The pitch-black armor sealed shut beneath the blazing light of the dream. With the final seam locking perfectly into place, the eyes on the mask flared to life—not merely glowing, but burning like twin crimson flames.
At that moment, the gentle, harmless-looking young man from the video store and the calm, reassuringly powerful knight from the dream became one, perfectly overlapping, no longer distinguishable from each other.
Zhu Yuan forgot how to breathe.
(It's him!)
(It really is him!)
(That video store owner who always smiled at me… is the hero who protected me in my dreams?!)
Everything from before exploded through her mind like a kaleidoscope of shattered light: the awkward yet concerned look in his eyes when they first met at the Public Security Bureau, the steady hand he had extended to her on that dream train, and just moments ago—the absolute certainty in his gaze when he smiled and told her, "Let me be your hero."
All the clues, all the feelings, all the unanswered questions converged in this instant, becoming the terrifyingly majestic Rider before her, black as night and red as blood.
"You're still trying to play tricks?!" the Nightmare shrieked.
Its mechanical arms had only just begun to glow with dangerous red light, trying to produce more bombs, when ZZZ vanished from where he stood.
He was not simply fast—he moved as though space itself had folded, appearing directly in front of the Nightmare.
Boom—!!!
A single, unadorned punch smashed squarely into the creature's metallic face. Sparks erupted like fireworks amid the shriek of metal colliding with metal. The Nightmare's entire body was driven backward, its feet gouging deep trenches through the ground of the dream.
"You filthy bastard—!!" the Nightmare's electronic voice twisted into something unrecognizable with rage. Every bomb mechanism on its body entered overdrive at once, bathing it in blinding red light until it looked like a humanoid sun. "I'll erase all of you—along with this damned dream—from existence!!"
"Zhu Yuan!"
The voice of Zhe—or rather, the one who was now nothing but Kamen Rider ZZZ—came through the mask without the slightest tremor, steady as an ancient mountain.
"You are the ruler of this dream. Now listen to me. Picture a battlefield large enough for us to fight without holding back."
His gaze pierced through the mask and through space itself, locking onto Zhu Yuan's eyes with absolute precision. In those crimson compound eyes there was no hesitation, no request—only complete trust and an undeniable command.
"Send us all there. You can do it."
There was no reason for her to obey. No time to think.
Zhu Yuan closed her eyes and crushed every distracting thought. In her mind, the training ground of the Public Security Bureau took shape in an instant—the broad concrete yard, the towering wire fences, the targets gleaming white under the hot sun, the familiar scent of sweat and effort in the air…
The world reassembled itself with a thunderous crash.
When she opened her eyes again, the sun blazed overhead. Heat shimmered in the air. The three of them now stood in the middle of the vast training ground, solid concrete beneath their feet, open space stretching in every direction.
"Beautiful," came a low laugh from behind the mask, full of metallic resonance and satisfaction.
He raised a hand. Resting between his fingers was a capsule of pale red, engraved at its center with the image of a bat-like wing caught mid-flight. Under the scorching sunlight, molten light seemed to flow inside it.
With a flick of his finger, the capsule slid perfectly into the Driver core.
[WING!]
A sharp, piercing activation sound burst from the Driver, like the cry of a phoenix soaring into the heavens.
[Good morning! Rider! Zeztz·Zeztz·Zeztz! Wing——!!!]
Boom——!!!
A storm of pale red energy erupted like a volcanic blast, swallowing ZZZ's figure whole. The next second, the cocoon of light exploded outward.
A pair of enormous crimson energy wings unfurled behind him, spreading wide enough to blot out the sky.
Every feather was a sharpened crystal of pure power, its edges streaming with molten gold flames. Fully extended, the wings stretched nearly three meters across. Even the slightest movement of them stirred a scorching gale strong enough to force Zhu Yuan to squint against the wind.
The lines of his armor became sleeker, sharper, more elegant. Additional wing-like blades extended from his shoulders and legs. Suspended in the air under the blessing of those crimson wings, he looked like a divine executioner descending upon the world—a perfect fusion of beauty and violence, radiating an aura that could crush anything before it.
Wing Form.
"Warm-up's over," said the voice behind the mask, carrying an almost lazy amusement—yet edged with killing intent. "Now the real show begins."
With a roar, the Nightmare hurled a skyful of miniature bombs, swarming like locusts.
ZZZ did not even flinch. He simply brought both crimson wings forward in one fluid motion—
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom—!!!
The explosions came in an endless chain, drowning his body in fire and smoke.
"Zhe—!" Zhu Yuan's heart nearly stopped.
But in the very next moment—
A figure stepped calmly out from the heart of the inferno, like a blade cleaving through the sea.
The crimson wings trembled once, and every flame, every curl of black smoke, collapsed and vanished as if meeting its natural enemy. The wings were untouched, immaculate—not even a single scorch mark had marred them.
"That's all?" came Zhe's voice through the mask, colored with unmistakable disappointment.
His wings gave a tiny, almost casual vibration.
Then he became a bolt of crimson lightning, ripping through the air and shooting straight into the sky. A ring-shaped sonic boom bloomed behind him like a white halo crowning his ascent.
The Nightmare howled madly. Its entire body of cables and explosives surged with overcharged power, launching one massive bomb after another, each trailing a blazing tail and carrying enough destructive force to flatten a hill.
Zhe danced through the sky with effortless grace.
At times his crimson wings folded together into an absolute shield, silently deflecting and batting aside the bombs. At other times they spread like celestial blades, slicing through incoming projectiles in a single sweep and detonating them harmlessly high above.
