Ren was the first to rise to his feet as he looked around, able to make out the world a bit quicker than his fellow thieves. The sounds of civilians passing by alerted him to the fact that they were no longer within the depths of Mementos.
What the hell? Ren questioned himself for what seemed like the thousandth time that day, taking in the forms of his kneeling team. What happened, did we… did we lose?
"Is everyone okay…?" Ann rose from her rather lewd position on the ground, scowling in Ryuji's direction as he seemed to mewl in discontent of her rising from his laying body, "Well, at least this pervert is fine."
"Pfft, you're the one who fell onto me!" Ryuji defended hotly as he rose and got a better look around, "Holy shit, how'd we end up back in Shibuya?"
"Wait, why are our clothes back to normal?" Futaba gasped as she took in her form, realizing that no one was sporting their usual thief gear when diving into the Metaverse, "No way…"
"The Holy Grail must have driven us out," Morgana meowed in discontent, having been reverted to his usual feline form when dwelling within the Real World, "We didn't come back ourselves."
"Did… we lose?" Makoto turned her weary gaze towards Ren, as if he would have the answers she was looking for. It took him a moment to reply, but he eventually reasoned out what happened.
"We can't give up," Ren began, making sure that each member of the Phantom Thieves was listening before continuing, "We must gather our strength and prepare a second attack."
Makoto looked as if she wanted to retort, but was promptly cut off by a sudden rain falling from the sky.
"Huh…?" Futaba intoned as she held out her hand and leaned over to get a better look, finding that the sky wasn't raining water, but a pinkish red slime. "What the…"
Any other words were cut off as a puddle of crimson appeared next to her feet, forcing her to leap closer to Yusuke as a large, bone protrusion erupted from the puddle and raced towards the sky, growing thicker and thicker at the base as it rose.
More and more of the grotesque scenery that they had come to attribute to Mementos continued to make its presence known, changing the entire landscape of Tokyo within scant seconds. No longer did the spacious and crowded city feel like a metropolis paradise, but instead a hellish landscape more fitting of Yusuke's demented mind and not reality.
"Mementos, here in Shibuya?" Makoto couldn't believe her eyes, speaking her thoughts aloud without even realizing it, "Is this what it meant by encroaching on reality?!"
Morgana leaped from the ground and onto the shoulder of Ren before using him as a springboard, finally landing upon the large retaining wall behind them to get a better look around. "To think this would happen…"
"No way man, you've gotta' be shitting me…" Ryuji was as eloquent as always in his denial, taking an involuntary step back before colliding with Ann's shoulder, "Are you seeing what I'm seeing?"
'Man, what great weather… want to go for a drive?'
'Hello? Yes, it's about tomorrows preliminary meetings.'
'The announcement for the new smartphone's tonight! I'm so stoked!'
'What were those Phantom Thieves all about, anyway?'
'Aw, man! Hearing that name brings back memories! I feel so dumb for ever believing those guys existed!'
'It was fun news, though! I doubt anyone still believes they're around anymore.'
"Why isn't anyone noticing these abnormalities?!" Yusuke was incredulous as he spun on his heels to get a better look at the mulling crowd around them, seemingly ignorant of the heavily modified world they dwelled in, "Are these people blind?!"
"It's probably because they don't feel that it's odd…" Makoto winced as she delivered her words, finding nothing more to say that made any sense.
Makoto didn't seem like she wanted to continue, not when her gaze was forced to snap towards Futaba after she collapsed to the ground while holding her head. "Futaba!"
"What's wrong?!" Ryuji quickly knelt to the smaller girl's side, his arms curling around her shoulders to prevent her from hitting the ground, "Oh man, you look so pale…"
"Oh… I feel so woozy," Futaba murmured weakly while trying to glance around, "Nrgh!"
Grunting in pain, Futaba grasped her head tightly as Ann attempted to lend her a hand to help her rise, only to collapse to her side as well.
Haru was the next to drop to her knees while clutching her head in pain, her voice whining and closely resembling a wounded animal from how much distress was laced in the noise.
Ren felt as if someone stabbed him in the brain with a few bullets, forcing him to clutch his head in one hand as he dropped to his knees. First, the ache spread from his mind and down his spine, slowly infecting her entire nervous system with flames of angry venom. His heart began to beat in his throat as the pain grew further.
He almost didn't notice as Yusuke and Makoto dropped to their knees lastly, followed by Morgana curling into a small ball before his downed form.
