4/17 SUN

Daytime

Junes, Food Court

I'm currently waiting at the food court for Yosuke-kun and Chie-chan. They're both late. I tried calling them both this morning, but they didn't answer their phones. I keep waiting, and waiting, and waiting, when all of a sudden-

"YURA-CHAN!"

I hear Chie-chan's voice calling from behind me. I turn around and I see her run towards me. She stops to catch her breath, and…she looks really exhausted. Why's she so worked up?

"Good morning, Chie-chan!", I tell her. "I tried calling you earlier to ask you about Yuki-chan, but ya weren't answerin'."

"We…We've got a big problem!", Chie-chan says. "Yukiko is missing! For real, this time!"

Wait, what? Really? But…but we spoke to her last night, so that must mean…she must've been abducted right after we left the inn. I clench my fist and my teeth in anger. If only we had stayed there a bit longer…

"Chie-chan, calm down and tell me what you've been up to.", I tell her.

"I…I kept calling her cell, but she didn't pick up…", she tells me. "A-And then, I went to her house, and it turns out she's really missing! What are we gonna do?"

"Don't worry, Chie-chan.", I say to reassure her. "We'll find her. There's only one place she can be, right?"

She looks at me hesitantly and nods. Well, it's settled. We're definitely going back in. I guess all that's left is to wait for-

"Hey, guys!"

Ah. There he is. We hear Yosuke-kun's voice and we turn towards him. He walks up to us.

"Yosuke!", Chie-chan addresses him. "You're here. Good! Listen, I checked up on Yukiko like you guys told me to last night, and she's gone missing for real!"

His eyes go wide at that statement. "Wait, for real?"

"Yeah, for real!", Chie-chan answers him. "I tried calling her and texting her, but she wouldn't answer at all! And when I went to see her at her house, she wasn't there either! I even tried contacting the inn again, but nada! She's gone!"

Yosuke-kun's face looks serious when he hears that. "…Then we've got no choice now. We gotta go back in there and find Yukiko-san. With the police being unable to enter the TV world like we can, we've gotta handle this ourselves."

"…I'm going too.", says Chie-chan.

"What?", me and Yosuke-kun both ask her at the same time.

"I said, I'm going too!", she repeats. "I'm going to save Yukiko no matter what!"

"Are you gonna be alright…?" Yosuke-kun asks her out of concern. "You remember what we told you, right?"

"Yeah, yeah. I remember what you guys said, but I can't just stand here and do nothing!", she replies. "I'm coming with you guys to save Yukiko, and that's that!"

Should she really come with us? I mean, she ain't got powers or a Persona, so…

"I don't know, Chie…", Yosuke-kun says. "I get how you feel, but I still think it's too dangerous, and-"

"You don't!", she angrily cuts him off. "You don't know shit about how I feel! For crying out loud, Yukiko could actually die from this!"

Oh, boy…she ain't gonna let this go, ain't she?

"Fine.", I tell her.

"Yura-chan…?", Yosuke-kun says while giving me a questioning look.

"But if you're gonna come with us, ya gotta promise that you'll stay close to us, got it?", I tell her. "You know how to fight, but that alone might not be enough in there. You ain't seen what we've seen, so you don't know how really dangerous it can be in there. Do you have somethin' ya can use to protect yourself, at least?"

"Oh! I got it!", Yosuke-kun says. "Here! Check these out!"

He then pulls out…some short knives and an axe?"

"So, what do you guys think?", he asks. "I found these knives in the closet at home, and that axe in our toolshed! Yura-chan and I both got our Personas, but golf clubs aren't exactly what you'd call reliable weapons. That's why I got these! The knives's blades are fake, but that's a real wood-chopping axe!"

He then gives me a wink while he holds up the axe. Ah, I think I get it. He knows I can't use my real axe without dropping my human disguise, so he's giving me this axe so that I don't have to. That's a good idea. He knows that I won't drop my disguise and go full Labrys in battle unless the situation becomes really dire.

"What the hell are you doing, you idiot?", Chie-chan asks him while frantically looking around. "Someone's gonna see you and call the cops! Put those away now!"

"Whoa, alright, calm down! I'm putting them away now.", Yosuke-kun says and decides to do as Chie-chan says, and he puts away the weapons.

We then head into the store, to the electronics department.

