Kamen Rider Tarock, Re-Dealt – Reading Six: Dark Wings
Not that it needs to be said, but I don't own the Kamen Rider trademark. Just the characters and settings depicted in this work.
Disillusioned youth Liss Decker found herself suddenly caught between two supernatural combatants and took the powers of one for herself in the aftermath. Soon she learned of the Sphere, a tiered world that was home to the Arcana, powerful immortal beings, and whose inhabitants were beset by the Mythos, strange and hostile monstrous creatures. Seeing an escape from an oppressive everyday life, Liss agreed to become Tarock, a champion for the people of the Sphere. However, Liss then met a strange girl calling herself Lost who spawned a Mythos monster before disappearing. Restoring an old motorcycle she dubbed the Shift Runner, Liss traveled to the Sphere in pursuit of Lost….
Liss held on tight to what were no longer a set of handlebars but thick leather reins. They were attached to a bridle around the mouth of a horse covered in irregular, silvery metal plates with a bronze-colored mane of long wires. It looked sidelong over its shoulder at her, snorted a cloud of steam and looked forward again, scraping at the ground with a sharp metal hoof.
"Shift Runner?" she asked uncertainly. The horse gave a tinny, echoing whicker in recognition then turned to face forward again. "Which one's Shardak's hideout?" she asked. "I don't remember." It whickered again and trotted to the face of one hill and stopped. Liss climbed down and walked up to the side of the hill where a cave mouth opened out of nowhere for her.
"Hey Shardak!" she called inside. "You here?"
"Did it look as if I'm going anywhere?" the wizened voice from the day before answered.
"No, not really," Liss answered and finally allowed herself to relax. The green card ejected and her armor flickered away. "Is the sword card ready yet?"
"Right down to business, eh?" Shardak asked, the ghostly visage of his face forming in the center of the cave. The other card she'd had sat on the rocky pedestal, with most of the burn marks cleaned away. It had been damaged in her fight with Thena, who like Shardak was one of the Arcana, an immortal and powerful native of the Sphere. For reasons still unknown to Liss, Thena thought she was a threat despite having just taken care of one of the monsters supposedly ravaging the Sphere.
Shardak had been able to repair the damage Thena had done to the Fate Driver, but Liss had had to leave without another of its special cards, that gave her different powers and weapons, to let Shardak fix it too. In this strange place, she was trying to get all the advantages she could. And that included holding onto the support of the only person who it seemed could fix her gear, by keeping him in the loop.
"I'm not half of what I used to be, and this takes a lot out of me," Shardak sighed, obviously not happy to be reminded. "It's going to be a bit longer. I take it you were able to destroy that last Mythos?"
"Yeah," Liss replied. "It got even bigger after I beat it the first time. Do they usually do that?"
Shardak squinted. "No, they don't. Another reason to worry. Still, as long as you didn't have any trouble with it…surprising though, it was powerful enough for me detect all the way from here."
"Well, there was one thing. I came back trying to find the girl who made the monster-"
"The girl who made the monster?" Shardak interrupted. "What girl?!"
Liss took a step back out of reflex at Shardak's outburst. "A girl in a black robe. She said her name was Lost, and she was looking for someone who was calling to her. For a second she even thought it was me, and then she puked this black stuff into the sky and it rained and made a scorpion monster. Then after I killed him it stopped raining, but he got bigger and I had to kill him again…" Liss trailed off, it being obvious even to her how inane that was starting to sound, even with the doors that had been opened in her mind over the last few days.
"This is alarming, about Mythos being able to revive in more powerful shapes…but to identify a creator, that is welcome news. I wonder why she might've thought you were calling to her, though," Shardak mused.
"I keep having this cold feeling in my arm whenever I run into a monster. It started happening when I ran into that spider monster and some blood got on my hand." She thought better of mentioning she could tell if an Arcanum was close the same way. That seemed something to hold onto for the moment.
"Intriguing, a means to detect the presence of other Mythos. That should come in handy," Shardak said.
"Yeah, it's great. Any idea where Lost might be?"
"My abilities are only a shadow of what they once were," Shardak sighed. "Once, I could have found her easily. Now…"
"All right, all right," Liss said. "But why are we so clueless about the Mythos if you guys fought them before? You must've had some idea where they came from if you beat them."
"We tracked them to their lair, but Master Thyer, the first Tarock and the warriors they were able to gather went in, and only Tarock came out. He expired before he could tell anyone anything, and all that was ever found inside was Master Thyer's sword."
