Author's note: From the events of the last chapter, the crew and dogs have finally made it inside the black Citadel despite the opposition against them...but when they finally get to the throne doors, they were all placed under a silence curse and anti-magic curse, courtesy of General Greil, who had also revealed a shocking and disturbing truth...with Volt unable to defend himself in his case, the battle between them ensued, going one rather one-sided...while this was going on, the Crew had finally fully announced their hidden distrust, making the ultimate decision to have him play decoy once more...but what will these cursed rooms hold? Can the crew destroy the catalysts before they lose themselves to them? Will Volt once again luck out, or will the dog, finally get his day? Find out now, on Red Dragon's Roar!

Perseus12: Thank you, and keep an eye out, you never know...

Feastsofvalhala: All I can say here is just read and find out...

To guest: I'm glad you can hear that, it was what I was trying to go for along with what I added there, stick around, they're hijinks are just getting started ;)

Black Citadel, land of Garan...hallway corridors...

Volt rested on a wall as his wounds were being treated by Kin.

"This is bad..." Kin said as he healed a wound after getting far from the door.

"You think?" Volt asked as he was feeling the pain of having every bone of his body crushed.

"You'll have to find a pretty good excuse for that one." Kin reminded him of what the general announced out loud.

"You think that he'll find us?" Volt asked, getting worried.

Thanks to some of the monsters that joined them, Volt found a window and escaped while the monsters kept distracting Greil.

"Once we defeat the dark queen, you can rest with enough time to recover. But..." Kin's voice sounded worried.

"We'll have to get rid of the boys." Volt sighed before taking a dagger, "Since he's like her, this will help us to resist his voice powers."

"Forged to hunt dragons and dragon-like creatures." Kin eyed the weapon before taking it in his hands, "You easily captured that woman with it."

Volt took it back and hid it, "Better that they don't know about it."

Kin nodded as Volt got up, "Let's try to get somewhere and wait until they're done with the catalysts."

Room one, Path of Wind

(Traysek)

When Traysek entered the room, it was darkened hall... he could feel a massive draft in the corridor, and stepping in; proceeding through...when he nearly made the corner... black winds blew through the halls, forcing him to shield his face. Once again, it rendered him unable to speak.

'Same curse as the one back at the gate, only this time it doesn't feel like I've been cut off from magic, but...' Grabbing his neck, feeling it gradually close, 'My throat...! I have to find a way out of here, and fast!' moving quickly through the corridor, keeping his breathing steady.

He entered an outside area, with floating rocks and platforms...

He blinked twice and sighed, still feeling the hand around his neck squeeze, 'Great...I have to jump these in order to pass...? good thing I can still teleport, but at this moment,' gulping as he looked down, 'I really wish I came with wings...!' before steeling himself, 'focus! Your neck's still closing as you stand there..okay, first thing's first, test the magic...' holding his arm out, firing a firebolt from his palms, a satisfied grin on his face, 'Okay...so I'm really not cut off by magic, good...makes this a tad bit easier...' aiming a blink spell at one floating rock, casting it and disappearing from the spot, ending up there, but nearly losing his balance, catching himself, taking a sigh of relief after.

'Close call there...okay, now then,' Glancing at the rest of the floating platforms, as well as wind currents going through some, leading out of the door, 'By the gods, man...'

Room two, Path of water

(Recorder)

The young woman found herself in an underground cave, groaning, "Why...why a goddamned cave?!" in frustration, her voice echoing in it, her covering her mouth. A current of black wind rushed at her, forcing her to cover her face, "What the fuck is this?!"

It was then, a rush of water could be heard coming, her eyes going wide, "Shit, I know that sound, not good," reaching around in her bag, until she came up with a rebreather, putting it on, as the tidal wave came in crashing through.

She was caught in its current, but able to still breathe under, struggling to get her swimming down, 'Wasn't expecting a tidal wave to come through, figured there would be some monsters under here this?,' she felt slight pain, a piece of her skin was now floating, 'So the water is cursed too...looks like the longer I stay under here, the more I deteriorate...gotta move!" proceeding to swim towards the direction she was going...

Room Three, Path of Earth...

(Inigo and Lucien)

When they both entered, they were treated to an outside mountain-like outside area, with boulders and jagged rocks around them, finding only one clear path, leading up.

"Well, I have to say, I wasn't expecting the terrain here to be...well," Lucien began, frowning, "This...I'm surprised they had the architecture and room for all of this,"

Inigo looked around, grinning, "good enough for me, I happen to like the mountains, used to travel them with my brother back in Cyrodil...Those were good times," his eyes going dark for a mere second, until he blinked, "Anyway, didn't you say something about curses and their catalysts? what exactly are we looking for?"

"Ah, yes, the curses...from the one at the gate, this room seems to be linked to it, like the other rooms everyone else had gone to..." Lucien said, rubbing his chin, "We're looking for a stone, or a monster, anything that may have a connection to that..." looking around, "Most likely, this room itself could be, I'd watch out for anything, especially since we're dealing with dark magic,"

After wandering around on the path for a while, a strong black wind rushes through, nearly forcing them off the mountain path they were scaling.

"By the gods...what is this?" Inigo yelled, the winds blowing hard.

Lucien had his face covered, "Must be the curse, never seen black wind before!"

Once the wind had stopped, things seemed to go back to normal...both of them standing back up, looking around.

Lucien narrowed his eyes, "Nothing seemed to have changed, other than the draft in here,"

"Yeah, almost as if that was meant to-" Inigo went on with until his eyes went wide when he looked at Lucien, "By the gods! Lucien, your face!"

"What? what's wrong?" The imperial said, touching his face, to find something hard there, "What is that?" looking through the reflection, his face going from confused to one of horror, "By the nine...I'm slowly turning to stone..." looking back Inigo, eyes going wider, "Inigo, your tail, gods, look at your tail!"

The khajiit did just that, finding it slowly turning to stone, "What is going on?! is this one of those curses you were talking about?"

"It would seem so, figures this room would have it too," The imperial sighed, "Which means if we're going through this...what in oblivion is everyone else going through? Perhaps I'll ask," looking up the mountain trail, "When we get out of here that is..."

Inigo smirked, "Then let's go, I'd rather not turn into a statue, thank you very much," he chuckled, walking ahead.

"I agree with you there," Lucien sighed, touching the spot where the stone was growing, "And we'll need to hurry too, seems like it's growing by the second..." Following after...

Room four, Path of fire...

(Erik)

When the Nord entered, he was treated to a large dining hall, sweating and taking off his helmet, at the temperature...

"Gods, it's almost as hot as the desert in here," he panted, fanning himself as he looked around, "How did anyone ever eat in here?"

As he was making his way through, a dark wind blew at him next, a heat wave behind it...

"Arrrgh! what in oblivion is this?" He yelled, covering his face from the hot winds blowing at him.

Once the wind had stopped, he looked around to see if anything had been changed, frowning in confusion...

'Okay...nothing in here, so why did that wind go through like it did?' He said to himself, rubbing the back of his head. It was then, he began to get hotter, sweating profusely, "By...the...nine...*huff* the heat is either starting to pick up in here or..." until he thought about what Lucien said about the curses, it dawning on him, 'Right...this room must be cursed, so if anything I have to find whatever is causing this before I combust...' He mused, beginning to sizzle, "Time to find what's at the end of the hall," proceeding to the kitchen...

Room Five, Path of lightning

(Yuriana)

The Redhead found herself on an open sky balcony, looking up at the thundering clouds...

'Okay...looks like I'm in their courtyard, but no signs of anyone or anything...' Looking around cautiously, moving through the path, 'Here's hoping this will be easy...'

Once she got halfway through, another black wave blew through, nearly knocking her off balance as she covered herself, feeling dark magic in that rush.

'Gods...what dark magic is this?' She cursed to herself, grabbing onto the nearest tree.

Once the blast of winds had settled, she stood up, unsure what had just happened, noting that nothing there has really changed, except the increased lightning.

'So far so good, I'm not growing anything weird, so what was that the-' Before she could complete her thought process, a lightning bolt struck near her, before dodging another.

'Okay...so this curse attracts lightning to me...that's just great,' She sighed, getting struck by a small one, going down on one knee as he shoulder smoked, "Arrgh...! by the gods...I need to get out of here before I end up fried mammoth steak...!" groaning, standing back, and proceeding through, evading a bolt from the sky in the process.

Greil stood in front of the door with the bodies of monsters and Black Dogs butchered around and the walls were scarlet red with blood everywhere.

"They entered the trials..." Greil took a deep breath before adding, "The hardest for you captain, is now..." his voice was filled with worry before he snapped at the approaching horde of ogres and orcs.

Room one, Wind path

Once Traysek had landed on the small floating rock, he spotted a rather large one, taking one of the rushing winds towards it, and sliding on his heels. When he got there, he grabbed his throat, feeling closed even more.

'Don't have too much time to waste, I've already gotten through one room, but it seems like it's getting worse...'

Right as he mused this, something black rose out of the ground nearby, taking shape until it became him, only with white hair, and yellow eyes, the whites of them blackened, giving Redguard a wicked smile, drawing 'his' sword.

Traysek saw this and scoffed, drawing his sword, 'What's this? some kind of doppelganger? it almost looks like me, but...'

"Well, well, well... look at that. A weak version of me." the double said with a wicked smile, "What's wrong? I normally reply with a clever comeback. Cat got your tongue?" he then took a deep breath "Wuld, Na Kest!" he rushed at him with a kick.

Traysek had blocked the kick, stopping himself from sliding off the edge, gritting his teeth, 'Correction...that IS me! used the thu'um the way I would too, only two problems here... can't talk or use the thu'um...magic and swords it is!' Blasting a fireball at him, rushing at the double, reaching for his pistol.

The other Traysek dodged before taking another breath, "Zun Haal Viik" the pistol was thrown away from Traysek, "You'd better find something else. Or, you can turn and go away, kick up your feet and enjoy the massacre that will happen to this world. After all, there's nothing to gain in helping them. Unless you desire to get your hand on that elf goddess."

Traysek frowned at that, shook his head, and fired a thunderbolt from his hand this time, nailing the double, before rushing at him with three slashes, forcing the doppelganger into a clash when two of the blows went through...

'What's he going on about? well, Me...I don't have those kinds of desires, so where's this even coming from?' struggling with the other.

"I must say," the double said with an impressed facial expression, "I'm profoundly... unimpressed." he then swept him off the ground with his feet before kicking him in the ribs, "And here you are, ready to fail once again to protect those that are close to you... risking their life, while fighting alongside a stranger that's clearly going to harm them." he then stopped before saying, "Let's not forget about that general, good man, honorable, and that you plan on killing." he then sighed before turning and taking some steps away, "This is so boring. You, you're boring."

After shaking off the assault to his chest, Traysek stood back up, glaring at the double, 'By the gods...is this how I really sound? I don't know what's worse...my closing throat, or the fact I can't argue that statement...either way, I'm going to suffocate the longer I waste time with him-myself, gods, I don't even know anymore...!' getting back into stance, 'one thing for certain, honorable or not...The General and I agreed to a fight...I won't let anyone...not even you, stop this...!' slamming his hand into the ground, causing a stream of magma to flow towards his opponent.

The double smirked before saying, "Tiid Klo Ul." he then rushed at a godlike speed before kicking Traysek to the face, "Fus Ro Dah." he then threw him at the edge, "You're thinking; 'Once I defeat the general, I'll claim everything that he owns'." he laughed before adding as he walked slowly toward him, "You are and will always be, a dishonorable pirate at heart. No matter how much you try to deny it."

The Real Traysek slowly stood up, spitting out blood, giving him a knowing grin, 'I never denied what I was...more than that, I've accepted it...had to...but even still,' Taking his stance once again, 'I have a job to do...! My personal feelings don't matter here, but...' his mind going back to all the thieving and plundering he had done in Skyrim, 'Can't help but think of all that at the same time...our lives were never easy, and the crew knew the risks...even now...!' beckoning the double with his finger, 'I'm doing this for them, for US...! nevermind what Celestine wants, that's only icing on THAT cake... my crew's survival matters more...and if I have to go through you, myself...so be it...!' His eyes went slit, hardening his stance, taking a breath.

The other Traysek sighed before shaking his head "The 'I'm better than before' kind of thinking, right?" he then took his own pistol before pointing at him "You'd better wake up, this isn't some kind of world where you can think that accepting your past is enough. But who am I talking to, you always ignore the obvious signs that danger is near; sending your closest friends, the ones you consider as family, to their death. And, Volt. Just staying with him, while his men plan to rape Yuri and Record after being done here. You saw the warehouse, the fact that he forced you and your crew to stop at Geofu, what the general said. C'mon, explaining is easy, but don't wait until I understand it for ya." the double got ready to fire with his gun.

The memories of his friends were hitting him like waves, the possibility of them being in that danger even hitting him more...for a moment, maybe this shadow wasn't lying...he had considered that... especially with how all that went down before coming in here...he closed his eyes, as the gun went off...

...

he had vanished from that spot, ending up right next to him, forcing the gun up before slamming his fist into the double's throat, causing him to over. The Real Traysek then smirked, looking down at the gasping doppelganger.

"Hurts...right? can't speak anymore...? can't dragon shout? I can't really either...You dick! doing THIS even hurts...!" in a very harsh pained whisper, the double opening his eyes in shock, "Yeah...I don't have a voice, but I can whisper... this curse is a bit nicer than the hall..." narrowing his eyes, throwing a hard front kick to his sternum, sending him crashing into a pillar "I've listened to your bullshit for the last five minutes...I've had enough...you may even be right to some degree...but you missed one thing...they. aren't. weak...!" blasting the double with crimson lightning, "my friends, the ones you keep weaponizing against me...you really think Recorder and Yuri will fall for that so easily? think the boys will die off that quickly?" increasing the voltage, as he anger boiled, walking towards the now agonizing double, "Then you really aren't fucking, 'ME' at all...!" Discharging a shockwave, that sent him through the pillar, destroying it. Huffing after, grabbing his pained throat.

'Okay, note to self...that hurt like hell, guess I really won't be talking until this curse actually breaks, but I think I got my point across enough...' looking back over at the destroyed rubble, watching black blood leak out, shaking his head while he turned back to where he was going, spotting another door not too far, 'Now where was I?' Picking up his dropped pistol, and Using a teleport spell to warp there...

Room two, Path of water...

It didn't seem there would be no end to underwater exploration, as most of her left hand most of the skin missing, and some of the skin on her face even had pigments missing.

'Goddamn it...! I'm gonna end up looking like one of the Draugr by the time I'm out of here, there's gotta be a way out!" She mentally shrieked, looking around frantically as she swam through the cavern. a ray of light shined on her, causing her to look up at the opening, 'Finally! I can stop rotting away, to freedom!' happily swimming up, nearing the surface...

When she came out, she was in an open cave, lifting herself out and taking off her rebreather, Sighing for fresh air, "Finally...and it looks like I'm no longer falling apart either...just wish it would grow back though," tapping a wound, wincing after.

It was then a black shadow had arisen, its form shifting, until it became, her...somewhat, this one had blond hair, and the eyes were the same pink color, but now with the whites blackened.

Recorder turned around and noticed her double, staring at her, "What the fuck...? you look like me!"

The double grinned savagely before rushing at Recorder with two jagged swords.

"Shit!" The real one cursed, drawing both her ebony sword and white katana, blocking her, sneering back at her, "Oh yeah...your definitely me... oh god...is this what it looks like from this angle? ugh!" pushing her away, countering with a flurry of slashes with both blades, trying to break her guard, "Damn!" getting frustrated when it wasn't going anywhere, going for a powerful lunge with the katana.

The double dodged the attack before using the opening to slash Recorder's back.

"I love the sight of blood." she smiled fanatically as she licked her blade, "I want to see you bleed more!" she rushed again.

The Real Recorder recovered from that, wincing as she turned around to counter the double's attack, "Okay one, I've never licked the blade, and two...the fuck?!" swinging out, going for a spinning slash, as the double backed away, laughing...

"I love when my preys struggle." she tapped the ground with her sword and two swords made of water began to float above her, "Now, let's see more blood!" she rushed for the third time.

Recorder gritted her teeth, dodging the flying swords of water, evading the onslaught of the double, by backstepping away. 'I don't remember ever doing that either, so maybe not really me...but...she does have my voice and face, so close enough...' ducking from a decapitating swing, rolling away...

"A rabbit that jumps is way tastier." the double turned and looked at Recorder, "But, it's way better when it's a naughty little rabbit that stays silent about the truth."

Recorder felt he heart jump there, "Wait what...? I have no idea w-what you're going about!" denying it, before getting to her feet, 'There would be no way, this copy knows about...I have to be careful here...!'

The double's smile widen before saying "What's the matter? never dealt with anything...like this before? do I scare you, perhaps? I can smell fear you know, you look ready to piss yourself." she then laughed before adding "Wasn't that what you said to the princess?"

"Oh fuck off!" Recorder hissed, tossing a grenade at the double, 'That confirms it...! if she knows about what they're up to...that means...this copy of me...oh god...' coming to a scary realization, as the grenade exploded.

Water shielded the double as she rushed again with both jagged swords hitting the ground. But, the moment she was about to strike, a stream of water hit Recorder, disorienting her, and giving enough time for the double to stab her in the side, "Ah~ I love blood~" she moaned before taking some blood and painting her face, "I can't wait to see you bleeding in agony while I stab and bath in your blood."

Recorder had back all the way, to a wall, holding her bleeding side, huffing, 'Damn it...at this rate...she's really going to kill me, or I'm going to kill myself? God, I'm so lost now...' looking back at her grinning copy, 'But she's not all the way wrong...I did hold back a few things when I told the boss about our trip there...but if he knew...if he knew...! my god, I don't even want to even think about it...still...' slowly shifting herself up against the wall, glaring at the double, 'Dark side or not...I have to take her down, but everything I do she counters, unless...' looking around, and up, noticing she was under a group of stalagmites, grinning after, 'Think I know how I'm gonna beat her, but it's gonna take a bit of work...!' Crooking her finger in a taunt, "Whenever your done turning your face into a bloody canvas, I'll still be here you fucking weirdo!"

The double rushed, still grinning, ready to cut a limb.

Recorder waited, holding her position there, her smirk increasing as her rush neared her, dodge stepping to the side when she got close enough, going face-first into the large column. It was then, Record used this opportunity to rush her from behind and impale her ebony sword deep into the double's shoulder embedding her there, before stepping back, pulling out her rifle, and firing two explosive shots up the rocks, causing them to explode and crumble, the stalagmites falling...

"You know, you had point...I am hiding something from the boss and boys...knowing how they'd take it, is why I held back..." Recorder began with, "But with all the weird shit that's been happening and what was said recently...now...? now I'm not so sure...but I do know one thing," giving the double a wicked grin, "You're going to die right there..." as it finally came down, crushing the double completely...

Recorder sighed, grabbing her wound, "And that takes care of that...my god..." walking over to the rubble to fish something out, until she found her sword, sheathing it, "Almost lost a blade because of her...well, me..." Frowning at herself, 'Okay...I'm going to stop questioning it now...I'll go nuts...' looking around after, 'Now where am I supposed to go...?' looking around, until she found another hole with water, sighing, pulling out a healing potion and drinking, feeling her injuries heal up, "Much better, and I think some of my skin came back too..." touching her now smooth face, "Now, back into the watering hole..." jumping in...

