Passing through the golden gate of light that stood amidst the darkness, Ren Amamiya left the dim and lightless dark prison.
When he opened his eyes again, he found himself in a completely different, unfamiliar environment.
The sky, like oil paint on a canvas, presented a deep blue hue. The clouds, like brushstrokes left by a paintbrush, were dense and conspicuous.
Oil paintings, adorned with golden frames, were arranged in the sky, giving a sense of absurd fairytale-like déjà vu.
This space possessed a unique beauty, yet upon closer inspection, it exuded a strange psychological pressure.
Every oil painting distributed in the sky seemed to have come alive, silently observing Ren Amamiya's figure, who had appeared in this space, with countless unseen eyes.
"Shadows detected! The Shadows here are really enthusiastic. Being too enthusiastic isn't good. Let me cool you down."
Just as Ren Amamiya was looking around, surveying the environment of this space, from behind the blank picture frames arranged like a wall in the distance, one lingering Shadow after another discovered Ren Amamiya's arrival and charged towards his direction at extreme speed.
"Come on----Persona!!"
Facing the attacking Shadow enemies, Ren Amamiya, without hesitation, chose to use them as live targets, preparing to test the power of the new Persona he had obtained.
The Jizo Mitama tachi in Ren Amamiya's hand was slightly raised. Azure flames, tinged with crimson, blazed fiercely from his body. The wing-like hem of his black phantom thief attire swayed slightly due to the airflow.
As Ren Amamiya pointed the Jizo Mitama blade towards the attacking Shadows, a soul-chilling frosty wind suddenly swept up. The snow-white frost wind, like blades, bombarded forward.
And amidst the imposing phenomenon of this frosty descent, a round, short snowman figure wearing a blue pointed hat with two horns, suddenly appeared in the sky behind Ren Amamiya!
"Jack Frost! Use Mabufula!!"
Under Ren Amamiya's command, Jack Frost leaped about lively in mid-air. It let out a high-pitched, mischievous laugh. Its snow-white hands waved forward, and an extremely violent freezing wind instantly howled out, carrying dense and enormous ice crystal spikes, and bombarded towards the attacking local Shadows with great momentum.
As special equipment forged from Will Seed crystals and Treasures, the Great Thunder Spiral Ring seemed to resonate faintly with Jizo Mitama, forming a hidden yet tangible energy channel between the two.
Besides Ren Amamiya himself, Jizo Mitama had obtained a brand-new energy supply channel.
With the surging magical power continuously flowing from the Great Thunder Spiral Ring into the Jizo Mitama tachi, the power Jizo Mitama could exert was greatly enhanced.
Even if Ren Amamiya didn't use Jizo Mitama's trump card strengthening secret technique, merely by using Jizo Mitama to skip the step of taking off the white spirit bird mask on his face and directly summoning Jack Frost from his heart space.
Jack Frost had already obtained a powerful buff effect.
Enormous blue ice spikes, like a meteor shower, crashed down from the sky, continuously surging towards the Shadows attacking Ren Amamiya, easily tearing apart the female Shadow in the wide-brimmed hat and black gauze dress, whose arms were like scythes and scissors, at the forefront of the charge.
And the Shadows closely following behind the wide-brimmed hat girl Shadow were also accurately hit by the astonishing ice spikes carried by the frosty wind. They were all trapped in the solid and thick ice layer, unable to move, and then blasted into a sky full of fine ice shards by Jack Frost's relentless ice spike attacks.
"Alright! As expected of Boss Joker, we're so strong! So-called strongest Shadows are only at this level. These trashy Shadows can't stop our footsteps at all!!"
Higokumaru floated by Ren Amamiya's shoulder. Watching the Shadows easily swept away by Jack Frost, she couldn't help but clench her small fists in excitement and cheer joyfully.
Higokumaru had clearly just been watching from the side and hadn't participated in the battle at all.
But when all the Shadows in sight were cleared away by Jack Frost, summoned by Ren Amamiya, she still puffed out her chest with shared pride, wearing a very proud expression.
