After school, I finally sit down and have a talk with Lucy about everything that happened yesterday, as well as what we’re planning to do next. I much prefer talking over the phone to writing, as the latter cramps my hand after a while, so I went on a short walk to the Methodist Church and entered from there. In the Metaverse, the church is still utterly demolished. I do this in part so that Ted can listen to our conversation, since the others I can just message about it later.

I give Lucy a full account of the previous night’s events, including the upsetting dream that I had afterward, and the conversation that Anja and I had in the library. She is silent for a moment after I finish.

“Wow.” She finally says. “I’m very impressed that you all made it out of there alive. I’m so glad I thought to give you all the app.”

“I am grateful as well,” I reply. “Although they still seemed to be one step ahead of us. I doubt they would have set up a decoy with the Trooper if they weren’t expecting a coordinated reaction from us.”

“Indeed. But Ms. Trooper went and blew the advantage they had with her slip of the tongue about Zoe. Based on your accounts of recent events, I’m surprised at her incompetent behavior. It seems as if she has slipped over the years. Once upon a time, she was quite a clever opponent.”

“Maybe her statement about Zoe was on purpose?” I theorize. “Maybe Moloch told her to say something like that after a certain period of time, so that we could gather where Zoe was and he could finish us off.”

“I don’t think so, Ashley. I don’t think you really comprehend what he was trying to do last night.”

“Yeah, honestly I really don’t. Moloch’s plan didn’t make any sense to me.”

“It makes sense to me, but… getting you to understand is going to require quite a bit of elaboration on Moloch’s past behavior.”

“Well, go ahead then. I’m in the Metaverse, so I got time. And I don’t think Ted’s got anything to do today.”

“That’s very amusing, lass,” Ted growls at me.

“Alrighty then. Let’s get started,” Lucy begins. “The first thing that you need to know about Moloch is that he is powered by human suffering.”

“Hmm. You know, that actually lines up with some of what Zoe told me,” I observe. “She told me that there were some moments that night where Moloch seemed ‘hungry’ and said something about ‘having a meal’ while she was in pain from something.”

“Yes, that’s typical of him,” Lucy affirms. “I know many of us have a sadistic streak to our imaginations, but Moloch’s a little bit different than that. He literally needs the power he gets from people’s pain to keep on living, both on a personal and global level. This is the rationale behind his facilitation of the creation of palaces, as he is effectively getting people to generate new suffering for him by empowering those who hurt others.”

“Aye, it also explains his brutal attack style,” Ted comments. “Bastard could have killed me in a second, but instead I was left to slowly bleed out.”

“It’s a really damn good thing that our Personas are restored when we leave the Metaverse,” I note. “Otherwise Ted and I would basically be bloody piles of body parts right now.”

“I admire your resilience,” Lucy says. “It takes someone with thicker skin than average to go against Moloch, and both of you match that quality admirably. Bearing this in mind, it should make sense to you now why Moloch doesn’t go for the quick kill most of the time.”

“Except for at the very end, when he did,” I object. “Damn dude nearly snapped my neck. It was uncomfortable, sure, but still not the most painful way to die.”

“Moloch probably thought that, with his plans for Zoe foiled, it would be in his best interests to wing it and try and take out as many of the rest of you as he could. And since he caught you alone, trying to kill you quickly was in his best interests. Think about it this way: if he got to torture one of you, that would’ve been like eating a meal he liked: nourishing and enjoyable. But if he killed you, and that made the rest of the team give up and stop infiltrating palaces, that would be like improving the quality of air in the place you live in. In the long term, the latter is much better for your overall health. If you had to pick between eating a Big Mac and having your town gassed with methane, or going without lunch but letting the air remain clear, you should pick the latter. There’s no comparison.”

“So that’s what he wanted to do with Zoe, huh?” I respond. “Kidnap her and hope that causes the rest of us to back off? Well, it wouldn’t have worked. Even for what he did to her and everyone else last night, I want to find that bastard and wipe him from the face of the earth.”

“Don’t be motivated only by revenge,” Ted gripes at me. “That’s not how you were called to live.”

