Negotiations, Home

{I've crossed 100k words last chapter all of a sudden. Let's goooooooo}

When the last Thalmor had filed out of the main house Yuri could be seen surrounded in a semi-circle, yet he held his hands out and had his head up like he was a pastor who came to deliver them salvation. That is, if one ignored the swords they pointed at him.

"Is that so?" A haughty voice resounded amidst the encirclement, emboldened by their numbers. "Then do the world a favor and die with your RELIGION!" He accented the last word and lunged at Yuri with an overhead swing.

With his Shadowy hand, Yuri caught it, but two more had joined in with a sword and spear.

Before they had arrived, whips of Shadow were summoned from the ground and sliced the tip and bulk of their pointy ends. In Yuri's hand, the Shadow traveled up the sword and burned the owner like a chemical weapon.

Two more tendrils had escaped the floor and gouged out the other two before the mages decided to release their charges.

"I'm starting to fight like Pride," He commented on FMA out loud.

Yuri wouldn't stay this time. He vanished and arrived right in front of the door before sealing it shut with ice to contain the rest. He kept an 'eye' on the Thalmor inside because he couldn't block the emergency exit below them.

Every single spell they sent missed and hit either each other or damaged the courtyard. Before they could turn around to look, Yuri struck the entire right side of five with shadow whips and they fell into misshapen piles.

"Karian!!!!" One looked behind him and his face twisted into a horribly mixed grimace of anger and fear. The others, now only 12 in front of him, all shared the same expression and lost their sense of united courage. It was too easy for the guy! What would they be dying for!

"When all you have is built on pride in your given circumstance, courage isn't something you can muster in the face of hopelessness. Isn't that right? Filthy supremacists."

Yuri decided to test out his ESP for one to make his point. He lifted the elf with the worst karma present and let him wiggle for a moment in an exhibition before Yuri closed his hand into a fist and-

"AAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!" *CCCRRRRRRRUUUUUNNNCCCGHHHHH*

"HA!! HAAAAA!!!" "YOU FUCKING MONSTAAAARRRR!!"

The eyes of all present quivered and a few vomited, most screamed and one even knelt and wept. Yuri had turned the Thalmor into a soccer ball, the blood spilled to the floor in a frantic escape, everything else was contained in the ball the color of his Thalmor robes.

Even Yuri was surprised by how easy that was. Maybe he was a bit too strong... no. Alduin wouldn't even balk at this and he couldn't be killed in Mundus anyway.

Yuri noticed how his intimidation worked a bit too well. The Thalmor kept backpedaling or crawling backward depending on how they were. He sighed and raised his hand before sending 11 more whips directly through 11 more eyes, turning them all into statues.

Yuri turned back to the door and released the ice into snow before opening it.

───※ ·❆· ※───

"Karian!!!!"

"AAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!" *CCCRRRRRRRUUUUUNNNCCCGHHHHH*

"HA!! HAAAAA!!!" "YOU FUCKING MONSTAAAARRRR!!"

Elenwen couldn't hear much, but she and the five guards didn't like what they could. Screams made their way past the doors and the guards clenched their weapons as tightly as they could.

"We grew arrogant..." The survivor of Northwatch said quietly. "Sending only so many to a land so far from Summerset. We had forgotten Shalidor was a Nord, too." The boy nearly whispered. Elenwen's blood had formed small red murals on the wooden floor below her fists.

"We need to retreat. NOW!"

*Boom, Thump*

The door was knocked open and let in a gust of chilly air that buffeted them.

"Oh, it's too late for that," The voice that spoke wasn't creepy, it was deep and terrifying, and even colder than the air.

The man didn't look human anymore, the only article of clothing being a black cloak that was as dark as the entirety of this Demon's body. His eyes shone with a sinister red glow that made you want to look away. His sword shone with silver luster as the only object with a normal color on the man's person.

The five guards all had spears that they set at the ready. They knew this was their final charge.

"YAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!" They mustered up a yell while they crossed the room spears at the ready.

Yuri held his sword vertically to his side and sideways in his grip, he waited till the right moment before he swished it across the approaching tips that were all aiming for him and repulsed all five of them backward.

When they looked up again, they saw the tips of their spears were still floating. Yuri flicked his left hand forward and they all spun forward at insane speeds before he sent them flying.

Only one managed to dodge ahead of time, the rest had their own spear tips buried in their lungs. The four leaned forward and died, the fifth one started charging a fire spell. Yuri could tell it was a Master spell that he was overcharging, meaning it probably packed a punch.

But he didn't move. The last guard thought the man was foolish enough to prove a point and grinned wildly.

"Get down, Emissary!!"

Elenwen threw herself over the counter of the bar to the right, the Survivor Yuri recognized didn't move.

Yuri waited until the man released it to see what all the fuss was about.

In the milliseconds after it fired he knew what it was.

'Ah, Blaze River'

Blaze River was merely turning a channeling fire spell to the highest level possible. Like Yuri did at Saarthal, only more condensed and wider. Some of the flames would even turn blue.

Yuri decided to stay till he had already cast it and it was right in front of him to TP into the rafters and Shroud himself.

