If you want to read 20 Chapters ahead and more, be sure to check out my P-Tang12!!!
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(A/N: Don't forget to give those power stones to Skyrim everyone!)
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But the blue light in their eyes remained extinguished. The mummified corpses did not twitch. They did not wake up. Aerion walked calmly down the center of the silent hall, his golden eyes scanning the dormant army. "Do not waste your arrows, Jenassa. The ancient magic binding them is dormant. They sleep... for now."
Jenassa offered a single, crisp nod of her head. She kept her Dwarven bow drawn and her crimson eyes constantly scanning the dark periphery of the claustrophobic corridor, entirely unfazed by Aerion's academic calm. She knew better than to trust the silence of a tomb.
They moved past the final row of dormant, mummified corpses and pushed through the heavy iron doors, descending deeper into the forgotten bowels of the Forsaken Cave crypts.
The architecture shifted again, the narrow hallways giving way to wider, vaulted stone corridors lined with ancient, crumbling pillars.
As they rounded a sharp corner, the heavy, shuffling sound of armored footsteps echoed through the damp air. Pacing aggressively in the center of the hall were two Draugr Wights. They were heavily armored in rusted iron plates, their glowing blue eyes snapping instantly toward the intruders.
"Awake," Jenassa noted coldly, drawing back her bowstring.
Before the Wights could even raise their heavy ancient broadswords, Aerion stepped forward. He didn't bother with the destructive, chaotic elements of fire or lightning in the enclosed space. He raised his left hand, channeling the searing, focused holy energy of his Restoration magic.
A blinding, concentrated beam of Purify erupted from his palm. The holy light struck the lead Wight directly in the chest armor. The ancient metal instantly superheated, but it was the necrotic flesh beneath that truly reacted.
The Wight shrieked, dropping its sword as blinding white fire consumed its body from the inside out, turning the ancient warrior into a pile of smoking, glowing ash.
Simultaneously, Jenassa released her arrow. The flaming Dwarven projectile sank deep into the second Wight's knee. As the undead creature stumbled, Jenassa seamlessly swapped to her Steel Sword of Frost, closing the distance in a blur of motion. She drove the freezing blade directly through the Draugr's neck, severing the spine and dropping it instantly.
[Restoration (Purify) Leveled Up 6 Times! Current Level: 73]
Aerion smiled, dropping his hand as the holy aura faded. "Efficient."
They moved past the fading ashes, continuing down the winding path. Resting in a small, recessed alcove to their right was a beautifully carved, pristine stone offering table. Unlike the empty urns surrounding it, the table held a prize.
Sitting perfectly parallel to one another on the stone surface were two heavy, shining Gold Ingots.
Aerion walked over and simply waved his hand over the metal.
[Items Acquired: 2x Gold Ingot]
[Inventory Weight Increased by 1.0 KG]
"The ancients left their wealth simply sitting in the open," Aerion murmured, amused by the lack of security. "We gladly accept the donation."
They followed the only available path, navigating a sharp descent that led them into a long, rectangular chamber.
The moment they crossed the threshold, a chorus of raspy, aggressive hisses echoed from the far end of the room. Four more Draugr Wights emerged from the shadows, wielding massive two handed battleaxes and ancient Nord bows.
However, between Aerion and the advancing undead horde lay a highly conspicuous stretch of flooring. The stone tiles in the center of the room were slightly elevated, peppered with dozens of small, circular holes.
"Pressure plates," Aerion warned, stopping Jenassa with a raised hand.
The Draugr Wights, entirely devoid of logical cognition and driven only by the primal urge to kill the living, did not care about the floor. They charged blindly forward.
The moment the first Wight stepped onto the elevated tiles, a loud, grinding CLICK echoed through the chamber.
Instantly, massive, roaring pillars of orange flame erupted vertically from the circular holes in the floor. The trap bathed the entire center of the room in a localized inferno.
But the undead did not stop. They pushed straight through the roaring fire, their ancient linen wrappings igniting, their rotting flesh burning, transforming them into terrifying, charging pyres of flame.
"They do not feel the heat!" Jenassa shouted, knocking an arrow.
"Then let us give them a fire they can feel," Aerion replied smoothly.
