Download App
96.67% Dragonborn Saga / Chapter 725: Dear Miraak

Chapter 725: Dear Miraak

A/n: Help me reach my Goal on P4treon & Join Discord! ➡️ https://linktr.ee/donovel or Google "Donovel Linktree" ⬅️

——————————

The Temple of Miraak was utterly vanquished against the might of a single Dragonborn and as Jon got a hold of one of Miraak's cultists, it was time for interrogation.

Who are you? What is the Cult of Miraak? Where did people like you come from? And what is your goal here?

Jon was asking nicely but after hearing the usual "Captain Piss-off" answer and the maternal insults, he retrieved a flask from his storage with a white liquid on it and a label that says "I hope I don't use this."

"See what this is?" Jon asked, "It is poison. What it does is that it kills living organisms."

"I know what a poison does, Deceiver!" The Cultist spoke with anger as he looked at Jon with one intact eye and one bruised eye, "When Lord Miraak emerges, the loyal shall be rewarded, the Nirn shall sing, and the world will kneel."

"You've totally drifted off topic here, mate. What does this have to do with Miraak returning?" Jon asked.

The Cultist heated up moment was faced with Jon's cold disdain, it left the former a bit puzzled and the latter grinning ear to ear.

"If Miraak were to show up on Nirn, I'd kick his ass through and through. I mean why would I want to fight him in a Daedric World where he is surrounded by a Daedric army?"

The Cultist was provoked right away and wanted to bite Jon but his bindings were strong and unyielding.

"You will die, Deceiver!" The Cultist shouted.

"Funny you should say, I was just talking about poison and death." Jon immediately held up the Cultist off his collar, "As I was saying poison kills people by messing up their biological functions."

"No shit!" The Cultist insisted on mocking Jon.

"Oh yeah, but that's a normal poison, something made of biological ingredients and crafted by an Alchemist like my dear second wife." Jon said and brought the flask closer to the face of the Cultist, "This, on the other hand, is a poison that was made by my brother, who is a blacksmith. It makes you wonder how good a blacksmith can be at making poisons."

Frea and Wulfur, who stood a few steps behind Jon, were watching him play the villain and as he brought up that flask, Frea turned to Wulfur.

"What is that?" Frea asked.

"Just something very twisted… Jon's idea." Wulfur said with an uneasy face.

"This, my dears, is a metal-based poison, not a plant or animal-based one. It means that it was made of metals instead of plants or venoms. It can't be healed by magic or detoxified by any known antidote. Also, all our Falmer test subjects have passed away with the most agonizing screams. Fun stuff, really. It is made of molten geode Soul Gems and sprinkles of Stalhrim. Funny story, Wulfur discovered it when he was researching a new way to create precious things. Anyway, after this poison is ingested, it starts to liquidate everything inside you. You'll literally be shitting your innards but lucky for me, this a very slow process. We estimate that it would take 5 minutes for you to die after ingesting it so… Bon Appetit!"

"No, wait!"

The Cultist was already shitting himself halfway through Jon's explanation of how he will die. As the Cultist wanted to say something, regardless of its nature, Jon punched him in the face hard enough for the man to lose his focus and become dizzy long enough for Jon to slip the liquid geode inside.

"Is this a noble way to kill someone?" Frea asked Jon, "Even if he is an enemy, treating life like that is fairly unreasonable. You could have tortured him normally if he wouldn't answer but to overdo it is unjust!"

"No, it is not noble." Jon replied with neutral expressions, "If anything it is quite gnarly and barbaric… but it's all according to plan."

As the poison kicked in, the Dunmer Cultist started to shake and his eyes were wide open.

"What…" He spoke while his body was overheating and sweating, "… did you… do to me?"

"Your insides are melting as we speak, you're bound from all your limbs and you can't kill yourself before the poison completely dissolves everything within.

"Please!" The Cultist shouted but his words weren't coming out right anymore as if his vocal chords were set on fire, "PL…EA…SE!"

