Kamen Rider Alchemy

by Layton13

The Steanch of Decay - The Curse of the Raven

It had been roughly two weeks since Elysium’s defeat and subsequent death, and with him what was still left of Tartarus quickly crumbled away, several of the remaining members trying to ditch the sinking ship, searching work elsewhere, with their personal artifacts of course. Something Checkbook was very much opposed to. He couldn’t just let these valuable devices disappear into the criminal underworld after all. The Circle had spent the time since Tartarus collapse eliminating the cowards and retrieving their property, those who failed them did not deserve mercy after all, not that it was anything personal, it was just business. Those however who did give up their artifacts willingly or even attempted to jump ship to the Circle were welcomed with open arms, as long as they swore loyalty, combined with a way to eliminate them quickly if they should try something stupid. Some of them assigned to become enforcers while others were chosen to be more suited for… far more revolutionary purposes.

One of them had been Furie. The former leader of Tartarus had been put into the custody of the MRG, heavily guarded and monitored twenty-four-seven, but as if that would stop the Circle. It was easy for them to let the woman disappear from confinement, if she like what was awaiting her was however something else entirely, not that he really cared. They had outlived their usefulness, and now it was just time to cover their tracks. Still, this whole thing had taken a bit to execute, and now they stood there without any dumb muscle, well besides the few turncoats that had been assigned to them at least.

During the two weeks, he had only had a sparing eye on Canterlot City, a shame since the city had experienced a good amount of excitement, something he had sadly missed out on. Even if some data was still recovered, he would have loved to see it with his own eyes. Oh well, maybe one day a similar opportunity would provide itself again, if there was another world with Riders there surely were many more out there right? He could only hope.

But all that didn’t matter now, after the two weeks of absence he would finally meet with his business partners again, Shadow Gold and Platinum Shadow and he had that certain feeling that the meeting would be not so pleasant. With a silent sigh, he pushed open the doors to the old and dilapidated gym. He hated this place, it was just far to low class for him, and so below his level, it almost hurt, but he had to follow the wishes of Gold after all, as much as it made him uncomfortable.

Ruined old equipment lay around the room like having already been covered in a thick layer of dust and cobwebs, it was disgusting. With every step, he took the old wooden floor creaking beneath his feet. The fact that the only light in the room where some haphazardly placed lamps connected to a portable generator didn’t really help to make the hideout any more pleasant. And then there was the smell of old wood mixed in with leather that had already begun to fall apart and the remnants of sweet that had permeated this building for at least ten years, and you had a truly disgusting smell that just refused to leave your nose.

“And you couldn’t have chosen a better hideout than this old rundown place?” He muttered in annoyance as he approached the two men sitting in two folding chairs, Gold already awaiting him with an impatient look on his face, one that was even more unnerving thanks to the shadows the limited light shined upon him. Platinum, however, didn’t even bother to look in his direction, he looked like he could start sleeping any moment from now, disinterestedly playing with a coin he had pulled out of his pocket.

“It’s the perfect place, no one comes here, it’s in one of the most crime-ridden parts of the city, and it doesn’t draw any attention. It’s miles better than your suggestions after all. A hotel is far to easy to find than this,” he coldly replied, looking at him with a calculating look on his face.

“Oh, you wouldn’t believe how a bit of money can shut people up,” Checkbook returned, a smug smile on his lips.

Gold, however, was not impressed and just coldly stated: “And it only needs one misguided ‘hero’ to screw everything up. No thank you. I’ll take the inconvenience instead of a botched plan.” Checkbook couldn’t other than to shake his head and simply accept it that he had to listen to his demands.

“Fine, it’s not like it matters anyway. So, since I’m back again, I can again provide my invaluable support, be it monetary or otherwise. There are a few rather interesting test subjects that we could let loose on the Riders or how about we use the remnants of Tartarus and set them loose on them? I’m sure they are up for a bit revenge,” he trailed off, a devilish smirk covering his lips.

“None of that. I need something that hurts them personally, something to show them that they are not save from me and I need it fast. Otherwise, they will get the wrong impression.” While he spoke Platinum just shook his head, at least a little bit. Not enough that anyone could really notice it without a good amount of attention, but it was there. Gold, however, was to focused on Checkbook to take note of that. “So, any ideas in that direction?”