"It's a bit strange. Although these Shadows are much stronger than the ones I encountered before, their strength is still limited. They don't seem like the kind of Shadows that exist in the deepest part of Mementos. I thought Jack Frost could only wear them down a bit, and I'd still have to rely on Arsene and Siegfried to finish them off."
Ren Amamiya recalled Jack Frost, who was jumping around in mid-air, back to his side. He frowned slightly in surprise.
The power increase after connecting the Great Thunder Spiral Ring and Jizo Mitama did indeed nearly double Jack Frost's strength, but it shouldn't be to the extent that one Jack Frost could single-handedly wipe out a dozen Shadows in the deepest part of Mementos.
It's a bit strange. Could it be that this isn't the deepest part of Mementos...
"Forget it, let's go find other living Shadows. Although they're not as strong as I expected, the Shadows here are indeed much stronger than those encountered in Mementos and Palaces. They still have value in being subdued."
Ren Amamiya gently rested the back of the Jizo Mitama tachi on his shoulder. He quickly made a new decision.
No matter what this place was, since he had encountered Shadows of decent strength, Ren Amamiya naturally prepared to subdue them.
Even if those Shadows' strength was far weaker than Jack Frost's, they could at least serve to expand the number of Personas in his compendium and contribute a bit to [Country Maker's damage variation].
"...Who is it? Who's there?"
Just as Ren Amamiya was about to end the summoning maintenance for Jack Frost and search for traces of other Shadow presences in this space.
A young and pleasant girl's voice suddenly came from within the labyrinthine encirclement of picture frames.
Ren Amamiya and Higokumaru beside him exchanged a glance. Before he could take a step in the direction from which the girl's voice came, a green figure proactively walked out from the encirclement formed by the picture frames, looking coldly in Ren Amamiya's direction.
It was a youth with green hair, wearing a light green shirt and a grayish-green shawl.
However, compared to an ordinary youth, this green-haired youth had four twisted black sharp horns on his forehead, a pair of black wings shaped like bat wings drooping behind him, and his pupils were not human-like but rather an orange-yellow color like a strange beast's.
Evidently, this was a Shadow with an appearance resembling a human youth.
"Who are you, a successor visiting this place... Hmm?!"
The Shadow with the appearance of a green-haired youth cast a very cold gaze towards Ren Amamiya.
After clearly seeing Ren Amamiya's appearance—wearing a white spirit bird mask and a pitch-black phantom thief attire—this green-haired youth Shadow leaned back slightly for a moment. He stared intently at Ren Amamiya for a while before slowly opening his mouth to ask.
Facing the green-haired youth Shadow's gaze, Ren Amamiya felt that he wasn't concerned about his hidden identity, but rather about the act of hiding his identity itself, or even the attire used to hide his identity, as if he quite liked this mysterious phantom thief style suitable for lurking in the darkness.
When looking at Ren Amamiya, this being wearing a white mask and not revealing his true face, who would normally be considered the most suspicious, the green-haired youth's cold face didn't show any unusual expression.
However, when the green-haired youth Shadow's gaze shifted to the side of Ren Amamiya, noticing the doll-like, petite and exquisite figure of Higokumaru floating by his shoulder.
The green-haired youth Shadow's cold expression instantly turned serious, or rather, it could be said to have become terrified, as if he had seen a ghost.
"Wait, Griseo, don't come over here yet!!"
The green-haired youth Shadow shouted towards the direction he came from without turning his head. His body tensed and leaned forward slightly, assuming a very wary combat stance towards Ren Amamiya and Higokumaru.
Kosma couldn't receive the information contained in Kevin's Salvation Stigma like Vill-V and Aponia. He also didn't know the specific information about the Key of Erosion, Jizo Mitama.
But he recognized Higokumaru!!
Higokumaru had been killed by the rioting base soldiers and, after death, transformed into the Herrscher of Erosion, then sealed by Kevin. This was common knowledge that Kosma naturally knew.
Although Higokumaru's appearance had changed somewhat compared to when she was alive—for example, her body had become smaller, she had gained fox ears and tails, and she was even wearing a shrine maiden outfit she had never worn before.
