Kousoke smiled as he took off his helmet and gloves and placed a ring on his right hand over his belt buckle.

Driver on

A belt with a buckle that looked like two closed metal doors appeared around his waist.

"I've got this," Kousoke said and sarted waving his arm around. "Henshin," he said (drawing out the syllables) and put the ring into a slot on the right side of the buckle and turned it.

Set. Open.

The metal doors of the buckle opened, revealing a golden lion face.

L-I-O-N. Lion.

A yellow magic circle came out from the buckle, then floated towards and over Kousoke, turning him into the ancient wizard, Beast. It was mostly black except for a yellow shoulder pad with a lion's face over the left shoulder and a yellow helmet with big, green eyes. Beast then replaced the ring on his right hand with a new one, put it in the buckle's slot and turned it.

Go Falco. F-F-F-Falco.

An orange magic circle appeared next to Beast's right arm and materialized a mantle of an orange falcon over his right shoulder that had a short, orange cape. Beast put his clenched right hand next to his buckle and pulled out a sword that had a thin shaft. He jumped off the ground and floated towards Stymphalian.

"That's not going to work," Haruto warned him to no avail.

Beast tried to slash the bird phantom, but Stymphalian flew backwards from him and unleashed a barrage of razor-sharp feathers from his wings. The projectiles hit beast, causing significant spark damage. Stymphalian followed through with a kick from above that sent Beast to the ground and making his Falco mantle disappear. He then landed.

"You have no idea how much I'm going to enjoy this," Stymphalian said and then let out a cry as fifteen ghouls appeared around him. The ghouls were grey humanoids with short, red horns on their heads wielding spears. They were foot soldiers for the phantoms. Haruto slid the silver faceplate over his ring.

"Henshin," he said as he placed the ring over his buckle.

Flame, Please. Hi-Hi, Hi-Hi-Hi.

The red magic circle floated over Haruto and transformed him into Wizard Flame style. He put a ring from his belt on his left hand, changed the buckle so that it was also a left hand and then put the two hands next to each other.

Connect, Please.

A small magic circle appeared to next Wizard's right side. He put his right hand into it and pulled out the Wizard swordgun. He shot two oncoming ghouls, turned his weapon into sword mode and parried a strike from another ghoul. Ten of the ghouls went around him and headed towards Toralei and her parents, as per instructions Stymphalian had given them ahead of time. Beast got back and went to help them.

Rio pulled out his knife, sidestepped a ghoul and struck it, hurting it a great deal. He did it to another ghoul. Toralei evaded a ghoul's thrust, grabbed the lance and kicked the ghoul, making him lose his weapon. Komodoyoko swept her tail and caused a ghoul to fall to fall to the ground. While this was happening, Beast was keeping other ghouls occupied by striking him with his sword.

Wizard was fighting other ghouls while Stymphalian flew into the air and made a diving strike at Wizard. He hit Wizard and made him fall to the ground. Wizard evaded a strike from the last remaing ghoul then got to his feet and defeated it with a slash. Wizard then put a new ring on his right hand, changed his buckle to a right hand and placed his hand over the buckle.

Land, Dragon: Dan Den Don Zu Dogan, Dan Den Dogon.

A yellow magic circle appeared in front of Wizard and floated over him, followed by a small tornado of dirt. He was now in Land Dragon style style, which was styled like Hurricane Dragon style but yellow and with square jewels next to the shoulders.

Stymphalian was making another charge at Wizard while he put a new ring on his left hand and changed his buckle to a left hand. He placed his hand over the buckle as Stymphalian neared.

Very nice. Gravity, fabulous.

Wizard held out his hand and a yellow magic circle appeared above Stymphalian that slammed him into the ground by drastically increasing his weight. Despite his increased weight, Stymphalian was able to flap one of his wings and send several razor feathers at Wizard, which him in the torso and broke his concentration, cancelling out the Gravity spell.

Stymphalian cried out and summoned six more ghouls that he was holding in reserve. They charged Wizard while his got up and flew towards Toralei and Komodoyoko, who were fighting off three ghouls.

Stymphalian flew at Komodoyoko and tackled her to the ground. He then walked over to the downed lizard woman, ordered the two ghouls around them to keep Rio and Beast busy, placed one of his clawed feet around her throat and began squeezing.

No, not her too, Toralei thought as she looked at her mother being slowly choked to death. Between losing her father and the uncle she never met, the thought of seeing her mother die by some evil thing that had the same memories and drives as the normie that killed her uncle was too much to bear. She dropped to her knees and, unbeknownst to her, had purple cracks of energy form over her body as she was about to bring a new phantom into the world.

Wizard had just dispatched the ghouls Stympalian sicked on him and saw Toralei start falling into despair. He returned the Wizard swordgun to gun mode, put a new ring on his left hand, pulled back a small lever on his gun that turned out to be the thumb of a hand like the one on his belt that just unclenched and used his left hand to shake it.

Copy, please.

A second gun appeared in Wizard's left hand and he began running towards Toralei. On the way, he shot both guns at the group of ghouls Rio and Beast were fighting, then squeezed off a few rounds from both guns at Stympalian. When near the bird phantom, Wizard jumped into the air and kicked him, making him release his grip on Komodoyoko's throat and sending him back several feet. Wizard knelt down, put one his rings on Toralei's hand and put her hand next to his buckle.

Engage, please.

Wizard jumped and disappeared into Toralei, going into her soul to battle the phantom trying to make its way out.