Room Three, Path of Earth...

"C'mon Lucien, keep up! it doesn't seem like we've got that much left to climb!" Inigo called down, half of his face now in stone.

The imperial jogged up, out of breath, "You try...*huff* jogging, with stone on your legs!" pointing at his thighs that were now grey.

Inigo chuckled, "Well, at least it isn't your tail, it feels like I'm pulling up a cart the more we climb up here," climbing up a bit more, until they reached a large area, "Hey, I think I found something over here!" running up the path.

"Inigo! wait! not so quick!" Lucien huffed, "By the gods, how does he do it?" jogging to catch up to him.

When they both got there, they were treated to an open area of large rocks, along with the door at the end of the path.

"Looks like that's the door out of here, and from the look of it," Lucien began, looking at his increasingly stoned out arm, "It seems to be getting worse from over there, meaning we're close..."

Inigo nodded, "Then let's get to it, I'd rather not be Inigo-the-statue,"

When they began to move through the field, two shadows appeared in front of them, morphing into them...The copy of Inigo wore hide armor, similar to a bandit, and was rather skittish...his fur darker and grey, but the eyes remained the same, if not blackened at the sides. Lucien's double was a bit different, sporting dulled-out grey hair, his armor the same but in switched colors, and his eyes were also blackened out at the sides, retaining their blue...

Both Inigo and Lucien drew out their weapons, the former nodding his head in acknowledgment...

"What is this? they almost look like us Lucien!" Inigo said, notching an arrow at his double.

The imperial frowned at his, who gave him a cold smile back, "Or they actually could be...from how this curse works, I wouldn't be surprised if it fished out the worst aspects of ourselves, starting to wonder if they are though...didn't show up back there, so why now?"

The double of Inigo smirked before pulling a Daedric bow, "You have until the count of three before I shoot you dead, so you'd better give me all your gold."

Meanwhile, the double of Lucian looked really depressed as he said, "Why... why did I leave them behind?" he then channeled an electric spell in his hands, "I should have stayed behind."

Inigo noted how skittish and shaky the other version of himself was, before sighing, "Yeah...it's like a bad reflection, something I never want to go back to...!" letting loose his arrow, as the double did, both evading the shots.

Lucien gave his copy a sad smile, building up a ward, "We left them because it was time to get on with our life...our family understands this!" blocking the lightning with it, keeping his focus on the spell.

"I bet that you have some Moonsugar on you." the double of Inigo grinned before letting lose two arrows that began to jump on the surfaces until they were about to hit the real Inigo, "I'll take it off your corpse after turning you into a hedgehog."

Lucien's double summoned two storm atronachs and let lose two fireballs, "I'm such a coward... a failure."

The Real Inigo spotted this and rolled out of the way of them, firing arrows back at his double in a volley, "No! I don't have Moonsugar on me, I kicked that habit years ago, and I don't plan on going back!" toss an oil pot, causing a blanket of fire at the double.

"By the gods!" Lucien shouted, jumping back from the fireballs while keeping his ward up, blocking the lighting assault from the atronachs, Summoning a fire one, "Need some help here, go for the other two!" he commanded, the flame atronach obeyed, engaging the storm summons, while he fired dragon's teeth spells following a firebolt with the other, "We are not Failures! all our life, we've lived in the comforts of the imperial city, went to the academy there, and passed, if that's failing...I don't know what success looks like to you then!"

The double of Inigo jumped away before creating a shield made of stones. He then grinned at the real one before taking a lighting spell scroll, "Guess that you'll learn the hard way that no one should hide Moonsugar from me." he then launched an arrow that was coated in electricity.

"Hatred, despair... that's the real truth... being alone, cursed to bring doom to all those I care about." the double of Lucian charged one fire spell in his right hand and a lighting one in his left hand.

Inigo barely dodged the shot, grazed by the lightning in the middle of his roll, making him wince when he reached cover.

"Great...he even knows that too, ow...!" holding his burning leg, "Can't believe I have to fight the old me...almost ironic there..." he chuckled, rolling his arrow in a scroll, "But let's see how you do with this!" firing an arrow, the wrapping on it, glowing white, "Cover your eyes Lucien!" while shielding his own.

Lucien was sprinting or at least trying to, feeling the weight of the stoning of his legs, firing a barrage of fire bolts, "By the gods, was I ever this...depressed?" his mind going back to all his failures at the academy, it finally set in, his eyes darkening over..." I have been that depressed...gods, even now...the only difference here, is that I can't AFFORD to let depression take me...not now," looking at his now greying forearm, "Even if I'm too afraid now to voice how I actually feel about our..."Friends" I'm not going to let that stop me from doing so later... if I'm shouted into a wall or off a ledge over it, then so be it!" his stance hardening, pointing his sword at his double, before hearing Inigo's warning, covering them.

Both doubles closed and shielded their eyes, as bright light exploded from the arrow, blinding both fakes there.

After the light faded, Lucien used this opportunity to get close and slice off one hand of the double, before running him through with his dwarven blade...giving his twin a sad look, before ripping the blade out, sheathing it, as the copy twitched in black blood and disappeared.

Once his evil twin was blinded, Inigo ended up behind him and gave him a german Supplex, knocking the wind out of him, before standing up, drawing his sword, and stabbing the copy through the head while it was down, not giving it another a chance to stand up. He watched it die and disappear as well, a puddle of black blood remaining.

The imperial sighed, as he watched it disappear, "By the gods, that...that was something else there."

"You can say that again, glad you took yourself too," Inigo joked, getting an eye roll from the imperial.

"Yeah yeah, nice work with the blinding arrow, didn't think you'd get mine with it too," Lucien grinned, taking a sigh, "Well, now with that over," looking towards the door at the end, "onward to more adventure!"

Inigo laughed, nodding, "Agreed my friend," looking back, "I just hope everyone else is ok, I know they went by themselves..."

"I'm sure they're just fine...if anything, I'm willing to bet some are already done with theirs," Lucien assured, turning back to the door, "Now, we should get moving before we do end up as statues," Before proceeding to the door.

"Right behind you," The blue khajiit concurred, following him...

Room Four, Path of Fire...

Erik dumped a canteen of water on his head, as he proceeded through the kitchen, watching the water steam off of him.

"I'm almost a boiled crab at this point, but it seems like I'm almost out too," Erik sweated, "So why is it getting hotter?" fanning himself, as he entered the next area, seemingly a private dining area with the tables around, in an arena like fashion...

He frowned while looking around himself, 'Okay...seems like this is another dining room, just how many does this queen have?' moving through, noticing that some of the meals there, were still hot and steaming, 'This was just made recently, still steaming too...what happened to the people here?'

Right as he mused this, black smoke had filled the room, swirling in one place, until it formed into him...wearing a stormcloak officer armor, minus the bear helmet, and a hateful expression on his face... making the real one, draw his ax and shield.

"You call yourself a Nord?!" the double asked as he took a Daedric battleaxe, "You shame your ancestors by siding with those that are with that weak empire!" he then charged the real one.

Erik charged at the double, and both battle-axe and shield collided, both real and double sneering at each other, the real one giving a bitter chuckle...

"Didn't know dark me, was a hateful racist...!" The Nord growled, pushing him back, "And for one, I have no love for the empire, but I definitely don't like you stormcloaks! even if you ARE me!" Returning violent swings, putting the double on the defensive.

"So you'd rather turn your back on your people! On the god that made the empire what it is today!" he swung widely, hitting the shield, "Denying the Stormcloacks means denying your roots! And Ulfric is the rightful High King that Skyrim needs!" he continued to attack, hitting only the shield.

Erik gritted his teeth, breaking the double's rush with a shield bash, kicking it into a table, "Godsdamn it, shut up! You are not ME! you will never be me!" missing his downward swing when his twin moved out of the way, "You were an Idea once, maybe a fantasy, until I saw the truth in that! Ulfric doesn't care, if anything he'd do Skyrim a disservice!" charging at him with his shield raised, "You're everything I hate!"

The double coated himself and the weapon on fire before swinging hard, "You are no true Nord! You are a shame that spits on the name of Ysgramor, name of Talos, the name of all true Nords!"

Erik blocked the blow, the flames licking away at his arm, a crack going through the shield, backing away and shaking his arm, 'Damn it...! I wasn't expecting him to use fire...then again...considering where I am right now, I'm not surprised...but,' pulling out a small bottle from his pocket, coating his weapon with it, 'If you're anything like me...then frostbite venom should be enough...!' tossing the poison bottle to the side, "Come on! the more I listen to you, the more my ears bleed, and I'm sweating a storm here, so I ain't got all day!" he challenged, hardening his guard.

"This should be the last of your problems!" the double jumped high and was going down toward the real Erik.

Erik rolled to the side, dodging the smash from his twin, ending up behind him and bashing him in the back of the head with his shield, sending him stumbling forward, Swinging the ax into its side, hacking into it, before getting pushed away, it's black blood leaking on the ax, "Oh, believe me, friend... I already got a good notion of what some of those problems are, you just aren't going to be one, anymore..."

The double roared as the heat increased. He rushed at the real one before exploding.

Erik held up his shield, sent into a table by the force of the blast, breaking it... windows there all shattering along with the fortress shaking from it...

When he stood back up, he coughed, frantically scanning the room, finding himself once again alone. "Thank the nine it's over..." Sighing in relief, "I was NOT a fan of that side of me...and he was even an officer to make it worse..." sheathing his ax, looking around, until he spotted a bottle of wine, still intact, walking over to it and picking it up, 'Well well, guess they didn't take the ALL goodies out of this place, wonder how old it is?' Cracking it open, taking a sip, a sudden coolness coming over him, sweating a bit less, "Oof... strong stuff even brought my heating curse down, what is this stuff?" checking the bottle, labeled 'Ice brand wine' putting a frown on his face, "Icebrand'? it's almost too close to firebrand back home, in fact...almost tastes like the actual wine too..." thinking on that for a minute, shaking out of his head after by shoving the bottle in his backpack; feeling the sweat and heat return, 'Have to think on that later, still have much to left to cover...!' pushing past the next set of doors.

Room Five, Path of lightning...

Yuriana held her shield up with both hands, as periodically, a thunderbolt rained down on her, stronger than the last... gritting her teeth, when she felt her magic being sapped by every bolt...

'This is pure hell...! I hope the others are having a better day than me right now!' continuing to jog with her shield, until she found an open dark room, rushing into it, avoiding and blocking the bolts on the way, jumping in before the last bolt, much more powerful, struck, leaving a burning hole in the ground.

The Redhead stood back up, huffing and puffing with steam coming off of her, "Thank...the gods...ugh...that was not pleasant...!" standing back up, picking up her smoky shield, "Where exactly have I gone?" looking around at the candles around her, watching one slowly turn purple, before another, and another...before the all of them had shifted to a purple color.

Confused and now worried, This caused Yuriana to draw out her mace, 'What's going on here...? is this a summoning ritual I just walked into?' Her own shadow in the purple light began to shift on its own, rising out of the ground slowly, as the purple flames rose... The Redhead turned around to a perverted chuckle, finding a shadow standing there, slowly taking form...

Once it was finished, it was a twin version of her, only, she was in chains, seemingly dirty and naked, armed with a hammer. Her eyes were dull blue, much like a Draugr's, the whites blackened; narrowing them with the sick grin she was giving her.

"By the gods, it can't be...!" Yuriana said in shock, shaking at the sight of it all.

"I really want some attention." the double said as she began to slowly walk toward the real Yuriana, "It's not like everyone is trustworthy. After all, they all want my body to satisfy themselves. Like those bandits, and what those dogs plan to do."

Yuriana scoffed, hardening her stance, images of her past captor's faces flashing back to her, along with the black dog's men, seemingly similar smiles; shaking it off, "No idea what you mean there...but seeing you, seeing me...like this..." rushing forward with a strike, "It's Truly horrifying...!" clashing with her twin's hammer.

Pushing her away, the double smirked before saying, "You only say that because you desire to be held in chains again, with those men holding them... What, the last set wasn't enough for you?" she grabbed the real one as she was about to be hit before throwing her with a burst of thunder.

Yuriana crashed into the wall hard, the sparks coming out of her when she stood, glaring at her, "Gods Enough!..do you truly believe I desire that again?" gritting her teeth, 'After everything we went through back when I was a captive in Skyrim...how could I want that back? don't get me wrong, I enjoy pleasure, but from that...?' once again, the slimy smiles of those bandits coming back in waves, sighing, 'There would be no way to...it's disgusting to even think back on it now...and then at the checkpoint...' remembering all the leering and whispering the men were doing back there, furrowing her brow, 'Almost makes me wonder what 'THEY' want out of all this...but I'm scared to find out...just like,' Getting back into a defensive stance, "I'm scared to tell the others how they make me feel..." out loud, unintentionally, frowning at herself after.

"Finally being a little honest with yourself?" the double began to walk slowly while summoning a thunder spirit.

"Don't worry, I'll make it painless." she then looked at her with lust, "Unless you want to have some fun like we used to..."

The redhead's eyes shadowed over, a smirk forming, "Heh, as good as that would probably feel...I'm going to have to pass on that one," her left eye giving a blue flash, summoning her mystic phantom, "You may be a dark part of me...you may even be right of what I'm really afraid of...but, I'm not going to lose to them...and most importantly..." rushing towards her double, as the phantom charged at the thunder spirit, clashing her mace with the double's hammer with a powerful blow...

"I'm not going to lose to you!" she declared, her eyes fully blazing with fury.

The double had an unimpressed look as she stomped the ground, creating a thunderclap that threw Yuriana to the wall, "Unfortunately, denying that your deepest fantasy is to be taken by a group of men is really a bad idea. But, I won't let you wait to feel the cold grasp of death."

As the double was about to strike her, a hammer flew and exploded her head. When Yuriana looked at the source, she saw the silhouette of an obese, bearded man standing. He snapped his fingers and the hammer returned to him. Before that the redhead could say anything, he flew away.

Now, completely taken back by what just happened, Yuriana stood up and frowned, rubbing the back of her head, "What in oblivion just happened?" looking down at the headless body, which was giving off its last twitches, before it stopped, disappearing from the spot, making her frown, 'There's no mistaking it...someone was here! but who? the boss? couldn't be...he went into a similar door, probably going through the same thing...if not worse...so who could've it been? there was a lot of power in that hammer too...' going into thought for a moment, until she heard the sound of rumbling thunder, shaking her out of them, "Right...back to finding the catalysts...now to remember what direction I was heading in first..." looking around, noticing open paths around her..."Damn..."

Olga sighed as she felt the disappearance of the dark shadows.

"They've defeated the last defense system that protects the elementals..." Olga looked anxious as she was hearing the slaughter of both men and monsters at the hand of Greil, "If they could undo that... they might-"

"Don't say that!" Chloe snapped before gasping, "I'm sorry about that! It's just that..."

Olga chuckled before saying, "I understand. You want to believe that Greil is invincible, right?"

"He is!" Chloe replied with conviction, "He's the champion of this world!"

"Unfortunately, defeating the Dark Shadows is proof that these champions that Celestine chose are strong..." Olga tightened her hands, 'Greil... you must win, no matter what.'

"Cursed humans..." Chloe mumbled with anger as she gritted her teeth.

Olga stood up and held her hand forward, "Let's see if the gift of that mad god is worth it."

A moment later, a circle is drawn in the ground and a flesh construct with a blade instead of its right arm appeared.

"L-Lady Olga... what's this?" Chloe asked as fear took her.

"I don't know... but, let's hope that it can defeat those humans," Olga said as the creature walked toward the gate.

Room one, path of Wind

After teleporting on the floating rocks for what seemed to be an eternity to the Redguard, he finally reached a small island-sized floating rock, finding a large totem pole there with wind magic swirling around it, narrowing his eyes.

'So that must be the catalyst there...a totem pole of all things...haven't seen one these in a while," Traysek mused, using his teleport spell, warping to it and feeling his throat accelerate to close, which forced him to gasp... the wind coming out of his mouth and going into the totem. 'Okay, yeah... definitely it...it's trying to kill me right now, not good!' pulling out one of his spider bombs and tossing it on there.

Once the spider latched on, he aimed his pistol at it, and fired, causing an explosion that blew the totem pole in half...the wind magic around it stopped, as it began to crumble in molten rock...

The Redguard felt his breath return, the air flowing back in, along with his voice, gasping loudly...

"Dragon's teeth! my voice is finally back!" He said with excitement, 'Even better, it no longer feels like I'm being strangled anymore...looks like the curse here is lifted, I'm not feeling dark energy anymore here either...' a Smirk forming, 'One room down, four more to go, hoping the guys are having better luck than-his thoughts were interrupted, by a rush of violent wind around him. the force then sent him flying back, almost off the ledge, catching himself by stabbing his sword into the ground, bracing while glaring ahead.

'-Me...I figured this was too easy...' He whined to himself, watching the winds gather and grow.

Metal pauldrons appeared, and with them, a belt and a sword. Blue cloths warped around until they formed a giant figure.

Traysek gave the wind giant an overall stare, drawing his combat staff, "Of course...it was hiding in the damn totem pole...regardless..." taking a stance, "Come on!"

Battle theme- Deviljho- Monster hunter world...

The Redguard built up a lightning charge in his staff, before firing a blast up at it. However, the wind giant sliced it with his blade before generating enough wind to pin Traysek to the ground.

He gritted his teeth while down there, taking a breath, "Fus...RO DAH!" pushing the wind pressure off and the giant back, distorting it for a bit, before picking up his staff, dashing around as it recovered, "Gron!" A quick sheen of magic flashing, prepping his Dovah magic...

The wind giant threw a burst of air that sent Traysek back smacking against the pillar hard, cracking it...

Standing back up, the side of his head was bleeding, dripping down to the side of his face, as he grabbed his battle staff, 'Okay...that hurt...a lot...time to start playing it smart!' bringing up a conjuring orb, tossing it and summoning a seeker; charging up another, conjuring two ash spawn after, 'Here's hoping this will help, or at least slow it down enough,' taking a defensive stance.

The wind being swung its blade and sent a wave that cut the seeker in two before channeling enough wind to compress the ash spawns into dust. It then returned its attention to Traysek.

Traysek gave it a blank stare, "Oh. I see how it is, big guy!" using another summoning spell, conjuring two flame atronach, "Try to open him up for me, I'll go for the sides!" avoiding its blade, as the atronachs did, turning invisible as he ran around the elemental, while the two Daedra attacked it with fireballs and firebolts.

The giant channeled again, but this time, he conjured two tornados that dissolved them and began to look around for Traysek.

"Tiid, Klo Ul!" Traysek shouted from behind, slowing time. his cloak faded as the winds on Giant's body slowed down, revealing a pulsating molten core, shaped like a heart.

He smirked, pulling his pistol 'So that's its weakness...the totem became its core...' Aiming at it and fired two exploding lighting shots at the core, which rattled it, leaving small cracks before time resumed, the winds rushing again.

