Mutants Misplaced

Chapter 47

The Trial Part 4

Walking down the declining pathway, everyone in the team wondered what the last challenge would be. So far, they had managed to complete everything that had been thrown at them, but there were a few close calls. However, it seemed like Donnie was correct in his assumption that the trial was meant for magic-wielders, and that had the group worried for the last part. They had the utmost faith in Tyroth and Devina, and their magic, but not knowing what awaited them at the end wasn't very encouraging.

The path was so long that after half an hour, the group stopped for a break and some food, before continuing downward again. Eventually, after almost an hour more, they reached a large set of doors.

"You have now reached the vault." said the wisp.

"Already? Weren't there supposed to be one last test, or have we missed it?" said Sephie.

"The final challenge await you inside the vault. Now, please enter."

Tyroth pushed the mighty doors open, and the view that met the team was indeed an impressive one. They entered a huge square room, easily eighty times eighty meters, as well as thirty meters to the roof. Along the left and right walls, behind shimmering barriers, were many smaller rooms all with one item of varying kind on display. At the far end of the room, was a stairway leading up to a raised platform, on which there was something that looked like a steam-punk control-panel. But the by far most eye-catching object in the room stood behind the platform.

A colossal version of the Dwarven robots they had seen before, nearly twenty meters tall and seemingly more advanced than the smaller ones. It had actual hands instead of weapons, and each wrist had a large crystal mounted on top. Attached to its back were two giant swords. Just like the other objects in the room, the gargantuan robot was kept behind a barrier.

"Wow! That thing is gigantormous!" said Mikey.

"That's not a real word, Mikey, but it does describe it very well." said Donnie as they walked towards the platform. "How I wouldn't want to know how they could build something like that."

"But just what is it?" said Mona.

"I think it might be a Dwemer Juggernaut." said Devina.

"I don't like the sound of that, but what do you mean by 'think'?" asked Tyroth.

"As I've explored a couple of Dwemer ruins before, I've found pieces of a construct that seemed to be larger than anything else they built. After many months of research, I found scattered information on what scholars called a Juggernaut. It was supposed to be the Dwemers' greatest war machine they ever built, capable to single-handed lay siege to even fortified cities. But nothing ever said that they ever were able to finish even one of these mighty weapons, so it's considered to be a myth. And I found an old journal that I had a specialist on Dwemer translate for me, that stated that they had other plans too, once they had completed a Juggernaut, they would try and bind a spirit from the realm of Oblivion to it."

"That doesn't sound good at all. Do you know if they succeeded?" said Leo.

"Sorry, I don't. But judging from the age of the journal, the entries seem to be from just before all of the Dwemer just vanished, so maybe they never had the chance."

"What about the rest of the stuff here, got any ideas about them?" asked Sephie, looking into one of the rooms.

"Not a clue. Could be anything, though the talisman you are looking for should be in one of these small rooms."

"Hey guys! I found it!" Mikey called out. Standing outside one of the rooms, he could see the Talisman of Misplacement on a pedestal, behind the barrier.

"That's the thing, alright. Great going, Mikey." said Tyroth. "Now all we have to do is clear the last challenge."

"Please refrain from approaching the storage-rooms, and proceed to the platform." said the wisp. "The final challenge await you there."

With their somewhat vague instructions, the team walked over to the platform and climbed the short stairway up to the control-panel. They were then told to approach the panel, but as soon as they got close to it, they were violently forced off the platform by an invisible force. Tyroth instantly tried to stay on by digging his mana claws into the floor of the platform, but not even that was enough, he was also thrown away with great force. However, unlike his friends, Tyroth was slammed against a barrier that had been erected just after the others were thrown off. He was trapped within the barrier, together with the wisp.

"Ugh… everyone alright?" Leo asked as he and the others picked themselves up off the floor.

"I think so, Fearless, but what the shell happened? And where's Big T?" said Raph.

