Soul Cairn pt. 2

[AN/rant]: I would like to apologize for those last two chapters. They were basically just me reusing the game and its conversations almost verbatim. I actually found them really boring and was not the biggest fan. Thankfully, this one is at least a little different and has some new things in it. Hopefully in future, there won't be too many parts where I just blatantly copy the game, but I make no promises.

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Rictus was making his way towards the southernmost spire and Keeper location. He had been impressed at how Serana had taken command of their little group. She had actually proposed they split up so they could at least scout out each of the Keepers. If they were confident in taking them out, then do it. Else, they would regroup near the temple and work together. It was a bold and dangerous plan, yet neither him nor Alucard could persuade her otherwise. Her impatience at freeing her mother and stopping her father was influencing her decisions.

It actually kind of made sense to him though. There were three Keepers and three of them. Splitting the party was generally a bad plan, but it did have its uses. If everyone was careful, they should be able to easily scout out the locations without worry. Rictus was pretty sure he should be able to take down a Keeper by himself though. It wouldn't be the first time he had defeated such an enemy, and he was even stronger and more prepared this time around compared to the first time. He hoped he wasn't being blinded by arrogance.

Walking through the Soul Cairn alone was strange. When he was with the others, he wasn't as aware since their presence acted as a distraction, and they were moving in a hurry. Now, there was nothing stopping him from taking in more of his surroundings. The Souls still muttered random things but didn't really acknowledge his presence. The ground was covered in rocks and dead looking plants but was utterly silent as he was walking on it. Only the soul husks, the strange coral looking plants seemed to thrive in the environment.

Rictus stopped and gathered them when he came across them before placing them in storage. He knew they had beneficial effects, but he just couldn't bring himself to eat it. Eating something which thrived in such place just felt like a bad idea. Maybe when he left here, he would get a volunteer to eat some of it to make sure it worked as he thought it would.

Rounding a destroyed mausoleum, he froze. Four black skeletons with shining white eyes and wielding a variety of weapons were standing right in front of him. Right before he attacked, they all turned and faced him.

"We die."

"We pray."

"To live."

"We serve."

They spoke as if completing a greeting or chant. Rictus was completely caught off guard by such an action. They had never spoken in the game before that he knew of, and now they just did it like it was the most natural thing in the world.

"What did you say?"

His words were apparently not the right response as the bonemen raised their weapons to attack. Seeing the change in their attitude, Rictus sent his ax flying out and smashed the archer first. A cutting weapon is not usually the best against undead. Not having living flesh and blood took away a cutting edge's deadliest attribute. The good thing about his ax though, was that if it was turned sideways, he had a massive blunt object he could smash things with. Which is exactly what happened to that poor boneman archer whose bones were now scattered everywhere.

Before the other three could get close, Rictus sent out three quick blades of lightning and fire which impacted and destroyed the bonemen. After they were destroyed, the bones seemed to dissipate into a black looking goo. He used his ax handle to shift around in it for a moment and revealed a petty soul gem. Removing the soul gem caused all evidence of the boneman to disappear.

"If this place wasn't so terrible, it would be an amazing soul gem farm. The bonemen are quite weak overall and providing a filled gem is a good harvest. Unfortunately, I doubt the Ideal Masters would tolerate such actions."

He was still a bit thrown off by the bonemen speaking though. Did that mean the others could speak as well? Maybe this was something else different from the games. Skyrim was very much an adventure gaming where you fought enemies a lot. Even bandits would attack you on sight and not even bother trying to talk which was not how things worked here. Could the denizens of the Soul Cairn be the same? 'Doubtful, but it is something to investigate. I will just have to be extra careful though if I do follow through.'

As he kept walking, a strange energy source was coming from a dilapidated obsidian looking hall. It was powerful, but in a subtle manner which made detection and identification difficult. Rictus froze as he figured out where it was coming from.

Floating above a section of the hall, he could see a massive purple crystal. It looked almost like a soul gem, just 1000 times bigger. Another strange thing was how he had completely missed such an obvious sight. He would have sworn it was not there at all until he had gotten closer to the structure and looked over it carefully. A tiny part of him wanted to get closer, but he quickly shut that thought down. There was no way he was doing that, especially since he was pretty sure this was a vessel, or conduit, for the Ideal Masters.

Ever so slowly, he made his way past the structure. The mixed feelings of attraction and repulsion filled him the entire time. Begging him to come closer, while warning him to stay away. The dichotomy of feelings had his mind in a whirl until he passed some invisible boundary, and it all fell away. Taking a deep gasping breath, Rictus tried calming his nerves from the entire ordeal.

He waited for something to happen, but it never did. No enemies appeared, no lightning struck, no apparition or voices spoke out to him. Just silence. It was almost like his presence didn't warrant any kind of acknowledgement. A feeling of insignificance filled him after the encounter, and that gave him mixed emotions.

