Persona: Be Your True Mind

by BarryBurt0n

COMPLETE! FINAL CHAPTERS UP! A novelization of SMT Persona of the MegaTen Series. Some scenes are inspired from the manga with the same subtitle and I have some of my own scenes, dialogues, and a few additions mixed in. Enjoy, I promise I'll see this through to the end.

24. Chapter 24: Deva Yuga Part 3: Kandori

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or any content from the Megami Tensei series as a whole. I do not claim to own anything. All contents' right belong to their respectful owners. Once again, I do not claim to own anything.

NOTE: This introduction was written literally two years ago before you know the hold indefinite hiatus things.

FIRST THINGS FIRST: I would like to deeply apologize for the five month delay. I honestly cannot give an excuse just simply take my lumps, because I have no really reason as to why I have not worked on this in so long. I was tooling around with writing other stories whilst this was on hiatus, but that did not go according to plan and I just haven't had the motivation exactly to continue this, but several months of rest and I'm rearing to take the long haul of the final seven chapters. I'm gonna persevere and rock the seven out and if all goes according to plan the world will see the Chapter 27-30 by the end of 2013. Now here are the original introductory author notes I had written a long time ago. Enjoy. Well, my moping over the last chapter has subsided and I'm ready to do this chapter which will probably be nearly as long as the last two chapters. Last chapter was 12000 words and the one before that was 11000 and the one before that was 10000 words, rough estimation for each. This is Kandori's climactic boss battle but it is not the end of the story at all. We still have six chapters after this Chapter 27-30 are the final boss and epilogue, the chapters before that are wrapping up the rest of the plot and setting us on the course to the final boss, but are strictly written from the game. I should mention right when I started this fic, I believe it was the second review I had, someone said I was not the first person to do a novelization of this game, I thought what the reviewer was referring to was the actual real-life novelization of Megami Ibunroku Person called Megami Ibunroku Persona Shadow Maze, but I was wrong and in my travels on the site I discovered the original novelization which was only three chapters in and then was stopped, but the kicker is it has a self-insert into the whole story, which if I weigh the changes I've made against the concept of self-inserts, I don't think my filler and shoe-horning was terrible, because once again the bosses I had to work with were difficult. The only ones that we're unchanged we're Takeda, Tesso, Harem Queen was a boss fight but I made it slightly altered because of how the boss fight in the actual game works, Kandori's fight both stages, and the final boss. Take note these are most of the bosses in the game, I only changed two, and added six: the Four Signs, Kohryu, Metatron, Norn, and Alice, though Alice is a real encounter in the game just not story related and most of those were for revelations purposes, like I said shoehorning and filler but I don't think it ruined the story. I didn't make any renditions to the story or the set-up, I just gave each characters a back story and introduced the alignment dogma because the entire game of Megami Ibunroku Persona, SMT: Persona on the PS1 and PSP are HIGHLY related much to the old style of Megaten, First person dungeon crawling, guns and melee weapons, etc. Tamaki Uchida from last chapter is the Female Protagonist of SMT: If…the game that was basically the protoype of Persona and because of this she was put in the game. The reason for the alignment dogma is based on the fact if you want the good ending and not the bad ending, aka progress the story to its true complex, you HAVE TO make good choices throughout the game, you HAVE TO, aka you have to pick choices of right and wrong to denote what pseudo-alignment you wish to follow to define what ending you want: the Chaotic ending that prevents you from getting the conclusion of the story or the Neutral/Lawful ending where you see the entirety of the rest story in bulk and can continue to play after the certain point. So it fits hand and hand, I don't operate under the assumption this novelization is amazing, I operate under the prospect that it is one of the few novelization found on the Internet and that out of the ones here I am the farthest and the most determined to showcase the old school, classic, and creative game to you the users of this site and the Internet. I'm not egoistical, I'm not getting on a soap box or stand, I'm just stating I'm finishing this novelization, it will be completed I guarantee it. With that aside, welcome to Persona: Be Your True Mind Chapter Twenty Four.

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Chapter Twenty Four: Deva Yuga Part 3 Kandori

Takahisa Kandori was tired. Why? He asked himself. He should be an erudite man, relishing in his victories, savoring the taste of God-ship as he sat on a scarlet cushion in his former office, now his new throne room. Why was he ruefully compacted? Why was he not absorbed in his diluted Elysium known as Deva Yuga? For what reason could the belligerent, cackling demon, entitled as the President of S.E.B.E.C. and God of the current era, not be in complacency? Perhaps it was the hellions, the ambitious, strident brats climbing his tower to defy his ruling that climbed upon his smug exuberance? Maybe even their choking advance, their closing in.

He had lost his fabricated Metatron. He had lost his vengeful Huang Long. He had lost the deceived Alice to Reiji Kido, his churlish brother no less. The twisted stab wound in his abdomen received the addition of a peppering of salt, Metatron had healed them, restored them to perfect states and they were on their way up the stairs, fire in their bellies. He heard the words of the black-haired boy, their de facto leader with the simple earring. The boy mumbled faked words of encouragement at Reiji Kido's unknown fate down the hole which had sealed itself over. He believed, or at least wanted to believe the scarred beastly boy was breathing, potentially injured but breathing. Kandori assumed it was the boy's attunement with the wind via his Persona. He heard the robust, rough, somber breaths escaping the haggard lungs a floor below. The huffing of a chest puffed up with sorrow and depression as he progressed. Few in their enclave protested in moving onward to finish the fight, figuring putting a stop to the source of the issues plaguing Mikage and the world will in sort help Reiji. They were incapable of reaching him. They had no choice but to go on.

"It's what the bastard-child would have wanted anyway?" Kandori sighed, he sensed the loss of his creation, Aki reported to him the conversation of the troubling students. His Mirror of Chaos was absent, previously against his calligraphy walls, the stark reflector, his omnipotent tool, was present within the host room for the Deva System. He gazed at the empty charcoal colored tiles composing nearly another average-sized room upon his throne.

"Its purpose was served. I do not wish to lay eyes on it again. I have no need for such a thing." He repeated in his mind, silently cursing fidelity. The faithfulness in the earring boy, the faithfulness from that Maki Sonomura, but more importantly he cursed his own loyalty. "He promised me the world, he promised me my dream. I am a God. He delivered. His Mirror, his ideas to use Nicolai to build the Deva System, the most suitable host to bring to birth the necessary components to make me the tallest tower. The highest above those underneath, above those subjects bellow, above the empowered who reign above the subjects. I kneel to no one as I am now. They kneel to me. Where is the satisfaction? The ecstasy is gone."

The Baoding balls often found twirling in the palm of Kandori's grizzly hand rested motionlessly on the low set table at his seated hip alongside his quenched saber. "Those damn silver balls, they're insignificant! Useless! What reason do I have to strengthen this goddamn hand?! To wield a weapon of a mortal man?! It's useless! Everything is useless!"

Kandori's acerbic reaction commanded his clenched sword arm to slam on the oak wood table, frightening the prancing Aki, the darkly dressed child running around the bronze lamps on each side of his throne room. "And her, her use has worn; now she is irrelevant. I was the sparkling silhouetted father she needed. Exploiting her naivety serves little purpose. Her part is done I might as well cast here back from the pond I fished her." Aki continued having her fun, blissfully ignoring Kandori's steaming. "Though she never questions me, she's loyal to me…she isn't real! She's just a damned harvested piece of ps—"

They burst through the double doors, the eight of them, each eager to put an end to his era of mind-controlled domination. "The cavalry of humanity has arrived."

"We finally got you, you bastard!" Masao exclaimed, brandishing his hatchet.

"He's upset…he must be kicking himself for letting the spawn fall."

Aki's face scrunched up as Kandori's maintained being lax. "You guys are so aggravating! I won't let you get in my Daddy's way!" Her usual smart tone drove her to point to the ceiling, prepared to use her magic.

Kandori waved his right arm at his flaring "daughter" lazily. "…That's enough, Aki. Stay back." His voice was weak, lacking his famous, prideful bite.

Aki gasped, solemnly speaking to Kandori. "But, Daddy…" Her disappointment showed on her rosy cheeks. Her boiling abhorrence of the band of Persona Users emanate in her twitching smile.

"She is a pest, a worthless tool now." Kandori directed his finger at the wall behind him. "Wait in the other room. I'll be with you soon."

"…Okay, Daddy," Aki's bangs shadowed her eyes, vanishing in midair to the unnoticeable addition in Kandori's office.

"She would not raise a spell to me. She is a delightfully loyal pawn on the chess board, a pawn who cannot be traded in for the other pieces I have lost, a pawn who will lose out against each knight and bishop."

"Stop causing all this pain! Turn everything back to normal." Maki Sonomura's plea struck Kandori's stony skin.

"She speaks instantly, booming like a repeating speaker. How is her heart and will made of such thick iron yet still retain the feeble, oblivious cries of unfairness at the world? The incorrigible Ideal version of Maki Sonomura retains similar characteristics in all aspects as the original."

Kandori exhaled sharply, replying to the demanding shrill. "…Don't worry. I won't do anything further." He started undoing the front of his black silk suit, his listless pupils noting the disorientation his truthful intentions ignited.

Masao Inaba stomped his foot, whitening his knuckles. "What shit are you trying to pull? You gonna beg for your life now?!"

Kei Nanjo retracted his sighted rifle, pursing his lips, his focused brain working the puzzle yet again. The comedic duo Hidehiko Uesugi and Yuka Ayase were even standing down, surprisingly having been paying attention. Eriko Kirishima tugged at her ascot; Maki Sonomura loosened her bow string; and the boy with the earring Naoya Todo pushed his katana back inwards to the scabbard attached horizontally to the back of his waistband.

The man's next remark threw the eight into cogitation. "…What are you living for?"

"Huh!" Ayase and Brown played a quizzical smile. Naoya and Kei wore a demure polish. Yukino, Eriko, and Maki were indifferent. Mark shared the indignant scowl, often worn by Reiji.

"I'll enlighten them to my thinking...my perspective…my decision…my actions. They'll realize both sides defeat."

"People aren't strong enough to live without a goal. Everyone wants something. No matter how small the desire…its gives them the strength to carry on. But…if every desire is fulfilled, what's left to strive for? When one's wishes have been granted the only thing that awaits…is a bottomless solitude; an eternal emptiness." The annals of Kandori's thoughts were placated with shattered sentiments. He had carried on becoming what he is, a god higher than all. He fulfilled his desires and was left with himself, his solitude catered by a deceived child, alone in as he said an "eternal emptiness."

He resumed quickly, forgetting his hounding troubles, delivering his therapy, his solution to never be the lonely, hollow shell he had become. "Then wouldn't it be better if one chose to not to ascend the stairs of desire? That way…one's dreams are kept alive."

