"What did you just say?" The Black King growled at his underling.
"Mr. King, we found these posted around Babel Tower's construction site." The underling held a red card in his hands. "It appears to be the work of the Black Knights."
"Those punks again…Just when I thought they were done trashing my organization." The Black King crushed a chestnut in his hands as if it was the skull of whoever was leading the hated Black Knights. "What does it say?"
The underling swallowed. "To Lord Blake King, the beast of Gluttony, the Black King who disgraces the name of King and devours Japanese and Britannians alike, engaging in Refrain trafficking, prostitution, racketeering, blackmail, and other crimes too numerous to list: we have you in check. We stand poised to steal your distorted desires and make you confess your crimes with your own mouth. This will be done without fail. Signed, The Black Knights."
The Black King let out a harsh, barking laugh, and for a moment the world flickered around him.
"So that's it?" The Black King's Shadow snarled. "Come and try to take my Treasure! I'm not as soft as the late Prince Clovis was! I'll devour you like everyone else who's dared to stand in my way!"
The world returned to normal, with the Black King's underling clearly oblivious to what had just happened.
"What are your orders, Mr. King?"
"Put all our men on standby, take down those calling cards, and have them rough up anyone who talks about them."
"Mr. King," the underling replied nervously. "People are already talking about it all over the net!"
"What?!" The Black King rose to his feet. "Pay off the police and media! Do whatever it takes to get this story buried, or I'll snap you like a twig!"
"Yes, sir!"
As his underling scurried away, the Black King continued to fume. How had this happened? Maybe gambling would relieve some of his stress… And then there was the matter of the blackmail he had on the Third Princess. She had held out longer than most of his marks, but that was to be expected, given her position. But she would cave before long, and the payment of one million pounds would go a long way toward recouping the costs of the bribes he would have to make to quash the slander that the Black Knights had spread against him.
A smile spread over his face. Perhaps he would release the picture anyway after she paid him. Playing fair was for the weak, and seeing her and her commoner boyfriend brought to their knees would be just the thing to cheer him up.
xXx
Lelouch finished fusing new Personas in the Velvet Room and returned to his teammates, assembled for the heist. Euphemia seemed concerned that he had zoned out for a moment, but the other Black Knights waved this off, used to it by now and accepting his explanation that it helped him organize his Personas, which was in a sense true.
"Is everyone ready?" He asked. "There's no turning back once we enter the Palace."
The Black Knights nodded.
"Then let our heist begin!"
The guards seemed more organized than Clovis' had been during the raid on the Aries Villa at the bottom of the late Viceroy's Palace had been, but while they put up stiff resistance on the way to the penthouse elevator, they couldn't stop the advance of the Black Knights. The Black King evidently hadn't changed the VIP Pass either, which could have been an unwelcome complication in their approach, allowing the Black Knights to ride up to the Treasure.
Lelouch of course wasn't naive enough to assume that this meant acquiring the Treasure would be easy once they arrived in the penthouse. Rather, the Black King would be expecting them.
They would have to fight for the Treasure once again.
"It took you long enough," the Black King's Shadow growled, standing between them and his Treasure, now revealed to be a red crown, lined with spikes. "I'll admit, you've been worthy opponents. Few could have made it here. But your luck has run out."
"Please, stand aside," Euphemia said, stepping forward. "While we will not hesitate to take your Treasure from you by force if necessary, I'd rather that we didn't have to fight. Can't you see how twisted your heart has become? I don't know what made you like this, but let us help you."
Lelouch shook his head. Euphy really was too kind, but he was glad to see that her stance hadn't wavered. She wouldn't be taken hostage by the Black King like last time.
"Spare me your platitudes, Princess!" The Black King's Shadow snarled. "Do you have any idea what I had to go through to get to where I am? Do I look like a pure-blooded Britannian to you? Of course I'm not! I went through shit, clawing for scraps amidst the dregs of society!" His expression turned to a demented grin. "But eventually, I grew strong, and I rose to the top of the food chain! I even managed to purchase myself a hereditary title of nobility!"
"So he's like Coach Nu…" Milly murmured.
"But a thousand times worse," Kallen replied, glaring at the Black King's Shadow. "Just because you had a crappy childhood doesn't give you the right to ruin so many lives, including my mother's! I'll make you pay for everyone you've harmed!"
"Why should I care about the herd?" The Black King's Shadow sneered. "They can barely think for themselves anyway. They're only good as livestock, waiting to be devoured by those who hold power in society! " He waved a hand dismissively. "Nobody cared when I rounded up those orphaned Eleven Brats off the streets and handed them over to the Third Prince's scientists."
