A place half a day's walk north from the magic city of Sharia, or less than an hour by carriage.
There was a ruin there. Judging from the remains, it used to be an old fortress. The ground was scattered with brick fragments that used to be stone slabs, and thick stone pillars lay sideways on the ground. It was a ruin that made people feel the weight of history.
Shirou silently came to the front of this ruin, feeling a clear sense of age.
"This is Fort Scott."
Ariel walked over from behind, her face full of interest, and said, "It was built by humans during the Laplace war. It is said that thousands of humans defended against the demon race here. However, in the end, they were still unable to hold out and were captured..."
"Princess Ariel, you know so much."
Shirou looked at her and said quietly.
"It's nothing, just knowledge from books. Asura Kingdom, as the only country that was well-preserved at the end of the war, has a clear record of the Second Human-Demon War hundreds of years ago."
Ariel replied with a smile, "And in order to have a good relationship with the nobles of this country, understanding this country's politics, economy, and culture is necessary."
Shirou didn't say anything to Ariel's words, just silently watched the golden-haired girl's appearance.
He noticed that her face didn't seem to have changed, but there was a clear tension in her whole body.
This was normal. Although Ariel had proposed to Shirou to take her along as soon as she learned about Perugius, she undoubtedly felt extremely uneasy when she was about to meet that legendary hero, the Dragon King.
Especially when she learned that she was going to board that legendary flying fortress and meet a legendary hero thousands of meters in the air, she couldn't suppress the fear in her heart.
However, Ariel's heart was still strong enough.
To overcome her fear, she even directly refused Luke and Fitz's company and decided to board the flying fortress with Shirou alone.
Before setting off, it is said that Ariel spent hours preparing her outfit. The final result was a fresh and beautiful appearance, coupled with expensive travel attire, making her a stunningly beautiful girl with leadership charm even from a distance.
Even Shirou, who lacked a clear sense of beauty and ugliness, couldn't help but feel a kind of instinctive excitement after seeing Ariel dressing up so carefully.
It was the natural feeling of humans towards beautiful things.
Fortunately, this trip didn't just have him and Ariel, otherwise Shirou even suspected that he might not be able to control himself during the process and do something against his will.
"Stop talking nonsense, let's go in quickly."
Nanahoshi glanced at Shirou and Ariel.
As the guide for this trip, although she was very reluctant to leave her warm room, she still agreed to take Shirou to see Perugius.
It was then that Shirou learned that Nanahoshi had known the Dragon King before.
Even Nanahoshi's summoning magic was taught to her by the Dragon King himself.
The Dragon King also told Nanahoshi how to board the flying fortress. This time, to invite Shirou up, he asked Nanahoshi to help guide the way.
"Miss Nanahoshi seems to dislike me."
Ariel felt inexplicably disappointed at Nanahoshi's attitude.
For her, Silent Sevenstar was an extremely valuable individual. If she could win her over to her own camp, it would provide great help for her to become king.
Unfortunately, Nanahoshi didn't want to integrate into this world and didn't care about most people in this world.
No matter how much Ariel showed her charm, she couldn't attract Nanahoshi at all.
Shirou didn't know how to comfort her, so he could only wave his hand silently and follow Nanahoshi's pace.
"Can we really get to Lord Perugius' place from this kind of place?"
Ariel seemed a little uneasy, instinctively moving closer to Shirou.
Facing the girl who was almost touching him, and occasionally even a fragrance wafted over, Shirou undoubtedly felt very subtle.
But he also knew Ariel's inner anxiety, so he tried to say, "Since Perugius sent a familiar to invite us personally, I don't think there will be any problems."
"That familiar, I remember it's called Almanfi of Radiance. It is said to be one of Perugius' twelve familiars."
"Yes, that one familiar is equivalent to a king-level powerhouse. The twelve familiars combined are probably too much for even an emperor-level existence to withstand."
Shirou recalled his battle with Almanfi and felt an instinctive tremor in his heart.