"I know." Jon nodded and crouched near the man, "If you want me to kill you, you have to give me something in return. I don't get my hands bloody if not for a noble cause."

"We are… were… the Black Isle… Pirates!" The man spoke.

"From northern Morrowind or from the Eastmarch coast?" Jon asked, fully aware of the pirate clan.

"East…march! ARGH! PLEASE!"

"How did you become Miraak's lackeys?" Jon asked.

"Lord Miraak… invited us… gave us… magic, opened our eyes!"

"And?"

"He promises… a new world… he'd reward his followers… we become his disciples… his priests."

"Dragonborn Priests, huh?" Jon asked, "Now he's just copying me. Right, Potema?" Jon asked.

From Jon's shadow, a figure rose up and it floated like a Dragon Priest wearing black rags and holding a black staff. It looked like a mix between a Dragon Priest and a Hagraven but with an ornate skull covered with a ghastly layer of a face that belonged to a woman that looked like a wolf.

{Master! You are the true Dragon! This right belongs to none other than you! You're the one they should have followed if they wanted to follow a Dragonborn. Let me have my way with the heretics!}

Potema of Envy came right to Jon's ears and started speaking like a devil insinuating some dark deeds.

"You heard that?" Jon looked at the dying cultist, "That's what a proper Dragonborn Priest should look like."

"Kill… me! I've told you… all." The man replied, unable to withstand the feeling of burning liquidation that was utterly messing him from the inside out.

"No." Jon shook his head, "I still have questions! Once we are done, and that's when I say we are done, Potema will take care of you."

Seeing this demonic scene from the side, Wulfur was already used to it but Frea was unaware of how cruel the outsider ally of the Skaal, Bloodskal, can truly be. Wulfur had a dismissive look in his eyes and she wasn't one to pity her enemies but she wasn't one to approve of this dark power.

As for Jon, he interrogated the dying Cultist even more. It wasn't as satisfying as he hoped but he was done with the man in a couple of minutes.

"Potema, he's yours."

And with this signal, Potema immediately rushed at the dying cultist and stabbed him with her bare bone hand in his abdomen and just like that, the molten geode poison in the cultist's body stopped raging and cooled down a bit. Potema, however, was far from over with him. She snared the Astral Body from the Physical Body and without cutting the bond of life between the two, she started doing something to the Astral Body using dark magic.

Her intentions were unholy and as she was done with the Astral Body, she put it back in the body. Once that happened, the molten geode poison was ignited again.

"What was that?" Wulfur asked.

"Technically, he's alive but his brain has been shut off so he is dead…ish. Anyway, the preparations are over on my end, what about you?" Jon asked.

"We found the last chamber. It is as you expected." Wulfur replied.

"Let's go then." Jon held the Cultist by the nape of his robes and dragged him along as he followed Wulfur and Frea.

As they arrived at the deepest part of the temple, Jon started to recognize some bits of the temple as his memory was being refreshed on things. As they entered the great hall that was part of the old raised temple, Frea pointed out to the Dragon Skeleton hung by its ceiling. 

"I had heard Miraak had turned against the Dragon Cult, but to display the remains in such a manner as this… It is no wonder the dragons razed his temple to the ground. Seeing the remains hung up like trophies must have enraged them to no end."

"Jon does it way worse." Wulfur said, "He had me dismantle every dragon he kills and sort out their bones by type in crates. If Miraak treated his kills like trophies, this guy treats them like byproducts."

"Wow!" Frea looked at Jon and she couldn't help but have a brutal image of him in her head.

"It is something I learned from the Skaal, really. You don't let any part of your prey go to waste." Jon said.

"Yes… we don't normally hunt dragons though." Frea couldn't find anything illogical with Jon's argument but that.

As they reached some point in the temple, they came to a large oval chamber with a word wall on one side and some standing sarcophaguses on the other side. It was obvious that once they got  near the sarcophaguses, a wave of Daedra would assault them and so Jon went to the word wall first.

