P3: Bloodlust

by Nightlyy

Minato had been staring down into an abyss for as long as he could remember. He does not know if the darkness stares back, if it calls him in or if he, himself is the abyss staring up, reaching out for the light beyond. Will he be helped up by someone who shares the curse or will he be drowned? A more dark and brutal novelization of Persona 3.

125. Tragedy

Well, here we are.

Honestly, when I started writing, I thought 10k and that's it but I kept writing and writing and we ended up here. This is the last chapter I'll ever write and the last time I'll see you guys here so I wanted to end it with a bang. I guess I wanted my last chapter to be the best work I've done and I think this chapter ended up being all that but that's just me talking.

You guy let me know, yeah?

For the last time, review replies.

Grim: Honestly, the the fact that the world is saved, despite Minato worming his way into being the seal, is the true happy ending of the fic.

Guest: You ain't seen nothing yet.

Jason: Holy shit man, it's great to see you again and now I know this is really ending, lmao. Hope you've been doing well, bro.

DigitalSiN'Saga: There, there :T Worse to come.

Celticfairywriter: You are absolutely right. Every CD that Hamuko got in the past 100 plus chapters was nulled the moment he died and that's just how life is at times. A loss can change people forever.

And damn, 2017... and this fic started in 2013, makes me feel old af.

Guest: This ending will make the crossover seem like the happiest fluffiest fic ever.

Also 2017.. Yikes. I can't believe it took me 10 years but better late than never.

Dasgun: Cheers!

LemmonGrove: Minato tried to make sure that she won't but lets see if it will work.

Fuyuki365: I listened to bring me to life while writing this and I suggest you don't do the same.

Guest: Haha! Glad to know I haven't lost my touch even if I am sick of writing.

Thank you everyone and now, here we go. The last chapter of Bloodlust.

---

There were so many voices calling out to her; concerned, confused and horrified about the situation and what had happened but Hamuko, drenched and splattered with blood and gore, was unresponsive and lifeless, much like the dead body lying in her arms. She was clutching Minato like a child who had lost everything, shivering like death in fear but the corpse remained still; cold, unmoving and dead.

"Minato!?"

"What is going on!?"

"H-Hey!"

Hamuko was not able to understand or even begin to understand what was being said to her, as every word sounded like harsh static in the backdrop of hell. All she could hear and suffer was that shrill, unholy screech blaring throughout her skull and Hamuko did not know whether it was Nyx, or the old demon of her past. Maybe it was both; with Nyx mourning the loss while the broken pieces of her psyche, the demon in the recess of her mind, celebrated yet another tragedy in her life, or rather, the end of her life.

She attempted to move her hand towards her head and crack her skull in order to numb the screaming and crying but her strength, the strength she felt was capable of annihilating the world, was gone. Her body felt crushed to pieces under the weight of his corpse, and with every passing second, the pressure bearing down on her body, and around her neck intensified. She was desperate to cough and relieve a bit of pressure but her throat felt crushed and her jaw locked, every atom in her body paralyzed and shackled with horror.

Hamuko barely noticed the people standing by the doorway in her peripheral, yelling and pleading with her to answer but she couldn't make out what they were saying, each figure shadowy and faceless and still screaming white noise but one of them spoke a little bit of sense, whispering a name in a strangled cry-

"What happened to Minato!?"

That name nearly made her hurl and a cold wave of dread and fear splintered along her spine, and she could hear something cracking from within, the noise echoing in the back and front of her skull. The thumping in her head, her personas screeching and mourning and the white noise; all melded in unison and nearly ruptured her eardrums but that name, shouted in absolute grief lingered on longer and reverberated across her tattered psyche-

"Minato…"

Ten minutes ago, he was alive and she had sworn to keep him safe; protect him from every human, shadow and god but now, he was motionless, having suffered an ungodly amount of pain and torture and she could do nothing but sob and shriek as he bled to corpse. Last night, Hamuko was put through a dark hell by her own persona and she spent the rest of the night drowning in nightmares but what she had gone through in the past couple of minutes dwarfed the misery of her entire life put together. Bleeding, suffering and decaying; she had seen Minato mercilessly tortured and abused in the past by shadows and gods but nothing, NOTHING compared to the physical torture he had gone now.

Hamuko was holding him, clutching him and he had not moved an inch or breathed even once, his head resting on her shoulder and his limp body sprawled against her, with only her grip keeping him from falling off. She could not feel her arms anymore but she could feel his weight; dead weight, devoid of life and warmth, resting on her. The little bit of reason and self-perseverance left in her screamed at Hamuko to shut her eyes and just give in; let go for a second, blacken out and avoid further misery. His last command to her was to keep herself safe and not to suffer but Hamuko began moving her head, forcing her own body to co-operate and eventually it began to listen-

She turned her neck slightly and even such a small movement required a lot of effort, with her entire body frozen in shock and horror but the redhead managed and brought her lips next to his ear. He reeked of blood and death and the stench twisted her empty stomach, forcing her to grit her teeth to contain the nausea. Her teeth clattered and her tongue felt numb and she had trouble even uttering his name but she forced it out eventually-

"M-Minato…?" Hamuko did not know whether she whispered, whimpered or even screamed but she knew she had called out to him, begging and pleading him to respond but Minato remained silent and still. Another agonizing wave of dread washed over her body but she desperately held onto him, whispering and whimpering his name mournfully, praying and begging him to respond to her-

Every sound around her; the thumping, screeching and screaming grew in pitch and volume the next second and her mind reeled from the onslaught, teetering on the edge of a nervous breakdown but even with the hell unfolding between her ear, her mouth kept moving and she kept whispering-
"Minato…"

"Minato, you can't…"

"Minato, you can't leave me…"

"Minato, please don't leave me…"

"Please don't leave me…"

"Minato…"

"Minato…"

"Minato-!"

She was begging, whispering, screaming even but Minato was still not responding, yet to even take a single breath ever since he collapsed. He had raised hell for much less and here yet she was; practically breaking down as she screamed his name over and over again, pleading with him to get up and save her like he always did. Maybe she was not screaming loud enough for him to hear or maybe she had lost her voice and was just screaming silently all this time because there was no way, NO WAY Minato would do this to her willingly-

Hamuko winced when she did lose her voice. Her jaw hung slack and her throat began to ache and swell as she had practically screamed her soul out in the past couple of seconds and her desperate screeches for him to get up, now echoed in the front of her skull, and added to the hellish cacophony blaring throughout her psyche.

Hamuko tried to talk but her throat burned at the attempt and she felt the taste of rusty iron in her mouth, and a numb jaw that made it impossible for her to move her mouth. Her entire body was numb and crippled and Hamuko glanced at her right hand, hanging loose on the side and almost detached from her body because she could not feel it connected to her nervous system.

Her lead hand was shivering uncontrollably, fingers spasming in a never-ending tremor as if her neurons were dying a slow death and she could not feel even a bit of strength or mobility in her right arm. She tried to clench her hand into a fist for a start but the nerves linking her dominant hand to her system felt exhausted and she could only make her index finger twitch a bit.

The redhead focused all her might into regaining the mobility in her arm and she made some progress, with her fingers resisting the tremors and Hamuko, with a great deal of effort, was able to ball her hand into a fist. The weight of the dead body on top of her made the already difficult task nearly impossible but Hamuko powered through and one singular thought motivated her to push her shackled body-

She had to shake Minato awake-

Hamuko noted that one of the figures standing in the doorway had stopped screaming and had begun moving towards her but that thought went as soon as it came and Hamuko, with a grunt, was able to free her right arm from the invisible binds and for a moment, that otherworldly strength returned to her, fueled by sorrow and anger but it was fleeting and Hamuko was barely able to position her hand on his shoulder-

She only felt bone and skin, nothing else, not an ounce of fat or muscle and she was afraid that if she clutched him too hard, her bare fingers would pierce through his skin. The horrifying thought nearly led to her hand slipping off his shoulder but she held on and her left arm found its way to his other shoulder. She had a feeble grip secured and with a mix of gentleness and desperation, Hamuko began to shake him awake.

Somehow, Hamuko was generate enough force in her arms in an attempt to wake Minato up from his deep slumber but his limp body simply moved with the momentum and Minato remained listless, becoming heavier and heavier in her grip as she grew weaker and weaker from the ever-building dream and sorrow. Hamuko cleared her burning throat and tried to scream as loud as she could but nothing came out of her mouth, not even a pitiful wail-

"M-Minato!"

That shriek echoed in her head and her whole body had begun shivering in fear. Yelling at him did not work. Begging him did not work. Touching him did nothing. Shaking him as hard as she could manage did not wake him up-

What was wrong with him-?

Hamuko hissed in pain as she clasped her hand a little tighter around his shoulder, her fingers and joint splintering in response to her effort but once she managed a more firm grip on his body, the redhead began to hoist his body off of her, as carefully as she could. The tremors, born out of anxiety and fear, once again rocked her hands but she withstood the near-violent convulsion, forced her body to maintain stability for just a second longer and lifted the corpse off her-

Even with the added weight off her, she felt just as crushed and beaten down, maybe even worse than before. She called out his name and still got nothing in response. Hamuko was holding him at arm's length, the world around him void of color and thought but she didn't give a damn about anything else in the world but him, someone she had sworn to protect but that same person was now a husk of bone and skin, hunched over, body contorted into a ball as rigor mortis had begun taking effect-

Hamuko felt her knees and arms buckle and nearly break at the very thought and she immediately discarded it and called out to him but her mouth was locked in place again and so she rocked him once more, and this time, she did not hold back and shook him with every bit of strength.

"P-Please…."

Minato did not wake up as she was hoping but the thrash from Hamuko lurched the body backwards, held up only by her hands and finally, Hamuko was able to see him… and what he had become.

"Minato!"

She found her voice again as the surge of horror bolted her body awake for a second and she screeched at the sight of what Minato had become. Her mind was only able to catch a momentary glimpse before her vision grew black and blurry as a self-perseverance mechanism but that one glimpse was seared into psyche, and his mangled, decayed and abused body remained vivid in her the darkness of her mind even when she lost her vision.

It was a skeleton. She had been begging a skeleton to wake up, all skin and bone with nothing else left. His skin was ashen white with not a drop of warm blood running in his system and every ounce of tissue had broken down, leaving Minato a mass of broken, bloodied bones clothed in human skin, and nothing more.

"Minato!"

He had bled out through his eyes, nose and mouth and his entire face was coated crimson, with the residual blood still seeping out of his eyes and dripping down his chin. Everything down from his neck was bathed red and his skin had turned purple due to heavy internal bleeding, a sign that he had suffered an incredibly gruesome and brutal demise but despite that-

His lips had curved into a thin smile in his last moment alive. It was barely noticeable and forced and his overall expression was of someone who had gone through an inhumane amount of torture and grief but in his last moment, Minato had focused on something that made him happy and content with his fate and ultimately had left the world with a smile-

CRASH-

Hamuko lost it all. Everything in her vision; the world and the dead body she was holding, spiraled out of focus and bright darkness blinded her vision and derailed her system completely . Whatever mobility she had built up in her body faded away the moment her eyes and brain processed and comprehended the reality and both her body and mind collapsed in a heap. The screeching and yelling of her personas were silenced as the sea of her soul withered away and her psyche crashed out of her consciousness, plunging into the black abyss below-

"M-Minato…"

She had dropped him when her arms gave away under the trauma and her mind followed a second later, enveloped and clouded by misery and nothingness. Hamuko knew she had dropped him in shock and she desperately tried to get a hold of her senses and save him from the fall but her senses remained washed with grief and her limbs were hacked off her body, severed completely from what she could tell. She could not see, feel or move and her spirit, whatever was left of it, slowly eroded in the void of darkness, apathy and death-

"Minato…"

"Please…"

"Please… Save me-"

…

…..

…..

"WAKE UP!"

The shove from the shadows felt as brutal as a sledgehammer shot to her chest, nearly knocking her on her back but the impact managed to bring her back from the point of no return, and the redhead instinctively sucked in a deep breath and escaped a complete nervous breakdown at the very last second. The haze around her senses dissipated and her body regained a little bit of strength and enough mobility for her to move around and her mind, as broken and scarred as it was focused on the person nearest to her; Mitsuru Kirijo.

The heiress was horrified, out of breath and silently weeping but her teeth were gritted in an attempt to stop the flood of tears from breaking through. Mitsuru looked heartbroken but still determined enough that Hamuko gained a bit of sense from seeing her and the heiress, who held a grip around her wrist, yanked her forward to snap her out of her own hell and yelled once more-

"Get up, Hamuko!"

The shock and pain nearly made Hamuko hurl but the sting was bad enough that her personas roared back to life and Hamuko clenched her fist, the strength of her personas coursing through her veins and she barely was able to hold back a thrash that would have sent Mitsuru to to the other side of the roof-

With her vision regaining focus and clarity, Hamuko took note of her surroundings and she was not holding Minato like the last time she remembered. Mitsuru was the one standing next to her and the rest of her friends were in a circle, some of them standing, some of them kneeling down ,crying and mourning over the dead body of-

"Minato!"

Hamuko freed her wrist from Mitsuru and jumped to her feet but her body had yet to completely recover from the emotional shock and trauma and she collapsed to her knees which she felt were bolted to the pavement. The pressure on the back of her neck had spread to the rest of her body and Hamuko could hardly move, leaving her to crawl towards-

Minato. She saw him lying on the floor, bloodied and mangled as she remembered and Yukari held him in a half an embrace, silently whispering spells against his chest in a desperate attempt to heal him. The brunette was already panting in exhaustion as she had nearly emptied her entire spiritual power in the healing and yet Minato remained motionless, a puddle of blood forming under him as nothing was stopping the bleeding or healing his internal wounds.

The sight of Yukari failing to heal him made Hamuko power through and she got to her feet and bolted, shoving whoever was in the way between her and Minato. She got close to him and her body flinched on instinct, nearly collapsing backwards in a heap when she once again witnessed his condition and the absolute awful stench of death rolling off him-

Hamuko swallowed the misery and despair and paid little attention to her friends begging her to explain what had happened. Her personas were still screaming and tearing through her psyche but she brought a support persona to the front of her mind and channeled its essence into her right hand, igniting a golden flame that was much stronger than the healing spell of Isis.

"UGH!"

A mental shockwave from her strongest persona nearly knocked Hamuko out and she hunched over, barely able to retain the spell around her wrist but she felt a little bit of blood in her mouth; a few cracks on her front teeth and knew that was just the beginning when her throat began to thicken and suffocate-

"Y-You moron!" Sho, someone she had not seen in months, knelt down next to her and his voice was more panicked than she had ever heard before, on the verge of breaking into tears. "G-Get a hold of yourself, dammit!"

"Save him!"

"Save, Minato!"

The way his voice cracked in the end was like he was pleading her to get a hold of herself and heal Minato before it was too late. Hamuko clenched her jaw and resisted the building presence of Nyx, the golden incantation around her fist regaining its potency and she did not waste a second more-

"I'm sorry, Minato," Yukari panted in exhaustion when she emptied the last reserves of her spiritual energy and her persona faded to the back of her mind. The brunette cursed herself for being useless but remained seated on the ground even when Hamuko took took his limp body from her grasp and positioned it carefully; cradling him on her knees and positioning his head so that it rested gently against her shoulder-

That absolutely dreadful stench overpowered her senses momentarily and her eyes surged with a glint of malevolence, scaring Ken and Junpei a few steps away from her but the redhead pushed through and maintained control, pressing her right hand against the blunet's chest and unleashing a concentrated burst of her strongest healing spell in a never-ending succession.

The heat emitting from the cluster of spells singed the front of his uniform and his collar and sleeves began to smoke as Hamuko did not stop to even breathe and only increased the frequency and intensity and yet-

"Why isn't this working?" Mitsuru mouthed to herself, voice tinged with disbelief and fear as she stood over the two, eyes scanning Minato for any signs of movement, any flicker of life but he remained unmoving in Hamuko's lap and a dreadful realization dawned upon the heiress when she observed his condition more thoroughly.

Minato was worsening.

Instead of getting better with the healing, Minato was deteriorating; his face and extremities bloating and a darker shade of purple emerging on his skin, suggesting that more and more blood was pooling inside of his body.

Hamuko realized it as well and a bitter sob escaped her mouth as his body grew heavier and heavier in her embrace but she did not let up on the healing, even when her own body grew sluggish due to the building fatigue. She shut her eyes, gritted her teeth and emptied the last slew of healing spells in one massive burst but to no avail. His jacket had partially burned off but Minato had still not regained consciousness.

"God fucking dammit!" Hamuko screeched amidst the pants at her failure to heal him, cursing her worthless persona but she held him tightly, refusing to give up on him. She had grown stronger, much stronger during the last battle and she was capable of going one step beyond.

Hamuko struggled but eventually forced a second persona to heed her call, blue mist and smoke seeping out from under her feet as she prepared to harness the power of two of her strongest personas to bring Minato back. The blue mist and smoke seeped across the rooftop and her friends backed off as the pressure emitting from the redhead was immense but not without consequence.

Mitsuru could clearly see it; attempting to summon a second persona in her current condition was taking an immediate toll on Hamuko, her teeth cracked and face a deep shade of purple but before she could even open her mouth and warn her-

The building trembled for a split-second, sending Ken tumbling to the ground while the others narrowly maintained their footing. The mist permeating the area grew thicker as Hamuko gathered all her focus and spiritual power and the healing flame around her fist strengthened to a dense conflagration, radiating warmth and godly power.

Fuuka, who stood nearby, could sense just how powerful the concentrated mass of healing spells was, several times stronger than the usual healing magic Yukari, Mitsuru and Aigis used in battle. What Hamuko had managed was comparable to the miracle Chidori had performed to save Junpei from death and yet-

Nothing-

"Minato!" Hamuko screamed his name in denial when the first attempt to bring him back accomplished nothing. His chest buckled slightly due to the pressure but he remained motionless in her lap, still lifeless and marked with gruesome pallor. The redhead shook her head to push through the numbness pounding her brain and unleashed another torrent of potent healing spells towards his heart-

Nothing-

Smoke, heat and waste but not a single breath or even a gasp of life from the blunet-

Hamuko wailed and wept, fatigue and numbness coursing through her already exhausted body and soul and her right hand trembled, unable to bear such a massive influx of magic. The redhead hissed out and strengthened the limb with a power charge to keep it steady and gritted her teeth, cradling his body closer with her left arm and unleashing another surge of powerful healing magic-

Nothing-

Nothing-

NOTHING-

Three attempts and still nothing, and with each failure, Hamuko was crumbling, mentally and physically. The strain of summoning two personas in her current, delirious state was evident on her body, particularly her throat which was a shade of purple. She trembled and hacked out routinely, barely able to keep a hold around Minato as she herself struggled to remain conscious, magic and spiritual energy bleeding out of her and wasting away.

"H-Hamuko…" Yukari cringed at the state of her best friend and the next shout made her back off in fear and shock, the hair on the back of her neck standing up but she did not know whether it was due to fear or sorrow. Every shout of Hamuko's was guttural and harsh and she was rapidly regressing into a broken, screaming mess right before her eyes but despite the absolutely heart-wrenching wails and screams, not a single persona user found the courage to step over and save her from a self-induced spiritual collapse-

"Take care of her, alright?"

Those words, the last words of Minato, reverberated in Junpei's head and the male choked back his tears when he remembered the last interaction he had with Minato in the hallway of the school. Despite the mistreatment at his hands, Minato had smiled at him as his best friend and his very last request was to take care of Hamuko.

Junpei clenched his trembling hands and looked right ahead. Hamuko, the girl Minato had entrusted him to take care of, was on death's door herself, now hunched over in pain and exhaustion but still holding onto the corpse and trying to bring it back to life with whatever she had left in her. The capped teen glanced around at his other friends and every single one, from Aigis to Akihiko to Sho stood frozen and petrified, several steps away from Hamuko, their eyes bleached white with what seemed like fear-

Junpei looked down and noticed that he was trembling as well, not just from the sorrow from the loss of a dear friend but from fear; dread that he was able to feel in the pit of his stomach and the source of the overwhelming fear was-

"H-Hamuko?" the capped teen wanted to rush over and stop Hamuko from torturing herself to death but his legs felt like lead, seized by fear and rendered useless. His own persona, Trismegistus, was warning him to stay away from the girl as something much more sinister was looming over her but Junpei shook off the fear, the doubt and the warning of his persona and after swearing a promise to his late friend, he bolted-

Junpei choked on his own breath as soon as he got close to her but he pushed through the anxiety and fear and knelt down next to her, grimacing when he took a look at her pale, weary, tear and blood-stained face. She had aged a couple of years in the past few minutes but despite her own failing health, she had refused to let go of Minato, and even now, her right hand was pressed against his chest, unleashing whatever puny spells she could manage in her current condition-

"Hamuko," Junpei whispered as gently as he could manage, trying to get her attention but she said nothing to him in return, didn't even notice that he was nearby and discharged another pitiful healing spell before coughing out what seemed to be-

"B-Blood?" Junpei's voice cracked with horror as he noticed the crimson stains on Hamuko's lips. Minato's words echoed in his head in a fever pitch and Junpei immediately grasped her by the shoulder to pull her off, fearing for her life. "You need to stop-!"