"Can you at least tell me where the other two cards are now?"
"I will tell you that the first is located in Avalon, the empire that controls most of the territory of the Sphere's bottom levels. The card of Cups is in the possession of a nobleman named Lyrin Doxo, a good friend of the emperor. If you explain your intentions to him, I'm sure he'll be willing to give to you."
You mean your intentions, Liss thought. She hardly knew this world or its people, did he really expect her to immediately accept his take on the situation and do everything he said without question? As long he was the only one who could tell her where the rest of the cards were, though…
"Are you all right, Liss?" Shardak asked.
"I'm fine. This place, Avalon? Is it really far away?"
Shardak nodded. "It's almost at the bottom of the Sphere. Your mount should have little trouble getting you there, though."
"Okay. Am I gonna have to come all the way back for the sword card when it's ready?"
Shardak shook his head. "I'll ask Jack to bring it to you."
"And what about the last card?"
"That's for later," Shardak said firmly.
"Maybe that one would help more," Liss replied.
"Perhaps it would, but it's in a far more perilous location at present. If that changes, I will let you know at once," Shardak said, not budging.
Liss nodded, not wanting to say anything she'd regret, and knew that could probably take on a whole new dimension in a place like this. "Okay, one other thing before I go. Jack said I should find a way of my own back to the Sphere, so I used the Fate Driver on a motorcycle and it changed into like a super bike. But as soon as I got here it turned into a horse. Is it supposed to do that?"
Shardak knitted his brow. "It wouldn't surprise me."
"It wouldn't surprise you?" Liss blurted angrily. He was asking her to risk her life fighting monsters in a weird other world—even if it was better than the one she'd left—and he didn't know how the tools he was giving her worked? What kind of wizard was he?
The ghostly face sighed. "Liss, you need to understand I had grand plans for the Fate Driver, but little time to explore its full capabilities before I was reduced to this, and the first Tarock was more concerned with helping us wipe out the Mythos than experimenting with the intricacies of his abilities. Certainly not with finding out how Tarock's powers might be reflected differently in the world you come from.
"But," he added, "you're acquitting yourself well so far. I'm sure we'll learn much in the days to come."
"Speaking of the day, guess I better go save it," Liss said.
Shardak cleared his throat as she started back out of the cave. "Thank you for informing me of your find. This changes everything about the Mythos."
"Yeah…you're welcome."
All she could see were stars for what seemed like hours, but finally Sue was able to look up into a bright yellow sky…yellow sky?!
She sat up quickly in alarm, and wasn't reassured by what she saw then. She was sitting on a rough flagstone in the courtyard of a castle with a tower at each corner, and groups of people in dirty, tattered clothing shooting her cautious glances. Then four masked men in heavy Roman-looking armor pushed their way out of the crowds to surround her.
"Freeze, intruder!" he commanded, the tip of his trident giving a very unfriendly electrical crackle for emphasis.
"What's going on…?" Sue whimpered.
With her request to take them to Avalon, Shift Runner trotted along an empty field that stretched from horizon to horizon. Above Liss could make out large balls of light like suns that were probably the ones she'd seen hovering in the center of the Sphere during her approach. Looking the other way, though, the sky was the same pale yellow as on the other side, no glassy wall with empty space beyond. Maybe she wasn't close enough to the edge to see it anymore.
The wind picked up and blew straight down her right arm. Liss reined Shift Runner in and pulled her jacket over one shoulder to look at it, sighing in annoyance to see a bunch of the seams had ripped and a big hole was forming where the sleeve should've connected to the body.
The thought of going back and prepping for a trip occurred, but her wallet was nearly empty and that meant bumming from Paige or Kelly, probably the only people still talking to her. Would Shardak know if she left for a while to get some stuff and come back, and know she hadn't planned ahead? Would he think twice about letting her keep Tarock's powers?
He was nothing but a cloudy face now, but he still had some power. What if that included the power to take back the Fate Driver if she didn't live up to his expectations? Had ideas of her own about how to do the job?
No, she wasn't going to stand for that. He wouldn't need her if he could do anything about the Mythos himself. She'd play nice for now, but Liss Decker wasn't anybody's puppet.
Besides, she was tough. She was adaptable. She'd figure out her food situation.
Another few minutes of riding brought Liss a sore behind from the bouncing and an angled spike of crystal piercing the ground and extending into the sky, presumably disappearing into the level above.
