And we're back. I love you guys and all but... trolling is fun. :P good to see I got most of you. Everything was for the lols but still... I did extend the deadline, that doesn't mean there is no deadline. I am really hopping to finish this in Jan or Feb, otherwise, gonna be hard.
Anyway, replies!
Guest : HA HA HA! ... Don't kill me pliz.
Reader : That's... a new question... Maybe my fault for not showing FM Hamuko in the crossover but who has the deeper bond. Depends on what you mean by bond, Minato and Hamuko in FM will never be as devoted as the ones here. Minato here will give his life in a heart beat to save her and vice versa but... Hamuko in FM was linked to Minato the moment she was born and well, together, you know how they are, almost nigh unbeatable. The bond between the two here is lovely, almost a decade old, no chance of breaking and stronger than the other bonds combined but... their bond in FM is destiny. That's all I'll say. Cheers!
Hanae Kokoro-chan : 80 percent sure this will see the end now. Don't worry and thanks for the love!
Onto the chapter. As usual, brutal and shit.
More of the serene and soothing energy kept crashing into the bodies of the persona users as they charged at the same time, more exhaustion piling on their bodies but they shrugged it off and closed in on Hypnos and the God retaliated by flying up and shooting his tentacles like hair towards the mortals-
"UGH!"
Sho saw them coming and easily dodged a number of them but behind him, a few of his companions were not as lucky as he heard a number of groans and shrieks followed by thumps as they crashed into the walls-
"Hey!" Junpei called, looking over at Sho. "Give us some orders, man!"
"Have Yukari and Ken heal from the sidelines, everyone else attack!" Sho spat and bolted, gripping both of his blades as he stepped in range and started swinging with bad intentions, looking to end the battle as quickly as possible.
Despite being almost thrice as large, Hypnos was graceful in his movements, surprisingly nimble too as he effortlessly dodged the dual blades, briefly stopping to adjust when Junpei joined Sho in trying to cleave the God in two but even the combined effort of the two males was simply not enough-
"Pitiful,"
Hypnos' voice was nowhere horrific as Ryoji but it was powerful enough to make the two stop and then glanced up at the towering entity, in surprise and awe and the next second, Hypnos grabbed onto their bodies and sent them flying through the air-
"Move out of the way!" Aigis shouted and her friends so, barely avoiding the bullets that went sailing for the God who shrugged and started smacking them to the side with his long strands of hair, forcing the others to dodge as the bullets came back, twice as fast.
Hypnos fixed his stare on the android and frowned, a little curious because his magic was not affecting her like it did the others. As a robot, Aigis didn't need sleep which made her a bit more dangerous but at the same time, she was made by mortals and for that, she was even more pathetic than the others.
Akihiko rubbed his eyes and gritted his teeth, removing one blade fist to grab a hold of his evoker.
"No, Akihiko, not now," Mitsuru commanded. "Chip away with physical attacks for now. I have a feeling we will need to conserve energy for the long run."
"This is going to be a long battle," Yukari murmured.
"Hell no!" Sho spat, looking back at the God who was idle, arrogant about his advantage over the humans. "Minato is out there getting killed. We are fini shing this battle as soon as possible."
"Minato?" Hypnos caught the name and hummed. "Is that name of the mortal who defied Death?"
"Yeah, kicked his ass too," Sho said. "Broke that bitch boy down and had him shivering like a lost kid."
"He is coming back..." Hypnos said, widening the eyes of the teenagers.
What?
"Death will return on the promised day," Hypnos continued. "As the harbinger of the fall. He will descend on the top of the tower and end all life."
Sho gritted his teeth and looked down. Ryoji was going to return? It was one bad thing after another as the promised day was not too far away now.
"I am sure he would love to get his hands around the throat of this... Minato," Hypnos whispered. "Maybe we will keep this alive till then. Barely. So Death can treat him as his plaything for a while."
"Like hell-"
"Meanwhile," Hypnos took flight again, his hair growing in length, crackling with thunder and burning with flames. "The rest of you are going to die. I am not as cruel as Thanatos but I will kill you... slowly... in your sleep... and your dreams will haunt you for the rest of eternity."
"It is so hard comprehending them," Yukari breathed out. Gods. What on earth were they? She had heard stories and myths but face to face, they were completely different, otherworldly and just a step beyond them. "Can we really..?"
Sho bit his lip, thinking back to the battle between Minato and Ryoji. The whole battle changed when Minato countered with a left hand and sent Ryoji crashing to the ground, pain forming in features. This was no different. They needed to break the aura and the myths around Hypnos but... Minato was not around this time.
Hypnos grew tired of waiting and glided for the persona users. Mitsuru yelled at them to get ready before something came flying for her face-
...
Minato was on the run, trying his best to ignore the taunts coming from behind him as Hamuko was after him, much faster than before but thankfully, he had a good lead on her and now, he just had to keep running no matter what, protect himself from pain till his friends find the glass shards-
"Coward!" Hamuko shouted.
"Keep running-UGH!" Minato almost tripped and hissed his pain as something heavy detonated against his back and blew him forward but luckily, he managed to land on his feet and kept his pace, briefly looking back and sidestepping to dodge more of the black blobs heading his way.
"Shit," he ducked and sidestepped most of them but a couple did explode against his back, momentarily knocking him off balance but her scream from behind got his heart racing faster, sending his mind on high alert. He quickly composed his thoughts and shrugged off the pain, resuming his run through the transformed city.
