The Dragon King of Biwa
The area north of Lake Biwa was a succession of hills descending to the sea. A pre-rift road crossed them. It was a road made of a material similar to plastic but much more resistant. Here and there, especially at the crossings with secondary roads, there were road signs that had been degraded by the passage of centuries.
It was an abandoned, depopulated area on the boundary between the Empire of Japan and the Zone, the area west of Honshu that was colonized by the Onis.
Few human beings dared venture into this terrifying region and only into large and well-armed groups, ready to fight, ready to kill.
Yet two people were walking on the road.
Dressed in an antique-looking blue dress that she wore over a white petticoat, the woman also had a segmented breastplate, adorned with blue lacquer designs of a vaguely vegetal appearance. Attached to her belt a strange skirt of metal plates clicked at each of her steps. Her feet were kicked with metal and her hands clad with steel.
She was a woman knight with blond hair gathered in a mat wrapped around the back of her skull and with beautiful eyes, green like emeralds. Despite her apparent youth and beauty, she had spent her entire life fighting.
She turned her head to the young man with red hair who was walking beside her.
He was wearing Japanese silver steel armor, and Shinmen's Tenugi - a red silk headband adorned with a black three-spoke wheel- yet even though his eyes were slanted, they were a strange amber color while his hair was red.
Saber and Shirou had left Buntokapi's castle the day before, leaving the Tennō army to complete the pacification of the deceased rebel lord's domain.
They walked towards Oniraku, the city of onis, the place where Iriku Ō, the king of onis, lived.
They walked very fast, Shirou having used the Reinforcement Magecraft to gain endurance. Saber was a Servant. In the world of Rifts, her endurance matched that of a dragon or a major demon. She could have walked for weeks without rest.
Seeing that the landscape of hills gradually gave way to a vast forest whose end could not be seen, Shirou unfolded a map. It was given to them by the officers of the Tennō when they left the army of the Empire of Japan.
It was not a pre-rifts map and it did not have the accuracy of maps obtained from satellite surveys. Drawn and painted by hand, this map looked like a painting adorned with miniatures characters, rivers, delicate bridges, and even dragons and pagodas.
Shirou stood up and put a finger on a point on the map.
"This is Buntokapi Castle. We continued north... "His finger stopped on a drawing showing trees. He read the name inscribed on the paper: " Kage no Mori... the Shadow Forest."
The officers of the Tennō army had told them about this forest. This place had a sinister reputation. It was said that horrible Yokai (the monsters of Japanese folklore) haunted the forest, attacking the travelers.
Saber looked at the map over the young man's shoulder. She nodded.
"It would take us days to bypass the forest from the east. We would then be on the first slopes of the mountains. From the west, there is only the sea and the ruins of the coastal towns. Moreover, it is by this road that Rin and Archer passed."
Shirou nodded. He was well aware that their friend and her first servant had faced constant opposition... which could not be the effect of bad luck. Rin Tohsaka had been spotted by Iriku Ō or his lackey.
Shirou sighed and scratched the back of his head.
"So you think we should cross the forest."
Saber acquiesced solemnly, regally, her beautiful face and eyes reflecting a calm determination.
"I don't think there's any point in tricking. Our enemy already knows we're here. I suspect he's using magic to spot us. In this case... "She pointed to the Forest of Shadows. "The best tactic is to move as fast as possible towards Oniraku. My sword will lead us to victory. If we are fast enough, the onis will not have time to gather in sufficient numbers to prevent us from passing. On the other hand, if we linger or hesitate, we will only help our opponents to defeat us."
Shirou tried to think about the problem but eventually gave up. He had no alternative to the plan of his ex-Servant and... well, he had always preferred the most direct tactics.
"All right, I'm with you."
Saber was following a winding path through the Shadow Forest. She turned her head from one side to the other and listened attentively... but the forest seemed empty without living beings. Not that it's easy to be sure. The trees were so tight that the trunks formed like a wall around them. Above, the branches and foliage were so thick that only a few stray rays crossed the canopy, lighting up slowly dancing dust particles.
The noises were also muffled, as in a dream. In fact, only the smells of humus, moist earth, and moss clearly reached Artoria.
Shirou followed, he too was attentive, on the defensive, ready to Trace Kanshou and Bakuya at the first sign of danger.
Surprised, Saber walked into a vast clearing and blinked, momentarily blinded by the flood of sunlight that lit the space between the trees.
Her second movement was to summon the Sword of the Wind King...
A large dragon floated lazily above the tops of the largest trees. His body was long, undulating like that of a snake but provided with four clawed legs. His head was crowned with horns and his scaly mouth was adorned with long whiskers. His head was something human, his features vaguely resembling those of a wise old man with long eyebrows.