"Don't fucking touch me!" Hamuko snapped the moment she was touched and jerked away from his touch, hissing at him to get lost and while Junpei wasn't deterred by her hostility, a sharp glare from the redhead froze him in place and for a second, Junpei swore that he was staring at death itself once again-

There was something very wrong with Hamuko. The little flicker of red and black in her eye brought back dreadful memories of the promised day but Junepi managed to maintain his composure and called out-

"H-Hey!" Junpei yelled out to his friends, cursing them for just standing there and staring while another of them spiraled towards death-

"You morons!"

Sho blinked, clenching his hands into fists but his feet remained bolted to the floor by that old fear-

"She can't keep this up!"

Mitsuru reached into her pocket, grasping her cellphone with trembling fingers-

"SHE'S GOING TO DIE!"

The dire warning spurred the other members of SEES and Aigis was the first one to step forward, analyzing Hamuko and her rapidly declining vital signs. Her spiritual reserves were emptied long ago and whatever spells Hamuko was calling forth now came at the cost of her life as it spilled out of her with every second-

Mitsuru punched a few buttons on her cellphones and hissed an order at Akihiko and Yukari while she stepped away for a few seconds, frantically yelling at the receptionist at Tatsumi Memorial Hospital to dispatch an ambulance. Between the two, Yukari was the first one to act and Akihiko followed soon after-

The tiny Dia spell around her fingers dissipated and Hamuko screeched in annoyance when a number of people started grabbing her, muttering gibberish that she did not care for. All she knew that they were getting in the way of waking Minato up and she lashed out with her free hand-

Akihiko endured the punch to his jaw but caught the next strike as gently as he could, lowering her hand and looking Hamuko in the eye. "Calm down, Hamuko. Take a deep breath and-!"

"I said; DON'T FUCKING TOUCH ME!" the redhead scowled at her friends trying to help her and after freeing her hand from Akihiko and shrugging off the grip of Yukari and Junpei, she called upon Pixie to lend her a healing spell but-

"GACK!" the spell failed in her palm and Hamuko cursed at the three for breaking her concentration. She lifted her lead hand to reach out and crush their throats but the limb locked up the moment she thought of raising her hand-

Her entire body froze from sheer exhaustion and she had to focus whatever was left in her to tighten the hold around Minato because those bastards were going to take him away from her-

"Let go, you idiot!" Yukari hissed at her, tears streaming down her face as she attempted to break Hamuko away and get some sense into her because she was hyper-ventiatling and decaying to a corpse herself-

Hamuko found enough strength in her arm and swung her fist, trying to hit whatever was close to her and she connected on someone but while it hurt her and made her gasp for breath, she managed to knock her three friends and promptly screamed at them-

"Stay the fuck away from me!"

"This is madness," Mitsuru hissed, having secured a quick ambulance dispatch and the vehicle was outside the school grounds, awaiting the patient but from the way Hamuko was behaving, getting Minato the ambulance was going to be a difficult task and every precious second she was wasting with her stupidity was costing Minato his life-

"Aigis!" Mitsuru looked back at the android, the most physically capable member of the team and the blonde persona user stared back in confusion, her scanners relaying the obvious truth about Minato's demise but Mitsuru spoke to the human in her and Aigis flinched-

"Take Minato from her," Mitsuru felt almost disgusted with what she was saying, knowing that would be causing Hamuko a great deal of pain but right now, her highest priority was to save Minato-

Mitsuru then glanced at Sho who had not moved ever since Hamuko had begun the futile healing. He looked like a lost kid, staring off ahead with a vacant gaze but he looked no different than the other members of SEES now; absolutely heart-broken and terrified at the thought of losing Minato-

"The ambulance is down waiting," Mitsuru spoke to him too and Sho cursed under his breath, unwilling to separate Hamuko from Minato but if there was a chance to save Minato then-

"We have to get Minato to the hospital now!"

"Fuck this all," Sho whispered an apology to Hamuko beforehand and after another curse at the fates for putting them in this situation, he made his way over. Aigis hesitated for a few seconds more, aware of the truth but she decided to trust in human miracles and followed the redheaded male.

Hamuko's vision blackened and barely came back when a far stronger grip curled around her wrist, stopping her entire frame from moving. She was hurt and almost whimpered in pain but that discomfort faded instantly the moment she felt someone trying to pry Minato away from her-

CRACK-

"Minato!" the blood-curdling scream erupted from her soul and Aigis, who had begun releasing Minato from her grip, halted in the middle and her eyes widened in grief. The way she shouted his name felt like a desperate cry for help when she was at her own limit, like all those times when she was hurt and cried out to him to save her-

"Minato! They're hurting me!"

Even Sho broke his grip around her and recoiled in horror when her sorrowful scream echoed across the rooftop. She sounded like a child and not the hardened, all-powerful persona user who had played a massive part in saying the world from death. With her love lying dead in her lap and her world sundered in half, she looked no different than a heart-broken child who had yet to process that she had lost it all-

"MINATO!"

Once again-

"MINATO!"

"SAVE ME–!"

Sho was seconds away from backing off and running away, hell even jumping from the rooftop because for the first time in his life, his heart, already burdened with grief with what happened to Minato, was not able to handle the absolutely sorrowful state of his only remaining friend in the world-

"They're waiting on the school grounds!" Mitsuru's authoritative voice was harsh but she was on the verge of tears herself, and absolutely irate by the fact that they were hesitating and risking Minato's life as every wasted second was potentially his last-

"He saved us all on the promised day!" Mitsuru reminded them all of what Minato had done for them, not bothered that they were in the school anymore. "It's our turn to save him now!"

"Forgive me, Hamuko-san!" Aigis apologized under her breath and with minimal effort, she wrested Minato away from Hamuko, eliciting another and an almost maddening shriek of absolute sorrow and unrepentant madness form the redheaded girl-

"Give him back!" Hamuko demanded and made an attempt to get up and tackle Aigis away but Yukari, anticipating her move, curled her arms around her waist as she attempted to get up and pulled her back. The two females collapsed onto the ground in a heap and while Yukari landed on her back and avoided serious damage, Hamuko, unable to support her weight due to the exhaustion, landed on her head and her skull bounced off the pavement with a sickening crack-

Whatever human emotion that was left in her poured out in a final, blood-curdling scream the moment her head struck the pavement and her consciousness, control and humanity ebbed away, sinking into the abyss that had slowly but surely spread across her soul. The shout did not resemble that of a broken human anymore and for a second, everyone, even Mitsuru forgot about the tragedy and cowered backwards.

Maddening, corrupted and absolutely vile, that howl felt like it had escaped hell, bellowed out the mouth of an absolutely deranged god-

The cruel shriek came to an abrupt end when her throat locked up, and so did the rest of her body. Hamuko sucked in a short breath, desperately trying to get some air and regain control, but the little oxygen she salvaged burned down her throat. Her limbs twisted inward, her eyes and mouth wide open in horror, and then she went utterly still. She didn't move an inch, didn't even blink. Her gaze, vacant and her eyes, bleached white with sorrow and grief, remained locked on Minato's lifeless form, now held by Aigis but the android herself had stopped to mourn-

"H-Hamuko-san…" blue eyes, glistening with tears trailed along her now motionless frame-

Hamuko laid as a hollow shell, her spirit shattered, and a single tear traced down her cheek, mingling with the blood staining her face. Her friends watched in stunned silence, the weight of their own helplessness suffocating them with a cruel squeeze on their throat and heart. The girl who had saved them on January 31st, now laid broken and unresponsive, crippled by the overwhelming grief and despair, and her last, heart-wrenching scream lingering on.

The siren of the impatient ambulance downstairs forced Mitsuru to tear her bloodshot eyes away from Hamuko and she focused her attention on Minato. Still bleeding, still unresponsive and even more bloated than before; the former leader of SEES was likely beyond the point of return but Mitsuru, remembering the miracles he had accomplished, did not give up on him. The ambulance was waiting downstairs and there was a slim chance that medical science could at least offer them a clue about what was wrong with Minato.

"Aigis, take him to the ambulance at once," Mitsuru spoke with a heavy voice, letting out a few tears when she heard Yukari sobbing about Hamuko's unresponsive condition in the back. "Akihiko, Iori and Minazauki, accompany her and do not stop, do not stop no matter who asks. Now go!"

"You better take care of her," Sho warned the heiress of the Kirijo Group before he departed with Aigis and the rest of the males. Mitsuru whispered a desperate prayer for Minato and begged every god she knew to grant them a miracle and save Minato, the boy who had ended the curse her family had unleashed on the world but the price-

His life-

Her lower lip quivered and Mitsuru was a second away from bawling on the spot but another voice from behind her interjected-

"S-Senpai!" Yukari sobbed out louder, tapping Hamuko on the face but there was absolutely no reaction from the motionless wild card, and her gaze remained on the door, having followed Aigis who had carried his body out of her sight. "She's not moving!"

"Hamuko! Hamuko, move, dammit!" Yukari screamed through her tears, now jerking the comatose girl as hard as she could, her volume and pitch increasing as her own sanity began to unravel but no matter how hard she cried, Hamuko kept staring at the door to the rooftop. "Please, please, please! Please say something!"

Was this the cost of defying Nyx and Ryoji?

Was this the price of the miracle of January 31st?

Was this what saved humanity from extinction?

The lives of their two leaders who had already suffered hell?

Mitsuru gathered up the remnants of her spiritual essence into her right hand, prepared to sacrifice her own life in an attempt to heal and bring Hamuko back but her concentration flickered away when she caught wind of a stampede ascending up the stairs. The sound filled her with dread and she exactly who was coming to rooftop-

"Mitsuru-san!" Ken called from the doorway, wincing when the shouts and yells of students and teachers alike struck his eardrums, already worsening the painful headache throbbing in his head. "T-The students are here!"

"This is an absolute nightmare," Mitsuru didn't even have to pant and catch her breath because soon enough, a horde of students and a few concerned teachers stood outside the rooftop. The shouting of Hamuko and the tremors that startled the building had alerted the entire school and MItsuru knew she had to move and somehow calm the situation from further escalating.

"Yamagishi, with me," Mitsuru ordered, tired beyond her limit but the nightmare was far from over, and they still had to suffer. Minato was likely in the ambulance already but if a single student or teacher caught a glimpse of Hamuko then-

"Yukari, do not leave her side, no matter what," Mitsuru said and rushed out the door, with Fuuka and Ken alongside.

An ominous shiver settled over the brunette when she found herself alone with her best friend who was laid frozen and broken at the place where she had collapsed but Yukari did not notice that the look in her eyes had changed, and the crippling sorrow was compounded with hate and a sheen of eldritch madness-

Isis was dormant from the futile healing session earlier but Yukari still did all she could do, pumping her chest because Hamuko had yet to breathe ever since she collapsed-

"Come on, Hamuko," Yukari said through gritted teeth, her voice broken and hollow from misery. "You need to get up!"

No matter how much force she applied in an effort to bring Hamuko back, nothing was working. The brunette cursed her lack of power and sat on her knees to generate as much pressure as she could-

"Please!" Her strangled cry echoed across the already polluted air-

"Please, please, please!"

Hamuko spasmed against the hard floor due to the pressure but not a single exhale of breath, nor a flicker of life-

"Please wake up!"

Another compression emptied the remaining strength in her arms and Yukari begged, flashes of Minato lying dead on the floor eating away at her heart. Deep in her the bottom of her soul, she knew that she had lost Minato today and Hamuko was-

"Don't leave us like Minato!"

Thump-

The final pump along her chest was followed by her heart beating back to life and Yukari, having felt her pulse and heartbeat, collapsed on top of her with a mournful yet relieved cry , finally allowed a moment of relief after an absolutely nightmarish hour-

Blink-

The little relief she felt turned into horror and while her body was exhausted, her nervous system acted on auto-pilot and hurled her off of Hamuko-

"H-Hamuko?"

Someone was staring at her with unblinking red eyes, pulsing with unadulterated hate, malice and bloodlust.

That someone was not Hamuko.

Yukari knew she had shrieked as loud as she could, the sting of the new wound in her throat and the blood in her mouth was proof but not even a whimper was heard as something cold, dark and deathly reached out and silenced her entirely.

…

Mitsuru was face to face with half the student body and a handful of teachers, and the heiress was quivering in her boots. She had prepared a few bogus explanations to manage and keep them away from the rooftop but the moment she faced the crowd, her mind, already muddled with the events of the day, drew nothing but blanks and confusion. Even with Fuuka and Ken by her side, the heiress could not speak or even begin to understand what they were asking her.

They were all shouting, each voice tearing into her already brittle psyche and she wanted all of them to disappear from her sight at once. She was trained to maintain her composure no matter the situation but right now, the 17 year old high school student just wanted a quiet place to sob her heart out.

"What is going on!?"

"What was the scream?"

"Is everything okay?"

"Why is the ambulance outside the school?"

"Did something happen to Arisato?"

Arisato-

Minato Arisato-

The name hammered her mind over and over again and Mitsuru clutched her head when she remembered the scene from mere minutes ago. She had opened the door to her rooftop with an already heavy heart, expecting and hoping to see Minato alive and waiting for them but what she witnessed; Minato, bloodied and lifeless, hanging off of a delirious Hamuko was far worse than whatever horror the Dark Hour had put her through.

"M-Minato…" MItsuru remembered his ill and weary face in the last few days and choked on her own breath. The last personal interaction she had with him, he had congratulated him for passing the college exam with a kind smile and he looked like he wanted to say a lot more to her.

Mitsuru took a step back in surrender, unable to respond to any of the questions of the students or the demands of the teachers. The voices had meshed up together in one terrible cacophony, borderline demonic and Mitsuru nearly dropped to her knees, wishing, praying and begging for everything and everyone to go away for a second so she could mourn the loss of her friend and relieve a sliver of her unending misery.

"H-Hamuko-san!?"

Was that Ken…?

Suddenly, her wish came true and all fell silent, deathly silent as if the mob had completely vanished in thin air. She could not even hear a single breath and while this was the silence she had been praying for, the heiress, even in absolute quitnesses was not able to mourn.

Her breathing had gotten worse and the added, almost unexplainable fatigue that seized her body made her heart jump to her throat-

The scent of iron in the air.

The otherworldly fatigue.

The maddening quietness.

The shadow of death.

The absolute fear.

Mitsuru opened her eyes and saw a cluster of coffins in place of the students and teachers and for a second, she simply stared in shock and confusion, her body trembling as the phenomena was unmistakable. The people had transmogrified into coffins and the redhead took several steps backwards, her weary mind unable to comprehend what had just happened.

People only transmogrified during the Dark Hour.

Minato had ended the Dark Hour.

At the cost of his life.

"W-Why…?"

Ken said something again but the heiress was not able to register his cry for help for Mitsuru noticed that she was alone, utterly alone as her persona, her mask to brave hardships had completely disappeared from her soul. Artemisia, the queen of ice, had retreated into the deepest recesses of her mind the moment she sensed-

Mitsuru was slow to turn, as her legs felt they were torn to shreds by the cold but eventually she managed and stared straight ahead with her mouth hanging open as the frost blasting out from the doorway of the roof was the type of chill not even the Ice Queen was prepared to endure.

Standing in the doorway was Hamuko, hunched over but she was staring at the three persona users with her head tilted to the head and her red eyes gazing into their bare souls, petrifying each one into complete silence. Black mist escaped from under her feet and between her clenched fists, adding up into a mass of darkness in the room but her red eyes shone just as bright, unblinking and the abyss of darkness behind her eyes was never-ending; boundless and endless.

Fuuka stammered but managed to bring Juno back to the surface. She didn't even need to summon to realize who… or what had taken over-

"H-Hamuko-chan?"

Hamuko opened her mouth but her throat bulged up the next second, her red eyes widening in hatred and insanity, desperate to witness death and decay-

Juno flickered away and Fuuka whispered, left unable to scream-

"Nyx…."

"A-All…"

Hamuko uttered, voice somewhat resembling a human at the start but it devolved into a demonic tone midway through when she struggled to utter a single word, draining the color from the faces of the persona users and their masks from the depths of their souls-

"A-All shall perish…"

Hamuko clutched her bulging throat, crushing the mass of darkness with one brutal squeeze and she unleashed an absolutely horrific screech that was heard across the now desolate Gekkoukan High, shattering the glass on the windows and the will of those who were unfortunate to hear it. The three teenagers were almost blown to the edge of the platform from the sheer , and barely held on, clasping their ears in surrender and screaming out in pain but it was all lost, washed over by the scream that had originated from the depths of hell.

It was a signal, a warning that the goddess of the night sky had once again descended upon the world and the vessel was the strongest persona user in the world.

With no equal.

The torture came to an end and Mitsuru, not thinking with a clear head and struck dumb and deaf with that maddening scream, made the mistake of taking the first step forward and Fuuka, who was beside her, immediately yelled at her to stay put and not move-

"Mitsuru, don't!" the teal-haired girl knew one bad move would likely lead to death but it was too late and from the corner of her eye, Fuuka caught a glimpse of something lashing out at Mitsuru-

Ken blinked and his heart stopped for a second when a heavy force whizzed past him, evoking bad memories of a hopeless battle and he lost his voice, managing a small gasp of fear but nothing more. He barely turned his head and saw a pulsing mass of darkness and a blink later, it disappeared, widening his eyes as he knew where it was headed-

"Mitsuru-san!" Ken cried out, well aware of the destructive force and the lethality but like Fuuka, he warned a second too late and Mitsuru shut her eyes on instinct, defenseless and her psyche reacted to the impending doom, life flashing in the darkness of her mind before-

The absolutely awful sound of impact was followed by the cracking of her skeleton and the collision lifted Mitsuru off her feet, launching her into the air and she soared past the two stunned persona users at breakneck speed before they could even blink. The heiress smashed through the marble staircase and cried out in pain, desperately trying to grab something to stop her fall but her body; pulverized and gripped with fear, refused to obey and the she fell from the highest floor or Gekkoukan, towards her death-

Fuuka, pale and aghast with fear from watching Mitsuru fall to her apparent demise, snapped her head towards Hamuko and was prepared to beg her until she returned to her senses but-

SMASH-

She lost her footing and stumbled, blinking once in confusion because she was unable to regain her stance-

"Fuuka-san!" Ken called out to her but his voice was muffled as dust, debris and shattered marble exploded from under her feet and Fuuka finally understood-

She didn't lose her footing-

The teal-haired girl looked ahead and saw the now possessed persona user simply levitating a few above the now shattered floor, staring her down and the image swirled upside down, alerting her about what had gone wrong-

Hamuko had crushed the pavement with a single blow and Fuuka inhaled sharply, trying to prepare her body for the absolute worst but then she caught a glimpse of Hamuko and whimpered at the absolutely remorseless and blood-thirsty look on her face, scarily similar to the gaze of the God of Death they had fought before and the support persona user wished that she would fall to her death instead-

This nightmare of graduation day was never-ending-

And the last thing she wanted to do right now was to face Hamuko-

Minato would have killed her for even thinking about this…

"Minato-kun…." Fuuka mourned his loss in her last few seconds and regretted how she and her friends had treated him in the past few months, when he was ill and suffering alone-

The punishment Hamuko was going to deliver upon them was what they deserved-

For what they had done to Minato; the persona user who had saved the world-

At the cost of his own life-

A broken piece of the pavement smacked her on the head, knocking her out and her limp body plunged down below.

"Fuuka-san!"

---

Placed on a stretcher and loaded into an ambulance, Minato was already wrapped in white as the medics were quite sure that the boy who without a pulse and bloated purple due to severe internal bleeding, was lost to the world but they still brought him inside the back of the ambulance and Sho watched on as they prepared to hook him up with the equipment present but then-

Something came crashing from the skies; a force intangible but burdened every nerve in his body and the redheaded male collapsed to his knees just when he was about to step inside the ambulance-

"Gack!"

"What the hell!?" Junepi hacked out and looked towards the school building to see what the hell was going on but he was forced to duck his head and clasp his ears when the invisible shockwave was followed by an absolutely deafening, blood-curdling scream that came from the rooftop.

Akihiko widened his eyes and took a step back when the paramedics around him disappeared and were replaced by coffins. "What's going on?" the boxer muttered under his breath, gaze fixed on the coffin beside him because there was no mistaking; the medic had transmogrified and that meant-

"T-The Dark Hour is back!?" Junepi couldn't believe what he was saying. His friend who had given up his life to end it laid dead in the ambulance behind him but guess all that; his sacrifice was for nothing and it made the capped teen nauseous from disgust. "What the fuck is going on!?"

Aigis looked outside the school gates and noticed that a few people on the other side of the street were normal and not turned into coffins, staring towards the school because the scream from inside the building was most definitely heard by people outside but that wasn't important right now. The people present outside the school were not turned into coffins and moreover, while the sluggishness of the Dark Hour was felt by her, the nauseous green hue that usually accompanied the Dark Hour was missing.

Whatever sorcery had taken place to turn the medics into coffins was localized to the school but that only made the already bizarre situation even more confusing. What on earth was capable of replacing such a feat even on a smaller scale?

