Seriously... her again?
That simple phrase captured the mood in the Doctor's office perfectly. Though Ling might not have been too familiar with Theresa—or whoever she was now—everyone else certainly was. Even Nian, despite her often carefree attitude, had been involved in enough of Lungmen's various Knightmare incidents to know that Theresa was a habitual troublemaker.
After the Blood Demon Lord's disaster led to the collapse of Lungmen's slums, and after the extraction of the Tikaz blood from Theresa's body—followed by the Snow Demon incident—everyone assumed she'd finally vanish for a while. No such luck.
Now, somehow, she was targeting Sui.
What could she possibly want from the Year Beast? Or was it just her usual obsession with interfering with Amiya's path? Either way, every time she tried to obstruct Amiya, she failed—and worse (for her), Amiya came out stronger. She even indirectly helped Amiya gain a new Kamen Rider ally during the Blood Demon incident.
This pattern of sabotaging herself made everyone start to question her motives. Was Theresa actually a double agent on their side?
Yet every encounter with her made it clear: she genuinely disliked Amiya's relentless march toward kingship. That emotion was real.
It reminded Fangzhou, oddly enough, of the twisted bond between Kuroshin and AgitΩ.
"Speaking of which… how exactly did you even make this thing?"
Nian's plush form bounced up onto Amiya's shoulder, rubbing her fluffy cheek against Amiya's face. The sensation made Amiya giggle uncontrollably.
Fangzhou, instead of answering, looked at Ling. Clearly, she wanted her to explain.
Ling lounged on the sofa with a flushed face and a wine gourd in hand, seemingly oblivious to the stares. She took another sip, swirled her finger, and finally spoke lazily:
"Ah… that? We used the same method Xi used."
"Huh? Oh! Right!" Nian's round body rolled across the floor as her mind clicked. "So that's how she managed to collect all the powers. Not only could she command her own monsters, she even made copies of your constructs, Ling, used that dumb weaver's threads, and wielded Shimo's abilities like her own."
She rolled back and forth, round and puffy, catching Jingzhe's gaze. The qilin couldn't stop watching.
To think—this little plush was once a feared Year Beast, someone even the imperial court feared. It made Jingzhe wonder... if the capital's exiled criminal, the once-mighty Year Beast agent, had all her power stripped away, would she also turn into something this adorable?
The thought refused to leave her head. All she knew about that "sinner" came from elders' stories: a brilliant military mind, but physically weak—even too frail to flip a chessboard properly when angry.
"She did sketch all twelve of us once, didn't she?"
As Ling said this, Nian immediately understood.
"All twelve paintings had a 'god' in them... so she used those 'divine images' combined with Sui's essence to craft those powers?"
"Exactly. But since it was just a sliver of godhood, Xi's fusion—what's it called, a Synthetic Rider or something?—wasn't at full strength. Even with Wang's help inside the fusion, she couldn't fully activate the powers. Unless she starts hunting her siblings and absorbing them one by one, she'll never wield their full potential."
Absorbing her siblings one by one?
That's exactly what Xi was doing now.
"No wonder she wants to 'merge' with us. She's after the divine authorities we each carry."
Nian's voice was sour, but Ling shook her head. Her long tail coiled around the plush Nian and lifted her until they were face to face.
"That's not quite right. From the brief moment I looked into her, I can tell… the real Xi is buried deep inside. The one controlling her body now—that isn't truly Xi. Or not entirely."
"Oh great, not this again…"
Nian rolled her eyes dramatically. "I hate this kind of 'she is, but she isn't' talk. It always ends up reminding me of things I don't want to remember."
"Whatever the truth, we'll deal with it later. The real problem now is that the Year Beast avatar is causing chaos in Lungmen. We need to put a stop to it."
Jingzhe's voice brought everyone back to focus. She was right. The top priority was stopping the distorted Year Beast entity using Xi's body. Only by using the Drive Core of the Year to tame or seal it could they stop the oncoming disaster.
Two days remained until the New Year.
If this wasn't handled before then, the people of Lungmen would spend their holiday trapped in a battlefield of masked riders. Jingzhe wasn't about to let that happen.
"But we've got a problem," Ling said, putting away her wine gourd and eyeing Amiya's hand—the one holding the Drive Core.
That small device held a fraction of Sui's true power. A tiny fraction, yes—but complete in its authority. Handing it over, even for the greater good, wasn't something Ling did lightly.
But they had no choice.
As agents of the Year Beasts, they were creatures of recorded history. And that made them especially vulnerable to the chaotic distortions brought by the rogue Year Beast. Fighting it directly would be impossible.
They had to rely on experts like Amiya.
"What is it?" Jingzhe asked, her thunder-gaze falling on Ling.
But Ling just looked at the plush Nian still swinging from her tail.
"You feel it too, don't you?"
"Yeah, yeah, I feel it..." Nian grumbled, kicking her stubby legs in the air. She tried to escape the tail's grip, but she was far too round and soft to break free.
"I can't sense Xi at all anymore. Before, she was faint, but still there. Now—nothing. Gone. Not a single trace in Lungmen."
The room went quiet.
"Has she… already left Lungmen?" Talulah wondered aloud, frowning. "If so, where would she go?"
Then it hit her—an awful thought.
What if she went to Canaan?
"No," Nian replied instantly. "Your city's still within my sensing range. If I can't feel her there either, then she's probably not in Canaan."
Which meant she wasn't in Lungmen… and wasn't in Canaan.
Then where the hell was she?
"Is this a joke? We finally have a way to fight her, and now she's vanished?" Talulah slammed both hands on Fangzhou's desk in frustration. She tugged at her hair, already disheveled, until it looked worse than ever. Chen Hui-jie sighed and gently smoothed it out for her.
"No need to panic."
The voice came from the corner.
Kelsey had been silent this whole time, watching the room carefully. Now she finally spoke.
"If this were just about the agent named Xi, then yes—we'd be in trouble. But if the real mastermind is still Precius, then she hasn't left."
"You saying me and Ling are wrong?" Nian asked, annoyed.
Kelsey smiled to herself.
You laugh that I don't understand Year Beasts. I laugh that you don't understand Precius.
"Every major incident involving distorted history in Lungmen has one thing in common: they all point back to Amiya. Precius's target has always been her. So long as Amiya remains in Lungmen, so will Precius and her schemes."
"So what?" Nian said with a deadpan stare. "You gonna magic her out of thin air for us?"
"No," Kelsey said. "That's the Doctor's job."
"…Fine, fine. I swear, you people never give me a break."