"Kiana Kaslana's Shadow appearing in the Kaslana Palace makes sense, but I don't remember fighting any other Kaslana clan members here?"
Ren Amamiya looked around. He had visited the Kaslana Palace several times before and even harbored Kallen Kaslana's Persona within his heart; he definitely wouldn't mistake this place.
However, Ren distinctly remembered only fighting Siegfried Kaslana here. Could Kiana Kaslana possibly have dreamed about inheriting the memory of her father, Siegfried, being beaten up by the Phantom Thieves?
"If we can find Kiana's Shadow, maybe we can learn the truth from her..." Raiden Mei suggested after scanning the area and finding no sign of Shadow Kiana. Familiar with the MetaNav App's functions, she turned to Ren. "Ren, your app should be able to locate Kiana's Shadow, right?"
"Kiana's Shadow is nearby. If we pick up the pace, we should reach her within ten minutes." Ren glanced down at the route indicated on the MetaNav App. Responding to Mei, he had already started moving, speeding through the silent, eerie crimson desert, leading the way.
One after another, bizarrely shaped Shadow soldiers burst from the red sand, attempting to ambush Ren and Mei as they hurried along. However, these Shadows within the Kaslana Palace were far too weak to keep up with Ren and Mei's leveled-up Personas.
The moment they appeared, the two Persona users, focused on reaching their destination, casually cut them down, barely breaking stride.
"This is it. According to the MetaNav App, Kiana Kaslana's Shadow is in this area."
As Ren and Mei advanced, the unchanging red desert landscape finally gave way to new scenery. The ruins of a modern city, mostly buried by sandstorms as if marking the end of the world, loomed before them. Once Ren stepped into this apocalyptic cityscape, the MetaNav App indicated they had reached their destination.
Clearly, Kiana Kaslana's Shadow was somewhere within these sand-buried ruins, very close to their current position.
"I don't see Kiana anywhere... Joker, be careful! An enemy is approaching!" Mei scanned the surroundings with a puzzled expression. All she saw were stretches of fine red sand and the pale, dead remnants of a city seemingly worn down by time itself.
As Mei meticulously searched the ruins for Shadow Kiana, a swift black silhouette flashed in the corner of her eye, disappearing among the crumbling walls before vanishing completely. The figure moved with incredible speed and agility; Mei could only barely make out that it was human-shaped. Aside from a glimpse of golden hair flowing behind it, she saw nothing else clearly.
Kiana had the characteristic white hair and blue eyes of the Kaslana family, typically worn in two white braided pigtails. But the mysterious figure Mei had just glimpsed undeniably had golden hair, completely different from a Kaslana!
Appearing where Kiana's Shadow should be, yet possessing a hair color unlike the Kaslanas... This mysterious person hiding in the ruins, even if not the direct cause of the situation, was definitely closely connected to Kiana's current state. Realizing this, tension flickered across Mei's face, and she instinctively warned Ren beside her.
"Found you—Persona!!"
Even before Mei spoke, Ren had already sensed the abnormality within the city ruins. His sharp, hawk-like eyes locked onto a crumbling wall in his ten o'clock direction. At Ren's mental command, azure flames surged from the void, coalescing into the form of a playful, jumping ice sprite resembling a snow child.
"Jack Frost, use Mabufu!!" Ren commanded decisively, thrusting his red-gloved right hand forward.
"Hee-ho!!!" A mischievous grin played on Jack Frost's lips as it aimed both hands towards the location Ren indicated.
A dense barrage of large ice spikes rained down from the sky like a sudden squall, accurately bombarding the targeted area. The dilapidated wall, already ravaged by sand and time, offered no resistance, shattering like thin paper under Jack Frost's Mabufu skill.
To prevent the agile figure from escaping, Ren also had Jack Frost freeze the surrounding ground, creating an uneven surface of slick ice dotted with sharp spikes, effectively sealing off the mysterious individual's high-speed movement.
"Stop hiding! Show yourself!!" Ren called out.
His strategy proved effective. Faced with the extremely slippery icy ground, the figure hidden behind the wall didn't attempt a hasty retreat. Instead, they stood their ground behind the crumbling structure, enduring the brunt of Jack Frost's Mabufu assault.
The downpour of ice spikes completely demolished the old wall. Ice dust and fine sand filled the air, temporarily obscuring the battlefield. As Raiden Mei summoned Persona Kurikara, the massive crimson dragon beat its huge wings high above, and the resulting gust of wind instantly swept away the airborne dust and sand.
Standing silently where the wall once stood, the mysterious figure was finally revealed clearly to Ren and Mei.
Wavy, dazzling golden hair like the sea, clear blue eyes like gemstones. The girl, clad in a black military uniform, held a large lance, silently enduring the stares of Ren and Mei.
