Draco: So, my frustration with the game's treatment of Tadakatsu has transformed (#AccidentalPun) into a full-on case of my stupid little changes that I would make to games for no significant reason but thematicism. Specifically, I dislike the fact that he gets a legendary Link when not all of the senior Warlords (and none of the female Warlords except the player) get legendary Links. So I started to wonder, 'Could there be a legendary Link for every senior Warlord in Ransei'? And there were two little snags I ran into in so contemplating that prompted some very interesting thoughts.

One is Yoshimoto. Now, there is a Bug-type legendary Pokémon in Generation V - Genesect. However, with the Pokémon Company's policy of denying the existence of Mythical Pokémon until their first distribution is approaching, that's not on the table because Conquest came out before that point. His other two Links look like kemari balls, Forretress is specifically a Bug/Steel type, and Registeel is very round. (I don't know why Ieyasu feels the need to point that out when he forges the Link.) I feel Dialga would be more appropriate for Ieyasu, so maybe Registeel would be more appropriate for Yoshimoto.

The other snag is Nene. There are no Poison-type legendary Pokémon in Generation V. Hell, as of Generation VIII, there are no Poison-type legendary Pokémon except Eternatus (Ultra Beasts are not legendary Pokémon). So if she were to receive a legendary Link, it would have to be of an alternative type. Her non-legendary Perfect Link might have been influenced thereby, but all the same. Let's look at her personality, in Conquest and Warriors both. She's a ninja, she's strict, she's motherly - and then I realize that Viperia is a coastal kingdom, and I remember which legendary Pokémon brings out the protective instincts in me.

If all the ruling Warlords had legendary Links, I would have had to completely rework the Sea Princess' involvement in Kingdoms Unknown.

Pokémon and protagonist © Nintendo. Character designs © Koei. Ransei © somewhere in the middle.

Scar in the Earth: A Titan Among Gods

The Zebstrika's cart did indeed make the trip easier on the Warriors than it would have been otherwise. Though Kanbei needed to remain at the reins to keep them going the right way, the Warriors were spared the tire, and the cart's highly efficient design meant the Thunderbolt Pokémon weren't struggling much to keep them moving. Their Pokémon, however, were a little more inclined to walk alongside the cart, irregardless of how much room there was (though that did make things a lot less cramped than they could have been); consequently, they didn't make too much better time than they had on foot, with the Zebstrika joining them in camp each night, but no one was in the mood to complain.

They had much in the way of other thoughts to keep them busy.

It was the morning of the tenth day after the Dark Storm in the Empty Chaos when the Warriors arrived at the Scar in the Earth; as the cart approached Big Bridge, Benkei's Abra noticed them, and Teleported with a flash. Hanbei directed the Zebstrika to slow down, bringing the cart to a stop, and Evia descended from the cart, making her way forward as the Abra returned - with Benkei and Gardevoir.

"Who dares to-?" He cut himself off as he recognized the Warriors. "Oh, Evia of the Ruins!"

"Hello, Benkei," Evia greeted. "Will you allow us to cross?"

"I did promise you safe passage whenever you had need of it," Benkei assured. Then he looked as his field of weapons, claimed from bridge-crossers he had defeated, and looked very awwkard; "Er... perhaps I should better facilitate your travel?"

A small smile rose on Evia's face. "Appreciate it."

Gardevoir helped with moving the weapons aside, leaving the blades lined across the edges of the bridge; once the path was clear, Evia re-mounted the cart, and Hanbei urged the Zebstrika forward. Benkei made to walk alongside the cart for a moment. "Actually, I had a curious visitor here earlier, asking after you."

"Me?" Evia echoed. "Whatever for?"

"Seemed she was convinced to do something that she didn't expect you to approve of," Benkei replied, "and hoped to make things right if you still held a grudge."

Evia immediately realized who he was talking about. "Celebi," she muttered.

Speak of Antimatter, and the Distortion World will open - the Time Traveller rose up from beneath the bridge, looking very awkward. With a sigh, Evia beckoned her forward. "Ina explained things," she assured her. "I won't say I approve... but I'm not going to get angry at you like I did in the Swamp."

Celebi gave a nod.

"Quite the curious Warrior you are, Evia," Benkei observed. "Skill and ferocity unlike any other Warrior I have seen in battle, and yet compassion enough to speak amicably to a legendary Pokémon such as this."

"Amicable for the moment," Oichi observed. "She did tell off this one for being reckless some time before we first crossed the bridge."

"And not all legendary Pokémon are equally deserving of... amicability," Evia added. "Most of them are... a little more... fierce and-" She cut herself off, swatting at her ears. "I'm sorry, does anyone else hear that?"

Kanbei swatted Hanbei in the side. "Slow down."

