My very first story and fan fiction. After seeing RWBY and Persona 3, I was very tempted to make a crossover, so I decided to give it a try.
Anyways, I hope you enjoy this.
Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or Persona 3 FES
Darkness…it was all around me.
There was no sign of life, no sign of light; no sign of anything. All I could see in front of me was the thick, deathly fog lingering around the vast continuum of nothingness as the darkness plagued the entire world around me in pitch-black.
I shifted my sight and glanced down to look at my body. Instead of my usual pale beige colour skin covered with a pair of black trousers and white shoes, my entire lower body was uniformly coated with gray stone.
Imaginarily, I sighed at my current pathetic state.
-The price of saving the world...how long has it been since the Day of Judgement?
Needless to say, my torso, my hands and my face no longer have human features; every part of my body was stone. I've become a statue, immobilised and crucified to the great golden doors behind me. I, myself, have become the Great Seal.
A period of time ago, I harnessed the power of the Universe Arcana and sealed the great malice of humanity, Erebus, and successfully prevented The Fall. However, the price of saving the world was...
...my life essence.
I was stripped away of my humanity, my freedom and my life and became the Great Seal that would keep Erebus away from Nyx.
If I could still make facial expressions, it would be an expression filled with loneliness and sadness; only a sad smile would surface on my face.
Whenever I looked at myself and reminded myself of the Great Seal, I would always reminisced the times where I attended Gekkoukan High School, the memories of my first encounter with the shadows during the Dark Hour, and the first summoning of my persona, Orpheus.
The times where I forged social links and enjoyed myself with a group of friends, the times where my comrades and I faced the toughest adversaries, and of course memories of the Day of Judgement, they would always be carved inside my mind and soul.
But all good things always come to an end.
Although I don't like the feeling of being isolated here.
"Don't worry, Master. You're not alone here." A voice echoed inside my mind.
-Thanks, but you don't have to remind me of that.
That voice was not my imagination, nor was it a hallucination of any sorts.
That was the voice of one of my many, many personas, Tamamo-no-Mae.
A persona is part of a person's soul; it is a face of a person's personality. Generally people would only have one persona true to their own personalities. However, for someone like me would be different.
I am a Fool. I am a Wild Card. I have the ability to summon 170 personas.
Or maybe even more than 170 personas right now.
Ever since I acquired the Universe Arcana, I could feel that the number of personas I had inside my Sea of Souls dramatically increased. Even Igor was surprised and amused when it exceeded his expectation.
And the Universe Arcana also brought about another side-effect – my personas began talking ever since I traded my life essence to become the seal. I could even retreat into my Sea of Souls and have casual conversations with all my personas inside.
Truth to be told, I was shocked when I could suddenly hear the voices of my personas. But then again, I should be glad that they could keep me company and talk to me. Being isolated and confined into this empty place of nothingness for an eternity would have driven anyone to insanity.
Not to mention that trading your life essence and becoming a seal means that you are forbidden to move even a single inch of your body anymore.
"Heehoo! What are you thinking about again, master?" This time, the adorable voice of Jack Frost rang sharply in my mind.
-Nothing in particular. I'm just bored.
"Ho...I never knew you'll get bored that easily, master. Last time I checked you didn't talk that much within the group."
-You're telling that to a guy that is locked up forever without even having the ability to move or talk? I thought you knew better than this, Thor.
"I am analytical enough to conclude that you could even spend your entire life in solitude. This should be nothing for you."
-Pfft...
If I could even open my mouth, I would have let out a sarcastic cough and chuckle at his comments. Maybe I wouldn't even have the willpower to contain my laughter.
It made me laugh to think that this all-brawn-but-no-brain guy was implying his intellectual level was high enough to make a conclusion about my life.
-Analytical? How about we have a rematch on chess again?
And with that, echoes of laughter erupted and began reverberating inside my mind.
"OHHHHH BURRRRNNNNNN!"
"Thor, did you hear that sizzling noise? SZZZZZZZZ."
"Dayum. I think that flame burns even brighter and stronger than Suzaku's."
"...I don't think there's a need to drag me in."
