When the warrior revealed his name, practically all of Vardall's friends were shocked with that. Lucien more than anyone. Whispers could be heard by everyone, and the only exceptions to that were Bran, who still was alert and ready to any surprise attack from the man, and Vardall itself, who was more confused than anything.
"Your name..." Vardall murmurs. "I think I already saw your name somewhere... I don't know."
He remembers to read some times the name Nerevarine, during the entire month he studied in High Hrothgar. He was an ancient Tamriel hero of some sort.
Lucien looks to Vardall, still shocked. "You don't know who the Nerevarine is?"
Vardall shrugged. "He is... some sort of old hero, right?"
Lucien shakes his head a little. "He's more than that. He is the savior of Morrowind and the legitimate reincarnation of Indoril Nerevar, hero of the Chimer."
Vardall was now more confused. Indoril Nerevar and Chimer, whatever that might be, were not something he studied in his free time. Lucien continued to explain. "Though he arrived in Morrowind as a prisoner, he went on to save Tamriel from Dagoth Ur, Almalexia and Hircine."
Okay, now Vardall was speechless. He didn't know who Dagoth Ur and Almalexia were, but he knew who Hircine was. He was with wide eyes now and slightly looked at Nerevarine with the corner of his eye.
("This man fought against a Daedric Prince?") Vardall thought. He had fought against his share of powerful beings, but a Daedric Prince is on another level. Masking his shock, Vardall returned to hear Lucien as he continued to explain.
"He's immortal due to the Corprus disease, and was last rumored to have left on an expedition to Akavir two hundred years ago." Lucien told.
("A disease that makes you immortal? Where can I get it?") Vardall yet again thinks internally, joking. But seriously, immortality wasn't something Vardall was a fan of. Die too soon because of the taint already was bad, but to live forever was even worse.
Now, about Akavir...
"Akavir is another continent far from Tamriel, am I right?" Vardall asks, already having read about that place. Lucien nods. "Exactly. It's separated from Tamriel by the Padomaic Ocean, and it's the home of several races called by us only as Akaviri."
"Interesting." Vardall then returned his full attention to the Nerevarine. "So, you truly left to Akavir?"
The Nerevarine nods. "That much is true." He then sighs and dodges his gaze. "And I only did that because of my thirst for adventure... and no small amount of hubris."
Vardall lifted one eyebrow, confused while the Nerevarine continued to explain. "After I defeated Hircine on the isle of Solstheim, Tamriel felt so empty. I'd beaten a daedra lord. Nothing else could challenge me. So I left."
Vardall crossed his arms. "But when did you returned? And how no one knows you returned?
"I returned to Tamriel 7 years after my departure. And no one knows because I willed it so." Then the Nerevarine closes his hands into fists. "I could not bring myself to face any sort of false heraldry. Not after what I'd done."
A hero ashamed of some of his actions... Vardall could already sympathise even more with the Nerevarine. "What did you do to be ashamed of?"
The Nerevarine sighs again. "Plenty. When the Red Mountain ravaged Morrowind, when the daedra invaded all of Tamriel, where was I? Where was the mighty Nerevarine? Thousand slain... heroes among them. And all because I had to satisfy my ego."
He was right. Vardall didn't present those events, but he read that both the eruption of the Red Mountain and the daedric invasion by Mehrunes Dagon caused too much death and destruction. A great hero like the Nerevarine could really have made the difference in those events.
"I... know the feeling." Vardall dodges his gaze, looking to a wall. "I also already did many things I'm ashamed of..." Vardall takes a deep breath. His memories were still there. And even him confirming they're starting to fade away after some time, some things he did would forever be with him. "But... What have you been doing since you returned?"
"Atoning. I've wandered Tamriel in secret, helping where I can. I may never erase my failures, but perhaps I can overshadow them with new successes."
Nerevarine's words gave Vardall some things to think about. He may try, but he'll never be able to undo his actions. But now he was fighting against vampires and it was destined to defeat a treat to this entire world. The people of Thedas will never know about what he's doing now, but this may be enough for Vardall himself to feel well again and stop torturing himself with his past. He certainly had something to learn with the Nerevarine.