"This is not the Dark Hour," Aigis said, eyeing the school building but a loud crashing sound from within the halls made her take a step back, her scanners alerting her that those slew of sounds could only mean mass destruction had occurred inside-

The males had heard the thrashing sounds as well and knew they had to step inside the school because something had gone horribly wrong; an invasion of an otherworldly evil but they looked at each other noted that they was cowering from fear from just standing outside the building and inside the school was entirely different hell, a force none of them were capable of dealing with-

Junpei looked back and hoped, praying to God that he would see Minato, their leader, standing on his two feet to answer the call and set everything right but Minato laid in the exact same position in the back of the van, covered in white sheets on a medical stretcher, having bled to his death long ago.

"D-Dammit." Junpei wished all the misery and pain on himself when he recalled shoving Minato back in the dorm a few days ago. Even back then, his gaunt face and general weakness illustrated that Minato was ill but he still pushed him as hard as he could and knocked him on the ground and proceeded to gloat. Despite the mistreatment from his hands, the last time Junpei saw him, Minato forgave him, told him to take care of Hamuko and smiled at him like a departing friend would.

Junpei was one step away from crumbling entirely, mentally and physically as the regret overrode his senses but someone shut the door to the door ambulance, blocking his view of Minato and the capped teenage exhaled loudly, tears streaming down his face but he remained in his senses as the little shock kept him from collapsing in a heap.

Sho locked the door of the ambulance, doing what he could to make sure that no harm would come to his friend who had sacrificed his life so that he could live. This was a debt he would never repay and he felt ashamed of the fact but-

Another sharp howl from within the school building forced the group of four to move and Sho took the lead, his hand resting on the hilt of the blade strapped to his hip.

He was not going to let ANYONE destroy the world that his best friend had given his life to protect.

---

Ken groaned in pain when he came to a stop and he knew he was bleeding and a few of his bones were broken but the support spell he had casted just before he fell ended up saving his life. With some difficulty, he sat up and coughed, the dust and smoke from the implosion making it difficult to see and he squinted, trying to locate and make sure-

"Fuuka-san!" Ken located the female lying unconscious on a pile of rubble and with some struggle, he pushed himself off the ground and made a run for her. He had protected her with a defense spell in the last second before they fell from the top floor and as soon as he got close to Fuuka, he checked her pulse and was relieved to see that she was alive; injured and bloodied but still breathing.

Fuuka woke up with a gasp and immediately whimpered, clutching her stomach as the ache was worse than anything she had endured before but the presence of Ken beside her instilled some calmness in her and she managed a grateful smile.

"Y-You saved me, Ken-kun," Fuuka choked out, aware that he had protected her with a spell or she would have died from the fall. She grasped his hand for support and Ken helped her in sitting up, casting a healing spell and fixing the more serious wounds.

Fuuka was able to breathe a little easier as warmth soothed the awful pain and she shook her head, trying to make sense of the hellish situation. They fell from the top floor of the school and after a look around, Fuuka realized they were currently on the third floor and to her horror, there were coffins lined up in the now devastated hallway; coffins of students who had skipped the ceremony.

A few coffins were buried and crushed under the waste from the floor above and the teal haired girl choked back on the sobs, scared to summon Juno and scan for signs of life. She tried to move but her legs failed and she collapsed back down, wincing in pain and Ken intensified his healing incantation-

"Just relax for a bit, Fuuka-san," Ken said, bleeding from the wound on his temple but he focused on fixing her first and the girl tried to do as she was told; inhaling all the air she could to get some oxygen in her lungs-

SMASH-

Juno materialized in her psyche and went berserk, straining her lungs and forcing Fuuka to gasp for air. The screeches of her normally serene and quiet persona were brutal to endure and she clutched her head in pain, eyes shut as she tried to decipher what her persona was saying to her-

"H-Huh?" her weary eyes snapped open at once when the soil under her feet screamed out to her, rumbling slightly with only very subtle vibrations but Fuuka was able to pick up on the change and she lifted her head, eyes wide open and scanning the area as she felt her heartbeat in her ear-

Juno had retreated back into the recesses of her soul and Fuuka was alone, shivering but she attempted to calm down and focus, straining her ears because she caught a light buzzing sound in the distance-

The silent scream of darkness blared through her entire body and Fuuak gasped, catching the sound of something sharp and powerful slicing through the air, about to deliver a mortal blow-

She had found them-

"Ken-kun!" Fuuka pushed Ken away from the impending damage and threw herself in the way to protect the youngest member of SEES. Ken was knocked a good distance away and Fuuka shrieked in pain when something heavy and dense coiled around her neck and yanked her down to the ground, with enough force to make her spit blood-

Her vision blackened momentarily but she caught a brief look of her friend, her blurry and patchy vision barely able to make her out before the grip around her neck tightened and the already injured female was hurled off her feet and smashed into the wall at full force-

Fuuka's head bounced off the concrete wall and her eyes opened wide in shock and pain, choking on her own blood as it gargled out of her throat. Her feeble grip around the dark extension coiled around her throat came off and the girl, blinded and overwhelmed with pain, fell against the wall and stared ahead with a vacant gaze but her assailant did not have a shred of mercy in her-

The dark appendage dragged the motionless persona user along the ground and lifted a limp Fuuka by her neck, picking a few feet off the ground and she hung defenseless right in front of her doom. The support persona user briefly came to her senses and saw her own reflection in the red orbs burning amongst the primordial darkness, pulsing with hatred and insanity, with no shade of humanity. A shimmer of darkness in her peripheral was a sign that her life was coming to a close and Hamuko focused on her neck, prepared to crush her throat and end her life-

"Stop it!"

A loud voice pierced through the air and did Hamuko stop, lowering the defenseless female to the ground when she sensed someone else in the vicinity; a child who had found the courage to yell and divert her attention-

Ken was winded and struggling to catch air as he stood in the open, clutching his injured left arm that had worsened with the shove from Fuuka but he knew for a fact that if she had not pushed him to safety, he would have suffered far, far worse. Fuuka herself was on the ground, paralyzed and bleeding out of her mouth and as much as Ken wanted to rush over and heal her, he could not— not with the entity standing between them-

"Hamuko-san…" Ken struggled to even look at what she had become, feeling goosebumps race throughout his body as even staring at her took a lot of willpower and courage. Hamuko had released Fuuka from her grip and now focused solely on Ken and for the first time since her transformation, Amada was able to see.

Her facial features had not changed much but she looked far more menacing than she ever did as the expression on her face was absolutely pitiless, like she stood without a soul and existed just to cause death and misery. Her complexion had darkened slightly, and her red eyes were more pronounced and eerie, glowing with an unsettling intensity, unblinking and staring right into his spirit but the most striking change had happened to her body.

Her body was layered with dark mist, and a coat of black matter shimmered along her outline, giving her an otherworldly, sinister appearance. The extensions and appendages that she had used to attack Mitsuru and crumble the floor rose from within the darkness that had accumulated around her frame and simply staring at the mass of filth made Ken dizzy-

The moment he blinked in confusion, Hamuko locked her gaze on his neck; capturing the boy with a darkened limb that materialized from the darkness and snatched his throat at lighting speed. Ken attempted to resist in futility and was sent crashing through the door of the classroom,eliciting a harsh yell of pain that echoed in the now empty hallways-

Aware that the child was knocked unconscious, Hamuko returned her attention to Fuuka who had risen to her feet, still coughing out blood and looking a second away from passing out again. Fuuka made no attempt to defend herself when Hamuko turned in her direction, aware that she was powerless to do anything. All she could was pray and-

"Please, Hamuko," the battered female uttered, lip quivering when she recounted the dreadful day. They did not even get the opportunity to mourn Minato and now they were here, trapped in the school with an astoundingly powerful entity that was once their friend, now lost and corrupted. They had no chance of subduing her so Fuuka kept pleading, hoping that her words would reach Hamuko but the possessed redhead spared no thought to her pleading and marched towards her with slow steps, a sharp tentacle rising from the darkness around her body-

Fuuka noted that she was not stopping and chuckled under her breath, removing her hand from her bleeding mouth and standing upright because she knew this was the end. With Yukari and Mitsuru dead, Ken unconscious and the rest of her friends headed towards the hospital, she was alone and she did not have a prayer of doing anything to Hamuko-

"ISIS!"

The shout came from her left side and it was followed by a loud roar of buffeting wind, diverting Hamuko's attention away from Fuuka who ducked at once, narrowly avoiding the gales of wind that engulfed the redhead and trapped her in a massive storm of green. The tornado quickly grew twice in size and shattered through the roof of the school but-

Hamuko was not injured one bit by the winds and she looked at the brunette from within the green cyclone, barely cognizant of the fact that she was trapped inside and she stood right in the middle, not even blinking as she eyed her newest target who stood a few yards away, at the end of the hallway.

Yukari coughed out blood and rubbed her now purple throat to relieve some of the brutal pain. She remembered bits and pieces before she passed out; Hamuko, or whatever had possessed her, attacked on the rooftop and choked her until she passed out due. Even now, Yukari was not sure what she was doing facing off someone as powerful as what Hamuko had become but the moment she woke up from hearing Ken scream, she got up to her feet and raced down as fast as she could-

A glimmer of light in the cyclone made Yukari duck and the coat of darkness Hamuko exploded outwards, overwhelming and dismissing the hurricane around her and the wild card stepped out unharmed, still gazing at the brunette who was now sitting down, sweating because the stare of death was now on her-

"Fuuka, take Ken and run!" Yukari ordered the teal haired girl who was struggling to stand up and dodged the first appendage headed her way, being faster than both Fuuka and Ken and accustomed to battle. She escaped to the right side and narrowly avoided a swing from above, feeling the whiplash of the missed attack on her back-

Hamuko closed the distance between them in an instant and the archer froze in her tracks, blinded by the surge of darkness and fear. She tried to time and dodge the rush but Hamuko was much faster and immediately wrapped her hand around the throat of the shorter girl, bringing her down to her knees-

Yukari struggled but began to fade quickly, her arms lowering in surrender and she was smashed into the pavement with one hand, denting the floor from the impact and eliciting a muffled shout from the brunette-

Red eyes widened at the shout and a hint of discomfort flickered across the features of the corrupted persona user. The hand around Yukari's throat went up and grasped her by the skull, growling lowly as the archer saw her own, terrified reflection in the ruby orbs shining above her-

CRACK-

With no remorse, Hamuko lifted the brunette off the ground and smashed the back of her head against the pavement at full force, drenching her hand in red as Yukari hacked out blood, kicking her legs in one last act of desperation-

SMASH-

A rib cracked and broke off from the impact this time and Yukari started losing her vision, her two hands trying to wrestle away the grip that was still locked around her head but Hamuko was not deterred by the puny resistance and picked her off the ground for the final blow and the archer dangled lifelessly from her grip, absolutely brutalized but a second before she completely passed out, her ears registered a series of sounds progressing from the floor below-

Footsteps-

Thunderous footsteps towards the third floor-

Sho was the first one to step to emerge on the third floor and even the battle-hardened persona user who thirsted for a fight took a step back when he realized the destruction wrought on the school. Fuuka was leaning against the wall and barely conscious while the kid, Ken, was nowhere to be found. And just straight ahead-

Sho couldn't believe his eyes at first and he took a couple of steps forward, and so did the other three persona users, just as shocked as the redheaded male who had led them inside. At the far end of the third floor hallway was Yukari, her pink cardigan matted in the blood leaking from the back of her head and spilling under her feet in a puddle and the enemy who had done this to her-

"Hamuko…?" Akihiko blinked to make sure that he wasn't hallucinating and the gruesome remained just as clear, not fading away like an illusion. Hamuko still held a semi-consciousness Yukari up in the air by a single hand but having noticed the group of teenagers on the other side, she paused the assault on the brunette and turned her head to look at them-

"S-Shit." the chill of her stare and the absolute malice emitting from the wild card was just as bad as Ryoji and Junpei had a hard time holding her gaze. She did not blink a single time and kept looking at her, head tilted in an angel unnatural for the human anatomy and and after a bit more contemplation, Hamuko hurled an injured Yukari to the side and marked the new comers as her next victims-

Sho called upon his persona the moment he saw her turn in their direction, unleashing a tidal wave of darkness to cover the floor and obscure her view and the mass of black came crashing down, layering everything in pitch black darkness, everything but-

"No way," Sho gawked when he saw her red eyes still shining just as brightly and eerily in the shadows, gazing at him with a lot of rage, a hint of curiosity as she considered his strength nothing more than a minor annoyance, that much was evident from her gaze and Sho swallowed thickly, his own persona backing down momentarily because the writing was on the wall. From that little demonstration alone, Sho understood that Hamuko was far above him, Aigis, everyone else, even combined and they had absolutely no chance in beating her.

This felt like the Nyx battle all over again and this time, they didn't have Minato with them-

The darkness that he had summoned wrapped under her will and Hamuko willed the mass towards herself with a mere gesture, outstretching her right palm and collecting every last bit of the darkness into a dense, pulsing sphere of black energy that now floated in her palm, a mere toy for the strongest persona user in the world who had no equal anywhere in sight-

Hamuko shattered the sphere in her palm and flicked her wrist in the direction of the four, discharging a tidal wave of darkness that was twice bigger than what Sho had summoned from the depths of his soul, and thrice as damaging-

Sho planted his feet to endure the attack but the other three were not prepared and they suffered, with Akihiko and Junpei getting blown backwards while Aigis dropped to her knees and dug her fingers into the floor to keep herself from getting swept away by the crushing, almost debilitating wave-

Sho heard the pained cries of his team mates behind him and rushed, hoping to gain her attention and allow them a chance to recover. He did not draw out his blades and only buffed up his fists, hoping to somehow land a lucky blow and knock her unconscious and a thought popped up in his head, blurring his vision momentarily-

"Heh, Minato is gonna kill me for this…" Sho chuckled bitterly and curled his right hand into a fist, torqued all his body weight towards his wrist and as soon as he closed the distance on the wild card, he threw the punch from his hip and Hamuko stood waiting, unguarded and her jaw open at the perfect angle for a knockout blow-

THUD-

The sound of impact was followed by a resounding CRACK—

Sho's heart skipped a beat as he feared he had shattered her jaw but the jolt of pain radiating from his now-broken knuckles pulled him back to reality and his stomach twisted, making him gulp. Despite the strike that he launched with as much power he could muster, he realized with horror that Hamuko's expression remained unchanged and while his knuckles were dug into her cheek and her face had slightly moved to the left, the female had not suffered a single bruise-

Her neutral, stoic expression twisted momentarily when she registered the impact and his knuckles pressed against her face. The pain was insignificant, no more than a bug bite but the impassive visage deepened to a scowl and her throat quivered momentarily, a lump forming in the middle-

Hamuko, fueled by the hate and madness of her persona, let loose another maddening scream from her darkened vocal cords, draining the color from Sho's face as he was right beside her and the scream alone nearly knocked him out, twisting his vision out of focus and bringing him down to a knee.

It didn't end, even when he collapsed to the ground. Hamuko only deepened the force behind her screamand the tone had devolved, much more ferocious and heavy from her usual voice, and even more terrible than the last shout that was heard across the school-

Sho looked up the moment the volume lessened and did not see what struck him on the face and knocked him down. It was either a punch or a blow from hell; he was a little to dazed to know for sure but the blow hurt like hell and floored him instantaneously-

Hamuko stepped up to the downed persona user and the cloak of darkness had doubled in volume, almost burning with black flames. She eyed the redheaded male with hate and raised her fist in the air, preparing to take his life-

Sho shot up at once, in a last attempt to subdue her and locked his hands around her wrist, trying to restrain her but he was swiftly overpowered and half a dozen appendages exploded out of the cloak of darkness around her, wrapping around his limbs and propelling him in the air, several feet above the ground. He kicked and tried to wrench his limbs free and Hamuko swiftly brought him down, crashing him head first against the pavement with no remorse-

The floor cracked slightly and the male groaned, feeling a wound open up in the back of his head but the little noise he made sent Hamuko into another berserk rage and the dark extensions around his limb tightened before Hamuko started smashing him into the nearby walls at full force-

The right, and then the left, and each collision echoed in the empty hallway as Sho smacked into solid concrete over and over again, nonstop and as durable as he was, Sho lost his consciousness halfway through and Hamuko, having noticed that he had passed out, crashed his unconscious frame into the pavement again, spreading the prominent crack longer and deeper.

Akihiko, Junpei and Aigis rushed at her, having recovered from the attack earlier and tackled her away from Sho who was dangerously close to death. The three persona users exerted as much as force as they could manage but Hamuko was only pushed a few steps backwards and she came to a quick stop, not budging as inch as if she was glued to the ground-

Junpei was flung to the side. Akihiko was knocked on his back, and that left Aigis alone in dealing with Hamuko and the android endured the first blow, wincing in pain but she remained standing, trying her hardest to drag Hamuko to the ground so she could suppress her rampage but empowered by her wicked persona, Hamuko grasped her neck with a single hand and slammed her into pavement below, momentarily paralyzing her system due to damage-

Aigis looked up with a gasp and saw someone she had once sworn to protect but now Hamuko looked as vile as any shadow, and just as ruthless and cruel as Ryoji did when she faced him in December. Ryoji was the only shadow capable of making her feel fear but Hamuko had accomplished that well, making the android tremble as the unrecognizable wild card towered above her, several more extensions emerging from the cloak to dismantle her-

Junepi rushed from the side and pushed the female away, saving Aigis from doom but he was not able to maintain his hold around Hamuko, his fingers losing strength as the dread and sorrow drowned his senses and the might of his persona. He managed a look back and Aigis was still on the floor, attempting to get up and forced himself to stall her for a few more seconds-

A crippling, dull blow to his chest from the shadows sent the capped persona user soaring away and Hamuko sprinted when she saw Aigis attempting to crawl away, not allowing her to escape to safety and immediately pounced on her-

A cold hand gripped Aigis by her face and held her down and to her horror, Hamuko started clawing her throat with her free hand, drawn to the two plumes of dusk stored in her papillon heart. Hamuko had easily crushed through the metal protecting the side of her neck and Aigis panicked, static and jumbled up numbers drowning her vision as she began to pant, thrashing as hard as she could to get Hamuko off her but the redhead brushed off her attempt and eyed the faint glow of the plume stored along the android's neck-

The moment she even touched it, Aigis, driven to the brink of ultimate demise, summoned as a survival reflex and her her evolved persona, Athena, materialized above, the golden spear loaded and aimed for the head of the wild card-

"Trismegistus!"

"Caesar!"

"Tsukuyomi!"

Blue mist flooded the corridors of the third floor as the other three teenagers, battered and out of options, called upon their personas to aid them and the triple summoning finally brought Hamuko to a halt and she retracted her hand from Aigis to stare first at Athena, and then at the other three personas who had surrounded her.

Aigis got to her feet and her right eye was blank, the circuits connecting the sensors to her main system fractured from the damage and she was clutching her exposed neck with her right hand, panting not just from the exhaustion but from the terror as well. She was a second away from losing everything and if Hamuko had succeeded in ripping out her papillon heart, not even the scientists at the Kirijo Group would have been able to bring her back.

Akihiko, Sho and Junpei appeared beside her, all three of them busted up and fatigued from the short scuffle but the female ahead of them did not have a single bruise on her. Hamuko was still staring at the four incredibly powerful personas around her but after a while, she tilted her neck to face the direction of the four teenagers and the corner of her mouth twitched in anticipation-

The four personas rushed on command, without weapons and spells, only to subdue the rampaging persona user but even with the four massive entities coming down on her head, Hamuko did not look bothered in the least. The cloak around her bubbled, the edges burning with wispy dark flames and the wild card raised a single hand in the direction of the group-

Sho saw the chaotic pulse of darkness around her frame and his stopped dead in his tracks because he knew what was coming-

Death.

"Take over!" the informal leader of the group shouted over the roars of the personas and a second later, the cloak around Hamuko exploded outwards in a cataclysmic burst of dark energy that spared no one, bringing ruin to everything around her. The rushing personas were crushed to mist and static and the users were in no shape and far too slow to take cover-

The destructive wave of dark matter crashed into them with a vicious amount of force and hurled them off their feet, silencing their pained screams and completely drowning them in darkness. The surroundings walls were decimated from the shockwave and the entire building wobbled, threatening to fall apart and the floor below cracked and splintered under the immense strain, unable to bear the sheer power unleashed by Hamuko and with a deafening crash, the already devastated pavement gave way entirely and the persona users plummeted once again-

Sho remembered falling from the third floor but the descent seemed never-ending and the accompanying wreckage, wrought by that ruinous explosion was immense; concrete, marble, stone, wood and coffins carrying human bodies, all of it, weighing a no less than a ton came crashing down along with the humans and Sho knew his body had endured more than one collision because his spine was mangled and while he thought of yelling and asking the others whether they were okay, he couldn't-

His vision-

"Ugh…" debris, dust and blood was all that he could see as gravity pulled his broken body towards the ground and he knew, as tough as he was, the moment he was going to hit the ground, his organs were going to explode and he was going to die a gruesome death-

"Minato…" Sho remembered his former rival who somehow became his best friend and as he plunged to his death, surrounded by waste and dust, his right eye stung momentarily but eased up immediately after as a single tear escaped the corner and Sho murmured-

"I'm sorry, man…."

