[Please stay, fellow daoist!]
The moment Shuhu gave the order, the countless tendrils spreading from its body swarmed toward Hoshigaki Sora.
In an instant, Sora's surroundings were completely sealed off.
Golden tendrils converged, condensing into a round pill.
[One fellow daoist refined; one Golden Pill forged.]
Shuhu's tone carried a trace of grief, as if it truly hated to see Sora die.
But for the Heaven of Eternal Bliss to be successfully built, deaths like this meant nothing.
So it swallowed the Golden Pill and refined it with all its might.
Yet even after the pill had been completely digested, not a wisp of power surged out.
Had it failed?
No!
Shuhu's gaze snapped to the side. At a tear in space where a zipper had been pulled open, Sora stood there.
He'd used the Helheim Forest to slip out of Shuhu's encirclement.
Even so, the sheer pressure of Shuhu's power made it hard for him to get close.
[Why struggle to the bitter end, fellow daoist?]
Every head on the tree-trunk spoke at once, layered sutra-chants washing over him until his thoughts turned murky.
Shuhu blossomed again like a flower, golden boughs exploding outward, trying to coil around Sora once more.
"Because I noticed something," Sora said. "Your power… and the power I'm using now, they're similar."
He flicked a hand, and countless Inves surged into existence around him, throwing themselves into the tendrils.
The Helheim Forest was the thing that had dragged innumerable worlds into ruin. Countless lives had eaten its fruit and become Inves.
But once Kouta Kazuraba took control of it, Helheim became a power that could make a dead planet live again.
Shuhu was the inverse of that.
One was once something everyone fled from at first sight—only to become a cradle of life.
The other had once existed to protect life—only to become something all living beings fled from at first sight in this universe.
Both were racing madly toward the opposite end of where they began.
"So I'm going to use this power to stop you."
No one understood better than him what Helheim would become without someone to rein it in.
If Shuhu broke free from here, who knew how many would fall to its poison hands?
[Then be careful, fellow daoist.]
As it spoke, grotesque things suddenly clung to Shuhu's roots.
Stone. Bleeding flesh. Trees. Insect eggs…
They'd been hidden deep in the planet, and now, under Shuhu's violent pull, they were all yanked out into the open.
Their shapes were twisted, but the power inside them was identical.
"This…!"
Sora's face changed.
They were all Blessings of Abundance.
Once, Bolue had used Mount Buzhou to amplify such blessings through resonance
Now Shuhu had dragged out so many and seized them all—this was a disaster waiting to happen!
Sora reacted in a flash, summoning countless vines to snatch the Blessings of Abundance away.
But—
[Too slow, fellow daoist.]
In the next moment, the Blessings of Abundance all went dull.
Their power was siphoned into Shuhu, and a strange ripple burst outward from it, sweeping across space.
...
In a corner of the cosmos, a figure wreathed in endless radiance was at work.
With a woman's visage and a man's body, six arms and two legs, fissures spiderwebbing across THEIR form, and red fruits like eyes growing from THEIR face—THEY swung a life-bearing sheaf of wheat. Light spilled out, granting an Abundance blessing of immortality to the living planet before THEM.
On the surface, countless creatures felt vitality surge within them. Illness faded. Lifespans stretched.
This was the immortality so many intelligent species yearned for.
They gathered to cheer. They leapt and shouted with joy.
And all of it was reflected in the gaze of that radiant figure.
For THEIR true identity was one of the best-known AEONS in the universe—
YAOSHI, AEON of the ABUNDANCE.
THEY shared THEIR power freely with all life in the cosmos. The beings before THEM were only one among the countless species THEY had aided.
The blessing given, THEY should have set out once more for the next world.
And then, as if a stone had been dropped into the Path, ripples churned through it.
The creatures who had been cheering a moment ago twisted into grotesque changes under that disturbance.
Uncontrolled growth ran rampant, strangling its hosts; Abominations of Abundance wailed across the land.
"Divine one! Divine one, we don't want it anymore—we don't want it anymore!"
The one who had been happiest to receive immortality now begged the figure in the cosmos.
No more. No more.
Pain gnawed at his mind until he could barely resist it.
He could only pray to the benevolent god who answered all pleas—to take back every last trace of divine power.
But what filled him with despair was that YAOSHI simply turned away and left from the edge of the world.
Pain and hopelessness spread through him. The cries of his people rang in his ears.
Only when a beam of light pierced the planet from the void did the suffering finally end.
YAOSHI knew nothing of this.
THEY saw the one who had caused the Path to riot.
A golden giant tree had revived within the Path, and the sight filled THEM with delight.
