"Quantum Shadows? Is that the name of those Shadows?"
Commanding Persona Huodou to intercept the attacking purple ethereal monsters, Ren Amamiya glanced back at Hare after hearing her exclamation.
Seeing the surprised expression on Hare's face, Ren deeply understood just how bizarre this Palace truly was.
"Sure enough, I knew a Palace recommended by Kaslana wouldn't be just any ordinary Palace... Stay sharp, Mei, Hare!"
The waves of intense heat spewed by Persona Huodou failed to halt the charge and assault of the Quantum Shadows.
These monsters, resembling Shadows Ren had encountered before—almost identical models just recolored to an ethereal purple—streamlined their bodies, accelerating like javelins towards Persona Huodou.
As if exhibiting a game-like clipping phenomenon, the ethereal purple lances formed by the Quantum Shadows completely ignored Huodou's raging flames, shooting through the intense heat one after another, striking Persona Huodou's massive body with incredible speed.
Fortunately, while the Quantum Shadows' attack methods were strange and eerie, their individual strength wasn't particularly overwhelming. They were merely somewhat troublesome Shadows.
Even after being caught off guard and struck by several purple lances formed by the Quantum Shadows, Persona Huodou only let out a muffled roar, not sustaining serious damage from the surprise attack.
The Quantum Shadows' ability to immunize themselves against attacks only lasted for an extremely brief duration.
Under the continuous bombardment of purple thunderstorms spewed from Persona Kurikara's ferocious draconic maw, the Quantum Shadows, capable only of brief phasing, soon showed signs of weakening. Their ethereal purple bodies seemed to lose energy, fading into a pale, hollow state.
A small, sun-like burst of fire erupted from Persona Huodou's mouth after charging, while thick pillars of lightning summoned by Persona Kurikara struck the Quantum Shadow monsters ahead.
Their surprise attack having failed, these peculiar monsters were instantly routed under the combined assault of Ren and Mei, vanishing like white foam.
Even the Quantum Shadows that retained their color and power, attempting to block with conjured purple walls, only held for a fleeting moment before being utterly crushed by Huodou and Kurikara, annihilated along with the Quantum Shadows hiding behind the walls.
Hare hadn't even needed to make a move before Ren and Mei eliminated all the attacking Quantum Shadows.
Gazing at the remnants of the Quantum Shadows dissolving into pale gray ash in the darkness ahead, Ren felt a slight sense of satisfaction.
Recruiting Mei into the team was indeed the right decision.
Putting aside the fact that three Persona users are definitely stronger than two, Mei's Persona Kurikara was truly convenient for handling groups, possessing far greater area-of-effect damage output than Hare.
Although Hare could also easily deal with the group of Quantum Shadows that had just attacked, it would undoubtedly have taken her slightly longer than Mei.
The Quantum Shadows appearing in this Palace looked almost identical to certain Shadows in Mementos, differing only in body color... almost like reflections of Shadows.
During the encounter, Ren tried using the analysis skill obtained from Hare's Confidant link to identify the Quantum Shadows.
However, the result he obtained was mostly garbled information.
The only things he could clearly discern were the names of those Quantum Shadows: something like "Gale Shadow," "Trampling Shadow," and "Thrusting Shadow"...
Hare clearly knew something about these Quantum Shadows. And judging from her earlier words, this Palace belonging to "Seele Vollerei" was clearly in some kind of liminal state.
Ren had already heard Hare mention the term "Imaginary Space" and knew it referred to Mementos.
But the term "Sea of Quanta" was something Ren heard for the first time today.
Judging by semantics, the Sea of Quanta clearly served a similar function to the Imaginary Space... meaning it was another world similar to Mementos, but not Mementos.
Because the Quantum Shadows looked strangely like reflections of Mementos Shadows, the other world that came to Ren's mind wasn't the foggy world inside the TV from P4, or the Tartarus tower from P3.
It was...
The "Jails" from P5S?
The mere thought of P5S made Ren's scalp tingle slightly.
The reason being, although Ren had bought the P5S game cartridge, it had been gathering dust in a corner ever since.
He had originally planned to play the sequel P5S after completing P5R, but he unexpectedly transmigrated right as he was about to start his second playthrough, never managing to actually play the P5S story.
All of Ren's knowledge about P5S came from online sources. Besides knowing P5S was generally better received than P5R...
His understanding of P5S could be summarized by one image: that classic meme "Who is Yoshizawa?.JPG".
And most importantly, the final boss of P5S was named Demiurge, another powerful enemy on the level of a false god.
In mythology, Demiurge and Yaldabaoth shared a dualistic concept and connection; it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call Demiurge the reflection of Yaldabaoth.
Could this Sea of Quanta be referring to the other world in P5S, different from Mementos?
The thought that another evil god might be floating around in the Sea of Quanta waiting for him to fight made Ren feel a little dizzy.
"Got a little carried away there... Mei, next time we encounter these Quantum Shadows, please leave one for me intentionally. I want to try and see if I can subdue these Quantum Shadows as Personas."
After the combined onslaught of Huodou and Kurikara, not a single Quantum Shadow remained before Ren.
Snapping out of his contemplation, Ren adjusted his mood, speaking to Mei beside him with a hint of regret.
"Subdue these Quantum Shadows as Personas?... Ah, I understand. Next time we encounter them, I'll have Kurikara hold back."
Hearing Ren's intention to try and turn the Quantum Shadows into his own Personas, Mei instinctively showed a look of bewildered incomprehension.
However, Mei was ultimately still a novice Persona user, a complete rookie Ren had just initiated yesterday.
Since Ren said the Quantum Shadows might be convertible into Personas, perhaps they really could become his Personas?
Thus, Mei eventually nodded doubtfully, accepting Ren's request and planning to have Kurikara reduce her damage output next time they encountered Quantum Shadows, leaving room for Ren to operate.
"Joker, looks like there's a treasure chest ahead!"
Continuing forward through the dark labyrinth, after covering some distance, Hare suddenly spoke up, alerting Ren.
Before Ren and the others stood a wooden chest that looked decidedly heavy!
"Finally... This is the first treasure chest I've encountered!"
Seeing the large wooden chest before him, Ren's eyes instantly lit up. He instinctively took a step forward, wanting to open the chest and see what treasures lay hidden inside.
However, after taking that first step, Ren stopped, his gaze towards the wooden chest becoming calm and collected.
Although Ren hadn't encountered any item materials stored in treasure chests before, having only gathered them personally in Mementos...
Theoretically, treasure chests should only appear in Mementos.
While everything here greatly resembled the real Mementos, it was actually the Palace within the heart of the person named Seele Vollerei.
Viewed in this light, the appearance of this treasure chest seemed rather suspicious.
Could it be a disguised Treasure Demon?