The Zebstrika came to a halt as the Warriors looked around. Everyone could hear it - a sort of high-pitched ring, like a crystal struck, echoing in the air at inconsistent intervals - and after a moment, Ina turned to Evia. "It's coming from you."

A dreadful thought occurred to Evia, and her hands dove into her pockets; one of them found what she was looking for, and she drew it out. The Wishing Star that Ina had delivered on AZ's behalf - with its emergence, the sound became clearer, and at every ring, the glowing red indentations at the base of each protrusion turned an almost toxic pink color.

"It's... resonating," Evia realized.

Benkei was astonished as she and the other Warriors descended from the cart. "What? Resonating with what?"

"The Dark Storms that plague Ransei are supposed to be caused by a legendary Pokémon that was broken into pieces," Oichi explained. "The pieces are said to resonate in its proximity. But where is it leading to?" A confused Evia pried that very question, moving the Wishing Star to and fro in an effort to find the source. Lateral movement earned no clear response, no matter what angle she moved it on; then a dreadful thought rose in her mind, and she glanced over the edge of Big Bridge.

She lowered the Wishing Star downward - and the ringing became more frequent in response.

"...Within the Scar?"

+x+x+x+

Most of the party took the Zebstrika's cart across Big Bridge, this time with as much haste as they could all muster - Naomasa and Togekiss, Naotora, Lopunny, and Audino, Hanbei and Raichu, Kanbei and Chandelure, Nobuyuki and Emboar, and Ina and Empoleon. Benkei and Gardevoir called on his Abra, and with much trepidation, they Teleported Evia, Espeon, Oichi, Wigglytuff, and Celebi into the Scar itself.

They found themselves in a very dark environ - they were so deep into the Scar that the edges of the chasm were little more than a distant light above them, not enough to illuminate their surroundings. A few floating stones around them had a natural luminescence, offering light to see by - but not much more than if they were to light a torch in a cave devoid of its own light. The Wishing Star in Evia's hand was resonating much more rapidly now, and she closed her hand around it in an effort to muffle the sound somewhat. "It's definitely down here."

"If the cause of the Dark Storms has been slumbering down here," Benkei wondered as they started to advance, "why then did the Storms only occur over the past year and such?"

"Because it hasn't been slumbering down here the whole time," Oichi replied. "Hisahide of the Glacier found the Crystal Wishmaker, and demanded she bring terror to Ransei, on threat of flame." The area at the bottom of the Scar was so haphazard that they felt rather as though they were walking through a poorly-made hallway. "This... must be the least damaging solution she could think of that would still grant his wish."

"A wish upon crystal," Benkei gasped. "And from whence was this Pokémon brought?"

"A region where the Dark Storms it causes are an integral part of the life there," Evia replied, "understood throughout its history, and intertwined with its culture."

"And limited outside of calamity," Oichi recalled. "Which begs the question - if the Pokémon responsible really is here, why is just its presence causing the Dark Storms to rage..."

The group rounded a sharp corner, and suddenly found themselves in a much more open area.

"...freely..."

The legendary Pokémon stood before them, resting against the stone structure of the Scar. It looked like a titanic mask, resting against the wall of the cavern - a mask of translucent crimson film, holding five bony purple horns that extended beyond the bounds of the mask itself. A strange formation was visible behind the mask, and after a moment they realized that it was the Pokémon's face and mouth - but it looked more like a skeleton's skull and jaw, bone with no flesh to hold it together.

"This... is the source of Dynamax?" Evia gasped.

"It's a Dragon," Oichi murmured. "But... it's Poisonous, too. What sort of-?"

Benkei touched her arm to get her attention. "Look," he insisted. "Are those not the same as your shard?"

Scattered on the floor of the cavern were several Wishing Stars, glowing with the pink light; they didn't ring persistently as Evia's had, but instead gave off a constant, low hum - Evia had had the sound assumed to be her mind reacting to an absence of sound rather than anything her ears had heard.

"So many of them," Oichi observed. "But... why are they here?"

"Could it be drawing power from them?" Evia wondered. "Is that why the Dark Storms run free? Because it has more power than it normally does? These shards are supposed to be channels for Dynamax..." She opened her palm to observe the shard in her hand, letting its ring be heard clearly. "Is it able to draw more strength from them some-?"

The Wishing Star in her hand ceased ringing, and joined the others in its hum - and then it began to move.

"What!?"

Evia couldn't react before the Wishing Star tumbled out of her hand, falling to the ground amidst all the others. A sudden, strong light appeared in the darkness of the Scar - the eyes of the skull-like head beneath the mask had begun to glow, shining in the darkness of the Scar. Its mouth opened, just slightly, and the legendary Pokémon cried out - a low, deafening cry that could surely have been heard on Big Bridge above, channelled through the Scar like a bullet down a gun's barrel.

