The Black Knights assembled outside the Resort of Gluttony, accompanied by their newest member, Noire, better known to the public as Euphemia, Third Princess of Britannia and Sub-Viceroy of Area 11. It was fortunate that she was quite skilled at giving her guards the slip, and she likely had already prepared various alibis to explain her absences, possibly non-existent functions that she had to attend, though Lelouch had to wonder if she had someone else on the inside covering for her and helping her get out of the Government Bureau. But as long as she didn't accidentally lead her guards to them, he wasn't going to unduly concern himself with the how when they had other matters to focus on.
"I'm sorry for how I treated you earlier," Kallen, in her Queen alter ego, told Euphemia. "I thought you were just going to get in our way, and that you were just a useless Britannian puppet princess who couldn't stand on her own, and had no business being in the Metaverse. And you didn't at the time, defenseless as you were. But then you awakened to your Persona. You have a spirit of rebellion within you just like any of us. I'll try to judge you according to your merits from this time forward, Prin- Noire…." she corrected herself.
"It's okay…" Euphemia reassured her. "I really was a 'puppet princess' back then, just a mere figurehead in the colonial administration, though I tried to find a way to be more than that… which only got all of you in this mess. But now… I can really change things for the better in Japan, without being held back by bureaucrats or overruled by my sister. And I can protect those I care for…"
"By the way, Noire, did you hear the news?" Milly asked, sauntering up to the princess and getting far closer to her than protocol would normally dictate. "Just a few days after the last infiltration, and Queen here shacked up with your brother."
"Why are you bringing that up now?" Kallen demanded in annoyance.
"Wh-what?" Euphemia became visibly flustered. "But you said that you-" she started, pointing at Kallen, her hand trembling slightly. Her gaze turned to her brother. "Lel- Zero! Is this true?"
"Ooh," Milly said, "that's an even more interesting reaction than the one I was expecting. Is this what they call the forbidden love between a sister and her brother?"
"I-" Euphemia began, but her words quickly became incoherent as she flushed even redder.
Lelouch recalled that back when they were all in Pendragon, Euphy and Nunnally had debated amongst themselves which one of them was going to marry him. But they had been children back then. It was a strong familial love, no more than that. Both Euphy and Nunnally had been too young to understand what marriage really meant at the time, or so he told himself.
'She was your first love, you know,' a small part of himself whispered. "And not in the same way that you love Nunnally."
Lelouch forced that thought from his head. He had to stay focused.
"What happened between Queen and myself is a private matter," Lelouch said firmly. "This isn't the time for distractions, Diamond. We need to start by finding a new infiltration route. A resort as large as this one always has multiple entrances, so we should be able to find one before long."
"Aw… just when it was getting fun." Milly pouted. "But you don't deny it."
"Enough."
xXx
The Black Knights headed out, doing reconnaissance around the Resort and gathering information to determine the most viable infiltration route. Eventually, their search led them into the shantytown surrounding the resort.
If Shinjuku had seemed dilapidated and oppressed, then the shantytown was an entirely new level of misery for its inhabitants. As they progressed further into it, they saw that those of its inhabitants that were up and about were as a rule anemic, and a few of them seemed more shambling, withered husks than people.
"He's sucked them dry…" Euphemia murmured, obviously trying to hold back her horror and revulsion.
"He came off as a shark up in the casino," Arthur added, "But it seems that he's more like a vampire to these people."
Fortunately, the Cognitions inhabiting the shantytown seemed to pay the Black Knights no mind as the six thieves moved among them, and only shuffled zombie-like to and fro, too beaten down to even acknowledge the strangers in their midst.
Many more Cognitions didn't move at all… slumped over along the sides of the streets, bloated, putrefying half-corpses with rictus grins, drool running down from their mouths. The only signs that they were alive at all were when they would suddenly start joyously laughing to themselves, or talking to no one in particular, their dead eyes glazed over yet somehow beatific in their expressions.
"I passed the entrance exams, and got into the University!"
"She said yes! I'm so happy!"
"The boss gave me a big raise!"
"I've been thinking about our next vacation…"
"I'm going to shop until I drop!"
"Refrain…" Kallen said in disgust.
"There has to be something we can do to help these people," Euphemia whispered.
"It's no use," Lelouch told her. "These are Cognitions. They're a product of the Black King's mind as much as this Palace is. They'll disappear when we steal his Treasure. The only salvation they'll ever have is annihilation."
"That's horrible…"
"They won't suffer any longer," Leila told Euphemia gently. "To release them is an act of mercy."