That was Shuhu—also a fellow daoist who had once debated the Way with THEM.
It had once said: all beings are trapped in flesh, and from that imprisonment come the troubles of immortality, the plagues of disease.
So it would use its own body to build the Heaven of Eternal Bliss. Then all beings would no longer be entangled by worldly shackles.
Cast aside the body that cages the mind. Let the consciousness of countless beings be housed within it.
And in the end, it would become the sole truly immortal entity in the world.
Then there would be no more sickness, no more fear for life and death.
Every life would find, within the Heaven of Eternal Bliss, the happiness best suited to it.
That almost perfectly matched what YAOSHI so often said:
[LET ALL SENTIENT BEINGS OBTAIN WHAT THEY SEEK.]
Yet YAOSHI understood: for Shuhu to achieve the Heaven of Eternal Bliss was impossible.
It was a venture fated to fail, because countless lives could never all become what Shuhu dreamed.
As expected, that golden tree was felled one day—hacked apart, leaving only ash.
Some beings were born strong and loved to enslave others. Some looked weak as dust, yet possessed spirits harder than steel.
This was not something Shuhu could solve alone.
If Shuhu truly could achieve the Heaven of Eternal Bliss, then YAOSHI would willingly enter extinction.
But though THEY knew it could not be, THEY still granted Shuhu THEIR blessing.
Because THEY were that kind of selfless AEON.
No matter who it was—even an enemy—if they sought THEM out, THEY would help all the same.
And now Shuhu had revived, absorbing blessings and stirring resonance through the Path.
[GOOD. GOOD.]
YAOSHI spoke again and again, deeply pleased.
[REBIRTH AFTER EXTINCTION—YOU MUST HAVE GAINED INSIGHT UPON YOUR WAY, FELLOW DAOIST.]
Since a fellow daoist had attained enlightenment, it would be improper not to offer a gift.
So the golden grains on THEIR wheat sheaf, as if summoned, slipped into the void.
[MAY YOUR UNDERTAKING COME TO FRUITION.]
In an instant, several sheaves crossed endless star seas and landed in Shuhu's hands.
Shuhu also shaped a figure—its most primordial form—and bowed toward that stretch of the cosmos.
[MANY THANKS, FELLOW DAOIST.]
What those grains contained was YAOSHI's understanding of the Way of Abundance—exactly what Shuhu lacked most.
It was help in a snowstorm: enough to let it press Sora down and carve open the Heaven of Eternal Bliss.
With that, Shuhu swallowed the grains.
Sora's expression turned razor-sharp. He had no idea what Shuhu might become.
But after a long, tense beat, Shuhu didn't change much at all.
Its body, bigger than a planet, still stood in the cosmos—only its color seemed a shade deeper than before.
"Did it… take too many supplements and drop dead?"
Sora was already daydreaming.
Only, that was impossible.
Shuhu had merely been digesting the insights inside the grains.
With countless consciousnesses within it grinding away at the understanding, Shuhu completely assimilated those few grains.
Its body immediately flared with radiance brighter than a supernova.
That brilliance pierced countless light-years, even shining upon Xianzhou ships far, far away.
Living beings needed only to glimpse that light for their attention to be completely seized by its power.
In their hearts, only one thought remained:
"The Sanctus Medicus's compassion endures; the Ambrosial Arbor burgeons. With one heart, the sowers ascend—to bliss."
On the front line, Sora was pressed down in an instant.
Helheim Forest's vines had still been able to contend with Shuhu before, but after Shuhu finished digesting the grains, they even showed signs of being assimilated.
Sensing something wrong, Sora personally struck, severing the vines that had begun to turn.
Even so, it didn't change the fact he was losing ground.
[AS THE SAYING GOES: THOSE WHO FOLLOW THE WAY HAVE MANY TO AID THEM; THOSE WHO LOSE IT HAVE FEW. WHY ARE YOU STILL SO BLIND, FELLOW DAOIST?]
Shuhu's vast body swayed. Countless golden tendrils danced again.
In Sora's eyes, the star sea overhead changed color in an instant.
Shuhu's assault was like a whole world overturning at once—beneath that flood of gold, Sora's silver figure could only be swallowed.
At last… at last, I can prove the Way…
Shuhu felt smoother than it had ever been.
It had dreamed for thousands of years, schemed for thousands of years—today, it would finally see the fruit of its proof.
With Sora's power, it could forge the Heaven of Eternal Bliss.
The universe would be rewritten in this moment!
The streak of silver that was Sora looked tiny beneath the golden ocean.
It seemed like a dead end—
Until, amid the gold like a smear of mixed paint, an azure flare rose.
That was—
"Fire!!!"