Looking around, the soon found him leaning against the barrier as he got back on his feet, and aside from having the air knocked out of him, he seemed to be fine. But the team soon got other things to worry about when a loud and ghostly moan echoed throughout the room. Rising through the floor near the entrance, were a dozen ghosts, pale blue and transparent, each wearing a full set of armour that looked very much like the Dwemer robots, they were also armed with swords and shields. Slowly, they made their way towards the team.

"Ghosts! Someone call the Ghostbusters!" said Mikey.

Forcing herself to regain her composure, Sephie drew her bow and shot an arrow against one of the ghosts, but the arrow passed right through the spectre, not even causing a reaction.

"Okay, that didn't work. Anyone got any bright ideas?" she said.

"But if we can't hurt them, maybe they can't hurt us. Right?" said Mikey.

"I don't think that's how it works with these, Mikey, though I wish it was." said Mona.

"Maybe this will do." said Devina and fired an ice projectile against the ghosts. Unlike the arrow, the ice actually made contact with the ethereal entities, but hitting only the shield of one of the ghosts, it shattered without doing much damage at all.

"So only magic works, and Tyroth is stuck up there. The odds really ain't in our favour right now."

Up on the platform, Tyroth saw the ghostly enemies approaching his friends, and desperately tired to get past the barrier, but neither claws or sword, nor fire or magic could breach it.

"What the hell is going on?! Release me!" he yelled at the wisp.

"I can not. The barrier will remain until either you or the spectral guardians have been defeated."

"Then why am I stuck in here?!"

"It was never meant for anyone to become trapped here. You were simply unlucky not to be thrown out before the barrier was raised."

"So I'm just supposed to sit here and wait, while my friends fight for their lives?!"

"That is correct."

Tyroth growled loudly in protest, but what could he do? The barrier was too strong for him to break, and even if he could, how much strength would he have left? He had to find a way to help the others.

Faced with one of the ghost warriors, Leo tried to slash it down, but just like earlier, the attacks went through it like air. He stopped his attacks and jumped away when the ghost swung its own sword at him. Everyone else had to do the same. They weren't sure if the spectral blades could be parried in any way, so all they could do was to dodge the attacks until they could find a way to defeat the ghosts.

The only one that could do anything against their foes, was Devina, and she was busy shooting ice-spears against them. Still, most of the projectiles shattered against the shields and armour, but at least they did some damage. But Devina couldn't continue indefinitely, she was growing more and more tired with every spell she cast, and she knew that without some rest, she wouldn't have the strength to keep fighting.

Seeing one of the ghosts in the corner of her eye, she quickly jumped to the side to avoid the attack, but she wasn't fast enough and the ghost blade cut Devina in her side. While the slash didn't harm clothes or flesh, Devina felt extreme pain none the less and she knew fully well what kind of damage the weapons caused.

"Whatever you do, don't get hit!" she called out to the others, while holding her side in pain. "Their weapons cut your soul, not your body!"

Everyone heard the warning, including Tyroth, who grew increasingly worried for his friends safety. He felt so useless, trapped within the barrier, with no way of helping them. And with the ghost guardians close to corner them, they didn't have much time left before they would be overwhelmed. He had to think of some way to help them, or get out, but no matter how much he thought, he just couldn't find an answer.

Then he had an idea. It was crazy, maybe even madness, but he had to try, even though he knew that it would cost him. He sat down, with his legs crossed and eyes closed, like when he would meditate, and focused hard. It didn't take long before he was covered in the red light of his mana.

High above the others, a small sphere of red energy appeared, growing larger and more intense in its colour, but no-one noticed it as they were too busy fighting for their lives. After reaching the size of a cannonball, the sphere burst into several small spheres, everyone of them flying at the reptiles and vampire. With no warning and no time to react, they were all struck by the energy spheres.

Caught of guard by the sudden strike from the sphere, while it didn't hurt him, Donnie still couldn't avoid the swing from the ghost's sword, and instinctively tried to block the attack with his staff, even though he knew that he couldn't. But, to his surprise, the blade was stopped. That was when he noticed that both his weapon and his body had a red glow, and that glow seemed to affect the ghost somehow. And he wasn't the only one, the rest of his friends also had a red glow around themselves and their weapons, and found that they could make contact with the spectres.

