The elf girl's name was Lyra, and her grip on Seiji's cloak was a tether of pure, desperate faith. Through her tears and ragged breaths, she begged. "Please… they took Queen Rivieria. They're taking her to the capital… for the nobles'… entertainment." The word 'entertainment' was laced with such visceral dread that it needed no further explanation.
Hearing the word 'nobles', a cold sneer formed on Seiji's lips, invisible beneath his helmet. The same nobles who served the king who had cast him out. The same system that bred knights who raped and pillaged in the name of taxation. The pieces of this world's corruption were fitting together to form a very clear picture.
"I understand," Vanguard's voice modulator intoned, the sound both alien and reassuring to Lyra. "Lead me to where they took her."
As they moved, Lyra handed him a silken ribbon, emerald green and faintly glowing. "It carries her scent. The scent of the World Tree."
Seiji's mind, however, was only half on the task. The other half was racing, analyzing the system's behavior. Kiva unlocked by the scent of blood and my fury. It's not random. The activation condition is resonance. I must come into contact with something—an emotion, an object, a situation—that mirrors the core of each Rider's power. The logic was elegant, and it meant his path to power was not a mystery, but a puzzle. A dark and violent puzzle.
He pushed the thought aside. First, the mission.
Focusing inward, he accessed the newly integrated Kiva data. A sub-routine flickered to life. "Activate status power: Kiva Garulu Form."
A wave of enhanced sensory input flooded him. The world sharpened into a kaleidoscope of smells. The damp earth, the fear-sweat on Lyra, the lingering iron tang of blood from the clearing, and then—there it was. A scent of ancient bark, blooming lilacs, and a profound, serene life force. The ribbon was the key, and his nose was the lock. The Garulu power painted an invisible trail through the air, a path only he could see.
"Hold on," he commanded Lyra. He swept her into his arms, her slight frame feeling like a feather. Then, he accelerated. He was no longer just running; he was a black and crimson blur, the power of the Wolfen fueling a sprint that devoured the distance, leaving the jungle a smeared green tunnel around them.
They reached a worn dirt road cutting through the forest. Up ahead, a heavy, enclosed carriage, more a prison on wheels, rumbled along. The escort was six knights, their armor finer, their posture more arrogant than the brutes in the jungle. Their shields bore a crest: a gilded hand, fingers outstretched as if to grasp. He vaguely recalled seeing it on a banner in the capital—the sigil of Count Goronda.
He hid with Lyra in the deep shadows of the tree line, his enhanced hearing catching their conversation over the rumble of wheels.
"...a fine prize," one knight chuckled. "The Count presents the Elf Queen herself to the King, and the western timberlands are as good as ours."
"A fair trade," another agreed. "One forest whore for a kingdom's worth of lumber and land. His Majesty does so enjoy… exotic entertainment."
The words were a cold spike driven into Seiji's heart. This wasn't just cruelty; it was transactional evil. A living, breathing person, a queen no less, reduced to a currency in a game of power and land grabs. The sheer, unadulterated greed of it was a physical force in the air.
As that feeling of disgust and rage crystallized within him, the system responded instantly.
[Sensing core catalyst: Worldly Avarice. Emotional state: Contemptuous Fury. Conditions met.]
[Unlocking: Kamen Rider OOO.]
His internal HUD lit up anew. The name Kamen Rider OOO blazed to life, its text shifting between three vibrant colors: red, green, and yellow. The core medals of desire, now his to command.
A grim focus settled over him. He glanced at the status board, then back at the unsuspecting knights. A predator's smile touched his lips.
"Hunting Time," he whispered.
His mind issued a dual command, a feat that should have been impossible, but one the Vanguard system accommodated with ease. [Simultaneous Form Access: OOO Latoratar Combo. OOO Gatakiriba Combo.]
For a moment, there was only the silence of the forest and the creak of the carriage. Then, the shadows themselves seemed to fracture.
From the treeline, a dozen… then fifty… then a hundred black and crimson phantoms erupted. They were perfect copies of Vanguard, a legion born of the Gatakiriba Combo's cloning ability, each one moving with the blinding, insect-like speed of the Latoratar Combo. They were a swarm of vengeance.
The knights' laughter died in their throats. They barely had time to draw their swords before the swarm was upon them. It was not a fight; it was a synchronized execution. Phantom blades of energy, moving too fast for the eye to follow, sliced through armor, flesh, and bone. Four of the knights fell in a synchronized, silent ballet of death, their bodies disintegrating into shimmering motes of light and dust before they even hit the ground.
The two commanders, their faces contorted in terror, managed to back-to-back, their swords held in trembling hands. "Demons! Face us!" one shrieked.
But the real Vanguard was already above them. He had leapt high into the air during the initial chaos. He gathered purple energy into his hand, then released it, carrying the projectiles of Pteranodon, Triceratops, Tyrannosaurus
[Executing OOO Finisher: Putotyra Doomsday.]
He shot down like a meteor. The attack didn't just hit them; it pierced through them, a beam of annihilating light that tore a furrow in the earth between their bodies. They stood frozen for a second, their mouths moving in silent, final curses, before collapsing into lifeless heaps.
The legion of phantoms dissolved into the air. Silence returned, deeper than before.
Seiji walked to the carriage. He didn't bother with the lock. His enhanced strength, a baseline function of the Vanguard armor, allowed him to grip the reinforced door and, with a screech of tortured metal, tear it clean from its hinges.
Inside, seated with an almost regal composure, was the Elf Queen, Rivieria. She was, without question, the most breathtakingly beautiful woman Seiji had ever seen. Her hair was a cascade of spun gold, her figure both slender and voluptuous, a cruel irony given her chains. Even in her captivity, she radiated a potent, ethereal allure that was almost a power in itself.
Her eyes fluttered open. They were the color of deep, ancient forests, and they held not the fear he expected, but a deep, weary wonder. She looked past him, at the dissolving remnants of her captors, then back at the terrifying armored figure who stood amidst the wreckage.
"The old songs… speak of a dark warrior who comes from nothing," she whispered, her voice like the rustling of sacred leaves. "A shadow to cleanse the light. Are you… our savior?"
Vanguard looked from her serene, hopeful face to the grasping hand sigil on a fallen knight's shield. The symbol of the greed that had bound her.
"No," he replied, his voice a flat, emotionless drone. "I'm not a savior, or anything else you might hope for." He turned his glowing crimson gaze back to her.
"I am simply… the nightmare for all of them."