The shuttle shot into the sky and soon arrived aboard Yondu's Ravager ship.
Just as the ship was preparing to depart, however, a figure blocked their path.
On the ground, the massive explosion in the capital of the Nova Empire not only destroyed a large portion of the city and claimed many Xandarian defense force lives, but also wiped out Shinra's headquarters and most of its remaining forces.
The once-arrogant Shinra, who had planned to overthrow the Nova Empire by colluding with Ronan, was now reduced to only a few officers and some fringe forces.
Ronan hadn't expected that his one massive strike would not only decimate the city but also destroy most of Shinra's efforts in one go.
But even if he had known, he wouldn't have hesitated.
With Shinra gone, Sephiroth and the others had lost their employer.
At this point, they had two options: one, avenge their former employer Shinra by killing Aerith—the girl who summoned the planet's power and ruined Ronan's ambitions;
Or two, exit the scene, retire from the battlefield, and live a quiet life in seclusion.
The other two Shinra 1st-class soldiers, Angeal and Genesis, chose retirement.
But Sephiroth came looking—not to avenge Shinra, but to find Aerith.
"Hand over the girl."
Outside the ship, Sephiroth stood with his forty-meter-long Masamune blade, making it clear that if things didn't go his way, he'd split the ship in two.
Inside the ship, Su Ye looked at Aerith. "Do you know him?"
Aerith immediately shook her head, then hesitated and gave a slight nod.
She had sold flowers to many people across the city and seen many faces, but she'd never met Sephiroth or spoken with him.
However, as a Shinra 1st-class soldier, Sephiroth was a celebrity across Xandar and the entire star sector.
Unless you were blind or deaf, you'd definitely know his name.
Seeing this, Su Ye scratched his head.
"If you don't know him, why is he looking for you?"
At first, Su Ye suspected this DLC was pulling some melodramatic twist—like maybe Aerith's plotline had been turned into a romantic soap opera, and Sephiroth was the domineering CEO-style second male lead trying to steal her away.
But now that Aerith denied knowing him, he had to consider other possibilities.
"What do you want with her?"
Unable to figure it out, Su Ye spread out his telepathic ability and directly linked with Sephiroth.
"Who's there?"
Sephiroth was clearly startled by the voice suddenly appearing in his mind, but as someone who'd weathered many storms, he quickly regained his composure.
"You're the one who helped her broadcast that vision to everyone's minds, aren't you?"
I have to say, Sephiroth's intelligence and reasoning ability are quite impressive.
His power comes from Shinra's research, and in his understanding, the power Aerith previously wielded is of the same kind.
Therefore, Sephiroth concluded that Aerith was of the same kind as him, and even possibly related to the source of his own power.
Through Aerith, Sephiroth even believed that he might be able to resurrect his mother.
Every villain in Japanese works has a tragic backstory and a mission that they must complete, regardless of what happens to the world.
At this moment, Sephiroth in this story only wanted to resurrect his mother.
Originally, he had placed all his hope on Shinra.
Shinra could grant him superhuman abilities, so naturally, they would have the ability to resurrect his mother.
That's what the Shinra executives had told him, anyway.
But now, everything was destroyed. Shinra was gone, and Sephiroth's wish was shattered.
Fortunately, during the earlier battle, he felt Aerith' presence.
The power within Aerith gave Sephiroth new hope.
This is the backstory.
Now, upon hearing Su Ye's voice, Sephiroth suddenly felt that the possibility of fulfilling his wish had grown even greater.
This man who helped Aerith broadcast her thoughts into everyone's minds—he might be able to help her achieve what she couldn't do alone.
Sephiroth quickly put the pieces together, so his tone toward Su Ye wasn't as aggressive as it usually was with others.
Of course, that didn't mean he'd throw away his pride.
If Su Ye tried to use this to threaten him, he wouldn't agree.
"That's right. That was me."
Su Ye admitted it while also trying to guess Sephiroth's intentions.
In the original story, Sephiroth was a severely twisted villain.
His power came from the alien entity Jenova.
At first, he thought he and Aerith were both Ancients, so he wanted to destroy humanity and take back the world that belonged to their kind.
Later, when he discovered Jenova's true nature, he turned against both the Ancients and humanity and decided to destroy the world instead.
Whatever the reason, he was determined to annihilate Earth and humankind.
As a villain, logic didn't matter—all he needed was a semi-plausible excuse to justify world destruction.
But the Sephiroth standing before Su Ye now wasn't quite what he expected.
"What exactly do you want from Aerith?"
After a moment of hesitation, Sephiroth replied.
"I want to ask her for a favor."
The reason for Sephiroth's change in attitude, aside from thinking he and Aerith shared the same power, was also due to Bumblebee.
After witnessing Bumblebee's strength, he didn't think he could win a fight against him.
Otherwise, he might've just taken Aerith by force.
"What makes you think Aerith will help you?"
Su Ye smiled as he spoke, seeing through Sephiroth's caution and not being too polite about it.
After all, he was a powerful villain—popular and once a threat to Cloud's position.
If I don't take advantage of you, who should I?
Sephiroth hesitated again and briefly considered turning around and leaving.
"I can work as a mercenary."
Sephiroth said coldly.
He'd essentially been doing mercenary work as a Shinra soldier—switching employers didn't make much difference.
"A mercenary, huh?"
Su Ye turned to look at the Great Wall Guardians.
