Chapter 391 - The Battle Of Winterhold (8) And (9)
A/n: So there was a wedding in the family. Sorry for not informing anyone beforehand.
I am going to add multiple chapters to each other so that I can manage the workload and do things faster. Each part will be more than 2K words so you're getting your chapters.
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Part 1:-
As the Battle was starting, a single young man climbed the mountain top between Mount Anthor and the Shrine of Azura. He was clad in a black wearing an expressionless face and observing the morning sky silently.
He stopped at the not so flat top and checked it out.
"Nice spot."
His calm face was really an opposite to his active cheerful nature. He carried a hint of calmness that can only be seen in a man about to do something rather dangerous.
(You sure about this?) Shadow's voice echoed in his head.
"Yes. It is the best course of action."
(You think things will get better this way? You may be right, I know… but you will open yourself to new dangers and threats that I don't really want you to go through.)
"Don't worry, I have preparations…" Jon said as he turned to the Shrine of Azura's direction, "And friends in high places."
(You trust Azura?)
"You trust her."
(I am a different story.)
"Trust is not the word I'd pick anyway. I trust that she is true to her desires and it would be a good distraction until the time comes. You said yourself, after today, everything will change."
(I wish you luck then.)
Jon nodded and looked far to Saarthal.
His thoughts varied between his lovers, his family and his accomplishments. All the eggs important to him are all gathered in that one basket.
"Nefertiti, Odokuro, Xikil."
He called for three names. The first appeared on his shoulder as a black cat, the second was a large Bone Samurai and the third was a gigantic being with the appearance of an extremely black evil wyrm or rather, a Daedric Titan.
"Hooman."
"Mas… ter."
"Mortal."
Jon didn't turn to any one of the three and spoke after a long breath.
"Xikil, fitting in your new body?"
"Yes, Mortal. I feel much better compared to last time, I learned how to keep this body flying now."
"Pathetic." Nefertiti cussed at him.
"Tsk!" Xikil, who became a Daedric Titan, glared at her.
"She only spoke my mind." Jon said.
"Oh…" The Daedric Titan started to shrink in a gloomy mood.
"Listen very well, I want you to go down there and keep yourself hidden between mountains. Your job is to protect the commander of Winterhold's forces, my woman Alina."
"Consider it done, Mortal."
Xikil stood up with his Daedric Titan body and started walking down the path.
"Use your wings, dimwit." Jon shouted.
"Oh, yes!"
Xikil stood still for a while before figuring out how to use his wings again.
"Are you sure about that idiot, Hooman?" Nefertiti asked.
"Despite the fact that the one on the wheel is a dimwit, he has the body of a Daedric Titan. Just like giving a baby the body of a muscular adult. Expect him to smash things too well. Also, it will take him a while to figure out himself after going through that experience, being reborn is nothing easy."
"Of course, Hooman should know best."
"Enough with wasting time, let's get to it."
Jon took out two items from the cube, they were the Elder Staff [Pride] and [Greed]. He used [Pride] to make the atmosphere on the peak a bit foggy and handed it to Nefertiti and also gave her the [Cube]. He then reshaped [Greed] into an anvil and made [Wrath] fix it to the ground.
"The five of us; [Greed], [Wrath], [Pride], Nefertiti and I are all connected with Soul. Nefertiti and I by a mystic connection so I see her as equal while the Sins are what I enchanted with parts of my very living soul so I see them as my extension. The following process is going to cause a large change to the five of us but it will be temporary. Even though I don't need any consent from you all, I want our will to become stronger as parts of me and extensions of my will."
Jon gave a ceremonial speech just to put his heart and mind to it but the others started to express their opinions.
[Wrath]'s eyes started to gleam in red more and more conveying his fired up state of mind by a hearty roar, [Pride] shone in golden glimmer expressing its high and mighty nature, [Greed] quivered and shook ready to take all that Jon will give him.
"As long as the change doesn't touch my royal fluff." Nefertiti changed into her Child Form and said so.
"Haha! That's assuring." Jon laughed, he then looked at Nefertiti and spoke, "Let's get right with it."
She manipulated the [Cube] and took out an item which was [Wraithgaurd], Jon put the single Dwemer Gauntlet on his right. The next items were both [Sunder] and [Keening] which went to the right and left hand.
