In this next part, Lucien and Ethan delve even deeper, but what surprises await them? will they be able to brave the dangers that lurk within?
Chapter 27
Our Friends Underground...
Unknown Dwemer Ruin, the library...
Lucien walked through the study halls of the ruin, finding books upon books stacked up on each other, however, most were unable to be read, while others were in bad condition, however, they were a few books he could see that were still decent, picking one of them up...
'Another research journal? thought that would be the last we've seen of them,' opening the book, 'Let's see...'
...
Entry two
2e 115, turdas...
We have managed to find something that could replace Aethierium, however, it's proven to be more volatile than it, we're calling it Naethierium, due to its purple coloring and similarities to the original power source. However, if we cannot find a way to make this into one, the creature of death will promise us just that...Our chief director is working tirelessly, but it's beginning to prove fruitless, as more explorers die from the exposure to either the Naethierim or the beast...
...
Lucien frowned at the mere mention of this new "Power source" pondering on it, 'Looks like they were trying to get another power source to escape, but judging how they're describing it, it sounded like a toxic component...I wonder if that stuff is still around or if it perished all those years back... then again given how unstable it's described, is this something I really want to tamper with? seeing it is one thing, but if even the dwemer couldn't touch it, I probably shouldn't either... sitting the book down, finding another red journal, opening it
...
Entry three
2e 115 frondas
Today we met someone in our city, an inhabitant of this strange world, a child that looked crossed between a wolf and dragon that had been caught by our sentries...at first, the poor thing thought we wanted to hurt her and her family until we assured that we were stranded, after some time she began to warm up to us...but our chief didn't seem to trust her, even resent her in some cases...we gave her some food and let her go...I wondered where she ran off to or even better where she even came from, some state she's related to the beast with black flames, but that could be a coincidence...or is it?
Lucien took a deep sigh, and nodded, "Okay, well that explains how she found out about them, must've found their door just like we did..." frowning at himself, "But from the description of her from the researcher, is way different than the picture we found, odd...' finding another book, lying next to the skeleton, grabbing it and opening it.
...
Entry four
2e 115 Morndas
It's been two days since our visitor was here, and things seem to have gotten worse...more of us are getting sick and some have gone insane, fights would break out and at first they started small, and then later the got vicious to the point of killing. Most believe this didn't start until after that girl left, but I truly think it was the work of the Naethierium, we were already getting sick from it and had begun to complain to our superiors of the dangers, but they simply laughed it off and we continued the project, I hope we leave soon, tension is thick now...
...
At this point, the imperial felt a chill go down his spine upon reading this, "By the nine, this is starting to get scary, something tells me the next one is going to be worse..." taking a calming breath, scanning the table of the next study hall...
He spotted another book, picking it up with a deep breath...
...
Entry five
2e 115 Midday
A few more of us have gone crazy, when I was wandering the halls, I saw two of the sentries fighting with their fists...At first, I was going to stop them until one of them gained the upper hand, what happened next could only be described as horror... the one that got downed started to mutate before leaping on his opponent and started ripping him apart, his screams echoing the halls...once done in the shredded pieces of his comrade, he looked at me, eyes a strange purple color, teeth full of blood...initially, I took off, but once I was cornered, he caught up to me...luckily, the rest of the sentries got there and put him down...looking over his corpse, strange veins had begun to grow on the sides of his face...but before we could investigate further, we were ordered to return to our posts, once again, denying the new power source as the main issue...Frustrated I returned to my studies, but now I'm convinced that either our chief is incompetent or he's gone insane as well...only time will tell...
...
Lucien gulped, cold sweat going down his neck, "Some of them went cannibal...? No way...don't tell me, that's the reason why there are so many dead..." he gaped, quickly closing the book, "I think it's time to move on, think I've seen enough for now..." exiting the study hall.
With Ethan...
Ethan walked into a forest-like place with some sort of light coming from the ceiling.
"How is that even possible..." Ethan narrowed his before walking deeper into the forest, "It feels like a sun, but also like it isn't."
He stopped when he got flashes, some showed a wolf beast in black, and others showed a white-scaled dragon with gold horns.
"What was that?" Ethan held his head before looking in a certain direction, "This place is filled with spiritual energy... perhaps remnants of those two. Which means that I need to be more careful here."
Ethan walked until he found a piece of paper.
"What's that?" he picked it up and recognized who wrote it.
Fourth cycle of the burning flame
I went back to check on the strange people and noticed one of them being wary of something. I took him to father so that he could help him. Father accepted after that the misunderstanding [conflict] was resolved.
The strange one guided Father for a long time until they did what must have been done. I wished that they could have taken me with them.
"Interesting..." Ethan pocketed the paper before walking forward, "I wonder what could happen next..."
He then arrived at another door with skeletons in front of it.
