Life is Unfair.

Earlier :

Charlotte stumbles slightly as she's enveloped by the portal but quickly composes herself as she looks around the area, spotting the five other Champions present.

Almost instantly, she spots Michael but forces herself to turn away, not willing to look at him due to what she'd be forced to do in the near future... Instead, she turns her attention to Erandur, Vaermina's Champion who wielded the Skull of Corruption.

She'd get rid of him first, as the artifact had too much potential to enthral the other Champions. She knew she could fight against one or two at a time, but more than that? Only certain death awaited her.

He notices her gaze however and immediately jabs the Skull in her direction, blasting a stream of crimson magic towards her. She sidesteps it with some ease and thrusts her staff into the air, gathering the moisture and summoning small shards of ice that quickly drop towards the corrupted priest.

Erandur dodges to the side, but ends up getting grazed by a few icicles regardless, he gives no indication that he'd been hurt though, he simply just conjures a Restoration spell in his free hand and presses it to his wound, quickly healing it.

As this happens, Charlotte hears steps behind her and the whistle of wind, causing her to conjure a blast of cold air that launches everything nearby away, along with her attacker, Silus, Champion of Mehrune's Dagon.

She hadn't expected him to ally with Erandur, but judging by the crimson light that shone from his eyes, he didn't have a choice in the matter. She focuses her attention solely on his artifact however, Mehrune's Razor, a dagger which had the ability to instantly kill anyone with the most insignificant wound.

She blasts more ice towards Erandur to keep him occupied, "Do you wish for freedom?" she suddenly asks as her voice pulls itself from her throat without her compliance, her words were distorted by the Masque of Clavicus Vile, along wit being louder and somehow more charismatic, even to her ears.

Silus stops in mid-step as he hears her voice, the crimson glow in his eyes dimming momentarily. "I-..."

"Grasp your freedom. Take back what is yours."

"N-no..." he mutters, bringing a hand to his head as his traitorous thoughts threaten to overwhelm him.

All the while, Charlotte was forced to continue blasting spells at Erandur, who was getting increasingly aggressive, probably because she was stripping his thrall of his control.

"Strike back at your master, break your chains." her words continue flowing, sounding like the sweetest hymn as if his ears had grown tastebuds and she'd fed him the tastiest honey.

"S-stop.... I-it won't...?"

"Claim. Your. Fate."

"Ahk!" Silus abruptly shouts, grabbing his head while feeling tens of millions of ants crawling on and into his brain. Whenever a traitorous thought sprang to mind they'd bite him, but he couldn't stop himself, the thought of freedom was too much. It was all he wanted, all past goals and dreams were gone, leaving him with only this.

"Slaughter your oppressors."

With that, Silus lets out an agonized scream, tightly grasping Mehrune's Razor as he charges straight at Erandur, who'd had both of his feet frozen to the ground.

The corrupted priest gives no expression as the crazed Champion of Mehrune's Dagon barrels into him, burying the dagger into his heart as they both topple other.

Erandur was most certainly dead, but Silus cared not, continuing to stab his corpse an uncountable number of times.

Charlotte lets out a tired sigh at this sight, looking around and finding the other Champions already dead...

*Thud*

Silus' head drops to the floor after Michael severs it, afterwards looking to Charlotte. "Yo." he greets in the same familial manner he used to.

She gives a slight nod, not looking him in the eyes despite the horned mask concealing her features.

"Have... You been well?" he asks after a moment, unsure of what to say. Her situation could be placed directly at his feet, he had brought her to this world after all.

Again, she nods, taking a tentative step backwards as he approaches.

He stops and lets out a sigh, looking around the rocky area with a helpless expression, "Maria's doing fine. Still mourning your decision, even if she tries to act like she's fine."

...

"She blames herself, feeling like she'd forced you to make that decision. She wishes that she'd died when she drank that poison. Spare you the burden..." he adds, letting his stream of consciousness flow. He could see Charlotte's hands tightly gripping her staff at his words however, meaning that the girl was listening, not just a puppet for Clavicus.

"Do you regret your choice?" he asks but is unsure if he wants to know the answer.

"Yes..." she says in barely a whisper.

"Illococoo's fine, mastering the Thu'um as if she was the Dragonborn or something." he says with a slight chuckle, both knowing just how true his words are.

...

He palms his face as his heart beats erratically, despite all the fighting he'd done this long night, it was only now that he was feeling tired... Charlotte was going to die, and there was little he could do about it...

Put her soul into a soul gem? No... Then she'd just be at the mercy of the Ideal Masters in the Soul Cairn...

Give his soul to Clavicus in exchange for hers? No... The destruction the Prince could unleash if given access to other worlds would be legendary, and probably world-destroying.

He couldn't see any way out of this. Despite all the power he'd gathered thus far, despite all the obstacles he'd traversed and all the people he'd met. He was still useless when it came to something so important.

"D-do you have any regrets... Anything you... Wanted to do before..." he asks, feeling his heartbreak at the question alone.

Charlotte gives a small nod as she slowly walks over to him.