Dragonrend struck Urrax.
For one brief moment, Harald expected the beast to falter. He expected its wings to seize, its body to plummet, and its pride to shatter as so many dragons had before it.
Even Alduin, the Firstborn himself, had been forced from the sky.
But Urrax did not fall.
Urrax did not even flinch.
The brass dragon descended toward him, wings spread wide, its draconic face opening into a maw of sharp brass teeth. Sickly green flame gathered in its throat, pulsing, ready to be unleashed.
Why did I think that would even work? Harald thought, scolding himself.
It was not a true dragon. Not a child of Akatosh.
The green flame came.
"WULD! NAH! KEST!" he shouted, shooting away from where he had stood only a heartbeat before, crossing the land in a blur of wind and force.
The green flames struck the ground behind him. Stone melted. Dirt blackened. Grass vanished into ash. The road where Harald had stood moments earlier became a glowing scar of smoking ruin.
Urrax landed hard, and the ground shook beneath its weight. It hit the earth on all four legs, its claws digging deep trenches into the field. Unlike the dragons of Nirn, unlike the proud dovah Harald knew so well, this creature stood with four limbs beneath it and wings above, more like the ancient dragons of this world he had seen in the memories of the weirwoods.
Perhaps the Dwemer who made this wanted to ensure this dragon stood apart from any of Akatosh's children, Harald reasoned.
Urrax reoriented itself with frightening speed, its head snapping toward Harald. Its red eyes burned like coals behind polished ridges of golden metal. The soul gem in its chest pulsed, each beat flashing red and blue light around them.
It roared, and Harald felt the sound in his bones. For the first time in a long time, he felt a twinge of fear and uncertainty.
Harald slowly tightened his grip on his axe.
Then he smiled.
"So you were made to kill a Dragonborn," he said, his voice low.
"Then come, machine. Come and learn why even gods feared the Dovah."
The ethereal dragon armor around him flared. "Come and break yourself against me!"
Urrax roared, and Harald answered with a scream of his own, a raw draconic war cry that shook the lands around them.
He hurled his axe with all the strength Dragon Aspect gave him. The weapon spun through the air, its enchantment glowing, and struck Urrax in the side of the head.
The impact rang like a bell, and sparks burst across the brass scales.
The axe bounced away. Harald called it back with a sharp motion, and the weapon flew into his hand just as Urrax opened its jaws again.
Green flame erupted toward him.
"FEIM!"
Harald's body turned ghostly and pale, and the flame passed through him.
He ran straight into it, the world muted and distant around him as his flesh became untouchable. Fire that could have burned body and soul rolled through his ethereal form and struck nothing.
Then the shout's protection faded.
Harald jumped, using a telekinesis spell to propel himself upward. The strain was immense, but it gave him enough height. He came down atop Urrax's head, his axe falling with him. The blade struck the brass dragon's skull with a thunderous crack, sending sparks spraying into the night. The golden metal dented, only slightly, but enough that Urrax's head reared back from the force.
Harald landed near its head and drew in a breath.
"YOL TOOR SHUL!"
The air ignited around him as the full power of Fire Breath struck Urrax point-blank in the face. Dragonfire exploded across its draconic head and pushed the brass dragon backward, its claws carving furrows into the earth as it resisted.
Harald did not stop.
"YOL TOOR SHUL!"
A second torrent of fire slammed into Urrax.
This one was stronger, shaped by what he had learned from Paarthurnax and the Black Books. He increased the heat of the flames until they roared so loudly that the night vanished beneath its light. The brass dragon was driven back again, its head forced to the side.
When the flames faded, Urrax still stood there. Its body glowed red-hot in places. Heat rolled off it in waves. Its eyes burned brighter than before.
It looked only annoyed.
Harald raised both hands. Magicka surged through him, vast and violent. The air around him twisted as he called upon one of the strongest spells of the Destruction school. Fire gathered in a sphere around him, raw magic shaped into catastrophe.
Firestorm.
The spell erupted, and the world became aflame. A ring of destruction expanded outward from Harald, swallowing the field and the trees nearby. The explosion rolled over Urrax and engulfed it completely. Fire climbed into the sky in a pillar of orange, gold, and violet, drowning the moonlight and turning night into dawn.
Urrax screamed.
