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Shadow Kamoshida turned.
He'd felt it before he saw it — the shift in the room's atmosphere, the change in the Palace's ambient light, heavy, and hot.
His eyes found Ann, the real one.
Then his expression did something complicated — recognition curdling into contempt.
"Takamaki," he said. "The real one. What a disappointment."
"Yeah," Ann said. "I've been hearing that my whole life."
Carmen rose behind her — full height, presence filling the chamber, the cognitive girls scattering to the walls. Carmen looked at Kamoshida with distain.
"Agi!" Ann and Carmen shouted in unison as a ball of fire manifested in front of Carmen launching foward.
Meanwhile, Ann's whip struck the cognitive clone of her, severing it.
Shadow Kamoshida stepped back in fear.
(As did Ryuji)
"Guards—"
"Skull!" Ren said.
Ryuji was already moving. Captain Kidd materialized above him as he swept his mace in a wide arc, catching the two guards that had emerged from the far doors before they could fully form. Lightning cracked across the chamber.
Shadow Kamoshida looked around the room and the burning guards.
Watching Shiho cutting through his cognitions and shadows with precise, unhurried strikes.
And Ryuji laughing as Captain Kidd cleared the far door.
Ann, who was walking toward him through the dissipating Shadow energy without hurrying with a cold face.
At Ren, who was watching him, grinned — level, patient, giving nothing away.
Then Shadow Kamoshida made a decision.
He ran.
Not with dignity. Not with the exit of a king.
He simply turned tail and fled, his cape streaming, his crown clattering sideways as he went, stumbling through the door.
Ryuji stared. "He just. Left."
"Shadows retreat when the odds turn against them," Morgana said. "He's not gone. Just regrouped."
"I'm going to castrate him." Ann said.
.
.
.
Ren, Ryuji, and Morgana began slightly shaking.
Shiho simply nodded as if what she said wasn't horrifying.
"Let's head back. We have gotten nothing done from all these awakenings." Morgana sighed with a chuckle.
"Well at least our group has grown." Ren reasoned.
Suddenly there was a sulfur like scent spreading through the air.
"Ugh, gross!!!" Ann yelped, pinching her nose.
---
Two floors down, in a chamber
Ren identified it before they opened the door — the specific quality of a Shadow that had been sitting in one place for a very long time, accumulating something. Not patroling.
Morgana's ears flattened before they'd even touched the door.
"There's something in there," he said unnecessarily.
Ren opened it.
The chamber was large and dim and inexplicably contained, in its center, a throne made entirely of what appeared to be a large ornate toilet, upon which sat a massive lethargic demon. It had a crown. It had, against all reason, a robe. It sat with the posture of something that had not moved voluntarily in some time and was not planning to start.
The group stood in the doorway.
"Why?" Ryuji said.
"Belphegor," Morgana said. "Demon of sloth. He embodies stagnation. People who have given up. People who stay in situations they know are wrong because moving feels impossible."
More silence.
Ann said quietly: "But why is it on a toilet..."
"Humanities collective conciousness sure is something." Ren groaned.
Suddenly Belphegor opened one eye.
It looked at them with the specific contempt they were used to seeing from the eyes of the adults they usually deal with.
Then it raised it hand, very slowly, and the chamber shook with the weight of it.
"Oh this is gross," Ryuji said. "This is so gross. The smell. What am I even —,"
"Skull, come on." Ren said.
"I know, I know, fighting."
---
Belphegor fought the way it looked like it would fight — grunting and groans and twitching as it cast its spells. The floor cracked where and boomed beneath the 'throne' with it. The chamber walls shuddered.
It was not fast. But was very difficult to hurt.
"Physical attacks aren't doing much," Morgana said, slashing at its side and watching the damage simply absorb. "It's resistant."
"Curse?" Ren said.
"Try it I guess. "
"Arsène! Eiha!"
The curse hit and Belphegor flinched — the first real reaction they'd gotten from it. Not much. But something.
"Curse works," Ren said.
"Kind of. Limited SP," Morgana warned.
Ann had been hanging back near the chamber entrance, Carmen present behind her but not yet deployed — watching the fight with her jaw set and her arms folded, cataloguing. Learning.
"Carmen," she said. "Agi."
The fire hit Belphegor's left side and produced a sound from it that was not pain exactly but was the sound of something excessively annoyed.
"Fire works too," Ann said before she fell on her bottom.
