My Little Dovahkiin: Wrath of the Damned

(Small edit to fix some things)

Chapter 12

4E 202

College of Winterhold, Skyrim.

"…And that's how we got here."

Tythis scribbled down Twilight's words carefully, and bit his lip. Twilight raised an eyebrow and cast him a questioning glance.

"Something wrong, Tythis?" she asked.

"Well," the Archmage replied, "It's not so much wrong, it's more…disturbing."

"What?"

Tythis sighed and stood from his seat. He took forth from his robes a silver amulet, centered with a vibrant sapphire. "You're ruling class." he said simply.

It took a moment for Twilight to process this, and when she did, she casted a cautious glare at the elf. "What's wrong with the princesses, then?'

"Like I said, nothing's wrong…but it sort of disturbs me that you're monarchs are pretty much using you and you're friends. Every time an ancient evil returns, they go immediately to you instead of actually trying to get rid of it themselves."

Tythis walked over to a bookshelf overflowing with manuscripts and scrolls and began plucking some almost at random. "Now," he said as he picked up an aged scroll, "I don't really much blame Princess Luna, as she barely has any influence in the Royal Court, which also disturbs me, but Princess Celestia uses you and your friends whenever a situation presents itself."

Twilight seemed undeterred by the elf's comment, and strengthened her glare. "Princess Celestia does that so-"

"And don't give me that 'Lesson in Friendship' bullshit," he interrupted, "She trusts you with the fate of entire nations, Miss Sparkle. Now, I can commend the fact that their immortal, leaving no room for wars of succession, but I utterly condemn the fact that they rule together."

"How would that be-"

"It's impossible to effectively rule a country with two monarchs. No matter how good it looks at the moment doesn't matter, because sooner or later, the ideologies and ambitions of the two rulers clash. This could lead to bloodshed, and possibly open war.I believe you and your friends already saw the result of that?"

Twilight gulped and averted her gaze to floor. No matter what she said, the Archmage always had retort. This was argument she wasn't going to win.

"Oh, well," said the elf after a moment, "Let's get on with this, shall we? I believe you wanted to know about Oblivion?"

Twilight raised an eyebrow and scowled. "I believe so, Archmage." she replied bitterly.

Either completely oblivious to Twilight's bitterness or choosing not to notice it, Tythis casually walked to an odd rune-strewn table covered in lit candles. Tythis proceeded to extinguish the flame from a number of the candles in what looked like a random order, and in response the table opened up in a gust of dust and soot. Coughing, the elf reached into the space and took out the strangest book twilight had ever seen.

The cover of the book was midnight-black, and an odd red symbol was on the front cover. It was most like two letter 'T's joined together at the head, but the one on the right was slightly bent inward. In the center of the odd shape was a glowing dot, pulsating with every step Tythis took, almost synchronizing with Twilight's heartbeat. Then odd voices began to speak in Twilight's mind, telling her of secrets kept hidden for centuries, of knowledge kept secret from the world, just waiting to be reclaimed. Of offers of knowledge that could be hers if she just-

Then, with a flick of Tythis's hand and a small popping noise, the voices ceased. Twilight became aware of the world around her and cast a curious glance at Tythis, who just smirked in response.

"So the old bastard still works, eh?" the Archmage began. Twilight just raised her eyebrow again.

"You had dilated pupils, my otherworldly acquaintance. That means that old Hermaeus still has some influence on this damn book. I cast an old ward on the room for a moment so we could read in peace."

Tythis handed the book to Twilight, who heaved at the unexpected weight of the tome. When she finally gained control, she made a motion to open it, which Tythis gestured to do so. Opening the front cover, Twilight sensed an odd magical aura settle in the room. It was a strange feeling, much akin to the feeling of weightlessness a Pegasus might feel when freefalling, but more spiritual than physical. Then, in a sudden surprise, the book leapt from the woman's hands and between the two mages, floating freely. The lights in the room then extinguished, leaving only an unsettling purple glow coming from the…book?

