September 19, 2015 – Saturday, Morning – Sunny
The room beyond the one with the Shadow QIB had just fought seemed to be a large lounge with a bar at its other end, fancy furniture set all over the room for the non-existent patrons to sit down on. F.Z. looked around and sensed that there were no Shadows in this room, for some reason – but instead, there was a tiny white cupboard sitting on top of one of the coffee tables.
"Hey, Lydia. I think there's one of those item cupboards over there." Lydia walked over and opened the cupboard, and retrieved from within it a glossy lilac-colored marble and a strange glowing essence visible through a translucent container shaped like a tulip bulb. She gave them to F.Z. to figure out what exactly the items were called and what they could do. F.Z. first held the marble and concentrated on the vibes it was giving off.
"It has this... real sobering feeling to it, I guess. Like if you got the wind knocked out of you, the stuff inside this thing would get you back up and running in seconds. It's... a bead, a bead that revives you. So I guess it's called a Revival Bead." She exchanged it for the tulip bulb container and immediately cringed at the sensations it gave her, as if it was leaking slime out of its pores.
"Wow, this thing is weird. It's like I'm tasting it with my hands. This is some kind of candy, or something. I don't know how else to describe it. The stuff in here is like a powder swirling around inside this tulip thing. Whoever eats it, inhales it, mixes it in their drink or whatever will get their spiritual energy restored... which I guess means more magical attacks. Here, take it back already." F.Z. practically shoved it back into Lydia's hands. Damien looked amused at F.Z.'s reaction to the item, which she took notice of and gave him an offended look.
"Why do you have to look at me look that?" Damien chuckled.
"You're just really funny sometimes." The ghost girl rolled her eyes and chucked a piece of quartz at him, hitting him in the forehead. He flinched and rubbed his head where the rock had struck him.
"Yeah? Was that funny? Because I found it hilarious." Nathan burst out laughing at the squabble they were having, which made them both turn towards him with annoyed expressions.
"Hey, that reminds me of something I once heard in elementary school. Yeah, uh, what was it... yeah, I think it was if a girl threw a rock at you at recess, it meant she liked you!" F.Z. reacted by forming knuckle guards around her fists and glaring at Nathan.
"What?! That's the stupidest shit I've ever heard. There's already one guy on this team that ticks me off, do you want to be the second?" Nathan raised his hands in defense, trying to show her that he meant her no harm. Apparently she had one heck of a temper, and she and Damien did not get along very well.
"Whoa, I'm not being serious, F.Z. Calm down, it was a joke." F.Z. frowned and immediately decayed the quartz knuckles into dust. Lydia let out a breath, not willing to waste any more time with this pointless conflict.
"Cut it out, you guys. We can't afford to waste any more time. We need to find a staircase." F.Z. turned around and walked towards the doors next to the bar.
"I'm going to go on ahead and search for it. Try not to get lost before I get back." She opened the doors and disappeared into the wind. The group left the large lounge and went into the next room, which was another long hallway, this one spanning left-to-right instead of front-to-back.
"Hey, uh... so what's the deal with F.Z., anyway? I know you told me about what she is and why she's here, but she seems really touchy." Nathan asked. Damien decided to speak up first, leaning against the wall and keeping an eye out for Shadows.
"She was the first person that we know of to have been drawn into the valley. Her unique situation had kind of left her trapped in here for months with nothing to do until we came along. Between the amnesia and not being able to do anything about the people falling to their Idols, and who knows what else, she's got a lot of issues going on inside. So yes, she has an excuse as to why she's so temperamental, but that doesn't mean it makes it any less irritating. Not for me. I know Lydia feels differently about it." He made eye contact with Lydia as he finished his thought. If there was one thing about Lydia that they didn't have in common, it was that she was far more willing to be patient with difficult people than he was.
"The two of you tend to push each other's buttons really easily. If the two of you got to know each other, I think you both could work out your differences – actually, didn't you go to see her every day this week? Did you two talk about anything?" Lydia asked.
"Not really. I'd come in here, call for her, she'd tell me there hadn't been anyone, and then open a portal so I could leave before turning into wind. That was about the extent of all of our meetings this week. What would I talk to her about, anyway? She doesn't seem interested in talking to me."
Before Lydia could respond, the mansion shimmered around her, and before anyone could open their mouth to say anything, the entire thing began to waver violently before being pulled away from the group like a tablecloth off of a table, leaving them whirling about in midair and falling towards the ground. The group landed and quickly retrieved their mirrors, looking around in confusion to try and make sense of what had just happened. The entire complex had apparently vanished before their eyes, as if it had never even existed – the fences were gone, the sculptures were gone, even the hedge maze that they had seen from the skyscraper had vanished into nothing.