"So…what now?" Liss asked, as if expecting the horse to answer her. It whickered and walked up to the crystal and the Fate Driver tingled. There was a feeling of pulling, and her vision turned completely blue and she was aware of nothing but speed even though she couldn't feel anything happening around her. Then just as suddenly she and Shift Runner were at the foot of the crystal pillar, but maybe a mile away she could see a cluster of ragged tents with people milling around.
"Well, that's faster'n the subway, I guess," Liss said. Shift Runner gave its tinny whicker in reply and started toward the tents.
As they got closer the people at the edges of the small camp stopped and stared at Liss and her metal mount. Two of them unshouldered crossbows, but with her giving no signs of hostility didn't take aim just yet. Once she was near the edge of the little camp Liss could see a pair of stone huts peeking out just above the tops of the tents.
"What have we here?" asked a bald man in a robe that might have been white once, but was caked with dirt and a few especially dark blotches that looked like they might have been blood.
"Toles, we have to keep moving!" another man, his face and arms thin and frail-looking, said with urgency as he emerged from the camp behind the first. "The attacks aren't going to stop until there's no-one left to attack! Better we move now while it's light and we can see a threat coming!" He paused at the sight of the girl on her metal horse. "And who, pardon my audacity, might you be?"
"Li-" she began, then stopped. As unsure as she might have been about the Sphere and Shardak's agenda yet, she was supposed to be making a name for herself. Why not use the one they already knew? "I'm Tarock."
"Hear that, Cherma?" Toles said. "Tarock's come to aid us!"
"Not exactly," Liss explained. "I'm supposed to go someplace called Avalon."
"Someplace called Avalon?" Cherma asked, eying her suspiciously. "Who doesn't know what Avalon is?"
They were interrupted as the piercing cry of a bird cut the air.
No. Two piercing cries at the same time.
Liss looked up and saw something in the sky flying toward them and flying low. The unmistakable chill ran up Liss's arm, and she locked the Fate Driver into place almost automatically.
"Pentacles Suit!"
Shift Runner reared up on its hind legs as Liss…no, she had to start thinking of herself as Tarock, was clad in her thick green armor once again. Most of the people had ducked into their tents for what little protection that would give them as the Mythos attacked, but some peeked back out at the Fate Driver's announcement.
"See, my friends!" Toles yelled, grinning. "Shardak's champion has come to save us!"
Well, that wasn't the response Shardak had warned her about…
"Let's go!" Tarock said and wheeled Shift Runner around to gallop straight at the Mythos. Tarock rose herself up to crouch in the saddle, and when the Mythos was overhead she jumped, grabbed it by the leg and was carried into the air.
The Mythos looked down at her and continued to look straight ahead as it did. It was a cross between a person and a bird, with a coat of dark grey feathers and wings extending out from its arms and leathery talons instead of feet, but with two mottled vulture-like heads sprouting from its shoulders.
Tarock passed her hand in front of her belt and clenched the haft of the Gran Crusher. She swung at the Mythos but it descended suddenly and her boots were brushing against the bumpy ground, throwing off her attack. It flew lower until it was hardly two feet off the ground and dragging Tarock along the ground behind it, shaking and bumping her on the ground until she finally let go of its foot and came to a rolling stop as the Mythos flew on.
Armor smeared with dirt, Tarock got back up. The Mythos swooped around for another pass. Tarock grabbed the bladed bracelet off her belt and scraped it against the ground. "Pent Defender!" said the Fate Driver, and a shield of rock collected around it. As the Mythos closed in it opened its left beak and a barrage of light balls shot out, peppering Tarock but she caught the worst of it on her shield with just a few scorches on her legs.
This isn't going to work, she thought. The Mythos was too mobile for the only powers she had available. There was only one chance.
The Mythos turned around to strafe Tarock again. As it neared, opening its beak and starting to spew its light balls again, the Fate Driver said, "Woe! Terra Bind!" A rocky arm shot out of the ground and grabbed the monster by the leg, and before it could pull itself free Tarock charged up and nailed it in the side with her hammer.
The monster screeched in surprise with one head and turned its other to try to blast Tarock, but she was too close and her attack sent it into a crazed spiral as it shot past her. It kept going until it was out of sight, and Tarock sighed and let the Pentacles card eject from her belt and turn her back into plain old Liss.
"I don't believe it," breathed Toles.
