In front of me, some sort of monster immediately appeared and slashed off the shadows ahead. I stopped and gazed at the strange floating creature. It had a chain of coffins around it, it's gleaming sword dripped with blood, with a head that resembled some sort of reptilian skull. Looking ahead, it gave a piercing scream, causing everyone to stop and turn towards the creature. Even the smaller shadows looked frightened and retreated. All was well when suddenly, the huge shadow from before, appeared and snarled at us.

Before I could react, it instantly charged towards me with a murderous glare. Thanatos intercepted the shadow with its blade, but the shadow did not falter and instead crashed into Thanatos. A quick and bloody spar began between the two. Thanatos ended the fight by slicing the shadow through the neck, the disembodied head spun in the air for what felt like hours. Soon the beheaded shadow dropped to the ground, its head rolling off and it burst in a black cloudy mass. We were victorious. With a sigh of relief, I decided to check on everyone.

Suddenly at that moment, there was large ringing in my head. It felt like my head was on the verge of being split open, subconsciously I gripped my head as it throbbed with intense pain. I tried to stifle out a cry but it was useless and immediately fell onto my knees.

"Minato? Hey, are you alright?" Akihiko shouted as he quickly ran up to me, but jumped away at the last second as Thanatos swung its blade towards him.

"Hey, watch it. The shadows are gon- HEY!" Junpei shouted as he dodged Thanatos's slash in time.

But I couldn't think. The pain. This intense pain! All the sounds around me became muffled and the pain was all I could think about.

Thanatos continued slashing about as everyone scrambled around to avoid it's sudden rage.

Then suddenly, "EVERYONE, GET DOWN!" A gruff voice ordered and the last thing I remembered was the sound of shattering glass, a loud roar, and I was literally blown away to the side. The feeling of my body hitting the floor was my only stimulus.

Everything got dark and I lost sense of my surroundings.

"Welcome,"

My vision slowly returned as my eyes adjusted to the blurry scene. I then realized I was in a large dimly lit room. The walls, the floor, most of the furnitures were in velvet. There was also that sense of upwardness, the soft jolts that occurred in the room at random intervals reminded me of an elevator.

I turned towards the voice that had welcomed me earlier. An old man with a long nose sat in the middle of the room. He had a huge grin on his face, a lady dressed in velvet with grey hair stood beside him. She had a small smile on her lips as she held a large book close to her.

"to the Velvet Room, Minato Arisato." The man said, and brought both his hands upward dramatically.

I was still dizzy and unsure of how I ended up here.

"You must have a lot of questions, don't you?" The man continued and grinned at me.

I looked around, trying to absorb the things I saw. There were a few closed doors to the sides, and it seemed the room was somehow moving upwards. Was this really a room or was it a giant elevator?

"My name is Igor, and this is Elizabeth." The man said and directed my gaze to the lady in a grand fashion.

"But first before I continue, I need you to sign this contract." Igor said as a parchment and a feather pen appeared before my eyes.

"Hold it!" A familiar voice called out.

With a huge surprise I turned towards the voice and saw Aso leaning on a wall behind me.

Since when was he behind me? I didn't even notice it.

Igor turned his gaze to Aso without any surprise etched on his old face. Elizabeth looked a bit worried as she noticed Aso's presence in the room.

"Azoth," Igor finally said, sounding like they had knew each other for a long time.

"Why are you interrupting my guest?" Igor raised an eyebrow, causing his already bulging eyes to look further disturbing. Shivers ran down my spine as I felt a cold tension building up in the room.

Aso walked up beside me, patted my shoulder with a reassuring grasp. I watched him look towards Igor with a somewhat triumphant smile.

"This guy is mine. Sorry to say, but I beat you to him first. He has already formed a contract with me." Aso said and summoned a parchment I had signed earlier. His three masks continue to float around him in a mysterious way. Closing his fists, the parchment disappeared immediately in a black flame.

"I see." Igor said with a weary expression.

"I've had enough of watching your 'potential guests' getting killed before they even have the chance of unlocking their powers. If it wasn't for me, Minato and all his comrades would have died back there!" Aso exclaimed as he took a step forward.

The tension in the room built up further but I continued to remain seated, rooted to the chair. Igor continued to gaze at Aso with an indifferent expression along with Elizabeth as she stood beside the old man.

Igor closed his eyes for a moment and spoke in a monotone voice, "What you are doing is affecting the natural balance-"

"SCREW THE BALANCE!" Aso shouted back before Igor could finish.

Suddenly a man in velvet appeared from a door behind Igor and walked towards Aso. The man in velvet had a pale skin just like Elizabeth. His eyes were filled with pure loathing as he silently walked up to Aso. Every step he took seemed dignified yet I could sense he was holding back a controlled rage.

"Don't you dare converse to Master Igor in that tone, Azoth."

"Brother…" Elizabeth muttered as she watched the pale faced man and fell silent.

"Oh. Look who it is? Theodore." Aso spoke, hinting a slight hatred to that name. "Still working for the old bat?" Azoth gave a mocking laugh towards Elizabeth's younger brother.

