Good Day Readers! Obviously, I do not own anything connected to the Persona series in general or Persona 5 specifically, I DO own Chiba Natsumi and Anais Ouvrard, along with Natsumi's immediate family members and the original Personas that will be showing up on occasion.
I would appreciate any responses that you have, please enjoy.
Chapter 20: - The Treasure's Location
"Didn't realise those things could be that tough before that toilet demon. That wasn't as bad, but still," Skull commented. We were all shaking and shivering slightly after the energy we expended to defeat the Archangel, it hadn't been as difficult as the Belphegor, but we were just as exhausted since we were already drained by the numerous previous battles that we'd ended up enduring.
"Yeah, it looks like he's making a concerted effort to stop us now," Mona admitted. A slight worried note echoed in his voice as he spoke. "Everyone, I've helped you learn a few different things so far, but there's no more time for lesson. I'll compile some info you'll need to know for battle, so be sure to take a look later," Mona added on. However right after he said that several knights emerged, surrounding us in a tight circle.
"What should we do? Head back!?" Panther panicked. Her whip was in her hands, but she looked incredibly unsettled by the prospect of entering into another fight right after the draining one that we had already endured; we couldn't fight them which meant that we needed to escape from this encirclement and fast.
"No, the Treasure is definitely up ahead and there has to be a path to it somewhere. See anything that could help us get out of here? Keep your eyes sharp!" Mona insisted. I immediately started casting my eyes about the upper area for a hook of some kind as I pulled the rope out from my pocket, ready for the escape once we found a method.
"There!" Joker cried. I twisted around as Joker looked back and I threw one end of the rope towards him, he tightly gripped the rope and wrapped it around his right arm a few times before extending his left; I tossed sections of the rope to the other three who tightly gripped it as the knights took a step forward to press in on us.
A sharp crack followed by a soft plink sound echoed. Shortly after, we were dragged into the air and Joker landed on a section of scaffolding as all of us ended up on the statue. I quickly tightened up all slack on my end in the rope with Joker copying me, the other three used the rope to swing across to Joker's position. Once they were across, I dropped the rope and proceeded to run and jump over to the scaffolding.
"Whew. That was close. Good going, Joker. That was some expert grappling. And nice work with the rope Amazon," Mona complimented. Despite his words, I was feeling a little exhausted and the pressure within my eyes was starting to get worse. "And now we can investigate this area! Let's get to it," Mona encouraged. We did as he insisted and wandered around the upper area and found a few items that could be useful before emerging into a new area.
"Wait!" I called. Everyone came to a stop and turned around to look at me, likely seeing the paling of my face. "We're exhausted. I'd normally suggest getting out of here, but we can't due to the fact that our last Safe Room is stuck behind a bunch of knights and we don't know where the next one is. From now on, we need to be more cautious in what we do," I insisted. As I did, I reached up to press my hand against my temple as my eyes started to hurt once again.
"Agreed. We need to focus much more on sneaking around than on fighting the Shadows if we want to reach the Treasure," Joker stated. He looked to the side with an uncertain expression within his eyes. "Actually, when we find a Safe Room, we should fall back for today, we're exhausted. All of us and it looks like your eyes are strained Amazon," Joker added on. I could only nod my head in agreement. We needed the rest, I wasn't as tired as when I was in Ouvrard's Palace but still, we continued walking down the corridor at a slower pace when a sound started to irritate my ears.
"Huh? The hell is that?" Skull asked. He was looking around along with everyone else, on the other hand I stepped around a corner and stared across the straight hallway to a balcony that was across from us; the others seemed to realise I was looking at something and moved over to examine it with me, Mona suggested we investigate it, luckily for us there was a hook for the grapple hanging over it.
Joker leapt over and turned around to face us, like at the stairwell I shot the rope over to him and he tied it tightly to the railing. We all swung – or in Mona's case tightrope walked – over to the other side with me have anchored the other end in the same manner. Once close enough I recognised the eerie atmosphere even if the doors were red with vines growing across the doors instead of red fabric ropes.
"Takamaki...hehehehe...hehehehe...Yes, yes...," Kamoshida's voice claimed. Panther jumped in shock and held onto me as all of them whipped their heads around for the man. "Wow...Shake it for me, Suzui," Kamoshida's filthy voice continued. Panther stopped being scared and instead a furious rage covered her face as she started to tremble. "I'm the King...no one can stop me!" Kamoshida voice announced. Skull looked like he was about to punch something as Joker's grey eyes hardened.
"Relax everyone," I softly reassured. They all turned to look at me. "Those are just his inner thoughts, being projected by the thing behind this door," I explained. Walking over, I slashed through the vines and proceeded to push the doors open, inside was what I expected, a group of creepy vines pushing up a Red Will Seed like it was some kind of sacred object.