"You really fended off the Roc," Cherma laughed a bewildered laugh as he if he couldn't believe it.
"Rock?"
"Roc. The Mythos you just fought," Cherma explained. "It's been toying with us for a week. It'd always attack, destroy our camp and kill a person or two…this is the first time it's left without casualties."
"Tarock," Toles said. "I beg of you, journey with us to Avalon. You did a splendid job but I doubt we've seen the last of that creature."
Liss's stomach growled just then. "Is dinner included?" she asked.
Darkness settled in soon, and talk of moving on as soon as possible was put aside with the Mythos having actually been fought off.
Dinner was prepared and Liss was given a plate with a steaming slab of meat and a pair of vegetables that had a purple skin but turned out to taste like baked potatoes. As warm as Toles had been, though, the other people in the camp looked at Liss cautiously as she got near and said nothing to her. She went over to eat by herself near where Shift Runner stood, seemingly keeping watch for the monster's return.
"Give me a yell if you see anything, okay boy?" she said, and Shift Runner snorted.
She dug into dinner, thinking some about what kind of city Avalon might be like as she did. If it was a modern metropolis with skyscrapers with hundreds of windows and antennae on the top, or castles and walls and straw huts.
And if it was one of the two big civilized spots around the Sphere, there'd probably be a couple of the Arcana there. Shardak seemed pretty sure she'd get a warmer welcome than she had from Thena, but she'd believe it when she saw it.
Half of the meat was gone before Liss saw anyone venture outside the edges of the camp. Three laughing kids started running around in the fading light. One boy held his arms out to his sides and ran into another, knocking him down. The third, a girl who looked a little older than the others, lifted her hands over her head as if holding the haft of a weapon. She locked eyes with Liss for a second, and Liss looked away. It looked like it was going to be a cold night, and she had enough on her mind already
A rough hand shook Liss awake.
"Go away, Paige," she mumbled.
Again her shoulder was shaken roughly. "Toles and Cherma want you to arbitrate," a man grunted.
"Arbitrate…?" Liss grumbled and looked at the burly man above her with bleary eyes.
"To settle their argument!" he snapped, then stomped away. Her eyes still bleary, Liss got up and stumbled off toward the center of the camp where she could hear a heated argument taking place. Standing around a table were Toles, Cherna and a group of other people. Toles stabbed at a map with his finger.
"I'm telling you, this is the way!" Toles said.
"Well, perhaps our champion can help us to decide on a course of action," Cherma said, looking straight at Liss, and right after he did so did the rest of the group.
"And what decision's that?" she asked as she walked to the table, the group hastily parting in front of her.
Toles glared at Cherma before he answered. He pointed toward a thick forest on the map, beyond which was a drawing of a city. "I say we should pass through the forest on the way to Avalon. That damned bird won't be able to attack us with all that cover."
"And it'll take at least another day for us to reach Avalon if we have to make our way through all those trees," Cherma added. "And Mythos are everywhere. Who's to say there any's any number of them hiding in there?" He pointed instead to a picture of a valley with hills on one side and a row of mountains on the other. "If we go this way we'll be at the gates of Avalon by nightfall."
"And easy targets for the Roc," Toles said.
"Are you forgetting so quickly what she accomplished yesterday?" Cherma asked accusingly, and pointed at Liss. "Did she not rid us of the Roc yesterday? Do you doubt she could manage it twice, Toles?"
Toles sighed and looked over at her. "Well, do you have any thoughts, Tarock?"
"Um," was all Liss could think to say. Why was she choking up? She'd thought about the strategic value of the terrain plenty of times for eluding people. The only one who'd ever given her trouble was that reporter lady, but Sue chased down people for a living.
No, she was used to using the terrain to her advantage when she didn't have to think of anyone but herself. Having to think of how her choice would affect a group of people was a first.
As she looked over the map, Cherma's warnings struck a chord. In a dark, crowded forest, she didn't like the idea of Mythos having lots of places to hide, and all the trees around that could become hazards for the group she was supposed to watch out for when super-powered attacks started flying. Not a good way to start building a reputation.
The valley route would leave them open but not for as long if Cherma was right, and the Roc wouldn't be able to sneak up on them. Besides, she had already fought it off, hadn't she?
"We should take the route through the forest!" Toles insisted. "That valley is too much open ground, making us too easy a target for something we know is after us!"
"And those trees could be hiding anything!" Cherma retorted.
