Persona: Devil Summoner

From that mysterious flying saucer came the voice of Futaba, which had been processed by the broadcasting device and had a slightly metallic texture.

Inside this wonderful flying saucer-shaped persona, Sakura Futaba seemed to be really floating in a sea of ​​data. While sitting in mid-air, her hands, eyes, and legs were all wrapped in various data. These data appeared in a light green color, just like the special effects in The Matrix.

Just look at Futaba, who was sitting in a pile of data, doing something slightly, and suddenly a hemispherical defense barrier opened up on the top of the fiery pyramid! The outer wall of the light green ball of light was full of strange words that people could not understand.

Boom!

Before everyone could react, the Sphinx's claws, which were as white as leaves, had already landed on the protective shield! There was a crisp sound, and the monster's claws were actually bounced off by the emerald protective shield!

The blow that was powerful enough to destroy the Mind Palace was deflected by Futaba's defense shield! Perhaps this just means that Futaba has regained her spirits and her mind is no longer fragile.

Sphinx Isise Wakaba knew that this ability was troublesome, so she didn't attack forcefully. She flapped her huge wings and her body immediately flew up. She continued to hide in a position where no one could attack her, ready to dive at any time.

"Damn it, he ran away again! Come down and beat him!"

Ryuji Sakamoto couldn't help but burst into cursing.

"Come down? - Guys, I have an idea!"

Sakura Futaba's voice shouted like this, and then the flying saucer moved to the corner of the top of the pyramid. A beam of light was emitted from the disc below, and emerald glowing letters were seen flying below. In less than a minute, a crossbow appeared out of thin air!

This weapon was the only effective tool for defending and attacking cities before the invention of artillery. It was a wooden mechanical crossbow as big as eight or nine dragons. Although there was no proof, everyone present believed that this thing was definitely very powerful!

"Great! Just use this to knock it down, right!"

This kind of work that doesn't require any brainpower is what Ryuji really likes the most. Of course, he rushed over to do this kind of physical work. What else? One is Morgana, who is half human and half cat. From the physique point of view, she looks like a child. The other is Takamaki An, a delicate girl and a model. Amamiya Ren, who doesn't look as strong as himself...

Besides, he is the team leader. How can he be asked to do such hard work?

This is such a huge crossbow, even the operating spring is almost as big as Long Si, so it is of course very difficult to turn it.

Don’t be fooled by the powerful weapons in games. However, it is extremely difficult to operate them in real life without training.

Moreover, if you have not received the corresponding training, it would be almost impossible to use this thing to aim at the Sphinx flying in the air.

"Long Si! Give up aiming! Adjust the angle of the crossbow! Load the arrow! Leave the rest to me!"

Amamiya Ren shouted loudly to Ryuji. People like Ryuji don't like to use their brains the most. When he heard someone giving orders, of course he would obey them immediately.

Seeing Ryuji preparing, Amamiya Ren nodded and took off his mask, and the spirit bird Garuda that had appeared before appeared again! This is the mount of the legendary Indian god, and its speed is naturally amazing. I am afraid that it can compete for the fastest mythical beast among the known personas.

Amamiya Ren turned over and jumped onto the bird's back, and took over Takamaki An's submachine gun - her submachine gun had more ammunition, and Takamaki An preferred to use fire magic, so she still had bullets left.

Sphinx Yi Se Ruo Ye was circling around the pyramid, looking for an opportunity. Suddenly, he saw a figure flying out from the pyramid. It was a black man standing on the back of a big bird with a gun in his hand. He heard a few bangs and Sphinx Yi Se Ruo Ye felt a pain on his face. Several bullets landed on his face!

Although this attack did not cause much damage, it was extremely insulting! It is said that you should not hit someone in the face, so how could Amamiya Ren's provocation of shooting her in the face not make her angry? Isshiki Wakaba flew into a rage on the spot and pounced on Amamiya Ren.

However, although Amamiya Ren was just a thin boy, he had never practiced athletics, and he couldn't fly, but the Garuda under him was no ordinary creature! He flapped his wings and quickly distanced himself from him.

