Chapter 643 - Crisis In Solitude (6)
Humanity is a mysterious thing. In many stories where a non-human is a bad guy, they are always attempting to harm humanity because they are judging them in some way while overlooking every other aspect. That is being one-dimensional and short-sighted.
And so when the bad guys are at the doorstep with armies of white walkers, ships of alien invaders, vessels of stormtroopers, or whatever branded as the face of evil in any story, humanity has a way to unite against that threat and face it together. In our case, it is the Gray Wolf Movement that supports Thane Bryling and the Imperial Legion which supports Thane Brina Merilis.
Facing a single defined enemy they saw as a threat, the Archers and the Wizards of both sides went out with all their power to kill or be killed.
Of course they would prefer aiming these weapons and spells at one another when the invading Dragons go away and that\'s what humanity is. They look for what is different among them and show resentment to it until they get rid of it, then they look deeper and discriminate among themselves again. Man or Elf, Nord or Imperial, White or Black, Old Holds or New Holds, they are just so good at finding differences to squabble about.
But they would surprise you when they unite.
The defenders beating the Dragons that tried to scorch their city with fire, who would have imagined that?
And when the cries of the savage Dragon Cultists were heard outside the Gates as they charged in when a third Dragon broke it open, the people of Solitude swarmed from every nook and cranny, holding everything from swords and spears to brooms and candlesticks, even the women and children threw rocks and boiled cooking oil from above the buildings at the vile madmen.
Three Dragons took to the sky and the city was fighting without breaking. No Dragonborn or Jon Dare was protecting them, they were doing fine on their own.
But the Heroes of this event can\'t be off stage for too long. Previously, Jon and Mirren who were disguised as the Dragonborn were attacked by a rushing Dragon and got hit by his tail to instantly fly like tennis balls. Mid their flight, Jon managed to get hold of Mirren and right before they hit the ground, Jon opened a portal and evaded the crash.
The portal opened in the sky way above Solitude where the Dragons weren\'t focusing. Jon and Mirren saw the situation and nodded to each other.
Their clothes flattered as they controlled their fall with their Magic and headed down with their weapons in hand.
Down there, a Dragon arched back his neck as he stopped mid-flight and its mouth was radiating with raging flames that were ready to consume the Nord defenders who were cornered in the market.
The Dragonborn (Mirren) was the first to arrive and with his sword, he penetrated the wings of the Dragon and used the force of his fall to cut open the wing vertically. The Dragon roared with his flames up to the sky as the pain was torturous to him. Yet in the reflection of his eyes was the knee of Jon Dare who attacked the Dragon\'s face with the force of his fall as well.
The Dragon Breath which was aimed up to the sky was directed by Jon\'s action to the members of the Dragon Cult who rushed through the open city gate from the main avenue.
"Overkill!" Jon shouted with joy but the next moment, the Dragon that just broke the gate rushed towards his fallen comrade Dragon with a powerful gust of wind and held him from his shoulders before carrying him up and tossing him off the city into the river away from the Dragonborn.
"Cunning Bastard!" Jon cursed.
Jon held a large piece of debris and used his Chaos Tattoos to generate enough physical power then launched it at the flying Dragon to hit him on the head and cause him to retreat in panic.
Seeing how the eyes and hair of Jon Dare went black, Mirren immediately ran away and put enough distance between him and Jon. The latter put his immense strength into his hips and jumped to the sky towards the next Dragon causing a strong shockwave at their clash.
"Dragonborn! We\'re being overwhelmed by the Dragon Cult." Thane Bryling ran into the Dragonborn (Mirren) and sought out his advice.
"I don\'t know, I\'ll distract the Dragons or whatever." He replied not knowing what to do but he immediately put his hand on the helm, "Jon, we need more manpower down here."
{You\'re fine with Undead and Daedra?} Jon asked Mirren.
"You\'re fine with Undead and Deadra?" Mirren asked Bryling.
"Of course not. But we can\'t be picky at the moment." She replied.
"She said yes." Mirren said.
{Wrath and Xikil are on their way.} Jon replied.
"He said he\'s sending his special Undead and Daedra." Mirren said.
"When?"
*OOOOOOOOOAAAAA*
A terrible screen was heard as the Bone Colossus Samurai made its entrance and rushed at the cult.
"That\'s the Undead." Mirren said.
*THUD*
"Mortal! You know I hate fighting Dragons." And a demonic hoarse loud voice echoed in the sky.
