Chapter 20: Siege of Inaba Pt 1
The small town of Inaba is under attack by the demon hordes to maul and kill anyone in sight to get the attention of Yu and the others. Demeter is overseeing the attack and is doing her part to play the villain within this stage play.
"Ruthless but effective," Demeter said as various demons are wiping out groups of people there.
"Fresh meat," an Oni demon said as he wields his club to bash into the head of the woman to crack it open with her brain scattered onto the ground.
"Slice and tear," a raptor is running on a rooftop to pounce onto a man to bite into his neck severing his head from his body. "Tasty," he said as the feathered demon is eating into his flesh.
Then flying imp-like demons called Daemons use their wings to fly spitting fire and using their pitchforks to stab into citizens while setting them on fire.
"Kill them, we will keep these humans busy while our leader completes the real objective," one of the Daemons said as the assault continues.
"All things are going smoothly mistress," Demeter said via psychic link with Other Yukiko.
"If you sense Yu and the others. Keep them busy make them focus on this blasted town while I do my job," Other Yukiko said.
"Of course, Lady Yukiko, it will be done. They will not stand a chance," Demeter said as Other Yukiko has faith in her demon Demeter to do her job well.
Yu and the others show up to be crushed by the amount of damage this invasion is causing. "This is insane, how can they do this?" Chie is in disbelief to see their town is under attack by a horde of demons.
"Where is the military at a time like this?" Yukiko getting annoyed by this.
"I doubt they can help us, the government wants to keep this hush-hush. There being a horde of demons like this who can overpower a town in mere minutes will cause a panic across the nation," Adi said not having faith the higher up wouldn't care if a small town has a suffer without help.
"That is horse shit, why pay taxes if they are not going to do anything," Kanji said.
"Sensei is right, we are on our own here. This is our home and we are going to protect it from them," Naoto said as she draws out her revolver to prepare for battle.
"Damn straight, we can't let them get away with this," Kanji said feeling fire up to fight back.
'Right, we need to spread out into teams of two to secure areas of the town to allow people to escape," Yu said trying to still calm to ease everyone.
"Okay yeah, despite the lack of aid from the government. There are safety measures in this crisis. The police set up shelters just in case something like the Okina Zoo happened here. I was the one who thought up the idea," Chie said as Adi pats her on the back.
"Good work super cop," Adi said with a smile. "Come on, we need to clear the streets and make sure the people are safe," she said.
"What are the team-ups?" Rise asked.
"Okay, Me and Rise. Yukiko and Chie. Yosuke and Teddie. Naoto and Kanji. Marie and Adi. We will go to sections of the town to make sure people can get to the shelters," Yu said.
"Sounds like a plan, time to save this town," Marie said as she feels bright about their chances for them to split up to defend the rural city from the horde of demons.
Elsewhere a Raptor is kicking a woman into a building to bite into her neck tearing out her throat and killing her instantly. "I sense them coming," a Raptor looks over to see Yu and Rise coming in to blast him with lightning to knock him across the streets.
Rise launches water orbs to seek their targets to blast them apart leaving some remaining to be wet and injured. "Ishtar. Wild Thunder, zap them," Yu stabs into a Raptor's thigh to send electricity until it vaporizes into dust.
"Of course, witness the power of my grace," Ishtar unloads a barrage of lightning bolts from the sky to zap the rest of the Raptors to vaporize into dust.
"Hey, those masked warriors from the videos," one of the citizens said.
"I can't believe this; people are trying to save us. The government abandoned us to these monsters," a woman said.
"Hey, get out of here. We will cover you and get to the shelters," Yu said as he is wielding his sword to slice up demons with lethal precision. He gets tackled by a Daemon with it using its pitchfork to stab him. He blocks the shot and zaps it with a lightning bolt to follow up with one slice splitting it in half.
"Of course, thank you. Both of you," the people are running towards safety while the loving couple are fending off a horde of monsters.
"Hate these like bat-winged freaks," Rise said as she enhances her voice to let a large sonic boom knock them all out of the sky while Yu sliced up to pieces. She pulls out her microphone to convert it into a water whip to leash out Daemons to rip and slice them all. "Eat this Mega Bubble," Rise summons a large bubble in each palm.