"I haven't done that in a long time." Jon said.

"Done what?" Frea asked.

"I have visited all of the Word Walls on Skyrim with the exception of a handful of them. I collected all their knowledge long ago. Gaining new powers is always exciting."

Jon approached the word wall and could feel the whispers of the stone come from within. With his innate nature, he started reading the word wall.

"Pah WERID MOROKei MiraaK ZOK SULeyKaaR DO Pah SONaaK WEN MUL BOLaaV NaaL FahLUaaN DO JUL." (All praise glorious Miraak, Most powerful servant of all Dragon Priests, whose "STRENGTH" was granted by the gardener of mankind.)

As Jon finished shouting, he felt that the word "Mul" (Strength) was imprinted on his brain.

This was the first word in the Dragon Aspect shout. A few years back when Jon was on Solstheim, he managed to learn the first word "Qah" but the shout needed "Mul" to be learned first and now he has completed two of them.

The "Dragon Aspect" shout was one of the few shouts that Jon couldn't learn from his memories even though he knew the words required. This also applied to the "Dragonrend" and the "Bend Will" shouts, all of which are unnatural shouts not made by the Dragons and some of the most overpowered shouts in existence.

The "Dragon Aspect" is powerful and can only be used by a Dragonborn. With its first word, it increases the strength and the fortitude of its caster by leaps and bounds. With the second, it can summon the ancient spirits of the past Dragonborns. With the third, it makes the Dragonborn shouts with a similar power to that of Ancient Dragons.

"You're good?" Wulfur asked.

"Yes. This word is really something!" Jon said and turned around to see that Wulfur has already taken care of the Dragur from the standing sarcophaguses.

"Was a bit bored here." Wulfur said while trying to look cool.

Jon laughed and shook his head.

"No salary is good enough for a guy like you."

"Haha! You never pay me though." Wulfur retorted.

"Says the shareholder." Jon replied and marched past the two companions of his.

They delved even deeper and passed a few eerie-looking statues of large green gooey monsters with pincers and tentacles, Frea started pointing them out.

"I do not recognize this statuary. We passed by a few of them earlier, but they are becoming more frequent as we get further in." She said.

"Relics from Apocrypha, Hermaeus Mora's realm." Jon replied.

"Herma Mora? Demon of Knowledge?" Frea looked at Jon and her feet froze on the ground.

"The one and only."

"What do the Knowledge Demon and Miraak have to do with each other?" She asked.

"Hermaeus Mora is the patron of Miraak. See where this is going?" He responded.

"All-Maker!" While completely baffled, she could do anything but tighten her grasp over her axe.

"We're here." Wulfur announced.

After passing many mechanical and trap barriers, the three looked around a chamber with a strange interior, stranger than the eerie ones from before.

"Here we are."

And at the center of the room, there was a pedestal of the same style as the room that had a book on it.

"A Black Book?" Wulfur asked, "That's what we're after?"

"What's that?" Frea asked.

"Skaal, all you have been doing all that time is asking what is this and what is that! No creativity to add to this group?" Jon asked.

"Hey! You already know all there is to know about this place. What kind of a man who is not even a native that would know all that?" She retorted.

"She raises a good point." Wulfur asked.

"Bros before hoes, man." Jon punched Wulfur's arm, "And I do know stuff like that because I do read books about things. This book in particular, I've read 4 of it before and guess what, they are gates to Oblivion."

"Oblivion!" Frea reacted.

"Indeed." Jon said, "That's why I know what I know. I'm an enemy of Herma Mora and by default, an enemy of his boy Miraak, who is also a Dragonborn and is trying to get rid of me. Satisfied?"

"Yes." Frea looked away apologetically.

"Alright. Now let's get to work. You two go back for a bit." Jon said as he pushed his two heavily armored companions away.

"Envy, let's do this." Jon summoned out Potema of Envy once again and she followed him to the Black Book.

Jon still had the captured Cultist from back then that he put on the floor. He then laid down on the ground and shut his eyes. 

