Chapter XXXIV: Molag Gets Flipped (off)
(General POV)
The sound of harsh chanting penetrates the thick walls of the haunted house, creating a deep resonating echo throughout the old building so ominous it would scare even the most hardened of adventurers.
An old man, though his glowing amber eyes would swiftly inform anyone that he was anything but, sat atop an ornate chair and stared at the doorway in front of him. An orichalcum blade sat at the table in front of him and a crossbow of the same metal rested within his hands.
"Any progress?" The vampiric elder asked softly, yet his voice carried further than one might think possible, the intense urge that led him here in the first place still scratching harshly against his mind with the demand for urgency.
A fledgling vampire who was sitting nearby leaves the room and returns only a short minute later "Nothing yet master, the wards set up by the Boethian are potent and powered directly by his patron."
The elder frowns, ignoring the growing feeling of fury the Lord of Domination wished to impose upon him "It is as I have feared then, we will most likely have to sacrifice the Boethian the Dunmer no doubt went to fetch if we wish to possess the mace."
"Should we stop the ritual then?" The fledgling asks fearfully.
"No." The elder shakes his head, a conspiratorial glint in his eyes "Keep them chanting, even louder when the fighting starts. A rushing prey makes mistakes and I have already left many gifts on its path to us."
"Indeed my master." The lesser vampire bows "Making the arrogant mage kill himself by opening the door will be a most pleasing irony."
"Quite." The elder almost purrs in satisfaction at the sycophantic praise "The fool will be half dead by the time he reaches us for no morta-" He suddenly stops talking and mouths an "Oh." before hurling himself to the side and leaving the confused fledgling to stare at him... for all of about two seconds.
"-RO DAH!!!"
The ground shakes as the vampires feel, more than see the entire trap filled room before them gets flattened and the doorway before them, including much of the wall connected to it, is ripped apart, the hundreds of poisonous bolts placed in the numerous traps meant to harry their attackers flying everywhere and threatening to impale any who was foolish enough to still be standing.
The fledgling had bigger things to worry about however, as the stream of invisible force which rent half the house to tiny bits reached him and turned him into so much chunky paste, painting him on the now crumbling wall behind him.
'Is the elf mad?! We are inside of a bloody city!' The elder vampire stared disbelievingly at the cloud of dust slowly swirling into the shape of a tall elf clad in armor that would easily belong in a vampire coven if only a couple more spikes were added.
The elf's burning eyes immediately zeroed in onto the elder vampire and a sword that felt as terrifying as the sun to the old vampire appeared in his hand.
Gritting his teeth at the sudden fury of his patron intruding into his mind the vampire centered himself, immediately sacrificing a massive amount of his stored up lifeforce to strengthen his body. He grasped his old blade and prepared himself for a fight to the death for he knew that neither his patron nor his enemy would have mercy if he were to fail.
(Reyvin's POV)
As I step through the cloud of dust that was once the house I mentally prepare myself for the usual arrogant speech the vampires usually attempt to give me but instead I am faced with an elder glaring at me with determination.
Was he forced to come here by Molag?
Before I can spend any longer pondering the situation I am forced to sidestep a sudden and ridiculously fast thrust by the vampire, his explosive movements putting him squarely into the elder vampire position.
Naturally, I did not just leave him to do as he wished and in the next instant I was surrounded by the usual cavalcade of magical energies that usually followed me into battle that swiftly forced my opponent into a far more cautious approach to our battle.
I had hoped that would be it as the constant chanting coming from below triggered my paranoia even if I knew they would fail in their attempts no matter how hard they prayed but the old fart was so skilled and moved so fast I was even forced to block some of his blows with my armor instead of outright dodging them.
The precision with which he targeted my vital areas was outright unnerving.
I tried simply blasting him with a massive ball of sunlight but by the time the spell had reached him he had managed to surround himself in a cocoon of blood and immediately retaliated with a crossbow shot. I barely even managed to see his hands twitch as he pulled out the damn thing!
I managed to duck just in time to feel it ping against one of the spikes on my crown and the force of it made my head jerk back a bit, an opportunity the vampire used to once again thrust for my throat.
Which is exactly what I was waiting for.
An immense burst of Magicka sends a ripple all around me, raising the recently fallen dust and once more creating something akin to a smokescreen, as the dragonskin spell clicked into action just in time for me to grab the vampire's sword arm and kick him at the same time, ripping the entire thing off in one swift motion.
Before I could go in for the kill, the elder was already halfway across the room and running toward the tunnels, a swirling purple spell circle lit up in his remaining hand as the floor burst with sudden force and numerous gargoyles which looked as if they were buried there for centuries burst out, all of them glaring at me hungrily.
With a jerk of my hand I summoned my shades from the outside to even out the battlefield, my sight already telling me that the two remaining vampires were moments away from getting cut down by the approaching Evermor knighthood.
The stone golem-like creatures surrounding me did not simply gawk at me while I did so however as I was soon dancing around a storm of claws and teeth and cutting them down one by one.
Though they were surprisingly resilient even against my sword, their stone bodies forced me to strike perfectly or risk having my blow reflected, which was about to get worrisome as I saw the lesser vampires and thralls who had long since stopped chanting slowly preparing an offensive while the elder drained some of the less fortunate thralls to death in an attempt to regenerate his arm.
