The next morning, at the Goethe Grand Hotel, Caelus slowly woke after a full night of uninterrupted sleep. Stretching his arms, he got dressed, gathered his things, and stepped outside.
Waiting for him in front of the hotel were Kouga, Dan Heng, and March 7th.
As Caelus walked toward them, March immediately crossed her arms.
March 7th: "Took you long enough sleepy head. We've been waiting all day!"
She pointed an accusing finger at him.
March 7th: "I've noticed that our sleep routines don't match up. You either keep getting up in the middle of the night or snoozing away until the day is almost out. Unacceptable. You gotta work on your teamwork!"
Kouga chuckled lightly.
Kouga: "To be fair, he was out with me last night."
Dan Heng looked at Caelus.
Dan Heng: "Caelus, did you have a dream again last night?"
Caelus: "Not this time."
March nodded dramatically.
March 7th: "...So that's why you slept for so long."
Dan Heng adjusted his spear on his back.
Dan Heng: "Well then, let's go find Wildfire to discuss our next move and see if they have any new discoveries."
March pumped a fist into the air.
March 7th: "Let's go! I can't wait to finally get back above ground!"
The four of them made their way to the agreed meeting place.
There, they found Oleg, Sampo, Seele, and Bronya already waiting.
Oleg greeted them with a booming laugh.
Oleg: Oh! Look who's here!
Sampo immediately threw his arms wide.
Sampo: It's the bane of Svarog! The big hero of the Underworld — Kouga!
Kouga rolled his eyes.
Sampo: And the other big heroes, Caelus, Dan Heng and March 7th!
March stared at him.
March 7th: Were those lines rehearsed?
Dan Heng looked around.
Dan Heng: Where's Natasha? Is she here?
Oleg nodded.
Oleg: "She has a bunch of other things to attend to, so I hope you don't mind talking to this old man instead. I speak on behalf of Natasha."
He scratched his beard.
Oleg: "By the way, sorry for keeping that whole thing about her being the actual leader of Wildfire a secret. Hahaha..."
Caelus shrugged.
Caelus: "It doesn't matter anyway..."
Oleg smiled warmly.
Oleg: "I'm glad you don't mind. Natasha is always cautious, but she has no ill intent, as you surely have noticed."
He turned toward Sampo.
Oleg: "She told me to make sure you return to the Overworld safely. I gave it some thought, and I think the safest way is to ask this fella for help."
Sampo bowed dramatically.
Sampo: "I brought you down. I can take you back up! Free of charge, satisfaction guaranteed."
March looked suspicious.
March 7th: "...There's no need to knock us out this time, right?"
Sampo laughed nervously.
Sampo: "Of course not! This time we'll go back through the Furnace Core."
Caelus tilted his head.
Caelus: "And why do we need you?"
Sampo placed a hand on his chest.
Sampo: "Well, for my sparkling companionship of course! ...I jest, I jest! The path has been blocked for over ten years, and very few know how to get through. That's where I come in. "
Seele sighed.
Seele: "Enough chatter. Just be a good guide!"
Sampo turned to Caelus.
Sampo: "Well my friends, are you ready to head out?"
Caelus: " Let's go."
Sampo clapped his hands.
Sampo: "Wonderful! Remember to bring enough food and drink to refuel on the way. We have a lot of steps to climb!"
After several minutes of travel through the underground passages, the group finally emerged into the Administrative District of the Overworld.
Cold mountain air greeted them.
Almost immediately, Sampo disappeared.
Again.
March looked around.
March 7th: Ah, we're finally back! ...I forgot what fresh air tasted like... Nom, nom, nom.
Caelus blinked.
Caelus: Aren't we missing something?
Bronya shook her head.
Dan Heng: No.
Seele looked around.
Seele: Where's Sampo...
March answered instantly.
March 7th: Nope. Next question.
She stretched.
March 7th: Where's our next stop? We should find somewhere to put our feet up, as long as it's not Goethe Hotel again...
Seele sighed.
Seele: Classic unreliable Sampo — he probably guessed we'd ask where his hiding place was. No sooner are we back in the Administrative District than he sneaks off.
Caelus turned toward Kouga.
Caelus: "Mr.Hayata, any idea ?"
Kouga thought for a moment.
Then he looked at Caelus.
Kouga: "Well, i can turn everyone invisible."
He summoned the Energy Item Holder, opened it, and pulled out six light-blue medals, each depicting a Rider fading into transparency.
Bronya stepped forward.
Bronya: "I don't think i need to be invisible as i am not a fugitive."
Kouga nodded.
March noticed Seele quietly looking around the city.
March 7th: "What's wrong, Seele?"
