Bullets embed themselves in Ren's flesh as he tries and fails to roll out of the way of the hail of gunfire. He hisses through his teeth—but it's not the worst he's had in the Metaverse, and he has a healer this time. He gets to his feet, just in time to be engulfed by a wave of unnatural dread.

But he's known for months now that death is coming for him, whether Crow wants to hear about it or not. As soon as he gets home, he's a dead man walking. Same old, same old. So he just snarls and pulls off his mask. "Veles!"

Veles manifests for the first time in this fight, tall and black-scaled with spindly limbs and an animal skull for a head, gleaming oddly in the light of the Metaverse. But unlike everyone else here, apparently, Ren hasn't fucking forgotten that Futaba's in the Persona that's latched onto the robot; instead of attacking, he casts another Debilitate, extending the life of Raven's spell. Then he sucks in a breath that pulls at his bullet wounds and raises his voice.

"Futaba is attached to him! So maybe don't just fucking nuke him!"