Chapter 29: Vampire Hunting, Just Like Abraham Lincoln Did
"Alright, everyone keep your voices down," Subaru whispered, as he, and everyone else, walked within the cave. "We don't want to alert them."
Emilia turned to the Onion Knights. "Seigmeyer, Seiglinde, stay here at the entrance and make sure no Vampires can escape."
The Onion Knights nodded and stood guard by the entrance of the cave.
"What about the rest of us?" Erik asked.
Subaru just pulled out his fire sword, "We're gonna kill some bloodsuckers."
Patches cracked a smile at that. "Heh. Sounds like a plan to me."
"Patches, you'll scout ahead. J'zargo, keep monitoring their movements," Subaru said, giving out orders. "Me, Oscar, Aela, and Solaire will engage the Vampires directly, Emilia, Erik, Serana, and also J'zargo will be our long ranged shooters."
Everyone nods in agreement at Subaru's decisions.
As Patches scouted ahead, putting his stealth to good use, the others followed behind, with the close range fighters in the front, and the spell casters in the back.
"Sneak, sneak, sneaky-sneak…" Emilia whispered.
"Emilia, we need silence. Vampires have enhanced senses." The resident vampire whispered.
Emilia looked embarrassed at needing to be reminded. "Right, sorry."
J'zargo uses Detect Dead once again to keep an eye on them, in a way. "According to their movements, they have still not detected our presence."
"That's good to know," Solaire whispered.
Upon reaching the entrance to the underground fort, Patches began to look around, seeing a couple vampires, but no sign of the Priest, or any remains.
"Should we look for him?" Oscar asked.
"We're gonna need him, so yeah." Subaru said matter-of-factly.
"I guess we're splitting up," Aela said.
J'zargo held out his hand. "Hang on, J'zargo is sensing a strange magical presence."
"What kind are we talking about?" Serana asked.
"Nothing alive, or Undead, but... like a vortex or field of energy nearby."
"That is highly suspect," Subaru deadpanned.
"J'zargo will investigate." J'zargo cast an Invisibility spell, and flew upward. Now, with a greater view of the fort, J'zargo saw the source of the Magical presence on the top floor. It looked like an aqua-color dome of energy, almost like a barrier. It was hard to make out, but J'zargo could see someone in the barrier, likely their intended target. J'zargo flew back down and decloaked.
"J'zargo believes he has found our target. He seems to be trapped in a Magical barrier, so we will have to defeat his captors first."
"Then let's get him out of there." Subaru said.
Solaire nodded in agreement. "All right, let's do this."
*So, the group decided on an all out assault. The first couple of Vampires were quickly overwhelmed, leaving only a few left.
"YEAH! GET SOME! AHAHAHAHA!" Subaru laughed.
Emilia and J'zargo let some Ul Goas and Fireballs, and the others were using the flaming swords Andre made for them.
Solaire couldn't help but enjoy this. "This is… INVIGORATING!
"TAKE THIS!" Erik shouted, slashing a bloodsucker with his sword.
"DIE, YOU UNHOLY SPAWN!" Oscar shouted.
Soon enough, the Vampires were dead.
"Huh, that was… surprisingly easy," Subaru said.
"Because we had the proper equipment," Oscar answered.
Serana couldn't help but turn to Oscar with an incredulous look." "Die, you unholy spawn," really?"
Oscar refused to say otherwise. "I'm not taking back the truth."
"Both of you, play nice," Subaru cut in. He wasn't about to deal with any infighting.
Serana sighed in annoyance while Oscar nodded in compliance. "Yes, sir."
Emilia looked towards the barrier. "We should probably free the priest."
"Yes, good idea." Solarie walked up to a platform overlooking the barrier, trying to find some way to bring the barrier down. Quickly, he did find something that may help.
"Hey, I think I found something," he called out. "Probably an activation mechanism for the barrier, but it looks like it needs... a piece? That may be the key to it."
Aela sighed in exasperation. "I guess we better go looking for it."
"Check the Vampires. Maybe one of them had it." Serana suggested.
"LOOTING TIME!" Patches shouted, as he ran towards the bodies.
After a minute of searching the corpses, Patches found the key to the barrier.
"Looks like keeping you around paid off. For once." Aela commented, disgusted at Patches' behavior.
Patches snorted in disagreement. "Oh, shut up."
Erik quickly got between the two. "Please stop antagonizing him, Aela."
Aela's eyes turn yellow for a split second. "Oh, he'll see antagonistic alright..."
Emilia quickly hushed everyone. "All of you, please, shush."
After giving the key to Solaire, he inserted said key, and the barrier came down.
"Hey there, Mr. Moth Priest, we're here as your acting rescue party!" Subaru smiled.
