The silence was eerie within the old tombs and ruins of the ayleid, the stone architect long abandoned for reasons yet unknown. The walls were made of marble and covered in dirt and grime, the floor had suffered the same fate due to lack of use.
A lone blue hooded cloaked figure explored the ruins, stopping everso often to check on old green stones that have lost their shine and magic long ago. His name was Magic-Eyes, Arch-battlemage of the Arcane University. His upper body was covered by ebony armor of gold and black with steel pauldrons on his shoulders. In his right hand held a staff of silver and gold, its tip held red and black opal stone that glowed with magic. At his side he held a white and gold Mithril Axe in a leather strap. His gauntlets were made of the same material as well with his fingers covered with chainmail so as to provide protection without limiting dexterity. Around his neck he wore what appeared an silver amulet holding two aqua blue gems together.
He was no ordinary being though, he had a long blue scalie tail moving behind him with his movements as he traveled through the dusty ruins. He enters a rather large room that made his eyes spark with interest, he saw rows of marble blocks with rusty metal that held silvery stones. What really grabbed his interest the most were the floating stones at the end of the room, each of the seven held a glowing rune.
“Discovery of the era..” He said as he reached up to pull back his hood to reveal a lizard-like head, the top had mohawk like finin green and brown, his eyes were gleaming bright purple softly within the darkness. He strides across the room over to the floating runes.
“Kenshutsu Majikku,” Magic-Eyes whispered, causing magic to surround his body and travel up to his eyes. Within his sight, the runes glowed purple, signaling to him that they indeed held magic. With a hand held aloft with finger and index extended, he mumbles out a magic-bonded word. “Terekineshisu.” Slowly, each of the runed stones were coated in blue magic and levitated over to him. He gave them a firm studying and begins to put each piece together, each time he tried, the runes would glow brighter or take on a different color. Eventually finding the correct combination, the stones suddenly floated out of his magic’s grip and started to form a gate.
Suddenly, all of varla stones that standing on their pillars started to react to the runes, slowly connecting a stream of magic and linking up with each other. The cloaked being took a step back in fear as a sudden force of Magicka shot out of the stones to form a portal that started sucking in everything around it. The mage turned to run just as the magicka started affecting him, his body absorbed small portions of it but it wasn’t enough to stop the gravitational pull.
The poor scalie mage is thrown through the portal and into the void, he spun out of control through the vastness of unknown space.
“..What in the name of..” Magic-Eyes never got to finish that sentence as the moment he looked up, he found himself being stared upon by a large group of ponies, except their head and eyes look far to big to be considered normal.
What made them stranger was the fact that they were wearing clothing, although a bit altered to fit their shape. Each pony had varying expression of fear and curiosity.
Despite their strangeness, what caught his eye the most was the purple winged unicorn in the back of the group, her eyes held volumes of wonder, awe, curiosity, and intelligence. In Tamriel, unicorns were a very rare sight to behold, some may consider the beast to possible be the last of its kind considering the lack of reports or history books on the subject. Magic-Eyes however believes the unicorn possesses magic that allows itself to be invisible to naked eye and thus there may be many more out there. Thus, low and behold that Magic-Eyes would see another of its kind even if it is a different coloration than its original counterpart, even if it had wings for that matter.
“Fascinating,” Magic-Eyes commented with awe in his sights. When he spoke, the group of ponies including the Purple winged unicorn, ears perked up when he spoke, there was murmuring among the group as if they sounded unsure of how to respond.
The largest of the archeologists seemed to lift his hoof to his chin in thought as there was a loud bang from a nearby coffin, a muffled voice coming from within the coffin “Hey! I can hear someone out there! A little help? I’m kinda stuck! By the sapphire star it smells like a congalalas arse in here! Oogh… I’m gonna lose my lunch...”
The lavender unicorn was the first to react, running over to the coffin, she opened it up using her own telekinesis. But what she saw made her back away in fear.
Magic-Eyes, seeing this, made him twirl his hands as magicka started to gather around him and into the palm of his black claws.
