Literally: the final stretch
Meaning: the last part of something
The elevator rode up to the final level of Maruki's Palace. The door opened and the Thieves spilled out of it.
"Man," Makoto remarked, stretching, "these were not designed to carry ten-" She cut off, finally registering the surroundings. "-uh, what the heck is this?"
All previous levels of the laboratory have managed to stick to the theme of the Palace – the patient-accessible areas were all white with occasional spots of color, inviting, slightly unnerving in their pristine-ness; the personnel-only areas have introduced all sorts of shades of gray, and were a bit messier, but maintained the clinical tone.
In contrast, the level currently in front of the Thieves was primarily yellow and gold. While not completely devoid of technology, with assorted lenses overlooking it and lamps by the edges of some floating platforms, a large chunk of it consisted of sprawling branches of some sort of trees, or maybe one large specimen. There were a few golden statues of various size standing around, and-
"Are these guys floating?" Sumire asked.
Indeed, a few scattered cognitions, dressed in white, were floating from below, towards the massive bright light above.
"What the fuck?" Goro asked nobody in particular.
"This might be a reference to a belief of certain sects of Christianity," Yusuke commented. "Allegedly, during the end times, when their savior will return to earth to judge all of humanity, the pious will physically ascend to heaven."
"And why do you know that, Fox?" Goro asked.
"You learn plenty of new things when browsing the internet for artistic inspiration," Yusuke remarked. "Did you know the English word for a group of crows is homonymous with their word for 'murder'?"
"Nobody really uses these weird collective nouns, to be fair," Ann commented.
The group marched forward, towards the first floating platform. There was some sort of black pillar in the middle of it, standing on a base, lit up green. There didn't seem to be any other way of leaving the platform – at least not a readily available one. There were, however, two incomplete staircases leading to other platforms, each missing a large chunk of the steps in the middle. Both of them had vines growing on either side, covered in blue-tinted flowers. On each edge of the platform there was a lamp, shining a green light on the staircase.
Makoto, the smart cookie that she was, connected the same-colored dots and turned to the control unit. There were three knobs on it; left to right, red, green and blue. The middle one was turned all the way, while the other two were in the '0' position. She turned up the blue knob and turned down the green one. The light from the base and the lamps changed, the flowers on the vines visibly bloomed – but most importantly, the vines themselves grew, thick enough to complete the staircases to other platforms.
"This whole bit screams 'antepiece'," Futaba remarked.
Makoto turned to her. "Hm?"
"They're giving us a simple version of a puzzle and there's gonna be a more complex version of it later." She pointed at the other platforms in the distance. "You can see the other control pillars from over here. How about you let me scan the area so I can plan you a path through it?"
"Sure, go ahead," Makoto encouraged her. "It's already getting late, let's wrap this up as quickly as possible."
Futaba's Persona manifested around her. Murmurs could be heard from the inside: "Vines blocking paths… Some control panels don't have all knobs… Color blending, huh…" She unsummoned the saucer and landed on the ground. "Alright, call me a star, 'cause I've found you the shortest path forward."
"If that's a reference to something, nobody got it," Makoto pointed out.
"Not my problem." Without touching the blue or green knobs, she turned the red one all the way on and marched forward, up a blue staircase and then a red one. The group dutifully followed.
"What's with the statues?" Akira remarked. "They all depict the same person."
Sumire glanced at the biggest one and something clicked in her brain. "Isn't that Rumi? Maruki-san's ex-girlfriend?"
"Ex-fiancée," Akira corrected. "Takuto mentioned her in private back in November, but didn't speak much of her."
"Well, she was his first victim," Goro remarked.
"'Victim' is the wrong word, Crow," Sumire butted in. "We have seen Maruki-san's memories, and apparently she was the first person he used his powers on, mostly by accident. She lost her parents in a burglary gone horribly wrong and the grief rendered her nigh-comatose. Maruki-san overwrote her cognition, and so she didn't remember that… but didn't remember him either."
"Well, he didn't mention that part," Akira remarked. A thought appeared in the back of his brain and he started mulling it over.
"Honestly, I'm just glad he didn't try to take advantage of her," Ann commented. "Every other Palace Ruler so far was a sex pest, so that was a nice change of pace."
