The Phantom Empire's Mastermind

"Everything you’ve said is wrong. Even if forces in spaces destroy a planet, the particles from that planet are carried through space where they can seed life again. Even the creatures that eat entire suns deposit that material elsewhere in space, creating entirely new stellar nurseries."

He seems to have caught his second wind, as if the universe has heard his speech and given its power to him.

"You’re talking about existence. A straight line from birth to death. I protect life. Life is when existence becomes something that matters. When a person can feel, think for themselves, evolve. That’s life. And any being, deity or otherwise that would seek to end that, is my enemy."

He sees a familiar flare of energy and resolves to make sure Red doesn’t notice it. So he takes a step closer to the god.

"All of space and time resonates with the harmony of life. Everything that matters, from temporary pain, to grand discoveries, to hope and love, is another chord in that eternal symphony. A single life may be fleeting, but all life everywhere produces music…"

As he says this, the burst of magical musical energy strikes the brainwashed citizens in the back, purifying them. Another burst of floral energy purifies a bunch more. And even before they can react to being snapped out of control, an almost unseen blue blur moves them off the battlefield.

"And now, you’ll see the best part of life. Having friends." Fourze says as he’s joined by Cure Sunshine, Cure Melody and Rhythm, and a fellow costumed warrior in a blue suit, holding a blaster that looks like a fuel pump.

"Oh, do they now?" He made a few steps forward and grabbed the Rider by his neck. "Do they, now?"

"I'm speaking from experience, child. This universe doesn't give back as much as it takes away. Loss... Destruction... Those things are what is the norm in this world like in any others."

Red closed his hand into a fist, unconsciously he started trembling with rage. It had been a while since the last time he had let his emotions take the better of him, but everything in the teenager's attitude was infuriating. He couldn't understand. He didn't live through as much pain as he did. There was no way he did.

"This planet is just the odd one out, for it holds abnormalities such as love, the illusion that something matters. A complete lie. We're all nothing in front of the forces of this space you draw your power from."

He responded to this by spouting more nonsense, but all Red could hear was that shutting the boy up had become urgent. He raised his hand, intending to end this charade. The moment the word "friends" left the other's lips, however, the disgusting smell of Love made itself known again.

Red let go of the other's neck as he looked around. One by one, his slaves fell on their knees, now free of his influence. It wasn't long before the god found himself facing four more adversaries.

"Ah... Ahah... Ahahah!" "Well played... Your little speech distracted me long enough for you to stay alive until your backup arrived. You're clever, I can tell as much."

But it was going to end here. Three Precures, two of them being under Aphrodite's orders, a Ranger, a Rider... That confrontation was going to be quite the show. Oh how he was going to enjoy breaking them one by one.

Another snap of his fingers. A dozen of scarlet-colored Saiarks fell into existence surrounding the group of heroes, menacingly looming over them. Red then teleported away, leaving room for his monsters to deal properly with the enemies.

"I believe all of you know what you are facing, standing in my way despite having no relation to my conflict with Blue. Fine by me. Don't expect any mercy on my part. Saiarks! Get them!"

Besides, she had been throw worse pain while she was still Eas. This was nothing she couldn’t handle.

And then the strange man continued to speak. Her eyes went wide for a moment, before she looked down, unable to meet his eyes. She could hear the crystal on her harp crush, but she only flinched at this, otherwise giving no sign of reaction.

And then-

"Are you done talking yet?" She clenched her fists, eyes glaring in a fury towards him. Rising to her feet, Passion steadied herself. “You don’t understand the first thing about me. It was true that I was a servant of Moebius, and it’s true that I lived in such a system for a long time- but I never did such things with my own two hands.”

That child was a strong one. But her words were nothing more than futile resistance. Even if he didn't manage to make her believe his words, he would still have the upper hand. She was burning with hatred. A hatred directed at him. Foolish girl... If only she had a better grip on her emotions. Maybe she would have a chance to make it out of this confrontation in one piece.

Of course, he wouldn't allow it. It didn't matter if she trusted him or not at this point. The important thing was that he kept talking. That she kept all that rage building up within her.

"I can hear them. The cries of rage of those who rebelled against Moebius and who were... "disposed of" by his underlings. Those "Eas" killed will never be able to rest in peace, not now that the monster who destroyed them got away with all the blood she has on her hands. You who pretend to fight in the name of justice, you should understand, right?"