"The opposition ponders their thoughts. The king is in check, surrounded by a bombarding line of pawns…how pathetic…how poetic…They can't even speak, the evil man, the antagonizing President, has devolved to apathy, reciting his diatribes he has been skewering himself with for the past hours. Perhaps I should conclude, ask them what is important then…kill them all."

The diminished Tower waited, wanting to pick the exact words to describe his feelings. "I…kept ascending that stair to destroy this worthless world," Life carried no meaning except for Takahisa Kandori to be the tallest. "…but it no longer matters. Right now…nothing is beyond my grasp." His void pupils, quivering joules, produced a brief laugh at his own dismay. "Hah. The wind of solitude and emptiness blow within me…such is a god's lot." He was no proud tower, or almighty god, merely a withering fool.

"Maki Sonomura is fidgeting. I truly want to know if this Ideal version bares a similar burden as the original. Speechless again, I don't understand. What I say is the equivalent of a cur whining, whimpering that his mother's breast has been taken away from his mouth…yet…they intake my complaints. The boy with the earring, the one who decided to release me from the DEVA System chamber purely for the sake of Doctor Nicolai, he's a blank sleight and…a wild card. He's brought the unexpected; he refused to falter before the Four Signs. Now is the time to ask."

"Boy…I allowed you and your friends to come here in order to ask you all this:" Ears perked, heads turned, eyes, narrowed, lips watered, an earring was stroked.

"Why do you cling to life?"

Mark was the first to snap. "How old are you, dumbass? You don't even know that yet?" He was fed up. "We're alive so we can do the best we can, every second of every day. Being sulky all the time isn't good for anyone, man! You gotta look on the sunny side! I live to find Maki; I look on the sunny side to make sure I kick your ass!"

"To fulfill the wishes of myself, my friend, my real father, Yamaoka, to be the number one man in Japan," Kei recited, analyzing his opponent's philosophy.

"Like, to be a better person." Ayase somberly stated.

"To apologize for what I've done…to never be a coward again," Brown shook his sorrow off his brow, shoving his chin up with his trademark grin. "I'm too awesome to give up, baby!"

Yukino sighed, sneering at Brown. "To capture life's beauties…to make sure they can never be corrupted."

Eriko perked up, folding her hands at her waist. "To guard everyone closest to me," She exclaimed. "And for Nao to take me as his wife," She whispered.

Maki continued to fidget, uncomfortable at the topic. Her brimming happiness made her want to explode at the negative proclamation. "I live…" She choked, remembering she was a lone counterfeit, a fake to fit Maki Sonomura's role in Kandori's host's ideal world. "I live…to stop all the deaths and violence, to bring peace…to both worlds!"

"If Reiji Kido was here, he would tell me his reasoning would be to kill me, to end my offal bloodline." Kandori sharply exhaled, addressing Naoya. "You, boy…I haven't heard your answer yet."

Naoya was grinning as if invisible feathers were tickling his sides. His answer was readied to be launched again on this journey.

Kandori scowled. "Damn it, boy! What are you living for? Answer me!"

"I live Kandori to find my reason to live. It doesn't matter if life is worthless or sickly sour to you, finding your reason to live, your own personal motivation to carry on especially when you reach the top, achieve your dream, is part of living."

Maki clapped her palms, smiling wide. "That's right, Nao-kun! Our reasons for living…we may never understand them, but we still believe in ourselves! With or without, we're all going to live a life we won't regret!"

Kei wanted to applaud, agreeing wholeheartedly on living life with or without regrets. Yamaoka's death nearly drove him to a catatonic state, left on his knees to perish. He blamed himself; he did not command Yamaoka to return home. He did not ensure his butler's worries were for naught and that he was perfectly fine. Now, thanks to Masao Inaba, he realizes, he cannot die with regrets. He has to live for his and Yamaoka's sake.

Kei shook his head, Kandori's cold expression tearing. "Kandori…just stop this. It's painful seeing you so far out on a limb."

"What…?" Kandori asked. Kei's companion piqued the same.

"Surely you must know. The seat of power you've reached by using people is no divine throne. Deep down you know none of it was your doing."

"You miserable…!" Kandori knocked the Baoding Balls from the table, taking up his scabbard. "How dare that brat?! How dare he decipher my insecurities! How dare he insult me by saying my accomplishments were not my doing! The eldritch abomination may have given me the tools…I may have deceived Aki to use her powers…I…I…damn it!" He vibrated with scarlet rage, the Chaos taking his mind, twisting his inner thoughts to make his egotistical gauze on his wounded psyche.

"You're suffering, Kandori." Kei deduced. "You despair at your inability to live any other way."

"STOP," He yelled, clutching his temple. A nefarious voice pounded in his skull. "Come on, Guinea Pig. Come on, foolish human. Draw you sword, kill them, destroy all humanity! You're a god now!"

"The host must be like you as well Kandori. Their world is toxic, deranged, inhabited by wrathful demons. This is the host ideal representation. They find the world as worthless as you, Kandori, they find mankind as disgusting as you. That is why you chose the host personally, whether they consented or not, deep in their heart you saw the identical nature, the wish to erase mankind, to erase the worthless world. It stems from one's anxiety for the future. You recognized the anxiety, the nihilism. You took the opportunity, you made h—"

"SILENCE!" Kandori's back straightened his slim figure sturdy. "The boy discovered who the host is! Clever Guinea Pig! You're going to kill them now, Kandori! It's only fair! You are going to pay me back for the nice gifts I granted you! The plans for the DEVA System, the Mirror of Chaos, the Ideal World, before you end everything your debt is due for what I have done for you! Kill them! Kill Philemon's group of children!"

Kei caught himself; the final battle was not the opportune moment to reveal who the host was. "'I want to risk it…but I can't…if only I could disappear,' this is you Kandori. Did you think burdening all mankind with your fears would make them go away?"

The suave demon, drew his saber, let the leathery sheath hit the floor. The bubbling anger opened the door; the Chaos crept over his true mind. His alignment shifted to the peak, scarlet red, boiling hot. "Good, Guinea Pig! You let my influence take you! Don't worry, foolish human, you can still control your body, use my skills, but let's consider wavering thoughts collateral. Huh! I can't have you softening up in the middle of the massacre (A/N)!"

"Why continue rationalizing your neurosis with these grandiose principles? No one knows the foolishness of that than you."

Kandori laughed, Kei's speech meaning to be the final nail in the argument making him howl. "I cannot forgive your offenses against god! I'll cleanse you from this world!" He readied his saber, baring his teeth, a scarlet aura enveloping him, spreading forward.

Mark brought up his weapons. "Heh, looks like you're finally ready to throw down!"

"ARISE ANGELS! SPHERES OF HEAVEN! AVENGE YOUR COMPANIONS!" Kandori's order, released his aura as a wave of utter force, pushing the Persona Users to his office's modified limits. Saintly hymns, graceful harps, magnesium lights summoned to the earthly plane hundreds of YHVH's messengers. Angels and Archangels, the remaining swarms Kandori held control upon. The defiling peasants were to be baptized in holy light and sutras. Kandori's sights, his sword's newly parched tongue, aimed for the one who predicted his shockwave, the one who counterattacked his scarlet summoning aura with his own milky white.

"You foolish human, you've caged yourself in here with him! I told you to kill all the Pigs, not the alpha! And you're wasting the resources the duplicated Metatron granted you to clean up the rest!"

"I'll kill all nine, including Reiji Kido! My blade shall drink their blood! This boy is first, I'll make him the example! I will show them their inevitable punishment."

The aura pulsed against his, trying meagerly to block the push. The boy with the earring, Naoya Todo faced Kandori, the Neutral aura mixing into Kandori's scarlet, creating a bisecting barrier, a transparent dome colored red/white preventing entrance for Naoya's frightened allies.

"Nao-kun, he's trapped in there with Kandori!" Maki exclaimed.

"Brave Leader, no!" Eriko cried.

"Goddamn it, Nao, not that barrier again!" Masao cursed.

"It is like when he fought Kido. The protective structure enables them to fight until one of them loses. No interferences." Kei reminded.

"And we're stuck with the mooks who can instant-kill us!" Yukino complained.

"Aw shit! N.T.'s gonna die! He's screwed, man! Game over, man, game o—" Ayase slapped Brown.

"Like, don't say stuff like that you jerk! We can't, like, give up! The world's totally screwed if we do!"

"Ayase's right, guys!" Naoya shouted.

"Huh?!"

Naoya was looking back at his worried friends through the glassy aura. "Don't worry about me! Take care of those angels, I can handle Kandori." His daring words reached his friends, soothed their minds. Naoya was forever a quiet, shy person, as the journey progressed, he changed, grew, became bolder, outspoken, but in his character alteration one thing remained both old and new Nao shared, his promised actions. Unless beset with crippling illness, Naoya willed himself to complete what he was tasked. He discarded his MP5, he refused to kill Kandori. His mind, his alignment, his soul could not kill Kandori. He drew his katana upwards flipping it into the proper grip. He was not afraid, not anymore, his nervous hands at the card slot were gone. He would push it in on his own.

"Let's go, Kandori." He calmly spoke, his friends at war with angels.

"Can you defeat me?" Kandori stepped forward, raising his saber. "You won't get an easy death. Are you prepared for that?"

"I will defeat you, Kandori. Your ambitions are no match for ours! PERSONA!" Seimen Kongo awakened, shrieking a human battle cry. He crossed his arms, floating behind his User.

"Be careful, myself, I can sense his Persona's aura. This will not be an easy victory."

"It won't be an easy death either, partner!"

"Heh, synchronizing is useless. A low level façade stands no chance at beating an Outer God, no matter if his User acts with him!" Kandori clenched his fist as if he was ending the Baoding balls rotation. The scarlet pigments shined. "DEFEAT MY ENEMIES! NYARLATHOTEP!"

The pharaoh of centuries black past materialized. He was "slender", his limbs curved, coarse tendrils stumped as aciculate shape. His torso was the mild length of six feet, matching his appendages. His face was a plated mask, pearly smooth, perfectly oval, devoid of detail. Virulent bat wings, free of membrane, free of healthy skin, angled at seventy-five degrees, minacious, boney, presented the eldritch Outer God as "sinister." He idled behind Kandori in the same fashion as Seimen Tongo, content with his needle-like arms stretched from his sides.

"Now, he's Super Guido. (A/N)" The affection-less voice Nyarlathotep possessed taunted.

"He synchronized like we did!" Naoya exclaimed, Seimen Kongo slightly pulling back.

"His Persona is really the Crawling Chaos?! How can this be?"

