Saber (Fate/Crossover - Sephiroth)

**Saber** (セイバー, *Seibā*) is the servant of ??? in the ??? Holy Grail War.

"*I will... Never be a memory*".

## Profile

### Identity

Saber's true identity is **Sephiroth**, the main antagonist of Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VII Remake and one of the major antagonists in its extended universe. In spin-off appearances, Sephiroth is depicted as Cloud Strife's archenemy and is seen as a symbol of Cloud's troubled past that haunts him. Sephiroth is a former renowned SOLDIER who became twisted.

Before his fall from grace, Sephiroth was one of the most lauded success stories of the Shinra Electric Power Company's SOLDIER program. His successes in the field of battle during the conflicts surrounding Shinra's bid for global domination led to his status as a celebrity war hero and the poster boy for both the Shinra Military and the company's SOLDIER program. Learning of his true origins drove him insane, causing him to be driven by a desire to destroy the world.

### Appearance

Sephiroth is a tall man with a muscular build. He wears a long black coat with silver pauldrons, black boots and black trousers. The top of his coat is open to reveal his chest, with his leather SOLDIER suspenders crossed over it. Sephiroth's long silver hair has bangs parted to either side of his face. In Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-, the bangs are shorter. Sephiroth has green cat-like eyes Sephiroth E3 2019 VII Remake and wields the Masamune, a seven-foot long katana he is rarely seen without. His battle stance with the sword is to hold it over his left shoulder with the blade curving downward, known in the Japanese sword stance as Te Ura Gasumi No Kamae, which is primarily used in Ninjitsu and Tenshin Shōden Katori Shintō-ryū, the latter of which is one of the oldest extant martial arts.

Sephiroth usually wields the Masamune two-handed. In later appearances a single black wing emerges from his right shoulder. Sephiroth is ambidextrous, and usually wields his sword with his left hand, but in some cases will choose to use his right hand.[note 1] He has been depicted wielding his sword in his right hand in many pieces of art and merchandise.

### Personality

Prior to his madness, as shown in Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-, Sephiroth maintains an outwardly aloof and professional demeanor during his time at Shinra, known for hardly mingling with anyone but his friends Angeal Hewley and Genesis Rhapsodos, and being indifferent toward his fans. He can act humane and caring in contrast to his reputation, befriending Zack over their shared reluctance to hunt down their friends and desire to bring them back. Sephiroth is intelligent and respects those he deems worthy—he considers Professor Gast a great scientist, but scorns Professor Hojo. Well-spoken and graceful, Sephiroth is calm, collected, and in control, and has a dry sense of humor. Rarely, he can be frustrated and caught off-guard. As the strongest SOLDIER alive, Sephiroth is confident to the point of arrogance, yet has no interest in personal glory, as he tells Genesis, who envies Sephiroth's reputation, that he can have it.

After learning of the experiments that led to his birth, Sephiroth falls into insanity, becoming murderous, ruthless and vengeful, yet retaining his calm and cold demeanor. He develops a messiah complex, proclaiming to be "the chosen one" destined to lead the planet. He becomes sadistic and enjoys mentally torturing Cloud. Sephiroth is devoted to Jenova and her cause, even though her body serves as little more than his avatar. He has become an agent carrying out Jenova's will.

In the Japanese releases, Sephiroth uses the pronoun ore prior to his insanity, a common masculine pronoun used by confident males. Following the Nibelheim Incident, he begins to use watashi, a more formal pronoun that is genderless in formal context, likely because he now sees himself as superior to everyone else. This post-madness mannerism carries into his spin-off appearances, such as Dissidia Final Fantasy. In the Remake, Sephiroth uses ore at the ending, as he states he will not let himself end, though all other interactions has him use watashi.

In the Final Fantasy VII Remake, Sephiroth still torments Cloud, gloating over his painful memories and failures, but also encourages him to get stronger and survive his ordeals. He even beckons Cloud to join him and his cause to "save the planet" and implies he wants to alter his destiny. Rather than killing Cloud when he refuses, Sephiroth spares him and gives him a hint, letting him continue on his journey.