And then a loud, thunderous roar erupted, one that was full of rage and anger. The angry cry of the famous Norse god had silenced every other persona of their noisy bickering. The roar, probably even louder than a series of thunders, echoed sharply, and somewhat painfully, inside my mind; the Norse god had obviously reached his breaking point.
"SO WHAT IF I HAVE LOST TO MASTER, IT'S NOT LIKE I'M THE ONLY PERSONA THAT LOST AGAINST MASTER!"
Thor had a valid point here But then again, that was a pathetic excuse and comeback that he made and Thor was a special case.
-That's...true indeed, Thor. But-
"No one loses a game of Chess within 30 seconds. You're the first one to probably set the world's impossible record." The beautiful nine-tailed fox spirit (Tamamo-no-Mae) beat me to it. She did finished what I meant to say, but she did not address that point very nicely of course.
"Not to mention that all 16 of your chess pieces were wiped out." And then another one of my persona went on to add more salt to the already salty wound.
"OOOHHHHH, MORE BURNNN!"
"Pfft...haha..." I chuckled under my breath as my personas continued their own hilarious argument about Thor's intellectual level. The sudden outburst of lively activities here sure did remind me of my memories with my SEES friends.
Being reminded of my past life sure was nice; perhaps I did the right thing after all, sacrificing myself for the sake of my friends, and the world. Having decided on that, I closed my eyelids and made a small smile.
Wait, that last part was wrong.
I wasn't supposed to be smiling and chuckling with laughter. A statue without the essence of life and crucified to the doors wasn't supposed show any signs of life.
-What the hell?
In surprise and bewilderment, I turned my head and glanced at both of my hands. My arms were still chained onto the doors, but a shade of pale beige began to overlap the grey on my stony fingers-
-Wait, I can now turn my head?
Slowly, the chains that were tied around my arms and limbs turned into liquid, as if a concentrated acid was corroding them. The great transformation continued until my last part of my stone body returned back into its usual form, making me fall onto the invisible ground.
"Holy...what the hell is going on down here!?" Bewildered and frightened, I hollered out to the darkness that surrounded me.
Bewildered, because I was suddenly freed from the prison that would chain me for eternity.
And frightened, because the Great Seal was no longer there.
And that meant, the world's greatest defence collapsed the very moment I regained my humanity.
Looking back at the golden door, a wave of panic began to overwhelm my usual, calm and stoic composure. It was one of my first few times panicking.
-Holy crap...the door, the SEAL! NonononononoNO, WHAT THE BLOODY HELL IS GOING ON!?
"This...looks bad, my liege."
"I haven't had a foggiest idea of what had happened. But I can sense that Erebus is gaining in power and strength...drastically."
The fog around me suddenly thickened, accompanied by a tremendous roar, one that was filled with evil, despair, hatred, and malice. And then a strong vibration shook the entire area of nothingness.
Turning back to look, I widened my eyes in horror, my jaws wide agape.
A huge black hand emerged from the fog and slammed the 'ground' with immense force, that single action so powerful that it just knocked me off my feet.
A pair of enormous, crimson red eyes emerged within the fog, illuminating the darkness around the both of us. The red eyes hovered above my much smaller body, eyeing my soul with a deathly gaze.
And then, the head of probably the most powerful abomination that That humanity had given birth to appeared out of the thick fog as it continued to tower over me. It let out a deafening roar, one that was aggressive, powerful and terrifying. It filled the air with fear and malice, its killing intent was made clear.
The powerful roar pushed away all of the thick fog that surrounded the abomination's true form, unveiling its entire body. It had two heads, sharing one big torso, and 4 legs in all. The one towering above me had its horns pointing upwards, while the other one had them downwards.
Now, behold the greatest manifestation of humanity's negative emotions. Oh great...
The said manifestation set its two pairs of eyes on me, and then the enormous hand was raised up once again, before it started speeding towards me like a meteorite.
As I quickly got back onto my feet, I closed my eyes and mentally switched the Fool card into a Hierophant card, changing my persona from Orpheus to Kohryu.
The gigantic black fist was slammed onto my body at great velocity, and I skidded a few inches back.
