Kamen Rider Tarock, Re-Dealt – Book Four: Base of the Matter
Reading Twenty-Three: Dust to Dust
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 danger.
Desperately seeking a cure for Liss's condition, Ben traveled to a small planet in the center of the Sphere and battled its guardians before being admitted by the being they protect. Now Ben proceeds to finally cure Liss, and then hopefully save the Sphere before it's too late…
Ben wondered if everything that had been happening was part of some lucid nightmare he was having, and part of him hoped it was and that he'd wake up safe and sound in bed, while a deeper, stronger part hoped it wasn't.
The bridge they were on led straight from the edge of the level of the Sphere they'd left behind right up to the middle of the rounded edge of the small planet floating in its center. As the old man who was leading the way reached the end of the bridge and took his first step onto the planet, gravity seemed to reorient itself and he started walking up the side.
Wearily Ben looked behind himself before following, at the land he's left behind and how he could see another level just like it above, and another above that, and the tip of another above even that one. In all of them he could see the dark yellow sky indicating day fading into night on the Sphere, but exactly where the ground terminated it hazed into a solid blackness. He wondered for a minute what happened to someone who wasn't strong-willed enough to call a bridge if they went off the edge, then decided he was too busy to appreciate the view and just followed the old man while Air Talon followed faithfully behind Ben, carrying a nearly comatose Liss on his metal back.
After just a few minutes of following the old man through the trees, Ben noticed how impossibly green and vibrant they all looked. He wasn't so sheltered that he'd never seen an actual forest before, but this one seemed so amazingly alive compared to his hometown and the desolate villages they'd passed through on their way here.
It sounded cheesy even in his head but the birds chirping to each other overhead sounded happy to be alive, and the berries on a bush beside the narrow trail were such a succulent-looking shade of red-purple Ben couldn't help tossing a bunch into his mouth and biting down on them as fast as he could. With every step he felt stronger, the strain of his ordeals farther away. As if the life of the forest was flowing into him and healing his wounds, mental and physical. Ben looked back at Liss, her beautiful face marred by the spread of black insect armor spread across it, and he knew, he knew they'd find a cure here.
"Hey," Ben spoke up then. "What am I supposed to call you?"
"My name no longer has any meaning," the old man answered without turning around.
"What the hell's that supposed to mean?"
The old man still didn't turn around as he led the way along the forest trail. "It means," he said, "that everything I had ties to is gone. This is where I live, and there's no-one to tell me apart from here. Why do I need a name any longer?"
"So how about at least 'Hermit'?" Ben suggested.
"If that pleases you," the old man replied and kept walking. Ben smiled a little and grabbed a piece of yellow fruit he couldn't identify and took a bite. He looked back at Liss after a pained groan escaped her, and offered her a fruit but she only groaned again.
As Ben followed Hermit the feeling of the forest being alive changed. He was sure that everything was watching them, and a rush of fear traveled up his spine as he saw trees actually leaning away from the path to make room for them. "Don't fear," Hermit said, still not turning around. "If you were unwelcome the sentinels would've stopped you."
"I almost got them," Ben muttered.
After another minute the trail led down into an opening in the ground. Air Talon whipped around anxiously as the trees closed again behind them, snapping his metal beak at a few of the branches. "Easy, big guy," Ben said. "We're kind of committed now." He cast another look at Liss, whose human eye opened and in it Ben saw a gently questioning look. "Hang on just a little bit longer," he said, a faint edge of desperation creeping into his voice even with how strong he was feeling despite everything they'd just been through. "We'll have what we need to know real soon."
"Okay," Liss said tiredly and shut her eye again. Ben patted her on her human shoulder and hurried after Hermit.
They descended into the tunnel where the way was lit by Ora Stones of countless colors lodged in the walls, glowing softly to light the way but the array of colors made Ben squint and hope he didn't have to spend long down there.
After a minute they reached a dead end and Hermit held out his arm to the side to stop them from going any farther. "You know there's nowhere else to go, right?" Ben pointed out.
"For the moment," Hermit replied. As he said that the walls shook, showering dust on them and dropping a few stones from the walls, their light going out as they struck the floor. But as they did another expanse of tunnel opened in front of them while the wall behind them slid together and stopped just behind Air Talon. "Our host needs to ensure no trespassers enter," Hermit explained.
"Thought you said those guys would keep any real trouble out," Ben replied.
"Don't get smart, boy," Hermit replied gravely. "No chances must be taken with what's down here."
As the rumbling continued and another passage opened, Ben leaned down and whispered into Liss's ear, "Why did you come save me back there?"
