"Death is not a negative card. It's about cycles"

"Cycles?"

"About ending a part of your life and starting a new one. Just because it says death it doesn't mean it's bad"

"So if I'm aligned with the Death arcana..."

"It doesn't mean you bring death or anything like that. It means you're changing. All you have to do is to not resist it"

Sisyphus watched the pieces moving by themselves all over the board. It was so strange, seeing that, but it was kind of nice. Day after day passed in the Underground. It had been a long time since he could sit back and just watch the world unfold. The movements of his own piece fascinated him the most. How he strived to create Flowey, how his friendship with Alphys deepened - he didn't think without his influence he'd gravitate towards Alphys. Did he like her the most out of everyone he had met, or was it just because without Alphys' help he couldn't have done anything? Sisyphus wasn't sure what his piece had been thinking. There were other things to be concerned about, anyway.

Lucia had said he should apologize to Cornio and convince him to resume the game. What he had done wasn't the kind of thing you could just apologize and call it a day. He had to compensate Cornio and try to make his stay in the game worthwhile somehow, but he had no idea how to do such thing. Stuck and having no idea what to do, he had drifted back to the board and gotten distracted watching it – until Cornio appeared in the room. Not long afterwards, Lucia followed him.

"Ah...good timing! We have to talk" Sisyphus said, deciding to take the plunge despite his lack of plan. If he didn't do it now, he'd overthink and take too long to talk to him. Cornio looked away. Hm? Sisyphus felt no hostility from him, so why was he hesitating?

Seeing how Cornio wasn't replying, Lucia decided to direct the situation in the direction she wanted. "I talked to him and he had quite the interesting proposal. Since there's no way you would be able to apologize enough, he decided to give you a chance of proving yourself"

"Proving myself?" Sisyphus turned to Cornio "What's that supposed to mean?"

Cornio still needed a moment to compose himself. To Sisyphus it seemed like the man was engaged in some sort of internal conflict. He must be swallowing his pride, I guess. "I challenge you to a fight"

"A FIGHT?"

"No, not like that" he seemed to wish it could be a FIGHT. "A fight with our Personas"

Oh. In terms of versatility, Sisyphus was sure he would have an advantage, but versatility meant nothing if Cornio had a lot of raw power. Although at first sight this seemed like a fair challenge, it was possible it would be extremely one-sided. "Here? Right now?"

"Yeah. Are you going to do it?"

"It's not like I have options here. I have to if I want to resume the game" Sisyphus nodded. "Let's do it"

Cornio didn't seem very happy. He just walked to the other side of the parlor. Lucia, being helpful, took the board with her to keep it safe. Before she stood aside, she approached Sisyphus, lowering her voice. "Listen, he's going to try his hardest. I know this means a lot to you, so don't lose"

"What's his Persona like?"

Lucia made an exaggerated face of concern. "It's amazing! Very strong. It's not the kind of Persona you'd think someone would have"

"Tell me weaknesses, resistances"

The Witch of Hope smiled sadly. "Okay, maybe you're screwed" and she left Sisyphus to flounder and rely on trial and error. Thanks for nothing. No time for hesitation.

On the other side of the room, Cornio seemed to have prepared himself for a battle already. Looking straight at Sisyphus and hiding well his hesitation, he called out. "Are you ready?"

"As ready as I'll ever be"

Cornio nodded, looking like he was sorry and would rather not to do it, something that made Sisyphus think something was off. He barely had time to think about that when Cornio said, having decided there was nothing to do but get done with this:

"Shiva!"

A burst of bright blue energy flooded the room, so strong Sisyphus actually had to cover his eyes for a moment, and stumbled backwards until he hit a wall, surprised. Through the light he saw a large figure emerging from Cornio, large enough it couldn't even get off the floor without touching the ceiling.

Even someone who knew little about mythology and religions had heard Shiva's name before. He never thought someone could have a Persona based on such a known deity, much less that now he would have to fight it. Wondering if maybe he was way over his head, Sisyphus stepped forward. Either he dared to do this, or the game was over and he would have failed.

