Limbo/ The Great Seal/ Time Irrelevant
There was a big door.
Gaudy, golden, quite titanic.
The kind of door that could be painted as the entrance of heaven, although, the lad in a crucifixion position in the middle of the door would disagree with such statement ,and the knowledge that the kid was the only thing that prevented the meeting between Nyx and Erebus, meaning the end of all living things on Earth, would only add more disagree with the notion of the heavens door.
It was one of the most spectacular sights on the Limbo, that's for sure, and the tale about how it came to be was one for the ages. If one knew about how it happened. It was an epic tale of friendship, growing, and overcoming traumas. One that spoke volumes about the infinite potential of humankind. However, the salvation of humankind required a step sacrifice, more concretely, the sacrifice of the lad in the door, who has to become a permanent seal, eternally blocking Erebus from exterminating all life on Earth.
The lad accepted that burden with a smile, knowing that his sacrifice means that his friends, his lovers, and all of those that mattered the world to him, will be safe. Of course, those that were left behind did not take it all that well, losing such an important figure in their lives was a hard blow, but in the end, the inevitable win, and they hold in their hearts the memory of the lad that offered them the world and helped them to be, at a lack of a better term, better.
The lad was not the first individual that has been dealt a bad hand of cards, and yet, managed to won the pot. People like him were called the Wild Card, the representation of human potential, individuals that acted as paragons of humanity when forces beyond their reckoning threatened humankind.
The Emperor, the Sun, the Child of Death, the Seeker of Truth, and, finally, the Trickster, all wonderful guests of the Velvet Room, the space between mind and matter that acted as guide and support for the Wild Cards in their travels. In a curious twist of fate, it was almost a guarantee that the Wild Cards, and their assistants at the Velvet Room developed a very close bond. It happened between the lad at the door, and his assistant, Elizabeth, one of the many assistants of the Velvet Room that were called One who Rules over Power, for there are the keepers and protectors of the Persona Compendium that all Wild Cards created and used during their travels.
Elizabeth, pretty much like all her brothers and sisters, was a very beautiful person, a pale-skinned, golden eyes, silver-haired female, dressed in a blue elevator attendant suit and carrying a thick book. The slim girl has been keeping a watch over her beloved guest, always protecting the Seal, and seeking a chance to free the young man trapped in it. Unfortunately, anything that she thought, or tied, proved to be a failure.
As it has been noted before, it is a common thing for the Wild Cards to develop strong bonds with their Velvet Room attendants, and in the case of the latest three Wild Cards, their bond became more than just valued confidants. Mind you, that the assistants of the Velvet Room are not human, they may look like extraordinarily attractive humans, but they are not. Still, and perhaps due to the innate charisma and charm of the Wild Cards, the assistants tend to feel attracted to their guests.
It happened with Elizabeth, who loved her guest more than anything else in the world, and even if she knew of the fate that awaited her beloved guest, she couldn't but seek out, perhaps in vain, a method to free the young man without damning the rest of the world.
The young man, Minato Arisato, had a hard life, long before the year in which he became the savior of mankind. For a decade, he carried Thanatos, the harbinger of Nyx, one of the most powerful Personas of the Death Arcana. Carrying such a powerful being inside of one's soul and mind, was a heavy burden, more so, for a six or seven years old kid, that lost his family in a car accident the very same day that he was bonded to Thanatos.
The war for mankind was a long and difficult one, and the Wild Cards had proven, time and time again, that humanity's potential is unbreakable. However, the last game for humanity was rigged from the start. The Velvet Room was usurped by a fake god that offered mankind the release of their free will, to be forever trapped in an empty void where all control was under the hands of a god. Yaldabaoth.
Two individuals will play a game to determine who will prevail, and Yaldabaoth had all the cards from the start, almost breaking the Trickster even before the game was afoot, and cutting down all possible chances of the Trickster winning the game.
When a god screws it up, is up to a devil to punch the god in the face.