Tythis paid no mind to the odd actions of the tome, but instead walked before it and hovered his hand over it. When the mage slid his hand to the right, the pages of the tome until it stopped at a symbol similar to the one at the front.

"This," the Archmage began, "Is the Tomb of Exile, volume thirteen of a fifty-book volume. It contains much of the knowledge accumulated over the ages of history relating mostly to the studies of magic and other studies like it…such as other dimensions."

At this, Twilight's head perked up at the mention of the subject, but when she saw the solemn look on the elf's face, she kept herself from speaking. Undeterred, Tythis continued.

"I…'acquired' this book, along with five others, from Apocrypha, the realm which the good prince resides in. Many of the chapters are warded with a maddening spell laced within the text, but some chapters containing insensitive information are unprotected."

The mage then flipped to a page covered in glyphs and symbols of odd shape and size, prompting Twilight to yet again raise a questioning eyebrow at the Archmage.

"Why not just tell me about Oblivion instead of getting this out?" she questioned.

"Because it wouldn't be as fun."

Tythis flipped the page once more, and the parchment turned a fiery red. The book began emitting a blistering heat into the space around it. Twilight jumped back in shock, but Tythis remained in place. The elf chuckled and snapped his waved his hand yet again, but instead of the page turning, a flash of white erupted in the mage's hand, and the book seemed to cool down. As Twilight inched closer, she noticed that the glyphs on the page turned into normal letters.

"Oblivion", Tythis started, "Is a sort of prison realm that houses the Daedra, sixteen god-like entities whose abilities depend on the power they control. In reality, the Daedra can take on any form, but are usually referred to as 'princes'. They are very...interested in mortal affairs, some to the point of causing international crises."

Before Twilight could respond, the ground beneath her feet began to shake and rumble, throwing her off balance. Looking down, she noticed the grey stone floor darken to the color of scorched wood. Cracks and ruptures appeared all over the floor, revealing bright orange light and unbearable heat.

Twilight looked around, and was met with a horrid sight. The land around her was of a scorched plain of rock, broken by seas of lava. Pieces of what once were buildings covered the expanse, but the land was dominated by a huge black tower off in the distance.

Suddenly, a huge geyser of lava blasted through the earth, launching molten rock everywhere. Twilight screamed and shielded her face as the lava began plummeting to the ground. However, instead of feeling an unbearable burning sensation on her back, she felt almost...cold? Looking up, Twilight saw Tythis lounging in a pool of lava, sipping on a purple bottle. Puzzled, Twilight approached the pool and stared cautiously at the Dunmer mage.

"Come on in," he said jokingly, "The lava's fine."

Confused and a tad bit scared, Twilight slowly placed her foot into the molten rock. The pool of lava was now more like a cold bath than a hazard. Tythis continued for Twilight to settle in, and she sat down. Tythis flashed his hand again and the pool heated up ever so sighed in pleasure, enjoying the spa-like experience.

"This," Tythis gestured to the apocolyptic land around them, "Is a realm of Oblivion known as the 'Deadlands'. This realm is inhabited by the Daedric prince of Change, Ambition, Revolution, Destruction, and Energy. He is usually associated with natural disasters, and is quite the important deity in Morrowind."

"However," he continued, "You may call him Mehrunes Dagon."

At the sounding of the name, a chill ran up Twilight's spine, freezing her in place. Over the sound of the wind, Twilight could hear a ferocious roar in the distance, followed by great rumbles that shook the ground.

Turing around, Tythis cupped his hand around his moth and stood up. "Oh, do shut up, you overgrown bastard!"

Sitting back down, the Dunmer leaned back and continued his lesson.

"Most of the Daedra are quite vile, and cause problems on a daily basis, like Mr. Dagon. However, there are a few Daedra that are not as evil, though the only I have come into contact with is Azura."

"Azura," the mage said, "Is the Daedric Prince of Dusk and Twilight, much like your princesses. Now, don't mistake her for being good, as she will do things that are...unfitting of a true good person. However, she is one of the Daedra that is worshipped, being that she has a unique position and all."