The giant roared as dark clouds appeared. The core was now protected by two more layers of wind, moving at a faster rate. It then generated enough wind to lift Traysek, then sent him crashing.

Traysek stood up, shaking the rubble off, 'As I thought...didn't seem to like that too much, and it looks like his defense has increased too...alright, now that I know it CAN be hurt...time to bring it down...!' The smirk came back, taking a deep breath, "Gron!" bringing up his dragon magic again, putting his staff away, with the draw and ward spells in each hand.

He fired the draw spell in the air, getting a fire element; Binding with it, which brought up a guardian circle around himself, he continued to blast his draw spell into it, which discharged a shockwave, staggering the elemental and now had four pillars of flame rising from the corners of the circle...

'Just gotta wait him out now...'

The wind giant swung his sword at Traysek, but it was coated in lightning.

Right as that blade came down, The Redguard bound with the element for a final time, stepping back as a flame strike came down...causing a firey explosion that knocked off a layer of the giant.

Once the flames died down, a world anima, in the form of a flame atronach stood there, flames building around it as it charged, Traysek building up the same fireball,...' Lets hope I can time this right...' watching the elemental grab it, aiming a firey blast at it.

The wind giant generated a large tornado that absorbed the blast before directing it toward Traysek.

"Shit!" The Redguard cursed, blocking the blast with his ward; Returning the firey blast right at the nearly drained Atronach, which caused a fusion explosion, which distorted time again, opening the way to the core, allowing him a chance to hit it with a powerful thunderbolt, causing the core to rattle harder with large cracks forming, lava spilling out...

Traysek huffed, looking at the winds gathering up once more, this time stronger and harsher than before, nearly knocking him over... "Damn...! still not done?!" watching some of the magma spilling out, 'At least I know it's going to take one more kick, and this time...I'll need a bit of assistance with this one...' throwing a summoning orb, conjuring a dremora lord, before tossing another, conjuring another Dremora only with a bow and arrows, "One of you is going to keep him busy, the other, I'll need a bit of your power for a second!" Before hitting the melee with the draw spell, pulling the lightning life element out of it, "Thank you, that will be all," looking at the winds reforming, "Go keep him busy, I'll get this set up here!" getting a nod from the battle-ax Dremora, who rushed off towards it...

This time, red lightning appeared on the wind giant as a storm with powerful wind appeared. The first dremora was vaporized by a fast swing. the second one was torn apart by three different tornados. The wind giant turned his hateful gaze at Traysek.

Traysek let out a bitter chuckle, "Good enough," binding with the element once again, this time emitting a golden light and turning translucent, evading the fast smash with a roll to the side, 'Damn...this thing is beyond angry at this point, then again it knows it's one foot away from death, time to help it there...!' binding one more time, the golden light flashing out once more as a life anima was summoned, providing healing light as the Redguard got in front of it with his ward, defending it from the fast strikes, 'Just gotta hold out...until it's done with some of my injuries!" absorbing another blow from the angered elemental.

The giant roared before unleashing a powerful burst of wind at Traysek.

The Redguard dug his heels in hard, his feet leaving webs as he held the ward up, fending off the wind, 'Just a bit more...' before teleporting away from its harsh wind, blowing away the anima...He was on a pillar near the elemental, panting..' Damn it, I was trying to turn that into something else, but I'm glad I healed up enough from the anima...now then' Taking a deep breath "Gron!" Conjuring a bound battle-ax in his hands, a purple lightning glow going over him, 'Only one shot at this...here goes nothing...!' Leaping down towards the giant, "Up here big guy!" gaining its attention.

This time, the elemental released a burst of both wind and lightning throwing Traysek to a wall.

He crashed into it, webbing the wall with the glow still intact, standing back with a smirk as it brought its blade down, Traysek swinging the battle ax back in Response with a battle cry, "Yaaaaaarggh!" Clashing with the giant, knocking the large blade back, and causing a rift as he did, "Check...!" dashing towards the core and at a good distance, conjured a bound bow, Firing a rift arrow at the core, watching it tear through the fabric of time as it soared, all the way to its heart, slowly piercing through...

Traysek sighed in relief, "It's over..." when time resumed, that arrow became a beam of lightning piercing completely through the core; leaving a large gaping hole...

The winds calmed down as the blade was falling a top of Traysek, who jump away before getting cut in two.

The Redguard watched the blade shift into the size of a Greatsword, as the heart of the elemental crumbled, the monster giving its final dying roar before it dissipated, the skies clearing...He walked over to the sword, and lifted it from the ground with a grin, "Well well, can't say that I've ever had a curved greatsword before..." taking a few swings with it, which blasted out large amounts of wind when he did, "I think we're going to be getting along nicely...!"

As he said this, a silver light shot up and went somewhere, the trail of light now emitting from the area, "Looks like that's it for the curse here...here's hoping everyone else figured it out too..." as portal appeared near him, nodding at it, "Time to go...again, here's hoping that the other locks have been opened..." walking into the portal, which closed behind him...

Room two, Path of water...

The young woman continued to swim through the current, as flakes of her skin were falling off at a rapid pace, frantically looking around, 'There's got to be a way out of this...! seems like for the last few minutes, all I've been doing is floating around down here!'

Eventually, she spotted another sheen of light coming from above, this time from a much larger surface hole, 'Finally! a way out of this!" Swimming up to the hole, coming out to the surface, lifting herself out of the watering hole, ringing her braid out... Recorder glanced ahead, noticing a large totem pole there with water surrounding it.

She took off her rebreather, exposing her still flaking face, and walked up to the pole, "Looks like this is it..." checking her right arm, which was rapidly deteriorating..." Right...gets worse the closer we get," pulls out two grenades and tosses them at it... "Here goes nothing..."

When the 'nades exploded, the totem pole was blown apart, crumbling down in magma...

Recorder, then felt her skin repair itself, watching the skin on her arm heal up, "And there goes the curse for this room...my god, I thought I was going to end up as ghoul from the fallout universe...!' Grinning to herself.

However, it was much too early to celebrate... water from around the area began to swirl toward the molten pieces, reforming them...

"What the hell is happening now...?" She quietly asked herself, drawing her ebony and katana blades.

Another swirl of water came as it formed itself into a being made of water as some dirt formed an armor around it.

It hit the ground with his staff and summoned some sort of water elementals as he chuckled.

Recorder nervously chuckled, "He's got friends...of course, he's got friends...and he's laughing at me...Okay then," nodding to herself, before declaringly pointing a finger at him, shaking it "Your water testicles are mine, motherfucker!" she shouted, charging at the elemental, the first minion moving to intercept only to get cut down with a deadly slash, cutting it in two.

Battle theme: Orca force- Red Orca

The minion regenerated and threw water that turned into ice when touching Recorder.

The ice kept her in place; struggling out of it as the Water Elemental cackled, "What? it turns to ice?!...Okay, not good...!" tipping herself over, causing the ice shell to break when she fell over, "I'm free, but..." looking ahead, noticing the minions charging, reaching into a bag for a potion, tossing it at them, freezing two there, before pulling out her rifle, and firing two lightning shots at them, shattering the frozen minions completely, smirking at her result, "So...freeze first then shatter them...okay, I think I'm getting it now," picking up her blades and sheathing them, going back for the rifle, cocking the hammer, "Let's go, lemmings!"

A scowl appeared on the master elemental as he hit the ground again, summoning other minions. But this time, some of them were made of blocks of ice.

It then waved the staff, a red light waved around and the elemental's eyes turned red.

Recorder scoffed, firing shots as she ran, distorting the water minions while tossing an oil pot at one of the ice elementals, causing one of them to panic and smash into another, setting it on fire; Both of them melting down. She eventually reached some cover from all the ice and ice spikes flying at her, pulling out two grenades, tossing them; causing a large dirt explosion, taking the rest of the water minions out while damaging a few ice summons...

"Hahahaha! yeah! what now big boy?!" Firing a shot into the elemental's leg, causing it to wince as it sparked with lightning.

The master elemental was more annoyed than before and hit the staff again. This time, it summoned ice dragons.

It also regenerated its own leg and created a shield made of water, and another made of ice.

Recorder blinked twice at the frost dragons, sighing, "Oh...I see...Ice dragons...why I am not surprised?" she whined until a thought occurred, 'But...he did put up an extra shield around himself too...means he's very vulnerable, and him summoning monsters at me confirms it...If I could bring that shield down and get close, then maybe...' giving a Master elemental a smirk, putting away her rifle and drawing out an ebony blade, charging towards it, "Hope I'm right about this...!" reaching her hand into her bag as she approached the elemental.

A smirk appeared on the elemental's face as he disappeared and was replaced by one of the dragons as the ice shield exploded.

The young woman was blown back by the frozen winds of the explosion, landing on her feet, only to look at the ice dragon in front of her, "Did he just-?" before rolling behind another rock, avoiding the frost breath from the dragon.

She peeked back out to find the elemental in another spot, sneering at her, causing her to growl...

'Dammit! he did switch places! and what's more...' looking up at the dragons flying around, in search of her, 'They're still around...okay Record, think...if he could easily trade places with them like that, then the direct approaching isn't going to cut it...' Reaching her hand into her backpack, coming out with a large white potion bottle, 'Time to play sneaky...!' taking gulps out of it, slowly disappearing...

Seeing this, the elemental laughed before flooding the area with water. Giving the dragons the emplacement of Recorder.

When the dragons swooped in, Recorder tossed smoke grenades while bolted out there, the smoke covered the entire cave area...

Now completely invisible in the smokescreen, she could make out the large figures in it, going for the nearest dragon, by slicing it into its wing, making it cry out. When it turned in her direction, she jumped on its head and stabbed through it, taking it to the ground, and killing it... 'one down, two more to go...' Ripping her sword from its skull; taking more gulps of the potions, rending herself invisible as the smoke cleared...

The elemental began to freeze the air around, and waved his staff, giving the rest of the dragons a layer of pure white armor and resurrecting the fallen one before granting him the same armor. he then hit the ground again, hiding in one of the dragons while casting an area of effect spike spell in some random areas.

Recorder broke into a sprint, evading the spikes as they fell, tossing two oil pots at the two large swooping dragons, coating them face first in fire, sending them crashing into a cave wall, while sliding away behind a small wall, sneezing after she stood, "D-damn that g-guy...m-making it c-cold in here...I ha-hate him!" hiding from the other dragon flying around, while the other two recovered, noticing he wasn't there, frowning, 'okay...he's not there anymore...' until she remembered what happened earlier, 'Right...he's hiding in one of them...but which one...?' until she noticed one of the armored dragons had glowing blue cracks around it, eyes red like the elementals, 'That's got to be him, that dragon is too different than the other two...!' Pulling out her rifle, loading in fire rounds this time, and firing at it, hitting it a few times, gaining it's attention, "Over here big guy!" she taunted, breaking into another run, while firing at the other two dragons, taking off parts of their armor.

A blue wave emitted from the dragon, healing the other two. The three began to circle around Recorder while letting snowflakes fall from their wings.

Now caught in their circle, the chill of the winds of snow was making this worse, 'My god...I really wish I could down dragons like the boss could, but unfortunately...I don't have that ability!' Feeling the chill reach her bones, 'okay but like it or not...I have to break this somehow...or I'm going to end up as a snowman...think...' until it dawned on her, going for her bag, 'Right...I still have a few grenades and oil pots left...and I think I know how I'm going to do this...!' Tossing the oil pot up first, before tossing the grenade up behind it...The oil pot broke from the wind, leaving a small blanket of fire, which also ignited the grenade, causing a bigger firey explosion, knocking the dragons out of the circle and onto the ground, the glowing one hitting the ground last, "Bingo!" before pulling out her sword and rushing towards it.

The glow disappeared as Recorder was lifted and thrown to the wall by the elemental who laughed before hitting the ground, heating the room and destroying 50% of the ground. He then threw himself into the water before emerging as an octopus-like monster.

She stood, grabbing her head, trying to fight off the dizziness, before hearing the roar, turning to face the octopus monster, "Well that's just great...now he looks like Cthulu...but," She could spot its beating molten heart through its nearly translucent chest, 'So that's where I gotta hit this thing...good to know, but I've no summons, and I don't know magic...I'm almost out of explosives too, so I'll have to make what I have left count...!' Unloading the chamber of explosive rounds, and replacing them with lightning ones; cocking the rifle and aiming and firing a few shots at it, exploding in electricity when the rounds hit causing the monster to stagger, 'So he is weak to lightning...I thought it was a fluke before...okay then,' continuing to fire on it...

The monster lifted both of his hands and prepared himself to smash Recorder.

Record gulped, and ran for another platform, jumping to it when the monster smashed into the other one, 'Phew...! A close call there, Recorder, now while his head is down there...!' covering the bottom of a grenade in honey this time, tossing it at the beast, sticking to the side of its face before it exploded, sending him roaring back holding the side of its face, leaking magma as it did. "Yes, finally a Critical hit!" finding his translucent chest open, aiming her gun up at it and firing a couple of shots, leaving large wounds, but not deep enough to pierce the heart, 'looks like I'm finally hurting this thing, but something tells me it's not over yet...'

The monster roared before going underwater and emerging next to Recorder, ready to flat her with one hand.

"Shit!" She cursed, running and jumping to another platform as it quickly brought its hand down, 'It's getting more vicious...means I'm getting closer to beating him!' Firing a couple more shots into the monster's wounded face, forcing it to stagger, leaving its chest open again, "One more should do it and then I can..." blasting the holes in the monster's chest, finally opening the way its magma core, "You're mine now!" charging at it.

The monster roared and unleashed a burst of water that threw Recorder back as he wound up sweeping her away with his hand.

Record flew onto another platform, stopping herself from falling off, "Okay...too soon perhaps..." reloading the rifle, cocking the hammer which got it's attention, 'There's got to be a way to make the stun effect longer...' Scanning around, until she noticed the water he was coming out of, a smirk forming on her face, 'Well now, I think I just found my way to win...!' Jumping in the air, and blasting off a couple of shots toward the water it was in, causing an explosion of lightning that arced over the creature, causing it to screech and fry before it leaned over, sparks dancing over it, leaving one of its arms down, 'It's now or never, Record!' Running and jumping on its arm, stabbing into it as she made her way over to its heart...leaping onto its chest, "Now to get to that heart," climbing on the rocky chest, until reaching the open hole where his heart was, reaching into her bag with one hand and pulling out her last grenade, "My last one, better hope this does it!" tossing it in there, before jumping away from the monster, landing on a platform.

The beast went to smash her, only for the grenade in its heart to go off, blowing the magma core in half...When it began to leak out and crumble, the monster gave its dying roar, before turning into a mass of water, falling back into its opening... Its staff dropped in front of her, floating as if it wants her to take it.

"I...*huff* finally did it..." Recorder panted, walking over to the floating staff, and grabbed it, giving it a good twirl which brought up water swords around her, "Awesome weapon...normally I'm not into magical gear, but I don't mind using this for a while," with a grin.

After a moment, blue light shot out of the cavern, heading somewhere, the cerulean light emitting from this cave now.

"Looks like that's it for the curse here, oh my god that was the worst..." She sighed, sheathing her swords, 'And I think I'm officially out of grenades now...'

A portal opened near the light, surprising her...

'I guess that's my ticket out of this place,' looking around with a frown, 'Can't say I'll miss it though...especially with my skin falling off, ugh...!' taking a deep breath, walking towards it, "Here goes nothing..." stepping in.

Room three, Path of Earth...

On a bridge, the duo was taking care to cross it, while trying to hurry up...Inigo, was still rather mobile but had gotten heavier due to the petrification on his body...Lucien on the other hand...his left leg completely petrified, meaning the khajiit had to carry them over.

"You're doing good Lucien, just keep stepping with your other leg, we're almost across!" The khajiit said, giving him a grin.

The imperial nodded, looking down at the drop below, "I'm sorry you had to carry me too...I didn't know one of my legs was going to go so soon..."

"Don't beat yourself up about that, we're in a cursed room anyway...it wasn't going to be easy no matter how you looked at it..." Inigo responded with, "Besides...I heard a bit of what your...dark self had said, and guess what? I don't buy it, we're not failures...and we're breaking this curse, regardless if I have to drag you with me or not..."

Lucien felt himself blush a bit there, "Geez Inigo...you're the only one I know that can turn a hopeless situation into a mushy one," chuckling after, "Come on, let's get to that catalysis..."

After a while of crossing the bridge, they both arrived at a large open area with a totem pole at the end of it, surrounded by swirling rocks and sand.

Lucien looked up at it, widening his eyes, "I think this must be it..." glancing at his right hand, which had begun to speed up with the petrification, "Has to be, the curse just increased..."

"Yeah, definitely seems that way..." Inigo agreed, sitting him down nearby, "I'll go ahead and destroy this thing, since...you can't stand up to do it...not with that leg," pointing at his greyed-out leg, before wrapping his arrow in a scroll, and drawing the bow and firing at it.

Lucien frowned at that, "Are you sure that was supposed to do something?" he said, waiting around as if nothing happened yet.

"Just wait for it..."

The arrow soon smoked, exploding soon after, taking a chunk of the totem with it...it began to crumble and break down, turning into magma as it does...

Right after that, the petrification curse on both of them stopped, before their limbs and faces soon regained their color...the curse on them now broken.

Lucien was finally able to stand up and stretch, "Thank the gods you did that in time...! I can finally stand up again!"

"Hehehe yes! we have broken the curse, now to Cele-" Inigo began with, before pausing at the rushing winds, turning back to the destroyed totem pole, the rocks swirling around dust and wind... "-brate...? perhaps I spoke too soon?"

The imperial sighed, glancing at the forming rocks, "Yeah, probably WAAAY too soon..."

Powerful stomping could be heard as a being of earth and crystals roared; stomping the ground and causing the vicinity to shake.

"By the gods!" Lucien exclaimed, regaining his balance, "Wasn't expecting a guardian to come rolling out, must be curse's countermeasure..."

Inigo regained his foothold as well, drawing his new bow, "Regardless, that is the ugliest form of rocks I've ever seen...very big too," notching an arrow, "Let's take this thing down!"

"Heard you there," The imperial agreed, drawing his dwarven sword, and readying a thunder spell.

The earth creature roared before charging at the khajiit while shaking the room at every step.

Battle theme: Godzilla unleashed - Anguirus theme

Inigo quickly moved out of the way, firing a volley of arrows at it, "Careful Lucien, it's a fast one!"

"Getting that!" The imperial responded, charging up a lightning spell, discharging it at the elemental, striking the side of it, gaining its attention as the mark on it sizzled, "Well, I didn't expect that to work right away...now he's looking at me..."

The creature slammed the earth and spikes began to head toward the imperial.

"Nope nope nope, I'm not standing around here!" Lucien said, as he ran for cover, evading those spikes, "This thing is pretty tough," looking back at Inigo who was pelting it with Ebony arrows, which were barely having an effect, "And so far he can't get shots in Either, at least not with those..."

