"Hee-hooo—"
Just after smashing Persona Arsene into the ground, Black Frost's face twisted in pain.
Its right fist, which was in close contact with the ground, was suddenly blasted outwards by a violent force erupting from below, even causing Black Frost's massive body to tumble backwards and sit heavily on the ground.
"Perfect coordination. With your teammates' help, it would be very difficult to defeat you in this form. In that case…"
Persona Arsene, wreathed in crimson-black flowing energy, slowly rose from the crater in the Palace floor. As it ascended, Persona Arsene's aura surged and intensified at an incredible speed.
The black, pointed top hat transformed into a red-brimmed white gentleman's hat. The pitch-black falcon wings changed into black and gold mechanical bat wings.
In the blink of an eye, Persona Arsene once again entered its second awakening stage, transforming into the image of Persona Raoul.
Looking at Persona Raoul's figure slowly ascending into the air, not only did Ren Amamiya's face show a cautious expression, but Raiden Mei, Hare, and the other teammates who had witnessed Persona Raoul's overwhelming power also displayed expressions of extreme solemnity.
"If that's the case, then I'll borrow the power of my teammates as well!"
To Ren Amamiya's surprise, Persona Raoul uttered a declaration he had never anticipated.
"What…?"
In the next second, as Persona Raoul waved its arm, Ren Amamiya's increasingly ominous premonition was realized.
"Persona!!" x4
The cognitive existences of the Phantom Thieves, who had been lingering in the lounge area, appeared beside Persona Raoul as if by teleportation. They had also changed from their casual clothes into their Phantom Thief battle attire. The cognitive existences of the Phantom Thieves tore off their masks in unison, each summoning their respective Personas.
"The cognitive existences in Ren's Palace actually summoned Personas?!"
Looking at the young woman opposite them, wearing a pale pink shirt and black bustier vest, a feathered pale purple cavalier hat atop her reddish-brown, fluffy, curly hair, exuding an elegant and refined aura like a young lady, yet incongruously holding a black long-handled axe, and the Persona figure in a red floral dress behind the knightly girl, Raiden Mei's eyes widened instantly, and a bead of cold sweat slowly trickled down her forehead.
Persona Raoul alone was enough to give them a headache. Now, Persona Raoul could even command the cognitive existences of the Phantom Thieves in the Palace.
When these four cognitive existences, capable of summoning Personas, joined the battlefield, Ren Amamiya's side, which originally had a numerical advantage, was instantly nullified. They directly entered a "soldier versus soldier, king versus king" confrontation. Raiden Mei and the others would likely find it difficult to provide combat support to Ren Amamiya.
"How annoying. Isn't this guy's outfit a complete copy of Ren's style?" Veliona's gaze swept over the ornate female Persona, which emanated a crystalline glow.
Then, she fixed her gaze completely on the slender girl standing opposite her, who had tied her flame-red long hair into a ponytail, wore red gloves, and was clad in a black leather tight-fitting trench coat, currently warming up like a gymnast by lifting her snow-white leg into a standing split. Veliona let out a rather teeth-gritting "Tch."
"My opponent is… a cat?" Armored Hare slowly tightened her grip on the javelin in her hand. Facing her was a cat standing on its short legs, wearing a yellow scarf around its neck. The upper half of its face was black, and the lower half was white, looking almost like a blue-eyed cat wearing a black mask. A black humanoid Persona wielding a knight's sword floated behind the cat.
"That enemy… seems to fight in a similar style to Bronya." Bronya tilted her neck upwards, looking at the blackish-green UFO, engraved with numerous strange runes, that was continuously circling above, overlooking the entire battlefield. Her eyes twitched slightly.
Just now, the orange-haired girl wearing tactical goggles and a green fluorescent-patterned tight suit had just summoned her Persona. Then, blackish-green tentacles extended from the UFO-like Persona, pulling her into its internal area. Immediately after, it moved at incredible speed to the airspace high above, out of reach of the ground battle.