Upon seeing him, Shirou remembered the legend "Monshinyōru gohan-bukuro" recounting the adventures of a human hero chasing after a giant centipede that killed the children of the dragon king of Lake Biwa.
"A Tatsu!"
Also called Ryū, the Japanese dragon flew without wings, seeming to walk in the air, as comfortable in flight as on land or under water.
The dragon's big yellow eyes watched the two intruders carefully before he began to speak.
"As you thought, mortal, I am the Dragon King of Lake Biwa. I am a Kumo-Mi, a Cloud Dragon. You can call me Biwa no Ryūō".
The dragon's voice was deep and deep, full of power and wisdom.
Saber had a dry mouth. The being was powerful and ancient, the King of Britain had already faced dragons and she knew their strength... she could not be sure to emerge victorious from a fight against this powerful creature.
Biwa no Ryūō turned to Saber and looked at her with interest.
"I also greet you, O daughter of Maglocunnus. May I ask you if came here for challenging me?"
Hardly recovering from the shock, Artoria bowed.
"O mighty king of Lake Biwa. I beg you to excuse my intrusion into your domain. I had no idea you were in those woods and I would never have been rude enough to cross them without asking your permission. May I humbly request the right to cross your territory? I have no desire to disturb or irritate you. There are compelling reasons for my trip and any delay could have serious consequences."
Nervous, Saber waited for the dragon's answer. For - whether Western or Eastern- all dragons were territorial and defended their small kingdom against intruders. As for the younger dragons, they sought to make a name for themselves by killing one of their elders.
"I see. I'm not unaware of the situation in the Empire. I could possibly accept you crossing my territory..."
He smiled as Saber and Shirou exchanged reassured glances, their tension easing partially.
"Nevertheless... I am the guardian of this forest and the heavenly laws that govern these places require me to test all those who enter Kage no Mori. I'm going to ask you two riddles. If you answer correctly, you can cross my territory. Otherwise... I would be happy to devour you. You will not be able to flee because the laws that apply to these places prohibit people from crossing the forest without first dealing with me."
Very calm, Saber nodded... She was used to this kind of situation.
"Fine, I'm listening to you, Biwa no Ryūō."
"Now listen to my first riddle:
In a fortress without a door or a window,
With white marble walls,
Covered in silk-like skin,
In the middle of a crystal-clear water fountain,
A golden apple suddenly appears.
What is this all about?"
In these words, the Kumo-Mi eagerly looked at the two foreigners who had violated its territory.
But Artoria Pendragon had been with Taliesin for many years and King Arthur's court bard loved riddles. She only hesitated for a few seconds, knowing two almost identical riddles.
"An egg!"
After all the egg best symbolized the concept of 'hidden treasure' and was often the subject of a riddle.
The Kumo-mi seemed disappointed.
"Yes, an egg, that's right. But will you be clever enough to find the right answer twice? Listen to the second riddle:
When you don't know what it is,
This is something;
But when you know what it is,
It's not anything anymore.
If Artoria had immediately answered the first riddle, the second was much more difficult.
One day Taliesin had asked her a riddle that looked very much like this:
If you don't talk,
I exist
But if you're talking about me,
I'm dead
Who am I?
The answer was 'silence'.
We found the same idea in both cases, something that ceased to exist. Silence ceased to exist when we spoke. But what ceased to exist when one knew what it was? She was thinking quickly... what was known... knowledge... what was the reverse of knowledge? Oh... of course!
"Ignorance!"
"No, that's not the right answer (1) "The dragon rejoices." Now I will kill you as the heavenly powers give me the right."
Completely neglecting Shirou, Biwa no Ryūō attacked Artoria. His front paw opened and he threw a fireball. The explosion laid down several trees, burning the trunks, and incinerating the branches as the leaves. However, the Servant had jumped and dodged the attack.
Running, she avoided a bolt of lightning thrown by the dragon and then leaped to a high branch before leaping higher. She held her invisible sword in hand.
Surprised by her quick reaction, the dragon had no time to dodge and roared with anger as the invisible sword drew a line of blue prana in the air. The scales of the Kumo-Mi were very strong and the Noble Phantasm only managed to inflict a flesh wound.
Saber fell to the ground and started running again, as the dragon rushed after her. However... Biwa no Ryūō was stopped by dozens of magic arrows ricocheted off his scales. None managed to hurt him, but he turned his amber eyes without iris towards Shirou.
The latter had a pout of discontent, lowering Archer's great black bow.