Then, in the middle of a magnificent full spin, the energy crystals along his wings began to multiply and reshape.
"Fall."
Just one word.
Dozens of crimson blades detached from the wings, alive with murderous intent, raining down like a meteor shower.
Shhk! Shhk! Shhk! Shhk! Shhk—!!!
The Nightmare's limbs, body, and every joint that tried to move were skewered and nailed to the ground. It writhed there like an ugly insect pinned to a specimen board, struggling helplessly, utterly unable to move.
"N-no… impossible!!" the Nightmare cried, its electronic voice thick with despair. The core in its chest began flashing wildly, swelling with destructive light as it prepared one final desperate self-detonation.
"Noisy."
The cold voice came from above.
Zhe drew in his wings and tipped headfirst toward the earth, transforming into a scarlet meteor.
His wings spread fully behind him, every feather burning white-hot from friction against the air. He plunged downward with such force that the concrete below started cracking, melting, even vaporizing beneath the pressure before he had even landed.
[Wing Vanish! Ze! Ze! Zeztz!!!]
The Driver screamed in overclocked resonance, drowning out everything else like the countdown of death itself.
All that power poured into his legs. The armor around them glowed red-hot, like metal on the verge of melting in a forge.
"Rider—"
"—Kick!!!"
The meteor fell.
Heaven and earth were split apart.
That kick struck directly into the Nightmare's body.
There was no earth-shattering explosion.
Instead, a ring of crimson energy—red as infernal fire—burst outward from the point of impact in complete silence, expanding faster than thought itself.
Everything the wave touched—the Nightmare's bombs, its overloaded core, even the very strands of nightmare-data that made up its existence—was forcibly silenced, broken apart at the most fundamental level, dissolving into countless harmless golden motes.
With his back to that dazzling final scene, Zhe slowly lowered his stance. The battle should have ended there.
"H-how…?" The Nightmare dropped to its knees, its body already becoming transparent, dissolving like a sand sculpture.
And yet, in its very last instant before total annihilation, the most vicious remnant of its will lashed out with one final act of malice.
"If I die… then you're coming with me!!!"
Burning away what remained of itself, it forcibly reconstituted its dissolving body into a streak of scarlet light faster than thought, lunging directly at Zhu Yuan, who stood just a short distance away without any chance to defend herself. The destructive glow inside its body instantly reached its peak.
Mutual destruction.
If the dream's master died here, then the body in reality would suffer brain death as well.
Too fast.
Too close.
Zhu Yuan's pupils had only just contracted—
When a wall of crimson appeared before her.
ZZZ threw himself in front of her and body-checked the Nightmare's suicidal charge off course. His arms locked around the twisted body like unbreakable shackles, pinning it in place before it could explode.
"Zhe—!!!" Zhu Yuan's scream tore out of her throat.
In that desperate instant, he turned his head and looked back at her.
Even through the helmet, she could see it—the familiar, exasperated, yet impossibly gentle smile of that young man from the video store, trying to reassure her one last time.
"Let go of me! You madman! If you do this, you'll be blown to dust too!!" the Nightmare screamed, writhing in his grip as the glow inside it grew ever brighter.
"Blown to dust?" came a soft, arrogant laugh from behind the mask. "By you?"
The crimson wings blazed brighter than ever before and beat once with all their power.
"The timing of a hero's exit—"
"—isn't for you to write!"
Holding the Nightmare in his arms, he shot upward into the heavens like a reverse-falling scarlet comet.
Higher.
Higher.
Farther.
Until he became only a tiny point of light in the sky, burning with the brilliance of a newborn star.
And then—
Silently.
Magnificently.
Gloriously—
He bloomed.
There was no sound.
Only a rain of gold and crimson particles drifting gently through the air, like a blessing cast down from the heavens over the entire training ground.
One single crimson feather, woven from pure light, fluttered down into Zhu Yuan's outstretched palm.
It was warm.
Steady.
And then, slowly, it grew transparent, dissolving into light.
The dream began to collapse.
"Hah—!"
Zhu Yuan jolted upright from her desk, her uniform soaked through with sweat. Tears had already spilled unchecked across her face, soaking the reports spread out beneath her hands.
Outside, the afternoon sun blazed harsh and bright. The clock pointed coldly to 1:37 PM.
Shaking, she clenched her hand tight.
Her palm was empty.
And yet the image of those crimson wings slicing through the heavens, that final backward glance filled with warmth and resolve, and that grand, wordless ending that had shaken her soul—had already been branded into the depths of her being, never to fade.
"Zhu Yuan? You're awake? Your face—" Qingyi's concerned voice came from nearby.
But before she could finish—
Zhu Yuan had already shot to her feet like a storm.
She burst out of the office, slammed through the door, raced past her stunned coworkers, and flew down the stairs, leaving Qingyi's voice and every other thought far behind.
There was only one blazing, all-consuming certainty in her mind now—
Sixth Street.
Immediately.
Right now.
She had to see him.
She had to confirm with her own eyes that he was safe.
And then… then…
She didn't know what came after that.
She only knew she had to see him—the man who was both the ordinary owner of a little video store and the crimson hero of her dreams.
Zhe.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 172)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 115)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League (Chapter 116)
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter105)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter100)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter69)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter119)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 70
From Junkman to Wasteland 60
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 40
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 66
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 50
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 52
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 55
The Way the Umamusume Look at 42
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 40
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 36
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 30
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 26
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 26
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