## Abilities

Sephiroth is the greatest SOLDIER 1st Class of all time whose legendary accomplishments in the field of battle inspired many to join SOLDIER. Regarded as the strongest swordsman, he is said to be the only one capable of effectively wielding his Masamune, a nodachi that is longer than he is tall, which he uses effortlessly with a single hand, ambidextrously able to shift from his left to right hand with no loss of efficiency and slash faster than the human eye can see. Although rarely shown, he is proficient in hand-to-hand combat. Sephiroth can teleport to swiftly cover the distance between him and his opponent and empower the Masamune with energy. In Dissidia, he can create a circular shield of energy and even stop time itself. He can manifest a single black wing in his right shoulder, and in the Remake, he can use its feathers to attack his enemies.

Though preferring swordsmanship, Sephiroth had mastered magic use via materia even before his immersion in the lifestream. He can manifest materia to fight alongside him, as well as create a protective magical barrier. After absorbing the knowledge of the Ancients, he no longer needs materia to use magic. After gaining the Black Materia, he can use the most devastating destructive magic of all: Meteor. In the Remake, Sephiroth summons a huge ball of fire resembling a meteor even without the Black Materia and can perform elemental infusion to cast powerful spells and resist elemental magic and create black force-fields that paralyze and damage his foes. His signature spells include Heartless Angel to summon angels to sap enemies of their strength, and Shadow Flare to create gravitational exploding orbs of darkness. His special attack is Supernova, which has been described as his Limit Break. His use of Supernova is powered by despair, and it can even affect multiple dimensions. Sephiroth even has the power to seal Holy, preventing it from launching and destroying his Meteor.

Sephiroth had great resilience even before his ascension to something of an immortal being. Even after his physical body is destroyed, his will persists. Having been injected with Jenova cells while still a fetus, and thus exposed to pure Jenova cells undiluted by human DNA, the abilities Sephiroth gained from such a direct method of exposure make him the superior specimen of the Jenova Project. His success inspired Shinra to create SOLDIER, his power still vastly surpassing all who came after him. As his genome cannot be broken down, Sephiroth does not degrade, but he also cannot be copied as a result. However, Genesis believes Sephiroth can pass on his immunity to degradation as a cure for others.

After overpowering Jenova's will Sephiroth gained the ability to exert his influence through her cells, able to construct avatars in his likeness, as well as other eldritch entities, enabling him a physical presence in the world of the living and attaining a sort of immortality. He can remotely control Jenova cells inside living organisms, affect the thoughts and actions of those injected with her cells, and in severe cases can outright puppeteer their bodies. In Final Fantasy VII Remake, he can shapeshift others with Jenova cells into his visage and transform them into monsters.[15] In the remake, when he interacts with Cloud "in person", a black feather drops after he vanishes. When Sephiroth appears through the robed men, no black feather falls.

His ability to project his will through these avatars is limited, but is compounded by the subject's willpower (or lack thereof), and intensifies over shorter distances, being strongest at the North Crater (the site of his physical body).

Being immersed in the lifestream has granted Sephiroth psychic powers, allowing him to read others' minds, making him adept at emotional manipulation, preying on his opponents' dark emotions. He can communicate with others telepathically and project illusions. He can telekinetically control objects and even people, and manipulate matter in Final Fantasy VII Remake by breaking down debris and fusing it. He can fly even without his wing, an ability he already displayed in Crisis Core. Sephiroth can summon the Masamune at will and erect an impenetrable energy barrier to cover an entire crater.

In Final Fantasy VII Remake, he can warp reality, as he slices a dark tornado caused by the Whispers to create an entrance to the "singularity". He takes himself and Cloud to the Edge of Creation in a flash of light. However, how much the surreal experiences Cloud goes through in his battle against Sephiroth are illusions projected by the latter is ambiguous.

Sephiroth, at least when utilizing Kadaj's body, is also capable of causing meteorlogical effects.