The draconic undead waved his hands placatingly “Wait! I only hunt monsters! I’ve never hurt sapient beings!” He then thought a moment and corrected himself “Unless if you count my experiments with dragon blood, that ended rather poorly a few times, and I fear I may have accidentally scalded mewlther once or twice! But I always healed him back up, and after the second time I started to pay better attention to containment!” He shuddered “Effluvium is nasty stuff… Can’t say I am too fond of the fact that I generate it now…”
Magic-Eyes narrowed his eyes, not trusting the draconic creature in the coffin, especially due to its appearance. Back in his world after he had became the Arch-Mage, he had continued the ban on the practice of necromancy. “Are you some sort of victim from a necromancer’s experimentation or did you do this to yourself?” the blue scalie asked.
The draconic creature hummed thoughtfully “Well, I never meant to become a Vaal Hazak Elder Dragon, but… The potion was supposed to imbue me with the power of an elder dragon, so that I may better protect the fifth fleet… I suppose that matters little now though…” He then looked to the Purple winged unicorn, who was hyperventilating at the moment “You may want to step away from my coffin while doing that, I tried to melt my way out with effluvium, but the stone seemed to be treated against acid. The fumes will poison you if you are not careful.” He then looked at the fumes and sighed, put off by something “One second, actually.” He then began breathing in, and the greenish brown fumes that were seeping out of the coffin all went down his gullet before he seemed to… heal? His scales grew more glossy, and his flesh seemed tougher, and thicker as well. “Guh… That was not pleasant… But at least the effluvium fumes are gone.”
“What..” She stopped in mid-sentence as she looked between both Argonian and dragon. “Who are you guys?” she asked.
As the swirls of fire, shock, and frost slowly faded from his hands, Magic-Eyes stepped away from the portal.“My name is Athre’us-Ei, or Magic-Eyes if you cannot speak my tongue.” he said.
Sigmund smiled and shrugged “Well, my old name was Sigmund, but… I think getting a new body allows for a new name, yes? Mayhaps I should change it? Hmmmm… no, I’ve engraved my hammer with my name, would be a pain to redo it.” He then looked behind him and pulled out what looked like a giant hammer made of various bones and chiton, as well as claws and fangs from some unknown creature, with a jewel in it’s center that resembled a bloodshot eye.
Before the blue scaled mage could ask another question, there was a sound of shifting stones grinding against each other. Magic-Eyes glanced to his right to see an old stallion holding down a switch with a aqua blue gem, the western wall started to slide down to reveal a skeleton pony wearing old elven armor limping out, it held a elven sword in its mouth. “You fool…” Magic-Eyes commented.
Sigmund frowned “How can bones stay standing without muscle tissue? It makes no sense!” The skeleton pony then took a swing at Sigmund, only for him to instinctively shrink his hammer to a one handed size, and use it to parry the axe swing! “Okay, sense or not, it wants blood! And also how’d I do that!?”
Magic-Eyes extend out his hand as magicka sparked to life in his palm. “Shokku Mahi” he whispered as a thin bolt of lightning flew out from his fingertips, the energy slammed into the skeleton, sending its boney bits all over the place. At the sight of this, all of the archeologist ponies started to scatter to get away from the danger. At this point, more skeletons started pouring in from the wall the first had came out of. “Even in another world, Ayleids always took prisoners.” Magic-Eyes said as he reached down by his side to pull out his Mythril Axe, blue energy sparked along its handle and along the blade’s edge.
Sigmund frowned “Huh, remind me to smack an Ayleid if I see one.” He then looked to the nearest skeleton and leapt at it before it could get to the purple winged unicorn “Leave the cute one alone!”
“You won’t be seeing one.” Magic-Eyes said before blasting another skeleton to pieces. “The ayleids are extinct.”
Sigmund chuckled “Before today, I had never expected to find a cute purple pegasus with a horn...Unicorn with wings?” As he turned to ask her what exactly she was, he saw her crushing a skeleton into dust with a forcefield of some sort. “Jumping Jaggi! The girl’s good in a brawl too? Damn it I wish I was still fresh!”
Magic-Eyes raised his battlestaff and blocked a skeleton pony’s swing, a steel claymore in style although smaller to fit its mouth. Magic-Eyes countered with a swing of his own, the skeleton didn’t fall apart like the others but Magic-Eye’s enchanted axe worked its magic when blue magicka was being pulled out of the skeleton. “Reanimated by magic..” he commented with a scowl.