Jon looked at the three Artifacts that were some of the finest things ever made by the lost race of the Dwarves. With a swift move, Jon smote with [Sunder] on [Greed]
*TINK*
A loud metallic sound echoed through the place.
"Damn!" Jon exclaimed, "Looks like [Greed] loves it. [Pride], increase the power of the fog spell around us and not let a sound out."
The Elder Staff did what Jon wanted and made the area completely covered in mist and blocked all sounds from leaking out.
"Nefertiti, when I give the signal, starting passing those things to me."
"Okay, whenever you're ready."
Jon closed his eyes and calmed his state of mind for a second then opened his eyes again and nodded.
"Now."
As soon as he said that, Nefertiti took out an item and put it on the anvil of [Greed]. Without any more waiting, Jon smote with [Sunder] on that item.
A cloud of red energy overflowed in the surroundings and started to make anomalies happen in the space like red lightning cracks forming out of nowhere and strange shapes and wills in the red cloud struggling with each other and even voices were heard through the red cloud.
The item Nefertiti took out was a Heart Stone, one of those ones that can be mined from Solstheim. Heart Stones are pieces of the Red Mountain that carry some residual power from the [Heart of Lorkhan], the World-Grade Artifact that got the Red Mountain formed around it.
Heart Stones are merely some earth stained with power from the [Heart of Lorkhan], Jon knew that for a fact and he could never break those heart stones to cultivate from them directly. Now with the power of [Sunder], a specific amount of energy entered the stone trapping the energy and chased the energy of the heart out.
Jon switched from [Sunder] to [Keening] and pass the blade through that red cloud causing it to react to the dagger's blade. The energy cloud was flayed by [Keening].
"AAARGH!" Jon groaned as he felt something sweet coming through his throat.
The energy of the Heart Stone was passed through [Keening] to [Wraithguard] which absorbed the wild effect of the energy and let the pure power flow into Jon's channels.
Jon could stand no more and fell on his knees with his teeth clenching to each other about to break from the pain.
Nefertiti almost panicked but she looked at Odokuro and with her will, it supported Jon up as she took out a bar of wood and stuck it between Jon's teeth.
"You can't stop now, Hooman. If you stop, everything is lost!"
As she said so, some sense returned back to Jon and he struggled to keep himself standing. He looked at her with a pale face.
His body was burning up from the outside and freezing from the inside. His soul was in a very active state as it got a large and violent amount of that alien energy that came all at once.
He felt he was being torn apart by an invisible hand but he couldn't say a word. After all, this was all his idea.
He had a plan and he must stick to it to the very end or everything will truly be all to waste.
What he is doing now is not some sort of cultivating even though it followed the same principle. It was something much more different and way more violent.
Nefertiti took out another heart stone and Jon looked at it bitterly. He reluctantly smote with [Sunder] once again and flayed the energy with [Keening].
This time, his whole arm became numb and he could barely move it.
With the third heart stone, Jon couldn't endure his own clothes. He was dressed in some thick winter clothing with a large armored girdle belt. Jon let out some of that energy out and the clothes on his body all exploded away leaving only the armored girdle belt.
His damaged body was exposed half pale half normal even though his muscles were still in good shape. He looked like one of them barbarian warriors in that girdle which had some cloth still hanging to it.
*TINK*
*TINK*
*TINK*
With each smite, Jon was withering in pain and suffering.
It kept going for maybe two hours straight as he ground too many heart stone and his face was carrying some serious hints of tiredness. Just as he was about to stagger and fall once again, he felt a sudden change.
The energy he accumulated were too much to be trapped in by one mortal soul. Jon was about to puke blood from the pain.
That pain, however, stopped as he felt a different feeling surrounding him. The world was rejecting to let him gain more energy than what he already gained.
"Finally!"
It was what he aimed for all along, the Point of Violation to the rules of the Mundus. One more step forward only meant that the world will retaliate for sure no matter if Jon was one of those paragon breed mortals called the 'Heroes' or not.
Jon finally could put on a wide grin as he waved [Sunder] at the last heart stone put in front of him.