"You were working on Code-R?" Leila gasped.
"Prince Clovis and I had an understanding," the Black King's Shadow continued smugly. "I provided him with the equipment and experimental subjects that he needed through unofficial channels, and he looked the other way for my other enterprises, allowing my business to grow like never before." His face contorted in anger. "But then you and the new Viceroy had to ruin that!"
"How much did you know about the Third Prince's research?" Lelouch demanded.
"I knew better than to ask about the details," the Black King shrugged. "Why ruin such a perfect partnership by sticking one's nose where it doesn't belong? That's a lesson you should have learned for yourselves, thieves."
"We're nothing if not persistent," Arthur retorted.
"Indeed you are," the Black King's Shadow agreed. "That's why you have to die!"
Darkness converged on the Black King's Shadow, and he burst outward, reforming in a new, monstrous shape. A giant black, hairless head, itself as tall as the Black Knights were, with pointed ears, malevolent eyes, and raw, fleshy strips running down the sides of it face appeared, crowned by the Treasure. It appeared half-submerged in the floor, so that the rest of its body could not be seen, assuming that there even was more to it, but its many sharp, angled teeth were plain for all to see, not hidden behind fleshy lips.
"I am the Demon of Gluttony," the Black King's transformed Shadow announced, "Blake Alciel King! I care not who you are, thieves! I'll sink my teeth into you all the same!"
Alciel let out a roar, its shoulders briefly rising up through the floor, its open maw giving the Black Knights a wholly unwanted view of his uvula, not to mention the saliva dripping from its fangs, which moved almost as if they had minds of their own.
"Still, I hardly think six against one is fair," Alciel sneered. "Let's even the odds a little bit."
The ground shook, as two rows of black sculptures rose from the floor… no… they were Cognitions, chess pieces brought to life, pawns in the front, and noble pieces flanking Alciel behind them.
"Come on!" Arthur shouted. "Now it's sixteen versus six!"
"We didn't expect him to play fair," Lelouch replied, unperturbed. "Queen, Noire, Diamond! Wipe out those pawns!"
Euphemia lobbed a grenade into the middle of the line of pawns, while Milly fired a spray of bullets into them with her machine gun. Kallen summoned Guren Jigoku, casting Mafrei and launching rapid-fire bursts of nuclear energy at each pawn in turn. In short order, the central four pawns had been destroyed, and the others had been knocked to the ground.
"Useless!" Alciel shouted at his pawns. "Destroy those Black Knights, or I'll eat you myself!"
The pawns only twitched impotently, struggling to rise.
"If you want something done right, you have to have nobles do it," snarled Alciel. "Knights, charge!"
Alciel's knights, clad in black armor, leapt over the pawns, wielding long lances, though the bulk of their horses would be threatening enough on its own. Without waiting a moment, the knights charged, rushing straight ahead, though if they behaved as he expected, they would change direction at the last moment.
"Shiki-Ouji!" Lelouch called out. A tall Persona that appeared to be made of intricately folded white and red paper, covered with mystic characters and a star on its broad, crescent-shaped head, appeared to intercept the enemy knights. At a glance, sending paper versus solid steel would have seemed suicidal, but it was utterly unfazed when the knights collided into it. The spells bound to it granted Shiki-Ouji immunity from both melee and ranged attacks, as well as Curse magic. Granted, it was weak to nuclear spells, but it was still an exceptional Persona, and Lelouch was seriously considering using it to replace Ippon-Datara as his Persona of choice to start battles against unknown Shadows with. Some time in Lockdown later with Shi and Tsu might even eliminate its weakness, and furthermore, it was a Persona of the Chariot Arcana, so it had been strengthened greatly by his bond with Kallen.
The enemy knights shook their heads, trying to make sense of how their attack had failed, when Milly stepped in. "Hey, boys!" she waved with a mischievous smile. "Marin Karin!" In a moment, one of the knights was head over heels for her, and promptly had his head blown up by a well-placed psychokinetic spell from Leila.
"Heh. Gets them every time!" Arthur snickered as he darted unnoticed past the other knight and summoned Master Cat, which thrust its rapier into the side of its steed. The knight collapsed to the ground, and was promptly seized by Guren Jigoku, which wasted no time in blasting it with radiation at point blank rank.
"Bishops! Destroy these heretics!"
Alciel's dark bishops slid forward diagonally, supported on their flanks by the pawns that had finally managed to rise to their feet, lobbing volleys of curses at the Black Knights. Shiki-Ouji darted forward, intercepting the incoming spells, while the other Black Knights finished off the pawns.
