The Fire Dragon's roar was not just sound; it was a physical pressure wave that flattened the surrounding flora and hammered against Seiji's armor. He knew its name, in the quiet of his mind, through Vanguard system, was Hardion. The name fit its unyielding, volcanic nature. Seiji could feel the weight of countless other gazes from the mist-shrouded peaks and the ancient, colossal trees. He was a spectacle, an intruder being judged by a hidden jury of gods. Their attention was a tangible force, a mixture of cold curiosity, simmering anger, and profound disdain. He was a germ under a microscope, and Hardion was the first line of the immune system.
He pushed the sensation aside. His world narrowed to the crimson-scaled leviathan before him. His daily, grueling training paid immediate dividends. His mind became a seamless command center, shifting between Rider powers with the fluidity of thought.
He met Hardion's ground-shaking charge not with evasion, but with a counter-charge of his own. [Access: Kuuga Pegasus Form.] His senses sharpened to a preternatural degree. He could see the minute contractions in Hardion's shoulder muscles, predicting the sweep of its tail before it even moved. He ducked under the scything appendage, the wind of its passage whipping past him. As he rose, his form shifted. [Access: OOO Latoratar Combo.] He became a blur of black, his speed multiplying. He zipped up the dragon's own tail, running along its spine like a phantom.
Hardion thrashed, trying to dislodge him. Seiji leaped, and in mid-air, his armor flared with golden light. [Access: Agito Trinity.] The Storm Halberd and Flame Saber energy manifested on his arms. He brought the twin energies down in a cross-slash against the base of Hardion's wing. It was like striking a mountain. Sparks flew, and a few scales cracked, but the dragon's hide held. A roar of pain and fury was his reward, but not a debilitating injury.
Hardion retaliated, whipping its head around and unleashing a concentrated stream of fire. Seiji canceled Agito, his mind already executing the next command. [Access: Kiva Garulu Form.] The Wolfen's enhanced legs propelled him in a gravity-defying leap, clearing the fire stream by inches. He landed, his hands already weaving through the air, drawing on the elementary magic Orias had drilled into him.
He wasn't a master magician. His spells were rudimentary, the basic building blocks of thaumaturgy. But the Vanguard system provided an unimaginable energy source. A simple Fireball spell, when fueled by his power, became a miniature sun, roaring towards Hardion with the force of a meteor. The dragon was forced to bat it aside with a claw, the explosion scorching its talons. A Wind Spear, amplified to a javelin of solidified hurricane, shrieked through the air, forcing Hardion to tuck its wing and take the hit on its heavily armored side. Stone Spikes, erupting from the earth with the force of a tectonic shift, sought to impale its belly. Water Bullets, dense as mercury, hammered against its chest like cannonfire from a fleet.
It was a breathtaking display of power and versatility. Seiji was a one-man army, a kaleidoscope of combat styles. But Hardion was a dragon. Its scales, tempered by centuries of bathing in volcanic heartfires and infused with primordial earth mana, were a near-impenetrable defense. Seiji's attacks chipped, scorched, and cracked, but they could not pierce. They were annoyances to a creature of this caliber.
And Hardion had the sky.
With a powerful beat of its wings, it ascended, leaving Seiji's earth-bound assaults behind. From its aerial throne, it became a true force of nature. It strafed the battlefield with fire, forcing Seiji into constant, energy-draining evasion. It dive-bombed, its mass and speed creating craters where Seiji had stood moments before. It used its tail like a colossal whip, smashing the ground and sending shards of rock flying like shrapnel. Seiji was forced entirely on the defensive, using Kiva's speed to dodge and Kuuga's durability to weather the concussive blasts. He was a beetle being stomped by a giant, surviving through agility and a hard shell, but unable to strike back effectively.
The hidden watchers remained impassive. This human was tenacious, powerful for his kind, but he was still just a human. He was proving their point—that their isolation was justified, that the lesser races could never truly stand against them.
Sweat poured down Seiji's face inside his helmet. His energy reserves, while vast, were being depleted by the relentless assault and the high-frequency shifting of forms. He needed a breakthrough. A new angle.
As he rolled away from another firebomb, his mind raced, analyzing the elemental composition of Hardion's fire, the flow of mana around its wings, the resonant frequency of its scales. He was absorbing data, even in the midst of his defense. The elementary spells he was casting, while ineffective alone, were teaching him. He was feeling the very essence of Fire, Water, Wind, and Earth, understanding their interactions, their strengths, their weaknesses.
And then, he felt it. A subtle shift. The ambient mana of Dragon Island, thick and ancient, was reacting not just to his spells, but to him. A tiny fraction of it, drawn by the relentless output of his power and the nascent Lacrima seed within him, was being absorbed, processed, and integrated by the Vanguard system.
It was the final key.
[Mastering the 4 basic elemental magics. Absorbing a portion of the Dragon Clan's Mana. Conditions met.]
[Unlocking: Kamen Rider Wizard.]
On his HUD, the name Kamen Rider Wizard blazed to life, its text glowing in a brilliant, mystical red and white. The power of the Mage who used rings to channel his magic, whose power was born from hope and the manipulation of the elements themselves, flooded his system.
Seiji's eyes widened behind his visor. Wizard's power. Of course. The logical evolution. He glanced around, feeling the hidden gazes intensify. They're waiting. Testing. Alright, let's give them a conclusion.