Potema of Envy hovered over the two of them and started making noises as she spoke some incompressible words.

"Dark Magic this time!" Frea exclaimed lightly.

"Jon uses all sorts of magic; Light, Dark, Holy, Daedric, Undeath. From what we learned, it's not Dark Magic that corrupts people, it is people who corrupt Magic." Wulfur said.

Jon didn't like his magic being criticized and Wulfur saw what Jon can do with magic light and dark. Jon had his moments where he used the most respected of magic, Restoration, to do the most horrible spells one can imagine.

As for Jon, he was simply lying and waiting as Potema of Envy finished her Conjuration spell. She then cast the magic on the Cultist and put her boney hand over Jon's head.

"It is yours, your highness." She said,

Jon's lips curved into a smile but by the next second, the Cultist rose from his slumber in the eeriest of ways.

He stood up, turned around, and walked to the Black Book on the pedestal. He opened the book and almost a dozen tentacles jumped off from its pages and devoured the man.

Instead of eating him whole, the Cultist just stood there while being covered by those green gooey tentacle things.

And then…

"Oh, Dear Miraak."

… Jon spoke.

"5000 years in Apocrypha and you're still an ass. Don't you recognize me? Did the realm of Hermaeus Mora make you forget me? I am your best pal from the old days, Sook-ma-Cok. Don't remember me? Ok, I have something for you to never forget me by… OUAGH!"

As Jon made that last sound, his body bent upwards and he seemed in pain for a second but then Potema of Envy removed her hand from his forehead and cut the connection.

"Hahahaha!"

Jon, who regained his consciousness right away, started laughing hysterically and stood up from the ground. He looked to his side and saw that the body of the Cultist had turned to ash and the Black Book had a hole in it that was made as if something burned it through.

"What was that?" Wulfur asked.

"Ahahaha! The molten geode. I made it… ahahaha… all over his face! Miraak won't forget his pal Sook-ma-Cok any time soon."

Historians recorded that this throw-up prank was considered the pettiest, most reckless in history since it involved delving for a few hours in one of the world's most ancient crypts.

The fight between Jon Dare and Miraak was purely about good and evil but Jon couldn't help but make it personal.

——————————

A/n: Help me reach my Goal on P4treon & Join Discord! ➡️ https://linktr.ee/donovel or Google "Donovel Linktree" ⬅️


next chapter

Chapter 726: Humiliation

A/n: Help me reach my Goal on P4treon & Join Discord! ➡️ https://linktr.ee/donovel or Google "Donovel Linktree'' ⬅️

——————————

As the Last Dragonborn explores the Temple of Miraak with Frea of the Skaal, he reaches the deepest part of the temple deep underground and finds the Black Book of Waking Dreams.

Upon entering the Realm of Apocrypha through the Black Book, the Last Dragonborn, whatever his name is, runs into the First Dragonborn, Miraak, the Champion of Hermaeus Mora. Surrounded by multiple Seekers of Apocrypha as well as Miraak and his Serpentine Dragon servant, the Last Dragonborn is instantly incapacitated and gets his ass whooped back to Solstheim.

That is what would happen to any other Last Dragonborn. Jon Dare, however, is a whole different story.

Jon knew that he would be walking right into Miraak's lair if he was to follow the game's events and so he prepared something he thought to be fun.

*In the realm of Apocrypha*

Miraak contemplated his plan to overpower the minds of the weak through the power he gathered on Solstheim. Despite all, his goals were much bigger than just teeny tiny Solstheim and he had a lot more fish to fry but he had to start at his old foothold where he is sure he can be successful.

The "Bones of Nirn", or as the Skaal call them the Stones of the All-Maker, are powerful spots on the ley lines on Solstheim and can amplify magic if equipped with the proper structure. So long that Miraak keeps shouting his Bend Will shout and try to make its echo reach between Oblivion and Nirn, the Bones of Nirn that he occupied will act as conduits to receive his Shout and Amplify it through the Structures that his thralls were building.

