Chapter 67: Y Ddraig Goch

Upon returning to the base.

"Fuck…" Ray muttered as he looked at two humanoid dragons having a stare down.

To make it short, Ray brought Dvalin back and she is very attached to Ray much to Venti's dismay. Salter felt threatened by the existence of another dragon, fearing Ray would choose Dvalin over her.

Meanwhile, Dvalin was very innocent despite her actual age being around 2300+ years old. She had a mental age of a 6-8 years old and imprinted herself on Ray. She remains so attached to Ray that even right now, she huddles near Ray while being stared at by the furious Salter.

"Tanya, some help please?" He shot Tanya a pleading gaze but Tanya shook her head and signaled back, 'deal it yourself' and continued to watch TV with Charlotte as if nothing happened.

"Fine." Having had enough of this nonsense, he opens a portal and walks into it, beckoning the two to follow him while he sports an annoyed face.

———

Exiting the portal, they arrived back at the ruin of Old Mondstadt.

"So, tell me. What is your issue and I can help resolve it." Ray sat on a piece of broken masonry as he stared at Salter with a stern face.

Salter had never had or made any problem since the beginning till now. Only after Dvalin joined did she become like this.

Salter wanted to say that she sought after his affection and even went ahead and marked him with her draconic scent without his permission. But she knows, once she reveals it, her Master would definitely just shrug it off because he as a human knows little about the nature of dragons and their method of interaction.

After waiting for a while, she still refused to talk and Ray's patience is running thin.

"Y-You…" Salter muttered while trying her hardest to reign in her draconic instinct, the legendary Welsh dragon, Y Ddraig Goch which was arranged by Merlin and her father, Uther Pendragon. The instinct that screamed at her to claim Ray as her own.

Tired of waiting, Ray simply willed Salter against her will to speak what she was trying to hide and Oh boy it didn't went well because he loosened the restraint she tried her hardest to exercise.

Instantly a low guttural roar followed by Salter's eyes became white as her instinct overcame her and attacked Ray to fight for dominance to force Ray to submit as her mate.

Sensing the danger, Dvalin springs into action and tries to stop the assault but unaware that the sword Salter wield is not just any sword, it's a former holy sword and contains dragon slayer attributes because King Artoria also has a legend that depicts her killing dragons.

"*Growl* A mere newborn dared to stood before me! Steal what's mine! DIE!" The sword burst with dark energy similar to Mana Burst but this one is different as the energy beam is more like a wild flame than the usual.

Dvalin brought up her arms and made a shield out of Anemo energy to block the attack but unfortunately shattered upon impact and made a wide slash from her neck down to her navel, causing a heavily bleeding wide gash.

"HAHAHA! That idiot knight does not understand the true nature of a dragon. So let me do you a favor and show him the true superiority of a true dragon! The might of Y Ddraig Goch!" Salter's Dragon Core turns haywire and its power inflates again and again, altering the Saint Graph itself.

Her body grew taller and bigger into a more mature version of Salter, Goddess Rhongomyniad Alter, the King of Storm. Her armor morphed into dark indigo plate armor which had a draconic feature which signifies her embracing her draconic heritage.

"You, human. I'll make you regret making me a mere slave. You should have accepted your fate and become my mate. But worry not, once I break all your limbs and bones, I will still grant you my mercy by keeping you alive for her."

Ray was busy trying to heal Dvalin to bother about the possessed Salter.

"Are you alright?" Ray softly asked Dvalin who immediately nodded and said she was glad that he was unharmed.

After a quick heal, Ray told Dvalin to stand aside, which she nodded and immediately retreated to a safe distance and observed Ray with blind faith in his strength.

Once Ray stood facing the possessed Salter or more accurately, the dragon inside her, Y Ddraig Goch.

"Well, this is my own fault." Ray spoke to himself, blaming himself for not considering the dragon inside her could be an issue until it actually became one.

This Salter is different from the FGO Salter. This one is created not through the tainted curse of Angra Mainyu but from forceful Inversion of her attribute by magnifying her normally repressed draconic heritage. Obviously this is going to be a problem but Ray forgot about it and paid the price now.

"What? Human. Are you going to put up resistance thinking you could win? How futile, do you not know who I am!" She roared.

Instead of replying, Ray stayed silent which made her even more enraged as Ray didn't even bother to acknowledge her presence. Well, the angrier she is, the better.

Once again, the Greatsword of Artorias appeared in his grasp. This one is the same one that Tanya bonded to. Compared to normal one, this can can even be used as catalysts for casting spells because Tanya's magic circuit are bonded to the sword too and in general conduct energy better because it's alive and receptive to Ray exclusively because it contains Tanya's lingering will in the sword that unconsciously wanted to help him due to her love for Ray.

