Kamen Rider Zi-O, Dimensional Descent

"You're almost dead and you still have the strength to speak? You right-hand men of God are really just trying to save face at all costs."

He turned around and looked at the two people behind him.

Both the water behind and the wind in front were hampered by the previous battle. The water behind was alright, but the wind in front…

One blow was enough to cause her to lose consciousness completely in the early stages. Not only were her body badly injured, but her brain nerves were also severely compressed.

"But I should also praise you. You truly deserve to be a member of the Right Seat of God. The magic spell you put together with all your might finally blocked that guy's attack... Although it was just an ordinary slash, it's good that you survived."

"Why are you... here? Someone from the darkest corner of the Roman Catholic Church shouldn't be moving at all unless something's wrong..."

"It was something slightly amusing that caught my attention."

Compared to the serious attitude of the Water behind and the Wind in front, the Fire on the Right now looks like a tourist, relaxed and at ease.

"How could such a powerful force emerge from a mere, weak academy city, and from someone we've never seen before, someone who belongs neither to science nor magic... Don't you find that amazing?"

"The chairman of Academy City is intentionally concealing this matter..."

"Whether it's hidden or not doesn't matter to me. Anyway, it's good that I know about his existence now. No, I should say their existence."

It wasn't just Yan Ming who caught the attention of the Right Fire faction; there was also that young man named Meikoin Gates.

Both of them possessed immense power; in Right Fire's view, they could even defeat an angel on their own.

"I'm afraid they can be compared to me. It's not an exaggeration that you were defeated by those two. It's not that you're too weak, it's just that the enemy's dimension is not on the same level as yours."

"So... what should we do next?"

"Even if you want to invade Academy City, it will be a futile effort."

The Right Flame does not intend to fight the current Academy City head-on, nor does it intend to fight against Shichirin Yanming or Meikoin Geiz.

"I still have things to take care of in secret. What you two do afterward is up to you, but I have a suggestion for you: it's best not to provoke those two guys again, otherwise... no one will come to save you then."

Yan Ming and Gates are undoubtedly stronger than the Wind in Front and the Water behind, so no matter what they plan to do to Academy City, they will not be able to get past them.

"What I'm going to do next is go to England to find something I need. After that, you can do whatever you want, it's none of my business."

"Do you think the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church would allow you to act on your own?"

"The Pope? Since when did it become the Pope's place to speak to me?"

The fire on the right walked backward indifferently.

"Listen up, if I want to, I can just slap you and the history of Christianity will end forever with that one slap. Pope, two billion believers, all your combined efforts will be far less effective than the output of my one slap!"

"..."

"So don't even think about using the Pope to pressure me. No one can stop me from doing what I'm about to do. It's that simple."

As soon as he finished speaking, the figure of the fire on the right completely disappeared from the spot.

The water behind and the wind in front stared at each other as they struggled to their feet.

After glancing at the number of mages piled up like a small mountain, the water behind could only sigh.

"...Let's retreat."

------------------

The Roman Catholic Church's invasion of Academy City ultimately ended in failure.

Even though the two billion believers inside were all clamoring to teach Academy City a lesson, the Pope ultimately suppressed the riots and ordered them to stop discussing anything related to the matter.

On the one hand, the world has become more turbulent as a result.

"You guys must have seen the news."

The three of them were having breakfast in the room, discussing the news that had just aired.

"There seems to be some unrest in Avignon, France, apparently caused by members of the Roman Catholic Church. Although the unrest was brought under control shortly afterward, it seems to have left a bad impression of Academy City on the whole world."

For a period of time afterward, Academy City maintained a relatively stable lifestyle and no riots occurred, but people from the outside world still held a great deal of prejudice against Academy City.

They simply believe that the people of this city are abusing science and technology they shouldn't have, causing damage to the world's environment, and that Academy City is a cult, a city group that poses a threat to the world.

Such comments continued to spread, and various countries began to view Academy City in an increasingly negative light.

Yan Ming and the others, sitting in the room, were discussing things like this.

"If you ask me, isn't this actually a very normal phenomenon?"

Gates, on the contrary, didn't seem to care much about it.

"You know, in the future where we live, our resistance also encountered many similar voices and words, calling us a cult, calling us the seeds of trouble in the world. They once regarded Oma Zi-O as a benevolent protector of the world, and used this to portray us as wicked bastards who did all sorts of evil..."

"You don't seem to quite understand the current situation, Mr. Gates."

"What did you say? What did I say wrong?"

Wozniacki's words immediately displeased Gates.

Yan Ming then continued speaking, picking up where Woz left off.

"He's not saying there's anything wrong with what you're saying, but rather that what you're saying doesn't fit with the current state of the world."

"Then what...does that mean?"

"What I mean is that your future resistance and Academy City are two completely different situations."

"What's the difference...?"

