Jaune's head snapped back from the recoil as the familiar blue fog emanated from his head, filling the space around him and pouring toward the ground in a waterfall of indigo. The fog began to form and coalesce above him into Hodr, trapped in his vines, wrapped against the cross… until Hodr began to shake violently against his bindings.
A small spark started to ignite under the cross that Hodr was bound to. Then, without warning, the spark ignited into a roaring blue flame that began to eat its way up the cross. As it traveled across Hodr's shaking body, it burned away at the vines tying him to the cross. Hodr writhed as he went up in a glorious, bright, burning pyre. Adam reached up his hands to cover his eyes from the brilliantly bright, scathing light of the fire.
OUR BOND HAS GROWN… THY NEEDS REQUIRE A NEW FORM, AND I SHALL SEE IT DONE...
As Jaune's persona continued to ignite in mid-air, a small piece of silver liquid dropped to the floor… like the melted remains of Hodr's armor. At first it was a small trickle, then a sudden downpour of metallic liquid falling into shape as though filling a mold. First it formed a pair of pristine greaves that stretched up to the persona's knees, then it formed the armored torso, and long slender metallic arms. As it finished the neck, it began crafting a silver helm that had three small curved extensions on the bottom – almost like a metallic beard, but then stretched outward to form two curved horns on the side of the persona's face. Finally, it crafted the top of the metallic head and kept going upward, forming a blade that stretched upward. With it fully formed, Jaune realized that on the front of the metallic head was a fleur-de-lis.
Two eyes made of burning blue fire shot open at the center of the fleur-de-lis shape, and the pyre above the persona began to dim. The persona reached up one long slender arm, and the fire dissipated, dropping a long slender pole of wood out of thin air. The persona grasped the pole in its outstretched hand and began spinning it its arms like a well-trained warrior. The armored persona then flourished the wooden spear, and Jaune realized the top of the pole ended in a cross, and at the top of the cross was a white, gold-bordered flag that waved behind the persona, showing an emblem of a plant with three sharp, pointed leaves with vibrant red berries in the center.
MY EYES ARE OPEN, AND I CARRY MY BANNER IN THE NAME OF THE BOND WE HAVE FORMED.
Jaune stumbled back slightly, looking the Persona up and down with awe. He could sense this Persona was capable of so much, though at the moment he did not have the sight he usually did that came with summoning his Persona. Jaune pointed to Adam, who was slowly coming to a stand to face down Jaune's new Persona.
"Finally…" Adam said as he looked the armored knight up and down. "I get to show you pieces of trash just what it is I'm capable of…" Adam started to chuckle to himself as held the syringe of glowing orange dust in his hand. "You're not ready for this… trust me…" he jammed the syringe into his left arm and pushed the plunger all the way down, emptying the Dust from the syringe into his arm.
Jaune could immediately sense something was wrong – he didn't need Hodr's sight for that. The pressure in the air seemed off as Adam laughed louder and louder to himself, and doubled over. His pupils widened immensely as he doubled over, staring Jaune's new Persona up and down. Blue flog began to filter out of Adam, forming a gargantuan humanoid shape. Twice the size of Jaune's persona, two giant hooves hit the ground with earthshaking force. The hooves stretched up two white and blue legs that ended in a torso of a well-sculpted man that seemed to be made of ice. The head of the creature ended in two large sharp horns, much like the bladed horns of Adam's shadow. Small icicles fell off of the creature's chin like a beard, and it bore a domino mask that covered its eyes over its large snout. Its nose was pierced, bearing a ring that had a bright, rainbow colored gem.
Without any warning, the giant minotaur-esque Persona clenched its icy hands into fists and attempted to slam them down over Jaune's persona's head. Jaune's persona reacted instantly, pushing the fist to the side with its flagpole, causing the ice giant to barely miss crushing it. Before Adam's gargantuan Persona could recover, Jaune's persona struck the creature over the head with its flag before vanishing after the attack.
Jaune had realized the rules of fighting with a Persona by now after seeing his friends fight so often. With each pull of the Evoker, a Persona's time on this earth was limited. It could perform an attack or a block or a maneuver or two, then vanish before needing to be summoned again. With the strike Adam's persona had just performed, surely it would vanish now, too. Then Jaune just needed to be faster on the draw than Adam, and take him out before he could re-summon this monstrosity by injecting more dust.
