Another few days quickly passed.
Recently, Zawame City had gradually become unsettled, with rifts appearing everywhere. Raven felt it was necessary to seek out the Over Lords of Helheim. He needed to, at minimum, devour one to see what kind of abilities his main body could evolve.
So, he "requested a few days off" from Akira, saying he had to travel to another city. He then ventured alone into the deeper parts of the forest.
Meanwhile, Kouta and Kaito had made several attempts to break into Yggdrasill's stronghold in Helheim to uncover more of the truth and find evidence to expose them to the public.
Eventually, Takatora personally intervened, fighting Kouta in the forest before engaging him in a discussion. He revealed some of Helheim's secrets, attempting to convince Kouta to stop opposing them.
Unexpectedly, after a period of confusion, Kouta still firmly believed that Yggdrasill's policy of concealing the truth was wrong.
Right after this, however, he was ambushed by Sid, who informed him that if the situation escalated to a point where Yggdrasill could no longer hide it, the weapon atop the Yggdrasill Tower would destroy Zawame City.
Kouta was utterly shocked by this news. He quickly defeated Sid in his Jimber form and rushed back, wanting to consult with Raven. He felt that Raven would know how to solve this problem.
"Raven-aniki!"
Kouta rushed into the shop, looking extremely panicked. His sister, Akira, looked at him, confused, and asked, "What's wrong, Kouta? Why are you so panicked?"
"I... I have something I need to talk to Raven-aniki about."
Kouta truly wanted to tell his sister the truth. But then he remembered what Takatora had told him—not everyone wants to live in fear.
"He's out of town on some business for the next few days," Akira said with a sense of helplessness. She didn't know what the "business" Raven spoke of was, and he hadn't told her. She couldn't even reach him by phone. Fortunately, the shop had recently hired a very capable employee who had helped take a lot of the burden off her.
"Oneechan, please tell me the moment Raven-aniki returns."
After saying that, Kouta left without looking back.
"Hey, where are you going now? You haven't done any proper work for days!" Akira was furious at the sight. "It's all Raven's fault for constantly indulging him," she complained.
She was starting to realize what Kouta had been up to all these days, and she was angry because she didn't want him doing such dangerous things anymore.
....
Meanwhile, inside Helheim.
Kaito had partnered with Ryoma and had spent the last few days scattering various language books, dictionaries, and thesauruses deep within the forest. The goal was to draw out the rulers of this forest, the Over Lords among the Inves. They were the only ones who knew the location of the Forbidden Fruit, so Kaito hoped they might learn human language, making communication possible.
"Finally, I've found you."
Kaito was excited when he saw a red figure in the distance. The being that appeared before him was the Over Lord known as Demushu. He had been studying the language books Kaito left behind and had acquired a rudimentary understanding of human speech. However, he felt incredibly jealous of human civilization, seeing how prosperous they were while his own civilization had been destroyed.
This gave rise to the idea of destroying everything.
So, right in front of Kaito, he tore up the dictionary and mockingly shouted, "You monkeys."
However, Kaito's only goal was to draw out the opponent. Seeing that Demushu intended to fight was exactly what he wanted. He took out the Banana Lockseed and transformed into Kamen Rider Baron to engage him in battle.
As they were clashing, Kouta was hit with another blow.
He had planned to go ahead and destroy the weapons system on the Yggdrasill Tower himself, but Takatora took him to see a video. It was a video of Takatora personally defeating the very first Inves. The true form of that Inves was the missing captain of Team Gaim, Yuya.
This revelation was a massive shock to Kouta. He once again slunk away from Yggdrasill.
Kouta went to the fruit parlor he often frequented.
"Is this really the only way left?"
He thought about what Ryoma and Takatora had told him. Facing the erosion of Helheim, humanity's only choice was to adapt to it through the mass-produced Sengoku Drivers. But there was only enough material on Earth to create one billion belts. This meant the remaining six billion people would face destruction.
"Where on Earth did Raven-aniki go at a time like this..."
Kouta's instinct was still to seek help from Raven.
"But even Raven-aniki is probably helpless when faced with something like this," Kota muttered gloomily, taking a sip of juice.
At that moment, Kouta seemed to fall into a hallucination. The environment around him shifted from the fruit parlor to Team Gaim's base, where he saw Mai, with her hair dyed white, who spoke a lot of confusing words to him, mentioning the Over Lords.
Then the scene shifted again, returning to the fruit parlor.
This time, however, there was no one in the shop. Sitting on a distant sofa was an extremely familiar figure: DJ Sagara. He said many things to Kouta, but his ultimate goal was to incite him to fight. He told Kouta that there was someone among the Inves who could control Helheim, named Rosyuo. Finally, he left behind a handmade Kachidoki Orange Lockseed before disappearing.
And so, Kouta, having gained new hope, rallied once again. He decided to destroy the weapon on the Yggdrasill Tower.
As for Raven, he had also been following the various traces Kaito left in the forest. By chance, he found Kaito in the middle of a battle with the Over Lord Demushu.
"Ugh!"
With his eyes closed, Kaito, using the Sengoku Driver and the Banana Lockseed—even having switched to the Mango Lockseed—was no match for the Over Lord Demushu. He was knocked back, gasping, and viciously stomped underfoot.
"I finally found you guys."
Raven stepped forward excitedly.
Demushu was instantly startled.
"Another monkey!" he quickly reacted, shouting disdainfully at Raven.
He then ignored Kaito, who was now unable to fight under his foot, and charged straight at Raven.