Kamen Rider Tarock, Re-Dealt – Reading Twenty-Four: Siege
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.
With Liss restored to normal, she and Ben hurry to the city of Mazones to rescue Lost, not knowing the true danger not only to Lost but to the entire Sphere has already shown itself…
Empress Maeve still hadn't recovered from the speed of Leone's surprise attack when she was blown off her feet by an energy blast and hurled against the wall. Leone's cat creature pounced at her again but this time she raised a hand and unleashed a massive blast of violet power that enveloped both attackers and carried them out through the window along with the Empress's desk.
Maeve pressed a hand to the bloodied claw marks on her stomach and tried to collect herself. One of her few allies had just tried to kill her, but the Empress doubted it was Leone simply deciding she'd had enough. There had been something wrong with that creature of hers this time. But if they were being controlled by something evil, how had they not been spotted approaching the city or detected as they crossed any of the points of entry? The alarms should've detected any Mythos making their way into the city. Had the Empress lost her grip that much?
She limped to the window to locate Leone and finish her off, and below the balcony lay Leone and her catlike companion. But as she watched the creature bubbled and melted into a puddle of black slime that flowed over Leone's body. She stood up as it reformed, becoming thick black armor clinging to her slender form. The helmet had the design of a feline face, with slanted red eyes and glistening silver fangs surrounding a blank faceplate.
But Leone didn't attack Maeve again. Instead the Empress's attention was seized by a growing chorus of screams from the halls outside her chamber, and from just below her balcony. Three monsters ran out of the doors to the palace right behind a small group of servants as the pair of door guards tried to hold them at bay with their weapons before the monsters tackled and tore into them. The Empress loosed a blast of energy from her hand and incinerated the pair, but another pair sprang out and took their place, smashing through the stage with their hands and energy beams.
And then a gang of monsters burst through the door of the Empress's chambers, and she fired desperately at them. Mazones was under attack from within.
A lifeless breeze blew through the glade, taking some of the stiff brown leaves still clinging to the empty trees with it. Liss and Ben had little time to notice, time was against them as it was.
The last-minute check, making sure Air Talon and Shift Runner were up for their sprint to Mazones, was over. Ben was already on the back of Air Talon, but Liss was rooting around in Shift Runner's saddlebags until she found a stack of Wild Cards and pulled one out.
Liss sighed and pushed a small portion of energy into the card and it dissolved into crystal shards that reformed into a transparent moth. She wiped her eyes on the sleeve of her duster before she started it recording.
Solemnly, Liss said, "Paige, I was with someone who's the source of those monsters I've been fighting. She isn't bad, I think I said that in the last message I sent. But she's been kidnapped by someone who's really strong and wants me dead. I didn't even do anything to her, just because I have the same suit as somebody she used to hate.
"I'm going to save that girl, Lost, now. I'm probably walking into an ambush, though, and if I don't come back…I want you to know you were the reason I did all this, Paige. You didn't let mom and dad tell you that you couldn't be with someone. That was too important to you to give up. Well, I'm not letting anyone tell I'm not strong and I don't matter…especially not somebody who hates me for something I never did. If you never see me again, I just want you to know this is what I died doing."
She raised her hand and the moth took off, starting the flight back to her hometown to let Paige know what it had been told. For a moment Liss paused and looked around at the barren trees and dry grass crunching under Shift Runner's hooves. There were no birds or other animals in sight, it was as if they'd simply disappeared with Primeval's passing. Would this be what the Sphere looked like if the White Lady got her hands on Lost, or would there be nothing but blackened earth all around?
"Hey," she said to Ben after she'd secured her helmet. "What did you say those guys were called? The ones with powers like us, in Japan?"
He looked over at her dubiously. "Why?"
"Just tell me. Please."
Ben's face softened, and he replied, "Kamen Riders…why?"
"Just wondering," Liss answered. "Let's go!" Shift Runner glowed and rippled until Liss wasn't sitting on a metal horse, but an armored motorcycle. She blasted away at blinding speed and a transparent bridge like the one that'd brought them to this small world appeared in front of her. It stretched out of sight, probably reaching to the top level of the Sphere itself but seemed to flicker faintly as if the power was fading.