"Hnnngh?" was all she could manage, the insect-like buzz at the back of her voice worse than ever. Ben pulled back, disappointed but not surprised.
For what felt like most of an hour they trudged through tunnels as they opened ahead and closed behind. Part of Ben wondered if this was part of some elaborate trap, to lure them around in circles until he lost his mind or Liss finished her transformation into a monster and drank his blood.
But after ages the wall ahead of them cracked open, and Ben saw something that made him sink to his knees in awe.
The sentries stared uncomfortably out onto the barren fields beyond Avalon's walls that had once housed their people and grown their crops. The relentless attacks of the beasts that had battered everything into the dust had stopped for the third day in a row now. Sentos, the watchtower that transformed into a stone giant protect the city from dire threat, had so many dents in its length it seemed impossible it didn't just topple over. One bystander who'd had a few too many bet his friends he could blow the tower over the night before. He found himself unable to sit down and out a sporty pair of pants after a pair of guards spotted him and showed him what they thought of his sense of humor.
There were some among the city guard who hoped Tarock had destroyed the Mythos once and for all, like the last time, and soon the Emperor would give the word for the rebuilding to begin. Others were less optimistic, warning that an attack worse than any they'd seen yet was coming as soon as they dropped their guard.
One of the second was Uthar, newly-promoted Captain of the Guard. A young man who had yet to even count his twentieth year, and whose posting had some whispering that the Emperor was getting weak, showing favoritism to someone so green while they faced such a trying crisis as the constant Mythos attacks on their city.
But Uthar refused to hear any of it spoken in his presence. Emperor Solymen was the fairest and bravest of rulers even before emigrating to the Sphere and becoming an immortal. Solymen had guided them through the first Mythos invasion and he would guide them through this one, Uthar made it perfectly clear to any dissenters he found in the ranks. As soon as he was gone, more than a few of those dissenters were only too happy to remind each other that it was the first Tarock, defying any orders from the Arcana, who actually ended the first Mythos invasion…
Wiping the sweat from a warm evening off his dark face, Uthar passed through row after row of tired guards framing doorways as he made his way through the palace. Despite all the energy Uthar put into defending him, he was more than a little rattled that a war council was meant to have taken place half an hour ago that the Emperor had never shown up for. He was fairly sure he knew where to find his ruler: in the palace gardens were he seemed to spend more and more of his time in contemplation.
As seriously as Uthar was taking his new command, he wasn't terribly fond of how it seemed making sure the Emperor kept his appointments was another of the captain's responsibilities…
The primary light in the gardens was a soft blue glow coming from the stones in lanterns lining the paths that the Emperor had chosen for a certain ambience. With a sigh Uthar started his usual circuit around the edges and then the small network of interior paths through the thick trees from all over the Sphere. After a minute he sighed again, but at the soft blue light dancing off the edges of leaves and flowers around him. It certainly was soothing; perhaps it was little wonder the Emperor spent so much time here with all the dangers threatening his people.
Suddenly there was a flash of blinding red light through the trees and Uthar dashed over. In the middle of one of the more secluded paths he saw the Emperor holding an Ora Stone in his hands that burned with a harsh crimson light. But he wasn't alone. In front of him was the Arcanum known as Jack, who held a rectangular object Uthar could barely make out in the fading light.
"Are you sure this is the wisest thing to do, old friend?" Jack asked. "Diminishing our numbers even further as the danger grows?"
Solymen sighed but smiled faintly, his face seeming more wrinkled and tired than Uthar ever remembered seeing him. "I remember some of the tales they came up with about me…about how I'll return and lead the people back to greatness sometime when things are at their darkest, but…things are already at their darkest, and I'm simply not cut out for this any longer. I seem to recall I'm not the only one here who once raised a sword in the name of truth and justice. Who hasn't for centuries."
"I found other uses for my life…I became someone else," Jack said, a little defensively.
"I am not allowed to also become someone else?" Solymen replied. "And let us face facts, we may have fought and killed the largest number of Mythos before but it was Tarock who sought out the source and dealt with it. And I know you and Shardak were trying to steer that girl into inspiring the people. It worked, I'd think, whether she meant to do it or not.
"But the point is if Shardak's dead then surely they plan to come for the rest of us, and the last service I can do my people is to give this power to someone who has the strength to use it."
Jack held out the object in his hand. "Have someone in mind, do you?"
"Yes, and I imagine he's closer than we think. Always got the job on his mind, that one," the Emperor answered with a wan smile.
"But what will you do?" Jack asked quietly, seeming to accept the Emperor's decision but worried still over what might come next.