Feng Liqi's shout rang out, so loud you'd never believe it could come from her.
The once-timid girl showed her charisma in full.
Back then, she would hide in rock walls in fear—trying to make herself smaller, even sticking her backside out so they'd think less of her.
But now, that azure flame spread as wide as the sky.
Thick beams poured in like rain.
The Xianzhou Cangyan—still stood!
The bombardment did almost nothing to Shuhu.
But it was enough for Sora to slip out of the encirclement.
Once he reached the outside, the brush with death still had him gasping.
He looked at Feng Liqi beside him, baffled. "You picked up Ahri—why haven't you left?"
This wasn't a place ordinary people could meddle in anymore.
One mistake, and Shuhu would swallow their flesh and enslave their souls.
"Because… because…"
Maybe because she was facing Sora again, Feng Liqi's stammer and timidity returned.
Even so, she didn't step back an inch.
Even so, the Xianzhou Cangyan's cannon fire never slowed.
"Because this time, they won't be leaving," said the platinum flame that was Xi, voicing Feng Liqi's decision.
Sora was about to snap, "This is—"—
But Feng Liqi cut him off.
"No retreat. No surrender. It's everyone's decision."
She lifted her head. Her eyes still trembled with fear, but she looked straight at Sora anyway.
Behind them, silhouettes burned with Heliobi fire.
The faces at the front were middle-aged, elderly, young—but the excitement in their expressions didn't waver.
When Rahu came, they could only watch helplessly.
This time, they could finally make up for that regret.
"Reporting in, General!!"
They paused, clenching their weapons.
The Heliobi beside them flared wilder with the surging emotion in their hearts.
Before the golden giant tree that dwarfed planets, motes of multicolored fire reignited.
"We'll fight to the death—!!!!"
They were insignificant, but that roar was enough to make the galaxy tremble.
Feng Liqi said nothing more. Determination flashed in her gaze as she left Sora's side.
Mount Buzhou stones materialized in the void, encasing each Cangyan soldier in armor.
This stone armor transmuted their fear into unstoppable courage.
"What is this? What kind of madness is this?" Phantylia stared at the clusters of sparks charging Shuhu, astonishment beyond words.
Why were these Heliobi acting like lunatics, tangled up with humans?
Didn't they know to protect themselves—to withdraw at the first sign of danger?
Phantylia was a Heliobus too, and she couldn't understand what her own kind was doing.
But when she looked at that motley fire, she couldn't help remembering Shuhu's words.
Those who follow the Way have many to aid them; those who lose it have few.
It almost fit Shuhu now.
After all, plenty of people had come to help Sora.
But she quickly shook her head.
"I've lost it. How dare I compare these weaklings to an AEON?"
Shuhu had help from YAOSHI.
The ones helping Sora were less than cosmic dust.
Even if their contracts with the Heliobi let them resist Shuhu's temptations…
Thinking they could slay Shuhu with a bunch of nobodies was pure fantasy.
Sora's defeat was already set in stone.
These people joining in would only make Shuhu stronger.
"Tsk. What a boring fight," Phantylia muttered.
Just as she decided Sora's loss was inevitable…
The Bai Ze spoke up. "We're joining too!"
Their words left Ahri at a loss. "But the ship to take you home is already ready. If we delay any longer…"
This place would become dangerous.
Even Ahri could tell from the flow of battle that Shuhu had the upper hand.
If it came to it, even the Xianzhou Cangyan's main ship would have to enter the fight.
Which meant the Bai Ze had to leave now, if they wanted to leave at all.
"But we can't watch Lord Longzhang fight up front while we run off with our tails between our legs!"
"We're Lord Longzhang's followers—you can't leave us out!"
"Lord Longzhang ended up like this to cover us. We Bai Ze are fighting too!"
One after another, their voices turned the place into a racket.
Ahri could only feel helpless. Looking at their cute little bodies, she couldn't imagine what they could possibly do.
"Can you even hold a sword? Or a gun?"
These Bai Ze had lived without conflict for so long they didn't even know how to aim a ship's cannons.
What could they do?
The question made them flush red at once.
"We're useful too!"
They turned toward Shuhu—the golden giant bigger than a planet—and shut their eyes.
Fear. Unease. Terror…
In their perception, that was all Shuhu radiated.
So how could it be defeated?
The Bai Ze shifted their thinking and began to deduce every twist and turn.
Ahri watched, with her own eyes, as their faces began to age.
They were burning their own life force to calculate.
"You—!"
Ahri tried to stop them, but they wouldn't listen.
With their frail bodies, they searched desperately for a way to bring Shuhu down.
