Part 10 - The Greatest Sin

Chapter 165 - The Breaker

It was late at night. Max was fast asleep so he would be ready for his fight with the Dovah King in the morning. However, something disturbed him and he stirred. In his dream, he closed his eyes to see what was happening. He was being carefully loaded onto some form of stretcher and his hands bound.

Max snapped himself awake to find what he'd seen in his dream was true. Two soldiers were carrying him and four were walking alongside as escorts. He tried to sit up, but his hands were tied.

"What are you doing?" He asked.

"Shut your mouth or I'll cut your tongue out." One of the soldiers snapped in Dovahzul.

He decided not to test the soldier's resolve so stayed silent for the rest of the trip.

The God was taken to the building he recognised as being the prison he'd been put in when he first arrived. He was dumped in a completely isolated room and left tied to the stretcher which was leaned up against a wall. A few minutes later, a highly decorated soldier arrived with a few guards.

"You have committed crimes against the Church of Dei Volente. How do you plead?" The highly decorated soldier said in Dovahzul.

"What crimes have I committed? Not being white? I plead guilty to that, and I'm proud of it."

"You plead guilty. Good. Your punishment is death. The Breaker will have plenty of fun with you."

"The Breaker? My Guide mentioned something about them."

"Silence, criminal scum. Don't make me cut your tongue out; I want to hear you scream." The soldier turned to their guards. "Bring in the Breaker. Give him twenty minutes. If this Sunor scumbag survives that, we'll cut his tongue out, shave his head and make him one of the royal slaves. I'll bet the King will pay a good price for someone with his talents."

Max suddenly realised he had understood what the soldier said, even though they weren't speaking Dovahzul. However, if the Breaker was as horrible as he'd heard, he was unlikely to need to understand anything other than whatever afterlife there was now that Bastria was gone.

"Take those arm bands off him. He won't need them, and I'll bet they'll go for a good price too."

"Don't you dare." Max snapped in Dovahzul.

"Or what? You're all tied up, Sunor."

"I won't be for long if you touch them."

The soldiers laughed, and Max realised he'd been talking their language.

"We'll take 'em off 'is corpse, cap'in." One said with a grin showing rotting teeth.

"He'll squeal less that way." The other replied.

The decorated soldier, the captain, agreed.

"Bring in the Breaker!"

The trio left and there were a few seconds of silence before the door was opened again. Max looked to see who the Breaker was. He wasn't sure whether to groan or laugh. SCP-173 looked in dire need of a clean. Max locked eyes with it as the door was slammed shut. He'd never met this oversized concrete peanut with arms and legs, but had been told the story of his mother's encounter with it.

"Hello Blinky. Long time, no see. How'd you survive this long?"

The statue just stared at him, waiting for his eyes to falter.

"Oh come on. I'm an old friend!"

Still nothing. Max started to feel the need to blink. He clenched his fist and time froze, allowing him to blink without 'Blinky' being able to move. He grinned at it when he'd hit the restart button.

"See? You won't get me."

The twenty minutes passed a couple of minutes slower for Max because of his need to start and stop time to blink. However, the door opened and Blinky was wheeled out again. The three soldiers returned, looking shocked.

"Yo." Max said casually.

"How'd 'e do i', cap'in?" Asked one.

"I have no idea…" The captain replied.

"Let's sell this guy to the Dovah King. Cut his tongue out, shave his head, maybe stab his eyes out too so nobody recognises him. I bet we'd get a good few thousand for him."

"Alright. Tell the smith to start heating the branding iron."

"Err…no thanks." Said Max.

He pulled with all his might, for once envious of his father with his venom strike that would get him out of this in a few seconds. Suddenly, with a ping, the restraints snapped and Max stumbled off the stretcher. Almost immediately he was being pounded with fists and boots. He felt a knee hit him in the groin and he doubled over.

"Why would you do that!?" He groaned.

The captain hauled him to his feet and drew a knife from his belt.

"Cu' 'is balls off, Cap'in." Said the first soldier.

"Get the tongue so he'll quit yapping." Said the other.

"Wha' abou' the eyes?"

"Yeah, try the eyes. Let's hear him squeal."

