“Legend?”
Yulan glanced at Yun You, who was walking at the very front.
She had just heard the Masked Rider sneeze.
“What’s wrong? Catching a cold?”
Actually, she wasn’t sure why she cared about this Masked Rider she had just met.
Today was probably the first day they met, right?
Could it be that this Legend was actually quite young, triggering some kind of professional instinct in her?
“No, it’s nothing. Probably just someone muttering weird things at me,”
Yun You rubbed his nose.
“Let’s keep moving; we should be close.”
At this moment, they were walking inside a maze made of brick walls, holding onto a ribbon woven from Yulan’s magic.
The origin of the ribbon was tied at the maze’s entrance, so looking back they could see a long trail marking their path.
Thankfully, Yulan’s magic was highly malleable.
Even with the ribbon stretched over a hundred meters, it didn’t consume much of her magic.
Otherwise, she would have run out of energy before they even got out of the maze.
On the path to the maze, many grotesque monsters lurked.
They weren’t strong individually but were numerous, so if they swarmed together it could cause trouble.
He and Lu Xun took on the task of eliminating these monsters to prevent them from interfering with Yulan’s ribbon, which would cause them to get lost in the maze.
“I have a guess, which might not be right. Have you heard the story of the Minotauros?”
At the mention of the name, Yulan immediately recalled the bull-headed monster with an impressive appearance she had seen earlier.
“Oh, I watched an animation about Greek mythology when I was a kid. It mentioned that—a bull-headed creature trapped in a labyrinth, right? Just by its looks, it’s hard to confirm, but given this massive, incredible maze, it’s almost certainly the Minotauros. Classic and clear as day.”
Lu Xun scratched his head, confused.
“There’s that kind of animation? That must have aired before I was born.”
Yulan, already guessing he was just a teenager, ignored his question.
“So, as long as we defeat that Chimera, we can get out of here?”
“Yeah, every domain we’ve encountered so far seems linked to mythological legends, like a reenactment of those stories. Our opponents tend to be legendary enemies… At least up till now, defeating the enemy and seizing the domain’s core has shattered the domain,”
Yun You affirmed her guess, pausing briefly.
“I have another question, Yulan. Did you encounter this Chimera before Glory?”
“Yeah. The first to find it was a second-year class. They were having PE class on the playground, and the Chimera just appeared right in the center. Luckily, I arrived early, so nothing…”
Yulan suddenly hesitated mid-sentence.
Most of her focus was on weaving the magical ribbon, so her mouth ran faster than her brain, accidentally revealing too much.
She quickly covered it up.
“Oh, I heard them say that while I was helping evacuate. I was just passing nearby, so I got there earlier than you guys.”
To hide her embarrassment, she lowered her eyes, looking a bit downcast.
“You don’t think I released it, do you?”
That last line was a deliberate jab at Glory, who earlier accused her magic of damaging the playground.
As expected, Lu Xun caught the implication and blushed under his mask.
He didn’t press further but immediately shouted,
“No way! Don’t underestimate us; I can tell who the bad guys are!”
The topic was successfully diverted, though Yulan thought he was too gullible.
She worried he might get scammed out of his pension when he’s old.
She looked up and smiled faintly.
“So you’re saying I’m the good guy? Thanks for the compliment.”
Lu Xun’s face flushed even more.
Flustered, he said,
“No, that’s not what I meant! I didn’t compliment you!”
Yun You didn’t pry into Yulan’s identity either.
In fact, he was still looking for a chance to confront her, but now wasn’t the time.
He really admired Chaos.
Every second he delayed returning, Chaos’s mouth would spew some even weirder nonsense, further damaging Camellia’s reputation.
Clearing his throat, he interrupted the kindergarten-level argument between Yulan and Lu Xun.
“I don’t mean that either. I’m just curious about this Chimera’s origin. Did the first people who found it see anyone suspicious? Or are there any surveillance cameras on the playground?”
“Sorry, he never mentioned that to me. Not sure if he didn’t notice or didn’t have time to say.”
Yulan touched her chin, understanding his point.
“As for cameras, yes, there were some, but they were already smashed when I got there… We might be able to get footage from before they were destroyed by contacting the school. Since you’re asking, do you suspect the Chimera was artificially created?”
Her suspicion matched his.
She too wondered if the monsters they encountered might be man-made, but she had never caught anyone’s shadow to prove it.
“Yes. And they can be controlled. I want to see if I can find out who’s behind this. But the Chimera isn’t very intelligent. If it purposely destroyed the cameras, it’s likely following orders from someone behind the scenes. If that person’s clever enough to have planned this far and kept their movements hidden all this time, they probably wouldn’t make such a low-level mistake of leaving evidence in the footage. So our investigation might not go smoothly… But we have to try.”
