Bonus Event; Sephiroth's Invitation

In the vacuum of Sephiroth moving at 'Godspeed' were after images of himself that moved as barely visible time displacements that Tensei would be able to follow in between the sight of the crowd, along with the words, "... I hope you didn't think this was over..." Though Sephiroth wanted no fight to the death with Tensei any longer, he certainly wouldn't let their fight end with just the 'warmup,' so to speak. "... Now that we've established your strength..." Each after image, wherever it was, would have a piece of Sephiroth's message which was and would be completely garbled and jumbled unless Tensei legitimately decoded the completely correct order in which the after images had been left. Getting a word wrong would cause him to waste time and possibly lose Sephiroth in the process. "How about we see how truly skilled you are, at this level...?"

Quote :

When Sephiroth called out 'Godspeed,' Tensei would flicker out in tandem with Sephiroth, not only matching each of his steps as he took them, but also immediately after he took them, as if tracing them the very moment they touched and left the ground. Tensei would then end up meeting up exactly where Sephiroth was located immediately, no matter where he'd gone to at what time.

"Challenge Accepted" would be the words in Sephiroth's ear as the bird suddenly fell silent and gathered the entire message as soon as it left Sephiroth's lips, thus causing anything that occurred after this to be simply for show of their afterimages. They were in a hurry, after all, and their real bodies could remain. Whatever could be seen would be left behind them after the both of them departed the area at the same speed.

The afterimages of both the man and the bird would be seen flickering about the city in the corner of everyone's eyes, yet never actually allowing either of them to be seen. It would be like time had stopped around them when they were moving at their normalized speed, yet when someone attempted to catch a glimpse of them, there was no one and nothing to be found.

"Surprised that you can keep up," a distant voice jeered from behind what looked to be a person frozen in time, before a flickering image dashed down the dark streets, "But where are you looking?" By the time this 'Chococrow' could even catch full sight of his target, the flickering afterimage would have already disappeared elsewhere. "Catch me if you can," the voice would say again, intangible images spreading themselves down the streets in a line, none of their feet moving as their bodies panned across the horizon like an old film.

An abrupt pause in the movement of Sephiroth brought a single 'Scintilla' in the corner of the eye of the Chococrow, which would inevitably end with the bird forcefully stopped in its tracks at the pause of Sephiroth, to whom it was trailing.

Immediately after being thwarted, somewhere just out of reach of any of the eyes of any citizens, as if marked on purpose, his blade would meet the throat of the bird flying at such an ungodly speed. "Watch where you're going," he said dauntingly, in the open clearing where the Meteor hit before. "You might miss something." The bird would only hear these words if the head were still attached.

Sephiroth remained unmoved once he stopped in time.

"So it has and so that may be," Sephiroth's voice echoed in a very similar flickering distortion as the flapping of the feathers on the crows' wings, "But there was still something you needed to see here." Sephiroth's already outstretched sword pointed to the spot where the meteor landed with the blade, and then his eyes would affix to the Chococrow's own. "Do you see that you weren't the only one to call down meteors?" How Sephiroth knew of any of that was beyond them, but because he was the one that called down this meteor, he was aware of the power it had all on its own, and that if this being were anything similar, then such wouldn't be out of his realm of capability.

"If you aren't able to rebuild, then the damages to the city it hits are permanent." He did not move from his spot, nor did his arm lower from the point he was making. "I could not finish what I started because I got lost in my own darkness. This is why there even is a Cloud over my head." For Sephiroth to even have to fall in such a manner is only because he, himself, did not have what it took to be a true hero, even if he was one in his heart in the darkness. "I'm someone else's guide, you can say, and right now, I will be yours, as well." He stepped backward, quite a bit, that the bird could see the fullness of the blade pointed at him, still rather clearly and straight forward, as not to beckon any thoughts of treachery. "... If you defeat me in a duel." Suddenly, Sephiroth disappeared.

Sephiroth's image appeared in the center of the impact site of the Meteor, with his blade in his hand, still in the same position he was in when he was directly in front of his opponent. It seemed like he wanted an old fashioned samurai style battle, rather than something too flashy or showy. There was something he wished to see that the light of the flash need not blind him to at the present.

Sephiroth returned to where the two of them began their fight, long after the after images faded, and the flickering distortions halted where he stood. The rustling feathers passed away in the wind, and Sephiroth closed his eyes, gripping his blade tightly.

