"Everything's so...clean," Hanako murmured. Ren had to agree. Everything was in shades of white; the walls, floor, ceiling...all looked as if they'd been constructed from the purest crystals. Additional crystals decorated the walls with small structures that looked like archways of various shapes, while the floor had zigzagging white and grey lines running across it. Some lines formed concentric diamonds. Others intersected with each other to form two-toned hexagons. Others still simply formed jagged waves. Everything was so beautiful, but at the same time...

"It's just like Dr. Maruki's Palace," Sumire muttered, hugging herself. He nodded to that too.

Everything also looked sterile. He let out the breath he didn't realize he'd been holding. "Well...at least there's no more blood here."

"Actually, I think that started on the previous floor," said Hanako. "Everything was either dark red or purple though, so I'm not entirely sure, but maybe that's what that teleporter was trying to divide? The floors with blood everywhere and the floors without?" Everyone winced at the thought. She shook her head and continued, looking around. "Anyway, everything here almost looks heavenly, don't you think? Does that say anything about the Ruler, Mona?"

"Hmm...well, we have been to another Palace whose Ruler made it seem more heavenly the further we went, but this reminds me more of Mementos. That was another massive Palace like this one, only that went underground and became more and more like hell instead."

"I see..." Hanako glanced at Sumire, who was still looking around, biting her lip. "I guess you've got bad memories with this 'Dr. Maruki's' Palace, huh?" Sumire didn't respond. Hanako turned to Ren who nodded in her stead. Hanako was silent for a moment then tapped the other girl's shoulder. Sumire jumped. "Well, that's all the more reason for us to see this through as quickly as possible, right Violet-chan?"

Sumire took a few deep breaths, then smiled. "...yes! Let's do this, everyone!" Ren placed his hand on her back.

"Okay, but just let us know if you feel uncomfortable, alright?"

"I will, but I promise: it won't be a problem. Thank you very much though, Senpai!" Her eyes sparkled as she smiled again. Ren smiled back.

She's so...radiant...

He looked deep into her eyes and she looked into his. The rest of the world faded away...

- until Hanako squeezed between them with a loud "'Scuse me!" They jumped away from each other, taking sharp breaths as the older woman pivoted on the spot and rolled her own eyes at them. "Think we should get back to climbing this death tower now?"

"R - right!"

"Yes please, Hana - I mean; yes, Melody-san!"

Hanako's stern face broke into giggles as Morgana sighed.

They made their way through the floor, encountering dead end after dead end until the reached the end. They stopped at the sight of the stairs.

Or at least, what passed for stairs in this section of the Palace. Instead of steps, they faced another archway - this one with an unfinished top - leading to a gentle slope that ran upward with little bumps along the way that made Ren wonder if it was meant to resemble a natural, grassy hill. The grey and white lines were also present here, though now they formed simple limbless arrows pointing them further along as if it were meant to be a racetrack instead.

Before any of the four could voice their opinion on this further change in the tower's architecture, they heard the flapping of wings. They spun around in time to see a flock of pure white birds fly in from the corridor they'd just left. They swooped down on them.

"Spread out!"

The quartet covered their heads and scattered per Ren's instructions. The birds pecked at their arms as they flew past before rising back into the air. With the immediate danger gone, the Thieves braced for combat. Now able to get a clear look at them, Ren noticed that each carried a tiny lantern beneath it, each with an equally small red flame.

"Fires...so they must be immune to it, right?" asked Hanako. He nodded and gave her a thumbs up.

"Black Frost!" The black gremlin launched blocks of ice at them. They were knocked out of the air but regained their senses in a second. "Not weak to that, huh?"

"Then how about this? I'm not some bug for you to carry off, you stupid birds! Diego!" Morgana attacked with wind, but the birds stayed at the same height. "That did even less than the Ice!" he groaned.

Must be animal instinct for him to hate birds... Ren shook his head as Hanako twirled her gun in her fingers, letting the familiar shadowy finish creep up it before aiming at the birds and firing. All three shots landed and the birds lost balance for another second before returning to their original altitude. Wait! If they're in the air...