"This room seems different from everywhere else we've seen so far," Panther acknowledged. Skull added on his agreement and proceeded to call the Will Seed a super suspicious thing; on the other hand, Mona seemed to recognise the item… another sign of incredibly accurate knowledge that, given his lack of experience in Palaces, he shouldn't be in possession of, he was no threat I knew that much but it was a little weirdly jarring.
"This is a Will Seed. It's one of a set of three. As Palaces are locations that occurred because of the Ruler's distorted cognitions, anchored to somewhere in the physical world, they're more unstable than you might expect," I spoke up. I drifted my hands down to grip the pocket that contained the Crystal of Attachment, if we could locate all three of these Will Seeds, we might be able to get another crystal and whatever power it contained.
"Yes, when these distortions coalesce into form, this is the result. It acts as a support for the Palace's distortion. Removing them won't damage the Palace, but it will allow it to dissolve more easily, even with the removal of a Treasure," Mona added on. It seemed that Skull was having a hard time wrapping his head around the information he'd been given; Mona wondered if he should try to explain it again.
"So, what do we do with it?" Panther asked. I reached into the pocket and proceeded to remove the Crystal, holding it out so that the others could see what it is. "What's that Amazon?" Panther asked. She reached out a glove coated hand and poked it with her fingers, watching the Crystal roll in my palm slightly.
"This is the Crystal of Attachment. It came from the Will Seeds in the first Palace I collapsed. The three fused into this, it grants me an automatic Makakaja, my increase to magic offense spell, the moment I enter a fight. Attachment was the Distortion that afflicted the Palace Ruler. This will likely be Lust or Desire given… evidence," I explained. I proceeded to tuck the Crystal back into my pocket. "We should take it; its' final form will be useful and beside it will cause our Soul Power to regenerate. Which we desperately need," I added on.
Panther and Skull were nervous about what could happen to us if we did take, but Joker showed no such hesitation. He scooped the Will Seed up and I felt its' information press into my brain – confirming it was a Will Seed of Lust – Joker pocketed it and we proceeded to leave the room. Joker remained behind as we all crossed over before he undid his end and I pulled it over, a quick grapple brought Joker over to us as I tucked the rope away once again.
We peaked into the two rooms that had been on either side of corridor, finding some dirty armour that seemed to be heavier than the other stuff we found and a Shadow who we walked away from fighting before it spotted us. Reaching a tower, we descended down only to spot a savage Shadow guarding a locked chest, Joker shook his head and we quickly went back up and continued to ascend the steps until we reached a set of doors.
Pushing then open, we stepped into another tower and began to climb up those steps until we reached an opening. We crouched down around the doorway to peer out, spotting a tower nearby that was taller than anything else with massive red flag fluttering from poles jutting out from its' side. In front of the tower was a small courtyard with a gazebo in the centre and I could see several Shadows – all of the savage variety – marching around. Skull drew everyone's attention to the massive tower.
"Oh! That matches up with the map. There's no doubt that's the tower we're headed for," Mona stated. Panther seemed happy as this would mean the Treasure was close by, Skull was eager as he demanded to know where the entrance was. But given that it was crawling with the Shadows, we couldn't use it to get inside.
"With all those Shadows about, no chance. We need to find another way," I insisted. Skull let out a groan of annoyance, but Mona seemed to have anticipated this turn of events but still encouraged us to keep moving; Joker quickly glanced around before using his cognition to stealthily move to another hiding area just ahead, each of us quickly followed after him into our own little areas as we gazed into the courtyard.
"Joker, look on top of the gazebo," Panther quietly informed. I did and immediately spotted a metal ring hanging there. "How do the rest of us get up there?" Panther asked. She had turned her gaze to look at me and Mona as I pursed my lips together, the rope would be far too obvious and visible to the knights so the Security Level would skyrocket and we'd get surrounded again, but the height of the gazebo meant no matter how hard we thought, if even the smallest part of our brain knew we couldn't make that jump then we couldn't do it.
"I have an idea," Joker whispered. He darted over and scooped Mona into his arms before firing the grappling hook and zipping up to the top of the gazebo where he set the cat shaped thief down; that will work. Joker easily darted back down and used the grappling hook to get us all up to the top of the gazebo, one at a time until the Shadows could no longer see us. "I see another ring up at the top, but I probably can't come back to get you guys if I swing up there," Joker admitted.
"Take Mona, I think we can use these rocks to jump across," Skull suggested . He pointed to the edge where I saw partitions of stone that were bridged by metal rails with spikes. Joker looked unsure as he glanced at each of us who would be left behind with even Mona seemingly unsettled, but it was the most realistic choice for us to make.
