No signal. No countdown. Only the shriek of tearing air.
Zack Fair launched himself forward. His speed defied human logic—a testament to the Jenova cells coursing through his veins and thousands of hours of training under Angeal Hewley. He didn't just run; he became a blur of purple shadow.
Johnny, drowning in the fog of his Berserk State, reacted purely on beastly instinct. A pitch-black aura shrouded his body like smoke from a funeral pyre. He didn't dodge. He didn't retreat. He welcomed it.
CLANG!!!
Two slabs of metal collided in mid-air. The sound was deafening, creating a shockwave that sent the lily petals scattering around them.
Zack grinned, adrenaline flooding his nervous system. "You're fast for a giant!"
Without pausing, Zack unleashed a barrage of attacks. The fundamentals of SOLDIER swordsmanship taught by Angeal flowed out with lethal precision.
Thrust. A straight stab to the neck. Johnny deflected it with the flat of the Dragon Slayer.
Slash. A horizontal cut to the waist. Johnny blocked it, sparks flying wildly.
Chop. A vertical strike from above. Johnny angled his blade, letting Zack's sword slide off, then countered with a brutal shoulder bash.
They moved in a terrifying harmony of violence. Their speed was so intense it created a roaring wind tunnel inside the old church, making the curtains flutter in panic.
Behind a sturdy stone pillar, Aerith hid, hugging her knees. Her face was deathly pale. Ivalera hid behind her ear, the tiny fairy trembling violently.
"I can feel it, Ivalera..." Aerith whispered, her voice shaking as she held back tears. "Johnny's soul... he's out of control. He's not my usual Johnny. He... he is screaming inside his mind."
Inside Johnny's head, the world was not a peaceful church. The world was a blood-red hell, its shapes blurred and indistinct.
The rage of the Berserk State had hijacked his rational control. The black fog wasn't just power; it was a gateway to broken memories.
In Johnny's vision, Zack wasn't a cheerful young man with a charming smile. Zack was a mercenary of the Hawk. Zack was a demon in disguise.
The memories came like a flash flood.
He saw Casca. Not the strong Casca, but the broken one. The Casca with the empty stare.
He remembered when Casca disappeared, nearly sold to a brothel in the Tower of Conviction. He remembered the suffocating fear when he couldn't find his woman. He remembered the brutal rape amidst the Eclipse, when Griffith—his best friend—took everything from him right before his eyes.
And now, Casca's face in his mind slowly morphed into Aerith's.
In his mad hallucination, Johnny didn't see Zack asking for a date. He saw him dragging Aerith away. Taking the girl into that same darkness.
"NO..."
Johnny's growl vibrated through the wooden floor.
"I WON'T LET YOU!"
TING!
Zack's sword struck the Dragon Slayer again, but this time it felt different.
Zack's eyes widened. The hand gripping his standard SOLDIER sword felt numb down to the bone.
It's so hard! Zack thought, his eyes widening. It feels like hitting a steel wall!
For the first time, Zack had found an opponent outside of SOLDIER who was his match. There were no openings. No seconds to breathe. Every time Zack tried to back off to create distance, Johnny was already there, pressing him with suffocating aggression.
No time to cast Materia. No time to cast Barrier.
Zack tried to use the skill "Charge," gathering strength to break his opponent's guard. However, every time he raised his sword, Johnny swept the area in front with the Dragon Slayer, forcing Zack to cancel the attack and return to a Guard position.
"Damn it, this guy knows how to fight!" Zack cursed with a small laugh—laughing from the pure joy of combat.
Zack spotted a small opening. He jumped back, using a church pillar as a foothold to launch himself into the air.
"ASSAULT TWISTER!"
Zack spun in the air like a deadly top. His sword became a sharp propeller, slashing three times in rapid succession toward Johnny's head.
Johnny didn't dodge. He slammed the tip of the Dragon Slayer into the ground, turning it into a giant shield, then braced the hilt with his massive right shoulder.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
Three heavy impacts. Sparks showered like fireworks. The concrete floor beneath Johnny's feet cracked, sinking several centimeters under the pressure. But Johnny didn't move an inch. He was an impregnable fortress.
"ARRRRRRGGGGGG..." Johnny hissed.
Black steam grew thicker from his mouth. The Berserk State deepened. The pain in his shoulder from absorbing Zack's attack didn't weaken him; it only made him crazier.
Johnny ripped his sword from the ground in one fluid motion.
"BRUTAL THRUST!"
Johnny held the sword level with his waist. His stance was low. Without winding up, he thrust the giant sword straight forward at Zack's chest.
The thrust was so fast and hard. Zack didn't have time to dodge, only managing to cross his sword in front of his chest to parry.