"Hey! Mine can't do that!" Ben called after her. "Or…can he?" Almost as soon as the thought had formed in his mind Air Talon was morphing into a powerful racing bike. Before he could kick into gear its engine was already revving and Ben awkwardly steered it after Liss up the bridge.
"It sounds simple to me," came the booming reply of Lieutenant Loi, even though he didn't mean to try and deafen his friend and superior. His voice was simply the same as the rest of him: big and overpowering.
Loi was a hulk of a man, standing nearly a foot and a half higher than Uthar, and spent an inordinate amount of his time settling bets between his comrades about how many cracks of his massive biceps it'd take to smash particularly stubborn-looking rocks. With his dark skin and hair people often jokingly called Uthar his younger brother, and some of them even meant it until they learned otherwise.
"It's simple to you how the Emperor's abandoning us?" Uthar demanded, slamming his fist down on table in their barracks. "Now, in the middle of an invasion? Maybe the ruler of Mazones would do such a thing, but aren't we meant to be the civilized ones actually concerned with our people's welfare?"
Loi laughed and imitated his friend, slamming his fist down on the table too but his huge fist popped one of the legs loose and made the top fall heavily into Uthar's lap. Barely seeming to notice, he admonished Uthar, "Well, someone's burning with passion for their duties!"
"This isn't a joke!"
"Of course it isn't!" Loi replied. "But would you rather the Emperor keep forcing himself to fight when we need a strong leader and he can't be one anymore, or find someone who's up to the job? The more important the job, the more important someone capable's in charge of it, no?"
"Like who? Tarock?" Uthar asked with a sigh. "Where's she been while the empire needed capable warriors? Just took her precious Card of Cups and left as quickly as she'd come. And that Vaga friend of hers, what a self-obsessed little brat! He left as soon as he'd killed a monsters, with more coming every day!"
Loi stuck the missing leg back on the table and rolled a jug of mead out from under his bunk. "Sounds as if you're stressed, friend. Have a drink," he prompted Uthar.
"The Emperor's deserting us, and you-"
"Drink," Loi said, and filled a mug for each of them. Begrudgingly Uthar downed the mead in his, let it settle for a minute and sighed. Loi smiled. "Isn't that better?"
"You're right," Uthar admitted. "I was letting my frustration get to me. We've got to keep our heads or the Mythos have already won."
Loi gently nudged his friend, nearly knocking him out of his chair. "Well said! And are you so sure of Tarock? Have you watched those recordings Jack had taken of her battles? I think I like that one with the Headless Horseman best," he said, referring to crystal recordings apparently taken by those strange crystal animals, Wild Cards, sent to monitor Tarock's battles and bring them back to Avalon so everyone could see that someone was out there taking on the Mythos.
"No, I haven't," grunted Uthar. "It's fine how those things have driven up enlistment, but we have people here who need protection. Where is she now?"
Another mug followed for both of them. Loi was about to say something when an annoying droning sound started to come in from the distance. Slightly sloshed, it took them both a second to recognize the sound of the city alarm: enemies had been sighted approaching the wall.
It was a minute before they'd managed to don their armor and arm themselves so suddenly, and by the time they'd joined a column of fellow soldiers outside the barracks a huge gray-skinned Cyclops was kicking a hole through the wall that a stream of black, monstrous shapes flowed through. A giant spider with the upper torso of woman sticking from the front of its body scurried over the wall with ease. A dozen more flew above the wall and started diving and blasting buildings and people.
Avalon was being invaded.
"Form a wall!" Uthar ordered. "Delay them for just a few minutes!"
As the guards rushed to form a line stretching from one side of the street to the other, Sentos slowly, tiredly extended arms and legs from his form of the battered watchtower at the gates of the city. He'd only barely completed his transformation before the Cyclops caught him a terrible blow against the head and knocked him down, shaking the ground so badly from his tremendous impact more than a few of the guards were knocked down with him.
