AN:
To Guest: Yeah, I get that. I'm sorry it was rushed, but the fight with Alduin wasn't even two chapters. But like I said, I don't really like Miraak and I wanted to deal with the fallout of everything that is coming. It was rushed, but I'd never really gotten the same feeling from the Miraak fight that they tried to give the idea of. He didn't seem like he was strong enough to alter the layout of a continent and he didn't seem to have actually used all that much forbidden knowledge or power in his Dragonborn fight. I just was bored of Miraak by now, because what comes after this chapter is a lot more interesting than him.
Jul
Lucius
The flames exploded uselessly against the crossed blades held in front of the Thalmor bitch, embers swirling around in the air beside her as her blades slashed apart. She held them at her side for a moment and jumped as she neared me. Her blades swept upward, threatening to cut through my chest. I took a half step backwards and to the side before I brought Dragonbane up and slapped the attacks to the side. I raised the blade above my head, both hands on the hilt, and brought it down on top of her.
On anyone else, this would have been enough. Instead, she moved with the deflection of her attack and swung her blades around to block Dragonbane. I pushed as hard as I could against the two glass blades, ensuring that she couldn't use one of them to slide out of the lock and bury the weapon in my gut. I growled and pushed even harder, causing the blades to spark between us. Thera smirked and slid to the side out of the lock, twirling around before angling her left blade at me again. I similarly raised my saber up to my right shoulder.
We crossed blades soon enough once more. I slashed down at the Thalmor, tip of Dragonbane crackling with energy as it approached her throat. She effortlessly deflected the blow and dashed forward with her shoulder, slamming it into my gut. I huffed and jumped backwards, raising a ward as I knew what was coming next. "Yol Toor Shul!" Flames rocketed towards the wall of light extending from my hands, dissipating uselessly against the magic. I dropped the ward and stabbed forward when I regained my footing, a feint that the Thalmor fell for. She moved her blade to parry, but I twirled the weapon and turned the stab into an overhead blow. The Elf snarled and brought her other blade up. The flat of the glass slammed into the top of her head, hard, but she merely stumbled back and began to heal as the blood of a Daughter of Coldharbour stitched her back together. She took a step back and our fight reached another moment of calm.
I studied her closely as we circled one another, as she was doubtlessly doing to me. Her stance was calm and perfectly balanced, poised to strike at any moment. Her blades were raised just enough to form a guard, but not so much so that she would put out a weak attack. Every arc of her blade would be a kill shot, pure and simple. That Shout had also been quite powerful, the flames matching the strength of my greater ward; any stronger and it might have hurt me. On top of that, she was being extremely cautious. My last fight with her had made it clear that I had more than enough magickal power to annihilate her, and the concern was clear in how little she was trying to insult me. She was actually focused on the fight. Given his affiliation with Mora, Miraak should have had access to shouts and powers I didn't. Perhaps he had grossly underestimated her, the old mindset of a Nord that an elf and a woman could do little to him in combat. If so, she was lucky and she knew she probably wouldn't be again. Which meant she was stalling me until Mora followed through on his agreement and opened a portal back to Solstheim.
I made sure to rebalance my stance and loosen my grip ever so slightly on Dragonbane when I noticed my fingers were cramping. "You seem scared," I said, the sudden speech like a shout in the empty silence of Apocrypha. The elf's eyes narrowed, a dangerous and familiar threat present behind them. "I'm assuming that Miraak underestimated you. A dangerous thing to do."
The dangerous look turned into a self-satisfied smirk. The Thalmor scoffed, saying, "You would know from personal experience. Tell me, what do the Greybeards think of you these days? Or the Companions? Oh, you got all of that insane priest's friends killed, too! How does he feel about that?"
It was my turn for my eyes to narrow dangerously.
I dashed forward, my blade crashing into hers. She turned around the attack and slashed diagonally at my shoulder, so I turned Dragonbane to the side and caught her attack. The blades sparked and crackled against one another before I brought the blade back and slashed at her once more. She crossed her blades in an 'X' in front of her. Dragonbane became entangled in the glass, at which point she wrenched the blade to the side and pulled my sword from my hand. It soared through the air and she slashed horizontally at my throat. I jumped backwards and cast an Ebonyflesh spell a fraction of a second before the glass slammed into my neck. I grunted in pain and was pushed sideways through the air, landing a few feet from the woman. She moved a few steps, making sure to angle herself between me and my weapon. I rubbed the spot on my throat where her sword had hit me, then lowered my hands and readied for her attack.