On one hand, Rictus was glad nothing had happened. It would not have been good if the masters of this plane of Oblivion were actively working against him. One the other hand, he was strangely a little insulted nothing had happened. He had defeated a major supplier of souls for the Ideal Masters and had entered their domain in order to free one of their prisoners. It was a bit of a blow to his ego that he was completely ignored.

Shaking his head to dispel those thoughts, Rictus tried focusing on what he could control. 'I still need to scout out and defeat the Keeper. If the Ideal Masters don't take notice of me, I should be thankful and not over think things. Just gotta stick to the mission. One thing at a time.'

Eventually, Rictus was nearing his destination. He did notice another soul near him that was muttering about some book, but he paid him no mind as he kept walking. A cluster of dead trees were on his right, and dark misty shapes could be seen within. Like moths to a flame, they quickly moved towards him.

This time, it was a group of mistmen. Black skeletons who floated in the air and had a dark misty cloud instead of legs. These ones had a much stronger magical signature than the bonemen and were known for casting frost spells. As he was preparing his attacks, he suddenly stopped once more as he heard eerie voices speaking.

"Death is the Mother of Beauty."

"The seasons turn to winter. In the frozen whiteness, time stands still."

"We came this far for beauty. We came this far for love. From this place we can see forever."

They stayed floating a little bit away from him. Shrugging his shoulders, Rictus decided to try talking.

"That's real poetic of you. I appreciate your sharing. Does this mean we don't have to fight each other?"

Nothing was said as the mistmen simply floated there indifferently. Rictus gave them a moment longer before he spoke again.

"Well…this has been very instructive. I am sure you three have some real important work, and I would hate to keep you from it…Whatever it is."

As soon as he took a step backwards, frost spells enshrouded the mistmen's hands. Trying not to roll his eyes at the predicted outcome, Rictus once again used his ax to quickly destroy the three physically weak mistmen. They were able to get off a couple ice spikes, but he easily Dispelled them before they could do anything. Rictus tried fighting off the feeling, but he was starting to underestimate the enemies found here. The bonemen and mistmen were both fairly weak compared to others he had fought recently. He hadn't encountered the wrathmen yet which were known to be more powerful, and he was curious if they would prove more challenging.

Still, encountering more talking enemies was strange. What was causing them to talk instead of just attack like they would in the games? Maybe it was just because he wasn't the dragonborn? Whatever it was, he wasn't sure he would try talking with them again. They attacked any time he did, so he might as well get a free attack on them.

Finally, he could make out his target. Sitting on a stone throne at the foot of a tall tower with some kind of energy coming from the top, was the Keeper. It was a massive creature, easily twice his height and covered in what appeared to be a type of bone armor with a large battle ax resting across its lap. Two glowing purple orbs were floating in black mist where its head should be. Souls could be seen in various positions around it while glowing beams shot up from their bodies into the sky. Two wrathmen, undead creatures in old Nordic looking armor with glowing eyes and skeleton, stood guard in front of the tower.

Getting a feel for his enemies, Rictus believed he could defeat them. Deciding a little help could be useful, especially for handling the wrathmen, he used the Sanguine Rose. A Mazken, or Dark Seducer, appeared from a portal. The female daedra, who he simply called Maz, had gray skin, dark hair, and wore dark black armor which barely covered her modesty. A bonus to using the Sanguine Rose was that he could still conjure another creature the traditional way. [AN: I know this isn't how the game works, but it is how I like to think it should.]

Secondly, he summoned his familiar Billy who had gotten another upgrade recently. Not only was Billy larger than a horse with horns like a dragon, he also had gotten a longer prehensible tail with a sharp spike on it. On top of that, circular glyphs which resembled a hurricane could be seen across the body while lightning arched in the storm clouds surrounding Billy's hooves and horns. His once simple goat familiar had evolved into a lightning dragon goat. He patted Billy's side with a chuckle.

"Don't know how much longer I can call you a goat familiar, and it remain true."

Rictus had finally gotten around to experimenting some with the summon atronach spells while traveling. The atronachs are elemental Daedra from the planes of Oblivion. Most conjurers only knew the default humanoid appearance, but they could take many different forms. Knowing he could change their forms just like he could with bound weapons, Rictus wondered if he could do more than just that. It was still a work in progress, but there were some already promising results.

He already knew the flaming familiar spell, so he took inspiration from the storm atronach to create a lighning familiar. By studying and taking inspiration from one of the most powerful atronachs, he had been able to greatly enhance the elemental abilities of the spell compared to the flaming version. Yes, Rictus knew the flames would be more effective against the undead. He also knew lightning was just cooler than fire.