"GET HIM!" Hamuko snarled, summoning another large number of shadows to do her biding and they quickly bolted behind Minato to catch him. "Bring him to me."
Minato grunted in pain when he suffered a few gashes to his back but he fired back and twirled around to kick a few of them in two. He kept moving backwards and kept his stare on Hamuko as he kept walking, scaring the crap out of him. "TCH!" he backed off to avoid a few spells and whipped around again, pumping a few speed buffs to run faster.
"Just keep running," Minato said to himself. "Nobody has to get hurt..."
"You son of a filthy bitch!"
He winced at the insult but shook his head once more.
"Not her..." he chanted and clasped his ears shut, focusing on how to keep away from her.
...
Sho went sent flying again but he landed on his feet, brushed past Aigis and Akihiko to join the other two sword wielders as they kept moving forward, trying their hardest to open up a gash on Hypnos but the God was scratch less for the most part. Sho and Aigis did crash into his gigantic body to land a few punches but nothing really drew out a reaction from Hypnos.
"I'm scared of falling off," Akihiko grunted, looking down as the endless void of black and the glitter of a few stars. "It's like..."
"A dream," Yukari added. "Like you are about to fall off into an endless void any second now."
"Tch," Akihiko couldn't torque his body into his punches because every second spent in this dreamland was overwhelming his senses with sleep and fatigue. He shook his head and bolted forward, firing a lunging punch and gave Hypnos the opportunity to wrap his hair around his wrist-
"Watch out!" Mitsuru shouted-
Hypnos lifted the boxer off his feet and sent him crashing into the mortals who were fighting at close range, sending them to the ground as bulldozed his way through them, with only Sho ducking and looking up to see Akihiko coming crashing down as the God released the hold around him-
Akihiko landed on top of Sho and he growled, pushing him off and glaring at the God who seemed to be enjoying the one sided battle as he cackled and laughed, wagging a single strand of hair as if no to say no, no chance.
"Sleepy," Junpei growled and tightened his grip around his weapon. "Goddamn, I hope our healers don't end up sleeping first."
Hypnos howled to the skies and his hair extensions started pulsing with more elemental spells and he launched the volley in the direction of his foes, drawing out growls as their weaknesses were exploited by the never ending barrage-
Aigis rushed out of the way storm and ducked undeath a bolt, jumping up high and crashing into the chest of the God, managing to push him back and then directing her fingers for his head-
Hypnos staggered back and took a number of bullets to his face, shook his head and grabbed onto Aigis with his hand, smashing the android brutally against the ground and it felt as if it was made out of concrete-
"Aigis!" Mitsuru shouted, rushing ahead to tackle her away, barely saving her from a bolt that Hypnos rained down from above-
Sho, Akihiko and Junpei followed and crashed into the God again, managing to land a few punches and slashes but they were blown away with a gust of wind, drawing out a hiss from Junpei as it was his weakness. Akihiko went flying into the walls while Sho skidded back, immediately running forward and jumping up high to come down and cleave him in two-
"Useless," Hypnos blocked his blade with his tentacles and smashed another one into his sides-
Sho grabbed a hold of the extension and sliced it in two, drawing out a growl from Hypnos as he encircled every limb of Sho with his hair and brought him closer-
"Ugh!" Sho tried to power out-
Hypnos connected with a brutal punch that broke a few bones in his face and sent Sho soaring through the air, landing next to Yukari and Ken who were on the sidelines, quickly healing whoever got hurt and Yukari quickly got to work on Sho, trying to repair the broken bones.
"Not as hard as Ryoji," Sho spat out blood. Thankfully Hypnos punched nowhere near hard and fast as Ryoji as he could see the movement of his punches coming.
Ken stumbled, briefly closing his eyes until Yukari yelled at him to look straight.
Sho bit his lip and looked ahead, growling when the other persona users were overwhelmed by the God but... at the same time, he knew they weren't fighting at full strength. All of them looked slower and even for a boxing champion like Akihiko, his reaction time was horrible and Sho knew why...
Every second near Hypnos made them more and more drowsy and they had to fight through that to attack him, greatly lessening the power of their attacks-
"This fatigue," Sho stumbled for a few step and marched forward. "He's putting us to sleep."
"UGH!"
Akihiko and the others were again taken up in the air as his damn tentacles gripped onto their bodies and hurled them into walls, bringing them back to smash their bones against the ground over and over again-
"Persona!"
Hypnos withdrew a little to avoid the spiraling tornado of flames as Junpei evoked his persona first, making the God frown again as he faced off the persona that was much smaller than him.
Akihiko held the evoker to his temple and followed, much like the others.
"Interesting," Hypnos murmured, hair growing in length yet again and the surroundings shifting and changing as more darkness started to seep in, blackening the little bit of stars far away.
"A new phase of the battle beings," Mitsuru said and the personas bolted to crowd the God.
...
So far so good. Minato did suffer a few bruises and broken bones but he was still way out of reach as Nyx was trailing behind, stopping whenever Minato evoked smoke from fire spells and dusts from repeated wind tornadoes, obscuring her view while he kept running because his objective was to keep running while Hamuko's objective to grab him.
Minato had ran circles over the entire city a few times times and he was content on repeating it over and over until getting the confirmation from Fuuka.
"Ryoji sucks," Minato announced, drawing out a scream from Hamuko. "Fuck that little bitch. Showed him who daddy is."
'You!" Hamuko picked up pace and bolted and Minato looked back, ducking underneath her charge and then twirling around, running in the opposite direction, towards the city and Hamuko followed after him, launching more spells to damage him but the blunet never stopped, avoided the dead ends and led her on the wild chase, hurling insult after insult at Ryoji to rile her up further.