"Indeed," Lelouch nodded solemnly.
"Why are we here, Zero?" Milly asked. "We're getting further away from the Palace."
"I'm glad you asked, Diamond. Refrain remains an illegal substance under Britannian law. The Black King can't distribute it in the open, especially with Viceroy Cornelia's efforts to crack down on the trade, however short they may fall. He needs to smuggle it out to his preferred customers… right here in this shantytown. We're looking for a building that could serve as a warehouse of some sort. There will almost certainly be a tunnel connecting it to the Palace, which will give us a route in. It will be the last place the Black King will expect us to enter through." He turned to Leila. "Bishop, can you detect anything matching that description?"
Leila removed her mask, summoning Jeanne d'Arc. "Yes. We're only a block or two away from it," she replied after a few moments of concentration.
"Excellent."
The warehouse was one of the few structures in the shantytown that appeared to be properly constructed and not on the verge of collapse. There was little doubt that they had found the right place.
"There will likely be a handful of guards," Lelouch cautioned them as they approached. "However, they're too far away from the main building of the Palace to raise the alarm effectively, provided that we can take them out quickly enough."
The Black Knights nodded, and followed him as he entered the warehouse. Crates, no doubt filled with vials of Refrain, lined the walls.
"Hey! What are you doing here?" A suited thug called out.
"This is property of the Black King!" growled another.
"Hey… they aren't Elevens… what are they doing here anyway?" asked a third.
"You must be those kids who thought they could steal the Black King's treasure!" the first snarled.
"You'll belong to the Black King soon enough! Think of the bonus he'll give us for catching these naughty girls!"
"Remember, the Black King wants them to be taken alive... except the boy and the mangy cat. Get them!" The third ordered.
The suited Shadows burst to reveal their true forms, with humanoid bodies but crow-like wings, their faces hidden under black hoods, staves with elaborate spear-like tips in their hands.
"Karasu Tengu..." Kallen murmured. "They haunt humans and whisper evil words to corrupt them."
"The enemy is aerial!" Lelouch shouted. "They'll be able to retreat out of meele range! Use ranged attacks and magic!"
"I can reach them, no problem!" Kallen shouted back. She ripped off her mask. "Guren Jigoku!"
Kallen's reborn Persona appeared and shot into the air on it demonic wings, a streak of red and gold followed by a trail of blue energy moving at blinding speeds. Its claw seized one of the Karasu Tegu, and unleashed nuclear hellfire upon it.
The Karasu Tengu gave out an agonized screech, flailing as Guren Jigoku's unrelenting fury disintegrated it one layer at a time, feathers, skin, and flayed flesh that was bloody crimson for an instant before being scorched and boiled away. The Shadow gave one last scream and exploded into black wisps.
"That's incredible, Queen!" Arthur exclaimed.
"Whoa..." Milly murmured. "Does she have more than one Persona now, like Zero does?"
"No..." Leila said. "I thought something seemed different about her. Queen's Persona has evolved into a more powerful form."
"No fair!" Milly pouted. "When I can I evolve my Persona too? Does this have something to do with your tryst with Queen, Zero?"
"Stay focused!" he barked back. "There are still two more enemies!"
The remaining two Karasu Tengu wasted no time in proving the truth of his words, once they had recovered from the shock of how quickly Guren Jigoku had dispatched their companion. One blasted Milly with a powerful gust of wind, knocking her to the ground. The other raised a hand, and cards, glowing with white light, appeared out of nowhere and began to close in around the Black Knights.
"Everyone, move!" Leila shouted with sudden urgency.
They heeded her words, diving to the ground and to the side. A moment later there was a series of brilliant flashes as blessed energy erupted where the Black Knights had been. Thanks to Leila's timely warning, everyone emerged unscathed...
Except for Milly.
Milly couldn't get out of the way, already stunned by the previous attack.
"Oh..." she said with a sudden sigh. "I..." Milly slumped to the ground, her eyes closed peacefully. She wasn't moving, and with a sudden dread, Lelouch knew that she wasn't sleeping either.
He didn't understand how... Milly looked a bit battered from the wind spell she had been hit by, but she should have been able to keep fighting after a moment. Outwardly, it didn't seem that the light had caused any further damage to her.
But Milly was dead. Whatever that light was, it had killed her instantly.
"An exorcism spell..." he heard Leila gasping, though the words barely processed in his head. "It removed her spirit…"
"Hey!" the other Shadow said. "The boss said not to kill the girls! What are you thinking?"
