Deep in the forest, Ren and Nora sat together beneath the large tree like they had often used for shelter in the past, the two of them huddled close together beside a small campfire that struggled to remain lit beneath the heavy rain pouring down from the dark sky.
Neither of them had said much since leaving Vale.
They had spent the last few hours simply sitting there, listening to the rain hitting the leaves above them and the occasional crackle of the fire, neither of them really knowing what they were supposed to say after everything that had happened.
Pyrrha was gone, their school was in ruins, Vale had fallen into chaos, and the truth they had learned about their world had completely shattered the simple understanding they had grown up with.
They had entered Beacon believing that becoming Huntsmen and Huntresses meant protecting people from the Grimm and helping maintain peace between humanity and Faunus, but in a single night, almost everything they believed about their world had been torn away from them.
The sound of footsteps approaching through the wet forest finally broke the silence.
Ren slowly raised his head, while Nora looked in the same direction, both of them watching as a figure emerged from between the trees. Tsutsumi walked toward them without saying anything, still wearing his Decade outfit.
The magenta, black, and white silk that normally made him stand out was completely soaked from the rain, clinging to his body as water ran down his clothes and dripped from the ends of his damp hair. The black horns remained on his head, and the gem embedded within the center horn had changed from its usual golden glow into an ominous purple light. His eyes were just as unnatural, the faint dark green glow around his purple irises barely visible beneath the heavy rain and darkness of the forest.
There was something different about him; Ren and Nora could both feel it the moment he stepped into view.
The amount of negative emotion surrounding Tsutsumi was immense, so strong that it almost seemed to weigh down the air around him, yet strangely enough, there wasn't a single Grimm anywhere near the area.
Considering the amount of negative emotion being released from him, that should have been impossible. The Grimm should have been drawn toward them from miles away, but the forest remained completely empty, almost as if every Grimm in the surrounding area had already been eliminated before they could ever reach this place.
Tsutsumi stopped a short distance away from them, allowing the rain to continue falling over him as Ren finally broke the silence.
"So... it was all one big lie?" Ren asked quietly, his voice carrying the exhaustion he had been holding inside ever since Tsutsumi told them the truth.
Tsutsumi didn't immediately answer.
Ren looked down at the fire, his expression still difficult to read as he tried to put everything together. "The Grimm, the war, the entire reason we've spent our lives training to become Huntsmen... all of it was because of them?"
"Pretty much," Tsutsumi replied, his voice calm despite everything. "You could say the root of it all goes back to Ozpin and Salem."
Nora's hand slowly tightened around the side of the tree beside her, her fingers digging into the bark until it began to crack beneath her grip.
"So... the entire conflict was basically Professor Ozpin and his ex-wife having some huge breakup and turning it into everyone else's problem?" she asked, her voice shaking between disbelief and anger. "All those people died because those two couldn't figure out their own problems?"
"You could say that."
Nora's fingers tightened even further, and a piece of bark broke away in her hand before she seemed to realize what she was doing. She stared down at the broken piece for a moment before letting it fall into the mud.
Neither Ren nor Nora knew what to say after that.
They had already spent hours trying to process what had happened to Pyrrha, and now they had been given another truth that was somehow even harder to accept. Their entire understanding of the world had been built around the idea that there was a clear enemy they were supposed to fight, that the Grimm were the great threat to humanity and that the Huntsmen existed to stand between those creatures and innocent people.
Now they were being told that the history behind everything was far more complicated, that the person they had trusted as their headmaster had been hiding the truth for generations, and that the conflict itself had grown from something far more personal than either of them had ever imagined.
It was simply too much to take in all at once.
Only a few hours ago, they had still been students at Beacon, worrying about classes, training, tournaments, assignments, and whatever ridiculous thing Nora would inevitably do next. They had been happy. They had been surrounded by friends, teachers, and teammates, believing that their future was already waiting for them.
Then Pyrrha had disappeared, replaced by someone else using her body while slowly killing her soul.
Then they had watched their world fall apart around them.
And now they knew the truth.
For all the shock and anger they felt, however, neither Ren nor Nora ever seriously considered the possibility that Tsutsumi was lying to them.
They knew their leader too well for that.
Throughout their time together, Tsutsumi Ryoko had shown them abilities that went far beyond anything either of them could properly understand. He had manipulated forces they had never even known existed, survived things that should have killed him, and demonstrated powers that could reach the point where even the laws of reality seemed more like suggestions than actual limitations. Because of that, they both understood something very simple about him.
Tsutsumi didn't need to lie to get what he wanted. If he wanted something, he was powerful enough to simply take it.
That was why, even though the truth sounded absurd, neither Ren nor Nora questioned whether Tsutsumi had made it up.