Only when the skeleton readied to buck Magic-Eyes in the face, Sigmund dropped his hammer and tackled the skelepony to the ground, growling bestially before grabbing its skull and ripping it from the spine before smashing the shoulder joints in with it “No one will EVER hurt my comrades again! Never! AGAIN!”
There was a loud blast as a group of bone-ponies were shattered by the skillful winged unicorn, she was looking around in panic as she kept her senses clear. Magic-Eyes looked over at the draconic zombie with a raised-eyeridge at the comment he made about comrades. Magic-Eyes swung his arm not to use his weapon, but rather to throw a skeleton he had in his magicka grip. It’s remains being shattered to pieces like the rest of its brethren.
As Sigmund finished smashing skeletons, with another skeleton, he looked to the entryway “Hey, is the door supposed to be closing?!” He then noticed that there was no apparent way to open it from the inside and ran with his unfortunate skele-weapon, jamming it in between the door and the floor to slow it as he tried to hold it open “Come on! We gotta go!” he shouted, the other ponies were panicking even more than before. They took their chance and ran through the gap in the doorway. Just as the winged unicorn turned to leave, a skelepony came out of the shadows and swung its weapon down, however Magic-Eyes had teleported in its way and managed to block the attack with his staff, Sigmund didn’t even see him move!
The door seemed to push harder to close with every moment “H-hey guys, I get that this weird stuff you can both do is cool and all, I do! B-but… I’d really like to stop fighting a door!”
Magic-Eyes unleashes a bolt of lightning to send the last skeleton’s remains across the room. The horned pegasus turned to look at scalie mage with slight concern. “Just go!” he demanded. She listens this time and starts to gallop toward the entryway.
Only, as she ran, a sickening crunch to be heard as Sigmund right arm broke and he rolled out of the way of the door right before it crushed him, making sure the purple pegacorn was okay before the pain registered “Gah! Sh-shit… This is gonna be gross…” He walked over to a pile of bones and breathed those same fumes all over them, causing them to become a soupy liquid before evaporating and getting inhaled by him. “Ugh… nasty…” He then looked to his arm as the bones poking out of his flesh seemed to sink back in, before his arm repaired itself. The purple unicorn cringed and appeared to look she was going to throw up.
Magic-Eyes takes a look around, seeing a few dropped or tipped over lanterns. With a raised fist with two fingers extended out, he casts out a spell. “Hikari..” he said, causing a ball of light to form in his hand, he lets it go as it floats above him and within his distance. He makes his way over to where the floating runes had lost their glowing luster. He reaches out to place his hand on one of them. He lets out a gentle groan as he finds out he came in was not accessible at the moment. “We can either find a way out, or wait a while as I try to reactivate the portal.” he says as he takes a look at the runes, only to see they were in yet another different language than the first row he came across. “They’re together but…” he taps his chin in thought. “Kenshutsu Majikku,” He whispers, his eyes once again glowing. “..N-no magic?”
Sigmund shrugged and picked up his hammer as he looked down the hallway that was opposite where the Archaeologists were looking “Logic dictates that this would be the best place to try to leave, especially since there’s only one other way, and it’s full of boney ponys.”
“No matter, as long as they’re weak to shock spells or don’t gain the intelligence to learn resist spells, we should do fine.” Magic-Eyes as as he placed his axe back into its leather holster.
Sigmund sighed “Don’t say stuff like that, you will tempt fate, you NEVER want to do that.” He looks to the purple pegacorn “So what’s yer name, cutie?”
“Unless Sheogorath himself is watching, I doubt my own words would betray me without his chaotic nature.” Magic-Eyes commented as he readied a shock spell in his hands, he slowly makes his way over to the wall that lowered before the skeleton fight.
“Now wait just a minute!” the unicorn demanded. “You don’t go calling others cuties you just met.” she said. “As for what my name is, its Twilight Sparkle. Right now, I’m rather freaked out, I mean you two appearing, him through the portal we’ve been trying to figure out for the past few months, and then there’s you in the coffin when it was empty a moment ago.” Twilight explained.
Sigmund shrugged “Hey, in the New world, we lost people to monsters on a daily basis. It was kinda important we got friendly quick, so we could work together in a fight.” he looked downcast, as if he just remembered something horrible right as he said that “Um… Let’s switch topics, okay?”
