Chapter 4: The Dragonborn Comes

"Are we there yet?"

Ralof sighed in exasperation. "Almost."

"Are we there yet?" Patches asked again.

"Keep that up and I will cut out your tongue," Ralof threatened, clearly annoyed.

Patches didn't ask again.

Subaru, however…

"Are we there yet?"

Emilia looked at him in disappointment. "Subaru, not you too…"

The black-haired Undead chuckled.. "Sorry, I couldn't resist."

It had been around an hour since the party had departed from Whiterun, and they all were just about ready to reach their destination, especially Ralof.

Who would have thought that hiking up the forest with the only thing to keep you entertained were the political debates of an otherworlder and a thief would cause someone to become frustrated?

Especially when their debating essentially turned to shouting about "capitalism bad" and "the red scare," which only ended after Ralof told them to shut up.

However, their long struggle would come to an end, as a few minutes of climbing up the last bit of the mountain later, the group finally arrived at Bleak Fall Barrow.

There was more snow here than back at Whiterun, all of it covering obsidian pillars in the forms of triangles, with stairs leading up to some sort of temple built inside the mountain. Kinda reminded Subaru of a dungeon. Well, it was apparently a dungeon, but… not the kind that tortures prisoners. Just a video game one.

"So… where are these goodies?" Patches looked around.

Ralof, however, took out his sword in preparation. "You might have to get by them first."

At Ralof's words, the group's attention turns to a group of bandits, who notice the intruders and prepare to attack.

"Sigh…" Subaru groaned in frustration, but played along. "Soul Arrow."

PANG!

A blue ray of light appeared from a staff Subaru pulled out of thin air without anyone knowing, and pierced the first thief, catching the rest of them off-guard.

"KILL THEM ALL!"

Using her ice magic, Emilia creates two ice swords and rushes forward. Two bandits try to attack her, but she easily evades their attacks and slices and stabs them.

"Ack!"

"Guh!"

Patches took a few steps back, disappearing from view, only to show up behind one of the bandits and stab them with his spear and hit another with his shield.

SLASH!

WHACK!

Ralof uses his fire magic to ignite his sword, and with a horizontal swing, launches a wave of fire, burning the remaining bandits away.

FWOOM!

Subaru shrugged at the lack of difficulty of their fight. "Huh. That was… oddly easy."

"It may have only been their outside guard. I'd be surprised if more weren't inside," Ralof said.

"Think they have some boss?" Subaru asked their blond leader.

Ralof did not confirm nor deny the statement. "It's impossible to know for sure. All we can do is keep moving forward."

"Right!" Patches gave a thumbs-up. "We'll follow behind you."

The group entered the ruins, and began to look for any sign of the Dragon Runes, as well as watching out for bandits. However, they were doing it quietly.

At the back of the entrance room, there were two bandits talking about… Something about a "golden claw" and an "unwelcome guest".

"Hey, Patches." Subaru nodded to his Undead friend. "Greedy people, twelve o'clock. Do your thing."

Patches merely smirked as he disappeared from view again.

"How does he do that?" Emilia asked.

"It's a skill he picked up. I helped him out with it by applying a sneaking technique Himiko Toga used in My Hero Academia," Subaru explained, "Yeah… probably wasn't the best idea."

Suddenly, Patches appeared behind one of the bandits and stabbed them straight through the heart. The other bandit tried to defend herself, before Ralof appeared behind her, grabbed her face, and sliced her neck with his sword.

"Let's move on," Ralof suggested.

The group walked down the ancient corridors in silence, being extra careful not to wake the dead. Ralof told them about the Draugr, corpses of warriors that could walk again after death, as well as use weapons and magic. They did not want to deal with that right now.

Emilia broke the silence, asking, "Subaru... can I ask something?"

The nasty-eyed Undead nodded. "Shoot."

"You said before... that you met the Witch... Satella... face to face, right?"

Another nod. "Yeah, what about it?"

"Be honest…" the Half-Elf took a deep breath before asking her question. "Do I... really look like her?"