"So, boy, let us see whose ambitions are stronger! MARAGIDYNE!" Nyarlathotep stabbed the air with his needles. A wakening storm of fireballs the size of lower classed comets plummeted forward at astounding speeds, converging directly at Naoya Todo.

"SHIT!" The fireballs burst at contact, erupting into a blazing wall. The twelve orbs fed their own thriving flames piling up, Naoya the pit for the hellish element to climb.

"I was hoping the fight last for at least five minutes. I overestimated him."

"Don't be daft, foolish human! The Pig is well alive!"

"What?" Kandori posed his toes.

Naoya panted, the familiar warm wall dying in height. The scorching shroud revealed Seimen Kongo's knuckles pouring a greenish eddy as a makeshift shield. "Phew! Damn that was too close!" He wiped sweat, his sleeves singed, and his katana steady.

"How did he…?" Kandori spat.

"A little Garudyne does the trick, especially when it's made of the premium oxygen your fireballs need to stay burning." Naoya explained, cracking his neck.

"He sucked in the fuel for the Maragidyne. The wall was just the back blow from his gusty shield. Clever brat, HE picked a better king than I."

Kandori brushed his own collar. "Interesting, you also can manipulate the constructs of your skills. The shapes you decide to take compared to mine however tell me I will be the victory. Fire is a demonic pleasure, fit to destroy everything. Wind is measly, a natural source which can only ravage the world in a linear path as a cylinder. I turned a barrage to a meteor shower; you made a breeze to a shield. It is clear who dies in this fight, boy!" The President of S.E.B.E.C. clenched his non-dominant hand again, the scarlet streams flashing.

"My name's Naoya and what you said changes nothing!" The young ebony-haired boy prepared himself for his enemy's next attack.

"Myself…he is right about one thing…I am no match for Nyarlathotep. He is the Crawling Chaos! He is practically invincible!"

"Relax, partner! We aren't gonna lose! We can't lose! If this Nyarla is as strong as you say, then will hit him with the strongest Skill we have! With one hundred percent of our spiritual and physical power restored thanks to Metatron, he won't see it coming! That's how fast it'll be!" Naoya raised a soot covered arms.

Seimen Kongo swallowed, his User's stubbornness shooting into him. "Yes, Myself, at the state I am now, as we are currently, if I can unleash a Garudyne in this containment, then I can spin the wind to its maximum in seconds!" He joined his self with a raised fist, the verdant tint surrounding them.

Kandori's fingers lapsed, his Skill recalled. "What are they deciding to do? What is that stance?"

"Quit standing around! Kill him, PIG!" Nyarlathotep ordered.

Kandori moved to close the gulf between them, gasped at the boy's oncoming attack. A spiraling behemoth, grassy green, foggy visible, an indoor tornado magnitude, drove the terrified demon to pale innards. "WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?"

"A cylinder with a linear path: TEMPEST!" Naoya and Seimen Kongo let it fly.

Persona: Be Your True Mind

Brown struck an Archangel away with his spear, keeping his back firmly planted up against Ayase who was whipping frantically at the oncoming flyers. "If we keep this up long enough we may be done in a thousand years!" He sarcastically spat, unloading his penultimate TMP clip into an adjacent enemy.

"Like, stop complaining and, like, keep stabbing!" Ayase cracked her whip viciously on the cheek of an approaching adversary. She reluctantly drew her VP70 and pulled the trigger ten times, six of the ten bullets burrowing themselves inside the irritated Archangel's features by pure luck. "Like, and remember Brown, I have better than a kiss for you!" She added a wink to her low seductive voice, regardless to Brown being unable to witness it, he responded.

Brown saluted as an obedient response and proceeded to diminish Ayase's protest for him to "keep stabbing." To please the flirtatious blonde behind him, he lunged heavily with his spear, and caught an Archangel under the breastplate, the blades digging the bare flesh with ease. The Archangel did not repel their physical weapons as the normal Angel did. Instead, the Persona Users' firearms were only able to do distinctive damage when the bullet connected with the head of the divine entities.

The Archangel's scarred bronze face contorted in rage at the human holding his body in place. His brethren swarming on the right corner of the room immediately dove at Hidehiko in a wave of Gladiuses and wretched wings.

Brown's retort was a cocksure grin, swinging his weapon upward, reducing the punctured Archangel to a signaling flag for its friends.

The velvet mist coated Brown and his weapon. In accordance to the arrival of the clear cloak of blue, Brown exclaimed his cry to beckon the facet of his soul. "Go for it! TYR!"

The Norse God of Victory launched sky high beyond the pierced Archangel on Brown's spear. The mechanical hand and real hand clutched his battle axe, elevating his arms above his head.

"MAZANDYNE!" Dozens of boulder sized balls of the verdant green energy sparked to life on the tip of the raised axe. They spaced themselves abreast. Tyr dropping his raised arms to slingshot each explosive mass upon the oncoming assault. Each Archangel met a direct hit with each sphere which detonating on contact, reducing them to chunks of feathers and battle-worn flesh.

Freeing himself from Brown's weapon of choice, was the flagpole Archangel. The winged being had flung himself free from the pole-arm, thrusting his sword at the undefended back of Tyr as both he and Brown witness the instantaneous demises of several warriors of heaven.

"Heh!" Brown stuck-out his tongue. "TYR! ARM CHOPPER!"

The blue man dodged to the left, the stab of the Gladius missing entirely, leaving the Archangel suspended in that direction with all his force. With the flutter of his cape, the Persona shot behind the Archangel and clipped both his arms from his torso with two vicious chops of his axe.

Tyr's opponent plummeted slowly as fluids gushed from the severed locations. Tyr raised his weapon up toward the ceiling, green static energy crackling in the sheen of the metal.

"You're not getting away, flyboy!" Brown angled his spear, rotating it to the blunt end. He located himself beneath the falling silhouette of his enemy, aiming his spear's non-weapon end like a pool cue at a vertical angel. He grasped his pole with both palms and jabbed the stomach of the Archangel, halting his arrival to the ground.

"It's been a nice trip," Brown started, sweating building on his brow. "See ya next fall! TYR! ZANDYNE!" With his skinny arms straining, Brown hefted the Archangel back upwards in the air to meet Tyr's sole Zandyne which flew off his axe.

Brown spun around, lowering his shades, and resting his spear on his shoulders. He chucked up a "peace sign", spreading his left leg far from his right. "Check it, baby!" He jested, in his humorous overzealous pose as the remains of the dismember warrior became nothing but a background explosion.

"Brown, stop goofing around!" Yukino exclaimed from across the room.

"Yeah, Brown, like, there's more coming! Now watch this!" Ayase twirled on her heel, letting loose her whip as she did a pirouette. She suddenly stopped, cracking her whip. "Like, FREYR!" The bearded, claymore-wielding Persona arose from his summoning mist. In his sights he saw another wave of Archangels mixed with regular Angels.

"SANDASU!" Freyr drew forth his sword, casting the wings of his foes aflame with the snaking streaks and bounding gouts of fire unleashed.

Ayase, bathed in the orange hue projected from the searing flames charring the membranes of such-pristine and such-battered flight aids, cracked her whip again. "AGIDYNE SORAROZU!" Freyr slashed his claymore, dragging all his victims into a vortex of revolving waves of blazing fire. Each of the holy messengers was swept deep, the inferno of the combined gout, the curving streaks funneling them in after branding their touched skin with scorched rose shapes. Eventually the tendrils of fire plunged the lasts ones within the infernal orb, vaporizing them to pinches of ash.

"DAMN!" Brown's jaw hit the floor. "When you learned to do that?"

Ayase rolled her whip, the situation clear, a smug grin on her face. "Like, when my Persona evolved, and I guess…like, when I learned to be a better person…you helped me along in doing that…" The two troublemaker's cheeks flushed, both avoiding the other gaze.

"We should, you know, probably get back to work…" Brown was fidgeting; obviously embarrassed that someone such as him could inspire a girl such as Yuka Ayase to be a better person. He had hoped to change the subject and eventually return to dealing with the never-ending forces of Kandori.

Ayase sighed, rolling her eyes. "Like, fine, I'll spill my guts later. You, like, better not laugh when I do!" She placed a peck on his cheek, steam shooting from his nostrils. "Then, I'll confess something else." She fluttered her eyelashes, speaking in a low tone.

Brown was fired up. "RIGHTO! DEAL! Let's go!"

Ayase nodded, her and Brown returning to their back-to-back stance. The two most immature members of the group of Persona Users had started their journey to save Mikage lacking true intentions as to why. Despite their constant complaints, their distasting of the continuous-fouling situations the nine of them were set in, both awoke with a revelation in their hearts. Hidehiko Uesugi realized if he thought of a person other than his own self he would gain what he had lost, friendship. Yuka Ayase understood her fake persona she put on during her life. She conformed to the personalities of the friends she thought were truly here friends. In the process, in her condescending words and frank insults, she caused harm both intentionally and unintentionally to those who she could really considered her friends. Both had made a new goal in their lives. They had a reason to fight for their world. They had a reason for humanity to survive. They had both become better people inside and out over the course of the journey. They had matured in their hearts and minds, grown enough to know they had to be serious and fight to live their better lives in the world.

Maki raised her hand to the heavens to fight those who hailed from them. "HELP ME! JACK FROST!"

Rolling like a ball, evoked by his mistress, Jack Frost emerged, landing on his booted feet and flashing his "V" symbol with two of his four snowman fingers. "HEE-HO! Mistress Maki-hee!"

"MABUFULA!"

"HEE-HO!" Jack Frost spread his palms at the Archangels flying low to the floor to strike him. A chilling gale of icy wind a barrage of snowballs contained in the blowing winds consumed them, encased them in magically generated ice.

"All yours, Eriko-chan,"

The scarlet-haired girl stood shoulder-to-shoulder with her rival-in-love, leveling her rapier beside her face. "Thank you for grounding them, Maki-chan! COME TO ME! MICHAEL!"

The Chief of All Angels became higher on the units of aviations then his ice sculpture inferiors below. He swung his spear outward, Eriko slashing her rapier. "MAZIODYNE!" Righteous bolts of supreme lightning were commanded down at Michael's heed. Each streak of jagged electricity impaled the defenseless Archangel. The course of the electricity surged throughout their trapped forms, superheating their innards to the point of their exteriors gaining boiling temperatures. Following their figures reaching their limits, the ice prisons became puddles of water and clouds of steam as they festered and melted from the inside out.

"Another flock down," Eriko exhaled a breath. "Only an unknown amount to go,"

"They are here now, Eriko-chan!" Maki exclaimed, gazing behind them. She knocked an arrow, aiming at the next gathering of Archangels flying towards them.