"Shirou, have you ever thought about fighting opponents of that level?"
Ariel said inexplicably, "Why are you fearless of things that exceed your own strength?"
"It's not that I'm not afraid, but even if I'm afraid in my heart, I still have to consider all situations and respond."
Shirou recalled the tragedies of the past and said with a complex expression, "Because only by preparing in advance for any crisis, when the real crisis comes, will you not suffer and regret because of your powerlessness."
"..."
Hearing Shirou's words, Ariel's expression changed slightly.
The young man's profile made her feel a kind of excitement she had never felt before. In the end, she quickly looked away to control her mind.
On the other side, Shirou didn't notice Ariel's emotions. He was thinking about why the Dragon King Perugius wanted to find him.
He had heard of the Dragon King's great name a long time ago.
In Asura Kingdom, this was almost a well-known figure.
Dragon King Perugius was a hero of the Laplace war four hundred years ago.
According to the books, he controlled twelve familiars, used summoning magic to summon the flying fortress of ancient times, and challenged Laplace with several companions.
After sealing Laplace, to praise his achievements, the current calendar was named after him.
However, Perugius did not reign as a king to rule over one side.
He left the palace and still sits in the flying fortress, traveling around the world's sky, seemingly waiting for the day the Demon God Laplace is revived, and will engage in a decisive battle with him.
Such a person, generally speaking, would not be interested in anything worldly.
In fact, it was true that the Dragon King had almost never left the flying fortress for hundreds of years.
But there were exceptions to everything.
There were a few times when Perugius left the flying fortress and appeared in the world.
Among them, the most recent one was a few years ago, when he appeared at an auction in the capital of Asura Kingdom and personally purchased the weapon forged by the blacksmith Muramasa - Jewel Sword Zelretch.
That was an auction that surprised Shirou, who was Muramasa at the time.
Because he never thought that the unfinished version of the Jewel Sword would be bought. Because its function was too weak and it was useless at all, even people who blindly worshiped Muramasa would find it difficult to make up their minds to buy it, but the Dragon King opened a sky-high price without frowning.
In fact, when the Dragon King appeared at the auction, many people were shocked, not to mention that the Dragon King bought the weapon.
This incident became the origin of Muramasa's name reaching its peak and becoming famous throughout the world.
Therefore, when the Dragon King proposed to invite him to meet, Shirou naturally suspected that the other party knew his identity as Muramasa and wanted to communicate with Muramasa.
If that was the case, Shirou's move of bringing Ariel might have a huge problem.
Because in that case, Ariel would most likely know his identity as the blacksmith Muramasa.
However, Shirou couldn't let Ariel miss such a good opportunity to win over a strong person, and even at the risk of exposing his identity, he chose to give the opportunity to her.
After all, Shirou still had to work hard to find Zenith.
Ariel didn't know when she would have to return to Asura Kingdom for a life-and-death battle.
If he failed to complete the goal of finding Zenith before then, causing Ariel to be unprepared and die in Asura Kingdom, Shirou would undoubtedly feel regret.
If he could get the Dragon King's help, even if Shirou wasn't by her side at that time, Ariel's possibility of inheriting the throne would be greatly increased.
"We're here."
As Shirou's thoughts became more and more complicated, Nanahoshi stopped in the center of the ruins.
Although the surroundings were empty, there was a conspicuous stone tablet in the center.
That was undoubtedly the stone tablet of the Seven Great Powers.
During the Great Transfer, Shirou had seen the stone tablet of the Seven Great Powers.
Now, seeing it again, he found that the seven names on the stone tablet had hardly changed, indicating that the seven strongest people in the world had not changed.
After arriving in front of the stone tablet, Nanahoshi took out a metal flute, put it to her mouth, and blew hard.
"Pfft!"
The flute didn't make a sound, just a puff of air.
Just as Shirou and Ariel were a little confused, that familiar golden flash appeared again, and the man in the yellow mask appeared in front of them.
It was Almanfi of Radiance.
