(5)
Shirou, Rin and Saber continued their walk across the throne of the golden hero, through the golden carpet and onto the lavishly Ordained throne of the golden king; Intangible sense of Pressure engulfed them as they walked their way. The thousands of years of history and legacy, they were actually setting their foot on this manifestation of the history of human civilization.
The first ever dynasty, the first ever king, the only kingdom that ruled everything on earth, it all started on this very place where Gilgamesh hailed as the ruler of all. But it didn't daunt them, the ones who drew their swords towards the master of this chamber and emerged victorious.
"What's the plan now."
Said Rin as she took her time to sit and rest on the unattended throne. Her eyes were showing no sign of fear, or rather a small hint of excitement, supported by her confident tone and elegant posture.
"There are eleven Gates, I say we split up and search the gates one by one."
"You sure you can handle it alone dear?"
Shirou Folded his arms and huffed slightly with both Kanshou and Bakuya still at hand. It's true that in terms of all out battle there was none that could out power Rin and her dagger but still, he of now is strong enough to fight evenly with saber in a sword fight. Well, not exactly as strong as her monster strength but close to that in pure sword skill.
"Rin, I think Shirou's offer is something is actually quite an idea, he isn't exactly as strong as a dragon but I believe he can handle a few mythical beasts on his own."
"Heh? Our big old Shirou's big enough to handle himself?"
"You have no idea."
Said Shirou as he let out a deep grumble.
"Alrighty, then!"
Rin Jumped out of the seat and started browsing her backpack, pulling out a set of three walkie talkies from it and tossed them to Shirou and Saber.
"If there is any need for reinforcement or if you actually find the Artifact report everyone. And try not to touch anything until we reassemble."
Shirou and Saber nodded without any complaints.
"That is all!"
Said Rin as she turned and made her way to the far right side of the chamber. Shirou and Saber soon set out, going the exact opposite direction of Rin.
"Oh, and Shirou!"
Shirou halted his walk as he heard her say the words. He didn't bother to turn his head, Focus was what he needed the most.
"Don't, and I repeat. DON'T try to fight any dragons you hear!"
Shirou didn't nod and instead continued on with his march. He will go as far as he takes and dragons won't hinder his pace, More so if they're Gilgamesh's.
Rin closed her eyes and sighed deeply before pushing her feet on her way, Shirou at this state won't listen to anything she throws at him. She already gave up on that long ago.
"Come back in one piece Shirou... I'll kill you if you don't."
Said Rin as she disappeared into the dark, Colorless Tunnel.
The Tunnel Shirou chose was situated at the foremost edge on the left side of the Chamber, the tunnel actually led to the lower part of this throne. There was no light, not one to speak of, the stairs were steep and the surface was very slippery, thanks to a millenia of dust debris stacked on each and every step he took.
Shirou took a few steps through the dim tunnel, until the lights on the entrance became too far apart for any light to cross. The path was in total darkness, but as long as there is the slightest bit of light present, it's nothing he can't handle
Shirou closed his eyes and imaged an interwoven network of twenty seven strains of circuits on his head. The next thing he did was aligning two of the circuits with the optical nerves of his eyes. the trick was simple, human eyes have countless receptors that detect the amount of lights present, depending on the strength of the light the eye or more exactly the size of the cornea changes, if there is lesser light, it will gradually increase in size, the more the light the lesser the size will be. But like many other human physique, there are limits to how much the cornea can stretch. Reinforcing the eyes are in other words is taking off the limiter of one's eyes.
This is all done by simply converting the Prana to a nerve signal which in turn causes the cornea to release it's maximum potential. In the past, such complex maneuver wasn't really much of an option, it's like improvising an eye surgery, both holds the same risk, a damage in the eye and in extreme cases, a total loss in eyesight. Even for Shirou, who excelled in the study of body reinforcement, this was still a real risk.
But then again, using torches wasn't really a viable option, the adverse effects a smoke could impose on the body are enough to seriously impair the body's capacity of battle. Reinforcement was a well calculated risk and also something worth taking.
As per his calculation, Shirou managed to pull off the trick and gained temporary reinforcement of his eyes, his cornea stretched almost up to the very border of his eyelids, almost totally covering his eyes. The completely dark tunnel was again clear, The bottom of the stairs wasn't too far off from where Shirou stopped, without much of a hesitation, Shirou swiftly climbed down the stairs.
Although armed with reinforcement magic, Shirou had trouble finding a fine footing on his leg. uneven floors, Dusty air, and to top it all, even the light was getting too thin for him to catch a good detail of the tunnel. Compared to night vision, his reinforcement was still nowhere as advanced as what science had reached, he had to admit.
