"Ah, it's Mr. Phantom Thief from last time! Are you here to play with Griseo again?"
Stepping out of the glowing portal, Ren Amamiya, having left the dim and deep prison environment, immediately spotted Griseo, who had set up her easel and was sketching in this dreamlike, bizarrely beautiful space. Beside her stood the silently observant green-haired youth, Kosma.
"Although RIN didn't come along, Mr. Phantom Thief brought two new companions…"
Watching Hare and Seele, who followed behind Ren Amamiya, also slowly step out of the portal, Griseo tilted her small blue head. A hint of curiosity appeared on her fair face, which was dotted with specks of paint.
"Hello, I'm See… I mean, I'm Vanny! I'm Big Brother Joker's companion!"
Seeing Griseo's curious gaze upon her, Seele subconsciously wanted to tell this girl, who looked even younger than herself, her name.
However, at the critical moment, Seele finally snapped back to reality, maintaining the basic conduct of a Phantom Thief and only telling Griseo her codename.
"I'm Griseo. Kosma is Kosma… Your colors are also very special."
Griseo's gaze fell upon Seele and Hare, whom she was meeting for the first time. But Seele somehow felt that Griseo wasn't looking directly at her, but rather at some more special plane of existence.
"It's nice to meet you, Griseo. I'm Hare. Joker mentioned you to me before, saying your painting skills are amazing."
Hare gently reached out and stroked Griseo's soft blue hair. She spoke to Griseo in a gentle tone, and her warm, motherly aura quickly won Griseo's affection.
"I'll be relying on you again this time, Griseo. Could you paint a picture for me now, just like when you made the skill scroll before?"
The portal from the Velvet Room had been set by Vill-V to lead directly to Griseo's location. Ren Amamiya found Griseo as soon as he stepped out, which saved him a lot of effort. After all, he really couldn't be bothered to fight with the miscellaneous Shadow mooks in the Elysian Realm anymore.
Missing you, Elbow Bro. [Ryuji Sakamoto, whose codename is Skull, and a common nickname for him in Chinese fandom involves "elbow" due to his poses/attacks.]
Ren Amamiya deeply missed Ryuji's insta-kill skill. If Ryuji hadn't been erased from the world's cognition by the evil god, Ren Amamiya would definitely have maxed out Ryuji's Confidant and then run rampant in Mementos, never again to be troubled by the endless swarms of Shadow mooks that were like locusts and weeds.
"If it's possible, I hope you can set this Persona as the model for the painting, Griseo."
Ren Amamiya reined in his slightly wandering thoughts. Behind him, in mid-air, cold, blue-green flames suddenly blazed. As the azure spectral flames converged, a giant golden clock, engraved with the likenesses of three winged goddesses, prominently appeared.
Last time, Griseo had used Ren Amamiya himself as a model to create a scroll, which randomly copied a skill possessed by Veliona.
This time, Ren Amamiya's goal was very clear: he hoped to copy Persona Norn's special skill of manipulating time through Griseo's skill scroll.
Compared to having Griseo paint a new picture with himself as the model, it was clearly more likely to obtain the desired skill scroll by having Griseo paint Persona Norn directly.
"This big clock is also a part of Mr. Phantom Thief. If Griseo paints the big clock, she's also painting Mr. Phantom Thief himself… Hmm, Griseo has no problem. Do the other two big sisters also want to be Griseo's painting models?"
The landscape painting on the easel was already half-finished, but Griseo very neatly put the unfinished landscape aside and placed a brand-new, blank canvas on the easel instead.
After adjusting the canvas, Griseo tilted her small head slightly, looking expectantly at Seele and Hare beside her, and asked.
Although the Dream of the Painter was beautiful and fantastical, Griseo had, after all, been repeatedly painting this environment for fifty thousand years, and would continue to do so in the future.
Compared to landscape paintings she had done countless times, using a new visitor like Ren Amamiya as a model clearly sparked Griseo's creative interest and desire more.