However, I did not yield from the attack; I felt no pain even when such a powerful strike fell upon me.
This was because I switched my persona to Kohryu. I had the power to not only summon my personas, but was also able to channel their power, their strengths and weaknesses (unfortunately) into my own body. Kohryu had a natural passive that gave immunity to all strike attacks, thus I channelled and inherited Kohryu's passive and rendered Erebus's punch obsolete.
My unusual panicky state began to subside as I returned to my old stoic expression. Because I was able to block a strike from Erebus, I felt more relief and confident that perhaps I could stop Erebus from accomplishing its malicious goal.
Feeling a bit more confident, I quickly put my hand into my hips and started searching for gun-like tool around my body-
-Wait, where did I put that thing? Why can't I find it anywhere?
My eyes once again widened in horror, my mind once again entered a state of utter panic. I sincerely hoped that this was not happening right now...
Frantically, I tried searching for my evoker many times, only to realise that it was never strapped onto my holster on my belt, because I did not had the evoker during that Graduation Day.
-Oh fuck... I should have brought that evoker along with me during the day of my passing...
While furiously sweating over the lost weapon, I looked up and saw a ball of scorching flames building up at one of the mouths of Erebus.
With dread, I quickly realised my only option was to defend myself from Erebus's attacks until I find a way to summon my personas.
"Switch, Loki!" I called out inside my mind, and my persona was switched to Loki, the tyrant.
The ball of flames was then released from Erebus, and the Agidyne spell struck me directly on the face.
But the powerful fire ball reverted its direction, and went straight back to Erebus. A powerful and bright explosion was made on its body upon impact, the manifestation cried with a roar from its own fire attack.
My Loki was equipped with a repel-fire passive; by channelling Loki's power onto my body, I can deflect any fire attacks.
Even though Loki was a persona that was weak to fire-based spells, but due to extensive training during my previous journey, Loki was able to learn a useful passive.
I looked up to the manifestation and smiled in relief. So long as I could continue repelling Erebus's attacks, I could stop him from contacting Nyx.
Or rather, that was I thought. How wrong can I get?
Erebus recovered from the explosion and emerged from the smoke. It suddenly looked up, gazing at the golden door, the very thing I had been protecting from the malicious manifestation. The gigantic manifestation began to ignore me and its four limbs began to move - the monster was heading straight to the door.
"Damn it! It's heading for the door!" I cried out.
"Shiva, lend me your strength." I muttered under my breath and I switched persona again. Channelling the power from him, I raised my hand into the air of emptiness. Slowly, a faint light gathered around my hand. A spear gradually materialise on my hand.
Pinaka, the strongest spear, was conjured into my hand.
I lowered the spear, and gripped it tightly with both hands. Aiming the tip of the tremendously powerful spear at the manifestation, I kicked my legs off the ground and charged towards the monster.
With the power of Shiva inside my body, I was able to move up towards it with immense velocity and rammed the spear onto the black torso with godlike strength.
However, the manifestation barely flinched from my assault. Instead, its rear head charged up another Agidyne and tossed it onto me.
It happened so fast that all I could see was a red blur coming straight towards me. And within that instant I felt the strong scorching heat digging into my body. My jaws went wide opened as crimson red began to be forced out of my mouth.
"ARGH!" Not able to endure and contain the pain, I let out a cry as I was flung backwards by the impact of the fire attack. Like a ragdoll, I rolled and tumbled onto the 'ground', entering a near-death state.
If wasn't for Shiva's power, I would have died from that attack instantly.
Still, I sprawled on the ground, unable to get up due to the massive amount of damage I received from that single attack. Gritting my bloodied teeth, I forced my head up with all my effort and gazed at the manifestation.
Though the vision was blurry, but I was able to tell that Erebus was moving straight towards the door.
And if Erebus made it through that door, it would be the end of the world.
- Damn it, damn it to hell...Erebus is about to contact Nyx again...
I tried to push my body up, in an attempt to stop Erebus from causing The Fall once again. My eyes narrowed as I watched Erebus continued to move towards the door.