"Yes," Minato kept planting flames and small gusts of wind to cloud her vision, running way too fast for the zombies or the cultists to get a hold of him. "Just keep running Minato. Just keep running-"
"Stop!" Hamuko yelled. "Stop right now."
"Don't listen to her," Minato whispered.
"You disgusting whore son, I am telling you to stop!"
Minato widened his eyes, anger boiling inside when Nyx insulted his dead mother. He looked back with a snarl but reminded himself that it was Hamuko and he couldn't attack her. "Tch!" he clasped his ears shut and kicked a bit of dust backwards before speeding off again.
"Keep running..."
"Don't hurt her..."
"Never going to hurt Hamuko..."
"No matter what..."
His chants were broken and his heart jumped to his throat when he heard another cry coming from somewhere very near.
"HELP!"
Minato had to stop briefly when he heard that voice, sounded like a little girl bawling and begging for help.
"Shit," Minato bit his lip, clenching his fists as he looked around, locating a bunch of cultists and zombies standing around someone, most likely the little girl he heard earlier.
What on earth were the sickos trying to do?
Minato looked back and saw Hamuko coming into view, a good distance between him and her and he did not wanted to lose the lead he had on her but at the same time...
"Please help!" the girl cried again and Minato exhaled. No. There was no way he was leaving a little girl like that. He looked back and cursed, speeding over to the crowd of her minions. confident he could knock them out, save the girl and still run off before Hamuko could put her hands around him.
Minato tore through the zombies and the cultists, easily knocking them out with one blow each. He kicked their unconscious bodies away and crouched down to console the sobbing girl who was barely 10 years old, covered in ichor and blood and after seeing that, Minato was thankful he did not leave her for dead.
"Are you okay?" Minato asked, healing her wounds with a few spells. "It's alright, you'll be okay!"
The girl stopped screaming and hung her head low, briefly going quiet before she looked up with a sick smile, freezing Minato in place.
"All hail Nyx..." the girl whispered and pulled out a knife from her pocket and Minato, who was shocked as well as mortified could not dodge out of the way and blade was drilled into his shoulder, forcing out a grunt of pain and a vicious growl as he glared at the girl who was all smiles, a cultist much like the other people he had knocked out.
"You little brat..." Minato hissed, reaching out to grab her but it was too late-
Hamuko finally caught up to the blunet and slammed her knee against his spine, brutally, drawing out a scream this time as she held him down and looked over at the little girl who bowed at her, worshiping the Night Queen before quickly leaving the two alone.
"Did you think you could get away?" Hamuko whispered, dragging the knife down his shoulder, chuckling when Minato shivered in pain. She pulled the knife out and held it up, ready to impale the back of his neck but Minato managed to roll away, only to get kicked into a nearby building as Hamuko followed him and knocked the breath out of his lungs.
"Dammit," Minato coughed out blood. "Trolled by a little girl..." he cursed his luck and got to his feet, cornered by the Night Queen who was walking slowly, confident he couldn't escape her now.
"Get ready to bow," she whispered and charged-
Minato shivered, knowing he was in a world of pain again but there was no other way. He gave up and held his guard, closing his eye when the first punch was thrown.
...
"Minato-kun is caught!"
The sleep was briefly knocked away from the eyes of the persona users as Fuuka blared into their minds, sending them on high alert, especially Sho who powered his way out of the tentacles and ran forward, summoning his persona and joining the others to take the God out as quickly as possible.
Hypnos chuckled and hardened the long whip like extensions growing out of his head, making them as hard as iron. He dodged the incoming rush of personas and started tearing through them with several painful shots and thanks to the exhaustion of the teenagers, their personas rapidly faded after a few shots as their concentration was compromised.
The persona users stumbled backwards, rubbing their eyes and running forward once again, swinging with their weapons but much like before-
Hypnos dodged most of their attempts, firing back with spells and more brutal shots onto their bodies, knocking them backwards to keep the numbers around him to a minimum.
"Persona!"
Caesar spawned out of Akihiko's soul and bolted forward, swinging his sword-
Hypnos looked around and backed off to avoid the other two Gods rushing at him, the personas of Sho and Junpei. The two immediately gave chase to the God of Sleep, briefly pushing him on the defensive and battering his stick like figure with spells and swords-
Hypnos grabbed onto the throats of Caesar and Tsukiyomi, drilling the extensions into the chest of Junpei's persona as the capped teen screamed in pain, feeling a throbbing pain spreading across his soul as his persona was ripped to pieces from within-
Hypnos snapped the other two personas in half and screeched out loud, rocking the place as more personas came his way. The shout managed to stun the users as the God of Sleep flew up, raining down another blizzard of spells down on the teenagers and their personas, eliciting more screams as the place exploded due to the build up of magic and elements-
"Minato..." Sho shook his head and got up, nursing his injuries.
"Minato-san..." Aigis got to her feet, panting slightly.
Hypnos came back down and started the assault again, causing the surroundings to sway back and forth before bolting ahead, looking to break more of their bones but Sho and Aigis dodged and countered his relentless attack, firing back with bullets and slashes that managed to harm him a bit but they were still getting pushed backwards-
Aigis ducked and finally caught a single strand, jerking it harshly and ripping it clean off, launching it back at Hypnos who staggered backwards and growled out loud as Sho tore into his body with relentless slashes-
"Persona!"