"And what if you do?" he simply asked.

Emilia sighed in frustration. "I don't know... relief that I finally know? Horror that I may be related to her? I just... I don't know... but I guess I just... need to know. If only to let my mind rest from all the questions I have about her."

"You aren't related to her," Subaru stated matter-of-factly.

Emilia looked at him confused. "How do you know?"

"She never had children."

"Well, there were a lot of people who called me the Witch's daughter, and I had begun to wonder if that was true." Subaru merely shook his head and sighed.

"Emilia, I can personally assure you that Satella's not your mom, honestly."

"...And what about my appearance?"

Subaru clicked his tongue. "Call it lazy game design."

Emilia didn't understand what he said. "What?"

"You know, when video game developers reuse the same assets, such as item descriptions, animations, or even character designs to save money," Subaru tried to explain it to her.

Emilia could only look hopelessly confused. "…I have no idea what you're talking about."

"You'll get used to it soon enough!" Patches added from the back.

Ignoring him, Emilia asked again. "So... I do look like Satella?"

Subaru scratched his head, but gave in. "Ugh… fine. Yes, you do. But you know, just because you look like her doesn't mean you are her, or are destined to become her."

Emilia merely stayed silent at the confirmation of something she had always thought about for the past six years. "I... need to think about this…"

"Shoulda kept your mouth shut…" Patches whispered to Subaru.

Ralof decided to step into the conversation. "Emilia, I've known you for but a day, and I know you are nothing like the Witch of Envy. You have nothing to be ashamed of."

Subaru pointed at the blond rebel, although he seemed a bit more hesitant with the others unaware of it. "Yeah… what he said…"

After thinking over it for a minute, Emilia takes a deep breath and smiles at the others. "Thank you. Both of you. I'll try not to let it bother me.

Patches rolled his eyes. "It's totally gonna bother you."

Ralof elbowed the Undead. "Leave her alone, Patches. Give Emilia the time she needs to sort out her feelings."

Patches put his hands up in surrender. "All right, all right."

The group made it farther down into the cave, where they encountered a large room. It was covered now green, with the walls covered in these massive egg-like orbs, and the main area covered in these white threads, almost like… spiderwebs.

Everyone was silent for a moment, before Subaru announced, "Okay! Time to leave."

As he turned around, everyone was about to follow, but not before…

"Huh? Wait! Please help me! I'm stuck in these webs and can't get out!"

…they heard a voice coming from inside the web-infested room.

"Mm-hm…" Patches nodded his head in understanding. "That sounds like a trap."

Emilia looked at the bald Undead. "Are you sure?"

Patches crossed his arms and nodded again. "Definitely, trust me on this one."

"Please!" the voice spoke once more. "I wandered into these ruins and snuck past those bandits looking for treasure, but I was trapped in these webs!"

Ralof decided to take the gamble. He knew this might be a trap, but he'd be damned if he left behind a fellow Nord. "Where are you?!"

"I'm on the other side of the room!" the voice shouted once more.

The group sees a young man trapped in the spiderwebs on the other side of the room. After seeing that the coast was clear, they made their way over to him.

"Hello…" the young man said.

"How should we get him out?" Emilia asked.

Patches snapped his fingers, and made a suggestion. "I know! Let's burn the webs!"

"Please don't…"

Subaru sighed. "Hold on, I'll pull you out…"

After a minute, Subaru successfully pulled the man out of the webs.

"Phew! You're kinda heavy for someone that young," Subaru remarked.

"Sorry about that," the stranger smiled. "My dad always said I needed to work out."

Said stranger was a young man, who appeared to be slightly younger than Subaru and Emilia, with dirty blonde hair, almost brown, and pale blue eyes, along with a dopey grin on his freckled face.

It sort of reminded Subaru of a puppy, but he didn't voice that out loud.

Ralof then went into interrogation mode. "Right then… who are you, exactly?"

"Right, I should probably introduce myself. My name is Erik! Erik the Slayer!"