4/17

Daytime

Junes, Electronics Department

We look around to make sure that there aren't any customers.

"Okay, I don't see anyone.", Chie-chan says, "We can go right in."

We nod at her, and we go into the TV.

4/17

Daytime

Backside Of The TV

Like the previous times, we land right where we were the last time we left. We see Teddie a bit further away from the entrance, and we walk up to him. Huh. He seems…preoccupied?

"Whoa, it really is that bear from last time…", Chie-chan says when she sees Teddie.

"Hey, Teddie!", I greet him. "What're you doing?"

"Can't you tell?" Teddie answers me without turning around. "I'm thinking about stuff. I've been deli-BEAR-ating over it for a long time now. Hey, that wasn't a bad joke! Heehee...!"

Is he…thinking about something?

"So, did you find anything out?", I ask him. "It's good to think about yourself a bit and ask questions from time to time. It's good for the soul."

Heh. Right. I'm a machine. As if I got any room to talk about souls and stuff, when I don't got one.

"I get what you're trying to say, Miss President.", Teddie replies. "But no matter how hard I try, nothing comes out of my head."

"Wait, "Miss President"? Why're you calling her-nevermind that. There's no time! We need to go find Yukiko!", says Chie-chan. "Listen…did someone come here yesterday? Apart from Yura-chan?"

"Wow! There's a girl with a better nose than me!?", Teddie asks her in surprise. "What's your name, Miss?"

"M-Miss? Uhh…My name is Chie Satonaka, but that's not important right now! Please, tell us more about that "someone"!"

"Well, I think it happened a little while after Miss President visited me yesterday.", Teddie says. "After that, I sensed someone getting thrown in here. I guess that's why you guys are here, right?"

"Yeah. Was it Yukiko-san?", Yosuke-kun asks Teddie.

"How would he even know that?", I tell Yosuke-kun. "He's never met her before!"

"Well, I haven't really looked, but I'm sensing a presence over that way.", Teddie says while pointing behind me. "That's probably where that person is. I was waiting for you guys to come back so we could all check it out together. I don't know if it's who you're thinking of, but I can tell you guys that there's definitely somebody over there."

"Over there, huh?", Chie-chan says. "Good. Let's take some time to decide who gets which weapon. Then, we'll go over there."

"Good idea.", Says Yosuke-kun. "Yura-chan, you're our main asset in battle right now, so you should get first pick on which weapon you want first."

Sure, why not? Although, he definitely already knows which weapon I'll choose.

"I'll take the axe.", I tell him.

He nods at me and hands me over the wood-chopping axe, and then turns towards Chie-chan. I smile as I examine the axe, and I gotta say, despite not being made for fighting, it ain't bad. It looks in pretty good shape, and I think I could definitely chop off a limb or two with that thing.

"Alright, Chie, I think we should each take one knife.", Yosuke-kun tells her.

"Are you kidding?", she replies. "You need these more than I do. Besides, I prefer using kicks instead."

"What? What's that supposed to mean? Are you saying I can't fight in melee? Don't be ridiculous! Just take the knife already!", Yosuke-kun tries to convince her.

"I said I'm not taking the knife! You need it more than I do!", Chie-chan retorts, "And again, I like kicking stuff better!"

"But you don't even know if that will be enough!", Yosuke-kun replies, obviously annoyed.

"Yeah? You got a problem with how I fight?", Chie-chan replies, also annoyed.

They both start arguing. Sigh…I need to put a stop to this. We got more important things to do and-

"So. It finally begins."

Wait what was that? I just heard a voice in my head…and it sounds familiar. Why does that keep happening to me…?

"Now, if you'll give me a moment of your time…"

…Igor? Is that you? Are you speaking in my mind?

I feel something appear in my hand. I look at it, and it's…the Velvet Key? It's shining…

Out of the corner of my eye, I see something glowing in a blue light. I turn towards it's direction.

It looks like…some kind of floating blue door? I approach it, and the Velvet Key starts vibrating in my hand. Is this…the "entrance" they told me about? I think I'm being…"invited".

I turn towards my friends, who are still bickering. Teddie is looking in my direction, but he's not reacting to the blue door. Out of curiosity, I decide to indulge the Velvet Key. I put it in the door…

And everything goes white.

Unknown Date

Unknown Time

The Velvet Room

I open my eyes, and I find myself sitting at my desk in the Velvet Classroom. Igor and Margaret are both in front of the class, as expected.