Weapons like crossbows are too heavy and can only be used when fixed. They are also difficult to turn and aim.

Then... just reverse the idea. Instead of aiming the crossbow at the enemy, guide the enemy to stand on the crossbow's attack path!

When Long Si saw Amamiya Ren flying towards him with the Sphinx following behind her, he understood immediately!

The heavy crossbow must naturally be equipped with equally huge and heavy crossbow arrows. Those are huge arrows that are thicker and heavier than Long Si’s head. Once launched, the power cannot be underestimated!

"Come, try this!".

Long Si laughed wildly, swung the hammer in his hand, and smashed the spring that fixed the crossbow string into pieces!

laugh!

Like a black laser, the flying crossbow arrow accurately hit the Sphinx that was chasing Amamiya Lian! Amamiya Lian pressed the bird's head and immediately avoided the route of the crossbow, but the Sphinx suffered a disadvantage due to its size. Although it reacted, it was not realistic for such a huge body to avoid the crossbow arrow...

Hit by the huge crossbow, the Sphinx let out a mournful cry and fell heavily on the pyramid!

"Now! It's time for the general attack!".

Sakura Futaba's voice came again, and everyone felt that they were full of energy after hearing her voice! It was as if they were given a layer of strong buff.

Everyone was already annoyed by the flying Sphinx, but now that she had landed on the ground and was within their reach, how could they have any mercy? They immediately raised their weapons, summoned personas, and used all they could. For a moment, fire and lightning intersected, winds tore apart, and powerful God-given fists, swords, whips, hammers, etc., all hit in a round!

"Shuang-Ye-!!! You actually! You actually dare to resist your mother!"

The defeated Sphinx had a ferocious expression, a look of pain, and a fierce look on his face.

A green light shone from the flying saucer, and Futaba fell to the ground. She was wearing a black tights with green lines that looked like cyber technology. She said calmly, "No, you are not my mother. You are just a shadow born from my own fragility."

"Futaba, how dare you!!!".

Sphinx Isshiki Wakaba wanted to attack again, but with the Phantom Thieves in the way, how could she let her do whatever she wanted? !

"persona! Melchizedek!"

Amamiya Ren once again summoned the Mechanical Archangel that she had summoned before, with both fists raised high. The mechanical wings behind her spewed out powerful propulsive flames. Like a hero in a special effects drama, the Mechanical Archangel took off like a cannonball and fiercely bounced off the claws that Isshiki Wakaba swung with all her might when she was dying!

“I can’t accept…”

Isshiki Wakaba was already attacked by a giant ballista, losing the ability to fly, and was severely beaten by the Phantom Thieves. Now, the attack was blocked by the archangel. The sphinx, which was originally climbing on the top of the pyramid, lost its balance and fell to the ground! It was hit by the uneven outer wall of the pyramid all the way. Finally, it lost its strength and lay in a piece of hot sand, turning into black mud and returning to the sea of ​​​​people's hearts...

Sakura Futaba lowered her head, and an uncontrollable look of sadness emerged in her eyes.

Even if it is a false image of a mother, it is born out of one's own mood. It is impossible to say that there is no emotion at all.

"Mother······"

She murmured softly, her crystal tears sparkling, and she herself did not notice that in the tears sparkling in the corners of her eyes, her mother's figure was faintly reflected.

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 343: The ending has a big explosion, but it is standard

The palace is the product of a twisted person's distorted perception of a certain place in reality.

Since it is a product of cognition... then naturally, you can also see the person you are thinking about...

As the twisted tomb guardian Isshiki Wakaba fell, behind Futaba, the image of a professional woman in work clothes emerged.

She had the same face as the Sphinx I had seen before, but her temperament was different. She was calm and elegant, with a scholarly air. Anyone could guess her identity at once: She was Futaba's biological mother, Isshiki Wakaba.

Perhaps this is the normal image of Isshiki Wakaba. The twisted monster I saw before was just a combination of the impressions that Futaba had been deliberately instilled in her when she was a child.