A horde of different personas crashed into Hypnos and pushed him against the walls, latching on and then exploding in a tornado of spells and almighty energy that finally drew a demonic howl from the entity, the first real sign of pain as he struggled to get out of the cyclone of spells-
"He can bleed too," Sho said.
"KEN!"
He looked back to see the little brat knocked out, snoring on the floor as the sleep got too much for his senses.
Sho clicked his tongue and looked around, noticing the eyes of almost everyone sans Aigis were blood red due to the build up of Hypno's magic. They struggled with their weakened senses as Hypnos powered his way out of the tornado and screeched out loud-
"You made me mad!" he howled at the teenagers, a red hue spreading over the darkened world, piling up more exhaustion on their bodies. A few of them stumbled, briefly closing their eyes but waking up because Minato was out there, getting beaten to a bloody paste by Nyx.
Hypnos focused his attention on Yukari and smirked. One healer was down, he just had to take care of the other one. He blew the other persona users to the side with another torrent of spells and glided over to Yukari who gave up and pulled out her bow, launching a number of arrows for the incoming God-
Hypnos was clipped a few times and stopped briefly, firing back with a large volume of tentacles and Yukari shrieked out loud, dodging the damn things like the plague. She cut one off by stabbing an arrow and unloaded a bullet into her temple-
"ISIS!"
Hypnos endured the buffeting gust of wind that pushed him back slightly and a growl escaped his throat as someone dug into his body from the back, digging the blades in and shredding through his flesh. The God quickly flung his hair around, smacking away the nearby teenagers before focus his attention back on the archer-
Yukari shrieked some more when a number of tentacles were wrapped around her waist and she was lifted off the ground. "Get these things off me!" she shouted, actually going crazy and shooting a number of arrows in Hypno's direction as she was terrified of the current situation.
Hypnos staggered back briefly but managed to lift up his blindfold. Yukari widened her eyes and a flash later, she was knocked out, then tossed far away by the God who laughed and faced the other teenagers, now sure he could finish them as their healers were in dreamland.
"Fuck!" Sho cursed. "Healers are down now..." he looked around and bit his lip when he noticed his other team mates, just begging for a good sleep. Even himself was no better, barely able to keep himself up.
Aigis was the only one not affected by the magic. She took her stance and cloaked herself in blue mist, summoning her persona to launch another attack. Hypnos smirked and shifted his focus on the android as the rest were nothing to him. He was not as strong or as brutal as Death but he had his own tricks, he was the God of Sleep and no mortal could fight back the sweet embrace for long.
...
Minato gasped and backed off to avoid a flurry of kicks and punches, occasionally blocking and deflecting the blows but Hamuko managed to clip him more than he dodged, knocking the breath out of his lungs-
"Ugh," he grunted and weaved through another shot that was surely thrown with the intention of taking his head off. He blocked the body kick with his arms and stumbled back, immediately moving his head to avoid the follow up. He briefly thought about striking back but shook his head, mortified at the thought that popped up-
Hamuko roared back and grabbed a hold of his shoulder, plowing forward and smashing his back against a nearby building, brutally ramming the back of his head against the structure before going back to his eyes, looking to gouge them out of the sockets-
Minato cried and grabbed her wrists, stomping onto the ground and evoking a layer of smoke that managed to stun Hamuko, making her release the hold around him. He quickly took the chance and bolted past her-
Hamuko came back and threw him into a nearby window-
"Ugh," Minato removed the shards of glass from his face and got dragged back by Hamuko, suffering another brutal shower of punches on his spine, followed by stab real close to his spinal cord. "Shit!"
Ryoji wasn't kidding. Nyx was far more brutal. While Ryoji opted to play around, Nyx went for kill shots without strain. She had repeatedly targeted his eyes and spinal, trying to disable him and leave him groveling for mercy on the ground-
"Fuck!" Minato cried in pain, drawing out a demented laugh from the possessed redhead as she exhaled and kept trying to find his spine with her knife. MInato clenched his fist and buffed his body with more speed spells and just bolted forward, the blade shredding through most of his back but he managed to escape his grip-
"UGH!"
He stumbled as blood gushed out of the nasty wound on his back, dripping down his frame and wasting on the ground. He panted and Hamuko stood up, running the blood stained knife over her clothes and body, staining herself with his blood and looking to get some more.
Minato gritted his teeth. Cheap intimidation tactics were not going to work on him. He was freezing and in horror but for a completely different reason. The concern was holding him back, not the fear. If this was anyone else, Junpei, Mitsuru or Sho, he would have snapped midway through but not against Hamuko.
The redhead bolted for him again, shredding through his flesh with the knife in her grip but Minato managed to save his vital parts, briefly catching her wrist which earned him anothe brutal kick in his gut-
Hamuko came back and drilled the knife into his shoulder again-
Minato growled and glared in her direction, eyes festering with vengeance. He curled his hand into a fist but stopped mid-way through-
"No..."
Hamuko took advantage of the conflict and came very close to stabbing his right eye but Minato moved his head, suffering a gash on his temple instead-
Another kick sent him flying but he landed on his feet, looking around for a route of escape.
"Come forth!" Hamuko shouted, summoning the shadows with a flick of a wrist. Minato clicked his tongue and crossed his arms to endure the charge of the numerous shadows, crying out in pain as his body was ripped with blades and punches but he held on-
"Orpheus Telos!"