The dragon whispered an incantation and drew in the air mystical gestures with its two front legs:
"Hallucination!"
For Shirou, the world seemed to be distorted. The dragon had just attacked his spirit... Saber had been turned into a horrible succubus and the forest now looked like a vision of the underworld.
The young redhead was on the verge of nausea, but he had not fled in front of Gilgamesh and Berserker. Moreover, after his arrival on Rifts Earth, he discovered that he possessed psionic abilities. And Mind Block Auto-Defense was one of the psionics he had learned from the Republic of Japan military.
Shirou knew that what he saw was not real, he refused to give in to fear and when he concentrated to block the mental attack... the illusion disappeared.
The redhead teen shook his head several times and managed to repel the dizziness that continued to assault him.
Meanwhile, Saber continued to hunt the dragon. In vain, moreover, because the latter moved faster than the female knight and remained far from the ground, continuing to cast his magic from afar to attack her: Fireball, Energy Bolt, Call Lightning... Explosions of flames, discharges of energy, and lightning ravaged the forest, opening craters in the ground, and burning trees.
Fast and agile, Artoria Pendragon dodged attacks and her Magic Resistance A-rank skill had protected her from near misses.
Nevertheless, she had no opportunity to retaliate. Cunning and cautious, the dragon remained out of reach.
It was an endurance fight between the Kumo-Mi and the daughter of the Great Red Dragon of Britain.
Shirou watched the clash and clenched his teeth when he saw that the wound Saber had inflicted on the dragon had already completely closed.
Powerful, prudent, and able to fly indefinitely, the dragon also had a self-healing ability.
Very worried, now, Shirou Emiya Traced many arrows, firing them with Archer's Bow. But, despite the power of the bow, and although the arrows were not ordinary projectiles, the result was not up to the expectations of the redhead teen.
Hit several times, the dragon was burned, frozen, electrocuted... each arrow having a different effect. Nevertheless, his resistance was impressive, and the damage was small... and the wounds immediately began to heal. Upset, Biwa no Ryūō cast a new spell:
"Multiple images!"
This illusion created three identical images of the dragon which mimic his every movement exactly.
Shirou frowned and responded by shooting more arrows.
The mirror images, pierced by his arrows, disappeared, and a new series of explosions and electric shocks struck Biwa no Ryūō. This attack hardly affected him. Not only did he heal in a few seconds but the ice arrows did not affect him... he was completely immune to cold!
Shirou's intervention had been practically useless, only succeeding in diverting the attention of the dragon...
Except it was exactly the kind of diversion Saber needed to counter-attack.
She raised her sword over his head. A ring of golden fire appeared and rose up along the invisible blade... making Barrier of the Wind King disappear and revealing Excalibur in all its splendour.
Artoria Pendragon closed her eyes. When she opened them, the sword had turned into a golden torch of light. Moths of gold, like little fairies, came out of every blade of grass and rose to join the Sword of Promised Victory. The torch grew in size, quickly exceeding ten meters high. A fabulous amount of mana was gathered in Saber's hands, ready to spring.
The King of Knight began to sing:
"All right. Let's finish this.
Sheathed in the breath of the planet, a torrent of shining life.
Feel its wrath.
Excalibur !"
Artoria violently slashed her sword, as if she struck the air in front of her. The mana came out of the blade, turning into a furious river, a flood of light that rushed towards the sky.
Biwa no Ryūō quickly turned and felt the immense power that was accumulating in Excalibur.
Even a dragon could be terrified.
Understanding that this power could kill him, or in any case, seriously hurt him, he refused to give in to panic.
His answer was brief:
"Invulnerability!"
He had just cast the spell that the flood of golden light engulfed him, blinding Saber and Shirou.
Exhausted, Saber gasped. Looking up, she searched for the dragon and refused to believe the testimony of her own senses.
"Remarkable, young one, Biwa no Ryūō praises your power. But, as you can see, force is useless against me. I'm literally invulnerable."
Wrapped in a luminous aura, the Kumo-Mi floated above the trees... it had not even suffered a scratch. The Invulnerability spell offered absolute protection from fire, energy (including technological weapons like lasers), and magic... and moderate protection from physical weapons like bullets or swords.
Biwa no Ryūō was impressed by the last attack. The mortal able to create a bow and arrows through this strange magic was irritating but not really dangerous. His real rival was the dragon in human form, her sword was her breath... without his multiple spells and vast reserves of Od, the powerful Cloud Dragon would have been in danger facing this dangerous rival. The fight could not last very long. At this rate, the Tatsu would quickly run out of magical energy. And his instinct warned him that he absolutely had to refuse a direct confrontation with Maglocunnus' daughter. The golden sword she held in her hand could kill him! Biwa no Ryūō had to finish it quickly.
