Kamen Rider: Evolution

From the very first jump, scenes worthy of being recorded in the annals of knighthood appeared one by one in Jiang Xia's eyes. Most of these were scenes that people talked about with great interest. Even if he had seen them countless times, when these scenes appeared again, he would still watch them carefully and confidently once more.

These images represent Kamen Rider, and heroes.

"The canonical timeline of the Heisei Riders," Jiang Xia said, naming the ray of light that extended from it.

As for why it's called the canonical timeline, it's because this timeline only includes footage from the 'real' world of TV canonical shows.

Parallel worlds, comic book worlds, novels, and fan-created works are not included.

"This is the history our world had before Ishinomori Shotaro was killed, the so-called correct history, known as our Kamen Rider canon," said Oma Zi-O.

“I understand. Toei said that some theatrical versions connect to the main story timeline, while others are parallel worlds. Due to certain conflicting settings or different arrangements, they lead to different endings, which is easy to understand.” Jiang Xia expressed it in 'realistic' terms, “If I were the author, and what I wrote was very profitable, but the main story has ended, then if I wanted to continue, writing a sequel or creating an 'what if' route would be a very good choice.”

"That's right, this is the predetermined ending. Changing the Kamen Rider canon is extremely difficult, almost impossible, which is why the Kamen Rider canon is also known as the stable timeline," said Oma Zi-O.

"Don't tell me the stable timeline is messed up because of the death of Shotaro Ishinomori."

Jiang Xia guessed it instantly; it wasn't difficult.

Moreover, the name "stable timeline" immediately suggests that anyone who claims to be stable will inevitably experience some unexpected event that causes them to become unstable.

Only the unstable will claim to be stable; that's almost obvious.

"Take a closer look now and see the changes, and you'll know the specific reason." With a gentle push, Oma Zi-O stabilized the timeline and moved it directly to Jiang Xia's eyes.

Jiang Xia is now very close to the stable timeline known as the official history of the knights, and as he waits, the stable timeline gradually changes.

A touch of red quietly tainted the golden light from the source of the stable timeline. Jiang Xia knew that this was the effect of the death of the author, Shotaro Ishinomori. The red looked like dripping blood.

When that red light completely replaced the source of the timeline, the beam of light that was originally flowing forward suddenly twisted, turning into an arc like a coiling dragon.

The next second, countless tiny branches suddenly appeared on the surface of the distorted beam of light. These tiny branches were initially very, very small, like the fine hairs on the skin, and could not be noticed at all unless you looked very closely.

But as time continues to flow forward, these tiny, hair-like branch timelines begin to grow outward, becoming longer and more dispersed.

Once these branch timelines have grown to a certain extent, they will begin to split again, just like the previously stable timelines.

The result is that what was originally a single, stable timeline splits into almost an infinite number of branching timelines as it flows forward.

A stable timeline is like the main trunk of a large tree, and the branches extending in all directions from this trunk are the tree's twigs.

These branches grew rapidly like a waterfall, quickly submerging the initial stable timeline.

They intertwined and eventually formed a spiral of light that swirled together, with both the front and back ends desperately extending to the sides—a chaotic mess of irregular tangled threads.

The stable timeline, which had been radiating a soft, warm light, changed from yellow to the orange-red of a setting sun, as if it had been ignited.

Jiang Xia wondered if he was hallucinating. As he looked at the red glowing orb, he heard a thumping sound, like someone was hammering a drumhead with a heavy hammer.

"The history of the Knights lost its creator and began to grow wildly in all directions. This not only caused the official history to become a mess, but also depleted the original resources due to the rapid splitting of parallel worlds. Finally, the plundering of resources led to wars between different Knight universes, resulting in the collapse of all universes."

Jiang Xia stroked his chin, looking at the timeline in front of him that was constantly vibrating and had almost become a small, ever-expanding sun, and said, "In the end, it should cause a Big Bang that sweeps across all parallel universes, and the power of the explosion should be a thousand times, ten thousand times, more powerful than the Big Bang of the universe."

"Everyone will die then, Kamen Rider will cease to exist, and the only option is to reboot the world."

“No, even a world reboot can’t save it. Time, space, everything will vanish into thin air, it will be utter annihilation.” Jiang Xia looked at Oma Zi-O. “Am I right? This should be the final outcome of the future of the Kamen Rider universe.”

“That’s right, especially the word ‘future’ was used very accurately.” Oma Zi-O reached out and gently touched it.

The timeline of the distorted, expanding sun split apart rapidly, as if time were flowing backward, and reverted to the shape of a single ray.

However, this ray is still curved, and the number of branching timelines is not as large, remaining within a controllable range.

Not to mention causing an explosion, they rarely even come into contact with each other. Although they will split into more over time, it's not now.