However, my hands trembled without strength as my body collapsed onto the 'ground' once again. I helplessly looked at the massive manifestation as all possible strength left my body.
And then I entered the passage of past memories, memories of my journey with my SEES comrades, my friends.
-Is this what they say about seeing memories of your life when you're about to die?
No, this is worst that dying. This would be a journey of psychological pain and torment as I was about to watch Erebus tearing through the sacrifices that I had made, in my very own eyes
With every step Erebus made towards the door, I vaguely recalled how we struggled to stop the Shadows, how we persevered against all odds to fight against the impossible.
After all of the troubles, struggles and pain that me and my comrades had gone through to stop The Fall, after the sacrifice I had made to stop Erebus from contacting Nyx...
"Per..." I looked at the manifestation with despair. Were all of our efforts in vain? Was the said inevitable destruction really unavoidable?
"...so..." My mind was in peril, in despair. It felt like I was watching all of our efforts, our shared pains, our triumph moments, our hope, all shattering one by one as Erebus advanced towards the golden door step by step.
"...na..." I weakly stretched my hand out to the door with my consciousness was ready to fade out anytime.
And immediately, a card, flourished with bright aura of blue, elegantly floated down, directly above my hand.
It was a tarot card, more specifically the card that represented Death Arcana.
My consciousness level suddenly became clear, holding out for a few moments before it completely went black. It was surprising to see a card, no, an Arcana card floating in front of me out of the blue.
-What the hell was that, a tarot card that appeared out of nowhere and floated down upon me?
Whatever; I didn't cared about that anymore. I garnered my strength once again and my trembling hand reached out to the card.
-Break it.
My instincts called out to me as my hand approached the floating card. With one last ounce of strength, I smashed the card before my hand collapsed onto the invisible ground once again.
And then I stared wide-eyed at the next thing that happened, not out of fear and despair, but with a look of surprise.
What happened next was astonishing – a blue whirlwind appeared and generated great force, and a familiar being began to materialise in the centre of the bluish aura.
Eight coffins were attached onto its back, the back of the overcoat it wore was dancing in the blue air wildly, and its white, gloved hand was gripping strongly onto a broadsword. With that one look, I recognized that entity.
No doubt, it was my true persona, Thanatos.
Realising that my long lost powers returned to me once again, I mentally called out to Thanatos. A single spell appeared inside my head.
-Megidolaon!
Then, the circling blue wind vanished, only to be replaced by a dark purple force that engulfed the god of death. A mystical purple ball manifested on its free hand, rapidly growing and expanding.
The ball kept growing at a rapid pace, and within seconds the ball outgrew the size of Thanatos metallic jaw helmet.
At the same time, Erebus stretched its front head towards the golden knob of the door. Its eyes gave off a brilliant red at that moment, illuminating the darkness engulfing its skull head.
Thanatos swiftly swung its hand and extended it towards Erebus; the purple sphere left its hand and bolted towards the manifestation. In an instant, the purple blur slammed onto the body of the manifestation.
A purplish explosion emerged from the impact, partially engulfing the towering manifestation. The blast had managed to stop Erebus from opening the forbidden door.
The manifestation staggered back with its 4 black limbs, and then gave out a loud roar of frustration and anger. Enraged, the monstrous, dark entity began to swing its limbs wildly at its assailant.
Despite having a huge body, the manifestation was surprisingly fast in its movement. The dark limbs pounded the invisible ground, trying to get a hit on Thanatos.
But Thanatos was still faster; he glided around the air of nothingness swiftly and dodged Erebus's fist rampage in circular movements.
After all, he wasn't the ultimate persona of the Death Arcana for nothing.
As I watched Thanatos flying round and round the raging manifestation,
"Gah..." The sharp pain assaulted my stomach. The unwelcoming sensation reminded me of my precarious situation right now. I should probably get myself into an acceptable condition first...
-Sandalphon.
The strange phenomenon once again occurred – another tarot card floated down in front of my face. Glowing with blue aura, it spun gracefully as it continued levitating. It was portrayed with two dogs howling at the moon around the pool with a lobster, accompanied by two black towers in the background.