"We'll be okay, I'll make sure they don't get hurt," I reassured. Joker looked at me and gave a solemn nod before lifting Mona into his arms, the cat still looked distressed even as he settled himself onto Joker's shoulder. A quick fire of the grappling hook and the two of them were away behind a flagpole and far out of sight. "Right! Let's move and catch up!" I insisted. With those words, I quickly jumped over to the nearest block of stone and set about making my way the blocks with the others right behind me.
We easily managed to navigate the pathway around and behind the building that blocked the tower, reaching a delipidated cylinder of stone that must have been a former tower. Climbing to the top of it, I spotted a section of stone jutting out of the tower we needed to reach; one quick arrow with rope attached later and we were all safely up onto that block. A thump sounded and I turned around to seek that Joker had landed with Mona slightly in front of him.
"Good to see you guys. While we were waiting, I found the way in and the second Will Seed," Joker informed. He had pulled out the Will Seed allowing its' green eyes to peer out at us before tucking it away again; all of us followed Joker's lead to a window that guided us inside to a rather basic room with pictures on the wall and crates stuffed to the side that led to a vent.
We dropped down to the level below and, after Joker raided a vase, we proceeded through a door that took us into an absolutely crazy area. It had a dark purple lightning to it, with marble pillars that moved up and down as slabs of the floor rose or sunk in seemingly random intervals and there were great hole opening in the floor. The cavern underneath the Opera House had been bizarre but nothing like this at all.
"Wh-what's going on!?" Panther wondered. It was appropriate as this place seemed to be incredibly destabilised when compared to the others, Mona suspected that the Treasure had to be close since the distortion was stronger… it was almost like this place was attempting to take a form but couldn't. Did that imply Kamoshida's distortion was younger than Ouvrard's had been?
We headed down a corridor that shot off from us, only to find that decorations had been added, in the shape of female torsos. Panther looked like she was about to be sick while I pushed down my revulsion as much as possible, Skull had his eyes turned to the ceiling which required Joker to slightly guide him and Mona hopped along completely oblivious to the disturbing décor.
"Huh… what's this?" Panther asked. I turned to see the blonde girl staring through the open doors to another room, inside was a section of the room, surrounded by four female torsos and a railing with a white canopy above it all and what looked to be a lever inside the railing; Skull immediately suspected a trap while Mona suggested a hidden room.
We walked over to it, some with a little more trepidation than others, until we were all through the small gap in the railing and Joker pulled the lever down. The gap was sealed and the air was rattled by a rumbling grinding as the object suddenly began to descend downwards until it came to a stop in an area that lacked the oppressive purple shroud to the air and was better lit by the torches bolted to the walls.
"H-Hey, where are we?" Skull asked. Reasonable, especially given that there were no markings as to where we had ended up; we stepped out onto the chequered flooring and headed down the steps, these stairs continued down to what looked to be another lift but with a more degraded appearance and for some reason it wasn't working when Joker pulled on the leaver. A quick check with my eyes proved there was nothing hidden nearby so we returned up the steps.
"What the heck?! This is disgusting!" Panther shrieked. We all jumped and turned to face the cat masked girl, having returned to the middle area, but seeing her gaze peering down the hallway; I looked down and found myself agreeing with Panther as I saw a painting of Kamoshida, bared chested and hugging himself with sparkles and rose surrounding him… frankly, an utterly revolting sight to behold and I momentarily considered bleaching my eyes.
"Either way… it's kind of strange that this would be at a dead end," Mona commented. He was right, but the less I saw of this the better, we approached the object and Joker hesitantly reached a hand out to press against the painting, causing it to shift backwards slightly; Joker pressed firmer and the painting opened up more so we dived through as the painting flipped around behind us.
Surprisingly enough, we ended up out in the entrance hall, having emerged from the picture of Kamoshida in armour that was hung there. Skull was briefly confused by this until Mona reminded him, while sounding slightly annoyed, I was more concerned by the utter lack of Shadows that happened to present; before there'd been scads of them, perhaps as a result of Kamoshida's shifting cognition or the lowered Security Level, but even so it unnerved me.
"Given the lack of Shadows, we should move quickly to avoid a possible ambush," I advised. Joker nodded his head and we proceeded to look around an area we'd been unable to do so in, we found a chest containing magic ointment and another ram head chain which was pulled once it was confirmed that there was no chance of us being locked in.
"Oh! Something's moving!" Panther exclaimed. A softer grinding sound permeated the air, but it was also rather audible which meant whatever the source was had to be close by. "Are those gears?" Panther wondered. If previously stationary gears were now turning, something that had been locked was probably moving again.
