As a weirdo, I like being a Kamen Rider

The two formed a pincer attack from the left and right. Gaim slashed at Daimonmaru at close range, while Baron used his spear to thrust and restrain him, their coordination flawless. However, Shinku's combat power far exceeded that of ordinary aliens; her body was as hard as iron, and the blades and spears that struck her only produced sparks, causing no real damage whatsoever.

In just a few exchanges, Shinku seized an opening in Gaim's attack and slammed a punch into Gaim's chest armor. The terrifying force sent Gaim flying backward, crashing heavily into an abandoned car, instantly denting the vehicle and blaring its alarm.

"Kudzu leaves!"

Baron immediately rushed forward to cover, but his spear swept across, only to be caught by Crimson with one hand. With a slight effort, Crimson swung Baron up and flung him away. The yellow armor crashed through a shop window and half of its body was buried in rubble.

Before the two could catch their breath, Shinku had already walked up to Gaim, raised her foot and stepped on Gaim's chest, applying continuous pressure. The chest armor made a cracking sound as it could no longer bear the weight, and finally the armor collapsed. Kouta deactivated his transformation, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth, and collapsed to the ground, unable to resist.

Shinku raised her right hand, crimson energy gathering in her palm, aiming at Kouta on the ground, ready to deliver the fatal blow.

Just as the energy blast was about to be launched, Baron stumbled out of the rubble and used his body to shield Kota.

boom!

The energy blast struck Baron's back armor squarely, instantly shattering the yellow armor into fragments. Kaito groaned and collapsed forward, deactivating his transformation and crashing heavily next to Kouta.

Both men were rendered unable to fight and lay wounded in the ruins.

Crimson looked down at them as if they were two ants, and the crimson light of destruction once again gathered in her palm.

......

Deep within the Helheim Forest, the humus made a sticky sound on the soles of boots.

Wu Dao Guihu suddenly stopped in his tracks as the communicator under the Zangetsu True Armor emitted a piercing alarm. He raised his hand to answer it, and the scene coming from Zeya City made his emerald compound eyes shrink abruptly—thick smoke billowed from the city center, Crimson was wreaking havoc, and citizens screamed and fled in all directions.

"Director, what's wrong?" Minato Yoko noticed something was amiss.

"The overlord has invaded the city." Guihu's voice was as cold as ice. He turned and sped towards the crack. "Go back."

"Wait!" Sid stepped in front of him, his sonic bow held horizontally. "The Forbidden Fruit is right in front of you! You're going back now? Are you kidding me! The lives of those civilians are nothing compared to the fruit!"

Wu Daogui paused slightly.

He gave Sid and his men a deep look, never expecting that these men would disregard the lives of civilians in their pursuit of eliminating him. Although the previous Ark Project had aimed to reduce the world's population to a billion in a short period, for which he was willing to bear all the sins, now a better solution existed. He wanted to try an ending where everyone could survive.

He then raised his hand and gripped the bow of the sonic bow. The dark green energy armor unleashed astonishing power, throwing Sid aside and slamming him heavily into a twisted tree trunk.

"boom!"

"My duty is to protect humanity." Wu Daogui didn't even turn his head, his emerald green figure transforming into a streak of light as he rushed towards the edge of the forest. "I'm not here to play a treasure hunt with you." Seeing this, Lin Chen also jumped a few times to follow.

Sid got up from the ground, brushed the rotten dirt off his body, stared at the departing figure, and a sinister glint flashed in his eyes.

"...a troublesome old-fashioned person."

Just then, Minato Yoko silently walked to his side, but her gaze was not on the direction where Gojima Takato disappeared. Instead, it was fixed on Lin Chen, who followed closely behind and disappeared into the woods in a few leaps.

“Right now, Guihu might not be important anymore,” she said softly. “The man next to him… did you see him?”

Sid frowned, following her gaze, only catching a fleeting glimpse of Lin Chen. He had no driver, no lock-seed. Yet, with a single leap, he traversed dozens of meters, landing with barely a splash of humus. His speed was inhuman, more like… some kind of monster in human skin.

“He looked like an ordinary person,” Minato Yoko said gravely, “but the way he left, the explosive power and speed he displayed…”

The flippant smile on Sid's face vanished completely. He looked down at the cherry energy lock seed in his hand, then looked up at the edge of the forest, his Adam's apple bobbing.

"...Like DJ Sagara, whose information can't be found, yet he can achieve this level of skill with his own body." Sid's voice deepened, and a rare seriousness appeared in his eyes. "What exactly is that guy?"

“Whatever it is,” Minato Yoko turned around, looking expressionlessly into the depths of the Helheim Forest, “it has exceeded our expectations. The plan has to change. Before dealing with Takatora, we must first find out about that man. Otherwise, we won’t even know how we died.”

A low hiss came from the depths of the forest, as if echoing the two's unease.

......

