The force from the ensuing blast of air that surges through the small room almost takes you off your feet. Two massive cards burst into existence before your eyes, shattering and reforming into Taishi and Chikara's Personas.

Lithe, wiry, and fittingly cruel-looking, Taishi's Persona resembles a warlock swathed in loose, billowing crimson robes, a circlet of bones resting upon a mane of lion-like grey hair. Its face is difficult to look at for more than mere instants at a time – it possesses no eyes, mouth, or nose, but rather a burlapesque, undulating surface that intermittently gets sucked inwards by some unseen maw beneath.

Chikara's, on the other hand, is titanic in stature, a mass of firm, pulsing muscle and brutal, scarred flesh. Its entire body appears to be straining against myriad metal loops strung around its limbs, and its face is hidden behind several tightly-tied straps of stained leather. Constant enraged, muffled screaming pours from underneath.

You can feel your body tense instinctively, and Launcelot raises its lance beside you.

"Tetsuo…man…no. We gotta run – we gotta get out of here, now!" says Hayate, hysterically yanking at your shirt sleeve.

Your eyes flit from him to the two Personas in your way. You've faced down some formidable obstacles to this point, but there's something that tells you that he's right about this one. If you fight, you're going to die. However –

"Hayate, get ready."

"Huh?"

Launcelot lunges in between Taishi and Chikara's Personas and pries them apart, using its shield and lance as leverage.

"GO!" you shout, grabbing Hayate forcefully by his collar, stuffing the idol into his pocket, and hurling him towards the door. "Find Mariko and Nisekao, kill the Dreamweaver, and get the hell out of here!"

For an instant, Hayate hangs in the doorway, stunned. Seizing the opportunity, the enemy Personas lunge for him, but Launcelot leaps backwards to guard Hayate with its body. As the huge Persona's shoulder collides with Launcelot, every last gasp of air evacuates your lungs, causing you to crumple to the floor, clutching your stomach. Through eyes clouded with pain, you manage to make out Hayate's retreating form as he sprints off into the darkness.

"Good," you wheeze.

"Outta the way!" snarls Chikara as her Persona snatches Launcelot with one enormous hand and flings it aside like a toy. Despite the dull throbbing in your chest, you hear yourself recall Launcelot and summon Agathion, which raises a wall of flames in the archway.

"Calm yourself, Chikara," says Taishi, striding forward and halting her rampage with a raise of his hand. "If he's determined to buy time, why not let him play the hero for a bit?" The corner of his mouth twists sadistically. "That fool won't get far on his own. More likely than not he gets himself killed.

"But for now, I think our friend Katsuji deserves every bit of the hero's treatment that he's entitled to, don't you? Meliagaunt!"

With a snap of his fingers, Taishi's Persona raises its arms, and you immediately feel every muscle in your body seize. Agathion vanishes into thin air. Immobile, you topple, rigid, to the cold flagstone face first, and the scent of metal floods your nose as it cracks. Meliagaunt twists one of its hands upwards, and your body leaves the floor, righting itself before the hulking figure of Chikara's Persona.

"Have fun," he says, gesturing to your petrified body. Chikara grins. "Smash 'im, Aggravain!"

Your brain barely registers the first blow, as its impact knocks you straight to the edge of unconsciousness. However, the next one, and the one after that, and the one after that, all hit you with the full force of their impact. Were you not a Persona user, you'd certainly be dead by now, but even your body has its limits. The only thing that keeps you from the sweet release of passing out is the knowledge that as long as you stay conscious, Hayate has a better chance of staying alive. Unfortunately, the same thought seems to be occurring to your assailants.

"C'mon, you sonuva bitch, die already!" screams Chikara as Aggravain continues its assault on your battered frame. Taishi heaves an exasperated sigh. "I'll give you this much: you're much more resilient than I gave you credit for. But at this point, we really are wasting time now. Stand down, Chikara, and let me finish this."

Meliagaunt raises its arms once more, and you collapse to the floor in a broken heap. Beneath you, faint red lines begin tracing the outline of some sort of sigil. As it glows brighter, ghostly black hands erupt from the stone and wrap their wispy fingers around your limbs. The pain wracking your body starts to dissipate, and your vision becomes obscured with a pitch black haze. Is this…is this what dying is like?

