April 30th, 2012, Makoto vs. The Reverse Phoenix, Afternoon.
Makoto coughed, spattering the dusty ground with flecks of blood. The backlash from channeling Armageddon was immense, a toll on his spirit and body. He stood panting in the center of an apocalypse of his own making.
The once-lush, magically maintained gardens that had been the pride of the Phenex Estate were gone. In their place was a barren, smoldering wasteland, pockmarked with huge, steaming craters.
"Lord Yuki, are you alright?" Grayfia's voice was as composed as ever as she landed gracefully beside him, her white and blue maid uniform a stark contrast to the devastation.
"Yes... I'll be fine," Makoto managed, wiping his mouth with the back of his gloved hand. "Sorry for the trouble."
"No one was injured," Grayfia assured him. "Using the 'invasion' of Miss Irumi as a pretext, I, with the assistance of officers from the Devil Army sent by Lord Asmodeus and—to my surprise—personal servants of the Great King, ensured the complete evacuation of this entire sector of the estate prior to the confrontation."
'We gained no new intelligence on Nyarlathotep's broader plans,' Lucifer's voice was a dissatisfied growl in the shared consciousness.
'Morning Star! The Universe just achieved a monumental victory! Can you not simply be happy for him?'Cendrillon shouted back, exasperated.
'She is not wrong, but Lucifer has a point,' Izanagi interjected, his tone grim. 'We neutralized a weapon, but we learned nothing of the armory, nor the strategy of the general who wields it.'
Before the internal debate could continue, the ground at the epicenter of Armageddon's blast began to glow, then melt. A towering pillar of crimson fire erupted from the earth, clawing at the sky like a damned soul seeking escape.
From this infernal geyser, glowing embers and molten rock cascaded down in a blazing storm.
And from the heart of this chaos, the Reverse Phoenix rose once more, its fiery wings unfurling, its body reconstituted, its essence fed by the very conflagration it had spawned.
"Damnit! Enduring Soul..." Makoto cursed, recognizing the signature ability of a powerful Persona—the ability to recover from a fatal blow once.
"Grayfia, get out of here! Now!" He moved to cover her, the Omnipotent Orb flaring to life, protecting them both from the raining death.
'I have no means of damaging it enough...' Makoto thought, a rare edge of desperation creeping into his mind. His ears were ringing, his breath came in ragged gasps, and his spiritual energy was dangerously depleted.
'You were right, Izanagi... I was too reckless. I bet everything on that one strike.'
'Do not despair,' Kohryu urged. 'The Orb protects you. You can win a battle of attrition.'
'It is weak to ice... Grayfia was competent with ice magic, wasn't she? But this isn't some lesser Shadow... Could she even harm a Reverse Persona?' The thought was a fleeting one, a desperate grasp at a potential ally.
The Reverse Phoenix seemed to sense his wavering resolve. It dipped its talons into its own hollow ribcage, into the cage of trapped, burning fledglings.
Their collective, silent screams of agony and the devastation surrounding them crystallized into a shimmering, golden liquid that coated its claws: the Reverse Phoenix Tears, a substance born of pain and meant only for annihilation.
With its claws now gleaming with this corrupted essence of life, the beast surged forward. It fell upon Makoto with the speed and precision of a falcon in its final, deadly descent.
Grayfia immediately understood that her presence was now a liability. She could not penetrate its defenses, and her proximity only limited Makoto's mobility. She made to fly back, creating distance. As she turned, her eyes caught sight of a man she had never seen before, standing calmly at the edge of the devastation.
He had brown eyes, black hair that stylishly covered his right eye, and wore light blue, elegant clothes. It was Mr. Jun.
The man retrieved a small, familiar bottle from his pocket—a genuine Phoenix Tear, its contents glowing with a soft, healing light. He tossed it lightly in his hand, catching it with a practiced ease, like a baseball player preparing for the perfect pitch.
His eyes narrowed, taking aim, the bottle poised in his grip, ready to be hurled straight at Makoto.
"Catch, young man!" Mr. Jun shouted, his voice brimming with theatrical amusement.