"Why don't I go scout ahead and see if maybe there is something in the forest?" Liss interrupted. "Be ready to leave when I get back." She ran back to Shift Runner before they could say anything and rode off toward the ribbon of dark green in the distance.
The forest was a wide green wall stretching nearly out of sight in either direction. It was a somewhat strange sight to Liss, who'd never gotten to leave the dingy city where she'd been before coming to the Sphere. The trees were packed pretty close with no trail Liss could make out, but enough that people could make their way through. There wouldn't be much room to fight if they were attacked, though, even if she was sure Tarock had the strength to fell trees.
But as Shift Runner made it to the edge of the trees the cold feeling that warned of the presence of the Mythos went right up Liss's arm and across her shoulders, lingering rather than fading once she'd noticed it.
Something was hiding in there. Something powerful, and something she probably wouldn't to run into with a lot of people around getting in the way. And definitely not something she wanted sneaking up on her in a dark, claustrophobic forest…
She turned Shift Runner around and started back. Looked it was going to be the quick way after all.
Somehow, the Sphere seemed to be getting even colder as Liss led the small caravan of refugees into the valley atop Shift Runner. Or maybe she'd just popped another few seams on her jacket. Wasn't sure why she still had it, Ben Corland had gotten it for her. Kind of surprising he hadn't brought that up the last time she'd seen him…
A group of children, the ones Liss had seen the night before among them, ran out in front of the procession, chasing each other and laughing. The girl from the previous night ran up beside her and asked, "Will you slay the beast today, Tarock?"
"If it shows up, that's the plan," Liss answered.
"Get back here, you two!" a woman called from somewhere behind. "If the Mythos does attack the last place she's going to want you is right in front of her!"
The children ran back to the caravan, smiling and laughing. The girl who'd talked to Liss looked up at her for another moment with a dazzling smile before running to catch up with the others.
Nothing happened as the day wore on and the sky darkened even as the strange points of light in the sky continued their slow orbit. Liss didn't like it. She was used to being the one sneaking around looking to get one over on someone. What the hell, though. It'd help her to learn what it was like so she could improve her technique when she was the one sneaking around again.
They'd gone around a bend and could just see points of light in the far distance. Most floated in air, beacons on watchtowers or in windows. "I think I see it!" Liss called back to the rest of the caravan. The people started to murmur and chatter amongst themselves, tiredly but with relief from what Liss could hear from so far out in front.
Then a chill raced up her arm.
She'd just slapped the Fate Driver into place when the rush of wind hit, ripping her from Shift Runner's saddle. Liss curled her legs against her chest in a hurry to keep her robo-horse from landing on them as it fell over. The members of the procession screamed as some were thrown against the rocks at the slope of the valley and the others knocked to the ground.
"Pentacles Suit!"
Even in the fading light the dark shape of the Roc Mythos closing in for another pass. What options did she really have? It'd probably be watching for her Earth Fist again, and she wasn't sure she could get high enough to hit it otherwise even with as low as it was coming in for its attack. Already the wind was picking up again as it neared, and it seemed there was no choice.
Tarock crouched and jumped as high as she could just before another blast of wind ripped down the valley from the Roc's powerful wings. It got closer and closer as she reached the top of her jump and cocked back an arm for the split-second she'd have before it plowed into her. The beady eyes in both heads fixed on her, and then the Roc opened its right beak and a ray of light shot out and blasted Tarock hard in the chest. She tumbled from the air and blasted dirt for eight feet in every direction as her impact displaced the ground.
Legs shaking, Tarock got up to see the Roc flying low and strafing the refugees. Energy balls and light rays blasted from both mouths, sending the people flying while screams of panic filled the valley. One unlucky victim landed a few feet away from Tarock, and she froze as she recognized the emaciated features of Cherma. He twitched and contorted, then his skin suddenly turned chalk white and his face became a blank mask.
He was one of those things from school…
There was no time to dwell on it. Tarock set down the Gran Crusher, then wrenched a hunk of rock out of the ground and threw it at the Mythos, who banked easily around it and spat another light ray at her. She yelled as she could feel the heat singe the back of her suit and dove out of the way of the worst of the blast.
Toles ran up with an empty crossbow in one hand and knelt by the faceless body. "Cherma, what's that thing done to him?!"
"Cherma's probably dead," Tarock said, softer than she'd meant to.
"What do you mean?" Toles demanded.