If they had not been locked in battle, Lelouch would have shook his head. Alciel was using his pieces recklessly. Perhaps their foe could have used his bishops to heal his pieces, just as Leila could for the Black Knights, but with the pawns destroyed, the bishops were exposed, and fell quickly in turn.
"Rook, castle!" Alciel ordered, finally realizing how badly the battle was turning against him in spite of his once-superior numbers. A rook, made of stone and towering over the Black Knights slid over, establishing a defensive position next to Alciel. The other rook advanced, raining projectiles down on them.
"Ugh…" Kallen grimaced as she blasted the side of the attacking rook with Guren Jigoku, doing some damage but leaving it still standing. "This one is pretty tough." The other Black Knights were having a similarly difficult time breaching its stone walls, and were falling back to defensive positions themselves.
"Give me a moment, Zero!" Leila called. "I'll analyze its defenses and try to pinpoint a weakness."
But Lelouch was already reaching for his mask. Call it intuition, but he had a feeling he knew exactly what would work against the rooks.
"Shiisaa!" He called. "Zio!"
A bolt of lightning struck the rook on its ramparts, blasting stone loose. The rook rocked precariously side to side, and then tipped over, breaking apart on impact with the ground.
"How did you…" Leila began.
"The Tower, in the upright position," Lelouch smirked.
The surviving rook cast some sort of barrier on Alciel, but it too fell to Shiisaa's lightning, leaving Alciel alone, save for his queen.
"I'll handle this, myself," Alciel snarled, gnashing his teeth menacingly as he moved toward the Black Knights.
A volley of spells struck Alciel: fire, ice, wind, lightning, nuclear, and psychokinetic. But the Shadow was not harmed by any of them.
"He's immune to most magic," Lelouch frowned. "Which means that barrier is likely protecting him against physical attacks. Bishop, can you confirm that?"
"Give me a moment, Zero."
"You don't have a moment," Alciel laughed, and rushed forward, snapping his jaws like a shark. Leila escaped being devoured, but Alciel's teeth tore off part of her dress.
"Those are some tasty legs you've got there," Alciel leered, eyeing Leila. "I'll be sure to enjoy them."
"Get away from her, you creep!" Kallen shouted, Guren Jigoku flying toward Alciel.
"Queen, wait!" Lelouch called. "We don't know what-"
Guren Jigoku slammed into Alciel, and was promptly thrown back by the shimmering barrier around him, which then shattered.
"Ow!" Kallen groaned, wincing in pain.
So that was what the barrier did. It reflected the force of physical strikes back on the attacker. At least it seemed to be gone now. Euphemia certainly didn't need him to tell her to exploit her opening, and lobbed a grenade into Alciel's maw, which was opened with laughter.
"Ugh!" Alciel's eyes went wide as the bomb exploded inside of him, but unlike the Gluttonous Pig, he was too strong to be finished off so easily. He was however stunned for several moments, giving Lelouch the perfect opportunity to order an all-out attack.
Bloody all over, it was only through sheer tenacity that Alciel was able to keep the Black Knights from seizing his treasure during the confusion of the all-out attack.
"You'll pay for that!" Alciel shouted. He turned to his queen. "Over here!"
The queen advanced, only for Alciel to devour his own ally whole, healing his injuries in the process.
"He really can only think of his hunger…: Leila murmured.
"I'm still famished…." Alciel groaned. "Feel my hunger!" He let out a scream, and suddenly several of the Black Knights felt very strange.
"I-I'm so… hungry…" Euphemia muttered, clutching her stomach. "Like I haven't eaten in days… Is this what those poor people feel like…"
"Mmm…. Need Sushi…" moaned Arthur.
"Where's my energy?" groaned Kallen. "I can barely move."
"The strong devour and consume the weak!" Alciel declared. He opened his mouth wide, and began drawing reddish energy that looked all too much like blood from the Black Knights. Lelouch, Milly, and Leila felt little effect upon themselves, but large orbs of energy were ripped from Euphemia, Arthur, and Kallen.
"I feel faint…" Euphemia whispered, struggling to keep her balance. She looked very pale, as did the other starving Black Knights.
"Jeanne d'Arc! Media!" Lelia cried, hurriedly showering healing energy on them.
It was very much like what they had seen in the shantytown around the Palace. Alciel was an opportunist, preferring to vampirize the weak, who had little chance of fighting off his hunger.
Fortunately, they wouldn't have to fight much longer.
"Everyone, fire!"
The hunger that Alciel had inflicted upon the Black Knights might have made them sluggish and robbed them of much of their strength, but bullets didn't care about hunger, and Alciel was an enormous target.