"We're going to get killed ourselves if we fool around! They gave us no choice!" the Shadow that had just murdered Milly shot back.
Rage boiled within him…Milly could be annoying at times, but she made life at Ashford Academy fun, even if he didn't always admit it. She was almost like a mischievous big sister to him now. To think that she was gone...
"Wait!" Euphy's voice cut through his swirling cauldron of emotions. "It may not be too late! I can bring her back!"
"Euphy, she's dead!" Lelouch shouted back, forgetting to use her codename in his distress. "There's nothing you can do for her now!" Furiously, he summoned Archangel, fused earlier that day and empowered by his bond with Suzaku, which seized Milly's killer. Normally, Archangel would have used a sword. But nothing short of ripping the offending Karasu Tengu limb from limb would satisfy him now.
Its end was bloody, vicious, and above all, sadistic, to the delight of Andras within him, which only had to sit back and enjoy the carnage.
But Euphemia ignored him, and pulled off her mask. "Eilonwy, I beseech you!" she called out.
"Recarm!" Euphemia cried out.
For an instant, Lelouch thought he saw a sparkling blue butterfly appear over Milly's prone form. It was only there for a moment, but then, incredibly, Milly stirred, her eyes fluttering open.
He wasn't imagining it, was he?
Euphemia had just performed a miracle by any definition of the term.
Guren Jigoku cut through the last Shadow while it too was dumbfounded, and with the enemy dispatched, the Black Knights quickly gathered at Milly's side.
"Milly, are you alright?" he said, kneeling by her, his voice choking and betraying his emotions. "You-"
"I saw a bright light..." Milly murmured, rubbing her head. "I suppose I died, for a moment. But then I heard a voice… it seemed to be coming from a butterfly… I couldn't be sure exactly what it was saying, but it felt like it wasn't my time yet, so I was able to return to my body." She looked around. "Which one of you gave me the breath of life? Or maybe..." she said, fixing her gaze on Lelouch, and putting on her usual mischievous smile, "a prince gave me the kiss of life?"
"This is no time to be joking around! You really did die, you know!" Lelouch scolded her, even as he felt an overwhelming sense of relief. She was still the same Milly he had always known, brought back to them. "You-" He fumbled, looking for the right words.
"I think he's trying to say that you nearly gave all of us a heart attack," Leila replied, worry still on her face. "Are you really alright? If you need to-"
"I'm fine!" Milly said defensively. "Or I will be..." she added with a nervous laugh, almost involuntarily. "Stop worrying so much about me! GUTS!"
"Bishop's right that you gave us all a scare!" Kallen said angrily. "But I think there's another point that we're all overlooking in our relief to have Diamond back. Noire can raise the dead!" Kallen said, turning toward and looking at the Third Princess in awe. "Forget everything I ever said about you being useless! I never could pull off a miracle like what you just did! I know I apologized earlier, but..." she hung her head. "The only way my Persona can protect others is by destroying everything that stands in the way. But you... My brother... do you think..."
Euphemia shook her head sadly. "I'm sorry, Queen. There are limits to my Persona's powers. If it had just happened, then maybe I could... But he's too long gone… Past a minute or two and…"
Kallen looked down. "Of course. It was a fool's hope…"
"You should be more careful," Leila said firmly to Milly. "While Noire's Persona has proven to have an invaluable ability, I am sure it is not one that we want to have to rely on. Our tactics should always prioritize survival. Each one of us is irreplaceable. Don't you agree, Zero?"
"I do." Technically, there were a few instances he could imagine where sacrificing an ally or himself might be justified, but only in the direst of circumstances, in which there were no other options available that would not result in further casualties. Not only had the Black Knights formed a circle of precious companions around him, but losing any of them would directly diminish his own powers. "If you see one of those Shadows, or one with an ability like it, kill it on sight."
"After all, we don't have nine lives," Arthur said.
I almost thought you would," Milly grinned devilishly. "With Cognition and everything..."
"Hey! I don't want to test it, okay!" Arthur reared.
Some things would never change.
xXx
The tunnel was long and dimly lit, patrolled by the occasional group of Shadows. Striking from the darkness, the Black Knights ambushed and eliminated them without raising the alarm. As for Milly, while she had been all smiles and joking upon her revival, she seemed more focused in battle, and for that Lelouch was grateful.
They emerged in what appeared to be the backroom of a store, filled with crates of medicine and shelves of pharmaceutical supplies…though undoubtedly, most of the crates actually contained Refrain. There didn't seem to be any guards around. Clearly, the Black King was not worried about people trying to sneak out through the tunnel.