A river of flames tore through the doorway and broke off the door as it exited diagonally while superheating the stone wall supporting the frame. By the time it was over, it had burned an elliptical whole through the wall where the doorway was and the flames that couldn't exit had crawled along the inside wall and scorched any possessions that happened to be around.

"Ha... Haha...HahahaHAHAHAHA!!!" The agent lifted his hands in the air in victory and raised his head. Elenwen had raised her head over the bar and looked to see no sign of the demon. She smiled as if salvation had come, a tear had dripped down her eyes. The survivor was still motionless.

*Poof*

Yuri arrived in front of the doorway and looked at it with approval before he looked back at the frozen guard and started slowly clapping.

"Not many can pull off a spell like that. Bravo. But nothing you do will ever be enough to divert your fate" He spoke with calm sarcasm.

Yuri stepped forward to the motionless guard, swiped his sword in a fluid motion, and walked past to the bar while sheathing it. He heard a tumbling sound followed by the sound of flowing sand behind him, and Elenwen who was still behind the bar looked tearfully at the last man who could've saved her.

Yuri sat down on a barstool and laid his hands on the counter before clasping them.

"One Argonian Ale, please."

She creaked her head slowly towards the man who would kill her. Defiance, misery, and also strangely, resignation. Such were the things he saw in her gaze.

"Kill me a-already"

"Fine, I'll get it myself" He pulled a bottle from the shelf and sent it into his open hand before uncorking it and drinking. "Busy day."

Yuri walked behind the counter and towards the glass shelves that held numerous expensive bottles, some local and a few not. Nord selections were almost half, strangely.

{If you find that strange, in the wiki page about Northwatch it says the place has copious amounts of Nord Mead everywhere}

He stuffed them in his inventory before taking a look at the whole building. Nothing of too much value, but he wouldn't leave anything behind. He would be collecting the dossiers as evidence. There were also a couple of torturers and prisoners in the lower levels still.

"Congratulations, you have witnessed the beginnings of history on this day. Now leave," He said. It was enough for today. She was a non-combatant with neutral karma anyway, doing more than this would start to feel creepy.

She paused before taking his words in stride and sprinting out the door in a panic. The survivor stayed.

He looked at them before shaking his head and TP'ing to the safes around here. Glass armor and weapons he found were kept, entire safes were taken to break into later. Down he went to the torture chambers and cleared it out. He sent the prisoners topside with little explanation and they ran for the hills. One more safe was taken from down there and he came back up and walked out.

Yuri looked back and thought for a few moments before deciding on keeping his calling card.

He stretched out his hands like a phantom pianist and the next moment the ground quaked and trembled. The stone walls and wooden floors across the whole place started shifting rapidly and collapsing on themselves. The ground that the house used to occupy was left in a hollow rectangle that eventually also lifted itself. The mass of wood and stone that used to make the house started rising with the earth and separating. The wood went down and the stone went up like water and oil, a platform was made and hardened from the wood and the stone started taking the shape of good ol' Talos. In a bit more than a minute, the ground was leveled and a statue of Talos depicting him standing on top of a Thalmor instead of a serpent stood proudly at a height of 45 feet, with a stepped platform made of polished brown wood. In the wood lie an engraving: 'To commemorate the victory of man.'

"Am I laying it on too thick, here? Nah. They started it." He pettily responded to himself.

Yuri turned around and left, dispelling the headache-inducing [Accelerated Processing].

'Damnit, still no Shadow skill. Is it impossible with the Light skill? Only one way to find out. Alinor, I hope you're ready for me'

───※ ·❆· ※───

Tullius was in his quarters once again, when he was woken up with a start by two clanging noises.

Two safes were in his room, the doors swinging open.

"What the hell..."

'My gift to you, confidential files recovered from the Embassy. I've already taken my payment from them, obviously'

'Obviously' Tullius replied back. 'The Emperor would like to negotiate a reasonable price for your involvement in the enemy front over tea in the Imperial City'

'He doesn't find you capable of negotiation?'

'He knows how deep my coffers and knows nothing of you. Making so large a deal without meeting the other party wouldn't do for Titus. He's a very straightforward man.'

'And he's not afraid of me?'

'You've proven your sincerity, and he was never afraid of death much. Plus, we're desperate. He wants to get a feel for you, man-to-man.'

'Ha. He would fit in around here. Send him a message ahead. I'll meet him tomorrow under cover of night'

───※ ·❆· ※───

Yuri opened a portal above Winterhold, changed clothes in midair, and arrived in his room. Tonilia was soundly asleep.

'Guess I'll talk to her tomorrow.'

Yuri took off his clothes and got in bed with her, putting his arm underneath her pillow and drawing her close. She wiggled closer to him, then flipped over and buried into his chest.

"Welcome home"

"Hmm, good to be home"

{Next up, some martial arts finds, a non-detailed talk with Tonilia, and plans for striking Alinor. Should Yuri take out a single city with a few mini-bosses and call it a day or strike that and the two embassies that are probably in Valenwood and Elsweyr as well?}