"Your low standards are concerning," Goro commented. "Then again, I served one of said sex pests, so what the fuck do I know about standards?"
"Alright, everyone, on the platform!" Futaba ordered, hand on the red knob of a different switch in front of her, connected to a wall of vines blocking the path forward. "I gotta disable this staircase to let us proceed. Chop chop!"
"Enemy ahead, by the way," Makoto pointed at a platform slightly ahead of them, above and to the side. A thin, tall, humanoid blob was standing there, staring at nothing in particular.
Futaba pulled out the laser pistol she had gotten the day before, took aim, and fired. With a tsk-pew! a red line went from the tip of the barrel to the Shadow, disintegrating it on the spot into a pile of gray ash.
"Sneak Attack Critical on Wandering Shadow," Futaba commented, putting away the pistol.
Akira raised an eyebrow. "You've got weapons now?"
"I thought it'd be appropriate to arm her when she had rejoined the team," Goro remarked. "Just for symbolism's sake."
"Aren't laser weapons your category?"
"They match her as well," he shrugged. "And I decided I want to play with a slightly more real firearm now." He produced his suppressed PDW. "It's based on the Russian PP-2000."
Akira smirked. "Pft, a pee-pee gun."
Goro rolled his eyes in exasperation.
The Thieves progressed through the area without problems. As they pushed on upward and forward, a building previously hidden by the floating platforms revealed itself. It was a light gray monolith, its aesthetics matching the previous locations in the Palace. A few hexagonal panels on the side were lit up with the color selected at the time, and gargantuan cables were plugged to equally massive sockets on the side. Morgana didn't have to point out the Treasure was stored in there, it just seemed obvious enough to everyone present.
Futaba enabled all three primary colors on the final switch, completing a long staircase leading to the entrance to the building, going past a golden statue of Rumi holding an apple, about as tall as the taller Phantom Thieves.
Sorry, let me rephrase – the apple was that tall. The statue itself was about the same scale. The golden Rumi towered over the Phantom Thieves, like a Colossus of Rhodes built by a grieving partner. The two marched up the stairs going between her head and the apple, up to what looked like a tall black wall. It revealed itself to be a gate, made out of a series of narrow panels, moving out of their way as they approached.
Inside the building, past the gate, was a narrow corridor, with a safe room door on the side. The way forward was blocked by a bulky, muscular-looking Shadow. It looked intimidating.
"There don't seem to be any alternative routes we can take," Makoto remarked. "Since we're wrapping it up anyway, would you kindly put a few revolver rounds in it, Crow?"
"Wait!" Sumire piped up, then turned to Goro. "This might be the last chance to do that two-person attack I suggested."
"Hm?"
"Before we left, Violet proposed a Showtime attack involving her and myself," Goro explained. "I think it'll be powerful enough to deal with the threat, and… well, and more fun than the boring-but-practical option."
Makoto asked herself if she trusted the two of them to not drop the ball for one reason or another. At that point, the answer was a confident 'yes'. "Fine. The stage is yours."
Sumire stretched herself a bit. "It's Showtime."
Picture a corridor, not unlike the one the Shadow was initially standing in. Then, picture the Shadow.
"Hey!"
It turned to see Goro waving at him. "The fuck are you doing? We're going live in thirty seconds!" It tried to react in some way, but found itself pushed by Goro into some kind of studio. "Seriously, do you think that the camera will operate itself?"
The studio in question was a cooking show set – a counter with the logo of the show carved into the front, a well-outfitted kitchen in the back, with all sorts of equipment; pots, pans, gas burners, little spice jars, and other useful doodads. In front of the counter was a camera, and Goro pushed the Shadow towards it. "Come on, man, do your bloody job."
Sumire entered the scene, applying face powder. "How much time?"
"Ten seconds," Goro replied.
Sumire reached into the refrigerator that was standing in the back of the set and pulled out an impressive-looking layered square cake – the base was made out of shortbread, above it was a layer of filling, made from cream cheese and pudding, and on top of that was a layer of meringue, peppered with little droplets of caramelized sugar. She put it on the counter in front of Goro and stood by his side.
"Three," he muttered under his breath, "two, one…"
In unison, they smiled at the camera. "Welcome back to Visceral Cook-Up with Violet and Crow!" Sumire proclaimed.