“You sound like my mom,” I snap back at him. “If you knew how it felt, you’d think the same way.”

“I know much more about how it feels than you know, girl. Don’t test me!” he growls. For the first time since I’ve known him, he sounds legitimately angry with me. I guess I probably triggered a memory of something from his human life.

“Ted has a point, Ashley,” Lucy intervenes. “Trust me, I get it. I hate Moloch with all my heart for what he did to my old teammates, and others I’ve worked with along the way. But you need to remember the bigger picture, too. Getting rid of him will allow humanity as a whole to walk forward.”

“Right. I get it,” I agree begrudgingly.

“At any rate, part of the reason why I know what he was trying to do is because he’s pulled this same stunt before,” Lucy explains. “What you suspected from your dream is partially correct… there was once another team of young people I was working with to try and bring down Moloch. Unfortunately, Moloch was able to capture one of the friends of the team members, who was named Suzy, and drag her into the Shadow Realm. They thought that she was dead… the truth was actually worse than that. She re-emerged in the middle of a nearby forest two weeks later, naked and completely deranged. Her mind had been totally broken, to the point where she had lost the capacity for language. She’s been in a psych ward ever since, with no sign of recovery so far. After this, the rest of the team got cold feet and called it quits.”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

There’s a stunned silence following this rather horrifying story. The name ‘Suzy’ sounds familiar to me from somewhere, but I can’t quite place it. Whoever she was, she was extremely unfortunate… I suddenly feel very afraid. If that had happened to Zoe… I don’t want to think about it. I knew I shouldn’t have gotten her involved with any of this…

But wait… Zoe didn’t even have her Persona or the app yet, but she still somehow ended up in the Metaverse. This brings me to a question I was going to ask…

“On that note… how the hell did Zoe get into the Metaverse that night?” I question Lucy. “I had brought her in there the day before, but there’s no way she should’ve been in there when I went back in to go help Nova.”

“Right. He only does this extremely rarely, but Moloch has the ability to drag people into the Metaverse with him if they haven’t awakened a Persona yet.”

I am very alarmed by this information. “Wait, seriously? But that’s horrible. He could literally do that at any time to any of our loved ones!”

“I guess he could. But he won’t,” Lucy assures me. “It takes a massive amount of energy from him to do so. I think after doing that, and then failing to extensively torture anyone, he’s probably gonna be out for months now. It’s not practical for him to do that on any sort of regular basis. The only real net benefit of his plan from last night would’ve been breaking up your team. Any torture time only would’ve partially recouped his losses.”

“Okay, that makes me feel a lot better,” I say, relieved. “I was imagining this dude was going around kidnapping people at random right and left.”

“Well, I guess it’s possible there are a few unsolved disappearances which are his doing. But he’d have to gain a lot from it for it to be worth it.”

“Okay then. I guess the next question is… why go for Zoe specifically? How much does he know about our personal lives?” I remember what Zoe told me about his comments about us going against his ‘creation.’ “Is it because of her connection to the church palace?”

“Of that, I have no clue,” Lucy admits. “It is very strange, I agree. There’s no way he should be able to know that much about all of you, but his actions indicate that he’s gotten a head start in understanding your group and the lives you lead.”

“Maybe Pavia gave him the information,” I speculate. “I know that the two did talk directly.” But that doesn’t make any sense either, now that I think about it; Pavia wouldn’t have known anything about Anja and I.

“Maybe. Only time will tell, I suppose.”

“Fair enough. So, the dream I had last night…”

“Yes. The other main way Moloch can directly affect the real world is by giving people bad dreams. This seems to take significantly less effort than sucking people into the Metaverse, so he does it every now and then when he’s in a bad mood. I’ve been hit with those multiple times in the past. It’s okay, though; the nightmares that come from my own brain are usually worse anyway.”

“Interesting. So, he’s retreating to replenish his energy level, and just wanted to piss on my face real quick before he took off.”

“Yes, essentially. As you learned last time you saw him, he likes to mock you using whatever bits of information he knows about you. He’s… petty like that.”

