Morrigan growled at the memory fragment that she had grabbed from that Daedra. She tried using her aura, then her magic, but no matter what she did, the crystal didn't react to her stimulations in the slightest.
Damn it! I'm so weak I can't even activate that damn stone! Fuuuck… I wonder if that dream machine would be able to help me? I gotta check.
The succubus got up, and carefully peeked from her room. Nobody was present in the hallway at this time of night. Everyone was either away or sleeping. She slowly dragged herself to the room where Promestein had made her installation with the help of Daji and Est.
If only I could just drain someone and be done with it! But noooo! They decided that I should properly rest, and take my convalescence to relax! As if! They just want to keep me in for whatever reason! I already told them that I wouldn't blab about my adventures to my sisters, so why do they keep me locked inside!? In a rare moment of self-awareness, Morrigan came up with the answer herself. Oooh… that's BECAUSE I want to suck someone dry, isn't it? Fuck. I guess I did screw up myself a bit by telling them what I had in mind.
Morrigan checked the insides of the room one last time before entering. She didn't want to try confronting anyone. She simply couldn't face anyone. Sighing in relief like a thief after her crime accomplished, she strutted toward the console installed by Promestein.
Then she yelped in surprise when a swarm of furry snakes wrapped around her to lift her from the ground. Her weakening grasp on the stone was quickly exploited by an agile hand which grabbed it before an uproarious laughter exploded.
"Aaaand it's mine! I knew you had brought back something interesting! Thank you for presenting me entertainment material while the heroes are all away! It was worth waiting in this cruddy room!"
"For fuck's sake Daji!" Morrigan struggled against the furry snakes, ignoring the pleasure creeping through her body. "Be careful with it! They include the memories of the heroes when they got drunk!"
"…So it's blackmailing material as well?" The kitsune licked her lips. "Myyy, aren't you the gift that keeps on giving! I'm sure I'll find a good use for it!"
"And then what?! They already put you under house arrest for the shit you did in Grandeur! Everyone will want your head afterward!"
"Yes, yes, they'll beat me down, and make me swear to behave. They do the same for everyone they recruit, even with monsters that just nearly killed them, and you're the prime example yourself, to say nothing of that batshit insane Monster Lord. Then we'll become fweeends, and even if there's going to be some grudges each time I have some fun to someone's detriment, the worst that will happen is that cycle restarting again." She brought Morrigan's face closer. "So how about we skip that whole rancor thing and you directly forgive me, mmh? I'm sure you'll feel better afterward."
Morrigan heard a deafening slapping noise and felt the tails around her unwrap. Before she could grab the crystal, another soft hand reached for it.
"I'll take that away now, thank you very much."
Daji keeled over in front of Alma Elma, holding her stomach while desperately gasping for air. The kitsune looked up to her assailant, completely dumbfounded by the ambush.
"…How?"
"You're getting predictable. The best place to mess with someone in the Pocket Castle is this room. I just decided to hide in it and sleep there while waiting for you." Upon seeing Daji's grimace, Alma Elma leaned with a carnivorous smile. "You're not going to keep a grudge for that, are you? Why don't you save everyone a headache and leave this place tonight?"
Daji barely managed to stand up, still gasping for air. "Don't… make me laugh please." A chuckle attempt sounded like a mewling asthmatic puppy. "You win this one… but you won't win tomorrow."
"Good. See you later!" Alma Elma enthusiastically saw her out. Once the kitsune was out, Morrigan called out to the Succubus Queen.
"Thanks for pulling my ass out of the fire, but what the fuck was that about tomorrow?"
Alma Elma shrugged in an exaggeratedly innocent fashion. "She'll just probably challenge me again. Now, how about you get back to your room to rest?"
"Yeaaah, I would recover much faster if I had a guy to give me company if you catch my drift. And besides, I want to see what the heroes did!"
"Awww…" Alma Elma empathetically placed a hand on Morrigan's shoulder and tightened her grip just enough to make her uncomfortable. "I'm glad that you think so much about them and want to get back on the frontline as fast as possible, but you really need to rest in your room for that."
Morrigan started uncomfortably sweating. "Huuuh… we both know and agree that draining someone is the best way to recover, right?"
"Get back to your room or I'm getting you back there myself."
Morrigan raised her hands while recoiling from Alma Elma. "Okay, okay! I got the message! No need to get violent! I'm out!"
Still smiling, Alma Elma made sure Morrigan left before she locked the room behind her senior. Everyone had been surprisingly silent about their adventure in this other world, leaving her extremely frustrated for new tales. The heroes had directly gotten back to their room and locked themselves in, and everyone else remained evasive or was better left unquestioned in the case of Black Alice.
Alma Elma mentally braced herself when she placed the crystal. How bad was it if no one wanted to talk about it? Sure, all of them had reported that everyone came out fine and nothing else mattered, but it didn't stop her. In fact, it only made her want to learn more, to sea, hear and taste every juicy secret they were so clumsily hiding.
The succubus queen laid on a bed and closed her eyes, letting the memory appear in her mind.
The very first picture that appeared was enough to tell her everything she needed to know.
Luka gulped the content of his large tankard with a surprising celerity. The hero was never one for alcohol, but the drink felt like ambrosia after hearing the good news.
We know where Gilgorn is. We have a goal. Everything's fine for once.
The seven heroes slammed their empty tankards in sync. Their patron, Sam Guevenne, was almost paternally smiling as he watched them and was looking impressed at them.
"That's the spirit I'm waiting from heroes! How about another?"
"Thanks, but we have a mission tomorrow, and we wouldn't want to disappoint you by failing."
"And nothing would disappoint me more than seeing you down in the dump after hearing about all those stories of the world ending!" The waitress served them again. The heroes started enjoying their drinks more slowly, Lest even feeling courageous enough to converse with their patron.
"What are those rumors about exactly? This world doesn't look like it's about to end…"
"Are you an expert on the matter?" Luka tensed up until the man laughed good-heartedly. "I'm joking, most of those stories are just high tales." This time, Luka grimaced to his sole benefit. "But maybe you heard about dragons?"
"We saw them. People say that their return heralds the end of time, don't they?"
Sam Guevenne dismissively threw his arm backward. "The dragons mostly died millennia ago, and even today they're seen as little more than flying lizards. Huge, heavily armored fire-breathing lizards, but still lizards." The man frowned. "No. The real subject of concern is Alduin. He is the World-Eater. A beast of legend which role is to devour the world to start it anew, but instead tried to dominate it. In his eyes, the common man barely is barely a tiny ant that should serve him." Sam Guevenne slowly turned toward Luka. "I think you even faced him."
Luka shivered as he felt uncomfortable in front of the insistent gaze of the man. He instantly associated the name with the picture of the dragon that had attacked him soon after his arrival. Even if he did keep the beast at bay a bit, he simply couldn't deal any damage then. Simply thinking about it was enough to freeze him.
"…Yeah. I remember him." Luka couldn't tell if it was because of the exhaustion or the alcohol he already took in, but he felt surprisingly down from the memory. "I think that huge, heavily armored fire-breathing lizard can end the world. I have no idea how we'll kill him."
Kazuya patted him in the back with a surprising strength. "Don't worry. I'm sure we'll find a way to get rid of him."