A quake from the lyre smashing to the ground blew the shadows into the air, ichor raining down from their bodies but the quake had no effect on Hamuko as she rushed forward, focusing on his eyes like before-
MInato started dodging yet again, moving his head and body to save himself from the constant knife thrusts, sometimes even shoving her backwards but she kept coming forward like a demon, hell bent on disabling him.
A headbutt nearly knocked him down and Minato scampered to avoid a kick to his throat. He got up and glanced at her mask and the splatter of HIS blood at the top, running down the stupid thing. He gritted his teeth and scowled. He always hated seeing his blood on someone else but-
"KILL HER!"
Minato blocked the voices and hung his head low. "No chance..." the voice was same as before, the same voice that told him to break and chew her fingers but he didn't back then and he certainly was not going to listen to it now.
"I fail to grasp why Thanatos had so much trouble with you," Hamuko hissed. "You are weak. Pathetic, you waste of blood and skin."
Minato gulped.
"You were born out of filth!" Hamuko screeched at him this time. "Your parents are getting burned alive in hell for giving birth to an abomination like you!"
"Don't you talk about my parents," Minato growled back. That was one line nobody was allowed to cross. Even when he was a bastard, under the influence of Death, he always held a soft spot for his parents. "Don't you dare..."
"What will you do?" Hamuko snorted. "Hit me?"
"Tch," Minato hissed, clenching his fist.
"To hell with your bastard father and whore mother!" Nyx screeched out loud, loud enough for the entire city to hear.
Minato pulled on his bangs and screeched back at her-
"Hit me!"
Minato growled and lowered his fist, face still red from the rage boiling inside.
"Pathetic!" Hamuko spat and launched herself at him and Minato shut his eyes, ashamed that he couldn't even defend his dead parents.
"I am..."
...
Aigis was on her backfoot as Hypnos relentlessly targeted her, raining down bolts from the skies to explot her weakness. She was quick enough to dodge most of them but her bullets had almost no effect on the towering entity. Her persona was way too weak and small in size to overpower the God so she was completely on the defensive.
Akihiko and Mitsuru bolted to protect her, summoning their personas and pushing the God of Sleep back, detonating a collective blast of ice and thunde which drew another howl from Hypnos as he trashed around and threw the two persona users to the side-
Sho and Junpei jumped over the two and crowded the God again, swinging with their swords and ripping open more wounds on his body that was definitely busted up than before, dripping down blood as the two hacked away-
"Palladion!"
Hypnos caught the mechanical persona and slammed it onto the two mortals near him, making both of them scream as the weight crashed down upon them-
"No!" Aigis took a step forward and was immeidately taken up by his tentacles, pulling on her limbs to rip them out of their joints. The android screamed and tried her best to power her way out but she was way too weak to fight back against the God.
The other four persona users slammed into the God, forcing him to release Aigis. They held their evokers against their tembles and sent Hypnos flying away with another fusion spell of elements. The blast drew another horrible screech of pain but...
"Dammit," Akihiko stumbled, barely able to see out of his eyes as they were flickering shut. "No..."
Mitsuru panted, holding onto the boxer for support.
"This stupid sleep," Sho huffed. "I can't keep this..."
Hypnos was busted up but...
The God rose up again, smirking as the teenagers were beyond exhausted, just above ready to sleep. His work was nearly done now, got him a few bruises but it was all worth it. The android was pathetically weak and the rest were too drained to do anything.
"Minato is..." Fuuka whispered, choking back on the sobs.
"Dammit," Sho stumbled. Minato was obviously in real trouble. He couldn't imagine what Nyx was doing to him right now. He wanted to get out of the tower and save him but Hypnos was not going to allow it, hell he couldn't even see the damn door.
"He won't last long... Nyx is brutailizing him..."
"Great," Akihiko panted, darkness flooding into his vision but he snapped his eyes open, almost falling to the ground. "Is this... the end?"
"I knew we couldn't take on a God without him," Junpei lamented. "I told you guys earlier..."
Sho looked down. His life goal right now was to catch up to Minato but truth was that he was nowhere near him. Hypnos was far weaker than Ryoji but without Minato around, they couldn't even put him down.
"This is the end," Hypnos grabbed onto Aigis again and the android struggled briefly, silenced when he electrocuted her and threw her down like trash, flinging her over to the two healers. "You will pay the price of defying us."
"Dammit," the persona users said in unison because there was no way out now.
...
Minato was repeatedly smashed into the buildings, not getting a breather as Hamuko dragged him back and kept sending him head and neck first into the structures, laughing and cackling in glee whenever she heard a crack from his bones.
"Worthless!"
Minato escaped her grip and she pulled him back by grabbing a fistful of blue hair, grabbing his cheek and smashing his temple into the ground.
"Pathetic!"
Minato struggled to get up and screamed in pain again, the same knife shredding into the same wound as before, twisting and turning inside his flesh as he squirmed to get away. They had battled for barely a few minutes and Nyx had left him beaten and bloodied. He wanted to dodge every hit but the mask had powered Hamuko even above his level and he couldn't compete with that, at least not without damaging her and slowing her down.
Hamuko grabbed a fistful of his hair again and shoved his face into the dirt, stomping down on the back and keeping him down. She was reminding the foolish mortal of his place and now, the time for punishment had arrived.
"Hope your parents are watching this," Hamuko taunted him again. "Your miserable and worthless parents!"
"GRRR!"
"I hope they are getting defiled by the demons in hell," she kept shouting. "I know they are. I also know they are also cursing themselves for giving birth to a waste like you!"
"Stop..." Minato warned and got his face pushed down again by a boot to the back.