Harald poured more magicka into a second spell. The explosion tore through the first blaze and became something worse. The ground split. Stones lifted into the air and melted. Trees burst apart in showers of burning splinters. The heat was so intense that the air itself seemed to cease existing for a moment.
This has to be it, Harald thought. Not even the strongest Dwemer machine I have faced could survive this level of attack.
Then Urrax charged through the inferno.
It came from the fire glowing like the heart of a forge, its brass body burning red, its wings smoking, its claws molten at the edges. It had endured the spells, to Harald's shock, and now it leapt toward him with jaws open and claws extended.
What the fuck? Harald thought as he shouted to move away.
"WULD NAH KEST!"
Urrax slammed into the ground where he had stood, the impact sending broken stone and fire outward in every direction. Harald appeared behind it in a rush of wind, already attacking.
He did not allow it to recover. He struck it with a lightning spell, followed by another axe strike, then an Incinerate spell, then another axe strike. He raised a ward to deflect a sweeping tail. He moved around Urrax in bursts of speed, using Whirlwind Sprint in short, controlled dashes and refusing to stay in one place for long.
His axe returned to his hand again and again after each throw. Spells struck joints, eyes, and seams in the metal. The ground around them became a battlefield of fire, glass, and torn earth.
But Urrax adapted.
Its four legs gave it more stability than any dragon Harald had faced before. Its wings were as sharp as swords, and they had nearly decapitated Harald three times already during their battle.
"FO KRAH DIIN!"
Frost Breath erupted from his mouth, aimed directly at Urrax's joints. Ice crawled over the brass dragon's forelegs first, then its shoulders, then the joints of its wings. The sudden cold struck metal already heated by fire, and the reaction was immediate. Cracks formed in the glowing plates. Urrax's movements slowed as ice locked around the places where its golden body articulated.
Harald followed with spellcraft.
Blizzard.
The master-level spell was unleashed. Snow and razor ice spiraled around the dragon, hammering it from every direction. The entire battlefield was consumed in ice.
Urrax struggled. Its wings tried to spread, but ice sealed the joints. Its claws scraped against the frozen ground.
"IIZ SLEN NUS!"
The Ice Form shout hit Urrax directly, freezing it from the inside out as boulders of ice formed within it. The entire dragon was trapped in ice.
Harald smiled.
"Time to end this," he muttered as he gathered the full force of Unrelenting Force.
"FUS..."
Then Urrax roared.
The ice shattered.
The explosion of frozen fragments blasted outward. Harald threw up a ward a moment before they reached him.
Urrax was free, and the dragon looked barely damaged. The dents in its metal were shifting. The cracks were closing. Plates rearranged themselves along its body with soft mechanical clicks. The wound his axe had made on its head narrowed, then vanished beneath newly aligned metal.
Oh it can heal too… Harald thought.
Their eyes met once more.
For a moment, Harald could have sworn the dragon smiled. Its brass jaws parted slightly, and its eyes pulsed with cruel amusement, as if mocking him.
As if asking whether that was the best he could do.
Harald's grip tightened around his axe until the haft groaned beneath his fingers. His pride flared. Then his ego. Then his rage.
Urrax opened its mouth. Its brass jaws spread wide.
Harald braced himself for another blast of fire, like the one it had unleashed before.
But it was not fire that came.
"FUS RO DAH!"
Harald's eyes widened.
The force slammed into him, hurling him backward into the nearby rocks. He crashed into them hard enough to crack the stone.
It had mimicked a shout.
Urrax's eyes glowed red. The brass dragon's jaws opened again.
"YOL TOOR SHUL!"
The words came out mangled and monstrous.
Green-gold flame erupted from its mouth, shaped like Fire Breath. Harald rolled aside as the blast tore past him and turned the field behind him into burning glass.
Then came frost.
"FO KRAH DIIN!"
The air froze, and ice raced across the ground toward him in jagged spears.
Urrax followed instantly.
"IIZ SLEN NUS!"
Ice formed around Harald's legs, and for a moment, his boots were locked to the earth.
Harald growled and flooded magicka through his body, shattering the ice before it could climb higher.
"GAAN LAH HAAS."
The shout hit Harald directly, and he felt all the stamina drain from his body. Strength fled his limbs. His breath caught in his chest. His knees struck the earth before he could stop himself.