She rushed me and began slashing. Any lesser man or woman would have said she was moving like a maniac, like she was slashing with the intent of damaging me in any way. She wasn't a berserker, though. She was a murderer, an efficient one at that. She was trying to kill me, and it was only because I had good reflexes that I even managed to dodge the attacks with only a few minor scratches up and down the arms of my armor. After a particularly vicious cross strike, I rolled to the side and came up to my knee with the Thalmor already on top of me. I threw my left hand out to the side, in the direction of the one thing that could save me now.
Dragonbane flew into my hand and I moved faster than I thought I could to block the attack. "Old age. Didn't expect to see it on you so soon," Thera sneered down at me.
"Maybe I'm a bit slower, but I'm a lot wiser," I pointed as I struggled against her. I grinned. "And wisdom is the greatest tool of any magick wielder." My palms glowed a bright white for a moment before a wall of pure energy flew from them, green and reminiscent of the Unrelenting Force shout. The Thalmor's eyes widened in surprise and she was thrown backwards, tumbling across the stone platform and sliding to a stop beneath one of the arches.
I panted and my sword fell to my side, my left elbow resting on my right knee. I took a few more deep breaths to calm myself; the Unrelenting Force spell was one of the few Dragon Shouts I had managed to translate into a spell over the past five years, and the effort of turning primeval magick into a modern spell was always a massive drain of my magicka reserves, though less and less every time. It took another second, but I soon pushed myself up to my feet and swung my sword out to my side once more before returning it to an offensive stance and rushing the elf.
She looked up at me and snarled, reaching a hand out for the glass blade to her right and tightening it around the handle. She slammed her left palm into the ground shoved herself slowly up to her knees. I slashed downward, but she threw herself to the side and rolled across the ground. She grunted and barely managed to stumble up to her feet using her momentum. She shifted unsteadily for a moment before steadying and aiming her weapon at me. I lowed my blade to my side and raised my hand, palm open, towards her. "You're good with a sword, Thera. So perhaps magick will finish what I have started." A beam of pure electric energy three feet wide flew from my hand and towards the Thalmor.
Fahiil
Thera
A beam of destruction arced through the air, electric magick jumping from its surface as it sped through the inky atmosphere of Apocrypha. I snarled and sprinted towards the energy, determined not to let this human believe he could show me up. I jumped towards the center of the beam and let my blood boil within my body. My physical form exploded into a bloody, red mist. The energy painlessly passed through my form before the magicka drain became too much and Lucius was forced to stop his assault; the beam ended abruptly and the red mist reconstituted into my body, armor, and weapons. My blade slashed down at the human's head, ready to kill. He grit his teeth and raised his blade, catching the attack. I raised my foot and slammed my heel into his gut. Lucius fell down onto his back. "DIE!" I slashed down at his prone form again, only for him to roll out of the way, a red light flashing beneath him as his face hit the ground. He rolled out of the way, revealing the Fire Rune that had etched itself into the ground beneath my sword. I hissed and tried to escape, but the magickal mine exploded before I could manage and I was lit on fire. I screamed out in pain as the flames washed over my body, leaving burns that faded away as soon as they appeared thanks to my nature as a Daughter of Coldharbour.
The fires died off after a few moments, though the metal of my armor still super heated the flesh beneath it. I hissed and called upon my own heritage as a Dunmer, a power I rarely used. My flesh exploded in fire of its own and my flesh became immune to the burning sensation of my armor. Lucius scrabbled to his feet and blocked my attack, hissing in pain when the fires on my body lashed out and wrapped around his arm. He flinched back and my sword penetrated his defense, but not fast enough to overcome his sharpened reflexes. The blade left a deep gash in his armor, carving a clean line through the Imperial Dragon present on his chest.