Inigo continued to rain fire on the beast with Arrows, dodging a thrown boulder that smashed another rock to pieces, "These arrows aren't cutting it! time to go heavier!" notching a Dragonfire arrow, and firing, scoring a hit on its shoulder, which knocked of a good portion off of his spiked shoulder, "That there did it...so these arrows can knock down walls...that gives me an Idea," dashing straight to where Lucien took cover at.

The rock creature roared before that rocks from the ground regenerated it. It even shielded itself in crystals, but it was more concentrated in the chest area.

The khajiit reached the cover area, frowning at its hardening armor, joining Lucien, "Hey Lucien, I have an Idea...these new arrows can break walls, you think what I'm thinking?"

"I saw that earlier, but now it's hardened its defense...gonna be a lot harder pulling that off again," The imperial sighed, narrowing his eyes on its extra hardening on its chest plate, "Much more hardening there though, it must be where the core is..." looking back at Inigo, "So what was this Idea?"

Inigo looked back at the monster, scanning the area, "I was going to suggest, for every arrow I leave in it, you push it through with your magic...The arrow will do the rest," wrapping one of them in fire scroll, notching it and aiming, "Just try to keep him off me until I find a good sniping point..."

"That...that's bloody genius, and I happen to know thunderbolt," Lucien agreed, looking back at the creature, "I can buy you a few minutes, especially with my summons,"

Inigo nodded, "Great, I'll fire on them when ready," before quickly sneaking off to the higher ground.

"Okay, now to keep the big guy here busy," Lucien whispered to himself, bringing up a summoning spell, Conjuring a Frost atronach, "Keep him busy, my friend needs a sniping point," he ordered.

The ice atronach obeyed and charged at the Earth monster, smashing its icy fist into it...

The rock monster gave an almost unimpressed look before lifting one hand and smashing it.

(How the atronach was feeling before his death) -

Both Lucien and Inigo screamed out in shock at how quickly it died...

"By the gods...!" Lucien gasped, eyes wide as dinner plates, "The atronach did nothing to it! meant nothing to it!" evading a flying boulder that nearly smashed into him, crashing into a roll.

Inigo gulped, shaking it off, "Well, so much for that... let's hope this works instead," chuckling nervously, discharging the wrapped arrow, which lunged itself into its arm, giving off a bit of smoke, while that cracked the crystal, "All set up here!"

"One thunderbolt, coming up!" The imperial shouted, firing a thunderbolt from both hands, pushing the arrow deeper which then caused it to explode, blowing off its arm, "Haha! Yes! one limb down!"

The bits that exploded returned and reformed the arm. It was even covered in crystals.

Lucien groaned, "No! just when we thought we were getting somewhere with it!" Until he thought about it, noting the crystals on its new arm, 'Every time we damage it, it just seems to get stronger... there's got to be a way to end this'

Inigo avoided its large fist, which smashed on the ground, shaking everything around it, firing more arrows, which lodged themselves in before running for cover...

"Inigo! try to keep it busy, but do not break anything else off it!" Lucien shouted to him, getting a frown in response, "We're only making it stronger the more we break its limbs, try to go for the chest with grenades and spiders if you have them!"

Inigo nodded, "And what are you going to do?"

The imperial smirked, "Something about it moving around!" using an invisibility spell on himself, going around it.

"Will do!" The khajiit agreed, coming out to get its attention, "Yoohoo! over here!" he laughed, firing ebony arrows at it.

It growled with annoyance before jumping at Inigo.

The khajiit cackled, keeping its attention on him, lobbing grenades which only angered it further, 'Hope Lucien knows what he's doing, or I'm really getting turned into a rug!' spiked fist, but not its sweeping hand, getting smacked into the large rock, standing up and grabbing his head, "Ow...!" shaking it off and notching another arrow.

While this was happening, Lucien ran around planting fire runes with grenades in the middle of them, before eventually leaving the area nearly littered in traps, the cloak finally wearing off, 'Okay, done with that, on the off chance this doesn't do enough damage, it'll at least cripple it for enough time...' He then sighed and aimed a firebolt spell at the elemental, hitting its back which brought its attention to him, Inigo fled that spot after, "Here I am! you want me? come and get me!" he taunted, getting a roar in response.

It dug its arms into the ground and lifted a huge boulder while glaring at the Imperial.

Lucien blinked twice, feeling himself sweat, "Uh...Inigo...!" while it got ready to hurl it at him.

"Not so fast!" The khajiit growled, firing an explosive arrow at the boulder, blowing it apart; some of the rubble breaking on the Earth monster's head, "Bullseye! forgot about me, huh?" breaking into a run when it tried to smash him once again.

"Try to Lure it over here Inigo, I've set the traps!" Lucien called out, keeping a fireball spell on the ready.

The blue khajiit did just that; jumping over its sweeping hand, and heading to the area with it chasing him, "Yeah, yeah! come on!" firing more arrows at it.

It then covered itself in crystal before becoming a ball that was heading toward Inigo.

Lucien shot fireballs at the crystal to try and slow it down, while Inigo dove for cover, dodging the rolling crystal which ignited most of the traps... It smashed into an earthly wall with impact, causing some of the crystals to fall off of it, before it rose out of the ball, roaring.

Inigo huffed, peeking back out, "Looks like the traps didn't really slow it down, that or it knows we're planning on it," notching another wrapped arrow, this time firing at its face, causing a blinding light that sent the creature stumbling, "Get the legs, now!"

"I see it," Lucien responded, blasting two fireballs at its chest, causing it to stumble back into another trap, causing it to explode, blowing one the legs off and sending it to the ground, "He's down, hit it with the grenades!" pulling a couple of his, igniting and tossing them at it.

Inigo did the same, tossing his lit grenades at the creature as well...All four bombs went off, blowing off most of the crystal armor and a large chunk of the chest plate.

"That hurt it enough, even though it didn't kill it, it's having a hard time regenerating from that," Inigo noted, watching it stand back up with a portion of its core exposed, spotting a rocky magma heart, beating inside, "I see it's core too, looks like it's going to be hard to break!"

Lucien narrowed his eyes on it, watching the earth shell slowly close over it, 'It's getting harder and harder for it to regenerate, which means one thing...' The crystal's barely closing over the core, 'It's starting to get weaker now...the crystals were instantly growing on it, but that has slowed down...we just have to keep the heavy hits coming and eventually...' The beast let out a roar, charging at them, 'Eventually, it won't grow back...'

It roared with fury and anger before pounding the ground, causing rocks to fall. Some of these rocks reformed its legs. It then encased itself in crystal and added two layers before charging Lucian.

The imperial smirked, casting invisibility on himself once more, evading the monster's charge...causing it to once again, smash into an earthly wall, stunning it as a few of its crystals crumbled off...Lucien's cloak then wore off, eyes lighting up when that happened, 'As I thought, he can hurt himself more than we can, and...' looking at its exposed joints, 'He can't seem to armor those, otherwise he wouldn't be able to move...which gives me an idea...' Looking up at Inigo, who now had its attention, "Inigo, try to go for the joints, it's the only thing it can't armor!"

"Got it!" The khajiit yelled back, jumping away from its smash, aiming a Dragonfire arrow at its shoulder, blowing a good chunk of the crystal and rock off, sending it staggering back, "Gotcha!" aiming and notching an explosive arrow, firing it into its kneecap, sticking out of the crystal, smoking, "Give it everything you've got!"

Lucien discharged another thunderbolt spell, breaking off the small amount of crystal on its knee, forcing it on the ground once again, "Now, while it's down!" this time throwing flaming jumping spiders on it, causing them to stick when they landed.

The khajiit followed suit once again, this time throwing a cluster of grenades at the downed elemental...

The Grenades and spiders soon went off, exploding in a chain, this time blowing off almost all the crystal around its chest...Once again with the rocky core exposed.

"Now Inigo, put some arrows in it!" Lucien cried out, watching the cavity around the heart slowly close...

Inigo wound his shot and fired, slightly piercing the heart and leaving the arrow stuck in it, a bit of magma leaking from it... the earthly wall closing around its chest once more, "I got one in, and it looks like it's leaking out though!"

"Good, then we just need one more time to open it up, stay sharp!" The imperial warned...

An ear-piercing roar came from the monster as it turned its entire being into crystals and the eyes red; setting them on Lucien.

"Looks like its defenses reached its max, and it doesn't look like taking the joints again will be an option," The imperial said, pointing out the armored joints, getting a nod from Inigo.

"Yeah, I'm noticing that, looks like it's set on you too, which means I can't divert it anymore, or at least not easily..." Inigo agreed, notching another arrow, "I'm also running low on explosives, used most of the flame spiders and grenades for the last two times, and only got a few left!"

"Good, we're going to need them, but this use lightning spiders if you have them, I may have a way to end this, but it's going to take time..." Lucien began with, breaking into a run, with the elemental chasing it, "Time that we may or may not have! I can only keep this thing busy for so long!"

"Got it, won't waste time!" Inigo said, pulling out a thunder spider and a grenade, 'Got very few of these left Lucien, you better be right about this!' Before quickly moving around the field, planting the grenades, using its web, 'okay, that's one in...by the gods, please hold out...!'

The imperial sprinted away from the rolling crystal ball, drawing his firebolt rifle, "You want to dance? let's dance!" popping off two explosive lightning shots, barely slowing it down, 'Come on Inigo, this thing is about to crush me if you take any longer...!'

The creature jumped before landing next to Lucien with enough force to make the Imperial lose balance and trip over, crashing into a medium-sized boulder.

"Ugh...by the nine..." Lucien groaned, groggily standing up holding his head, looking up in time to see the Earth monster, bring its spiky fist down, jumping out of the way, barely dodging it, the force sending him flying into an earthly wall, spitting up a bit of blood after that, holding his sides, 'At this rate...one of us is going to die if we can't get this going sooner, but I still have to hold out...!' picking up his rifle and reloading it, "I'm not dead yet! come on!" firing shots at the elemental, making it charge in his direction.

Once Inigo had finished setting up the traps, he wiped the sweat off his brow, "Okay, everything is good to go, now to check on," looking back to find the imperial dodging the smash with a roll from the monster, "Lucien! hang on, I'm coming!" notching a wrapped arrow, waiting until he had a good shot until he released, the light of the arrow beginning to flash heading towards the beast...

As the spell blinded the elemental it began pounding the ground violently.

Lucien used this opportunity to blast a couple of fireballs at it, forcing it to stumble back into the traps, each one going off sending a shockwave that shook the ground around it...once it had triggered the traps, the crystals on it were cracked, chips of it falling off, as it gave another roar.

"That didn't work? I thought that was supposed to blow those crystals off!" Inigo said, watching it prep for another attack.

The imperial narrowed his eyes, "It should've...I wonder why it didn't..." staring at the beast, looking directly into its firey mouth, the only thing not crystalized, his eyes going wide, 'It's a risky gamble...but that might be the only way to truly beat this thing...however that means, one of us has to be close enough to pull it off...or get grabbed by it...' looking back at its roaring maw, 'Risky or not...one of us has to do it...!' Glancing at Inigo, "Inigo, I think I might've found an actual way to kill it!"

"An actual plan this time? I hope so because I'm almost out of bombs!" Inigo replied.

Lucien nodded, "I do actually, it's mouth! it's the only thing not armored up...if we could get it to swallow a fireball or spider-"

"We can blow it up from the inside out..." Inigo realized, finishing for him, "That's Genius! but how are going to get that close to it?"

"One of us has to get grabbed in order to do this, and since it's wanting me right now," Lucien began, putting away the gun and drawing his sword with a flame spider in the other hand, "I'll be the one to do it, just back me up!"

Inigo had a worried expression, but nodded, "I see, alright Lucien, I'll keep you covered!" firing arrows at it, as the Imperial dashed towards it with a battle cry.

The crystallized monster recovered and roared again before charging at the coming Imperial.

"That's right, come to me!" Lucien challenged, evading its fist smash, and leaping towards it, seemingly going for its chest, until he was grabbed midair, being swung around as if The elemental was holding its favorite toy, "Okay! wasn't expected to be swung around like that, by the gods I'm dizzy!"

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Inigo called up, wondering if he should've acted this out or not.

"It's the only option we've got left!" The imperial shouted back, the monster moving its hand over its mouth.

It glared hatefully before preparing itself to roar at the Imperial in its hand.

'Wait for it...wait for it...' Lucien told himself, as he dangled over the maw of the beast.

When it gave off its ear-piercing roar, the imperial then let go of the spider he held, before also dropping three grenades behind it, hearing it choke up, closing its mouth with its eyes wide; dropping the held man, who scrambled out of the way to join up with Inigo, who had also taken cover.

The bombs fell all the way through its esophagus, the spider latching on to one of them while doing so, wrapping its legs around it, and reaching the stomach before detonating in a bright flash...

From the outside, Inigo and Lucien watched from cover, the creature now bent over as if it ate something bad, grabbing its stomach in agony.

"I think you made it choke up, but he might vomit those bombs out..." Inigo said, frowning at it.

The imperial chuckled, "He won't...give it a minute..."

Then it happened, one bomb from the inside of it, went off, a muffled explosion but a piece of it was blown out, before two more blew out of it, the elemental going down before the last one and the largest one, went off, completely blowing out its entire torso, in a large fiery explosion.

with its limbs falling off and crumbling to the ground... the light from the elemental's mouth and eyes soon went out...the beast and its limbs turned to dust before scattering to the wind.

Theme ends...

Lucien sighed in relief, "It's finally over..." a smile forming on his face, "By the gods, we did it, Inigo! we did it! Whoohooo!" cheering, as the Khajiit joined him.

"Indeed my friend, indeed!" Inigo agreed, "Hahaha! we did it! we did it!"

Lucien let him go from his hug, "And the best part is that for once, we managed to beat an enemy like this, WITHOUT needing the Dragonborn's power, or even better, our healer's!"

"Right? we're like the dynamic duo of Skyrim! You're the brains and I'm the brawn and with the right tools, we can do anything!" Inigo said, grinning.

Lucien laughed, feeling the high come down, "Yeah, you're right..." a small smile forming, "Thank you for letting me come with you, I wasn't so sure if I'd be able to handle one of these on my own,"

"Same to you, that beast was strong, I probably would've died trying it on my own..." The khajiit replied, smiling back "Thank you for coming with me, you are more worth to the crew than you like to think...don't ever doubt it...for no one, not even yourself,"

Lucien's eyes lit up at that, "You...you think so...? I'm not slowing everyone down?"

"No my friend," Inigo began with "Lucien what we just did, most probably have died from trying this...getting through this curse, defeating the monster after it...weak people can't do that, and that's not you... you've come far...even the Dragonborn knows it and so does everyone else," he finished, placing a hand on his shoulder, "You are strong too, my friend...never forget that,"

Lucien's eyes began to water, quickly turned away, "Nope, uh-uh, nope! this is not happening! Nope! I'm not c-crying right now!" wiping his eyes, sniffling.

"Are you okay over there? I know you took a couple of hits but still," Inigo asked, confused as an ear drooped.

"I'm good! I-I'm good, I just need a moment!" the imperial croaked out, waving his hand at him.

Soon after..., an earthly green light shot up from where the totem pole was and out, going in a direction, the light remaining...

"Look at this light, it's so pretty, ever seen something like this?" Inigo asked, bewildered by it.

Lucien looked up, wiping the rest of his tears away, "Not this vibrant, no...looks like my theory on these being the catalyst was correct, I'm sure the others have found theirs too..." taking a step towards it, "But you're about it, it is pretty, but I have to wonder where this light is going to? to the eye? I'm hoping so...hate to have to find some hidden key,"

"Yeah, that would be very annoying, and I'd have WORDS with the Queen of this fortress," Inigo chuckled, before spotting something rapidly growing ahead, "Look over there, something already growing..." turned out to be a flower, before more of the Area started to slowly green out, "Lucien, are you seeing this too?"

The imperial stared around in shock nodding, "My word...so much growth in a short amount of time...how is it happening?" as the ground they were standing on had grass where rocks were, moving his feet to make sure it wasn't pulling him in. The grey skies cleared and the sun shone down, showing off the now completely greened-out zone.

Inigo and Lucien were both in shock at how quickly the entire zone changed, the light shining an even greener color now.

The imperial spotted the waterfall near the bridge they crossed earlier, a realization hitting, "By the gods...this is a secret garden...a very big one," looking around, amazed.

"And we just made it pretty again, I feel honored..." Inigo said, grinning at the environment, before a portal formed near the light, "Looks like that's our exit too..."

Lucien turned to it and nodded, "Yeah, it would seem so...must be back to the throne doors, or to some corridor in the castle somewhere...I pray it's not the dungeon," nervously chuckled, turning to Inigo, "Time to go chap, we still have ONE more tough enemy to bring down..."

"Not yet..." Inigo said, with his back turned to him, "That portal will be here for a while, so why not take the time to bask in our victory here?" turning to him with a grin, "Just a moment of peace, before going back to that mad storm..."

The imperial gave his friend an overall stare, but sighed in defeat, "Fine, just a moment though, the guys will be looking for us soon if not that General..." walking up to join Inigo, who sat on a log, "Did you at least bring mead or ale?"

"I brought mead and sweetrolls," Inigo said, pulling two mead bottles with something in a wrap, the imperial nodding with an approving grin, one of the bottles.

"You're the best Inigo," Lucien tiredly complimented, taking a seat on the log, and cracking it open, proposing a toast, "To our victory, and to many more after!"

"To our victory And Friendship!" Inigo proposed back, clinking bottles with him, before taking a large gulp, looking out sighing, "I dont' care if this sun isn't real or not...this...this is nice..."

Lucien looked up at it, nodding, "Agreed there Inigo, agreed there..." watching the view with his comrade...

Room Four, Path of Fire...

Erik opened a door, leading into what seemed to be an open area with a large furnace, with a large totem pole in front of it with flames dancing around the structure. The Nord walked in, with sweat dripping to the floor and steam coming from his armor, panting...

"This must be it...by the gods, it's worse in here..." The Nord panted, fanning himself off; feeling the heat increase, as the steam became smoke "And from the look of it, I'm burning faster, which means this thing has got to go...!" pulling out a grenade and tossing it at the totem pole, blowing it apart, the remaining pieces melting into magma...

The burning sensation had faded for the Nord, finally cooling off as the smoking stopped, smirking 'Well, that was...surprisingly easy...I expected a monster or something to come rolling out, but I guess that's not here...time to head out and-' His thoughts were interrupted by a crackling sound, 'What in oblivion is that noise?'

The totem was reformed as molten rocks were thrown from the furnace and formed a centaur.

It then formed two swords. Instead of charging on sight, it gave a quick bow before readying itself.

Erik frowned and quickly bowed back, drawing his Ax and readying his shield, 'I knew that was too easy...still though, I wasn't expecting a flaming centaur of all things...honorable too...' feeling himself sweat, as the heat picked up, 'It also feels like the room is warming up again, something tells me this won't be easy...good thing I stocked up on resist fire potions before coming here,' pulling out one and downing it, tossing the bottle and taking a challenging step forward, "Come at me!" he challenged, hardening his defense.

Battle theme- Genocide (Instrumental)- Friday night funkin

The centaur charged while readying itself to do a cleave with both of its swords.