His hands trembled around the haft of his axe.
Urrax stepped toward him, claws digging into the scorched earth.
Harald forced himself back to his feet.
"FUS RO DAH!"
"FUS RO DAH!"
They both shouted.
The two forces met between them, and the world shook at the catastrophic clash of Thu'ums. The collision exploded outward, carving a massive crater into the battlefield.
Five miles away in Oldtown, the city, which had already been suffering minor earthquakes from the battle, now shook even harder. Buildings collapsed as chaos erupted through the streets.
Harald flew back several steps from the explosion of force. Urrax slid backward as well, its wing tips carving trenches through the earth.
"WULD NAH KEST!" he shouted as he moved toward Urrax.
"FUS!"
The single word of force struck the ground beneath him, launching him sideways into the air.
As he flew, he hurled lightning with one hand and his axe with the other. The axe struck Urrax's neck, and the lightning crawled along its brass body. Harald landed, rolled, and shouted again before the dragon could attack.
"KRII LUN AUS!"
The dragon recoiled as the Marked for Death shout struck and weakened it.
"YOL TOOR SHUL!" Harald followed with Fire Breath, further weakening the already damaged Urrax. This time, the flames bit deeper. The metal glowed almost white, and thin cracks spread across several plates.
Urrax roared in anger.
"FUS RO!"
The shout struck the ground and launched Harald upward once more.
He rose above Urrax's head and slammed his axe down onto its back with full force. He held on as Urrax thrashed, trying to shake him off.
Harald's eyes fixed on the soul gem in its chest.
There. The soul gem. Its heart, like the Mantella was for Numidium, he thought.
Destroy that, and the entire construct dies.
"FO KRAH DIIN!"
Frost Breath washed over the right wing, freezing the joints solid.
"FUS RO DAH!"
Unrelenting Force struck the frozen wing at close range.
The wing buckled. A section of brass metal snapped free and went spinning into the night, crashing into the earth dozens of feet away. Urrax let out a furious roar as it rolled, throwing Harald from its back.
He hit the ground hard but immediately rose, axe in hand, his eyes fixed on the soul gem.
"SU GRAH DUN!"
Elemental Fury wrapped around his hands and his axe.
"TIID KLO UL!"
Time slowed. Urrax's movements dragged to a crawl, its red eyes tracking him sluggishly as he sprinted forward.
This was it.
Harald ran straight toward the soul gem pulsing within Urrax's chest.
He needed to break it.
Just as he neared his moment of victory, Urrax began to move faster.
The shout still had time left. He had used all three words. How?
Urrax moved faster, only slightly at first.
A twitch of the head.
A shift of the claw.
Then the brass dragon's body accelerated within the slowed world, its eyes burning brighter as it forced itself through the drag of time.
Harald's blood went cold.
No.
"...KLO... UL."
It had mimicked Slow Time.
"Damn it."
Urrax roared in triumph.
Harald slid beneath a swipe of its claws. He rolled and came up beside its chest, staring directly at the soul gem.
"RII VAAZ ZOL!"
Soul Tear struck the soul gem.
Not fully.
The brass dragon had jerked away at the last instant, and the shout only grazed the gem rather than striking it directly.
But even that was enough.
Harald felt them.
The souls. Thousands upon thousands trapped inside the gem, stripped of peace, unable to pass on, writhing in agony.
He began to shout once more.
"RII..."
Golden talons closed around Harald's body and crushed him in their grip, cutting off the shout before he could retaliate. Urrax took to the air.
The brass dragon climbed at great speed, carrying him in its claw like prey. The fields became smaller. Oldtown's lights shrank into a cluster of stars upon the earth.
Harald tried to free himself. He struck Urrax's claw with his axe again and again. He summoned fire and lightning, but Urrax kept climbing.
Higher.
Faster.
Clouds vanished beneath them.
The air thinned, and cold gripped Harald's lungs.
Still, Urrax climbed.
Then, suddenly, they were above the world.
Westeros stretched below, and Essos sprawled to the east, vast and almost endless. Farther south, Sothoryos loomed enormous, a gigantic continent of jungles, rivers, mountains, and deserts. It truly was massive, stretching from its northern coasts along southern Essos to very nearly the southernmost point of the world.