"Oh," the Emperor said distantly, looking up at the night sky. "Go somewhere I won't be in the way. Maybe see how many of them I can take with me before I go."
"And you expect the people to keep fighting hard knowing their leader's gone?" Jack asked gravely.
"Listen to you!" Emperor Solymen said. "Before this you wanted the common people to fight for themselves. Now that it's working and I'm trying appoint a successor, you think I'm going too far!" He sighed and took the object in Jack's hand. "I always thought immortality meant eternity…but I suppose time even changes immortals."
Uthar had heard enough. He slipped away out of the gardens as silently as he could.
The trip through the weird shifting tunnels had led them here. To a vast chamber with large Ora Stones nestled in the walls, glowing brighter than any in the tunnels on the way in.
But in the middle of it all was a huge white Ora Stone lodged in the far wall, nearly thirty-five feet from bottom to top. Glowing veins flowed from this giant crystal to the ones around it, and tiny motes of colored light flowed into the largest crystal from those around it, a cloud of red circling blue and rushing out of the expanse of white light before purple flew in next and passed through a mass of yellow particles. Waves of insubstantial vitality emanated from this enormous crystal that Ben could feel penetrating every inch of his body. A little like when they'd been attacked by the Empress, but there he felt power, angry and looking for a target. Here he felt life, healing and inviting, even stronger than he had in the forest above.
But a second later he felt something else. It wasn't a word, more of a tangible feeling in his mind. A feeling of welcome. Of hope at their arrival. It was emanating from the giant crystal, it could only be.
The crystal was alive.
The crystal was the being of ancient wisdom with the cure for Liss and Lost they were sent to find.
"Here they are, old friend," Hermit said
Ben was suddenly aware of someone lurching past him. It was Liss, holding out one arm and giving off a hideous insect-like buzz. She took a few stumbling steps and then collapsed on the rough rocky floor, moaning and buzzing both at the same time. As she did Ben could see an ocean of horrible black, bubbling liquid like Mythos slime lapping and grabbing at a hazy gray object, and he knew what he was seeing was in his mind, and it was the Mythos taint in Liss's body trying to engulf her mind, her soul, even.
Unconsciously he reached out to try and help, but Hermit lightly knocked his hand away with the tip of the iron staff. "You've done all you can by getting her here," he said. "Now it's time for her to heal. It won't be easy, but she will recover."
"What the hell does that mean?" Ben demanded, but his answer didn't come from Hermit, who was already disappearing into a shadowy fissure. Liss cried out, part human scream and part monstrous roar. Droplets of black goo fell from the fingers of her transformed hand, forced itself from under her skin and ran down her long dark hair to puddle on the floor. Her body contorted before she cried out in pain, followed by an animalistic bellow of anger.
In Ben's mind he could see the dark tide lapping at the grayness of Liss's being, but it was slowly shrinking back, the waves smaller and weaker. But as they weakened his ears echoed with screams of pain, screams of fear. He clutched at his ears trying to block the sounds out, even though he knew they were coming from some connection between their minds.
But a warm feeling flowed into them and Ben didn't see the black tides anymore. Instead he didn't see anything but a sort of rippling white expanse in front of him. He could smell flowers and felt like he was lying in silk sheets. With a bit of a start he realized he could feel Liss nearby, as if she was lying beside him under those silk sheets, and he smiled.
But as he focused on the feeling of her beside him he felt an image in Liss's mind, something familiar to her but not him. Something she was clinging to for courage as the essence of the Mythos was painfully forced to separate from her. Allowing himself a flash of hope Ben focused on that image and froze when he saw an image of a confident woman, a few years older than Liss, hair shorter and skin a few shades darker. She wore dirty coveralls and was bending over a little to pat an image of Liss supportively on the shoulders. It had to be her older sister, the one Liss admired so much. The one that she was so devoted to, she only became a delinquent after her sister was kicked out of the family.
That was who she was thinking of for strength as she was being torn apart by pain Ben barely dared to imagine. He sighed a little in frustration at all the danger he'd entered to fight by her side and that was still who she thought of, then hoped she didn't hear or notice what he was thinking. Then all at once Ben felt a third presence, and was so shocked he almost broke from the mental link.
It was the power of the crystal, and there was a unmistakable timidity to it for all the power it obviously held with opening and closing tunnels for them with such precision and the life the world around it radiated. The power seemed to Ben so ancient yet so great, so…primeval.