Uthar, Loi and the handful of guards still on their feet rushed forward firing at the Mythos with their batons. A few were knocked down by the blasts but other monsters swarmed right over their fallen comrades and attacked the guards with flailing claws and blasts of their own. Uthar and Loi dug in as a blue-furred wolfman and blue-skinned hag crashed into them, the hag raking her metal fingernails against Loi's armor until he lifted her with one hand and hurled her into the crowd of monsters behind her.
The spider Mythos tore into the side of one of the barracks with her giant front legs, and backed off in surprise at what she saw inside: a group of men in bright red uniforms and full-face silver masks and harnesses around their chests, and right behind them a group of men in identical uniforms, masks and harnesses, but green instead of red.
The men in red charged the spider Mythos, holding up short rods of metal. At the push of a button blades of red light formed at the ends. They started hacking at the spider who scuttled backward as fast as she could with hunks of her front legs missing. The men in green jumped in front of their comrades as members of the Mythos horde recognized a threat, and those that could opened fire with blasts of energy, quills or hurling their weapons.
The fighters in green jumped to the front and brandished metal discs emblazoned with five-pointed stars. The projectiles seemed to change direction in midair to collide with the discs rather than their wielders and then volley off into the air or at an angle back into the monstrous horde. Howls of pain went up as numerous Mythos were floored by their own attacks, a few exploding into blue smoke at their demise.
"Charge!" Uthar bellowed at the guards who managed to get to their feet and rushed into the mass of monsters. The giant Cyclops turned his attention to the city's defenders and swung his club at the warriors in red and green, smashing a few of his fellow Mythos as he did.
Just as he was about to flatten the first of them a swarm of smoke-spewing grenades flew through the air and landed on the Cyclops's face. He screamed in surprise and pain and stumbled backward. From the top of a building a group of men in yellow uniforms and harnesses like the others opened another round of gas grenades and threw them into the mob of surprised monsters.
As the grenades flew a fourth group of warriors in colorful uniforms, this time blue, ran forward and formed a firing line in front of those in yellow. Those in blue carried long metal rods, and three of them touched the rods together and sent a column of blue-tinged fire roaring into the monsters.
"Well!" Loi shouted with amusement as he grabbed a blue-skinned ogre in a tiger-striped loincloth and fired his baton right in the monster's face. "Looks like the Four Corps are working out awfully well! And who do we have to thank for them?!"
Uthar looked up at his friend in annoyance for just a second, just enough to tell him this wasn't the time with his expression. Instead he simply pushed his way into the now-panicking mob of Mythos, with Loi grinning and wading in right behind him.
It had only been a few dark shapes swarming through the streets of Mazones at first. Then the sounds of inhuman screams and chattering had come from the floor below. Then there were monstrous creatures trying to climb over each other through the chamber door, and it was all the strange fusion that was the Arcanum Mila and Felco could do to hold the Mythos off with what power remained them. The hallway had gone quiet for the moment, but with screams and explosions increasing in the streets, it could only be a temporary reprieve.
"My love, if this is to be the last of our-" Felco started to say, but Mila shot him a fiery glare that stopped him in midsentence.
"This wouldn't have happened if we hadn't given up our power to that pair of traitors," Mila scowled, then sighed. "But…that might not have happened if we'd made a different approach. Hadn't threatened them with the state of their marriage."
Felco looked straight at her, his own gray eyes shining. "We've become hardened by what we've seen, but is it too late? Is redemption not what we offered those two along with a taste of power?"
"Is that what's called a 'deathbed conversion'?" Mila asked, but one side of her mouth was turned up in a faint smile.
"Only if we die," Felco said, a slight coy smile forming on his own face. "And perhaps that need not be the case, if we can summon aid."
"You mean, asking those two for help? After they turned their backs on us and ran off with our power?"
"Mythos are inside the walls, my love," Felco answer with a sigh. "What do we have to lose?"
The two of them shut their eyes and concentrated on the sensation of the power that made them Arcana, reached out beyond their world for that same sensation, small and distant though it was. They stretched out for it inch by inch until their bodies tingled with strain, but suddenly they'd made contact and a window appeared in the air showing the surprised faces of Lurian and Nema, the couple from Mazones they given a portion of their power to fight on their behalf, only to exile themselves after Mila and Felco had pushed them too hard for their failures.