But the sudden sound of one of Vardall's friends calls his attention out of his thoughts.
"Successes like that massacre you did with those bandits?" Lydia asked the Nerevarine, crossing her arms. "I agree that scum like that deserves to die, but I think what you did was too much."
The Nerevarine looks to Lydia. "Those bandits robbed, raped and killed people. They're some of the worst kind of people in this world. They deserved that."
Vardall lifts both his eyebrows and smiles as he looks at the Nerevarine. They're even more similar than the Dragonborn thought.
"But, talking about the present now..." Lucien talked, earning the attention of everyone. "Why are you here, Nerevarine?"
"The answer to that lies in the name of these ruins." The Nerevarine said. "Kagrenar, named after the Dwemer's Chief Tonal Architect, Lord Kagrenac."
"Do you think he left something here?" Lucien asks, and the Nerevarine nods in confirmation. "Not just something. When Tiber Septim united Tamriel, he did so using one of Kagrenac's weapons: a giant golem called a Numidium."
A giant golem used to conquer an entire continent? By the way the Nerevarine was speaking, Vardall was sure it wasn't like the golems he knew from Thedas, like Shale.
The Nerevarine continued to talk. "I destroyed a second Numidium two hundred years ago, but recently, I heard rumors that a third lay dormant in this very ruin."
Lucien's expressions suddenly became fearful after he heard that. Vardall only looked confused. "What in the Fade is a Numidium?"
"A Numidium is a colossal construct of Dwemer origin, constructed by Lord Kagrenac." The Nerevarine started explaining to Vardall. "He was constructed to be a new god, powered by the Heart of Lorkhan, but it was in practice, a weapon of devastating power. A 'thousand foot tall automaton' as it described."
Everyone from Vardall's group were shocked when they heard that, and Vardall himself was with wide eyes. "Are you saying those things are 300 meters high?!"
The Nerevarine nods. "Yes. And just like I said, Tiber Septim used a Numidium to unite Tamriel. He was destroyed afterwards, but a second one was partially constructed in the Third Era by Dagoth Ur. I destroyed that second one, together with Dagoth Ur."
"And now we have a third one right below us..." Lucien murmurs, but everyone hears him.
"That's right." The Nerevarine talks. "Such a weapon is too dangerous to exist. I've come to destroy it and I could use some help from all of you."
"If this thing is dangerous as he told us, we need to destroy it before it falls into the wrong hands." Inigo told Vardall.
"I agree with Inigo, Vardall. We need to do something now." Lydia supported Inigo.
"Hey, wait a minute... If this thing is so powerful, are you guys sure we can defeat it?" Arissa was worried about all this.
Sofia looks at her. "We already defeated dragons! We can defeat a 300 meters giant."
"The Nerevarine is right." Lucien said. "We need to end this Numidium."
The Nerevarine looks to Vardall. "Most of your friends sound very decided, Dragonborn. What about you?"
This was a big risk they're all running to, but Vardall was very known for always ignoring risks. "Is there any doubt? We're right behind you, Nerevarine."
Bran barks in joy, and without Vardall seeing, a smile was formed beneath the Nerevarine's helm. "I appreciate it, Dragonborn."
The Nerevarine then equips two swords in each one of his hands. It was some truly beautiful blades, the one on his left hand was covered by red flames, while the one on his right hand was covered by blue flames.
Lucien was with wide eyes after seeing those weapons. He knew them. "Are those Trueflame and Hopesfire!?" He asks the Nerevarine, almost speechless.
"Yes, are they." The Nerevarine looks at both his swords. "They have been my most trustworthy allies during all these centuries."
"They look truly impressive." Vardall lifts his eyebrows. "But let's go, we have a giant to kill."
"When we arrive and if the Numidium is activated, I'll keep him busy. Then attack with everything you got."
Vardall nods and he and his group all follow more into the depths of Kagrenar, now with a legendary hero with them.
