Kamen Rider Tarock, Re-Dealt – Reading Twenty-Two: Ashes to Ashes
So far on Kamen Rider Tarock, Re-Dealt…
Delinquent Liss Decker found herself caught between combatants from a strange alternate world called the Sphere, and afterward found herself with the ability to transform into Tarock, a warrior of awesome powers. Tarock's creator asked Liss to become a champion for his people, who were being plagued by the reappearance of monstrous beings they call the Mythos. Mainly seeing an escape from her oppressive everyday life, Liss agreed.
Many battles followed, testing Liss's fortitude but also giving her the chance to gain powerful allies such as some of the Arcana, immortal beings who inspired the Tarot deck, and Ben Corland, her ex-boyfriend who can change into Vaga, a powerful warrior form of his own. However some Arcana automatically consider Liss a menace because the first Tarock was responsible for the death of one of their number.
After her last few battles Liss was able to rescue a girl who knows herself only as Lost, and is the source of the Mythos monsters. While trying to find a reclusive Arcanum who could hopefully provide a way to keep Lost from creating any further monsters, it was revealed that Liss had partly transformed into a monster herself. Worse still, the Empress of Mazones, the one most convinced Tarock means to kill her and all Arcana, tracked Liss down and kidnapped Lost, planning to execute her and end the Mythos menace.
Desperate, Ben decided to take Liss to see the reclusive Arcanum hoping he might know how to cure her. Meanwhile, Liss's influence finds its way to even the most protected corners of the Sphere…
The news had brought the entire city to a standstill. The Empress had personally slain Tarock herself, and captured from her care a girl who was somehow the source of the Mythos plague? So the word from the palace had said over the past two days. There was even going to be a public execution to let the people know they were safe.
After another listless day helping around her father's garage, a girl named Rexia found herself stumbling home without really wanting to go. There had been a time not all that long ago she'd remembered how to smile and been willing to leave the house and enjoy herself, her father had been saying lately. She did remember times like that, it was true. Shortly after that wounded refugee they'd found in the woods had stayed at their house while she recovered. She'd shown Rexia things that had scared her, challenged her, but let her feel a kind of thrill she hadn't since before the Mythos had returned and people only left the city at their own risk.
As she walked along Rexia passed a group of people her own age but paid no attention to them until one turned and called out, "Rexia? Is that you?"
The boyishly handsome face softened into a brilliant smile as he recognized her, and it was only after a moment that Rexia recognized him in return. He'd grown his lustrous black hair out but it was definitely an old friend of hers named Feden, and behind him was Hulo, and next to him was Shira. "I haven't seen you in forever!" Feden exclaimed. "Where are you going?"
"Home."
"Not tonight!" he declared. "Didn't you hear? There's this girl who was brought back to Mazones with the one the Empress is saying creates the Mythos. She says she traveled with the new Tarock, she'll tell everyone what really happened."
"That's dangerous talk," Rexia warned him.
Feden glowered at her. "Maybe it's talk Mazones finally needs to hear!" he said. "I was there when that Cyclops attacked…I saw how Tarock could've killed Thena if she'd wanted to. If she's like the Empress says, why wouldn't she?" He and the others turned around to leave.
"Wait!" Rexia said, then jogged after them. Feden smiled and slipped his arm around her shoulders, and for the first time since Liss had forsaken the city, Rexia smiled a little. Had Feden and the others stayed a group even after she'd stopped spending time with them, Rexia asked herself, or had they only come together after this strange meeting had been called by a Tarock witness? How much had she let herself miss out on?
They proceeded further and further from the heart of Mazones toward the fortified wall, with traffic becoming thinner and the buildings around them becoming shabbier. But as they went they joined a procession of other people, many of them around the same age as Rexia and her group but others a few years younger, some of them adults and some of them even leaning on canes as they walked.