"Keep counting," Hamuko whispered, summoning a large sword into her grip, running it along the back of his neck, to give him a feel of the cold steel. "Keep your sanity if you can..."
"No," Minato widened his eye, recalling Ryoji snapping his spine in half and she was looking to do the same. "NO!"
Hamuko grinned behind the mask and stabbed the blade into his back, enjoying the loud scream of pain bursting from his vocal cords.
"1..." she was just getting started...
...
Sho skidded backwards and just after that, Junpei slumped to the floor, leaving him, Akihiko, Mitsuru and a severely damaged Aigis standing. Hypnos laughed and went back to damaging Aigis with repeated tentacles shot, hurling the android all over as the place, determined to break her like Ryoji did and this time, there would be no repairs.
"Guys... Minato is not surviving for long..."
Upon hearing that, the other three bolted, ignoring the darkness in their visions and swinging for a fatal blow-
Hypnos easily manhandled the three of them and grabbed their bodies, swinging them around like toys, smashing their bodies against each other, pulling on their limbs, looking to rip them clean off their sockets as they cried out in pain, the tentacles flaring with elemental spells that further worsened the wear and tear on their bodies before Sho ended up biting one and Hypnos launched them away-
"Fuck!" Sho cried as another storm of spells followed, smacking them into the walls and the ceiling above before they came crashing down.
"Minato..." Sho bit his lip and powered back to his feet.
"Sorry..." Mitsuru mumbled and pass out.
"Not like this..." Akihiko followed.
"HAHAHAHAHA!" The God laughed in glee as only two remained. A broken android and a half asleep male who was battered as much as the robot. "This is the end. They will be sleeping forever unless you beat me... and I do not think you can."
Sho and Aigis stared at each other and nodded. They had never interacted much but for now...
"For Minato," the two said to each other and bolted for the entity.
It was all too easy for the God as Sho was labored and Aigis was just way too damaged to move freely. The two suffered another volley of shots and spells, drawing out more screams. Sho was still able to move better but Aigis was taking more damage as the God had focused most of his attacks on her since she stood out from the rest.
Aigis was flung into the wall and slid down slowly, her system overheating and slowly shutting down.
"I..." Aigis whispered. "I am worthless as always..."
Sho was left alone to face off against the God. He looked around and Aigis was down as well. The others were still knocked out, the only one left was Fuuka who was almost crying as she yelled at them to get up because Minato was minutes away from death.
...
"55," Hamuko counted and plunged the blade into his back again, grinning at the pool of blood under her. "Are you counting?"
Minato didn't respond as he was biting on his own hand to keep himself conscious. His body was already shutting down due to the relentless abuse and he couldn't imagine how he'd wake up if he passed out, most likely she'd gouge his eyes out and break his cord to leave him paralyzed.
"56,"
"57,"
"58,"
"Keep counting, little boy," Hamuko said. "When it reaches a hundred... I will end this."
"Shit," Minato was already paralyzed as he had tried to struggle out from under her but it was of no use. His only hope was resting on Sho and the others pulling out a miracle.
...
Panting, Sho almost fell down when he attempted a lazy slash, barely having any power in it and the God laughed, flicking him away and then floating above, launching another flurry of spells that blew Sho backwards but he dug his sword into the ground and held on, wincing as the pain and the sleep was driving him insane, leaving him dangling just on the edge of consciousness and Hypnos saw that clearly.
"This is the end," Hypnos announced, sharpening a single tentacle and infusing it with his magic, sweet sleep and fatigue because Sho had somehow managed to stay awake so far. Now, he was looking to put an end to this and freely torment the others by haunting their dreams, killing them in their sleep because they deserved a cruel fate and end.
Sho cursed and took a step forward, dropping his swords and clenching his fists.
"This for you, Minato," he whispered and took off running, loading on his right fist to put everything that he had left.
Hypnos screeched and the single tentacle was hurled in Sho's direction-
"GACK!"
He couldn't avoid.
"HAHAHAH!"
Hypnos grinned and Sho looked down, already aware of what had happened.
The single strand of hair was embedded into his chest, opening up a wound but that was not all-
Sleep, heavy sleep was flooding into his senses and his vision blackened.
"Sweet dreams,"
Hypnos whispered and knocked Sho out with another shot to the side of his face, sending him into the abyss below-
"I'm sorry..." Sho managed to utter those last words before a heaviness came over his being and he started slipping, welcomed by complete darkness.
"So..."
"..."
"MINATO-KUN!"
"Sorry..."
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
"SHO!"
"Huh...?"
Sho did not know where he was, most likely he was dreaming but he still caught that voice, that familiar voice, made him shiver and forced a small smile on his face as he recognized it instantly.
"Mina..."
"..."
"..."
"Minazuki?" he said outloud, feeling a warm grip on his wrist that made him sigh. "Is that... really you?"
"Long time no see..."
"..."
"What have you gotten yourself into?"
"Hell.." Sho replied, still seeing nothing but darkness but the voice was coming from inside, like before.
"Why?"
"..."
"WHY?"
"I..."
"WHY!?"
"Minato!" Sho snapped. "Because of him!"
"Are you really willing to fight a God just because of him?" Minazuki hissed. "Look at yourself!"
"..."
"He has made you soft," Minazuki said with disappointment in his tone. "He ruined you..."
"Grrr..."
"Remember your purpose," Minazuki said. "No bonds, no companions, just you. Nobody else in this world."
"I..."
"YOUR PURPOSE!"
"You..."
"YOUR PURPOSE!"
