TW: Mentions of Abuse
Chapter 69: Changing Crimson's Heart, Part 1
We were then in Crimson's Palace in The Cognitive World Of Hell as we were gonna go and change Crimson's heart by stealing the palace's treasure.
The place was on lockdown as we took a hidden way.
"Alright, here we go, for our sake and Moxxie!" Cattleya said,
"And for those abused by Crimson!" Arthur said, "Once we change Crimson's heart, we'll set them free!"
"Yes! Let's do this!"
We scattered through the halls and dodged through any obstacles and lasers thrown at us. We even dodged some guards keeping watch of Shadow Crimson's treasure. We did it all with ease as we were near the entrance of the main stage.
"Alright! This is it, time to steal the treasure!" Cattleya said,
We went inside the theater as there was a spotlight shining on the main stage. We were near the audience seats as the lights went up.
"The treasure isn't there." Cattleya said,
"So where's Crimson at then?" Arthur wondered,
Shadow Crimson appeared out of magical air on center stage.
"Ta-da!" He shouted, "I am right here you fools!"
We rush down to meet with Shadow Crimson. He laughed menacingly a bit.
"Well, the so-called Phantom Thieves have arrived to crash my little party!" He said, "Who would have thought since I know damn well what you all wanted! My treasure!"
Shadow Crimson then snaps his fingers as a security guard of his showed them a briefcase.
"It's a briefcase!" Lars said,
"Bet that's full of money that you've been collecting from those greedy deals!" Cattleya said,
"Certainly!" Shadow Crimson said, "Who would have thought that money and power could go so well together!"
"Speak for yourself!" Arthur said, "You abused your imp goons who tried to leave your mafia or if they did a bad job!"
"Yeah, they're living a shitty life thanks to your tyranny!" Boris said,
"Oh, ha ha ha! Pathetic, you care about their precious lives, do you?" Shadow Crimson said, "The lives that I've been dying to break?!"
"And what about Moxxie and his mother? Your wife died from a sickness!" Selene said,
Shadow Crimson looked down and tipped his top hat. He smiled menacingly.
"You brats believed that she was killed because I didn't have the right medicine for her?" He said as he laughed a bit,
"What did you do?" Astrid said,
"I didn't do anything! I let her die just to take control of Moxxie!"
"You LET her die?!" Willow said, "That's fucking awful!"
"How do you even feel no remorse that you let your only wife die just to abuse Moxxie's life before he went to Pride?!" Lars shouted, "That's very fucked up!"
Shadow Crimson then laughed some more as a dark fire surrounded him.
"Didn't you brats understand what I have?" He said to us, "Money and power go so well together! And that's all I need to take you on!"
Shadow Crimson then floated up in the air as he opened the curtains on the main stage. He floated over to center stage and started to possess some sort of green strings from his fingertips.
"What's going on with him?!" Lars said, "Why is he not turning into a monster?!"
"I don't know…" Cattleya replied, "Maybe those strings are what made him a monster!"
Shadow Crimson laughed some more as he snapped his fingers to create 3 imp cyborg goons in red. He used his magical strings to control them like puppets, or gave them life as they were activated.
"Now, let us begin our trickster game!" He shouted, "You'll have to go through my goons in order to take me on!"
"So he really is controlling them like puppets…" Arthur said, "And they're all innocent imps, which makes it worse…"
The imp cyborgs in red then started to shoot out flames from their mini flamethrowers at us. We dodged the flames.
"Well, this is certainly unique!" Lars said, "He's using those imps to fight us instead of him!"
"Wonder! Try to burn them with Mad Hatter!" Astrid said as Jingu was feeling her head, "I can't sense their weaknesses for some reason!"
"Gotcha, Hacker!"
Lars took off his mask to awaken Mad Hatter.
"Mad Hatter!" He shouted,
Mad Hatter then shot out Maraigon Fire magic at the imps, but the imps reflected the fire back to Lars.
"OH SHIT!" Lars shouted as he was hit by the flames,
"Wonder!" Willow shouted,
Willow went over to get Lars up.
"Are you ok?" She said to him,
"Yeah…" Willow replied, "What the fuck was that? They're immune to fire?"
Astrid then realized something.
"What if the colors they have on them resembles what element of magic they're using?" She wondered, "Hunter, use Ullr to shoot out some Ice at them!"
"I gotcha!" Boris said as he took off his mask, "Ullr!"
Ullr was awakened as he shot out Mabufula ice magic at the imps, destroying them.
"Woah! It worked!" Astrid said, "They were weak to Ice!"
"Ha! I'm liking this!" Boris said,
"Impossible!" Shadow Crimson shouted as he growled, "Fine! Have some of this!"
Shadow Crimson then snapped his fingers again to have 3 shark cyborg goons in blue to appear. They were already alive.
"Now we got some shark goons!" Astrid said, "And since they're blue, they're probably gonna reflect any Ice magic back at us!"
