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Chapter 740: Just a Book

Deep in their minds, Failsafe and Neloth have the wildest experiences a man can think of. In order to shape their reality, they slept just like the Son of Mora and entered his dream. From there, they started forging their own realities and carving many small worlds of imagination.

Neloth was not that interested at first, but he created an Ashland with a forest of giant mushrooms and then switched it into the old woodland of southern Morrowind. His dream was always thwarted by the Son of Mora, who sought to corrupt all of Neloth’s creations.

At the end, Neloth abandoned his initial idea and recreated Mt. Vvardenfell in order to fight the corruption of the Son of Mora in a place he was more familiar with.

He used that environment to recreate many heroes of old, some before he was even born, like Nerevar and Dumac, as well as the ALMSIVI Tribunals.

Using those five, he forced the Son of Mora to be awakened in this alien environment in the middle of the volcano’s crater. The Heroes battled the son of Mora again and again, but the corruption rate was always faster than what Neloth could imagine, so he had to switch the battlefield every few attempts in order to force the Son of Mora to retreat.

As for Failsafe, his approach was different from that of Neloth. Failsafe created a world of starry skies and motionless seas.

The Son of Mora tried to invade from the stars, but Failsafe would turn them into supernovas and overwhelm his corruption with fire and imagination.

The Son of Mora tried to invade from the sea, but doing so limited him to the size of it, and Failsafe used that to twist and toss him around with strong underwater currents.

In this battle of imagination, the three were not too far from one another, but they couldn’t advance a single point and break the balance. This may sound bad, but it was all Failsafe and Neloth wanted.

Now there is part of the dream where the Son of Mora can no longer enter, and he has become isolated from it. Failsafe and Neloth managed to create this sort of safe zone in the dreamsleeve of reality. After that, their goal switched from defense to attack.

They started invading the dream while communicating with one another. At first, they made sure to isolate the Son of Mora in his own dream, making sure he never woke up unless he went through them.

Then the real invasion began. Failsafe from one side, Neloth from another. Not only did they have to make the Son of Mora retreat, but they kept pushing him with unnecessary knowledge and vivid dreams.

Their efforts didn’t betray them, and they managed to trap the Son of Mora deeper into his dream with every confrontation they had with him. Neloth was a knowledgeable individual who knew how to manipulate his knowledge against the sphere of anti-knowledge that Hermaeus Mora and his Son controlled. As for Failsafe, he wasn’t armed with any sort of knowledge other than the basics, so the sphere of anti-knowledge wasn’t affecting him as it would have with Jon. For that, the Son of Mora had no idea how to attack the simple-minded Failsafe.

The area that the Son of Mora controlled within the Dreamsleeve was shrinking, and when it wanted to struggle and wake up to end this state, he found that all the methods he could go back to were blocked. Rather than sleep, he was put in a coma.

The effort that the two exerted was nothing short of legendary until they shrank and thinned the area so that the Son of Mora was folded like a book.

And just at the breaking point where the Son of Mora could be folded no longer, Failsafe and Neloth felt their power against each other. They didn’t hesitate and put all their effort into containing the Son of Mora until the dreamsleeve could no longer be supported.

The dream collapsed, and the two opened their eyes, no longer in the Bowels of Apocrypha. They were back on the surface.

"Never thought I would say this, but I genuinely miss this scenery." Neloth was smiling for one of the rarest moments he could smile as he turned around for Failsafe and looked at him, "You’re not half bad yourself. Maybe a clean slate you have become, but we will make something out of you by the end of it."

"Thanks…" Failsafe replied with a smile, but he seemed a bit distracted.

"What’s wrong?" Neloth asked while being perceptive of his surroundings.

"Look here." Failsafe pointed.

Where the two stood was the formation of a chapter of the Apocrypha. At first, it felt like some old remnants of a chapter that was destroyed by the violent nature of the realm, but between the two of them, there was an object that was emitting a certain power.

Neloth seemed to haven’t noticed it before Failsafe would point it out, but now that they look at it, it’s a book.

Not just any book, though.

A Black Book!

Neloth picked up the Black Book and looked at its cover.

"Motherfucker!" He laughed.

"What?" Failsafe asked.

Neloth didn’t reply, but he only gave the book to Failsafe. On its cover was written "The Black Book of Ravenous Slumber".

"Hmmm…" Failsafe thought but he was later than Neloth at realizing the nature of this Black Book, "It can’t be…"

"You get it now?" Neloth smiled proudly, as he was faster to realize this than Failsafe.

