Part 10 - The Greatest Sin

Chapter 174 - The Greatest Sin

Max was in a lot better shape when Miles got back, but the stop was short. Paarthurnax departed shortly after landing now with three passengers.

"What did you find?" Asked Gwen.

"We're going to Dovah Island. The Sword Perilous was broken up when Dea Judicium took the throne by killing Radnar. So imma stick this knife and that Sword through her in his memory."

"You kill someone? Wow." Max replied with a laugh.

"OK, baby Max." Miles mocked.

"Mum said you were bringing a rattle. Why didn't you get one? I thought you'd love to rub all this in my face."

"I had stuff on my mind."

"Clearly, since you want to kill someone over a guy you barely knew."

"He was my friend, and he gave me this knife. He said a Fanor giving a friend their weapon was a mark of trust, and he said he wanted this back. I never got it back to him, so I'll stick it through his killer's chest instead."

"Wow, you really have changed."

"Guys, we're missing the biggest question." Gwen interrupted.

"What?" Asked Max.

"Once we have the Sword, what do we do with it?"

"Kill Dea Judicium." Replied Miles.

"But after that. We have the strongest weapon ever created and…"

"Not true. Its only special ability is killing HEGs. Furore Mortale can do everything except that." Corrected Max.

"Sure, but you get my point. What do we do after?"

"It's pretty obvious, isn't it. We kill all the High Elder Gods." Said Max.

"That includes you, remember?" Said Miles.

Max just shrugged; Gwen and Miles exchanged a look.

"Dei Volente los vahzah. Dei Volente is correct. The High Elder Gods remain the only great threat to your fellow joorre." Said Paarthurnax.

"You want us to kill Max?" Asked Gwen.

"Ni. Perhaps we are not supposed to kill any of the High Elder Gods. Perhaps we should not reassemble the Sword Perilous. Who are we to determine who is to die and who is to live? Does this world not have to die to make way for the next?"

"We can figure it all out later." Said Max.

"Yeah. I'll kill Dea Judicium, but not you Max." Miles replied.

"I said we'll figure it out." The God growled.

The rest of the flight went by in near silence. Eventually, Paarthurnax landed heavily outside a gleaming white temple that neither Max or Miles remembered seeing. It was likely built after the fire, but that didn't matter. What mattered was finding the crypt and ultimately the piece of the Sword Perilous. The trio entered the temple, leaving Paarthurnax on the front steps watching people pass by. A priest approached them, eyeing Max's sword and Miles' knife warily.

"Good afternoon, sirs and madam. Please note it is not allowed to bear arms of any kind inside the Temple."

"Says who?" Asked Max.

The priest seemed a little confused.

"The Church of the High Elder Gods, of course."

"And the Church worships Dei Volente?"

"Yes."

"Then tell the Church that Dei Volente says it's fine to carry a sword in a temple, and if they've got a problem with it they can stick it up their…"

"Max, we're not here to make a scene." Gwen intervened.

"Whatever."

"I must ask you to leave your weapons at the entrance, or to leave." The priest replied.

Max fired a web over the priest's mouth, causing them to panic.

"Where's the crypt, Dad?"

"The blueprints say the entrance is in the throne of that statue." Miles replied.

"Cool."

"It also says we need a key to open it."

"What sort?"

"Blood."

"Blood? How about this priest? He seems like dead meat to me."

"I'm guessing it's something specific." Said Gwen.

"I know; I'm kidding."

The trio made their way over to the base of an enormous statue of a person sitting on a throne. Max grabbed Miles' knife before the spider could react and cut his palm. A few drops of blood dribbled from it and he dabbed them on random places that seemed likely to be the key. Eventually, there was a boom followed by a grating noise as a small doorway opened up between the legs of the statue. Max handed the knife back.

"Open sesame."

"How'd you figure that out?" Miles asked, putting the knife back in its slot.

"Look on the roof: 'when the blood of Gods is spilled, the way will be opened'."

"That's a language?" Gwen commented, looking at the various lines and dots on the roof.

"Sure. It's written Dovahzul."

"Oh. OK. Let's do some grave robbing."

"There better not be a boulder waiting to roll over us." Said Miles.

"This isn't Indiana Jones." Said Max, ducking inside and descending a steep spiral staircase.

The spiders followed him.

The crypt was very dark. Max drew Furore Mortale and its blade lit up, illuminating the family's surroundings. They were in a corridor that seemed to branch off in multiple directions.

"Is this a maze?" Asked Miles.

"I hope not. If it is we might never get out again." Max replied.

"So comforting."

"Maze or no maze, we need that piece of the Sword. Let's go." Replied Gwen.

She started following the corridor, following her spider sense. The smell was revolting as they pushed deeper, and eventually they found the reason: along every wall, in small indents, were dead bodies that had obviously been there for hundreds of years at least. Gwen's spider sense went off, and Miles' did the same a second later just as the lid crashed off a coffin inside a much larger indent. From it rose a dead body gripping a sword in one hand and a shield in the other.

"Looks like the Church missed a step when burying their dead Dragonborns." Max commented.

"What do you mean? It's just…a zombie." Said Miles.