It took him very long years to come up with that plan and even longer to make it work. He, who surrendered his existence to Hermaeus Mora, was denied death since his pact with the Prince of Knowledge kept his soul away from the interference of the Dragon God. Since he is a Dragonborn, it was annoying for him to be governed by a deity that wants him for a certain mission and then have him die after it.

That's right, just like Jon, Miraak found out that the Dragonborn's role is over once Alduin is dealt with. While he learned of what the Nords did to Alduin by banishing him into the future and realized that his fate as a Dragonborn is tied to Alduin, he chose not to kill Alduin and had no plan to kill him at all despite his confidence that he can vanquish the black wyrm.

But what Miraak didn't expect was the emergence of a Dragonborn that fights and slays Dragons along with the emergence of Alduin. It was as if the world was giving him a slap and saying that he is no longer needed, that it replaced him with someone else.

Now this threw a wrench in Miraak's plan, a big one.

There can only be One Living Dragonborn on Mundus to fulfill the prophecy. Miraak has heard about the Alessian, Reman, and Septim dynasties of Dragonborn emperors and he quite liked the concept but that last one was way too soon compared to the rest. It took almost a thousand years between each Dragonborn line and the next to appear but only after 200 years since the fall of the Septims.

This had to be nipped in the bud and it would be something easy to eventually do. A Dragonborn who lived in sheltered times and had never seen Dragons before in his life wouldn't harness the power of the Dragonborn even a year after his awakening as one.

Miraak had thousands of years in his disposable to learn and hone his skills, what can the other guy do?

Maybe just for a quick laugh but Miraak was going to send a couple of Cultists to deal with him. That was the plan until Hermaeus Mora revealed that the Dragonborn of this age is actually a highborn young Nord who rules the city of Saarthal.

Miraak understood what it meant to be the ruler over Saarthal but he was from the generation that witnessed the ruins of the first city of man and ruling such a place is considered something grand.

He had to guess that the Last Dragonborn should be no simple man even a year in as one. Alessia started as a rebellion leader, Reman as a warlord, Septim as a general, and Miraak was a Dragon Priest himself. None of that is simple and even the other Dragonborns who didn't get too famous were also leaders and kings.

But then one day, Hermaeus Mora was overwhelmingly furious and the seas of ink in Apocrypha were raging and the sky was storming in a way Miraak had seldom seen before. The state of the realm reflects the mood of its owner but to anger the Gardener of Men to this extent is nothing short of unique and unprecedented.

Hermaeus Mora knows many things and his knowledge guarantees him to predict the future to its finest details, that is why he is also called the Prince of Fate.

But to make him this angry only means that someone out there manipulated him or something in his power and deprived him of something.

{The Dragonborn, Jon Dare, he stole something from me, he took her away even when she didn't want to. She. Is. Mine.}

The "She" can only be the Oghma Infinium, the book that knows. For anyone to steal it from Hermaeus Mora is nothing short of a legendary deed. The Oghma was created when old Herma Mora whispered words to Xerxes and made him write the Oghma which Xarxes fell in love with. Still, it was taken from him and claimed by Herma Mora for his own satisfaction.

She was Mora's thrall and plaything, she was the thing that he would dearly watch as it leads mortals astray with their hunger for the knowledge they can't process until it drives them hopeless and brings them to their knees.

It was a thing that made Miraak feel disgusted and he never personally got too close to the Oghma because he knew not to mess with Herma Mora. Mora's obsession with the effects caused by the Oghma was almost to the level of dirty kinks where Mora would let his dear Oghma go to the hands of other men only to let them go crazy and then return to his hand.

But now that Oghma was taken, Mora was left raging and unable to do anything other than send out his Champion Miraak.

By his part, Miraak was already assimilated in Apocrypha and couldn't leave it back to Nirn unless it was his Astral Projection. The only possible way for him to do that is to proceed with his normal plan which is to force the Last Dragonborn to come into Apocrypha, weaken and defeat him, then make him swear fealty to Hermaeus Mora and replace Miraak as his servant.

