Face Facts

"Alduin is dead, as you recall. I will not follow his fate, his mistakes." he turns and points his blade at Surtr, "Flee, I leave you one to fly home with your tail between your legs." he dismissively taunts.

"DAMNED BASTARD! GOL HAH DOV!" Surtr shouts but doesn't produce the Thu'um he was attempting. Seeing his failure, he instead just charges Miraak, hoping to take the man's head off and rid himself of this problem before it could become one.

Miraak easily ducks under the swipe while cutting the tendons in Surtr's wrist which forces him to drop the second Wuuthrad. He follows it up with a strong punch to his sternum, knocking the wind out of the Last Dragonborn and sending him sprawling to the ground. "To think you are the last obstacle between me and reclaiming what's mine... To be so weak after all you've been given, the very sight of your disgusts me..." he sighs as if Surtr's existence was just a massive disappointment to him.

Surtr glared at him from the ground, wondering if his actions against the gods had brought this upon him. Had the gods sent Miraak to humble him? To stop him from reducing their shrine and followers to ash?

Miraak shakes his head after a moment of thought, jabbing his sword towards Surtr's remaining dragon, "Begone, return to the realm and prepare it for my arrival. I will not have the beginning of my glorious dynasty stained with such weakness, even among my enemies."

Surtr gets to his feet and begins hobbling over to Zokahjoorgral, abandoning his two Wuuthrads as he throws himself atop the dragon's back. "The gods will not allow either of us to rule, Miraak!"

"The gods can't and won't do anything to stop me. If they try I will add their names to my tally! When I next see you, Youngest, only one of us will leave alive. Prepare yourself! Make peace with your loved ones!"

Surtr trembles in rage as he commands the dragon to fly back to Skyrim, the battle replaying in his mind and only emphasizing just how much stronger Miraak was than him... He'd thought Michael was the only real obstacle after Alduin had been slain, but it seems he was wrong... Hmm... Perhaps...

He nods to himself, a plan to kill two birds with one stone slowly forming within his mind.

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"What do you mean!? Brynjolf has to know something!" Astrid exclaims, standing as she slams her hands onto Michael's desk.

Michael just shrugs, "There's nothing to be said, there's no evidence that Surtr killed Ulfric, and even if he did, what could you possibly do with that information? No Nord would turn against him now, the Empire already hates him, and I sincerely doubt your ability to assassinate him."

...

"What do I do then!? The Dark Brotherhood can't operate in Skyrim anymore, the same could be said for almost every other Province as well!"

"Call your band of assassins something else? Maybe... 'Still like Sithis', 'Void Cloaks', or 'Sithis deez'..." he quirks a smile at the last one.

"Sithis Deez?" she asks, instantly regretting her curiosity.

"Sithis Dezz Nuts!" Derflinger shouts from the corner of the room.

"You little bastard!" Michael throws his hands up, his joke butchered and stolen by a sentient steel dildo.

"Look, is there anything you know that can help us? We're at our limit here..."

He shrugs, "Maybe go the old-fashioned route."

"And what would that be?"

"Become so infamous and grow such a dangerous reputation that no one would think of touching you. That's how the Brotherhood used to work."

"And how would you do that, 'oh wise one'?"

"Kill the Emperor. Or Surtr, but I think the former would be far easier."

...

"We do have a couple contracts for him..." she hums in thought, sure it was incredibly dangerous and rather stupid, but staying in Skyrim was probably even more so. Plus, she had faith in Eleril's skills, the girl having completely embodied the Night Mother's teachings. A true Listener of the Brotherhood.

Michael nods, "Alright that's it from me, you can go away now... Oh, and this still counts as your favour." he shoos her out.

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"So, no one's going to talk about the fact that Illu's now the Grandmaster of the Greybeards?" Saya asks as she watches said girl teach a number of new Tongues the Way of the Voice atop the Throat of the World.

"Nope." Michael states as he walks over to the side of the peak which gave him an incredible amount of room to test his newest spells... He'd been holding off until now simply because he couldn't find a place he didn't mind being destroyed... He had his own Realm of course, but he'd decided to stay away and let the residents get used to the changes. Better that than him storming in and ruining everyone's day, especially since he'd committed genocide on three-quarters of the place beforehand.

"Alright, first test, Mana Shield, hit me with something." he says, conjuring the see-through light-blue spherical shield around him.

"Alright... Don't cry if I hurt you though." she says with a smirk, firing a Frost Spike at him, which strikes the shield and bounces off, causing her to shriek as it lands a couple meters away.

"Okay, maybe lay off the ice spells? Unless you wanna keep up a ward for the rest of testing."

Saya grumbles under her breath, "Whatever, let's see how your shield does against Magicka draining lightning." she says as she fires a weak lightning bolt at him. This too, deflects off of the shield, but also causes it to ripple and flicker.

"Hmm, that definitely did something..." Michael remarks the attack had done double the damage it should've, meaning that his shield would be far less effective against these kinds of attacks. Not too big an issue since he doubted the Daedric Princes fought with such magic.