So Ludwig was a decoy for the murderer to attack Feliciano. What are they going to do now?

/= [DAY 66] =/

Ludwig was sobbing over Feliciano's body the minute the others got in there. Li Xiao was looking up for Charice, who was refusing to see the body again. And no one could blame her. Matthew took the brave first step inside, closing the eyes of the body and folding over his arms.

"…two victims in one day…" He shivered. "He's getting stronger…"

"I-Is it possible for us to save him?" Kiku asked. "The same way we did with Ludwig?"

"He's been dead for over a few minutes. Most of the time, we've gotten in the minute or after it happens." Li Xiao stated. "He's been dead for too long, so-"

"We still have to do something, dammit!" Lovino screamed. "This is mi fratello you're talking to!"

"…I know…that's what I'm worried about."

Everyone else fell back into silence as Matthew's face cracked a smile. He turned to the others and revealed a light blue ball in his hands: he had succeeded in extracting a portal. He went to open it and paused, seeing that it was getting harder for him to open it. Francis and Arthur quickly went in to help, and soon the portal was wide open.

"…I did it!" He gasped.

"Good for you, Mathieu…" Francis turned his head to the others. "If what Li Xiao is saying is correct, none of you have any time to waste! You must go!"

"Right, right…" Charice stood up. "God, the blood's too much for me…"

"I'll stay behind and try to keep this to a minimum." Francis nodded. "Don't rush yourself into a death trap, OK?"

"…OK."

/= "Eden" by HetaOni =/

It wasn't surprising to say that Ludwig was the first person through the portal. What was surprising was how calm the world looked like when they finally got through. As she stepped through, she noticed that she was standing in the middle of what looked like a small chapel with window walls, leading out to one stone path that went into floating Renaissance buildings in the clouds and adorned with streams of water that felt cold to the touch.

She looked down and saw that she had gained the outfit of a cleric…oddly enough from the Final Fantasy: Sliding Heroes game instead of real life…how strange. She lifted her head and saw that the others had jumped into Catholic wearing uniforms. Lovino seemed to hate the white robes that he was wearing, though Antonio seemed to like it despite the fact that he, Arthur and Gilbert were dressed in Catholic Knight uniforms. The American bros were dressed like World of Warcraft mages (…why…?), Kiku resembled a black mage from the Final Fantasy series, and Li Xiao was…Yuri Lowell? From Tales of Vesperia? Sexy.

"Wow…this place is beautiful…" She looked around. "I'd like to see a church like this in the real world…"

"The water's crystal clean too!" Alfred started drinking from it. "Man, I feel pumped after this!"

"Why the hell are you drinking water from a Shadow World, bloody git?"

"Because I can. And it gives you back energy, which is going to help!"

"I'm going to need this too then." Charice drank the water. It tasted extremely pure. "Yep, there's the energy."

It was then that she realized that Ludwig was silent the entire time. She looked up and saw that he was standing at the entrance, wearing a bigger version of his old Holy Roman robes and ditched the hat, opting instead to wear his hair down. He turned toward the others.

"Where do we go from here…?"

"It's a one-way street, so I guess we head forward." Charice blinked. "What would that mean in a sense pertaining himself?"

"It would mean that Feliciano is open toward everyone, allowing anyone to look into his secrets if they just asked the right questions." Li Xiao looked up. "It's as if he wants us to help him."

"Well then, let's go dammit!" Lovino spat. "The sooner we get out of here, the faster I get out of whatever the hell these things are!"

/=+=/

The entire world was so bright and open, so unlike the other worlds that they had fallen into. As they wandered through, everyone was surprised to see that they haven't bumped into one Shadow as of yet, instead admiring the view of the floating fortresses and the lush greenery around them.

"This place is so beautiful…"

"Ah…this is perfect weather to be growing tomatoes, don't you think Lovi-chan?"

"…it's…Lovino…bastard…"

"Leave it to Antonio to be thinking about tomatoes at a time like this!" Gilbert started laughing. "At this rate, we'll find Ita-chan in no time!"

"Let's hope so. Cause any hero would know that the easiest levels have the craziest amounts of battles!" Alfred chirped.

"Tell me that when you find a Shadow somewhere." Arthur spat. "But to think, there is no conflict here…it's as if he's living carefree."

"He is living carefree." Ludwig mentioned, his pace unsettling. "He never showed us pain except during war…he hated fighting."

