Welcome back to the chapter! Before we get started, a little announcement. I have made an account on Wattpad under username CoralLevia5 some time back. And on it, besides a Bang Dream story on there, I have also made a little fanmade gallery for Symphogear. The reason? So you, my dear readers, can get a good looksie at the Gear Users' thief attires~! Note: the characters and/or their outfits are not exactly like the characters they were supposed to be or the same as the original Phantom Thieves. Believe me, I tried on the site I made those characters on. You'll find more information on the very thing right on that info book.

Now then! Onwards to the chapter!

Back with Lioness, after being forcibly sent away from the battle, the lion-masked Relic User thief found herself in a dungeon cell.

"... Seriously? He seriously locked me in here? This guy really doesn't know anything about phantom thieves, does he?" she questioned, approaching the bars. Peeking through to the halls, she saw no guards of any kind in the dungeon. "Not even a guard... Even if this is a newborn Jail, that guy truly..." Lioness could only shake her head with a sigh, as she reached into her person and pulled out a lock pick. Inserting the pick in the keyhole on the other side, she undid the lock and opened the door. "Even lock picking was easy."

She walked right out and casually made her way to the door. Once there, the door opened, and one of the lookouts was on the other side.

"Oh..." The two just stared at each other in silence. Unsure of what to say or do. "... Hi."

"Prisoner has escaped! I need back-" Before the Shadow could finish his request, Lioness jabbed her rapier through him, causing him to fade away. Unfortunately, the damage was already done, as she heard footsteps approaching.

"Of course the escape can't be just as easy..." she muttered, rushing towards the approaching group of Shadows and making quick work of them all.

With the Gear User/Phantom Thieves group, the group of twenty ran through the tower with the veterans taking the lead. As they traveled around as sneakily as possible, the origin Gear Users couldn't help but think about the photo Sophie showed, wondering why a photo of her would be considered important.

"Is something wrong, Sis?" Serena asked Maria, noticing the troubled look on her face.

"Tsubasa, you seemed troubled, too. In fact, all of you do," Kanade pointed out.

"Now that she mentioned it, you all do look a little down. What's wrong?" Queen asked.

"It's... nothing," Chris answered.

"Doesn't sound like it," Pixie pointed out. "You've been like this since Sophie showed us that photo. Do you all know that person? I know we said you'll tell us after we find Lioness, but if it'll distract you, it's best to talk now."

"Maybe not now," Joker said, leaning against a wall, prompting everyone else to do the same. He and a few others peeked from their hiding place and saw a lookout Shadow in a hall near them.

A stomach growl was then heard, and all eyes turned to Skull. "Uh... Heheh..." he chuckled nervously.

"Really, Ryuji?" Panther questioned.

"Don't blame me. We used up a bunch of energy last battle," he defended.

"He's not wrong. I'm feeling peckish myself," Fox agreed.

"We did use up a lot of our Persona Skills..." Noir pointed out.

"Not a good spot to eat, though," Kong said, peeking back to the lookout Shadow, only to quickly hide back when he saw it look back.

"You want to eat in here?" Shirabe questioned.

"It's not like we can just turn back now," Mona said.

"I'm getting multiple signals from that lookout. Not too many. If we catch him off guard, we might take him out with a good All-Out," Oracle informed.

"Guessing there's no safe rooms up ahead, either..." Joker added.

"There is a safe zone," Sophie spoke, getting all attention to her.

"How do you know that- death?" Kirika asked.

"I smell it." This now baffled the Gear Users.

"You can smell a safe zone?" Tsubasa questioned.

"Like Queen said; Sophie here's got a unique sense of smell," Oracle simply said.

"Calling it 'unique' is an understatement. Even if she is an AI," Maria stated.

"So we have to go through that Shadow first to get to that safe zone, right?" Miku asked.

"Yeah. And we gotta make it quick," Skull said.

"Leave it to us!" Hibiki insisted.

