Chapter 279: Kamen Rider Diend
Ethan watched Kaito level his transformation gun at him, entirely unfazed, and merely raised an eyebrow.
"Who gave you the nerve to lay a hand on Ethan?" Wanda's voice rang out, ice-cold and resolute. Her hands wove together in a rapid seal, gathering a surge of raw chaos magic into a brilliant orb of pure chaos energy, which she hurled straight at Kaito.
Loki startled at the sight, reflexively swinging his scepter to deflect Wanda's attack.
The chaos orb shattered against the scepter's block, dissolving into scattered motes of energy that faded into the air.
Kaito watched the whole exchange with real surprise. He hadn't expected Loki to actually step in and block the attack meant for him — not after treating him like an enemy just moments before.
Sensing Kaito's puzzled look, Loki pursed his lips, tone turning huffy and defensive. "What are you looking at. I just happened to be in the way, that's all."
Kaito let it go without further comment. He glanced once at Wanda — the one who'd just attacked him — then turned back to Ethan. "Well, since your girlfriend's already made the first move, seems only fair I show a little something myself."
With that, he pulled a card from his pocket and swiped it through his gun.
"KAMEN RIDE."
Kaito raised the gun and fired a brilliant beam of light skyward.
"HENSHIN!"
An instant later, a Rider-like silhouette flickered into being beside him. A heartbeat after that, Kaito stood transformed — a blue-and-black striped armored figure now facing Ethan.
Watching the transformation complete, Ethan felt a genuine jolt of surprise. "So this is Kamen Rider Diend, huh," he murmured to himself. "Impressive."
Beside him, Wanda had watched the whole thing too, her eyes wide with confusion and shock. She'd always assumed only Ethan could transform into a Kamen Rider — or at most, whoever Ethan had personally granted that power to.
But here was this stranger, transforming into a Kamen Rider all on his own. What exactly was going on?
Kaito didn't give Wanda much time to puzzle it over. He pulled three more cards from his pocket in quick succession, swiping each through the gun in turn, then pulled the trigger, aiming straight at Ethan.
The bullet arced through the air, then blossomed into the shapes of three separate Riders, who swiftly closed in and surrounded Ethan.
Off to the side, Loki's jaw dropped in open astonishment. He'd fought Kaito before, and had never once seen him pull off anything like this.
Was he not even fighting at full strength back then? The thought flickered through Loki's mind and was gone just as fast.
Surrounded, Ethan looked entirely unbothered.
He glanced around at the three Riders closing in on him, a faint smile spreading across his face.
"Kamen Rider Gatack. Kamen Rider Skull. Kamen Rider Ryuga," he said quietly. "Kaito Kumon — you really are the best summoner in the whole Kamen Rider world."
Kaito smiled faintly at the recognition. He tilted his head slightly and offered Ethan a low warning. "Careful there, friend. These three won't be pulling any punches."
The words had barely left his mouth when the three Riders, as if on cue, launched their attack on Ethan all at once.
The spot where Ethan stood erupted in a burst of flame, smoke billowing out and swallowing the scene from view.
Seeing Ethan caught in the blast, Wanda's fury ignited instantly. Her eyes flared red, chaos magic surging and boiling inside her. She moved to strike at Kaito directly — only for Loki to step in her path.
"Your fight is with me," Loki said coldly, blocking her way.
Just as everyone's attention was fixed on the smoke and chaos of the fight, a mechanical voice cut through the haze: "LEGEND!"
An instant later, all three Riders came flying out of the smoke, tumbling through the air, clearly hurled back by some overwhelming force. These were the very same three that had just attacked Ethan — now battered and reeling, plainly having taken serious damage.
Then, from the smoke, a golden figure stepped out with effortless grace.
Clad head to toe in gleaming gold armor, a golden helmet atop his head — this was Ethan, transformed into Kamen Rider Legend.
Kaito eyed the new Rider with open fascination. "Well, would you look at that — a brand new Rider form. Quite the treasure you've got there."
But just as he was still admiring the sight, Ethan's next move made Kaito's smile freeze on his face.
Ethan drew three more cards from his belt, sliding them swiftly into a gun-shaped launcher mounted at his left wrist, then made the same upward-firing motion Kaito had made a moment earlier.
A bad feeling rose in Kaito's chest. "Wait... don't tell me..." he muttered.
Sure enough, as Ethan's launching motion completed, three motorcycle-riding Riders slowly materialized out of thin air.
Kamen Rider Kabuto. Kamen Rider W. Kamen Rider Ryuki. Each one a distinctive, iconic Rider form in its own right, radiating overwhelming power.
Kaito stared at the three familiar silhouettes in open shock. He recognized all three of them immediately — and understood exactly what Ethan was doing.
"Four against four. Fair fight now," Ethan said with a faint smile, confidence gleaming in his eyes.
He gave a light wave of his hand, and the three Riders he'd summoned moved on their own to engage the three Kaito had brought out.
The battlefield erupted at once into the din of furious combat, the two sides trading blow after blow, locked in a fight too close to call.
They surged forward, dodged and weaved, each collision ringing out with a deafening crash.
Still, it was plain that the three Riders Ethan had summoned outclassed the three Kaito had brought — by a wide margin.
The first to fall was Kaito's Kamen Rider Gatack, brought down under Kamen Rider Kabuto's assault — no surprise there, since every Rider Ethan had summoned was a franchise's main Rider.
Ethan and Kaito traded a few more shots before putting some distance between themselves.
Watching Gatack go down, neither of them looked particularly surprised — the man behind Kabuto had always been considerably stronger than the man behind Gatack, after all.
"Now that's a fascinating Driver," Kaito said, eyeing Ethan's launcher with open greed. Whatever the thing in front of him could do, it seemed to outstrip his own capabilities by a fair margin.
"That's not even the half of what it can do." With that, Ethan pulled out one more card — and this time, instead of summoning another Rider, he transformed into a form Kaito recognized instantly.
Kamen Rider Decade!
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