"Now, the other Daedra I have had contact with is the worst of the worst. Molag Bal, the Daedric Prince of Domination, Slavery, Corruption, and Vampirism. However, he is most noticed for being the King of Ra-"

Suddenly, Tythis stopped himself, remembering that he was in the company of a lady. It would very inappropriate to mention that in Twilight's presence.

The mage looked back at Twilight and put on a sheepish smile. "Well, I believe that should be enough learning for now."

With those words, the world around the two began to fade, replaced by a black void. Startled, Twilight jumped from her position and spun around wildly.

"Tythis, what's going-"

But that was far as the woman got as the Archmage too disappeared. Twilight, alone and frightened by her new surroundings, backed away from her current position ever so slightly. Then, it happened.

Twilight felt dizzy all of the sudden, and clutched her head to steady herself. The, she felt her head begin to throb uncontrollably, like an uncontrollable heartbeat. The woman grunted in pain as the throbbing continued. Then, the throbbing became stronger and faster paced. Twilight's eyes widened in shock.

"AHHHHHHHH!"

The next thing the violet-haired woman knew, she was on the ground, being caressed gently by some...thing. Twilight wanted scream, to turn her head and confront the new arrival, but she couldn't. She was paralyzed in both mind and body, unable to control her actions. Then the 'thing' came into the woman's sight.

It was a tentacle.

Twilight seized up as the tentacle brushed through her hair. The appendage moved this way and that over her head, leaving a slimy substance behind. Twilight tried her hardest to struggle out of her captivity, but was unable to mover her body.

"Be still, child. Struggling will only prolong the pain." boomed a voice so loud Twilight flinched at every syllable.

And with that, Twilight found herself back in control of her own body, and spun to face her attacker. The woman was met with a startling sight.

Before her was a writhing mass of black tentacles covered in a dark green slime, creating a lake of appendages before her. Also within her sight, Twilight spotted several piercing grey eyes sprouting from the mass, watching her every move.

Suddenly, the mass of tentacles launched itself at the woman, surrounding her body in green slime. She felt the paralyzing effect take hold once more, and she fell to the ground as the appendages took hold of her legs. However, before the effect fully took over, Twilight did what was the only thing she could do at the time:

She screamed.

Tythis didn't know what went wrong. Out of all the times he did this, the mage could only remember one occurrence when this happened.

'When I first read the book.'

After Dunmer had closed the book, Twilight had frozen upon her meta-physical consciousness' return to her body. Tythis thought it was just a rookie experience, but had been alarmed when the girl had started screaming. This of course attracted the attention of her friends, who had promptly stormed in to see what caused the commotion. Now, Tythis couldn't blame them, but they can be very arrogant when they want to.

As of now, Ms. Dash and Ms. Applejack were nursing their now numb arms and legs (respectively), and were grouching over near the Enchanting Table. Fluttershy had taken to getting Twilight into the Archmage's bed, helped of course by Isen, and was now checking for any physical wounds upon instruction from Tythis. Rarity and Pinkie Pie had taken to reading (or on Pinkie's part, 'trying') to read some of the books the mage had left out.

Said mage already knew what Twilight had experienced. The book had been retrieved from the depths of Apocrypha, realm of Hermaeus Mora, the Deadric Prince of Forbidden Knowledge. Even with the dozen or so enchantments and spells on the book, the Daedric Prince could still use his influence beyond his that said, he could also use that influence to capture and absorb information from the consciousness's of those reading the book.

Tythis had been able to resist the first time around, but it had taken him all of his energy to do so. Twilight was merely a novice in the ways of Tamrielic, or Mundusian*, magic, and had been helpless to the Prince's attack.

Now, she was stuck in a state of limbo until her mind could recuperate form the assault. Tythis had himself to blame for this. He had put an innocent in harms way, and said innocent had paid the price. The Dunmer wasn't going to take anymore chances, which also meant not using the book to help the girls. Now, he needed to think of an alternate way to help them.

And he knew just what to do.

"Now," he stated cautiously, "I am sure you all have some questions..."