"What the hell was that? How could the whole freaking thing just disappear like that?" Damien said. F.Z. materialized beside the group, shaking in anger.
"Damn it. Damn it, damn it, damn it, damn it!" She kicked at the ground with her foot over and over again, the quartz digging into the grass and tearing out pieces of dirt.
"We were too fucking late! Whoever was in here gave in to their Idol! You all felt that, I know you fucking did – the place got ripped away from us!" F.Z. reared her foot back once again and formed a point at the edge of her shoe, tearing a huge divot in the ground. The whole group just stood there as she threw her tantrum, stunned.
What...? We were... too late? No, we couldn't have... but everything's gone. F.Z. said that whenever someone let their Idol merge with them... their dungeon would disappear. No, we... we failed, didn't we?
Allie turned away from F.Z. and looked down the stretch of the valley that the mansion had just occupied. Somehow, no one had noticed that two other figures had landed on the ground a ways away from QIB. One of them was wearing a red scarf and what appeared to be an elaborate black outfit of some kind. The figure had long, curly brown hair that gave her away as a woman, and the other person seemed to be dressed in a tattered, dark brown cloak and was definitely taller than she was.
"Are those... people over there?" Allie said aloud, drawing everyone's attention. F.Z. quit kicking up dirt and turned to look at the two figures in the distance, who themselves turned around to see the group. They were both clearly identifiable as a man and a woman, both of which seemed to be in their early twenties by their appearances. From a distance, the group could see that the man had short brown hair and a shaved look that made him look more rugged.
"Other people? How? How the fuck can that be possible, the victim's gone and we're supposed to be the only ones in here!" The two figures continued to approach the group until they were a few yards away, at which point everyone could clearly see their faces: almost unnaturally beautiful, with the woman having a polished, clear complexion and enticing deep brown eyes, and the man having a mysterious, dangerous aura about him with the cloak covering him.
Lydia felt a strange feeling tugging at her as she looked at them. Something about their appearances didn't seem real to her – the woman's outfit was like something out of a book-to-movie adaptation where the book was originally about some cool secret society, with a corset built into the top and tight-fitting black pants, and the man seemed like he was straight out of an action video game taking place in some kind of wasteland, a huge contrast to the bright and sunny valley he was in. Where could they have possibly come from?
"Corbin, it would seem that these are our opponents." The woman spoke, her voice a lush alto that made her sound like a professional actress.
"That they are, Lynne, that they are. What do you propose we do with them?" The man responded, his voice a rich baritone that came off as sounding just as polished as the woman's.
"I'll tell you what you can do. Why don't you start with how the hell you got in here first?" F.Z. stormed forward, fashioning a lance from quartz and pointing it at the two mysterious individuals. Neither of them were fazed whatsoever by F.Z.'s threatening stance, the woman looking delighted to see her instead.
"Oh, you must be the Rebel! You are the one who stood up for herself even unto death. What a curious occurrence, to see you on the side that stands against progress. You would find what you are looking for if only you would join us." Lydia stepped beside F.Z., holding her mirror tightly in her hand.
"Answer her question. Who are you, and how did you get in here? Did you have something to do with the person who was consumed by their Idol?" The rest of QIB came forward to form a line against the man and woman. Corbin looked down at Lydia, him standing a foot taller than her.
"You know our names, but you do not yet know who we are. We are Sycophanta, and as my lovely colleague has stated, you are our opponents. However, we are not looking for a fight. It would be in everyone's best interest if you would stop attempting to save people from their Idols and join us in helping them accept who they truly wish to become."
"What are you talking about? The Idols aren't helping anybody! They're fakes put here to play with people's fantasies, and whoever it was you just enticed now has a mental illness back in the real world!" Damien said, for once agreeing with F.Z. in that he wanted to fight them right now. Lynne narrowed her eyes at him and smiled.
"Narcissus Syndrome, right? My dear boy, that condition doesn't stay an illness for long! It is the seed from which one's true potential grows! Miss Valerie will be grateful for its blessing before too long, and soon, she will join us in our mission."
