Kamen Rider Zi-O, Dimensional Descent

Moreover, judging from their behavior, this was clearly a casual, half-hearted attack.

The opponent should be able to unleash even greater power than this. If that's the case, I should reassess the abilities of these two guys.

Or, if all Kamen Riders are this strong on average, then it would be a gross underestimation of these guys.

Let's leave here first, and then we can arrange the follow-up.

The demon raised its hands, unleashing tremendous power from within its body, which slowly neutralized the brilliance before it.

At the same time, the sun in the sky began to shine brightly.

At the same time, the pointer on Yan Ming's helmet rotated twice, allowing him to glimpse the near future.

"This guy is trying to escape."

"Dream on! We'll take care of it right here!"

"Rider Finish Time!"

"Finish Time! Reve!"

Gates and Yan Ming pressed the buttons on their waist dials and turned their belts, unleashing the power within their armor to its limit.

This time, it's a true killing blow.

From the front of the ultimate sword and the time-folding claw, purple and blue energy flows instantly expanded and extended directly to the very tip of the blade and the claw.

"Twice Time Break!"

"Hyakurei Time Burst!"

The power of the two knights merged together, creating an even greater energy explosion.

The combined, deadly strike pierced through the demon's chest from the front, completely penetrating its body.

The outcome is already clear.

"Success!"

Gates immediately burst into excited shouts, however—

Under Yan Ming's calm gaze, the pierced demon... slowly froze in mid-air.

Click—click click click click click—

After the black body was pierced, golden ripples instantly extended from the point of penetration, turning the entire body into a golden state.

After transforming into its golden shell, the demon retained its original form and fell to the ground.

Under their watchful eyes, it shattered into countless fragments in one breath.

"this…?"

Gates ran to the front of the debris in surprise.

He quickly picked up a few pieces of residue, only to find that the residue slowly dissolved under the sunlight, eventually leaving not even any liquid behind.

Is this... the end?

"Did we take care of that guy?"

"...It's not that simple."

When Yan Ming used his ability to predict the future to observe what was in front of him again, he saw nothing.

No… it should be said that in the more recent future, this area no longer has that demon.

That means they should have indeed killed the demon they were talking about, but...

Like Gates, Yan Ming looked at the slowly dissipating golden fragments on the ground.

No matter how you look at it, this doesn't seem like something that would be eliminated normally.

"My Demon King, how is the battle going on your side?"

"The situation is rather strange. I don't think we can take care of that guy so easily."

When facing Phoenix, even using the power of Zi-O II, it took a while to defeat him, let alone facing this brand new demon whose background is unclear.

It must have escaped using some unknown means.

"Speaking of which, we don't even know what this demon is called, and we're already fighting it."

"As for his identity, I can guess a little based on what just happened."

"You...you can guess the demon's identity?!"

Unlike Gates, who seemed somewhat surprised, Woz nodded as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

“My Demon King, I share the same thoughts as you.”

Then he began to explain.

"The demons we've encountered so far, those whose names are recorded, are Baal, Phoenix..."

"And what these two names have in common is that they both come from information about the Seventy-Two Demons."

The Seventy-Two Demons – also known as the Seventy-Two Pillar Demons.

"Many years ago, there was a book that recorded seventy-two terrifying demons with powerful abilities and backgrounds."

Wozniak then began explaining the contents of the book to Gates, the only one who was unfamiliar with the situation.

"It is widely believed that these demons came from the hands of King Solomon of ancient Israel. Legend has it that they made a pact with the king and then performed various tasks for him in exchange for Solomon's soul."

"But in reality, these kinds of things were just fabrications made up by various sorcerers in the Middle Ages to attract attention."

The person who continued his words was Yan Ming.

He has extensive knowledge and experience in both mysticism and demonology.

"However, based on the current situation, the existence of demons is real, so this fabricated conclusion has to be questioned."

"What do you think, my Demon King?"

"The names of the demons Baal and Phoenix are recorded, and their descriptions are the same as those in the books. I think this demon is probably based on one of the demons in the books."

It has six wings and the ability to manipulate light...

This gives the impression that, rather than being a demon, it's more like an angel.

"If we use this as a clue to explore, we should be able to find out the true identity of that demon."

Once the true identity of the other party is discovered, the means to deal with the demon will also be found.