There comes a faint sound at the very edge of your perception, like someone yelling into a pillow from very far away. What is that? you find yourself wondering groggily as your fading mind struggles to attach itself to any kind of stimulus. But instead of growing weaker, the yelling becomes louder and louder, resolving itself into something distinctly recognizable:

"EAT SHIT, BUDDY!"

Instantly, the darkness falls away from your eyes, and the myriad hands that had been enveloping your body wither into puffs of smoke. Taishi is facedown on the floor next to you, blood now pooling on his upper lip as well, and an expression of pure hatred etched across his face. The source of the yelling stands above you, his body twisting and ducking madly to avoid Aggravain's massive punches.

"Hayate?" you groan, propping yourself up on one elbow. "What're you doing?"

"Committing suicide, it seems," mutters Taishi, spitting a gob of blood onto the floor and heaving himself back to his feet. "No complaints here, though. It makes things easier to have you all in one place."

His eyes flashing, Taishi clenches his fist and Meliagaunt reappears. Much like you, Hayate's body seizes, and another gesture from Meliagaunt pins him against the wall. Aggravain advances on him and clamps a meaty hand on his throat.

"I…I was gonna run," he says, his voice straining as his lungs struggle to suck air, "run as far I could and never look back. As soon as shit started hittin' the fan…I knew this wasn't for me. I'm not strong. I'm not brave. I'm nothing like you or Mariko or Nisekao."

For a moment, he twists and strains against Aggravain's grasp to no avail.

"But…I dunno. After being a fuckup for so long, you get kinda tired of it, you know? I don't think there's a single person I know that expects a damn thing from me."

Chikara's eyes widen with laughter. "Are you goin' somewhere with this? If you were smart, you woulda kept on running. Mighta given you a fighting chance. But now?" She brings her face up close to his. "You're gonna watch him die. Then you're gonna die, too! And the others waiting upstairs! You get it? You're nothin' but a roach I gotta smash."

Then, strangely, Hayate smiles.

"Yeah, that is what you'd expect, isn't it?"

Without warning, the air around Hayate detonates with such force that it blows Taishi and Chikara off of their feet and sends you tumbling across the floor. A brilliant blue aura surrounds him, bathing the walls of the vault in a ghostly glow. The temperature dives to frigid levels, and frost begins to creep across the stone.

"Like I said, chumps - I'm tired of that shit. I wanna make you squirm a little. PERSONA!"

A card bearing the image of a pair of eyes beholding an open flame explodes before him, materializing into the form of a handsome four-armed knight with brilliant red hair. Clad in a sky-blue doublet and a set of burnished steel pauldrons, it flexes smugly before coming to rest beside Hayate.

"Kay, ever at your service, master," it says with a smooth, lyrical voice. Hayate turns to you.

"Hey, how're you doing?"

He extends an arm and hoists you back to your feet. You're about to say How does it look? but something holds your tongue.

"I'll manage," you say instead.

"Okay, good," he says, looking relieved. "Listen, I know what I just said, but I was really hoping I wouldn't have to do this on my own."

You can almost feel Aggravain's fists pummeling your kidneys as you watch Taishi and Chikara get back to their feet, and you swallow hard.

"All we need to do is get past them, right?" he says.

"I think we can manage that," you reply. "Bifrons!"

The Persona manifests at your side and casts a reticent glance your way.

"Combat, master? Such an uncouth use of my skills."

"Running out of options here," you mutter.

"If you insist. I shall think of it as...tidying up."

Bifrons turns to the Yatabuya, straightening its jacket with a haughty sniff and brandishing its candelabra. With a dismissive flick of its wrist, a twisted black stake of writhing miasma coalesces before Meliagaunt and plunges itself deep into its chest.

A tortured howl rends the dungeon's stagnant air as Meliagaunt claws at the stake, but the more it struggles, the deeper the stake thrusts until it bursts into a plume of smoke. Meliagaunt's head violently snaps backwards and it goes limp, hanging in midair like an expired fish. Taishi doubles over next to it, and Chikara's eyes dilate in shock.

"Bifrons, what was that?" you gasp, regarding the Persona with a mixture of awe and shock.

Bifrons adjusts its cuffs in the manner of someone who had just completed a bothersome chore.