Before anyone can even take in what she said, the girl suddenly took off towards the Shadow.

"Hey, wait!" Mona gasped.

"Hibiki!" Miku called.

Unfortunately, the lookout saw her. "Intruders!" He then bursted and a trio of Liliths took his place.

"Shit! She can't handle that-" Skull got caught off upon the brawler landing a punch on one of the Liliths... to oblivion. "-many?!"

The humans weren't the only ones baffled, as the Shadows were just as flabbergasted, long enough for Hibiki to strike them away as well.

"... Huh? Wasn't that too easy?" the Gungnir User said.

"That's our line!" Panther exclaimed, as the rest of the group met back up with her. "What just happened?!"

"I... punched them?"

"Uh, we clearly saw that! What she means is 'how the hell did you beat three Shadows like they were nothing'?! I mean, Lioness isn't here!" Skull questioned.

"I don't know! I just punched like I always did!"

"It can only be because of our Gear," Tsubasa said. "After we accepted our Shadows, they did more than just give us a new form for our Gears. Now, we can fight like you."

Hearing that brought smiles on the thieves' faces.

"I'm glad to hear," Noir said.

"Yeah. Now we don't have to worry about you guys when it comes to those things," Kong stated.

Chris turned to one direction and said, "Can't really say the same could be said to you, though..."

Confused, the group looked to her and then the direction she was looking, and saw a horde of Alca-Noise coming their way.

"Them again!" Sophie exclaimed, as they all got ready for another battle.

Back with Lioness, the lone thief managed to beat all the Shadows and went up the stairs, escaping from the dungeon area. Once she reached the end of the stairs, a closed door was there. Lioness cautiously opened it, and found herself in what seemed to be a study room. She looked out the window and noticed she somehow ended up somewhere in the tower.

"Wow... Usually dungeons are supposed to be in the basement area. And I'm pretty sure I was falling, too," she muttered. Lioness shook her head and turned to the door out the room. "In any case, I have to scout this place out. If this is a Jail, there are bound to be clues of some kind to this guy's past." As she made her way to the door, she noticed the computer on the desk against the wall. While the screen was black, the power button was lit up. "... I guess that's a good place to start."

She walked over to the computer and moved the mouse. Once she got it out of sleep mode, she saw she needed to put in a password to access the thing. She clicked her tongue at this wall, for the password could be anything.

"Guess I'll come back to this later..." she begrudgingly decided, and left the room.

Back to the group, they somehow managed to handle all the Alca-Noise and made it to the safe zone in the Jail. Once they arrived, majority of the thieves collapsed.

"Whew... That was actually a tough fight back there..." Skull stated.

"Didn't help that we were limited with our Persona's Skills..." Panther pointed out.

"I was feeling peckish before. Now... I'm famished..." Fox said.

"Are you guys really okay to keep going?" Serena asked.

"Don't worry. We'll be good after some nice rest. And some food," Kong answered, his stomach growling for grub.

"Which speaking of..." Pixie spoke, taking out bags of goods from her person. "Who's first?"

The Gear Users looked at the woman in shock.

"Where did you get those from?!" Chris questioned.

"Kind of a... Metaverse thing," Queen simply said. To Pixie, she asked, "What do you have?"

"We have some water, tea, sandwiches, bread, soda, canned food, chips-"

"Uh, wait a second," Maria stopped. "Those are what helps you recover?"

"So to say, yes. This is what helps us recover our energy to use our Personas," Noir answered.

"And rarely our stamina," Skull added, taking a gulp of soda. "You girls need to eat, too." He took a packet of dried shredded squid and tossed it to Miku, who caught the pack.

"But... wouldn't it be better to get a decent meal?" she asked.

"Even if we want to, we can't," Noir said, having some salad. "Aside from headquarters, we don't know if there's any other place not affected by the erosion."

"She has a point," Shirabe agreed.

"Let's eat- death~!" Kirika sang, as she and the rest of the Gear Users gathered around the pile of food with the thieves.