"Two legendary heroes team up to defeat a third Numidium! And I'm here to help!" Lucien was very excited with this opportunity, even ignoring the dangers of this.
"I agree it is an unique opportunity and it's very exciting, my friend, but don't treat this like just another battle." Inigo warned Lucien, giving him something to reflect about.
Continuing all their way down, the group arrives on Kagrenar's main chamber. That place had four strange pillars, that created an energy trail to two strange Dwemer machines. But certainly, the main and most terrifying thing there was a giant Dwemer centurion that was connected to a sort of support, those pillars energizing the giant centurion.
"What is that!?" Vardall shouted, a little scared. He never saw something that big. Analyzing that centurion, he certainly had something around 49 foot tall, maybe even more.
The centurion, who until now was dormant, is energized even more and activated. He gets out of his support and starts to walk, his steps were making the ground shake, like an earthquake.
"God or man, you shall fall!" The Nerevarine shouts a battle cry while running towards the giant centurion, not showing any type of hesitation or fear.
"What are we waiting for?! Let's go help him!" Sofia shouts, while also running to attack the centurion.
"I think Sofia has spent too much time with you, Lydia." Vardall says, also picking up his greatsword, preparing his spells and also running to the battle. Lydia followed Vardall right after, while Inigo, Arissa and Lucien stayed more far from the centurion, Inigo and Arissa shooting arrows in him and Lucien firing spells on him. They attacked the giant centurion with everything they had, but even Vardall using several spells and shouts on him, it did no damage to him.
"Nothing we do is working!" Lydia yells while she rolls to avoid being smashed by the centurion's feet.
Looking around the chamber, Lucien seems to have an idea. "Those pillars and those machines seem to be the answer!" He shouts, so that everyone can hear.
Looking at all of that, Vardal decides to act. "Keep this thing busy!" He ordered his friends while running in the direction of one machine. Arriving there, he can see an orb of some sort, being protected by a force field. The force field seems to be created by an energy trail that was generated by those pillars, and was also supplying energy to that giant centurion, making him invulnerable. It seems he would be able to deactivate those force fields by doing a puzzle involving those machines and the pillars, but Vardall didn't have time for that crap.
Gathering mana, he fires a fireball right on the base of one pillar, and it was strong enough to severely damage the pillar, and the heavy weight of the rocks were more than enough to make the pillar go down. Vardall did the same with the other pillar that was on the side of the one he destroyed, and that worked. The force field protecting the orb had vanished, so Vardall prontly destroys the orb.
That was good, but was not enough to make the centurion vulnerable. Running towards the other machine on the other side of the chamber and does the same: Destroying the pillars and after that, destroying the orb.
That seemed to have worked, as the centurion made a guttural and mechanical sound, sounding truly like he had suffered damage.
"Yes!" Vardall yelled. But he had a problem, as the centurion now focuses his full attention on Vardall.
"Oh, shit..." The centurion ignores all the other people who were attacking him and was now focused on only attacking Vardall. He promptly tries to hit Vardall with a giant hammer he had in the place of one of his hands. Having no other place to go, given the fact that his giant opponent was blocking his way and that the Dwarven machine was quite high, being only accessible through stairs, Vardall jumps from upon the machine to avoid the centurion's attack.
The attack from the centurion destroys the part of the machine where Vardall was, and when he hits the ground, Vardall tries to roll to reduce the impact, but without very success. He strongly falls on the ground, his armor making almost nothing to absorb the impact. The fall was not high enough to be fatal or even to make him break some bone, but it was enough to make Vardall fall on the ground and be disoriented for a few seconds. Seeing that, the centurion decides to use this opportunity and attack Vardall while he is still trying to get up.
"Vardall!" Seeing that scene, Sofia starts to run in Vardall's direction, trying to help him.
"Sofia, wait!" Arissa shouts, but Sofia doesn't pay attention. She was only focused on helping Vardall.
Even now up from the ground, Vardall still was a little disoriented. The centurion lifts his giant hammer, ready to strike Vardall. Seeing that, Sofia doesn't even think twice. She jumps and pushes Vardall, getting him out of the way of the hammer right before he was hit.