She makes them pop in mid-air to unleash a wave of mini bubbles to seek out their targets to wipe them out with ease.
"Kill the Persona Users, wipe them out," Raptors are charging at them with Seekers flying above spitting out bolts of darkness. The duo is deflecting away the magic attacks with Rise casting a barrier to block a tackle from a Raptor.
"Take this, Aqua Laser," Rise unleashes a big beam of water to punch through a group of demons wiping them out at once. "Aqua Cutter," she summons waves of water discs to slice up incoming Seekers and Daemons.
"Bloody Howl," Yu cast a dome of darkness to entrap a group of demons to tear them apart with the twisted energy to purge them. Ishtar uses Mind Charge to power her next spell to finish off a horde of monsters.
"Psychic Force," Ishtar reaches out with her hand to unleash a massive surge of psychic energy to send all demons scattered across the ground to suffer being crushed by the powerful force of the spell.
"Seems like this place is cleared up," Yu said as Rise uses her Navigator powers to sense all the people within the area had been moved away.
"Good, seems like we brought enough time for people to get to safety," Rise said as she looked around to notice something odd. "Hey honey, these buildings look intact," she said.
"Yeah I noticed it too, not many people were not killed here on the streets," Yu said.
"Senpai, something doesn't feel right here. There are so many demons but they are not attacking wildly or destroying many buildings," Rise said.
"It's odd but we hold focus on helping people," Yu said.
"You are right, let's keep moving," Rise said as the duo head off to save more people.
Elsewhere Yukiko and Chie head over to the hospital to see a Cerberus tackle the building trying to get to the people finding safety there. "Don't come any closer," Chie performs a flying kick to knock the big beast into a tree breaking it in half.
"Little humans, I will crush you under my paws," the Cerberus unleashes beams of darkness with the two women dodging the incoming attacks. Yukiko peppers the monster with a wave of fireballs with Cerberus letting out beams of elemental power from its maws. The beams of lightning, ice, and fire skirt across the grounds tearing it up as the duo rolls out of the way.
"Stupid dog, Grave," Chie cast a spell to unleash rows of sharp stones to erupt and tear into the beast. She casts down a wave of stones to bash into the monster's hide.
Yukiko closes in with her using her fan to shoot out fireballs to pepper the demon beast. She uses her paper fan cloaked with fire to sever one of the heads. "You pest," Cerberus unleashes a wave of energy to knock back Yukiko to fire a beam of flames at her.
Yukiko deflects the flames away and powers up her next move. "Flare Shot," she lobs an orb of flames to strike into the beast unleashing a burst of powerful fire blast to harm the beast.
Chie is rushing at the Cerberus as she is dodging incoming beams of elemental energy. She summons a pillar of stone underneath her feet to send her flying into the beasts. She powers up her feet to drive them into the back of the monster causing some damage.
"Off me human," Cerberus spins around to knock Chie away. "Damn it, I will not disappoint Lady Demeter," Cerberus unleashes fire into the air to spew down fireballs. The trio are dodging the attacks with the demon rushing at Yukiko but Chie knocks it with a flying kick.
"Coming through," Chie shoves her feet into the second head of the monster to nearly break its neck. "Stone Edge," she conjures blades of rock out of the ground to stab into the side of the demon beast. "Oh yeah man, I am fired up," Chie said as the beast is in deep pain.
"It's weak, strike it down now," Yukiko uses Mind Charge to power up her next spell. Chie is distracting it while Yukiko gets ready.
She rushes at the beast as it tries to shoot her with fireballs and she eats the hits shrugging them off. "Eat this, Burning Petals," Yukiko swings her paper fan unleashing three gusts of sharp burning Sakura petals connecting with the demon.
One of her best spells engulfs and overwhelms the demon reducing it into a pile of burned flesh scattered onto the grassy floor.
"Damn that was intense," Chie said as Yukiko shows her real strength to finish off the monster.
"Gee, this is very odd," Yukiko said as she looks around the surrounding areas to see little damage was done here.
