Chapter 745: The Trick All Along
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He is at the height of his power, looking down on his foe, who thought this was going to be his own win. Jon Dare's manifestation of the Dragon wasn't anywhere someone with a mortal soul is supposed to have.
What surrounded him was the aura of a Dragon, it was golden pure, and frightening at the same time.
"WHY?" Miraak shouted.
His voice was filled with disbelief, devoid of the same confidence he used to have.
"You humiliated me!" He said, "You made me fight you when you had all that power!"
He felt humbled, his soul was still able to withstand the pressure of a Dragonborn of Jon's caliber as he had withstood centuries of agony in Apocrypha. But just like a moth, he knew that he would eventually burn in the flames of the greater Dragonborn.
"Why, you ask?" Jon replied, "Nothing comes easy, as they say."
Surrounded by his aura that took the shape of a Dragon around him, Jon was simply standing and resting his Staff like a cane.
"I will not give up." Miraak stated, "I have suffered for too long. Plotted for too long. Fought for too long."
"You want to rest?" Jon asked.
"For someone like me? In a place like this?" Miraak asked mockingly.
"Yes. I was just asking. I don't intend to make it easy, sorry." Jon said with a slight smile.
"Do your worst. But look at him watching us. Hermaeus Mora."
Jon turned to where Miraak pointed and saw the abyssal eyes of Mora watching him with peak interest.
{Impressive! Dragonborn! You will do it! After all! You will be mine!}
Hermaeus Mora couldn't stop lusting over Jon but the latter made a disgusted face.
"I'm sure it would be delightful for others to be wrapped in tentacles but this Gent would rather be wrapped in thighs and breasts." Jon said with absolute certainty.
"Women! That is what motivates a man such as yourself?" Miraak asked.
"I was talking about fried chicken, but yeah, women too. I have a few wives myself and I am dedicating myself to them for now. No more whoring. I guess that is what is motivating me." Jon said.
"It doesn't matter, Jon Dare." Miraak said, "I admit that I may not survive this but once my soul is taken by you, the contract I had with Mora will also transfer to you."
"I bet your ass it would." Jon said with a daring smile.
"Confident, aren't you?" Miraak, on the other hand, was getting triggered by Jon's attitude, attacking him out of anger.
"I am." Jon deflected Miraak's attack with his sword then kicked Miraak right in the gut but the latter withstood it and tried to attack again.
The duel continued for another round. Knowing that he is no longer gaining any advantage over Jon, Miraak threw everything he got from combat techniques to magic spells.
Jon just kept parrying, attacking, and putting pressure on Miraak.
"Why?" Miraak asked, "Why are you so confident? What are you trying to do?"
"This!" Jon faked a sword strike into a bash and punched Miraak's mask so hard it cracked.
Miraak was stunned but as he tried to regain his footing, Jon kicked him right in the guts once again and this time, Miraak was launched like a loose arrow.
"Wrath!"
Jon called Wrath who appeared right behind Miraak and bashed him in the other direction.
"Greed!"
Greed appeared in the form of the eight-legged horse and ran over the fallen Miraak as he was trying to get up.
"Gluttony!"
The monstrous beast of Gluttony appeared and it went with all its weight on top of Miraak, punching him into the ground deeper and deeper as the floor of Apocrypha's Summit began to crack from the endless bangs of the ferocious monster.
"Slooth!"
The frost giant turned into a storm of heavy sleet and poured on Miraak, tearing him to shreds of blood and freezing around him.
He poured all his strength into his body and conjured his magic to ward away the damage but Jon's next move was prepared.
"Lust! Envy! Pride!"
The three feminine sins appeared around Miraak simultaneously and acted in succession. Pride disarmed him with a force spell, Lust held Miraak's head from the back, and Envy pressed her finger against his forehead from the front.
Jon kept watching as his Sins took care of his enemy for him. He has already drained Miraak enough for the Real Enemy to step forward.
Sure enough, it stepped forward once it thought it got the opportunity.
"Did you think you could escape me, Miraak? You can hide nothing from me here. No matter. I have found a new Dragonborn to serve me."
Hermaeus Mora surely appeared.
His tone was arrogant, his actions indicated victory.
The Prince of Wretched Abyss showed itself above the Summit of Apocrypha where it was denied access for eons and spread its tentacles to take over.
It attacked Miraak and wanted to end him, to obliterate his long-living reign of rebellion, to break his soul away from his body.
But Jon finally showed his true color.
"Drey hi lorot Zu'u fen nunon lingraav?" (Did you think that I would just watch?)
It was of course Jon speaking but not really. The Dragon Aspect Jon has was still around and it kept glaring at the Abyssal Eyes and suddenly leapt from around Jon at the Daedric Prince.
"NO!"