As Jaune waited for his chance to strike, though, the giant Persona rushed him. Jaune, in his hesitation, didn't bring his Evoker up. The gargantuan persona struck him square in the chest with its massive fist, and Jaune flew backwards. He skidded across the grass, tumbling over himself as he flew back twenty feet from his original starting point. When he finally came to a stop, he looked up to see Adam standing there with a smirk on his face, his too-wide pupils giving him a manic look. His Persona, towering over them, stood right there with him, not flinching, not moving… and certainly not vanishing.
"C-crap-" Jaune coughed, and saw some of his blood hit the grass. Apparently that hit had come rather hard. Jaune struggled to stand as Adam slowly walked closer, his giant persona walking right beside him, causing the ground to shake with every hoof-fall.
"Just like I thought." Adam smirk widened into a full-faced grin. "Trash like you has no chance against me when I've got Ymir… together, we can crush anyone and anything. My Persona is bigger, it's better. None of you stand a chance against me, none at all." Adam knelt down, face-to-face with Jaune. Jaune stared directly into his face and felt sick from how wrong Adam looked as he rode his high of having this drug-induced Persona. Ymir stood behind Adam, arms crossed, looking down at Jaune's body as he lay there on the ground. "Any last words?" Adam breathed into Jaune's face.
Jaune coughed slowly, realizing that even though he was thrown back, his grip never left his evoker. His fingers gently drummed it out to the side, but Adam was staring Jaune right in the face, seemingly oblivious. Jaune nodded slowly, looking Adam straight in the eye. "Just one, if that's ok…" Jaune breathed heavily, and then in one quick motion he shoved his evoker to his head and pulled the trigger. "Persona!"
Jaune's new Persona manifested once more, coming into being right above Jaune's head. It spun its flag hand-over-hand, striking Adam right in the side as he knelt over Jaune. The strike seemed to hit Adam hard, as he doubled over in pain and flew away from Jaune, landing five feet from where he was kneeling. Adam rolled over onto his stomach, and Jaune's persona landed on the ground. As it did so, it reached up at its throat and tugged at its helm, pulling it free in its left hand. The helm dropped at the persona's feet, landing right in front of Jaune… he could see the shape of the fleur-de-lis staring at him.
Jaune picked up the helm and placed it on his own head, as he had done with Hodr's helm so many times. Just like then, his world expanded… his eyes lit up as he took in the view of the world through the vision granted to him by his Persona. He could see Adam, and could tell that that hit had struck Adam hard. He could also see Adam's persona rushing at him, and his Persona deftly striking the giant in the knee with its flag, causing the giant to stumble and swing wide of Jaune. Jaune also noticed, now seeing his Persona without its mask, that the head was similar to Hodr's… save with the flaming eyes uncovered by vines, and the face now turned right-side-up, it looked vaguely feminine.
Text popped into Jaune's vision above his Persona's head. He could see his Persona was named La Pucelle, and he could see Ymir turning for another strike just as La Pucelle vanished. Jaune was ready this time, and he placed the trigger to his head as he called his Persona to him. La Pucelle appeared just as she had vanished, and her flag came up to strike at the charging bull head, hitting against the metal blades that stretched out as horns. As his Persona struck Ymir, he could see a strange kind of bar like the ones he would see when the team fought shadows, the ones that represented their life force… only this one seemed distorted, different. He couldn't tell if La Pucelle was actually damaging Ymir at all, or just biding time.
Jaune decided the smartest thing to do would be to distance himself from Ymir and Adam and try to rejoin his friends… his friends that, he believed, he may be able to contact from his position. Jaune began to run just as Adam began to slowly come to a stand. As he ran, he focused on Ruby, and found he could sense her as though she was standing right next to him. He called to her. "Ruby!" he said, "Ruby can you hear me?!"
"Loud and clear, Jaune!" Ruby said through what sounded like gritted teeth. "Are you o- Pyrrha, watch out!" There was a loud crash that came into Jaune's mind, as though something big and heavy had just collided with the ground. "Sorry Jaune, we're kind of busy!"
