604 Alduin's End

Alduin, unable to fly and too heavy to be lifted by the tornado roars at the top of his lungs and follows Surtr, using various shouts to bring him to the ground but failing as they all miss, the dragon's vision becoming blurry due to how much blood it'd lost so far.

Meanwhile, Surtr was using a half-baked Unrelenting Force shout to blast himself in various directions so that he wouldn't instantly die when he hit the floor.

His army was running after him but soon gave up due to the many natural disasters still raging, eventually taking refuge at the Whalebone Bridge with Tsun. Almost the entirety of their original numbers had been lost, leaving but a hundred or so people left out of the ten thousand he'd initially brought...

Soon enough Surtr was plummeting quickly to the ground, he was spinning wildly in the air due to the nearby tornados, but he could vaguely make out Alduin's giant form bounding towards his landing spot like an overgrown dog.

Just as he's about to hit the ground he shouts, "FEIM!" turning himself ethereal and immune to harm. He lands like a stone feather, leaving no mark in the ground and no visible injury to himself... He scrambles to get up however as Alduin was still on his tail.

He runs through narrow stone formations, ruins, forests, anything that was prove even the tiniest obstacle to the dragon... Soon enough, he'd run to the peak of a nearby mountain and turned to find Alduin barely managing to carry himself.

Blood spewed from his neck with less intensity than before, the dragon's lifeblood clearly close to fully depleting... "L-Los daar dii dez? Wah sosaal tir med raan? Vodein naal bormah?" (I-Is this my fate? To bleed out like an animal? Abandoned by father?...)

The dragon pulls itself to the next ledge but collapses onto its chest, sucking in oxygen in exhaustion.

"How's that you big scaly monster!? Defeated by an army of ants at the height of your power! All those souls you devoured! All those people you hurt! All for this!" Surtr can't help but taunt, after all, he had the high ground...

"Vervisk pah hi hind, Dovahkiin, hin dez los ol daniik ol dii. Zu'u kuz sulvek mindok aus fen kos lot." (Celebrate all you wish, Dovahkiin, your fate is as doomed as mine. I take solace in knowing your suffering will be great.)

...

Surtr waits for the dragon to elaborate but lets out a growl at the silence, "What do you mean!? With your death my destiny is complete! I'll absorb your soul and become the greatest man that has ever lived!"

Alduin lets out a low, silent chuckle that burns his almost lifeless body, "Laat Dovahkiin, hi fen lahney naalein, dir naalein. Zu'u fen kos orkiin fod tiid los viilut, hi? Hi fen liiv hond, Joglat tey. Vir joor fen mirodah do hi, hun tol led tens do tuuran wah niist dinok." (Last Dragonborn, you will live alone, die alone. I will be reborn when the time is right, you? You will wither away, an undeserving tale. How the mortals will sing of you, the hero that led tens of thousands to their deaths.)

"Explain you damn worm! Speak what you know!" Surtr exclaims as he angrily marches down to the dragon, sure that it served no threat any longer.

"Zu'u fen lingraav nau. Kovir daar 'victory', hi fen bo wah groso nii." (I will watch on. Enjoy this 'victory', you will come to regret it.)

With that, the glow in Alduin's eyes peters out, the dragon's head falling lifelessly to the ground.

Unfortunately for Surtr, the expected absorption of Alduin's soul doesn't occur, instead, the dragon's body crackles and burns, eventually disintegrating and turning into dust that washes away in the wind. Not even a single scale is left behind, leaving him with nothing, not even its soul.

"W-what... T-this can't be! WHERE'S MY POWER!" Surtr erratically exclaims as he pounds the floor where Alduin's body had previously been. "ALL OF THIS FOR NOTHING! AKATOSH! IS THIS MY REWARD!? AKAAATOSH!"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

With Alduin's defeat the many natural disasters afflicting Sovngarde quickly fade away, though, it's only two hours after that Surtr actually returns to the Whalebone Bridge, his expression unlike that of someone who'd just saved the world.

"Surtr, you did it... Alduin's dead! The world is safe!" Kodlak exclaims as he marches over to the Dragonborn.

Surtr brushes past him however, "Enough, there wasn't any point in this! All this effort! The lives lost! And for what!? To fix the problem the gods created!?

"Hold your tongue, Dragonborn. Speak ill of the gods and you'll find the sharp of my axe." Tsun warns with a hard look.

Surtr snarls at him, "DO IT THEN! IF YOU, AND AKATOSH ARE WHAT COUNT AS GODS THEN I'D BE HAPPIER SERVING THE DAEDRA!"

"Pathetic whelp-" Tsun growls as he draws his axe, only to be stopped by a heavy presence overtaking the area.

"YOU HAVE COMPLAINTS, DRAGONBORN!? YOUR DESTINY WAS DECIDED, YET YOU FAILED ON EVERY FRONT! YOU WERE GRANTED THE SOUL OF A DRAGON, YET YOU DARE COMPLAIN!?" Shor's voice caused the region to tremble.

"BEGONE FROM THIS PLACE! DO NOT RETURN UNTIL YOU HAVE EARNED A SEAT AND QUELLED YOUR ARROGANCE!" Shor commands, causing every remaining living person to be sucked up in a portal.

*CHIIING!*

Then unceremoniously dropped off at the top of the Throat of the World.

...

Surtr gets to his feet and glares up at the sky in a manner not dissimilar from Alduin, "YOU HAVE STARTED A DOOMED WAR! I WILL HAVE THE LAST WORD, I SWEAR IT!" he roars, challenging the gods.

As if to respond, stormclouds form overhead, but he clears them with a shout and begins marching down the mountain, two Wuuthrad's on his back, completely ignoring the injured survivors who were struggling to hobble after him.