The Nord raised his shield, tanking the cleaving blow, as the flames were slowly starting to burn his hand, prompting him to roll to the left of it, avoiding its second smash, countering with a hack to its sides, pulling a bit of magma and fire from it; backstepping away from it, "Got one in...! but," watching the wound rapidly heal up, 'it's already healed it's wound...!'

The centaur looked at Eric before swapping his swords for a glaive.

It then charged again and struck horizontally, but had a wave of flames coming out of the attack.

Erik did his best to keep his shield up, the flames scorching parts of his armor, making him grit his teeth from its assault, 'Damn! this thing is tough!' Countering it with a powerful shield bash which staggered it, giving him a bit of room to strike at him, going for a hacking slash towards its chest, clashing with its weapon, 'Things got harder with that glaive of his...gotta get that away from it when I get the chance,' hiding behind his shield after, backstepping away again; feeling the temperature rise as huffed, looking around to find the walls enflamed, 'The room IS heating up...! by the gods, so I'm on limited time with this thing...okay no pressure, you've dealt with worse...just means you have to kill this thing faster...' putting away his ax and pulling out a frost potion bomb, as the elemental prepped up its charge.

This time, however, it began to run circles around Eric, igniting the ground and rising the temperature further before stabbing him in the side and throwing him away.

The Nord cried out, crashing against the enflamed wall, then rolling to put himself out... Once he stood up, wincing from his blow Erik picked up the ice potion, 'By the gods, that was painful...have to be more careful with him and not get roasted in here...' glancing at the firewall, which had increased in temperature, before looking back at the elemental, tossing the ice bomb at it.

The centaur tapped the ground with his glaive and created a whirlwind of fire. He then noticed Eric's state and lowered his guard before pointing to a table with a fresh bottle on it.

Erik frowned at it, before turning to the bottle, slowly nodding, walking over to it, and taking the bottle "Thanks...that's...oddly generous..." taking large gulps out of it, feeling himself cool down, as well as his wounds heal up while putting it away, 'Better save that for later...noticed there was only one there and it stopped the pain...Even cooled off me for a bit, but I still need to figure it out...' noticing the elemental's stance, 'I could use my throwing axes, but he's proven that doesn't work with that whirlwind of his...so getting close is my only option...' pulling out another frost potion, this time coating his axe and shield in it, coating them in ice, 'If I could get a good blow or at least a parry, I might be able to turn it around...' he thought out, charging towards the centaur with his shield raised, axe at the ready...

The elemental leaped back while leaving a nest of fire. It then used the nest with a sweep to throw a wave of fire before jumping at Eric while trying to pierce him.

The Nord tanked most of the flaming wave, staggering back, looking up in time to see it coming at him with a lunge, barely stepping to the side, the pierce scrapping against the ice on the shield, spinning out of it countering a horizontal smash, hacking into its upper torso, the ice giving off a small explosion of ice off the axe, which cooled the elemental off for a moment but left a glow in its upper-chest, 'must be its core...if I strike there...perhaps I could...' ripping the axe out of the stunned Centaur, before giving one hard smash there, before winding up, giving a harder smash, sending it back with a medium-sized crack there, 'Damn that was hard...what the hell is that shell made out of?' shaking his axe-wielding hand.

After a battle cry, the centaur was engulfed in flames and exited larger, bulkier, and armored. Instead of a Glaive, it had a double-head spear. The centaur then winded up on his hinder legs before stomping the ground and increasing the heat.

Erik breathed out, wiping the sweat from his forehead, 'Looks like I've damaged it...but now it's stronger...means I'll either have to hit this harder or...' Glancing at the legs, 'Throw it off balance...won't be easy, but not too hard either, I can get hits in and take them...and that's enough for me...' reaching for another ice potion, dumping more on the shield and axe, strengthening them in ice, pouring the rest on his armor, coating his armor in ice, taking a defensive stance, "Let's go!"

Instead of charging it stomped on the floor and then winded the double-headed spear, sweeping along a torrent of flames that traveled across the floor. It then swung its weapon two times, unleashing two fast-traveling flame-imbued shockwaves in front. It then began to run on the side as it swapped the spear for a great bow.

The Nord saw this and kept his shield held up, grinding his heels hard while sliding back from the shockwaves, the second sending him on his knee, as a piece of ice fell off of his shield, "Gods...!" he exclaimed, watching the centaur notch up an arrow, quickly hoping on his feet to dodge the first shot fired at him, leaving behind an explosion that sent him under a table, "Gaaah! ugh...!" groaning, as he crawled out, ducking from another shot and retaliating with three thrown axes, flying at the Centaur.

The centaur roared flames, melting the axes before that they could get to him he stomped the ground again, increasing the heat further.

Erik leaped over the table, fanning himself off and reaching for the same bottle as before, taking a small gulp and feeling himself cool down, putting it away, 'Gods...it's getting so hot in here...I have to open this thing up somehow...smoke may work until it blows it away...but that will give me a bit of time...' reaching into his backpack, coming out with a smoke grenade, and tossing it, near the elemental, exploding, covering the field in smoke... The sounds of something metal opening were heard around the Centaur until a frost potion came flying at it.

The centaur created a burst of intense fire that melted anything around it. Thankfully, Eric jumped away before being burnt by the explosion. The centaur then swapped the bow with a poleaxe and raised his hand, as a fire feline was summoned next to him.

Erik saw this and sighed, pulling out another fire resist potion, downing it quickly, 'Looks like he melted the traps...and summoned his helper too...the heat in here is getting worse as well...I'll be cooked at this rate...' pulling out another bottle of frost potion, pouring it on himself, fortifying his melting ice armor and weapons, 'I'm down to my last one now...and I've got only two more fire resist potions on me too...things are starting to look bad here...but still' Reaching into his backpack, pulling out a scroll, and wrapped it around his ax, a chilling wind coming from, 'I have to hold this until I get my chance and then...' Picturing a blizzard, 'I can use my chance then...but for now, I'll enjoy the ice...' Giving a yell and charging at the lion, who charged back with roar, going head first into his icy shield, causing steam to rise...the beast clawed at the shield, taking chunks of ice out of it, until the nord Retaliated with a shield bash, knocking it over, before repeatedly slamming his axe into it, causing steam to rise out of it, before giving it a final hard swing, causing the beast to explode...

The Nord sighed, looking back at Centaur who readied itself again, 'Looks like it's back on the offense...but it's a good thing this scroll's use is still holding...now then...' Getting back into a defensive posture, beckoning the elemental, "Come on!"

The centaur eyed the scroll and narrowed his eyes before hitting the ground and generating a small snake that wrapped itself on the axe, burning the scroll, and then disappeared in cinders. the elemental rushed at Eric while dragging the edged blade on the ground, leaving a flaming trail that gets bigger.

'He got rid of my scroll...he knew about it...!' Erik mentally cried out, taking the charge head on, once again, digging his heels and gritting his teeth, the flames melting through the ice, 'not good...! I've got very few options left now...' Glancing at the ax with a bit of chilling on ice on it, 'To oblivion with it...Clever's not helping me here...and I'm just wasting more time...!' Pushing the centaur back with power bash, swing out, clashing with its weapon, going blow for blow with it, trying to open its defenses up with power attacks, 'Keep pushing him Eric, he'll have to open up sometime...!'

The centaur hit with a hard hit, destabilizing the Nord before going for a piercing attack.

Erik shook off his daze in time to see the oncoming blow, and quickly swung his shield out, parrying the blow, knocking the centaur off balance for a moment, as well as the ice giving off a decent explosion, the shield now unfrozen...once again, the Elemental had been cooled down and stunned, giving the Nord an opportunity to throw his ax into its glowing crack, embedding the ax into it, before moving close and ripping it out, before giving one powerful swing sending it back on all four legs...

The Nord panted, giving his head another shake, 'Finally...I managed to get lucky there...thank the gods I'm used to blows like that...otherwise, it would've been the end for me for sure...but one thing for certain...' looking at the very large crack near its core, 'it's almost over...just got one hurdle left...being clever didn't help, but getting close did...and if that's the case...' beginning to remove his gauntlets and his upper armor, going completely shirtless, 'Then getting close IS the only way to beat this thing...' dropping his torso piece, rearming himself as the flames gathered, drinking the last of the cooling drink before tossing the bottle.

The Centaur hit the ground again before being eaten by the flames again. When he emerged, this time, he had blazing bull horns, was more armored, had a bulkier appearance, and had one great sword in each hand. The heat in the room was rising more.

Erik was sweating a storm at this point, even with the drink earlier, it wasn't much, especially now...but despite feeling like he was directly under the sun, he hardened his stance and charged at it with a battle cry, his shield in front of him, going for a shield charge.

the elemental centaur swung one sword and sent Eric flying.

The Nord fell to a roll, nearly touching the enflamed wall when he stopped, throwing his shield against it to prevent getting burnt... standing up, wincing at the scorching wound on his shoulder, and gritting his teeth while getting back into stance. He noticed the new armor on the centaur in a majority of places, all except on its legs...slowly nodded to himself, banging the shield at it in a taunt, beckoning it with the axe, 'by the gods, I hope I'm right about this...or else...'

The centaur shook his head before swinging his weapon, unleashing two other fast-traveling flame-imbued shockwaves.

Erik once again stood his ground against the wave, feeling the heat go over his arm, taking a slight burn from it, gritting his teeth...' Damn...thing's too damned smart for its own good, but there's a reason for him not doing it though...why?' before glancing back, at the small space behind him, it clicking, 'it knows it's limited around small spaces...that's why it won't rush me, okay pal...I think I get your game now...doesn't make it easier, but I get it now...' giving it a smirk, 'if getting you to charge me won't work...I'll just come to you!' rushing towards the Centaur and once close enough, ducked a swung sword aimed at his head, circling around it, keeping his shield up.

The centaur waited until Eric got behind him and used his hinder legs to kick him away.

Erik slid back, the shield taking most of the blow, griding his heels...taking a breath when he could stop, huffing from the gathering heat, until he eyed his backpack, rushing and grabbing it, finding more than a few smoke grenades as well as normal ones there, nodding at an idea, strapping it on his back, before pulling on out and throwing it at the elemental...exploding when the centaur slashed it, covering the area in smoke...everything going quiet...

Instead of the centaur, three fire wolves rushed toward the Nord.

The Nord quickly, slashed into one, causing it to explode, before dodging another who leaped at him, slicing into it next...killing it, as it exploded...the next one, came at him from the side, latching on to his arm, causing burns, making him grit his teeth, before slamming his axe into its head repeatedly, before bashing the shield hard into its snout, causing the last to explode...before pulling out grenades...watching it charge at him, 'Now...!' rolling to the side, once it tried to smash him into the ground, dropping something as he did...

Once the smoke cleared, Erik was standing on one of the tables, smirking at it, "It was nice fighting with you, but I really have to get back to my friends..." tossing his last bottle at the Centaur, who knocked it away, turning it to a mist, unbeknownst to the bombs ticking away at its hooves...

When the bombs had gone off and the smoke had cleared, the centaur was in his first form kneeling. He got up and looked at Eric with a serious look that displayed satisfaction, pride, and no regret. He then opened his chest, showing his core before nodding.

Theme Ends...

Erik blinked twice as that, walking up to it with a confused expression..." You...you're satisfied with this...? after everything...?" getting a nod in return, "I see...you just wanted a good battle, is that it? I...I think I understand..." giving it a nod, before taking his axe, with a saddened expression, "Thank you for a good fight today, I'll never forget it..." embedding the axe into its core, before quickly pulling it out...magma spilling out. The Elemental gave him a last genuine smile, before lighting up, giving the Nord time to back away, exploding after...the charred magma pieces, turning to dust...A gold ring with an amber glowing gem in the middle of it...The flames in the room, finally going out...

The Nord took a sigh, feeling a ping in his heart, giving it a bow of respect, and walked over to the ring..."What's this...?" picking it up and putting it on, "It's just a normal ring...what's so special about-?" holding the hand out he wore it with, summoning a flaming mace in his hands, surprising him, "-this...? the ring can summon weapons? Awesome!" he cheered, putting away the flaming mace, looking around, 'looks like that's it for the curse...I no longer feel like I'm cooking alive either...but' his eyes darkened, 'The way it surrendered...if it kept going, Surely I wouldn't have lasted that much longer...did he truly just want to honor my challenge?...gods, it's hard to tell now...' looking back at the smoldering pile, furrowing his brow, before putting head down...uttering a silent prayer...

Right as he did this, an amber light shot of the original spot of the totem pole, going out of the room...the glow remaining on, as the furnace did, running as if nothing was wrong, "Looks like the boiler back up too...room is getting back to being as hot as it needs to be..."

A portal then opens up next to it, just like the others before it...The Nord nodded at it...

"Right, time to go...maybe then, I'll actually get to put this ring to some actual use..." chuckling to himself, before walking through it, closing behind him.

Room Five, Path of Thunder...

The Redhead came out to a large courtyard with her shield held up to the sky, blocking the next lightning bolt that struck, before they started to increase slowly, coming at her two at a time now...She then spotted a large totem pole ahead, with lightning arcing around it, making her frown.

"So this is the cause of the curse here...glad to know I've reached the end of the road here," Yuriana sighed, walking up to it, dropping her shield for a moment, to grab her hammer, and gave it a hard smash, knocking the top of it off in one swing, the rest crumbling down in magma...

She gave herself a satisfied grin, "Looks like that takes care of it...I'm no longer getting struck or struck at..." until she frowned, 'So why hasn't anything happened yet...?'

unfortunately...the sky got even darker, and the winds were now picking up, along with lightning striking down in hard bright light, as the pieces that were blown off, reconstructed themselves in the lighting, making the woman cover her eyes...

"By the Dibella, what is happening?" Yuriana said, trying to keep the winds from blowing her away.

Lightning struck a few times before that circles of metal appeared. Lightning struck them as they levitated and became connected with electricity.

A quick wave ran from it as Yuriana noticed a blue aura around her.

The Redhead frowned, looking up and finding a blue glowing minus symbol over her head, "What in oblivion is this?" looking down at the ground, on a blue square, the rest of them in checkers, with both Red and blue colors there, "It's almost like a game...something tells me if I step in the wrong square though, I'm going to pay for it...' Watching the elemental, build up an attack, 'Regardless, I'm not going to have a choice but to play along so...' drawing her hammer back out, "Let's go!" she challenged...

The elemental charged her with the intent to crush her head.

Yuriana responded to this, by power swinging her back at it, giving a battle-cry "Hyaaaaaaaa!" clashing with the Elemental, a small shockwave caused by it.

Battle theme: Master of Shadow - Persona 3 ost

The Redhead gritted her teeth under its pressure, as it tried to force its weapon down, prompting her to dodge forward, going under the mace and diving over the red square, landing into blue, 'Very strong, almost made go into a red too,' putting away her large hammer, bringing out her bulwark shield and ebony mace, 'Looks like I'll need to depend on defense here...no point in rushing to die...but this thing can move around freely, I can't...but I wonder if a phantom can...' her right eye gave a blue flash, summoning her mystic phantom in ebony armor, "Try to weaken it, its magic shouldn't be able to harm you!" she ordered.

The phantom obeyed and began attacking the elemental, moving around the squares with ease, both colors and firing magic at it... While this was happening though, Yuriana used a shout, coating herself in magical armor.

Another wave exited the elemental as the aura around Yuriana changed from blue to red, and the phantom gained a blue one.

"What? I'm red now?" She said out loud, before taking shocks, "Ugh! so that's the penalty! okay I'm getting it!" quickly jumped to red, avoiding the smash of the elemental, 'So he can change my color on will...That's not good, means at any point if it feels I'm winning, he'll fry me...I'll have to be careful with this one...not your typical Atronach that's for sure...' Holding her shield up, back in defense mode, glancing at the phantom, who was also taking shocks, frowning as it jumped for a blue square, 'so it CAN affect spirits too...by the gods, this is going to be harder than I thought...'

The elemental turned its sight toward the sky before creating columns of lightning that rushed toward Yuriana and the spirit.

The wench quickly ducked, hiding completely as the lightning passed over her, the shield and magic armor taking most of the damage, which dimmed after, coming out of her crouch, sighing...her summon, on the other hand, had gotten zapped, fading in and out, 'Dammit it...I have to get closer, or that thing is going to keep raining lightning...my phantom can't seem to take another either...' Taking a deep breath and shouted something, summoning three lesser wisps, 'Guess I'll have to add to the numbers... at least until I'm close enough to smash it in...' pointing her mace towards her foe, the wisp quickly slithering towards it, while she jumped red squares approaching it...

The elemental watched carefully before pointing at her with his mace and summoning three wisps made of lightning. it then went and ended the weakened spirit.

The Redhead sighed when her phantom had faded out, shaking her head, 'I figured as much...and I won't be able to summon another one for awhile either...' glancing back at her wisps, who were engaging the lightning wisps, 'hopefully, they hold them long enough for me to get him...!' before once again moving on the red, finally getting close enough to Elemental, Yuriana jumped up and smashed into it with her mace, sending it back a few squares, it ending up in the blue...

'Finally got a direct one in!' she mused, noticing a decent dent in the middle of its chest plate, 'And left a mark too, I give it a few more hits, before I smash through it...probably where its core is...'

Another wave exited the elemental, turning Yuriana's aura back to the blue one. It then stuck to the ground, generating a wave made of lightning that was heading toward the red-haired woman.

She jumped over it and ended up in a blue square ahead, shaking off the punishing effect of being shocked. Upon shaking off her daze, she glanced at the flooring again, a realization hitting when she saw how the blues were going, diagonally...a thought occurring, 'If this IS like a chess game...then I know exactly how to get close to this thing...and should it switch my color again, I'll be able to see it coming...' Giving the lightning elemental a smirk, breaking into a diagonal run, going around the sides of it.

Another wave exited the elemental, but this time it didn't just turn Yuriana's aura red, it also changed the ground to make it to a large blue zone surrounded by the red zone.

She gritted her teeth, the lightning dancing over her, as she backstepped out of the blued-out zone, going back to red and sighing, eyes going wide at the sudden floor change, 'It even switched the floor...? gods, so it picked up on what I was doing...' giving the rings on its arms a quick glance, along with the rest of the elemental's body, especially the large ring with the large dent into it, 'Okay, at least it doesn't heal...doesn't have a physical one either from the look of it...only those ring...if one could break, then perhaps...' Drawing out her crossbow, aiming and firing at the elemental, running around it in the safe zone.

The elemental blocked each shot with his shield as he lifted his mace to the sky, calling lightning down on Yuriana.

She took the powerful hit from the bolt, causing her to grit her teeth in agony...the smoke stemmed off of her, as she panted, loading up another type of ammo, a red-tipped bolt, and fired at the mace-holding hand, causing a small explosion of fire, the rings there beginning to slightly alter and melt...Summoning another mystic phantom afterward, 'I've done a bit to it, but it didn't seem like much...' looking at the scorched and heated rings, 'Still, I'm making progress with this thing...' going into a dash, holding her shield up.

The elemental held his hand as the mace returned. It looked at Yuriana as another wave exited its body, turning the red zone to a blue one and the blue zone to a red one, changing Yuriana's aura to blue and giving the mystic phantom a red aura, it also summoned an electric version of the mystic phantom.