Elsewhere, Alca-Noise were patrolling around the area, on a lookout for any intruders. As one of them patrolled around the area, it was suddenly ambushed from above, as a rapier was jabbed straight through its head, causing it to disappear from existence.

Lioness quickly hid behind a crate as soon as she defeated the Alca-Noise. Thankfully, unlike the lookout Shadows, the Alca-Noise wouldn't turn into a group of enemies once attacked and possibly attract the attention of other enemies nearby, but that didn't mean she shouldn't be on her guard. Especially not when these things can carbonize her if she's not careful enough. She may still have Rise to the Beast skill, but being carbonized really hurt a lot, and if the skill gets used too much, she'd get more exhausted than she would like. Sure, she had a relic this time to protect her from the effects, but one can't be too careful.

After some time of sneaking around the halls, Lioness arrived in what seemed to be a theater room.

"Well, doesn't this King like to have it all..." she muttered. "Although... I might be able to find something of use in here." She thoroughly searched everywhere in the room for something, anything that can help at all. When she found a VHS tape, hidden in a bookshelf. "What's a VHS tape doing in a bookshelf filled with books?" she questioned, taking the tape out. "No title, either..."

Lioness thought the tape must be something of importance and looked around the room for a VCR, but saw nothing that was similar to it. "No VCR. Figures..." she sighed, running a hand though her hair in annoyance. When she looked up, her eyes laid on the projector on the ceiling above her. Due to her experience with Palaces, she found something funny about the thing and brought it down. Once down, she saw it was a VCR. Lioness opened the thing up and inserted the tape in. The moment she did, the big screen lit up, and what was shown on the tape was revealed to her. And so to say... she was baffled with the contents within.

Back to the group, after recovering their strength at a much quicker pace than the Symphogear Girls thought with the snacks, they resumed their infiltration in the tower. As they traveled about, the girls also learned from the otherworlders how to watch out for traps, thing outside the box at dead ends, and sneak past guards. As they were dressed as thieves now, it was only right for the girls to learn how to act like one. Especially those gullible enough to constantly fall for traps revolving around treasure chests.

"Hibiki... You do realize that this is a trap, right?" Joker asked the girl.

"B-But... This could be the real thing, this time!" she exclaimed.

"If this was the second or third chest, I'd say 'go for it'. But this is the fifth chest..." Mona pointed out.

"More so, Joker has his Third Eye, and he himself confirmed it to be a trap," Pixie added.

As she said, Joker had also displayed his Third Eye skill to the girls. Through his skill, he had identified the more dangerous and weaker lookout Shadows from the rest, making it easier to infiltrate the tower. It also helped him detect traps, treasures, and hidden items. Unfortunately, despite that, Hibiki still wanted to go open up whatever treasure chests they had found on the way.

"Give it up. There's no changing that idiot's mind..." Chris told the thieves.

"She is pulling our legs, right?" Queen asked Tsubasa.

"Actually... this isn't the first time this sort of thing happened..." the Ame no Habakiri User informed, getting flashbacks of one certain parallel world.

"She did not learn at all from back then..." Maria sighed, also getting flashbacks of that time.

"Please, let's open this one! I'm sure it's a real treasure this time!" Hibiki exclaimed, with Kong and Skull holding her back.

"Girl! Just stop! Even I know this is bound to be a trap!" the blonde thief said.

"But aren't you thieves? Shouldn't you take these sort of chances?"

"Even a thief would know what's a trap and what isn't! Just please stop that urge!" Kong told her. "Besides, Joker confirmed it to be a trap!"

"What Lioness would say if she sees this..." Oracle said.

"She would most likely knock the three of them out before enemies arrive," Sophie assumed.

"She wouldn't do that. ... Would she?" Miku asked the rest of the thieves.

"Oh yes, she would," they all answered in unison.

"I would understand Hibiki, but Skull and Kong, too?" Kanade questioned.