If you analyze it carefully, it is not difficult to think of the flaws. Under normal circumstances, even if a mother really wrote a suicide note full of resentment towards her child, would anyone read it out in front of the child? And at a funeral. Even if it was really read out, would anyone say harshly to such a young child: "You killed your mother"?

It is no exaggeration to say that any adult with normal moral principles would not do this. On the contrary, since they did this, they must have a purpose for doing so.

From the previous recognition of Futaba's performance, it can be seen that Futaba herself actually has some doubts deep in her heart. She also suspects whether these men in black came here deliberately to mess with her mentality, but because she is too young, fear and helplessness finally distort her thoughts and make her dare not think about the truth.

However, it is different now.

She found out about the Phantom Thief through some channel. Huh? What channel is that? The answer is eavesdropping.

Futaba eavesdropped on the Leblanc Cafe, and that's why she accidentally heard that the Phantom Thieves were actually Leblanc's group.

Then, with her hacking skills, it would be easy for her to find Amamiya Ren.

At first, she just wanted to entrust the Phantom Thief to steal her heart, but later she refused to go out, so the Phantom Thieves had to persuade her in every way, because if the door of her room was not opened, just like the time with Madarame, a door of the heart that could never be opened would appear in the palace.

Thanks to Amamiya Ren and the others' tireless lobbying, Futaba was finally forced to make up her mind, which led to the scene where she yelled at everyone to steal her heart.

Futaba, who had made up her mind, finally had the courage to face her inner demons.

And after the clouds cleared and the sun came out...what I finally saw was the mother in my real memory.

"You've grown up, Futaba."

Just one sentence and Futaba felt her nose sore and she was speechless. She finally managed to squeeze out the word "Mom" and was about to throw herself into her arms.

However, the cognitive Isshiki Wakaba took a step back and shook her head: "That's not right. Futaba, your destination is not with me."

As she spoke, she raised her chin in the direction of the Phantom Thieves. Sakura Futaba's running movement suddenly stopped, and her slender body kept running and stopped on the spot. After a long while, she responded softly, lowered her head and said nothing.

Isshiki Wakaba smiled at her calmly: "Okay, go back to where you should go. Thank you for remembering my original appearance, mother, I will always watch over you."

"kindness."

Futaba let out another soft sound, and behind her, Isshiki Wakaba's body gradually disappeared.

Takamaki An couldn't bear to see this kind of farewell scene. She stretched out her hand to Sakura Futaba, but before Futaba could call out "Futaba", she heard Sakura Futaba's tone of frustration but with some awareness. She whispered, "Let's go... I'm tired..."

She said, and walked back the way she came.

Perhaps it was because she was the owner of the palace. When she had the thought of "going back", her body disappeared while moving.

“Treasure, treasure…ah…”

Morgana has always been particularly interested in secret treasures. Now that he has defeated the guardian of the palace, he will of course rush over to confirm the secret treasure.

In the battle just now, the coffin containing the secret treasure had been knocked away and now lay on the ground. The lid was opened, revealing a dark space. It was obvious that there was nothing inside.

"Ah? Nothing?"

Although Long Si is not very concerned about the secret treasure, he is still very curious when he sees this situation...

"I understand! Because the secret treasure here is Futaba herself! Since she has left, the secret treasure has of course disappeared - and, everyone, let's run!"

As soon as Morgana opened his mouth, everyone felt the heavens and the earth shake, as if to confirm his words.

After all, the owner of the palace in reality personally entered his own palace and awakened his persona in the palace, and also defeated the nightmare he had been having for a long time... With so many special circumstances combined, it would not be surprising if the palace collapsed at any time!

Everyone looked at each other, and they all saw the same word written in each other's eyes - run!

They no longer wanted to recall how they returned to reality. It was definitely not a pleasant experience.

There is a joke that goes, it took four hours to climb up a mountain, but only ten minutes to get down. Why? I didn’t stand firmly and fell down!