"My purpose is to help Minato!" Sho finally screamed back, his voice echoing over the abyss and the echo left him speechless. Did he really just say that? Did he say out loud that his life purpose was to help Minato?
"Hahahaha..."
Sho was still silent, not responding to the cold laugh of Minazuki echoing in the darkness.
"He has changed you, it seems," Minazuki chuckled. "Just like he changed me in our final battle..."
Sho blinked. "He... did...?"
"MY purpose has always been to help you, guide you, lead to a place which keeps you happy," Minazuki said and Sho felt the grip around his wrist tighten. "I ask you again Sho... What is your purpose?"
Sho thought back to the roller coaster of a year he had endured. He had seen death, misery and chaos before, he had seen much more than the average teenager and all those experiences had hardened him... Until he came to this city. Here, he went up against beings even beyond him. Sure, he was brutal and merciless but then there was Minato, the psychopathic wreck who was legit terrifying at times. The more Sho would hit him, the more excited he would get and repay back with twice the brutality. Then, came along Makoto, the horrifically powerful manifestation of a decade worth of grief and misery, something Sho could not comprehend and last but not the least, at the end came Ryoji, the insane God who was unlike anything he had faced before.
Ryoji was a level beyond and that was a theme going on, Takaya, Minato, Makoto and finally Ryoji and Nyx. Every past opponent of his was just more psychotic and demented than the last one and during the battles, Sho began to question himself, wondering what he up against and at times, he even took inspiration from those around him, to keep himself going before going against entities beyond his comprehension had ruffled him, rattled him and maybe, just maybe, had indeed made him soft.
"Help Minato..." Sho whispered back, recalling the first smile Minato gave him, the faint and friendly smile after their final battle on the bridge and at that point, Sho knew he had finally found a friend. "I gotta help him... Pull him out of this mess. This was my mistake... I made him cry and I swear, I will fix this..."
"..."
"I lost you, Minazuki," Sho said outloud. "I am not losing another friend..."
"Hahahaha," Minazuki laughed and Sho felt himself getting pulled out of the land of dreams. "Very well then. As long as you are happy, boy."
"I will be," Sho said, light blinding his eyes as he was pulled out of the darkness, briefly looking up to see a figure holding him. "After I set this right..."
"Your purpose is to help him,"
"My purpose is to help him,"
"Let that fuel you and hasten yourself towards your purpose!"
Sho could feel the himself getting back into his body, his tired and exhausted body but this time, it was a little different.
"Call him!"
"Tsukuyomi!"
...
Hypnos was surprised as Sho did not fall on his back, he stumbled backwards but managed to keep standing, short breaths and huffs escaping his mouth but he was awake and that was surprise as nobody had survived that attack before.
Sho huffed out some more and stood upright, head still lowered but a certain power pulsing inside his body.
"Stay down!" Hypnos yelled but the redhead didn't move, kept his stare low and just picked up his blades, blue mist swirling around him slowly as his persona was yelling at him to summon him.
"Per..."
"So..."
"NA!"
A tornado of red blended in blue and the mixture coiled around Sho who lifted his head up to give a grin, no hint of sleep in his eyes as he evoked his persona from within, shaking the whole dimension as Tsukuyomi roared from within.
"Tsukuyomi no mikoto!"
Hypnos took a step back when the persona emerged on the battlefield and howled towards the ceiling, finally forcing some of the darkness to dissipate but the most shocking thing was the appearance of the Lunar God.
"He is different," the God of sleep muttered, actually a step back because there was finally someone to rival him in size. "He has changed."
Tsukuyomi was much larger in size and seemed more threatening than before as he was completely clad in black opposed to the mixture of red and black previously. His head was covered by a horned helmet and, showing just a bit of his light blue eyes that were glowing behind the helmet. Overall, he looked way different than before the stark change had caught the God off guard-
Sho took a deep breath and glared at the half naked entity.
"Time to die,"
Upon those words, Tsukiyomi bolted, pulling out his much larger sword and closing the distance within seconds, shredding through the incoming tentacles and ripping open gaping gashes on the body of the God who cried in pain, loudly, for the first time, forcing a grin on Sho's face as he followed his persona and crashed into the entity, mimicking the attacks of his persona above him as the two tore through the already thin frame of Hypnos, dissolving more of the darkness around them-
Hypnos pulled back and fired more spells in desperation, all of them being smacked to the side by the larger entity who crowded Hypnos again, digging the massive blade into his stomach and forcing another howl-
"Minato, hang on," Sho whispered as his persona launched the beaten God into the air and Sho summoned a vortex of darkness around him. He pointed his blade towards the God in the air and gave a manical smile, ready to rip the bastard in two.
"GOD ANNIHILATION!"
The dark energy under Sho sprang up in the form of several dark spikes that repeatedly struck Hyonos and kept him suspended in mid-air, shredding through his stomach and back over and over again, increasing in number with every second and digging into almost every part of his body as the God's screams were drowned out by the laugh of Sho who widened his eyes, the irises glowing as the darkness kept increasing, completely covering the God as the sharp spikes kept stabbing him nonstop-
"This is it!" Sho growled, aware that the others were waking up. The assault only increased grew more intense and rapid and Sho held out his fist again, summoning his persona once more. The others marveled at the change and Sho punched his fist forward, his persona following his command and bolting towards the God-
Drawing out his sword-
Cleaving the entity in two-
Fading into the darkness-
"Take cover!" Sho shouted and the rest did just that, before the building darkness under Sho detonated and finally dealt the killing blow to the God of Sleep who gave the loudest screech yet, heard all over the city.