Seele: "Nothing, it's just a little... new."
She looked up at the towering buildings.
Seele: "The last time I was on the surface, I was still a child. I have no memory of any of this."
Seele: "The Overworld and the Underworld... We've... We've been cut off for so long."
Bronya looked at her with sympathy.
Seele: "I'm okay. Let's go."
Kouga tossed the medals into the air.
They dissolved into light and settled onto Kouga, Caelus, March 7th, Dan Heng, and Seele.
In an instant, all five of them became invisible.
Kouga's voice echoed from empty air.
Kouga: "Lead the way, Bronya."
Bronya nodded.
Together, the invisible group followed her through the Administrative District and toward Qlipoth Fort.
Inside the Supreme Guardian's office, Cocolia was working quietly when the door opened.
Bronya stepped inside.
Bronya: "Mother, I have returned."
Cocolia immediately stood.
Cocolia: "Bronya! I thought... I thought I'd lost you."
She hurried toward her daughter.
Cocolia: "Where were you? A—Are you hurt? I'll fetch the butler right away—"
Bronya quickly raised a hand.
Bronya: "No, there's no need! I don't want to see Sebas right now. Sorry, mother..."
Bronya: "I'm fine, really. I just got into a few skirmishes down in the Underworld, but nothing I couldn't handle."
Cocolia's expression became serious.
Cocolia: "The Underworld? Oh... I see."
She returned to her desk.
Cocolia: "In that case, report everything you saw, Commander Bronya."
Bronya took a breath.
Bronya: "After the failed pursuit at Backwater Pass, the wanted outsiders and I were somehow taken to the Underworld."
Bronya: "Because of the difficult situation we were in, we formed a temporary alliance to help the residents of the Underworld resolve a few... issues of survival."
Bronya: "We also defeated an ancient robot known as "Svarog," and learned some truths... about the Stellaron."
Cocolia remained silent for a long moment.
Cocolia: "...I'm listening. Go on."
Bronya: "Madam Cocolia, it is my firm belief that the visitors from beyond the sky are not the villains we had imagined before."
Bronya: "I witnessed them take up arms in the name of justice, and risk their lives for the sake of others. I can also ascertain that they did come for the Stellaron, but only to relieve the disaster it has brought upon Belobog."
Bronya: "Mother... you've always known the truth about the Stellaron, haven't you? The responsibility of bearing that truth will fall upon me one day. Such is the burden of being guardian — to carry these secrets for eternity."
Bronya: "So... I ask you to forgive my defiance, but I believe that the order to dispatch the outsiders was a mistake. To solve the problems brought on by the Stellaron, the Architects waited hundreds of years, and those outsiders may be the... the—"
Cocolia suddenly slammed a hand onto the desk.
Cocolia: "Enough!"
Bronya froze.
Bronya: ...!
Cocolia's eyes hardened.
Cocolia: "Arrogant, ignorant... Oh you disappoint me, Bronya."
Cocolia: "You merely glimpsed the tip of the iceberg and now you think you know everything. You spend a short time with that Underworld scum, and suddenly you have the audacity to question my orders?"
Cocolia: "Guards! Take Bronya—"
Behind Bronya, the invisible group tensed, ready to intervene.
But Bronya stepped forward.
Bronya: "—They are not scum!"
Her voice echoed through the chamber.
Bronya: "My entire life, everything you ever kept from me... I remember it clearly now. This time... this time I'm standing my ground, Madam Guardian! And please, stop dismissing me with vague excuses."
Bronya: "Tell me why do you listen to the Stellaron, the thing that have been tormenting Belobog all these years"
Cocolia and Bronya stare at each other in silent.
A calm voice suddenly answered from empty air.
Kouga: "I had already told you before Bronya, you can't convince her unless you have a way to change the world itself."
Cocolia's eyes widened.
She looked around the room.
A moment later, the invisibility was dismissed.
Kouga, Caelus, March 7th, Dan Heng, and Seele appeared behind Bronya.
Cocolia's expression twisted into fury.
Cocolia: "You!!!"
She pointed toward them.
Cocolia: "Guards!!!"
The doors burst open.
A squad of Silvermane Guards rushed into the office and surrounded the group.
Cocolia: "Arrest them!!!"
The guards charged.
Kouga calmly snapped his fingers.
A blue-white glow enveloped every Silvermane Guard simultaneously.
They were lifted into the air.
Then—
Pop.
All of them vanished.
Silence fell over the office.
Cocolia, Bronya, Seele, March, Dan Heng, and even Caelus stared in shock.
Bronya looked at Kouga.
Bronya: "What did you do ?"
Kouga answered casually.