He twirled out of my path, the sudden movement taking out the flames coating his body and leaving behind a blackened leather bracer on his arm. A yellow light exploded out of his left hand and golden ribbons swirled around him. He reached up and let the energy die, then tore the burnt out remains of his bracer from his hand, the leather turning to ash and falling off of his hand and sword with little effort. He returned to a two handed grip on his blade and rushed me, bringing his sword around and forcing me to block it. The flames began to channel down his blade. "FEIM!" he screamed, and he passed through me, reappearing behind me and swinging his blade at my head from behind. I ducked beneath the blow and spun around, sweeping at his legs. He jumped over the attack and raised his left hand towards my fire covered body again. An wall of Frost exploded into being between us. I hissed and charged through it, ignoring the flames dying away around me in an effort to bury my blade in his chest. His eyes widened and he twisted in the air, the blade narrowly missing his throat.
Still, the sudden movement in the air put him off balance and he landed on the back of his feet. I pressed my advantage and grabbed a dagger from my hip, spinning as I moved and tossing the blade towards him. The blade slammed into the flesh just above his left elbow. He screamed out in pain and nearly fell backwards, but his face suddenly grew incredibly steely and he slammed his foot into the ground, steadying himself. His left arm hung limp and bleeding at his side. "You got lucky," he snarled, pain bleeding through his voice.
I didn't bother retorting, instead opting to sprint towards the Man with blade at the ready. He grimaced and tried to shove the pain from his mind, twisting and deflecting my attack upward. He jumped forward, slamming his shoulder into my nose and putting me off balance this time. I staggered backwards and forced my eyes to stay open despite the pain, giving me the ability to catch sight of the blade coming at my chest. I neatly parried the blow before moving into an attack meant to slice the human's arm clean off. The hand dangling at his side glowed bright blue and his flesh became like Ebony once more, my blade leaving little more than a white mark on his exposed right wrist, though that evidence of my attack quickly disappeared. His head snapped towards me and he roared out Words: "FUS-RO-DAH!"
This was much more powerful than the spell he had used on me earlier in our duel. Green energy crashed into me and sent me flying through the air, soaring over the edge of the platform and plummeting towards the Ink ocean below. I stared at the side of the stone and breathed in before stabbing my weapon out towards it. "WULD-NAH-KEST!" I shot towards the platform and my blade became buried in the wall. I hissed at the pain of my shoulder becoming dislocated, but my vice grip on my sword remained steadfast. I put my left hand over my pocket and held tight. "Mora, let me out of here!"
There was no answer from the ancient god.
"Mora!"
"I suppose... this reveals... what I wanted to know."
Lucius walked up to the edge of the platform, focusing his enraged eyes on me. A portal of swirling black and green, ringed with tentacles and forbidden knowledge, appeared beside him. "Really? That's how it is?" I asked Apocrypha. Again, there was no answer.
"I guess this is the end of our war," Lucius stated with a low growl. He sheathed his blade and reached up to grab the dagger in his arm. He shut his eyes and took a deep breath before tearing the blade from his flesh and channeled healing magic through his body. The wound stitched shut, but a thin scar remained. He stared down at the darkened skin and growled. "Magicka draining poison. Clever." He flexed his arm. "But it's just a scar, and the poison will be gone in a few hours. I'll be fine." He lowered his arm to his side.
I raised my other arm up to hold onto my sword in the wall. "You know I'll find a way out of this. I'll spend a thousand years until I can escape and kill every human you father!"
He raised his hand towards me, the lightning appearing in his hand again. "Except I'll just kill you." The beam of energy flew towards me. My hand flew down to my side and heat flew around me just as I was hidden from Lucius' field of vision. I reappeared beside him and dove for the portal. He caught sight of me and roared, shoulder checking me out of the way and sliding through the portal that slammed shut behind him.
I rolled across the stone for a while, eventually coming to a full stop with my eyes aimed up at the sky. "I think that little act of theater went well." I pushed myself up to my feet. The heat in the Key burned again and two swords, both Glass, appeared beside me out of blue-black portals of Oblivion. I picked them up and sheathed them on either hip. "He really believes he defeated me."
"Mmmm... yes... he does." Mora's giant eye turned towards me. "I do wonder what a mortal made god with your... stomach for violence could achieve... Or if you could manage mantling more than just one..."
I pulled the Skeleton Key out and grinned at it. Heat channeled around it as I opened a portal on Nirn, transporting something I needed to Solstheim. "Victory. Tastes as delicious as it always has." I smiled down at the Key, the source of my victory. Then I controlled the energy once more and I was torn away from Apocrypha to fulfill the destiny I deserved. "Goodbye, Mora. Enjoy the second act."