Eventually they all stopped at a dead end street, where a small stage had been constructed out of boxes, bricks and sheets of wood. Standing on top of the stage was a teenage girl, her blonde hair tied back but face and bared arms showing a score of cuts and bruises making it clear her time before arriving in Mazones hadn't been an easy one. She waited for everyone who'd come to find a spot and quiet down before she started to speak.
"Thank you all for coming down tonight!" she said. "My name is Meo Ainser, and after my town was wiped out by Mythos monsters I was lucky enough to escape from them and ran into the new Tarock. She wasn't alone, she was with another called Vaga, and they had a girl with them named Lost. We didn't know it at the time, but Lost could create Mythos. She threw up this horrible black stuff and they came to life out of it."
"And you're trying to tell us why we should trust Tarock now?" someone jeered, but Meo looked undaunted.
"They didn't tell us because they were looking for the Inverted Sage to find a cure for her. If they'd had other plans, why did they slow themselves down taking me and my friends along? They kill monsters, they couldn't have killed a couple of kids like us? Tarock and Vaga…I'm sorry, it doesn't feel right to call them that…their names are Liss and Ben. Liss and Ben weren't killers like the Empress wants you all to believe. Ben teased Liss sometimes, and she always made sure Lost was protected, even when she came to save my friends from the monsters. She told me not to let anybody else tell me what I was worth. And when all my friends ganged up on Liss when I told them about how she killed a monster to save them, she was totally overwhelmed. It was cute…
"It's hard to get this across when I'm just telling it to you like this…I'm not much of a speaker. But from what I saw, I just can't believe Liss and Ben are killers like the Empress believes. Somehow…somehow she started to turn into a Mythos monster herself, but I know Liss was fighting it when she tried to keep the Empress from taking Lost away. The Empress tried to bury them both in rocks but I saw Ben dig himself and Liss out with my own eyes as we flew here." Tears started to trickle down her cheeks. "Ben said he didn't believe Liss was really a monster, and if he doesn't, I don't! He even attacked the Empress head-on to protect her!
"I saw Tarock, I talked to her! She was just a normal person like anyone else! She was trying to save someone who was in a horrible position!" Meo collapsed to her knees, quietly sobbing. "Please…don't let the Empress kill Lost," she pleaded. "Liss just wanted to help her…I can't believe anything else!"
Waves of murmuring passed through the crowd. A few people near the front broke away to try and comfort her. For her part, Rexia thought back to her own contact with Liss, the way Liss had encouraged her to think her thoughts and decide her own actions regardless of what authority said, but who had still come to the city's defense when a giant Cyclops attacked it.
But the first Tarock had killed Knight Duric, one of the empire's most loyal protectors. Why would a new Tarock be appointed if the ones in charge of deciding that didn't have the same goals they'd had before? Yet if Feden had told her the truth, and she'd never known him to be a liar before, why would Liss not have taken a convenient opportunity to kill another Arcanum? And if Liss wasn't an evil murderer, didn't it still make sense to hide her secret when she was recovering inside a city ruled by the most powerful Arcana, and the ones most bent on her destruction?
Had she misjudged Liss after all?
Rexia's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a weapon being fired. Screams erupted all over the end of the street and many of the attendees threw themselves to the ground to avoid being hit. Rexia turned toward the sound and saw at least fifteen armored city guards standing there, the one in the lead holding a still crackling electrified trident aimed skyward. It had only been a warning shot to get their attention.
"Disperse and return to your homes," he ordered.
"And why do you care about making us do that?" a grizzled man with a gray mustache challenged. "Afraid of having someone besides the Empress telling us what to think?"
"Disperse, and return to your homes," the lead guard repeated, but this time there was a slight quaver to his voice.
"Or what?" another man Rexia couldn't see through the crowd sniped.
"This is an unauthorized-" the guard started to reply, but was suddenly cut off as a hunk of stone bounced off the side of his helmet with a clang. It sounded trite, but suddenly it seemed as if a dam had broken and people screamed in outrage and pushed through the rest of the crowd to shove the first line of guards to the ground. The guards behind them leveled their weapons and fired, and somewhere through the ringing from the blast of noise Rexia could hear Meo screaming for the violence to stop.