"The Son of Mora was just a Black Book this whole time?" Failsafe asked.

"It is no wonder if you think about it. The Oghma Infinium was said to be both a person and a book as well." Neloth said.

"Could it be that every book related to this realm is…" Failsafe wanted to say something, but Neloth stopped him.

"Let’s not jinx it." Neloth said and threw the Black Book away, "I don’t want to be dealing with a Demi-Prince any time now. Let’s get going."

Neloth seemed to be discarding the book and had his staff ready to teleport away from here, but as soon as the Black Book touched the sea, the ground they were standing on started to shake violently, and they almost lost their balance.

"Throwing a Black Book back into Apocrypha, what can go wrong?" Failsafe spoke with obvious irritation.

"Hey! We’re both out of our habitat here. Get ready to…"

Just as the two were about to get themselves ready for an endless horde of Daedra as a best case scenario in this situation, the two of them couldn’t expect that the cause of this violent change was not a foe but rather a land rise.

From the sea of ink, a large Apocryphal island rose, and it seemed like a chapter was forming. From it, many pillars of ancient tomes and floors of hardened parchment were raised.

The Black Book formed a chapter of its own in the Apocrypha, then became stable and vast. All that was needed was to step on it.

"Once we reach the end of this Black Book, we will be able to exit Apocrypha and go back to Nirn." Neloth concluded.

"I doubt it will be harder than the other Black Books." Failsafe added.

The two of them agreed and stepped on the new, unknown chapter of Apocrypha known as Ravenous Slumber. Usually, there is no sense in the names of any Apocryphal chapter. Actually, since the whole world is called Apocrypha, nothing here is meant to make any goddamn sense at all.

Still, it was the first time for Neloth to connect the dots between the titles of the Black Books and what they could really be. Ravenous Slumber is a reference to the Son of Mora, who sleeps and spreads his corruption of nightmares with him.

Then what about Waking Dreams? The Winds of Change? Or the Untold Legends? All these other Black Books can be really troublesome if they are like this one.

Still, the combined force of Neloth and Failsafe was enough to brute-force their way through the chapter. Failsafe would use Jon’s insane physique to wrestle the Daedra, no matter their size, and throw them up in the air for Neloth to detonate them like fireworks.

But just as the two reached the end of Ravenous Slumber, a book was presented to them, like the end of every Black Book in Apocrypha. However, this time, instead of a pedestal that carries the book, it was offered by a statue of what looked like the Son of Mora.

Unnerving as it was, the two of them would need to take a look at the rewards offered by this Book first before departing from this realm. That’s how things get done here.

The book opened, and knowledge presented itself for the two. Just like any other Black Book, there were three choices.

"Losing Self", "Life from Life", and "Fathomless". These were the three powers presented to the challenger of this Black Book.

As for the description of each of those powers…

"I guess this makes sense after all." Failsafe said.

"This is… it is worse than what I imagined." Neloth held his forehead in worry.

While the text in every Black Book was self-explanatory for the purpose of rewarding the challenger, the text in this book wasn’t just obscured; it was completely screeched off the Book.

Only the titles of these powers remained, and there was a problem with every one of them. They were unnerving.

Losing Self? Who would want to do that? Life from Life? It may involve death! And Fathomless? That doesn’t explain anything at all.

"Let me try."

But Failsafe was here for the rescue.

"Wait! It can be very dangerous." Neloth held him back.

"Don’t we need to go out with at least one power each? Assuming that one of the three powers is safe, we have a 33.3% chance of making it back safely. Either way, we have to choose."

"… Fuck!" Neloth replied in frustration.

After all, it is a coin toss. Any power of magic can be contained one way or another, but the powers granted by Hermaeus Mora are the most unpredictable.

So far, they could analyze what to do from their description, and now it is just a blind luck choice.

"Just make sure you don’t choose the same one I choose. This will give you more survivability." Failsafe said.

"Fine, but the best two we can choose from are... HEY! WAIT!"

Neloth shouted because he saw Failsafe beginning to act on his own but also doing what he was preventing him from.

"With this, your survivability is guaranteed by 50%, as I hope. For best or for worst, it was an honor, Master Neloth."

Neloth was trying to prevent Failsafe from choosing "Losing Self", as it seemed the most dangerous of the three.

Neloth wanted to avoid this one in particular, but seeing as Failsafe faded from Apocrypha. It meant that he was back in Nirn with that ominous power.

"No! You idiot!"

Failsafe prioritized Neloth’s having more chances than himself. That was because it was made to protect any one of Jon’s comrades who would get dragged with him to Apocrypha just in case.