Theodore instantly grabbed Aso by the collar and lifted him up, looking at him straight in the eyes.

"Take. That. Back." Theodore said through gritted teeth.

"Or what?" Aso said with a smirk as the masks suddenly stopped spinning and hovered behind Aso.

As I continued to watch the two I felt sparks in the air and knew that a fight was about to ensue. But suddenly-

"ENOUGH BOTH OF YOU!" Igor finally said as he slammed both his hands onto the table.

"Azoth, take your guest and leave this room. I do not want unnecessary fights here. Now, get out." Igor said in a commanding tone. Azoth had a victorious smirk and Theodore was dumbfounded for the moment.

"But Master Igor, he…"

"Leave him be, Theodore. Our other guest will be arriving shortly."

Grudgingly Theodore released Azoth and kept both his hands to his side. With a slight snicker Aso adjusted his collar and turned away.

"Lets go, Minato." Aso said and turned to one of the doors at the side. I finally stood up and followed silently, still confused with everything that had happened.

Aso opened the door and went through. Following behind him, I walked up to the door. As I stepped through the door, I heard another door behind me opened.

Igor with his usual voice, welcomed the new guest. Curiously I turned to see what was happening. Theodore stood beside Igor with a humble expression instead of Elizabeth. Someone else had taken the seat that I sat on moments ago. It was a female. That girl, haven't I seen her before? Isn't she-

Everything turned white suddenly. I winced from the sudden brightness and opened my eyes slowly. The glaring light, I realized, came from the fluorescent glare of the light on the ceiling. I brushed my hair aside and realized I was lying on a bed.

"Hey hey! You're finally awake!" Junpei said as he looked at me with a delighted look. "Man, you had everyone worried!" he laughed. "I'll go get everyone else." He said and hurried out the room.

Seems I'm back from wherever I was. I stretched my hand towards the fluorescence above my head and closed it to a fist. I'm alive I guess.Then I realized Minako was resting her head on my lap and had fallen asleep on the chair she was sitting on.

The door was suddenly pulled open and many familiar faces walked in. Their loud abrupt foot steps woke Minako up and she realized what was happening, "Nii-san!" she shouted and gave me a tight hug as the rest gathered near my bed.

"We thought you'd be a goner." Junpei said with a nervous laugh.

"How long was I asleep?" I asked.

"Two weeks." Akihiko answered in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Not very good for your academics, Arisato-san." Mitsuru continued with a cold gaze directed at me.

"Give him a break guys, he did save us. Kind of." Yukari said awkwardly.

"What do you mean, 'kind of'?" I asked, somehow annoyed.

"Well, Nii-san… You-"

"You almost killed them all." Shinjiro said suddenly and glared at me.

What?

Shinjiro must have seen my expression and gave a sarcastic chuckle.

"Seems you don't remember. You lost control over your persona and almost killed everyone." Shinjiro looked away with disgust.

All of a sudden I remembered;

"EVERYONE, GET DOWN!" Shinji shouted as he rushed through the door and pulled out a gun, pointing to his head. "PERSONA!" He shouted and I heard the sound of shattered glass as something fast charged towards me. Thanatos quickly got in between the persona and me but was immediately destroyed by the persona and the impact blasted me away. I passed out soon after that.

I clenched my fists on the bed sheets.

"I didn't…"

My voice trailed off. I couldn't understand how I almost got my friends killed by my own hands.

Shinji grunted and walked out of the room and silence filled the room.

"… And that's technically what's going on." The Inugami said as it hovered in the air and spun itself at random intervals.

A teenage boy, wearing a black cap with sharp sideburns listened to the spirit and paused to think for a while. His black cape fluttered as the evening wind blew, with the sun slowly setting behind him.

"Well, Raidou? What do you think?" said a black cat, which sat beside the boy.

Its green feline eyes glowed with curiosity and years of wisdom.

"Are you sure about this?" Raidou Kuzunoha asked the spirit once more.

"I heard it myself." The Inugami nodded in agreement.

"But come on, how is it possible for a spirit to be controlling Dimensions? That just doesn't make sense!" The cat complained still having a hard time to absorb what was happening.

"Will you accept my request or not?" The dog spirit snarled.

"It may be worth while to investigate, Goto." Raidou replied and nodded towards his mentor in assurance.

"Fine." The cat sighed in defeat and sat quietly.

"Narumi may have heard something about this." Raidou suggested and turned back to the floating fox-spirit.

"Thank you, human. I should warn you to be careful, this is something never before recorded in history, even for a demon. I wish you the best of luck." The Inugami said as he slowly vanished.

"Let's go then." The cat said and began walking off.

Raidou nodded and noticed a strange blond haired man at the shrine.

"It's him again." Raidou muttered and walked up to the man.

"Seems we keep meeting in strange circumstances, don't you agree?" the man said with a smile.

"You know something, don't you?" Raidou eyed the man suspiciously.

"I may or may not." The blond-haired man teased.