But that was the last thing she heard.
A swallow of cold coffee jolted Ben awake, more thanks to the bitter taste than anything. Behind him Liss groaned again, the inhuman buzzing behind her voice even worse than before. He was close to panic that her change into a Mythos was speeding up and even if he found the Inverted Sage soon there'd be no way to cure her. But he couldn't let himself believe that. If he did, he'd go insane.
Though it wasn't as if he had no reason to doubt he might be already. He was sure it'd been two days since he'd slept, maybe three. If he dared to before he found a cure for Liss's condition he was sure she'd escape and he'd never find her, and Ben knew he'd never recover from that.
A few hours ago they'd passed through a demolished village, and even in his bleary state Ben had noticed no sign of any bodies. What that could've meant, he tried not to think about.
But that had been miles ago. They were surrounded by trees whose tops reached out of sight now, and as Air Talon paced along Ben kept his weary eyes peeled for the shape of a body suspended from a high branch. When he closed his eyes he could still see the path his new form had shown him, but it was a little fainter each time. He knew what he was looking for was somewhere ahead, but not where exactly, and he was afraid if he tried to transform and see it the strain on his system might knock him out again, which he couldn't risk.
All of a sudden Air Talon stopped and looked around uncertainly. "Oh, what the hell?!" Ben snapped. "Don't try to tell me you're tired!"
"Something's here," Liss said, gasped really. "I can feel it…something powerful."
For a second Ben froze, afraid Liss's awakening meant he was about to be attacked, but instead she leaned against his back with a groan and goosebumps broke out all over his body. "It's a little to the left up ahead. It's got to be the Sage, doesn't it?"
Ben patted Liss on the shoulder, then pulled his hand back in terror when he realized it was on the side that had transformed into a spider-girl already. "Let's hope so," he just said then turned and tried to scan the trees. At first he couldn't see anything, then stopped when he suddenly spotted a dark shape among the trees. Praying it wasn't a monster waiting to ambush them, he turned his mount toward it.
A minute later they reached the base of tree and in the fading light Ben could just make out the outline of a person suspended from a high branch by a rope tied around one ankle. Fishing a pair of binoculars out a saddlebag Ben confirmed it was indeed a human, but his clothes were in tatters, and his long stringy hair reaching downward was almost as gray as his skin. Ben was almost convinced he was dead until his eyes rolled down and met Ben's own through the binoculars.
"I need your help!" Ben called up to the hanging man.
"I know," he croaked in an impossibly dry voice in reply, yet Ben still had no trouble hearing him on the ground. "Your friend is dying, turning into something evil. You need a cure before it's too late."
"How do you know about that?"
"I am called Sage for a reason," the man replied. "But even I do not know of a cure for a sickness such as hers. She suffers from an evil older than any of the Arcana."
"Great!" Ben screamed in frustration.
"However," the Inverted Sage went on, "there is another, older even than the Arcana, who may have knowledge of such things."
Ben groaned. "And how far away is he?" he demanded.
"Not far," answered the Inverted Sage. "We are not far from the edge of this level of our world…go to the east. When you reach the end, you will find the way onward if your will is strong enough. Do not be blinded by the Sun, the Moon and the Star."
Maybe it was his fatigue-addled mind, but Ben couldn't resist pointing out, "You know, besides that crazy bitch who's the leader of the Mythos, you're like the only person I met since I got here to give me a straight answer."
"Just go," Liss moaned.
The Inverted Sage looked away. "Time is short for all of us," he said. "Time is shortest for your friend. Go, find the knowledge you need…that all of you need, before it's too late."
"What about you?"
"There is no wisdom in running from what's coming," the Sage replied. "Even if I still could."
Ben blinked his sore eyes and nodded, then urged Air Talon to speed off. "Thanks!" he called, then looked over his shoulder at Liss. "It's okay, Liss," he said as reassuringly as he could through his hazy of fatigue. "We're going to find a cure, I promise."
"Thank you," she groaned.