I crushed the Moon Arcana card (weakly), and then it shattered like fragile glass.
Instantly, Thanatos dissipated into blue mist and then it disappeared in the dark spaces as Erebus punched right through it.
The similar bluish whirlwind once again reappeared, the force revolving around me. The silhouette of the angelic entity materialised in front of me, spanning out his wings at that moment. As the wind died out, his golden body deflected a brilliant light, gleaming and shining amidst the surrounding darkness and the fog.
-Salvation.
He extended both his hands out into the darkness, and then a new light engulfed my entire body, blinding my sights. At the same time, the pain in my stomach quickly subsided into nothing, as if that Agidyne attack didn't happened at all.
The light died down, and I glanced down to examine my body. All of the previous (and serious) wounds were closed up; my beige skin was in perfection. I looked up and smirked at the manifestation, who glared at me with rage and vengeance in return.
Now with ease, I stood back up on my feet.
Letting out another roar, Erebus charged up a brilliant bluish white sphere.
"Master, it's going to use Mabufudyne." The fox maiden chirped in with a warning.
-Thanks for the heads up. Now it's your turn to shine, Black Frost.
With a smirk on my face, I stood firmly on my feet and snapped my fingers. The Fool card floated down and I smashed it at first sight. The sound of glass shattering followed, and Sandalphon was replaced by a gigantic entity, its skin as black as the manifestation.
"Hee Hoo!" The dark snow fairy let out a cry as the ice sphere sped towards its body. However, the Mabufudyne exploded on what seemed to be an invisible force field instead. The bluish explosion engulfed my persona, but it emerged out of the smoke without a scratch.
This was the work of Black Frost's innate ability, null-ice passive. Basically it blocks all ice-based attacks, including Mabufudyne.
"King and I." With that command, I snapped my fingers with a smirk on my face. The dark snow fairy began channelling its powers before unleashing the unique fusion spell onto Erebus.
The invisible floor was now coated with glittering ice crystals. However the attack failed to damage or freeze Erebus in any way. Instead, it served to provoke its temper even more.
-Okay, that was a bad move...
Giving out another thunderous roar, Erebus stood its grounds firmly before a huge amount of dark aura began surrounding the manifestation. Then the frontal head 'neighed' into the darkness, which was in a form of a roar.
A dark, spherical orb manifested beside its frontal head. The manifestation then gave another roar before charging at me, with the dark ball gliding beside it.
Realising that Erebus was charging up Primal Darkness, a very painful almighty spell, I snapped my fingers to call upon my persona.
"Thor, Ziodyne!" I hollered out and smashed the Chariot card in the air. The stupid, yet powerful Thunder God of the Norse mythology appeared with the famous hammer, Mjolnir in his right hand. Raising his hammer up, the Norse God unleashed a series of lightning bolts. The electricity rained upon the dark creature, and the blinding light of the lightning and its damage managed to slow it down.
However it was not enough to stop Erebus. I needed something more powerful.
"Odin, Thunder Reign!" I shouted and smashed the Emperor Arcana. Immediately, the father of Thor, Odin appeared with his usual white cloak dancing in the wild air. He raised his spear up as he bathe himself in his sea of electricity.
Then there was a pillar of light, surrounded by a wall of electricity as it crashed onto Erebus. It let out a roar of agony, but managed to stand despite the tremendous damage it was inflicted onto him. However, the lightning 'rod' then unleashed total hell for Erebus.
The entire area was engulfed with electricity and the light blinded me a bit. I had to step back and cover my eyes before the light of electricity subsided. As I glanced at the antagonist again, I grimaced and frowned when it was still standing in one piece, with the ball of Primal Darkness still beside its head.
-But after taking direct hit from Thunder Reign, I only need one more decent skill to knock it off.
And then the idea of Hassou Tobi came into my mind.
"Persona, Yoshitsune!" I smashed the Tower Arcana card, and the said persona materialised right in front of me. She was one of my newer personas that were born inside my soul after I became the Seal, probably due to the power of the Universe.