*TINK*
It was then… the energy Jon accumulated was too much and too wild. The Mundus had a lot of binds to stop such an event from happening as it is the way Lorkhan and Magnus designed it to be.
The sky darkened.
The air thinned.
The wind stopped.
The clouds above the mountaintop formed a typhoon-like circle and through it, a beam of pure wild energy descended towards Jon and his soul fragments inhabiting Nefertiti, [Greed], [Pride] and [Wrath].
The energy beam came broke through the world without touching anything with harm but that wasn't the situation towards Jon and his soul fragments.
The beam was too fierce and descended on the five of them with the intention to stop them from attaining power beyond what is allowed.
Jon watched the shining light fall towards and gritted his teeth, he then raised up his right hand which had [Wraithguard] and met the descending beam of light with his fist.
"BREAK!"
Jon couldn't let a single strand of his magical energy out as his body and the beam of light clashed. He can't let go of that power as he already came this far.
The whole weight of the beam pushed Jon down on his left knee yet his arm was still rising. [Sunder] and [Keening] also fell on the ground.
On the other hand, Nefertiti and the three sins were being suppressed by the light too. Nefertiti used her Shadow Magic to protect herself, Odokuro knelt in front of his master with its katana stabbing to the ground resisting the suppression of light, the 'Shadow Aether' was a large amount of dense shadow energy so it had a good affinity to resist the light and the Elder Staff was doing better than others as it was radiating its golden light to fight off the world's suppression.
In truth, only 10% of the suppression fell on them and 90% was on Jon.
The Heavenly Tribulation… or rather the Aetherial Tribulation has begun.
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Part 2:-
Nine figures dashed through the skies of Winterhold towards the base of the light beam atop the mountaintop between Mount Anthor and the Shrine of Azura. Their intentions were not of pure malice as they came but to stop an imminent disaster.
Nine Arch Wizards were something equal to the worth of nine weapons of mass destruction all focused on one goal.
"This power, they are Arch Wizards!" Alina was shocked senseless and turned to Nurina.
"Curses! I thought they were not that powerful at the very best but that… this is too much. Didn't your spies tell anything?" Even Nurina's face twisted.
"We knew there are powerful masters among the enemies but not Arch Wizards."
The two were worried sick at the moment but a single distress signal to the other powerful masters on the side of Winterhold was enough for an immediate response.
Hilda, Jonrad, Tyr and Sigurd moved away from the first front and dashed towards the mountaintop where Jon is.
Nurina followed accompanied by Tormund and Jenna Firemane.
This match wasn't even good, the strongest seven on the side of Winterhold against nine Arch Wizards. The College of Winterhold could afford Savos Aren and three other Arch Wizards but only in the case of Winterhold being broken into.
Alina looked at the situation getting out of her hand and her heart sank. She looked around for any more cards in her sleeves then noticed the large Dwarven Ballistas.
"Ongeim, use the Ballistas. Shoot the elves down." She shouted.
Ongeim, Svakin and Trudvar who were leading the first front under Alina left their units to their seconds in command and manned the Ballista on the low towers. They ran like beasts and climbed up the walls with their hands until they reached the war machines.
*Swoosh* *Swoosh* *Swoosh*
Three ballista bolts were shot with absolute accuracy cowards the flying mages. One must be thankful that the levitation spells are not as good as real flying else the situation would have become much worse by the second. Thankfully, the Ballistas' range reached the flying mages with ease and caused their formation to break loose.
"Humph! Insolent humans."
An Arch Wizard felt offended by Ongeim's bolt and decided to incinerate the human by a fire spell.
The response came from Alina as she slammed her hand on a certain stone tablet on the wall and some pillar-like objects rose on the wall.
These objects were strange pillars with orbs on top of them. Once the spell got closer to the range, the pillars shout out Lightning spells completely nullifying the Flame spell cast by the Arch Wizard.
This was one of the Tesla Tower functions.
As soon as the Arch Wizard saw that, a vein grew on his forehead.
"Insolent dogs! Why don't you just DIE!!!"
The short-tempered Arch Wizard couldn't accept the humiliation of his spell being broken and was about to go on rampage.
"Stop it! Look, they have caught up to us." One of his colleagues pulled him away.