"And that\'s the Daedra." Mirren said.
Xikil the Daedric Titan appeared with many chains, cuffs, and collars covering his body. The last Jon has heard from him was that he was captured by his Dremora sister and was being kept a prisoner to her sadistic torture.
As Xikil received orders from Jon, he headed down towards the Dragonborn (Mirren).
"He said to assist you by distracting the Dragons from the people." Xikil said.
"Good. That will help a lot." Bryling\'s face brightened up even with the presence of the terrifying Daedric Monster.
"Nah, it will hurt a lot." Mirren said, "What about the reinforcements?"
"They should be seeing the Dragons flying over the city now. What about your reinforcements?" She asked.
Mirren reported to Jon and asked about the reinforcements of Winterhold.
"He said they started moving and will arrive in a couple of hours." Mirren replied.
"From Winterhold to Solitude? That\'s a couple of weeks, not hours." Bryling exclaimed.
"We have our methods." Mirren said before turning to Xikil, "It\'s time we go."
Mirren held on to the chain coming down from Xikil\'s neck and the Daedric Titan started flying between the Dragons to divert their attention away.
The army of the cult was rushing without fear as they had Dragons on their side. The defenders fought like cornered rats and spared no effort to kill their enemies, the Dragons relentlessly tried to shake off Jon, Mirren, Xikil, and the Battlemages on the ground. All were just killing each other harmoniously.
Death was looming under this beautiful morning sky and blood painted the streets of Solitude red. Watching that sight from a far enough distance were Maven Black-Briar, Arch-Wizard Mecinar, and Dragon Priest Nahlot.
"Here he is." Maven spoke.
"I see him." Mecinar nodded.
"And I see the Dragonborn." Nahlot said.
"Gentlemen, I think you all know what to do." Maven turned to the two robed men beside her and backed down.
"Let\'s get this job done, shall we?" Mecinar said and raised his prosthetic arm aiming towards Jon.
His arm transformed into a cannon-like object and took aim towards Jon. Meanwhile, Dragon Priest Nahlot was communicating via his Dragon Priest Mask and looking.
Back into Solitude, one of the Cultists who were wearing masks stopped the raiding and fighting as his Dragon Priest Mask started to glow. He then transformed into Dragon Priest Nahlot.
"I\'ll kill you, Dragonborn."
Back to where Maven and Mecinar were, seeing the body of Nahlot burn and dissolve made them feel disgusted but it wasn\'t the first time they saw such a thing.
"Can you make it from here?" Maven asked.
"I can." Mecinar replied as his magic kept overcharging to an incredible level. It took him a minute and he sacrificed many soul gems to reach the desired input before he transformed it into an output.
Jon Dare was hanging from the horn of a flying Dragon and digging his sword into the Dragon\'s eyes as he was trying to electrify the Dragon\'s brain from inside.
It was an agonizing process but just as he felt that it was about to succeed, the hairs of his body were all erected. It is the same feeling one gets when they are about to be hit by Lightning.
Jon could only let go of the Dragon and ward himself with an incomplete spell as the attack came.
The sky darkened as the blinding bolt of Magicka reached its target without even the single probability of missing.
"JON!"
"THANE JON!"
"PROTECT HIM!"
Mirren, Bryling, and Tullius all moved towards Jon immediately but Mirren\'s way was blocked by the sudden appearance of the Dragon Priest, the Legion\'s Mages were occupied with a Dragon, and the Guards were pushing back the remaining Cultists.
And Jon fell from the sky without a hint of consciousness. Xikil and Mirren tried to get as near to him as possible but the Dragon Priest was haunting the Dragonborn (Mirren) like the plague.
Jon crashed down on one of Solitude\'s most important buildings through the roof and disappeared inside. The Temple of the Divines.
"Right to the funeral." Mecinar, who stood a few miles out of Solitude, spoke with a wide grin.
"He\'s… he\'s… he\'s dead?" Maven asked with a pale face full of disbelieving expressions.
"Nope." Mecinar shook his head, "But he will. Injuries like that are impossible to recover from."
Mecinar opened a part of his prosthetic arm and let out a large cartridge-like object to throw away and replace.
"So? When will he die?" Maven asked.
"When the big monster that he conjured disappears, he will be confirmed dead." Mecinar replied pointing towards Xikil.
The situation was far from over in Solitude and with the fall of Jon Dare, the defense became more of a hectic battle rather than just a city defense. Casualties were rising by the hundreds.