"It's a Draugr, and it doesn't want your brains. It wants you to leave its tomb."

"Does this mean we're on the right track?"

"Could do. But we've got a more immediate problem."

"Wha…"

"Fus...Ro! Dah!"

A blue shockwave rattled out from the Draugr, hurling Miles and Gwen away. They landed in a heap.

"Ow! You just elbowed me in the nuts!"

"Sorry."

"Stop feeling each other up and kick this guy before I have to do it." Said Max.

Miles and Gwen blushed, scrambling to their feet as the Draugr swung its sword at Max. Gwen took a running jump, planting her foot in its face as the two blades struck. She landed and Miles stabbed his knife straight into its face. It snarled, its glowing blue eyes flickering, fading, then going out as it collapsed to the ground. He pulled his knife free and wiped it down.

"There better not be anymore of them. They're disgusting."

The trio found they were no longer in a maze, but just a twisting corridor that seemed to lead ever deeper. Eventually, they came to what seemed to be a dead end.

"That was a kinda pointless walk." Said Miles.

Gwen shook her head.

"No, there's something on the other side of this wall."

She looked it up and down, noting a circle with three holes in and three markings above it.

"I think it needs a key of some sort, and maybe the right code."

"You got a key?" Asked Miles.

"No, but I bet it just has to fit the three hole things here. You have fingers and super strength."

"So we just need the code." Max concluded.

"Exactly. Any ideas?"

Max looked at the symbols.

"They're Dovahzul letters, maybe spelling a word? A word of power?" He started pushing the symbols and they spun on wheels revealing different ones. "Yes…this spells 'lun', leech. So if I do this…"

He stuck his fingers in the three holes on the circle and twisted it. There was a crunch and the three letters lit up, then the door began to slide downwards.

"Smart. Guess you've really got your mum's brains." Said Miles.

Gwen gave him a funny look.

"The concept was easy; I've played Skyrim before. It's just a little different, like someone changed it to avoid a copyright strike from Bethesda or something."

"Fo…Krah! Diin!" Bellowed a raspy voice.

All three of them were struck by an icy blast. Gwen felt like someone had just thrown her in a pit of lethal sharp icicles.

"Come on! I thought we said no more of these guys!" Miles groaned.

"Too bad, I guess!" Max yelled back as he charged in.

"Fus…Ro! Dah!"

The blue shockwave struck Max harder than he thought it would and he was stopped in his tracks.

"Getting tired?" Asked Gwen, swinging past to kick the Draugr so she and Miles could enact the same plan as with the first one.

However, before she manged to get close, another shout knocked her up into the roof.

"Ow…"

The Draugr removed a bow and arrow from its back and pulled it back to fire at Gwen. At the last second, it turned its attention and fired it at Miles who was only saved from the hit by the system in his suit for destroying bullets. It caught him off guard and the swipe with his knife missed.

"Fus…Ro! Dah!"

He was thrown against the wall, stunned, leaving only Max and a winded Gwen still standing.

"This one isn't like the other one at all. Except how dead it is, maybe." She said between breaths.

"Fo…Krah! Diin!"

Max shielded them both from the wave of ice.

"Gol! Hah! Dov!"

The Bend Will shout was a complex one to block, and not one Max was expecting to hear from a Draugr. It did nothing to him, but Gwen's mind crumbled under its power. She turned to Max and threw a punch that hit him in the side of the head.

"Son of a…"

"Fus! Ro! Dah!" The Draugr bellowed.

He was slammed against the wall just next to the door.

"…bitch?"

"Yol! Toor! Shul!"

A wave of fire hit him, knocking him back down again and singing some of his hair.

"Lemme get up! Jeez."

He tried to, but another Unrelenting Force pinned him down again. The Draugr started summoning another Fire Breath when a web stuck itself over its mouth. Miles groaned.

"Just…shut up. Your buddies are trying to sleep."

The Draugr struggled to free itself from the webs, so Miles took the opportunity and slashed his knife across its throat. With an angry gurgling sound, it crumpled to the ground freeing Gwen from the Bend Will. She shook her head vigorously, trying to clear it.

"I've always wondered: do you know what you're doing when controlled by Bend Will?" Asked Max as he picked himself up.

"I can see stuff but I can't process it or control it."

"Great. You can say sorry for punching me later, then. Where's the fragment?"

Miles picked something up off the floor that had obviously been on the pedestal at the centre of the room. He turned it over in his hands.

"Is this the handle? It's kinda thin for that."

Gwen looked at it and shook her head.

"That's the cross-guard."

"So the three pieces are the blade, the cross-guard and the handle." Said Max.

"Easy. Just don't cut yourself on any of it." Said Miles.

"Same with you."

"Hey guys. What does this say?"

Gwen was looking at some Dovahzul carved into the wall.

"It says: 'you commit the Greatest Sin that was buried with the last Dovah King of the Tuta Age.'" Replied Max.

"You think that's Hirrov?" Asked Miles, nodding at the Draugr.

"It'd explain a lot."

"Let's go, guys. There's a door behind this wall." Said Gwen.