"Mental Override: Deus Ex Machina."

Ray's consciousness fades to the background as the partitioned mind hops to the foreground and runs all its programs that Ray had revised after his first test run with Venti.

———

"Mental Override: Deus Ex Machina."

I heard this pest speak as if invoking yet another ability of his. An odd ability that she never saw before in her life but she had access to Artoria Alter's memory. She has seen these abilities before but this one is different. Nothing happened but his mental state which turned into something inhuman. She cannot feel anything from him right now, as if a machine that only carries out its task.

I willed the divine construct into my hand, the holy lance which I obtained after exchanging with the holy sword, a holy lance whose appearance was defiled by my inversion and turned darkened with red crystal 'fangs' jutting out the lance's body.

Despite how tempting it is to just go ahead and bash this pest to death, I still need to be wary because I remember from the shared memory, a Magus never fights a battle they cannot win. Then it means he had a trump card prepared for me.

He continued to stand there and stared at me with a cold and calculative gaze.

"If you would come then allow me." I summon my steed and charge toward him with my lance rotate to generate the torrent of dark wind and pierce him at lightning speed.

However, her lance found no purchase on Ray as he already lifted up the flat side of the greatsword and used it to block the tip of the lance. But, she still smirked because her lance isn't the real attack but it's the wind that tears his flesh open effortlessly.

"Recalibrating…" Ray muttered.

Ray's body suddenly covered by a layer of energy which she recognised, manipulation of time using time magecraft, Time Alter, to reverse time and his injury vanished as if never happened.

(Let's use her actual name to make it easy to write. Her real identity is Y Ddraig Goch so he is called Ddraig for now. Not to be confused with the DxD one. They are completely different.)

"Though so." The Ddraig remarked. "If he dropped dead easily, I wouldn't even allow him to get close to my host at all."

Ray then lifts his sword effortlessly and traces his hand over its blade and leaves a mark of runic letters which he writes with mana to cast a spell. The runic letters suddenly glowed after he finished tracing his hand over the blade and lightning arcs burst out from the blade.

"Time Alter - Triple Accel."

Ray instantly vanished from his spot and in just brief five seconds, ten slashes landed on her but she managed to deflect each with her Draconic Instinct.

But another one came unexpectedly and managed to slash her hand that wields the holy lance but surprisingly, nothing happened. The slash couldn't injure her at all.

"Recalibrating… Magecraft is ineffective due to high Magic Resistance. Adjusting combat style." Ray reappeared behind her, standing a good distance away and continued to peel her secret and abilities one by one.

After a small pause, Ddraig suddenly felt a heavy pressure compressing her Saint Graph, trying to crush it with sheer force.

"You are insane! Do you not care if Artoria died?" Ddraig panicked a little, reminded Ray to have the Third Magic which allows him to affect souls, or for servants is Saint Graph.

In response, Ray only continues to stare at her apathetically and exert even more pressure that fine crack already forms on the Saint Graph, forcing Ddraig to do something about it.

"Tch! *ROAR!*"

Boundless energy bursts out of Ddraig and transforms her body once again to become more draconic which at this point are similar to Dvalin's human form. She resists the spiritual pressure by drawing out more of her draconic heritage from within Artoria and turning herself into a dragon-human hybrid.

"Subduing attempts fail. Recalibrating tactic… proceed to increase combat level."

"You call that subduing?" Ddraig was speechless because if she didn't resist, her host's Saint Graph would be crushed for real.

Yet, Ray ignores her rambling and sprint ahead while activating Mana Burst and Reinforcement before slashing the sword which Ddraig scoffed at his puny human's attempt to best a dragon in brute force. She braced her lance forward to block the slash only for him to vanish into the after image.

"...Quad Accel"

*Crash*

"Kah!"

A heavy bludgeoning impact smashed against her back with the force of a charging buffalo, rammed against her back to displace her. Then her knees, then her elbow. Simply for the fact her dragon scale was too hard to cut, Ray opted to bash it into pieces to immobilize her.

"Raghh! If not for those annoying abilities, I would hav-" Her complaints cut short when Ray smashed her throat.

The Time Alter ability turns Ray into undetectable afterimages that Ddraig couldn't even pinpoint and his Precognition allow him to circumvent her counter and block to land a hit regardless of her effort. Even her Instinct was rendered useless as Precognition is literally the superior version of Instinct. She would have a better chance simply without it.

"Screw this! Try and defend against this! Rhongomyniad!" Baleful dark light gathers and swirls around the wicked looking lance and bursts around her.