"Come to check in?" Nema demanded snidely. "We're managing quite well, thank you. The locals have been very welcoming."
"There's no time to dwell on the past," Mila told them. "Mazones is under attack. Mythos have gotten inside the walls, there's no guessing at their number."
Lurian and Nema stared back at their former benefactors in disbelief. "What?" Lurian managed to stumble out. "How can that be possible? Weren't they discovered at-"
"We don't know, but the fact is they're here and we need all the help we can get," Felco cut him off. "We've been harsh but these are dark times, and have only gotten darker. Will you come to your people's aid now, when the need is greatest?"
The mortal couple exchanged only one look, and then Nema answered for the both of them.
"We're coming."
Most of the way to Mazones Ben had lagged behind Liss even by going as fast as he could, although he hadn't blamed her for being in such a hurry. Lost might have been the source of all the monsters endangering the Sphere and even starting to trickle back to Earth, but he couldn't believe she wanted any of it to happen. And it had touched off something strong in Liss about seeing someone victimized like Lost was, first by the White Lady and now by the Empress. It was clear Liss was willing to fight for that strange girl, and as they neared Mazones, it looked like they'd have to.
Even at the distance they were, Liss and Ben could see menacing shapes flying across the rooftops in the distance and beams of energy shooting up into the sky amidst explosions erupting in the streets.
"What do we do?" Ben asked after he pulled up next to Liss.
Liss pointed at the spires of a castle on the far edge of the city. "That must be where the Empress took Lost. We'll try to get there and find her."
"But what if this has been going for a while? What if the Mythos thought of that too and they already got her?" Ben asked a little worriedly.
"We'll just have to keep our eyes open, then," Liss said. She revved her bike and zoomed over the field, loading her Card of Swords. "Swords Suit!" In a flash she was clad in red armor.
"Change Vaga!" Ben yelled as he transformed too before starting after Liss. He considered his new Trosik powers briefly, but it didn't take long to decide that riding into a warzone wasn't the best time to get used to a new form.
They'd only been going for a few seconds before some of the flying Mythos above the city spotted them and peeled away to attack. The first one, who looked like an old man with red skin, a foot-long nose and black feathery wings dove at Tarock. She kept going, seemingly unaware of the monster in a death-dive at her at all, then all of a sudden popped a wheelie and smacked him out of the way with her front tire. He squawked in terrified surprise then went bouncing away along the ground.
Another Mythos, who looked like a teenage boy except for the black skin, bat-like wings and bow and arrow in his hands took aim at Tarock with a heart-tipped arrow. She passed her hand in front of her belt and her sword flashed into being. She was waiting for her attacker to fire when a glowing bolt came shooting from behind and impaled one of the monster's wings, sending him tumbling out of the sky. Vaga rode up to her side, steering awkwardly with one hand with his crossbow clutched tightly in the other. Tarock nodded at him and sped on ahead before they could be attacked again. For a second he slowed, feeling slightly dazed, then sped up again to keep up with Tarock.
As they neared the smoldering tents of the refugee camp at the edge of the city wall the roar of their bikes' engines drew the eyes of the few Mythos who hadn't chased the people further from the city or further in. One, a giant black-furred dog with teeth long enough to bite through tree trunks jumped off the edge of the wall at Tarock. She raised her sword and jabbed upward before he hit her, impaling him through the chest. He flailed at her face a few times before she let go of her sword and let the Mythos drop with it. Then with a final burst of speed she zoomed through a breach in the wall.
Once inside Tarock slowed to a stop. She remembered the gate plaza from when she'd been recovering from her injuries in Mazones those weeks ago. She'd passed through here several times while getting used to walking again. Sometimes Rexia would go into one or another of the little stores right at the edges and buy some kind of treat that she adored and Liss would have some of it too to make her happy, even though it tasted like soap to her.