She appeared to be concentrating as her horn lighted up, only for it to spark out. “..something is blocking my magic..” Twilight said as she looked over at Magic-Eyes.
Magic-Eye’s scanned the room as his sights picked up every magical item or person in the room, Sigmund’s magical signature was weak in nature, either due to his lack of magic usage or his life force. “I’m detecting an unusual pattern in the room, a possible Damage Magicka enchantment, possibly an extra trap. We’d best try to get out before it drains my magically reserves..” he explained, he started heading toward the exit where skeletons came from.
Sigmund frowned as he looked to us with concern “Does it hurt? If it does, could you tell me where it’s hurting you from? Maybe we can pinpoint the source of the enchantment thing and stop it? Breaking it would work, right? Or… would that make another trap happen? I’m not used to this sort of thing...”
“I think we should follow Magic-Eyes’s advice, he sounds like he knows of the Ayleid Ponys more than I do…” Twilight said as she looked over at where he went, she had a barrage of questions on her mind.
Sigmund walked after them, looking to his legs with irritation as he wobbled after them, seemingly unused to his current form “This is worse than when I drank Boris’s moonshine…” He looked to Twilight with worry, seemingly hyper aware of anything near her that could hurt her, he then looked to Magic-Eyes, equally hyper aware of potential danger, it seemed that he was extremely paranoid about harm coming to either of them.
As the three walked through, there were many chains along the walls, including some remaining skeletons that did not come to life. Something within the scalie mage’s eyes were detected by his spell. “Seems one of the prisoners withheld his or her weapon, yet still enchanted despite years down here..” Magic-eye said.
Sigmund walked over and took it from the skeleton “Might as well take it, right? I mean, It might be worth some cash, I doubt my worlds currency is any good here.”
Magic-eyes walked over and held his hand over it. “Not the best weapon material wise, but its been enchanted with Fire properties.” he explained.
Sigmund then snapped his claws as if he just realized something before he quickly handed the weapon to Twilight “You should have it, sweetie, you need something to fight with if your magic keeps getting sapped, now that I think of it. Don’t want you to die on us, cutie!”
“Hey! I’ve had my fair share of evil.” Twilight in a slightly annoyed voice. With nothing else to discuss, the two continued down the hallways.
Sigmund looked confused “I’m trying to be nice! Was I rude back there?! I’m sorry!”
“And stop calling me cutie!” Twilight said with a huff. Magic-Eyes shook his head at the exchange between the two. There was a moment of silence before Twilight spoke again. “Soo.. Where did you two come from? In all my life and in the many books i’ve read, I’ve never seen your kind before..” She asked.
“As I’ve mentioned before, I’m the Arch-battlemage of the arcane university back in Cyrodil, from time and time again I tend to teach my students on the proper use on magicka.” Magic-Eyes said, Twilight’s ears perked up at this bit of information as she held the enchanted iron long sword in her teeth.
Sigmund sighed “I was the scientist of my Hunting party for the research commissions fifth fleet, before Xeno jiiva killed the others… I kinda got obsessed with toughening up the monster hunters after that, big ton of good it did, my god kicked me outta my world for ‘Awakening to the mystical arts long forbidden to mankind’ Big jerk… How was I supposed to know my mutagenic serum would give me forbidden power? There was ZERO warning, no scripture, nothing!”
“You should of studied a bit further into it or at least did some tests. Alchemy is just as difficult as Magicka if not properly handled.” Magic-Eyes said with a shake of his head at such carelessness.
Sigmund grunted “It’s not like I could test it on a monster, if it worked, we’d have a monster capable of killing us all. I tested it on a blood sample and nothing bad happened, so I injected myself to see if it worked right. I refused to risk my Palico Mewlther on that, I mean, I was dating his sister!” He sighed “I sure will miss Catherine…”
“One test and you assume it would work just fine on yourself?” Magic-eyes asked with a sigh. “For all you know, your ingredients might of been tampered with, possibly a necromancer considering your appearance.” he held venom in his words when he mentioned the word necromancer. Twilight continued to listen with interest.