The fight between Biwa no Ryūō and Artoria Pendragon was very balanced. Until then, neither of the two dragons had taken the advantage. The Cloud Dragon excelled in ranged combat and could fly faster and higher than his opponent could run and jump, which allowed him to stay out of reach... but he had no breath (2). As for Saber, her ranged attacks were limited. Nevertheless, the female knight didn't fear the magic that was the main weapon of the Kumo-Mi.
As a result, they proved incapable of dealing damage to their opponent, turning the confrontation into an endurance test where both were exhausted.
However, Artoria was not fighting alone...
Firstly stunned to see Saber use Excalibur, Shirou forced himself to concentrate on the fight. Questions could wait until the end of the confrontation.
If he had been Archer, he could have Traced an Altered Noble Phantasm like Caladbolg II or Hrunting. Unfortunately, his abilities were still in their infancy compared to his older version.
And his bowman skills were of little use in this fight, No arrow stored inside Unlimited Bladework could kill a dragon... It was even the reason that had pushed EMIYA to alter the Phantasm Nobles to turn them into arrows.
As for fighting by using his Tracing to imitate Gilgamesh, it would quickly exhaust his (and Rin) Od reserve with little result. The Kumo-Mi was too fast and stayed too far from the ground for him to aim at. The Faker had no choice, he had to use his best card.
"I am the bone of my sword.
Steel is my body and fire is my blood.
The ground under Shirou Emiya's feet began to fracture as he recited the first words of his aria. Shirou touched his shoulder. The blue-green light of the fragment of Tohsaka's Magic Crest implanted by Rin began to filter through his armor. The bluish light fell on his fingers and when he raised his hand prana threads formed during an eyelash beat before disappearing.
I have created over a thousand blades.
Unaware of loss,
Nor aware of gain.
And a bluish light began to filter from the ground as the fractures spread around Shirou forming a spider web pattern.
Withstood pain to create weapons, waiting for one's arrival.
I have no regrets. This is the only path.
My whole life was Unlimited Blade Works."
There was a flash of light that completely enveloped Shirou and the inner world of the young Magus supplanted reality.
Stunned, Biwa no Ryūō looked around him.
Dragons knew Spells of legends, like Time Hole Pocket Dimension (3)... but they were spells forgotten for thousands of years by humans and that only mages who lived a long time ago or in distant worlds could use.
What he had before his eyes, this desert planted with swords, this sky filled with clouds of smoke was the creation of a simple human! It was incredible!
But all pocket universes had the same weakness... they disappeared when their creator died.
Biwa no Ryūō made a turn in the air, heading towards Shirou. The young redhead was waiting for the furious dragon standing on top of a dune higher than the others and where a large number of swords were planted.
The young redhead saw the dragon and his eyes narrowed. He reached out to call a Noble Phantasm:
"Rho Aias!"
It was Archer's greatest protection. The shield of Aias the great, a Conceptual Weapon was an absolute defense against any thrown weapon. Rho Aias materialized in an incomplete form, a flower with five petals made from light.
That was more than enough to stop the two Fireballs cast by the Cloud Dragon.
"You can defeat one of my swords, Biwa no Ryūō but... can you defeat them all?"
Around Shirou Emiya, the swords ripped off the ground to rise to the sky. They gathered together to form a long steel serpent formed by several thousand swords pointed at the dragon.
Now terrorized, the Kumo-Mi survived the first attack using its innate ability to teleport. Nevertheless, he materialized at the limit of Unlimited Blade Work, a ring of fire that marked the end of the pocket universe. He was trapped, unable to get out of that pocket dimension!
And Shirou could not lose track of an individual he had lured into his Reality Marble.
The dragon howled with rage as hundreds of swords transformed him into a pincushion.
As the Reality Marble collapsed, Saber, Shirou, and the dragon's corpse reappeared in the Shadow Forest.
To the great surprise of the former Master and his former Servant, the corpse of the Kumo-Mi disappeared in an instant... as if the dragon had never existed.
Around them, the aura of witchcraft that permeated the forest had dissipated with the death of its guardian.
Without wasting a moment, Saber went on her way, followed by Shirou.
The path that had led them to the clearing continued on the other side of it.
Shirou tried to walk faster to catch up with Saber. When he reached her side, he wanted to speak but.. the words were rushing. Saber's true identity had been a shock to the redhead teen. He shook his head unable to come up with anything coherent.
At his side, the Servant had a smile.
She had huge tenderness for the young man.