She appeared in a red samurai armour and wielding two katanas in her hands. A red scar vertically ran down through her left eye, her skin was in pale complexion. The swordswomen persona was floating in front of the rampaging Erebus, and calmly waiting for my command.
"Master, your wish is my command." She spoke inside my mind.
Seeing the loyalty and the strength of the samurai persona, I extended my hand out and pointed at the dark manifestation.
"Hassou Tobi!"
In that instant, she disappeared into a red blur bolting towards Erebus, and then 8 red lines appeared at the centre of Erebus. The 8 red lines came in all directions, all of them squarely hitting through Erebus's body, damaging it 8 times simultaneously.
The said manifestation flinched from the powerful skill she used, and the charging of Primal Darkness was disrupted, causing the dark ball to dissipate into nothing.
However, Erebus being some tough son of a bitch was renewing its attack by charging itself with electricity. With that one move, I could foresee that it was trying to electrocute me to death with Thunder Reign, an immensely powerful electric spell with wide Area-of-Effect (AOE) radius.
"You shall be summoned under my call, Metatron!" I hollered out as the Aeon Arcana floated down in front of me. Smashing the card, the blue whirlwind reappeared with the Messenger of God replacing the red samurai.
And just in time, Metatron stood in front of me as Erebus unleashed a series of powerful lightning bolts across the continuum of nothingness, illuminating all the darkness and the fog around us.
However, none of the lightning struck me due to Metatron's repel-electricity passive. A couple of lightning bolts were reflected back onto Erebus itself; however it did not flinch from its own attack in any way.
-Megidolaon. I commanded Metatron with my own mind.
Immediately, he complied with my orders by channelling a purple sphere before tossing it onto Erebus. However, Erebus managed to shake that attack off as its head emerged from the smoke and fog. Enraged, it gave another roar.
-Damn, Erebus is god damn noisy. He's sure a whiny bastard...
I ordered Metatron to unleash God's Hands onto Erebus, and as he performed the spell, a large fist from the top crashed onto Erebus. It suffered another powerful blow, but Erebus was still standing despite all of the attacks I threw at it.
-Okay, time to end this.
I stretched my hands out and focused on an image of another persona. The blue wind circulated around me once again, and the Arcana card of Judgement floated down before my extended hand smashed it upon contact.
An entity appeared, chained in a rising white pillar and clad in white suit with his left hand holding a chain that bundled a column of gray white coffins, resembling those from Thanatos. The fringe of his white hair was combed down, covering half his silver-white face.
It was my ultimate persona, The Messiah.
With the appearance of my most powerful persona, I focused on another important skill. The mana within me began to channel for the spell.
-Magic Skill UP!
A wave of light and wind surrounded the white persona for a while, before they died off fully revealing The Messiah again.
"Let's go, Messiah!"
I shouted as The Messiah rushed out towards the dark manifestation, with a purplish sphere forming underneath his hand. As the white persona closed in, he unleashed the Megidolaon spell onto the rear head of Erebus.
However, this time it was twice as powerful as the original Megidolaon, because The Messiah possessed a skill called 'Magic Skill Up' which enhances all of his magic-spell capabilities, almighty spells included. And due to the Universe Arcana channelling inside my body, it was able to give more boost to The Messiah, making his Megidolaon twice as powerful.
Upon contact with the purple sphere, Erebus was flung by the impact of the much more powerful Megidolaon as the spaces of nothingness was once again filled with the violet explosion. The manifestation collapsed from that attack, and stayed there motionlessly.
"Whew..." I heaved a sigh of relief as I tucked my hands into my pockets. "That damn thing was sure tough..."
It was a good feeling of relief to see that this tough battle was over. It was indeed a close shave as Erebus nearly got in touch with Nyx, the very thing I have been trying to prevent since when I became a Seal.
"Grrr..."
A sudden noise broke my train of thoughts and snapped me back into reality. Alarmed, I turned my head towards the source and noticed the impossible – Erebus was slowly rising up again. It let out another small roar as it continued to garner power from the sudden and random surge of human's negative emotions.
"What the..." I gasped as the manifestation slowly rose up from its position. My eyes widened as I continued eyeing at the monstrous black beast rising in the darkness.
