*BOOM*PUFH...*Each strike heavier than the other, a strange echoing in this endless place.
'This feeling, what's echoing... it is no sound. What is this? They are... Memorise, but...'
*BOOM* The being witnessed as Feral's from, after each blow, fading just slightly more, until even the naked eye could see it.
'This... it is not enough. Wh-!!?" Yet its thoughts were silenced once again. The ripples spreading everywhere returned.
'This is!? The echoes. Received, extended, returned– they are... all of them... even that monster-like thing.
To work in perfect sync even with this unrhythmic and unusual flow, even if they were one before– how? This is just insane.'
"Insane, huh?" Original humed the words.
"What?"
"No, I can't read minds. Just a trick we saw, I learned it. But you're right, this is, Feral is– insane." But as those words uttered. Everything stopped.
Feral's fist froze mid-air. His face, his eyes— strange—as he looked down into Persona's terrified gaze.
"Brother, do you remember– no, why am I asking you obviously wouldn't. Sigh... Let me tell you then...
The moment your powers awoke— no, the moment you first revealed them to me— my discouraging words–
'Persona, those masks, they do hold strength but... be wary, too many of them and you forget the face beneath...'
Hah, the first time I warned you– and the first time I heard you scoff. Yet, what I saw... Such a bright and unconcerned smile. Your words, the scene, it's all so vivid...
'If that ever happens, I won't have to fear after all, Brother, you will just crush them all!' "
As Feral's wordes finished his fist reached into the sky.
'This feeling... it is the same...' The being recoginsed the same fist Monster was about to unleash on the world.
"My words have already come true, and now it is time for yours, Brother."
"In this hand, in this arm..." As he looked into Persona's eyes, the fist was brought down, with the same, no, with something even greater than Monster did before.
"There is the power..." *Clang* A chain... and Feral's voice echoed just before the explosion occurred, and dense dust rose into this endless space, the Altar the galaxy and the being's eye all cover.
'How is this...' To completely submerge an endless space into tremors with such ease.
'Even if it's your own world, displaying strength greater than your real would give an unnatural feel, but... I don't feel that– no, honestly, this one might have felt... held back...'
The moment the dust settled, the scene... Feral and Persona, they were in the same place but... the Altar below... it completely vanished, and just before gravity could react, the Altar reappeared under them, like nothing happened, everything restored.
"So your world was a restorative one, but then doesn't that mean... even the boy's face... those masks..." Yes, even Persona's mask was restored, his face was unharmed and fine just like before.
'Then did he.... fail?'
"Fail? Why are you still doubting?" Hearing Original the giant eye squinted.
'I don't like this guy reading me...' Just as its thoughts unfolded.
*Cr...crk... kr...Crack* Persona's unharmed face– no, the mask split. White cracks spread like lightning across its surface.
"He... He did it... how..."
"No. Not yet. Don't be impatient—let it play out." Just as Original said, the mask shattered, but... the face, the voice beneath, it was not Persona's, not yet.
"Hmh?" But then even Original blinked with wide eyes.
From the mask... shards—sixteen in all—white fragments flung outward, some large, some small. Each flew without delay into one of the seventeen of them… each but one. That lone shard, with no body to claim it, drifted… falling, swallowed by the abyss beneath.
"What… was that?" None dodged. The shards felt familiar, harmless. And when they touched, they shattered harmlessly. Everyone, even Feral, froze. Until a voice rose.
"Who… what is this place? I am Leon, who—"
*Boom* Thought the voice sounded much like a child's... Feral did not care.
"You are not him... Get out of my sight!" The same scene repeated just much easery now, the same strikes the same cracks the same shards... but still just another voice. Feral's face twisted.
"Do... " *Boom*
"Not..." *BOOM*
"Annoye..." *BOOM*
"ME!!" *Shater...*
But... again the same...
"Who are you? My name and title, Princess of-" *Boom* And again...
"I AM THE SON OF-" And again... it did not matter if it was a boy or a girl, a child, a noble or nameless, it was all the same, Feral's response was all the same.
"I am..."
*BOOM* "I don't give a fuck who you are! My Brother... give me my Brother..."
"Wh–What are you saying...?" Each and every mask, this confusion, they all had it, how could they not, just as they awoke, someone was aiming a strike, yet still they could sense no danger. *BOOM*
"SHUT THE FUCK UP AND GIVE ME MY BROTHER!!!" Over and over again, the others, everyone stood still and silent.
'Persona...' Original's gaze lowered. 'So many masks. I– I am sorry. It took too long.
You were drowned under so many faces, suffered for far too long.' From the beginning, reviving Persona was a part of his plans, but...
This exceeded expectations. They could revive him with memory and soul alone after all, they are "just" personalities, but the one revived wouldn't be the exact one who died... so right now the only thing he could do, wait for Feral to succeed.
'ORIGINAL!' But in the moment as his mind wandered away, a problem arose.
'Hmh? Reason? Sorry, I wasn't paying attentio. What is the problem?'
'The body... it held out longer thanks to Monster strengthening it, but I can't keep this up for much longer!'
'Ah... everyone is suppressing themselves almost to sleep already. It's just Feral, he is using too much force, but... I can not stop him. Please endure it for a little while longer. He will, it will soon be finished.'
'I... I understand.'
'Thank you...'
"This... I had enough of this." *Clang*Clank* Chains...
"...!" Original's eyes widened, "Monster!"
"I know." And even Monster responded in haste, his hand reached to the back, in that direction, the darkness at the edge, a door, a huge gate appeared, a gate leading to his own world.
"GIVE
The same scene, Feral's hand in the air.