"Who's Miss Valerie? Was that the person that was in here? And what on Earth are you talking about – the 'seed from which one's true potential grows'? What is that supposed to mean?" Nathan asked, utterly confused. F.Z. got closer with the lance and attempted to point it at Lynne's neck, but she grabbed it and broke the tip off with her gloved hand, tossing it to the ground.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you. We're not here to start a fight, but we will certainly end one if we must. And to answer your question, we once thought Narcissus Syndrome was nothing but an affliction, a blight that was slowly ruining our lives. Just recently, however, only but a few nights ago, we were visited by the very same Idols we had accepted in this valley several weeks before. By acknowledging that they were who we wished to become, they granted us the power to be that very person, and in doing so we were given a mission to bring the entire world into the same enlightenment. Your group's efforts work directly against that mission, and so we ask you to cease and desist. If you do not comply, we will fight against you." Corbin made a flashy opening motion with his cloak and continued from where Lynne left off, revealing rows of pockets full of unknown objects.
"Although, given what has just transpired, you might not be a threat to us after all. It was far too easy to work our way through the mansion and reach its inhabitant, and she was all too willing to accept her Idol after we told her of the potential within it. Where exactly were you all during all this? Why were you not right on our heels, fighting against us for the soul of that young woman?" The group all grew angry at his questions, knowing exactly where they had been and why they hadn't reached her in time. Corbin acknowledged their reactions by smiling and shaking his head.
"Ah, teenagers. Who can say that they're really good for anything but pointless drama and flights of fancy?" He stretched out his hand and pulled out an object from the air, which was a handheld mirror that appeared to be made of stone around the glass. QIB all recognized what kind of mirror it was before Corbin looked into it, and all of them immediately summoned their Personas in anticipation of what was about to happen.
"Gilgamesh, let us leave this place now." The mirror burned up in red flames before Corbin's eyes, allowing him to see QIB's corresponding blue flames as they summoned their Personas. Behind him appeared an enormous bearded man wearing a cloak similar to his own, with the head of a lion affixed to one shoulder and the head of a bull affixed to the other, a thick whip in one of his hands. He stood taller than both Ra and Tepeyollotl briefly looking down at them with a stone-faced expression before raising his whip and turning around, swinging the whip outwards and tearing a portal open behind Lynne and Corbin.
"How the hell?! What are you people?" F.Z. shouted as Corbin turned to leave through the portal Gilgamesh had created. The huge man disappeared and Corbin took hold of his mirror once again, ignoring F.Z. Everyone besides her looked to Lydia to see what they were going to do, but she just stood there, Ara Mitama's angry expression widening as it spun in midair, not doing anything.
"I'm sure we'll see each other again. You all are too tenacious to just give up." Corbin disappeared through the portal. Lynne turned around and began to move for the portal. Fed up with the inaction, Damien, Nathan, and F.Z. all rushed forward to try and take her down, leaving Lydia and Allie standing there. Ra and Tepeyollotl both flew through the air, primed to strike the mysterious woman down, with F.Z. deciding to spawn another sledgehammer to beat her with.
"Wait! Stop!" Lydia reacted too late, as Lynne pulled out a mirror from nowhere and whirled around to meet her attackers. Red flames gave way to yet another new Persona, this one being a thin young woman with blood-red hair and eyes that easily intercepted both Ra and Tepeyollotl, deflecting their attacks and pushing them backwards. The woman sneered at F.Z. and swatted her aside like a gnat, shattering her quartz weapon. Unlike the giant that was Gilgamesh, she was barely larger than Lynne, and was clothed in an elaborate black gown with a blood-red brooch that resembled the symbol associated with Narcissus Syndrome on the chest.
"You don't want to cross us. We'll kill you, and that's a promise." In contrast to Lynne's alto voice, hers was a sharp soprano.
"They're very stubborn! Rosalia, why don't you give them a taste of what to expect if they insist on opposing us?" Lynne's Persona smiled, and floated higher in the air. QIB braced themselves for an attack, which came at the behest of the next two words that came out of Lynne's mouth.
"Virus Wave." Rosalia made a slashing motion with her hand at them, and bolts of black-red energy raced through the area she attacked, shocking all of the members of QIB and dismissing their Personas. Each of them found that it was hard to breathe after that attack with the burning pain in their chests, and Allie realized that the move had poisoned all of them – even Medusa, who was resistant to it.
"That's not even the most powerful move I have, either. I hope you like my kiss of death; next time I'll cover you in them." Rosalia disappeared back into Lynne's mirror, which was colored black and sported a fancy design similar to Lydia's, but with sharper edges as opposed to the smooth curves on Lydia's mirror.