He raised both hands, bypassing the physical flames of the trap and tapping back into the holy spectrum. He unleashed a massive, sweeping wave of Purify.
The blinding white holy light crashed over the burning Draugr. The physical fire from the floor trap was instantly overwhelmed by the divine combustion.
The Wights shrieked in supernatural agony, their necrotic essence fundamentally violently rejecting the holy magic. They crumbled into piles of white ash before they could even cross the threshold of the trap.
Jenassa picked off the single Wight archer who had stayed back, putting a flaming arrow directly through the glowing blue light of its eye socket.
[Restoration (Purify) Leveled Up 8 Times! Current Level: 81]
With the room cleared, Aerion and Jenassa carefully navigated the perimeter of the chamber, pressing their backs against the stone walls to ensure they didn't place an ounce of weight on the elevated pressure plates. Lupin followed exactly in Aerion's footsteps, his small paws stepping lightly on the safe stone.
They passed through the fiery chamber and entered a narrow, descending hallway.
Aerion's golden eyes caught the faint, metallic glint of a thin wire stretched taut across the ankle-high shadows of the corridor.
"Tripwire," Aerion pointed downward. "Step high."
Jenassa nodded, easily vaulting over the thin wire. Aerion stepped over it gracefully, while Lupin simply hopped over the obstacle. They left the unseen trap undisturbed, finally arriving at a heavy, iron reinforced steel door that marked the transition into the deeper, primary catacombs of the crypt.
Aerion pushed the heavy door open.
They stepped onto an elevated stone balcony overlooking a massive, central, multi tiered chamber.
The room was crawling with the dead. Below them, patrolling the lower floor and the surrounding stone walkways, were over a half dozen Restless Draugr and standard Draugr, their armor clanking loudly in the echoing space.
"A significant Draugrs infestation," Aerion noted calmly.
He didn't bother sending Jenassa into the meat grinder, nor did he feel the need to summon Atronachs for standard infantry. He stepped to the edge of the balcony, looking down at the clustered groups of undead.
Aerion raised his hands, focusing on the sheer, volatile core of his Destruction magic. He drew a massive amount of Magicka, compressing it violently between his palms until the air itself began to shimmer and distort with the heat.
"Burn," Aerion whispered.
He unleashed a massive, dual cast Fire Storm.
The spell didn't just fire a projectile; it detonated an absolute, apocalyptic explosion of pure plasma that radiated outward from his position. The wave of roaring fire crashed down into the lower chamber, expanding with terrifying kinetic force. It washed over the stone floor, completely engulfing every single Draugr in the room.
The ancient corpses were instantly incinerated. The brittle bones shattered under the thermal shock, and the heavy iron armor warped and melted. In a span of three seconds, the massive central room was reduced to a silent, smoldering crater of scattered ash.
[Destruction (Fire)(+1) Leveled Up 7 Times! Current Level: 90]
"The path is clear," Aerion stated, lowering his hands as the smoke began to clear through the ceiling vents.
They descended the stone stairs into the blackened, smoking central room. They walked across the charred floor, entering a narrow stone hallway on the opposite side that began to slope sharply upward toward the second floor of the massive complex.
Several straggler Draugr had been awakened by the massive explosion and were stumbling down the hallway to investigate.
"Clear the hall, Jenassa," Aerion offered, letting his Magicka pathways cool down.
Jenassa didn't hesitate. She drew her Frost sword and Orcish dagger, charging up the sloping hallway. She dispatched the sluggish, unarmored Draugr with ruthless, beautiful efficiency, severing limbs and decapitating the ancient corpses before they could even raise their weapons.
They reached the second floor landing. The path forward required crossing a narrow, crumbling stone bridge that spanned the deep, dark chasm of the central room they had just burned.
As Aerion stepped onto the center of the bridge, the ancient architecture reacted to his presence.
Lining the far wall on the opposite side of the bridge were three heavy, upright steel coffins. With a simultaneous, deafening clang of metal, all three doors were violently thrust open from the inside.
Three heavy Restless Draugr stepped out onto the landing, immediately raising ancient Nord greatswords and charging toward the narrow bridge.