Ren called Odin and blasted them with Electricity. The birds crashed into the earth at once. "Slash away!" he shouted. The others did so, the birds so small that one slash each was enough to cut them in two. They turned into tiny puffs of mist and disappeared.

"...that was oddly easy," Sumire frowned.

"Yeah. I doubt it, but it'd be nice if everything stayed easy," Ren sighed. "Let's go, everyone. Watch your step! There aren't any handrails on this...slope...thing."

Despite the lack of guards however, the ridges on the path were enough to give them stable footing. They fought more birds over the next floors, the Shadows making up for their frail bodies with their numbers and speed. They healed themselves as best they could with Ren's medicine and kept going, until they entered a new floor and felt the ground shake beneath them again.

Another giant Shadow rounded the corner. There was no mistaking what this one was meant to be though: it was a grey minotaur with huge white horns, an upside-down blue mask and chains connecting its wrists to a collar around its neck. The Shadow bellowed and lumbered forward. Ren shielded them with Fafnir, but despite being thrown back it simply got on all fours and shifted its back leg like a bull. Ella cast a sphere of holy magic at it but the Shadow simply knocked it back with a flick of its horns. Sumire yelped and called her Persona to block the hit. She did so and took no damage, but both Ren and Hanako couldn't helping calling out.

"Violet!"

"Violet-chan!"

The Shadow charged at her, but both Orpheus and Arsene appeared between it and the girl and summoned orbs of their respective elements, flinging them at their foe. The Shadow took both hits at once and was sent crashing into the opposite wall so fast it seemed to blur before their eyes. It pulled itself out of the dent it left there but collapsed, gasping for breath. Ren and Hanako looked at each other.

"Did we just hit both of its weaknesses?" They said at once before grinning.

"Let's go, Joker!"

"Right!"

Arsene and Orpheus charged up again and flew forwards. Both launched beams of energy. The minotaur sidestepped the flames but was thrown back by the darkness. It hit the wall again and tried to get up, only for Hanako to yell "You're done!" and launch a second fireball into its chest from point-blank range. It screamed and burned until it faded away. The two Persona-users looked at each other. Then Hanako raised her fist and Ren bumped it.

"Wow Senpai, Melody-san!" Sumire and Morgana joined them, the former's eyes sparkling. "That was amazing!"

Ren tugged at his hair and smiled. "I guess neither of us can deal with you getting hurt."

"I think that's probably it."

"Wh - what?" Sumire turned bright red and covered her mouth for a few seconds before revealing a shy smile. "Um...thank you..."

Morgana walked ahead. "That's cute and all, but let's not get caught off-guard like that again. Come on, let's keep moving!"

"R - right!" Sumire hopped over to him quicker than the other two could even react, her red face betraying why she was so eager to move on. Ren and Hanako shared another smile before following her.

They encountered more birds and minotaurs until they reached the next arena. I wonder how many of these we'll see in this place, Ren thought to himself as the party stepped into it. They saw three Shadows, identical to the Shadow chained to a ring they'd seen before. These ones however were a deep black with red collars and upside-down masks, the disks they were chained to now filled by a gold interior.

"Another triple threat," he muttered as the battle began. The Shadow on the right surrounded itself in an orange aura while the one in the middle spewed lightning at them. Hanako and Morgana jumped back. Ren in turn jumped in front of Sumire and called Thor to protect them both. He heard the attack sizzle out and looked up to see they were all unharmed. Good. He willed Thor to create a giant golden fist in the air and hurl it at their foes, but the leftmost Shadow countered it with a blast of energy. The light of the collision faded and they saw the orange aura around the first Shadow burn stronger. It span on the spot and summoned flaming swords in the air that slashed down all around them. Ren had no time to summon Fafnir so just hugged Sumire tight, covering her as best he could as the attack blasted them through the air. He twisted mid-flight to shield her from the impact of their landing as well. They crashed on the ground, splitting apart as they both rolled to a halt. He heard Morgana shout their names before he felt his injuries melt away, grunting a thanks as he got to his feet.

It's a good thing Thor is good against Physical damage, even if he's not as good as Fafnir...

Now it was the centre Shadow's turn to charge up, floating back a foot as it surrounded itself in an orange aura as the others floated forward.