"Greetings.", greets Igor. "We have been expecting you."

"Hi! Yeah, I heard your call. So, that's what ya meant by "entrance", right?"…", I ask him.

"Indeed. You have found one of the entrances that you may use to enter the Velvet Room.", Margaret answers. "The Velvet Key that we have given you will allow you to enter this place whenever you please, as long as you know where to find the entrances."

Entrances? Plural? There's more than one?

"The catastrophe that is headed your way…It has already taken human lives in it's approach towards you. But you have nothing to fear. You already have the power to fight against it. It seems that the time for you to use your Persona has come…*chuckle*"

"Well, technically, I've already had to use it to fight Yosuke-kun's shadow.", I tell him. "And then, there's that other thing you told me about. The "wild card", right?"

"Correct.", Margaret speaks. "As we have mentioned before, if you strengthen your bonds properly, their power will help you overcome any ordeal. Our role is to facilitate that to help you face the catastrophe."

"My contribution…is to give birth to new Personas.", Igor tells me.

"Wait, that's right!", I say out loud. "I remember wantin' to ask you guys about this! When I was hangin' out with Yosuke-kun yesterday, I heard Ariadne's voice in my head tellin' me somethin' about new Personas and somethin' called the "Magician Arcana". What's that about?"

I mean, they said their role was to guide me and help me, right? So, they shouldn't have any problems answering questions like this.

"The Magician Arcana refers to a type of Persona classification.", Margaret tells me. "The major arcana is a way for us to classify Personas that our guests discover into various types in the Persona Compendium. The Persona Compendium is the book that you see in my hand."

Ah, so it's a method to classify them by type?

"You have already seen that Personas take on the form of cards when they are summoned.", Igor tells me. "By mixing together multiple Persona cards, I can transmute them into a new form. This is what is known as the fusion of Personas."

Wait, "multiple cards"? Hold on, is he implying that I can-?

"Yes.", Margaret tells me, almost as if she can see what's going through my mind. "You possess the power to use more than one Persona. The power of the wild card gives you the ability to accept multiple Personas into your heart and to use them accordingly."

I'm completely shocked. I can do that? That's a thing? "Really? That sounds really useful!", I tell her. "How can I do that? Please, tell me!"

"When you defeat an enemy in combat, the seeds of possibility will appear before you as cards.", Igor answers me. Cards? What, like the card my Persona looks like when I summon it? "At times, they may be hard to grasp…but you must master your fear and reach out to them. These cards may allow you to obtain a new Persona to call upon. When you do, be sure to bring them here. You will be able to fuse them together to obtain greater power. And the more developed your bonds are, the more powerful the fusion will be if it involves a Persona of the associated arcana."

"So, I just gotta keep killing things until I get new powers, right? Awesome!" I say to them to make sure I got it.

Margaret looks at me with a hint of surprise at my enthusiasm. "Oh!…Well, that is not quite how I would say it, but I suppose that is one way to put it."

Great! This'll be fun.

"But regardless,", she says with a serious expression. "They will be one of your chief sources of strength…Do not underestimate their power, value or importance in your journey. Make sure that you remember that."

So, if I fuse a Persona that's part of the "Magician" arcana, will it be stronger because I'm friends with Yosuke-kun?

"Registering the Personas you hold in the Compendium will allow you to recall them any time you wish.", Igor tells me. "Please do not hesitate to come see Margaret if you wish to make use of it."

"I understand.", I tell them. "Thank you, both of you."

Margaret smiles at me. "We are merely doing our duty, esteemed guest. But we have one more thing we wish to discuss with you."

They both look besides me. What are they looking at? I turn my head to where they're looking…

And I see a girl sitting to the desk right next to me! How did I not notice her until now? I could've sworn there wasn't anybody there a moment ago…

Wait. This girl…I recognize her. She's the black-haired girl with the blue cap and the red skirt that I met on my first day in Inaba!

"You!", I tell her. "It's you again!"

She turns towards me and gives me an odd look. Is it just me, or does she look kinda…grumpy?

"Ah. I see you are already acquainted with her.", says Margaret. "Good. She is a new resident of the Velvet Room, who will be helping you on your journey. Her name is Marie."

Marie, huh? That's her name?

