Lord.
A message from your lady.
What is it?
If Miki refuses to open the gates,
approach the gates bearing the Great Lord's coffin.
I see.
Open the gates.
The Great Lord returns.
Open the gates.
Washizu will enter, guarding the Great Lord's coffin.
What of the Great Lord's lady?
She has taken her life.
She could not bear to see an enemy occupy the castle.
Surely the evil spirit of Spider's Forest foretold the truth.
With the Great Lord gone, Inui will surely turn against this fortress.
They will come in force.
You alone have the strength to defend this castle.
I will argue the justice of this before the Council.
We shall speak of it at greater length.
Where lies the Garrison?
At the foot of those mountains, see?
From this height, it seems almost pitiful.
Life can always be improved. Fine, fine fortune.
If only there were an heir, this house would have great joy.
So I cannot persuade you of the folly
in naming Miki's son as heir to the throne of this castle?
At the Council meeting,
he ardently argued my right to succession.
I owe my position to his unflagging friendship.
I must repay his loyalty.
I cannot agree.
Miki did not promote you out of friendship.
Surely you know this yourself.
Do not speak of it.
Miki is courageous.
He's a shrewd strategist.
Terrifying as an enemy, but a trustworthy ally.
If I appoint his son to be my heir,
he will engage in any labor on my behalf.
Hear this.
At tonight's banquet I will announce and celebrate my successor.
Entertain Miki and his son lavishly.
I did not soil these hands with blood
for the sake of Lord Miki's son.
My rule lasts but a generation.
Thereafter, Miki's heirs succeed.
If you believe in the Forest prophecy,
it is the most we can hope for. - I refuse.
And yet, we are barren.
Someday, we must choose an heir.
I am...
with child.
With child?
Yes.
Fool.
What is this?
His loyal horse went mad today.
He bucked his bridle, tore off his reins
and fled.
Father, this bodes ill. We cannot visit the Castle.
Ridiculous.
We are honored guests at tonight's banquet. We must attend.
Father.
As I have said already,
I am grateful for these honors...
You complain?
No, I make no complaints.
But I refuse to trust
an evil spirit's prophecy. Foolish.
Foolish?
I saw it clearly with my own eyes.
For Washizu, the prophecies have been fulfilled.
For me, tonight...
Such reasoning proves you are possessed.
The spirit has tricked you into fulfilling its prophecies,
and now you believe the prophecies have come true. Is it wise?
Then believe them not.
And yet,
Washizu's wish to name you heir is neither dream nor illusion.
Listen well.
You can become lord and master of a castle,
without bloodshed, without heaping corpse on corpse.
What got into that horse? Look at my wounds.
Kept me behind.
Made you miss out on castle sake.
He's back.
Where can Lord Miki be?
Great Lord is vexed as well.
Such impudence is unlike Miki.
Oh, terrible gods attend our story well
The very same tale foretold in ancient legend
The warrior Chikata whose devilish men
served his traitorous schemes
Yet when his demon henchmen murder him in betrayal
their debt of royal treachery
swiftly brings their own ruin
And thus it came to pass
That's enough. Enough of your dancing.
Sir.
Damn you, Miki.
Such insolence.
Remove yourself.
Great Lord.
Calm yourself.
He has imbibed too freely.
Lately, he is often this way when he has had too much to drink.
No doubt his predecessor's violent death tears at his heart.
I'm terribly drunk.
What's wrong?
Will you men not take a drop?
Let's celebrate.
What can be the cause of Miki's delay?
Rumor has it that Inui has spies afoot.
I pray all is well.
There he is again.
If you reprove me so, draw your sword and strike.
I'll slay you yet again.
My Lord.
Pay him no mind.
His confusion will subside with the liquor.
Forgive this unseemly disruption of our feast.
Please retire for the night.
Retire!
How brilliant.
A Great Lord, his ambitions set on the world,
terrorized and undone by phantoms.
Who's there?
Lord Miki is done with...
Enough!
Retire.
My Great Lord.
There is a more pressing question.
His son?
I wounded him, but he escaped, clinging to his steed.
What? He escaped?
I have no excuse.
A fierce wind blows.
As if to shake the castle to its foundation.
These foundations
already tremble, without need of the wind.
Nowadays, even the garrison and fortress commanders,
who once paid court here daily, are hardly seen.
Let sleeping dogs lie.
Two commanders,
whom the Great Lord doubted, forced to take their lives.
Hard to believe it was Inui's spies that murdered Miki.
I've heard tell
that Miki's son has taken shelter with Inui.
Only a fool would side with his father's foe.
They say even Noriyasu and our last prince
have pledged themselves to Inui.
What will come of this?
In any case, we can no longer trust this castle's invincibility.
I heard a guard of the watchtower say
he saw a pack of rats fleeing the castle grounds.
They always say,
''Rats flee a house before it burns.''
How is she?
My lady,
how does she fare?
Speak.
Why are you silent?
There is nothing to speak of.
My lady has given birth. The child was stillborn.
Stillborn?