Eriko sheathed her rapier, favoring her hunting rifle. She aimed down the scope, preparing her perfect shot right between the eyes of the leading Archangels. Her finger was twitching, a tremor running through her hands. Was she nervous? Was she reluctant to leave the attention of what was behind her? Did she not want to distract her own eyes away from Naoya and Kandori's fight? She had not ever expected Naoya to be locked in a one-on-one battle against surely the greatest foe they have faced in their journey thus far. She had never expected, she would choose to stand beside Maki Sonomura, the Maki of the Ideal World, who still contains unconditionally love for everyone especially Naoya Todo, who Eriko herself held unconditionally passion and care for. Her pettiness had fled her, her shallow nature receded. With the revelation in her heart she foreclosed this imaginary rivalry she had. Now, she only prayed for Naoya's safety. Now, Eriko Kirishima, only hoped they could save the world, so she could express her own feelings. Eriko's hands steadied, reassured in her mind with the intentions of living to see the end of the day to tell Naoya her true feelings. Her competence, in their brave leader arose in her soul. She had faith in Naoya, the man she loved.

Yukino slammed her balled fist against an Archangel's face, the razorblades clenched between her fingers digging a series of deep slashes from forehead to lower lip. The helmet was knocked off his head, Yukino aiming her Ithaca in towards his nose. She pulled the trigger, the buckshot caving in the surprised expression.

Yukino's eye caught the glimpse of the Angel approaching her flank. She punched her previous enemy in the breast yelling, "HA!" The velvet mist consumed her. She twisted her upper half to aim her opened palm at the Angel. "DURGA! FREIDYNE!" The multiple armed Persona gathered the yellow-green Frei energy in each of her hands. She fired the familiar cannonade in a wider burst, nuking the lone Angel.

"Nuclear Missile uses up too much spiritual power, I'll have to save it for the final cluster or the big bad final boss. That is if Kandori does have another one of those giant assholes up his sleeve."

Yukino reloaded her shotgun, taking her respite. She saw Kei in her peripheral vision. Her thoughts drifted in the moment of rest. She had to keep fighting. She had to make sure to see the beauty of the world again, so she could eventually capture it and share it with whoever she pleased. That was her ambition. She was not allowed to die there, but she would also not allow her friends to die either, especially Kei Nanjo.

Kei ventilated the forehead of an oncoming Angel with his rifle. He pulled the bolt to load his next round. "Not much ammunition left to use!" The heir to the Nanjo Group aimed down his scope, subconsciously counting how many rounds he had until he was dry.

"I'm sorry, Master Kei; I could not be much of assistance. My Light Skills are not quite effective."

"There is no need for concern Yamaoka." Kei dismissed his butler/Persona/good friend's words, punching a new tunnel across the forehead of an Archangel. He loaded his next round.

"But, Master Kei, you are the only one who is fighting with your firearm. Both I and your broadsword are useless, how can I not worry when your wellbeing is at stake?!"

Kei rolled his eyes. Yamaoka was Yamaoka no matter if he was dead or alive, though he did appreciate Yamaoka doting over him whilst calling him Master instead of Young Master. In the time he'd spent on the journey, Kei had learned Yamaoka even in death was with him always, because they were the same. It was a lesson he learnt. He was not going to allow Kandori to savor his victory however bittersweet the self-proclaimed God thought it was. He was to be the number one in Japan; he was to succeed, to be the new head of the Nanjo Group. He would not let his friend down, especially since he was now his traveling companion resting in the sea of his soul.

"This rifle, Yamaoka, is all I need. You taught me how to use it well enough…" Kei pondered the memories, his sight premature on his aim. In his slight distraction, his peripheral vision missed the u-turn in the air of an Archangel who was ready to slice the scarf-wearing boy in half.

"NANJO, WATCH OUT!" Masao's shotgun, loaded with Angel Killer shells, the barrel quickly set to the temple of the messenger of God, unloaded its buckshot, tearing away a large portion of the now-deceased Archangel's face.

Kei witnessed the disintegration of his would-have-been executioner. He saw Masao panting, clutching his scattergun and axe. He had sprinted to Kei's portion of the room. "Guess one got by the both of us…" Mark suggested.

Nanjo's irritated stare was softening. He relaxed, and then his weapon snapped up at Masao. Kei did not think; he pulled the trigger, and killed the Angel about to cast Hamaon upon the yellow hated boy instantly with a perfect headshot.

Masao was surprised at the Kei's impulsive shot to defend him. "Shit…thanks, Nanjo…"

"I suppose far than one has outmatched us." Kei replied, setting up his next round using the bolt-action. "I know you may be adverse to the concept due to previous experiences that ended poorly, but may I suggest we assume a partnership solely to survive considering I am limited to the number of bullets I retain and you to the amount of mental strength you can conserve." Kei offered his hand to his comrade, in hopes to form another partnership, this one ending excluding one or the other being captured and fleeing.

Masao grinned. Kei had changed drastically in his perspective. Simply calling him Masao over monkey was an improvement. The two still did not agree on every matter, but the two had a wider understanding of the other. Masao had hoped they had a mutual friendship especially after all the things they and the others had been through. The two opposite sides of the same coin were not so opposite to one another. They no longer were a simple "heads" and "tails", but Kei was a Hierophant, an arrogant intellectual, who suffered a great lose to his heart and ego, but realized what he lost was inside him. Masao was a Chariot, was bold, blunt, and battle-willing. He fought to find the woman he loved, knew what not to do save his best friend. The two had distinctive revelations, demonstrating characteristics they already had, but were unable to express because of their internal weaknesses. In the present, standing before one another, two men who knew each other far more than prior, they decided to let the past be in the past, to move onward to the make sure there is a future.

Masao shook Kei's hand. "No regrets…" He seriously stated.

"No cowardice…" Kei nodded in understanding.

The two matched half-smiles, gripping their weapons at the swarming of their enemies. They gave each other a sign of assurance before breaking their handshake, spinning to tackle the process of defeating their opponents, exclaiming in unison. "LET'S GO! PERSONA!"

Yamaoka clashed his Bo Staff to Susano-o's weapon to signify their Users own agreement. The elderly Persona tapped his staff to his ribs immediately after "shaking" Susano-o's branched sword. He threw his gloved palm forward at Kei's order. "Step One, Masao, we buff your strength! YAMAOKA, TARUKAJA!" Masao was surrounded by a golden aura. Susano-o flexed his pectorals.

"Your speed is next, SUKUKAJA!" Yamaoka tapped his ribs again. A green aura mixed with the gold as it was cast upon Masao. Susano-o flurried his legs at high-speeds.

"Next, use a physical skill!"

Masao brushed under his nose. "LET'S DO IT TO IT! SUSANO-O! BRAVE BLADE!" The Persona flung his scarlet-aura coated sword like a boomerang; the branched weapon swirling passed each of the floating Angels and Archangels. The technique tore away their divine auras which protected against physicals blows, allowing the physical nature of the Brave Blade to gravely dig its sharp tendril blades passed bare flesh. The boomerang returned to its wielder hand as the heavy wounds inflicted splashed the marble in ruddy liquid.

"Step Two: buff your magic! MATAKAJA!"

Masao brightened as the white aura enveloped him. Susano-o shut his sockets, raising the branched sword close to his skull. His purple fingers danced up the gold, shrouding it in the gossamer sacred aura.

"Step Three: finish them Masao! Use a magic skill, the strongest version!" Kei adjusted his glasses, smirking proudly at the soon success.

"SUSANO-O!"

"END THIS!" The Hierophant and Chariot commanded together.

"GRYDYNE!" Susano-o slashed, calling a ball of gravity of exceeding proportions to fly down like a comet, crashing the Angels and Archangels to the floor. The excessive gravity smashed the winged men and women warriors. The remains of the messengers were indescribable messes, mashes of feather, membrane, bone, and meat. As the weight dissipated the grotesque remains disappeared with the Personas as if they were not disemboweled by the supercharged laws of physics manipulated.

Kei and Masao slammed the sides of the fists together in victory only to have to go up against a new wave.

Persona: Be Your True Mind

"It hit, partner! He's finished!"

"With the density you packed the wind, Myself, Kandori won't be able to stand up!"

Takahisa Kandori met his Jack-in-the-box: Naoya Todo's Tempest. It swallowed him, slung shot right off its masters' to him. The funnel circulated him, dragged him to-and-fro. Wind cinderblocks crashed his kneecaps, housing bricks smacked his jaw, steel rods battered his ribs, diamond tons sledged his lumbar, beat his blades, a weighted assortment snared his being, assaulting his entirety. Ever meter met the monstrous mass, ever part pulverized. The indifferent Tempest ravaged its prisoner, compressing, springing up, toying, keeping air pressure as thick as metallic slabs, flattening Kandori. The furious tube repulsed the struggling, the writhing. Prospero's imitation allowed no extrication, no addition, and no disembarrassment. Nyarlathotep aimlessly hovered, embittered at Kandori's predicament. His User, his apparent self fell, following the Tempest catapulting the guinea pig, the forsaken foolish human upwards to the marbled ceiling with a hurricane's thrust. Insensate Kandori dropped prone, the gale cushioning, the Skill's dregs, slowed his descent. The Crawling Chaos's antipathy for humanity curdled further. His King, his King of Chaos was laid-out. His competitor's King, Philemon's boy, was gleefully grinning.

"ON YOUR FEET, HUMAN,"

Naoya caught his breath. "He ain't getting up after that homerun, unless he's a huge-ass dragon."

"We have not won, Myself." Seimen Kongo broodingly stated.

Naoya's became crestfallen. Kandori's palpitations twitched his joints. He was returning to a stable posture. "He's only human, partner. He should be like Takeda, unconscious, incapacitated! How can a mortal body survive our Tempest?"

Kandori hacked sanguine spittle. "I detect worry, boy." He stated, disgruntled. "Is it because you wasted your last chance?" He shot up, saber pointed. "You're attack could have killed me, boy! The wind needed to be sharp! As sharp as the Japanese steel you wield! If you spun it at a dicing speed akin to a turbine, I'd be a stain, a bloody mist! You missed your only chance, boy, your only chance to kill me!"

He charged, saber clashing against katana. Naoya shoved, Kandori bounced backwards. Seimen Kongo was blindsided by Nyarlathotep's tackle. "A katana finely forged can rend a human head from its shoulders!"

Kandori slashed, Naoya countered. Seimen Kongo met Nyarla's joust with a roaring jab. "You're a coward, boy!"

Kandori slammed down on the cutting edge, pushing on his own blade's blunt side. His taller stature overwhelmed Naoya, who fumbled his steps. "Your heart is filled with kindness, boy! You can't stick your courage in its place to murder me can you?!"

Seimen Kongo planted his left knee under Nyarla's chin, sending him and Kandori back. Naoya kicked forward, shoving Kandori's heaving bearing from his space. "Your life is not mine to take!" He shouted.

