20demayo Chapter 440: Chapter LIX: Carve Thine Name Upon History
Chapter 440: Chapter LIX: Carve Thine Name Upon History
Chapter 440: Chapter LIX: Carve Thine Name Upon History
(General POV)
Dagoth Ulthis felt his eyes and skull throb in dull pain for probably the one hundredth time that day as he caught the slightest hint of the thing being constructed within the chamber.
There were far too many shapes for mortal eyes to comprehend, he concluded with a shiver.
"You alright?" The short Ashlander asks him with arms crossed "That is like the tenth time you hissed like an animal."
Holding back an instinctual retort at the elf's constant prodding, Ulthis slowly turns to look at him "I am trying to make heads or tails of what they are doing, and I am failing, miserably."
Both of them turned to the sole pale elf in their band, drawing the idle gazes of others with them. Only to be completely ignored as the Falmer stood perfectly still, staring at the sole secure approach to their position.
Dagoth Vemris cleared his throat "Sejro Anondor."
The snow elf finally deigned to acknowledge their presence "Yes?"
"Do you have any idea what they are doing in there?" He asks while pointing at the heart chamber behind him "They've shut themselves inside for what feels like a whole day by now."
"It is not my duty to question my lord's coming and goings" The pale elf responds after a moment "But" He adds before the rest can sigh in disappointment "If I were to guess they are preparing a grand act of magic to fulfill the pledge and no doubt extract some form of use from the ordeal as well."
Vemris turned to Ulthis and shrugged, likely guessing that that would be all he would get without more prodding.
Indoril Vayrin however, was far too used to such conversations by now, and so he pressed "So they seek to go beyond merely calming the mountain then?"
The snow elf takes a long breath before finally turning back from the approach "I have no true fact to base this on, but in my experience, my lord has a tendency towards doing ridiculous and unexpected things. Usually to the benefit of all, which is why I do not question him now."
"Well, whatever it is they are doing" Ulthis dares another glance within "It must truly be masterful."
(Reyvin's POV)
"Gods fucking dammit, gramps! I need to draw the power into the center and have it gently absorbed, not incinerate everything inside up to and including the fucking sun!"
Savos pauses his engravings, already bags hung from his eyes as he was forced to keep perfect focus for over thirty hours "We really should take a break."
"And as fun as that sounds" I pause my own very patient chiseling "We also need to not spend three weeks in here. The ritual needs to at least begin today for maximum effect." I summon a potion and toss it at him "Here, this should keep you going for a while."
He grumbles a bit but gets back to work, correcting the slight misalignment and allowing the future circle to properly circulate power "I still think you are taking too big a risk here. You could just do the bare minimum you promise-
"Gramps." I interrupt him "Three Daedra want me worse than dead."
His mouth clicks shut.
"And yes, before you say it" I sigh "I know I was the one to provoke literal forces of nature and it was probably incredibly stupid of me, but those are the facts of my life and I need to deal with them."
He looks at me as I get back to work and chuckles "This, Reyvin, is what you yourself once called a sunk cost fallacy."
I turn to him with a grin "Not if I win."
He stares for a moment before snorting and muttering "The fact I consider it an actual possibility is quite ridiculous." He shakes his head and quickly adds "Not that I want you to lose of course, it is just..."
"Yeah, yeah" I wave him off.
We continued our work in silence for a while longer, creating circles upon circles etched with numerous runes, the lines of such crossed at thousands of points at a complexity easily described as mindboggling.
The very air seemed to shimmer around the countless symbols, unpowered as they were right now.
The vast majority of the runes was arcane in origin, joined equally by Daedric and Aedric workings, even if the latter borrowed much from the works of Magnus himself, a fact I wasted no time in playfully bragging about.
Savos pretended to be jealous, and accepted the silent lesson eagerly.
As I was about to command Akulakhan to start pouring out the liquified heartstone he had been preparing a faint voice echoed throughout the chamber, coming out in a lazy self assured drawl "Your stabilizing circles are lacking."
Both of us frowned as I ever so slowly unbuckled the lantern hanging off my belt and rose it to meet the three embers within. I said nothing and merely stared at the awakened soul.
The embers, or eyes I suppose, flickered before turning slightly brighter "Am I wrong in my assessment, child?" Dagoth Ur asked and I could practically taste his amusement.
With a frown I channeled scrying spell after scrying spell, checking the potential results over and over for a good ten minutes without saying a word and there at the edge just next to the fallen head of Akulakhan the Elder I noticed a potential breach.
One wrong spark of Magicka there and the whole thing would have exploded.
Ever so slowly my head turns back to the lantern "What are you doing?"
The eyes twinkle mockingly "You have captured my very being, child." He states "And I know you could rend my soul to energy and make of me a chamberpot should you have wished. I merely seek to prove myself useful so that my fate is less... disappointing."
"So what, you want to buy your freedom?" I raise an eyebrow, obviously about to reject him out of hand.
"Of course not, I am not a fool" Dagoth Ur scoffs "Simply do not seek to degrade me or torment me and I will provide what aid I can. As much as I would have preferred to be the one to lead our kin to glory your conviction has proven itself greater than mine, and I yet desire my people's prosperity."