But this… Neloth couldn’t accept…

"IDIOT!"

Angry, Neloth decided to go for either of the two. He chose "Fathomless" and felt the power of this new ability surging into his being.

Slowly, as he was being transferred back to Nirn, Neloth understood what "Fathomless" meant.

It was indeed troublesome, but it wasn’t a danger to him or any of the others. A Telvanni Wizard can deal with that level of nuisance easily.

But what about "Losing Self"?

How did it go with Failsafe?

As soon as Neloth opened his eyes, he was back at the ruins of Nchardak, where he was attacked by Miraak.

Rather than slowly standing up, though, Neloth shot up like a madman as he felt the world around him thunder.

It wasn’t in his head as he first thought; it was actually thundering with strong, powerful voices.

The ruin of Nchardak was trembling, and parts of it were collapsing. Neloth had to rush out and try to reach the entrance before it got too dangerous.

But just as he reached the sealing chamber, half of it had already been blown off and its ceiling had completely collapsed, Neloth could see two dragons circling up in the sky and two strong magic forces colliding.

Upon further inspection, it was Jon and Miraak going head-to-head on the bridge of Nchardak, as it seemed the fight was being dragged out there.

Two Dragonborns colliding was akin to Nature going up against Nature. The Magicka ran wild, and many rifts were opening just as the two cast spells against one another.

At the end, Jon was triumphant.

Something was wrong with Miraak, as Neloth observed, and from the looks of it, Jon was systematically banishing him back to Apocrypha, where he originally belonged.

The pact between Hermaeus Mora and Miraak was that Miraak could only leave if Jon stayed. Miraak managed to trap Jon physically in Apocrypha, but as he found his way out, Miraak couldn’t stay, and his weakness was banishment.

When Neloth came in, Jon was already ending the fight and chasing off the two Dragons. He stood there with his back exposed while leaning on his staff.

"Failsafe!" Neloth then approached Jon, calling for him.

As he could see, Jon was gravely injured, but his wounds were closing at a visible rate. With that sword wound on his back and chest from Miraak’s sneak attack, only Gluttony’s healing ability would fix something like that.

Hearing Neloth’s voice, the old Telvanni Wizard was looking like what can be considered the first emotion that can be captured on his face.

Neloth seemed… desperate. Jon was too busy with his wounds to notice that, though.

"Master Neloth! Glad you made it." Jon spoke casually as he was staggering to the side, but Neloth immediately stepped in front of him.

"Where is he? Failsafe? What happened to him? The power he took!" Neloth asked with anger.

Jon couldn’t translate any of that in real time, but he leaned on a ruined pillar and answered.

"I don’t know what happened!" Jon replied with a tired face, "Failsafe is supposed to be wiped clean to prevent any Apocryphal influence from getting to my head."

Hearing that, Neloth paused for a second.

"Wiped… clean?" He asked with a disbelieving tone, only to follow Jon with his eyes as he sat down.

"It was necessary to protect that beautiful smart head of mine. Failsafe was just… a failsafe. It’s in the name, really." Jon said, but as he saw that Neloth seemed to have missed out on something, he sighed and tried to let it go.

From the Cube, Jon retrieved a memory crystal that he had from his old adventures. It is useless now, but he can do something with it.

Jon put the memory crystal against his forehead, and it started to brighten up. Slowly, it was filled with all the memories from the Failsafe.

"Here! Everything Failsafe has as well as the method of creation." Jon handed the memory crystal to Neloth, who took it in complete silence.

Seeing Neloth in this state, Jon couldn’t tell what really happened since he was wiping the Failsafe clean. The memories he handed out were the last thing he could do before getting rid of all these memories completely.

"If there is anything important in there, I hope you find it."

And with these words, Jon and Neloth parted ways.

Neloth returned to his mushroom tower and ordered everyone out. He put the Failsafe memory crystal on the big table and sat opposite it, silent.

"Very well, Master Neloth, I’ll be in your care."

"With this, your survivability is guaranteed by 50%."

"It was an honor, Master Neloth."

Those words Failsafe said echoed in his head again and made him feel bitter. To the very end, Failsafe knew it would be the end of him if he left Apocrypha, and still he left with what can be considered a sacrifice.

A bottle of sujamma would treat a broken heart, but never a broken bond. Neloth had such a bottle put beside the memory crystal.

A sip for himself and a pour for Failsafe.

There was something important in there, as Jon thought, only important to Neloth, though.

… A friend.

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