"Myself, I don't believe we can win." Seimen Kongo returned to his User's posterior, Nyarlathotep likewise.

"Listen to the protection deity, boy! He has your wellbeing in consideration, considering he is you, of course! He knows his containment holds no real power, he cannot modify your body to SURVIVE my onslaught the way I survived yours!" Kandori clenched his fist.

"Add your kind, cowardly heart, boy, and the gravity of the situation becomes worse for you! If you can't kill me, you cannot stop me! Nyarlathotep will drive my godly form until my mind disappears! Maybe if you had the Nanjo brat or the hat-wearing stoner or that churlish spawn with you in this arena, you'd win, boy! They seem likely to want to kill me. That is the lone way Nyarlathotep will vanish, when my consciousness is completely gone!"

"Shit…" Naoya shook. "What can we do?"

"Attacking him does nothing, Myself. We saw when he was struck with the Tempest, Nyarlathotep was maintained. I suspect the Crawling Chaos is progressively focusing Kandori's mind, pulling his strings to guess. He has control of his physical functions, but his mind is stuck functioning. He is reveling in Chaos Alignment. Our choices, Myself, are limited. We can either kill Kandori,"

"I can't! I won't! I promised Reiji! I promised Maki! I promised myself, damn it!"

"Then, our next option is to defeat Nyarlathotep When the Crawling Chaos subsides, Kandori's true mind can be resurrected. He can be knocked unconscious or reasoned with."

"What are the odds you can beat him?" Naoya asked, examining the bleeding puncture hole in his knuckle. Nyarla's punch meeting Seimen Kongo's left a painful injury.

"I…we…he…" The Persona shook his head. "If I was...if all my essence was contained in this Persona, I don't even believe I could defeat the Crawling Chaos. He has near infinite strength."

"Last options…"

"We lose consciousness purposefully allowing the barrier to fall; this gives the others the ability to fight him all together."

"Of course, losing consciousness on purpose brings to field the possibility of them killing us outright."

"I'm sorry."

"Up, boy, come on! Your friends are almost done with my angels! I want them to see me butcher you!"

Naoya had fallen to his shins without realizing. He scrambled, taking his stance again. "You can try, Kandori, but you aren't gonna win!"

"You keep on echoing the same line!" Kandori arched his sword behind his neck. "IF YOU KEEP ON YELLING IT DOESN'T MEAN IT'LL COME TRUE!" He smashed his saber on the defending Naoya, his bearing figure pressing the earring-wearing boy to the barrier.

Seimen Kongo and Nyarlathotep shot at each other. Whistling wind struck searing fireballs. The two traded punches. The blue ape-man retaliated to the slicing blow with a Spin Kick to his opponent's rips. Nyarla curved his spine at the strike. Seimen Kongo followed up with a Garudyne, an incredible wind blast that did no damage to the Pharaoh of Centuries Black Past, but threw him to the ground. Kandori mimicked the same, the attack at his rips crippling his stroke for Naoya to break away his saber's defensive position and ram him with the brunt of his forearm.

"I won't give up, Kandori! We WILL win! No matter what! We'll find a way to win!" Naoya lunged his own hefty stroke against Kandori's saber. He kept hopping, bounding his katana's thin blade against Kandori's saber. His advances pushed and pushed. Naoya was gaining the ground Kandori had taken with his own pushes. "YOU WON'T BE DYING TODAY!"

"I can't give up! We came too far, learned too much, did too much to believe there's no other choice then to lie down and die! I'll keep pushing, keep striving, partner! We have to keep going until our muscles give until my mind is dead, just like them! It's the only way to beat them!"

Persona: Be Your True Mind

Masao dropped to the floor. "Man, those damn angels are persistent. How many of their asses did we kick, Nanjo?"

Kei offered his hand to his comrade. "I lost count. Perhaps two scores, there being approximately five scores initially,"

"Scores," Masao asked, not understanding.

"Units of twenty, Masao," Yukino informed, patting his bag.

"Ah, Yukino, I hope you do not require healing." Kei inquired concerned.

"Nah," She coolly replied. "These guys have nothin'."

"Like, shut up! Brown and I totally almost got fried!" Ayase nagged, prancing to the gathering friends.

"Dat Hamaon bites, man!" Brown complained, nursing a sutra imprint.

"You're lucky it missed, dumbass." Yukino scolded.

"Finally, they're gone." Eriko stated, interjecting, abreast to Maki. "We should also count ourselves lucky we had to face Archangel and Angels exclusively. The other spheres would give us real trouble."

"Yeah…" Maki hissed, hurriedly watching her friends and Naoya's fight. "Nao-kun…"

Masao wrapped his arm around her. "Don't worry, Maki. Nao's got this. He's something else from us, ya know."

"Yeah, you're right, Masao-kun." Maki nodded, pumping her fist. "Let's cheer for him!"

"That will have to wait, Sonomura." Kei interrupted, sheathing his broadsword.

"Packs of mooks," Yukino saw the mounds of hundreds crowding the stairway to the office.

"Ah, man!" Brown hit his forehead.

"That's a lot of scores." Mark quipped.

"Like, I'm really tired guys!" Ayase squeaked.

"I'll deal with the demons." Kei said moving to the threshold. "My spiritual power is full. I could not use it to fight. So, now, it's MY MOVE!" He swiped his hand to the side in the face of the slobbering maws, the razor teeth, the inhuman silhouettes. "YAMAOKA! SAMSARA!"

Yamaoka rode his futuristic hover board, adjusting his cybernetic wings and shades. He spun his Bo Staff aiming the end at the pack of beasts. He thrust his gloved palm at their hungry mouths. Thousand of sutras, thousand of talisman were birthed from the pool of everlasting light underneath the clawed-toed feet. Yamaoka glided over the horned skulls, mummifying the Hell dwellers at rapid speed. Four large square columns rose from the light, one in each direction: North, South, East, and West. They each were marked with words, the kanji for: Birth, Life, Death, Rebirth, and Reincarnation. The continuous flow, it was the Tibetan concept of samsara. Yamaoka piloted his board around the imperfect circle, the light pore expelling an eradicating ray of utter holy energy. The divine wave spurted up in an ocean of white, vaporizing all evil within the circle, purifying their souls, cleansing their spirits, exorcising their bad energy, wiping the earthly plane of their existence permanently.

"Badass, Nanjo!" Masao complemented. "Always is better the second time round."

"Wow, Kei, why didn't you..." Yukino wondered.

"During our fights up Deva Yuga, the Angels resistance or nullification to Light Skills required me to leave Samsara alone until we fought a group of demons alone. Strange, this instance was much grander than when Norn was destroyed."

"Unfortunately, Kei, it wasn't grand enough." Eriko haphazardly informed. Another wave of demons was coming.

"Damn!" Kei cursed. "I'll hit them again!"

"Sorry, Nanjo," Brown stepped beside the heir. "My turn to show off,"

He raised his spear. "Maki, be a dear and heal me nice when I blackout! LEAVE IT TO ME!" The velvet blue aura encased him. "Hopes this makes your panties wet, Ayase. This time it isn't on a dragon!"

"TYR! BINAL STRIKE!"

The God of Victory launched himself, splitting the head of a demon in the middle of the new wave. The detonation activated, creating a widespread scale assault of Zan energy. The second wave the same size as the first was dispatched albeit in a much gruesome manner. Kei's Samsara gave an agonizing death, leaving zero trace. Brown's Binal Strike consumed every participant in the stairway hall in a green orb. Brown was struck; he began to spasm as the demon exploded into gibs, chunk of ruddy meat. He painted the marble in blue, yellow, red, green, all the colors of the rainbow. Teeth, talons, scales, fingers, toes, arms, legs, backs, groins, necks, heads, hips, tails, hair, tentacles, noses, weapons, eyes, any features they could remember was a blotch, a impure mess of grotesque proportions on the pure white. Tyr dematerialized, Brown fainting.

"Uesugi, you reckless idiot," Kei vented passed closed lips. "Sonomura, can you heal him, then revive him, the revitalize us?"

"Yep, I have enough left! HELP ME! MASO!"

Maki casted a Mediarama, washing the damage from their clothing, their internal systems, and their skin in a cloak of herb green, sweet scented light. She woke Brown with the golden bullet known as Recarm, soothing his inflicted injuries with a rinse of Diarama.

"Never get used to it." Brown stated, knocking his chest.

Ayase intertwined their hands. Brown blushed. "AH YEAH! Chicks dig heroic sacrifice!"

Yukino hit him over the head. "Pay attention, Naoya's fighting for his life."

"The more things change the more they stay the same." Kei added, rubbing his glasses with his scarf to see the ongoing fight. They were incapable of helping, they had to watch. There was no way of interfering.

"It's like when Reiji and Nao fought, right, Nanjo?" Masao aimlessly asked, keeping his arm around Maki to keep her composed.

Kei placed his glass firmly. "Yes, an impenetrable barrier is erected, preventing escape and aid. The physics of the matter I cannot expound. The details are cloudy."

"You think Reiji's all right, Nanjo?" Masao sullenly asked.

"I cannot tell you, Masao. If the hole was still open I would be able to calculate the height. Using the data I could determine if the fall would have been fatal or not. Right now, he's on his own. The best solution is to defeat Kandori…and hope."

"Nao said the same thing. You're both right. Damn," Masao scowled. Naoya's battle shout signaled a grin. His best friend was hounding Kandori, attacking with a large chopping slash. He repeated the motion, indefatigable, hardboiled. "KICK HIS ASS, NAO!" Masao cheered.

"Don't die Nao-kun, please!" Maki waved her hands. "GO NAO-KUN!"

"My love, please be safe! Live!" Eriko untied her ascot, whirling it as an encouraging sign. "Brave Leader, WIN!"

"Cheering for victory is childish. Our voices will not affect Todo." Kei's eyes glistened at Seimen Kongo wrestling with this Nyarlathotep, this Crawling Chaos. He forgot his adult manners. "His left side is weak! HIT HIM THERE!"

"COME ON, N.T.! YOU GOT EM' ON THE ROPES," Brown exclaimed.

"Like, uh, uh, WIN! Uh, and, like, totally DON'T die!" Ayase stammered.

"You can handle this tyrannical creep, Naoya!" Yukino yelled.

"Cute friends, boy," Kandori mocked, swatting Naoya's katana aside.

Seimen Kongo broke his grip from Nyarla's left needle appendage. He connected six fast crosses to his stomach, causing Kandori to wrench forward.

Kandori's slash was canceled. "They're not just cute!" Naoya kicked Kandori slouching breast, putting distance. He readied a stroke, but was blocked with a horizontal cut.