Kouga: "Relax, i just teleported them outside the Fort."
He then turned his gaze toward Cocolia.
Kouga: "Cocolia, i'm here to negotiate. We're here to seal the Stellaron, to stop the Eternal Freeze that been tormenting Belobog, but why do you keep following the order of the very thing that cause all of the problem."
Cocolia's eyes narrowed as she stared directly at Kouga, her expression hardening into the cold authority of a ruler who had carried impossible burdens for far too long.
Cocolia: "Silence. Do not speak to me as though I am some ignorant fool who stumbled into this darkness by accident. Every Supreme Guardian knows the truth, every one of us has inherited the same terrible secret, and every one of us has been forced to watch this world slowly die while pretending there was still hope. For seven hundred years the Eternal Freeze has consumed Belobog piece by piece. The Fragmentum spreads with every passing year, our defenses weaken, our people grow fewer, our Geomarrow veins are exhausted, our food and medical supplies dwindle, and every season demands sacrifices simply to keep the city alive for one more day. We have searched, researched, fought, and prayed for generations, and none of it was enough. The Architects failed, the scholars failed, and the Guardians failed. We are not preserving a civilization anymore—we are preserving its corpse. The Stellaron did not create my despair; it merely revealed what was already before my eyes. It promised us what no one else ever could: a rebirth, a new world, a future beyond this endless prison of snow and suffering. You call it deception, but I call it the first answer Belobog has received in centuries. And now you stand before me claiming you have come to save us, when all I see are outsiders who would destroy the only path that still offers my people a chance to live. You ask why I follow the Stellaron, but tell me—what has the world ever offered me besides death, loss, and impossible choices? If this promised world is even the smallest possibility, then I will not allow you to take it away from Belobog."
Bronya lowered her head sadly.
Bronya: "Mother."
Kouga slowly shook his head.
Kouga: "I see, how about i show you this promise lands, this new world you so wish insteads."
Cocolia frowned.
Cocolia: "What?"
The words hung in the air.
Suddenly, the Stellaron whispered in her mind.
Voice of the Stellaron: "Cocolia, don't be deceived by them, only we can give you the ..."
Before the voice could finish—
Snap.
Kouga snapped his fingers.
A piercing scream of agony echoed through Cocolia's mind as the Stellaron's voice twisted into raw pain.
Cocolia staggered slightly, bewildered.
Kouga watched her calmly.
Kouga: "The Stellaron like to cut in our conversation it's seem."
Kouga: "How about this, i'll give you this promise world right now, after all what else do you have to lose."
Cocolia continued glaring at him.
Bronya stepped forward.
Bronya: "Mother, please."
Cocolia remained silent for a long moment before finally letting out a weary sigh.
Seeing that, Kouga smiled faintly.
Kouga: "Great, now please follow me."
The Stellaron spoke again inside Cocolia's mind.
The voice of the stellaron: "Cocolia, Are you Crazy, following is equal to surrendering ..."
Snap.
The voice was cut off once more, replaced by another scream of pain.
Kouga gestured for everyone to follow him.
At that moment, hurried footsteps thundered from the corridor outside.
The doors burst open.
A squad of Silvermane Guards, led by Gepard, rushed into the office with weapons drawn.
Gepard: "Madam Cocolia are you o...kay ?"
His eyes widened as he took in the scene before him.
Kouga.
Caelus.
March 7th.
Dan Heng.
Bronya.
Seele.
And Cocolia standing among them without a battle underway.
Cocolia slowly raised a hand.
The Silvermane Guards immediately halted.
Without another word, she turned and began following Kouga.
After a brief hesitation, Gepard and the guards lowered their weapons and followed as well.
The entire group followed Kouga through the gates of Belobog and out onto the frozen plains beyond the city walls. The familiar snowstorm still raged around them, and the endless white horizon stretched beneath a sky choked with gray clouds.
After walking a considerable distance from the city, Kouga finally stopped.
He raised a hand, signaling everyone to halt.
The group came to a stop.
Cocolia: "Why are we stopping? Aren't you going to show me this promised world you talked about?"
Kouga did not answer.
Instead, a white light enveloped him.
Armor materialized piece by piece until he stood before them as Kamen Rider Geats IX.
The sudden transformation startled everyone.
Cocolia instinctively stepped back.
The Silvermane Guards tightened their grips on their weapons.
Gepard's eyes widened in shock as memories flashed through his mind—the overwhelming power Kouga had displayed as Kamen Rider Super-1, and the one-sided defeat he had suffered at his hands.
Caelus, March 7th, Dan Heng, Bronya, and Seele had already seen this form during the confrontation with Svarog. They knew Geats IX possessed terrifying reality-bending abilities.