However, near the door, more of those pipes opened up, causing two dwemer sphere's to roll out, before growing to their size, and charging at Ethan.
The former knight blocked one strike before deflecting it to the second automaton and decapitating the first one.
"I hate how this weapon is heavy... but it does its job damn well." he then noticed that the second machinery got up, "Very resilient."
He dodged an attack before cutting an arm and impaling the machine.
Once the machines were down and broken, there was a strange grinding sound coming from the other side of the door...
'I guess that I did get the strong door.' Ethan chuckled before taking a green liquid in a jar, ready to throw it as he was opening the door.
Inside the new room, not only was the sky nightfall with stars but there was a group of dwemer spheres near a centurion that had sparks and steam coming out of it...the source of the grinding was coming from another automaton, in the form of a snake that patrolled the area as well.
Ethan spotted an opened door as well as counting the number of spheres.
" Three, five, seven... this is going to be tough..." he mumbled before thinking about something.
He shot an arrow at a corner and waited.
The machines responded, rushing over to the sound where the arrow hit, the metal snake, slithering there first...
"Almost like golems..." Ethan smirked as he attached the jar to an arrow and threw the arrow on top of them, releasing a highly corrosive liquid that began to dissolve the machines.
The very few that had spotted him, tried to make their way, falling apart while doing so, the Centurion, seemingly held on longer, swinging its large hammer arm at the former soldier...
Ethan rolled and had a hard time getting on his feet, feeling the crawl of age.
"I guess that I need to make sure that I keep my promise to ya, huh?" he smirked as flashes of a wolf boy appeared before his eyes, "Let's dance."
He immediately rolled away from the Centurion before taking the bow and shot one of the eyes.
With an arrow lodged in its eye, it blew a torrent of steam on Ethan, blanketing the area.
Ethan began to cough as a voice began to ring in his head.
"You know, one day you may be forced to use something besides your eyes." it was a young boy's voice.
"I'm not going to lose my eyes soon." a younger voice Ethan responded.
"I'm serious! You need to train your ears!" the boy argued.
"Yeah, yeah, sure." Ethan yawned.
"Guess that Faith was right." Ethan chuckled as he rolled away from the stomp of the giant machine before hiding behind a pillar, readying another jar.
The centurion scanned the area, unable to find him as it stomped around in search of the old man.
Ethan threw a small pot filled with ice that exploded, causing a frost mist.
The icy mist this time blanketed the area, with the remnant steam from the automaton's last attack, blinding the sensors of the centurion...
Ethan followed the movements of the Centurion with his ears before firing the arrow with the jar at the other eye of the machine.
The Automaton's head was now melting, trying to spit more steam but the acid had gotten into the filter, forcing it to choke on it and malfunction...eventually, the steam in its body had built up, causing it to explode into parts.
Ethan rested on the pillar he was hiding behind and chuckled, "Well, Faith, seems like I'm not coming to see you soon."
The gate that the centurion was guarding finally came down, revealing the double doors behind it.
After resting for a little, Ethan got up and went through the door.
Meanwhile, Lucien's path...
The imperial entered the next room, finding it to be a large office, finding more of the skeletons, but this time one in a large chair, a notebook next to it, going over and picking it, cracking it open...
...
One of the research teams reported another Sentry going insane again, still, they point the finger at Naetherium...we are getting close to figuring out how to make it work and now the beast and a dragon have come here with the child we've sent away...what could they want? this is all because of Ghamac and his time wasting, once this is over, he's getting a demotion...
Chief Mzurlac Jamratz
Lucien frowned at the name, looking at the skeleton, "So that was the chief's name, but if he's here who's the one who escaped...?" On the left he heard the hum of the power regulator cube, heading to it, finding it surrounded by inactive dwemer spheres, sighing...
'It can never be simple, first the centurion, now five spheres? now I'm wishing I brought one of the others with me...' he mentally cursed, before crouching, inching his way over to it, trying not to bump into them...
He carefully reached for the cube and took it, quickly getting out of the way as the steam cooled from somewhere, the spheres were still inactive but had steam coming from them.
'Okay...weird...I expected them to turn on as the centurion did, guess they're just inactive...' making his way out, however... Before he went back out the doors, the gate quickly shut in front of him, the spheres now swirling around in the room in a frenzy, making him nervous and drawing the saber out, 'Looks like I spoke too soon, but what are they doing?'
They soon came to an abrupt stop confusing him as they rose up, putting him back on edge as one of them tried to charge him down, prompting him to slice into it, ripping the blade out and decapitating the arm, and drawing the flintlock out, "You want to dance? let's dance!"
Two went to slice the Imperial with the three others began to shoot him from afar.
Lucien rolled away from the two attackers, while dodging the arrows, getting back up to sidestep the second sphere, slicing into its sides all the way through before finishing it with a head stab, firing two poison shots at the enemies firing at him, causing a poison mist.