The Knight Universe has not yet gone to war over resource issues, and there is still a considerable amount of time before the universe explodes.

"Most of what you said is correct, but there is one very small difference," said Oma Zi-O, twisting the stable timeline back to its current correct form.

The appearance just now was only simulated by him using his time-manipulation ability. If the only option at that time was to close his eyes and wait for death, there would be no need to summon Jiang Xia to this world.

"I want to know what you mean by the very small part. My senses tell me that the Knight Universe did indeed collapse and explode because of war," Jiang Xia asked after thinking for a few seconds.

"This is the result of the collapse of the universe, not the cause," Oma Zi-O said. "Kamen Riders would never invade other universes because of resource problems, even if they knew the world was going to be destroyed, because that would sacrifice others."

“The knights in the Decade world don’t think that way. In the end, they fought each other to the death for their own world.” Jiang Xia shrugged. “They even attacked Tsukasa Kadoya in the end, but they were only able to be resurrected because Tsukasa Kadoya remembered them.”

"Ahem, you just have to choke me, don't you?" Oma Zi-O coughed. "In the end, they still chose to help each other against the common enemy. Let's not talk about this anymore. Let me tell you where you went wrong."

At this moment, he didn't seem like an old man, but rather like a child.

"Just kidding, just kidding. Now tell me where I went wrong." Jiang Xia stopped teasing and became serious.

"It wasn't their intention to make the Kamen Riders fight each other, but because they were manipulated and turned into weapons of war to plunder resources." When Oma Zi-O said this, his tone suddenly became as hard as cast iron.

"Who controls them?" Jiang Xia narrowed his eyes, thinking of a scene written in the original Knight setting.

“You’re right. If it’s just a stable, constantly branching timeline, it’s much easier, because the power of Oma Zi-O can take away the entire history of the Riders.” Oma Zi-O described his terrifying power. “In this way, the branching timelines will eventually merge back with the stable timeline. As long as they are not separated, these timelines will be merged forever.”

“Understood. This is similar to the situation where Oma Zi-O ruled until 2068, a collection of Kamen Rider histories.” Jiang Xia nodded.

All twenty Heisei Riders can be integrated into one planet, and this is just the most basic attraction of the Oma Zi-O power to the Rider universe.

With the power of Oma Zi-O, he can directly unleash his attraction to the Kamen Rider world, even amplifying it multiple times, making the convergence between worlds even stronger. This is the underlying logic of Oma Zi-O's power seizing Kamen Rider history.

Even if it splits into a hundred different timelines, it will only give Oma Zi-O a hundred more Rider Watches. He will just get stronger and stronger, since he can automatically acquire Watches just by sitting down.

The split timeline might be a very difficult thing for others, but it is actually an advantage for Oma Zi-O, who is Zi-O, the king of time.

But it's clear that this path won't work.

“I can no longer go that far because the history of these split knights is problematic, which is another very important impact of Shotaro Ishinomori’s death.”

Oma Zi-O paused for a few seconds before continuing, "We call this influence 'Alienation'."

"I see." With Jiang Xia's current abilities, he only needs a little bit of information to deduce the truth and the shortcomings.

"You said before that the world I experienced and the world Swartz summoned were fundamentally different. So that's how it is."

"It's not because the power of the Aurora Curtain and the Time Royal Family distorted history that these anomalies were created, but because the loss of Shotaro Ishinomori eliminated the possibility of heroes defeating villains, and Kamen Rider lost the favor of fate."

Jiang Xia realized that the so-called alien world was actually a world where the villains won.

This is a world created by the combination of the power of the Time Royal Family and the Dimensional Wall, who have mastered the essential elements that constitute the world: time and space.

But such an alien world is inherently very fragile; time flows within it for only a few seconds, repeating endlessly without a future.

The Eternal Memory, along with twenty-five other T2 Memory units, is enough to destroy the alien world.

The world alienation that Oma Zi-O is talking about now is not the same thing at all.

When an author writes a hero story, most of the protagonists have a very good ending after they finish fighting.

For example: achieving great success, getting married and having children, traveling extensively, opening a restaurant, becoming a journalist...

Most people simply want to return to their ordinary lives and stop using their own power.

Only a very small number of heroic works feature a protagonist and villain who perish together, leaving behind a peaceful world where everyone lives in harmony until the next hero is born.

The Kamen Rider story falls into both categories, featuring both tragic endings like mutual destruction and happy endings, with the majority being happy and devoid of angst.

However, even the worst ending will never happen. The strongest, fiercest, and most ruthless villain will win, kill the Kamen Rider who is fighting for justice, and then humiliate the protagonist's family and friends, ultimately achieving his goal of ruling the world.

