*plays the 'hallelujah' theme*
A wee bit late, I am aware... BUT! Persona 5 Scram- Excuse me, 'Strikers'- has finally been confirmed for release~~! People, grab a mask, grab your game, save up cash, because the Phantom Thieves will return to the weeeeeest~~~~! Oh, I am so happy~! We will finally get to play the game~! Just have to wait for late February, though... Ugh... So far away! But! All the more reason to get this story written and done! That being said, do please enjoy~!
After Lioness gained possession of a piece of the enemy's relic, in turn became a Symphogear User, with her newfound powers, she granted the Gear Users the boost they needed to inflict damage on the remaining Shadows, and single-handedly took down the Alca-Shadow. With the fight over, her comrades wanted to confirm her safety, especially since she was using a gear for the first time, but Lioness had other plans, in that she had revealed the mastermind to the group. Upon capture, Picora began accusations against the Symphogear Wielders, who were clueless of his claims. Not only that, but the unthinkable happened... one that the Phantom Thieves had experienced once before.
"Wait, the Metaverse is eroding reality?!" Chris questioned.
"There's no mistaking it. This is exactly what happened in our world six months ago," Fox confirmed.
"But how?! We just caught the guy responsible! This shouldn't happen!" Skull exclaimed.
"Hey! I don't know what you people are accusing me of, but I know nothing about this!" Picora shouted.
"This coming from the guy who brought us and the Shadows here? How about you spare us the lies," Lioness suggested.
"No, I'm serious! And while I do admit I am responsible for the Shadows being here, you thieves are a whole other story!"
Hearing that took the group off guard. "Hang on. Are you saying you have nothing to do with us being here?" Panther asked.
"That he is~" came a distorted voice from all around them, causing the group to be on guard.
"Who's there?!" Tsubasa demanded.
A scream was heard, and the group looked back to see Miku knocked down by Picora's accomplice, who took the alchemist and distanced the pair away from the group.
"Miku!" Hibiki cried out, rushing to her downed loved one.
"About time you came!" Picora said. "What's going on here?!"
"Oh. Just a little something that'll help us reach our goals~" the accomplice answered. "Now's no time for chitchat, though. We must leave." As he said that, he took out a crystal from his cloak.
"You're not getting away!" Lioness shouted, as she, Tsubasa, and Maria reacted fast and dashed.
Unfortunately, they weren't fast enough, and the pair escaped.
"Tch. They got away..." Kanade clicked her tongue.
"But... what about us?" Serena asked, feeling a bit frightened with the new environment.
"Don't worry. If this is anything like what happened in our world, it shouldn't have any effect on the people," Mona assured.
"Not yet, at least," Kong added.
"What do you mean 'not yet'?" Shirabe asked.
"Let's return to base, first. We'll explain once we get there," Pixie said.
"Yeah... About that..." Oracle spoke up, sensing something from her goggles.
"What's wrong- death?" Kirika asked.
"It's about the base. The way there is crawling with Shadows."
The group, especially the Gear Users, were shocked upon hearing this.
"What?! Then... Master and the others..." Hibiki spoke.
"Wait. She said the way there is crawling with Shadows. What about the base itself?" Maria noticed.
"Hmm... I'm not getting Shadow or Alca-Noise signals there, but I can't say for sure if it's safe or not," Oracle answered. "At the very least, Lavenza and the others are there."
Hearing that brought them at ease.
"So what do we do now? Fight through the horde?" Kanade asked.
"Yeah! With Lioness-san's new strength-" Kirika was trailed off, when the girl suddenly took a knee, and her Symphogear transformation was undone.
"Lioness!" Queen cried out, kneeling by her side.
"Are you okay?" Noir asked, also coming to her aide.
"Y-Yeah... Just exhausted... Like I'm using my Personas for the first time," she answered. A light clatter was heard, and Lioness looked down to see the piece of the relic on the floor and picked it up, to the others' worry.
"Lioness, drop that!" Queen told her.
"It's fine. It's not going to take over her like before. Not after what we saw," Tsubasa assured.
"In any case, fighting them is out of question..." Miku said.
"Wait, what about those items we bought?" Chris asked Pixie.
"True, they are of good use now. Except for all we know, that person who helped the mastermind escape may summon out more Shadows our way. It's best if we use them sparingly. Besides, they don't do anything for exhaustion," she reasoned.
"Speaking of the enemies, there's a wave heading our way now," Oracle grimaced.