Yaldabaoth forgot one tiny detail, hubris about its own supremacy blinding him to that small detail, and it was that humanity was observed by way more things than he believed. Beyond humanity's Sea of Souls, beyond humanity's mind, otherworldly entities observed humanity, and when Yaldabaoth usurped the Velvet Room, insulting the game with its actions, well, let's say that pissing off entities like Cthulhu is a very bad idea.
In the Sea of Souls, armies of Great Ones waited for the call of the Trickster, even if they are the sworn enemies of the Velvet Room, the entertainment and battles against the Velvet Room were something that they valued and respected, and seeing a fake god trying to pull a fast one, enraged them beyond belief.
Philemon, the master of the Velvet Room was still reeling from the battle against Nyarlathotep, and couldn't do anything to prevent the travesty of Yaldabaoth, but, and here comes another small detail that Yaldabaoth would never understand, Philemon was not alone.
The multiverse is a big thing, with infinite dangers, infinite monsters, infinite problems, the whole nine yards, still, it also contains infinite wonders, infinite champions, infinite solutions, and infinite allies, and Philemon only had to give a howler to a friend, and that friend only had to send one of his many champions to help to fix that mess. To fix that mess, the champion stared at the entire thing, sighed, picked up a big gun, and a lot of metaphysical duct tape, and got to work.
Back with Elizabeth in Limbo, the Velvet Room inhabitant was accustomed to dealing with entities of power, what she was not accustomed, is to foreign entities like the cheerfully waving in salute, golden masked titan of eight feet, covered in a red and gold tunic, that was walking through the Limbo without a care in the world.
The power of the masked giant washed over Elizabeth, that, in a blink, was already with her Compendium in hand, ready to battle. Such power was akin to a god, and Elizabeth knew because a lot of gods and worse things were contained in her Compendium, however, there was no Arcana disposition on the giant. It was curiously neutral, almost like her beloved guest, who represented the Universe Arcana, zero, yet infinite in potential.
"Well meet, lass", the deep and masculine voice of the giant sounded human enough, but that did not trick Elizabeth at all. "Elizabeth, I assume, one of the lasses of the Velvet Room?".
"That would be me, yes". Suspiciously replied Elizabeth, unconsciously standing between the giant and the door.
"Do not fret lass, I am Vandal Rune, I am here to help". Waved the giant with a hand gesture.
"My apologies, but I found such claims hard to believe", neutrally answered Elizabeth to the words of the mysterious stranger.
"Understandable", nodded the newcomer. Curiously his mask did show facial features, a bit limited, but present. "Maybe this helps as proof".
The giant raised one of his hands, as metallic as the rest of his body, and to her surprise, a very familiar blue butterfly surged from a small blue fireball. Completely taken by surprise, Elizabeth stared in shock at the butterfly, who slowly fluttered to her. Elizabeth took the butterfly, who shined brightly, conveying a message for the Velvet Room lass.
To be completely honest, the giant did not know the contents of the message, it was just something that he has asked to deliver along with the mission reports about where he was going, and what he was supposed to do. It was quite the mess.
A small tear fell from her left eye, as a hopeful smile surged on her face. The lass was a pretty one, so much the giant will admit, too slim and petite for his tastes, but her beauty was undeniable. Still, the important thing is that the lass was finally founding hope for the first time in a very long time, and that was also a very good thing, in the giant opinion.
Frankly, being good feels good.
The giant never understood the, almost pathological, necessity of being assholes that the vast majority of humanity seemed to love. Mind you, that being good does not mean being a naive imbecile, there is a world of difference between the two. For the giant, it was a very simple equation, kindness begets kindness, evil begets evil.
KISS principle on its maximum splendor.
"I thank you, sir Rune". The mask of the giant modeled as if the giant was raising an eyebrow, not entirely sure what the lass was thanking him for. "I almost lost hope, can you really free my beloved without endangering the world?".
Ah. Aye, that.
With a grunt and a couple of neck cracks to stretch some metaphysical muscles, the giant mask is modeled after a smile.
"I will do my best lass, now, let's get you a pretty Wild Card for Christmas, aye?".