Yun You stopped walking.
Beyond the high walls, he could faintly hear the beast’s roar.
“But even if we investigate, it has to wait until after we defeat it.”
They pressed forward, passing two crossroads until finally reaching the maze’s center.
The bull-headed monster looked even larger than it had outside.
Its bulging eyes no longer showed the raw destructive instinct of a beast but had a flicker of clarity.
It sat on a throne made of stone, a massive axe resting beside it.
As it stood from the throne, the maze trembled violently under the influence of its ruler.
The Minotauros looked down at the three insignificant ants before it and growled in a broken human voice,
“Tear apart… I will tear you apart!”
“Can we fight now?”
Yulan glanced sideways.
To conserve her magic, Yun You and Lu Xun had been clearing out monsters almost the entire time.
She’d been holding back for a long time.
“Be careful. Don’t get hurt.”
Yun You warned.
Before he finished, Lu Xun snarled and charged at the Minotauros first with his weapon.
Who Chaos really was remained a fascinating mystery. Just from appearances, he was extremely similar to Yun You and the other Masked Riders.
Unlike the Chimera, which seemed to rampage on instinct, Chaos clearly had independent thought.
Yun You suspected Chaos was also a Masked Rider with transformation abilities but had taken a different side for some reason.
If they could make Chaos reveal how he controlled the Chimera, or where his belt came from… maybe they could find a fundamental solution to the Chimera problem.
Chaos had never once told Legend about the person behind him.
Perhaps he truly kept his promise to that person—only when facing the unrelated Camellia did he let slip that secret.
That was why Camellia wasn’t planning to let him go.
The battle was reaching a fever pitch.
A red glow gathered at the tip of her umbrella, the air twisting slightly under the weight of magic, crackling like electricity.
Chaos, targeted by the attack, showed no fear.
Instead, he eagerly crossed his curved serpentine scimitars before him, the blades glowing faintly green.
“Come on, let me see what surprises you still have for me!”
Suddenly, a siren wailed from afar, growing louder.
Both turned their heads simultaneously.
On the southern street outside the school, a flashy silver-white sports car sped toward them, its roof flashing red and blue police lights.
At the same time, a black car with a similar setup arrived from the north.
Camellia raised an eyebrow.
She recognized both vehicles.
For years, supernatural anomalies had appeared, and regular police couldn’t handle them.
Thus, the Special Countermeasure Bureau was born.
The silver-white car belonged to the Bureau’s Monster Division, responsible for cleanup and capturing monsters.
They even had a Masked Rider code-named Detective, who openly revealed his identity and often appeared on youth educational programs—something of a semi-celebrity.
The black car was from the Magical Beast Division.
However, their leader was an ordinary person with no transformation abilities.
She was familiar with both sides but had never seen them show up simultaneously.
Apparently, the teachers reported
“Chimera and Magical Girl fighting” to the police.
She wondered if the dispatcher even believed such an unheard-of story…
Why had nothing like this ever been reported before?
Coincidence?
Chaos frowned in displeasure.
He also knew the silver-white car well.
Its arrival meant his game was over for today.
He wasn’t foolish—since Legend hadn’t shown up yet, maybe he really wasn’t here, so there was no point lingering.
Even if Camellia wasn’t that boring.
…And she wouldn’t listen to a word he said!
Too ferocious, too brutal.
Rivalry was more interesting.
So, though he wasn’t exactly tricked, he’d have to settle accounts with that pretentious jerk later.
He turned to Camellia.
“You—Camellia, right? How about you really consider joining us?”
No hesitation, he ducked and dodged.
As expected, a scorching red beam grazed his scalp.
Chaos rolled aside from the following attacks with a triumphant laugh.
“Haha, remember this—I’m Chaos! I’ll come find you to play again!”
“Camellia.”
She assessed him and the Chimera behind him, then reluctantly nodded.
“Next time, I will still stop you.”
Neither Camellia nor Chaos had revealed their trump cards.
She wasn’t sure who was stronger, and Chaos still had an unused Chimera at his side.
If Chaos wanted to escape, he could easily leave the Chimera behind as a rear guard with orders to “destroy everything in its path.”
She and the two Special Countermeasure Bureaus rushing over would be overwhelmed trying to stop it…
Then tomorrow’s social topic would be
“What did you even protect?!”
If it weren’t for this, Legend wouldn’t have let him escape so many times.
Chaos only needed to run away.
But for them—the vigilantes—there would be more to consider.