"The guy outside wants to join our team. Let's have a democratic vote. Do you agree?"
"Who? That Nova Empire traitor?"
Abomination was the first to speak.
As a former soldier, he detested traitors and turncoats.
"No way!"
Next to him, his newfound buddy Hoshigaki Kisame squinted at Sephiroth outside.
"He's strong."
"?" Abomination turned to Kisame in confusion.
"Maybe we should fight him first."
Kisame suggested and gave Abomination a meaningful look.
The idea wasn't just sparring—it was a duel where victory or death would determine the outcome.
"If he can hold out against the two of us, then we'll agree to let him join."
Kisame might've looked like a brute, but his words were precise.
Their verdict only represented the two of them—they didn't speak for the others.
With them taking the lead, the rest of the team quickly grew excited.
"Then let's fight. We'll join in too. If we lose, we vote no. If we win, we vote yes."
Soon, everyone agreed and set the tone.
Su Ye hadn't said a word the whole time. Once they finished discussing, he raised a hand and pointed to the sky outside.
A beam of red light shot out, and a giant octagonal ring appeared in the sky.
"Go ahead, since we didn't finish the fight earlier, let's continue now!"
"We're up first!"
Abomination and Kisame shouted in unison, leaping onto the ring. On the other side, Sephiroth stepped up as well.
No more words—they rushed at each other and began to fight.
Meanwhile, the others aboard the ship were enthusiastically chatting.
Back on the spaceship, the others were excitedly discussing the fight.
The Great Wall Guardians, though older, weren't the type to sit still. Loving the drama, they even opened betting pools.
The heroines mostly abstained and gathered to chat.
"Hi, I'm Gwen. I'm Xiao Ye's girlfriend."
Gwen introduced herself to Aerith with a smile, though her tone carried a hint of aggression—as if Aerith had stolen her candy.
Actually, it didn't just seem that way—it was.
The look in Aerith's eyes whenever she saw Su Ye—so full of undisguised affection—was obvious even to the blind.
This gave Su Ye a headache.
He had wanted to keep the two groups separate, but there was only one ship, so a meeting was inevitable.
Using the Girlfriend Cards to gain power was Su Ye's ticket to strength, but managing the relationships between women? Definitely not his strong suit.
Previously, he avoided issues by keeping the girlfriends apart. No meeting meant no problems.
But now that their numbers were heading toward double digits, meetings were inevitable.
Su Ye had too many things to deal with every day—saving the world, running around, and more. He simply didn't have time to mediate every relationship.
So he thought, let them work it out themselves.
Whatever the result, he'd accept it.
If he had to micromanage everything, what kind of life was that?
Life is meant to be enjoyed, not suffered.
Even if life doesn't go as planned, if he loses his job and can't make money from writing, the days still have to go on, right?
Compared to him, Aerith had a much better attitude.
Hearing Gwen's introduction, she responded with a sweet smile.
"Hello, I'm Aerith, from Xandar. Cloud rescued me from Xandar and promised to protect me—and I trust him."
From start to finish, Aerith never said anything about her relationship with Su Ye—but her stance was firm.
Su Ye had made her a promise, and she believed in it. That was all that mattered.
As for Gwen calling herself his girlfriend, Aerith didn't care.
In the original story, even knowing Cloud had a thing with Tifa and had made a promise to Zack, Aerith still nearly stole him.
Maybe in her mind, love and marriage were separate matters.
Being a girlfriend didn't mean much. As long as Su Ye wasn't married, she still had a chance.
Love is free, right? You like yours, I like mine, and we don't interfere with each other.
And even if we're married, we can always get a divorce, right?
From this mindset alone, Gwen felt like she had already lost.
A woman with this kind of personality was encouraging men to be bad, keeping the red flag at home while having colorful flags outside, wasn't she?
There's no man who wouldn't like a woman like this.
Gwen even thought, if she were a guy, she might fall for Aerith too.
"I've known Xiao Ye for a long time. We're classmates. We've been through a lot. We talk about everything—we've built a really strong bond!"
Being a straightforward American girl, Gwen laid her cards on the table.
Xiao Ye is mine, mine, mine—you can't have him.
Aerith could tell Gwen was getting anxious.
If she really pushed her too far, Su Ye probably wouldn't be happy either.
As Gwen had said, they were classmates turned lovers—a deep emotional foundation.
The real issue was Su Ye himself couldn't control his urges.
Heh, men!
Sighing internally, Aerith smiled even more sweetly.
"You're the high school classmate Cloud mentioned? Can you tell me about your school days? I've never been to school—I always dreamed of what it's like, but never really knew."
"You… never went to school?" Gwen asked hesitantly.
In this day and age, with such advanced technology on Xandar, there were still people who hadn't been to school?
Did they not have mandatory education?
Aerith's smile faded. "That's right. I was an orphan. Raised by a foster mother. I just grew flowers and sold them. Many of the decorative plants in schools were grown by me."
"An orphan…"
Gwen suddenly felt a pang of sympathy.
She had seen many orphans in New York and knew how hard their lives were.
So, when she heard Aerith's story, her heart softened.
'Maybe Xiao Ye was just trying to comfort her loneliness. Maybe he didn't have feelings for her after all—it was just a misunderstanding.'
"By the way, why do you call Xiao Ye 'Cloud'?" Gwen's tone suddenly relaxed.
Aerith furrowed her brows. "He told me to."