This is the most basic ending for writing a heroic story, a fixed framework, and a concrete manifestation of the author's pen.

But now that the author is dead, the story's framework has gone off track.

There is no such thing as justice always prevailing in this world; on the contrary, the probability of justice always winning is almost zero.

There are some things you can't reach no matter how hard you try; that's reality.

Therefore, this near-zero probability is represented by the current stable timeline, which is the only possible path for the knight to achieve final victory.

The numerous branching timelines that branch out from the others mostly involve the villains achieving final victory.

Having lost the protagonist's halo, lost the deus ex machina, abandoned fantasy, and returned to reality.

The underlying logic that justice will prevail has been undermined, leading to the current situation.

Ultimately, the issue isn't about parallel worlds splitting out, but rather that the story went awry and slipped out of the author's control.

Faced with the simultaneous alienation of countless worlds, it seems that even Oma Zi-O is helpless.

“That’s right, this is the dilemma we’re in. The power of Oma Zi-O cannot be fused, because fusion would affect the only ‘Rider canon,’ and not fusion would only result in destruction.” Oma Zi-O nodded.

"I think I understand the solution. As you said, the world will eventually become entangled and eventually explode, so just destroy these branching timelines. That's the simplest way."

A resolute glint flashed in Jiang Xia's eyes. "Although the knight has lost justice, Tokiwa Sougo, you, who possess the power of Oma Zi-O, will be reborn. All you need to do is destroy spacetime. You are the power you already possess."

"Don't tell me that as a Demon King, you would be lenient about destroying timelines. A branch timeline only has about seven billion people in terms of population. Seven billion is nothing in the universe. However, if the villain wins, the population should be reduced sharply. Let's say he has three billion people. The remaining people will be taken away for modification, the knights will be brainwashed, and eventually they will invade other worlds. At that time, eliminating them is the best choice."

When Jiang Xia was explaining the plan, Oma Zi-O simply sighed softly, without refuting or interrupting.

"You've already done it, haven't you? How much was destroyed?" Jiang Xia suddenly asked.

Chapter 598 Tokiwa Shogo

"This is a very bloody path. Although the story's ending was led in the wrong direction, Tokiwa Sougo will still be born. Although Tokiwa Sougo is not born to be king, he will definitely become king, even if he is just a Tokiwa Sougo from a stable timeline." After sighing, Oma Zi-O began to recount the history of Tokiwa Sougo.

"These subplots are no different from the original timeline; we've just artificially labeled them differently. You're right, I did take action, attempting to maintain the stability of the universe by destroying the world."

"You consider the killings of Tokiwa Sougo from a parallel world as your own actions. Is that really okay?" Jiang Xia asked after hearing Oma Zi-O admit it.

The Oma Zi-O that appears before Jiang Xia now has not destroyed the timeline; the one constantly destroying spacetime is another Oma Zi-O from a parallel world.

"We are all Tokiwa Sougo. We share memories and have parallel consciousness through the power of Oma Zi-O. What another Tokiwa Sougo does is the same as what I do. Because of the power of Oma Zi-O, we are different from other parallel counterparts," said Oma Zi-O.

"There are two ways to save the current situation in the timeline. One of them is very simple: use the power of Oma to keep creating killing. No matter how many branches the original timeline splits into, no matter what the final outcome of the story is, and no matter whether the knight can defeat the enemy, wipe them all out, just like cleaning up the unsightly branches on a tree trunk."

Oma Zi-O stared into Jiang Xia's eyes and said very seriously:

“After I awakened as Oma Zi-O and learned the truth about the world, the killing began. For me, destroying a timeline was as simple as moving a finger, because no one could resist the power of Oma. When I began to indiscriminately destroy the world, Oma Zi-O became the most ferocious and evil demon king in the legends to the humans in the destroyed world.”

“That’s right, he is indeed the most ferocious demon king.” Jiang Xia agreed with this description.

This is what the most ferocious and evil demon king did, the purest version of the 86 demon king.

If Jiang Xia were to guess the Demon King's awakening experience, it would clearly be a very bumpy road to awakening, and the pain he suffered during it is probably beyond the comprehension of outsiders.

It might be a hundred times more difficult than the little devil in the TV series.

There's a high probability that Junichiro Tokiwa, who raised Tokiwa Sougo from childhood and deeply respected his dream of becoming king, and was known as the Rider, died right before his eyes.

This route also lacks Geiz and Tsukuyomi, so when Tokiwa Sougo learns that his uncle's death was caused by a branch timeline, he will indeed choose the path of world destruction.

"Whether they are Kamen Riders of justice, monsters of evil, or even humanity itself, all that arises in those worlds will be destroyed because of 'my' arrival," said Oma Zi-O.