Sigmund thought a moment “You know, I think I need to take a break… I don’t… I don’t think I can’t keep this going… phew!” He then put his clawed hands on his knees as he bent over slightly, breathing hard… yet as he went down, his body changed, no longer rotten and now a handsome young man with long, shoulder length black hair and a thin nose as he was now in cloaked armor that resembled his draconic form, yet was obviously only armor, and not an actual part of him. He then paused “... Wait, I feel much better!” He looked to Twilight as his pointed ears perked up, his fiery eyes no longer glowing as he frowned “Why are you staring at me like that?” He gasped “Did I do something wrong again?!”
Twilight blinked and would of been furiously scribbling it down if she could teleport a quill, paper, and inkwell.
“Interesting..” Magic-Eyes commented as he stroked his scalie chin.
Sigmund seemed to grow upset, still thinking he upset what he saw as his only friends in this strange situation. He didn’t want them mad at him, he wanted them to be his friends. Damn it, he wished he was better at socializing! “What’d I do? I mean, I just… I just rested a bit… Did I do something wrong?”
“I’ve never seen zombification handled this way, usually its permanent, yet it wore off as if it was a common diseased being cleansed by a cure spell.” Magic-eyes explained.
Sigmund looked hopefully to Magic-Eyes “S-so… I didn’t make you mad?” He then looked to Twilight “You either? I want us to be friends… I don’t want to make you two mad at me…”
“No, merely sparked my curiosity. If I could figure out how it works, I could turn it into a spell that’ll deny the effects of a necromancer’s control over the undead.” Magic-Eyes said, realization soon dawned on him. “...I’m going to need to find an amulet and enchant it, if your zombie dragon form is similar to the undead, a necromancer might try to control you.”
Sigmund shuddered “I don’t like the thought of that… I’d much prefer being my own person.” He then smiled at Twilight as he held out his hand “How about we start fresh? I’m Sigmund Freyton, it is nice to meet you!”
Twilight smiled as she placed her hoof in Sigmund’s hand. “Twilight Sparkle.” she said. “And it’s always good to make new friends.”
Author's Note
This is a collaborative launch with Lord Krahtorra
Also note, cross-overs will limited, I'll be focusing mostly on the story. However if anyone needs him, please PM me and we shall discuss.
Author's Note
This chapter will be told by a different PoV
Peaceful Moment
[Sigmund POV]
We managed to escape the ayleid ruins without further casualties, the many traps they had encountered were avoided thanks to Magic-Eye’s knowledge and experience. Twilight grew more and more curious as to where he came from and if there were more magically gifted creatures like him.
I simply kept my eyes out for anything nasty, one thing my years as a hunter taught me, is that it is when you really let your guard down that things go to shit. I looked to Twilight and smiled in a friendly manner, mostly in an attempt to reassure her I was friendly, as I knew for a fact that looking like a walking corpse probably gave me a bad first impression with the poor girl. I then looked to Magic-Eyes and frowned at this talk of magic “Sooo… I assume magic is a thing wherever you two are from?”
“Very much so. We draw our power from aetherius and spellcraft them into anything we want and need, however those who are inexperienced must be wary as casting a stronger spell above their skill will have a heavy affect on their mind and body.” Magic-Eyes explained.
With Twilight’s magic regenerated, she managed to summon up a inkwell and quill out of thin air, she started writing down as Magic-Eyes explained.
“Is magic uncommon where you are from? Which part of Tamriel are you from?” Magic-Eyes asked.
I raised a brow “The heck is a Tamriel? Some kind of monster? I am from The fifth fleet, studying the ‘new world’ continent.” I shrugged “And I wouldn’t say uncommon, I’d say nonexistant, everything we fought, we killed with our skills, strategy, and strength. Everything we made? Built by hand.” I smiled “Wish I could of showed you those modified mega barrel bombs I made, specially the more effective ones…”
“Tamriel is the continent we’re on, right? Or did the Ayleid portal lead me to an undiscovered island…” Magic-Eyes said as he stroked along the head spines on his head.
“Actually, we’re in Equestria.” Twilight corrected him. “I’ve never heard of Tamriel either nor have I even seen that on any of our charted maps..”