"Let's hurry away from here first," Joker suggested, in which everyone else agreed on and ran, with Queen and Noir supporting Lioness.
Some time in their run, Joker stopped in his track and pushed himself against the wall in the alleyway they were in, much to the Gear Users' confusion.
"Why'd you-? MMPH!" Hibiki was about to ask why he stopped, when Lioness covered her mouth and pushed them against the wall as well, as did everyone else. With the pushing part, that is.
"What's wrong?" Miku asked in a whisper.
"Shadow," Fox answered, much to the girls' surprise.
"A Shadow?!" Maria silently gasped.
Joker gestured Tsubasa, who was closest to him, to take a peek, in which the Ame no Habakiri did, and was baffled at the numbers.
"There's too many over there," she stated softly. "Even if we were at full strength, it'd be suicide."
"Then what do we do- death?" Kirika asked.
Kong let out a low chuckle. "Who do you think you girls are with?" The question brought eyes to the thieves.
"We're the Phantom Thieves. No matter how big an army, there's always a way to sneak past them," Mona stated proudly.
"Oh? So we're finally going to do something phantom thiefy?!" Hibiki asked in an excited tone.
"Why do you sound excited?" Chris questioned her.
"In this case, the only way past them is to go above them. Fortunately, there is a good route on the upper level, and there's less enemies on the buildings than there are down here," Oracle analyzed.
"You got all that so quickly?" Serena asked.
"Please. This is nothing for me."
"Okay, so how do we go up?" Shirabe asked then.
"Definitely not just going inside of buildings like this," Panther said, gesturing to their outfits.
"It would give us some unwanted attention," Noir stated.
"And it'd be the stupidest thing a phantom thief would do," Mona added.
"So what do we do?" Kanade asked.
"Why don't we let our leader show you how we truly do things?" Pixie said, looking to Joker.
The guy nodded and looked around the area, and saw a fire escape wall at the back of the group, quite high up. The ladder was up and locked, and there was a closed dumpster right underneath. Utilizing his Phantom Thief skills, he jumped on the dumpster and used it as a footing to jump up to the fire escape.
"Whoa! Amazing!" Hibiki gasped quite loudly.
"Keep it down!" Lioness growled, smacking the girl on the head.
"Ouch! Sorry..." the brawler said silently.
"But wait, are you sure you can climb up there, Lioness-san? Aren't you exhausted?" Serena asked.
"I've enough strength for this," the thief answered, following her leader's lead and meeting him on the fire escape.
"Us too," Queen said to the rest, as they also followed point.
"Even Oracle made it up there..." Chris said in amazement.
"You guys better hurry, or we'll leave you behind," the Phantom Thief navigator said to the Gear Users through their comms.
"You say that but..." Maria trailed off.
"Even with that demonstration, I can't say I'm feeling confident in doing what they did," Kanade stated.
Tsubasa activated the comms and asked the thieves, "Can't you bring down that ladder?"
"Can't. It's rusty. Even if we can bring it down, the noise from doing so will attract the Shadows' attention," Oracle answered.
"Then we've gotta try climbing," Hibiki said. She rushed to the dumpster and did what the Phantom Thieves did. Sadly... she didn't even touch the bottom part of the ladder. Thankfully, she used the boosters on her shoes to give herself a little extra jumping boost and managed to grab hold. "Yes!"
"Nice one!" Skull commented, as he and Panther helped the girl up on the fire escape.
"She made it!" Miku quietly cheered.
"Okay, I'm next- death," Kirika said. She rushed to the dumpster and did what the Phantom Thieves did... but sadly didn't even touch the bottom part of the ladder. She did think fast enough to shrink her scythe and managed to hook it on the ladder. "Whew... Got it- death." Skull and Panther then helped her up.
"Kiri-chan, too!" Shirabe quietly also cheered.
"But still, I don't think the rest of us can make it, even with the assistance of our Armed Gears," Tsubasa pointed out.
"Just to be sure, don't two of you fly?" Lioness questioned from the comms.
The moment she asked that, eyes were directed to Miku and Shirabe, both who then just realized that they could've just flew up there with a buddy or two. Upon the realization, the two let out a nervous laugh and proceeded to get the rest of the group up.
Once the group climbed the fire escape up to the rooftop, they resumed making their way back to the sub.
"There's fewer enemies on the rooftops, but that doesn't mean there aren't any, so be careful," Oracle warned.
