"Zio!!"
The sphere of golden lightning instantly shot forward, thunder booming across the sky. Under the pressure of the Zio skill, the Huodou's red and gold fur stood on end. It scrambled backward, trying to evade the skill's brilliant flash.
However, the Huodou's speed was no match for the torrent of lightning unleashed by Arsene. In less than an instant, the flood of golden electricity slammed into the Huodou's body, penetrating every muscle and hair.
This time, ravaged by the electrocution, the Huodou didn't even have the strength to cry out in pain.
When Arsene's Zio attack ended, the Huodou's massive body crashed heavily to the ground, its charred limbs twitching sporadically. Even its formerly savage eyes seemed significantly clearer now.
"This battle is my victory! Huodou, give me your power. Become my mask!"
Confirming the Huodou had completely lost the ability to resist, Ren slowly approached the collapsed beast. Persona Arsene stood vigilantly behind him, exerting immense psychological pressure on the defeated Shadow.
Ren extended an olive branch to the Huodou, attempting to invite it to become his first "wild" Persona, to reside within his heart. Ren felt he was being sincere enough, his attitude quite friendly.
But the Huodou showed no intention of communicating. It merely let out whimpering growls from its throat. Ren could clearly sense the lingering hostility in its weak cries; it hadn't been subdued just because he'd beaten it with one Zio.
"...Clearly, I'm stronger than you right now. Don't even think about tossing some trash item my way and then turning tail, okay?"
Seeing the Huodou's defiant, unwilling posture, Ren's brow twitched. His voice involuntarily turned colder.
Recruiting Personas has a chance of failure. I have to negotiate and get the Persona to acknowledge me before it'll reside in my heart and become power I can wield.
If the negotiation failed, the Persona would revert to its Shadow form and attack again. And if the Persona's level was higher than the Persona-user's own power, it might even just fob them off with some useless item before disappearing back into the shadows.
Ren's strength definitely surpassed the Huodou's. The beast's stubborn refusal to become his Persona immediately irritated Ren, who felt this first attempt wasn't going well.
"Make your choice, Huodou! Will you submit to me, or will you die here?!"
The Huodou looked like it would rather die than submit, gradually wearing down Ren's patience. Finally, Ren drew the Raikiri katana hanging at his waist. He raised the purple blade, crackling with lightning, high above his head, issuing a final ultimatum to the extremely weakened Shadow Huodou before him.
"Wait, Joker! Are you trying to recruit this Huodou to become your Persona? That's impossible. You can't turn the Huodou into a Persona. You only have one Persona: Arsene."
Since Ren had decisively crushed the Huodou and removed its ability to fight, Hare no longer needed to stand guard against its escape. Realizing Ren's intention to recruit the Huodou, she slowly floated down beside him, an irrepressible look of confusion spreading across her delicate features.
"Besides, the Huodou's power isn't particularly outstanding. Even if you did manage to subdue it, it wouldn't offer you much help, would it?"
Persona Arsene is the Stigma Construct manifested from Ren's Stigmata awakening. He has, and can only have, this one Persona.
The Huodou, however, is just an ordinary Honkai Beast.
While an Emperor-class Honkai Beast's strength was considerable in the eyes of others, even capable of fighting evenly with a Schicksal S-rank Valkyrie, compared to a fully awakened Stigmata user like Ren, the Huodou's power was still far too insignificant.
Anything the Huodou could do, Arsene could do. But not everything Arsene could do was possible for the Huodou.
Therefore, Hare simply couldn't comprehend Ren's intense desire to subdue the Huodou for his own use.
"I'm different from ordinary Persona users. Can't you sense it, Hare? The unfettered power within me, bound by nothing."
Ren temporarily put dealing with the Huodou on hold, patiently turning to address Hare's questions one by one. He had assumed Hare had already noticed the unique power he possessed, but now it seemed she might not even know what the "Wild Card" power was.
Well, that's not too strange. Hosting human guests with the power of the Wild Card is the duty of the Velvet Room. Hare, though not human, wasn't an attendant of the Velvet Room either, so it was understandable she wouldn't know the significance of the Wild Card.
"Humans possessing the power of the Wild Card have the ability to break conventional limits. They can simultaneously host multiple Personas within their hearts for use in battle."
Hare blinked, looking slightly lost. After hearing Ren's explanation of the Wild Card power, she felt even more confused, having absolutely no grasp of what he was actually referring to.
"Although the Huodou's power isn't as great as Arsene's, it's still usable. When facing enemies with different affinities, you need to switch to Personas that counter the enemy's element. Besides... Hare, you definitely wouldn't understand this, but there's a certain kind of beautiful strength called... 'Myriad Truths'!"
As Ren mentioned the key phrase "Myriad Truths," his entire demeanor became animated, his black eyes practically shining.
'Myriad Truths' is basically an official cheat code! It's related to the ultimate Persona of the P4 protagonist, Yu Narukami – Izanagi-no-Okami! Its power scales based on the Persona Compendium completion rate – in other words, the number of Personas Ren had unlocked and held previously. Izanagi-no-Okami could gain massive attack and defense boosts.
Combine that with Izanagi-no-Okami's strongest skill, the ultimate move that deals massive Almighty damage three times to all foes – 'Myriad Truths'! It basically obliterated everything, massively streamlining the often long and tedious dungeon crawling in the game.
Whatever the future held, once Ren gained access to the Velvet Room, he was absolutely going to work towards fusing Narukami's Izanagi-no-Okami!