"…Nice to meet you.", she says in a restrained tone. Hey, this might be my chance to become friends with her!

"Nice to meet you too!", I tell her with a bright smile. "We met a few days ago, remember? I didn't know you were a guest in the Velvet Room too! Are you a Persona-user?"

"…No.", she replies. "I'm not like you. I'm a resident, not a guest. And I don't have a Persona. Although, you do seem a bit familiar, so maybe we have met before..."

Huh. Really? Then what's her deal? They said she would help me on my journey too, but how? In any case, she seems a bit unfriendly.

"Yes.", Margaret follows up. "Although she is not a guest or a Persona-user, she is still residing with us for the time being. Her soul is still very young, and-"

"Shut up!", Marie cuts her off. "Don't tell her anymore about me than you need to."

What? What's up with her? Why is she being so cagey?

"…As you can see. She may be brusque at times, but please understand that she is only an apprentice and be patient with her.", Margaret finishes patiently. She then smiles at me. "Although, considering how frank and outgoing you are, I'm sure you will manage to work around that rather well. Marie will be dealing with skill cards. Skill cards are special cards that can allow you to teach new skills to a Persona of your choice."

New skills, huh? Sounds useful. I'll be sure to remember that for later.

"Also, I am sure that you will both be able to help each other form a bond between yourselves and the "outside world". She will contact you at a later date. Please do not hesitate to talk to her if you wish to. You might find that you both share more in common than she would like to admit.", Margaret says.

"What's that supposed to mean…?", Marie asks in confusion.

I'm a bit confused too. Is Margaret implying that Marie is as unfamiliar with the outside world as I am? Why?

"Please, do not hesitate in visiting this room to call upon our services, dear guest.", Igor tells me. He then chuckles a bit. "Do you recall my words to you before?"

Which ones? He's said a lot to me.

"As I said before, the coming year will be a turning point in your destiny, and if the mystery you face goes unsolved, your future may be lost forever. I meant every word. Defeat in battle is not the only way your journey may come to an end. Make sure to remember that."

Well, that ain't cryptic at all. Still, my gut's telling me I should remember these words and take them to heart.

"Right, then…", I speak. "I'm thankful for all the help you're givin' me, and I'll be sure to remember what you guys said. Is there anything else?"

"At the moment, we do not have anything left to say.", Igor answers me.

Now's the moment to ask them about the culprit behind the murders. If it turns out that we're right and they're a Persona user, then maybe they would know something…?

"Alright, so, I got somethin' I wanna ask you guys, if you don't mind. You said you were watchin' me, right? Well does that mean you guys are aware of the murders that have been happenin' recently in Inaba?""

"We are aware of what is occurring on your journey, yes.", Margaret answers me.

Good. That means I don't have to explain it to them.

"Okay, so, I talked about it with some friends of mine, and we got reasons to believe that the killer might be a Persona user too. I got my Persona thanks to my power to enter the other world, and I think the killer might have that same power. And they might be a Persona user too. So, do you guys know who it might be?"

Margaret looks a bit surprised at that. She and Igor exchange a look for a few seconds, then they turn back towards me.

"Unfortunately, we do not know who this killer might be, or if they have the power to call upon a Persona.", Margaret answers. "But nonetheless, I would be rather surprised if it turned out that this killer did indeed have the power to call upon a Persona. After all, to awaken a Persona, one must face their repressed selves, who often represent hidden negative qualities in a person, which in turn often results in them learning something about themselves and growing as a person. For someone to face their inner self and awaken a Persona, yet still remain malicious…"

They would have to be really crazy and messed up on the inside.

"It is theoretically not impossible, albeit it is very rare.", Igor finishes. "Malevolent Persona-users have existed in the past, but thankfully, the benevolent ones outnumber them severely."

Really? That makes me feel better.

"It is also possible that this murderer might simply have the power to enter the other world, but that they have not gone into that other world themselves.", states Igor. "After all, did you not already have the power to enter that world, even before you awakened your Persona?"

Hmm…That's true. I didn't consider that.

"Regardless,", Igor speaks. "You are our most recent guest to the Velvet Room, and the only one from the small town called "Inaba". And as far as we know, you are also the only wild card and the only guest to currently live in that place."

Huh. So, not all Persona-users can enter this room? I guess that explains why Yosuke-kun didn't react to the blue door. He probably couldn't see it.