This time she took no shock damage, standing in the blue, but her phantom took a bit of shock, stepping towards the electric phantom, engaging it with its Warhammer, and being the first to swing it at it... While the mystic and lightning constructs fought each other, Yuriana pulled out a Magicka potion and downed it quickly, tossing it to the side, 'now with that restored, looks like physical combat is out until it decides to get close...and then, I can work on those rings...for now, though, I'll keep playing long-range with it until then...' Reloading her crossbow, and broke into a run, firing a volley of flame shots at the elemental.

The elemental blocked them with his shield before that a lightning bolt was shot from the skies at Yuriana's hands. Meanwhile, the electric phantom was clearly winning.

The Redhead cried out, dropping the crossbow as it superheated, shaking her hands while it exploded into chunks, "Gods...! well there goes that option..." looking over at her phantom, who was fading in an out, 'Great and this one is about to die to...dammit if I could get closer...I would be able to do enough damage to it...' Pondering for a minute, until it dawned on her...' Wait...I do have shock-resistant potions...If I drank one and used my mystic armor, then perhaps...' quickly reaching into her potion bag, grabbing a medium-sized bottle with a yellow label, cracking it open, and drinking it quickly, tossing and breaking the bottle after..."And now..." giving a cry, the same green aura surrounded her, 'let's test this out...' taking a step out of the blue into red, making the elemental cock it's head sideways when she kept approaching...

'Doesn't feel good, but it's not unpleasant or crippling either...' she mused, drawing a hammer, dashing up to it, evading its smash with the mace with a sidestep, until she spun, slamming the hammer into it's center ring, causing a spark and bending it more inward, forcing the elemental back...however, she wasn't finished...with a battle cry, she leapt to it, giving it downward strike to it's shoulder ring, making it drop it's mace; going for a barrage of strikes with the hammer, denting multiple places on the torso and limbs... She eventually gave a hard blow that sent it spinning far back, now with more dents on it's most of its rings.

'That may not have finished it now...but gods, did that feel good...' Smirking to herself in satisfaction, as winds began to pick up...

The elemental looked at her before lighting up and disappearing. After some seconds, Yuriana looked up and a dragon flying around her.

Yuriana's jaw slightly dropped, blinking twice, "Seriously...? A dragon? that's your final form? Alright then, how about I match you?" getting into an aggressive stance with her Warhammer, strange dark red spots appearing on her armor and face before she let out a bloodcurdling cry...dark energy blasting out of her, taking a calming breath afterward...

"Let's settle this...I'm going to enjoy...Tearing your rings off! Raaaaaaahh! In an angry roar rushing towards it, the dragon boomed down at her.

The dragon looked unimpressed as it charged a breath of dark cloud and thunder.

The Redhead altered her charge, quickly jumping to the side when it released its power breath in the form of a lighting beam, which disintegrated everything it touched, following her as she ran in a circle...'If I know dragons, they can only do that for so long...' glancing back at the beam, until it stopped, using this window to resume her charge, before jumping up and giving its maw a good bash with her hammer, sending it crashing down, "Think I can't kill one of you? we fight plenty of dragons back home, some can even drain life, and you don't come close!" charging at the downed dragon soon after.

The dragon acted as it was out and waited until she was near before hitting her with its tail and then sending a discharge of electricity toward the red-haired woman.

Yuriana hit the crumbled wall hard, standing back up just in time to see the lightning blast incoming, diving off to the side before it crashed into the wall, completely destroying it...once back up on her feet, she saw the dragon rise, clicking her teeth and running towards it with the hammer raised...noting it's weakened stance, as it gave its own charge towards her...

The dragon began to charge black clouds and lightning.

The Nord woman then, used her chance to wind up a blow, bashing the dragon on the side of its head this time, denting it as it misfired, sending it staggering back...She came at it again, dodging the claw smash the dragon had for her, rolling under it... going for the base of its tail next, slamming her hammer into it, leaving another dent there, as the Dragon gave a pained roar...

The dragon emitted a burst of electricity before that dark clouds began to form around the arena.

The Area got dark, clouds blinding everything around Yuriana, the dragon no longer being where it was...causing her to frown, 'Okay...where did it go...? something that big wouldn't just up and disappear...' keeping her guard up, looking around...

A slash came from behind her as she was thrown forward. She winced from her back being struck, despite the armor as the lightning danced off of it, 'So it's playing THAT game now...? Alright then, I can wait you out...' holding her hammer in front of her, not keeping her back to one area... wondering when it'd come next, until the next one struck, sending her stumbling to the side next, making her huff...' There's got to be a way to either break this or at least see him in here...' getting back into defense mode, keeping her eyes out...or trying to...

It struck again, but this time, the slash was enhanced with electricity.

Yuriana screamed out, stumbling forward, going to one knee as the electricity danced off her once more, 'That does it...! this thing is toying with me from the dark...but I did notice something though...' struggling to stand, 'It's timing its attacks...meaning...there should be a few seconds until he strikes again...' Getting back into stance, a smirk forming, 'If I could figure out that timing...I could counter it and eventually...end it...' Closing her eyes, 'Five...four...three...two...one...'

The tail struck once again, only this time, she felt it coming and blocked it, turned in that direction, "Nice try!" she shouted, swinging back, getting nothing but air, 'So that confirms it...five seconds at a time...okay, you've got this...!' Counting down to herself once again...

Another claw attack was coming at her.

Yuriana turned around to it, and swung upwards, parrying its claw, hearing something large stagger back...' Heard it that time...it won't be long now...' Quickly evading its tail smash with a roll, taking an aggressive stance, the clouds finally starting clear up...

The dragon appeared tired as it was resting on the ground. It charged itself up ready to kill himself and the red-haired woman.

Yuriana noticed the way it was building energy, eyes going wide with shock, "No way...it looks like it's about to..." winds were now gathering up, prompting her to get away from it, managing to find a spot in the nearest corner, getting under the table and ducking and holding her shield, curling as the elemental lit up...

With one final roar, a light emanated from its body, causing a huge thundering explosion. The impact from it was brutal enough that Yuriana felt it in her body.

"Gods...!" She said through gritted teeth, the impact hitting against the shield hard...A gust of dust and dirt blew around soon after...

Once the elemental had exploded, it left behind its shield and mace...Yuriana finally rose from the destroyed rubble, pushing it off with her shield to stand...looking around to find only the weapons afloat, sighing in relief... "It's finally over...by Dibella...that was...that was something else there..." stumbling to stand, as her breastplate crumbled off, her armored bikini along with her breasts, spilling out, "Well...so much for that... at least I had something under," chuckling as she walked over to the mace and shield, picking them up, "Very nice..." Giving the mace a swing, trailing lightning behind it...testing the bash with the shield, hearing booming thunder, grinning, "Not a bad prize either...these will come in handy later..." sheathing the mace into the shield.

Soon after, a purple light blasted up from where the totem was at originally, shooting up to the sky and heading toward the main castle wing...

'And that's it for this room's curse...I'm hoping the others had cleared theirs too, maybe they ran into something similar...nothing surprises me at this point...' She mused as the skies began to clear up, smiling up at the crimson moon...Moments after, a portal opens near the light, getting her attention to it, 'And that looks like that's my cue... Can't say being cursed was fun...but this fight at least was...I pray it goes that smoothly with the General too...' Walking up to it, giving it a nod, proceeding through...

All five elemental lights ran through the entire fortress, each one striking the eye at the gate when they made it, going in order...it was then, time seemed to distort a bit, until the sounds of loud shattered glass echoed, the curse there completely shattering...five strange glyphs appearing on the door soon after.

Greil sighed as he felt the demise of the elementals.

"So much for your plan." Olga said as she looked at the gate, "But again, if they were able to defeat their Dark Shadows, this would mean that it wasn't impossible to overcome the elementals."

"We also need to take into consideration the fact that we summoned medium-ranked elementals, not the high-ranking ones." Greil added before turning toward Olga, "I still believe that you should escape."

"Never." Olga's response was on time, "I will appear as a coward."

Greil sighed before looking at the gate, "Now, the secondary traps will be activated. This should be more of a challenge to them."

"You sound like you know that they will arrive." Olga pointed.

Greil smirked before replying with, "Because the captain isn't one that can be stopped with such a low level of traps, but it will take him time to come here."

Olga simply narrowed her eyes.

Near Library...

(Traysek & Yuriana)

The Redguard walked out from the portal, which closed behind him...Now in a new place, Traysek looked around the hall he was in, "Where am I...?" noting the old portraits going down the hall, the women in those in Regal posses, frowning, 'Must be Queens of the past...just how many ruled here...?' Strolling down the hall, entering what seemed to be a gutted out library, frowning, 'This seems to be the Library, but why is everything in here mostly gone...?' looking around, until a thought occurred, "Right...Volt said something about some hidden city...must've been all of that then..." exploring it further...

Nearby in the storage closet, Yuriana walked through her portal, frowning at the empty boxes and blank papers everywhere, as the portal closed behind her, 'Okay...where did that just take me?' getting a good look at her surroundings, 'Must be storage, and from the papers and book crates...I'm in a library, that's good... at least its somewhere normal...' spotting the door a few feet away, heading to it, 'This must lead back into it...hopefully...' reaching for the door until she heard movement coming from there, furrowing her brow...reaching for her new mace, 'Doesn't seem like I'm going to be alone either...' slowly opening the door, stepping in with her weapon drawn...

Traysek heard a door close, turning to the direction of it with a hand on his pistol, 'Just when I thought I was alone in here...great...' making his way carefully around the corner...upon making his way around the corner, he could hear the steps approaching as he got closer...drawing his gun and taking a breath, quickly jumping out, ready to gun down whatever monster was waiting...only it wasn't...

"Woah! boss it's me!" A familiar voice said, the figure lowering their mace over his head, turning out to be Yuriana.

The Redguard's eyes went wide in shock, quickly putting his gun away, "By the gods woman, you almost got shot there!" taking a calming breath, a grin slowly etching on his face, "It's good to see you, Yuri...I see you made it out from your cursed room," glancing at her new weapons, "And got some new toys too huh?"

"Yeah I did, it's good to see you alive too, sir," Yuriana sighed, chuckling and sheathing her mace, "I'm glad I'm not the only one who made it out, that means everyone else..."

Traysek nodded, "Probably made it out too...just in different places..." taking a good look around, "It seems it's only you and me here in this gutted-out library..."

"It would seem so," Yuri said, frowning and glancing around too, "I noticed the library has been cleaned out...almost like they had something to hide here..."

"Most likely...but for all their attempts...there has to be at least a couple of books lying around here...trust me, somebody dropped shit on their way out of here..." The Redguard said, narrowing his eyes around, before turning back to her, "Let's look around, got a good feeling we're going to find something worthwhile in here..."

The Redhead nodded, "Very true, we might find a tome or two in here...maybe a map even, this place is big enough and I'm tired of ending up in unknown places, at least I'll be with you..." Thinking about that, fidgeting with herself, a slight blush appearing, "And then maybe after...You and I can..."relax" for a moment..."

Traysek almost nodded to that, until he frowned, "Yeah...wait...huh? what do you mean by that...?"

"It's just that..." A flirty smile, spread on her face, blushing even deeper as she got closer to him, "It's been a while since it's been just you and me...and we don't often spend time like we used to...I know we aren't dating anymore but...I do miss your company~" now, nose to nose with him, stroking the scar on his cheek, "And I sorta...maybe...drained all of my magic..."

The Redguard sighed, feeling his face heat up, "You cannot be serious... right now?...here? HERE?" motioning around to the library, taking a quick glance at her exposed bikini, making resisting her way harder... "Gods Yuri...as much I want to...especially right now..." eyes going wide at her breasts, "We can't...we're in enemy territory and there's no telling whose around and watching..."

"I'm aware...but I can't ask anyone else about this...everyone is split up..." Yuriana said, clenching her fist after, "and there's no way I'm asking a Black dog to help me with this..."

Traysek furrowed his brow, sighing at her shaking hand, 'I guess that's not really fair is it? her magic DOES get stronger from passionate love but...again...I just don't know if this is the right time for it...anywhere else, no question there, but...' Having a flashback of what that shadow said to him,

'You'd better wake up, this isn't some kind of world where you can think that accepting your past is enough. But who am I talking to, you always ignore the obvious signs that danger is near; sending your closest friends, the ones you consider as family, to their death. And, Volt. Just staying with him, while his men plan to rape Yuri and Record after being done here. You saw the warehouse, the fact that he forced you and your crew to stop at Geofu, what the general said. C'mon, explaining is easy, but don't wait until I understand it for ya...'

The Redguard blinked out his thoughts, giving her a sad smile, placing his hands in hers, "You're scared of them...aren't you...?" getting a slow nod in response, "Given what you went through in your past and what you almost went through in this world...I can understand that...been having my own doubts about them too...more than you know," giving her a soft smile, "Alright, I'll help you restore that power of yours, but only after we complete our search, deal?"

"Deal." Yuriana said, smiling back, "If anything, this search shouldn't take too long," she chuckled, stepping back from him, "I'll get started over here, let me know when you do find something,"

"For sure," Traysek responded, walking off into another area

The Redguard walked until he saw Kin with an open wound that runs through all his arm...

"What in oblivion...? Kin!" He shouted rushing over to him, and kneeling down, "What the hell happened to you, did Greil do this to you?" applying a healing spell to his arm.

"It was... an abomination... no matter where it was struck, no matter who struck it... it wouldn't die..." Kin said painfully as he winced when he tried to touch his arm, "I don't know what the dark queen did, but she got her hands on an unstoppable monster."

Traysek gave him a hard frown, "An abomination? What did it look like...?" As steps neared them, turning out to be Yuri.

"I came as soon as I heard you shout and-" She began until she looked down, narrowing her eyes on who he was healing, "Oh, it's just you..." in a cold tone.

Kin chuckled before looking at Traysek, "It was like a creature stitched with many corpses, no face, it had some armor, but... instead of a right arm, it had a big blade that could cut through many of my comrades like they were nothing."

Traysek frowned at that, thinking about it, until it hit, eyes going wide like dinner plates...Yuriana on the other hand was still thinking about description..."Boss...that abomination he just described...sounds like a damned..." She began with, coming to a scary realization...

"Flesh Atronach..." He gasped, "Gods...Those fuckers there...I fought an entire room of them once escaping an asylum run by the Thalmor...I even stole a copy of that tome and learned that summon...gods, how does a piece of our magic end up out here...?"

"A real mystery indeed." Sheogorath said as he was standing next to Traysek, "Could it be the work of a Daedra?"

Traysek had stumbled forward, while Yuriana cried out, jumping...

"Where the hell did he just come from?" She yelled, still freaked out.

The Redguard sighed, regaining his composure, "By the gods man... you know, now I'm beginning to wonder if it WAS a Daedra behind it..." he said, clearing his throat, "Master Sheogorath, you're looking well..." giving him a quick bow, "I gotta say, I wasn't expecting you to be in this world as well...my question now is, what are you doing here?" raising an eyebrow.

"I'm just visiting! I do plan to buy this house. The view is killing, the sky is perfect for a night stroll, and the water is sweet and delicious. Very enjoyable house!" the mad god said before adding, "And look at how big the living room is, I can set up three thrones made of cheese!"

Kin looked worried as he glanced at Traysek.

Traysek and Yuriana glanced at each other, before back to him...

"Well, you might be in a bit of competition there...Volt wanted to keep it for himself and his men..." The Redguard chuckled, "We uh...tried to keep in one piece...best we could..."

Back outside, a piece of the wall crumbled and fell, landing on the grounds below...flames burning everything around it...

The Redhead had a sweat bead nervously chuckling, "But you know how battles tend to go...nothing we could do about it..." shrugging it off.

"That's fine! A little hammer hit here, another one there, and this place will be as new as good." Sheogorath replied, "I can even rewind all that happened here, down to you facing your darkest parts. And it comes with a lot of rooms where I can hide my head in! So I'd better head in to deal with the sale manager."

Both Traysek and Yuri were frantically shaking their heads...

"That's okay! you can do that when we leave!" Yuriana pleaded, "I do not want to get electrocuted again..."

"Agreed, dealing with those dark halves was not fun...in the slightest, we're good on that, trust me" The Redguard sighed, shaking his head, "Anyway...the flesh Atronach, how did the dark queen get it? did you gift her that?"

"You mean your gift to her? I don't know. That thing is between you two." Sheogorath replied, "Just go easy on my Gatekeeper, it's hard to get a new one." he then disappeared.

"Wh-Who was that?" Kin asked.

Traysek sighed, shaking his head, "That there... was the Daedric Prince of Madness, Lord Sheogorath...his presence alone can drive even the sanest man insane..." chuckling after, "I'm amazed you simply didn't kill yourself while he was here,"

"Yeah. Real Shame there..." Yuriana said, nonchalantly, "So where's your boss then? last time I saw you, you were with him..."

The Redguard frowned, stopping the healing magic when the arm finished, "Yeah, good point...where is he anyway...? Saw Greil doing a number on him before we left to get rid of the curses,"

"Some of our boys managed to drive the attention of that thing away from Volt." Kin explained, "I wanted to head back and see if the path was clear for us to go through... but then, we met that abomination..."

"I see," Traysek said, "Well, you're in luck...if everyone else made it through, then the way should be opened now...just have that left to go through, and whatever traps are around,"

Yuriana narrowed her eyes at the mage, "Yeah, okay...but still didn't answer our question...But luckily for you, we're here for other answers, so, I'm going to do just that, you can either help, stay there, I don't care either way...you need me, boss, I'll be around," Walking around the corner, disappearing.

"Same here, I've got shit to find, when you're healed up enough, come join us," Traysek said, walking off in a different direction, going around the corner as well...

Armory

(Erik & Recorder)

The Nord walked through his portal, watching it shut behind him when he turned around, before eyeing the rest of the room, "Okay, looks like that brought me somewhere... the only question is...where...?" looking around at the empty sword and armor racks, as well as smithing tools, a furnace and a forge, slowly nodding, 'Looks like I came out to some kind of forge...I wonder if they have anything to use in here, maybe a new armor,' Glancing down at his, watching a plate fall off, 'This one's starting to wear, I might as well improve it while I'm here...' Walking over to a dark version of the armorer's bench, removing his armor and placing it there, grabbing the hammer and got to work...

Nearby, on an upper floor, A blue portal opens with Recorder coming out, who looked around at where she ended up, frowning at the sword racks and empty mannequins..."Mine led to an armory?" noticing it was gutted out completely, furrowing her brow, 'Correction...an empty armory...did the dogs do this? no...couldn't have and there would be some left...so was it the work of the dark army then...?' pondering as she wondered the floor, hearing sounds of banging bellow, 'Seems I'm not alone either...' Peeking over the ledge to find a nearly naked familiar man working on his armor, blinking twice, 'Okay...either I'm seeing things, but that guy looks like Erik...but why's he damn near naked though...?' frowning hard, shaking her head, 'I need to go see who or what that is...' Before climbing over the ledge, being careful not to make too much noise...