Wizard reverted to his default Flame Style as he descended into Toralei's underworld. He stopped falling after a few seconds and landed next to his motorcycle. He had arrived outside a large building that he didn't know was Monster High with many monsters walking around outside it. They all stopped walking as a loud roar came Wizard's right. Wizard looked to where it came from and saw a large wolf that was over twenty feet tall. This was the Fenrir phantom. It tackled the building and made a crack of purple energy appear.

Wizard briefly appreciated the irony of how a cat girl was close to giving birth to a wolf phantom while he put a new ring on his left hand and scanned it on his buckle.

Dragonrise, please.

A large, western-styled dragon came out of the ground behind Wizard while he got on his bike. WizarDragon flew in front of Wizard on his bike. Wizard leapt into the air on his motorcycle as everything except the seat and handlebars split horizontally. He landed on WizarDragon's back as the sections of his motorcycle covered the inner-most edge of WizarDragon's wings and he rode WizarDragon towards Fenrir.

Wizard hit Fenrir with a flying charge that sent Fenrir flying back aways while WizarDragon flew up. Fenrir jumped up to attack Dragon who stopped the wolf phantom by unleashing a stream of fire. With Fenrir burned and distracted, WizarDragon threw the wolf downward where it hit the ground with a loud thud. Wizard decided it was time to end this so he put a new ring on his left hand and scanned it.

Special. Kick strike, Fabulous.

Wizard jumped up while WizarDragon tucked in its arms, legs and head and became a giant, clawed foot. Wizard fell towards the top of the foot, kicked it and they were both covered in flames heading towards Fenrir. The flaming dragon's foot hit the wolf phantom, destroying it in a large explosion.

While this was going on, Stympalian was wondering what to do now that Wizard was gone and Toralei was hopefully about to die, Beast charged from his right and struck him with his sword. Thanks to Wizard's shots, he and Rio and finished off the ghouls, with Beast absorbing their mana.

"Now that the appetizers are done, it's time for the main dish," Beast said enthusiastically as he tried to strike Stymphalian again, but the bird thing flew backwards and upwards to avoid the blow.

I'm ready for you this time, you bastard, Kosuke thought to himself as he put a new ring on his right and inserted and it into his belt's slot.

Go Ch-ch-ch-chameleo

A green magic circle appeared to Beast's right and went over his arm, materializing a green mantle of a chameleon's head (with a short tongue sticking out) and a short green cape over his right shoulder.

Sytmphalian made a dive at Beast, but he used the power of the Chameleo mantle to turn invisible and avoid the attack. After Sytmphalian passed him, Beast turned visible, stretched out the tongue of the mantle to wrap around Stymphalian's foot and gave it a hard tug that made Stymphalian drop to the ground. Beast then put a new ring on his right and inserted and it into his belt's slot.

Go Bu-bu-bu-buffa

An orange magic circle appeared next to Beast and replaced the Chameleo mantle with one of an orange bull with a short, orange cape. He ran at Stymphalian just as the bird phantom got back on his feet and shoulder-charged him with the horns of his mantle. Beast followed through by swinging his sword at Stymphalian's left wing, the increased strength of his mantle causing great damage to the appendage. Beast then struck the right wing in the same way.

Stymphalian knew he could no longer fly, but he was far from defeated. He pecked at Beast's helmet with his hard beak, catching the ancient wizard off-guard and slashed at him three times with his claws. Stymphalian then brought his wings over himself and flapped them open, unleashing a barrage of razor feather that hit Beast, causing immense spark damage and making him fall to the ground.

Stymphalian was about to kick Beast when we was down but was interrupted by Rio sneaking up behind him and stabbing him in the head. This would have killed most living things but it to Stymphalian, it more like being hit with a small rock. Rio was able to work in another head stab while Stymphalian turned around and backhanded him to the ground. While he was dealing with Rio, Beast had gotten back on his feet and struck him twice with his sword followed by a shoulder charge with the horns on his mantle, making Stymphalian stumble back a few steps. Beast then rolled a wheel that was inside his sword and stuck his ring into a slot, making the wheel stop on one of its dice-like faces.

Five

Beast swung his sword and five bulls made of orange energy charged at Stymphalian. The bird phantom exploded and left behind a yellow magic circle that was drawn towards Beast's belt and absorbed.

"Thanks for the help," Beast said to Rio.

"Thank you for killing that thing for what it wanted to do to my wife and step-daughter," Rio said. He reached his hand and Beast shook it.

Wizard shot out of Toralei's body and the purple energy cracks disappeared from her. Toralei got back on her feet and then ran over to Komodoyoko, who was also getting back on her feet.

"Are you okay mom?" Toralei asked franticlly.

"Mostly," Komodoyoko said with a raspy voice. Toralei was so ecstatic to see that her mom was fine and would (hopefully) recover from her near-strangulation that she gave her a big hug. Rio walked up to his family and joined in as well.

…..

Several days later, Toralei and her parents met up with Haruto again near the border between the monster and normie sides of Tokyo, Haruto once again covered in gloves and a motorcycle helmet to conceal himself. Their flight back to America was leaving in a few hours and they wanted to thank Haruto in person one last time. Toralei decided to express her gratitude by hugging him.

"Thank you so much for everything," Toralei said and then ended the hug. "If it wasn't for you, mom would be dead, I'd have had my soul eaten or whatever so another one of those evil things could come into the world and dad….. well, I'm not what would happened to him, but he wouldn't have liked seeing both of us killed."

"No, I wouldn't have," Rio said as he reached out and shook Haruto's hand. Komodoyoko did the same and they both thanked him for all he'd done, including destroying the last traces of the man who'd killed Toralei's uncle over twenty years ago.

"Tell that Kousoke guy how grateful we are to him too," Toralei said.

"Of course," Haruto said. They talked for a bit more and then went their separate ways.