"I don't need to repeat what she just said. If you stand down, you can go back to your normal lives and will never have to put yourselves in such danger ever again. But something tells me I'll see you all again regardless. Oh well... until then, little children." Lynne walked away into the portal, which closed as soon as she disappeared through it.
"We're... screwed, you know that? We're fucking screwed!" F.Z. said as she limped over, using what remained of her lance to help her stand upright. She had been flung far enough away to have avoided getting hit by Rosalia's attack, which meant that she didn't understand why everyone was clutching at their chests in pain.
"What was that? In a single attack, she... practically brought us all to our knees." Damien said, panting.
"Media, Media, Media, Media..." Nathan was saying over and over as Tepeyollotl continuously channeled healing energy from his staff onto the group.
"What are we going to do now?" Allie asked, looking to Lydia for the answer. Lydia sat down on the grass, trying to ignore the worsening pain in her chest as she thought of something.
Not only did we fail, but... even if we had been there on time, would we have even stood a chance against those two? Rosalia probably would have wiped us out if Lynne didn't hold back, and that's not even considering what Gilgamesh and Corbin are capable of. I don't understand! Where could they have come from? They said they were formerly afflicted by Narcissus Syndrome, and then...
"Everyone. Did you remember what Lynne said about how she and Corbin used to have Narcissus Syndrome before they got their Personas? There was just a news report about how two people suddenly were cured of it!"
"Alright... where are you going with this?" Damien asked. Nathan continued to focus his energy into Tepeyollotl, who was trying to keep Rosalia's poison from getting out of control.
"They were teenagers. I remember it, they were teenagers like us. Think about it, who would even claim to not only have had Narcissus Syndrome, but also say they were cured of it? Who would be able to get into this place and use that as an explanation?" F.Z. was now able to stand on her own thanks to Nathan's repeated casts of Media, and reformed her lance.
"Okay, but those two were definitely not teenagers. So you actually believe that shit about them being empowered by their Idols?"
"Hey, uh... guys, I'm starting to run out of energy for this and the poison is getting worse by the second. Seriously, it's like I'm on fire on the inside." Nathan said, straining to keep everyone from losing stamina. Lydia took out the tulip bulb-shaped item from her pocket and tossed it to Nathan.
"I know, it's hurting me too. We don't have anything that can immediately cleanse it, so just consume that and keep using Media." Nathan popped the top off of the container and put his hand in the swirling essence, which began to orbit his hand instead of the container. He put it near his mouth and stuck his tongue out onto the essence, which tasted like effervescent powder candy.
"Oh! Whoa, this stuff is sweet! And it really does work..."
"The rest of what Lynne said stood out to me. Apparently, according to her story, she and Corbin were visited by their Idols again and were given the ability to become them, and apparently the Persona came with it. Would that mean that that's who we were seeing just now? Something about their appearances didn't feel real to me, too. I bet you that those versions of themselves were probably what their Idols looked like." Allie sat down next to Lydia, trying not to focus on the battle between Nathan's healing and Rosalia's poison going on inside her chest.
"So... what are we going to do? They're definitely more powerful than us, and they seem to have a better sense of when people get dumped in here. How are we going to beat them?" Lydia sighed, folding her hands and looking down at the ground.
"There's only one thing I can think of: we have to train and become stronger. I don't... I don't just want to give up on this. In fact, now that there's someone actually trying to stop us, I really don't want to give up on this. Allie, they said they wanted to do this to the whole world. Maybe Lynne was just exaggerating, but she wasn't kidding, I could see it in her eyes. If we ignore this, more and more people are going to be affected by Narcissus Syndrome – they might even be people we love. She called herself and Corbin members of a group named Sycophanta. You heard what they said, they're not satisfied with just having people accept their Idols – they want to add to their number. Can we really let that happen?" F.Z. groaned, digging her lance into the ground.
"This is so fucked up... you guys can't take them down, and if you can't take them down, they'll just keep coming in here and stealing people for their shady-ass organization. And then they can open their own portals?! Why? I swear, if I wasn't stuck here you guys would always be one step ahead of those assholes!" She let out a cry of frustration before taking her lance and tearing open a portal back to the real world with it. She attempted to thrust the lance through the portal, but a loud clang resulted instead. She then dropped the lance and attempted to run into the portal shoulder-first, only to slam up against it like the portal was a brick wall before falling onto the ground.
"I can't deal with this right now. I'm done, I can't deal with this right now." F.Z. turned into wind and disappeared from the area, leaving the portal open for the rest of QIB to go through.