"Like hay we do!" cried Applejack from the corner.

After shooting the woman a glare, Rarity turned to face Tythis from her seat. "Yes we do, Tythis. Most specifically, what happened to Twilight."

The Archmage could the restrained anger in her voice, but chose to ignore it. "You see, Twilight had asked me to teach her a bit about some ancient history, mostly over an old realm of existence that has caused the mortal world some trouble. I...decided to have a bit of fun with it, and used that book I previously had out to show her some things."

"However," he continued, "The former owner of the book dropped in during the end of the lesson, and mentally attacked Twilight. There are no physical wounds, but when she wakes up-"

It was at that moment that a piercing scream sliced through the air, interrupting Tythis' sentence. Isen ran from behind the dividing wall separating the main room from the bedroom.

"She's awake."

Wasting no time on ceremony, the four women and one elf rushed into the bedroom. Isen and Fluttershy were in the in the middle of trying to hold down Twilight, who was shaking uncontrollably in the bed. Pushing the two away, Tythis put two fingers by the woman's neck, and did so again on her wrist.

"What's wrong with her?!" cried Rainbow Dash, trying to get a better look at her friend.

"She's having a heart attack."

Before anyone could respond, Tythis' hands began glowing a light blue, and soon lightning came flowing off of his fingertips. Startled, everyone but Isen and Fluttershy jumped away from the mage. The mages actions only seemed to hold the shy woman in place, and gave more cause to squeeze Twilight's hand harder. Isen, catching onto his friend's intentions, pried Fluttershy away from the struggling victim.

With the pink-haired girl gone, the Archmage jumped upon the bed andopened up Twilight's robes to where the top of her chest was bare. Tythis thenbegan rubbing his electrified hands together, producing waves of crackling energy from his fingertips. After doing this several times, he raised his hands above his head and decreased the amount of magicka being put into the spell.

"CLEAR!"

Tythis brought his electrified hands down onto Twilight. As his hands impacted her chest, bolts of lightning danced across the woman's body. Her body erupted into spasms as the magicka-induced lightning tried to restart her light show lasted for only a second, but it didn't had the desire effect. Twilight kept still, no efforts of movement made.

Tythis repeated the process over and over. To the girls, it was a very frightening experience, having their friend shocked over and over again with blue lightning. To Isen, on the other hand, it was both tense yet frustrating. The entire 'shock therapy' technique Tythis had developed was an unorthodox procedure that he had come across during his career at the College.

It helped, sure, but it got bloody annoying when he used it on Isen for the first time.

On the mage's fifth attempt, Twilight was finally revived, but had a very...violent reaction. Upon returning to the land of the living, the first thing Twilight saw was the panic-fueled face of Tythis, and screamed in surprise. Almost comically, Twilight's left leg shot and hit the Archmage's crotch, and her right fist collided with the mage's face. The others, stunned by Twilight's reaction, just stood by quietly.

A sharp crack was heard when the young woman's fist broke Tythis' nose, blood oozing from the wound, and was sent flying from the bed. Unfortunately, instead of landing softly on the carpet, his body was bashed against the cold stone immediately moved to help his friend up, and the elf was hoisted to his feet.

Meanwhile, Twilight spout out a jumble of apologies until Tythis raised his head. "It's...nothing, my dear. Nothing's t-too fatal." he said as he reset his nose with a sickening pop.

"Anyways," the elf continued, as if he had completely forgotten about his injuries, "Now that I know Mora is still in the book, I can't use it to help you."

At this, the expressions of the six women darkened. Seeing this, Tythis began formulating his next move. With the book out of the equation, he now needed an alternative option. Digging through his robe pocket, the mage withdrew from it a purple bottle. Unstopping it, he took a swig of the brew, and sighed in pleasureas his senses slightly dulled.

'What to do, what to...'

Tythis stopped for a moment and snapped his fingers. He spun around and began walking out of the room, stopping only to turn around to face his companions.

"Well, come now, I have an old friend you need to meet."

To say that Isen was excited to meet this 'Augur of Dunlain' would be an overstatement.

