I've planned a schedule, and I'm gonna try to stick to it. Chapters will come out on mondays! I'll try to make it consistent HAHA
Enjoy!
~Kuntakintae
A chill invaded Akira's body, seemingly entering him through every single pore of his body. He recognized this feeling- more often than not, it did not bode well.
Opening his eyes, he glared at the blue, jagged, triangular-looking designs of the ceiling.
Annoying.
Sitting up, his eyes roamed the cell. Nothing had changed from the past. Unsurprising, to say the least. The velvet room was a separate entity from the rest of the world- a place usually devoid of people other than Igor and Lavenza. A realm between consciousness and subconsciousness, there are rarely any visitors to the place.
Unfortunately, Akira always seemed to be pulled back into this accursed room- regardless of whether it was Igor or Yaldaboath.
He tried to sit up, and a deep frown appeared on his face. His hands and feet felt heavy, as though there was something stuck to them, weighing them down. He immediately knew what it was, and displeasure saturated his heart.
Looking down, his frown disappeared, and a cold, emotionless look appeared on his face. The moment he saw what he was wearing, he knew something was wrong, and the somewhat relaxed mood he had a few seconds ago disappeared.
Calm. Cold. Those were the only words that would describe him at the moment.
He was dressed in something he had not seen for a long, long time- the crumpled, dusty, wrinkly black-and-white striped prisoner's outfit was a sight for sore eyes, more so the handcuffs he had on his wrists, and the heavy metal ball attached to his feet with a chain.
A glint of coldness appeared in his eyes. Ignoring the pain that spread through his body, his sat himself up, stood up and slowly walked towards the metal bars just three feet away from him.
The table was gone, and so were Igor and Lavenza. All that stood in the middle of the room was a single, golden cup.
Akira did not say anything. His body and face revealed nothing- his back was straight, his face was expressionless. He stared at the cup with cold eyes, completely silent.
An eerie quiet pervaded the room. Neither of them said anything. Akira simply stared, while the gigantic golden cup floated silently in the middle of the room, it's bright colour a sharp contrast to the deep blue of the room.
"You are entering the fight," A deep, somewhat holy voice permeated throughout the room, echoing off the cushion-layered walls of the velvet room.
Akira's mouth did not open. His dead eyes showing no reaction nor emotion.
"After so many years, why come back?" Yaldaboath continued after a good ten seconds of silence. Again, Akira did not reply. He was like a statue- unmoving, unspeaking, completely devoid of feelings or emotions.
"WHY ARE YOU COMING BACK?" The so-called God could no longer hide its displeasure, its voice reaching an inhumane level of loudness. A force exploded forth from the huge cup, like a tidal wave in a crazy storm. It caused the metal bars of every other cell to creak and bend slightly, and some even showed signs of breaking.
A suffocating pressure seemed to bog down the entire area, causing the bars to show even more signs of shattering. Some already had cracks decorating them.
If it was any other place, this wouldn't be anything outstanding or amazing. After all, Yaldaboath was a God.
But in the velvet room, for the bars to be pressurized to this state showed his power.
Only Akira's bars showed no signs of breakage. In fact, Akira's room was not affected at all. His clothes did not show the slightest signs of being disturbed. His chains did not rattle, his hair did not flutter, his garments remained completely untouched.
As soon as Yaldaboath's power seemed to start simmering down, and the room seemed to calm, a sharp glint sparked across Akira's eyes. A split second later, all hell broke loose.
The bars of every room shattered into countless, tiny metal shards, flying in all directions at the speed of sound. A loud boom echoed resoundingly, and even the holy grail was blasted backwards- just managing to stabilize itself before it smashed against a wall behind it.
The chains were gone, and so were the handcuffs and the prisoner's garments. What replaced the chains, handcuffs and prisoner garments were his signature red gloves, black tailcoat, his slim-fitting dark grey shirt, black pants and his high-cut, pointed dark-as-night boots.
The aura that was emanated from Akira at that very moment was astonishing. The pressure his very presence exerted caused the shards embedded in the walls and ground to shiver uncontrollably, and even the holy grail seemed to float a little lesser above the ground, as though it was being pushed down by an invisible force- which, of course, it was.
"Even at the lowest level of the mementos, you might not be able to match me, much less now." Akira finally broke his silence. Although he said it softly, his voice still echoed throughout the room- not loudly like the God's but powerful and firm.
"How strong have you become?" Yaldaboath's voice sounded much more subdued, and in its voice was a hint of fear and shock It
"You will find out soon enough," Akira simply replied. A trace of disdain appeared in his eyes as he continued to stare calmly at the golden cup. "Now, begone."
He moment the final word left his mouth, a shadow flew across the room, originating from his body and smashing into the golden cup. It was a dagger, but unlike any dagger seen before.
The blade was slightly curved with two incisions, and despite the dark lighting, it nevertheless glinted dangerously, as though promising to mercilessly slice through anything that it meets. It's silver body stood out against the darkness, a silver reaper glowing within the darkness.
Unlike other normal handles with guards - where their guards are usually loop guards- , this dagger's guard was straight and not connected to the pommel of the dagger.
Usually, very few things could pierce into the body of the God of Sloth. Even if it was only a clone, and only a small bit of consciousness was present in it, it was still extraordinarily powerful.
However, all this was child's play in front of Akira.
Only the handle of the dagger could be seen- the rest of the blade had fully pierced into the golden cup, all the way to the hilt. A screeching, agonizing scream was emitted from the cup as it slowly faded away into oblivion.
"You will regret this! I am the only one stopping hi-"
Before its desperate dying throes could be completed, a bullet shot through the cup, piercing straight through it as though it was made of paper. A dark, huge and terrifying silhouette was mirroring Akira's actions- the shadow of a gun with a long barrel pointed in the same direction as Akira's own weapon.