"Wow, you really weren't kidding about her being trapped in here. Man, she really went at it, too. I feel bad for her." Nathan said, occasionally eating some of the sweet essence that was within the tulip bulb container. Lydia looked at him and watched as he licked at the powdery floating essence that was giving him fuel for Tepeyollotl's continued healing.
She never did tell us what that was called. Ow, what did Rosalia do to us? The last time I was poisoned wasn't nearly as bad as this... somehow it gets worse over time instead of staying the same! I hope it goes away soon, or else we're going to be in trouble... Ophelia, do you know anything about this?
"Not much more than you, I'm afraid. Rosalia's poison is certainly more potent than the average, though. If we are to prove victorious over her in the future, we must have a way to get rid of it immediately or render us and our allies immune to it. Alternately, we could focus all of our attacks upon her and remove her from the fight before she can deal lasting damage to us." Ophelia responded in her mind. Damien decided to speak up next.
"She had a point. If Sycophanta really is just like us and they're teenagers, then they're probably at school during the day, too. F.Z. would always be the first one to know if someone was taken here, but... well, what would we do if someone was taken in the middle of the day, cut class? I don't mind doing that if it means keeping Sycophanta from getting their hands on them, but considering people show up here on a weekly basis? We're gonna get found out." Damien decided to sit on the grass as well, rubbing his temples to try and ignore the burning from the poison, which was starting to interrupt his train of thought. Lydia decided to lay down and stare up at the blue sky of the valley, closing her eyes as she spoke.
"We have to work within our limitations. What else can we do? Remember we still have a bunch of tests at school we have to worry about, and we all each have our own things that we have to do... we'll make some time next week to go train, okay? There are still plenty of Shadows for us to get rid of around here." She felt a throbbing in her head began to form from the poison, and summoned Senri to cast Media to help out Tepeyollotl.
"Why isn't it getting any better? How are we supposed to beat someone who can do this to us?" Nathan asked.
"We have to get some kind of poison resistance or just eliminate Rosalia before she can do anything like that to us." Lydia responded, closing her eyes again.
"Medusa's resistant to poison and her attack still got through to me. What about a way to cure poison? There has to be a Persona out there that can do that, right?" Allie asked, laying down beside Lydia.
"I'm sure of it. Probably whatever has it is also either resistant or immune to poison, too – which means I can take it to Victor and enchant our next set of clothes with its power. Ugh. When is this poison going to wear off?" Everyone was thinking the same thing until the burning abruptly stopped, the healing energy from Tepeyollotl and Senri breaking through like a refreshingly cool waterfall on top of all of them.
"Finally. Well, I've had enough for today. You're right, we have to train and find a Persona that can deal with Rosalia, but... damn, I'm beat. We're all going to pass out when we get back to my house. We're no Impervious, that's for sure." Damien stood up and walked towards the portal F.Z. had made. Nathan and Lydia's Personas disappeared, and Nathan let out a sigh of relief.
"Oh, man. How much easier would our job be if we had the stuff they had? I bet you we'd win in no time if we had a couple of machine guns and stuff on our side." Allie stood up.
"They don't let minors wield machine guns, unfortunately. All we have to fight with is our Personas, so we need to focus on making them stronger. And I call dibs on the couch."
"The couch is mine, too! Allie and I will share it, the guys can just sleep on the chairs." Lydia cut in before Damien or Nathan could respond. Damien shrugged and put his hands behind his head, figuring he wouldn't get a spot on the couch anyway. Nathan nodded, and looked at the portal with its moving zebra stripes.
"Alright, fine. Let's get out of here, then. Go ahead, Allie, Lydia. You two went first going in, so you two should go out first too."
I have a feeling that I should come back when I'm feeling better to talk to F.Z. again. I don't know what I'm going to say to her, though. There's no way she can leave the valley, and that's really getting to her now that it's clear how much that would help us. Damien doesn't get along with her and Nathan's practically just met her, and Allie... well, Allie probably wouldn't mind coming with me, but F.Z. doesn't seem like she'd talk about her feelings to her. One thing I know for sure, though: this whole thing just got a lot more complicated.
A/N: With this update, this story is now the longest work of fiction I've ever created. It's not anywhere close to being over, though, whereas that previous work was already finished by this point. For all the people that have been following this story so far, thanks for reading. There'll be an extra bonus chapter detailing an alternate outcome to this chapter in the next update, and like the one before it, it will be non-canon.