Right at that moment, Ben felt like he could've beaten fifty Mythos.
The Sage watched them go until they'd completely disappeared into the trees, then closed his ancient eyes to await the arrival of those behind them.
A huge wooden platform was almost complete in the plaza square outside the Empress of Mazones's palace. Black drapes were hung along the back and a stone block placed in the center for the execution of the enemy of the people.
And from the palace Empress Maeve herself gazed down at the preparations being made. "Has the word been spread?" she asked a steward by her side.
"Yes," he replied slowly, then jumped and looked away when the Empress turned and glared at him. "But majesty, there've been reports of rioting near the wall again. Supposedly this one was started by a speech given by a girl who'd been traveling with Tarock…telling the 'true story' of what Tarock is like."
"She was protecting the source of the monsters! What else is there to understand?!" Maeve demanded.
The steward stared intently at his feet. "The fact that six bystanders were killed is one thing…" he said quietly, almost as if he expected to be struck down for his impertinence.
"Soon the source of the enemy will be dead!" Maeve declared. "And everyone will know it wasn't Tarock who saved them! Let them hear that true story!"
The steward just nodded in compliance and stayed silent for his own continued wellbeing. Empress Maeve had been a hard woman at the best of times, but after the Mythos returned and her own people started to talk of Tarock as a more effective champion against them she'd grown even harsher. Even having the end of the Mythos menace at her fingertips didn't seem to be calming her fervor. Maybe cutting off the problem would calm her.
He and the rest of Mazones could hope…
Hardly an hour later the trees started to thin out around Ben and Liss, and a good thing they had or Air Talon might've walked right off the edge in front of him.
The ground suddenly terminated in a black void around them, and looking in both directions Ben could see it curved that way around the void as far as he could see. Strangely behind him the sky was still the color of the setting sun but at the edge of the dropoff the sky turned solid black. Looking up Ben could even see the edge of another level above him at the point where color and darkness met.
But hovering in the darkness ahead was a small planet, covered in green with patches of gray. Orbiting it were a ball of light, another glowing shape with spikes sticking out in every direction, and a soft white one in the shape of a crescent. Those had to be the Sun, the Star and the Moon.
He hesitated, wondering what he was supposed to do now. The next step was supposed to be obvious if his will was strong enough, right? He was ignoring everything to do this, staking his very life on trying to find a cure for Liss. If the monster side of her reasserted itself, he'd either be her first victim or he'd never be able to catch her again. That was a hell of a burden to carry. If his will wasn't strong, nobody's was.
As he wondered if maybe he was too tired from his desperate ride or something like that, there was a flash of light between the edge of the ground and the small planet. A bridge maybe thirty feet wide, looking almost as if it was made of glass, started to stretch from the edge of the dropoff and form a ramp toward the planet. Ben's exhaustion melted away. Finally, someone who could give him a straight answer, and a straight path to what he was looking for.
Air Talon started to climb the ramp, but slowly, as if he was expecting trouble. Liss moaned in pain again and Ben was about to have him pick up the pace when suddenly he noticed the objects orbiting the planet had frozen in place. They almost seemed to be staring at him.
Then they flew out of orbit straight for where he stood on the ramp.
"Oh shit…!" Ben just had time to cry out before the objects stopped in front of him, then shimmered and changed into humanoid forms. The ball of light, no doubt the Sun, changed into a figure in a suit of dull gold armor with large blue eyes, with a crest on his chest of a solid disc of light that it hurt to look at and clutching what looked like a pistol with a series of three glowing orbs set into the barrel.
The second, the one with spikes jutting in every direction, the Star, changed into a figure clad in red armor with a glowing crest of his energy form on his chest like the first. Yellow eyes were built into his mask and in one hand he swung a huge mace with a flaming ball on the end of the chain.
The third and final had on silver armor with blue eyes in his featureless mask like the first and a softly glowing white crescent on his chest. He clutched a razor-sharp metal crescent in one armored fist.
"Turn back," the three said in the same voice at the same time.