A bearded mercenary seating at another table called them out of the blue. "Are you insane? Or do you strangers care for nothing of the legends of Skyrim?! This world is doomed! It is only a matter of time before it meets its end!"
Kazuya answered with a smile and raised his tankard. "The end of the world might be coming, but it better waits until I finish my mead!"
The mercenary groaned and returned to his own discussion, occasionally throwing the occasional contemptuous glance at the party. After discussing a bit longer about the myths surrounding the dragons, Sam Guevenne slapped his knees.
"Oh, well. It's getting late now." He clicked his fingers, and the waitress quickly brought another round of drinks. "Consider it advance payment for taking care of my little issue in Morvunskar. I'll be watching you with great interest. And have fun tonight!"
After their patrons left, Luka felt like a wet blanket. All of his companions were merrily drinking, even if Lars, Novissa and Lauratt were their usual silent selves. His somber mood didn't escape Hakunen.
"Are you alright, Luka?"
The hero answered with a sad smile. "Yeah… sorry. I'm just taking in everything. It just feels weird to be pulled from my own world to be thrown in another… I guess I understand now how you felt back in my own world."
"Yeah, except your world has company that is easy on the eye, and the food is amazing as well!" It's only when Kazuya nearly stumbled on his chair while hitting Lest on the back that Luka realized just how much they had already drunk. "Here, it's kinda your average medieval world with your average-looking people, and the food's just meh." The man giggled while looking down. "Sorry… I'm just thinking about my old history lessons and how hygiene was so bad that people contended with the rodent infestations, often finding excrements everywhere… even up to wine barrels. Sorry again, I don't know why I'm talking about that."
A sudden glass noise attracted Luka's attention to Lauratt. The young mage had a fallen cup of wine in front of him, and was looking paler than usual. After heaving, the young magus started running away.
"Ah." Right besides where he was sitting, Lest was nonchalantly looking at the bottom of his own cup of wine, visibly unaffected by this revelation. "You know… it's only after the sixth bottle that the mouse droppings flavors fully reveal themselves."
Luka, however, was feeling quite queasy. The hero had always seen cooking with good ingredients and in a clean environment as something natural, was always careful, and didn't even consider gifting something remotely unsanitary. Feeling his own stomach churn, Luka got up, although he stumbled around a bit.
Oh, sweet Ilias… did I really drink that much? Why is the ground all wobbly? Why did I drink that much, it's the reason we somehow ended here in the first place! He took another swig from his tankard. And the beer doesn't even taste that good! And there's too much noise! Hurrghhh…
"I'm going to be sick… I need some fresh air."
"Me too."
"So do I… the air is stuffier than the bath house in Mahoroba."
The silent heroes agreed in their signature fashion, themselves stumbling out of their chair in an anarchic fashion. The moment he stepped into the night, Luka felt a sudden wave of melancholy get a hold of him. He missed his companions back in the castle. The souvenirs of fighting by the side of loyal friends emerged, followed by the memories of night spend around a campfire with cute or beautiful monsters, and then of nights spent being dominated by their incredible sexual skills…
"Huuuh… are you REALLY alright Luka?"
"Yeeeeesssss…" Luka shook his head while his higher brain fought back to take control and drive the conversation away from the physical awkwardness birthed by his train of thoughts. Fortunately, the sound of Lauratt repeatedly vomiting in a close street brought him down to the current monster-less reality. Luka needed the support of a wall before wording a coherent answer. "I just want to go hooooome."
"Me too man… me too." Kazuya patted him in the back, although he nearly made him fall as he ended up using his fellow hero to stabilize himself. While Kazuya muttered to himself, Luka could still hear him. "Man, I wish I could do like home and get a little pick me up from Lampas or Daji…"
I'd go for some of Alrauna's honey as well… if only because I could bury my face in her huge tits. No. Bad Luka, bad. Don't think about monsters, don't think about monsters, don't think about monsters…
A somewhat purring voice echoed from the "Mmmh… it looks like you could use a little pick me up. Maybe this one can help you?"
Luka looked up at the hooded silhouette and raised an eyebrow.
Is this a talking cat? A man cat? A werecat? A man werecat? A cat wereman? A were catman?
Trying to ignore Lest who was encouraging Novissa to beat down a wall for getting in his way, Kazuya groaned before questioning the stranger.
"Huurgh… no, thanks. I think we got one drink too many already… unless you have something unique?"
"Aaah. This one has everything they can dream off." The vendor showed a large number of potions under his coat. "From potions to cure bad breath to ones that make you stronger, without forgetting our legendary skooma to make you run as fast as the wind, no one will be disappointed."
Luka noticed Kazuya grimacing in horror, but before he could ask what it was about, Hakunen jumped between them and the vendor eager to try his product.
"Skooma makes you go faster?! Hang on, I gotta try!"
As money and goods were exchanged by Hakunen in a frenzy that scared both of his companions, Kazuya tried to rein him back.
"Wait… that's probably just a scam…"
"This one can guarantee you that it isn't."
"Oh, stop… and besides, why do you even need to go faster? You're already faster than us?"
"I still can't outrun Nemea."
"Ah."
Hakunen gulped down bottles after bottles of the drink and threw them on the ground, licking his lips afterward.
"It's sweet! And I feel full of energy! My heart is ready to burst!"
"Isn't that a bad thing?" Kazuya checked one of the still-full bottles. "That just looks like an energy drink, that really can't be healthy. Did you-"
Before Kazuya could finish his sentence, Hakunen dashed from the street at a superhuman speed that caught the group completely off guard. Luka looked in the direction the young monk had rushed in, but he could only catch a glimpse of him as Hakunen's speed turned him in a blur. Quickly, the monk boy didn't so much run as he bounced around from house to house down the city like a pinball until he ran up a slope leading to the remparts. The artificial inclination was enough to act as a ramp, sending Hakunen flying toward the largest structure at the center of the town. The trajectory of the young monk propelled him straight through one closed window in a sound of shattered glass the hero heard from their spot. The six remaining men all looked dumbfounded.
"...Did that just happen?"
I need another drink… and then maybe Alma El- dang it! Aaaand IT is back. Again.
"Ffffuck. Do you think he might need help?" Lest asked as he was only held up by the wall serving as his support.
"Yeaaah. But we have to go in discreetly…" Kazuya brought a finger in front of his hand. "We don't want to disturb anyone…"
The heroes quickly got to the central palace. The main entrance of the towering structure was unsurprisingly well-guarded, but a quick snooping around revealed another smaller access intended for servants. Luka grimaced when the door creaked open. Still, as there was no one on the other side, the heroes silently entered by crouching and walking on the tip of their toes as if the ridiculous action made them more silent. They had barely made a meter in that Lest accidentally walked on Luka's cape, sending the hero tumbling on the ground.
"Ooops. Sorry."
"Shhh! Be vewy vewy quiet! We're hunting rabbits!"
Luka catapulted straight up, stumbling around as he tried to grab an inexistent sword. "White Rabbit?! Where?!"
