Chapter 46
“You forgot about a god?”
Akechi looked at Yu incredulously.
Yu was even more bewildered. “You have a Persona, you’ve seen the Metaverse, a world unknown to ordinary people, and you don’t believe in gods?”
Akechi: …
Yes, he was a staunch atheist. So what?!
Yu called Ren. Akechi watched, dumbfounded, as the call connected. How was he able to make a phone call in the Metaverse?
In the real world, Ren glanced at the caller ID, then walked away from the noisy crowd, finding a quieter spot on a nearby staircase.
“Yu?” Ren asked as he climbed the stairs. “Did you stop Akechi?”
“That’s not important. Ren, I need to ask you something,” Yu said quickly. “When we first visited the Velvet Room, didn’t we drive something out of there?”
Akechi, hearing the strange name, frowned. Velvet Room?
What was that? Were these two having a secret rendezvous behind his back?
“You forgot?” Ren stopped, frowning slightly. “The Velvet Room was controlled by a false god, disguised as Mr. Igor. You drove it away during our first visit. That’s when Lavenza appeared.”
Yu paused. “…Did that really happen?”
“It seems your cognition has been tampered with,” Ren replied. “It’s a god of cognition, a being born from the collective desires of Mementos, like a wish-granting grail. It can manipulate cognition itself. You’re the biggest anomaly in this situation, and since it couldn’t erase you, it altered your memories instead.”
“This current situation is largely its doing. It doesn’t want the Phantom Thieves to win.”
Akechi frowned. “If you knew, why didn’t you tell us sooner?”
“Because I just learned about it from Lavenza,” Ren said calmly, leaning against the railing at the top of the stairs. “She’s the one who knows the most about it.”
Sorry, Lavenza, he had to shift the blame for now.
Yu looked around the dark expanse of Mementos. “It’s in Mementos?”
“Probably deep within.”
Yu and Akechi exchanged glances, then dismissed their Personas, heading towards the depths of Mementos.
“Lavenza told me it’s an evil god created from human cognition. Before you awakened your Persona, Akechi, it infiltrated the Velvet Room and started a game, choosing two opposing players and granting them the Metaverse Navigator to see who would win.”
“The Trickster is me. You were the other player.”
Akechi clicked his tongue. “I was its pawn?”
“I was a pawn too,” Ren replied casually. “But when Yu unknowingly joined the game, it disrupted the balance. Not only did you cease to be my opponent, but the Phantom Thieves’ chances of winning also increased significantly. The god couldn’t tolerate that.”
“It’s actually surprising it’s held back for this long.”
Akechi shot a Shadow that blocked their path, his expression grim.
Walking further, they saw countless cells lining the corridor, filled with people, some familiar, some not. Akechi spotted Shido among them and, while Yu wasn’t looking, quickly fired his gun, but the bullet was stopped by an invisible force.
Yu looked at him disapprovingly.
Akechi clicked his tongue, holstering his gun.
“You can’t kill Shido’s Shadow, Akechi. After being imprisoned by the god, he lost his free will, his mind completely controlled, including his life and death.”
Ren, having heard the gunshot, smirked, teasing Akechi mercilessly.
“Keep taunting me, and I’ll implicate you when I confess. A Phantom Thief leader with a warrant out for his arrest… you’ll be joining me in prison.”
Ren: …
“So you did it on purpose, Ren?” Yu suddenly asked. “You knew Akechi would try to kill Shido, but you didn’t tell him the truth, just to make him fail and get angry?”
Ren: …
“How cruel. Are you sure you like this guy, Narukami?” Akechi sneered, his words like daggers despite his smile. “He might do the same to you someday!”
“Of course not,” Ren replied calmly. “Not everyone deserves such special treatment.”
They passed the prison cells, reaching a large door. Behind it was the Holy Grail, connected by a network of pulsating, vein-like pipelines.
Before Yu and Akechi could approach, a loud rumble shook the ground, the entire Metaverse trembling violently, almost knocking them off their feet.
The red pipelines and walls pulsed and expanded rapidly.