If anyone saw Akira's eyes at that very moment, they would have been stunned silent. An unnatural yellow could be seen in his swirling eyes, so bright that it was glaring, so fierce that it was piercing.
The very next moment, Akira blinked, and the yellow was gone, as well as the fear-inducing shadow behind him,
A bright light flashed across the room, blinding him for a moment. He closed his eyes calmly, and opened them again three seconds later to an entirely untouched room.
"It is not the first time I've said this," Igor's voice came from behind him. "But you have grown stronger- so strong until even I am unclear of how powerful you really are."
A trace of pleasure entered Akira's heart when he managed to catch the faint hint of astonishment that was well-hidden within Igor's voice. It was a huge achievement to stun even Igor.
"Did you let it do this?" Akira asked, turning around and glaring daggers at Igor. As usual, his snarky smile was plastered on his face, and his twig-like finger tapped the table repeatedly in a rhythm that irked Akira.
"No, I did not. It used a backdoor that he had placed and hidden here from when I was still sleeping. It has been years- I did not expect it to have this card in its hand."
For Igor to actually have a slight scowl on his face- no matter how tiny and small it was- showed that Igor was displeased about this turn of events. It also quelled Akira's desires to punch him in the face.
"Greetings, Akira. It has been a while," A soft, angelic voice came from behind Igor, Akira's eyes lifted from Igor to observe the person that was standing by igor's side. The corners of his lips twitched upwards, and he nodded in greeting.
"Hello, Lavenza. You look well," Akira greeted in return, his voice a substantially less cold and even a little warm as compared to before.
She was the only being beside his friends to whom he would treat well. During his first few months as a persona user, when she was still separated into Caroline and Justine, she had taken care of him well.
Her split personality had leaned more towards the mean and gruff side, but they never lacked kindness, and helped him whenever he was in need. When she had recovered into her current self, she had gotten rid of that negative part of her as well, becoming much more pleasant overall.
She- like Igor- almost always stayed in the velvet room. Even after seeing her for so many years, her appearance had not changed the slightest. With her silky silvery hair which flowed towards the mid of her back, soft, yellow eyes and constant smile, she was still the Lavenza he had known from back then.
"Thank you for your kind words, Mr Joker," Lavenza curtsied with a light teasing remark on top of it. Akira allowed it.
Lavenza- in the form of Caroline and Justine - had been the first that he had met after Morgana that knew about the Cognitive World, No matter how rude or how rough they had been with him, it was impossible to deny that she had guided him and helped him through the first few months.
In a way, it was largely because of her that he was who he was at that very moment. Even Igor had only known him after he had cast Yaldaboath away from the velvet room.
Other than Morgana, Lavenza had been with him throughout the most difficult part of his life. She was one of the very few he really appreciated and trusted.
He smiled lightly at her tease, accepting it in good nature.
He then looked back at Igor, and the smile slid off his face, being replaced with a serious look.
When I encountered that figment of consciousness just now, it mentioned something as it faded." Unlike the usual calm and monotonous voice he usually used, his voice held severity and seriousness.
Akira studied Igor's face to the utmost as he spoke, gleaning every single little change that could be observed from his face.
"Oh?" Igor asked, his mischievous voice grating against his ears. "Might I know what it might be about?"
"I did not let it complete the sentence, but from what I heard, it seemed to be holding something back," Akira continued, getting straight to the point. A small sense of satisfaction and curiosity arose in him when he saw Igor's eyes twitch.
It was such a small twitch that to any normal human being, it would mind as well be considered not moving at all. However, Akira's senses were heightened to an unknown level in his persona form. This small twitch that would seem unnoticeable to the average human being was as easy to spot as one would spot a mountain.
"You know something about it," Akira stated. Their eyes met, and a staring contest began. Akira's unyielding eyes met Igor's piercing one steadily.
Igor lost the battle, shaking his head after a good five minutes. He knew how Akira's personality was like, and if he decided to be stubborn, there was hardly anything in the world that could convince him to give in.
"I do not exactly know what are the circumstances surrounding Yaldaboath and his plans at the very moment," Igor said, his voice unusually serious. "But based on certain clues I have picked up, there seems to be another being other than Yaldaboath that is doing something behind the scenes."
That sentence made Akira's heart grow cold.
"Is it possible that that other being is stronger than Yaldaboath?" Akira asked, a small urgency evident in his voice.
He had never cared about this issues before, but now that his friends were getting themselves into this, he had to know the risks, and work on how to keep his friends safe.
"I do not know, but from what I can infer, the being is currently weaker than Yaldaboath. If not, that being would have been exposed by now." Akira frowned worriedly at this statement.
"What do you mean by 'currently'?" Akira asked.
"As you know, Yaldaboath is growing weaker with the recent turn of events. It's power is slowly waning, and it had decided to take a desperate gamble- to take over the world and make it it's palace."
"Make the entire world it's palace?" Akira snorted. "It must be insane,"
"I beg to differ," Igor immediately refuted him. "Yaldaboath, till recently, could have already taken over the whole of Japan. Japan, under Masayoshi's rule, was already as good as its own. However, it refrained from starting its actions, slowly seeping into other countries, overturning their governments, making people subject to his puppets' rules."
"Why did it not take over Japan first? If it had, it would have grown in power, and could have prevented Akechi from killing Shido." Akira questioned inquisitively.
Igor held up his hand, and two snow white-gloved fingers stuck out. "Two reasons," Igor stated, the mischievous glint in his eyes telling Akira that Igor was excited about all of this.
"One," He started, retracting one of his fingers. "He was afraid that once he starts, the other being would take action as well. He would rather win it all at one go, instead of fighting an all out war with the other being."
"The second reason," Igor was smiling madly this time. "Was, and still is, you."