We pushed back through the painting and darted towards the lift that hadn't been working before. But this time it was, the lift immediately started to move downwards, we ended up in an area that reminded me instantly of the dungeon from the stiff brick walls with those disturbing flags. I could also hear the sound of rushing water that echoed towards my ears, Mona perked up with his ears twitching every which way and his eyes darting about.
"I sense something, could it be?" Mona wondered. I didn't quite understand the reason behind the words, but we pressed onwards, into an open area with cages – empty cages, thankfully – hanging in various places in the empty ring that connected to a door at the end, a Will Seed door with a Shadow stood in front of it. "The final Will Seed!" Mona exclaimed.
"And it's guarded, we're going to need to be careful," I advised. I turned to face the others as they adjusted to face me fully. "That Shadow will be more powerful than anything we faced, except maybe the Belphegor. Here," I insisted. Reaching into my pockets, I removed some Soul Drops that held them out. "It isn't much, but our Soul Power should be restored slightly," I explained. They each took one and swallowed it down quickly as I did the same, with that we proceeded to walk towards the Shadow.
"There you are! You're not taking another step!" The Guard Captain declared. I could sense a strength emanating from him, but it felt disconnected in some way, as if the Shadow was merely a small part of some bigger whole, a whole that wasn't present within the Palace; it was a bizarre feeling that I'd never felt before either in Ouvrard's Palace, Mementos or even here before this fight.
"I guess we'll just have to step on you first! Let's do thi-," Panther declared. However, the Shadow interrupted her when it proceeded to dissolve into goo and re-emerged in a different form, it looked disturbingly like a Slime, but this was solid green and lacked the red eyes of the Slime, plus it was significantly stronger than a Slime. "A-AHHHHHHHHH!" Panther screamed. Given my reaction to Slime, I couldn't blame her.
"Oh boy, we've got a problem!" I declared. I could feel everyone's eyes me as I looked at the blob creature. "It hasn't got a single weakness. Even worse, it's going to heal itself if we blast it Fire and will Nullify Ranged attacks and Curse spells!" I warned. That was ignoring its' Resistance to Nuke and Reflection of Psy magic, but we didn't have anything like that, so it seemed pointless to point them out.
"What the eff, just how strong is this thing?!" Skull declared. Despite that, he pulled out Captain Kidd and quickly had it blast the Shadow with a physical attack. We needed to conserve our energy as much as possible, but this enemy was likely going to need a lot of force to defeat it. Panther darted to a different area and proceeded to unleash a series of quick and rapid strikes with her whip.
"I don't think it is! It feels like it's a broken off portion of a stronger Shadow! As if the whole Shadow was too strong to be drawn here but this small piece was broken off," I explained. That was why I couldn't sense its' identity like normal. I pulled of my mask allowing Phantom to manifest. I quickly unleashed my Tera Spell to shower it with many sharp rocks. Mona took centre point and proceeded to unleash a swirl of wind upon the bizarre Torn King of Desire, as it insisted on being called.
"Hang on guys! Let's be smart about this!" Joker ordered. I looked at the boy, wondering what he could be referring to. He answered simply by pulled off his mask after it shimmered slightly and Jack-o-Lantern appeared. "Rakunda!" Joker commanded. The same weakening energy that had been thrown at Archangel swirled around the blob creature. At least this way, we would be able to deal more damage to it.
Unfortunately, the slimy Shadow used its' opportunity to attack by rolling forward and slamming itself into Mona before the cat could dodge. Naturally, Mona was greatly unhappy about his fur being ruined. But Panther was quick to get revenge for him. She rapidly spun her whip around until it twisted up the creature. Pivoting on her heel, Panther slammed the slimy Shadow into a cage hanging nearby which caused it to slump down in its' confines.
Joker swapped through his Personas to pull out Agathion. The little jar spirit allowed electrical energy to rain down on the slime. I knew what needed to be done and quickly proceeded to increase Joker's Magical Attack. Skull charged over and lashed a foot out. I suppose I could be glad the Shadow didn't suck his limb down into its' body. He utilised my advice as he smoothly swung his new weapon down to crush into the green slime.
Mona finally recovered from the shock of being smeared with such a viscous substance. He darted over and proceeded to swing his falchion into the creature before leaping back to us. Panther pulled her whip back and shook it to clear off the green goop currently attached to it. The slime creature wasn't done yet though. It proceeded to roll over once more, but it chose a different target this time. It chose me. I observed its' approach, keeping myself balanced on the balls of my feet.