“What’s happening?!” Akechi shouted.
Ren, hearing the commotion, frowned. “What’s wrong?”
Before they could answer, he felt the tremors, instinctively crouching down to steady himself. He watched as black structures erupted from the ground, the red pipelines twisting and distorting, staining the sky a bloody red.
Ren’s eyes widened slightly.
“There’s an earthquake! The buildings are distorting!” Yu said, holding onto the wall, trying to explain to Ren. “The Grail is gone!”
“I know,” Ren said. “It’s appeared in the real world.”
“What?!”
“I’ll go check it out with the others. You two be careful and get out of Mementos as soon as possible!”
Ren hung up, rushing towards his teammates.
In his past life, after their failed attempt to defeat the Holy Grail, the god had erased the Phantom Thieves from public cognition. Everyone claimed they were fake, and they vanished, Ren confronting the false god in the Velvet Room.
But in this life, thanks to Yu’s unexpected arrival, they hadn’t vanished. Instead, the false god had appeared earlier than before.
As expected, changing the established events had altered the future. He couldn’t rely entirely on his past life’s experiences.
But he was still grateful for Yu’s presence.
Emerging from the collapsing Mementos, Yu and Akechi were met with a downpour of blood-red rain.
Buildings that only existed in Mementos materialized in the real world. Akechi’s Phantom Thief outfit remained, but everyone seemed oblivious, walking around as if nothing was amiss.
The world was a bizarre and unsettling mix of reality and cognition.
“What is this?” Akechi looked around in disgust. “Where are Amamiya and the others?”
“Probably up there,” Yu pointed at a winding path leading upwards. “I see the Velvet Room door.”
“Huh?” Akechi looked puzzled. “I don’t see anything.”
Yu didn’t explain, simply smiling faintly. “It’s a blue door that only Ren and I can see.”
Akechi: …
“How did you two end up with such protagonist-like abilities? That Velvet Room is truly unfortunate.”
Akechi followed Yu, running up the winding path, which resembled a monstrous spine. The higher they climbed, the more certain Akechi became that Yu was right. There were no Shadows on this path, indicating it had been cleared.
They reached the top unimpeded, pushing open the door. Yu immediately heard Futaba’s frantic voice.
“You’re finally here!” Futaba shouted, her fingers flying across her keyboard. “Joker’s been afflicted with Fear! Can you do anything?!”
“Fear?” Yu looked at Ren, who sat slumped against a pillar, his head down, his body trembling slightly.
The Phantom Thieves were battling the massive god in the sky, too preoccupied to use a Fear-relieving item on Ren. They were about to send someone when Yu arrived, making him the best option.
Yu walked over to Ren, kneeling beside him, concern in his eyes.
“I’ll remove the status ailment for you.”
As a wielder of the Fool Arcana, Yu had access to various Personas, including those with healing abilities.
But just as he was about to summon a Persona, Ren looked up, his eyes flashing red.
…Red?
Ren was indeed afflicted with Fear, a severe case, reliving his death in his mind.
Not his disappearance in the red rain, but his true death from his past life, alone in Maruki’s Palace, buried beneath the rubble.
He had chosen that false happiness, and he would be the one to destroy it. He had entered Maruki’s Palace with this resolve, gambling everything for his friends’ future, even death couldn’t stop him.
So…
Fear didn’t paralyze him. It fueled his rage.
Yu was caught off guard as Ren grabbed his collar, a searing heat pressing against his lips, surprisingly intense in the cold winter air.
It was a kiss, a fierce, almost violent kiss.
Yu’s eyes widened in shock.
“Waaaaah!” Futaba screamed, drawing everyone’s attention.
Yu tried to push Ren away, but failed. Ren’s strength was amplified by the Fear status, and Yu fell backward, Ren’s grip tightening.
The world fell silent, the Phantom Thieves, momentarily stunned, were struck by the god’s attack.
Akechi, who had been watching, summoned Loki, his expression impassive, a vein throbbing in his forehead.
“You two idiots!” he roared. “This isn’t the time for romance!”