Delivering a series of slashes at his foe, Leo found that not only could they fight back against the ghosts, but the shield and armour did not offer very much protection at all, allowing him to quickly vanquish the spirit, who faded away after what would have been a fatal hit. Looking at Tyroth, Leo smiled when he saw the red glow around the dragon, who else would be able to give them that kind of edge, but he could also see that Tyroth was concentrating very hard to keep the magic active. Who knew how long he could keep it up.

"Now is our chance!" he called out to the others. "Hit them hard and fast, we may not have the power to harm them for long."

And his words were not in vain. With renewed hope, they switched from defence to attack, fighting back against the ghosts. They would not allow this opportunity to go to waste.

Mikey hammered away at one of the ghosts with his nuchakus, doing more damage than he thought he would, and kept it busy so that Raph could stab it in the neck from behind, finishing it.

Jumping over an attacker, Mona landed behind it and quickly slashed at it with her fans, before turning to another ghost right next to her. They stood little to no chance to survive her onslaught and soon faded away.

Sephie and Devina cooperated to take down as many spectres as they could with a barrage of arrows and ice-spears, which with the added power of Tyroth's magic, tore through the ghostly enemies with ease, picking off any who tried to attack the others while they were occupied.

It didn't take long for the team to dominate the fight, and after a short while, they finished off the last of the ghost guardians. With the battle over, they all felt relieved that they made it through it, that was certainly one of the hardest battles they had ever fought.

With all the guardians defeated, the barrier around the platform was lowered and Tyroth could finally relax. Supporting his friends as he did was extremely taxing for him, as he was well past exhausted mentally, but as long as the others were safe, he would gladly carry the weight of his actions.

"Nice going, Tyroth." he heard Leo say, as the blue-masked turtle and the others walked up to him. "How do you feel?"

"Dead tired. Making up a new 'spell' on the spot is not as easy as it might seem. Once we get out of here, I'm taking a nap as soon as I'm able."

"You've deserved it, we couldn't have made it without you." said Donnie.

"Congratulations." said the wisp. "You have successfully completed the Trial of Worthiness. Please step towards the control-panel to lower the barriers and claim your rewards."

Being the most technical of the group, Donnie walked over to the panel and studied it for a few short seconds. It looked pretty much like a normal computer-keyboard, having a couple of rows with buttons, all having their own symbol, and one large round button at the bottom of the panel. If he could only figure out the language used, it would be easy to get the talisman, but he had never seen this kinds of symbols before.

"So, how do I use this?" he asked the wisp, hoping that it would have instructions for the panel.

"First, enter the password by pressing the following symbols, ending with the large button." it said, using a small beam of light to show which keys to press, and Donnie did as told. Once he was done, the wisp showed him another set of keys to press, which he did, but once he pressed the equivalent of 'enter', the room shook. And that wasn't the only thing that happened.

The barrier surrounding the colossal machine disappeared, and the wisp flew up towards it at a high speed.

"Finally, after all this time, I will be free." it said with a far more sinister voice. "Free to walk this realm, free to spread terror and suffering, but most of all, free from this feeble body."

Reaching the chest of the ancient machine, the wisp entered it and the robot shook as it glowed for a short second, then it started to move, gears and joints creaking after being still for who knows how long.

"This metallic body, crafted by Dwemer hands to harness my power, shall now serve as my vessel." it said in a booming voice. "Mortals will worship me or perish. Not even the dragons will stand against me!"

"How come none of us saw this coming?!" yelled Raph, as the giant robot took its first thundering step.

Yikes! Doesn't seem like the team is out of the woods yet, but can they really take on a Dwarven weapon of destruction? Let's hope so.

And to all playing Skyrim out there, don't worry, the Juggernaut is not in the game, it's my own creation, so you are in now danger of running into one. Unless there's a mod for it...

I need to check that!

Until next time!