"They're being quite loud on this stealth mission we're to have," Fox pointed out.

"Okay, Hibiki and boys, knock it off. Before you attract the Shadows and Alca-Noise our way," Pixie told them.

"But... the treasure chest..." Hibiki whimpered.

"Would you just know it off, idiot?! Joker even confirmed with that Third Eye of his that it's a trap!" Chris shouted.

Unfortunately... that shout of hers had echoed on for quite the distance. "Hey! I heard something over there!" came a shout.

"Why, Chris-senpai- death?!" Kirika gasped.

"You've sent the enemies our way," Shirabe stated.

"Don't blame me; this idiot-"

"We'll play the blame game later!" Queen interrupted Chris. "Right now, we have to do something about the enemy."

An idea came to Kong's mind. "Hey, Hibiki. Does it matter who opens the chest?"

Minutes later, a couple of lookout Shadows and some Alca-Noise came into the room... and saw no sign of the intruders.

"Where'd they go?" one of the lookouts asked.

"They have to be somewhere," the other lookout stated, as they all walked in.

Unknown to them, the tall members of the thieves and Gear Users were on the ceiling. The group was in pairs, feet against the wall, and arms stretched out with hands pressed against each other's, trying very hard to keep themselves up and still, unnoticed by the lookouts below.

"You do these sort of things, too?" Kanade whispered to Panther, who was right in front of her.

"First time, actually," she answered.

As for the smaller members, they managed to find places down below to hide behind. Especially one catty thief.

"Hey there. Looking for me?" Mona called to the lookouts, coming out from behind the treasure chest.

"There's the intruder!" the first lookout shouted, as they all rushed at the thief.

Mona quickly opened the chest, and a number of daggers flew straight out of it and struck the enemy group. While the Alca-Noise faded away, the lookouts bursted into a number of Shadows, all looking at Mona quite angrily.

"You'll pay for that, cat!" one of them exclaimed.

"Hmm... I don't think so," Mona said, swishing his tail.

At his words, the allies above dropped right down on the enemy group, defeating them all instantly.

"Whew... That was a close one," Tsubasa sighed in relief, as the rest of their comrades came out from their hiding spots.

Sophie looked into the now-open chest. "There's truly nothing aside from the trap in the chest," she stated.

At her words, Chris turned to Hibiki with a glare, she who was the reason why they almost got caught by the Shadows.

Hibiki sensed her glare and nervously laughed. "Ahaha... S-Sorry," she apologized.

"Next time we say don't go for the chest, do not go," Chris told her in a warning tone.

"Yes ma'am..." Upon her dejectedness, Miku comfort the girl simply by placing a hand on her shoulder.

"We need to move it. There are more enemies coming this way," Futaba warned.

"Lead the way," Serena said.

Some time of traveling later, the group climbed up the stairs and ended up right at what seemed to be a laboratory.

"Whoa. What's a lab doing in here?" Kanade questioned.

"In the Metaverse, pretty much anything goes," Skull stated. "Though... even in here, a lab in a tower is so random."

"This place isn't distorting, either. And if you think about it, we are facing an alchemist, aren't we?" Mona pointed out.

"He's right. It's not weird for an alchemist to have a lab," Pixie agreed. "There must be something in here of importance in some way. Let's search around and see what we can find."

The group nodded in agreement and searched around the area. After some time of searching, however, they came up with nothing useful.

"Doesn't look like there's anything in here..." Serena sighed.

"There has to be something in here. Joker, did you use your Third Eye?" Queen asked.

"I did. The only things I spotted from it, though, were just those lab equipments over there. Nothing else," Joker said. "I want to think they're being used for something, but found nothing. Not even a drop of substance in the vials."

"Just that? Wait a minute..." Pixie headed over to the dark red vials and brought one to her nose. "This smell... This is dried blood."

The group was surprised at the reveal.

"Wait, wait, wait... Dried blood?" Skull repeated.