"Is this… by the Holy Grail… too?" Makoto panted out her words, unable to formulate an entire sentence due to the pain, "Are… we going to die?"
Ryuji slammed his good leg into the ground in a stomp while clenching his fist, trying to ignore the spiking pain in his body. "That son of a bitch… What's this creepy ass shit abou—ah! Ah, my hand!"
He collapsed to the ground after his weight gave out, causing him to groan loudly before attempting to rise once more. Glancing at his hand, Ryuji's face bleached into a pale white as if he had seen a ghost before he let out a terrifying scream of horror.
Ren couldn't believe his eyes.
The hand of his best friend was completely transparent and by the looks of it, his body was slowly starting to fade in the same way.
Ann looked back from her kneeling position, her face slowly becoming the same, ghastly shade of white as the blood rushed from her face. "Ryuji…?"
She was cut off by collapsing under her own weight as her oldest friend had before she turned her attention to her own body.
Ren watched with wide, horrified eyes as one by one, each member of the Phantom Thieves displayed the same symptoms as Ryuji, each slowly fading away as if ash in the wind.
"This… can't be real, right?" Makoto tried to laugh it off, but the horror in her voice belied her true emotions.
"What is happening to us?" Yusuke clasped his right arm around his rapidly fading left arm as if it would help slow the fading. His usual dramatic speeches were drawn short by his horror and pain.
Haru lamented almost violently as she stared at her faded hands, feeling her body breaking away into dust as it flew away from her position in reality.
"Don't… tell me…" Morgana whispered weakly as he attempted to rise, only to collapse onto his stomach once more. Ren reached out and placed a comforting, non-fading hand upon his constant companion as both reassurance and to prevent him from hurting himself further.
The ominous laughter of the Holy Grail rang out through the air, though it seemed only the rapidly fading Phantom Thieves could hear it.
"Indeed, this is not my doing. You imbeciles are about to disappear completely from the people's cognition. Mementos, and Reality, have become one… Thus, those who disappear from cognition cannot exist anywhere."
"Disappear my as—AAAAAAAAGH!" Ryuji's back arched as he let out his final scream before what appeared to be black flames consumed him completely. As the flames grew, his image vanished entirely at once.
"Ryuji!" Ann screamed in horror, tears in her eyes as she watched her oldest friend disappear before her. Soon, the flames consumed her and she, too, disappeared from the cognition of the people.
"So… this is it…?" Yusuke looked upwards and laughed loudly as he disappeared, having one last laugh at the world that forgot he existed.
Futaba faded next, clutching her head while attempting to wake up from a nightmare. "No, NO—"
"Ren… where did we go wron—" Makoto couldn't even finish her sentence before she, too, faded from reality in a gust of ashes.
Haru was hyperventilating and sobbing at once as her body faded, her eyes wide and filled with tears. Ren kept his eyes locked with hers as she faded, filled with anger, sorrow and defeat. It was only fitting that he be her last sight in the world, with how close the two had become over the previous few months.
Tears spilled from the eyes of Ren as one by one, his friends vanished before him until only he and Morgana remained. Feeling his existence fading away more and more quickly, Ren scooped up the struggling form of Morgana within his hands and clutched him tightly to his chest.
As he felt the pain in his body increase, so too did his pull on what was once more hiding beneath the surface of his thoughts when in reality. Upon the fusion of Mementos and Reality, it seemed that the limits of his ability to summon Persona and cast spells had been blurred.
Massive, blue flames erupted around his body as Ren struggled to remain alive, pumping his energy into his own body and that of Morgana as he clutched him tighter, more desperately than before.
"Is this all my fault?" Morgana stared into space as he felt his body begin to fail, a tear falling from his eye as he hung his head, "Because I brought you all into this…?"
"It's not your fault!" Ren hysterically whispered as he drew the fading feline upwards slightly to look him in the eyes, "Please… please save your strength!"
"Sorry, Joker… looks like this is a mission we couldn't finish." Morgana whispered weakly beneath his breath as his body nearly finished vanishing all together, "I may be dying, but… I won't let you fade, too!"
"Morgana, wha—" Ren was cut short as the feline within his grasp began to shine brightly, golden light erupting from his form and engulfing the body of Ren as the flames of blue around his feet rose higher.
Throwing his head back and screaming in both defiance and pain, Ren felt his entire frame shake as he was torn apart, piece by piece.
With a swirl of golden light and blue flames, Ren Amamiya, leader of the Phantom Thieves, disappeared completely from the Cognition of the People, and the world knew Ruin.