He looked at the form in front of him. Three eyes, four arms, hands holding different objects, the largest one being a trident, black and white patterns covering the visible surface of the Persona, horns, thorny vines enveloping its forearms...it was hard to know exactly what kind of elements it had to attack, and which ones Sisyphus should use. Neither Cornio nor his Persona moved, he was waiting for Sisyphus' move.

Deciding to go ahead and start the fight, Sisyphus summoned his own Persona, deciding to go with the one that represented him. Ouroboros appeared above him. Although it was much weaker than his other Personas, he thought it should be okay as long as he didn't get hit. Cornio, unfazed by Ouroboros, still refused to move. He really is waiting for me to make the first move!

"Come on, move!" he shouted at Cornio while Ouroboros' chains rattled, the air freezing around Cornio. He shook his head, almost disappointed. The air formed ice, covering him, yet it was like he felt nothing. "What?"

"He's immune to that, unfortunately" Lucia piped up.

"About time you said something!" Sisyphus snapped, deciding to go for darkness. Same effect: nothing at all.

"Nullifies that too"

There has to be something I can do! Was that why Cornio refused to do anything? Because he knew there were few elements that could harm him? Upset and frustrated, Sisyphus reduced Cornio's defense, just so using Ouroboros wasn't a complete waste, and changed his Persona.

It turned out trying to find anything that could affect Cornio was an ordeal. Thanks to his Persona, many attacks Sisyphus tried did nothing productive.

"Neko Shogun!" the cat with shogun clothing tried psy spells. The air around Cornio shimmered, colors forming around him, until it coalesced right around his head. Instead of achieving nothing, it seemed like Cornio thrived from that, absorbing the attack and shining brightly for a moment. Fearing he had made Cornio stronger, Sisyphus immediately changed.

Pyro Jack! Fire got the same result. Cornio smiled at him with what Sisyphus interpreted as something very close to pity.

Decarabia? the pentagram zapped Shiva with a strong thunder. All that got was Sisyphus receiving the brunt of it, it had bounced right off it his opponent. No fire, no ice, no electric, no psy... He had one last option. If it didn't work, then he had to resort to hitting him with physical attacks, and he had no good way to do that unless he tried to punch Cornio right in the face. If he decided to use those, he would put himself at disadvantage. Hoping it would give him a breakthrough, he summoned the best Persona he had.

Yamata-no-Orochi formed behind him, the large eight-headed serpent filling his side of the room. If Cornio aimed at the Persona instead of at him when he attacked, then it was likely it'd hit. Bracing for the worst, Sisyphus aimed with a wind spell, a small cyclone forming underneath Cornio and immediately sprung upwards, enveloping him, he recoiled in pain. "Finally!"

"...yeah...finally..." Cornio straightened up, with the face of someone who couldn't delay anymore something unpleasant that needed to be done. Cornio hid behind Shiva, and said rather loudly, calling his attack: "Thunder Trident!" Shiva leaped forward, electricity crackling in its trident, swinging it towards Sisyphus. Sisyphus grabbed it with his bare hands, pushing forward while the electricity flowed through him, feeling merely like ants crawling all over his arms, his hair spiking up to all sides. Realizing electricity wasn't going to work, Shiva swung the trident upwards, the movement slamming Sisyphus against the ceiling of the room, flakes of plaster covering him. Winded out by the slam, he tried to focus, trying to envision what his Persona should do.

Defenses first. If Cornio had so many resistances, then he should try to have the same. The serpent waved a head towards Sisyphus, a red mesh covered Sisyphus while he hung onto the trident, letting go so he'd fall on Shiva. It was unlikely Shiva would use fire, but it was worth a try. "I'm sorry for that!" Cornio shouted, Shiva vanishing and appearing behind him again, Sisyphus falling to the floor on his hands. Arms sore, he grabbed the chair he had been sitting on, trying to ram Cornio with it, trying to make him lose his concentration, all he got was Cornio grabbing onto the armrests to push back. The two kept pushing each other, trying to get the upper hand, until Sisyphus managed to do so, Cornio getting the chair pushed onto his torso, pressing him against the floor.