Aerion didn't even break his stride. He simply raised his right hand, accessing his newly reset, completely raw Lightning matrix.
He fired two rapid, blinding arcs of Chain Lightning.
Even at its base level, amplified by his massive Magicka pool and innate Altmer proficiency, the electricity was devastating. The jagged blue bolts struck the lead Draugr, violently arcing to the second, and then the third.
The electricity bypassed their rusted armor entirely, superheating the moisture in their decayed marrow. All three Draugr convulsed violently before collapsing backward into a smoking heap of twitching limbs.
[Destruction (Lightning)(+1) Leveled Up 8 Times! Current Level: 14]
They crossed the bridge, stepping past the smoking corpses. Tucked directly beside the second steel coffin was a heavy, unlocked steel chest.
Aerion flipped it open, his void vacuuming up the loose septims scattered within.
[Gold Acquired: 129 Septims]
They continued their ascent, navigating a series of winding, upward sloping hallways. They crossed another, shorter stone bridge and descended a short flight of steps, entering a wide, perfectly square room.
Two standard Draugr were waiting for them in the corners. Jenassa dispatched them instantly with two flaming arrows from her Dwarven bow, pinning them to the stone walls.
Aerion, however, stopped at the threshold of the room, looking up.
The entire ceiling of the square room was covered in massive, rusted, razor sharp iron spikes. The floor directly beneath the spikes was entirely composed of large, interlocking pressure plates.
"A crushing trap," Aerion observed. "If we step into the center of this room, the ceiling will violently descend, puncturing us entirely."
"Then we hug the walls," Jenassa replied pragmatically.
They carefully navigated the absolute, outermost edge of the room, pressing their shoulders against the ancient stone masonry to avoid the pressure plates entirely. Lupin, sensing the danger from their cautious movements, pressed his small body tightly against Aerion's ankles.
They bypassed the spike room safely, pushing through an open archway and ascending a final, steep flight of stone stairs leading to the third and highest floor of the crypt.
The architecture here was different. They found themselves standing before a long, narrow stone bridge. However, the bridge was completely enclosed by heavy, rusted steel cell walls on both the left and the right, creating a claustrophobic, cage like tunnel spanning the chasm.
Waiting patiently on the far side of the cage bridge were two heavily armored Draugr Wights.
"They hold the chokepoint," Jenassa noted, her bow lowered due to the tight constraints of the metal cell walls.
"Then we shall meet them in the center," Aerion replied, his golden eyes narrowing.
He didn't rely purely on magic this time. He reached down to his belt and drew the magnificent, glowing green Glass Sword he had looted from the giant camp. The malachite blade hummed softly in the damp air. In his left hand, the air instantly plummeted to sub zero temperatures as he channeled a dense, swirling aura of Frostbite.
Aerion charged across the enclosed bridge.
The Wights met him in the center. The lead Wight swung a heavy ancient battleaxe in a brutal overhead arc. Aerion didn't try to block the heavy kinetic impact.
He sidestepped with elven grace, thrusting his left hand forward. The continuous, freezing blast of Frostbite washed over the Wight's armor, instantly freezing the joints and slowing the undead warrior's movement to an agonizing crawl.
With his opponent immobilized, Aerion brought the Glass Sword around in a flawless, horizontal slash. The razor sharp malachite blade sheared cleanly through the Wight's rusted iron neck armor, decapitating the ancient corpse in a single, devastating strike.
The second Wight lunged with a rusted sword. Aerion parried the clumsy strike with the flat of his glass blade, stepped inside the guard, and drove the green sword directly through the Draugr's chest plate, channeling a final burst of frost magic to shatter the creature's ribcage from the inside.
[One Handed Leveled Up 9 Times! Current Level: 76]
[Destruction (Frost) Leveled Up 6 Times! Current Level: 80]
The sudden influx of physical, martial combat experience, combined with the magical exertion, pushed his overall power matrix over the threshold once more.
[LEVEL UP! You are now Level 90!]
[You have gained 1 Attribute Point!]
Aerion dismissed the notification, adding the point to his stored reserves. He now possessed three unspent attribute points.