The three spheres got out quickly with one of them being more damaged by the mist than the other two.
Lucien fired another shot to bog them down more while slicing into the first sphere, splitting it in half, ducking the swing from behind by the second, and rolling to the side. Once he rose up, he stabbed the beam blade into its center and quickly ripped it out, leaving a burning hole.
The last one tried to fire but fell to pieces before being able to do anything.
With them all dismantled, the imperial sighed in relief, deactivating his beam sword, "That was hairy...gods, I hope the room after this one has the cube," walking over to the next set of doors, pushing them open and entering, finding another cube on the podium, 'Hmm...not seeing anything around it this time, good,' grabbing it from the device and pocketing it, "Now to get this back, hopefully, Ethan has found the other..." heading out of the room.
With Ethan...
The old man got into the room and noticed a number of flowers around an altar that had a cube on top of it.
"Talk about easy after the hammer." Ethan chuckled before walking until he got near the altar and pushed the cube with the sword as pikes erupted from the ground, around the altar, "I knew it."
Ethan sighed before taking the cube and headed toward the main room.
Main chamber...
Lucien walked back in, went to the console, and placed the cube into the third slot, the hissing of steam getting louder, 'Right, now that one's in, just have to wait for the other to arrive...'
Ethan walked in, tired, and sat on a chair.
Lucien turned around, "Ah, Ethan, glad you made it," with a smile, "How'd your path go? do you have the cube?"
While taking deep breaths, the old man put the cup on a table and said, "Never felt my real age before now."
The imperial chuckled, "Told you the metal golems were tougher," grabbing the regulator and walking over to the console, placing it in the last slot, causing the steam from all vents to form by the locked doors, opening them, "And we're in! but we'll take a minute to catch our breath, besides, I found more notes from that path," going to the table and took a seat.
"So did I..." Ethan took the piece of paper that he found and handed it to Lucian.
After comparing the notes they had, Lucien put most of it together, "So these events are all connected, even the one I found from the corpse of their project leader, how he ended up there in the first place is still a mystery,"
"Who knows, it may be something that no one would want to know." Ethan pointed.
"Perhaps, but that still doesn't tell us anything," The imperial sighed, looking at the open door, "Yet...we have one more room or corridor to check," noticing how worn out he was, "First time in a ruin like this, huh?" smirking.
"Kid, do I look like I'm at the summit of my youth?" Ethan asked, "I'm near my sixties, ya know?"
Lucien laughed, "Doesn't mean it isn't, come now, these ruins aren't exactly common in the world we're in," thinking on something while he looked around, "Thinking back on it, my first time in a place like this, I was terrified to be there...if I'm being honest, a lot of things back then scared me...Dragons, bandits, Dragur even...but after being with the right people, they ironed that fear out of me...and now...When I go to a place like this, it's not fear I feel, but excitement for what's in them..."
"You're still young, you can still live with the thrill of discovery." the ex-soldier sighed, "Me, I'm an old man waiting to die alone somewhere. All of these flying discoveries aren't for someone like me."
The imperial hummed on that, "Perhaps...but you seemed to hold yourself up pretty well, your skills made you look like you're twenty years younger, at least from my standpoint..."
"I never said that I was defenseless, did I?" Ethan laughed before looking around, "But, on another note, this place is really something. I did some explorations before, but I never found something like this."
Lucien nodded, "It is marvelous being in one of these, For the rookie adventurer, this place is a death trap, but to the daring and brave, it's a treasure trove of fortune, I even made one of them into a lab to study more...after it tried to kill us, we're just lucky this place isn't living or speaking for that matter..." standing up, stretching.
After taking a deep breath, Ethan got up and looked at the unlocked door, "What do you think is at the end of it?"
"Who knows? could be a console that turns on the power to the ruin, could be advanced automatons, or a large chest full of gold and other items, but whatever it is, I'm sure it'll be worth it," The imperial assured, turning to him, "Ready?"
"Sure I am." Ethan grinned, "Been a while since I had this much action going for me."
Lucien grinned back, "Hopefully, this is the end game of that action, but they usually have a boss at the end of these, if they do, hope it's something we can handle," leading into the opened door.
They found stairs going down, as well as many skeletons that seemed to be caught running away.
"What the..." Ethan knelt and began to investigate the scene, "What could be the cause of fear to the point where they're fleeing what seems to be a mine?"
Lucien frowned and knelt as well, looking at some of the missing bones, "Judging from their fear, it had to be something big, let's just hope it's no longer alive or around..."
"I think that we need to be more careful... besides, I'm almost out of Lud Lotion." he then showed him the last two jars he had.
"Agreed, use those when we need them, I'm nearly out of poison ammo myself," The imperial nodded, "Let's continue, we might get our answer,"
As they continued down, they noticed more skeletons and the lack of light that was more apparent.
