Anti-Mage shrugs off his magical binding and flips away, standing against Shadow Shaman and Riki who were ready to protect Michael. The Monk sends a commanding glare at Wei who was still watching with conflicted feelings, "Do not fail me, Apprentice! Do what I have trained you to do! What those techniques were created for!" he exclaims.
"Or, listen to reason and talk this out, like regular, smart people. Up and killing each other helps no one, I for one don't want to see my student lose a head of height!" Rhasta states.
"If he fell to such an easily seen attack, maybe he deserved it?" Riki hums as his tail swing in the air behind him, occasionally jabbing Michael in the back, the new Daedric Prince shrugging his shoulders and still not moving.
"Michael, you told me you weren't the Dead God before, was that a lie?"
"I wasn't lying then, and I'm not lying now. I'm not the Dead God, just his inheritor." he explains, "The Dead God is the one inside the book that holds your souls, he tried to turn me into a copy of him, removing my emotions and gifting me powers of death, but I convinced him to spare me from it, for now at least."
"So, you'll become the Dead God one day?" she questions.
"Not if I can help it... If it does happen then it'll be so far in the future that it won't matter anymore. Trillions of years, probably?" he says, not really sure if it'll happen at all.
"Your lies are as clear as the day!" Anti-Mage growls.
...
"I'll trust you, Michael..." Wei says with slumped shoulders.
"No, you will not! Damn unfaithful traitor!" Anti-Mage shouts as he Blinks forwards, first in front of Riki but feinting an attack to Blink behind Rhasta, he swings his blades but they're deflected when one of the Shaman's Spirit Snakes appears in the attack's path, blocking it as it tries to tear the monk's head off.
Anti-Mage Blinks once more, but finds a Smoke Bomb detonating directly in his face, blinding him temporarily and rendering him unable to Blink due to the Anti-Magic components of the explosive.
Riki Blinkstrikes behind the Monk but receives a kick to the face, knocking the Tiefling on his back and forcing him to roll away as Glaive-daggers pierce the ground he once was.
"You are fast, but even the quickest rat gets eaten!" Anti-Mage exclaims and manifests his Counterspell shield, turning Rhasta's Shackles against him, forcing him out of the fight for the time being.
"If I'm a rat then you're a swine! I wonder if there's in gold in your death, or undeath? Should I refer to you as undead instead?" Riki taunts, causing the Monk to begin rapidly attacking, quick and accurate attacks that cut the air and leave shimmering blue trails from his Mana Break spell.
Riki dodges the last attack of a combo and jumps up, using Tricks of the Trade to vanish. Anti-Mage blocks one invisible attack but receives another across his shoulder, causing him to stumble forwards. He Blinks out of the spells' area of effect, stopping the Tiefling from doing any more damage.
"Michael, you have to stop them!" Wei turns desperate eyes toward him, not wanting her Master to die in this scuffle.
He nods, "Alright! That's enough!" he announces, instantly freezing both men's feet to the floor with a silent spell, stopping them from fighting any longer.
"I will never cease my attempts to rid the world of evil! You may have fooled my stupid apprentice, but I am not so weak-minded!"
"How do you know I'm evil? Because I have the same power as a megalomaniacal nihilist necromancer? Because I possess an artifact that holds the Dead God's soul like it does your own? Or because you simply can't accept that things are not so black and white?"
"Evil is evil, no matter how you phrase it!"
"I agree, but killing a man innocent of crimes he did not commit sounds pretty evil to me. Does that make you evil?"
...
"It matters not! If killing you here today saves even one person, it will be well worth it!"
Michael folds his arms, "What if killing me equals the deaths of tens of thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands?"
"... What do you mean?"
"I'm not the Dead God, in case you haven't noticed. In this world I have a lot of people relying on me, my Spire protects this world from evil gods. Not to mention my new status as a Daedric Lord, even if you could kill me, all that would do is empower the other gods who'd devour my realm and power."
...
Anti-Mage falls silent, too prideful to agree but logical enough to see the flaws in his methods. He was distrustful of Michael's words but wasn't willing to risk the potential consequences if he was being truthful.
"Thank you..." Wei quietly says as she walks to her Master's side, grimacing slightly at the man's complete dismissal of her.
Michael shrugs, "It's fine, not everyone is going to accept things so easily. There's Spirits I'll not summon due to how violent and dangerous they are... Speaking of which, I should get started on bringing the others here..."
The next person summoned is Lina, who is already familiar enough with Skyrim not to cause a big issue, indeed, she was happy enough to permanently have a place in this land. No longer having a timer tick down within her mind. She easily makes the acquaintance of Wei, the two women chatting about their respective lands that are now just pages in history.
Michael does try to summon Auorth, the Winter Wyvern, but it had become increasingly obvious to him that she'd sacrificed her soul to grant him power that proved meaningless in the end, as he couldn't actually die... He shakes his head, deciding to have some statues and shrines created in Winterhold and his realm in her honour.
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