The little store was smashed in now, and what she could see of the inside was covered in a sheet of rubble. Some of those weird little three-wheeled cars Rexia's father repaired for a living lay overturned and burning nearby, a few with the remains of their drivers still in them. Without thinking Tarock started up again, in the direction she thought Rexia and her father had lived. She had a job to do. An important job. The important job. But she had to at least look and see if they were still there.
Vaga followed Tarock as she sped along the streets of the city, the empty streets and devastated houses he passed reminding him of the couple of towns they'd seen that had been totally destroyed by the Mythos. But, he reminded himself, this was where it ended. They'd save Lost, find a way to stop more monsters from appearing, and then they'd just have to see to the last of the monsters. He'd been telling himself that again and again.
A minute later Tarock stopped outside of a house she seemed to recognize, as she got off her bike and even let the card eject from her Fate Driver. In a flash it was Liss who stepped forward to inspect the badly damaged home.
"Is there something special about this place?" Vaga asked, wanting to remind her of the mission to save Lost, but curious to hear the answer.
"This is where I stayed when I was healing from my first couple battles," Liss answered softly, distantly. "I guess that was when Jack and Shardak thought I was dead, and they were training you up to be Vaga."
He was a little surprised not to hear her say "to replace me." But then, something about her seemed different ever since he found out about her being a superhero, and especially since they'd met Primeval.
Then a heavyset, tired-looking man whose face and clothes were covered in soot and a few small dark red stains emerged from the house. He looked at Liss and actually did a double-take. "You…what are you doing back here?" he demanded.
"Hi, Karam," Liss said. "Where's Rexia? Is she all right?"
"No," the man said, slumping down on the blasted remains of his front stoop. "She's dead."
Liss swallowed and shut her eyes. "I see."
"Not from this," Karam said, indicating the city with a sweep of his arm. "She didn't come home after work, ended up meeting some of her old friends and going to a protest. One about you, I heard, about your good works. Someone attacked some guards who came to break it up, and she was caught in the crossfire. My daughter's dead…thanks to your good works."
"I'm here now to help," Liss replied, firmly but a bit apologetically.
"And just in the nick of time, aren't you?!" laughed a derisive voice Liss didn't any help recognizing. Seeming to melt out of the shadows was a woman in slightly scorched black armor, with the image of a lion on her helmet. Her eyes were the infernal red of someone the White Lady was speaking through, but the face didn't belong to anyone Liss had ever seen.
But she wasn't the only one there. "Leone," Vaga said, low and slow, clearly not wanting to believe what he was seeing but at the same time knowing that he could only believe.
"That's right!" she crowed. "Even the Arcana succumb to my embrace. Everything crumbles, everything is consumed. It's simply fate…or the small part of fate that a species as limited as yours can perceive."
"Then…," Liss started to say, then stopped. Leone watched her for a reaction for another second, then suddenly lunged at her with claws raised, moving across the street in a black and silver blur.
"LISS!" Vaga screamed. But Leone could get close enough to attack Liss slammed a card into her Fate Drive.
"Wands Suit!" it called out and Liss changed into a blue and black blur that intercepted Leone's dash and smacked her into a stone wall that crumbled as she crashed through it.
"Then…I'm Kamen Rider Tarock, fighting fate," she announced.
"What…?" Vaga said, stunned. She'd never shown the slightest interest in Kamen Riders even when he'd been trying to get into the spirit of being a superhero. How much had she changed since they'd started doing this?
Tarock sucked in a breath before she spoke. "My own damn parents told my sister she didn't matter because they didn't like one thing about who she is. I got told my whole life was already wasted because I wasn't a perfect little student who fit into a nice little mold like they and the people at school wanted.
"Yeah well maybe I won't be rich and maybe I won't live in a huge house, but I'll be who I am, and nobody's got the right to tell me I don't matter because I'm not what they think is best. And I'm not gonna tolerate anyone who treats people as just some cheap little resource for their own little goals. Maybe I'm not much of a hero like those Riders guys are supposed to be, but those are the kinds of things they fought for, and so I guess that makes me one too. If your way is fate, then I'm fighting fate!" Tarock shouted.
Leone exploded out of the debris in a jump that took her twenty feet into the air and landed in front of Tarock. "You saw how badly I outmatch you when we joined minds, remember? This was a creature of great power even before it was amplified by the addition of my being to her body. Do you think you're a match for her?"