"Since this is the home to Shadows, I suppose being in their home territory would mean having to face off against tougher opponents than usual," Tsubasa hypothesized.
"Well, you're not wrong about that," Queen stated.
Just then, Joker stopped and hid behind the edge of the rooftop, prompting the others to instinctively do the same.
"What's wrong? An enemy?" Kanade asked.
"A lookout," he answered.
The group peeked from their hiding place and saw, to the Gear Users' surprise, a cloaked alchemist with a white mask on his face surveying the roof of the next building, back facing them.
"What's an alchemist doing here?" Maria asked.
"Wrong. That's a Shadow," Mona corrected. "It may look like an enemy you're used to facing, but it isn't."
"Especially with how it's on a lookout like that," Lioness added.
"So wait, there are Shadows that look like people?" Miku asked.
"Uh-huh. Even ones of you guys," Ryuji confirmed.
Hearing that worried the girls, especially after hearing about these specific Shadows connection to people. What if they accidentally attacked their own Shadow?
"If you're worried if that Shadow is one of you, it's okay. In the Metaverse, a person's Shadow counterpart always look like the owner until we go in combat against them," Noir assured, to their relief.
"Still, what do we do with the enemy there?" Tsubasa asked.
"Leave it to Joker," Panther simply answered.
At those words, many expectant eyes fell onto the selected thief, who sweatdropped at the looks.
"I got it," he sighed. Silently, the thief leapt to the other building and hid behind some nearby crates. The lookout still didn't notice him, and Joker took the chance to swiftly get on his back.
"Huh?! What are you-?!" was all the Shadow managed to say, as Joker tore his mask off. The moment he did that, the Shadow bursted into blue, winged Shadows with conch in hands.
"Joker!" Hibiki called in worry.
"Follow up! Go!" At Pixie's words, Skull, Panther, and Mona joined their leader and initiated an All-Out Attack on the Shadows, instantly defeating them all.
"That was too easy," Skull said.
With the battle ending as quickly as it had, the Symphogear Girls just couldn't believe their eyes. They had thought from the second those Shadows appeared that Joker would be in big trouble, but there was no trouble at all.
"If we catch the lookouts by surprise like how Joker demonstrated, even if we do get surrounded by an army of Shadows, they'll be dazed from the surprise assault, thus giving us a chance to take them out in an All-Out Attack," Queen explained.
"This way's easier to take out the enemies, rather than just face them head on," Kong stated. "Course, it's not easy for any lookout."
"What do you mean?" Shirabe asked.
"He means there are some that are a lot stronger than others, some that are way over our levels," Pixie answered. "Thankfully, our leader has a special ability that allows him to differentiate the more dangerous Shadows from the rest."
Hearing that astonished the girls even more. Joker could do that?
"We're wasting time. Let's go," Lioness said, getting up on her feet and joining the four thieves on the other building.
After some time of jumping from building to building, taking out some lookout Shadows along the way, the group finally arrived at their destination.
"There's the base!" Chris gasped.
Serena sighed in relief at the sight of it. "Good. The Shadows didn't attack here."
"I... wouldn't be so sure about that..." Oracle said, bringing all eyes to her.
"What do you mean?" Hibiki asked.
"I'm sensing allies in the base, but I'm also getting other signals in there."
Those words shocked the Gear Users, while the Phantom Thieves were put on guard. "Meaning we have enemies infiltrating the base..." Queen stated.
"Unfotunately. And it looks like they're- Wait, what the-?!" The group was taken aback by the change in tone.
"What's wrong, Oracle?" Lioness asked.
"The... The enemy signals... They're getting reduced! Some of the allied signals are moving towards them and taking out the numbers!"
Hearing this surprised the thieves even more. "Wait, Lady Lavenza is on the sub! I'm sure of it; she's fighting against the enemies!" Mona said.
"That girl can fight?" Kanade asked.
"She's the Velvet Room attendant. That is, the assistant of the man who gifted us our powers," Pixie pointed out. "But wait... Oracle said 'some' of our allies are fighting in there. Who are the others?"
"One of them has to be master!" Hibiki said proudly.
"'Master'? Hang on! You mean that commander guy?! He can fight?!" Skull asked.
"You'd be very surprised..." Miku could only say in confirmation.
"Leo did feel something dangerous about that guy during our first meeting..." Lioness pointed out.
"And the other allied signals?" Noir asked Oracle.
