Vill-V: Holy Cow, This is Insane!!

"Form a contract with the little Phantom Thief… Hmm, it's not something I haven't considered, but that moment is definitely not now."

Facing Kosma's somewhat surprised gaze, Vill-V simply shrugged nonchalantly. Her pinkish-white gradient pupils remained fixed on Ren Amamiya alone.

Although she didn't choose to form a contract with Ren Amamiya immediately, Vill-V's stance had clearly softened considerably. As long as Ren Amamiya put in a little more effort, he would probably be able to make Vill-V, this mysterious and ever-changing great magician, become one of his Persona powers.

Vill-V didn't show such strong interest in every visitor to the Elysian Realm. Clearly, Ren Amamiya's strength and potential had deeply caught Vill-V's attention.

Since Vill-V already had the idea of forming a contract with Ren Amamiya, the moment when she truly became Ren Amamiya's Persona, assisting him in saving the world, wouldn't be too far off…

Realizing this, Kosma, his social anxiety acting up, once again fell into quiet silence. He silently observed the interaction between Ren Amamiya and Vill-V.

"…You want to enter my Palace with us?"

Sensing Vill-V's unconcealed, intense curiosity and desire to explore his Palace, Ren Amamiya couldn't help but frown slightly.

Opening up such a private place as his Palace to his beautiful girl teammates, who fought alongside him, was fine. But if that included Vill-V…

Although Vill-V was undeniably a beautiful woman with an eye-catching figure and could greatly assist Ren Amamiya in the Persona fusion ritual, Vill-V's personality was truly somewhat… problematic.

Showing his Palace, a symbol of his mindscape, to Vill-V, whom he was meeting for the first time and who had quite the mischievous personality… just imagining it made Ren Amamiya instinctively feel resistant.

"Don't reject so hastily! As an uninvited guest paying a visit, I've naturally prepared a gift. A gift… how about helping you master the power of this Treasure, the Divine Key: Void Archives?"

Vill-V leaned towards Ren Amamiya with an extremely familiar gesture, resting her brownish-green head against Ren Amamiya's chest, completely unconcerned about the angle that just happened to give Ren Amamiya a full view.

Vill-V simply raised her black leather-gloved hands and cupped Ren Amamiya's right hand, which held the golden cube. Her knuckles, adorned with gold ornaments, gently traced circles on Ren Amamiya's palm and the surface of the golden cube he held.

As Vill-V's index finger slowly circled the surface of the golden cube, Ren Amamiya keenly observed faint ripples spreading across each layer of the cube's surface. Even the overall glow of the cube seemed to dim slightly.

The AI consciousness dwelling within this Treasure, when facing Vill-V, seemed to exude an intense fear, like a mouse seeing a cat, as if encountering its natural enemy.

Theoretically, only those compatible with a Divine Key could unleash its true terrifying power. And as a living Divine Key, the Key of Revelation: Void Archives, with its built-in super-AI Prometheus, would choose its wielder, not the other way around.

However, as the designer of the Key of Revelation, Vill-V, who always liked to leave a few little backdoors in her creations, naturally had ways to bypass the will of the Void Archives itself, forcibly allowing Ren Amamiya to access the library within the Void Archives, and even directly granting him the authority to control its power.

For Vill-V, who had personally developed the Void Archives, doing this was as easy as eating and drinking. She didn't even need to switch to her [Expert] personality; her [Great Magician] personality could effortlessly fulfill this promise to Ren Amamiya.

"Help me master the power in this Treasure? …Alright, I can allow you to enter my Palace."

After hearing Vill-V's promise, Ren Amamiya fell silent for a moment before nodding, granting Vill-V permission to access his Palace.

Although Ren Amamiya was confident in unlocking the power of the Void Archives Treasure through his own efforts, it was, after all, a crystallization of divine power.

Rather than taking unknown risks and gambling on an unknown amount of time, Ren Amamiya might as well seek Vill-V's assistance here.

Even if Vill-V's personality had some minor flaws, Ren Amamiya could at least be sure that Vill-V was a trustworthy ally.

Receiving Ren Amamiya's confirmation, a pleased smile curved Vill-V's lips.

She simply tapped the surface of the golden cube twice with her finger, and Ren Amamiya felt the Void Archives Treasure in his hand click, as if a key had been inserted and turned, revealing the scene behind the lock.

With Vill-V's help in unlocking the restrictions, Ren Amamiya quickly gained a sense of complete control over the Void Archives. He experimentally manipulated the Void Archives in his hand.

The golden cube in Ren Amamiya's palm suddenly transformed into shimmering golden fluid, then instantly solidified into the form of a giant golden propeller.

"Ooh, ooh, wonderful control! Just getting started, and you can already manipulate the Void Archives into other forms of weapons—And, little Phantom Thief, you really like the Lightning propeller I made. I also very much like your excellent taste!!"

Watching Ren Amamiya skillfully manipulate the Void Archives, Vill-V warmly applauded, unreservedly praising him.

"Although you praise me so… I don't plan on going to my Palace now. I intend to wait until tomorrow and then go with the other teammates."

Ren Amamiya didn't stop manipulating the Void Archives in his hand. The golden propeller instantly restructured itself into the form of a Japanese katana. He casually swung the Void Archives, mimicking the form of his Jizo Mitama katana, to get a feel for it, while speaking to the intently watching Vill-V beside him.