The nine Arch Wizards felt the threat that the seven masters who were approaching paused and decided to give a fast fight.
"Seven of us can hold them, the other two should eliminate the threat."
The masters were preparing to meet each other on one front and it started to get rather serious.
The first front lost the support of the masters but the Winterhold was already overwhelming the enemies and sent them on the run as a chase started while a few troopers were left to defend the wall.
Alina seemed anxious watching the disadvantage of the seven vs. nine masters. The seven masters of Winterhold stood in front of the mountain with their weapons drawn while the nine Arch Wizards remained in the air.
"Now!"
"Attack!"
The two sides moved at the same time as powerful spells and waves of magic power formed deformation in reality itself. Space started to crack under the strong exchanges of Magicka and the Heavenly Tribulation that was going on the top of the mountain.
"Lady Boss, can't we use the tower once again?" Trudvar asked.
"No, the reactor is exhausted and our people are out there. One misstep and we may even harm Jon.
The situation was chaotic but Alina was already focusing on all the fronts with her future vision. She kept gazing at how the battle was unfolding on the masters' front.
The disadvantage was clear.
Jonrad was handling a strong Fire Mage on his own.
"Haha! I read the reports about you, human. You are the so-called 'King of Ash'! Your Flame looks mediocre if you ask me."
"If you can run your mouth this much, you at least can show something better than this blind duck spells you are casting."
"Humph! Die, you fool."
"I humbly decline."
Jonrad was disadvantaged in terms of energy but had stronger firepower. A race of time to him and a race of endurance to his opponent.
On the other side, there was Tormund and Jenna against two Arch Wizards. Tormund carried the clan's sword [Gram] and his round shield made of Ebonwood and Behemoth scales while Jenna carried a long black staff with a spearhead.
"Those lousy old humans. Think you can face me and my brother when we go as duo?" One of the Arch-Wizards spoke with haughtiness.
"Oh, husband. It seems those two elves are some sort of duo fighters too."
"Oh, wife. You seem energetic all of a sudden! We indeed haven't faced any duo fighters since a very long time ago."
"Don't waste your breath on those two, brother. Just kill." The second Arch Wizard cast a fast spell towards Jenna sneakily.
The spell landed and made a big clash with some dust rising but as it settled, Jenna and Tormund appeared to be unharmed as Tormund's shield was covering both of them with ease.
Jenna hid behind Tormund and raised her spear staff from the shield's side. By a whim, a red [Chain Lightning] spell was cast from the spear towards the two Arch Wizards.
One of them was about to repel it with a Ward but his instincts told him to not even come in contact with that spell. He hurriedly backed off.
"Be careful brother. That woman is not a mage, she is a warlock or rather… a witch."
"A witch and her protector. What a troublesome duo!"
"Fufufu!"
Jenna seemed to be amused as her identity as a Dark Magic user was exposed. Tormund gave a tired sigh as he prepared to tank for his wife as she attacks.
On another side, Tyr was fighting silently with another Arch Wizard. The two of them moved like wind and disappeared like shadows. Being an Arch Wizard doesn't only mean being a spellcaster, Arch Wizards can be scary warriors such as Tyr's match.
The two were both assassins and warriors with a lot of magical ability. They appeared and disappeared as they pleased and laid a lot of traps to each other but their fight was simply going to take forever.
Nurina was focused on a magical clash with a very old High Elf. The two skillfully manipulated the elements and put down a show of absolute arcane.
"I heard about this way in manipulating magic long ago. It seems you are from the followers of one of Lord Divayth Fyr's students. How strange to see one of you here or rather, how not strange!"
"Is that an insult?"
"No no, not at all. You Dark Elves are travelers by Nature and Lord Divayth Fyr is one of the best travelers if not the best known on Nirn. Sadly we don't see eye to eye and who am I to voice an opinion against the Grand Arch Magus of this realm."
"A resentment against Grandmaster Divayth then. How unexpected!"
"Well, the unexpected thing is to see a girl like you from a great line of mages taking a cursed human child as her student and child. Linking such a troublesome kid to the great line of Divayth Fyr students, this child is getting scarier by the second."
"Don't talk about Jon, dying old thing."
"Fufufu!"