The problem is that Sofia didn't have the same luck.
When the hammer makes its way down, it strikes Sofia. She was tossed to the other side of the chamber, just like a ragdoll, and hit the ground.
She was not moving.
Everyone could only wide their eyes after seeing that, the only sounds in the chamber being from the giant centurion. And right after, a desperate shout.
"SOFIA!"
Vardall recovered his senses, just at time to see Sofia falling on the ground. He quickly understood what had happened.
He didn't believe this was happening. No, it can't. He already lost too many friends to lose one more. Tears started to fall from his eyes, now wide open. But soon, all that sadness was turned into anger. He closed his hands on fists and looked to the centurion with rage burning on his eyes.
Shouting with pure anger, Vardall casts a fireball and fires over the giant, over and over again. Everyone could see that the giant automaton was receiving all the damage from that, and was starting to even lose his balance.
"Fus Ro Dah!" Vardall shouts over the centurion, that being enough for him to fall on the ground, but he was not dead yet.
Without even thinking twice, Vardall reunites mana upon his hands and prepares the Tempest spell, and before the centurion could even react, a strong and wild storm of pure lighting was formed all around him.
Those lightning damaged some of his mechanical parts, which made the centurion even more slow than a creature from his size was. But Vardall still wasn't satisfied. Reuniting all the last amounts of mana he had, he prepares the one who was one of the most powerful spells he knew.
When Vardall finished, a giant tornado, made of pure fire, was summoned upon the mechanical creature. Vardall had casted the Inferno spell.
Everyone could only watch when a beautiful contrast of blue and yellow with orange tones finally ceased the existence of such beauty and beast the Dwemer centurion was.
When both spells vanished, Vardall immediately fell to his knees. Cast two monumental spells had taken everything from him, and he was too tired to even walk. However, he was not finished yet, so he takes his dagger, removes one of his gauntlets and cuts his own hand.
Blood started to drop from the wound, Vardall's tainted and cursed blood. When enough blood was upon his hand, Vardall closed his hand into a fist. What happened next was a total shock and surprise to Vardall's friends and the Nerevarine, as they all watched with terror while Vardall started to float, soon being surrounded by a cyclone of his own blood.
He screamed during the whole process, but soon that was all over and he stopped floating, returning to the ground.
If he did this in Thedas, everyone would promptly accuse him of being a blood mage, but they're wrong. While this truly involved blood, it was not any type of blood, and didn't even involve demons. It only involves Vardall's own tainted blood.
These were all the results of Avernus research that Vardall learned while he was in Soldier's Peak. With this knowledge, Vardall could use his own tainted blood as fuel to recover great part of his stamina and mana. But of course such a thing doesn't come for free, as to recover his mana and stamina, Vardall had to 'sacrifice a little part of his life' as Arvenus told him.
The truth was that the more Vardall used this, the more the taint would spread through his body, making him die sooner. For this very reason Vardall almost never used this, only in last cases or when he was extremely weak, like now.
But he had more things to worry about now than that. With his energies restored, Vardall prontly runs to where Sofia was. All his friends were now here, even the Nerevarine.
"Sofia! Sofia!" She was lying down with her eyes closed, and didn't look like she was breathing.
"I... tried everything I could to save her." Lucien still was a little shocked by all that he witnessed with Vardall and that blood cyclone, but he decided to ignore that for now.
"No!" Vardall tried to help Sofia himself. He tried to use and apply all the healing spells and knowledge he had, but that wasn't enough. Sofia wasn't reacting to anything.
"No, no no..." Vardall tried a little more, tears falling from his eyes, but again she didn't react. Vardall almost was without mana again when he felt a hand touching his shoulder.
"Dragonborn, stop." The Nerevarine said with a low voice. "There's nothing more you can do. I am sorry, but she is dead."
Vardall didn't want to. He truly didn't want to believe, but he knew the Nerevarine was right. Sofia, the first true friend he had since he arrived in Tamriel, the first person he shared his secret of being from Thedas... She was now dead.