Shiho dashing over to protect her.
"Good," Ren said. "Keep it up! Dove! Protect her!"
They worked at it systematically — curse and fire wearing at the Shadow's considerable endurance while Ryuji and Shiho kept it from advancing on the group, Morgana healing when needed, Ren managing the tempo with the particular attention of someone who was learning in real time how to run a fight rather than just survive one.
Belphegor went down with the slowly— not a crash, just a long heavy descent, the throne cracking beneath it, the chamber exhaling before the disgusting scent faded and the shadow burst into shadows, vanishing.
"Ann—" Shiho looked toward her immediately.
"I'm okay," Ann said. "I'm okay. I just—" She put a hand to her chest. "Everything hit at once. The awakening, the fights, all of it."
Morgana was beside her in a moment. "She needs to get out of the Metaverse. The first run after awakening drains heavily. She's not injured, just depleted."
"Can you walk?" Ren asked.
"Yes," Ann said, showing her grit.
"Then let's go," Ren said. "We've done enough today."
---
They made it to the first floor before the Metaverse decided it wasn't done with them.
The corridor was clear — had been clear, on the way in. Now it wasn't.
Two shapes materialized from the ambient Shadow energy, blocking the path to the ventilation shaft. Not guards. Free Shadows, drawn to the residual awakening energy still radiating off Ann like heat.
Ren assessed them in half a second.
A Pixie — wings flickering, not hostile in posture but present and blocking. And beside her, larger, a horse-shaped wad of kelp, its attention fixed on the group with the specific focus of something that had decided they were interesting.
The Kelpie was neighing and bucking.
"Dove — Ann, stay back," Ren said, already moving.
Shiho stepped in front of Ann without hesitation, Scáthach rising behind her, spear leveled, thrusting forward. Then Shiho, grabbed Ann gently and pulled away.
The Kelpie hit the spear's edge and recoiled — Scáthach absorbing the impact and returning it in a sweep that drove the Shadow back down the corridor.
"Skull!" Ren called. "Lightning!"
"On it!" Ryuji brought Captain Kidd up in a burst of blue flame. " Take this!! Zio!"
The lightning hit the Kelpie mid-recovery, crackling through its form, and for a Shadow that size the result was immediate — it convulsed, staggered, dissolved into black mist before it could right itself.
The Pixie had not charged. Had not attacked. Had pressed herself against the wall when the Kelpie charged and had stayed there through the fight, wings folded, watching.
Now she was looking at the group.
Ren stared back at her.
She was shaking slightly — not with aggression. But rather, fear.
Then she flew forward and hovered directly in front of him, both small hands raised, palms out.
Surrendering.
"Okay," Ryuji said. "That's new."
"Shadows are alive too ya know." Morgana mentioned despite looking uncomfortable
The Pixie looked at him with enormous, earnest eyes.
"Hey, hey, let me go! You guys are scary! I'll do anything!"
"...anything?" Ryuji asked in confusion before being smacked across the back of the head by Ann
"I didn't want to be here! I got pulled along by the Kelpie's momentum and now I'm alone — wahhhhhh!"
Ren studied her for a long moment.
Then he held out his hand, palm up, the way you'd offer your hand to something small that needed to decide for itself.
"Give me money and you can go."
"You're robbing it?!" The group yelled
The Pixie looked at his hand.
"Okay okay," the Pixie said as she patted down her body. "Uh. This is embarrassing I don't have any on me."
"Ah well this is awkward." Ren said in discomfort.
There was a second of silence before Morgana said,"Alright then, see you in hell I guess."
"No! I'll give you some next time! The fae folk always keep their promis... Wait! That reminds me! I'm not a guard here! My name is Pixie, and I want to be your mask Trickster!!"
Then she burst into flames shifting into a domino mask similar to Ren's, and smashed into Ren's face
Arsène, somewhere in the back of his mind, made a noise for some reason.
"Huh, you okay?"
Chuckling sounded from his mind.
"Rude." Ren pouted mentally.
A grumbling in French.
"Ren, what was that?! Did you just — " Morgana began before being comedically being tossed through the air as Shiho collided with him rushing towards Ren.
"Re- Joker!" She corrected herself, "Are you okay?!"
Suddenly, Pixie materialized again, Ren's mask vanishing.
"The Trickster is fine! We, the lovers, are always to here to support you!"
---