章 685: Burning Loyalty

"FOR THE HIGH KIN-AHAHAHHHRRRRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!"

The stone hands reach up and grab the legs of the Skyrim soldiers just as the fire above them descends. They scream as their clothing becomes scorched and their flesh burns, quickly leaving behind only ashes in their wake.

The few soldiers who were smart enough or too cowardly to stay ahead of the chargeback away, realising just how fragile they are in this situation. Surtr only wanted to go search for Miraak, but with the state of his forces, he was required to stay and fight or risk becoming outnumbered...

Thankfully, Medusa slithers forwards and unleashes a volley of arrows into the air, which fly up high before plummeting down on top of the Halkeginian mages. Some conjure shields to block them, but only the most powerful were able to withstand a single arrow, let alone a dozen.

"'King', why don't you make yourself useful elsewhere." she drawls and points a finger over the horizon where a dozen or so dragon were now approaching from.

"You can handle them, snake! Miraak is my target!" Surtr spits back.

"I can, but I won't. Go fight the dragons or lose this war, 'Dragonborn'."

...

Surtr grits his teeth but relents, knowing that someone had to deal with the dragons. Illococoo and Charlotte were already trying to draw their attention, but the enemy was too smart to be swayed by that for long. He summons his own dragons and flies into the sky, leaving Medusa and the others to deal with the ground forces.

"He's gone, go." she hisses over her shoulder, allowing Anti-Mage, Wei, and Silencer to all start making their way towards the tower that Louise had been standing on. This was the place most likely to hold Miraak, along with his other strongest soldiers.

Just as they leave however Medusa's Mana Shield ripples as a large lightning bolt strikes it, and a mage with long white hair, grey eyes, and wand strides down from the sky as if walking upon invisible stairs.

"Your fight is with me, creature. My name is Loutiel Outous Noble of the new Halkeginian Empire. Prepare to-" he starts but isn't able to speak anymore as Medusa's eyes flash and instantly turn his body to stone. His magic deactivates and his body falls to the ground and shatters, permanently killing him.

"Pathetic." she drones, not even taking another glance at the stone remnants that were once the mage. Instead, she turns her attention to a nearby building which had blurs of black speeding out from it. The small army stops in a formation in front of her, a litany of weapons covering their bodies as a strange rune glows on the backs of their left hands.

"FOR THE EMPEROR! FOR OUR MASTER!" they shout in chorus, forcing a sigh out of Medusa's mouth.

"Do they train you to be fools or were you merely born this way?" she asks in mild confusion, this doesn't stop her casting of a Mystic Snake however, which lashes out and goes straight through the chest of the closest warrior, killing him as it arcs the next.

They speed out of the way and gain just enough distance that the spell doesn't bounce to any more targets, only killing the two. The others all rush forwards and attack Medusa, only to find their weapons clashing uselessly against her Mana Shield...

"The weakest chattel is butchered first." she boredly remarks as she raises her bow, the action completely safe behind her Mana Shield despite the many magically enhanced solders hammering away at it.

Her bow fires like a shotgun, shooting tens of arrows in point-blank range directly into the faces of the unfortunate pseudo-familiars. They drop like puppets with their strings cut, their bodies disintegrating under the godly force of her attacks.

With those weaklings dealt with, she turns her attention to the crowd of mind-controlled people of Ravenrock that were staring apprehensively at her. "If you won't begin, allow me."

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The trio of Anti-Mage, Wei, and Silencer sprint through the open door of the tower and come face to face with a number of Halkeginian earth mages. Each of them already casting their prepared spells.

Since it was the ground floor of the tower they had an absolute advantage here, though, with the slight risk of collapsing the rest of the structure if they weren't careful.

"Silence!" Silencer croaks, instantly removing all sound from around the mages, preventing them from casting their spells. He then throws his glaive at them, the thrown weapon lighting up bright blue before it hits the chest of the nearest target.

It spins and cleaves straight through their body before redirecting and spinning towards another. By the time the weapon flies back into Silencer's hand, all of the earth mages had been divested of their upper and lower halves.

"Come! We mustn't falter so close to our quarry!" Anti-Mage exclaims as they rush up to the second floor. The occupants were already aware of their presence from the screaming downstairs, but even then they weren't able to react as Anti-Mage and his apprentice Blink forward and slice the throats of the men.

This same thing continues for multiple floors, the defenders unable to do anything against the coordinated trio, their combination of Anti-Mage arts with Anti-Magic spells rendering any magic users completely helpless against them.

Even the powerful Halkeginian Nobles fell to them in their mad rush to ascend the tower, and soon enough they breach through a door and come face to face with three figures... A bearded man with blue hair wearing luxurious robes, a busty woman with pink hair in white priest robes, and a masked man wearing armoured robes and wielding a peculiar dark green blade.

"You've come... But without Surtr...? Have you decided to betray him? Or do you simply seek death?" Miraak questions with a drawl.