Now how much of that was blatant asskissing? I am having actual trouble detecting the truth of his words which is a rather horrifying thought in and of itself.
"Very well" I say slowly "But all your suggestions will explain the entire process to me, I will take no whimsical modifications nor will I entertained arguments towards such."
Only to feel himself flying as he was slammed into a nearby wall.
Admittedly something that should have taken his attention but what his mind was truly taken by was the appearance of the burned elf, the faintest line separating gold and grey could now clearly be seen under the burns and broken armor.
'Vivec?!' Savos' eyes widened and he immediately injected one of Reyvin's emergency potions into his thigh, a heavily overcharged destruction spell forming in his free hand.
He was completely ignored as he did it as well, as the once god rushed to the Heart Chamber, aiming to do something inside.
Savos openly cackled as he was bowled over by a sudden punch of the now visible automaton, the massive creation glaring down at the false god with hateful purple eyes.
But even now he refused to leave his post.
Even as Vivec attacked him and threw magic at him, the automaton took not a single step forward or backward, staying firmly planted in the place he was commanded to guard and deflecting all attacks without concerning himself with damage.
Vivec grew more frantic, screaming "A curse upon you Azura!" As he stabbed his sword into one of Akulakhan's eyes, getting thrown back and his neck nearly broken by the countering punch and earning a large gash in his chest from the automaton's massive glaive.
Savos grinned as his spell completed and the final third of the Tribunal barely had the time to dodge to the side as a horizontal storm of bluish purple flames passed him by, leaving him one arm and one foot lighter.
With a snarl on his lips, the false prophet stabbed his sword into the dirt and spoke "Heed our pact, Mola-"
His words were cut off by a loud thud as his brain was crushed by a one handed hammer slamming into it from behind, the sound ringing out with an odd finality.
Savos rapidly blinked the stars from his eyes as he looked up at the newcomer, the tall and well built by even human standards elf armored in Dwemer armor and holding a hammer of similar make grinned down at the now very dead Vivec "Finally got the bastard."
Now that he had a moment to truly observe him, Savos could make out numerous scars on his body that itself looked like it had been carved from stone, though the oddest part of it all was the haircut which belonged in the merethic era, a singular narrow line of hair grown tall like a plume.
The newcomer secured the burned form of Massanor atop his shoulder and sheathed his hammer before looking down at Savos "I am not too late, am I?"
Before Savos could answer, both of them tensed as the entire mountain shuddered once more.
-----
Varan Sarano, Archmaster of the Redoran paced impatiently within the chamber given to him by his Dres hosts in Old Ebonheart, all of the house heads save for the Indoril who were yet to elect their own were present in the island city as the grand army of Morrowind assembled.
Future military operations were not the cause of his nervous movements however, but the shuddering mountaintop in the distance. He knew all he could do now was have faith, and the thought of not relying on himself terrified the old warrior.
Rapid knocking drew him from his thoughts and the doors were opened without waiting for his leave, revealing Archmagister Baladas Demnevanni "Sarano, come with me quickly, something is happening."
The Archmaster frowned but still followed his peer and soon all four of them were gathered atop a northern balcony, staring straight at Red Mountin with their guts in their throats.
"I feel it" Demnevanni muttered "The culmination approaches."
No one felt like correcting the archmage so all they did was watch patiently.
And then it happened.
The top of the mountain spewed red energy that was not fire, rapidly consuming the entirety of Vvardenfell before stopping at the edges of the Inner Sea and retreating to the mountaintop, quickly followed by an unnatural slurping noise in the back of everyone's head as before their very eyes all the ash they could see covering the island was dragged back into the mountain, soon followed by the smoke above.
Aneris Dres openly gaped "What the f-"
Once more the mountain shuddered, and once more it belched out power. All of the lords and ladies tensed but what came out was neither destruction nor another wave of consumption but a wave of faint vibrant green.
A wave of green that went beyond the Inner Sea and soon reached their little unassuming balcony.
Varan Sarano had never tasted air so majestically pure in his life, not even in the lands of the Nords that were famous for it.
He could hear the Dres finish her curse, he could hear Demnevanni muttering about 'Absolute impossibilities and ridiculous monsters.'
And he could both hear and see as Sadras Sindrel, the oldest non-Telvanni elf present, knelt on the ground and wept.
The Archmaster understood the implications of what just happened, and the inevitable loss of absolute influence now awaiting his house. He found that he did not mind all that much, it was almost... relieving.
-----
Back within what was once the Heart Chamber of the Heart of Lorkhan the infinitely compressed cleansed ashes now congealed into one point, causing a much smaller shudder of power to pass through the vast cave.
In the next instant a tree sprouted, its bark a flowing grey and its leaves a bright fiery red.
And at the base of this bark was an opening, like a door leading into a small room.
Within was only darkness, and swirling shadow, and silence.
The shadows stilled, and two red eyes aglow with power snapped open, soon followed by a bout of deep ecstatic laughter that echoed throughout the mountain and beyond.
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Deep down, you know you were born for the mines.
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