Despite the excruciating pain, Kota managed to lift his head and asked in a hoarse voice, "Why... did you have to go this far? We have no grudge against you, why did you have to destroy the city and kill innocent people?"

Crimson let out a low, sneer, his tone filled with savage pleasure: "No enmity? No, you possess the prosperity that our Fimsim race has long lost. That alone is an unforgivable sin." He crushed the cement fragments at his feet and continued, "Moreover, I did not destroy it out of hatred."

"What was that for?" Kouta clenched his fist.

"Because I'm happy." Shinku's answer was casual, yet it carried a chilling coldness. "Crushing the weak and crushing the defeated is the inherent right of the victor, and proof of strength itself. Is there anything more interesting than watching you insignificant lives struggle desperately in the face of power?"

These words struck Kouta's heart like a heavy hammer.

Before this, he had always clung to a sliver of hope that the overlords from other realms might be able to communicate, and that the two races might be able to find a way to coexist and jointly resist the encroachment of the forest. But Zhenhong's words shattered his naivety completely. To these high-level overlords, humans were never equals in negotiations, but merely weaklings to be trampled on and amused by them. The survival logic of the two races was fundamentally incompatible.

Kaito, standing beside her, also pushed himself up from the ground. He stared at Shinku, not with anger, but as if he saw some kind of truth about the world in her. In those eyes that always burned with a competitive flame, something cold and hard had settled.

"Do you see that, Kuzuha? This is the truth of the world! The strong trample the weak, and only by seizing the ultimate fruit will we have the right to rule the entire world!"

Kouta turned to look at Kaito, then back at Shinku who was laughing wildly. All his past hesitations, soft hearts, and compromises vanished in that moment.

He finally understood that when facing an enemy who believed in the law of the jungle, there was no point in simply giving in and communicating. Only with enough strength could he protect everything he wanted to protect.

"I was wrong..." Kouta muttered to himself, then used all his strength to stand up. His body was still trembling, his wounds were still bleeding, but his eyes were unusually firm, as if something was burning intensely deep in his pupils.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out the vermilion lock—the Victory Lock.

"Lock On!"

"Kachidoki!"

After the crisp click of the lock-type embedded driver, a rousing battle cry resounded across the battlefield.

Crimson heavy armor covered Kouta's entire body like a battle formation, with a banner unfurled behind him, and a matchlock gun and a Musou sword positioned on either side. Kamen Rider Gaim: Kachiko Armor, here he appears.

The moment his form upgraded, Gaim unleashed a powerful aura, and visible crimson energy ripples swept outwards from him, scattering all the surrounding rubble and dust. For the first time, the mockery on Crimson's face vanished, replaced by a solemn expression.

Before the other party could react, Gaim raised his hand, drew his matchlock gun from his waist, and pulled the trigger.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Several scorching energy blasts were aimed precisely at Shinku. Shinku hurriedly raised his hand to block, but the impact of the exploding energy blasts forced him to retreat repeatedly. Sparks flew from his crimson bone armor, and each step carved deep furrows into the asphalt road.

"How is this possible... mere humans..."

Gaim gave his opponent no chance to breathe, taking a step forward and shooting out like an arrow. With his left hand wielding the Musou Saber and his right hand gripping the Ootengu, he unleashed a flurry of powerful strikes. The power and speed of his Kachikame form far surpassed that of his base Ootengu form; each slash of the blade carried immense force, whistling through the air.

Shinku could only parry the attacks, her body constantly being struck by countless sparks.

"Damn it!" Crimson roared in shock and rage, unleashing a massive crimson energy shockwave in an attempt to create distance and counterattack. The violent torrent of energy swept through the street, shattering all the remaining glass shop windows on both sides.

But Gaim simply crossed his twin swords in front of him, enduring the attack head-on. His crimson armor remained unmoved, and his flag fluttered wildly in the energy storm, like an unyielding battle banner.

The situation has completely reversed.

The dominator who had just been overwhelming the two was now completely suppressed by Gaim and forced to retreat step by step. The two swords intertwined to form an impenetrable net of blades, and each strike left new wounds on Shinku's body. In the end, Shinku was forced to the front of a collapsing wall, with nowhere left to retreat.

Gaim raised his arquebus, inserted the Great Orange Ball into the muzzle, and combined them into the Great Orange Arquebus. A surge of immense energy gathered and compressed wildly at the muzzle, its dazzling light illuminating half of the ruins and even turning the dark clouds in the sky crimson.

For the first time, fear appeared in Shinku's eyes; he knew he couldn't withstand this attack.

"it's over!"

Just as the cannon was about to fire, several laser beams suddenly shot from the side, hitting the armored man's shoulder armor precisely and interrupting the charging of his ultimate attack!

"what?!"

Kota swayed, the energy in the cannon muzzle disrupted by the sudden attack, and the violent recoil sent him staggering back several steps. Smoke rose from his crimson shoulder armor.