The Nord was entirely fed up with having to deal with spirits of any kind. He wasn't prejudiced or anything, but when you have to fight your way through an entire tomb filled with Corrupted Shades that will pop out of nowhere, you can get pretty annoyed by the undead.

Still, Isen donned the new Iron helmet Tythis found lying around in storage and strapped Relentless to his waist. Isen knew what was down in the Midden, specifically Draugr and Frostbite Spiders. Tythis had warned everyone to stay alert while they were down there, and to stay close. The underground catacombs below the College were a vast Labyrinth of hallways and chambers, and it was easy to get lost.

Isen knew that there was trouble down there, but Tythis' gear would make it seem as though the party was embarking to Labyrinthian. The mage now had chainmail and Steel armor set in scaled pieces** beneath his robes, and at his waist were three Elven daggers, each glowing with an enchantment. Steel Plate gauntlets protected his hands, and a crimson bandana covered his face.

"Tythis," Isen said to the Dunmer, "Why in the name of Oblivion do you look like you're about to go into Morrowind?"

The elf pulled down his bandana, revealing a look of annoyance. "Just because I've cleared most of the Midden out does not mean there aren't any dangers. I like to be prepared."

Rolling his eyes, Isenmade his way to Twilight, who was sitting quietly on the entrance hall bench. The poor woman was visibly shaking, no doubt traumatized by Mora's psychological attack. She doing an admirable job of hiding it, but she was nonetheless terrified.

Isen put his hand on her shoulder and put on a reassuring smile. "It's alright, Twilight. Mora can't get to you outside of the book."

"B-but," she began, "I was so afraid. I couldn't do anything, Isen. I couldn't stop him from doing..."

Whenthe woman began to cry, Isen hugged her gently trying to calm the poor girl. "It's not your fault. You couldn't do anything, Twilight, so there's no one to blame but Mora."

A subdued cough from Tythis signaled that the group was ready to go, and Isen left Twilight with words of encouragement before heading to the rear of the group. Next to Fluttershy.

"D-d-do we really have t-to go down there?" she questioned in a bare whisper. The group was now descending into the underground set of caverns and catacombs. Isen and Fluttershy were the only ones who had not yet entered.

"The Augur probably wants to see all of you," Isen replied, "Tythis wants to get this right in one go."

"B-but," Fluttershy stuttered, "It's so dark!"

"Don't worry, Fluttershy. I'll be right with you every step of the way."

And reluctantly, Fluttershy climbed down into the abyss. The Archmage and the rest of the gang were waiting below, a magelight cast above them to light the way. The rest of the group now present, Tythis led the way through the caverns.

The Midden wasn't as sinister as it was made up to be. The walls were large expanses of ice, and the ground was covered in snow. It was only when the group entered the artificial part of the catacombs that trouble began. Bones decorated the ground beneath them, and webs were strung up around them.

Tythis let out an audible gulp and Twilight put her hand on the mages shoulder. "What's wrong?"

"Spiders," the mage replied, "There are Frostbite Spiders here."

"You're afraid of spiders?" asked Rainbow Dash.

When Tythis gave a conforming nod, Dash doubled over with laughter.

Unamused, the mage grabbed Dash by her collar and raised her to her feet. "Spider hatchlings," Tythis began, spreading his arms to the size of a small table, "Are this big, Miss Dash. Pray to the Divines you don't meet a adult female."

That put the girls on edge as they continued through the bone-strewncavern. The group passed unchallenged for some time until they reached a large chasm. The two sides of the large chasm were connected by an earthen bridge, whilst the chasm itself was cloaked in darkness.

It seemed safe enough, but as they began crossing the bridge, a scuffling noise was heard. Tythis stopped dead in his tracks and raised his hand. The party stopped as well, and began searching their surroundings fro any sign of danger.

And suddenly, a huge spider, easily the size of a carriage, descended from the ceiling...accompanied by six other arachnids. The spiders had a brown exoskeleton that covered all eight of its legs and its abdomen. Each creature had a huge pair of fangs that were dripping with venom, ready to sink into the flesh of the eight humans.