"Gotcha!" Sisyphus said, reveling on the fleeting victory moment before Shiva acted, grabbing Sisyphus from the back and throwing him towards his Persona, Sisyphus hit the many heads and sank between them, feeling a pang all over the inside of his head. Magic isn't going well, attacking close-quarters isn't going well, what am I supposed to do?! Desperate for a plan and at a loss, his Persona vanished while Sisyphus shakily stood up, glaring at Cornio.

"We don't have to do this for long. Fire...Shield?" Cornio said, moving a hand over the floor, a line of fire magic emerging from it, forming a wall to keep Sisyphus away, and without giving a moment for him to rest, a whirlwind appeared above Shiva, everything in the parlor rattling from the strength of the wind. "Magic Cyclone!"

Thinking fast, Sisyphus changed his Persona back to Pyro Jack and jumped through the fire, again trying to get close to Cornio, hoping that would make him change his mind about his attack. Slowly, the whirlwind vanished while Cornio braced for contact, Shiva didn't move while Cornio was taken aback by the sudden approach.

"W-Wait!"

"Gotcha!" Sisyphus repeated, grabbing Cornio by the edges of the lapel of his frayed coat and holding him. Cornio thrashed and writhed, very alarmed about having Sisyphus so close to himself and finding out something was off about him if he made a wrong move.

Cornio moved his hands as if he was going to try to take Sisyphus' hands off him, unsure if he should touch him "Let go!"

"I'm sorry, I have to win!" Sisyphus said, trying to throw Cornio down onto the floor. Beating Cornio up was something Sisyphus wanted to avoid, just holding him down should count as a victory, right? The sound of claws scraping against marble sounded from below. Surprised, Sisyphus looked down to the floor, to his and Cornio's shoes, not seeing that could have caused that noise, chance Cornio used to get away. With a shove, he pushed Sisyphus away and faded into air, appearing back on the other side of the parlor, grabbing the one seat that was left and holding it in front of himself like a shield.

The attempt to defeat him rattled him. Despite having agreed with Lucia to lose and resume the game, he hadn't expected Sisyphus to get so close, so much he could maybe touch fur and notice his appearance was a disguise. Sisyphus was foolish but he wasn't stupid, he would notice this was similar to what his piece's disguise. The panic led him to move without realizing, all he could think for a moment was about keeping him away.

Many embers formed several circles around himself, floating in the air and moving at high speeds. Even if Sisyphus was immune, he hoped the amount of fire would keep him away somehow. "Ice...ice...something!" he couldn't think from the top of his head something that sounded decent for an attack name. Shiva also raised all its arms, thick needles and veins of ice emerging from its palms, filling the air around Sisyphus and enveloping him, restraining his movement and reducing the air to freezing temperatures. Having a Persona weak to ice, he felt numb, freezing cold, like everything in him was replaced with ice. Sisyphus struggled to stay on his feet, dizzy and shivering. Shiva raised the trident, conking him on his head.

Pain coursed through Sisyphus' skull while he stumbled through the needles to the wall, he held a hand where he had been hit, glaring at Cornio on the other side of the parlor, barely seeing him through the flames. I can't win. He has too much versatility! That and very few weaknesses he could exploit. Without a way to attack, it'd be matter of time before Cornio defeated him. He had to think quick!

"...you can give up any time you want?" Cornio glanced at Lucia for a moment. Should he have said that? It sounded good. Lucia smiled awkwardly. Giving Sisyphus a reprieve, he waited for him to stand up. "Are...are you okay?"

"I'm fine, I just needed to rest" Sisyphus said, unable to hide how badly he was doing. He shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts. So far all of his strategies had failed. He lacked power. Maybe if he could just hit him without fail... "Here I go...!" his last resort option was physical attacks. It would drain his stamina and leave him vulnerable when he tried to heal himself, but it was the only thing he could do!

Hoping it'd work, he summoned the last Persona he had. Sisyphus retreated to the wall, staying close to it and leaving it all to the Persona that burst out of him. Oni raised its blade, roaring. Cornio nodded, making sure Shiva would stay in front of him at all times, and moved his Persona forward. Oni swung its blade, hitting Shiva across the knees. The Persona didn't react at all, Cornio did. He doubled over, pained, and having given up on trying to think of names for attacks, tried to hit Oni with Shiva's trident.

