20demayo Chapter 142: Chapter V: Death Unrelenting
Chapter 142: Chapter V: Death Unrelenting
Chapter 142: Chapter V: Death Unrelenting
As the trio of Masters entered the fort, the stagnant air of Alftand shifted ever so slightly, drawing the attention of the many Falmer skulking in its halls. They had lost an entire scouting party some days prior and were on high alert for any intruders.
And so the moment that the disparate groups of hunched over elves felt fresh air they took their positions, traps were set, arrows poisoned and ambush points filled to the brim with eager warriors ready to defend their homes.
And yet minutes passed without them feeling a thing, even with their sight ruined beyond repair the senses of the Falmer were as sharp as any blade and many a goblinoid elf felt confused at the lack of enemies. That is until an object levitating in the air sent a shiver of dread down every one of their spines, they all felt as one... death had come.
Phineas floated lazily while the twin embers in his eye sockets scanned the ever-growing force waiting for him, his posture was completely relaxed as he summoned an elegant staff and turned to address his entourage.
The three Dunmer houseguards barely held back flinches while their superiors were less shaken by the hovering lich focusing on them, Reyvin was naturally unmoved by the familiar sight and even waved childishly.
"My preparations are finished Master Reyvin" The lich intones in his usual dry monotone "Kindly burn all the bodies that fall behind, I would rather not deal with the mortals whining."
Reyvin shrugs, ignoring the quiet disgusted scoffs of his guardsmen "Of course, Master Gestor. Do enjoy your walk." He quips cheerfully and signals his followers to back off, soon following after them himself.
Phineas took a deep breath, or well he pretended to at least. Even so many years after he sacrificed his fleshy body he still forced some mortal habits onto himself. Master Tolfdir said something about keeping himself grounded and whatnot but five decades later Phineas could hardly remember such a conversation and did it simply out of habit.
The air seemed to tense in anticipation as his right hand moved in a grasping motion, his movements were staggered and unnatural, his body but a marionette controlled on strings of essence by his soul.
A nearby Falmer warrior, a tall and well-muscled specimen of his kind, suddenly had his very life force yanked out of his body, falling over lifelessly. None of his fellows knew what happened and a couple started kicking him awake, grunting in their primitive language.
One moment another light kick was about to land on his back when suddenly the one doing the kicking felt a lack of weight, that lack of weight turned into agony as the downed Falmer ripped off the offending limb as he rose from the ground, his pale skin turning even more deathly pallid as the sharp nails the Falmer usually sported were extended into bony instruments of death.
And then the screaming started.
Like a wave of death, once started it could not be stopped. One after another fell to an animated corpse of their until then brother in arms, soon raising up as mere puppets.
The reanimated creatures tossed aside the usable corpses while cannibalizing those too damaged to reanimate. As they consumed their brethren their strength grew as bony armor covered their lanky forms, their claws emitting a cursed miasma and their scabbed eye sockets bursting apart, unveiling twin ghostly flames that now occupied them.
Soon dozens upon dozens of ghouls stood at attention before the satisfied lich, his skull contorted into the facsimile of a grin as his hands rapidly scribbled down notes as he
muttered to himself about performance and theoretical improvements, completely ignoring the scene of massacre in front of him.
As much as he was curious, Phineas was not stupid enough to give his enemies further time to prepare so moments later he closed the tome and once more swung out his hands, his fingers moving like a conductor leading an orchestra as complex spellwork fell upon his creations.
As his new toys reached further into the old fortification the screaming began once more. The Falmer were slow, idiotic even, Phineas posed, but they were very much sapient of that there was no doubt. So when a wave of their own started ripping them apart, gorging themselves on their brethren it was natural for a wave of panic to spread.
The Falmer started retreating, leading the undead into traps and bringing no small amount of annoyance to Phineas, who was by now consuming white soul gems to keep his reserves topped up. The feedback loop of draining Magicka from lifeforce could only keep him going for a while with the ever-increasing toll his growing army imposed.
Soon his forces started taking casualties, easily replaced of course but when the damned elflings lured them toward still functioning Dwemer automata Phineas was most irritated. Still, he made sure that his puppets did as little damage as possible while disabling the old machines, waste not want not, and all that.
His new necklace was rather handy, and he wouldn't mind preserving some gifts for his new colleague and getting some more of such wonderous artifacts in return.
Dozens soon turned into a hundred, and the hundred into hundreds as his wave of death and flesh rushed over the remaining forces that were failing miserably at killing him. He knew this was not even close to what the Falmer had to offer but flushing out an entire Dwemer fort on his own while the mortals trudged behind was good enough in his books.
(Reyvin's POV)
I burn yet another mound of discarded flesh as we follow behind the lich, the adventurers far behind us facing whatever stragglers were left behind.
"Ugh" Marren twitches in disgust "My Lord, must we truly work with such a creature?"
Nearby Minthara was patting a 'dead inside' looking Marco on the back while looking a bit green herself.
I shrug and move forward "As long as he uses only our enemies to fuel his magic, think of it as simply burning them to death."
"How very pragmatic" I can hear the eye roll in Minthara's voice.
I nod sagely "I am nothing if not wise and pragmatic, you know this."
We continue with our banter, desperately trying to forget the gruesome sights waiting for us, as we follow behind Phineas' wave of destruction. Soon we hear the sounds of battle and
everyone tenses up.
but some of us prefer the wind on our skin instead of the smell of burned elf."
I shiver "Please don't call those things elves so casually."
"Aren't they just poor victims?" she asks 'innocently', referring to the tome I had her read on
them before we descended.
"Yeah," I nod "Victims of Nords and Dwemer."
That shuts her up.
I feel an aura near us and slowly get up, moments later Minthara lets out a shriek as Tolfdir
emerges from the ground with his usual grandfatherly smile.
"Why would you do that?!" She hisses.
Completely unmoved by her tone Tolfdir scratches his beard "Do forgive this old man, I got a
bit lost and decided to follow your auras."
"He wanted to fuck with us" I translate helpfully.
Tolfdir gives me a pointed look "Language young man."
I nod "Excuse me Master Tolfdir, it has been a stressful day."
"I have no doubt of that, Phineas' work can be... overwhelming to observe" He admits easily,
completely ignoring the fuming young woman giving him a death-stare.
We continue chatting for a while, Tolfdir talking about what the rest encountered while we
were on clean-up duty. The old man even summoned all the automata he found on the way, including the ones Phineas saved.
I spent the next ten minutes convincing him to accept some kind of compensation, we settled on a nice ever-warm blanket for his great-great-great-granddaughter. Truly, the old man was like a cooler Dumbledore sometimes.
Soon the adventurers started filtering in, and I got to work on disabling the defenses leading
up to the lift that if memory served led straight to Blackreach.
The first few were rather easy to deal with, shadow-walk behind ballista, remove bolts, profit. Some automata had to be smashed apart as I had no way to disable them easily, much
to my dismay but after some half an hour of minesweeper-esque work I finally reached the
summit of whatever the Falmer tribe was guarding.
And just as I remembered, there stood the elevator... and six massive centurions.
Very functioning, very active massive centurions...
Spooky scary skeletons
Here to take your stones
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