Shocked, Hermaeus Mora tried to fight off the Dragon Aspect of Jon but he was overwhelmed and chased away before even having the time to react.
"No? You thought I wasn't up to what you wanted to do? Stupid son of a bitch."
As he cursed at the Lord of the Realm, he knew he didn't have much time before Hermaeus Mora recovered his power and attempted to retake the summit again. Until that, he has a limited window of time to do what he does best.
Jon stepped forward towards Miraak as the Sin Artifacts kept him subdued.
"Ahahaha! You maniac! You really did Hermaeus Mora dirty." Miraak laughed but he was still struggling, "Clever boy! So that's your plan all along."
"Like it?" Jon asked.
"Haha! Very much." Miraak couldn't help but acknowledge Jon's plan, "Why don't I like you not killing me?"
From the very beginning, Miraak was trying to kill Jon and absorb his soul, it was his only way to overturn Fate.
But unlike how he imagined, Jon had a broader picture of the situation he was walking into and was acting accordingly.
As Fate is something embedded deep in the soul, and Jon knew the answer to the eternal question that was haunting him. He knew how to dodge Fate.
By all means, Jon must not let Miraak die or even be around when he expires. Jon mustn't absorb the soul of Dragonborn Miraak.
But he had something else to absorb, the Dragon Souls of the Dragon Miraak have been slain and they are, of course, merged with Miraak's Dragonborn Soul, a Divine Soul.
Usually, this would complicate things, For Jon, however, he would always use that very same answer when he is faced with that very same problem.
Keening, Sunder, and Wraithguard.
"The Tools of Kagrenac." Jon said while equipping Wraithguard on his right then holding Sunder with it.
"Never had the pleasure." Miraak said mockingly, "Although I have heard of the famous tools."
"Wanna know what they really do?" Jon asked while waving Sunder in front of Miraak's mask.
"I'm dying." Miraak replied.
"Nope."
With a sarcastic look on his face, Jon waved Sunder to smite Miraak's head with all his might.
*CLINK*
Venus of Lust and Potema of Envy were still holding Miraak even after the strike that sent his ghost out of his body for almost a second there.
"Feeling that?" Jon asked.
"… YOU… BAS…"
*CLINK*
And another strike landed on Miraak's mask sideways.
"You're a tough nut to crack!" Jon exclaimed as the wanted result of his actions didn't seem to be showing itself yet.
He tightened his grip on the hammer Sunder and this time, he struck Miraak up right at the chest with every ounce of power he had.
And it finally happened.
The hammer Sunder had the power to damage the astral form in all aspects, targeting both Magicka and Vitality. Under immense pressure, this hammer can push a soul out of its vessel for a limited period. That's how the Tribunal extracted the divine power of the Heart of Lorkhan, and that's how Jon is extracting the Dragon souls Miraak took.
But first, Miraak's Astral Form (or his soul) was now exposed outside its vessel, held back in the air and floating powerlessly as Miraak was looking at his left and his right then back at his fallen body.
"That's more like it."
Jon, on the other hand, had the dagger Keening instead of Sunder and aimed it at Miraak's incorporeal form and flayed it layer by layer. With every layer, Miraak screamed in agony and Jon freed a Dragon Soul from him to take for himself.
When it came to the first Dragon Soul, Miraak resisted and put out a fight but Jon got too violent and used his Dragonsfire to scorch the soul of the rogue Dragonborn.
With every Dragon Soul drained from him, Miraak's resistance grew weaker and weaker and Jon grew stronger and stronger. Ten souls in and Jon was already almost as powerful as he was during the battle of Winterhold four years ago.
But then, the tower shook, and the Summit of Apocrypha was attacked by something terrible and angry.
{MIRAAAAAAAAAAK!}
"Oh! You're back early."
Jon looked around and saw that many tentacles had appeared from many portals around the tower and began squeezing around it hard.
Meanwhile, Jon's Dragon Aspect flew above him and vigorously started fighting back against the tentacles.
Jon couldn't break his focus as he needed to keep Miraak's Physical and Astral bodies apart long enough for him to finish what he was doing. He started working even faster.
Seeing this, Hekate of Pride looked closely at her master and at the other sin who were on standby. She sensed that the master was disturbed and his mind was slipping as he checked on the situation around him every few seconds.
A hint of annoyance appeared on her Jon-like face and she raised her right hand the same way he does and gestured something for the other sins. It was the same hand movement Jon does whenever he tells a follower of his to go ahead and follow his command.
Looking at their actions, the other sins were puzzled and even Odokuro of Wrath and Wendigo of Gluttony turned to each other. Receiving an order from another Sin was an order way too advanced for their simple personalities to comprehend and even Potema of Envy wouldn't do something out of Jon's scope like that.
But then, the Will of Pride seemed just as domineering and powerful as Jon's. They could tell it was just a mere imitation but that made them feel something with their virtual personalities.