As Nurina was exchanging insults calmly with her old opponent. A reckless fight was happening on the other side.
"Shit!"
"How can that woman jump the far?"
"Don't ask me, you two need to just get away from here."
Three Arch Wizards were locked down by Hilda on her own. The Bloody Hilda, famed for her blood-thirsty fighting style was akin to a death reaper on the field. She moved in a red beeline formed by her Aura and Hair then struck down with her axe towards the elves. Two of the three were supposed to sneak towards Jon's location but Hilda was fixed on making them run around like a lioness chasing a herd of animals.
"Leave that crazy woman to me. You take the long turn."
One of the mages said as he started to cast many illusions everywhere. Numerous clones of him appeared all around Hilda and all moved around at the same time.
Hilda stopped and looked around but she wasn't any good with magic so she couldn't tell illusion from reality. Still, it was all the same.
"Die you bastards!" She waved her axe in a whirlwind style annihilating all the clones four meters around her.
She then looked around and jumped up high landing on a certain clone.
"Found you! I can smell your fear." She waved her axe down to behead the elf but the clone turned into nothing once it got killed.
"Please, woman. Give an Arch Wizard some credit, whatever clone it is, I can be it. Even if you find me, I can still move to another clone." The Elf said as he tried to make her mind get jumbled with magic for her to lose vision.
Once he made sure that her senses are disabled, he and the clones attacked with daggers all at the same time. As Hilda was about to get stabbed in all her vitals, she turned around so fast facing the right elf clone with an expressionless face.
The elf was too close to Hilda and he instantly panicked. He jumped away and hid among his clones once again. A strange cold feeling appeared on the side of his neck and he touched it to check. He found a thin line of blood coming from a scratch on his neck. Looking back at Hilda again, he found a small knife in her hand.
"What kind of monster is she?"
He was this close to death to the point that he felt a strange thrill of danger invading his thoughts. This battle can't be easily decided as the two were the worst match of each other.
Sigurd Moonblade was standing silently facing another Arch Wizard, the two moved not a step or utter not a word as they kept looking at each other still, the two looked very exhausted.
This wasn't a normal battle as it seemed the two were fighting mentally. When Mages and Warriors reach a certain level of experience, the can completely invade their opponents' thoughts and pry on their moves. The two were like that, fighting a battle that cannot be seen or happen, an endless struggle conflicting tactics.
The seven fighters on each side put their all in a duel of life and death pushing and pulling the boundaries of their fighting styles to cope with the excellently matched or badly matched opponents.
Amidst the fight, two of the nine Arch Wizards managed to sneak away from the intercepting forces.
"We can't waste time. Once we get rid of the threat, we should come back and annihilate those opponents."
"Let's hurry then…"
They were charging towards the peak where Jon was as fast as they could but unknown to them, another opponent was drawing nearer.
"Haaaa!"
Two gleaming blades fell from the sky towards the two Arch Wizards. [Soulrender] and [Bloodscythe] were down to claim lives but the Arch Wizards dodged with ease.
"What now?"
One of them spoke annoyingly.
To the side, a flying creature was approaching and on its back, a girl with long black hair and red angry eyes. Her long beautiful face froze the air in the lungs for a second but the old Arch Wizards were not easily swayed.
"It is that human girl, prepare the protection spell."
In front of Alina who rendered an Arch Wizard to the ground with only her angry stare, the rest can't be careless anymore.
Two [Water Screen] ward spells formed in front of the wizards to block any other stare from Alina.
"Lokthur, maneuver." Alina said as she took out a lever-action crossbow with Anti Magic bolts.
"Wicked girl!"
"Trickster!"
The two Elves wouldn't want to come in contact with those bolts, they were strong but Anti Magic enchantments would take a lot of Magicka to dispelled.
Alina shot a few bolts as Lokthur circled around the Arch Wizards who kept dodging.
"Get that Gryphon. We need to capture such a rare breed and that girl too."
The two Arch Wizards were not even pressured by someone with Alina's level. Her actions were merely child's play to them.
One of them cast [Telekinesis] and forced Lokthur down carefully while the other tried to cast [Paralyze] on Alina midair.
"Fat chance!" Alina abandoned Lokthur and jumped on her own pulling her swords back with [Telekinesis].
