Ren Amamiya didn't immediately follow Kaslana's recommendation to go explore and challenge the Herrscher's Palace.
The plan to assault Cocolia's stronghold was set for that night. Charging off to challenge a Herrscher of unknown danger at such a critical moment was undoubtedly an unwise move.
It was far more suitable to continue honing his skills in the Kaslana Palace. Not only could he train and improve, but Kaslana would also be there to ensure his safety.
Ren Amamiya once again challenged Siegfried within the Kaslana Palace.
Compared to when it was just him and Hare, the addition of Raiden Mei and Seele to the team brought a surge of new strength.
They not only defeated Siegfried's first form with ease but also managed to soundly suppress Siegfried's second form, against whom they could previously only trade blows in a stalemate.
Ren Amamiya seized an opening in Siegfried's attacks, decisively defeating his bestial form and achieving ultimate victory.
According to Kaslana, Siegfried was currently the strongest individual in the Kaslana Palace.
The only existence in this Palace even more powerful than Siegfried was Kaslana herself, the pinnacle.
Given that Ren Amamiya was still in a period of rapid growth, he naturally didn't yet have the confidence to challenge Kaslana and win.
After dutifully receiving the power authorization for the second stage of the Siegfried Persona and resting to bring his condition to its peak, the time in the real world had reached nightfall.
The time for action had come.
After bidding farewell to Kaslana and Hare, Ren Amamiya took out his phone. Using the MetaNav app, he left the domain of the Kaslana Palace, returning to the real world with Raiden Mei and Seele, who had insisted on accompanying him.
Even though Seele stubbornly returned to the real world with Ren Amamiya, Kaslana's words about her proved to be a prophecy.
Seele barely lasted five seconds in the real world before her body began to collapse and disintegrate, dissolving into blue particles of light and vanishing before Ren Amamiya and Raiden Mei's eyes.
Seele's rather absurd manner of departure even made Ren Amamiya and Raiden Mei a little worried about her safety.
Fortunately, Ren Amamiya had already subdued Shadow Seele and obtained her as a Persona. By asking Shadow Seele, Ren Amamiya learned that the real Seele was fine; she had simply been forcibly ejected from the real world.
Clad in his phantom thief attire—a black, wing-like trench coat—Ren Amamiya, illuminated by the bright full moon, dashed nimbly across the rooftops of skyscrapers like a black falcon.
Raiden Mei, wearing crimson-black samurai armor and a black ogre mask [Oni mask] that concealed her delicate features, followed closely behind Ren Amamiya, like a shadow, never falling even half a step behind.
In about half an hour, Ren Amamiya and Raiden Mei arrived at the ME Corp building, which Cocolia had taken over.
However...
"What's going on here? Why does ME Corp look like it's been bombarded by artillery?!"
Gazing at the ruined ME Corp building before them, a stunned expression appeared on Raiden Mei's face, hidden behind the black ogre mask.
ME Corp was the enterprise of Raiden Mei's father, Raiden Ryoma. She was more familiar with its appearance than anyone.
Yet, the ME Corp that now stood before Raiden Mei looked as if it had undergone the baptism of intense warfare. It was utterly wrecked and cordoned off with yellow tape covered in warning text.
If the ME Corp sign wasn't still precariously hanging in its original spot, Raiden Mei would have suspected she'd come to the wrong place.
"The Nagazora City morning news mentioned that ME Corp... suffered a gas explosion early this morning?"
While Raiden Mei was still reeling from the shock of ME Corp's destruction, Ren Amamiya had already pulled out his phone and quickly searched for recent news about ME Corp.
Because they had been busy preparing to infiltrate Mementos, Ren Amamiya and Raiden Mei hadn't watched the Nagazora City morning news. Thus, it was only now that they learned of ME Corp's destruction.
Looking at the mention of a "gas explosion" in the morning news—such a textbook excuse—Ren Amamiya couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.
A flimsy excuse like a gas explosion could only deceive uninformed ordinary citizens.
In Ren Amamiya's view, ME Corp's current disastrous state was clearly the result of an intense battle.
Perhaps one of Cocolia's secret human experiments had gone wrong again, playing out the classic scenario of a test subject going berserk and slaughtering the researchers.
Or perhaps an external enemy had invaded—another powerful faction, different from Anti-Entropy, had intervened and launched a surprise attack on Cocolia before Ren Amamiya could.
No matter how much Ren Amamiya searched online for information related to the ME Corp incident, the intel he found was repetitive and monotonous, with no leads like eyewitness reports surfacing.
ME Corp had been destroyed at 5 AM. Some people should have been awake and about by then.
Clearly, behind this incident, an organization was still silently exerting its influence, attempting to completely suppress the news of ME Corp's destruction.
"...Wait a minute. The explosion at ME Corp happened at 5 AM, and when I entered Cocolia's name into the MetaNav app, it was around 8 AM."
Ren Amamiya's finger paused as he scrolled through info on his phone screen; a flash of insight struck him.
"Don't tell me Cocolia already died in this incident? Is it because she's already dead that we couldn't be navigated to her Palace?"
A strange expression flickered across Ren Amamiya's face as he made a bold hypothesis.
Because he couldn't navigate to the Palace within Cocolia's heart, Ren Amamiya had previously made numerous conjectures: perhaps Cocolia was actually a Persona user, or maybe she had used a feign-death drug similar to Masayoshi Shido's, causing her Palace to temporarily collapse and disappear.
But at the time, Ren Amamiya had never considered that this might mean the Cocolia in the real world had actually died.
After all, Ren Amamiya and Raiden Mei hadn't even launched their counterattack against Cocolia yet. Cocolia shouldn't have just suddenly kicked the bucket for no reason.
Reality, however, doesn't follow logic. Regardless of whether Cocolia was truly dead, the fact that she had encountered unimaginable danger in her own stronghold was now set in stone.
"If Cocolia is dead, then what about Bronya? Hare and Seele are really worried about Bronya..."
Bronya Zaychik had always been with Cocolia. If Cocolia had met with disaster, Bronya naturally couldn't have escaped unscathed.
For Hare and Seele's sake, Ren Amamiya certainly hoped Bronya had survived.
But now the trail had gone cold, and Ren Amamiya couldn't immediately think of a way to track Bronya down.
Just as Ren Amamiya was fretting over his inability to track Bronya, a pleasant voice, as cool and sweet as a mountain spring, quietly resonated from within his heart.
[As for a method, there is one.]
"Sakura? Do you have a way to find Bronya?"
Hearing Yae Sakura proactively speak up, saying she had a way to help him find the missing Bronya, Ren Amamiya's eyes lit up immediately. He hurriedly asked Yae Sakura within his heart.
[Ren-Sama, you once wounded Miss Bronya with Jizo Mitama, causing the power of Jizo Mitama to seep into her body.]
Yae Sakura didn't hold back, immediately offering the search method she had devised.
[Higokumaru is the source of Jizo Mitama's power. If she could manifest in the outside world, she could roughly sense the location of the one affected by its corrosive power. With continuous fine-tuning, Higokumaru could guide Ren-Sama to Miss Bronya's side!]