Instead, Ren slowly looked up at him.
"You must have a reason for telling us all of this... right?"
"Yeah."
Tsutsumi's answer came immediately.
"I'm going to destroy this world."
Both Ren and Nora froze. The rain continued falling around them, but for a moment neither of them seemed to hear it.
Tsutsumi remained standing where he was, his expression completely calm as he continued, "I've obtained the power to recreate the world, but in order to create something new, I'll have to destroy what's here first."
Nora's eyes widened while Ren's breathing became noticeably heavier, although he quickly used his Semblance to calm himself enough to keep his thoughts from becoming overwhelmed.
"If you really have that kind of power..." Ren began slowly, "then why are you telling us?"
Tsutsumi looked toward him.
"Wouldn't it be easier to just do it?"
"I could."
There wasn't even a hint of hesitation in his answer.
"But I don't want it to be easy for them." Tsutsumi slowly clenched his right hand, his fingers tightening until his knuckles became tense.
"I want them to suffer first. I'm going to destroy every last one of them with my own hands before I recreate this world, and I'm going to make sure they never appear in the new world afterward. No reincarnation, no replacement, no second chance. I'll erase them completely."
Nora stared at him. Ren did the same. Neither of them had ever heard Tsutsumi speak like this before.
They knew he was angry. They knew he had lost someone important to him. They knew Pyrrha's death had affected him more deeply than he was willing to show, but this was different. There was something final in his voice, something that made it clear that he had already thought about this decision over and over again and had reached a conclusion that he wasn't planning to change.
Tsutsumi knew what he wanted to do was wrong.
He knew that becoming the person who decided who deserved to exist and who didn't would make him no different from the monsters he had spent so long fighting. Rider Power might have given him the strength to protect people, but the power itself had always come from evil, and he understood exactly what it meant to willingly step further into that darkness.
He knew he was becoming something that a Rider should never become.
Yet he still chose to do it.
Because he was tired.
He was tired of losing people.
He was tired of forming bonds with people only to watch them disappear from his life, one after another, while he was left behind to remember them. He was tired of accepting those losses, telling himself that there was nothing he could do and that he simply had to keep moving forward.
Because he had been so focused on finding Miyu, he hadn't noticed the person who had always been standing beside him until the very end, and by the time he finally understood what Tohsaka Aki had meant to him, she was already gone.
He had been too blind to recognize Monika's desperate attempts to reach out for help until there was nothing left of her to save.
He had chosen to protect Human Order and, while doing so, had finally learned what it meant to love someone, only for that choice to ultimately end with Jeanne being burned alive.
He had eventually accepted that Artoria had to leave after the two of them finally understood the twisted relationship of love and hatred they had shared.
He had believed himself strong enough even after he divided his own power, only for that arrogance to eventually lead to Ryoshu's death.
And now Pyrrha had died because he had become too comfortable. There had been warning signs. There had been strange things happening around him. There had been things he should have noticed.
But he hadn't.
He had been too confident that he could handle whatever happened next, and now someone he cared about was gone because he had failed to notice what was happening right in front of him.
No matter how many times he tried to look at it from another angle, the conclusion always returned to the same place.
His own incompetence.
"I know what I'm doing isn't right," Tsutsumi said quietly, finally breaking the silence again. "I know this isn't the kind of thing I should be doing."
His gaze lowered toward the bronze ring resting in his palm.
"But I'm tired of being the one who survives."
Tsutsumi closed his fingers around the ring.
"I'm telling you two this because I don't want you to think I'm forcing you to follow me. I don't need your help, and I'm not asking you to agree with me. If you want to join me, you can. If you want to stand against me, you can. If you want nothing to do with this and just stay out of it, that's fine too."
Ren's jaw tightened. Nora quietly reached over and grabbed his hand, holding it tightly.
Tsutsumi noticed the gesture, but he didn't comment on it.
"You guys have your own lives," he continued. "You should be free to choose what you want to do with them. I won't take that choice away from you."
His voice became quieter as he looked at the two of them.
"Even if we meet again someday and we're standing on opposite sides of the battlefield, I'll still remember you two as my teammates. You were the best teammates I could have asked for."
A small, sad smile appeared on his face.
For a moment, he looked less like the person who had just declared his intention to destroy the world and more like the same person they had spent years fighting alongside.
The person who had eaten with them. The person who had trained with them. The person who had complained about Nora's ridiculous ideas and listened to Ren's quiet observations.
Their leader. Their friend.
Tsutsumi looked down at the bronze ring one final time before closing his hand around it.
"You have the freedom to choose what you want to do. Stand with me, stop me, or stay out of this completely. Whatever you choose, I'll respect it."