"So that's how it's gonna be, huh? Norn!" The Fortune Persona sent a gale of wind at the Shadows. They stilled as the attack buffeted them, but none of them staggered as he'd hoped. The two offensive Shadows charged at him, wheels spinning, but were stopped by Orpheus and Diego, though he saw both Personas wince as they held them still. Sumire tried attacking both with holy light, but neither one took any damage. Orpheus and Diego finally managed to deflect the attacks of the Shadows they were grappling, with Orpheus blasting her foe with fire but doing little damage as they flew back to their companion who launched another barrage of energized blades at them.

"Not this time!" Ren called Fafnir. The giant dragon raised both arms swatted the waves of energy directly in front of it with its armored limbs, sending them back at their foes. The other Thieves joined him in cowered behind the Persona as stray slashes crashed into the walls around them while the repelled blades tore into the Shadows, leaving them shaken but still standing.

Ren grit his teeth as now the third Shadow took its turn to charge up. What elements hadn't they tried yet?

"Black Frost!" He sent a blizzard at the two Shadows now on the offensive. One protected itself by blasting away the ice heading for it with lightning, but the other took a direct hit and froze. "Yes! Alright, everyone focus on the one that's still active!"

"Okay! Diego!" Morgana caught the Shadow just as it was preparing to attack, holding it in place as it tried to advance. Sumire siezed the opportunity, sending Ella to land her signature attack on it before Orpheus followed up with a mighty whack of her lyre, sending the Shadow into a wall and following it up with a blast of fire. The Shadow staggered, but four giant fists courtesy of Morgana pummelled it in sequence until it turned to ash. "Yes!" he cheered.

A flash of orange caught Ren's eye and he turned to the charging Shadow. "Don't think I forgot about you. Fafnir!" The Thieves took cover behind him again as the strengthened blades bounced off of him and crashed into the frozen Shadow, shattering it into gleaming dust that disappeared before it even hit the ground. The Shadow stopped as though in shock at killing its own ally.

Or simply because it can't rely on their joint tactics anymore. Ren thought to himself with a chuckle. "Now let's finish this with your biggest attack yet, Fafnir!"

"Orpheus!"

"Blow him away, Diego!"

All three elemental attacks hit the Shadow at once, throwing it back. Sumire ran forward with her Persona, knocking their foe to the floor with two ethereal swords. It swivelled up, to bump its head into Sumire's rifle. A single shot echoed through the room and the Shadow collapsed before crumbling away.

"Wow, nice double hit at the end there, Violet!"

"Thank you, Mona-senpai!"

"Hey, isn't that what I did before? You know, the whole 'finishing a foe off with a point-blank gunshot' move?" Ren raised an eyebrow and Sumire started to blush, but he smiled and gave her a thumbs up, which made her beam at him instead, though her cheeks remained a rosy pink. He looked around. "Okay," he said as he watched everyone catch their breath. "Let's take a sec to rest and push on." He looked to the stairs and frowned.

"No Shadow yet, huh?" asked Sumire.

"You read my mind." He gave her another smile and she gave him a small one in return. "I hope we see it soon." He looked back to see Morgana and Hanako ready for action. "You good to go?" he asked his girlfriend.

"Yep!"

"Then let's push on."

The slope led them to another mess of crystalline walls. Ren pinched his nose. "I didn't think it'd be easy, I suppose." A roar broke him from his reverie and he looked up to see another minotaur stomp around the corner. However, this one wore golden chains around its neck and wrists. It also had a red and gold mane and horns, giving its upside down mask the appearance of being surrounded by a ring of fire. Unlike in their first encounter with its lookalike, it lowered its horns and charged right away. Ren already had Fafnir at the front of his mind, so it was a simple matter to block the attack and force the beast back. However, it roared and summoned a mass of black and white orbs above it and fired them at each and every one of them before Ren could shout out a warning, knocking them all to the floor.

"I got this!" Hanako got on all fours and shot herself, willing Orpheus to heal them while also giving them all a burst of added strength.