But this time...
Something was different.
The atmosphere itself felt different.
The air grew unnaturally still, and a pressure unlike anything they had ever experienced descended upon the world.
Suddenly Cocolia clutched her head in pain.
The Stellaron's voice exploded inside her mind.
The voice of the stellaron: "COCOLIA, STOP HIM! DON'T LET HIM FINISH WHATEVER HE'S DOING! IF YOU DON'T, YOU WILL NEVER SEE THAT PROMISED LAND, AND EVERYONE WILL PERISH."
Bronya immediately rushed to her mother's side.
Bronya: "Mother."
Gepard and the nearby guards also moved forward.
Gepard/Silvermane Guard: "Madam Cocolia."
Bronya supported Cocolia as she struggled to remain standing.
Kouga calmly raised a finger to the mouthpiece of his helmet.
A silent shush.
Instantly, the Stellaron's voice was cut off.
The screams vanished.
The pressure inside Cocolia's mind disappeared completely.
She looked up in stunned confusion, breathing heavily.
Kouga turned toward her.
Kouga: "The Stellaron is truly uncivilized."
Then he faced the frozen world before them.
Kouga: "Now as i promise."
He raised one hand.
And snapped his fingers.
A clear bell chime rang across the world.
The sound was gentle.
Yet it echoed through every mountain, every glacier, every city, and every soul on Jarilo-VI.
A brilliant blue-white light erupted from Kouga and spread across the planet in an instant.
The entire world began to glow.
The radiance was so overwhelming that everyone outside Belobog instinctively covered their eyes.
Inside the city, citizens stopped in the middle of their work.
Merchants, soldiers, children, and laborers all looked upward as the heavens themselves ignited with blue-white light.
People shielded their faces from the impossible brightness.
Far away, atop Everwinter Hill, where the Stellaron lay embedded within the heart of the frozen land, the golden orb began to tremble violently.
It struggled.
It screamed.
Golden energy surged outward in desperate resistance.
But the blue-white light swallowed it completely.
The Stellaron was overwhelmed.
And was erased from existence.
Far beyond Jarilo-VI, aboard the Astral Express, Welt was quietly looking at his phone while Himeko enjoyed a cup of coffee. Pom-Pom busied himself cleaning the carriage.
Suddenly, the planet outside the window began shining with an immense blue-white radiance.
All three turned toward the observation window.
Himeko: "This is ..."
Welt looked at the glowing world and smiled knowingly.
Welt: "It seems like Kouga is working his miracles again."
The light gradually faded.
Jarilo-VI, once a frozen world wrapped in endless ice and storm, now shone with a soft luminous blue glow.
Pom-Pom and Himeko stared in stunned silence.
Welt simply continued smiling.
Back on Jarilo-VI, outside Belobog's gates, the blue-white light finally subsided.
Cocolia, Gepard, the Silvermane Guards, Bronya, Seele, Caelus, March 7th, and Dan Heng slowly lowered their hands.
And froze.
The landscape before them had completely transformed.
The endless snowfields were gone.
The blizzard had vanished.
Stretching before them was a vast green field, covered in lush grass that swayed gently in a warm breeze.
Above them, the sky was no longer hidden behind gray clouds.
It was a brilliant, endless blue.
The distant mountains, once buried beneath eternal snow, were now covered in forests and thriving vegetation.
A clear river wound through the valley, sparkling beneath the sunlight, and fish could be seen swimming peacefully through its waters.
Birds circled high overhead.
Flowers bloomed across the meadows.
For the first time in seven hundred years...
Jarilo-VI had become a living world again.
Cocolia's voice trembled.
Cocolia: "This... this..."
Bronya stood speechless.
Tears filled her eyes.
Bronya: "It's a miracles."
The Silvermane Guards looked around in disbelief before breaking into cheers.
Silvermane Guard: "The snow is gone!"
Silvermane Guard: "Look at the sky!"
Silvermane Guard: "We're saved... We're finally saved!"
Silvermane Guard: "The Eternal Freeze is over!"
Some of them fell to their knees.
Others laughed.
Several openly wept.
Seele looked up at the clear blue sky and the warm sun shining above them.
Tears silently streamed down her face.
Caelus, surprisingly, remained relatively calm.
Compared to watching Kouga trade blows with Nanook inside Herta's Simulated Universe, this felt almost expected.
March looked from the restored world to Kouga, who stood quietly with the breeze moving through the grass around him.
March 7th: "Maybe Mr.Yang wasn't wrong when he said Kouga is qualify as a god."
Dan Heng watched the transformed planet in silence.
Then he slowly nodded.