"That's strange…" Charice looked around. "You would've thought there'd at least be something concerning you as Holy Rome-"

Five seconds later, fifteen Shadows erupted from the ground, freaking her out. She screamed bloody murder and begged for forgiveness, something that did get the people to turn their heads. Ludwig in particular was caught when she was being held upside down.

/= "Fairy Taler" by HetaOni =/

"OK OK I WON'T BRING HIM UP ANYMORE SORRY SORRY SORRYYYYYYYY!"

Li Xiao quickly kicked the Shadow into oblivion, seeing as she fell into Kiku's arms. The Japanese man gave her a quick smile before slicing through the other Shadows with a flick of his katana. Gilbert and Antonio seemed to have the most fun with it, spinning through all the Shadows without a second thought. The German slowly grabbed the whip at his side.

"Death is both an end and a beginning."

He paused, feeling something else in his hand. He looked down and saw that it was a shining blue gun, the metal cross on one side and a Star of David on the other. He could see his former self hovering in front of him in his new form, laughing all the while.

"For while one dies from their mistakes, another learns from it and grows stronger."

Ludwig took a deep breath before lifting the gun to his temple, feeling his heartbeat bashing against the cold steel. It was around that time that Gilbert got a time to breathe and turned his head to see just what his brother was doing at this time.

"Hey! Bruder! What the hell are you doing?"

"Eh?" Charice looked up. "Doitsu-ki?"

*BAM!*

The sound of a crashing card echoed through the gun smoke, and they saw a figure erupt from the lights. Charice instantly noticed that it was the form Holy Rome took just before they left his realm, shedding his mask just to smite the others in a swarm of darkness. Everything faded as the Persona sank back into his gun, still smoking from the shot. He opened his eyes, now sparkling with life…

And got tackle-glomped by Charice.

…

DAMMIT Charice.

/= "Eden" by HetaOni =/

"Hey hey hey!" Lovino ran in front of everyone. "Why in the world is the potato bastard's summoning different from ours?"

"Most likely because he's been killed more than we have." Arthur stated. "We have gone through many names, but never different political standings. Germany here has been dissolved, rebuilt, and dissolved again many times in quick standards."

"…it was only twice." Ludwig blinked.

"Three times, if you count a few minutes ago." Li Xiao corrected. "So three times a charm?"

"Basically." Arthur smiled. "Congratulations. If my calculations are correct, die one more time and you'll end up as messed up as Ivan."

"FAN-FUCKING-TASTIC!" Lovino screamed. "Like my brother needs to hang out with more messed up people!"

"HEY! What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means you're fucking messed up, woman!"

They were arguing for a few minutes (much to Alfred's amusement) when Charice suddenly stopped, alerting the others. Her nose twitched for a few minutes before she gagged, plugging her nose and taking extremely deep breaths. Antonio was quick to her side.

"Are you all right, mi querida?"

"Yeah, I'm fine…" She shook her head. "Someone's bleeding a lot, cause I'm smelling a lot of blood."

"Eh? I feel fine." Alfred looked around his body. "Check me."

"You're good." Gilbert stated. "You're good too, bruder."

"Everyone's good…meaning that the blood's up ahead…"

"…who are you?"

"Canada dayo…"

Ludwig was quick to his feet, dashing ahead and forcing Charice to go dash off after him. The smell of blood was getting thicker, and it was then that she realized that the water streams adorning the sides were gaining a strange color. Finally, he stopped. There was a staircase in front of him, and two waterspouts that were pouring water into the streams next to them.

Well…it was supposed to be water.

Charice froze in shock as the others dashed toward their location, seeing the same thing and noticing that the sky above that location was tainted with red. It was then that Alfred decided to remark on what no one wanted to say at that point.

"Ewwwww! I drank BLOOD?"

He retched, freaking her out just a little more. Ludwig didn't fare any better, cause as creepy as this statement is going to sound, he knew whose blood this was. The same smell was back in the room where they found…

"Someone's up there…" Arthur's Persona was flashing rapidly behind him. "Whoever it is…"

"Better be Ita-chan." Antonio looked up. "Let's go."

/=+=/

Feli-chan, messed up as Ivan? DAMN. Lud-sama, messed up as Ivan? Cry for your mama now.

And unless you haven't caught on, yes Feli-chan's world is going to only use the HetaOni OST, so you better be abusing the YouTube sites OK? Aim toward the people like QuietLittleAlice or LiLAppleX, they have the OSTs. coupdeventful has a bigger list, but I never look on theirs.