Without any delay. Her inner casting technique started working on [Frost Steps] spell. Icicles of frost appeared midair as she stepped on them dodging any hostile spell on her own.
"Damn, she has skill." The male Arch Wizard admired Alina's movements.
"Just shoot her down before she used those cursed eyes." The female Arch Wizard cussed at him as she started to bind Lokthur down.
Alina approached the mage with haste putting the strength of her Frost Aura in her arms and waving her swords horizontally.
The male Arch Wizard simply waved his left hand and deflected the energy of her two blades on her causing the swords to break away from her hands and stretched his other hand to hold her from her head.
"Haha! Be a good girl and come now."
As a disgusting smile appeared on his face, Alina was already planning ahead. Her foot was right close to the Arch Wizard and somehow managed to print a rune spell under the Elf's feet.
He noticed but it was already too late.
The spell wasn't anything fancy, to hide the lethality of the rune, Alina used a simple teleportation spell that switched places between her and the male Arch Wizard.
"Wait!" He tried to look back hurriedly but Alina was driving her kick in the man's groans.
"Arch Wizard nuts are still nuts, bastard." Using a vulgar language wasn't something Alina would do but the situation called for it.
As she managed to put the male Arch Wizard down, she was assaulted by an angry female Arch Wizard who jumped on her and tried to kill her barehanded.
"You bitch! How dare you do that to my husband?"
Alina was struggling under the mysterious strength of the body of an Arch Wizard, she barely held to the woman's wrists and quivered her words out.
"Sorry… his nuts… were soft! Jon has bigger… nuts!"
"You crazy human bitch! Those were my husband's nuts."
"I'll make you… wear them… around your… severed neck."
"AAAH!" The enraged women turned the fight from a battle to a catfight.
The male Arch Wizard on the back held his nuts with teary eyes.
"Stop talking about my nuts."
"Hold her down." The Arch Wizard wife shouted at her husband as she pushed Alina towards him and took out a long Aldmeri Saber.
She was about to wave it at Alina but Lokthur broke free from his binds and flew towards the woman with a raging screech.
"Wife, watch out!"
The male Arch Wizard pulled his wife away from Lokthur's way and was about to bind the Gryphon but some change happened too fast.
A gigantic shadow appeared in the sky and descended too fast towards Alina and the female Arch Wizard. Everyone on the battlefield noticed the large creature that appeared from the mountain.
"NO! The mortal said not to let anyone touch you! I am screwed! Hey you, come here."
Not sure what they saw, a strange demonic looking creature larger than any giant with large bat wings and big evil draconic head descended over Alina. He looked at the female Arch Wizard and its head descended on her in a second.
Not sure how, the creature opened its mouth and swallowed the female Arch Wizard in one go.
"NO! WIFEY!" The male Arch Wizard almost broke into madness when his wife was swallowed like that.
Alina was still looking at the creature with frozen blood as well as the other masters from the Thalmor and Winterhold's side. Oblivion, even Ulfric Stormcloak and Elenwen who were battling to the west saw the large creature and seized their action immediately.
"Well, I'll be damned!"
The sight of Xikil was completely unexpected more than the War Mammoth unit, the cannons, the falling wall and the Tesla towers. Maybe not as scary as the Soundless Zone and the Heavenly Tribulations happening at the mountaintop.
The seven masters of Winterhold retreated towards Alina and the Thalmor masters retreated towards the Elf Arch Wizard who just lost his wife. Xikil was right in between.
He looked left and right then figured out the situation. With a wave of his head, he spat out the female Arch Wizard which was in a haggard state.
"Sorry about the sudden interference, I don't think I should care about Mortals fighting each other to Oblivion but the Mortal told me to keep that female Mortal safe. No one comes near her for the moment."
Xikil seemed overprotective about Alina.
On the other hand, the Arch Wizards helped the woman that was just spat by the Daedric Titan covered in a layer of slimy saliva. Xikil noticed her too.
"Sorry about that, this body is still not that good with Oral Jobs. At least you ended up without being eaten."
The female Arch Wizard looked at Xikil with the resentful and silent look. She then raised her finger and pointed towards the Daedric Titan.
"kill… KILL IT!"