"Got it. Thanks for answering my questions for now! I'll be sure to return here soon!", I tell them before I leave.

So, whoever the killer is, Igor and Margaret don't know who they are, and they might not be a Persona user like we theorized? I hope that's the case. Catching them would be so much easier if we had the advantage of Personas on our side alone.

I smile at the three residents of the Velvet Room, and everything goes white again.

4/17

Daytime

Backside Of The TV

I open my eyes, and I find myself back to where I was before.

"Yura-chan?", I hear Yosuke-kun ask me. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, you looked like you were spacing out…", I hear Chie-chan ask too.

"Were you daydreaming, Miss President?", I hear Teddie ask me as well.

I turn towards them.

"Oh, it's nothin'. Don't worry about it.", I tell them. I mean, how would I even begin to explain the Velvet Room to them? Or things like Persona fusion, Marie or whatnot? I'll have to explain that to them another time. "Anyways, have you guys reached an agreement?", I ask them to steer them off-topic and dodge the subject.

Teddie and Yosuke-kun both sigh. "Well, after about ten minutes of nonstop arguing, we've finally decided that I should get both knives, while Chie's just gonna have her fists and feet"

"Alright, we've wasted enough time on that crap! Can we please just go save Yukiko already? That's the whole reason why we're here, isn't it?"

"She's right.", I say. "Let's go find our friend and get her outta here."

We all nod at each other, and then we proceed towards the direction where Teddie told us he sensed somebody earlier.

4/17

Daytime

Yukiko's Castle

After a bit, we make our way to a completely different environment than where we were a moment ago. We're running on a paved road, and we're headed towards…a castle? Not just a castle. The castle that was on the Midnight Channel last night. Yup, there's no doubt this is the place. We can even see the giant, swirly red and black portal that we saw "Princess Yukiko" go into at the end of the program. And the sky above the castle is black and red too, just like in the fake shopping district.

"Guys, look!", Chie-chan tells us. "It's the castle we saw on the Midnight Channel last night!"

"There's no cameras or filming equipment here, though.", Yosuke-kun says as he glances around. "Hey, Teddie, you're positive when you say that no one's behind a camera for that bizarre midnight program?"

"Program…? I don't know.", Teddie answers. "Maybe people on your side can see stuff in this world. It might be that. And I told you before, there's only me and Shadows here! There's no "camera" or "filming" stuff going on here. This world has always been like this since the beginning."

Okay, at some point, we need to show Teddie the Midnight Channel from the outside. Maybe I can record it in the future on my phone or on a camera, and then come in the TV to show it to him just to see if he can tell us anything? It's worth a shot. I make a mental note to do that later, after we save Yuki-chan.

"That's what we don't understand!", says Yosuke-kun. "What do you mean by "from the beginning"?"

"I dunno.", Teddie says with a shrug, "Can you guys explain everything in your world? I don't know what you guys are talking about and I've never seen this "program" thingy before. So I don't know anything."

Is it really that simple, though? Are we really just watching what's happening in this world? Is there really no other explanation than that? But then, how does the Midnight Channel predict when someone's gonna get thrown in the TV? There's too many things that don't make sense about this. Well, as much sense as something like the Midnight Channel and the TV world can make, anyway.

"Well…Is that really what's happening?", Chie-chan asks. "Is the Midnight Channel like a window that lets us look at what's going on in this world? When you think about it, the first time we saw Yukiko show up on the channel was before she disappeared, not after. Doesn't that seem a bit weird to you guys? I mean, do you guys remember the things she said on there? "scoring a hot stud"? "Prince charming"? What even was that all about?"

"Hmm? "Score"? "Stud"…?", Teddie asks, as confused as she is.

"Yeah.", Yosuke-kun says, "I mean, why would Yukiko-san say things like that? That's not like her at all. Could this be like what happened to me last time…?"

"There's a lot of things I don't understand either.", Teddie says to him. "But after hearing your story…I think this "program" you guys keep talking about might be caused by whoever gets thrown in this world. Or probably something like that…"

"So, are you saying that Yukiko might be producing that program herself?", asks Chie-chan. "How does that even work? Ugh! I still don't get this at all!"

"Yeah, But the most important question of all…", I state to my friends, who turn their heads to look at me in nervous anticipation. I'm going to ask them a question. A question I should've asked a long time ago.