"I can't stop her…"

"I can't save her…"

The burning sensation came back to his eyes and Sho choked back on the wail, knowing that he had failed him, the world he had sacrificed himself for, and Hamuko-

"I'm not the savior that you are…"

Something nasty hit him on the head and his memory faded out but he did hear something interesting as he blackened-

"Oracle!"

---

The senseless destruction she had caused soothed the amalgamation of death and shadow that Hamuko had become but only momentarily because despite the infernal uproar from the explosion, implosion and impact, the wild card definitely heard and felt the emergence of a persona in the shadows, somewhere away and safe from her range.

Hamuko touched down on the ground floor of the school, completely unscathed from the explosion earlier and she started looking around for their dead bodies immediately, more annoyance plastered on her face because she did not find a single bloody corpse of theirs amongst the untold levels of debris, filth and death.

Every single one of those pests were alive and still breathing before her eyes.

Akihiko was still out of breath and briefly wondered if he had landed in afterlife because there was no way he, or even Aigis were going to survive the bad fall from the third floor, to the ground floor, without divine intervention but here was, gravely injured no doubt but not in as bad of a condition as he expected. The boxer had made peace with his death as he plummeted all the way from above but he sat on the pile of debris, very much alive.

Junpei was next to him and wondering the same thing. How on earth did they survive? It wasn't just a freak occurrence because all four; him, Akihiko, Aigis and Sho had lived through what should have been a mortal fall.

Aigis knew what had saved them. In the last second, she heard a certain someone calling upon her persona and praying for them. She also witnessed a golden flash of light up in the air and it was followed by a warm wave of energy that healed some of her wounds and fortified her body enough that she was able to handle the collision.

Sho stood up, aware that Hamuko was standing opposite to them and a careless gander was going to be painful but he looked around to search for his savior. A small part of him was certain of the fact that somehow, Minato had returned from the dead like the bastard always did and he was the one responsible for helping them but his savior was already on the floor with them, and she was not Minato.

Fuuka dismissed Juno and exhaled rapidly, the little miracle taking a lot out of her but she was supported to remain standing by Yukari and Ken, the two healers who had done their part. The two females and one kid drew a hiss from Hamuko but she did not lunge at them just yet because there was one last persona user who had yet to reveal themselves-

Mitsuru Kirijo emerged from behind the three of them, the one responsible for gathering the other three persona users who were mauled and put out of commission by Hamuko. She first rescued and brought Yukari back to life, then Ken and finally Fuuka. When the floor collapsed and their friends plummeted towards their demise, the remaining four persona users unleashed whatever healing spells they had, their effort amplified and bolstered by the prayers of Juno.

"Mitsuru," Akihiko was relieved to see her alive, as badly messed up as the rest of them but she was standing on her two feet, eyes fixed and glaring at the possessed wild card for what she had done to the school.

In that moment, Akihiko did spare a glance at the surroundings and a lump formed in his throat when he realized that he was surrounded by not only wastage and broken pieces of concrete but-

"Dead bodies…?" Aigis clasped her mouth in horror and disgust, the gore before absolutely nauseous and putrid because every inch of the floor was drenched in blood and the hallway was littered with broken coffins and dead bodies of the unfortunate students and teachers who were caught in the ungodly rampage.

The school was on its last leg, the entire structure nearly crippled and on the brink of collapse but the residents of the school, the students and the teachers who had lost their lives was what truly pushed Mitsuru over the edge. The experiment conducted by the Kirijo Group years ago had ruined so many lives and this massacre was no different, and just as inhumane and cruel as what her grandfather orchestrated. Today, there were even more victims and the monster responsible for yet another dark chapter in the history of Iwaotdai was a lone girl.

Weaponless and far from fully healed, Mitsuru still trudged her way towards Akihiko and his group, and the three persona users she had saved; Yukari, Fuuka and Ken, followed after her, all under the watchful stare of Hamuko who simply waited for the eight persona users to gather up and together, eight of them standing side by side, they found a measure of hope in the bleak situation.

Another glance at the dead bodies and the broken state of the school enraged Mitsuru and the heiress faced the direction of her junior, and the remaining persona users followed her gaze and Hamuko stared back at them with her cold, unblinking stare, showing no remorse or pity for what she had done.

Mitsuru was about to issue the order to kill. After what Hamuko had done, the heiress was prepared to forgo their old friendship and take her life if it meant stopping her. The command was on the tip of her tongue; forget that she was ever a friend, attack with the intent to kill and take her life, just as she had taken the life of so many others but just before she could open her mouth, someone from behind her spoke up.

"H-Hey…" Sho cut her off and brushed past her to end up at the front and unlike Mitsuru, he was not glaring at Hamuko with festering hatred or contemplating killing her because he had noticed something off. His voice was low and raspy, likely in an attempt to mask his sorrow because he was the first one to notice-

"Is… Is she crying…?"

Sho's words hung in the air, casting a momentary silence over the chaotic scene and his question even made Mitsuru think for a second. Everyone's gaze shifted from Sho to Hamuko and while her face had darkened and obscured even further, the grief was unmistakable.

Hamuko's face, despite its cold, stoic expression and the dark shade of a berserk goddess, was stained with tears. They ran in silent streams down her cheeks, contrasting sharply with the insanity and bloodlust that had fueled her rampage and for a second, the group of eight persona users forgot all about their bodily pain and suffering and remembered who they had lost.

Minato's death was a loss they all suffered and their grief was aggravated by regret and shame for how they had treated him, the person who had saved them, in the last month of his life. It was a sin none of them was ever going to forget or forgive themselves for but their grief, even combined, was insignificant compared to the misery Hamuko had gone through and Mitsuru knew that a part of her; her heart and soul had died along with him.

They had lost a dear friend but Hamuko had lost her world and those silent tears, even with her soul tainted and corrupted, were proof that somewhere in the maelstrom of hatred and bloodlust, a part of Hamuko, a little shred of her remaining humanity was still grieving and her sorrow was so absolute that it escaped the overwhelming darkness of her persona-

Or was her persona grieving along with her?

Everyone behind her silently lamented the situation and Mitsuru's resolve faltered, her shoulders slumping as the command to kill died in her throat. The sight of Hamuko crying, even subconsciously, made the heiress grimace and her rage dwindled. Not even 3 months ago, the girl before her had died over and over again, in the face of the apocalypse that was fated to end the world, and now, she had lost the love of her life who had died in her arms not even fifteen minutes ago.

Mitsuru glanced back at her and noticed even more tracks of silent tears on her face, and the heiress gave a bitter sob herself.

Dark, red and but now a little blurry; Hamuko's vision filtered out the chaos and filth around her and focused solely on the persona users, those with a pulse. The eight people standing opposite to her, alive and breathing, pissed her off and she considered their existence a cruel slap to the face and a personal insult. They were injured, battered, had lost quite a lot and would never be the same again but they were still standing, breathing air, living life and had a future, however bleak it may be.

Why? Why were they still alive? She was able to endure three or four of them at one time but all eight of them, standing together, was simply too much to bear. That haunting, insulting question of why, why, why, echoed throughout her mind and tears she didn't even realize she was shedding began to blur her vision.

Why were these sons of bitches blessed with the gift of life when the messiah had bled to his death in her arms?

Where were they when he rose to face Nyx on the promised day? All they did was beg and pray to the gods like the helpless sheep that they were and in the end, their prayers didn't amount to shit because HE WAS GONE.

They stood whimpering and crying out in pain but their wounds were nothing compared to his, their suffering laughable compared to what he endured. He had every bone in his body broken, had lost countless gallons of blood and had to crawl his way through miles of shit the moment he awakened to his persona and suffered till his last breath.

Hamuko balled her hand into a fist and gazed at their already broken bodies but there were still so many bones to break, so many limbs to dismember and such an ample amount of blood to spill across the blasted soil of the world that took Minato away from her and so much death left to cause.

They stood united while she stood alone. They were breathing while he had stopped. THEY WERE ALIVE WHILE HE WAS DEAD.

"All…" Hamuko managed to growl, her deformed vocal cords deepening her voice to that of a cruel god-

The cloak now covered her entire being, from her shoulders to her legs in a dark, hazy aura. The darkness coiled around her doubled in volume and flared up akin to the unforgiving flames of hell, burning the little oxygen present in the now accursed school, littered with corpses and stained with needless death but for Hamuko, this was divine providence. .

If he had died then no one else in the world deserved life and for that reason…

"A-All shall perish…"

They all had to die-

She was going to bring death to the world until she was finally satiated-

And when she was done suffocating mother earth with death and bathing the planet in blood, she was going to take her own life.

She did not deserve life.

No one did anymore.

On March 5th 2010, it was decided. On the day she lost him, humanity forfeited the blessing to live.

"All must fall…"

The final drop of unrepentant sadness traveled down her cheek and disappeared into the void and the look in her red eyes shifted, signaling the end and Mitsuru, after minutes of contemplation, made up her mind as well.

"Everyone…Bring her down…." the heiress ordered, evoking blue mist from under her feet and calling upon her persona. The seven other personas users followed the leader of SEES and the gods and demons emerged from the depths of their souls, ready for the final battle that seemed just as hopeless as the one on the promised day.

They outnumbered her eight to one, even sixteen to one yet had a snowball chance of hell in winning the battle. Despite near-certain loss and death, Mitsuru made one thing perfectly clear to her comrades.

"But don't kill her…."

The ground rumbled and broke apart as the numerous gods and demons heeded the call and the combined charge evoked a shockwave that leveled and razed the ground floor; fire, ice, lightning and darkness spreading havoc and they all rushed at the lone girl standing across from them, outnumbered and alone against a stampede of behemoths but while the ground rumbled and shattered under their might, Hamuko was not budging an inch and eyed the incoming wave as if they were lowly insects.

The aura around her blazed with a loud screech and the air itself around her cried out with dark energy when the wild card rose a single hand towards the pantheon headed her way and her already deadly presence intensified. For the first time, her eyes blinked and the red orbs cloaked by darkness shone a bright gold, her tainted soul evoking the pinnacle of her limitless strength-

"Come forth…"

A potent shockwave from the shadows halted the impending wave of personas, their frames flickering in and out of existence and the teenagers behind them stood stock-still, every single one shivering as with one swift motion, Hamuko had completely derailed the little sliver of hope they had managed and even from far away, they saw her lips move and heard what she had called forth-

"Nyx…"

Even with so much chaos and dissonance between them, the persona users heard the name she uttered clearly, sinking their souls as that was a name they thought they would never hear again. Nyx. The goddess of the night sky who was destined to bring death to the world and hearing that name again was a chilling reminder of the apocalypse they had barely survived. The faint ray of hope they had found amongst each other faded and the cold fear of impending death settled hung over them, a dread they felt down to their bones.

The shadows surroundings Hamuko burst apart in a violent explosion of dark matter and a sea of darkness exploded outwards; limitless and never-ending, pulsing and withering as if it was living and breathing and as soon as Hamuko summoned her ultimate persona, the entire school building drowned in mist and shadow. Nyx's mere existence was an all-encompassing void, a vast chasm of dark energy that swallowed the light and hope from the world, like a black hole festering in reality and with one gesture; a flick of her fingers, she called forth another dark apocalypse-

The tidal wave of darkness swallowed the eight mythical entities, easily crushing them to bits and pieces and the teenagers, already blinded and paralyzed amongst the darkness, could only brace themselves because they knew a wave of destruction was headed their way and while they muttered every support buff they know for each other, a few casualties were inevitable-

The wave of primordial darkness collided against the group of eight with sickening force and whatever pain and terror they voiced was silenced in the shadows, not a single whimper escaping the all-encompassing void. Fuuka, who had barely held onto her senses, knew a few of her friends were knocked out. She heard two strangled screams that were quickly silenced and desperately tried to activate Juno to figure out who-

SMASH-

The shockwave of darkness did not stop at the teenagers and broke through, shattering the main entrance of the school to dust and mist and the remainder of the darkness flooded outside, seeping across the school ground and among the debris and dust, two unconscious bodies were hurled out of the entrance, the first two victims-

"Yukari!"

"Ken!"

Fuuka was the first to know and her voice echoed in the lobby of the school, sending the remaining five persona users into a frenzied panic. The crippling attack came to an end a second later and Akihiko immediately looked back to make sure and he saw the two healers of the team; Ken and Yukari passed out on the school grounds, unmoving and definitely out of the battle.

Mitsuru was unable to catch her breath even when the torture came to an end. She was a spectator to the last battle Hamuko fought against Ryoji and while she had an idea of what sort of power she had come to wield, nothing could have prepared her for this. How could a person, a persona user even, command such an otherworldly force of destruction?

Not even Minato was capable of chaos on such a ridiculous scale and after that little demonstration, Mitsuru was left wondering; what could they even do?

Hamuko was standing at the exact same place; amidst the encroaching void, her figure barely visible against the backdrop of Nyx's darkness, almost blending in with the shadows as they continued to fester and proliferate throughout the building. The two healers were out of the battle and she raised the same hand towards the remaining six, forcing them to move-

Aigis, Akihiko, Junpei and Sho bolted upon the command of Mitsuru who stood behind and enchanted their attributes with as many support spells as she could manage, and gritted her teeth, hoping and praying that her spells would make a difference-

Instead of crushing them outright with another deadly shockwave, Hamuko allowed them to come close and walked right into their range. A slew of punches, slashes and bullets were thrown her way and she easily avoided each attempt, effortlessly seeing through their movement no matter how coordinated they were and after a few seconds of futile resistance, they were already beginning to slow down, struggling to catch their breath and Hamuko retaliated; stomping on the ground and evoking another blinding explosion of death and shadow-

The four stood no chance in escaping and barely endured the collision, toppling over and withering under the weight of darkness until Sho powered his way out and bolted towards the unbeatable persona user, tightening his grip around his swords and a soon as he got close, he swung for her limbs-

Hamuko deflected and parried the attempts with a darkened hand and Sho hissed, noticing that his blades were starting to crack while her hand did not suffer a single bruise. A wide miss made Hamuko step back and she clicked her fingers, commanding the darkness behind her-

A dozen spikes exploded out of the shadows on the ground, forcing Sho to deflect the torrent of slashes with his blades but he was getting pushed back, and barely stood his ground until a gash on his leg knocked him down to a knee and forced him to jump to the side to avoid further damage-

Bullets breezed past her, fired by Aigis to get her to back off and Hamuko looked at her, frowning slightly when the other two males rushed at her from the sides, both summoning their personas and discharging streams of red and blue-

The void around her reacted instantaneously, swallowing and the extinguishing the bolt of lightning and the streak of flames before imploding in the direction of the two personas, ensuing another tide gloom that leveled the area and flung the four persona towards far away-

Slice-

A frosty blade cleaved through the expanse of murk and Mitsuru, wielding Sho's blade, stood in front of her, alone and quivering in her boots but the heiress faced her without shying away and held out her other arm as her friends tried to recover behind her.

Mitsuru recognized that look of hate all too well, far more spiteful than usual and she knew why. The blade in her hand trembled but not just due to fear but due to shame and she briefly lowered her weapon, struggling to speak due to shame-

"I-I'm sorry," Mitsuru choked out, aware why Hamuko looked especially disgusted by her. She had the blood of a Kirijo and her family stood at the inception of this horrible chapter that ultimately resulted in the death of Minato. The Kirijo Group was to blame for releasing Death into the world and that mistake culminated in the loss of Minato.

The apology only served to aggravate the hate in her eyes and Mitsuru fumbled over her next few words, her common sense and persona screaming at her to refrain from speaking further but the heiress had her own sorrow to get off her chest as she held herself completely responsible for what happened to-

"I'm sorry for what I did to your family…" Mitsuru admitted, raising her blade as Hamuko prepared to attack, raising the shadows behind her with a simple gesture of her finger and the stifling void towered over the older female, casting a cold presence that even she could not endure but even with her teeth clattering, Mitsuru continued, a self-loathing sob breaking out of her when she finally spoke his name-

"I'm sorry for what I did to Minato…"

His name, dared spoken by a Kirijo, startled Hamuko for a few seconds and the pillar she had summoned melted into the ground, the surrounding gloom flickering and threatening to fade as the wild card struggled to contain the rage mounting in her head. Mitsuru winced at the scream that erupted out of her throat, directed entirely at her and laced with so much hatred and vengeance that Mitsuru took a step back but she yelled as loud as she could-

"He's watching you right now!" the older redhead was able to reach her and Hamuko immediately lashed out to silence her-

Mitsuru sidestepped the shadowy limb aimed for her neck and sliced through the second one that came her way, gaining a little bit of space to move and she ran laterally but Hamuko was onto her, commanding her darkness to cripple her-

More and more shadowy extensions emerged from the void around Hamuko, aimed at the heiress but Mitsuru managed to dodge each one, and stood her ground when Hamuko screeched at her-

"And this is the last thing he wants to see!"

A terrifying gleam of malevolence shone in her right eye and a blast of cold aura sent Kirijo crashing against the wall behind her, stiff and unable to move but even with her body locked up and failing on her, Mitsuru maintained the gaze with a look of defiance, eyes glazed with tears and regret-

Hamuko hissed when she caught her tearing up, enraged at the fact that she had the gall to shed tears after all that she had done and put them through. The building quaked in response to her rage and Mitsuru was not able to avoid the next tendril, a shadowy hand that found a grip around her throat and smashed the back of her head into the wall-

The growl of hatred from the wild card did not go unnoticed by Mitsuru and the heiress started to struggle as Hamuko lumbered her way over to where she was bound, more and more limbs emerging from the void behind her and locking onto her arms and legs until she was completely restrained and powerless-

Hamuko stopped next to her and Mitsuru sucked in a deep breath, face turning purple as the grip around her neck was already bad but with the wild card standing so close, her lungs began to smolder and Hamuko reached out a single hand towards her face, pressing a cold thumb against her right eye-

A few blood vessels popped just by contact and Mitsuru widened her other eye, desperately struggling to free her limbs and escape because she knew what Hamuko was intending to do; blind her and the remorseless expression on her face did not twitch one bit as she pressed her other thumb over the opposite eye, darkening her vision-

"Persona!"

A collective shout, followed a burst of elements and physical force collided against her side, forcing her to release the hold around Mitsuru and take a few steps backwards but she dispelled the fusion spell with minimal effort and looked towards the four pests with a frown, her right hand already darkened and the shadows behind her coiling under her will-

"Artemisia!"

Hamuko sidestepped the whip and her ears caught the call of the other three, their personas rushing at her in rapid succession. The shadows behind her unfurled into a barrage of fast-paced strikes and slashes, catching the incoming personas with deadly accuracy and Hamuko command a final burst to wipe the annoyances out of her sight-

"Evoking Oracle!"

A storm of golden light from the sky caught Hamuko off-guard and the personas survived through the lashings, their battered forms phasing through the solid hits and fading to mist; red melding into blue and shredding through the shadowy limbs as a purple bolt of nature, welded by fire, thunder and ice-

Hamuko planted her lead foot against the ground and halted the storm of nature with a single hand but her palm vibrated in response to the collision and her eyes widened in annoyance. The buff from Fuuka had considerably enhanced what should have been a trivial attack but with a bit more effort and focus, Hamuko began to disintegrate the combined effort of the group but her teeth were gritted and her hand began to quiver slightly, further pissing her off-

"Explode!"

The sphere of nature detonated against her palm, into streaks of red and blue and the outburst of heat, fire and thunder forced her to take a step back, vision slightly obscured as she struggled to see through the columns of red, blue and yellow. Her palm was charred from the explosion and while it didn't hurt much, her broken mind was screaming at her to search and kill the humans and for a split second, her psyche blanked out and Hamuko had a small lapse of concentration-

Slice-

The purple veil was cleaved in half and the sound came from her side, making her twist in the direction and from the corner of her eye, she caught a glint of silver and moved back-

A sting seared her on the cheek and Hamuko located Mitsuru in her vision, having just missed a slash that would have been a debilitating blow if it had connected. Hamuko had avoided the attempt by the skin of her teeth but Mitsuru matched her movement and swung her right hand for her face-

Slap-

Hamuko finally blinked-

Drip-

The hard slap to the face was followed by pain, actual pain that spread across one side of her face and was bad enough to squeeze out a few drops of blood from the shallow wound. The wild card staggered backwards, mind muddled and blank for a few seconds as she found it hard to comprehend; Mitsuru had opened up a wound and to add insult to injury, had slapped her across the face.