-That's impossible! What the hell, I should have slain that son of a bitch with Messiah's godlike powers!
"My liege, it appears that Erebus is gaining power at ridiculous speed. This must be due to the huge influx of humanity's negative emotions."
-Where the hell did that come from!? I don't remember the people of Earth being so screwed, this is damn impossible for Erebus to be building up at such a ridiculous speed!
I gritted my teeth and narrowed my eyes as I glared at the supposedly impossible miracle that occurred on Erebus. I never knew that miracles could happen to darker beings like Erebus as well...
-Damn it! Damn it all! Do I really have to use that last resort!?
"I see that as the only way out, Master." Metatron voiced out his opinions.
"Do it, do it before that thing becomes something even more powerful!" The fox maiden suggested, her voice brimming with agitation.
And a lot more personas believed that I should indeed use that 'last resort' I had in my arsenal.
Since the majority of my personas agreed, I got no choice but to use it.
"Persona, Lucifer!" I crushed the Judgement Arcana and the greatest fallen angel, Lucifer, appeared in front of me, spreading out his three pairs of demonic wings.
Facing Erebus, I glared at it with a renewed resolution to end that bastard before it could get any more powerful. I channelled all of my strength and mana into Lucifer before a blinding orb of light was formed at his hands.
"I'm betting everything onto this gamble. It's up to you now, Lucifer..." I mumbled softly under my breath as I concentrated my power into Lucifer. The white orb grew brighter and bigger as more mana was poured into the channelling.
At the same time, the dark aura began to gather around the dark being, slowly rising up in strength and in power, recovering itself from every wound it suffered from my various personas.
It was a battle against time, a battle that would determine the survival of only one party.
Not wanting to let Erebus get stronger, I focused more on my own mana, trying to channel every ounce of it into Lucifer's spell.
Just as Erebus gave a bright red, soul-piercing glare at me, I raised my hand up into the hand, enduring the exhaustion that was beginning to take over my body.
"Lucifer, Armageddon!" My raised hand went down, pointing towards the recovering manifestation. Lucifer then pointed his hands at Erebus, with the blinding white sphere in his hands.
It was an almighty fusion spell for Lucifer that required a fusion of Satan and Helel. However, despite having to pay a huge price and effort for the fusion spell, it was arguably the most devastating spell across all personas, including the already destructive Morning Star.
However, such a powerful spell required all of my mana in order to perform it, which was why it was reserved in my own arsenal as my 'last resort'.
However, the sudden influx of negative emotions from across the world that allowed Erebus to rapidly and drastically recover from the previous damages it had suffered had triggered the use of the Armageddon spell.
-God damn Erebus, hope you'll fucking burn in hell with this!
The Fallen Angel then slowly reeled back from Erebus, and as he did that, the white spherical spell was tossed towards the rising beast at an immense velocity.
Upon seeing that, I turned my back and ran away from Erebus, as far as possible. It was best to stay away from the target who had been Armageddon'd as far as possible.
And then the sudden, strong vibration shook the entire place of darkness, and with the great magnitude it possessed, I was inevitably knocked off my feet with a flip.
Caught off-guard by the sudden strong magnitude, I took a direct hit on my face against the invisible ground. And throughout the entire 'earthquake', I laid there sprawled on the ground as fatigue and exhaustion began overtaking my entire body.
"RAWRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!"
The voice of the dying Erebus echoed the entire place, crying out loud in agony. Slowly, I twisted my body and turned my head to look back at the scene.
Erebus dark torso was breaking apart, the blinding explosion was still breaking apart Erebus' dark torso and tearing the manifestation into pieces. It roared again and again, all in the agony that it suffered from the almighty fusion spell.
It was dying, it was finally dying!
It was a Pyrrhic victory, no wait, all battles against Nyx or Erebus would always be a Pyrrhic victory, given the almost infinite amount of power they possessed. Without the power of the Universe Arcana inside me, I would not have won this battle, I would not have stopped Erebus from reaching to Nyx, I would not have prevented humanity's 'inevitable' downfall.
-Totally...worth it...