After a second or so, Odokuro of Wrath held up his gigantic blade and rushed toward the edge of the tower ready to engage with an approaching tentacle. Gluttony, Greed, and Sloth followed Wrath after pausing for a few seconds each and defended the area where their Master was working.
Jon took note of that and it made him concerned for a second there since he almost felt that his control was slipping for a second but seeing how Pride acted, it felt like it was part of his will all along.
The important thing is that Jon was already twenty-two souls in and he felt like he was going to end it soon. What he needed to be careful with was Miraak's own soul since it was the thing that was carrying the pact with Hermaeus Mora, Jon needed to make sure he didn't absorb that soul by mistake while he was using Keening.
"RETURN!"
Jon shouted and the Dragon Aspect soared to the sky and then descended like a flash in Jon's body before disappearing completely. At that time, Jon immediately activated every bit of energy he could muster and held his hand out to Pride.
Without thinking Pride transformed into the Staff form and landed in Jon's hand. Envy and Lust let go of Miraak's Astral Form and it returned back to its Physical Body.
"POWEEEEEEEEEEEEEER!"
Shouting as he gathered his power into Pride, Jon seemed like he was about to cast the most powerful spell of all time but in a twist of madness, Jon turned Pride's head against his chest and released the spell against himself.
The effect was instant as the Magicka was completely integrated into whatever it was supposed to do but that effect remained rather vague. Yet with the Knowledge of every spell ever cast in his staff, Jon has surely done something… terrible.
{Sigh!}
He simply let out a single sigh but Miraak who was kneeling in front of Jon perceived it way too different from just a simple exhale.
Jon's simple exhale was heard everywhere almost equally, making every molecule of air around the realm of Apocrypha vibrate with every sound he made.
"You madman!"
The weak and feeble Miraak was still one of the most knowledgeable people in the world and he completely figured out what Jon was doing.
{When the Dragon speaks, the World listens.}
Jon simply whispered and then had a grin appearing on his face. A Dragon's words have the power to affect the very fabric of reality, but even the mighty Dragons are bound by the laws of Physics and their power doesn't extend to where their voices can't reach.
But in a case of absolute absurdity, one man was about to rewrite the rules of the game… or rather the Laws of the World.
{DUR GRON KAASK!}
Jon shouted.
His shout was heard everywhere.
And by everywhere, it is meant everywhere across the endless expanses of the world of Apocrypha.
The word Dur means Curse, the Word Gron means "-to bind", and the word Kaask means "Cage".
And it was over.
The struggle, the fight, all of it.
Jon backed away from Miraak and his Sin Artifacts all gathered around him and disappeared as they always do, Greed as a cape around his shoulders, Pride as a bracelet on his wrist, and so on.
"Sorry about that." Jon said, "You deserve a bad ending but the Fate I am putting you through… never thought I could be this cruel."
And he disappeared from Apocrypha completely… never to ever return once again leaving behind Miraak, who was still alive, and Hermaeus Mora, who simply hovered not too far from the Summit of Apocrypha.
Around the Summit of Apocrypha, a hidden power built a barrier as if it were a rift between two separate realities. One is the Daedric Realm of Apocrypha, another is the tower built by Dragonborn Miraak which is called the Summit of Apocrypha. On one side sits Hermaeus Mora, and on the other side sits Miraak.
Their thousands of years of love and hate have just ended like this. Miraak, an Immortal stripped of all his power, prisoner on a tower of his own defeat, and someone whose ego is too big that it won't bring him to take his own life.
As for Hermaeus Mora, he is a force of nature but still a subject of its whims. When a man with the power to shake the whole World does something, even Hermaeus Mora is bound to follow the cosmic rules.
Jon shouted to the entire realm of Apocrypha that Miraak becomes shut in the tower where he can never get out and where nothing can get to him. Stuck with his contract with Hermaeus Mora, it is no longer possible for Hermaeus Mora to influence this weakened Dragonborn to do his bidding or even to get rid of him.
In the game, it is Hermaeus Mora who kills Miraak, not the player. It is Hermaeus Mora who seals the contract with the Last Dragonborn by forcing him into it. If Miraak dies, his soul gets to be directly absorbed by the Dragonborn and with it, the accursed contract laid on it.
That was Hermaeus Mora's plan all along, to get Jon to kill Miraak.
Even though Miraak planned to trap Jon in Apocrypha in order to transfer the Curse onto him by letting Hermaeus Mora get to him, Jon knew their plans all along and worked hard day and night in order to learn how to reverse the Fate that may have befallen him.
The answer was rather a funny one.
Fate can only be changed by Power.
The power to make a new Fate altogether.
Then again… isn't what already happened and what happened in the present also Fate?
No matter the answer you may choose, Power is the means to get everything done. How you acquire it is what matters.
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