"I wish I didn't forget my torch back home..." Ethan shook his head.
Lucien charged up magelight and cast it, the light going over himself, "Here's some light, I was iffy using it, but a spell like this should be fine," the light shone over more skeletons, who looked agonized by something, "Gods, I wish I left it off now..." making his way past them.
They continued until they arrived at a large locked door.
The imperial walked up to it and pushed on the doors, unable to go past them, "Locked huh? let's see if I have a lockpick somewhere," checking his backpack and finding a couple, "Ah, there we go, this will only take a second..." getting to work on the door.
"I have a bad feeling..." Ethan mumbled as he rested his head on the door, hearing some loud clangs.
Lucien nodded, still working on the lock, "You and me both, I hear that clanging in there,"
The lock finally gave in and clicked, but then the clanging stopped and a large whoosh sound could be heard before silence, The imperial opening the door, finding a large console with a screen that was powered on, walked in with a hand on his beam sword.
"That's...strange, I definitely heard something in here," Lucien hummed, frowning.
"Same here." Ethan nodded while looking around, "Better that we stay on our guards."
Lucien drew his beam sword, "Indeed, something feels off here..." walking up to the console, grinning, "Well, this is the main power switch, but what's the on the screen?" Turning to it, finding a strange mechanical monster on it, 'Is this...a mech-dragon? what in the world...? why would they have that here...? "Exo-Whistler..." Was it a project they were working on?' Grabbing the switch, "Now for the moment of truth...!" pulled down the lever, the lights turning back on as the steam hissed loudly, going through the entire ruin, "And we have power and-" eyes going wide at the fried bodies surrounding them, "By the gods...what is this?"
"I feel like we're going to have a real problem soon..." Ethan was in a defensive stance as he was looking around, "Something's not right here."
Just then a pieces of rubble began to trickle on their heads, making them look up to find a large mechanical beast holding one of the corpses in it's metal maws, moving at the sight of them.
"By the nine...what is that?" Lucien gasped, drawing his pistol now.
The creature tossed the body from its jaws and dove down, prompting both men to get away from there before landing with a loud crash, giving off a metallic screech and roar.
"I've heard of elemental creatures, but never seen this!" Ethan got on his feet, ready to fight whatever was in front of them.
Battle theme- RUN (DM Dokuro mix)- Cave story
Lucien gulped, noting the size of it, "I haven't seen one of these since the city of Null, by the gods, and this one's even bigger, Be careful their steam is much stronger and will melt skin!"
The beast gave a bellow and charged them both, while Lucien fired lighting shots at it, causing the creature to slightly stagger in its charge.
Ethan gave Lucian one of the jars, "I'll get its attention while you pour this on its head. Just be careful with it, the Lud Lotion is extremely corrosive."
"Good plan, I'll wait until its attention's off me," The imperial nodded, dodging stepping to the side, as the retired knight ran at the creature.
Ethan hit the creature's hind leg, gaining its attention, "Come get this old man if you can!"
The creature stumbled and turned its direction to him, screeching before blasting a powerful torrent of steam at him...
The old man dodged underneath it and hit one of the frontal legs, "C'mon, I'm old ya know!"
The leg of the mech dented, as it slammed down one of its claws, attempting to smash the old knight.
Ethan dodged again before throwing a pot at the machinery, 'The kid should be ready by now.'
Taking this opportunity, Lucien jumped on the mech's back and held as the creature began to flail around trying to get him off, as he managed to make it to the neck.
The imperial then opened the jar and dumped it on the machine, which finally flung him off, the head seemingly Eroding away...
But then, something happened, the creature stopped moving and twitched with smoking coming from it, as the head melted...
"Nice going, kid." Ethan huffed before leaning on his sword, "I'm seriously too old for this kind of madness."
Lucien got off its back, assuming it was over, "Thanks, I was surprised this was easier than-" his statement stopped short, hearing the sounds of grinding metal coming from the automaton.
The steaming beast, started to split into three parts, separating and flying around. Firstly, the tail had become a dwemer snake, the arms had also become drones with eyes in them, and lastly, the rest of the upper torso had blades beneath it, hovering like the rest.
"Never mind, I should've kept my mouth shut...!" The imperial cursed.
"It really wants us to get out, huh?" Ethan narrowed his eyes before taking his sword and got ready in his offensive stance.
"Yes, but this is rather new...it's never split in three before...!" Lucien gapped, loading more pistol bullets in his gun, "Go for the snake, I'll go for the arms and then..." glancing at the head that had a large eye replacing it, "We'll go for the main head..." dodge stepping from the bladed limbs, firing shots at them.
The snake slithered towards Ethan, with a corrosive poison in its maw, attempting to bite him.
Ethan dodged to the left before attempting to pierce the snake automaton.