Lelouch and Leila fired their pistols, Milly her light machine gun, Kallen her assault rifle, and Euphemia her gun sword. The recoil actually knocked Kallen off her feet, weak as she still was, but enough of her bullets still hit their mark. Alciel slumped down, and the Black Knights launched their second all-out attack. This time, they managed to knock the crown off Alciel's head. Without his Treasure, Alciel's strength waned, his attacks becoming ineffectual, and he was easy prey for a third all-out attack.
Alciel slumped down and the darkness he had gathered within himself dispersed, leaving the Black King's Shadow broken on the floor. The feeling of hunger that some of the Black Knights were suffering from dissipated as well.
"Ugh… it seems that I'm the prey today…" the Black King's Shadow groaned. "How could I be beaten by such weaklings?"
"Yes, individually we are weak," Leila replied.
"But together the Black Knights stand in judgment of this world," Lelouch continued.
"That's right…" Euphemia nodded. "I couldn't do anything to improve the situation on my own. It was only when I joined them that I actually made a difference."
"If it weren't for Zero, I'd probably be dead somewhere in a twisted castle somewhere," Kallen murmured.
"Likewise," Arthur added.
"Everyone here is a precious friend," Milly concluded. "We draw our strength from each other."
"Don't be absurd!" the Black King's Shadow laughed weakly. "The world doesn't work that way! Besides, this is my world!"
"Face it, Mr. King," Lelouch sneered. "You've been devoured yet again. Besides, by your own philosophy, do losers have any rights?"
"No…" he hung his head down. "What do you want from me?"
"You'll cease blackmailing people at once, and you'll halt any shipments of Refrain. After that's done, you'll publicly confess to your crimes and turn yourself and your remaining associates in."
"How do I know I won't be killed like Prince Clovis if I do what you say?"
"You don't," Lelouch admitted. "But you don't have a choice, do you now?" He cocked his gun threateningly.
"You win…" the Black King's Shadow sighed. "But know this; if you think that I'm the worst monster in this world, you haven't seen anything yet."
The Black King's Shadow vanished into light.
At once, the resort began shaking violently.
"What's going on?" Euphemia asked, fear in her eyes.
"I guess Zero forgot to mention this part to you," Arthur explained. "A Palace always starts collapsing immediately after its Treasure is removed. We'll have to run. We don't want to be inside this place when it implodes."
They made it out of the penthouse and to the casino level, when they noticed that something was very wrong.
The entire structure was pitching to a side.
"The base must have been compromised…" Leila gasped.
"There's no way we can survive a fall from this height!" Milly shouted in panic.
"Aren't you forgetting something, Diamond?" Lelouch asked.
"What would that be, Zero?"
"Your Persona can fly. So can Kallen's, as can some of mine."
"Not that far! If we could do that, we would have just flown up the tower in the first place."
"Then we'll wait until we're closer to the ground.'
"You can't be serious!" She protested.
"It's the only way to survive this. Get close to the windows, and hold on tight."
Loose objects careened past them and crashed through the windows as the resort continued its fatal tilt. Before long, it would be in free fall.
There was a feeling of weightlessness as the resort level plummeted toward the ground below. The Black Knights were buffeted by wind, but they continued to hold on to anything solid for dear life, awaiting Lelouch's signal.
"Now!" He shouted, hoping that his friends could hear him over the din.
"Persona!" Three voices cried in unison.
Medea, Guren Jigoku, and Archangel all appeared, each grabbing their summoner and another Black Knight before swooping down out the broken window and to the side before they could be crushed by the tower bearing down on them.
There was an enormous crash, and a large cloud of sand and debris was kicked up by the impact of the tower onto the beach below, threatening to overtake them.
"Time to return to the real world!"
The world twisted around them, and the Black Knights left behind the Resort of Gluttony as it entered its final death throes, bringing the nightmare it represented to an end.
xXx
"We made it, right?" Euphemia asked.
Slowly, Lelouch stirred next to her, relieved to see that his half sister and the other Black Knights were okay.
"Yes," he told her. He didn't want to admit how close it had actually been. Looking down, he saw the true form of the Black King's Treasure. It was a chess set of exquisite craftsmanship.
"Another victory for the Black Knights!" Milly grinned.
"Quiet," Kallen hissed. "Someone will hear you."
"Relax, Kallen. Who would be here right now anyway?"
xXx
Shirley Fenette froze in her tracks, blinking her eyes and pinching herself to make sure she wasn't having a nightmare.
It hurt, so she knew she was awake, but that didn't make the scene before her eyes any less of a nightmare. If anything, knowing that this was real made it worse.