Magic-eyes blinked at that bit of info. “...Hmm, perhaps this is similar to the Oblivion Realms, although I’ve never read of anything about sentient unicorns, or ponies for that matter. Closest to that is the lone unicorn near Harcane Grove…”
“Oblivion Realms?” Twilight said as she tilted her head. Magic-Eyes went into detail of what they were about.
“There have been few who went through the gate and lived to tell the tale, especially the Hero Of Kvatch.” Magic-Eyes explained.
I sighed at the word he stated, still staying vigilant, even with the tears threatening to flow. “Hero huh? Remember when my squad were called heroes… I feel bad for the sorry bastard, being a hero is a terrible thing.”
“Yes, but this Imperial did it regardless, closing the Oblivion Gates and fighting nine-divines know what in there.” Magic-Eyes said.
I nodded “Just hope he gets through it all alright, nothing worse than losing when the stakes are highest.” I then looked to Twilight and smiled sadly “I can tell you have friends who are close, take good care of them, okay? Losing them… it hurts.”
“This guy did it alone though, no outside help other than the shopkeepers. Overall, despite his efforts, Mehrunes Dagon got through. Martin Septim had become the Avatar of Akatosh just to fight him, thus stopping the oblivion crisis.” Magic-Eyes said as he placed a scalie hand onto my shoulder.
“Yeah, danger tends to go wherever in Equestria, me and my friends are always there to stop it, especially ponyville.” Twilight said with a shake of her head. “I guess considering the population, evil tends to focus there first.”
I looked to Magic-Eyes “I… I am almost jealous of this hero, seems he hasn’t been pushed off his pedestal yet.”
“Well, I don’t know where he is now, he left without a hint of where he went, its been years since then.” Magic-Eyes said as he crossed his arms in thought.
I nodded thoughtfully “Could be he doesn’t want to be found. I’ve been on that pillar, the attention when you have lost is… crushing. And from how you spoke of this Septim person, he seemed like a hefty loss.”
“Indeed, he was son of Uriel Septim and last of the dragonborn. As of now, The Elder Council is trying to maintain peace since there is no heir..” Magic-Eyes said with a sigh. “The thieves around the Imperial City have gotten bolder too.”
I frowned “People steal in your home? Huh… welp, there’s at least one good thing we don’t share. You steal in the fifth fleet and ya get thrown out on yer ass, with your armor and weapons confiscated.”I shrugged “For most that’s a guaranteed death.” I then looked to Twilight “It’s not like we don’t supply them readily with their fair share of supplies before each mission.”
Magic-Eyes tapped his chin in thought. “I’m starting to think i’m no longer on Nirn. The magic is in the air feels to calm, plus you speak of things I’ve never heard of..”
“Oh! You’re feeling the magic of harmony.” Twilight piped up with a flutter of her wings.
I frowned “So… if things are harmonious, does that mean monster hunting is not needed here?”
“Well, not all of them embrace the magic of friendship, like the Timberwolves, hydras, wild dragons, bugbears, Chimeras, Cragadiles and many others I haven’t mention…. They don’t present a problem unless provoked or if the natural food chain is interrupted..” Twilight explained from the top of his mind. Magic-Eyes listened intently in interest as most of those creatures other than dragons were never heard of by his lizard ears.
I shrugged “More reason for me to find a new job then. I bet that they could use someone with my talents in the army, I suppose. I mean, a nation as glorious as you have described must have problems with invasions for resources, yeah?” He took out his axe shaped hammer and smiled “I can only imagine how an invader would freak out if they saw me running at him with this bad boy.”
Twilight frowned at that. “We usually try to solve it peacefully, or just use the elements of harmony if we have no choice. Tartarus is also an option.”
“...We’ve got a lot of learning to provide of our worlds.” Magic-Eyes said as he chuckled in amusement.
The group traveled for a while long before finally arriving at the campsite, the archaeologists there perked up when they saw her. “You’re alive!” one of them yelled out. There were groups of tends, tables full of artifacts, glowing silver gems or aqua blue stones, there were an assertion of pots, plates, knives, forks, all of them sharing the Ayleid appearance of silver with small turquoise gems. There were even old swords, axes, shields that shared their ayleid designs.
I whistled as I looked to the cutlery “Whoever had these must’ve been fancy!”