Among the Denizens of the Abundance, they'd suffered humiliation after humiliation—until Sora arrived, and only then did they finally live comfortably.
And now Sora had kept his promise to take them home.
Of course they wanted a good person to get a good ending.
Ahri fell silent for a long time. At last, she spread her tails wide.
Abundance power covered them, slowing the visible aging.
And with that support, they finally found an answer.
"It's that huge iron sphere! There's someone inside who can burn this tree away!"
They cheered.
They could help after all.
It just cost them a little life—leaving them only two or three years more.
Even so, the Bai Ze did everything they could for the one who had helped them first.
An iron sphere?
Ahri blinked, confused—until their reminder made something click.
That thing…?
...
"That iron sphere is the Xianzhou Zhuming's engine core, and inside it lies…"
She didn't need to finish.
Xi had already fallen silent. How could Xi not know what lay within?
Their father. The Heliobi leader—the Sui Emperor.
Ahri took the chance to explain what the Denizens of the Abundance had planned: to use the Sui Emperor to refine the Reignbow Arbiter's arrow.
If Sora hadn't disrupted it, the plan might actually have worked.
But Sora's appearance forced Shuhu to upend everything early, throwing the whole plan into chaos.
Now the Sui Emperor lay quietly on the planet beneath Shuhu.
"Leave this to me," Xi said.
The front line still needed Feng Liqi. Ahri was flesh and blood; she couldn't go in.
So the burden fell on Xi.
Before leaving, Xi specifically told Ahri, "Don't tell Feng Liqi. And pass a message to Sora for me."
She paused. "About… that thing with his body back then. I'm sorry. I hope he'll accept this apology, even if it's late. And…"
She stopped again, then finally smiled. "Never mind. That's all."
Listening to the dead tone on the other end, Ahri sighed. "You're really making this hard for me…"
Xi didn't care.
Following the resonance from deep in her soul, she slid down Shuhu's trunk, all the way to the massive iron sphere shaped like a lotus seed.
Someone had already pried open the engine cover. The heat had turned the area into a dead zone.
The platinum fire that was Xi hovered above, staring into the darkness, hesitation flickering.
Feng Liqi's warning echoed in her ears: "After you fused with the Flame Lord and were scattered, if you fuse with another Heliobus now, you'll become pure energy."
Meaning: from now on, Xi shouldn't fuse with any Heliobus.
Because of that fusion with the Flame Lord, her Heliobi origin was already in tatters.
If she fused again, she would become fuel.
Her consciousness would be erased completely—never to recover.
But even if it meant death and the end of the Way, she had to do it.
The platinum flame fell into the black fire.
Almost instantly, the light was stained through by darkness—no longer shining.
Father! Give us strength! If you still love your children, then give us the power to defeat Shuhu!
"Xi…"
A vast, silent consciousness woke after a long hush.
The black flames—dark as a black hole—boiled up again. Rare metals around it liquefied under the heat, flowing across the ground like iron water.
"In your state, you shouldn't be near me."
The dark-gray flame spat out a single platinum spark—Xi's last remnant.
The faint spark glimmered, as if pleading.
"So Wa has grown up enough to stand on her own…?"
The black flame calmed with a hint of relief—then jumped violently at what it heard next.
"Why would you trust humans? You, of all people, should trust them the least."
The platinum spark didn't flash. It only split itself once more, carving off a portion of its already tiny body.
The Sui Emperor saw it, felt it, and understood.
And also the final words she never spoke: because of you, I chose to believe.
Words she knew would only make things worse if spoken.
She didn't want her sister and that man to carry guilt. This was enough.
Xi—the one who could no longer fuse with other Heliobi—had survived all these years. If she could help at the end, that was enough.
"I see… someone made you pick trust up again."
The Sui Emperor watched the child who was almost extinguished.
This was the child who had inherited his most fierce, unbending temperament. After learning what had happened to him, she should have trusted no human ever again.
Yet here she was—coming with the resolve to die, just to wake him, for humanity's sake.
It was unimaginable.
His gaze lifted to the golden giant tree above.
Beside it, those motley flames still charged forward without stopping.
That azure was unmistakable—his other child, Wa.
The one who had always been most timid, most afraid of trouble, had grown into someone he could no longer read.
She could mediate the races. She could charge at the front. She could earn the trust of countless people.
So even if she inherited the timid part of his nature, she was still, undeniably, a child of the Sui Emperor.
The black flame representing the Sui Emperor burned quietly.
His decision was made.
"I'm an old-age remnant who made countless mistakes."
As he spoke, the flames surged as if called, pouring into the platinum spark that was about to go out.
In the next instant, the platinum flame reignited.