He glanced at the three of them, seemingly not surprised by Ariel's arrival, and then said quietly, "Very good, it seems you still know some manners and didn't bring any demons to the flying fortress."
"Are demons not allowed?"
"Lord Perugius is generous, but he hates demons."
"I see."
Shirou remembered that Perugius had personally participated in the Second Human-Demon War, and must have witnessed a lot in the war, so he was full of hatred for demons.
Almanfi then gave the three of them a metal stick. The surface of the metal stick was engraved with complex patterns, undoubtedly magic circles.
"This is the linking object for the transfer magic. After you have them, Lord Perugius will use transfer magic to summon you to the flying fortress."
"Transfer magic?"
He didn't expect there to be such convenient magic.
Shirou couldn't help but recall the Ainsworth family's replacement magic. Even the essence of the Servant cards was the manifestation of the replacement magic.
"...I feel so nervous."
Ariel was visibly nervous. She looked like she wanted to rely on Shirou to reduce the tension in her heart.
But if she did that, Shirou would become nervous.
So the latter decisively distanced himself from her.
After a while, an amazing magic power came from the metal stick.
Shirou was stunned. When he reacted, he found himself in a pure white place.
Seeing this space, Shirou inexplicably thought of the area where Hitogami was. This place was extremely similar to the place where Hitogami appeared in his dreams.
Before he could think about it, the transfer ended.
"What a huge magic circle..."
Shirou looked down and found that he was standing on a huge magic circle, with a radius of more than ten meters.
In addition to the magic circle, the scene in front of him was also quite shocking.
It was a huge castle, at least fifty stories high, and very wide. Overall, it was not tall and thin, but gave a sense of solemnity.
Most importantly, behind the castle was an endless sea of clouds.
They were now at the top of the sky.
"..."
Ariel stared wide-eyed, speechless at the scene in front of her.
And her hand was already completely grabbing Shirou's arm, as if she had unconsciously made this action when she was just teleported.
Nanahoshi next to her glanced at them and said with a subtle expression, "You really are a walking charmer like in anime, Shirou Emiya."
"What walking charmer?"
Shirou looked at Nanahoshi with a confused expression.
The latter had already taken the lead and walked into the castle.
The flying fortress was extremely huge. It took more than ten minutes to walk from the end to the castle.
Welcoming them was a woman, whose most unique feature was a pair of surprisingly large jet-black wings on her back.
"Heavenly race?"
Ariel said in surprise.
The woman nodded silently, "I am Lord Perugius' first servant, named Sylvaril of Emptiness. I will take you to see Lord Perugius."
"I am Ariel Anemoi Asura, the second princess of Asura Kingdom."
Ariel lifted her skirt and bowed slowly.
But Sylvaril didn't seem to care about her and still looked directly at Shirou, "Please come with me, Lord Shirou. Lord Perugius is waiting for you."
"..."
Sylvaril's reaction made Ariel very disappointed.
The other party clearly had no interest in her as the Princess of Asura and only treated Shirou as a guest.
Shirou didn't know what to say about this, and couldn't even offer words of comfort.
At the same time, after arriving at the castle, Nanahoshi relaxed completely, as if she had returned home, and walked inside very calmly.
After passing through a long corridor, Sylvaril stopped in front of a door at the end.
It was a heavy door with dragons painted on both sides and decorated with silver.
"Although Lord Perugius is generous, please be careful not to be rude."
After saying this, Sylvaril directly pushed open the door.
"This... do you think Lord Perugius will think my attire is rude?"
Ariel said nervously.
"Lord Perugius is not someone who cares about appearance."
Sylvaril glanced at her calmly, "On the contrary, he hates the rigid style of Asura Kingdom."
"Huh?"
Ariel was suddenly stunned.
She was now like a student who was about to take an exam and realized that she seemed to have reviewed the wrong content. Her face was full of confusion and bewilderment.
Before she could try to regain her composure, the door had already opened, and Dragon King Perugius appeared in front of everyone.
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