I Never Let Her Die! (Aerith x Male Gamer Reader)

Disk 02: Chapter 23: Holy

Hojo finished reforming his body, then cast aside two masses of tissue which formed into a pair of smaller creatures. "Do you understand yet?" He sneered. "Jenova's power is greater than any power native to Gaia!" He motioned towards us and the sub-creatures flew forward to attack. One focused on Red and Denah, the other on Cloud.

While Red, Denah, and Cloud focused on their own opponents, Aerith and I were left with Hojo himself. Fortunately, Chaos had recovered from being thrown aside and resumed it's attack on the mad doctor, rushing in and tearing violently at his form. Tentacles wrapped around Chaos once again, but this time it was able to damage them as fast as they grew.

"Either Chaos is doing better or Hojo's starting to weaken." I said to Aerith.

"Either way, we've got to do something to help." She agreed. "What spell do you want?"

"Freeze." I answered, and held my blade ready as she cast the spell onto it.

As I moved in, I heard the sound of Aerith casting again, the White Materia generated Aurora spell. The spell activated, and a wave of blindingly brilliant white light flowed around and over Hojo, who let out a terrible shriek of pain. Surprisingly, he was actually being hurt even worse than Ultros had been, and I realized that Jenova cells must be extremely weak to Holy type damage.

I reached Hojo as the spell's effects were winding down. Chaos was still tearing into him, and I joined in, noting that Hojo's flesh was severely burned from the Aurora spell.

Red and Denah were holding their own against the creature Hojo sent after them. Working together, they led it around in differing directions, confusing and distracting the beast which couldn't seem to settle on which of them it should go after first. Cloud, meanwhile, was having to dual his opponent directly. It had formed a blade of sorts out of it's mass and was battling Cloud in a fencing match.

Behind me, I could hear Aerith shouting for everyone to hold on, and risked a brief glance backwards. She was rearranging the materia in her staff, which seemed like an odd thing to do mid-battle. Nodding in satisfaction, she began casting Aurora again, and when the spell activated I saw what she had been up to with the materia: She had placed it in a linked slot. With an 'Enemy-All.'

Shining light energy exploded into being around all three of our enemies at once. Hojo again screamed, while his creations fell to the ground, little more left of them than burning cinders. "Good work." Cloud said. "But now it's time to finish this..." He leapt into the air, towards Hojo, and unleashed Omnislash. The powerful attack tore into Hojo's weakened form, and by the time Cloud was finished, so was the doctor. Hojo crumbled into a ruin, and this time he didn't recover.

We stood in an arc around the remains, exhausted. Soon Vincent joined us, having returned to himself. "So it's over." He said.

"This part of it, anyway." Cloud said.

"How are you holding up?" I asked Aerith.

"I'm not sure..." She answered. "It's strange. This was necessary. And it was justice. And after everything he had did, I feel like I should be happy. But it all just strikes me as sad."

"It is sad." Red agreed. "With his intellect, Hojo could have improved the world instead of trying to ruin it."

"It was his own choice though." I said. "This path was his own choice, the consequences his own doing."

"Yeah..." Aerith whispered.

The sounds of a ruckus arose from behind us, and I looked to see the rest of Avalanche and the Turks arriving. "Where is he?" Tifa exclaimed.

"Gone." Vincent answered. "Hojo's over, and Shinra with him."

Tseng shook his head. "For the best, I suppose, in the end."