Minor pain but absolute rage twisted her features as she glared daggers at the female in front of her who was panting, eyes still teary and her breath still hitched in her throat but for once, Mitsuru did not display an ounce of fear even when she was glaring at her, the blade in her grip now spoiled with a fresh drop of her blood-

Hamuko hissed through her teeth and looked around, blinking rapidly as her persona began screaming and screeching to kill them all. She located Fuuka, surrounded by her persona and cursed her out for her intervention. The others stood around her, still looking at her, still breathing air and STILL ALIVE-

Minato had stopped breathing a while ago but these cretins, who amounted to nothing and were a waste of life and potential, were still alive and every second they were allowed to exist, every breath they took while he had stopped breathing long ago, was a travesty of the highest order but no more-

NO MORE-

They were going to die-

That persona of hers, Nyx, whispered into her ear, screeching backwards but every word made sense to Hamuko and for a second, she just listened and sought solace in her word that promised death and destruction for all-

They all had to die right now-

"For Minato…"

The persona intoned into her corner of her psyche, voice resonating with Hamuko's and creating a harmony of destruction that lulled the redhead into the darkest corner of her psyche, tainting the last spiritual atom of her soul and leaving a burning mark of hatred for everything living and breathing-

"All must perish…"

Mitsuru saw Hamuko visibly tremble for a second, fearing that she was going to burst into a hellish explosion and destroy the entire city but she settled down and closed her eyes while her legs kept shivering, more and more shadows seeping from under her feet and building into the mass of darkness around her-

Mitsuru jumped back when Hamuko's eyes flared with an unholy golden light, her mouth curling into a snarl as she threw her hands out to either side and snarled at her, cursing her, her disgusting friends and the filthy world for allowing them to live and breathe but no more, absolutely NO MORE-

The very air around her began to warp and bend, a dark vortex spiraling outwards as shadows coalesced and swirled at her command and Hamuko dug her feet into the ground and channeled every last bit of her nearly bottomless spiritual energy into her ultimate persona, begging her to drown the school, the city, even the world in her all-consuming darkness-

Her cheek rippled and the fresh wound along her cheek began to bleed black, her internal organs burning with dark flames as her persona began to emerge once again, casting the same, dreadful, inescapable sensation of absolute doom over those still conscious. Mitsuru had faltered and her other friends had subconsciously taken a couple of steps backwards, the fear bolting them to the ground and stopping every train of thought-

"I summon you!"

As a bead of sweat rolled down her temple, Mitsuru gave a grim chuckle and readied her blade, in foolish resistance because her junior, who had far surpassed even Minato in strength and summoning, drew on every last bit of strength in the very last drop of blood and for a second, Mitsuru's persona, even with its limited support capabilities, heard the ground and the sky howl in fear-

Or maybe that was the screaming of her terrified heart and soul, begging her to run away but Mitsuru refused to and met her eyes with the rest of her friend's. All of them were terrified but much like her, they refused to run away, bound by a promise they did not even need to convey.

Save the world.

Save the world Minato had protected.

No matter what-

"NYX!"

Hamuko's entire body flashed white for a split second, contrasting sharply with the black hell she stood in the middle of and Mitsuru snapped her eyes shut, afraid that the flash would blind her and held her arms up in defense but her body just refused to move, as if her limbs were disconnected from her central nervous system and a terrifying idea crossed her barely coherent mind-

Was she dead?

She tried to breathe but her lungs barely contracted and she inhaled nothing but mist and shadow-

Her eyes, even wide open, could not locate a hint of light amongst the void and her voice, no matter how hard she tried yelling out, could not pierce through and escape the darkness.

Her body was absolutely still, and Mitsuru could feel the blood in her veins running cold as everything, from her circulatory system to her homeostatic function had slowed to a crawl and the heiress was not sure if she was on planet earth anymore.

The distortion of reality was so absurd and the otherworldly sensation, brought on by the encroaching and still expanding darkness was so surreal that Mitsuru felt she was breathing on another plane of existence as everything from the air to the flow of time itself had surrendered under Nyx and was terrified of moving.

Suffocating and afraid of the omnipotent shadow in her vision, Mitsuru was about to shout in a fit of borderline insanity but two red orbs peered into her soul amongst the darkness and she stopped, finally able to see a bit of light but gaze was haunting, frightening her worse than the darkness did-

The shadows in the core of hell coiled and separated, revealing the girl who held the power to devour the light of the world in her bare hands and Mitsuru looked around, trying to locate everyone one but she could see nothing but Hamuko and her friend was barely recognizable-

Hamuko stood at the center of the abyss she had conjured, her form barely visible amidst the swirling void and her once familiar face was now a canvas of pure black, the shadows having consumed every inch of her skin. Only her eyes remained visible, burning with a fierce and haunting red light.

Her entire body radiated a cold, almost tangible malice, a overpowering and oppressive aura that absorbed all warmth and hope from the surrounding space and each breath she took seemed to stir the very fabric of reality, bending time and space to her will of destruction and death-

Mitsuru could see nothing but hatred and retribution In her eyes, the burning red flames palpable with an unrelenting desire for destruction and a deep-seated sadness that had long consumed her, with not a shred of humanity peering out.

Mitsuru was sure that her friends were alive and watching as Hamuko raised her right hand, pressed her thumb to her middle finger and clicked her with fingers with a snap that reverberated throughout the haunting abyss, bringing forth ultimate chaos-

Gravity listened to her command and retreated, sparking discord on a scale none of them were prepared for. Mitsuru felt the ground beneath her tremble, with chunks of the earth breaking and lifting off and her body, unable to hold weight in the distorted corner of reality, began levitating against her will-

The burning red eyes followed her frame as she floated up, kicking air to no avail and a curious blink later, Mitsuru lost her senses asher body was hurled across the never-ending abyss of shadow and ice, her strangled cry echoing throughout the mass of filth-

Sho found it almost impossible to even breathe as his body was under complete control of whatever the hell had claimed dominion of the space, dictating everything from the movement of his limbs to his heartbeat. He was completely and utterly powerless to the goddess of the night sky-

Aigis could feel steam and heat frying her being as every attempt to scan and analyze her surroundings glitched her system and attempting to calculate the amount of time that had passed in the chasm of madness brought nothing but blanks. It seemed endless, independent of the flow of time and bound to hell-

"F-Fuck!" Junpei could not hear his own scream as he plunged down what seemed an endless spiral of eldritch horror, each atom of darkness around him with a life of its own, brimming with evil and feasting on his fears. He was falling to death and the more he suffered the thrall of darkness, the more he began to wish for death but it never came-

"D-Dammit," every muscle in Akhiko's body strained under the oppressive gravity, a force that seemed to mock his strength and endurance and he could do nothing but struggle to remain alive. He tried, tried to push back against the encroaching shadows but each movement was a struggle against an invisible enemy, a reminder of how little control he had over the situation. His efforts felt futile and every pitiful trash to escape yielded nothing but despair-

Fuuka was screaming night-deliriously as she was hurled across the cosmos, her body flung around like a ragdoll and she had no strength in her to resist. After a few seconds of trying to kick and scream, she curled up into a ball and whimpered, praying and begging Hamuko to release her from the nightmare and-

SMASH-

Her curled up frame collided with something hard and unforgiving and Fuuka hacked out blood, screaming out the next second as her body was thrown to the other side and her back met another deadend, her spine curling around what seemed like a pillar. The pain widened her eyes and her was rendered limp, not even twitching as she was launched towards the ground at breakneck speed-

SMASH-

The screech of pain flowed through the seemingly endless chasm of darkness and the other four recognized it all too well-

"Fuuka!" Junepi was the first one to notice and despite being scared out of his mind, he concentrated-

"I…" Aigis called out-

"Summon…" Sho hissed, soul coming alive as-

"You…" Akihiko called, cloaking his body in the aura of his persona-

"Come forth!" the cry for help by Mitsuru was echoed by the rest of her friends and amongst the darkness and shadows, their masks heeded the call, struggling to manifest in the oppressive atmosphere of the dark hell but-

The summoning brought the persona users back to reality and Mitsuru touched down on the ground, her persona illuminating the darkness around it and a few yards ahead, she saw the rest of them, staggered but supported to their feet by their personas. Sho was holding onto his single blade. Akihiko was panting. Aigis was shivering. Junpei was trying to look around for-

There was no sign of Fuuka and her persona could not detect a trace of her life essence. She was either knocked unconscious or-

Sho swallowed thickly and located Hamuko standing in the same place place as before; the nexus of void, glancing at each one of them until her gaze settled on Sho, the strongest member left standing and the redheaded male gave a lopsided, nervous grin and with a deep breath, he steeled his mind, body and soul for one last clash-

The personas shot ahead and the teenagers followed suit, their broken bodies teetering on the edge of collapse but they powered through the fear, pain and exhaustion and locked onto the lone girl, the epitome of persona users, and closed the distance, desperate to save the world that he protected-

Hamuko allowed them to come close, able to see them coming from a mile away as they felt suspended in time and took an eternity to get to her. Allowing them to summon personas was a mercy and it was her merciful will that allowed them to move and get close because for the last time, she wanted to see and relish the suffering-

The four remaining persona users finally got within striking distance and Hamuko glanced at them all, one by one and noting their expressions-

The fear of Junpei-

The guilt of Mitsuru

The helplessness of Aigis

The hopelessness of Akihiko

They were close to striking her, a second away from unleashing their attacks in stupid hope but the mercy came to an end and gravity once again contorted to her will-

Mitsuru lost her footing when she attempted a slash with her blade and her body lost its weight, floating just a few feet above the ground. She attempted to harness the power of her persona to force her weight onto the ground but Artemisia herself was powerless, suspended in mid-air and her armored body dissolving into the darkness behind her-

Sho gritted his teeth, the terror from earlier flooding his body as he could not even control his heart, much less fight against the horrifying incarnation of death and shadow before him. A bitter chuckle escaped his mouth when he realized that Hamuko had merely toyed with them, perhaps for the last time because he saw her raising a single hand and knew a single gesture was capable of annihilating them-

Hamuko clenched her fist and countless shadowy limbs exploded out of the blackness around her, overwhelming the eight pests and flinging them far away from her. Their worthless personas were shattered first, crushed and torn to bits and pieces and her eyes followed the users as they were sent hurling through night sky but this time, she showed them no mercy-

THUD-

SMASH-

CRACK-

Hamuko's eyes, burning with demonic flames, tracked each of her foes as they were flung helplessly through the dark void, blinded by her shadows but she could see their desperation, their futile attempts to summon their personas, and the sheer agony in their expressions but not a single whimper, cry or scream changed her mind-

With a sweeping gesture, Hamuko directed the shadowy limbs to converge on her victims. The ground below warped and buckled as her will dictated, and the silhouettes of her enemies repeatedly collided with the fractured earth and the blood stained walls-

Over and over again-

With no mercy-

No remorse-

THUD! Aigis's metal frame smashed into a crumbling wall, her system flickering as she struggled to reestablish control, barely conscious, and her once vibrant eyes now dimmed with the weight of despair as her system started shutting down-

SMASH! Junpei was flung against another jagged surface, the brutal collision causing his body to convulse in pain. He hit the ground hard, barely able to move as the darkness pressed down on him like a suffocating weight-

CRACK! Mitsuru was slammed into a twisted metal beam, her blade slipping from her grasp as she was driven into the debris and blood gushed out. The force of the impact cracked her arm, the sharp edges embedding into her flesh and she screamed out into the void-

SLAM! Akihiko, still trying to summon strength, was crushed into the ground beneath an enormous shadowy weight. His aura flickered, his body battered and bruised, unable to withstand the relentless onslaught-

As Hamuko watched them struggle, her gaze hardened with more hatred and disgust-

This was nothing, still absolutely compared to the suffering Minato had endured-

She almost reveled in their suffering as they were helplessly manhandled, each hit, each collision, each scream of pain a testament to her unbridled rage and power and with every wave of her hand, she amplified the force of gravity, increasing the intensity of each impact, driving her foes deeper into the ground to shatter their wills, bodies and the remnants of their hope-

The pitiful screaming, cursing and crying echoed throughout her world and the darkness amplified the sound several times over, reverberating in the endless chasm and unbridled suffering of humanity only made Hamuko more motivated to silence them-

Already driven to the limit and begging to their gods to put an end to their suffering-

Gutless-

Spineless-

Worthless-

Minato had given his life for these sons of bitches-

The thought hardened her eyes and Hamuko clenched her fist, forcing their already limp bodies to plunge towards the ground, force, speed and momentum amplified as gravity beckoned them to fall-

They were still screaming and yelling to their last breath, infuriating Hamuko but a second later, a minor tremor raced under her feet and she knew.

The battlefield, polluted with blood and filth finally silent from the wailing of the annoying pests that called themselves persona users. Hamuko waited a few more seconds to make sure and the shadows faded under her command, revealing the state of her victims.

The group of war-hardened and battle-tested persona users that had survived the fall now laid scattered, bloodied and broken, their hopes extinguished and their bodies absolutely put through hell. They did not move, twitch or even draw a full breath as their figures were horribly beaten into a mess of lacerations and gruesome scars, utterly defeated and abused down to their last nerve.

Hamuko stood amid the wreckage, her form radiating an aura of unyielding darkness and a terror that would be etched into the very fabric of the now desolate place. The world around her was a shattered ruin, a reflection of her own inner torment. As she gazed down at her fallen foes, a flicker of satisfaction passed through her eyes but only momentarily.

As the darkness retreated into the depths of her soul, a bit of sunlight poured inside the school building and Hamuko moved towards the shattered front entrance and the city of Iwatodai came into her view.

And filled her with absolute disgust.

So many people.

So many people staring at the school from far away, looking curious to explore the unknown but too terrified to head in and see for themselves.

The school ground was polluted with coffins and police cars, representing the authorities that had attempted to break into the school but her aura, the presence of Nyx reduced them to inanimate coffins.

She had disposed of the persona users but the world was a vast place and to truly soothe the burning cancer in her soul, she had to extinguish all life on the planet.

In the middle of her thoughts, Hamuko heard something thrown in the air and a pebble struck her on the back of her head, not hurting her in the least but it did make her frown. The panting and coughing alerted that someone had somehow managed to escape the massacre and she immediately turned around to see who it was.

Sho was struggling to remain alive, his face a bloody mess and right eye sliced open from his face smashing against a glass window but the red headed male was standing, hunched over and continually coughing out blood but on his two feet. The rest of his team mates were sprawled out across the school, barely breathing and Hamuko focused on the last man standing, fury evident in her features because the persistence was starting to annoy her.

Hamuko disappeared and reappeared next to the male in the blink of an eye and a single shove to the shoulder sent Sho soaring through the air, landing on his back a few feet away. She thought that he was done and out for good but a hacking cough later, Sho got enough breath in his body and began to move.

Sho struggled to remain conscious, his vision blurred by the blood trickling into his remaining eye but he wiped it off and gingerly rose to his feet . His body screamed in protest, each breath sending waves of agony through his battered form but even in his pain, a stubborn resolve kept him from collapsing entirely.

She was coming from him and his persona told him to somehow run away but there was no way, no way-

Hamuko crushed his already broken body in a heap of rubble with a single hand and the moment he tried to resist, she smashed him with even more force, forcing out a scream of pain and blood from the last persona user standing.

As she stood over him and glared down at him menacingly, devoid of soul and humanity, Sho recalled a memory of his past and chuckled with a mouthful of blood.

That night… When he tracked Minato and Hamuko and fought the latter in the mall… He remembered how terrified Hamuko looked initially and despite getting over the fear later on and even fighting him, Sho marked her as a failure, a second fiddle to Minato and now-

"L-Look at you now," Sho coughed out, seated against the debris which was drenched crimson but Hamuko paid no attention to his waffling and raised her foot, targeting the bones that was unfortunately left intact in his body-

Stomp-

His left shoulder popped out of the socket, bone and tissue crumbling under the weight and but even when he cried out, Hamuko did not ease up one bit and stomped even harder on the other side of his body, digging him into the debris from the sheer force-

As Hamuko raised her foot to stomp on his face and crush his neck, Sho swallowed the pain and found his voice, muttering faintly but loud enough for her to hear-

"You're so strong now," Sho admitted, almost sounding a little proud of her as he compared the invincible persona user before him to the frail and cowardly girl he knew a couple of months ago. Not a single persona user came close to what she had become; not him, not Aigis and not even-

"You surpassed him…" the broken male admitted, finally making Hamuko halt just a second before she was about to wring his neck. The darkness that covered her face rippled momentarily and her red eyes narrowed slightly, and she lowered her foot, allowing Sho to speak.

Sho clutched the rock behind him to rise up, leveling his face with hers and trying to locate an iota of human emotion but the shadows that covered her face masked her completely. Her eyes, however, had wavered, with a hint of curiosity amongst the hate and disgust and Sho breathed out.

"I bet he is proud of you…"

Hamuko blinked upon hearing his words and a little jolt of pain seeped across her head, controting her face as a soft yet indiscernible whisper intoned throughout her psyche. A hint of humanity bubbled in her soul but the staggering levels of hate and bloodlust drowned the little warmth and after shaking his head, Hamuko snatched up his neck with a single hand and bashed the back of his head against the pile of rubble-

Sho fought for air and life in her grip as she held him up effortlessly, her fingers squeezing the remaining life out of him and the male began to suffocate, helplessly trying to claw her hand in an attempt to break free-

"H-Hamuko," Sho's hoarse voice reached her and only served to infuriate her further. Her fingers pierced through the skin of his neck and the male, despite the pressure around his throat, screamed out in a terrible amount of pain-

The shout echoed around the dead building and Hamuko hurled him to the ground, squashing his broken body against a pavement with a hiss of disgust as her hand was drenched in blood but to her sheer surprise and rage, the piece of trash, despite lying in a pool of his own blood, had started moving again-

Shadows began to coat and harden her right arm, buffing the limb several times over and Hamuko reached for his neck again, aiming to crush the windpipe first and rip then his head off his shoulders-

"I miss him too…" Sho hacked out and the female stopped in the middle of the final blow. Her hand remained steady but she had stopped, watching the beaten persona user as he struggled to sit up, panting and hyper-ventilating as he bled from the fresh wounds on his neck. His head was lowered, obscuring his face but his voice; quivering and grief-stricken forced the darkness around her arm to fade a little and Hamuko leaned in closer.

"I want him back too…" Sho admitted with a bitter sob, his remaining eye leaking out a few tears as he remembered his rival turned best friend who was now gone forever.

Hamuko lowered her hand and her red eyes widened slightly, his voice prominent amongst the haunting whispers of her broken mind-

"I want to lash out,"

"I want to destroy,"

"I want to kill them all!"

Sho rose, face coated with dirt, blood and tears but beaten up and face to face with the apocalypse, the one-eyed persona user, remembering his old friend, had regained his determination and courage and he glared at the corrupted persona user, ready to be put through hell again.

"I want to destroy this world as much as you do," the male admitted, voice cracking again and more tears leaking out of his eye. A look around the dark and cold school building filled him with nothing but bitterness and hate because this was a world with Minato, his best friend, who was taken away and forced to sacrifice his life due to the stupidity of humans.

Humans who had brought the fall upon themselves and not a single one remembered what Minato had done for them-

"F-Fuck them.." the male snarled out, disgust and hate turning his stomach and he glared past her shoulder-

Hamuko, for the first time since she lost sense and reason, appeared defenseless and the flame around her eyes dwindled as she started blinking rapidly. She paid attention to every word of his, stirring the remnants of her humanity that were buried under hate and bloodlust-

"They took him away, Hamuko!" Sho was shouting now, teeth gritted and his eyes glowering over Mitsuru who laid unconscious ahead. "I want to murder that Kirijo bitch for taking my best friend away but-"

Sho's spine cracked with fatigue and pain but his posture began to straighten as he rose to his full height, standing a full ahead above Hamuko who seemed frozen, in a daze from his words. His body was shattered and his face was mangled but for some reason, he did seem like an insect in comparison anymore-

"This…" Sho eyed the hell around him, a world that thrived on cruelty, misery and death and was beyond redemption. The fall was a self-fulfilling prophecy orchestrated by humanity itself and Sho remembered the day of reckoning; the absolute end of the world that was destined to happen but that prophecy was undone by a survivor-turned-savior and the legacy of life continued. "This world…"

At the cost of one life.

The life of his best friend.

The life of THEIR friend.

The life of Minato Arisato.

"Minato gave his life to protect this world…" Sho said, heartbroken that his friend was gone forever but his sacrifice was something he was never going to let anyone insult or undo, no mortal, human or god. "And I won't allow anyone else to desecrate it…"

Hamuko backed off, ears ringing as humanity and godhood, sorrow and rage momentarily overwhelmed her mind, body and soul and the harsh glare from Sho nearly made her gasp. Her strength was still limitless, on a completely different sphere of existence compared to Sho and everyone else but her right hand, her lead hand that had crippled and abused them all with the utmost of ease, had started twitching-

"I don't care if you are a million times more powerful than us," the redhead declared, unsheathing the lone blade that was left with him and staring her down as his mortal enemy-

"I won't let this be another tragedy," the male swore and her visioned blackened as soon as she registered his words-

Those words-

A bittersweet memory; of the time when he was on his deathbed but alive, frail but still lying in her arms and smiling at her, emerged from the depths of darkness and Hamuko choked when she remembered his face, his forehead pressed against hers as he held her hands and made her swear-

"Please don't let this be another tragedy in your life…"

The whisper, buried under the bloodlust of her persona, echoed in her head and the possessed wild card stumbled backwards, the shield of absolute power cracking and crumbling as the male before her did not show a hint of fear and with his sword between his bony-white knuckles, he stood ready to attack-

Footsteps and labored breathing behind her made her gasp in concern and she swirled around on the spot, the wall of power and hate crumbling further when she witnessed that the other persona users, people she was sure were beaten and abused to death, were standing in defiance, alive and glaring at her just as harshly as Sho was.