"Acheron... is that Kiana Kaslana?" Ren frowned slightly, glancing sideways at Mei beside him, seeking her confirmation.
Although this girl in the black uniform had wavy golden hair, not the iconic white hair of the Kaslanas, her presence in the Kaslana Palace, right where Kiana Kaslana's Shadow was supposed to be, made it highly probable that she was Shadow Kiana. As for the different hair color? Maybe Kiana was going through a rebellious phase and dyed it, or perhaps she was a natural blonde due to some genetic mutation.
"No, that's not Kiana..." Mei initially denied firmly. But prompted by Ren's words, the more she looked at the golden-haired girl, the more familiar her facial features seemed. "Uh, now that you mention it, Joker, her features do resemble Kiana's quite a bit. But she definitely isn't Kiana. Perhaps she's some Kaslana relative Kiana is close to?" Excluding the golden hair, the girl's facial structure was indeed about 60-70% similar to Kiana's.
"Still, we can't rule out the possibility that she is Kiana Kaslana's Shadow, and her appearance has been altered in our perception due to some reason or external force. We need to observe carefully." Ren remained skeptical of Mei's judgment. He activated the detection skill acquired through Hare's Confidant, probing the golden-haired girl in the black uniform.
"Nngh—?!!"
The instant Ren's detection skill hit the golden-haired girl, a dazzling golden radiance flashed before his eyes. In the hazy mirage formed by the light, Ren vaguely saw a vision of a golden holy sword adorned with magnificent gems.
The vision vanished in an instant. Under the effect of the information-reading ability, a vast, ocean-like torrent of data surged into Ren's mind. The sheer volume, far exceeding Ren's expectations, sent a sharp pain through his brain. He instinctively raised a hand to his forehead, quickly severing the connection between his detection skill and the golden-haired Shadow.
"Her name is... Durandal?" Ren murmured, rubbing his temples. "What an immense amount of data... She's just a single individual, yet the data she carries is like she's bearing the weight of an entire world."
Caught off guard by the overly complex and massive influx of information, Ren's head throbbed. He massaged his temples, using swordsmanship meditation techniques to regulate his breathing and mental state, quickly regaining his composure.
Using Hare's Confidant skill to analyze this golden-haired Shadow felt almost like observing an entire world directly; he received a huge amount of intricate yet meaningless information. However, he did glean crucial intelligence.
[Durandal]. This was the most significant piece of information carried by the golden-haired girl—her name.
"...Who are you?"
As if stimulated by Ren's probing detection, the golden-haired girl, who had seemed taciturn with eyes as calm and undisturbed as a dead sea, suddenly showed life in her blue eyes.
Durandal looked around at the desolate, shattered city ruins, then at Ren and Mei standing before her, Personas summoned, clearly in a battle stance. A confused expression flickered across her fair, delicate face.
According to her memory, Durandal distinctly recalled being engrossed in strength training in her exclusive training room at Schicksal HQ just moments ago. How did she, in the blink of an eye, end up in this deserted, ruined city, facing two strangers who seemed to be enemies?
Most importantly, in her training room, Durandal had been personally working out, wearing only a sports tank top and shorts. Yet now, she was formally clad in her Bright Knight: Excelsis battlesuit, her signature lance, Hler's Serenity, held firmly in her hand. This fully armed state didn't seem like she'd been caught in a surprise attack at all.
"Could it be—" A possibility struck Durandal. Her furrowed brow instantly smoothed out, replaced by a look of sudden realization.
Schicksal HQ had the strictest security in the world. It was impossible for any enemy to infiltrate silently, let alone transport her, Schicksal's strongest Valkyrie, to an unknown location. Since an external enemy invasion was impossible...
It must be the Overseer indulging in his mischievous habits again! He must have secretly installed a virtual training function in her exclusive room and activated it suddenly while she was training, trying to give her a surprise!!
"I see! In that case, bring it on! Show me what you've got!!" Durandal's mind was quite straightforward; once she settled on a reality, she was hard to sway. Convinced she was now inside a newly developed virtual training space created by Otto, Durandal clenched her fists confidently. She beckoned heroically towards Ren and Mei, signaling she was ready for battle.
"She seemed fine when she wasn't talking, but now that she's speaking, she sounds a bit... dense," Mei observed, recognizing a familiar air of innocent foolishness reminiscent of Kiana. Definitely Kiana's relative, she thought. "Joker, what should we do?"
"There's only one answer," Ren replied without hesitation. "We fight!"
"After we defeat this Shadow, we can get all the answers we want from her... If there's some external force acting on her, defeating her should probably make it disappear too."