"Is everyone ready?" Lelouch asked. "I'd prefer not to have anyone else dying on us today.
"Ready, Zero," the voices of the Black Knights chorused.
They filed into the store, which indeed had the form of pharmacy, and Kallen took out the clerk on duty, a Cognition, before it was aware of their presence.
"Was that really necessary?" Euphemia frowned. "He was only doing his job."
"It was a lookout for the Black King, and no doubt helped move those shipments of Refrain in the back," Lelouch replied. "You'd best save your sympathy for those who deserve it, Noire. Besides, as a Cognition, it will be back before long if the Black King desires it."
"This could be a good time to stock up on supplies", Milly murmured as she scanned the shelves. "There are so many different types of medicine here…." She read some of the labels. "Sikkenine, Recov-R… Nohar-M, Revivadrin…. "
"It's all so expensive…" Euphemia murmured. "Even simple stuff, like bandages and eye drops! How are we supposed to pay for this?"
"We're thieves, Noire," Kallen told her. "We'll take what we need."
"Historically, looting was considered a necessity for supplying an army on the move, alongside foraging," Leila added. "Although it remains as barbaric of a practice as it ever was, this time there are no innocents who will suffer if we liberate some of these supplies from the Black King."
"Couldn't have said it better myself," Arthur chimed in. "When you're a stray trying to survive, you can't afford to be picky about who things used to belong to."
"Stock up on anything you think could prove useful," Lelouch instructed the other Black Knights. "But be quick about it. Someone will notice if we linger here for too long, and whatever you take has to be balanced against against the extra encumbrance that carrying it through the Palace will bring."
"Ooh, what's this?" Milly asked, checking behind the counter. "Looks like something valuable." Using a key left behind by the clerk, she unlocked a plexiglass box that contained a single vial of an unknown medicine. "Soma," she read as she picked it up. "Wonder drug and drink of the Gods, use soma to fully restore your body and soul, or simply to have a good time. Best used with friends. Dosage: one drop per person."
"I don't know…" Kallen said, eyeing the vial warily. "It sounds like how Refrain was sold to the Japanese people…"
"Soma was the name of a drug used for religious purposes in Vedic traditions, distilled from nectar extracted from a now unknown plant, purported to bestow the drinker with immortality," Leila spoke up. "It is also the namesake of a fictitious drug that featured prominently in a 1986 a.t.b. dystopian novel published in Europia, though copies of it are difficult to find here. In some ways the book's soma functioned similarly to Refrain, inducing euphoria in the user, though it lacked Refrain's debilitating physical side effects."
"What's your point?" Kallen asked testily.
"Imbibing this Soma is unlikely to harm us, provided that we do so judiciously."
"I'll take that," Lelouch said, deftly snatching the vial of Soma from Milly's hand.
"Hey!"
"Something like this is worth far more than its weight in gold. We need to save it until we really need it. As the rest of you have already agreed to follow my lead in battle, it follows that I should decide when we use it." He didn't want to think of the 'creative' uses Milly could find for a vial of Soma.
"Fine. But next time, it's finders, keepers."
Leaving the pharmacy, the Black Knights entered the main mall area that made up the lower levels of the Resort of Gluttony. Peering up a central shaft, ringed by escalators, they could see that the shopping center easily extended upward for at least twenty stories, and each floor seemed to be as large as an entire ordinary mall in of itself.
"Whoa…" Milly murmured. "You could come in here and never leave…"
The area was swarming with a sea of Cognitions, rushing heedlessly from store to store, heavy bags filled with purchases chained to their wrists. Occasionally, a shopper would collapse under the weight of a new purchase, unable to rise no matter how they struggled, and before long, a pair of the Black King's enforcers would appear.
"You've overdrawn your credit," an enforcer Shadow said pitilessly to a nearby shopper Cognition.
"No… I'm sorry… I'll pay the Black King back! I promise!"
"Oh, don't worry… we know how you can pay him back…."
"Please…. Don't!"
"Unhand that man!" Euphemia demanded, rushing over, and leveling her gun at the Shadows. The Black Knights followed her, though Lelouch wished she hadn't run off like that. They didn't have time to save every Cognition in the Palace, and as he had explained to her earlier, doing so was ultimately futile.
"Who do you think you are?" the enforcer Shadow demanded.
"Wait… I think they're those thieves!"
The enforcer's bodies twisted, dissolving into ichor before reconstituting themselves into combat forms, bulky, horned fiends with red skin, smiles with too many teeth, blue Japanese clothes, and a large scythe-like sword with a thick blade.