Max headbutted the captain in the nose, breaking free. He threw a punch at the first soldier and kicking the legs out from under the second. The captain slashed with the knife, catching Max just above the eye. He growled, feeling the searing pain tear across his eyebrow. As blood began to pour from the wound, he threw a punch straight into the captain's chest that sent them hurtling through the door. From there, he began to run. He didn't know where he was going, just that he needed to get out of here. However, as he reached the entrance hall, he found at least a dozen soldiers blocking the way. He looked down at the bracers on his arms, knowing which of the people in the soul stones could help him the most in this situation. As much as he disliked his father for his outdated sentiments and all the years of holding him back, Miles' mega venom strike was exactly what he needed right now. He had godly variations of it, but the pain and half-blindness from blood in his eye made it impossible to concentrate. Max grabbed the black and red soul stone and crushed it in his hand. Black and red wisps flowed from it, forming a human shape. When they stopped, Miles looked round at his surroundings wondering what was happening and where he was.

"Dad, mega strike. Now." Max instructed.

Miles saw the soldiers and charged a mega strike. As the swords came swinging, a blast of orange electricity hurled them all against the wall. Max grabbed him and they sprinted outside and towards the docklands where they might be able to hide in a warehouse. They found one with an open window and leapt through it, diving behind some crates. Miles turned to his son who was clutching his eye.

"Max…you've got a lot of explaining to do."

"Fuck that. Any idea how to fix this?"

"No. Try an ice pack; the school nurses always said they'd work."

"I'm serious."

Max took his hand away and Miles recoiled at the sight.

"Err…I dunno. You need to cover it and stop the bleeding."

"Got any bandages?"

Miles shook his head, then had an idea. He pressed his hand to his chest and morphed the modified 'No Future' suit into a ball in his hand. He put it down and tore a strip of fabric off his t-shirt, handing it to Max.

"Wow, you are useful for something."

The God tied it round his head, covering most of the damage.

"Now you've done that, want to explain?"

"Give me a minute to figure it out and to stop bleeding."

Miles stood up a little and looked to see what was in the warehouse. Everything was in crates just like the ones he and his son were hiding behind. He cracked one open and looked inside.

"If we need food, we know where to come. There's enough in here to feed an army."

"I'd imagine that's the idea. Want your explanation?"

"Sure."

"I woke you up for your venom strike."

"I guessed that, but why were you in a prison with a bunch of guards about to decapitate you? And why does everyone use swords, not guns?"

"They use swords because we're about in the same time period as the Romans, not the twenty-first century. As for why I was in prison: I almost won the Dovah Games to become Dovah King. But being in the Roman times, there's still slavery and a mild touch of racism towards people who aren't white. There can't be a coloured Dovah King, because that would rile up all the slaves and there'd be a rebellion."

"Aren't dovahs the dragons you keep as pets?"

"Not pets; helpers. And the grammatically correct plural of dovah is 'dovahhe'."

"I thought all the dovahhe would be dead?"

"They're immortal. I paid them a visit in their own little pocket of reality and they were in some sort of sleep I couldn't wake them up from."

"OK, so these people worship the dovahs?"

"Dovahhe. And not exactly. I don't think, anyway. They worship the High Elder Gods, including me."

"How helpful. Why'd they put their God in jail then?"

"Because I'm not white, and because they don't know I'm Dei Volente."

"I guess the next thing to do is show them."

"How?"

"Your sword? Where's that?"

"In the Dovah King's palace."

"So we go and steal it and prove you're Dei Volente."

"More people than me can wield it."

"But I'm guessing they command some respect."

"Not if they aren't white."

Miles sighed and sat down on a crate.

"There has to be something we can do."

"Why? So my name can be cleared and you can have a nice nap on a comfy bed without worrying about soldiers coming to murder you?"

"No. I just don't like giving up when someone needs help."

"I. Do not. Need. Your. Help. If there were any left, I'd stick you back in a soul stone right now."

"If you didn't need my help, you wouldn't be missing an eye and you wouldn't have woke me up."

"Do you know how long I've resisted throwing your stone into the void?"

"How long? A decade?"

"Ha! I wish. Three googolplex years."

"That's not a number."

"Three followed by ten to the power of one-hundred zeroes. It's a number."

Max turned away, looking out the open window. Miles watched his son sadly.

"Max…you've had so long to think things over. Why do you still hate me?"

The God narrowed his eyes at his father, but didn't reply. Instead, he stood up slowly and said:

"I know someone who might be willing to help us. He said I could consider him a friend, anyway."

"How sure are you he won't just call the army out?"

"Not very. Anyway, he'll probably be staying at the arena still, so we're likely to get caught going in."

"What can this guy do for us?"

"No idea, but he got to the last round of the Games and only lost to me so he's pretty respected. And you might want to keep your mouth shut; this guy could shout you apart."

Crossovers in this Chapter

- Skyrim