Chapter 11: Nightfall
*Note that Kralse can speak the common tongue
Ivan P.O.V
It was bright.
As Ivan touched the page, it shone a brilliant gold as the surrounding areas started to gradually disappear from Ivan’s view as his field of view darkened.
Fast travel had existed in all the Elder Scrolls games, but of course it was limited to destinations where you’ve already visited in the past, otherwise there wasn’t much point of walking in the first place and the game would’ve been pretty boring.
In a blink, Ivan’s vision disappeared completely. What had been the snowy terrain around the watchtower had become the now familiar stone steps of the temple that he had just left moments earlier.
Deep grooves and scratches were apparent in the large stone bricks, with some being completely destroyed and taken out of place due to Alduin’s whole “dragon transformation” moment that tore out a part of the structure.
Alright. We’re fine, we’re absolutely fine.
Ivan sighed, exhaling before breathing in heavily. The ectoplasmic residue from his last fight dripped off of the mace at his side as he did.
He was back where he had started. It wasn’t ideal at all, he had wanted to get to Whiterun after all but a damned dragon, the god of dragons, got in the way of all of that.
Ivan stepped up to the door of the temple, but realized something. As he walked up, there was no longer the sound of stepping on gravel and, as he walked up to the gates and pushed, there was no resistance at all, which hadn’t at all been the case when he left.
Though parts of the stone had still been smashed off (Since Alduin doesn’t like fun) it was still obvious that a large part of the temple was restored without his knowledge, in the short time that he had left with his undead entourage.
He took a closer look and saw that the doors were no longer the gray, stone doors but instead had been inlined with gold and polished, darkened stone that gave the whole door a mystical shine.
Ivan stared at the door.
Then the stairs and open area of polished stone behind him.
Then the door again.
…I don’t even want to know.
He wasn’t aware of anything that could reverse the effects of time, throughout all the games Ivan had played no spell could do such a thing unless through some type of god-like power that wasn’t available to even the main characters.
Pushing the gates open once again, he saw the previously dark and lifeless main hall filled with torches mounted on the walls, the floor and ceiling looking just as clean and perfect as the outside. It was as if hundreds of years hadn’t passed by since dragon’s once controlled the lands of men and mer.
Ivan glanced at the area. The dead bodies had also been magically removed somehow, the blood stains that lashed across the walls had also been removed, just like the crumbling foundation of the past.
KCHK!
Ivan was pushed out of his momentary amazement of the transformation of the area by a loud, metallic noise.
Down the long, now brightly lit hallway he could here the sounds of walking. And more than just one, there were at least a dozen sounds of boots stomping on the ground.
“Damn!”
Ivan hastily raised the dwarven shield up, ready for an attack. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t been on edge before, but after the attack from earlier his nerves were easily jittered.
There was a shuffling, clanking noise before a group of heavily armored figures started to ascend from the hallways stairs in the center, striding forwards in sync before stopping as they reached the top, causing Ivan to set down his shield and sigh in relief.
“Oh thank the fucking gods!”
Normally, Ivan wouldn’t be so glad to see an army of high-leveled undead marching towards him but, in this case, it was Kralse and the rest of his undead army. The skeletons were still equipped with their own heavy and light armor, with one of them still holding Auriel’s Bow in its grasp.
“Welcome back my liege”
The heavily armored Draugr stepped forwards as all of them stood at the ready. Ivan was relieved to see them after being absolutely manhandled by Alduin. In all honesty, Alduin was the first thing that made him realize that he was vulnerable, that his innate strength from inheriting the Underking’s skills and his former equipment wasn’t enough.
That and getting ragdolled across the sky wasn’t very fun.
But first things first. How the heck did they get back in such a short time?
“Kralse!? You guys were miles away, how did you get back so fast?”
“The power of the temple was originally meant to keep us here, however now that we are free it allows us to transport ourselves here in an instant.”
Ivan scratched his head. This sounded an awful lot like fast travel.
“And can you do that with anywhere else?”’
“No. Only to our home,
So it’s like a spawn point. I guess that makes sense since they aren’t supposed to be far away from their spawning point, they have the power to teleport back if necessary…
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Ivan tilted his head, causing the rest of the undead to tilt their heads with him, mimicking their movements.
He contemplated the new information for a moment before shrugging. This would be useful if they were in danger outside of the barrow or to defend it if necessary.
If it’s beneficial, no reason to question the logic.
The same as before, there were around a dozen undead in front of him, which were the Underking’s former agents and Kralse, the Draugr Deathlord. This group would give most battle hardened warriors a difficult fight, especially considering these undead could actually think.
He looked at them and they looked back, seemingly waiting for orders to be given. There was no point in doing anything so late at night anymore, as the sun had already set and wasn’t visible anymore.
The golden rays of the sun had vanished, being replaced with the foggy, cold and dark Skyrim night sky. Doing anything now was too much of a risk, since they could be ambushed quite easily.
“Kralse, do you guys even need to sleep?”
This was one thing that Ivan wanted to know. From the game, he figured that even though they were undead they still needed rest to some degree since they’re always “sleeping” in their respective tombs.
At this, Kralse looked thoughtful before nodding hesitantly.