"Of course Oni would prey upon the weak," Kallen snarled. "Guren Jigoku!"
Guren Jigoku blasted the closest Oni at close range with radiation. The Oni howled in pain, but unlike the Karasu Tengu that had come before it, it was durable enough to survive the attack. Enraged, it began attacking wildly, and if any of its strikes had connected, they could have done significant damage, but they missed their marks.
"Mabufu!" Euphemia shouted out as Eilowny appeared. Her Persona's golden orb glowed brightly for a moment, and ice crystals appeared, striking both Oni and freezing the first in its tracks.
"Matador!" Lelouch summoned the skeletal bullfighter, who delivered a swift series of strikes, finishing off the already weakened Oni, but they didn't seem to hurt the second much.
"An Oni's skin is tough like iron!" Kallen called out. "You'd be better off using magic!"
"You heard Queen!"
Successive spells from Milly, Arthur, and Leila, followed by another blast of nuclear energy from Guren Jigoku, put an end to the fight.
"Are you okay?" Euphemia asked the Cognition, striking a weak link in the chain with her blade to free the shopper from the excess weight pulling it down.
At once, the Cognition moved to scoop up its fallen purchases.
"What are you doing?" Euphemia asked in confusion. "You can't carry all of that. That's why you got in trouble in the first place."
"I paid good money for these!" The Cognition said frantically. "I'm not about to leave them behind! Thanks for the help, Miss, but if I don't have all of the latest brand goods, people will think I'm poor, and I'll be the butt of all my neighbor's jokes. Now, if you'll excuse me, I was on the way to check out a sale on a new flatscreen TV!"
"But you're already deep in debt to the Black King! If you-"
The Cognition ignored her, rising to its feet and slowly melting back into the crowd as it shuffled forward, leaning backward as it tried to balance a mountain of bags in its arms.
"What did I tell you, Noire?" Lelouch gently chastised her.
"This isn't right…" she said, sounding as if she was about to cry.
"That's why we're here, isn't it?" He comforted her. "Your heart is in the right place, Noire, but there's no use in trying to reason with Cognitions."
xXx
The Black Knights made their way through the mall. Judging from the number of patrols, the Palace was still in a somewhat heightened state of security, but it was easy to lose the guards in the crowds, provided that they didn't allow themselves to be swept away in them. Besides the fearsome Karasu Tengu and the brutish but on the whole far less dangerous Oni, there were more twin-headed guard dogs like those they had encountered on the casino level, along with a variety of lesser shadows. Most insidious among the Shadows were those that pretended to be mannequins in shop windows, their black forms almost looking like glossy plastic at a glance, bursting through the glass and summoning more guards if the Black Knights were to pass by unaware.
There was every conceivable kind of shop in the mall, all of which had signs urging them to consume. Fashion boutiques, electronics retailers, book stores, furniture showrooms, supermarkets, arms dealers…
"Why am I not surprised?" Kallen asked, looking up at a KnightPolice frame that was marked as "For Sale".
"We know that the Black King has much of the police on his pay," Leila said quietly. "Through them, it appears that he has access to a sizable military surplus."
"I'm not the most skilled at fighting, but this could really clear out a room…" Euphemia murmured, testing the feel of a grenade launcher in her hands. "Just fire and…"
Lelouch blanched. There was just something wrong with the image of his half sister firing a grenade into a mass of Shadows.
"On second thought, it's pretty heavy…" Euphemia continued. "Where would we be able to find more ammunition for it anyway?"
"Oh, you'd be surprised, Noire," Kallen smirked. "I know some people who could get us some. I'll take that if you don't want it."
"Kallen already has more than enough firepower with her Persona," Leila interjected. "She hardly needs such a weapon. That said, we should bring it with us. It opens tactical options where small arms fire is insufficient, and helps make up for some of your weaknesses. I think it's a good fit for you."
"Alright," Euphemia said. "I'll try it."
No, it was definitely not a good fit, Lelouch wanted to say, but it seemed that ship had already sailed.
"It's great to have a chance to grab some better weapons," Milly said. "We've been using handguns all of this time… I think this will do nicely." She picked out a light machine gun for herself.
"That's good for suppressive fire," Kallen said, "but you'll waste a lot of bullets. If you want better accuracy, you'll use one of these." She took an assault rifle off the rack.
Black Knights finished their "shopping". Lelouch stole a pistol with more penetrative power than his old one, and nabbed a combat knife. Leila also took a pistol for herself, strapping it to her thigh, hidden under her dress, and in a less conventional choice, took a naginata for a melee weapon.