BLAM!
The impact was horrific. Zack was launched backward, his back slamming into the church's stone wall hard enough to knock the plaster loose.
"Cough!" Zack coughed, feeling his ribs throb. "Okay... that hurt."
But Johnny gave no quarter. The giant was already charging again. His eyes were pitch black, pupil-less, with only small red dots in the center.
Slash after slash came like a storm. Zack was forced to defend for his life. He dodged left, rolled right, ducking under swings that could decapitate an elephant.
Zack saw an opening for a counterattack. He activated the Digital Mind Wave (DMW) within him. His focus sharpened.
"CHAIN SLASH!"
Zack counterattacked with a five-hit combo of super-speed slashes, a signature of the Wutai War. Up. Left. Right. Sideways. Up again.
CLANG. CLANG. CLANG. CLANG. CLANG.
That lethal combo usually killed elite Wutai warriors in seconds. But in front of him, Johnny parried everything. Not with his sword, but with insane body movement.
Johnny twisted his torso, letting Zack's sword pass just a millimeter from his nose. He deflected the fourth slash with his steel-plated arm. And on the fifth slash, he didn't retreat. He advanced.
Johnny used his shoulder, slamming into Zack's exposed chest mid-swing.
THUD!
Zack staggered back, losing his balance.
"SEPTUPLE SLASH!"
It was a new skill Johnny had created over the past year. The movement was wild. Johnny leaped with agility that defied logic for a man of his weight. He slashed seven times from various angles. This skill was meant to dispatch seven enemies at once, but Johnny focused all seven attacks on a single target: Zack.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
Zack parried frantically. His sword vibrated violently. His feet dragged backward, destroying the bed of lilies.
Shit! Zack panicked internally. He must be a SOLDIER! An elite SOLDIER in disguise! No normal human is this strong!
When he barely managed to block the seventh attack, Zack jumped away, his breathing ragged. He racked his brain. This guy showed no signs of fatigue. His strength was actually increasing as the fight went on.
"Crazy..." Zack grinned broadly, wiping sweat from his forehead. "Haha! This is so fun! It's the first time I've met an enemy equal to me besides Angeal!"
He didn't dare use "Meteor Shot" in this confined space; the explosion would destroy The church and kill Aerith.
So Zack chose the physical option.
"HIGH BRAVER!"
Zack jumped high, performing a somersault in the air to gain momentum, then slashed vertically downward with full power.
Johnny welcomed him.
"WHIRLWIND STRIKE!"
Johnny spun his body, creating a vortex of wind with his massive sword. Johnny's spinning slash collided with Zack's vertical slash in mid-air.
The clash of energy threw Zack backward again. He landed awkwardly, rolling on the wooden floor.
Johnny walked closer. His footsteps sounded like a death knell.
Zack stood up, panting. But on his face, that mischievous smile returned. He realized something. This guy's anger... it wasn't a soldier's anger. It was personal.
As their swords locked again, their faces close together.
"You know, Pal..." Zack whispered provocatively, a wide smirk plastered on his face. "Your friend... Aerith... she's really beautiful. Totally my type."
Johnny's eyes widened. Veins bulged in his neck.
"And I think..." Zack continued, deliberately pouring gasoline on the fire, "...tomorrow I'll ask her for a date again. And the day after that, I'm gonna make her my girlfriend. Seriously."
Johnny's world collapsed.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!"
Johnny's scream was no longer human. It was the howl of a wounded monster.
The overflow of the Berserk State exploded to its maximum limit. The black aura was now mixed with flashes of blood red.
Johnny went berserk.
"SOMERSAULT SLASH!"
Johnny stabbed his sword into the ground, then used the hilt as a vaulting pole. He launched his colossal body into the air, flipping forward while ripping the sword back out.
Zack raised his sword to block.
CRACK!!!
The impact was too heavy. Zack's Standard SOLDIER Sword couldn't withstand it. The Shinra steel blade snapped in two.
The broken shard of Johnny's sword continued its path, slamming into Zack's right shoulder.
"ARGH!" Zack groaned. His right shoulder was wounded, blood seeping out to stain his Black uniform. He staggered back, clutching his numb shoulder.
Johnny landed, his breathing rough and ragged. His hands trembled violently. But not from fatigue. From fear.
In Johnny's maddened eyes, Zack's image now overlapped with Griffith. And the image of Aerith hiding behind the pillar... now overlapped with Casca in the middle of the Eclipse.
Aerith alone. Aerith terrified. Aerith being taken from him.