As the vibration died down and the smoke of war began to give way, I smirked in victory as I gazed at Erebus, now currently collapsing onto the invisible ground with a white crack below it.
Wait. What was that last part again? A white crack?
I examined the crack beneath Erebus, it was emitting white light which seemed to come from below, and it was spanning across the invisible platform.
Underneath the fallen monster, the fault began to spread across the darkness, emitting more brilliant shafts of light from beneath.
Then more similar cracks appeared throughout the entire place, the light illuminating the darkness around me.
-Oh great. Now what, the entire sky is falling onto me?
"This place is about to tear apart and collapse, Master." Apsaras decided to reply to my question in my mind.
True enough, the entire place began to break apart; the light began engulfing every inch of darkness with its brilliant light.
And I was falling right through the cracks. Endlessly falling down into what seemed to be a bottomless pit, I saw the darkness speeding away further and further from me.
My vision became white all over. It was as if the darkness that once surrounded me was replaced with an endless sea of white, like a colour switch in the background. Then, my sights slowly became blurry, and within a few moments my body was overwhelmed by the fatigue that built up inside my exhausted body.
My consciousness faded into another sea of blackness.
-...
-Argh...my god damn head. It hurts...
I touched my own forehead as I slowly opened my eyes. The first thing I saw was neither the usual white ceiling from many compositions and short stories, nor was it the darkness that enveloped the place of the Great Seal. It was somewhat purplish with a couple of curvy patterns, lit up by a small row of blue lights.
I blinked at the ceiling, it was neither in the hospital, nor was it in the place of darkness that I was locked up in for eternity.
-Wait, let me change my persona.
I mentally switched back to Orpheus before I got up to a sitting position.
Slowly, I endured the numerous aches in my body and sat up from my position.
Then I saw something, no, someone very familiar to me, someone whom I actually know from my previous life.
A bizarre old man with a strange long, pointy nose, and a pair of pointy ears at his white sideburns, dressed in a black suit and equipped with white gloves, was sitting on a luxurious violet couch, gazing at me with his signature bulging, bloodshot eyes.
"I-Igor..." I stuttered in surprise. I never expected myself to end up at the Velvet Room after the crazy incident that happened earlier.
"Welcome to Velvet Room, Minato Arisato." Courteously, Igor greeted me with his usual demeanour.
Glancing around the Velvet Room, I noticed the changes around the room; in fact it was a complete overhaul from before.
There was a shelf that was filled with wine glasses and wine bottles, neatly lined up in a row. There were a couple of windows on the walls of the enclosed area, and there was an addition of the luxurious couch, which was where Igor was sitting right now.
However, the classical lyre chair was still standing in front of me, that and the background music, "Aria of the Soul", never changed at all.
It appeared that the Velvet Room was now an interior of a limousine.
-From an elevator to a limousine, that was a nice upgrade they have there...wait speaking of Velvet Room...
"Wait...why am I here? I thought the contract was over." I shot a curious question towards Igor.
"We, no, I summoned you here, young man."
A silky voice replied to my answer. It was neither the voice of Igor (obviously), nor was it the voice of Elizabeth, Margaret or Theo.
I glanced around to find the source of that silky voice, and before long I found a man, dressed in a white suit and wearing a butterfly mask, looking at me.
-Strange, I did not even felt his presence when I ended up here.
He smiled at me as he stepped out of the darker corner of the limousine, a wine glass filled with purple, alcoholic liquid in his hand.
"Or should I call you The Messiah?"
I was neither amused nor surprised by his words, as I kept my usual stoic expression (thanks to Orpheus). Deep in my mind however, I was trying to search for a picture of a butterfly-masked man in my memories.
-Nope, there was none. We definitely never met before.
"Uh...according to my well-preserved memories, I don't think we have met before," I said to the mysterious man in white.
"We haven't, Messiah." He smiled at me with a reply once again.
"So...care to introduce yourself?" Not amused by his replies, I deadpanned and asked for his identity.
The man shook his wine glass mildly as he continued to advance towards me, still wearing a smile on his face. He stopped at the lyre chair, and opened his mouth.
"I am Philemon."