“Yes. Though we are undead we rest to maintain life energy, especially after battle to heal ourselves. It is not necessary but we do work in shifts to clean and maintain the ruins afterall.”
Ivan nodded. This information lined up with what he knew about Draugr. They were “undead” but relied on the closest dragon priest’s life energy to function, but could also replenish life energy.
Ivan nodded towards the hallway that led down to the larger areas of the burrow, though perhaps this place needed a new name soon. It wasn’t so much a burrow but rather a temple now.
“Get the rest of the Draugr. They should be done collecting whatever is useful now, bring the items up and then all of you get some rest. I still need to talk with these guys.”
Ivan indicated towards the heavily armored skeletons in front of him. Kralse nodded in confirmation before slinging the large, two-handed axe over his shoulder and heading off into the hall, his Ancient Nord Armor clanking as he did.
Turning around, he faced towards the skeletons. Though now, he supposed he should refer to them as Agents instead, much easier to identify instead of random skeletons.
“Alright, so you guys. How about you?”
A simple shake of the head.
“We are not cursed to the degree that we need to rely on the mortal boundaries of rest. We are bound to you, the Underking. We live as you do.”
“Alright, in that case can you-”
FWOOSH! KRK!
Their conversation was halted as an intense amount of wind blew open the doors to the temple, causing the Skeletons to fall over and Ivan to barely stay standing.
Ivan had his heavy armor to thank for the situation, as he probably would’ve gotten knocked onto his ass. He heard the sound of wings and then a nasty sound before everything ended just as abruptly as it started.
Ivan took off his helmet as he walked outside. As good as it was, it obscured his view too much in a one on one fight. However, he knew that he had to confront the threat, though this time he was backed up with more than himself.
Alduin P.O.V
“Urgh! Blasted mortals!”
Alduin grimaced. Ivan, despite her not wanting to admit it, had done enough damage to cause a longtime annoyance for her during the search for the dragonborn.
Ice magic hurt more than any other type towards dragons, as most of them let out fiery breaths of flame to roast their enemies. Alduin, though being able to use both ice and fire breaths on top of many other abilities, was still affected.
In her prime, Alduin wouldn’t even have noticed anything when she was hit, even by ice. However, after going through the Dragon Break it had obviously weakened her a great deal. Traveling forwards from over a thousand years ago can do that to you after all.
The ice spears had embedded themselves in-between the chinks of armor on her wings and legs, making it a bit difficult to control her flying, though she believed that she could make it to somewhere where she could recuperate before figuring out how to plan her next course of action.
Where! Where can I land safely!
Alduin could feel the dangers all around the area. Landing at the throat of the world wouldn’t heal her. There was no sustenance to be found, much less any that could help her regain vitality.
The issue that Alduin (And all future dragons) faced was that they were now part of the mortal plane, therefore needed food to survive despite being immortal beings.
“GRRRH”
Alduin was now high above the clouds, and could sense them. There were powerful beings on top of the mountain. She wouldn’t die, but they could overpower her without a doubt.
And without any other options, her wings gave out and she fell.
Becoming a black blur hurtling across the sky, she fell at breakneck speeds down onto the snowy mountains where she had just circled after she left the Dragon Break.
Alduin felt the sleet and snow hit and fly off her scales. To Alduin, it almost felt like being on a high as she just watched her body fall but could do nothing to stop it.
Am I perhaps sick?
On the mortal plane, Alduin wasn’t exactly a god. Especially since there were most likely unforeseen consequences of traveling forwards in time.
Soon, the outlines of a large, familiar temple came into view.
With one final attempt, Alduin flapped her wings. The whiplash caused the fallen trees that had been uprooted earlier to be blown away.
However, though it did soften her fall, it did little to prevent the nasty crack of her body slamming into the ground in front of the temple.
Then everything was silent.
“...You can’t be serious!”
Alduin opened her eyes. Though not terribly, the pain from the impact did sting. However, forcing her eyes open, she saw the hulking figure in black armor in front of her with his skeletal head exposed, just staring.
“W-we meet again Lich. Have you thought about my offer…”
Alduin, using the last of her strength, transformed again into a human-like girl as she did before.
In her human form, Ivan noticed something wrong immediately. Her face was extremely flushed, despite her having a few light bruises all around, it seemed like she actually had a fever.
“You're kidding,.. Alduin, you’re one of the strongest beings in this world and you got taken down by a normal sickness!?”
“GRRR!”
Alduin lunged forwards sluggishly, though her sharp claws remained, she gave a sad excuse of a swing before collapsing in a heap in front of him.
Ivan turned back towards his Skeletons.
“Did I win?”
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And end of chapter 11! And I know, basically nothing happened in these chapters. Unfortunately, world building does that to you. Next chapter more stuff will happen but before then, information is coming in especially for people that don’t know Elder scrolls too well.
Also, the first one’s reading this are probably my Patrons. Surprise..I have a patreon!
Now you can read 1, 3, and 5 chapters ahead respectively since I can only write that fast. I’m updating on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at around 7 P.M EST, 4 P.M PST and whatever else timezone you’re in.
I’ve been M.I.A for a while since I was on a 14 hour flight, then I have to deal with some things after I set foot in Asia but I’m writing again.
Thanks for reading!
W.O.V