Then the earth around them began to shake - not the slight tremors of an oncoming Dark Storm, but the terrible instability of earth being torn apart. The legendary Pokémon started to move, and the stone behind it began to fall apart... and then Evia realized that it wasn't the legendary Pokémon.

It was the legendary Pokémon's head.

We need to get out of here! She felt her mouth form the words, felt the air move from her lungs, but they didn't register in her ears - the cry had deafened her, at least briefly, and had surely done the same to the others. She reached for Benkei's arm, and when he turned to face her she pointed to Abra incessantly; the Warrior nodded in confirmation, and Evia looped her arm with Oichi's to get her attention. One Abra moved towards them; Espeon, Wigglytuff, and Gardevoir gathered around the other, who made to call for Celebi.

But Celebi didn't heed the call; she soared straight at the bringer of the Dark Storms, and they couldn't waste time waiting for her, the light of Teleport surrounding them all as Magical Leaves gathered around the Time Traveller.

Bony claws broke out of the rock, and closed around her before the attack could fly.

+x+x+x+

The Zebstrika's cart was slowing down as they approached the Swarm-side field of blades - and Hanbei was looking very distressed about having to move things without a Psychic-type - when the shaking began.

"What the-!" Kanbei looked around. "Dark Storm?!"

"No!" Naotora warned. "This is worse! It's something bigger!"

A hellish cry echoed out of the Scar, terrifying everyone - such that they barely noticed the light that heralded the Abra Teleporting back, until Oichi yelled, "Get off the bridge!"

Hanbei didn't waste time with asking questions - he lashed the Zebstrika's reins, prompting them to dash forward as fast as they could while avoiding the blades with their bodies. The cart took a few greatswords to the chassis, but the blades didn't strike anything essential before they were off, and the Pokémon followed suit; Audino was trailing behind when something ripped through the center of the bridge - a beam of power, striking its way heavenward.

The shockwave ripped through Big Bridge and straight to the edges of the Scar, where the initial tremor had already weakened those supports and left little for the destruction to tear away. The moment it began to go, it went - Togekiss soared forward, seizing Audino before she could fall into the Scar and pulling her safely to solid ground, and everyone pulled away from the ridge as the bridge fell into the chasm.

And something broke through the falling structure.

The legendary Pokémon was gigantic - larger even than the Dynamaxed form of some of Ransei's smaller Pokémon. It looked skeletal, with its body having the jagged edges of bones; it had a vaguely draconic appearance, but in place of its wings were a pair of bony tendrils that looked better suited to attack than support. Its four limbs were three-pronged tridents of bone, and everything between its head and the tip of its tail was a thorned spine; its chest looked like a most angular ribcage, covered in the same translucent film as its face - which meant that the light that glowed within its chest was visible for all to see.

The light of Dynamax.

"Holy Distortion," Nobuyuki gasped. "That's... the cause of the Dark Storms?!"

"We have to go," Evia insisted. "We have to go, now! We can't-!"

She fell silent as the legendary Pokémon reached the height where Big Bridge had stood, turning its gaze on them; her body went cold as she saw something, clutched in the bony prongs of one arm. Celebi was imprisoned in its grasp, and the sight told Evia that they had already lost - that they could not possibly run from this.

Benkei had other opinions; he and Gardevoir charged to the edge of the gorge. "Go, now!"

"What?!" Evia couldn't believe her ears. "Are you mad!?"

"I will buy you as much time as I can!" Benkei insisted. "Go! Get whatever help you can!"

"Benkei-!"

Oichi seized her arm. "Evia, we have our destination! We need to get back to the Ruins!"

The Auroran hesitated a moment too long; Oichi grabbed her bodily, pulling her to the cart, and this time none of the Pokémon dared to remain behind. The moment they were fully loaded, Hanbei didn't need to spur the Zebstrika - the Thunderbolt Pokémon charged forward of their own volition, running as fast as their legs would take them and bringing the entire entourage with them.

Intent on ending this menace, even at cost to themselves - a far cry from the Warrior they had once been Linked to.

Benkei slammed his naginata to the stone, facing the legendary Pokémon, and his voice thundered into the Scar.

"You shall not pass!"

Draco: That's #NotHyperbole with Evia's size assessment, by the way. Base Eevee is 0.3m tall and Gigantamax Eevee is listed as slightly north of 18m tall, so presumably a normal Dynamax Eevee or a Dynamax Mincinno would be in roughly the same ballpark, but base form Eternatus is 20m tall. Limitations of the engine and #RuleOfCool means that it looks otherwise in-game, but the Bringer of the Darkest Day has frickin' earned the category "Gigantic Pokémon", and here's its battle information.

Eternatus
-Range: 4
-Move: Dynamax Cannon
-Ability: Black Hole

Dynamax Cannon
-Attack area: three tiles in front (i.e. Dragon Pulse)