Chapter 726: Humiliation
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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 a.s.s 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 G.o.d. 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 a.s.similated 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 a.s.s?" 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 c.o.k."
Miraak was still stunned for a second there and tried to remember who Sook Ma c.o.k is?
But then something changed, the realm reacted vigorously to the existence of this Sook Ma c.o.k.
"Don"t remember me?" Sook Ma c.o.k 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.
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