One of the limbs took a shock, before the other dove at Lucien, nearly slicing him in two, slicing into the sides with his beam sword, leaving a deep cut into it, getting slammed into by the other limb, that had recovered.
"Arrgh!" he shouted, going down, before rolling out of the way of its laser.
The snake evaded the stab, before wrapping itself around his sword, giving a hard pull.
Tightening his hands at the last moment, Ethan managed to keep the sword, "If only it was like a golem. All that I would need would be to throw something that explodes in the mouth to get the core." the ex-soldier held himself before pulling an arrow in the eye of the machine.
The snake automaton screeched, before spitting a vat of acid at him, which he dodged, melting a great portion of the wall.
While this was happening, Lucien had gotten off the ground, and was now in a run with the two large eyes barreling at him with their laser, the imperial firing a poison shot, causing a mist that blinded them, quickly stabbing into one of the eyes with the energy blade, causing oil and steam to pour out of it, as it fell to the ground, out of commission.
"Haha! One down, two more to go!" Lucien cheered, the other eye stopping the laser.
The serpent automaton charged forward only for Ethan to dodge and swing the sword in a decapitating way.
The snake was caught in the blow, losing its head and neck, and lying on the ground with oil and steam leaking from it.
Meanwhile, Lucien was struggling with the last limb, which had stopped the lasers, but now it was charging at him, attempting to slam into the imperial.
He dodged the attempted wall smash and fired lightning rounds into it, stunning it before shoving his beam sword through it, coming from behind the eye... steam poured out when Lucien ripped the blade out as the pierced automaton sparked and fizzled.
He huffed, turning his attention to the head, which not only did the pot melt it, but now it seemed a new head had replaced it, pulling in the fallen parts, wings forming from its back as the two limbs became saw blades, the snake becoming a scorpion tail.
"Looks like we're looking at the final phase..." The imperial gulped.
"The damn thing wants us out." Ethan pointed before handling his last jar of corrosive liquid, "Too bad that we're going to stay."
The final mech charged at them, firing lasers from its wings, making Lucien and Ethan dodge around it.
"Kid! Listen! This is my last jar of Lud Lotion, so we shouldn't waste it!" he dodged other lasers, "Do you have some sort of plan?!"
Lucien gave the mech an overall look, noticing the core bulging out of its chest, "There's a weak point, a core in its chest, if we destroy that we'll end this battle," he laid out, "And since it's head was replaced, this will come down to timing,"
"Time to give ourselves some cover." Ethan threw another pot of frost mist at the feet of the machine.
While the blinding mist was up, Lucien dashed around the target, firing a few lightning-charged shots into it, to stun it and draw its attention. The automaton then gave a violent spin with its chainsaws out, turning into a storm of steel as it spun toward Lucien.
Ethan took this opportunity to use his bow. He took the weapon and pulled on it with an arrow coated with the corrosive substance.
The machine stopped its violent spin and gave a direct charge at the imperial, who managed to dodge it, causing it to slam into the metal walls, leaving a decent dent in it...once it was stunned, he took the opportunity to slice into its chain blade, cutting it in half...
Ethan fired the arrow right at the emplacement of the core.
The arrow struck it true, sticking out of it, before it began to dissolve inward, stopping the automaton. Steam began to hiss out of its joints, slowing down...Wasting no time, Lucien tossed the last jar at its new head, causing it to melt down once more.
"Now! Go for the core!" He shouted, watching the machine struggle.
Ethan didn't lose any moment and shot another arrow toward the core, this one enflamed.
The flame arrow pieced hit the corrosive arrow, piercing the core straight through...the exo mech began to convulse and shake, steam and oil erupting out of its joints uncontrollably until it finally exploded in chunks, blowing Ethan and Lucien back in separate directions, a thick red and gold rimmed book landing in the center, untouched...
*Song end*
The imperial groaned, standing up and holding his head, "That was...something...gods, I don't remember them being that tough..." he huffed, looking around going to a downed Ethan, "You okay?" helping him up.
"Just..." the old man huffed, "Just need to rest a little..."
Lucien chuckled, helping him to a chair, "After all that? I can't agree more, still, I don't remember them being that tough, guess this was a unique model...thank the gods it never made it back," he sighed, glancing around, spotting a gold glint, frowning at it, "What's this...?" going over to it, finding the Red and gold-rimmed book, picking it up and opening it, "My word...this is a schematics book...did it fall from the machine? possibly, they do have storage devices..." flipping through the book, "So many schematics...some even take days to build..."
After a moment, Ethan looked around and said, "Howling..." he then looked at a wall, "There's some sort of howling that's originating from there."
The imperial frowned, hearing the howling as well, "I hear it, but I'm willing to rest up for a bit before checking that out, it might be another construct worse than this one,"
"This is a more bestial howl." Ethan pointed, "But something is weird about it... it sounds like a dying animal..."