However, now is not the time to discuss these issues.

"Gates, it's about time you snapped out of it."

"Huh...? You've already finished discussing it?"

Gates spoke as if in a daze, because the things the two were discussing—demons, mysticism, history, and the like—were too profound for him, so he hadn't been paying any attention to what they were saying.

After regaining their senses, Gates followed Yan Ming and Woz, and the three of them continued to walk deeper into the alley, to the place where Swartz and the others had just been.

…but there was no one there.

Those who remained were the armed soldiers who had been slaughtered.

"What a horrific scene..."

Even soldiers wearing some kind of super-technological armor were completely pierced through their bodies. The only one capable of doing this is undoubtedly the Another Rider.

This further confirms Yan Ming and the others' idea that the Build that was previously dealt with should still be alive.

"This is really bad. The Time Jackers and the demons have joined forces, and their Another Riders have also gained power boosts, and they're causing chaos everywhere in a place completely unrelated to the original Kamen Rider world..."

It seems that even the people sent by Aleister cannot stop them.

It's also possible that Aleister simply sent some people to test the waters. After all, it's such a large academy city, and Yan Ming believes there must be truly powerful individuals who can make a move.

However, we cannot place all our hopes on Academy City itself.

What they need to do is protect the innocent people living in this city, and to do that, they must deal with the Time Robbers and the demons as soon as possible... and let them handle it themselves.

If that's the case, then we have to...

"Ok?"

"what happened?"

Yan Ming suddenly turned his head, which surprised Gates, who also turned his head to look to the right.

—A person is standing at the end of the street.

The guy was a spiky-haired teenager carrying a bag of vegetables and eggs, staring blankly at the three of them standing in the alley.

…and the countless corpses all around.

"Uh... this shouldn't be something you did... you wouldn't... think of silencing me, right?"

His familiar old friend, Touma Kamijou, unfortunately witnessed this scene once again.

————————————————————

Then, Yan Ming revived all the dead soldiers.

This is not a difficult task; we can simply rewind their time. After the rewind, none of these people will remember when they died. They will all stand there blankly, not knowing how they got here.

After resolving these matters, Yan Ming and his group went to a restaurant to have dinner with Kamijou Touma, whom they happened to meet.

By the way.

This time, Touma Kamijou also brought along the white-clad nun who had been staying with him.

“I said.”

"Hmm? What's wrong?"

In a fast food restaurant, Touma Kamijou was biting into a hamburger while looking at Yan Ming.

Yan Ming... and even Gates and Woz, all three of them looked at what was behind him with eyes that seemed to have broadened their horizons.

"Do you usually let your nun go hungry...?"

Since entering the store, Index has already eaten... about sixty-eight burgers.

She sat alone at a table, where wrappers were piled up like a small mountain, and that didn't even include the drink cups and fries boxes; she had already eaten so much.

"This is way too much food! I've never seen anyone eat this much in one meal in my entire life!!"

"It's very rude of you to say it directly, Mr. Gates..."

Although Woz said that, he was also thinking the same thing in his mind.

And if she can eat this much in one meal, how much does Touma Kamijou usually spend on food?!

"Haha...sorry, sorry, you'll get used to it! Index doesn't actually eat that much..."

Touma Kamijou waved his hand and then quickly changed the subject.

"I understand what you just said. So... there's a new group of villains in Academy City right now, and they're very likely to do bad things to everyone in the city in the next few days?"

"That's about right, but you can leave everything to us and just continue with your normal life."

"That's true... but even if I wanted to continue, I definitely wouldn't be able to in the next few days."

Hearing Touma Kamijou say that, the three of them looked at him with some surprise.

"Because tomorrow marks the start of the annual Academy City Daihasei Festival."

"...Daihasei Festival?"

What is that thing?

"Simply put, it's a huge annual festival held in Academy City. Not only are people from all over Academy City active, but... many people from outside Academy City also come to visit the festival!"

People from outside Academy City...?

Yan Ming immediately grasped the key point, and Wozniak quickly realized the seriousness of the problem.

"Oh no..."

If the Time Jackers and demons are simply committing various atrocities within Academy City, that is already a very serious problem.

If, on top of that, a whole bunch of people from outside the city came in to visit…

How chaotic will things get by then?