Ray was caught by the sudden burst and suffered heavy injury as he was thrown off by the burst and had most of his body cut apart by the dark wind.

Dvalin at the side wanted to jump in and help Ray but she was petrified by the scary presence from Ddraig that left her rooted at her feet, shaking in fear.

"You force my hand, human." Ddraig who healed her throat first, said with utter anger towards Ray and no longer had intention to keep him alive as she planned before.

Rhongomyniad, the holy lance in her hand glowed ominously wine red light that caused a brighter and bigger halo of similar light to appear around the lance.

"Sacred Lance, removing restraints."

"Pierce and devour, thirteen fangs of the red dragon!"

"Annihilate my foe! Rhongomyniad!"

Apocalyptic wind forms a tornado around her lance and solidifies into a spiral of condensed energy.

Although it pained Ddraig that she cannot bring upon her true ability and have to rely on that goddess' lance, she has to admit the power is nothing to scoff of. The literal tower that holds together the reality and textures, manifested its true form although only a fraction of it.

The lance at her hand acts as the beacon which holds the golden spiral part of the cloud and descends on top of Ray.

Stood under the descending Tower of the World End.

He remains cold and calculative, running through countless possible methods to counter the new attack which is literally a world nuking bomb dropped on his face.

"Disabling self-preservation protocol.

Re-establish connection to Akasha…

Obtaining blueprint…

Altering the concept of creation…

Hypothesizing new structure…

Duplicating the creation process…

Reproducing the accumulated years…

Excelling every manufacturing process…

Transforming into desired form…

Creation complete. Conceptual Weapon with absolute defense, Rho Aius, The Seven Rings that Cover the Burning Heavens.

Deploying."

(Goddammit, 6 whole hours to complete just a battle scene.)

———

Venti, who returned to Mondstadt city that evening after making sure Ray will not attempt anything towards his friend, immediately hit the tavern, intending to drown himself with more alcohol after he managed to fork out some Mora from his enemy/master/sugar daddy(current).

He enjoys his drink with a smug face when Charles demands Venti to pay up his tabs before he can get any drink. He smacked the big pouch of Mora on the countertop and grinning at the bartender's surprised face.

Anyway, good evening well spent and until the sun finally sets as the sky gets dark. He continues to enjoy his night getting wasted and singing songs and reciting poems.

Until, suddenly the night sky turns bright. He immediately had a panic attack. Whatever that was, it's dangerous. Very dangerous that his instinct is screaming. The spirits were restless and the world itself shook and trembled as if to express its fear.

He ignores everything and rushes toward the location, praying to any higher god than him that this isn't Celestia flipping out like 500 years ago.

Halfway there, something else happened. A flower petal burst out from below into the sky and bloomed into a flower with seven petals that cover the heaven.

Then the spiraled pillar from the sky impacted the flower, creating a large explosion and noise of grinding and shattering glass.

One by one, the petals shattered and sent an immense shockwave around it and even reached the Mondstadt city in the form of a small earthquake.

At the last petal, the thing falling from the sky somehow lost its power and dissipated.

Only then, Venti could approach only to see it was Ray yet again with his shenanigan. This time, he is fighting… another dragon?!

Ray was battered, bruises all over his body which slowly healed but his opponent wasn't giving him any chance to recover and attacked Ray while he was recovering with her distorted yet divine natured lance.

Behind Ray is Dvalin, hiding in cover while looking worriedly at Ray much to his displeasure.

"Let's just pray none of the other Archons noticed this disturbance." Venti prayed again to a god higher than himself despite knowing this phenomena could be sensed by any Archons in Teyvat without needing to physically look at it.

———

After averting the world destroying crisis, Ray was forced to a corner as his combat ability had been reduced significantly by the usage of Rho Aias.

"Combat ability has been reduced below 30%. The Probability of victory is 14.29%. Probably of defeat is 85.71%."

"Reroute Divine Energy to accelerate recovery."

"Recal-"

"Enough of your nonsense and die!" Ddraig charged toward Ray with Mana Burst still active with intention to kill him before he could fully regenerate.

Then, his shadow suddenly expands and engulfes half the ruin as green flame sprouts from the ground. Towering giants to various manners of creature rise from their slumber to heed the beckoning call of their master.

Among them is clueless Charlotte who was enjoying watching TV drama with Tanya when she was suddenly summoned away by Ray.

"Why is everyone summoned?" Charlotte ask.

The Wraiths immediately answer to their Queen.

'Master is in danger.'