"Yeah...pained even," Lucien frowned harder, until he remembered a photo, "It couldn't be...it's been so many years..." going to the door near the wall.
"I think that's an Echo Spirit." Ethan pointed before walking to the wall and hitting it, revealing a fake wall, "That door is a decoy. The real path, is here."
Confused, the imperial opened the doors to find nothing but a solid wall, sighing with a grin, "I'm impressed you knew about the wall, I would've never guessed one like this," going over to the opened path, "Well, time to see what this is..."
"I've done my fair share of cave exploring." Ethan chuckled as he walked alongside Lucian, "When people want to protect something, they're ready to do anything for it."
Lucien nodded, "Especially if those caves hold palaces in them," pushing the doors open.
After advancing a little, they found a platform with a pressure point on it, "I guess that we need to go down."
The imperial triggered the plate, causing a platform to rise up to them, being the first one on before Ethan. After pressing the plate on the rose platform, it descended bellow, coming to a catacombs area, both got off when they reached the ground floor.
Lucien looked around, "Where have we ended up now?"
"This place hasn't been touched by any tomb raider." Ethan stated after looking at the dust around, "Which means that any riches that were supposed to be here are still here."
Lucien smirked, "No one's ever gotten this far here, it feels like an honor..." looking around at the urns and chests, "If I was raiding, I wouldn't know where to start..."
Then the howling sounded once again, this time close enough to be heard as a small figure of light appeared before them.
"Y-you seeing this...?" The imperial asked in a shaken tone.
"An Echo Spirit." Ethan sighed, "Thankfully, we won't have to fight." he then relaxed his stance.
Meanwhile, back in Ulak village...
Traysek stood in front of Bruk'daz's house and gave a nod to the large orc, "I'll go ahead and let them know, thank you," with a grin.
Bruk'daz said nothing and got inside.
The Redguard left, heading back to the camp while sparing a few waves at the passing villagers, 'For an invitation like that, his face would tell you a different story...' he mentally shuddered.
Once he made it back, he found the rest of his crew doing their own thing, with the exception of Dargo...
"Hey everyone, you all look relaxed," He commented, looking around, "Where's Dargo? He was with us before we left the bakery,"
Recorder sighed, "He said he had some errands to run while he was here, some people he had to see, he will be back soon,"
"That's good," Traysek nodded, before noticing Lucien was also missing, "And where's Lucien? Has anyone seen him?"
"Last I checked, he said something about a cave he heard about after we left, I think he took Ethan with him," Yuriana chimed in, leaning on her hammer.
"A cave? I didn't hear anything about this, how long's he been gone for?" The Redguard asked, concerned.
Erik rubbed his chin, "For most of the day, went while you went to handle a few things yourself, hasn't called anyone yet, so I'll assume he's okay,"
"Perhaps...speaking of Ok, how's Zephyr doing? Did you get an update?" his captain asked.
The Nord sighed, rubbing his temples, "According to the gold knights, her condition has worsened, the healers are working hard but..." eyes going dark and low.
"Yeah...I get it..." Traysek said in a somber tone, "Erik you know if I could I would-"
"I wouldn't ask that of you, sir, I know your magic's shot otherwise I know you would've helped her...it's just one of those things I'll have to put faith in, nothing anybody can do..." Erik lamented.
Inigo placed a hand on his shoulder, "We are not going anywhere until she gets better, my friend, we came together and we leave together, even if she doesn't make it..."
Erik looked up at him, "Guys I...No...thank you, I appreciate it and she will when she comes to..."
"Well, it's not like we have a choice in the matter, we were just invited for dinner by Bruk'daz," Traysek said, rubbing the back of his head.
Yuriana raised an eyebrow, "Oh? what's the occasion?"
"I think he wants to thank us in his own way for rescuing his daughter, which is nice, so I didn't mind too much, but the spending the night part? That leaves me uncertain, I wanted to decline but..." The Redguard began with.
"Let me guess, he wouldn't have it no other way, would he?" Erik asked with a smirk.
"You already know...anyway that's why I was looking for Lucien too, but since he's gone cave-delving with Ethan, there's no telling when he'll be back up," Traysek sighed.
"Hopefully he's not too busy to respond to a call..." Inigo chuckled until a thought occurred, "But, and I'm just saying, "but"...what if he found a dwemer ruin there?"
The blue khajiit got a mixed looks reaction from the others, the captain rubbing his chin.
"I mean, possibly, one in a million chance, I don't think the dwemer has any connection to this place," Recorder answered.
Inigo turned to her, "That we know of, we wouldn't know unless we were there,"
"Perhaps, we won't know until we call him or he comes out," Traysek cut in with, "We've got a few more hours left, we can wait around for them until then..."
Recorder looked up at the setting sun, "Well, he better hurry, the sun's getting lower and we're not going to be here if it gets any lower..."