The moment it reached me, I jumped into the air. Avoiding the attack completely and preventing it from harming me. I twisted around, willing the world to move how I wanted it to, and thrust my naginata down into the Shadow. A whip's fall twisted around my arm and I released my naginata to secure my grip on it. Panther pulled back, bringing me to her side as my weapon vanished to return to my hand. With me out of the way, Joker unleashed a blast of Ice from Silky.
Skull proceeded to use Captain Kidd's Electricity on this supposed Torn King. Mona used his Wind to strike at the slime once again. Panther proceeded to change tactics as she utilised an ailment spell called Dormina which dropped the Shadow into a sleeping state. Joker quickly pulled his mask off, although this was to reinforce the weakening spell instead striking. I quickly used my Makakaja on Mona to boost his offense.
Mona made his move by bringing down more raging whirlwinds. The sleep ailment seemed to vanish as the winds jostled it back to waking. Yet, the creature proceeded to slump down, as if we had struck at its' weak point, despite it not having a single one. I looked at the others, seeing that they seemed surprised by the event as much as I was… although Mona had a calculating – I think it was at least – looking within his eyes.
"Don't question it! Attack!" Joker commanded. We all proceeded to dive in and strike at the Shadow as much as possible before it managed to recover from our attack. Joker swung down with a hard pierce before using his dexterity to shift the knife around and pull it up in a ragged tear. Skull swung down from all sorts of angles, utilising his muscles and joints to deliver maximum force. Panther used repeated hard and heavy strike, alongside a few aggressive stamps. Morgana and I slashed and stabbed as much as possible. Until, finally, the Shadow turned into smoke.
"Well, it's too late for apologises," Mona commented. He had a gleeful smile upon his face as he hopped about slightly, a wheeze came from someone's lips and I looked over seeing Panther had slumped down onto the ground and was breathing heavily from the way her shoulders were rising and falling. Skull was slumped over as Joker checked on him before getting a thumbs up from the blonde. He pulled himself upright while I aided Panther in climbing to her feet even as she shivered slightly, likely more from revulsion than actually feeling cold.
"Hell yeah! Let's swipe this Will Seed and get outta here!" Skull cheered. We approached the door and Joker proceeded to slash open the vines, inside Joker easily swiped the Blue Will Seed; the glow and spin show from when I'd collected the three Will Seeds repeated itself and they all slammed themselves together into the Crystal of Lust.
"Another Crystal. I wonder what affect this one has? Either way, I'm sensing a significant amount of power emanating from it," Mona spoke up. He was right as the Makakaja effect that I possessed via the Crystal of Attachment was pretty useful given the advantage it gave when we were in combat; I doubt there was anything that could restore our Soul Power but if it could strengthen our physical offense, either defences or restore our health then it would be useful.
"Whatever it is, it might be of use if we end up in a fight," Joker admitted. He pocketed the Crystal of Lust and we turned around to return to the lift. We returned to the distorted tower and proceeded to start sneaking around, avoiding the enemies as the unfixed nature of this section of the tower actually helped to aid our sneaking… although we had to be quick about it. We were forced to leave a chest behind since it was locked and we entered into a room with a set of stairs.
"The cognition here, despite the crazy distortion, I think a Safe Room might be close," Mona exclaimed. A sigh of relief escaped all of us and we dived inside, allowing us to return to the physical world for the day, sorely in need of some immediately rest.
*Persona 5 Royal*
The next day, I felt much better after having a decent rest with the others also looking to be the same given how energised some of them seemed to be. It had been a quick discussion, but we all agreed to dive right back in the Palace and continue with our search for the Treasure. I'm fairly certain none of us could stand seeing Kamoshida's smug, arrogant face hanging around our school and gloating much longer.
"Hi there, everyone. I'm Hiruta, your biology teacher. You much all be shocked by what happened with Suzui-san. It was a shock to me too," Hiruta-sensei stated. He claimed to be in shock, yet he didn't seem to be, honestly I was probably rather sensitive about the incident. "Although I can relate to how she felt. Her eyes were devoid of life as they looked upon this sad, hopeless world. Well, I suppose everyone views the world differently. Let's have a test," Hiruta-sensei stated. Well like that wasn't depressing to hear, he proceeded to put up a picture of four lines, two going diagonally and meeting to for a triangle without the bottom line and two vertically which were inside the triangle and labelled with letters, one nearer the non-existent base and one near the point. "Amamiya-san, between Line A and B… which line seems longer?" Hiruta-sensei asked.
"Neither. They're both the same length," Amamiya answered. Hiruta-sensei claimed that Amamiya's eyes saw the truth and went on to explain it was an optical illusion before going on to explain about how we didn't see the world as it was; the Metaverse had proven that to be true to me plenty of times, especially the cognitions of people. Heck, Hiruta-sensei even went on to claim that the world was merely cognition.