Kicking the remains of the harp aside, Red closed the distance between him and the Precure. When the heroine was finally within arm reach, the devil grabbed her by her chin, tilting her head backward to take a closer look at her face, at the fear and the anger showing in her eyes.

His power level is nowhere near that of the Precure, and he knows it, But he’s not here to single-handedly free all these people. It’s not even going to be a one-on-one fight with Red. His friends are coming.

"Space, you say?"

Red's smirk faded away from his face. Of course, it wasn't uncommon for those heroes to have otherworldly powers. But this guy claimed that his power, and himself, were taking their roots from space itself? Somehow that made Red's will to make this Kamen Rider miserable even stronger.

He closed his hand into a fist, unconsciously starting shaking with his own rage. That was weird to him... It had been a while since the last time he had actually let himself show his emotions like this.

"Then, if you belong to space, you should probably know how pointless what you are doing is. There is nothing easier in the entire universe than to erase a complete world."

The brainwashed masses stepped back, leavign room for Red to land in front of Gentaro. He would pummel some sense into that man personally.

She won’t repeat any mistakes ever again.

As soon as the Saiark appeared at a snap of the god’s fingers, she readied hersef, her hand already gripping the PreChange Mirror in her pocket. And with a “Kawarun-run!”, Cure Lovely emerged from the bright pink light and landed her foot hard at the Saiark, giving it a thunderous kick.]

That was all good. Feeling how much she hated him made it worth subjecting himself to her presence.

"We will continue this conversation once you're in a better position to listen." Red turned around, looking at the creature he just summoned, and tilted his head toward Lovely. "Saiark."

Caught at a disadvantage, Passion was forced backwards, her Passion Harp clattering on the ground some distance away from her. It took her a moment to realize that the reason why she was looking at the sky now was because she had landed on her back, and the red Precure struggled to push herself up.

What power! This wasn’t some kind of simple general, after all.

"Who are you!?" Passion called out, forcing herself up into a sitting position. One of her arms throbbed, and she raised a hand to it, before her eyes narrowed, a red color staining her hand as she drew it back.

But that wouldn't be fun to just end it here, right?

The god's body was slightly shaken by a quiet laugher as he could feel the girl's determination slowly turning into fear. It was all so delicious. Ignoring her question, Red walked over to the fallen weapon and stared down at the Precure.

"What's wrong, Cure Passion? Are you not used to get your hands dirty?"

Another laugher made itself known, one that Red made absolutely no efforts to hide. He rose a foot and put his heel on the harp.

"Oh, silly me. Yes you are. You probably have more blood on your hands than you can see at the moment. It wasn't rare for Moebius to ask his favourite generals to get rid of anything and anyone that went against his rules, was it? And he always praised how effective you were in all the missions you were given, Eas."

The moment he had pronounced the name, he crushed the crystal at the top of the instrument under his heel, shattering it in several pieces.

She could almost hear the Tree of Sorrow yearning for it.

And they smelled sweeter than any flowers to him.

"My name is Red. I happen to be somewhat related to the events that plunged Earth in chaos in the past year. This is all you need to know." He explained, putting a hand on the wall covered in vine.

Northa was a straight-to-the-point kind of person, wasn't she? No need to bother with pretty words, then. Closing the distance between the two of them, he slipped a red crystal in her hand.

The answer to this question was obvious anyway. "No". No, Cure Lovely wasn't going to get away a second time. He made sure she was on her own, none of her friends would be able to reach her this time. She had been foolish enough to confront him on her own, and she was going to pay the price.

Red rose an arm and snapped his fingers. As an immediate response, a scarlet colored Saiark fell from the sky, between the god and the Precure.

brainwashed everyone

has probably never seen the sun in a while

he has no style

did all of this to get blue’s attention maybe

v-neck sweaters??? really?

mgmtn mtk

happy pink not edgy enough

revealed identity to miyo masuko when we told her "megumi no"

got friendzoned by god

friendzoned the guy i thought would be cure honey

maybe my v neck is ugly but at least it's better than ur entire wardrobe

It was no good… the longer Red exerted his influence on him, the less and less Seiji found he could think about such things. He generally considered himself to be a strong person mentally- but at the end of the day, he was an average human, going up against the power of a God. It was impressive enough that he’d managed to last this long in the first place.