Renowned as a brilliant tactician and fighter during his days as a 1st Class SOLDIER, Sephiroth is an unparalleled swordsman and a legendary war hero who ended entire conflicts virtually single-handedly. As SOLDIER's top warrior he has immense amounts of experience and knowledge from fighting all sort of enemies in many different missions and facing many dangerous situations. Aside from his military talent, Sephiroth is shown to have noticeable scientific intellect, managing to read and understand the entirety of the library in the Shinra Mansion in a matter of days. Said documents were reports on the Jenova Project by Professor Gast Faremis, a scientific genius above Hojo, and Professor Hojo himself, with Sephiroth’s incorrect conclusions being due to the outdated nature of the documents. After his fall to the Lifestream, he absorbed large amounts of knowledge from it, learning secrets about the Planet and the Cetra, obtaining an understanding of the nature of the Planet itself, the cycle of life and death, and forbidden secrets such as the White and Black Materia, and the Magic they held: Holy and Meteor. Most noticeably his newfound knowledge and power enable him to use Magic without having to borrow the power from the Planet nor knowledge from the Cetra using Materia as a medium. In the end, his plan went through smoothly until the very end and casually manipulated the heroes through the story for his needs, frequently tormenting Cloud simply for his own amusement.

Sephiroth very rarely has been hard-pressed in battle and thus is extremely arrogant and sure of his own strength, because of this, more often than not, he will rarely give his all during a fight, prolonging encounters he could have finished quickly. The insanity after realizing the origins of his existence and misinterpreting his purpose in the world only aggravates this sense of superiority and overconfidence. After relinquishing parts of his own self, following his defeat in the Planet's Core, his hatred for Cloud reached obsessive levels, and he's more focused on making him suffer than accomplishing his goals.

### Noble Phantasm

#### **Supernova**

Sephiroth’s ultimate attack, a destructive event of cosmic scale. Depending on the version of the game, original Japanese or International, its animation is different: in the original Japanese version Sephiroth, in an empty zone of space, gathers such a massive amount of energy that can be seen from faraway planets, and suddenly a colossal explosion seemingly consumes the entire Solar System. In the international version the walls of reality appear to be broken by Sephiroth, who drags the party into a different dimension, images of outer space are accompanied by several equations and calculations, then a giant comet speeds through the stars into the Milky Way Galaxy, finally reaching the Solar System. One by one, it destroys several planets in its path, finally colliding with the Sun, which causes the eponymous event. The expanding explosion engulfs Mercury and Venus and eventually reaches the Planet, the infernal wall goes past Sephiroth and consumes the party and the sequence ends with an image of Sephiroth and the supernova remnant of the sun behind him. Infamously, the international version of the move cannot kill the party as it deals percentage-based damage (15/16 of total health), however, the original Japanese version can.

#### **Safer Sephiroth**

After being immersed inside Lifestream and absorbing immeasurable amounts of the knowledge of the Ancients, Sephiroth's magical prowess are enhanced to the point that he can perform all levels of magic without need of materia. In addition to being capable of performing all forms of status spells, such as Stop, Death Sentence and Silence, allowing him to reduce his enemies fighting effectiveness, render magic completely unusable as well as curse others to die within a set time limit, he also gained several unique and highly potent buffing spells, such as Reflect, Wall and Death Force, making him able to resist or even repel attacks and be immune to all instant death attacks. He even has access to his own status spells, such as Stigma and Pale Horse, sending a huge blast of reddish or blue energy capable of inflicting multiple status effects. He is also capable of combining several elemental magics and unleashing them in a devastating storm.

He also gains access to the devastating magical artifacts of Pandora Box and Black Materia. With Pandora Box, he can blast its energy, which ignores all form of defensive ability. With Black Materia, he is capable of performing the most destructive form of magic Meteor, summoning a massive meteor capable of heavily damaging the entire Earth.

## References

https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Sephiroth

https://villains.fandom.com/wiki/Sephiroth

https://vsbattles.fandom.com/wiki/Sephiroth