While the seven other travelers froze in place, Tythis began hyperventilating, his chest rising and falling with every second. The spiders watched their prey for sometime, waiting for the time to strike. However, the Dunmer mage had other plans.

"Die, you Daedra-cursed spawn!"

In an act of panic, the mage summoned two large Fireballs in his hands and casted them to the smallest arachnids. In a blinding flash, the two spiders were set alight by the magic flames. This prompted the others to act. Isen and Applejack went on the medium-sized creature to the groups rear, Rarity (who just stood and watched),Dash and Twilight attacking the one to their front, and leaving Tythis and Pinkie Pie (who also mostly just stood and watched)to fight the larger attacker.

Isen narrowly dodged the airborne venom of his target, the green liquid covering the nearby wall with poison. Applejack, equipped with only her sword, tried desperately to cut off one of the creature's legs, but the spider dodged every attack. Meanwhile, Twilight used the Flames spell to keep the spider at a distance while Dash attacked it from behind.

Rainbow brought her sword down upon the creature's thorax, emitting a sickening squelch from the dying beast, and it thrashed to and fro in agony. Tythis was now duel-casting both Lightning Bolts and Fireballs, but the spells continuously missed the huge spider. Said spider was now using its web to ascend and descend in the air, dodging all of the mage's attacks.

Isen shield-bashed the creature once more before it fell into the abyss. He gave Applejack a pat on the shoulder and congratulations for her first fight, and turned around to assist his friend. However, Tythis was more than capable of handling the final spider, as proven by the flaming body of the beast.

However, out of the corner of his eye, Isen spotted yet another spider, this one using its web to catapult towards-

"Fluttershy!"

The Nord attempted to put himself between the spider and the pink-haired woman, but the momentum of the arachnid sent both him and Fluttershy off of the bridge. By the time the others were able to respond, the two were already gone.

Isen woke up to the sound of muffled grunts. The Nord strained to get up, but was able to get to his feet nonetheless. Looking around, Isen saw nothing but stone and ice decorating every expanse of his surroundings. The room was lighted by holes in the cave's ceiling, which was something Isen did not expect.

He then spotted the form of Fluttershy, who was trapped beneath the Frostbite over, Isen lifted the corpse of the arachnid off of his friend and helped Fluttershy to her woman quickly rapped the Nord in a bear hug before letting go and surveyed their surroundings.

"Isen," she began in a faint whisper, "W-where are we?"

"Don't know," he replied, "I'm surprised we survived the fall, though."

Indeed, they seemed to be at the bottom of the crevice they had encountered earlier, though how the two survived the fall was a mystery.

Isen took another sweep of the place and turned back to his companion. "Well, we better find a way-"

A slight shuffle of feet stopped the Nord in midsentence, and prompted him to grab Fluttershy by the back of her collar and drag her behind a nearby boulder. Joining her, Isen grabbed his sword and shield from the ground (how in Oblivion did they get down here too?) and readied himself for a confrontation.

If the Dragonborn knew anything about the dark expanse that was the Midden, he knew that it would take hours for one to get this far down inot the caverns. Tyhtis and the others were most probably dealing with more spiders (Tythis can't control his panic reflex), so the only possible conclusion would be that there were...

"Qiilaan Us Dilon!"

Draugr

Peeking out from behind cover, the Nord spotted the undead beasts as they too, in an odd sense of intelligence, surveyed their surroundings. There were about six of them, five being Restless Draugr armed with a variety of axes and swords, and the final one being exactly what Isen did not want to face:

A Draugr Deathlord

Sure, Isen had only heard of them in stories, but he knew a Draugr Deathlord when he saw one. Its leathery skin drooped upon its bones like a cloak, and the dark armor it wore radiated a feeling of dread and despair. In its hands was large battle axe almost as tall as the undead. However, something was off about the cursed corpses, as Isen had seen enough undead to know their attributes.