"What is Yukiko?" Chie asked.
"These demons didn't do much. Some people died but not much damage to the buildings," she said as Chie has a question mark clicking within her mind.
"Oh yeah, that is very weird. The hospital suffered little damage," Chie said as several people noticed the two masked women saving them from the powerful monster.
"Thank you so much, that thing was scary," a woman said.
"Thanks for the save, this is so awful," an older man said.
"No time to waste, get to the hiding spots until this problem resolves itself," Chie said putting her cop voice to put the people at ease.
"Okay, I can't believe they exist," the woman said.
"I know right, the Phantom Thieves and these masked warriors. This nation attracts all sorts of surprises," the older man said as the duo went into the hospital to clear up any demons inside the building complex.
Elsewhere one of the demons leading the charge is sensing Kanji and Naoto heading for the Inaba shopping district. "Seems like they took the bait mistress," the female demon said to Demeter via psychic link.
"Good, we need to keep them busy so Lady Yukiko can finish the job," Demeter said as the female Demon begins to unleash blasts of darkness with Kanji using his shield to block the spell.
"So, you have arrived here," the demon said as Naoto noticed the back of the woman's head to see this Demon is Medusa.
"Kanji, don't look," Naoto said as she is behind him using his beefy frame to block her view of the demon.
"So, you two have come to greet me. I was going to turn some of these people to stone to add to my collection," Medusa said as the snake woman bores the face of a beautiful human female with a row of snakes for hair.
"Damn it, this is a problem," Naoto said as she grips her handgun tightly.
"What's wrong dear?" Kanji asked.
"Well, that is a Medusa. She can turn anyone into stone if they make eye contact," Naoto said.
"That is pretty bad but can we fight her while standing on the street?" Kanji asked as this idea sounds silly but not bad in execution.
"Good idea but don't look at her face no matter what," Naoto said as they split apart with Kanji rushing in with his shield to distract the snake lady.
"Purge," Medusa fires beams of darkness but Kanji keeps going with his shield blocking her magical shots.
"Eat this," Kanji said as he shoves into the snake lady to knock her onto the ground. Naoto fired shots into the demon letting them explode on impact.
"Oh, trying to not look into my eyes, it would be so much easy to give my face a look. It's quite lovely to look at," Medusa said as she is shooting bolts of darkness with the two rolling away to get into buildings. "Don't hide from me," Medusa said as she noticed a few cops pointing their guns at her. "More victims," Medusa glances at the cops to turn them all to stone instantly.
"Oh, that is not good," Kanji watches this from the window to avoid eye contact with her. He grabs a desk and tosses it through the window to bash into Medusa. "Bolt Storm," Kanji casts a lightning spell to rain down bolts of lightning to stun the monster woman.
"You pest," Medusa said as Naoto fires several shots with her casting an Atomic Flare to slam into the monster doing some damage. "You little shrimp come over here," Medusa said as she opens her mouth to spit orbs of darkness to blast apart a house.
"Flare Shot," Naoto fires empowered bullets to tear into the Medusa to use her cap to cover her face to block seeing the snake woman's eyes. She keeps firing where she remembers where the beast was and cutting into the demon in enhanced rounds. Naoto rolls into a house to dodge an incoming tail strike which left a dent in the street.
"Hold still," Medusa said as Kanji tosses his shield to hit her in the head with him tackling her and tossing her by the tail into the streets. He flings lightning bolts into her head which he managed to hit her eyes burning them away. "Oh shit, look what you have done," Medusa said as Naoto pats him on the back.
"Great job dear, she can't use her stone gaze now. No holding back," Naoto said as he is firing her gun. Kanji came in with his fists covered with lightning to begin punching her rapidly.
"This is for turning people into stone, asshole," Kanji said as he slams his fists into her face to roll away with Naoto firing several shots into the monster's body. She rocks out the chamber of her revolver to see all the bullets explode at once inside to turn Medusa into a pile of gore.
"Good job, that snake is gone," Naoto said as she holds her gun to the side to see if the people around them are okay. "It's okay, get out of here now. Get to the hideouts now," Naoto tells everyone as the townsfolks escape to clear out the area. "Something isn't right here," Naoto said as she fixes up her mask to check the buildings to see they remain undamaged.
