The mist grew stronger the further they flew out, but Nero could just make out the figure of an island, with a large central mountain flying up into the sky like a giant fang.

"Wyrmstooth island," said Nero, now understanding its name.

As they got closer, the island came into better view; it was larger than Castle Volkihar's island but half the size of Solstheim, and yet it was only accessible by dragons. Perhaps the seas grew too violent here, or there was some other force that dissuaded people from coming here. In any case, they would be the first ones to visit this island in millenia... the first nords anyway.

"See anything?!" Nero asked the others.

Everyone scanned the island with their eyes but didn't see much, until,

"Look there! In the mountain! It's an ancient nordic ruin!" cried Serana.

Nero saw it; a much larger, grander one than usual, built into the mountain itself. He scanned the rest of the island and noticed something at the foot of it, just next to the water: a town.

"Durnehviir, take us to that town," commanded Nero, to which Durnehviir obeyed and descended through the air down to the village.

The undead dragon landed, allowing Farkas and Vilkas to get out of his claws first before the other three clambered off of his back.

"Thank you, Durnehviir. It might be smart to keep to the ground for now," instructed Nero.

"As you wish, Qahnaarin," aswered Durnehviir who went walking about, leaving the five of them to the village.

Nero realised that, despite seeing it as a village from the air, it was much more of a ruin than the ruins they saw built into the mountain were; no one had lived here in millennia it seemed. The houses were broken and decayed with no sign of life anywhere.

"What is this place?" asked Serana to no one in particular.

Nero scanned the old abandoned village; when was the last time someone was here?

"Maybe whatever happened here is the reason no one's ever come to this island."

"You think?" asked Aela who looked into the living room of an abandoned house.

"Shot in the dark... but maybe it also has something to do with those ruins," said Nero as he pointed to the ancient nordic ruins built into the mountain.

All five of them looked up at it.

"What say we go investigate?" asked Nero.

They slowly made their way up a stony path that led towards the mountain; it vaguely resembled the 7,000 steps up the Throat of the World, only Nero was sure that where this path led was somewhere much more sinister.

~ Whiterun ~

The sun had descended beneath the mountains and Masser and Secunda were beginning to ride across the sky.

Meanwhile, the army of legioniairres, whiterun guards, and Nero's allies all waited patiently, anxiously, watching the plains for any signs of movement.

Hadvar sat on a horse at the head of his men a fair distance from the magical shield that now encased the city and several plains around it.

On the Great Porch, Julia saw the shield shimmering, its light filling the hall.

Balgruuf stood atop the gates of Whiterun, looking out.

A deafening silence filled the city as they waited for the inevitable.

Suddenly, the inevitable came, and the deafening silence was filled with a deafening sound,

"VEN MUL RIIK"

An orchestra of Thu'ums collided and blew forth a wall of mist that crept across the plains, crashing into the shield and surrounding it, blinding all within to those that lurked outside.

Hadvar held his hand up, "steady men, steady."

The ground rumbled; something was moving out there, a lot of somethings.

Soon enough, tiny blue stars lit up around the shield. They grew closer, in pairs, and slowly began to increase in number. Hadvar squinted his eyes, until the eyes came closer rapidly, and a draugr crashed into the shield screeching.

It was soon joined by others; more and more draugr began to collide with the shield all around them, trying to force their way through. As they did so, the magical shield burned their bodies, cutting limbs off that managed to pry through. Several passed through however, though not unscathed. They screeched into the air and began running across the plains towards the city.

"Archers!" cried Hadvar who raised his hand and all the soldiers behind him raised their bows as the draugr closed the distance between them across the field.

"Nock!" cried Hadvar and the archers nocked their arrows.

The draugr were getting closer.

"Draw!" and the archers pulled back their bowstrings.

The draugr were nearly on them.

"Loose!" cried Hadvar who waved his hand, and let loose a barrage of arrows that crossed the field and struck the draugr, miling them.

More continued to come through though and the archers continued firing arrows

Balgruuf watched from atop the gate, "is this it? Is this all you can summon, Zarys?"

A louder screech than before echoed across the city and Balgruuf looked up to see claws slowly emerge from the mist above and scrape across the shield in the sky, followed by fire and ice that struck the barrier violently.