"You're not in my head anymore, and seemed to me the first Tarock beat one of you like that," Tarock replied and summoned her wand, Pyre Brand. "I'll try my luck."
Leone flexed her fingers and six inch-long claws sprouted from the tips. "Then try it." She charged Tarock, turning into a dark blur.
"Think I will," Tarock murmured. "Mag Step."
Immediately everything around them seemed to come to a standstill, even the flickering of the flames still burning among the destroyed houses. Karam and Vaga stood and stared like statues. But Leone came barreling at Tarock at a normal dash with claws glistening, ready to take her life.
"Calamity! Muspel Mace!" said the Fate Driver and the end of her wand erupted in flames. Tarock ducked under Leone's first slash, the lowest claw sending a stream of sparks flying off the back of her armor. Tarock hooked the flaming tip of her Pyre Brand around the back of Leone's leg and sweeping it out from under her. In the split-second before Leone recovered Tarock battered her chest plate with the Pyre Brand. It bounced off with a clang that seemed to echo again and again and again in the suspended time of their heightened speed.
Leone slashed at her again and Tarock immediately retreated, not daring to let herself take a hit like that in her lightly-armored form. Instead Tarock took off at her hardest run into the unsettling stillness around them.
To Karam and Vaga it had all lasted a single second and then the two dark blurs were speeding away down the street far too fast to think about catching up to them. Still Vaga revved the engine of his motorcycle and started to speed off to try. He'd only gone a few hundred feet when something jumped off a roof and kicked him off his bike. Landing in a heap, Vaga angrily jumped back up swinging his Warder like a club at whatever had attacked him. He connected with something and knocked them down, and as he looked he recognized the gaunt-faced man he'd fought once in a battle in the sewers. It was a new Spring-Heeled Jack.
As Vaga raised his weapon to finish off his enemy, two pairs of monstrous hands seized him from behind.
After a minute that seemed like an hour even inside the miasma of speed surrounding them the street opened into a square. Tarock dodged Leone as she threw herself at Tarock in a flying tackle, then as she passed Tarock let the speed fade. The soreness from maintaining Mag Step wasn't as bad as she'd remembered from before, but being in the middle of a war zone she had no intention of exhausting herself this soon.
Leone turned and flexed her muscles and then a glowing image of a lion's head shot from her body at Tarock. Tarock crouched launched herself high into the air and curled into a ball at the top of her jump to avoid the attack which hit a house behind her and exploded the entire structure sending pieces of stone and wood flying all over the square.
Before Leone could attack again Tarock landed in front of her and summoned her power again. "Calamity! Mag Punch!" said the Fate Driver and Tarock threw punches at Leone's chest plate that were so fast they were only blue blurs. Again and again her knuckles rang against Leone's armor, until with an enraged shriek Leone launched a blazing kick at Tarock who retreated out of range at the last second. The possessed Arcanum followed after Tarock seeming to fill the very air with swipes of her gleaming claws. Tarock dodged and weaved backwards over and over, then jumped high. "Dire Fate! Flames of Wrath!"
In midair Tarock spun and swung her wand, shooting a huge fireball from the tip at Leone who swatted it into nothing as it came close. Tarock spun again and shot another fireball, this one even bigger, and Leone's claws pushed back against the fireball for a few seconds before it burst. Tarock spun a third, final time and launched a fireball the size of a car at her enemy, and Leone slashed at it with all her might but it exploded in front of her and threw her back.
But in another second Leone was back up, only slightly blackened by the explosion, and sneering at Tarock. "Do you see what I mean now, human?" she laughed. "It doesn't matter if it's inside your mind or not, I am entropy! All succumb to me."
Tarock said nothing. She didn't dare hint she was working toward something and not just trying to defeat Leone through force. All of a sudden three flying Mythos dove at Tarock out of the sky but before they could attack another shape jumped off a rooftop and cleaved two of them in half before Tarock could blink. The third tried to ascend but the intruder chopped it to pieces with a vicious X-cut. Then they landed near Tarock, and she instinctively lifted her wand to defend herself before she recognized the visorless winged helmet and the gleaming shortsword in each hand owned by Thena, the envoy of the Empress.