She had decided to go looking for Lulu to apologize to him for her actions the other day, and her search had led her here, to the outskirts of the settlement. She had been just about to give up and return to Ashford Academy, writing off the whole thing as a waste of effort, when the impossible happened.
Lelouch appeared out of thin air.
He wasn't alone either. He was with Kallen. And Milly… and two other beautiful girls that she didn't know. Arthur was there with them, but that hardly registered with her.
That was a shock in of itself. But then the words that Milly said ripped into her very soul.
"Another victory for the Black Knights!"
Did that mean… Milly was a Black Knight? Not only that, but Kallen… and Lulu? If so… that meant….
She couldn't believe it. That meant… that her friends on the Student Council had been the ones who murdered her father?
Shirley fell to her knees, feeling nothing but cold despair swirling around her.
Deep within Mementos, the twisted subway tunnels began rumbling as a Distortion that had slowly festered deep within it bloomed, rising to the surface and growing rapidly as it overlaid Ashford Academy in the Metaverse and formed its own world, cut off from the rest.
"There's nothing for you here…" Shirley heard a voice within herself say.
That was her own voice… but for some reason, it scared her.
"It would be better if we just died…" her own inner voice continued to whisper.
No, that voice wasn't hers! It couldn't be!
"And Lulu with us…".
She could see her doppelgänger in her mind's eye now, almost as clear as day. A mermaid princess with coppery hair like her own, but the fake's eyes glowed yellow.
"Come…" the siren whispered. "There's no need for us to suffer any longer." The voice turned mocking. "Besides… maybe our prince will come to save us, and we'll all have a happy ever after. That's what you'd like, isn't it?"
No… that wasn't true… was it?
"Reject me all you like… I'm still a part of you. Besides… you're no longer the one who's in control. Let us make one last voyage together… and trap the Black Knights with us in a watery grave."
"Huh? Shirley!" A voice cut through her spiraling thoughts, dispelling the apparition. That was Lulu's voice…
The voice of the man who had killed her father.
"Stay away from me!" she cried, turning to run as fast as she could.
xXx
"Shirley heard you," Lelouch said to Milly as the other Black Knights caught up to him, bending over and gasping for breath.
"What was she doing here?" Milly asked.
"Does it matter?" Kallen replied angrily. "That's why you don't just go blabbing about that stuff in public!"
"This is terrible…" Leila murmured.
"What's going to happen?" Euphemia asked with worry. "Was she close to you, Lelouch?"
"Too close," Arthur supplied.
"We can only hope that she doesn't talk to Rolo…" Lelouch straightened himself. "Or else we're going to have to steal her heart."
Days Until Shirley Turns in Lelouch: ?
A/N:
Following the naming schema that I have been using thus far for the major bosses, this chapter is named after the boss theme of Persona 5, "Blooming Villain", verbatim in this case (couldn't think of another word starting with V that suited the Black King, whereas Villetta and Viceroy filled in that role for the last two bosses).
Alciel is a demon that does not appear in P5 at all, though it appears in Nocturne, SMT IV, and SMT: Imagine. Not only does Alciel seem quite interested in devouring the Demi-Fiend in Nocturne (tying into Gluttony), but Alciel itself might be a mistranslation for one of the Princes of Gehenna. I chose to deviate from Bael/Beezlebuub, which was Kaneshiro's Shadow when it was first suggested to me, because Alciel's appearance was so reminiscent of a black chess piece that I couldn't help but think of it as a perfect fit for the Black King.
By now, it should be clear who the fourth Palace Ruler is: Shirley Fenette. A Palace Ruler doesn't have to be evil; their Cognition just needs to be twisted, and they need to embody a Deadly Sin. This has been planned since the start of the story, and those who have been making comparisons of her to Futaba on the story's TV Tropes page (which I am pleased to say has grown tremendously over the last few days) are indeed correct, in that her arc is constructed as a deliberate parallel to Futaba's Palace in P5 (though I am also planning to deliberately subvert several aspects of Futaba's Palace as well. For starters, Shirley's Palace is NOT a pyramid. What her Palace is may be fairly obvious to the attentive reader, as I have been purposefully dropping imagery for it for the last several chapters. I have also been foreshadowing another crucial aspect of Shirley's arc for some time now, but I will not say that here, so as to not spoil those who haven't put it together yet.
Next up, what should be short chapter with Tanabata (and thus the meeting with Kaguya) and the Black King's confession. It would be too much mood whiplash to include Tanabata in this chapter, so that's why I chose to end this chapter where I did. Then we'll have another interlude with Cornelia, and Shirley's fourth Palace arc will begin in earnest.