"I won't!" Ben retorted. "This woman's dying and the Sage said the only thing that can save her is over there!"
"Since when do you think of me as a woman?" Liss croaked.
"Turn back!" the armored guards replied, more forcefully now. "Death alone awaits invaders!"
Ben raised his transformation guard. "Then I guess I-" he started to say, but was interrupted suddenly as the three guards attacked all at once. Sun fired his gun in a steady burst at them, sending up fountains of super-hot energy that Air Talon barely managed to dodge around. Star sent his flaming mace flying at them and scorched Air Talon's side, getting a painful cry out of the metal gryphon and a sudden painful tingle across the front of Ben's brain. Then Moon clutched the edge of his weapon and threw it like a boomerang. It whistled through the air and Ben finally managed to concentrate hard enough to command Air Talon to retreat as it cleaved through the air where his head had been before whirling back into its owner's hand.
Air Talon didn't stop running until they'd reached the cover of the trees back on solid ground even though Ben had noticed the guardians calling off their attack as soon as they were off the bridge. Tiredly he looked back over his shoulder at Liss, and was sure the dark armor of the spider-monster she was slowly becoming had spread further across her face. He had no time to waste.
Ben rifled through Air Talon's saddlebags until he found a packet of those Wild Cards that Shardak had given him.
It was time to pull out all the stops.
The planet's sentinels tore themselves from their orbits again as a small speck appeared on the bridge. It was Ben again, staring up at the three of them defiantly as they shifted into their armored forms.
"Look, I just want to save a woman's life!" Ben declared. "I've got plenty of other guys looking for a figh-"
"Turn back!" they thundered in unison. "Death alone awaits invaders!"
"Change…Trosik!" Ben said, a second of uncertainty in his voice before that strange new blue armor wrapped itself around him. As the guardians clearly took this for hostile intent the bizarre circuitry running beneath everything appeared in Vaga's vision once again. The gun in Sun's hand turned white before he fired, and with the senses of his new Trosik form the blazing bullets seemed to come at Vaga in slow motion. A mental signal traveled down the circuitry from Vaga's brain down into his body and out through the environment around him, and his first wave of attack came forth.
A row of five crystalline seahorses floated out of the trees and sprayed jets of water from their mouths, deflecting the shots off the edges of the bridge. Three concentrated on one of Sun's bullets and extinguished it right out of existence. For an instant Sun froze in astonishment and the seahorses turned their water spray on him, knocking him out of the air. The glow on his armor and weapon flickered at the blast he'd just taken.
Moon reared back and threw his boomerang next and Vaga froze. His sense focused in on the energy traveling through the circuitry lacing the air that the boomerang passed through. A small thing Master Segic had told him about these powers, about being able to influence his surroundings. As the boomerang whirled closer and closer to his head Vaga concentrated with all of his might, the golden disc on his chest starting to spin. In Vaga's view the circuitry traveling underneath the boomerang suddenly perked upward for just a second. The boomerang's trajectory wobbled just half an inch to the left and it whistled by Vaga's side without touching him before arcing around and traveling back to its own.
Vaga still collapsed backward onto the bridge with his armor rippling in and out of existence on his arms and legs, even his vision flickering between normal and blue circuitry as his mask flickered. It felt like he'd been hit in the head with a wrecking ball just from the effort of tilting that boomerang. His body quivering, Vaga desperately pulled himself to his feet, wondering how much he'd overestimated himself gambling everything on these powers he'd never used, and feeling cold fingers of fear clawing at his stomach as Star launched his mace. Gambling with his life, but worse, gambling with Liss's life.
Without thinking his view shot along a path of circuits to the clearing where he left Liss to wait while he cleared the way. She struggled feebly against her ropes, tempting Vaga to wonder what sorts of terrible things might be taking place in mind.
Liss had no idea where she was. First her surrounding seemed to be a sickening yellow in color, then an alarming red, to a purple that somehow calmed her and made her eyes hurt at the same time. She was up to her ankles in foul-smelling water that flowed in from somewhere behind her, even after she turned around to try to see where it was coming from.