Chapter 274 Mitsujima Kureshima

Gaim whirled around and saw a large group of shadowy guards in Yggdrasil Corporation armor surging towards the end of the street. Their metal boots shattered the glass shards on the ground with a sickening crunch. At the very front of the black-clad group stood a deep purple figure.

Kamen Rider Ryugen, the Grape Dragon Cannon in his hand was emitting wisps of smoke, its muzzle pointed precisely at Gaim.

"Mitsuzane...?" Kouta's voice trembled with disbelief through the Katsuki armor. He deactivated the Arcane Cannon, and the crimson flag slowly fell behind him. "Why? Why did you do this? Is there some reason? Tell me!"

Long Xuan remained silent for a moment, then slowly put down the grape dragon cannon in his hand. A very soft sigh came from beneath the deep purple mask, which then turned into a cold sneer.

“You’re still too naive, Kota-nii.” Ryugen raised his head, his voice coming through the armor, carrying a cruelty that was almost compassionate. “Back in the Forest of Helheim, I wanted to finish you off like that. If that shot had been fired, you wouldn’t have had to face the truth of the world’s destruction, wouldn’t have had to bear these heavy choices, and could have rested in eternal sleep with your naivety… How wonderful that would have been.”

He paused, then gripped the gun handle tightly again, his knuckles turning white from the force.

"Unfortunately, Nii-san stopped me." Ryugen's voice suddenly turned cold, and the Grape Dragon Cannon was raised again, its black six-barreled muzzle reflecting a chilling light amidst the ruins. "But now, there is nothing in my way. So, please disappear, Kota Nii-san."

"Wait!" Kouta's heart skipped a beat, keenly catching something from the other person's words. "What do you mean? Is something wrong with Director Takatora?!"

However, Long Xuan did not reply.

"Take care of him."

Wu Daoguang's voice, cold and devoid of any emotion, echoed throughout the area via communicator. The shadowy guards immediately turned their guns around, the clicking sounds of their weapons charging filling the air.

As for why he's here, wasn't he already under house arrest by Wu Daoguihu?

This is all thanks to Sengoku Ryoma.

Just as Sid was leading Takatora and the others deep into the Helheim Forest, preparing to eliminate him, Ryoma, to prevent chaos in the World Tree due to Takatora's "disappearance," directly sent someone to bring out Mitsuzane, who was under house arrest, under the guise of "assisting" him, but in reality, to "replace" him.

For Lingma, controlling the stubborn yet naive young man, Wu Daoming, was far easier than controlling the steel-willed Wu Daoming.

"Fire."

Just as the shadowy guard was about to pull the trigger, a furious roar suddenly echoed from afar, rolling across the entire street like thunder—

"stop!!"

A vibrant green figure swept across the street from the end. Kamen Rider Zangetsu Shin landed with a thud. Kureshima Takato raised his head, his yellow-green compound eyes scanning the entire scene.

"director……!"

Upon seeing that figure, the shadowy guards who were already preparing to move froze in unison. Then, under Guihu's gaze, they involuntarily lowered their weapons. After all, Guihu was still the highest-ranking person in charge of the World Tree Foundation and the nominal supreme commander of this force. His orders were already ingrained in their very bones.

Guihu raised his hand and pressed down on his belt, causing the melon energy armor to dissipate into specks of light. He strode towards Longxuan, his eyes filled with heartache and anger as he looked at the deep purple figure leading the shadow soldiers and confronting him from afar.

"Mitsuzane!" Wu Daogui's voice was hoarse and low. "How did you get here? Didn't I already put you under house arrest?"

Long Xuan watched him silently, his deep purple armor gleaming coldly in the firelight. After a moment, he deactivated his transformation, the armor dissipating into countless specks of light, revealing Wu Dao Guang Shi's young yet gloomy face.

"I'm sorry, Nii-san." Mitsuzane turned his head slightly, not daring to look Takatora in the eye. "This time... I don't want to listen to you."

"Weren't you feeling deeply guilty for ordering the massacre of billions of people? Weren't you losing sleep every night because of the Ark Project? Well then... let me take your place. I'll bear all the dirty, dark, and unavoidable decisions. You just need to... continue being that clean, righteous savior of the world."

“Mitsuzane…” Wu Daogui closed his eyes briefly, his chest heaving violently. When he opened them again, only deep weariness and helplessness remained in his eyes. “Stop. Project Ark… has already stopped. Were you deceived by someone?”

"……what?"

Wu Daoguang suddenly raised his head, his pupils contracting sharply.

Project Ark...when did it stop? How come I didn't know?

The image of Sengoku Ryoma's face, always bearing a meaningful smile, flashed through her mind, along with his words to her: "Director Takato has decided to implement the final plan." "Mitsuzane, you need to stand up and stop him."

Could it be that... Sengoku Ryoma was lying to me?