"What's wrong babe?" Kanji asked.
"Seems like these movements are odd. It's very halfhearted in terms of an invasion force," Naoto said.
"Come to think of it, killings and destruction is kept pretty low," Kanji said as Naoto looks over the people who were turned to stone who didn't become alive.
"Too late for these people but we need to secure this area," Naoto said.
"Right," Kanji grabs his shield to place on his wrist mount to secure the area.
Elsewhere Yosuke and Teddie are heading to the highway to see demons killing and scaring people on the highway. "Gee, what a mess," Yosuke thought as he is using his speed to avoid incoming spells from Seekers and Daemons with him unleashing a barrage of wind crescent to slice them in half.
"Yeah, this place is covered with these nasty buggers," Teddie is freezing demons with his ice spells with Yosuke blasting them to pieces with wind spells.
"Time to clean up the mess," Yosuke said as he leaps over a speeding car almost getting hit by it. "Watch where you going buddy," he said as he uses a Tornado to catch a bunch of flying demons with Teddie blasting them with a bunch of ice spells.
"Stay still and freeze to death," Teddie uses Glacial Blast to freeze Daemons and Seekers to fall onto the ground to break apart on impact with the highway.
"A human and a Shadow?" a Daemon wondered.
"How curious these humans befriend some stupid shadows. How pitiful," the other Daemon said as they laughed at Teddie.
"He is our friend, who cares if he is a Shadow," Yosuke said.
"You tell them Yosuke, you demons are awful," Teddie said as the Daemons looked confused by this.
"Awful, you are the ones who are dealing with a criminal Adi who escape from the other side and hides here to seek an item that is not worth finding," a Daemon said for this makes Teddie feel weird about Adi.
"Not worth finding, this could stop the Chaos from spreading," Yosuke said as the demons laughed at them.
"Is that what she told you, that is very amusing. Do you even know what a Cosmic Egg even is, oh that woman is filling your heads with lies. Human," the Daemon said.
"Like I will listen to you, murdering our neighbors like they are animals," Yosuke shows righteous anger to prepare for a fight as the demon looks at him with pity.
"Oh well, better them dying in blissful fog than knowing the truth," the demons said which made them both more confused as they resume their attack.
"Don't matter, we need to save this town but taking out these monsters comes first," Yosuke said as Teddie nods his head.
"Of course, man. I got your back," Teddie said as she summoned an ice wall to block incoming demons. Yosuke uses a Tornado spell to smash through the icy wall to mix with it. The spell caught the demon to tear them up with its fierce sharp winds.
Several hellhounds rush across the highway blasting them with dark flames. Teddie puts up another ice wall but their combined attacks break it apart. Teddie gets hit with fireballs burning his suit.
"Teddie, stupid dogs," Yosuke said as he runs at the beasts to use his twin daggers to cut them down with ease. He kicks the last hellhound into a broken car to be impaled by an exposed metal spike. He releases a few wind crescents to chop it into bloody pieces.
"Oh goodness," Teddie pops out of his suit to be in his human form to ditch it behind. "Thank goodness, I was wearing clothing underneath," Teddie said as his bear suit is burned quite badly by demonic flames.
"You okay Ted?" Yosuke asked.
"Yep, I am ready to go. More monsters showing up," Teddie said as he sends out waves of ice needles to stab into several targets with Yosuke blasting them apart with a strong blast of wind.
"Panta Rhei," Yosuke summons big wind shurikens in each hand to toss them at the demons for the twin wind stars chopping and slicing into anything that stands in their way.
"Yosuke, that was great," Teddie giving his praise.
"Oh, it was no biggie. Seems like we cleared up the hallway here," Yosuke and Teddie move on to secure the area to check for survivors of the attack. They found people stuck in their cars trying to get away from the demons. "Hey everyone, the coast is clear. Get out of here and head for the hideouts where you will be safe," Yosuke said being thankfully he has a mask so no one knows it's him doing this.
"Thank you, we will get out of at once," the man said as groups of people are running away to get out of their way.