"Yes, they are! They're obnoxious vermin who offer the god pleas and their champion praise!"

"Nope," Naoya slammed in at Kandori. Seimen Kongo bashed his forearms against Nyarlathotep's, leaving the pharaoh open for a brutal attack. The milky white filaments in the arena dome sparkled in luminescence. "They're who I am!" Naoya performed an uppercut with his katana, slashing under his opponent's saber, carrying it to the air. Seimen Kongo nailed Nyarlathotep with a series of a hundred punches, air pressure knuckle dusters stunning the Outer God, but offering no harm. Naoya's cut flung the saber, the wailing, parched sword left thirsty, stuck in the floor after its acrobatic routine with the boy with the simple earring in a prime position to cleave into Kandori, to rob the demon of his cackling head as he stood paralyzed, sword-less.

Naoya hesitated. Kandori was his. Seimen Kongo was matching Nyarlathotep. He would not last much longer. This was his chance, the first option: kill Kandori. He needed to swing. He needed to put his soul in the strike. He needed to decapitate Kandori in one stroke, "rend his head from his shoulder." His way out, the salvation for everyone was before him, he just needed the will. He needed to "stick his courage in its place," repress his "heart of kindness." He needed to kill Takahisa Kandori and he needed to do it now. But…Naoya hesitated…he could not kill Kandori, it was not who he was.

"You're a coward, boy! That's two chances you wasted!" Kandori was quicker than Naoya could react, he grabbed at the boy's back, hanging to his school uniform. Kandori pulled Naoya in close for a hug, burying the vile yoriodoshi knife he hid beneath his belt into Naoya's abdomen.

"MYSELF!" Seimen Kongo stopped his barrage.

Naoya choked, the room was fading. Kandori was twisting the knife, dragging it through him. His life's essence was spraying. The cheers of his friends became wallows of sadness, despair. The madman pulled the knife free; his wound was a fountain, flooding his pants in a puddle, red dyed as Naoya died. His katana fell first, the metallic thud echoing in his deafened ears. Then he hit the barrier.

"YOU SON OF A BITCH," Masao banged the obstructing wall. "YOU PIECE OF SHIT!"

"Nao-kun…no…no….no….this can't be…this can't be…NOOOO!"

"Brave Leader…Naoya…

"Mark, Maki, Eriko…I'm cold…I'm cold…" Life was leaving him. Feeling was leaving him. He was numb, callous. His life was slipping. He was dying, because he refused to kill Takahisa Kandori.

Kandori obtained his saber yet again. "Boy, you asked for it. You made your own deathbed. Now, I'm going to lob your head off in front of your friends! ENJOY DEATH, NAOYA!"

"This is how it ends…huh…goddamn it…I'm sorry…everyone…I'm sorry…" Tears trailing welled in his eyes, Kandori's tarnished blade aiming for the crook of his neck. His unclogged wound regurgitated another ounce, his vision was fading now. Soon, he'd lose consciousness, Seimen Kongo disappears, he'd lose his head, death will take him, and his friends will be left to Kandori. In a vengeful rage, he was sure they'd kill him, positive actually, they would not rationalize his death, and he couldn't rationalize his death. His beliefs, his promises, his own damn stubbornness allowed his death to occur, those were the facts to him.

"Mom…Dad…I love you…goodbye…" As he went to shut his eyes to the world, to plug his ears, and berate himself for his stupidity as Kandori's saber sawed his throat, he witnessed golden yellow flutter and crimson red flap.

Persona: Be Your True Mind

Naoya fell through space itself, following a featureless yellow butterfly and a featureless red bat, both emitting orbs of their respective coloring. Naoya's surroundings were a distortion of black and blue, disembodied gears and cogs turning and spiraling around him as he traversed the "rabbit's hole."

"Why the hell am I here?"

The distortion evaporated, Naoya a statue for the abyss' blackness. The normal routine would have him land on a platform, but it was different. He was betwixt two identical marble lifts, each having the total six bronze pillars. The insignias, the emblazoned butterfly represented the suited man wearing the mask standing upon it, Philemon the Guide, the other was an engraved bat to accommodate the hovering faceless entity of spikes, Kandori's Persona, Nyarlathotep the Crawling Chaos.

"Welcome, my friend." Philemon bowed.

"Welcome, it's a pleasure to meet you, boy!" Nyarlathotep greeted, ecstatic.

"Okay, what the hell? I think we're way off script here." Naoya carped, suspended between two gods holding a wager.

"Oh no, boy, you're here to make a decision!"

"A very important decision," Philemon added, his serious expression cloaked by his mask.

"What kind of decision?" Naoya was frantic. "Am I dead or not?!"

"Unfortunately…"

Nyarla sped up his competitor. "My King's soon to kill you, boy!"

"Then why the hell am I here with the two of you? You're obviously Philemon's competitor; Seimen Kongo was able to tell that from feeling your aura! You a deity with all his power operating as a Persona, according to the information Ayase gave us from Kandori's Metatron that shouldn't be possible."

"Fate picked a brilliant lad for you, Philemon." Nyarlathotep stated. "He's intuitive, demonstrates charisma, ingenuity, had the mortal balls to lead a band of pigs to my end of the board. If he wasn't spineless, you would have won our game."

Philemon folded his arms.

"Philemon, what the hell is happening? This is ridiculous. If I'm dying in the real world why'd you bring me to the realm between consciousness and unconsciousness?"

"Easy, boy, to make a deal,"

"Yes, the Crawling Chaos is correct, Naoya, he has a contract to present to you, I am only here to make sure the deal is fair."

"Don't you trust me, Guiding Monarch?"

Philemon said nothing.

"You want to make me a deal? Why?"

"You are a greater King than Takahisa Kandori. I was unnerved to discover, Philemon hadn't manipulated your mind to accomplish such major tasks I have described."

Naoya glared at both. "He can possess our thoughts like Seimen Kongo said Nyarla did to Kandori? Interesting…"

"He likes to say he's above dirty tactics along the lines of mental control, but the fact is he is unable to interfere with his pieces as per the rules of the wager. I however am free to pull as many strings as my reach permits!"

"That's seems an unfair bet." Naoya said, recalling the rules Philemon had put forward regarding his rival competition with his competitor.

"I think its sporting that the piously righteous have to fight with their hands tied! Plus, one-sided bets are boring, aren't they, boy!"

Naoya's senses drain. "I said that to Mark two days ago when this mess first started…How did you?"

"As my adversary and beloved friend may have told you, he can see the strings of events, he can see all, and I'm the same, omniscient when I concentrate. Since I was busy maneuvering my King through my intricate plan I paid you no attention, but as you trickled down like moss clinging to a cave, I glimpsed your past, your journey from playing Persona to Deva Yuga. Now, I'm impressed and I want you to resign your contract with Philemon and form a new one with me! I want you to be my King in Kandori's stead!"

"Why? What are you putting up as compensation? I may not agree with Philemon's bullshit method of leaving out vital information to rope humans into helping him, but I ain't resigning with him for someone who wants my kind dead!"

"Heh," Nyarla contorted. "Let me play for you Philemon's endeavors, how futile righteous Lawful actions are! Just know if you align yourself in Chaos, join me, these times, these instances, you'll be exempt, you won't experience them. I'll heal your wound, see you live again. Now, watch humanity's drunken escapades orchestrated by my competitor! Watch the way humanity's finite existence ends threefold!"

Before Naoya's blurred vision, the abyss betwixt the consciousness and unconsciousness, opened three rifts. Portals hovering similarly to erected mirrors. But they did not reflect the ebony haired Persona User, or the Guiding Butterfly, or the Pharaoh of Centuries Black Past, instead they displayed an array of images. Lattices opening in the sundered holes conjured via pointed limbs. They acted as muted television flickering, adjusting them, and tuning the dial to their respectively correct channels. What channels exactly broadcasting Naoya was oblivious, until the leftmost screen settled its picture: a scene of desolation bathed in gold chrome and electric magenta. An individual with fiery red hair lay collapsed; abreast to him was a girl slightly older with inky-black hair. Hers lightly faded as a heavy contrast to the bold crimson atop her male companion. The middle screen played moments later, leaving Naoya merely seconds to comprehend the scene of the defeated warriors. His attention apparently was not required for the middle screen shot him with the familiar eerie showcase. A tower, a descending moon, commanding a unlimited gravitational weight submitted an enclave of warriors adorned with matching armbands. The moon, gazing a piercing iris of sanguine contempt, forced them to bow especially a blue haired boy with headphones draped across his shoulders upon his labels. His struggling was futile, death was upon them, their existed no escape. Naoya tried to look far away, into the abyss itself to avoid witness their utter demise, then the final screen, to the right, found its target, magnetizing his head to the last event Nyarlathotep desired to show him to persuade his mind. A clip show sped through to start. Naoya saw the decaying, oxidized skeletal hands soaring from beneath standing feet, digging demonic nails into the individuals who knocked over the intended victim to save his life. The silver-haired boy's glinted glasses reflected each of his allies sacrifice, the villain's claws trenching through them, pulling downward to a tunnel, a rusted, corrupt void to torturous hell and he was soon to be next. The portal froze; freeze framed at the defeat plastered in the future, the losses, the victorious conquests of the sides of evil, representing zero hope, offering nothing but total despair.

Naoya's bangs shadowed his countenance, the forelock hiding his mimicking frown filled with anguish.

"See boy, it's hopeless! What you're doing now doesn't matter! I will reign victorious. Foolish humanity will cease to exist! The world will be destroyed! Be my new King, boy! Cross over and align yourself with Chaos and I promise you'll live, I'll grant you immortality, eternal longevity, you'll rule as my right hand forever in glory of the vast and beautiful massacre and destruction!"

"You forget the extended portion of my role, my competitor! Once the information is known, I can uncover the reality, the true events!"

Philemon's interruption warped the future rifts. They became colored in aqua blue. They resumed, like Philemon had simply pressed play on the remote where Nyarlathotep paused. The reels in time continued for Naoya Todo. The male and female duo rose to knees, the golden gloss and marvelous magenta bother each naught. The red-haired student, dressed in a uniform Naoya could not recognize, hefting his to handed sword at his side, facing his unknown opponent despite the odds. The girl, a young woman Naoya could now discern, cocked her two pink pistols, perfect matches for her heart adorned outfit. She pointed her guns at the unknown. Its whoop ass time! The second screen the ten thousand ton gravity bearing down on them group now unaffected the blue haired boy, and only him. To his friends chagrin, he levitated upwards, lacking any weight himself. He starred boldly, audacious at his opposing enemy. He shall seal it, thanks to the universe. The glasses-boy proudly rose, breaking free of his skeletal shackles. He drudged out of the adhesive morass to hell. He heard his friends chide and cheer. He removed his glasses, granting his enemy his real obligation. He threw them aside, for he no longer needed them. He could see the truth by his own power, and now it's was time to reach out and touch it!