At that moment, they saw Dargo approaching them in new armor and a new sword on his hip. As well as a couple of short swords.
Traysek whistled with an approving nod, "Nice gear~ Are those made of bone?"
The Dark Elf nodded, "I ask them to be made... to be a gift..."
The Redguard raised an eyebrow, "A gift you say? For whom?" with a smirk.
"I think I've got a few ideas..." Yuriana grinned, making Recorder blush.
"W-Well... I thought that she would need some better weapons... since her old ones were damaged..." Dargo had a hard time looking anyone in the eyes.
Recorder was blushing a beet red, rubbing her neck, "I-uh-Thank you, for the gift Dargo...I'll think of you when I use them,"
"Aww~ he thought about you, and got these," Yuriana cooed, but admired the blades, "He even got you something that goes with your style, I'd be disappointed if you didn't use these,"
The young woman turned to her, "Why? So you can tease me mercilessly?"
"No no, I'm being serious! these are really good-looking swords, exquisite quality at that," The Redhead nodded,
Traysek nodded at the swords, "Agreed, you've never had a bone weapon before, not a custom weapon either... I think this is a nice change of pace for you, they look deadly enough, train with them for a while and you'll be surprised what they can do for you," with a genuine grin.
She sighed with blush, looking away, "Geez guys, now you've got me blushing for a different reason...jerks..."
"You know, Record, if you want, when we get back to the city, we can spar to see how good they are, I would not mind," Inigo added in.
Erik nodded, "Same, I want to know how sharp they are too, I'll be willing to go after him,"
"I mean since you both are offering, fine, but don't cry if I hit you too hard..." Record said with a smirk.
Both Inigo and Erik laughed at that...
"Okay, my friend, sure, I doubt I'll be the one crying," The blue khajiit boasted, "But I'm willing to...allow the challenge..." with a smirk.
Recorder gave him a narrowed-eyed sneer, "Now see? now I have to hurt you when we get back, just because you said that...I don't care if you won those three other times either, you're going down this time!"
Inigo snorted with a smug grin, "Um...okay, but I'm not sure if I'm the right guy..."
"The right guy" for what?" She frowned.
"The right guy to be going down, after all, I'm the not one who got you your gift..." Inigo retorted With, widely grinning.
"Oh Goddamn it..." She groaned, hearing the snickers come from everyone else, "Alright fine, I walked into that, doesn't change the fact you're an asshole..."
"So you admit it then...?" Erik smirked.
"I ADMIT NOTHING!" she shouted, causing a roar of laughter from everyone else, "Now look what you've done!"
Traysek wiped a tear from his eye, "Gods, this is too good, Now you know how it feels to be embarrassed... "Dragonborn babies" ringing any bells?" he laughed.
Her response was an audible groan, head going facefirst into the table...
Omake:
How to catch a predator
(Red dragon version)
Announcer p.o.v
Today on Dateline Scrolls, we took a special trip for today's predator, a man of the cloth in the capital city of Ken...he hit our decoy up last night under the name: Arch_tickler69, wanting to meet up with a 14-year-old girl, to...and I quote, "Teach her the true ways of the goddess" however, that's not all that he intends to do...he's sent pictures and some very inappropriate to even be mentioned, asking questions like, "Am I your first?" and "Would she be willing to give off her first time" it took great effort for our decoy not to puke, but eventually we were able to schedule a meeting today, offering to bring his book, condoms and couple bottles of wine... and is now waiting for him to show up, with the team ready to take him in...our decoy is to greet him at the door.
Normal p.o.v
A white and gold carriage pulls up to the house, with the arch-bishop stepping out of it, walking towards the house...
He looks around first and then knocks on the door...
"Who is it~?" a female voice beckoned from the other side of it.
The Archbishop cleared his throat, "It's me, Arch_Tickler69, Is sweetroll34 there?"
The door opens to "Sweetroll" standing there, "Ah yes, you must be the friendly bishop~ I'm sweetroll34, come in please~" inviting him in, making sure to walk further ahead.
The priest let himself in, closing the door behind himself, before heading to the kitchen with the decoy already on the steps...
"Just go ahead and get comfortable, I'll be down in a minute!" She told him, before leaving...
When she left, he proceeded to disrobe himself, until Traysek in a suit and tie appeared, cringing at the lack of clothing...
"Why don't you stop and have a seat? right over there," He told him, pointing at a chair.
The priest begrudgingly did what was asked, the Redguard taking a seat as well.
"May I ask, what is it that you're doing here?"
Grisholm began to sweat profusely, "I was here to teach a misguided youth the light of our goddess,"
"Really? because that's not what these transcripts say here," Traysek began, before he pulled them out, "I can read them to you now if you like..."
"Ahaha...ah, no...t-that won't be necessary-" The archbishop tried to protest.