“Well, we could just go after their loved ones again, that could work?” He returned, still a bit apprehensive about Gold’s methods. It would just be so much easier if they would just go after them and kill them one by one.

“No, not yet. I need to show them that they are powerless against me, then I can truly start the torture, especially after they have grown so much stronger in recent times,” he muttered, staring at the purple crystal he still wore around the neck. “Oh, I might have an idea,” a vicious smile spread over his entire face, reminiscent of a crazy ax murderer. Checkbook almost took a step back as he saw the expression on Gold’s face, there was just something unnerving about it. Even Platinum stopped playing with his coin as he noticed the silence that had settled over the room, curiously eyeing his ancestor before him. “I would like to ask you if there was a way to get our hands onto an artifact with a specific power?” His voice was cold silent, almost like the venom of a snake.

“Well, depends on the power in question. I’m sure I can arrange something if it’s not too out of the ordinary,” he returned, rather hesitantly. He never really trusted the man, but this, this just raised all of his warning flags.

“Excellent,” Gold returned with a satisfied smile. “So, what are you waiting for?” He added, Checkbook shaking his head in confusion before understanding what he meant. Picking up his suitcase he nodded and rushed out of the room after hearing the instructions form his business partner. This would be an interesting experiment, no doubt about it.

>-------<A>-------<

Six A.M.! Six A.M.! He still couldn’t believe it, who woke up at a time like this? Complete maniacs and one of them apparently happened to be his girlfriend, a sentence he probably should never utter in her presence, at least if he liked his teeth that was. The unbearable noise was currently rining through the entire room, so loud that it felt like his ears would fall off any moment from now. Stirring in the soft and comfortable bed, he covered his head with the pillow he had been laying his head on before the sound finally subsided.

Just about to relax again he felt the sudden freshness around his body, moments later he realized what had happened, someone had snatched his blanket. And not even five seconds later he felt the pillow lifted from his head and brought back down onto his stomach. In an instant he jumped out of bed, assuming a fighting position, even if he almost fell over again, the tiredness still deep in his bones. He actually looked like he had fallen asleep standing, his face having a dazed and limp expression on it.

“Wow, and I thought if you sleep here from time to time you would start to wake up sooner, but it seems I was wrong. Seriously, it’s six, that is not too early after all,” a voice mocked him jokingly, a voice that he knew too well was connected to the worst devil he could think of right now, Ocean.

“Waking up at six A.M. is barbaric!” Phoenix complaint, his tired eyes half staring at his girlfriend and half already closed again. “How can you do that?” He started to complain, the bed behind her currently even more enticing than Ocean in her nightclothes that consisted of a tank top and panties.

“You are the worst, you know that,” she sighed before, unbeknownst to Phoenix a devilish smirk crossed her face. “Fine, you can sleep as long as you want,” she returned, in a far to upbeat and pleased voice.

Phoenix was overjoyed, this was too good to be true, this had to be a dream. But if it was one then he surely didn’t want to wake up, so he just accepted it, letting his heavy body slump back down onto the bed, his conciseness already drifting off again the moment he felt the soft, warm mattress under him.

“That would, however, mean that I would eat all the pancakes myself and wouldn’t leave anything for you,” he could imagine her sly grin by the tone of her voice alone. She had him, and she knew it all too well. A few more seconds desperately wanting his mind to wind through in the ned, a loud growl of his stomach was the end of this argument. Damn you body, why couldn’t you just listen once? That were the thoughts that circled his mind as he slowly dragged himself up from the bed again and towards his clothes that Ocean had already laid out for him the day before, otherwise this would have taken far, far longer.

“You know you are the worst kind of person, right?” He weakly growled at her, his tired eyes almost managing to shoot a glare towards here, almost, it, however, ended in a rather amusing look that got a chuckle out of Ocean. “Extorting someone with food, that is one of the lowest lows you could sink to, you know that?”

“Oh, I know, it’s the first thing they teach you in the academy, food is one of your best bargaining chips,” she had to really try to hide the chuckle and grin as she went on. “Ah, works ever time, you would think that you would catch onto it after a while, but apparently not,” she continued, putting on her own clothes, that being one of the only times she dared to put down her belt buckle.