...
Hamuko and Minato both heard the scream and the blunet sighed out in peace, knowing that his friends had managed to slay the God while Hamuko was frozen in surprise, pulling the blade out of Minato and walking ahead in a daze, not believing that the mortals had beaten someone like Hypnos-
"How could this...?" she growled, clenching her fists.
First Death.
Now Hypnos?
Were they really mortals?
What were they capable of!?
"They... They are going to die,"
"Ugh," Minato quietly stood on his feet. He had the perfect shot to attack her from behind after the abuse she rained on him but he backed off, still refusing to hurt Hamuko. Meanwhile, Hamuko could only stare as the top of the tower exploded and darkness burst through, raining down from the skies-
"They are going to die right now," Hamuko whispered. "And their leader will be the first to follow." she looked back and he was gone.
"What the!?" Hamuko looked around but he was nowhere to be found. The bastard had run off somewhere but he couldn't have gotten far since he was so damaged. "Come out!" she commanded, yelling out loud and her voice reached him.
Minato was hiding behind a small shop, hand on his mouth to block out the little noises of pain as he was absolutely thrashed, almost seconds away from passing out but the fact that his friends had succedeed gave him some hope and now he just had to slip away unnoticed-
"You come out now," Hamuko said with a quiet but deadly voice, summoning another knife into her grip. "Or I will do something you will regeret."
Minato was just about to move-
"To this girl," Hamuko said and Minato froze in his tracks, quivering in his boots.
"No..."
"If I can recall, you love her scar-less body, do you not?" Hamuko mocked, running the tip of the blade along her arms. "You also promised her that you would not let anyone leave another scar on her, did you not?"
"No.." Minato stared chewing his finger, paling a ghostly white because he knew what Nyx was looking to do and there was no way he was going to allow that. He looked back and almost collapsed down when he saw the blade moving along her stomach. "No..." he panted, afraid like never before.
"Come out or I am going to scar her," Hamuko warned. "I am going to ruin her."
Minato was just seconds away from jumping out in the open but an arm wrapped around his waist and a hand clasped his mouth shut. He struggled but he was dragged back by someone who easily pulled him away, shooting a blob of darkness in Hamuko's direction to shatter the blade in her grip-
Hamuko hissed and followed him but when she reached the spot behind the building, the two had already left, leaving a hint of fading darkness.
"Tch," she clicked her tongue. "No more playing around. They are not going to beat Nemesis." she looked up at the falling moon and shook her head. Death was growling to put his hands around the mortals, much more eager to take lives than ever before and now, she could see why they got on his nerves.
"Find them," Nyx screeched out loud to the skies. "Find them and kill them. KILL THEM ALL!"
..
Sho heard the command of Nyx but shook his head as most of his focus was still on handling Minato who was trying to power his way out and rush back to stop Nyx from scarring Hamuko-
"Calm down," Sho said, holding him down and since he was so injured, Sho was easily able to hold him in place. "We got them!"
"Hamuko!" Minato shouted and was immediately silenced as Sho clasped his mouth shut.
"Those glass shards, we got them!" Sho yelled into his ear and upon that, Minato calmed down somewhat and stopped struggling as Yukari crouched down and presented a number of shards before him.
"He did it," Sho panted.
Minato pulled out the mirror slowly and started putting the pieces in and they were magically glued to the golden frame, not coming off despite Minato shaking it a few times. He closed his eyes and sighed, actually hugging the mirror close because this was his only chance to bring Hamuko back.
"One more to go," Mitsuru breathed out, looking over at Sho. "You did amazing out there."
"Yeah," Sho said, looking back down at Minato who was still looking down, trying not to sob because Nyx's threat had rattled him badly. Sho had to give him props as he took an ungodly beating just to buy them time and didn't even attack back once but all the insults, damage and depression was definitely taking a toll on him. "Let's head for the next one."
"Come on Aigis," Fuuka said and Aigis nodded at them, far away from the rest. She followed after them with her head hanging low.
"I..."
She was useless on the battlefield.
"I cannot shed a tear for him..."
"I cannot bring Hamuko-san back..."
"I cannot defeat my enemies..."
"I am useless..."
Aigis came to a stop and winced, looking ahead to see Sho and Junpei carrying Minato who was nigh unconscious and that brought back cruel memories.
"I failed you again, Minato-san..."
"I apologize..."
"I am so sorry..."
She stopped and rubbed her eyes, still far away from her team mates.
"Why was I even made...?" she wondered and fell silent, desperately begging for Minato to call her but he never did.
That's done. Hopefully you liked the battle, the kill was quick but... Hypnos was the weakest in the game but over here, there was a gimmick of sleep so it was kinda hard for the folks to kill him. If not for his magic, he would have gone down more easily. It would have been stupid to ignore Hypno's command over sleep but luckily, Nemesis doesn't have any gimmicks so the battle will be more intense with everyone getting a shot.
Poor Minato. Got trolled by a girl, beaten the shit out of and then traumatized but this is persona, the protagonist has to suffer and rise beyond. The Gods here are cruel (as evident that by Nyx cursing his dead parents) but that's exactly how they were in myths and I'm looking to replicate that. This will be brutal and cruel, like I've said many times before.
Sho kicked ass tho.
Anyway, you know what I'm gonna say : JUST. REVIEW.
And I'll see you soon. I'm also going to move this to the M section because... well, the lemon and a pretty gruesome moment coming up.
Jaa Nee!