"You know what? I think I'm going to read them now..." The redguard said, clearing his throat, "You're too young and beautiful to be without the goddess's warmth, I'm willing to share that with you, if you're willing to share your first time with me..." glancing back up at him, "Are these not your words?"
"Well, they are but-"
"You also said here, that you are bringing plenty to drink to..."ease" the pain...what kind of pain are you planning on easing exactly?" Traysek frowned, "You do understand that this is a child, right? meaning, none of this is even close to legal..."
Grisolm straightened himself out, "In the goddess's eyes, we are all her children..."
"Right...but that doesn't justify you meeting an underage girl for sex, I know you have the booze and condoms..." The Redguard pointed, folding his arms, "Do you have anything to say for yourself? you don't think any of this is wrong, even in the eyes of the goddess?"
The archbishop snorted a laugh, "I'm a man of the cloth, my actions can never be deemed wrong in her eyes, even with something like this...my faith remains strong!"
"I see...Well I think that's as good as we're going to get today," Traysek sighed, "We are a part of Dateline Scrolls, Our show specializes in dealing with older men going after younger monster childs...is there anything you'd like to say before we go?"
"Am I being arrested?" The archbishop gasped.
The Redguard shook his head, "Nope, you are free to walk out of this door..." he lied with a smirk.
Grisholm nodded, sat down the cookie, grabbed his bag, and left the house...
Outside, he found a legion of 20 Red Spears who had their weapons ready, as well as 30 of Niall's soldiers.
"Red spear! get on the ground! get on the ground now!" one of them shouted as the priest got on the ground crying, getting handcuffs slapped on him.
"You can't do this! I'm a man of the cloth, a man of the-!" He cried as he shoved into the back of a carriage, driving off with him.
Later that day...
A phone in Swain's office rings constantly...
"Who is it?" Swain answered after putting his cup of tea down.
The bishop cleared his throat, clearly not wanting Swain to answer first, "You're not Celestine...regardless, it's Grisholm..."
"The unholy kid lover?" Swain asked as he raised an eyebrow.
There was a sigh coming from the other line, "I'm not the unholy one, that's you, anyway, is Celestine around? I got into some...legal issues..." looking around at the cells.
"I saw that on Dateline Scrolls," Swain pointed, "Same as Celestine, who is taking a bath with the maids."
"Then help me, please!" He pleaded.
"Never." was the answer he got.
The Archbishop had a face between shock and betrayal, "What?! Why not?!"
"Despite the fact that you're using your influence for your own good, never to help the people to prosper like the fat pig that you are," he took a deep breath before adding, "You kidnap and abuse children on a daily basis. What makes you think that I'll help you?"
"OOOH tough words, tell you what, let's have this conversation in Celestine's secret garden!" Grisholm spat back.
"I'm not as degenerate as you." Swain scoffed, "At least I'm not a kiddy fiddler."
"Again, let's take this to the secret garden, oh Whoops! forgot you got banned!" The archbishop laughed.
"And how would you explain the kidnapping and the abuse of the children?" Swain asked, ignoring the taunt.
Grisholm was rendered silent, an audible fart being the answer...
"Instead of focusing on my work, I was forced to clean up after you to make sure that the people don't revolt against Celestine..." Swain's voice showed how tiresome it was, "And here I thought that I was the demonic one."
The archbishop gave a bitter laugh, "You are demonic, have you seen your hideous face?" he asked, before the line went silent, "Hello? Aw forget it, he knows I'm prettier~" holding a mirror that broke, "I guess the only one left to call now...would be Claudia..." dialing her number...
End of Omake...
Thank you, everyone, I hope you've enjoyed the special at the end...for who that ghost may be, you'll have to find out next chapter, but for now...to those who wanted me to keep things as they are, I'll probably end up doing that anyway...because of the work we put into this...so we'll keep this one going :)
To Cross: I realized that and I'll keep this one going, it's taken off in an interesting direction and I want to see where the destination ends...I was just annoyed with the delivery of a chapter, I hadn't even intended on Remaking the whole thing, but thank you for your continued support :) I hope you stick around.
To AlduinKiller: Stomp and get them all pregnant huh...If that comment doesn't reek of Mother's basement dweller syndrome, I don't know what does...One: the idea of pregnancy frightens him, because of his career as a pirate/adventurer and as the Dragonborn...as such, he keeps contraceptives on deck due to it, just so that kind of thing doesn't happen on accident... secondly, I planned on just remaking a chapter, not the whole thing...just the delivery on how some of the scenes went...Look man, I get it, I do...I know how strong he's supposed to be by lore...but why do we have to copy that same formula that's been repeated to the point of mummy dust for this to be enjoyed...? do we really want another tasteless harem story? I prefer to be original and there are other stories that have this wish-fulfillment in them, Check them out if you hate this one so much, but I'm going to keep working on this one, Have a good day :)
Take care everyone and may the gods, watch over your stories :)