But Kosma still recognized Higokumaru's identity at a glance.
If you asked why, as one of the younger children in the Fire Moth organization, and with the connection of Sakura, also one of the Flame-Chasers, Rin and Griseo, two girls of the same age, had a very good relationship. Kosma, who was responsible for looking after Griseo, was naturally also very familiar with Rin.
Rin was not completely eliminated in the Previous Era. After tens of thousands of years, the possibility of her finally breaking free from the seal in the current civilization was not zero.
Rin, as the Herrscher of Erosion, appearing in the Elysian Realm, which was constructed from data space, was like a fish in water, or a tiger with wings, making her incredibly difficult to stop. She could be said to be the natural enemy of them, the memory-form Flame-Chasers.
Realizing this, a cold sweat couldn't help but appear on Kosma's forehead.
Rin's ability to infiltrate the domain of the Painter's dream without anyone noticing was proof of how effectively her authority of erosion worked on the Elysian Realm.
Kosma had no confidence in defeating the Herrscher of Erosion, Rin, and an unfamiliar enemy.
He could only hope to hold out a little longer, expand the commotion of the battle to its limit, and let Aponia, who resided in the deepest part, quickly detect the Herrscher of Erosion's presence.
"Griseo? Don't tell me... you're Kosma?!"
The voice coming from the picture frame labyrinth had already given Higokumaru a sense of familiar déjà vu. And when Kosma appeared from the picture frame labyrinth and called out Griseo's name.
Higokumaru's eyes instantly widened, and she asked Kosma with surprise.
When she saw Kosma appear, Higokumaru had initially thought he was someone from the current civilization who looked extremely similar to Kosma. She never expected him to be Kosma himself.
"Kosma, are you still alive? And Griseo is still alive too?!"
After realizing that her two friends, Kosma and Griseo, were still alive, Higokumaru's five cherry-pink fox tails immediately wagged twice happily.
Oblivious, she didn't even notice Kosma's wary stance and foolishly tried to approach the direction Kosma was guarding, only to be grabbed by her fox tail by Ren Amamiya.
"Higokumaru, do you know that Shadow over there?"
Ren Amamiya didn't let go of Higokumaru's fox tail, fearing this foolish child wouldn't understand the atmosphere and would run to that Shadow named Kosma when he wasn't paying attention and get herself killed.
"Mhm, Kosma and Griseo are my old friends. We were really close!"
Even though Ren Amamiya held her, preventing her from rushing towards Kosma, Higokumaru still failed to realize Kosma's wariness and hostility towards her, giving Ren Amamiya a foolish smile.
"I can't really tell how close you guys are... Anyway, you get in here first."
The atmosphere of battle was on the verge of erupting. Ren Amamiya wasn't confident he could change Higokumaru's one-track mind in a short time and prevent her from actively rushing towards the enemy.
Therefore, he directly pressed Higokumaru's face, which he held in his left hand, against the back of the Jizo Mitama blade in his right hand, wiping it against the Jizo Mitama blade as if using a whetstone.
Higokumaru let out a scream-like exclamation from her distorted little face. She instantly transformed her body into pure corrosive power, turning into a streak of crimson light and merging into the body of Jizo Mitama.
"Judging by what Higokumaru said just now, you guys seem to know Sakura? Are you also spirits from the past?"
Higokumaru was the Persona Yae Sakura awakened after confronting her own Shadow. Since she claimed to know this Kosma and Griseo, then the real situation should be that Yae Sakura knew Kosma and Griseo.
This Kosma knew Yae Sakura. For Higokumaru to approach Kosma with an appearance completely different from Yae Sakura's and encounter resistance and hostility as a result was entirely understandable.
"Regardless of whether you are spirits of the past or true Shadows, I hope you can become my strength, just like Sakura."
Ren Amamiya spoke to Kosma with sincere Genuineness.
No matter how Kosma's identity changed, Ren Amamiya's goal of subduing Personas would not change because of it.