Chapter 368: Escaping Castle Volkihar
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*4 Days until the Battle of Winterhold*
On the watchtower outside Castle Volkihar, Jon stood gazing at the gloomy sky with vampires surrounding him, he then looked at the telescope-like device in front of him and wondered.
"So this is the [Transiminal Scanner]! I can't believe I lived long enough to see one."
"Quit making a fuss, Mortal. Lord Harkon wants you to start immediately."
"Yeah, yeah… So, how do I start up that thing?"
"Huh? I don't know, figure it out."
"What? What sort of half-assed reply is that? Do you want to have a graveless death, shit for brain?"
"Mortal, how dare you speak to…"
"Sigh! Your funeral."
The [Wabbajack] found itself in the hand of Jon blasting a vampire. Once the effect landed, the vampire literally exploded into a pile of gold coins.
"Well, that's one way to get rich."
The vampires always treated Jon with contempt even the lesser one of them. He had no problem putting all of them to shape even if it conjured Harkon himself.
"This will cause you a problem." A voice called for Jon.
Jon turned around to see Serana coming over with other Vampire Lords.
"My Lady. I was just doing the routine, Jon Dare was called Dare for a reason." Jon replied politely.
"You reasons don't apply here and that won't pass without punishment." One of the vampire lords came forward towards Jon with a resentful look.
Jon recognized the vampire as Orthjolf, a senior vampire at Harkon's court.
"Punish me? Who the fuck do you think you are? Want me to stick the [Wabbajack] through your butthole and see how I turn your intestines into green jelly?"
"That's it, Mortal! I don't care what you are anymore."
Orthjolf was already transforming into a Vampire Lord and extending his hands at Jon.
Without even having the time to react, Orthjolf lost his left and right arms in a single split of a second.
The was no time to tell what happened. Jon was drawing a black sword made of [Greed] which cut the left arm but what cut the right was not Jon. It was the terrifying presence that came from behind him all of a sudden.
It was Serana in her Vampire Lord form.
Jon saw that and couldn't help but smile wryly. She truly fits the description of the beauty within the beast.
"SCRAM!"
With a single angry shout of Serana, Orthjolf was already on back in his Normal Form crawling away.
She reverted to her normal form too then spoke with annoyance.
"Leave us alone."
No vampire neither lesser or a lord dared to disobey her and all walked away. She looked at Jon and sighed.
"You are truly a trouble-maker."
"I just don't get it when someone says 'How dare you?' as if it the most obvious thing in the world. I just did something fully aware of myself doing it and then someone has the audacity to question my actions that I just did? What kind of twisted logic is that?"
"I am not sure whose logic is wrong here… technically, you are a prisoner to my clan, right?"
"Prisoner? Is that what you guys see me?"
"Just what in the world do you think was happening since father kidnapped you?"
"... I thought I was a guest invited by force… oh! I see… that's what a prisoner is!"
"..." Serana had no energy to question Jon's logic anymore.
"So, if I am your prisoner, that means you can do whatever you want to do with me, right?" Jon's approached Serana with a dirty smile.
"No, thanks." Serana pushed Jon's face away.
"Shame! Nice attack though."
"Oh! It was nothing. You swordplay was strange."
"That was not me, ever since [Greed] swallowed a Void Cloth Cloak, it became very stealthy and no one can detect its movement easily."
"I'll pretend I know what you are talking about."
Jon retreated and then looked at Serana's shadow. "Is it done?"
"Done and Done." Serana nodded. She tapped on her shadow and it started to come to life.
Nefertiti jumped out from Serana's shadow with the [Cube]. Jon crouched down and took the [Cube] from her then checked its content.
"I can't believe it. Harkon will be pissed when he finds out." Jon said.
Inside the [Cube], there was a certain item that made Jon's life twice as hard during the last 5 days, The Elder Scroll of Sun.
Jon didn't take the Elder Scroll out and kept looking at it through the mental image from the [Cube]. It was a true spectacle.