"I should save my physical strength," Ren heard Sumire mumble as they all got to their feet. She held her mask and shouted "Ella!" Her Persona appeared and danced through the air before throwing her bouquet over her head. It exploded in front of the Shadow and it fell to its knees. "Yes!"

Ren grinned. "Great work! Now, Fafnir!" A Nuclear blast hit the Shadow just as it tried to stand and set it to the floor. "Two sequential weaknesses, great! Now, while it's down!" The Thieves charged, slashing away at the Shadow until it roared and flipped onto its feet, stumbling a little from the weight of the many wounds - both big and small - that racked its body. "Violet, do the honors!"

"With pleasure!" She summoned Ella again and fired a second blast of holy energy at the Shadow. This time, the beast exploded alongside the bouquet.

"Excellent!" Ren brushed himself off. "Is everyone ready to go?" The others cheered in the affirmative so he smiled and drank some of his medicine, topping off the healing Hanako had provided earlier. He watched the others do the same before continuing. "We all took a decent hit there. Melody healed us, but keep an eye on yourselves." Not counting the one warp partway through, he was sure they'd climbed close to 30 floors now. They were definitely becoming more efficient as a team, but they weren't immune to fatigue.

They fought through a few more floors of red minotaurs and white birds. As they approached the next set of stairs after tearing through a group of the latter, Morgana stopped them.

"Guys, I'm detecting another big Shadow up ahead. I can't tell where it is exactly, but we really need to make sure we keep our energy up from here on. No putting on brave faces. Is everyone doing okay?"

The three humans exchanged glances. Ren wondered if they were all too embarrassed to admit they were tired so let himself sag against one of the pristine walls. "How are you two doing?" he asked again.

"I'm fine, Senpai."

"Then I envy you, Violet-chan..." Hanako bent over. Ren took a closer look at Sumire. While she was coping much better than the three of them combined, her face was still more haggard than he would have liked.

"Let's take a break then," he said, sliding to the floor. "Hopefully we don't get ambushed." He produced a small bag of snacks from his pocket. He helped himself to one of the protein bars he'd bought the previous day and slid the bag across the floor. It ended up next to Hanako who had sat down in the middle of the group. "It's not much, but let's resupply now while we can."

Hanako took out another of the protein bars, turning it over in her hands. "Violet recommended those," he explained. Hanako pivoted on the spot to look at him as he added "so you know they're healthy."

"Oh, then they must be!" They turned to Sumire, who blushed.

"Well...I need to know these things as a gymnast, you know?" She mumbled. Ren grinned as Hanako slid the bag to Morgana, who was closest to her.

"I wish we'd had you with us since Day 1, huh Mona?"

"Yeah! You're way more useful than Ryuji!"

"M - Mona-senpai, please don't say things like that..." she trailed off, but her smile had only widened. Morgana closed the bag and kicked it to her with both legs. Ren couldn't help but feel bad about his size as he did so. Morgana's talents had more than a few drawbacks...

"Oh, that reminds me," he said, pointing a half-eaten bar at the smaller Thief "you can detect those bigger Shadows from further away now?"

"Yeah. This place is so weird it keeps messing with my senses, but we've been here long enough that I'm getting used to it...I think. Oracle probably could have gotten the hang of it sooner, I have to admit." Ren remembered Sumire's misgivings when they first entered the tower and glanced at her to see a guilty expression already on her face. They locked eyes and she blushed, looking away and hiding her new expression behind a half-eaten apple. He chuckled.

"Well, better late than never. Thanks, buddy. At least now we have something to look forward to." He finished his bar and looked up. Hanako and Morgana finished soon after, leaving only Sumire still eating. The three of them watched her with wry smiles until she realised the same thing.

She froze and finished her cereal bar, cleared her throat loudly, then started placing the small pile of snacks she'd helped herself to back in the bag one by one without making a sound nor eye contact with anyone. Given how bright her face was, Ren suspected she was trying not to scream. The bag refilled, she slid it to Hanako.

"You can have more if you want you know, this isn't a competition."

"U - um, I'm fine Senpai! I...um, I'm still a little hungry, I guess, but I'm full of energy now. I promise!"

"Are you sure?"

"Y - yes!"