"The resistance is weak and isolated. Even with the support of powerful technological combat capabilities from some future timelines, it is still just a very small group. Even if it is targeted by major powers, it will not cause any major trouble... But Academy City is completely different."

At this point, Gates seemed to have understood the meaning behind Yan Ming's words.

"You mean Academy City is like the military power of those major countries in this world... and this city, which is equivalent to a country, is now facing rejection and opposition from almost the entire world?"

"You finally understand what my Demon King means, you brainless idiot."

Although Wozniacki mocked Gates as usual, Gates was not in the mood to pay attention to his jokes.

Imagine if a country had a major conflict with other countries in the world, what would be the most likely things to happen next?

"...a world-class war."

Given Academy City's technological level, it's highly likely that something of that magnitude will happen.

"Those countries that initially rejected Academy City are likely to file for war against it, which would then drag Academy City's allies into the conflict. Considering Academy City's powerful military capabilities, far surpassing those of the outside world..."

That's not as simple as ordinary conflict or war.

It could very well trigger World War III... even more terrifying than any future time-travel war that humanity could have imagined.

Let's think about it for a moment.

What would happen to human civilization if we threw those incredibly powerful espers from Academy City, or even more terrifying weapons that surpass antimatter weapons, onto the battlefield?

Even worse... will this Earth still exist by then?

This is a planetary war of life and death; petty squabbles between nations are nothing but child's play and not worth mentioning.

Gates finally realized the most serious situation.

"Then... what should we do?"

"That depends on what my Demon King thinks."

Woz will always be Woz, and his stance will never change.

"No matter which world it is, no matter who fights whom, no matter what the reason, I will only obey the decisions of my Demon King."

"But this is a world war! Many people might die, and the entire Earth could be destroyed! Aren't you going to try to stop it?"

“There are different methods to stop it, Gates. Do you really think this is just a simple case of Academy City fighting against other countries?”

Although that's what Yan Ming said, Gates still found it a bit hard to understand.

"Forget it... don't bother explaining anything too complicated to me. Just tell me, who should we fight?"

"To be precise, it's not about who should be attacked, Mr. Gates."

Even if Yan Ming doesn't say anything, Woz can still tell what Yan Ming is thinking.

So he spoke for Yan Ming.

"If war were to break out, our first consideration would not be who to attack, but who to protect first."

"Whether they are people from Academy City or people from other countries, there will always be people who live peacefully in their own cities. They should not be dragged into the flames of war. Since we have this power, we must protect them."

"This is probably what my Demon King is thinking...?"

Even with the ability to manipulate time, there are still some things that cannot be avoided.

No matter how much time is reversed or the future is created, this so-called Third World War is still unstoppable and inevitable.

In that case, they must first determine who the people they need to protect are... and then find out who they really need to defeat.

Suddenly, the atmosphere in the room seemed to become subtly oppressive.

"That was quite a heavy topic to discuss..."

"I have a feeling that after this incident, it will probably be time for us to leave this world."

Wozniak and Gates said this together, while Yan Ming thought for a moment and stood up.

"You can't understand something just by thinking about it."

"Then what can we do?"

"Time will tell us when we need to do something."

then--

The person who was watching Yan Ming and the others' discussion from the shadows immediately revealed a wonderful smile.

"...You act according to your desires, and that is your law."

The platinum-gold light and shadow floated in the void, and made an evaluation of it.

"Then let me see what you people from another world do in this situation."

Volume 5 of A Certain Magical Index: Chapter 209 Deciphering the True Form of a Demon?

"But—before we talk about these things, I think we need to talk about something else first, right?"

This is what Gates said after that long discussion.

Yan Ming and Woz looked at each other, then turned to look at him.

"What do you mean by 'another thing'?"

"Have you two forgotten about some more important people in this world?"

Reminded by Gates, Yan Mingwoz immediately realized that he should consider far more than just the contents of this world.

…and many other visitors from other worlds, just like them.

"My Demon King, Swartz, and the demon who follows him."

"Well, I know."

These are the people they should really be concerned about; they are true heretics who don't belong to this world.

"We don't need to include Hai Dong Daiki, anyway, that guy wouldn't do anything bad, and we haven't seen him for a while."

"Given that guy's personality, he should have run away long ago."

As for the Great Tree of the East, it's dispensable; the truly important people are the Time Jackers, led by Swartz.

And... that demon whose true form is unknown.

"The demons and the Time Jackers have joined forces; there's no need to confirm that anymore."

As Woz recounted the previous intelligence, he raised his new questions.

"The real question is, what exactly are they trying to do in this world? What are they planning to do next? Why haven't they taken any action yet?"

It has been at least half a month since we last saw Swartz and the others.

There has been no trace of these time robbers and demons for so long. Could it be that they have been beaten into submission and are now too afraid to do evil?

"What's there to be afraid of?"

But this time Gates wasn't afraid at all.

"They're just a bunch of Time Jackers. With our current strength, even if they release hordes of Alien Knights, so what? They're still no match for us!"