'Even I am not immune to the Mystic Effect of the Elder Scrolls. Actually, I should be weak to it just like Dragons.' Jon thought.
"Don't worry about him. He teleported to the Temple of Lord Molag Bal to pay respect. We may have a day or two before he comes."
"Good."
"... that's one unusual cat." Serana remarked as she looked at Nefertiti who stole the Elder Scroll without triggering any alarm.
"You are one unusual vampire too." Nefertiti replied.
To such a sudden reply, Serana almost froze doubting her ears. It was the first time she hears Nefertiti's voice.
"Okay, ladies. Time is of the Essence. This is for you." Jon handed a Void Cloth Cloak to Serana and covered himself with [Greed].
He then took the [Skull of Corruption] and pointed it at Serana.
"What are you doing?" Serana was about to feel betrayed but soon after, she found herself staring to her reflection.
Jon created a clone of Serana by the ability of the [Skull of Corruption] and created another one for himself.
"Don't get to close. Those Clones are treacherous and will do anything to betray us." Jon warned Serana as he pulled her away from her clone.
The Clones of Jon and Serana kept staring at the original ones as if trying to seize up any chance to steal the [Skull of Corruption] but Jon was already used to the trick.
"I created you two with one-tenth of the required Magicka so you are nothing more than husks." Jon said as he injured his thumb and marked the clones with the blood. "By the power of my blood, I mark you foul clones, [Blood Tag]. By the power of the mark, you Clones are bound to never move from this spot for three days. You are to keep sitting on this machine and you are to keep guard, [Blood Curse]."
The result was amazing. No magic can create Clones like the [Skull of Corruption]'s ability and no magic can bind evil entities like the [Blood Magic].
As all preparations were complete, Jon returned the [Cube] to Nefertiti in his shadow then he and Serana jumped down the watchtower stealthily.
Hurriedly taking a boat, Jon started rowing on the sea of the Azure Plasm towards the shore on the other side. Towards Coldharbour.
***
The boat moved steadily on the dormant surface of the Azure Plasm. Jon started rowing alone as Serana was observing the terrain from afar by magic.
"I haven't been here for centuries." Serana said. "I heard that there was a thing called the Planemeld when Lord Molag Bal tried to pull Tamriel into Coldharbour. Things must have changed ever since then."
"Yeah, I am aware of Molag's little folly. It was a chaotic age."
"I spend most the past few days reading about it along with other things. A man becoming a God, an Evil Mage kidnapping an Emperor, the Numidium Walking, a disease that almost killing off Morrowind, the Three God-Kings of Morrowind have fallen, an Oblivion Crisis and the return of Umaril the Unfeathered to be slain by a Divine Knight. The world… it was so much fun while I was sealed." Serana lamented.
"Hehe! These times were not that fun for the people who lived it." Jon laughed, "On the plus side, there are going to be some events in the future like those. Don't worry, I'll make sure you witness them all."
"What are those?"
"You want spoilers already?"
Serana turned her head away.
"No… Just what makes you so sure about it?"
"My past life, three Elder Scrolls, a vampire lord trying to block the sun… do I need to continue?"
"Haha! No, I believe you."
As Jon and Serana looked forward, the saw themselves arriving at the cliffs surrounding Coldharbour. There were a few canals and passages the boat can move on so Jon picked one randomly.
"You think we will be caught?" She asked.
"By whom? I don't think the Daedra will cause any problem if we avoided the powerful Auras."
"We still need a guide."
"I know but we ran out of options. We will have to tread carefully and look for a way out of Coldharbour. Locked or not, I have the mean to go through anything." Jon guaranteed.
"Fine, I still can't believe I am doing this."
"Doing what?"
"Going against… father."
"It is okay. You said you were not that kind of child but you need to go through a rebellious phase once in your lifetime, no?"
"..."