For a moment, Harald forgot the battle and stared in awe at the beauty before him.
Then Urrax's claws tightened, and the pain brought him back.
Harald twisted as much as he could, his eyes landing once again on the soul gem.
"RII VAAZ ZOL!"
This time, Soul Tear struck true.
Urrax convulsed.
Golden light burst from cracks across its chest. The brass dragon's claw opened involuntarily, and Harald fell.
The world rushed up toward him, and Urrax roared as it dove after him.
They battled while falling. Harald spun through the air as he drew on the full power of Dragon Aspect to create wings. They snapped open behind him as he tried to control his descent. Urrax followed him down, jaws open, as a shout gathered in its throat.
Harald threw his axe.
It struck Urrax's jaw and bounced back into his hand.
"FUS RO DAH!"
The blast struck Urrax and drove the brass dragon backward through the sky.
At the same time, the force pushed Harald downward even faster.
He twisted in the air, wind screaming past him, and looked below.
Dorne.
The Red Mountains.
Jagged peaks rose toward him.
"FEIM!"
His body became ethereal a second before impact. Harald fell onto the mountainside like a ghost, then solidified as he landed on a narrow stretch of broken stone. He stumbled only once before forcing himself upright, axe still in hand.
Urrax landed nearby.
The mountain shook beneath its weight. Stone cracked outward from its claws. Loose rocks tumbled down the slopes. Far below, echoes rolled through the valleys of Dorne like distant thunder.
"FUS RO DAH!"
Urrax mimicked the Unrelenting Force shout, and Harald answered in kind.
"FUS RO DAH!"
The two shouts met once more, breaking apart the mountain beneath them and shattering the nearby peaks.
When the dust cleared, Harald and Urrax still stood.
Facing each other.
Harald's eyes narrowed behind his helm. They had reached a stalemate.
But that was something unacceptable.
One would fall, and one would stand.
Urrax roared, its red eyes burning with fury. Harald answered with a war cry of his own, his Voice shaking the mountain beneath his feet.
Then both charged and met in the middle with a force that shattered stone again, breaking the bones of mountains that had endured since the dawn of the world.
.
.
.
Mayak was a slave, and there were many things he hated about his life aboard the merchant ship Shadow's Mercy.
He hated the thin gruel they called food. He hated the shackles that rubbed his ankles raw. He hated the overseer's whip and the captain's cruelty.
But nothing, nothing, did he hate more than when the ship sailed to Asshai by the Shadow.
He sat on the deck now, eating his daily ration, a bowl of watery rice with a few scraps of fish that tasted like mud, and stared at the glowing water below. The River Ash flowed with an unnatural luminescence, green and sickly, as if the water itself were diseased.
In the distance, he could see Asshai.
Enormous domed structures, their surfaces black as midnight, covered in intricate carvings. Minarets twisted into spirals, their tops lost in the eternal gloom. It all felt wrong. Everything was wrong here.
Mayak hated the darkness that never lifted. He hated the damned sorcerers who walked the streets wearing masks and robes.
He hated this cursed city with every fiber of his being.
He took another sip of the rice and fish when suddenly, in the distance, in the direction of the even more cursed city of Stygai, no, even farther into the Shadowlands where no sane man ventured, a golden glow appeared.
At first, Mayak thought he was seeing things from exhaustion.
But no.
This was real.
A point of light, as if the sun had finally graced these lands after thousands of years of absence.
The glow increased in brilliance. Within seconds, it grew brighter and brighter, spreading across the sky like dawn breaking.
The entire city of Asshai and the lands around it were suddenly illuminated, truly illuminated, as if by daylight.
The light only kept increasing in intensity.
Mayak raised his hand to shield his eyes. He felt heat on his skin. It grew stronger and stronger, as if he stood in the heart of the Red Waste.
Then he heard it.
A roar.
And what he could only describe as a god speaking.
"ZUU'UUUU, LOSSST, HIIIIIII!"
The roar shook everything.
The ship beneath Mayak's feet trembled. The River Ash churned and boiled. Buildings in Asshai cracked.
It was too much.
Mayak's weakened body collapsed. He fell to the deck, his head throbbing with pain.
The last thing he heard before consciousness left him was the roar again.
This time, it shook the entire world.