-P3 Eternal Punishment-

*the modified Evoker system is like a sleeve connecting the hand to the neck and is activated by grasping the hand so like Minato's case earlier, it was necessary for the team to carry their old Evokers just in case one of their arms are broken or torn off.

The King of Conquerors

With a ferocious bellow, Castor had appeared, metamorphosing before everyone's eyes. The black steed was now a golden brown, commanding the attention of all in attendance with its majestic presence. The rider now held the aura of a king, a red cloak billowing in the absent wind, armor of cold steel and a grand sword in its right hand.

"His Persona resolved," Seta stated as he fixed his glasses.

"Holy Shit!" the psychopomp swore, if he had access to a face it would be slack-jawed, "Kid, can you feel the power on this guy!?"

"..." the bluenette cringed and took a step back as he tried to measure Shinji's newfound strength.

"That's..." the youngest member of the group mumbled in awe.

"So this is Aragaki's power..." Kurosawa said as he cut down two offending Shadows.

"Hey blondie!" the gruff teen yelled as he caught the mechanical maiden's attention.

"Reassessing threat levels," Aigis said mechanically, "switching primary target."

The blonde turned her guns in the teen's direction, letting loose a hail of machinegun fire, forming a cloud of smoke in its wake.

"Not enough," Aragaki boasted as he came out unscathed, hammer in his left and Evoker on the right, "Persona!"

The King of Conquerors emerged from the cloud of smoke, sword drawn and pointed at the mechanical maiden.

"Initiating evasive maneuvers," the blue-eyed 'girl' rolled sideways, weapons still firing.

Alexander responded with a swiping attack that missed.

"Tch," Shinji muttered as he threw his weapon at the girl.

The Persona pressed its attack by grabbing its summoner's weapon and using the hammer's momentum as well as the momentum from its own attack to deal two clean strikes at the girl.

"Woah," Ken stared in awe of the man who murdered his mother, "that power is..."

"Incredible," the silverette finished the thought the same way he finished off to downed Shadows with Izanagi.

"He's got raw physical power that I doubt we could match," Gig stated for the whole group to hear, "if we were to try, we'd need a few souls for that."

-Meanwhile, Tartarus Exterior-

The Velvet Room attendant floated over the battered remains of her quarry, the signal to the interior beginning to clear up.

"Good," Margaret sighed as she wiped a stray lock of hair from her face, "{Hello, can you hear-}"

*BANG*

"More of them?" the woman wondered as she gazed at the direction the bullet came from.

A small mob consisting of twenty or so people in various articles of clothing stood on one of the nearby rooftops, strangely, the group was accompanied by a horde of Shadows that formed a protective barricade around them.

"Who are they?" the pale woman wondered as she evaded the gunfire that was aimed at her.

"That woman is trying to stop the arrival of Nyx-sama!" one of the humans yelled, drawing a high powered rifle

"{Margaret?}" the voice of her beloved silverette echoed in the attendant's ears.

"{There have been some...complications}" the occupant of the Velvet Room replied mentally, opening her Compendium in preparation for a counterattack, "{I will respond to you shortly.}"

"{Just stay safe}" the human said with a concerned voice, the sound of Shadows exploding over the connection/

"{You too}" the woman replied, setting her gaze at her would be assailants, "you eyesores are nothing more than ants to me."

A card appeared over the pale woman's book, the sound of broken glass followed as an angelic being descended from the sky.

"Megidolaon," Margaret whispered as her Persona raised its right arm towards its mouth, a falling star appeared over the human cultists.

The screams of twisted men were drowned out by the sound of crumbling architecture.

"Perhaps their deaths would change the Night Mother's decision," the woman wondered as she worked her way inside the tower, "but we should leave nothing to chance."

-Tartarus Interior-

The furious duel between man and machine went on, and with such ferocity that the group was able to traverse three floors since the battle began.

"How much longer can they keep this up?" Ken said in disbelief as he evaded stray missiles and bullets.

"There's no point in us joining in," Souji groaned at feeling helpless, "her defenses are too strong and yet he seems to have no problem in dealing with them."

"But we can stop the Shadows from 'aiding' her the way they did with Yoshino," Kurosawa interjected as he summoned a few more demons to help the group.

"Dammit," the bluenette cursed as he clutched his chest, "even after healing, it still feels like hell."

"You didn't think spontaneous regeneration was gonna be a piece of cake, did you?" Gig gave a bored look, "Besides, I just figured out that your pal there managed to grab Pierce as his main anti-defense ability."

"And we can't learn that yet?" Minato complained as he decided to skewer a few more Shadows on Skeith's scythe.

"Can't, last person I met with that skill was a half-demon with weird tattoos, had a good spar one on one," the Psychopomp revealed, "then some guy looking like David Bowie comes up and puts a seal on me, he does this after the Demi-fiend and I beat the crap out of each other so we were none the wiser until I tried to learn the skill on my own."

"Damn," the field leader swore as he drained more Shadows of their energy to feed the Onyx Blade, "then let's pump this sword up."

"That sword is feeding on the Shadows like your Persona Skeith?" the Officer muttered.

"It feeds on anything that lives," the silverette clarified as he stared wearily at the blade, "is it a good idea to have that with you Minato-senpai?"

"Nope," the bluenette replied, "but this is a weapon of absolute last resort in case we can't deal with whatever is on top."

A loud thud caught the team's attention.

"Thanks for nothing assholes," the eldest teen scowled at the teen as he stood over the broken machine, "could have at least healed me and all."

"Critical damage has been sustained," the blonde's eyes were starting to close, "initiating energy conservation mode."

The blonde closed her eyes as a loud beep sounded.

"..." Shinji prepared to slam his weapon over Aigis' skull.

"Stop," Minato stepped between his senpai and the strange girl from his past.

"What do you think you're doing!?" the gruff teen yelled as he lowered his hammer, "She killed 'em remember? Aki and Mitsuru!"

"What do you think you're doing!?" the bluenette repeated the question and blocked his senpai's weapon with his sword, "She was being controlled by Ikutsuki, she wasn't herself when she did, when Ken's mother died, were you!?"

"..." the senior slacker stared at the field leader's eyes, a silent air taking over the room, "Tch, fine, but she's on your hands now."

Minato quickly hoisted the mechanical maiden over his shoulder with no effort, the boost from Skeith raising his attributes to such an extent that he was no longer human in many regards.

-Meanwhile, Safe Zone-

Takaya and Ikutsuki were all that remained of Strega and they were not pleased.

"It seems that your plan has failed," Takaya said with a disappointed look.

"And so has your friend," the Chairman replied venomously, "now that Aragaki's Persona has resolved, they will be able to reach the top much faster than anticipated."

An image of Kido, a white Shiba and three other people standing over the defeated Jin, was set on the screen.

"And so it comes down to this," the shirtless teen sighed as he left the room.

"Of course Takaya, keep dancing to the pull of my strings," Ikutsuki smirked, "my son."

-END-