"Rabbit?" Kazuya raised his gun, forgetting that the original statement came from him. His wavering aim quickly brough his attention to a new issue. "Fuck… maybe I shouldn't handle a gun when drunk… that shit's dangerous." He carefully holstered his weapon. Right afterward, he smiled at his hand got on fire. "Better. Can't suffer an accidental discharge with a fireball."
"Heheheee… what she said."
Alsoooo Kazuya with his long hair looks more like a girl than Sonya… No. NOOO. Stay down. YOU STAY DOWN.
Luka tried to follow Kazuya by tip-toeing behind him and avoiding any unfortunate collision with the seemingly randomly placed furniture. While Lauratt and Lest traced in their steps with an acceptable success, Novissa and Lars completely failed to be remotely discreet and proceeded to noisily ram into the various drawers and wardrobes in the hallways. Somehow, the lead group failed to notice that the cacophony was coming from behind them and instead warily looked ahead from them.
"I can hear theeeem…" Kazuya pointed at a door adorned with a heavy cadenas. "They're behind that dooooor…"
"Alright! Kitsu… wait, she isn't here. Lucre- wait, fuck, she isn't here either. Huuuh…" Luka held his head in pain. "Fuck. The usual thieves aren't there. "Does someone know how to pick a lock?"
"Nnnnope!"
Lauratt pointed at his staff. The young mage visibly had the magic skills to open the barred pathway.
"Do it. Deew it."
The party held back as Lauratt swung his staff in the direction of the door. Nothing happened. The young mage frowned. He shook his staff again. This time, Lest pointed out the obvious.
"Huuh, nothing's happening."
Lauratt grimaced. The head of his staff started glowing, and this time, a blast of energy slammed the doors open and break it from its hinges. Kazuya drunkenly giggled as the small wooden blasted shards fell on the floor.
"We should always do that first…"
The party entered the cobweb-covered hallways, ignoring any hint that this particular part of the palace had been abandoned for a long time. As Luka unsuccessfully tried to clear his mind from thoughts of monsters, he heard Kazuya giggle against him.
"Woooh, the air is filling all tingly like when we get teleported! Waait… no, no, NOOOOOO!"
The whole group disappeared in a flash of light to end in a rocky clearing. A man wearing garish orange and red clothes joyously invited them at his table.
"Travelers! Finally! I was getting bored!" He pointed at a man on his side who was slumped. "Pelagius here used to make good conversation about his fight, his nightmares and all the people he executed, but I'm afraid he has lost his bite a bit a few days ago."
"Thaaat's because he's dead sir." Kazuya approached and lifted the head of the man. Indeed, Luka could see his empty, limp expression. "Can't tell how though…" Kazuya coughed. "And he reeks, too… heeeerk, where's Lampas to sweeten that smell?!"
"Dead? Poor violent, insane, and violently insane Pelagius is dead?" The man slammed his hands on the table. "Preposterous! If something arrived to Pelagius, he would have gotten the one responsible beheaded on the spot!"
"But he can't. Because he's dead."
"Oh. Right. But where are my manners? I'm Sheogorath, prince of madness and resident in dear Pelagius mind!"
Luka slammed his fist against his chest with enough strength to make himself wince in pain. "And we're the Seven World Heroes!"
Sheogorath shook his head negatively. "Nonsense. You, my dears, are my guests for tonight's games…"
"Hurrrgh…" The shoulders of Kazuya slumped. "Please don't be about dryfishing again…"
"Dry fish? Young man, dry fish has nothing to do with it. I'm more partial to cheese myself. But let us not lose time and start the entertainment!" Seven people suddenly appeared from thin air. "Pelagius had made quite a lot of people angry enough in his lifetime to have at least one of them chase them in his mind and kill him there. So I ask of you, which of those seven that were with him did the deed? If you find who it is, I'll send you on your merry way. And if you find how they did it, I'll even give you my precious Wabbajack! And if you're wrong…" He shrugged. "Oh, well. I heard from a friend that living as a crab brought him some peace of mind."
Sheogorath yawned. "Anyway, please find the one responsible quickly. He did worse than killing Pelagius. He is already boring me. I'm pretty sure his head will make for a good sweetroll once I'm done with him."
Luka and Kazuya directly got to examining the different people. Whether matron, servant or soldier, all were looking incredibly bitter, glaring at the dead man with the force of a sun. Luka was the first to voice his thoughts in a slurred voice.
"Sooo… whaddyall think?"
"I couldn't see wounds on the man, and he wasn't dryfished either…"
...please stop talking about dryfishing, it makes me think about Alma Elma. And Morrigan. And Myusca's exposed tatas… aaaaand here we go again.
However, Luka suddenly felt himself filled with a burst of energy as memories of comparable situations flooded back to him"Oh, oh, I know, it's like the whodunit in the Labyrinth of Chaos, we have to check for clues. There's no weapon lying around, so it's not the military. There's nothing that hints that it's the merchant. A dude like him probably no longer needs a matron. Soooo, he was probably poisoned." Luka shook his head. "Yep. Definitively poisoned. Don't touch the food."
"Huuuh, too late." Lest timidly pointed at the table. Lauratt, Lars and Novissa were already gorging themselves on the food. Kazuya answered with a groan.
"Oh come on guys!" Novissa answered by gesturing that he was completely done with the mess and wouldn't pass an opportunity to eat for free. "At least the food's not poisoned… I need another drink."
"Me too…"
"Me three. I'll fetch some before they drink everything."
Lest grabbed a few remaining carafes of wine that the heroes quickly gulped down. After audibly sighing in satisfaction, all the men started examining the different suspects, quickly going cross-eyed or periodically stumbling as their clouded reasoning skills were put to the test.
"Soooo, food's not poisoned, so it's not the servant. There would be blood everywhere if it was the military… Yeah, I got nothing here." Luka whined. "When I did it, there always were several clues pointing at the different culprits, it was just a matter of finding which one was obviously thrown around as an obvious setup."
"Naaah, of course you can't find anything here." Kazuya snapped his fingers, a revelation having come to his mind. "That's because none of them are the culprit. It's the usual trick in those kind of games, the culprit is never one of the obvious suspects. Shogortah is too obvious as well, and would know it's a boring trick."
The prince of madness shouted from the table. "And I don't like boring! …except for these clothes. But only because they're cozy and not boring."
Kazuya nodded in approval. "Exactly… sooooo… what remains then?"
Luka looked around. The hero was at a complete loss, until his alcohol-drowned brain somehow managed to catch on the reasoning of the demon hunter. "The furniture?"
"Thaaaat's right. It's the furniture. The furniture killed him…"
"But how?! It's furniture! Are you saying the chairs somehow came to life and strangled him?"
"But a wooden chair can't move, 'cause, you know… it's a chair. That's right! The cheese! The cheese is the one guilty!"
"Ho?" Sheogorath pouted and raised a hand to his chin. "How did the cheese kill poor Pelagius? And how did the chair help?"
"It's simple." Kazuya raised a finger with a confidence that Luka didn't have in the slightest. The hero silently tried to interrogate his companions, but Lauratt and Lars were now knocked-out drunk, while Lest and Novissa were having a staredown for the last carafe of wine. Apparently, only the demon hunter itself could find his own reasoning sensed.