He slowly turned away from them.
"This is your choice. Your freedom. I won't take that away from you."
Tsutsumi paused for a moment, his back facing them.
"You guys are free to decide what you want to do..." He took another step forward. "...and I'm free to decide that this world has to end."
Neither Ren nor Nora called after him.
They simply watched as their leader began walking deeper into the forest, his figure gradually disappearing behind the curtain of rain and trees. The heavy downpour continued to soak his clothes, but he never looked back, and before long, the last glimpse they had of him disappeared between the darkened trees.
Nora continued holding Ren's hand. Neither of them spoke for a long time.
The campfire continued burning weakly beneath the tree, while the rain slowly washed away the footprints Tsutsumi had left behind.
...
Back in the ruins of Beacon and the destroyed city of Vale, Tsutsumi slowly made his way through what remained of the academy, stepping over broken stone, shattered pieces of machinery, and whatever was left behind after the battle had torn the entire place apart, until he finally reached the location of Ozpin's vault, or at least what remained of the entrance to it.
The massive door that had once protected whatever secrets Ozpin had hidden away was already damaged beyond recognition, half-buried beneath the rubble, but Tsutsumi didn't bother trying to open it properly and simply kicked the remaining door out of its frame, sending it crashing across the floor with a loud metallic impact.
He stepped inside, only to find absolutely nothing.
The vault was empty.
Tsutsumi reached for a card before he slid it into his Decadriver.
Final Kamen Ride: Wizard! Infinity Style!
The transformation began immediately, bright white diamond-like sparks appearing around his body as his Decade outfit dissolved and reformed around him, the familiar magenta and black colors being replaced by the brilliant white and silver magician outfit of Kamen Rider Wizard's Infinity Style. The sharp accessory reflected what little light remained inside the ruined vault, making Tsutsumi look almost completely out of place among the broken stone and twisted metal surrounding him.
By using the Gaia Library, Tsutsumi had already gathered information that most people would spend their entire lives trying to discover. He knew where all four Relics had been hidden, how each one could be accessed, what conditions were required to obtain them, and what kind of power each Relic possessed. He also knew about the Maidens, including their abilities, their locations, the people currently holding their powers, and the secrets surrounding the transfer of those powers.
Normally, Tsutsumi didn't use the Gaia Library to its fullest potential because there was simply no reason to know everything about every single thing that existed, but when he actually decided that he needed information, he didn't hold himself back.
After all, there was only one person who could truly stop him from searching through the Gaia Library when he entered that world. And that person was himself.
Tsutsumi slowly raised one hand.
A massive magic circle appeared beneath his feet, followed by several smaller circles forming around it and overlapping with one another, their complicated patterns spreading across the damaged floor of the vault. The magic continued expanding until the entire room was covered in glowing symbols, and then Tsutsumi moved his hand slightly.
The ruined vault responded; the stone shifted. Hidden mechanisms that had been buried beneath the destruction suddenly activated, and the damaged walls began separating from one another as the magic forced open the deeper structure hidden underneath Ozpin's vault. What had appeared to be nothing more than an empty room was only the outer layer, and once Tsutsumi broke through it, another chamber was revealed behind it.
Tsutsumi stepped inside without hesitation, his eyes immediately settling on the single object sitting in the center of the room.
A bronze crown rested upon a stone pedestal, its surface decorated with several turquoise jewels that reflected the light of his magic.
The Relic of Choice. One of the four Relics of Remnant.
Tsutsumi walked toward the pedestal and reached out. His fingers wrapped around the bronze crown before his place it on his head.
This caused the world around him to change.
Everything around him was replaced by an endless landscape covered in ominous orange sand, the grains being carried through the air by a violent wind that made the entire world look like it had been abandoned for centuries.
Tsutsumi stood in the middle of that wasteland. He was wearing his full masked Decade form now rather than just the outfit.
In front of him stood an enormous army. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people from different worlds and Riders filled the distant horizon. They stood together as a massive force, their weapons drawn and their attention focused entirely on the lone Rider standing across from them.
The army surged forward.
The orange sand was covered with the remains of the battlefield, and in the middle of it all, he stood alone on a battlefield filled with corpses.
He stared across the empty wasteland, his Decade helmet hiding whatever expression was on his face as the wind continued blowing around him.
The vision ended. Tsutsumi suddenly found himself back inside the vault.
His hand moved to remove the crown from his head and threw it toward the ground.
The Relic struck the floor with enough force to crack the stone beneath it, sending fragments of the already damaged ground scattering outward, yet despite the impact, the bronze crown remained completely unharmed.
Tsutsumi stared down at it in silence.
"So that really is my fate."