“It once belonged to the Ayleids, or… their pony counterparts based on Twilights been telling us. They were a race of magically skilled beings, although their disappearance is quite a mystery and I’ve yet to find where they went..” Magic-Eyes said as he walked up to one of the weapons. “Alot of those have powerful enchantments, but they were fragile due to their age.” He said, causing one of the pony’s ears to perk up at Magic-Eye’s knowledge.
I smiled as I took this opportunity to wander off towards the lower parts of the mountain, leaving them to it as I carved a path through the snow, shifting back to my Hazak form and letting my Effluvium melt the snow as I came across a strange altar in what looked like a cliffside, I looked at the strange engravings in the stone, them looking… different from the Ayleid stuff, the stone itself looking less worn as well… I looked to the lone pillar and reached out to it, only for it to open and a ring be unveiled from within the pedestal. I reached out and took it, only for me to see what I felt was for certain a flashback of some sort…
Flashback
It was finally ready… I got the ingredients together, concentrated their essence, even made them into a perfectly stable, complete mixture, no explosion or anything! The demondrug and armorskin mixture seemed to be the final ingredient needed to stabilize the mixture of Elder dragon materials and Ancient Potion... I looked to my palico Mewlther “The tonic is ready! Now, to test it!”
Mewlther frowned doubtfully “Boss, I don’t think this is a good idea… Elder dragons are wicked powerful beings… Mew sure we should be making a tonic from their Blood? I mean, what if it’s too potent?”
I smiled “Bah, you worry too much, old friend! Besides, if this works, the hunters will be capable of more than ever before! Imagine, not needing the dragonator to defeat Jhen Mohran! Or being able to survive a tempered Vaal Hazaks effluvium blasts! No one else will suffer, no more families will be broken.”
Mewlther, sighed “Yeah… but… what if it makes you explode or something? I mean, the previous attempts ended pretty… acidic.”
I took a dropper of the elder dragon tonic and braced myself, lest the blood sample explode like the others… What, he had a point! I don’t enjoy being hit in the face with acid any more than anyone else! “No better lab rat then yourself, when it comes to something like this… last thing we need is a super powered rat...”
I dropped the tonic into the blood sample, extracted from my own wrist, and waited, after about a minute the blood began to glow with an odd light, I decided this was a good sign before taking out my syringe and getting the entire bottle into the chamber.
“Boss, please! Reconsider this, I have a really bad feeling!” Mewlther pleaded with me before I laughed
“Progress is all about taking risks, if endangering myself can protect the fifth, make them safer, then that’s all the incentive I need.” I then injected myself with it and promptly began to black out, my last sight being Mewlther holding me and shaking me as he cried as I lapsed into unconsciousness.
???
I was in an old chapel, the floor was crystal, similar to when-
“It resembles when you fought xeno jiiva with your comrades, yes?”
I looked around as I quickly got to my feet “Who’s there?!”
I heard laughter, as if from a parent chuckling at a child’s odd question. “Why, I am thy god, child, the lord of thy realm, progenitor of the dragons that made thy world.”
I looked up and finally saw, no… was allowed to see, the creator of my world, his appearance could be described as that of a humanoid xeno jiiva, but with six arms, each pair holding a weapon class; a hammer, a greatsword,and dual swords. and the same number of wings… one pair demonic, one angelic, and one a strange mix of the two. “What… what do you want with me, I am but a simple scholar of the fifth fleet!”
He smiled sadly, as if he knew some horrible thing that I had no clue of. “I am sorry to say, that... is no longer true.”
I looked at him curiously “I...don’t follow.”
The being frowned and sighed “You are no longer able to assist the fifth, as you no longer reside in their world.”
I paled, stammering as I tried to find the right words to state my shock, then my absolute misery. “I died?”
God shook his head “Nay, child, I was forced to remove thee from thy realm, thou art being transferred as we speak to a realm better suited to thy new level of power, thanks to an...associate of mine. But first, I must change thee.”
I collapsed onto my knees as I looked to my hands, with horror I saw my fingers grow talon like claws as I became enveloped in scales. I shouted as I felt a tearing at my back, my body developing their own singular pair of wings, lastly, my teeth grew sharper, longer, more...bestial. I looked myself over after the pain stopped to see that I had become some sort of halfway mix of elder dragon and wyverian! I looked like a humanized Vaal Hazaak!