The feeling of the crystal's presence in Ben's mind seemed to become warmer and friendlier as he thought of that word he'd heard once in some English class. The crystal was welcoming the name, he realized: Primeval. Isolated, it had never needed a name, but circumstances were different now. Now the rest of the Sphere was in terrible danger, and its help was needed. Those who'd come needed something to call it to ask for its help…
A new sensation crept into Ben's mind. It took him a second to recognize a slightly timid form of gratitude. He saw himself fighting the Golden Wolf Mythos, the couple other monsters he'd beaten to keep them from getting to Avalon. He saw Liss in her Cups Form fighting a giant Cyclops, and even fighting a giant bull while that girl Liss had saved while he'd had to stay behind and guard Lost looked on.
"You're welcome…?" Ben said, a little too overwhelmed to think of anything else.
At first, Liss had resisted when she felt another mind making its way into her own. She'd been fighting the growing presence of the Mythos inside her with every ounce of willpower she had ever since learning it was there, and she'd been terrified at what might happen if another supernatural power got its claws into her.
But now, she was too tired to worry about motivations. Liss knew that she was really lying on the floor of the cave, twisting and crying out in pain as the poison in her body was forced out, but in her mind she felt only peace. A gentle urging from this strange creature, Primeval, assured her that as scared as she'd been at what was happening, it would be all right soon. All she had to do was relax and let the darkness leave her.
As that urging was made something else rolled into her mind, a gentle offer. She could see an image that looked like herself in her Tarock armor, but a mixture of the colors of her different armor: green mask, red chest, blue boots with yellow leg armor and gauntlets. Primeval was offering to make her this, merge her powers into one, she realized. But there was a feeling it was trying to convey without quite understanding how, a permanence Liss realized after a second. If it did this for her she would have to be like all the time. She would be an Arcanum.
But even as she rolled back and forth in pain as she was purged of the Mythos inside her, Liss pushed the offer away. She was Liss Decker, not some immortal creature of alien powers. If she accepted that, she wouldn't be Liss Decker anymore, she'd just be Tarock. And what if she ended up like the Empress, some crazy isolationist who was bent on killing people who were killing her own enemies? Maybe Liss wasn't the poster girl for a well-behaved teenager, but she didn't kill indiscriminately.
Primeval's power reached out and touched her mind again, and she felt an offer to show her and Ben something to distract her from problems as she healed. Tiredly, Liss agreed. Anything to keep her mind off the thought of what was really happening to her body…
There was a rush like wind, and suddenly it felt as if there were no boundaries between their three minds. They were one, seeing all that happened with one set of eyes, one set of perceptions, even though they were with senses Liss and Ben had never imagined before…
The view in their minds changed from the soft, gently rippling white to pure black. Then after a second, a point of light came flying into view. It was a bright white crystal with numerous smaller crystals of every color they could think of orbiting it in breathtaking streams, one inside another and never touching.
The crystal mass flew through space past numerous worlds, pausing by some to observe before resuming its journey. After a while it slowed as it came across something that wasn't a world. Something that was hardly a something at all.
It was a vast, formless mass of darkness, seething and reshaping itself every minute, stretching itself thin as it probed the stars in search of sustenance. The worlds around it were brown and barren, stripped of all life and energy by this cosmic disease. But it was ravenous, finding only slender pickings on its last few hunts, and it spotted the crystals, so bright and vital, and reached out for them. Without thought or mercy it smashed a huge hunk free, absorbing it and seeming to scream with delight at encountering such a source of life.
For the first time, icy terror wracked every fiber of their being. With all speed they fled into the void with the monstrous thing pursuing, flying past countless worlds, all sense of time slipping away as the chase wore on.
But eventually the dark creature tired, its meager hunts catching up to it. They left it behind, relief washing over them. But though it was the first time they'd faced such danger, they knew it would likely not be the last. Their knowledge of battle was nonexistent, however. Other measures would need to be taken in case it found them again…
A wild thought occurred, but one that might hide them and at the same time, shelter others.
And so they flew on, sending out chains of crystals into the crust of worlds as they passed, pulling massive chunks of those world free and sometimes taking people and creatures whose lives were near extinction along with them. Carefully they shaped the appropriated matter into huge rings with plains, oceans, mountains, valleys. Formed these rings into massive layers atop one another, and then formed pieces of their own mass into shafts of crystal piercing the layers that allowed travel between them, a shell to hold all everything in place. Finally, they shaped the last of the stone and dirt into a small world around themselves at the center of it all to hide from sight. The Sphere was born.
But they surveyed the people outside struggling to survive the cold nights in the wild world that was their new home. Unknowing of mortal creatures, they extended their senses as far as they could, and found another world, brutal and warlike, but with civilization and seasoned warriors both.