Power flooded Limbo, when the giant's true form erupted from his armor, and, perhaps for the first time in the long history of the Velvet Room. One who Rules over Power welcomed an entity that can be considered a Great Old One, with a smile, and hope in her heart.
Mementos/ Path of Aiyatsbus/ January
So, a Silky, an Incubus, a succubus, a Pixie, a Berith, a Jack-o-lantern, an Obaryon, and a Kelpie were playing dice on one of the corners of Mementos, the collective amalgamation of the twisted desires of all humankind, that took the shape of the trains station of Tokyo. Usually, the demons, or shadows, or Personas, or, well, manifestations of the Sea of Souls, would be way more hostile and confused, but when a veritable god of some unknown kind walked in, they brushed up their best manners.
Well, they tried to run to the hills first, but they were forced to manifest by the sheer strength of the giant that has walked into Mementos, fortunately, the giant of golden mask did not seem to be interested in battle, quite the contrary, he quickly charmed the group of demons, and before they knew it, they were playing dice, on a table that no one was entirely sure where the heck come from, and talking as if it was just an everyday afternoon.
Silky was humming softly, as she prepared tea and just walked around, making sure that the table and the corner of Mementos were clean spotless.
The succubus was patting the back of Incubus, who was depressed in a corner, giggling to herself like a schoolgirl.
During the game, Incubus pointed to his groin saying that he was the biggest there is, the giant said mine bigger, and to proceed to show the truth of that statement, resulting in the Incubus sulking into a corner, and Succubus giggling in erotic fantasies. A dick measuring contest against a shape-shifter?. Bad idea.
Pixie was happily seated on the shoulder of the giant munching on a chocolate bar as big as her.
Berith, Obaryon, Jack-o-Lantern, and Kelpie were playing dice with the unknown god that has irrupted Mementos as if it was the local pub.
To say that the scene was surreal, even for the already more than weird enough collective subconscious of humankind, to put it mildly.
Any demon, or shadow; if one wants to be loyal to the terms of the Cognitive science that investigated the Metaverse and similar occurrences; is usually attracted to powerful desires and minds, becoming part of the Palaces of the minds of twisted individuals.
For example, if an asshole sees herself as the drill sergeant of a military camp when the truth is that they are just a supermarket, then the Palace will be a military camp, with the shadows becoming military police officers and the sort, only unleashing their true forms by force, or by explicit orders of the rulers of the Palace.
On Mementos, those rules are a bit laxer, as the place was birthed under the train station of Tokyo, where millions of people walked in and out, each one of them carrying their own desires and ideas. Anyhow, the usual black masses of half-formed shadows felt the power of the newcomer, tried to make a run, and found themselves transformed into their demon forms, before joining the giant of golden mask for a game of dice, some polite conversation, and unexpected good tea.
"In resume", tossed the dice the Giant, as he conversed with the shadows around, "you were floating around the Sea of Souls, then you found yourself here until my presence forced you to take your shadow forms".
The game of dice was called Chinchiro or Chinchirorin, it was a bit more complicated than the usual Cho-Han that is so predominant in Japanese pop culture, but the stakes were also higher. The giant did not even ponder about what the heck a bunch of cognitive shadows needed or wanted yens for, but, it was also the truth that in the collective mind of humanity, gambling requires a price, be it yen, or whatever they could have on themselves.
The three dices, showing a pair of threes and a four, meaning that the giant had a four points roll this turn, rolled on the square of the table where they were playing, separating the diverse yens, trinkets, babbles, and oddities that they were using as prices and bets.
"That would be the gist of it, yep". Nodded Obaryon, grabbing the dice and preparing for his roll.
"We are far from the deeper end", commented Kelpie, hugging a waterskin that it won in the previous round. "There are some powerful shadows down there, and something as strong as you".
"Is that so?", smiled the mask of the giant with an interesting tone.
"HA, five!", erupted Obaryon, "I finally won bitc…".