'This will be the start of a truly magnificent friendship, Makoto,' the Crawling Chaos thought, his delight immense. 'A friendship destined to shake the very foundations of worlds.'
Makoto's eyes, sharpened by combat, locked onto the bottle hurtling toward him. Its trajectory was unerring. He barely managed to deflect another vicious, golden-taloned strike—the Reverse Phoenix Tears, being a "positive" healing substance perversely twisted, did not trigger the Omnipotent Orb's defensive response against harmful intent.
The Reverse Phoenix pressed its advantage, its assault a whirlwind of gleaming, deadly strikes.
Without Yoshitsune's full, guiding prowess, wielding the sword to its absolute potential was a struggle. The monster's talons struck like lightning, one finally slipping past his guard and piercing deep into the muscle of his sword arm.
Yet, instead of a killing blow, it seemed to aim to disarm him, to shatter his weapon, as if savoring the struggle, prolonging the hunt.
Gasping against the white-hot pain, Makoto summoned the last dregs of his strength. With a final, defiant roar, he plunged his sword deep into the monster's chest, a desperate move that bought him a single, precious second.
With a desperate lunge, he threw himself to the ground, his good hand snatching the bottle of Phoenix Tears from the air. In one fluid, desperate motion, he brought it to his lips, bit the cork out, and swallowed its contents.
The liquid was fire and ice, a torrent of pure, unadulterated life force that coursed through his ravaged body, knitting flesh, replenishing energy, and clearing his mind in an instant.
'This concoction is... wondrous,' Kohryu observed, his voice filled with awe at the sheer potency.
'Cendrillon, back on stage, everybody!' the dancer persona shouted, her excitement infectious as she felt their power return.
"It is time, Universe! Finish it!" Apollo shouted, though his voice wavered, betraying the fear he could no longer conceal. "I've already lost my truest self to Nyarlathotep! I can't… I can't lose you too!"
The raw, choked admission, filled with a grief centuries old, struck a chord deep within Makoto, fueling his resolve with a new, fierce protectiveness.
Energized, his body humming with the Phoenix's gift, Makoto kicked the Reverse Phoenix with all his might, the force of the blow creating the crucial space he needed. His hand was a blur as it went to his temple, the evoker a familiar, deadly comfort. The sound of shattering glass was the loudest thing in the world.
"COME FORTH! LUCIFER!" Makoto's voice was a command, a declaration that tore through the dimensional barriers, opening a path for the King of Devils to return, for a fleeting moment, to the homeland he had shaped and abandoned.
"I am thou, thou art I." The voice that answered was not Makoto's. It was ancient, proud, and carried the weight of fallen heavens. "From the Universe in thy soul, I am born. I, who have stood unyielding against the God of Law Himself. Gaze upon me now, and bear witness to the majesty of the Demon Lord, Lucifer!"
April 30th, 2012, Phenex Castle, Afternoon.
In the main hall, amidst the panic and the shattered glass, the voice of Zekram Bael cut through the chaos with an authority that was centuries old.
"Rejoice, Devilkind!" he announced, his eyes burning with a fanatic's fire. "Our rightful lord and master has returned!"
It was not a sound they heard with their ears, but a presence they felt in the marrow of their bones, in the very core of their devilish souls. It was an ancestral memory, a recognition of the being who had forged their race from the clay of ambition and sin.
Every single devil in the room, from the lowest servant to the highest lord, felt it, and a profound, terrified silence fell.
What truly frightened Sirzechs, however, was not the staggering, metaphysical presence of the original Lucifer. It was Zekram's reaction. The look on the Great King's face was one of rapture, of a zealot witnessing the return of his god.
'Yuki truly does not comprehend the power he wields,' Sirzechs thought, a cold dread settling in his stomach. 'He doesn't realize that with a single Persona, he can unravel the entire foundation of our society, of our very identity.'
"The original Lucifer?" Sairaorg Bael muttered, forcing a grin despite the strange, drilling pressure in his own heart. "Ah, really an interesting friend you have there, Sona."