"May Azura guide you." The Nerevarine said, last showing respect to the fallen. "Yet another good person dies... All because of me."
Vardall didn't give attention to the Nerevarine's last words. Cleaning the last tears from his eyes, he get up and gently takes Sofia's body from the ground.
"She gave her life to save mine." Vardall sadly murmurs. "She doesn't deserve to be left to rot in a place like this."
"What are we going to do?" Lydia said, also very sad with Sofia's death, just like everyone.
Vardall thinks for a moment, and soon reaches a conclusion. "Sofia always said she was a free spirit. Let's make sure she remains that way." He says.
"I think I know a way for us to get out of here." The Nerevarine said, pointing to an elevator near them.
"Then let's go." Without one more word, Vardal walked to the elevator, still carrying Sofia's body. The rest of his friends and the Nerevarine followed him, all of them with some serious questions to make to Vardall, but not now. Now wasn't the time for questions.
# # # # # # # #
"What now?" Arissa asked Vardall. The elevator really took them to the surface. The trip took only a few minutes, but it looked more like hours, as the silence dominated everything, no one daring to say a word after everything they bent through.
Vardall already had in his mind what he wanted to do. "Sofia deserves the best. Let's make her a pyre." Vardall didn't move his eyes from Sofia's body. Arissa nods. "That is a good choice."
Everyone worked together to make a pyre for Sofia, even the Nerevarine helped with that. When everything was ready, Vardall gently placed Sofia upon the pyre and used his spells to set the fire, saying his last goodbyes to his friend. Bran sadly howled while everyone watched the pyre burning. This situation reminded Vardall from when he, Alistair, Wynne, Leliana and Sif, his Mabari hound, also burned King Cailan's body in a pyre when they all returned to Ostagar.
While the pyre is still burning, Vardall decides to break the silence. "What was that thing?" He asks the Nerevarine, but without looking at him. "It didn't look like a Numidium. At least not the way you described to me."
The Nerevarine looks to Vardall. "It was not a Numidium, it was only a Titan Centurion, created by the Dwemer as a sort of elite protector to some of their most important places."
"So a third Numidium does not exist?" Vardall asks.
"No." The Nerevarine said.
Vardall sighs. "All this for nothing..."
He kept seeing the fire burning the pyre, heavily thinking. "This is all my fault." Vardall says and The Nerevarine looks back to him. "What?"
"Sofia gave her life to save me." Vardall sadly says. "If I was faster, more stronger, maybe she would still be alive."
The Nerevarine nods in a negative way. "No. It is not your fault, it is mine."
Vardall looks at him now, confused. "If it wasn't for me asking for you and your friends help, this could have been avoided." He sighs. "Perhaps I could have defeated the titan by myself, but the feeling and wish of fighting side by side with someone I consider as an equal took the best of me. 200 years and I still have much to learn."
"Perhaps you could help us." Vardall told the Nerevarine, who lifted one eyebrow confused. "What?"
"If you really think Sofia's death is your fault, what I personally think is not, then fight with us. This way her sacrifice may not have been in vain." Vardall said. "Besides, you said you want to overshadow your failures with new successes. I think helping me defeat Alduin might help you with that."
Without Vardall saw, the Nerevarine widened his eyes under his helm. "Alduin? The World-Eater?"
Vardall nods. "Yes, the dragons returned because of him. As Dragonborn, it is my destiny to stop him. But I certainly could use the help of a great hero like you."
Without even thinking twice, the Nerevarine tells Vardall: "But of course I will help you. Alduin is a menace not just to Tamriel, but to all Nirn, I will not ignore this."
Even in these circumstances, Vardall manages to create a little smile. "It will be an honour to fight side by side with a legendary hero such as you, Nerevarine."
The Nerevarine also smiles a little under his helm. "I say the same, Dragonborn."
Looking back to the pyre, Vardall's smile disappears. He had lost one of his best friends, and unless he defeats Alduin, he will lose everyone. But first, he needs to deal with Harkon and his vampires.
I hope I writed Sofia's death in a good way, scenes like that aren't my speciality.