Most of the group simply stared at Erik, except for Patches, who burst out laughing.

"The Slayer?! What kind of name is that? Who names their child such a thing?"

Erik scratched the back of his head. "Well... it's kind of a nickname. I'm from Rorikstead, and I always wanted to be an adventurer. So, I started calling myself "The Slayer", since I want to one day slay every monster in Gusteko and be the greatest adventurer in the world!"

"Ohhh!" Subaru snapped his fingers in realization. "You're a chuuni!"

Erik just looked confused at that. "A... what?"

"A chuunibyou!" Subaru clarified.

"Subaru, no one knows what that means…" Emilia said with a sigh.

Subaru looked at everyone's expression, and his expression became awkward.

"Junior high syndrome?" Subaru asked again, looking around. "Anyone?"

"You'd think that after four centuries, you'd finally get the memo that no one understands your references," Patches remarked.

"Hey, you understand them! You literally just used the word "memo" right now!"

"Yeah, 'cause you had to explain it to me."

Subaru shoulders promptly fell in faux despair.

Erik, along with everyone else, promptly ignored Subaru's pity party. "Anyways, I wanted to impress my folk, so I snuck into Bleak Fall Barrow to find the hidden treasure in here, and I did!"

Patches' ears perked up at that word. "Treasure, you say? What sort?"

Erik reaches into his bag, and pulls out a… strange golden Dragon claw.

"I managed to get this off of one of the bandits who was also trapped in here, but turns out it was a trick. Luckily, I managed to get rid of him and take this thing, and given that it's golden, I think this could fetch for a really high price."

Subaru looked over to the Half-Elf. "Emilia, is this triggering anything?"

The silver-haired woman shook her head. "No, I don't feel anything weird about it."

"Then it's probably just a trinket," Ralof said. "What we seek is likely deeper within."

"What are you guys talking about?" Erik asked, confused.

"We came here looking for magical texts and other stuff regarding the Dragonborn," Subaru explained their situation to Erik, before asking, "Wait, you know who they are, right?"

"Magical text? Hmm... Well, there is a weird door deeper in. Apparently, no one's been able to get into it, so if these magical texts are anywhere in these ruins, it's gotta be there."

Patches gave off his classic cheeky smile. "Wonderful! Emilia, you go first."

After walking deeper into the ruins, the group found the door Erik was talking about.

It was made out of some sort of carved stone, with three rings with symbols of different animals, and a strange button in the middle with three holes.

"Hmm… must be some kind of code… a turn dial-based system…?" Subaru analyzed the area. "Perhaps I can decipher it."

"What do the animals mean?" Emilia asked.

"We might have to find the correct combination in order to unlock it," Subaru guessed.

Ralof offered up a suggestion, too. "Do the animals represent numbers?"

"Let me try something…'' Erik approached the door, and upon touching the middle animal symbol, the middle ring rotated, revealing a new animal symbol.

Subaru nodded his head in confirmation. "Yeah, definitely some puzzle."

Ralof crossed his arms. "But how do we know which combination is correct?"

"Simple." Subaru smugly smiled. "Tell me, Ralof, what three animals do you see in front of you?"

"A bear, an owl, and a moth."

"And that tells me they're all thematic of something," Subaru explained to the rest of the group. "Erik, try to place the moth first, then the owl, then the bear."

Erik put the animals in the combination Subaru suggested and tried pushing the button, but nothing happened. Subaru's smugness instantly vanished.

"Okay, so the food chain method is out," Subaru surmised. "Hmm… Ralof, you're a local of these parts. Do these animals symbolize anything within the local culture here?"

"The bear is the symbol Animal of Windhelm as well as the form of the Great Spirit of Water, Odglass, but the other two don't have any significance as far as I know," the blond rebel answered.

Patches looked at Ralof curiously. "Animal of Windhelm?"

Erik groaned at their problem. "Well, there's gotta be something! I mean, who would make a door and not have a way to open it! There's gotta be a key or something that tells you which combination is right!