"First, I said the furniture. I didn't talk about the chair. It's the table who's been bearing the cheese for all this time, obviously highlighting its tempting nature to Pelagius… unfortunately, it was rotten, and he had a reaction. Therefore… hehe… therefore Pelagius shat himself to death!"
Kazuya started uncontrollably rolling on the floor in hilarity. While Luka was at first worried that his tasteless joke would offend their host, he eventually ended up caught in a furious bout of laughter himself. To his surprise, Sheogorath joined in.
"An interesting reasoning if I say so myself! And an excellent answer! That's right, nobody did anything as Pelagius emptied himself of his bowels, and he wouldn't quite ask for their help himself and give anyone the opportunity to stab him… a sad death, wouldn't you agree?"
Luka just nodded as he tried to keep standing. "Anyway, I am a man… or is it a daedra? Does the man word really means something here? Oh, forget it! Here's my personal Wabbajack! Now shoo! I have some more work to do before Pelagius's already boringly dead mind further shatters. Ta-ta."
The heroes reappeared in the dusty room of the palace, Lars and Lauratt included even as they were now passed out on the floor. Kazuya sat himself by half wallowing on the ground.
"Phew… that was harder than I expected… That reminded me of Danganronpa… without the accusations. Or the fights. Or the bear. Nevermind, it actually had nothing to do with Danganronpa."
"What's Dangnaroonpa?"
Kazuya shook his head. "Nevermind… how about we spend the night here? There's nobody, we're comfortable, and we're all tired, and we're not in a hurry or anything... soOOOOh SHIT HAKUNEN!"
The demon hunter catapulted straight up at the end of his sentence and started rushing through the palace. The remainder of the crew followed suite, Novissa even diligently taking on the duty of carrying Lars and Lauratt under his arms.
They had barely crossed a few hallways when they found Hakunen holding himself against a wall, surrounded by several soldiers clutching different parts of their bodies in pain. The monk boy waved to the party when they arrived, visibly exhausted and his kimono a mess.
"Hey guys, sorry for making you run, I was just… explaining them that I ended here on accident and wanted to leave."
Luka gently smiled. Or at least, that's what he intended to do when he was shaken by another drunken chuckle "Yeah, we're just glad you're fine. And besides, they'll just heal up…" He pointed at a man lying on the ground who was drooling while clutching his groin. "…What happened to this one?"
Hakunen's face flushed beet red. "He thought I was a girl. I wanted to punch him in the stomach to make him stop, but I stumbled and I ended punching him… down here."
Luka sharply inhaled. "Oooow… I feel sorry for him… never mind! It's actually hilarious! Pfwahaha!"
"Fucking medieval guards I swear… Monsters at least want to make you feel good from it." Kazuya shook his head disapprovingly. "Let's just get out of there."
In their drunken haze, the heroes left the castle and knocked out the two guards standing at the entrance. Several more had joined them and were trying to intercept the heroes, but fighting their way through any situation had become so natural for the party that they quickly incapacitated any guard without breaking a sweat with their bare hands.
When archers showed up on the walls, Kazuya refrained from using his gun and instead looked toward using magic. Reflexively, he grabbed the first staff within reach, namely the Wabbajack and let the natural magic of the item flow toward his target.
The affected guard transformed into a screaming daedra warrior, making every guard around him scatter in panic.
"General Tullius! We can't stop them!"
"Fall back and regroup! Attack them from a distance! Do not engage them in melee!"
Luka's eyes locked on the weapon held by the man using it as a tool to direct his troop. Maybe it was because he was missing one himself, but he felt his heart skip a beat when he saw its blade shine in the dark. The more he looked at it, the more he wanted it.
"Thaaat's a nice sword you got there."
The general turned toward Luka, feeling his somewhat strange intention but failing to interpret it correctly. The man raised his weapon and his shield, ready to intercept the hero who wasn't so much charging than zig-zagging while desperately trying to keep a straight path.
"For the empire, he's just one man! Hold fast!"
Even completely inebriated, Luka still had the reflex to reinforce his body with several spells before hitting his target. The general ended up tossed like a ragdoll by the sheer force of the hero barely half his size, dropping his sword in the process. The weapon got caught by Luka before it could even hit the ground, and the hero magisterially raised his newfound weapon in the sky like a victorious warrior surrounded by arrows shots.
"Ta daa daaa daaaaaaaa!"
"Whaaat? What are you doing Kazuya?"
"The Zelda item-get noise? Oh, right, never mind."
An arrow bounced on the ground in front of him. The demon hunter flipped off the shooter and shoot with the Wabbajack in his direction. This time, the guard went berserk with a war cry and started attacking his fellows with an inhuman strength. As even more arrows flew around them, Hakunen whined.
"I don't think they want to see us any longer…" The monk boy caught a flying arrow with his hand and snapped it.
"Yeah… Let's leave. I think they might be a bit angery."
The heroes reached the door of the city still under a volley of arrows that occasionally bounced from them or got avoided by a subtle movement. While Hakunen saw the closed door as an obstacle to get around, Novissa took offense to its existence and rammed the heavy rock slabs apart from their hinges. The road free, the heroes ran for a few minutes before stopping to catch their breath, occasionally looking behind them to make sure no one was following them. As they panted to recover their breath, Novissa started fanning himself.
"Alright… I think we're far enough… aaaaand the night is falling as well… man, that stone looks comfy."
"Hit me."
"Eeeeh?"
Luka looked up to see Lest challenging Kazuya. The other heroes who were still standing up looked as confused as him. Lest was camped on his legs while challenging Kazuya.
"That staff turned two random guards in a demon and a berserk warrior! It'll turn us in god killers! Dominating machines! I'll be able to get rid of Musette and her goons on my own next time!"
Everyone nodded. Lest's completely and utterly twisted reasoning ended up further tangled under the lens of rampant drunkenness currenly affecting them that it somehow came back to straightly making sense by erasing the memories that the victims of the staff also went berserk right afterward.
"Aaaaalright!" Kazuya waved the staff in every direction. "Get ready! I don't know what will happen, but this can only be aaaaaawesooooooooome!"
Kazuya blasted Lest with a wave of energy strong enough to push him and Luka back. When the heroes looked again, Lest had disappeared and was instead replaced by a gigantic wooly mammoth. The demon hunter was looking down as his weapon in guilt, but Luka looked particularly happy with this development.
"…Holy crap… you're my new best friend! Forward! To adventuuuures!"
Completely forgetting their exhaustion, the heroes all climbed on top of the mammoth who let them. However, Luka quickly noticed something strange regarding Novissa.
"Huuuh, why are you naked?"
Novissa puffed his cheeks, sweating heavily.
"Yeah, I admit I got hot as well with all this exercise…" Luka incidentally looked below the waist of the hero before quickly turning away. "Ah… so the big sword… nevermind. TO ADVENTURE!"
As the mammoth-ified Lest charged down the slope, the heroes happily shouted and sang with a newfound energy only overtaken by their sheer incompetence that made their past performance at the handjob karaoke sound like a divine choir. The beast let itself be carried by its own momentum and didn't slow down no matter what happened, even when elven guards standing in armor at the entrance of a fortified mansion called out to them.
"Stop here you lowly scum! You dirty apes have no right to be here!"