As Hardion gathered itself for another diving attack, Seiji didn't dodge. He stood his ground and raised a hand.
"Enough," he stated, his voice flat.
He waved his hand, not in a spellcasting gesture, but with a conductor's flourish. The power of Wizard, combined with his own deep, if new, understanding of the elements, responded.
Four massive magic circles, easily twenty feet in diameter, materialized in the air around the diving dragon. They were not the simple globes of energy he had used before. These were intricate, complex symbols, bearing the stylized, flame dragon-like emblem of Kamen Rider Wizard. To his left, a crimson circle of Flame. To his right, a sapphire circle of Water. Before him, an emerald circle of Hurricane. Behind him, a topaz circle of Ground.
They hummed with immense power, the very air crackling with ozone and raw mana. Hardion, mid-dive, had no time to react. The four circles unleashed their respective elements not as projectiles, but as binding fields. A cage of roaring flame, a vortex of churning water, a prison of howling wind, and a lattice of unbreakable stone energy enveloped the dragon in a perfect, seething tetrahedron of elemental force.
Hardion roared, trapped. It thrashed against the prison, but the combined, systemically-enhanced elements held fast, each one countering and containing its raw power. The fire circle absorbed its flames, the water circle steamed and cooled its scales, the hurricane circle disrupted its wingbeats, and the ground circle anchored it, sapping its physical strength.
It was a stunning display of control, a level of magical finesse that silenced the hidden watchers.
Seizing the moment, Seiji took a single step forward, then launched himself into a high, graceful somersault. As he reached the apex of his jump, high above the trapped Hardion, a fifth magic circle appeared. This one was colossal, dwarfing the others, a masterpiece of arcane geometry that covered half the sky. It was Wizard's signature finisher circle, glowing with the silver of all the elements.
He somersaulted, orienting himself headfirst towards the earth, and dove. His leg was extended, a lance of concentrated magical energy.
[Executing Wizard Finisher: Infinity Strike.]
He shot through the giant circle. As he passed through it, his leg gigantized, became a comet of pure, multi-hued mana, trailing the colors of flame, water, hurricane, and earth. He wasn't just kicking; he was delivering a verdict, a condensed hurricane of elemental law.
The impact was not a sound, but a cessation of it. For a heart-stopping moment, there was absolute silence. Then, light. A blinding, white-hot expansion of energy that consumed the elemental prison and the dragon within it. The shockwave flattened trees for a hundred yards in every direction and sent a visible ripple through the mana-rich air.
When the light faded and the thunderous roar of the explosion finally reached the peaks, the scene was clear.
Hardion lay in a massive crater, its magnificent form scorched and smoking, its eyes rolled back in its head, completely unconscious. It was alive—Seiji had carefully modulated the finisher to neutralize, not kill—but it was decisively defeated.
And standing calmly on its chest, one foot planted between its scales, was Vanguard. His armor was scorched and dented in places, but he stood unbowed, the crimson dragon on his chest glowing faintly in the settling dust.
The hidden gazes were no longer hidden. From the mountains and the forest, dragons emerged. Dozens of them. They were larger, older, their scales bearing the patina of ages, their eyes holding the weight of epochs. They landed in a wide circle around the crater, their silence more intimidating than any roar.
The one who led them was another Red Dragon, even larger than Hardion. Its scales were a deeper, darker crimson, like blood-stained obsidian, and horns like a molten crown swept back from its brow. Its eyes, ancient and intelligent, studied Seiji, the unconscious Hardion, and the lingering traces of the magical explosion.
The great dragon's voice rumbled, not with fury, but with a profound, judicial gravity that vibrated in Seiji's very bones.
"Human," it began, the word laden with millennia of history. "I am Ignis, Elder of the Crimson Wing. I do not sense the taint of Caesar's malice upon you. Your power is… alien. Formidable." Its gaze swept over the defeated Hardion. "But this is Dragon Island. A sanctuary sealed by blood and grief. All who set foot here, regardless of intent, are subject to the law of the Dragon Kings. You have trespassed. While we respect strength, we are bound by our own edicts. You will submit to binding and accompany us to face judgment. Resistance is futile."
Seiji processed the words. This was not a request; it was a statement of fact. To fight now would be to declare war on the entire clan, and even with Wizard's power, that was a battle he could not win. But being captured… it was a risk. It could also be the only way to an audience with their ruler, the one being who could grant the alliance he sought.
He made his decision. He willed the Vanguard armor to retract, standing as a human on the chest of the unconscious dragon. He raised his hands, palms open, in a universal gesture of surrender.
"I will comply," he said, his voice calm.
Elder Ignis gave a slow, approving nod. He raised a claw, and a sphere of shimmering, amber energy coalesced around Seiji, lifting him gently from Hardion's chest. The sphere was cool to the touch, humming with immense power, a prison he knew he could not break without a catastrophic fight.
Ignis turned to the other dragons. "Take Hardion to the recuperation spires. See to his wounds." Several younger dragons, their scales various hues of bronze and copper, moved forward, carefully lifting their fallen comrade with a combination of physical strength and telekinetic magic.
With Seiji floating securely in the energy sphere, Elder Ignis beat his mighty wings, rising into the air. The assembled dragons fell into a loose formation around him, a living, scaled honor guard escorting their prisoner. They flew not as conquerors with a trophy, but as officials with a perplexing, powerful detainee, heading towards the heart of the island, towards the seat of the Dragon Kings.