"Come, Raoul!!"
Pícaro Power infused his body. The Key of the Void transcended space to summon the figure of Persona Raoul behind Ren Amamiya.
The Jizo Mitama tachi and the Void Archives, mimicking Jizo Mitama, directly entered their Over-Limit modes, transforming into two long tachi, one gold and one red.
As its black and gold mechanical scale-wings unfolded, crimson ripples spread from Persona Raoul's body. Under the effect of numerous enhancements, this top-hatted gentleman in a crimson coat and black tight pants was terrifyingly strong.
The storm whipped up by his mere appearance momentarily suppressed the raging flames of the silver-haired flame spirit shadow.
This Persona summoning was completed using the Key of the Void. Therefore, the white bird-like mask Ren wore only ignited with a burst of blue flame and didn't completely disappear to become Persona Raoul's form.
After Raoul appeared, the white mask on his face re-stabilized, continuously concealing his features.
Gently stroking the white bird-like mask on his face, a resolute color filled Ren Amamiya's eyes.
Although he had no teammates to help in this battle, Ren was also eager to test just what level of power he could unleash when he went all out.
The current Ren Amamiya was no longer in the team mode of conserving stamina and Honkai energy, distributing tasks and responsibilities to better clear Mementos.
Instead, he was in lone wolf mode, fighting alone, fully unleashing his Honkai energy and potential, exploring the limits of his own burst power and damage output!
Except for the Great Lightning Spiral Ring, which was still in Raiden Mei's hands back in the real world and temporarily not included in his energy circulation system, Ren Amamiya was indeed in an all-out state.
"...What kind of joke is this? This sneaky little thief is using multiple Divine Keys at the same time?"
Looking at Ren Amamiya, fully armed and wielding the authority of two Divine Keys simultaneously, even Kalpas, who had been enraged into his Active Honkai Reaction Collapse form, couldn't help but stare wide-eyed. The raging flames symbolizing his fury also faltered slightly.
"Forget it! You, and your strange Divine Key weapons, I'll first smash you to pieces with my fists, then burn you to ashes with my flames!"
But soon, Kalpas tossed those trivial astonishments to the back of his mind, turning them into fuel for his anger, making the power within him surge even more violently.
A fist burning with raging flames, carrying Kalpas's furious will, hurtled towards Ren Amamiya himself with unstoppable momentum. Where the fist, forged from magma, passed, not only the air but even space itself trembled and quivered as if on the verge of collapse.
Clang, clang, clang—
The sound of a bell chimed quietly. Golden-red ripples of time spread out at a speed that seemed slow yet was fast.
Struck by the spreading ripples of time, Kalpas's body instantly felt as if it had entered the deepest mire; the exertion of every muscle became incredibly slow and stiff.
However, the sealing effect of the power of time on Kalpas in his Active Honkai Reaction: artificial cascade form lasted for less than half a second.
Kalpas, wreathed in scorching flames, soon burned away the time ripples that had bound his movements and continued his devastating charge towards Ren.
Even with Raoul using this time ability, which was derived from a sufficiently weak shadow, it only controlled this flame spirit shadow for less than half a second...
A control time of nearly half a second—if the entire Phantom Thieves were gathered here, they could naturally use this gap to unleash a powerful damage output.
But now, with only Ren Amamiya fighting alone, this control time of less than half a second, while useful, was not so crucial as to determine the outcome of the battle.
"Raoul, use Maeigaon!!"
Seizing the brief moment when Active Honkai Reaction Kalpas was controlled by the time ripples, Persona Raoul raised its black and gold mechanical scale-wings.
Like a night bird, it gracefully and calmly sped to Kalpas's side, extending its five fingers towards Kalpas, who was still in a punching motion but had been brought to a halt.
A surging cursed flame, redder than blood and darker than the abyss, burst forth from Persona Raoul's palm, violently pouring towards the body of Active Honkai Reaction Kalpas.
His sorrowful red eyes widened to their limit. Kalpas clenched his fists and turned to throw a punch at the overwhelming tide of red-black cursed flame.