"She's an Arcanum. Was the Empress right about you after all?" Thena said to Tarock, strangely calmly for the second-in-command of the Arcanum who wanted her dead the most.
"Not anymore," Tarock replied and clutched the haft of her Pyre Brand. "Now she's one of them. And she's gonna make us dead if we don't stop her."
In the pit of her stomach Tarock felt a stab of guilt. Primeval had cured her from being turned into a monster, didn't that mean it was possible for other people? But with how Leone was as dangerous as any monster she'd fought, was that a chance she dared take? And one the queen of the Mythos hive would let her take?
Then Leone pounced the two of them like a cat, and the battle was on.
Vaga felt himself smash through a wall then he came to a bumping stop on a pile of smashed rocks. He scrambled to his feet and changed his weapon to the Vaga Lancer as he did. The Mythos who'd thrown him, another one of those damned blue-furred wolfmen and a blue-skinned ogre in a tiger-pattern loincloth, were running at him to finish him off, but he was ready for them.
"Heart Seeker!" he yelled and charged his spear with power before he stabbed it through the chest of the ogre. It was already dissolving when Vaga yanked the spear free and stabbed it through the wolfman's chest. The last Mythos, Spring-Heeled Jack, looked at him for a second, but then suddenly produced a glowing yellow crystal, clutched it in his fist and a blinding flash followed.
As soon as the light hinted his eyes Vaga felt a powerful kick connected with his chest and knock him down again. Angrily Vaga jumped back up and turned around looking for the Mythos, clenching his weapon when he spotted them.
At least he thought so, but the gaunt figure of Spring-Heeled Jack was encased in black armor lined with yellow. Jagged yellow spikes stuck up from his elbows, shoulders, knees and formed an imposing crest at the forehead of his blank mask. Not even lenses for eyes stuck out against the black metal. Engraved on his chest plate was a yellow circle, which Vaga guessed was meant to represent the looped rope in his hands.
It was the strangest thought, but Vaga paused for a second, trying to remember where he'd seen a rope like that. That dark, worn and spotted rope, which somehow seemed impossibly whole and strong at the same time.
Then the image of an almost skeletal man hanging from a tree by that rope formed in his mind and his blood ran cold.
The Inverted Sage. That had been his rope. And they'd killed him. Taken what made him an immortal and were using it to empower one of their monsters.
And they'd been able to do it because Vaga had led the Mythos right to him. Just like he'd led them straight to Primeval, an entire world that was dead now. Was there some fragment of the powers that had sustained that the Mythos had taken that was helping them destroy this city? How much of this chaos was his responsibility?
He had to go and help Liss…but he couldn't ignore this, either.
"Vaga Bowgun!" His weapon morphed into its crossbow shape and immediately he fired at the armored Mythos, but his breath stuck in his throat when with lightning speed the monster flung his rope, caught the arrow in the loop and whirled it around to throw it at Vaga's feet. The blast hurled him into the air but Vaga managed to land in a crouch. The monster dashed forward and threw a kick at his head but Vaga rolled out of the way and fired his weapon at the monster's back. The arrow struck right between the shoulders but the monster rolled with the impact even in midair, and turned and threw out his lasso again and cinching the loop around Vaga's neck.
Immediately the monster yanked it tight and pulled Vaga onto his back. He planted his boot on Vaga's shoulder and then yanked it even tighter and Vaga's vision started to blacken around the edges. Vaga grabbed his enemy's leg and tried to throw him off but the monster just pulled the noose even tighter. The strength was fading from his body when a single word rang out: "STOP."
It was loud but cold, like the voice of death itself. But its speaker looked like nothing of the sort; it was a girl Vaga's age, in a simple red and black dress, with blazing orange hair. She looked at the scene of battle dispassionately, but her eyes were focused on the monster strangling Vaga.
Karam's jaw hung open and he stared at the girl, seeming as if he'd seen a ghost. Then his mouth opened and closed several times as if trying to find the words he needed. But he didn't get the chance before the girl spoke again.