Before I could even speak, a man in strange garb appeared before me. He was armored from head to toe, with an uncommonly small sized helm in the design of a human skull with the back of the head warped from an unseen heat into the shape of a crown almost, the metal warped from rust, overuse and the same unseen heat. Below that the was a somewhat standardised full medium Shoulder plate and grieves. His gauntlets and boots were light enough to walk in, thick enough to take several blows and also seemed warped, having seen heavy use with the strange metal plate and chain armor for the torso that was covered by a raggedy dark grey cloak that only went as far as the elbows and bit further down the back, holes riddling it. The ends flayed out like sad, decrepit streamers. It goes up, covering and wrapping around the neck area There was something about it that was similar to a sort of skirt, going below the knees, one side going further and the ends seeming to be almost like a pale fur. Several belts were at the waist, mostly chain and loop hooks.
In his hand was a weapon about the length of a long sword, maybe a bit longer and seemed to be similar to a duel lance because of the spiral like blades, but it was too small to be so, the blade at the pommel was shorter by about a half of the blade or so. The hand guards were circular, as if for a rapier or cutlass and a similar handle guard with the metal shaped similarly to the coiled blades.
Within the cracks, crevices, and empty space of the armor, a dark night sky like aura wafted off of it gently yet menacingly, flecks of small dying cinders and ember jumping off and fading as they float gently away on an unseen wind. The "sword" was the same, the space between the spirals seeming to generate the aura the same way as the armor, that is, like a blazing inferno being contained by an unseen force, as if he was willing it to stay contained.
"Greetings, mortal. I am the huntsman, I have come to repay a debt to thy god.”He turned to the divine being who I still did not know the name of. “So, old friend, thy debt will be repaid in full. Art thou sure you wish this soul displaced? I hath not done this previously, so the end results could be… unpredictable, it may take multiple attempts to find him a suitable dimension.”
He god smiled “Well, then we best start soon then, hmm?”
End flashback
I looked to the iron, coiled ring with the same strange aura, and frowned before I heard the Huntsmans voice again “I am sorry, mortal one, I shall send you to thine own realm shortly. This ring should grant thee greater control over thine Effluvium, consider it as mine apology.” I shrugged and put it on, before I felt my Effluvium harden around me like a set of armor, The strange solid effluvium also making me feel more powerful in a physical sense. I then returned to the camp with my armor shining like amber, the holes in my form filled in with amber. “Hmmm… Suppose this will help me fit in among dragons, could say I have a disease or something.”
There was a new tent when I returned that looked different than the others, it was bigger and a bit dirty from use and had patch work done it to it, I think its made of animal hide of some sort. Twilight was there asking on how Magic-Eyes made it appear.
“Conjuration magic, you bound the magic to the item and can freely summon it at will. Although this time and for some reason there was some sort of force interfering with the process. I’ve never had this problem before..” Magic-Eyes said as he was deep in thought.
I grunted as I reverted to my normal form again. “I think I might have to go soon, got called by the guy who sent me here. Seems I don’t belong here. Heh, well, I hope I meet you two again, when I get sent out of this… I guess you’d call it a world? Realm? Who knows.”
“...You may want to discuss with him about your.. Undead form if that is the case.” Magic-Eye said as he crossed his arms. “I won’t hold you back any further, may Akatosh guide us to meet again, friend.”
I grinned. “Oh, I am definitely raising ‘holy’ hell on that bastard.” There was then a swoosh as a presence of great power could suddenly be felt outside the tent. “Looks like my ride's here, see you later, Starcheeks!”
“...Things just get more stranger by the second… What were those Ayleids thinking when they connected realms..” Magic-eyes said to himself
Twilight blinked in confusion. “It’s Twilight, not Starcheeks..”
I pointed at her markings on her rump “Those beg to differ!”
“That’s my croup..” Twilight said, confusion still plastered on her face.
“I shrugged “My people call that part the ass, and the parts your stars are at, are the cheeks, so… starcheeks!” I then fled the tent before she could piece out what I was saying, running straight into the huntsman.
“Well, it is good to see thou art ready, mortal, shall we be off?” I nodded and in a poof, I was no longer on that icy mountain.