From Mitsuru to Aigis to Fuuka to Yukari and Ken stood together, their bodies crushed and faces disfigured but not a single one of them broke eye contact with her, fearless and perfectly willing to die if it meant honoring the sacrifice of Minato.

Blue mist and power began to spread across the hallway and one by one, they raised a hand towards the enemy of life, their palms pulsing with red, blue and green spells and Hamuko, started and shaken up, clenched her fist in an attempt to concentrate. Her right arm began to bubble with living shadow and she harnessed the murk as a shield against the incoming wave of elements-

"H-Huh?"

A surge of power behind her widened her eyes and she realized what was going on, when the hands of her enemies surrendered without unleashing a single element and the male, to whom she had turned her back, growled lowly, swearing one promise that she heard clearly-

"For Minato…"

Hamuko turned around almost robotically, stunned and vulnerable for the first time since her corruption and Sho bolted as fast as he could, blinding her. His speed, reflexes, defense and strength were amplified multifold and he showed Hamuko, the only other person he considered a friend, no mercy as he closed the distance and swung his blade-

SLICE-

Pain-

"H-Huh?"

Absolute fucking pain-

Sho, strengthened with the spells of the other persona users, had sliced open a gruesome wound on her stomach and a shower of reddish black blood splattered onto the ground, followed by a screech towards the heaven-

Hamuko lost her footing and stumbled again, nearly falling backwards as the pain, pain on her nearly invulnerable body, sparked a breakdown of nerves, power and insanity as ruthless control and world-ending power began to slip from her grasp-

The agony was felt by every fiber of her being and even her ultimate persona that had corrupted her, eliciting a hellish screech that blared through every corner of her psyche and Hamuko hacked out blood, her demonic red eyes widening as another surge of hate and bloodlust motivated her to turn around and crush the filthy insects to pieces but her legs-

Hamuko was not able to put weight on her leg as the limb trembled the moment she tried to press down and regain a firm footing and she didn't know what the hell went wrong with her-

Was it pain on her body?

The fear of failure?

Their resolve-?

Hamuko shrugged off the questions and her dreadful aura stabilized, ridding her body of the abnormal fatigue and she called upon the darkness of Nyx again, planting both of her feet firmly against the ground to summon her dark hell but-

"H-Huh?"

Her legs lost weight and momentum and this time, she knew what derailed her strength-

"You're so strong now…"

That voice, so close to painful death yet so proud and happy, came from above her and Hamuko stared up at the ceiling, ignoring the enemies before her-

That voice-

"I'm proud of you…"

That soft, serene voice, sweet with love and affection for her, forced her to stare up even as the mist and energy in the hallway grew twice in volume, strength and lethality, and her persona screamed into her heart; to focus ahead and slaughter all those who were still breathing but Hamuko, having found an iota of warmth in the middle of her chest, paid no attention to the demands of her berserk persona and focused on the place of origin; the rooftop-

"Minato…?"

She had promised him something when he drew his last breaths in her arms, swore on him as he clung onto her, too frail and weak to even manage a smile but the little tug on his lips and the peace on his exhausted face upon her promise-

Her promise-

Mitsuru saw the glimmer of opportunity, with Hamuko standing dazed and confused in the line of their attack and commanded her friends at once, her own aura spreading apart as her persona, boosted with the singular desire to protect the world Minato had died for, rose up from the depths of her soul-

"This is our chance!" the heiress shouted and her command was following the smashing of glass, and a shockwave of almighty strength that rumbled forward, quaking the building-

"PERSONA!"

The battered yet defiant persona users spoke in unison, and the blue mist beneath their feet, vibrant and alive with the hopes and dreams of the persona users, exploded throughout the school, illuminating the darkened, blood-stained interior and the personas rose from within, pulsing with power and life-

"GACK!"

The simultaneous summon of eight gods and the blast of blue mist finally diverted Hamuko's attention away from her memories, her skin searing from the intense heat as the mist scorched her, forcing on the backfoot for the first time in the battle-

Face to face with eight personas, Hamuko backed off and growled under her breath, vision blurry and her overall strength lacking but she was still capable of annihilating them all. She was a wild card blessed and cursed by a goddess while her foes were regular persona users who were barely alive-

Her red eyes surged with the same, demonic glint, enveloped in the flames of hate as she called-

"NYX!"

The darkness roared as it exploded outwards under her command, clashing with blue but the sting on her skin remained and Hamuko covered up as the clash of black against blue sent her reeling, numbing her body momentarily. She gaped in shock when she felt the impact and was forced backwards, while her foes, standing united and resolute, took a step forward, coated with blue mist-

"Now!" Mitsuru shouted, her voice ringing with a mix of desperation and determination and the personas rushed in a final, united effort to bring her down and Hamuko kept losing ground, taking several step backwards to gain distance as the charge seemed unstoppable-

Her persona, Nyx, howled into her psyche in an attempt to motivate and the wild card coughed out blood, the wound on her stomach giving her hell but she fought through the pain and reached deep into her corrupted soul, tapping into the primal power to flood the hallways with her darkness again and crush their resistance-

Another explosion of blue mist in her direction smashed her concentration and Hamuko slowed down a tad, unable to draw the pinnacle of power and that one second was enough for the group to capitalize, their personas, wrapped up in mist and elements, finally colliding against the unbeatable enemy and eliciting the first utterance of pain from the girl-

"You are so much better than me…"

The rush of pain, from her body suffering the onslaught of weapons and elements, stifled the absolute power of Nyx and her humanity, burdened with guilt and sorrow, remembered what Minato had whispered into her ear as he held her close-

The lash of fire, ice, and thunder shredded through her skin and Hamuko screeched again, stomping hard on the ground to evoke a shockwave of darkness, desperate to gain distance and focus but-

The personas endured the pressure, drawing a surprised gasp from her as she had effortlessly disposed of them before. She covered up to defend against a collective blast that melted through the shield of darkness and struck her head on-

"So much stronger…"

The burst of nature melted the shadows that covered her face and Hamuko, bleeding from her mouth started to pant, following the trajectory of the personas but her movement had slowed down, and the absolute power she once emitted had regressed-

The clash of blue mist against the raging darkness of Nyx created a spectacle of light and shadow, illuminating the hallways of the school and Hamuko struggled, unable to summon Nyx's full power and she briefly wondered; was she slowing down… or were they getting faster?

A staggering blast of elements; fire, ice, thunder, collided with Hamuko with unrelenting force, their combined energies breaking through her defenses and causing her to stagger and bleed. The impact was brutal, her body unable to fully shield itself from the onslaught and it was maddening-

She knew, she knew for a fact that she held enough power in her fingertips to overpower them and yet-

"You won't need anyone else, right?"

"You'll conquer this on your own…""Right, Hamuko?"

Those memories, the last words of the one she loved, whispered softly, reminded her of the promise to Minato and each time the soothing voice resonated, her bottomless strength, on the brink of return, was lulled and tamed-

Her bloodlust erupted again after a particularly harsh explosion that detonated at point blank range, making her curse and howl in pain, forcing her to erect a barrier of shadows to keep the attacks away-

"Stay focused!" Sho's voice cut through the chaos of the raging battlefield, a beacon of unity amidst the turmoil-

"This is for Minato!" Mitsuru's voice blared out loud, making her arms quiver and the barrier ripple-

"For Minato!" the other six spoke in unison and their personas crashed against the wall of darkness, eradicating it completely and leaving Hamuko at their mercy-

Darkness and hate flashed before her eyes for a second and Hamuko covered up in a desperate attempt to save herself-

Slashed, struck and pierced, with her wounds burning with flame and thunder, Hamuko, on the edge on her collapse, shut her eyes and started lashing out in a berserk fit of rage, the darkness around her erupting into a slew of slashes and strikes but even when the shadowy limbs connected and damaged the incoming wave of personas, she was hit-

Battered-

Disfigured-

Mauled-

A loud screech of pain drew more of the darkness from within her and she crossed her arms, yelling at her foes to disappear and the pain, the terrible pain provoked her strength in another overpowering burst of darkness. A momentary flicker of peace soothed over her rapidly deteriorating body and Hamuko prepared to draw out the pinnacle of her strength-

"UGH!"

The howls and growls of the personas, the continuous clash of light and darkness and the defiant yells of the persona users crumbled her thoughts and she clutched her head, finding it impossible to concentrate and every second, damage kept piling up, making each breath more difficult than the last-

"Bring her down!"

The command from MItsuru forced her eyes open and Hamuko saw nothing but blue mist in her field of vision, covering everything she could see. The surroundings had faded away and she stood alone in a vortex of blue, quivering and shaken up as the roars of the gods echoed around her, the entities followed her every step as she kept turning around frantically, hoping to find an escape-

SLASHED APART-

STRUCK HARD-

PIERCED OPEN-

Weapons shredded through her flesh and spells exploded against her frame, rattling her down to her knees and forcing her to cover up. Swords, spears, claws and talons hammered her without mercy and Hamuko, despite the darkness healing her wounds as quickly as it could, was not to able overcome and reverse the momentum-

A purple blast of almighty energy, born from the fusion of spells, detonated against her and Hamuko, for the first time, fell to a knee, her vision swirling in and out of focus as the damage began to accumulate, pushing her mind and soul towards the breaking-

"KILL KILL KILL!"

"ALL MUST PERISH!""ALL MUST FALL!" The haunting voice of Nyx brought back the dark shade to her face and Hamuko, ashamed and enraged about being knocked down to her feet, rose back up and cursed humanity and mother earth for taking Minato away from her. The towering rage erupted a streak of darkness, shattering the blue wall and she drew more of the void, her voice deforming into a screech from hell as she fought to survive-

Darkness melted into blue, light and shadow clashing into each other without a definite victor and canceling each other out. The earthquake from the collision forced Hamuko backwards yet again but she steadied herself on her feet, her right hand clutching the gaping wound on her stomach while her left hand held her head as it kept throbbing, jolts of pain, hate and bloodlust pounding against her brain all at once-

Hamuko's world spun in chaotic disarray as the blue mist and shadow collided, creating a storm of blinding light and oppressive darkness that forced her to cover up yet again but the assault was never-ending and her senses were overwhelmed by the ceaseless barrage of attacks, each spell and strike chipping away at her resolve and stature-

Another desperate surge of darkness blew the incoming attacks away and Hamuko panted, finally able to see and face her opponents and they stood together, looking just as beaten and mangled as before but they were standing tall while she noticed her own reflection in their eyes; squatting over and exhausted-

Mitsuru was standing at the front, struggling to breathe just as badly if not worse than her but the fear that once gripped her entire body was missing from her eyes and she faced the special wild card as if he was an ordinary shadow-

Just behind her, her friends, Minato's friends, those who had suffered his loss but swore to protect the world that he protected, appeared just as resolute as Mitsuru, their personas standing behind them, damaged and missing chunks of spiritual flesh but they remained in the battlefield while her darkness-

The gleam of Nyx in her eye, that dreadful outburst of death and decay alerted Mitsuru and she knew the finale was close; either their death or the end of the world. What was once a hopeless situation was now a clash that would be decided by a split second and MItsuru breathed out, unable to believe that they had managed this without the aid of Minato, their most special member-

No-

She knew that Minato was watching them in spirit, empowering them and encouraging them to save the world but most importantly-

Mitsuru returned her focus onto Hamuko who was bloodied, beaten and mauled from the sustained assault, a fiend that had to be put down for the survival of the human race but as corrupted as she had become and as much misery she had inflicted, Mitsuru knew that Minato's love for her would not have wavered at all-

"Everyone…" Mitsuru called out to her team as Hamuko screamed in their direction, on the last legs of control and reason-

"Finish this…" the heiress ordered and face the monster who had sworn to end the world-

"But do not kill her!"

Hamuko heard that and bloodlust exploded in her heart-

"Come forth, Nyx!"

The chasm of darkness manifested again under Hamuko's will, covering the land with shadows but Mitsuru and the persona users did not back off, enveloped by the blue light of their persona that burned away the encroaching darkness and made the wild card curse at them-

Upon command, the personas set off in a stampede towards her, at breakneck speed and Hamuko conjured all the hate and shadow she could manage, manifesting hundreds of shadowy limbs from the darkness behind and around her and directing the weapons in the direction of the rushing army headed her way-

Dodge-

Cleave-

Sunder-

Despite the near limitless strikes and slashes of darkness, the gods and demons shredded through the filth and Hamuko panicked, stepping backwards yet again as her doom closed in on her, unstoppable in its wake and the possessed wild card started quaking in fear, eyes wide open as she saw the end coming from her-

"ALL MUST PERISH!"

A maelstrom of deathly shadows erupted around her in a vicious tornado and drowned the land the moment Nyx's voice, potent and all-powerful resonated in her head and the volume of extensions double and tripled in an instant, shifting the momentum as the deafening cry from Hamuko rocked the place-

SMASHED-

CRACK-

STAB-

The teenagers reeled in pain as their personas were struck and mauled by darkness and shadow, bringing them close to a collapse but Mitsuru's voice, pained yet determined rallied them to fight through and push on-

"We are close!" Mitsuru said, hardening her resolve as her persona endured the brutality, threatening to fade but she held on, evoking another puff of blue mist-

"We cannot fall here!" her voice echoed over the chaos of the clash-

"We cannot fail Minato-!"

"You have no chance!" Hamuko found her voice, the horrible screech shrouding the command of Mitsuru and startling her foes as it sounded like she was on the cusp of a second wind, with her face once again masked by shadows and the accrued flaming burning in her red eyes just as fiercely as before-

"NO CHANCE!" the goddess of the night sky bellowed from the depths of hell, swearing to honor Minato's memory by drenching the world in death and blood-

Spiritual armor and flesh shattered and shredded and Hamuko raised her right hand, empowering the blows of darkness with an influx of her limitless spiritual energy and each hit now shook the ground, cleaving through the spiritual bodies as darkness began to overpower light and Hamuko concentrated for the final burst to smash through the now puny-looking gods and demons-

Just one more push and death would choke the world-

One last push and all would perish-

FOR MINATO-

"Right, Hamuko….?"

Her right hand began to quake when his hopeful voice dulled her senses and softened power and Hamuko widened her eyes, unable to stop the tremors and despite her persona screaming at her to retain focus and crush her foes, Hamuko's focus drifted towards his voice-

"You won't let me down, right?"

"..."

"Please…"

"Minato…"

"Please don't let this be another tragedy in your life…"

The unstoppable darkness of Nyx receded as the memory, the promise that she made to him, flashed before her eyes and resonated in the darkness of her mind-

"Of course…"

Her own face flashed before her eyes and Hamuko had a hard time recognizing herself from fifteen minutes ago. The smile she wore, the hope she carried, the life she radiated, all due to the embrace of her messiah who was clinging onto her, desperate to hear her swear that she would rise above the darkness-

"I won't let you down…"

Her own promise resounded in her head and the voice of her ultimate persona, Nyx, faded completely when she recalled his smile, the last smile that he gave her, so full of relief and love-

He was finally able to breathe-

"T-Thank you…"

Light overpowered the darkness and the eight personas broke free from the shadows while Hamuko stood frozen in a haze of pain, sorrow and regret, now remembering what she had promised to the love of her life while he breathed his last moments-

The eight persona, mutilated and barely in reality, lost their physical bodies but their essence remained alive, with the members of SEES refusing to back down, bound by a mutual desire to honor Minato by saving the world-

Save the world-

Spare Hamuko-

Just as he would have done-

The essence of the personas began to converge, energies meshing and melting into each other and building into an absolutely massive amalgamation of energy; formless, shapeless and boundless, a testament to the unity and determination of the persona users who had conjured the fusion spell with the very bit of their strength and will-

The pulse of ungodly energy from the fusion spell sent every persona in Hamuko's soul scurrying in fear and Nyx shrieked out in terror as the spell shifted in the direction of the female wild card, breaking Hamuko from the trance-

Fire, ice, wind and thunder erupted from the storm of energy and Hamuko scurried backwards, holding up her arms in near surrender as she felt the destructive force and with a collective command from the persona users, the fusion spell exploded in her direction-

Time slowed down to a crawl around as the attack, born from the desperation and resolve of eight persona users, burned with the same intensity of armageddon and the stream of almighty energy that headed her way kicked her senses into their apex-

Death was headed her way and as the certainty of demise settled into Hamuko's mind, her unfocused eyes regained the frightening stare and the unbeatable wild card faced the direction of the incoming attack, her personas roaring back to life in her psyche in an attempt to protect her as she faced her doom.

She was a wild card.

A wild card who had harnessed the darkness of Nyx.

A wild card who had fought against Death itself.

A wild card on a mission to slay life and end the world.

A familiar, cold wave of dread frightened the members of SEES and Hamuko, who was defenseless and cowering before, took a defensive stance and faced the challenge head on, the same dark aura encompassing her body and she channeled every bit of her essence, the last trace of Nyx's power into her right hand-

"What the hell!?" Sho cried out as an gigantic expanse of darkness swallowed the ground beneath her feet and reached up to the skies, the absolute edge of her strength and the vast abyss rapidly condensed, converging towards the palm of her right hand and forming a compact yet absolutely deadly black hole of darkness-

The pulse of power from the black hole caused the entire district to quake and Hamuko raised her hand and faced the fusion spell that was now dangerously close to her but with the pinnacle of power resting in her palm, she already knew the victor of this final clash-

She looked ahead at her foes and from their faces; horrified and stunned at her power, they too understood the disparity in power-

And their certain defeat-

"All shall perish…" she repeated, swearing to crush everything before her-

The world-

The human race-

"All…"

Her friends-

"Huh…?"

A few feet removed from the fusion spell and a second away from unleashing a tidal wave of concentrated darkness that would have completely eradicated her foes into skeletons, Hamuko, motivated by a faint voice in the back of her head, looked towards the rooftop for one last time and the final memory, the peace before the tragedy flashed before her eyes-

The howls of Nyx grew fainter as Hamuko's mind replayed her last moment with Minato and her heart, blackened and cold from the corruption of Nyx, sank down to her stomach when she remembered the absolute torture Minato had gone through.

Bleeding and suffering until his last, miserable breath, Minato endured the torture the kind of which she had never seen before. The memory of him vomiting out his organs and bleeding out of his face sharpened Nyx's grip around her and hardened her heart and soul with hate-

So much suffering-

So much blood-

So much death-

Minato suffered and bled to his death, and his cold corpse collapsed on top of her when he breathed his last and even now, her body remembered the sensation of his dead body falling on top of her and the phantom sensation, of the absolute worst moment of her life, made her chuck the black hole towards her friends to deliver death and destruction-

Her friends-

Hamuko stopped a second short of hurling the sphere of darkness but her hand remained hoisted towards the direction of the members of SEES, her eyes blank with confusion-

"O-Our friends…."

"Don't suffer…"

His final concern, even when he was going through a brutal death, was all about her and Hamuko kept staring off into the distance, senses overpowered by the memory of her final moments with Minato-

"I forbid you to suffer, Hamuko…"

Nyx was screaming into her psyche constantly, demanding her to let go and unleash chaos but Hamuko remained motionless, even with the fusion spell rushing to end her life, her mind and soul trying to remember more and more of Minato; what he looked like, what he sounded life and what he had told her-

"Be with the friends we made…"

"O-Our friends?" Hamuko repeated and her eyes regained a bit of focus but not the hate and bloodlust as it began to melt off her heart and soul. Her eyes, now wide and misty, sought the people that Minato regarded as their friends and her lower lip wobbled in despair when located them.

Hamuko could see them as they stood a few yards away, so horribly beaten and so terrified of defeat and failure but still pouring their life into their final attack in order to vanquish the apocalypse and honor the memory of Minato.

"Minato…" Hamuko, alone and afraid, called out to him and mourned. "Our friends…"

Yukari.

Junpei.

"The friends you called family…"

Fuuka.

Mitsuru.

"The persona users that you bonded with…"

Akihiko.

Ken.

"Those who were the source of your strength…"

Aigis.

Sho.

"I-I'm killing them…" Hamuko's voice cracked to pieces and she took a step back, the darkness in her withering momentarily as regret and shame overpowered the hate and bloodlust.

"This world that gave birth to you… I'm destroying it…"

"The humanity that you sacrificed your life for… I'm eradicating it…"

For the first time since her fall, Hamuko felt the sins coil around her neck and she choked under the weight and the tears that she thought had she had emptied long ago, cascaded down her face.

"I-I'm going against you…"

"I'm spitting on your legacy…"

"I'm betraying our love…"

The voices of her berserk persona, incensed with sadness and grief, quieted down when Hamuko realized; the moment she lost him…

When the last bit of tortured life left his eyes and he breathed his last, she had stopped as well…

"I must have died along with you, Minato…"

All that she had done, all that she was doing, and all that she had sworn to do.

"I must already be dead…."

Her soul quaked amidst the surge of power from the fusion spell that was a second away from devouring and reducing her to ash. The sphere of darkness was still pulsing in her right hand but Hamuko, despite her skin beginning to melt off from the intense heat, looked around for the final time.

His friends.

His world.

His people.

His love for her; the love that pushed him to sacrifice his life for her.

"All…"

She declared to the screech of her inner demon, voice cracking but her resolve absolute.