The girl grimaced, as she tried to get a good visual of what was happening inside. "I can't get a good read in there. I think the erosion is messing up my Persona's powers," she said.
"In any case, they may need help. Come on!" Tsubasa took point and jumped off the building, followed by everyone else.
As they entered the sub, the group cautiously walked down the dark halls. It was so quiet in there. Perhaps a little too quiet, aside from the rumbling they were hearing from deep within, no doubt from a battle. As far as they knew, the sub was still the same as always, but where are the people?
"Oracle. Any signals?" Fox asked.
"Only a bunch down that corridor to the left," she answered.
The group looked to the direction she was pointing at and realized the signals and rumbling were all coming from the command center.
"We have to hurry!" Maria shouted, and they rushed to their destination.
When they arrived at the turn they were to make, they skidded to a sudden halt when what seemed like a large teddy bear flew by them.
"Whoa! What the heck?!" Chris gasped.
Lioness looked and saw that the 'teddy bear' was nothing more than a Bugs, as it faded away from existence.
"Just a Shadow. Someone took it out," she informed.
"It's gotta be Lady Lavenza! She's the only one with Personas on her," Mona said.
"We won't know just standing around. Even if she is a Persona User, one person against an army of Shadows is suicide," Tsubasa said.
"Prepare yourselves, guys. It's showtime!" At Joker's words, they all sprinted towards the command center... only to be blocked by more Shadows, consisting of Bugs and Raja Naga.
"Oh, come on! Seriously?!" Skull gasped.
"At least there aren't that many in terms of numbers, but even so..." Pixie trailed off.
"The Gear Users should go on ahead!" Queen said, to the said group's shock.
"Wait, us?!" Shirabe asked.
"I can't give you girls any power boost. You'll only be a burden if you stay here," Lioness pointed out.
"That's why you are going with them to the command center, stat!" Kong added, much to Lioness's bafflement.
"Huh?! What's that supposed to mean?!"
"You still haven't fully recovered yourself from that new power of yours, yeah? You'd be as much of a burden as them!"
As much as Lioness wanted to argue against that, she knew he was right. Even if she did use her Personas to fight, at best, she had enough in her to unleash two or three elemental skills.
"We'll give you an opening. Now go! Persona!" Joker summoned out Arsene and had the Persona unleash a powerful Curse Skill at the enemies. While the skill was extremely effective against the Raja Naga, it did nothing to the Bugs. Not that it was any problem.
"Us too! Cordelia!" Pixie summoned her own Persona out and had her use a multi-hit Bless skill at the remaining enemies. A few of the Shadows reacted fast enough to avoid the hit and rush at the group.
"Johanna!" Queen took the initiative then and drove her Persona towards the Shadows. Once close enough, she unleashed a Flash Bomb, and blinded them for a moment.
"Go! Hurry!" Noir told Lioness and the Gear Users.
The girls didn't need to be told twice, and they rushed past the battle. As they left, Hibiki hesitantly glanced back at the group, before continuing on her way.
As they drew closer to their destination, Lioness felt her vision get blurry, no doubt her exhaustion catching up to her, as she took a knee and panted.
"Lioness-san!" Serena called, she who was one of those closest to the thief, and rushed to her side.
"Are you okay?" Miku asked, she who was also closest to the girl.
"Yeah. I'm just tired, that's all," Lioness answered, lifting her mask a bit to pinch the bridge of her nose. "The faster we get this done, the faster I can take a proper break. Even if it is for a minute."
"Maybe you should take that minute to breathe, first," Serena suggested.
"I'll do that, after we clear the Shadows away from the command center. I'll just take it slow the rest of the way."
Serena and Miku both looked at each other in worry, before nodding to Lioness, hoping that she wasn't pushing herself too hard.
With the others, they just made it at the door leading to the command center, where they saw some Shadows and a figure right in front of it.
"More Shadows! And they're crowding around someone!" Chris exclaimed.
"Hang on! We're coming right now!" Hibiki called to the person.
However, it seemed their assistance wasn't needed, for the person had tossed their yo-yos at a Raja Naga, wrapping the object around it and tossing the Shadow around, using it to knock back the other Shadows around them. They then released their hold on the enemy, sending it flying away from the door. Next the Gear Users knew, the person then summoned out what seemed to be four blocks from their person. The blocks floated around their owner and shot out yellowish beams at the Shadows, causing the Bugs to all disintegrate.
"Enemy wave clear," the person then declared, the boxes disappearing in a burst of familiar blue flames.