The rasping of chains and the sudden reddening of the floors and ceiling of Mementos cut short the joy of the shadow. The Obaryon shock, and the collective, "Oh, shit" expressions of the shadows around him, told the giant that the real objective of his presence in Mementos has finally made its appearance. With impressive reflexes for some so big, the giant grabbed the chocolate bar of Pixie before it hit the ground.
"Your chocolate, little one", the giant handed the bar to the Pixie on his shoulder, but the Pixie was busy trying to hide behind his head.
The terror that the Reaper, the responsible behind the chains rattling and the reddening of the surroundings, infused in the shadows was very comprehensible. The gun-armed specter of death was the equivalent of a cleaning crew, it will kill anything that it's not part of Mementos, killing intruders and dangerous rogue shadows with equal easiness. If the giant got his info right, originally, the Reaper was sent by Cronos, an old god, to act against anything that went against divine providence. Meaning anything that does not go along with the plan of the deity that is slumbering down Mementos. A divine agent of sorts, that pushes the divine agenda. The giant, someone that was called God-slayer in the past, was really going to enjoy beating the creepy monster to an inch of his metaphysical life.
The presence of the Reaper put the shadows into another panic attack.
Silky was trembling like leaf, hiding behind the tea table.
Incubus and Succubus were trying to fuse with the walls and be as inconspicuous as possible,
Jack-o-Lantern has levitated to the ceiling and was covering his lantern with his hands, and so on with the rest of the shadows trying to get away of the oppressive presence of the Reaper.
The giant, on the other hand, carefully took the pixie from the back of his head and left her on the table. Pixie, scared out of her mind, err..well, whatever a shadow like her had in mind, grabbed the metallic gauntlet of the giant with all she had, trying to cover behind it.
"Little one, I need my hand". There was no threat to the voice of the giant, but power.
Stunned, Pixie let the hand go, blinking, before the giant brought her chocolate back to her, and softly patted her head with one finger. Raising from the chair where he has been playing dice with the shadows; apparently not giving a damn about the presence of the Reaper, whose chains rattled stronger as the closer it got to them, the giant, stepped in front of the table.
"Do you mind, lad?". Raised the giant the spear of Berith, which has lost it in some rounds after the start of the game, and was now on the Jack-o-lantern pot of winnings.
The knight, doing all he could to keep its steed quiet, absently nodded, taking mental note that, if he by some miracle survive, he will skewer the pumpkin to get his spear back.
The Reaper finally appeared through the corner, a gigantic specter, making even the giant of the golden mask look small in comparison, the monster that was garbed in black, with a bloodied sack over his head, showing only a bloodshot eye through the sack, and armed with two long revolvers, the chains that hanged from his black cloak rattled ominously on the halls of Mementos, the desire for pain and death of the Reaper was almost like a physical cloak around the shadow.
The apex predator of the halls of Mementos.
One can only imagine what were the Reaper's thoughts when it floated past the corner where his latest victims stand, and, out of nowhere, a divine empowered trident buried itself on the chest of the Reaper, carrying enough strength to nail it to a wall at the other end of the hall where the Reaper pretended to hunt down its prey.
The only clue about what happened was a distant aria that the Reaper has eared before the trident has speared the shadow into a wall.
"Shield, armor, flesh or bones, divine or mortal, it matters not, my strikes will kill them all".
The Reaper screeched its fury, just to have the screech die on its throat when half a dozen golden, very big, fists rain down on him like the fists of an angry god. Now, it was not an entirely wrong comparison. Such attacks were called God Hand, a spell that several powerful Personas can manifest, at the cost of the vitality of its users. The fact that half a dozen of those brutal strikes fly true at the Reaper, not a second after it has been impaled to the wall, spoke volumes of the power of whoever was responsible for this.
Monsters like the Reaper are not entirely accustomed to being on the receiving end of such sudden, and vicious, beating, alas, they are more than accustomed to tank a lot of damage that would destroy lesser beings, and even if the Reaper has really felt all the damages, it was not enough to put him down for the count.
"Now that I have your attention", the same voice that chanted the aria spoke to the Reaper who just snarled at it. "Can we talk?".