"All must live…"

In the last second of the final hour, Hamuko, seconds away from her own death, voluntarily lowered her hand and the power of Nyx vanished from her palm, leaving her vulnerable to the cluster of almighty energy and with a final pulse, the stream of ungodly might exploded in her direction and consumed her completely-

Hamuko's vision blackened completely and her final scream died in her throat as the pain consumed every nerve present in her body, burning and electrocuting her internal organs and her heart, under immense strain and pressure, began to beat for the last few times.

"Minato…" Hamuko called out as she burned and withered in the nexus of the spell, senses shattering one by one and limbs melting to dust. She held onto her life by sheer force of will, hoping and praying for some respite as she called out to him one last time.

"I love you, Hamuko…"

The voice echoed softly in her head and for a moment, so close to death, Hamuko found her salvation when she felt two arms wrapping around her rapidly decaying body.

In that instant, time seemed to stand still and the searing pain that had overtaken her was momentarily forgotten, replaced by a profound sense of warmth and peace. It was as if Minato himself had come to guide her to the other side, his presence so vivid and real that she could almost feel the softness of his touch, the strength of his embrace and his voice in her ear.

The euphoria, brought on by her impending death, emulated the sensation of what she cherished the most: his loving embrace and her body, buried under absolute hell, experienced his warmth for the last time.

"Thank you…"

Her vision, darkened by the intense pain, began to fill with images of their time together, moments of laughter, shared secrets, and unspoken promises. She saw his smile in the darkness of death, felt his hand in hers, and heard his gentle voice assuring her that everything would be alright.

A second away from oblivion but wrapped up in his memory, Hamuko smiled. Despite the agony, there was a strange comfort in knowing that her final moments were filled with the love she had for him and the love he had for her.

Nyx, her persona, the proponent of her fall, released the now faint grip around her heart and retreated into the depths of her psyche, her mourning coming to an end. The darkness that had consumed her was dissipating, replaced by the light of Minato's memory and his very last words to her.

"My Messiah…"

As the fusion spell reached its peak and the energy consumed her completely, Hamuko's smile remained and in her final moments, she found peace, her heart beating its last in the embrace of the memory she cherished most.

"M-Messiah…"

When she was about to breathe her last moment in the world, the fusion spell that had brought her defeat, toppled over and exploded into a deadly shockwave. Hamuko, who had accepted her death and was in the middle of her last breath, suddenly found the oxygen back in her lungs as the spell phased through her and and hung onto to life by a thread-

She gave out a faint scream as the euphoria ebbed away and the ungodly pain came back with a vengeance, buckling her knees and while she tried to stabilize her stance and keep standing, her body, absolutely trashed and nearly burned to a crisp, simply shut down-

Hamuko landed on her back, in a puddle of her own blood and skin, paralyzed from head to toe and gravely injured, the bones on her arms and legs exposed and charred as if she was torched by the sun. She was barely able to keep her eyelids open due to the exhaustion but her stare remained fixed on the rooftop door, visible from the ground floor, softly mouthing his name over and over again to keep her peace.

She was alive, saved at the last second by her friends who stood a few feet ahead of her, victors of the long and painful battle but their hands raised in mutual consent to spare her.

Mitsuru wheezed and her hand quivered, having directed the sphere of energy away from Hamuko along with the rest of her friends but she was not prepared for the aftermath as the final shockwave from the dying fusion spell finally pushed the already crumbled past its breaking point-

The last shockwave sent tremors through the very foundations of the school and dust and debris rained down from above as the building's foundation was decimated and the once-sturdy structure, now weakened by the devastation of the battle, began to groan and crack under the immense pressure-

"Ugh," Mitsuru looked up as sunlight poured from above, illuminating the dark hallways but at the same time-

A deafening roar erupted at the top as the ceiling above buckled and began to cave in and massive chunks of concrete and steel, loosened by the earlier destruction and the final burst of the fusion spell, plummeted towards the ground with terrifying speed, followed by the remnants of the school's upper floors fragmented into a cascade of ruin, collapsing upon themselves in a an unstoppable descent-

The chaotic storm of falling debris was going to be their death and Mitsuru recognized the peril instantly and began yelling orders at the orders to pick up Hamuko and escape the destruction but-

She could not force words out no matter how hard she tried and the next second, Mitsuru lost the sensation in her legs and her words spun around as she collapsed backwards. She landed on her back and her weary eyes spared a glance around, noticing that her friends had fallen as well-

The battle was over and they had won but as the adrenaline waned, their bodies, beaten to near death, gave in to the glimmer of relief and stopped functioning. They all saw the collapse of the school and realized that they were going to die but not a single one of them found the capacity to move or even yell-

Concrete pillars snapped like twigs, while massive sections of the roof disintegrated in mid-air, raining down destruction upon the lower levels. Dust billowed like a fog, making it nearly impossible to see through the choking cloud and the very air seemed to tremble with the weight of the building's final moments as walls shattered and floors gave way, all under the watchful and wary eye of Mitsuru who was breathing faintly but had not moved a muscle since she fell-

The heiress looked around one last time and caught a glimpse of Akihiko, her old friend and despite knowing that he was going to die under the collapsing structure, the boxer had his eyes closed and a wore a smile of contention-

Her other friends, sprawled out nearby, looked much the same; beaten to paralysis and horribly injured but the smile of relief on their faces made Mitsuru breathe out a sigh of relief and her dim vision glanced up at their doom falling down-

"I-I'm proud of you all…" The leader of SEES managed to utter, knowing that they had saved the world and Mitsuru closed her eyes for the last time, relaxing her tense muscles because the pain was going to last a while before she died but she accepted, content that she, along with the others, had honored the legacy of their friend and leader by waging war against an invincible enemy and prevailing-

"Minato…"

"Infinity…"

Sho heard the spell just before he was about to pass out and he came alive, clinging onto consciousness as there was no mistaking the shift in atmosphere following the incantation. The serene voice that granted protection, the presence of two personas and the invulnerability that promised life-

"M-Minato..?"

His confused call was followed by the dreadful sound of a ton of waste and debris crashing onto the ground but not a single pebble touched him, with the wreckage bouncing off the impenetrable that had formed over them, saving all of them from certain death even as the shower of rock and concrete rained down without pause-

Sho looked at the others behind him and they were safe, protected by the barrier and for a moment, he was certain that Minato had returned to save them from death. He was the only one capable of such a miracle but as he followed the source of energy that had protected them, he saw someone else-

Hamuko stood on her feet, her hands outstretched towards her fallen friends and behind were two monstrously powerful personas; Ananta and Vishnu, the components of infinity. The wild card had recovered just enough strength to dual summon and save the members of SEES but Sho noticed something horrifying as the pieces of the school kept crashing onto the ground, the last remnants of the school cascaded down in fury-

Hamuko had not formed the barrier around herself-

The wild card wore a dead smile as the last reserves of her spiritual force dwindled and the school she destroyed began to collapse around her. Her friends were safe and they were staring at her in surprise and wonder, unable to believe that she was the first one up despite enduring the most destructive fusion spell but Sho was the only one who had noticed that she left herself open to a crushing death and shouted at her in horror-

"Hamuko!" somehow, Sho pushed himself off his back and staggered to his knees, holding her dreary gaze as the debris kept falling around her, blowing a sandstorm of dust and mist but the girl did not move from her spot and just glanced up, locating a substantial chunk of steel and concrete that was headed right for her-

"Move, idiot!" Sho demanded her to move out of the way and powered to his feet but she did not move. Another horrifying echo of destruction crashing to the ground made him wince and he made a mad dash towards Hamuko, reaching out to grab her and shield her from the collapse-

Hamuko smiled faintly at him when he was a few inches away and just a second late. His hand was outstretched towards her, begging her to grab but Hamuko returned her gaze to the sky and tried to find solace in the sunlight before a heap of twisted metal and rubble cascaded down on top of her-

Sho widened his eyes as she disappeared from his sight, buried under a deluge of wreckage-

"Hamuko!"

---

"Huh…"

Hamuko wondered as she floated on an abnormal plane of existence, not sure if she was living or dying, already dead, or somewhere in between. She could still recall the weight of the debris crashing down and crushing her, the unbearable pressure that had forced the air from her lungs and left her in darkness. She had definitely passed out on impact, but where was she now?

This was not the afterlife. She was not worthy of heaven, and the void was too quiet and peaceful to be considered hell. The silence around her was oppressive, broken only by the faint, echoing thrum of something unseen.

Hamuko tried to lift her hand, reaching for the faint glimmer of light above her, but her body felt so heavy that even lifting a single hand was an impossible task, and she relented, giving in to the sensation of sinking deeper and deeper into the void. The light above her receded, and Hamuko realized it wasn't gravity beckoning her.

Someone… or something was dragging her down.

Her already worn-out frame could not resist the pull of numerous hands bound to her, slowly but surely sinking her deeper into the darkness. She closed her eyes as the shadows overtook her vision and realized she had stopped breathing, causing a flicker of panic to surge through her, but it was quickly replaced by a strange sense of calm and apathy.

Memories flashed before her eyes, her friends, their faces filled with determination and hope, and Minato, always standing just out of reach and she managed to blink, hoping to see more of him but the illusion of her mind melted into darkness and Hamuko wailed into the shadows-

The hands of death continued to pull her down, their grip unyielding and accelerating her fall. The void was cold, its silence absolute and Hamuko's last conscious thought was a plea, a whisper lost in the darkness-

"Minato…"

A millimeter away from crossing into the realm of the dead, the shadows above her split apart and a distinctively different hand grabbed her by the wrist, forcing a deep breath into her lungs and a pulse of life erupted within her-

"M-Minato?" Hamuko found her voice, strength and life as soon as she felt the somewhat familiar touch and she opened her eyes to locate her savior amongst the void. Her vision took a few seconds to adjust to the dim light but the silhouette of her messiah, floating in front of her, was vastly different from what she was hoping and her heart sank into apathy and agony.

That was not Minato.

Bitterness and hatred, even as she drowned in deathly apathy made her growl because the monstrosity that had saved her resembled Minato but was as far away from him as light was from darkness.

"Ryoji…" Hamuko uttered his name with such hate that the grip on her wrist faltered and the God of Death above her, visibly recoiled in pain and sorrow. His reaction did not soften the hate in her heart and Hamuko began to jerk her hand free, refusing to live.

"Let me go…" Hamuko demanded, her eyelids half open but her brows furrowed into a glare and Ryoji struggled to maintain his composure, ashamed to look her in the eye.

"I have nothing left…" Hamuko spat out, twisting her wrist to break his hold but Ryoji was not letting her go.

"You took everything away…"

"You took him away…"

"Minato…"

Ryoji flinched at the name, and the void itself around him, an extension of his being, wailed in sorrow-

"My Universe…" her voice cracked with sorrow and her vision blurred, tears gathering in the corner of her eyes-

Ryoji gritted his teeth and lowered his head, and his hand that held hers started shaking, fingers almost letting go but he clasped on tighter and started pulling her upwards-

"Let go…." Hamuko demanded with a growl, resisting his attempt despite her soul bogged down by the weight of the abyss. "Just let go and let me die…"

"I have nothing to live for anymore…" Hamuko repeated and her admission drew Ryoji towards her, his free hand reaching out to touch her and Hamuko hissed in disgust, her skin crawling with hate the moment he came closer and her spirit came alive as it burned with contempt-

SLAP-

Even in the clutches of death, Hamuko found her strength and a loud slap resounded in the boundless domain. Hamuko knew had connected with force as his head was snapped to the side and she did not care an ounce about Ryoji losing his senses at attacking her.

She welcomed it, almost hoping that Ryoji would snap and attack her as she was perfectly willing to battle him in his domain and die but only after taking a piece of the bastard with her to hell.

Ryoji did not hiss, snarl or growl even as pain, caused from a mortal slapping him across the face, spread across his cheek and traveled down to his chest. Hamuko swore she heard him sniff and he turned his head back in her direction, face marred with a fresh wound and his eyes brimming with-

"Tears…?" Hamuko chuckled in disgust at the sight; Death, the destroyer of worlds and the bane of life, struggling to hold tears and cowering from her stare. She almost laughed at the distasteful irony and resumed trying to break free.

"This life of yours…" Ryoji spoke through the sobs, halting her momentarily as his words kindled another memory buried under the broken pieces of her psyche. "You're not living it just for yourself anymore."

"This life you're going to live…"

"Live it for me as well…"Ryoji watched on as her eyes, full of loathing and malice for him, softened upon remembering his words, another promise that he had thrusted upon her and the tears that had gathered in her eyes escaped from the corners and disappeared into the void. The resistance in her grip eased up and Ryoji lamented the dead, vacant look in her eyes as she stared at nothing in particular, like she existed without a soul.

The God of Death tightened the grip around her and guided her soul through the darkness of death and Hamuko offered no resistance as she was hoisted towards the surface, and towards the faint light up top. The apathy, brought on by clutches of death, began to loosen and Hamuko started tearing up when she realized that she was headed to an empty world.

A world without Minato.

Ryoji did not dare look back as he heard her wail and sob. Once upon a time, he would have relished her despair but now, every sound that came from her tightened a noose around his neck and by the time he reached the surface, Ryoji himself was struggling to breathe.

"I hate you…"

"You son of a bitch…."

Hamuko bawled out, her sorrow-stricken voice carrying just as much hate.

"You won't win…" she swore and Ryoji finally looked back at her, her tear-stained face and aghast expression making his now human heart cry out in sorrow.

Ryoji said nothing, refusing to respond to her with the truth that it was over. Minato was never going to return but he endured her scorn and allowed her to pour her heart out, hoping that the girl would find some solace by cursing him out.

With a heavy heart, Ryoji tightened his grip on Hamuko's wrist and continued to pull her upwards, through the darkness of his domain. The light above grew brighter, and the oppressive cold began to fade but Hamuko's sobs echoed around them, each tear a testament to her undying love and unwavering belief in Minato.

"He'll come back…" Hamuko swore.

The delusion and desperation in her eye made Ryoji cringe and he looked back down at the bottomless well and the point where he had saved her from; the very end of the line. Hamuko's heart ached with each inch they ascended and just below the bottom of the surface, her mind and soul, terrified of returning to a reality without Minato and overwhelmed by hate for him, cursed at him.

"He'll defy Death.."

"Just like he has always done…"

"I wish…" Ryoji choked out, silencing the girl and with a final, powerful tug, he pulled her out of the void and Hamuko, immediately blackened out to the unspeakable sorrow that devoured her heart and soul the moment she returned to the normal world, her mind shutting down in an attempt to persevere her sanity, and Ryoji had to wrap his arms around her waist to keep her from falling down.

The God of Death shivered as he held the now unconscious girl in his arms and she hung limp in his embrace, unresponsive and no different than a victim . He had saved her and brought her back to living but her soul was cold as any corpse, completely devoid of life and hope and Ryoji, for a second, considered tossing her back down as an act of mercy.

Long ago, during the battle of new years' eve, Minato had challenged him to separate them, swore to him that no matter how much he tried, he was never going to break this bond; the bond between two wild cards, bound by fate and death and at one point, Ryoji had begun to believe him.

It didn't matter how hard he fought, how much of his godly strength he wasted into the effort of breaking them apart, they remained shoulder to shoulder and defeated him on the promised day together but now-

Not too long ago, Minato was in the same position; hanging lifelessly as he held him up and at the same plane of existence; on the border between life and death but he was forced to let Minato drown and he sunk to the bottom of the sea of souls to forever shoulder the sins of humanity while Hamuko, his counterpart, was going to shoulder her own suffering in the human world and beyond.

Ryoji had separated them, just as he swore to a defiant Minato back in December.

They were never going to meet again.

In life…

Or death…

"F-Fuck…" tears ran down his face and Ryoji clutched his chest as his now human heart bled with sorrow and regret, hurting him worse than any wound he suffered at the hands of Minato and Hamuko.

He had won…

And he fucking hated it.

---

Hamuko woke up to the sound of people in masks screaming over each other and the flat, continuous beep of medical apparatus, signaling death but her mind was a little too delirious to truly understand her current situation and she shut her eyes immediately, in a desperate attempt to go back to sleep and escape the grim reality.

Just like 10 years ago.

The vehicle struck something on the road and she bumped her head lightly, forcing her to stay up for a few seconds and each one felt like a tortuous eternity. The doctors and paramedics were all over the place, screaming about death and hopelessness and Hamuko felt the horror bubble in her throat and bleed down to her soul as she took a look around.

The stretcher across from her was bathed in blood and a team of medics were huddled around, attending to the patient hoisted on the bed. She saw a hand hanging limp on the edge of the stretcher, quaking in response to the shock administered but lifeless otherwise and she immediately looked away as her brain, already plagued with grief, diverted her focus away from the dead body.

Someone else, a plain civilian was in the ambulance as well, screaming in sorrow and bawling her eyes out and it took Hamuko a few seconds to recognize the voice. Her unfocused eyes trailed over to the source and her blurry vision, barely able to hold onto light, saw Mitsuru standing beside the stretcher, crying over the patient who was proclaimed dead.

The heiress was yelling, bawling, almost fighting with the doctors and Hamuko was able to make out bits and bits of the conversation.

"There… is…. Nothing… Can do…"

"Save….. Him…."

Those words were familiar but trying to focus more made her head throb and she made the mistake of looking away, towards the stretcher. The medical staff had stepped away in surrender and Hamuko saw the dead body clearly.

A blue-haired boy, his once vibrant color now dulled by blood and death, lay still on the stretcher. His face, serene and untouched by pain, was hauntingly familiar and Hamuko's heart lurched, the name "Minato" echoing in her mind as if reverberating through an endless chasm.

The realization struck her like a bolt of lightning and as the grief spread like a virus through her system, her vision swam, and the room began to tilt around her. She could barely process the scene unfolding before her; Mitsuru's anguished cries, the frantic medical staff, and the lifeless body of Minato and her consciousness began to retreat, mind and body shutting down in an attempt to shield her.

The world around her spun, the beeping of the medical apparatus growing distant and distorted and Mitsuru's screams faded into a muffled, incoherent mix of sounds. Hamuko's vision darkened, the edges of her consciousness fraying as her broken mind grappled with the horrific reality that Minato was truly gone.

Just like her parents.

10 years ago.

The encroaching darkness closed in, swallowing the edges of her vision but as Hamuko slipped into unconsciousness, her final thought was a desperate, silent plea for Minato to wake up, to defy death one last time.

"P-Please…"

---

Hamuko ran, ran for her life as fast as she could, faster than her legs could afford but the beast trailing her, so full of fear and rage, sparked a boost of agility and stamina and the redhead raced through a chasm of black that never seemed to end; a land of shadow and death that was her eternal cage.

The growls and snarls from behind her were menacing and vicious but she did not dare look back, not confident that her fragile mind would be able to endure the horror and remain in one piece. She could only run and hope and pray that whatever was chasing her would grow tired and leave her alone.

Voices thundered down from the red skies above, distorted and echoing, cries of pain and despair mingling with the malevolent laughter of her tormentor. The sound was deafening, a cacophony that made her ears ring and her head throb and her legs started to feel like lead, every step now a monumental effort-

Flashes of horrific images bombarded her mind: her parents, bloodied and broken, reaching out to her with lifeless eyes; the crash, the mangled metal, their screams as they burned until their demise, making her nauseous but Hamuko swallowed and focused on escape. She had been here before and as painful as the vision was, she had learned to endure it just enough to keep functioning-

A flash of red blurred her vision and Hamuko gasped in shock, a different wave of dread, foreign and more debilitating spread through her stiff frame and Hamuko stopped dead in her tracks, her feet frozen to the ground as her broken mind gave her a cruel reminder-

Minato. The vision she saw this time was of Minato, lying deformed and crippled in a pool of his own blood, his body senselessly slaughtered and his face mercilessly ripped open to expose his flesh and skull but his eyes, and the vacant stare he had, as if his life was stolen away from him, was the most haunting aspect and for a second, Hamuko forgot that she was running for life and stopped to scream her soul in horror-

That one second was enough and the thing that was chasing her caught up to him, and Hamuko was hurled to the ground, her head bouncing off the cold ground and she desperately tried to crawl away and escape.

This was familiar…

She looked back and her assailant pounced on her and showed her no mercy. Hamuko did not know what he did, whether he punched, kicked, or attacked her with a knife or a machete but in seconds, her body was mauled and she laid in blood-

She threw her right arm up to defend and the limb cracked at her elbow joint-

Her left arm was crushed against the ground-

Her legs were shattered at the knees, effectively crippling her and leaving her with no hope to escape-

Danling on the edge of her consciousness, Hamuko choked out in despair as a shadowy hand wrapped her throat, his claws quickly piercing the skin of her neck and her vision flooded with darkness. Her arms were maimed and she could not raise a finger to defend herself, only watch and suffer as her tormentor choked the life out of her already mangled body but as began to lose her senses against the pain and horror, the shadows around her assailant parted and Hamuko saw a face-

"R-Ryoji…"

That face of the cruel god that had once again, taken everything away from her was the last thing she saw and a horrible thought crossed her muddled mind in her final moment of consciousness-

What was he going to do to her next?

---

Hamuko's eyes fluttered open to the dull, sterile light of the hospital room, the shadows ahead of her agitating her but her body, worn out and on the brink, only allowed her to shiver in bed. Her breaths were faint and shallow, suffering the waves of terror inspired by her recent nightmare as the grip still lingered on her being.