Within three minutes she had managed to properly dressed and put on the buckle again, all while Phoenix was still struggling with his trousers, she shook her head with a little smirk and slowly left the room. At this point, not even Phoenix would dare to start sleeping again, at least if he wouldn’t stumble over and knock himself out. She calmly stepped through her apartment, looking over the living room with a feeling of rest and calmness, one that was rather rare in the last few weeks, with everything turning from bad to worse. Well, that was for all but one thing, the events from a few days ago and with it the new Riders she had meat. But as pleasant as these memories were she other things to think about, things that extend beyond pancakes sadly.

With a resigned sigh, she started to open the fridge, looking over the pitiful remains of her reserves, with a frown she pulled just enough for the penances, with added flavor of course. She already dreamed the shopping trip she had to take later today, ever since the Riders had been shown to the world on live tv their lives had shifted drastically. Until then her identity had more or less been an open secret, but since she never was that much of an audience magnet the people hadn’t really started digging deep enough to bring it into the public eye. But with Phoenix revealed and her identity not burrowed under countless other crap on a government website meant things had gotten more intense.

Where ever they went they were immediately recognized, and it didn’t take long till a mob would build around them, asking questions and for authograms. It had gotten somewhat better after week three, now only about ten people would swarm them every time they went out. Apparently, the hype around them had died down, somewhat at least. Still, they had started to develop some systems how they could even decrease that, going out wearing rather covering clothing helped a lot and the idea of letting Phoenix sleep here for a while had at least gotten the paparazzi away from Thunder, something he had been extremely relieved about.

While she had been thinking about all of that she had set up all the ingredients and started to open the first of the eggs. At that moment she heard the door to the bedroom open once again, as she looked over her shoulder she could see the tired and exhausted face of Phoenix slowly dragging himself into the room. She had to admit, even if he looked like one of the living dead, he had looked far, far worse already, so this was already an improvement. With a playful shove she put down the finished creation, a marmalade-cheese-pancake, starting off the day with one of her less strange creation, not that Phoenix complained much, the food quickly disappearing inside his mouth.

“And?” While placing her own plate down next to him she asked, an expecting, but already knowing look lingered on him. “Taste good?” She did not receive a good answer or at least an understandable one, just mumbled words that she could barely string together to a logical sentence. ‘Tastes really good,’ or something in that way, at least that was what she thought it meant. It didn’t ask him that long to devour the whole pancake and quickly let the hot chocolate she had made on the side run down his thought.

“Ah, seriously, how do you do that? Everyone else would never come up with stuff like this. They would probably run away the moment they would hear your recipes, so how does this taste so good?” He asked back, eyeing Oceans own breakfast secretly.

“Well, you just have to be willing to improvise and have the guts to actually try something seemingly insane. After a while, you start to figure out what works and what doesn’t, but to get there, its gonna take a good amount of trying and failing. The amount of horrible stuff I have already eaten is really nothing to admire really,” she chuckled before a small little shake went through her body and her faces morphed into one of utter disgust for a short moment.

“So bad?” Phoenix raised one of his eyebrows, casually spinning his cup, the remaining hot chocolate spinning inside of it.

“Worse, so much worse. But when you finally figure something out, it’s a magical moment, believe me. You can’t imagine the first time I found out that spicy and sweet go really really well together. I had baked chilies into chocolate cookies, one of the best things I ever eat, really. And it’s still rather simple. After that I lost all restraint, I tried so much stuff with each other, most of which tasted horrible, but sometimes I struck gold. I remembered what worked and figured out what goes together that way and now,” she pointed at the last piece of her own pancake that quickly disappeared as well and continued: “Now I have an eighty-five percent success rater, and even when I screw up it’s just meh really.”

“Huh, so just keep trying basically. That’s nice, and awful at the same time. So everything boils down to hard work, go figure,” he chuckled in return before drinking the last of his drink. “Ah, it seems nothing comes easy in this world…” With a resounding sigh, he leaned back in his chair, looking up at the ceiling. “By the way, how is the old weirdo doing?”