*Persona 5 Royal*
Back in the Palace, Joker quickly warped us to the most recent Safe Room and used a newly crafted lockpick to open the chest we found and retrieved a Bead. We climbed up the steps and stepped into the room finding another distorted room, with more decorations – these of the lower portion of the female body, disgusting! – and knights stomping about.
We easily dived into the shadows and briefly diverted to pop open a chest, we darted our way between hiding spots towards the stairs hidden at the back of the room near a Shadow. We'd agreed to limit our fights as much as possible, there wasn't long left between our location and the Treasure, but if there were any Shadows like that Thorn King waiting for us then we needed to conserve our energy.
Reaching the next level, we darted through until we located the stairs and timed our movements to avoid being spotted and shot up the stairs and into a room with much better lighting than the previous one. Climbing more stairs brought us to a stretch of open hallway with a Kamoshida statue sporting that infuriating grin to our left and a chest slightly ahead of us. We approached the chest, but before we got rather close, incredibly tall pillars – taller than we could conceivably jump over – completely blocked our path forward and no ring to give us a grappling path out of it.
"Right, then. About face," Joker suggested. We turned around and headed back to the statue which stood guard outside a wide and tall opened which contained a large metal mesh bridge hanging from the ceiling and leading to another door; Joker approached the entrance. "GAH!" Joker exclaimed. He threw himself backwards which was thankful due to what had swung down across his path.
"PENDULUMS! He's got a bleeding hallway full of pendulums!" I exclaimed. I certainly hadn't expected to run across such a thing within the Palace, especially after a fairly low-level trap filled infiltration both before and after I'd teamed up with the others. With this, we were completely blocked off and unable to move forward to the Treasure's location.
"It's a classic security measure. My tail might be in danger if we try to force our way through," Mona commented. It'd be more than his tail in danger, there was barely any gap available for us to try and slide underneath if we wanted to advance; that meant we needed to find a way to disable them before anything else. "Hm, this statue looks suspicious," Mona commented. We turned to look at the statue.
"Yo, you think this controls those pendulum things?" Skull wondered. Joker didn't answer, instead he simply reached out and proceeded to pull on the jaw like he had for the last one, but nothing happened; a quizzical look appeared on his face and he proceeded to pull on the jaw a few more times just to be sure of it.
"There's no reaction, if this does control the pendulums, then something about it isn't working," Joker admitted. He pulled back and looked at it with a curious glint before moving his hands up to the eyes. "Interesting that the eyes are missing though, the rest have all been meticulously recreated, but this one hasn't," Joker mused.
"Brilliant deduction Joker!" Mona cheered. We turned to the cat thief who had a big grin on his face. "The eyes likely form the keys that we need to stop the pendulums and I'm betting the enemies have the keys," Mona decided. That meant we had to go back into the lower rooms and locate the ones most likely to have the keys.
"In that case, it's probably the Guard Captains who have them. Let's go," Joker decided. He darted away from the statue and back to the stairs, we quickly moved towards the room and carefully pushed the door open; instead of heading down through, we used our perch to scan for any sign of the golden armour of a captain. "No sign, maybe on the lower level," Joker suggested.
We carefully made our way down only to end up coming across a knight right at the bottom of the stairs. Not one that we were looking for but, we couldn't find a hiding spot to avoid it, so Joker leapt forward and rammed his knife into the mask's seam and proceeded to pry the object off. The Shadow dissolved and returned as a duo of pale skinned women but the both of them happened to be rather different beyond that pale skin.
One of them possessed blonde hair, with large white wings stretched out and a black mask covered her eyes, yet the more unsettling fact was that her body was only covered up by thin strips of black leather across her torso and the highest point of her legs with a chain dangling from her neck. The other woman was also blonde but her hair was significantly darker, she wore what appeared to be a leather one piece that only covered her torso, black bat wings extended from behind her, long black gloves and high black boots, a pointed tail hovered behind her as she reclined in the air.
"The brighter blonde is Angel! It's Strong to Electricity and Nullifies Bless! We need to use Curse or our ranged weapons! The darker blonde is Succubus! It's strong against Fire and Nullifies Curse. Wind or Bless are our best bets!" I revealed. Joker quickly pointed his gun at Angel and unleashed a single bullet. The projectile tore through one of Angel's wings and she dropped to the ground; a quick Baton Pass to Mona allowed the cat to knock down the bat winged woman down.
We quickly jumped into a Hold Up and Joker launched into a negotiation with Succubus which allowed him to gain a hold of the woman. However, when he attempted to do the same to Angel, she completely rebuffed his attempts and said something rather weird; Angel claimed that Joker's 'soul wasn't strong enough to contain her'. Joker briefly fumbled before declaring an All-Out Attack on the Angel.