The demon parried the trident with the blade, over and over, the three, four times Shiva tried to attack with it, pushing Sisyphus more and more into the floor, until he was lying down. On the fifth attempt, Oni's blade acquired a white shine, when Shiva's trident was parried again, an explosive force hit back, Shiva had to back off, Cornio leaning against the wall. He had judged that lucky moment was enough to give Sisyphus the illusion of having won. "Wait!" he pleaded.

Thinking he had cornered his opponent, Sisyphus decided to give a decisive blow. Hurrying in case Cornio got an ace up his sleeve, Sisyphus raised a hand and slammed the floor. Oni roared, lifting the blade with both hands, aiming at the stunned-looking Shiva, and hit with all the strength it had.

It was like hitting a steel plate. A dull twang echoed in the room, Shiva didn't move at all. For a moment Sisyphus panted, weakened, and looked intermittently between Cornio and Shiva, hoping it had actually worked. After a few seconds Cornio slid down the wall until he was sitting on the floor, Shiva fading away. "I give up..." Cornio said. Sisyphus didn't dare to say something as silly as 'really?', he kept waiting, like he thought Cornio was pretending to have lost, just to attack when he turned his back on him. A minute of staring passed before he brought himself to say something.

"Wait, seriously? I won?"

"You did. We'll resume the game"

Relief flooded Sisyphus. He had done it, he had salvaged the situation and brought the project back from the brink of disaster! Oni faded too, the fight over, and Sisyphus walked to the couch lying on the floor. Dusting the pieces of plaster off it and examining the wood and cushions to see if they had broken it, he put it on the floor and sat down to the couch, almost in disbelief he had succeeded. Not long afterwards, Cornio joined him to the table, looking conflicted. Lucia put the board on the table, smiling, pleased as punch.

"By the way, don't think either of you is getting out of here without cleaning the mess. Look what you did to my ceiling" she said. Even though she was smiling, they both knew she meant it. Cornio nodded, ashamed.

"I'm sorry, I will fix that"

Another heavy silence. It wasn't like before the incident they had been chummy and getting along amazingly, but they hadn't been in such uncomfortable and awfully stuffy silence ever before. Sisyphus knew that was his fault, it was his decisions what led to the current atmosphere. He swallowed, taking a deep breath, and finally said:

"I'm sorry" Lucia and Cornio looked at him "I'm sorry I was so stupid. There's no excuse about how flippant I was about everything. The idea if sacrificing someone I want to save should have never crossed my mind. That was horrible and I'm ashamed I did it" Sisyphus sighed. "I know saying sorry won't fix it, and now it's too late, but if there's something I can do to compensate what I did then please tell me, I'll do anything"

Cornio shook his head after a moment of staring. "There isn't anything you can do"

"...I see" Sisyphus knew it couldn't be as easy as just doing something and everything would be okay, but hearing that stung. Cornio added:

"I can't say I forgive you, but I'm not going to shun you for that. I'll just believe if it had been any other situation you wouldn't have done it" Cornio absentmindedly placed his hand over his heart "I want to believe that"

Saying he wouldn't do it ever again wouldn't be meaningful, so Sisyphus kept his mouth shut. Judging by how the social link between him and Cornio still was reversed, he wasn't forgiven, just like he had said.

Now that Sisyphus had apologized sincerely, Lucia and Cornio were a bit more willing to continue. The three witches observed the board, assessing the current situation.

"It seems your piece has been hard at work" Cornio said with a steely edge to his voice when he realized what Ciruel's soul had been used for. Sisyphus prudently decided to say nothing nor point out his piece had done that from his own volition.