Even with things this complicated, Hermaeus Mora will just give the Last Dragonborn some impossible Labors for him to clear and force him into a lifetime of slavery same as he did with Miraak. It is a perfect situation for both Mora and Miraak.

Perfect until one day, a Cultist from Miraak's followers appeared in front of him in a chapter in Apocrypha known as Waking Dreams where Miraak planned his exit from the realm.

Miraak was surprised and before he would attempt to incapacitate the Cultist, the man knelt in front of him and spoke.

"Oh, Dear Miraak!"

Aside from the strange glow in the man's chest and the sickly look on his face, he seemed not one bit threatening.

"Who are you? You are not Darmgog!" Miraak wondered why a mere Cultist was the one to come here instead of the Arch Cultist, leader of his agents on Nirn.

"Oh my! 5000 years in Apocrypha and you're still an ass?" The man spoke with a hint of mockery this time.

"What the…" Miraak was flabbergasted for everyone he knew thousands of years ago should have perished by now.

"Don't you recognize me?" The man asked again.

Recognize? Is there anyone left alive from the olden ages that Miraak can recognize?

"Did the realm of Hermaeus Mora make you forget me?" The man asked again and continued, "I am your best pal from the old days, Sook Ma Cok."

Miraak was still stunned for a second there and tried to remember who Sook Ma Cok is?

But then something changed, the realm reacted vigorously to the existence of this Sook Ma Cok.

"Don't remember me?" Sook Ma Cok asked with a hint of slyness in his voice, "Ok, I have something for you to never forget me by…"

{It is him! Thief!}

Only after hearing Mora's voice could Miraak understand what was happening and almost tried to incapacitate the guy but suddenly.

"OUAGH!"

The glowing thing within the man intensified and he spat something white and strange at Miraak from almost point-blank range. The lightning spell of Miraak struck the man and turned him to dust but his spit attack landed on Miraak's mask and seeped through its opening.

"AAAAAAH!"

It was nothing a man could endure. It was something so insanely hot it burned Miraak's face and forced him out of his mask.

Holding the left side of his face, Miraak struck away the molten geode poison with his magic and saw it as it dissolved into the sea of ink. Still, there was something that he could see moving in the shadows.

As he looked back while holding his burnt face, he could see a dark being standing at a fair distance while facing the Word Wall that Miraak erected for himself. The being's eyes flashed as it looked through the wall's words then it disappeared in thin air.

This left Miraak with nothing but a face burning with pain and a heart with unending rage.

Not his powers nor his wits could have stopped that sly Dragonborn just now. Herma Mora, who can see anything and know everything couldn't foretell the coming of the Last Dragonborn as if he was blinded, and the Dragons and Daedric servants roaming around him at this moment were not able to react just in time.

This was… Humiliation! One that, for the first time in history, left a mark on Miraak's face.

As for Jon, he just took a peek at Miraak's forces and realized that time is of the essence.

He needs a power-up opportunity as soon as possible.

——————————

A/n: Help me reach my Goal on P4treon & Join Discord! ➡️ https://linktr.ee/donovel or Google "Donovel Linktree'' ⬅️


Load failed, please RETRY

Weekly Power Status

Batch unlock chapters

Table of Contents

Display Options

Background

Font

Size

Chapter comments

Write a review Reading Status: C725
Fail to post. Please try again
  • Writing Quality
  • Stability of Updates
  • Story Development
  • Character Design
  • World Background

The total score 0.0

Review posted successfully! Read more reviews
Vote with Power Stone
Rank 200+ Power Ranking
Stone 179 Power Stone
Report inappropriate content
error Tip

Report abuse

Paragraph comments

Login

tip Paragraph comment

Paragraph comment feature is now on the Web! Move mouse over any paragraph and click the icon to add your comment.

Also, you can always turn it off/on in Settings.

GOT IT