Falling back, the woman fluttered her wings and rose up to hover in front of us. But she seemed distracted by the pain she was. Taking advantage of the of her distracted state, I set up my bow. Quickly releasing an arrow, it pierced into the woman's shoulder. I used the Baton's Pass to pass the attack to Skull who hefted his shotgun. A quick blast that filled the air with the acidic smell of gunpowder saw Angel turning into smoke. It was unfortunate that we couldn't recruit Angel but at least we had Succubus who could provide a new Curse attack since Arsène was still missing.
We soon found the Guard Captain and a quick ambush revealed that the Shadow inside the armour was actually an Eligor. I quickly informed Panther of its' affinities which would also serve to refresh the other three, with only one weakness but one we had in our possess, we had a plan available to us. I quickly boosted Skull's magic as Joker and him slammed the creature with Electrical attacks with a Baton Pass in between them. Skull passed it to Panther but instead of continuing it, she instead cast Dormina.
The sleeping spell hit and immediately the red clad knight slumped over along with his horse. Mona proceeded to unleash a blast of wind, which knocked the creature down to the ground. On Joker's command we proceeded to dive in for an All-Out Attack. We hacked and slashed as much as we could until the Eligor proceeded to diminish into specks of shadow and leaving behind an eye along with the usual stuff.
"R… Randy… right… eye?" I muttered. Joker had scooped up the object but that didn't stop the confused looks that all of them sent towards me, with wide eyes and raised eyebrows. "That's what it's called… this man just disgusts me more and more. Let's find that last key. The soon we're out of his head, the saner we'll all be," I commented. Looks of agreement passed and we proceeded to make our way back around.
We returned to the level below this one and immediately ran right into a problem, while it seemed that the ordinary knights had proceeded to vanish from the lower level in their place where three Shadows clad in golden armour. Skull immediately complained about the fact that we would have to beat them all in order to find the right eye key.
"That would work, but there should only be one actual guard captain among them. Perhaps your eyes can tell them apart Amazon," Mona suggested. Before I could even try to examine them, all three of them stomped their way out of the room we were in towards another one. "Looks like they're gone now… I'll leave our next move up to you Joker," Mona stated. I looked at our leader who was staring at the doorway.
"Let's get moving," Joker insisted. We moved down the stairs and made our way towards the door that would lead us to the three Shadows we had to examine. "Pretty suspicious, one of them being so high up whilst the other two are on the ground floor," Joker muttered. I raised my eyes to focus on the Shadow he had mentioned and focused, seeing the red aura surrounding it, distinct from the violent energy that rolled off savage Shadows and I quickly checked the other two gold clad knights.
"It would be, but not if you have my eyes and realise that one is stronger than the other two," I admitted. Joker gave a sharp nod, we darted between the shadows, moving closer to the area where the Shadow was, before realising we had to divert, to reach one of those disgusting statue decorations and use it as a jumping platform to reach the area the Shadow was located.
A quick grapple aided jump over let us reach a section right above the Shadow, Joker quickly looked at us and we each nodded our heads to show we were ready. Joker dived down onto the guard captain's shoulders and proceeded to tear the mask off as the rest of us darted down to engage the Eligor that had emerged. We used the same movement plan as against the previous Eligor and it went down just as easily.
"I'm not saying what that thing is called. It's as disgusting as the other one," I stated. Skull cheered at the fact that we had both of the eyes, we quickly made our way back to the pendulums where Joker inserted both of those eyes which glowed a yellow light that only made the statue even more eerie. Joker pulled down on the statue's jaw and the chain attached to it started to coil inwards and I watched as the pendulums swung to a stop out of sight. This caused another cheer from Skull to go up.
We darted into the bridge area and crossed over it, with only a slight diversion to open up a chest that was nearby. We reached the end and immediately ducked into a hiding corner when we spotted an ordinary Shadow up ahead, Joker darted forward and ambushed it, revealing a duo of Angels and an Archangel waiting for us.
"Focus on the Angels!" Joker ordered. He quickly tore of his mask and summoned out Agathion. A quick electrical blast brought the winged man to the ground, which slid into a Baton Pass straight to Mona. After a few slingshot blasts, the Angels dropped alongside the Archangel. With all of them down, we moved into an All-Out Attack which wiped out the Angel, but the Archangel was made of much stronger stuff, though that was hardly a surprise.