Ocean looked at him for a moment before asking: “Who?”

“Oh, come on, you know, Onyx. Did he figure this whole MRG thing out yet? It has been quite a while since…” Pheonix stopped for a moment, stumbling over his own words, a nervous expression on his face.

“Since the betrail of my mother. Phoenix, you don’t have t treat me like I’m some delicate flower. I know this sucks, but it’s part of life and when you make this for yourself hard just because you think it could upset me, don’t. I can handle it,” she returned with a calm voice, but there was that hint of sadness buried deep within it. Phoenix just nodded quickly, his face turning a deeper shade of orange as he looked away. “And to answer your question. It looks good for him. He has managed to convince everyone that the best case of action right now would be to quickly get a new director elected. He actually wanted Fancy Pants to take the job, but to his surprise, he refused and instead suggested him. Ony obviously was against that, wanted to stay in the shadows, but they managed to talk him into it, something I’m actually quite surprised by. So, we’ll have a new director in the next few weeks, will be quite fun I assume. And I wonder who is going to replace him. Ah, probably someone Onyx knows, and that is probably for the best,” she finished, her gaze having drifted off towards the window and with it, the city vailed in a beautiful morning glow.

“Huh, so Onyx is going to call the shots from now on? I can live with that. He at least knows how to do stuff, and someone who had to keep an eye on the entire organization will probably not get backstabbed that easily, bonus points,” he chuckled, standing up from his seat and starting to stretch himself only to add with a sigh: “Let me guess, it’s time to head out?” He asked her with a knowing look in his eyes.

“Yeah, as amusing as this is, we still have to get back to work, you know why,” she returned, her voice having lost a lot of its previous energy, now slower and duller.

“Yeah, I still can’t believe this. But I swear, I’m gonna dragged that bastard back here and beat him out of Ivory if I have to, no one messes with my friends.” He growled, clenching his hands to fists, the thought about Shadow Gold alone just made him angry.

“Yeah, but just proclaiming it to the air won’t really help us now, will it,” she weekly smiled in return, receiving a sheepish look from Phoenix. “Oh, you can look so cute sometimes,” she added with a sly grin, much to Phoenix embarrassment, his cheeks getting redder and redder by the second. “So, I think we should head out,” she chuckled, pulling her jacket over her clothes as she walked towards the door, Phoenix close behind her.

>-------<A>-------<

The majority of the day had gone by like any other day, which basically boils down to, driving around the city and following every lead they could find. And just like usual, they had achieved nothing. The probably had already searched the city three times, it was clear that they would never find Gold if he didn’t want to be found. Still, they couldn’t just sit around all day, they had to at least do something and busting a few Corrupted on the way there sure helped.

However, the last few hours of their day seemed to shape up to be something a little more special. Apparently, something weird had been going on the last two days, all of a sudden dozens of people just fell unconscious in the city and had to be rushed to the hospital. It didn’t seem like the illness was contagious, but it was spreading… somehow. Ocean was sure that this had something to do with Gold, that was what at least her gut kept telling her. While the illness didn’t put the victims in a coma, it still took a good out of them, most just too weak to speak. That was why they would be meeting with one of the patients that still held onto consciousness. They were lead through a quarantined part of the hospital, both of them decked out in masks and bodysuits that covered them from head to toe.

The doors to the patient room slowly opened, revealing at least ten people that were violently coughing and holding their stomachs. The room reeked of sweat and that certain smell you knew from the hospital. Several doctors and nurses were trying their hardest to help the poor man and woman, but they couldn’t really do much more than to suppress their pain. That was expected one of them, while he looked like he was in pain, he at least seemed to hold it together, a man with brown skin and blonde hair. “You are Meadow Song, right?” Ocean asked, not beating around the bush for too long.

The man nodded something that let him twist his face in pain. “Good, you wanted to tell us what happened to you?” She continued, sounding extremely calm and soothing, Phoenix being quite impressed by her skills, something he really shouldn’t be at this point.

“Yes,” his voice sounded extremely raspy and week, but he continued on. “It… It was a mon-“ That was as far as he managed to get before a violent coughing fit interrupted their conversation, one that held on for a good two minutes.