After careful deliberation they shed small pieces of their being, infused with their power, and sent them to this other world to remarkable individuals who could guide the survivors from the other worlds. There was a powerful king, his advisor possessed of vast arcane knowledge, a stern woman who was the true power behind her addlepated husband's house, the strongest and most devoted of the warriors at that woman's command, a callow youth who'd vowed to make any journey and pay any price in pursuit of knowledge...
The charged crystals changed their recipients, gave them powers and lifespans far beyond anything they'd imagined. These individuals came to the new world, helped centralize the lost souls there, and the Arcana were born. Cities were built and as eons passed empires were raised at the top and bottom of the Sphere, ruled by the immortals they had created. Powers drained by their efforts, Primeval allowed themselves to rest and observe.
Then it finally happened. One day centuries later the dark creature, much smaller and less threatening than in their first meeting, crashed into a middle layer of their new world and devoured everything it touched, forests and towns being consumed as it spread forward like a black wave. But it could sense the prey it had followed across the void nearby, and was determined not to let it slip away again.
To search this new world, the dark creature split its essence into smaller, monstrous creatures who nonetheless proved to have deadly powers of their own as they attacked towns trying to force people to lead them to what they sought. And so the Mythos came to be.
But the immortals recognized this danger and fought back. One, the king's advisor, even courted scandal by devising a way for mortal warriors to wield power the likes of the immortals themselves commanded. Four tokens of power made from Ora Stones were changed into cards that could allow their users to wield powers to rival an Arcanum's. He'd intended there to be a champion wielding each, but after a devastating surprise attack, only one survivor remained and carried the mantles meant for his allies.
They watched as furious battles followed all over their world, between the monsters and the immortals, the harried soldiers of the mortal armies, and the empowered mortal champion who came to be known as Tarock. The struggles played out in seconds relative to the observers, but as they watched towns were razed, forests burnt to the ground and lakes dried up by the fighting.
But as these battles raged one involving Tarock caught their eye. Clad in his green Pentacles armor he battled an armored knight on an imposing chariot. The knight was the servant to the woman who'd become Empress Maeve, but as Tarock knocked him from his chariot with a powerful flying kick his armor cracked open. Underneath his body was covered in brown scales, and within instants his armor had shattered completely until his true self was revealed: a horned, four-legged dragon-like creature. They battled back and forth for hours until Tarock finally sealed his opponent's doom with a smash from the Gran Crusher.
The Arcanum Tarock was vilified for killing had become a Mythos. Become part of that horrendous thing that'd chased them across the stars. That was why he'd done it.
And they were probably the only ones who knew.
A huge shape slithered through the forest crushing trees like toothpicks and leaving a slime-covered furrow in the ground as it went. Soon it reached the edge of the level, the sky fading into dark space. It paid no attention to anything but what was right in front of it.
Tendrils waving angrily around its head it spied its target: the small world spinning in the center of the Sphere. Spotting danger the three glowing shapes orbiting it froze and immediately flew toward the massive intruder, assuming their armored forms and brandishing their weapons, the evil billowing off the creature nearly overwhelming their limited senses.
"DEATH ALONE AWAITS INTRUDERS!" Sun, Moon and Star shouted as one and prepared to attack without waiting for the being's response. Sun's bullets blazed as they struck the swaying tendrils atop the thing's head and Moon's boomerang flew, shearing the heads of a few off. But the thing threw itself into the void, crashing through Primeval's defenders and sending them spiraling out of sight.
As it landed on the pristine world it made a crater three hundred feet across from its impact alone, and the animals that called the world home fled in all directions as fast as they could. The loathsome thing paid them no mind, instead starting to burrow into the ground spraying dust hundreds of feet into the air as it did.
At last its prey had been found.
As they watched, an already suspicious Sphere turned on Tarock, and only the bravest of souls were willing to answer his call to hunt down and destroy the source of the Mythos itself. One of them was Master Thyer, protégé of the Emperor and wielder of a mighty enchanted sword that once been the Emperor's, when he'd been a crusading knight.
Most of a year passed and their numbers were whittled down by repeated conflict with the monsters, but eventually they found the starving monstrosity and its strongest guardians in a tomb near the top of the Sphere and in a terrible battle the creature was seemingly destroyed at the cost of all of Tarock's followers, and he himself was fatally injured in the process.