Her arm and her cheek itched fiercely but she didn't spare a thought to that. Buzzing at the back of mind was one word, over and over: Lost. Somewhere she was caught and in trouble, and probably in worse trouble thanks to being seen with Liss. She knew that Lost would be in that city on the top of the Sphere, the one where the Empress lived and Liss had hidden out while she was healing from her first couple of battles. Yet somehow…somehow Liss was convinced Lost couldn't be far away from where she stood in this strange, menacing place with the nauseating colors.
"LOST!" Liss cried out. Her voice echoed for forever without a reply, but no answer came. Then suddenly there was a flare of light that forced Liss to look away. When she could look back she saw a crouched, coughing figure in a ragged black robe. Liss ran in their direction but after only a few steps her feet became stuck in whatever was underneath the rank water lapping at her ankles.
"Lost, is that you?" Liss exclaimed, and the figure looked up. She met Liss's eyes and for a second looked unwilling to believe what she was seeing. But that tired face could only belong to Lost herself.
"Liss?" she croaked. "Is that really you? How did you get here? I thought I was in that palace a minute ago…" Lost tried to push herself up but was stuck fast too.
There was another flare of blinding light and standing in between them was the White Lady herself, seeming to radiate light from her skin and clothes which seemed wrong for the driving force behind something as evil as the Mythos. "You never left," she said to Lost, then turned to Liss. "And you haven't escaped the ropes that pitiful friends of yours put you in. If you'd let the monster in you loose, though…"
"I don't need anything you're offering," Liss snapped.
The White Lady didn't look the least bit intimidated by Liss's threatening tone. "It doesn't matter, human. The darkness has been inside you for weeks, spreading and growing stronger. You can try to resist it all you like, but I command that darkness, and I know it's all you can do to keep from bursting through those pathetic ropes, let alone actually try to help your friend in his fight. Soon you won't even be able to manage that."
"You bitch-" Liss fired back, but again the White Lady was unmoved.
"In the end, all is destroyed, all is converted," she said. "It's simply the way of things. I can't understand this fixation of your kind that everything remain exactly the way it is for eternity. The Arcana are the worst…although I suppose they'd have to be."
"When I get over there I'll rip your-" Liss said but again the White Lady shrugged her off.
"You're only proving my point, human," she retorted. "You're not going to save your," she paused, and chuckled, "friend over here, as hard as you fight. You think that was confidence in your headwhen you killed the Medusa? I put those thoughts in your frail little mind, girl. My control's so total you don't even know I'm using it unless I tell you! Fight it, girl! Keep saying to yourself you're so strong you can handle being Tarock, the hero of two worlds! I'll win in the end, I always do!"
She pointed one long dainty finger with an impossibly sharp nail at Liss's face. Liss felt herself shrinking suddenly and a second later the White Lady seemed to tower over her. She'd been turned into a little girl, and tears of fear started to well in her young eyes.
"This is how your power compares to mine, Tarock," the White Lady said, then the ground under Liss opened and swallowed her completely.
"And you…," the White Lady turned to face Lost's cowering form, her impossibly pale face forming a smile. "Why are you so afraid of me? We're practically sisters, after all."
Vaga had seen Star's mace coming an hour before it got near him and ducked under it easily. Star whirled his weapon and let it fly at Vaga again when another command brought another wave of reinforcements.
A procession of crystal turtles walked into view but suddenly pulled themselves into their shells and came bouncing along the bridge. One slammed into Star's chest and knocked him off-balance, then two more followed and knocked him flat on his back. More of the turtles crashed into him again and rolled him toward the edge of the bridge.
But those were the last of the turtle Wild Cards he had, and before Vaga could press the attack and knock one of his opponents out of the fight, Moon flung his boomerang at Vaga again. His heightened senses locked onto it immediately, everything seeming to slow down to an impossible pace. But as it did Vaga had to fight the urge to squeeze his eyes shut and curl up into a ball.