"The main weakness of Akido is its lack of reach," Leila explained. "The length of a naginata compensates for this. My Persona's spells are my greatest asset to the Black Knights rather than my physical prowess, so this should help keep me at a safe distance from the enemy."
"For someone whose image of rebellion is a Gypsy, you certainly seem to have an interest in Japanese martial arts," Kallen commented.
"I try to draw inspiration from a range of martial traditions," Leila replied, "and living here in Japan naturally gave rise to an interest in the culture that Britannia had suppressed."
"There's nothing wrong with that," Kallen said. "If anything, it gives me more respect for you. Though I wonder why there's a naginata in one of the Black King's shops…"
"If there's a market for it, he'll sell it," Leila shrugged.
"I'm jealous that you guys have got all of this cool new gear," Arthur whined. "But there's hardly anything here suitable for cat!"
xXx
The Black Knights continued to ascend through the shopping center. They were almost to its highest floors now, and the stores were increasingly focusing on luxury goods.
"How do you think I'd look in that, Zero?" Milly asked as they passed by the front of a designer lingerie store, where some mannequins, thankfully not Shadows in disguise, were modeling was doubtlessly an exorbitantly expensive lacy bra and panties set, even by the standards of the Palace. "I think I'd fill out those cups pretty well," she said, grasping and pushing up her own breasts as she did so, still too carefree for someone who had died and come back to life scarcely an hour before. Then again, Milly had always been one to believe in enjoying each moment of life to its fullest.
Lelouch tried to banish the mental image of Milly dressed only in lingerie as quickly as he could. If Incubus had still been residing within him, the Devil Persona would have had a field day. Though paradoxically, thinking about what Incubus would have made him imagine had much the same effect as if Incubus was still alive.
Lelouch silently cursed Incubus' memory.
"No, we are not stopping so you can steal some lingerie and try to seduce me with it later."
"That's right!" Kallen said quickly.
"Aww…. But I think you won't object to pilfering from that store," she said, pointing to another one ahead of them.
It was a jewelry store, stocked with a dazzling array of gems, the rival of any such store back in Pendragon.
"What sort of thieves would we be if we passed up the chance to have a jewelry store heist?" Milly asked. "Besides, think of all of the supplies we could buy back in the real world with the money we could get from it…"
Milly had a point. As much as an unexpected blessing as the mall and its goods had been, it would not last forever, as they had to destroy the Palace and soon. A successful theft of even a few pieces from the store before them would be more than enough to assure the funding of the Black Knights for the foreseeable future, without having to dip into assets set aside for other purposes.
"Very well," he told her. "But just don't forget why we're here."
"Stop worrying about me so much, Zero," Milly laughed. "Or else your girlfriend is going to get pretty jealous…"
There were of course some Shadows guarding the store, but they were dispatched easily. Locating and disabling the store's security system, so that their theft would not trigger a massive spike in the Palace's security took longer, but was accomplished soon enough.
Milly naturally was drawn to the biggest prize of all… a spectacular diamond necklace, fit for a queen.
"Wait, Diamond," Lelouch whispered. "Don't touch that necklace. Something's not right. This is too easy."
"What did I tell you, Lelouch?" she asked innocently. But to his relief, she complied.
"Just wait." He used the Third Eye, and the necklace seemed to glow.
"You're right…" Leila murmured. "That necklace has a malignant aura… it's possessed by a Shadow."
"It seems I've been found out," a voice said, apparently from the necklace. "How very cunning."
A pale blue, translucent figure with large golden eyes, its body tapering down toward the necklace, more like a ghost than anything else, rose and appraised them. "I once brought ruin to the Queen of France, but I'm not much of a fighter myself. So if you'll excuse me, thieves, I must make my exit."
"You're surrounded. You can't run anywhere," Kallen threatened.
"Don't be so sure," it told her.
"Don't let it get away!" Lelouch ordered. "It will raise the alarm if it does!"
The Shadow possessing the Queen's Necklace was surprisingly resilient to their attacks, shrugging off even Guren Jigoku's fury and only seeming slightly worse for wear from it.
'Is that the best you can do?" It asked, seeming bored. "I'm disappointed. After you came that close to stealing me…"
The Shadow began to scurry away, taking the Queen's Necklace with it, but then Euphemia got a lucky hit with her gun, knocking the Shadow to the ground.
"Seriously?" Kallen asked. 'Guns work on a spirit when almost nothing else does?"