This was her first nightmare in over a year, a rendition of a recurring curse that had haunted her for the past decade and evidently, it was back and armed with a new method to shatter her. Hamuko thought she had gotten over and risen above her fear but apparently not…

Not in a world without her messiah.

Her gaze drifted around the room, taking in the white walls, the monitors beeping softly, and the IV-drip beside her bed. The shadows at the foot of her bed had festered and Hamuko felt her heart beat a few times faster, afraid that something vile and cruel would lunge out and harm her but her limbs refused to move, burdened with a dull ache that kept her from moving.

The familiar cries of the people she knew from somewhere far away motivated her to rise and with some difficulty she started moving; first sitting up and then attempting to get to her feet but every movement was a struggle as the oppressive fatigue clung to her, derailing her every attempt.

The first step she took inspired a chill that spread through her frame, as if she had touched a world that was foreign, devoid of her light and hope but she pressed on, stumbling her way forward and nearly falling on her face but she grasped the door and paused to catch her breath and when she inhaled, her eyes teared up from the absolutely horrendous smell.

She stank. Hamuko nearly vomited in disgust when the odor wafted to her nose and nausea gripped her throat. She had gone through a long and drawn out battle, was crushed under debris and her hospital gown was drenched in sweat but this foul stench was not tied to her physical state.

The stink originated from her spirit and reeked off death and rot, as if a part of her soul had died and decayed and no matter what she did to her body, the stench of death was never going away and would serve as a permanent reminder of what she had lost.

Hamuko remembered…. 10 years ago, when she woke up in the same hospital as she did tonight and found out that her parents had died in the car crash…

She had the same stench of death and decay on her, etched to her soul and prominent on her every waking second of her life.

Hamuko's fingers trembled as they clung to the doorframe, her breaths coming in ragged gasps and each inhale brought the stench of death deeper into her lungs, making her feel as though she was inhaling the very essence of despair. She looked back and the shadows at the foot of her bed still seemed to writhe and twist, mocking her attempts to rise above her fear.

The new surge of terror drained her will, and she leaned heavily against the door, her body quivering with fatigue and fear. Her mind screamed at her to lie back down, to succumb to the exhaustion and terror, but a flicker of determination pushed her forward and with some difficulty, she turned on the knob and opened the door.

The wailing of familiar voices grew more prominent and Hamuko almost retreated back into the room when a few people passed her by; their faces obscured with shadows and their voices both haunting and terrifying, adding to her already crippling fear but the female swallowed the despair once more and trudged on, following the voices of the people she knew.

Every stranger that she saw was draped in shadow and made her scream.

Every unknown voice caused her to look back in fear, paranoid that they were plotting.

Every step she took felt like it would be her last, her heart spasming and smashing into her chest each time raised her foot.

Every breath she exhaled tasted like death and decay, originating from her rotting spirit.

Hamuko shuffled forward with small, cautious steps, following the voices at the far end of the dark hallways. The absence of light and the towering shadows made her whimper but she pressed on, cowering her head and shutting her eyes as she moved past the dense darkness that seemed to stretch on for miles and miles.

"Minato…"

That name; the name of her messiah who had saved her before was what kept her going and when her legs began to fail on her, she grasped the wall for support and lumbered her way way through the darkness and when her sanity began to bleed and fear began to choke her towards derangement, she resorted to chanting his name over and over again to hang on to what little hope kept her alive.

She was close as the distant wails grew to anguished sobs and the first person she saw was Yukari, sitting on the bench outside a hauntingly familiar room and crying her eyes out. Nex to her, Fuuka occupied the rest of the bench, lying and curled up as she wept into her arms.

Junpei was on the ground next to them, missing his cap as he cried silent tears over the loss of his best friend. Akihiko stood ahead of him, his back turned and his face buried into the wall but he cried as well, wetting the surface as tears flowed nonstop.

Hamuko stumbled her way forward and looked ahead, locating Ken breaking down and crying like the child that he was, hugging his own knees while he sat with his back against the wall. Aigis, the mechanical maiden who had grown a human heart, was staring up at the ceiling, her once blue eyes now pale white and dotted with bits of static, left a malfunctioning machine with a broken human heart.

They said nothing to her, shattered by grief of the heartbreaking loss and Hamuko maintained her silence as well, and focused what was left of her on taking short steps and faint breaths. Her mind and body threatened to slip off the mortal coil but the room that housed Minato, her destination was right in front of her and she forced herself to function for a little while longer.

Mitsuru was right beside the door, her face stained with tears and her bloodshot eyes brimming with profound regret and a great deal of self-loathing as she stood outside the room of the boy who was the final victim of her family's curse.

"I-I'm sorry…" Mitsuru was the only one to speak to her when Hamuko stopped close to her and she looked even more devastated than she did when her father was murdered.

"I'm so sorry, Hamuko," Mitsuru said, her right hand clasped against her mouth to block her screams of sorrow and Hamuko knew that she was not apologizing for delivering bad news, but begging for forgiveness on behalf of her family.

Hamuko did not respond and simply stared ahead and at the very end, on the opposite side of the door, stood Sho Minazuki and when he noticed her, he picked his back off the wall and walked up to her.

Sho was the only one who not crying his heart out but his face; scrunched up with barely restrained emotion and his forehead swollen and his fists; knuckles broken and bleeding, told Hamuko that he had tortured himself to cope with his grief but that hadn't helped him one bit as he looked a second away from breaking down even worse than Ken.

The stench of decay and overbearing cold escaped from the edges of the open door and Hamuko looked away from Sho and faced the room. Her already failing senses spiraled, knocking her a few steps backwards as her personas, barely alive and in existence, begged her to not open the door but quivering and choking on her breath, Hamuko, motivated by the trust she had placed on their love, defied her persons and moved her frozen body against its will.

Her hand found the doorknob, and Hamuko focused her faint vision on the number plate assigned to the door: 515 and a wave of debilitating nausea and dizziness washed over her as the significance of the room number hit her, eliciting her past trauma she had barely contained.

Room 515 of Tatsumi Memorial Hospital was the same room where her parents had died ten years ago and as she stood outside the box of her deepest horrors, she remembered that ten years ago, she was in the exact same situation; desperate to head inside in deluded hope that she would walk onto a miracle but stepped inside a hell that would forever change her.

Hamuko's heart pounded in her chest, and her legs felt like they might give out beneath her but with the strength she had left, she pushed the door open. The hinges creaked softly and she stepped inside and immediately regretted it as the air was thick with the stench of decay, cold and as if death had claimed dominion.

As she entered, the room seemed to blur and waver before her eyes. Shadows danced along the walls, and for a moment, she saw the ghostly images of her parents lying in their hospital beds, their faces pale, still and marred with abuse and psychological trauma.

"Mom… Dad…" Hamuko whispered, her voice trembling as she remembered the despair, now bleeding even worse she had lost her tourniquet around her heart. She reached out a hand, as if she could touch them and it entered her vision a lot smaller than usual.

"Huh…" Hamuko lowered her gaze to the marbled tiled floor that reflected her and she saw a heartbroken 6 year old girl, someone she used to be, staring ahead at the dead bodies of her parents with her eyes wide open and bleached with horror.

"10 years ago…"

She turned her gaze to the bed in the center of the room and the hallucination of her past, brought on by her tormented mind receded and she finally saw him. Her feeble breath was caught in her throat as she longingly eyed Minato who laid on the single bed, still and lifeless as her parents had been but even more abused than they were.

"Minato…" she choked out, her voice barely more than a whisper that Hamuko was not sure even escaped her mouth. Hamuko took a shaky step forward, then another, until she was standing beside the bed and she grimaced when she observed his condition and remembered who he used to be.

The corpse on the bed was a far cry, a mutilated caricature of who her Minato used to be. His face was bloated due to excessive amounts of blood, his eyes had shrunk in size and his skull protruded against his forehead, stretching his skin outwards and while the sight sank her heart to her stomach, Hamuko refused to look away.

This was still Minato. She was still going to hold him just as tightly and love him just as much as she did before as soon as he would wake up.

Wake up…

Hamuko touched his hand and it was cold, rigid as ice and the chill traveled and flooded through her entire being but she held onto his hand, clasping it and stroking over the mottled skin, hoping that he would return the squeeze around her hand but he remained still.

"Minato…" she breathed out, the voices of her old demons and the echoes of grief choking her and she called out to him, desperate for respite.

"I-I'm scared…"

Just like all those times before.

He would embrace her the moment she relayed her fright to him, and hold her no matter if he was half asleep or half dead and he never let go until she was healed.

Tonight, Minato laid still.

The haunting voice in the back of her, born out of sustained heartache and trauma, shook her entire frame with a hollow laugh that celebrated her failure and another catastrophe in her life and Hamuko bit her bottom lip as it quivered, her hand moving from his towards his shoulder.

Hamuko touched his shoulder next and felt barely any flesh, just waxy skin and a brittle joint that would have crumbled if she applied any more pressure but as the laugh in the back of her grew more prominent and more fear and paranoia became to grip and throttle her heart, she leaned closer to him and shook him gently.

"T-They're hurting me, Minato…"

Just like they had done before.

He would demand to know the names of those who had touched her, whether it be a person, shadow or even a god, and swear to her that he would make them suffer worse than they made her suffer and would only draw a full breath until they had.

Tonight, Minato did not ask for names.

The stench of her dying soul that was almost completely defiled burned her senses and the wave of unspeakable sorrow began to unravel her, layer by layer, for the final time. The already bleak room darkened and Hamuko removed slippers from her feet when she felt another presence in the room and she did not dare look back.

Her body ached with death and oblivion as she climbed up his bed, the walls of the hospital room twisting and turning as the shadows crept up the structure, distorting the reality around her. She heard the snarl of the beast in her nightmare and saw two haunting red eyes staring down at her from the ceiling, forcing her to push her body and climb the bed to keep herself safe.

The walls whispered her fears back at her and her mind spiraled deeper into a vortex of dreadful hallucinations, the shadows around her twisting into grotesque shapes and forms, creeping closer to her, ready to drag her back into the abyss and even when she climbed the bed, they did not stop.

"Minato…" Hamuko, shivering and gasping at every little sound and shift around her and on the last legs of her consciousness, she clambered up to his body as the whispers of the hallucinations devolved into ear-piercing screams and howls.

Hamuko clung onto his body as the walls of the room dissolved into the nightmare of her mind and she started panting as darkness covered every inch of the floor, leaving her stranded with no hope for escape.

Her vision started to fail and Hamuko clutched him tighter, her aghast face pressed against his chest as the last few tears escaped her eyes, blurring her vision but the approaching monstrosities remained just as prominent, growling right under the bed and their limbs reaching up to snare her.

She was going to die.

"My Messiah…"

Hamuko whispered, calling out to him for the very last time with all that she had left in her.

"S-Save me…"

He was her messiah and she believed that more than anything else in her life and each time she found herself face to face with death, with her back against the wall, she would pray to him and each time she had asked her savior to save her, he always found a way, producing miracle after miracle to pull her back from the brink, no matter how dire the situation.

"..."

Tonight, there were no miracles.

Minato was gone.

Hamuko shed the last tear left in her, the little ember of life escaping along. The last fragment of her being, held up by the false hope that Minato could defy Ryoji and return to her, shattered and she surrendered completely.

Minato was dead.

She had lost her Universe forever.

Her body grew heavy, the weight of her sorrow pressing down on her chest, making it hard to breathe. Her fingers, once clutching desperately at Minato's lifeless form, now hung limp by her sides as the cold seeped into her bones, numbing her to the core, as if death itself was wrapping its icy fingers around her heart.

Her eyelids grew heavy and she felt herself sinking deeper and deeper into the abyss, and as the final tendril of awareness faded, she whispered his name one last time, a plea lost to the void.

"Minato…"

After uttering the name of her messiah one last time, Hamuko stopped resisting and surrendered to the darkness, her body going limp as she passed out, the relentless grip of grief and terror finally pulling her into unconsciousness and she hoped that she would never wake up ever again.

Never wake up in a world where her hope, light and love had died.

The door opened a second after Hamuko slipped and the other members of SEES entered the room, grieving and mourning the loss of their two leaders who laid in a single bed; together and they looked no different from each other; cold, pale and missing life, entwined together in one last, tragic embrace.

They gathered around the bed, sobbing and weeping and Mitsuru, with trembling hands, slowly began to pull the covers over the two of them, briefly hesitating when she glanced at Hamuko but she knew that while her heart was beating and she would continue breathing, she would be dead for the rest of her existence.

Mitsuru pulled the covers upon the two and the room fell silent, the weight of collective grief etched into the stillness of the night, a testament to the end of a story that would forever remain with them.

---

My body lies buried six feet beneath the earth, its warmth long extinguished and its organs long decayed into the soil of the world I protected.

I remember my final moments and the torment that racked my body and as I suffered through my last breaths, I remember begging for oblivion, hoping it would grant me a reprieve from the suffering that had been a constant fixture in my life.

My life is over but my consciousness refuses to let go.

The agony that marked my death did not vanish with my last breath and morphed into something even more profound and never ending.

It's as though my spirit, though freed from the constraints of flesh, remembers everything.

My soul pulses with the same torment, the same despair, and every surge of emotion converges towards my heart and rips me to pieces.

My heart….

I can still feel it in my chest, alive yet broken, torn apart by sorrow and loneliness as in my sustained consciousness, I can still remember her.

Hamuko…

My love for her was the driving force that gave my life reason and meaning , and even as I guard the human world on the border between life and death, that love remains an inescapable part of me.

I could never forget…

It is a love that persists even in the face of despair, a beacon of light in an otherwise dark existence and yet, this love is also a source of unrelenting loneliness, a reminder of what I have lost and the void that remains.

And it tore me apart in an instant.

I thought I could… I spent the last few months of my mortal existence preparing myself, telling myself that I would be able to endure it but it's as I feared…

As I knew…

I am no messiah.

I am no hero.

With her by my side, I was able to survive through the trials and tribulations and as she held my hand and guided me, I was even able to save the world but we are split apart and divided by not only life and death but dream and reality.

The moment I became aware of my consciousness in the sea of soul, the heartache of who I had lost forever flooded into my being and the chains that held me to the great seal nearly came undone.

I am no messiah.

Without her by my side, the trials and tribulations of this existence are insurmountable. Her hand in mine, her presence, her unwavering love for someone like me, those were the pillars that held me up. Now, I suffer alone on the edge of the world, with memories.

Memories….

I remember her smile, the warmth of her touch, the way her eyes lit up with hope and love and all that we had gone through, broken hand in broken hand.

I remember when I first saw her, on the first day I arrived at the dorm and she smiled at me and gave a reason to not raze the place to the ground.

I remember when she hugged me for the first time and I was given a reason to look forward to the next day.

I remember our first kiss that lasted no longer than a second but I was given a reason to live again.

I remember our last night together, one night before the fated end of the world where we built our love from scratch again and I even found the reason to save the world.

The world that gave birth to her.

When I unleashed the power of the Universe Arcana, I thought of her.

As I protect the world from damnation, I think of her.

These memories are both a solace and a torment. They are the only fragments of light in this abyss, yet they serve as constant reminders of what I can never reclaim because I know…

The moment I touched the Universe, I knew the bitter truth.

We were never meant to be…

Hamuko…

She is gone, beyond my reach, lying dead in the same bed as my rotting corpse and crying out to me to save her.

I am no messiah.

Not to the world.

Not to Hamuko.

CRACK.

It hurts.

It stings.

It fucking bleeds!

CRACK.

The sound reverberates through the void, a sharp reminder of the fragility of my existence, of the chains that bind me and each crack is a fracture in my soul.

I am no messiah.

Not to the world.

Not to Hamuko.

This heartache is unbearable, a constant throb that echoes through the emptiness. The memories of her, of us, are like knives, slicing through my consciousness and leaving me raw and exposed.

CRACK.

I feel the darkness closing in, the weight of my grief pressing down on me. The chains that bind me to the great seal are both my prison and my punishment. They hold me here, in this liminal space, between life and death, between hope and despair.

CRACK.

The sound is deafening, a cacophony of my own making. The pain is excruciating, a searing reminder of all that I have lost, of all that I will never have.

My heart, though broken and battered, still beats with the memory of her, with the love that refuses to leave me.

CRACK.

I thought I could endure this. I thought I could bear the weight of the world, the burden of my duty but without her, I am lost.

The world may be safe, but my soul is in tatters, my heart shattered beyond repair.

CRACK.

The sound is a constant reminder of my failure, of the promises I couldn't keep. I was supposed to be her protector, her savior, but I couldn't even save myself. The darkness around me is suffocating, a relentless tide that threatens to drown me in despair.

Hamuko...

I can still see her face, the tears that stained her cheeks, the sorrow in her eyes. She is trapped in her own hell, just as I am in mine. We are both prisoners of our fates, bound by love and loss, by duty and despair.

CRACK.

The pain is overwhelming, a torrent that crashes over me and I bleed my soul through the pain, leaving me gasping for breath.

I am no messiah, no hero.

I am just a broken soul, lost in the abyss, clinging to the memory of a love that will never be mine again.

Hamuko...

If I were your savior, I would be with you now. I would be holding you, comforting you, protecting you from the darkness but I am not, I never was.

I am a prisoner, trapped in a cycle of pain and regret, unable to reach you, unable to save you.

I'm sorry…

CRACK.

The sound is a symphony of my despair and the darkness around me is unyielding, a reflection of the emptiness within.

My love for her is the only light, but it is also the source of my deepest sorrow.

CRACK-

"GACK!"

H-Hamuko...

Her name is a lifeline, a thread of light in the darkness, the only thing that keeps me from losing myself completely, from surrendering to the void and cursing the world to damnation but it is also a source of unending torment, a reminder of the life I can never return to, of the love that will forever be out of reach because I know.

The moment I grasped ultimate power and looked across from him, I knew…

I knew he was inevitable.

And we never stood a chance.

Ryoji….

Death…

I can hear him from somewhere in the darkness around me, sobbing and crying his soul out in anguish as mine bleeds out with despair.

Why are you crying, little brother?

You separated us.

Our bond… A bond between two wild cards, bound to each other by death and built on an eternity of love and sacrifice….

You tore that apart.

Just like you told me you would.

You won.

I lost.

Her memories are my solace in this wretched boundary between life and death and my memories are her beacon in a world that is dead to her but this doesn't change the inescapable reality that tears me apart.

We will never meet again.

In life….

Or in death…

Her light is extinguished.

My soul is shattered.

And though I am bound here, between life and death, I will never escape the darkness.

She will never escape her hell.

In life…

In death…

In suffering…

We are eternally apart.

You won, brother...

...

Her grief-stricken face, the last memory I have of her, burns into my spirit and it all begins anew.

You won...

---

Wow. That's done and even as a writer, I had to say... Yiiikes that was brutal. Again, for those who have been with me for a while, let me know in the reviews if this was my best work.

The symbolism and the regression in this chapter is something I really enjoyed writing and this version of Hamuko, controlled by Nyx and utterly cold is probably my favorite version of her that I wrote. The five stages of grief she went through. The possession and the long af battle that redeemed the members of SEES; I honestly loved writing that and maybe that's why this chapter went to 37k.

Also, for those asking about the answer: I am not writing it lmao. No chance but I can talk a bit about it. The regular answer won't work as there is no way Aigis would be getting Minato's wild card but suppose she did... there is no chance in hell she is beating Hamuko. Hell, even SEES combined are not going to beat her as this victory here was a massive fluke they pulled off. This is not counting Sho who will follow her to hell if it means bringing Minato back.

So that version of the answer isn't happening but I discussed an idea with my co-authors once upon a time and the concept was to present Erebus as a more active antagonist. The moment Hamuko steps inside the abyss of time, she is going to unleash a horrifically powerful shadow born out of her grief and we planned on Erebus devouring that shadow and becoming more human. The question would be whether Hamuko has healed enough and even wants to save the world.

Update: If you want a visual of how Hamuko looked while in her cuckoo state, open this link

deviantart . com (/) stash(/)0euhnvv3m2

Just remove the () and the spaces. Fucking FFN.

Credit goes to the great RWES as usual.

...

Wow, still can't believe it. The end of Bloodlust and my writing career but before I go on, I have to thank people. Raidou the 16th and Steven Cold. Without these two, Bloodlust would have been dead a long time ago and I can't put into my words how much they have helped me, fine-tuning plot points and even writing entire scenes. Also, to anonymous friend who helped me a lot with the romance towards the end. For those for you who wanted to read romance and lemon, you have her to thank.

I started writing in 2013 and I have no idea what I was doing. I still don't think I do but I hope I was my writing was able to entertain some of you, whether this, fallen messiah or any other fic that I did. It has helped me at least. I work as a legal writer currently and I believe it is due to the skills I picked up from writing fanfictions and I made some really good friends here who I still talk to this day so I am safely say; I'm glad I hopped on the fanfiction train in 2013.

Thank you everyone, those who had faved, followed, reviewed and hell, even those who just read, thanks a lot for being a part of the journey.

I'm done writing but I'll stick around the website so hit me up if you want to shoot shit.

For the last time, have a good one, you guys.

Cheers!