"Dragons! They're attacking the barrier" cried Irileth.

Nero's dragons who were perched on houses across the city watched and waited patiently for any invaders to claw their way through the shield.

Hadvar stayed forcussed on the threat in front of him and the draugr that kept getting through not just in front of them but around them; soon enough there were too many for the archers. He unsheathed his sword and raised it.

"With me, soldiers! Now with me!"

Hadvar reared his horse with his sword in the air before he began galloping towards the draugr and all the soldiers behind him joined him in charging towards the draugr.

They battle cried as they ran across the plains and cried, "for the Empire! For Skyrim!"

Hadvar crashed into the draugr, swinging his sword left and right and cutting dead limb from limb.

Gunmar struck a draugr with the Champion's Cudgel, caving its chest in before he followed up by bludgeoning its head to pieces, whilst Sorine cut down draugr here and there.

Hadvar continued cutting down draugr across the field, trying to stop them from getting to the gate.

Mages from the College threw magic across the field that burned, froze or electrocuted draugr here and there.

Meanwhile, outside the shield, a warlord sat upon his dragon and watched as his army slowly broke through, piece by piece. Beside him on their own dragons sat Proxa and Covu.

"Sire, the shield, it is very strong," said Covu.

"I will have that child," said Zarys.

At the shield, Krull approached and began striking it with his axe, trying to wear away the magic which slowly began to crack.

On the great porch of Dragonsreach, Odahviing and the Housecarls watched both the doors to the palace and the sky outside which was still being barraged with ice and fire from the dragons outside.

Julia sat quietly, trying not to be afraid, and thinking of her parents.

~ Wyrmstooth ~

Nero and the others slowly approached the entrance to the ancient nordic ruin; two great doors that didn't look like they'd been opened in centuries extended into the air; they were almost as large as the doors to the Hall of Valor.

With both arms, Nero pushed them open and scanned the darkness; there was not the sign of a soul here.

"LAS!"

Nero's Thu'um crawled through their section of the ruin and showed not a single soul.

"I guess we're alone," said Nero who raised his hand and created a magical ball of light that followed him as he stepped into the ruin.

The others followed behind him, scanning the darkness.

Serana had her hand on her dagger and her other hand ready to summon magic at any point. Aela had an arrow nocked at the ready and her fingers feeling the string and feathers at the bottom of its shaft. Vilkas had Ysgramor's shield raised and ready to draw Dawnbreaker out from his back at any time, and Farkas held Wuuthrad at the ready.

"Let's keep moving," said Nero and they slowly ascended the ruin.

Its halls and caverns were not unlike any of the others that Nero had traversed before but something felt different about this one, although he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

"Eyes up, stay sharp," he said as they continued.

Soon enough, after ascending the ruin, they came to some larger cavern, which, as soon as they entered, fires ignited automatically, lighting up the room and revealing a word wall.

Nero looked closer and saw three words, only three words written upon the wall, that called out to him. He approached the wall and felt the words begin to speak in his head, he heard them,

"AL BRON SIL"

"AGH!" Nero dropped to the floor and his vision went blurry as he felt the words inside him.

Serana went to him, "Nero! Are you alright!? What happened?!"

Nero panted, feeling the words make him sick in his stomach.

"I... I don't... it's..."

Nero looked up at the word wall, at the words that were carved across it.

"You learned a shout, didn't you?" asked Serana.

Nero nodded, trying to dissipate the feeling he had and shake it off.

"What's it say?" asked Aela.

"It... I think it... I think it's a shout that kills."

The others looked between them.

"Not like the others," explained Nero, "this one's different, it's worse. It has more hatred and disdain in it than even Dragonrend does. I don't fully understand it."

Nero pushed himself to his feet, "it's probably best I don't."

Noticing that the others were watching him with concern Nero tried to get them all back on task, "we should keep moving. There has to be something here that we can find."

He led them onward and they followed with caution.

Soon enough, they had ascended to what must have been the top of the ruin which was very close to the peak of the mountain. It was half enclosed by ceiling and half open to the snow and wind of the outside evening air.

Around the room were coffins and pieces of rock and rubble most likely fallen from the ceiling after millennia. ero stopped them though as he noticed a figure who stood, centrally in the room, going over a book he was raising in the air.