Hope, Naoya smiled like a child. Even in the face of despair, these people kept fighting. Fear did not dissuade them. Hope brought them to their feet, to beat back the chaos.

"Those who are destined in the string of events to fight back against the unknown won't die! They'll fight to the end to save and protect what they care about! Naoya, my friend, I promise if you go and align yourself with Chaos, your being will be abolished, obliterated in a moment! If you align yourself with Law, I can grant you my abilities, the fullest extent of my powers to stopping humanity's destruction!"

The portals closed, Nyarlathotep flustered at Philemon's antics. Naoya left, static in midair, his consciousness severed from his body to be killed. "Options…choices, huh? This entire journey has been a difficult decision after a difficult decision. Quandry leads to caprice. What are my answers? The red pill...or the blue pill, its loaded, designed for me to either present my mind as selfish or selfless. If I choose to side with chaos…I don't die…but I'm sure…those in those prescient scenes…overcome by defeat…despair licking at their souls…I'm certain, they'll die. However, if I choose to side with law…I die…and they live, the people in the future filled with hope live to fight on…as well as my friends. If I side with law, Mark, Maki, Eriko, and the others…they live too. Altruism or egoism, unfair options for an unfair world,"

Naoya grinned mirthlessly, wishing Seimen Kongo was there just to comfort him in his decision. "I'm sorry," The competitive deities listened intently at the despondent Naoya. Is his answer hedonistic or objective? "I'm sick of this counterfeit world; everything is so goddamn black and white. It pisses me off." Naoya scowled, bitterly sighing.

Nyarla chuckled. "Rather out of character, aren't you boy?"

"SHUT UP!" Naoya snapped. "You smug bastard…you think you've won, right? You think asking me to go to your side makes you the winner of this game?"

Nyarla nodded at his clever plan. "Yes, boy, if you die, I win the game, if you join me, I win the game. Either way victory over the ineffectual Monarch and his plagues of guinea pigs is mine. I am invincible!"

"Like I said, I'm sorry," Naoya gave a half-smiled to the Philemon, whose posture suggested nervousness. "As my best friend Mark would say, since you know us so well, 'you can take your offer and blow it out your ass!'"

Philemon chortled, Nyarla irate. "WHAT, BOY?"

"I'm not siding with you."

"YOU'D RATHER SIDE WITH HIM?" Nyarlathotep accusingly pointed at his competitor.

Naoya shook his head in disagreement. "No, I'll help Philemon beat you for my own reasons. My own personal purpose, not because it's the right thing to do for me, because it's the right thing to do for everyone! Forget chaos and forget law, I choose the middle, Nyarlathotep! I chose the NEUTRAL!"

Persona: Be Your True Mind

The time resumed, the gods pressing play on life remote this instance. Naoya clutched his wound; blood slipping passed his clenched fingers. His eyes were wide open, his smile still stretching his cheeks. "My beliefs landed me here and I have no regrets. Goodbye, everyone, live on and…WIN!"

Kandori's saber waved through the air, aiming to decapitate. The quaking, thirsty weapon reached its marked spot, having flown high up to the ceiling of Kandori's office alongside its owner! A discharge of the marble flooring launched beneath him, battering him as he flew backwards. The propulsion was caused by a rustic coffin of baboylian orange, standing twelve feet in height, possessing an ominous aura attached to the ceramic containment. A beastly boy, an 'X" scar across his face, who steps causes the chain dangling from his choke to clang, stood behind the coffin that bore through the stone floor.

"Reiji," The distraught Persona Users ejaculated.

It was Reiji Kido, his Ultimate Death, the coffin imprinted with an effigy imitation to the eye of Osiris who had saved Naoya Todo at the last second. Takahisa Kandori's churlish brother had seamlessly turned all hope to despair.

"This won't kill you Kandori, but it will hurt like hell!" Reiji threw an uppercut at his brother, a sprawl of limbs at the back wall, thinking of the little girl who gave him a very special gift. "MOT!" The coffin opened, releasing choking smog, the fetid odor of death as hanging deliverance. Pupil-less whites glared, cutting through the darkness hiding its true form within its confines. A ghoulish talon, sharpen picks thrust forth at its master order. "DIE FOR ME!" The devilish phalanges juxtaposed to the myriad shower of card soldiers spearing Kandori, ravaging him benignly enough to incapacitate, but not to kill.

Reiji took a knee to the stabbed Naoya. He fished the pills out of his pocket, popping the cap, taking the pale and clammy boy's chin. "Come on, punk, you aren't dying today!" He shoveled the remainder of the bottle in his leader's throat massaging them down to magically stitch the fatal wound.

"Reiji…" Naoya choked as he swallowed the final pills, the seeping stopping as he felt them sizzling in his stomach acid. "Despair turnabout to hope…maybe the world is fair sometimes."

Mot disappeared with Reiji's raging velvet blue aura, Kandori's tattered suit and berated form laxly lying against the wall, sneering, snarling, and gritting his teeth.

"Thank you…" Naoya whispered as the reformed younger brother pulled his weak body to his feet. "I see…you had a revelation of the heart."

Reiji tighten his grip in excitement, supporting Naoya. "Yep, needed it to save your ass, punk; you're lucky I fell to the just right level. Probably should thank that bastard for getting off on hearing himself talk shit than anything else."

"And screaming loud," Naoya added, picking up his MP5 easily.

"NAO-KUN," The shivering hug from behind caught Naoya.

"BRAVE LEADER," The iron-tight bear hug trapped him.

Eriko and Maki had wrenched him, their tears wetting his shirt completely. "You two…how did?" It was then Naoya finally noticed the scarlet red/milky white barrier had dropped, allowing the concerned stampede of his friends to surround them.

Maki and Eriko had run and snared him. Brown and Ayase were aloof, breathing sighs of relief. Yukino rubbed her tight forehead, sighing at the consolation. Naoya was safe; she was no longer powerless to aid the situation. Kei was not one toe hug, but as he leisurely swatted the sweat drops he accepted Masao's pat on the back, contently happy Todo, the leader of their ragtag band of misfits, did not die.

Masao gave his best bud thumps ups, who was unable to move thanks to the glomping girls. "Don't scare me like that again, dude." He turned to Reiji next.

The too high-fived, "I owe you twice over, man. Once for me and another for Nao,"

The scarred boy replied. "Let's call it one, Inaba. Saving YOUR ass helped ME than it helped you."

"So…you finally killed him?" Masao curiously asked, Kandori unmoving on the other side of the office.

Reiji grimaced. "That shits in the past, Inaba." The boy directed his gloveless finger to his brother. "I pounded him to nothin', he's dreaming he has a chance to annihilate humanity."

Naoya smiled, Maki and Eriko freeing him. "I'm glad I can see you two again." He said, matter of factly, his strength regained.

Maki fixed her ribbon. "Thank God, Nao-kun," She sobbed. "You're alive…you're really alive."

Naoya tucked his firearm and sword, swiveling around to see his gaggle of friends.

Eriko closest to him, squeezed his shoulder reassuringly. "We did it, Brave Leader. We stopped the antagonist's apocalyptic scheme!" She shouted in glee.

"We did it, Eriko, its over." Naoya pumped his fists, wanting to exclaim in celebration until his gaiety was racked with trepidation.

"NGH," The demon's groan, the hole-filled suit falling by his sides. He stood, yet collapsed again, standing again except using his wobbling knees. "I refuse to accept this! I'm supposed to have transcended man!"

Everyone gasped, Kandori was momentarily unconscious. Nyarlathotep had un-cuffed his thoughts. The demon in epidermis remained immaturely miffed.

"This guy's not done yet?" Masao cursed, readying his hatchet.

Reiji put up his fists. "He's done; a whistle'll lay him flat!"

"I'm inclining to agree with Kido, Todo." Kei informed.

"Brave Leader," Eriko asked at Naoya's pause.

"Everyone, be ready. He may have gotten a second wind." Naoya nearly smelt it in the wind, the faint traces of vile pandemonium.

"WHO AM I?! I am TAKAHISA KANDORI! The man who TRANSCENDED HUMANITY! I AM THE HIGHEST TOWER!" He howled a groan of excruciating agony, his nicks and compacts crunching him in the diminution's jaws.

"WHAT?" The man jerked at the teenagers, his body contorted, his flesh pulsating. "What the…? Something's forcing itself into me!" The bulbous shapes his skin formulated as it undulating, traversing his figure like a rat trailing a carpet's underside. Kandori had hundreds of rats under his carpet; they bulged, and pushed at his clothing, inflating his inflicted damages, bending his limbs like a marionette. He no longer controlled his motor function.

Kandori pulled at his groomed do, violently vibrating as the parasitic invader grubbed his innards. His contorted flesh was malleable rubber, pulling and tugging, wanting to peel off the skull. His clacking teeth gnashed, his throat projecting another's laugh. "Hohohoh…Foolish man, Takahisa Kandori, who has gone stray…"

Naoya recalled the proposing deity's tone. "Nyarlathotep,"

Eriko lost breathe. "Nyarlathotep, the Crawling Chaos, the faceless god, a bizarre and evil entity known by countless names…it embodies malice." She recited, startled.

"I shall give you the power you desire." The voice Naoya indentified as Nyarlathotep told his host, his King reduced to pawn status.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOO," The unwilling Kandori screamed in his real voice using his own vocal cords. The leeches tore him asunder. A chaos-bottled scarlet aura packaging him, clouding his transmogrification to the god he wanted to be.

A curt transformation of a oblong head, bronzed, featureless, eyes, nose, lips, mouth, ear, the size of conjoined boulders with a bundle of metallic hair. A gallant halo encircling the head, protecting the host, Takahisa Kandori, minus shirt and jacket, merged completely at waist level to the decorated head. A dejected demeanor as two hands rose, levitating as the head, as large as the structure. The gigantic finger forming specific signs, created of the same material as the disembodied head. The demon in human skin had become a crown for his godly presence. A host for a self-propelled armor.

"What the," Maki exclaimed appalled.

"Holy shit," Masao and Reiji cursed simultaneously.

"Has his body and soul been dominated by his Persona?" Kei proposed.

"Before Nyarlathotep had controlled his thoughts to keep him entranced in the Chaos Alignment, this time he must have taken control of his body and mind, turning him into…into this." Naoya answered.

"What the fuck?" Was all Yukino could say.

"Jesus, is he even Kandori, N.T.?" Brown nonchalantly asked, amazed at the weirdness transpired.

"Yeah, like, he turned to an avant garde statue?" Ayase asked curiously, surprising the others she knew the word avant garde.