But in the aftermath a strange rush of energy from the Mythos' source formed into the shape of a deathly pale woman clad in a thin white gown. She sprang at Tarock and tore at his armored throat and thanks to his injuries it was all he could do to fend her off. In desperation he pulled a gimmicked Ora Stone out and threw it at her, forming a stone shell. Working quickly he placed runes on her trap to leave unpleasant surprises for any who'd come to free, then stumbled away.
As they reached this point in the story Ben pulled himself away from the mental union with the others. He'd heard this much from Jack already, and was in no mind to watch as Tarock died. Even if it wasn't the one he knew.
He slumped against the wall of the cave, paying no attention to the jagged Ora Stones pricking his back through his coat as he readjusted to seeing things one second at a time as just one person. After steeling himself he glanced over at Liss, who still squirmed and groaned as the Mythos essence was purged from her body. Most of the insect-like armor on her had sloughed off, revealing normal skin underneath, and what continued to cling to her cheek and fingers now looked more like wet clay. As it dripped onto the floor it evaporated into tiny puffs of blue smoke.
"You know," he murmured, too low for Liss to hear even if he thought she could, "I know I was giving you shit that day, back when we were in detention together…but when Sanchez turned into a monster, and then you suited up and tackled him through the wall like it was nothing at all to you…that was when I fell in love with you, Liss." Tears pooled at the corners of his eyes. "Just needed to finally say that…" As he did, Primeval's light flashed a few times as if acknowledging his confession.
Suddenly Liss sat up and screamed, clutching her head and inadvertently getting a clump of wet evil still clinging to one hand caught in her hair. But underneath was a human hand with five strong but graceful fingers, and Ben was unworried.
Until Liss said what she said next.
"Something's coming."
"What is?" Ben asked, already knowing the answer in the pit of his stomach.
"A Mythos! A monster! Something huge and—
But she never finished. The cave was suddenly filled with a deafening roar of exploding stone as whatever Liss had sensed battered its way into sight. It looked like an enormous worm, its horrific fang-studded maw big enough to swallow two people standing on each other's shoulders. Surrounding it were rows upon rows of hideous waving, pulpy tentacles atop a long black worm-like body covered in gray slime.
Liss recognized it, from a time not all that long ago when she'd thought reading dark fantasy made her deep. It looked like most of the pictures she'd seen of Chthonians, giant worm-like creatures from stories based on the works of Lovecraft. And one of them was right in front of them about to attack.
"Change Vaga!"
"Cups Suit!"
In a flash they were in their armor and the Chthonian was thundering toward them. The walls groaned and tried to push together, no doubt Primeval using his power to try to hold back the monstrosity but its slimy body allowed it to slither all the way into the cave before Primeval could finish the job.
"Vaga Nova!" Vaga screamed, gouging the points of his most powerful attack in the air and letting it fly. The column of bright green-white power seemed to burn even brighter, perhaps with the light of Vaga's desperation as it shot at the monster. It collided with the Chthonian just below its head, boring into the thick, slimy flesh. After a second it punched out the other side and smashed a hole in the wall, scattering dust and lightless Ora Stones around the cave.
Then the Chthonian hurled itself to the side, crashing into Vaga and driving him into the wall with piledriver force. He slid down, not moving.
"Ace High! Crash Tide!" Tarock's buckled roared as she braced herself for the force of her form's ultimate attack. A blast of water ripped from the cannon barrel engulfing her hand and formed into a wall of water that rushed at the Chthonian. The giant worm pushed forward trying to power through it but cried out in what Tarock desperately hoped was pain as the water touched it, washing away the slime coating its trunk and sending up a cloud of hissing steam. But the giant monster rose up until only the tip of its loathsome tail was still on the ground, showing badly burned skin where Tarock's attack had touched it. Then it came crashing down, shaking the floor and knocking Tarock off her feet, disrupting her aquatic blast.
"Pentacles Suit!" her Fate Driver announced as Tarock quickly switched cards. She pounded her hammer into the Chthonian's side with all her supreme might and knocked it onto its side and sending the slime covering it flying, splattering all over her armor in the process. But in another second the Chthonian turned toward her and plunging its maw at Tarock to swallow her whole. Tarock jumped to her side, vaulted off the wall and onto the monster's back.
"Ace High! Earthsplitter!" the Fate Driver announced next as she pressed the Royal Core on her belt to summon this form's highest powers. She smashed the enlarged Gran Crusher down on the Chthonian's neck just below the mass of squirming tentacles. More slime went flying and cracks flowing with green power started to spread from where Tarock's weapon had made impact. They spread further and further across the monster's body. But then the monster screamed and thrashed around, easily hurling Tarock off its back.