"What?! I thought he brought Salter and Dvalin to help them make up. How the hell is he suddenly in danger?" Charlotte frantically looks around and spots a dragon-like knight that looks similar to Salter, wielding a lance, attacking Ray while the nearby Wraiths try to distract her and protect Ray.

"Finally running out of cards to play, huh." Ddraig roared boastfully as she destroyed another cluster of Wraith using tornado created by Rhongomyniad.

Ray was thankfully unaffected as the Wraiths sacrificed themselves to create a wall to block the attack and they also reformed in an instant under Ray's domain of Soul divinity.

"Tch. Another annoying ability." She grumbled when seeing the Wraiths she killed simply reformed immediately upon death.

Charlotte resurfaced into the Physical plane behind Ddraig and caught her off guard with a sneak attack as her sword dug into Ddraig's waist and buried into her body before Charlotte pulled the entire sword out, causing internal damage and crimson ichor splash out the wound.

Due to Tanya being Wraith hybrid, she inherited their ability which was able to turn their natural weapon into astral form, allowing her to bypass most armor and defenses. Though, she is the only unique one to be capable of using it on a sword instead of claws like other Wraith due to her practice of swordsmanship to the state of 'one with the sword' which turns a sword into an extension of her body, thus qualifying as a natural weapon.

Ddraig swiped Charlotte with her lance but Charlotte already disappeared into Astral plane once again and resurfaced second later to mount another sneak attack but thwarted by the lance that deflected the sword and Ddraig smashed her foot onto Charlotte's stomach, kicking her away flying.

"She can sense where I strike." Charlotte muttered and abandoned the thought of further sneak attack. But her frontal attack ability is extremely lacking to confront Ddraig.

She instead chose to return to Ray's side.

"Are you alright, Ray?" She asked.

"Recalibrating. Subject 'Charlotte' unique trait can increase probability of victory to 72.19%."

Ray continues his mumbling instead of replying to Charlotte who becomes even more worried at his state which she has never seen before.

Ray released the Greatsword of Artorias and grabbed Charlotte's sword.

"Return." He said and Charlotte got absorbed into her sword as Ray wielded it. A simple ornate Chinese jian sword.

Once in this state, Charlotte was flung into his mindscape only to found Ray himself is in the mindscape with her.

'Wait. How? Who is controlling your body?' Charlotte couldn't help but question the situation.

Ray didn't answer but tapped the seat next to him, asking her to sit next to him as he is focusing on the screen which shows what the eyes are looking at. Behind that screen are countless other screens in the background with words and numbers flowing at an incredible rate like she is looking at a computer's coding screen.

Back to the battle.

Armed with Charlotte's sword, the rejuvenated Ray once again began his assault. But, this time, he is going to end this battle.

"Time Alter - Quad Accel."

Time slowed around him while he continued to move normally and then enter Ddraig's area of attack without fear as he cleaved her arm that wields Rhongomyniad without hesitation, cutting away her spiritual body. Then he jumped back as a claw swipe pass where he just stood moments ago as he cut off another arm of the spiritual body, literally disarmed, leaving both paralyzed and unable to even be lifted.

Then he deactivated the Time Alter which strained his body significantly but the pain wasn't felt as they are blocked by the [Tranquil Mind] effect.

"Disengage Mental Override." The real Ray regained control of his body as he plunged the sword into Ddraig's heart, piercing the Saint Graph, breaking it and thus marked Ddraig's defeat.

"My answer to your previous question. I do care. But, just like how I can kill you now, I also can bring you and Artoria back to life as much as I wanted since her soul is mine to begin with." Ray smirked sadistically as he activated Spiritual Subjugation on Ddraig who he already defeated.

"I'll make sure to return all this pain and hassle you gave me." Ray took his time to appreciate Artoria's new body. Thinking about it is enough to give him a boner considering the battle made him accumulate a lot of pent up frustration that he needed a way to release.

Once Ddraig was completely subdued, he forced her to merge with Artoria but with Artoria being dominant. This will result in no more issues of instinct running wild and out of control while simultaneously allowing Artoria to access Ddraig's portion of abilities. After that, he didn't forget to heal her arms.

Venti suddenly landed near Ray and quickly told him to retract his Wraiths and leave.

Ray nodded and agreed easily as he sensed a large number of humans marching towards the Old Mondstadt ruin which now is just a large crater with only the center still standing which was protected by Rho Aias.

He quickly unsummon his Wraiths and drag everyone into the portal, dipping out just second before the first person, GM Varka, arrives at the ruin frantically to find the perpetrators that ruined such a historical site.

(Another 4 hours on this part… Total around than 12 hrs.)

—————