"Let's save Hare and Vanny for another day. Griseo, please focus on creating this skill scroll for Norn first."
Excluding the first skill scroll creation, which was done unconsciously, this was the first time Ren Amamiya was actively trying to create a new skill scroll with Griseo. All the problems involved still needed continuous exploration and experimentation.
Even with Persona Norn as the painting model, Griseo might not be able to create a skill scroll for the power of time.
Or, even if Griseo successfully copied a skill from Persona Norn, there was also the possibility of "pulling the wrong card from the gacha," copying another skill instead of the power of time.
With complex thoughts in his heart, Ren Amamiya sat cross-legged on the flower-strewn ground, resting while Griseo sketched Persona Norn.
In the Velvet Room, Vill-V had offered a limited-time free major discount, and Ren Amamiya naturally wouldn't waste this unmissable opportunity.
Although he hadn't executed beautiful girl Personas like Yae Sakura and Seele, those non-humanoid Personas had been executed by Ren Amamiya one by one… Ren Amamiya had even considered whether he should execute and fuse Persona Raoul and Persona Kosma in the end.
Unfortunately, before Ren Amamiya could put this idea into practice, his Persona slots in his heart had once again filled up due to this extensive Persona fusion work.
Unlike the Persona slots in the game, which were calculated purely by quantity, Ren Amamiya's Persona slots in reality were also affected by the strength of the Personas in his heart. The stronger the Persona, the more space it would occupy in Ren Amamiya's Persona slots.
Considering the risk of reverse Persona fusion… that is, consuming two powerful Personas to synthesize a Persona weaker than either material, Ren Amamiya did not execute Persona Raoul and Persona Kosma.
After all, during Vill-V's several execution operations, Ren Amamiya had indeed obtained weak Personas through reverse fusion.
Furthermore, Ren Amamiya was extremely satisfied with Raoul and Kosma. Even if they were successfully fused into a stronger Persona, the newly acquired powerful Persona would occupy the Persona slots in his heart, making it impossible for Ren Amamiya to re-summon Raoul and Kosma. He would have to make new choices within his adjusted Persona team.
Before having a good fight with his newly adjusted Persona team, Ren Amamiya was very reluctant to execute any of the new Personas in his team again.
Taking advantage of the time while sitting on the grass to rest and waiting for Griseo to finish the skill scroll, Ren Amamiya took out the golden cube he had obtained after defeating cognitive Pancake-man, preparing to examine this special Treasure carefully.
The Rubik's Cube-sized cube in his palm shimmered with a golden glow. The golden cube felt incredibly light, and the material composing it was unlike any known natural metal on Earth.
Based on cognitive Akechi Goro's fighting style and the information he revealed during the battle, Ren Amamiya judged that this golden cube Treasure was highly likely a crystalline manifestation of divine power.
However, which evil god's power it specifically represented was a bit hard to say.
Targeting the golden cube in his hand, Ren Amamiya activated his Confidant ability to read existing information.
The ability to read existing information was successfully activated on the golden cube.
Then, Ren Amamiya received feedback that should have been very shocking, but he was now somewhat… accustomed to it.
Vast and boundless knowledge, like an endless sea of smoke, rushed into Ren Amamiya's mind, as if trying to drive him mad.
Fortunately, Ren Amamiya had experience from probing the existing information on Durandal and Fu Hua. Before the excessive knowledge could flood his brain, Ren Amamiya preemptively cut off the overly dense feedback stream, avoiding any adverse reactions from the overly complex information rushing into his mind.
"The amount of information contained in this golden cube… it's as if all the knowledge on Earth has been packaged and stored inside."
Even with just a fleeting glance, Ren Amamiya still determined the true nature of the information stored within the golden cube. It was as if he had seen a magnificent library inside the golden cube, and in that library, the knowledge and data of the entire Earth, the entire civilization, were systematically arranged.