A series of back-to-back strikes of Electricity from Skull and then Joker with a Baton Pass between led into some more All-Out Attacks with a few strikes from the rest of us peppered within. Soon enough the Archangel was defeated with only a few healing spells needed and we gathered up what was dropped and popped open the chest there. Turning around we climbed up the stairs leading to the next area, hopefully the area where the Treasure was located. We had to climb more stairs and dealt with another Archangel with two Angels helping out; once they were finished off, we push onwards. This area was clearly more stable than the previous area had been given the lack of ominous lighting and no randomly rising pillars.
We found another chest and a Safe Room, hopefully this would be the one we needed. Joker jumped onto a bookcase and grappled through an area blocked by a pile of boxes and returned with something in his hand. We made our way up another of those disgusting statues before leaping through the opening that led us into a large red carpeted area that looked to be shaped like a U.
"Okay, we're in!" Skull declared. However, Mona immediately hissed for him to be quiet, although there was a really good reason for that. "Oh shit, it's Kamoshida!" Skull exclaimed, as quietly as he could. Down below was Shadow Kamoshida stood in front of a throne beneath a chandelier and in front of him was a large group of knights. Thankfully the statue and railings provided cover for the five of us.
"How have you not captured the intruders yet!?" Shadow Kamoshida yelled. A soldier apologised, Mona commented on how the Shadow probably didn't know we were in the same room as him; we crouched low and started crawling along the balcony area towards the door at the back of the room, no one seemed even aware that we were up here despite being so out in the open.
Joker quickly opened the door and dived through, allowing the rest of us to quickly move through. We emerged into a very short area made of almost golden like stone blocks with golden diamond shapes interspaced with black squares on the flooring. Another doorway was at the end, so we approached it, with everywhere else we'd been, this had to be the place we were looking for.
"This sturdy lookin' door's pretty promisin'. Let's head inside!" Skull insisted. We pushed open the door revealing a pile of golden items tossed about the single windowed brick room, and hovering above the pile of golden items was the hazy, shimmery orb that was indicative of the Treasure; finally, we had found it. "Whoa, what is this place!? Holy shit! That Treasure thing's gotta be in here!" Skull exclaimed.
"Yeah, it's right there," I stated. As I did, I pointed to the shimmery orb that was floating in front of us, the others proceeded to gather around it and I saw that each of them except for Mona looked rather confused by the comment, Mona chimed in with his own agreement to my words and seemed just as relieved to have found it as I felt.
"This cloudy thing? Are you sure?" Joker asked. I nodded my head to show that I was sure about this, its' form looked identical to the form that Ouvrard's had before I'd managed to make it solid, hopefully we could do the same thing that I'd done against Ouvrard just with less of an obvious accusation; it'd been risky against Ouvrard, but the risk was increased against Kamoshida.
"Remember, I said we had to materialise the Treasure. Desires are an emotion, thus they're not exactly something we can physically touch, even our Personas can't grasp them," I explained. Joker still seemed confused, but then Mona jumped on top of a golden pot that sat underneath the shimmery orb and turned around to face all of us with a cocky grin curling across his lips.
"Amazon's correct, Desires by nature have no physical form. Hence, we'll first need to make the real person aware that their desires are in fact a Treasure. Once they're conscious that their desires might be stolen, the Treasure will finally show itself," Mona explained. They seemed to be understanding what Mona was saying, which was a relief as the more they understood, the better for our battle.
"But how do we do that?" Panther asked. A good question, my physical confrontation of Ouvrard had probably only worked due to our circumstances and the fact that I had Lavenza and Igor to help me prepare, I could help them but physically confronting Kamoshida might not work… except for Panther, but like hell I was putting her in such a position after what she'd already been through with him.
"We warn them. Tell them, 'We're going to steal your heart'," Mona explained. That was still the same basic plan I had, this didn't exactly give us more knowledge than we already had which worried me a little; I bit down lightly on my lip as I thought about what to do, but then Skull's expression lit up suddenly which caused me to raise an eyebrow.
"So, we're gonna send a calling card!? That's totally what a phantom thief would do!" Skull cheerfully exclaimed. That, that might actually work and really well at that, it would protect all of us from being suspected as the people behind it, it might even rattle Kamoshida more than a physical confrontation and still allow our goal to be achieved.
"Once we do that, the Treasure will appear for certain! I think," Mona revealed. As if having expected this, everyone turned to look at me so I nodded my head to show that they were right about what would happen, allowing them to all relax at this confirmation. "Our infiltration route is secure. All that's left now is to pump out a calling card in reality, then come back to take the Treasure!" Mona encouraged.
"Let's do this," Joker encouraged. Every one of us voice our agreements and we proceeded to leave the room, finding Shadow Kamoshida and the soldier still there; we followed the route we had used to get inside back out to return to the Safe Room and warp our way out.
Tomorrow we could end all of this.