"Now I understand your weakness, Pal..." Zack chuckled despite the pain, still unaware of the fatal danger he had provoked. "You're scared of losing her, right? You know I'm serious... I'm gonna make her mine..."
Those words were the final trigger.
In Johnny's eyes, swallowed by the darkness of Berserk, reality in the Sector 5 Church melted away completely.
The figure of Zack standing with a broken sword shifted shape, black wings sprouting from his back, his face becoming the cold steel mask of Femto. And beneath the demon's grip, it was no longer Casca staring with empty eyes, but Aerith. Johnny saw it with agonizing clarity—Aerith, her pink dress torn, screaming soundlessly as darkness defiled her amidst a blood-red Eclipse choking the sky.
The scene shifted brutally again, throwing him into another filthy memory. The Tower of Conviction. He saw Aerith being dragged by the dirty hands of heretics and mercenaries, iron chains wrapped around her slender white neck. He saw Aerith crying, calling his name as she was about to be sold as merchandise in a disgusting brothel, while Johnny was trapped in the distance, unable to reach her. The holy lilies at his feet turned into the rotting mud of Albion filled with corpses. Past and present collided, grinding his sanity into dust. Primal fear exploded; not the fear of death, but the absolute terror of powerlessness to protect the only light left.
"NO! DON'T TOUCH HER! DON'T TAKE HER AGAIN!"
Johnny's howl split the air, shredding the heart of anyone who heard it. It wasn't a war cry; it was the wail of despair from a man whose soul was being flayed alive. The identity of the girl he loved blurred, overlapping in the chaos of memory.
"CASCA... CASCA... AERITH... AERITH..."
The names spilled out mixed together, vomited up with saliva and blood, an endless litany of failure.
"FORGIVE ME! I FAILED! I FAILED TO PROTECT YOU! FORGIVE ME!"
Amidst the raging black energy, Johnny did something that froze Zack in horror, chilling the young SOLDIER's blood. Johnny released one hand from his sword and began to beat his own head with his fist.
WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!
The sound of fist on skull was horrific, rhythmic, and brutal. Johnny was trying to crush the contents of his own mind, trying to kill the projector of nightmares torturing his soul.
"GRIFFFFFITHHHH!!!"
Behind the pillar, Aerith clutched her chest.
The Lifestream Bond reacted violently. Aerith felt pain that wasn't just physical. She felt the cold of Johnny's despair. She saw flashes of vague images—a red sky, a black solar eclipse, and monsters eating human flesh.
She felt Johnny's terror of losing her.
The church room turned freezing cold. The lilies wilted instantly as if life were sucked out of them. Ivalera trembled uncontrollably behind Aerith's neck, while Puck—who had been hiding in Johnny's pocket in invisible mode—finally leaped out, terrified to death seeing his "Boss" turn into a demon.
Aerith couldn't stay silent any longer.
"YOU'VE GONE TOO FAR, ZACK!" Aerith screamed, tears streaming down her cheeks. "YOU'RE BEING CRUEL TO MY JOHNNY!"
Aerith stood up and ran. Without a weapon. Without magic. She ran into the center of the church.
Zack was shocked to see Aerith crying. "Damn it..." he muttered, realizing his joke had gone too far. "I messed up."
But Johnny couldn't hear anymore. He raised the Dragon Slayer high toward the church ceiling. All the light in the room was sucked into his blade. Absolute darkness gathered.
"GRIFFFFFITHHHH!!!"
"LIMIT BREAK..."
His voice echoed from another dimension.
"ECLIPSE SLAYER!"
Zack knew he was in mortal danger. His sword was broken. There was no other choice. He threw away the hilt of his sword. He assumed a boxing stance. His body glowed bright red.
If he couldn't block, he would attack.
"LIMIT BREAK: RUSH ASSAULT!"
Zack focused all his Mako energy into his fists. He prepared to jump, prepared to unleash a barrage of light-speed punches to destroy the sword before it could cut him.
Two forces of mass destruction were ready to collide. The Blade of Death vs. The Hero's Fist.
If these attacks met, the church wouldn't just collapse. The church would become a crater.
Johnny began to swing his sword down. Zack began to leap forward.
The distance between them was one meter.
Suddenly, a tiny figure slammed into Johnny's broad back. A pair of small arms wrapped around Johnny's hard waist, hugging him tight from behind, restraining his movement.
"I BEG YOU BOTH, STOP!!!"
Aerith's scream broke, mixed with heart-wrenching sobs.
Time seemed to freeze.
Johnny's sword halted in mid-air, inches from Zack's face, whose fist was also frozen in front of Johnny's chest.
A fierce wind blew from their center point, blowing the hair of Aerith, Johnny, and Zack.
Silence.