"…What the heck are "lacy unmentionables"?"

They both look at me in awkward silence for a few seconds.

"…Seriously, Yura-chan?", asks me Chie-chan while giving me a deadpan stare. What? Why is she looking at me like that? What did I say?

"Hey, Teddie.", asks Yosuke-kun. "Can you tell us if you sense Yukiko-san in that castle?"

Well, alright, just ignore me, then.

"Like I said, I don't know if it's the person we're looking for, but there's definitely someone in that castle.", Teddie answers him. "Even if it's not this Yukiko person, we should still save them before they get killed by the shadows. By the way, what's that "scoring with a hot stud" thing you were talking about…?"

When she hears that, Chie-chan turns towards the castle, stares at it for a few moments, and then makes a determined face. "Guys, if Yukiko's there, then…then I'm going on ahead!", she says as she starts running towards the castle.

What? Screw that! I've seen how incredibly dangerous this world can be, and I ain't letting one of my new friends just run in there headfirst! That's practically suicide!

"OH NO, YOU AIN'T!", I yell at Chie-chan as I angrily grab her arm, right as she's about to run past me. Good thing I'm way faster than a normal human. "There ain't no way I'm lettin' you waltz in there alone!"

"Let me go!", she says, trying to break my grip. Yeah, good luck with that. Even if I didn't have robot strength, I'd still be really determined to not let her go. "I need to go in there! Yukiko needs me!"

Teddie looks shocked by that. "What?…But…but there's probably a lot of shadows in that castle! It'll be dangerous inside for a girl to wander in by herself…well, except for Miss President, but she's a special case."

"Geez, you tried to run in all by yourself…", Yosuke-kun says while shaking his head side-to-side. Apparently, he's used to Chie-chan's impulsiveness. And he's patient with her because of that. Unfortunately for her though, I ain't.

"I said, let me go!", Chie-chan says, still trying to break my grip. "I'm not scared of dying for Yukiko's sake! I need to go find her before she ends up like Saki, and-"

"Maybe you ain't scared, but what about her? How do ya think she would react if somethin' happened to you, eh?", I say to her. She pauses at that question, unable to answer or give a retort. "Ya think she'd be able to live with herself if she learned that her best friend died while trying to rescue her after she got kidnapped? And besides, we don't know what's waiting for us in there! Maybe once we go through that big swirly portal, we'll be surrounded by monsters! Ever thought about that?"

I wait for her to calm down a bit, then I let go of her arm. She rubs it a little. Did I hurt her? I sigh and put a hand on her shoulder. "Sorry if I hurt you, Chie-chan. It's just…I get that you're worried about your friend. We're worried for Yuki-chan too. But you won't help her by rushin' in alone and gettin' yourself killed. If we go in, then we all go in together. Okay?"

She looks at me for a few moments, then at Teddie and Yosuke-kun, who are both looking right back into her eyes. She turns to me and sighs. "Okay, fine. You win.", she tells me. "We'll all go in together. But can we go in now, please? I just…I just want to save her from that horrible place already! A-and what if she gets attacked by her own shadow, like with what happened to you and Yosuke yesterday?"

"Wait, her shadow?", asks Yosuke-kun in a moment of realization. "Maybe that's it! Maybe the reason why Yukiko-san was acting so weird on the Midnight Channel is because what we saw wasn't really her, but her shadow pretending to be her?"

Not a bad theory, honestly. But what does that say about Yuki-chan?

"But…shadows are supposed to be the parts of ourselves that we repress, right?", I ask out loud. "If that other Yuki-chan we saw on TV last night was the real Yuki-chan's shadow, then what does it mean? Do you think this is how Yuki-chan is really like on the inside?"

I mean, when I think about it, I haven't known Yuki-chan for that long, and she's pretty shy and introverted, so who knows…?

"Bullcrap!", Chie-chan says. "There's no way! I've known her too long to believe otherwise! Let's stop wasting time and go into that castle already."

"Yeah, you're right.", Yosuke-kun tells her. "There's no more reason to delay. We don't know how long searching that castle is gonna take, and if we stay there too long, too much time will pass and our parents are gonna wonder where we went. Let's go in and start exploring it now."

He's got a point. I take point and I start heading towards the entrance portal. It's time. The others follow me, and we all head right into the castle.