"Don't worry about it. If you want to blame anything, blame my blood that I made you drink. Its effect may have given you some courage to go against your father."
"Pffft!" Serana couldn't help but laugh.
"What is so funny? It's Dare Blood, best in the World."
"Hahaha! Stop it, you are killing me."
The mere thought of going against her father because she drank some kind of blood was hilarious in her opinion. She felt it was right but wanted to believe that the strength came from inside her.
"Shush!"
Before she continues laughing or saying anything, Jon hushed her and pointed forward. He detected a faint presence just a moment ago slowed down.
"Don't worry. As a 'Daughter of Coldharbour', I can at least walk around the realm. Act as my second."
Jon nodded and the two kept silent.
As the boat moved in the narrow river between the two cliffs, Jon noticed the owner of the presence. Surprisingly, it was another mortal like him.
[A/n: This is a sponsored character by Merkur1]
Jon was not confused to find a fellow mortal in Coldharbour but the confusing thing was a how this mortal behaved. He/She was donned in a cloak and hid their features just like Jon and Serana but more to that, the mortal was sitting on the cliff with a fishing rod in his/her hand and the line was in the Azure Plasm.
Jon's brows betrayed his poker face but he found Serana not reacting to such oddity. He then heightened his senses and started detecting under the water only to find a ton of aquatic life crawling under the Azure Plasm.
Strange fish and creepy creature were all over the place. Jon looked at the fisherman that was not reacting to the passer boat and smiled. He then used [Telekinesis] and caught an eel-like fish then attached it to the hook of the fishing rod.
The fisherman/woman reacted immediately to Jon's magic and his/her eyes gleamed. With slight nods, Jon and the fisherman/woman exchanged greetings.
"Odd fellow." Jon remarked after he passed the fishing area.
"You are the odd fellow. Fishing with [Telekinesis]?" Serana replied.
"Ah! Don't blame me. I just thought our appearance must have scared the fish away and making a fast friendship like this may actually help us in the future." Jon said.
"Helping people for good luck. Never took you for a good guy."
"It is called exchanging favors."
Jon and Serana kept opening many conversations until they arrived at a waterfall. They could only stop the boat at the banks of the river and continue on foot.
"Don't do anything flashy with magic. The Daedra are sensitive bastards." Jon said and started to climb the way up the waterfall with ease.
Both him and Serana were beings that transcended humanity and faced no problem parkouring on harsh terrain. Even with his left foot being replaced by a part of [Greed], Jon was still the same skeever who grew up in Riften despite his size.
As they arrived at the highest point on the rooks, they stood beside each other and looked at the sight in front of them.
"Goodness!" Jon spoke in wonder.
"The Realm of Molag Bal, this is Coldharbour… much different than what I remember." Serana said, "We are in the Shrouded Plain though. With basic directions, we can navigate. What now?"
Jon pondered for a few seconds then spoke.
"We have an easy way and a difficult way. The easy way is to find an old portal and open it but the connection between Coldharbour and Nirn is hard to simply establish so portals will be rare."
"True. What is the hard way?"
"The difficult way is to use [Fate Magic]."
"Never heard of it."
"The term was put by me. It is a sort of Hedge Magic that manipulates Fate by manipulating the chances, the karma and luck to create a line of events that leads to a certain effect."
"That's very obscure."
"That's why I call it Fate Magic."
"What do you need?" Serana asked.
"We are speaking about escaping from Coldharbour here which means escaping Molag Bal. I need a the bane to the Darkness of Molag, I need the scent of Nirn to find the way home, I need a Sigil Stone to open a portal, I also need tough material that can travel through space without withering, I need something that can link all those components together with magic without disintegrating."
"Too many things, not enough time and obviously won't be easy to find all found in Coldharbour."
"I know, that's why I need to find Xikil and convince him to help me. All I know about him is that he is in the Tower of Lies somewhere in this realm." Jon said.
"Great. Let's hope the locals are friendly enough to give us directions."
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