Erik continued to work on his armor, putting the hammer down when he had finished, nodding at his repaired armor, 'Okay, that looks better...feels tougher too...' frowning at it, before shrugging it off, putting back on the armor, along with the gauntlet and greaves, until...

"Erik...? is that you?" He heard a voice behind him say, quickly turning around to it, smiling at who was there.

"Recorder! I didn't expect to see you in here," The nord greeted, "I'm glad you made it through your cursed room too...must've been quite the challenge," glancing at the water staff on her back, "That your elemental's weapon?"

Recorder drew it, holding it out, "Yup! and believe me, that bastard made it hard for me...damn water elemental..." she growled after, "What elemental did you get?"

"Ironically...I fought the fire elemental..." Erik nervously chuckled, "I enjoyed that fight too...so do it apparently...very honorable too,"

She blinked at him disbelievingly, "Are you fucking serious...? YOURS was the nice one?! Bullshit!" she hissed.

"What? what's wrong? yours wasn't nice?" The Nord frowned.

She frantically shook her head, "Hell no! water boy was a sadist, mocking me while keeping its distance and using its minions...until its final form, then it got a bit easier, but still" shrugging it off.

"Mine got harder the more I fought him, even increased the heat in the room... one swing from its sword sent me flying at some point..." Erik winced, remembering it...

Recorder also winced, "Ow...so you were being cooked alive...? shit, that sounds worse..." chuckling after, noticing the new ring on his hand "So, what's that ring? That from your elemental?"

"Yeah, it is, lets me summon whatever weapon I want..." He explained, giving a demonstration when he summoned a flaming greatsword, surprising her, "Like so,"

Recorder nodded in approval, "Neat, mine almost does the same thing, but with water...I'd show you, but..." looking at the forge, "Probably not a good idea in here,"

"Yeah, I agree, and on top of that...I don't feel like getting wet right now..." Erik concurred, "So now that my armor's up and ready," shouldering the flaming greatsword, "Ready to find our way out? doesn't seem like there's anything in here..."

She nodded, "Yeah, getting that feeling too...not even an ore left, like they knew we'd use it..."

"Right...then again, this is the first fort, that was actually prepared for us...it's almost an honor at this point," The Nord said, before starting towards a direction.

Recorder sighed and followed, glancing around nervously as she did...

At that moment two Black Dogs entered with an ogre.

"I hope that we can get ourselves one of those magical weapons." the first one said.

"You mean like one of those that the soldier of the dark bitch use?" the second one asked, getting a nod as a response.

"They have a better quality of work, and they are magical." the first one pointed before looking at the ogre, "So, this is where they store their stuff?"

The ogre nodded as the two humans looked around, "Looks like they cleared out."

"Looks like the boss gonna need to force the dark bitch to speak." the other one said with a chuckle, "From there, we will be able to get our empire as the boss saw it; one ruled by men."

"That would be nice and all, but-" he didn't have a chance at continuing as he stepped on a wire that unleashed dark flames at the three of them, turning their bodies to purple ash.

They both frowned at the sounds of those screams, even a monster's added in it...

"What the hell was that...?" Recorder gasped.

The Nord narrowed his eyes, "No idea...I say we check it out, armed though..."

When they arrived at the source of the sound, they were treated to three purple smoldering ash piles, a foul smell coming from it.

"What in oblivion? Are these from the people that screamed...?" Erik said, slowly walking there...

Recorder was about to follow until she spotted something glinting on where he was about to walk, going wide-eyed, "Wait don't go that way!"

Erik froze where we were, turning back around with a confused frown, "Why what's the big-" looking down, noticing he was an inch away from the wire, "Oh..." slowly backing away from it, "By the gods, the was close..."

"Yeah, damn-near invisible too, must've caught these unlucky sods...whoever they were," Recorder said, glancing at the ash piles, "But from the look of it, seems to be the last one in here too...so we're lucky they tripped that one..." looking up at the opened door, "Found our way out of here too, just watch out for the wires..."

Erik nodded, "Yeah...honestly I'm expecting pressure plates in the halls..." stepping over the wire, being the first to the door, peeking out and checking both sides, "All clear from here, quiet too..."

The young woman carefully stepped over the last wire, following him out of the door, "Damn shame they took everything out, could've found something worthwhile."

"I know, I was honestly looking for new armor, but I'll take a repair on this one..." Erik said, "I had the Ingots to do it, but still a new set would've been nice..."

As they continued down the hall making a corner...

Outside, ruined balcony...

(Inigo and Lucien)

Both Inigo and Lucien came through their portals, which shut behind them ending up at a familiar place...

Inigo frowned, looking at all the destruction..." I know where we are...we're on the balcony where we wrecked the towers, see?" pointing at the destroyed battlements.

"I noticed, but why here?" Lucien rose an eyebrow, "A bit odd that we were transported to the front of the fortress," gazing at the scorching ground beneath them, giving a chuckle, "Wow...we sure did a number on them huh?"

"Had to be done, they would not let us in any way.." Inigo replied, noticing a bit of the wall crumbling, "And speaking of...we need to get off this, quickly... it's still crumbling,"

Lucien furrowed his brow, "Yeah, I hear it...but where to go?" looking around, until he spotted a pair of doors a few clicks away, "Over there, that's our ticket back inside,"

"Sounds easy enough, not much to walk, how hard could this be?" The khajiit chuckled, making his way over there.

Lucien followed him to the door, but as soon as they left the spot they stood, it began to rapidly crumble, the khajiit heard that and turned around...

"Lucien run! it's coming down!" Inigo yelled, breaking into a run.

The imperial turned his head in that direction to see it, going to instant panic when it started to catch up to him, he too now running for the door, "Nope nope nope nope nope!"

When they made it to the door, they dove in, the entire battlement collapsing when it did...

Inigo stood back up, checking back out the door, whistling, "Oh by the gods, I'm glad we don't have to pay for anything here..."

"We already knew that, but why?" Lucien frowned, looking out the door as well, gasping with a hand over his mouth..."Gods...I can't believe we did that much damage..." shaking his head, "Now I know why you *gulp* said that...oh boy..." sweating at the entire balcony destroyed on the ground.

Inigo gulped with a nod, "So...shall we head to the main hall now?" with a nervous grin, moving away from the door.

"Yeah, it's about that time, yes," Lucien nervously agreed, following him through...being nice enough to shut it at least...

After going after the first door, they noticed a lot of bodies belonging to Black Dogs and monsters. They were either filled with arrows or filled with spears.

"My word..." Lucien gasped, with a hand over his mouth, "So much blood..."

"So many bodies..." Inigo said, equally in shock, "Did that General do this...?" looking at the number of spears and arrows.

Lucien shook his head with a frown, "You would think, but no, doesn't seem like it...he was at the gate to the throne giving Volt a good thrashing," rubbing his chin, inspecting the bodies, finding arrows stuck in their heads along with a few spears in a couple of corpses, slowly putting it together, "Inigo, I think these guys ran into traps set up here...and from the look of it, all of them seemed to have bitten it,"

Inigo sighed, "So what are we going to do about the traps? if it could wipe them all out..."

"Yeah...we'd be shredded in seconds...and since we don't know where the traps are..." picking up one of the bodies, putting it on his back, "These chaps should provide enough cover for us..."

The khajiit furrowed his brow, ears drooping, "Uh...use the bodies as shields...? are you sure that's...ethical?"

"It's better than getting pelted by arrows and spears...and I don't think these chaps will mind too much," Lucien said, grabbing one of their shields, and holding it in front of him.

Inigo found an orc corpse, picked it up, and strapped it to his back as well, grabbing a shield after, "Let's hurry up and get through this...they aren't stinking yet, but I don't want them to..."

"Agreed..." The imperial responded with, being the first one to approach the door at the hall...That's when the arrows began to rain, forcing him into a sprint toward it.

Inigo did the same, keeping the shied up as he ran through the barrage of arrows and spears, which were luckily blocked off thanks to the meat shield, a splash of blood flying when the spears hit it, "Keep going! we don't have that much farther!"

Both Imperial and Khajiit dashed down the hall, ducking from some of the oncoming barrages as they got closer to the door, the meat shields on both of them nearly all torn off...

The imperial grabbed the door and let Inigo in first, before tossing the rest of the corpse off into that room, closing the door off after, huffing...

"By...the...gods...that was rough..." The imperial panted, "You okay Inigo?"

"Yeah...! close call there, that was a lot...I can see how those guys ended up dying..." Inigo said, shredding the meat shield too, cringing, "Ugh...! I'll never do that again as long I live,"

Lucien hurriedly nodded, "Hopefully we won't...and besides," looking around, noticing they were in the main hall, "Looks like we're out of that booby-trapped room and back in the halls,"

"Finally, between these curses and traps, I didn't know what was worse..." Inigo sighed, "Only thing to do now is to head to the gate, right?"

"Yeah, hopefully, everyone else will be there too," The imperial agreed, "let's get moving,"

Back at the Library...

Yuriana was now on the ground, trying to reach for a book that was under a desk, having a hard time getting to it, "Dammit...! why is it so far away?" her ass was literally in the air at this point...unbeknownst to her, she had eyes on her during the time from the around the corner...a glint from glasses coming from the shadowed figure.

"Got it!" she shouted, grabbing it and yanking it out, standing back up, "Finally...how the hell did you get stuck there...?" frowning at the crimson spell tome, sitting it on the table with the other two, 'it's not much, but they're definitely spell tomes from back home...some of these are even titled "Triumvirate" which is a name I'm very familiar with...but why was it here...?' narrowing her eyes on them, 'Regardless, I think it's all I'm going to find here...time to call it in...' Taking a deep breath, "Hey boss! I found a couple of things over here!"

From where Traysek was, who was searching under the table, heard that call, frowning as he came out, "Alright, be on my way!" grinning to himself, 'She actually found something in here...? about time...!' heading off to where she was...

Once he caught up, the shadow figure in the corner darted, as the Redguard made his way to the table, "I heard you calling, did you find anything?"

"Indeed, nothing on that hidden city, but I found some familiar books..." Yuriana said, pointing them out.

Traysek's eyes went wide, "Those are our spell tomes...so they do have our magic here too...what are some of these spells?" checking a couple of them, "This one says: Draining touch, a destruction tome too, let's see, the other here is: Call Rattlesnakes, which I'm guessing is summoning a flock of snakes to swarm your target and the next one...is...a transformation, Horned lord form..." before picking up the first one, opening it and absorbing the knowledge, the book disappearing, casting the rattlesnakes spell, summoning a mini swarm, "Whoa! nice, and I think I can scroll these too..." turning to Yuri, "Want one of these? it's between Draining touch and horned lord,"

"No thanks, I have plenty of magic already, seeking magic is more of your thing anyway," Yuriana waved off, "Hard enough trying to balance these powers, but that was all I could scrounge up for now..."

Traysek nodded, "I see...well then, I'll crack these open and we can get out of here," going to open the other books, "So how did your Elemental go? you never said..." opening another book, comet strike, which disintegrated.

"Right...well, the elemental battle went nicely...hard at first with how it kept changing my glow and platforming the floor," She started off with chuckling, "But once changed his form to a dragon, it was pretty much easier at that point,"

The Redguard frowned at that, "Really? Yours turned into a dragon? Wish I had it that easy, I couldn't physically touch mine...not to mention it kept destroying my summons with insane ease...and some of those were pretty high in level...took out two of my dremora in one hit..." opening the last book, absorbing the knowledge, that book disappearing as well.

"Gods...I can't imagine fighting THAT, I'm glad I was able to at least hit mine, how did you even manage?"

"I had to keep stopping and distorting time to open it up, especially once it got to its final phase..." Traysek shuddered, glancing around, "So I guess that's it for the books then...so...about uh... replenishing that power of yours..."

"Yeesss...~?" a devious grin slowing growing on her face.

Traysek sighed, "Gods help me...Yeah, we can do this now...but we need to find somewhere to go first, somewhere private..."

The Redhead went to protest, until she thought about it, quickly checking around her, "Okay yeah you're probably right, plus I didn't see or hear the mage leave..." hand on her chin "there was a storage closet...we could go there perhaps~"

"That works for me," The Redguard smirked, following her to the storage closet... unbeknownst to the duo, the small shadow reappeared, watching them go in...

"Things just got more, more, more interesting." Kin walked up before chuckling darkly as an imp jumped through a small hole in the wall, "I found the name of the city, and a letter from the one they call the Hero of Kvatch." he then gave the letter to the imp, "Give it to Volt, and inform him that I'll have Recorder, and that girl." the imp nodded before jumping away, "Just some moments away..."

Nearby the library, hallway...

Erik and Recorder pressed on quietly through the halls, finding bodies of dogs that were cleaved into, blood everywhere...

"Jeezus...! this was from the big guy...? I almost dread to face him if this count keeps growing," She shivered, watching a piece of brain slide off the table, cringing...

The Nord gulped, "We may not have a choice there...however, at least we've beaten his trials...that's always a good sign..." before stopping in front of an open door, spotting book cabinets, "Hey, looks like a found a library too..."

"Only that's been cleaned out too..." Recorder frowned, stepping in as he did, "Hello? anyone in here?" she called out, hearing nothing, "Looks like it's abandoned..." looking around.

Erik nodded, "Yeah, I noticed that...but looks like someone has been here though..." pointing at the pulled-out chairs, "Maybe we should be careful here...

"Agreed...beginning silent mission...!" She finished in a whispering tone, moving quietly with the Nord... it was then, that they could hear the sounds of bumping and thumping, following moans coming from somewhere, making her frown hard, "What the fuck is that...?"

Erik narrowed his eyes, hearing it again, louder as they got closer to it, "I hear it too...but why does that sound like the boss a little bit...?"

They both ran to the sounds, finding Kin standing at the door of the storage closet, facing it... Recorder rose an eyebrow.

"Kin...? is that you over there?" She called out, watching him turn around...

The Nord sighed, narrowing his eyes on the mage "I see your still kicking...thought that General would've gotten to you too..."

"It's you," Kin smiled as he turned to face them, "Trust me, I was about to die if it wasn't for the help that your captain provided. Speaking of which, he seem to have entered this room with your lady friend." he then showed them a piece of paper, "I wanted to show them this letter that I believe comes from the city that house monsters."

Recorder gave the door a blank stare, shaking her head, rolling her eyes after, "Goddammit...well there goes that mystery...gross that they would do that there,"

"Would you rather them out here...?" Erik said, raising an eyebrow at her.

She actually thought about it, putting hard frowns on both Erik and Kin, folding her arms, and turning away quickly...

"Well, you know...they could've invited me too, fucking jerks!" she sniffled, although in actuality she was blushing...twiddling with her braid.

Erik blinked at her twice, "At times I wonder, what the hell is wrong with you...?"

"Not too sure there, might have something to do with my wet undies," Recorder said, nonchalantly shrugging, "Most likely that..."

"Hahaha Okay! I didn't need to know all of that," Erik waved away, a bright blush on his face "Really!"

It took Kin his entire willpower to stay calm and stay silent about that, "I take that you don't know of the dark queen's new monster."

They both shook their heads...

"We haven't been by the throne yet, just came from the Armory, disappointed everything was gone, so no we haven't seen anything new..." Erik frowned, "But I take it you have..."

Record rose an eyebrow, "Yeah, what does it look like? should we be worried about it...?"

"I think that your boss called it a flesh artonach, or something similar," he replied as he touched the arm that Traysek healed.

"Flesh atronach...by the gods," Erik gulped, "Creepy stitched-up abominations...hard to kill, but not impossible..."

"Yeah, but they at least provide a good enough exercise...can definitely take most of my aggression out on it, but yeah, if you don't know where their weak spot is, they won't die," Recorder explained.

"This one is bigger than any human and has a blade instead of a hand." Ken pointed.

Recorder nodded, "Yeah, they usually are...never fought a small one before," chuckling after.

The bumping and the banging finally stopped, Erik smirking.

"I think they're done," The Nord commented.

"Good, we can get this mission done and over with now," Recorder said, as the door to the storage closet opened, Traysek stepping out with Yuriana following, adjusting her armored bra, "Hey guys~ did you have fun...?" surprising them both.

Traysek rubbed the back of his neck, sighing, "As fun as it could get, couldn't spend too much time in there, but I think our little quickie was enough," turning to Yuriana, "Are you feeling better now?"

She gave him a naughty grin, "Oh sweetie~ I feel wonderful...just like every night," giving him a wink after.

Erik went red in the face, as Recorder's did, nervously laughing...

"Ahahaha...okay very nice, didn't think to invite me though?" giving him something between a grin and sneer.

Traysek gave her a blank stare, devolving into a hard frown, "Okay, for one...we only did that in there, because she used up too much of her power, and because she's a Dibella follower..."

"She needs "passionate love" or I should say, sex, to recharge that power...yeah, I know this!" Recorder pouted, kicking her feet, "But still..."

The Redhead gave her a smile, "Aww sweetheart...if you want in next time, all you have to do is say, you know I won't turn you away~" winking at her now.

"Yuri! turn off the horny!" Recorder shrieked, face redder than a tomato,"Please! it's bad enough that we had to hear you guys knocking boots when we got here, don't make it worse!" taking a calming breath, turning to Kin, "I'm sorry about her, she can be...much at times, anyway, you said you had a letter for them?"

"Well, this one is kinda old, from 3 years ago. It's one addressed to the general from one of the Deathbringers." Kin shivered a bit as he gave the letter to Traysek, "It's one of the attacks that happened on a village near Ur, giving a detailed description of their goal; eliminate any soldier that spoke against a commander in Feoh."

Traysek frowned, reading over the letter, "A commander in Feoh...? why would the dark army, care about a human commander not even serving them...?"

"Even worse, from Alicia's city..." Yuriana frowned, "Where did you even find this...? in here?"

"We don't really know unless it's because of the commander's wife." Kin stated as he crossed his arms, "From what I heard, she's a Dark Elf. However, Volt believed that it was because Commander Niall was the only one who spoke against enslaving Dark Elves. There are also rumors that some of his men are Dark Elves."

The four other people frowned at that statement...

"And speaking against that is a bad thing because...?" Traysek asked, raising an eyebrow "Sounds like this commander has his head on straight, I don't believe in enslaving anyone either...war or no war,"

Recorder slowly nodded, "And there's just something ethically wrong with that...like WAY wrong, thought we were past that at least,"

"Agreed, those that have to take slaves are lower than dirt...no better bandits doing it, seems like the dark army has reason to fight us if that's the case," Erik said, narrowing his eyes.

"Well, some people began to believe that he plans on overthrowing the royal family and giving the power to the dark queen. However, his action are showing that he's loyal to both Feoh and Ur, a city ruled by lady Prim's family." Kin explained.

Traysek folded the letter, putting it away, "I see, well if that's the case...then we shouldn't have much to worry about, they could just respect the guy for all we know,"

"And since it was a three-year-old letter, there's no telling if this is even in play anymore," Yuriana added in.

"Unfortunately, those men are already dead. They were found dead in their homes." Kin said, "That's why people keep saying that and also affiliating him with a rebel group in Geofu that wants to kill Dong Zhuo, accusing him of taking women by force and being an active member of a slavering ring in Eostia."