Lucia rubbed her chin. "We're going to have to modify the story to make Flowey fit in it"

"I'd rather not"

"Are you sure? That'd make him a bit of a wildcard. You don't know what he could do or why. All interactions everyone will have with him will be completely out of your influence"

Cornio nodded, there was no reluctance in him. "I don't want to get him in any plans. Let's continue like he's not here"

"That's reckless, but okay, you're the boss here" Lucia watched the board a bit more "Quite some time has passed and your piece has used the SAVE and LOAD abilities a few times. Right now it's been almost two weeks in the Underground since last time we played. I see he has done some useful stuff"

The updated Social Links were pleasing to see. Sisyphus smiled, liking how far some of the links had progressed even though he had done nothing. "What about more pieces for the weapon Alphys is making?"

"No progress on that. You shouldn't be surprised, Cornio is the one who gives you the chance and you make it happen. Without the both of you—"

"There would be no targets" Sisyphus nodded. "Alright, let's continue the game"

Cornio's eyes widened, he had realized something that could be a problem. Alarmed, he stood up, took Lucia from the long sleeve on her arm, and took her outside while Sisyphus watched, baffled. Cornio and Lucia left the parlor and closed the doors so they could talk without interruptions. "What? What's wrong?" Lucia asked, not bothering to hide her exasperation.

"Ciruel was supposed to be the next team member! He can't join now, and you know why!"

The Witch of Hope blinked, tilting her head. "Oh. Right...he can't progress the Social Link anymore, and he can't restart it either"

"What are we going to do? He needs another team member soon!"

"Ciruel was just going to be navigator, anyone can do that role" she said, shrugging "Just assign the role to any random person"

"He's not going to make a Social Link with any random person!" they couldn't force Sisyphus to pursue a specific Social Link, but for Cornio's plans they needed him to progress into a link before setting up the trip into a SOUL. Lucia pouted.

"You should have made Alphys happen later in the script instead of at the beginning. We could have turned her into the new navigator" still, this was a problem that needed to be solved. She closed her eyes and started thinking of a solution. Someone who could join the team with a Persona and take part of that...

"Hey, what about you?" she heard Cornio say.

When she opened her eyes, she found he was looking at her. "Wait, come again?"

"You! You know what's happening, and you have a Persona already. You could be the navigator!"

Lucia fiddled with her blindfold, for once unsure of what to say to that. After a moment to regain her wits, she chuckled, hiding her nervousness. "That's a good one, my boy. I can't take part in this"

"Why not?"

"Because this is your game! And Sisyphus' game! I'm just his assistant, giving him info about the Shadows and enemies he encounters"

"Yeah, exactly! Just like a navigator does! You can be an official part of the team!"

"I don't want to. I don't even have a piece to place in the Underground. Without a piece—"

"You could take a monster that already exists. There are many! There should be one fitting for you to move through and be a part of the team. Please, you have to try!" Cornio joined his hands together and put his best puppy eyes impression. It was unnatural and strange to see it in a grown human who didn't have much cute on him instead of on the goat that disguise was concealing, but it was enough to again catch Lucia off-guard. She made a noise like she was being strangled, wracking her brain for a response, until...

"F-Fine..."

"Really?"

Lucia's mouth formed a thin line, realizing what she had just said. She had agreed to it. She could back off, pretend she had gotten cold feet and didn't want anything to do with it, the problem was that it could get Cornio to wonder what was wrong. He'd ask questions, and her constant refusal to explain could get him to suspect something was off with Lucia. She had noticed he wasn't enthused about the whole thing; it was possible he already thought she was hiding something.

She had to play along. "Yeah, really"

Cornio looked really happy. He hurried to the doors to the parlor, chattering all the way. "Great! I'll pass you the list of monsters, and then I'll modify the script to include whoever you choose! Come on, we have to work on this!" he opened the doors and rushed inside, leaving Lucia straggling behind.

In all her thousands of years of life, she had a lot of success in her plans because she made those plans carefully and followed them to the letter. What happened just now was something she hadn't predicted, something she hadn't made any counters for. She would have to improvise from now on because she had no way to envision how the situation would progress.

And Lucia was awful at improvising.

She had to be prudent or else her carefully concocted plan for this world and its demise would go off the rails, and that was something she wanted to avoid at all costs.

Failing would have...consequences, after all. Confused and lost, she entered the parlor again.

GAME RESUMED