The same goes for the Phantom Thieves. The earthquake just now has clearly told everyone what a critical situation it is now! The pyramid has begun to collapse, and the flying dust is rising like a sandstorm! The bricks and stones at the foothold are shattered and broken like dandelions!

"Ahhhh!"

No one cared about their image anymore. They shouted and screamed, took steps and tried to escape!

It's just like in the classic survival RPG, the protagonist goes through numerous hardships and dangers and finds out the final conspiracy, which is often accompanied by a base explosion or ruins collapse, highlighting the ending to create a tense atmosphere for you.

No one had ever tried what it would feel like to be caught in a palace collapse, but no one wanted to try.

The few of them didn't care about anything else and fled all the way down along the edge of the pyramid. The dust raised by the collapsed building behind them seemed to be chasing them like an indescribable monster!

The only thing to be thankful for is probably that Futaba has already left the palace... otherwise, with her physique, she would definitely not be able to escape if she was dragged into this!

"Next time, next time! Next time I must find a good escape route before dealing with the palace owner!!!"

Long Si roared with all his might, broke through the layers of sand waves, and rushed into the blue sky.

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 344: Feeling the Differences in the World

After returning to reality from the collapsed pyramid, several members of the Phantom Thieves fell ungracefully on the floor of their boss Sakura's house.

"Is this the first time we have left the palace in such a mess?"

Ryuji Sakamoto was lying on the floor, and on his back were the equally embarrassed Takamaki An and Amamiya Ren, both of them were also twisted and pressed on this humanoid meat pad.

Above the three people, Morgana, in cat form, stood proudly. There is a so-called "cat back up law" circulating on the Internet, which is jokingly called "the prototype of a perpetual motion machine." It says that no matter what posture a cat falls in, it can always land on the ground with its back facing up. This is about the agility of cats.

As for the prototype of the perpetual motion machine, someone suggested: Well, let's tie two cats together with their backs facing each other and throw them down. Since Cat A and Cat B both have to keep their backs facing backwards, wouldn't they be able to keep spinning before landing?

Apart from this funny idea full of juvenile fantasy, the flexibility of cats in the minds of the public can be seen. Except for the time when Jin Cheng forced a large amount of money and treasures on the cat, which made the cat unable to move, where else have we seen Morgana in a state of embarrassment?

The current location of the crowd was in the corridor outside Futaba's room. Several people struggled to get up. Futaba's door was not closed. Through the crack of the door, they could see what was going on inside: Futaba's room was very consistent with the Internet's stereotype of otakus. It was filled with black garbage bags, and there was only a bed and a computer. The thick curtains were drawn, and visibility in the room was very low. In the darkness, Futaba could be vaguely seen sitting at the head of the bed, yawning.

"Are you okay, Futaba-chan?"

Takamaki An asked with concern. She was already quite maternal, and coupled with Futaba's tragic background, she couldn't help but feel pity for her. Moreover, Futaba was also very cute and too thin, giving people the feeling of a younger sister in literary works. How could this not arouse her maternal instinct? !

“Hmm…ah…”

Sakura Futaba yawned, looking exhausted. It must be said that Sakura Futaba's physical strength is also in line with people's impression of otaku. Most people just feel exhausted after coming out of the palace, but Futaba can hardly open her eyes!

She looked around, her dazed eyes fixed on Gao Juanxing's face and body. She examined them several times, and uttered in a half-asleep voice, "It's so big!"

"Why--".

When Ryuji and Lian heard this comment, they both involuntarily turned their eyes to Takamaki An. Morgana was furious, and flexibly climbed onto Amamiya Lian's shoulders, jumped into the air, kicked Ryuji in the face with both feet, and slapped Lian Lian in the face with both claws, directly achieving a double kill!

"You two, please be serious! Don't look at Ms. Xing like that, you bastards!"

“You are…”

Maybe the noisy atmosphere here irritated Futaba? Tears came out of her eyes because of yawning. She looked at everyone with her big tearful eyes, and seemed to have barely reacted.

"The Phantom Thieves, right? I said I would help you deal with Medjed..."