As I was forced to dodge yet another swing by a massive gargoyle specimen I summoned up the Ebony Blade and slid it into the creature's eye socket, only for something surprising to occur. Whatever spell was holding the damn thing together was unraveled in an instant and the golem crumbled into pieces of precious metals.
All of the gargoyles stopped their assault, their primitive minds seemingly detecting what was happening but it was already late for them as I threw the dagger into the air and started telekinetically guiding it throughout the room at ridiculous speeds, dismantling the gargoyles just as the other cultists of Bal made their move.
The group of vampires were all completely stunned by the sight that awaited them, as the last of the gargoyles was smashed into pieces below my feet, they hesitated only for a moment, some of them looking like they were ready to flee as they preferred actually living through their immortality.
Another pulse of Daedric power killed any chance of that happening as they all suddenly turned just a tad more feral and began their attack.
However, some of them slowed down as they saw me unsummon my shades and just stand there without reacting in any way. You could even say I was just standing there... menacingly.
A majority of them did not waste their time with gawking and just kept running at me with a variety of weapons in their hands, and just as the first was about to reach me a bolt of sunlight smashed into him, not outright killing him but still sending him reeling backward as the whole contingent of the Knights of Evermor suddenly charged through the openings in the wall behind me, the priest of Boethiah following suit with his gnarly mace in hand swiftly followed by Calcelmo and the other prisoner.
Interestingly enough, Serana chose to remain unseen for now.
Without batting an eye I barked out "Reynauld, Calcelmo deal with the vampires here, Logrolf with me!" And charged at the mass of thralls and vampires, Scorch appearing just in front of me and scaring any bloodsucker away that still held even the bearest sense of self preservation.
They tried stopping me and the Boethian but the knights knew their craft well and soon our enemies were getting cut down one by one, but I had no time to enjoy their demise as giving the crafty fucker any time to prepare was not a good idea.
As we descended the tunnels I was once again graced with the disgusting voice of Molag Bal "Arrogant mortal, you return to me once again."
"Can't leave a job half finished, now can I?" I quip but do not slow down.
"Why do you persist?" The more tempting form of Bal's voice rumbles out "Slay the servant of Boethiah in my name and you shall have power."
The old Boethian actually slows down a bit and glances at my back with an obviously paranoid look in his eyes.
A vicious smirk spreads on my face "You know I may have been tempted originally, its just that..."
"Just that what?" The Daedra asks impatiently as we round another corner of the tunnel network.
I giggle childishly "It is just that listening to you beg is far more appealing."
A loud snarl rattles the entire tunnel network, sending Logrolf stumbling and merely rustling my robes "I DO NOT BEG, WORM! I COMMAND!"
"Cope harder n'wah" Scorch chirps from atop my shoulder. This does cause me to stumble slightly.
With a resounding crash, I demolish the ancient stone doorway guarding the shrine of Molag Bal and come face to face with the elder vampire, a good eight completely drained corpses drained all around him, and his expression far more feral than before.
"Am I so scary that you must get drunk to face me?" I ask the vampire arrogantly, my voice dripping with mockery and causing him to twitch with irritation.
"Worm" Molag voices coldly "Break them for me."
"Your will be done, my lord." The elder speaks up for the first time since I've seen him and immediately launches himself at Logrolf...
Without hesitation, I shout "TIID!" and blast him with my most potent version of solar fire as he flies next to me in slow motion, Scorch does much of the same and even detonates as the vampire is closest to us but even with time slowed we still had only a split second to cast our magic and whatever blood cocoon spell he used earlier was currently overcharged by the feast of blood he had consumed.
The entire left side of the vampire elder was singed off within a singular instant but he still managed to reach Logrolf who was barely stuck in a halfway overhead swing with his mace.
It took the vampire all but the blink of an eye as he ripped out the old Nord priest's heart and tossed it toward Molag's shrine with such force I only managed to slow it down with my telekinesis.
A sudden explosion of power forced me into casting as many wards as I could as a tiny part of Molag Bal's power entered Nirn and recharged his mace, and before I could intervene the elder had already jumped across the room and grabbed the now glowing green mace.
"Now mortal, you will know PAIN!" Molag declares cruelly, his voice openly showing his giddiness for all to hear "Worm." He addresses the vampire who simply bows in response "I want him alive."
Instead of being worried by the situation I unsummon my crown, much to the confusion of both the Daedra and the vampire, and look toward a certain direction, once more directing a challenging look at a certain someone.
The elder rears back the Mace of Molag Bal, and once more launches himself at me with unnatural speed.
Only for another, far faster blur to smash into him.
A moment later another heart was removed from its body, but this time it was Serana standing atop the surprised vampire, his heart turning to ash in her hands.
A beat of silence passes before a shriek of such immense rage I'd have thought Molag was genuinely hurt by the apparent betrayal if I didn't know what he was, resounds throughout probably the entire city of Markarth.
"Well, well, well." I let out a light chuckle and offer a polite bow to the hyperventilating Daughter of Coldharbour "Looks like someone found their guts."
"YOU FILTHY LITTLE TRAITOR!!!"
Well, he doesn't seem happy.
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I desire nom
I eat only ston
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