“Take your time, we can wait till you feel comfortable to speak Meadow,” she continued, a slow nod from the man as an answer.

It took another minute until he finally manages to continue. “There… there was this monster. We were at a bar we usually hang out together, my friends and me. In comes, this weird guy completely raged clothing, and he reacted like he hadn’t showered in three weeks and sits down right next to one of my friends and me. Having already drunken far too much Strawbery stumbles over to…” a small coughing fit interrupted him, but he quickly continued. “He pretty much threatens him to leave since he stinks like a dumpster…” Meadow stopped again, but not because he couldn’t continue because of a coughing fit, no he was just to shake, the fear edged into his face. “It just happened all way too fast. He turned into this… this monster and the next thing I know is waking up here.” His body started to shake more and more. “Please… Find him and put an end to… to this monster. I don’t want to-“ that was the last thing before the next fit started and it showed no sign of stopping any time soon.

Two doctors rushed forward and started to treat the poor man, something that would put him to sleep. But before his consciousness completely left him, Ocean grabbed his had and said loud and determined: “Don’t worry, we won’t let that happen.” After the last word had been spoken, she held onto his hands for a few more moments before his eyes closed completely. With a determined sigh, she let go of his hand and walked out of the room, Phoenix right behind her.

“So, this does not look good in the slightest,” Phoenix muttered, his hands already balled up into fists, eager to punch the culprit into his face.

“Exactly, and judging from what has happened in the last few weeks this might be Shadow Gold’s doing. An illness based artifact sounds incredibly rare, and that something like this would just show up, and the wielder goes out on a spread of destruction like this, not buying it,” she returned, gritting her teeth as she left her safety clothing behind where they had gotten it. That and after a shipload of disinfectant had been sprayed on them, the reached smell filling up her nostrils, but at least it would prevent anything from spreading… hopefully.

After a quick phone call with Pinecone to bring him up to speed the two were heading out of the hospital, that was until a loud scream of terror reached them. One look was enough to let them rush towards the origin of the scream. Several patients and visitor were running their way, only avoiding them on several occasions by a few centimeters. The looks of utter terror were edged into their faces, and their blood curdled screams matched that perfectly. After one, two minutes of doing the blood of people that were heading away from the permeable danger they finally rushed around a corner only to stop dead in their tracks, looking straight at something that could have jumped out of an old horror movie about a cursed monestry.

Before them stood a Corrupted dressed in a long flowing trenchcoat made out of black leather, form it hanging feathers and chains. His skin had taken on a black-purplish tone, and one could see feathers on the back of his hands. He was currently choking a civilian, his long and sharp claws clenching around the neck of the man like a cage. But most unsettling of all was his face, a long beak that and two glowing red eyes. The head looked almost like one of these plague doctor masks that had been used during old times, just this one was made out of flesh and blood. On its head rested a large head.

“Patients…” the monster muttered, swaying from side to side after letting the man fall to the ground, completely out cold. It almost looked like he would fall over, that was until his eyes caught them for a moment. In an instant, the Corrupted turned his head towards them the red, piercing eyes staring at them with an intensity that made them take back a few steps. Then it happened, in an instant, the monster rushed forward and lunged towards them, both ocean and Phoenix jumping out of the way in the last second, being able to see the Corrupted breaks through the next wall, covering the hallway in dust. But they knew far too well that something like this never stopped a Corrupted, activating the Drivers.

\ MAGIC DISC DETECTED! /

\ SCANNING CHARGE! /

“Henshin!”

\ 50, 80, 100! FRIENDSHIP CHARGE! /

\ FRIENDSHIP DISC ACTIVATED! /

And this was indeed the right call, the Corrupted jumping out of the debris and dust, its long claws ready to grab both of them, however, the moment he had gotten close enough he was flung back by both Alchemy’s and Charge’s transformation. Charge was the first to act, pulling out her Charge Magnum and letting three shoots strike the monster as long as it was on the ground, all while Alchemy charged forward and removed his Magic disc from his Driver.