However, before Kalpas's forceful counter-punch could land, the oncoming red-black cursed flame, like a cold black hole that devoured everything, completely swallowed the power carried by Kalpas's flame fist.
It silently nullified the terrifying force of Active Honkai Reaction Kalpas, which was enough to shake the Elysian Realm space.
Even the deep-red demonic body of Active Honkai Reaction Kalpas, which seemed capable of igniting all of hell, was like a pitiful traveler facing a world-ending tsunami in the face of the terrifying tide stirred up by the red-black cursed flame.
It was helplessly swept into a corner of the wave, enduring a terrible power capable of destroying everything.
When the duration of Maeigaon ended, the space swept over by the red-black cursed flame was like a scroll smeared with black ink, producing patches of black, nihilistic space.
These voids even flickered with various colors, as if suffering from a bad signal.
Active Honkai Reaction Kalpas lowered his arms, which had been shielding his front. His arms showed faint traces of trembling, and even the color of his flame-spirit-constructed deep-red demonic body had dimmed considerably.
But he had ultimately withstood Persona Raoul's Maeigaon bombardment head-on. The ground beneath Kalpas's feet was the only area that hadn't been erased in the recent attack.
"Maeigaon with the power of the Seven Sins... the attack was effective. Now, let's try this."
Faint halos of data streams appeared in the gaps of the nihilistic space erased by the red-black cursed flame. As if an overworked, near-death programmer was desperately patching loopholes, the nihilistic space pervading the Elysian Realm began to shrink, healing at a visible rate.
Ren Amamiya paid no attention to the shrinking and healing nihilistic spaces. After testing the power of the Seven Sins cursed flame in his all-out state, Ren raised the azure pistol in his hand, aiming its muzzle at the silver-haired flame spirit shadow, which was now glaring at him.
With the strength the silver-haired flame spirit shadow was currently displaying, Ren could use the power of the Seven Sins to kite this powerful shadow to death. Therefore, he could also confidently test his various ideas in this real combat situation.
He pulled the trigger continuously, and golden bullets condensed from subspace shot out at high speed towards Active Honkai Reaction Kalpas. But the regrouped Kalpas didn't even try to dodge.
He used his intensified anger as fuel. His already dimmed flame-spirit demonic body flared up again like a stoked furnace. A deep-red scorching light continuously circulated. As Kalpas stomped the ground, he forcefully pulled a scalding rock pillar, radiating a terrifying temperature, from the ground and swept it towards the bullets fired from the Key of the Void.
The Key of the Void bullets, which had been invincible when clearing out the earlier areas, were defeated when facing the formidable enemy, Active Honkai Reaction Kalpas. They only managed to create several pits of varying depths on the surface of the astonishingly dense deep-red rock pillar and failed to even penetrate its defense to hit Kalpas himself.
However, this was already within Ren's expectations.
All of this was to test the little easter egg function of the Key of the Void that Vill-V had told him about before he left.
During the process of using the Key of the Void to sneak attack Raoul earlier, Ren felt he had already faintly touched upon the trigger for this easter egg function.
Rumble—
Ren feigned a retreat. He moved back and forth across the battlefield with his incredibly effective divine steps, dodging the massive rock pillars thrown by Active Honkai Reaction Kalpas. He let the ground be bombarded until it trembled violently, yet his expression showed no hint of panic or nervousness. He continued to attack Kalpas with the Key of the Void, which dealt minimal damage.
Hssst.
He emptied hundreds of subspace bullets in a short time. Then, with the remaining bullet energy finally depleted, the Key of the Void's safety mechanism suddenly switched to the 'on' state while in attack mode.
Persona Raoul's body stood tall in the sky in front of Ren. It extended its sharp claws, and a claw strike wreathed in a chilling killing intent fiercely slashed at the deep-red rock pillar flying straight towards Ren. Absolute zero ice instantly spread, completely encasing the deep-red rock pillar and shattering it into a sky full of icy, starry fragments.
Dots of cold snowflakes fell on the parts of Ren's face and neck not covered by the mask, bringing him a faint coolness.
