wings.
"Thud!"
A dull impact, stone chips flying.
Sephirot landed steadily on the road on the opposite shore, knees slightly bent, his powerful physique withstanding all the impact force.
But for Rose, who was slung over his shoulder, it wasn't so pleasant.
The massive inertia nearly jolted her internal organs out of place.
"See, we made it over, didn't we?"
Sephirot released his grip, setting Rose down on the ground.
"Urgh..."
Rose lay on the ground retching, her whole body trembling, looking at Sephirot as if he were a monster wearing human skin.
"You... what are you? Can you fly?!"
"Ma'am, have faith in science."
Sephirot smoothed his hair and coat, tousled by the fierce wind. "As a private detective, to handle complex commission environments, mastering some special parkour skills..."
"It's perfectly reasonable, right?"
Rose opened her mouth, momentarily at a loss for words.
Special... parkour skills?
Was that really reasonable?
...
At the end of the thick fog, a magnificent church finally emerged from the mist.
This was the only sanctuary in Silent Hill, and the gathering place for all survivors.
Scattered around the periphery were patches of graveyard, with tilted tombstones and crosses intermingling, like restless spirits unwilling to die.
Sephirot and Rose stood at the base of the steps, looking up at the Gothic architecture.
An inverted cross hung high at the pinnacle, four massive horns facing the four directions of the town.
At this moment, the doors were tightly shut, but faint sounds of prayer could be heard from within.
"In there! Sharon drew a picture exactly like this! She must be inside the church!"
Rose's face was flushed with excitement. She stumbled up the steps and began pounding on the tightly closed doors.
"Open the door! Please, let us in!"
"My daughter is missing, she might be in there! Please, open the door!"
The prayers inside did not cease because of her pleas. Instead, they grew louder and more fervent, drowning out Rose's cries.
In the eyes of those xenophobic believers, any commotion outside the door was merely a demon's trick to lure them into opening it.
"Why won't you open the door?"
Rose helplessly slid to her knees before the door.
Sephirot stood on the steps below, watching this scene, stroking his chin when a thought suddenly occurred to him.
He had brought Rose here now, skipping most of the puzzle-solving sequences from the movie.
According to the original timeline, Sharon probably hadn't been captured by those believers yet and was most likely still wandering lost in the town's fog.
Sephirot glanced at the system task again.
[Side Quest: Motherly Love] [Task Objective: Assist Rose in finding her daughter Sharon, and ensure Rose survives] [Task Reward: 500 points]
The task required finding Sharon. Relying on just him and Rose to search would be like looking for a needle in a haystack.
Then why not just take over this church and have these believers search for me.
Sephirot's gaze turned toward the church.
What kind of good people could those believers dragged into Silent Hill by Alessa possibly be?
They wouldn't be missed even if they died.
But...
Sephirot recalled the fanatical, pathological faith of the believers in the movie.
They were brainwashed too deeply.
If he simply used brute force to suppress them, it would be hard to guarantee these lunatics would obediently follow orders and work. They might even see him as a demon and come charging at him one after another, screaming for death.
While he didn't mind killing, if they all died, who would help him find Sharon?
An old woman in a blue-purple robe appeared in Sephirot's mind.
Christabella.
She was the Bishop of this church, the spiritual leader of these survivors, and the very one who masterminded the tragedy that befell Alessa years ago.
To these fanatics, Christabella's word was God's will.
Most importantly, Christabella herself was no martyr willing to die for her faith.
At her core, she was just an ambitious schemer who used the name of faith to turn the church into her personal fiefdom, using fear daily to eliminate dissenters and exploiting church doctrine to satisfy her own desires.
People obsessed with power and position feared death the most and knew which way the wind blew.
Just put a knife to her throat, and she'd cooperate better than anyone.
But this plot felt so familiar...
Take the Bishop hostage to command the believers?
Having sorted out his plan, Sephirot walked up the steps, grabbed Rose, and moved her aside as easily as lifting a chick.
"Let me handle this, ma'am."
"What's the point in being polite with them here?"
Sephirot stood in the center of the doorway, expressionlessly lifted his right leg, and gathered strength.
"BOOM!!!"
A deafening explosion rang in everyone's ears.
This door, which had stood for decades within the church and was seen by the believers as their final line of defense, was now kicked in along with its frame.
Wood splintered and flew. The heavy door crashed inward, slamming onto the floor and stirring up a huge cloud of dust.
Inside the church, hundreds of candles were extinguished by the shockwave, leaving only a few flickering flames amidst the swirling dust.
The believers, who had been praying devoutly with closed eyes following their Bishop, were scared out of their wits by the thunderous noise, thinking monsters had breached the church.
As the dust settled, a man in a dark red trench coat swaggered in, his backlit silhouette making him look immensely imposing.
"How dare you!!"
On the altar, an old woman in a blue-purple robe sprang to her feet, her face a mask of shock and fury.
Her features were sharp and severe; even her meticulous makeup couldn't hide the arrogance ingrained in her bones.
It was Christabella.
"Excuse me, Bishop Christabella. I have a small request I'd like to discuss with you."
Sephirot looked at Christabella, surrounded by the crowd, his lazy voice echoing in the vast, empty church.
Such a dismissive attitude completely enraged the Bishop, who was accustomed to being revered.
Here, who didn't show her utmost respect? Even outsiders who stumbled into this place ultimately ended up kneeling at her feet, begging for protection!
But when her shrewd eyes met Sephirot's gaze, a chill shot straight from the soles of her feet to the crown of her head.
As the Bishop who had ruled this cursed land for decades, Christabella relied not just on an iron fist but also on an exceptionally keen sense for darkness.
She prided herself on having a "God's Eye" that could see through sin.
It allowed her to easily sniff out those heretics whose souls carried the scent of evil among the crowd and send them to the stake.
But now, in her perception, what stood before her was no human. It was clearly a devil wearing human skin!
This demonic aura, emanating from the very depths of his bloodline, was more pure, more ancient than any monster she had seen in her decades in Silent Hill.
"You… you are…"
(Translated by yourtl.app)
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TL NOTES — CROSSOVER GUIDE Some references in this chapter come from source universes that may be unfamiliar to some readers. The notes below are here to help readers unfamiliar with these universes follow along more easily.
GROUPS / FACTIONS
The Order — The name of the cult that controls the church in Silent Hill. In the film, they are descendants of the original settlers of Silent Hill, who developed a syncretic religious doctrine blending Puritan Christianity with older, darker beliefs. They genuinely believe they are righteous servants of a god who will one day be born from Alessa's suffering and cleanse the world of sin. Their fanaticism is total: dissent is punished as heresy, outsiders are automatically suspect, and purification by fire is their answer to anything they cannot understand. The inverted cross atop the church is a deliberate visual symbol in the film, reflecting how thoroughly their faith has been corrupted.