Just finished up the new chapters. They're both pretty short but very eventful.
Chapter 7 has Team Glenn landing on Rosen's island and trying to evacuate him while the mana torrent begins. Glenn is now seriously questioning his loyalty to Shinra. When they find Rosen gathering more firewood, Glenn tells him that they were ordered to kill everyone on the mainland. Rosen doesn't believe them and runs off to light the smoke signal.
As the party tries to reach the tower, the island begins to crumble around them. They fight some monsters and eventually Sephiroth volunteers to go ahead because he can get to Rosen quicker. Lucia and Matt think that since he's similar in age to Rosen he might be able to reason with him. Glenn agrees, but decides they should follow him instead of prepping the chopper.
Sephiroth reaches Rosen and tries to persuade him to join them. Glenn and the others arrive, but a rift opens up and cuts them off. A giant six-armed monster called Buno D'rhad emerges from the rift; Matt speculates that it may be a manifestation of the island's anger or a guardian of the planet. They fight and defeat it, only to see Sephiroth draw his blade and stab Rosen, killing him.
Glenn and the others reach them, but Rosen is already dead. By coincidence, Sephiroth's lost necklace drifts by them in the currents of mako. Sephiroth tries to grab it but Glenn, furious with him, knocks him down and kicks the necklace into the crevasse. The team makes it back to the chopper and hears over coms that their disobedience was already reported to the higher ups. The beagle Stamp poster is still prominently displayed in the helicopter. Sephiroth arrives with Rosen's dog, Refu, and the group retreats on the chopper while the mana torrent erupts and the island collapses into the ocean.
Chapter 8 then picks up ten years later in Wutai with the flash forward scene where a hooded Glenn attacks Sephiroth, who is trying to reach Genesis, who has just defected. Glenn's accompanied by Refu, now grown much larger. It seems he wasn't serious about fighting Sephiroth, more like friendly banter. He tells Sephiroth that Matt and Lucia are doing well and apologizes for the necklace, then warns him that Heidegger ordered and air strike to try and eliminate the SOLDIER deserters.
Sephiroth finds his Security Forces comrades and tells them they need to retreat, but the battalion was trapped by a landslide and is now pinned down by a horde of monsters. Sephiroth rushes off to protect them.
We then get to play as this true hero version of Sephiroth as a guest character, complete with a heroic version of One Winged Angel as his battle theme. He finds off waves of monsters and one of the Wutai-trained behemoths, called a behemoth pawn. The security forces are inspired to fight alongside him. After the battle a combat photographer starts snapping photographs of him and the other troops cheer him on. Glenn sits on a crate near the back of the crowd, smiling and petting Refu.
During this whole chapter we get fades to black with Sephiroth having dialogue about wanting to end the endless cycle of hate, show compassion like Glenn taught him, be a true hero, and save every single person he can.
As Sephiroth walks through the crowd, we start to get flashes of green static, just like Cloud has in the Remake trilogy. We get a flashback to his conversation with Rosen. Sephiroth tried to convince him but Rosen refused, asking Sephiroth to kill him and reunite him with his people. Sephiroth tells him he should live, but Rosen says that if they try to save him they'll all get trapped on the island and die. Since he knows Sephiroth wants to save the others, Rosen tells him he has to make the choice now. Sephiroth resolves himself, draws his blade, and stabs Rosen.
It then fades to Sephiroth standing at the Edge of Creation, and he looks up at the universe of death.
The First SOLDIER Episode 1 complete.
We then get a teaser trailer for The First SOLDIER Episode 2.
A misty forest. A hooded man drops a camcorder, the camera zooms in on the lcd screen displaying distorted footage flickering between young Sephiroth surrounded by flames and some burnt ruins.
It then fills the screen with the camcorder footage, showing young Sephiroth walking with young Angeal (SOLDIER: 2nd Class colors) from behind, walking towards some ruins in the mist.
An man with shaggy brown hair and stubble lowers the camera.
Switches to young Sephiroth standing in front of a younger Hojo who is radiating a powerful purple aura.
Sephiroth grips the handle of the katana on his back and looks up, the camera zooms on his face. This seems to be paralleling Cloud's poses at the start of Remake after he jumps off the train.