He was an individual with goals simplistic and impossible, selfless and selfish. He wanted to protect everyone, save everyone, and even if he understood that it was impossible he persevered. It was an absurd ideal, a borrowed ideal but... there was an incredible beauty in this infantile ideal.
Shirou was like Artoria when she took Caliburn from its stone sheath. And perhaps it was the nostalgia for her youth that drove Artoria to want to protect her former Master. But at the same time, Shirou often made her angry and exasperated. According to the chivalry novels she read in secret in Camelot, this was the kind of emotion the lady had for the knight who protected her. Love was always complicated while being extremely simple... because she could not hide from the truth, she had fallen in love.
"You have a question," she asked.
"I..." Shirou sighed and shook his head. No, it's not a question it's just... I saw Excalibur and Structural Grasp helped me understand that it was really King Arthur's sword. So... so... you're King Arthur. I knew you were a great knight. And I suspected you had been a ruler... but I hadn't thought of King Arthur." He had a little laugh. "But I have to say that the authors of novels about chivalry missed a couple of details... including the fact that you're so lovely."
He had said these last words on impulse and regretted it immediately. Saber hated when he insisted on her femininity. She always said: "Whether I am or not a woman is irrelevant. I am first a knight."
But Artoria did not take note of his remark. A sad smile on her lips, she was thinking of something completely different.
"On Merlin's advice, I hid the fact that I was a woman. My reign was already contested and Merlin thought a man would impose himself more easily than a woman."
Shirou remained thoughtful for a moment. On several occasions, during the Grail War, he had seen Saber wounded and this had revolted him... but he had also seen the annoyance of his Servant when he treated her as if he had wanted to protect her.
"I understand your behavior better now."
Saber nodded.
"I had no reason to hide my identity after the end of the Grail War yet I continued... I think I wanted you to keep treating me like 'Saber' not like the female version of King Arthur. I ascended the throne to stop the invasion of the Saxons, but I failed. I also had to federate the Bretons against the invader, instead, I provoked a civil war. Because I impersonated a man, I was forced to marry a woman I made her so unhappy. Because Guinevere fell in love with Lancelot, I was forced to sentence her to death to keep the secret of my gender... and because of that three of my nephews were killed by Lancelot. All that could still save my kingdom was the Grail... and only Galahad saw it. Shirou, you don't have to be impressed with who I am. I understood that Iskandar's (4th Grail War Rider) reproaches were deserved after facing Lancelot, who was summoned as Berserker in the same war. I never behaved like a king. I tried to carry the entire kingdom, without understanding that the role of a king was to lead his people. I wanted to save Britain alone, but I never understood the desires of the people, not even the desires of my knights, my friends. Mordred, my own son, Morgan, my half-sister... I even turned people who should have been my family into enemies. I thought I was the only one who could save Britain. In my own sacrifice, I saw proof of the purity of my ideals... In truth, it was a form of arrogance. I wanted to save everyone. But I never asked my people in what kind of kingdom they wanted to live, I imposed on them my vision of Britain."
She would have continued but her former Master interrupted her:
"Saber, speak to someone on a street in Fuyuki or Hiroshima and ask him who King Arthur is and he will tell you that he was a great king and a great knight. He will tell you about the chivalrous ideal that Arthurian legend has propagated. Perhaps you did not succeed in your lifetime but you gave an example that was followed by El Cid Campeador, Bayard, or Roland... among other famous or unknown knights. You have not failed. You have passed on your ideal and it has spread far beyond Britain. Chivalry, defending the weak, and fighting fairly, these are the values you have passed on. And then..." he smiles at Artoria, "you have a second chance now. Maybe the world is ready to accept you as you are. Maybe THIS world is ready to accept you", Shirou said. "Because King Arthur is supposed to come back when the world needs him the most... Because with the war between demons, onis, invaders from other worlds Rifts Earth humanity really needs a Savior King."
(1) Saber's proposal was not far from the correct answer... but it was necessary to answer 'an enigma'.
(2) In Rifts, unlike Western dragons who spit fire, ice, or even toxic vapors (aqua-hydra even spits water under very high pressure), Oriental dragons have no breath. To fight they are limited to close combat (they practice martial arts) and magic.
(3) Time Hole Pocket Dimension is a Rifts spell very similar to Fate's Reality Marbles. The big difference is that rather than superimposing the inner world of the caster on the real world - which causes a conflict with reality and thus the collapse of Reality Marble in just a few minutes - Time Hole Pocket Dimension creates a pocket dimension in Limbo. Limbos being a dimension where space and time are malleable data, the Pocket Dimension can therefore last... years.