With his two summons at his side, Rictus had a way to keep any additional enemies off him while he dealt with the Keeper. It was weird not to feel his blood pumping through his veins in anticipation of the battle, but he quickly shook it off as he prepared his opening salvo. Three large metal spikes were pulled from his storage. Rictus had made them with large opponents in mind. Each one was around 7 foot long and a little less than half a foot thick. Both ends were barbed so that extracting them would be incredibly difficult, whether that was from the body or the ground. Not only that, but they also had runes of Burden on them which would activate after contact so they would be even heavier than they already were. Manipulating 3 such weapons was fairly difficult, but it was made easier since he cast Feather on them for the initial launch. With a mental command to his summons, he sent the three metal spikes barreling towards the sitting Keeper.

Crashing noises of busted stone and bent metal reverberated around him as he took in the damage his weapons wrought. Surprisingly, one of the spikes had been completely deflected by the bone breastplate which worried Rictus. That armor was mostly likely made from dragon bone and would be incredibly difficult to penetrate since the spike only left surface damage. Another of the spikes had been slightly off and was now firmly stuck into the stone structure. Thankfully, the final one had landed on the upper right arm where there was no armor. It pinned the Keeper to the stone as Rictus and his summons continued their assault.

The utter silence of their opponents was slightly unnerving, but it didn't slow down their attacks at all. Maz drew a daedric bow and was rapidly releasing arrows at the charging wrathmen while Billy started his own charge at them. Noting the physical resistance of the Keeper's armor, Rictus rapidly cast blades of fire and lightning from each had which impacted the trapped Keeper with small explosions.

The Keeper wasn't idle for long though. Deciding the spells were a bigger worry than an arm, it simply ripped its arm off and left it attached to the spike as it wielded its massive dragonbone battle ax one handed and charged, bolts of fire and lightning impacting it the whole way. When it finally got near him, it reared back its ax and swung it in a sweeping motion trying to bisect him. With only having one arm, the accuracy was not the best. Still deadly, but not as much as it would have been with both arms.

Instead of fighting up close though, Rictus Lifted himself into the air as he aimed his spells at the floating darkness that was the Keeper's head. Rictus flew around the area raining destruction down on the undead who continued doggedly chasing him. It took the monster longer than expected to cease the chase and raise its ax to try and block some of the incoming spells. At this point, the glow in its eyes had greatly diminished, which was about the only way Rictus knew he was having some kind of effect on the thing. A health bar over its head would have been real convenient though.

The large ax made it incredible difficult to land a proper hit. Too bad for the Keeper, it also restricted its vision. That was why it didn't notice the massive goat familiar until Billy slammed into the back of its knees with a thundering discharge of electricity. Unsteady from the hit, the Keeper fell face first to the ground. Not one to miss such an obvious opportunity, Rictus pulled another of his barbed metal spears from storage and carefully aimed it at the Keeper's exposed upper arm. After shooting it down, he started rapidly falling from the air. Rictus drew back his ax and unleashed a massive overhand strike on the unarmored section of the back of its knees.

With it properly immobilized, Rictus began pouring pure destructive lightning magic at point blank range. He was no Master of Destruction, but his huge mana pool and judicious use of mana stones allowed him more power than most others could handle. Even Billy unleashed his fury with lightning empowered stomps and tail whips.

Darkness flared as the Keeper finally succumbed to their attacks. Its body, including the armor, dissolved into a black inky substance which pooled at Rictus's feet. Thankfully, its ax as well as the armor from the dismembered parts remained.

"MMEEEEHHH!"

Billy let out a victorious bleat at the death of their foe. Rictus couldn't help but smile at his familiar's antics. Despite all the changes made to it, it still sounded like a goat, albeit a large one, which was not what he considered a particularly intimidating war cry and victory shout.

As soon as the Keeper died, the beams coming from the trapped Souls abruptly ended. He could faintly hear their mutterings and noted they looked slightly more faded than some of the others he had seen. Sobs could even be heard coming from one who walked near him towards a mausoleum like building with a determined stare. Slightly intrigued by the Soul's actions and feeling a little impulsive, Rictus moved towards the Soul. Soon, he could make what it was saying.

"Why did you listen to them over me? Boys are supposed to listen to their mothers."

Rictus froze as he felt his chest seize up. He knew that voice. With a trembling voice and unsteady hand, he reached out towards the Soul.

"Thaena?"

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[AN]: Dun Dun Duuun! Oh no! A wild cliffhanger appeared!

I am actually a little sorry for ending it like that, but I see others do it all the time, so I wanted to give it a shot. Not sure if I am the biggest fan, but that is just how the cookie crumbles. Definitely didn't happen because I haven't finished writing the next part. That would just be lazy.

Also, to those wondering about the words of the bonemen and mistmen, I did not actually come up with those. Someone much better had already done that, and I wanted to reuse something from a long time ago. Let me know your thoughts on it.