"A fine blade," Aerion murmured, flicking the black blood from the Glass Sword before sheathing it at his hip.
They exited the cage bridge, continuing down the final, sweeping stone hallway. Two more standard Draugr stumbled out of the shadows, but Jenassa was already moving, severing their heads with her Orcish dagger before Aerion even needed to draw his sword.
Finally, they arrived at a set of massive, towering double steel doors, heavily frosted over and etched with the stylized carvings of ancient dragons.
"We have reached the end," Aerion stated, his posture shifting into absolute, rigid combat readiness.
He pushed the heavy doors open.
They stepped onto a raised stone platform overlooking a massive, incredibly expansive, cavernous chamber. At the very back of the room, dominating the entire far wall, was a massive, sweeping curve of dark stone covered in glowing, ancient draconic script.
A Word Wall.
But what commanded Aerion's immediate, tactical attention was the object resting directly in the center of the vast, open floor.
It was a single, massive, incredibly ornate steel sarcophagus.
"Prepare yourself, Jenassa," Aerion commanded, his voice dropping to a low, serious register.
He didn't take any chances. He closed his eyes, tapping into his massive Magicka reserves, and violently ripped the fabric of reality apart.
FWOOSH. CRACK. ROAR.
Six massive dimensional tears opened on the floor below. Aerion summoned a perfectly balanced tactical squad, two Flame Atronachs for ranged bombardment, two Frost Atronachs for heavy melee stagger, and two Storm Atronachs for localized, high damage electrical shock.
Due to his astronomically high overall level and his newly expanded Magicka pool, controlling the six Daedric entities felt significantly easier, the mental strain vastly reduced compared to his desperate summoning in Korvanjund.
[Conjuration (Summoning) Leveled Up 9 Times! Current Level: 86]
"Listen closely," Aerion instructed the assassin as the Atronachs took up defensive formations around the central coffin. "Inside that tomb rests the absolute master of this crypt. The ancient texts name him Curalmil. He is a Draugr Overlord. A master alchemist in life, and a terrifying force in death."
Jenassa tightened her grip on her bow. "Does he possess the Voice, like the King we fought yesterday?"
"He does," Aerion confirmed grimly. "And we must execute the exact same strategy. Do not let him draw a breath. If he shouts, we die. The Atronachs will swamp him. We hit him from the periphery."
Jenassa nodded, her crimson eyes locked on the tomb.
Aerion and Jenassa walked down the stone stairs, stepping onto the main floor of the boss chamber.
The moment their boots hit the stone tiles, the ambient magic in the room spiked. With a deafening explosion of sound, the heavy steel lid of the central sarcophagus was violently thrown into the air, crashing heavily against a stone pillar.
Curalmil rose from his tomb.
The Draugr Overlord was a terrifying sight. He was hulking, heavily armored in pristine, ancient Nord plating, his eyes burning with an intense, hateful blue light.
But what caused Aerion's golden eyes to widen in genuine, unadulterated surprise was the weapon Curalmil drew from his hip.
It wasn't an ancient Nord battleaxe. It wasn't a rusted greatsword.
The Overlord drew an absolutely flawless, master crafted Ebony Sword. The dark metal absorbed the ambient light, its razor sharp edge practically humming with lethal, heavy kinetic potential.
'He shouldn't have an Ebony weapon,' Aerion's meta knowledge screamed in confusion. In the game, boss loot tables were generally locked to ancient Nord weaponry unless specifically leveled.
The presence of such a high tier, incredibly valuable weapon meant that this reality was actively deviating from strict game code, adapting to Aerion's massive level scaling.
But surprise did not paralyze him.
"Attack!" Aerion roared to his Daedric vanguard.
The six Atronachs swarmed the Overlord instantly. The Frost Atronachs swung their massive ice clubs, slamming into Curalmil's heavy armor.
But Curalmil was a monster of combat. He didn't stagger like the Deathlord. He roared, swinging his massive Ebony Sword in a devastating, blindingly fast arc. The heavy dark metal cleaved cleanly through the solid ice torso of a Frost Atronach, shattering the golem into a million pieces in a single, terrifying strike.
The Overlord opened his jaw, preparing to unleash the Thu'um.