"Get rid of…?" Seiji trailed off, feeling his heart twisting in his chest, the last shred of resistance he had fighting hard to prevent him from being manipulated. But it was weak, and dying, and would just need a little push to give out- and that was exactly what Red did.

As the red crystal sunk into Seiji’s chest, his eyes went wide, and for a moment, he let out a scream. The last bit of resistance in him lashed out- but was quickly overcome by the power of the crystal of hate. His thoughts were forced into a scramble, as if the crystal were overwriting both his memories and feelings alike- which, very likely, it was.

Seeing how it had been a pain to corrupt the young man, Red believed that the opposite would be true too. He was confident that Blue's Precures weren't going to be able to purify him as easily as they did for Mirage, if they could purify him at all. The deity doubted these girls would even be able to fight him, seeing how the boy was someone very important to Cure Lovely.

The god snapped his fingers again. The coffin-shaped mirrors disappeared, freeing their occupants. The liberated victims, however, stood perfectly still. The red mist seemed to grow thicker in the area.

"Bring me the Kamen Rider’s head."

The other is right, of course. He’s not going to harm these people. But they’re not going to be able to hurt him either.

The power of the Switches creates a barrier between him and them, and as they touch it, they’re driven back.

Of course, he’s not going to just stand there and let them throw themselves at him. Is there a limit to the range of Red’s control?

BOARD ON!

As the hoverboard appears on his feet, he glides backwards, and works on getting into contact with a few friends.

"I’m being followed by mind-controlled civilians. Meet me at Amanogawa Park, and get ready to shine a light on them. Thanks. See you there!"

He reappeared above the rioting masses of brainwashed innocents. In their state, being infused with Red's power, they had no trouble running fast enough to keep up with Gentaro.

A Kamen Rider's power wasn't much different from those of a Precure. So he would make sure this man suffer the same fate as if he was one. It had been easy for the devil to get rid of so many of Blue's Precures back when Phantom called himself the "Precure Hunter".

“You have no more worth to her than those people she helps even though she barely knows them. The bond you’ve had since childhood is nothing in her eyes. You’re nobody to her. Nobody.”

Red’s mouth twisted into a large smirk. He approached the young boy and put a hand on his shoulder. A little more, now, and the mortal would become his new puppet.

Seiji couldn’t help but repeat the man’s words, feeling his chest tighten. It was strangely hard to breathe, and strangely he couldn’t even manage to find it in himself to protest the fact that he had called Megumi ‘selfish’.

But still, somewhere in his mind, though it was growing dim, was Seiji’ will. And as the man continued to speak, even as his words resonated him, he remembered where he knew this voice from.

"You’re from the… riverbank." He almost gasped out, his eyes narrowing. Although dim, there was certainly a red color creeping slowly into his brown eyes, but he wasn’t ready to give up just yet. “You said to Megumi, you…”

He trailed off, struggling to remember what exactly it was this man had done- or almost done- to Megumi. And when she mentioned Blue’s name…

Because "hatred" was the right word to describe this anger toward this man. The only minor inconvenience would be if Sagara remembered why he was angry at Blue to begin with... Better cut off now all the trust he has in that girl.

"I won't deny I have seen it, Seiji Sagara. I have seen what truly is inside Megumi Aino's heart. She is but a fool hiding behind the false idea of "protecting love". For her sake, for her friend Hime's sake, for Yuko's sake, for Iona's sake, for Blue's sake."

The malevolent deity paced around Seiji as he continued to talk. The child was on the verge of breaking. Everything was going according to his plan. This was almost easier than it had been to break Mirage. It probably helped that this one wasn't a Precure.

"And you were nowhere in that. You were nowhere in her preoccupations. Your intervention did give her the strenght to reject my crystal, but it sure hasn't got anything to do with the fact it was you. The person saving her could have been anyone."

Red approached Seiji from behind, much like he had done for Megumi and like he had done for Mirage before her. He wrapped his arms around him, putting a hand close to the boy's heart.

"Let's show her how wrong she is, Seiji. Let's get rid of Blue's influence within her. Let me help you get your precious friend back to who she was."