\ Friendship Disc Attack Mode! /

\ Connect Protector! /

While Charge was holding down the Corrupted, he was busy with trying to strike the monster. That however proved to be a far harder challenge than first expected. The thing was fast, scary fast, and nimble. Evading his attacks like a wild jester that was just playing with him and subsequently making a fool out of him. With every strike that he missed he grew more and more frustrated until he just couldn’t hold it anymore. “Hey, Birdnose, how about you stop this bullshit and fight for real. We both know that you have no chance against us, so why not make this quick for both of us, maybe you can get to your feeding at the park in time?” He mocked the Corrupted, big mistake.

Doing the next strike from the Rider, the Corrupted did not just back way again, no it advanced, darting past Alchemy and right behind him. He felt the stinging pain in his back just moments later, but that wasn’t everything, a second attack hit him in the sides, the Rider staggering away from the Corrupted who tried to strike again. However this time his attack was less successful, his attack being blocked by Alchemy’s shield and hold of just long enough for Charge to pepper him with bullets.

He had expected that the pain would have dulled at this point, but far from it, it had actually started to get worse. Purple smoke started to be emitted from the places the Corrupted had clawed at him, the pain growing and growing. With a pained scream, he dashed forward, at the still dazed Corrupted, his sword slashing across his chest and letting sparks fly from the wound.

This moment of victory was however rather shortlived as Alchemy was quickly tackled by the raven Corrupted, its claws digging into his armor, the unimaginable pain spreading through the wounds as the monster rushed forward. With a loud shattering both of the crashed through the windows and wall of the building, falling down several meters to the ground, the Corrupted losing his grip on Alchemy. He could barely see how the Corrupted unnaturally twisted his back, his legs firmly planted on the ground, his body slowly rising. In the end, it looked like his back had been twisted in a ninety-degree-angel before suddenly snapping back into an upright position.

Alchemy meanwhile was still clenching his wounds in agonizing pain, it felt like his body was slowly burning from the inside. The Corrupted tilted his head, staring at him with this emotionless glare, then it lunged forward, or at least it would have if Charge hadn't stopped him, the shots of her Charge Magnum sending him flying past him and into one of the parked cars. Alchemy could just see it out of the corners of his eyes, tears forming in his eyes making it even harder, but right now he was busy with other things. Primarily just getting back up, his teeth clenched he as he tried to push past the ever-spreading pain in his body, desperately ripping the Magic disc from his Driver as he had gotten back on his knees and replacing it with something he hoped would yield his victory.

\ HEUREKA! /

The moment he felt the transformation taking place it felt like he was born anew, the pain his body faded like it was just washed away. As the whirlwind of magical energy faded, he stood there, his cape flying in the wind and his blue eyes staring at the curious Corrupted. With a scream of frustration, the Corrupted rushed towards him, swinging his claws wieldy, Alchemy simply evading the strike with his superior speed. The Corrupted now missing his strikes did not like this at all, stomping on the ground in frustration and running towards him like a mad dog that had been let of his leash. It didn’t take long till the Corrupted was sent flying backward by one of Alchemy’s kicks after the Rider had dodged another strike of the monster and caught his hand. The Corrupted had jumped back in shock, or at least tried to, staring at Alchemy in absolute shock, just before the dreaded kick hit him right in the stomach.

What even Alchemy hadn’t expected however was something that happens right before eth Corrupted hit the next car on the sidewalk. In the blink of an eye something flew past his opponent, and just a moment later the Corrupted was thrown back towards Alchemy, leaving a trail of sparks behind as he flew. A few meters away Monster came to a screeching halt, equipped in his Chimera Armor he took a look at Alchemy and the at the Corrupted, spread his claws and dashed forward.

With every strike more vicious than the last Monster tore apart his opponent, not leaving him any breathing room or chance to retaliate at all, just attacking again and again. The Corrupted in question did not take it well, desperately trying to strike his opponent with any means necessary, but Monster was just far too fast, circling around, over and behind him like a hurricane. With every strike the beast grew more and more tired, until Monster finally kicked it into the stomach, sending him sailing again, crashing into the wall of one of the buildings on the other side of the street. Landing next to Alchemy he just looked at him, before he resumed his stare at the Corrupted.

“Well, nice to see you. How about we finish this one off?” Alchemy chuckled, just at that moment the Corrupted was bombarded with a salve of energy projectiles, Over Charge landing next to him, her gun pointed directly at the Corrupted. “Oh, joining us as well. Then shall we?”