"Do not let him speak!" Aerion yelled, raising his hands.
He unleashed absolute, unmitigated elemental fury. He fired a blinding torrent of Chain Lightning, immediately followed by a massive, dual cast Fireball, and finished the combo with a searing beam of Purify.
The combined kinetic and thermal impact of the explosive magic finally staggered the Overlord, forcing him to close his jaw to weather the assault.
Jenassa moved with lethal precision. She fired a volley of flaming Dwarven arrows, burying them into the gaps of Curalmil's heavy armor. She then sprinted forward, diving beneath a wild swing of the Ebony Sword, and began alternating rapid, surgical strikes with her Frost Sword and her Orcish dagger, targeting the Overlord's knees and hamstrings to slow his movement.
The fight was incredibly fierce, vastly more dangerous than any engagement they had faced before. Curalmil's Ebony Sword was devastating. He systematically dismantled the Atronach army. The second Frost Atronach fell. Both Flame Atronachs were swatted from the air like annoying insects.
"Hold the line!" Aerion commanded, spamming his Destruction spells, his Magicka reserves draining rapidly under the sustained, heavy assault.
With only the two Storm Atronachs remaining, Curalmil finally faltered. Jenassa's frost enchantment had frozen the joints in his legs, and Aerion's relentless lightning had fried his ancient nervous system.
The Overlord raised his Ebony Sword for one final, desperate strike, but a massive bolt of lightning from the surviving Storm Atronach struck him directly in the chest.
Curalmil let out a raspy, defeated groan. He dropped the heavy dark sword, collapsing backward onto the stone tiles, completely lifeless once more.
The massive chamber fell silent, thick with the smell of ozone, burning flesh, and shattered ice.
Aerion leaned forward, panting heavily. The sheer, overwhelming exertion of the boss fight had pushed his matrices to their absolute limits once again.
The cascading wall of golden notifications practically blinded him.
[Destruction (Fire)(+1) Leveled Up 12 Times! Current Level: MAX]
[Destruction (Lightning)(+1) Leveled Up 10 Times! Current Level: 18]
[Destruction (Frost) Leveled Up 9 Times! Current Level: 89]
[Restoration (Purify) Leveled Up 15 Times! Current Level: 96]
[LEVEL UP! You are now Level 91!]
[LEVEL UP! You are now Level 92!]
[LEVEL UP! You are now Level 93!]
[You have gained 3 Attribute Points!]
Aerion mentally collected the points, adding them to his reserves. He now held six unspent attribute points.
He dismissed the surviving Storm Atronachs, letting the heavy mental pressure fade from his skull. He looked over at Jenassa. The assassin was breathing hard, her leather armor singed, but remarkably, she was completely unscathed.
"We survived without a scratch," Jenassa noted, wiping the sweat from her brow. "But that blade... that was terrifying."
Aerion walked over to the Overlord's corpse. He reached down and picked up the massive, heavy Ebony Sword.
It was utterly magnificent. The dark metal was perfectly balanced, possessing a density and lethality that far surpassed malachite. It was slightly disappointing that the blade lacked a magical enchantment, but the raw, physical damage output of pure Ebony was devastating enough on its own.
Without hesitation, Aerion unbuckled the scabbard containing his glowing green Glass Sword. He transferred the Glass weapon to his inventory, increasing his weight by a single kilogram, and secured the heavy, dark Ebony Sword to his hip.
[Inventory Weight Increased by 1.0 KG]
He then quickly looted the interior of Curalmil's coffin, siphoning the heavy pile of ancient gold coins resting within.
[Gold Acquired: 500 Septims]
With the boss defeated and the primary loot secured, Aerion turned his attention to the true prize.
Dominating the back of the chamber was the massive, sweeping Word Wall. The deep, rhythmic chanting of the ancient dragons had already begun to echo in his skull, pulling him forward.
"Stay back with Lupin, Jenassa," Aerion instructed, walking toward the ancient stone.
Jenassa nodded, keeping a respectful distance. She watched in awe as the towering High Elf approached the monument, assuming he was once again simply "feeling the residual magic" of the ancient dragon cults.