And lifeless first some days within my lady's womb,
my lady's health is far from certain.
Great Lord.
Fool!
Fool.
Great Lord.
A messenger from the First Fortress.
What?
What is it?
Inui's men swarmed our border, taking the First Fortress.
Noriyasu leads the vanguard, swearing vengeance for the prince's father.
The Second Fortress is surrounded.
Miki's son commands them.
First and Second Fortresses are both lost,
our foe has joined forces
and approaches the Third Fortress.
Cowards.
It is two hours since I called council. How can we greet this attack?
Enough with you.
What need for the advice of cowards, who quake and pale under fire?
Bring my horse. My horse.
Come forth.
Evil spirit.
Come forth, evil spirit.
Come forth.
Show yourself. I must know.
Whom have we here?
Is this not the Great Lord of Spider's Web Castle?
Damn you. Answer me plainly.
Is it true Miki's son will be Lord of Spider's Web?
So I see,
you have finally come to the end of your wanderings.
You have done well.
Damn you. Tell me.
If you have the power, foretell the outcome of my battle.
You may set your fears to rest.
Until the very trees of Spider's Web Forest
rise against Spider's Web Castle,
you will not be defeated in battle.
The trees rise to attack?
Such a thing is impossible.
Which means, I will not be defeated in battle?
If you choose the path of bloodshed,
then climb to the very pinnacle of evil.
Noriyasu, the prince and even Miki's son,
I swear I shall kill them all.
If you choose to build a mountain of corpses,
build its summit as high as you dare.
I'll lay a fresh mountain of corpses over these bleached bones.
If you will make blood flow,
let it be a river, no, an ocean of blood.
A deluge of blood shall stain these woods crimson.
Come for me, Noriyasu.
Ally yourself with Inui,
with the prince, and Miki's son.
Join forces with the First and Second Fortress, too.
Thousands, tens of thousands.
Bring every man you can find and lay siege to Spider's Web!
Heed this.
The Spider's Web Forest
is but a web of trails.
Do not let the paths beguile you.
Avoid the trails.
Once inside the forest, ride straight through the trees,
and press only forward.
What? My hidden troops in the forest have withdrawn?
Cowards.
The men who lay in wait
withdrew en masse without receiving a single arrow?
Our foe Noriyasu knows the forest. We cannot entrap him.
I was remiss...
Men,
hear me well.
In battle, the final victor takes all.
Skirmishes mean nothing.
Take heart.
I, Washizu, demand your trust.
On no account shall I meet defeat in battle.
If you do not believe me, I'll tell you why.
This happened when I still commanded the First Fortress.
As I returned to the Castle after rushing Fujimaki's mutiny,
I saw an evil spirit in Spider's Forest.
According to its prophecy,
I would that eve become Lord of the North Garrison,
and later, of this Castle.
Behold my fate.
The prophecy foretold my destiny precisely.
And then, today.
I spurred my steed back into the Forest
to ask the spirit of my fortune once more.
Rejoice.
None may defeat me, though heaven descends or the earth rends.
The spirit told me,
until the trees of the forest rise to attack the Castle,
I shall never be defeated in battle.
Men.
Don't tell me. Do trees attack?
Those of you who trust my fate,
raise your spears.
Can't see a thing.
Hey.
What can the enemy be plotting, with nary a torch?
What can that be?
No doubt they've abandoned their attack to build defenses.
Even the formidable Noriyasu
has no power against these legendary fortifications.
The attackers can see nothing inside the castle.
Yet we have a bird's-eye view of them.
If they do attack us,
let them draw near and then shower them with arrows.
What is it?
Is it a covert attack?
What is it?
An ill omen.
Commanders of cowardice who quake and pale.
Do you not see this as good omen?
How dare you let an auspicious omen of our victory fluster you.
My lady.
It won't come out.
What an awful bloodstain.
No matter how I wash it,
why won't this blood wash away?
It reeks of blood even now.
Why can I not clean this blood from my hands?
Asaji.
What is the matter with this blood?
The stain will not leave my hands.
No matter how many times
I wash and wash again,
still these hands reek of blood.
Asaji.
This awful stain of blood.
Fools.
Why this confusion as victory approaches?
Quiet down.
Quiet down, I say.
Great Lord. The trees,
the trees of Spider's Forest.
- What of them? - The trees have risen to attack us.
Ridiculous.
A madman's delusion. How would a forest move?
What is this!
Hold your stations.
Do not yield.
Return to your stations.
Cowards.
I see it now.
You'll slay me and offer my head when you surrender.
You traitors.
Murdering a Great Lord is high treason.
And who killed our last Great Lord?
They know our every move from the castle.
Send the large and small carts first.
Hide yourselves beneath the carts.
Conceal yourselves among the branches and don't expose yourselves.
Look upon the ruins
Of the castle of delusion
Haunted only now
By the spirits of those who perished
A scene of carnage
Born of consuming desire
Never changing Now and throughout eternity
HERE STOOD SPIDER'S WEB CASTLE
THE END