The effort to deflect that boomerang the first time had been even worse than when he'd used his new powers to find the Inverted Sage. Just seeing those weird circuits connecting everything was exhausting his mind in a terrible hurry and he wasn't getting rid of the guardians as fast as he needed.
Another command and another wave of Wild Cards joined the fray, a swarm of long-horned beetles flying out from behind Vaga and intercepting Moon's boomerang in mid-air. The weapon continued to push forward while the crystal beetles pushed back with all their might with the tips of their horns, one beetle near the middle of the group exploding into shards with a shriek. But with one last shove the boomerang was forced backward and started an arc back toward its owner. Vaga sent another mental command, and desperately concentrated on Moon with all of his flagging strength.
As Moon reached out to catch his boomerang the chain of Star's mace suddenly sprang up and tangled around his boot, sending him stumbling for just a second, but in that second his weapon whooshed past him without being caught. Then a small gang of glistening snake Wild Cards, rolling like wheels with the tips of their tails clutched in their teeth. They uncurled and sprang forward, going flying at Moon. As they landed on him they bit into each other's tails, forming a crystalline chain pinning his arms and legs.
But even as Moon went down Sun rose to his feet, his crest and gun seeming to glow even brighter than before. As Vaga tried to focus what energy he had left into getting Star to slip off the bridge, Sun took aim and fired at him. The seahorse Wild Cards swarmed forward and sprayed water to intercept Sun's shot, but in flight it suddenly doubled in size crashed right through the seahorses' line, smashing three of them into dust. It exploded against Vaga's chest and hurled him to the ground where his armor flashed away leaving a battered Ben Corland.
"Death awaits all invaders!" Sun repeated and took aim. His pistol roared and a blazing ball of light shot forward to end Ben's life.
"Calamity! Aqua Burst!" called an artificial but familiar voice. A huge blast of water shot out from behind Ben and extinguished Sun's bullet. Before he fired again Tarock suddenly came flying into sight, clad in her yellow Cups armor with the mask shattered on one side exposing the monstrous part of her face, and with a roar she kicked him aside.
Star threw his mace at Tarock but she held her hand against the Royal Core on her belt and it announced, "Coronation! Ace of Cups!" Her gauntlet shimmered and changed into a rectangular cannon barrel with golden horses engraved on the sides. "Ace High! Crash Tide!" her belt said next and a stream of water that formed into a tidal wave rushed from the barrel of her weapon. The wave and Star's burning mace slammed into each other sending up a huge hissing cloud of steam but Star was blasted off his feet and rolled over and over across the bridge as the wave struck him.
Tarock groaned and keeled over, spent, her armor fading away. She muttered painfully to herself, "I'm not weak, I'm not weak, I'm not weak…"
Sun was back on his feet and aimed his pistol at the pair of intruders. His armored finger tightened around the trigger, but all of a sudden, the bridge shook.
"STOP!" a powerful voice called out. Sun, Star and Moon didn't turn to look at the source, but Ben and Liss stared as a stooped figure in a black robe leaning on an iron staff with a lantern hanging from the top appeared on the far end of the bridge. For a second it almost looked like Lost until he looked up and exposed a wrinkled face decorated with a long white beard. "These two are given audience," the old man said. "Their aggression is born of desperation, not malice. Return to your posts."
With a moment of what Ben assumed was hesitation the guardians changed back to their original forms and resumed their orbits around the planet. The lantern on the old man's staff swung crazily every time he banged it on the ground, catching Ben and Liss right in the eyes more than once. When he got to where they lay he gently asked, "Can you two walk? I'm afraid I'm not the pillar of strength I once was."
"Look, buddy," Ben groaned, "Is this it? When we get over there, do we meet another being of ancient wisdom or whatever who points us to another being of ancient wisdom, or is there actually somebody over there who can tell us how to cure Liss and Lost?"
The old man arched an eyebrow at what Ben had just said, and offered his staff to let Ben grab onto and haul himself to his feet. "There's no one older than who you're about to meet. And when you do, I think you'll see why."