On the battlefield, Lucifer, a being of magnificent and terrible beauty, raised a hand toward the heavens. His power surged, a tide of absolute dominance that warped the very fabric of the pocket dimension.
Above him, the sky tore open to birth a new celestial body. A colossal sphere of blinding, pure white light manifested, its radiance so absolute it devoured all other light, casting the ravaged Phenex estate into an eerie, stark twilight. It was a miniature star, a harbinger of both creation and oblivion.
"Morning Star," the Bringer of Light declared, his voice a low, resonant hum that was the antithesis of noise. It was the silence at the end of time. With a casual, dismissive gesture, he sent the star hurtling downward.
The Morning Star met the resurrected Reverse Phoenix in a cataclysm that defied description.
It was not an explosion of fire and force, but an annihilation of concept. The monstrous bird, its form, its essence, its very existence, was unmade in that blinding white light. There was no sound, only a profound, crushing silence as the light consumed everything, and then, just as suddenly, vanished.
When vision returned, the Reverse Phoenix was gone. Not a speck of ash, not a wisp of its malevolent energy remained. The battlefield was scoured clean, a glassy, cratered plain under a mockingly calm sky.
Lucifer's form flickered and then dissolved, his immense presence flowing back into the depths of Makoto's soul.
'A rotting, insignificant creature,' the Morning Star said, his voice dripping with disgust. 'Beneath even my contempt.'
'And I always enjoy seeeeeiing you destroy thiiings,' Fafnir commented, his screech almost gleeful.
'And you always say I AM the one with problems containing myself!' Cendrillon whined.
'You are a girl. You suffer from a chronic need for attention,'Odin stated matter-of-factly.
'Pfft. Philistine.'
'Ryoji, is it gone?' Makoto asked, his body trembling with exhaustion now that the adrenaline was fading.
'Yes,' Thanatos confirmed immediately, his voice certain. 'It has been completely erased. It could not withstand the absolute authority of Lucifer's power.'
Makoto sighed, a long, shuddering breath of profound relief. The immediate battle was over.
"Kudos, young man," Mr. Jun said, a faint, approving smile playing on his lips as he stepped across the glassy ground towards Makoto. "It seems bringing that bottle of Phoenix Tears was a stroke of genius on my part... though I must admit, it was a rather nerve-wracking gamble, watching you nearly lose your arm."
"And you are?" Makoto asked. "It doesn't really matter. Thank you. You saved me there." His mind, even in its exhaustion, was racing.
'That talon strike... it managed to bypass the Omnipotent Orb's defense because it wasn't "harmful" in the conventional sense? Or was it because the Reverse Phoenix Tears are fundamentally "positive" energy, perverted?'
'We were fortunate that abomination was inexperienced, a newborn in terms of combat,' Izanagi analyzed. 'Had it been more adept at wielding its unique properties, the outcome could have been disastrous.'
'If Nyarlathotep succeeds in creating more of these Reverse Personas, we must eliminate them the moment they are discovered,' Kohryu stated, his tone leaving no room for argument. 'Immediately.'
'I believe we all owe Apollo an apology,' Messiah began, his voice gentle. 'We underestimated the threat. His fear was not cowardice, but prescience.'
"My name is Jun," the man said, offering a slight, elegant bow. "It is nice to finally make your proper acquaintance, young man."
"Makoto Yuki," Makoto replied, the formal exchange feeling surreal amidst the devastation. "Nice to meet you, too."
I am Thou. Thou art I. Thou hast established a new bond. Thou shalt have the Universe's blessing when choosing to create Personas of the Jester Arcana.
'Jun?' Apollo's voice was a confused whisper in the communal space. He tried to grasp something, a memory, a feeling associated with that name, but it was like trying to hold smoke. It was as if the name 'Jun' itself had been meticulously erased from the annals of history and memory.
'Do you want to cry some more, Sun God?' Lucifer laughed, the sound darkly amused.
'Oh, I found it so endearing!' Cendrillon cooed.
'Just... no. It's nothing,' Apollo finished, the ghost of a forgotten pain fading away.