Literally: to walk out of oneself and stand beside
Meaning: to get angry to the point of losing self-control
Rough English equivalent: to come undone

The elevator rolled up to the topmost floor of Maruki's Palace, and the Thieves emerged from glass panes from the day before were already assembled into a faux-staircase, wrapped around a tree reaching up to the very ceiling, and presumably the Treasure.

"He's waiting for us," Sumire stated the obvious.

"Fuck off with these comments," Goro growled at me. "She's scared, we're all scared, give her a break."

I did not say I'm unsympathetic.

Akira leaned towards him. "Snarling at the narrator doesn't make anyone feel better," he whispered in his ear. "Keep yourself together for just a little bit longer. We can both fall apart afterwards."

"Um, do you need a moment?" Makoto asked, concerned.

Goro let out a sharp exhale. "Fuck this noise, we're doing it," he proclaimed, marching forward. He went up a dozen or so steps before catching himself. "Uh, I mean, lead the way, Queen. I don't want to undermine your leadership."

"Don't worry about it." Makoto went past him and marched up the staircase. Everyone followed.

They didn't hurry, preferring to save their strength for the fight that would inevitably follow. It gave them time to absorb their surroundings one last time. The trunk of the tree the stairs were wrapped around was odd – it consisted of a bunch of interlaced branches tied together and spreading around. Some of the branches had apples on them. They resembled normal fruit in everything other than the size – being about as tall as some of the shorter members of the group – and the inexplicable holes containing what resembled lenses from the cameras from before.

"Considering the omnipresent Garden of Eden symbolism," Yusuke said, desperate to break the terse silence around them, "this must be the tree of knowledge of good or evil." A pause. Either that, or the lesser known tree of life. Interestingly, neither tree's fruits are identified in the original text, but they're commonly depicted as apples in art, which would explain what is in front of us."

"Either that, or Takuto just likes apples," Akira muttered. "There was always a box of apple juice on his desk."

As they got higher and higher, the surroundings around them changed. The stair panes, initially accented golden, turned white, then dark purple. The walls around them matched the stairs in hue. The tree's branches got a matching golden sheen. The Thieves noticed that the staircase was leading towards some kind of platform – a golden-brown pyramid suspended in the air, pointing downwards.

The top finally revealed itself – a black mass of tangled branches, wires or… tentacles? You could spot some red on the camera apples hanging from them under the right light, but they were almost pitch black as well. In the middle of it all, there was a white spot of Maruki's suit. He had his back turned towards the entrance, as if he couldn't look the newcomers in the eye.

"Good morning," he said, his tone tranquil. "I see you insist on forcing my hand."

"Go fuck yourself," Goro barked back.

"I do not want this either, Takuto," Akira replied. "But you have to be stopped."

"This is unsustainable, Maruki-san," Sumire proclaimed.

"Teething problems are inevitable," Maruki replied. "If you would just let me-"

"Oh, boo hoo hoo." Goro interrupted him. "The Great and Powerful Maruki doesn't make mistakes, the world forces him!"

There was a moment of silence, after which Maruki slowly turned around. His eyes hidden behind the opaque lenses of his glasses. "I will not get in a shouting match with you."

"Good!" Goro went on. "Maybe you'll listen for once, you fucking megalomaniac!"

"Come on-"

"Do not interrupt me, Akira!" Goro didn't let him speak. "He's got the reality itself in the palm of his hand, but he keeps on talking about how others don't fucking let him make one divine fuck-up after another!" He turned back to Maruki. "You- you're just like Akechi! That piece of shit didn't take responsibility for his actions either, and he got his teeth kicked in for it! Just like-"

Maruki interrupted him with a finger snap.

The Thieves covered their eyes, blinded by a flash centering on where Maruki stood, When their vision started working again, Maruki was standing in front of them in a suit of golden armor and a billowing white cape. He held a staff by his side - its color matched his armor and it was finished with a head with many spikes. The upper half of his head was now covered with a large oblong mask. It did very little to hide his determined expression on his face.

"I believe you were doing it like this:" he said, putting his off-hand on his mask. "Persona."

A group of tentacles shot out from the ground and wrapped tightly around each individual Thief, restraining them. The tips covered their mouths; a few of them tried to protest or wriggle out, to no avail.

"Like I said, I am not interested in a shouting match," Maruki proclaimed, in a forced neutral tone. "I am going to strike you with an attack that targets your individual weak spots, and then the fight will be over. I will take no joy nor pride in what will occur."

Don't do it.

Goro tried to insult him once more, but only a muffled snarl came out of his blocked mouth.

Maruki turned towards him. "Hm." The tentacle holding him moved a bit closer to Maruki, separating him from the group. "As powerful as my Persona is… perhaps its power can be enhanced with a suitable conduit. For a… much cleaner, more painless strike."

Goro realized what was about to happen, and his mumbles turned more frantic and pleading.

"Azathoth!" Maruki invoked his Persona. A massive golden crucifix manifested above Maruki; the Thieves recognized it as the Persona he had awakened to on the day they had fought Yaldabaoth.

Azathoth's eyes lit up with a shade of soft blue. The Thieves all braced themselves.

"Prismatic Light!"

The tentacle wrapped around Goro glowed white, then it split into multiple colors blending together. Then, in a split second, the colors went down to the ground and then to the tentacles restraining the other Thieves. There were a few sharp grunts of pain, and then, silence. Most subdued Thieves have gone limp. Most being the operative keyword – Goro remained conscious, since he wasn't targeted by the attack, and Akira, Futaba, and Sumire seemed unhurt by it.

Maruki didn't expect that outcome. "What on earth…"

Some Personas do not have weak spots, Takuto.

