Chained Soldier: When a Rider Answer Mato's Calls Chapter 50 47: The Entity Within the Rider

I was lying down, my eyes closed, but I could feel sothing beneath my back.

When I opened them, all I saw was a dark sky filled with stars. I groaned and cracked my neck as I sat up, stretching my body with a frown. I had expected to be back in my apartnt after the trouble we got into, but that clearly wasn't the case.

I turned my head from side to side, trying to make sense of where I was.

Taking a better look, I realized there was nothing around except countless flowers in shades of purple, red, blue, gray, green, and yellow blooming around my feet. There was nothing else in sight. No bugs, no small animals, not even rocks.

"Is there anyone here!" I shouted, raising my voice as I slowly moved my foot. "If you're pranking , Isadora, it's not funny!"

After so ti passed with no response from anyone or anything that could even remotely be considered alive, I started to feel uneasy. It would have been at least a little better if Isadora were here with right now, but that clearly wasn't happening.

The flowers were pretty, though a little strange. Each of them emitted a faint glow that matched the color of their petals.

The last thing I could rember was a sudden wave of dizziness hitting after I undid my transformation. After that, everything went blank. My partner really hadn't been kidding when she said the combo would take a huge toll on my body. I only felt the consequences after I removed the suit, the exhaustion crashing into like a speeding train.

Squinting both my eyes, I noticed sothing in the distance that caught my attention.

A Tombstone.

Three of them actually.

Compared to the strange glowing flowers brushing against my feet, it looked completely normal. Instead of feeling relieved, that only made more suspicious. It was far too normal compared to everything else around it.

"Nothing to do here anyway," I said with a shrug. "I guess I'll take a closer look."

What's the worst that could happen?

As I walked closer, I was t with absolute silence the entire way. Honestly, it made the place feel even creepier. I still had no idea where I was, or if getting out of here was even possible.

Don't tell this is the afterlife?

Please, God, no. I still have a lot of things I want to do with my life, and I still haven't even seen the upcoming Evangelion movie.

"Hold on."

I stopped the mont I reached it. Placing my hand on its rough surface, I noticed sothing carved into it. Sothing very familiar. Three Core dal symbols were embedded in the tombstone, but unlike the ones I usually saw, these were completely different. They weren't marine animals, mammals, or even birds.

"A dinosaur?" That was the only word that slipped out of my mouth.

I wasn't a big fan of dinosaurs when I was a kid, but I could still recognize these easily. One of my classmates in elentary school had a toy set of them, along with a book that featured the sa creatures.

A T-Rex, a Pteranodon, and a Triceratops. Three ancient beings that road the planet countless ages ago.

My mory wasn't the best, but I was pretty damn sure she had ntioned Core dals with these three dinosaurs on them before. They were connected to the previous Kan Rider OOO, and that guy nad Dr. Maki who turned into a Greeed after assimilating with them.

She once explained that these weren't part of the usual set of dals like the ones I used. They couldn't be paired with normal Core dals and could only be used as a complete combo.

One thing had been made crystal clear to . These Core dals were never ant to fall into the wrong hands since the three of them were dangerous as hell.

So why were they right in front of ?

"What the actual heck is happening right now?" I groaned, scratching my head. Instead of answers, all I seed to find were even more questions.

As I glanced to my left, sothing suddenly entered my view.

Soone was sitting beside the tombstone as if she had been there the entire ti, gazing up at the sky without a single care in the world.

It was a woman.

A familiar looking woman who had been with for quite so ti now.

But there were clear differences. Instead of her usual red hair, it was now a deep shade of purple. She wore a ceremonial robe rather than her usual gothic dress. Her eyes matched the sa shade of purple as her hair, and her lips carried the soft color of lavender.

Aside from that, her face and skin tone were exactly like Isadora's.

But I knew imdiately that she wasn't my partner.

The atmosphere around her alone made that obvious. Her expression was completely stoic, the total opposite of Isadora's usual cheerful smile and warm presence.

Those eyes.

They were empty and lifeless.

As if nothing in this world ant anything to her at all.

"Who are you?" I asked, my caution at its peak. I didn't have my belt or any way to defend myself if she turned out to be sothing like a Greeed like my partner. Still, staying on guard was better than doing nothing.

The woman let out an empty smile.