The information feedback from the golden cube wasn't meaningless gibberish. However, due to the immense volume of information, seemingly encompassing an entire civilization, Ren Amamiya couldn't accurately obtain the specific information he wanted to know.
Thus, he couldn't even clearly ascertain the true name of this Treasure.
"…This is a meaningless act. You won't be able to use the power of the Void Archives this way."
Just as Ren Amamiya was sitting on the grass, fiddling with the golden cube, a small figure suddenly approached.
The green-haired youth, Kosma, left the side of the little painter Griseo, who was engrossed in her painting. He didn't watch Griseo paint like Seele and Hare did, but slowly walked over to Ren Amamiya's side and abruptly interjected.
"The power of the Void Archives? So, this golden cube Treasure isn't Yaldabaoth's power, but a crystallization of the Void Archives' power?"
Ren Amamiya had originally leaned towards the idea that this golden cube Treasure symbolized the strengthening power bestowed upon cognitive Akechi Goro by the evil god Yaldabaoth.
However, according to Kosma's statement, the true source of power for this golden cube was clearly from another evil god, the Void Archives.
Cognitive Akechi Goro's new fighting style was almost identical to that Otto Apocalypse, and the shadow of the evil god Void Archives was also behind him. Ren Amamiya had actually anticipated this.
However, based on the existing information, Ren Amamiya still couldn't determine the ultimate relationship between the two evil gods, Yaldabaoth and Void Archives—were they cooperative friends, or opposing enemies?
Cognitive Akechi Goro should theoretically be an existence fabricated by the evil god Yaldabaoth based on Ren Amamiya's own cognition. But even so, cognitive Akechi Goro, born from Ren Amamiya's impression, inherently carried the stereotypical label of a turncoat. It wouldn't be surprising at all if he was swayed by the evil god Void Archives to defect; it was perfectly normal.
"Kosma, judging from what you just said, you seem to know quite a bit about this evil god, Void Archives, and even know how to use the divine power dwelling within this Treasure?"
Putting aside the speculation about the relationship between Yaldabaoth and Void Archives for now, Ren Amamiya was more concerned about the familiarity with Void Archives that Kosma had inadvertently revealed in his words.
Ren Amamiya's intuition grew stronger. He felt that he would definitely be able to obtain the answer on how to wield the divine power in the Treasure from Kosma.
"…If you want to use the power of the Void Archives, you first need to gain the recognition of the consciousness dwelling within this Divine Key. Without the authorization of the Void Archives AI, this Divine Key Treasure is just an ordinary ornament."
Kosma's brow furrowed slightly. He had many topics he wanted to discuss with Ren Amamiya.
For example, the figure of his old friend Hua whom he glimpsed when summoned by Ren Amamiya as a Persona to fight in the Herrscher of the Void's Palace; why Ren Amamiya called the Void Archives an evil god; whether the Void Archives had done something evil in the Current Era; and how to explain the origin of the Void Archives to Ren Amamiya.
However, in the end, his socially awkward nature made the usually taciturn Kosma only answer the most direct and important part of Ren Amamiya's question. He gave Ren Amamiya the method to wield the power of the Void Archives.
As for the origin of the Void Archives and other related questions, Kosma decided to entrust Vill-V with explaining these matters.
After all, when it came to understanding the Void Archives, no one was more knowledgeable than Vill-V, the developer of the Divine Key.
"I see. So there's an AI consciousness in this Treasure. If it has consciousness, then this falls within the domain of the Phantom Thieves of Hearts."
Ren Amamiya thoughtfully pinched the golden cube in his hand. For some reason, he suddenly felt the golden light flowing on the surface of the Treasure dim slightly.
"The painting is finished… Mr. Phantom Thief, what do you think of this skill scroll?"
Just as Ren Amamiya was pondering how to use a "change of heart" to persuade the AI consciousness in the golden cube, Griseo's calm, adult-like voice came from a distance.