For the first time in quite some time, the voice of the Reaper echoed in the halls of the Palace of humankind. Much like the owner of such voice, the fury, rage, the echoes of violence and pain that roared in the voice of the Reaper sent shivers through the spines of all the shadows on the level.
"Me no want to talk to you!. Me just want to hear your screams!".
With a mighty heave, completely disregarding the crippling damages of having a trident being torn from its body, the Reaper freed itself from the wall, before expelling an aura of dark energy and raising its gun, invoked a spell that should destroy the intruder. The dark spell, one that tore the souls of its victims from its body, frizzled against the golden masked intruder.
Twirling around to send the trident out of his body, the Reaper took aim with his long-barreled revolvers and prepare to unleash a shredding barrage of lethal bullets. Then, the single eye of the Reaper focus on how his objective was calm, collected, and snapping his fingers.
In the first second, the Reaper noticed, much to the Reaper's fury, how infuriatingly calm was the intruder, even if the Reaper was more than capable to realize that the intruder was very powerful, more than enough for a challenge, a strange god-like being that should not be there, that should be exterminated as quickly as possible.
In the next second, the Reaper's eye widened at the hundred God Hand spells that surrounded him after the snap of the finger of the intruder, ready to pummel the Reaper to the ground.
Now, in a very unusual attack of self-realization, the Reaper realized that mistakes were made.
Fake Velvet Room/ April
Yaldabaoth was the God of Control.
That means that the god wanted to have absolute control over everything.
The moment that the game about the fate of humanity was afoot, the god took advance of the weakness of the real master of the Velvet Room to strike first, and take control of the Velvet Room, turning it into a fake room that will hinder as much as possible the growth of the Wild Card, without directly breaking the rules of the game, that would end on the direct interference of other gods or worse entities. Stealing the appearance of Igor, the guide of all Wild Cards and the Master of the Velvet Room in absence of Philemon, and viciously splitting Lavenza, the assistant of the new Wild Card, into the twins Justine and Caroline, to act as wardens of the Wild Card, Yaldabaoth turned the Velvet Room into a prison, a trap for the Trickster.
For Yaldabaoth, the notion of not having control over something was anathema for its very existence, that's why it did not lose the chance to usurp even the smallest chance of growth of the opposition. Starting by manipulating the board long before the game started, stealing the Wild Card freedom, creating monsters, and finally steering humanity into a future of absolute emptiness.
Acting as Igor, Yaldabaoth, seated on the chair, waiting for the arrival of the Wild Card, now that the Trickster has finally awakened to his true powers, and that was the start of the game for reals. Not that the child had any hope, Yaldabaoth controlled the game since day one, and even if the rebellion ignited in the Trickster, his power will be never enough to present a challenge.
Since the inception of Mementos, the Holy Grail, the representation of Yaldabaoth, humanity had already surrendered their free will to the God of Control, exactly as it should have been since the beginning. Humanity was like sheep in seek of a shepherd, they needed to abandon all those destructive impulses, those flimsy desires that lead nothing but to ruin and destruction.
"Welcome to My Velvet Room".
Greeted the fake Igor to the Trickster, with a tinge of enjoyment on its heart of hearts for the conquest of the room, and the subtly subdue of the Trickster.
What Yaldabaoth failed to expect, was the telephone at his desk to ring, loudly.
That took everyone by surprise. The telephone was nothing but an affectation of Igor, a mere visual cognition of how a working desk should be, nothing but an empty cognition. Justine and Caroline were as taken aback as the god posing as their master. Nothing on the memories of the original Lavenza, now parted between the two of them, spoke of the phone actually working.
Annoyed by the uncontrolled event, Yaldabaoth picked up the call, curious about what kind of ridicule the last attempt of the Velvet Room may come from. Despite having Igor firmly chained, and the assistant crippled in the form of the twins, the Velvet Room inhabitants were a very crafty bunch, with the luck of the gods at their backs.
Raising the phone, the fake Igor; and the other witnesses; could only blink before the barrel of a very big revolver pressed against the forehead of the fake, and with a very loud sound, the gun opened fire, blowing the head of the fake Igor clean off its shoulders.
