"Welcome to the Collective Unconscious."
Naoto's eyelids slowly creaked open her vision heavily blurred. Where am I? She could only remember falling into a peaceful sleep, but what happened beforehand was a complete blur.
"Don't be afraid, you are merely in a dream," the bellowing voice answered. Naoto blinked repeatedly, and her eyesight slowly regained its clarity. She turned both directions and gazed at her surroundings – a never-ending expanse of midnight sky circled around her in the distance. An armada of glowing stars looked down on her, each one glowing brightly. It's so beautiful, she mused, awestruck.
Her eyes were brought back to the room's center, which was floored with checkered tiles, bordered by a series of golden columns that rose high upwards. An ornate dome with quotes she couldn't make out loomed above her, with an engraving shaped vaguely like a butterfly. A blue glow hazed over the entire temple, giving her a warm, almost spiritual aura in her body.
At that moment, she noticed a group of tiny starlings forming under each column of the temple, and each one began growing into a white, human silhouette. Each figure surrounded the butterfly emblem in the temple's center, something that reminded Naoto of some sort of spiritual ritual. These silhouettes then grew into bodies, and faces, and personalities, and the detective easily recognized each one of them.
"Mitsuru… san?" Naoto groggily called to the first person she recognized. She received no answer – the others, aside from a select few of them, were as confused as her.
Just then, a spiraling column of yellow butterflies appeared above the emblem in the center. The butterflies multiplied in quantity, and the rising tower quickly ascended to the top of the temple, with a golden light emanating from within. A mysterious apparition then came forth from inside the swarm of butterflies, causing the column to vanish.
"My name is Philemon, a dweller in this ever expanding sea of consciousness," the man introduced. A white butterfly mask covered one half of his face, and he wore a black suit covering his entire body. "I see that I have met a certain few of you previously." He glanced across the room in search for their faces, and they made odd expressions in response.
"Philemon," started Nanjo, "why have you summoned us here?"
Philemon smiled underneath his mask, knowing that was the first question to be asked. "I have summoned you all to warn you of the ordeal that you will be facing." His eyes stared into Naoto's own, and she could feel her persona yelp in awe.
"The foe that has started this series of events now possesses much greater power than he has ever before," he lamented. "If all of you fail to pursue the mystery that lays ahead, your lives and the lives of all humanity will be at stake."
"But first, I can sense that many of you standing here may only use one persona, is that correct?" Naoto, Yukari, Mitsuru, and Labrys all nodded in response.
"To brave the obstacles this formidable opponent will give you, I will give you all my blessing and grant you your secondary arcana." The detective scowled in confusion. Secondary arcana?
"Think of this as another one of the masks you wear to face the challenges of life, allowing you to obtain other personas that best suit the individual that you are," Philemon explained, as if reading her mind.
"So is this power like the one Aigis has?" Yukari questioned.
"Yes, but her ability allows her to use personas of all arcana. This, however, does not mean she is any more of a decent human than you." the masked deity assured.
Just seconds after, he soon engulfed himself in another swarm of golden butterflies and levitated above the temple's center. He outstretched one arm to Naoto and one of his butterflies glided towards her heart.
"Huh?" she gaped. "This feeling…" Her heart felt lighter, and she tilted her head up to find a blue tarot card shining above her head. She grasped it and stared at its front side. The Hermit. She read the Hermit's description before – wisdom, solitude, isolation. I guess it's true that I'm a bit isolated from my friends, she thought with regret.
She then crushed the tarot card, and a cloud of blue fog burst in the air, revealing a black silhouette of a new identity growing within her.
"I am thou, and thou art I," it proclaimed. "I am Amatsu Mikaboshi. I will lend you my guidance for now." The persona returned to Naoto's heart, and she intensely watched the others as they obtained their secondary arcana.
Tarot cards appeared in front of each newly blessed persona-users, but Naoto couldn't see what was drawn or written on them. As each of them crushed the cards, clouds of velvet blue erupted from inside them, revealing their personas.
The clouds then dissipated, and the overwhelming power in the temple subsided.
"Now then, it is time that you face the world created within your dreams that awaits you," Philemon warned.
What, now!? Naoto still needed a question to be answered. "Wait, Philemon! How will we-"
He disappeared.
The warm feelings from Philemon's temple vanished, and Naoto could only feel cold darkness.
"W-What's going on?"
000000000
She was standing in a wasteland.
Sprawling puddles of viscous blood covered the green-hued sidewalk, giving off a pungent smell that pierced her nostrils. All of the streetlights flickered, glowing with a grimy color until they shut off permanently. Innocent peoples' bodies were being overtaken by a black, slimy substance that swelled up from within them. Screams echoed in the distance.
"Are these… shadows!?" Naoto exclaimed, gazing at all of the darkness, all of the blood, all of the bodies being eaten from within.
Her eyes then looked upwards past the series of rowhomes, and she gasped in fear.
An enormous black orb loomed ominously above the wasteland that lay below, slowly descending to touch the surface of this warped Earth. The clouds orbited around the body as the entity slowly absorbed the green-tinged clouds. Pieces of its net-like arms broke off and Naoto could hear a thundering crush as it crashed upon a nearby building.
Naoto's eyes then dragged to its center, and she could only see a red iris in the center of the entity's body. It was staring at her. It was staring at the land that was destroyed.
Please, let this be a nightmare, she hoped. But Naoto already heard Philemon's words and knew her wishes were useless.
"Shirogane-san!" Naoto swiftly turned back to hear a woman's shriek.