Upon hearing those words, Emilia looked to the center of the door where the three small holes were, and then it hit her. " Wait a minute... that's it!"

Subaru, along with everyone else, turned around. "Eh? What is it, Emilia-tan?"

Emilia turned to Erik. "Erik, I need the golden Dragon claw you showed us earlier."

Upon her request, Erik hands Emilia the golden claw. "I knew it!" Emilia shows the group the same animal symbols in a specific order of the golden claws palm.

"This golden claw is the key!"

SMACK!

Subaru slapped his own forehead, smiling. "Brilliant observation, Emilia-tan!"

Patches, however, was less than amused. "What's the right combination?"

"Okay... so bear on top, moth in the middle, and owl at the bottom." Emilia placed the rings in the correct order, and noticed that the hole in the button lined up with the so, she placed the Claw on the button, which rotated the rings, and allowed the door to open, as it sunk down into the floor.

RMMM…

"Open Sesame!" Subaru chanted, doing a bizarre pose.

The group walked inside and saw an open room, which led them to a wall, where in the back of the room, it was covered in strange runes. There was also a treasure chest and table with items nearby that Patches looted.

Patches looked over at his fellow Undead. "Subaru, can you read those?"

Emilia looked at Subaru. "Wait, do you know how to read the Dragon Language?"

Subaru looked at Emilia, confused. "You can't?"

"Let me take a look." Emilia approached the wall.

As Emilia walked closer to the wall, one of the words began to glow and azure blue, and a similar ethereal energy to earlier emerged and began to be absorbed into Emilia's body. Soon, the energy and glow subsided.

"Uhm… What was that?" Erik asked.

"Oh, yeah, she's the Dragonborn," Patches simply said.

Erik's eyes widened. "The Dragonborn… I've only heard stories…"

"Well? Any luck?" Subaru asked.

"Hmm... I can't read the other words, but I can understand the one that just glowed... it says... "Fus"... or "Force"."

Subaru smiled. "That's wonderful! Can you understand anything else, by chance?"

The amethyst-eyed woman tried to translate any of the other words, but she shook her head. "No... I can't."

Subaru shrugged. "Eh, better than nothing."

Erik turned to the group. "So, that's what you were here to find?"

Patches shrugged. "Honestly, I'm quite disappointed."

Ralof scratched his chin. "Hmm... maybe we just don't have the right knowledge on this."

Erik turned to Ralof. "As if you have to find someone else?"

"We need to head to Windhelm at once," Ralof told the rest of the group. "If anyone were to know of this, it would be Ulfric Stormcloak."

"Wait… You're one of the Stormcloaks?!" Erik shouted in surprise while pointing at Ralof.

"Will that be a problem?" The question made Erik shrink a bit.

"I mean… I'm rather neutral about the Civil War, so…"

"Alright, how long till we get there?" Subaru asked, gaining the other's attention.

"We'll go get a carriage from Whiterun, and be there in a couple of hours."

Subaru shrugged. "Guess we'll be on our way, then."

As the group turned to leave, they came back through the room Erik was trapped in, but it felt… different. Clicking noises were heard and a chill went down their spines.

"We're not alone here," Subaru simply said.

BAM!

Before they could leave, a giant frostbite spider, easily bigger than any one of them, came down from the ceiling, cutting off the group's access to the entrance.

"HISSS…"

"Oh, look, there's the boss," Subaru deadpanned.

The creature was massive, far bigger than anyone in the room, its main color composed of navy blue with a rust secondary color, its beady eyes poking through the top of its head, reminiscent of the spikes adorning its legs.

"AIIIEEE!"

Emilia began to scream like a little girl, while Patches proceeded to disappear. Ralof, meanwhile, prepared to set the whole area on fire, and Subaru pulled out his pyromancies.

But the first person to strike at the abomination was…

"El Huma!"

…Erik, oddly enough.

Patches proceeded to fall from the ceiling and nail the spider in the head, while Subaru threw more lightning at it.