Judging from the high mobility displayed by the blackish-green UFO, even if Bronya attacked it with a barrage of cannon fire from Project Bunny, the orange-haired girl would probably be able to easily dodge all the attacks.
"Milady, Cinderella, Zorro, and Necronomicon…" Looking at the Persona figures summoned by the cognitive existences of the Phantom Thieves, Ren Amamiya, who had been on edge, finally relaxed a little.
It was certainly troublesome that Raoul had suddenly summoned cognitive existences as teammates, but fortunately, these cognitive existences' Personas were all in their initial stages. Not even one had reached its second awakening.
Although the cognitive existences of the Phantom Thieves could briefly tie down his current teammates, if they could drag out the fight a bit longer, Hare and Seele still had a good chance of winning.
"Caring for your teammates is a very good quality, but this battle doesn't afford you the luxury of looking around." Crimson-black cursed flames erupted from Persona Raoul's hand, engulfing Black Frost's massive body like a vortex. Persona Black Frost only had time to let out a慘叫 before completely shattering into a shower of blue light specks.
"Orpheus!!"
Not a moment was wasted grieving for Persona Black Frost's fall. Next to arrive on the battlefield, responding to Ren Amamiya's summons, was Persona Orpheus!!
The grayish-blue mechanical humanoid raised the harp carried on its back. Its fingers deftly swept across the strings, playing a perfect and magnificent melody. Visible musical staves and notes flowed from the strings, surrounding Ren Amamiya, Raiden Mei, and the others.
The brilliant musical passage played by Persona Orpheus instantly made Raiden Mei and Veliona feel much lighter, their stamina seemingly endless and tireless.
Under Vill-V's silent gaze, Ren Amamiya activated the Lightning Ring on his left middle finger. The Key of Judgment, Key of Revelation, and Key of Erosion, three Divine Keys, resonated simultaneously. The massive Honkai energy, linked together, continuously formed a cycle, bringing about a cataclysmic, transcendent change to Ren Amamiya, their wielder.
Jizo Mitama and the mimicked Jizo Mitama simultaneously entered the Overdrive Mode of Jizo Mitama: Etched. A crimson-black miasma enveloped Orpheus's grayish-blue mechanical body, causing its eyes to glow with an eerie scarlet light.
Persona Orpheus's phantom-like figure moved rapidly in mid-air, completely dodging the vast golden lightning Raoul had unleashed.
After getting close to Raoul, Orpheus even directly swung the harp in its hand, smashing it violently towards Raoul's head!
"Good strength." Raoul raised its hand and steadily blocked Orpheus's harp attack. Besides being pushed back slightly, it suffered no damage.
And just as Raoul commented on Persona Orpheus's attack, Orpheus deftly reached its fingers towards the harp Raoul was parrying on its wrist. The notes played at point-blank range as the strings were plucked slightly weakened Raoul's aura, reducing its attack power to a certain extent.
Seeing Orpheus successfully use Tarunda to lower Persona Raoul's attack power, Ren Amamiya, who was on the ground, intently commanding Orpheus, couldn't help but smile.
However, in the next instant, as a multicolored beam descended from the sky and swept across the entire battlefield at incredible speed, the smile that had just appeared on Ren Amamiya's face froze.
The beam from the support-type Persona Necronomicon made Ren Amamiya and the others on the scene feel suddenly heavier. Their accuracy and evasion rates dropped, almost nullifying the buff effect from the brilliant musical passage Orpheus had played earlier.
"Bronya, Hare, do you have any way to stop Futaba… to stop that UFO in the sky from continuing to affect the battle?!" Ren Amamiya manipulated Persona Orpheus to create distance from Raoul, then loudly asked Bronya and Hare, who were on another part of the battlefield.
Although he had long known the difference between teams with and without support-type Personas, now that he was actually facing a team with a support-type Persona, Ren Amamiya felt the current situation was ten times worse than he had imagined.