"Come on, let's move Ted," Yosuke said as the two guys head off to save more people.
Elsewhere Adi and Marie are at the riverbank to see people running away from Neko and Howlers. "I sense the traitors, kill her on sight," Neko said as the flaming demon cat is rushing at the two.
"Not so fast," Marie blasted it with a ray of light to knock it into a hill.
"So, the traitor has a fake goddess beside her. Made from the Collective Unconscious of humankind," the Neko said as Marie is not amused with them calling her a fake goddess.
"Stop calling me that, fake or not. I am going to stop you from harming this town," Marie said as she summoned her rod in her hands to prepare to use a spell.
"If you are a goddess, you would have the power to stop this invasion but you can't," Neko mocks her as Marie is bothered by that.
"Don't listen to them, we need to clear them out and save the people here," Adi said as Marie nods her head.
"Yes that's what matters," Marie said as she uses Shining Arrows to rain down light bolts to tear down the groups of demons. Adi fires beams of gravity to tear through the Neko and Howlers with him tossing an orb of gravity to entrap several targets into gravity spheres. This allows Marie to take them down with rays of light.
"Prism Barrage," Marie raises her rod at the sky to draw a magic circle behind her unleashing a wave of light beams to seek out their targets killing them off.
"Gravity Well," she entraps a group of demons to crush them within the dome becoming red smears onto the ground. She sets a gravity veil on her body to allow her to float freely as she warps away from a wave of fireballs. She uses gravity shift to lift all nearby objects to float around her to use them to block incoming attacks.
"Eat this," she threw the objects at high speeds to crash into the demons to crush them on impact.
"Nice trick," Marie said as she is killing off demons with light spells.
"Gravity can do a lot of things from making things float, increasing density, or creating black holes to tear enemies apart," Adi said.
"Wait a minute, you can make black holes?" Marie asked.
"Mini versions but they are still pretty strong. Sucks anything in their path but allies can get sucked in as well. So, I use them rarely," Adi said as she lifts several targets into the air with Marie blasting them to pieces.
Adi lifts fallen objects with her gravity and then tosses them at high speed to slam into demons crushing them on impact. By the flood bank, a large Sea Serpent appears out of the river showing its long neck and angular head.
"So, the traitor has shown her presence along with the pretender goddess," the sea serpent said as Marie is getting tired of this.
"I don't care if I am a fake goddess, I am going to protect these people," Marie said.
"You are supposed to be Izanami correct?" the sea serpent asked.
"Yes I am," Marie said as the demon looks on to be confused by this.
"I have seen the real Izanami and you are nothing like her. There is no room for false gods and my mistress Lady Demeter will rip you all to pieces," the Sea serpent spits out orbs f water with the two women dodging its attacks.
'Lady Demeter?" Marie asked.
"She is one of Other Yukiko's strongest demons. Demeter the Greek goddess of Harvest, must mean she is behind this attack but we see no trace of her here," Adi said as she teleports away from the beams of water.
"Tempest Rage," Sea Serpent summons twisters of water around it and flings them at the two women.
"Eat this," Adi gathers debris around a gravity ball and flings it at the monster. The makeshift grenade explodes in the monster's face to stun it as Marie begins peppering it with Shining Arrows cutting into its body.
"Suck on this, Photon Geyser," Marie summons a pillar of light under the monster to harm it further weakening it. The demon lunges at them with Adi increasing her density to put her hands out to stop the lunging attack in its tracks.
"Gravity Kick," she slams her foot into the face of the beast to knock it out of the water and crash into a hill nearby.
"Get crushed," Adi tosses several gravity orbs onto the head of the sea serpent. She closes her hand to make all the orbs implode to crush the head of the demon turning into red mist. The headless beast crashes into the water leaving the flood bank secure.
"Well, that is done with but I am concerned with how they are attacking the town," Marie said.
"Yes, there is no plan here. Just wanton destruction, where is Other Yukiko and what does she want?" Adi asked as a thought pops into her head but she is not sure if it was the right answer. "We need to regroup when we are done with helping the people here," she said as they aided people getting to safe spots to hide from the demon hordes.