Now, the expression thunderous silence achieved its perfect expression.
From within the telephone, the rest of the responsible for the shot erupted, revealing a giant of eight feet tall, covered head to toe in a red and gold robe, and with his head hidden behind a golden mask that, despite its metallic and inhumane nature, seemed capable of the model itself in facial expressions due to the change on the expression of the giant, huffing, and pouting, at how difficult was for him to exit the bloody phone.
It was something out of a Looney Tunes cartoon, but with a very bloody twist.
Justine and Caroline were the ones that recovered first, alas, the lad behind the bars tried to stop the pair of children, the poor Trickster has not yet understood that the small twins are some of the most dangerous beings in existence. Shocked, and confused, for they knew that something wrong was going on, that Igor should not die like that, they brought forward their weapons, a deceptively strong taser baton and a clipboard that can shatter concrete as if it was wet paper, however, before they could attack the mysterious giant, the giant rose his hand and a blue flame erupted from it, in the form a blue butterfly.
"In his name, I command thee to wait for the arrival of the real Igor of the Velvel Room".
Justine and Caroline froze, for they recognized the power behind the flames, and what was worse, they immediately understood that this intruder spoke with the voice and authority of their creator, Philemon. For the confused twins, this was a betrayal of the first order, why should Philemon betray Igor, the master of the Velvet Room has been nothing but loyal and helpful for the Wild Cards and the assistants under their care, in fact, the twins were beyond grateful when Igor created her….wait.
Her, not them, Justine and Caroline felt their very essence shock, something was not right, not with the Velvet Room, not with the master, and definitely not right with them.
"Stop your charade, wanker". Grunted the giant with disdain forming clearly on his golden mask, as he took aim with his revolver once more at the headless corpse of the fake Igor. "Stop playing possum, the guns of the Reaper can not kill you, just destroy your fake Igor impersonation".
"Very well". The voice of Yaldabaoth erupted from the corpse of Igor, as the headless corpse surrounded itself with a vortex of energy and rose from the floor, floating in the air with its arms extended to the sides, mocking the strange intruder.
"You have no right to interrupt this game, stranger, even if you are a bastard god of impossible cognition, your interference is neither required nor tolerated".
Another shot thundered and the left arm of the fake Igor was reduced to a red mist.
"Your input is neither wanted, nor asked, pathetic worm", snarled the giant, hammering the revolver once more, and with the revolver shivering in black and red energies that screeched in desire for violence.
"Your cowardly manipulations have brought forward your own ruin, you are nothing than a miserable lie that has grown too big for its britches, go back to your cup, and wait there, quietly, or I swear on Philemon and Nyarlathotep names that I will hunt your down Mementos, and torture your core in manners that will make Azathoth puke".
"Wait right do you have to defy a God!". Roared Yaldabaoth through the marionette with the mangled shape of Igor.
On his free hand, blue flames erupted, and the key of a Velvet Room manifested, shocking all witnesses at the presence of an unknown Wild Card.
"In his name, I banish you from this place", chanted the giant, and the body of the fake Igor erupted in blue flames.
"In my name, by the blood of the Nuclear Chaos, as long as the Dream Cycle continues, you are forever cursed to perish at the hands of the Trickster".
Pop.
Or something similar would be the sound that the corpse of the Fake Igor made when the equivalent of a magical nuclear explosion vaporized him into nothingness.
Twirling the revolver a couple of times, the long-barreled revolver that the twins recognized in a second as the revolver of the Reaper, vanished in a small burst of red flames, along with the vicious joy of the Reaper.
Before anyone could react, a white light fall upon the table with the papers, and the phone, revealing a new Igor, who seemed to be sleeping, and with chains piercing his arms and legs. The giant smiled at the arrival of the long-nosed master of the Velvet Room.
Opening his eyes with no little surprise, Igor first watched the twins and the Trickster, and due to the instinct engraved in him by the creator of the Velvet Room, welcomed their new guest, with an adequate salute.
"Welcome to the Velvet Room".