"You and I are the sa, OOO," she said, touching her lips with a finger. "I don't know who I am, nor do I know the purpose of my existence. All I know is that I am ant to destroy desire and return everything to nothingness."

I frowned, confused by her statent.

She stepped down from the tombstone and walked toward , stopping just inches from my face.

Shit. I couldn't move.

My body had frozen in place even though every instinct in my head was screaming danger.

She raised her hand and gently placed it against my cheek, slowly caressing it.

A soft, mocking giggle escaped her lips.

"Look at you. Poor thing. You don't even realize that the path you're walking isn't sunshine and rainbows," she said with a creepy, ominous smile. Her purple eyes looked like they could tear apart if I stared into them too long. "Do you really think you can save everyone just by being a Kan Rider?"

Seeing that expression, I instinctively swatted her hand away.

Even if she had Isadora's face, the way she was acting right now was far too unsettling.

"What are you?" I asked as I slowly stepped back.

She glanced at the hand I had slapped away and slowly opened and closed it.

"Interesting," she said in a monotone voice. "So that's what it feels like when soone rejects ."

"Answer my question!" I scowled, forcing the words out after gathering every last scrap of courage I had left. My voice ca out sharper than I expected, but at that mont, I didn't care. I just needed an answer.

She didn't respond right away. For a second, she simply ignored , her gaze drifting elsewhere as if my demand wasn't even worth acknowledging. Then, slowly, her eyes returned to , calm and unreadable, which only made the silence feel heavier.

Without saying a word, she raised her hand and opened her palm.

A faint tallic sound rang out, and in the next instant, three objects shot out from her hand as if pulled by an invisible force. They spun briefly in the air before she caught them smoothly between her fingers, as though she had done it a thousand tis before.

"See these Core dals?" she said, holding up the three purple dals where I could clearly see them. Their surface reflected a strange, ominous glow. "You should be relieved that I'm existing here right now because otherwise—"

Before she finished her sentence, the dals sank back into her hand, as if her skin had swallowed them whole. This ti, however, the mont they disappeared, a sharp clinking noise echoed from inside her arm. The sound of Cell dals rattling together spread through her entire limb, unnatural and wrong, like sothing chanical was moving beneath her skin.

"It would be you who'd end up like this instead of ."

Her arm changed.

The color drained from it, turning pitch black, the surface twisting into sothing that looked nothing like human flesh. Sharp, purple claws extended from her fingers, long and jagged, catching the light with a cold gleam. She raised the arm in front of as if showing off a trophy, turning it slightly while staring at it with clear pride.

My body froze.

A real, unmistakable fear crawled up my spine when she reached toward with that hand. Every instinct scread at to move, but my legs refused to listen.

Just before her claws could touch , the arm shifted back to normal, the black surface fading as if it had never been there in the first place.

Only then did I realize I had been holding my breath the entire ti.

"This isn't so bad for our first etup."

"Why do you have that dal?!" I shouted, my voice echoing louder than I intended. The question burst out of before I could stop it, driven by equal parts confusion and panic.

She didn't flinch. Instead, she calmly pressed her hand against her chest, as if my reaction had been completely expected.

"You are mistaken, my dear OOO," she replied with a faint smile. "It is not I who has the dal… it is you."

My breath caught in my throat.

"You may not realize it yet," she continued, her voice steady and almost gentle, "but we are inside your consciousness. If you prefer another term, you could call this your inner world."

She slowly raised her hand, her fingers moving with deliberate elegance.

"I am rely a being that was ford because of the dal. My existence is what prevents your transformation into a Greeed."

"….."

No words ca out. My mind tried to process what she had just said, but the aning refused to settle properly, as if my thoughts themselves were slipping through my fingers.

"But it is still not the ti to share everything," she added, her tone turning quieter, yet far more serious than before.

She snapped her fingers.

The sound rang out sharply, like glass cracking in an empty room.

"Until the next ti we et…Kan Rider OOO."

Before I could ask anything else, before I could even move, the world around began to fall apart. My body felt strangely light, as if it were breaking into pieces I couldn't see. The sensation spread from my fingertips to the rest of my form, my vision fading along with it.

I tried to speak, but no sound ca out.

All I could do was watch as my own body slowly disintegrated, dissolving into nothing before the darkness swallowed everything.