The monster raised itself up on its tail and came crashing down on top of Tarock, tons of slimy flesh driving her into the floor. For a few seconds Tarock couldn't breathe, couldn't even feel pain until the Chthonian rose up to batter her with its horrendous bulk again, every inch of her body feeling like fire as she watched in horror while the Chthonian's body plummeted down on her again.
"Vaga Lancer!" a voice cried out. Vaga appeared above Tarock and stabbed his spear deep into the monster's underbelly. He yanked upward carving further into the Chthonian which bought Tarock the seconds she needed to get to her feet. The monster screamed and squirmed back and forth, wrenching the spear from Vaga's hands.
Green cracks were spreading further down its back from where Tarock's Earthsplitter had made impact, but the hideous creature seemed unfazed. The two had hit this giant monstrosity with their most powerful attacks and it only kept coming. Was there anything they could do to stop it?
The Chthonian screamed and slithered at them with the tentacles lining its head reaching out for them. As one extended toward her waist Tarock cocked back her fist.
"Calamity! Temblor Punch!" Tarock's fist erupted with green energy as she connected with the slimy tentacle reaching out for her, blowing off the end of the tentacle. But before she could attack again a dozen more lashed out and coiled around her and Vaga. The Chthonian was about to toss them into its mouth when a horrible, grating whine filled the cave.
Primeval's primary crystal exploded, peppering the Chthonian with huge spear-like shards impaling it everywhere they struck. The monster thrashed in pain at the assault and Vaga and Tarock were able to kick free and retreated to a far corner of the cave where they were out of the Chthonian's way. They watched, horrified as the light in the main crystal flickered and then started to fade away completely.
Just before it did they could feel Primeval in their minds, but for the first time it was more than feelings and images. This time it was words in a voice that sounded like rocks being rubbed together.
Please…do not grieve…I formed a world to hide from this danger…Empowered others to guide the people and maintain my disguise...I was found anyway…Time more was done than spinning a world to hide inside…Go and fight now…for these people…for your people…for…all people…
The Chthonian smashed itself back and forth against the walls in rage as the life faded out of Primeval until only a small point of light remained. Blue smoke was coming off the Chthonian in sheets now as its injuries were finally too much for it. As it started to disappear the ceiling rumbled and dust and boulders pelted down. A narrow tunnel appeared near Tarock and Vaga and they ran down it as fast as they could toward a tiny point of light in the distance.
Minutes later they emerged into the forest on the surface of the tiny world. As soon as they caught their breath, it was obvious something was wrong. There were no sounds of wildlife from just of sight as there had been before. The leaves on the trees and bushes had turned brown and brittle, and there was no sign of the three guardians circling the skies in search of danger.
"My god…," Vaga muttered in disbelief. "This place is…dead. Hey, look!"
He pointed at Hermit, who was leaning against a tree with his hood down over his face. But something about his posture was off and the lantern on his staff had gone out.
Vaga nudged him lightly and without warning Hermit suddenly slumped forward, dust spilling out of the empty robe and Hermit's staff tumbling over with a clang. Vaga shrank back in horror.
Tarock clapped a hand on Vaga's shoulder. "Come on, we need to go," she said.
"What do you mean?!" he demanded. "Look at this! Look at him! This place…everything just died, Liss! Because of us! How do you just shake that off?!"
"Primeval told us not to let it get to us. That was his choice, remember?" Tarock reminded him.
"Liss, I knew you were hard, but I never thought-" Vaga started to shout when Tarock backhanded him across the face.
"And the other reason is we don't have time!" she yelled. "You know how I knew that monster was coming? Because the White Lady could see everything I did when I was still part monster. She sent it because she knew we were here. She knows the Empress took Lost, and that was days ago, wasn't it?"
Vaga nodded numbly.
"There you go," Tarock replied tiredly. "She sent something huge here, she's probably sending something even bigger to get Lost. And with how the Empress probably thinks she's won with getting rid of me and capturing Lost, she won't be expecting an attack, I bet you anything."
"I'm sorry," Vaga apologized, but Tarock held up a gauntleted hand.
"We can feel bad about what happened after we save Lost," she said. "God only knows what'll happen if we don't. So let's go save her, yeah?" At that she held out her hand to Vaga.
Vaga hesitated. "What about the cure for Lost we were supposed to get?"
"I guess we'll have to find one ourselves now, won't we?" Tarock answered. "You in?"
He stared at her for a second, mentally digesting what all she'd just said. Then he clasped her hand harder than he meant to.