First off, the six corpses showed an uncanny sense of intelligence, coordinating with the Deathlord and actually speaking between each other. Another oddity was their eyes. Instead of having their normal (yet quite creepy) cyan eyes, they possessed soul-wrenching white eyes. This in itself slightly scared the Nord, who properly slunk down behind his cover.

Apparently, Fluttershy had the same idea, and Isen could plainly see the terror on the woman's face. "W-w-what are those t-t-things?"

"Draugr," Isen replied plainly, "Undead bastards who kill anything they see."

Isen peeked at the patrolling undead before facing the pink-haired girl. "Okay, if we move silently, we should-"

But that was as far as the Nord got when the silence was smashed by a loud sneeze. Fluttershy, said sneeze's owner, covered her mouth almost instantly, but it was already done. Isen could already hear the Draugr lurch over to their position. Cursing violently, Isen withdrew his sword and hopped upon their small piece of cover. The undead had already drawn their weapons, and the Deathlord was ordering his minions to restrict the Nord's movement.

"HEY!"

Instead of going into the throes of battle, the two parties froze when the surprisingly strong voice of Fluttershy reached their ears. To Isen, it was the same voice that he heard whenthey confronted the dragon in The Rift. To the Draugr, it was but just a noise, yet it carried just as much authority as their leader.

"What gives you the right to come down here and act all mean? Answer me!"

"Fluttershy..."

"What?"

What Fluttershy failed to notice was that she had involuntarily walked up to the Deathlord, who was now staring at the woman with a blank expression. Isen id however notice the Draugr's eyes flash a bit, going from its odd white back to cyan. This did not last, however, and what came next came to suddenly for anyone to react.

"Dir Volaan!"

In a flash of blood and steel, the Draugr's axe came down upon Fluttershy, who was frozen with fear and unable to move. The heavy axe sliced through the woman's chest, leaving a long gash that barely missed the neck. Fluttershy screamed in agony as she fell backwards, only to be caught by Isen, who after setting the bleeding woman down rushed to his attackers.

Isen pushed the mounting dread of his friend's wounds to the back of his mind. If anything, the wound looked worse than it really was, but that didn't ease the Nord's mind. Now he had to face six heavily-armored Draugr in combat. He had faced the undead before, but not in this many numbers all at once.

The Draugr made the first move, one armed with an ancient sword and Iron shieldcharging forth, attempting to use its momentum to land a heavy blow. Isen, however, used said momentum against the undead, crouching and bringing up his left arm as the attacker was about to land a blow. The Draugr flipped through the air and landed roughly on the ground, only to be stabbed by the steel blade of Relentless.

Unfortunately, Isen didn't notice anther Draugr come up from behind and cut a gash in Isen's shield arm. Almost instantly, the Nord dropped his shield and grunted in agony, but was able to bring his sword back around to cleave the Draugr's head off. Isen then narrowly missed an arrow heading towards his face only for it to gouge out the eye of yet anther undead.

Taking advantage of the wounded corpse's distraction, the Nord pain-stakingly brought up his left arm and grabbed the back of the Draugr's head, and forced its body upon Relentless. The creature struggled against the steel blade, but slumped in death soon enough.

Almost like a routine, Isen spun both him and the dead undead (does that make sense?) around again, and another arrow was lodged into the Draugr's corpse. Knowing that the archer would most likely continue this routine, the Nord charged forth in the Archer's general direction with the Draugr still on his blade. When he heard the unmistakable sound of the Restless Draugr, Isen kicked the corpse off of Relentless and swung his blade in a downward stroke to catch the archer's bow arm. Said arm was quickly separated form the rest of the body.

Before the Draugr could return an attack, Isen thrust his blade into the undead's midsection and pulled upward. Though the armor stopped Isen from completely gutting it, dust poured from the Draugr's wound. Said undead fell and writhed onto the ground. Ignoring it, Isen now faced the other three Draugr, who quickly charged him.

"FUS RO DAH!"

The undead were sent flying as the powerful Thu'um smashed into them. The Deathlord was able to use its axe as an anchor, but the other two were launched into the cave wall. As they collided with the rock, a sharp snap echoed through the chamber. The two Draugr fell to the ground, their necks broken.