I try and remember if there was anything especially personal in the dream, but it’s hard to remember. I remember feeling unusually… soft when I woke up, so there must have been something. That reminds me, actually…

“Oh yeah. I vaguely remember an image from the dream of these three young girls… but I didn’t recognize them.” I describe them to the best of my memory.

“Fuck him!” Lucy swears angrily. “That was Suzy and her teammates. How dare he bring them up. Those poor girls have been through so much…” Somehow, I get the feeling something happened even beyond the confrontation with Moloch she told us about earlier, but it’s not my place to ask about it.

“We’ll get him back. Don’t worry,” I say resolutely. “On that note… what do you think of my theory about the church?”

“Yes, our likely next target. I think that you have a good theory, given the information you’ve been able to gather. I’ve never seen a palace owned by more than one person before, but it makes sense in theory; if a group of people are like-minded enough, it seems logical that they would also share the same distorted desires. That will make your infiltration of the palace complicated, however, as there is no longer one central person you’re targeting.”

“Well, there sort of is,” I reason. “The pastor steers the ship, right? If we can get through to him, he should be able to sway the rest.”

“Well, you can try that. There’s just not a lot of precedent for this happening that I know of. It’s quite possible that it works the other way; your pastor is not acting out of his own will, but rather to appease the congregation at large.”

“Well, even if he’s a glorified figurehead, he has more chance of affecting change than anyone else,” I reason. “I’ve known Palmer for a while, and he’s a smart guy. I’m sure that, if he wanted to, he could put all of these fires out, and frame it in just the right way to get the rest to move on.”

“You know them all better than I do, Ashley. Whatever happens, the best of luck to you and Zoe. At least this time, you can probably count on not having Moloch interfere. Apart from his energy level, I have also been causing a ruckus where I am in hopes that it would draw him away from you.”

“Thanks, Lucy. That’ll help a lot. And I have a feeling that the Dark Trooper won’t want to mess with us for a while either. I gave her a pretty nice parting gift,” I explain, smiling a little despite myself as I remember it.

“Yeah. I wouldn’t worry too much about her. She’s much less threatening on her own anyway. Let me know when you clear the palace, or if you need help. Until then, I will talk to you later.”

“Okay. Bye,” I say. She hangs up.

Now that we are finally finished with our discussion, I take Ted and I back into the real world.

“Man, all of this supernatural bullshit makes my head spin,” I complain to him. “It’s like a rabbit hole that never ends.”

“Aye, there are things in this world that most humans weren’t meant to understand,” he comments sagely.

“Well, when you say it that way, that makes me feel kind of… elite,” I say. “Well, I guess I’ve always been one of the few who’s drawn to the more intellectual things in life. I get it from Dad. Well, both of my parents, honestly.”

“Excuse me, what are you doing out here?” A man’s voice asks from behind me.

I turn to see that it’s some middle-aged balding dude, presumably someone working at the church who isn’t used to seeing people around at this time.

“Just hanging out,” I tell him. “I find this is a relaxing place to sit after school.”

“And just who are you talking to?” he asks.

“Nobody. I find that it helps me think to bounce ideas off of myself,” I say.

He gives me a slightly creeped-out look, like he’s under the impression I’ve lost my marbles. Actually, that’s kind of strange. Couldn’t he hear Ted talking? Ted wasn't speaking particularly quietly, so if he heard me, he should’ve heard him too. Ah well, it’s probably for the better if he didn’t hear Ted’s side of the conversation anyway.

“What is that on the table?” He asks me sternly. “Young miss, that’s a wild animal! You should not be playing with it.”

“Don’t worry, I’m great with animals,” I assure him. That said, I picked Ted up from the table and set him on the ground. “Better skedaddle, little buddy,” I tell him. He wisely heeds my advice and makes his way back to the forest.

I turn back towards the old man, who seemingly just had his worst fears that I’m a lunatic who talks to animals confirmed. “You better get on home,” he tells me.

“Yeah, fine, I will,” I say. I hurry and do so, since I feel like if I don’t he may call the police on me.