"Either he was doing some blood drive or tried to make a deal with some vampire," Panther stated.

"I wouldn't say either of those," Oracle said, looking at some papers on the desk near her.

"Did you find something?" Shirabe asked.

"Yeah. Check these out." She handed the papers to the group. "At first I thought these were some nonsense or made up formulas, but after a thorough look... These are formulas for making blood."

This baffled the group even more.

"'Making blood'?!" Serena gasped.

"How is that possible? Blood isn't something that can be created," Kanade questioned.

"No, but apparently this guy was trying to make it work. And it's not just any blood, either; it's a blood type called the RH xxoyle_formula," Oracle added.

Majority of the Gear Users became more stunned at the news.

"What kind of blood is that?" Fox asked.

"Whatever it is, it sounds like a rare blood type," Noir stated.

"Pixie, have you heard of it?" Kong questioned.

"No. I don't think that blood type exists in our world," she answered.

"No... But it does here," Tsubasa spoke. "That blood is extremely rare, present in 1 out of 1.4 million people."

"1.4 million?! That is rare!" Panther exclaimed.

"But why go so far as to do the impossible as to create this?" Sophie wondered. "If it was to help those 1 in 1.4 million people, he wouldn't have a Jail."

"Maybe it's his blood type?" Joker guessed.

While many of them wondered the reason for creating this specific blood, the Gear Users of the eroded world stayed silent, troubled by this reveal, especially Hibiki.

Queen noticed the looks. "Something's troubling you girls, isn't there?" she asked.

"It's just... there was a time when this blood was used for something outside of medical aid," Maria began. "But... As you said earlier, until we find Lioness, we won't go into details with it."

"Are you sure? If it's too much to keep in, it's better to say it now," Kong said.

"We're sure," Chris insisted. Despite the insistence, everyone could tell that the girls were bothered by something.

"Joker, is there anything else that's out of place?" Pixie asked.

The guy nodded and turned to a machine. "There's something inside this machine, but I don't even know what this is used for."

Pixie looked at the thing and instantly recognized it. "This is the machine hospitals use to identify blood types," she informed.

"So, what? Do we just give it blood to have it operate or something?" Skull asked.

"I don't think so. Going by the papers Oracle found, we need the RH xxoyle_formula blood to get this to work, and get whatever is in this machine out."

"But where are we going to get that blood?" Kanade asked.

"We could try going to a hospital, but doing that's risky in more ways than one," Oracle said.

"Besides, it's not like the doctors will give us blood that rare if we just ask," Mona added.

"No... But we can try our own blood," Sophie suggested.

"That's not possible. None of us here have that blood type," Shirabe said.

"My blood's common," Kanade stated.

"Mine, too," Serena said.

"I don't think us being in another world should affect our blood type, either," Queen added.

"True. But... We don't know the blood type of two members amongst us," Pixie said.

At her words, all eyes made contact with Mona and Sophie. The cat looked back at them, noticing the many stares. "Why are you looking at us like that?" he asked.

"Mona, do you know your blood type?" Joker asked.

"Hold it! You're not taking my blood! We don't even know if a cat's blood can work!" Mona exclaimed.

"Ah. So times like this, you're a cat- death," Kirika judged.

"While I am an AI in the Real World, here, I am just as real as everyone else. There's a possibility that if we convince ourselves hard enough, my blood may came out as RH xxoyle_formula," Sophie pointed out and volunteered.

"Is that going to work?" Shirabe asked.

"Don't know. But it's worth a try. Besides, a real AI should be as rare as the blood type."

"She has a point. Someone find me a syringe, alcohol, cover slides, and clean needles," Pixie ordered.

"Here it is," Noir said, handing Pixie a syringe.

"I've found some alcohol here," Fox located.

"Here are the needles," Serena called.