Amidst all this, Jon Dare was in an area of town where the fight hasn\'t reached yet. There were a lot of people in the building he fell in and they were all powerless citizens and refugees.
The body of Jon Dare was lying on the ground between all the shrines of the Divines with some of his limbs facing the wrong directions, but that wasn\'t even the most fatal part.
Jon had the entirety of his chest blown off by the magic he was hit with. His flesh was torn and his ribcage was exposed. Beneath it were quivering lungs, a beating heart, and a lot of tissues and wounds open and bare. Jon himself was barely conscious but completely unresponsive.
Those who screamed only did so when he fell from the roof. When he was displayed in that manner, none could even breathe or even move their eyes away as his appearance was the stuff of horror.
But what seemed unhealable or unfixable was never to stay this way, not in Jon\'s book. His ring glowed and a monster-like pile of flesh appeared. This caused the people to finally panic and back off to the front of the temple.
The High Priest of the Divines kept holding his Restoration Staff with shaking hands but had no idea of what to do. The monster-like pile of flesh, or rather Gluttony, started to spread itself over Jon\'s fatal injuries.
Bit by bit, strength seeped back into the devastated body of Jon Dare. His limbs started correcting themselves, his chest was raised again, his backbone was fixed, his neck cracked, and his penis went into a full erection.
"Why does this keep happening?" Jon sat up from his fall and couldn\'t help but be embarrassed as he cast a minor illusion to hide his boner, "Don\'t tell my wife, okay?"
"Lord… Lord Jon…"
"High Priest?"
"What? What… vile… magic… was that?"
"My boner?"
"Wha…"
"It\'s embarrassing when a grown-ass guy gets a boner in public so excuse me."
Jon wanted to hurry up and leave but his steps halted and he looked around. Instead of going out of the Temple back to the fight, he decided to go the other way deeper into the Temple.
"Where are you going?" The High Priest chased after Jon asking so.
"Gimme a sec." Jon held his hand up before aiming his index and middle fingers at the right temple of his head, "Mirren… I\'m fine, I\'m fine… no no, don\'t do that… just keep them busy. I need 10 minutes… yes, it\'s urgent… I\'ll send Nefertiti over with some scrolls. And watch out for that sniper, he can kill you in one shot. Keep on moving around fast. Use Xikil as a meat shield."
Jon finished his telepathy with Mirren and looked at the High Priest.
"Alright, where were we at?" Jon asked.
"I don\'t… know…" The High Priest stuttered but Jon remembered what he wanted.
"Ah! Right, gimme your keys." Jon said.
"What? You mad?" The High Priest refuted immediately.
"Just… give… me… the damn keys." Jon carried the High Priest upside down and shook him well allowing a keychain to slip along with a few bottles of wine and rum that seemed pretty fresh from the market.
"Ah! Help! You… you\'re assaulting a man of the Gods." The High Priest screamed and the crowd around him looked at him silently.
"A man of the Gods?" Jon sighed, "Of all the words I know, this set of words still doesn\'t feel right with me. Keys! Here they are! Ciao."
Jon let go of the High Priest, picked up the keys, and went further into the Temple.
"What are you doing you, madam?" The High Priest screamed.
"The Cult has let some Draugr through an old catacomb under the Temple. They can break in here so I\'ll deal with them. No need to thank me." Jon\'s voice came from the basement as he stormed the place without care.
His head was busy. He was attacked from a few miles away by a buffed-up Magic Missile. The level is that of an Arch-Wizard for sure and the Arch-Wizard he ran into the past few days was that Mecinar guy. Of course it can be any other unknown Arch-Wizard such as a Dragon Priest or something but even the Dragons can\'t produce a Dragon Priest this fast.
"Maven, Maven, Maven… you keep forcing me to hasten up my plan and to think you would try to attack me during a fight with a Dragon. You\'ve become too annoying to keep alive."
Jon held the keychain and tried to open the Temple\'s basement before figuring out that there are more than 20 keys in the keychain.
"Fuck!"
*Crush* *Ding*
He simply punched the gate open and threw the keychain away before arriving at the storage room of the Temple. Just by using the simplest Detection spell, he found a wall that was sealing a passage behind it and punched it down.
"Ol\' Potema, here I come."
A/n: 13 Early Access Chapters on P4treon and MORE! ?? https://linktr.ee/donovel ??