Yu and Rise are near Junes to see a huge phoenix on top of the department complex. "Gee, that thing is as big as a house," Rise said as she uses her visor to check for weaknesses.
"I have been summoned by Lady Demeter to serve our mistress. I will burn you away and gain great glory for killing you," the Phoenix said.
"Senpai, that bird is weak to water and lightning. Let's give it a good beatdown," Rise said as she gathers bubbles to let them seek out the flaming bird. Phoenix swings its wings to out a wave of flames to turn the bubbles into steam.
"Undine, Stormcaller Song," Yu summons his mermaid water spirit to use the sound of her song to unleash a wave of water needles to stab into the Phoenix several times while Rise uses a sonic blast from her mouth to target the monster.
The bird takes flight to dodge the attack as it flies towards Rise to knock her away. Phoenix whips out gusts of flames to blast them both away. "Don't think a little water can hurt me," Phoenix said trying to burn Rise alive but she rolls away.
"Time to cool off bird. Healing Mist," Undine conjures a thick mist which heals the wounds of Yu and Rise within it while the Phoenix's flames get put out.
"Oh no, not this," Phoenix said as Yu cast lightning bolts to stun the bird while slashing into the demon with his sword.
"Brave Blade," Yu powers up his blade with energy to let out a powerful slash that knocks it into the Junes department complex. Rise follows after the demon to see it powering up with flames covering its body again.
She cast a magical barrier to block incoming fireballs. "Eat this," Rise tosses discs of water to slice into the walls and cut into the flaming beast. "Barrier Surge," she rushes in with her cover into a barrier to use it to bash into the flaming bird.
"Wild Thunder," Yu unleashes waves of lightning bolts while Undine is shooting beams of water to keep the bird on its talons.
"Gee, Yosuke is going to be pissed. We trashed the place," Rise said as she uses her water whip to leash and tear into the Phoenix.
"He will get over it, better the building stays intact," Yu said as he uses Thunderous Rend to empower his blade with lightning to sever one of the Phoenix's wings. Blood explodes from his attack as the Phoenix is screaming in pain.
"No! You bastard, my beautiful wing. I will burn you alive, Inferno," Phoenix calls forth pillars of flames to tear throughout Junes. They got pushed back by the barrages of flaming pillars as Rise uses Mind Charge to power up her next spell.
Yu and Undine dodge the fire pillars to blast them with lightning and water spells weakening them further. Yu uses another Thunderous Rend to sever the other wing of the demon leaving it flightless.
"Here I come, Tidal Wave," Rise unleashes powerful water waves to sweep up the beast to be killed on impact by the harsh crushing forces. "Oh boy, that is done," Rise said as she psychically connects the others using her Navigator powers.
"Guys we should head for the park. I am detecting a very powerful force there," Rise said as she is shocked by the powerful energy signal there.
"That must be Demeter. You all must prepare for the worse. She is a Greek Goddess of Olympus," Adi said.
"A goddess huh, the signal is way stronger than corrupted Philemon," Rise said as he feels uneasy with this.
"Let's go, we need to deal with her and get to the bottom of this," Adi said as everyone goes to the park in the middle of Inaba.
Elsewhere the Inaba middle school is shaken up by the demon attacks. Mr. Dojima and Nanako are in the hallways to see people trying to escape to the hideout in the school's basement to get away from the demons.
"What a mess," Mr. Dojima said as he is trying to keep his cool while safeguarding his daughter.
"What is going dad, those monsters are everywhere," Nanako said.
"Just stay calm, we will get to the shelters and we will be safe until this blows over," Mr. Dojima said as they suddenly see Yukiko in the hallway.
"Miss Yukiko," Nanako said as the duo noticed one of Yu's friends appeared there.
"Thank goodness, you two are okay?" Yukiko asked.
"Yeah, but we all need to get to the shelters underground. Come with us," Mr. Dojima said as Yukiko nodded her head.
"Okay I will lead the way," Yukiko said as she has a smirk on her face. "I will lead them somewhere and then I will make my move," Other Yukiko thought as her plan is working flawlessly with the invasion continuing.