Based on the time in the real world, it was already late at night, and Raiden Mei should already be asleep.

If it were just him, or just bringing Hare and Seele along, Ren Amamiya wouldn't mind exploring his own Palace now. After all, as the Palace ruler, Ren Amamiya couldn't possibly encounter an attack within his own Palace.

However, with Vill-V also wanting to join the exploration team, Ren Amamiya felt it necessary to rest and adjust his physical and mental state to their peak to deal with this clever and troublesome, mischievous lady.

"Tomorrow… Should I come to the Velvet Room to find you, or will you come to the real world to find me? Speaking of which, Vill-V, can you enter the real world?"

Canceling the Void Archives' mimicry of the Jizo Mitama katana, Ren Amamiya didn't turn the Treasure back into its cube form. Instead, he transformed the Void Archives into a golden bracelet and wore it on his right wrist.

While extending his hand to adjust the position of the Void Archives bracelet, Ren Amamiya looked up at Vill-V and posed his question.

Although the Velvet Room attendants could travel freely between the spiritual and material worlds, Ren Amamiya didn't seem to recall Igor ever visiting the real world… Even if there were instances where the Velvet Room was transformed into a Velvet Room dance hall due to Igor's absence, perhaps Igor's so-called "outing" was actually to some place similar to Mementos.

As fellow creations of the unconscious god Philemon, Ren Amamiya was somewhat curious about whether Vill-V could freely enter and exit the real world.

"Enter the real world? Hmm, I can, but there's no need. That's not my world, and there's nothing there that particularly interests me. Compared to stepping into that world, a place I've never set foot in since my birth, I prefer to stay in this world and conduct my research without being disturbed… Unless that real world is about to be destroyed, and it reaches a state where I have to personally intervene to save it, I probably will never go to the real world."

Faced with Ren Amamiya's question, Vill-V crossed her arms, pursed her lips slightly in thought, and then gave her answer.

While the Elysian Realm was a virtual space constructed from data, it didn't mean that the Flame-Chasers residing within the Elysian Realm had absolutely no way to descend to the real world.

Take Mobius as an example. She constantly sought to hunt visitors to the Elysian Realm, hoping to seize their real bodies and return to the real world to live again after erasing their consciousness.

If Mobius wasn't so reluctant to give up her practically immortal MANTIS physique, insisting on performing the Judgment-class Honkai Beast, Hephaestus, Meta-Morph surgery on the test subjects she painstakingly captured, causing them to die one after another, she would have long since seized a weak real body and returned to the real world.

As for Vill-V, she had no intention of seizing someone else's body like Mobius.

For Vill-V, if she wanted to go to the world outside the Elysian Realm, she only needed to create a puppet body from real, non-data-constructed materials.

"Although I won't go to the real world, little Phantom Thief, you don't need to come to the Velvet Room to pick me up… Take this. This is my gift to you, and also my blessing."

Vill-V slowly extended her hand towards Ren Amamiya. In her black leather-gloved palm, a simple, grayish-brown emblem appeared, emitting a faint glow.

"To create illusion with reality, to reverse meaning with contradiction… The Signet of [Helix], I now entrust to you, little Phantom Thief."

Under Kosma's surprised gaze, Vill-V, just like him before, bestowed her Signet power upon Ren Amamiya.

"Little Phantom Thief, you don't need to come to the Velvet Room to pick me up. Just go explore Palaces with your companions as usual. The mysterious messenger I've dispatched will share everything she sees and knows with me when we next meet… I hope you won't be too surprised when you see her."

Seeing Ren Amamiya extend his hand and accept the Signet of Helix from her palm, the smile on Vill-V's delicate face grew even more radiant.

As she gave away the Signet of Helix, Vill-V infused a part of her own personality into it, entering Ren Amamiya's body along with the Signet.

Vill-V didn't specifically choose which part.

In pursuit of the surprise element of magic, she simply treated the Signet of Helix as a wildly spinning roulette wheel. Which personality within her would be selected depended entirely on luck and which personality had the highest compatibility with Ren Amamiya.

So, which lucky personality had entered the little Phantom Thief's body along with the Signet of Helix~~~?

The [Great Magician] closed her eyes with a playful smile and began to scan the other seven personalities within her body, preparing to see which lucky personality had the privilege of touring Ren Amamiya's Palace.

However, while she hadn't scanned before, it was fine. But the moment the [Great Magician] closed her eyes to check for the missing personality within her body, the radiant smile on her face froze, and a bead of cold sweat instantly trickled down her forehead.

Wait a minute, wait a minute. [Conductor], [Expert], [Esoteric Scholar], [Chef], [Kevin-killer Type-5], [Evil]… they were all still there?

Where was the [Original Personality]? The very first Vill-V, the true Vill-V's core personality, the one who had always been in a dormant state… where had she gone?!

Realizing that it was precisely the Original Core, the most important of Vill-V's eight personalities, that had entered Ren Amamiya's body along with the Signet of Helix, the [Great Magician]'s body stiffened. She was stunned by the effect of her own magic.

The [Great Magician] never expected that among all the Vill-V personalities, the one most compatible with and resonant with Ren Amamiya was the Original Personality, the [Great Trickster].

Even while the [Great Trickster] was still dormant, she could instinctively be drawn to Ren Amamiya and leave for his body…

Although this was a scenario she had orchestrated herself, the Great Magician still couldn't help but feel a sense of being utterly outdone at this moment.