Even with giant nets, with not much fish to catch the result is not as impressive as it'd be, it might do better than normal fishing nets but still, that's as far as reinforcement goes. Unlike night vision, Reinforced eyes can't accumulate and increase the frequency of surrounding lights. The night vision is just like a giant net with lures. The fishes will be attracted to the very spot and what's more, the giant net will catch every single one of them. That's the fundamental difference between reinforcement and night vision and one of the many departments science had surpassed magic.
After another minute of dull walk on the dim tunnel, Shirou had to admit the limit of his reinforcement again as the vision finally faded completely. This was about the very limit he can push himself with magic, for now he had no choice but to rely on his last resort.
Shirou let out a deep sigh, he never wanted to use this method but heck, it's better than being blind all the way. Within a second, Shirou traced a single wooden torch on his right hand and pulled out a match from his pocket before lighting the torch. The torch ignited and lit the tunnel like a candle. And what do you know? He wasn't actually in the tunnel, he was in the middle of some spacious chamber that had mirrors on the ceiling. On the wall behind him were torches, they didn't look as sturdy as Shirou had hoped but was still just good enough to be used...at least for a short while.
Shirou spun around and faintly saw torches aligned on the edge of the circles, slowly walking his way, Shirou cautiously lit the torch. After finishing his first duty Shirou turned to light another one on the right. Just then, the torches started lighting in a consecutive order, starting right from the first lit torch and lighting one by one automatically in a clockwise order. In less than about twenty seconds the chamber illuminated in soothing milk orange, the manner in which it emerged from the total darkness reminded him of a scene he watched in one of Indiana Jones movies, the next he could expect shouldn't be much less different from his expectation.
The Gigantic room was cylindrical in shape, with space even bigger than the main chamber. There were hundreds of empty seats on top of the circle, the roof was dome shaped with Mirrors coated on them. The Structure resembled that of a Colosseum. He wagered, this is the very prototype of it.
"-Sigh- If only I had my camera with me..."
complained Shirou as he took time to look around this magnificent structure.
A quick observation revealed Gilgamesh's golden full plate Armor Gracefully stationed on the edge of the Circle on top of a small display column which didn't look so sturdy, and that was it. There wasn't anything remotely resembling Ea.
Letting out a sigh of disappointment, Shirou took the walkie talkie off from his belt and announced his status.
"Rin, Are you there?...Rin?"
A long pause... For a moment there was an utter silence, then a loud cracker Ensued from the Radio and a sound of Rin's erratic Puff followed right after along with an unknown shrieking sound of an eagle, much to Shirou's panic.
"Rin... Can you hear me? Rin... What's wrong?!"
"Not Now, dear! I'm in a bit of a pinch right now! Shlag Von Vin! Damn, This thing's fast!"
Another sound of explosion and Rin's Voice disappeared from his ear. Along with other unworldly background Noises.
"Rin! Rin! Crap!"
his Walkie Talkie,Shirou Immediately rushed towards the entrance, his muscles strained and twitched to the limits and his breath heavily stained with his inconsistent gasps.
But then a loud roaring sound Stopped him from his rush and A silhouette of a monster twice as big as him emerged out of nowhere.
"What the..."
"*********"
Immediately Shirou crossed Kanshou and Bakuya before his chest, creating a makeshift blockade that could do hardly as to block the massive speeding block of stone.
One giant swing from the monster, and his Blades cracked. His body was thrown twenty feet off the ground, rolling and rolling before his head crush head right to the display, causing Gilgamesh's golden armor to drop off . A gash open up on his head and drops of blood massively poured down from the gashes
For a moment, the body stay there silent as if there was no life left on it. But it wasn't long before Shirou jumped back on his feet
"Hah... Hah..."
Using the column as a support to his shaking body, Shirou slowly pulled himself up from the ground, Wiping the blood off his face he started focusing his eyes on the abomination.
As the thing slowly closed into his position, lights slowly revealed the identity of the monster, lighting it slowly from down the shin to the chest and finally up to it's dragonite head.
It's Body was massive, around ten to twelve feet high, it's whole body, except the abdomen and the chest was covered in Crimson Reptilian Scale. The monster was standing with both it's feet, the hands seemingly evolved enough to wield blunt weapons. The upper part of it's body closely represented that of a dragon, it's red top was further furnished with tiny horns that spread out from the armor like skull to the back of his head. It's nostrils spewed dark acrid smoke on the air as if it was a spawn summoned straight from hell.
"Great, a dragon... Looks like I have no choice... Don't die on me Rin, I'll definitely come and get you."
Recovering from his haze, Shirou wiped the rest of the blood off from his head and traced another pair of kanshou bakuya on the palm of his hands before crossing his arms on his front. His eyes sharpened, slowly filling with a surge of killing intent; The battle stance is ready. The rest is going to be a test of skill and strength.