As Aerion reached the center of the wall, a specific draconic rune began to glow with a violent, blood red light. The chanting in his mind shifted from a rhythmic hum to a dark, aggressive, lethal whisper.
He placed his bare hand directly against the glowing red rune.
The knowledge surged into his soul like a physical strike. It wasn't a manipulation of time, nor a kinetic force. It was the absolute, fundamental concept of mortality. The ability to permanently shatter an opponent's armor and drain their life force with a single word.
[Word of Power Discovered!]
[Would you like to permanently integrate the first word of the Marked For Death Shout into your reality? Krii (Kill) YES / NO]
Aerion smiled, a cold, ruthless expression. To hold the power to literally speak death into existence was a terrifying weapon.
He mentally pressed YES.
The red light faded, the chanting ceased, and the Word Wall went completely dormant.
Aerion lowered his hand. He possessed the power of Force, the manipulation of Time, and now, the absolute Mark of Death. He was rapidly ascending beyond the scope of a mere mage.
He turned away from the dead stone, his golden eyes locking onto the final, massive prize resting directly at the base of the Word Wall. It was a huge, heavily reinforced steel boss chest, untouched for hundreds even thousands of years. Aerion stepped forward, reaching out to throw open the heavy lid and claim the final treasures of the Forsaken Cave.
_____________________________
[Main Panel]
Name: Aerion
Race: High Elf (Altmer)
Health: 370/370 Stamina: 370/370 Magicka: 530/530
Level: 89 ➝ 93
Skills: Animal Affinity (MAX LEVEL), Fast Skill Levelling (MAX LEVEL), Fast Magic Mastery (MAX LEVEL), Instant Shout (MAX LEVEL), Destruction (Fire(+1)/Lightning(+1)/Frost) (Level MAX/14/89), Restoration (Healing/Purify) (Level 76/96), Alteration (Level 27), Alteration (Level 20), Illusion (Level 42), Conjuration (Necromancy/Summoning) (Level 37/86), Persuasion(+1) (Level 0), Smithing (Level 22), Sneak (Level 33), One Handed (Level 76), Two Handed (Level 65), Lockpicking (Level 35), Archery (Level 72), Enchanting (Level 34), Light Armor (Level 53), Block (Level 70), & Pickpocket (Level 8)
Shouts: Fus (Force), Tiid (Time), & Krii (Kill)
[Inventory Panel]
1x Steel Dagger, Small Sack, Poacher's Axe, Mammoth Tusk, Iron Shield, Steel Mace, Steel Warhammer, the Golden Claw, Calm Spellbook, Arvel's Journal, Inkwell & Quill, Thief Book, Scroll Of Summoning (Wolf), Scroll Of Healing, Steel Dagger of Minor Souls, Weak Potion of Paralysis, Ancient Nord Bow, Dragonstone, Ancient Nord Battleaxe Of Blaze, Potion of Minor Pickpocketing, Golden Staff of Flames, Parchment Rolls Of Mammoths Farm And Loan, Golden Emerald Circlet, Copper Sapphire Circlet, Ebony Claw, Orcish Dagger, Emerald, Sapphire, Garnet, Silver Garnet Circlet, Jagged Crown, Elven Sword Of Lightning, Elven Shield, Circlet Of Peerless Alchemy, Ancient Nord Helmet, Ancient Nord Boots, The Mirror, & Glass Sword
2x Iron Mace, Steel Axe, Steel Greatsword, Silver Amethyst Ring, Silver Necklace, Gold Emerald Ring, Potion Of Ultimate Magicka, Common Soul Gem (Empty), & Weak Magicka Poison
3x Iron Greatsword, Steel Sword, Scroll Of Fireball, Glowing Mushrooms, Potions of Minor Stamina, Silver Ruby Ring, Gold Ruby Ring, Amethyst, Silver Ingot, Quicksilver Ingot, & Black Soul Gems
4x Potions of Minor Magicka, Spider Eggs, Iron Ingots, & Gold Ingots
5x Lesser Soul Gem, Dwarven Metal Ingot, & Ruby
8x Iron Arrows & Ancient Nord Arrows
9x Potions Of Minor Healing
Weight: 139.07 KG / 485 KG
Septims: 82,148