"Before the ad break, Violet has demonstrated her recipe for the fantastic honeydew cheesecake," Goro gestured at the cake in front of him. "Don't these golden drops look just lovely?"
"And it's a very simple recipe!" Sumire continued. "In fact, it's so simple that my co-host will make it for you right now, on camera!"
That took Goro aback. "What the frick, Violet?!" he hissed, leaning in towards her. "You know I'm an atrocious cook!"
"Come on, Crow-san, you'll do fine," she encouraged him.
Cue a montage of Goro not doing fine. The shortbread dough didn't come out right, the cheese filling was thick enough to strain the hand mixer's motor, the meringue wouldn't get foamy, and Goro burned his hands trying to apply it on the top of the cake.
Finally, he dropped the cake, still in the pan, on the counter. The meringue on top was unevenly spread, mostly-charcoal black, and there was a lit fuse sticking out of it.
"W-well, you tried, and that's what matte-" The coin dropped and Sumire pointed at the cake, "-why is there a lit fuse in this thing?"
"I'unno," Goro huffed, looking elsewhere. "I used the same ingredients you did. Milk, eggs, flour…"
He glanced to the side, towards the ingredients, and noticed two very similar cartons – one labeled AP Flour - Now with more flour!, the other labeled RDX (powdered) - Now with more BOOM!.
"So that's why the dough wouldn't form right!" he proclaimed.
"It's gonna blow!" Sumire realized. "We've gotta get rid of-" She grabbed the cake pan, which was still scorching hot, and with a "Gah!" tossed it upwards and forwards.
It flew in a parabolic arc, giving Goro and Sumire a moment to realize what was about to happen, then landed bottom-up on the Shadow's head. It peeked from behind the camera, cheese filling going down its head. Had it eyes in its current form, it would've stared daggers at the two.
"Uh," said Goro, "cut to test card?"
The cake then exploded for massive damage.
"Talk about a calorie bomb," Akira quipped.
"You were right, this was more fun," Makoto smiled. "Let's move on. We must be close."
The Thieves turned a corner and saw another elevator, mercifully large enough to fit them all without issue. They all got in it and rode upwards. After a few seconds, the final final floor emerged in front of them.
It resembled a garden, even brighter and more flush with vegetation than what was below. The grass was overgrown with assorted flowers. Glowing butterflies were flying around in massive numbers. There were joyous cognitions standing around, sparsely dressed and with laurel wreaths on their heads. There seemed to be a bunch of glass panes scattered around for some reason.
Yusuke made a frame with his thumbs and index fingers and looked through it. "This whole location seems to invoke the Pentateuch's Garden of Eden."
"And that means…" Ryuji commented.
"Paradise," Makoto said. "A way of displaying Maruki's still convinced this whole mess is worth it."
"This looks like a dead end," Goro pointed out. "Where's the Treasure?'"
"Look up."
Prompted by Morgana, everyone craned their heads. Right below the ceiling there was… something. It shone and shimmered brightly, encircled by glass panes similar to the ones on the ground.
"So, that's the Treasure, huh?" Sumire commented.
"Correct," Akira replied. "The keystone of the distorted desires that formed this Palace. When we steal it, it will all be over."
"We have to reach it first, though."
Something clicked in Futaba's head. "Don't these things around it look a bit like a spiral staircase?"
"Back on the Day of Reckoning you've bent the skeletons Yaldabaoth spawned to get us a path to his lair," Makoto remembered. "Could you do something similar here?"
Futaba manifested her Persona and after a moment, a few panes lifted themselves up from the ground and arranged into steps. "Looks like it," her voice came out of the flying saucer. "Let's keep them down for now, I'll finish the staircase after we send the calling card."
"After we do what?" Sumire asked, watching the glass get gently put down. "Calling cards haven't come up before with me around."
"Long story short, the Treasure's formless and intangible right now," Morgana explained. "In order to fix that, we need to announce to the Palace owner that we're coming for them. The target's shock will make the Treasure assume a more defined form and allow us to steal it."
"But Maruki-san already knows about us rummaging through here," Sumire pointed out.
"I think he's in denial," Akira commented. "Like, he still believes that there's something he can do or say to make us step do-"
The ground underneath the Thieves gave way.