“The faster, the better,” she returned, her finger on the trigger, ready to discharge another salve on the Corrupted.

Just as all three Riders were preparing to strike down the Corrupted a loud sound cut through the air, on they quickly realized it was the sign of problems quickly approaching.

\ FIRE! /

A massive explosion consumed the Riders not even a second later, all of them were thrown backward and landed rather unceremoniously on the ground in front of the hospital. Alchemy could see his comrades clenching their sides in pain, trying to figure out where the attack had come from.

“Well, well. It seems I can’t leave anything to these buffoons. Tsk, tsk, tsk. And I almost lost my new underling to you. I must say, you really don’t like playing along,” he sighed in a mocking tone, jumping from the building he had just been standing on, casually walking towards them with his weapon in hand. “Really, I would have thought you would struggle a bit more, but oh well, it seems I have to intervene again, not that I don’t enjoy crushing you under my boot Alchemy.” A smug laugh coming from the Dark Rider as he came closer and closer.

As he continued Alchemy slammed his fist on the ground, screw the pain right now he just wanted to punch this bastard in the face. With a loud scream, he pushed himself off the ground and stormed towards the Rider, pulling his Philosopher Stone from his Driver.

\ Philosopher Stone Attack Mode! /

\ Magnum Opus! /

Both weapons clashed, the opponents seemingly evenly matched. “You bastard! I knew you were behind this! How sick do you have to be to drag civilians into this?” Alchemy growled, trying to push Chrysopoeia back. “This is between us, not us and them!”

“Oh, but this exactly why, because I enjoy your anger when you see me do it,” Chrysopoeia returned, his voice sounding low and with the gleeful tone in it that could let your blood freeze in your veins. That was when Chrysopoeia stepped back, letting Alchemy tumble forward and slashed him across his backside after circling around the Rider. With a quick push of one of the gems on his weapon, he repeated the process again.

\ THUNDER! /

As the attack struck this time Alchemy felt his entire body being fried in an instant, his muscles refuse to listen to him and he sunk to the ground painting quickly after. Chrysopoeia admired his work for a moment before quickly spinning around and deflecting Charge’s projectiles like it was child play only to again press a gem on his weapon.

\ WIND! /

Slashing through the air, he created such a powerful gust of wind that he knocked several cars back and with it Charge as well, who was pressed against the wall of the hospital, the sound of breaking glass almost being covered by sounds of the wind blowing past her. With a silent thud, she sunk to the ground, Chrysopoeia letting out a satisfied huff before pressing another one of the gems on his speer before jumping up in the air and thrusting his weapon downwards.

\ FRIENDSHIP! /

A beam of energy burst through the tip of the spear, right at Monster who had just tried to attack him from behind. He felt the burning sensation all over his body, like being cooked in his own armor. As the pain finally subsided, he was laying on the ground, beaten and bruised, just like his comrades, the Rider landing next to him and the Corrupted who had witnessed this all firsthand.

“Well, what else was I expecting. It was fun playing with all of you, really, but I have to go now. But I’m curious, what are you all doing here?” Chrysopoeia’s voice went from smug to taunting with that certain spark of maliciousness in it that he had before. “I don’t think your friends made it to the hospital yet,” with that he started to laugh maniacally, none of the Riders able to utter even a single word, just stare at him in shock, horror, and pain. “So, adieu!” He pressed another one of the gems on the spear before spinning the Philosopher Stone on it.

\ THUNDER! /

\ Philosopher Stone Maximum Power! /

With that, a massive whirlwind surrounded the Rider and within seconds it devoured everything it could get its hands on, cars, signs, glass shards, everything and of course the three Riders. After a solid ten seconds of debris and the wind hitting the three the whirlwind finally subsided throwing them out like discarded food, all three landing with a loud crash on the ground, other debris landing around them. Their entire body arched, they could feel the bruises all over themselves. Their armors finally broke away, revealing their wounded body for all to see. But all this just seemed distant, there was only one thought on their minds. One thought that let their guts tighten and created an unbearable pit in their stomachs, what had he meant by that?