"I am Kandori…" The naked upper portion of Takahisa Kandori introduced, effortlessly in his original voice. He sounded fatigued, empty at the satisfaction again. "God Kandori…" He stated, a hollow component for his puppet master's weaponized construct previous his earthly shell. He was empty, his dreams unpreserved, and he finally was palmed a god's veritable lot.

"Get ready, guys! Let's go!" Naoya ordered.

Yukino punched in God Kandori's general direction. "God or not, I'm nuking your ass! PERSONA!" Durga materialized, her hands gathering the Frei energy, charging and converging the streams above the garish bust. "NUCLEAR MISSILE," The created nuclear warhead ruptured on the extended forehead, eradiated the pretentios artistic exihibit in pea green wash of a Frei energy mushroom cloud.

"I saved up to wipe a big bad. Paid in spades," Yukino quipped.

The smoke disrupted as God Kandori rushed like a derailed locomotive.

Eriko quickly stepped in his path. "Nyarlathotep, prepare to face the wrath of heaven! PERSONA!" She held her rapier to her cheek. "HEAVEN'S JUDGEMENT!" Michael's voltage charged to max as his spear rocketed, aiming at the lavish nose. A hand shielded the sparking pole, the railgun-esque shot impaling the make-shift shield, unfortunately the intense electricity was discharged halting the atomized disintegration.

"No!" Eriko tugged her ascot.

Masao slammed his kicks. "Here's mine Kandori! PERSONA!" Masao raised his axe. "BRAVE BLADE!" The aura purging boomerang branched sword flew like Michael's spear, shining brilliantly, preparing to gouge a unibrow. The other hand caught the Brave Blade in between two fingers as easily as a fly with chopsticks.

"Dodge this! KAMIKAZE! PERSONA!" Brown lunged his spear upward. "BINAL STRIKE!"

"Like, burn please! PERSONA!" Ayase lashed her whip. "SETTINGU SANROZU!"

Freyr mounted his bejeweled claymore to the floor, casting a tidal wave of liquid hot lava, searing rose shape emblazonments in the gilded leafing. Tyr appeared beyond the lava whirlpool, able to smack his axe to the protruded lower lip. The explosion consumed both for God Kandori's hands were halting the skills of Eriko and Masao.

Brown collapsed for the second usage of Binal Strike that day, confident his attack destroyed Kandori.

Susano-o, Michael, and Freyr vanished, their Users admiring the brown smokescreen. It was swept away, pushed by the winds caused by a metallic clap like thunder of the two hands, their curled fingers maintaining the calming symbols of purification and meditation.

"It's no use he can withstand all of our attacks! RECARM!" Maso revived Brown with the bullet.

The boy slid his sunglasses up, Ayase yanking him. "Damn, we need less tank a lot of d.p.s."

Yukino smacked him, harshly due to it might be the last. "How can you joke when we're fighting a god?"

"He is not a god, Yukino." Kei corrected. "We have dealt with such imposters prior to Deva Yuga."

"The Moirae Sisters," Maki recalled.

"Metatron," Ayase arrogantly reminded.

"Kohryu," Yukino remembered shallowly.

"The Four Signs included." Kei added, adjusting his hankerchief, scoffing at the raised rocks leisurely move centimeters to the party.

"Means, Kandori ain't invincible!" Reiji yelled.

"We can stomp him then, right, Nao?" Masao asked, raring for round two.

Naoya drew his katana backhanded, flipping it to its proper position. "We will stomp him, since Seiryu, Suzaku, and Kohryu's finishers nicked the paint, let's take Brown's suggestion. Let's use the Genbu strategy!"

Masao, Brown, Kei, and Reiji stepped to a line. "We attack in separate groups." Masao said, ready to go.

"Indeed, we use physicals, the ladies elemental skills." Kei accepted.

"I get it, punk." Reiji cracked his knuckles. "Single attacks are useless. We'll stack them together to break his stupid fuckin' mouth!"

"Ah yeah, I'm in the combo this time!" Brown hopped on his heels. "My Tyr is gonna show you guys how awesome I am!"

"ERIKO," Naoya signaled.

Eriko slashed her rapier. "MICHAEL! DEBILITATE!" The spectrum of colors dazzled the godly statue parts, dulling the composite value, tarnishing the polished.

"He's all yours, my love!" Eriko exclaimed.

"Mark, Kei, Brown, Reiji, aim at the center!" Naoya covered his face with his hand.

Masao swung his axe up high.

Kei swiped his hand to the side.

Brown raised his spear.

Reiji threw an uppercut in the air.

"HERE IT GOES!"

"LET'S GET FUNKY!"

"LEAVE IT TO ME!"

"HELL YEAH!"

"SEIMEN KONGO!" The blue man let loose a human battle cry as he emerged forth the milky white aura.

"SUSANO-O!" The muscular swordsman struck a definite stance.

"YAMAOKA!" The old butler steadied his hover board, rotating his bo staff.

"TYR!" The mechanical armed, caped hero pulled his axe back.

"MOT!" The god of death loaded in the coffin like a prime flare, swayed his attacking arm.

"Attack all at once!" They all yelled. "SPIN KICK! VORPAL BLADE! DEADLY FIST! ARM CHOPPER! DEATH'S COLD GRASP!"

They each dived towards the god's taut shut mouth. Seimen Kongo planted his bone shattering kick at the same instance Yamaoka delivered a jet propelled majestic punch with Susano-o additional barrage of swift strokes and Tyr's double oak penetrating chops accompanying Mot's darkness-coated, jousting claws intending to snatch an available soul to consume. All five attacks: Leg, fist, sword, axe, and talon crossed at the exact point, striking Kandori an ultimate blow.

"ALMIGHTY PHYSICAL ASSAULT!"

The girls did not hesitate to follow the boys attack.

Eriko readied her rapier by the side of her head. "COME, MICHAEL!"

Maki threw her hand in the air. "HELP ME, MASO!"

Ayase lazily cracked her whip. "LIKE, FREYR!"

Yukino punched the air harshly. "HA! DURGA!"

The Archangel, the priestess, the elderly man, and the Shakti materialized to form a square. "ZIODYNE! BUFULA! AGIDYNE! FREIDYNE!" Michael spread his wings sending a lighting bolt to immediately strike the smokestack. The electric current conducted in the metal, briefly glowing passed the covering. Freyr slung a giant fireball to bake the supercharged substance. Maso's praying cast a blizzard, blowing hard into the boiling hot bust to carve the path for Durga's supreme energy burst which consumed God Kandori entirely.

"ALMIGHTY ELEMENTAL ASSAULT!"

The Persona Users had unloaded their trumps. Their hopes dialed to the highest to deflate the highest tower. The avant garde disembodied figurine startled their composure. Its eyes rolled back, its teeth opened, a deranged noise, a sound incomprehensible, a deafening shout, a groggy roar, a undeniable shriek as unnerving as nail dragging on a chalkboard, as grotesque as branding flash, as disturbing as the circle of hells devouring the cadavers of the dead, as the demons laugh at the plight humanity suffers, as the despairing torment flushed the flesh in molten heat, inescapable pain, twisting and wincing in agony, no control, no prevention, a distorted paean, a marching band from hell, a cacophony of perplex sounds shuddering the eardrums, hammering the brain until it becomes a watery mess to leak at the orifices. The God's permeating voice flatten his opponents, an extended jetty of echoed sound colliding to stable mentality, a mobius strip, the ring reverberated, spinning, whistling, ripping, tossing, turning, weaving, bobbing, and cackling inside the ivory confines of the human anatomy.

Naoya fumbled his legs, tears dripping at the ducts, an uncontrollable tremor shaking his core and nullifying his concentration. "PLEASE! MAKE IT STOP!" The screams burned, the resounding gingerly splitting his skull like an egg and viciously whisky out the yoke of his sanity.

"WE…can't…AH!" His encouraging words crushed. "Give…up…"

The flashes of the others, those in the future string of events he witnessed, broke the shuddering sound. "I can't…give up yet…" Naoya rose without respite for the abusive noise, a raging white encompassing him, expanding beyond his control to his companions.

Their leader stood, in the face of adversity, the genuine face of despair. He was not the first, nor was he the last to continue when others had fallen, but braving the browbeating intimidation, resolute at the fighting sound, turned despair to hope again that day. Masao drew up his hatchet weakly, carrying Maki to Naoya's side with him. Ayase and Brown held each other's hands, positioned as if in a duet, dancing to their leader to sedate the pain. Kei and Yukino's locked eyes ignited their resolve. They waltz to their company, their dreams on their minds, the reality receded the awful sound. The velvet blue in their souls awakened, expanding Naoya's white aura to the limits of Takahisa Kandori's forsaken office. The nine of them, the nine students of St. Hermelin, Philemon's chess pieces, the human races final hope, were going to end the chaos.

"RESONANCE!"

Kei Nanjo envisioned Yamaoka's face looking down him as he headed the Nanjo Group. "MY MOVE! HAMAON!"

Reiji Kido saw his mother, her suffering repaid with his bastard brother trapped in a cage. "HELL YEAH! MUDOON!"

Yukino Mayuzumi saw Mikage through her telescopic lens, prepared to capture it in a snapshot. "HA! FREIDYNE!"

Hidehiko Uesugi heard his former friend passed the plastic receiver, he simply stated he was sorry. "LEAVE IT TO ME! ZANDYNE!"

Yuka Ayase sat in the cafeteria, surrounded by Yuko, Kenta, Tadashi, and Tamaki. "LIKE, HERE! AGIDYNE!"

Eriko held hands with Naoya, he twirled her and swooned her. "COME! ZIODYNE!"

Masao was holding Maki Sonomura, confessing his feelings. "LET'S DO IT TO IT! GRYDYNE!"

Maki was in class, Naoya, the real Naoya was standing there. They both smiled. "HELP ME! BUFULA!"

Naoya's vision was clear. He saw the rise of the defeated, his friends waiting for him at Peace Diner on Joy Street. "HERE IT GOES! GARUDYNE!"

"COMBINED SKILL: MEGIDOLEAN!"

That day in Deva Yuga, a man who transcended humanity became a god. That day in Deva Yuga, humanity felled a god.

Persona: Be Your True Mind

(A/N) Massacre is the name of Nyarlathotep in Revelations Persona. In Revelations Person Kandori is referred to as Guido Sardenia and technically he is only referred to as Super Guido when he becomes God Kandori, but given the fact its practically almost a meme in the community, might as well put it their when Nyarla lends his efforts to Kandori's one on one.

Yeah, I've brought you this chapter. Yeah, it two years and probably has grammatical eras, but here it is. Either way I hope you enjoyed this chapter of Persona: Be Your True Mind and I'll see you next time for Chapter 25: A Mother's Love.