"Impressive…" the Shadow said. "You have bested me after all…"
"You're coming with us," Lelouch told it.
"Indeed I shall. Henceforth, I shall be your Persona…"
The Queen's Necklace disappeared, absorbed into Lelouch's Mask.
"It just gave up like that," Milly said, too surprised to formulate any sort of double entendre.
xXx
"Of course the food court was going to be on the twentieth floor," Arthur said. "I've gotten hungry just climbing up here…"
The food court dwarfed anything that had come below, taking up almost the entire floor, lined with countless establishments, from fast foods joints to fancy restaurants and everything in between. Hordes of customers eagerly ate course after course, often not even bothering to finish the food on their plates, even the most sumptuously prepared meals, before shoving it into heaping piles of refuse, or throwing up on the floor to make room for more. Many were morbidly obese, their limbs seeming almost vestigial organs, and as incapable of movement as the Refrain addicts in the shantytown.
"Ugh… and I've already lost my appetite," Arthur grimaced.
"The oldest and most primal expression of the Deadly Sin of Gluttony…" Lelouch murmured.
"How can they just throw away so much food?" Euphemia asked. "That could feed…"
"Everyone starving in the ghettos, many times over," Kallen finished for her. "What else is new? This is how Britannia works, when all its pretensions are stripped away," she said bitterly.
"What's worse is that the Black King sees things this way," Milly said. "It wouldn't appear in his Palace like this otherwise. And he thinks this is okay! He really is twisted…"
"Everyone… there's a powerful Shadow ahead," Lelia announced after finishing a scan of the floor with Jeanne d' Arc. It seems to be guarding this area of the Palace. We'll have to beat it if we're to go any further."
Reaching the far end of the food court, they reached a dais, where corpulent diners, rendered comatose by the enormous quantities of food that they had consumed, where slowly lifted up on a system of pulleys, being offered as sacrifices to the man seated there.
The Black King's Shadow.
As each sacrifice was brought into place, the Black King's Shadow would unhinge his jaws to an impossible degree, which would have been cartoonish if not for the grisly spectacle that would ensue. The helpless prey was nearly devoured whole, disappearing as if into a black hole, but sometimes there was just enough that wouldn't fit in one gulp that there would be a sickening, bone-rending crunch.
"You're persistent, aren't you?" The Black King's Shadow asked, rising from his throne, pausing only to wipe the blood from his lips with a napkin. "I suppose I'll have to devour you next."
"You're not the Black King," Leila suddenly said. "Your aura is different from his."
"Hmmm…" the False Black King said. "It seems one of you girls has a brain behind their pretty face. Indeed, I am not the Black King. As much as the owner would like to personally attend this banquet, he's not so foolish to risk himself when it can be avoided. You might say that I'm his body double. He knew you return eventually, though I was almost afraid that you weren't coming. But now, at last, the main course can begin!"
The False Black King transformed, becoming a crowned pig-like creature with two arms like a man, but four legs on a yellow-scaled reptilian body with a green underbelly and a long tail.
"BUONO!" The Gluttonous Pig shrieked as a battle cry.
The Black Knights were eager to put their newly acquired firepower to use, guns blazing, but the Gluttonous Pig's scales were too thick, absorbing most of the energy of the bullets before they could cause it serious harm. A grenade to the face was somewhat more effective, and caused the Gluttonous Pig to howl, but Euphemia could only fire a very limited number of rounds before she would be would be forced to switch to smaller arms.
"Guns are ineffective!" Lelouch shouted. "Ready a defensive stance and be prepared to counterattack!"
"BUONO!" The Gluttonous Pig charged forward, swiping its claws and trying to take bites out of the Black Knights. They were ready for it, summoning their Personas and driving their blades into its sides. They were able to inflict some damage upon it, but once again the Gluttonous Pig's scales protected it from serious harm.
"Use magic!" Lelouch ordered.
Spells blasted the Gluttonous Pig on all sides. It shrieked as it was roasted by flames conjured by Medea, falling to its knees.
"BUONO! I'm not the one who's supposed to be cooked today!"
"Launch an all-out attack!"
The Black Knights descended upon the Gluttonous Pig, taking advantage of its momentary inability to defend itself. It eventually rose above the fray, but finally it had been bloodied, with wounds all over its body.
"It seems you won't be enough of a meal…. Fetch me a snack! BUONO!"
Another corpulent victim was raised into position and promptly devoured by the Gluttonous Pig. At once, its injuries vanished.
"BUONO! Now that I've eaten, I'll wash that morsel down with your blood!"