Traysek stared at him for a moment, "Interesting...didn't know about a rebel group there either...this world just keeps getting bigger huh?" chuckling after.

Yuriana's eyebrow twitched, "Slavery ring...how funny..."

"Speaking of that, since the four of us are here, that leaves the other two, Inigo and Lucien," Recorder cut in before tension could even begin.

Erik had a hand on his chin, "That's a good point, where are they anyway?"

"With the number of traps, they might be stuck, trying to figure a way out of it." Kin stated with a smile 'With some hope, they might be dead.' "I'm sure that they're fine."

Meanwhile, the hallway...

In the hall of portraits, the imperial with his hood up, crept past them, "I am Lucien...!"

Inigo casually passed them as well, chuckling..."Yes, you are."

There was a window this time, a full moon hanging in the sky, Lucien creeping past it the same way..."I am the night...!"

Once again, the khajiit casually walked past the window, sighing and shaking his head.

Lucien reached around the corner, "I AM-"

"Really, my friend...?" Inigo deadpanned, finally catching up.

"-Making a lot of noise, I'm sorry..." The imperial apologized, "It's just that...given where we are right now,"

Inigo waved him off, chuckling, "It is fine, Lucien...I'm just glad you're finally having fun with this..."

"Eh, learned to make the best of out of a bad situation...or in our case, invasion," Lucien sighed, "I still haven't seen the others yet, I'm starting to get worried,"

Inigo nodded, "I know, and the fact that our radios are dead in here doesn't make it any easier..." smiling after, "Still, I have hope...Mr. Dragonfly thinks they're alive and kicking too," turning to the jar on his hip.

"I sure hope so," Lucien agreed, "I would hate to find all of their bodies like we found the black dogs back there..."

As they continued down the hall, they could hear familiar voices coming from a nearby room, glancing at each other...

"Those voices sound like them now...and it's getting closer too," Inigo said, frowning.

Lucien smiled, looking in the direction of, "Yeah, looks like they made it out too...time for a reunion!"

Both Imperial and khajiit followed the voices, finding the doors to the library opened, hearing Recorder shout something before loud laughter...

"Sounds like they're having fun in there..." Inigo chuckled.

"Hopefully...I still say proceed with caution, those voices may be them...or some other gods awful curse," Lucien warned.

Inigo drew his pistol, "Way ahead of you there, let's go..." Walking in with Lucien behind him...

"I believe that the most concerning thing that we should discuss is how to deal with those traps." Kin's voice rang, "And if we manage to find your companions, we may have a chance against that creature."

Inigo's ears twitched, picking up on that as they moved through the library, "Okay...now I'm hearing Kin among them..."

"And from the sound of it, they're looking for us too..." Lucien whispered, furrowing his brow at the empty shelves, "Why's everything so...empty in here...? figured there would be a few books lying around, but it's all gone..." pouting, "It's a shame, would've loved to learn the history of this place..."

They followed the chatter, eventually making their way around the corner and spotted them at a table...

Inigo grinned, "My friends! I see you've all made it!" getting their attention.

"Well, it seems that everyone is here." Kin said with a smile, 'Damnit. I would need to deal with them one at a time.'

Traysek nodded, turning to the approaching duo, "Well well, we were just about to start looking for you two, figured you both would be here before they were," pointing his thumb at Recorder and Erik, "Regardless, it's good to see you two, how was your elemental?"

"You could say it was a bit..."mental" hahaha get it?" Lucien added in, getting no response, "You people are a tough crowd..."

Recorder blinked at him, unamused, "Because it was lame, Lucien...super lame..."

"My statement stands!" The imperial squeaked.

Inigo sighed, shaking his head, "Earlier he was sneaking through the halls going: "I am Lucien! I am the night, I have diarrhea!' "

Roars of laughter burst from the crew, as Lucien gasped, "I did NOT say that last part!" shouted at him, face reddened, "By the gods...It's good to be back..." sighing after, his smile returned, "I see you're here as well Kin, what happened to Volt, he didn't get turned to paste did he?"

"He managed to escape. He's recovering somewhere." Kin replied before noticing a shard of crystal on Lucian's shoulder, "What's that?"

Lucien glanced at his shoulder, "Ah this, it's a token from the earth Elemental, found it when we decided to hang out in the garden for a bit after removing the curse there,"

"Speaking of," Inigo started with, pulling out a large slab of the same crystal, "I brought a bigger piece, knowing your skills with the hammer, Traysek, I figured you could probably do something with it," handing it to him.

"Thank you, I'll look more into it later," Traysek thanked, backpacking the crystal, "So that's it? You guys didn't get a weapon from beating yours?"

They both shook their heads...

"No, but I got better at using that new bow...It just sucks that I'm almost out of ammo for it..." Inigo sighed, getting a sympathetic nod from his boss.

"Well, I could always ask Diyha how to craft them, not like we can't make a few stops before going home," Traysek said, drawing his wind greatsword, "I got this from the wind elemental, it's a nice sword, haven't been able to test it yet..."

Yuriana drew out her thundering mace and held out the shield, "Same here, got these from my elemental too...not my usual element, but I'm pretty eager to try this out,"

"Lucky~" Lucien whistled, turning to Erik and Recorder, "And what did you guys get?"

Recorder sighed a pulled out the water staff from her back strap, "I got this from dealing with that water sadist, a staff isn't my thing, but It'll do, and plus..." using the staff to summon a school of fish that circled them, "I can summon fishies!~"

"Oooo~ nice, I almost want to trade you for that," The Redguard complimented, "I already got ideas for that staff too," turning to Erik, "And what about you, Erik? how did it go for you?"

The nord held up his hand, showing off a golden ring with a firey amber jewel, "Got this from the fire elemental, it's a ring that lets me summon any weapon I want to use," throwing his hand up, as a sword as now in his hand, "Can even summon polearms and Warhammers too...I almost wonder what else,"

"An all-purpose weapon, I like it, and since it works off imagination, there are no limits," Traysek nodded in approval, "I know how you feel about magic, but that is a very good weapon for you, don't lose it," he joked, before turning to everyone, "So if you all got those too, then..."

Lucien nodded, "Every curse in here should be lifted now," Turning towards the exit, "It should be more than safe to enter the throne room without it sapping our magic,"

Traysek shook his head, "Not quite, there's one more obstacle...they managed to get a flesh Atronach here from back home, so expect a fight, just not too much of one..."

Inigo nodded, "Got it, it's usually fun fighting those guys, they don't go down so quick," smirking after.

"Right? I said the same thing!" Recorder added in, "I don't know how these guys lost to it...it's tough, but it's not immortal..."

Traysek stood, "Right, and we also have all those traps to deal with too, and since splitting off would be a bad idea, we're going to stick together this time, any objections?"

"None from me, Sir," Yuriana said, glancing at Kin, "Power in numbers..."

Inigo nodded, "I agree, let us stay together this time around, things are starting to look grim with all those bodies around,"

Recorder shuddered, "Yeah, we saw a bit of that on our way here, piece of brain sliding off the table, ugh...!" gagging after that, "But yeah, from the cleave marks, there's no question there..."

Kin narrowed his eyes trained on their new weapons 'Those must be the artifacts that bound the spirit of Eostia to our plane of existence, they must be destroyed before she can claim them back.'

In front of the gate, Volt stood as the corridor was filled with bodies of monsters and men as the Gatekeeper of Sheogorath stood in front of them.

"This thing is immortal or what!" Volt glared at the many weapons stuck in it.

The Atronach gave a roar, as it brought its sword arm down on him, clashing his sword...

Two orcs tried to hit it with their clubs, but it did nothing.

'How did things turned to be this difficult?!' Volt rolled away and began to glare at it as it killed the orcs and an ogre with ease.

The flesh Atronach focused its attention back on Volt now, giving a deadly roar and bringing its arm up again, only this time... A lightning ball, a fireball, and a ball of pure magic all hit it at once, knocking it back into the gate...

Volt then heard a chuckle from behind him...

"So, that thing really is here..." Traysek said, walking up to him, the rest of the crew approaching the downed beast, "Sorry for keeping ya waiting, had some curse to get rid of," helping him stand up, "I see the General hasn't killed you yet either, good, we can finally get on with this,"

"Wish you could come earlier..." Volt looked at the bodies and the walls being pure red with the blood of the victims.

"They did as fast as they could." Kin approached him, "Besides, I would have been dead if it wasn't for the captain here."

"Glad to see you in one piece, Kin." Volt laughed as he tapped the mage's shoulder, "I'm thankful that my second in command isn't missing a limb."

Traysek drew the wind greatsword, "Amongst other things, and since we can speak here, this is our last obstacle..." a smirk forming, "Before the real battle..."

The Crew already had their weapons out, as the Daedra began to stand up...

Lucien swallowed his fear, "It's just one today Lucien, it's just one..."

Erik summoned a flaming Warhammer, "Alright big man, let's get this over with, I'm sure oblivion misses you!"

Inigo had an arrow notched, "I'll go for the joints, if it's anything like it is back home, this won't be much..."

"At least we get to finally test these out," Yuriana smirked, turning to the Black dogs, "Feel free sit back, this is a turdas for us,"

Recorder pointed her water staff at it, "Come on Fleshie! I know you've more in you!"

The flesh monster holds one hand at a corpse, turning it into a red aura around it. The crew could watch firsthand the effect of the aura as the bodies were withering to ash.

Traysek smirked, "Feeding before we start? good," wind channeled through his blade, "You're going to need it!" he swung his blade out, hard, sending a crashing wave of wind towards the Daedra...

Battle theme- Skyrim battle theme 2- Skyrim ost

A purple aura appeared around it, negating the wind attack. It then shot a red energy beam at them, reducing their armor by a bit.

Traysek narrowed his eyes on it, glancing at the glow on himself, "Be careful, he just defiled our armor!" looking up to see the flesh monster over him, blade raised, countering it with a block and clash, gritting his teeth, "Okay, you're a just a bit tougher...I like that!"

Recorder and Erik leaped at the Daedra, her staff now a scythe of water, and the Nord had his hammer, going for its head...

It spun while pushing them with its blade.

Both of them were knocked away from its attack, as the Redguard took a backstep, avoiding its deadly smash, taking a deep breath, "Fus...RO DAH!" he shouted, sending the creature into the nearest wall hard, "Go for its head, Yuri!"

The Redhead obliged, coming at it with a deadly charge, lightning building up as she did, slamming into with a thundering bash to the plating around its head, pieces of metal breaking off, once it hit the wall again, with her over it, bringing her mace down.

A fiery explosion happened as it stuck the ground with the blade, pushing Yuriana away. When it got up, it brought its hand up, turning the blade red and generating a purple shield around itself.

They noted the strange aura on it, giving it a confused stare as the Redguard narrowed his eyes on the monster.

Inigo fired an arrow at its exposed knee, watching it bounce off, going wide-eyed, "What is that on him...?"

"Something against physical attacks it seems..." Lucien said, flinging a firebolt at it, which got deflected..."But not magical, stopped that from hitting him,"

Traysek smirked darkly, "Good..." taking a deep breath, "GAAN, LAH HAAS!" a purple blast spewing from his lips, hitting the flesh Atronach, slowly draining it off all energy, "Just keep up the attacks, and it'll wear!"

The rest of the crew surrounded it, as the mortal energies drained from the abomination.

The Atronach stood up and went to a body before turning it into a small version of it. It then killed it, before turning to face the crew. But...

"Now that's just unfair!" Sheogorath said as he walked toward them from the Flesh Atronach that was killed, "Should I even the odds?"

The entire crew just stared at him, The Captain, scowling at him and the Flesh Atronach...

"Are you serious...? so this thing is here because of you!" He growled, "By the gods, and how isn't this fair? he already has a high kill count!" pointing at the Atronach.

Inigo scaredly nodded, "Not to mention all those arrows and weapons stuck in it..."

"So the almighty Dragonborn is saying that those pathetic mortals that you can kill by shouting at them are as strong as you?" The mad prince laughed a bit before saying "Now that's a good joke."

The rest of the crew gave him appalled looks, "Do you not see the corpses it left? yeah, we're going to take it seriously!" The Redhead interjected.

Inigo gave him a stare, "You seem to determined to help it too, despite it already being a pain to deal with,"

"Damnit man, would you move? we're literally almost done here!" Recorder yelled in the background, "Why are trying to stop us?"

"It's okay guys, stand down," The Redguard sighed, "I got this and we can't beat him, so don't try..." facepalming, groaning, "Alright, Master Sheogorath...what is it going to take for you to let us in? Come on, what's the bargaining chip today? I know how you Daedra are and how easily bored you get, so there's something you want out of this, what is it?" stabbing the sword into the ground.

"You know how things are now, and with how many things that got in the way of this and that, But this castle is what I need to make the Shivering Isles great again, with a pinch of souls and dead bodies..." Sheogorath replied, "Since these walls have so many fights in them, it will be more entertaining. Oh! I almost forgot! My Gatekeeper only killed half of these bodies."

"You can't let him ha-"Volt tried to talk, but Traysek stopped him.

"Okay, so you just want fortress...alright we can come to an agreement there, we don't plan on staying here after all..." The Redguard said, cutting his eye at Volt, "Most of us don't plan on staying...but once we conquer the enemy here, you are more than welcome to have the place,"

Inigo grinned, "And we got rid of all the curses too, so it's open real estate after this..."

"The history of those curses are still here, so it's even better! I can recall any one of them whenever and wherever I want!" Sheogorath said as he tapped the flesh monster before it disappeared, "Now then, I have to make some arrangements in the Shivering Isles. And prepare to welcome any adventurer that wanders in it." he then snapped his fingers as a man wearing black clothes appeared.

"You called?"

"Chamberlain! Stay here and prepare for the teleporting spell! This place will be a nice addition to my collection!" the mad god said.

"Another cursed castle... why am I not surprised." the man sighed before walking past the group.

"Now that my chamberlain will deal with all the boring stuff, I can go and find a place where to put this place!" Sheogorath then disappeared in a purple sphere.

"Why did you do that?!" Volt snapped at Traysek as some orcs were glaring at the Dragonborn and his crew.

Traysek and the crew glared back, the Redguard narrowing it, storming up to him, "What the fuck do you mean, why? that's a Daedric prince, A Mad GOD Volt! if he was in a pissed-off mood, we'd ALL have our guts on the floor with him dancing in it!" his voice boomed, shaking the room, scaring the shit out of him and the orcs, "Now..quit pissin' me off...and I MIGHT work it out with him to let your dumbasses stay too," a hard shove to the chest, sending him staggering back.

Kin went and whispered something to Volt who just nodded.

"Fine..."

As the crew got closer to the gate, their loot from the elementals began to glow as strange symbols appeared on the gate. After some seconds, the symbols and loot disappeared.

Traysek frowned, finding his sword nowhere around, "What the hell? it's gone! did anybody else's do that too?"

"Yeah, I lost mine as well..." Yuriana sighed, "That's disappointing. I really liked those!"

Recorder cried literal tears, "NOOOOOOOO! I was having fun with that!"

Erik was on his knees in depression, "I had the ultimate weapon...and now it's gone...oh the pain..." he sobbed.

As this happened, Lucien and Inigo frowned at them, the imperial finding the stone still etched on his shoulder...

"At least we've still got the crystals, so hope there I guess?" Lucien said, nervously, his crystal dissolving afterward, "Aww..." he whined.

Inigo chuckled, "It's okay Lucien, easy come, easy go,"

...

Now finally together at the throne doors, the crew and the remaining dogs stared up at them.

"So we're finally here..." Traysek said, "Behind this door, the big boss awaits...I'm too excited for this," cracking his knuckles, "If anyone wants to restock, either see me for the haven bag or Yuriana for her shop,"

Yuriana nodded, calling out her shopping wisp, "I have goods to offer, should you have need,"

Inigo nodded, "Well, I'm low on Arrows, and I'm out of bombs too, could use more of those," handing her a small bag of gold.

"I could use some more bombs, we ran out dealing with the elemental," Lucien added in, handing her a bag as well.

After taking both bags of gold, she gave them a friendly grin, "Thank you boys, I'll have what you need in a second," bending over to grab what she needed out of the summoned wisp.

Recorder and Erik were with Traysek who was already handing them more bombs and ammo from the haven bag...

"Geez guys, you could've told me you were down THAT bad," The Redguard chuckled, "Next time you get that low, please tell me,"

Recorder nervously laughed, taking her supplies, "Yeah, I'll try to remember that, thanks!"

"And Erik?" Traysek began with.

"Yes, boss?"

The Redguard smiled, "I added a bit more to your supply, I saw how Ill-equipped you were where we got here, this General is going to need EVERYTHING thrown at him, you understand?"

"I do, and to be honest, since I lost the ring, I might be actually willing to try the spiders now," The Nord chuckled.

"Good, because I gave you twenty," Traysek smirked, watching his face turn blue.

"I-I see...thank you..." He sweated, trying to shake off the itchy feeling he was having.

Traysek nodded, turning to the doors, watching it slowly open, and putting away his haven bag. "Now then," using magic to warp his silver mask back on his face, "Time to settle this..."

Rey found himself between the two men.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Niall's tone was dark.

"You still refuse to do what I asked you to do." the prime minister, an old man in green clothing, "Should I remind you that I'm the prime minister?"

"You're nothing but a shit stain that should be thrown away." Niall said as he grabbed his weapon, "I'm a military commander, not your puppet... like how you manipulate the princess in doing your schemes."

Reynold gave him a scowl, "What in the name of the goddess are YOU doing here, anyway? don't you have a mountain of coins to count, better yet... A servant's life to make hard...?"

"Quiet, you little runt! Unless you want to pass the night in the dungeon!" the prime minister replied.

"Leave the lad alone, he's the representative of Swain." Niall said as signs of fear began to appear on Beasley's face, "Unless you want him to come here, bug off, and go back crawling to whatever hole gave birth to ya."

Beasley mumbled something in rage before exiting Niall's office.

"Now, your job is to help me chase down some bandits, that I know who they're affiliated with," Nial stated.

Reynold nodded, "Bandits huh? that's a bit...tame than usual, what gang are they affiliated with...?" raising an eyebrow.

"If I'm not mistaken they might be with THEM. But I'm not sure, that's why we're going to kill those bandits and investigate." Niall said as he got up with his weapon, "Time to see if you're good enough to join Swain's personal army, the Red Spears."

Rey gave him a nod, standing up, grabbing his sword that was leaning against the desk, "By "them" I'm going to assume you mean the Dogs...as you command sir, we deal with these bandits posthaste."

"Hah, now that's what I call enthusiasm." Niall laughed before slapping Rey's shoulder, "Wait for me at the gate, I have to get some lasses to watch over her."

Rey simply smiled and gave a bow, before leaving for the gate, 'It feels different working under Niall...more level-headed than even Master Claudia...I wonder what father would've thought of me joining up...?' perhaps when I get time, maybe then I can tell him about it, maybe...'

Chapter 10 end...

And with that ends the Chaotic chapter, but stay tuned...things get even crazier than this in the next chapter with the final confrontation, what will happen once they enter? find out next time on Red dragon's roar!