"This one's huge! We need to call the others, but I don't know where they are!" Yukari gasped in a panic. She tore across the asphalt, desperately looking left and right for any sight of the others. Behind her was an amassing of the same black liquid that overtook the young woman's body, growling and spitting black fluid that multiplied into even more of them. Naoto instantly knew what it was.
"A shadow!?" she yelled. "Yukari-san, there isn't any time! We have to fight it!" she said, taking a battle stance and focusing her mind on summoning her other self.
Heeding her call, Yukari nodded and pulled out a gun, aiming it to her head. Naoto has seen this before – they called it an evoker.
"Persona!" they shouted simultaneously, releasing a series of blue clouds above their heads. The familiar voice of Yamato Sumeragi echoed in the air, and a sphere of energy dropped from the sky. Megidolaon.
"Stay back!" Naoto ordered, bracing herself while keeping an eye on the descending orb.
3, 2, 1.
"Agh!" the two of them screamed as the energy hit the ground, bursting into a violet cloud of sheer force. She ducked down, narrowly evading the countless debris that nearly crushed her skull. The shadows shrieked in pain, but they continued charging.
At that moment, Naoto could vaguely hear her persona shriek a warning. Wait, there's a second blow! she realized, looking back at the persistent shadows that frantically scrambled across the asphalt for a way to dodge the attack.
Just then, she felt herself being blown into the air and her eyes met again with the monster that dominated the skies. She crashed onto the sidewalk, bruised and with a crimson cut down her shin. I must get up, she told herself, feeling for something to grab and pull herself up. Failing, she kneeled with a pained grunt and stood up.
"Are you okay?" Yukari asked in concern, instinctively pulling the evoker's trigger. "Isis!"
Her persona casted a healing spell on the battered Naoto, and she felt rejuvenated and ready to fight.
"Come, Yamato Sumeragi!" she called, crushing a tarot card. A ring of flames surrounded the mass of shadows that was weakened, but still very powerful. The ring of fire caved in and erupted with a roar, sending smoke hurtling through the sky.
The shadow let out a sharp cry and a part of it vanquished. Good, just a couple more attacks left, Naoto thought with relief. She raised another card and spun it, revealing her newly obtained Hermit arcana. Feeling her mind clearing once again, she swiftly pulled a pistol from a latch on her side and aimed it perfectly at the tarot card, keeping her stance precise.
Curling her finger back on the trigger, she let a golden bullet fire straight into the eye of the Hermit arcana, releasing Amatsu Mikaboshi above her. Its forceful words rang in her head: I will lend you my guidance for now.
Her persona screened her vision with a target, and she instantly knew what to do. She aimed her pupil straight into the eyes of Yukari's, and all of the powers Isis had rushed into Amatsu Mikaboshi. Yukari cringed slightly, and Naoto felt a hint of regret well up within her.
"Come forth!" she ordered, and a cyclone of wind encircled the shadow, spinning it in circles until it finally vanquished.
Both of them crouched down, gasping. Even after defeating the powerful shadow, Naoto felt no sense of peace or relief. She was still trapped in a nightmarish world that was unknown to her.
"Huh, I'm sure out of practice," Yukari lamented as she slowly stood back up and strapped her evoker into a loop in her belt. Her expression darkened. "Wait, this is…" She stared up at the celestial body watching over the destruction. "Nyx… The Fall…"
"What do you mean?" Naoto questioned in curiosity.
"That thing in the sky, it's called Nyx. Two years ago, we…" Yukari stopped.
"Takeba! Shirogane!" a voice shouted.
"Mitsuru-san, you're safe!" Yukari exclaimed, letting out a relieved sigh.
"Come on, there's no time to waste. We need to find the others, and quickly!"
Naoto and Yukari turned to face each other. "Let's spread out to find the others," Yukari suggested. Naoto nodded and they set off.
The detective sprinted past the dying streetlights and brutally crushed cars for any sight of the others Operatives. Where could they all be!? she panicked. Another piece of Nyx's arms broke off, and it landed just a few meters ahead of her, exploding. Naoto fell backwards, and was faced with a barrier blocking her from going any further. It was sparking with electricity, just written with "don't cross" all over.
"Are you kidding me?" Naoto ran the opposite direction and tightly squeezed through an alleyway that reeked of ashes and garbage, forcing her to cover her nose with her jacket. She narrowly dodged a growling shadow and escaped out of the other end, recognizing two other Shadow Operatives combating a viscous shadow. Kaoru flicked a coin at the shadow and it perished in one hit.
"Ulala-san! Kaoru-san!" she called as she ran towards them. "We need to meet with the other Operatives, and quickly!" Ulala and Kaoru responded without question and followed her.
The three of them escaped into a wide avenue that was covered in lifeless bodies being eaten from inside. They skipped over the bodies and the shadows before seeing the other members battling another shadow.
"Don't worry, we've got this one covered!" Labrys assured, catching her gargantuan axe in one hand. With a final swing of the weapon, the shadow dissipated, releasing a loud shriek. A dead silence followed as they all regained their composure. Naoto took a whiff of the air and smelled ashes and burning rubber.
"What in the world is this?" Aigis exclaimed, staring at the nearly obliterated landscape of falling buildings and shadows.
"This looks just like what happened during the Fall," Mitsuru speculated, her eyes cast downward. "I never thought I'd ever see this again." They stared up at Nyx, who was slowly descending upon them. But for some reason, the Shadow Operatives felt no effect on them, unlike the innocent people being turned into shadows.
"Hm? A door?" Aigis said. Naoto and the others stared at her, and they found an ornate blue door inscribed with a cursive 'V'. "The Velvet Room," Aigis whispered to herself. She opened the door.
But she wasn't prepared for what she saw.