Recalling the support Futaba Sakura could provide, she could restore her companions' stamina and magic, enhance her teammates' attack, defense, accuracy, and evasion rates, and simultaneously lower the enemy's attack, defense, accuracy, and evasion rates, even nullifying damage that would incapacitate her teammates… She was truly the soul of the team!
If they didn't find a way to deal with Futaba Sakura, this battle would likely be incredibly difficult and frustrating.
Unfortunately, Ren Amamiya hadn't yet managed to recruit Fu Hua, a true support-type Persona user, into the Phantom Thieves. Otherwise, with Fu Hua's functionality, even if she couldn't completely defeat Futaba Sakura in the sky, she could at least prevent her from playing her intended role.
As for now, he could only pin his hopes on the other two semi-support Persona users in the team.
"Bronya is trying… But it might take some time…" Beads of crystalline sweat appeared on Bronya's forehead. Project Bunny 19C, enhanced by the Herrscher of Reason Core fragments, was already operating at full capacity, rapidly analyzing the structure and operation of the multicolored beam, hoping to find a way to counter it.
However, this was Bronya's first encounter with such a strange energy operation. Even if she was a genius hacker, it would be difficult for her to quickly find a way to counter Necronomicon's skill.
"Come closer to me, Bronya. I'll send all the information contained in that beam to your Project Bunny. After that, the job of stopping and disrupting her from continuing to fire beams will be up to you!" Unlike Bronya, who needed to rely on Project Bunny 19C's computing power to analyze the components from scratch, Hare, through her unique Stigmata Archetype information-reading ability, obtained all the data on the beam Necronomicon had fired in an instant.
The cognitive existence Morgana was weaker than Armored Hare, but by constantly using healing skills to recover, Morgana managed to barely hold Hare off for a while.
Seeing Bronya and Hare complete the information transfer, Vill-V, who had been wondering if she should step in and help, became quiet again, silently observing the battle between Ren Amamiya and Persona Raoul.
Claws wreathed in dreadful cursed flames suddenly lashed out. Raoul, with unstoppable momentum, pierced its arm into the valve-like area in Persona Orpheus's chest. Cracks instantly spread across Orpheus's grayish-blue mechanical body due to the immense impact.
"Next is… Hmm?" Even with the enhancement from both the mimicked and genuine Jizo Mitama: Etched, Persona Orpheus still seemed much inferior to Raoul.
Ren Amamiya had originally intended to make Orpheus dodge Raoul's increasingly heavy and fatal blows in its continuous offensive by canceling the summon. However, Persona Raoul's speed was truly swift, and a single, clean cursed flame claw strike ended all of Persona Orpheus's life.
However, after all of Persona Orpheus's life force had drained away, to Ren Amamiya's surprise, it didn't shatter into a shower of light specks and disappear like Black Frost had. Instead, it lingered on the scene, displaying a new and strange transformation.
When life vanished, ancient and silent death quietly reawakened within this shell.
Cracks spread rapidly across Persona Orpheus's cold, mechanical shell. Grayish-blue mechanical fragments continuously fell from the air to the ground. A dense aura of death surged from the gaps in the mechanical body, even making the surrounding environment dim, as if plunged into a tranquil, moonlit night.
Bang—!
Persona Orpheus's mechanical body completely exploded. And emerging from within, replacing Orpheus and floating before Ren Amamiya, was a terrifying Persona clad in black, with pale skin, wielding a black longsword, surrounded by several black coffins engraved with reliefs of sword-wielding saints, like Death itself descending!!
Thanatos.PNG
"This Persona is… Thanatos?! It was born from Orpheus's body?!" Not only Ren Amamiya, the Persona user, was astonished by this, but even Persona Raoul was shaken.
After all, Raoul was another Ren Amamiya. As Ren Amamiya's other half, Persona Raoul naturally had no prior mental preparation for a miracle that Ren Amamiya himself didn't know about.