With the Shadows gone, the Gear Users saw the person standing in front of the door was but a little girl in a white one-piece outfit with long sleeves, black gloves, and long black boots. The girl had a white hood up, and where her face should be, instead there was what seemed to be a black mask with cyan rings acting as her eyes. Poking out of the hood was what seemed to be a ponytail of hearts.
For some reason, looking at this girl, Hibiki couldn't help but find something familiar about her. But what?
"Whoa... Who is that- death?" Kirika breathed out.
"She took out the Shadows like they were nothing," Shirabe stated.
"That thing she used just now... Was that a Persona?" Kanade wondered.
The girl then turned to the group. "Unidentified group spotted. Mysterious powers, confirmed."
"Huh? Does she mean us?" Hibiki asked.
"Powers not that of Persona nor Shadow. 49% King of mysterious Jail. 49% King's cognition. 2% other entity."
"I... think she is?" Chris answered, though quite unsure herself.
"Wait... Did she just say 'Persona'?!" Maria asked.
"Recognizing group as threat. Taking action." Next they knew, the girl suddenly rushed at them with her yo-yos ready.
"Huh?! Hey wait!" Hibiki called, as the girl tossed her yo-yos at her.
Tsubasa felt something off about the yo-yos and got in front of her comrade, knocking the objects away with her sword. The two yo's struck the ground and wall, and to the Symphogear Users' surprise, they had blades attached to them.
"Those yo-yos are weapons?!" Kanade gasped.
"Like my Armed Gear," Shirabe said.
The girl followed up by pulling herself in, reeling herself towards Tsubasa and kicked her into Hibiki. She then pulled her weapons out of their place and shot them at Chris, who responded by shooting bullets and arrows at the yo-yos. Unfortunately, her ammo didn't do much to even waver them, and she managed to avoid the weapons instead.
"Hey! Listen to us!" she shouted, only to be ignored by the girl, as she continued attacking the group.
"What do we do- death?!" Kirika asked.
"If she knows about Personas, she must be an ally," Maria said.
"So you say, but how do we get her to stop fighting us?!" Kanade questioned.
Just as she asked that, the girl tossed her yo-yos at the otherworldly Gungnir User. Kanade brought her Armed Gear up to block the yo-yos, only for the pair to embed themselves into the floor right by her. The girl then reeled herself into the spear-user and once again kicked her down.
"Summon!" She then summoned the blocks once more, revealing her white face and cyan eyes. The blocks were charging up beams, aiming at Kanade.
"Kanade!" Tsubasa cried out.
"Wait! Stop!" Maria called to the girl.
"SOPHIE!" At that one shout, the girl's blocks ceased their charge. Everyone all turned to the source of the voice and saw a tired Lioness standing there with Serena and Miku. "Stop it, Sophie! These people are not our enemies!"
The girl, Sophie, tilted her head at the thief's arrival. "... Lioness? Is that you, Lioness?"
Hearing her voice brought relief to Lioness. "It really is you, Sophie." Next everyone knew, her legs gave in on her, and she fell to her hands and knees.
"Lioness(-san)!" Sophie and the Gear Users all rushed to her side in worry.
"What happened?!" Hibiki asked.
"Nothing. I'm just... too tired," the lion-masked thief answered, holding her head.
"I sense severe exhaustion. Give me a moment," Sophie said. She summoned her blocks out once more. This time, having them use a skill to heal Lioness up. "Did that work?"
"I feel my stamina returning, yeah... Thanks, Sophie."
"It's okay. I'm a good friend to the people, after all."
That intro got those who were in combat with her to sweat drop.
"Some 'good friend to people' you are..." Chris muttered. "In fact, now that we're all calm, who are you, exactly?!"
"'Calm'? Facial expression and body temperature shows irritation and rage. Have you suffered from some mental illness of sort?" Sophie asked.
"Sh-Shut up!"
"Ah, that's right. You asked for my name. My name is Sophia. In this form, though, it's Sophie. I'm a Phantom Thief, and a good friend to the people."
"So you really are a Phantom Thief..." Shirabe breathed out.
It was then, Hibiki realized something. "Ah! Now I remember! Miku, didn't Joker, Skull, and Panther say something about finding a pair of friends?"
At that question, Miku recalled their first meeting with the three thieves in their casual attire. "Yeah. They said one of them is a girl with heart pigtails."