"That…was the extent of the arcane magicks at my disposal, young master. A wretched curse, designed to extinguish the life from any who receive it. Understand, however, that I am normally loathe to perform such an act, but you seemed to be in such distress that I-"

Bifrons is cut short, however, by two sharp red tendrils shooting through its skull. You're allowed only a few moments of grace to see them whip back into the fabric of Meliagaunt's cape before blinding pain erupts inside your skull and nearly takes your legs out from under you. You've barely enough presence of mind to recall Bifrons as your fingers claw at your eyes to make sure that they're still there. You can hear Hayate shout your name, and the air turns cold. It takes an unreasonable amount of strength to finally pull your hands away from your face.

Blinking a few times to clear away the haze, the shapes of Kay and Hayate come into focus. He's trying as hard as he can to fend off the two gangsters, but he's clearly outclassed, and won't be able to keep them off of you and defend himself at the same time. Taishi expertly creates small diversions to attract his attention, letting Chikara and Aggravain land punishing blows in the openings. It's the most courageous thing you've ever seen Hayate do, but not the smartest. If he keeps this up, Chikara's going to cave his ribs in.

With a stab of desperation, you try to reach inside yourself to summon Agathion or Launcelot again, but the throbbing in your head is making it impossible.

"C'mon, you fucking cowards! Quit screwin' around and fight me for real!" screams Hayate. Kay showers Meliagaunt and Aggravain in a spray of ice, freezing them to the floor. "Gotcha!" he shouts in triumph, and crouches down low for a follow-up tackle. Bellowing at the top of its lungs, Kay charges straight at Aggravain. Its head collides with the Persona's thick abdomen - and bounces straight off. Then, much faster than you would expect something so big to move, Aggravain grabs Kay by the skull and flings it across the room with a muffled grunt.

"Dumbass," Chikara says with a twisted smirk, "this is for real."

Aggravain's fist collides with Hayate's side. An audible crack resonates from the walls, and Hayate crumples with a whimper, clutching his side.

"Guhh…Tetsuo…I'm sorry, man. I blew it."

"What're you apologizing for? We did everything we could."

Taishi rolls his eyes and clucks his tongue. "Enough of this." With a snap of his fingers, the ice encasing his feet shatters, and he strolls towards you. "You thought, just because you were Persona users, that it made you capable of anything. How sick would we be if we encouraged such a delusion? Power," he says, resting the heel of his shoe on your temple, "should only be wielded by those willing to explore its possibilities. Attempting an instant-death curse on Meliagaunt was...interesting, to a fault, but ultimately pointless."

"Well, if you're bored, why not try me?"

The sound of a new voice pulls Taishi and Chikara's attention towards the chamber's entrance. Leaning against the stone, slapping an aluminum baseball bat against her palm, is the girl in the sweatshirt, the same one that you and Mariko met during Golden Week.

"You gotta be shittin' me," spits Chikara. "What the hell are you doin' here?"

Chuckling to herself and spinning the bat like a baton, the girl saunters over.

"Curiosity. Wondering why a couple of third years snuck onto the train for a second-year trip. Although...you two've probably missed so many classes by now, you're closer to second years anyways, huh?"

She extends a hand to you and Hayate and hoists you to your feet. She presses something into your hands that looks like a large marble, or some other kind of polished stone.

"Swallow it," she says. "Sorry, no water."

You do as she says, and although it nearly catches in your throat, you find that the aching and soreness vanishes like magic. Surprisingly, Taishi and Chikara do nothing but watch as Hayate chokes his down.

"Listen, you don't wanna waste your time on these guys," she says, jerking her thumb towards the Yatabuya. "I'll help you clean them up so you can get on with terminating the Dreamweaver. Sound good?"

At this point, you find yourself unable to do much of anything except nod dumbly.

"All right, then! Galahad!" she says, banging the tip of her bat on the floor with a clang. Another card comes crashing into the room, materializing into the form of a lithe, figure with a long, ragged scarf wrapped about its neck slouching inside of a huge, wooden chalice. It hangs its head lazily over the rim, gazing sidelong at the girl as if anticipating further directions.

"Just follow my lead," she says, with a backwards glance over her shoulder at you. "I know how to handle them."

"Wait!" you splutter, finding your voice again all at once. "Who are you? You...you know them?"

The girl makes an impatient grimace. "Not really the right time for questions, is it? If you really need to call me something, Nightmare'll work fine."