"No…" Euphemia whispered. "How do we beat this thing?"
"Don't worry, Noire," Lelouch said with a smirk. "I know just the thing. Everyone, stick to the current battle plan!"
The Gluttonous Pig this time leaped up into the air, trying to dive-bomb them and crush them beneath its mass, but the Black Knights were ready for him, darting out of the way before Milly and Lelouch seared it with fire.
"I hunger again! Ready the next sacrifice! BUONO!"
"Noire, give me one of your grenades," Lelouch said to Euphemia.
"What?"
"Just give it to me, quickly."
She complied, and handed a grenade over to Lelouch. He rushed over to the sacrifice as it was being lifted to the Gluttonous Pig's throne, armed the grenade, and stuffed it into the pocket of the doomed Cognition's trousers.
"Zero-!" Euphemia gasped. "How could you?"
The Gluttonous Pig devoured the Cognition whole, so focused on its next meal that it remained oblivious to the danger. Letting out a satisfied belch as it was once again restored, the Gluttonous Pig shouted "BU-"
BOOM!
The Gluttonous Pig was promptly torn apart by the explosion, which sent gore and viscera flying in all directions before dissolving into nothingness.
"That Cognition was doomed anyway," Lelouch explained. "Rather than its death being meaningless, with its sacrifice, our victory was assured."
'Still…" Euphemia protested. He could tell that the others didn't approve either. They likely saw it as the cold-blooded murder of a noncombatant. Of his fellow Black Knights, Kallen had always been the least averse to killing, so she might accept it as a necessity, but that didn't mean she liked it.
"Is it any different than when Queen killed that clerk Cognition down in the pharmacy?" Lelouch asked. "No, and your objections were only passing then. If you're afraid to get your hands a bit dirty, then you're already lost, for our enemy has no such compunctions. So let's stop wasting time. We can probably find a Safe Room nearby. That seems to be the pattern in these Palaces."
Sure enough, there was a Safe Room just beyond the food court, an area that appeared to be still under construction, just like the real Babel Tower. If the Black Knights listened carefully, they could even faintly hear the incessant sound of machinery.
"There should be an elevator control room nearby," Lelouch said, reading from a map they had stolen detailing the layout of the Palace. "From there, and with keys from the guards, we should be able to hack into the system to give us access to the casino level again. We should plan to return sooner rather than later. The Black King is sure to tighten security on the Casino level again with the loss of his body double, but if we wait too long, he might discover the hack and reset the system again."
Compared to everything they had been through to get there, taking over the elevator control room was a simple affair for the Black Knights. But exhaustion was setting in, and they agreed that to push further into the Palace that day would be foolhardy. Their route secured, the Black Knights rode the elevators down to the entrance, and departed from the Resort of Gluttony.
Days Until Lelouch and Nunnally are Discovered: 10
A/N
And so the Black Knights have their first encounter with one of Persona and SMT's infamous instant-kill spells, the Bless spell, Mahama. Some may object to me labeling Milly as briefly "dead" as opposed to unconscious, but to me this was always a case of gameplay and story segregation. If the main character gets killed by one of these, they are very explicitly treated as dead, and the symbol for an "unconscious" character is normally a skull and crossbones in the Persona series from P3 onward, which also very much says "dead". Besides, Shadows aren't going to pull their punches.
Fortunately, Persona also features revival magic, in the form of Recarm and Samarecarm, among others. To avoid this being a story-breaking power, I will define these spells as only being able to revive the very recently deceased, and only if their body is sufficiently intact to allow the injury that originally caused death to be repaired. E.g. If the "Chunky Salsa Rule" would apply to a character, they are very definitely dead, and a simple Recarm or Samarecarm isn't going to be enough to revive them.
I always did want the Black King's Palace to be a broader critique of Britannian society and its materialistic aspects rather than a mere retread of Kaneshiro's Palace. Substantial inspiration, from the Karasu Tengu, to the boss battle with Horkos, a.k.a., the Gluttonous Pig, came from Sector Carina in Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey, which has the form of a demonic shopping mall.
Normally in P5, the first encounter with a Treasure Demon would be Regent in Madarame's Palace. I chose to delay the encounter with a Treasure Demon until the Black King's Palace, because a jewelry store in a mall seemed a more organic place to include one in the narrative than in Clovis's Theater.
Edit: Also doubled back and expanded Leila's awakening scene in Ch. 16, since I was rather unhappy with its original version. The outcome is still the same, so the story does not change drastically in any way, but I think it is now a more satisfying awakening with proper build up.