'This is too easy.' Isen mused.

As Isen neared the Deathlord, he prepared to thrust his blade into its exposed shoulder. However, the undead popped up at inhuman speeds, battle axe in hand, and bashed the Nord with the staff. The Deathlord brought its axe down upon the stunned Nord but the attack was parried by a blind swing from Reletnless.

Isen stumbled back to his feet just in time to block another strike from the Draugr. Unfortunately, his sword was stuck in between the upper part of the staff and the axe head. Isen tugged on the blade, but the Deathlord started to rotate the axe towards itself. And, in a sharp clang of steel, the broken pieces of Relentless fell to the ground.

While the Nord was busy staring at the broken blade of his sword, the Deathlord rotated the axe handle to were the spike faced outwards. In an instant, the Draugr's axe spike was in the Nord's midsection.

The world seemed to freeze for a moment. Isen could feel the searing pain in his unarmored gut. He wanted to scream, to cry out in pain and anguish, but no words could leave his mouth. To the wounded Nord, all he could here was white noise. He couldn't hear the lightning bolt as it flash-fried the Deathlord in instants. He couldn't hear the sob-filled cries of Fluttershy has she cried into the Nord's armored chest.

And he couldn't feel his heart stop as his eyes closed.

Unknown, Oblivion

Legion stepped carefully stepped through the ash covered ground of the realm. The Reaver hated having to visit this literal hellhole, but He demanded it. Hopefully Akatir was in a better mood than he was earlier.

Narrowly dodging a falling chunk of an Atlantean palace, Legion went on its merry way through the ash-covered suburbs of Pompeii. WhyAkatir decided to make his realm of Oblivion a huge wasteland covered with relics of disaster was questionable, but the ruler of this realm was powerful enough for Legion to not care.

A slight landslide sent a house form the Winterhold collapse perilously close to the Reaver, but said soul abomination was unfazed by the close encounter. About midway through the scorched building of 19th century London, Legion froze.

"Well, what do we have here?"

Turning around, Legion was greeted with the sight that would send most creatures to their deaths with a simple stare. Before Legion stood a humanoid figure wreathed in shadows. His 'hands' were instead large claws that were as long as sword blades. Were the head would be was replaced with nothing but darkness, but two void-white eyes peeked out from it.

"Hello again, brother." Legion replied in his thousand voices.

The humanoid 'rolled' his eyes and walked passed the crimson-cloaked Reaver. "How many times do I have to tell you I'm not your brother?"

"Please," Legion responded, "You helped create me, you helped teach me, and you protected me. I may not be able to call you my father, but I still see you as a brother."

Akatir simply walked passed Legion, a cloud of fog at his heels, and sat down in an ornate chair. Soon enough a the remnants of a table fell before the shadowy figure. Another chair appeared on the opposite side of the table, and Akatir motioned for Legion to take a seat.

"I trust the operation went well?" Legion asked as it sat down.

"Not as well as I hoped."Akatir said, a tea cup of what looked like human blood appearing in his claw, "The pink-haired one- Fluttershy, if I remember correctly,- is quite powerful. You say she stared down Albtraum?"

"Indeed."

"Hmmm."

Legion laid its palm outward to its friend, who promptly put away his drink. "Do you have the blood?" Legion questioned.

In response, Akatir pulled two vials of crimson liquid and gave them to Legion. The Reaverstuddied the contents of the vials before putting them away in its robes.

"Why does He need the blood anyway? I understand the blood of the Dovahkiin, but the blood of a nobody?" asked the shadowy humanoid.

"Because", Legion replied, "With her blood, He can resist her 'Stare', as they call it."

And with that, Legion left without another word. It didn't walk away, or leave really, but it disappeared into nothingness. Ignoring it, Akatir acquired his cup of blood once more and took a sip. If His plans were to be finished, Akatir would need to start now. Sure, he was missing a few key parts, but he could still accomplish most of the work without the Daedra...

...or the six women.