"That thing…it's a Mythos too. It's a lot weaker than the other ones but a few of them were working with this other monster. It killed someone and copied him to try to take me by surprise."
"Why would it kill-" Toles began to say but was interrupted by a piercing shriek from Roc. Energy blazing from both mouths it came straight at them. Tarock shoved Toles out of the way and braced herself for the pummeling about to come. Suddenly a huge shadowy shape lunged in front of her and the Roc's bombardment didn't touch her as the monster flew by.
"Shift Runner?" A hollow whinny was her answer. "I got a plan…it's not a great plan, but we're running out people to save. If we could just-" She didn't even get to finish before Shift Runner galloped up the incline of the valley. It looked like it was running off, then the horse stopped and crouched behind a pile of rocks.
Again the wind picked up as the Roc flew down the valley. Tarock braced herself, lacking the attacks or the speed to
Just before it opened fire Shift Runner stood up and launched itself at the Mythos, knocking it out of the air and tackling it into the opposite wall of the valley. Shift Runner battered the Mythos with its hooves. The Mythos opened its left beak and with an angered screech started bombarding Shift Runner with its light globes.
She only had a second, and jumped as high as she could, somersaulted once at the peak of her jump because she could, and gathered all of her strength. The ground came roaring up at her. "Earth Needle!" the Fate Driver said. Long rocky spikes erupted from the wall behind the Mythos, piercing it repeatedly. It twitched and cawed fiercely, then fell limp.
Tarock watched anxiously, waiting for it to be reborn as a gigantic ungodly thunderbird or some such thing, but the Roc's remains turned into a blue-green mist that dispersed a second later. She sighed in relief and slumped back against Shift Runner, who turned to look at her for a minute and then flicked its bristly tail.
"Cherma…" Toles moaned, looking down at the inhuman creature he'd thought was his friend.
Thirteen were dead by the time everyone was accounted for, and not counting Cherma. With her power over earth Tarock cleared dirt for graves, and a simple funeral ceremony began.
After they'd been laid to rest Liss was catching her breath against Shift Runner before they moved, and shivering when the girl who'd talked to her before the attack came over with what looked like a blanket slung over one shoulder.
"I thought we were gonna keep going to the city after the funeral," Liss said.
The girl smile and unrolled the blanket, and Liss could see it was actually about a long duster. In the pocket were a pair of matching gloves. "Papa saw your coat was torn, so he asked me to give you this."
"Um, thanks kid," Liss said and tried it on. It actually fit well and hung to just behind her knees. Nice and thick, made of something that felt a lot like leather but she didn't say anything about something from a world she was only beginning to understand.
"Thank you, Tarock." And she ran to rejoin her family to get ready for the last leg of the trip.
With the adrenaline wearing off Liss looked over at the man saying last rites for the Roc's victims. Would they be burying more or less if she'd decided to take them through the forest after all? Would whatever had been waiting there been something she was better suited to handle with this set of powers? Did she choose to go the other way because she was looking out for them, or because she'd been afraid of facing whatever she'd sensed…?
And then she glanced over at the forgotten corpse of the imposter Cherma. This was the second time she'd run into them and hadn't gotten even a touch of cold from being near them. They could be anywhere, and she was in a strange and unfamiliar place already. Who needed all the power bigger Mythos had when one of them could even sneak up on her and slit her throat?
But then Liss clenched her fists. She hadn't pussed out of anything in years. She'd have to be smart, she'd have to keep her cool, but she'd find a way through this.
No matter what.
Far, far on the other edge of the Sphere, Tarock's recent efforts had not gone unnoticed.
"It seems the assassin would forge an alliance with the enemy…"
"Solymen is weak, but any alliance makes her more of a threat."
"Something must be done, my love. And soon, before she can become any more dangerous."
"Of course, but what? Risking your life isn't worth any reward, my dearest."
"I've been thinking on that, and if Shardak can empower an envoy? Can't we?"
Next time on Kamen Rider Tarock, Re-Dealt…
(Liss meets with a heavyset nobleman)
Lyrin Doxo: This card is the greatest treasure of my people.
(A tree-like monster devastates buildings with whipping roots and branches)
Liss: I need it to stop what's happening to this world.
(Two armored figures, black and white, stand side by side)
Male and Female Voices in Unison: The Sphere doesn't need a savior like you.
(Tarock stands in a lightly-armored yellow form)
Liss: Then come get me.
Narrator: Your fate is in your hands.