It was a cloudy night over Mazones, which suited the dark figure creeping toward the base of the fortified wall perfectly. They traveled on all fours, moving from shadow to shadow, then at twenty feet from the wall, jumped and easily landed at the top in the narrow strip of darkness between two of the lamps set along the wall's walkway.
A pair of guards patrolling in opposite directions crossed one another not far from where she hid. As he came closer she clung tightly to the edge of the wall, then peered over the wall to see nothing but roofs pressed too closely together for her to reach the ground without landing on one. She couldn't risk discovery this soon after her undetected entry and scampered to a stairway nearby.
Once she'd gotten a few blocks from the wall and there was no-one in sight, her body bubbled and morphed until a feline shape jumped from her body. It followed at her side as she walked past an elaborate wooden stage, an unpleasant smirk on her lips hidden by the darkness. Beyond the stage were the heavy doors to the imperial palace, but as she approached the guards saluted at once and wasted no time opening the doors to admit her entrance.
The Empress herself looked up and smiled graciously as the intruder entered her chambers. "Leone," said the Empress, glad to see one of the only Arcana willing to even discuss her side of the problem anymore. "So, you've come to see the beginning of the end of the Mythos for yourself, have you? Excellent, excellent…it will truly be a day that will go down in history." She glanced at the lion-like beast at Leone's side, who'd always been her constant companion, but this time something seemed slightly off about the beast. But if something was wrong the Mythos alarm would've been set off at the gate; what was there to worry about?
Empress Maeve looked out the massive window in one wall at the stage in the plaza below. "I'm afraid it'll have to wait until the appointed time…my people have waited for so long, it'd be terribly untoward to deny them the chance for a proper ceremony of an occasion such as this."
"This is not something I'd generally approve of making a spectacle," Leone replied calmly, "but the people are indeed suffering in so many ways. Reassurance is exactly what they need."
"It's nice to finally hear someone else who can talk sense-" the Empress began, but as she turned to face Leone the beast sprang. It raked its claws across Maeve's belly and before she could even recover from her surprise Leone spewed a beam of power from her mouth that knocked the Empress off the ground…
Lost's stomach was churning fiercely and she laid on the stone floor in agony, trying to hold it in. If she were to expel it inside her cage of power, she was terrified to think what the monster that arose might do to her. Or what they would do if they paid no attention to her and managed to escape…
The door swung open and in walked a guard in worn-looking armor. She carried one of the electrified tridents all of the guards of Mazones were armed with, and Lost cringed at the thought that someone had decided to come in and torture her even before the Empress had the chance to have her executed in front of the whole city.
Instead the guard smashed one of the crystal spikes projecting the shell of energy that kept Lost from escaping. The shell crackled and sparked for a second and Lost instinctively curled up into a fetal position until it stopped a second later. Lost looked up into the face of her savior…
…only to freeze in terror as they changed into a faceless Changeling Mythos.
In that moment as she realized how insidious the Mythos truly were, her resolve weakened for just a second. Her body heaved and she vomited a stream of black slime onto the floor. It had hardly even begun to spread when inhuman faces started to form within it.
Next time on Kamen Rider Tarock, Re-Dealt…
(Leone and her familiar merge into a black-furred lion woman who attacks the Empress)
White Lady: Let the fall of the Sphere begin here!
(Mythos pour out of the Empress's palace trampling the stage meant for Lost's execution)
Thena: You're too late, Tarock, whatever your intentions are.
(Vaga fights a Mythos that tries to strangle him with an iron rope)
Liss: I'll show my intentions…
(Tarock in her Wands Form duels with Leone, dashing and smashing each other with wand and claws at high speed)
Narrator: Your fate is in your hands.
Wanted to address a few things here at the end while I had the chance, the first being I'm sorry about how I handled the Inverted Sage. As was pointed out to me, and rightly so, I built up to the meeting with him for several chapters and then basically had him say "I can't help you but there's this other guy who can." My main reason for this was there would've been no good reason not to have Liss and Ben drill him with a bunch more probing questions, and I was worried about that breaking the story. We all love seeing the good guys unleash devastating powers on the monsters, but if they never have to struggle what's the story about? The only way I could think of to fix that on the fly was to have Liss's transformation accelerate and make Ben desperate enough that curing her was his only priority. Sorry for everybody who felt kinda let down; you have every right to do so.
Secondly, I've apparently given the impression to a few readers that I'm planning to end Tarock soon because I've clearly been building up to a serious climax. This is true to an extent, but it's going to be a serious mid-series climax; I've envisioned Tarock as being around the length of your average Rider show, and there's more to come.
Hope everyone's enjoying the story anyway, and look forward to what's coming up next.