The doorway emerged from a hidden passage inside one of the pillars holding the temple up. The trio climbed the stairs, glad to be out of a place so full of the dead and undead. Gwen was first out and stopped when she looked up.

"Woah."

Max came up next and raised his eyebrows.

"Didn't the priest say no weapons in the Temple? That's a lot of guns in here right now."

Miles seemed quite surprised too at the semi-circle of armed police with their guns trained on the trio.

"Come quietly or we'll shoot you here and now!" Snapped the police captain.

"Dei Volente would be pissed at that." Max replied.

"Hands up!"

"No thanks." Replied Miles.

He turned invisible and scrambled onto the roof where he started firing webs down and tying the officers up two at a time. The guns turned upwards, but no bullets flew. Instead, there was a resounding bang. Everything went dark, and Miles found himself in a Void with Max and Gwen. He dropped down to them. Max had drawn Furore Mortale.

"Be careful about your next move, Dea Judicium."

"Oh, you're so very perceptive Dei Volente." Replied the low female voice of Dea Judicium.

"I've spent a long time paranoid about what's behind me, so it's a skill I've had a while to work on. What do you want?"

"Yes, I suppose being tied to a tree and raped makes one more perceptive."

Dei Volente was shrouded by blazing light that forced Gwen and Miles to turn away and cover their eyes.

"You know?"

"Hermaeus writes everything down, and he can't hide every secret in Apocrypha. Does it matter?"

"It matters. What do you want? If you want in my head, you'll know I'm a lot better at sensing rats than I used to be."

"In the same way you sensed all Null's tricks?"

"I got most of them. Stop hiding in the shadows and tell me what you want."

"I want to know why you are working to build your own doom."

"You know what has to be done."

"Is it the best solution?"

"It's the final solution. The destruction of the High Elder Gods."

"There must be a better way to get what you want?"

"What I want? What do you think I want?"

"You want my throne."

Dei Volente raised his eyebrows and broke down into a fit of laughter.

"Me? Want your throne? Unlike the rest of you, I'm not nearly as power hungry. Power giddy, yes. But not power hungry."

"Look in a mirror, Dei Volente. What makes this idea of yours any better than the idea those girls had to rape you?"

"Because I want this to make the world a better place, not to hear someone cry for help and not get an answer. Plus there'll be consequences for me, unlike for those girls who got off with a jail sentence of a couple years while I had any prospect of a career destroyed by them trying to turn things the other way."

"We shall see. In the meantime, be very careful of those infamous zip ties."

Dei Volente seemed to pulse and a bubble of energy exploded from him. The Void shattered, returning the trio to the temple. The priests and police officers backed away in fear as Furore Mortale erupted in flames.

"Leave this place. Go home to your families and remember that you pointed a gun at Dei Volente."

He pulsed again and the pillars of the temple began to crumble. The roof began to collapse, the statue exploded, and soon all that remained was a pile of debris, people fleeing from the scene and a small ring left untouched by the collapse where Max stood by his cowering parents. He dropped his sword, let the light fade from around his body and sank to his knees where he began to sob. Hearing this, Miles and Gwen figured it was OK to look again. They'd heard the conversation, and neither knew what to say. Miles went to put a reassuring hand on Max's shoulder, but Gwen caught him and shook her head.

"Why? He needs someone."

"Don't touch him. He'll be jumpy."

"Why?"

"You've never had to help rape victims?"

"Well yeah, but they haven't been our kid."

"You can talk to him, but if he wants a hug let it happen on his terms."

Miles nodded and knelt down in front of Max who was no longer sobbing, but had his hands over the back of his head.

"Hey."

He jumped a little and looked up, taking deep breaths when he remembered who his father was. Gwen knelt down next to her husband.

"I'm sorry we didn't remember." She said quietly.

Max shook his head.

"You couldn't control it."

"We're here for you."

He threw his arms around his parents.

"That's enough."

"Is…this the last bit of why you hate drug jokes?" Miles asked hesitantly, not sure if this was a good time.

Max pulled away from the hug and nodded.

"I wanted to tell you when I was ready, not when some slimy bitch decided."

"I'm really sorry it happened. If…we could go back, I'd smash those girls' heads in."

"You and me both. And congrats, you've already done a better job of helping me than your Legion counterpart. But let's get going; sitting here sulking won't change the past or the future. Or it might, just not how we want. Paar! Thur! Nax!"

The trio stood up as the dovah landed with a heavy thump.

"Ni pruzah. [Not good.] This is a mess that any dovah would be envious to create."

"Not as much of a mess as my head right now. Let's get out of here; I need to bang it on a wall." Max replied.

"Please don't." Said Gwen.

"Why?"

"It's self-harm."

"So's being a High Elder God but we all see that as a good thing."

"That's completely different, Max, and you know it."

"OK, I won't bang my head on anything."

The trio climbed on Paarthurnax's back.

"Where to?"

"The other pieces are on the two continents. The one on the Eastern is in Dea's palace, so I guess to the Western continent. We can figure out these weird maps on the way there."

Crossovers in this Chapter

- Skyrim

So there you go: you now know the final piece of the puzzle that is Max. It's dark, I know, but it explains a lot of his fears, his motivations, and why he kills.