"Dark Embrace," she said, nearly whispering as she crossed her hands over her chest. Black smoke seemed to flow from her palms and engulf her. In seconds it had solidified into a black cloak and a long silvery blade mounted on the back of her right arm. Then she literally flew across the distance between her and the Mythos, the tip of her blade easily stabbing right through his armor.
Leone's lion's-head blast screamed by between Thena and Tarock, with both of them rushing her before she had a chance to evade them. Thena struck with a cross-cut across Leone's front and then dodged to the right and slashed again sending up sparks from Leone's armor. Leone raised a claw high but in the next instant Thena had already darted to the side and attacked her unprotected side again, moving with a speed to rival Leone's own.
Inwardly Tarock sighed in annoyance at Thena getting in the way of her plan to wear down Leone's defenses. Carrying it out now meant using Mag Step again and she was trying to pace herself, but perhaps there was nothing for it.
"Mag Step," Tarock said and immediately the world slowed around her again and she blazed forward and smashed the fiery head of the Pyre Brand once, twice, three times when a slash from Leone knocked the wand out of her hand and spinning across the ground out of reach. She swatted Thena aside with a backhanded slap and then screamed as she slashed with both clawed hands at Tarock's head. Tarock grabbed her by the wrists and pushed back on Leone's wrists to keep those claws from slicing through her thin armor.
"Struggle! Struggle!" the voice of the white lady screamed from Leone's lips. "It's all you finite beings do! All to convince yourselves your existence matters!"
Tarock suddenly headbutted her, shutting her up. She was sure Leone was only off-balance for a second, not stunned thanks to that heavy helmet, but that second was all Tarock needed to launch her next attack.
"Dire Fate! Firestorm Kick!" announced the Fate Driver. Tarock slammed her foot into Leone's chest plate, her boot moving so fast flames surrounded the sole as her foot connected. She kicked again, even faster and harder and an even bigger halo of flames surrounding her foot as her kick made contact. Faster and faster the kicks came and farther and farther the flames spread with each impact. After one last kick there was a horrible cracking sound and a burst of fire twelve feet high sent Leone flying backward, her chest plate shattered from Tarock's furious kicks.
Letting her speed linger for just another second Tarock tackled Leone and slammed her fist through the whole she'd made in Leone's armor. Then she grabbed Leone's throat in both hands and demanded, "Where's Lost?"
The answer was a snide laugh. "You think hurting this body hurts me, human?!" the White Lady asked. "I could speak to you through anything that contains my essence while I'm a world away! I can command hundreds of my children at once!"
"But can you just replace an Arcana monster?!" Tarock yelled and slammed her fist into Leone's midriff with all her might and pressed the armored knuckles down hard. She was attacking someone who'd done her no wrong, but if Lost was captured it could be the end of the world. Both worlds. Tarock grabbed Leone by the neck again. "Where is she?!"
"You really think this one's worth more to me than she is?" Her claws raked both of Tarock's sides and sparks went flying. Tarock held on for all she was worth but Leone's armor started to glow and another massive blast of energy in the shape of a roaring lion's face shot from her body and caught Tarock full in the chest. She turned end over end in the air while Leone got to her feet and bounded away like a cat.
Tarock rolled over and started getting to her feet to chase her down. As soon as her hands touched the ground to push herself up, though, the ground under her suddenly split and thick white tentacles seized her wrists. Everything rumbled and a few houses collapsed as the crack in the ground was opened wider by whatever was below, and after a minute the struggling Tarock was dragged down into the darkness.
Next time on Kamen Rider Tarock, Re-Dealt…
Liss: You'll never beat me.
(Tarock faces an amorphous tentacled Mythos as Changelings burst from pods in the walls around it)
White Lady: Why do I have to beat you when you'll just become part of me?
(The Empress lies alone, clutching her wounds)
Empress: Is this the end?
(Three Mythos merge into a giant manticore, with Tarock, Vaga, Ven, Donis and a black-cloaked Rider face it down in the street)
Narrator: Your fate is in your hands.