The Sui Emperor was burning his own consciousness-source to repair Xi's source.
They were father and child—of course they could do this.
Xi's mind returned from haze. She knew what he was doing.
But he stopped her sorrow.
Xi didn't know what to say, and in the end she could only force out, "Thank you, Father."
"Live well with Wa in this new era. That's the greatest thanks you can give me."
When the platinum fire could burn normally again, the only thing left behind was a shard of black crystal.
"Take it. It's the last thing LAN—that oathbreaking bastard—left behind."
"With it, you can easily defeat that tree."
"My children… live well with the people you've chosen to trust."
The voice faded from her ears as if it had never existed.
But Xi, restored and burning bright, proved he had been here.
The Sui Emperor's sacrifice pulled his disappointing child back from the brink—and handed this battlefield its last chance at victory.
"Father… I understand."
Xi didn't linger. She swept up the crystal and shot off like a meteor.
The tendrils Shuhu sent to block her couldn't stop Xi at full output.
They were torn through in an instant.
That momentum drew every eye on the front line.
Feng Liqi saw the familiar platinum blaze and gasped, joy in her voice.
"Xi?!"
Xi didn't answer. She hurled the Sui Emperor's final gift to Sora.
"You should know how to use this!"
Sora caught it. It looked like a lump of burnt slag—
Then, in his hand, it became a fruit.
"This is…"
ORIGIN FRUIT: THE HUNT
Sora was stunned at where Xi had gotten it, but he couldn't afford to space out.
Shuhu's attacks never stopped.
[THIS POWER SHOULD BE USED TO BUILD THE HEAVEN OF IMMORTALITY'S BLISS!]
[FELLOW DAOIST, YOU ARE STILL SO OBSTINATE!]
"Bullshit!"
Xi roared. Platinum fire spread madly.
A body with countless arms appeared—hands forming mudras as it manifested.
FLAME-WIELDING
FIRE-PURIFYING
SPIRIT-CRUSHING LORD.
With her origin restored, she could once more assume her strongest stance from back then.
The tendrils were ripped apart in an instant by innumerable arms, golden sap drifting across the starfield.
An Emanator of the HUNT? I could kill Teng Xiao—I can kill you too!
Shuhu immediately abandoned the others and made Xi its primary target.
An Emanator of the HUNT—this one, it had to erase with its own hands.
But the others weren't dead weight—especially with Feng Liqi here.
And the excitement of fighting alongside Xi again set her blood boiling.
With the field turning like this, Sora couldn't just stand and watch anymore.
He looked at the Origin Fruit in his hand and swallowed it.
His black hair bleached to snow in an instant.
Power surged through him so fiercely his whole body seemed to shine.
Even the Kiwami Lockseed changed under that radiance.
He slammed it onto his Driver.
"[Henshin]!"
'[LOCK OPEN]!'
The being racing through the universe paused for half a beat, sensing something faint.
Then THEY drew bow and nocked arrow, firing a Lux Arrow into a distant corner of space.
That Lux Arrow crossed countless light-years and arrived at Sora's side.
'[HUNT ARMS]!'
WHOOM—
Black flames burned over Sora, then slowly took on hues of yellow and blue.
The Sui Emperor was gone. Now the Heliobi leaders were platinum and azure!
The flames refined the Lux Arrow again and again, until it became a suit of armor that fitted itself onto Sora.
'[YAN-YAN-YAN-YAN-YANHUANG ARMS!]'
When the dazzling light finally faded, Shuhu stared, dumbfounded. The scene before it had transformed entirely.
At center stood Sora, his silver undersuit now armored in glittering gold and azure, a spear held elegantly like an archer's bow.
At his right stood the Flame Lord, countless blazing arms clutching fiery weapons.
At his left, an eight-tailed white fox spread soothing radiance, mending the wounds of countless warriors.
Behind them stretched an awe-inspiring army clad in brilliant azure stone armor.
Shuhu fell silent, bewildered, unable to grasp what had unfolded.
What was this supposed to be?
[WHAT ARE YOU?]
Why could he bear power like this?
"I'm just a passing-through Kamen Rider," Sora said. "Remember that!"
---
T/N: ohohohohohoho! og form so no pictures... anyway shuhu has all caps because they comphreneded whatever YAOSHI gave them, however they aren't an AEON so they do not get the THEY/THEM treatment nor is his name going to be in all CAPS, its just showing that he grew in power uhhhh what else
Sui Emperor uses Wa, because as we all know her real name is Nuwa he uses Wa as a nickname for her to match Xi
wait a minute... Wa XI, Wa(ng) Xi, HMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
anyway yea let me know if theres any mistakes and enjoy!