The Jaws of Oblivion

Chapter Ten - Sigillum Sanguis

After Aldric crawled across the bridge, he emerged back into the Corridors of Dark Salvation. He walked over to his left where the door he had previously tried to open was; he put the key he had taken from the Daedra and it fit perfectly. He turned it and the doors sprung up.

Aldric walked up another ramp and encountered a Scamp in the middle of the hallway. On the left and right sides of the hallway were two little niches with three holes. He stepped forward and spikes shot out from the holes, spearing the Daedric monster at six different intervals.Blood splashed everywhere as the Scamp fell to the ground in pieces and the spikes retracted.

The Redguard stood still, watching the spike trap activate and retract back into the wall. He studied this activity for a few minutes, before figuring out he pattern: there was a five second gap between the spikes' activation.

The spikes shot from the wall, nearly touching each other. He readied himself for the leap he'd have to make over the pieces of Daedric meat; if he missed, he could very well trip and be severely injured.

The spikes were in the wall, and he jumped.

Right as Aldric landed on the other side of the trap, the spikes shot out again. He sighed with relief. The exit to the Blood Feast's fourth level was off to his right not far from the trap. He went through.

He was greeted with a Dremora mage standing directly in front of him. Aldric swung with his longsword, but only managed to graze the bastard. The mage replied by blasting him with some kind of Frost spell. He felt relieved by the cooling powers of the spell due to the fire column in the center of the room, but he realized he was getting the equivalent of a brain freeze and it hurt.

Despite this, he jammed his blade into the mage's foot, pinning it to the floor. It shrieked a demonic yell and Aldric pushed it onto the floor, breaking its leg because its leg couldn't help to break the fall.

Aldric put his palm only two inches away from the Daedric mage's face and unleashed with a fireball spell. He did this three times, leaving the Dremora's face smelling horrid due to incinerated flesh.

The farmer walked around the length of the fourth level, but couldn't find a way to the Sigillum Sanguis. Frustrated, he examined more closely. On his second trip around, he found a circular pad on one end of the room. Curious, he stood on it and put all his weight onto the pad. He was surprised by the flash of light that he had been engulfed in.

Aldric was now on the very top level, evidenced by the domed ceiling overhead and a door flanking each side of the column.

Those must lead to the Sigillum Sangius, he thought.

Without any enemies in sight, but with his senses on alert, he cautiously crept to one of the doors, with shield halfway up and sword in hand. Sure enough, the door said "To Sigillum Sanguis," and he pushed through.

The room he emerged in was somewhat different then the previous ones. It was light-colored and in the center of the room he heard some sort of high-pitched whine. According to that fellow Geneld, the Sigil Stone was in this room and the Stone would make the Oblivion gate collapse.

He crept through the corridor he was in to an arch in the wall nearest to him. He cursed as he saw two Dremora mages and one Dremora warrior patrolling the room. The Sigil Stone was spinning around inside of a fiery vortex in the middle of the room, up a set of stairs made out of giant tooth-like beams.

Aldric did the only thing that made sense: he ran.

He ran in an all-out sprint up the stairs, immediately gaining the attention of the Dremora in the room. He didn't stop running, even when the Daedric warrior went to take a slash out of him.

Aldric, panting and out of breath, reached out for the Sigil Stone. The whole room seemed to be light up with fire...in fact, fire covered the entire room! But yet he wasn't harmed. He felt a gigantic rumble, as though an earthquake were occuring. The Dremora warrior and mages seemed to vaporize right before him. And then there was a blinding flash of light, then blackness.