After handing the items to the fairy thief, the adult took a bit of blood sample from Sophie. She inserted the blood into the machine, and it began analyzing the sample. After a bit of time processing it, the screen lit up in green, and the side of the machine had opened up, revealing a VHS tape within it.

"A VHS tape?" Hibiki spoke in slight surprise.

"What's it doing in the machine?" Miku asked.

"Don't know. But it's definitely something important," Joker said, taking the tape out. "We'll be able to see the context once we find the VCR."

"Are we able to find one in this tower?" Chris asked in slight doubt.

"There has to be. This tape wouldn't be here otherwise," Queen said.

"We got what we came for. Let's check out another area." At Joker's words, everyone left the lab.

Back with Lioness, after watching the video on the tape she found, she took the tape out of the VCR and left the room. After what she had saw, she had questions that truly needed to be answered. Questions... only the Gear Users can ever answer.

"They better have a good explanation for this," she muttered.

As she reached a crossroad up ahead, a lookout Shadow was walking into her line of sight, just as she was in his.

'I can't hide in time!' she thought, as she instead tossed her grappling hook at the enemy. Once hooked, she reeled herself in and tore his mask right off. Good news: the lookout was weak compared to her level, and thus was instantly defeated. Bad news: ... she got herself within the line of sight of other enemies in the hall.

"... Shit."

"Stop that intruder!" At one lookout's command, the rest of his fellow lookouts bursted into an army of Shadows and charged at the lone thief with the Alca-Noise.

"I don't have time for you!" Lioness shouted. She then summoned her two Personas, and pointed at the enemies before them. "Go! Attack!" she ordered.

Leo charged in first, slamming the ground, and bellowing to the sky as large dark teeth appeared from the ground and chomped onto them all, immobilizing them. Alanna then appeared from above and used Ice-element energy to turn the teeth into dark ice. They both vanished as Lioness summoned her sniper rifle. The thief began charging up energy within her weapon and fired it off in a bright blast of energy, one that encased the enemies trapped in the frozen teeth. This was her 'Fangs of Gluttony'.

Once the attack was over, she saw she took out a good portion of Shadows.

"Okay. Who's next?"

Returning to the Phantom Thieves and Gear Users, they heard the sound of combat up ahead.

"Anyone else hearing that up there?!" Miku asked.

"It has to be Lioness!" Kong exclaimed.

"Pick up the pace!" Joker shouted.

They arrived at the scene of combat, just in time for Lioness to do away with some Kurama Tengu via Alanna's multi-target Ice Skill, but still surrounded by enemies.

"Lioness! Charge, Johanna!" Queen called, as she summoned out her Persona and drove on ahead, ramming on through the many foes in front of her.

The sound of a new arrival caught the lone thief and the remaining Shadows and Alca-Noise's attention, as they saw a motorbike-like Persona and her rider charging on through. Lioness smirked at this and simply held out a hand. As Queen drove on, she also held out a hand and grabbed Lioness, pulling her on Johanna.

"About time you guys showed up," the lion-masked thief said.

"Better late than never," Queen simply stated, unleashing a Nuke Skill on some Bugbear, leaving them dazed.

"Where are the others?"

"Right behind us."

As Queen answered that, Lioness looked and was baffled at half the group's attire. "Am I seeing double over there?!" she questioned.

"Let's just say, they defeated and accepted their Shadows, and that's the result."

Lioness could only nod, as the group all caught up and began fighting against the enemy group.

Some time of fighting later, the hall was finally clear of Shadows and Alca-Noise, leaving the thieves and Gear Users there.

"Whew... Finally took care of them all..." Skull sighed in relief.

"It's too early to celebrate. There may be more coming," Mona warned.

"We're actually good for now," Oracle corrected. "As far as I can see, there's no sign of an enemy heading this way."

"I don't sense an enemy signal, either," Sophie agreed.

"Good. Now that that's finally done..." Lioness pointed her rapier at the Gear Users, to their and the rest of the thieves shock. "With the exception of two, you girls have a whole bunch of explaining to do."