"Don't worry Ruby, I'm on my way, just as soon as I can shake Adam!" Jaune said, and he turned to see Ymir was barreling down on him. At this rate, he'd never make it to the others before Ymir simply crushed him. Jaune's persona spun and struck the creature once more, but this time the bull was ready. As La Pucelle's flag came to strike Ymir, Ymir's hand shot out and swiped at Jaune's Persona. The strike hit true, causing La Pucelle to vanish into a puff of blue fog. As it vanished, so too did Jaune's helm – and his sight, as well as his contact with his friends.
Ymir came closer and closer, the giant monster almost so close to Jaune that it could crush him. From here, across the courtyard, Jaune could see over the field of spattered coffins to his friends who were maneuvering in and around a giant of their own, though this one seemed to be a giant black silhouette of a Shadow. Jaune knew that if he could just keep running, he could make it, but if he showed up with Ymir on his tail, he'd just make everything worse. If only he could get Ymir out of the picture...
Jaune made a split second decision. He stopped in his tracks and turned, just as Ymir's large fists came down to crush him. Jaune dove, right through Ymir's giant legs, and tumbled through to the other side of the ice beast. As he did, he rolled to his feet and came face to face with Adam, who had apparently been running to keep up with Jaune and Ymir. Adam stopped short, surprised at Jaune's sudden closeness to him. Jaune pulled his fist back without thinking, took a deep breath, and decked Adam right in the face. As he did so, he felt a crunch as something gave way beneath his fist.
Adam stumbled back, holding his now bloodied nose and staring at Jaune with shock – shock that quickly gave way to anger. He narrowed his eyes at Jaune and shouted. "YMIR, CRUSH HIM!" With a certain nasally quality to it, which lead Jaune to believe that he had broken Adam's nose.
As Ymir turned around, Jaune put his evoker under his chin and fired. "Agidyne!" La Pucelle appeared once more, blond hair billowing behind her form as her helm appeared once more over Jaune's head. La Pucelle spun the flag in front of her, sending a torrent of flame over Ymir as the giant sluggishly tried to turn around and spear her with its horns. That's when Jaune realized that, even though the fire didn't seem to be hurting Ymir, the strange bar depicting its life force had decreased significantly… and was slowly trickling away, like sand through a sieve.
Ymir finally came around to strike at La Pucelle, impaling her with its horns, causing her – and Jaune's mask yet again – to vanish. Jaune stared up at Ymir and looked back at Adam, who was backing away from Jaune with his left hand holding his nose and his right pointing at him. "Don't you dare come closer!" Adam shouted. "YMIR!" He cried. But Jaune noticed that Adam's previously extremely dilated eyes seemed to be returning to their normal size. Ymir stared down at Jaune and picked up its fist, raising it high to strike down at him.
Jaune watched as the giant fist came down toward him and waited for the very last second. He rolled out of the way, feeling the ground shake beneath him as Ymir's fist hit the ground. He summoned La Pucelle once more. Jaune could feel himself getting weaker, not just physically, but spiritually. He looked down at his body and felt his spiritual energy running low… this may be the last time he'd be able to attack through his persona. He had to make it count. La Pucelle appeared right next to Ymir's fist, still touching the earth, and between the fist and Adam, who was still cautiously, slowly backing away from Jaune.
La Pucelle spun away from Ymir's fist and launched toward Adam. It spun its flag overhead like the blades of a helicopter, and then came down against Adam's who tried in vain to block the strike with his arms. Adam crumpled to the ground. As he did so, Jaune watched as the bar representing Ymir's life force completely vanished. The giant persona stared down at Jaune and La Pucelle, having just stood back up to its full height, and then… started to vanish, slowly, dissipating into a faint, indigo colored fog.
Jaune looked over at Adam's prone body as La Pucelle vanished and he smiled weakly to himself. He could sense through the mask that Adam was alive, just hurt… and he could see his friends, still fighting Hazel. He looked down at his Evoker with blurred vision as he lifted his legs and started walking towards the fight. "Don't worry guys…" he panted, "Don't worry, I'm coming." He took one step, then another, then fell flat on his face as the exhaustion and his injuries overtook him. "I'm coming…" he whispered to himself as blackness overtook him.
The crazy thing is, strangely, Jaune could swear he heard a motorcycle in the distance as his senses faded.