Sophie looked at the pair upon the conversation. "Ah. That's me in my casual form," she confirmed. "You know of Joker and the others as well?"
"Of course we know them- death! We're their friends of this world- death!" Kirika answered.
"'This world'? I see. So we truly have ended up in a different world."
Lioness realized something else. "Hang on. If you're here, then what about Zenkichi?"
"No need to worry. He's in there with other people," Sophie answered, looking to the command center.
"'Other people'?" Serena repeated. "Then Genjuro-san and the others are safe?!"
"Assuming that is their names, then yes."
"Then that means... were you fighting against all the Shadows alone?" Maria asked.
"Correct. Though some managed to get by while I was in combat. Thankfully, there is another person within who wields the same power as the Phantom Thieves, and likewise there is a person in there who is inhumanely strong."
"Sounds like Lavenza-chan and Master, all right!" Hibiki exclaimed.
"Speaking of, we best not keep them waiting," Tsubasa said.
"True. And Joker and the others are going to catch up soon," Lioness added.
"Hey! Sorry we're late!" came Skull's voice.
"And speaking of..."
"Hey! Over here!" Hibiki shouted, waving to the thieves.
"Death!" Kirika also called, doing the same.
It didn't take long for the Phantom Thieves to regroup with the Gear Users, as well as get a pleasant surprise.
"Huh? Sophie?!" Mona asked.
"Joker! Mona! Everyone! Long time no see!" Sophie happily greeted.
"It really is you! Sophie!" Panther cried out, as she and Noir both hugged the girl.
"We were worried about you!" the pink and black thief exclaimed.
"Though, not as much as Lioness was," Fox pointed out.
"Yeah. She searched endlessly for you and Zenkichi," Kong informed.
"If I wasn't so exhausted, I would jab my rapier into you a hundredfold," the said girl said with a light blush.
"Why?! I'm only stating facts! Good facts!"
Seeing this made Sophie giggle a bit. "This interaction is truly Kong and Lioness," she stated.
Joker approached the girl. "Welcome back, Sophie," he said.
"But where the hell were you this whole time? And what about Zenkichi?" Skull asked.
"Yeah! We even tried the satellite systems and still couldn't find you guys!" Oracle pointed out.
"I can explain, but don't we need to regroup with the others in that room first?" Sophie asked back.
"She's right. We haven't been able to come in contact with Genjuro and the others for a while, after all. And we need to explain this situation to them," Pixie reminded.
"There's also the relic we need Elfnein to check out," Maria added.
Everyone agreed to the ideas and walked into the room.
Meanwhile, with Picora, he and his accomplice both made it back to their hideout.
"Okay, what the hell is going on here?!" the alchemist demanded. "What happened out there?! How did the city just change into... well, that?!"
"So to speak, this... is the home to Shadows," his accomplice answered. "This is the very world you've been pulling the Shadows out of, as well as the world from which you accidentally summoned those Phantom Thieves, and me."
That confused Picora even more. "What do you mean?"
"When you summoned the Shadows over to the real world, as it just so happens, the thieves were just about to leave this place to return to their world. As they were activating their portal, so to speak, their means of traversing between their world and this very world malfunctioned, and thus caused them to be sent to this world. Of course there were a couple that were instead brought to this world's version of the Metaverse, instead."
"Hang on! So you mean to tell me I really was the reason those thieves are here?!" Picora demanded.
"Of course. Is it not obvious enough?"
Picora took a breath then, calming himself down slightly. "Okay. Let's say I do accept that I turn out to be the one at fault for bringing those bastards here. What do you mean I accidentally summoned you? I never called upon-"
"Oh, of course you didn't. But surely you didn't think I would just stand by and let you do all the good parts of this operation, do you? Besides, I knew you would need the help eventually. Two minds are better than one, no?"
Picora could only glare at the guy, before finally deciding to let the topic go. "Okay then... Explain to me, what the hell happened to this world?! My world?!"
"To put simply, it was that thief's fault. The one with the lion mask and tail. When she merged with the relic, when she played the relic, she strengthened the cognition effect, and thus started the merge between these two worlds."
Picora looked around the area at those words. His eyes then lay on his crystal ball, displaying the many Shadows out on the city streets. "So in other words, we have extra resources to use here, right?"
"That's correct~ And even better, while you were going around commanding Shadows and Alca-Noise to do your bidding, let's just say... I got us some extra recruits." As the accomplice said that, he changed the scene on the crystal ball, and showed it something that pleased Picora even more.