"Right, so I guess this is where my time to shine is up?" Lars said,
"Seems so!"
"Alright, let's do this!"
Lars was back up and healed as he awakened Mad Hatter again.
"Eat this!" Lars shouted,
Mad Hatter shot out more Maraigon flames at the shark cyborg goons, but they quickly dodged.
"What the fuck, what now?!" Lars shouted,
Shadow Crimson laughed menacingly a bit.
"They're already alive, so I don't need to control them!" He shouted, "And those imps were just a warm-up anyways!"
"He wanted us to hit them with their weaknesses?!" Selene shouted,
"Seems so!" Astrid said, "But wait…"
Jingu appeared to feel Astrid's head once more.
"They're also weak to Guns!" Astrid said, "Let's fire away!"
We all got out our guns and fired at the shark cyborg goons to weaken them.
"Alright, now let's finish them!" Boris said,
We then shot them to dust. Shadow Crimson grew angrier.
"You brats!" He shouted, "Now you're in for it!"
Shadow Crimson snapped his fingers to have 4 more shark cyborg goons appear. Two were in yellow and two were in green. The yellow ones started to fire out electronically at us while two more took to the skies to try and attack us from afar.
"Here they come!" Astrid shouted, "Dodge!"
We all dodged their attacks. Willow then got up and turned to the green ones in the skies.
"They're probably using wind power, so I'm going in!" Willow said as she took off her mask, "Neith!"
Neith was awakened to shoot out Mazionga lightning at the green cyborgs, destroying them. The two yellow cyborgs then shot out lightning at Willow.
"Oh!" Willow said as she was about to dodge,
Then, Selene appeared while riding on Evaki to absorb the lightning and shoot out Magarula wind magic at the yellow cyborgs, killing them.
"Thanks." Willow said,
"You're welcome." Selene said,
We turned to Shadow Crimson who was struggling.
"Fine!" He shouted, "I'll show you who's a show-stopper now!"
Shadow Crimson then snapped his fingers from both hands to have two big shark cyborg goons appear. One in black and the other in white.
"Get them!" He shouted at them,
The two big cyborgs then fired their light and dark beams at us, knocking us back when an explosion was created on impact with the stage.
We landed near the seats in the empty audience.
"Urgh… This is gonna be challenging." Arthur said, "They're probably weak to Bless and Curse magic, yeah?"
"Yeah, but none of our Personas really do have those powers." Astrid replied,
"I'll take care of them." I said,
"Really?"
"Watch."
I got out of the seats and landed back on the stage. The two big cyborgs and Shadow Crimson looked down at me.
"So, you wanna fight some more, huh?" He said to me,
"I am." I replied with a smirk,
"Then tear them apart!" Shadow Crimson shouted at the cyborgs,
The cyborgs then fired their beams at me, but I managed to dodge. I took off my mask to awaken one of my Personas,
"Arsene De Luxe!" I shouted,
"Huh? Did I hear that correctly?" Cattleya said,
"Did he bring back his first Persona?!" Lars shouted, "But in a newer form?!"
"How is that possible?!"
Arsene, but evolved into Arsene De Luxe, have appeared.
"Oh, it is good to be back!" He said,
I smiled at my Persona as I looked at the cyborgs.
"Ravage them!" I shouted,
Arsene De Luxe then shot out Eigaon curse magic at the cyborg in white, destroying it. Shadow Crimson grew angrier.
"Damn you!" He shouted as he looked at his cyborg in black, "Get that fucker!"
The cyborg in black then shot out a dark beam at me, but I was immuned by it.
"Huh?!" Shadow Crimson shouted, "What the fuck?!"
I pointed Arsene De Luxe at the cyborg in black.
"Do it!" I shouted,
"With pleasure!" Arsene De Luxe shouted,
Arsene De Luxe then shot out Kougaon bless magic at the cyborg in black, destroying it. Shadow Crimson was even angrier than ever as I landed on the stage.
"Who's the real trickster now?" I asked him,
"YOU FUCKING BRAT!" Shadow Crimson shouted,
The rest of my friends landed on the stage as well as Arsene De Luxe was recalled.
"That's it! NOW you're all asking for it!" Shadow Crimson as he raised up his fingers on both hands to snap them,
"Oh no, here they come!" Astrid shouted,
As Shadow Crimson's fingers were snapped, nothing else appeared. We were all shocked.
"Wh-What the?!" He said, "...I guess I have no more goons in my will."
We all smirked at him.
"Well, guess we're all gonna take him on now that he's defenseless!" Arthur said,
"Indeed we do!" Cattleya said,
We all launched ourselves in the air as Shadow Crimson saw us.
"Oh fuck me!" He shouted,
We performed an all-out attack on Shadow Crimson.
"NOOOOOOO!" He shouted as he fell to the ground, defeated and weakened.