ME
The same air, the same pressure.
MY
Yet still something different.
BROTHER!!!" A concentrated force, the strike, the dust rose, yet this time it was not infinite, this time even the Altar did not disappear, but a crater was formed, a space that did not regenerate.
"F-Feral? Ugh... What's happening?" A face, a voice that is familiar, it was a body and the face of them, the face that they took up.
"He did it... he actually did it..."
"Yes. There is nothing he'll fail at." Even Original smiled, just a little.
But someone did not...
"No."
"Feral?" Original instantly reacted to the word.
"This face.... this voice. I know it very well.
A face for us... a face directed at the world, to protect them– to protect us.
From the very damn beginning, it was already a sacrifice.
A damned sacrifice." His voice, why was it so– calm...
*Clank*Clatter*Rattle* Chains. Too many chains... Original's face twisted.
"Monster!!" The gates flung inward, but still for now only red light came out.
"Shut up! I am already prepared."
"Brother… sacrifice is for when there's no other path. But Persona—your brother—I am strong." Calm and certain.
"Sacrifice is unnecessary.
Let me show you the strength I possess."
"Feral, calm yourself, you shouldn't use that!!" Original sounded more like Feral right now than Feral himself.
"Do not worry, I am calm." But Feral's fist still rose into the sky. "In this moment, the strength I posse-"
"B–Brother...?" But in that moment, Feral froze once again. The words, the sound, the voice...
Cracks, not just on the face but all around... It shatered in a breath with such ease it seemed wrong, and benith it– nothing...
White.
From up here it was only nothing. A white, the same white as the Altar... there was nothing, no one saw anything, no one but one...
The one at the deepest pit, his face looking up at someone who is beneath him, someone who is both younger and weaker, yet he could not help but admire.
"Persona?" Feral's voice was soft, so soft that the incredible energy gathering dispersed like nothing.
"Br–Brother...?" The white— a formless, eyeless, mouthless thing—looked up at him. Then, from his pride, it gained eyes. From his admiration, a smile. From his strength, skin, and muscle. A reflection, a mirror depicting the only one, his only one.
"It is really you but– how..." Feral– no, everyone was stunned, he did not strike nor did anything... yet the mask shattered on its own and beneath it was him.
There was only one who could reflect everything, only one who could take a form even as nothing.
"Ugh, Brother... my head hurts like hell, but... but if it's you... it seems my plan succeeded."
"Plan?"
"Ugh, ah, yes." Persona rubbed his dizzy head, but was still almost laughing.
"It was simply annoying to be watched so closely, faking all those little things. So I thought—what if I stack a few masks, make it so my real thoughts couldn't be seen? Wouldn't I be free? But that wasn't enough because I was still bothered. So I put on a blank one and I gave it one purpose: forget some things and remember others when it died. With reincarnation active, slowly, it would go insane. Watching madness isn't fun, right? They would leave us be sooner."
"Sooner?"
"Yeah, and if it went through it all and formed a new personality… I gave it a little power to help us survive. An Echo. Heh. Maybe it got out of hand—my head feels like exploding—but my safety worked too."
"Safety?"
"Yeah–yeah. Meeting more than half of you would activate an echo pulling my memories back. It broke me free.
Masterfully crafted, don't you think? One of my great prides. I really scammed everyone just by hiding awa—"
*BOOM*
"Guh! Hey—! The hell you doing!? It doesn't hurt, but it still stings! Did you forget? Shouldn't you praise me or something why hit me?"
"Praise? I am angry it should hurt, what the fuck were you thinking fooling even us!?"
*BOOM* Persona's head couldn't even get out of the dust before it was shoved back into the broken Altar.
"Insane– these two." Original muttered, though his heart was light.
"Insane..."
'One brother who fooled everyone— even his other selves. Another, who believed his brother strong enough to crush eternity, yet still smiled when proven right, but couldn't help and hide his joy in violence.'
"These two... they truly are insane."
"Don't block my punches, you weakling. Let me knock some sense into you!"
"Fuck you, who would let you smash them in the face!?"
"Feral, enough, I want to ask Persona something."
"Hmh? Fine..." At Original's words, Feral stood up and took a step back.
"Ugh, finally this animal got off me, si-" Before Persona could stand up, he flew across the Altar.
"Fuck! Really, what the hell is wrong with you!?"
"Hundred..." Following him, Feral leapt from the crater that still refused to heal.
"Hund—wait, did you just smash me in the face to make it even…?"
"..." Feral glanced to the side.
"You bastard! I didn't want to stop to your standard today, but fine—I'll beat you down."
"Don't you think it will be the other way around!?"
"Sigh, before you two continue..." Original appeared between them. "Persona. I'm glad you're back. But something's wrong. Your energ. It unstable, can't you feel it?"
"Huh? Now that you mention it, yeah. Like glass shards under my skin."
"Hmh.. those shards, they weren't released last time." Original put a hand to his chin.
"Should I smash them out of his face?"
"You just shut up for now!" Persona returted at Feral's remark.
"Can you release them?"
"Hmh? I think so..." Persona closed his eyes. Not even a moment pased and sixteen shards of white light burst forth, flying true. Each found its target all the same, but now... the moment they reached their targets and shattered on contact, everyone's eyes opened wide.
"Monster!?" Original instantly turned around.
"What, I've been standing here all this time." Original's brows frowned. He, too, knew, but there was no other explanation for this feeling. A feeling that everyone recognizes in an instant...
"Sigh. Fine, for now, Flux."
"Yes?" The child-like voice, the one sitting at the edge, witnessing everything with a smile on his face.
"Go bring him here... the new member of our family."