Maruki recoiled away, startled. Akira was still gagged, but the voice Maruki just heard had to belong to him. It was dripping with cold anger. There was a gleam in his eyes, like the light bouncing off of a sharpened dagger. "Is that- is that you?"

How ironic of you to reply to accusations of lack of foresight with an attack you did not think through.

Akira couldn't move, or do anything else, but Maruki was intimidated nevertheless. "I-I still have a chance for a follow-up! I've made a mistake going for complex attacks."

You've made a mistake alright.

The restraining tentacles briefly flashed white.

"If you had any resistance to simple Physical attacks, it's gone now," Maruki explained. "A-a simple attack of enough force will wrap this all up."

Pray it kills me.

Sumire and Futaba glanced at Akira, unsure who was the scarier man in the room now.

"It should just… keep you down for the time being." Maruki reached for his mask again. "Finish this, Azathoth!"

The tentacle restraining Goro glowed white once more, and then nothing happened. Everyone present just stared at it, unsure.

"I said finish this, Azatoth!" Maruki repeated.

The tentacle's glow became almost blinding. A strained grunt came out of Goro. In a gap between the coils, you could see his fists clenching so hard they were twitching slightly.

Say what you want about Goro Akechi – I said a thing or two myself – but he was a stubborn bastard. The initial attack went through him without issue, because he didn't even know how to prepare himself for it. With a follow-up, he had gotten just enough of a feel to dig his metaphorical heels in and block the flow of power. He wasn't going to let Maruki hurt his friends, his family, even if it killed him.

At that point, especially if it killed him.

Maruki realized what was happening, and his eyes widened in panic. "No, no no no…"

Goro's eyes started glowing red. The Thieves themselves were on the verge of panic.

Defuse this, goddammit!

"I-I can't!" Maruki said. "The attack power has left me and I can't absorb it back! It has to hit the target now!"

And then, a voice not belonging to Akira boomed in the room:

DIE.

The power shot back to Azathoth. It shook in response, put visibly off-balance. His eyes blinked like malfunctioning lights. Maruki felt the attack as well. "Gah!" He doubled over in pain.

The tentacles loosened up, releasing the captives. The downed Thieves, Goro included, hit the floor like sacks of potatoes. Futaba, Sumire and Akira landed on the floor.

"What are the orders, senpai?"

"Not now, Sumire!" Akira trotted up to Goro's motionless body. His eyes were wide open, and their irises were now dark brown, instead of their previous brownish-red. A Persona of your choice manifested above Akira. "Samarecarm!"

The expected particles appeared, but Goro did not react in any way. Akira knelt by his side and put his head to his chest, trying to see any movement, hear any breathing or pulse, find any sign of life. It couldn't end like this, it wouldn't end like this.

Finally, a barely audible hoarse came out of his mouth. "Everything… hurts…"

Maruki had a moment to pick himself up from the ground. Using his staff to support himself, he inspected the scene. Half the Phantom Thieves were now unconscious (at least he thought they were unconscious) on the ground, two of the remaining three had their melee weapons out, not willing to let themselves get caught off guard one more time, and the third was kneeling by the side of a kid that he had used as a beating stick to strike his last few friends.

A voice in the back of his head asked him if it was worth it.

"I…" Maruki tried to say something to all this, "I didn't mean to…"

Akira raised his head and looked at him.

People usually don't snap after single sentences.

"You… didn't mean to," Akira repeated, picking himself up from the floor.

Then again, people usually don't have their patience and sanity eroded by months of perpetually escalating danger, to the point of actual gods manifesting on earth to ruin their lives.

"You did not mean to hurt my friends for standing in the way of your FUCKING REALITY, did you?!" Akira gripped Goro's cane he had grabbed from the floor.

He was furious, yes, but in order to understand what will follow, we need to break that fury into three base vectors.

The largest and most obvious one was fury directed at Maruki. He used to be his friend, and he not only turned his back on him, he also used one of his other friends to strike down the rest for some extra salt in the wound. All that in the name of a hare-brained scheme where he assumed all the power of a god with none of the responsibility.

The second was directed at the world as a whole. The power Maruki was wielding indirectly came from the people itself, these spineless pathetic worms that would've sacrificed him on the altar of status quo, unable or unwilling to change the world even as it all rotted around them.

But the third one was ultimately pointed at Akira himself. He should've intervened sooner, deescalated things, or done anything. But instead, he ran back to his hometown and let his friends deal with the fallout. And now they got hurt or worse, and it was all his fault.

And now, these three furies blended together, looking for an acceptable target to be unleashed upon. And Maruki had just made a mistake of drawing their attention.

You've tried, Trickster.

"Now, c-come on," Maruki took a step back, his hands raised a bit. "Let's not escalate things any further."

You've twisted yourself in a loop for all these ingrates. And what did you get for it?

Akira replied by shooting Maruki a glare. His teeth were gritted, and his eyes were shining golden.

Enough of this toothless form! Take your dagger and shove in the heart of the world that rejected you!

His left hand moved to his mask. He ripped it off in one smooth motion and shattered it against the ground, leaving chunks of bloody skin around his eyes.

I am thou. Thou art I.

A Persona manifested above him. It was a horned humanoid, covered head to toe in black-and-white dazzle camouflage, with three black braids reaching down from his head to his hooves. He was wielding a red sword in his right hand.

"Loki." Futaba muttered.

Sumire glanced at her. "You know that Persona?" she asked under her breath.

"It used to be Goro's," she explained. "If Akira's wielding it now, he's cracked. Badly."

"You want to fulfill my desires, Takuto?" Akira snarled. "Well, right now I've got one desire left."

Loki pointed his sword at Maruki.

"Cease to exist."