"We're not dirtyyyyy!" Kazuya groaned. "Screw those elves…"
Luka agreed by showing his middle finger. "Hurgh… elves in this world completely suck. They're too ugly to justify being that haughty."
"You curs…" the elves unsheathed their weapons. Lest took offense to their reaction and loudly trumpeted before charging the mansion altogether. While the elves gracefully jumped out of the way, the immobile wood and stone structure didn't prove so lucky and partly collapsed. The heroes were all thrown from their large mount, but they recovered and got up as quickly as their sorry state allowed them to. Several more hooded elves appeared, offensive spells at the ready to take care of the heroes.
"Did those imperial weaklings lost control of their so-called citizens again? I guess those dogs need to be shown who their masters are."
"Only master can be my master!" Hakunen charged the group of battle mages who were all too busy gawking at Novissa get up to notice the monk punching their lights out.
"Get back mistress Elenwen! We will protect you!"
"You better! Or I'll get you thrown in Attan's dungeons until your flesh rots of your bones!"
The stupefied guards couldn't do anything against the onslaught of the heroes. Their honed instincts completely nullified the effect of alcohol on their brain. Eventually, they were only faced with Elenwen herself. The elven ambassador was terrified of what Novissa would do with her -and, to her embarrassment, she was slightly swooning over the completely exposed build of the blond swordsman who was looking at her with hungry eyes.
Then he made a dismissive gesture and walked away. Before she could sort out her ambivalent feelings in front of his actions, Luka sympathetically patted him in the back.
"Yeah, no, I wouldn't either. I think I'd rather do it with a platypus girl. Do platypus girls even exist? Gotta ask Alice back home…"
As the heroes turned away and ignored her, Elenwen gradually started panting and turned red-faced. When she talked again, her voice was a wave of pure fury.
"GUARDS! I WANT THE HEAD OF THESE- THESE- THESE… THESE PIGS THIS INSTANT!"
"Is she mad because Novissa didn't want to bone her?"
"bone… Novissa…" Luka started giggling uncontrollably. "Guess she's disappointed because she didn't get the Dragonbone."
The heroes nonchalantly got back on Lest as there no longer were any guard to put on with Elenwen's order and hurriedly left, but not without knocking another building first. As they ran in the wide, open plains and everyone was uncomfortably sweating, the party crawled to a hat.
"Fuuuuck. It's getting hot in here. And it's not because of Novissa…"
Kazuya held his head in his hand as he pondered this obviously important and seemingly unsolvable issue. He clicked his fingers as a genius idea crossed his mind.
"I know where how we'll get refreshed! You know what's cold?"
"Mephisto?"
"We said cold, not dry."
"Naaaah. I mean yes, but I mean how we can cool ourselves? That's right! With snow! And there's a lot of snow on top of the mountains!"
"Yeaaaah… sooooo… holy crap, I'm sweating like a bull… nevermind. What mountain are we talking about? There are mountains all around us…"
"Well, we're going to need a lot of snow… and you find more snow the higher you go… so we go on top of the highest mountain!"
"Yeah!" All the heroes enthusiastically cried out and charged their destination. However, as exhaustion and alcohol claimed their due, their determined ascent gradually wavered and slowed down. Eventually, as they were surrounded by the snow they coveted so much, the heroes abandoned their mission and each crashed in the first piles of snow they could, their goal of ascending the mountain temporarily forgotten. Luckily, nobody immediately saw them in that sorry state, lest the confidence in them would have been irremediably shattered with all the strength of a thousand hammers.
"…"
Alma Elma opened her eyes and blinked a few times as the memories ended. She blankly stared at the ceiling for a long moment, her slow, steady breath the only sound echoing in the room. Her attention eventually turned to the floating crystal where the adventures of the heroes were stored, waiting to be seen again. Her expression a mask of pure focus, she got up and grabbed the crystal tightly, gradually putting more strength in her grip until the jewel shattered in a small spark and a few useless shards that bounced on the ground. Then, with all the care she could put in this task, Alma Elma carefully gathered every small bit before dispelling whatever magic was still remaining inside it. Once she was sure nothing could come of it, she put every single grain in a small pouch that she carefully closed.
After spending a few minute weighting the item in her hand, Alma Elma finally stepped outside the room with the pouch hidden in her cleavage. Nobody saw her pass through the hallways with an out of the ordinary straight gait, letting her enjoy an unusually welcome freedom from the gazes of everyone.
Alma Elma then flew near the entrance of Iliasburg. Using a mix of magic and pheromones to make herself unnoticeable, the succubus queen entered the blacksmith and threw the pouch in its furnace. After subtly influencing the blacksmith to have him start his furnace and making sure any coal inside was torched, Alma Elma grabbed every hint of the smoldering remains and placed them in a tightly sealed box. The succubus queen proceeded to fly to the Sabasa Tartarus, and examined one of the lingering black rifts around. She then picked up a small rock and threw it in the rift. Once every single one of her senses confirmed the destruction of the mineral, she finally threw the box in the rift. After several minutes passed, she released a long drawn breath, and her usual flirty smile reappeared on her face.
There. I understand why they don't want to talk about it. It is better if it is forgotten by everyone. I need a drink… oh, well. I'm sure one of my loving fans in Grand Noah will offer me one even at this hour. And it's good if everyone sees me there. I need to make my absence plausible.
Alma Elma quickly put her plan into motion, and found herself surrounded by fans asking to be sucked dry in no time. She enjoyed a few beverages offered within reasons, as memories of her last imbibition and of the mess that she had to deal with afterward were periodically coming to mind, further reinforcing the fresh memories of the exactions committed by the heroes in their own drunken rampage.
She didn't want to deal with any of that again. She wanted to give a better impression. She wanted to show a troubled group that she could be someone to be relied on. She wanted to show Luka that she would be by his side even in the direst times of crisis.
But first… where would be the harm in having a little fun that the heroes would indubitably enjoy?
I'll start tomorrow… Daji's plan is still too good to pass on.
To the ignorance of most people, a few solid items had actually been brought back from Mundus. Mephisto, Gilgorn and Tamamo were examining the staff Lauratt had brought back in Mephisto's academy. The yoma had opened a large book that displayed the name and the nature of the item.
"The Wabbajack. The symbol of Sheogorath, the prince of madness. Its effects are absolutely random, and are not bound by any laws." Mephisto looked at the transformed Lest. "I wish we got more details about the circumstances behind your transformation, but we'll have to do without. I'm just going to say that even if we have no idea yet how to fix your conditions, I will say that everyone shall be glad that we at least recovered you."
On her side, Tamamo No mae was nervously glancing around while biting on her thumb. Aside from the nervousness of being faced with yet another challenge she had no idea to deal with, there was also still the shame of having been caught -by the small Monster Lord, her adoptive daughter no less- making an absolute mess of an orgy in Grandeur.
Alice had simply slithered up to her as she was using her tails on four men at the same time, stared at her disapprovingly for several minutes, then left without a word. That look had hurt her more than any fight during the Great Monster war. It was neither the look of a leader disappointed by a subordinate nor the expression made by a child who discovered her parent was a flawed person. It was the cold look of someone betrayed, of a broken long-time trust that wouldn't be so casually mended by a quick hug and a nicely cooked meal. Hearing that some help was needed to fix a transformed hero was a welcome but insufficient opportunity to fix that last wrong.