"We'll see," he said lowly with a smirk, almost looking like he was anticipating it. The moment his blade was knocked away, his eyes followed Overlord Tensei's, and Sephiroth spun around with his blade already in motion.

Sephiroth smirked. "One thousand," he muttered, as if having already calculated the steps that Tensei was able to see and was already in motion to make a different one. His next step was nothing short of him halting his blade as soon as it would clash and, instead of moving where Overlord Tensei was next prepared to strike him, he would let go of his blade and step onto the one frozen in stasis, letting his Masamune drop for only a split second before snatching it back up with his other hand whilst he was still midstep, and driving it along the edge of the blade that was frozen in time that he used as leverage to cleave through Overlord Tensei in a flash, throwing off his entire set up and making an opening for himself when Overlord Tensei had to either retaliate, block or avoid this attack, simultaneously missing or, at best, clashing with his own.


Sephiroth was clear that there were still blind spots in Overlord Tensei's reflective vision, and even if he could adjust to them, he still had them in the first place, and all Sephiroth needed was a single one.

Sephiroth narrowed his eyes, scoffing at the very end of the scraping of his blade. "Predictable," he muttered, hopping off of the blade instead of attacking at all. "No use telling your opponent your next move." When Sephiroth hopped into the air, he made a complete crescent backspin slash that would decapitate Overlord Tensei immediately as he was speaking, and already have his blade ready when he landed to thrust into the body, just in case. "That will just put me ahead of you."

"Tch." Sephiroth nearly spit at the remark. Instead, he would look at the alignment of the swords in place and step in the spot where he saw the gap. "Make me," he said, still having his sword ready, yet not having moved it against Tensei yet.

Sephiroth looked around, seeing that the edges were in a different, nonsequential order, yet also still with plotted points, seemingly with anticipation. He knew his own gaps, which is why stepping into one of them, itself, even as a blind spot, was a trap. "I see..." Sephiroth muttered to himself. All he could do was go through the sequence. "Is this how the System gets trapped, itself?" He chuckled to himself. "I didn't even see it coming." The actual Tree itself, which was inside all the Children of it, could tell when it is a Systematic and Sequential locking process just from the movements alone. "Though, I'm not obsolete." The very thought of it and that it might be true was the first and most immediate humbling process of Sephiroth, himself, who now was forced to think a bit more in depth than he had to initially, for a vast majority of reasons.

"... What's the Code...?" he muttered to himself, searching the blades up and down. He found out where the first blade was, then found out where all the other blades were not, so that he could find where his next move should have been. Before he moved, however, he would wait to see what Overlord Tensei would do, since haphazardly stepping into another one of his gaps might actually lead into another trap, even if it seemed safe. "... It's your move, by the way." Because both 'Thinking' and 'Waiting' were considered choices, Sephiroth would indeed utilize those options during the battle.

"Hmph." Sephiroth split into two via Godspeed, directly in the line of sight of Tensei after he looked away from him. "Anything else, or are you ready to stop running from me?" Sephiroth's second image did not move, yet it was in a different stance as the original.

Sephiroth remained still. "Enticing." He knew what it looked like to take a fruit that was poison. "But not quite." Still, Sephiroth could not help but to smirk, actually pleased that he wasn't able to move rather than being able to. That meant that he would actually have to try, just like he wanted to.

"You know, you're really too kind," Sephiroth said with a chuckle under his breath, "Letting me have so many openings." The swords still were gapped at several points, and there was still a way out of the trap of the thousand steps. Sephiroth could see at least that much. "But even if you're creeping up on me, you still haven't hit me, either." As long as Sephiroth was still being engaged and hadn't been disengaged, it meant that there was still an engagement going on, which meant a vast number of things. One being that the blades still wished to be tested against each other. "Don't make me wait too long." Sephiroth, himself, seemed to be anticipating something, and had an exact location in his head, too. He would not move from that spot.

Sephiroth lunged at Overlord Tensei the moment his sword left his hands. "Indeed." He was disarmed, for if this were a true Samurai Shoubu, then he and Sephiroth needed to be directly engaged, blades in hand, and fighting edge to edge at close combat. Thus, with Overlord Tensei disarmed, Sephiroth's first movement was actually at he, himself, and not where the sword was thrown. "Though you can't pretend like you weren't expecting me." Sephiroth's blade would be at Overlord Tensei's head at Godspeed, and take it off just as fast.