"Maw," whispered Nero, "be careful. If we're quiet, we can catch him by surprise."

The others nodded and followed behind Nero as he slowly creeped into the cavern, going from coffin to coffin, trying to surround Maw.

Once they were in positions behind him, Nero grabbed his swords and slowly unsheathed them.

All of a sudden however, the elf turned and threw an ice spike to where Nero was who just barely jumped out of the way in time and avoided the ice shattering and splintering the stone.

"Well well well," said Maw, "if it isn't the last Dragonborn. Come to finish me off?"

Nero stood up, "actually we're here for Zarys, not his lapdog. So if you could point us in the direction of him, I'd really appreciate it."

Maw used telekinesis in both his hands and raised pieces of rock and rubble beside him.

"You understand there is no reality where you win, Dovahkiin. We have trained for this for the last seven years. Each of us is as strong and as fast as all of you put together."

Nero raised his swords, "prove it."

"Gladly," smiled Maw who threw the rocks at the companions around Nero.

Vilkas pushed Farkas out of the way and Serana did the same to Aela.

Nero took the opening and charged at Maw, jumping through the air to slice him with both swords.

Maw reacted by shooting lightning sparks at Nero who barely blocked them with both his blades crossed before Maw moved aside to let Nero tumble across the floor.

The companions got back to their feet and came at Maw who summoned a cyclone of ice to shred anyone close to him.

"He fights just like a dragon priest!" yelled Nero.

Serana came forward with a ward in one hand and her other shooting lightning strikes at the elf.

Maw blocked one, and another, but the third struck him in the chest, and so he drew a deep breath,

"FUS-"

Nero saw and cried, "SERANA LOOK OU-"

"RO DAH!"

Maw's Thu'um flew at Serana who just barely pushed herself out of the way as it smashed across the ground and threw coffins into the air and smashed into the wall at the end of the room.

Nero, angry, got back to his feet and went for another attack, this time thoguh he jumped from a coffin onto Maw's back with his arms around his neck.

Maw flew around struggling, and the pair of them went outside, onto a great open plane, until finally Maw stopped levitating and the pair of them tumbled across the ground.

Nero had dropped his swords and was now strangling Maw who was struggling with his own strength, but it was not nearly enough to contend with Nero's.

Slowly, Nero felt him begin to go limp, and he stopped, releasing him.

The others came outside and over to Nero who was sitting up and getting back to his feet.

"Is he dead?" asked Serana.

"No," answered Nero, "just knocked out."

"Well then," said Aela who took her dagger out, "let's finish it."

"No," said Nero, "I have an idea."

"What idea?" asked Vilkas.

Nero looked from Maw to the skies above.

"Can't just go looking for Zarys all across Skyrim, but what we can do is bring him here. This time we'll have some leveredge," said Nero, looking down at Maw.

The other four looked between each other before they nodded and grabbed Maw.

Soon enough, they had Maw tied up and on his knees in the abandoned village with Nero standing behind him whilst the others were positioned in some of the abandoned houses.

Nero looked to the skies and shouted, "KONAHRIK!"

His shout rumbled across the sky, across the sea, over Dawnstar, past Labyrinthian and towards the plains around Whiterun.

The warlord, perched on his dragon, heard the Thu'um, and looked up along with his children.

"It's coming from Wyrmstooth," said Proxa.

"Keep up the assault, my children," said Zarys, "it seems the Dragonborn and I will meet sooner than expected."

Both Proxa and Covu nodded as Vulthuryol took off into the air with Zarys on his back, flying north.

Author's Notes

So I've had quite a few people wondering how exactly Zarys killed the Greybeards so easily. While I was waiting for it to be explained in the story, I had Maw give a little snippet here. Zarys and his children have been training on Wyrmstooth island for seven years, growing stronger and faster. Some of you disagree that Arngeir would have remained peaceful after Zarys had killed the other three. What happened there is Arngeir became aware of just how strong and powerful Zarys is. What we're about to see in the next chapter however is how will Zarys fare against Nero and friends. Hopefully some other things will become clear there too.

I hope everyone's had a very merry Christmas and/or other holidays, I'm certainly looking forward to the new year where I hope things will be a little better than the past two years.

Thank you for reading and I'll hope to post the next chapter soon