"Standard dispels don't work, ritualistic ones don't work either, and trying to use makinas to alter the changes got us the same result. Maybe you can do something before we are forced to rely on less recommendable people."
Tamamo didn't say a word. The message was clear enough. She analyzed the staff and the magic behind Lest's transformation. It would just require a divine level of magic.
The only sentence uttered by the kitsune was the Word of Dispel that would allow her to recover her full power and majesty. She quickly channeled energy in her dispel before her own transformation would stop. The mammoth started glowing, but remained still. His massive size gradually decreased and took on a more human shape. When the Light dissipated, most of the assembly sighed in relief as Lest was back, although the swordsman was naked as his equipment decided to materialize on his side for a reason.
His nudity was enough to trigger Tamamo's instinct, making the kitsune see the swordsman as a perfect source to recover the massive amount of energy that she had just spent. Her animal grace fully expressed itself as she slipped from her clothes and leaped across the room in a single bound to pin him.
BONK.
Tamamo collapsed like a wet noodle in front of Lest. The swordsman had an extremely annoyed expression on his face and his sword in his hand, his guard high in a defensive stance. Lest quickly put back his clothes and armor, and coldly bowed in front of the unconscious Tamamo.
"Thank you for transforming me back." The Almighty Swordsman walked toward the exit, barely acknowledging anyone else on his way out. "I am going back to the Pocket Castle and rest."
Magatsu tried to call out do him. "Do you…"
"No. I'll be fine on my own. Thank you."
When Lest closed the door, Mephisto shook her head and grimaced.
"Well, at least the main problem is solved… for the sake of everyone, I invite all those present to remain at a polite distance of the heroes for the time being and to pass on this information."
Magatsu pouted in dissatisfaction. "I'm going to make that yokai hunter pay for Hakunen." She sniffed the air a few times. "By the way, what's that smell?"
Gilgorn huffed. "Mph. This place is filled with chemical products and other magical reagents. Do you only notice it now?"
Magatsu muttered to herself. "I swear that this particular chemical smell reminded me of something involving Daji and Musette… nevermind." She pointed at the now diminished Tamamo. "Should we…"
"Let her rest." Mephisto gently coaxed the oni and invited Gilgorn out of the room. "Spending so much energy has likely exhausted her. Now, let's find a good place to bury that Wabbajack and make sure it gets forgotten to history."
The door was closed again, leaving an unconscious Tamamo alone in the room. Or so it seemed. A second later, the silhouette of Alice appeared in a corner, a roll of silver duct tape in her hand. Her cold eyes were locked on the kitsune. The small Monster Lord conscientiously duct taped each of Tamamo's tails with one another, then the whole bundle together in an anarchic fashion. She then fully wrapped the kitsune's limb along her body up to her head. When she arrived on the level of her ears, she hesitated for a moment, then she slowly wrapped the two fluffy triangular appendages as well, making sure that the very hair inside was adhering to the duct tape. Once she was done, not a single inch of her victim was free from the duct tape. She authorized herself a small smirk of satisfaction in front of her work.
She brought a hand to her face and tapped her chin. There was still a little something missing. After raising a finger in illumination, she grabbed one of the pierced boxes lying around used to transport live specimens, and shoved Tamamo inside. She then wrote down on the instruction sheet "To: San Ilia's library".
A harpy feather and a few coins spent at the post-office later, Alice was relaxing in one of the most expensive restaurant of Grand Noah to enjoy a parfait, content with her life as she imagined everyone's reaction when the kitsune would have to free herself at her destination.
Then she spared a brief thought for the adventure in that another world and her mood instantly soured. Whether it was Eden's proselytism, Alicetroemeria and Lucifina-chan's bloodthirst, Promestein's inadequate thirst for knowledge or Morrigan's desire for sexual domination, it had been a miracle that they survived. However, she still trusted Mephisto's lessons as well as Sonya's support. There were still a lot of more reasonable monsters in the Pocket Castle that were elated to see their lord return while they watched over those that still wanted the return of the Land of Night or other monsters raring for an opportunity to create a mess. The yoma was right. She had support.
Oh, well… Maybe I can finally look in that vacation, can I?
While the memories of Mundus made by the heroes and their companions were gradually let go as they returned to their adventure, the opposite couldn't be further from being true. In a surprising secrecy given the scale of his plan, the archmage of the College of Magic in Winterhold had invited the court mages of each and every hold of Skyrim as well as his ancient colleague Neloth from Solstheim.
Savos Aren's red eyes examined the table where his fellow mages had gathered. Only his fellow Dunmer Neloth was missing, although in all likeliness the latter would say that everyone else was early instead of politely apologizing. In the meantime, his sharp hearing caught a few words from every discussion, and just as he expected, everyone was talking about the recent turns of events that had left the region shaken.
He corrected himself. "Shaken" was not appropriate. "Traumatized and irreversibly damaged" would be more fitting. J'Zargo was now always under medications, and even the most powerful potions weren't enough to prevent the khajit from waking up screaming in the middle of the night. Savos' mouth turned downward in disgust. Most of the times, J'Zargo was screaming in terror. Sometimes it was in impotent rage. But there were a few times where it was in a visible physical frustration that was both perplexing him and disgusting everyone.
After a few more minutes of hearing about the various feats and abominations committed by those questionable heroes, the room fell silent when the door opened to reveal Neloth. The mage didn't greet anyone before grabbing himself a chair.
"Alright, this better be worth my time. Some massive shifts have been happening all over Solstheim these last weeks, up to dragons going insane and trying to burn down Raven Rock in rage. I don't want to have to wait even longer and risk my shipments getting delayed because they can't land anywhere."
"I have no doubt, my old friend. Now that you are here, we might get properly started." Savos Aren cleared his throat. "Thank you all for coming here. I will not waste our precious time, as you certainly all saw or at least heard about the recent events that have plagued Skyrim. I have gathered you here today to separate the lies from the truth, the rumors from the facts, and understand the reasons behind their happenings. The very first even that marked the beginning of these dark times was the assault of a dragon on Helgen. Is that correct?
The mages from Whiterun and Windhelm confirmed it. The former had heard the new from a hero, while the latter had a report from Wulfric, the jarl of the city himself, who was getting led to his execution. He also briefly evoked the mentions of the hero that would somehow always be located at the epicenter of every following crisis.
The mage of Whiterun insisted on the unusual appearance of the purple-haired young man who had brought them the news. He had barely meddled with the other inhabitants of the city and was friend with a strange mage who looked just as young as him. As more friends joined them, they had showed praiseworthy willingness to help the weak and downtrodden, sending a large number of bandits to jail.
"Then…" the mage gulped. "There was that… incident. People say that they summoned werewolves, but in reality, they exposed the true nature of the Companions. A battle quickly blew out, and they disappeared afterward. They had openly expressed their desire to move out for their own reason, so it is still unclear whether it was an unwanted incident or an action to spite the city."
One of his colleagues took over. "Going by the description, they're the same ones that appeared in Markarth not long after an incident of our own. A noble knight ended embroiled in a conflict between the Silver-Blood house and the Forsworn. Given their common modus operandi, there is a good chance that both groups are related."