Ren slowly took a deep breath, feeling the strange stirring within the Key of the Void pistol, which was forged from the Herrscher of the Void core Treasure. He leisurely raised the azure pistol again—and once more aimed it at his own head.
"Per...sona!!!"
His lips moved slightly, uttering the word "Persona." With Persona Raoul still on the field, Ren pulled the trigger again, firing an invisible bullet at himself with the Key of the Void.
Azure space fragments spewed out. The Herrscher of the Void core loaded inside the Key of the Void had now entered a state of intense activation, almost as if it had returned to the Herrscher of the Void's body.
"Open your eyes. The time for battle has come. It's your turn—Sirin!!!"
Smooth, lustrous purple long hair fluttered in the wind. A slender and delicate body was clad in a purple, form-fitting long dress. A young girl with strange golden patterns inscribed on the hem of her skirt slowly opened her eyes.
Her pair of golden pupils were filled with indifference. Just by standing there in the air, she exuded an air of arrogance and disdain.
Persona - Herrscher of the Void, Sirin!
As early as when he had second-awakened Persona Arsene into Persona Raoul, Ren had sensed the seed the Herrscher of the Void had left within him. After all, he had already experienced a similar process with Shadow Mei; it was impossible for him to be completely unaware of it.
Theoretically, it would have taken a long time for the Herrscher of the Void's seed of power to sprout and grow again.
However, the amount of Honkai energy in Ren's body was now simply too abundant. The incredibly powerful Honkai energy had prompted the Herrscher of the Void's will to reawaken, transforming what was merely a seed of possibility into a Persona power that belonged to Ren himself.
Of course, the most important thing right now was not the revival of Persona Sirin.
But rather... there were two Personas on the field!
At the same time Persona Sirin was summoned by Ren, Persona Raoul, who had been summoned first, still remained in this space!
This was the Key of the Void's easter egg function that Vill-V wanted Ren to discover for himself. With proper use of the Key of the Void pistol, he could even summon two Personas to fight at the same time for a short period!
"Sirin, she's all yours."
Facing the command from her Persona user, the revived Persona Sirin didn't respond to Ren. She neither looked at him nor nodded to him. She merely nonchalantly raised a slender hand and snapped her fingers crisply.
Thousands of purple-black subspace voids instantly filled the space in this area. The deep-red rock pillars continuously thrown by Active Honkai Reaction Kalpas were swallowed by the subspace voids, then instantly shot out from the subspace voids behind Kalpas.
As Kalpas turned to punch and shatter the rock pillars, myriads of golden subspace spears, like a rain of stars, shot out at high speed from various subspace voids, bombarding Active Honkai Reaction Kalpas.
Active Honkai Reaction Kalpas continuously condensed rock pillars to attack in place of defense. However, under the overwhelmingly magnificent assault of Persona Sirin's subspace spears, Kalpas always found it difficult to organize an effective counterattack.
Even when he charged wildly towards Ren, in the next second, his body would be swallowed by a subspace void, only to reappear further away from Ren.
If Persona Sirin's offensive was merely pressuring Active Honkai Reaction Kalpas, making it temporarily unable to attack Ren, then the combined tactics of Persona Raoul and Persona Sirin were a genuine and fatal threat to him.
Persona Raoul, wreathed in a red-black cursed flame that could melt and burn, transformed into a falcon flying freely in the night sky. It zipped back and forth at high speed through the dense web of subspace voids set up by Persona Sirin.
The red-black shadow, like a meteor, streaked through the various subspace voids, never stopping, like a terrifying predator weaving a precise spiderweb.
And trapped in the center of this web, struggling ceaselessly but to no avail, completely unable to intercept Persona Raoul's precise and agile movements, was Active Honkai Reaction Kalpas.
He could only be repeatedly attacked by Raoul's claws, his flame-spirit demonic body growing dimmer and more damaged.
He could only roar loudly in impotent rage, like a visitor at an amusement park who couldn't hit a single Whac-A-Mole in front of his girlfriend.
"This is the last blow... Raoul, Sirin!!"