Ren got up. Hanako held the bag up for him as he walked past and he took it, digging out an apple and two more protein bars and placing them in Sumire's lap. She looked up.

"Just keep them in one of your pockets or something," he smiled. She gave him a shy smile in return.

"Th - thank you, Senpai! The apple won't fit though." She giggled and gave it back to him as she too stood up, tucking the two bars into one of the inside pockets of her jacket.

"I'm amazed you even have pockets," said Hanako as she and Morgana also stood up to leave. "It's good you have a jacket, huh?" She paused, mouth half-open as she looked Sumire up and down. "Um...I didn't want to say anything before because I know it's a leotard and you're a gymnast, but now that we have time I have to ask: your outfit doesn't really have...much, does it? I mean in terms of..." she motioned to her own legs at which point Sumire looked down and blushed.

"Uh...um!" She crossed her legs and covered her exposed skin with her hands. "I - I didn't choose my outfit, so this isn't my fault! It just...oh look, more Shadows! We should fight now!" She pointed to the air. Ren chuckled at her attempt at a distraction and turned to humor her.

...and almost swore when he saw three white birds flying towards them.

"Break time really is over, huh? Okay then, let's get 'em!"

Thankfully, a simple "Hey, I don't mind your outfit at all! I think it suits you, Violet-chan!" was all Sumire needed to hear to stop covering her thighs after the battle, so it was with a regular gait that she climbed the slope with them. The next few floors threw the three previous types of Shadow at them, seemingly at random. The Thieves fought through them all, but took enough damage from their continuous fighting - especially whenever the two types of Minotaurs appeared together - that they had gone back to healing with their skills instead of medicine. Ren worried that they'd run out of energy as he watched them check up on each other before another slope before he was interrupted by Morgana prodding his leg.

"Yeah?"

"This is where I sensed the big Shadow, Joker."

"Right, thanks." He drank some medicine from his pouch and turned to the others. "Let's take a few minutes here. All we know about what's coming next is that it's going to be big." They nodded and healed themselves up once more. Sumire also ate her two protein bars, though not before offering them to the others and them declining. Bless her, he thought as he watched her lick her fingers clean.

She handed the used wrappers to him, but he shrugged.

"You can just drop them here. Mona said the floors change once we leave them, right? They'll probably stop existing once we go up."

"I know that's what we did before, but..." she thought for a moment, then slipped the wrappers into her jacket. "To be honest I still feel a little bad about that. If it wasn't for those birds..." she trailed off.

"What's there to feel bad about?" asked Morgana. "There are only Shadows here, remember? Oh - unless you're thinking about that human-looking Shadow?"

She paused, then nodded.

"Well, even then!" Morgana continued. "This place is gonna disappear once we send the calling card, remember? So there's no point in being considerate of anyone here."

"I know, but still..." She tapped her forefingers together.

Ren chuckled. "Do what you want," he told her. She smiled. Morgana rolled his eyes, but couldn't help smiling too.

Really: bless her.

They sat down for a few more minutes to rest their limbs, though Ren couldn't help noticing that all four of them were already tensed for the fight ahead.

"Senpai," said Sumire eventually, getting to her feet. "I'm ready now."

"Are you sure?"

She nodded and Hanako also stood up. "I'm good to go too. Besides, if we wait too long we may get ambushed, remember?"

"...alright then." He got up and stretched once more for good measure. "Mona?"

"Do you even need to ask?" The cat followed and put his hands on his hips.

"I guess not," Ren smiled and turned around, coat flaps rising for a moment with the motion. They went upstairs and walked into the arena before them to see their next foe.

"Uh..." asked Morgana. "What the heck is that?"

A/N: I have to apologise for how the last chapter ended as people started coming up with crazy theories for what everyone saw. My bad! As always, I hope you like this chapter and how everything's paced. Thank you for your continued support!

Also, (not counting the prologue) we just hit 20 Chapters! Thank you for sticking with me so long, I hope you'll stay with this story until the end!

P.S. I wasn't sure if Sumire wanting to keep the Palace clean made her too naive or not, but I figured Makoto and Ann would have felt the same about Futaba's Palace so I kept that moment in. I would greatly appreciate your opinion on that scene too. Thanks again!