He recounted the incidents that affected Markarth. Soon after, Sybille, the mage from Solitude started talking about how two mute swordsmen had appeared from nowhere and started systematically assaulting bandits.
"Then they grouped with a strange bunch that matches your own descriptions." The mage grimaced under her hood. "This… is when reports get vague. People said they went in a rampage and even destroyed the Thalmor embassy before disappearing." She called out to her colleague from Windhelm. "This would be less than a week before they appeared near your own territories."
The mage acknowledged her. Even if their lords were the bitter enemy leader in a civil war that threatened the country, he would cooperate without question. "A strange barrier had appeared in Morvunskar sometime earlier. I had only noticed it after the return of the jarl, so I unfortunately cannot tell precisely when it happened."
He then talked about how the heroes marched with a Stormcloak battalion on the old fortress. Everything afterward became utter chaos, as he could only feel the threat brought by the realms of Oblivion. Everything had become too twisted to follow. The jarl himself had to publicly appear to calm the population as the very real possibility of seeing Skyrim swallowed by Oblivion surfaced. Then the head of a dragon abruptly fell from the sky right in front of him in the middle of his speech. Ulfric had gone in complete catatonia when he recognized the same one that had attacked Helgen, and had fallen gravely sick since then.
"When we could finally send someone, we only found scattered armors and two survivors. The first was identified as a Dark Brotherhood assassin. The second was a merchant who was tightly hugging a cabbage while mumbling about daedric seducers, snake-witches and angels. We still can't pry the item from his hands. Now-"
"Snake-witches… oh, by Malacath's teeth, I'm sure that those are the same fools that appeared in Solstheim!"
Nobody called out Neloth for his rude interruption, instead focusing on his own message.
"Can you tell us more?"
Neloth grimaced. Whatever he was talking about was something that had visibly been more than merely unpleasant for the incredibly powerful mage.
"There's not much to say. A bunch of idiots appeared in my house when I was in the middle of work, wreaked havoc all over the place and left Solstheim in a hurry."
Nobody answered anything. After an uncomfortable silence, Savos tried to coax his colleague.
"My old friend… there was more to them than that, wasn't it? What did they look like? What did they do exactly?"
Neloth frowned in anger. "Are you really asking me for the latest gossips about Solstheim? If I knew, I would have sent my assistant instead!" As everyone stared at him, Neloth eventually gave in. "Oh, very well, I suppose I'll humor you!"
Neloth's tale proved extremely informative for everyone around the table. While the master magus quickly passed over how his extremely mundane and unfortunate defeat, the description of his assailants coupled with their actions were more than enough to confirm Savos at least some veracity from the seemingly insane rambling from J'Zargo.
"…and last, as far as I could tell, they left Raven Rock with the Morag Tong in tow. I wonder what those assassins could have done now, considering those louts went toe-to-toe with two Daedra princes, Miraak and old Alduin."
"Given the circumstances of their materialization, it was unlikely that Molag Bal and Hermaeus Mora were at full power. The others couldn't even join, although I can tell it wasn't for a matter of trying. Ultimately, it is still greatly concerning that those strangers attracted the attention of several daedra princes who were so willing to make them their champions. It is not something that many mortals can claim."
Neloth scoffed. "Why should we care now? They left. Their rampage is over. We can't do anything about it, the daedras can't do anything about it, and even Alduin can't do anything about it. Because he is dead."
Sybille got up and punched the table with both of her fists, her eyes locked on Neloth.
"We should care because we have no idea where they come from and we barely know who they are. We should care because they got several cities destroyed through their actions. We should care because each of them did take on several bandit hideouts one after the other and won as if these were just mere inconveniences. We should care because they got three armies destroyed in a battle that brought the civil war to a screeching halt. We should care because not only they were noticed by the daedras, they declined their advances and pushed them back. And most of all, we should care because all of it can happen again!"
Neloth remained unimpressed. "You forgot that they killed the first Dragonborn, but it's just a detail at that point. Still, I fail to see how it concerns me."
"Do you really think that you will escape the next one who comes?" Under her hood, Sybille smugly smiled. "Or did they actually get you and you try to pretend that you came out on top?"
This time, Neloth lost his composure and answered the provocation. "They were just cheap and had a lucky shot thanks to their number distracting me! I could take on any of them, any time I want."
"And what makes you think that they'll decide to fight you one by one, you crazy fool?!"
Savos stood up and raised his hands in an attempt to conciliate the two antagonists before they came to blow. "Peace, my friends. Let us not be the ones responsible for a new conflict in these wounded lands."
Even if they periodically glared at one another, Neloth and Sybille both quickly sat back. Their conflict had started a few hushed conversations around the table, and Savos brought back everyone's attention to the matter at hand.
"One of my students had reported that, against all odds, those two groups joined together to stand against everyone else. While the actions of the heroes are questionable, all those that had to deal with them will tell that they initially bore no ill intent, did they?"
Positive nods and hushed approvals answered him.
"However, the group you dealt with…" Savos looked at Neloth who just shrugged. "did."
Neloth huffed. "That's an understatement. there's no way heroes would want anything to do with some of those girls. Your student must have imagined things."
"And yet everything else he presented so far was true. A week ago, those would have sounded impossible. The simple fact that, of everything we heard about them, this is the one that sounds wrong says a lot about them. Even stranger, some of them started collaborating while some of them attacked each other with a violence that should have been lethal. And yet, they all regrouped and left through the same path." He let his last words hang in the air. "I'm willing to listen to any explanation that could tell us more about this strange group. Any information you have about any of them must be examined. We did not find any trace of the phenomena that brought them in this world, so we cannot investigate the cause behind their arrival in this world. However, as the greatest mages of Skyrim, it is our duty to prepare this world should a comparable calamity return and slay every last soul."
"You sound surprisingly alarmist on this one."
"Maybe, but I simply cannot stop from thinking about those travelers… why did they come here if they fled at the first opportunity? Are all the people living in their world as dangerous as them? Were they allies or enemies united in a common goal?" Savos frowned. "What were their plans? Will they return to invade us?"
More whispers ran around the table. Savos shut them by raising his hand again.
"I do not want to throw anyone in a panic. I only want to make sure we have a prepared response to prevent anything like that from ever happening again, whether we will be dealing with misguided heroes or invaders. That is all."
After a few more deliberations, the assembly dissolved. Only Neloth followed Savos as the archmage made his way to his quarters.
"Sorry for my earlier outburst. As much as it hurts to admit, I wouldn't want to face anyone like those strangers again. I'm not even sure I could take on any of them, and even less two."
"I understand your feelings, but this is nothing to be ashamed of. Is there anything that you want to tell?"
Neloth shamefully looked down. "No. I told you everything. They took me by surprise when I got a little forward because I didn't think that the two who decided to talk with me were any threat compared to the others. It was fortunate that they simply left."
"I was even more fortunate to not have to face them, although I could not say the same of the one student who did. This is why we must be ready."
"Speaking of, why do you think that WE have to shoulder the defense of Skyrim and Solstheim? If it is a regional problem, then it should be up to the local jarls to take care of it. Yes, yes, I know that they are embroiled in a petty squabble, but it is their duty to protect the region, so why bother?"