The giant spider shakes off Patches and attempts to throw itself on Emilia, who upon instinct, screams a single word.

"FUS!"

BOOOOM!

Upon speaking the word, a powerful, unrelenting force was expelled from Emilia's mouth, throwing the spider back against the wall.

Everyone else remained silent, staring at what Emilia did.

The Half-Elf, meanwhile, gasped for air. "Did... did I just do that?"

"Yeah, and you better do it again!" Subaru shouted, pointing at the spider.

Said spider proceeded to stand up again, and went towards the group once more, who scattered and proceeded to use their long ranged attacks against it.

"CHAOS STORM!" Subaru shouted, as he created an explosion of fire from his hand.

"El Goa!" Ralof launched a beam of fire from his hands.

""El Huma!"" Emilia and Erik fired off dozens of Ice spikes at the spider.

"Spear… thrust?" Patches half-heartedly said, as he didn't have any kind of gimmick.

With the last attack delivered, the spider was not only slain, but also effectively turned into a pile of ash, goop, and viscera, splattered all over the walls.

Ralof breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank Talos that's over with. I despise those spiders."

"Hopefully they don't get bigger," Patches said.

"From what I read, that's as big as they get. Still, those spiders have no right being that big." Erik responded.

"And I thought Australia was bad…" Subaru mumbled.

Erik looked confused. "Australia? What's that?"

"A land down under, that's what," Subaru said, in an odd accent.

Ralof ignored Subaru's antics, saying, "We had better get out of here, before more show up."

"I'll go first!" Patches said, as he dashed towards the exit.

"Of course he runs out of here first…" Ralof groaned.

The group quickly make it out of the ruins, and back to Whiterun.

Authors' Note: How many creatures in both Dark Souls and Skyrim can qualify as megafauna? Let's see, we have the spiders, crabs, and maybe a couple others that make their way into the story, but that's for a later date.

For those who are inevitably gonna ask, yes, Erik the Slayer is the second permanent member of Subaru and Emilia's party, which we still don't have a name for! (Also, Erik will be younger than he is in Skyrim, around 19-20 years old, so he will be the least experienced member of the party. However, he does have other roles he will play in this group.)

Anyways, now it's time for everyone's favorite part… the comments!

5queso: Yeah, it's no secret at this point. And anyone who has ever played a Soulsborne game knows who Patches is, and why we've given him the role we have in this story, even if he initially appears in more of a comedic role. More characters will show up eventually, you'll just have to keep reading to see them! (If you've read Erna's other Re:Zero fics, then who Subaru was 400 years ago shouldn't be a shock.)

Kifhjoofff: You are semi-correct about that. While Satella is definitely more brutal when she wants to be, Patches, as unbelievable as it sounds, is still her friend, which will be further explained in the future. (Although, it will be a while.)

Mogustard: Glad you're loving this! Question, do you read this while upside-down? Unless you meant that term in a different way, in which case… we're flattered?

Cyberlink: Intentionally? Not many. Unintentionally? You're gonna see…

VinHD15: Wouldn't the proper term be "overlordess"?

SenSlice: No, Subaru doesn't know any shouts, it's gonna be an entirely Emilia thing. And as for your second question, Subaru and Emilia are gonna be pretty much attached to the hip for the rest of the story, so any Dragons they kill are gonna go to Emilia. (Shouts and the Souls of Skyrim Dragons will be exclusive to Emilia. However, Subaru will have his own way of catching up with the Dragonborn.)

Fergdog: Glad you found this. Out of curiosity, which Discord post are you referring to?

Anyways, that's all the comments we have for this week!

If you want more content, visit my Discord, the link is /3PFYSt8Dqz. You can chat with others, post memes, fanfic recommendations and prompts, role play, fan art, and we even have a writer's corner now! I'll also drop by with announcements and chat with you all every now and then! Also, if you want to add me as a friend, my username is Ernalore#8663! Just please make sure to follow the rules!

That's all for today, thanks for reading, and we'll see you next time!

- Ernalore and Infinite the Celestian