Just as suddenly as thing had gone black and silent at the meeting, Rexia found herself standing in a completely unexpected place.
She was on top of a grassy hill overlooking a plain that ran toward the distance before running up against a wall of tall cliffs composed of a strange purple stone that she for some reason was somehow soothing to look at. A small silvery stream tumbled from the top of the cliffs down to the ground and rushed past the hill where she stood.
But the strangest thing of all was the small round wood table next to her with a porcelain tea service set in the middle which a skeleton in a blue suit had already helped themselves too, sipping from a small cup with one skinless hand and holding the saucer for it in the other.
"Master Mortis?" she asked.
"That's the name your people have given me, yes," the skeleton replied in a smooth voice with no gender inflection Rexia could place. "It is one of countless names I've been given." He turned and his eyeless sockets met her gaze, and Rexia expected her skin to crawl but instead she felt nothing but calm. "You're one of the most indecisive souls I've noticed in quite some time, even with a war on," he observed.
Rexia clutched her head, trying to make sense of what she was seeing. The last thing she remembered was being at that demonstration where the girl who'd traveled with Liss had been speaking out against the version of what Liss was like that the Empress put forth. Guards had shown up to break it up, then she'd found herself here, talking to Master Mortis, the Arcanum who'd only ever appeared to claim the lives of immortals. Which she wasn't. What was going on?
"Which brings me to why you've been called to discuss your fate," said Master Mortis. "At the time of your passing you were…deeply conflicted about someone you'd once considered a close friend, and were unsure if her intentions were as despicable as you'd been led to think. Exactly the sort of death that lends itself so well to the birth of a restless spirit, and your people have problems enough these days, I'm sure you'd agree.
"Therefore," Master Mortis went on, "since your case has caught my eye, as they do from time to time, I would be willing to offer a period of grace."
"A what?!" Rexia exclaimed in bewilderment. "Master, the Mythos are stronger than ever! Won't you help fight for your own people?"
The skeleton set down his cup and saucer on the table. "I am not one of the Arcana," he said, calmly and businesslike. "I represent nothing but the agency that gathers the essences of the dead and assigns them accordingly. It is rare in the extreme to even have a discussion with a single member of the departed such as we are now, to say nothing of an exemption being offered."
"Exemption?" Rexia asked cautiously. "What kind of exemption?"
"An offer to return," Master Mortis replied, but stressed, "Temporarily. To meet Tarock again, form your own conclusions as to her character. And to survive your journey, the power to protect yourself.
"As well," he added, "she likely does not know it yet, but the scourge Tarock is involved with battling twists the way of things. Lays claim to the souls of its victims to feed its own growth. Extensions could be offered if this could be curtailed."
"Oh," Rexia said. "So the reason you're willing to send me back is to get rid of competition for your little business?"
Master Mortis countered, "Is rest for the departed something only offered to those who can afford it? Taking a life is a terrible and cruel thing, but is taking a soul not more cruel still? Besides the chance to satisfy your uncertainty about Tarock, this is a chance to do good for so many others. Will you turn away from it?"
Rexia looked at the skeleton who looked back at her as he awaited her answer, his skinless face showing only the grin of death which somehow seemed impassive all the same.
She broke the silence: "No, I won't. What do I have to do?"
End Book 3
Next time on Kamen Rider Tarock, Re-Dealt…
(Ben, Liss and the old man descend into a cave and are met by a blinding light)
Liss: This is it? This is where it all came from?
(Insubstantial images circle around them; four ancient warriors each holding a glowing object skyward, Tarock in Swords Form fighting a towering knight in gray armor next to a ruined chariot; a scholar and a king locked in discussion)
Ben: If we can find a cure, I don't care about anything else.
(A giant monster erupts from the bottom of the cave and Tarock and Vaga prepare to fight)
White Lady: The Arcana are already falling. After them, the humans and then the next world will follow…
Narrator: Your fate is in your hands.