"Let me show you why. Observe."
Savos took a perfectly smooth crystal from one of his shelves and placed it on a table covered with divination symbols. After a few motions, the landscape surrounding the College of Winterhold appeared, its tall building standing strong atop a high cliff. The picture quickly changed to show a ruined populated city.
"This is the city of Whiterun. It was a thriving commercial hub."
Neloth raised an eyebrow wondering if his friend wasn't mocking him. Large parts of the wall were missing. The palace of the jarl had suffered visible damage. Several buildings had been razed and where still in the process of being rebuilt. The few people he could see were visibly stressed and looked at each other in suspicion. As he examined the city, he remarked another troubling detail.
"That's not a lot of guards for a city this size. Not even enough. Don't tell me those guys killed them?"
"Not quite. But remember what we said. They exposed the companions as werewolves."
"By the divines… I thought that this was a mere skirmish. You're telling me their fight is the reason the city is in such a sorry state? It looks like a clan of giants rampaged!"
"Indeed. Now, keep watching."
The orb moved to the center of the house of the healing house of the city. A surprisingly large number of healers were active, tending to the wounded or bringing more supplies.
The orb moved to Markarth which was in an identical sorry state. While several people were milling around, a large number of people were aimlessly wandering as if they had simply given up on their existence. This was followed by another vision of the city of Solitude, where a large congregation of people was protesting in front of the palace with only a thin line of imperial soldiers standing between both. The palace itself was also displaying its damage in a spectacle that was starting to get familiar.
Afterward, the orb lingered on the ruins of Morvunskar. Nothing remained of the fortress and its surroundings, but one could see a lot of armor shards and weapons lying around, ripe for plunder by a few enterprising scavengers. Then finally, it settled on Windhelm. Once again, there were not half as many guards as Neloth expected. A quick look inside the city showed that the streets were mostly empty, with only a few people passing by quickly while throwing terrified looks at the sky.
Neloth's mouth opened slightly in disbelief when he saw Alduin's decomposing head in the middle of the city. Nobody dared to approach the head of the dragon, save for a doomsayer who kept haranguing people that whatever had brought the demise of the Devourer of Worlds was now coming for them.
Then he saw the inside of the winter palace. Neloth had already heard about Ulfric, but didn't care more than that for just another human that could shout like a dragon. However, even he recognized just how much the man himself now looked frail and old, his hands trembling while he was walking with a cane. As the image in the orb moved back to the entrance of the city, Neloth noticed that the doors were solidly shut close, just like all other towns.
"You heard everyone. The civil war only stopped because neither side has enough resources to even move. Their leaders have been reduced to shadow of their former selves. They're focused on rebuilding and defending themselves from bandits."
"I thought a large number of those just were incapacitated by the heroes?"
"Yes. And their deaths only created a power vacuum that disgruntled locals or bandits from other regions eagerly filled. Furthermore, the Thalmor completely lost their grasp on the region. Even my supporter Ancano left in urgency."
"I would call that one a good new, your second was a goof. But all of this qualifies as small game compared to the daedras and Alduin."
"Precisely." The orb turned dark and Savos looked at Neloth straight in the eyes. "Now let me ask you this question: what do you think will happen if they reappear? They might have been lucky that the stars aligned to grant them success against Alduin and the power of the daedras, but even then they were still legendary warriors on their own right who made Molag Bal whimper in pain."
"Now you're just pulling my leg."
"I do not give much credence to this rumor myself, but it does not change the crux of our problem. How many of us can stand to any of them? We might be powerful, but we're only two mages against unknown numbers."
"I get what you mean… alright. I'll help you train your apprentices. But for the record, none of them will reach my level. They don't have the talent I have, after all."
"I don't ask as much, my friend. Shall we enjoy the sights on top of the ramparts?"
The two mages took a moment to stroll on the walkway surrounding the College. The sun was slowly setting on Skyrim over the icy horizon when Neloth's brain caught up.
"Now that I think about it, something does not add up."
"What would it be?"
"I'm just remembering the testimonies given by everyone. There were supposedly seven heroes, but came a point when their number randomly descended to six. What happened to the seventh? Did he die?"
Savos Aren frowned. "No, but we are uncertain of what happened to him. Something happened to him after Solitude… something that changed the group from seven heroes to six heroes and a mammoth. Maybe… no. There's no way they would sell one of theirs. Somehow… could he have been transformed?"
"Don't be ridiculous, my friend! Do you really imagine a power able to transfigure a man in a mammoth?!"
"A mad power would."
"Oh. Well. That's unfortunate for them then." Neloth sighed. "Still, they're the ones who saved the world from dragons. I respect that. The people of Skyrim would probably disagree though."
"They already do, my old friend. They. Already. Do."
And on this note the Skyrim arc is closed, although a few of the impacts will follow the heroes for the next chapters. I could say that it took longer than expected because I had some wiki caretaking to do, but in reality…
It's clear that the arc itself is enjoying a somewhat lukewarm reception at best, and I'm myself quite disappointed with how it ultimately came out as a whole for a whole slew of reasons. The first is that I went off with the wrong premise of "having the Seven Heroes in a boring adventure where they can't get to have sex with monsters."
It was an awful idea.
For starter, all the heroes have a somewhat identical moral compass, three are mute and Lest is kinda just there (that's why I turned him in a mammoth.) The one thing I wanted to explore which is the whole "sex addiction withdrawal" aspect would have led the story to drag on even longer, and writing it there without having the heroes looking utterly pathetic to the point of being unfunny was downright infeasible. I'm still going to treat it down the road, but I could have done an arc without that. Also, Skyrim (and I insist I mean Skyrim the vanilla game, not the whole The Elder Scrolls world and its 5000 pages+ lore) doesn't give them good material to bounce off. They're pretty much Dragonborn played as Goody-two-shoes, and since they've already dealt with multi-dimensional traveling, chances are whatever can be considered weird will just bring out another jaded reaction from them.
And besides, it's Monster Girl Quest. It doesn't have much of a point without Monster Girls. That's why I ended up bringing the usual squad of Monster Girls. Because for as much as unrepentant chaotic bundles of unbridled violence and amoral bags of carnal desire they are, at least it's easy to make them entertaining and to bring on conflicts in the story. However, once again, I didn't want to write a story that would explore the extreme cultural differences between both worlds without ending up being anvilicious, and doing so would have, once again, led the story to drag on and I didn't want it to be "unfinished MGQ project #3135". I felt that the best I could do was show them just how hard the rough manners of the best of the worst of them would clash.
Of course, now that I spend a lot of time and energy writing that story, I have the perfect idea for an actually developed Skyrim crossover that I may or may not end up actually writing down the road. In a few words: Eden. Morrigan. Lvl 1. Forced cooperation.
As a conclusion, I apologize to the readers that I have disappointed with this story as I'm myself barely remotely satisfied with it, and only by virtue of at least having finished it. I have a few more connected one-shots with the next one being quite crack in particular, a proper continuation with the Backrooms, as well as more properly planned full stories down the road.
See ya all! Oh, and enjoy the now translated part 3 demo if you can in the meantime.