The Priest let out a sigh of relief that he was rescued, and bowed to them in gratitude. "Oh, many thanks for rescuing me. I fear what would have happened had you not come along."
"Prolly woulda lost yer blood," Patches said.
Emilia decided to change the subject. "Well, we didn't come here by chance, we've actually been looking for you, or someone like you."
"Yeah, we need your help with something! Something big!" Erik said.
"Whatever could it be?" the priest asked.
"Can you read an Elder Scroll?" Aela got right to the point.
The priest's eyes widened at that. "An Elder Scroll? You have one?"
"Yes, but can you read it?" Serana asked.
"But of course! I've been preparing my entire life for such an opportunity!"
Patches tossed the scroll to the priest, who was quickly overwhelmed by the fact he was actually holding one.
"Unbelievable... an actual Elder Scroll…"
"You gonna just stare at it?" Subaru asked. "Or are you actually gonna read it, dude?"
As much as the Priest wanted to read it now, he just couldn't at the moment." I'm... afraid I cannot read it now. I must be in a safe location for such a process to occur. Even with all the preparations I have done to read an Elder Scroll, it still takes an immense strain on the body. I simply cannot read the scroll in a place like this…"
"He's right, we need to get to a secure location," Oscar said. "They might send more Vampires to try and steal him and the scroll."
Subaru huffed in annoyance, but whatever, this was a long-term investment. "Then let's head to the Dawnguard base. Should be safe enough there."
A few hours later, the group made it to Fort Dawnguard. With some help from some healing and stamina spells from the resident magic users, the Priest was ready to read the Scroll.
Siegmeyer spoke up, "So, how long will this take?"
The Priest, Dexion, then took out the scroll, and began to read it.
"I see a vision before me, an image of a great bow. I know this weapon! It is Auriel's Bow! Now a voice whispers, saying "Among the night's children, a dread lord will rise." In an age of strife, the First Flame begins to wane and Dragons return to the realm of men, darkness will mingle with light and the night and day will be as one as the poisoned arrow is loosed from its bow to the Heart of Magnus. The voice fades and the words begin to shimmer and distort. But wait, there is more here. The secret of the bow's power is written elsewhere. I think there is more to the prophecy, recorded in other scrolls. Yes, I see them now... One contains the ancient secrets of the dragons, and the other speaks of the potency of ancient blood. My vision darkens, and I see no more. To know the complete prophecy, we must have the other two scrolls."
"Wait… there's two other scrolls?!" Patches shouted.
Subaru groaned in frustration. "Well... shit."
Solaire scratched his helmet as he tried to ponder that. "Where do we even start our search?"
J'zargo hummed to him. "The College may know something, but finding two Elder Scrolls may be a bit beyond what they might know."
"Is there anyone else that can help?" Emilia asked.
"J'zargo does not know."
"I'll try my contacts," Subaru said.
"J'zargo and I will go to Winterhold and see what we can find. Subaru, would you mind teleporting us there?
Subaru gave the mage a thumbs up. "Yeah, sure, no problem."
Using Al Shamak, Subaru created a portal to Winterhold, to which Emilia and J'zargo stepped through.
"Still, we need to hunt down two Elder Scrolls... it would probably be best if we split up into two groups once Emilia and J'zargo get back."
"Good call, Solaire. So… who here wants to be with who, exactly?" Subaru asked.
"I will follow you, sir," Oscar said.
"Great. Anyone else?"
"I'd like to go with Father," Sieglinde said.
"And where is he going?" Erik asked.
"Well... who's leading?" Seigmeyer asked.
"I'm pretty sure I'll be leading one team, with Emilia leading the other," Subaru said.
"Then we should split up evenly, or as evenly as we can. Once we have proper information regarding the whereabouts of the scrolls, then we can divide evenly on who will go where." Oscar explained.
Aela agreed with the sound logic. "Sounds good to me."
"Alright, let's see what info we can get," the Japanese man said.
Author's Note: So, we've actually got a prophecy from our Moth Priests, and one that's actually a mix between both Dark Souls and Skyrim
(Yeah, we figured it would be appropriate given the nature of this particular universe.) Anyways, onto this week's comments! Which is… just two of them… huh.
5queso: Oh, Julius is totally gonna show up in this story. Not only that, but a fight has already been planned out by us, so all you gotta do is wait patiently for it!
Kifhjoofff: Realmente no tenía el control de esa parte del capítulo, toda esa fue la dirección creativa de Infinite. Aún así, me alegro que lo hayas disfrutado.
Anyways, back to the regular old shilling…
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Thanks for reading, and once again, see you next time!
- Ernalore & Infinite the Celestian